??Italian emergency officials say they are calling off a search for missing people in the submerged part of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, due to the danger to rescue workers, according to the Associated Press.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46195629#46195629
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PORTLAND, Ore. ? LaMarcus Aldridge scored 23 points and Marcus Camby grabbed a season-high 22 rebounds as the Portland Trail Blazers beat Memphis 97-84 on Tuesday night, snapping the Grizzlies' seven-game winning streak.
Jamal Crawford scored 15 points, Wesley Matthews added 13 and Nicolas Batum and Raymond Felton had 10 each for Portland.
O.J. Mayo had 20 ponts to lead Memphis, and Rudy Gay scored 11.
Aldridge hit his first five shots and scored 14 points during the first quarter as the Blazers won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 10. Camby was a force under the boards throughout the game, pulling down 12 rebounds during the first half. He also finished with a season-high five blocks.
Portland outrebounded Memphis 50-39.
The Trail Blazers led 47-43 at halftime despite committing 13 turnovers in the opening two periods.
Memphis took advantage of eight Portland turnovers in the first quarter, finishing the period with a 15-5 run to tie the score at 25-all.
Late in the second quarter, the Grizzlies took a 43-42 lead on back-to-back fastbreak dunks by Gay, but Portland scored the final five points of the half.
Memphis, which rallied from a 20-point second half deficit Monday night to beat Golden State, may have felt the impact during the second half against Portland. The Grizzlies went nine minutes without scoring a field goal during the third quarter as the Blazers opened up a 64-45 lead.
Portland led by 20 points during the fourth quarter. Batum scored all of his 10 points during the second half.
NOTES: During one stretch of the game, Portland made 18 consecutive free throws. The Blazers were 30 of 36 overall. ... Portland finishes its first back-to-back-to-back of the season Wednesday at Golden State. ... The loss dropped Memphis out of a first-place tie with Dallas and San Antonio in the Southwest Division. .... The Grizzlies were trying for their longest winning streak since Jan. 2004.
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Actions speak louder than words. Last night, President Barack Obama seemed to put an optimistic sheen on the state of the union. But at some point, body movements and gestures kick in to cement a point in viewers? minds. So what did Obama?s posture and gestures let us know that his words weren?t telling?
We asked two experts to weigh in. Karen Studd is a body language expert and associate professor of dance at George Mason University. Karen Kohn Bradley is a public speaking coach and the head of dance performance at the University of Maryland. Studd and Bradley watched the State of the Union and spoke via Skype during the speech.
Studd said she saw a shift in the way the president spoke, compared with last year?s address. ?I saw much more strong effort, which is really about assertion, self-confidence and the will to overcome something and move forward ? something which is different from the free flow and accommodating style I had associated with him before.?
Obama struck a successful balance between being optimistic and assertive, she added. ?This year, I saw much less of the preacher and teacher, and much more of the leader,? Studd said.
Bradley said that Obama got to the message, and stuck with it: ?Tonight, he really was the embodied leader ? someone who is responsive and resilient and directed without being obnoxious about it. His body language sent a message that he was someone who puts his weight behind his words and really believes them.? That?s something she said some of the Republicans seeking to be the presidential nominee are lacking in their personal styles.
Two aspects of Obama?s speaking stylewerebrought forward in the address, Studd said. The first was that his phrasing emphasized the beginning and ending of sentences rather than hitting hardest in the middle ? which gives his statements kind of an emphatic resolve. The other was that does a lot of gesturing on one side, then the other, then bringing both hands together ? as if to show the ideas coming together and moving forward.
Bradley said that some of the Republicans in the room last night didn?t seem to be having such a good time as the president. ?John Boehner seemed to be in some distress, and then after that he sort of sat back and looked like he was giving up.?
Obama?s style, she said, is ultimately adaptable. He tends to change his body language depending on his interlocutors. This year?s address, she said, was one of his best in terms of bringing his personal style to the message. ?He?s come into his own. We?ve seen indications of this man before, but he really brought it together tonight.?
This story was provided by llmysteries, then join us on?Facebook.
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AUTOS: Shelby GT500 Winner Named
A SPEED fan from nearby Tucson, Arizona, has his name picked at random to win the top Hagerty Fantasy Bid Prize.
The winner of the biggest sweepstakes prize ever in Hagerty Fantasy Bid history ? a one-of-a-kind Ford Racing Champions Shelby GT500 Special Edition Mustang ? was announced today after the last of the week?s 28 Fantasy Bid cars went over the block at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction.The lucky winner is Chris Cherryholmes of Tucson, Arizona, which is about 100 miles from the Scottsdale auction site, whose user name in the Fantasy Bidding was ?Papcholmes.?
The ecstatic Cherryholmes, who calls himself a huge SPEED fan and regular Fantasy Bidder, had to call his wife to the phone when he received the call from SPEED to make sure nobody was playing a trick on him.
The sweepstakes was open to every participant in the Hagerty Fantasy Bid game during SPEED?s nearly 40 hours of live broadcasting of the Scottsdale event with the name chosen at random. A record 1,591,910 bids were received in the game, compared with about 699,000 during last year?s Scottsdale auction.
The 2011 GT500 Special Edition is described as a ?one-of-one? high-performance version with a Ford Racing Supercharger boosting the 5.4-liter V8 engine to 750 horsepower, and a six-speed manual transmission. Collaborating on the build were 2011 Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne and 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and an autographed plaque signifies their involvement.
Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle. SPEED.com fans can email Bob Golfen at
Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-shelby-gt500-winner-named/
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? European Union governments gave their preliminary approval to a ban on Iranian crude oil imports on Monday, aiming to choke off Tehran's chief source of income and pressure it to hold back its disputed nuclear activities.
But to protect Europe's economy, struggling with a two-year-old debt crisis, they agreed to delay full implementation of the oil embargo until July 1, an EU diplomat said.
The embargo still has to be formally approved by foreign ministers of the EU's 27 member states, who meet in Brussels on Monday. The ministers are also expected to approve sanctions against the central bank of Iran, although they may provide a list of specific exemptions to the restrictions.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she hoped financial sanctions would persuade Tehran to return to negotiations with Western powers, which she represents in talks with Iran. Tehran denies its nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, saying it is for peaceful purposes.
"I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations," she told reporters before the ministers' meeting.
"I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table ... last year ... or to come forward with its own ideas," she said.
Tehran says its nuclear program aims to meet its rising energy needs, but the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said last year it had evidence that suggested Iran had worked on designing a nuclear weapon.
EU sanctions follow fresh financial measures signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve and mainly targeting the oil sector, which accounts for some 90 percent of Iranian exports to the EU. The European Union is Iran's second-largest oil customer, after China.
For financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic, ministers are expected to agree to exemptions that will allow trade in other products, allowed under EU rules, to continue.
"The United Kingdom is looking for an unprecedented package of sanctions," said its foreign minister, William Hague, "including a phased oil embargo, including measures on the central bank of Iran, other financial measures, new measures on the use of dual-use technology that may be included in the nuclear program."
MEASURED STEPS
Diplomats said EU governments plan to return to the issue of oil sanctions in May to review the impact of the ban and its economic impact on their economies.
The review could potentially affect the date when the full ban takes effect, diplomats said. Under the current plan, EU governments will no longer be able to extend new contracts to buy Iranian crude when the ban takes effect in the coming days. But they will be able to fulfill existing contracts until July.
This measured approach aims to address concerns by southern European states, primarily Greece, which rely heavily on Iranian oil to meet their import needs.
Greece, which depends on financial help from the EU and the International Monetary Fund to stay afloat, sources nearly a quarter of its oil imports from Iran, thanks to favorable financing terms from Tehran. It has argued that it needs time to find alternative sources of oil.
"The financial situation of Greece at the moment is not the brightest one, and rightly they are asking us to help them find a solution," a senior EU official told reporters on Friday.
With a significant part of EU purchases of Iranian oil covered by long-term contracts, the grace period will be an important factor in the effectiveness of the EU measures.
The unprecedented effort to take Iran's 2.6 million barrels of oil per day off international markets has kept global prices high, pushed down Iran's rial currency and caused a surge in the cost of basic goods for Iranians.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in London and Sebastian Moffett in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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?Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)
Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)
An anti-Syrian regime protester flashes victory sign as he marches during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)
Anti-Syrian regime protesters chant slogans as they gather beneath a large Syrian revolution flag during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)
Anti-Syrian regime protesters gather at a square as they hold an Arabic banner, center, reading, "hey, the miserable, the tyrant, what else," during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)
CAIRO (AP) ? The Arab League observer's mission in Syria has been extended for another month, officials from the 22-member organization said on Sunday.
The decision was made during a meeting by Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital, where they decided to add more members to the mission and provide them with more resources.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media, said the U.N. would train the observers.
The move had been widely expected after the troubled mission technically expired on Thursday. Many in Syria's opposition movement have complained that the observers have failed to curb the bloodshed in the country as the regime cracks down on a 10-month-old uprising against it.
Diplomacy has taken on urgency as opponents of Assad's regime and soldiers who switched sides increasingly take up arms and fight back against government forces, raising fears the conflict is veering toward civil war after beginning with largely peaceful protests in March.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' head Rami Abdul-Rahman said government troops had pulled back early Sunday to a provincial headquarters and a security agency building in the Damascus suburb of Douma after hours of clashes, although they still controlled the entrances. The clashes broke out after Syrian troops opened fire at a funeral on Saturday.
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ATLANTA ? Officials say the school district in Atlanta has agreed to repay more than $363,000 in federal money the district won by teachers and administrators cheating.
State schools Superintendent John Barge told The Associated Press on Friday that the district has 90 days to return the money.
A state investigation in July revealed widespread cheating by educators in nearly half of the Atlanta's 100 schools dating back to 2001. In all, nearly 180 teachers and principals were accused of giving answers to students or changing answers once the tests had been completed.
Schools serving low-income students that consistently get good test scores receive extra money from the U.S. Department of Education each year. That money can be spent wherever the schools need it most.
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A super-speedy NASA probe marks six years of spaceflight today (Jan. 19), beginning the last leg of its journey to the small, faraway world of Pluto.
The New Horizons spacecraft launched Jan. 19, 2006, on a mission to become the first probe to visit the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons. That unprecedented encounter is slated to begin in January 2015, so New Horizons has now entered the home stretch of its nine-year trip, researchers said.
"It's really around the corner," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "We're just more and more excited."
Entering 'late cruise' phase
The New Horizons team breaks the spacecraft's flight to Pluto into three three-year segments, Stern said ? early cruise, mid cruise and late cruise.
"We are now turning the corner from mid cruise to late cruise," Stern told SPACE.com. "We're really in the final stages." [Photos of Pluto and Its Moons]
Late cruise should be a busy time for mission scientists and engineers, as they check out the spacecraft's systems and prepare for the flyby of Pluto and its four known moons. That encounter technically begins in January 2015, Stern said, though closest approach will occur that July, when New Horizons comes within about 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) of Pluto.
During the flyby, New Horizons will study Pluto and its moons with seven different instruments, performing the first in-depth reconnaissance of these frigid, far-flung objects.
In fact, researchers have said, the mission will give scientists their first good look at any dwarf planet ? a class of bodies suspected to be far more numerous in our solar system than terrestrial and giant planets combined.
1 billion miles to go
Pluto is found in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune's orbit. As of today, New Horizons has put about 2.14 billion miles (3.45 billion km) on its odometer, with roughly another 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) left to go before the close encounter.
The probe's work won't be done after it flies by the Pluto system in 2015. The mission team wants New Horizons to study one or two other Kuiper Belt objects as well.
NASA has billed New Horizons as the fastest spacecraft ever launched from Earth. According to the mission team, the probe is now speeding through space at 34,426 mph (55,404 kph) relative to the sun.
While New Horizons spends most of its cruise time hibernating, it's awake for now. Scientists and engineers are performing various tests on the spacecraft throughout January, Stern said, adding that the spacecraft is in good health.
'An American story'
The excitement of the New Horizons team has been tempered with some sadness this month, as the scientists mourn the death of Patsy Tombaugh, the widow of Pluto's discoverer.
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who died in 1997. Patsy passed away on Jan. 12 at the age of 99.
Patsy Tombaugh was very enthusiastic about the New Horizons mission, and the team will miss her a great deal, Stern said.
"She was such a wonderful woman," Stern said. "It was sad to see her pass without getting to see what her husband's planet really looked like."
But the Tombaughs' two children, Annette and Alden, should get to see what New Horizons discovers. They'll be the mission team's guests of honor when the probe makes its closest approach to Pluto in July 2015, Stern said.
On top of its technical and scientific ambitions, New Horizons is also part of "a very personal story, an American story," Stern said. "I think that just makes it nice."
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are not ceding one inch of South Carolina as the unpredictable campaign for the South's first presidential primary concludes ? and certainly not Tommy's Ham House.
Romney is fighting a suddenly surging Gingrich, while rivals Rick Santorum and Ron Paul look to surprise in a four-man race that has spun wildly in its last 48 hours.
Seen as Romney's to lose just days ago, South Carolina's primary has become a close contest between Romney, the former Massachusetts governor portraying himself as the best able to beat President Barack Obama, and Gingrich, the confrontational former House speaker and former Georgia congressman.
Both were scheduled to hold dueling campaign events at Tommy's, in Republican-rich Greenville, late Saturday morning. And neither campaign was stepping back from a primary day showdown.
It's "neck and neck," Romney declared Friday, moving to lower expectations for a race he led by double digits as of midweek.
Even as Romney was touting his electability in November, he continued to try to stoke doubt about Gingrich's ethics.
Gingrich, buoyed by the endorsement of Texas Gov. Rick Perry as he left the race Thursday, called Romney's suggestion that his chief rival release documents relating to an ethics investigation from the 1990s a "panic attack" brought on by sinking poll numbers.
Romney's demand was turnabout from Gingrich's that Romney release his income tax returns before the weekend primary. Gingrich argues that GOP voters need to know whether the wealthy former venture capital executive's records contain anything that could hurt the party's chances against Obama.
The stakes were high for Saturday's vote. The primary winner has gone on to win the Republican nomination in every election since 1980. And voters were faced with stamping Romney, who has led in national polls since December, as the party's front-runner, or reshuffle the contest.
Romney won the New Hampshire primary by a wide marign on Jan. 10, and was thought to have edged Santorum in a photo-finish in Iowa's leadoff caucuses. However, the certified count from Iowa on Thursday showed Santorum had received more votes, although a handful of precincts remained uncertain and no winner was declared.
Romney, Gingrich and Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator vying to be the preferred conservative, all planned to campaign in South Carolina's conservative upstate as the voting got under way. Paul, the Texas congressman who has campaigned lightly here, had no campaign appearances scheduled but was expected to visit campaign volunteers.
Behind the flurry of public events around the state Friday, telephones and televisions crackled with attack messages. Some of South Carolina's notorious 11th-hour devilry ? fake reports in the form of emails targeting Gingrich and his ex-wife Marianne ? emerged in a race known as much for its nastiness as for its late-game twists.
"Unfortunately, we are now living up to our reputation," said South Carolina GOP strategist Chip Felkel.
State Attorney Gen. Alan Wilson ordered a preliminary review of the phony messages to see if any laws had been broken.
Gingrich's ex-wife burst into the campaign this week when she alleged in an ABC News interview that her former husband had asked her for an "open marriage," a potentially damaging claim in a state where the Republican primary electorate includes a potent segment of Christian conservatives. The thrice-married Gingrich, who has admitted to marital infidelities, angrily denied her accusation.
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PORTLAND, Ore. ? About 30,000 Oregon households in the Portland metro area are without power because of power lines knocked down by a winter storm that moved in overnight.
The storm brought some snow, but it changed to rain and the snow quickly began melting, leaving a slushy mix on the roads, cars and trees.
Portland General Electric says the customers without power are mainly in Gresham, Oregon City and western Portland. The utility is working to restore service.
The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for the Cascade Mountains until late Wednesday.
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ZAVENTEM, Belgium ? It takes Mikael Ohlsson five minutes ? and the help of one other person ? to assemble IKEA's Ektorp sofa.
After 33 years at the Swedish home-ware chain, the 54-year-old chief executive is an expert at configuring IKEA's famous flat-pack furniture.
But Ohlsson is not bragging about the fact that he can beat the assembly time the company itself advertises by some 10 minutes. What makes him proud is that the Ektorp can be flat-packed at all.
Seated on a "Blekinge white" example of the Ektorp in a cozily furnished exhibition room at an IKEA store in Zaventem, Belgium, Ohlsson recounts how, until recently, the popular couch also came packed in one of the company's biggest cardboard boxes ? a pain for customers to squeeze into their cars or carry up narrow staircases.
But then in 2010, IKEA's product designers came up with a way of breaking the Ektorp into different pieces. The results was a package half its former size, which the company claims took some 7,477 trucks off the roads and cut its yearly CO2 emissions by 4,700 tons. Savings in production and transport costs knocked euro100 ($128) off the price IKEA charges its customers, Ohlsson pointed out.
It's innovations like these, the CEO says, that make IKEA so successful even in the uncertain economic times that some of its biggest markets are facing.
On Friday, IKEA reported a 10.3 percent jump in net profit to euro2.97 billion ($3.81 billion) for the year ended Aug. 31, even though it cut prices by 2.6 percent. Revenue rose 6.9 percent to euro25.17 billion in the same period and Ohlsson says the sales pace has been accelerating since then ? even as stock markets around the world have taken a dive amid the worsening financial crisis in Europe.
"We are becoming a more natural choice when people are looking after their spending or are concerned about the future," says Ohlsson, his black trousers, black sweater and half-rimmed glasses all possessing the understatement of a Billy bookcase.
"A lot of people see that home is a very important place, maybe the most important place in their lives."
While sales have fallen in some Southern European countries like Greece, Ohlsson says IKEA has gained market share in all of them.
Over the past decade, the company expanded into big emerging markets like Russia and China, although 79 percent of its sales are still generated in Europe. In the next two or three years, IKEA wants to open stores in Serbia and Croatia and it has recently bought land in South Korea.
But the biggest opportunity may lie in India, a fast-growing country of around 1.2 billion people, that Ohlsson says IKEA has been eyeing "patiently but also impatiently" for years.
"The impatience is that of course there are a lot of people that are moving into the city, have better incomes and want to furnish their homes and that's why there is space for us," says Ohlsson. "And patient because we wanted FDI (foreign direct investment) legislation to change."
That change happened last week, when the Indian Commerce Ministry announced it would allow foreign companies that sell products under a single-brand name, such as IKEA, to own 100 percent of their stores there.
Ohlsson and his chief financial officer, Soeren Hansen, say the company is still studying the fine print, to make sure, for instance, that requirements to source a certain percentage of products locally won't interrupt its cherished value chain, where it controls design, production, storage and retail.
In contrast to other companies, which are under pressure to quickly produce new value for shareholders, IKEA can move more slowly. The retailer is not traded on the stock market, but is owned by a foundation controlled by the family of its octogenarian founder Ingvar Kamprad.
That structure not only protects IKEA from being split up or taken over, but, says Ohlsson, allows him to make investments in new markets or store upgrades that may not pay off for several years.
Throughout the conversation, the CEO stresses IKEA's eco-friendly policies and humble origins in a poor area of Sweden. In the Zaventem store on the outskirts of Brussels, solar panels on the roof provide up to 20 percent of the energy. The company owns several wind parks and one of its Berlin stores uses local wastewater to control internal temperatures.
IKEA has come a long way from its start in the Smaland region in Southern Sweden. Today it employs 131,000 people in 41 countries and its 287 stores drew in 655 million customers last year.
Ohlsson says he believes the urge to upgrade and become more comfortable does not seem to recede during an economic downturn. Asked whether IKEA's business was "recession-proof," Ohlsson laughs somewhat embarrassed.
"I wouldn't say it like that and it would not be humble to say it," he said.
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BEIJING?? The World Bank warned Wednesday of a possible slump in global economic growth and urged developing countries to prepare for shocks that could be more severe than the 2008 crisis.
For the United States, the bank cut this year's growth forecast to 2.2 percent from 2.9 percent and for 2013 to 2.4 percent from 2.7 percent.
As reasons, it cited the anticipated global slowdown and the on-going fight in Washington over spending and taxes.
The bank also cut its growth forecast for developing countries this year to 5.4 percent from 6.2 percent and for developed countries to 1.4 percent from 2.7 percent.
For the 17 countries that use the euro currency, it forecast a contraction, cutting their growth outlook to -0.3 percent from 1.8 percent.
Global growth could be hurt by a recession in Europe and a slowdown in India, Brazil and other developing countries, the Washington-based bank said.
It said conditions might worsen if more European countries are unable to raise money in financial markets.
"The global economy is entering into a new phase of uncertainty and danger," said the bank's chief economist, Justin Yifu Lin. "The risks of a global freezing up of capital markets as well as a global crisis similar to what happened in September 2008 are real."
Separately Wednesday, the government of Germany ? Europe's biggest economy ? announced it had lowered its growth forecast for this year from 1 percent to 0.7 percent. However, it also predicted growth of 1.6 percent in 2013.
Developing countries that have enjoyed relatively strong growth while the United States and Europe struggled might be hit hard, Lin said. He said they should line up financing in advance to cover budget deficits, review the health of their banks and emphasize spending on social safety nets.
Many governments are in a weaker position than they were to respond to the 2008 global crisis because their debts and budget deficits are bigger, Lin said at a news conference.
In the event of a major crisis, "no country will be spared," Lin said. "The downturn is likely to be longer and deeper than the last one."
The bank's outlook ? in its "Global Economic Prospects" report issued twice a year ? adds to mounting gloom amid Europe's debt crisis and high U.S. unemployment.
"It is very likely that most European countries, including Germany, entered recession in the fourth quarter of last year," said Hans Timmer, the World Bank's director of development projects.
Investors have cut investments in developing countries by 45 percent in the second half of last year, compared with the same period in 2010, Timmer said.
The report follows similar warnings about the global economy by its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, and private sector forecasters.
Global growth might suffer from the interaction of Europe's troubles and efforts by China, India, South Africa, Russia and Turkey to cool rapid growth and inflation with interest rate hikes and other measures, the bank said.
China's expansion slowed to a 2 1/2-year low of 8.9 percent in the three months ending in December from the previous quarter's 9.1 percent.
As Europe weakens, developing countries could find "their slowdown might be larger than is necessary to cope with inflation pressures," Lin said.
Developing countries hurt
A global downturn would hurt developing countries by driving down prices for metals, farm goods and other commodities and demand for other exoprts, the World Bank said.
Slower growth is already visible in weakening trade and commodity prices, the World Bank said.
Global exports of goods and services expanded an estimated 6.6 percent in 2011, barely half the previous year's 12.4 percent rate, the bank said. It said the growth rate is expected to fall to 4.7 percent this year.
Prices of energy, metals and farm products are down 10 to 25 percent from their peaks in early 2011, Timmer said.
The United States is already feeling some pain from Europe's crisis. Exports to Europe fell 6 percent in November, the Commerce Department said last week.
AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46036397/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
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Legendary Fighting Series Delivers Award-Winning Action to PS Vita system in 2012
London, United Kingdom ? January 17, 2012 ? Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces Mortal Kombat will ship for PlayStation?Vita system in Spring 2012. Developed by NetherRealm Studios, the game delivers an experience designed specifically for on-the-go gaming with brand new gameplay features and content developed exclusively for the new handheld device.
?The NetherRealm team is committed to making sure that we follow up the success of 2011?s Mortal Kombat with an equally compelling experience on the PlayStation Vita,? said Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios. ?The original game content and new features we developed for the PlayStation Vita will provide gamers with the best fighting game experience available on the new mobile platform.?
Selling more than three million units worldwide in 2011, Mortal Kombat became the highest-selling fighting game of the year and has won numerous ?Best Fighting Game of 2011? awards including Spike TV?s 2011 Video Game Awards, Official Xbox Magazine and GameTrailers.com.
In a triumphant return to the game?s original mature presentation, Mortal Kombat offers over-the-top fatalities and wince-inducing X-ray moves. This latest iteration in the franchise brings the game back to a 2D fighting plane and introduces a number of new gameplay features including Tag Team, Challenge Tower and a deep story mode. Several new features have been developed exclusively for Mortal Kombat for PS Vita system, which will be revealed in the coming months.
For more information about Mortal Kombat, please visit www.themortalkombat.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mortalkombat or on Twitter @MK_Mortalkombat
Source: Warner Bros. Interactive PR
Source: http://gamingeverything.com/14000/mortal-kombat-vita-due-out-in-spring-2012/
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LOME, Togo ? After venturing to reclusive Myanmar, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed democratic reforms Tuesday in another place long dominated by dictators, becoming the first American in her post to ever visit the African nation of Togo.
Greeted by performers on stilts and sword-wielding ceremonial soldiers in red capes, Clinton visited Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe in his presidential palace, a Chinese-built construction of marble floors and sparkling Christmas-like lights strung from the ceiling. Paintings sat against the walls, the unfinished work of a hasty decoration.
The decadence on display, just beyond the destitute streets of Togo's capital, Lome, in some ways evoked the worst of post-colonial Africa and its rulers' all-too-common penchant for ceremonies and ornamentation while their people languish in poverty. Yet after six decades of dictatorship, Togo is showing signs of progress ? much like Myanmar, or Burma, before Clinton's trip last year ? and the Obama administration wanted to take a chance.
"Togo's national elections later this year will be an important milestone," Clinton said. "The United States will be a partner to the government of Togo as it builds on its recent democratic gains, brings dissenting voices to the table for an inclusive dialogue, increases the political participation of women, and carries out a successful constitutional reform process."
The choice of Togo isn't solely about goodwill. The West African country of 6.8 million people, tucked between Benin and Ghana, is as of two weeks ago a U.N. Security Council member. That means it may vote alongside the world's biggest powers on resolutions that could cover anything from a future Palestinian state to sanctions against Syria.
Clinton and Gnassingbe agreed to cooperate on both issues, a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. Gnassingbe backed U.S. support for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks and opposition to a premature Palestinian declaration of statehood, the official said.
Clinton visited Togo on the penultimate stop of a four-country Africa swing aimed at encouraging governments to continue with democratic and economic reforms.
She led a U.S. delegation Monday to the inauguration of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first female head of state. She then traveled to Ivory Coast to meet the democratically elected President Alassane Ouattara, who took office last year after his forces finally ousted predecessor Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to cede power. She will stop in Cape Verde before returning to Washington early Wednesday.
The trip to Togo was the most unexpected. Whereas Washington has championed the ascents of Sirleaf and Ouattara, respected economists with resumes that include the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the U.S. has largely ignored Togo since it gained independence from France 62 years ago.
Details of Clinton's meeting with Gnassingbe showed an attempt to U.S. interests with a new partner, along with encouragement for democracy work in Togo that still has a long way to go.
Washington is optimistic about Gnassingbe despite his history as the military-pronounced successor of his father, a dictator who crushed opponents for almost four decades. He won a flawed election seven years ago and was re-elected in 2010 in a vote that edged closer toward constituting a free and fair multiparty contest.
Despite Gnassingbe's questionable past, Johnnie Carson, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, described the Togolese leader as one "determined to put in place a strong reform-minded government ? one that is democratic, multiparty and which opens up the country." He called the meeting an opportunity for Clinton to encourage Gnassingbe "along a reformist path, to continue to promote political reconciliation in his country and to speed on economic reforms."
The country also boasts the largest single private American investment in West Africa in over a decade: a new 100-megawatt power plant built in Lome by New York City-based Contour Global at a cost of over $200 million. Seated beside Gnassingbe, Clinton said President Barack Obama "believes as I believe that West Africa has great potential."
The message is akin to one Clinton took with her to Myanmar in November, becoming the first secretary of state to visit the Asian country in five decades. The military-led government, long among the world's most repressive and brutal, has since carried on with reforms and the release of hundreds more political prisoners. A national dialogue involving once-jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has gained momentum.
In Abidjan, Ivory Coast's biggest city, Clinton praised Ouattara's government for seeking accountability for crimes committed during the fighting that took place after the country's disputed 2010 election.
Rights groups say Ouattara hasn't done enough to prosecute members of his armed forces linked to massacres, even if he has launched an investigation and promised justice. But Clinton said the government was taking positive steps to meet the Ivorians' "need to see that the rule of law is working and that there is impartial justice."
Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have provided detailed documentation of alleged abuse by troops loyal to Ouattara. Gbagbo is being prosecuted at The Hague, and his senior officials are being pursued. But to date not a single official in Ouattara's military has been implicated despite accusations of setting villages afire, gang-raping women and executing the infirm and elderly.
"I am inspired by how quickly not only the government but the people have moved from the violence of last spring," Clinton said, praising economic recovery efforts after the war closed Abidjan's port, cut off cocoa exports and led bank accounts to be blocked.
Ivory Coast was once one of Africa's most prosperous nations, and Clinton said she recognized a "commitment that is in the air to build a better future."
Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, author of the Stop Online Piracy Act, announced Tuesday that the bill will resume markup before the House Judiciary Committee in February.
The announcement comes in the face of massive opposition to the bill, with several major websites ? including Reddit and Wikipedia ? planning to block access to their U.S. versions Wednesday in protest.
Critics of SOPA say the bill threatens free speech and would disrupt essential cyber security technologies.?Supporters say online copyright infringement costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars per year, and must be stopped.
California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa ? a vocal critic of SOPA and the Protect IP Act, its Senate counterpart ? ?said Friday that both bills remain ?flawed.?
?Smith [has] announced that he will remove the DNS blocking provision from his legislation,? acknowledged Issa in a statement. But, he added, ?despite the removal of this provision, [SOPA] is still a fundamentally flawed bill.?
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has assured Issa that the bill will not move to the House floor unless ?consensus? is reached.
Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation,?announced?Tuesday that it will hold votes in favor of SOPA and PIPA against lawmakers.
?Heritage Action opposes SOPA and PIPA and if they come to a vote will include them as a key vote on our scorecard,? said the influential conservative group.
Conservative non-profit FreedomWorks, which claims one million members, also announced its disapproval of the bills.
?Twenty-seven?Republican lawmakers who strongly opposed net neutrality are strangely cosponsors of SOPA in the House or PIPA in the Senate,? wrote Julie Boroski on the FreedomWorks blog.?Yet, the proposed online piracy laws are equally as bad or perhaps?even worse?than net neutrality,? wrote Borowski. ?SOPA and PIPA would disrupt the growth of technology and infringe on free speech. Any individual interested in preserving the freedom of the Internet should not support either version of this dangerous bill.?
?Right now, the focus of protecting the Internet needs to be on the Senate where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks,? said Issa Tuesday.
PIPA is sponsored by Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who swatted at the opposition of Wikipedia and Reddit in a statement.
?The PROTECT IP Act will not affect Wikipedia, will not affect Reddit, and will not affect any website that has any legitimate use,? said Leahy. ? A foreign rogue website is clearly defined as one that has no real purpose other than infringement.?
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SANTA ANA, Calif. ? The Iraq War veteran would carefully stalk each of his victims from among the thousands of homeless living in Southern California. He would then stab them repeatedly with a knife that could cut through bone, authorities say.
For his fourth and latest victim, they say, Itzcoatl Ocampo selected a homeless man featured in a Los Angeles Times story about a killing spree that terrorized those living on the streets for weeks.
And Ocampo had plans for more, until he was chased down by bystanders Friday night after the fatal stabbing of a 64-year-old homeless man. He was caught with blood on his hands and face, authorities say.
"He was a monster," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told reporters at a news conference. "He was a terrible threat, particularly to the homeless people in our community."
Ocampo was charged Tuesday with four counts of murder and special allegations of multiple murders and lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon. Three victims were stabbed more than 40 times each with a single-edged blade at least 7-inches long.
Authorities declined to say whether they had identified a motive. Rackauckas said he had no indication that Ocampo was mentally ill.
Ocampo's family said the 23-year-old was a troubled man after he returned from Iraq in 2008. Ocampo was being held in isolation at an Orange County jail while officers keep an eye on him 24 hours a day, officials said.
If convicted, Ocampo faces a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole. Authorities have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
Ocampo is due to appear in court on Wednesday, but his attorney said his arraignment would likely be postponed since the attorney was not allowed inside the jail to speak with his client over the weekend and has met with him only briefly.
Defense attorney Randall Longwith declined to comment on the allegations. He said Ocampo is being held in a mental ward.
"I walked in, he was curled up in a blanket," Longwith said. "He looked like a wet puppy dog."
The killing spree began in December, prompting police and advocates to fan out across the county known as the home to Disneyland and multimillion-dollar beachfront homes to urge the homeless to sleep in groups or in one of two wintertime shelters.
Ocampo's arrest Friday was the latest violent crime involving a veteran. This month, an Iraq War veteran fatally shot a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park and died later as he fled police across the mountain's snow-covered slopes.
Veterans Affairs officials say such high-profile violence can paint an inaccurate picture of returning veterans. The cases, however, raise the issue of veterans having a difficult time adjusting back into civilian life.
To help, the VA created a program to assist veterans in adjusting to their new lives and avoid repeated brushes with the law. "We've seen over and over again that once they access those services, we can help them," VA spokesman Josh Taylor said.
A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and Ocampo's father both tried to push him to get treatment at a VA hospital, but he refused. His father, Refugio Ocampo, said, his son came back from his deployment a changed man. He said his son expressed disillusionment and became ever darker as he struggled to find his way.
After Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home, his parents separated. The same month, one of his friends, a corporal, was killed during combat in Afghanistan. His brother said Ocampo visited his friend's grave twice a week.
Like the men Ocampo is accused of preying on, his father is homeless. His father lost his job and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.
Days before his arrest, Ocampo visited his father, warning him of the danger of being homeless. He showed him a picture of one of the slain men, his father said.
"He was very worried about me," his father said. "I told him, `Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"
Itzcoatl Ocampo followed a friend into the Marine Corps right out of high school in 2006. He now lives with his mother, uncle, younger brother and sister in a rented house on a horse ranch surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of Yorba Linda.
His family described a physical condition he suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking heavily, they said.
As fear spread through the homeless community, police last week set up road blockades to seek help from members of the public in tracking down a suspect. Ocampo, who appeared to relish the media spotlight, passed through the checkpoints twice but did not draw attention to himself, Rackauckas said.
Ocampo was arrested Friday night when witnesses chased him down after John Berry was stabbed to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Anaheim, about 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles, authorities said.
A day before he died, Berry had filed a report with police saying he believed someone was trying to follow him. It was one of nearly 600 leads and tips that officers received.
"It is unfortunate that we didn't get to him before the suspect did," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said.
In addition to Berry, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20 and Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28. The third victim, Paulus Smit, 57, was stabbed to death outside a library in Yorba Linda on Dec. 30.
Smit became homeless last year after his girlfriend's home was shuttered by code enforcement officers because of hoarding and clutter. Ever since, the father of three had moved between the homes of two of his children and spent some time on the streets, his daughter Julia Smit-Lozano said.
Smit-Lozano, who spent the Christmas holiday with her father days before he was killed, welcomed the news of Ocampo's arrest. "I'm glad the streets are a little safer for the rest of the homeless," she said.
___
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama's overtures of peace with Iran have changed significantly in the past three years. He has gone from a president willing to offer a new beginning to the Islamic republic to a president on the verge of a military confrontation the likes of which Iran cannot possibly imagine.
Shortly after taking office in 2009, Reuters reported Obama wrote a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei offering a new beginning between the U.S. and his country, and offered to set aside 30 years of hostile feelings. That offer fell upon deaf ears, and Khamenei's reply was not encouraging. Regardless, Obama wrote a second letter and received a similar reply.
It's just further proof Iran does not want to be in the community of nations. It enjoys a status of a pariah nation -- fully intent on pursuing its own policies without regard for how the rest of the world feels. More importantly, Iran cannot afford to befriend "The Great Satan" -- less it lose a powerful propaganda tool.
Obama has taken a lot of criticism from opponents over his gesture and, it probably was for naught, but at least he tried. That's a lot more than his predecessors can claim.
There is no reason to respect anything the government of Iran does. It has proven time and again that there can be no trust and no dialogue -- most recently when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government allowed (or encouraged) the ransacking of the British embassy in Tehran. That's not what a responsible modern government does, yet it's the only way Iran seems to know how to express itself.
Tehran's latest gamble might be one that just goes too far. Its repeated threat to close the Strait of Hormuz has not fallen on deaf ears. With two U.S. naval aircraft carriers within striking distance, plus their support vessels and an assortment of warships from allied countries closing in, Iran might have found a bluff too expensive to carry out.
There is little doubt the U.S. would respond if the Strait is threatened, and Iran can be confident such a response would go far beyond sinking a few motor boats that Reuters reported are chasing American ships. Maybe now would be a good time for Khamenei to write a letter.
BANGKOK ? A Thai television station is reporting that a Lebanese suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah militants has led police to a warehouse housing materials that could be used to make explosives.
Thai PBS television showed police confiscating boxes of urea fertilizer and liquid ammonium nitrate in Monday's raid.
The raid comes after the U.S. and Israel warned Friday of a terror threat targeting their citizens in Bangkok. Officials say that threat has now been thwarted.
The Lebanese suspect was detained Thursday. He led police to the warehouse, where police also found three beds, matching accounts that the man was traveling with two companions.
The terror alert came amid growing tensions over U.S. and Israeli responses to Iran's nuclear program.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Oil prices finished lower Friday on fresh concerns about Europe's economy as credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded France, Austria and other European countries.
Benchmark crude fell by 40 cents to end at $98.70 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil that's imported by U.S. refineries, fell by 70 cents to end at $110.35 per barrel in London.
S&P downgraded the government debt of France, Austria, Italy and Spain, but it kept Germany's at the coveted AAA level. S&P cut its ratings on a total of nine eurozone countries.
The downgrades could make it harder for the European Union to raise money and overcome massive government debts. A recession appears likely in Europe, and huge spending cuts will likely reduce European energy demand this year.
In the U.S., gasoline pump prices rose 1 cent to a national average of $3.39 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
In other energy trading, heating oil fell 3 cents to finish at $3.03 per gallon, while gasoline futures were virtually unchanged at $2.73 per gallon. Natural gas fell 3 cents to $2.67 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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BEIJING ? Angry customers and gangs of scalpers threw eggs at Apple Inc.'s Beijing store Friday after the iPhone 4S launch there was canceled due to concerns over the crowd's size.
Apple reacted to the outburst by postponing iPhone 4S sales in its mainland China stores to protect customers and employees. The phone still will be sold online and through its local carrier.
The incident highlighted Apple's huge popularity in China and the role of middlemen who buy up limited supplies of iPhones and other products or smuggle them from abroad for resale to Chinese gadget fans at a big markup.
Hundreds of customers including migrant workers hired by scalpers in teams of 20 to 30 waited overnight in freezing weather at the Apple store in a shopping mall in Beijing's east side Sanlitun district.
The crowd erupted after the store failed to open on schedule at 7 a.m. Some threw eggs and shouted at employees through the windows.
A person with a megaphone announced the sale was canceled. Police ordered the crowd to leave and sealed off the area with yellow tape. Employees posted a sign saying the iPhone 4S was out of stock.
"We were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being," said Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu.
The iPhone 4S quickly sold out at other Apple stores in China, Wu said. She said the phone still will be sold in China through Apple's online store, its local carrier China Unicom Ltd. and authorized resellers.
Wu declined to comment on what Apple might know about scalpers buying iPhones for resale.
China is Apple's fastest-growing market and "an area of enormous opportunity," CEO Tim Cook said in October. He said quarterly sales were up nearly four times over a year earlier and accounted for one-sixth of Apple's global sales.
Apple's China stores are routinely mobbed for the release of new products.
The company has its own stores only in Beijing and Shanghai, with a handful of authorized retailers in other cities, so middlemen who buy iPhones and resell them in other areas can make big profits, said Wang Ying, who follows the mobile phone market for Analysys International, a research firm in Beijing.
"Apple is making a lot of money, so it is not too concerned about the scalpers," Wang said.
Wang and other industry analysts said the size of the underground trade and price markups are unclear.
In Shanghai, stores limited iPhone 4S sales to two per customer. Several hundred people were waiting when the stores opened, bundled up against the cold. Some passed the time playing mahjong.
Buyers included 500 older people from neighboring Jiangsu province who were hired by the boss of a mobile phone market, the newspaper Oriental Morning Post said. They arrived aboard an 11-bus convoy and were paid 150 yuan ($15) each.
Online bulletin boards were filled with comments about Friday's buying frenzy, many complaining about or ridiculing the scalpers.
An Apple contractor manufactures iPhones in China, but new models are released in other countries first. That has fueled a thriving "gray market" in China for phones smuggled in from Hong Kong and other markets.
Last May, the Sanlitun store was closed for several hours after a scuffle between an employee and a customer during the release of the iPhone 4, the previous model in the series.
Customers began gathering Thursday afternoon outside the Sanlitun store. People in the crowd said the number grew to as many as 2,000 overnight but many left when word spread the store would not open. About 350 people remained when the protest erupted after 7 a.m.
"On the one hand there is poor organization and on the other there were just too many people," said a man outside the Sanlitun store Friday, who would give only his surname, Miao. "I don't think they prepared well enough."
Another man who refused to give his name said he was a migrant laborer who was paid 100 yuan ($15) to wait in line overnight.
Others in the crowd said scalpers had organized groups of 20 to 30 migrant workers to buy phones or hold places in line. Organizers held colored balloons aloft to identify themselves to their workers.
Others said they were waiting to buy the phone for themselves.
"I just like the 4S," said Zhu Xiaodong, a Beijing resident. He said he was upgrading from the previous iPhone 4 model.
Sales in China began three months after the iPhone 4S had its global debut Oct. 14 in the United States and six other countries.
The delay between the release of Apple products in the United States and in China has yet to affect its reputation with Chinese customers, said Ted Dean, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a research firm in Beijing.
For other products, such a delay "sort of gives the impression here that you're not giving the Chinese consumer a fair shake," Dean said. "But demand and that `cool factor' is so huge for Apple products that you don't hear that about them."
___
Associated Press writer David Wivell, researchers Zhao Liang and Yu Bing, all in Beijing, and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Apple Inc.: http:://http://www.apple.com
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When you try and time the market, the odds of success are low. Trying to pick the diamond in the ruff is nearly impossible. Investing your money like this is similar to throwing darts. You?ll most likely hit the board, but there?s low probability you?ll hit a winner.
I?ve noticed this is similar when people try and follow God?s leading when he gives an idea. They?ll wait on it and then through something out there hoping it becomes a winner. And that rarely works either. The best investors are the one?s that consistently invest whether there?s a short-term gains or losses.
Pursuing a dream is like that. You have to invest every day, every week, every month in the hopes of a long-term pay off. I talk with a lot of people that want to write a book. Most people think its easy until they sit down and try to write one. When there emotions are high, they?ll write a little bit. When their emotions are low, they push it to the side. They only invest when the ?market? is just right. These people rarely ever write a book.
If you want to be great at something, you have to invest consistently.
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Source: http://gregdarley.com/2012/01/investing/
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Ray Tamarra / Getty Images Contributor
Kate Gosselin will host a cruise in August aboard Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.
By Rob Lovitt, msnbc.com contributor
Can?t get your fill of celebrity culture from your TV or Twitter feed? Not a problem.
Sign up for the just-announced Kate Gosselin cruise?and you can sail away with the two-time reality-TV star ("Jon & Kate Plus 8," "Kate Plus 8"), former ?Dancing with the Stars? competitor and celebrity blogger for CouponCabin.com.
B-list celebrities don?t die, it seems, they just find new ways to market themselves.
?Part of it is a realization that celebrities as we have traditionally thought of them were folks who weren?t accessible to us,? said Carla Santos, associate professor of tourism management at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
?You?re never going to be on a cruise with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie so the next best thing is someone who?s had a few minutes of fame,? she told msnbc.com.
Consider some of the other less-than-A-list cruises currently available:
What themed cruise would you rather board?
173126
Kate Gosselin
4%
173127
Weezer
12%
173128
Star Trek
11%
173129
Love Letter
1%
173130
I'd rather go to work
70%
VoteTotal Votes: 742
Gosselin, of course, adds a new twist to the concept of celeb-hosted cruises as her accomplishments basically amount to achieving fame for being famous. Still, if you want to meet Kate in person, have your photo taken with Kate and receive a personalized gift from Kate, well, mark your calendar for Aug. 12?19 when the Allure of the Seas will set sail for the Western Caribbean.
In the meantime, consider the fact that the close quarters of a cruise ship can be both a blessing and a curse, especially when it comes to mingling with someone best known for controlling behavior, public meltdowns and terrible dancing.
?The cruise setting is interesting,? said Santos. ?It works perfectly for what they?re trying to create, which is closeness and the ability to rub elbows with these folks.?
On the other hand, she added, ?You can?t leave unless you decide to jump ship.?
For some reason, the vision of a Kim Kardashian cruise just popped into our heads.
More stories you might like:
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.
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Source: http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/11/10120051-b-list-celebs-hit-the-high-seas
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