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A sign of RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, is seen at its office in the City of London, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. RBS bank's board of directors have awarded the bank's CEO Stephen Hester 3.6 million shares for his work over the last year, worth about 963,000 pounds ($1.5 million) based on Thursday's closing share price, although 82 percent of the bank is owned by the British government after recent financial bailouts. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
A sign of RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, is seen at its office in the City of London, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. RBS bank's board of directors have awarded the bank's CEO Stephen Hester 3.6 million shares for his work over the last year, worth about 963,000 pounds ($1.5 million) based on Thursday's closing share price, although 82 percent of the bank is owned by the British government after recent financial bailouts. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
A sign of RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, is seen at its office in the City of London, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. RBS bank's board of directors have awarded the bank's CEO Stephen Hester 3.6 million shares for his work over the last year, worth about 963,000 pounds ($1.5 million) based on Thursday's closing share price, although 82 percent of the bank is owned by the British government after recent financial bailouts.(AP Photo/Sang Tan)
In this photo made with extreme wide angle lens, the RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, offices in the City of London, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. RBS bank's board of directors have awarded the bank's CEO Stephen Hester 3.6 million shares for his work over the last year, worth about 963,000 pounds ($1.5 million) based on Thursday's closing share price, although 82 percent of the bank is owned by the British government after recent financial bailouts. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
LONDON (AP) ? Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester will not be accepting a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.
Spokesman David Gaffney said Hester would not receive the bonus of 3.6 million shares he was awarded last week by the board of the largely state-owned bank.
The British government spent 45 billion pounds bailing out RBS three years ago. It still owns an 82 percent stake, and politicians had criticized the reward at a time when Britons face painful spending cuts and tax hikes.
The government ? which has insisted it has no control over the bank's bonuses ? welcomed the announcement.
"This is a sensible and welcome decision that enables Stephen Hester to focus on the very important job he has got to do, namely to get back billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that was put into RBS," Treasury chief George Osborne said.
The decision follows Saturday's announcement that RBS chairman Philip Hampton was waiving his own bonus of 1.4 million pounds in shares.
Hester and Hampton were brought in after Fred Goodwin, who led RBS's ill-fated takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, stepped down in October 2008 as the government was spending billions to prop up the bank.
The board of directors decided last week to award Hester a bonus of 3.6 million shares ? worth just under 1 million pounds at Friday's closing share price of 27.74 pence. That came on top of his annual salary of 1.2 million pounds.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that Hester's bonus was "a matter for him," but pointed out it was much less than last year's.
The government claimed it had no control over bonuses awarded by the bank, and said replacing Hester if he resigned would be more costly than paying the reward.
But many politicians were critical. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative like Cameron, said he found the bonus "absolutely bewildering."
Rachel Reeves, Treasury spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday the sum was inappropriate "when families are feeling the pinch."
"It's time the government explained why they have allowed these bonuses to go through unchallenged," she said.
Before the bank's announcement, the Labour Party said it would force a vote in the House of Commons next month calling for Hester to be stripped of his bonus.
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COCOA, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich's promise to colonize the moon isn't pie-in-the-sky in Florida. It illustrates an adage: All politics is local.
Fred Register is among Florida's voters ? Republicans and Democrats alike ? who know firsthand what deficit reduction can mean. The state's space industry lost several thousand jobs to NASA budget cuts.
"If we give up on space, we might as well give up on everything," said Register, a 79-year-old a Republican who retired from the space program after five decades.
No issue better illustrates the risks and rewards of backyard politics than Florida's space industry. Gingrich ignited the discussion by making a bold declaration at a packed rally last week in Cocoa, about 20 miles from the Kennedy Space Center.
"By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American," he said before being interrupted by applause.
Backyard politics ? sometimes knocked as pandering ? has long been part of presidential campaigns. Candidates this month alone have promised to address gay marriage in Iowa, hydroelectric power in New Hampshire and port development in South Carolina. They've joined state lawmakers' fight against labor union influence in New Hampshire and tiptoed around Iowa's controversial ethanol subsidies.
Gingrich says his promise reflects a long admiration of space exploration. But it also reflects a successful campaign strategy. His win in South Carolina was aided, at least in part, by his vocal support for a plan to dredge the Port of Charleston, among other local issues.
The moon issue, however, opened him to attacks from his rivals, led by Mitt Romney, who ridiculed Gingrich's space ideas during Thursday's presidential debate as an incredibly expensive initiative.
"I spent 25 years in business," Romney said. "If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, `You're fired.'"
The former Massachusetts governor ticked off projects the former House speaker had promised: a new interstate highway for South Carolina and dredging the port of Charleston; burying a power line coming into New Hampshire from Canada.
"Look, this idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now," Romney said. "We've got to say `no' to this kind of spending."
Indeed, Romney has in recent months focused more than his rivals on national issues, such as the economy and federal budget deficits. But he has not avoided local issues altogether.
Romney visited Florida's Space Coast days after Gingrich, speaking to voters on a stage flanked by a capsule that once traveled on the space shuttle.
"A strong and vibrant space program is part of being an exceptional nation," he declared Friday, the day after attacking Gingrich's ideas during the debate.
And he has engaged in backyard politics in other states, albeit less enthusiastically than Gingrich.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says she privately discussed local concerns about nuclear waste disposal with Romney, although he avoided the issue in public. And Romney joined his competitors in attacking the National Labor Relations Board for filing a lawsuit alleging that Boeing Co. opened a plant in South Carolina to punish the Machinists union for a series of work slowdowns. The NLRB dropped the lawsuit in December when the Machinists approved a four-year contract extension with Boeing.
Gingrich isn't apologizing for his local focus.
"I thought we were a country where one of the purposes of candidates going around was to actually learn about the states they campaigned in and actually be responsive to the needs of the states they campaign in," he said in last week's debate.
That's a message that resonates with Register, the retired Space Coast resident. Thanks to all the attention leading up to Florida's primary, he thinks a new president might help revive the nation's space industry, putting his neighbors back to work.
"We've been hit pretty hard," he said. "In 2013 maybe we'll see a light."
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Liam Neeson's latest action film, The Grey, lead the pack of a trio of new film releases, Box Office Mojo reports.
The Grey grossed an estimated $20 million in its first weekend of release. ?Underworld: Awakening fell one spot to No. 2, taking in $12.5 million.
Box office: Underworld: Awakening comes out on top
In its first weekend of release, One For the Money came in third place, grabbing $11.7 million. Red Tails followed in fourth place with $10.4 million. Man on a Ledge, also in its opening weekend, completed the top 5, raising $8.3 million.
In sixth place, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close drew $7.1 million. The Descendants rose from No. 16 to No. 7, attracting $6.5 million.
Rounding out the top 10: Contraband (No. 8, $6.5 million), Beauty and the Beast 3D (No. 9, $5.3 million) and Haywire (No. 10, $4 million). Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol just missed the top 10, but became the highest grossing installment in the 15-year-old franchise, earning $571 million globally.
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BY SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENIN CITY -? Widow of the late frontline nationalist, Mrs Helen Enahoro, Saturday, passed on? at the age of 79.
Vanguard learnt that the? widow passed on in Lagos after a brief illness. It was learnt that? Mrs Enahoro had a protracted battle with cancer.
The son, Eugene, confirmed the passage and gave a few words: ?I am in a family meeting?. Enahoro, who moved? the motion for the nation?s independence, died? on December 15, 2010.
The widow?s death, which occurred 13 months after the late sage died, shocked the people of? Edo State when the news filtered in that she gave up the ghost.
Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.
Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/01/enahoros-wife-dies-at-79/
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LONDON ? Britain says coastlines, wildlife and even the nation's most famous dish are under threat from climate change in its first-ever national assessment of likely risks.
The 2.8 million pound ($4.4 million) study sets out the most pressing problems expected to affect the United Kingdom as a result of climate change.
Britain's government said Thursday that higher temperatures could see as many as 5,900 more people die as a result of hot summers, but predicts a sharp reduction in deaths due to cold weather by the 2050s.
Other risks include increased pollution and energy demands.
The report says Britain's stocks of cod ? a key component of the nation's beloved fish and chips dish ? will dwindle, but should be replaced by more plentiful numbers of plaice and sole.
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Octomom Nadya Suleman's octuplets turn three today.
Pray for them. Even if you're not religious ... just pray.
We're legitimately shocked they all survived this long, looking relatively healthy to boot, her as the mom, but hey, it's a very pleasant surprise. Eight times over.
Nadya Suleman took her octuplets out for some fun to celebrate, hitting up the Seascape Kids Fun venue in Los Angeles. Looks like a good time was had, except perhaps by the random paparazzi guy creeping in the background.
Suleman's octuplets are Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah.
Her other children are Elijah Makai, Amerah Yasmeen, Joshua Jacob, Aiden, Calyssa Airelle and Caleb Kai. Yes, that makes 14 kids and no jobs in all.
Again, pray for them.
[Photo: Pacific Coast News]
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/happy-3rd-birthday-children-of-octomom/
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BENGHAZI, Libya ? Moammar Gadhafi loyalists seized control of a Libyan mountain city in the most serious challenge to the central government since the strongman's fall, underlining the increasing weakness of Libya's Western-backed rulers as they try to unify the country under their authority.
The taking of Bani Walid, one of the last Gadhafi strongholds captured by the new leadership late last year, was the first such organized operation by armed remnants of Gadhafi's regime. A simultaneous outbreak of shootings in the capital and Libya's second largest city Benghazi raised authorities' concerned that other networks of loyalists were active elsewhere.
The security woes add to the difficulties of the ruling National Transitional Council, which is struggling to establish its authority and show Libyans progress in stability and good government. Bani Walid's fall comes after violent protests in Benghazi, where Libyans angry over lack of reform stormed the NTC headquarters and trashed offices.
In Bani Walid, hundreds of well-equipped and highly trained remnants of Gadhafi's forces battled for eight hours on Monday with the local pro-NTC revolutionary brigade, known as the May 28 Brigade, said Mubarak al-Fatmani, the head of Bani Walid local council. The brigade was driven out and Gadhafi loyalists then raised their old green flag over buildings in the western city.
Four revolutionary fighters were killed and 25 others were wounded in the fighting, al-Fatmani said.
There were no immediate signs that the uprising was part of some direct attempt to restore the family of Gadhafi, who was swept out of power in August and then killed in the nearby city of Sirte in October. His sons, daughter and wife have been killed, arrested or have fled to neighboring countries.
Instead, the fighting seemed to reflect a rejection of NTC control by a city that never deeply accepted its rule, highlighting the still unresolved tensions between those who benefited under Gadhafi's regime and those now in power. Those tensions are tightly wound up with tribal and regional rivalries around the country.
The May 28 Brigade had kept only a superficial control over the city, the head of Bani Walid's military council, Abdullah al-Khazmi, acknowledged.
"The only link between Bani Walid and the revolution was May 28, now it is gone and 99 percent of Bani Walid people are Gadhafi loyalists," he said.
He spoke to The Associated Press at a position on the eastern outskirts of Bani Walid, where hundreds of pro-NTC reinforcements from Benghazi were deployed with convoys of cars mounted with machine guns, though there was no immediate move to retake the city.
The fighters who captured the city Monday night belong to Brigade 93, a militia newly created by Gadhafi loyalists who reassembled after the fall of the regime, said al-Khazmi and al-Fatmani. The fighters, flush with cash and heavy weaponry including incendiary bombs, have been increasing in power in the city, they said.
There was no possibility to confirm their claims. However, there were no mass evacuations from the town after the clashes, an indication that the residents appear to accept the new arrangement, said Ali al-Fatmani, a revolutionary brigade commander in Bani Walid.
Authorities in Benghazi, where the NTC is centered, appeared concerned that the Bani Walid uprising could have sent a signal to other cells of Gadhafi forces.
An AP reporter who was present in the Benghazi operation room heard military commanders on Monday saying coordinated incidents of drive-by shootings in Tripoli and, to a lesser extent, Benghazi erupted as news of the Bani Walid takeover spread. In Tripoli, some shops closed, and fighters responsible for security in the capital were on a state of alert over the shootings.
Five months since the Gadhafi regime's fall and three months since his death, the National Transitional Council has so far made little progress in unifying its armed forces. Instead it relies largely on multiple "revolutionary brigades," militias made up of citizens-turned-fighters, usually all from a specific city or even neighborhood.
The militias were created during the months of civil war against Gadhafi's forces last year, and since the war ended in October, the various brigades remain in control of security affairs of each city they liberated. Though loyal to the NTC, they have also feuded among themselves and acted on their own initiative, and the council has been unable to control them.
A month ago, Gadhafi loyalists attacked another revolutionary brigade from Tripoli that entered Bani Walid, killing 13, said Mubarak al-Fatmani.
"The council (NTC) did absolutely nothing," said al-Fatmani, who resigned from his local council chief post to protest the NTC's failure to investigate the ambush. He still holds his position, since his resignation has not yet been accepted.
The council has faced increasing complaints that it is doing little to bring stability to the country. It faces a daunting task, since Gadhafi's regime stripped Libya of most institutions, and the civil war has stirred up widespread divisions, rivalries and resentments.
In the Benghazi unrest last Saturday, protesters broke into the NTC headquarters, smashed windows and carted off furniture and electronics, then threw bottles at NTC chief Mustafa Abdul-Jalil as he tried to address them and torched his car. The next day, Abdul-Jalil suspended the Benghazi representatives on the council in an apparent attempt to appease protesters. The deputy chief of the NTC resigned in protest over the suspension.
Bani Walid, a city of 100,000 located in the mountains 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, held out for weeks against revolutionary forces after Gadhafi's fall from power, with loyalist fighters dug into its formidable terrain of valleys and crevasses. Pro-NTC fighters finally took it in October.
The main tribe in Bani Walid is a branch of the Warfala tribal confederation, which stretches around the country with around 1 million members. The Bani Walid branch was one of the most privileged under Gadhafi, who gave them top positions and used their fighters to try to crush protests in the early months of last year's uprising against his rule.
That has left a deep enmity between the tribe and others. Ali al-Fatmani said Bani Walid loyalists were among Gadhafi troops that tried to march on Benghazi during the civil war and were used to in the siege of Zawiya, west of Tripoli. There were reports, he said, that Bani Walid fighters desecrated graves of fallen revolutionary fighters in Zawiya.
"The hatred and mistrust have been building up during the revolution," said al-Fatmani, himself a Warfala.
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LOS ANGELES ? A unique small claims court case brought by a Honda hybrid car owner against the auto giant is rolling back into court Wednesday with a judge seeking more information about the claim of Heather Peters, who says her car failed to deliver promised mileage.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan is not asking questions about the substance of the unusual lawsuit by Peters, the owner of a 2006 hybrid Honda Civic. But he wants more information on technicalities of its filing, such as the possibility of a statute-of-limitations problem.
He asked for additional legal arguments and scheduled another session of the trial in Torrance, the U.S. headquarters for Honda.
After testimony and arguments Jan. 3, he took the matter under submission and said he would have a ruling soon. But he removed it from submission in order to get clarification.
Peters, a former lawyer, has been using the Internet to try to rally other Honda hybrid owners to follow her example and go to small claims court rather than accepting a proposed class-action settlement by Honda.
She bolted from a class-action lawsuit in order to sue for $10,000 rather than agree to a proposed settlement by Honda with thousands of car owners that would give each owner $100 to $200 and a $1,000 credit on the purchase of a new Honda.
She has said that if all owners of the problem cars won in small-claims court, it could cost Honda $2 billion.
Peters has acknowledged that the statute of limitations for individual fraud suits like hers can be from one to four years in California. She said, however, that the filing of the class-action lawsuit "stops the ticking of the clock" under a legal theory known as "equitable tolling."
Experts on class-action law agreed with her interpretation.
"The clock stopped ticking when the class action was filed," said attorney Clifford Pearson.
Attorney Aaron Jacoby noted that the statute would start tolling again on the day she opted out of the class-action lawsuit, which was Dec. 8, 2011. He said the statute is four years.
Peters bought her car in April 2006 and the first class-action lawsuit over the mileage issue was filed in March.
Peters claimed the car never came close to the 50 miles per gallon (21.26 kilometers per liter) promised and that it got no more than 30 miles per gallon (12.75 kilometers per liter) when the battery began deteriorating. She still owns the car and wants to be compensated for money lost on gas, as well as punitive damages, amounting to $10,000.
Peters said she was encouraged by the fact that the commissioner was giving the case close consideration.
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WASHINGTON ? Fresh off a resounding victory, Newt Gingrich faces a formidable financial challenge as he storms into Florida ? raising money.
The former House speaker ? whose campaign still is carrying debt ? has little choice but to move rapidly to convert momentum from his South Carolina triumph into dollars to spend in Florida, a much larger and more diverse state with multiple media markets that bear a hefty $2 million price tag to blanket the state with TV ads over the next week.
He's already working to tap into Rick Perry's deep base of donors, following the Texas governor's departure from the race and endorsement, as well as the vast grassroots network of his now defunct political group, American Solutions. And, even if aides won't publicly acknowledge it, Gingrich probably also is betting on his wealthy friends continuing to open their wallets to a political action committee working to help elect the former Georgia congressman.
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson essentially saved Gingrich's campaign as the race turned to South Carolina almost two weeks ago by pouring $5 million into the Winning Our Future super PAC that aired ads tearing into chief rival Mitt Romney, helping pave the way for a Gingrich victory. With Gingrich now winning, it's tough to see how Adelson returns to the sidelines now.
Even before his South Carolina victory, a confident Gingrich said in Orangeburg, S.C.: "We will have what we need to compete."
But the urgency was clear in the minutes after The Associated Press declared him the winner Saturday night.
He quickly sent a tweet thanking supporters and appealing for a flood of donations for the Jan. 31 primary. "Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida. Join our Moneybomb and donate now," said his tweet. And later, he pleaded in an email: "If you want to see a Reagan conservative as the nominee, and if you want to watch us run circles around Barack Obama in the debates with bold, conservative ideas, then please make a donation today."
Gingrich's campaign did not immediately respond to questions about whether the financial floodgates have opened in the wake of his victory.
Aides have said he raised roughly $9 million in the final quarter of last year. But the campaign still is carrying about a half a million dollars in debt from spring and summer when his campaign was struggling.
In that same time period Romney says he has raised $24 million. And he and his allies have been on the air in Florida ? alone ? for weeks, blanketing the state with his campaign pitch and targeting the thousands of Florida Republicans who have been casting absentee ballots since last month.
Given all that and with only nine days before the primary, there's no time for Gingrich to waste.
He was spending Sunday in Washington, attending a church service and working to raise money behind the scenes, including reaching out to former Perry donors who helped the Texas governor raise $17 million during the third quarter of 2011.
A giant plea for money also greeted visitors to Gingrich's website Sunday in hopes that fans of his books and time on the speaking circuit would donate.
Gingrich will have help.
Super PACs, like the pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future that's independent of his campaign, are certain to play aggressively in Florida, perhaps to a greater level than they did in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
The independent groups can spend unlimited amounts of money in elections since federal court rulings in 2010 stripped away previous restrictions. The super PACs can't coordinate with campaigns, but many ? including Gingrich's and Romney's ? are staffed by people with ties to the candidates.
Already the pro-Romney super PAC ? Restore Our Future ? has spent a jaw-dropping $4 million in advertising in Florida, with Romney himself doling out nearly $2.5 million. Gingrich and his allies have yet to run an ad in the state.
At a deficit already, Winning Our Future and others supporting Gingrich expect that the spigot of money will continue flowing.
Still, they will be competing for dollars with super PACs supporting other candidates, particularly the Red, White and Blue Fund that's supporting former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
"Even if he gets 1 percent in South Carolina, I'm still for Rick," said Foster Friess, a Wyoming businessman who's been a major backer to the Santorum-leaning super PAC.
Gingrich's reliance on outside support is a reversal. He decried the influence of the independent groups in Iowa as they battered him in the state, and pledged to run a positive campaign. Then he kept losing. And a super PAC rushed to his defense.
The candidate himself has struggled to raise money this year despite being known for his fundraising prowess that dates to the 1990s when he engineered the Republican takeover of the House. After he left Congress, he turned his conservative political group, American Solutions for Winning the Future into a fundraising powerhouse, using the cash to continue a busy travel schedule that kept his name in the news. Gingrich owns the groups donor list.
When his campaign imploded last year, Gingrich relied on using that grass-roots network and social media to raise money.
"He's done well with less money than Romney," said John Grant, a Baptist leader and one of Gingrich's Florida evangelical chairmen. "It's because he's the atypical candidate."
____
McCaffrey reported from Columbia, S.C., and Gillum from Washington.
____
Follow Shannon McCaffrey at http://twitter.com/smccaffrey13 or Jack Gillum at http://twitter.com/jackgillum
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By msnbc.com staff and news services
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council, warned on Sunday the country could be heading towards a "bottomless pit" after protesters stormed a government office in Benghazi when he was inside.
A crowd demanding the resignation of the Libyan government smashed windows and forced their way into the NTC's local headquarters late on Saturday, in the most serious show of anger at the new authorities since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted.
Abdul-Jalil later?suspended the six representatives to the NTC?from Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya. They can continue to serve only if approved by the local city council.?
He also?said he appointed a council of religious leaders to investigate corruption charges and identify people with links to the Gadhafi regime.
The body's deputy head, Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga, resigned in protest over the suspensions. Ghoga, known for his polished language and expensive suits, was a prominent spokesman during the eight-month civil war that ended with Gadhafi's capture and killing in October.
Another delegate, Fathi Baja, called the move "illegitimate" and said he would stand down only if the people of Benghazi asked him to. Baja, a well known critic of Gadhafi even before the uprising, also criticized the appointment of religious leaders, saying that when he was criticizing Gadhafi, "they were calling on people to obey the leader."
Also Sunday, the head of the committee tasked with preparing the country's election law said its release would be delayed for one week. The final law, which was set to be announced Sunday, will be made public on Jan. 28, said Othman al-Mugherhi.
The committee published a draft law earlier this month and said it would solicit comments from Libyans. Al-Mugherhi said the delay will allow the committee to consider these comments while drafting the final law.
The law will spell out how Libyans will elect the 200-members national congress, which will oversee the drafting of a constitution. The body is supposed to be elected before June 23.
Al-Mugherhi also announced the formation of a 17-member electoral commission to oversee the vote. The body contains professors, judges, lawyers and men and women representing non-governmental organizations, he said.
Under Gadhafi's rule, Libya had no working parliament for four decades.
Abdul-Jalil warned the protests risked undermining the country's already fragile stability.
"We are going through a political movement that can take the country to a bottomless pit," he said. "There is something behind these protests that is not for the good of the country."
"The people have not given the government enough time and the government does not have enough money. Maybe there are delays, but the government has only been working for two months. Give them a chance, at least two months."
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Reuters, The Associated Press?and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 24-Jan-2012
Share ] Contact: Aleta Todd Delaplane
aleta9@vbi.vt.edu
540-231-6966
Virginia Tech
As scientific researchers become evermore competitive for scarce funding, scientific journals are increasing efforts to identify submissions that plagiarize the work of others. Still, it may take years to identify and retract the plagiarized papers and give credit to the actual researchers.
"We need a better system," said Harold Garner, executive director of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech. Garner discussed the problem and solution in a Comment in the January 4, 2012 issue of Nature and in a January 19, 2012 radio interview with NPR's Leonard Lopate.
Garner, creator of eTBLAST plagiarism detection software, identified numerous instances of wholesale plagiarism among citations in MEDLINE. "When my colleagues and I introduced an automated process to spot similar citations in MEDLINE, we uncovered more than 150 suspected cases of plagiarism in March, 2009.
"Subsequent ethics investigations resulted in 56 retractions within a few months. However, as of November 2011, 12 (20 percent) of those "retracted" papers are still not so tagged in PubMed. Another two were labeled with errata that point to a website warning the papers are "duplicate" -- but more than 95 percent of the text was identical, with no similar co-authors."
But even when plagiarism is uncovered, it does not guarantee that the plagiarized articles will be retracted. In Garner's study, as noted in his Nature commentary, "Three of the 56 retracted papers are cited in books, including one citation after the retraction. Another eight were cited in other PubMed Central archived articles before retraction, and seven were cited after retraction."
Some researchers say plagiarism has become a pandemic in many large institutions and schools, and that there is an entire industry built on the business of copying the work of others for the purpose of developing theses content and technical papers.
Quelling the proliferation of scientific plagiarism by identifying and retracting plagiarized articles is not the only issue. Publication editors and researchers must agree on the definition of plagiarism as noted in Nature.
Said Garner, "Ultimately, plagiarism comes down to human judgment, similar to other questionable practices -- you know it when you see it."
###
The Comment in Nature appears here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v481/n7379/full/481021a.html#/harold-garner-flag-plagiarized-studies
Watch Garner here: http://youtu.be/cuAjUqNF-R8
Garner also was featured in an interview with NPR's Leonard Lopate of WNYC, January 19, 2012. Lopate investigated with Garner the prevalence and problems presented by plagiarism of scientific and medical literature, and discussed ways that new detection software can help to identify plagiarized materials and encourage publication editors to retract these articles.
Listen to the interview: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2012/jan/
About the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech is a premier bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology research facility that uses transdisciplinary approaches to science, combining information technology, biology, and medicine. These approaches are used to interpret and apply vast amounts of biological data generated from basic research to some of today's key challenges in the biomedical, environmental, and agricultural sciences.
With more than 320 highly trained multidisciplinary, international personnel, research at the institute involves collaboration in diverse disciplines such as mathematics, computer science, biology, plant pathology, biochemistry, systems biology, statistics, economics, synthetic biology, and medicine. The large amounts of data generated by this approach are analyzed and interpreted to create new knowledge that is disseminated to the world's scientific, governmental, and wider communities.
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Public release date: 24-Jan-2012 Share ] Contact: Aleta Todd Delaplane
aleta9@vbi.vt.edu
540-231-6966
Virginia Tech
As scientific researchers become evermore competitive for scarce funding, scientific journals are increasing efforts to identify submissions that plagiarize the work of others. Still, it may take years to identify and retract the plagiarized papers and give credit to the actual researchers.
"We need a better system," said Harold Garner, executive director of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech. Garner discussed the problem and solution in a Comment in the January 4, 2012 issue of Nature and in a January 19, 2012 radio interview with NPR's Leonard Lopate.
Garner, creator of eTBLAST plagiarism detection software, identified numerous instances of wholesale plagiarism among citations in MEDLINE. "When my colleagues and I introduced an automated process to spot similar citations in MEDLINE, we uncovered more than 150 suspected cases of plagiarism in March, 2009.
"Subsequent ethics investigations resulted in 56 retractions within a few months. However, as of November 2011, 12 (20 percent) of those "retracted" papers are still not so tagged in PubMed. Another two were labeled with errata that point to a website warning the papers are "duplicate" -- but more than 95 percent of the text was identical, with no similar co-authors."
But even when plagiarism is uncovered, it does not guarantee that the plagiarized articles will be retracted. In Garner's study, as noted in his Nature commentary, "Three of the 56 retracted papers are cited in books, including one citation after the retraction. Another eight were cited in other PubMed Central archived articles before retraction, and seven were cited after retraction."
Some researchers say plagiarism has become a pandemic in many large institutions and schools, and that there is an entire industry built on the business of copying the work of others for the purpose of developing theses content and technical papers.
Quelling the proliferation of scientific plagiarism by identifying and retracting plagiarized articles is not the only issue. Publication editors and researchers must agree on the definition of plagiarism as noted in Nature.
Said Garner, "Ultimately, plagiarism comes down to human judgment, similar to other questionable practices -- you know it when you see it."
###
The Comment in Nature appears here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v481/n7379/full/481021a.html#/harold-garner-flag-plagiarized-studies
Watch Garner here: http://youtu.be/cuAjUqNF-R8
Garner also was featured in an interview with NPR's Leonard Lopate of WNYC, January 19, 2012. Lopate investigated with Garner the prevalence and problems presented by plagiarism of scientific and medical literature, and discussed ways that new detection software can help to identify plagiarized materials and encourage publication editors to retract these articles.
Listen to the interview: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2012/jan/
About the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech is a premier bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology research facility that uses transdisciplinary approaches to science, combining information technology, biology, and medicine. These approaches are used to interpret and apply vast amounts of biological data generated from basic research to some of today's key challenges in the biomedical, environmental, and agricultural sciences.
With more than 320 highly trained multidisciplinary, international personnel, research at the institute involves collaboration in diverse disciplines such as mathematics, computer science, biology, plant pathology, biochemistry, systems biology, statistics, economics, synthetic biology, and medicine. The large amounts of data generated by this approach are analyzed and interpreted to create new knowledge that is disseminated to the world's scientific, governmental, and wider communities.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/vt-spa012412.php
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Michael Cera updates MTV News on progress of 'Arrested Development' movie and new TV episodes.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Michael Cera
Photo: MTV News
PARK CITY, Utah — Bluth-family fans collectively blue themselves when it was announced that "Arrested Development" would be coming back in both film and television form. Netflix announced late last year that they would be backing new episodes of "Arrested" that would pave the way for an eventual feature film.
Despite the good news, fans remain in the dark regarding when "Arrested Development" might actually go back into production. But according to Michael Cera, who spoke with MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival about his new movie "The End of Love," the Bluth reunion may be coming together sooner than expected. "I've heard summer," Cera told MTV News. "So hopefully that's going to happen."
Still, like his "Arrested" costars, Cera is of the "I'll believe it when I see it" school of thought. "It's hard to be excited, because I don't feel any progress day to day," he said. "But I'm sure it's happening. I think it's just out of my realm of awareness. I'll be happy when we're on set doing it."
Cera's fellow "Arrested" actor Alia Shawkat also spoke with MTV News at Sundance and expressed her enthusiasm about getting back into the Bluth household sooner than later.
"It's been kind of following me around like a very attractive albatross," she said of her "Arrested Development" history. "But now it's hopefully going to happen. It would be very exciting."
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.
Related PhotosSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677693/arrested-development-michael-cera.jhtml
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Polar Mobile, a digital media platform provider that builds apps for some of the biggest media companies, today announced it has secured an additional $6 million in funding. The new round, led by growth equity firm Georgian Partners, joins more than $3 million invested in the company previously from private investors, bringing its total funding to $9 million. The company is also announcing its plans for a new product line called MediaEverywhere, an HTML5-based content distribution solution for smartphones, tablets and desktops.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/IVczpSbDo3c/
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"Saturday Night Live" alumni Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon have reunited on the small screen once again for NBC's "Up All Night," and the "Bridesmaids" star says she couldn't be happier to be working with her former "SNL" mentor.
"I think I asked [Molly] and Will Ferrell how to read the cue cards because no one explained anything to me, because I came in at the end of my season," Maya explained to AccessHollywood.com's Laura Saltman of how she and Molly first became friends on the late night sketch show back in 2000, during a visit to the "Up All Night" set in Los Angeles on Friday. "It was really scary to come in like that and not know anyone.
PLAY IT NOW: Trailer: ?Friends With Kids?
"It was like starting school with three weeks left and everybody knew where to sit in the cafeteria and I was really scared and overwhelmed and [Molly] was just so great and she said, 'This is how I do it,'" Maya recounted. "Molly really beats to her own drum. She doesn't do it like anybody else."
The hilarious pair teamed up again on Molly's show, "Kath & Kim," and again when Molly returned to host "Saturday Night Live" while Maya was still a castmember.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Magnificent Maya Rudolph!
"I was lucky enough to work with her when she came back to host the show and it was really neat to finally know how to do the show and then watch her do it," she said. "She's just so one of a kind... she's so good."
In addition to Maya's over-the-top daytime talk show host character on "Up All Night," fans of the comedienne are anxiously awaiting a sequel to her side-splittingly funny big screen hit, "Bridesmaids."
Unfortunately, the actress says has "no pull" when it comes to a possible follow-up film.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Funny Ladies! The Glorious Women Of TV Comedy
"I'm not in charge of whether we do a sequel. I'm fine whatever anybody wants to do," she told Laura. "I love that group so much, so if we end up doing something together in a different way that would be great too."
Adding, "I think that by now it's established we loved working together and I can't imagine doing a movie like that without one of us -- that would just be bizarre and strange."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ?Saturday Night Live?
Catch Maya and Molly, along with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett, when "Up All Night" airs at its new time - Thursdays at 9:30 PM on NBC.
Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a new diagnostic test to help identify patients who have an increased risk of developing a rare brain infection while taking Biogen Idec's multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.
Tysabri is one of a handful of drugs used to control multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease in which the body attacks its own nervous system. Prescribing of the drug has been tightly controlled by the FDA because of a rare infection that causes inflammation of the brain, known as multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Currently there is no treatment or cure for PML, which usually causes death or severe disability.
The newly approved Stratify JCV test is designed to detect a common virus that increases the likelihood of developing the brain infection. The John Cunningham virus is harmless in most people, but can become dangerous in patients taking immune system-suppressing drugs like Tysabri.
Doctors can use the results of the blood-based test, combined with facts about the patient's medical history, to determine whether they are at risk of developing the brain infection. Other factors that influence a patient's risk include how long they've been taking Tysabri and whether they've previously taken other medications that weaken the immune system.
The test was developed by Quest Diagnostics.
The FDA also updated Tysabri's label to specify that patients who test positive for the virus have a higher risk of developing PML.
"This label change marks an important advance in assisting people with MS and their physicians to make better-informed decisions concerning the challenges of balancing effectiveness with safety," said Dr. Nicholas LaRocca, vice president of the National MS Society.
Tysabri was temporarily pulled from the market shortly after its launch in 2005 after three patients taking the drug developed PML. FDA allowed the drug back on the market the following year but under a restricted distribution program. Only doctors and pharmacies registered with the company's distribution program are permitted to prescribe and dispense the drug.
Biogen, based in Weston, Mass., sells Tysabri through a partnership with Elan Corp., an Irish drugmaker.
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The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area Thursday. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area Thursday. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
Firefighters battle a wind-driven brush fire burning through Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez says crews were able to stop the wall of flames before it reached Galena High School. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
Firefighters wait for water before attacking an outbuilding adjacent to a home Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in Pleasant Valley, Nev. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/The Reno Gazette-Journal, Tim Dunn) NEVADA APPEAL OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev. smolders as firefighters battle a wind-driven brush fire on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
RENO, Nev. (AP) ? An "extremely remorseful" elderly man admitted Friday that he accidentally started a brush fire that destroyed 29 homes near Reno when he improperly discarded fireplace ashes at his home south of town, authorities said.
"He came forward on his own accord," Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said about the man. The resulting blaze, fueled by 82 mph wind gusts, burned nearly 3,200 acres and forced the evacuation of up to 10,000 people Thursday.
"He has given statements to our investigators as well as law enforcement officers. He is extremely remorseful," the chief said.
Investigators already had tracked the origin of the fire to a location in East Lake on the north end of the Washoe Valley, where the man lives about 20 miles south of downtown Reno.
Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley said a formal case file will be forwarded to the district attorney next week for consideration of charges.
"The DA will have to give this case a lot of deliberation," Haley said.
"The fact he came forward and admitted it plays a role. But so does the massive damage and loss of life," he said. "It's a balancing act."
In addition to the potential for facing jail time on arson charges, the man could also be ordered to pay the cost of fighting the fire, which already totals $690,000.
Washoe County Manager Katy Simon said she expects the final bill to run into the millions of dollars.
Gov. Sandoval toured the fire damaged area Friday, describing it as "horrendous, devastating."
"There is nothing left in some of those places except for the chimneys and fireplaces," he said.
The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by the wind, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno.
The strong, erratic winds caused major challenges for crews evacuating residents, Sierra Front spokesman Mark Regan said. "In a matter of seconds, the wind would shift," he said.
Haley confirmed that the body of June Hargis, 93, was found in the fire's aftermath, but her cause of death has not been established, so it's not known if it was fire related.
Jeannie Watts, the woman's 70-year-old daughter, told KRNV-TV that Hargis' grandson telephoned her to tell her to evacuate but she didn't get out in time.
A break in the weather and calmer winds allowed firefighters to get the upper hand on the blaze Friday.
Hernandez estimated it to be 65 percent contained Friday night. He said 300 firefighters would remain on the scene through the night checking for hot spots along with another 125 support people, including law enforcement officers and the Nevada National Guard.
About 2,000 people remained subject to evacuation, and about 100 households still were without power.
State transportation officials said they expected to reopen all of U.S. Highway 395 between Reno and Carson City by Saturday morning.
The next challenge may be the forecast for rain and snow in the mountains on Saturday, which could cause flooding in burned areas, he said.
Marred in Reno's driest winter in more than 120 years, residents had welcomed the forecast that a storm was due to blow across the Sierra Nevada this week.
Instead, thousands found themselves fleeing their homes Thursday afternoon.
Connie Cryer went to the fire response command post Friday with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Maddie Miramon, to find out if her house had survived the flames.
"We had to know so we could get some sleep," Cryer said, adding her house was spared but a neighbor's wasn't. She had seen wildfires before, but nothing on this scale.
"There was fire in front of me, fire beside me, fire behind me. It was everywhere," she said. "I don't know how more didn't burn up. It was terrible, all the wind and the smoke."
Fire officials said Thursday's fire was "almost a carbon copy" of a blaze that destroyed 30 homes in Reno during similar summer-like conditions in mid-November.
State Forester Pete Anderson said he has not seen such hazardous fire conditions in winter in his 43 years in Nevada. Reno had no precipitation in December. The last time that happened was 1883.
An inch of snow Monday ended the longest recorded dry spell in Reno history, a 56-day stretch that prompted Anderson to issue an unusual warning about wildfire threats.
"We're usually pretty much done with the fire season by the first of November, but this year it's been nonstop," Anderson said.
Kit Bailey, U.S. Forest Service fire chief at nearby Lake Tahoe, said conditions are so dry that even a forecast calling for rain and snow might not take the Reno-Tahoe area out of fire danger.
"The scary thing is a few days of drying after this storm cycle and we could be back into fire season again," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON ? Early results of exit polls in South Carolina show that for most voters, the economy was the top issue when picking a Republican presidential candidate.
Around a third of them said Saturday that someone in their household has been laid off in the last three years.
The preliminary data also show that when it comes to the qualities of their candidate, nearly half want someone who can defeat President Barack Obama in this fall's elections.
The conservative viewpoint of many of the state's GOP voters was also clear. Solid majorities consider themselves conservative and around the same number support the tea party. And well more than half say they are born again or evangelical Christians.
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SAN FRANCISCO ? Google's earnings growth slowed dramatically in the fourth quarter as the holiday shopping season turned into a major letdown for investors.
The results announced Thursday fell way below the lofty expectations of stock market analysts. That caused Google's shares to plunge more than 9 percent after the numbers were released.
Google Inc. earned $2.7 billion, or $8.22 per share, during the October-to-December period. That's just a 6 percent increase from $2.5 billion, or $7.81 per share, at the same time in 2010.
If not for certain items, Google says it would have earned $9.50 per share. Analysts had expected $10.51 per share.
Revenue climbed 25 percent from the previous year to nearly $10.6 billion.
After subtracting ad commissions, Google's revenue totaled $8.1 billion. That was about $300 million below estimates.
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On Wednesday, the Obama administration has made a decision to reject TransCanada Corp's plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline, according to MSNBC. In his address today, President Barack Obama noted that the rejection of TransCanada's application was to be blamed in large part on Republicans in Congress in their attempt to circumvent the administration's decision. Initially Obama had tried to delay the decision until 2013.
Despite this setback for Keystone XL, the company can still apply again for a permit, but only under new circumstances like identifying a new route. With this major decision over such a large environmental and energy debate in the U.S., here are some facts about the pipeline and the continuing debate:
* The National Journal reported that the Keystone XL pipeline is a $7 billion project that would extend 1,700 miles and deliver 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Alberta, Canada to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast.
* One of the major areas of concern over the pipeline took place in Nebraska, where the proposed pipeline was planned to cut right through the state, because of the proximity to the state's Ogallala aquifer.
* Keystone XL has garnered support from Republicans and industry representatives through its potential to create both permanent and temporary jobs from construction and operation in the U.S., reported the Washington Post.
* TransCanada's initial estimate of the 20,000 jobs that would be created by the project has also come under debate in light of the State Department's own estimate of 6,500 jobs.
* An article from the Guardian noted that numerous environmental groups and landowners in Nebraska had fought hard against the initial proposed route because it posed a threat to the state's ecologically fragile Sand Hills region.
* Environmental organizations also argued that the pipeline would undermine the country's goal of moving towards clean energy production and increase the dependence on fossil fuels.
* Following the Obama administration's rejection of the pipeline plans, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association Charles T. Drevna issued a statement noting that the rejection threatens the nation's energy security and job growth, added the Sacramento Bee.
* Drevna also added that the administration's decision was just to appeal protest groups and ignores over three years of research that shows the pipeline is safe.
* According to the Vancouver Sun, Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, offered praised for the President's decision, saying that it addresses "wildly exaggerated jobs claims."
* Additionally, President Obama was given until Feb. 21 to make an official ruling on Keystone XL, a deadline imposed by Congress.
Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.
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TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran said it was in touch with world powers to reopen talks soon on its nuclear program, but Washington and the European Union denied this and said they were still waiting for Tehran to show it was ready for serious negotiations.
A year after the last talks fell apart, confrontation is brewing over Tehran's nuclear work, which the United States and other countries say is focused on developing atomic weapons. Iran dismisses the accusation.
The EU is preparing to intensify sanctions against Iran with an embargo on its economically vital oil exports. EU diplomats said on Wednesday member governments had also agreed in principle to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, but had yet to agree how to protect non-oil trade from sanctions.
Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, used for a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, if it cannot sell its own crude, fanning fears of a descent into war in the Gulf that could inflame the Middle East.
Iranian politicians said U.S. President Barack Obama had expressed readiness to negotiate in a letter to Tehran, a step that might relieve tensions behind recent oil price spikes.
"Negotiations are going on about venue and date. We would like to have these negotiations," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters during a visit to Turkey.
"Most probably, I am not sure yet, the venue will be Istanbul. The day is not yet settled, but it will be soon."
Washington denied there were any new discussions underway about resuming talks, but declined to comment on whether Obama had sent a letter to Tehran.
"There are no current talks about talks," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Wednesday.
"What we are doing, as we have said, is making clear to the Iranians that if they are serious about coming back to a conversation, where they talk openly about their nuclear program, and if they are prepared to come clean with the international community, that we are open to that," Nuland said at a media briefing.
The United States is pushing countries to reduce the volume of Iranian oil they buy in line with a new sanctions law Obama signed on December 31 that targets Tehran's ability to sell crude oil.
The State Department denial was echoed by a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the six world powers trying to engage with Iran.
"There are no negotiations under way on new talks," he said in Brussels. "We are still waiting for Iran to respond to the substantive proposals the High Representative (Ashton) made in her letter from October."
SERIOUS NEGOTIATIONS
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Iran had to be ready for serious negotiations. "It is significant that when we are discussing additional sanctions in the European Union an offer of negotiations emerges from Iran," he said.
"We will not be deterred from imposing additional sanctions simply by the suggestion there may be negotiations. We want to see actual negotiations," he told a news conference in Brazil.
Tehran denies wanting nuclear bombs, saying its enrichment work is for power generation and medical applications.
The last talks between Iran and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - along with Germany stalled in Istanbul a year ago, with the parties unable to agree even on an agenda.
The six countries have also failed to agree on a common line in their relations with Iran.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended his country's extensive oil trade with Iran against Western sanctions pressure in comments published on Thursday. Even so, he said Beijing firmly opposes any efforts by Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a last-ditch military option mooted by the United States and Israel would ignite a disastrous, widespread Middle East war. Russia has also criticized the new sanctions.
PROTRACTED IMPASSE
EU foreign ministers are expected to approve a phased ban on imports of Iranian oil at the meeting on January 23 - three weeks after the United States passed a law that would freeze out any institution dealing with Iran's central bank, effectively making it impossible for most countries to buy Iranian oil.
"On the central bank, things have been moving in the right direction in the last hours," one EU diplomat said on Wednesday. "There is now a wide agreement on the principle. Discussions continue on the details."
Iran has said it is ready to talk but has also started shifting uranium enrichment to a deep bunker where it would be less vulnerable to the air strikes Israel says it could launch if diplomacy fails to curb Tehran's nuclear drive.
Western diplomats say Tehran must show willingness to change its course in any new talks. Crucially, Tehran says other countries must respect its right to enrich uranium, the nuclear fuel which can provide material for atomic bombs if enriched to much higher levels than that suitable for power plants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to the Netherlands on Wednesday, repeated his view that "Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, period."
Earlier in the day, his Defense Minister Ehud Barak said any decision about an Israeli attack on Iran was "very far off.
Iranian politicians said Obama had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responding to Tehran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions prevent it selling oil.
Several members of Iran's parliament who discussed the matter on Wednesday said it included the offer of talks.
"In this letter it was said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is our (U.S.) 'red line' and also asked for direct negotiations," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted lawmaker Ali Mottahari as saying.
Ashton wrote to Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili in October to stress that the West still wanted to resume talks but Iran must be ready to engage "seriously in meaningful discussions" about ways to ensure its nuclear work would be wholly peaceful in nature.
A U.N. nuclear watchdog report has lent weight to concern that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear weapon.
(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Phil Stewart in Washington, Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Estelle Shirbon in London; Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Writing by Robin Pomeroy and David Stamp; Editing by Jon Boyle and Andrew Heavens)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/wl_nm/us_iran
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