Job vacancy : Global Communications & Marketing Manager ...

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused on commercializing the INTERCEPT Blood System to enhance blood safety. The INTERCEPT system is designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted diseases by inactivating a broad range of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites that may be present in donated blood. Cerus currently markets and sells the INTERCEPT Blood System for both platelets and plasma in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East and selected countries in other regions around the world. The INTERCEPT red blood cell system is in clinical development.

At Cerus, we are excited to expand our Global Communications and Marketing team and are looking for a bright, energetic individual to join us. Reporting to the Director, Global Communications & Marketing, this position offers the opportunity to be a key contributor in the support of growth and expansion of the INTERCEPT Blood System.

Primary Responsibilities:
? Manage regional and international congress and trade show activities.
? Manage marketing-driven events from initial invitation process to post-event follow-up with participants.
? Publish monthly eNews issues, maintain and update corporate and product websites, and generally support web and social media communications for Marketing and IR.
? Write and edit content for marketing materials, web pages, eNews issues, slides and other communications across all audiences (marketing, IR, etc).
? Act as primary marketing contact for area of responsibility and provide excellent ?customer support? to key internal customers.
? Work with IR team to manage investor materials, conferences and roadshows, as well as drafting content for press releases, scripts and other key communications.
? Maintain a detailed understanding of Cerus? business, products, markets, customers and investors.
? Maintain knowledge of current industry best practices and vendor / technology options for Cerus communications programs; suggest improvements and lead implementation.
? Provide additional marketing and communications support as required.

Qualifications/Requirements/Skills:
? Bachelor?s Degree with a minimum of 5 years experience in biotech or healthcare sales, marketing and/or communications roles; MBA strongly preferred.
? Scientific / technical background and expertise strongly preferred.
? Previous hands-on experience in marketing, public relations and/or investor relations activitie.
? Excellent writing and editing skills; ability to craft text appropriate for a wide range of audiences.
? Ability to rapidly learn critical aspects of blood safety, Cerus and INTERCEPT products.
? Ability to work in a cross functional team setting.
? Strong project management and attention to detail skills.
? Demonstrated ability to drive for results.
? Excellent communication skills.
? Very strong knowledge and skills with software applications, technology and internet.

• Principals only. Recruiters, please don?t contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Source: http://www.jobcareerdb.com/2012/job-vacancy-global-communications-marketing-manager-concord-pleasant-hill-martinez.html

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Americans' Political Views Not So Far Apart (LiveScience.com)

SAN DIEGO ? In an election year, it's hard to turn on the television or read a newspaper without getting the sense that Americans are becoming ever more divided into red versus blue. But a new study finds that perception may be downright wrong.

In fact, political polarization among the public has barely budged at all over the past 40 years, according to research presented here on Jan. 27 at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. But, crucially, people vastly overestimate how polarized the American public is ? a tendency toward exaggeration that is especially strong in the most extreme Democrats and Republicans. (The results do not apply to Congress, politicians or media pundits, but rather to the general public.)

"Strongly identified Republicans or Democrats perceive and exaggerate polarization more than weakly identified Republicans or Democrats or political independents," said study researcher John Chambers, a professor of psychology at the University of Florida.

The people who see the world split into two opposing factions are also most likely to vote and become politically active, Chambers said in a talk at the meeting. This means that while real growing polarization is illusory, the perception of polarization could drive the political process.

Growing divide?

Inspired by polling data showing that two-thirds of Americans believe the United States is becoming more politically polarized, with the gap between the political parties widening, Chambers and his colleagues looked at nationally representative data stretching from 1970 to 2004. More than 43,000 respondents over the years have participated in the large-scale American National Election Survey, though not all answered all questions. So the researchers had between 4,000 and 26,000 individuals to work with on various questions.?

The respondents indicated their political beliefs by answering questions on their opinions on a wild variety of issues, from government-provided health care to defense spending to women's equality. They also reported how they believe a "typical" Republican and Democrat would feel about these same issues.

"Using these two measures, we were able to look at actual and perceived differences in polarization," Chambers said.

They found that actual polarization has remained steady since the 1970s. The historical responses also showed that people have always overestimated polarization. Even decades ago, in times now remembered as cooperative and cordial, people pegged political disagreements as much more vast than they really were. [Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican]

When the researchers broke down the respondents by political positions, they found that not everyone judges polarization in the same way. Everyone overestimates it, but political independents are much closer to the mark than strong Republicans or strong Democrats, who tend to see the gulf between themselves and the other party as impossibly wide. Moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats were in-between, perceiving more polarization than independents but less than the extreme ends of the parties.

Projecting polarization

In a separate study also presented here, University of Colorado, Boulder, psychology professor Leaf Van Boven looked at why people at the political extremes might overestimate polarization. The answer seems to be that they project their own strong, emotional thought processes onto others, Van Boven and his colleagues concluded. In their study, they presented students with a fictional policy that would try to lure out-of-state students to campus with preferential treatment, including first pick of classes and dorms.

Unsurprisingly, this fake proposal yielded polarized views. "This proposal is bulls---!" one student wrote. Another indicated support, adding, "I am biased, because I am out of state, and I want the sweet hookups."

When the researchers asked students to indicate how they though other students felt about the proposal, those who themselves opposed or supported it most strongly assumed that others would also feel strongly, in support or opposition.

When asked how they came to their conclusions about the proposal and how they believed others came to their conclusions, the students gave themselves credit for more fairness and less self-interest than they did others. But they also assumed that everyone gave equal weight to emotion and extensive thought.

"If someone has a strong moral reaction and says 'This is a moral issue', they may reasonably think that others, both on their side and other side, will think in the same way," Van Boven explained.

While political elites, such as political operatives, Congress and media pundits, are "another story," according to Chambers, the results of the polarization studies provide "reason for optimism and hope," he said.

"Although we tend to see the world as divided between blue and red, in reality, the world has much greater shades of purple," Chambers said. "There is more common ground than we realize."

You can follow LiveSciencesenior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescienceand on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120129/sc_livescience/americanspoliticalviewsnotsofarapart

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Gingrich makes play for evangelicals, tea partiers (AP)

LUTZ, Fla. ? Facing the possibility of a stinging defeat, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich combined sharp attacks on Mitt Romney with unspoken appeals for support among the state's evangelicals on Sunday, two days before the pivotal Florida primary.

In an unusual commitment of campaign time, the former House speaker attended a pair of Baptist worship services, where he sat in a pew, accompanied by his wife, Callista, and made no remarks.

In between a morning stop at a megachurch in the Tampa area and an evening visit to a church in Jacksonville, Gingrich unleashed an attack on Romney as a "pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal" who could not be trusted to bring conservative values to the White House.

He also drew rousing cheers from a large crowd, numbered in the thousands, at a retirement community, where a Tea Party Express bus rolled slowly behind the platform where he was speaking.

Increasingly, Gingrich has reached out to evangelicals and tea party advocates as the Florida primary approaches, touting an endorsement from campaign dropout Herman Cain as well as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's recent accusation that the establishment was trying to "crucify" him.

Standing outside the First Jacksonville Baptist church as dusk fell, Kurt Kelly, chairman of Florida Faith Leaders for Newt Gingrich, said the candidate held a midweek conference call with an estimated 1,000 evangelical pastors around the state.

He said the goal of the call was to solidify support as much as possible behind Gingrich, at the expense of rival contender Rick Santorum, who is running a poor third in the pre-primary polls in the state.

In the course of the conversation, Kelly said, Gingrich "shared his faith, shared his vision and shared his past."

Kelly did not expand on his reference to Gingrich's past, although the former speaker has been married three times.

He said one of the other pastors on the call questioned Gingrich further, and the candidate "showed a contrite heart and showed true confession and true repentance."

Gingrich was anything but repentant in his remarks about Romney during the day.

During a pair of Sunday morning television interviews, he said his chief rival had adopted a "basic policy of carpet-bombing his opponent."

One of the ads being run by Romney suggests that Gingrich is exaggerating his ties to Ronald Reagan. Gingrich chafed at that, noting that the former president's son Michael was joining him on the campaign trail Monday "to prove to everybody that I am the heir to the Reagan movement, not some liberal from Massachusetts."

Cain, a tea party favorite, will also appear with Gingrich on Monday.

At a large rally Sunday at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida, Gingrich accused Democratic President Barack Obama of coddling foreign leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I believe we need to be stronger than our potential enemies," Gingrich told the crowd. "The president lives in a fantasy world where there are no enemies, there are just misguided people with whom he has not yet had coffee."

He said Chavez "deliberately, cynically and insultingly gave him an anti-American book and Obama didn't have a clue that he'd been insulted."

He said the Obama administration should be focused on Ahmadinejad's "pledge to wipe out Israel and drive America out of the Middle East."

"But if I were a left-wing Harvard law graduate surrounded by really clever left-wing academics I would know that this was really a sign that (Ahmadinejad) probably had a bad childhood," Gingrich said.

He described Obama's approach to Ahmadinejad as, "If only we could unblock him we could be closer to him and we could be friends together."

Gingrich, who served in the House for two decades, also made a populist pitch as a Washington outsider. He said the GOP's "old establishment" is trying to block his path to nomination.

"It's time that someone stood up for hard-working, taxpaying Americans and said, `Enough,'" Gingrich said. "And if that makes the old order uncomfortable, my answer is, `Good.'"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich

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Ex-soldier behind Papua New Guinea mutiny arrested (AP)

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? A retired colonel who attempted to take over Papua New Guinea's military and ordered the prime minister to step down has been arrested and charged with mutiny.

Police spokesman Dominic Kakas said Yaura Sasa was arrested Saturday night in a suburb of Port Moresby, the capital. A court spokesman said Sasa was charged with mutiny and appeared in court Sunday.

Sasa led a small group of soldiers in a mutiny Thursday in which the military's top commander was briefly held under house arrest. The mutiny was part of a power struggle in which Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and former Prime Minister Michael Somare claim to be the rightful leader of the South Pacific nation.

Sasa demanded that O'Neill step down within a week to make way for Somare, who appointed Sasa defense chief after being removed from office.

Kakas said the soldiers who followed Sasa had not been arrested.

Parliament replaced Somare with O'Neill in August while Somare was getting medical treatment outside the country. Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court sided with Somare last month, but O'Neill continues to have support from lawmakers.

Somare issued a statement Sunday repeating his call to be reinstated, and calling on police and the military to join him.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_papua_new_guinea_mutiny

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UN nuclear officials want Iranian cooperation (AP)

VIENNA ? The head of a U.N. nuclear team traveling to Iran say he hopes the country will work with his mission on probing Tehran's alleged attempts to develop an atomic arms program, adding such cooperation is long overdue.

Herman Nackaerts says "we hope that Iran will engage with us on all concerns regarding a possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear program."

He says his team is "looking forward to the start of a dialogue ? a dialogue that is overdue since very long."

Nackaerts spoke Saturday as his team arrived at Vienna's airport for a flight to Tehran.

Iran has for years dismissed suspicions that it worked in secret on components of a weapons program. Diplomats say it has signaled willingness to discuss all issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency team, but they are skeptical of a breakthrough.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_eu/iran_nuclear

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Jobless man builds a house out of $1.82 billion worth of shredded money (Yahoo! News)

What would you do with $1.82 billion worth of shredded money? In Ireland, people build?houses out of it?? at least that's what Dublin-based artist Frank Buckley did. The unemployed artist originally wanted to create a gallery for his series of mixed-media?artworks called "Expressions of Recession," but he ended up building a house instead.

Buckley has been working roughly 12 hours a day every day since the beginning of December. During the early part of the construction process, he made bricks out of the decommissioned Euros Ireland's mint lent him. In all, around 50,000 money bricks went into building the house that consists of a bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room. He plans to continue expanding the house that sits on an empty office building to include a?kitchen, a shower, and a patio.

If you're wondering how it feels to live in a house made out of paper currency, he said that it's quite warm inside: "Whatever you say about the Euro, it's a great insulator." Frank is one of the countless people all over the globe affected by recession, and he built the house because he "wanted to create something from nothing." It will take around seven more weeks to complete building his new home, but Buckley (who's been living in the house since December) welcomes any visitor who wants to take a look at his billion-dollar masterpiece.

Irish Times via?Treehugger

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120127/tc_yblog_technews/jobless-man-builds-a-house-out-of-1-82-billion-worth-of-shredded-money

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Obama's words in State of the Union don't match his actions | NewsOK.com

IF you're keeping score, the president made only six blatant class warfare remarks in his State of the Union speech. That's a new low for Barack Obama.

If you watched closely, Obama was morphing into Bill Clinton. Rather than the grand visions the president once elucidated, Obama outlined a series of small steps that he thinks will help average Americans.

The speech was expected to be a core 2012 campaign address. But it was less partisan than the pundits expected. If you're keeping score, Obama made ?only? seven references to the mess he inherited. That must also be a new low.

Obama's recent and belated interest in jobs creation dominated the early part of the speech. Energy policy was also a key theme, but the energy industry can be forgiven if it takes Obama's remarks with a grain of salt.

Among the props he used were Steve Jobs' widow and Warren Buffett's secretary, the latter on display to illustrate Obama's specious claim that she has a higher effective tax rate than Buffett.

While the president's remarks were notable for the ?narrowness? of his vision (as columnist Charles Krauthammer put it), the Republican response from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was sweeping and inspiring ? rising to a level that the GOP candidates seeking to oust Obama have yet to reach.

Source: http://newsok.com/obamas-words-in-state-of-the-union-dont-match-his-actions/article/3643390

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Muslims call for NYPD chief to resign over movie (AP)

NEW YORK ? Muslim groups are calling for New York's police commissioner to step down because of his appearance in a film they say puts their religion and its adherents in a bad light.

About 20 activists held a news conference on the steps of City Hall on Thursday and criticized Ray Kelly for giving an interview to the producers of the movie "The Third Jihad."

The movie uses dramatic footage to warn against the dangers of radical Islam and shariah, or Islamic law. Muslim groups say it encourages Americans to be suspicious of all Muslims.

"Terrorism is an evil that must be eliminated, but one cannot fight wrong with wrong," said Talib Abdur-Rashid, a Muslim cleric.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday he stood by Kelly and the commissioner's spokesman, Paul Browne. Activists had also demanded Browne's resignation.

However, the mayor said Kelly would have to redouble his outreach efforts to Muslims.

"Anything like this doesn't help credibility, so Ray's got to work at establishing, re-establishing or reinforcing the credibility that he does have," Bloomberg said.

Kelly appears for about 30 seconds of the 72-minute movie, which was made by the conservative Clarion Fund. He originally said he was not involved but on Wednesday acknowledged he had given a 90-minute interview to the filmmakers in 2007.

Browne he had initially forgotten details of Kelly's involvement in the film until asked about it again this week.

"This goes back five years," he said. "There's some suggestion that, `Gee, I suddenly remembered.' I didn't suddenly remember ? I went through five years of emails to try and figure out did I get request by this guy who's connected with the foundation."

The movie was later shown to police trainees. The police department said it was played in a continuous loop in the sign-in area of counterterrorism training sessions between October and December 2010. As many as 1,489 trainees may have seen the movie, according to documents released under New York's public records law.

Kelly apologized Wednesday for his appearance and for the playing of the movie.

The Clarion Fund and its supporters say "The Third Jihad" is balanced.

"I don't see why they're so upset by people seeing it," said Stuart Kaufman of The United West, a group that opposes shariah. "Shariah law is a danger to western civilization and it's up to police to understand the nature of Shariah law so they can prevent this."

The Muslim leaders said they are worried that the police department is teaching officers to treat all Muslims as suspects. They demanded the resignation of Kelly and Browne, and a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry into the showing of the film.

The activists also want retraining of all 1,489 officers "that are walking this city with poison in their brains," said Cyrus McGoldrick, civil rights director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-New York. CAIR is one of the organizations that "The Third Jihad" accuses of being soft on terrorist groups.

Bloomberg said he doubted the movie had swayed any of the trainees and said he saw no need for retraining.

"I think any retraining is probably being done by the press right now," Bloomberg said.

Kelly has said the department does surveillance only when it is following leads. But an investigation by The Associated Press has revealed a secret intelligence program, set up with the aid of the Central Intelligence Agency, aimed at infiltrating religious groups and monitoring neighborhoods even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

The CIA has since decided to pull its officer from the NYPD after an internal investigation criticized poor oversight of the collaboration.

___

Associated Press reporters Samantha Gross and Tom Hays contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_nypd_intelligence_movie

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Kisai Optical Illusion Touchscreen Watch from Tokyoflash Japan

Here’s another of those arty watches from Tokyoflash Japan.? The Kisai Optical Illusion Watch has a touchscreen for accessing the four main functions.? Like those optical illusion posters from years ago, the time display is buried in a pattern of high-resolution digital lines.? Once you’ve trained your eyes, you’ll be able to see the time.? [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/25/kisai-optical-illusion-touchscreen-watch-from-tokyoflash-japan/

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Three Space Shuttle Veterans Chosen for Astronaut Hall of Fame (SPACE.com)

A spacewalker who tied the record for the most space missions, the military's highest ranking astronaut, and a former chief of the NASA astronaut corps will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame this May.

Retired astronauts Franklin Chang-Diaz, Kevin Chilton and Charles Precourt were confirmed as the 2012 honorees by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which oversees the Hall of Fame's annual selections. The three veteran space shuttle crew members will be added to the list of 79 astronauts enshrined in the Astronaut Hall of Fame since 1990, including all of NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program pioneers.

An induction ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, May 5, 2012 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, where the Astronaut Hall of Fame is located.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation will host a gala in the three astronauts' honor on Friday, May 4, with many of the Hall's earlier inductees expected to attend.

Astronaut-turned-rocket scientist

Franklin Chang-Diaz made his seventh flight into space in June 2002, tying the record set by fellow shuttle veteran Jerry Ross for the most missions into space. In total, he logged nearly 70 days in orbit. [The Most Extreme Human Spaceflight Records]

Since leaving NASA in 2005, Chang-Diaz has focused on developing advanced rocket propulsion technology that could get astronauts to Mars in almost half the time that he spent on his seven flights.

Born in Costa Rica, Chang-Diaz was the first naturalized U.S. citizen to become an astronaut when he was chosen by NASA in 1980. Serving as a mission specialist, he flew aboard four of the agency's five space shuttle orbiters. His first launch as an STS-61C crew member on Columbia in January 1986 returned to Earth 10 days before the loss of the shuttle Challenger and its seven astronauts.

Over the course of his six other spaceflights, Chang-Diaz helped deploy the Galileo probe to Jupiter, twice tested a tethered satellite system and worked aboard Russia's Mir and the International Space Station. During his final flight, he made three spacewalks outside the orbiting laboratory totaling more than 19 hours.

Applying the Ph.D. in plasma physics he earned from MIT in 1977, Chang-Diaz founded the Ad Astra Rocket Company in 2005, continuing the work he started at NASA on the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), a means of electrical propulsion that in theory could propel a crewed rocket to Mars in 39 days.

Strategic commander

When Kevin Chilton retired from the U.S. Air Force on Feb. 1 last year, he was a four-star general, the highest rank ever attained by an astronaut.

A veteran of three shuttle missions, Chilton joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987. He made his first flight sitting in the pilot seat for the maiden launch of shuttle Endeavour, STS-49, in 1992.

Chilton went on to pilot Endeavour again for the Space Radar Laboratory mission in 1994, before commanding the third shuttle docking to the Mir space station two years later. He served as deputy program manager of operations for the International Space Station before leaving NASA in 1998.

Chilton then returned to the Air Force but stayed active in space. He served on the Air Force Space Command staff, the Air Staff, the Joint Staff and led as commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, 8th Air Force, Joint Functional Component Command for Space and Global Strike and Air Force Space Command.

His final assignment before retiring was as commander of U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

Chief astronaut

Charles Precourt was chief of the astronaut corps when the International Space Station was "born" in 1998, giving him the responsibility to coordinate both station and shuttle crews as they visited the burgeoning orbital outpost.

A veteran of four spaceflights, Precourt flew three times to Mir between June 1995 and June 1998. His final flight saw him command the last shuttle docking to the Russian space station. Over his career, he logged almost 40 days orbiting the Earth.

A member of NASA's 13th group of astronauts, Precourt launched on his first flight three years after being selected in 1990. Piloting Columbia, he and his STS-55 crewmates conducted nearly 90 science experiments on the German-sponsored Spacelab D-2 mission.

In addition to his time as NASA's tenth chief astronaut, Precourt served as the director of operations for the U.S. space agency at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia and as the deputy manager for the International Space Station. He was also the first program manager for NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the predecessor to the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle being built now to take astronauts beyond Earth orbit.

Precourt left NASA in 2004, joining Alliant Techsystems (ATK) as its vice president and general manager for space launch systems.

Continue reading at collectSPACE.com to learn how the inductees were selected.

Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter @collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman @robertpearlman. Copyright 2011?collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120126/sc_space/threespaceshuttleveteranschosenforastronauthalloffame

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Vera Bradley Laptop Travel Tote

Vera Bradley has a new Laptop Travel Tote that’s designed to make travel with a laptop a bit easier.? This tote is 11 1/4″ x 14 3/4″ x 3″ with a 12″ strap drop.? It’s made of Vera Bradley’s standard quilted cotton fabrics.? There’s a laptop compartment on one side; the other side has a [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/25/vera-bradley-laptop-travel-tote/

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Video: SportsTalk: A tough day for Kyle Williams

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/46108387#46108387

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European stocks drop amid worries over Greek deal (AP)

PARIS ? European leaders' hard line in negotiations with Greek bondholders drove stock markets lower on Tuesday as investors worried that a deal necessary to cut Athens' mountain of debt might fall through.

After 10 hours of talks on Monday, the finance ministers of the countries that use the euro announced that Greece would pay less than 4 percent interest on the new bonds creditors will get in a swap meant to cut Greece's debt by about euro100 billion ($130 billion).

The deal is crucial to Greece's and the eurozone's stability since it's clear there's no way Athens can ever pay back all that it owes. Banks that hold Greek debt have already been asked to take a 50 percent loss on those investments ? and some think even that writedown isn't big enough.

The negotiations involve a delicate balancing act between getting a deal large enough to ensure that Greece can someday dig out from under its pile of debts but not so harmful to banks that it scares investors off from investing in any eurozone debt.

European leaders have promised Greece is a special case and bondholders won't ever be asked to take losses again, but there are signs that investors are staying clear of the bonds of other vulnerable countries, like Portugal.

Time is running out for politicians and the banks to get it right ? Greece has several billions of euros of debt coming due in March ? and stocks dropped Tuesday amid worries they might not.

In France, the CAC-40 fell 0.8 percent to 3,312, while Germany's DAX dropped 1 percent at 6,370. The FTSE index of leading British shares was down 0.7 percent to 5,740.

Wall Street was also set to open lower. Dow futures fell 0.3 percent at 12,609 and S&P futures dropped 0.4 percent to 1,305.

The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.3000.

Politicians are also aware that European banks are under tremendous pressure because of the amount of government debt they hold and have seen their stock prices crash and their sources of funding dry up during the crisis. Late Monday, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of two major French banks, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale. They confirmed the rating of a third major bank, BNP Paribas, but the stock prices of all three plummeted Tuesday, underscoring how fragile all financial institutions are.

Compounding these concerns is the poor state of Europe's economy and worries that the eurozone is slipping back into recession. Even relatively positive results from two economic surveys released Tuesday were not enough to ease those worries.

January's manufacturing purchasing managers' composite index rose to 48.7 from 46.9, according to Markit, a financial data company. The services PMI rose to 50.5 from 48.8. Both surveys, which are considered indicators for growth, beat the expectations of analysts, but experts warned they are far from good news.

"While the January purchasing managers' surveys lift hopes that eurozone activity is stabilizing, they also suggest that the eurozone is far from out of the economic woods," said Howard Archer, an analyst with IHS Global Insight. "Worrying elements remain in the purchasing managers' surveys and we suspect that it is still more likely than not that the eurozone will suffer further contraction in the first quarter of 2012 which will put it back into recession."

Concerns about the state of economy even tempered oil prices, which had been skyrocketing after European leaders announced they would stop buying Iranian oil in an effort to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on its nuclear program.

Benchmark oil fell back 30 cents to $99.28 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock rose 0.2 percent to 8,785.33 despite the central bank cutting growth forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2012 and the following year because of a slowdown in overseas demand and the strong yen.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed little changed at 4,224.20. Indonesia's benchmark was up 0.1 percent at 3,994.91 and India's Sensex was 1.5 percent higher at 16,997.35 after the Reserve Bank of India lowered cash reserve requirements for commercial lenders.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Iran slams EU oil embargo, warns could hit U.S. (Reuters)

TEHRAN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Iran accused Europeans on Monday of waging "psychological warfare" after the EU banned imports of Iranian oil, and President Barack Obama said Washington would impose more sanctions to address the "serious threat presented by Iran's nuclear program."

The Islamic Republic, which denies trying to build a nuclear bomb, scoffed at efforts to choke its oil exports, as Asia lines up to buy what Europe scorns.

Some Iranians also renewed threats to stop Arab oil from leaving the Gulf and warned they might strike U.S. targets worldwide if Washington used force to break any Iranian blockade of a strategically vital shipping route.

Yet in three decades of confrontation between Tehran and the West, bellicose rhetoric and the undependable armory of sanctions have become so familiar that the benchmark Brent crude oil price edged only 0.8 percent higher, and some of that was due to unrelated currency factors.

"If any disruption happens regarding the sale of Iranian oil, the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be closed," Mohammad Kossari, deputy head of parliament's foreign affairs and national security committee, told Fars news agency a day after U.S., French and British warships sailed back into the Gulf.

"If America seeks adventures after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran will make the world unsafe for Americans in the shortest possible time," Kossari added, referring to an earlier U.S. pledge to use its fleet to keep the passage open.

In Washington, Obama said in a statement that the EU sanctions underlined the strength of the international community's commitment to "addressing the serious threat presented by Iran's nuclear program."

"The United States will continue to impose new sanctions to increase the pressure on Iran," Obama said.

The United States imposed its own sanctions against Iran's oil trade and central bank on December 31. On Monday it imposed sanctions on the country's third-largest bank, state-owned Bank Tejarat and a Belarus-based affiliate, for allegedly helping Tehran develop its nuclear program.

The EU sanctions were also welcomed by Israel, which has warned it might attack Iran if sanctions do not deflect Tehran from a course that some analysts say could potentially give Iran a nuclear bomb next year.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: "This new, concerted pressure will sharpen the choice for Iran's leaders and increase their cost of defiance of basic international obligations."

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, reiterated Washington's commitment to freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. "I think that Iran has undoubtedly heard that message and would be well advised to heed it," she said at a meeting of the board of governors of the American Jewish Committee in New York.

CALLS FOR TALKS

Germany, France and Britain used the EU sanctions as a cue for a joint call to Tehran to renew long-suspended negotiations on its nuclear program. Russia, like China a powerful critic of the Western approach, said talks might soon be on the cards.

Iran, however, said new sanctions made that less likely. It is a view shared by some in the West who caution that such tactics risk hardening Iranian support for a nuclear program that also seems to be subject to a covert "war" of sabotage and assassinations widely blamed on Israeli and Western agents.

The European Union embargo will not take full effect until July 1 because the foreign ministers who agreed the anticipated ban on imports of Iranian crude at a meeting in Brussels were anxious not to penalize the ailing economies of Greece, Italy and others to whom Iran is a major oil supplier. The strategy will be reviewed in May to see if it should go ahead.

Curbing Iran's oil exports is a double-edged sword, as Tehran's own response to the embargo clearly showed.

Loss of revenue is painful for a clerical establishment that faces an awkward electoral test at a time of galloping inflation which is hurting ordinary people. But since Iran's Western-allied Arab neighbors are struggling to raise their own output to compensate, the curbs on Tehran's exports have driven up oil prices and raised costs for recession-hit Western industries.

A member of Iran's influential Assembly of Experts, former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, said Tehran should respond to the delayed-action EU sanctions by stopping sales to the bloc immediately, denying the Europeans time to arrange alternative supplies and damaging their economies with higher oil prices.

"The best way is to stop exporting oil ourselves before the end of this six months and before the implementation of the plan," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

'PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE'

"European Union sanctions on Iranian oil is psychological warfare," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. "Imposing economic sanctions is illogical and unfair but will not stop our nation from obtaining its rights."

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the official IRNA news agency that the more sanctions were imposed on Tehran "the more obstacles there will be to solve the issue".

Iran's Oil Ministry issued a statement saying the sanctions did not come as a shock. "The oil ministry has from long ago thought about it and has come up with measures to deal with any challenges," it said, according to IRNA.

Mehmanparast said: "The European countries and those who are under American pressure, should think about their own interests. Any country that deprives itself from Iran's energy market, will soon see that it has been replaced by others."

China, Iran's biggest customer, has resisted U.S. pressure to cut back its oil imports, as have other Asian economies to varying degrees. India's oil minister said on Monday sanctions were forcing Iran to sell more cheaply and that India planned to take full advantage of that to buy as much as it could.

The EU measures include an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude and petroleum products. However, EU countries with existing contracts can honor them up to July 1.

EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: "I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations."

"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."

Iran has said it is willing to hold talks with Western powers, though there have been mixed signals on whether conditions imposed by both sides make new negotiations likely.

IAEA INSPECTORS VISIT

The Islamic Republic says it is enriching uranium only for producing electricity and other civilian uses. The start this month of a potentially bomb-proof - and once secret - enrichment plant has deepened skepticism abroad, however.

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed plans for a visit next week by senior inspectors to try to clear up questions raised about the purpose of Iran's nuclear activities. Tehran is banned by international treaty from developing nuclear weaponry.

"The Agency team is going to Iran in a constructive spirit, and we trust that Iran will work with us in that same spirit," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said in a statement announcing the January 29-31 visit.

Iran, whose regional policies face a setback from the difficulties of its Arab ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has powerful defenders in the form of Russia, which has built Iran a reactor, and China. Both permanent U.N. Security Council members argue that Western sanctions are counter-productive.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, classifying the EU embargo among "aggravating factors", said Moscow believed there was a good chance that talks between six global powers and Iran could resume soon and that Russia would try to steer both Iran and the West away from further confrontation.

His ministry issued an official statement expressing "regret and alarm": "What is happening here is open pressure and diktat, an attempt to 'punish' Iran for its intractable behavior.

"This is a deeply mistaken approach, as we have told our European partners more than once. Under such pressure Iran will not agree to any concessions or any changes in its policy."

But that argument cuts no ice with the U.S. administration, for which Iran - and Israel's stated willingness to consider unilateral military action against it - is a major challenge as Obama campaigns for re-election against Republican opponents who say he has been too soft on Tehran.

(Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy and Mitra Amiri in Tehran, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Adrian Croft in London, John Irish in Paris, Alexei Anishchuk in Sochi, Ari Rabinovitch and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Rachelle Younglai and Andrew Quinn in Washington, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Robert Woodward and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/ts_nm/us_iran_eu_deal

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Paterno's death met with grief in State College

Laura Scott, of State College, Pa., places a rose at the foot of a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Laura Scott, of State College, Pa., places a rose at the foot of a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

People gather around a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

People gather around a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 in State College,Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

People gather around a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus after learning of his death Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Joe Paterno's death from lung cancer Sunday just two months after his firing left many Penn State students, alumni and community members numb with grief and a sense that the legendary coach deserved better from the university after such a distinguished career.

"His legacy is without question as far as I'm concerned," said 65-year-old Ed Hill of Altoona, a football season ticket-holder for 35 years. "The Board of Trustees threw him to the wolves. I think Joe was a scapegoat nationally. ... I'm heartbroken."

In death, Paterno received the praise that under normal circumstances might have been reserved for the retirement dinner he never received.

Gov. Tom Corbett said he had secured his place in Pennsylvania history and noted that "as both man and coach," Paterno had "confronted adversities, both past and present, with grace and forbearance."

Similar tributes were issued by politicians, university officials, former players and alumni. Some expressed hope that Paterno would be remembered more for his accomplishments than for his downfall. And some wondered whether his heartbreaking firing somehow hastened his death.

Paterno, who died at 85, was fired Nov. 9 by the Penn State trustees after he was criticized for not going to the police in 2002 when he was told that former assistant Jerry Sandusky had been seen molesting a boy in the showers at the football complex.

Paterno reported the allegations to university higher-ups, but it would be nearly a decade before Sandusky was arrested, and Paterno said he regretted having not done more. Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said the football coach may have met his legal duty but not his moral one.

On Sunday, Sandusky expressed sympathy to Paterno's family in a statement released by his lawyer as he awaits trial on charges of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.

Sandusky said that no one did more for the university's academic reputation than Paterno, and that his former boss "had the courage to practice what he preached" about toughness, hard work and clean competition.

At an Iowa-Penn State wrestling match Sunday afternoon, a crowd of some 6,500 people gave a 30-second standing ovation as an image of Paterno appeared on two video boards. The screen flashed the words "Joseph Vincent Paterno 1926-2012" and a picture of a smiling Paterno in a blue tie and blue sweater vest.

At the university's Berkey Creamery, Ginger Colon, of Fairfax, Va., was picking up two half-gallons of Peachy Paterno ice cream when she heard the news. Colon, whose daughter attends Penn State, said it was sad that the scandal would be part of Paterno's legacy.

"But from a personal note, it makes you re-think when things are reported to you by employees: Have I taken enough steps?" Colon said.

Andrea Mastro, an immunology professor who lives in the same neighborhood where Paterno lived and raised a family ? with his address and number, famously, listed in the phone book ? said the rapid spread of the cancer and the shadow of the Sandusky investigation made "the whole situation very sad."

"I can't help but thinking that his death is somehow related" to the stress of the scandal, she said after Mass on Sunday at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, where Paterno sometimes attended services. "I think everybody is going to be extremely sad, and they're going to be sad in particular because he didn't get his say."

Mickey Shuler, who played for Penn State under Paterno in the mid-'70s, said the coach had been a father figure and expressed his disappointment about how he was fired.

"It's just sad, because I think he died from other things than lung cancer," Shuler said. "I don't think that the Penn State that he helped us to become and all the principles and values and things that he taught were carried out in the handling of his situation."

The trustees and school President Rodney Erickson issued a statement saying the university plans to honor Paterno but is still working on what form that will take, and when it will happen.

In recent weeks, the board has come under withering criticism for how it handled Paterno's dismissal, and there is a movement by alumni to change the board's composition.

At a women's basketball game Sunday, Penn State players wore a black strap on their shoulders in memory of Paterno.

"It's been the first time I've ever seen a man guilty and have to be proven innocent," said Jamie Bloom, a 1992 graduate from Williamsport. "I think they caved to the media pressure to do something."

Ed Peetz, 87, a Class of '49 alumnus whose daughter-in-law Karen Peetz was just elected president of the trustees, said the board had to dismiss Paterno.

"But then, and now, is a very sad day," Peetz said. "What does Paterno mean to me? He means Penn State. But I think he was too powerful."

Steve Wrath, a 1984 graduate, became emotional as he spoke outside the football stadium, in front of Paterno's statue, which was adorned with lit candles, flowers, T-shirts and blue-and-white pom-poms.

"The Sandusky situation is obviously horrible for the victims, and I don't want to little that situation, but Joe Paterno's legacy will overcome all of that," Wrath said.

___

AP writer Genaro Armas and freelancer Emily Kaplan in State College, and AP college football writer Ralph Russo in New York, contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-22-Paterno-State%20College/id-61422573860b4e3783ae7b7d0e2fa446

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Obama's State of the Union: Jobs, re-election time

President Barack Obama pauses before shaking hands at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama pauses before shaking hands at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama sings before speaking at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Vilified by the Republicans who want his job, President Barack Obama will stand before the nation Tuesday night determined to frame the election-year debate on his terms, using his State of the Union address to outline a lasting economic recovery that will "work for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

As his most powerful chance to make a case for a second term, the prime-time speech carries enormous political stakes for the Democratic incumbent who presides over a country divided about his performance and pessimistic about the nation's direction. He will try to offer a stark contrast with his opponents by offering a vision of fairness and opportunity for everyone.

In a preview Saturday, Obama said in a video to supporters that the speech will be an economic blueprint built around manufacturing, energy, education and American values.

He is expected to announce ideas to make college more affordable and to address the housing crisis still hampering the economy three years into his term, people familiar with the speech said. Obama will also propose fresh ideas to ensure that the wealthy pay more in taxes, reiterating what he considers a matter of basic fairness, the officials said.

His policy proposals will be less important than what Obama hopes they all add up to: a narrative of renewed American security with him at the center, leading the fight.

"We can go in two directions," Obama said in the campaign video. "One is toward less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

That line of argument is intended to tap directly into concerns of voters who think America has become a nation of income inequality, with rules rigged to help the rich. The degree to which Obama or his eventual Republican opponent can better connect with millions of hurting Americans is expected to determine November's presidential election.

Obama released his video hours ahead of the South Carolina primary, where Republican candidates fought in the latest fierce contest to become his general election rival.

The White House knows Obama is about to get his own stage to outline a re-election vision, but carefully. The speech is supposed to an American moment, not a campaign event.

Obama didn't mention national security or foreign policy in his preview, and he is not expected to break ground on either one in his speech.

He will focus on the economy and is expected to promote unfinished parts of his jobs plan, including the extension of a payroll tax cut that is soon to expire.

Whatever Obama proposes is likely to face long odds in a deeply divided Congress.

More people than not disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, and he is showing real vulnerability among the independent voters who could swing the election. Yet he will step into the moment just as the economy is showing life. The unemployment rate is still at a troubling 8.5 percent, but at its lowest rate in nearly three years. Consumer confidence is up.

By giving a sneak peek to millions of supporters on his email list, Obama played to his Democratic base and sought to generate an even larger audience for Tuesday's address. He is unlikely to getter a bigger stage all year.

More people watched last year's State of the Union than tuned in to see Obama accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver in 2008.

The foundation of Obama's speech is the one he gave in Kansas last month, when he declared that the middle class was at a make-or-break moment and he railed against "you're on your own" economics of the Republican Party. His theme then was about a government that ensures people get a fair shot to succeed.

The State of the Union will be the details to back that up.

But even so, the speech will still be a framework ? part governing, part inspiration.

The details will be rolled out in full over the next several weeks, as part of Obama's next budget proposal and during his travels, which will allow him more media coverage.

On national security, Obama will ask the nation to reflect with him on a momentous year of change, including the end of the war in Iraq, the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring protests, with people clamoring for freedom. He is expected to note the troubles posed by Iran and Syria without offering new positions about them.

Despite low expectations for legislation this year, Obama will offer short-term ideas that would require action from Congress. For now, the main looming to-do item is an extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, both due to expire by March.

His travel schedule following his speech, to politically important regions, offers clues to the policies he was expected to unveil.

Both Phoenix and Las Vegas have been hard hit by foreclosures. Denver is where Obama outlined ways of helping college students deal with school loan debt. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Detroit are home to a number of manufacturers. And Michigan was a major beneficiary of the president's decision to intervene to rescue the American auto industry.

Republican leaders in Congress say Obama has made the chances of cooperation even dimmer just over the last several days. He enraged Republicans by installing a consumer watchdog chief by going around the Senate, which had blocked him, and then rejected a major oil pipeline project the GOP has embraced.

Obama is likely, once again, to offer ways in which a broken Washington must work together. Yet that theme seems but a dream given the gridlock he has been unable to change.

The address remains an old-fashioned moment of national attention; 43 million people watched it on TV last year. The White House website will offer a live stream of the speech, promising extra wrinkles for people who watch it there, and then invite people to send in questions to administration officials through social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Obama's campaign is also organizing and promoting parties around the nation for people to watch the speech.

__

AP deputy director of polling Jennifer Agiesta and Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

__

Online:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

___

Follow Ben Feller at http://twitter.com/BenFellerDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-21-US-Obama-State-of-the-Union/id-ff88c923470f497fa4e83a24497abb70

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Document: Gross traveled to Cuba 5 times in 2009 (AP)

HAVANA ? An American man imprisoned in Cuba on charges of crimes against the state was being tracked by island authorities since 2004 and traveled there at least five times in 2009 to set up sophisticated wireless Internet networks, according to a purported leaked court filing.

The document, the most detailed account so far laying out prosecutors' case against Maryland resident Alan Gross, gives blow-by-blow descriptions of the man's work with Cuban Jewish communities to establish independent, satellite-based wireless networks in synagogues in three cities.

U.S. and Cuban officials would not say whether the document is authentic. It was posted this week on the U.S.-based blog Cafe Fuerte, which did not reveal its source.

But Gross' U.S. lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, called it evidence that his client, who has acknowledged working with the Jewish community on Internet connections, is innocent of trying to undermine the island's communist-run government.

"This document is further confirmation of what we have said all along ? the Cuban authorities cannot point to any action by Alan P. Gross intended to subvert their government," Peter J. Kahn said in a statement, without explicitly confirming the document's authenticity.

"The trial evidence cited in the document confirms that Alan's actions were intended to improve the Internet and Intranet connectivity of Cuba's small, peaceful, non-dissident, Jewish community," he said.

The filing, apparently from Gross' sentencing in which he was given 15 years in prison, contains a detailed account of testimony and evidence presented against him at his March 2011 trial. Among other details, it says Gross came under scrutiny beginning in 2004 and alleges he recruited Americans as "mules" to help him bring restricted telecommunications equipment to the island.

Havana considers U.S. development programs like the one Gross was working on tantamount to attempts at regime change, and the document alleges that the true intent for the wireless networks was subversive.

"The goal (was for) these modern means of satellite communication to be used by the true intended recipients of this 'Program,' the members of the internal counterrevolution," it reads.

As evidence, it cites files recovered from a seized memory stick that allegedly talked about "communicating securely in repressive environments" and mentioned "political activists who operate in non-permissive environments." It also said Gross told users of the wireless networks he set up not to use their last names in their email addresses.

Gross' imprisonment has been yet another sore point between Washington and Havana, and the U.S. government has urged Cuban authorities to release him.

Earlier this week Cuba hinted that while Gross was convicted of crimes against the state, it would consider sending him home under the right circumstances.

"The Cuban government has communicated to the U.S. government its willingness to find a humanitarian solution to the case of Mr. Alan Gross on a reciprocal humanitarian basis," said a letter signed by the deputy chief of mission at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and posted on the Foreign Ministry's website.

The message, which was originally sent to The Washington Post in response to an editorial demanding Gross be freed, then raised the cases of five Cuban agents serving long jail terms in the United States, though it stopped short of suggesting outright a prisoner swap.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_hi_te/cb_cuba_imprisoned_american

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Digital lockers a growing piracy concern (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Digital storage services like Megaupload, which was accused of criminal copyright violations on Thursday, play a small but growing role in a broader piracy problem that continues to evolve and dog the entertainment industry.

Some 3 million Americans every month used Megaupload, which is among the largest digital lockers, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said. Other entertainment executives said that number surged when other sites popular with digital pirates, such as LimeWire, were taken down.

"When we look at piracy behavior and uncompensated theft of music, a significant portion of consumer behavior migrates toward these locker sites" after shutdowns, said Victoria Bassetti, a music industry consultant and former anti-piracy chief at record label EMI.

"Anecdotally, when we have pre-release leaks, the first week there is a massive amount of consumer trade that goes directly to Megaupload's door."

Peer-to-peer systems like BitTorrent, which have little central coordination and are harder to stop, still have about three times as much usage among consumers as digital lockers, said NPD market researcher Russ Crupnick.

Only about 3 percent of the U.S. Internet audience relied on digital storage for legitimate purposes or piracy in the third quarter, he said.

Megaupload and its ilk may be a bigger factor in video piracy because movies take much longer to download via peer-to-peer networks, Crupnick said. Digital lockers allow anyone to upload, store and distribute links to most forms of electronic content.

The U.S. Justice Department released an indictment Thursday accusing Megaupload's founders and other officers of criminal conspiracy, arguing that they encouraged copyright violations and in some cases copied protected content themselves. Four people involved with the site were arrested in New Zealand.

The indictment cited internal emails referring to piracy and Megaupload's policy of rewarding users whose content was downloaded most often, which prosecutors said encouraged the distribution of prime Hollywood fare.

An attorney for the company said Friday that the site merely allowed users to upload material and that it would fight the charges.

RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said that lockers were "generally the fastest growing form of Internet piracy."

Like other shutdowns, the interruption of Megaupload will send some pirates to rivals but should encourage others to buy or rent content legally, Lamy said.

"The realistic objective is not to eliminate piracy but to make it as inconvenient as possible," he said. "Some of the users you peel off."

The takedown enraged some Internet activists, who launched denial-of-service attacks that temporarily rendered websites of the Justice Department, FBI and big entertainment companies unreachable.

Some of them argued that the arrests showed that there was no need for laws like those that were withdrawn from consideration in Congress this week that would have made it much easier to block access to sites accused of fostering piracy.

But entertainment executives said that they would try again to pass such bills because they are aimed more at attacking demand rather than supply. In addition, many file-sharing sites do not have Megaupload's ties to the United States or allied countries.

"It is not hard necessarily to do something in New Zealand, but it is hard to get people in Russia and China," Bassetti said.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/media_nm/us_digital_piracy

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