Greek creditors urge quick deal after eurozone (Reuters)

ZURICH/ATHENS (Reuters) ? Greece's private creditors pleaded on Tuesday with European officials who rejected their bond swap offer to hammer together a deal before Athens tumbles into a chaotic default.

Athens' hopes for a swift deal with lenders were evaporating after euro zone ministers on Monday rejected creditors' demand for a 4 percent coupon, or interest rate, on new, longer-dated bonds in exchange for existing debt.

The country is desperate for a deal to ensure funds from a 130 billion euro rescue plan drawn up by European partners and the International Monetary Fund arrive before 14.5 billion euros of bond redemptions fall due in March.

"It's important that all parties recognize how much we have at stake and work together and cooperate to find a solution," said Charles Dallara, who negotiates in the name of private bondholders through the International Institute of Finance.

He declined to comment on whether his group would back down on the demand for a 4 percent coupon billed as their "final offer" and said their position was already clear. Greece says it is not prepared to pay a coupon of more than 3.5 percent which would impose steeper losses on its private creditors.

Senior euro zone officials suggested they were preparing for another drawn-out battle despite the ticking clock. They want to make sure any debt swap deal does enough to bring Greece's mountainous debts back on track, to avoid the prospect of having to once again stump up funds for Athens.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissed talk of the IIF's "final offer" with: "That happens in every bazaar."

"You do not need to be impressed by that," he said. "At least I do not."

Without a deal, Athens will be forced into a non-voluntary, hard default that could push other weak euro zone members closer to the edge, although experts are beginning to wonder whether the threat of contagion is as severe as it once was after the European Central Bank flooded the banking sector with nearly half a trillion euros of three-year money in December.

Standard & Poor's will likely downgrade Greece's ratings to "selective default" whether or not a debt restructuring is achieved with the voluntary buy-in of private creditors, but the ratings agency said the ripples might not spread.

"It's not a given that Greece's default would have a domino effect in the euro zone," John Chambers, chairman of S&P's sovereign rating committee, said.

The International Monetary Fund is more concerned, however.

It cut its outlook for global growth sharply on Tuesday, said the euro zone debt crisis was escalating and dragging down the world economy and called for policies to restore confidence.

GREEK DEAL STILL ACHIEVABLE

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said the two sides remain close to an agreement on a Greek debt swap, which he hoped would come this month rather than next.

Caught in the middle between creditors and European partners stepping up a game of brinkmanship, Athens was left clinging on to hope a deal could still be struck in time. It said it had the euro zone's support to complete the talks in the "coming days."

"In reality, we are now entering the final stretch," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in a statement.

"I believe everyone has now realized that Greece must be supported in its effort, which is of vital importance not only for us but for the euro zone as a whole and the global economy."

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras, head of one of three parties backing Greece's technocrat prime minister, told Reuters he expected the talks to be wrapped up by March 5 at the latest and said the country must head to polls as soon as the EU/IMF bailout was finalized.

He set April 8 as the deadline for elections.

"PLAN A MODE"

With weeks of talks yielding little progress and growing concern that Greece's fast-deteriorating economic prospects mean it will need more aid from partners either way, European policymakers appeared to be more willing to consider the previously taboo option of a so-called "involuntary" debt swap.

Both sides have so far firmly stuck to plans for a "voluntary" swap that would avoid insurance against a Greek debt default from being paid out.

"There has been a slight change in mood, but no change in the policy lines pursued," a senior euro zone source told Reuters when asked about the mood among policymakers on Greece.

A second euro zone source confirmed the perception of a shift but said: "We are still in Plan A mode."

A source close to the talks said creditors would go towards an involuntary debt swap if there was no agreement by the end of the week, once again raising the chances of a messy default.

Dallara said he was confident of large-scale participation by bondholders in the swap if the two sides were able to strike a voluntary agreement. He is expected to return to Paris to co-chair an internal meeting of creditors on Wednesday to discuss latest developments in the talks, the IIF said.

The bond swap is meant to cut 100 billion euros from Greece's debt burden of over 350 billion, in a bid to ultimately slash its debt from around 160 percent of GDP to a more manageable 120 percent of GDP by 2020.

Under the agreement drawn up in October to rescue Greece for a second time, bondholders would take a 50 percent writedown on the notional value of their Greek holdings.

Sources close to the protracted Athens talks said last week the two sides were converging on an agreement that would see private creditors accepting a real loss of 65 to 70 percent and new bonds with 30-year maturity.

Greece is stumbling through its worst post-World War Two economic crisis, with unemployment at record highs and frequent protests against austerity measures demanded by its international lenders as a condition for bailout loans.

The country is now in its fifth year of recession and has struggled to push through reforms demanded by lenders.

In a sign that Athens' troubles will be far from over even if a debt swap deal was sealed quickly, Schaeuble warned that all Greek political parties must commit to reforms or risk putting the country's latest bailout plan in danger.

(Additional reporting by Sophie Sassard in London, Caroline Copley in Zurich, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, writing by Deepa Babington. Editing by Mike Peacock and Stephen Nisbet)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_eurozone_ministers

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Evi Arrives In Town To Go Toe-to-Toe With Siri

Screen Shot 2012-01-23 at 17.43.57When Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S I thought to myself, who else could do this? It would need to be a search engine with natural language processing, but also behave in the manner of artificial intelligence and respond to voice recognition. One company that sprung to mind was True Knowledge. I pinged them. Are you working on a Siri type application, I asked? Interesting question, was their response. And then they went quiet. Now they can reveal what they've been building. Evi is a new iPhone (iTunes link) and Android app in Beta (link) which might just give Apple's Siri a run for her money.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/roHnB2ac67U/

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Microsoft Pushes Washington to Legalize Gay Marriage [Microsoft]

Microsoft, along with Nike and RealNetworks, believe Washington's failure to recognize gay marriage has gone on long enough. So they've called out the state government, pushing for legislators to pass the two gay marriage bills currently circulating through their chambers. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/L01XLy_huCQ/microsoft-calls-for-washington-to-legalize-gay-marriage

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Sundance Today: Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood And More

There are few good reasons to be at Newark airport at 4AM on a Thursday morning. One of those good reasons: flying out to the Sundance Film Festival, which kicked off in earnest this week. The MTV Movies team is on the ground in Park City, Utah, to talk to your favorite stars and get [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/20/sundance-peter-jackson-elijah-wood/

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School tells kids to wear purple for Ravens rally

Roland Park Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore is having a Ravens-sponsored rally today, as the team gears up for its AFC Championship game with New England. But students there should not plan to attend if they don?t buy some Baltimore Ravens gear. Because anyone who tries to show up in regular school clothes will be banished to the library.

At least that was the edict included in a notice sent by some Roland Park teachers this week, reports the Baltimore Sun. The notice reads:

?Students must wear purple or Ravens attire to attend, as there will be many TV cameras there,? one teacher wrote to parents in an email obtained by The Baltimore Sun. ?Not wearing purple or Ravens attire means making a choice not to attend.?

Another teacher emailed that ?students must wear purple in order to attend. If your child does not wear purple or you do not wish them to attend, I believe staff will supervise the students in the library.?

Students not wearing purple will be forced to weave blankets in the school sweat shop all day for 12 cents per hour!

It?s all part of the Ravens? Purple Friday Caravan Pep Rally, which will stop at a handful of area schools. But Melanie LeGrande, director of community relations for the Ravens, told the Sun that the team is not insisting on purple attire, and that they are ?concerned? that certain students might be barred from the rally. ?The Ravens are about inclusivity,? LeGrande said.

And I believe her. Proof of that is the continued employment of Joe Flacco.

Roland Park parent Mark Brody, a Steelers fan, is not amused.

?I like the town getting behind the team. I like Purple Friday,? Brody said. ?But this is about standing up for their right to just be themselves, to not have to pretend that you?re a Ravens fan to go to an event during the school day. I shouldn?t have to send my kid to school to have them sit in the library.?

The school is now saying that the teacher emails were ?a miscommunication.? No students will be barred from the rally for not wearing purple. And the only ones sent to the library will be those who show up late.

***
Purple Pride overzealous at Roland Park school, say some parents [Baltimore Sun]

Source: http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2012/01/20/baltimore-elementary-school-forces-students-to-wear-purple-during-ravens-rally-or-they-will-be-sent-to-the-library/related/

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Renowned attorney Bennett to represent Megaupload

FILE - In this April 30, 2007 file photo, attorney Robert Bennett speaks in Washington. Bennett, one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this April 30, 2007 file photo, attorney Robert Bennett speaks in Washington. Bennett, one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

(AP) ? When Megaupload executives arrive in court to answer charges that they orchestrated a massive online piracy scheme, they'll be backed by a prominent lawyer who has defended Bill Clinton against sexual harassment charges and Enron against allegations of corporate fraud.

Washington attorney Robert Bennett said Friday that he will represent the company, which was indicted in federal court in Alexandria Thursday on copyright infringement and other charges.

The U.S. government shut down Megaupload's file-sharing website on Thursday, alleging that the company facilitated illegal downloads of copyrighted movies and other content. Seven individuals ? including the company's founder, who had his name legally changed to Kim Dotcom ? were also charged. Dotcom and three others were arrested in New Zealand; three others remain at large.

New Zealand police raided several homes and businesses linked to Dotcom and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.

In Hong Kong, where Megaupload is based, customs officials said they seized more than $42.5 million in assets. They said the company operated out of luxury hotel space costing more than $12,000 a day, and they seized high-speed servers and other equipment from the offices.

The shutdown and indictment generated headlines around the world in part because of the size and scope of Megaupload's operation. Sandvine, Inc., a Canadian company that provides equipment to monitor Internet traffic, said the website alone accounted for about 1 percent of traffic on U.S. cable and DSL lines. The site is even more popular in many foreign countries.

Bennett said that "we intend to vigorously defend against these charges" but declined to comment on the case in detail.

Bennett is best known for serving as President Bill Clinton's attorney when he was accused of sexual harassment by Paula Jones. He has also represented Defense Secretaries Clark Clifford and Caspar Weinberger.

Megaupload was no stranger to accusations that its website existed for the sole purpose of mass copyright breach. Before its website was taken down, Megaupload offered a more detailed defense of its operations, claiming in a statement that such accusations are "grotesquely overblown."

The company said it had a clear, easy-to-follow procedure if movie studios or other copyright holders saw that their products were being illegally shared on Megaupload, and said that it responded to those "takedown notices" as required by law.

"Of course, abuse does happen and is an inevitable fact of life in a free society, but it is curbed heavily and efficiently by our close cooperation with trusted takedown partners. It is just unfortunate that the activities of a small group of 'black sheep' overshadows the millions of users that use our sites legitimately every day," the statement said.

Indeed, sites like megaupload.com, known as cyberlockers, can fulfill legitimate needs and are used every day by people looking for an efficient way to share or transfer large files that can't easily be sent by email.

In their indictment, however, federal prosecutors offered a detailed glimpse of the internal workings of the website. They allege that Megaupload was well aware that the vast majority of its users were there to illegally download copyrighted content.

According to the indictment, in a 2008 email chat session, two of the alleged coconspirators exchange messages, with one saying "we have a funny business . . . modern days pirates :)" and the other responds, "we're not pirates, we're just providing shipping services to pirates :)".

In another instance, one of the defendants allegedly laments in colorful language that an episode HBO's "The Sopranos" has been uploaded to site, but the dialogue is in French, limiting its appeal.

In fact, prosecutors allege that the entire website was specifically designed to encourage piracy. The website provided cash bonuses to users who uploaded content popular enough to prompt mass downloads ? such content was almost always copyrighted material.

Stefan Mentzer, an intellectual property partner with the White and Case law firm in New York, said it's likely that Megaupload will try to argue at least two defenses: One is that its service qualifies as a so-called "safe harbor" under Digital Millennium Copyright Act ? the federal law governing copyright infringement ? if they can show, for instance, that they had no actual knowledge that infringing material was on their system. Another possible defense would be jurisdictional ? specifically, that a case can't be brought in the Eastern District of Virginia against a Hong Kong-based company like Megaupload without evidence that they directed criminal activity related to the district.

But Mentzer said both defenses would be a challenge, given the evidence that prosecutors appear to have collected.

"The Department of Justice doesn't just cavalierly file these lawsuits," Mentzer said.

Federal prosecutors have made Internet piracy a priority in the last decade, especially in the Eastern District of Virginia, which can claim jurisdiction over many such cases because large portions of the Internet's backbone ? servers and other infrastructure ? are physically located in northern Virginia's technology corridor.

The vast majority of those cases have resulted in guilty pleas and prison time. On Friday, a day after announcement of the Megaupload case, a federal judge sentenced Matthew David Howard Smith, 24, of Raleigh, North Carolina, to 14 months in prison for his role in founding a website called NinjaVideo. That site was one of many shut down in 2010, at a time when it facilitated nearly 1 million illegal downloads a week.

NinjaVideo was what prosecutors called a "linking site" to Megaupload. Casual users of Megaupload would be unable to find popular movies and TV shows on the site without the proper links. Sites like NinjaVideo allowed users to easily search for the desired movies or music and provided the links that enabled them to download the content from Megaupload.

The other co-founder of NinjaVideo, Hana Beshara, was sentenced earlier this month to 22 months in prison. While she admitted guilt, she portrayed herself as a sort of Robin Hood of the online world, stealing from greedy movie studios to provide entertainment downloads to the masses in the form of free films, TV shows, videogames and music.

While the legal defense for piracy may be difficult, accused Internet pirates clearly have their supporters, as evidenced by the millions of people who use their sites as well as the response to Thursday's Megaupload shutdown. Within hours of the indictment being unsealed, the loose affiliation of hackers known as Anonymous caused temporary shutdowns of the Justice Department website as well as the websites of the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups that support a tougher piracy laws.

It could be months before the criminal case against Megaupload gets underway. The four defendants arrested in made an initial appearance in a New Zealand court Friday and are scheduled to make a second appearance on Monday. Authorities have said it could take a year or more to bring them to the U.S. if they fight extradition.

___

AP Business Writers Daniel Wagner in Washington and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-20-Internet%20Piracy-Megaupload/id-151071ef5a4747448511d034b77a3609

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NATO: Taliban chief has lost control of insurgents (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? Dozens of civilians, NATO coalition troops and Afghan security forces were killed and wounded Wednesday when a suicide attacker blew himself up in a bazaar, according to the top commander of international troops in Afghanistan, who alleged that the Taliban's leader had "lost all control" of his footsoldiers.

U.S. Gen. John Allen condemned the attack in Kajaki district of Helmand province and said it was evidence that the insurgents had "declared outright war" on the Afghan people. While the Taliban work to intimidate civilians and kill anyone aligned with the Afghan government, the U.S.-led coalition emphasizes that civilians deaths should weaken the Taliban's appeal.

Daud Ahmadi, a provincial spokesman, said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Afghans, including two policeman, and wounded at least 23 other people.

A statement released late Wednesday by NATO headquarters in Kabul said the explosion killed and injured dozens of Afghan civilians, Afghan national security forces and coalition troops. The statement did not disclose further details about how many foreign troops had been killed or wounded.

"With today's horrendous attack at the Kajaki Sofla Bazaar, insurgents have once again destroyed the lives of dozens of innocent Afghan civilians," Allen said in the statement. "These attacks against the people of Afghanistan have no effect on the progress we are together making here with our Afghan partners and will only further isolate the Taliban from the process of peace negotiation."

Taliban leader Mohammad Mullah Omar "has lost all control over Taliban insurgents, otherwise he would immediately denounce these attacks and order his forces to stop attacking innocent Afghan civilians," Allen said.

More than a year ago, Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed, reclusive leader, did urge his fighters to try to avoid killing innocent civilians.

"Pay attention to the life and property of civilians so that ... your jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and loss of life of people," Omar said in a message emailed to the media in November 2010.

Suicide bombings and roadside bombs, however, have continued to kill ordinary citizens along with NATO and Afghan forces. Taliban insurgents have assassinated hundreds of Afghan government officials and supporters in recent years, seeking to sap public confidence in President Hamid Karzai's administration.

Farther south in Helmand province, an Afghan intelligence official in Nad Ali district and two of this bodyguards were killed Wednesday in an explosion, Ahmadi said. A remote-controlled bomb was detonated as the intelligence official, Wali Mohammad Khan, walked out of his house.

He was the third local government official to be assassinated this week in southern Afghanistan, the birthplace of the Taliban insurgency.

On Tuesday in neighboring Kandahar province, a member of the Dand district council was assassinated while praying in a mosque in Kandahar city, and a member of the district council in Panjwayi was killed by gunmen on a motorbike.

Separately, NATO is investigating reports that five civilians, including one woman and two children, were accidentally killed during a night raid earlier this week in northeastern Afghanistan.

Sayed Fazelullah Wahidi, governor of Kunar province, said coalition helicopters fired into a compound Monday night in Chawkay district, killing two militants and the five civilians.

Coalition troops and Afghan special forces have been carrying out regular nighttime kill-and-capture raids against suspected insurgents across Afghanistan. But the operations and allegations of civilian deaths have provoked anger over foreign meddling in Afghanistan.

Karzai has demanded an end to the raids, saying that Afghan citizens cannot feel secure if they think armed soldiers might burst into their houses in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, Afghan security forces said they had killed nine armed insurgents and captured 23 suspects in a series of raids in the past 24 hours.

An Interior Ministry statement issued Wednesday morning said the operations in eight different provinces also uncovered caches of weapons, ammunition and explosives.

The Afghan Defense Ministry says a soldier was killed and four were wounded in clashes with insurgents on Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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Obama rejects Canada-Texas oil pipeline _ for now

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, second from right, accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, to voice their opposition to President Barack Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. From left are, Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark.; Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas; Boehner; and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, second from right, accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, to voice their opposition to President Barack Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. From left are, Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark.; Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas; Boehner; and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, to voice their opposition to President Barack Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. From left are, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.; Rep Tim Griffin, R-Ark.; Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas; Boehner; and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., second from left, accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, to object to President Barack Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. From left are: Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.; Griffin; Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., right, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, to discuss President Barack Obama's decision to halt the Keystone XL pipeline. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(AP) ? In a politically explosive decision, President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected plans for a massive oil pipeline through the heart of the United States, ruling there was not enough time for a fair review before a looming deadline forced on him by Republicans. His move did not kill the project but could again delay a tough choice for him until after the November elections.

Right away, the implications rippled across the political spectrum, stirred up the presidential campaign and even hardened feelings with Canada, a trusted U.S. ally and neighbor. For a U.S. electorate eager for work, the pipeline has become the very symbol of job creation for Republicans, but Obama says the environment and public safety must still be weighed too.

The plan by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. would carry tar sands oil from western Canada across a 1,700-mile pipeline across six U.S. states to Texas refineries.

Obama was already on record as saying no, for now, until his government could review an alternative route that avoided environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska ? a route that still has not been proposed, as the White House emphasizes. But Obama had to take a stand again by Feb. 21 at the latest as part of an unrelated tax deal he cut with Republicans.

This time, the project would go forward unless Obama himself declared it was not in the national interest. The president did just that, reviving intense reaction.

"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," Obama said in a written statement. "I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision."

Republicans responded unsparingly.

"President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese. There's really just no other way to put it. The president is selling out American jobs for politics," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. Insisting that the pipeline would help the economy, he declared: "This is not the end of the fight," signaling that Republicans might try again to force a decision.

The State Department said the decision was made "without prejudice," meaning TransCanada can submit a new application once a new route is established. Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer, said the company plans to do exactly that. If approved, the pipeline could begin operation as soon as 2014, Girling said.

It did not take long for the Republicans seeking Obama's job to slam him.

Newt Gingrich, campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination in South Carolina, called Obama's decision "stunningly stupid," adding: "What Obama has done is kill jobs, weaken American security and drive Canada into the arms of China out of just sheer stupidity."

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney said the decision was "as shocking as it is revealing. It shows a president who once again has put politics ahead of sound policy."

Project supporters say U.S. rejection of the pipeline would not stop it from being built. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada is serious about building a pipeline to its West Coast, where oil could be shipped to China and other Asian markets.

Harper on Wednesday told Obama he was profoundly disappointed that Obama turned down the pipeline, Harper's office said.

Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president for energy and oil pipelines, said last week the company soon will have a new route through Nebraska "that everyone agrees on."

The proposed $7 billion pipeline would run through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma en route to Texas.

The pipeline is a dicey proposition for Obama, who enjoyed strong support from both organized labor and environmentalists in his winning 2008 campaign for the White House.

Environmental advocates have made it clear that approval of the pipeline would dampen their enthusiasm for Obama in the upcoming November election. Some liberal donors even threatened to cut off funds to Obama's re-election campaign to protest the project, which opponents say would transport "dirty oil" that requires huge amounts of energy to extract.

But by rejecting the pipeline, Obama risks losing support from organized labor, a key part of the Democratic base, for thwarting thousands of jobs.

"The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero," said Terry O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers' International Union of North America.

O'Sullivan called the decision "politics at its worst" and said, "Blue collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this."

Yet some unions that back Obama oppose the pipeline, included United Auto Workers, Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America.

TransCanada says the pipeline could create as many as 20,000 jobs, a figure opponents say is inflated. A State Department report last summer said the pipeline would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction.

Obama appeared to have skirted what some dubbed the "Keystone conundrum" in November when the State Department announced it was postponing a decision on the pipeline until after this year's election. Officials said they needed extra time to study routes that avoid an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska that supplies water to eight states.

The affected area stretches just 65 miles through the Sandhills region of northern Nebraska, but the concerns were serious enough that the state's governor and senators opposed the project until the pipeline was moved. The new route, which has not been chosen, would have to be approved by Nebraska environmental officials and the State Department, which has authority because the pipeline would cross an international border.

Obama said his decision does not "change my administration's commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil."

To underscore the point, Obama signaled that he would not oppose development of an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada already operates a pipeline from Canada to Cushing, Okla.

Refineries in Houston and along the Texas Gulf Coast can handle heavy crude such as that extracted from Canadian tar sands ? the type of oil that would flow through the Keystone XL pipeline.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he doesn't believe the Keystone XL is a dead project. He said the Obama administration did not have enough time to review the project, given the Republican-imposed timeline.

"I don't believe this is the end of the story," Conrad told The Associated Press. "My personal view is that it should be constructed. It's clear Canada is going to develop this resource, and I believe it is better for our country to have it go here rather than Asian markets."

Bill McKibben, an environmental activist who led opposition to the pipeline, praised Obama's decision to stand up to what he called a "naked political threat from Big Oil." Jack Gerard, the oil industry's top lobbyist, had said last week that Obama faced "huge political consequences" if he rejected the pipeline.

"It's not only the right thing, it's a very brave thing to do," McKibben said. "That's the Barack Obama I think people thought they were electing back in 2008."

___

Associated Press writers Dina Cappiello, Laurie Kellman and Sam Hananel in Washington, Shannon McCaffrey in Warrenville, S.C., Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: (at)MatthewDalyWDC.

Follow Ben Feller on Twitter: (at)BenFellerDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-18-US-Oil-Pipeline/id-57654730bebc4e2ab12f509c8f4f09cc

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Tales emerge of missing and dead in ship disaster (AP)

ROME ? An Italian dad and his 5-year-old daughter. A retired American couple treating themselves after putting four children through college. A Hungarian musician who helped crying children into lifejackets, then disappeared while trying to retrieve his beloved violin from his cabin.

As details emerged Wednesday about the missing and the dead in the grounding of the Costa Concordia, the captain was quoted as saying he tripped and fell into the water from the listing vessel and never intended to abandon his passengers.

The search for the 21 people still unaccounted for in the disaster ground to a halt after the cruise liner shifted again on its rocky perch off the Tuscan island of Giglio, making it too dangerous for divers to continue. Rough seas were forecast for the next few days.

The bad weather also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel, as Italy's environment minister warned Parliament of the ecological implications if the ship sinks.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef and capsized Friday after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route and strayed into the perilous waters.

Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, was placed under house arrest Tuesday, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio. Costa has said such a navigational "fly by" was done last Aug. 9-10, after being approved by the company and Giglio port authorities.

However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, said Wednesday its tracking of the ship's August route showed it actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused Friday's disaster.

"This is not a black-and-white case," Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd's List, said in a statement.

"Our data suggests that both routes took the vessel within 200 meters (yards) of the impact point and that the authorized route was actually closer to shore."

New audio of Schettino's communications with the coast guard during the crisis emerged Wednesday, with the captain claiming he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water.

"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.

Initial audio of Schettino's conversations made headlines on Tuesday, showing an increasingly exasperated coast guard officer ordering Schettino back on board to direct the evacuation, and the captain resisting, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping.

The officer's order, "Get back on board, (expletive!)" has entered the Italian lexicon, becoming a Twitter hashtag and adorning T-shirts.

Eleven people have been confirmed dead so far, and 21 are missing. Italian officials have only released 27 names so far, including two Americans, 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.

The Hungarian victim was identified Wednesday as 38-year-old Sandor Feher, who had been working as an entertainer on the stricken cruise ship. His body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother, who had traveled to the Italian city of Grosseto, according to Hungary's foreign ministry.

Jozsef Balog, a pianist who worked with Feher on the ship, told the Blikk newspaper that Feher was wearing a lifejacket when he decided to return to his cabin to retrieve his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to the area where he was supposed to board a lifeboat.

According to Balog, Feher helped put lifejackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.

Others among the missing include 5-year-old Dayana Arlotti and her father, William Arlotti, who were on the cruise with the father's girlfriend. The girl's parents separated three years ago.

The girl's mother, Susy Albertini, said she has been desperately calling police, port officials and the cruise company for days for news of her daughter and estranged husband.

"I last heard from her on Thursday," when she waved goodbye at school, Albertini, 28, told the La Voce di Romagna newspaper.

"The absurd thing is that no one can tell me anything, and what little I know is from the newspapers," she said. "Sometimes they ask absurd questions, like if my daughter knows how to swim. Do they understand she is 5 years old? What kind of question is that?"

William Arlotti, 36, had gone on the cruise with his girlfriend, Michela Marconcelli, who survived. She reported seeing Dayana, who was wearing a lifejacket, slide into the water when the boat shifted, but said someone helped retrieve her, the newspaper reported.

Marconcelli said she was pushed forward onto the life raft, and lost track of her companion and his daughter.

Other missing include retirees Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minn.

Sarah Heil, their daughter, told WBBM radio in Chicago that her parents had been looking forward to the 16-day cruise after raising four kids and sending them all off to college.

"They never had any money," she said. "So when they retired, they went traveling. And this was to be a big deal ? a 16-day trip. They were really excited about it."

The Heil children said in a blog post Wednesday that their parents were not among the passengers whose bodies were recently recovered, and they were praying that weather conditions would improve so authorities could resume search operations.

A U.S. congressional committee announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing next month on the safety implications of the Costa Concordia accident, saying U.S. and international maritime organizations need to ensure standards are in place to protect passengers' safety on cruise ships.

Passengers have complained vocally about the chaotic evacuation and poor treatment by Costa officials once they got on land, with some saying they were provided only a single night of hotel accommodations and denied help getting to their embassies to get new passports.

Costa owner, Miami-based Carnival Corp., responded Wednesday, saying it was offering assistance and counseling to passengers and crew and was trying to take stock of lost possessions.

"Costa has also begun the process of refunding all voyage costs including both passenger cruise fares and all costs incurred while on board," Carnival said in a statement. "Our senior management teams are working together to determine additional support."

Rescue operations were suspended early Wednesday after instruments attached to the ship detected it had shifted, raising concerns for the safety of rescuers. By evening, officials still did not have enough data to assure the ship had stopped resettling and it was unclear when the search would resume.

Environment Minister Corrado Clini, who has warned of an environmental catastrophe in the waters around Giglio, a sanctuary for marine mammals, briefed Parliament on the effort to extract the half-million gallons of fuel. He said the ship risked sinking if it slips off its rocky perch.

Schettino was questioned by a judge for three hours Tuesday, then ordered held under house arrest rather than jailed ? a decision that federal prosecutors plan to challenge.

The judge, in her reasoning released Wednesday, said Schettino didn't represent a flight risk since he had stayed near the ship even after abandoning it, the ANSA news agency reported.

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters house arrest made sense.

"He never left the scene," the lawyer said. "There has never been a danger of flight."

Leporatti added that Schettino was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.

"He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life," Leporatti said.

Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors shortly. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.

_____

Barry reported from Milan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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