Former rebel wins Bogota mayor race in violence-marred Colombia elections

The top news from Colombia's municipal elections was ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro's victory in the Bogota mayor race. In farther flung regions the race was marred by violence and corruption claims.

On Sunday, Colombia held local elections for governor, mayor and town council posts. El Tiempo breaks down the complex numbers while La Silla Vacia has ten points of analysis worth reading.

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One key point of this election is the continuing breakdown of Colombia's political party system, something I've commented on before. No single party dominated this election across the country.

Additionally, this was an election with significant political violence (41 candidates murdered) and a troubling level of influence by criminal groups in certain regions of the country.

InSight Crime, Just the Facts, El Tiempo, BBC, and Al Jazeera all analyze the influence of criminal groups in these elections. The BACRIM certainly won some key local elections, providing access to local corruption, money laundering, land deals, and drug trafficking routes. Violence by former paramilitary groups and the FARC played roles in corrupting and influencing local elections in various regions.

All of this is separate from the most watched race in the country, the mayoral post of Bogota. Gustavo Petro won 32 percent of the vote to defeat former mayor Enrique Pe?alosa and numerous other candidates. Petro ran on an anti-corruption platform, neutralizing the left vs. right debate and distancing himself from former Mayor Samuel Moreno, who was forced out due to corruption.

It's that divide between the big cities and the other regions that deserves watching. The race in the capital, along with some of the other big cities, were fascinating democratic campaigns held almost in isolation from the other elections in the country. While Colombia as a country is democratic and the major population centers have strong democratic elections, some local elections contained a level of violence and corruption that should have the hemisphere questioning the democratic legitimacy in those regions.

Unfortunately, among the many continuing weaknesses of the Inter-American Democratic Charter is that it can't deal with democracy at a local level. A stolen mayoral election or a corrupted town council are not the sort of grave breaches in democracy that a coup or a stolen presidential election are.

--- James Bosworth is a freelance writer and consultant who runs Bloggings by Boz.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of Latin America bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BJ7-TIbKCgE/Former-rebel-wins-Bogota-mayor-race-in-violence-marred-Colombia-elections

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Video: Cashing In On Foreclosures?

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45077022#45077022

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1 US crash survivor upgraded to fair condition

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? The condition has been upgraded for one of three people hospitalized following a crash that killed seven members of an extended Ecuadorean family.

Thirty-six-year-old Maria Antonia Yupa was listed in fair condition Saturday at South Bend Memorial Hospital. She had been listed as serious Friday.

Thirty-year-old Manuel Chimborazo remains in critical condition at South Bend. Police say he was driving the minivan packed with 10 people Thursday when it hit a deer and then was crushed from behind by a semi-trailer.

Officials at Elkhart General Hospital declined to release any information Saturday on 28-year-old Cayetano Quizhpe, who had been listed as stable Friday.

Police say the crash on the Indiana Toll Road killed three adults and four children, including Quizhpe's 6-week-old son.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-29-Fatal%20Crash-Indiana/id-ec6e028f3ca94a57b384cf95c06152a8

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Jigar Shah: Governor Rick Perry Please Lobby the Super Committee to End Permanent Energy Subsidies

In August, environmentalists Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen partnered with climate deniers at the Heritage Foundation to produce the non-partisan Green Scissors report which outlines wasteful government subsidies totaling $380 billion over the next five years.

Separately, in August, the twelve members of the Congressional "super committee" were announced. The super committee is charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction measures over 10 years.

The super committee deadline: November 23rd.

Cutting $380 billion in permanent subsidies immediately for mature industries like coal, natural gas, oil, and ethanol -- immediately gets the super committee to 25 percent of its goal.

This past June, the Senate sent a strong signal to end the main corn ethanol tax credit, known as the VEETC, and the ethanol import tariff.

Subsidies are necessary in the incubation phase, but oil is a "mature" industry; and ethanol and solar are "proven and established" industries. As industries prove and establish themselves, and then mature, subsidies should be retired. So, now it is time to end permanent federal subsidies for oil drilling and phased out for solar and wind technologies.

Luckily Governor Rick Perry, and Congressman Ron Paul have stepped up to put the end of subsidies in the national conversation. Perry announced his energy plan on October 14, entitled: "Energizing American Jobs and Security." It called for an end to subsidies.

Perry's energy plan website states: "As part of a broader tax reform strategy, I will also ask Congress to eliminate direct subsidies and tax credits that distort the energy marketplace. My plan levels the playing field."

And, according to Ron Paul, "We should start by ending subsidies for oil companies. And we should never, ever go to war to protect our perceived oil interests. If oil were allowed to rise to its natural price, there would be tremendous market incentives to find alternate sources of energy. At the same time, I can't support government 'investment' in alternative sources either, for this is not investment at all."

And Mitt Romney agreed in the October 18 Republican debate that subsidies should be pulled back.

Newt Gingrich piled on in Iowa on October 24 saying, "I don't want to pick a fight with any of my good friends who are running, but I get a little weary of people who represent oil, which has consistently had tax subsidies for its entire history, explaining that they're really not sure about these subsidies. Notice it's always these subsidies. It's never the ones down there. I notice that when Senator [Tom] Coburn [R-OK] introduced a bill that was anti-ethanol, he didn't include subsidies for gas and oil, because as an Oklahoman, that would be suicidal. So I just think we ought to have a fair playing field."

Now, getting back to the Super Committee, I have taken a random sampling of votes over recent years of each committee member to see if each supports subsidies.

My scorecard revealed a random sampling of 34 votes, with 19 for subsidies. It means that much of the time, some interest group is pushing our government officials to underwrite an energy cost whether it is a fossil fuel, or renewable energy source.

But, the other point is that our legislators are spending thousands of hours debating whether to spend money to give an unfair advantage to one energy source over another. And the fight seems to be over renewable fuels versus fossil fuels.

Shouldn't scientists figure out which fuels are safest and then turn them over to the free marketplace to determine which ones are liked by consumers?

Now that Governor Perry has insisted on the end of energy subsidies, can he take the lead over the next few weeks to get the Super Committee to immediately extract $380 billion in wasteful permanent subsidies out of the budget? I hope so - and I am with him on that.

This is no longer a left wing, right wing argument. We don't need votes on issues that are on one side of the aisle or the other. We need votes like we had on ethanol subsidies in June. We want to ask -- "is this how we want to spend our tax dollars?"

The example is in fact, the Green Scissors report. It had groups that are polar opposites like Friends of The Earth, and the Heritage Foundation to come together to agree on the end of permanent subsidies.

Their interest is not in protecting interest groups -- rather it is protecting America's budget and environmental future. If you are a Tea Party fan, you should love the level playing field and reduced budget deficit. If you are an OccupyWallStreet person then you should be happy that the permanent subsidies set up for the 1 percent are going away so that the 99 percent can participate.

Plus, as Governor Perry and Newt Gingrich have said, we need to level the playing field. The right technologies and solutions to fuel our electricity and transportation needs will win a free market society.

So, it is my hope that Governor Perry, Governor Romney, Ron Paul and others who are pushing the debate to "end permanent subsidies" push it to the super committee now. It is $380 billion that can be put to better use.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jigar-shah/super-committee-energy-subsidies_b_1064648.html

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9 astounding Halloween costumes (Yahoo! News)

It takes a little geek plus a little cute to make a memorable costume

When you consider pumpkin carving and Halloween light shows, it becomes clear that Halloween is the most creative celebration of the year. The costumes, though, are what really knock Halloween creativity out of the park. Everyone gets to decide what they want to be for Halloween, and you can go as far with your costume as you'd like.

Consumers get bombarded with ads pushing professional and retail costumes every year. The true Halloween aficionado knows, however, that it's the homemade stuff that makes a costume special. In the spirit of the holiday, check out these nine amazing homemade costumes that will inspire your trick or treat weekend.

These vintage video game costumes are a home run

Pac-Man
This Pac-Man costume is more than just a static creation. Slip inside this big, yellow binge eater and move the mouth open and closed. Check out this amazing video to get a better idea of this dynamic costume in action. Pac-Man is a feat of both engineering and creativity. (Image credit:?Matthew Varas)

A costume only a nerd could love

TI-83+ calculator
This creative costumer reached deep into his memories of school, science, and mathematics to design a TI-83 calculator costume. The TI-83 is a time-honored gadget that helps students plot graphs, handle advanced formulae, and achieve ever-higher scholastic feats.

People who saw the costume for the first time often mistook it for a smartphone. The creator says folks would push the buttons and ask what kind of reception the costume could get. In reality, though, the only connection a TI-83 has with a smartphone is that you could use it to calculate your early termination fees.

Krang the Conqueror
Krang is a villain from the early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. The unique thing about Krang's design is that he's a brain-like creature with hands. He rode around inside a human-sized robot suit. Halloween costumer?Melissa Dunphy has recreated the effect with hilarious success. Watch while her husband shuffles around in the?robot costume,?Krang shouting threats the whole time from inside the belly. Krang's arms even move to heighten the effect.

The most adorable Ewok ever

Ewok
There's almost nothing as adorable as a small child encased within an Ewok costume. Not only is the outfit too cute to stand, the warm layers and thick fur go a long way toward keeping warm in the chilly October weather. And who doesn't want to see a child dressed up as such an endearing character? Add accessories like a leather bag and a walking stick, and that Ewok costume steps up to legendary status.

This costume is even better because the trick-or-treater clearly knows how to work it like an Ewok. That stride looks like he's ready to walk onto the set of Return of the Jedi. Find a way to get some lightsaber-wielding kittens in there, and this will be the last costume you ever need. (Image credit:?razorsheldon)

An enlightened youngster

Baby Lama
This baby's parents were aiming for a costume that takes advantage of a child's bald head. Using clothes from the doll section at a local craft store, baby Grace is transformed into the Dalai Lama.

Grace's content, calm expression serves to enhance the ensemble. The child-sized glasses are especially adorable. Last year, Grace dressed up as Uncle Fester from The Addams Family. It makes sense to get all the bald characters out of the way early in life, because that smooth head won't last much longer. (Image credit:?tbudd)

A despicable crew

Disney collection
Normally, you have to be very young to wear a costume in Disney. Adults aren't allowed to play dress-up in those magical kingdoms, a right reserved for the people who get paid to portray the characters inside the parks.

For special occasions like Halloween, though, Mickey loosens those rules. Check out this carful of costumed park-goers enjoying a ride as Honorary Costume Party Guests. With so many of the minions from Despicable Me all piled in one vehicle, you know despicable evil is going down somewhere. (Image credit:?Elizabeth Harper)

Who didn't want to be a fireman as a kid?

Firefighter in his own truck
Firefighters are awesome. Almost every little boy out there has a righteous and thorough interest in fire trucks, firefighters, and the heroic task of saving lives. The people who do that job deserve the adulation, and thousands of kids deliver it in the form of fun costumes every Halloween.

This fire truck costume is a fantastic way of accomplishing the task. The trick-or-treater gets the both of both worlds ??he gets to be both the fire engine and the firefighter. (Image credit:?Brett Holt)

Fully functional camera
This costume (top) is amazing in more than one way. Not only is it a creative costume, helping Tyler dress up as a favorite camera, but the costume is actually capable of taking photographs. It has its own shutter release button and built-in screen. Tyler even rigged the costume so that it can control his strobe lights. (Image credit:?Tyler Card)

Creepy? Yes. Awesome? Yes.

Frankenstein's monster
The final costume in our montage is a classic: Frankenstein's monster. The creature was spotted roaming the streets of Minneapolis, where we can hope no mobs armed themselves with torches and pitchforks to chase him around. There's something to be said for the classics, and you don't get any more classic than this monster masher. (Image credit:?Elkman)

Unleash your inner creative ghoul
No matter what costume you choose for Halloween, make sure you let your inner creativity out and do something spectacular. Whether you're building a high-tech costume like Tyler Card's working camera or a fun, peaceful outfit like Grace's Dalai Lama, you're only limited by your imagination. Go out and trick or treat in style!

This article was written by Michael Gray and originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111028/tc_yblog_technews/9-astounding-halloween-costumes

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Need a speaker? President Obama may be available

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk off stage after attending a DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall in New York. Looking for a big-name speaker? Now's the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency. With the 2012 election ramping up, he's making the rounds of awards dinners and black-tie galas for blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, gays _ Italian-Americans this weekend _ as he looks to reach his voters any way he can. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk off stage after attending a DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall in New York. Looking for a big-name speaker? Now's the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency. With the 2012 election ramping up, he's making the rounds of awards dinners and black-tie galas for blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, gays _ Italian-Americans this weekend _ as he looks to reach his voters any way he can. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama smiles as he is introduced by NBA basketball hall-of-famer, Bill Russell during a Democratic fundraiser at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. Looking for a big-name speaker? Now's the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency. With the 2012 election ramping up, he's making the rounds of awards dinners and black-tie galas for blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, gays _ Italian-Americans this weekend _ as he looks to reach his voters any way he can. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama is welcomed by singer Jennifer Hudson, and Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel at a fundraiser on the eve of his 50th birthday in Chicago. Looking for a big-name speaker? Now's the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency. With the 2012 election ramping up, he's making the rounds of awards dinners and black-tie galas for blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, gays _ Italian-Americans this weekend _ as he looks to reach his voters any way he can. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Looking for a big-name speaker?

Now may be the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency.

Obama has been making the rounds of Washington's awards dinners and black-tie galas this fall, donning a tuxedo or dark suit and heading to ballrooms across the nation's capital to speak to organizations representing blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women and gays. This weekend, he adds Italian- Americans to that list.

With the 2012 campaign picking up steam and Obama struggling to recapture the enthusiasm of 2008, the president's role as headline speaker has plenty of political undertones. He needs the well-connected, politically active leaders of these groups to help him motivate their members, raise money for his re-election and get people to show up to vote in next year's election.

And the president's remarks give him a chance to address specific criticism from some supporters, and tout lesser-known administration actions that target their needs.

Since September, Obama has been the featured speaker at dinners for the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a forum on American Latino Heritage, and the annual gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group. The president will speak Saturday at a black-tie dinner for the National Italian American Foundation, and in early November, at an awards dinner for the National Women's Law Center. The liberal Union for Reform Judaism says Obama will speak at its four-day conference in December.

Obama is following the path of many of his predecessors, who have also tried to curry favor with influential Washington-based organizations, particularly those with similar political leanings.

The president has also sent out his own invitations, bringing influential constituencies to the White House for Tribal Nations conferences, for Passover Seders, for Iftars.

With a presidential election just about a year away, the outreach to key voting blocs is more critical than ever. The president's approval ratings have dipped into the mid to low forties amid persistently high unemployment. And with sagging enthusiasm among some core supporters, Obama's campaign could face challenges in getting the first-time voters who helped him win the White House, particularly blacks, Hispanics and young people, back to the polls next November.

White House officials won't say exactly how aides decide which events the president attends. But it's little surprise that Obama rarely finds himself in front of anything less than a supportive audience.

The president often shows up just before he's scheduled to speak, and rarely stays for dinner. His speeches, sometimes delivered before a crowd of thousands, pull from his day-to-day messages on the economy and jobs, but are typically tailored to his audience.

During a fiery speech last month at the annual gala for the Human Rights Campaign, Obama heralded his role in ending the military's ban on openly gay service members and his administration's decision to stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. He also used the opportunity to jab Republican presidential candidates for failing to stand up for a gay service member who was booed by an audience at a GOP debate.

"You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient," Obama said.

Rich Galen, a Republican strategist, said Obama would be better served spending more time working with Congress to bring down the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate than in trying to boost his political base.

"Doing all of these things is doing nothing to foster any meaningful legislation," he said.

White House officials insist the economy, not politics is the president's primary focus. Trying to show action on the economy in any way possible, they've launched a new campaign dubbed "We Can't Wait" to highlight action the president is taking without waiting for Congress.

The White House announced two minor actions Friday, with Obama directing government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace, and calling for creation of a centralized online site for companies to easily find information on federal services

At a Congressional Hispanic Caucus dinner in September, the president touted the impact the jobs bill he had recently proposed would have for Hispanic workers. But he also took on criticism of his administration's lack of progress on immigration, saying it couldn't all fall on his shoulders.

"We live in a democracy, and at the end of the day, I can't do this all by myself under our democratic system," he said.

The president took a similar approach later that month at the Congressional Black Caucus. Aware of rumblings from some members of the group that he hadn't done enough to address unemployment among African-Americans, Obama told blacks to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.

The president's comments left some at the event a bit unsettled, including Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who said she found the president's language "a bit curious."

Democratic strategist Karen Finney said it's just as important for Obama to trumpet his accomplishments when he meets with supporters as it is to acknowledge the areas where there is frustration.

"I think it takes a certain amount of courage to do that," she said. "He gets a lot of respect for showing up."

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-28-Obama-Invite%20Me/id-803edbb26ef3482a82c6add57285c0c6

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Surveillance video leads to 2 in school shooting (AP)

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. ? An 18-year-old high school student in North Carolina is charged with felony aiding and abetting after a 15-year-old girl was shot and wounded at the school.

Ta'Von McLaurin is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. A 15-year-old suspect will go to juvenile court for the shooting, though it was unclear what the charges would be or when he would appear.

Catilyn Abercrombie was taken to a local hospital after being shot in the neck at Cape Fear High School on Monday afternoon. She was listed in stable condition after surgery.

Authorities in Cumberland County say surveillance video showed two suspects carrying a rifle inside the school.

A normal class schedule was planned Tuesday, with extra deputies on hand.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_re_us/us_school_shooting_nc

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Review: French duo Justice still great on 2nd CD (AP)

Justice, "Audio, Video, Disco" (Banger Records/Because Music/Warner)

Justice earned a Grammy nomination for best electronic/dance album for its 2007 debut, "Cross." They should earn another one for their new effort, but it could be for another category: Best alternative album.

"Audio, Video, Disco" is an 11-track set that is a groovy, psychedelic and rock-filled ? a departure for the French-based duo.

"Horsepower," the opening track, is light and dreamy, and ends with the sound of the electric guitar. "Ohio," which features Vincent Vendetta of Australian band Midnight Juggernauts, starts off like a futuristic gospel medley with its vocal layers, and "On'n'on" could easily be mistaken for a song by MGMT.

As great as the group's sophomore album is, it's not as good as "Cross," which featured some of the past decade's best dance tracks with "D.A.N.C.E." and the epic jam "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," with fellow Parisian Uffie on vocals. It's a sound you'll miss, though you'll get a hint of it on the upbeat "Helix" and the title track, which nicely closes the album.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: The song "Audio, Video, Disco" is Justice at its best.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_en_ot/us_music_review_justice

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Exclusive: EU weighs insurance, SPV options to boost euro fund (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? The European Union is now discussing two options for giving the euro zone rescue fund more firepower -- an insurance model and a special investment vehicle (SPIV), a paper obtained by Reuters on Monday showed.

The two options could be twinned and would not require a change to the current framework of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the paper said.

The euro zone wants to boost the EFSF's firepower without putting more money into it, while France had dropped its idea of turning the fund into a bank to tap European Central Bank funds. European leaders will decide on which approach to take at the second leg of a EU summit on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski, writing by Annika Breidthardt)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Obama's student loan debt-relief plan: Too good to be true? (Christian Science Monitor)

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Just a Thought (talking-points-memo)

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Schlumberger 3Q profit falls 25 pct (AP)

NEW YORK ? Schlumberger says its third-quarter profit fell 25 percent when compared with year-ago results fattened by a $1.27 billion investment gain.

The oil services company also lowered its outlook for oil demand growth in 2012 given the "current financial turmoil" in the global economy.

Schlumberger Ltd. reported on Friday that its net income fell to $1.3 billion, or 96 cents per share, for the July-September quarter. That compares with $1.73 billion, or $1.38 per share, a year ago.

Excluding special charges and credits, Schlumberger said income from continuing operations was 98 cents per share.

The adjusted earnings fell short of Wall Street estimates. Analysts, who typically exclude special items, had expected adjusted earnings of $1.01 per share.

Revenue rose 49.4 percent to $10.2 billion. That matched Wall Street expectations.

.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_schlumberger

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Kutcher pleads for media honesty amid cheating reports (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Ashton Kutcher still hasn't directly addressed tabloid reports that he cheated on wife Demi Moore -- but he's certainly perfecting his ability to tease the public via social media.

The new "Two and a Half Men" star -- who's been plagued by tabloid stories saying that he cheated with a woman named Sarah Leal in San Diego last month -- seemed to allude to the scuttlebutt about his marriage Wednesday in a rambling video monologue. The video, posted to social media site chime.in, called for more honesty from the digital-age media.

He says the lower cost of publishing has led to a cheapening of values, and that truth is suffering.

"I just wanted to open up a little dialogue in the state of honesty, the status of truth as it pertains to literature and media," Kutcher begins.

The actor goes on to note that, in the Internet age, anyone can be a budding media mogul. He says that's not necessarily a good thing.

"The threshold to have literature printed and distributed -- the cost structure went down to zero dollars," Kutcher reflects. "Thereby, there is no gatekeeper of the truth. We are our own editors, and we are our own publishers. We are our own printers. Thereby people can bastardize the truth in any way, shape or form they want and spread that around the world ... There's that old saying that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can leave someone's lips."

Kutcher -- who's almost as well-known for his investment in developing technologies as he is for his acting -- wraps up his video by calling for a sense of responsibility.

Though neither Kutcher nor Moore has spoken about the divorce reports, both appear to have alluded to them on Twitter. In late September, Kutcher cryptically tweeted, "When you ASSUMME to know that which you know nothing of you make an ASS out of U and ME." Moore, meanwhile, offered her own vague-but-titillating missive, tweeting a picture of herself with her eyes closed and the caption, "I see through you."

(This story was corrected to fix typo in honesty in headline)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111021/people_nm/us_ashtonkutcher

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Martha Marcy May Marlene

Still, I suspect Martha Marcy May Marlene will find its fans, because its mood of unrelenting tension carries an effectively creepy charge. Olsen plays Martha, a young woman who drops off the grid after her mother dies. For reasons we never quite grasp, she cuts off all contact with her previous life and settles into a communal existence at an upstate New York farm with a charismatic middle-aged spiritual leader, Patrick (John Hawkes), and his band of young followers. These include a harem of attractive women, a few men, and whatever babies their couplings produce. The ritual induction into this society consists in drinking a drugged herbal milkshake and waking up mid-rape, but this and other disturbing acts of violence get cloaked in a mantle of soothing metaphysical doublespeak: ?There is no such thing as being dead or alive,? a fellow harem member assures Martha, whom Patrick rechristens Marcy May. ?There?s only existing.? Without giving away too much of the game when it comes to Patrick?s far-ranging perversities, I?ll say this: I?m glad the cats in that one scene remained offscreen.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=c1da0b0fc42ce015498579d1b33697f0

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Adam Levine on Fox News: Evil F*%king Channel!

Singer Adam Levine instigated a full scale Twitter war with Fox News after asking that the "evil f-cking channel" no longer play his songs last night.

It's unclear at what point Fox featured his songs and which one(s), but he apparently didn't take kindly to it, firing off this scathing Tweet Wednesday.

And then all social media hell broke loose.

Several of the network's anchors, surprisingly, hit back: "Dear Adam Levine, don't make crappy f-cking music again," Andy Levy wrote. "Thank you."

Redeye host Greg Gutfeld then took aim at the Maroon 5 frontman: "Why did Maroon 5 cross the road?" he asked. "Because crappy music is legal there!"

Gutfeld then retweeted some of Levine's musings and added some sarcastic commentary. Sample tweet, with his response preceding Adam's original:

Names that sound alike: Maroon 5 and crap. @adamlevine Names that sound alike: @kelseygrammer and @chelseahandler.

Levine has never shied away from stirring up controversy on Twitter, but this is taking it to new heights. From an entertainment standpoint, keep it up!

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/adam-levine-on-fox-news-evil-fking-channel/

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Amazon Prime adds PBS, prepping for Kindle Fire

Amazon

By Todd Bishop
GeekWire

Popular PBS shows such as Nova, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, and documentaries by Ken Burns will be added to the streaming content available to Amazon Prime subscribers under?a distribution deal announced this morning between PBS and Amazon.com.

Amazon has been beefing up its Amazon Prime catalog in advance of the upcoming release of the Kindle Fire, aiming to persuade users of the device to pay for the $79/year?subscription service after a one-month free trial that comes with the device.

The addition of current and archived PBS programs will boost the library of Amazon Prime streaming videos to more than 12,000 by the end of the year, the company says.

PBS programs have previously been available for individual purchase via the Amazon Instant Video streaming service, but the new deal means they?ll be available at no additional cost to members of the Amazon Prime service for viewing on the Kindle Fire, computers and other devices.?PBS shows will roll out on Amazon Prime over the next several months.

Shows will include?NOVA,?Masterpiece?and?Antiques Roadshow. Ken Burns documentaries on the service will include The Civil War, The National Parks, Baseball, Jazz and Prohibition. Current affairs shows such as Frontline and Washington Week will be available for streaming the day after they air. Also added to the Amazon Prime catalog will be 200 episodes of The French Chef with Julia Child.

The company is?believed to be selling the $199 Kindle Fire at a loss, with the goal of making up the difference by boosting its sales of online content, subscriptions, and merchandise through its e-commerce store.

Also on GeekWire

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Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/19/8397171-amazon-prime-adds-pbs-prepping-for-kindle-fire/

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Lowering Your Automotive Insurance coverage Premiums | MY ...

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Source: http://www.myarticlepoint.com/lowering-your-automotive-insurance-coverage-premiums.htm

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Huntsman defiant in the face of long odds (tbo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/148957158?client_source=feed&format=rss

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How safe is your hospital? Website lets you check

Medicare has begun publishing patient safety ratings for thousands of hospitals as the first step toward paying less to institutions with high rates of surgical complications, infections, mishaps and potentially avoidable deaths.

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The new data, available on Medicare?s Hospital Compare website, evaluate hospitals on how often their patients suffer complications such as a collapsed lung, a blood clot after surgery or an accidental cut or tear during treatment. The measures also include specific death rates for patients who had breathing problems after surgery, had an operation to repair a weakness in the abdominal aorta or had a treatable complication after an operation.

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In addition, Hospital Compare is evaluating rates of some specific medical errors, such as giving patients the wrong type of blood, leaving surgical implements in patients? bodies during surgery and falls that occur during their stay.

The evaluations are part of Medicare?s broad move from paying hospitals a set amount for each procedure. That change was directed by last year?s health care law, which set up new ?value-based purchasing program? that will begin in October 2012. Over time, hospitals with the lowest quality?as judged by a variety of metrics, not just the new patient safety measures?will be at risk to lose up to 2 percent of their regular Medicare reimbursements under the health law.

How to check your hospital

1. To find find out how hospitals in your area compare to the national average, go to the website http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/, type in the city and state, click on the hospital name and then select the ?Patient Safety Measures? tab at the left. Hospital Compare also gives patients the option of choosing several hospitals at once. The new data covers the period between October 2008 and June 2010.

The new data on patient safety moves Medicare further along toward its ultimate goal, which is to base payments on the actual medical outcomes for patients. To rate hospitals, Medicare is comparing them to the national rates for medical complications and hospital acquired conditions. For instance, on average, 2.1 out of every 1,000 patients discharged suffered an accidental cut and tear from medical treatment. Out of 100 patients, 4.4 on average died after surgery to repair a weakness in their abdominal aorta.

By looking at how a hospital compares to the national average on this and other complication statistics, Medicare has come up with overall evaluations of how good hospitals are at avoiding complications and hospital-acquired conditions. Medicare is aiming to incorporate the new patient safety data into payments in the second year of the program.

Making this information public has been long favored by patient safety advocates. ?This is pulling the curtain back on preventable health care harm to older Americans,? said Rosemary Gibson, co-author of ?The Treatment Trap? and editor of a series of articles on overtreatment in the Archives of Internal Medicine. ?These are really good things to know. We are really getting into the meat of what can happen to patients in hospitals.?

But the latest data is intensifying objections from the hospital industry and some academic researchers that Medicare is using dubious and unfair measurements in ways that will hurt some hospitals, particularly those with sicker patients. The data is based on billing claims that hospitals submit to the government, not clinical medical records. One concern held by hospitals and researchers is that hospitals categorize the same things differently when billing Medicare, skewing comparisons.

?Medicare claims data is the thing a lot of people judge from, but it?s a large database and frankly I?ve always wondered if apples and oranges are being mixed,? said Dr. Gerald Healy, a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Massachusetts nonprofit, and past president of the American College of Surgeons.

Hospital officials said their initial review of the new data has exacerbated their concerns that Medicare?s calculations do not fully take into account the fact that some hospitals do more surgeries or treat sicker patients.

?We believe the data is fairly seriously flawed in the way it?s calculated,? said Nancy Foster, a vice president at the American Hospital Association. ?When inaccurate data is out there, it both misleads the public and generates a lot of activity that is unproductive in the hospital.?

Atul Grover, head of advocacy for the Association of American Medical Colleges that represents teaching hospitals, said some of Medicare?s measures also make teaching hospitals look worse. ?If you?re not appropriately risk-adjusting on this, you?re already selecting a patient population that?s more likely to die,? he said. ?That?s why they come to us, because other people are reluctant to operate on those complex cases.?

Officials at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which designed many of the measures, referred questions to Medicare. Officials there were not immediately available to discuss the new measures. Dr. Patrick Romano, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine who helped the government design the measures, said the measures do take the sickness levels of patients into account, although not as thoroughly as Hospital Compare?s existing evaluations of readmissions and hospital-wide mortality rates.

Still, he said the measures were a good addition to the overall view of how well hospitals are doing. ?We?re trying to understand a large animal like an elephant or a whale,? he said. ?To do that, we take pictures from a variety of perspectives, with different cameras and different techniques.?

Hospital Compare was originally designed to be a helpful consumer tool, but to date it has not been widely used by patients choosing hospitals. Experts caution about drawing dire conclusions from the raw rates of hospitals, as some of the measures are complex and differences not statistically significant. For some of the measures, Hospital Compare categorizes most hospitals simply as ?average,? ?above? or ?below? the national norm, which experts say is a better way for consumers to know whether a hospital is an outlier.

Medicare last week announced 18 more measures it is considering for inclusion in the value-based purchasing program. Many of these measures look at how hospitals handle stroke patients and what steps they take to protect patients from blood clots. Others are intended to address two bacterial infections that can spread through hospitals: Clostridium difficile and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

? 2011 This information was reprinted with permission from KHN. KHN is an editorially independent news service and a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy organization that isn?t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44909622/ns/health-health_care/

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'Real Steel,' 'Footloose' duke it out for No. 1 (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The robot boxers of "Real Steel" and the dancers of "Footloose" are in a tight fight for the box-office title.

The Hugh Jackman tale about machines in the boxing ring took in $16.3 million, which would make it the No. 1 movie for the second-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

But "Real Steel" came in barely ahead of the remake "Footloose," which opened with $16.1 million.

The movies are close enough that they could switch rankings once final numbers are released Monday.

Studio estimates are based on actual business Friday and Saturday and projections for Sunday based on how well similar movies typically hold up.

An executive at Disney, which is distributing "Real Steel" for DreamWorks Pictures, said he expects his movie will come out on top because of strong family crowds during day-time shows Sunday.

"Absolutely," said Dave Hollis, Disney's head of distribution. "The way we've been playing, the families who've been coming and the kind of day-time business we've had on each of the weekend days so far, we have the expectation that it won't be terribly close. They're free to estimate as they will, but we expect to be No. 1."

Paramount, which released "Footloose," was tracking its movie's revenues slightly ahead of those for "Real Steel," said Don Harris, Paramount's head of distribution.

"Footloose" was doing especially strong business in the Midwest and South, and the studio had hopes that those rural crowds would turn out in big numbers Sunday, Harris said.

"It's close enough to be a dead heat at this point," Harris said. "If we get that middle of the country that seems to be preoccupied with high school football on Friday and college football on Saturday, then it bodes well not only for a big Sunday but for the legs of the movie."

Universal's horror update "The Thing," about Antarctic researchers stalked by a shape-shifting alien, opened at No. 3 with $8.7 million. Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson's bird-watching comedy "The Big Year," released by 20th Century Fox, flopped at No. 9 with a $3.3 million opening.

"Real Steel" raised its domestic haul to $51.7 million. The movie also took in $23.3 million overseas to lift its international total to $56.6 million and its worldwide earnings to $108.3 million.

"Footloose" is a new take on the 1980s flick about a youth (Kenny Wormald) challenging a town's ban on dancing. The remake also features Dennis Quaid and former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant Julianne Hough.

It's rare that the top two movies flip-flop in the rankings after final numbers come out Monday.

Last summer, Universal's "Cowboys & Aliens" and Sony's "The Smurfs" were tied for No. 1 right to the dollar based on Sunday estimates. But "Cowboy's & Aliens" finished $800,000 ahead once Monday's final numbers were released.

"There have been a lot of close races this year," said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "I don't think there have been as many breakout hits, so you have a lot of these films just kind of bunched up together."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Real Steel," $16.3 million ($23.3 million international).

2. "Footloose," $16.1 million.

3. "The Thing," $8.7 million ($1.5 million international).

4. "The Ides of March," $7.5 million.

5. "Dolphin Tale," $6.3 million.

6. "Moneyball," $5.5 million.

7. "50/50," $4.3 million.

8. "Courageous," $3.4 million.

9. "The Big Year," $3.3 million.

10. "The Lion King," $2.7 million ($5.2 million international).

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111016/ap_en_ot/us_box_office

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Flood barriers will determine Thai capital's fate

A woman sits on sandbags made for flood barriers Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fear and confusion gripped Bangkok as residents grappled with mixed messages over whether Thailand's worst floods in decades would overwhelm the intricate defenses of the low-lying metropolis of 9 million people. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

A woman sits on sandbags made for flood barriers Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fear and confusion gripped Bangkok as residents grappled with mixed messages over whether Thailand's worst floods in decades would overwhelm the intricate defenses of the low-lying metropolis of 9 million people. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

Thai villagers wade through floodwaters in Pak Kred district in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Flooding that has devastated great areas of northern and central Thailand and taken nearly 300 lives since July is threatening to seep into the capital, though officials say they can keep it out of the central part of the city. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai villagers with their belongings wade through floodwaters in Pak Kred district in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Flooding that has devastated great areas of northern and central Thailand and taken nearly 300 lives since July is threatening to seep into the capital, though officials say they can keep it out of the central part of the city. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A Thai villager wades through floodwaters in Pak Kred district in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Flooding that has devastated great areas of northern and central Thailand and taken nearly 300 lives since July is threatening to seep into the capital, though officials say they can keep it out of the central part of the city. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A woman stops to read a notice pasted on a closed-down gate of an underground train station Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fear and confusion gripped Bangkok as residents grappled with mixed messages over whether Thailand's worst floods in decades would overwhelm the intricate defenses of the low-lying metropolis of 9 million people. Underground train operators closed some gates in fear of the floods. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

RANGSIT, Thailand (AP) ? Beside a wall of white sandbags that has become a front line in Thailand's battle to prevent an epic season of monsoon floods from reaching Bangkok, needlefish swim through knee-high water inside Sawat Taengon's home.

On one side, a cloudy brown river pours through a canal diverting water around the Thai capital, just to the south. On the other side, homes just like his are unscathed. Whether floodwaters breach fortified barriers like these this weekend will decide whether Bangkok will be swamped or spared.

As of late Saturday at least, the alarmed metropolis of glass-walled condominiums and gilded Buddhist temples remained unscathed, and authorities were confident it would narrowly escape disaster.

"We just hope it doesn't go higher," said Sawat, a 38-year-old construction worker whose home had the misfortune of being inside the vast sandbag wall, which runs at least 2.5 miles (four kilometers) along a canal in Rangsit, just north of Bangkok's city limits.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government says most of Bangkok, which lies about six feet (two meters) above sea level, sits safely behind an elaborate system of flood walls, canals, dikes and seven underground drainage tunnels that were completed over the last year.

The latest floods are posing the biggest test those defenses have ever faced.

Adisak Kantee, deputy director of Bangkok's drainage department, reported encouraging signs Saturday. Runoff from the north had decreased slightly and high tides that could have impeded critical water flows to the Gulf of Thailand have not been severe as expected, he told The Associated Press.

Water levels along the main Chao Phraya River and key canals to the north in places like Rangsit are still manageable, he said. But he said there could be trouble if any critical barriers break.

On a bridge above a flooded canal in Rangsit, Army Col. Wirat Nakjoo echoed the need to be vigilant.

"The worst is not over," he said. "The dams are at near full capacity and there's still a lot of water that needs to be released."

Government workers there were taking no chances, stacking new sandbags atop a canal-side wall about 4.5 feet high (1.4 meters high).

The government says the floods, which have killed 297 people, are the worst to hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in half a century. In a radio address Saturday, Yingluck called them "the worst in Thai history."

Monsoon deluges that have pounded Thailand since late July have affected 8 million people and swept across two-thirds of the country, drowning agricultural land and swallowing low-lying villages along the way. More than 200 major highways and roads are impassable, and the main rail lines to the north have been shut down. Authorities says property damage and losses could reach $3 billion dollars.

Thailand's lucrative tourist destinations ? beaches and islands like Koh Samui, Krabi and Phuket ? have not been affected, though, and its international airports remain open.

In the last few days, government officials have voiced increasing confidence the capital would survive without major damage, but those assurances have failed to stop Bangkokians from raiding supermarket shelves to stock up on bottled water, dried noodles, flashlight batteries and candles.

Subway gates have been sealed with steel barriers. Worried car owners are cramming vehicles into high-rise parking spaces at the city's malls and airports. Some international hotels and street-side shops have barricaded their entranceways with sandbags ? not knowing where or when or even if flooding will occur.

But life in Bangkok remains normal, and the calm contrasts sharply with heavily flooded neighboring provinces, including Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani, where Rangsit is located. Television stations broadcasting images of swamped towns ? showing waterlogged residents in canoes and braving chest-high water ? have inadvertently fueled fears of imminent doom in the capital.

Earlier Saturday, a 10-man team of U.S. Marines arrived on a survey mission to determine how Washington can offer help, U.S. Embassy spokesman Walter M. Braunohler said. The Marines were traveling aboard an American military cargo jet full of bottled water and sandbags needed to reinforce flood barriers.

In Rangsit, Sawat said floods occur nearly every year, though never this bad. The water in the canal beside his home began rising a month ago, he said, and the sandbags have risen along with it.

Last week, his family began shifting their valuables to higher ground after flood waters seeped in. Now, his wife and four children move through their home atop makeshift wooden planks that allow them to avoid the water lapping below.

"It's going to get higher," he said. "We need to be prepared."

___

Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Chris Blake contributed to this report from Bangkok.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-15-AS-Thailand-Floods/id-3f62d3898f1d4bd0a73a62b5ef3d1a7f

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YouTube and Lenovo Seek Student Experiments for Space Station

[unable to retrieve full-text content]YouTube and Lenovo, the computer manufacturer, announced a science contest called SpaceLab for students around the world ages 14 to 18.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a6de8a0116bcf868498ffabff2a82731

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Feds to NY jury: Russian wanted to kill Americans (AP)

NEW YORK ? A wealthy former Soviet military officer dubbed the Merchant of Death was willing to sell "staggering quantities" of weapons and explosives to anti-American rebels to make millions of dollars, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday as his trial got under way.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan McGuire pointed at Viktor Bout in U.S. District Court in Manhattan as he accused him of promising to deliver 100 surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 AK-47 rifles, 20,000 fragmentary grenades, 740 mortars, 350 sniper rifles, 5 tons of C-4 explosives and 10 million rounds of ammunition in a shipment of weapons destined for Colombia in 2008.

"This man, Viktor Bout, agreed to provide all of it to a foreign terrorist organization he believes was going to kill Americans," McGuire said in his opening statements.

The prosecutor added that Bout did not know he was trapped in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation and that the two men he was dealing with were working for the U.S. government.

Bout, estimated to be worth as much as $6 billion, was brought to the United States for trial on four conspiracy charges last year from Thailand, where he fought extradition after his March 2008 arrest in a hotel conference room after meeting with two DEA informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC. The group has been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group.

Bout, a vegetarian and classical music fan who speaks six languages, has been accused ? though not in this court case ? of supplying weapons that fueled civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa, with clients ranging from Liberia's Charles Taylor to Moammar Gadhafi to the Taliban government that ran Afghanistan. He was an inspiration for an arms dealer character played by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 film "Lord of War."

As Bout's wife entered court Wednesday, he winked and offered her a closed-mouth smile through his thick moustache.

McGuire said Bout, 44, had the experience, the will and the means to deliver "staggering quantities of weapons and explosives" to the rebels.

"Why? For the money," McGuire said.

He said prosecutors would play hours of taped conversations for jurors so they could hear Bout talking about the arms deal.

He said the jurors would hear testimony from a former close friend of Bout who introduced him to the two DEA sources and agreed to cooperate after he was arrested along with him. Also slated to testify are the two paid informants, both with criminal pasts, who posed as FARC officials.

McGuire said virtually all of their conversations with Bout were recorded. One informant, he said, already had been paid millions of dollars for work he did for the Department of State.

The prosecutor said Bout was enthusiastic about the arms deal, especially when the DEA informants explained that they planned to kill American pilots who were in their way.

"We're together, and we have the same enemy," McGuire quoted Bout as telling the informants on the day of his arrest in a Bangkok.

He added that jurors would hear Bout say: "It is not business. It is my fight. I'm fighting the United States for 10 to 15 years."

"During the meetings," McGuire said, "Bout never hesitated and never showed any surprise."

The prosecutor said the arrest occurred about six weeks after the sting operation began and only after Bout was coaxed to leave his Russian home, where he had spent considerable time after the United Nations in March 2004 passed a resolution prohibiting him from traveling through much of the world.

Defense lawyer Albert Dayan, given his turn before the jury, said the government had it all wrong. He told the jury that Bout was agreeing with whatever the DEA operatives were saying so that he could sell two transport planes for $5 million. He said Bout lost his transport business and had turned to real estate after the U.N. blocked his travels.

"Viktor was baiting them along with the promise of arms, hoping just to sell his planes," he said.

Dayan said the government's anti-American depiction of Bout might leave jurors with a sense of anger and rage.

"But anger and rage should not be a substitute for proof," he said. "You will see he is wrongfully accused in our country, thousands of miles away from his home."

He said he would prove during a trial expected to last several weeks that Bout "never wanted, never intended and was never going to sell arms to anyone in this case."

Dayan said Bout, born in the Soviet Union in 1967, was drafted into the military at age 18. He said his client opened an air freight business in 1991 and owned more than 30 cargo planes by age 30.

The lawyer said Bout "never himself negotiated terms to any arms contracts." He said the U.N. made him into a scapegoat and he "couldn't shake off a reputation as an arms transporter, which had grown to a legend that was way beyond what was the case."

When the U.S. set up its sting operation, Bout found himself in a "two-way, real-life con game" in which the U.S. was trying to charge him with arms deal crimes and he was trying to sell cargo planes without ever following through on a weapons delivery, Dayan said.

"Viktor was baiting them along with the promise of arms, hoping just to sell his planes," Dayan said. "They played a perfect sucker to catch a sucker."

He said the DEA informants had "utterly failed to convince him that they were FARC" and he was glad it was captured on taped conversations so that jurors could hear his client's disbelieving voice.

He said all the talk on tapes about killing Americans was meant to "prejudice him in your eyes" and he urged jurors to hear Bout in a tone that might sound more like: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're my enemy, too. Just give me the money for my planes."

Dayan urged the jury to resist the government request to "convict this man and bury him for life," a comment that caused McGuire to rise from his chair with a loud objection.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said she understood Dayan's comment to be hyperbole.

Just before openings began, the trial judge warned jurors not to reveal on social media websites that they're on the case. She had them sign a pledge not to research the case online.

As the judge had instructed, there was no mention in the openings about the Merchant of Death moniker attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister at Britain's Foreign Office, who had drawn attention to Bout's 1990s notoriety for running a fleet of aging Soviet-era cargo planes to conflict-ridden hotspots in Africa.

The nickname was included in the government's indictment of Bout, and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara referenced it when he announced Bout's extradition last year, saying: "The so-called Merchant of Death is now a federal inmate."

___

Follow Larry Neumeister at http://twitter.com/Lneumeister

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111012/ap_on_re_us/us_arms_suspect

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