Clinton heading to UN to condemn Assad regime

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she'll attend a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday to lend her support to Syrians seeking democratic change.

Clinton says the U.S. will support an Arab-backed condemnation of President Bashar Assad's regime. She says Assad is blocking a peaceful transition by attacking the Syrian people, and warned that instability could spill over throughout the Mideast.

Assad's regime is intensifying an assault against army defectors and protesters. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed in a crackdown since March. More than 190 were killed in the past five days.

Clinton's statement condemned the Assad regime's escalation of violence "in the strongest possible terms." She called the shelling of civilian areas with mortar and tank fire "brutal" and said whole buildings were leveled.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-US-Syria/id-a232cf61abea436e9c13a439c1916b5b

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BSkyB to launch online TV service (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? BSkyB, Britain's dominant pay-TV group, is to launch an online offering to enable it to better take on the likes of Lovefilm and Netflix, following some signs of slowing growth at its main satellite business.

BSkyB said on Tuesday it would launch the new service to tap in to the 13 million homes which do not pay for its television service, offering movies and sports without the need for a contract or satellite dish.

BSkyB made the announcement as it revealed it had added 40,000 net new customers to its main TV service in the second quarter, slightly below expectations despite being helped by strong customer loyalty.

With a strong focus on cost control and a new strategy of selling more products to existing customers, the group however posted strong first-half results and increased its dividend.

"Sky shares should bounce on strong financial and operating trends but medium-term worries will persist, potentially exacerbated rather than assuaged by Sky proposing to retail BT's Infinity and to introduce a broadband-delivered low-cost Sky Movies product," analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Shares in BSkyB were up 3 percent at 685.5 pence by 4:37 a.m. ET, having fallen 11 percent year to date over fears the group would have to invest in faster broadband services, spend heavily to acquire soccer rights and compete with the likes of Lovefilm.

On Tuesday BSkyB said instead of investing in its own fiber network it would use BT Group Plc's superfast infrastructure known as BT Infinity on a wholesale basis to offer its customers speeds of 40 megabits per second.

SUPERFAST SPEEDS

The faster broadband speeds, which have proved popular with customers of rival Virgin Media inc, could help compliment BSkyB's push in watching more content online.

BSkyB has offered its own customers the opportunity to watch programming online before, but the push to offer its content to non-Sky customers is a new tactic for the group.

It follows the recent launch of the U.S. online DVD rental company Netflix Inc in Britain and Ireland, which prompted Amazon-owned rival Lovefilm to offer a new cut-price service. BSkyB has not yet set out its pricing plans.

The new offering will launch in the first half of 2012 and will enable customers to watch Sky content including movies and eventually sports on a range of flexible tariffs and without signing a contract.

BSkyB -- which also said it would create 1,300 new jobs in Britain and Ireland in a drive to improve customer service -- has grown through the economic downturn by attracting consumers to its range of sports, movies and broadband, but it has started to show signs of slowing in recent quarters.

The 40,000 net new customers added in the second quarter was above the 26,000 it added in the first quarter but below the 140,000 added in the second quarter a year ago. Analysts had expected net new TV customers of 58,000.

To balance out the slowing growth it sold an increasing number of different services to existing customers, such as high-definition TV or broadband, enabling it to post strong first-half results.

Revenue was up 6 percent to 3.4 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) and adjusted operating profit grew 16 percent to 601 million.

"Amidst all the Netflix noise comes a reminder that Sky is not about to give up its crown lightly," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown. "The launch of its online offering further complements its existing technical reach alongside the potential for new customers.

"The positive reaction to today's news should at least consolidate the market consensus of the shares as a cautious buy."

The company did not make any new comment on the position of its chairman James Murdoch, who has come under pressure for his handling of a phone hacking scandal at News Corp's UK newspaper arm. News Corp owns almost 40 percent of BSkyB.

($1 = 0.6377 British pounds)

(Editing by Matt Scuffham and David Holmes)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/tv_nm/us_bskyb

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EU leaders to discuss growth as Greece case looms (AP)

BRUSSELS ? European leaders will try to come up with ways to boost growth despite steep budget cuts across the continent when they meet in Brussels on Monday.

The 27 heads of state and government will get a taste of the popular frustration with austerity and high unemployment as they try to get to the summit in a city paralyzed by strikes.

While the official theme of Monday's meeting is boosting growth and jobs, the elephant in the room will be Greece.

Leaders aren't expected to make any decisions on a new massive bailout for Greece until international debt inspectors have issued a new report on the country's finances.

Athens' euro partners have grown frustrated with its slack implementation of spending cuts and reforms almost two years after first receiving international aid.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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`Beasts of the Southern Wild' wins at Sundance (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? A mythical film starring an 8-year-old girl and a documentary about the war on drugs took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" won the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, and "The House I Live In" won the same honor in the U.S. documentary category Saturday at the independent film festival's awards ceremony.

Directed and co-written by 29-year-old first-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" follows a girl named Hushpuppy who lives with her father in the southern Delta. The film also won the cinematography prize.

Zeitlin said he was grateful to the Sundance Institute and labs, where he worked on the film for more than three years.

"This project was such a runt, this sort of messy-hair, dirty, wild child, and we just have been taken care of and just eased along until we were ready to stand up on our own," he said in an interview after the ceremony. "It's just great that it happened here. This is the right place for the world to meet the film."

Zeitlin described his spunky young star, Quvenzhane Wallis, as "the biggest person I know." She said she is ready to be a movie star, but first will be going back to third grade.

Fox Searchlight acquired the film earlier this week.

Eugene Jarecki's documentary "The House I Live In" examines the social, human and financial costs of the war on drugs. The filmmaker won the same award in 2005 for his documentary "Why We Fight."

As he accepted his award, Jarecki called the war on drugs "tragically immoral, heartbreakingly wrong and misguided."

"If we're going to reform things in this country, putting people in jail for nonviolent crime, in many cases for life without parole, for possession of a drug, for sentences longer than is now given for murder in this country, must end," he said.

Kirby Dick's documentary about rape in the military, "The Invisible War," won the audience award, as did Ben Lewin's heartfelt drama "The Surrogate," which stars John Hawkes as a paralyzed 38-year-old man who hires a sex surrogate, played by Helen Hunt, to help him lose his virginity. Fox Searchlight acquired that film, too.

"I don't think most people have ever seen this sort of story before," Lewin said after the ceremony. "I think it was very new and unexpected... From the experiences I've had seeing it with an audience, it seems to be a real emotional ride."

"The Surrogate" also won a special jury prize for its ensemble cast.

World cinema jury prizes went to the documentary "The Law in These Parts," about Israel's legal system in occupied Palestinian territories, and the drama "Violeta Went to Heaven," about Chilean musician Violeta Parra.

The audience favorites in world cinema were the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," which also won a special jury award, and the drama "Valley of the Saints," which also claimed the Alfred P. Sloan film prize. A second winner of the Sloan Award, which recognizes films with science as a theme or a scientist as a major character, was "Robot and Frank." The film, which premiered at Sundance, stars Frank Langella as a retired jewel thief who befriends the caretaker robot his children have given him, eventually bringing the robot along on his illegal outings.

Other winners:

? U.S. drama directing award: Ava DuVernay, "Middle of Nowhere."

? U.S. documentary directing award: Lauren Greenfield, "The Queen of Versailles."

? World cinema drama directing award: Mads Matthiesen, "Teddy Bear."

? World cinema documentary directing award: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, "5 Broken Cameras."

? U.S. drama screenwriting award: Derek Connolly, "Safety Not Guaranteed."

? World cinema screenwriting award: Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutierrez, Pedro Peirano, Sebastian Sepulveda, "Young & Wild."

? U.S. documentary editing award: Enat Sidi, "Detropia."

? World cinema editing award: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky, "Indie Game: The Movie."

? U.S. documentary cinematography award: Jeff Orlowski, "Chasing Ice."

? World cinema drama cinematography award: David Raedeker, "My Brother the Devil."

? World cinema documentary cinematography award: Lars Skree, "Putin's Kiss."

? U.S. drama special jury prize for producing: Andrea Sperling and Jonathan Schwartz, "Smashed" and "Nobody Walks."

? U.S. documentary special jury prizes: "Love Free or Die," "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry."

? World cinema drama special jury prize: "Can."

? Short film audience award: "The Debutante Hunters."

? Best of NEXT audience award: "Sleepwalk With Me."

___

Follow Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Online:

http://www.sundance.org/festival/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_mo/us_film_sundance_awards

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Romney holds 8-percentage point lead in Florida (Reuters)

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) ? Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened up a lead of 8 percentage points over rival Newt Gingrich in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in Florida, as he regains front-runner status in the Republican race.

The online poll released on Friday showed Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private-equity executive, ahead of Gingrich by 41 percent to 33 percent among likely voters in Florida's January 31 Republican primary.

It confirms Romney's recovery in polls, aided by strong debate performances, after a stinging defeat at the South Carolina primary vote last weekend.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum trails with 13 percent and Texas Congressman Ron Paul would get 5 percent of the vote.

"We've had a pretty wild ride here throughout this primary process but right now in Florida it looks like Romney's back on top," said Chris Jackson, research director for Ipsos Public Affairs.

Other polls in Florida have shown Romney pulling ahead of Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted on Thursday and Friday, partially capturing likely voters after the most recent debate in Jacksonville where Romney was seen as a clear winner.

Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online surveys but this poll of 732 likely voters has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

GINGRICH STRONGER IN HEAD-TO-HEAD

Conservatives are still somewhat splintered. The poll found that Gingrich and Romney would be virtually tied if Santorum and Paul dropped out of the race.

Romney would win by 50 percent to 48 percent if the race were just between him and Gingrich.

Gingrich has also suffered in recent days from high-profile allies of Romney criticizing the former speaker's tenure in Congress, as well as from a barrage of attack advertisements against him.

Florida allows voters to cast their ballots by mail ahead of time, and 29 percent said they had already done so. Romney led Gingrich by 7 percentage points among this group. Among those who have yet to vote, Romney held a 9-point lead.

Questions in the poll include whether participants voted in previous elections, their likelihood of voting in the upcoming election and their interest in following news about the campaign.

Friday's Reuters/Ipsos survey is the first of four daily tracking polls being released ahead of Tuesday's primary.

(Editing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_poll

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Would your city want a nuclear waste site?

If the price is right, would your town want a nuclear waste site?

A panel of experts said today that finding a volunteer community is the best way to pick a place for a waste repository that could outlast human civilization. The site would store spent nuclear fuel that has been piling up at the nation's 104 nuclear reactors.

The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future released its final report Thursday with eight key recommendations about how to kick-start a federal waste disposal policy that it says "has been troubled for decades and has now all but completely broken down."

Congress picked Yucca Mountain, Nev., as a permanent repository in 2002, but the Obama administration nixed the plan in 2010 after disputes with state officials. Even with the closure, the Department of Energy will have spent $10 billion on Yucca Mountain by 2020, according to estimates by the General Accountability Office.

The nuclear waste panel said that it's better to convince a local town or tribe to take the facility, rather than selecting a site and then trying to convince local residents afterward.

"I don't have a secret recipe," said Allison Macfarlane, a panel member and environmental science professor at George Mason University. "But the community should get what they want, jobs, university scholarships, the options are endless."

Macfarlane cited two successful examples. In the 1970s, residents of Carlsbad, N.M., agreed to host a disposal site for waste generated by the nearby nuclear weapons labs. After decades of delays, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) began taking shipments in 1998.

The town got 1,300 jobs, several factories and a youth sports complex ? as well as $300 million in highway funds.

In Sweden, federal officials tried several times to site a long-term waste disposal site until they asked for volunteers. Two communities vied for the project, which is now under way.

Macfarlane said that state governments have to be on board before moving forward. Opposition from state officials in both Nevada and Utah killed previous plans for nuclear waste sites.

ANALYSIS: Is Nuclear Energy Safe?

Consumers have been paying a tax on their utility bills from nuclear-generated electric power to build such a long-term storage site for several decades. Katrina McMurrian is executive director of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of utilities, state officials and advocacy groups pushing for a disposal location. She says now it's time for the government to step up and get the job done.

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"Rate-payers across the country have been paying to have this taken care of in return for a resting place established for used nuclear fuel," McMurrian said. "We simply want the government to make good on its promise."

The new report said deep geologic disposal is the best way to safely store spent nuclear fuel, material that will remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Big metal canisters made of either stainless steel (France), copper-steel (Sweden) or a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy (planned for Yucca Mountain) would be lowered into a mine 900 feet to 2500 feet below ground.

The canisters could be put into granite, clay or salt, as long as the surrounding formations are geologically stable, Macfarlane said. That means below potable groundwater, away from heat sources and fissures.

Ideas for putting nuclear waste under the seabed or in orbit were rejected as either in violation of international treaties (sea) or too risky (space).

"We can't send up every single rocket with a 100 percent guarantee that it won't blow up," Macfarlane said.

? 2012 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46168836/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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UN Security Council to discuss Syrian crisis (AP)

UNITED NATIONS ? The U.N. Security Council will discuss the crisis in Syria during an unexpected meeting Friday afternoon, French and other diplomats said.

The French mission to the U.N. said in a Twitter posting late Thursday that the council will meet at 3 p.m. "to discuss steps to take on the situation in Syria." The meeting was later confirmed by other diplomats and listed on an updated U.N. media schedule.

The U.N. says at least 5,400 have been killed in a monthslong Syrian government crackdown on civilian protests.

European diplomats have been meeting this week with diplomats from Arab countries, including Morocco and Qatar, on a resolution that would strongly back an Arab League bid to end the crisis.

"There is now a chance that the Security Council will finally take a clear stand on Syria. That is long overdue," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Friday at the General Affairs Council in Brussels. The comments were provided by the German mission to the U.N.

Diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by the media said a vote was not expected until at least next week.

On Tuesday, the Arab League secretary-general and Qatar's prime minister will brief the Security Council on the situation in Syria.

Permanent council members Russia and China used their veto powers last fall to block an earlier European resolution on Syria. On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying Moscow will oppose a new draft U.N. resolution on Syria because it fails to take Kremlin's concerns into account.

The Arab-European draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, expresses support of the Arab League's Jan. 22 decision "to facilitate a political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system."

The draft does not mention sanctions, but calls for the adoption of unspecified "further measures, in consultation with the League of Arab States," if Syria does not comply within 15 days.

The draft also condemns the "continued widespread and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities" and demands that the Syrian government immediately stop all human rights violations.

The Arab League has sent observers to Syria, but the mission has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.

The head of Arab League observers in Syria said in a statement that violence in the country has spiked over the past few days. Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi said the cities of Homs, Hama and Idlib have all witnessed a "very high escalation" in violence since Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/un_un_syria

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