Russia says it won't host Assad but others welcome

 Russia's foreign minister says Moscow would welcome any country's offer of a safe haven to Syrian President Bashar Assad, but underlined that Moscow itself has no intention of giving him shelter if he steps down.Russia has repeatedly used its veto right along with China at the U.N. Security Council to protect its old ally from international sanctions, but it has increasingly sought to distance...

Read More..

Italy's Monti turns down Berlusconi offer to run

Italian Premier Mario Monti is spurning Silvio Berlusconi's offer to run on a center-right ticket backed by the media mogul in February elections.Monti told a news conference in Rome on Sunday that his predecessor's flipping back and forth between condemning the government's economic policies and then praising the premier convinced him that "I couldn't accept his offer."Monti didn't immediately say...

Read More..

Monti says he won't run for Italian premier

After keeping Italians, and the rest of Europe, in suspense for weeks, caretaker Premier Mario Monti on Sunday ruled out running in February elections but said he would consider leading the next government if political forces sharing his reform-focused economic agenda requested it.The decision by Monti positions him to take the helm again without having to get into the nitty-gritty of campaigning...

Read More..

British paper to sue Armstrong

 The Sunday Times is suing disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong for around one million pounds over his libel action against the British newspaper in 2004.Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles from 1999-2005 in October, received 300,000 pounds from the Sunday Times as payment towards his legal fees after the paper raised questions about the American's success following his...

Read More..

Monti says he is open to leading next government

ROME (AP) — After keeping Italians, and the rest of Europe, in suspense for weeks, caretaker Premier Mario Monti on Sunday ruled out campaigning in February elections, but said he would consider leading the next government if politicians who share his focus on reform request it.The decision positions him to take the helm again without having to get into the political nitty-gritty of an election —...

Read More..

"Hebrew Hammer" sequel profits from crowdfunding campaign

"The Hebrew Hammer vs. Hitler," the sequel to 2003's "The Hebrew Hammer," will begin filming next year, after an innovative crowdfunding campaign that's raised $35,000 on Jewcer.com, the filmmakers announced Tuesday.Adam Goldberg will return in the lead role, with principle photography expected to begin in May 2013.In the film, Goldberg's character, now married and enjoying the good life in suburbia,...

Read More..

Instagram says no plans to put user photos in ads

Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, said on Tuesday it has "no plans" to incorporate user photos into ads in response to a growing public outcry over new privacy policies unveiled this week.Instagram Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a blog post that users had incorrectly interpreted Instagram's revised terms of service, released on Monday, to mean that user photos...

Read More..

Sberbank to buy Yandex online payments service: source

Sberbank, Russia's top lender, plans to buy Yandex.Dengi, an online payment service owned by Russian search engine Yandex, a source familiar with the matter said.Sberbank declined to comment. Yandex, which was not available to comment, was expected to hold a news conference on Wednesday.Sberbank, which accounts for a third of overall lending in Russia, has been expanding in the consumer credit market...

Read More..

Tubular raises $2.5 million to serve burgeoning YouTube industry

Tubular, a small San Francisco start-up that provides analytics for YouTube content creators, has raised $2.5 million in venture capital in the latest sign of how far the business ecosystem has evolved around the Google-owned video repository.YouTube was once known as Wild West of online video, but over the past two years Google has focused on raising the quality of YouTube content through a series...

Read More..

Instagram tests new limits in user privacy

 Instagram, which spurred suspicions this week that it would sell user photos after revising its terms of service, has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.In forcefully establishing a new set of usage terms, Instagram, the massively popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, has...

Read More..

Is air marshal program a model for schools?

The former congressman who's heading the National Rifle Association's school emergency response program that would include volunteers to help guard children says it makes sense because it's similar to placing air marshals on planes.Asa Hutchinson tells ABC's "This Week" that the air marshal program has provided a deterrent and made flying safer.He says putting trained guards such as retired police...

Read More..

NRA: Public wants armed guards in every school

 The National Rifle Association on Sunday forcefully stuck to its call for placing armed police officers and security guards in every school as the best way to avoid shootings such as the recent massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the nation's largest gun rights lobbying organization, said the NRA would push Congress to put a police officer in every school...

Read More..

Unwavering NRA opposes any new gun restrictions

An unwavering National Rifle Association said Sunday that new gun regulations would not make children safer and that a White House task force on gun violence may try to undermine the Second Amendment.The organization blasted "a media machine" that it said relishes blaming the gun industry for each new attack like the one that occurred just over a week ago at a Connecticut elementary school."Look,...

Read More..

Heroic actions bring change in tone on teachers

Hung on a building in the Connecticut town where 20 children and six adults were killed at an elementary school is a spray-painted sign with four words: "Hug a teacher today."It's a testament to the teachers who sprang into action when a gunman broke into Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire. They hid students in closets and bathrooms, and even threw themselves in the line of fire. Some paid...

Read More..

Anti-tax conservatives say no to tax-increase deal

 In the city where a protest over tax policy sparked a revolution, modern day tea party activists are cheering the recent Republican revolt in Washington that embarrassed House Speaker John Boehner and pushed the country closer to a "fiscal cliff" that forces tax increases and massive spending cuts on virtually every American."I want conservatives to stay strong," says Christine Morabito, president...

Read More..

Facebook's SnapChat-Style Sexting App Is Called Poke (Seriously)

Oh, well would you look at Facebook, trying to make a Christmas funny with its SnapChat copycat app. It's called Poke! Get it? Because SnapChat is what the kids are all using for their sexting these days, apparently, and Poke — you know, that once kinda flirty Facebook future that's now pretty much useless — can kind of do the same thing, and it kind of sounds like some bad sexual pun, too! Funny,...

Read More..

Beleaguered Motorola gets another boost, snags top Samsung marketing exec

It’s good to see that Google (GOOG) has some plans for Motorola other than selling it off for parts. Unnamed sources have told AllThingsD that Google has hired Brian Wallace, who for the past year has served as the vice president of strategic marketing at Samsung’s (005930) American phone unit, to take the reins for marketing at Motorola. As we noted recently, Samsung’s marketing team has been at...

Read More..

RIM shares dive as fee changes catch market off guard

Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent on Friday on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.It was the stock's biggest, single-day, percentage price drop since September 2008. But shares were still nearly 80 percent above the year's low, which was...

Read More..

Facebook releases ‘Poke’ for the iPhone to compete with Snapchat

Facebook (FB) on Friday released a new free application for the iPhone called Poke that competes directly with Snapchat and allows users to send a messages, photos or videos that will self-destruct after a set time. With Poke you can send messages to individual friends or groups that are set to expire after one, three, five or ten seconds. The app is simple to use and only requires you to hold down...

Read More..

Understanding the Holidays, Through Science

Animals hang around the mistletoe. Lonely people in desperate need of a smooch aren't the only ones who hover near the mistletoe. Vertebrate animals in Australian forests also stick close to this parasitic plant, because it attracts edible insects to the forest floor. Researchers recently found that when mistletoe is removed from eucalyptus trees in such environments, up to a fifth of the creatures...

Read More..

NATO: Syria using Scud-type rockets again

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Syrian military has continued to fire Scud-type missiles, NATO's top official said Friday, describing the move as an act of desperation of a regime nearing its end.Although none of the Syrian rockets hit Turkish territory, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmusen said the use of the medium-range ballistic rockets showed that NATO was justified in deploying six batteries of Patriot...

Read More..

Mother loses legal fight to stop son's cancer radiotherapy

LONDON (Reuters) - A mother in Britain, who was so desperate to stop her cancer-stricken son having to undergo conventional medical treatment that she went into hiding with him, lost a court battle on Friday to prevent him receiving radiotherapy.The case of Sally Roberts, 37, a New Zealander living in Brighton, southern England, and the plight of her seven-year-old son has made headlines in Britain.Roberts...

Read More..

Instant View - Third quarter GDP revised down, public finances worsen

LONDON (Reuters) - The Office for National Statistics released revised third-quarter GDP figures and November public sector finances data on Friday.****************************************************KEY POINTS- Biggest quarterly increase in GDP since Q3 2007- Biggest quarterly increase in industrial output since Q2 2010- Biggest quarterly increase in services output since Q3 2007- Biggest quarterly...

Read More..

Budget deficit worsens, credit rating at risk

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's budget deficit worsened in November, data showed on Friday, increasing the risk it will lose its top-notch credit rating and overshoot this year's borrowing forecast.The data - which showed public sector net borrowing, excluding financial sector interventions, hit 17.5 billion pounds last month - is gloomy news for Britain's coalition government.Deficit reduction and preserving...

Read More..

Stalin's birthday marked in Russia and beyond

apital, Tbilisi, Friday, Dec. 21, …more RELATED CONTENT  Enlarge PhotoUshangi Davitashvili, left, and …Enlarge PhotoUshangi Davitashvili, right, and …TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — People across the vast territory where Josef Stalin once imposed his terror have marked the 133rd anniversary of the dictator's birth, some in hatred but others in reverence.In Moscow, several hundred Russian Communists led...

Read More..