Stocks bounce back as House to reconvene

1 hr.

JeeYeon Park , CNBC

Stocks staged a sharp recovery in the final hour of trading Thursday following news that the House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday evening to resume talks, with less than a week left until the "fiscal cliff" deadline.

The House of Representatives will meet on Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m., according to GOP aides.?

"Moves are always exacerbated during low-volume days and we'll continue to react to every headline from Washington," said Keith Bliss, senior vice president at Cutton & Co. "But I still think the overall market is in a bullish sentiment by the way that the technical are lining up. It might be prudent to keep some powder dry and buy on these dips."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 18.28 points, or 0.14 percent, to end at 13,096.31, dragged by Cisco and Alcoa. The blue-chip index was down nearly 150 points at its session low.

The S&P 500 dipped 1.73 points, or 0.12 percent, to finish at 1,418.10. The Nasdaq erased 4.25 points, or 0.14 percent, to close at 2,985.91. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, turned lower after rising above 20 earlier for the first time in nearly five months.

Among key S&P sectors, materials and financials held small losses, while consumer staples turned higher.

Earlier, stocks tumbled more than 1 percent following Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comment that a "fiscal cliff" deal may not be reached by the end of the year.

"It looks like that's where we're headed," Reid said of the looming fiscal cliff and pointed fingers at House Speaker John Boehner of running a "dictatorship" by "not allowing the vast majority of the House of Representatives to get what they want."

Obama cut short his Christmas vacation in Hawaii to deal with the deadlocked talks between Democrats and Republicans on what to do with $600 billion in tax increases and automatic spending cuts, due to kick in on Jan. 1. With less than a week remaining this year, time is now running out and the pressure on politicians to find a solution is building, as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned the U.S. will hit the debt ceiling on Monday, Dec. 31.

The two sides could work towards a "mini-deal" to postpone the effects of the fiscal cliff by extending tax cuts for taxpayers with incomes below $250,000, postponing the automatic spending cuts, and extending unemployment benefits.?

Meanwhile on the economic front, the consumer confidence index tumbled to 65.1 in December from a downwardly revised 71.5 in November, hitting a four-month low, according to the Conference Board.

Earlier, jobless claims fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 last week. Meanwhile, the four-week moving average tumbled to its lowest since March 2008.?

And new home sales rose 4.4 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted 377,000-unit annual rate, the fasts pace in 2-1/2 years, according to the Commerce Department.

Marvell Technology declined after a federal grand jury ruled the chipmaker infringed two patents held by Carnegie Mellon University and ordered the company to pay $1.17 billion in damages. In addition, at least two brokerages lowered their rating on the company.

Toyota Motor said it plans to settle a U.S. class-action lawsuit for $1.1 billion.

Domino's Pizza climbed after Oppenheimer raised its price target on the pizza chain to $50 from $44.

Hartford Financial Services edged higher after Stifel added the financial services company to its "select" list and raised its target price to $28 from $25.

BCD Semiconductor skyrocketed more than 90 percent after the chipmaker agreed to be bought by Diodes in a deal worth $151 million.?

In Europe, stocks rose in cautious trading after being closed for Christmas and Boxing Day. Meanwhile, in Asia, Japanese stocks hit a 21-month high as a weaker yen boosted export stocks. Sentiment in Asia was boosted as profits at China's factories jumped in November, helped by the recovery in the economy.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/stocks-bounce-back-house-reconvene-1C7753027

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Peace envoy Brahimi, Syria diplomats in Moscow talks

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will host Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi this week after Syrian officials held talks in Moscow on Thursday as part of a diplomatic drive to try to agree a plan to end the 21-month-old conflict, Russia's foreign ministry said.

Talks have moved to Moscow, a long-time Syria ally, after a flurry of meetings Brahimi held in Damascus this week, but the international envoy has disclosed little about his negotiations.

Brahimi, who saw Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power.

More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests in March last year, but which has descended into civil war.

However, past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad and an aide held talks at Russia's Foreign Ministry for less than two hours on Thursday, but declined to disclose any details of their visit.

A Russian Foreign Ministry source had said earlier that they would meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin's envoy for Middle East affairs.

Syrian and Lebanese sources said Makdad had been sent to Moscow to discuss the details of a peace plan proposed by Brahimi.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, played down the idea that a specific plan was on the table in Moscow talks, at least none agreed by Moscow and Washington.

"We plan to discuss a range of issues linked to a political and diplomatic settlement in Syria, including Brahimi's efforts aimed at ending the violence and the launch of a comprehensive national dialogue," Lukashevich told reporters.

'TRYING TO FEEL A WAY OUT'

Asked about rumors of a Russian-American plan to resolve the conflict, he said: "There has not been and is no such plan."

"In our talks with Mr. Brahimi and with our American colleagues, we are trying to feel a way out of this situation on the basis of our common plan of action that was agreed in Geneva in June."

World powers believe Russia, which has given Assad military and diplomatic aid to help him weather the uprising, has the ear of the Syrian government and must be a key player in peace talks.

Moscow has tried to distance itself from Assad in recent months and has said it is not propping him up, but Lukashevich reiterated its stance that Assad's exit from power could not be a precondition for negotiations.

Setting such a condition, he said, would violate the terms of an agreement reached by world powers in Geneva on June 30 that called for a transitional government in Syria.

"The biggest disagreement ... is that one side thinks Assad should leave at the start of the process - that is the U.S. position, and the other thinks his departure should be a result of the process - that would be the Russian position," Dmitry Trenin, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, told Reuters.

But Trenin said battlefield gains made by the Syrian rebels were narrowing the gap between Moscow and Washington.

On Saturday, Lavrov said Syria's civil war had reached a stalemate, saying international efforts to get Assad to quit would fail. Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels might win.

Lavrov has said this month that Russia had no intention of offering Assad asylum and would not act as messenger for other nations seeking his exit. He has also said Russia lacks the sway to persuade him to step down.

(Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/peace-envoy-brahimi-syria-diplomats-moscow-talks-103309221.html

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'Doctor Who' stamps to honor all 11 Doctors

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Good news, fans of the legendary sci-fi show "Doctor Who"! The 11 actors who've played the Doctor will now be on stamps! And, bad news! They won't be sold in the U.S., just in the U.K.! (Though Stateside fans and collectors will certainly buy them anyway.)

royalmail.com

"It's 50 years since a strange old man stepped out of a Police Box in a scrapyard down Totter's Lane, and the most beloved and exciting television series in the universe began," reads?the Royal Mail's website about the stamps, which will be available in March.

There's a stamp depicting each one of the 11 actors who've played the mysterious lead character, with the first two stamps, showing William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, in black-and-white. Curly-haired Tom Baker is perhaps the most associated with the role, since he played it the longest, from 1974 to 1981. His stamp appears to show just a hint of the famous long scarf he wore, which later became a major part of many a fan's Halloween repertoire.

royalmail.com

The Doctors will all be first-class British postage stamps, but four villains from the show -- the?Daleks, the Ood, the Weeping Angels and the Cybermen -- will also be honored with second-class stamps. The villain stamps will be sold on a sheet also including a first-class stamp featuring the TARDIS, the Doctor's time machine.

The BBC show originally ran from 1963 to 1989 and was brought back in 2005. Matt Smith, the current star, took over the role in 2010.

The stamps mark the show's 50th anniversary in 2013. The show's head writer, Stephen Moffat, told the BBC that "tremendous surprises" were in store for the program's landmark year, but also warned he wouldn't be giving anything away, saying "They wouldn't be surprises if I accidentally said them now, would they?"?

Are you a fan? Who's your favorite Doctor? Tell us on Facebook.

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2012/12/26/16169803-doctor-who-stamps-to-honor-all-11-doctors?lite

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Aisa bhi Hota Hai (Crime Show) ? 26th December 2012

Posted by Shoxee [ Administrator ZemTV ] on 26 December 2012 | Filed under Samaa News Tv

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A Spectacle Not Good for Anyone (talking-points-memo)

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?Locked-in? football coach returns home

BLACKPOOL FC?s former youth team coach who is battling a devastating illness has made it home in time for Christmas.

Gary Parkinson suffered a stroke in September 2010 and was diagnosed with ?locked-in? syndrome.

The ex-Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Everton and Bolton Wanderers star is unable to move, speak or swallow, but is now back with his family in Bolton after his home was revamped to allow him to be cared for by his family.

A lift was built to allow the 44-year-old access to his new bedroom, which has all the facilities he needs, while his kitchen and lounge were widened for better wheelchair access.

The family have fought planning regulations and red tape for the last 12 months to get the home up to standard.

Gary?s wife Debbie told The Gazette: ?Our first night back together as a family was lovely. Gary was lying in his bed smiling and the children were cracking jokes with him.

?It?s lovely and great to have him back for Christmas and we?re having regular meetings with the nurses about what?s going to happen so we can all enjoy the day.

?It?s busy and hectic having him here and every couple of hours we have nurses coming in who are caring for him day and night.?

Two nurses work split shifts to look after Blackpool?s former Head of Youth and the Professional Footballer?s Association have paid for a speech therapist to work with him in the hope he may speak again.

Father-of-three Gary is only able to communicate with his family through a machine.

The home?s improvements were made possible through thousands of pounds in donations which were raised via charity football matches and dinners held by former players and fans of the six clubs he has played for since 1985.

Debbie added: ?There?s going to be a lot of hard work and there?s still a lot of improvements to come.

?It?s not a case of living happily ever after because we still need to work with him to get him as comfortable as possible. We?ve all seen a change in him since he came home but I can see he is fatigued at the moment.

?It will take a couple of weeks before he is OK but he will build a tolerance up.?

Since arriving home, the family have all been able to attend their youngest daughter?s carol service.

Debbie added: ?It?s brilliant for us all to be back together.

?Christmas is a busy time but we want to be relaxing with him and be happy together.?

Source: http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/locked-in-football-coach-returns-home-1-5240317

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36% of UK households cutting back this Christmas | Latest UK Debt ...

by News Team on December 14th, 2012

Some 36 per cent of UK households have said they will spend less on Christmas this year.

Figures from Legal and General's MoneyMood Survey show that for the third year in a row, there has been a rise in the number of people cutting back as the festive period approaches. Indeed, it is the highest response since 2010.

Only 59 per cent of those asked have said they have enough money to meet the expense of Christmas this year, which includes both presents and celebrations. The rest are facing a struggle to make sure family members get some joy on December 25th.

However, individuals should avoid overstretching themselves, as this could lead to a financial hangover in the new year. Anyone who feels they cannot meet their repayment schedule should seek out debt advice as soon as possible.

A debt management plan could be the answer for some UK adults, as it offers them a way to reduce their monthly outgoings and make managing their arrears easier. Consumers need to owe more than ?1,500 to more than one creditor in order to qualify.

Across the UK, London, Wales and East Anglia are the three areas most having problems covering the cost of the Christmas period when compared to last year's figures.

Mark Gregory, Legal & General chief executive officer of savings, stated it should not come as a surprise that so many people are struggling to make ends meet. He stated one of the reason for this is the rise in petrol, which is making running a car more expensive than ever before.

The expert added 21 per cent of homes are in fuel poverty at the moment, while another 19 per cent said they are almost at this stage. "It's quite likely that higher fuel costs will have a significant impact on how the less well off households cope with the cost of Christmas," Mr Gregory remarked.

By Joe White

By News Team and is filed under Personal Debt.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.cleardebt.co.uk/news/36-of-uk-households-cutting_24662.php

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A tearful Obama: 'These children are our children' (CNN)

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Highlights from Egypt's draft constitution

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's draft constitution, which is being voted on in a referendum Saturday, is made up of an introduction, an 11-part preamble and 236 articles. Critics have raised concerns over issues including Islamic law and women's rights:

? Shariah (Islamic) law

Like a previous constitution, the draft states, "Principles of Islamic Shariah are the principal source of legislation." The draft adds, "The principles of Islamic Sharia include general evidence, foundational rules, rules of jurisprudence, and credible sources..." which critics say opens the door for legislation allowing imposition of strict Islamic law. Countering that is a vague article that reads, "Freedom of belief is an inviolable right. . The State shall guarantee the freedom to practice religious rites and to establish places of worship for the divine religions, as regulated by law."

? Role of clerics

The draft gives Islamic clerics unprecedented powers in this article: "Al-Azhar Senior Scholars are to be consulted in matters pertaining to Islamic law," referring to the most respected center of scholarship and rulings in Sunni Islam.

? Women's rights

The draft mentions women in the framework of the traditional Muslim family, adding, "The state shall ensure maternal and child health services free of charge, and enable the reconciliation between the duties of a woman toward her family and her work." Critics charge the draft fails to protect women from discrimination, but the preamble states, "?Equality and equal opportunities are established for all citizens, men and women, without discrimination or nepotism or preferential treatment, in both rights and duties."

? Civil rights

The draft contains language referring to public morals and values, implying that Islamic law would be the determining factor. An article forbids limiting the basic rights of individuals but adds that they "must be practiced in a manner not conflicting with" principles of religious law. There is also a ban on insulting "religious messengers and prophets," opening the door to arrests of bloggers and other activists.

? News media

Independent publications closed for a day to protest the lack of an article banning arrest of journalists for what they write. The draft has this: "Freedom of the press, printing, publication and mass media shall be guaranteed. The media shall be free and independent..."

?Religious minorities

The draft guarantees the practices of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, raising concerns of persecution of smaller sects. It also allows religious practices on condition that they do not "violate public order."

? Military

The president is the head of the national security council, but the defense minister is the commander in chief of the armed forces and "appointed from among its officers." That ensures the military an independent position. Control of the military budget is not mentioned.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/highlights-egypts-draft-constitution-190458145.html

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Cricket and MetroPCS now offering financing on select smartphones

Taking a very "un-carrier" approach, Cricket and MetroPCS recently introduced financing programs that allow prepaid customers to purchase high-end smartphones with a reduced upfront cost. Cricket has partnered with Progressive Finance to cover the cost of its devices, while Metro is using Billfloat as its lending option. Keeping things unconventional, these new programs do not use credit checks and instead only require that customers have a valid checking account.

Cricket customers whose purchase exceeds $200 can apply for financing at retail stores and authorized dealers. The program covers up to 90 percent of the premium with the upfront charges being the remaining balance and the first month of service. Loans are amortized for up to nine months, with interest waived on accounts paid off within the first 90 days of financing.

Continue reading Cricket and MetroPCS now offering financing on select smartphones

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It's our duty ? all of us ? to fight for the open web ? Tech News ...

When you use an app, or a platform like a mobile phone, or a social network, or a web service ? whether it?s from Google or Apple or Amazon or Facebook ? do you think about the extent to which it is open or closed? Or do you just think about how it looks, or what it lets you do, or whether your friends are using it? Most of us probably fall into the latter category, but as veteran blogger Anil Dash and others have pointed out recently, there are some good reasons why we should care about the future of the open web, and be concerned about a trend towards more closed networks. As natural as that trend might be from a commercial point of view, it is the antithesis of what made the internet so powerful.

In his post, Dash ? a former staffer at Typepad, one of the early blogging platforms, and co-founder of Thinkup and the media-consulting company Activate ? tries to outline some of the things that we have lost as the internet has changed from a wide-open network to a host of proprietary platforms and closed formats. Some are likely to resonate more with hard-core geeks than with ordinary users, but I think he makes a number of really important points about what we are giving up when we hand over so much of our online (and mobile and social) behavior to companies like Facebook, Apple and even Google, that would-be champion of openness.

1) Control over our online identities

As Dash notes, less than a decade ago, ?if you introduced a single-sign-in service that was run by a company, even if you documented the protocol and encouraged others to clone the service, you?d be described as introducing a tracking system worthy of the PATRIOT act.? Microsoft in particular spent billions trying to introduce a single sign-on platform for the web, and failed miserably in several different incarnations. And yet now, millions of people are more than happy to use their Facebook or Google identity as a default sign-on for almost every website and service they visit, which of course gives those companies oceans of valuable data.

2) Control over our personal data

In the early days of the consumer web, the idea that a single network or service would be able to control much of the data about you and your online behavior and purchasing habits ? even with your permission ? would have been almost unthinkable. And as Dash points out, those services that did have what we now call ?user-generated content? made it relatively easy for users to download or share the content they created, because that was the expectation. While Google makes a point of allowing users to download data via what it calls its internal ?data liberation front,? services like Facebook only allow access to some of the data they hold and block users from downloading other information (such as the email addresses of friends).

3) Control over where our content appears

Dash notes that the early days of the consumer web ? particularly with the rise of blogs and hosted platforms like Blogger and WordPress ? created a ?broad expectation that regular people might own their own identities by having their own websites, instead of being dependent on a few big sites.? But as networks like Twitter and Facebook and Google+ (and before them MySpace and Friendster and others) have become more prominent, many web users seem happy to hand over their content and much of their online behavior to platforms that are owned and controlled by a single corporation, and networks that in some cases are based on proprietary standards. As Dash points out, this is partly due to the fact that such services make it so easy to create and share content.

?Five years ago, if you wanted to show content from one site or app on your own site or app, you could use a simple, documented format to do so, without requiring a business-development deal or contractual agreement between the sites. Thus, user experiences weren?t subject to the vagaries of the political battles between different companies, but instead were consistently based on the extensible architecture of the web itself.?

If you don?t care whether it?s open, who will?

Although Dash doesn?t go into it in detail in his post, it?s worth pointing out that before the rise of the open and more personally-controlled consumer web that he describes, the way that many people experienced the internet was through closed and proprietary platforms like America Online and CompuServe ? a series of walled gardens that many have compared to the rise of Facebook ? and that persisted into newer technologies like instant messaging. Eventually more open services took over, as consumers shrugged off closed networks in favor of more open standards.

Law professor Tim Wu, who coined the term ?net neutrality,? has argued that technology markets (including earlier versions such as electricity and the automobile) often go through cycles of being open and closed. Companies that rose to prominence because of the open internet in many cases try to lock down their services once they have become successful, in order to make it harder for others to compete or to make monetization easier. This trend, however natural, is one of the reasons why some have criticized moves by networks like Twitter to close down or control the way their data is used and which other networks they inter-operate with.

The rise of mobile technology has made this kind of closed approach even more commonplace, in part because device makers and service providers like Apple and Amazon want to lock their users into their ecosystem as much as possible, so that they can recoup the costs of developing the devices and services they sell. But this approach involves even more proprietary methods than we are used to with almost any other technology platform, with app stores and services that are completely closed and centrally controlled (with the notable exception of Google?s Android platform).

But the garden is so beautiful, and the walls so distant

The most difficult part of this phenomenon is that many ? and perhaps even most ? users seem happy to live in Apple?s walled garden or Amazon?s closed ecosystem or Facebook?s proprietary network, because they are so appealing. In other words, the garden is beautifully maintained by its owner, and the walls are difficult to see until it?s too late. And open systems like Android and Linux just seem like? well, like a lot of work. But as blogging and open-web pioneer Dave Winer has argued, if we aren?t prepared to do the work, then we get the internet we deserve.

Why should we care? Because as some of the architects of the early internet have pointed out ? including the web?s creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Ethernet co-developer Vint Cerf, who has been lobbying against proposals by the United Nations aimed at regulating the internet ? openness is what made the internet so powerful in the first place. Without the ability to distribute information to almost anywhere, from almost anywhere, using open standards that supported multiple clients and services, we literally wouldn?t have the internet as we know it. Why are we all so quick to build walls and allow others to build them on our behalf? Says Dash:

?To the credit of today?s social networks, they?ve brought in hundreds of millions of new participants to these networks, and they?ve certainly made a small number of people rich. But they haven?t shown the web itself the respect and care it deserves, as a medium which has enabled them to succeed. And they?ve now narrowed the possibilites of the web for an entire generation of users who don?t realize how much more innovative and meaningful their experience could be.?

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Shutterstock/Luis Santos and Flickr user Jason Parks

Source: http://gigaom.com/2012/12/14/its-our-duty-all-of-us-to-fight-for-the-open-web/

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Pentax SMC FA 43mm f/1.9 Limited

By Jim Fisher

The Pentax SMC FA 43mm f/1.9 Limited lens ($749.98 direct) ?is a compact all-metal prime lens that can be used with Pentax D-SLRs and the?K-01??interchangeable lens camera. When used on an APS-C camera it captures a 64.5mm equivalent field of view, which makes it a long normal or short telephoto lens. Of course, you can also use it on 35mm film cameras, where it serves as a true normal lens?its focal length is equal to the diagonal measurement of a 35mm film frame.

The lens is really small. It measures just 1.1 by 2.5 inches (HD), although its height is extended by about a half-inch if you opt to use the included screw-in metal hood. It weighs in at 5.5 ounces, which may seem heavy for its size until you realize that the barrel is made of metal rather than plastic. There's no internal focus motor, instead the lens has a screw-drive system?which makes autofocus noticeably slower than lenses with built-in motors.?The filter thread is 49mm in size, and there's an aperture ring that allows you to use the lens with full aperture control on a vintage Pentax film body or a compact interchangeable lens camera via a third-party adapter.

Imatest shows that the lens is incredibly sharp when tested with the Pentax K-30 . Even at f/1.9 the lens resolves more than 2,000 lines per picture height?higher than the 1,800 lines required for a sharp image. Stopping down to f/2.8 increases the score to 2,700 lines, and the lens crosses the 3,000 line mark by f/4. This is even more impressive when you consider the size of the lens. It's not the thinnest lens on the market, but it is one of the few pancake designs with an aperture that is faster than f/2.

If Pentax had a full-frame digitial body in its lineup, the SMC FA 43mm f/1.9 would be an easy pick for our Editors' Choice award, despite the rather slow and noisy autofocus that goes hand-in-hand with a screw-drive system. Unfortunately, you can only mount it to an APS-C digital body at this time, which limits its field of view, making the lens more of a short telephoto. Many Pentax shooters have turned to the SMC FA 31mm f/1.8 Limited ?as a standard-angle prime for this reason?it's equally impressive from an optical standpoint, but is bigger, heavier, and more expensive.

More Digital Camera Reviews:
??? Pentax SMC FA 31mm f/1.8 Limited
??? Pentax SMC FA 43mm f/1.9 Limited
??? Pentax K-5 II
??? Pentax K-5 IIs
??? Sony 10-18mm f/4 Wide-Angle Zoom Lens
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/2DVGR9DtSas/0,2817,2406223,00.asp

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Parasites Use Sophisticated Biochemistry to Take Over Their Hosts

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Parasites that take over hosts, effectively turning them into zombies, are far from rare. But only recently have scientists started to work out the sophisticated biochemistry that the parasites use.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/science/parasites-use-sophisticated-biochemistry-to-take-over-their-hosts.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Alan Alda and kids ask: 'What is time?'

Actor Alan Alda has a question for scientists around the world. He wants to know what time is.

Oh, and he wants the explanation in words an 11-year-old would understand.

Alda, known for his roles on the television show "M*A*S*H" and "The West Wing," has turned his interest toward science communication as a founding member of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York. Last year, he challenged scientists to answer the question "What is flame?"

1. Science news from NBCNews.com

   1. Ancient copy of Ten Commandments goes digital

      Updated 116 minutes ago 12/13/2012 12:53:34 AM +00:00 The Cambridge Digital Library has just made available thousands of pages from fragile religious manuscripts for Internet users' perusal, including a 2,000-year-old copy of the Ten Commandments, known as the "Nash Papyrus."

   2. Solving a 100-year-old scientific hoax
   3. Alan Alda and kids ask: 'What is time?'
   4. First cheesemakers date back 7,500 years

That query was inspired by a question Alda himself asked a teacher as an 11-year-old boy. The answer he received at the time ? "oxidation" ? meant nothing to him, so he launched the Flame Challenge last year to get a better answer. The winner of the contest, University of Innsbruck physics doctoral student Ben Ames, made a song and video to explain the concept.

This year, Alda and the Center for Communicating Science crowdsourced questions from today's 11-year-olds. When they got a number of queries about time, time travel and the beginning of time, they decided to distill the question into a deceptively simply one: What is time ?

"They're asking a very deep question this year (What is Time?!)," Alda wrote on the Center's website. "It's going to be fun to see how scientists around the world answer that one in everyday language."

Scientists are welcomed to send in their responses by March 1, 2013, using video, song, animation or any other tool that might help make sense of the question. The only criteria: The answer must interest and inform 11-year-olds, who will judge the answers and choose the final winner.

In a video on the site, Alda encourages fourth- through sixth-graders to become judges: "The wonderful thing about this contest is the entries are going to be judged by real 11-year-olds. So this is one time when people your age get a chance to tell people their age 'No, good try, but you didn't quite do it,' or 'Great try, and you win the contest.'"

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50180844/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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In England, More Jedi Knights than Atheists and Pagans Combined

Just-released Census figures reveal that 176,632 people?English and Welsh self-identify as ?Jedi Knights,? practitioners of the mystical pseudo-scientific pseudo-religion of the Star Wars franchise. ?For what it?s worth, that?s three times more than the number of self-identified Pagans, and roughly six times more than the number of self-identified atheists in those countries.

Have you asked Yoda into your heart? ?Perhaps you should visualize a higher midichlorian count. ?As the Telegraph reports:

Following a?nationwide campaign, Jedi made it onto the 2001 census, with 390,127 people identifying themselves a decade ago as followers of the fictional Star Wars creed.

Although the number of Jedis has dropped by more than 50 per cent over the previous 10 years, they are still the most selected ?alternative? faith on the Census, and constitute 0.31% of all people?s stated religious affiliation in England and Wales.

I?m sure we?ll see articles soon lamenting the exodus of followers from the Jedi faith. ?The Jedi do seem to have a hard time protecting children in their Temples and convincing their teenagers to resist the temptations of the Dark Side.

It?s hard to know how seriously to take this. ?But George Lucas essentially took some mythic tropes, stuck them together with vague New Agey concepts of ?balance? and ?flow? and ?let go? and ?the force,? gave it an ostensible scientific basis in, you know, the science of midichlorians, and then portrayed heroic monks of the faith combatting unmistakable evil. ?It?s designed to be appealing. ?The Jedi Church websites says: ?The Jedi Church believes that there is one all powerful force that binds all things in the universe together. ?The Jedi religion is something innate inside everyone [sic] of us, the Jedi Church believes that our sense of morality is innate. ?So quiet your mind and listen to the force within you!?

If you?re not going to believe anything else, why not believe in the Jedi faith? ?What do you have to lose?

The Census report goes on to say that over six thousand people subscribe to ?the Heavy Metal religion,? which was devised in 2010 by Metal Hammer magazine. ?Far, far more common (to the tune of 13.8 million) were those who refused to identify with any faith, ticking ?No religion,? and 4 million did not answer the question.

It?s easy to scoff at this, of course (and we can count the minutes until an atheist, or perhaps a Jedi Knight, leaves a silly note that Christian beliefs are just as absurd). ?It would also be easy to cite G.K. Chesterton?s famous (and unsourced) epigram that the problem with those who cease to believe in God is not that they will believe nothing, but that they will believe anything. ?Gallup?s 2008 ?What Americans Really Believe? study (with Baylor?s Institutes for the Study of Religion) found that the ?irreligious? were far more likely than evangelicals to believe in paranormal pseudoscience like palm reading and divination, haunted houses and Atlantis and mythical monsters like Bigfoot and Loch Ness. ?Or witness the ridiculous enthusiasm today for the Mayan Apocalypse theory.

Jesus, however, rarely walked the easy road. ?I wonder what Jesus would have thought of this? ?If the imitation of Christ is our guide to action, what should our response be?

Jesus was not afraid to correct the Samaritan Woman he met at the well, but he addressed her more pastorally than pedagogically. ?He saw in her actions a yearning for God and a confusion over where God is to be found. ?I believe that Jesus would look with compassion on those who are lost and those who are confused, those who are afflicted with doubts and fears.

I?m less disturbed by the 176,000 who ticked off ?Jedi Knight? than the 14 million who chose ?No religion.? ?In fact, you might say that the Census does more to challenge than to confirm the epigram of Pseudo-Chesterton. ?But it?s more complicated than that. ?What?else?do those 14 million believe? ?What are their beliefs and superstitions? ?Perhaps they participate in the religion of celebrity-worship. ?Perhaps they worship themselves. ?Perhaps they venerate wealth and leisure. ?Perhaps they have placed their faith in a politician or a party, a cause or a philosophy.

I would much rather see people seeking, restlessly seeking, than ?resting? in faithlessness or losing themselves in materialism and petty distractions. ?What do Christians say to those who claim they have no need for faith?

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philosophicalfragments/2012/12/12/in-england-more-jedi-knights-than-atheists-and-pagans-combined/

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Man dies after being dumped in trash compactor

By NBC News staff

Officials say a man in Texas is dead after being dumped into a garbage truck's compactor on Wednesday morning.

The man was reportedly sleeping in a trash bin when its contents were dumped into the truck's compactor, NBCDFW.com reported. Police say the incident happened before 7 a.m. local time Wednesday outside an auto parts store in Fort Worth, according to The Dallas Morning News.

When the truck crushed its load, the garbage truck driver reportedly heard a screaming man, NBCDFW.com reported.

---

Fort Worth Police Department Spokesperson Sharron Neal said the man was transported to an area hospital where he later died.?Neal could not confirm to NBC News whether or not the man was homeless.

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The Tarrant County Medical Examiner will determine his identity and the cause of the man's death.

Temperatures in the area dropped into the 20s overnight Tuesday, according to NBCDFW.com.

NBCDFW.com's Frank Heinz,?Christina Miralla and Kevin Stewart contributed to this story.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/12/15867621-man-dies-after-being-dumped-in-texas-trash-trucks-compactor?lite

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Real Estate in Cuba: Buying and Selling Without Realtors or the MLS

?

Try to imagine a real estate market without real estate brokerages or an MLS. It would be like the Wild West all over again with no restrictions, no law, and no way to determine what your real estate is really worth. Welcome to the real estate market in Cuba.

?

I was reading an article in the November issue of National Geographic when I stumbled upon a photo of how real estate is bought and sold in Cuba. The photo showed a group of people gathered around a tree with signs pinned to it, some of them holding their own signs. The caption read, ?For the first time in decades, Cubans are able to buy and sell real estate. The make-shift real estate signage has converted the park into a bazaar of free market real estate.?

?

Photo Credit Lacapitalmdp.com

The government essentially legalized the real estate marketplace in Cuba last November, and since then, there has been a frenzy of activity among buyers and sellers. Cubans are restricted to selling real estate only to citizens that live in Cuba, or to permanent residents of the island. But without any real estate brokerages or a MLS, it has been difficult to create a level playing field. There are real estate agents on every corner, but none of them has a legal presence or license. And without a way to value property in Cuba, buyers and sellers have no idea what the value of the real estate is.

?

In the U.S., the real estate market is a complex and sophisticated web of infinite information, and is also highly regulated. For those that work in the real estate industry in the U.S., it is difficult to imagine life without an MLS or licensed agents. In Cuba, the freedom to buy and sell property is so new to the Country and its citizens, that there are essentially no rules.

?

Without an organized listing service and licensed brokerages to regulate the real estate market, Cubans have invented their own methods for buying and selling real estate. Some people will stand for hours in the local park or on a street corner holding a hand-written real estate sign. Others will simply nail a rudimentary real estate sign to a tree or a signpost in the City, or hire young children to pass out hand-written flyers.

?

Take a moment to imagine a life in real estate without fancy signage, licensed agents, or a formal marketplace to buy and sell. This is the reality of real estate in Cuba today.

?

Corey Curwick Dutton, MBA. Real Estate Lender for Private Money Utah
Corey Ann Curwick is a private money consultant for?Private Money Utah, a real estate lender based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Corey is from Austin, Texas and is an MBA Graduate of the prestigious Thunderbird School of International Management. An authority in the private money lending industry, Corey provides educational resources for investors who use hard money loans in their real estate investing activities. Before she joined Private Money Utah, Corey was the President of an investment education company in Utah called Bray-Conn Investments LLC. In this role, Corey organized classes, which taught investors how to invest in five asset classes. ?In her free time, Corey enjoys skiing, snowboarding, and mountain biking in the beautiful Utah outdoors.

Short URL: http://www.thenichereport.com/?p=12701

Source: http://www.thenichereport.com/blog/real-estate-in-cuba-buying-and-selling-without-realtors-or-the-mls/

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Farmington Girls Basketball vs. Platt | Farmington Sports ...

Farmington High School is a standards-based school intent on graduating students of high academic acheivement. Recently the school district has extended the town's focus to include a civic component, which will produce the type of graduates employers are looking for: self-motivated, responsible, communicative and innovative.

In addition to high GPAs and outstanding test scores, Farmington High School is noted for its art and music programs. Unbeatable soccer teams are a hallmark of the town and the high school's boys and girls teams are both known around the state.

Despite several years of budget cuts, Farmington High School, led by Principal Timothy Breslin, continues to offer a broad range of sports and non-academic programs.

One note-worthy fact is that 9.9% of the school's 2008 students came from homes where English was not the primary language.

Source: http://farmington.patch.com/events/farmington-girls-basketball-vs-platt

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The $249 Bose SoundDock Series III Is Ready For Your iPhone 5

My fellow iPhone 5 owners, our long national nightmare is over. Bose finally has a speaker dock with a Lightning connector. Called the SoundDock Series III, it's only $249.95. No more Airplay for music! No more dock connector to lightning adapter! We can finally dock our phones like we used to until Apple decided to screw everything up.

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

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Substrate patterning creates p-n junctions in graphene

Dec. 9, 2012 ? The electronic properties of graphene films are directly affected by the characteristics of the substrates on which they are grown or to which they are transferred. Researchers are taking advantage of this to create graphene p-n junctions by transferring films of the promising electronic material to substrates that have been patterned by compounds that are either strong electron donors or electron acceptors.

A low temperature, controllable and stable method has been developed to dope graphene films using self-assembled monolayers (SAM) that modify the interface of graphene and its support substrate. Using this concept, a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has created graphene p-n junctions -- which are essential to fabricating devices -- without damaging the material's lattice structure or significantly reducing electron/hole mobility.

The graphene was grown on a copper film using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a process that allows synthesis of large-scale films and their transfer to desired substrates for device applications. The graphene films were transferred to silicon dioxide substrates that were functionalized with the self-assembled monolayers.

Information about creating graphene p-n junctions using self-assembled monolayers was presented on November 28, 2012 at the Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society. Papers describing aspects of the work were also published in September 2012 in the journals ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Funding for the research came from the National Science Foundation, through the Georgia Tech Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and through separate research grants.

"We have been successful at showing that you can make fairly well doped p-type and n-type graphene controllably by patterning the underlying monolayer instead of modifying the graphene directly," said Clifford Henderson, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. "Putting graphene on top of self-assembled monolayers uses the effect of electron donation or electron withdrawal from underneath the graphene to modify the material's electronic properties."

The Georgia Tech research team working on the project includes faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from three different schools. In addition to Henderson, professors who are part of the team include Laren Tolbert from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Samuel Graham from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The project team also includes Hossein Sojoudi, a postdoctoral fellow, and Jose Baltazar, a graduate research assistant.

Creating n-type and p-type doping in graphene -- which has no natural bandgap -- has led to development of several approaches. Scientists have substituted nitrogen atoms for some of the carbon atoms in the graphene lattice, compounds have been applied to the surface of the graphene, and the edges of graphene nanoribbons have been modified. However, most of these techniques have disadvantages, including disruption of the lattice -- which reduces electron mobility -- and long-term stability issues.

"Any time you put graphene into contact with a substrate of any kind, the material has an inherent tendency to change its electrical properties," Henderson said. "We wondered if we could do that in a controlled way and use it to our advantage to make the material predominately n-type or p-type. This could create a doping effect without introducing defects that would disrupt the material's attractive electron mobility."

Using conventional lithography techniques, the researchers created patterns from different silane materials on a dielectric substrate, usually silicon oxide. The materials were chosen because they are either strong electron donors or electron acceptors. When a thin film of graphene is placed over the patterns, the underlying materials create charged sections in the graphene that correspond to the patterning.

"We were able to dope the graphene into both n-type and p-type materials through an electron donation or withdrawal effect from the monolayer," Henderson explained. "That doesn't lead to the substitutional defects that are seen with many of the other doping processes. The graphene structure itself is still pristine as it comes to us in the transfer process."

The monolayers are bonded to the dielectric substrate and are thermally stable up to 200 degrees Celsius with the graphene film over them, Sojoudi noted. The Georgia Tech team has used 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (PFES) for patterning. In principle, however, there are many other commercially-available materials that could also create the patterns.

"You can build as many n-type and p-type regions as you want," Sojoudi said. "You can even step the doping controllably up and down. This technique gives you control over the doping level and what the dominant carrier is in each region."

The researchers used their technique to fabricate graphene p-n junctions, which was verified by the creation of field-effect transistors (FET). Characteristic I-V curves indicated the presence of two separate Dirac points, which indicated an energy separation of neutrality points between the p and n regions in the graphene, Sojoudi said.

The group uses chemical vapor deposition to create thin films of graphene on copper foil. A thick film of PMMA was spin-coated atop the graphene, and the underlying copper was then removed. The polymer serves as a carrier for the graphene until it can be placed onto the monolayer-coated substrate, after which it is removed.

Beyond developing the doping techniques, the team is also exploring new precursor materials that could allow CVD production of graphene at temperatures low enough to permit fabrication directly on other devices. That could eliminate the need for transferring the graphene from one substrate to another.

A low-cost, low-temperature means of producing graphene could also allow the films to find broader applications in displays, solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes, where large sheets of graphene would be needed.

"The real goal is to find ways to make graphene at lower temperatures and in ways that allow us to integrate it with other devices, either silicon CMOS or other materials that couldn't tolerate the high temperatures required for the initial growth," Henderson said. "We are looking at ways to make graphene into a useful electronic or opto-electronic material at low temperatures and in patterned forms."

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants CHE-0822697, CHE-0848833 and CMMI-0927736 and the Georgia Tech Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.

CITATIONS: Sojoudi, Hossein, Creating Graphene p-n Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers, Applied Materials & Interfaces, dx.doi.org/10.1021/am301138v and Baltazar, Jose, Facile Formation of Graphene P-N Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp3045737.

Research News Georgia Institute of Technology 177 North Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0181

Writer: John Toon

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications, via Newswise. The original article was written by John Toon.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal References:

1. Jose Baltazar, Hossein Sojoudi, Sergio A. Paniagua, Janusz Kowalik, Seth R. Marder, Laren M. Tolbert, Samuel Graham, Clifford L. Henderson. Facile Formation of Graphene P?N Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2012; 116 (36): 19095 DOI: 10.1021/jp3045737
2. Hossein Sojoudi, Jose Baltazar, Laren M. Tolbert, Clifford L. Henderson, Samuel Graham. Creating Graphene p?n Junctions Using Self-Assembled Monolayers. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2012; 4 (9): 4781 DOI: 10.1021/am301138v

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electronics/~3/3L1KebxFHZw/121210101414.htm

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Making use of Online Marketing In The Best Way ? Darul Uloom ...

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Source: http://darululoomnewcastle.co.za/?p=13186

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Singer feared dead in Mexican plane crash

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ? Mexico's music world mourned Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer presumed killed in a plane crash whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles had made her a Mexican-American superstar.

Authorities have not confirmed her death, but Rivera's relatives in the U.S. say they have few doubts that she was on the Learjet 25 that disintegrated on impact Sunday in rugged territory in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico.

"My son Lupillo told me that effectively it was Jenni's plane that crashed and that everyone on board died," her father, Pedro Rivera told dozens of reporters gathered in front of his Los Angeles-area home. "I believe my daughter's body is unrecognizable."

He said that his son would fly to Monterrey early Monday to identify her presumed remains

Messages of condolence poured in from fellow musicians and celebrities.

Mexican songstress and actress Lucero wrote on her Twitter account: "What terrible news! Rest in peace ... My deepest condolences for her family and friends." Rivera's colleague on the Mexican show "The Voice of Mexico," pop star Paulina Rubio, said on her Twitter account: "My friend! Why? There is no consolation. God, please help me!"

Born in Long Beach, California, Rivera was at the peak of her career as perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated regional style influenced by the norteno, cumbia and ranchero styles.

A 43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, the woman known as the "Diva de la Banda" was known for her frank talk about her struggles to give a good life to her children despite a series of setbacks.

She was recently divorced from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and she publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked her in 2011.

Her openness about her personal troubles endeared her to millions in the U.S. and Mexico.

"I am the same as the public, as my fans," she told The Associated Press in an interview last March.

Rivera sold 15 million records, and recently won two Billboard Mexican Music Awards: Female Artist of the Year and Banda Album of the Year for "Joyas prestadas: Banda." She was nominated for Latin Grammys in 2002, 2008 and 2011.

Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said "everything points toward" the wreckage belonging to the plane carrying Rivera and six other people to Toluca, outside Mexico City, from Monterrey, where the singer had just given a concert.

"There is nothing recognizable, neither material nor human" in the wreckage found in the state of Nuevo Leon, Ruiz Esparza said. The impact was so powerful that the remains of the plane "are scattered over an area of 250 to 300 meters. It is almost unrecognizable."

A mangled California driver's license with Rivera's name and picture was found in the crash site debris.

No cause was given for the plane's crash, but its wreckage was found near the town of Iturbide in Mexico's Sierra Madre Oriental, where the terrain is very rough.

The Learjet 25, number N345MC, took off from Monterrey at 3:30 a.m. local time and was reported missing about 10 minutes later. It was registered to Starwood Management of Las Vegas, Nevada, according to FAA records. It was built in 1969 and had a current registration through 2015.

Also believed aboard the plane were her publicist, Arturo Rivera, her lawyer, makeup artist and the flight crew.

Though drug trafficking was the theme of some of her songs, she was not considered a singer of "narco corridos," or ballads glorifying drug lords like other groups, such as Los Tigres del Norte. She was better known for singing about her troubles in love and disdain for men.

Her parents were Mexicans who had migrated to the United States. Two of her five brothers, Lupillo and Juan Rivera, are also well-known singers of grupero music.

She studied business administration and formally debuted on the music scene in 1995 with the release of her album "Chacalosa". Due to its success, she recorded two more independent albums, "We Are Rivera" and "Farewell to Selena," a tribute album to slain singer Selena that helped expand her following.

At the end of the 1990s, Rivera was signed by Sony Music and released two more albums. But widespread success came for her when she joined Fonovisa and released her 2005 album titled "Partier, Rebellious and Daring."

Besides being a singer, she is also a businesswoman and actress, appearing in the indie film Filly Brown, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, as the incarcerated mother of Filly Brown.

She was filming the third season of "I love Jenni," which followed her as she shared special moments with her children and as she toured through Mexico and the United States. She also has the reality shows: "Jenni Rivera Presents: Chiquis and Raq-C" and her daughter's "Chiquis 'n Control."

In 2009, she was detained at the Mexico City airport when she declared $20,000 in cash but was really carrying $52,167. She was taken into custody. She said it was an innocent mistake and authorities gave her the benefit of the doubt and released her.

In 2011, her brother Juan assaulted a drunken fan at a popular fair in Guanajuato. In the face of heavy criticism among her fans and on social networks, Rivera publicly apologized for the incident during a concert in Mexico City, telling her fans: "Thank you for accepting me as I am, with my virtues and defects."

On Saturday night, Rivera had given a concert before thousands of fans in Monterrey. After the concert she gave a press conference during which she spoke of her emotional state following her recent divorce from former Major League Baseball pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who played for teams including the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

"I can't get caught up in the negative because that destroys you. Perhaps trying to move away from my problems and focus on the positive is the best I can do. I am a woman like any other and ugly things happen to me like any other woman," she said Saturday night. "The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up."

Rivera had announced in October that she was divorcing Loaiza after two years of marriage.

There have been several high-profile crashes involving Learjets, known as swift, longer-distance passenger aircraft popular with corporate executives, entertainers and government officials.

A Learjet carrying pro-golfer Payne Stewart and five others crashed in northeastern South Dakota in 1999. Investigators said the plane lost cabin pressure and all on board died after losing consciousness for lack of oxygen. The aircraft flew for several hours on autopilot before running out of fuel and crashing in a corn field.

Former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker was severely injured in a 2008 Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people.

That same year, a Learjet slammed into rush-hour traffic in a posh Mexico City neighborhood, killing Mexico's No. 2 government official, Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, and eight others on the plane, plus five people on the ground.

___

Associated Press Writer Galia Garcia-Palafox and Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report from Mexico City.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-feared-dead-mexican-plane-crash-035100603.html

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