This short, focused book teaches you how to use Siri from the ground up. You’ll learn how to achieve the the highest...
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Since getting busted for burgling Audrina Patridge's house two years ago, Rachel Lee has had a lot of time to think.
And, according to Lee, she has since seen the error of her ways.
"I wanted to let you know that I am very sorry for what I did," the accused Bling Ring member wrote to L.A. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler before he sentenced her to a maximum four years in prison for felony burglary. "I am sorry to the people I have hurt and for all the trouble I have caused."
So, what now? Besides sit in jail, that is?
Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy lead the criminal crew. Also this week: "Rock Center" and "Project Runway All Stars" premiere; "Cars 2" drives on to DVD.
READ: Jermaine Jackson's Jewelry Heist ? The Work of the Bling Ring?
"I have learned so much from this life journey," Lee continued. "The last two years of my life has changed me from an irresponsible and childish drug and alcohol addict towards becoming a responsible adult.... I was really messed up from so much substance abuse as well as poor choices of friends."
Read the letter
Lee was one of six people linked to a series of burglaries of celebrity homes, including those of Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green, Ashley Tisdale and Rachel Bilson. The culprits made off with millions of dollars worth of jewelry, clothing, watches, electronics, firearms, etc., only some of which has been returned to the celebrity owners.
"Pretty Wild" star Alexis Neiers spent 30 days of a six-month sentence in jail for her role in the Bloom burglary, while the rest of Lee's alleged accomplices ? Nicholas Prugo, Diana Tamaya, Courtney Leigh Ames and Roy Lopez Jr. ? have pleaded not guilty and are due in court for a pretrial hearing Nov. 18.
Lee pleaded no contest to residential burglary, after which one felony count of conspiracy to commit burglary and two counts of receiving stolen property were dismissed.
"As I prepare to serve my time," Lee's letter to Fidler continues, "I am now planning what I can do during my jail term as far as education, training and service to our community so that I can come back to my family and society as a productive person. If possible, I would like to serve my time in a facility where I can receive education, counseling and job training."
READ: "Pretty Wild" Star Alexis Neiers' Rehab Plan: Drug-Counselor Training!
"Thank you very much for reading this letter," Lee concluded. "I hope to never stand before you in another case and I am going to work very hard to make that happen."
Fidler sentenced Lee to state prison and the type of rehabilitation opportunities offered depend on the facility where she ends up.
GALLERY: Mug-Shot Mania
Her probation report, dated Oct. 25, stated that Lee had never before shown any remorse for her crime, nor did she return any stolen property to the police, hence a recommendation that Fidler give her the maximum sentence.
"Although the defendant is somewhat youthful and has a limited criminal history," the report states, "there are significant factors that support a recommendation for state prison; among them are her leadership in a sophisticated burglary ring that took property in excess of two million dollars and her refusal to cooperate with police detectives."
? 2011 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45074078/ns/today-entertainment/
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ST. LOUIS (Reuters) ? Play by play of Friday's seventh and deciding game in Major League Baseball's World Series.
Pre-game:
The Major League Baseball season has come down to one last game: Game Seven of the World Series, between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers at a packed Busch Stadium.
This is what the rival managers said just before the game.
Tony La Russa (Cardinals): "Whoever is not nervous should not participate because that means you don't care. Nervous is good. Here is the final piece, you participate in a Game Seven, that's as good as it gets. I plan to enjoy the hell out of it."
Ron Washingon (Rangers): "Well, if Tony is nervous, then how can Ron Washington not be nervous? I wanted to make them (Rangers players) understand that the prize that we're trying to get is still in front of us, and this series started off seven games. Two teams, very equal are playing, we've got seven games, so we'll bounce back."
- - -
Starting Lineups:
Texas: 1. Ian Kinsler (2B), 2. Elvis Andrus (SS), 3. Josh Hamilton (CF), 4. Michael Young (1B), 5. Adrian Beltre (3B), 6. Nelson Cruz (RF), 7. Mike Napoli (C), 8. David Murphy (LF), 9. Matt Harrison P.
St. Louis: 1. Ryan Theriot (2B), 2. Allen Craig (LF), 3. Albert Pujols (1B), 4. Lance Berkman (RF), 5. David Freese (3B), 6. Yadier Molina (C), 7. Rafael Furcal (SS), 8. Skip Schumaker (CF), 9. Chris Carpenter (P)
- - -
1st inning:
Kinsler led off with single to left off Cardinals starter Carpenter but was picked off first. Andrus walked and scored on a double to right by Hamilton, who crossed home on Young's bloop double to right.
Rangers starter Harrison retired Theriot and Craig before walking Pujols and Berkman. Freese delivered them both with a double to left-center.
Texas 2, St. Louis 2
- - -
2nd inning:
Napoli led off with single and was forced at second on Murphy's ground out. A sacrifice bunt by Harrison moved Murphy into scoring position but Andrus bounced back to the pitcher to end the threat.
Furcal led off with a single but was erased when Schumaker grounded into a double play. Carpenter struck out to end the inning.
Texas 2, St. Louis 2
- - -
3rd inning:
Carpenter retired Hamilton and Young before hitting Beltre with a pitch on his left arm. Cruz flied out to left to end the inning.
With one out, Craig belted an outside pitch over the right-center field fence for a 390-foot home run that put the Cardinals in front.
St. Louis 3, Texas 2
- - -
4th inning:
Carpenter retired the Rangers in order, including strikeouts of Napoli and Harrison.
With one out, Molina and Furcal stroked back-to-back singles and moved up to second and third on Schumaker's ground out. Carpenter flied out to right to end threat.
St. Louis 3, Texas 2
- - -
5th inning:
Kinsler singled to right and took second on a sacrifice bunt by Andrus. He was stranded after Hamilton's foul pop to third and a strike out by Young.
Feldman relieved Harrison. With one out, Craig walked and Pujols was hit by a pitch. Berkman grounded out and Freese was intentionally walked to load bases. Molina walked to force in run. CJ Wilson replaced Feldman. Wilson hit Furcal with first pitch to force in run. Schumaker struck out.
St. Louis 5, Texas 2
- - -
6th inning:
With one out, left-fielder Craig leaped at the wall and robbed Cruz of a home run. Napoli flied to left to end the inning.
Easy inning for left-hander Wilson as Carpenter grounded out, Theriot flied to center and Craig struck out swinging.
St. Louis 5, Texas 2
- - -
(Reporting by Larry Fine and Steve Ginsburg; Editing by Julian Linden; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Salma Hayek has been many things: movie star, director, producer, wife and mother. On Friday, she adds clawless and lawless to that list as the fierce, female heroine Kitty Softpaws in new animated film, "Puss in Boots."
The movie stars Antonio Banderas as the swashbuckling cat Puss with the sexy voice and keen ability to make sad eyes who was first introduced to movie fans in 2004's "Shrek 2."
In this spinoff, Puss teams with Kitty Softpaws, a declawed cat thief, and Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifiankis) to thwart the evil efforts of Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris) who are looking to plant magic beans and steal a Golden Goose.
Reuters sat down with the 45-years-young Hayek over a carton of jellybeans to talk about her first foray into animation, her 4-year-old daughter Valentina with French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault and what life is like as a mom living in Paris.
Q: How was your first time doing an animated movie?
A: "It was incredible! You don't have to wake up two hours earlier than everyone else because you're a girl and your hair and make-up takes longer to do. You don't have to figure out what to wear. You don't have to look good. You don't have to be on a diet. You just go and do it. That was so liberating!"
Q: Did you create a specific voice for the role?
A: "No. I was intending to use my voice because my accent is a little bit like a cartoon already!"
Q: Usually in animation, each person records their voice separately but you and Antonio worked together. Why?
A: "So when Antonio improvises something, I can actually defend myself! And whatever comment I make, he can top it. It's very alive and fresh."
Q: Your daughter must think you're so cool!
A: "Now I've made it in her eyes. She's so proud of me. I get almost emotional when I see her take the (cat) doll and anybody that walks into the house she says: 'This is my mom. My mom made this character, Kitty Softpaws, and she's the voice and she made her so great!'"
Q: So your daughter understands the tricks of moviemaking?
A: "She understands now, but before she did not and it was a bit like explaining the whole Santa thing. ... When she was two, she wanted to meet Dora (the Explorer) and Boots (her sidekick monkey). When I brought her (the costumed actors dressed up as) Dora and Boots, she came to me and said in my ear: 'Mom, that is not Dora. And that's definitely not a monkey. That's a stuffed animal. They lied to you.' And I'm like, 'How come it works for all the other mothers?'"
Q: You haven't worked much since giving birth, beyond last year's Adam Sandler film, "Grown-Ups."
A: "Yes, and even after that, I didn't work for a year. I'll work if something comes along, but you get more picky in the things you choose because you're having such a good time being a mom. And I was really busy launching a beauty line, Nuance. It was so much work."
Q: But now you have four movies coming out after this.
A: "I did a Spanish film ('The Spark of Life') a French film ('Americano') a comedy with Kevin James ('Here Comes the Boom') and a movie with Oliver Stone called 'Savages.' I never want to work like I worked this past year again!"
Q: I thought you were enjoying motherhood!
A: "The beauty line was supposed to come out before I did the movies, but that didn't happen. Three of the films were supposed to go last year but got pushed to this year. When I finished them I said, 'OK, I am done.' But then Oliver Stone offered me this once in a lifetime role playing the queen of the drug cartels. How do you say 'no' to that?"
Q: Now, your home base in Paris and you're working in European cinema like 'Americano.' Do you miss the U.S.?
A: "Sometimes I do, but I'm very happy being there. My husband is great and it's good for my daughter. Once you create a family, you feel that home is where your family is."
Q: Your husband's company owns luxury brands like Gucci, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Does that mean you get all the designer clothing and handbags you want?
A: "(Laughs) Yes, I do, but my friends are more happy about that than me. That's their thing. They actually make fun of me and say, 'How did you -- the least fashionista out of all of us -- land that guy?' But it was not about that. The thing that excited me most about him is he has a soccer team. When I found that out, I was like, 'Okay, now you're cool.' That's what did it for me.'
Q: Does Valentina display a penchant for acting? Fashion?
A: "I wish I could tell you different, but she loves to act, to sing, to dance, to dress up, to direct. She totally understands the dynamic of a set. When we were shooting 'Here Comes the Boom,' a couple of times the director even let her say 'action.' She was not embarrassed and takes it very seriously. She sits in front of the monitor to watch take after take. She's very interested."
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is outlining a plan Wednesday to allow millions of student loan recipients to lower their payments and consolidate their loans, in hopes of easing the burden of the No. 2 source of household debt.
The move to assist struggling graduates and students could help Obama shore up re-election support among young voters, an important voting bloc in his 2008 campaign, and appeal to their parents, too. Student loan debt also is a common concern voiced by Occupy Wall Street protesters.
The loans have become particularly painful for many amid the nation's economic woes, high unemployment and soaring tuition costs. They are second only to mortgages as a portion of Americans' debt, coming in ahead of credit cards.
Obama's planned announcement in Denver comes the same day as a new report on tuition costs from the College Board. It shows average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. Nationally, the cost of a full credit load has passed $8,000, an all-time high.
The White House said Obama will use his executive authority to provide student loan relief in two ways.
First, he will accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the maximum required payment on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income annually to 10 percent. The White House wants it to go into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. In addition, the White House says the remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.
Second, he will allow borrowers who have a loan from the Federal Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government to consolidate them into one. The consolidated loan would carry an interest rate of up to a half percentage point less than before. This could affect 5.8 million borrowers.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on a conference call that the changes could save some borrowers hundreds of dollars a month.
"These are real savings that will help these graduates get started in their careers and help them make ends meet," Duncan said.
The White House said the changes will carry no additional costs to taxpayers.
Last year, Congress passed a law that lowered the repayment cap and moved all student loans to direct lending by eliminating banks as the middlemen. Before that, borrowers could get loans directly from the government or from the Federal Family Education Loan Program; the latter were issued by private lenders but basically insured by the government. The law was passed along with the health care overhaul with the anticipation that it could save about $60 billion over a decade.
The law change was opposed by many Republicans. At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who chairs a subcommittee with oversight over higher education, said it had resulted in poorer customer service for borrowers. And Senate Republicans issued a news release with a compilation of headlines that showed thousands of workers in student lending, including those from Sallie Mae Inc., had been laid off because of the change.
Today, there are 23 million borrowers with $490 billion in loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Last year, the Education Department made $102.2 billion in direct loans to 11.5 million recipients.
Increases in federal aid have helped ease the burden on students dealing with tuition increases, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said in a report Wednesday.
"Despite large increases in the published price of college over the past four years, the average student has not seen commensurate increases in the net price of college, defined as the published price minus grants, scholarships and tax benefits," the report said.
Meanwhile, the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a project Tuesday to simplify the financial aid award letters that colleges mail to students each spring. A common complaint is that colleges obscure the inclusion of student loans in financial aid packages to make their school appear more affordable, and the agencies hope families will more easily be able to compare the costs of colleges.
Separately, James Runcie, the Education Department's federal student aid chief operating officer, told Foxx's congressional panel that the personal financial details of as many 5,000 college students were temporarily viewable on the department's direct loan website earlier this month.
Runcie said site was shut down while the matter was resolved, and the affected students have been notified and offered credit monitoring.
___
Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling
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NEW YORK (AP) ? NBA owners and players resumed talks aimed at ending the lockout Wednesday, less than a week after three intense days of mediation didn't produce a new labor deal.
The sides got back to the table with a small group meeting and met for more than eight hours. Talks broke down last Thursday when players said owners insisted they agree to a 50-50 split of revenues as a condition to further discuss the salary cap system.
The first two weeks of the season already have been canceled, and there's little time left to save any basketball in November. Commissioner David Stern has said he feared even games through Christmas would be in jeopardy if there wasn't a deal last week.
Stern rejoined the talks Wednesday after missing last Thursday's session with the flu. He was joined by Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, owners Peter Holt of San Antonio, Glen Taylor of Minnesota and James Dolan of New York, and a pair of league office attorneys.
The union was represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher of the Lakers and vice president Maurice Evans of the Wizards, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.
The players have lowered their proposal to 52.5 percent of basketball-related income, leaving the sides about $100 million apart annually, based on last season's revenues. Players were guaranteed 57 percent of BRI under the previous collective bargaining agreement.
The system is the other chief hurdle. Seeking greater parity among their 30 teams, owners are looking to reduce the ways that teams can exceed the salary cap so that big markets won't have a significant payroll advantage. They have proposed raising the taxes the highest spenders would pay, but players fear the penalties would be so punitive they would act like a hard salary cap.
The sides also are struggling over items such as the length of the deal, players' contract lengths and the size of their raises.
Silver said last week it was "unclear" to him whether an 82-game schedule was still possible. The league could try to reschedule the lost games if a deal can be reached soon.
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ERCIS, Turkey ? Distraught Turkish families mourned outside a mosque or sought to identify loved ones among rows of bodies Monday as rescue workers scoured debris for survivors after a 7.2-magnitude quake that killed at least 279 people.
Rescue teams with generator-powered floodlights worked into the night in the worst-hit city of Ercis, where running water and electricity were cut by the quake that rocked eastern Turkey on Sunday. Unnerved by over 200 aftershocks, many residents slept outside their homes, making campfires to ward off the cold, as aid organizations rushed to erect tents for the homeless.
Victims were trapped in mounds of concrete, twisted steel and construction debris after over a hundred buildings in two cities and mud-brick homes in nearby villages pancaked or partially collapsed in Sunday's earthquake. About 80 multistory buildings collapsed in Ercis, a city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border that lies in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones.
Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete, allowing residents to dig for the missing with shovels.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the quake killed 279 people and injured 1,300, though search-and-rescue efforts could end as early as Tuesday. Authorities said 10 of the dead were students learning about the Quran at a religious school that collapsed.
Grieving families cried outside an Ercis mosque.
"My nephew, his wife and their child, all three dead. May God protect us from this kind of grief," resident Kursat Lap said.
Bodies were still being pulled from the rubble late Monday. Dozens were placed in body bags or covered by blankets, laid in rows so people could search for their missing relatives.
"It's my grandson's wife. She was stuck underneath rubble," said Mehmet Emin Umac.
Several other men carried a child's body wrapped in a white cloth as weeping family members followed behind.
Still, there were some joyful moments. Yalcin Akay was dug out from a collapsed six-story building with a leg injury after he called an emergency line on his cell phone and told the operator where he was, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported. Three others, including two children, were also rescued from the same building in Ercis 20 hours after the quake struck.
Two other survivors were trapped for over 27 hours.
Abdurrahman Antakyali, 20, was brought out of a crumbled Internet cafe after an eight-hour-long joint rescue effort by Turkish and Azerbaijani teams. His father and brother wept with joy as he emerged, Anatolia reported.
Tugba Altinkaynak, 21, had been at a family lunch with 12 other relatives when the temblor hit. Four relatives were pulled out alive earlier but her mother and the others were still missing late Monday. Altinkaynak, who was conscious and covered in dust, was brought out on a stretcher and rushed to an ambulance.
Aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to help the thousands left homeless or too afraid to re-enter their homes. Many exhausted residents spent a second night outside.
"We stayed outdoors all night, I could not sleep at all, my children, especially the little one, was terrified," said Serpil Bilici of her 6-year-old daughter, Rabia. "I grabbed her and rushed out when the quake hit. We were all screaming."
The bustling, larger city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Ercis, also sustained substantial damage. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who inspected the area, said "close to all" the mud-brick homes in surrounding villages had collapsed in the temblor that also rattled parts of Iran and Armenia.
Leaders around the world, including President Barack Obama, conveyed their condolences and offered assistance, but Erdogan said Turkey was able to cope for now. Azerbaijan, Iran and Bulgaria still sent aid, he said.
Among those offering help were Israel, Greece and Armenia, who all have had issues in their relations with Turkey.
The offer from Israel came despite a rift in relations following a 2010 Israeli navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Greece, which has a deep dispute with Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus, also offered to send a special earthquake rescue team.
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties due to tensions over the Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians and the conflict in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.
Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line, and experts say tens of thousands could be killed if a major quake struck there.
_____
Fraser reported from Ankara.
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BEIJING ? Two Chinese officials have been jailed for leaking key economic data that can move global financial markets, in a breach that triggered a government crackdown to tighten secrecy, officials said Monday.
The leaks were an embarrassment for Beijing, which treats an unusually wide array of economic data as secret and is struggling to prevent official misuse of it amid intense interest in the world's second-largest economy. Businesspeople and others have been jailed under state secrets laws for obtaining or disclosing commercial information that is considered public or only trade secrets elsewhere.
The two officials from the central bank and China's statistics agency were convicted of giving stock brokerage employees details of nine indicators including inflation, economic growth and retail sales before their official release over an 18-month period ending in January 2011, said a prosecutor, Li Zhongcheng.
Such data on China's booming economy are watched closely by global investors and can cause swings in stock and bond prices when they are announced, allowing people with advance knowledge to profit.
"They have caused huge losses to the interests of the economy, the nation and the people," said Li at a news conference.
Other governments also tightly control inflation and other economic data ahead of their release. But China extends its highest security to a wider range of information that most other governments ? from sales by steel mills to possible changes in gold prices to geological data. That has made enforcement more difficult as the number of agencies and companies that handle information grows.
Last year, a Chinese-born American geologist, Xue Feng, was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of obtaining state secrets after he bought a database with information about oil and gas wells that belong to China's two biggest state-owned energy companies.
Xue, who worked for consulting firm IHS Inc., and his lawyer argued such information is commercially available in other countries. They said the database was advertised for sale before he purchased it and was declared classified only after he was detained.
In the latest case, the leaks prompted China's Cabinet to order an investigation of security at 21 government agencies that handle secrets, said Du Yongsheng, deputy director of the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets.
Several agencies were ordered to tighten security and some administrators were punished after investigators found gaps in their secrecy measures, said Du. Li said the government will conduct education campaigns for government employees to make sure they understand their duties under the secrecy law.
The firing of the two officials was reported in June by Chinese state media but Monday's announcement was the first time the names and details of the cases were released.
In July, the National Statistics Bureau said it would start releasing monthly economic figures as soon as they were compiled to prevent leaks.
The two jailed officials profited by trading stocks based on the leaked information and also received payoffs in the form of fees for delivering lectures at brokerage events, Du said. He gave no details of how much money they made.
Sun Zhen, former deputy director of the secretary's office at the National Bureau of Statistics, was sentenced to five years for disclosing 27 items of data from June 2009 to January 2011, according to Li. He said that included 14 items deemed "classified," one of the highest secrecy levels.
Wu Chaoming, former deputy director of the financial history research office at China's central bank, was sentenced to six years for leaking a total of 25 items of data on 224 occasions between January and June 2010, Li said. He said they were "confidential," a lower level of classification.
The leaks damaged government credibility and China's economy by disrupting fair market competition, Du said, without giving details.
"The economic performance of our country is affected," he said. "After the economic data are released, usually we can see abnormal fluctuations in the stock markets. Behind that there is something unfair going on."
Four other suspects who work in the securities industry are under investigation, according to Li. Du did not respond to a reporter's request for the names of the brokerages but said he expected prosecutors to investigate their possible legal responsibility.
Du defended the prosecution of Xue, saying authorities in charge of state secrets verified before the trial that the data were deemed classified, though he did not respond to a question about the date that status took effect.
"I believe their verification was objective and accurate," Du said.
The official also cautioned foreign reporters at the briefing that they too were bound by Chinese secrecy laws.
"If accidentally you have access to such information, my advice for you is don't touch it and promptly report it to the relevant authorities," he said.
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YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AP) ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday lashed out at North Korea for "reckless and provocative" acts and criticized China for a secretive expansion of its military power.
Panetta, who arrived at this U.S. air base on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour, spoke out about North Korea and China in an opinion piece published Monday by Japan's Yomiyuri newspaper before his arrival.
He wrote that Washington and Tokyo share common challenges in the Asia-Pacific.
"These include North Korea, which continues to engage in reckless and provocative behavior and is developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, which pose a threat not just to Japan but to the entire region," he wrote.
Panetta's strong language comes as U.S. and North Korean officials gather in Geneva for talks that Washington says are aimed at determining whether Pyongyang is serious about returning to nuclear disarmament talks.
Japan also worries about North Korea and is one of five countries that have jointly tried to persuade the North Koreans to cap and reverse their nuclear arms program. The other four are the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea.
Panetta also criticized China.
"China is rapidly modernizing its military," he wrote in Monday's opinion piece, "but with a troubling lack of transparency, coupled with increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China Seas."
He wrote that Japan and the U.S. would work together to "encourage China to play a responsible role in the international community."
A day earlier, in Bali, Indonesia, Panetta offered more positive remarks about China. He told reporters that Beijing deserved praise for a relatively mild response to a $5.8 billion US arms sale to Taiwan announced in September.
Panetta is not visiting China on this trip, his first to Asia since becoming Pentagon chief in July.
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WASHINGTON ? By declaring the Iraq war over, President Barack Obama scored what his allies see as a fourth big foreign policy success in six months, starting with Osama bin Laden's killing. But these events might play a discouragingly small role in his re-election bid, even if they burnish his eventual place in history.
American voters tend to focus heavily on domestic issues, especially in times of high unemployment. That will limit Obama's campaign options.
His supporters are seeking ways to make the most of his foreign policy accomplishments. One approach is to contrast them with Congress' partisan-driven gridlock on taxes, the deficit and other domestic issues.
"Look at the progress the president can make when he doesn't have Republicans obstructing him," said Karen Finney, a former Democratic spokeswoman who often defends the party on TV and radio.
Former Democratic strategist Rebecca Kirszner Katz distributed a similar remark on Twitter this week: "Terrorists and dictators, lacking the filibuster, have no effective defense against Barack Obama." It referred to the stalling tactic that Senate Republicans frequently use to kill Democratic bills even though they hold only 47 of the chamber's 100 seats.
These Democrats hope Americans will see a bold and capable president who keeps his promises when Republicans don't create roadblocks. They note that he green-lighted a daring nighttime raid to kill bin Laden in Pakistan on May 1; approved policies that led to last month's drone-missile killing of American-born terror advocate Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen; backed allied actions that led to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's ouster and death; and ended U.S. involvement in Iraq on schedule.
"It is very important for any incumbent to be able to talk about promises made and promises kept," Finney said. The list of achievements, contrasted with President George W. Bush's erroneous claims about Iraq's weaponry in the first place, should help Democrats shake their image of being the weaker party on national security, she said.
"That baggage is finally lifted," Finney said.
Translating that claim into votes for Obama 13 months from now may be difficult, however. The latest Associated Press-GfK poll confirmed that Americans still place far greater emphasis on domestic issues, especially the economy, than on foreign matters, including the war on terrorism.
The poll found Obama's overall approval rating at an all-time low, 46 percent, for the second straight month, even though 64 percent of adults approved of his handling of terrorism. Only 40 percent approved of his handling of the economy.
Ninety-three percent of those questioned said the economy was an extremely or very important issue. By comparison, 73 percent put the same emphasis on terrorism.
Democratic officials believe Obama's foreign policy record will look even better when the Republican presidential candidates hold a debate on that topic Nov. 15. Leading contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are current or former governors, and Herman Cain has never held public office. So none has extensive foreign policy experience.
Voters routinely accept that, however. In recent presidential elections they have chosen governors from Georgia, California, Arkansas and Texas, plus a first-term senator, Obama.
On Friday, Romney and Perry criticized Obama's handling of Iraq. Some Democrats found Romney's remarks exceptionally harsh.
"President Obama's astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women," Romney said. "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."
Obama's defenders fired back. "Is there anything more hollow than Mitt Romney decrying `political considerations' in decision-making?" said former White House spokesman Bill Burton.
Perry said in a statement: "I'm deeply concerned that President Obama is putting political expediency ahead of sound military and security judgment by announcing an end to troop level negotiations and a withdrawal from Iraq by year's end." He said Obama "was slow to engage the Iraqis and there's little evidence today's decision is based on advice from military commanders."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was more generous. "American forces not only freed Iraq from a vicious tyrant, but ? under the strategy developed and implemented by our generals, and the leadership of both President Bush and President Obama ? ended a violent terrorist insurgency," he said.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Obama "kept his pledge to the nation to end the war in Iraq in a responsible way, he has promoted our security in Afghanistan, and eliminated key al-Qaida leaders." He said Romney "didn't lay out a plan to end the war in Iraq."
Long-time Republican strategist Rich Galen said the economy clearly will dominate the 2012 election, and it might undo Obama. As for Obama's foreign record, however, Galen said, "they're doing exactly the right thing" by highlighting every success they can.
Galen said Obama clearly deserves credit for the gutsy raid on bin Laden's hideaway.
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Libya’s Leader Muammar Gaddafi Killed (Graphic Video Footage)
Muammar Gaddafi is dead, killed by fighters who took over the town of Sirte on Thursday. Gaddafi’s bloody body was shown in a cellphone video [...]
Libya’s Leader Muammar Gaddafi Killed (Graphic Video Footage) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
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WASHINGTON ? The Senate voted Thursday to approve President Barack Obama's nomination of former utility executive John Bryson to head the Commerce Department, easily overcoming conservatives' objections that his pro-environmental views made him unsuited for the job.
The chamber's 74-26 vote came five months after Obama chose the former head of Edison International, the holding company that owns Southern California Edison, to head the agency. Bryson has also served on boards of major corporations including the Boeing Co. and the Walt Disney Co.
Twenty-one Republicans joined all 51 Democrats and two independents in backing Bryson, while 26 Republicans voted no.
Bryson's nomination had become entangled in the dispute between Obama and Republicans over free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama when some GOP lawmakers said they would block his approval until the president sent those pacts to Congress. The House and Senate approved those pacts last week.
Since Obama announced his choice of Bryson, unemployment has been stuck at around 9.1 percent and the public mood about the economy has been gloomy ? a dangerous combination for the president and his party with Election Day for control of the White House and Congress barely more than a year off.
"At such a critical time for our economy, I nominated John because I believe his decades of experience both in the public and private sector have given him a clear understanding of what it takes to put America on a stronger economic footing and create jobs," Obama said in a written statement after the vote. "I'm confident he will help us do that."
Bryson, 68, was a co-founder four decades ago of the Natural Resources Defense Council and has supported cap-and-trade legislation, which would set an overall cap on pollution and allow companies to buy and sell the right to produce emissions. Many conservatives oppose the proposal, saying it adds costs to businesses.
The selection of Bryson shows that Obama "has no intention of backing down on his job-killing war on affordable energy," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., one of Bryson's fiercest opponents. Inhofe called the Natural Resources Defense Council "one of the most radical, left-wing, extreme environmental groups."
Bryson won solid backing from Democrats like Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who praised his business background at a time of 9.1 percent unemployment and said, "We need all the good people we can get."
Bryson also won support from some more moderate Republicans like John McCain of Arizona, whom Obama defeated in the 2008 presidential race.
"Elections do have consequences," said McCain. He said he wouldn't have nominated Bryson, but said senators should not block presidents from appointing top cabinet officials except for rare occasions "when that individual is not fit to serve."
"I don't think you could really question Mr. Bryson's credentials and background," McCain said.
Bryson was supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, which applauded his business background. He will succeed Gary Locke, who left to become ambassador to China.
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SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) ? Disturbing images of a blood-stained and shaken Muammar Gaddafi being jostled by angry fighters quickly circulated around the world after the Libyan dictator's dramatic death near his home town of Sirte.
The exact circumstances of his demise are still unclear with conflicting accounts of his death circulating. But the footage, possibly of the last chaotic moments of Gaddafi's life, offered some clues into what happened.
Gaddafi was still alive when he was captured near Sirte. In the video, filmed by a bystander in the crowd and later aired on television around the world, Gaddafi is shown being dragged off a vehicle's bonnet and pulled to the ground by his hair.
"Keep him alive, keep him alive!" someone shouts. Gunshots then ring out. The camera veers off.
"They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," one senior source in the NTC told Reuters. "He might have been resisting."
In what appeared to contradict the events depicted in the video, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said Gaddafi was killed when a gunfight broke out after his capture between his supporters and government fighters. He died from a bullet wound to the head.
It said no order had been given to kill him.
Gaddafi called the rebels who rose up against his 42-years of one-man rule "rats," but in the end it was he who was captured cowering in a drainage pipe full of rubbish and filth.
"He called us rats, but look where we found him," said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway near Sirte.
On the ground, government fighters and the scenes of sheer carnage nearby told the story of the dictator's final hours.
Shortly before dawn prayers on Thursday, Gaddafi, surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.
But they did not get far.
France said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to Gaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Thursday, but said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Gaddafi.
Some two miles west of Sirte, 15 pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 meters from the main road.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels has assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.
But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or that it had been strafed by a fighter jet.
"MY MASTER IS HERE"
Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn across the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.
Gaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have run through a stand of trees toward the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.
But a group of government fighters were on their tail.
"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.
"One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.
"Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.
"We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.
At the time of capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.
Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.
"One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.
Another of the fighters who said he took part in the capture toted a heavily engraved a golden pistol he said he took from Gaddafi as he was hoisted on the shoulders of his comrades.
Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.
Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.
Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.
Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway.
"Gaddafi was captured here," said one simply.
"THEY BEAT HIM, THEN THEY KILLED HIM"
From there Gaddafi was taken to Sirte where he and his dwindling band of die-hard supporters had made a last stand under a rain of missile and artillery fire in a desperate two-month siege.
Video footage showed Gaddafi, dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and as he was dragged from the front of a pick-up truck by a crowd of angry jostling government soldiers who hit him and pulled his hair to drag him to the ground.
He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd. NTC officials later announced Gaddafi had died of his wounds after capture.
Someone in the crowd shouted "keep him alive, keep him alive," but another fighter cried out in a high pitched crazed scream. Gaddafi then goes out of view and gunshots are heard.
Further television footage showed what appeared to be Gaddafi's lifeless body being loaded into an ambulance in Sirte.
An NTC spokesman in Benghazi, Jalal al-Galal, said a doctor who examined Gaddafi when he arrived in Misrata found he had been shot in the head and abdomen.
(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Sirte and Samia Nakhoul in Amman; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
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Windows has a few good to-do apps up its sleeve, not to mention more webapps than you can shake a stick at. Our favorite of the bunch is Wunderlist, a syncing, full-featured, and free app for multiple platforms.
Wunderlist isn't the simplest to-do app around (that would be "notepad" or "pen and paper"), but it is the easiest to use. Its main goal is to make task management simple and available on all your devices, which it does very well. Adding tasks, dragging them around, starring them, and otherwise managing them is very easy. It's available on pretty much every platform you can want, too, which is important for to-do apps?and, if you're on a computer that doesn't have Wunderlist installed, you can just as easily check the webapp and manage your tasks from there. Plus, it's all free.
Wunderlist would be just about perfect if it had a few more features, like the ability to tag tasks or make them repeat. Right now, you can only filter by status and date, which is fine?and you can create different task lists?but it'd be nice to see a bit more organizational power. However, it's a good middle ground between the features you need and being incredibly easy to use, two things that often butt heads with one another.
If you're more a fan of the GTD method of managing your tasks, GeeTeeDee is a great client for Windows. Its interface is very simple, but its got a lot of more advanced features that Wunderlist doesn't have, though they can just get in the way for most people. If Wunderlist is a bit too toned down for you, GeeTeeDee is a good alternative.
If you prefer things on the other side of the spectrum?that is, super minimalist?you might try TodoPaper or our very own Gina Trapani's Todo.txt. TodoPaper is a Windows clone of the Mac favorite Taskpaper, which puts your tasks into a very simple text file with a few extra to-do features, like checkboxes, tags, and projects. It's a bit pricey at $30, though, so if you want something more low cost, Todo.txt is very similar. Instead of working in a window, though, you add, remove, and view tasks from a Terminal application. You can use a client like Todotxt.net if the command line is a bit too intimidating, though.
If you're okay with using a webapp, you have even more options. Remember the Milk has long been a favorite of users everywhere. It's available on multiple mobile platforms, and has a lot of organizational features (but, frankly, takes a lot of clicks to do anything in the web interface). Many people like Google Tasks for its integration with Gmail and Google Calendar, though its a bit feature-poor for those that want more advanced management. It also isn't the most intuitive to use. If you want a more advanced to-do app that integrates with Google Calendar and Gmail, Producteev is a better option, which has some nice advanced management, helpful collaborative features, and an app for the Mac (with a Windows version on the way). Lastly, Toodledo is a very powerful manager that's a bit hard to get started with at first, but lets you heavily customize how you manage your tasks, so you don't need to be stuck with any one method pushed by an app.
These are just a few of the great to-do apps out there?as there are very many?so if you have a favorite we didn't mention, let us know about it in the comments.
Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
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WASHINGTON ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed hope Monday that the United States and Iraq can soon reach agreement on a possible U.S. military training role in Iraq beyond Dec. 31, when all American troops are scheduled to depart.
Panetta's remarks contrasted with indications from a senior Obama administration official and a senior U.S. military official on Saturday that the U.S. is abandoning plans to keep any troops in Iraq past the year-end withdrawal deadline ? other than about 160 troops who would be attached to the U.S. Embassy.
Panetta and other top U.S. officials have pressed the Iraqis for months to decide whether they want a substantial U.S. military training mission in 2012. During his first visit to Baghdad as Pentagon chief in July, Panetta appeared exasperated by the Iraqis, at one point saying, "Damn it, make a decision."
But more recently Obama administration officials have displayed less of a public sense of urgency, while noting that the current U.S. force of about 39,500 troops is on track to shrink to zero by year's end.
"At the present time I'm not discouraged because we're still in negotiations with the Iraqis," Panetta said Monday when asked by a reporter whether the talks had hit an impasse. He said James Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, and Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander there, were in "discussions with Iraqi leaders" that could still yield agreement on a post-2011 U.S. military presence.
Asked whether the U.S. had given the Iraqis a "drop dead" date beyond which the U.S. would not agree to halt its troop drawdown, Panetta said, "No, not at this point," adding, "We're continuing to negotiate."
In comments aired Monday in Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said there will be no post-2011 U.S. military training mission if the Obama administration insists on legal immunity for its troops.
Speaking to Al-Masar television station, which is affiliated with al-Maliki's Dawa Party, he emphasized the Iraq security forces' need for further training but said the immunity issue remains a sticking point. The U.S. routinely negotiates legal protections for troops based abroad.
"We have said from the beginning and the political blocs have said as well that there is a necessity for training, but the size is being left to the Iraqi technical side, while the immunity we had said is not possible and from the beginning we have said that it can't get the approval from the parliament," he said.
The prime minister said there is a "NATO alternative," although he did not describe what he meant by that.
NATO has a small training presence in Iraq now and is in talks over continuing that mission into next year. But putting more U.S. troops under the NATO umbrella would face similar challenges over how to protect them legally.
Al-Maliki also mentioned the possibility of using non-military personnel such as contractors to provide training.
The interview with Al-Masar television was recorded Saturday.
At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said no final decisions about a future U.S. military presence have been made. He would not discuss what is preventing the sides from reaching agreement.
"I would just say that discussions with Iraqis about the nature of that relationship are ongoing," Toner said.
Panetta did not specify what was under negotiation, but his press secretary, George Little, told reporters that the talks on the future U.S.-Iraqi security relationship include discussion of a U.S. military training mission. He said this would be in addition to the work of the Office of Security Cooperation, which is an arm of the U.S. Embassy and is headed by a three-star U.S. Army general. That office is charged with facilitating Iraqi arms purchases and training the Iraqis on how to use and maintain them.
What would be lacking, if there is no broader U.S. military training mission, is the collective training of Iraqi ground and air forces on how to maneuver on the battlefield with key weapons like tanks and artillery. U.S. officials have said the Iraqi military currently lacks the ability to defend the country's borders and air space. It also has substantial gaps in the fields of intelligence, logistics and medical evacuation.
___
Associated Press writer Mazin Yahya in Baghdad contributed to this report.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? Tens of thousands of flag-waving Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the homecoming Tuesday of hundreds of prisoners swapped for an Israeli soldier, and the crowd exhorted militants to seize more soldiers for future exchanges.
Hamas, which had negotiated Tuesday's swap, organized a mass celebration that turned into a show of strength for the Islamic militant movement that had seized Gaza from its moderate rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in 2007. Tens of thousands crammed into a sandy lot, where a huge stage was set up, decorated with a mural depicting Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit's capture in a June 2006 at an army base near the Gaza border.
"The people want a new Gilad," the crowd chanted in a call for more attempts to capture Israeli soldiers in order to free thousands more Palestinian prisoners remaining in Israeli jail.
Thousands hoisted green Hamas flags, while a far smaller number raised the banners of rival movement Fatah, led by Abbas. The released prisoners were making their way from the border with Egypt, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, to Gaza City in the north, and many thousands were lining the street to cheer on the convoy.
In the West Bank, Abbas addressed a crowd of several thousand, including released prisoners and their relatives. In an attempt at unity, he shared a stage with three Hamas leaders in the West Bank and at one point, the four men raised clasped hands in triumph.
Still, Abbas is likely to suffer politically as a result of the swap, the most significant for the Palestinians in nearly three decades. Over years of negotiating with Israel, Abbas has only been able to bring about the release of those who had little time left on their sentences.
In contrast, a majority of the 477 prisoners freed Tuesday had been serving life terms for killing Israelis, and their release violated a long-standing Israeli pledge not to free those with "blood on their hands." An additional 550 were to be freed in two months.
In his speech, Abbas praised the released prisoners as "freedom fighters."
He suggested that his method of negotiations was also bearing fruit, saying that "there is an agreement between us and the Israeli government on another batch (of releases) similar to this batch after it finishes."
His comments marked the first time he referred to an additional prisoner release, and there was no immediate Israeli comment. An Abbas aide, Saeb Erekat, later explained that Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, had promised a release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners following any Schalit deal. Erekat said Abbas would now ask international mediators that Israel keep the promise.
More than 300 of the prisoners arrived in Gaza, the rest in the West Bank.
In both locations, relatives eagerly awaited the returnees.
In Gaza City, Azhar Abu Jawad, 30, celebrated the return of a brother who had been sentenced to life for killing an Israeli in 1992. She said she last saw him eight years ago, before Israel banned visits by Gazans.
"My happiness is indescribable," she said. "We'll get him a bride and everything. I just spoke to him. He's so happy. This is a reminder, God doesn't forget anyone."
Among those arriving in Gaza were prisoners who grew up in the West Bank, but were being deported to Gaza. Israel's security chiefs have said they wanted to keep prisoners still deemed dangerous from the West Bank, which has relatively open borders with Israel. Gaza is tightly sealed by an Israeli border fence.
Sobhia Jundiya, a resident of the West Bank town of Bethlehem, traveled to Egypt with her husband to catch a brief glimpse of their son, Ibrahim, 28, who was being released after 10 years. He had been sentenced to multiple life terms for an attack that killed 12 and wounded 50.
"It's better he be in Gaza even if I can't see him, it's better than prison in Israel," she said. "I hope to see him for a few minutes," she said, as she began crying. "This is the day I have been dreaming of for 10 years. I haven't touched his hand in 10 years."
In the end, the Jundiyas were unable to see their son, because the prisoners' convoy did not stop during its brief swing through Egypt. The couple will try to go to Gaza, but it's difficult for West Bankers to obtain such a permit from Israel or Egypt.
Israel prevents most movement between the West Bank and Gaza.
In the West Bank, released prisoners were also given a hero's welcome.
Fakhri Barghout, 57, was carried on the shoulders of one man and was surrounded by chanting relatives. Sentenced to life for killing an Israeli, Barghouti had spent 34 years in prison, making him one of the longest-serving inmates.
"There will be no happiness as long as our brothers still in jail," he said. "I can't feel good when I'm leaving my brothers behind."
Barghouti leaves behind a son, Shadi, who is serving a 27-year sentence for involvement in an armed group and at one point shared his father's cell.
Earlier Tuesday, hundreds of relatives of prisoners had waited at a West Bank checkpoint for a first glimpse at their loved ones. However, the buses carrying the prisoners were instead driven directly to Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank.
Clashes erupted between about 200 young Palestinians at the checkpoint and Israeli soldiers several hundred yards (meters) away, after the families were told they had waited in the wrong place. Israeli troops fired tear gas and Palestinians threw stones for about half an hour. Some of the young men climbed atop a separation fence near the checkpoint and draped it with flags of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement.
___
Daragmeh reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy contributed reporting from Rafah, Egypt.
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