Daughter of Iran's former president stands trial (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? The daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been brought to trial on charges of making propaganda against the ruling system.

Her lawyer, Gholam Ali Riahi, tells the semiofficial ISNA news agency that the charges against Faezeh Hashemi are related to interviews she gave to news websites.

Hashemi appeared at opposition protests after the disputed June 2009 presidential elections and was briefly detained in February.

Riahi said Sarturday he has asked the court to give him three days to prepare a final defense.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran

cnbc debate family circus spanier jorge posada walmart black friday ad walmart black friday ad rick perry gaffe

Sinaloa cartel OK's Mexico's newest drug ballads (AP)

NAUCALPAN, Mexico ? Trumpets and trombones blast across a rodeo ring where women in miniskirts dance with men in cowboy hats and gold chains. Some fans try to climb onto the stage while others whoop to the deafening music and sing along to an outlaw ballad about one of the most-wanted criminal suspects in North America, an alleged drug kingpin.

"We take care of El Mayo

"Here no one betrays him...

"We stay tough with AK-47s and bazookas at the neck

"Chopping heads off as they come

"We're bloody-thirsty crazy men

"Who like to kill."

At the microphone is Alfredo Rios, whose stage name is "The Komander." He's a singer of Movimiento Alterado ? "Altered Movement" in English ? a new commercial brand of "narcocorrido" ballads that bluntly describe drug violence to the oompah beat of Mexico's norteno music.

The songs are filled with unusually explicit lyrics about decapitations and torture, and praise for one drug gang in particular: the Sinaloa cartel and its bosses, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The increasingly popular music is banned on radio stations in parts of Mexico but is heavily promoted over the Internet. It is the brainchild of twin brothers based in Burbank, California, who have long turned to the Sinaloa cartel for artistic inspiration. They won a Grammy award in 2008 for producing an artist who goes by the name of "El Chapo de Sinaloa."

Omar Valenzuela says the music not only tells of the violent world of the Sinaloa cartel, but has received its blessing at least once, when the producers worried about the group's reaction to a song about Manuel Torres, allegedly a top hit man for Zambada.

"We looked for them and asked for permission," Valenzuela said. "We sent them the song and they told us it was OK to release the song. We were afraid. They told us through their people that we were authorized to release any song. Sometimes people can get offended. We didn't want any problems."

The song since then has been downloaded 5 million times from the company website, Valenzuela said, and the accompanying video, which tells of how much gunmen working for Torres enjoy killing, has been watched more than 13 million times on YouTube.

Rios and Valenzuela deny any direct relationship with any cartel, and say they don't receive any money from the gangs. "I wish they were putting in money to promote (the music)," Valenzuela said with a laugh.

For Jose Manuel Valenzuela, an expert on narcocorridos at Mexico's College of the Northern Border, the success of the Movimiento Alterado's music shows that drug traffickers have become more socially acceptable in many circles.

"The social presence of drug trafficking helps this music circulate, and this is also made easier by the easy access to it through the Internet," said Valenzuela, who is not related to the twins.

The new music was born in Culiacan, capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa. The fact that the bands Valenzuela promotes sing exclusively about the Sinaloa cartel has mostly to do with geography, he said.

"In Culiacan, you can't sing about anyone else because they are from here," he said referring to the Sinaloa cartel. "Singing about the Zetas it's not even something you think about. Someone could complain. Nobody wants any trouble."

The Zetas gang, which had its beginning in the border state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas, is fighting the Sinaloa cartel for control of drug traffic routes. The battle has caused many of the roughly 40,000 drug war deaths since Mexican President Felipe Calderon ramped up the military offensive on cartels as he took office in 2006.

Some Movimiento Alterado musicians wear camouflage and bulletproof vests on stage and some have names clearly alluding to the Sinaloa cartel, such as Los Mayitos, referring to Zambada's nickname, or The Buchones, as the new rich who made their fortunes in drug trafficking are called in Sinaloa.

That identification can bring dangers.

Gunmen attacked the car of one of the Movimiento's singers, Gerardo Ortiz, in March in the western state of Colima. He survived but his representative and driver were killed.

Valenzuela said the violent lyrics merely describe the times.

The narcos "are cutting heads, and they are more bloodthirsty," he said. "It's in the news every day. If (the ballads) didn't speak about that, they would sound false. If a ballad doesn't express today's language it sounds old."

That's not a new phenomenon: Popular singers from early English troubadours to American gangsta rappers have treated violent outlaws sympathetically.

Movimiento Alterado's boom began in 2009 when the Valenzuela brothers recorded songs by two bands and released them on the Internet because radio stations wouldn't play them. In the states of Sinaloa and Baja California, it's illegal to play songs that advocate drug trafficking on the radio. In May, Sinaloa state Gov. Mario Lopez Valdez went further and banned them at bars and public places. In Chihuahua state, radio stations agreed not to play them.

But on the Internet, the songs are downloaded by the tens of thousands and Movimiento Alterado bands fill dirt-floor rodeo rings and swanky auditoriums across Mexico and the United States.

"The biggest market for this music is in Los Angeles because there we still sell CDs," Valenzuela said.

They also have greater media exposure there. The bilingual Mun2 cable channel of NBCUniversal Inc. ran a reality series, Los Twiins, about the brothers last year. It showed them developing new artists, such as Rios, and featured a guest appearance by Snoop Dogg.

Most of the albums are recorded in Los Angeles at Twiins Enterprises studios, though the Valenzuelas say some are recorded in Culiacan.

Back at the rodeo ring in Naucalpan, on the northwest edge of Mexico City, it was 3 a.m. and the crowd was getting impatient waiting for the star of the night. Finally, the MC announced "the king of the Movimiento Alterado."

Dressed in a black shirt and black pants, Rios looked the part of a pop singer. He invited the audience "to drink solid." The women cheered, and men offered him a drink from their whiskey bottles. The music went on until close to dawn.

Rios doesn't sing about drug traffickers. He sings as if he is one.

"Honestly, I don't like guns, in the first place because I'm not very good at using them," he said. "What I like is playing a role, like in a video game called 'The Executioner.' I play the executioner."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_en_mu/lt_mexico_drug_ballads

board of elections senate bill 5 senate bill 5 joe paterno press conference joe paterno scandal joe paterno scandal election day 2011

Death toll from Baghdad blasts climbs to 49

BAGHDAD (AP) ? The spokesman for the Iraqi health ministry says that at least 49 people have been killed in a wave of violence across the city.

Ziad Tariq says at least 167 people were also wounded in the attacks that struck Baghdad on Thursday morning.

The wave of attacks is the worst to hit Baghdad in months. It targeted neighborhoods around the city in an apparently coordinated campaign of violence designed to wreak havoc.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) ? A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killed at least 23 people and injured dozens more in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital.

The blasts were the worst violence to hit the country since a political crisis between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite factions erupted this weekend. The political spat, which pits Iraq's Shiite prime minister against the highest-ranking Sunni political leader, has raised fears that Iraq's sectarian wounds will be reopened.

Iraqi officials said at least 12 blasts went off early Thursday morning in nine neighborhoods around the city. The violence ranged from sticky bombs attached to cars to roadside bombs and vehicles packed with explosives.

Most of the violence appeared to hit Shiite neighborhoods although some Sunni areas were also targeted.

The worst attack was in the al-Amal neighborhood where seven people were killed in a blast that appeared to target rescuers and officials who came to the scene after a previous explosion. At least four people were killed in one western Baghdad neighborhood when two roadside bombs exploded.

All the information came from police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

In the southwestern neighborhood of Karrada, where one of the victims was killed, sirens could be heard as ambulances rushed to the scene and a large plume of smoke rose over the explosion site.

"My baby was sleeping in her bed. Shards of glass have fallen on our heads. Her father hugged her and carried her. She is now scared in the next room," said one woman in western Baghdad who identified herself as Um Hanin. "All countries are stable. Why don't we have security and stability?"

While Baghdad and Iraq have gotten much safer over the years, explosions like Thursday's are still commonplace. They come at a precarious time in Iraq's political history, just days after American troops pulled out of Iraq.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused the Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi of running a hit squad that targeted government officials. Al-Maliki is also pushing for a vote of no-confidence against another Sunni politician, the deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq.

Many Sunnis fear that this is part of a wider campaign to go after Sunni political figures in general and shore up Shiite control across the country at a critical time when all American troops have left Iraq.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the morning's violence. But the coordinated nature of the assault and the fact that the attacks took place in numerous neighborhoods suggested a planning capability only available to al-Qaida in Iraq.

Many of the neighborhoods were also Shiite areas which are a favorite target of al-Qaida. The Sunni extremist group often targets Shiites who they believe are not true Muslims.

Al-Qaida in Iraq is severely debilitated from its previous strength in the early years of the war, but is still able to launch coordinated and deadly assaults from time to time.

U.S. military officials have said they're worried about a resurgence of al-Qaida after the American military leaves the country. If that happens, it could lead Shiite militants to fight back and attack Sunni targets, thus sending Iraq back to the sectarian violence it experienced just a few years ago.

__

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-22-ML-Iraq/id-4d29cf6b50fa4c5fb61fc45933388754

12 days of christmas a christmas carol arkansas football player dies anne mccaffrey anne mccaffrey amazon promotional code artificial christmas trees

Stocks soar on Europe hopes, strong housing starts (AP)

NEW YORK ? Encouraging signs out of Europe and a surprisingly strong report on the U.S. housing market drove the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 300 points Tuesday. It was the best day for stocks this month.

The Spanish government pulled off a successful debt auction and gauges of business and consumer confidence in Germany rose unexpectedly. Both helped ease worries about Europe's debt crisis. The dollar fell against the euro and U.S. government bond prices dropped as traders shifted money out of the safest assets.

Borrowing costs for the Spanish government plunged at an auction of short-term debt, a sign that bond buyers are more confident in the country's ability to pay them back.

"Spain has plenty of problems, large debts and budget deficits," said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ. "So when we see debt auctions go much better than expected it's very encouraging."

Spain's government raised euro5.6 billion ($7.3 billion), much more than its goal of euro4.5 billion. Investors demanded an interest rate of only 1.74 percent to lend to Spain for three months, a steep fall from the 5.1 percent at an auction in November.

The Dow gained 337.32 points, or 2.9 percent to close at 12,103.58. It lost 100 points the day before.

Europe's major stock markets also climbed. Germany's DAX soared 3.1 percent. France's CAC-40 jumped 2.7 percent.

The gains held on Tuesday afternoon even after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a plan to extend a cut in Social Security taxes. Unemployment benefits for 2 million people are also at risk.

A Federal Reserve proposal for stricter rules on larger banks didn't knock down JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and other big bank stocks. JPMorgan Chase & Co. gained 4.9 percent. Citigroup added 4.6 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 35.95 points, or 3 percent, to 1,241.30. Only six stocks in the index fell. The Nasdaq composite index rose 80.59, or 3.2 percent, to 2,603.73.

Analysts cautioned that recent big rallies in the stock market have been quick to fade as traders seize the chance to sell stocks and lock in gains. "If you're selling into rallies, it means people want out," said Quincy Krosby, Prudential Financial's market strategist. "They don't believe it's sustainable."

Take the Dow's 490-point jump Nov. 30 after major central banks made a coordinated move to prop up European lenders by freeing up cash. The one-day rally brought the Dow to 12,045, but that gain had evaporated by last week.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on 685,000 new homes last month, a 9.3 percent jump from October. That's the highest level since April 2010. Building permits, a gauge of future construction, increased 5.7 percent, spurred by a jump in apartment permits. Stovall said the surge in housing construction was another piece of evidence that the U.S. will avoid slipping into another recession soon. "It's great news," he said.

The report drove housing stocks higher. PulteGroup Inc. jumped 10 percent. D.R. Horton Inc. rose 5.7 percent.

In other corporate news,

? General Mills Inc. dropped 1 percent after reporting that its quarterly profit sank 28 percent. The maker of Cheerios and Yoplait yogurt blamed higher costs for ingredients and packaging for pinching profit margins.

? AT&T Inc. rose 1.3 percent after the company abandoned its bid late Monday to acquire the wireless provider T-Mobile USA. Sprint Nextel Corp. gained 5 percent. Sprint, the No. 3 wireless carrier, had opposed the deal.

? Red Hat Inc. plunged 8.9 percent after the software company forecast revenue that was short of what analysts were expecting. Red Hat provides support to business users for the freely distributed Linux operating system.

? Oracle Corp. dropped 8 percent in extended trading after the business software giant's quarterly earnings and sales missed analysts' estimates.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street

jimmy rollins jimmy rollins let it snow unemployment extension golden state warriors jason trawick tony romo

First Earth-sized planets spotted

20 December 2011 Last updated at 13:00 ET By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

The planets may once have harboured conditions favourable to life

Astronomers have detected the first Earth-sized planets, which are orbiting a star similar to our own Sun.

In the distant past they may have been able to support life and one of them may have had conditions similar to our own planet - a so-called Earth-twin - according to the research team.

They have described their findings as the most important planets ever discovered outside our Solar System.

Details of the discovery are outlined in Nature journal.

Dr Francois Fressin, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, US, who led the research, said that the discovery was the beginning of a "new era" of discovery of many more planets similar to our own.

Both planets are now thought to be too hot to be capable of supporting life.

But according to Dr Fressin, the planets were once further from their star and cool enough for liquid water to exist on their surface, which is a necessary condition for life.

"We know that these two planets may have migrated closer to their Sun," he told BBC News. "(The larger of the two) might have been an Earth twin in the past. It has the same size as Earth and in the past it could have had the same temperature".

Rock and a hard place

One of the planets, named Kepler 20f, is almost exactly the size of the Earth. Kepler 20e is slightly smaller at 0.87 times the radius of Earth and is closer to its star than 20f.

They are both much closer to their star than the Earth is to the Sun and so they complete an orbit much more quickly: 20e circles its star in just six days, 20f completes an orbit in 20 days whereas the Earth takes a year.

Continue reading the main story

Kepler Space Telescope

• Stares fixedly at a patch corresponding to 1/400th of the sky
• Looks at more than 155,000 stars
• Has so far found 2,326 candidate planets
• Among them are 207 Earth-sized planets, 10 of which are in the "habitable zone" where liquid water can exist

The researchers say that these planets are rocky and similar in composition to our own planet.

Dr Fressin says that the planets' composition may be similar to Earth's with a third of it consisting of iron core. The remainder probably consists of a silicate mantle. He also believes that the outer planet (Kepler 20f) may have developed a thick, water vapour atmosphere.

The discovery is important because it is the first confirmation that planets the size of Earth and smaller exist outside our Solar System. It also shows that the Kepler Space Telescope is capable of detecting relatively small planets around stars that are thousands of light-years away.

The telescope has discovered 35 planets so far. Apart from 20e and f, they have all been larger than the Earth.

Up until now, the most significant discovery, also by a group including Dr Fressin, was of a planet nearly two-and-a-half times the size of Earth that lay in the so-called "Goldilocks zone". This is the region around a star where it is neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right for liquid water and therefore life to exist on the planet.

But Dr Fressin believes that the two new planets are a much more important discovery.

The telescope is scanning 150,000 stars and Professor Andrew Coates of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey believes that they will soon find a planet the size of Earth in the Goldilocks Zone.

"With every new discovery we're getting closer to the 'holy grail' of an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star," he said.

Follow Pallab on Twitter

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-16268950

gold rush gold rush chili recipe chili recipe grimm jello shots tashard choice

Romney Blasts Secularism, Endorses Mixing Church and State (Little green footballs)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/176047872?client_source=feed&format=rss

the addams family blue bloods temple grandin texas rangers marie osmond st louis cardinals josh hamilton

Guatemalans hunker down against rising violence (AP)

GUATEMALA CITY ? Guatemala City is a place where people live in fear.

Dire poverty, gang violence and drug trafficking, and the failure of the government to provide a safety net, have contributed to the creation of a society where people isolate themselves from each other and make sure others keep their distance and where many seek solace in religion.

Squalor and poverty are constants in this city of 3 million. Paint peels from walls. Shantytowns sprawl along the sides of mountain ravines.

"We're a sad people, living in a depression," says Marco Antonio Garavito, a psychologist and director of the Mental Hygiene League. "It's hard for us to help each other because we live inside a shell that keeps us away (from others). We have a hard time with physical contact, with giving a good handshake.

Motorists hide behind tinted windows, while security guards wielding shotguns stand outside banks and grocery stores. Hair stylists work behind barred doors. Even crowded buses, with passengers often hanging from the windows, carry guards.

"We have formed a type of shell that in psychology we call defensive desensitization," Garavito says. "The cost of that is that we have a loss of values, especially a loss of humanity."

It's not uncommon to see Guatemala City residents unfazed by the sight of a corpse by the side of the street. In cemeteries, bodies are unearthed when families can't pay fees.

Garavito says the Central American nation was founded with violence when the Spanish massacred thousands of indigenous people. And Guatemala suffered through a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. During the war, about 200,000 people were killed, mostly by state forces and paramilitary groups.

Still, Guatemalan City residents show resilience every day, with preachers going through busy markets spreading the word of God and Mayan girls in colorful dresses taking a moment among laughter to enjoy candied apples.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_guatemala_city_chronicle_photo_pkg

john edward psychic brandon marshall headless horseman headless horseman brandon lloyd brandon lloyd publishers clearing house