Gingrich bemoans Romney's Florida 'carpet-bombing'

On the defensive after a barrage of attacks from Mitt Romney and a political committee that supports him, Newt Gingrich said Romney had lied and the GOP establishment had allowed it.

Newt Gingrich slammed GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney for "carpet-bombing" his record ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary in Florida, trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in the final 48 hours before the vote.

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On the defensive after a barrage of attacks from Romney and a political committee that supports him, Gingrich said Romney had lied and the GOP establishment had allowed it.

"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."

Despite Romney's effort to turn positive, the Florida contest has become decidedly bitter and personal. Romney and Gingrich have tangled over policy and character since Gingrich's stunning victory over the well-funded Romney in the South Carolina primary Jan. 21.

Showing no signs of letting up, Gingrich objected to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline the then-House speaker for ethics charges.

"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich said.

Gingrich acknowledged the possibility that he could lose in Florida and pledged to compete with Romney all the way to the party's national convention this summer.

An NBC/Marist poll showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters and Gingrich slipping to 27 percent.

While Romney had spent the past several days sharply attacking Gingrich, he pivoted over the weekend to refocus his criticism on President Barack Obama, calling the Democratic incumbent "detached from reality." The former Massachusetts governor criticized Obama's plan to cut the size of the military and said the administration had a weak foreign policy.

Gingrich's South Carolina momentum has largely evaporated amid the pounding he has sustained from Romney's campaign and the pro-Romney group called Restore Our Future. They have spent some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week.

Gingrich planned to campaign Sunday in central Florida, while Romney scheduled rallies in the south. He was also looking ahead to the Nevada caucuses Feb. 4, airing ads in that state and citing the endorsement Sunday of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.

Gingrich collected the weekend endorsement of Herman Cain, a tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful whose White House effort foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, planned to remain in Pennsylvania where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized, and resume campaigning as soon as possible, according to his campaign.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has invested little in the Florida race and is looking ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

Gingrich appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week." Paul was on CNN's "State of the Union."

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Tampa contributed to this report.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/skZiJOSALYY/Gingrich-bemoans-Romney-s-Florida-carpet-bombing

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California Prison System: End Of Federal Oversight Not Certain, Interview Suggests

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The court-appointed receiver overseeing California's prison health care system said Friday the state must keep its promise to spend more than $2 billion for new medical facilities before the federal courts can end an oversight role that has lasted six years.

California committed to spending $750 million to upgrade existing medical facilities, building a new $906 million medical center and converting juvenile lockups at a cost of $817 million. So far, only the new medical center in Stockton is being built.

Receiver J. Clark Kelso told The Associated Press that the state must begin all the upgrades before it should be allowed to retake control of a prison medical system once deemed so poor that it was found to have violated inmates' constitutional rights. They are his first public comments since a federal judge last week told officials to begin preparing for an end to the receivership.

"That leaves a court order that the state is now out of compliance with," Kelso said during the 75-minute interview. "The courts have been promised construction for the last half-decade. Somehow those promises don't get kept."

California officials are analyzing the need for new medical facilities in light of a state law that took effect last year that is sending lower-level criminals to county jails instead of state prisons. Federal judges have ordered the state to reduce its prison population by 33,000 inmates over two years to improve the treatment of mentally and physically ill inmates, a decision that has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

At its height in 2006, California's inmate population was more than 162,000.

Kelso said the medical center that is under construction in Stockton and the $750 million in upgrades are needed even if the state has fewer inmates. Conversion of the juvenile lockups was to have included new housing and treatment facilities for sick and mentally ill inmates.

Kelso has been negotiating with officials from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and attorneys representing inmates after a federal judge issued a notice saying it was time to begin ending the federal receivership. Court oversight of medical care in the nation's largest state prison system has led to improvements in inmate health care that have cost California taxpayers billions of dollars.

"We'll just see if the parties can't find a middle ground for agreement," Kelso said.

The pace of those negotiations will determine how quickly the state can retake control of its prison health care operations, he said.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said he wanted to see the receivership end as early as this summer, although he also said it would be appropriate for the courts to maintain some type of oversight role to ensure that inmate care does not deteriorate.

"I think the sooner we return day-to-day operations to the state, the better," Cate told the AP in an interview earlier this week. "We need to work out the construction issues, obviously, and I know that Clark is also concerned about making sure there's a strong structure in place to maintain the strides we've made. But if we can work those issues out, I'd love to see it be this summer."

Kelso said the state also should create a quasi-independent medical bureaucracy within the corrections department to make sure the state doesn't backslide because of budget cuts or a lack of interest.

"A lot of that has to do with budget independence and the independence of the head of prison health care really to control his or her budget," Kelso said. "They can't just get lost in the big haze that is the corrections budget."

He said the corrections department traditionally has focused on keeping inmates safely locked up, with a lesser emphasis on the well-being of those prisoners, and it is unclear if that culture has changed.

Citing inmate overcrowding as the leading cause, the federal courts previously found that medical care for California prisoners was so poor that an average of one inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. It ordered the prison population reduced, prompting the department to send layoff notices this week to 545 employees because fewer workers are needed as the number of inmates declines.

In the notice he filed last week, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson said conditions had improved enough to consider ending the receivership. He said most of the goals of the federal oversight had been met.

The San Francisco-based judge ordered Kelso, state officials and inmates' attorneys to report by April 30 on when the receivership should end and whether it should continue some role in ensuring that conditions remained constitutional.

"I think this all depends much more on the state's progress than on mine," Kelso said. "Frankly, if the construction had been done as promised, I'd be a hell of a lot closer."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/california-prison-system-oversight_n_1238200.html

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Fight over changing constants reaches stalemate

It's time to declare a ceasefire in the fight to find out whether the constants of nature vary. What was supposed to be a new superweapon in the battle has turned into something of a damp squib.

Some observations of how hydrogen gas in space absorbs light at ultraviolet wavelengths have hinted that the fine structure constant, responsible for the strength of electromagnetism, is not the same throughout the universe. That would point to exotic new physics, including the existence of extra dimensions and universes other than our own.

But the measurement is tricky, and researchers had hoped that studying how hydroxyl molecules emit and absorb light at radio wavelengths would give a more precise, independent measurement of the effect.

In theory, radio instruments can measure wavelengths 50 to 100 times more accurately than those that detect hydrogen absorption, says Nissim Kanekar at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in Pune, India.

But he and colleagues discovered the reality is more complicated. They observed the emission and absorption of radio waves from hydroxyl molecules in a gas cloud 6.7 billion light years from Earth that was absorbing light from a more distant galaxy.

No silver bullet

Quantum mechanics predicts that a particular set of emission and absorption lines in the hydroxyl molecule should be mirror images of each other, but in this case they found that was not true. Kanekar thinks the puzzling observation may be due to a second hydroxyl cloud lying along the same line of sight. It may absorb some of the radio waves, fouling the measurement.

"We thought we had the silver bullet, but it didn't pan out," says team member Chris Carilli of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico.

Whatever is causing the odd measurement, the observation is simply not accurate enough to determine whether the fine structure constant is changing. "Their measurement is entirely consistent with our result ? and with zero," says John Webb of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who has previously found hints that the constant varies.

Carilli says it may take 20 years to make enough observations with the new technique to settle the question. Only a handful of gas clouds are known that exhibit the hydroxyl signal, but new surveys and radio arrays, such as the Square Kilometer Array, should turn up more examples.

Journal reference: arxiv.org/abs/1201.3372v1

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Gingrich under fire from conservative media

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich accompanied by his wife Callista disembarks from a airplane Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich accompanied by his wife Callista disembarks from a airplane Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Forget the so-called liberal media. Right now Newt Gingrich's most ardent critics are conservative pundits and columnists, many of whom have launched aggressive campaigns to discredit him and trip up his run for the Republican nomination.

This crew has largely been lukewarm about Gingrich's chief rival, Mitt Romney, considering him too moderate. But their open criticism of Gingrich is evidence that for all their misgivings about the former Massachusetts governor, they see him as a much stronger contender against President Barack Obama.

To hear columnists Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer and the conservative media aggregator Matt Drudge tell it, Gingrich is an inconsistent conservative who didn't fully support President Ronald Reagan and whose undisciplined nature mirrored that of President Bill Clinton, who was Gingrich's Democratic adversary in the 1990s.

The conservative media hits against Gingrich have come with force just as the GOP establishment seems to be rallying around Romney in earnest, perhaps out of fear that Gingrich may end up winning the nomination.

On Thursday, Romney's campaign released a scathing open letter from the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, Bob Dole, who served as Senate Republican leader when Gingrich presided over the House. In the letter, Dole glowingly endorses Romney and repudiates Gingrich.

"If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices," Dole wrote. "Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway."

Jacob Heilbrunn, in the conservative-leaning magazine The National Interest, mused that Gingrich "is essentially bragging that his prime credential to become president is that he's willing to debate for hours and bring a knuckle-duster. This is evidence of his sober judgment? This is supposed to induce swing voters to back him?"

Conservative radio titan Rush Limbaugh also weighed in, seemingly to defend Gingrich from some of the attacks. But, in doing so, he also vividly outlined many of the critiques against Gingrich from other conservatives.

Conservatives "are raising questions here about Newt and his mendacity, his forthrightness ? it's incredible," Limbaugh marveled on his show Thursday.

Gingrich stormed to a decisive win over Romney in the South Carolina primary last week fueled in part by two well-timed attacks on the news media. Both came during nationally televised debates, guaranteeing maximum exposure.

In a CNN debate, Gingrich pushed back at anchor John King when King questioned him about an interview Gingrich's second wife, Marianne, had given ABC News. In the interview, Marianne Gingrich suggested her husband had asked her for an open marriage so he could carry on with a mistress, Callista Bisek, now his third wife.

"I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that," Gingrich said. "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans."

The audience rose in a standing ovation.

Gingrich also told King that his campaign had given ABC News the names of friends who would vouch for him but that the network had rejected the offer. On Wednesday, a Gingrich spokesman acknowledged that the claim was a mistake and that the campaign had offered only Gingrich's two adult daughters to defend him.

Gingrich drew raves at another Fox News debate before the South Carolina primary when asked about his oft-stated assertion that Obama is a "food stamp president." He angrily denied the statement had anything to do with race.

Mark Jurkowitz of the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism said Gingrich had tapped into longstanding resentment of many conservatives against mainstream news outlets.

"Running against the elite media ? we've seen now for a good 30 years ? certainly has resonance among Republican base voters. In conservative circles, there's been the perception that the media are tilted against them," Jurkowitz said.

Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative Media Research Center, announced Thursday that his group was set to spend $5 million on an advertising campaign to expose media bias in the 2012 election.

"You have a left-leaning media that's out of control. You've got to corral them," Bozell said in a news briefing, promising radio ads, billboards and an "unprecedented" effort in social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.

Gingrich, for his part, promised in his South Carolina victory speech to keep up his attacks on the media. But the hits he took this week while campaigning in Florida came from other conservatives.

By Thursday, Gingrich was disparaging the Commission on Presidential Debates, suggesting he might not participate in debates the commission organizes if he becomes the Republican nominee.

"We've had enough of newsmen deciding what the topics would be," Gingrich told supporters in Jacksonville, many of whom waved "Don't Believe the Liberal Media" signs.

Later, Gingrich was asked about the attacks from conservative pundits, particularly from the American Spectator's Emmett Tyrell, who wrote that Gingrich has had "private encounters with the fair sex that doubtless will come out."

Gingrich tried to turn such criticisms to his advantage, suggesting they represent "establishment" thinking.

"Tyrrell has to write whatever Tyrrell wants to write," Gingrich said. "There's the Washington establishment sitting around in a frenzy, having coffee, lunch and cocktail hour talking about, 'How do we stop Gingrich?'"

While Gingrich relishes bashing the media "elite" in public, he is friendly with the reporters who cover his campaign and makes himself available for media questions daily on the campaign trail. He seems to relish the back-and-forth with journalists, sometimes labeling questions he dislikes "bizarre."

At a campaign stop in South Carolina, he wished a reporter covering his campaign a happy birthday, and he typically stops by to chat with reporters at dinner after a day of campaigning.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst in Jacksonville, Fla., and Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-27-Gingrich-Conservative%20Media/id-9ead3326679240dca40e48518a4024c0

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Roches Avastin Fights Early Breast Cancer in 2

1/26/2012 8:06:47 AM

Is Avastin back in the fold for breast cancer? The FDA revoked Avastin's approval for treating breast cancer in November, 2011, saying the drug didn't extend life and could cause dangerous side effects. But two new studies released this week showed the drug made tumors disappear in women with early stages of breast cancer. The studies' surprising results may reopen the debate about the value of Avastin for breast cancer. These were the first big tests of the drug for early breast cancer, and doctors were cautiously excited that it showed potential.

Source: http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?StoryID=247412&full=1

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Teen passengers: 'The other distraction' for teen drivers

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A pair of studies by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm? identify factors that may lead teens to drive with multiple peer passengers and, then, how those passengers may affect their driver's behavior just before a serious crash. The studies were published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Experts have long known that peer passengers increase teen driver crash risk. What hasn't been well understood was how they increase crash risk. "These studies help us understand the factors that may predispose teens to drive with multiple friends and how those passengers may contribute to crashes by distracting the driver and promoting risky driving behaviors, such as speeding, tailgating, or weaving," said study author Allison Curry, PhD, director of epidemiology at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention. "Knowing this, we can develop programs that work in tandem with current Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit the number of passengers for teens during their first year of driving."

The first study surveyed 198 teen drivers and found that teens who are most likely to drive with multiple passengers shared the following characteristics: considered themselves "thrill-seekers," perceived their parents as not setting rules or monitoring their whereabouts, and possessed a weak perception of the risks associated with driving in general.

"The good news is that that these teens make up the minority," said Jessica Mirman, PhD, study author and a behavioral researcher. "Teens in this study generally reported strong perceptions of the risks of driving, low frequencies of driving with multiple passengers, and strong beliefs that their parents monitored their behavior and set rules."

The second study analyzed a nationally-representative sample of 677 teen drivers involved in serious crashes to compare the likelihood of driver distraction and risk-taking behaviors just prior to the crash when teens drive with peer passengers and when they drive alone.

"Both male and female teen drivers with peer passengers were more likely to be distracted just before a crash as compared to teens who crashed while driving alone," explained Dr. Curry. "Among the teens who said they were distracted by something inside the vehicle before they crashed, 71 percent of males and 47 percent of females said they were distracted directly by the actions of their passengers."

Additionally, the researchers found males with passengers were almost six times more likely to perform an illegal maneuver and more than twice as likely to drive aggressively just before a crash, as compared to males driving alone. Females rarely drove aggressively prior to a crash, regardless of whether they had passengers in the car.

"Most teens take driving seriously and act responsibly behind the wheel. However, some may not realize how passengers can directly affect their driving," said Dr. Mirman. "Teen passengers can intentionally and unintentionally encourage unsafe driving. Because it can be difficult for new drivers to navigate the rules of the road and manage passengers, it's best to keep the number of passengers to a minimum for the first year."

The study authors also emphasized the important role parents play in supporting safe driving among teens and their passengers. They recommend parents set a house rule of no non-sibling teen passengers for the first six months of driving and only one non-sibling passenger for the second six months.

"It's critical that parents stay involved in their teens' driving beyond the learner permit phase. This includes continuing to monitor their driving activities and to review ways teens can be safe drivers and passengers," said Chris Mullen, research director at State Farm. "Combined with Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit passengers for the first year of driving, involved parents are an effective strategy to protect teens from a dangerous and preventable crash risk ? driving with their friends."

###

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: http://www.chop.edu

Thanks to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for this article.

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[OOC] We'll Meet Again, Some Sunny Day

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"Vera! Vera! What has become of you?" :)

I may be interested in this roleplay. Can you tell me a little bit more about the plot?

Ita, ibi stabamus, et... Oh, ignosce mihi, was I speaking Latinam iterum? So sorry, ego really must work in ille. Anyway, back to fabulam meam, So, we were standing ibi, et...

FalloutRomanae

Member for 1 years

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Could I get a hold on female 3 please?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
?I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.?
?I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.?

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Very surprised at the response for this! Okay so since there's one place left then If you could send in your characters then I'll choose which one I like best but I may yet expand the character spots but first need to get some guy spots filled.

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Member for 1 years

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I noticed you make historical role plays, which I absolutely love...maybe I will reserve one of the male characters

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. (H.P. Lovecraft "The Call of Cthulhu")

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Member for 3 years

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History is my passion! And it would be great if you could!

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My character is done I hope she's alright.

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Video: Paterno takes turn for the worse

>>> state football coach joe paterno is said to be in serious condition after experiencing complications battling lung cancer . nbc's michelle franzen is in state college , pennsylvania, with the latest. good morning, michelle.

>> well, jenna, good morning. joe paterno is said to be surrounded by family here at the nittany medical center . that after false reports circulated that the legendary coach had passed away . his son jay paterno responded in his own message on twitter saying not only was his father alive and fighting, but inspired by the outpouring of support from this community. holding vigil. penn state students and supporters surrounded the campus statue of legendary football coach joe paterno saturday night. leaving flowers, and praying for the man they affectionately call joe pa . they gathered after word came from the paterno family he was in the hospital, fighting for his life. doctors say his condition is serious, due to complications from lung cancer . paterno , who led the nittany lions for 46 seasons, was fired last fall, in the wake of the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal. criticized for not going to police and following up on the allegations. just over a week ago, he granted "the washington post " an interview, explaining in a frail voice how he reacted in 2002 , when then graduate assistant mike mcqueary reported seeing jerry sandusky fondling a boy in a penn state locker room.

>> and then i called, you know, my superiors, and i said, hey, we got a problem, i think. would you guys look into it. cause i didn't know, you know, i had never had to deal with something like that. and i didn't feel -- i didn't feel adequate.

>> reporter: paterno also expressed regret for not doing more to follow-up. but believed he did the right thing at the time. reporter salary jenkins said paterno seemed determined to tell his story, even though the cancer treatment was taking its toll.

>> he's pretty lucid. he does wander a bit. he's hard of hearing now. the chemotherapy has made him a little bit foggy at times. and so, you know, we doesn't talk for very long periods.

>> reporter: paterno has been part of penn state 's football program for six decades, and has the most wins of any major u.s. college football coach in history. in november, his firing was so controversial, some students rioted. with paterno himself calling for calm. despite being forced out, paterno told jenkins, he still loves the place he worked and called home for most of his life.

>> i've had a wonderful experience here at penn state . i don't want to walk away from this thing bitter.

>> reporter: the family has also asked for privacy during this difficult time. meanwhile, onward state, the news agency serving penn state and the community here first made the mistake of reporting paterno had died after it -- after initially saying that he had died, they also came back and issued an apology, the managing editor also announced he was stepping down. jenna?

>> michelle franzen . michelle, thank you.

>>> doug flutie was the 1984 heisman trophy winner . he's currently a college football analyst for nbc sports and nbc sports network. doug, good morning. thanks for being with us.

>> my pleasure.

>> so, doug, you've covered joe pat earno for so many years. yeah, you know him as a man. you know him as a coach. what will his legacy be?

>> there's no doubt that his legacy on the field stands as it is with all the winning football teams. but his biggest legacy is to that university. he's built that university. all the young people he has nurtured and molded over the years. the young people that he has helped lead successful lives, that is his legacy.

>> the question has to be asked, how much of his reputation or this legacy that you talk about might be tainted because of the recent penn state sex abuse scandal?

>> well, i think that when it's all said and done, and we look back, that will be very dim as a part of his legacy. i think it's right at the tail end, which was a bad time for it to happen, but when it comes to remembering joe paterno , i mean, he is synonymous with penn state and penn state football and that university. his generosity, his loyalty to that university over the years, that is what will be remembered.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46090277/

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Kate Beckinsale's Underworld: Awakening Tops Weekend Box Office (omg!)

Underworld: Awakening was not the underdog at the box office this weekend!

Despite wintry weather in parts of the country this weekend, moviegoers flocked to see the fourth installment of the Underworld films, which stars Kate Beckinsale, Michael Ealy and Stephen Rea.

PHOTOS: What to watch on the small screen this winter

Those out to see Beckinsale, who plays a leather-clad vampire warrior, kick some serious human-force behind managed to help the film bring in $24.3 million its opening weekend.

PHOTOS: Your sneak peek of The Hunger Games!

In the number two spot, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s World War II flick Red Tails brought in $19.4 million, while Mark Wahlberg's Contraband grossed $12.2 million, causing it to fall from number 1 to number 3 in the box office.

NEWS: Read how Mark Wahlberg says he could have changed 9/11 history

Also having opened up in theaters nationwide this weekend: Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks' post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which pulled in $10.5 million.

Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_kate_beckinsales_underworld_awakening_tops_weekend_box_office015743761/44268255/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/kate-beckinsales-underworld-awakening-tops-weekend-box-office-015743761.html

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South Carolina Primary Election 2012: Newt Gingrich Wins Most Delegates

WASHINGTON ? Newt Gingrich won most of the delegates in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary Saturday, narrowing Mitt Romney's lead in the race for delegates to the party's national convention this summer.

Gingrich, the former House speaker, has won at least 19 delegates, with six left to be awarded.

These are the first delegates Gingrich has won in a primary or caucus. In all, Gingrich has 21 delegates, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention. Romney has a total of 33 delegates.

South Carolina Republicans award 11 delegates to the statewide winner and two delegates to the candidate who gets the most votes in each of the state's seven congressional districts. Gingrich was the statewide winner and he won at least four congressional districts.

The race for delegates is still in the early stages. Only 62 delegates were at stake in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, combined. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination.

Up next: Florida on Jan. 31. Florida Republicans will award all 50 of their delegates to the statewide winner.

The Associated Press calculates the number of national convention delegates won by candidates in each presidential primary or caucus, based on state and national party rules. Most primaries and some caucuses are binding, meaning delegates won by the candidates are pledged to support that candidate at the national convention this summer.

Political parties in some states, however, use local caucuses to elect delegates to state or congressional district conventions, where national delegates are selected. In these states, the AP uses the results from local caucuses to calculate the number of national delegates each candidate will win, if the candidates maintain the same level of support.

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/south-carolina-primary-election-2012-newt-gingrich-delegates_n_1221388.html

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Egypt's Islamists win 75 percent of parliament

Protesters chant slogans at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters chant slogans at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters hold placards depicting Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak, one encircled in a noose that reads, in Arabic, "rule of the people," left, and another depicting a statue of Mubarak being glued back onto a pedestal with writing that reads, "fall, fall, to the military rule," at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters chant slogans at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

CAIRO (AP) ? Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, according to election officials and political groups.

The Islamist domination of Egypt's parliament has worried liberals and even some conservatives about the religious tone of the new legislature, which will be tasked with forming a committee to write a new constitution. It remains unclear whether the constitution will be written while the generals who took power after Mubarak's fall are still in charge, or rather after presidential elections this summer.

In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats.

The Salafi Al-Nour, which was initially the biggest surprise of the vote, wants to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt, while the more moderate Brotherhood, the country's best-known and organized party, has said publicly that it does not seek to force its views about an appropriate Islamic lifestyle on Egyptians.

The two parties are unlikely to join forces because of ideological differences, but both have a long history of charity work in Egypt's vast poverty-stricken neighborhoods and villages, giving them a degree of legitimacy and popularity across the country in areas where newer liberal parties have yet to get a foothold.

Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker Mohammed el-Beltagi said the new parliament represents "the wish of the Egyptian people."

Egypt's elections commission acknowledged that there were voting irregularities, but the vote has been hailed as the country's freest and fairest in living memory.

The liberals who spearheaded the revolt that toppled Mubarak struggled to organize and connect with a broader public in the vote, and did not fair as well as the Islamists.

The Egyptian bloc, which is headed by a party founded by Christian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris, said it won 9 percent of the seats in parliament. Egypt's oldest secular party, the Wafd, also won around 9 percent.

Newer parties, such as the liberal Revolution Continues Party won 2 percent, as did the Islamist Center Party, which had been banned from politics under Mubarak.

The results leave the liberal groups with little ability to maneuver in parliament, unless they choose to mobilize the street in protests or work on key issues with the dominant Islamist groups, said Mohamed Abu-Hamed, the deputy leader of the liberal Free Egyptians Party.

The Brotherhood has refused to join recent street protests, saying that elections and the new parliament are the best ways to respond to demands that the military transfer power immediately to a civilian authority.

"The street and the parliament are not at opposite ends. The issues are not going to be resolved by protests, but through parliamentary laws," the Brotherhood's el-Beltagi said.

The final tally, which includes at least 15 seats for former regime figures, comes as little surprise since election results had been partially announced throughout the three stages of the vote, which took place over several weeks across the country.

The United States long shunned Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and turned a blind-eye to the arrest and torture of Salafis, who now comprise the bulk of Al-Nour Party's constituents, under Mubarak, who was a longtime U.S. ally.

However, top U.S. officials from the State Department have recently met with the Muslim Brotherhood's leaders, who have in turn assured Western officials that they respect minority rights and support democracy.

A White House statement said that President Barack Obama called Egypt's ruling military leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on Friday and welcomed the historic seating of the lower house of Egypt's Parliament, which is set to convene for the first time on Monday.Activists have accused the country's military leaders of repressive tactics. Critics say the nearly 12,000 civilians who have faced military trials since Mubarak's ouster have not been afforded proper due process.

Chief military prosecutor Adel el-Morsi said that 1,959 people convicted in military courts since Mubarak's ouster would be released on the one-year anniversary of the start of the uprising on Wednesday.

Among them would be Maikel Nabil Sanad, a blogger who was arrested in March and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of criticizing the armed forces and publishing false information for comments on his blog comparing the military to Mubarak's regime.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-21-ML-Egypt/id-b0b1d63f2fc24e62952221ce977a8fc4

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Video: Gregory to Christie: Is character an issue for Gingrich?

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46090612#46090612

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Viral video spoofs the, er, stuff New Yorkers say

This image courtesy of Mindy Tucker shows comedians Eliot, left, and Ilana Glazer as they pose for a photograph in New York. A video the siblings created about the things New Yorkers say has gone viral in the few days it's been posted, attracting lots of opinions of what New Yorkers do and don't say. (AP Photo/Mindy Tucker)

This image courtesy of Mindy Tucker shows comedians Eliot, left, and Ilana Glazer as they pose for a photograph in New York. A video the siblings created about the things New Yorkers say has gone viral in the few days it's been posted, attracting lots of opinions of what New Yorkers do and don't say. (AP Photo/Mindy Tucker)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Hip young New Yorkers hate waiting for the subway. They wouldn't be caught dead near tourist sites and couldn't care less if a celebrity walked by. They're snobby about what they read, even snobbier about what they eat, stick to their own borough, and call the most minuscule bedrooms "huge."

And there's something else: Some don't take kindly to being reduced to a cultural stereotype.

That's what Eliot and Ilana Glazer, brother-sister bloggers, comics and native New Yorkers, have discovered since their video, "Stuff New Yorkers Say" (no, the word isn't really "Stuff") has gone viral in the last couple days. Turns out, one of the things New Yorkers like to say is: "We don't say THAT!"

But there's been lots of positive feedback, too, and all the attention has stunned the Glazers, who posted the video on Wednesday night, hoping for some buzz but not expecting well over a million YouTube views (about 1.3 million as of late Friday).

"It's really bonkers," Eliot Glazer, 28, said in a telephone interview.

The video, inspired by a current Internet meme on what all sorts of groups of people say, is simple enough. In it, the Glazers and friends converse the way young New Yorkers would (or wouldn't, depending on whom you ask.) There are a few distinct themes.

Impatience: "Where is the train? Where is the TRAIN?" (There have been comments posted that while people in New York think this, they don't actually stand on the platform saying it.)

Exclusivity: "Nobody knows about this place."

Culinary exclusivity: "All I had today was a bagel." Or "Ah, Momofuku!" a reference to the group of restaurants headed by hip young chef David Chang.

Culinary snobbery: "Ah, Magnolia!" a reference to the cupcakes made famous by "Sex and the City" ? followed by a sour face, because the cupcakes aren't very hip.

Celebrity fatigue: "Sarah Jessica Parker! Oh, who cares."

Disdain for tourists: "Who goes to the Statue of Liberty?" ''Who goes to the Empire State Building?" ''Move! Move!" (walking down the street behind slowpokes.) "I hate tourists!"

That last theme, Glazer explains, is not to be taken literally. "New Yorkers are actually very kind to tourists," he says.

Another thing people are taking too literally, according to Glazer: The derisive comments about boroughs other than Manhattan, as in "I don't go to Queens," and "I don't do Brooklyn."

In fact, Glazer was born in Queens, grew up on Long Island, and now lives in Brooklyn, as does his sister ? a writer and comic whose Web series, "Broad City," is in development for the FX network.

Especially funny, Glazer says, is unwarranted speculation online that the Glazers aren't even from New York. But he says he doesn't read comments on YouTube: "It's just a pool of negativity."

"This is satire," he says. "We intended it to be a satire of what it means to be young and semi-spoiled in New York."

The video was shot and edited in about two weeks. "I was worried we were past the expiration date of the meme," Glazer says. He and his sister posted it to their Facebook accounts, and "within two hours it was insane ? the comments, the sharing," he says. "It was mind-blowing how quickly it took off."

What's clear from the video is that its creators love the city, despite its hardships.

Love-hate relationship with New York:

"I love it here.

"I hate it here.

"I love it here."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-20-US-Stuff-New-Yorkers-Say/id-775c703a8ca344278dfd2639475a4ede

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China factories see sluggish start in 2012: HSBC PMI (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's factory activity likely fell for a third successive month in January, suggesting Beijing's pro-growth policies will remain in place despite early signs that the downward drift is slowing, a survey of purchasing managers showed on Friday.

The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, stood at 48.8 in January, a three-month high and a slight improvement on the 48.7 final reading of the December index.

Turnarounds in sub-indexes measuring new export orders, backlogs of work and stocks of finished goods were all signs of strengthening activity, though the overall reading stayed below the 50 level -- which demarcates expansion from contraction -- where it has languished for most of the last seven months.

New orders overall ticked to a three-month high, but failed by a narrow margin to get back above the 50 level.

Areas of concern for investors linger beside the bright spots though, with the overall output index signaling contraction at a faster rate in January than December -- a trend also reflected in the stocks and quantities of purchases.

"The most vulnerable firms are the all-important, highly externalized ones in the manufacturing sector -- especially the smaller firms, which the HSBC flash is weighted towards," Jeremy Stevens, China economist with Standard Bank in Beijing said.

"These smaller firms have long tentacles reaching deeply into the broader economy. The data confirms that many have been forced into lock-down mode, favoring cash preservation over revenue generation," he wrote in a note to clients.

Deteriorating demand from China's biggest trading partners in the European Union and the United States helped drag growth in the world's second-biggest economy down to its lowest in 2-1/2 years in the final quarter of 2011.

The new export orders sub-index, however, managed to bounce to 51.1 from a three-month low.

That followed a run of recent official data that showed a surprising uptick in industrial output growth to 12.8 percent in December 2011 from a year ago and a year-on-year 18.1 percent jump in retail sales.

But official data has also shown a fall in fixed asset investment growth and a further slowdown in the rate of property investment that has been a key driver of economic expansion.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japanese manufacturers remained pessimistic about business conditions for the second straight month in January amid Europe's debt crisis and the slowing global outlook, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

But manufacturing sentiment is seen bottoming out over the next three months, according to the poll.

SLOWER GROWTH, POLICY ACTION

The PMI survey did nothing to turn Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC, from the view that more fine-tuning of economic policy should be expected from the Chinese government.

"The third consecutive below-50 reading of the manufacturing PMI suggested that growth is likely to moderate further," he said in a statement accompanying the index.

"Despite the upside surprise of industrial production growth in December, the ongoing slowdown of investment and exports implies more headwinds to growth and likely destocking pressures for manufacturers in the coming months. We expect more policy easing to stabilize growth," Qu said.

Economists forecast a fifth-successive quarter of slower Chinese GDP growth in the first three months of 2012, easing further from the 8.9 percent of Q4 2011. Many expect the year ahead to deliver the slowest overall growth in a decade.

The pullback in activity has fuelled expectations that the government will take more forceful measures to bolster growth and save jobs, beyond the so-called fine-tuning it began to implement in October, in the face of a festering European debt crisis and a sharp slowdown in the domestic property sector.

Beijing reduced the amount of cash that banks have to hold as reserves in November for the first time in three years in a bid to shore up cooling economic activity and maintain a steady supply of credit to companies and consumers.

That 50 basis point cut to 21 percent is forecast by economists to be followed by up to 200 bps more throughout the course of 2012, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

The January readings from the HSBC flash PMI -- based on up to 90 percent of total responses to a monthly survey -- are likely to have been muddied by the Lunar New Year holidays, which occur earlier than usual in 2012.

(Reporting by Nick Edwards; Editing by Ken Wills)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/bs_nm/us_china_economy_pmi

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Endangered turtle to be tracked in Cambodia (AP)

BANGKOK ? One of the world's most endangered turtles has been released into a Cambodian river with a satellite transmitter attached to its shell to track how it will navigate through commercial fishing grounds and other man-made hazards.

The 75-pound (34-kilogram) southern river terrapin ? one of only about 200 adults remaining in the wild ? waddled into the Sre Ambel river in southwestern Cambodia this past week to the cheers of local residents and conservationists.

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said the female terrapin was given to the group last year instead of being sold to traffickers who have decimated the country's population of turtles and other species to cater to demand for exotic wildlife in China.

The southern river terrapin, once considered the sole property of Cambodia's kings, only survives in the wilds of Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia, the group said in a statement. The population in the Sre Ambel river is estimated at less than 10 nesting females.

But it said the terrapins there have an excellent chance of recovery because coastal mangrove forests in the region are among the largest and most pristine in Southeast Asia, spanning some 175 square miles (45,000 hectares).

The first-ever satellite monitoring of the species hopes to determine how the turtle will fare among fisherman as well as in areas threatened by sand mining and conversion of mangrove forests into shrimp farms.

A small population of the species was found in 2000 in Sre Ambel after being considered locally extinct for many years.

Following the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s which left the country devastated, poor rural dwellers scoured the forests for wildlife, much of which was sold to traders connected to China, where many wild animals ? from turtles to tigers ? are believed to possess medicinal and sex-enhancing properties.

The turtle project is being run by the Wildlife Conservation Society in cooperation with the Cambodian government and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, a zoological enterprise.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sc/as_cambodia_king_s_turtle

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Congress revisiting bruising payroll tax cut fight

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With television lights glaring, 20 lawmakers will gather next week to revisit the fight that consumed Congress before Christmas over renewing a Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.

Little real work will be done, but the meeting will mark the formal start of an effort to untangle a dispute that both parties want to resolve, though for different reasons. Following is a look at the path Round 2 could take, based on interviews with participants on both sides.

Q: Can you remind me what's at stake?

A: After a bitter clash and just a week before a New Year's Day deadline, President Barack Obama and Congress renewed a 2 percentage point payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and benefits for the long-term unemployed through February. They also temporarily forestalled a deep cut in doctors' Medicare fees that threatened to make it harder for the elderly to find physicians who would treat them. Now, the two sides need to figure out how to extend all three measures through 2012 and cover the roughly $160 billion cost.

Q: Are they expected to succeed?

A: Yes, though it will probably take until shortly before the current extensions expire Feb. 29. There are complicated decisions ahead, chiefly what programs to cut and what fees to increase to offset the price tag. Just as important, Democrats won't be in a hurry to finish.

Q: Why not?

A: Republicans took a severe pounding in December when the House GOP resisted a bipartisan, Senate-approved, two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, which was designed to give lawmakers time to negotiate a longer version. With control of the White House and Congress at stake in the November elections, many Democrats think the GOP could incur further damage if these latest talks take time.

Many Republicans doubt the economic benefit of a payroll tax cut, a foundation of Obama's plan to create jobs. But as December's battle unfolded, GOP leaders worried that they would suffer political damage from opposing the deeply popular tax cut, worth $1,000 annually to a family earning $50,000 a year.

With the House's fractious conservative wing balking until the very end, the fight made the GOP look like it was opposing the tax reduction ? which Democrats contrasted with Republican support for tax breaks for the wealthy. Most Republicans want this year's fight to end quickly so they can change the subject to their own efforts to cut taxes, federal spending and Obama administration regulations.

Q: How long can Democrats prolong the negotiations?

A: If they're not careful they could overplay their hand.

Democrats scored points last year by forcing Senate votes on their proposal to finance the payroll tax cut with a small surtax on people earning $1 million or more a year. They have a new incentive to do something similar this year with the GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, a wealthy venture capitalist, being cast by party rivals as callous and out of touch.

As a result, many Democrats want to begin this year's talks on extending the Social Security tax cut by targeting the wealthy for a tax increase, perhaps with the millionaire surtax or by limiting their deductions. The millionaire surtax has no chance of passage in the GOP-run House, and Democrats could be accused of blatantly playing politics. Democrats and Obama have a reason to cut a deal: They believe extending the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits will goose the economy and reduce the risk of another economic downturn that could hurt their election prospects.

Q; What will the 20 members of Congress do?

A: House and Senate party leaders each have appointed bargainers to hash out differences over the bill, following Congress' tradition of naming conference committees to craft compromise legislation. But as usual when high-profile battles are being resolved, party leaders will have tight control over the ultimate deal. Still, conference committee members will play a role in writing details, and their endorsement of a package would let leaders argue that they didn't jam something down the throats of rank-and-file lawmakers.

Q: Who are these 20 lawmakers?

A: They range from formidable committee chairmen to lowly freshmen, but each has a stake in the fight.

The chairmen of Congress' two tax-writing committees are included: Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., of the Senate Finance Committee.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is the Senate's No. 2 Republican and a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, facing re-election this fall in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania, has repeatedly been given a visible role in the payroll tax fight by party leaders.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., a party leader, should be a leading opponent of Republican proposals to help finance the plan by effectively denying the child tax credit to many illegal immigrants. Freshman GOP Rep. Nan Hayworth is from a closely contested district in New York's Hudson River Valley.

Hayworth and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., are doctors, which could give them roles in the talks involving Medicare. A pair of Maryland Democrats, Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, are sure to battle a Republican proposal to make federal employees contribute more to their pensions.

Q: Do they bring other experience to the bargaining table?

A: Seven have participated in recent, failed bipartisan efforts to contain mammoth budget deficits. Those were Congress' supercommittee, talks led by Vice President Joe Biden, the "Group of Six" senators, and a presidential commission headed by former Wyoming GOP Sen. Alan Simpson and former President Bill Clinton's White House chief of staff, Erskine Bowles.

None of those groups succeeded, largely because party leaders could not agree to the controversial tax increases and cuts in entitlement programs like Medicare that would have been required for the trillions of dollars in savings needed.

Far smaller savings are needed to resolve the payroll tax fight, and the consensus is that this time, the president and leaders in both parties want a package that can become law.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-18-Payroll%20Tax-QandA/id-3910262fcb324743b8d1c276cf432183

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'Grey's Anatomy' Star Sarah Drew Has a Baby Boy!

The actress and hubby Peter Lanfer welcomed their first child! Plus, see more stars who welcomed new bundles of joy

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/celebrity-babies-2011/1-b-16266?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Acelebrity-babies-2011-16266

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AfghanNewsNow: Troops kill 9 insurgents http://t.co/BzJiUlQf

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