Pentagon day care review expanding to schools






WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expanding a Pentagon review of hiring at military day care centers to include Defense Department schools, youth centers and other facilities where children are present.


Pentagon press secretary George Little said Wednesday that officials are also questioning why it took three months for the Army to inform Panetta about arrests and problems with background checks at a day care center at Fort Myer, Va. Two people were arrested in September on multiple charges of assault against children at the Fort Myer center.






Little also said reports that parents of children at the center weren’t told about the problems indicate there may have been a serious breakdown in communications.


“We need to do everything we can wherever our children are entrusted to the care of DOD-employed personnel to insure we have the right personnel with the right background taking care of them,” said Little. “We want to insure that there’s consistency in the standards and policies and practices in hiring wherever military youth are involved.”


Panetta on Tuesday ordered a military-wide review of hiring at day care centers shortly after the Army disclosed problems with security background checks of workers at Fort Myer. Little said Pentagon leaders were surprised to hear of the problem and that “clearly this information did not get reported up the chain of command as quickly as we think it should have.”


The actions stem from the Sept. 26 arrests of two Army employees. One was charged with five counts of assault and the second was charged with four counts of assault.


But the problems at Fort Myer apparently went much deeper. Indications are that at least 30 workers at the facility have histories that call into question their suitability to care for children, according to two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation into worker backgrounds at Fort Myer has not been completed.


After the Fort Myer arrests, the Army replaced the day care center’s management team and found what the Army called “derogatory information” in the background of an unspecified number of other employees there. Army officials did not reveal the information, and officials said it’s not clear if the background checks were not done, were not sufficient or simply were not used appropriately in screening personnel.


Col. Fern Sumpter, the Fort Myer commander, said the day care center was closed “out of an abundance of caution” and the children moved to a separate day care center at Fort Myer. A Fort Myer spokeswoman, Mary Ann Hodges, said the center was closed on Dec. 13.


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Vote on US fiscal cliff ‘Plan B’







The Republican-led US House is set to vote on a package of spending cuts and tax rises party leaders say will keep the US away from the “fiscal cliff”.






The vote includes tax rises on earnings above $ 1m (£614,000) on Speaker John Boehner’s so-called “Plan B” option.


It comes as talks with the White House appear to have stalled, with President Barack Obama seeking a lower threshold.


A deal must be reached by 1 January, or a combination of steep tax rises and sharp spending cuts will take effect.


Analysts in the US and overseas have expressed concern that failure to reach a deal could take the US into recession.


Veto threat


A vote is expected by the late afternoon on Thursday, but could stretch on into the evening.


House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on Thursday: “We, as Republicans, have taken concrete actions to avoid the fiscal cliff.”


He and Mr Boehner say the bill as proposed would ensure permanent tax cuts for 99.8% of Americans.


Continue reading the main story

What is the fiscal cliff?


  • On 1 January 2013, a series of tax increases and huge spending cuts are due to come into force – the so-called fiscal cliff

  • The deadline was put in place in 2011 as a means of forcing the president and Congress to agree on ways to save money over the next 10 years

  • If they can reach a deal before 1 January, the cliff will be averted

  • The fear is that raising taxes while massively cutting spending will have a huge impact on households and businesses

  • Experts believe it could push the US into recession, and have a global impact on growth, especially in China and Europe


But Mr Cantor added that Republicans would not be sending their members home for the Christmas recess after the vote – a sign that Congress could be expected to vote on a more bipartisan deal within days.


Correspondents say the Republican plan has no chance of passing the Democratic-led Senate, and is in effect an effort to tell the US public that they should not be blamed if the US falls over the fiscal cliff.


The White House has threatened to veto the legislation if does pass Congress, saying the bill would mean tax rises on 25 million Americans making under $ 250,000.


A study by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center found some low-income people would see tax rises because the measure would not renew several tax cuts that were part of the 2009 stimulus package.


On Thursday, the White House criticised Republicans, saying Mr Boehner’s response to compromises from the president was “to walk away” from negotiations.


Spokesman Jay Carney said the introduction of Mr Boehner’s so-called Plan B was a “multi-day exercise in futility at a time when we do not have the luxury of exercises in futility”.


‘Partisan war paint’


Mr Boehner announced the bill on Tuesday, saying he would bring forward a measure that extended Bush-era tax cuts for those earning less than $ 1m per year – but would not address the automatic spending cuts.


Correspondents say the move came as a surprise as negotiations appeared to be making progress.


On Wednesday, the Republican leadership added a companion bill that would replace the automatic cuts with a proposal to remove cuts from defence and government operating budgets. They would be offset by reductions elsewhere in the budget.


Continue reading the main story

Start Quote



It is positioning, theatrics, part of the negotiations, not the negotiations themselves. There are still few days left, and many think a deal will be done, because it has to be done”



End Quote



The proposal would cut food stamps, benefits for federal workers and some social services programmes.


On Wednesday, Mr Obama dismissed the bill, telling reporters that he and Mr Boehner were just a few hundred billion dollars apart on full 10-year deal.


The president said Republicans should “peel off the partisan war paint” and take his most recent offer.


Mr Obama is now proposing a tax rise on incomes over $ 400,000 (£247,000), an increase on the $ 250,000 level he had originally sought.


He also offered a change to the way Social Security cost of living adjustments are made for some recipients, cuts from government healthcare programmes and a two-year extension of the debt ceiling.


Mr Boehner’s office called the proposal “a step in the right direction” but not fully “balanced”.


In a brief news conference on Wednesday, the House Speaker countered that the president will bear responsibility for “the largest tax increase in history” if he does veto the bill.


But Senate leaders have signalled there is little hope for the measure in Congress’ upper-chamber.


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the proposal would not pass and that lawmakers would return to Washington next Thursday to continue working on a deal.


Analysts have painted a grim picture of the consequences of going over the cliff, with some warning that the impact could push the US back into recession.


The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in its latest economic outlook that the recession from the cliff could become global.

















































































Changing taxation across the years


Tax year1993-2000200120022003-20082009-20122012 tax brackets2013 scenarios

Source: Tax Foundation, IRS


Tax brackets shown for unmarried individuals



President


a9e78   64870078 clinton Vote on US fiscal cliff Plan B

Bill Clinton


a9e78   64881479 bush gettylong Vote on US fiscal cliff Plan B

George W Bush


a9e78   64870080 obamabbc Vote on US fiscal cliff Plan B

Barack Obama



Tax cuts expire



Tax cuts expire for top incomes



Bottom rate



15%



15%



10%



10%



10%



Up to


$ 8,700



15%



10%



15%



15%



15%



$ 8,700-$ 35,350



15%



28%



27.5%



27%



25%



25%



$ 35,350- $ 85,650



28%



25%



31%



30.5%



30%



28%



28%



$ 85,650- $ 178,650



31%



28%



36%



35.5%



35%



33%



33%



$ 178,650-$ 388,350



36%



33%



36%



Top rate



39.6%



39.1%



38.6%



35%



35%



Over


$ 388,350



39.6%



39.6%



BBC News – Business





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Worries grow in east Congo with fighter buildup






DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Aid workers warned Wednesday that armed groups are setting up new front lines in and around the city of Goma in eastern Congo, where the U.N. said it now has documented at least 126 rape cases last month.


Thousands of fighters from the M23 rebel group withdrew several weeks ago from Goma, and the fighters have since taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.






However, residents in Goma say M23 and other armed fighters are now positioning themselves in an around the city — including inside camps for people displaced by the violence.


The arrival of several thousand fighters within the last week is prompting fear among civilians, who already have experienced years of fighting and rebellions, said Tariq Riebl, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator there.


“They are very concerned — people are seeing this and they don’t know what it means,” he said. “I think what everyone is scared about is that it seems like people are ramping up, ramping up but for what purpose?”


Oxfam warns that more than 1 million people could come under attack if violence again flares in Goma, where more than 100,000 people already have fled from elsewhere in the region.


“Goma is typically the last refuge safe haven and now it’s being directly called into question. If Goma falls in a big battle, where are people going to go?” Riebl said.


“This is very, very disconcerting because you have a population of over 1 million people and if war were to break out, we’re looking at a horrific situation.”


The M23 rebel group, which is believed to be backed by neighboring Rwanda, is made up of hundreds of soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April.


They took control of many villages and towns in the mineral-rich east over the last seven months, culminating in the seizure of Goma on Nov. 20. It took days of negotiations and intense international pressure, including from the U.N., for the thousands of fighters from M23 to finally withdraw from the regional capital.


The U.N. mission says it’s received allegations of serious rights violations, including killings and wounding of civilians, rape, looting, and forced recruitment of children, by elements of the M23 rebels in Goma and neighboring areas.


Congo’s armed forces are also blamed for a series of attacks as they fled Goma in retreat in late November.


The U.N. said Tuesday it now has been able to document at least 126 rapes during that period in the Minova area, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Goma.


U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said that two Congolese soldiers so far have been arrested in connection with the rapes, while seven others had been implicated in looting in the area.


“The Congolese Armed Forces have started investigating those human rights violations,” he said. “The U.N. Mission is supporting the military justice procedure in conducting thorough investigations into these allegations to ensure that the perpetrators are identified and held accountable.”


Rape has long been used as a brutal weapon of war in eastern Congo, where both soldiers and various armed groups use sexual violence to intimidate, punish and control the population.


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Changes in law aim to protect kids’ online data






WASHINGTON (AP) — Aiming to prevent companies from exploiting online information about children under 13, the Obama administration on Wednesday imposed sweeping changes in regulations designed to protect a young generation with easy access to the Internet.


Two years in the making, the amended rules to the decade-old Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act go into effect in July. Privacy advocates said the changes were long overdue in an era of cellphones, tablets, social networking services and online stores with cellphone apps aimed at kids for as little as 99 cents.






Siphoning details of children’s personal lives — their physical location, contact information, names of friends and more — from their Internet activities can be highly valuable to advertisers, marketers and data brokers.


The Obama administration has largely refrained from issuing regulations that might stifle growth in the technology industry, one of the U.S. economy’s brightest spots. Yet the Federal Trade Commission pressed ahead with the new kids’ privacy guidelines despite loud complaints — particularly from small businesses and software apps developers — that the revisions would be too costly to comply with and cause responsible companies to abandon the children’s marketplace.


As evidence of online risks, the FTC last week said it was investigating an unspecified number of software developers that may have illegally gathered information without the consent of parents.


Under the changes to the law, known as COPPA, information about children that cannot be collected unless a parent first gives permission now includes the location data that a cellphone generates, as well as photos, videos and audio files containing a human image or voice.


The Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus commended the FTC for writing the new rules. “Keeping kids safe on the Internet is as important as ensuring their safety in schools, in homes, in cars,” caucus co-chairman Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said at a Capitol Hill news conference.


Data known as “persistent identifiers,” which allow a person to be tracked over time and across websites, are also considered personal data and covered by the rules, the agency said. But parental consent is not required when a website operator collects this data solely to support its internal operations, which can include advertising, site analysis and network communications.


The rules offer several new methods for verifying a parent’s consent, including electronically scanned consent forms, video conferencing and email.


The FTC sought to achieve a balance between protecting kids and spurring innovation in the technology industry, said Jon Leibowitz, the agency’s chairman.


The final rules expand the definition of a website or online service directed at children to include plug-ins and advertising networks that collect personal information from kids.


But the rules were also tightened in a way favorable to some Internet heavyweights, Google and Apple. Their online apps stores, which dominate the marketplace for mobile applications, won’t be held liable for violations because they “merely offer the public access to child-directed apps,” the FTC said.


Google and Apple had warned that if the rule were written to include their stores, they would jettison many apps specifically intended for kids. They said that would hurt the nation’s classrooms, where new and interactive apps are used by teachers and students.


A Washington trade group that represents independent apps developers criticized the agency for addressing the concerns of large businesses while doing too little for the startups that make educational apps parents and teachers want. The FTC’s belief that the apps industry will figure out how to thrive under the new rules is akin to jumping off a cliff then building a parachute, said Morgan Reed, executive director of the Association for Competitive Technology.


“While that may work for big companies, small companies lack the silk and line to build that parachute before they hit the ground,” Reed said.


Companies are not excluded from advertising on websites directed at children, allowing business models that rely on advertising to continue, Leibowitz said. But behavioral marketing techniques that target children are prohibited unless a parent agrees. “You may not track children to build massive profiles,” he said.


The agency included in the rules new methods for securing verifiable consent after the software industry and Internet companies raised concerns over how to confirm that the permission actually came from a parent. Electronic scans of signed consent forms are acceptable, as is video-teleconferencing between the website operator or online service and the parent, according to the agency.


The FTC also said it is encouraging technology companies to recommend additional verification methods. Leibowitz said he expects that this will “unleash innovation around consent mechanisms.”


Emailed consent is also acceptable as long as the business confirms it by sending an email back to the parent or calling or sending a letter. In cases of email confirmation, the information collected can only be used for internal use by that company and not shared with third parties, the agency said.


The FTC’s investigation of apps developers came after the agency examined 400 kids’ apps that it purchased from Apple’s iTunes store and Google’s apps store, Google Play. It determined that 60 percent of them transmitted the user’s unique device identification to the software maker or, more frequently, to advertising networks and companies that compile, analyze and sell consumer information for marketing campaigns.


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Music, roses at singer Jenni Rivera’s memorial






UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Jenni Rivera‘s “celestial graduation” was marked by festive music, heartfelt speeches in Spanish and English and passionate chants of “Jen-ni! Jen-ni!”


Rivera’s children and famed singers Olga Tanon and Joan Sebastian performed during the nearly 2 ½-hour memorial service Wednesday at the Gibson Amphitheatre, where thousands of fans gathered to salute the “Diva de la Banda” who died in a plane crash Dec. 9.






One fan, Veronika Flores, drove nearly eight hours from her home in Woodland, Calif., near Sacramento, to be united with other fans at the service.


“I just came to say goodbye to a Latina woman, La Gran Senora,” she said, invoking the name of one of Rivera’s most beloved songs.


Famed Mexican singers Marco Antonio Solis and Ana Gabriel and actors Lou Diamond Phillips and Kate del Castillo were also among the guests at Wednesday’s service.


A red casket sat onstage amid a sea of white roses as images of Rivera played on three big screens. Family members embraced and kissed the casket at the conclusion of the service, laying more white roses atop it.


While most of the speeches and songs were delivered in Spanish, Rivera’s children spoke in English, often directly to their late mother.


“We’re not here to mourn the death,” said son Michael, 21. “We’re here to celebrate the life and graduation of a singer, an entertainer, a diva, a fighter, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and more than anything, a mother — the best mother.”


He then called for 27 seconds of silence for the victims of the massacre in Newtown, Conn.


Rivera’s youngest child, 11-year-old Johnny, was heartbreakingly poised as he said, “The person that everyone’s talking about is my mom.”


“Mama, I’ve been crying so much these last few days. I miss you so much,” said the little boy, wearing a red bow tie like many of his family members. “I hope you’re taking care of my dad and I hope he’s taking care of you, too.”


Rivera’s second husband, Juan Lopez, died in 2009. The couple divorced in 2003.


Rivera’s brothers and sisters spoke lovingly of the singer, calling her “the queen of queens,” ”perfectly imperfect” and an “eternal diva.” Her father said Rivera’s “happiness, smile and care for the public will never be forgotten.” He then performed a song he wrote about his daughter, a woman who rose from humble roots to become “la Diva de la Banda.”


One of Rivera’s brothers said his sister “made it OK for women to be who they are. Jenni also made it OK to be from nothing with the hopes of being something.”


The family asked that Latin radio stations play Rivera’s song “La Gran Senora” at noon Thursday in her honor.


The service was closed to most media, although a broadcast of the proceedings was made available.


The burial will be private.


Rivera’s last album before her death, “La Misma Gran Senora,” topped the Latin albums chart this week, selling 27,000 copies — the best sales week for any Latin album this year. Rivera also holds three spots on the Billboard 200 albums chart.


Rivera and six other people died Dec. 9 in a northern Mexico plane crash that remains under investigation. Rivera, a mother of five children and grandmother of two, was 43.


Rivera sold more than 15 million copies of her 12 major-label albums. Her soulful singing style and honesty about her tumultuous personal life won her fans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. She was also an actress and reality TV star.


Born in Los Angeles, Rivera launched her career by selling cassette tapes at flea markets. By the end of the 90s, she won a major-label contract and built a loyal following.


Many of her songs deal with themes of dignity in the face of heartbreak, which Rivera spoke of openly with her fans.


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


“She was a fighter, a woman who can push boundaries,” said Flores. “That’s why I liked her, because I’m just like her.”


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New Laser Treatment at Cosmedics Skin Clinics Offers Fast, Efficient Results for Facial Thread Veins






Although thread veins are relatively common and medically harmless, they can look unpleasant and people can go to great lengths to hide them. Now laser technology is set to offer a fast, effective treatment on the high street and now Medical Director Dr Ross Perry of Cosmedics Skin Clinics offers laser thread vein removal in London and Bristol.


London (PRWEB UK) 19 December 2012






Thread veins are quite common and the good news is that they are medically harmless. However, they are rarely considered attractive; so for those patients struggling to hide the appearance of red spider veins on the face or bluish broken veins on the legs, they can become quite a prominent feature which they would rather not have.


Facial thread veins are the most obvious as they are so visible year round. They can appear as one or just a few quite distinct veins with a bluish tinge; or where there are a lot, look more like a red patch of tiny capillaries, interwoven at the skin’s surface and lending a “ruddy” appearance. They are especially noticeable where the skin is thin, for example, on the nose, chin or cheeks.


Now the latest advanced laser technology offers thread vein sufferers hope of a fast, efficient and permanent solution in private clinics.


Dr Ross Perry, Medical Director at Cosmedics Skin Clinics, explains:


“For the broken, red spider veins on the face and particularly the nose we use a safe cautery laser to seal off the unsightly blemishes, removing the redness. The laser works efficiently to target the vein or veins while leaving the surrounding skin untouched so that it can heal quickly with a minimum of scarring and sometimes none at all.”


“Treatment is surprisingly effective and for many patients, the problem can be solved in just treatment, though in some cases 2-3 sessions may be advisable to get the optimum finished result.”


“Once treated with laser, the thread veins should not return; although continued over-exposure to the sun, smoking or hormonal changes such as menopause may cause new thread veins to appear.”


For treating larger veins which can appear on the body, tiny sclerotherapy injections are more suitable. These work to effectively block the offending veins at the skin’s surface, causing them to dissolve over the following weeks. In some cases, laser and injection treatments may be combined for best results.


Laser thread vein treatment is available in all of Cosmedics’ 6 Skin Clinics based in London (Putney, City, Harley Street, Canary Wharf, Knightsbridge) and Bristol. All treatments are carried out by skilled and experienced doctors who are registered with the GMC.


Cosmedics Skin Clinics was established by Dr Perry in 2003 and remains a doctor owned and managed company. The company is renowned for high standards of professionalism and discretion throughout.


Cosmedics’ doctors offer a full range of private medical skin treatments including mole removal, skin tag, cyst, verruca and wart removal, hyperpigmentation, thread vein treatment and excessive sweating injections; as well as popular cosmetic anti-ageing injections including dermal fillers. In addition, Cosmedics Beauty therapists offer a variety of treatments including laser hair removal and CACI.


Call 020 7386 0464 or email info(at)cosmedics(dot)co(dot)uk to book an appointment. http://www.cosmedics.co.uk for further information.


Patient Liaison
Cosmedics Skin Clinics
020 7386 0464
Email Information


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Google given EU anti-trust deadline







Google has been given a month to address complaints its search results favour its own services over those of its rivals.






EU regulators said they would end their investigation into the allegations if Google came “forward with a detailed commitment text in January 2013″.


If found guilty of breaching anti-trust rules, Google could face a fine of up to $ 4bn (£2.5bn).


Google said it continued to co-operate with the EU competition commission.


EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he had “decided to continue with the process towards reaching an agreement” to settle the investigation.


“Since our preliminary talks with Google started in July, we have substantially reduced our differences,” he wrote in an emailed statement.


“On the basis of the progress made, I now expect Google to come forward with a detailed commitment text in January 2013.”


The commission had been investigating Google since November 2010, following complaints from several rivals.


In May this year, Mr Almunia said Google had the chance to outline steps to address the claims, rather than face formal action.


The investigation centres on four areas:


  • the manner in which Google displays “its own vertical search services differently” from other, competing products

  • how Google “copies content” from other websites – such as restaurant reviews – to include within its own services

  • the “exclusivity” Google has to sell advertising around search terms people use

  • restrictions on advertisers from moving their online ad campaigns to rival search engines

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NBC’s Engel, TV crew escape abduction in Syria






BEIRUT (AP) — NBC‘s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel said Tuesday he and members of his network crew escaped unharmed after five days of captivity in Syria, where more than a dozen pro-regime gunmen dragged them from their car, killed one of their rebel escorts and subjected them to mock executions.


Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, an unshaven Engel said he and his team escaped during a firefight Monday night between their captors and rebels at a checkpoint. They crossed into Turkey on Tuesday.






NBC did not say how many people were kidnapped with Engel, although two other men, producer Ghazi Balkiz and photographer John Kooistra, appeared with him on the “Today” show. It was not confirmed whether everyone was accounted for.


Engel said he believes the kidnappers were a Shiite militia group loyal to the Syrian government, which has lost control over swaths of the country’s north and is increasingly on the defensive in a civil war that has killed 40,000 people since March 2011.


“They kept us blindfolded, bound,” said the 39-year-old Engel, who speaks and reads Arabic. “We weren’t physically beaten or tortured. A lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed. They made us choose which one of us would be shot first and when we refused, there were mock shootings,” he added.


“They were talking openly about their loyalty to the government,” Engel said. He said the captors were trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and allied with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group, but he did not elaborate.


There was no mention of the kidnapping by Syria’s state-run news agency.


Both Iran and Hezbollah are close allies of the embattled Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, who used military force to crush mostly peaceful protests against his regime. The crackdown on protests led many in Syria to take up arms against the government, and the conflict has become a civil war.


Engel said he was told the kidnappers wanted to exchange him and his crew for four Iranian and two Lebanese prisoners being held by the rebels.


“They captured us in order to carry out this exchange,” he said.


Engel and his crew entered Syria on Thursday and were driving through what they thought was rebel-controlled territory when “a group of gunmen just literally jumped out of the trees and bushes on the side of the road.”


“There were probably 15 gunmen. They were wearing ski masks. They were heavily armed. They dragged us out of the car,” he said.


He said the gunmen shot and killed at least one of their rebel escorts on the spot and took the hostages into a waiting truck nearby.


Around 11 p.m. Monday, Engel said he and the others were being moved to another location in northern Idlib province.


“And as we were moving along the road, the kidnappers came across a rebel checkpoint, something they hadn’t expected. We were in the back of what you would think of as a minivan,” he said. “The kidnappers saw this checkpoint and started a gunfight with it. Two of the kidnappers were killed. We climbed out of the vehicle and the rebels took us. We spent the night with them.”


Engel and his crew crossed back into neighboring Turkey on Tuesday.


The network said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no request for ransom during the time the crew was missing.


NBC sought to keep the disappearance of Engel and the crew secret for several days while it investigated what happened to them. Major media organizations, including The Associated Press, adhered to a request from the network to refrain from reporting on the issue out of concern it could make the dangers to the captives worse. News of the disappearance did begin to leak out in Turkish media and on some websites on Monday.


Syria has become a danger zone for reporters since the conflict began.


According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Syria is by far the deadliest country for the press in 2012, with 28 journalists killed in combat or targeted for murder by government or opposition forces.


Among the journalists killed while covering Syria are award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain’s Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin. Also, Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The New York Times, died after an apparent asthma attack while on assignment in Syria.


The Syrian government has barred most foreign media coverage of the civil war in Syria. Those journalists whom the regime has allowed in are tightly controlled in their movements by Information Ministry minders. Many foreign journalists sneak into Syria illegally with the help of smugglers and travel with rebel escorts or drivers.


Engel joined NBC in 2003 and was named chief foreign correspondent in 2008. He previously worked as a freelance journalist for ABC News, including during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He has lived in the Middle East since graduating from Stanford University in 1996.


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Google Music adds free iTunes-like song-matching feature









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Naomi Watts pulls off “The Impossible” to critical acclaim






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Days after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, actress Naomi Watts took part in a fundraising telethon spearheaded by George Clooney to help the region’s hundreds of thousands of people in 14 nations whose lives were shattered.


Little did Watts know that eight years later she would be starring in “The Impossible,” out in the U.S. movie theaters on Friday, about a real family’s experience in Thailand. The tsunami and earthquake killed more than 5,000 people, and resulted in 2,800 missing in that country alone.






Yet when the actress was first approached to star in the film, directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona, she hesitated.


“I thought, how do you make a movie about a tsunami without it becoming some sort of spectacular disaster movie?” Watts, 44, told Reuters. “That would be so wrong.”


However once Watts read the script, she said was moved by the story based on the real-life Spanish family of Maria Belon, her husband Enrique Alvarez – played by Ewan McGregor in the movie – and their three sons.


Belon’s family were spending their Christmas holiday in Thailand when the tsunami hit. The film follows their struggle to survive, injured and separated, in the aftermath and their perseverance in finding each other amidst the chaos.


“I felt a huge amount of pressure because of the responsibility to Maria’s story,” said Watts. “And on her back, she carries the stories of everybody else because hers is connected to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. I felt a sense of responsibility.”


PLAUDITS FOR WATTS’ PERFORMANCE


The British-born, Australian actress delivered, despite her fears. So far, her performance has earned Watts best actress nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.


The New York Observer wrote in its review that “Watts seems almost spiritually committed to her role” while The Hollywood Reporter said she “packs a huge charge of emotion as the battered, ever-weakening Maria whose tears of pain and fear never appear fake or idealized.”


Watts credits the real Maria Belon for being “an open book” when it came to recalling her personal experience during that harrowing time.


The two met before shooting began, and Belon was on the film set. Belon, a physician in Spain, also wrote detailed letters chronicling her experience, including taking refuge in a tree and the Thai villagers who discovered her weak and injured body.


One of the more challenging aspects of the shoot was recreating the tsunami, a 10-minute sequence in the film that Watts said took six weeks to shoot on location in Spain. Rather than creating the tidal wave digitally, actors were anchored in water tanks with the current pushing at them and “debris being chucked at you.”


Watts said that while the challenge of shooting the sequence was incomparable to the suffering of those who went through the ordeal in 2004, it was “physically the most demanding thing I’ve ever done.”


There was much more dialogue scripted during that sequence but “you were struggling to breathe and we quickly learned that once you open your mouth, water is going in and nothing is coming out.


“Though it was difficult, I’m grateful we got that kind of level of fear and intensity,” she added.


What offset the intensity during the shoot was having her sons Sasha, 5, and Sammy, 4, visiting Watts on the set. “We had them paint stuff on themselves like scars and wounds, then rub them off so they could see it wasn’t real,” recalled Watts.


It’s a far cry from the way she used to approach her work before having kids, such as her Oscar-nominated performance as a grief-stricken mother the 2003 film “21 Grams.”


“I was taking everything home with me, staying up all hours, writing, thinking, researching … just living with torment,” Watts recalled of that time. “I can’t live like that at this point in my life with little ones. I am a mom of two small kids and once I put the key in the door, it’s my duty to be totally present.”


(Editing By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Alden Bentley)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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