Arab protests puts foreign policy at the fore

In this Sept. 12, 2012, photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, about the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. His eye fixed firmly on securing a second term, Obama had hoped that the rest of the world would wait until after the election if it had to grow restless and demand his attention. The eruptions in the streets of the Arab world, inflamed by an anti-Muslim video made in the U.S., mean Obama can put it off no longer. The protests are testing the president?s foreign policy skills and giving voters a pre-election view of how he handles a crisis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In this Sept. 12, 2012, photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, about the death of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. His eye fixed firmly on securing a second term, Obama had hoped that the rest of the world would wait until after the election if it had to grow restless and demand his attention. The eruptions in the streets of the Arab world, inflamed by an anti-Muslim video made in the U.S., mean Obama can put it off no longer. The protests are testing the president?s foreign policy skills and giving voters a pre-election view of how he handles a crisis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP) ? His sights fixed firmly on securing a second term, President Barack Obama had hoped that the rest of the world would wait until after the election if it had to grow restless and demand his attention.

The eruptions in the streets of the Arab world, inflamed by an anti-Muslim video made in the U.S., mean Obama can put it off no longer. The protests are testing the president's foreign policy skills and giving voters a pre-election view of how he handles a crisis.

The turmoil also offers an opportunity ? a risky one ? for Obama to appear presidential in the midst of the election campaign, to contrast himself with a challenger less experienced in foreign policy and to illustrate that being president is not just about being a steward of the economy.

Even with a rebellion in Syria and tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions, no international image can be more searing and demand more public attention than that of a U.S. embassy under attack and American civilians in peril. This week's angry demonstrators, flag burnings and imperiled civilians already were drawing comparisons to 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 60 hostages and held them for 444 days, helping erode President Jimmy Carter's public support.

For Obama, the timing of the violent demonstrations less than two months before the election creates further complications.

His Republican rival, Mitt Romney, jumped on the administration for what he claimed was a feckless response to the breach of the U.S. embassy in Cairo. A favored and popular U.S. diplomat, the ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, was killed along with three other Americans in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. And protesters in the capital of Yemen stormed the U.S. embassy compound there and burned the U.S. flag.

"I know that it's difficult sometimes seeing these disturbing images on television because our world is filled with serious challenges," Obama told supporters Thursday in Golden, Colo. "It is a tumultuous time that we're in. But we can and we will meet those challenges if we stay true to who we are, and if we would remind ourselves that we're different from other nations."

U.S. officials sought to distinguish the anti-American protests from the Arab Spring revolutions that ousted long-time strongmen in Egypt, Libya and Yemen and that Obama backed.

"We see this now as principally tied to this video and those in the regions who are seeking to exploit it," a senior administration official said.

The protests and the attack in Libya present a juggling act for the president. He must show resolve both at home and abroad, pressing foreign governments to do their part in protecting U.S. personnel and property, condemning the protesters and at the same time denouncing a provocative, though amateurish video that finds refuge in the cherished U.S. right of free speech. At the same time, he has been forced to push back on Romney.

Obama accused his GOP rival of having "a tendency to shoot first and aim later." And while even some Republicans flinched at the timing of Romney's criticism, that could be forgotten if protests continue to threaten U.S. overseas posts.

Still, in an election dominated by the economy, other issues have grabbed headlines, only to quickly recede.

And Obama's response so far has been somber and focused on protecting foreign personnel. The Pentagon on Wednesday ordered two warships to the Libyan coast.

Obama forcefully condemned the attack in Libya and has decried the assaults on the embassies. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton forcefully denounced the film, which depicts Muhammad variously as a cartoonish lecher, fool and thug.

But it was just that type of condemnation from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that prompted Romney to accuse the administration of issuing an "apology."

"If I was looking for what reminds people of the importance of poised presidential leadership, I have to come right out and say that Obama is getting the better part of the argument this week," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution. "I like a lot of things about Romney, but he hasn't handled this very well."

The mob actions in Egypt, Libya and Yemen nevertheless present a challenge for Obama because they draw more attention than other foreign policy conundrums. What's more, in these instances the perpetrators are not state-sponsored, presenting Obama with a diffuse target.

"The risk here for President Obama is that he appears weak because there is not an easy military solution," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist and former Senate Armed Services Committee aide. "You're talking about unruly mobs and shadowy figures."

The protests in Egypt came on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained that no ally had the right to demand that it not strike at Iran over its nuclear buildup. The White House was forced to tamp down reports from Jerusalem that Obama had rejected a Netanyahu request to meet on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting later this month.

U.S. officials said the president's schedule would not allow for any such meetings, a contrast to last year when he packed his visit to the U.N. with individual sessions with foreign leaders.

Then Obama and Netanyahu spent an hour on the telephone, and the White House said they "reaffirmed that they are united in their determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and agreed to continue their close consultations going forward."

While the problems in Syria and tensions with Iran remain separate, U.S. officials are watching closely to ensure that the protests aren't manipulated by Iran to provoke even deeper problems.

"We watch for Iranian interference in different countries," the senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe administration thinking. "And when you have any type of instability, that's the type of thing that we look for."

____

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-13-Obama-Foreign%20Crisis/id-84c4cfeb742249da964319d241497f83

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Negotiators optimistic Chicago teachers' strike may end soon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Negotiators for the Chicago Teachers Union and the nation's third-largest school district resume talks on Thursday with fresh optimism about an agreement to end a four-day strike over education reforms sought by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

"We are definitely coming much closer together than we were," a smiling Karen Lewis, the teachers union president, said after talks went late into the night on Wednesday. "Both sides making movement, coming together."

The strike by 29,000 public school teachers and support staff began on Monday and has affected 350,000 elementary and high school students in the biggest strike in the United States this year.

"The conversation was productive," Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief education adviser for Chicago Public Schools, said on Thursday. "There was steady and substantial movement on key issues around teacher evaluation and layoffs and recall.

"As these conversations proceed this morning there is little doubt in my mind that if the union wants to we can wrap this as an agreement and our children can be in school tomorrow."

The walkout has spotlighted contentious education reforms backed by the Obama administration and tested union backing for Obama and Democrats heading into the November elections.

"The statements were very positive last night and we can hope for more progress," said Terry Mazany, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools. "The strike has opened up a Pandora's box. The challenge for leaders of both sides is to get the members back in the box, the public back in the box."

For the first time in days, Emanuel's chief negotiator, School Board President David Vitale, agreed with Lewis' summary of the talks on Wednesday night. Only 24 hours earlier, Vitale had threatened not to come back to the negotiating table until the union put forward a better offer.

"We had a very productive evening," Vitale said. "We all go away hopeful that we can go come together on this."

TEACHERS, PARENTS TESTED

Patience of parents was strained as hopes of a quick resolution to the biggest U.S. labor strike in a year faded earlier on Wednesday. About 150 Chicago schools have been staffed by principals and volunteers to provide meals and half-day care this week but only a fraction of idle students have shown up. Parents have stayed home from work, tapped relatives, and used community centers, churches, park district facilities and other resources to supervise children during the strike.

Lewis acknowledged progress on the two most vexing issues - using student test scores to evaluate teachers and giving more authority to local principals to hire teachers.

The union is concerned that more than a quarter of its membership could be fired because the teachers work in poor neighborhoods where students perform poorly on standardized tests, which Emanuel wants to use to evaluate teachers.

"This is really not a 'gotcha' evaluation system," Byrd-Bennett said. "It's to make sure we have a very high standard ... that will keep the very best teachers in front of our students every day."

Lewis said the union fears Emanuel plans to close scores of schools, putting unionized teachers out of work. In recent years about 100 public schools have been closed, with officials usually citing low enrollments. At the same time, a similar number of public-funded, non-union charter schools have opened.

About 52,000 students enrolled at those schools have not been affected by the strike this week.

The strike in Barack Obama's home city also has put the U.S. president in a tough spot between Emanuel, formerly a top aide to Obama, and the labor unions that Obama is counting on to work for his re-election on November 6.

Obama's own Education Department has championed some of the reforms Emanuel is seeking and a win for the ambitious Chicago mayor would add momentum to the national school reform movement.

Both sides agree Chicago schools need fixing. Chicago students consistently perform poorly on standardized math and reading tests. About 60 percent of high school students graduate, compared with 75 percent nationwide and more than 90 percent in some affluent Chicago suburban schools.

The fight does not appear to center on wages, with the school district offering an average 16 percent rise over four years and some benefit improvements. Chicago schools already have a projected $665 million budget gap for the year that began in July, a key factor driving Emanuel's reforms.

More than 80 percent of Chicago public school students qualify for free school lunches because they come from low-income households.

(Additional reporting by James Kelleher, Nick Carey and Greg McCune; Writing by Peter Bohan; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/both-sides-dug-chicago-teachers-strike-drags-011829083.html

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Ice-loving crustaceans ride Arctic conveyor belt

Flealike crustaceans that rely on Arctic ice may be using deep ocean currents as a sort of conveyor belt to bring them back to the pack after their ice has drifted out to sea, new research suggests.

If it is indeed how the tiny crustaceans keep from going too far out to sea, it is a clever transportation method that could become their way to survive ice-free Arctic summers as the globe heats up.

"Our ?ndings may ultimately change the perception of ice fauna as a biota imminently threatened by the predicted disappearance of perennial sea ice," the researchers wrote Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters.

Losing ice
Arctic summers are becoming less icy as the climate changes. This summer set an all-time record for least Arctic sea-ice cover, with only 1.58 million square miles (4.10 million square kilometers) left in late August. Researchers don't know yet when summer ice will disappear entirely. Estimates range from within this decade to within perhaps 30 years. [10 Things to Know About Arctic Ice]

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Megafauna such as polar bears and walruses depend on sea ice to survive, but so do less visible animals. Amphipods, tiny crustaceans that look like a cross between shrimp and fleas, are one example. Ice-dependent amphipods spend their lives clinging to the underside of sea ice, chomping on algae that grow there.

Norwegian marine biologist J?rgen Berge of the University Centre in Svalbard and his colleagues collected the most abundant of these ice-loving amphipods, a dark-eyed, transparent species called Apherusa glacialis, in plankton nets in January. They found the shrimplike crustaceans at depths between about 650 and 6,500 feet (200 to 2,000 meters). About half of the haul was made up of egg-bearing females ? an unusual find for researchers, who don't normally take samples of these winter-breeding species in January. (Few people brave Arctic winters even in the name of science.)

Global warming adaptation?
The discovery of deep-dwelling A. glacialis prompted Berge and his colleagues to come up with a theory of how these creatures manage to stay on ice despite seasonal melting. As the sea ice moves out into the oceans, they suggest, the amphipods ride along. When they get far enough out, the crustaceans drop down to depth. Between 650 feet and about 3,000 feet (200 and 900 meters) below the ocean surface, the amphipods find themselves caught up in currents that actually move toward shore instead of away. These currents could provide a passive way for the amphipods to float back to ice-covered climes.

The researchers calculate that the distance covered during a nine- to 10-month float on a chunk of sea ice could be made up in the opposite direction by riding a deep-ocean current for two to three months. In this way, amphipods could survive ice-free summers and make it back in time for the winter ice to form, providing them with a new habitat and source of food.

These conclusions have "yet to be rigorously tested," the researchers warn. Nevertheless, they could explain how amphipods as a group survived the last period of ice-free summers about 8,000 years ago.

Much more work is needed to understand how amphipods will fare in a warming world, the researchers wrote. Nevertheless, the findings provide some hope.

"If our observations prove to be of a more general character, ice-associated fauna such as A. glacialis is less threatened by the predicted disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice than previously assumed," they wrote.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48995407/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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The attack on the Libyan consulate, as it happened

The deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, are a grim reminder of the dangers that lurk in Libya. NBC's Steve Handelsman reports.

By Catherine Chomiak and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

NBC News compiled this reconstruction of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after a briefing from senior U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified and cautioned that it was imprecise because it was based on preliminary field reports:

10 p.m. Tuesday (4 p.m. ET): The compound, a temporary facility with a nearby annex, begins taking fire.

10:15-10:45 p.m.: The attackers enter the compound and begin firing into the main building, setting it on fire. Mission security and Libyan guards respond. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and a regional security officer are the only people in the main building at the time. At some point, they become separated because of the heavy smoke. The security officer makes it out safely.


US won't rule out Islamist link in killing of US ambassador to Libya

The security officer and other security personnel return to the burning building to rescue Stevens and Smith. Smith is already dead, and the rescuers pull his body from the building. They can't find Stevens before they are driven from the building by the fire and smoke.?

10:45 p.m.: U.S. security personnel try to take back the main building, but they come under heavy fire and return to the mission annex, where 25 to 30 people are holed up.

11:20 p.m.: U.S. and Libyan security personnel again try to take back the main building, this time successfully. They evacuate the rest of the personnel.?

Tuesday night: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is briefed.

12 midnight: The mission annex comes under fire, which continues for about two hours. Two Americans are killed, and two others are wounded.?

3 a.m. Wednesday (9 p.m. ET Tuesday): The fighting is over, and U.S. and Libyan security forces regain control of the compound.

Romney slams Obama over attacks on US officials in Libya, Egypt

Aftermath: The body of Stevens, who was taken to a Benghazi hospital at an unknown time, is returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport. A plane arrives from Tripoli to evacuate all personnel back to the capital, including the three wounded and the remains of the four people who were killed. All diplomatic posts are ordered to review their?security.

US Ambassador Chris Stevens was 'courageous and exemplary,' Obama says

More world stories from NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/12/13833862-the-attack-on-the-libyan-consulate-as-it-happened?lite

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US, Russia bridge differences on Iran at nuke meet

U.S. Alternate Permanent Representative to the United Nations Robert Wood arrives for the International Atomic Energy Agency's, IAEA, board of governors meeting at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

U.S. Alternate Permanent Representative to the United Nations Robert Wood arrives for the International Atomic Energy Agency's, IAEA, board of governors meeting at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), waves as he arrives for the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Yukiya Amano of Japan addresses the media during a news conference after a meeting of the IAEA board of governors at the International Center, in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

(AP) ? The United States and its Western allies have persuaded Russia and China to support a resolution critical of Iran's nuclear defiance in hope of showing Israel that diplomacy is an alternative to military force in pressuring Tehran, diplomats said Wednesday.

The resolution, which demands that Iran stop activities that could be used to make nuclear arms, cannot be enforced by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, even if approved by vote or consensus as expected Thursday. But with Israel increasingly floating force as an alternative to failed international efforts to curtail suspected Iranian nuclear activities, the document is significant in seeking to show world-power resolve in pursuing a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a mortal threat, citing Iran's persistent calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, its development of missiles capable of striking Israel, and Iranian support for Arab militant groups.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. But it refuses foreign offers of reactor fuel if it stops making its own through uranium enrichment ? a process that worries the international community because it could also be used to arm nuclear warheads.

Concerns also focus on IAEA suspicions that Iran has worked secretly on nuclear arms ? allegations Iran dismisses as based on fabricated U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

With fears growing over the possibility of Israeli military attack and other diplomatic efforts on Iran deadlocked, diplomats told The Associated Press that a resolution supported by the six powers seeking to engage Tehran on its nuclear program had become a priority discussed at the highest level.

The text was agreed on only after consultations involving U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterparts in Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, said the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because the negotiating process was confidential.

While the four Western powers had no differences, it was unclear until Wednesday whether Russia and China ? which Iran has relied on to blunt harsh U.N. and other sanctions ? would agree to join in backing the resolution. The diplomats said that they were persuaded largely with the argument that a signal of big-power unity had to be sent to Israel.

A Russian diplomat refused on Wednesday to discuss how the accord about the resolution came about.

Russia and China have been inconsistent in backing such Western efforts in the past. While joining in a critical resolution at an IAEA meeting in November, they refused to do so in June.

That unity came at a price for the West, however, which had to settle for compromise language in the current text, made available to The AP outside the closed meeting.

While expressing "serious concern" over continued Iranian uranium enrichment in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, the six nations say they back the "inalienable right" of countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. That is a bow to arguments by Iran, an NPT signatory that it has a right to enrich.

The resolution "stresses" that the IAEA has not reported any nuclear material missing from Iran sites it is monitoring. Missing material could mean that Tehran is using it elsewhere for weapons purposes.

It only "notes" that the agency cannot conclude there is no hidden nuclear activity going on because of "lack of cooperation" by Iran on agency requests that it be given greater powers to monitor the country.

Washington considers any signal to Israel that diplomacy is working crucial amid signs of increased jitters by the Jewish state about Tehran's nuclear progress.

Most recently, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized what he said was the world's failure to spell out what would provoke a U.S.-led military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The comments came in response to U.S. refusals in recent days to set "red lines" for Tehran.

Israeli officials say American politics do not factor into their thinking, but that the sense of urgency is so grave that the world cannot hold its breath until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

"The world tells Israel, 'Wait. There's still time,'" Netanyahu said Tuesday. "And I say: 'Wait for what? Wait until when?' Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel."

Also Tuesday, diplomats told The Associated Press that the U.N. atomic agency has received new and significant intelligence over the past month that Iran has advanced its work on calculating the destructive power of an atomic warhead through a series of computer models within the past three years.

The diplomats who spoke to the AP said the information came from Israel, the United States and at least two other Western countries. They demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss classified information member countries make available to the IAEA.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-09-12-Iran-Nuclear/id-fe2ad19eb5dc45698b05a6b4e8939fe3

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AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2013

By Neil J. Rubenking

Fans of free antivirus protection from AVG will find that the latest edition looks different, much different. The user interface for AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2013 has been completely made over. With big, touch-friendly buttons it will look right at home under Windows 8. AVG isn't just a pretty face, though. In testing it proved just as effective as its predecessor.

Rocky Installation
Getting AVG installed on my twelve malware-infested test systems was a serious challenge. One test system required Safe Mode, but malware prevents AVG's command-line scan. The Rescue CD fixed that one.

On another system the keyboard totally stopped working after malware cleanup. An AVG technician remote-controlled that one and determined that the keyboard driver had been damaged. After a lengthy diagnostic session he fixed it by uninstalling the keyboard driver and letting Windows find a replacement.

Malware on two test systems actively blocked AVG's Internet connection. Tech support supplied an offline installer. The antivirus still couldn't update online, so tech support supplied an offline update. That did the trick.

On yet another system, AVG installed and scanned successfully, but in the process it disabled the system's connectivity. Tech support came up with a command that restored connectivity.

For my testing AVG gave me expedites access to tech support. Ordinary users would have had to go through a few levels of escalation to get the help I got, but they would get help. My AVG contact verified that there would be no charge for the support required to get AVG installed and scanning properly. That's an important point, because AVG does offer a paid support service called TechBuddy. They'll diagnose the problem for free, then let you know how much it would cost to fix it.

Manual Removal
On more than half of the test systems, the antivirus scanner identified one or more threats as requiring "manual removal." These warnings represent system files that have been infected by malware, or replaced by malware. The recommended solution is to restore these files from your Windows disk, but many users don't have a Windows disk. In that situation your only recourse is to copy the file from another PC with the exact same Windows version.

Even then, you can't just copy the new file over the existing one. It's a system file; Windows won't let you. To fix those instances, I had to boot from the AVG Rescue CD and use its awkward, antiquated file manager to copy the replacement file into place.

This isn't something I've experienced with other antivirus tools. Are the others simply better at disinfection of system files? I really can't say for sure.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/uMoRF1veDRY/0,2817,2409393,00.asp

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AP PHOTOS: Models 1, stars 0 at NY Fashion Week

The Zac Posen Spring 2013 collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The Zac Posen Spring 2013 collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Diane Von Furstenberg watches a practice run of her Spring 2013 show with Google co-founder Sergey Brin during Fashion Week in New York, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Model Beth Franke is prepared backstage before the showing of the Derek Lam Spring, 2013 collection during Fashion Week, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

The DKNY Spring 2013 collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

The Thakoon Spring 2013 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Karly Domb Sadof)

(AP) ? Where can David Beckham, Martha Stewart and Google co-founder Sergey Brin all play second fiddle?

Only at New York Fashion Week, where the clothes are the stars, and the stars merely window dressing. Beckham appeared Sunday at the tasteful show put on by his wife Victoria, who added peeks of lingerie details to her refined shapes, echoing the emerging trend toward cutouts, bare midriffs and bra tops in the fourth day of spring previews.

Stewart was at the shows for Zac Posen and Chado Ralph Rucci and Brin collaborated with Diane Von Furstenberg, who put Google Glasses on her models as part of a project to be launched at the end of the week on Google-Plus.

But with supermodels in show-stopping gowns at Zac Posen and the taxicab-yellow dress at DKNY, who could look anywhere but the runway?

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-09-09-NY%20Fashion%20Week-Photos/id-59771672138545548468f1d7fd294655

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Official: US resisting Israel on Iran ultimatum

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/official-us-resisting-israel-iran-ultimatum-181840440.html

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What financial reports reveal about TV networks

Companies with television networks have been releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. It generally covers the April-June period, though some companies have fiscal quarters that depart from that.

Here's a look at reports for selected television network companies:

? July 31: Discovery Communications Inc., owner of pay TV channels including Discovery, TLC and Animal Planet, says second-quarter net income rose 15 percent on rising ad sales, subscription fees and subscribers. Audiences increased and costs declined at the company's joint venture, the Oprah Winfrey Network. The company says the struggling channel remains on track to be profitable in the second half of next year.

? Aug. 1: Time Warner Inc. says revenue at its television networks grew 4 percent to $3.6 billion, in part from higher rates paid by cable and satellite TV companies to carry CNN, TBS and other channels. Time Warner also saw growth in HBO subscribers and benefited from higher ad rates and an increase in the number of NBA games shown on its channels. But ad revenue fell at its domestic news networks.

Comcast Corp. says profits fell at the cable networks, which include Bravo, MSNBC and CNBC, as expenses to produce and acquire programs grew. The company says NBC is doing better than expected with the London Olympics and no longer believes it will take a big loss.

? Aug. 2: CBS Corp. says net income rose 8 percent, beating analysts' expectations, even as advertising revenue fell and it took in less money from the sale of program reruns.

Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., the operator of pay TV networks such as Food Network and HGTV, says net income grew 84 percent thanks to higher revenue from advertising and distributor fees.

? Aug. 3: Viacom Inc. says revenue fell 5 percent at its TV networks as U.S. advertising fell 7 percent. Viacom has been struggling with a ratings decline for key channels, particularly Nickelodeon. It says it's investing aggressively to create new hits. TV accounts for two-thirds of Viacom's overall revenue and nearly all of the profits. Viacom also owns MTV and Comedy Central.

? Aug. 7: The Walt Disney Co. says revenue from TV businesses such as ESPN and ABC rose 3 percent to $5.08 billion. Ad revenue at ESPN rose in the "mid-teen" percentages thanks to higher prices, sales volume and bigger audiences.

? Aug. 8: News Corp. says revenue from its cable TV networks rose 15 percent to $2.48 billion, while broadcast TV revenue fell 3 percent to $1.08 billion in the latest quarter.

? Aug. 9: AMC Networks Inc. says second-quarter earnings rose 53 percent, largely in line with analysts' estimates, but it predicts a big drag in the third quarter if its dispute with satellite TV company Dish Network Corp. continues to leave its channels off the service. The company said that 13 percent of its subscriber base was affected by the blackout on Dish, which has continued since July 1.

? Friday: It's disclosed that News Corp. has made a slightly lower, but binding bid to acquire Australian media investment company Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd., as it seeks to boost its stakes in TV service provider Foxtel and the channel Fox Sports Australia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/financial-reports-reveal-tv-networks-201506852--finance.html

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