Mexico ups swine flu screening as cases increase (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? Three years after swine flu closed Mexico City and caused an international scare, the Mexican government and local media are at odds over the severity of this season's flu virus. Newspapers are warning of an alarming increase in cases while the government insists there is no cause for alarm.

Federal and state health officials agree there is an increase, but they say the number of cases is within the range of a normal flu season.

The Mexican health ministry, however, has listed confusing numbers on its website and it hasn't specified the rise in cases despite repeated requests from The Associated Press.

The federal education ministry said Wednesday that it was instituting screening measures in all elementary schools for the H1N1 flu strain, commonly called swine flu when the first outbreak was discovered in Mexico in March 2009. The ministry revised its message later to say screenings are in place only at schools where children exhibit symptoms.

Local media reported a handful of schools in Mexico City have closed. The education ministry said they were private schools shuttered by administrators and parents, not by official government action.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that while Mexico is seeing more cases of the H1N1 virus, the U.S. is seeing more cases of a different strain, H3N2. Antibodies for both are part of this year's flu vaccine. H1N1 is now considered a seasonal flu.

"We are not aware of any unusual changes in the virus in Mexico that would be concerning," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email to The Associated Press.

Besides the contradicting statements about screenings at schools, the Mexican government has also put out conflicting statistics.

The health ministry on Sunday reported 637 cases of confirmed flu cases so far in 2012 along with 10 deaths ? nine of them associated with 573 cases of H1N1.

On Jan. 15, it reported far lower numbers: 181 confirmed cases for all strains of flu and five deaths for 2012, meaning cases would have increased 250 percent in just one week.

The same health bulletin said that for all of last year, there were 870 cases of all strains of flu and 35 deaths.

The World Health Organization in 2009 declared swine flu the first global flu pandemic in 40 years after the outbreak of cases in Mexico that spring and then the strain spread to other countries.

Mexican authorities closed restaurants, schools, museums, libraries and theaters to stop the spread of the disease as initial reports suggested it was killing as many as one in 15 of those infected ? a horrifying death rate that would have been more than three times higher than the devastating flu pandemic of 1918-19.

Additional investigation in Mexico suggested that many people had suffered only mild illness. Those cases were not counted in initial reports, meaning the death rate was much, much lower than originally estimated.

By July 2010, the Mexican government reported nearly 76,000 cases of H1N1 and more than 1,300 deaths, the most recent accumulated statistics on its website.

The World Health Organizations estimates that flu causes 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness worldwide every year, with about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths, primarily among the elderly and the chronically ill.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_swine_flu

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Rubio: Immigration not only issue for Hispanics (AP)

WASHINGTON ? A Hispanic-American U.S. senator from Florida who's considered a rising star in the Republican Party says too much is being made of the significance of immigration to his community.

Sen. Marco Rubio says that while immigration is of critical importance, economic security weighs more heavily on Hispanics' minds "on the vast majority of the days of the year."

Rubio appeared on "CBS This Morning" Thursday after harshly criticizing Newt Gingrich's campaign ad labeling Mitt Romney the most anti-immigration candidate. Rubio said "I wouldn't characterize it as a scolding," and said he was a Gingrich "admirer." The ad has been pulled off the air.

Rubio declined speculation about the GOP's vice presidential nomination, saying he didn't think it would be him. He's remained neutral in the closely fought Florida Republican primary.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_rubio

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Travel photo of the day: A desert waterfall in Utah

Abby Benninghoff / UGC

Calf Creek Falls, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

A recent transplant to Utah, Abby Benninghoff decided to take a trip to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in June 2011.

"I jumped at the chance to explore the southern deserts, which provide just about the best landscapes for photography that I've ever seen," Benninghoff told TODAY.com.

She spent several days hiking and camping with her dog, Indy. One morning she happened upon a sign with information about the hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls.

"On the spur of the moment, I decided to take the 6-mile round trip trek up the Navajo sandstone canyon with Indy," she said.

"When we reached the halfway point at the Lower falls, I was amazed to see this beautiful oasis at the end of our trek; the water was perfectly clear and the spray from the falls was cool and refreshing.

"This hike definitely rates as one of my favorites," Benninghoff said. "I carried away some very special memories from our day at Calf Creek Falls."

You can see more of Benninghoff's photos on her website, where she documents her adventures with Indy.

Do you have some photos you want to share? Submit them for a chance to be featured in the weekly gallery by clicking here.

You can also join our It's a Snap Facebook community by clicking here, and share your photos with others.

More photos:

Source: http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/18/10182708-travel-photo-of-the-day-a-desert-waterfall-in-utah

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Protest exposes Silicon Valley-Hollywood rivalry

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

This screen shot shows the home page Google.com. A campaign whose backers include tech heavyweights like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills _ the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act _ as an attack on a free and open Internet rather than a way to protect the jobs of Americans in the movie and music industries, in a protest Wenesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Google.com)

Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian addresses a protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? In a move that heightens the growing tension between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Wikipedia and other websites went dark Wednesday in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.

The web-based encyclopedia is part of a loose coalition of dot-coms and large technology companies that fear Congress is prepared to side with Hollywood and enact extreme measures ? possibly including the blocking of entire websites? to stop the online sharing and unauthorized use of Hollywood productions.

The fight will test which California-based industry has the most sway in Washington.

For now, Silicon Valley appears to have the upper hand. Supporters of the legislation ? called the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate ? say the bills are aimed at protecting jobs in the movie and music industries. But a campaign including tech heavyweights such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills as an attack on a free and open Internet.

"It has nothing to do with stolen songs or movies," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, which is participating in the blackout. Ruben says tougher legislation ? even directed overseas ? could make domestic cultural commentators more prone to legal attack.

Rather than showing encyclopedia articles, Wikipedia displayed a blacked-out page describing the protest and offering more information on the bills. Many articles were still viewable on cached pages.

Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. Other sites made their views clear without cutting off services. Google blacked out the logo on its home page, directing people to a page where they could add their names to a petition.

The one-day outage was timed to coincide with key House and Senate committee hearings as they prepare to send the bills to the full floor for debate.

However, sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, sought last week to remove a controversial provision from the House bill that could force Internet service providers to interfere with the way Web addresses work for foreign sites deemed dedicated to piracy. He postponed work on the measure until February.

Critics believe such tinkering with core Internet technology treads into dangerous territory that could lead to online censorship. It might also give hackers a new way to wreak havoc.

The White House raised concerns that the bills could stifle innovation. Over the weekend, the Obama administration reacted to two online petitions, saying it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

At the same time, the administration called on all sides to "pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders."

That nuanced stance is President Barack Obama's attempt at "threading the needle" between two important constituencies as he seeks re-election in November, said Jeffrey Silva, a technology policy analyst at Medley Global Advisors in Washington.

On the one hand, his administration has defended a free, open Internet as it watched repressive regimes fall in the Middle East with help from social media such as Twitter. It has also been a proponent of the concept of "net neutrality," which prevents Internet service providers from slowing online traffic that comes from file-sharing sites known to trade in pirated content.

On the other hand, Obama and other Democrats have gone to Hollywood dozens of times to raise campaign funds over the years.

"The administration is trying to fight to protect the Internet space," Silva said. "But at the same time, it doesn't want to disenfranchise Hollywood and the business community."

Indeed, behind the protests and public posturing, both Hollywood and Silicon Valley spend generously to lobby causes in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the movie, television and music industries spent a combined $91.7 million on lobbying efforts in 2011, compared with the computer and Internet industry's $93 million.

In the 2012 election cycle, the movie, television and music industry offered up $7.7 million in direct campaign contributions to congressional candidates. The computer and Internet industry contributed $6.6 million.

Despite the uproar on websites and blogs, PIPA remains firmly in play. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Tuesday that he intends to push the bill toward a floor vote on Jan. 24. He said much of the criticism of the bill is "flatly wrong."

It remains to be seen whether the two industries can come to the table and negotiate a compromise.

"There are good companies, and then there are companies simply out to preserve the Wild West, free-to-steal business model," said Recording Industry Association of America CEO Cary Sherman. He expects to know "within the next few weeks" whether the legislation can survive.

Lawmakers may have a personal incentive to keep online piracy on the nation's political radar, said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a non-partisan government-accountability watchdog. If the issue stays alive through the current election cycle, it may help bring in campaign contributions from high-tech donors and Hollywood later this year.

The issue "becomes an opportunity for raising more money from these groups," Wertheimer said. "If you're into an important issue and money is flowing in on both sides, then both sides can up the ante."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-18-US-Wikipedia-Silicon-Valley-Versus-Hollywood/id-60186b2958594e6e8f67e0e0c6bc6cae

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Italians name 28 missing cruise passengers, crew

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Italian searchers suspended operations on Wednesday after an enormous cruise ship grounded and partially submerged off the coast of Tuscany shifted slightly, creating concerns for the safety of divers and firefighters scouring the cruiseline for more than 20 passengers and crew still missing. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Italian searchers suspended operations on Wednesday after an enormous cruise ship grounded and partially submerged off the coast of Tuscany shifted slightly, creating concerns for the safety of divers and firefighters scouring the cruiseline for more than 20 passengers and crew still missing. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Italian searchers suspended operations on Wednesday after an enormous cruise ship grounded and partially submerged off the coast of Tuscany shifted slightly, creating concerns for the safety of divers and firefighters scouring the cruise liner for more than 20 passengers and crew still missing. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Search teams have suspended operations after an enormous cruise ship grounded and partially submerged off the coast of Tuscany shifted under turbulent seas.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Search teams have suspended operations after an enormous cruise ship grounded and partially submerged off the coast of Tuscany shifted under turbulent seas.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, after running aground on the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, on Friday evening. Italian naval divers on Tuesday exploded holes in the hull of a cruise ship that grounded near a Tuscan island to speed the search for 29 missing passengers and crew while the seas remain relatively calm. The search intensified as prosecutors prepared to question the captain, who is accused of causing the wreck that left at least six dead by making a maneuver that the Italian cruise operator said was "unapproved and unauthorized." (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME (AP) ? Italian rescue workers suspended operations Wednesday after a stricken cruise ship shifted slightly on the rocks near the Tuscan coast, creating deep concerns about the safety of divers and firefighters searching for the 22 people still missing.

The $450 million Costa Concordia cruise ship was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into the reef Friday off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver.

The bodies of five adult passengers ? four men and one woman, all wearing lifejackets ? were discovered in the wreckage Tuesday, raising the death toll to 11.

Instruments attached to the ship detected the movements early Wednesday even though firefighters who spent the night searching the area above water for the missing could not detect any movement.

"As a precautionary measure, we stopped the operations this morning, in order to verify the data we retrieved from our detectors, and understand if there actually was a movement, and if there has been one, how big this was," said Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini.

Officials hope new data will reassure them that the ship has resettled, allowing the search to resume.

Italian authorities on Wednesday identified the 24 passengers and four crew still missing, a number that includes the six bodies found since Monday. None of the dead have been identified. The missing included 13 Germans, six Italians, four French, two Americans and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.

The latest victims were discovered after navy divers exploded holes in the hull of the ship to allow easier access.

In addition to the rescue, much of the focus has been on the cruise ship captain's actions.

In a dramatic phone conversation released Tuesday, a coast guard official was heard ordering the captain, who had abandoned the ship with his first officers, back on board to oversee the evacuation. But Capt. Francesco Schettino resisted the order, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping dangerously.

"You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?" the Coast Guard officer shouted as the Schettino sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape after the ship rammed into a reef off the Tuscan coast. "It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I am in charge."

Jailed since the accident, Schettino appeared Tuesday before a judge in Grosseto, where he was questioned for three hours. The judge ordered him held under house arrest and Italian media reported he returned to his home near Naples.

Federal prosecutors are planning to challenge that decision.

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told a news conference in Grosetto that house arrest made sense given there was no evidence the captain intended to flee. He cited the fact that the captain coordinated the evacuation from the shore after leaving the ship.

"He never left the scene," Leporatti said. "There has never been a danger of flight."

Leporatti added the captain was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.

"He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life," the lawyer said.

Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors in coming days. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison if convicted of the abandoning ship charge alone.

Schettino has insisted that he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated. However, the recording of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco makes clear he fled before all passengers were off ? and then defied De Falco's repeated orders to go back.

"Listen Schettino," De Falco can be heard shouting in the audio tape. "There are people trapped on board. ... You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?"

But Schettino resisted, saying the ship was listing and he was with his second-in-command in the lifeboat.

"I am here with the rescue boats. I am here. I am not going anywhere. I am here," he said. "I am here to coordinate the rescue."

"What are you coordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?" came the response.

Schettino said he was not refusing, but he still did not return to the ship, saying at one point: "Do you realize it is dark and here we can't see anything?"

De Falco shouted back: "And so what? You want to go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!"

The exchange also indicates that Schettino did not know anyone had died, with De Falco telling him at one point: "There are already bodies now, Schettino."

"How many bodies?" Schettino asks in a nervous tone.

"You are the one who has to tell me how many there are!" De Falco barks in response.

Schettino was finally heard on the tape agreeing to reboard. But the coast guard has said he never went back, and police arrested him on land several hours later.

_____

Barry reported from Milan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-18-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-66a69cdd50aa49ab8c4799f92bc72f2a

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Wikipedia editors question site's planned blackout (AP)

NEW YORK ? Can the world live without Wikipedia for a day? The planned shutdown of one of the Internet's most-visited sites is not sitting well with some of its volunteer editors, who say the protest of anti-piracy legislation could threaten the credibility of their work.

"My main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and that's a slippery slope," said editor Robert Lawton, a Michigan computer consultant who would prefer that the encyclopedia stick to being a neutral repository of knowledge. "Before we know it, we're blacked out because we want to save the whales."

Wikipedia will shut down access to its English-language site for 24 hours beginning at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday. Instead of encyclopedia articles, visitors will see information about the two congressional bills and details about how to reach lawmakers.

It is the first time the English site has been blacked out. Wikipedia's Italian site came down once briefly in protest to an Internet censorship bill put forward by the Berlusconi government. The bill did not advance.

The shutdown adds to a growing body of critics who are speaking out against the legislation. But some editors are so uneasy with the move that they have blacked out their own user profile pages or resigned their administrative rights on the site to protest. Some likened the site's decision to fighting censorship with censorship.

One of the site's own "five pillars" of conduct says that Wikipedia "is written from a neutral point of view." The site strives to "avoid advocacy, and we characterize information and issues rather than debate them."

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales argues that the site can maintain neutrality in content even as it takes public positions on issues.

"The encyclopedia will always be neutral. The community need not be, not when the encyclopedia is threatened," he tweeted.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which administers the site, announced the blackout late Monday, after polling its community of volunteer contributors and editors and getting responses from 1,800 of them. The protest is aimed at the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate.

"If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," the foundation said.

Both bills are designed to crack down on sales of pirated American products overseas, and they have the support of the film and music industry. Among the opponents are many Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and AOL. They say the bills would hurt the industry and infringe on free-speech rights.

Social news website Reddit.com is shutting down for 12 hours on Wednesday, but most companies are staying up. Google Inc. said it will display its opposition to the bill on its home page in some fashion.

Dick Costollo, CEO of Twitter, said he opposes the legislation as well, but shutting down the service was out of the question.

"Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish," Costollo tweeted.

Since Wikimedia depends on a small army of volunteers who create and update articles, it's particularly concerned about a lack of exemptions in the bills for sites where users might contribute copyrighted content. Today, it has no obligation under U.S. law except removing that content if a copyright holder complains. But under the House version of the bill, it could be shut down unless it polices its own pages.

The plans for the protest were moving forward even though the bill's prospects appeared to be dimming. On Saturday, Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Democrat, said the bill would not move to the House floor for a vote unless consensus is reached. However, Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, said work on the bill would resume next month.

The White House raised concerns over the weekend, pledging to work with Congress to battle piracy and counterfeiting while defending free expression, privacy and innovation in the Internet. The administration signaled it might use its veto power, if necessary.

That the bill seems unlikely to pass is another reason Lawton opposes the blackout.

"I think there are far more important things for the organization to focus aside from legislation that isn't likely to pass anyway," he said. He's been contributing to Wikipedia for eight years.

Danny Chia, another contributor to the site, said he had mixed feelings about the blackout. The neutrality applies to the content, but a lot of people interpret it as being about the site as a whole, said the Los Altos, Calif., software engineer.

In an online discussion, others raised the same point about the blackout: Appearances matter, and if the audience sees Wikipedia taking a stand, it might not believe the articles are objective, either.

Wikipedia has seen a small decline in participation, from a peak of 100,000 active editors a year ago to about 90,000 now. Wikimedia Foundation blames this mainly on outdated editing tools, and believes it can get the number growing again with software upgrades.

___

AP Technology Writer Mike Liedtke contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wikipedia_credibility

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Attacks on Romney getting personal

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at the American Legion Post 15 in Sumter, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at the American Legion Post 15 in Sumter, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at the American Legion Post 15 in Sumter, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, holds up seven-month-old Ellen Whitaker as he campaigns at American Legion Post 15 in Sumter, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, center, speaks during a campaign stop as John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, left, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, right, look on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Hilton Head, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

SUMTER, S.C. (AP) ? The criticism of Mitt Romney is getting personal.

His rivals have tried to chip away at his business record and they've hit him on abortion. Now, Rick Santorum is calling him "bland and boring." And Newt Gingrich is chiding him for, among other things, once strapping the family dog to a kennel on the roof of his car and speaking French.

It's a reflection of Romney's strong standing in the race for the GOP presidential nomination after back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. His opponents are struggling to derail him a week before the Jan. 21 South Carolina contest and just over two weeks until the Florida primary.

The more personal criticism cuts to the heart of one of Romney's big vulnerabilities ? his image.

In his first presidential race four years ago, an always buttoned-up Romney struggled to connect with people, often coming across as stiff and slick. He always wore a suit and tie on the campaign trail. His hair was perfectly coiffed. He told goofy jokes. And the wealthy Boston resident with several homes often had what were perceived as uneasy encounters with voters.

This time, his campaign had made a conscious effort to make him seem more down to earth.

He often talks about pop culture. His new campaign uniform is a pair of jeans ? usually Gap or Tommy Bahama ? paired with a button-down patterned shirt. He wears suits on the debate stage, but only an hour after a morning debate in New Hampshire he was already in new clothes for a campaign event. His wife, Ann, often testifies about Romney's easy-going, even fun, personal side.

At an event here Saturday, 55-year-old Ruth Williams approached Romney to tell him she was jobless. Romney opened his wallet and handed her a wad of cash, according to ABC News. A Romney spokesperson confirmed he gave her between $50 and $60.

But Romney still hasn't been able to fully shake the image of a dull, straight-laced Wall Street banker with an awkward side who lacks charisma.

And some of his rivals are stoking the notion that the wealthy former venture capitalist from Boston is out of touch with many Americans ? and far from the kind of president an average-Joe voter would want to down a beer with.

Gingrich's campaign has assembled a highlight reel of clips of Romney's verbal miscues, and openings he's created for rivals to attack, from this campaign and from 2008. One clip is from a Fox News interview in which Romney says the family's Irish Setter traveled in "a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the roof of our car."

"We loved the dog. It was where he was comfortable," Romney said then of Seamus.

Another clip shows Romney saying: "Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?"

The video is titled "For the Dogs," and it includes the tag line: "Imagine what Obama would do with a candidate like that."

Another video by the Gingrich campaign, called "The French Connection," compares Romney to failed Democratic presidential nominees Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, two liberals from Massachusetts who had trouble winning over voters. Kerry, in particular, was seen as aloof and elitist by many voters.

The video is set to French music and shows a picture of Dukakis wearing a helmet in a tank and Kerry windsurfing ? iconic images of their failed White House bids. It labels Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, as a "Massachusetts moderate who runs away from Ronald Reagan." It noted that Romney donated to Democrats in the past and says: "He'll say anything to win ? anything. And just like, John Kerry, he speaks French, too."

Romney's conscious of the criticism. Outside an Iowa HyVee, a day after he compared Obama to the French queen Marie Antoinette, Romney was asked if he could say, "let them eat cake" in French.

"I can, but I won't," Romney replied.

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, rolled out a fundraising email Friday that warned his supporters that picking Romney would be like picking failed nominees John McCain, Al Gore, Bob Dole and even Dukakis, another former Massachusetts governor.

"Americans have been down this road before," Santorum says in the appeal. "At various times both parties nominated boring candidates because they were considered 'electable.' In every one of those cases, they weren't electable at all. Now Republicans are again thinking about nominating another bland and boring candidate for president ? Mitt Romney."

Santorum compared Romney to Obama, who has had a reputation for being standoffish, saying: "Republicans can't afford a nominee" who resembles "Obama so much that he can't barely be distinguished from him."

Santorum also has hit Romney for appearing distant, calling his rival "someone who, I think, has had a difficult time relating to the type of voters we're going to need if we're going to win this election."

He cast Romney's tenure at the helm of a venture capital firm in terms that may resonate with many American workers: "It doesn't necessarily mean that you want your boss running for president, right?"

So far, Romney hasn't faltered as he answers attacks on his record. Will he when it gets personal?

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-15-Romney-Getting%20Personal/id-cef2df09621d4e64a68b5121f80d984b

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Occupy DC Passes Corporate Personhood Resolution

WASHINGTON -- Occupy DC's General Assembly passed a "corporate personhood resolution" on Saturday calling for a constitutional amendment ending the "judicial fiction of corporate Constitutional rights."

The resolution calls on Congress to "enact" the amendment (though it should be noted that Congress can't actually enact a Constitutional amendment on its own -- once two-thirds of both houses vote for the amendment, then the states also have to ratify it).

The proposed amendment would also require "Congress to regulate campaign finance" and would mandate "public financing of public elections." The resolution contains other "non-amendment solutions" for untangling money and politics as well:

In 2010, the United States Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that independent spending on elections by corporations and other groups could not be limited by government regulations. This decision is only the latest in a long line of judicial rulings that have invented the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, affording corporations the same constitutional rights as people. The corrupting influence of money in politics, exacerbated by corporate personhood, subverts democracy. The Supreme Court has enshrined corporate personhood and interpreted the First Amendment to prohibit Congress from regulating money in politics. The only way to reverse these rulings is an amendment to the Constitution.

We support an amendment that does the following:

Ends the judicial fiction of corporate Constitutional rights.
Requires Congress to regulate campaign finance.
Mandates public financing of public elections.
We also support these non-amendment solutions:

Ending the revolving door between lobbyists and the executive and legislative branches of the government.
Restructuring the Federal Election Commission to give it prosecutorial power and neutral, non-political commissioners.Requiring the disclosure and complete transparency of all independent political expenditures.
Banning lobbyists from acting as either fundraisers or bundlers.
We implore the DC city council, the Maryland legislature, the Virginia legislature and all legislative bodies to pass resolutions calling on Congress to enact an amendment and other solutions.

We call on all people to exercise their civic duty by taking action, where possible, against corporate personhood and the corrupting influence of money in politics without waiting for the government to fix itself.

Occupy DC reserves the right to oppose an amendment or other solution even if it adheres to the provisions above.

Consent to this proposal does not require that an individual be completely in line with every piece of the proposed solution.

This concern is one of many that Occupy DC will address. More solutions are forthcoming.

Occupy DC is planning to participate in "Occupy the Courts," a one-day protest taking place on Friday at the Supreme Court, as well as at other federal courts around the country. Citizens United was decided on Jan. 21, 2010.

Occupy DC also plans to ask the District of Columbia Council to pass an anti-corporate personhood resolution, similar to the resolutions passed by the New York City Council and the Los Angeles City Council.

Historical sidenote: The last amendment to become part of the U.S. Constitution is the 27th Amendment. This amendment says that if Congress votes to give itself a pay raise, the raise doesn't take effect until the following Congress (in other words, if the 112th Congress votes for a pay raise, the 113th Congress gets the raise). The amendment was first introduced in 1789. It became fully ratified in 1992.

Flickr photo by takomabibelot, used under a Creative Commons license.

RELATED VIDEO: The trailer for "Hillary: The Movie" -- the film at the center of the Citizens United lawsuit.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/15/occupy-dc-passes-corporate-personhood-resolution_n_1207041.html

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Romney opens 21-point lead in South Carolina: Reuters/Ipsos poll (reuters)

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JPMorgan disappoints; banks lead stocks lower (AP)

NEW YORK ? A rare disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan Chase battered bank stocks on Friday and helped push the rest of the market lower. Rumors of imminent downgrades for the credit ratings of European governments drove the euro down and sent investors streaming into U.S. debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.96 points to close at 12,422.06, a drop of 0.4 percent. Markets were little changed late in the day after France's finance minister confirmed that Standard & Poor's had stripped the country of its AAA credit rating.

Before the market opened, JPMorgan said quarterly profit declined 23 percent from a year earlier, slightly worse than what analysts expected. The bank's stock lost 2 percent, and other large banks followed. Morgan Stanley fell 3 percent and Goldman Sachs 2 percent.

It was the first time JPMorgan missed Wall Street expectations since the final quarter of 2007, a period that includes the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. JPMorgan is widely considered one of the best-managed big banks. Traders figured that if JPMorgan had trouble as 2011 came to a close, the rest of the industry probably did, too.

"JPMorgan is the gold standard," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors. "So what happens to the banks that aren't quite as strong and aren't quite as well-managed?"

On trading desks, it's called the "cockroach theory," Orlando said. "You never see just one cockroach. If you see one, you know there's bound to be a lot more."

The euro slipped to its lowest level in 17 months after reports surfaced that S&P would downgrade European governments. After the markets closed in New York, S&P announced cuts for France, Austria, Italy and Spain.

The euro dropped 1.1 percent against the dollar to $1.27. Borrowing costs jumped for France, Italy and Spain, countries at the center of the region's debt crisis.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors moved money into lower-risk assets. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.86 percent from 1.93 percent late Thursday.

S&P warned Dec. 5 that 15 countries that use the euro were at risk of downgrades, citing higher borrowing costs for top-rated governments and disagreements among European leaders.

A cut to France's credit rating may fail to push rates up for France because bond traders were prepared for it, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

The danger is to the European rescue fund. France is the second-largest contributor to the fund behind Germany. Bond traders could respond to the French downgrade by raising borrowing costs for the rescue fund, in the expectation that its rating will be cut next.

"The knock-on effects are far more significant than the impact on France itself," LeBas said.

JPMorgan's results opened the earnings season for banks on a sour note. Though an increasing pace of earnings reports may help steer the markets over the coming days, Europe's debt crisis is likely to remain the focus.

In other trading, the S&P 500 index fell 6.41, or 0.5 percent to 1,289.09. The Nasdaq composite index fell 14.03, or 0.5 percent, to 2,710.67. Even with Friday's fall, all three indexes posted gains for the second straight week. The S&P 500 index is up 2.5 percent to start the year.

Among stocks making larger moves than the overall market Friday:

? Diamond Foods Inc., which makes Emerald Nuts, plunged 10 percent after The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors had opened a criminal inquiry into its financial practices. The Journal also reported that two large shareholders had dumped most of their stakes in the company.

? Safeway Inc., the grocery store chain, rose 1.8 percent. An analyst at Jefferies placed a "buy" rating on the stock on the expectation that the company will benefit from an improving job market, especially in California.

? Alpha Natural Resources fell 10 percent, the largest loss in the S&P 500. The coal company bought Massey Energy last year, and the Justice Department is considering whether to prosecute the people who ran Massey when its Big Branch mine exploded in 2010.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Mortgage rates for the past 52 weeks, at a glance (AP)

Skip to navigation ? Skip to content ? By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Thu?Jan?12, 12:26?pm?ET

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to a record low of 3.89 percent, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's below the previous record of 3.91 percent reached three weeks ago. Here's a look at rates for fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages over the past 52 weeks.

Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low

30-year fixed 3.89 3.91 5.05 3.89

15-year fixed 3.16 3.23 4.29 3.16

5-year adjustable 2.82 2.86 3.92 2.82

1-year adjustable 2.76 2.80 3.40 2.76

All values are in percentage points.

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_bi_ge/us_mortgage_rates_glance

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Obama takes on big government: 'It has to change'

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on government reform, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on government reform, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama waves after delivering remarks on government reform, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on government reform, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on government reform, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Seeking more power to shrink the government, President Barack Obama on Friday suggested smashing six economic agencies into one, an election-year idea intended to halt bureaucratic nightmares and force Republicans to back him on one of their own favorite issues.

"The government we have is not the government we need," Obama told business owners he'd gathered at the White House. Lawmakers seemed willing to at least consider his ideas.

Sounding like a manager of a disorganized company, and looking like one by pointing to slides as he spoke, Obama asked Congress to give him a kind of reorganization power no president has had since Ronald Reagan. It would guarantee Obama a vote, within 90 days, on any idea he offers to consolidate agencies, provided it saves money and cuts the government.

His first potential target: Merging six major trade and commerce agencies into a one-stop-shopping department for American businesses. The Commerce Department would be among those that would cease to exist.

Attacking senseless duplication across the executive branch he runs, Obama said: "Why is it OK for our government? It's not. It has to change."

Politically, Obama is seeking advantage on the turf often owned by Republicans: Smaller government.

He is attempting to directly counter Republican arguments that he has presided over the kind of regulation, spending and debt that can undermine the economy ? a dominant theme of this year's debate and one often cited by his potential re-election rival, Republican Mitt Romney.

Obama said he would use his expanded authority to recommend the collapsing of other agencies across the government, not just in the business field, without getting specific. Congress would keep the final say over any proposal. But fast-track power would give Obama a stronger hand to skip much of the outside lobbying and turf battles and get right to a vote.

Congressional reaction was mixed, but generally followed a pattern from both parties ? support for making government more efficient, and wariness about how Obama's plan could upend the trade American trade agenda or undermine the prerogatives of Congress.

Republicans skeptically pointed to Obama's past promises as the size of the nation's debt keeps growing.

"It's not often that we see real proposals from this administration to make government smaller," said Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "I look forward to reviewing the proposal and hope that it will be the first of many to unravel the red tape."

Indeed, Obama promised more plans to shrink things if given more power, citing inefficiencies all across the government.

In an unusual united front that underscored some bipartisan skepticism, the chairmen of two of Congress' most powerful committees joined in a statement that questioned the president's desire to wrap the U.S. Trade Representative office into a new agency. The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont, said government cannot be reduced "at the expense of programs that are helping businesses, ranchers and farmers create jobs."

For Obama, it was all about common sense.

He spoke of business people who deal with the government as part of their daily life and are exasperated by a maze of agencies, permits and websites.

"We can do this better," he told them. "So much of the argument out there all the time is up in 40,000 feet, these abstract arguments about who's conservative or who's liberal. ...You guys are just trying to figure out, how do we make things work? How do we apply common sense? And that's what this is about."

Obama had an imperative to deliver. He made the promise to come up with a smart reorganization of the government in his State of the Union speech last January.

Not in decades has the government undergone a sustained reorganization of itself. Presidents have tried from time to time, but each part of the bureaucracy has its own defenders inside and outside the government, which can make merger ideas politically impossible. That's particularly true because "efficiency" is often another way of saying people will lose their jobs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she hoped Congress would quickly approve Obama's proposal, which she said tracked with worries Democrats have been hearing from small business owners.

Beyond the politics, the merger Obama offered would have big implications for trade and commerce in America.

Presidents held a fast-track reorganizational authority for about 50 years until it ran out during Reagan's presidency in 1984, the White House argued.

Obama wants to merge: the Commerce Department's core business and trade functions; the Small Business Administration; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.

The White House says 1,000 to 2,000 jobs would be cut, but the administration would do so through attrition. The administration says the consolidation would save $3 billion over 10 years by getting rid of duplicative overhead and programs, although it has yet to spell out any plan in detail.

Obama's announcement treads on ground that Romney, the Republican front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, frequently stakes out on the campaign trail. Romney often says he would try to shrink government by eliminating offices that duplicate functions performed somewhere else, citing as examples more than 80 different workforce training programs.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said streamlining government was always a potentially good idea but expressed suspicion about whether the plan by Obama would really help business. Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, pledged Obama's plan would get a careful review.

But he added: "It's interesting to see the president finally acknowledge that Washington is out of control."

__

Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt, Alan Fram, Erica Werner and Ken Thomas contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-13-Obama-Trimming%20Government/id-1e8ff053053b4b01b114285289ac3588

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Watch the Engadget Mobile Podcast CES edition, live tonight at 11PM ET!

Nope, it's not a typo, folks: for tonight's CES 2012 podcast we're getting in front of a camera to discuss all of the latest happenings in Las Vegas. And there's a lot to talk about, too, so you won't want to miss seeing us rant live for a change! So join Myriam Joire, Sean Cooper (yes, the Sean Cooper) and Brad Molen as we show off some of the phones announced this week and converse on everything we've seen so far.

January 11, 2012 11:00 PM EST

Continue reading Watch the Engadget Mobile Podcast CES edition, live tonight at 11PM ET!

Watch the Engadget Mobile Podcast CES edition, live tonight at 11PM ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/n81uMQ_rDkM/

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Couple finds $4,500 wedding ring in dog's stomach

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? A couple has found a suspect in the disappearance of their $4,500 wedding ring ? their 10-month old basset hound.

KOB-TV (http://bit.ly/zPYUJc) reported Wednesday that a veterinarian recently removed the ring from the dog named Coraline after X-rays showed it was lodged deep in her stomach and wasn't coming out on its own.

Albuquerque resident Rachelle Atkinson says she and her husband Scott had searched everywhere for the ring before beginning to suspect the dog ate it.

The vet said basset hounds have a tendency to eat rocks.

Atkinson says she now hides the ring while Coraline is off munching away at anything she can find.

___

Information from: KOB-TV, http://www.kob.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-01-05-Dog%20Eats%20Ring/id-1608405c126b42a7bfe9e01eb4a9bee8

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Bracketron unveils its iRoom iDock Touchcode in-wall iPad mount at CES 2012

Remember the iRoom iDock motorized in-wall iPad dock announced back in September? It's okay if you don't, because it's CES time, people, and Bracketron's back with a new version called the Touchcode. This fresh model still securely mounts your Apple tablet in any wall like its elder, but adds an LED-lit keypad on the side that lets you designate a four digit code to deny access to any ne'er-do-wells around. The new model can still be mounted in landscape or portrait mode like the old, but it's got power over Ethernet and USB connections for further connectivity. It's only available from Bracketron direct, but the company's not saying how much it'll set you back, nor do we know when the Touchcode will be available for purchase. What we can offer is full PR after the break.

Continue reading Bracketron unveils its iRoom iDock Touchcode in-wall iPad mount at CES 2012

Bracketron unveils its iRoom iDock Touchcode in-wall iPad mount at CES 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/bracketron-unveils-its-iroom-idock-touchcode-in-wall-ipad-mount/

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Garmin n?vi 3590LMT hands-on (video)

Garmin trotted out its latest line of nüvi navigation devices at CES this morning, including the 3590LMT. This ultra-thin device was on display at Pepcom this evening, sporting sleek curves and a commodious five-inch display. With the 3590LMT, users get access to Garmin's Digital 3D Traffic feature, giving them access to both real-time traffic updates and historical data. Joining the 3590LMT is Garmin's dedicated Smartphone Link app for Android, which provides users with the latest fuel prices, allowing them to plot out the most fuel efficient and cost-effective routes. The app is available for free, but the 3590LMT, unfortunately, is not. It'll hit the market next month, for about $400. For more details, check out our gallery below, and head past the break to peep our hands-on video.

Gallery: Garmin n?vi 3590LMT hands-on

Continue reading Garmin n?vi 3590LMT hands-on (video)

Garmin n?vi 3590LMT hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/garmin-nuvi-3590lmt-hands-on-video/

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Gala premiere, then quiet 30th for Kate Middleton (AP)

LONDON ? After attending a gala film premiere in a full-length lacy evening gown, Kate Middleton stepped out of the public gaze Monday to celebrate her milestone 30th birthday in private.

She turned heads ? and dominated Britain's Monday morning front pages ? by attending the London opening of Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" wearing a striking design by Alice Temperley. Her husband, Prince William, used an umbrella to keep her glossy brown hair drizzle-free.

It was another star turn for Middleton, who has appeared ever more comfortable in public since joining the royal family in April.

Palace officials said the Duchess of Cambridge's birthday celebration will be a "low-key and private" affair. The choice of a muted event seems appropriate: After all, the duchess is not just starting the fourth decade of her life ? she is also embarking on her career as a future queen, charged with renovating a monarchy that has become somewhat creaky with age.

"She's done very well, playing a very good supporting role to Prince William and complementing him as part of a team," said Robert Jobson, author of "William and Kate: The Love Story." "We've not seen much of her, but when she's in public she has performed with aplomb."

The past year has seen momentous changes for Kate, with a fairytale wedding to Prince William, travels around the world and glamorous appearances that marked her transition from commoner to the world's most talked-about princess and style icon. She has won rave reviews for her sparkle, her elegant sense of style, and her common touch with the public.

But now that the excitement around her grand wedding has subsided, she is expected to quietly settle down into her royal duties ? and for much of this year, that means helping Queen Elizabeth II celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, without upstaging the monarch in her moment of glory, and also playing a supporting role at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Until recently, palace officials have been quiet about what exactly her role will be, keen to protect her transition into a fully fledged royal from the glare of the media limelight. The newlyweds, who live in a remote corner of north Wales, were said to favor a "quieter life" after the massive global media coverage of their April wedding.

The former Middleton ventured out on her first solo engagement in October ? a private charity dinner for about 30 guests ? but is yet to make a public speech on her own.

That is set to change. This week, royal officials finally gave the first insight into her new role when they announced which charities she's supporting, including the Scouts and a group that helps drug addicts. More organizations will follow later, officials said.

She has already taken on an unofficial role as a champion of the British fashion industry, wearing the creations of British designers at home and abroad, showcasing their work in the best possible light.

On top of such duties, the duchess also has a busy year ahead with the queen's jubilee, a major celebration of the monarch's 60 years on the throne that will see numerous celebrations throughout Britain and the Commonwealth, peaking in a major celebration in London in early June.

The royals are expected to play a supporting role by traveling overseas to represent the queen. William and Kate are due to journey to Malaysia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands and the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu as part of the festivities.

Inevitably, much of the speculation about the duchess' future has centered on royal lineage ? Is she going to start a family soon? That, however, is anyone's guess, and despite incessant tabloid baby chatter, there doesn't yet appear to be great pressure on the newlyweds to produce an heir.

"It's early days yet, and they're both getting used to their roles," said Jobson, adding that the presence of other young members of the royal household, such as Prince Harry, helps to ease the pressure on William and Kate.

Many of the more senior women in the royal family were mothers in their 20s, but times and expectations have changed ? both inside and outside the royal household.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120109/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_kate_s_birthday

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