Just nine months after its inception, the non-profit group Detroit Dog Rescue has received a $1.5 million donation from an ?angel investor.? NBC?s Harry Smith reports.
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LAGOS, Nigeria ? Attackers threw homemade explosives inside an Islamic school in a predominantly Christian city where some 50 children had gathered for an Arabic class, wounding six pupils and a teacher, authorities said Wednesday.
The rare attack in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta comes just days after radical Islamist militants launched a series of explosions across the country on Christmas, leaving at least 39 dead and dozens wounded.
Analysts say it is too early to speak of retaliation following the attacks by Boko Haram, but worry about what such violence could mean. The school was attacked Tuesday in Sapele, Delta State police spokesman Charles Muka said.
"Sapele just seems like the most unlikely place for a retaliatory attack to take place," criminologist Innocent Chukwuma said. "But if it is, this would play right into Boko Haram, which has been looking to escalate the conflict to make the country ungovernable."
Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous nation, is largely divided into a Muslim north and Christian south, though members of the two faiths live everywhere across the country, do business together and intermarry.
Thousands, though, have died in recent years in communal fighting pitting machete-wielding neighbors against each other. Earlier this year, at least 800 were killed across Nigeria's north in postelection violence after a Christian candidate was elected president.
Tensions are particularly high in the nation's "middle belt," where the two regions meet. On Tuesday night, authorities say assailants shot a Christian couple and their 1-year-old child Tuesday night, said Plateau state spokesman Pam Ayuba.
Authorities believe the attack in a village near the city of Jos was carried out by Muslim herdsmen.
Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 504 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
While initially targeting Islamic and Christian clerics, politicians, policemen and soldiers via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes after the 2009 riot, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties.
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Our strategy is to buy high quality stocks that we would be willing to hold for years although we don't promise to when they are selling at big discounts for their value, says Wally Weitz, Wallance R. Weitz & Co. founder/president, who shares why Wells...
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BEIRUT?? Arab League monitors gathered accounts about the Syrian government's crackdown on dissent in the central city of Homs Wednesday as fresh violence flared just dozens of miles away. Activists said troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, killing at least six.
Though President Bashar Assad's regime has made concessions to the observers, including the release of nearly 800 prisoners, the military was pressing ahead with a campaign to put down mostly peaceful protests.
In the two days since the Arab monitors arrived, activists said troops have killed at least 39 people, including the six shot in the central city of Hama on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the monitors are expected to visit Hama, Idlib and Daraa ? all centers of the uprising.
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The continued bloodshed ? and comments by an Arab League official praising Syria's cooperation ? have fueled concerns by the Syrian opposition that the Arab mission is a farce and a distraction from the ongoing killings.
Arab League: 'Nothing frightening' in Syria hotspotThe opposition suspects Assad is only trying to buy time and forestall more international sanctions and condemnation.
"This mission has absolutely no mandate, no authority, no teeth," said Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group. "The regime does not feel obliged to even bring down the number of casualties a day."
The 60 monitors ? the first Syria has allowed in during the nine-month uprising ? are supposed to be ensuring the regime is complying with terms of a plan to end a crackdown the U.N. says has killed more than 5,000 people since March.
The plan, which Syria agreed to on Dec. 19, demands that the regime remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.
On Wednesday, the government released 755 prisoners following a report by Human Rights Watch accusing authorities of hiding hundreds of detainees from the monitors. It was the second concession in two days.
The army on Monday pulled some of its troops back from the central city of Homs after bombarding it for days and killing scores of people. Monitors who were allowed into the city were met by tens of thousands of protesters who called for Assad's execution.
Images obtained by The Associated Press from the city in the days leading up to the monitors' visit show army defectors inside a bombed-out building, firing machine guns through gaping holes in a wall.
In another, a huge crowd fills the street for a nighttime rally behind a giant banner of the uprising's revolutionary flag. A row of women wear the flags and a large sign overhead reads: "All the doors are closed except your door, God."
There are also photos of wounded civilians lying on a floor in pools of blood, and being treated with crude medical equipment. Another shows an alleyway with blood smeared on a wall and pooled on the ground.
At a Dec. 21 protest, a banner reads: "To the Arab League: Your initiative cannot protect us from death." Young girls with headbands that read "Leave!" and sashes calling for the "execution of Bashar" protest under banners with "Freedom and Dignity."
The images show the intensity of the opposition against Assad's regime, which brought on the offensive against Homs that began on Friday and lasted until monitors arrived Tuesday to start their one-month mission with a visit to the city.
Several from the team of 12 stayed in Homs overnight and they continued to work there Wednesday. There was no word on whether other teams went to different cities.
According to officials and activists, the monitors went to several districts of Homs, including trouble spots in Baba Amr, Bab Sbaa and Inshaat.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45808426/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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TUESDAY, Dec. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have breast cancer on the left side of the body and who are treated with radiation therapy have a higher risk of developing narrowing of the arteries that lead to the heart, researchers say.
A new Swedish study found that the risk of having moderately narrowed coronary arteries was more than four times greater for women who had left-sided breast cancers treated with radiation compared to right-sided breast cancers treated with radiation. The odds were seven times higher for more severe narrowing on the left side versus the right, according to the study published in the Dec. 27 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
"We suggest that the coronary arteries be regarded as organs at risk in radiation therapy, and that every effort be made to avoid radiation dose to the coronary arteries," wrote study authors led by Dr. Greger Nilsson, of the department of oncology, radiology and clinical immunology at Uppsala University Hospital.
However, it's also important to note that of a group of 8,190 women who had breast cancer, just 199 had to be referred for coronary angiography (a treatment for blocked blood vessels).
"Women need to be aware that there is a risk, but the overall risk is still relatively small, and the benefits of radiation in the treatment of breast cancer still outweigh the risks," said Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, are designed to destroy cancer cells. Unfortunately, healthy cells are often damaged, too. Treatment techniques are constantly being refined, and today's treatments target fewer healthy cells than treatments from years past.
For example, newer radiation techniques help protect the heart and the arteries leading to it, according to Dr. Timothy Zagar, an assistant professor in radiation oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One such technique is to give bursts of radiation only when a patient is taking a deep breath. During a deep breath, the main artery going to the heart separates from the breast and chest wall, which keeps it away from the radiation.
Zagar, co-author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal, said researchers don't know exactly how radiation causes damage to coronary arteries, but it's believed to damage the cells lining the arteries (endothelial cells), which causes inflammation, which can lead to hardening of the arteries.
The current study included women from Sweden who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1970 and 2003. Of the 8,190 women, the researchers found 199 women who had undergone coronary angiography, suggesting significant coronary artery disease.
Coronary artery narrowing (stenosis) is graded on a scale of zero to 5. Zero indicates a healthy blood vessel, while 5 indicates a blocked blood vessel.
When the researchers compared women who'd had radiation treatment on the left side of their body versus the right, they found that the odds of a grade 3 to grade 5 stenosis in a left-sided artery were 4.38 times higher. The odds of a grade 4 or grade 5 stenosis were 7.22 times higher for women who had left-sided breast cancer.
In women who received radiation in high-risk areas near the heart's arteries, the risk of a grade 3 to grade 5 stenosis was nearly twice as high as it was in women who had radiation in low-risk areas, or who didn't have radiation.
Zagar pointed out that this study was done over a long period of time and that changes in the way radiation is delivered would likely result in lower odds of coronary artery stenosis for women treated with radiation today.
In addition, Zagar said, "I don't think this study's findings would justify changing from a lumpectomy [breast-conserving surgery] to a mastectomy [surgical removal of the breast]. Breast-conserving therapy is very important to many women, and the number of coronary events are still low," he added.
"It's important to understand that with all treatments, there are risks," Bernik said. "And, we know that this is one of the risks with radiation of left-sided breast cancer. Women need to keep in mind that they're at increased risk of coronary events and need to follow up with their doctor going forward."
More information
Learn more about radiation treatment for cancer from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
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BEIJING?? Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda wrapped up a trip to Beijing on Monday where he sought China's cooperation in promoting stability in North Korea after the death of its longtime leader Kim Jong Il.
Noda's first official visit to Beijing since taking power in September would normally have centered on bilateral issues, such as squabbles over islands claimed by both countries, but the death of Kim on Dec. 17 and the announcement of his son Kim Jong Un as the country's "supreme leader" has shifted the focus.
Noda, the first foreign leader to meet with China's leaders since Kim's death, emphasized the need to get stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program back on track.
"Strengthening our countries' relations is necessary in order to solve regional and global issues," Noda said when he met President Hu Jintao on Monday, a day after holding talks with his counterpart, Wen Jiabao.
On Sunday, Noda pointed to the new situation in East Asia, saying "it is very timely to exchange views with the host of the six-party talks and the country with the most influence on North Korea," referring to China.
His visit to China was planned before Kim's death was announced Dec. 19.
When asked whether China could confirm that Kim Jong Un was in complete control of North Korea, Japanese Foreign Ministry press secretary Yutaka Yokoi would say only that Noda and Wen had discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula.
After meeting with Wen, Noda told reporters that the two leaders had agreed to cooperate to try to achieve stability on the peninsula.
"We shared the understanding that denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and its peace and stability not only benefits Japan and China but serves the common interest of all neighboring countries," said Noda.
Yokoi said that a Chinese leader has been invited to visit Japan in the first half of next year, but would not say who.
Japan does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea, while China is the impoverished country's most important supporter and supplies it with food aid and much of its energy resources.
The death of Kim Jong Il
The six-party talks, which include the two Koreas, the United States and Russia, as well as China and Japan, are aimed at disarming North Korea of its nuclear capability. Pyongyang walked out on the talks in 2009 ? and exploded a second nuclear-test device ? but now wants to re-engage.
Last year, North Korea was blamed for two military attacks on South Korea that heightened tensions on the peninsula.
Yokoi said China would consider Noda's request to lease pandas for a zoo in Sendai to help cheer up the northern Japanese region as it recovers from the earthquake and tsunami disasters in March.
Noda and Wen noted that 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between their countries and said both nations want to improve relations to mark that occasion.
Officials from both countries also signed memorandums of understanding on youth exchanges and setting up a clean energy and environmental protection investment fund.
Japan and China have a list of sensitive topics they are trying to make progress on, including fights over islands and energy disputes in the East China Sea.
___
Associated Press writers Gillian Wong in Beijing and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45788518/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
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Utah woman and son rescued from hostage situation after woman seeks help via #Facebook post: dpo.st/rVxkZm 
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Renewable energy could become a standard part of Vermont's idyllic image.Photo: Sterling CollegeCross-posted from Climate Progress.
Vermont is known for its lush Green Mountains, idyllic farm landscapes, and progressive politics. What many people may not realize is that Vermont has a pretty active secessionist movement too.
Vermont isn't likely to secede from the U.S. But it is undertaking an ambitious renewable energy program that could at least put it on a path toward "energy secession" -- developing a road map for procuring 90 percent of its heat, electricity, and fuels from renewables by 2050.
Under Vermont's new governor, Peter Shumlin, regulators are developing the state's first comprehensive energy plan in over a decade. And this one is certainly forward-looking.
Vermont currently gets about 25 percent of its electricity from renewables?-- mostly biomass and hydro. But officials want to diversify technologies, address underserved markets like heat and fuels, and dramatically improve efficiency in all sectors. The state released its final comprehensive plan for 2011 last week.
Vermont has already embraced a modest transition to renewables, implementing a feed-in tariff in 2009 and developing a renewable energy standard (heat and electricity) of 20 percent by 2017. This latest plan, which just went through an extensive public commenting period, takes these efforts to the next level.
After Vermont received a devastating surprise pummeling from Hurricane Irene in August, state planners have taken the experience to heart, using it as one of the central drivers in the state's new energy plan.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, the need to align local, regional, and state policies across agencies and departments to support thoughtful and resilient growth in our downtowns and villages has never been more acute. The Agency of Commerce and Community Development, with the support of the Climate Cabinet, will complete a review of the state's designation programs in 2012.
Prior to Tropical Storm Irene, the state had already set a goal of 5 percent reduction in energy usage across state government. Now that the state faces significant infrastructure repair and rebuilding, energy usage in our state buildings is even more central to our planning. The CEP recommends that the state sharpen its focus on efficient buildings while strategically deploying renewable energy systems.
... We recommend the midcentury goal while recognizing that we must pursue our goals responsibly, ensuring overall energy costs for our businesses and residents remain regionally competitive. But we must also act boldly to protect our environment and our economic security.
Kudos to Vermont for considering such a bold vision for the future and taking a real step toward independence.
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Associated Press Sports
updated 12:48 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2011
MADRID (AP) -Atletico Madrid has fired coach Gregorio Manzano following the club's embarrassing exit from the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
The 3-1 aggregate loss to third-tier Albacete proved to be the final straw for the club's executive board, which reached a unanimous decision on Thursday to end Manzano's reign after less than six months.
Atletico is 10th in the league, four points above the relegation zone.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsGetty Images ContributorOff the Bench:?Your typical European soccer match. Fan attacks goalie during play; goalie defends himself by giving fan a few swift kicks.
AFP - Getty ImagesEngland captain will face a criminal charge over allegations that he racially abused an opponent in the Premier League.
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R. Kelly, Avril Lavigne and Alanis Morissette join contestants on their final night of performances.
By Adam Graham
Josh Krajcik, Chris Rene and Melanie Amaro on "The X Factor" Wednesday
Photo: Ray Mickshaw / FOX
At the outset of Wednesday's (December 21) 90-minute "The X Factor" performance finale, which pitted three singers — Josh Krajcik, Chris Rene and Melanie Amaro — against one another for a $5 million recording contract, judge Simon Cowell predicted, "I think this is going to be the closest final we've ever had."
By the end of the penultimate show, Cowell made it clear who had his vote to win, and unsurprisingly, it was the singer he mentored in the race, Melanie Amaro. Following Amaro's second song, a rendition of Beyoncé's "Dreamgirls" ballad "Listen," Cowell gave up all pretense of objectivity and threw his weight behind the singer, whom he at one point cut from the competition before reconsidering and allowing her back in after making a personal visit to her home.
"I brought this show to America because I believe some of the greatest singers in the world are from this country, and you just proved that," he told the 19-year-old from Sunrise, Florida. "I think you, based on that performance tonight, to me, should be the winner of 'The X Factor,' because you're going to represent this country all over the world."
Earlier in the show, Amaro performed a duet of "I Believe I Can Fly" with R. Kelly, which marked Kelly's first performance since undergoing throat surgery earlier this year. Amaro held her own with the singer, but Kells stole the spotlight with his effortless vocal gymnastics, on what was called his first-ever duet of his 1996 smash. For his part, Kells called Amaro "unbelievable," and said, "There's no doubt in my mind this girl is on her way to the moon." While L.A. Reid criticized Amaro for not performing well in the song's key, Cowell backed her 100 percent, calling the performance "close to godly."
Chris Rene, a 28-year-old from Santa Cruz, California, shared the stage early on with Avril Lavigne, as the two performed Lavigne's hit "Complicated" together, complete with a new rap from Rene. Rene's second song was "Young Homie," a song he penned and sang during the audition process and again on the November 22 episode, when he mixed it with the Beatles' "Let It Be."
He earned high marks from the judges, with Paula Abdul dubbing his "Young Homie" performance "magic," while calling Rene — who celebrated his eighth month of sobriety on Tuesday — the "consummate singer-songwriter-performer." "You make everyone fall in love with you!" she beamed. Cowell called him a "brilliant" performer, adding he's a "true gentleman" and a "really nice guy."
Josh Krajcik, a 30-year-old self-described "burrito slinger" from Columbus, Ohio, opened the show with Alanis Morissette, as the two took on her 1998 hit "Uninvited." Krajcik was visibly nervous while sharing the stage with Morissette but was much more in his element during his second song, when he stripped away all the fancy production cues and did "At Last" alone with his guitar. That performance was hailed as a return to form from the judges.
"This is what we liked about you in the first place," said Cowell, while Krajcik's mentor, Nicole Scherzinger, praised his consistency throughout the competition. "You have delivered in every single performance," she told him.
The winner will be crowned on Thursday's two-hour finale, which is set to feature appearances by Justin Bieber, 50 Cent, Leona Lewis, Pitbull and Ne-Yo.
What did you think of the "X Factor" finale? Sound off in the comments!
Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676399/x-factor-performance-finale.jhtml
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Online search and advertising giant Google is teaming with investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. to develop four solar energy farms serving the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California.
Google, Inc. said Tuesday on its Green Blog that it will spend $94 million on the projects and work with KKR and solar developer Recurrent Energy, a division of Sharp Corp., on the projects.
Construction on three of the projects will be complete early next year, and the fourth will come on line later in the year.
The projects are expected to provide electricity to power more than 13,000 average U.S. homes. Electricity produced by three of the projects is contracted for 20 years with the utility district, Google said.
It's the latest in a series of renewable energy investments for Google, which has said it is disappointed that it can't buy renewable electricity for its power-hungry data centers and wants to invest to help renewable power expand in scale.
Google earns what it describes as attractive returns on its investments by capturing local and federal renewable energy tax credits and charging interest on the money it supplies for the projects.
Google said it has invested more than $915 million in clean energy projects, including $800 million this year. Google has invested in wind farms in North Dakota, California and Oregon, solar projects in California and Germany, and a project off the East coast of the U.S. meant to help make offshore wind farms possible.
In September, Google announced it would set up a $75 million fund to help local installers offer special financing deals to homeowners who want to put solar panels on their roofs. In June, the company announced a $280 million deal with installer SolarCity to help it offer similar deals.
Google's Sacramento solar deal represents its first U.S. investment in a large-scale solar project that generates energy for a grid, rather than rooftop systems that provide power to homes or businesses.
KKR said the project is its first U.S. renewable energy investment. It has invested in a French wind farm operator and a Spanish solar energy company.
Prices of solar panels have fallen dramatically over the last year as more solar manufacturing plants have been built, raw material costs have fallen, and renewable energy subsidies in Europe, solar's biggest market, have dried up.
This has been a boon for installers, utilities and homeowners. Solar installations are on pace to double in the U.S. this year for the second year in a row. MidAmerican Energy, the Iowa utility owned by Berkshire Hathaway, announced investments in two enormous solar farms this month, one in Arizona and one in California.
But for panel makers, the low prices have eroded their profits.
First Solar, among the world's largest solar companies, has cut earnings and revenue estimates for 2011 and its share price has fallen 75 percent this year. The company, based in Tempe, Ariz., expects to report charges of 85 cents per share related to a series of cost-cutting moves this year, including layoffs of about 100 people.
In September, California solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, which received a $528 million federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration as a "green jobs" creator, filed for bankruptcy court protection, citing low panel prices.
Jonathan Fahey can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey .
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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? By revealing the digital tricks behind the blue-skinned Na'vi, Fox is expecting to start seeing lots of green this holiday season.
"Avatar" fans will be able to get an in-depth look at the groundbreaking performance capture and green-screen technology that helped James Cameron craft the alien residents of the planet Pandora thanks to a new iTunes special edition of the 2009 blockbuster.
The latest extras-laden version of the film will be available exclusively through the Apple platform starting on December 20.
"This came about because we were trying to figure out how we can elevate the iTunes space," Aubrey Freeborn, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for Worldwide VOD and Electronic Sell-Through, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, told TheWrap.
"We're trying to make digital copies of films more compelling," she added.
The thinking is that offering more interactive features might persuade viewers to buy movies rather than just streaming them.
To that end, Freeborn said that the studio worked closely with Cameron and the "Avatar" director's Lightstorm entertainment to create the supplemental materials.
Among the more eye-popping attractions are features that allow viewers to watch the green screen and other technological magic behind 17 of the film's scenes. Viewers can simultaneously view the film's Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and other "Avatar" actors hooked up to their performance-capture gear alongside a computer template of the scenes and the finished product.
It's amazing to see just how physical the performances are, as Worthington and Saldana are tossed around in a dizzying array of harnesses and contraptions, as well as how challenging it must have been for the actors to imagine that they were fighting, flying, or romancing on a lush, distant moon when they were surrounded by floor mats and green screens.
There's also a nifty feature that allows users to guide their cursor across scenes from the film to expose what elements of a shot are green-screen creations.
Fox says the "Avatar iTunes Extras Special Edition" comes with a total of six hours of extras.
The digital copy sells for $19.99 in high-definition and $14.99 for standard-definition. The timing of the release was picked to capitalize on the onslaught of iTunes gift cards typically purchased during the holidays.
The copy also features an original screenplay by James Cameron, Cameron's "scriptment" (a novella with some scenes broken out into dialogue), a gallery of 1,700 images and some "making of" features.
Fox executives say that the extras are specifically designed for digital consumption and that there are no plans to make them available on DVD or Blu-ray.
For fans, it's a chance to keep returning to Pandora and an opportunity to make the long wait until "Avatar 2" hits theaters in 2014 a little more bearable.
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2011 just keeps getting better for J.R. Martinez!
Not only did the actor and war vet win Dancing With the Stars' 13th season in November, but now Martinez has even more good news to share: He's going to be a dad.
PHOTOS: Hottest Hollywood dads
Martinez, 28, and his girlfriend Diana Gonzalez-Jones are expecting their first child -- a girl -- next spring.
"First thing that crossed my mind when we found out we were having a girl: All the #emotional feelings, all the #beautyproducts, and the #OMG's," the father-to-be tweeted Saturday.
The Iraq war veteran met Gonzalez-Jones on the set of All My Children in 2008, when he landed a role and she was working as an assistant.
NEWS: 10 things you don't know about J.R.
"We were friends, and, you know, it was a workplace, so you don't want to cross the line," Martinez told Access Hollywood earlier this year of his girlfriend. "I was respectful of that, and for about two years we were great friends."
PHOTOS: Hollywood's power couples
"Finally, something happened, something clicked, and I just said, '[Do] you ever look at me differently than just a friend?' And she kind of paid attention to it, and here we are! It's great."
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MOSCOW (Reuters) ? An oil drilling rig with 67 crew on board capsized and sank off the Russian Far East island of Sakhalin when it ran into a storm while being towed, and 51 of the crew were unaccounted for, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday.
Fourteen crew members were rescued alive from the 'Kolskaya' jack-up rig, operated by Russian exploration company Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka, two bodies were recovered and the rest of the crew were missing.
"According to reports from the scene of the rescue operation, the Kolskaya platform has sunk completely," the local head of the Emergencies Ministry, Taimuraz Kasayev, told a news briefing in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Agencies quoted officials as saying the rig capsized at about 0200 GMT on Sunday around 200 km (125 miles) off the coast of Sakhalin as it was being towed from the eastern peninsula of Kamchatka.
It appeared that the vessel had not been doing drilling work, so no oil spill was likely. The rig's destination was not immediately clear.
While less serious that BP's Macondo disaster, when a blowout caused oil to spew for months into the Gulf of Mexico, the fatal accident will deal a blow to Russia's efforts to step up offshore oil and gas exploration.
Russia has two major offshore projects that are already producing oil off Sakhalin - Sakhalin-1, operated by Exxonmobil and Sakhalin-2, in which state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom has a controlling stake.
State-controlled Rosneft this year reached a major deal with Exxon to explore for oil and gas in the Arctic Kara Sea.
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by Tim Pearce)
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Weather Underground Forecast for Thursday, December 15, 2011.
Wet weather moves into the East, while rain and snow develop across the Pacific Northwest on Thursday. A low pressure system moves over the Great Lakes and into eastern Canada. This system will continue pushing a strong cold front eastward, which will make its way to the Northeastern US. This front will extend down the Ohio River Valley and through the Mississippi Valley, where it will produce more heavy rain showers. Rainfall totals will range from 1 to 2 inches in most areas. However, additional energy from the Gulf of Mexico may allow for scattered showers and thunderstorms in the South. Thunderstorms may develop from eastern Texas through the Tennessee Valley. In the North, the back side of the low pressure system will push cooler air into the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest, allowing for light freezing rain and light snow flurries to develop. Significant precipitation is not likely in these areas as the system passes to the east. Lake effect snow showers will develop along downwind shores across the Great Lakes. These areas may see 1 to 2 inches of new heavy and wet snow.
In the West, a low pressure system moves over the Pacific Northwest and pushes a cold front southward through California. This will produce rain across the Pacific Northwest and northern California, with snow likely at higher elevations. Expect 1 to 3 inches of snow in the Cascades and northern Sierras. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday have ranged from a morning low of -2 degrees at Big Piney, Wyo. to a high of 86 degrees at Falfurrias, Texas
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ANYONE can publish on the web, but it would be better if some people didn't; the world does not need another site that provides advice on how to unlock an iPhone or find cheap car insurance. Now new evidence shows that search engines have upped their game to make sure their results are not dominated by such low-quality sites.
Search engines are meant to pick out high-quality sites amid the sea of knock-offs, but even they get overwhelmed. As recently as March, for example, the first 10 results from a Google search for "how to organise your desktop" contained nine links to pages churned out by "content farms" - websites that publish reams of articles, often of dubious quality, that aim simply to attract clicks and advertising dollars.
That prompted New Scientist to ask computer scientistRichard McCreadie at the University of Glasgow, UK, to look into the issue. The results show that Google and Microsoft have won a major victory in the fight against such content farms. In the process they may have inflicted serious pain on two organisations often cited as providers of content farm material: Seed, a project from AOL, appears to have stopped commissioning content from freelance writers, though the firm declined to comment. And Santa Monica-based Demand Media has seen its stock price fall by over 50 per cent since it went public earlier this year for $1.5 billion.
Most of the credit for such changes has been given to Google, which this February announced that it had updated its search algorithm in a bid to prioritise sites that publish original and well-researched material. It won't provide details, but many site owners noticed that the update detected and penalised sites that publish multiple near-identical articles, a favourite tactic of content farms. For example, the traffic flowing from search engines to eHow, a Demand Media site, dropped 20 per cent after the update. Google has also enlisted users to keep up the fight - it says that it now demotes sites that people choose to exclude from search results.
To test how successful Google and Microsoft's Bing have been at fending off content-farmed results, McCreadie ran 50 search queries known to be a target of content farmers, such as "how to train for a marathon", in March and August this year. Then he paid people to examine the results for links to low-quality sites, where "low quality" was defined as uninformative sites whose primary function appears to be displaying adverts.
The results are striking. In the case of the marathon query, sites that contained lists of generic tips, such as "invest in a good pair of running shoes", were present in the top 10 in March but had disappeared by August, while high-quality sources, such as Runner's World magazine, now appear near the top. Similar trends were found throughout the 50 queries.
The story is far from over. Search engines play such a prominent role in our lives - Google alone handles over a billion queries a day - that companies constantly vie for the top places in the results. Sites can rank highly by producing authoritative material, but this is expensive, so there will always be those looking for a cheap short cut. Content farms may be out for now, but with billions of dollars hanging in the balance, it's just a matter of time before the next battle commences.
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BEIJING (Reuters) ? China pledged to guarantee growth in the face of an "extremely grim" outlook for the global economy in 2012, as its annual policy-setting conference closed on Wednesday with a series of commitments to deliver economic stability.
Laying out a blueprint for the world's second-biggest economy in the year ahead, Beijing promised to keep monetary policy "prudent" and fiscal policy "pro-active" while ensuring stable consumer prices -- language broadly in line with previous commitments.
But it was China's view on the global economic backdrop that was a sign of the policy challenge that could lay ahead.
"Looking into next year, the trend in the global economy on the whole is grim and complicated. Uncertainties are rising around a recovery in the world economy," said a statement published on the official Xinhua news agency after the end of the annual conference.
Beijing's wish to downplay those risks domestically was apparent in all the economic plans outlined, which broadly endorsed a decision by China's top leaders last week to avoid big policy changes before a critical leadership succession in 2012 that will see the nation's top two leaders retire.
"Stability means to maintain basically steady macro-economic policy, relatively fast economic growth, stable consumer prices and social stability," one of several statements carried by the official Xinhua news agency said.
The yuan's value will be kept "basically stable"; interest rate and exchange rate reforms will continue; measures aimed at calming the property market will be maintained; exports will kept steady whilst imports boosted to balance trade.
Economists were sanguine in their initial take on the pronouncements from the single most important annual meeting in China's economic calendar.
They singled out the commitment to domestic economic stability as a sign of steady-as-she goes policies in the year ahead.
"This year it's a lot less drama," said Tim Condon, an economist at ING Bank in Singapore. "The statements are much less thematic than a year ago when they moved from a moderately loose to a prudent stance."
"This is the case of an economy where policy does not need fixing so they are just staying the course."
The bevy of statements did not betray a clear policy bias between growth and inflation, a stance which some economists say underscores China's nagging concerns that inflation could rebound after this year's tentative victory.
Indeed, while noting the global economic malaise, Beijing conceded that China is in a tight spot itself, squeezed by both inflation and slowing economic growth.
"We will fine-tune monetary policy in an appropriate and timely manner, according to the economic situation, and will also use various monetary tools to keep a reasonable growth in money and credit," one statement said.
China's economic growth has slowed down for three straight quarters and economists widely expect expansion in 2012 to be below 9 percent for the first time since 2001.
Inflation appears to be coming off the boil, having fallen from a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July to 4.2 percent in November, but stability-obsessed Beijing is wary of any policy that might revive a trend of rising prices.
FINE-TUNING
Economists said the official rhetoric suggested Beijing was only ready to fine-tune economic policies, rather than swing into an outright monetary easing mode to aid economic growth.
"There is no sharp reversal of (monetary policy) and there is no across-the-board easing," said Wang Jun, an economist at CCIEE, a top government think-tank in Beijing.
"People may feel a bit disappointed. There is limited room for big policy adjustments as inflation has just slowed while economic growth is not that pessimistic."
One statement said Beijing aims to make policies more targeted and flexible to keep pace with changes in the world economy, whose 2012 outlook was described as being "extremely grim."
The Central Economic Work conference brings together China's top leadership, provincial government leaders, ministers, the heads of the biggest state companies as well as the generals from the People's Liberation Army.
Private-sector economists believe China has tacitly shifted to a pro-growth policy stance, despite Wednesday's statements, after the central bank cut bank reserve requirements on Dec 5.
A Reuters poll last week had a consensus view that China was primed to roll back much of the monetary tightening it had used to tame inflation over the last year and cut the ratio of deposits that banks are required to keep as reserves (RRR).
No aggressive policies were forecast to be used to stimulate the economy unless there was a sharp slowdown in GDP growth below 8 percent.
(Reporting by Zhou Xin and Kevin Yao; Editing by Nick Edwards, Ken Wills and Neil Fullick)
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