Italy at heart of crisis as borrowing costs climb (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Italy's borrowing costs jumped to record levels Friday, underlining its vulnerability at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis and skepticism about whether the struggling government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi can deliver vital reforms.

The 6.06 percent yield paid at an auction of 10-year bonds was the highest since the launch of the euro and not far from the level reached just before the European Central Bank intervened in August to cap Rome's borrowing costs by buying Italian paper.

Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, is once more at the center of the debt crisis, with fears growing that its borrowing costs could rise to levels that overwhelm the capacity of the bloc to provide support amid chronic political instability in Rome.

Berlusconi, tainted by scandal and repeatedly at odds with his coalition allies, has promised European partners a package of measures to spur Italy's stagnant economy and cut its towering public debt, but he has failed to convince markets made skeptical by his repeated failure to deliver reforms.

European leaders welcomed a letter of intent on planned reforms delivered by Berlusconi to meet a deadline at a summit this week but emphasized that the measures must now be implemented.

"The interest rates that they are paying are punitive," said Monument Securities strategist Marc Oswald. "As far as Italy goes, it is still the bete-noire of the whole euro zone problem."

"They are still going to carry on having to pay higher yields unless they come up with reform plans and implement them. But anyone who expresses an optimistic opinion about that is probably looking through rose-tainted glasses," he added.

France and Germany have expressed open exasperation at a succession of unfulfilled reform promises by Berlusconi and fear the crisis in Italy could spark a wider emergency that would threaten the very existence of the single currency.

REFORM DELAYS

Even if a weakened government manages to pass the difficult reforms Berlusconi has promised, most would not come into force until the middle of next year. Markets are unlikely to remain patient during such a long delay.

Speaking after Wednesday's European summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy highlighted fears that the crisis could jump from Greece to the much bigger Italian economy.

"If we had allowed Greece to fall, and the speculation shifted on to attack Italy, the markets would then have said we will allow Italy fall too, and that would be the end of the euro," he said in a television interview.

As Italy sinks deeper into the debt crisis, tensions in Berlusconi's government have grown sharply, leading to widespread speculation in the press and even among members of his own party that the government will fall soon, leading to elections in 2012, a year ahead of schedule.

Berlusconi, whose approval ratings have been torpedoed by a mix of scandal and mounting economic and political problems, rejected speculation that he could be forced to go to early elections. He promised to press on with the promised reforms.

Berlusconi said his alliance remained solid with the pro-devolution Northern League party, whose leader Umberto Bossi has expressed open skepticism about the survival of the coalition.

"There is an absolute need for political stability and Bossi thinks exactly the same way I do. The pact we have with the League has never been up for discussion," Berlusconi said.

"No credible political alternative exists."

This week the League rejected plans to hike the pension age to 67, leading to tense late-night negotiations before a compromise was patched up in time to take to a summit in Brussels last Wednesday.

Berlusconi said the package of measures presented in Brussels was welcomed by EU partners.

But the proposals, including an increase in the pension age, rules making it easier to lay off staff and provisions to place civil servants in special redundancy schemes, have raised fierce opposition from unions and skepticism about whether they will ever be implemented.

In the increasingly murky environment of Italian politics, there has been speculation that the package is part of a deal between Berlusconi and Bossi to take the government to the end of the year before triggering new elections in the spring.

Friday, Berlusconi dismissed any suggestion of a pact to go to the polls before the scheduled date in 2013 and said an election campaign in the middle of the crisis would be "very seriously damaging to Italy."

(Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia in London and Brian Love in Paris; Editing by Barry Moody)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/wl_nm/us_italy_berlusconi

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Judge orders jail for accused Syrian spy from Va. (AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? A Virginia man accused of acting as a Syrian spy is a flight risk and should remain in jail while he awaits trial, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The decision from U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton overturns a magistrate last week who had ruled that Mohamad Soueid, 47, of Leesburg, could be freed on home detention. The magistrate had also disparaged the significance of the government's case, saying that at worst Soueid appears to be no more than a low-level operative.

The indictment against Soueid accuses him of working with the Syrian intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, to monitor Syrian expatriates in the U.S. who have been rallying opposition to the regime of President Bashar Assad. Human rights activists estimate that Assad's crackdown on a popular uprising in the country has left more than 3,000 opponents of the regime dead.

Prosecutors immediately appealed the magistrate's order to release Soueid, whom they portray as a savvy intelligence agent with access to the highest levels of Syrian government. They say he met privately with Assad earlier this year and introduced as evidence a photo of Soueid and Assad shaking hands.

While the indictment accuses him only of monitoring Syrian dissidents in the U.S., prosecutors say that Soueid also discussed a "Plan B" that would include taking action against those being monitored.

"He is an extension of the government of Syria, we will prove that. ... And that is a very violent country," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick.

Soueid's lawyer, Haytham Faraj, said the government is twisting innocent facts to make them look sinister. He acknowledged that Soueid is a supporter of the regime who maintains contacts with his native country ? Soueid is Syrian born and a naturalized U.S. citizen ? but said that does not make him a spy.

And he said much of the government's evidence comes from a paid informant who has a motive to tell the government what it wants to hear and who frequently boasted to Soueid of his connections as an international drug dealer.

"The FBI used a paid informant to try and entrap Mr. Soueid," Faraj wrote in court papers.

Faraj said after Friday's hearing that he intends to appeal Hilton's ruling on detention.

The Syrian government has denied that Soueid is an agent and denied that he ever met privately with Assad

Also at Friday's hearing, Soueid formally entered a not guilty plea and the judge set a trial date in March.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_re_us/us_syrian_agent

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Europe bailout fund chief visits Beijing (AP)

BEIJING ? The chief of Europe's bailout fund visited Beijing on Friday to discuss possible terms for cash-rich China and other global investors to help finance a multibillion-dollar plan to resolve the continent's debt crisis.

Klaus Regling arrived a day after European leaders approved the plan and said it was too early to negotiate with China as a potential investor in the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility. He said the fund will spend the next few months talking to governments and others about how the fund might be structured so the bonds it sells to raise money will be an attractive investment.

Contributing to Europe's bailout could help Beijing achieve its goal of a leading role in managing global finances. But a possible Chinese role in Europe, and suggestions that Beijing might want political concessions, has caused unease among some Europeans.

Leaders of the 17 nations that use the euro agreed this week to expand the 440 billion euro ($624 billion) bailout fund in hopes of resolving the 2-year-old crisis that threatens to push developed economies back into recession.

The increase would come from having the fund insure debt issued by wobbly countries such as Italy and Spain, preventing them from being dragged into the crisis. European leaders also want to raise money from China, with $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves, and other global investors to increase the fund's financial arsenal.

Regling declined to say how much he hoped Beijing might contribute but said China has a "particular need" for safe foreign assets to invest its multibillion-dollar monthly trade surpluses. He noted that his fund's bonds, backed by the 17 euro area governments, have the strongest AAA credit rating.

Chinese leaders have expressed sympathy and promised to support Europe, their biggest export market. But so far, they have said only that they will help by continuing business as usual, buying Europe's goods and stockpiling part of China's trade surplus in the safest European government bonds.

Regling said China and other Asian investors have bought 40 percent of the bonds issued by the EFSF since it was created in May 2010 but he refused to say how much Beijing has purchased or give other details. The EFSF has raised 8 billion euros from two rounds of bond sales and plans four more this year, according to its website.

European leaders want to raise money for two schemes to expand the fund's financial firepower. One would allow the EFSF to act as an insurer for bonds sold by weaker governments such as Spain or Italy, allowing them to pay lower interest rates by making the bonds more attractive to investors. The second would be a fund, called a special purpose vehicle, to buy government bonds or recapitalize shaky banks.

Regling, who visits Beijing regularly, said he would meet with officials of China's finance ministry and central bank.

"It will be interesting to listen to them, like I listen to investors from many other parts of the world," he said at a news conference.

He said the fund wants to find out how to structure investments "so that the money will actually come" from China and other investors, he said.

Also Friday, a deputy Chinese finance minister said Beijing needs to learn how the new investment vehicle will work before deciding whether to invest.

China wants details on the amount of bonds issued by Italy and other individual European governments that might be guaranteed by the fund, Zhu Guangyao said at a separate briefing.

"We must wait for the technicalities to emerge and then carry out serious study before we can decide on investment," Zhu said.

Regling said one issue to discuss is how to structure the special purpose vehicle to make it more attractive to China and other possible investors by having the EFSF absorb a bigger share of possible losses.

Regling stressed that the meetings with the Chinese are not negotiations but "regular consultations at an early phase."

Asked about suggestions Beijing might impose political conditions, Regling said officials had not raised that issue with him.

Some European and Chinese commentators say Beijing might press Europe to refrain from human rights criticism or grant Beijing market economy status, which would make it harder for Europe to pursue trade complaints against China.

"I have not been confronted with this," Regling said. "I am not talking on behalf of the European Union, so I am the wrong person" to discuss such issues.

Regling said he hoped to present the bailout fund's bonds as an attractive commercial investment to China once the details are worked out.

"I am optimistic we will have a longer-term relationship," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Chris Bodeen contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_europe_financial_crisis

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Accused Army ringleader in Afghan murders goes on trial (Reuters)

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) ? A U.S. Army sergeant is due to go on trial on Friday charged with murdering unarmed civilians and taking body parts for war trophies as ringleader of a rogue platoon that terrorized villagers in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.

The court-martial of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, marks the climax of an 18-month investigation of the most egregious case of atrocities U.S. military personnel are accused of committing during a decade of war in Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials have said the misconduct exposed by the case, which began as a probe into hashish use within Gibbs' unit, had damaged America's image around the globe.

Published photographs showing two fellow GIs posing with the bloodied corpse of an Afghan boy they had just killed have drawn comparisons to the inflammatory Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq in 2004.

Gibbs, from Billings, Montana, is charged with three counts of premeditated murder, as well as cutting fingers off dead bodies and beating a fellow soldier who had alerted superiors to widespread drug abuse within their unit.

Charging documents said he was found in possession of "finger bones, leg bones and a tooth taken from Afghan corpses."

If convicted of all charges, Gibbs faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors have cast him as the chief instigator among five infantrymen from the 5th Stryker Brigade accused of slaying civilians in random killings staged to look like legitimate combat casualties.

Seven others soldiers were charged with various lesser offenses, ranging from assault for opening fire at civilians to using illegal drugs. Most have already reached plea deals.

THIRTY WITNESSES

About 30 witnesses are expected to testify during the court-martial, slated to run through next week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, according to Army spokesman Major Christopher Ophardt.

The first day of proceedings will likely be devoted to selecting a jury panel and handling procedural motions.

The chief prosecution witness is expected to be the soldier described as Gibbs' right-hand man, Specialist Jeremy Morlock, sentenced in March to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder for his role in the same killings for which Gibbs is accused.

They alone were charged with all three killings, which occurred in January, February and May of 2010 while the Stryker Brigade was deployed in western Kandahar province.

Morlock, who originally implicated Gibbs in statements to military investigators, testified against him in open court during an evidentiary hearing in July as part of the plea deal he reached with prosecutors.

It was Morlock who appeared in photographs published in March by two magazines showing him crouched smiling over the body of a 15-year-old Afghan, holding the boy's head up for the camera by his hair.

A similar photo was published of another member of the self-styled Stryker "kill team," Andrew Holmes, who pleaded guilty last month to a single count of murder and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

A third co-defendant, Adam Winfield, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to three years in prison in August, and a fourth, Michael Wagnon, still faces a court-martial.

All but one of the seven men charged with lesser crimes have received convictions and sentences ranging from demotion or dishonorable discharge to 60 days hard labor and jail sentences of up to nine months.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/us_nm/us_soldiers_crimes

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Will the super committee 'save the economy' — or wreck it? (The Week)

New York ? The congressional panel must "think big" to put the nation's finances in order. But time is running out, and compromise is in short supply

Democrats on the secretive congressional super committee have reportedly proposed slashing $3 trillion from projected deficits over the next decade. But Republicans on the powerful panel are rejecting that plan because it includes $1.3 trillion in new tax revenue. If the six Democrats and six Republicans can't agree on at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings by Nov. 23, they'll trigger automatic cuts to the Defense Department that economists warn will cost 1 million jobs. Is there any chance both parties will set aside their differences to "save the economy"?

Yes. But it will require rare compromise: The Left and Right can find trillions in savings,?says Douglas E. Schoen at Politico. But first, both sides will have to abandon the "partisanship that plagues Congress" and make concessions. If the GOP gave Democrats new taxes on the rich, and Democrats gave Republicans some spending and entitlement cuts, that would "make a major dent in... the long-term deficit." To really lift up the economy, the super committee has to "seize this opportunity for compromise and pass a bolder and more expansive plan" than either side could reach on its own.
"Super committee should cut more"

Forget compromise. The GOP should focus on 2012: Republicans can't just hold their noses and vote for some gimmicky package because Democrats are holding Defense hostage, Heritage Action COO Tim Chapman tells National Review. Though that's the path of least resistance, it's a losing strategy. "The only way that you win an election that produces a mandate is to paint in bold colors, to create a referendum election. And you can't do that if one side thinks we can win by just kneeling with the ball."
"The House GOP and the super committee"

Democrats would save the economy if Republicans would let them: The bold Democratic proposal proves which side is trying to lead, says Steve Benen at Washington Monthly. Democrats are genuinely trying to cut deficits, which you can't do without new revenue. And they're trying to preserve stimulus spending to boost the economy. But the super committee was "doomed at the outset" because the GOP is out to "shrink government," not cut the deficit. "Republicans aren't willing to trade anything for anything."
"GOP inflexibility stalls super committee"

Thanks for nothing, Washington: "Not to be a bummer," says Joe Caruso at Caruso Leadership, but I predict the super committee members will once again let politics "trump leadership." So we'll get another "undersized solution" that doesn't address our underlying problem. The economy will pay for this failure in the form of another downgrade to the U.S. credit rating ? not because we can't pay our bills, but because our leaders won't do what we're paying them to do.
"Size matters"

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111027/cm_theweek/220755

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Asian stocks rise on hopes for EU debt fix (AP)

BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets rose Thursday, with investors feeling bold enough to wade into risky assets after European leaders reached an agreement on a plan to reduce Greece's massive debts.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5 percent higher at 8,795.28. South Korea's Kospi index added 1 percent to 1,913.07 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.1 percent at 19,273.66. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines also rose.

Early Thursday, European leaders agreed on a plan to provide Greece with more rescue loans to help relieve its crushing debt obligations. European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the deal will reduce Greece's debt to 120 percent of its GDP in 2020. Under current conditions, it would have grown to 180 percent.

Strong earnings reports also propelled stocks higher.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's four major state-owned commercial lenders, jumped 3.6 percent after the Beijing-based bank announced its third-quarter profit rose 40 percent on growth in interest and fee income.

Anhui Conch Cement, China's largest cement producer by output, jumped 6.3 percent, a day after announcing its net profit more than doubled in the third quarter of 2011.

Meanwhile, strong economic reports helped send Wall Street higher on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.4 percent to 11,869.04. The S&P 500 index rose 1.1 percent to 1,242. The Nasdaq composite added 0.5 percent to 2,650.67.

Reports in the U.S. showed businesses ordered more heavy machinery and other long-lasting manufactured goods last month. That indicates businesses are still spending on equipment despite worries about a weak economy and Europe's debt problems. Sales of new homes rose in September after falling for four straight months.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_as/world_markets

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GPS shoes can track Alzheimer's patients

These boots were really made for walking.

The first batch of 3,000 shoes with integrated GPS devices ? to help track down dementia-suffering seniors who wander off and get lost ? just shipped from manufacturer GTX Corp. to the footwear firm Aetrex, two years after plans were announced to develop the product.

The company's first shoes ? dreamed up in 2002 following the Elizabeth Smart case ? were intended to locate missing children. And safety is the driving force today behind the company's newest GPS-enabled shoe. According to AFP, the shoes will sell for about $300 a pair and buyers will be able to set up a monitoring service to locate "wandering" seniors suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The system is implanted in the heel of an otherwise normal shoe, and lets caregivers or family members monitor the wearer and even set up alerts if a person strays outside of a predefined area.

The shoes were certified by the Federal Communications Commission this year. GTX believes the market has great potential, given the soaring costs of Alzheimer's.

"This is a significant milestone for both companies and while the $604 billion worldwide cost of dementia has become and will continue to be a significant fiscal challenge, the under-$300 GPS-enabled shoes will ease the enormous physical and emotional burden borne by Alzheimer's victims, caregivers and their geographically distant family members," said Patrick Bertagna, chief executive of GTX Corp.

Health professionals say the new GPS shoes could be a real boon for the more than 5 million Americans who suffer from the disease, according to AFP. Andrew Carle, a professor at George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services, said the shoes may even save lives.

"It's especially important for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's who are at the highest risk," Carle told AFP.

"They might be living in their home but they're confused. They go for a walk and they can get lost for days."

But well before GTX untied its newest product, another manufacturer strode into the picture with a decidedly different demographic ? prostitutes.

"Our first shoe, a demo version of the Platform 001 sandal, was inspired by the prostitutes of ancient Greece and Rome, who enticed clients with their flutes and sandals that left 'follow me' footprints in the earth," explains the website for The Aphrodite Project.

"Our contemporary sandals combine these poetic images from antiquity with promotional and safety features designed to meet the needs of today?s sex workers."

The Aphrodite Project's sandals are designed to protect with a piercing siren to scare off threatening muggers or attackers and a GPS-powered system that can send warnings to police.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45082081/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Not all that is said is always heard in sports (AP)

It will go down as perhaps the most bungled phone call in sports history, a conversation that might cost Tony La Russa a World Series as well as his spot as one of baseball's great strategists.

He claims he said Motte. The bullpen somehow heard Lynn.

And with that, a strange baseball saga did begin.

"Maybe I slurred it, whatever it is," La Russa said.

It happens. Bad phone line one day, no idea how to send a text the next. Really, there is only so much a manager can do.

However, La Russa isn't alone. Who can forget the other great communication foul-ups, like this one in the Red Sox clubhouse late in September:

"You said where's the cream and the clear? I thought you meant get me some chicken and beer."

Or this from Miami football players caught up in a scandal with a Ponzi scheme booster:

"No, Coach didn't tell us to win one for the Gipper. He said after the game we're all going to get a stripper."

Words are funny things. Put a few of them together and you know what you mean.

Sometimes, though, the message doesn't always get delivered as planned.

Take Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, for example. He's been accused by baseball of looting almost $190 million from the team and hasn't had a word to say to his former wife since he fired her as the team's CEO.

Yet when he finally did communicate with her, it was with a divorce settlement she might not have completely understood.

"No, Jamie, I never said I would I would give you $130 million if we could sell a bunch of Manny's dreadlocks. What I said was I'm dreading all those houses you live in will soon be in hock."

Sometimes, it seems, almost all communication is miscommunication. That's certainly the case in the NBA labor talks, where both sides this week claimed the other side said things it didn't.

That led to this exchange from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to union chief Billy Hunter on the possible elimination of the salary cap.

"Really, Billy, do you honestly think I would call for no salary cap? What I said was these negotiations have gone on so long that I think I need a nap."

Same thing happened between the NFL and its players union. After reaching agreement on a 10-year contract the league said it included blood testing for HGH for the first time and that there were plans to begin testing by the first game of the season.

Almost midway through the season, though, there is no testing, and Congress is beginning to ask questions why. Could it be, as CBS analyst Boomer Esiason suggested, that the union is resisting because many believe up to 20 percent of players are using HGH?

Nonsense, says union chief DeMaurice Smith, who offers this explanation:

"We never said we would allow a test for blood. The phone line must have been bad or something because we thought they were asking if it was still OK for our guys to play in the mud."

Bad connections, indeed. They could cost St. Louis a World Series, and they might have cost Jim Tressel his job.

Turns out the former Ohio State coach was having difficulty hearing when he was called and told that star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and others were selling jerseys and other memorabilia at a local tattoo shop.

"I swear he didn't say that Terrelle just sold a jersey for a thousand bucks," Tressel might have explained to NCAA investigators. "All I heard was that they were at a party at the tattoo parlor having a thousand yuks."

Even people close to each other sometimes have trouble understanding each other. Tiger Woods spent more than a decade with caddie Steve Williams, winning 13 major championships with the best enforcer in golf, before deciding to split.

The firing came by phone and seemed to catch Williams by surprise. Woods told Williams it was time for a change.

"Meet you at the range? Sure, Tiger, just as soon as I'm done carrying the bag for Adam Scott. Speaking of that, have you ever thought what might happen if I, the greatest caddie in the world, hooked up with Adam instead of you? Would he become the greatest player in the world then? You still there, Tiger? Tiger?

And then there's the people running the NCAA. Something obviously got lost in the connection the other day when they started talking about cutting checks of $2,000 each to athletes to help them make ends meet.

Funny, because there seemed to be no one on the line the last few years when asked how schools could be raking in millions of dollars on the backs of athletes who got nothing more than room, board and books.

Football players had to be hoping the call was clear.

Being college students, though, odds are they'll spend the whole thing on chicken and beer.

___

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_sp_ot/tim_dahlberg102611

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SeaWorld Sued by PETA for Enslaving Animals (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The animal rights group PETA, which to its credit does a great deal of good work, recently introduced legal action against the theme park SeaWorld that could almost be described as laughable. In the lawsuit, the organization is stating the park keeps the animals as slaves and as such that is in violation of their rights under the 13th Amendment.

PETA can't possibly be serious. If anyone sits down and reads the Constitution, you can see there is nothing there involving animals. Perhaps PETA is upset at the alleged treatment of the animals that have to perform in many of SeaWorld's live shows. Perhaps it is looking at this as a way of raising awareness toward their organization. Either way you slice it, the lawsuit can be looked at as nothing more than a farce by any reasonable person.

Because there is nothing in the Constitution stating that only humans are included under the umbrella of the 13th Amendment, PETA may have the fringes of an arguable case. But I have to ask the questions. PETA has been in existence since 1980. Why is this the first time the group has argued for animal rights under the blanket of slavery? Where has the animal rights group been for 30 years? I haven't turned on the news recently and seen PETA suing for the rights of the tigers and lions that have to sit behind cages all day. Or saying the elephants in the circus are being treated unconstitutionally.

PETA is taking on a vulnerable target with this frivolous lawsuit. SeaWorld has been in the news the past couple of years with one of the Orca trainers being killed in an accident.

So while its intentions may be good in spirit, in action they are terribly misdirected. There's no way this lawsuit would hold up in front of any judge with sense. The 13th Amendment has been in place for over 150 years. Not once has there been a case of note protesting animal rights under the Constitution.

Perhaps the folks at PETA would be better served just holding up signs in front of the park. Not only would it be a less vengeful sounding way of grabbing attention, but it would waste less of the money people donate to them on a yearly basis.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/pets/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111026/us_ac/10293725_seaworld_sued_by_peta_for_enslaving_animals

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Chris Brown Reveals Fortune Singles

Album is singer's follow-up to F.A.M.E., released earlier this year.
By Jocelyn Vena


Chris Brown
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Chris Brown has already dropped F.A.M.E. this year, and now he's prepping for the release of his follow-up album, Fortune. The singer tweeted some of the titles of the singles on the album, which is expected to drop before year's end.

"Continue requesting WET THE BED [off F.A.M.E.] at ur radio stations. Also, the new singles from FORTUNE are being mixed!" he wrote on Twitter. "STRIP [off his Boy in Detention mixtape] is one of the singles off of FORTUNE so request at RADIO!"

In addition to "Strip," Breezy shared a few more song titles from the album. "I'm also really excited about the release of my single titled 'BIGGEST FAN' produced by the RUNNERS!" he said, before retweeting a message from his production team. "@chrisbrown 'Biggest Fan' is gonna be epic!! And wait till they hear what else we have in the vault together! Ha!"

In other Brown-related news, if Team Breezy can't wait to hear what he's cooking up for Fortune, that's just fine. The singer even tweeted a link to a song he penned for his pal Justin Bieber's Christmas album, Under The Mistletoe. It dropped as more songs off the November 1 release are hitting the Internet, including tracks featuring Mariah Carey and Busta Rhymes.

The track is a melodic R&B jam about making Christmas special for someone you love. "Be my babe this Christmas eve/ Be my holiday/ My dream/ Lay your head on me, I got you babe," he sings on the chorus. "Kissing underneath the tree/ I don't need no presents, girl/ You're everything I need/ Let me give you all of me/ Together on this Christmas Eve."

If it feels like Brown is everywhere these days, that's because he certainly is busy. He's wrapping up his tour next week before he begins work on his next film, "Planet B-Boy," alongside "Lost" star Josh Holloway. As the titles suggest, it's a look inside the world of b-boys and breakdancers.

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673344/chris-brown-fortune-singles.jhtml

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