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Friday, January 4, 2013

Who Said This? (talking-points-memo)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/274506928?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Post-Holiday Detox | ActiveWoMOM

It?s over! We made it! Some of us, just barely. We survived the holidays. The holiday season usually consist of friends, food and major parties. If some of you are feeling a tad bit bloated and weighed down, you are not alone. All the more reason to get back to your healthy routine. With 2013 knocking on the door, here are some great ways to jump start that post-holiday detox.

Exercise.

If you?re in the same boat as I am, it?s been a few days since you?ve laced up those sneakers. But it?s time to get back to it.?Plan your workouts for the week, set your alarm, and get back to your fitness routine. It is so important to get your body back to it?s regular exercise program to kick start your metabolism and to kick start your mind set. It may take a few days, but your body and mind will thank?you for getting back to the basics.

Throw it away.

Do not feel obligated to finish off those sweet treats leftover from Christmas. In my family, we receive stockings full of chocolates and candy. Don?t be afraid to toss it. Be grateful?for the generosity?in which it was given, but?keep in mind that?this large amount of sugar and sweets does nothing for your long term health. Be thankful for your loving family and their generous nature, and then throw it all away. Or, if you just feel too guilty tossing it, find a place to give it away. Maybe the local food bank or your child?s preschool for projects, just be sure it is out of your kitchen and out of your reach!

Eat green.

Fill up?your plate with vegetables. Lots and lots of green veggies. And not only your plate, but your glass as well. Blend up your favorite smoothies and toss in extra spinach. Or shake up some Nanogreens, which is a simple and delicious way to get all your servings of veggies in one drink. Yes please! However you do it, be sure to?up the green?veggie intake.

Hydrate.

Hydration is key when it comes to post-holiday detoxing.?Drink down?lots of?water throughout the day, trying to get at least 64 ounces. Water helps flush out toxins and helps your body eliminate waste. A good rule of thumb is to divide your total body weight in half, and drink that many ounces. For example,?a 150-pound person should drink 75 ounces of water.

Extreme detoxes aren?t necessary or healthy to get yourself back on track after the holiday season. Also remember not to get upset at yourself about missing a few workouts or indulging in a few holiday treats. It is a new day (even a new year!) and all you need to do is start each new day with the right attitude towards your health and fitness. Until next Christmas, cheers!

Source: http://activewomom.com/active-womom/post-holiday-detox/

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Stampede after fireworks kills 61 in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) ? A crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year's fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast's main city, killing 61 people ? many of them children and teenagers ? and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said.

Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan's Plateau district to see the fireworks. It was only the second New Year's Eve fireworks display since peace returned to this West African nation after a bloody upheaval over presidential elections put the nation on the brink of civil war and turned this city into a battle zone.

With 2013 showing greater promise, people were in the mood to celebrate on New Year's Eve. Families brought children and they watched the rockets burst in the nighttime sky. But only an hour into the new year, as the crowds poured onto the Boulevard de la Republic after the show, something caused a stampede, said Col. Issa Sako of the fire department rescue team. How so many deaths occurred on the broad boulevard and how the tragedy started is likely to be the subject of an investigation.

Many of the younger ones in the crowd went down, trampled underfoot. Most of those killed were between 8 and 15 years old

"The flood of people leaving the stadium became a stampede which led to the deaths of more than 60 and injured more than 200," Sako told Ivory Coast state TV.

Desperate parents went to the city morgue, the hospital and to the stadium to try to find missing children. Mamadou Sanogo was searching for his 9-year-old son, Sayed.

"I have just seen all the bodies, but I cannot find my son," said a tearful Sanogo. "I don't know what to do."

State TV showed a woman sobbing in the back of an ambulance; another was bent over on the side of the street, apparently in pain; and another, barely conscious and wearing only a bra on her upper body, was hoisted by rescuers. There were also scenes of small children being treated in a hospital. One boy grimaced in pain and a girl with colored braids in her hair lay under a blanket with one hand bandaged. The death toll could rise, officials said.

After the sun came up, soldiers were patrolling the site that was littered with victims' clothes, shoes, torn sandals and other belongings. President Alassane Ouattara and his wife Dominique visited some of the injured in the hospital. Mrs. Ouattara leaned over one child who was on a bed in a crowded hospital ward and tried to console the youngster. The president pledged that the government would pay for their treatment, his office said.

The government organized the fireworks to celebrate Ivory Coast's peace, after several months of political violence in early 2011 following disputed elections.

This is not Ivory Coast's first stadium tragedy. In 2009, 22 people died and over 130 were injured in a stampede at a World Cup qualifying match at the Houphouet Boigny Stadium, prompting FIFA, soccer's global governing body, to impose a fine of tens of thousands of dollars on Ivory Coast's soccer federation. The stadium, which officially holds 35,000, was overcrowded at the time of the disaster.

A year later, two people were killed and 30 wounded in a stampede at a municipal stadium during a reggae concert in Bouake, the country's second-largest city. The concert was organized in the city, held by rebels at the time, to promote peace and reconciliation.

Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, growing more than 37 percent of the world's annual crop of cocoa beans, which are used to make chocolate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stampede-fireworks-kills-61-ivory-coast-164946746.html

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Avis to buy Zipcar as slow economy boosts car-share business

(Reuters) - Car rental company Avis Budget Group Inc will buy Zipcar Inc for about $500 million, surpassing larger rivals Hertz Global Holdings Inc and Enterprise Holdings Inc to become the No.1 player in the fast-growing U.S. car-sharing market.

The offer of $12.25 per share in cash represents a premium of 49 percent to Zipcar's Monday close. Zipcar's shares were up 48.8 percent at $12.26 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday morning.

"We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company," Avis Chief Executive Ronald Nelson said.

Zipcar controls about 75 percent of the $400 million car-sharing industry in the United States. The total market is projected to reach $10 billion over the next several years, Nelson said on a conference call with analysts.

Higher demand for car sharing in the face of rising gasoline prices has also attracted traditional car rental companies such as Hertz and Enterprise.

Zipcar's business is at least five times larger than Hertz's and Enterprise's car-sharing businesses, Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice said.

The deal will position Avis as the market leader in car-sharing services in the United States, he added.

Avis has been relegated to No.3 in the $22 billion U.S. car rental industry, after Hertz secured the No.2 spot with its acquisition of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group in August.

Avis also bid for Dollar Thrifty in 2010, but later dropped out of the race.

Zipcar, founded more than 10 years ago, pioneered car-sharing services in the United States. Car sharing allows customers to rent cars at an hourly or daily rate and park in convenient reserved spots. Zipcar went public in April 2011 and raised about $174 million.

DEAL DRIVERS

The deal, expected to close in the spring of 2013, will add to Avis's earnings, excluding items, from the second year and is expected to generate between $50 million and $70 million in annual synergies.

Zipcar will operate as a unit of Avis and Scott Griffith will remain the unit's chief.

The company said it expects to fund the transaction primarily with available cash and additional debt. The company had cash and marketable securities of about $554 million as of September 30.

Zipcar has more than 760,000 members, or Zipsters, with a presence in 20 cities in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Citigroup is advising Avis while Morgan Stanley is advising Zipcar on the transaction.

Avis's shares were up 6 percent at $20.91 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday. Hertz shares were up 3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani and Tej Sapru in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/avis-budget-buy-zipcar-500-million-111902794--sector.html

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Peter Jackson collaborator dies in accident

Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

By Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter

Oscar-winning sound editor Mike Hopkins, a long-time collaborator of Peter Jackson's, has died after a rafting accident in New Zealand, newspaper?The Australian?reported Monday.

Hopkins, 53, was wearing a lifejacket and helmet, but drowned after the raft capsized, it quoted local police near the country's capital of Wellington as saying. His two rafting partners survived.

Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen defend making "The Hobbit" a trilogy

Another Jackson collaborator, visual effects producer Eileen Moran, also died in New Zealand?earlier this month. She worked on "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was an executive producer at Jackson's Weta Digital and a longtime confidant of the director.

Hopkins won an Oscar with Ethan Van der Ryn in 2006 for their sound editing work on Jackson's "King Kong." In 2003, the duo had won the same Oscar for the second installment of the "Lord of the" Rings franchise.

Peter Jackson's own Hollywood in New Zealand

He also worked on other Jackson movies, such as "Heavenly Creatures" and "The Frighteners." Hopkins also won three New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

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North Korean leader, in rare address, seeks end to confrontation with South

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.

The address by Kim, who took over power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.

But North Korea has offered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarily signify a change in tack from a country which vilifies the United States and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance it gets.

Impoverished North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.

North Korea, which considers North and South as one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.

"An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south," Kim said in the address that appeared to be pre-recorded and was made at an undisclosed location.

"The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war."

The New Year address was the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader after the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather. Kim Jong-il rarely spoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda in editorials in state newspapers.

"(Kim's statement) apparently contains a message that he has an intention to dispel the current face-off (between the two Koreas), which could eventually be linked with the North's call for aid (from the South)," said Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea expert at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification.

"But such a move does not necessarily mean any substantive change in the North Korean regime's policy towards the South."

The two Koreas have seen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the North bombed a Southern island in 2010 killing two civilians and two soldiers.

The sinking of a South Korean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North but Pyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaign against its leadership.

Last month, South Korea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter of assassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee whom Kim Il-sung had tried to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.

Park has vowed to pursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to build confidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.

Conspicuously absent from Kim's speech was any mention of the nuclear arms program.

(Additional reporting by Sung-Won Shim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korean-leader-rare-address-seeks-end-confrontation-024100592.html

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