Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti are separating after 11 years of marriage. Judd's spokeswoman confirmed a Tuesday report from People magazine that the 44-year-old actress and 39-year-old Scottish race car driver are ending their marriage.
AP file
Ashley Judd and husband, Dario Franchitti in 2012.
The star of such films as "Double Jeopardy" and "Kiss the Girls" says in a statement that the pair will "always be family" and will continue to cherish their relationship based on love, integrity and respect.
Last year, Judd starred in the ABC series "Missing" and attended the Democratic National Convention as a Tennessee delegate.
Franchitti has won the Indianapolis 500 race three times.
The couple wed in a private ceremony in Scotland in 2001.?
Today, it seems that Cisco's international buying spree continues. acquisition of Israeli mobile startup, Intucell, for $475 million in cash last week, the company announced this afternoon that it is acquiring Czech network security startup, Cognitive Security. The terms of the acquisition were not made public. In its announcement today, Cisco said that it will be combining the startup's realtime behavioral analytics with its own cloud-based global threat intelligence system to create a "common policy engine that controls distributed network enforcement in an intelligent network." Essentially, the goal is to allow Cisco to provide corporations and the enterprise with the ability to better identify and mitigate advanced cyber threats.
Considering that we can have music, movies, TV shows, Photoshop???even underwear???via some sort of monthly or yearly subscription, it's about time we can finally rent Microsoft Office 365, too.
In exchange for $100 per?year (or $10 per?month), you'll be able to install Office 2013 on up to five PCs, Macs or Windows tablets. You'll have?access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. Additionally, you'll get an extra?20GB of cloud storage through SkyDrive (on top of the 7GB you already get for free) along with 60 minutes of Skype world calling per month.?
You can still buy Office 2013 the old-school way, though don't expect to see any physical media in the software box; you'll just buy a product code and be sent online to download the actual software. The Home & Student version of that is $140 and is limited to one device (and just Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote); Home & Business is $220 (which includes Outlook as well), and Pro ? with all of the same?apps offered in the subscription ??is $400.
Besides being able to install on up to five devices, there are other benefits to the subscription plan:?Free upgrades to the latest versions of the Office software are included, so you can buy in at any time without worrying about missing the next version. Better still, since the subscription?license covers different types of devices, you don't have to buy a bunch of different versions.?(Besides Mac support, Microsoft has said in the past that this Office 365?license would even?provide you with not-yet-released editions, including a possible iPad version.)
If you have a family with lots going on, it is likely to be a money saver, even when you factor in the deals you get from home/student pricing.?
If you are simply?a power user with a lot of different devices, you'll be able to sync Office 365?documents between them with ease. (And you'll, of course, also be able to share documents quickly, thanks to SkyDrive.)?It doesn't stop with the documents though: Your settings and preferences sync as well. This means that no matter where you sign into Office 365, you'll have the same experience. This is, once again, a great benefit for those who split their time between one too many devices.
Pricing and cloud support aside, the latest Office itself isn't a radical redesign. Everything feels familiar, with some small tweaks. It appears that Microsoft is attempting to reduce the bloat we occasionally experience when it comes to its software suite. Does it succeed? Well, we'll have to use the software for a bit longer to make a solid judgment call in regards to that.
While?the?latest version of the software isn't?lacking anything?from?the?traditional?desktop?view???in fact, our initial impression is that it might be the best version of Office we've used so far???we're still waiting for a finger-friendly tablet version of the?legendary?suite.?Though?it?would?be?a?huge?success?given?the?popularity?of?iPads?and?other?tablets,?Microsoft?isn't?going?to?rush?that?out?in?haste,?because?the?company's?developers?say?they?want?to?get?it?right.
You can snag a free one-month trial of Office 365 through Office.com and we suggest taking advantage of this deal. Odds are that you'll find it feeling comfortable and familiar ? and a little lighter on the checkbook as well.
Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ? At least eight bodies were found in a well in northern Mexico on Sunday near the site where 20 people went missing late last week, including members of a Colombian-style band, according to a state forensic official.
Gov. Rodrigo Medina told a local television station that four of the bodies had been pulled from the well, and said it could hold as many as 10 cadavers.
Medina said experts were still working to identify the corpses, but noted "we have evidence that indicates that (the bodies) may very well be the members of this band."
The Nuevo Leon State Investigative Agency was still working at the well in a vacant lot in the town of Mina near the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, and the body count could rise, the forensic official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.
The official could not confirm whether the bodies belonged to 16 members of the band Kombo Kolombia and their crew, who were reported missing early Friday after playing a private show in a bar late Thursday in the neighboring town of Hidalgo north of Monterrey.
Authorities had been searching for two days when they came upon the well Sunday afternoon.
People living near the bar in Hidalgo reported hearing gunshots at about 4 a.m. Friday, followed by the sound of vehicles speeding away, said another source with the state agency. He also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by the news media.
The officials added that gunfire is common in the area and said investigators found spent bullets nearby.
Relatives filed an official report about their missing loved ones on Friday, after losing cell phone contact with them following the Thursday night performance. When family members went to the bar to investigate, they found the band members' vehicles still parked outside.
For three years, Kombo Kolombia has played a Colombian style of music known as vallenato, which is popular in Nuevo Leon state. Most of the group's musicians were from the area, and have held large concerts in addition to bar performances.
Nuevo Leon state officials said one of those missing is a Colombian citizen with Mexican residency.
Members of other musical bands, usually groups that perform "narcocorridos" celebrating the exploits of drug traffickers, have been killed in Mexico in recent years. But Kombo Kolombia did not play that type of music, and its lyrics did not deal with violence or drug trafficking.
Droid DNA-like design in a smaller chassis, with a dedicated camera button to boot
With the recent emergence of certain leaked photos, we've slowly been able to piece together a picture of HTC's upcoming 'M7' handset. And the successor to the One X has cropped up on camera again today, disassembled, in the form couple of leaked component parts. ETrade Supply got hold of what seems to be the back case and front housing of the phone, which looks a little smaller than the similarly-designed Droid DNA. That suggests we might be dealing with a 4.7-inch screen, as has been rumored in recent months.
Also of note is the second front-facing speaker down below, which roughly matches a render that leaked out a couple of weeks ago. And there's what seems to be a dedicated camera button on the right edge, below the volume rocker, an unusual sight on an HTC Android phone.
Without the front glass in place -- not to mention functioning innards -- it's difficult to get an overall impression of the phone. But it looks like we're dealing with a handset that shares much in common with the DNA and its international cousin, the HTC Butterfly. The edges are squared off, in stark contrast to the curved One X and One S, and there's a slight hump to the back, like the DNA and Windows Phone 8X.
There's no way of knowing whether this is a finalized HTC design or merely a prototype, but the parts shown in today's video certainly tick all the boxes we were expecting from a 2013 HTC flagship. The 'M7' is e
Rutgers professor recognized for revolutionizing agriculture Public release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robin Lally rlally@ur.rutgers.edu 732-932-7084 x652 Rutgers University
Rutgers Joachim Messing wins Wolf Prize and is honored for his contribution to humanity
Joachim Messing, among the world's top experts in molecular genetics, became famous for developing a genetic engineering technique used in laboratories to create plants that have produced disease-resistant crops considered vital to feeding the world's population.
Instead of cashing in on his discovery, he gave this scientific blueprint which revolutionized agriculture and helped to crack the genetic code of plants like rice and corn away for free to his fellow scientists around the world.
Messing, director of Rutgers University's Waksman Institute of Microbiology, chose to share his research because he believed it could result in more sustainable crops that would help to end hunger and conserve the environment.
"When I look at the products that have been made today, it is clear they were dependent on the tools that were developed many years ago," said Messing, the Selman A. Waksman Chair in Molecular Genetics at Rutgers. "I thought it was important to be generous and make this freely available without restrictions so biotechnological innovations could move forward."
For his contribution to humanity, Messing has been recognized by the Wolf Foundation of Israel and awarded the 2013 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. The Wolf Prize honors scientists and artists whose "achievements are in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples."
The professor of molecular biology who teaches undergraduates and mentors students in his laboratory is being recognized for innovations in recombinant DNA cloning, more commonly known as genetic engineering, and for deciphering the genetic code of crop plants. He will share the $100,000 prize with Jared Diamond of the University of California, a scientist and Pulitzer Prize winner, who has written several best-sellers, including Guns, Germs and Steel.
Messing is among only eight recipients worldwide chosen to receive the prize awarded annually in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine/and or physics as well as the arts. He will receive the Wolf Prize in May from Israel President Shimon Peres at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament in Jerusalem. The Wolf Foundation was established in 1975 by the late German-born inventor, diplomat and philanthropist Ricardo Wolf, who served as the Cuban ambassador to Israel from 1961 to 1973.
"I am honored but this news was really a surprise," said Messing who received a phone call from Israel's Minister of Education on New Year's Day to tell him he had been selected. "I think it's important that this recognition is coming here to Rutgers because I am very proud of the work that is being done at our university."
For Messing, who came to Rutgers in 1985 to oversee research at the Waksman Institute, finding innovative methods that will allow for the development of superior crops with higher yields and nutritional quality either through traditional breeding or genetic engineering has been a priority.
"Since I was born, the world's population has doubled," said Messing, 66, whose published research became the most frequently cited among all of science in the 1980s, according to The Scientist, a national magazine covering life sciences and innovations. "This means we need more food on less land with less water."
The genetic engineering technique he gave away for free instead of patenting has been critical for the early biotechnology industry in agriculture but also in the development of new pharmaceuticals and the diagnostics of diseases.
Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi, a neuroscientist and neurologist, said he used many of the techniques pioneered by Messing in research he has conducted on the structure and function of voltage-gated ion channels in nerve and muscle, and on the role these critical molecules can play in human disease
"This work could not have been done without Joachim Messing's seminal contribution," Barchi said. "We at Rutgers are proud to count him as a colleague and faculty member."
The results of Messing's work are a tribute to his life's research. Today, his work focuses on providing more sustainable, healthy and productive sources of food for the world's population and extracting biofuels for energy from plants like carbon-cycling duckweed and drought-tolerant sorghum, that grow either on water or marginal land and do not compete with land used in food production.
"After watching the acreage of crops with reduced toxic chemical applications grow over the last 15 years, you can see the positive impact that these techniques have had on the environment and health of people," he said.
Messing joins two former Rutgers faculty members chosen to receive the Wolf Prize and is the second to receive the prize in agriculture. Israel Gelfand, a Soviet mathematician, won the prize for math in 1978 while teaching at Rutgers followed by Karl Maramorosch who was awarded the prize in agriculture in 1980 and was one of the first people Messing reached out to after receiving the news.
"It was so wonderful that I could share this news with him," said Messing who is described by those who have worked with him as having contagious enthusiasm that spreads throughout his laboratory creating positive synergy among the team.
"He has the mentality that whatever you are doing can be done," said Marja Timmermans who worked with Messing as a lab technician and a graduate student from 1987 to 1996 and is now a professor at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory in New York. "He's happy and enthusiastic and that excitement rubs off and creates a really positive, creative environment."
Besides his recognition as a Wolf Prize winner, Messing has been inducted as a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the oldest continuously existing scientific association in the world. Membership in the academy is among the highest honors accorded for scientific accomplishments.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Rutgers professor recognized for revolutionizing agriculture Public release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robin Lally rlally@ur.rutgers.edu 732-932-7084 x652 Rutgers University
Rutgers Joachim Messing wins Wolf Prize and is honored for his contribution to humanity
Joachim Messing, among the world's top experts in molecular genetics, became famous for developing a genetic engineering technique used in laboratories to create plants that have produced disease-resistant crops considered vital to feeding the world's population.
Instead of cashing in on his discovery, he gave this scientific blueprint which revolutionized agriculture and helped to crack the genetic code of plants like rice and corn away for free to his fellow scientists around the world.
Messing, director of Rutgers University's Waksman Institute of Microbiology, chose to share his research because he believed it could result in more sustainable crops that would help to end hunger and conserve the environment.
"When I look at the products that have been made today, it is clear they were dependent on the tools that were developed many years ago," said Messing, the Selman A. Waksman Chair in Molecular Genetics at Rutgers. "I thought it was important to be generous and make this freely available without restrictions so biotechnological innovations could move forward."
For his contribution to humanity, Messing has been recognized by the Wolf Foundation of Israel and awarded the 2013 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. The Wolf Prize honors scientists and artists whose "achievements are in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples."
The professor of molecular biology who teaches undergraduates and mentors students in his laboratory is being recognized for innovations in recombinant DNA cloning, more commonly known as genetic engineering, and for deciphering the genetic code of crop plants. He will share the $100,000 prize with Jared Diamond of the University of California, a scientist and Pulitzer Prize winner, who has written several best-sellers, including Guns, Germs and Steel.
Messing is among only eight recipients worldwide chosen to receive the prize awarded annually in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine/and or physics as well as the arts. He will receive the Wolf Prize in May from Israel President Shimon Peres at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament in Jerusalem. The Wolf Foundation was established in 1975 by the late German-born inventor, diplomat and philanthropist Ricardo Wolf, who served as the Cuban ambassador to Israel from 1961 to 1973.
"I am honored but this news was really a surprise," said Messing who received a phone call from Israel's Minister of Education on New Year's Day to tell him he had been selected. "I think it's important that this recognition is coming here to Rutgers because I am very proud of the work that is being done at our university."
For Messing, who came to Rutgers in 1985 to oversee research at the Waksman Institute, finding innovative methods that will allow for the development of superior crops with higher yields and nutritional quality either through traditional breeding or genetic engineering has been a priority.
"Since I was born, the world's population has doubled," said Messing, 66, whose published research became the most frequently cited among all of science in the 1980s, according to The Scientist, a national magazine covering life sciences and innovations. "This means we need more food on less land with less water."
The genetic engineering technique he gave away for free instead of patenting has been critical for the early biotechnology industry in agriculture but also in the development of new pharmaceuticals and the diagnostics of diseases.
Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi, a neuroscientist and neurologist, said he used many of the techniques pioneered by Messing in research he has conducted on the structure and function of voltage-gated ion channels in nerve and muscle, and on the role these critical molecules can play in human disease
"This work could not have been done without Joachim Messing's seminal contribution," Barchi said. "We at Rutgers are proud to count him as a colleague and faculty member."
The results of Messing's work are a tribute to his life's research. Today, his work focuses on providing more sustainable, healthy and productive sources of food for the world's population and extracting biofuels for energy from plants like carbon-cycling duckweed and drought-tolerant sorghum, that grow either on water or marginal land and do not compete with land used in food production.
"After watching the acreage of crops with reduced toxic chemical applications grow over the last 15 years, you can see the positive impact that these techniques have had on the environment and health of people," he said.
Messing joins two former Rutgers faculty members chosen to receive the Wolf Prize and is the second to receive the prize in agriculture. Israel Gelfand, a Soviet mathematician, won the prize for math in 1978 while teaching at Rutgers followed by Karl Maramorosch who was awarded the prize in agriculture in 1980 and was one of the first people Messing reached out to after receiving the news.
"It was so wonderful that I could share this news with him," said Messing who is described by those who have worked with him as having contagious enthusiasm that spreads throughout his laboratory creating positive synergy among the team.
"He has the mentality that whatever you are doing can be done," said Marja Timmermans who worked with Messing as a lab technician and a graduate student from 1987 to 1996 and is now a professor at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory in New York. "He's happy and enthusiastic and that excitement rubs off and creates a really positive, creative environment."
Besides his recognition as a Wolf Prize winner, Messing has been inducted as a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the oldest continuously existing scientific association in the world. Membership in the academy is among the highest honors accorded for scientific accomplishments.
###
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
As a young person working in the Internet industry I get asked what I do a lot (most people think this is interesting stuff, believe it or not). At first, I used to sum it up to ?I help businesses get found on the Internet?. Simple enough, right? Wrong. This response warrants more questions than answers and usually requires a lot of explaining. Don?t get me wrong, I love having conversations about SEO, but there are times when I find myself reaching for that perfect, non-existent elevator pitch.
Last month I was catching up with an old friend on the phone and after two hours I realized I?d told him so much about my job that he was probably qualified to go start his own SEO company. I began wondering if I was the only person who had a hard time describing what I did, so I started researching the topic. I stumbled across counter intuitive articles such as ?The Three Part Formula to a Successful Elevator Pitch?, and ?A Five Day SEO Elevator Pitch Seminar?. I immediately knew I was not alone.
I couldn?t help but think that securing a great elevator pitch could also help me communicate better with clients. If I can?t clearly describe what I do to my friends and family, how am I supposed to gain the trust of strangers? I started making a generalized, short list of ?stuff? that I do:
on and off site SEO optimization
content creation
keyword research
backlinking
social media
social bookmarking
blogging
branding/design
PPC/Adwords
reputation management
After studying this list, I was able to identify two main areas where most of my time is spent. The first is creating a robust online presence for any given business. The second is making sure the presence is accessible. Most of the time, businesses need SEO services because they lack an online ?sense of self?. Before I can help anyone get found on the web, I need to establish who they are. If a company website looks more like a landing page, I need to address that problem before I get them ranked. Customers want to spend their money on reputable businesses whose online presence offers them more than just a phone number and an address. The algo changes made by Google over the past year are a great indicator of this fact. The more useful a website is to the user, the better it will perform in SERPs. It?s not enough to simply rank websites if the overall brand is lacking.
I decided to try the following line the next time someone asked me what I did:
?I help businesses create and maintain a reputable online presence in order to attract, engage and retain customers?.
The response I received was overwhelmingly different from before. I noticed that most people were genuinely impressed and really understood what I meant in a way that didn?t require me having to go into great detail. Telling people that I help businesses get found on the Internet was way too vague of an explanation. My work isn?t vague, so the explanation of my work shouldn?t be vague either. By broadening my elevator pitch, I?ve been able to avoid lengthy conversations with people who don?t spend every waking moment on the Internet, as well as communicate more clearly with potential clients. I no longer have to worry that when asked what I do, because my response was vague and included the word Internet, I?ll end up trying to fix someone?s printer after dinner or install anti-virus software on a PC that I don?t know how to use in the first place. If you have an elevator pitch that?s made your life easier, I?d love to hear from you.
About the author: Karen Neicy has worked with some of the leading SEO professionals in the state of Florida and is happy to have found a permanent home as an SEO Engineer for Elite Strategies in Delray Beach. She specializes in organic inbound marketing, Italian food and collecting jazz records. LinkedIn | Email
DHAKA (Reuters) - At least 50 people including policemen were injured in Bangladesh on Monday as Islamist activists protested against the prosecution of their leaders on charges stemming from a war of independence 40 years ago, police and witnesses said.
Protesters set off crude explosives and threw bricks at police who tried to disperse them with teargas, batons and some shots in the air, witnesses said.
"The Islamists vandalized dozens of vehicles and set fire to two buses in Motijheel commercial area and other places in the city," a police officer said.
Islamist party spokesman were not available for comment.
Police detained about 20 activists, reporters on the scene said, and the disturbances disrupted traffic on city-centre roads. Similar protests broke out in the northern town of Rajshahi and in Chittagong in the southeast.
Bangladesh became part of Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947 but it broke away from Pakistan in 1971 after a war between Bangladeshi nationalists, who were backed by India, and Pakistani forces.
Some factions in Bangladesh opposed the break with Pakistan.
A Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal began work in mid-2011 to investigate some of the violence during the nine-month war when up to three million people were killed and thousands of women were raped.
Last week, the tribunal reached its first verdict, sentencing a former member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party and a popular Islamic preacher, Abul Kalam Azad, to death in absentia.
Azad has been missing since April last year but the government says it is trying to find him.
Azad was charged with collaborating with Pakistani forces in the murder of Hindus, a minority in the majority-Muslim state. In one case, he was accused of killing at least 12 Hindus while shooting indiscriminately along with Pakistani soldiers.
Jamaat has been accused of helping the Pakistani army in acts of violence, which it denies.
Another 11 people, nine of them Jamaat leaders, are facing trial.
Over the last few months Jamaat activists and members of its student wing have launched violent protests in Dhaka and other cities, demanding an end to the trials.
Human Rights Watch has said the law under which the accused were being tried fell short of international standards of due process. It cited defense lawyers, witnesses and investigators as saying they had been threatened during the trial.
The ruling party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who set up the tribunal, has denied the accusations of bias.
(Reporting by Anis Ahmed and Ruma Paul; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Firefighters work to douse a fire at the Kiss Club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Firefighters say that the death toll from a fire that swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil has risen to 180. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. At least 200 people were also injured. (AP Photo/Agencia RBS)
Firefighters work to douse a fire at the Kiss Club in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Firefighters say that the death toll from a fire that swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil has risen to 180. Officials say the fire broke out at the club while a band was performing. At least 200 people were also injured. (AP Photo/Agencia RBS)
A fire that swept through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday and killed 232 people appears to be the deadliest in more a decade. Here is a look at some of the biggest nightclub fires in the past century:
? A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, broke out in December 2009, when an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches, killing 152.
? A December 2004 fire killed 194 people at an overcrowded working-class nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after a flare ignited ceiling foam.
? A nightclub fire in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.
?In China's worst nightclub disaster in recent years, a fire blamed on a welding accident tore through a disco in the central city of Luoyang in December 2000, killing 309 people.
?A fire at the Ozone Disco Pub in 1996 in Quezon City, Philippines, killed 162 people, many of them students celebrating the end of the school year.
?In 1977, 165 people perished and more than 200 were injured when the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, which touted itself as the Showplace of the Nation, burned to the ground.
?A fire killed 492 people at Boston's Cocoanut Grove club in 1942, the deadliest nightclub blaze in U.S. history. The fire led to the enactment of requirements for sprinkler systems and accessible exits with emergency lights not linked to the regular lighting system.
?In 1940, a fire ignited the decorative Spanish moss draping the ceiling of the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi, killing 209 people. Hundreds of patrons ran to the only exit. The windows had been boarded shut to keep unwanted guests from sneaking in.
ROME (Reuters) - Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi triggered outrage from Italy's political left on Sunday with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
Speaking at the margins of the event in Milan, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany's lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that he had in other respects been a good leader.
"It's difficult now to put yourself in the shoes of people who were making decisions at that time," said Berlusconi, who is campaigning for next month's election at the head of a coalition that includes far-right politicians whose roots go back to Italy's old fascist party.
"Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it," he said.
"As part of this alliance, there were impositions, including combating and exterminating Jews," he told reporters. "The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well," he said, referring to laws passed by Mussolini's fascist government in 1938.
Although Mussolini is known outside Italy mostly for the alliance with Nazi Germany, his government also paid for major infrastructure projects as well as welfare for supporters.
Berlusconi's comments overshadowed Sunday's commemoration of thousands of Jews and others deported from Italy to the Nazi death camps of eastern Europe. They were condemned as "disgusting" by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which is leading in the polls ahead of the February 24-25 election.
"Our republic is based on the struggle against Nazi fascism and these are intolerable remarks which are incompatible with leadership of democratic political forces," said Marco Meloni, the PD's spokesman for institutional affairs.
Antonio Ingroia, a former anti-mafia magistrate campaigning at the head of a separate left-wing coalition, said Berlusconi was "a disgrace to Italy".
AMBIGUOUS
It was not the first time Berlusconi has defended Mussolini, whose status in Italy remains deeply ambiguous 67 years after he was executed by communist partisans while trying to flee to Switzerland in April, 1945.
Many Italian politicians, including the speaker of the Lower House of parliament, Gianfranco Fini, come from the ranks of the old Italian Social Movement (MSI) which grew out of the fascist party, although Fini and others have renounced the far right.
Others, including Francesco Storace, Berlusconi's candidate for president of the Lazio region, have stayed true to what they see as the "social-right" tradition of the fascist movement.
Monuments to Mussolini, who came to power in 1922, still dot many Italian cities, including Rome, where a column to Il Duce stands close to the city's main football stadium, within a stone's throw of the foreign ministry.
Although never as fervently anti-Semitic as his Nazi allies, Mussolini's government persecuted Italy's Jewish population, which was then estimated to number about 40,000, according to the Jewish Contemporary Documentation Centre in Milan.
The 1938 laws imposed oppressive restrictions on Jews and some 10,000 are estimated to have been deported from Italy between September 1943 and March 1945. Most of them died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
While anti-Semitic behavior has not been as prominently reported in Italy in recent years as in neighboring countries such as France, acts ranging from anti-Jewish graffiti to chants at football matches occur periodically.
"We must be very careful to ensure that these sparks, which recur every now and then, cannot bring back tragedies which humanity should not suffer again," outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday.
If you are new to the world of e-commerce, you may not be familiar with social media marketing. You may still be familiar with older methods of marketing. At its core it is not that different from other marketing techniques, though; there is nothing stopping you from harnessing the emergent potential of social media marketing. Here are some ways to help you do that.
If you host a blog, consider placing a Twitter button either at the top or at the bottom of your blog post. By doing this, you?re enabling people to share your material with their friends. It?s actually taking a lot of marketing work away from you! It will allow you to reach more people, more often.
In order to avoid offending followers, be sure you do not post content with a heavily political or personal message. Although it?s great to show that you are human with a great personality, putting too much info out there can be quite a put-off. It is okay to be conversational, but just steer clear of controversial topics.
To get your content shared far and wide, it needs to resonate with people who aren?t familiar with your niche. For example, if you?re writing a blog post, don?t make it so niche specific. Type with wit and make it something everyone in general can understand. Make your content easy to understand; technical writing may not go over well.
Have a contest or provide a freebie and publicize it on every site you are a member of. The vast majority of folks love freebies, and don?t mind following a Twitter account or registering for a possibility of winning something. Make sure you let everyone know who won. This will give you more advertising, and will make you look more credible.
Add photos, videos and other visual items to your company?s blog posts. People lose interest if there?s nothing holding their attention visually. You can include eye catching things like videos, logos, graphs, charts which break up the monotony of long textual posts. On the other hand, don?t make it that the only thing seen on your page is graphics.
When it comes to making your voice heard on social networking sites, brief, to-the-point messages are generally the most effective. Your message shouldn?t require a great deal of time or effort to read, and should only contain useful information that is worth sharing. Pictures and graphs will also capture your audience?s attention.
The best way to contact your customers on a social networking site is directly. No customer out there feels comfortable talking with a business. So this is where your social presence makes the customer feel as if they?re speaking to a regular person. When customers feel they are having a direct, personal conversation, they instinctively feel more connected with the company.
Learn how to listen to your customers and followers. Thank everyone who gives you feedback, and make sure you listen to everything they have to say. Keep track of the feedback you receive and change your strategies to be more effective thanks to the input you get.
You must focus your attention on more than just profits to be successful in social media marketing. When you use social media marketing, it?s important that you connect with your followers and develop a good reputation with your customers. Interacting online will help you expand your business. This will ensure your business is adequately supported in the future.
A great way to get your followers involved in social media is to hold a photo contest related to your brand. Offer a prize for the user that posts the most creative picture including your brand. When they share these photos in their networks to other people, it will expose your company to some new markets.
Interact with visitors to your social media sites. A sure-fire method of destroying your page is by having conversations that are always one sided. Replying to your visitors is common courtesy, and you need to show them that you value their input.
Consider hosting giveaways through your profiles on social media sites. Offering a freebie will increase your exposure, as people are happy to send their friends to a page to get something for free. Choose a free item that will appeal to your target market, then spread the word about it.
Social media marketing shares characteristics with other marketing methods, but it also has some unique pitfalls as well as rewards. Use these tips to help your social media marketing efforts, and you?re going to find that social media can be profitable and effective. You can also have a lot of fun with social media marketing.
A community is rallying behind a family devastated by fire. That fire in Chili left four people critically injured, including two children.
All four of the people injured and two other family members live in the Chili home. Joe Ogg is married to Katelyn and he's the children's father. Joe's brother, David, lives in the basement
The house on Golden Road still stands. Not destroyed but heavily damaged by smoke and water. Investigators haven't released the cause. ??? Joe Ogg went to work as usual early Thursday morning. A few hours later, his mother, wife and two children were pulled from the burning home. ??? Joe's boss at Monroe Tech, Chris Tobin, was there when he got the news.
"Seeing it online and not having a lot of information was definitely hard. Trying to find information at the time, no one really had a lot so it was definitely very stressful for him," said Chris Tobin.
Joe's brother, David, also works at Monroe Tech. Joe and Katelyn are newlyweds. They got married in April and had high hopes for a bright future with their young family.
"You're looking forward to so many things in life and your future and to have a huge situation like this happen is just extremely devastating," said Tobin.
Chris says the people at Monroe Tech are like a family. This tragedy has affected them all.
"It's not easy. As a friend, you hurt. As a father, it's rough. There's so many emotions that you go through from the very second we found out to even today. There are still a lot of questions unanswered," said Tobin.
"I really hope they can get through this. That everyone comes out of this with a great result and they really can just as a family get through it together and move on," said Tobin.
Monroe Tech is asking for you to help the Ogg family with clothes, furniture and other household items. Tobin says Joe has been at the hospital, hopeful that his family will be okay.
You can drop off donations to the following locations:
Parma Christian Fellowship Church 590 North Avenue Hilton, NY 14468 (585) 392-5792
Spencerport Assembly of God 3940 Canal Road Spencerport, NY 14559 (585) 352-5900
For any questions or concerns, call Monroe Tech at 392-8324
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - It began with the death of an anti-corruption lawyer in a Moscow jail and grew into a row between Russia and the United States. Now Russia's business elite are worried their interests could be harmed by fallout from the Magnitsky affair.
With international concern spreading after the 2009 death of Sergei Magnitsky, some Russian tycoons are worried their legitimate cross-border money transfers involving anything from industrial investments to luxury properties will get hit by red tape.
And they complain that the Kremlin's hard-line stance on Magnitsky is not doing them any favors.
"The Russian business (community) is absolutely united. The situation is more than bad and things may well spread to the EU and UK and God knows who could be sucked in," said a Russian billionaire, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The billionaire asked not to be named as he said the Russian business establishment was still afraid of bringing up the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian business has tried to stay out of politics since the country's then richest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed for tax evasion in the last decade, a move Putin's critics say was revenge for Khodorkovsky's political ambitions.
Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison while in pre-trial custody on tax evasion changes.
Authorities said the 37-year-old died of a heart attack, but his former employer, investment fund Hermitage Capital, says he was killed because he was investigating a $230 million theft by mid-ranking interior and tax officials.
The Russian business elite was at first broadly indifferent to the case, but that changed last year when the United States introduced its "Magnitsky Act", imposing sanctions on dozens of Russians, whom Hermitage and its owner Bill Browder accused of being involved in money laundering and the lawyer's death.
Russia responded by banning the adoption of Russian children by Americans. And subsequently the fallout from the affair has increased.
EXTENSIVE PROBE
Investigations have taken place in three European countries which are important conduits for fund transfers by Russian business.
In Lithuania the prosecutor's office said an investigation into suspected money laundering, based in information from Hermitage, is continuing having already resulted in the freezing of several bank accounts, while Estonia's public prosecutor said local police had investigated the matter though they decided not to open a criminal case.
And Swiss prosecutors have said they are conducting an extensive inquiry into money transfers alleged to have been made by Russian tax officials and others allegedly involved in Magnitsky's death.
Although Russian businessmen say they have nothing to fear from such investigations, they worry it will become increasingly difficult to manage global portfolios which have grown in the past two decades to take in interests ranging from soccer clubs to French castles.
The biggest concern is that Magnitsky Act-type measures will spread.
"Many more countries will join. We believe the EU will impose the Magnitsky sanctions before the end of the year," Browder said.
Clearly he has an axe to grind, but he says he has heard more and more complaints from Russian executives that the Kremlin needed to investigate the case properly to stop tensions with the United States from spreading and damaging business.
Economist Sergei Guriev said: "Russian business is very upset. The last development they want is to see the EU or UK joining those sanctions. Quite simply it is where the Russian business has huge assets and where their kids are studying."
Russian officials and bankers say the impact on commerce is becoming far too negative.
"Of course I have concerns about a worsening in (Russian-U.S.) relations. It creates unease for business. And it is a question for both sides - what's the point of continuing all this? I think it is very important to move on," said German Gref, head of top Russian bank Sberbank.
BROADER CONCERNS
For many business executives, the Magnitsky affair is symbolic of broader concerns about operating in Russia.
The case has repeatedly soured Russia's presence at the Davos economic forum and this year delegation head and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev faced more tough questions focusing on the lack of reforms in his country.
Before Medvedev gave his opening speech, some 78 percent of respondents voting in an audience packed with hundreds of Western executives and politicians agreed that Russia's biggest problem was weak government and corporate governance.
"The level of trust between Russian and foreign business is again very low. And it is a very bad sign at a time when Russia wants to speed up growth. And that is impossible without foreign investment," said a senior Russian oil executive.
Economists like Guriev note the Russian stock market has been one of the worst performers among emerging nations over the past year, despite a stable macroeconomic environment.
The richest BRIC nation has also seen a continuing high level of "capital flight", or money fleeing the country because of domestic uncertainties, some analysts say. A report by accountants Ernst & Young last month estimated capital flight out of Russia at $32.3 billion in 2011, while a Reuters poll showed net capital outflows of $71 billion in 2012.
Kenneth Hersh, CEO at NGP Energy Capital, a U.S.-based energy fund which has $13 billion under management, says he is not investing in Russia due to a general perception of a lack of rule of law and weak regulation.
And he shares concerns that the Magnitsky case is adding to the general perception of Russia as an unattractive place to do business.
"I need higher returns to compensate for that risk," Hersh said.
(Additional reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto in Zurich and David Mardiste in Tallinn; Editing by David Holmes)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Four Senate Democrats said Thursday that Republican Chuck Hagel had allayed their concerns about his past statements on Israel and Iran, and they would vote for President Barack Obama's nominee for defense secretary.
Sens. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Chris Coons of Delaware and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said they met with Hagel this week and were reassured by his commitment to Israel's security.
Hagel would replace Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down.
"Senator Hagel clarified his position on Iran sanctions and Israel, and I am confident he is firmly committed to ensuring a strong U.S.-Israel relationship," Lautenberg said, adding that he and his colleagues will be watching closely "to ensure that issues of concern do not emerge as he takes on this critical position."
Hagel, who served two terms as Nebraska senator, has faced opposition from GOP-leaning outside groups over his past statements about the power of the "Jewish lobby" of pro-Israel groups and his doubts about the effectiveness of unilateral sanctions on Iran.
Six Senate Republicans have said they will vote against his nomination and not one GOP lawmaker has endorsed the nominee. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., writing in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, all but announced his opposition.
"When we are faced with unpredictable national security crises, we can't afford to have a secretary of defense who has unpredictable judgment," Barrasso wrote.
Other lawmakers have said they are waiting for Hagel's confirmation hearing next Thursday in the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Democrats hold a 55-45 edge in the Senate and would have the votes to confirm Hagel.
"Chuck is a combat veteran and foot soldier who has a unique understanding of the challenges faced by our men and women in uniform, and a practical leader who understands the need for common sense in military spending and national security strategy," Manchin said in a statement.
Coons said he believes Hagel "will be a strong and effective secretary of defense, and I will be proud to vote for his confirmation."
Their statements came shortly after Sen. John Kerry, the president's choice for secretary of state, found himself defending Hagel at his confirmation hearing.
"I know Chuck Hagel. I think he is a strong patriotic former senator, and he will be a strong secretary of defense," Kerry said of Hagel, who, like Kerry, served in Vietnam.
Republican Sen. Bob Corker questioned Kerry about Hagel's support for an 80 percent reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons. Possible reductions and modernization of the nuclear arsenal are major issues for the Tennessee lawmaker, who has the Y-12 nuclear facility in his state.
Corker has expressed concerns about Hagel, questioning whether the Republican's "overall temperament" makes his suitable for the job.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc's fourth-quarter revenue rose faster than expected and the telephone company promised more growth this year even if the economy does not improve.
Along with growth from its existing business, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Thursday that AT&T is also eyeing overseas opportunities. He said the idea would be to profit from wireless expansion in countries where services are not yet as advanced as in the United States.
"The question is if there are opportunities for us to participate in that growth around the world" Stephenson said on a conference all with analysts. "There's just a lot of different ways to think about it. There's a lot of options."
Stephenson declined to say if it could involve overseas acquisitions in response to a question about a recent report that it was considering overseas transactions. Instead, he listed options such as international roaming deals for AT&T customers traveling overseas and the possibility for overseas expansion of a home security business AT&T is developing.
AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service provider, posted stronger than expected fourth quarter subscriber growth but this also put pressure on its wireless profit margin as it spends heavily on every new subscriber it signs up.
It added 780,000 mobile subscribers in the quarter compared with the average expectation for 699,200 from 10 analysts, with the lowest estimate at 475,000 and the majority of estimates at 700,000 or higher.
While the company's sale of 8.6 million Apple Inc iPhones in the quarter helped subscriber numbers it hurt profits as AT&T pays Apple a big subsidy for every iPhone it sells so it can offer discounts to customers who commit to contracts.
AT&T's wireless service profit margin based on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 29.1 percent, compared with the average expectation for 31.29 percent from ten analysts contacted by Reuters.
Stephenson said he would keep a close watch on a strategy outlined by smaller rival T-Mobile USA to offer smartphone installment plans under which consumers would pay for their smartphones gradually. If it followed this plan it would mean that AT&T would not have to pay a big upfront subsidy.
"That's something we've looked at on several occasions. I kind of like that idea," Stephenson said. "Its something we're going to be watching."
AT&T forecast earnings per share growth in the upper-single digit percentage range or higher and revenue growth exceeding 2 percent for 2013 based on strength in wireless and its wireline consumer business.
"Guidance was good but not dramatically good," said Hudson Square Research analyst Todd Rethemeier.
AT&T's fourth quarter loss was $3.86 billion or 68 cents per share, compared with a loss of $6.68 billion or $1.12 per share in the year-ago quarter when it took big charges including the break-up fee for its failed purchase of T-Mobile USA, a Deutsche Telekom unit.
Revenue rose to $32.58 billion from $32.5 billion and compared with Wall Street expectations for $32.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
While AT&T's wireless subscriber growth was better than expected it was slower than bigger rival Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, which reported subscriber additions of 2.1 million on Tuesday.
Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. mobile provider, does not report its results until February 7.
AT&T shares were largely unchanged in late trade after closing at $33.75 in the regular New York Stock Exchange session.
(Additional reporting by Nicole Leske; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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Soon it will be a non-negotiable for any business?s marketing strategy.
There are some very good reasons why everyone is talking about this. Here are some of my favorites:
You are 53 times more likely to appear on Google Page 1 if you have a video on your website. (Forrester Research)
YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world. Obviously, you have to have video to be there. (ReelSEO.com)
Video used in email marketing increases click-through rates by over 96% (Implix 2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey)
Website visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy (Internet Retailer)
Those are hard numbers to ignore. You may be asking yourself, but why is video so effective for marketing?
Here are the Top 5 Reasons why online video works to grow your business.
Online video helps you make a personal connection with your prospective clients. We all know that people like to buy products and services through people they know and people they like. Online video is the next best thing to meeting someone in person. When people watch you in your video online, they?ll feel like they?ve met you in person, helping you become that person your prospective clients know, like and trust, faster and easier.
Video accelerates the sales process. In a traditional sales process, your prospective client has to find you, then meet you in person, then you close the sale, and then you get to do business with them. What if you could take out several steps in that process? How much time and effort would that save you? With online video, your prospective clients can find you online because they?re already searching for you there. They can ?meet? you online, and after they watch your video, they?ll feel like they already know you and want to do business with you.
Online video increases engagement on your site. On websites with video, the average viewer stays for 6 minutes. On websites without video, the average viewer stays for only 57 seconds. That extra 5 minutes of engagement can make all the difference between them picking up the phone to call you, or clicking off your site.
Because online video is so popular, it?s becoming not only a communication tool, but also a search engine optimization tool. Google mimics consumer behavior. Right now about 60% of online searches are for video, and Google wants to give people what they want. So now search engines are prioritizing video in their search criteria. If you have video on your website or your blog, you will show up higher in Google rankings.
Online video can be leveraged in two important ways. First, it leverages your time. You do the work once, and then it keeps working for you, 24/7, with no ongoing effort from you. What do you think would happen to your business if you were meeting hundreds of people every week? Your business would explode, because it?s a numbers game. The more people you meet, the more sales opportunities you have, the more you?ll sell. But who has time to meet hundreds of people every week? With your online video, you?ll virtually ?meet? hundreds of people every week, making that all-important personal connection with them without having to actually be there in person. The second way you can leverage online video is that you create one asset but distribute it across multiple platforms. The same video can appear on your website, YouTube, social media, email marketing, google profile, just to name a few, and more sites are allowing video uploads all the time.
Just as with any new trend, the early adapters will receive the most benefit. Be one of the first business owners you know to use online video to grow your business, and you?ll gain an unfair advantage over your competition.
Jill recently presented a 1-hour webinar about Online Video Success for Social Buzz Club. You can buy it here.
-Author: Jill Addison, Online Video Producer
Jill is the Creator of Do It Yourself Video Package! If you know you need to be using online video to grow your business, but you?re not ready for professional video, this Package is for you. Get a Free Sample of the contents of the Do It Yourself Video Package and a Free Report ?Top 10 Things You Need to Know to Instantly Improve Your Videos 100%? here:?Do It Yourself Video Package!
Today, it seems that Cisco's international buying spree continues. 
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Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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Jill is the Creator of Do It Yourself Video Package! If you know you need to be using online video to grow your business, but you?re not ready for professional video, this Package is for you. Get a Free Sample of the contents of the Do It Yourself Video Package and a Free Report ?Top 10 Things You Need to Know to Instantly Improve Your Videos 100%? here:?Do It Yourself Video Package!