Source: www.nytimes.com --- Thursday, December 29, 2011
A show of the ruling Military?s financial power came on the same day as former President Hosni Mubarak was wheeled back into court on a hospital gurney to resume his trial. ...
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/africa/hosni-mubarak-heads-back-to-court.html
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? The U.S. strongly warned Iran on Wednesday against closing a vital Persian Gulf waterway that carries one-sixth of the world's oil supply, after Iran threatened to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington imposes sanctions targeting the country's crude exports.
The increasingly heated exchange raises new tensions in a standoff that has the potential to spark military reprisals and spike oil prices to levels that could batter an already fragile global economy.
Iran's navy chief said Wednesday that it would be "very easy" for his country's forces to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passage at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about 15 million barrels of oil pass daily. It was the second such warning by Iran in two days, reflecting Tehran's concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could hit the country's biggest source of revenue, oil.
"Iran has comprehensive control over the strategic waterway," Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV, as the country was in the midst of a 10-day military drill near the strategic waterway.
The comments drew a quick response from the U.S.
"This is not just an important issue for security and stability in the region, but is an economic lifeline for countries in the Gulf, to include Iran," Pentagon press secretary George Little said. "Interference with the transit or passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will not be tolerated."
Separately, Bahrain-based U.S. Navy 5th Fleet spokeswoman Lt. Rebecca Rebarich said the Navy is "always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation."
Rebarich declined to say whether the U.S. force had adjusted its presence or readiness in the Gulf in response to Iran's comments, but said the Navy "maintains a robust presence in the region to deter or counter destabilizing activities, while safeguarding the region's vital links to the international community."
Iran's threat to seal off the Gulf, surrounded by oil-rich Gulf states, reflect its concerns over the prospect that the Obama administration will impose sanctions over its nuclear program that would severely hit its biggest revenue source. Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, pumping about 4 million barrels a day.
Gulf Arab nations appeared ready to at least ease market tensions. A senior Saudi Arabian oil official told The Associated Press that Gulf Arab nations are ready to step in to offset any potential loss of exports from Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.
Saudi Arabia, which has been producing about 10 million barrels per day, has an overall production capacity of over 12 million barrels per day and is widely seen as the only OPEC member with sufficient spare capacity to offset major shortages.
What remains unclear is what routes the Gulf nations could take to move the oil to markets if Iran goes through with its threat.
About 15 million barrels per day pass through the Hormuz Strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
There are some pipelines that could be tapped, but Gulf oil leaders, who met in Cairo on Dec. 24, declined to say whether they had discussed alternate routes or what they may be.
The Saudi official's comment, however, appeared to allay some concerns. The U.S. benchmark crude futures contract fell $1.98 by the close of trading Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but still hovered just below $100 per barrel.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner played down the Iranian threats as "rhetoric," saying, "we've seen these kinds of comments before."
While the Obama administration has warned Iran that it would not tolerate attempts to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. officials do not see any indication that the situation will come to that. Nor do they believe that Iran, which is already under increasing pressure from sanctions, would risk disrupting the Strait because doing so would further damage Iran's own economy.
Instead, the administration believes Iran is playing the only card it has left: issuing threats and attempting to shift focus away from its own behavior.
U.S. officials have not said whether there is a concrete response plan in place should Iran seek to block the Strait. But the administration has long said it is comfortable with the U.S. Naval presence in the region, indicating that the U.S. could respond rapidly if needed.
The White House has been largely silent on Iran's threat, underscoring the administration's belief that responding at the White House level would only encourage Iran.
While many analysts believe that Iran's warnings are little more than posturing, they still highlight both the delicate nature of the oil market, which moves as much on rhetoric as supply and demand fundamentals.
Iran relies on crude sales for about 80 percent of its public revenues, and sanctions or even a pre-emptive measure by Tehran to withhold its crude from the market would already batter its flailing economy.
IHS Global Insight analyst Richard Cochrane said in a report Wednesday that markets are "jittery over the possibility" of Iran's blockading the strait. But "such action would also damage Iran's economy, and risk retaliation from the U.S. and allies that could further escalate instability in the region."
"Accordingly, it is not likely to be a decision that the Iranian leadership will take lightly," he said.
Earlier sanctions targeting the oil and financial sector added new pressures to the country's already struggling economy. Government cuts in subsidies on key goods like food and energy have angered Iranians, stoking inflation while the country's currency steadily depreciates.
The impetus behind the subsidies cut plan, pushed through parliament by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was to reduce budget costs and would pass money directly to the poor. But critics have pointed to it as another in a series of bad policy moves by the hardline president.
So far, Western nations have been unable to agree on sanctions targeting oil exports, even as they argue that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran maintains its nuclear program ? already the subject of several rounds of sanctions ? is purely peaceful.
The U.S. Congress has passed a bill that penalizes foreign firms that do business with the Iran Central Bank, a move that would heavily hurt Iran's ability to export crude. European and Asian nations use the bank for transactions to import Iranian oil.
President Barack Obama has said he will sign the bill despite his misgivings. China and Russia have opposed such measures.
Sanctions specifically targeting Iran's oil exports would likely temporarily spike oil prices to levels that could weigh heavily on the world economy.
Closing the Strait of Hormuz would hit even harder. Energy consultant and trader The Schork Group estimated crude would jump to above $140 per barrel. Conservatives in Iran claim global oil prices will jump to $250 a barrel should the waterway be closed.
By closing the strait, Iran may aim to send the message that its pain from sanctions will also be felt by others. But it has equally compelling reasons not to try.
The move would put the country's hardline regime straight in the cross-hairs of the world, including nations that have so far been relative allies. Much of Iran's crude goes to Europe and to Asia.
"Shutting down the strait ... is the last bullet that Iran has and therefore we have to express some doubt that they would do this and at the same time lose their support from China and Russia," said analyst Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland.
Iran has adopted an aggressive military posture in recent months in response to increasing threats from the U.S. and Israel of possible military action to stop Iran's nuclear program.
The Iranian navy's exercises, which began on Saturday, involve submarines, missile drills, torpedoes and drones. A senior Iranian commander said Wednesday that the country's navy is also planning to test advanced missiles and "smart" torpedoes during the maneuvers.
The war games cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch off the Strait of Hormuz, northern parts of the Indian Ocean and into the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea and could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels in the area.
The moderate news website, irdiplomacy.ir, says the show of strength is intended to send a message to the West that Iran is capable of sealing off the waterway.
"The war games ... are a warning to the West that should oil and central bank sanctions be stepped up, (Iran) is able to cut the lifeblood of the West and Arabs," it said, adding that the West "should regard the maneuvers as a direct message."
___
El-Tablawy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Adam Schreck in Dubai, Julie Pace in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Abdullah Shihri in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed.
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Facebook and Stack Exchange are now working together to support the Facebook developer community. Facebook engineers participate here along with the best Facebook developers in the world. If you have a technical question about Facebook, this is the best place to ask.
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ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. -- One person is dead after an early morning shooting in Royal Palm Beach Thursday.
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According to PBSO, at around 4:30 a.m., a group of suspects stole a pick-up truck from the Royal Village Townhouse community.
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After stealing the pick-up truck, the suspects went to a different area in the community and attempted to steal a motorcycle, PBSO reports. The owner of the motorcycle saw the suspects as they attempted to steal his motorcycle and fired at the group, killing one person.
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The shooting took place at 139 Sparrow Drive. PBSO says the other suspects fled the scene and left behind the pick-up truck and motorcycle.
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Ashleigh Walters WPTV contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma currently has a job opening for a full-time Communications Associate at its central office in Maryland Heights, MO.
General Summary:
The Communications Associate will assist in the development, creation and delivery of various media content ? including feature stories, brochure and web copy, print and electronic newsletters/magazines, PowerPoint presentations, press releases and social media ? to support the advancement of the Society. The Communications Associate works closely with the Communications Director.
Key Job Responsibilities:
- Developing written content for the Society?s various print and online publications
- Conducting interviews, gathering content, and doing research to prepare effective communications
- Identifying story opportunities for internal and external communications
- Promoting Society news and activities through the Society?s website and social media channels
- Managing the day-to-day maintenance and quality control of organizational websites
- Communicating with the Society?s various stakeholders and members through broadcast emails
- Assisting with the development of marketing and support materials
- Writing and disseminating press releases
- Conducting all communications tasks in a time-sensitive and efficient manner
- Other duties as assigned
Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Knowledge of AP writing style
- Strong organizational and project management skills
- Creative thinking
- Experience with social media applications (experience managing social media campaigns a strong plus)
- Excellent interviewing and editing skills
- Strong listening skills
- Flexibility and ability to develop creative solutions
- Attention to detail and ability to juggle multiple projects with firm deadlines
- High levels of motivation and ability to think creatively, strategically, and independently
- Knowledge of computer software, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint (Dreamweaver and Adobe Creative Suite a strong plus)
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor?s degree in journalism, communications, public relations or related field
- Minimum one year of relevant professional experience
- Must demonstrate exceptional writing, interviewing and editing skills
Job Location:
Maryland Heights, MO
Position Type:
Full-Time
Qualified candidates should send a resume, cover letter, salary history and two writing samples to Seth Treptow, Communications Director, at: streptow@betagammasigma.org
Please include ?Communications Associate? in the subject line. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. No telephone calls or agencies please.
More posts by Tirzah Clerc ?
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Source: http://adsaint.com/jobs/communications-associate-beta-gamma-sigma/
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Fewer voters across the country are choosing to register as democrats or republicans, a trend that some college students attribute to increasingly polarized political rhetoric and voter alienation from a two party political system.
A USA TODAY analysis of state voter registration statistics found that 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican party since 2008. The number of Democrats fell in 25 of the 28 states that register voters by party, while the number of Republicans fell in 21 states.
The analysis also showed that the number of independent voters increased in 18 states.
Frustration among college students marks a significant shift from 2008, when the Obama campaign recruited a record number of young people to get involved in the election. A sense of estrangement among college students coupled with reluctance to get politically involved could significantly shift the dynamic of the 2012 election.
David Rice, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, speculated that while college students were frustrated with their government, but it was for different reasons than those of most Americans. Since college students can depend on their parents for healthcare, housing, and food, Rice said, they have different political concerns than other Americans.
?It?s an entirely different lifestyle than the one that most Americans live,? Rice said. ?And while there are issues and stresses in the average college student?s life. They are incredibly different than the issues and stresses of the average Americans?.?
Zach Goldaber, a sophomore at the University of Chicago, said that he thought that demonstrations on college campuses across the country this fall clearly showed student frustration.
?You only have to look at the protests at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, or at Occupy Boston to see that a huge number of college students are very upset with what they perceive to be the political status quo,? Goldaber said. ?I feel like more and more people are becoming politically active, but aren?t finding the answers they?re looking for in the Democratic and Republican parties.?
The decline in democratic and republican affiliation is paramount in swing states that could significantly impact the 2012 election. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democratic and Republican registration has dropped, while the number of registered independent voters has increased, according to the USA TODAY analysis.
?I think that more and more people are feeling disenfranchised by the two party system,? said Daniel Goulden, a sophomore at Brandeis University. ?There are very few politicians who I feel are honest.?
You might also be interested in:
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of USA TODAY.
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A few snow showers were expected in parts of the Northeast as well, but weather forecasters said 99 percent of Americans would see more green and brown for their Yuletide celebrations - along with plenty of rain, according to Accuweather.com.
The wet Christmas in the Texas Panhandle and Permian Basin brought cheer for drought-weary Texans, who were seeing snow in Lubbock and Amarillo on Christmas morning and rain in the eastern part of the state.Meanwhile, in points north, the lack of snow was welcome news in Minneapolis, where last year's winter storm 12 days before Christmas dumped 17 inches of snow on the city, causing the roof of the Metrodome, the Minnesota Viking's football stadium, to collapse.
This year, Minneapolis has no snow and will have temperatures in the high 30s over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Very little new snow is expected to accumulate anywhere throughout the day on Sunday, according to Accuweather.com. But a snowstorm in southern Ontario is forecast to move into Quebec on Sunday night and drop snow near the Great Lakes, with some accumulation happening overnight.
Residents from Watertown, N.Y. to Bangor, Maine - many of whom are off work on Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday - could wake up to an inch of snow on the ground Monday as the storm moves East.
Most of the Pacific Northwest were seeing mild weather on Christmas Day, while states like Colorado and New Mexico had lingering snow leftover from a pre-Christmas storm. Still, very few areas across the nation were seeing fresh snow on Sunday.
Even the Texas Panhandle, which was under a winter weather advisory, was not expecting the snow to accumulate - though transportation officials were warning of ice on the roads and cautioning drivers to be careful.
(Editing by Tim Gaynor)
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(HealthDay News) -- Talking about weight with your child can be difficult, but it's important to foster a healthy attitude toward weight and eating.
The American Dietetic Association offers these suggestions for having this discussion:
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Sri Lankan News.Net
Saturday 24th December, 2011 (Source: The National)
South Africa would have the visitors fancy a comeback or sorts when they meet at Kingsmead tomorrow.
Sri Lanka's hopes were boosted with the news that seamer Vernon Philander, who has been a revelation with four five-wicket hauls in three Tests - including the innings win over ...
Read the full story at The National
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Source: http://feeds.srilankannews.net/?rid=202121331&cat=119937e494dd663e
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ST. LOUIS ? Matthew Quain still struggles to piece together what happened after a trip to the grocery store nearly turned deadly. He remembers a group of loitering young people, a dimly lit street ? then nothing. The next thing he knew he was waking up with blood pouring out of his head.
The 51-year-old pizza kitchen worker's surreal experience happened just before midnight earlier this year, when he became another victim of what is generally known as "Knockout King" or simply "Knock Out," a so-called game of unprovoked violence that targets random victims.
Scattered reports of the game have come from around the country including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Chicago. In St. Louis, the game has become almost contagious, with tragic consequences. An elderly immigrant from Vietnam died in an attack last spring.
The rules of the game are as simple as they are brutal. A group ? usually young men or even boys as young as 12, and teenage girls in some cases ? chooses a lead attacker, then seeks out a victim. Unlike typical gang violence or other street crime, the goal is not revenge, nor is it robbery. The victim is chosen at random, often a person unlikely to put up a fight. Many of the victims have been elderly. Most were alone.
The attacker charges at the victim and begins punching. If the victim goes down, the group usually scatters. If not, others join in, punching and kicking the person, often until he or she is unconscious or at least badly hurt. Sometimes the attacks are captured on cellphone video that is posted on websites.
"These individuals have absolutely no respect for human life," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.
Slay knows firsthand. He was on his way home from a theater around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 when he saw perhaps a dozen young people casually crossing a street. He looked to the curb and saw Quain sprawled on the pavement.
Slay told his driver to pull over. They found Quain unconscious, blood pouring from his head and mouth.
Quain was hospitalized for two days with a broken jaw, a cracked skull and nasal cavity injuries. He still has headaches and memory problems but was finally able to return to work earlier this month. Hundreds gathered in November for a fundraiser at the restaurant where he works, Joanie's Pizza, but he still doesn't know how he'll pay the medical bills.
"I don't remember much of what happened," Quain said. "I was hanging out with a friend, celebrating the Cardinals in the World Series. I went to the store and saw a group of kids who looked out of place, suspicious, but I shrugged it off. I got around to the library, and the next thing I remember is waking up on the corner with the mayor standing next to me. I tried to say `hi' but my jaw was broken."
It isn't clear how long Knockout King has been around, nor is the exact number of attacks known. The FBI doesn't track it separately, but Slay said he has heard from several mayors about similar attacks and criminologists agree versions of the game are going on in many places.
St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom said the city has had about 10 Knockout King attacks over the past 15 months.
Experts say it is a grab for attention.
"We know that juveniles don't think out consequences clearly," said Beth Huebner, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "They see something on YouTube and say, `I want to get that sort of attention, too.' They don't think about the person they're attacking maybe hitting their head."
Scott Decker, a criminologist at Arizona State, said the attacks are a modern extension of gang-like behavior ? instead of painting over another gang's graffiti as a show of toughness, they beat someone up and post a video on social media sites. The postings spur copycat crimes.
"It's adolescent and early adults, largely male, showing how tough they are. It's done to show off," Decker said.
Earlier this year in Chicago, a group of teens followed an elderly homeless man at a train station. One of the teens walked up to him and punched him in the face, knocking him out as the teen's friends laughed and mocked the man. The exchange was captured on video and posted on a hip-hop site, where it got about a quarter of a million views within two days. The teen was not arrested because police couldn't locate the homeless man to see if he wanted to press charges.
The crimes aren't limited to big cities. In 2009, Adam Taylor had just entered a parking garage in Columbia, Mo. Surveillance footage from the garage showed a group of teens following him. One of the teens attacked, punching Taylor and sending him crashing into a brick wall. A few seconds later, the others joined in, punching and kicking him as he lay on the ground. Taylor suffered bruising on the brain, whiplash and internal bleeding but survived.
Hoang Nguyen wasn't as fortunate.
The 72-year-old retired schoolteacher immigrated to St. Louis from Vietnam with his wife less than four years earlier to be near their daughter. The couple was returning to their apartment after walking to a grocery store on an April morning in broad daylight.
They took a shortcut through an alley, where they saw a group of young people approaching. Suddenly, one of them charged. Hoang was attacked as he stepped in front of his wife to protect her. The attack went on as he begged for mercy, she told police.
Hoang died of massive injuries. Elex Murphy, 18, was charged with first-degree murder and allegedly told police the attack was part of the Knockout King game. His attorney declined to comment.
St. Louis authorities are going to the source to combat further attacks. A special police squad has been assigned to focus on Knockout King, and a city prosecutor is designated for the attacks. But Isom said equally important is an outreach effort to talk to students.
"Certainly we take this very seriously and we're making every effort to stop it," Isom said.
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CONCORD, N.H. ? Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren. Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans. Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.
Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination is quickly becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.
Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for the husbands they've loyally campaigned for. Romney extols her husband's character and says "to me that makes a huge difference" in a candidate. Perry tells the "old-fashioned American story" of how she and her husband were high school sweethearts who had to wait until he was done flying airplanes around the world for the Air Force before they could marry. Callista Gingrich wishes the nation a Merry Christmas "from our family to yours" in husband Newt Gingrich's new holiday-themed TV ad.
Candidate kids, including those born to Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, are helping, too, acting as surrogates, strategists and, in some cases, sounding boards for parents competing for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
"There are times when I wonder why I'm not sitting in the coffee shop on campus with my friends, lightheartedly discussing ('Saturday Night Live') videos, how bad the cafeteria is, what our plans are for Friday night or how absolutely swamped we are with school work," Santorum's daughter Elizabeth lamented in a recent blog post. "But this is where God wanted me."
She has taken time off from her junior year at the University of Dallas to serve as a self-described "field staffer/phone banker/chauffeur/surrogate speaker," for her father, primarily in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.
Her father, who hopes Iowa's socially conservative voters turn out for him on caucus night Jan. 3, rolled out an ad late last week featuring the entire Santorum clan, including the family German shepherd, Schotzy. The spot highlights his 21-year marriage to his wife, Karen, notes that he has coached Little League and introduces viewers to the youngest of the couple's seven children, Isabella, born in 2008 with a genetic disorder.
Sometimes the family members campaign with the candidates and other times they go it alone.
Such family involvement carries risks and benefits. The stories they tell often humanize the candidates and help voters relate to them. But the things they say, and do, can sometimes cause headaches for the campaign advisers who are left to try to figure out a way out.
While Rick Perry spent several days campaigning in Iowa recently, his wife was hundreds of miles away in New Hampshire emphasizing his small-town upbringing and conservative values at a retirement community chapel. Audience members then peppered her with detailed questions about such subjects as taxes, immigration and the death penalty.
"She handled them quite well," said Sid Schoeffler, an independent voter from Concord. "When she knew the answer or knew the campaign's story line, she recited it. And when she didn't know, she said so. I thought that was refreshing."
"Compared to what I expected, she made a favorable impression," he said. "But whether it's enough to swing my vote, I don't know yet."
Earlier in the year, as Bachmann rose in public opinion, her husband, Marcus, was forced to defend his Christian counseling business from claims that its therapies included "curing" people of being gay. With Bachmann now near the back of the GOP pack in polls, Marcus Bachmann joined her at the start of her bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties but was quickly replaced by four of their five children.
"My husband had to go home. We're small-business owners and someone had to go home and mind the store," Bachmann told one crowd. And at one point, Bachmann, who began losing her voice in the middle of the jam-packed tour, turned over the microphone to son Harrison, a teacher who talks up his family's ties to the state, and teased: "Harrison, say some nice things about me and you'll get extra cookies."
In Paul's case, he's probably hoping validation from his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party, will give him a boost with that pivotal constituency in Iowa. Rand Paul is also appearing in a television ad for his father.
Romney's five-son family and wife of more than four decades have long been a part of his presidential campaigns. But the spotlight has been shining more brightly on his wife and their brood in recent weeks as the campaign seeks to cast the former Massachusetts governor as a person of "steadiness and constancy" while drawing a contrast with the thrice-married Gingrich.
Ann Romney also has spoken openly about how her husband supported her through her struggle with multiple sclerosis.
Huntsman's wife and the couple's three oldest daughters are near-constant companions in New Hampshire, the only state where the former Utah governor is earnestly campaigning. His daughters recently generated a huge amount of buzz with a video spoof of an ad by former rival Herman Cain. They donned oversized glasses and fake mustaches to look like Cain's campaign manager.
"We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate's family has," one daughter said in the ad. "But then again, no one's ever seen a trio like the Jon2012 girls."
___
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
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base one. In China, ?Xiaoshan made? PTA 22%, 15% fiber. Here, an extension to the garment industry chain has just begun. Li Cheng made a special trip to Italy last year, the new investigation, some of the world-renowned companies from the local business fabric and then started the development of the world industry experience first-line clothing brand he was impressed. Three in 30 years of age to take over the holding predecessor ? a man Xiaoshan printing three plants, with extraordinary perseverance and endurance. 20 years, he has obstinately this family made the brink of closure of small factories with annual sales of 25 billion a ?fabric big brothers?, a national textile and product development base, is considered among the industry?s most complete enterprise producing fabrics one. Now, the ?fabric big brothers? are quietly beginning to cause distribution of clothing. By the end of May,
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the French Group Three holding clothing brand Di Fanuo (DE FARRO) in Ningbo, the store opened in welcoming golden light commercial buildings. This is a ?triple? set up after the clothing company opened the first store 62 Di Fanuo Direct. These stores were stationed in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi?an, Fuzhou, Chengdu and other major cities of the top shopping centers. ?This year we plan to develop 100 home sales expected to reach 150 million yuan.? Di Fanuo clothing executive vice president, said Huang Jing. High-end men?s fashion business to create brand image, reinforced by international brand operation, this is only the Li Cheng clothing dream in which a new realization of a road. He also brewing a larger plan is to use the most popular of online shopping, let the Chinese men to buy high-quality mid-priced shirt. ?I wonder if you have not noticed the men around them,
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they do not love shopping, but also not used to change shirts every day. Some may be expensive brand-name shirt, but you will find that they tend to wear the white collar up.? Cheng Li is not no new quipped that he wants the same as the Chinese men used as a foreigner to buy a shirt playing every day to replace. ?One 200 yuan can buy from the online mall 1,000 yuan traditional goods, you take it or leave?? In the online direct marketing their own brand shirt, this model is no longer fresh. Currently done by a group of the most successful e-commerce professionals, creating a ?where customers Eslite?, no factories, workshops, workers, only a good product to their own design to manufacturing outsourcing production, paste their own brands, the holding to your own website to sell, said to sell two or three million pieces a day. Faced with such a ?champion?, triple what emboldened?
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?Fashion is the key to the success of e-commerce business through differentiated products to rapidly respond to market demand.? Cheng Li-hsin, ?Meanwhile, ?background? must be strong.? ?We only announced the development of the shirt into six billion, each year 40 million meters capacity. product supply chain and product development capabilities will be our core strengths. In addition, we know better clothes. ?join? Three ?before immersed in the apparel more than 10 years, said Huang Jing. Almost more than four months, he and his colleagues have been visiting manufacturers, Internet companies, and even go online to buy their own shirt, the network service, product quality and various comparisons, analysis. ?We may need to hire a professional team to promote the network, but the product quality control will control in their hands.? Huang Jing said. ?This is a channel model innovation is .
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Source: http://bumeral.net/users/activity/p/6347/
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Actor Tom Hiddleston says, 'Every day, there is magic that will happen.'
By Kevin P. Sullivan
Tom Hiddleston in "War Horse"
Photo: DreamWorks
"He is the master." At the premiere of "War Horse," praise like this for the movie's director wasn't hard to come by.
For Tom Hiddleston, working with a director as talented as Steven Spielberg meant more than just acting under a guy who has made dozens of timeless films. Hiddleston told MTV News on the red carpet premiere of "War Horse" that working with Spielberg was more like a crash course in classic movie magic.
Spielberg recently directed the "Thor" star in "War Horse," a World War I-era drama about the connection between a boy and his horse. Hiddleston shared a few of the lessons he learned from the legendary director.
"He's a master craftsman," he said. "And what I learned from him, really, is that he's so impeccably prepared."
Hiddleston recalled Spielberg's habit of storyboarding many of the film's scenes, but that never stopped the director from making changes on the fly and running with them. "He turns up on set every day with an open mind and an open heart, because he still doesn't know where the magic is. And every day, there is magic that will happen."
But for Spielberg to find that magic, he has to keep both this cast and crew on their toes. For Hiddleston, this often meant changing direction on a moment's notice. "He just has to be sharp enough and on point enough that he's there to catch it and to keep his crew nimble and fleet of foot," Hiddleston explained. "So that if he suddenly sees something like the sun's in a particular place or something's happening between two actors, or in this case, an actor and a horse, that he can capture that, the beauty of the accident, and it lasts forever on film."
Check out everything we've got on "War Horse."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676404/war-horse-tom-hiddleston-steven-spielberg.jhtml
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LONDON?? A former Daily Mirror journalist is challenging CNN star Piers Morgan's testimony to a media ethics inquiry, saying Morgan must have known about phone hacking at the tabloid he once edited.
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James Hipwell said Wednesday that Morgan was intimately involved in the day-to-day operation of his paper, where he claims phone hacking took place as a matter of routine.
"I witnessed journalists carrying out repeated privacy infringements using what has now become a well-known technique ? to hack into the voicemail systems of celebrities, their friends, publicists and public relations executives," Hipwell said in a statement read to the inquiry, according to BBC News.
"The openness and frequency of their hacking activities gave me the impression that hacking was considered a bog-standard journalistic tool for gathering information," he added.
Video: CNN host testifies about UK phone hacking scandal (on this page)On Tuesday, Morgan claimed tabloid editors only knew about 5 percent of what went on at their papers.
Morgan denies being connected to the phone hacking scandal, which has shaken Britain's media establishment.
Hipwell and Morgan have a long history. Both were investigated as part of an inquiry into market manipulation after it emerged that Morgan had made a quick profit by buying shares which were promoted in the next day's edition of the paper.
Morgan was cleared of wrongdoing, but Hipwell and another tipster, Anil Bhoyrul, were convicted in 2005.
Hipwell said that he always believed that his former boss had been as guilty as he was.
"I can understand why people think that I have an axe to grind against him," Hipwell told the inquiry.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45748766/ns/world_news-europe/
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In the latest act of online political sabotage, individuals who type newtgingrich.com into their browsers will be directed to one of a number of sites that are embarrassing to Republican primary candidate Newt Gingrich. Instead of finding a homepage for Gingrich's campaign, which is hosted at newt.org, visitors are redirected to sites like Tiffany & Co. (where Gingrich has a six-figure tab) or Freddie Mac (where Gingrich's role as "historian" has been called into question), or to news articles and YouTube videos that make conservative voters cringe, like this ad for former Vice President Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. In the ad, Gingrich appears cozying up next to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to talk about climate change.
[More from Mashable: House Delays Taking Action on SOPA Until Dec. 21]
It's uncertain who's behind the mischief, which is the digital equivalent of supporters of one politician vandalizing?the lawn signs of an opponent in the dark of night. The newtgingrich.com domain is privately registered, so the owner's information is not readily accessible.
Gingrich's campaign wasn't immediately available for comment.
[More from Mashable: XXX Domains: An Obvious Failure]
Two weeks ago, rickperry.com was redirecting to Ron Paul's campaign website. That domain no longer redirects and is now up for sale, but the current owner's information is also private.
Both of these campaigns have been caught with their digital pants around their ankles. Many Internet users still consider the ".com" suffix to be standard. By failing to acquire these domains, Gingrich and Perry left themselves vulnerable to attack by digital vandals, who are taking advantage of anyone making the assumption that a candidate's homepage will be their name followed by ".com."
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, jcamilobernal
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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NEWARK, New Jersey?? Paroled American Lori Berenson, who stirred international controversy when she was convicted of aiding Peruvian guerrillas, arrived in the United States on Tuesday morning for her first visit home since Peruvian authorities arrested her in 1995.
Berenson's plane touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey around 7:35 a.m. The 42-year-old was greeted by two customs officers who escorted her to somewhere other than the usual passport checking area.
Berenson's mother, Rhoda Berenson, was waiting expectantly for her daughter in the international arrivals area of the airport.
"We are looking forward to the first holiday at home in a long, long time and many relatives who haven't met Salvador are excited to see him," she said, speaking of her 2-year-old grandson. "This is not a political time; this is a time for family, friends and holidays."
She said said they were heading to New York for the holidays.
Lori Berenson boarded a Continental Airlines flight at Lima's main airport late Monday under intense media scrutiny, as many in Peru wonder whether she will return to the country by the court-ordered deadline of Jan. 11.
Wearing a black turtleneck, black jeans and designer eyeglasses, Berenson told an Associated Press reporter while waiting for her flight that she intended to return to Peru. Berenson was accompanied by a U.S. Embassy employee.
"I just hope we don't get caught in a snow storm," she said, joking that such an occurrence in the U.S. would delay her return.
Delay with departure
Berenson's departure capped three days of confusion after Peruvian authorities had prevented her from boarding a flight to New York on Friday despite a court approval allowing her to leave.
The authorities said Berenson, who had served 15 years on an accomplice to terrorism conviction before her parole last year, lacked an additional document.
Peruvian migration officials finally gave Berenson another document Monday clearing her to leave the country with her son to spend the holidays with her family in New York City.
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Her father, Mark Berenson, said Monday that he was anxious to see her return.
"I'm just glad that they finally resolved the thing," he told the AP by phone from New York.
Lori Berenson admitted helping the Tupac Amaru rebel group rent a safe house where authorities seized a cache of weapons after a shootout with the rebels. She insists she didn't know guns were stored there and says she never joined the group.
In 1996, a military court of hooded judges convicted Berenson of treason and sentenced her to life in prison. After U.S. pressure, she was retried by a civilian court.
Mark Berenson said he went to sleep Friday night expecting to pick up his daughter and 2-year-old grandson, Salvador Apari, the following morning.
Instead, he was awakened by news that she had been blocked from returning and spent the rest of the night angry and unable to sleep.
It's not clear whether Berenson's delayed exit amounted to government harassment or whether she simply got caught between competing bureaucracies.
Deeply scared
The court ruled that Berenson was not a flight risk. Her father told the AP that his daughter has every intention of returning to Peru.
By law, she must remain in Peru until her full sentence lapses unless President Ollanta Humala decides to commute it.
State anti-terrorism attorney Julio Galindo said he filed an appeal on Friday seeking to nullify the court ruling that approved Berenson's New York trip. He opposed Lori Berenson's parole from the start, and succeeded last year in having her returned to prison on a technicality for 2 1/2 months until a court ordered her freed in November.
Peru remains deeply scarred from its 1980-2000 conflict, which claimed some 70,000 lives.
Its gaping inequalities drew the young Berenson to Peru from El Salvador, where she had worked for the country's top rebel commander during negotiations that led to a 1992 peace accord.
Tupac Amaru was a lesser player in Peru's conflict and Berenson sought it out, she told the AP in an interview last year, because it was similar to other revolutionary movements in Latin America.
The group never set off car bombs or engaged in the merciless slaughter of thousands as Shining Path rebels did, but it did engage in kidnappings and selective killings.
In the 1980s, it was known for hijacking grocery trucks and distributing food to the poor.
The group most famously raided the Japanese embassy in Peru in 1996 during a party and held 72 hostages for more than four months. A government raid killed all the rebel hostage takers.
Berenson was arrested leaving Peru's Congress and accused of helping plan its armed takeover, which never happened.
She was initially unrepentant, but harsh prison life softened her. She was praised as a model prisoner in the report that supported her parole.
Some Peruvians still consider her a terrorist. She had been insulted in the street, and news media have repeatedly hounded and mobbed her.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45733379/ns/world_news-americas/
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BOSTON (Reuters) ? A jury on Tuesday found a Massachusetts man guilty of conspiring to support al Qaeda by translating Arabic messages and traveling to Yemen for terrorism training.
Tarek Mehanna, 29, was found guilty on all seven counts against him and faces the possibility of life in prison.
Family members cried after the verdict was read, while Mehanna appeared calm.
Mehanna was arrested in 2009 and charged with "providing and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists." He was also charged with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country and lying to law enforcement officers.
Members of his defense team called themselves "extraordinarily disappointed" with the verdict and said they will appeal.
"The charges scare people. The charges scared us when we first saw them," defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr said outside the federal courthouse.
Prosecutors said the defendant answered a call to action from Osama bin Laden to battle U.S. soldiers.
They said he traveled to Yemen in 2004 to seek terrorism training, but never received it, and had planned to travel to Iraq to fight U.S. troops.
They also said he translated videos and texts from Arabic to English and distributed them online to further al Qaeda's cause.
Defense attorneys said Mehanna, a U.S. citizen, was merely trying to learn more about his Muslim heritage by studying Islamic law and translating classical texts. He traveled to Yemen to visit schools where he hoped to study, they said.
Carney said the jury was likely affected by the many references to the September 11, 2001 attacks and bin Laden, and he said prosecutors had been given extraordinary leeway to present "inflammatory, prejudicial evidence" at trial.
"I know that he knows in his heart that he is not guilty of providing material support," Carney said.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said after the verdict that the evidence had been relevant and supported the guilty verdicts.
"We do not prosecute people for expressing their beliefs," she said. "We prosecute people for conduct."
Sentencing was scheduled for April.
Mehanna openly opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq and showed admiration for bin Laden's efforts to expel foreign powers from Muslim countries, defense attorneys said. He never worked for al Qaeda or had direct contact with the group.
Among the trial witnesses was one of Mehanna's friends, Daniel Maldonado, a New Hampshire man serving a 10-year sentence for obtaining al Qaeda military training.
The FBI released excerpts of blogs allegedly written by Mehanna about how martyrdom appealed to him, and transcripts of phone conversations between Mehanna and Maldonado.
Mehanna was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Sudbury, a suburb west of Boston, and holds a doctorate degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Lovering; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Peter Bohan and Greg McCune)
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Baghdad ? As the American war in Iraq comes to an end, some troops find themselves grappling with a question that has dogged them through multiple deployments: Was the sacrifice worth the price that US forces paid here?
?I?ve had people come to me, ?Why were we there? What did we do? Why did 4,000 die in Iraq? Why did I lose my friend?? ? says Lt. Col. Mark Rowan, an Air Force chaplain who has served 12 deployments and who has counseled troops returning from Iraq. ?We don?t really know the answer to that yet.?
Commanders say it?s a question that they can?t readily answer, either. ?My opinion about sacrifice is that it?s a very personal thing,? says Maj. Gen. Russell Handy, the senior US Air Force officer in Iraq. To pronounce whether the war was ?worth it,? he says, would mean ?putting words in the mouths of family members? who continue to mourn for loved ones.
IN PICTURES: Leaving Iraq
Beyond those directly connected with the war, few Americans will ever understand the scale of loss for the US military, many here also believe.
It?s ?almost impossible for the American people to comprehend the level of sacrifice? that US troops have made in this war, says Handy.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, flying into Baghdad for the official ?close of mission? ceremony Thursday, addressed the troops, as well as the question that many silently ask themselves.
?To be sure, the cost was high,? he said. But ?those lives were not lost in vain: They gave birth to an independent, free, and sovereign Iraq.?
US forces who have been working with their Iraqi counterparts up until their last hours here wrestle with whether America did indeed accomplish what it set out to do.
They wonder, too, whether the answer to the war's worthiness hinges on another question ??? the question of, say, whether America won the war.
?We came to give them a democracy,? says Staff Sgt. Donald Rice of the 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. ?We gave them a chance at democracy. Was 4,400 lives worth the cost of giving them the chance at democracy?? he wonders.
?I?m not going to judge personal sacrifice,? says Handy, ?but I can tell you it?s tremendously important for this country to be stable.? Iraq today has a ?democratically elected and inclusive government,? he adds, and there remains hope for ?what that might mean to the region,? as the Arab Spring enters the winter season.
Rowan, the chaplain, says he has fielded agonized questions from troops, particularly among those who have experienced the heartbreak of losing their comrades.
He recalls presiding at the moment of death of a soldier, a married father of three who was shot while out on a 2009 patrol in northern Iraq.
?I stayed with him and held his hand,? Rowan says, ?and did all the last rites before he passed.?
When his fellow soldiers learned that he had died, ?they exploded and threw their helmets down.?
They wondered, too, whether the war was worth this ??? the loss they witnessed again and again.
Rowan says that sometimes it helps to turn the question around: ?I ask them, 'What do you think you accomplished there? For the Air Force, or outside the base, maybe you were part of a team that got terrorists out of a town. Were people able to live free again?' ?
The point, he says, is to focus on, ?What good did you do there.? For America, for the politicians, he tells them, ?History will decide the rest.?
RECOMMENDED: Iraq after the US: Will it survive?
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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20111216/ts_csm/437790
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In this film publicity image released by The Weinstein Company, Jean Dujardin portrays George Valentin in "The Artist." Dujardin was nominated Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 for a Golden Globe award for best actor in a comedy or musical film. The Golden Globes will be presented Jan. 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, televised live by NBC and hosted by Ricky Gervais. (AP Photo/The Weinstein Company)
In this film publicity image released by The Weinstein Company, Jean Dujardin portrays George Valentin in "The Artist." Dujardin was nominated Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 for a Golden Globe award for best actor in a comedy or musical film. The Golden Globes will be presented Jan. 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, televised live by NBC and hosted by Ricky Gervais. (AP Photo/The Weinstein Company)
In this film publicity image released by Disney, Viola Davis is shown in a scene from "The Help." (AP Photo/Disney, Dale Robinette)
In this image released by Disney DreamWorks II, Jessica Chastain portrays Celia Foote, left, and Octavia Spencer portrays Minny Jackson, in a scene from "The Help." Both Chastain and Spencer were nominated Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011, for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress for their roles in the film. (AP Photo/Disney DreamWorks II, Dale Robinette)
In this image released by Paramount Pictures, Asa Butterfield portrays Hugo Cabret in a scene from "Hugo." The film, adapted from Brian Selznick's award-winning illustrated book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," is about a 12-year-old orphan who lives in a 1930 Paris train station. The film was nominated Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 for a Golden Globe award for best motion picture drama. The Golden Globes will be presented Jan. 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, televised live by NBC and hosted by Ricky Gervais. (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaap Buitendijk)
In this film image released by Disney, Jeremy Irvine is shown in a scene from "War Horse." The film was nominated Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 for a Golden Globe award for best motion picture drama. The Golden Globes will be presented Jan. 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, televised live by NBC and hosted by Ricky Gervais. (AP Photo/Disney, Andrew Cooper)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? Ah, Paris. City of Light. Land of romance. Gobbler of all the best Golden Globe nominations.
Presented by overseas reporters based in Hollywood, the Globes may be a worldwide affair, but this time, they have a real French flair. The silent film "The Artist," from French filmmaker Michel Havanavicius, led with six nominations Thursday, while the field includes Woody Allen's French romance "Midnight in Paris" and Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo."
Steven Spielberg has two nominees with French connections: the World War I epic "War Horse," set partly in France's countryside, and the animated tale "The Adventures of Tintin," based on comic-book stories created in France's neighbor, Belgium.
"Of course, the foreign press is going to like France," joked Seth Rogen, producer and co-star of the cancer tale "50/50," which has two nominations and no obvious French links.
"War Horse" and "Hugo" are up for best drama, along with two George Clooney films, the Hawaiian family story "The Descendants" and the political thriller "The Ides of March"; the 1960s racial saga "The Help"; and Brad Pitt's baseball tale "Moneyball."
"The Artist," ''50/50" and "Midnight in Paris" are competing for the Globes' other best-picture prize ? for a musical or comedy. Also nominated are Kristen Wiig's wedding romp, "Bridesmaids," and Michelle Williams' Marilyn Monroe tale, "My Week with Marilyn."
The Globes help narrow down prospects for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24. If "The Artist" earns a best-picture nomination then, it will be the first silent movie with a serious shot at Hollywood's top prize since the first year of the Oscars, for 1927-28, when the silent flicks "Wings" and "Sunset" took top honors.
"It's really strange and rare to not hear anything in the theater," said "The Artist" star Jean Dujardin, a dramatic actor nominee for his role as a silent-era superstar whose career capsizes after talking pictures take over in the late 1920s. "It's a new visual and emotional experience for people."
Frenchman Dujardin won the best-actor prize at May's Cannes Film Festival in southern France, where "The Artist" premiered.
Though it has virtually no spoken dialogue, "The Artist" is anything but quiet. The film features clever sound effects and a gorgeous musical score that earned a Globe nomination for French composer Ludovic Bource.
Hazanavicius received directing and screenplay nominations for "The Artist," which also picked up a supporting-actress honor for his wife, Berenice Bejo, who plays a rising star of the sound era.
While the key talent on "The Artist" is French, the film was shot in Hollywood and offers a classy re-creation of the world's film capital in the 1920s and '30s. The supporting cast includes John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller and Missi Pyle.
The French connection this year comes heavily from U.S. filmmakers telling stories set in France. Scorsese earned a directing nomination for "Hugo," about an orphan boy living in a Paris train station, where he becomes caught up in a mystery surrounding French film trailblazer Georges Melies. Allen also made the directing cut for "Midnight in Paris," his first film shot entirely in France, the romantic fantasy following an American writer (Owen Wilson) whose nostalgia for the 1920s Paris of Hemingway and Fitzgerald leads him on time-bending adventures.
With a cast that includes French actresses Marion Cotillard and Lea Seydoux and France's first lady, Carla Bruni, "Midnight in Paris" became Allen's biggest hit in decades.
Scorsese also turned nostalgic, crafting a dazzling 3-D Paris of the 1930s and recreating memorable moments from Melies' fantastical silent-film shorts, including "A Trip to the Moon."
"It gave me a chance to work in 3-D, which I've wanted to do since I was young; it allowed me to make a child's adventure, the type of picture that I loved when I was young; and it provided an occasion to pay tribute to one of the cinema's greatest pioneers, Georges Melies," Scorsese said.
Spielberg's "War Horse" follows a resilient steed changing hands among the British, Germans and French during World War I, and his "Adventures of Tintin" chronicles the treasure-seeking exploits of Belgian artist and writer Herge's comic-book hero.
To stretch the Franco angle further, Hollywood exile Roman Polanski, who lives in France after fleeing the United States amid charges he had sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, shot his Globe-nominated drama "Carnage" outside of Paris. The film, based on a stage work by French playwright Yasmina Reza, earned musical or comedy actress nominations for Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet as mothers squabbling over their sons' schoolyard fight.
"The Help" and "The Descendants," which tied for second-place behind "The Artist" with five Globe nominations each, are pure American stories.
Adapted from Kathryn Stockett's best-seller, "The Help" earned a dramatic actress honor for Viola Davis and a supporting-actress nomination for Octavia Spencer as Mississippi maids going public with stories about their white employers as the civil-rights movement heats up in the 1960s.
"I'm thrilled for Viola," Spencer said. "I consider myself a rank-and-file actor who's been kicking the can around for 15 years. Viola is a trained Julliard actress who has been doing stage, and now the world is getting to see what she can do."
Co-star Jessica Chastain also had a supporting-actress nomination as Spencer's good-hearted, lonely boss.
"The Descendants" earned a dramatic actor nomination for Clooney as a father struggling to tend his daughters after a boating accident puts his wife in a coma. Shailene Woodley earned a supporting-actress honor as Clooney's troublesome older daughter, while filmmaker Alexander Payne had directing and screenplay nominations.
Multi-tasker Clooney has three nominations. He's also up for directing and screenplay for "The Ides of March." For the acting prize, Clooney will compete against his "Ides" co-star Ryan Gosling, who plays a presidential candidate's aide. Gosling had a second nomination for best musical or comedy actor as a ladies man in the romance "Crazy, Stupid, Love."
Glenn Close also is a dual contender, for best dramatic actress as a woman masquerading as a male butler in the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs" and for best song for writing the lyrics to "Lay Your Head Down," the film's theme tune.
"What an astounding embarrassment of riches," Close said.
Joining Close and Davis in the dramatic actress lineup are: Rooney Mara as a traumatized victim-turned-avenger in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"; Meryl Streep as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; and Tilda Swinton as a grieving woman coping with her son's terrible deeds in "We Need to Talk About Kevin."
Clooney has another pal in the dramatic actor race, his "Ocean's Eleven" franchise co-star Pitt, who's nominated for his "Moneyball" role as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane.
Gosling, Clooney and Pitt are up against Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar" and Michael Fassbender as a sex addict in "Shame."
Pitt's romantic partner, Angelina Jolie, picked up a nomination for foreign-language film for her directing debut, the Bosnian war drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey."
With drinks and dinner, the Globes are a laid-back affair for Hollywood's elite compared to the Oscars. The show turned a bit prickly last year as host Ricky Gervais repeatedly made sharp wisecracks about stars and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 85 overseas reporters that presents the Globes.
But Gervais helped give the show a TV ratings boost, and he's been invited back as host for a third-straight year.
"The Artist" star Dujardin joked that Gervais must follow the silent-film code if he plans on mocking him, saying "he has to do it silent, without any words."
___
AP Entertainment Writers Sandy Cohen, Derrik J. Lang and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
___
Online:
http://www.goldenglobes.org
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