Twitter to restrict user content in some countries

SAN FRANCISCO?? Twitter announced Thursday that it would begin restricting Tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East.

"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," Twitter wrote in a blog post published Thursday.

It said even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to coexist with some countries. "Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there," it said.

Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with "certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content."

A Twitter spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the blog.

"Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world," the Twitter blog said.

Twitter's decision to begin censoring content represents a significant departure from its policy just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations through on the social network and, in the process, thrust Twitter's disruptive potential into the global spotlight.

As the revolutions brewed last January, Twitter signaled that it would take a hands-off approach to censoring content in a blog post entitled "The Tweets Must Flow."

"We do not remove Tweets on the basis of their content," the blog post read. "Our position on freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users' right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed."

And last year, Twitter General Counsel Alex Macgillivray declared that the company was "from the free speech wing of the free speech party."

In the interest of transparency, Twitter said Thursday, it has built a mechanism to inform users in the event that a Tweet is being blocked.

Twitter's move comes at a time when Internet companies such as Google and Facebook have wrestled with foreign governments over freedom of speech and privacy issues as they expand rapidly overseas.

In 2010 Google relocated its Web search engine to Hong Kong, following a very public spat with the Chinese government over its refusal to bow to Beijing's Web censorship requirements and a hacking episode that Google said it had traced to China.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46155148/ns/technology_and_science-security/

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Fed unlikely to raise rates until at least 2014 (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Federal Reserve went further than ever Wednesday to assure consumers and businesses that they'll be able to borrow cheaply well into the future.

The Fed pushed back the date for any likely increase in its benchmark interest rate by at least a year and a half, until late 2014 at the earliest.

Its new timetable showed the Fed is concerned that the economy's recovery remains stubbornly slow. But it also thinks inflation will stay tame enough for rates to remain at record lows without igniting price increases.

Chairman Ben Bernanke cautioned that its late-2014 horizon for any rate increase is merely the Fed's "best guess." It has the flexibility to change its mind if the economic picture changes. But speaking at a news conference later Wednesday, Bernanke said:

"Unless there is a substantial strengthening of the economy in the near term, it's a pretty good guess we will be keeping rates low for some time."

The Fed reduced its outlook for growth this year but is slightly more optimistic about the unemployment rate. It expects the economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent this year. That's down from its November's forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent.

But it sees unemployment falling as low as 8.2 percent this year, better than its earlier forecast of 8.5 percent. December's rate was 8.5 percent.

The quarterly updated forecast also shows that some Fed members wanted to extend the period of record-low interest rates beyond late 2014. The Fed also offered a firmer target for inflation ? 2 percent ? in a statement of its long-term policy goals.

Treasury yields fell on the news that the Fed plans no rate increase until late 2014 at the earliest.

The yield on the five-year Treasury hit an all-time low of 0.76 percent. The yield on the 10-year note sank to 1.95 percent. The 10-year yield had been 2.02 percent just before the Fed made its announcement around 12:30 p.m. EST.

Lower yields could help further reduce mortgage rates and possibly boost stock prices as investors shift out of lower-yielding Treasurys.

Stocks, which had traded lower all day, quickly recovered their losses. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down about 60 points before the announcement, was up 43 points in mid-afternoon.

The central bank said in a statement after a two-day policy meeting that the economy is growing moderately, despite some slowing in global growth. It held off on any further bond-buying programs to try to increase growth.

The Fed announced no further bond buying efforts. But it held out the possibility of doing so later. It said it was prepared to adjust its "holdings as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in the context of price stability."

Some economists say that means the Fed will take further action soon.

Julie Coronado, an economist at BNP Paribas, said the Fed is signaling it will boost its purchases of bonds and other assets if growth fails to accelerate, even if the economy doesn't slow.

That is a "very low bar indeed," she wrote in a note to clients.

The Fed described inflation as "subdued." That was a more encouraging description than it offered last month. A more positive outlook on prices gives the Fed more room to keep rates low.

"This is a fairly clear-cut signal that inflation is not on their radar at this point," Tom Porcelli, an economist at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a research note.

The Fed's statement was approved on a 9-1 vote. Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond regional Fed bank, dissented. He objected to the new time frame for a rate increase.

The extended time frame is a shift from the Fed's previous plan to keep the rate low at least until mid-2013. Some economists said the new late-2014 target could lead to further Fed action to try to invigorate the economy.

Chairman Ben Bernanke will discuss the updated economic forecasts and Fed policy at a news conference later.

The central bank has kept its key rate at a record low near zero for about three years. Its new time frame suggests the rate will stay there for roughly an additional three years.

Beyond the adjusted outlook for interest rates, Wednesday's statement closely tracked the Fed's previous comments about economic conditions.

The Fed used the same language as before in describing Europe's debt problems and the impact on the world economy.

The economy is looking a little better, according to recent private and government data. Companies are hiring more, the stock market is rising, factories are busy and more people are buying cars. Even the home market is showing slight gains after three dismal years

Still, the threat of a recession in Europe is likely to drag on the global economy. And another year of weak wage gains in the United States could force consumers to pull back on spending, which would slow growth.

The Fed has taken previous steps to strengthen the economy, including purchases of $2 trillion in government bonds and mortgage-backed securities to try to cut long-term rates and ease borrowing costs.

The idea behind the Fed's two rounds of bond buying was to drive down rates to embolden consumers and businesses to borrow and spend more. Lower yields on bonds also encourage investors to shift money into stocks, which can boost wealth and spur more spending.

Some Fed officials have resisted further bond buying for fear it would raise the risk of high inflation later. And many doubt it would help much since Treasury yields are already near historic lows. But Bernanke and other members have left the door open to further action if they think the economy needs it.

The Fed said it would keep its holdings of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds at record levels and continue a program to further drive long-term rates lower by selling shorter-term securities and buying longer-term bonds.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_federal_reserve

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"Excalibur" actor Nicol Williamson dies aged 73 (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Nicol Williamson, once described by John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando," has died after a battle with esophageal cancer. He was 73.

His son Luke said on his father's official website that he passed away on December 16. He died in Amsterdam where he had lived for over 20 years, according to media reports.

"He gave it all he had: never gave up, never complained, maintained his wicked sense of humor to the end," Luke wrote. "His last words were 'I love you'. I was with him, he was not alone, he was not in pain."

Scottish-born Williamson first rose to prominence in 1964 when he appeared in London in Osborne's "Inadmissable Evidence." When it transferred to Broadway he was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966.

He went on to star in other stage productions including "Hamlet" at London's Round House Theatre and Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" for which he was shortlisted for a Tony award a second time.

His best known film roles included Merlin in "Excalibur" and Father Morning in "The Exorcist III." His final screen appearance was in 1997 picture "Spawn."

Williamson was working on a new album of music before his death, and his son told the Daily Telegraph he was as yet undecided over whether to post it on the website.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/people_nm/us_nicolwilliamson_death

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Iraq: Wave Of Car Bombings Hit Baghdad, Killing At Least 14

BAGHDAD -- A wave of car bombings hit the Iraq capital on Tuesday, killing 14 people and wounding more than 70 as violence surges in the country amid an escalating political crisis a month after the U.S. military withdrawal.

At least 170 people have died in attacks since the beginning of the year, many of them Shiite pilgrims attending religious commemorations. The last American soldiers left the country Dec. 18.

Suspected Sunni insurgents have frequently targeted Shiite communities and Iraqi security forces to undermine public confidence in the Shiite-dominated government and its efforts to protect people.

Tuesday's first attack targeted an early morning gathering of day laborers in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Police said eight were killed and another 21 wounded. Minutes later, an explosives-packed car blew up near a pastry shop in the same district, killing three people and wounding 26, police said.

Later in the morning, two more explosives-laden cars detonated, killing three and wounding 29 people.

A parked car bomb exploded near a high school at 10:30 a.m. in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shula in northern Baghdad, killing two students and wounding 16 others, most of them also students, according to local police.

In the neighboring district of Hurriya, one person was killed when an explosives-packed car, parked along a busy commercial street detonated five minutes after the Shula blast, police officials said. Thirteen people were injured in that bombing.

Hospital officials in Baghdad confirmed the death toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

While insurgents have carried out a number of deadly attacks in recent years, there is little indication so far that the country is slipping back toward the widespread sectarian bloodshed of 2006 and 2007.

Nonetheless, these recent attacks are seen as particularly dangerous because they coincide with both the departure of U.S. troops, as well as a political crisis pitting Shiite officials against the largest Sunni-backed bloc.

The political battle erupted last month after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, on terrorism charges, sending him into virtual exile in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. In protest, al-Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet sessions, bringing government work to a standstill.

Sunnis fear that without the American presence as a last-resort guarantor of a sectarian balance, the Shiite government will try to pick off their leaders one by one, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tries to cement his own grip on power.

Last week, the leader of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, Ayad Allawi, accused al-Maliki of unfairly targeting Sunni officials and deliberately triggering a political crisis that is tearing Iraq apart. Allawi, who is a Shiite, said Iraq needs a new prime minister or new elections to prevent the country from disintegrating along sectarian lines.

____

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/baghdad-bombings_n_1225996.html

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Virgin America honors Steve Jobs at 30,000 feet with tribute jet (Yahoo! News)

The Steve Job's quote was chosen from an internal competition to name the plane

List?Virgin America's new plane as one of the latest additions to the increasing number of Steve Jobs tributes that include a?posthumous Grammy, a?Mythbusters-style documentary, and a?7' bronze statue. The U.S. airline had the popular Steve Jobs quote "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" painted on the side of an?Airbus A320.?This specific quote was chosen among the list of entries for the company's plane naming contest.

Jobs uttered the phrase back in 2005 while giving a?commencement address at Stanford University, although it originally appeared on the back cover of a 1960's American counterculture publication called?Whole Earth Catalog. "On the back cover of [Whole Earth Catalog's] final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself," Jobs said.

It's not too surprising for the company to come up with a Steve Jobs tribute. Virgin America identifies as a?tech-forward company, and offers?fleet-wide wifi as well as touchscreen displays and power outlets on board. Virgin Group head honcho,?Sir?Richard Branson, is also a?known Apple fan.

[via?MacRumors]

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120124/tc_yblog_technews/virgin-america-honors-steve-jobs-at-30000-feet-with-tribute-jet

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Romney to right tax "mistake" after primary loss (Reuters)

Columbia, South Carolina (Reuters) ? Humbled by a stunning loss in South Carolina, Mitt Romney said on Sunday he would release this week the tax returns demanded by rivals as he bids to regain the upper hand in the volatile Republican presidential race.

Romney, the longtime front-runner in the Republican race and one of the wealthiest presidential candidates in history, lost to a resurgent Newt Gingrich in the conservative Southern state on Saturday after stumbling badly in debates with clumsy responses to demands that he disclose his tax history.

Trying to recapture his footing as the contest heads to more populous and more moderate Florida, Romney said he would release his 2010 returns and an estimate for 2011 on Tuesday.

"We made a mistake holding off as long as we did and it just was a distraction," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday."

Romney said the returns would be on the Internet and emphasized he was releasing two years of returns after Gingrich posted 2010 taxes on Thursday.

He slammed Gingrich as a Washington insider, a line of attack he is expected to use going forward, and called on his rival to release details of his contract with the government-sponsored mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac.

Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac could raise concerns for some voters in Florida, a state that has been hit hard by the downturn in the U.S. real estate market.

"He talks about great, bold movements and ideas, well what's he been doing for 15 years? He's been working as a lobbyist ... that's selling influence around Washington," Romney told about 300 supporters in a campaign stop later on Sunday outside Daytona Beach, Florida.

Romney's tax announcement was meant to draw a line under a bad week punctuated by his own missteps, a surprising turn in an otherwise tightly scripted campaign.

In the midst of a halting response to the tax return controversy, Romney said he paid a rate of about 15 percent, low compared with many U.S. wage earners but in line with what wealthy individuals pay on income from investments.

Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives with a sharp tongue that played well in debates, pounced on Romney's weak flank and walloped the former Massachusetts governor by 40 percent to 28 percent in South Carolina.

The Gingrich win reshaped the Republican race and reflected a party sharply divided over how to beat Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

There have been three nominating contests so far and Gingrich, Romney and former Senator Rick Santorum have each won one.

A victory in Florida's primary on January 31 would restore Romney's luster after South Carolina, and a Gingrich win would solidify him as a serious challenger to the former business executive. A protracted and poisonous Republican battle, in turn, could be a boon to Obama's re-election bid.

"It's hard to see it ending soon. It could drag on to April," said Al Cardenas, the chairman of the American Conservative Union. Cardenas headed Romney's campaign in Florida in 2008, but has remained neutral this time.

"When this is over, we are going to have a presidential candidate showing all his warts. We are going to enter into a national election with a candidate whose chinks in the armor are visibly seen," he said.

With 19 million people, Florida presents logistical and financial challenges that may give an advantage to Romney's well-funded campaign machine.

In Florida, he leads Gingrich by 40.5 percent to 22 percent, according to polls cited by RealClearPolitics.com, conducted before Romney's battering in South Carolina. Santorum, a social conservative who won the Iowa contest but has struggled to gain traction since then, is third with 15 percent.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who is not campaigning in Florida, is fourth at about 9 percent.

ROMNEY FLOODS FLORIDA

Some Florida voters were delighted by Gingrich's rise.

Eugenio Perez, 58, a Miami property manager, said Gingrich's experience would help him in the White House.

"We live in a very complex world and we can't put a novice in such a high place, as we did in 2008," he said.

The more moderate electorate in Florida may help Romney, who has failed to consolidate conservative support despite his longtime front-runner status and had hoped to wrap up the nomination after Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman bowed out last week.

Facing a real estate crisis and an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, above the national average, Floridians are also expected to be more open to Romney's argument that he is the type of "CEO president" the country needs.

"I like the fact that Romney is a businessman who has been successful. Some people criticize that but I think that's commendable," said Mike Sullivan, 57, a professional golfer who attended the Romney rally.

"Right now, we need a chief executive who can run America like a business and not like the Salvation Army."

The tax release shift and financial advantage could help Romney regain his momentum after Gingrich's win.

A political action committee formed by Romney backers, Restore Our Future, has spent $5 million in Florida for Romney since mid-December, 20 times the amount spent there so far by any other group supporting a Republican candidate, according to Federal Election Commission filings analyzed by Reuters.

Romney could get some help from Santorum, who is competing with Gingrich to be the conservative alternative to Romney.

"It's a choice between a moderate and an erratic conservative - someone who on a lot of the major issues has been just wrong," Santorum told ABC's "This Week" program, saying Gingrich was out of step with many Republicans on Wall Street bailouts, health policy, immigration and global warming. "I think he's a very high-risk candidate.

Gingrich has see-sawed in national polls but has shown an uncanny ability to hang on, especially after an exodus of his staff last summer. Now he must prove he is the most "electable" choice despite hefty political and personal baggage.

Gingrich, who refers to Romney as a "Massachusetts moderate," said having his rival's taxes on the table would at least put an end to that part of the campaign narrative.

"As far as I'm concerned, that particular issue is now set aside and we can go on and talk about other bigger and more important things," Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

But the tax issue will almost certainly not go away.

Income inequality has become a leading topic in the presidential race, and Obama has signaled he will talk about an economy that works "for everyone, not just a wealthy few" in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the day of Romney's tax return release.

(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny in Coral Springs, Florida, Patricia Zengerle and David Adams in Miami, Terry Wade in Daytona Beach and David Morgan and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington. Writing by Jeff Mason and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign

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Fed likely to hint of no rate increase before 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It could be quite a while yet before the Federal Reserve starts raising the interest rates it's kept at record lows for three years.

Maybe not before 2014.

That's the thinking of many analysts as the Fed prepares this week to provide more explicit clues about how long short-term rates will likely stay near zero.

Starting when their policy meeting ends Wednesday, Fed members plan to forecast the direction of those rates four times a year. The clearer guidance will accompany the Fed's usual quarterly predictions of growth, unemployment and inflation.

The new hints about rates are part of a Fed drive to make its communications with the public more transparent. The more immediate goal is to assure consumers and investors that they'll be able to borrow cheaply well into the future.

No announcements are expected Wednesday of any further Fed action to try to lift the economy. Most analysts think Fed members want to put off any new steps, such as more bond purchases, to see if the economy can extend the gains it's made in recent months.

That's true even though this year's new roster of voting members on the Fed's policy panel suggests that fewer voters would likely oppose further steps to boost the economy. Twice last year, Fed action to try to further lower long-term rates drew three dissenting votes out of 10.

Instead, expectations are focused on the likelihood that the Fed's first quarterly forecast of interest rates will signal no rate increase is probable until at least 2014. That would mark a shift. Since August, the Fed has said in policy statements that it planned to keep its benchmark rate at a record low until at least mid-2013, as long as the economy remained weak.

Here's why analysts expect the Fed to signal that most members see no increase before 2014:

On Wednesday, the Fed will use two charts to signify the thinking of each of its 17 policy committee members about rates.

One chart will illustrate how high each committee member thinks the Fed's benchmark rate will be at the end of 2012, 2013 and 2014.

A second chart will show how many members think the first rate increase will occur in each year from 2012 through 2016.

The charts won't identify any member by name.

Because the range of options extends as far as 2016, many analysts think the consensus view within the Fed is to avoid any rate increase before 2014 ? the average of the possible options.

"Just seeing that the choice of a year for the first hike in the Fed funds rate goes all the way out to 2016 makes us think there are at least a few members of the committee who don't want to raise rates until the unemployment rate gets back down to 5 percent or 6 percent," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

"We guess there will be some hawks looking for a hike in 2013 and some doves thinking more like 2015," Rupkey said. "The weighted average is likely to be 2014."

Hawks on the Fed tend to be concerned that super-low rates will stoke inflation; doves worry more about high unemployment.

Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jeffries & Co. Inc., said he thinks the Fed's guidance will hint that the first rate increase could come in early 2014.

Others, such as economists at RBC Capital Markets, think the forecasts will suggest no change until late 2014.

A further clue to the Fed's plans will come in its economic projections. In its last projections in November, the Fed forecast that the economy would grow between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent in 2012. That figure exceeds the forecasts of many private economists. Should the Fed reduce its expectations for growth, that could signal that it's prepared to do more for the economy.

The Fed has already taken numerous unorthodox steps to try to strengthen the economy. Since 2008, for example, it's kept its key rate, the federal funds rate, at a record low between zero and 0.25 percent. It's also bought government bonds and mortgage-backed securities to try to cut long-term rates and ease borrowing costs.

The idea behind the Fed's two rounds of bond buying was to drive down rates to embolden consumers and businesses to borrow and spend more. Lower yields on bonds also encourage investors to shift money into stocks, which can boost wealth and spur more spending.

Some Fed officials have resisted further bond buying for fear it would raise the risk of high inflation later. And many doubt it would help much since Treasury yields are already near historic lows. But Bernanke and other members have left the door open to further action if they think the economy needs it.

The path to such a move could be easier because three regional Fed bank presidents who dissented last year from further Fed action are no longer voting members of the committee. They're being replaced by three who are seen as more likely to back additional efforts to aid the economy.

Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed economist who is chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley, says he thinks the Fed will launch another round of bond buying in the spring. That's because he thinks the economy will slow in the current January-March quarter compared with the final months of 2011.

Some think the Fed is most likely to buy more mortgage-backed securities. Doing so could help further reduce record-low mortgage rates and help boost home sales. The weak housing market has held back the economy.

Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, expects another round of bond purchases in the second half of the year. Bethune thinks the Fed will use those purchases to counter the economic drag that could result if government spending cuts start next January. Those cuts are to take effect unless Congress resolves an impasse on extending tax cuts first passed during the Bush administration.

In addition to providing more guidance on rates, the Fed is weighing other changes in its communications. One could be a new statement to clarify its long-term targets for inflation and unemployment.

The Fed's inflation goal is thought to be between 1.7 percent and 2 percent. Its long-run goal for unemployment is believed to be roughly between 5 percent and 6 percent.

Some private economists say the Fed would start a new bond-buying program only after it resolves an internal debate on its communications strategy ? which could happen as soon as this week.

"They want to get the communications changes out there and get them understood before they do anything else," said Alan Levenson, chief economist at investment firm T. Rowe Price.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-Federal%20Reserve/id-b12f586b48514b6b900776a763c2ab67

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