PIC: See Kim Zolciak's Lacy Bridal Jumpsuit! (omg!)

Like Kim Kardashian and Shannen Doherty, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak couldn't settle on just one wedding dress -- so she wore three!

VIDEO: Kim Zolciak performs "Tardy for the Party"

When the 33-year-old married NFL player Kroy Biermann on November 11, she walked down the aisle in a pre-owned handmade Baracci wedding dress made of duchess satin. Embellished with Swarovski crystals, pearls and embroidered lace, the dress cost an estimated $58,000.

Zolciak's second outfit was an $18,000 mermaid gown covered in pearls and Swarovski crystals. On Friday, Zolciak finally unveiled her third look via Twitter: a $16,000 jumpsuit by Say Yes to the Dress designer Pnina Tornai.

PHOTOS: Love lives of Real Housewives stars

"Love my third wedding look!" the Bravo star tweeted. "A big thanks to Kleinfeld Bridal. They were so good to me!"

The newlyweds, who announced their engagement in October 2010, are parents to son Kroy Jagger, 6 months. Zolciak also has two daughters -- Brielle, 14, and Ariana, 9 -- from previous relationships.

VIDEO: Kim confronts her costar NeNe Leakes

In mid-November, Bravo announced Zolciak will be getting her own half-hour spinoff, Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding, which will chronicle the couple's journey to the altar.

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Video: Who will be vice president?

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45405127#45405127

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Screen Grabs: Covert Affairs exposes secret Rogers service in Washington DC

Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com.

Fans of USA's Covert Affairs know that Annie Walker's stomping ground is Washington DC, where she pretends to be a buyer for the Smithsonian. So, there's only two plausible explanations for her iPhone 4 being able to connect to Rogers Wireless Canadian network: Either she's got a nuclear powered antenna on that thing, or the company is running a south-of-the-border service for Government agencies. Some might point out that the show is filmed in Toronto for cost purposes and the art directors aren't too hot at spotting continuity errors, but we'd dismiss that as paranoid fantasy.

[Thanks, Mike G]

Screen Grabs: Covert Affairs exposes secret Rogers service in Washington DC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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God Bless Butterball

I?m sure you know about all the work the Pilgrims and American Indians had to do to pull off the first Thanksgiving (catching the turkeys, digging up the potatoes, cooking the cranberries etc.). Tops on the list of things I am thankful for when I say grace on Thanksgiving is the processed food industry that produced the Butterball Fully Cooked Baked Turkey, Ore-Ida Steam n? Mash frozen potatoes and Ocean Spray canned cranberry sauce that makes the Thanksgiving meal possible in this country of reheaters.

Let?s be realistic: For most Americans in the first decade of the 21st century poultry means only two things: original or extra crispy. Anyone who gives a person like that a 15-pound bird body along with sawed off neck and bagged vital organs and expects to get anything other than a look of horror and bewilderment is crazy ? maybe even as crazy as the people who spend the one day they get off working at their chosen profession in November ?playing? Rachel Ray. I, for one, am happy to leave the cooking to the professionals at Kraft, General Mills and ConAgra.

Considering that Americans now spend almost half of all their food dollars away from home, having a holiday focused on home cooking seems more than anachronistic ? it?s masochistic.

If only traditional Thanksgiving foods were as easy to make as the traditional foods of the other big national holiday, the Fourth of July. I mean, who can?t buy a bag of potato chips and throw a few hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill? But Thanksgiving is a quinathalon of the world?s most difficult, unpleasant and time-consuming culinary tasks, including making gravy and pie crust. If you?ve ever tried to turn a pan of greasy turkey drippings into something people would feel enthusiastic about eating, you know what I mean. And did you know the term infinity was invented to describe the number of ways it?s possible to ruin a piecrust?

At first glance, roasting a turkey might seem comparatively easy. But since most people make one just once a year, nobody ever gets enough experience to be really good at it. Turkey?s long cooking time also makes it most unforgiving. Forget to turn the oven down at the right time (or worse yet, forget to turn it on at all) and, unless you?re capable of turning back the hands of time, it?s to Pizza Hut you go.

Of course, that?s assuming you?ve managed to figure out how to thaw the thing and stuff it without poisoning anybody. (Judging from the dire warnings nutritionists give about this, mishandling a bird would seem a very effective way to permanently eliminate a few unpleasant relatives from your Thanksgiving invitation list.)

That?s why I am thankful that the same military-industrial complex that has taken Americans away from the farms and the kitchens, and into factories and offices devoid of nature or her bounty have come up with food products to help us with this holiday. For instance, the canning technology that was created in 1809 to help save Napoleon?s troops from spoiled food was in 1922 also used to preserve a particularly large Massachusetts cranberry crop ? thus giving rise to the annual argument over whether to serve chunky or non-chunky. Cans also save us from having to make our own gravy or peel and cook and spice our own pumpkin for pie.

Moreover, it was the rationing of cans during World War II that led to the popularity of frozen food as an almost equally convenient alternative ? giving rise to frozen piecrust and pies; frozen, packaged turnip and squash; and that ultimate in food convenience, the TV dinner. TV dinner inventor Swanson won?t release sales statistics by the month but in a country whose most famous food holiday features turkey and stuffing I don?t think it?s an accident that the first and still one of the most popular Swanson TV dinner varieties is turkey.

Other food technologies developed to feed the troops overseas that ended up benefiting the home Thanksgiving feast include dehydrated instant mashed potatoes and Stove Top Stuffing.

And let?s not forget the advances in the bird itself. Where previous generations of meat processors only killed and plucked turkeys, the Butterball company has, over the years, added basting oil, a convenient carrying strap, a bag so you don?t have to touch the unsightly neck and giblets, and idiot buttons that pop up when the bird is done.

Realizing in 1981 that America?s home chefs needed even more help, Butterball launched a help line to answer consumer questions ? thus setting a new standard in processed foods. Now any food worth buying comes not only with instructions, a consumer help line and a website but also the option to friend it on Facebook (thus making even solo Thanksgiving diners feel less alone).

Now that the refrigerator case is the fastest-growing part of the supermarket, Butterball sells a fully cooked chilled whole turkey, which most supermarkets will pack up in a kitty carrier type cardboard box along with trays of mashed potatoes and stuffing and containers of gravy and cranberry sauce from their deli case.

Heating and eating this delicious feast should take no more than an hour, leaving you plenty of time to sit around and watch all those Thanksgiving cooking specials on the Food Network.

Images: all images used by permission of the companies that make these products.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=88c3a96cf88ae5a6bb04e0b777814d1c

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Longhorns beat Aggies 27-25 in thriller

--> AAA??Nov. 25, 2011?12:09 AM ET
Longhorns beat Aggies 27-25 in thriller
KRISTIE RIEKENKRISTIE RIEKEN, AP Sports Writer??

Texas head coach Mack Brown, left, talks with Texas A&M head coach Mike Sherman before an NCAA college football game, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Texas head coach Mack Brown, left, talks with Texas A&M head coach Mike Sherman before an NCAA college football game, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Texas marching band acknowledges the Texas A&M marching band with a formation honoring the historic rivalry between the universities during halftime of an NCAA college football game, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

Texas A&M defensive lineman Spencer Nealy (99) reacts after making a tackle during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against Texas, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Texas quarterback Case McCoy (6) is sacked by Texas A&M linebacker Steven Jenkins during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

Texas A&M defensive back Trent Hunter, left, breaks up a pass intended for Texas wide receiver Jaxon Shipley (8) during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) ? Texas spoiled Texas A&M's going away party.

Justin Tucker kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give the Longhorns a 27-25 victory over Texas A&M on Thursday night in the likely end of a more than century-old rivalry.

Texas A&M's last Big 12 game and the 118th meeting between these bitter rivals before the Aggies depart for the Southeastern Conference next season was a thriller befitting one of college football's oldest and most storied matchups.

The Aggies were down 24-19 before Ryan Tannehill found Jeff Fuller on a 16-yard touchdown pass with less than 2 minutes left. But the 2-point conversion failed, leaving A&M ahead 25-24.

The Longhorns' winning drive was helped by a 15-yard personal foul penalty and a 25-yard run by quarterback Case McCoy.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-11-25-FBC-Texas-Texas-AandM/id-11885b7e409f49149ad9e465289be60d

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Could iTunes Be Used To Spy On You?

Link Information - Click to View

Could iTunes Be Used To Spy On You?
British firm Gamma International was found hawking spyware to foreign intelligence services that installed onto users' computers via an iTunes security hole. The breach has been fixed, but documents indicate that the exploit was used to snoop on the email, Skype, and social media activities of users worldwide.

Source: FastCompany
Posted on: Wednesday, Nov 23, 2011, 10:02am
Views: 44

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115442/Could_iTunes_Be_Used_To_Spy_On_You_

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Adwatch: Romney takes Obama out of context again

This video frame grab provided by the Mitt Romney presidential campaign shows a scene from an ad entitled: "Believe in America" that is running in New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Romney Presidential Campaign)

This video frame grab provided by the Mitt Romney presidential campaign shows a scene from an ad entitled: "Believe in America" that is running in New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Romney Presidential Campaign)

This video frame grab provided by the Mitt Romney presidential campaign shows a scene from an ad entitled: "Believe in America" that is running in New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Romney Presidential Campaign)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? TITLE: "Believe in America"

LENGTH: 60 seconds

AIRING: In New Hampshire through Sunday

KEY IMAGES: The ad opens with grainy footage from a Barack Obama rally in Londonderry, N.H., in the midst of his 2008 presidential campaign against Sen. John McCain. Obama proclaims "I am confident that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis." Text is then shown on the screen: "He promised to fix the economy. He failed."

The ad then cuts between footage from Obama's rally and stock video of shuttered businesses, foreclosed homes and shuffling workers. On screen, text declares: "Greatest Jobs Crisis Since Great Depression. Record Home Foreclosures. Record National Debt."

The imagery then shifts to blue skies and Mitt Romney's name on the side of a barn. As Romney promises to change government, the ad shows video of him speaking in Iowa, meeting with a voter ? with his book "No Apology" on the table between them ? and stock video of factory workers.

"I'm going to do something to government. I call it the 'Smaller, Simpler, Smarter' approach to government. Getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states and, finally, making government itself more efficient," Romney says, using video from a Nov. 7 appearance in Dubuque, Iowa. "I'm going to get rid of Obamacare. It's killing jobs and it's keeping our kids from having the bright prospects they deserve."

He then turns to the economy, voters' top concern.

"We have a moral responsibility not to spend more than we take in. I'll make sure that America is a job creating machine like it has been in the past. It's high time to bring those principles of fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C."

The ad closes with a photograph of Romney's campaign announcement event in New Hampshire this spring. His campaign poster hangs on the barn behind him.

ANALYSIS: Romney's first ad of the presidential campaign takes Obama out of context and gives the impression that the president is talking about his time in office, not that of his predecessor.

"Who's been in charge of the economy?" Obama asked the crowd in 2008, criticizing Republicans including President George W. Bush.

The ad shows Obama saying: "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose," giving viewers with the impression that Obama does not want to talk about the dire economy.

In fact, Obama was quoting his opponent's campaign: "Sen. McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, 'If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose''', he said.

Romney aides acknowledge they were using video of Obama quoting an anonymous aide McCain. Romney's top communications aide Gail Gitcho disclosed that Obama is quoting someone else in a blog post and later defended the ad.

"Three years ago, candidate Obama mocked his opponent's campaign for saying, 'If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose,'" Gitcho said in an email. "Now, the tables have turned. President Obama is doing exactly what candidate Obama criticized. The White House doesn't want to talk about the economy and continues to attempt to distract voters from President Obama's abysmal economic record."

There's no doubt the economy is in trouble. Nearly 14 million people are out of work in the U.S. Since Obama took office in January 2009, the economy has lost 2.2 million jobs. The economy also has 6.6 million fewer jobs than it did when the recession began in December 2007 ? under Bush.

But it is telling that Romney uses his first ad of his second White House bid to take Obama's quotes out of context and not pitch his own record as successful businessman, the leader of 2002's Olympics or his four years as Massachusetts governor.

The ad is the second time in as many weeks that Romney has taken an Obama quote out of context. In interviews last week, Romney contended that Obama said Americans were "lazy."

Obama was actually talking about U.S. efforts to lure foreign investment, not Americans themselves. But Romney didn't make that distinction and mischaracterized the president's comments at an economic summit. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is challenging Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, aired an ad using the same incorrect claim.

Romney sees himself as the front-runner and rarely engages his Republican rivals. The ad began airing as Obama visited New Hampshire and portrays Romney as running against the incumbent ? bypassing the nominating process and his GOP rivals.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-22-Romney-AdWatch/id-20684423a9c34b6bb65bd634a82622d5

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Ilya Zhitomirskiy: 22-Year-Old Entrepreneur Commits Suicide

Ilya Zhitomirskiy an up and coming entrepreneur committed suicide this week. The tech community is devastated and addresses the pressures of trying to break through into the business. Ilya Zhitomirskiy is not a name that probably sounds familiar, but in a few years he could have been the next Mark Zuckerberg. He and a few of his techie friends were working hard on a project called, Diaspora. And to them it was about more than making money. In September of last year, Zhitomiriskiy told New York Magazine that Diaspora was a project of pure passion. “There’s something deeper than making money off stuff. Being a part of creating stuff for the universe is awesome.” So what cause this seemingly ambitious and brilliant techie to take his own life? ?Burnout is one thing but serious depression is another altogether,” writes Bill Patrianakos on Hacker News, a sort of digital water-cooler for the tech industry. “The pressure of starting a small local business is enough to drive a person mad. Just think about the guys being covered… the widely known ones, the ‘stars’ of the tech startup world.” Though not a celebrity infused post, this story hits home for me. I work [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/iLpm5qKqyeA/

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Gibson Guitar ignites debate over environmental protections (Washington Post)

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Hyundai hopes Super Bowl ads boost brand image

DETROIT (AP) ? Hyundai Motor Co. is hoping that five television spots before and during the Feb. 5 Super Bowl game will help to bolster its rising brand recognition and continue big sales gains from the past few years.

North American CEO John Krafcik says the fast-growing brand is working on a 60-second spot that will run right before kickoff, plus two ads on the pregame show and two during the first and third quarters of the game.

He wouldn't say how much the Korean automaker is spending on the ads, which will compete with most creative spots American companies have to offer during one of television's highest-rated and most expensive sporting events. Last year Super Bowl ads cost companies about $3 million for 30 seconds.

Chrysler Group LLC's two-minute spot featuring rapper Eminem was among those that created the most Super Bowl buzz this past February, and it helped kick off what has been a strong sales year for the recovering company. The cinematic third-quarter ad showed Eminem driving through Detroit and introduced a new car, the Chrysler 200 sedan, amid gritty scenes of the city. A voiceover talked about how the city has survived going through "hell and back."

Krafcik said Hyundai hopes to have standout spots as well, but it will focus more on a brand message rather than going for entertainment value.

"We're competing with Doritos and Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch," he said Friday at an auto show briefing for reporters at a technical center near Ann Arbor, Mich. "Those are tough competitors from an entertainment point of view."

Hyundai, he said, might have a little more fun with its ads this year and try to make them more memorable than in the past. But it's also trying to sway about a third of the auto market that has a neutral view of the brand, which sells the Elantra compact, Sonata midsize car and Tucson crossover SUV, among other models.

Hyundai has had huge sales growth in a lackluster U.S. auto market. Through October, the company has sold more than 545,000 vehicles, already passing last year's record sales of 538,000, according to Autodata Corp. Hyundai's U.S. market share has risen from 4.2 percent in 2009 to 5.2 percent so far this year, and analysts believe the company has taken sales mainly from Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., both of which have experienced declines.

Hyundai's sales are so strong that it's having trouble supplying cars and crossovers to its dealers, Krafcik said. It has raised the annual output at its Montgomery, Ala., factory to around 330,000 this year, and will produce more cars in North America in 2012, he said. But he wouldn't comment when asked if the company plans to build a new factory in the U.S.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-13-Hyundai-Super%20Bowl/id-2d29db2f674d49f8a053665f3beb8dd9

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Syrians protest Arab vote; embassies attacked

BEIRUT?? Tens of thousands of Syrian government supporters poured into the streets Sunday to protest an Arab League vote to suspend the country's membership, as Turkey sent planes to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families after a night of attacks on embassies.

Facing growing isolation, the Syrian government called for an urgent Arab summit to discuss the country's spiraling political unrest and invited Arab League officials to visit before its membership suspension was to take effect on Wednesday.

In a significant concession, the government said the Arab officials could bring any civilian or military observers they deem appropriate to oversee implementation of an Arab League plan for ending the bloodshed.

The 22-member bloc's vote on Saturday was a stinging rebuke to a regime that prides itself as a bastion of Arab nationalism and left Syria increasingly isolated over its crackdown on an eight-month uprising that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.

The violence continued Sunday, with activists reporting at least 11 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of the country.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network said at least four of the deaths occurred in the central city of Hama when security forces fired on a group of opposition protesters who infiltrated a pro-government rally in the area.

Sunday's protests in support of the government drew large numbers in the capital and four other cities ? a turnout helped by the closure of businesses and schools.

"You Arab leaders are the tails of Obama," read one banner held by protesters accusing the Arab League of bowing to pressure from the U.S. president.

Thousands of people carried red, black and white Syrian flags and posters of President Bashar Assad in a Damascus square. Similar demonstrations were held in the cities of Aleppo, Latakia, Tartous and Hasakeh.

The Syrian leader asserts that extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the country's unrest, rather than true reform seekers aiming to open the country's autocratic political system. Sunday's demonstrators accused Arab countries of being complicit with the purported conspiracy.

The government called the Arab League decision "illegal," claiming it was intended to set the stage for foreign military intervention like in Libya.

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However, the offer to allow a visit by an Arab League ministerial committee and accompanying monitors appeared to signal some will to try to implement an Arab League-brokered deal for ending the violence that the government has so far seemed unwilling or unable to do. The Nov. 2 deal calls for Syria to halt attacks on protesters, pull tanks out of cities and hold talks with the opposition.

There was no immediate reaction from Arab League officials on the Syrian invitation. Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby, on a visit to Libya, demanded immediate implementation of the Arab peace initiative.

Youssef Ahmed, Syria's ambassador to the Arab League, said the official request for an emergency meeting was on its way to the organization and that Syria was awaiting a response.

Iraq's representative with the Arab League has offered Baghdad as a location for the meeting if it is approved.

Members of the Syrian opposition rejoiced and saw the Arab vote to suspend Syria as a step toward greater recognition for their movement.

"This gives strong legitimacy to our cause. ... We consider this decision to be a victory for the Syrian revolution," Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council opposition group, told The Associated Press.

Hours after the Arab League vote, pro-regime demonstrators in Syria assaulted the diplomatic offices of countries critical of the Syrian government, including break-ins at the Saudi and Qatari embassies and attacks at Turkish diplomatic posts across the country.

The overnight embassy attacks are likely to stoke anger in Arab states against the regime in Damascus. Arab disapproval in itself may not seriously damage President Assad's hold on power, but if Syria further antagonizes Gulf states, it risks having them build up the Syrian opposition into a unified body that can win international recognition, as happened during Libya's civil war this year.

Syrian security forces had confronted Saturday night's protesters at embassies with batons and tear gas but were unable to stop a group from breaking into the Qatari embassy and bringing down the Qatari flag and replacing it with the Syrian flag. Others entered Saudi Arabia's embassy compound, broke windows and ransacked some areas, the kingdom's media reported.

The kingdom strongly condemned the attack in a Foreign Ministry statement and said it held the Syrian authorities responsible for protecting its interests.

Saudi King Abdullah, who has condemned Assad's crackdown, had already recalled the Saudi ambassador to Syria in August. Kuwait and Bahrain have also recalled their ambassadors.

Protesters also tried to break into the Turkish Embassy in Damascus Saturday and into the country's consulates in the cities of Aleppo and Latakia, Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Turkey is not a member of the Arab League but has also been sharply critical of Syria's crackdown, and Turkey's foreign minister welcomed the League vote.

Turkey on Sunday sent a plane to Damascus to evacuate the families of its diplomats as well as nonessential staff, Anatolia reported. The Turkish Foreign Ministry also said Turkey summoned Syria's charge d'affaires who was given a formal protest note demanding protection for its diplomatic missions.

France also said it had summoned Syria's ambassador to "remind" him of Syria's international obligations, after demonstrators tried to attack an honorary French consulate in Latakia and another French office in Aleppo.

On Sunday, hundreds of baton-carrying Syrian riot police in helmets ringed the U.S., Qatari, Saudi and Turkish embassies ? all located in the capital's upscale Abu Rummaneh district. Three fire trucks were parked in front of the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish and Qatari embassies were closed for the day but the Saudi Embassy was operating, an operator said.

___

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Greg Keller from Paris, France, contributed to this report.

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/45275836/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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No aloha: Obama skips out on APEC tradition (AP)

HONOLULU ? President Barack Obama says the colorful Hawaiian aloha shirts are out when it comes to world leaders.

Obama on Sunday chose not to continue a tradition started by President Bill Clinton nearly two decades ago.

The 21 leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Obama's native Hawaii were photographed together in the customary, stodgy presidential wear ? neckties and dark suits ? not the casual aloha shirts that many were hoping to see them in.

There wasn't even a single floral lei.

"I got rid of the Hawaiian shirts because I looked at pictures of some of the previous APEC meetings and some of the garb that appeared previously and I thought this might be a tradition that we might want to break," Obama said late Sunday. "I suggested to leaders, we gave them a shirt and I promise you if they wanted to wear it that would have been fine but I didn't hear a lot of complaints about breaking precedent."

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood out by contrast with her white jacket and reddish blouse. The leaders smiled for the quick shot for a sea of photographers amid a backdrop of tropical trees and the sparkling, blue Pacific Ocean.

As the leaders walked toward the APEC photo platform, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique even asked, "Where are the Hawaiian shirts?"

"We are ending that tradition," Obama replied.

Heads of states have posed together in the traditional costumes of the host nation each year at APEC, often making it one of the lighter and memorable moments of the forum. The tradition began the last time the United States hosted APEC. In 1993, Clinton handed out bomber jackets for leaders to wear in their commemorative group photo in the Seattle area.

The custom continued through the years: silk tangzhuang jackets in China; long, flowing hanboks in South Korea; ponchos in Peru and sailing jackets in New Zealand.

Photos of leaders in aloha attire could've been a golden opportunity to market tourism-dependent Hawaii. The shirts are a symbol of the multicultural history of Hawaii and widely accepted here for everyone from tourists sipping umbrella-adorned drinks by the beach to bureaucrats in downtown.

Obama hinted that he would skip the shirts at a dinner Saturday.

"Two years ago, when I was in Singapore and it was announced that we would be hosting the APEC Summit here in Honolulu, I promised that you would all have to wear aloha shirts or grass skirts," Obama told the leaders. "But I was persuaded by our team to perhaps break tradition, and so we have not required you to wear your aloha shirts, although I understand that a few of you have tried them on for size, and we may yet see you in them in the next several days."

While the Asia-Pacific leaders didn't don the shirts, there was plenty of aloha around.

The APEC host committee had more than 2,000 special APEC aloha shirts made for volunteers. Some Honolulu police officers assigned to crowd control also wore aloha shirts.

The shirts first emerged in Hawaii in the 1930s and became accepted business wear in the islands by the 1960s. Designs often carry patterns or fabrics representing many of the Asia-Pacific cultures found here and feature scenes of Hawaii.

They have been worn for decades by celebrities and politicians visiting the islands, from Elvis Presley to Richard Nixon. Hu even wore a brown and green patterned one to a luncheon with Hawaii's governor when he stopped here as China's vice president in 2002.

Obama, however, isn't the first to skip the tradition. Last year, the host nation Japan skipped the ritual for the first time. Officials cited a tight schedule, and said tight-fitting traditional kimonos might not be suitable for a photo session. The leaders instead wore jackets, slacks, and shirts without neckties to their photo.

All eyes will now be on next year's APEC host, Russia, to see if it revives the tradition and dresses the leaders in rubashka shirts or ushanka fur hats.

___

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller in Kapolei, Hawaii, contributed to this report.

__

Follow Jaymes Song at http://twitter.com/jaymessong

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_re_us/us_apec_aloha_shirts

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Gunfire reported near White House

WASHINGTON?? Authorities are investigating a report that gunshots were fired near the White House. An AK-47 assault rifle was recovered, officials said.

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At least one suspect was still at large and several streets were shut down, NBC Washington reported.

Two cars were seen leaving the area, Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan said. The cars were racing on Constitution Avenue toward 17th Street, and one of the vehicles was abandoned at 23rd and Constitution, he said.

Police lost sight of one vehicle but they caught up with a possibly stolen Honda sedan near the Roosevelt Bridge, NBC Washington said. Suspects took off on foot, the station said.

Sgt. David Schlosser of the U.S. Park Police said the agency received a report of shots fired near 16th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, between the White House and the Washington Monument, at about 9:30 p.m.

He said that shortly afterward, officers located an abandoned vehicle several blocks away on the ramp to the nearby Theodore Roosevelt Bridge.

Donovan said the rifle was recovered but no one is in custody.

Police are looking for bullet holes and haven't confirmed that shots were actually fired. Schlosser said The White House is a fair distance away and doesn't appear to have been the focus.

President Barack Obama was in San Diego, Calif. at the time of the incident on his way to the APEC summit in Honolulu.

NBC Washington, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45265841/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Feds: Mexican cartel plotted attack against US (AP)

CHICAGO ? The leaders of a powerful Mexican cartel, frustrated that U.S. law enforcement was interfering with their lucrative drug business, plotted a military-style attack on a U.S. or Mexican government building to "send the gringos a message," federal prosecutors allege in documents filed this week.

Leaders of the Sinaloa cartel sought dozens of American-made weapons for an attack in Mexico City on possible targets that included government buildings, an embassy or consulate or media outlet, according to documents in the case against Vicente Zambada, an alleged top lieutenant in the cartel.

Zambada is in jail in Chicago awaiting trial, one of dozens of defendants charged in the city as part of a sweeping international investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired to import and sell large amounts of cocaine and heroin in the United States, including Chicago.

Authorities say his father, Ismael Zambada, runs the cartel along with Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. There's nothing in the documents to indicate the plot was carried out.

Vicente Zambada's lawyers claim he and other cartel leaders were granted immunity by U.S. agents ? and carte blanche to smuggle cocaine over the border ? in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels engaged in bloody turf wars in Mexico. Prosecutors have denied that such an agreement exists.

But deals with key players in the cartel have allowed prosecutors to chip away at its operations. Pedro and Margarito Flores, twin brothers who bought and distributed drugs from the cartel in Chicago, are among those cooperating with the government.

Margarito Flores has alleged that the plot to attack a government or media building was hatched during a 2008 meeting at a mountaintop compound in Mexico. Cartel leaders, upset about the recent arrest of Ismael Zambada's brother, griped that the Mexican government was allowing American law enforcement to "do whatever they want," Flores has told prosecutors.

When Guzman asked what leaders were going to do about the problem, Ismael Zambada allegedly responded, "It will be good to send the gringos a message. Whatever we do, we have to do it in someone else's territory," according to a 63-page proffer filed Thursday in which prosecutors summarize their evidence against Vicente Zambada and the cartel.

During the conversation, the documents say, Guzman suggests they target a Mexican or American government building in Mexico City. Vicente Zambada then turns to Margarito Flores and tells him to find a U.S. soldier returning from overseas to give him 20-30 "big powerful weapons," specifying that they be American-made. During a later recorded phone conversation, prosecutors say, Vicente Zambada reiterates with Flores that the cartel will buy the weapons.

Prosecutors also laid out in the proffer how the cartel has smuggled tons of cocaine and kilograms of heroin into the United States over land, sea and air over the years.

Members of the cartel have allegedly evaded arrest by means including the bribing of public officials and law enforcement and carrying out brazen acts of violence ? including killing officers who wouldn't accept bribes. The elusive billionaire Guzman escaped from a Mexican prison in a laundry truck in 2001.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111111/ap_on_re_us/il_cartel_heir

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Oakland police union calls for end to "Occupy" camp (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Anti-Wall Street protesters in Oakland rejected a call by the California city's police union on Friday for them to leave their encampment, creating the potential for a showdown.

The police request came one day after a man was shot to death near their protest site. But Occupy Oakland demonstrators said the shooting, which took place at a public transit station at the edge of Frank Ogawa Plaza on Thursday, had nothing to do with their movement.

The Oakland Police Officers Association, in an open letter to the protesters, said that police sympathized with their movement but that the city was in a "state of emergency."

"You have sent the world a strong message; now it is time to go home. Your leaving today, peacefully, of your own free will, on the 30th day, will send a message to Oakland that you care about our citizens and respect our city," the union said.

"With last night's homicide, in broad daylight, in the middle of rush hour, Frank Ogawa Plaza is no longer safe," the union said. "Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods."

Protest organizers said the shooting was an example of gun violence that flares routinely in Oakland and accused officials of intentionally leaving street lights off around the plaza after dark over the past two nights.

The protesters have set up a tent camp in the public square outside City Hall and do not plan on dismantling it, organizer Cat Brooks said. "People were being murdered long before the Occupy Oakland encampment happened," Brooks said. "If police say that's why they can't do their job, that's laughable."

Oakland police issued a brief statement saying only that officers responding to a report of a shooting adjacent to the plaza "found a victim suffering from a gunshot wound."

The Occupy movement that began in New York has sprouted protests in many cities against economic inequality and what activists call Wall Street greed and government influence.

Businesses in downtown Oakland have been increasing pressure on the city's leaders to clear the Occupy camp, which they say is responsible for driving away customers.

"I have been very, very vocal about the fact that we cannot allow this to continue, because lives and property losses are what's at stake," City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente told KGO-TV. "We have to end this occupation."

Police have previously tried to remove the protesters.

Police forcibly removed tents and drove protesters out of the plaza on October 25. Protesters returned later that day to reclaim the plaza in a clash with police that left a former U.S. Marine in the group badly injured from a tear gas canister.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Noel Randewich, Dan Whitcomb, Mary Slosson, and Jim Christie; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Peter Bohan and Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111111/us_nm/us_protests_oakland

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Metals, crops fall on economic worries (AP)

Metal prices closed lower for a second day Thursday on growing uncertainty about the global economy.

Traders were concerned that continuing financial turmoil in Europe could slow economic growth around the world. Those worries were stoked Thursday when the European Union warned that the region could slip into "a deep and prolonged recession" next year.

When growth slows, so does demand for raw materials like copper and palladium, which are used in everything from housing to television sets.

Copper for December delivery fell 6.7 cents, or 2 percent, to close at $3.374 per pound. December palladium dropped $7.05, or 1 percent, to close at $647.80 an ounce. January platinum lost $16.40, or 1 percent, to finish at $1,627.30 an ounce.

In other trading, crop prices also fell for a second day. The slide started Wednesday when the USDA predicted that grain supplies will be larger next year than many analysts had predicted. If growth slows and demand falls for food and crop-based fuels, excess supplies could be even bigger.

Corn for December delivery fell 10.5 cents Tuesday, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $6.455 per bushel. December soybeans dropped 18 cents to $11.675 a bushel. December wheat lost 23 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to finish at $6.20 per bushel.

Gold for December delivery fell $32, or 1.8 percent, to settle at $1,759.60 per ounce. December silver fell 25.5 cents to close at $34.106 an ounce.

Benchmark crude oil rose $2.04, or 2 percent, to end at $97.78 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Heating oil rose 5.25 cents to finish at $3.1511 per gallon, gasoline futures lost 0.74 cents to close at $2.6368 per gallon and natural gas fell 0.2 cents to close at $3.747 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Crop prices were also lower on concerns that demand will fall for food and crop-based fuels.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_bi_ge/us_commodities_review

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Prospect of Monti leading Italy calms jitters (AP)

ROME ? Expectations that respected economist Mario Monti will lead a new interim Italian government helped calm market fears Thursday that the country was heading for a Greek-style crisis that would threaten the existence of the entire eurozone.

With a groundswell of Italian politicians voicing support for a technocratic government led by the former European Union competition commissioner, confidence grew that the transition of power from Berlusconi will be swift.

As in Greece, where economist Lucas Papademos was appointed prime minister Thursday, there are hopes that Monti's experience in global finance and his non-involvement in partisan politics will help the country through market turbulence.

Italy's ten-year borrowing rate slid sharply Thursday back toward levels that are considered manageable ? for now. On Wednesday, the rise in the ten-year bond yield to well over 7 percent stoked panic in financial markets that Italy was heading the same way as Greece, Ireland and Portugal and might need outside help.

Monti, 68, has become favorite to lead Italy out the financial morass after being named a senator for life by President Giorgio Napolitano who, as head of state, will name the next premier.

Napolitano assured skittish investors that Berlusconi will step down, as promised, after reforms are passed ? likely by Saturday.

Monti was sighted by photographers being driven into Rome's Quirinal Palace Thursday evening for talks with Napolitano.

Although Monti can only be named premier after Berlusconi hands in his resignation, his meeting with Napolitano will allow him to explain how he intends to command enough loyalty in the Italian legislature to ensure swift implementation of economic reforms needed to revive growth.

Napolitano's quick and assertive handling of the crisis appeared to have caught the notice of President Barack Obama. The presidential palace said the Obama telephoned Napolitano for an update on Italy's political situation "in context of the great tensions still running through the financial markets."

The elegant, gray-haired Monti, made his reputation as a strong-willed economist when as EU competition commissioner he blocked General Electric's takeover of Honeywell. He currently heads Milan's prestigious Bocconi University.

In what may bode well for a smooth transition, Berlusconi congratulated him on his new post in a telegram, wishing him "fruitful work in the country's interest" and recognizing his accomplishments.

Italy is under intense pressure to prove it has a strategy to deal with its debts, which stand at euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or a huge 120 percent of economic output ? it has to rollover a little more than euro300 billion of its debts next year alone. But economic growth is weak and the government failed to enact reforms to revive it over the past decade.

With the eurozone and global economies at risk in the event of an Italian default, European governments are pushing Italy to clear up questions over its political leadership quickly.

European Council President Herman Von Rompuy will hold talks with the premier on Friday night, Berlusconi's office said. His visit to Rome was scheduled before Berlusconi's pledge to resign.

If lawmakers stick to their timetable, the Italian government's so-called "stability" measures should have won approval in the Senate by Friday evening and be on their way for final passage Saturday in the Chamber of Deputies.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin "it is very important ... that Italy wins back its credibility.

"That means the austerity package being implemented very quickly, as is now the plan, and above all the political leadership being clarified as quickly as possible ? because I think that is very important for Italy's credibility," Merkel said.

Investors are worried that if Italy's borrowing rates remain too high for too long, it will be blocked out of financial markets and need rescue loans to repay its bondholders. That could be devastating for both the euro and the global economy.

Europe has already bailed out Greece, Portugal and Ireland ? but together they make up only about 6 percent of the eurozone's economic output, in contrast to Italy's 17 percent.

Any further improvements in Italy's markets will depend on passage of the austerity measures and the appointment of a government of technocrats headed by Monti.

Berlusconi's party remained split on whether to support Monti although some key elements have signaled support.

The allied Northern League, Berlusconi's key coalition partner, were staunchly opposed, while the main opposition parties appeared willing to accept Monti and a technocratic government despite some reservations from hard-line elements of the left.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said early elections would not help the country solve its economic problems. "It would be prudent not to rush to the ballots, plunging the country into a three-month electoral campaign as spreads fly and our debt rises," Frattini said.

As hopes grew for a swift handover of power in Rome, the government easily sold euro5 billion ($6.8 billion) in 12-month bonds at an interest rate of 6.087 percent. Though that's up sharply from 3.57 percent in the last such auction last month, it was well below analyst expectations of 7 percent. Demand for the bonds was also strong, almost twice the amount on sale.

The European Central Bank has been buying up Italian and Spanish bonds in the secondary markets to help keep borrowing rates from becoming unsustainable. There's speculation that the ECB was back in the markets Thursday trying to get Italy's borrowing rates down. The ECB did not comment.

Whatever the composition of the next government, there are no quick easy fixes to Italy's debt problems.

In Brussels, the European Union emphasized that Italy is unlikely to fulfill its promise of balancing its budget by 2013 if recently promised austerity and reform measures aren't implemented.

According to the EU's latest forecast, which does not take into account the most recently promised reforms, Italy will still run a deficit of 1.2 percent of national income, with debt close to 119 percent of economic output.

____

Barry reported from Milan. Gabriele Steinhauser contributed from Brussels. Frances D'Emilio contributed from Rome.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_financial_crisis

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Mexico's top Cabinet secretary dies in crash (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? Mexico's top Cabinet secretary, Francisco Blake Mora, a key figure in the country's battle with drug cartels, died Friday in a helicopter crash that President Felipe Calderon said was probably an accident.

Blake Mora, 45, was the second interior minister, the No. 2 post in the government, to die in an air crash during Calderon's administration.

Despite some tendencies to suspect a hit on the top officials leading Calderon's offensive against organized crime, the crash that killed Blake Mora and seven others may have had to do with bad weather. A Learjet that slammed into a Mexico City street in 2008, killing former interior secretary Juan Camilo Mourino and 15 others, was blamed on pilot error.

One of Blake Mora's last postings on his Twitter account commemorated the loss of Mourino. "Today we remember Juan Camilo Mourino three years after his death, a person who was working to build a better Mexico," he tweeted on Nov. 4.

Blake Mora's death, while a blow to the government, was not likely to change policy or day-to-day operations.

Calderon, visibly emotional over the loss, said the Super Puma helicopter was flying in fog when it went down in a remote area southeast of Mexico City. Still, he said all possible causes were under investigation. He said the pilot had sufficient expertise.

"Mexico has lost a great patriot ... and I lost a dear friend," said Calderon, who struggled to maintain composure at one point during an address to the country. "He was not only an exemplary minister, he was an exemplary Mexican."

President Barack Obama called Calderon to offer his condolences.

Calderon appeared to try to quell any suggestions of sabotage, saying Blake Mora's helicopter "was always under guard" in the hangar of Mexico's equivalent of the Secret Service and that it had recently undergone maintenance.

The helicopter left from a military base in Mexico City at 8:45 a.m. and 10 minutes later disappeared from radar, Transportation Secretary Dionisio Perez Jacome said at a news conference late Friday.

Perez Jacome, who read a statement and didn't take questions, said the government has asked U.S. and French aviation crash experts to help in the investigation.

Authorities said the undersecretary for human rights, Felipe Zamora, was among the seven others killed, including the pilot.

Calderon appointed Blake Mora as interior secretary in July 2010. That put him in charge of coordinating domestic policies including security, human rights, migration and the president's relation with the legislature and opposition parties.

Blake Mora was traveling to a prosecutors' meeting in the neighboring state of Morelos when the helicopter went down in a mountainous area of Chalco in the state of Mexico on the border with Mexico City.

"In the morning, there was a whole lot of fog," said homemaker Marisol Palacios, who lives on the lower slopes of the hill where the crash occurred.

She said she didn't hear the crash and wasn't aware anything had happened until helicopters carrying rescue teams arrived. Video of the wreckage suggested the helicopter plowed into the hillside and broke in half, but did not explode or burn.

Blake Mora started his political career in the mid-1990s as an official in his native Tijuana and served as a federal congressman through the 2000s, as well as interior secretary of Baja California.

As Calderon's point man in the government's war against organized crime, he frequently traveled to the country's most dangerous places for meetings with besieged state and local security officials.

He was an embodiment of the Mexican government's get-tough attitude, publicly pledging to bring the fight to the traffickers instead of backing down.

"Organized crime, in its desperation, resorts to committing atrocities that we can't and shouldn't tolerate as a government and as a society," he said.

He also oversaw response to disasters, such as flooding and the massive oil pipeline explosion that laid waste to parts of the central city of San Martin Texmelucan last year, killing at least 28 people.

He led the creation of a new national identity card for youths under 18, with modern features including digitalized fingerprints and iris images, to prevent criminals from using false IDs.

Blake Mora's funeral was scheduled for Saturday.

Calderon canceled many of his appearances, including a trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting of world leaders in Hawaii next week.

"Polls have been showing that insecurity now tops poverty as the No. 1 concern among Mexicans, and my sense is an accident like this or an event like this ... is going to increase the senses of uncertainty and insecurity," said George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Suspicions commonly swirl around the deaths of prominent people in Mexico. It was hard for many to believe that two interior secretaries could die in air accidents in the same administration.

"This is very unfortunate," said Sinaloa Congressman Manuel Clouthier, whose own father, a popular politician in Calderon's National Action Party, died in a still-unexplained highway accident in 1989. "There are many coincidences because now we have two interior ministers (lost) in one presidential term ... who knows if we'll ever really know what happened."

In the crash that killed Mourino, the jet smashed into rush-hour traffic in a posh Mexico City business district, killing all nine on board and seven on the ground. Mexican investigators blamed the Learjet 45 crash on the turbulence from a larger plane flying ahead.

The investigation found that the pilots were slow to follow the control tower's instructions to reduce speed and appeared to be nearly one nautical mile too close behind a Boeing 767-300 on the same flight path to Mexico City's international airport.

Also killed in the crash was former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, who had been the target of at least one previous assassination plot.

The Mexican government provided a detailed account of the crash aimed at quelling widespread rumors that the plane was brought down by powerful and increasingly violent drug cartels.

In 2005, a helicopter crash blamed on poor weather conditions killed Mexico's top police official, public safety secretary Ramon Martin Huerta, who was head of federal police, and seven other people.

___

Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson, Michael Weissenstein and Isaac Garrido contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111112/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_blake_mora

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Navy to promote itself during historic hoops game (AP)

CORONADO, Calif. ? The fighter jets are gone from the flight deck, and in their place is a gleaming basketball court surrounded by bright green bleachers ? a stark contrast to the gray, 95,000-ton Navy warship that buried Osama bin Laden at sea.

Friday's historic North Carolina-Michigan State basketball game aboard the USS Carl Vinson couldn't have come at a more opportune time for a Navy facing deep defense cuts.

Officials plan to seize the spotlight to showcase the Navy and its awe-inspiring, multi-billion-dollar aircraft carriers to the more than 3 million viewers expected to watch the Veterans Day game on ESPN.

The country's basketball-fan-in-chief, President Barack Obama, will be onboard for the game.

With the war in Iraq officially over and the one in Afghanistan winding down, the military is almost certain to shrink. All branches of service are feeling pressure to tout the importance of their missions and their equipment.

Navy officials say they know a basketball game will not change the budget debate, but it can't hurt efforts to get the American public excited about their branch of service as its chiefs lobby Congress to avoid cuts that could jeopardize its future military strategies.

The role of the Nimitz-class supercarriers in modern warfare has been part of that discussion with critics questioning whether anti-ship weapons have turned them into white elephants that are too expensive to risk losing in a war. In 2015, the Navy plans to add to its fleet the Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship of a new three-ship class of supercarriers. Each is expected to cost about $9 billion.

Capt. Bruce H. Lindsey, the Vinson's commanding officer, said viewers Friday will get a firsthand look at just how important carriers are to military operations, from sending aircraft into Iraq and Afghanistan, to supporting relief efforts during disasters such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan. The program will feature snippets about Naval life aboard the 1,092-foot floating airport.

"It's an awesome opportunity to showcase Naval aviation and your Navy," he said.

The Navy wants to show Americans how their tax dollars are being spent, said Rear Admiral Dennis Moynihan, the Navy's chief spokesman.

"It's their aircraft carrier, they have paid for it," Moynihan said. "They are the shareholders, and it's important they understand how we are spending those dollars in the Navy ... it is sort of a report to shareholders."

Critics say the United States now has too many carriers, and the Navy can do the same missions with smaller, more economical vessels.

With 11 carriers, the U.S. Navy has more than the rest of the navies on the planet combined, said Christopher Preble, a Navy veteran and foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute. Most are Nimitz-class vessels, the world's largest warships.

The amount of money needed to build a carrier could be used to build more than a half-dozen destroyer ships, Preble said.

"I'm a huge basketball fan, and I think it's good for the sailors who are going to get to see a good game and it will be neat for the players," he said. "But I don't think the Navy will be able to use this to sell the idea as to why it needs aircraft carriers."

The game will be watched by a prime Navy recruiting market ? young people. Magic Johnson and James Worthy will serve as honorary captains for their alma maters at the game, attended by 7,000 mostly active-duty military personnel off the coast of San Diego.

Obama will have the seat of his choice, but he won't be arriving on a jet like then-President George W. Bush did when he made an arrested landing in a fixed-wing aircraft on the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003. Bush used the ship as a setting to announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq under a banner hung on the warship reading "Mission Accomplished." Opponents criticized it as a publicity stunt.

Morale Entertainment Foundation approached the Navy last summer with the idea of a carrier basketball game and offered to foot the bill. The Navy agreed on the condition the event not interrupt its scheduled deployments or compromise national security, Moynihan said.

Sailors prepared for the upcoming deployment of the Vinson in a few weeks while workers built the basketball court and arena on the flight deck of the floating fortress docked at the Navy base in Coronado with sweeping views of downtown San Diego.

A second basketball court is being built in the hangar deck in case of rain ? which is in the forecast. North Carolina's Tar Heels prepared its freshmen players for the opener by having them dance a routine on the deck while wearing life preservers. Both teams will wear camouflage uniforms.

Walter Chatlin III, a sailor from Houston who was deployed when the Vinson buried bin Laden at sea, watched forklifts carry the basketball court's floor boards Tuesday and said it all seemed surreal.

"I'm an operations specialist so seeing you know, seeing the jets land on the flight deck all through the deployment, and now we're going to have a college basketball game on it, seems pretty cool," he said. "We need some R and R time ... We need to get a little break before we get deployed again."

The ship is named after former U.S. Rep. Carl Vinson, a Georgia Democrat known as the father of the two-ocean Navy because of his success in pushing through bills that greatly expanded and modernized the Navy's warship fleet during his time in Congress from 1914 to 1965. He was chair of the House Armed Services Committee when Congress authorized the procurement of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carriers starting with the USS Enterprise in the late 1950s.

Carriers became the backbone of U.S. sea power after WWII, ferrying military might around the world in crises and conflicts in such places as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_en_tv/us_navy_carrier_classic

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