Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166983564?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 28, 2011
US tourist in critical condition in Cayman Islands (AP)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ? A 16-year-old girl from New York state is in critical condition after a jet ski collided with the banana boat on which she was riding in the Cayman Islands.
A police official who was not allowed to be named under department policy said Saturday that the unidentified girl will soon be airlifted to a hospital in Florida. Authorities said the banana boat that the teenager and a 24-year-old woman were riding on Thursday collided with a jet ski driven by a 17-year-old boy. The woman was released from the hospital.
Police said all three involved in the collision were cruise ship passengers.
The official did not know the girl's hometown and had no further details on how the collision occurred.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
US vows full probe into Pakistan border incident
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration on Saturday pledged a full investigation into a NATO attack that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a joint statement offered their "deepest condolences" for the loss of life in the cross-border incident in Pakistan. Clinton and Panetta also said they "support fully NATO's intention to investigate immediately."
Secretary Clinton, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. John Allen, commander of the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, each called their Pakistani counterparts as well, the statement said.
U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter also met with Pakistani government officials in Islamabad.
"In their contacts, these US diplomatic and military leaders each stressed -- in addition to their sympathies and a commitment to review the circumstances of the incident -- the importance of the US-Pakistani partnership, which serves the mutual interests of our people," the statement said.
"All these leaders pledged to remain in close contact with their Pakistani counterparts going forward as we work through this challenging time," the statement concluded.
The incident was a major blow to American efforts to rebuild an already tattered alliance vital to winding down the 10-year-old Afghan war. It was the latest in a series of setbacks to the alliance, often caused by border incidents.
Islamabad called the bloodshed in one of its tribal areas a "grave infringement" of the country's sovereignty.
If confirmed, it would be the deadliest friendly fire incident by NATO against Pakistani troops since the Afghan war began a decade ago.
A NATO spokesman said it was likely that coalition airstrikes caused Pakistani casualties, but an investigation was being conducted to determine the details.
The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has severely deteriorated over the last year, especially following the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Islamabad was outraged it wasn't told about the operation beforehand.
The border issue is a major source of tension between Islamabad and Washington, which is committed to withdrawing its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Much of the violence in Afghanistan is carried out by insurgents who are based just across the border in Pakistan. Coalition forces are not allowed to cross the frontier to attack the militants. However, the militants sometimes fire artillery and rockets across the line, reportedly from locations close to Pakistani army posts.
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Mexican group asks ICC to probe president, officials (Reuters)
THE HAGUE/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? Mexican human rights activists want the International Criminal Court to investigate President Felipe Calderon, top officials and the country's most-wanted drug trafficker, accusing them of allowing subordinates to kill, torture and kidnap civilians.
Netzai Sandoval, a Mexican human rights lawyer, filed a complaint with the ICC in The Hague on Friday, requesting an investigation into the deaths of hundreds of civilians at the hands of the military and drug traffickers in Mexico, where more than 45,000 have died in drug-related violence since 2006.
"The violence in Mexico is bigger than the violence in Afghanistan, the violence in Mexico is bigger than in Colombia," Sandoval said.
"We want the prosecutor to tell us if war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Mexico, and if the president and other top officials are responsible."
Signed by 23,000 Mexican citizens, the complaint names Sinaloa drug cartel boss Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, who has a $5 million bounty on his head, as well as Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna and the commanders of Mexico's army and navy.
The lawyers asked the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, to open a formal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mexico.
A decision by ICC prosecutors on whether to launch an investigation could take months or even years, legal experts say. The ICC has investigated crimes including genocide, murder, conscription of child soldiers and rape, mostly in Africa.
The Mexican government has denied the accusations and said security policy cannot constitute an international crime.
"In our country, society is not the victim of an authoritarian government or of systematic abuses by the armed forces," the foreign ministry said in a statement in October, when the petition was made public.
"In Mexico, there is a rule of law in which crime and impunity are fought without exception," the statement said.
TICKING THE BOXES
The office of the prosecutor said in a statement to Reuters that it had received the request, would study it, and "make a decision in due course."
The ICC tries cases of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in states that are unwilling or unable to prosecute these crimes on their own.
"There are a large number of boxes that the prosecutor would need to check off before he could actually open an investigation," said Richard Dicker, an international justice expert with Human Rights Watch.
"It's possible ... but I think you want to be clear on what the challenges and obstacles are."
Several of those requirements have been met: Mexico has signed up to the ICC, the crimes fall within the ICC's time frame, and the case is not already being prosecuted in Mexico.
But in considering the case, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo will have to decide if the crimes presented in the activists' complaint, such as the torture of criminal suspects, qualify as crimes against humanity.
"The crimes would have to be widespread or systematic, carried out by a state or organization in attacks on a civilian population," Dicker said.
"It's certainly very arguable," said William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University.
"The prosecutor has been very focused on Africa. The pattern is, he stays within the comfort zone of the United States. Going after Mexicans for the war on drugs falls outside that comfort zone."
Activists claim that Calderon has systematically allowed Mexican troops to commit abuses against the civilian population since the military was deployed to fight Mexican drug traffickers in 2006.
More than 50,000 troops are currently battling drug cartels around the country, while the ranks of federal police have swelled from 6,000 to 35,000 under Calderon's watch.
Human rights activists say that Mexican troops and police are regularly violating the rights of citizens in their crackdown on the cartels.
A Human Rights Watch report has found evidence that Mexican police and armed forces were involved in 170 cases of torture, 24 extrajudicial killings and 39 forced disappearances in five Mexican states.
"We have known for five years that the Mexican army is committing sexual abuse, executing people, torturing people and kidnapping, and there have been no sanctions," Sandoval said, adding that he, like many other Mexicans, knows people who have lost family members in the drug-related violence.
Mexico's national human rights commission received more than 4,000 complaints of abuses by the army from 2006 to 2010. In the same period it issued detailed reports on 65 cases involving army abuse, according to Human Rights Watch.
(Editing by Rosalind Russell)
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Occupy movements nationwide celebrate Thanksgiving (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? Most Americans spent Thanksgiving snug inside homes with families and football. Others used the holiday to give thanks alongside strangers at outdoor Occupy encampments, serving turkey or donating their time in solidarity with the anti-Wall Street movement that has gripped a nation consumed by economic despair.
In San Francisco, 400 occupiers at a plaza in the financial district were served traditional Thanksgiving fixings sent by the renowned Glide Memorial Church to volunteers and supporters of the movement fighting social and economic inequality.
"We are thankful that we are, first and foremost, in a country where we can protest," said the Rev. Cecil Williams, the founder of Glide and a fixture in the city's activist community. "And we are thankful that we believe that there are things that could be worked out and that we have a sense of hope. But we know that hope only comes when you make a stand."
While the celebration remained peaceful in San Francisco, an amplified version of a family Thanksgiving squabble erupted in New York when police ordered a halt to drumming by protesters at an otherwise traditional holiday meal.
About 500 protesters were digging into donated turkey and trimmings at lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park when police told a drummer to drop playing.
About 200 protesters surrounded a group of about 30 officers and began shouting in the park where the Occupy movement was launched Sept. 17.
"Why don't you stop being cops for Thanksgiving?" yelled one protester.
"Why don't you arrest the drummers in the Thanksgiving parade?" hollered another.
A van rolled up with more officers, but they stayed back as protesters eventually decided to call off the drumming and return to their food. Tensions have run high at the park since campers were evicted Nov. 15.
Protester Chris Coon wandered into Zuccotti in a Santa Claus suit with a list of "naughty" people that included former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Bank of America foreclosed on the North Pole, then I flew here in my sleigh and the NYPD towed my sleigh," Coon said. "So now I'm here in Zuccotti Park protesting the 1 percent."
In San Diego, four Occupy protesters were arrested between midnight and 2 a.m. Thursday at an encampment at the City's Civic Center Plaza, said Officer David Stafford. Three were taken into custody for sleeping overnight in public, while the fourth was arrested for spitting on an officer, Stafford said.
Demonstrators nationwide say they are protesting corporate greed and the concentration of wealth in the upper 1 percent of the American population.
The movement was triggered by the high rate of unemployment and foreclosures, as well as the growing perception that big banks and corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes, yet are taking in huge bonuses while most Americans have seen their incomes drop.
Restaurants and individual donors prepared more than 3,000 meals for the gathering at Zuccotti.
Haywood Carey, 28, of Chapel Hill, N.C., helped serve the meals and said the Thanksgiving celebration was a sign of Americans' shared values.
"The things that divide are much less than the things that bind us together," he said.
In upstate New York, Danny Cashman, 25, an Afghanistan war veteran who works for a company that resells cellphones, said he sleeps at least three nights a week at an encampment in Rochester to show his solidarity with the movement.
"For today, this is my family," Cashman said as he dug into a chicken dinner at the 35-tent encampment in tiny Washington Square Park. "We have a great brotherhood, great friends, a great community."
Pat Mannix, 72, a longtime community activist, dropped off a vegetarian turkey and pies at the camp.
"I give thanks for these young people," she said. "The young people down here are sleeping out in spite of the cold, the wind, the soaking rains, and they are here trying to save democracy."
In Los Angeles, where more than 480 tents have been erected on the lawns of City Hall, activist Teri Adaju, 46, said she typically serves dinner to homeless people on Thanksgiving and knows that many at the Los Angeles encampment were just that.
Still, she added, "Everybody's in good cheer."
In Las Vegas, Occupy protesters had a potluck meal at their campsite near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Organizer Sebring Frehner said he was happy to skip his traditional meal at home.
"Instead of hunkering down with five or six close individuals in your home, people you probably see all of the time anyway, you are celebrating Thanksgiving with many different families ? kind of like the original Thanksgiving," Frehner said.
Trisha Carr, 35, spent her holiday at the Occupy encampment at City Hall in Philadelphia. She has been out of work for more than two years and lost her car and home. She's been living in an Occupy tent for two weeks.
"Some days are harder than others," she said.
The sunny, crisp weather Thursday put her in a good mood, and she watched the annual Thanksgiving parade before coming back to the encampment for a plate full of turkey and fixings.
Carr said her job search has been fruitless, and the government needs to do more to help people like her.
"I had the benefits, I had money in my pocket, I had health care ? I had it all," Carr said. "There should be no reason why people aren't working."
___
Associated Press writers Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia; Chris Hawley in New York; Ben Dobbin in Rochester, N.Y; Alicia Chang in Los Angeles; and Cristina Silva in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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Thousands queue in Indonesia to buy new Blackberry
Impatient Indonesians raise their fists to show their 'priority' wrist bands as they queue up to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Impatient Indonesians raise their fists to show their 'priority' wrist bands as they queue up to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Indonesian police officers stand guard as people queue up to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Security guards stand before Indonesians in a long queue to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Impatient Indonesians rush to the queue to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) ? Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide.
Fearing a riot, hundreds of police were deployed outside, tying up traffic in the heart of the capital for hours.
With a 50 percent discount on the $540 phone for the first 1,000 buyers, lines started forming in front of Pacific Place mall on Thursday night. By daybreak, impatient shoppers started rattling the gates.
And when rumors spread that the new smartphones ? commonly known as Bellagio ? had already sold out, the crowd of 3,000 went crazy. Several people fainted in the crush.
Indonesia, a nation of 240 million people, has experienced a come-from-nowhere tech frenzy in recent years.
With 6 million users, BlackBerry dominates the smartphone market.
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
11 Blogging Essentials For Your Business | Social Media Today
Online presence is an integral part of business these days. Whether you are a B2B or a B2C, a large portion of your lead generation is going to come from online searches.?
These days when customers are seeking a product or service, the first search is probably going to happen online.?A simple Google search will rank results according to a site's locality, web traffic and SEO. The more valuable and content-rich a site is, the better.?
When you are thinking about these searches from the perspective of a customer or client viewing your product or service for the first time, it will give you ideas about how to market yourself. Your website is essentially your online storefront, but with the capacity to display the depth of your business mission through all manners of engaging content. People will always be drawn first to the more dynamic headlines and appealing visuals. However, professionalism and quality of content is as important online as in face-to-face.?A quality online experience equates to a quality product/service.?Your website is all-in-one package for?inbound marketing?that gives an impression to the online community. Once you garner attention from people, you can find ways engage them.
One of the most effective and fluid sources for engaging people online is by hosting and maintaining a blog platform through your website. This is an excellent way of displaying the interests and concerns of your business. The benefits of giving insight into your company's personality through regular article postings are exponential. Once you start reaching out to people, you will find people responsive and start to feel a connection to your business. This two-way connection can be invaluable to your success! ?
This is because people enjoy learning about the product or service they are seeking; where it came from, how it works, what brands they should trust and how to make informed decisions. If you are honest and candid online and offer full disclosure to your audience about your journey as a company, you will establish yourself as a trusted voice.
This is why blogging is a good habit to get into.
After you connect a blog platform to your website, you will be ready to start communicating. Brainstorm some topics and ideas and set aside some time to post regular, interesting content and you will be well on your way. Soon you may discover the rewarding experience of getting exposure by generating your own publicity.
Listed below are some essential points to consider when deciding to launch a blog for your company website:
- Write Well---Include compelling opening paragraphs and descriptions. Take care with spelling, paragraph breaks, fonts, and target your audience with your tone. Select unique subject matter or try a unique approach to an old subject.
- Utilize On-Site SEO?Use titles and keywords to syndicate headlines. Those Google thread seekers will find you if you post often.
- Use Tags to Organize Posts?This allows you to group together related posts for related searches.
- Customize Your User Experience?Things to consider would be: colour scheme, and way-finding. If in doubt, hire a designer.
- Offer Feed Subscriptions?You can do this using RSS feeds, subscription buttons, and e-mail newsletters every time you post.
- Manage Your Comments for Spam?Likewise provide feedback to commentators and keep your response time short.
- Include Good Links?Anchor them with compelling titles. Try to stay away from ?click here.?
- Encourage Sharing with a Share Bar?This allows people to Tweet and share your post on Facebook, Google+, Stumble-Upon or Foursquare.
- Market Your Blog Online?Post links in related Forums on other sites or use a blog post syndicator to boost your readership.
- Add Widgets to Your Blog?These are feeds to other platforms, like twitter or Google+. Linking to other?social media?is always good to keep people engaged.
- You Don?t Have to Call it a ?Blog??For a business blog, you can title it anything you wish; journal, daily-log, newsroom, pressroom, buzz, information center...but the traditional ?blog? is a timeless.
Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/katherine-felton/395412/11-blogging-essentials-your-business
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"Pokies" roll the political dice for Australian PM (Reuters)
SYDNEY (Reuters) ? They are a silent army, formed in ranks inside clubs and hotels around Australia, desperately battling slot machines in the hope of winning an elusive jackpot.
Australia has 197,000 slot machines, called "pokies," the highest number of machines per head in the world. Slot machines feed 62 percent of the A$19 billion-plus annual gaming sector.
But the gamblers, largely working-class Australians, are on a collision course with the Labor government as it tries to tackle problem gambling, a battle that can impact Prime Minister Julia Gillard's political future.
Gillard has pledged to force all slot gamblers to register and nominate a loss limit before sitting down to play. This is aimed at stopping problem gamblers going over their limit.
But the gamblers say this infringes their rights, as no other gambling venture requires registration, and would be a barrier to casual players.
"I love the pokies," said Anna Robinson as she played "The Phantom" slot machine hoping for a row of skulls and the flashing lights and bells which herald a jackpot win.
"I hate what the government is trying to do. It's my money I put in these machines and they have no right to dictate how I spend it," said Robinson, a member of Sydney's City Bowlers Club which operates 120 slot machines.
The powerful club industry, with 4,000 clubs and 10 million members, has launched a multi-media campaign against the curbs, targeting 33 marginal Labor seats ahead of the next election due mid-2013.
If the government lost those seats it would be decimated as it only holds 72 seats in the 150-seat parliament and currently relies on a handful of independent and a Green MP to rule.
"They see the potential for destruction," said Anthony Ball, chief executive of Clubs Australia, referring to the local Labor MPs being targeted.
Clubs Australia has erected posters in the foyer of clubs with the face of the local government politician and the question: "Why Are You Voting To Hurt Our Local Community?"
The majority of the slot machines in Australia are in Labor seats.
Thursday, Gillard tightened her grip on power when an opposition lawmaker suddenly defected to become Speaker boosting her chances of surviving a full term in office and reducing reliance on independent MPs to pass laws.
ATTACK ON LABOR HEARTLAND
The minority government snared power in 2010 by one-seat after gaining the support of independent MP Andrew Wilkie in exchange for a pledge to curb problem slot machine gambling.
"About 100,000 Australians are believed to be problem gamblers," said Wilkie. "Add to those figures the five to 10 people adversely affected by every problem gambler and the total number of people touched by problem gamblers is huge."
The government in November increased its parliamentary majority to three, but still relies on a handful of independents and a Green MP to pass legislation.
"The government is not so foolish to think that they can burn me. The government will continue to pursue the poker machine reforms that have been agreed to," said Wilkie.
Around 600,000 Australians play slots weekly, but problem gamblers lose A$5 billion a year, or 40 percent of total slot machine losses, a recent parliamentary report said.
Australia's club industry says the scheme would cost up to A$5 billion to introduce and reduce revenue by between 30 to 40 percent, or A$4.9 to $6.5 billion annually, threatening the existence of small clubs and the businesses that supply them.
"They (previous Labor governments) allowed clubs to grow because they wanted working class people in the suburbs to go to a nice facility. To have a punt (gamble), have an affordable meal, see a show -- not everyone in Sydney can come into the Opera House for their entertainment," said Ball.
"Club heartland in the western suburbs of Sydney is also Labor heartland. Its strange that Labor has taken to attacking their own," he said.
Tax from slot machines is a major source of revenue for state governments, representing more than half of all gaming tax revenue, or around 10 percent of state tax revenue.
Listed Australian firms that rely on slot-machine revenues include gaming and wagering groups Tabcorp Holdings, Tatts and Crown as well as Aristocrat Leisure, the world's second-largest maker of slot machines.
But clubs operate the majority of slot machines, 115,900 compared with 69,600 in hotels and 12,300 in casinos.
Church and welfare groups say the social and financial costs of problem gambling are around A$4.7 billion annually.
"I urge federal (Labor) members in marginal seats to hold their ground," said Reverend Tim Costello, head of the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, adding polls showed three quarters of Australians support the planned curbs.
"These (gambling) limits can be as high or as low as the player likes. No one is telling them how much they can or can't spend. But once 'in the zone', problem gamblers say they can't make safe choices," he said.
"JEKYLL AND HYDE" POKIE ADDICTS
A recent parliamentary report on electronic gaming machines cited family breakdowns, homes and businesses lost, and suicide, due to slot machine addiction.
It said players could lose over A$1,000 an hour.
"Within weeks of beginning to play them, I was hooked," said nurse Sue Pinkerton, a former slot machine addict.
"I went in eight weeks from being a happy-go-lucky, socially active mother and friend to a restless, isolated, depressed and suicidal woman," Pinkerton told the parliamentary inquiry.
In the depth of addiction Pinkerton spent six hours a day, five days a week in front of slot machines. In four years she lost A$65,000, all she earned and some of her husband's income.
She said there was always an inner tension when she sat in front of a slot machine -- she was being torn between the excitement of winning and the despair of losing.
"I often compare it to the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome," said former gambling addict Gabriela Byrne.
Computer technology had resulted in high intensity machines designed for continuous gambling, said the parliamentary report.
Problem gamblers told the parliamentary inquiry they supported a pre-commitment system, adding it should be linked to a self-exclusion policy which would allow problem gamblers to ban themselves from using slot machines across Australia.
Clubs says mandatory curbs will not stem problem gambling, but do support voluntary pre-commitment gambling levels as these will not impact on casual gamblers.
Clubs say the average spend per hour on a slot machine is A$11, rising to A$29 at the largest club in Australia.
The country's largest clubs are open 24 hours, seven days a week, with resort-style facilities and entertainment, while the smallest operate out of virtually one room buildings and are the heart of isolated communities.
"For many its their second living room," said Ball. "Many people are emotionally tied to their club, they played golf there for decades, played bowls, their kids played footy for clubs. There is a real connection and they're worried."
(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Mortgage rates for the past 52 weeks, at a glance (AP)
By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Wed?Nov?23, 1:51?pm?ET | The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage hovered above its record low for the fourth straight week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. Here's a look at rates for fixed and adjustable mortgages over the past 52 weeks. |
| Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low |
| 30-year fixed 3.98 4.00 5.05 3.94 |
| 15-year fixed 3.30 3.31 4.29 3.26 |
| 5-year adjustable 2.91 2.97 3.92 2.96 |
| 1-year adjustable 2.79 2.98 3.40 2.81 |
| All values are in percentage points. |
| Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. |
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Copyright ? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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UK lawyer: Tabloid phone hacking was widespread
Gerry and Kate McCann, front, arrive to testify at the Leveson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. McCanns' daughter Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday flat in the Algarve, shortly before her fourth birthday in 2007. The Leveson inquiry is Britain's media ethics probe that was set up in the wake of the scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World newspaper, which was shut in July after it became clear that the tabloid had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Gerry and Kate McCann, front, arrive to testify at the Leveson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. McCanns' daughter Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday flat in the Algarve, shortly before her fourth birthday in 2007. The Leveson inquiry is Britain's media ethics probe that was set up in the wake of the scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World newspaper, which was shut in July after it became clear that the tabloid had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Gerry and Kate McCann arrive to testify at the Leveson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. McCanns' daughter Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday flat in the Algarve, shortly before her fourth birthday in 2007. The Leveson inquiry is Britain's media ethics probe that was set up in the wake of the scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World newspaper, which was shut in July after it became clear that the tabloid had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Gerry and Kate McCann, front, arrive to testify at the Leveson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. McCanns' daughter Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday flat in the Algarve, shortly before her fourth birthday in 2007. The Leveson inquiry is Britain's media ethics probe that was set up in the wake of the scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World newspaper, which was shut in July after it became clear that the tabloid had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Sheryl Gascoigne, the ex-wife of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne, arrives to testify at the Leveson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. The Leveson inquiry into Britain's media ethics was set up following a scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World publication, which was closed in July 2011, after it became clear that the tabloid newspaper had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Sheryl Gascoigne, the ex-wife of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne, arrives to testify at the Leveson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. The Leveson inquiry into Britain's media ethics was set up following a scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World publication, which was closed in July 2011, after it became clear that the tabloid newspaper had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
LONDON (AP) ? Illegal eavesdropping was widely practiced by Britain's tabloid journalists, producing stories that were both intrusive and untrue, a lawyer for several phone hacking victims said Wednesday.
Mark Lewis told a U.K. media ethics inquiry that phone hacking was not limited to Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, which the media mogul shut down earlier this year as outrage grew over the hacking scandal.
Lewis claimed that listening in on voice mails was so easy that many journalists regarded it as no more serious than "driving at 35 mph in a 30 mph zone."
"In a way, I feel sorry for the News of the World, or certainly the News of the World's readers," Lewis said. "Because it was a much more widespread practice than just one newspaper."
He said the News of the World got caught because it hired a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, who kept detailed records of his snooping assignments. Mulcaire and News of the World reporter Clive Goodman were jailed in 2007 for hacking into the voice mails of royal aides.
"The fact that evidence doesn't exist in written form doesn't mean to say that the crime didn't happen," Lewis said.
Lewis said when a News of the World reporter was arrested for phone hacking in 2006, he had a "eureka moment" about the source of a false story concerning two of his clients.
The story alleged a romantic relationship between soccer players' association chief Gordon Taylor and lawyer Joanne Armstrong, with whom he had been photographed having lunch. Taylor said he believed the story was based on a voice mail message from Armstrong thanking Taylor for speaking at her father's funeral.
The message said: "Thank you for yesterday. You were wonderful."
Lewis said a tabloid journalist "added two and two and made 84. ... If it hadn't been so sad, it would have been funny."
In 2008, Murdoch's News International agreed to pay Taylor hundreds of thousands of pounds (dollars) in compensation for the hacking of his phone in return for keeping quiet about the deal ? one of several attempts by the company to hush up the scale of its illegal activity.
Murdoch shut down the News of the World in July after evidence emerged that it had routinely eavesdropped on the voice mails of public figures, celebrities and even crime victims in its search for scoops.
Lewis has represented many prominent hacking victims, including the family of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, whose voice mails were accessed by the News of the World after she disappeared in 2002. The girl's parents spoke Monday before the U.K. inquiry, saying the hacking gave them false hope their daughter was still alive during the investigation into her disappearance.
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the public inquiry into media ethics and practices in response to the still-evolving hacking scandal. This week it has heard testimony from celebrities including actor Hugh Grant and comedian Steve Coogan.
Later Wednesday it will hear from the parents of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a hotel room in May 2007 during a family vacation in Portugal.
The inquiry, led by Judge Brian Leveson, plans to issue a report next year and could recommend major changes to media regulation in Britain.
___
Online:
Leveson Inquiry: http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/
Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless
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Swiss grapple with history of forced child labor
Swiss Michel Frene, a retired watchmaker, shows a magazine article in which he recounts his experience as a 'contract child' in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Monday Nov. 14, 2011. Up until the 1960s Swiss authorities sent hundreds of thousands of children from poor families to live on farms, where they say they were forced to work long hours without pay and suffered physical and emotional abuse. Some are now demanding an apology and compensation. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)
Swiss Michel Frene, a retired watchmaker, shows a magazine article in which he recounts his experience as a 'contract child' in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Monday Nov. 14, 2011. Up until the 1960s Swiss authorities sent hundreds of thousands of children from poor families to live on farms, where they say they were forced to work long hours without pay and suffered physical and emotional abuse. Some are now demanding an apology and compensation. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)
Swiss Michel Frene, a retired watchmaker, gestures as he recounts his experience as a 'contract child' in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Monday Nov. 14, 2011. Up until the 1960s Swiss authorities sent hundreds of thousands of children from poor families to live on farms, where they say they were forced to work long hours without pay and suffered physical and emotional abuse. Some are now demanding an apology and compensation. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)
Thomas Shaw Cooper, 86, a retired Swiss machinist and security guard, explains a device he is working on in Biel, Switzerland, Monday Nov. 14, 2011. Cooper was one of hundreds of thousands of children from poor families send by Swiss authorities to live on farms, where they say they were forced to work long hours without pay and suffered physical and emotional abuse. Some are now demanding an apology and compensation. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)
Swiss Thomas Shaw Cooper, a retired machinist and security guard, talks about his experience as a 'contract child' in Biel, Switzerland, Monday Nov. 14, 2011. Up until the 1960s Swiss authorities sent hundreds of thousands of children from poor families to live on farms, where they say they were forced to work long hours without pay and suffered physical and emotional abuse. Some are now demanding an apology and compensation. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)
A mock classroom seen as part of an exhibition on Switzerland's Verdingkinder, or contract children, in Frauenfeld, northeastern Switzerland, Tuesday Sept. 6, 2011. Up until the 1960s Swiss authorities sent hundreds of thousands of children from poor families to live on farms, where they say they were forced to work long hours without pay and suffered physical and emotional abuse. Some are now demanding an apology and compensation. Many of the children complained they were too tired or even forbidden to attend class, leaving them with little formal education throughout their lives. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)
LA-CHAUX-DE-FONDS, Switzerland (AP) ? Michel Frene vividly recalls his childhood on a farm in Courtelary, a village in the foothills of Switzerland's Jura mountains. There were cows, lush fields, even a nearby chocolate factory.
Most of all, he remembers the 220-pound (100-kilo) bags of wheat he hauled on his back, the Red Cross donated clothes, the animal dung that clung to his body from spraying fertilizer with a leaking hose.
"I was just wearing thin overalls, I had no socks, no briefs and I was wet and cold," he recalls. "I was dripping with manure, it was horrible."
Frene was one of hundreds of thousands of Swiss children taken from their parents and sent to work on farms from the early 1800s until the 1960s, a period in which Switzerland was transformed from a rural backwater into a wealthy and modern society. Many of the so-called Verdingkinder ? or "contract children" ? experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of those who were meant to care for them.
Now pressure is mounting on the government to grant compensation and an official apology to the dwindling number of surviving victims. Authorities are planning an event next year to commemorate their suffering, a first possible step toward healing.
"They stole our childhood," Frene, a 68-year-old retired watchmaker, told The Associated Press in an interview at his home in the western Swiss town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds.
Officially, children were only taken away from parents who were too poor to properly care for them. In practice, historians say, authorities also targeted the children of single mothers and others whom they considered to have fallen into "moral destitution."
"If a family didn't meet society's expectations then they quickly ran the risk that their children would be taken away," said Ruedi Weidmann, a Zurich historian. "Unmarried, divorced or widowed mothers could rarely keep their children."
In Frene's case, both parents were alive but considered unsuited to raise him and his five siblings. The mother wanted little to do with her children, and the father's long hours as a porter meant they were neglected at home.
Foster families, and in some cases orphanages, were meant to provide the children with food and schooling in return for a small sum from the authorities. But in rural Switzerland, where machines didn't displace manual work until well into the 20th century, the children were just seen as cheap labor. Some authorities would hold public auctions where the bidder who asked the lowest fee for taking the children would win.
Boys worked in the field, while girls were made to cook and clean. Many recount being clothed in rags and living off scraps the family wouldn't eat. Forced to work the fields, few children were able to complete an education, leaving them unable to pursue anything but menial jobs in later life.
"We were always on the farm. We didn't do much at school. There was always work to be done, even in the winter," said Frene. He didn't learn to write until he got married and his wife taught him.
Surviving contract children including Frene also recount beatings and sexual abuse. Those who tried to flee were threatened with institutions ? little more than prisons ? and suicide rates were high, according to historians. A recent feature film "Der Verdingbub" ? The Contract Boy ? portraying the abuse suffered by one youngster at the hands of a farming community has sparked outrage in Switzerland.
"The film doesn't show the worst of it, but the victims say it's very realistic," said its director, Markus Imboden. "There are many damaged people who are still suffering the effects of what was done to them."
Authorities at the time regarded the children as an economic problem, not individuals in need of protection, said Jacqueline Fehr, a lawmaker with the Social Democratic Party who has campaigned on behalf of victims.
"It wasn't just individual farmers or authorities who failed," she said. "It was an attitude of the whole Swiss society that needs to be re-examined."
The Swiss Justice Ministry acknowledged to the AP that the number of living victims may be as high as 30,000. Plans are being drawn up for an event early next year to recognize the history of the contract children, said Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli.
"The main purpose is to provide moral redress for these persons, not financial compensation," he said in an emailed statement, without providing details.
But many say official recognition isn't enough.
Historians calculate that each surviving contract child could be owed an average of 120,000 Swiss francs ($130,000) for unpaid labor alone. Based on Justice Ministry estimates of the number of living victims, that could amount to a bill of up to 3.6 billion franc ($3.9 billion).
But while Switzerland has previously apologized to victims of forced sterilization and to Jews who couldn't access Holocaust-era bank accounts, financial compensation in those tragedies has been slow in coming.
Former contract children say stigma followed them even after they left the farm.
Thomas Shaw Cooper was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1925. After his father disappeared when Cooper was a few months old his Swiss mother returned with him to her homeland. When his maternal grandfather died, Cooper was sent to a farm in the mountains outside Bern.
Cooper says he was never beaten and didn't go hungry, although he was forced to work seven days a week looking after animals, clearing the stalls and cutting peat.
"My problems only started when I left," he said at his modest row house in the town of Biel.
"As soon as you say you're a contract boy the question always comes, what did you do. They were convinced that you'd committed a crime," said Cooper. People imagined that contract children had come from 'bad families,' and must therefore be corrupt themselves. "People looked at you like you were a little gangster."
It never occurred to him to challenge the officials who denied him permission to learn a trade. Once a stable boy, always a stable boy, one official, Cooper's legal guardian until he turned 20, told him.
Cooper worked several low-paid jobs all his life, despite showing a talent for engineering that he still pursues today, aged 86. Had he been properly paid for his work on the farm, or allowed to pursue a professional career, life might have been easier, he said.
The film, and a traveling exhibition based on stories such as those of Frene and Cooper, have stirred public debate in Switzerland, adding to pressure for an official apology and a proper examination of the history of the contract children.
"In Switzerland we know exactly how many cows there are at any one time, because they are all tagged. But to this day nobody knows for sure how many children were sent away from their families," said Alexander Leumann, as he guided a group around the exhibition.
Former contract children like Frene say official Swiss recognition of their suffering would be a start.
"I wouldn't say no to damages but what's more important to me is the apology," he said. "What's missing is that the authorities acknowledge they made a mistake."
___
Exhibition about Switzerland's "contract children" in Zurich, through April 1, 2012: http://www.verdingkinderreden.ch/
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Obama acknowledges tough economy this Thanksgiving
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is urging Americans facing tough economic times this Thanksgiving to believe in the nation's ability to overcome its challenges.
In a taped Thanksgiving message, Obama says the partisanship and gridlock in Washington may make people question whether unity is possible. But he insists the nation's problems can be solved if all Americans do their part.
Obama is also encouraging Americans to remember the men and women of the military who are spending the holiday serving overseas. And he thanks those who are taking time out of their Thanksgiving celebrations to serve in soup kitchens and shelters.
The president will celebrate Thanksgiving with family at the White House.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
NH gay marriage push highlights GOP shifts
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accompanied by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to a group of workers at Nationwide Insurance Company, Wednesday Nov. 23, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Steve Pope)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accompanied by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to a group of workers at Nationwide Insurance Company, Wednesday Nov. 23, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Steve Pope)
FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential hopeful former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista buy a pork chop lunch as they campaign at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. Gingrich has never been a conventional Republican and he certainly doesn't see it as the way to catch Mitt Romney. He's not backing away from his unorthodox stand on immigration, which critics call amnesty. But party insiders wonder if a thrice-married, 68-year-old with a multimillion-dollar Freddie Mac contract is the best choice to face President Barack Obama. Gingrich has never been a conventional Republican and he certainly doesn't see it as the way to catch Mitt Romney. He's not backing away from his unorthodox stand on immigration, which critics call amnesty. But party insiders wonder if a thrice-married, 68-year-old with a multimillion-dollar Freddie Mac contract is the best choice to face President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Republican presidential candidate businessman Herman Cain speaks during a Republican presidential debate in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at a Republican presidential debate in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? Whether they like it or not, Republican presidential candidates are joining New Hampshire's intensifying gay marriage debate.
State lawmakers plan in the coming weeks to take up a measure to repeal the law allowing same-sex couples to wed and a vote is expected at some point in January ? the same month as New Hampshire holds the nation's first Republican presidential primary contest.
Already, candidates have been put on the spot over the divisive hot-button social issue when most, if not all, would rather be talking about the economy, voters' No. 1 concern.
The impending focus on gay marriage carries risk for several of White House contenders ? including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former businessman Herman Cain ? whose inconsistencies on the topic are well documented. The GOP candidates' increasingly vocal support for "traditional marriage" also threatens to alienate a growing number of younger Republicans and independents here who support legal recognition of same-sex couples. That note of divisiveness could bode poorly for the eventual GOP nominee come the general election.
Even so, the Republican candidates aren't shying away from the topic as they run for the nomination of a GOP dominated by conservatives and pushed further to the right by the tea party over the last few years.
"As conservatives, we believe in the sanctity of life, we believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage, and I applaud those legislators in New Hampshire who are working to defend marriage between one man and one woman realizing that children need to be raised in a loving home by a mother and a father," Perry told a New Hampshire audience recently, becoming the latest contender to address gay marriage directly.
While the issue hasn't yet become a regular talking point on the campaign trail, most Republican candidates declare support for the effort to repeal the law. And groups like the National Organization for Marriage hope to force the presidential contenders to publicly embrace the repeal.
"We will be using all the tools at our disposal to lobby the New Hampshire legislature and the broader population," said Christopher Plante, regional director for the National Organization for Marriage. "One of those tools is the echo chamber of presidential candidates continuing to show their support of marriage as defined by one man and one woman."
Plante concedes that for some candidates, "there has been an evolution on a number of fronts" on this issue.
Romney was the Massachusetts governor when his state legalized gay marriage. The Romney administration, as directed by the courts, granted nearly 200 same-sex marriage requests for gay and lesbian couples in 2005.
Campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said the former governor had little choice but to follow the state Supreme Court ruling at the time. He noted his candidate's consistent opposition to both civil unions and gay marriages, adding that Romney openly supports the New Hampshire repeal effort.
But Romney has reversed himself on whether gay marriage should be addressed at the state or federal level.
This past June, he said during a debate that he favors a federal constitutional amendment banning the practice. That's been his position at least since the beginning of his 2008 presidential bid, when he was the only major Republican candidate to support such an amendment.
But as a Massachusetts Senate candidate back in 1994, Romney told a Boston-area gay newspaper that same-sex marriage is "a state issue as you know ? the authorization of marriage on a same-sex basis falls under state jurisdiction." Aides say it's unfair to scrutinize Romney's position in 1994 ? when there was virtually no discussion of a federal amendment. And they suggest Romney's rivals have far more blatant inconsistencies in recent months.
Both Perry and Cain have drawn conservative criticism for recent comments related to gay marriage.
Asked in mid-October whether he supports a federal marriage amendment, Cain told the Christian Broadcasting Network that federal legislation is necessary to protect traditional marriage. That seemed to be a direct contradiction from his statement of just six days earlier, when he told "Meet the Press" host David Gregory that states should be allowed to make up their own minds.
"I wouldn't seek a constitutional ban for same sex marriage, but I am pro traditional marriage," Cain told Gregory.
In Perry's case, the Texas governor says he supports the New Hampshire repeal. But in July he said that New York's move to legalize gay marriage was "fine by me." A week later, facing social conservative criticism, he walked back the comments.
"It's fine with me that the state is using their sovereign right to decide an issue. Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me," he said then.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has another problem.
Earlier in the fall, he told an Iowa audience that gay marriage is a "temporary aberration" likely to go away because it defies convention. Gingrich, who has been married three times, has a half-sister in a same-sex marriage.
"The truth is that you're living in a world that no longer exists," Candace Gingrich-Jones wrote the former speaker in a letter posted on the Huffington Post in 2008: "In other words, stop being a hater, big bro."
Despite the presidential candidates' support for the New Hampshire repeal, younger Republicans in this state are skeptical, especially as voters are focused on the economy.
"Why is the NH House wasting time trying to repeal gay marriage? Capital ugh," Robert J. Johnson, chairman of the New Hampshire College Republicans, wrote on Twitter.
Polling suggests it may not be a winning issue.
A recent University of New Hampshire poll found that 62 percent of state residents oppose repealing the same-sex marriage law. And nationally, public opinion has gradually shifted toward supporting same-sex marriages, even among Republicans.
An August Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll found that 53 percent of Americans favor legal recognition of same-sex marriages; 32 percent of Republicans say same-sex couples should get some legal recognition from the government, compared with 71 percent among Democrats and 50 percent of independents.
Democrats hope to use the Republican contenders' positions against them in the general election next fall.
"While these radical stances might win them a few votes in their primary, it will lose them the support of the majority Americans, and ultimately put them on the losing side of history," said Ty Matsdorf, spokesman for American Bridge, an independent group aligned with Democrats.
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Mississippi State Makes Football History With First End Zone Twitter Hashtag
There's no question that Twitter has enhanced the entertainment value of sports, reality TV, award shows and much more. But this takes it to a new level.
The annual college football battle between Mississippi State and Mississippi will feature the first Twitter end zone hashtag in the history of college football.
MSU has painted #HAILSTATE (the school’s traditional rallying cry and fight song, in hashtag form) in its north end zone. Visitors beware. Fear the Twitter!
College teams typically decorate end zones with school name, mascot nickname or color scheme, so Mississippi State’s Twitter-based variation has its critics.
It also has its proponents.
“It’s a phenomenal idea,” said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who likely wishes he thought of it. “It’s a fun way to involve social media at the game, and to TV viewers it’s guaranteed to stir up some emotions between both teams.”
We just hope someone on either team scores a touchdown, whips out a smartphone and Tweets about it. That would be the most worthwhile 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty since T.O.'s infamous Sharpie autograph session.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/mississippi-state-paints-twitter-hashtag-in-end-zone/
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Tablet computers passe? Here come ultrabooks.
Tablet computers were ubiquitous at CES 2011, thanks to iPad. Ultrabooks will be featured at CES 2012, thanks to MacBook Air. But 100 tablet computers are expected to debut.
Tablet computers were everywhere during CES 2011, following the success of the iPad, but come next year, thin and light Ultrabooks will likely be hogging the spotlight (yes, following the success of the MacBook Air).
Skip to next paragraphBetween 30 and 50 different Ultrabooks will be featured on the CES 2012 show floor in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) revealed during a press event in London today.
As?PC Pro notes, the news comes as a bit of surprise since we?ve only seen a few manufacturers announce Ultrabooks so far, including?Asus,?Acer,?HP?and?Toshiba. Other PC manufacturers are expected to be waiting for the?new Intel Ivy Bridge 22-nanometer processors, which will be released some time next year, before stepping into the Ultrabook arena.
Intel, not surprisingly, is?heavily hyping Ultrabooks, which are pretty much direct rivals to Apple?s MacBook Air. In August,?Intel announced that it was creating a $300 million Ultrabook fund?to encourage manufacturers to develop the ultrathin laptops.
But if you?re somehow not sick of tablets yet, don?t fret: CEA director of research Shawn DuBravac said there will still be plenty of tablets during this year?s CES. Around 100 (!) tablets were announced at the last CES, and he expects a similar number come January.
Because that?s what the world needs, another 100 look-alike tablets.
See also:
Motorola Mobility shareholders vote yes on a buy-out by?Google?
iPad has 88% of global tablet web traffic, but Kindle Fire could start eating?it
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/qWTN4YvcdSQ/Tablet-computers-passe-Here-come-ultrabooks
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The best WWE fan chants from Survivor Series at MSG
NEW YORK ? More than 16,000 raucous WWE fans packed The World?s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden, in midtown Manhattan for the 25th annual Survivor Series. From the moment the event went on the air, New York City?s delegation of the WWE Universe made it clear that their collective voice would be heard ? all night long.
During the opening match between United States Champion Dolph Ziggler and his challenger, John Morrison, ?We Want Ryder!? rang throughout the hallowed halls of MSG and began an evening of chants that made our fans as much a part of the show as anyone who stepped foot in the ring.
When the 485-pound Big Show inexplicably dropped a top turnbuckle elbow on his 414-pound opponent, World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry, chants of ?Randy Savage? echoed through the same arena that ?The Macho Man? himself main evented.
When WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel ? CM Punk?s hand-picked personal ring announcer for his WWE Championship Match ? was announced, ?The Fink? tearfully listened and was choked up as his name was chanted in the arena that he has announced in for 34 years. (That?s not a typo.)
As The Second City Savior prepared to win his second WWE Championship, the WWE Universe proclaimed in unison, ?We want ice cream!? to the Superstar who has been championing the return of WWE ice cream bars since this past summer.
When The Rock started the main event by locking up with and subsequently schooling The Miz, ?You still got it!? was definitively declared in the venue where The Brahma Bull made his WWE debut 15 years ago at Survivor Series.
In fact, when we were inspired by the idea to write a story about Sunday night?s chants from Madison Square Garden, we took to Twitter and asked you to use #MSGchants and the equivalent of a cyber chant erupted across the web when #MSGchants trended worldwide.
As much as any single match result tonight, what can be taken away from Survivor Series 2011 may be the fact that the most powerful force in WWE is you, our fans who comprise the WWE Universe worldwide.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/survivorseries/2011/survivor-series-2011-msg-chants
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