Colts' Manning hopes to start throwing soon (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS ? Peyton Manning hopes to be throwing footballs again soon.

The four-time league MVP gave reporters his latest medical update Friday, saying his workouts will increase and that the next phase of rehabilitation process will include throwing the ball.

That was just before he headed back to the weight room to lift.

Manning has still not been cleared to practice with his teammates. He hasn't practiced since Sept. 8 when he had his latest surgery to repair a damage nerve that was causing weakness in his throwing arm.

Manning sounds encouraged by the latest news, saying the recovery is going as well as expected though there is no timetable for his return.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_colts_manning

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UN official to AP: pledges to cut CO2 will go on (AP)

DURBAN, South Africa ? The top U.N. climate official said Saturday she is confident industrial countries will renew their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions after their current commitments expire next year.

Further commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an unshakable demand by poor countries, would avert a feared derailment of U.N. negotiations, but would mark little advancement toward the goal of a rapid and steep drop in worldwide carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

The protocol's future has been in doubt because rich countries have conditioned its continuation on an agreement by nations such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa to also accept binding emissions targets for themselves in the future.

"Countries are here these two weeks exactly talking about how they are going to go into a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," U.N. official Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press.

"The discussion this week is not about the 'if,' it's about the 'how.' That doesn't mean that we are out of the thick of it," she said. Delegates are discussing participation, the legal form of the rules and all of the conditions that will define the second commitment period, she said.

Figueres, who is executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, spoke to AP to mark the halfway point of the two-week meeting in South Africa's eastern city of Durban.

Conference chairmen were also compiling the first draft of an agreement that will be given to government ministers arriving next week for the final four days of talks. Among them are 12 heads of state or government and ministers from more than 130 nations.

Outside the conference hall, several thousand activists, South African village women, and trade union members paraded through this port city for a march billed as a "global day of protest."

"It's all about our future. It's calling for a sustainable future. We've got to act and we've actually got to act urgently, so that we put this planet back onto a sustainable path," said Bishop Jeff Davies, Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute. "At the moment, we are destroying our very life support systems."

Figueres said that talks were in "good shape" in preparation for the more senior delegates.

One reason for an uptick in optimism may be a signal from China that it will in the future set absolute caps on its emissions, perhaps as early as 2020. Until now, China has spoken of emissions controls purely in terms of energy intensity, or the amount of energy it uses per unit of economic production.

The signal from Beijing came from Xu Huaqing, a senior researcher for China's Energy Research Institute, who was quoted Friday in the semiofficial China Daily. His remarks were confirmed privately by one of China's top climate negotiators, Su Wei, on the sidelines of the talks in South Africa.

China is the world's largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gas and a main foil of industrial countries in the U.N. negotiations. Virtually every statement, even semiofficial comments, is parsed by delegates seeking departures from its public positions.

"It's part and parcel of a growing realization that all countries can contribute to the solution, that every one of them has to do it, of course, according to their respective capabilities," Figures said.

The 27 members of the European Union provide the bulk of those countries falling under Kyoto's targets. In return for signing up to another round of pledges, the EU wants all major polluters to agree to a legally binding regime for everyone to be negotiated by 2015.

The United States refused to join the Kyoto regime, which it said unfairly exempted major developing countries from any emissions constraints.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_sc/af_climate_conference

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Lions' Suh crashes car in Portland; not injured (AP)

PORTLAND, Ore. ? Police in Oregon say Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh crashed his car into a tree in downtown Portland, but was not injured.

Police say Suh was not impaired and was cooperative with officers following the accident at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday. Suh lost control of the 1970 Chevrolet Coupe he was driving, which then hit a curb, light pole, drinking fountain and tree. His vehicle was towed from the scene.

Suh had two passengers in the vehicle. They were not injured.

Suh is a graduate of Portland's Grant High School. He was the NFL's 2010 defensive rookie of the year. On Tuesday, the league suspended him for two games for stomping the arm of Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_suh_car_crash

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98% Le Havre

All Critics (50) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (1)

If the bummers and ambiguity of some of this season's movies are getting you down - or, hey, just the bummers and ambiguities of life - make your way to Le Havre. You won't be sorry.

The Finnish director's sense of humor is dry and dark as pitch, as he consistently finds moments of absurdity in the midst of strife and tragedy.

Kaurism?ki wrote the script, I think, with secret credit from Mother Goose and some fabric softener.

"Le Havre" is a small bit of movie magic, a story that plays more as a fable even as it deals with something as topical as immigration.

The film is especially comforting if you love old movies, as Kaurismaki does.

Does Kaurismaki believe in his own fairy tale? The movie, a humble delight, suggests the answer is yes.

Kaurismaki's movie about a shoeshine man and an illegal immigrant is nothing less than a joy

A wonderfully concise, unfussy movie; it is "easy" by the director's standards, which is to say that it doesn't leave any significant ellipses in the narrative up until the aggressively darling ending.

...an upbeat little tome that leaves a good feeling to the spirit.

Kaurism?ki can almost restore your hope in humanity.

Kaurismaki dives into French film culture in 'Le Havre'

You almost become a citizen of Le Havre, watching this film and rejoicing at the end as two newfound, unexpected friends share a drink.

It's a straightforward yet completely artificial scenario, with welcome overtones of Italian Neo-Realism.

Unlike the director's typical hero, Wilms's spare performance conveys confidence rather than defeat. He and the kid warm the heart, thawing Kaurism?ki's usual icy aplomb.

Heart-wrenching but ultimately inspirational.

Le Havre is not the filmmaker's best work (see La Vie de Boh?me for that), but no matter the storm, we should be grateful to dock in this port.

An easygoing story of human relationships with a sharp political comment about European immigration.

So breezy that once the film ends, it simply drifts away

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_havre_2011/

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Obama: 'Massive blow' if GOP blocks payroll tax (AP)

SCRANTON, Pa. ? Blending governing with re-election politics, President Barack Obama roused a cheering northeast Pennsylvania crowd Wednesday as he warned of a "massive blow to the economy" if Republicans block a payroll tax extension because of his insistence on a millionaires' tax.

Obama took to the road with a dual pitch for money, campaigning for more cash in the pockets of U.S. workers ? and for his campaign treasury as well.

Obama pressed his case at a campaign-style rally in working-class Scranton, Pa., where he said Republicans had to choose between lower taxes for the wealthy, or a payroll tax cut that would help working Americans. Republicans say they would support extending the payroll tax cut, but reject new taxes to offset the costs.

"Are you going to cut taxes for the middle class and those who are trying to get into the middle class, or are you going to protect massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires?" he said. "Are you going to ask a few hundred thousand people who have done very, very well to do their fair share or are you going to raise taxes for hundreds of millions of people across the country?"

Obama was traveling later Wednesday to donor-rich New York City to raise money for his already flush re-election bid, in a day illustrating the dual policy and political demands on the president as the 2012 campaign season nears.

The populist pitch in Scranton and the fundraisers in New York served as political bookends for the president. He first rallied the type of working-class crowd that would benefit from the tax cuts and then appealed for campaign contributions from donors, many of whom would be the ones to shoulder the tax increases Obama supports.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Republicans said they were prepared to extend the temporary payroll tax cut, but they opposed Democrats' plan to pay for it by taxing incomes over $1 million, setting up a showdown over how to find mutually acceptable savings of over $100 billion before any extension could become law. The GOP released a plan of their own that would raise money by freezing federal workforce salaries and means-testing government benefits instead.

The full payroll tax of 6.2 percent would be restored if Congress does not act by year's end, increasing taxes on 160 million Americans. Obama and the Democrats want to expand this year's 2 percentage point reduction in the payroll tax as well as extend, it while Republicans favor a straight extension.

"If Congress doesn't act to extend this tax cut then most of you, the typical middle-class family, is going to see your taxes go up by $1,000 at the worst possible time," Obama said.

Obama was welcomed warmly by a crowd of nearly 2,000 in the Scranton High School gym. At one point the president said that Republicans have sworn an oath not to raise taxes, prompting one man in the crowd to yell loudly: "Give us some names!"

In making a case for the consequences of letting the tax cut lapse, Obama offered a bleak assessment, telling his audience: "It would be tough for you. It would also be a massive blow for the economy because we're not fully out of the recession yet."

Technically, though, the recession ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonprofit group that determines the beginning and end of recessions. The downturn began in December 2007 and was the longest and deepest since World War II, costing the country about 7.5 million jobs.

The recovery has been unusually weak, but the economy is growing again. It expanded 2 percent in the July-September quarter.

In selecting Scranton to make his appeal, Obama ventured to the birthplace of Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bob Casey, the Pennsylvania Democrat who is the author of the payroll tax cut plan expected to come up for a vote in the Senate later this week.

Before making remarks, Obama sought to put a face on the beneficiaries of the payroll tax cut by stopping at the home of third-grade teacher Patrick Festa and his wife Donna, a graphic designer, in working-class South Scranton. The three chatted in the family's Christmas-decorated dining room, Obama inquiring about their work and their two high school-aged children.

Obama won Pennsylvania with 54 percent of the vote in 2008, but the fragile economy could put the state in play in 2012. Its proximity to Washington and its political importance have made it a favorite stopping place for Obama and Biden. The trip comes as Obama steps up his re-election campaign, rolling out two ads that call on supporters to begin to mobilize.

White House press secretary Jay Carney, while conceding that the re-election effort is under way, played down politics as a factor in Obama's Scranton visit.

"It's part of his responsibility, serving the American people, to get out and be among them and to speak with them about his agenda or her agenda," he said.

In New York, Obama was to attend three fundraisers: one at the home of businessman Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress, where tickets begin at $10,000; one at the Greenwich Village restaurant Gotham Bar and Grill at $35,800 per ticket; and a reception at the Sheraton Hotel, where tickets begin at $1,000. The money will be split between the Democratic National Committee and the Obama re-election campaign.

At Rosen's Upper East Side residence, Obama spoke of progress that has been made on restoring the economy.

"Bottom line is this: Over the past three years we've made progress. People aren't feeling all that progress so far because we had fallen so far. But the trajectory of the country at this point is sound," Obama said.

The president also was scheduled to attend a reception celebrating progress on gay rights and the six-month anniversary of New York's approval of gay marriage.

Obama has been supportive of gay and lesbian causes but has stopped short of declaring support for gay marriage.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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2 RI men plead not guilty to $25M investment fraud (AP)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. ? A Rhode Island estate planner and one of his former employees pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges they orchestrated a $25 million swindle of insurance companies and brokerage houses by stealing the identities of terminally ill and elderly people, including some they met by advertising offers for a $2,000 charitable gift in a Catholic newspaper.

Attorney and certified public accountant Joseph A. Caramadre, 49, and his former staffer, Raymour Radhakrishnan, 27, were released on $250,000 unsecured bond after pleading not guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence.

Caramadre called the allegations against him "baseless and unfounded."

"Nothing was taken from the terminally ill. There were no forgeries. There was no deception. Everyone benefited, especially those in need," said Caramadre, who attended his first court appearance with his family and a public relations aide.

Radhakrishnan, a law student in Massachusetts, declined to comment. Defense attorney Olin Thompson said Radhakrishnan is "greatly eager" to start the court process.

Federal prosecutors say the patients, their families and caregivers targeted for identity theft never knew Caramadre and Radhakrishnan stood to cash in on the deaths of their loved ones. They face a 66-count indictment charging them with conspiracy, multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, identity theft, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Caramadre is also accused of witness tampering. If convicted, they could be imprisoned for about 15 years, said Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams.

Caramadre is the president and CEO of Estate Planning Resources in Cranston, where he is a lifelong resident. Prosecutors allege he launched the scheme in 1995 and roped in Radhakrishnan when he was hired in 2007. In the mid-1990s, Caramadre targeted AIDS patients at Rhode Island compassion centers to carry out the scheme, the indictment said.

Prosecutors allege the men lied to terminally-ill patients and their families to access personal information so they could open joint investment accounts. They are also accused of forging signatures of the terminally-ill or obtaining them under false pretenses to open the accounts. When the person died, prosecutors allege Caramadre and others used their co-ownership position to exercise their options on the investments and turn a profit.

Federal officials investigated the fraud for two years. Caramadre's attorney Michael J. Lepizzera said he expects prosecutors to turn over 200,000 pages of evidence. Seven lawsuits have also been filed by insurance companies, Lepizzera said.

The indictment says the men regularly advertised an offer promising a $2,000 charitable gift to people with terminal illness in the newspaper Rhode Island Catholic. Radhakrishnan met with people who responded to the ad and provided them with money from Caramadre, prosecutors said. He told the families he worked for a philanthropist, the indictment said.

During these meetings, Radhakrishnan assessed whether he was meeting with someone who was close to death. If that was the case, authorities say, Radhakrishnan claimed Caramadre had more money waiting for them.

Radhakrishnan and Caramadre forged the signatures of the patients or lied to them about why their signatures were needed to get them to sign documents that opened variable annuities and brokerage accounts that purchased "death put" bonds in the victims' name, prosecutors said. A death put allows the beneficiary of a deceased person's estate to sell the bond back to the issuer if the beneficiary dies or becomes legally incapacitated.

Authorities allege Caramadre and others turned a profit by exercising the death benefits. More than 200 variable annuities and more than 75 brokerage accounts were purchased this way, authorities said.

In some cases, victims were told signatures were required to document Caramadre's charitable gift. Others were promised an account would be opened to benefit the survivors of the terminally ill person or other families grappling with terminal disease, prosecutors said.

Caramadre and Radhakrishnan are also accused of lying to insurance companies, brokerage houses and other corporations they did business with by claiming the patients were clients of Caramadre's law practice. Prosecutors claim the men also concealed the compensation patients received for opening annuities. The men lied about the victims' financial assets and investment experience and claimed the investment proceeds would go to the terminally ill, the indictment says.

Authorities also claim the financial institutions were told Caramadre had no ownership interest in the investments and that Caramadre paid for burial expenses at the request of the Catholic Church. That was false, authorities said.

Authorities say Caramadre told his investors he discovered a "loophole" that allowed patients to open variable annuities and co-own joint brokerage accounts used to purchase death put bonds. They accuse him of entering profit-sharing agreements with some outside investors but say Caramadre still received a significant percentage of the profits.

Prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture orders to seize property and luxury cars from Caramadre, including a 2005 Rolls-Royce Phantom, the indictment said

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_us/us_investment_fraud

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Britain seeks EU action on Iran as China urges calm (Reuters)

BRUSSELS/TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Britain urged the European Union on Thursday to tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, as China warned against "emotionally charged actions" that might aggravate a bitter row between London and Tehran.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague stressed that his call for tougher economic action against Iran - which might stretch to an oil embargo - had nothing to do with Tuesday's storming of the British embassy in Tehran by protesters.

But a leader of Iran's Basij militia, which joined hardline conservative students in ransacking the British mission, said he was tired of decades of British "plotting" against his country.

Hague was expected to lead the push for the tighter sanctions when EU foreign ministers map out their response to a report the U.N. nuclear watchdog issued last month which suggested Iran has worked on designing an atom bomb.

"I hope we will agree today additional measures that will be an intensification of the economic pressure on Iran, peaceful legitimate economic pressure, particularly to increase the isolation of the Iranian financial sector," he told reporters.

Britain shut down Iran's embassy in London and expelled all its staff on Wednesday, saying the incursion into the British mission in Tehran could not have taken place without the consent of Iranian Islamic authorities.

Hague denied a link between the embassy storming and the EU's reaction to the International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful.

"I stress that the measures I hope we will agree today are related to the Iranian nuclear program. These are not measures in reaction to what has happened to our embassy," he told BBC radio before the Brussels meeting.

Britain withdrew all its diplomatic staff from Iran and EU

diplomats who visited the embassy in central Tehran told Reuters of devastating damage to buildings.

"I saw two rooms where you couldn't see what they were. There was just ashes ... It was devastating to see," one said.

"You could tell the action was coordinated," he added, saying a building that had not been used for years was untouched, while the most important offices were gutted.

Britain's uneasy relations with Iran date from long before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In Iran, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi of the Basij militia said Iranians "were tired of decades of London's plots against Tehran," the official IRNA news agency reported.

STAY RATIONAL, CALM AND RESTRAINED

With the diplomatic temperature rising, Beijing issued an appeal for cool heads. "China hopes that the relevant parties can remain rational, calm and restrained, to avoid emotionally charged actions that could intensify the dispute," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

"Countries should ... focus on the long term and the big picture. When encountering issues and conflicts, they should resolve problems through dialogue and consultations," Hong told reporters during a regular press briefing.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, citing intelligence reports, said last month that Iran appeared to have conducted research and experiments relevant to developing an atom bomb and may still be pursuing work to that end.

The nuclear program has raised the question of whether Israel might take military action against arch-foe Iran.

In Jerusalem, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said an Israeli attack was not imminent but all options remained open to stop what Israel sees as an Iranian bid to develop nuclear weapons.

"We have no intention, at the moment, of taking action, but the State of Israel is far from being paralyzed by fear," Barak told Israel Radio. "It must act calmly and quietly -- we don't need big wars."

NEW STEPS

Some of the EU's new steps to isolate Iran have already been agreed, including the addition of 180 names to a list of people and entities targeted by pan-European sanctions, an EU official said. But proposals for a sledgehammer embargo on Iranian oil imports remain contentious and the EU's top energy official said all EU 27 members would need to back a possible ban.

"We need a common position of all European Union member states," Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told Reuters on a visit to Moscow when asked about a possible ban.

His comments suggested that an effective oil embargo may not be workable. EU members take 450,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, some 18 percent of the Islamic Republic's exports.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had proposed the oil import ban and won backing from Britain, but resistance from other countries persists.

An embargo might boost global crude oil prices during hard economic times. And debt-strapped Greece has been relying on Iranian oil, which comes with an attractive financing offer.

Diplomats say the foreign ministers may not reach an agreement on any embargo yet, but discussions could be finalized next week, when EU heads of government meet on December 8-9.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he was prepared to agree to a crude oil embargo, but questioned the effectiveness of such a measure.

"I am prepared to go along with that," he told reporters. "I don't think it will necessarily have that much of an effect because of the nature of the global oil market."

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, Robin Pomeroy in Tehran, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, David Brunnstrom, Ilona Wissenbach and Sebastian Moffett in Brussels, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Tim Castle in London; Writing by David Stamp; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/wl_nm/us_iran_sanctions_eu

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