Developer Is Building An App Store For Banned Android Apps

cyanogenmodAn Android developer by the name of Kousik Dutta is building an alternative Android app store which will house the apps that have been banned from Google's official Android Market. These will include the custom ROMs (customized versions of the Android OS), classic gaming emulators pulled due to copyright complaints, unofficial tethering apps removed at the behest of mobile operators, Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and more.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mhDRGV2_cZA/

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Israeli strike kills 1 in Gaza (AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? Israeli forces on Wednesday attacked a group of suspected Palestinian militants believed to have been planting a bomb along Gaza's border with the Jewish state, the Israeli military said. Palestinian officials said that one person was killed and three injured.

Gaza's militant Hamas rulers said the victims were all civilians and threatened retaliation, raising the prospect of a new exchange of attacks across the volatile border.

Ihab Ghussein, spokesman for Hamas' Interior Ministry, called the strike a "desperate attempt" by Israel. "The Ministry of Interior and all its security forces are ready to deal with any new escalation," he said.

The Israeli military said aircraft and tanks participated in the attack after the militants were spotted along the border. "An explosion was identified, originating from the explosive device the terrorists attempted to plant," it said.

Gaza's Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said one man was killed and three were wounded, one critically. He did not know whether the victims were civilians or militants, but relatives of the dead man said he had been unarmed.

Hamas, a militant group that opposes peace with Israel, has controlled Gaza since taking over the territory from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Israel and Hamas have largely honored a truce since a fierce Israeli military offensive in Gaza three years ago. But smaller militant groups continue to battle Israel along the border, and fire rockets into southern Israel.

Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all violence emanating from the seaside strip.

___

Josef Federman contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

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MEMC Struggles to Shine in a Gloomy Solar Market (The Motley Fool)

MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR - News), a supplier of silicon wafers to solar and semiconductor manufacturers, is planning to restructure its business, which would involve slashing its workforce by 20%, or 1,300 jobs. In addition, the company plans to put some of its facilities on hold in order to ride the slump in the renewable-energy sector.

Weak demand along with painfully low silicon prices in the semiconductor and solar industry are driving the changes. The restructuring would help the company trim its operating costs and strengthen its operating cash flows for the near term. Let's take a look at the company's latest third-quarter figures.

Woeful figures
The latest quarterly results were highly disappointing, with a 31% sequential fall in MEMC's top line and a net loss of $94.4 million.

But it's not just MEMC that's facing the heat. Industry peers like LDK Solar and ReneSola have also witnessed sharp falls in revenue as well as profitability margins. This is forcing them to either cut capacity or close up shop altogether.

MEMC's restructuring process is expected to cost the company $700 million in the fourth quarter. As part of its restructuring plan, it will also cut the capacity of its Portland, Ore., crystal facility and leave idle its polysilicon facility in Merano, Italy.

Apart from this, MEMC would also combine its solar material facility, which is struggling at present, with its SunEdison solar development unit. The hope is to improve efficiency and expand in the solar sector, which is considered less vulnerable to price swings, barring the present slowdown.

Facing the heat
Polysilicon prices have witnessed a tremendous crash since manufacturers raced to raise their production capacity when prices were at loftier levels of $500 per kilogram. Since then, the price has plunged over the years to as little as $25.

To make matters worse, the solar energy market in Europe is facing sunstroke as subsidies have started to shrink, thus adversely affecting demand. Moreover, Chinese competitors are relentlessly dumping their cheap products, causing prices to go southward.

The Foolish bottom line
After MEMC burned its hands with falling polysilicon prices, its restructuring initiative is definitely a welcome change. With its exit from the bottomless pit of solar materials, the company can now focus on restoring the stability of its margins and its business as a whole. So what do you Fools think about the company? Leave your comments in the box below.

Keki Fatakia does not hold shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/semiconductor/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/fool/20120118/bs_fool_fool/rx174512

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Billionaire donates for Washington Monument repairs

A billionaire history buff has stepped forward to donate the $7.5 million matching gift that's needed to start repairing cracks near the top of the Washington Monument from last summer's East Coast earthquake.

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Businessman David Rubenstein told The Associated Press he was inspired to help fund the repairs to the 555-foot obelisk when it became clear how severely damaged it was by a 5.8-magnitude quake on Aug. 23. The monument received about 1 million visitors a year before the famous landmark was closed to the public after the quake.

The Park Service hopes to have a contractor begin work by the end of August. The repair work is expected to take a year to complete, likely keeping the monument closed for two years.

Largest gift
Congress allocated $7.5 million in December on the condition that private donations would match that amount. The National Park Service and nonprofit Trust for the National Mall are expected to announce Rubenstein's gift Thursday morning. It will be the largest gift to the nonprofit group, which aims to raise $350 million to restore the mall's grounds and facilities.

The combined $15 million in public and private funds is expected to cover the cost of repairing damage directly caused by the quake, said National Park Service spokeswoman Carol Johnson. Repairing water damage will cost more, as would a seismic study or reinforcements to strengthen the obelisk against future earthquakes, she said.

Rubenstein, a co-founder of The Carlyle Group, began building the private equity firm's business in Washington and said he wanted to restore a symbol of the nation and hasten repairs to reopen the landmark.

"This Washington Monument is probably one of the most recognizable buildings in the United States next to the Capitol and the Empire State Building," he said. "It could use a little repair work, and I wanted people to get to see it as soon as possible."

Experts have noted the monument needs more than just a little repair work, though it has been deemed structurally sound.

Extensive repairs needed
The August quake was centered some 40 miles west of Richmond, Va., and felt from Canada to Georgia. It damaged the Washington National Cathedral, where pieces of mortar rained down from its vaulted ceiling. At the Washington Monument, panicked visitors fled down flights of stairs on the day of the big shake, but there were no known deaths or serious injuries in the region.

The earthquake caused numerous cracks to form in the obelisk, which was the tallest man-made structure in the world when it was completed in 1884.

Surveillance video taken the day of the quake and later released by the park service showed the spire shaking violently. Daylight could be seen through some of the cracks, the largest of which was reported to be at least 4 feet long and about an inch wide.

A report in December recommended extensive repairs and reinforcements to preserve the spire. It said some marble panels were cracked all the way through near the top portion of the monument. Cracks near its peak also have left the monument vulnerable to water damage from rain, engineers noted.

Last fall, daredevil engineers on a "difficult access team" rappelled from the top to conduct a visual inspection of the exterior of the obelisk.

Officials said it's unclear whether the work will require scaffolding to be built around the monument, similar to what was erected during a restoration project from 1999 to 2001.

'A true patriot'
Caroline Cunningham, president of the Trust for the National Mall, called Rubenstein "a true patriot" and said his gift "demonstrates how much people care about this space." She said it should serve as an example for other philanthropists.

There has long been talk of sprucing up the mall at the heart of the nation's capital.

A design competition is under way to develop ways to improve the mall, including the Washington Monument grounds. Finalists will be chosen in May, and the group will seek funding for each project. The nonprofit group has targeted parts of the mall that are run down from over use and neglect as a focus for its restoration efforts.

Rubenstein has made large gifts in recent years to Washington's cultural institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.

The monument, which he visited recently, was built with private $1 donations eventually totaling over $1 million, Rubenstein said. Construction began in 1848, but funds ran out during the Civil War when the monument was left as an embarrassing stump for years. It was finally completed in 1884 and was the world's tallest man-made structure until it was eclipsed by the Eiffel Tower. It remains the tallest structure in Washington.

Rubenstein owns a copy of the Magna Carta, among other historical documents, and reveres George Washington.

"I like to remind people about American history," Rubenstein said. "George Washington is an incredible figure. When he was the head of the Revolutionary War Army, he could have stayed on as really the head of the government when we won the Revolutionary War, but he put down his arms."

___

Trust for the National Mall: http://www.nationalmall.org

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46050494/ns/us_news-giving/

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Tomlinson says Jets' turmoil was worst he's seen

(AP) ? LaDainian Tomlinson says the tension between New York Jets players that fractured the locker room this season was "as bad as I've ever been around, honestly."

In an interview with Showtime's "Inside The NFL" airing Wednesday night, the running back says the turmoil started in the third or fourth week and "got out of hand toward the end of the season." Tomlinson adds that quarterback Mark Sanchez and wide receiver Santonio Holmes, in particular, had a rocky relationship.

Holmes was benched during the season finale at Miami after arguing in the huddle with teammates. Tomlinson says the tensions escalated to the point where the players couldn't do anything about it.

He adds that the problems "absolutely" can be fixed, but the Jets need "to make some tough decisions."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-18-Jets-Tomlinson/id-91bb02a7933c4eb1aaab1fb66987efc4

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Djokovic, Kvitova advance; Stosur out in 1st round (AP)

MELBOURNE, Australia ? U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur crashed out in the first round of the Australian Open in straight sets Tuesday in a crushing blow for local fans desperate to end a long drought at the national championship.

Sixth-seeded Stosur lost 7-6 (2), 6-3 to No. 59-ranked Sorana Cirstea of Romania to continue her terrible run on home soil since beating Serena Williams to capture her first Grand Slam title in New York last September.

Stosur has had one win in three tournaments on home soil in 2012.

She saved three match points while serving to stay in the match, but finally lost it when her looping forehand drifted over the baseline to hush the Rod Laver Arena crowd on the second day of the tournament.

No Australian has won the national title since Chris O'Neil in 1978.

Stosur's first-round loss mirrors that of Petra Kvitova, who went out in the first round of last year's U.S. Open after winning Wimbledon.

"I'm not sure if it's one of my biggest matches, but it feels like that now," said Cirstea, who had lost both her previous matches against Stosur.

"Probably the whole country hates me now."

Novak Djokovic won the men's U.S. Open, one of his three Grand Slam titles in 2011. Anyone who didn't know it only had to look at his shoes on Tuesday ? if his emphatic first-round win wasn't evidence enough.

Djokovic started his Australian Open defense with a 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 win over Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, wearing a pair of red-white-and-blue shoes with images of his three major trophies on the sides and a Serbian flag on the heels.

He gave up an early break but immediately broke back at love as he won the next 17 games, saving a break point in the opening game of the second set.

"It was a great performance for (my) first official match of the 2012 season," said the top-ranked Djokovic, whose only lost at a Grand Slam tournament last year was in the French Open semifinals.

He changed his buildup for the Australian Open this year, deciding not to play any warmup tournaments. He was confident it wouldn't harm his chances.

"I'm nowadays a more complete player. I feel physically I'm stronger, I move better. I serve better," he said. "Especially having 2011 the way I had, this gives me more confidence."

The 24-year-old Serb has won two Australian titles ? including his first major in 2008 ? and his game is well suited to the pace of the hard court. But he struggled at times with the heat at Melbourne Park before his breakthrough season last year and didn't always look comfortable against Lorenzi as the temperature hit 90 degrees in the first set.

It didn't stop him from entertaining his fans, though. He played a shot between his legs, with his back to the net, to set up a break point chance in the fourth game of the third set which brought the crowd to its feet.

Also on the women's side, second-ranked Kvitova and No. 4 Maria Sharapova advanced with lopsided wins.

After surrendering her opening service game with a double-fault, Kvitova won 12 consecutive games in a 6-2, 6-0 win over Russia's Vera Dushevina.

Kvitova reached the quarterfinals here last year at the start of a season in which she surged up the rankings.

Last week, she missed a chance to overhaul Caroline Wozniacki's No. 1 ranking when she lost in the Sydney International semifinals. She needed to win the Sydney tournament to take the top ranking.

But she gets another chance at Melbourne Park, where she's one of six women who can finish No. 1.

Sharapova, a former Australian Open and Wimbledon champion, won the first eight games of a 6-0, 6-1 win over Gisela Dulko of Argentina in her first match since returning from an left ankle injury.

The 2008 champion needed just 58 minutes for the win and the only game she lost was on her own serve. She then saved three break points in the last game before serving out the match.

"I've been here for 14 days getting used to the conditions," Sharapova said. "Back in the heat now, but it was like winter before. Different preparation, but sometimes it's just the way it goes."

Other women advancing included No. 14 Sabine Lisicki, No. 17 Dominika Cibulkova, No. 27 Maria Kirilenko, Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak, Shahar Peer of Israel and 2000 Wimbledon semifinalist Jelena Dokic.

Men's No. 5 seed David Ferrer advanced in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, over Rui Machado of Portugal. No. 17 Richard Gasquet, No. 23 Milos Raonic of Canada, No. 24 Kei Nishikori of Japan and No. 32 Alex Bogomolov Jr., now representing Russia, also advanced. Germany's Philipp Petzschner routed Czech Republic's Lukas Rosol 6-0, 6-0, 6-2 to advance.

Serena Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam winner, will play a night match on Tuesday against Tamira Paszek. She didn't get to defend her title last year because of injury and comes into the season's first major with concern over her left ankle, which she twisted at a tuneup tournament in Brisbane earlier this month.

Rafael Nadal, who lost his No. 1 ranking and six finals to Djokovic last year, wondered if he'd even be able to play his first-round match at the Australian Open on Monday after his right knee cracked and cramped and caused him "unbelievable pain" on the eve of the tournament.

He already had plenty on his mind going into the year's first Grand Slam tournament. There was his ailing shoulder and his rift with Roger Federer over player conditions on the tour, a rare clash between these respectful rivals that has since been smoothed over.

After hours of medical tests and treatment, Nadal decided to play but was "scared" when he took the court against American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov. Judging by the scoreline, the outcome looked very matter of fact: Nadal won 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.

Third-seeded Federer started his bid for a 17th major title with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over Alexander Kudryavtsev of Russia, showing no signs of a back problem which forced him out of a Doha tournament earlier this month.

Defending champion Kim Clijsters and French Open winner Li Na, who lost to Clijsters in last year's Australian final, also advanced on Monday along with Wozniacki.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_sp_te_ga_su/ten_australian_open

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White House comments on SOPA, won't support harmful legislation (Digital Trends)

stop-sopa-pipa

Yesterday brought some good news for opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and other in-process legislation intended for use as a weapon against cyber-criminals. The official online voice of the White House ran a lengthy blog post detailing ?what the Administration will support?and what we will not support? if/when bills like SOPA and PIPA pass through Congress and land on President Barack Obama?s Oval Office desk.

The blog, penned by intellectual property enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel, U.S. chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra and National Security Staff cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, clearly states at the outset that the White House ?will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.? There?s no outright statement that SOPA will not be signed into law in its current form, but it?s strongly implied.

The blog post instead urges critics and lawmakers on all sides to come together in reasoned discussion, insisting ? not incorrectly ? that online piracy is a real issue which must be addressed. ?That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response,? the blog post reads. ?We should never let criminals hide behind a hollow embrace of legitimate American values.?

In related news, The Hill reports that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor won?t vote on SOPA specifically until a consensus has been reached. A statement from House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa reads, ?While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House. Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote.?

The controversial bill continues to be the subject of heavy discussion on the Internet. This week, on January 18, a number of prominent websites ? including Reddit ? will ?go dark? to support continued resistance to the bill.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Exclusive: Capcom confirms support for SOPA [Update: Epic Games denounces SOPA]

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120115/tc_digitaltrends/whitehousecommentsonsopawontsupportharmfullegislation

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Neglected Kazakh oil region reflects on mutiny (Reuters)

AKTAU, Kazakhstan (Reuters) ? Alexander Pyastlov spends most of his time among heaps of paper in his cramped, Soviet-built apartment. The retired engineer is proud of his one-man mission: to defend the oil workers fired in the prelude to Kazakhstan's deadliest unrest in decades.

The 72-year-old Aktau resident spent his working life in a uranium-processing plant. He never trained as a lawyer, but complains no legal professional is willing to take on the cases of the forgotten oilmen of this western Kazakh province.

Forgotten, that is, until a protest simmering for seven months in the nearby town of Zhanaozen erupted into clashes with riot police that killed at least 16 people exactly a month ago.

Police used live rounds on crowds that set local government and oil company headquarters ablaze, sabotaging a concert that was supposed to celebrate 20 years of independence. Residents told of relatives being beaten and grabbed from the streets.

For a fleeting moment, outside observers began to draw parallels with Arab spring revolutions.

Was Nursultan Nazarbayev, leader of Kazakhstan since before independence in 1991, revered in fairy tales and with his very own public holiday, about to become the next authoritarian leader toppled by a popular insurrection?

In Mangistau, residents pin blame on the police, the oil companies, local and national government, the ruling party in the distant, glitzy capital and their unequal distribution of oil wealth. No-one seems ready to blame the president.

"If oil company bosses had respected his orders, this would never have occurred," said Pyastlov. "Kazakhstan is a good country. If something doesn't work properly, it's often because the president's orders are not implemented."

Nazarbayev is genuinely popular among most of Kazakhstan's 16.7 million people, even though public shows of affection are orchestrated. When a few hundred oil workers protested in Aktau last month, several thousand metal workers held pro-Nazarbayev rallies elsewhere.

A local human rights worker in Aktau, Alexander Mukha, said the protests in Mangistau region were "purely a labor dispute."

"Most of the population didn't support the oilmen," he said. "Nazarbayev's authority is indisputable here."

Nazarbayev said after a weekend parliamentary election nearly 70 percent of voters in Zhanaozen had cast their ballots for Nur Otan.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said on Monday, however, the elections limited the number of genuine opposition parties and restricted candidate eligibility. Media, it said, were shackled by self-censorship. No Kazakh election has ever been declared free and fair by the OSCE.

However deep his popularity runs, 71-year-old Nazarbayev, who has no obvious successor, is not greatly tolerant of personal criticism.

SHATTERED TRUST

Disdain for authority runs deep among the rebellious citizens of Mangistau, a low-lying semi-arid region that washes the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

In June 1989, when the Soviet Union still existed, fighting in Zhanaozen pitted ethnic Kazakhs against settlers from the Caucasus region across the sea. At least five died before the Kremlin sent elite troops to stop the killing.

This time around, Nazarbayev, a Soviet-era Communist Party boss, sent his own troops in to restore calm to the mutinous town of 90,000 people about 150 km (95 miles) inland from Aktau.

A state of emergency remains in place. Weekend voters cast their ballots in a school next to a burnt-out electronics store. On the streets, black-clad police carried Kalashnikov rifles and cars snaked through the slush between concrete roadblocks.

It took Nazarbayev nearly a week to arrive in Zhanaozen after the violence. He summarily fired officials, including his son-in-law and the heads of two state-run oil companies, and ordered that work be found for nearly 2,000 redundant oilmen.

Alik Aidarbayev, the new chief executive of oil company KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, said more than 1,700 workers had already been offered jobs at two new affiliated firms created especially for them in Aktau and Zhanaozen.

It will be extremely difficult, however, to restore shattered trust among the Zhanaozen workers whose red-and-blue overalls became symbolic of the protests.

Injustice burns within many who lost loved ones, or whose pleas for work found little support beyond the town's fortified boundaries. On polling day, most people were afraid to speak to reporters whose movements were controlled by officials.

"They threw a humiliating job at me. I still don't know what my wages will be," said one who did, a former employee of Uzenmunaigas, the local unit of KazMunaiGas EP in Zhanaozen.

Too scared of repercussions to identify himself by name, the man in his 20s said he had been detained and beaten by police on the day of the riot. His two friends nodded, declining to speak.

"People are afraid to go out on the streets after 7 o' clock in the evening," he said. "Our problems have not been resolved."

Foreign journalists were obliged by the authorities to leave Zhanaozen after voting had finished.

'WE TREASURE WHAT WE HAVE'

The tough methods of a leader known to many as "Papa" find favour with many across a mainly Muslim country four times the size of Texas. Stability and peace between more than 130 ethnic groups settled on Kazakh soil is the mantra of his popularity.

Especially when your frame of reference is Central Asia, a region where the authoritarian rule of many nearby states is harsher. Neither do Kazakhs envy the exception, Kyrgyzstan, and its recent history of revolution and ethnic bloodshed.

"In Kazakhstan, life is better and wages are higher than in its neighbors," said Matlyuba Kapparova, a 28-year-old teacher and a postgraduate student who moved to Aktau from Uzbekistan.

"We aren't rich yet, but thanks a lot for what we have already. Please don't rock our boat."

Aigul, 48, moved to wealthier Aktau from the southern city of Shymkent. Despite her hopes of a more prosperous life, she ekes out a living by selling Chinese-made socks at a market.

Poor as she is, she is proud of Kazakhstan's fast economic growth. Per capita GDP rivals that of Turkey or Mexico and is more than 10 times higher than across the border in Kyrgyzstan.

"We live better than the others in the region," she said. "As for ordinary people, not much changes really: the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

"The main thing is that Nazarbayev has a strong team. Those who went on strike protested against their bosses, not him."

WEAK OPPOSITION

Western monitors say voters were offered little choice in the weekend election, with genuine opposition excluded from an election that broke the one-party monopoly of Nur Otan.

"And what about the opposition?" said Mukha, the head of the Mangistau branch of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law. "I can neither see nor hear it. The population is very conservative here."

He criticized opposition leaders, most of whom are based nearly 3,000 km (1,875 miles) away in the commercial capital Almaty, for only paying attention to the region when the strike by oil workers began.

"In a civil society, opposition parties work all the time. In Kazakhstan, they only become active before elections."

Back in his squalid apartment block, where the courtyards reek of garbage, Pyastlov switches on his computer and prepares more complaints to send to the local courts. He says he has managed a handful of victories in proving sackings were illegal.

"This was purely a labor dispute, not even a strike, because the workers acted spontaneously," he said. "They weren't organized and they didn't even have a proper strike committee. Despair pushes them to come to me to seek justice."

Won't the opposition help?

"I wouldn't advise workers to listen to the opposition, which tries to use any fault for its selfish goals. There's no real opposition in Kazakhstan; just one, unending squeal."

(Writing by Robin Paxton)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/wl_nm/us_kazakhstan_election_nazarbayev

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More snow in store for Midwest, Northeast

Much of the country is in a deep freeze after unseasonably warm weather. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

By Jonathan Erdman, weather.com

As we kick off a new week, we may have a sense of deja vu from the Upper Midwest to northern New England.

"We're beginning to see the pattern across the northern United States become a bit more active now," says Tom Niziol, Winter Weather Expert for The Weather Channel. "There's a combination of more storm tracks going across the northern U.S. and Great Lakes and cold air being pulled down from Canada. That combination spells the return of winter."


Niziol has been tracking winter weather, and lake effect snow in particular, for decades. He was formerly the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Buffalo.

So, let's lay out what we know about this next wintry threat.

Monday, the system will just be in its "organizing stages".

Light rain and drizzle will spread northward from the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley. By afternoon and evening, light rain (mainly south) or snow (north) will spread into the interior Northeast.

Meanwhile, light snow may swing out of the Rockies Monday into the Plains and Upper Midwest by Monday night.

Tuesday, it gets a bit more interesting.

Low pressure then tracks into the Great Lakes. With cold air in place, we expect a swath of accumulating snow in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes into northern New England and Upstate New York. Sound familiar?

5-Day Forecasts: Chicago | Milwaukee | Burlington, Vt. | Your location

At this time, here is the latest thinking on rough snowfall accumulation potential:

6"+ potential Lake Ontario snowbelt to northern Vt., northern N.H., northwest Maine
2-4" Lake Erie snowbelt, Mohawk Valley of N.Y., central/northeast Maine
1-2" western Great Lakes

Strong winds may lead to reduced visibility and blowing snow by Wednesday morning in northern New England, creating difficult driving conditions.

For the I-95 urban corridor, you may see some wet snowflakes fall Monday night, but by Tuesday, that should change to rain. Only spotty slushy accumulations over a trace are possible in southern New England. Some light freezing drizzle or freezing rain may fall for a period of time in valley locations from northeast Pennsylvania to western Massachusetts, as well.

5-Day Forecasts: Boston | Hartford | New York | Your location

One other concern may be another "flash freeze" event in parts of the Ohio Valley, then interior Northeast Tuesday into early Wednesday, whereby wet pavement from earlier rain freezes after the Arctic cold front sweeps through. You can see this potential by comparing the Tuesday forecast highs to the Wednesday forecast lows below.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/15/10160837-more-snow-and-rain-in-store-for-midwest-northeast

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