KWANZAA: HOLIDAY BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FBI

Is it just me, or does Kwanzaa seem to come earlier and earlier each year? And let's face it, Kwanzaa's gotten way too commercialized.
A few years ago, I suspended my annual Kwanzaa column because my triumph over this fake holiday seemed complete. The only people still celebrating Kwanzaa were presidential-statement writers and white female public school teachers.
But it seems to be creeping back. A few weeks ago, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., complained about having to stick around Washington for fiscal cliff negotiations by accusing Republicans of not caring about "families" coming together to bond during Kwanzaa. The private schools have picked up this PC nonsense from the public schools. (Soon, no one will know anything.)
It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga -- aka Dr. Maulana Karenga -- founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers. He was also a dupe of the FBI.
In what was ultimately a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s, the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the group, the better.
By that criterion, Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police.
Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution (although some of their most high-profile leaders were drug dealers and murderers). Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves.
United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" are currently in prison?)
It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglika," which he based on the philosophy of "Mein Kampf" -- and clueless public school teachers began celebrating the made-up, racist holiday.
Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear.
Curiously, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the forces out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included: "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department" and so on. Karenga should know about FBI infiltration. (He further noted that the evidence against O.J. "was not strong enough to prohibit or eliminate unreasonable doubt" -- an interesting standard of proof.)
In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the '70s, Karenga was quick to criticize rumors that black radicals were government-supported. When Nigerian newspapers claimed that some American black radicals were CIA operatives, Karenga publicly denounced the idea, saying, "Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents."
Now we know that the FBI fueled the bloody rivalry between the Panthers and United Slaves. In one barbarous outburst, Karenga's United Slaves shot to death two Black Panthers on the UCLA campus: Al "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins. Karenga himself served time, a useful stepping-stone for his current position as a black studies professor at California State University at Long Beach.
Karenga's invented holiday is a nutty blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. The seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming legacy of the Worst Generation.
In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani -- the exact same seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.
Kwanzaa praises collectivism in every possible area of life -- economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ("Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.") It takes a village to raise a police snitch.
When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from "classical Marxism," he essentially said that, under Kawaida, we also hate whites. (Kawaida, Kwanzaa and Kuumba are also the only three Kardashian sisters not to have their own shows on the E! network.)
While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" -- excluding, one hopes, the forced abortions, imprisonment of homosexuals and forced labor -- Karenga said Kawaida practitioners believe one's racial identity "determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding." There's an inclusive philosophy for you.
Kwanzaa was the result of a '60s psychosis grafted onto the black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves -- the violence, the Marxism, the insanity.
Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, they have forgotten the FBI's tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa.
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Connecticut Job Shops and Contract Manufacturers Join the MFG.com Manufacturing Marketplace

Connecticut manufacturers prove to be uniquely qualified for entrance into the largest global manufacturing ecosystem.

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) December 18, 2012
MFG.com, the world’s largest online manufacturing marketplace for made-to-order parts, announced that prominent Connecticut-based manufacturers have joined the MFG.com marketplace.
A few of the recent additions include:

Perfection Screw & Rivet Co. is an ISO 9001:2008 certified, family-owned cold heading job shop located in Wolcott, CT. With a foundation of quality customer service, cost reduction and employee education, Perfection Screw & Rivet Co. has an impeccable record of satisfying customers. Capabilities include fasteners and hardware, machining, rapid prototyping, cold forming, cold headed parts, cold head machining, cold form parts, screws, rivets and knurling.
Windmade Products is a turn-key powder coating, sheet metal fabrication and machining service provider. As the exclusive manufacturer of Neumade Products, Windmade Products is a leading provider of high quality projection room equipment for the cinema industry. Windmade Products services a wide variety of industries and customers throughout the Northeast with a simple commitment to provide quality work, at a competitive price, delivered on time and in full. Capabilities and services include in-house powder coating, sheet metal fabrication, machining, assembly, kitting, warehousing and fulfillment.
Nerjan Development Co. is a family-owned, AS 9100, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 9001:2008 certified precision CNC milling and turning electro mechanical assembly job shop located in Stamford, CT. Established in 1967, Nerjan Development Co. provides manual and CNC milling, turning, and drilling to meet customer specifications. Nerjan machines a wide variety of metals and plastics to sensitive and accurate dimensions.
Shearwater Engineering & Manufacturing LLC (S.E.A.M.) is located in Brooklyn, CT and has been providing manufacturing valves and components for 35 years. Their experience with valve assemblies for the marine and aerospace industries has been extended to power plants, paper mills, railroads, waste management plants and hydraulic manifolds for machines. S.E.A.M. specializes in the manufacturing of complex, controlled geometric parts. By utilizing state-of-the-art programming technology, they have achieved superior results in the processing and machining of strategic materials such as Monel, Inconel, and titanium, as well as the normal alloys of steel and aluminum.
“We are proud to announce the acceptance of these quality suppliers from Connecticut into the MFG.com marketplace. By introducing companies like Perfection Screw & Rivet Co., Windmade Products, Nerjan Development Co. and Shearwater Engineering & Manufacturing into our marketplace, buyers and sourcing professionals are further reassured that they can trust the suppliers in the MFG.com marketplace,” said Mitch Free, Founder and CEO of MFG.com. “MFG.com is excited to work with these suppliers from Connecticut to help them grow their businesses and develop win-win customer relationships with our buyer members.”
About MFG.com

MFG.com is the largest online marketplace for the manufacturing industry, facilitating interaction between buyers and manufacturers. MFG.com enables sourcing professionals and engineers to quickly and easily locate quality suppliers for CNC Machining, Injection Molding, Metal Stamping, Metal Fabrication and many other processes through an easy-to-use online marketplace. With more than $115 billion in RFQs passing through the marketplace, MFG.com has helped thousands of manufacturers - ranging from small machine shops to large conglomerates - increase sales and grow profits. MFG.com is a global business, with offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Mexico.
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Vint Cerf, Award-Winning Computer Scientist and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, Joins TruthMarket™ Board of Advisors

Dr. Vint Cerf, one of the true “Fathers of the Internet,” an international authority on digital communications and outspoken advocate for a free and open Internet adds global perspective to TruthMarket’s Platform for Crowd-funding Public Challenges to False Political, Commercial and Science Claims.

Atherton, California (PRWEB) December 18, 2012
Today Truth Seal Corp. announced that Vinton G. Cerf, Ph.D. has joined the TruthMarket™ Board of Advisors. TruthMarket is an online Marketplace for Truth Telling™. It provides ordinary citizens with a platform to “crowd-fund” and execute grass roots campaigns that publicly expose misrepresentations and false political, commercial and science claims, while highlighting true claims and offering cash rewards to successful campaign creators, sponsors and challengers.
Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Dr. Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He is known for his pioneering insights and innovative contributions to technologies that further advance the Internet and its important role is fostering open, global dialogue. Explaining his decision to join the TruthMarket Board of Advisors, Dr. Cerf notes that, “in a world of false dichotomies and factual denial, the TruthMarket concept seems set to clear away the fog of uninformed debate."
“We’re very enthusiastic about Dr. Cerf joining our Board of Advisors. He will be adding important philosophical and technological insights to a growing cadre of reputable experts committed to challenging manipulative speech, false claims and distorted facts,” said Rick Hayes-Roth, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Truth Seal. “Dr. Cerf’s contributions to the culture of modern communication and his insightful positions have attracted a strong following of like-minded people supportive of truth in public affairs. We look forward to having them participate in TruthMarket campaigns."
“Truth Seal has been actively recruiting reputable authorities like Dr. Cerf for the Board of Advisors,” stated Mark L. Feldman, Ph.D., Board Member and investor. “Advisors known for their high integrity are important to TruthMarket’s mission to increase truth and trust throughout the information space.” Feldman adds that "more announcements of public figures joining the TruthMarket Board of Advisors can be expected."
About Vinton G. Cerf, Ph.D.
Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. Cerf has held positions at MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, DARPA, Stanford University, UCLA and IBM. Vint Cerf is president of ACM and served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and was founding president of the Internet Society. Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," he received the U.S. National Medal of Technology in 1997, the Marconi Fellowship in 1998 and the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004. In November 2005, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in April 2008 the Japan Prize. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and AAAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Computer History Museum and the National Academy of Engineering. Cerf holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Stanford University and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from UCLA and holds over 20 honorary degrees from universities around the world.
About TruthMarket
TruthMarket is a division of Truth Seal, a California Corporation. TruthMarket is designed to be popular online platform that enables everyone to campaign for truth in public dialogue. The primary objective is to increase truth and trust throughout the public information space – online and offline – by publicly exposing false claims and highlighting true claims. TruthMarket’s ultimate goal is to predispose all public dialogue toward truth telling.
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Alibaba Becomes Largest e-Commerce Company - Impact for Retail Brands

Simon Jackson, chief commercial officer at brand protection company NetNames, comments on the news that Alibaba has become the largest ecommerce company in the world.

(PRWEB UK) 18 December 2012
“The news that Chinese online marketplace Alibaba has become the largest ecommerce company in the world has important implications for brand owners in the retail and consumer goods industries. The fact that Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume of $157 billion, for just two if its sites, adds up to more than Amazon and eBay combined shows China’s exponential growth into the world’s biggest retail market and reveals just how much retail traffic is moving online.
However, these spectacular figures, bring in to focus the growing threat of counterfeit products available online. Netnames is working in partnership with Alibaba to tackle counterfeit products which, for NetNames customers, can be as high as 70% of products offered on global marketplaces. This is a serious issue for brand owners as these products divert revenue, particularly in retail and luxury goods sectors where replica goods are most common.
So what can brand owners do to protect against this threat? By actively monitoring those selling fake products online via auction sites, organisations are able to identify where the goods are being offered for sale and can work with the platform providers to have them removed from the internet. In the past 12 months, NetNames has worked together with Alibaba to remove thousands of listings of counterfeit items from their websites, equating to millions of dollars of potential revenue – proof that action can be taken to remove a significant proportion of this threat.”
Press Office
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Jaffe PR Restructures with Management Team to Lead Agency Following CEO’s Death

Jaffe PR (http://www.jaffepr.com), a public reputation agency devoted primarily to service law firms, legal associations and vendors to the legal marketplace, will carry on with a new executive management team as they to continue to provide high quality PR and legal marketing services.

Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) December 17, 2012
Jaffe PR announces a restructuring of the legal public reputation agency with the formation of a management committee following the death of the agency’s founder and CEO, Jay M. Jaffe, on November 21.
Vivian Hood, Terry M. Isner and Melinda Wheeler have been designated as the firm's Managing Directors and form the management committee responsible for continuing to lead the daily operations and manage the business of Jaffe PR. All had previously served on Jaffe PR’s executive committee.
Jaffe PR’s new Board of Directors are Joel S. Rothman, Esq., Edwin I. Josephson, Esq., and Jeffrey E. Ganek.
Vivian Hood, managing director, Client Services, oversees the agency’s staff as well as client relationships. She has worked at Jaffe PR for more than 15 years, managing and implementing effective senior-level legal media relations campaigns for law firm clients.
Terry M. Isner, managing director, Creative/Marketing, leads the agency’s marketing and business development. For more than 10 years at Jaffe PR, he has relied on his skills as both a business strategist and artist while using his creative vision to develop distinctive campaigns for our clients.
Melinda Wheeler, managing director, Operations/Controller, has administered the agency’s finances and has managed the business operations for Jaffe PR for more than seven years.
“The transition of Jaffe PR’s executive management is now complete, and we will continue to operate as we have been – providing high quality legal PR and marketing services to our clients,” said Hood. “We each have a long history with Jaffe PR and a deep understanding of the principles that have guided us in the past and will lead us into the future.”
Jaffe died on Nov. 21 of complications following surgery. He was known as a true visionary whose instincts and thought leadership about legal marketing and the business of law firms established him as an industry pioneer and one of the country’s foremost trusted legal advisors. He was honored to have been inducted into the PR News “PR People Hall of Fame” in 2010 and he was named to the “100 Legal Consultants You Need to Know” list by Lawdragon.
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James Cameron Relives Voyage to Ocean's Deepest Spot

The first thing James Cameron saw 7 miles below the sea was man-made: tracks from a remotely operated vehicle.
"When I got to the bottom, I saw skid marks from the ROV," Cameron said yesterday (Dec. 4) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, referring to a 2009 survey by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Scientific results of the film director's expedition to the Mariana Trench were presented at the meeting this week, and Cameron and the researchers described the highlights to a packed crowd.
Cameron reported a new, corrected depth for his landing — 35,803 feet (10,912 meters) — which beats by five feet (1.5 m) the record set by U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in 1960 at the same spot. However, "because the error [calculating the depth] on Don's dive is much greater, we're just going to have to call it a tie," Cameron said.
Deepsea Challenger
Cameron's Deepsea Challenger expedition made dives to the New Britain Trench and the Mariana Trench in the southwestern Pacific Ocean between Jan. 31 and April 3, with one manned dive by Cameron to the Mariana's Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in any ocean.
Unusual, never-before-seen species were snared and brought back to the surface. A bizarre microbial mat community was discovered living on altered rocks in the Sirena Deep, another deep pool 6.77 miles (10.9 kilometers) below the surface.
Changes in temperature and salinity starting at 26,200 feet (8 km) deep hint at an unknown current coming into the Challenger Deep, said Doug Bartlett, a microbiology professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
The filmmaker journeyed inside a high-tech lime-green machine — a steel sphere encased in foam — dubbed the Deepsea Challenger. The expedition traveled with two unmanned seafloor "landers" — large contraptions hoisted over the side of a ship and dropped to the seafloor. Once on the bottom, bait attached to the lander lured seafloor creatures to the craft, and a suite of instruments took samples, photographs and data. [Images: James Cameron's Historic Deep-Sea Dive]
The two contraptions working together proved to be a very good system, Cameron said. "We could rendezvous on the bottom and see the results of that bait running for six to eight hours, and that's how Doug could find a new species of giant arthropod," Cameron said.
Challenging journey
The March 26 dive proved to be a physical and mental challenge for Cameron. "I did yoga for six months so I could contort myself into the sphere," he said.
As he sank through the water, Cameron said he "burned though my whole checklist," designed to distract him during the long hours of the dive. "I still had 3,000 meters left to go with pretty much nothing left to do but sit quietly and think about the pressure building up around the hull," he said.
The sub touched down gently, and Cameron immediately took a sample of the seafloor, as planned. This was a good contingency, because the sub's hydraulic fluid line then burst, leaving him unable to collect more samples.
To his surprise, the sub's voice communications worked perfectly. "We actually expected they wouldn't, and I would have to default to texting," he said. "Texting while driving is not a good thing, especially if you're using two hands to operate seven joysticks and you're 7 miles down."
Cameron first drove the sub about 200 meters, finding the seafloor elevation stayed the same. In fact, Challenger Deep turned out to be remarkably flat, and the sub was easy to drive. "The vehicle was quite nimble, the sub's yaw rate was very good," he said. (Yaw describes the left-to-right rotation of a craft.)
A quick return
After about three hours, some of the submersible's batteries had low charge readings, the steering was problematic, and it was time to return to the surface. The mission should have lasted five to six hours. "I hate this. I hated having to go back," Cameron recalled thinking.
The trip to the top was mercifully short at 73 minutes. The submersible covered nearly 7 miles in a little over an hour — slow in a car, but like riding a missile for a human in a metal ball. Cameron said the surface trip is when he noticed the aches and pains from the cramped sub. "That's when your butt is really sore, and when you notice how much it hurts." [Infographic: James Cameron's Mariana Trench Dive]
The sub now sits in a barn in Santa Barbara, waiting for Cameron or another group with enough money to send it back to the deep ocean. He declined to say how much it cost to build and mount the expedition.
"I would love for the sub to dive again," he said. "I personally feel that we just barely got started before we had to turn back and there's just so much out there."
"And if not, at the very least, the technical innovations can be incorporated into other vehicle platforms," Cameron added. "As far as I'm concerned, it's an open source situation."
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
Video: James Cameron's Dive to Earths' Deepest Spot
Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
WATCH LIVE: Latest News from the 2012 AGU Meeting
Copyright 2012 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Are Online Degrees as Valuable as Traditional College Diplomas?

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with constant technology and personal computers. That might explain why they see such a value in online education.
A recent poll by Northeastern University showed that 18 to 29 year olds had a more negative view about attending college because of the high cost, and a more positive opinion about online classes than their older counterparts. The survey also showed more than half of the millennials had taken an online course.
Online education is attracting hundreds of thousands of students a year. Perhaps this is why more brick-and-mortar universities are searching for an online identity.
This week Wellesley College announced that it will offer free online classes to anyone with an Internet connection as part of the nonprofit project edX. Earlier this year, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up to fund and launch the online platform.
More: Harvard and MIT Want to Educate You for Free
Online education was even the talk in Washington this week when a group of panelists convened to discuss Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), which is an open source network like edX. These courses are very much like correspondence classes in the early 20th century.
But there are still those universities that only exist in a virtual world and students pay to attend. Are they as beneficial to students as attending a two- or four-year college?
“It depends at what level and what subject,” says Isabelle Frank, dean of Fordham College of Liberal Studies. “In general, fully online degrees are not valued as highly as degrees from brick-and-mortar institutions. This is because online-only universities do not have the faculty quality and interaction that occurs with full-time faculty and secure positions.”
She says that Fordham has online master programs and some online courses, but the model is “that of a small seminar style class with a lot of faculty feedback and involvement.”
Just like a physical college, a quality online education depends on the institution.
For example, students at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business take online classes and communicate with other students around the world—something students 25 years ago couldn’t have dreamed of doing.
“This affords the opportunity to learn leadership, team-building and managerial skills by solving problems and coordinating efforts for projects through the process of establishing real-time meetings, coordinating time zones and dealing with potential language issues,” Sher Downing, executive director of online academic services at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, said. “This value cannot be mirrored as easily in a traditional classroom, and for many companies with offices located around the world, this is a valuable skill, when the workforce is required to handle these types of situations.”
Downing said that students can save money by taking online classes because they no longer have to commute, live on or near a campus or relocate.
The millennials surveyed by Northeastern University are keen to take online courses. In fact, nine in 10 said online classes should be used as a tool and mixed with other teaching methods. The poll also found that students want flex i bility, which is exactly what online colleges offer.
Employers may not yet see an online degree in the same light as a traditional university but that is likely to change in the near future. It may just be that millennials, who don’t want to go in debt for an education like some of their parents did, are just a bit ahead of educators and employers.
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Red Hat divulgará los resultados del tercer trimestre del año fiscal 2013 a través de un webcast

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), proveedor líder mundial de soluciones de código abierto, analizará los resultados del tercer trimestre del año fiscal 2013 el jueves, 20 de diciembre de 2012, a partir de las 5:00 p. m., hora del Este.
Se puede acceder a un webcast en vivo en la página de Relaciones con los Inversores de Red Hat en http://investors.redhat.com y la reproducción se encontrará disponible a partir de aproximadamente dos horas luego de finalizados los eventos en vivo.
Acerca de Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat es el proveedor líder mundial de soluciones de software de código abierto; utiliza un enfoque basado en la comunidad para tecnologías confiables y de alto rendimiento en la nube, Linux, middleware, almacenamiento y virtualización. Red Hat también ofrece servicios galardonados de consultoría asistencia y capacitación. Como centro de conectividad de una red global de empresas, socios y comunidades de código abierto, Red Hat ayuda a crear tecnologías relevantes e innovadoras que liberan recursos para el crecimiento y preparan a los clientes para el futuro de la tecnología de la información. Obtenga más información en: http://www.redhat.com.
Declaraciones a futuro
Ciertas declaraciones del presente comunicado de prensa pueden constituir “declaraciones a futuro” dentro del significado de la Ley de Reforma de Litigios Sobre Valores Privados (Private Securities Litigation Reform Act) de los EE. UU. de 1995. Las declaraciones a futuro ofrecen expectativas actuales de eventos futuros en base a determinados supuestos e incluyen cualquier declaración que no se relaciona directamente con cualquier hecho actual o histórico. Los resultados reales pueden diferir sustancialmente de los indicados por dichas declaraciones a futuro, como resultado de varios factores importantes, incluso: riesgos relacionados con retrasos o reducciones en el gasto en tecnología de la información; los efectos de la consolidación del sector; la capacidad de la Compañía de competir en forma eficaz; la incertidumbre y los resultados adversos en litigios y acuerdos relacionados; la integración de adquisiciones y la capacidad de comercializar en forma exitosa las tecnologías y productos adquiridos; la incapacidad de proteger adecuadamente la propiedad intelectual de la Compañía y el posible incumplimiento o violación de reclamaciones de licencia o relacionadas con la propiedad intelectual de terceros; la capacidad de entregar y estimular la demanda de nuevos productos e innovaciones tecnológicas en forma oportuna; los riesgos relacionados con la vulnerabilidad de la seguridad de datos y de información; la gestión ineficaz de, y control sobre las operaciones internacionales y el crecimiento de la Compañía; las fluctuaciones en las tasas de cambio; y cambios en el personal clave y una dependencia del mismo, así como otros factores presentes en nuestro más reciente Informe Trimestral en el formulario 10-Q (copias del cual se encuentran disponibles en el sitio Web de la Comisión de Bolsa y Valores en http://www.sec.gov), incluidos los que se encuentran en el título "Factores de riesgo" y "Análisis y Discusiones de la Gerencia sobre Condiciones Financieras y Resultados de Operaciones". Además de estos factores, el desempeño futuro real, y los resultados pueden diferir sustancialmente debido a más factores generales que incluyen (entre otros) las condiciones generales del mercado y de la industria y las tasas de crecimiento, las condiciones económicas y políticas, los cambios en las políticas públicas y gubernamentales y el impacto de los desastres naturales como terremotos e inundaciones. Las declaraciones a futuro incluidas en este comunicado de prensa representan las opiniones de la Compañía a la fecha de este comunicado de prensa y estas ideas podrían cambiar. Sin embargo, si bien la Compañía puede elegir actualizar estas declaraciones a futuro en algún momento, la Compañía en forma específica renuncia a cualquier obligación de hacerlo. No debe confiar en estas declaraciones a futuro como si representaran las opiniones de la empresa a partir de cualquier fecha posterior de la fecha de este comunicado de prensa.
Red Hat y JBoss son marcas comerciales de Red Hat, Inc. registradas en los EE. UU. y en otros países. Linux® es la marca comercial registrada de Linus Torvalds en los EE. UU. y en otros países.
El texto original en el idioma fuente de este comunicado es la versión oficial autorizada. Las traducciones solo se suministran como adaptación y deben cotejarse con el texto en el idioma fuente, que es la única versión del texto que tendrá un efecto legal.
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Big-data analytics company Cloudera raises $65 million

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cloudera, a distributor of software that helps companies analyze big data, said it has raised $65 million in new funding.
The company is part of a growing group of businesses that help dig into the vast trove of data created by digital sources such as sensors, posts to the Internet, pictures and videos.
The field caught investor attention when Splunk, another data analytics firm, held an initial public offering earlier this year and doubled in price on its first trading day.
Cloudera's business is based on Hadoop, open-source software that aggregates results from large sets of data. Cloudera provides services that allow companies to easily use Hadoop.
The funding round was led by Accel Partners, with participation from Greylock Partners, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel and Meritech Capital Partners. All Things D, which first reported the funding, said the company's valuation was $700 million.
Cloudera, based in Palo Alto, California, last raised $40 million in November 2011.
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T-Mobile to Offer Cheapest iPhone 5 in 2013

T-Mobile, the smallest of the "big four" wireless carries in the United States, already offers the country's cheapest iPhone service -- if you have an unlocked iPhone. And according to Engadget's Brad Molen, more than a million unlocked iPhones are on T-Mobile's network already.
Now, T-Mobile has announced that it will "add Apple products to its portfolio in the coming year,"according to parent company Deutsche Telekom AG. And while that could mean anything from the new iPad Mini to an as-yet-unreleased Apple product of some kind, many expect T-Mobile to finally get the iPhone, making it the last major carrier in the United States to get it.
If T-Mobile does, and it continues to offer its $30 "Unlimited Web & Text with 100 Minutes" plan, that may make T-Mobile's iPhone the cheapest one out there -- even if it costs hundreds of dollars more up front than on AT&T.
Subsidies aren't just for big corporations
Most of the big-name wireless carriers in the United States offer what are called "subsidized" smartphones, meaning you don't pay their whole cost up front. Instead, you pay a discounted price (which can be as little as $0.01), but are locked into a wireless contract for up to 2 years. Wireless customers who switch before their contract is up have to pay an "early termination fee," which can go over and above the actual cost of the smartphone.
Buy now, save later
With prepaid smartphone plans, on the other hand, you pay the whole cost of the phone up front and afterward it's yours to keep (whether its SIM card is locked into one network or not). And with the announcement that T-Mobile is going prepaid-only starting next year, that means any iPhone the company carries will be of the unsubsidized variety.
Apple currently sells the 16 GB iPhone 5 for $649, contract-free, on its website. It also sells the 16 GB iPhone 4S for $549, however, while contract-free carrier Virgin Mobile sells the same phone unsubsidized for $449 with a $35 per month data plan -- not too much more expensive than T-Mobile's.
Lessons of the past
It's hard to say how much T-Mobile would offer an iPhone 5 for if the device landed on its network. Virgin Mobile started out charging more up front and offering a $30 plan, while Cricket currently sells the contract-free iPhone 5 for $499 but its service starts at $55.
Assuming T-Mobile continues to offer its current "web exclusive" $30 unlimited plan for a hypothetical iPhone 5 on its network, it's not likely to be discounted much if at all from Apple's asking price. Just paying for 5 GBs of data per month from AT&T would cost $1,200 over 2 years,however, plus the $199 cost of a subsidized iPhone (and you have to pay for voice minutes and texting on top of that). Meanwhile, it's possible right now to buy an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple and get 2 years of T-Mobile's $30 service for $1,369. That includes 5 GBs of data before connection speed throttling, plus unlimited texting and 100 voice minutes per month.
​Looking to the future
T-Mobile offers the cheapest iPhone 5 service right now. And if the "Apple products" T-Mobile is getting next year include the iPhone 5, T-Mobile customers may see even better offerings coming their way in the near future.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Facebook predicted to overtake Google in mobile display ad revenue this year

Shares of Facebook (FB) have begun to rebound since the company’s disastrous initial public offering this past May. After opening at $38 per share the company’s stock plummeted into the mid-20s over the summer months and eventually fell to a low of $17.55 in early September. Since then, however, Facebook shares have begun to bounce back after the company posted better-than-expected results in the third quarter. While Facebook stock is still down more than 25% on the year, it is rising steadily as analysts and investors become increasingly bullish about the company’s future as a leading advertising platform.
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According to a new report from eMarketer, Facebook is predicted to surpass Google (GOOG) in mobile display advertising in 2012. Google is expected to generate $339 million in mobile ad revenue this year, a significant increase from previous estimates of between $45 and $100 million. The research firm notes that Facebook is expected to capture an 18.4% share of the mobile display ad market in the U.S. this year, compared to Google’s 17% share, which is down from 23% in 2011.
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“Major ad publishers are strengthening their offerings much faster than previously expected,” said Clark Fredricksen, vice president of communications at eMarketer. “I don’t think anybody thought after the second quarter that Google and Facebook would be in position that they are now in the mobile ad marketplace.”
The company’s mobile ad revenue is expected to more than triple by 2014 when it will reach an estimated $1.2 billion. The firm predicts that Facebook and Google will continue to battle for the No.1 spot in the mobile ad market over the next few years. Facebook is expected to increase its lead to 25.2% in 2013, compared to Google’s 19.6% share. Google is estimated to bounce back in 2014, however, with a market leading 23.1% share, ahead of Facebook’s 22.7% share.
Despite the impressive numbers, eMarketer notes that mobile still represents a small slice of the total advertising market. In 2012, only 2.4% of total ad spending in the U.S. is expected to go towards mobile ads, but the market is expected to reach an 11% share by 2016 when it surpasses both radio and print spending.
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New Online Privacy Loophole Lets Facebook Advertise to Kids

Mark Zuckerberg's been eager to find a way to get more kids on Facebook for years, and on Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission handed it to him on a platter. That might be overstating it a little bit. It's more like the FTC served it to him on a platter covered in plastic wrap with a note attached that says "Do not open." Nevertheless, should Facebook decided to see what's inside, experts in online privacy for children say the social network could legally start peddling everything from kids' bicycles to that new gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven.
RELATED: German Official Urges Citizens to Stop Using Facebook
After months of deliberating and plenty of lobbying on both sides of the issue, the FTC updated the controversial Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) this week. The changes were absolutely designed to better protect children in the privacy-invading era of social media, especially from the data-hungry advertisers who want to sell them things. Websites like Facebook don't allow kids to sign up without their parents permission, generally because COPPA has prohibited them from collecting the kinds of information they need to serve them ads. And why would they want a user to whom they couldn't serve ads? Under the new FTC rules, parental permission is required for just about anything a kid would do on Facebook, including uploading photos, videos and geolocational information. Tracking tools like cookies are also verboten without a parent's permission.
RELATED: What Police Learn About You When They Subpoena Your Facebook Account
But there's a loophole. The new rules say very plainly that no parental permission is needed "for the sole purpose of supporting the website or online service's internal operations, such as contextual advertising, frequency capping, legal compliance, site analysis, and network communications." The key phrase there is "contextual advertising," which is an ad product Facebook has been working on for a while. Facebook's version basically reads your News Feed and shows you ads that are relevant, or contextual, to what you're reading. As a few people have pointed out, this opens a door for Facebook to start exploring the idea of ad-supported profiles for kids. Alan Simpson, the vice president of child privacy advocacy group Common Sense, isn't happy about this idea. "Common Sense doesn't like this part, and the industry lobbyists probably do," he told TechCrunch Monday evening.
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Cory Booker Is Exploring a Senate Run, Announces Cory Booker on Social Media

Guess he's going to need that Senate web domain after all. After privately conceding that Chris Christie's surge in popularity made a run for governor impossible, Newark Mayor Cory Booker very publicly announced Thursday morning that he is exploring a run for a New Jersey Senate seat in 2014, if — and it's a big "if" — Sen. Frank Lautenberg retires. Speculation had been brewing for weeks, and a report surfaced earlier in the morning that Booker would tweet his intentions, and then came the tweet to the popular (if controversial) mayor's 1.3 million followers late in the morning. Here it is:
Thank you for your support up to this point. Read about my upcoming plans here: bit.ly/QnTP8 #finishingthework
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) December 20, 2012
The tweet, of course, pointed to a YouTube video on CoryBooker.com:
RELATED: Thursday's Top Tweets
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The video spends a lot of time defending his record as mayor, but it's clear that Booker has long sought the national spotlight — as if it wasn't clear he was in it already. What's not exactly clear just yet is whether Lautenberg will, in fact, retire before Booker seeks to replace him.
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New Democrat MP Pat Martin erupts with another angry, abusive Twitter exchange

OTTAWA - Firebrand New Democrat MP Pat Martin is at it again on Twitter.
Martin is making headlines for an abusive series of tweets prompted, apparently, by the Conservative government's failure to invite him to an announcement in his Winnipeg Centre riding.
The tweets include some particularly scathing and personal insults aimed at Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and the Conservative party.
Martin describes the Conservatives as "truly bad people" who won last year's federal election using "American-style dirty tricks."
It's not the first time Martin has used his access to the social-networking service to raise eyebrows.
In November 2011, Martin went on a similar tirade when the government used procedural tools to shut down debate on a budget bill.
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Facebook considers letting users pay money to message people they don’t know

Watch out, Facebook (FB): Your reputation for shadiness could soon approach MySpace levels. The Verge reports that Facebook is now testing out a new system in which “people will pay to get in touch with those they aren’t Facebook friends with.” In other words, the creepy guy that keeps trying to “friend” you on Facebook could soon be able to pay an as-yet-undetermined amount of money and get to send messages directly to your inbox. The Verge says that Facebook may be considering this new option as both a monetization tool and as a way to reduce spam by erecting a monetary barrier for people who send out notices about Viagra and Rolex watches through the social networking platform. On the other hand, it could also open the door for enterprising public relations firms to send tech bloggers unwanted messages about their exciting NoSQL database solutions, so there’s definitely the potential for a major backlash here.
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Pakistan says 29 nationals beaten by Afghans

Afghan officials say they are investigating allegations by neighboring Pakistan that Afghan forces severely beat Pakistani nationals.
The Saturday protest note from Islamabad's Foreign Office provided no details other than to say that all 29 had valid travel documents.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai says he has no information about the allegations, but Kabul will try to investigate them.
Relations between the neighboring countries are poor, with the Kabul government accusing Pakistan of harboring and supporting Taliban insurgents. But last month a top Afghan peace mediator hailed Pakistan's recent decision to free nine Taliban members who favor negotiations, saying it was a sign that Pakistan is willing to bring the militants to the table and end Afghanistan's 11-year war.
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Bombing at political rally kills 8 in Pakistan

 Pakistani police say a suicide bomber attacked a political rally in the country's northwest, killing eight people.
Police officer Arfan Khan says the bombing Saturday in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, also wounded more than 20 people.
Khan says the rally was being held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban. A provincial Cabinet minister from the party, Bashir Balour, was wounded in the attack.
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Bombing at political rally kills 9 in Pakistan

A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally held Saturday by a party that has opposed the Taliban, officials said.
The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban.
Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial Cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician's brother and federal railways minister.
Over 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing in a statement, reiterating the United Nations' support for Pakistani efforts "to combat the scourge of terrorism."
Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.
"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.
The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants. He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Taliban.
"Terrorism has engulfed our whole society," said Hussain. "They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazars, public meetings and our security checkpoints."
Ten Taliban militants attacked the military area of an international airport in Peshawar with rockets and car bombs a week ago, killing four people and wounding over 40 others. Five of the militants were killed during the attack, and five others died the next day in a gunbattle with security forces.
Also Saturday, police said a mob in southern Pakistan stormed a police station to seize a mentally unstable Muslim man accused of burning a copy of Islam's holy book. The crowd beat him to death, and then set fire to his body.
The case is likely to raise further concerns about the country's harsh blasphemy laws, which can result in a death sentence or life in prison to anyone found guilty. An accusation or investigation alone can lead to deaths, as people take the law into their own hands and kill those accused of violating it. Police stations and even courts have been attacked by mobs.
Police arrested the man on Friday after being informed by residents that he had burned a Quran inside a mosque where he had been staying for a night, said local police official Biharud Deen.
An angry mob of more than 200 people then broke into the police station in the southern town of Dadu and took the accused man, who they say was under questioning. Deen said police tried their best to save the man's life but were unable to stop the furious crowd.
Police have arrested 30 people for suspected involvement in the attack, said Deen. The head of the local police station and seven officers had been suspended, he said.
Past attempts by governments in predominantly Muslim Pakistan to review these laws have met with violent opposition from hardline Islamist parties.
In southwestern Pakistan, gunmen late Friday killed 11 Pakistanis and Afghans who were trying to cross into neighboring Iran to travel on to Europe as illegal immigrants, said local government official Zubair Ahmed. The shooting took place in Sunsar town in Baluchistan province, he said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans are captured by Iranian border guards every year for illegally trying to travel to Europe to find better jobs.
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Gang rape protesters clash with Indian police

Police in India's capital used tear gas and water cannons for a second day Sunday in a high-security zone to break up protests by thousands of people demonstrating against the gang rape and beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus.
Police chased angry protesters with batons some of whom fought pitched battles with steel rods and rocks as they tried to get past steel barricades and a wall created by hundreds of policemen to reach the president's mansion to present their demands. "We want justice," they shouted.
Television footage showed that some protesters were injured in the clashes.
The protesters made bonfires and damaged cars and police vehicles.
Police blamed the violence on hooligans. "A peaceful protest by people has been taken over by hooligans," Dharmendra Kumar, a senior police officer, told reporters. He urged people to go home to help police deal with the trouble makers.
The demonstrations continued Sunday despite Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde promising to consider their main demand for death penalties for all six suspects who have been arrested by police following the Dec. 16 attack.
Shinde said Saturday night that the government was taking steps to better ensure the safety of women.
A group of protesters met Sonia Gandhi, the governing Congress party chief, and her son and lawmaker Rahul Gandhi, on Sunday and demanded a speedy trial of the suspects.
Popular yoga guru Babar Ramdev stood on the roof of a bus and pledged support to the protesters. "The government must set up fast-track courts to punish the offenders in rape attacks," he said.
The attack one week ago has sparked days of protests across the country. The victim is recovering from injuries in a New Delhi government hospital but is still in critical condition.
After battling the protesters throughout the day on Saturday, authorities early on Sunday banned their entry into the high-security zone, which also houses the offices of the prime minister and defense, home and external affairs ministries. Police evicted dozens of protesters who had spent the night there.
However, as groups of protesters marched through the streets of New Delhi and began converging on the high-security area on Sunday, authorities withdrew the ban on the assembly of more than five people there. But it set up barricades to keep them away from the president's residence.
Protesters tried to break the police cordon repeatedly by hurling stones and water bottles and pressing against the steel barricades. Policemen responded by firing tear gas and using water cannons against them. The battle continued throughout the day.
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In Afghan Taliban birthplace, US troops step back

President Barak Obama will decide in the coming weeks how many American troops to send home from Afghanistan next year. A major factor in his decision will be the question of how successful U.S. troops have been in preparing the Afghans to secure their country at bases like this one, located in one of the country's most violent areas — the birthplace of the Taliban.
There have been calls in Congress for Obama to increase the size of a planned drawdown of U.S. forces before the end of summer 2013, when the Afghan military is supposed to take the lead in security across the country. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well, has suggested he wants the drawdown accelerated.
"We are working to make this transition of security happen sooner. We want all the foreign forces to come out of the villages and go to their bases so the Afghan forces can carry out security," Karzai said last week.
But too large a pullout too soon could undermine the fight against the Taliban insurgency if Afghan forces are not fully prepared. It is widely thought that Gen. John Allen, the top military commander in Afghanistan, and his senior staff want to keep a large force in place for the summer fighting season, before international forces move into an entirely back-up and training role behind the Afghan forces by the start of autumn — an event known as "Milestone 13."
Obama is expected to decide on the size of the withdrawal after meeting with Karzai in Washington in early January. Their talks will also be key on determining what the U.S. military's role will be in Afghanistan after December 2014, when the foreign combat mission is set to end and almost all international troops are scheduled to leave. The U.S. currently has 66,000 thousand troops in Afghanistan out of an international force totaling about 102,000.
The work of training Afghan army units being done at this dusty base in the Zhari district of Kandahar province and at other bases scattered around the country will help shape Obama's decision.
U.S. and Afghan officers here say the district is a success story: Violence has not gone up more than two months after the American presence here was brought down from around 3,500 troops to around 300, with Afghan forces taking the lead in more areas.
But the situation remains tenuous. Residents say Taliban fighters remain in control of large parts of the district.
Zhari is where Taliban leader Mullah Omar was born, where he founded the movement that ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s and has battled U.S. and Afghan forces for the past 11 years. Three years ago, Taliban forces controlled the district, and it has been one of the three most violent areas of Kandahar, the province that is the Taliban's traditional heartland.
U.S soldiers had a hard fight in Zhari when they moved into the south in large force as part of the surge in American troops early in the Obama administration. The district has rich farmland that produces pomegranates and grapes used for raisins, and the fields, covered in dirt mounds, formed natural trenches the Taliban could fight from. Food, which was abundant, was easily coerced by the Taliban from villagers.
Lt. Col. Tim Davis, commander of Combined Task Force Buffalo, said, "the density of mines was impressive" when his task force arrived and that it required "an entire combat operation just to put a road in."
The commander of international forces in Kandahar and three other southern provinces, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, told reporters recently that progress in Zhari had been "astounding." Afghan forces are already in the lead of security duties in many parts of the district, he said. Across the south, the Afghans carry out 400 to 500 daily patrols without coalition assistance.
Afghan military officers in Zhari contend they can now handle the fight without much help from the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force.
"Zhari is about 70 percent safe now," said Col. Abdul Rahimi, operations officer of the Afghan army's 3rd Brigade 205th Corps at Pasab base, though he acknowledged neighboring Maiwand district remains a problem. The number of Taliban fighters was down to around 100 in Zhari and Maiwand, compared to some 900 two years ago, he said.
"The enemy is not able right now to fight against the government, nor can it take over if ISAF leaves," Rahimi said.
Residents in Zhari, however, give a different picture. Some said the government has control of the main highway but not much else.
"Government claims that they control most of the area are just a dream not related to any reality," Allahnoor Taraki, a 38-year-old farmer, said.
Mohammed Salim Danghar, a taxi driver, said the province remains hotly contested. While the government has improved its position, he said, "we all know that most of the area is controlled by the Taliban."
The American drawdown in Zhari is a model of plans for the pullback elsewhere.
Here, large American combat units have been replaced by smaller teams made up of about 18 soldiers each. The teams are embedded with Afghan units, advising them on tactics, leadership and strategy — but not fighting.
In Zhari, attacks "have not only decreased, but significantly decreased," said Davis.
"The challenge is when we start pulling back," he said. The key to a successful transition will be "to see if the local security forces can take up the slack."
The U.S. military plans to repeat that process elsewhere in the south and east by creating 400 such teams. At the same time, eight of the 14 U.S. brigades in Afghanistan will be reduced in size to 1,400-1,900 personnel, down from 3,500, to act as support for the teams. That role change alone will mean a reduction of between 13,000 to 17,000 NATO troops.
The U.S. military has not made public its recommendations to Obama about the size or timing of next year's drawdown. Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said recently that NATO and the Afghan government intend to begin the final phase of transition by the mid to latter part of 2013 — suggesting he prefers a later start to the drawdown, as opposed to earlier in 2013.
The top contender for Panetta's job, former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, is thought to support a more rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has already announced that about 3,800 of his country's troops will leave by the end of 2013, leaving 5,000 to stay into 2014.
The Afghan army now numbers about 350,000 and has taken the lead on security in areas that are home to 76 percent of Afghanistan's population of 30 million. Still, despite their progress, only one of Afghanistan's 23 brigades around the country can operate on its own without coalition help of some kind, the U.S. Defense Department said in its most recent semi-annual report to Congress.
Attacks by insurgents around the country have not decreased, but the violence has been pushed out of most population centers, the report said. Civilian and NATO casualties have fallen. But Afghan forces are taking an increasing toll. More than 300 Afghan soldiers and policemen are dying each month, according to Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, who said that represented an increase, though he did not provide comparative figures.
"We still face challenges in southern Afghanistan," Abrams acknowledged in his headquarters at Kandahar Air Field.
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Italy dissolves parliament, Monti mulls future

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's head of state dissolved parliament on Saturday and opened the way to a February election, with doubts growing over whether outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti will participate in what promises to be a bitter campaign.
Monti resigned on Friday a couple of months ahead of the end of his term of office, after his technocrat government lost the support of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party.
For weeks, speculation has swirled over what role Monti will play in the election, which cabinet confirmed would be held over two days on February 24-25.
The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has faced growing pressure to seek a second term and earlier this week Italian media widely reported he would do so.
That now seems far less certain, as Monti has had to digest opinion polls that suggest a centrist group headed by him would probably come a distant third or even fourth in the election, expected to be won by the centre-left Democratic party (PD), led by Pier Luigi Bersani.
"The outcome of the election may well not be all that favorable and the question is where that would leave his own credibility and also his reform agenda," a person close to Monti told Reuters.
Italy's main newspapers reported on Saturday that he was inclined not to run, partly because of disappointing opinion polls and partly because of doubts about the quality of the centrist parties that would be using his name.
Another source familiar with the discussions that have been going on between Monti and these centrist groups said he was no longer in direct contact with his potential allies and was now thinking things through on his own.
"It's very open, Monti's looking at all the possibilities and thinking," the source said. "The thing is that without him, the centrist project doesn't make any sense."
Several centrist politicians who had been hoping for Monti's endorsement appeared almost resigned to going on alone.
"Monti would have given more significance to the initiative but it doesn't change things," Ferdinando Adornato, a member of the centrist UDC party told TGCom 24 news television. "What Bersani and Berlusconi are offering is not enough to change the situation from what it was before Monti arrived."
TAX HIKES
European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have called for Monti's economic reform agenda to continue but Italy's two main parties insist he should stay out of the race.
"We underlined the fact that as we're going into elections with a non-elected, technocrat government, that government, in the person of the prime minister, should remain outside the contest," Fabrizio Cicchitto, PDL leader in the lower house of parliament said after meeting President Giorgio Napolitano.
Italians are weary of repeated tax hikes and spending cuts and opinion polls offer little evidence they are ready to give Monti a second term. A survey this week showed 61 percent saying he should not stand.
Berlusconi, who was forced to make way for Monti in November last year as Italian borrowing costs surged, has stepped up attacks on his successor in recent days and welcomed his resignation on Friday.
"Today the experience of the technical government is finished and we must hope there will never again be a similar suspension of democracy," he told reporters.
Monti, who has kept his cards close to his chest, is expected to outline his plans at a news conference on Sunday.
Rather than announce his candidacy or endorse a centrist alliance to run in his name, two options widely touted in recent days, he may simply present a summary of the reforms his technocrat government has achieved and those still required.
"On Sunday, he will probably only present a policy memorandum, there is unlikely to be any decision on any more direct involvement in the campaign until after Christmas," the second source said.
This would put flesh on the rather nebulous "Monti agenda" which has been a buzz-word of Italy's political debate since it became clear he was considering staying in front-line politics.
It would then be up to the political parties to commit to or reject the priorities set out.
By playing for time, Monti would run less risk of being caught up in the crossfire of what promises to be a messy and bitter campaign and would still be free to step into the fray later on, depending on opinion polls.
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Analysis: Stop-gap fix most likely outcome of "fiscal cliff" talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "fiscal cliff" deadline is days away and the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama have left town for Christmas.
But even if they were still here, it wouldn't have mattered, according to Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. He says they were going nowhere to resolving the disagreement over how to fix the nation's fiscal problems.
Last month's dreams of a "grand bargain" of tax hikes and spending cuts seem long gone. They had been reduced to more modest bargains in mid-December, and as 2013 approaches, are on the verge of relegation to a "stop-gap measure," at best the sort of temporary fix that Congress undertook in 2011.
A stop-gap that puts everything off for a while but resolves nothing is now the most promising alternative, if there is to be one, to the across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts described as a "fiscal cliff" because they threaten to send the U.S. economy plunging into another recession.
It is also the way fiscal showdowns have ended in Washington in recent years.
Such a fix, at best, would delay the spending cuts and tax hikes further into 2013 as well as work to address in a long-term way a government budget that has generated deficits exceeding $1 trillion in each of the last four years. Even worse, it would set up a huge fight in January and February over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, which controls the amount of money the federal government can borrow.
Dysfunction in Washington was specifically cited as one of the reasons rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. debt rating to AA-plus after a battle over the debt ceiling in 2011. That alone - not to mention going over the cliff - could lead to another rating cut.
At worst, the new year could start with a full-fledged jump off the 'cliff,' with an understanding, communicated to financial markets, that Congress and the White House would come back and try again for a solution.
Given the apparent deadlock, some congressional aides this week said that Washington needed to begin telegraphing to Wall Street that markets should not panic if a "fiscal cliff" deal is not struck in December.
The goal, one aide said on condition of anonymity, is to avoid starting 2013 with a steep stock market drop like the one the U.S. suffered in 2008, when the country's financial industry was falling apart and Congress was divided over what to do.
On Friday, Obama acknowledged that only small steps might be possible with so little time remaining.
Those, the Democratic president said, would consist of extending benefits for the long-term unemployed and keeping income tax rates low for 98 percent of Americans - meaning raising taxes on households with net incomes above $250,000 a year but not for those earning less.
He held out the possibility of something "comprehensive," as he put it, but it had a hollow ring at the close of a work week that saw House Speaker John Boehner step back from negotiations and pursue a partisan plan that even some of his fellow Republicans could not stomach.
MARKET PRESSURE
The steps that Obama outlined were immediately rejected by Republicans, who have given ground on their previous steadfast opposition to any tax hikes but are still demanding that the White House agree to more substantial spending cuts.
"The president has failed to offer any solution that passes the test of balance," declared Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck, minutes after the end of Obama's statement on Friday.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was similarly dismissive, noting Obama's call had neither bipartisan support nor spending cuts to ride along with tax increases.
McConnell, on Friday, suggested bringing up a House-passed bill that extends current tax rates for all Americans, including the top earners, and then pushes for comprehensive tax reform next year that theoretically could raise new revenues to help cut deficits.
But Obama has promised repeatedly to veto any extension of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts that fail to hike rates for the wealthy.
And Democrats, who control the Senate, have dismissed the McConnell idea, arguing that Obama ran his successful 2012 re-election campaign on a promise of forcing the wealthy to bear more of the burden of deficit reduction.
Democratic aides in Congress think their own bill implementing Obama's $250,000 income threshold, which passed the 100-member Senate in July with 51 votes, could breeze through this month, or next year after the "fiscal cliff" is breached.
The prospect of a breach is being discussed far more seriously now, and not just as a bluff or to set up the other side for blame.
"I think we're going to go over the cliff," said Republican Representative Patrick Tiberi of Ohio. "I don't see something getting done."
In an MSNBC interview Friday, Hoyer, a 31-year veteran of Congress from Maryland, said it wouldn't matter if everyone was in Washington instead of on holiday.
"Frankly, we've been in town for four weeks and members haven`t been doing much," he said, calling it "one of the least productive times that I've been in Congress."
Even Obama speaks of "a mismatch" between how people are thinking about the looming tax hikes and spending cuts "outside of this town and how folks are operating here. And we've just got to get that aligned," he said in his statement.
ITG Investment Research Chief Economist Steve Blitz on Saturday said sliding the "fiscal cliff" negotiations into the new year was not a huge deal. "I think markets will pressure for a deal in January," he said.
The "pressure" could be in the form of a significant stock market drop, which would hit workers' retirement plans, threaten to deter consumer and business spending, and possibly rattle other countries' economies at a time when the global economy is far from robust.
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Effect of looming 'fiscal cliff' tax increases

A big package of tax cuts first enacted a decade ago are set to expire at the end the year, unless Congress and the White House reach a deal to extend them. How the looming tax increases would affect households at different income levels.
___
Annual income: $20,000 to $30,000.
Average tax increase: $1,064.
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Annual income: $30,000 to $40,000.
Average tax increase: $1,417.
___
Annual income: $40,000 to $50,000.
Average tax increase: $1,729.
___
Annual income: $50,000 to $75,000.
Average tax increase: $2,399.
___
Annual income: $75,000 to $100,000.
Average tax increase: $3,688.
___
Annual income: $100,000 to $200,000.
Average tax increase: $6,662.
___
Annual income: $200,000 to $500,000.
Average tax increase: $14,643.
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Annual income: $500,000 to $1 million.
Average tax increase: $38,969.
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Annual income: More than $1 million.
Average tax increase: $254,637.
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Florida governor asks Obama to block possible ports strike

 Florida's Republican governor wants President Barack Obama to invoke federal law and order a cooling-off period if nearly 15,000 longshoremen walk off the job in a looming strike that would be a big blow to the state's economy, according to a letter he sent the president this week.
The International Longshoremen's Association union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance grouping of shippers and ports have been bargaining since March but reportedly remain far from a deal covering cargo handling at 15 ports on the U.S. Gulf and eastern coasts.
In October, when a previous contract expired, the sides agreed to a 90-day extension of terms that runs out on December 29.
Florida ports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale would be directly hit by a strike or lockout but a stoppage would also rattle overall transport and trade, which accounts for 550,000 jobs in the state and $66 billion in economic activity, Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a letter dated Thursday.
"The threat to national safety and security that would result from mass closure of ports cannot be overstated," Scott told Obama.
Scott said Obama had the power under 1947's Taft-Hartley Act to prevent or interrupt a work stoppage at the ports. Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush both used Taft-Hartley, which calls for 80-day cooling-off periods and mediation, Scott said.
"The Taft-Hartley Act provides your administration with tools that can help avoid this threat," Scott said. "On behalf of the State of Florida, I respectfully request that you invoke the act when the contract ... expires at the end of the month."
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Egypt president appoints upper house of parliament members

 Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi announced names of 90 new members he appointed to the upper house of parliament, state media reported, and a presidential official said the list was mainly liberals and other non-Islamists.
Two thirds of the 270-member upper house were elected in a vote early this year, with one third appointed by the president. Mursi, elected in June, had not named them till now. Mursi's Islamist party and its allies dominate the assembly.
A presidential official, ahead of the formal announcement, said 75 percent of those selected were not Islamists, and included liberals and Christians, a minority who make up about 10 percent of the population.
Hussein Abdel Ghani, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front, a coalition of leading opposition politicians and groups, said ahead of the announcement that the Front refused to take any seats. "We will never accept such thing," he told Reuters.
The constitutional court had been due to deliver a ruling on the legality of the upper house of parliament earlier this month, but a protest by Islamists outside the court halted its work and the assembly has continued to operate.
Under a new constitution expected to be approved in a referendum on Saturday, the upper house will assume legislative powers now held by the president until a new lower house it elected in a vote likely to take place early in 2013.
The lower house of parliament, also dominated by Islamists, was dissolved earlier this year after a court declared the rules by which it was elected unconstitutional.
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