Nick Clegg unveils Lib Dem 'memorial' in London

The green plaque at Almack House in central London marking the site where the Liberal party was founded in 1859. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Nick Clegg braved a cold London street on Monday evening to commemorate the founding of the Liberal party more than 150 years ago by unveiling a plaque ? but mistakenly called it a memorial in his short speech.

As the Liberal Democrat leader reflected on the beginnings of the political party that led to the creation of the Lib Dems in 1988, he drew laughs from the crowd of about 25 people when he made the gaffe.

After a speech by Robert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster council, Clegg said: "And also to reiterate your congratulations to the Liberal Democrat History Group who have done so much to raise funds for this memorial ? not memorial, this sign of our rich party's history."

Most historians date the Liberal party's origin to a meeting at Willis's Rooms in King Street, St James's, London, on 6 June, 1859, when Whigs, Peelites and Radicals united to form the Liberals.

Now a modern office building called Almack House, opposite auction house Christie's, the green plaque marks the site as the birthplace of one of Britain's most enduring political movements.

The plaque reads: "The Liberal party was founded on this site on 6th June 1859."

Clegg said: "There are many things about today which are different to 1859. I strongly suspect June 1859 was warmer than January 2013."

The Lib Dem leader described being asked to unveil the plaque as a "privilege" and reminded the crowd that back in 1859, the liberal politicians came together to "bring down the conservative ministry of the time whilst of course we are now in coalition with the Conservative party of our time".

He added: "So much of what happened then has echoes today."

Clegg said the Liberal Democrats are still a "party proud of representing a wide coalition of views" and "representing the country as a whole".

He added: "Much has changed since then but much has endured and remained consistent over the ages as well."

Duncan Brack, of the Liberal Democrat History Group, which is sponsoring the plaque, said of that meeting a century and a half ago: "Among those attending were Lord Palmerston, John Bright and Lord John Russell ? and the meeting paved the way for the political ascendancy of Liberal prime minister William Gladstone."

Davis described the occasion as "momentous" and said: "When Palmerston, Russell and their Radicals, Peelites and Whigs coalesced around the issue of Italian reunification, at this very location in 1859, I am sure everyone expected the union to be a temporary one.

"For generations British political life has been fluid, with numerous changes of government, factions and minority administrations.

"However, for what was then such a disparate union, the Liberal party has endured, helping to shape so much of British politics since.

"And the timing of this unveiling could not be more appropriate, as its successor ? the Liberal Democrat party ? once more finds itself in government."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/15/nick-clegg-lib-dem-memorial-gaffe

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Ex-subway chief leads New York Republicans in mayoral poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man who stepped down as head of the New York City subway system to run for mayor of New York led rivals this month in a possible Republican primary battle but was far behind potential Democratic candidates, a poll released on Wednesday showed.

Joseph Lhota was favored by 23 percent of those surveyed in a Quinnipiac University poll, more than any other Republican, but trailed the "undecided" category at 53 percent. The next closest potential candidate was businessman John Catsimatidis with 9 percent, Quinnipiac said.

Lhota was deputy mayor for operations under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another Republican, and more recently led the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the New York City area's subways, buses and commuter trains.

Lhota won praise for getting transit systems running soon after Superstorm Sandy and stepped down in December after a year in the job.

The Quinnipiac poll showed that Lhota trailed any of the three leading Democratic candidates by three-to-one margins.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn led Lhota by 62 percent to 17 percent; former comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson led Lhota by 55 percent to 19 percent; and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio led Lhota by 57 percent to 17 percent, the poll said.

Quinn led in a poll of support for Democratic candidates. She was favored by 35 percent of those polled, versus 11 percent for de Blasio, 10 percent for Thompson and 9 percent for current Comptroller John Liu, the poll said.

The survey was largely hypothetical, as none of the candidates have officially declared their intention to run in the November 2013 election.

Quinnipiac said it surveyed 1,332 New York City voters by telephone from January 8 to January 14 and that the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-subway-chief-leads-york-republicans-mayoral-poll-110032593.html

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Facebook Adds Voice Messaging To Messenger For iOS and Android, Tests Open Source VoIP In Canada

Facebook's next messaging move is all about voice. Today it released an update for its standalone Messenger for iOS and Android apps that lets users send up to one minute long voice messages. It's also testing VoIP calling between Canadian iOS Messenger users that runs over a user's existing data plan. Both power hands-free communication between friends that helps drivers and reduces mobile typing

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/m5W4khvMA18/

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Putin grants Depardieu Russian citizenship

MOSCOW (AP) ? Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has been sparring with his native country over taxes, has been granted Russian citizenship.

A brief announcement on the Kremlin website said President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday.

Depardieu is angered by French President Francois Hollande's attempt to raise taxes on the mega-rich to 75 percent. Russia has a flat income tax of 13 percent.

A representative for Depardieu declined to say whether he had accepted the offer and refused all comment.

Depardieu has made more than 150 films, among them the 1991 comedy "Green Card" about a man who enters into a marriage of convenience in order to get U.S. residency.

Depardieu said in an open letter published in mid-December that he would turn over his passport and French social security card.

Hollande wants to tax incomes of the ultra-rich at 75 percent to reduce the debt and deficit, and Depardieu's subsequent decision to move to tax-friendly Belgium was slammed by Hollande's government.

"I'm a true European, a citizen of the world," Depardieu wrote in the letter.

The tax on millionaires was struck down by France's highest court Dec. 29, but the government has promised to resubmit the law in a slightly different form soon.

Depardieu was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1990 film by the same name.

He's well known in Russia, where he appears in an ad for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is prominently featured on the bank's home page.

France's Civil Code says one must have another nationality in order to give up French citizenship because it is forbidden to be stateless. Thursday's decision by the Kremlin appears to fulfill that requirement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-grants-depardieu-russian-citizenship-092220569.html

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Video: Need a launch pad? NASA sells off shuttle facilities

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50348225/

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Senate deal forged in flurry of final negotiations

WASHINGTON (AP) ? They had 80 hours to finish or fail.

Stuck in a "fiscal cliff" stalemate, trust nearing tatters, President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans changed the game after Christmas. It took the rekindling of an old friendship between Vice President Joe Biden and GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, an extraordinary flurry of secret offers, a pre-dawn Senate vote on New Year's Day and the legislative muscling that defines Washington on deadline.

Yet the fate of the final agreement remains in doubt as House Republicans show signs of rebellion against the plan.

How the final days of private negotiations pulled the country ? maybe only temporarily ? back from the precipice of the fiscal cliff marked a rare moment of bipartisanship for a divided government. Several officials familiar with talks requested anonymity to discuss them because they were not authorized to discuss the private details publicly.

Obama, having cut short his Christmas vacation in Hawaii, huddled with congressional leaders Friday afternoon at the White House. Talks between the president and House Speaker John Boehner had failed, so Obama put the fate of the fiscal cliff in the hands of McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

McConnell made the first move. The Kentucky Republican proposed a plan late Friday night that would extend tax cuts expiring Jan. 1 on family income up to $750,000 a year, according to officials. He also wanted to keep tax rates on wealthy estates at 35 percent, slow the growth of Social Security cost-of-living increases, and pay for an offset of the sequester ? Congress's term for across-the-board spending cuts __ by means-testing Medicare. His offer did not include the extension of unemployment benefits Obama had demanded.

Democrats balked and began preparing a counteroffer. It called for extending tax cuts for family income up to $350,000, a concession from Obama's campaign pledge to cap the threshold at $250,000. The Democratic leader also insisted that any deal include a way to deal with the sequester, plus an extension of the jobless benefits for 2 million Americans.

The negotiating teams traded ideas back and forth on a wintry Saturday. Shortly before 7 p.m., McConnell presented another offer. He dropped the tax cut threshold to $550,000, put the sequester on the table, and offered a one-year extension of the jobless benefits as long as they were paid for through Social Security savings.

Rather than make a counteroffer, the Senate Democratic negotiating team said it was going home for the night. They reconvened Sunday morning ? less than two days before the combination of tax hikes and spending cuts were due to kick in ? but still had nothing new to present to McConnell.

Reid's inaction, officials said, was due in part to McConnell's insistence on keeping the tax cut threshold above $500,000, a level Obama refused to agree to.

A frustrated McConnell felt he had one last option. He called Biden, his longtime Senate colleague and frequent negotiating partner, and implored him to step in. Seeking to up the pressure on the White House, McConnell publicly announced that he was reaching out to Biden during remarks from the Senate floor during the rare Sunday session.

Until this late stage, Biden had played a secondary role in the "fiscal cliff" talks. He spent Saturday at his home in Wilmington, Del., and was planning to travel to the Caribbean island of St. Croix with his family for the New Year's holiday.

Obama and Reid both agreed that Biden, a 36-year veteran of the Senate, should take the lead. And once he did, negotiations with McConnell rapidly accelerated.

Around 8 p.m. Sunday, Obama, Biden and staffers met in the Oval Office to discuss what the vice president would deliver to McConnell as the administration's final offer.

The president set the upper limit for the tax cut extension at family income of $450,000. The sequester must be dealt with, he said, and any delay must be offset through a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases. And Obama demanded that the jobless benefits be extended for one year without a way to make up the $30 billion cost.

Shortly after midnight, Biden had McConnell's consent on nearly all of the outstanding issues. Only the sequester was unresolved, though both men were open to a plan that called for a separate vote on the sequester, pending Reid's consent.

The president, vice president and senior staff met in the Oval Office until 2 a.m. to talk through the final details. Obama's legislative director, Rob Nabors, then headed to Capitol Hill to join Senate negotiators in drafting the outlines of a bill that could be moved on quickly Monday.

Nabors worked continuously throughout the final stages, stopping at home only to change his shirt after leaving the Capitol and before heading to the White House before 7 a.m. Monday.

By then, the White House had spoken to Reid, who rejected the notion of holding a separate sequester vote. Biden broke the news to McConnell in a pre-dawn phone call.

The sequester remained the sticking point throughout Monday, with Biden trading proposals with McConnell's office for much of the day. By early evening, discussions coalesced around delaying the automatic spending cuts by two months and paying for the move through a combination of new spending cuts and revenue increases. A hiccup over the estate tax was also resolved.

Shortly before 9 p.m., with three hours until the deadline, Biden and McConnell agreed to the final deal. After Obama called Reid and Pelosi to get their sign-off, the vice president headed up to Capitol Hill to sell the bill to Senate Democrats.

Lawmakers and staff rang in the new year in cramped offices in the West Wing and on Capitol Hill, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and the stray bottle of cheap champagne.

Midnight also marked the moment the government technically went over the "fiscal cliff," although financial markets were closed Tuesday for the holiday. But optimism ran high on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that the impact would be negligible. The Senate overwhelming approved the Biden-McConnell deal in the early hours of Tuesday morning and sent the bill to the House for final approval.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-deal-forged-flurry-final-negotiations-222703245--politics.html

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Panda Blood May Hold Potent Assailant Against Superbugs

An anonymous reader writes "Pandas have long been the face of conservation efforts by environmental activists, but a recent finding may boost even further the need for pandas to evade extinction. Researchers have discovered a powerful antibody in panda blood that could serve as the next frontier in the fight against increasingly prevalent superbugs. The compound is called cathelicin-AM. Discovered when researchers analyzed the creatures' DNA, it has been found to kill fungus and bacteria. It is believed that the antibiotic is released to protect the animal from infections in the wild and, in studies, it has been found to kill both standard and drug-resistant strains of microbes and fungi. The compound also worked extremely quickly, killing off strains of bacteria in just an hour, while conventional antibiotics needed six."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/doocyp8CBO8/story01.htm

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These Are the Worst Case Scenarios for New Year's Eve

During an oddly jokey statement at the White House as the fiscal deadline bore down Monday afternoon, President Obama said, "I'm going to be president for the next four years. I?hope." He was warning Republicans that, yes, they'd have to deal with him for a while. But it was, to be sure, a strange moment. Could he actually have been joking about assassination? About impeachment? The?apocalypse? Or has everyone just had enough of these negotiations??

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worst-case-scenarios-years-eve-161155201.html

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Markets calm despite looming fiscal cliff

LONDON (AP) ? Markets appeared Monday to take in stride the ongoing failure of U.S. politicians to agree to a budget deal in time to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts that many economists think could tilt the world's largest economy back into recession.

With just hours to go before the U.S. falls off the so-called "fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained divided over taxes and spending, raising the prospect that markets will start 2013 without a clear idea of America's budget policy.

Unless an agreement is reached and approved by Congress by the start of New Year's Day, more than $500 billion in 2013 tax increases will begin to take effect and $109 billion will be carved from defense and domestic programs.

Discussions in the Senate broke off Sunday night without agreement. Senators are due to reconvene at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) to try to hammer out a deal before the deadline.

"With precisely zero headway made on the fiscal front resulting from the early weekend return by Congressional lawmakers, hopes are fast-fading of any sort of compromise before the end of 2012," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.

However, it's not the first time that budget discussions in the U.S. have gone down to the wire only for a deal to be eventually reached.

Many investors remain confident that some sort of deal will be struck in time following positive noises coming out from late Sunday discussions between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, and Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Even if a deal is not reached in time, many investors think that the possible damage can be contained for a while at least.

A backup proposal that would address only a few issues is expected to be presented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, if a bipartisan deal is not reached.

"It is likely that many of the fiscal cliff measures allow a certain amount of room within which the government can introduce measures to refrain from any tax increases," said Joshua Mahony, an analyst at Alpari.

The prospect of counter-measures to offset the "fiscal cliff" impact helps explain why markets were fairly calm in Europe and Asia, and Wall Street was poised to open higher on the last day of a year that's seen many indexes post strong gains, partly through rising hopes over Europe's 3-year debt crisis.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed down 0.5 percent at 5,897.81. For the year as a whole, the FTSE ended 5.8 percent higher.

The CAC-40 in France closed 0.6 percent higher on the day at 3,641.07. In 2012, it rose 15.2 percent.

Those European indexes that were open only traded for half the day. Others, including Germany's DAX, were closed. The DAX was one of the world's best-performers in 2012 with its annual rise of 29.1 percent.

U.S. stocks opened solidly despite the "fiscal cliff" uncertainty, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.1 percent at 12,149 and the broader S&P 500 index up 0.4 percent at 1,407.

Despite the recent worries, U.S. stocks have had a strong 2012, with the Dow up around 6 percent so far and the S&P 11.5 percent higher.

Developments over the U.S. budget will likely be one of the big issues in financial markets in 2013, especially in the early part, alongside Europe's ongoing efforts to contain its debt crisis and the state of the Chinese economy, now the world's second biggest.

Clearly, the full imposition of the "fiscal cliff" measures would hobble the U.S. economy that has shown some signs of late of a more sustainable economic recovery. Waning U.S. economic growth would have an impact worldwide.

Some economists predict the effects of the "fiscal cliff" could eventually throw the U.S. economy back into recession ? although if the deadline passes, politicians still have a few weeks to keep the tax hikes and spending cuts at bay by repealing them retroactively once a deal is reached.

Still, the failure to adhere to the deadline following weeks of squabbling and procrastination could be view negatively by the major credit rating agencies and weigh on investor confidence going into 2013.

"I think the market reaction to that will be very negative. This means the U.S. will never be able to bring its house in order. And the deficit will continue to accumulate," said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. "No meaningful reform and no solution in sight. You can throw confidence out of the window."

Earlier in Asia, the picture was fairly subdued in those markets that were open ? among others, markets in Japan, were closed for the New Year's holidays. After a stellar performance in December, Japan's Nikkei ended the year almost 23 percent higher.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng, trading for a half-day, closed marginally lower at 22,656.92, to also end the year nearly 23 percent higher.

Mainland Chinese stocks rose Monday after a private survey showed the country's manufacturing growth at its strongest level in 18 months in December. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent to close at 4,648.90.

There was also a fairly calm atmosphere in other financial markets, with the euro down just 0.2 percent at $1.3190. Despite the endless debate over its future, the euro has actually ended the year modestly higher against the dollar.

____

Sampson contributed from Bangkok.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/markets-calm-despite-looming-fiscal-cliff-110210983--finance.html

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