Oil rises above $99 as Iran boycott expands

BANGKOK (AP) ? Oil prices pushed above $99 a barrel Wednesday, a day after Australia announced it was joining a boycott by Western nations against Iran, the world's No. 3 oil exporter, over a suspected nuclear weapons program.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 20 cents to $99.15 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 63 cents to end at $98.95 in New York on Tuesday.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced Tuesday during a trip to London that his government had decided to follow the European Union, which announced Monday it would ban the import of Iranian crude starting in July.

The initiative to use oil to force Iran back to nuclear talks began last month, when the U.S. enacted new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. doesn't buy Iranian oil, but the new sanctions make it harder for Iran to sell crude.

Asian countries, already Iran's biggest customers, aren't joining the Europeans in banning Iranian crude. The move has been harshly criticized by oil-ravenous China, which is believed likely to sop up any excess Iranian crude at advantageous prices.

Meanwhile, analysts said that oil prices, amid expectations of tightening supplies, would remain somewhat elevated until the dust settles.

"There are other nations that will be boycotting Iran. That is probably adjusting market expectations of tighter supplies," said Natalie Robertson, a commodities analyst with ANZ Banking Group in Melbourne.

"There is going to be a rebalancing. Iran will have to find new customers for its crude since its usual customers are cutting down imports. During that period, there is going to be some time while the market adjusts to the imbalances, and that is what is keeping prices supported."

In other energy trading, heating oil rose 1.4 cents to $3.03 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 0.7 cents to $2.82 per gallon. Natural gas rose 5.4 cents to $2.61 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-25-Oil%20Prices/id-39525e5957d348b1899d0d4e297b62b0

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Iraq becoming 'police state,' rights group says

BAGHDAD?? Iraq's Shiite-led government cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a "budding police state" as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region, an international rights groups said Sunday.

Security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, torture detainees and intimidate activists, Human Rights Watch said in the Iraq chapter of its annual report.

"Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the New York-based group. "Despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy (in Iraq), the reality is that it left behind a budding police state," she said.

Protests against Iraq's U.S.-backed and democratically elected government erupted around the country in February 2011, alongside other demonstrations in the Arab world.

While protests in other countries demanded the downfall of autocratic regimes, most of the demonstrations in Iraq pushed for improved services like reliable electricity and water, and an end to corruption.

The government clamped down, sometimes sparking bloody clashes ? as when 14 were killed in confrontations between security forces and civilians across the country during the Feb. 25 protests billed as the "Day of Rage."

A year later, with U.S. troops withdrawn and Iraq's government mired in a political crisis, the protest movement has all but died out. Demonstrators who gather in Baghdad's central Tahrir Square are usually outnumbered by the security forces watching over them.

"Iraqis are quickly losing ground on the most basic of rights, including the right to free speech and assembly," said Samer Muscati, an Iraq researcher for the group. "Nowadays, every time someone attends a peaceful protest, they put themselves at risk of attack and abuse by security forces or their proxies," he said.

Prison brutality, including torture in detention facilities, was a major problem throughout the year, the group's annual report said.

In February 2011 Human Rights Watch uncovered a secret detention center, controlled by elite forces who report to the prime minister's military office.

The group claimed authorities transferred more than 280 detainees to the facility since the beginning of 2010 and charged detainees were tortured there with impunity. Government officials denied the facility's existence and alleged abuses.

Two policemen and two gunmen were killed and a member of the government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia was wounded in a clash at a security checkpoint in a village near Baquba, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, police told Reuters on Sunday.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46089721/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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'The Artist' silent but golden at producer awards (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? "The Artist" followed its Golden Globe win by taking top honors at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, as the silent film continues its unlikely run toward Oscar night.

Producer Thomas Langmann received the award handed out at the Beverly Hilton by the Producers Guild of America, as "The Artist" beat out George Clooney's family drama and another Oscar favorite, "The Descendants."

"The Artist" won best musical or comedy at Sunday's Golden Globes and "The Descendants" won best drama along with a best actor nod for Clooney, making the movies likely rivals for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The other nominees in the movie category were "War Horse," "The Help," "Bridesmaids," "Hugo," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball" and another Clooney movie, "The Ides of March."

Along with honors from other Hollywood professional groups such as actors, directors and writers guilds, the producer prizes have become part of the preseason sorting out contenders for the Oscars, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.

HBO's saga of mobsters in Prohibition-era Atlantic City "Boardwalk Empire" won the producers' award for television drama series, keeping AMC's "Mad Men" from winning its fourth straight PGA Award.

A team of seven producers including Martin Scorcese received the award for "Boardwalk Empire," which also beat out Showtime's "Dexter," CBS's "The Good Wife," and another HBO series, "Game of Thrones."

The ABC sitcom "Modern Family" took the award for best comedy series for the second straight year, beating "30 Rock," "The Big Bang Theory," "Glee," and "Parks and Recreation."

Other winners at the PGA awards include PBS's "Downton Abbey" for long-form television, "The Adventures of Tintin" for animated film, "Beats, Rhymes & Life" for movie documentary and "The Colbert Report" for talk and live entertainment shows.

___

Online:

http://www.producersguild.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_en_mo/us_film_producers_awards

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Santorum says he's pressing on to Florida (AP)

CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Rick Santorum says there've been three states and three winners in the Republican presidential race, and he's heading to the next contest in Florida.

The former Pennsylvania senator says it's a "wide open race" for the GOP nomination, even after finishing a distant third in Saturday's South Carolina primary. He'd hoped to build momentum from a late victory in the Iowa caucuses.

The next primary is in Florida, and Santorum says he will go on to that contest and beyond.

Santorum says he is the candidate who can contrast best with President Barack Obama and is the most consistent conservative in the race. The former Pennsylvania senator says Republicans must stand up for family values and promises to continue to campaign that way.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_santorum

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Companies see growth but few new jobs: poll (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Few U.S. companies plan to step up hiring in the next six months although they do expect the economy to be a bit stronger this year, according to a poll released on Monday.

The National Association for Business Economics' industry survey found that two-thirds of respondents expected no change in employment at their companies over the first half of the year. That was the highest share in recent quarters.

Although the U.S. jobless rate fell to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent in December, fewer businesses said they would hire more workers, compared with the previous industry poll.

The survey, which was conducted between December 15 2011, and January 5 2012, found that 65 percent of respondents expect gross domestic product growth to exceed 2 percent between the fourth quarter of last year and the last quarter of 2012.

That was higher than the 1.6 percent growth rate economists polled by Reuters found.

About two-thirds of the companies surveyed said the European debt crisis would have little impact on their sales over the first half the year, while 27 percent of respondents said they expected to see a decline in sales of 10 percent or less.

(Reporting By Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_poll

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Paula Deen Abdicated Personal Responsibility (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | When Paula Deen, self-proclaimed queen of all food Southern-style, announced Jan. 18 that not only does she have Type 2 diabetes but she is going to be a spokeswoman for the pharmaceutical company that produces the diabetes medication she takes, the public was only partially surprised. After all, the recipes she cheerfully shared with her audience never lacked in calories or cholesterol.

Perhaps to soften the blow that felt a lot like being duped by this woman who so many have cheerfully invited into their homes via television and Deen's cookbooks, she announced she would be donating some of her compensation from her new business partner to the American Diabetes Association, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

There was little surprise the food Deen has touted could lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes. The surprise, as I see it, was she had been diagnosed with the condition three years earlier and not only had not disclosed it but continued without change to promote the high-fat, high-calorie foods and recipes to her audiences.

Susan Levin, dietitian and director of nutrition education with the organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, writing for TheProvince.com, finds a kernel of hope in Deen's future and her ability to do right by her viewers by changing the previously heavily meat-and-fat laden recipes with more vegetable and whole grain ingredients. Any positive attention brought to the topic of the association between diet and the development of type 2 diabetes can only bring good things.

But it would have also been helpful if Deen had explained how the food she regales and cooks is part of the reason she developed diabetes. I could hold the woman in some positive esteem if she would explain why she hid her diagnosis until it was financially lucrative to let the cat out of the bag.

Maybe if there weren't three more years of food and recipes touted to her audiences, without any serious caveats or concern for the health of her viewers, maybe then I could feel as if Deen were accepting some personal responsibility for her inactions. As it stands, I can only see a person driven by greed.

Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of "The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120122/hl_ac/10868233_paula_deen_abdicated_personal_responsibility

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Sundance Today: Joshua Jackson, Alison Brie, Neil Young

There are two words that can best describe Sundance: pizza tacos.
Okay, maybe those are just the two words best fit to describe the way the MTV Movies team has been chowing down here in Park City over the past two days. There are better words to describe the film festival experience as a whole, [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/21/sundance-joshua-jackson-alison-brie-neil-young/

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