Robotics shutdown briefly strands astronaut

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A robotic system shutdown interrupted Monday's spacewalk outside the International Space Station, leaving an astronaut stuck with an 800-pound pump in his hands for nearly a half-hour.

Good thing it was weightless.

Spacewalker Stephen Bowen was in no danger, but it didn't sound pleasant.

Mission Control asked if he was comfortable.

"I'm fine as long as it's not too much longer," Bowen radioed. "How much longer?"

Bowen was perched on a small platform at the end of the 58-foot robotic arm, used to carry spacewalking astronauts where they need to go.

The problem arose at the two-hour mark when a work station controlling the robot arm shut down. The astronauts operating the arm inside the space station rushed to another computer station and got it working again.

It took a while to get the second station working. For nearly a half-hour, the arm was motionless, with Bowen stuck gripping the 5-by-4-foot broken cooling pump.

He dared not let go.

Bowen was told the trouble would be resolved soon. But it took several more minutes until the robot arm came back to life. Finally, the operation resumed and Bowen carried the pump to its new location on the exterior of the space station. He got help from fellow spacewalker Alvin Drew in latching the pump down.

Despite the snag, Bowen and Drew managed to complete all their major chores, including prep work for installing a new storage room at the station. They even had time for an education experiment.

As the 6 1/2-hour spacewalk wrapped up, Drew twisted the top of a small bottle, ridding it of air and filling it with the vacuum of space. NASA calls the Japanese experiment "message in a bottle."

There's no actual message inside, but the bottle is signed by astronauts and will be put on display in Japan. It's an effort by the Japanese Space Agency to raise public interest.

In a bit of space trivia, Drew became the world's 200th spacewalker when he emerged from the 220-mile-high complex. The first was Soviet cosmonaut Alexi Leonov in 1965. He and Bowen will go back out Wednesday for one final spacewalk.

Bowen got his spacewalking assignment as a substitute for Timothy Kopra, who was injured last month in a bicycle accident and bumped off the flight.

And he won't get a shot at another shuttle ride. This is Discovery's final voyage, and only two other shuttle trips remain. The fleet will be retired by summer's end.

Late Monday, the astronauts learned they will get an extra day in space, with the mission extended to 12 days. The astronauts will do some extra work at the space station, and there may be a flyaround of the entire complex by a Soyuz capsule for picture-taking.

Once landing on March 8, Discovery will be retired and sent to the Smithsonian Institution. It's NASA's longest flying shuttle, circling the planet for what amounts to nearly a year over its lifetime of 39 missions in 26 years.

Shuttle Endeavour, meanwhile, was moved into NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building down in Florida as the spacewalk unfolded. It should head to the pad next week for an April 19 launch.

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Jane Russell, star of '40s and '50s films, dies

LOS ANGELES – Jane Russell, the brunette who was discovered by Howard Hughes and went on to become one of the biggest stars of the 1940s and '50s, has died at age 89.

Russell's daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield says the actress died Monday at her home in Santa Maria of a respiratory-related illness.

Hughes, the eccentric billionaire, cast Russell in his sexy, and controversial, 1941 Western "The Outlaw," turning her into an overnight star.

She would go on to appear opposite such leading men as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, as well as fellow actress Marilyn Monroe.

Although her film career slowed in the 1960s, Russell remained active throughout her life.

Until her health began to decline a few weeks ago, Waterfield said she remained active singing and working for various causes.

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Pro-Gadhafi forces fight rebels in 2 cities

 
TRIPOLI, Libya – International pressure on Moammar Gadhafi to end a crackdown on opponents escalated Monday as his loyalists fought rebels holding the two cities closest to the capital and his warplanes bombed an ammunition depot in the east. The U.S. moved naval and air forces closer to Libya and said all options were open, including patrols of the North African nation's skies to protect its citizens from their ruler.

France said it would fly aid to the opposition-controlled eastern half of the country. The European Union imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions, following the lead of the U.S. and the U.N. The EU was also considering the creation of a no-fly zone over Libya. And the U.S. and Europe were freezing billions in Libya's foreign assets.

"Gadhafi has lost the legitimacy to govern, and it is time for him to go without further violence or delay," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. "No option is off the table. That of course includes a no-fly zone," she added. British Prime Minister David Cameron told lawmakers: "We do not in any way rule out the use of military assets" to deal with Gadhafi's regime.

Gadhafi, who in the past two weeks has launched the most brutal crackdown of any Arab regime facing a wave of popular uprisings, laughed off a question from ABC News about whether he would step down as the Obama administration demands.

"My people love me. They would die for me," he said. ABC reported that Gadhafi invited the United Nations or any other organization to Libya on a fact-finding mission.

Gadhafi's remarks were met with derision in Washington. "It sounds, just frankly, delusional," said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice. She added that Gadhafi's behavior, including laughing on camera in TV interviews amid the chaos, "underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality."

The turmoil in the oil-rich nation roiled markets for another day. Libya's oil chief said production had been cut by around 50 percent, denting supplies that go primarily to Europe. The country provides 2 percent of the world's oil, but concerns the unrest will spread to other oil-rich nations has sent oil prices rising worldwide.

The uprising that began Feb. 15 has posed the most serious challenge to Gadhafi in his more than four decades in power. His bloody crackdown has left hundreds, and perhaps thousands, dead. But clashes appear to have eased considerably in the past few days after planeloads of foreign journalists arrived in the capital at the government's invitation.

The two sides are entrenched, and the direction the uprising takes next could depend on which can hold out longest. Gadhafi is dug in in Tripoli and nearby cities, backed by his elite security forces and militiamen who are generally better armed than the military. His opponents, holding the east and much of the country's oil infrastructure, also control pockets in western Libya near Tripoli. They are backed by mutinous army units, but those forces appear to have limited supplies of ammunition and weapons.

Gadhafi opponents have moved to consolidate their hold in the east, centered on Benghazi — Libya's second- largest city, where the uprising began. Politicians there on Sunday set up their first leadership council to manage day-to-day affairs, taking a step toward forming what could be an alternative to Gadhafi's regime.

The opposition is backed by numerous units of the military in the east that joined the uprising, and they hold several bases and Benghazi's airport. But so far, the units do not appear to have melded into a unified fighting force. Gadhafi long kept the military weak, fearing a challenge to his rule, so many units are plagued by shortages of supplies and ammunition.

On Monday, pro-Gadhafi forces retook control of the western border crossings with Tunisia that had fallen under opposition control and they bombed an ammunition depot in the rebel-held east, residents in the area said. The Libyan Defense Ministry denied the bombing.

Regime forces also moved to tighten their ring around two opposition-controlled cities closest to the capital Tripoli — Zawiya and Misrata — where the two sides are locked in standoffs.

An Associated Press reporter saw a large, pro-Gadhafi force massed on the western edge of Zawiya, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, with about a dozen armored vehicles along with tanks and jeeps mounted with anti-aircraft guns. An officer said they were from the elite Khamis Brigade, named after one of Gadhafi's sons who commands it. U.S. diplomats have said the brigade is the best-equipped force in Libya.

A resident of Zawiya said by telephone that fighting started in the evening and intensified after sundown when troops loyal to Gadhafi attacked the city from the west and east.

"We were able to repulse the attack. We damaged a tank with an RPG. The mercenaries fled after that," said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

He said Gadhafi called Zawiya's influential tribal leader Mohammed al-Maktouf and warned him that if the rebels don't leave the city's main square by early Tuesday, they will be hit by warplanes. "We are expecting a major battle," the resident said, added that the rebels killed eight soldiers and mercenaries Monday.

Another resident of Zawiya said he heard gunfire well into the night on the outskirts of town.

In Misrata, Libya's third-largest city 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tripoli, pro-Gadhafi troops who control part of an air base on the outskirts tried to advance Monday. But they were repulsed by opposition forces, who included residents with automatic weapons and defected army units allied with them, one of the opposition fighters said.

No casualties were reported and the fighter claimed that his side had captured eight soldiers, including a senior officer.

The opposition controls most of the air base, and the fighter said dozens of anti-Gadhafi gunmen have arrived from farther east in recent days as reinforcements.

Several residents of the eastern city of Ajdabiya said Gadhafi's air force also bombed an ammunition depot nearby held by rebels. One resident, 17-year-old Abdel-Bari Zwei, reported intermittent explosions and a fire, and another, Faraj al-Maghrabi, said the facility was partially damaged. The site contains bombs, missiles and ammunition — key for the undersupplied opposition military forces.

State TV carried a statement by Libya's Defense Ministry denying any attempt to bomb the depot. Ajdabiya is about 450 miles (750 kilometers) east of Tripoli along the Mediterranean coast.

Gadhafi supporters said they were in control of the city of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, which has seemed to go back and forth between the two camps in the past week. Several residents told the AP that protesters set fire to a police station, but then were dispersed. Anti-Gadhafi graffiti — "Down with the enemy of freedom" and "Libya is free, Gadhafi must leave" — were scrawled on some walls, but residents were painting them over.

There were signs of economic distress in the country, with prices skyrocketing and long lines forming for bread and gasoline.

Global efforts to halt Gadhafi's crackdown escalated Monday.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it was moving some naval and air forces closer to Libya in case they are needed. The U.S. has a regular military presence in the Mediterranean and farther to the south has two aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf area.

The U.S. Treasury Department said that at least $30 billion in Libyan assets have been frozen since President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Libya last week.

France promised to send two planes with humanitarian aid the eastern opposition stronghold city of Benghazi, hoping to give it the momentum to oust Gadhafi. The aid to included medicine and doctors, would be the first direct Western help for the uprising that has taken control of the entire eastern half of Libya. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said it was the start of a "massive operation of humanitarian support" for the east and that Paris was studying "all solutions" — including military options.

The EU slapped its own arms embargo, visa ban and other sanctions on Gadhafi's regime, following sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the U.N. in the past week. And Europe was also considering the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent any air attacks by the regime on rebellious citizens.

Clinton met in Geneva with foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany and Italy to press for tough sanctions on the Libyan government. 

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Bank of America, Wells Fargo May Face Fines on Foreclosures

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. mortgage firms, said they may face fines or enforcement actions from regulators amid investigations into foreclosure procedures.
The probes may also lead to “significant legal costs,” Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said yesterday in its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, said in its filing that penalties are likely.
“I’m sure the banks are ready to put this past them and investors would certainly like to but this is not an issue that is going to go away,” Blake Howells, an analyst at Becker Capital Management Inc. in Portland, Oregon, said in an interview. “There will be more lawsuits that come down the road.” Becker Capital oversees $2.4 billion.
The largest U.S. banks have been trying to reassure investors that costs from faulty foreclosure documents are manageable. Wells Fargo said yesterday it didn’t expect litigation costs to have a “material adverse” impact on its financial position. Bank of America said it faced $230 million in fees from slowed foreclosures.
Bank of America halted foreclosures in all 50 states in October and announced in a Nov. 5 filing that it was reviewing as many as 102,000 cases to screen for faulty practices. Attorneys general in all 50 states are investigating foreclosure practices amid revelations that lenders were seizing homes without proper documents to prove they had the right to do so.
$20 Billion Deal
U.S. regulators may try to extract $20 billion of penalties in a settlement with banks that serviced flawed loans, two people briefed on the talks said this week. Terms of an accord, from regulators led by the Treasury Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, haven’t been formally presented to banks, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions aren’t public.
Bank of America also said a bondholder group pressuring the lender to repurchase soured mortgages has almost doubled the number of securitizations it’s challenging.
The group is disputing 225 securitizations, up from 115 as of Oct. 18, according to Bank of America’s filing. Pacific Investment Management Co., BlackRock Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are among the investors, people familiar with the matter said in October.
“On the putbacks, investors have braced themselves for a multiyear workout,” Howells said. “This might, on the margin, make people rethink the potential size of the liability.”
Costs of Litigation
Wells Fargo said the high end of estimated litigation losses could be $1.2 billion beyond the reserve already set aside. Bank of America’s losses may be as much as $1.5 billion. Citigroup Inc. said yesterday that as much as $4 billion in additional costs from pending legal matters are “possible, but not probable.”
Banks are releasing estimates after the SEC, in an October letter to corporate finance chiefs, said companies should disclose potential losses “when there is at least a reasonable possibility” that they may be incurred, even if the risk is too low to require reserves.
Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, also said U.S. regulators are examining how it structured and sold collateralized debt obligations as part of an investigation into mortgage-related businesses.
The bank is cooperating with the SEC and other watchdogs, the New York-based company said in a filing. The probe is part of inquiries involving Citigroup’s “subprime and other mortgage-related conduct,” and other businesses affected by the credit crisis, it said.
--With assistance from Hugh Son, Donal Griffin and Jody Shenn in New York. Editors: Dan Reichl, Jim McDonald.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dakin Campbell in San Francisco at

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Sheen's interviews upstage Oscars a day after

NEW YORK – Leave it to Charlie Sheen to upstage the Oscars.

A day after Hollywood's biggest show, the troubled actor dominated the headlines with threats of a lawsuit, two riveting morning show interviews, a rambling live stream on an Internet website. And by midday Monday, his veteran publicist had quit.

It was just another day for the self-described party animal whose use of drugs, alcohol and prostitutes combined to shut down the top-rated comedy on television, "Two and a Half Men." www.wdalaw.com In Sheen's interviews with ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today" show, he boasted about his "epic" partying, said he's fueled by "violent hatred" of his bosses, claimed to have kicked drugs at home in his "Sober Valley Lodge" and demanded $3 million an episode to return to work.

"The more he does, the more insane he looks," said Michele Cohen, a technical editor from Cary, N.C., and occasional viewer of the CBS sitcom who has been watching the offstage drama with interest.

What may be amusement for fans is serious business in Hollywood. There's a strong likelihood that "Two and a Half Men" will never be back, putting fellow cast and crew members out of work and costing producers Warner Bros. Television tens of millions of dollars.

"I'm supposed to be out there all humble and asking for my job," Sheen said during an interview at his home with Mike Walters and streamed live Monday on TMZ.com. "No, I don't do that. I don't understand what I did wrong except live a life that everyone is jealous of."

Sheen's publicist, Stan Rosenfield, resigned shortly after the TMZ interview. Rosenfield has been with Sheen through three hospitalizations in three months related to the star's wild behavior. In the interview, Sheen implied that Rosenfield had lied to the media by saying he had been hospitalized for an allergic reaction after trashing a room in New York's Plaza Hotel.
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"I have worked with Charlie Sheen for a long time and I care about him very much," Rosenfield said in a statement. "However, at this time, I'm unable to work effectively as his publicist and have respectfully resigned."

In a strange twist shortly before he quit, a prankster on Monday issued a "news release" under the name of Rosenfield's company saying that Sheen was quitting acting to run a vineyard in New Zealand. Rosenfield quickly said it was a hoax.

Both the ABC and NBC morning shows carried excerpts of Sheen interviews conducted over the weekend in each of their first two half-hours, and promised more on Tuesday. ABC aired the interview excerpts before even wrapping up the Academy Awards results, which had aired on ABC the night before.

Monday's New York Post's front page blared: "Sue & a Half Men," with Oscar coverage a mere side of the page.

Sheen told NBC interviewer Jeff Rossen that he's spent years trying to be the "nice guy" on his show and get along with everybody, and now that's over.

"I'm tired of pretending I'm not special," he said. "I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total bitchin' rock star from Mars."

Rossen appeared startled when Sheen said he wanted to be paid $3 million an episode to return to the show. He's reportedly paid $1.8 million an episode now, one of the highest-paid actors on television.

"You want a raise?" Rossen asked.

Replied Sheen: "Yeah, look what they put me through."

On ABC, Sheen said to correspondent Andrea Canning that he planned to sue his bosses.

"Wouldn't you?" he said. "I've got a whole family to support and love. People beyond me are relying on that. I'm here to collect. They're going to lose. They're going to lose in a courtroom, so I would recommend that they settle out of court."

Sheen said that he's bored now with cocaine. But he said he "exposed people to magic" when they partied with him and that he loved doing drugs.

"What's not to love?" he said on ABC. "Especially when you see how I party. It was epic. The run I was on made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards just look like droopy-eyed armless children."

ABC and Radar Online had Sheen's blood and urine tested for drugs over the weekend.

The results were "a big win for Charlie Sheen, no question," said Radar's Dylan Howard. He said the dual tests revealed Sheen hadn't had drugs in at least 72 hours.

"I am on a drug," Sheen said. "It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."

The interviews heightened the competition between the network morning shows. Sheen gave his interview to ABC on Saturday, and the network said it was under the impression he wouldn't speak to any other network over the weekend because it planned a "20/20'" special on Tuesday, but Sheen spoke to NBC on Sunday.

"I don't think it's really fair to compare the two," said James Goldston, senior executive producer of "Good Morning America." "NBC got a short interview. It's really not the same thing at all."

Jim Bell, executive producer of "Today," said Rossen had been working hard for a long time to get the interview. He dismissed any suggestion that the morning shows were being enablers for Sheen.

"It's a great story," he said. "We don't have this much interest when we have a big interview on Libya or a powerful, smart series on the brain.'

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AT&T Retail Stores Will Sell Amazon's Kindle 3G

AT&T said Monday that it will sell Amazon.com's Kindle 3G for $189 at more than 2,000 AT&T retail stores across the U.S., beginning March 6. The wireless device already uses AT&T's nationwide network to process e-book downloads and related user activities.

Since Amazon's profits come from selling e-books and other digital publications rather than the Kindle itself, any expansion in retail availability ultimately furthers the online retail giant's profit goals. Although the Kindle is already offered by other U.S. retail outlets such as Best Buy, Staples and Target, Amazon's deal with AT&T represents its first foray into the U.S. wireless space.

"As the first dedicated e-reader offered in our stores, we are confident the Kindle will be an attractive addition to our in-store connected-devices lineup," said AT&T President of Emerging Devices Glenn Lurie.

Competing for Attention

According to IDC, Amazon was the e-reader market leader in the third quarter of 2010 with more than 1.1 million units shipped, which was good enough to grab a global market share of 41.5 percent. Overall, global e-reader shipments increased 40 percent year over year to 2.7 million units in last year's third quarter -- with the U.S. representing nearly 75 percent of the e-reader market worldwide.

What's more, the research firm's analysts estimate that 10.8 million e-reader devices shipped worldwide in all of 2010. Still, global e-reader sales pale by comparison to what's expected to happen in the web tablet market this year.

IDC expects tablet makers to ship 44.6 million units in 2011, with the U.S. representing nearly 40 percent of the total. The danger for the e-reader makers is that their devices will eventually be overshadowed by the next wave of lower-cost tablets sporting a wider range of innovative features.

The biggest potential threat to Amazon's Kindle is Apple's widely anticipated iPad 2, which will also be offered by AT&T when it launches later this year. By gaining a place on AT&T's store shelves, Amazon now has an opportunity to directly compete for the attention of AT&T's 95.5 million subscribers.

No Real Innovation Yet

When it comes to capturing consumer attention through the introduction of media-savvy features, however, Amazon and the world's other top e-reader makers still have a long way to go. For example, Barnes & Noble originally envisioned the nook's book-sharing feature as a way to tap into the popularity of social networking, but the concept never caught on, noted Forrester Research Vice President James McQuivey.

"It comes with so many strings attached that it has failed to spawn the real innovation that the market is capable of," McQuivey explained. Moreover, Amazon's own limited foray into the social-networking space simply tries "to make do with what it has," he added.

Though the new Public Notes feature built into Amazon's latest Kindle 3.1 software "can't share content, it can at least share people's comments and interactions with content, which nobody technically owns -- except the user, who agrees to share this information," McQuivey said. "It's a smart way around the problem and it will catch on, especially as famous and influential people start attracting 'followers' who want to read their notes and hear their reactions to a beloved or intriguing book."

Still, the early prediction by McQuivey that e-reading devices would open a Pandora's Box in the social space hasn't come to pass. "I don't think we're there yet," McQuivey said.

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Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" Premieres Exclusively on Vevo

Lady Gaga fans, prepare to have the misty veil of mundanity ripped off of your Monday: The video for Gaga's hit single, "Born This Way," will be premiering exclusively on Vevo at 11 a.m. EST today.

The video will be available at Vevo.com, Vevo Mobile (apps for Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) and Vevo on YouTube.

Gaga has already been crowned the queen of iTunes, as “Born This Way” is the fastest-selling single ever to grace Apple’s iTunes store worldwide. The song pulled in more than 1 million downloads in five days and hit the number one spot on iTunes in 23 countries, according to Apple.

Judging by those numbers, the premiere of the accompanying video could produce comparable results, perhaps even helping Gaga wrest away the crown from the pop princeling himself, Justin Bieber, when it comes to YouTube and Vevo views.

Gaga still sits at number two on the most-viewed videos of all time list on YouTube and Vevo.

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Bieber makes public debut with girlfriend

Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez made their first public appearance together as a couple at the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar party. The teen titans -- who both donned Dolce & Gabbana -- looked absolutely adorable as they snuggled 'til the early morning hours.

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Lord, Make Us Thrifty, but Not Yet

Following up on my earlier post on the fall in American consumer spending: The flip side of the declining spending numbers is that the personal savings rate increased in January. Households had a saving rate of 5.8 percent (measured as the share of disposable income not spent), up from 5.4 percent in December.

Isn’t that a good thing, you might ask? Don’t we want Americans to start budgeting more responsibly?

In the long term, yes: it would benefit the economy to be less dependent on consumer spending and more reliant on exports. That requires a higher saving rate, at least to the levels seen before the credit bubble.

But as  St. Augustine of Hippo might say, Lord, make us thrifty, but not yet. In other words, we want Americans to start saving more in the future — that is, sometime after the economy has fully recovered. In the near term, though, businesses need consumer spending, not saving, to help them grow and eventually hire.

And this was the exact calculus behind the temporary payroll tax cut: to get consumers to pick up the pace of spending in the near-term only.

One month’s worth of data does not a bulletproof verdict make, but the policy does not look promising.

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Investors Are Drawn Anew to Digital Music

Since it emerged in the 1990s, digital music has been hugely popular with fans, but for online music companies and their investors it has almost never been profitable.
And yet the money has again started pouring in.

Pandora, the popular Internet radio service, filed for an initial public offering in February that would raise $100 million. Spotify, a highly lauded European service, is reportedly raising $100 million from private equity firms to help it come to the United States.

And those are just the big fish. Since the end of last year, at least $57 million in venture capital has gone to digital music start-ups, ending a recent financing drought and setting up an array of young companies like Rdio, SoundCloud and RootMusic in an already crowded marketplace.

The heightened interest in a field that has had few winners and a vast graveyard of losers has left some longtime executives and analysts scratching their heads. Faced with thin margins, persistent piracy and expensive licensing deals from record companies, dozens of digital music start-ups have collapsed over the last decade, taking with them hundreds of millions of dollars in investment money. Even Apple, the largest music retailer, has long maintained that it makes little profit from its iTunes store, which has sold more than 10 billion songs since 2003.

“A number of the investors have not invested in digital music before,” said David Pakman, a venture capitalist who is the former chief executive of the download service eMusic. “Usually the ones who have, have learned over the decade that it’s an impossibly hard place to make money.”

Even more challenging for start-ups, two very big players are expected to introduce cloud-type music services this year: Apple and Google.

But more bullish investors point to technological developments and shifts in consumer behavior as signs that the business is about to turn a corner. These changes include the migration of digital media libraries from personal computers to the remote storage of the “cloud,” as well as the explosive success of smartphone applications. Pandora’s apps, for example, have been the biggest factor in driving that service to 80 million registered users, up from 46 million a year ago. (A basic, ad-supported service is free; the upgraded version, with no ads and higher-quality audio, is $36 a year.)

“Services like iTunes, Pandora and Spotify have shown that with the right product and the right business model, you can effectively monetize digital music, which is kind of new,” said Doug Barry of Selby Ventures, an early Pandora investor. “The last time around it was mostly about file-sharing and limited monetization.”

Rdio, which streams music by subscription, was founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the entrepreneurs behind Skype, and the company recently announced that it had raised $17.5 million, some from the founders’ own venture firm, Atomico.

SoundCloud, which distributes user-generated audio content, said in January that it had raised $10 million. Over the last several months Slacker, Songkick, TuneUp, FanBridge, RootMusic and 3G Multimedia have each brought in $2 million to $6 million, according to figures reported by the companies and in the news media.

What most new services do not have yet, however, is a critical mass of paying users, usually defined in the millions. Investors look to the 20 million subscribers at both Netflix and Sirius XM Radio as signs that consumers are willing to pay for streaming content.

Yet those kinds of numbers have remained elusive throughout the history of digital music. Rhapsody, a streaming service begun in 2001, has 750,000 subscribers; eMusic, which sells downloads, has 400,000. Spotify, which has free and paid versions, has 10 million users in Europe, but only 750,000 of them pay (the rate is about $15 a month), a ratio that concerns the record labels.

“Until you get scale, it’s just too hard of a business to work,” said Tom Andrus, who is on the board of Rhapsody.

In another challenge, Apple announced two weeks ago that it would take a 30 percent cut of subscription fees and other purchases through its App Store, a move that digital-media companies of all kinds have criticized as being too steep.

Many investors say that while the labels’ weakened finances have led them to make slightly more friendly deals, they remain tough negotiators. Spotify, for example, recently signed contracts for American distribution with Sony and EMI, but only after more than a year of talks. (Spotify, as well as three of the four major record companies, declined to comment for this article.)

Partly as a way around the record companies, there has been a particular interest among start-ups for services that avoid license negotiations. These include Internet radio — although they still pay royalties set by statute — as well as ancillary businesses like ticketing and concert listings. Yet the focus remains on services that provide music to listeners, and many veterans of the field are skeptical that any of the new models can bring in the revenue to sustain a company.

“People are tantalized by the notion that all music is going to be digital, and that there’s a massive global demand that is not being met,” said Dave Goldberg, a former general manager of Yahoo Music who is now chief executive of SurveyMonkey, an online survey company. “But I don’t know that there’s a good solution out there for anybody who’s rationally looking at this as an investment.”

Pandora’s public offering brings some much-needed market glamour to the digital music business. But even some of the bulls caution that despite hope on the horizon, more music start-ups will inevitably end up in the digital graveyard.

“I think it will get overfunded,” Mr. Barry said. “At the end of the day there is a limit to how many people will pay a hefty subscription.”

“But in that process,” he added, “great services will be built.”

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JPMorgan Fund Seeks Minority Stake in Twitter

JPMorgan Chase’s new fund aimed at investing in social media companies is seeking to buy a minority stake in Twitter that could value the service at close to $4.5 billion, people briefed on the matter said Sunday.

For the $1.22 billion JPMorgan fund, Twitter appears to be its beachhead in the highly popular social media sector, much as Goldman Sachs established its presence in the category by raising $1.5 billion to invest in Facebook, an amount that included $1 billion collected from wealthy private individuals outside the United States.

It is not clear whether the fund, known as the J.P. Morgan Digital Growth Fund, will invest directly in Twitter, or buy current investors’ stakes with the company’s consent, these people said. They cautioned that talks were continuing and might not lead to a deal. These people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were intended to be private.

Investments by the fund are also expected to extend to other sectors of social media, a broad and rapidly expanding group of companies like the gaming giant Zynga and providers of group coupons like LivingSocial. JPMorgan plans to invest in companies with established business models and steady revenue before they go public in widely anticipated stock sales.

Spokesmen for JPMorgan and Twitter declined to comment on Sunday.

Twitter is widely regarded as one of the darlings of the new generation of Internet companies, and its popularity has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2006. The service, which allows users to broadcast messages of up to 140 characters, has been praised for helping facilitate the protests in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. On Sunday night alone, the service played host to thousands of users who commented on the Oscars in real time.

The potential investment by the JPMorgan fund, which is being run out of the firm’s asset management unit and which company executives have been reluctant to discuss, signals a rapid rise in Twitter’s worth.

Two months ago, the Internet company raised $200 million from a group of investors led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which valued the company at $3.7 billion. That round of investments was itself a sharp rise from the $1 billion valuation assigned to Twitter in a fund-raising round in September 2009.

Trading of Twitter shares on SharesPost, a secondary market, value the company at about $4.3 billion.

Twitter is seeking to prove that it can create a durable and profitable business from its more than 175 million users.

So far, Twitter is in the early phases of developing its moneymaking platform. It introduced its first ads last April, including special messages known as “promoted tweets.” That service has attracted brands like Coca-Cola and Nike. The company’s advertising revenue could swell to $150 million this year, according to eMarketer, an Internet analysis company.

The company has also added two seasoned Silicon Valley executives as board members. And in October, it promoted Dick Costolo to chief executive from chief operating officer, succeeding a co-founder, Evan Williams, in a move that placed a more experienced manager atop the company.

The company has grown to more than 300 employees and is continuing to expand.

The Digital Growth Fund follows in the footsteps of Goldman’s Facebook fund, which gave that site a valuation of about $50 billion. Facebook is currently valued at about $52.3 billion on SharesPost, though recent trades in its shares suggest a valuation of nearly $84 billion.
 So far, the JPMorgan fund has raised about $1.22 billion from wealthy outside investors, much higher than the $500 million to $750 million that the investment pool was initially expected to raise, according to a regulatory filing made on Friday.

The minimum investment is set at about $250,000, according to the filing. JPMorgan expects to collect about $13 million in commissions.

The fund consists only of money from outside investors, and will not use any of JPMorgan’s own capital.

News of the JPMorgan fund’s plans was first reported on Sunday by The Financial Times.

Claire Cain Miller contributed reporting.

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Small Airports Fear Being Left Behind as Costs Squeeze Carriers

Residents of some of America’s smaller cities may face a tough choice in the future: pay increasingly high fares to board a plane close to home or drive farther to a bigger airport with lower ticket prices.  While it is difficult to calculate how much fares are rising at places like Mobile, Ala., versus large cities like Miami — the Department of Transportation’s most recent study of rural airfares was published in 1998 — industry executives and analysts agree that smaller markets are generally experiencing bigger price increases.

“It’s just the economics of the airplane involved and the demand,” said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant with Boyd Group International. “It’s an issue of volume.”

Since airlines typically fly turboprops and 50-seat jets on the routes that connect outlying communities to big hubs, the higher cost of fuel and other expenses gets split among fewer passengers. Carriers are retiring these planes because they are unprofitable as oil prices climb.

But many small airports do not generate enough traffic to fill larger planes multiple times a day, or attract the low-fare carriers that choose markets with higher volume. And as local residents drive to bigger airports with lower fares, or forgo flying as it gets more expensive, small airports feel the pinch even more.

That means communities are fighting to maintain affordable airline service as carriers cut back on flights to money-losing markets.. With the economy still struggling and airlines tightly managing capacity, some analysts say they believe that the day of reckoning has arrived when the number of commercial airports may shrink.

“There are very few communities that are going to lose access to the rest of the world,” Mr. Boyd said. “It’s just that that access may not be from the local airport.” The country’s network of plentiful regional airports connecting to big hubs was largely built in an era of $30-a-barrel oil. But oil prices are now more than triple that, so maintaining commercial airline service to underperforming airports may be unsustainable.

Still, any discussion of shrinking airline service is a political minefield, as illustrated by the recent furor over proposals to reduce the subsidies for the federal Essential Air Service program, which provides $200 million annually to help pay for flights to 154 rural markets. While it is acknowledged by some government officials and lawmakers that residents of many of those communities could drive to other nearby airports, Congress has been reluctant to overhaul the eligibility rules for the program.

“Given that there are 535 interested parties on Capitol Hill, I don’t see anyone stepping up and wanting to close an airport in some congressman’s district,” said William S. Swelbar, a research engineer with M.I.T.’s International Center for Air Transportation.

He and other analysts said market forces could lead to cuts that politicians and even some airport executives would rather not address.

“We’re just operating too many airports,” Mr. Swelbar said, noting that 200 of the roughly 450 airports in the contiguous United States account for 97 percent of demand. “All airports require tremendous investment. Have we really built a system that makes sense?”

But what makes sense from a national policy perspective, or an airline’s balance sheet, has big ramifications for residents of smaller communities that rely on local airport service. Driving two hours or more to catch a flight, factoring in unpredictable weather, traffic and airline delays, can be a major disincentive to fly. Visits to far-flung family members, vacations and business meetings involve a complicated set of trade-offs, potentially becoming financially or logistically out of reach.

The Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce, in a mostly resort community in northern Michigan, collected comments from more than 300 members last summer about the impact of rising airfares and declining service at the local Cherry Capital Airport.

According to data compiled by Mr. Boyd, who has been hired as a consultant to the airport, Traverse City has the sixth-highest fares out of the top 175 airports in the United States — tickets cost about 23 cents per mile flown compared with about 16 cents at Newark.

Local residents say they are driving to Detroit, Grand Rapids and Flint for cheaper fares out of those cities, cutting back on school activities that involve flying and skipping nonessential meetings. Businesses and resorts worry about lost revenue from conferences and visitors as tourists opt for more easily accessible destinations.

Airport officials and community leaders have met with Senator Carl Levin of Michigan and airline executives to express their concerns. But they also have realistic expectations about the market forces driving higher fares.

“The airlines have been responsive, particularly Delta,” said Doug Luciani, president and chief executive of the chamber of commerce, adding that colleagues around the country are facing similar challenges. “There’s been a lot of chatter among the chambers asking, ‘What are you doing in your community about high fares?’ I think it’s a national phenomenon.”

Trebor Banstetter, a Delta spokesman, said the airline was addressing some of the issues raised by Traverse City residents, and regularly worked with cities to make sure airline service was not a barrier to attendance at local conventions and events. For example, he said, Delta replaced 50-seat jets with larger aircraft on flights to Lexington, Ky., last fall to support travel to the World Equestrian Games.

At the same time, airports are offering incentives to the airlines to add or maintain service, like reducing landing fees and terminal rents, a longstanding practice that may get more costly in the future as airlines make Darwinian decisions about where they can afford to fly.

“Communities are going to have to be innovative, responsive and flexible in order to maintain the tremendous service they’ve enjoyed,” said Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, whose members operate most of the flights to small cities in the United States.

Although he does not expect widespread airport closings, he cited fuel prices and economic headwinds as two factors beyond the control of the airlines — and the communities they serve.

“Whatever happens is going to be market-driven,” Mr. Cohen said.

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Easing oil prices, deal news send stocks higher

In this Feb. 25, 2011 photo, specialist Robert Tuccillo, right, interacts with a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Symbol	Price	Change
AMZN	173.20	-4.04
HUM	65.05	+2.45
NHP	42.38	+3.42
VTR	55.06	-2.13
{"s" : "amzn,hum,nhp,vtr","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""}
Chip Cutter, AP Business Writer, On Monday February 28, 2011, 2:18 pm EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stabilizing oil prices and signs that the economy may be improving pushed stock indexes higher Monday.
Oil prices fell to about $97 a barrel as worries over the global oil market eased after reports that some Libyan ports reopened to oil tankers and Saudi Arabia was boosting exports. Prices surged above $100 a barrel last week as clashes between rebels and government-backed forces intensified in Libya.
The Commerce Department said consumer incomes rose by the largest amount in nearly two years in January, thanks to a tax cut that began last month. The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, meanwhile, said that the country's economic outlook is far better than when the Fed began its $600 billion bond-buying program.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 40 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,169 in afternoon trading. The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 1, or 0.1 percent, to 1,321. The Nasdaq composite fell 11 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,769.
Each index is on track to finish the month with gains. The Dow has risen 2.2 percent so far this month, while the S&P index and Nasdaq have each gained about 2.5 percent.
A new round of corporate deals also helped push some stocks higher. Ventas Inc., which owns senior housing communities, said it would buy Nationwide Health Properties Inc. in a $5.8 billion deal that will create the nation's largest health care real-estate investment trust. Nationwide Health rose 11 percent, while Ventas fell 2 percent. WWW.WDALAW.COM
Australia's Equinox Minerals Limited, a mining company, said it would make a hostile bid to acquire Canada's Lundin Mining Corp. for $4.9 billion in cash and stock. Lundin rose 11 percent while Equinox fell 8 percent. Both trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The deals came just two days after Warren Buffett said in his annual letter to investors that he is "itchy" to make more big acquisitions for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Berkshire had $38 billion in cash at the end of last year. Its shares rose 2 percent.
Humana Inc. rose 7 percent after the health insurer raised its 2011 earnings forecast for the third time since November. The company also said it regained a contract to provide coverage for 3 million active duty and retired military members and their families in several Southern states.
Amazon.com Inc. fell 7 percent after an analyst at UBS downgraded the company and said that its new video streaming service will cut into its profit margins.
Bond prices rose, pushing their yields lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.41 percent from 3.42 percent late Friday.

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Britney Spears Announces Special 'GMA' Performance

Britney's back! Britney Spears announced she'll perform a special concert on 'Good Morning America' on March 29 -- the same day her new album, 'Femme Fatale,' is released, according to ABC News.


Spears appeared in a taped announcement during Monday's live show, where she announced that she'll perform in San Francisco's historic Castro District.

"I promise you it'll be a morning to remember," the singer said in the clip.

Watch Spears' announcement inside!

Fans are anxiously awaiting the release of 'Femme Fatale,' Spears' seventh studio record. She has released her first single, 'Hold It Against Me,' and a second single is expected before the March release.
The superstar will perform a special concert in San Francisco's Castro District for "Good Morning America" on March 29. In a YouTube video, Spears said that she promises the performance will be "a moment to remember."

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act scores

Today is a big day for ACT scores. The February 12 test date has come and gone and today is the day for many to get their scores from that test. I remember well the pins and needles I felt the day I got my SAT and ACT scores, but with a little luck, my own children -- currently 2.5 and 4 -- will never have to deal with that stress. The fact is, standardized tests are overrated.

Don't believe me? Consider this: There are currently more than 800 schools in the US that either do not weigh standardized test scores or weigh them in a way that is slightly non-traditional. In fact, several of the top liberal arts schools in the country -- Colby, Bowdoin, Bates, Middlebury, and Bryn Mawr among others -- are now accepting students with some variation of test optional.

Good on them. Because the fact is, standardized tests prove nothing.

“There is a growing body of research that shows that the SAT/ACT are not very useful,” says Robert Schaeffer, public education director of The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), a nonprofit advocacy group devoted to studying the bias inherent in standardized testing.

Roughly 1.3 million high school students take the Educational Testing Service's SAT every year, according to FairtTest. It's the most commonly used college entrance exam and is designed to predict students' first year college grades.

But, according to FairTest, it often misses the mark. College females typically do better than college males in both high school and college, yet in 2009 alone, 69 percent of test-takers with perfect (800) math scores were males, according to the College Board’s statistics.

As schools move away from standardized testing, which really only proves how well students take tests, they are weighing other things -- things that probably matter more -- more heavily. Some schools require a graded high school essay and many art institutes, conservatories, and technical institutes -- Juilliard, Berklee College of Music -- look heavily at portfolios that showcase talent over test scores.

Considering how easy it is to coach SAT scores, it makes a lot of sense. I brought my own SAT scores up from a 1,100 to a 1,300 in high school just by learning a few little tricks on testing. Was I suddenly smarter? No. I just knew their little tricks a little better. How does that actually prove anything but how well I test?

If you are getting your ACT scores today and you are disappointed, take heart. There are plenty of schools that are learning quickly what a crock standardized testing truly is. And good luck.

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seussville

Seussville Read-A-Thon set for weekend

To encourage reading and in celebration of 107 years of Dr. Seuss on his birthday Onslow County Partnership for Children and Sylvan Learning Center will host a free Seussville Read-A-Thon this weekend.
 “This will be our first community-wide event,”  said Lisa Davis, an early learning specialist at OCPC. “It is open to everyone not just those involved in our Raising A Reader program. We do want those involved in the program to know it does count as an event for those who choose to attend.”
Eight readers have been invited to read different Dr. Seuss books Saturday at Books-A-Million, located at 1250 Western Blvd., from 10 a.m. to noon.
Those books include “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat in the Hat,” said Juliana Cahoon, the event organizer from Sylvan Learning Center.
“We organized the event with Onslow County Partnership for Children to increase literacy in the community and help families realize reading is fun,” she said.
She said she also hopes the community will recognize what great resources are available through both OCPC and Sylvan.
Every child who attends will receive a free children’s book, school supplies and a drink and snack, she said.
There will also be face painting with a “Cat in the Hat” theme.
“We want to reach out to a lot of families and make this a positive thing for our community,” she said. “And we hope it will be a great success.”

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Geneva car show aims for recovery

The cars are the stars as the press conferences get underway at the Geneva motor show 
High-powered cars from Lamborghini, Ferrari and Aston Martin are expected to steal the limelight as the Geneva motor show gets underway this week.
But industry watchers will look to less flamboyant models from, say, Hyundai, Ford or Fiat for hints at who will shape Europe's automotive landscape.
Some 170 world and European premieres will be unveiled at the show, which opens for the public on 3 March.
The cars will enter a crowded European market where profit margins are tight.
The European market declined further in January after sales fell 4.9% in 2010 to less than 14 million cars, amid widespread concerns about unemployment and economic hardship.
On top of that, carmakers that gained from last year's scrappage schemes - under which governments paid people to trade in old cars for new ones - should expect to see somewhat weaker sales during the first half of this year when compared with the same period a year ago, according to Hyundai Motor Europe's chief operating officer, Allan Rushforth.
But the motor industry should see improvements in Europe during the second half of the year, he predicted.
Pure power
Some 170 cars never seen before in Europe will be unveiled at the show
Ferrari's FF will be among the eye-catching performance models on display at the show.
The first 4x4 unveiled by the Italian supercar maker is also its "most powerful, versatile four-seater", the company said.
Aston Martin is also gunning for performance with its new V8 Vantage S, an upgraded version of existing Vantage models.
And Lamborghini is expected to unveil a car named Aventador, said to be faster and lighter than the car it replaces.
Mainstream hybrid and electric cars Porsche, meanwhile, will go down a somewhat greener lane with a petrol-electric hybrid version of its four-seater Panamera, said to emit just 159g/km of CO2.
The low emissions result largely from technology that turns off the engine while driving if no power is required.


Porsche's emissions performance is beaten by a Range Rover concept, however, said to emit no more than 89g/km of CO2.
The Range Rover is noteworthy because it is a hybrid with a diesel rather than a petrol engine.
For years, all carmakers said that combining diesel with electricity would be too expensive. Now it could soon become mainstream as ever more manufacturers are eyeing such solutions.
A similar trend is seen on the electric motoring front, where more carmakers who used to dismiss it as a fad are getting ready to launch electric cars of their own.
Toyota's tiny iQ and Honda's Jazz will be on show from the early adopters of hybrids.
Corporate scrutiny On the corporate front, all eyes will be on Fiat, who is using the show to unveil a number of European versions of cars made by its US alliance partner, Chrysler.
General Motors' efforts to sort out its struggling European division, Opel, and its UK sister-marque, Vauxhall, will also be on most industry watchers' radar.
New models from Hyundai and its alliance partner, Kia, will attract attention after the two Korean carmakers' combined sales last year outstripped their Japanese rival Toyota.
Volkswagen Group's aim to become the world's largest carmaker by 2018 will be bolstered further by a string of new models from its marques Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen.
While BMW will wow the show-goers with technology that connects cars with the world around them, making the automobile a "fully integrated part of the networked world".

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Indian budget projects economic growth

Pranab Mukherjee says the Indian economy is expected to grow at 9% 
India's government has unveiled its annual budget, saying that the economy is expected to grow at 9% in 2012.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the growth rate for the current fiscal year was projected at 8.5%.
He said inflation would decrease over the next fiscal year - the current rate is 8.4%. But food price inflation, at 17%, "remains a concern".
Mr Mukherjee promised action on food security and pledged an increase in social spending.
"The country has carried for long enough the burden of hunger and malnutrition," he said.
The finance minister said a food security bill, which will guarantee cheap food to the poor, would be introduced into parliament soon.
He also announced a substantial increase in funds for education and health. Social spending funds are also set to increase by 17%.
'Mixed' performance Funds for health and education have risen to $5.9bn (£3.7 bn) and 520 billion rupees respectively.
The budget deficit has reduced to 5.1% of GDP this fiscal year, down from more than 6%. The plan is to cut this to 4.6% next year.
Mr Mukherjee also announced a $22m fund to help the struggling micro finance industry which is facing a liquidity crisis after borrowers in parts of India stopped repaying loans.
He said the government's performance in handling the economy was mixed.
"While we succeeded in making good progress in addressing many areas of our concern, we could have done better in some others," Mr Mukherjee said.
"Fiscal consolidation has been impressive. This year has also seen significant progress in those critical institutional reforms that will pave the way for double digit growth in the near future."
Mr Mukherjee said the economy had shown "remarkable resilience" despite the food inflation and a current account deficit.
India's prime minister has already warned that India's rapid growth is under serious threat from inflation.
Alluding to recent alleged corruption scandals plaguing the government, Mr Mukherjee said an impression may have been created that there is "drift" in the government.
"Such an impression is misplaced ... Corruption is a problem [and we] must fight it collectively."

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Libya oil chief: Production down 50 percent

CAIRO (AP) -- Libya's oil chief says production is down 50 percent because of the exodus of foreign oil workers fleeing the country's violent uprising against leader Moammar Gadhafi.
But Shukri Ghanem, the head of the National Oil Co., told The Associated Press on Monday that all of Libya's oil installations are protected and safe, and disputed comments by the European Union's energy commissioner who said the major fields had been wrested from Gadhafi's hands.
Ghanem said that all the refineries, installations and oil fields are "safe and protected." He said that tankers are loading at the port in Brega as well as other ports.
Ghanem said it was safe for foreign workers to return.
International companies have been evacuating their foreign staff because of the violence.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
CAIRO (AP) -- Libya's eastern port of Tobruk reopened Monday and one tanker bound for China was being loaded, officials said, while the European Union noted that many of the country's oil and gas fields had been wrestled from leader Moammar Gadhafi's hands.
The news came as the chief executive of Saudi Arabia's state-run oil giant announced his company had stepped in to compensate for an export shortfall stemming from the unrest in the North African nation, and the kingdom's information minister reaffirmed his country's policy of ensuring stability in oil markets.
In tandem, the news offered a glimmer of hope that the export disruption from Libya may ease, at least slightly, even if market fears had yet to dissipate. Libya, whose exports mainly head to Europe, is the only member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries so far seriously affected by the protests roiling the Arab world, and unrest there has sent shudders through global oil markets.
Concerns are centered on the possibility that the unrest could spread to other OPEC members, triggering a major supply crunch that would propel prices forward and potentially undercut global economic recovery efforts.
"The terminal (at Tobruk) is working at 100 percent," Rajab Sahnoun, an official with the Arabian Gulf Oil Co., which is based in the eastern city of Benghazi, told The Associated Press. He said that one tanker bound for China was being loaded at the Marsa al-Harigh (Tobruk) port, with a capacity of 1 million barrels of crude, while another Italy-bound tanker was waiting and expected to load in coming days.
Sahnoun also said that at least two of the major eastern fields, Sarir and Misla, were still producing, though at slightly reduced capacity. He was not able to say how much production was down at those fields, but noted that the 34-inch pipeline to the terminal was operating normally. The terminal can store 4 million barrels of crude, he said.
Another Agoco official, Ali Faraj, who works in the emergency operations room at the facility, said the company's production of roughly 220,000 barrels per day was largely unaffected.
"A drop of 5,000 or 6,000 barrels per day, in our experience, is not a drop, really," Faraj said.
Gamal Shallouf, spokesman for the Tobruk city council, said that along with Sarir and Misla, the Nafoura field was also producing.
Libya produces about 1.6 million barrels per day of crude oil, and about 85 percent of its exports are Europe-bound.
There were conflicting reports about the overall decline in Libya's output.
The National Oil Company said production was down about 50 percent, according to Libyans working in the industry. The figure is roughly the same as estimates put forward by analysts and international oil company officials.
But Faraj and others dismissed reports of such a steep drop as propaganda designed to boost support for Gadhafi by showing how the unrest had hit the country.
With communications down or difficult in many parts of the country and large areas of the country inaccessible because the danger posed by pro-Gadhafi militias, it has been difficult for executives and others to get a clear picture.
The European Union's energy commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, said Monday that control over much of the oil and gas fields is in the hands of regional families or provisional regional leaders that have emerged from the revolt and chaos.
"They have taken over control, they have taken away control from Gadhafi," Oettinger said during a meeting of EU energy ministers. He also spoke out against a proposal put forward by Germany's foreign minister that the EU should consider a total ban on payments to Libya including for oil deliveries.
Oettinger argued that since Gadhafi already lost much of the control over the oil and gas fields, imposing a ban on oil imports would be bad.
"We'd be punishing the wrong people potentially and we would be discarding the regional aspects if we just stopped imports altogether. We might actually be punishing people who have changed their ways, who are acting better."
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have repeatedly said they are ready to step in and compensate for any Libyan export losses. The fighting in the country has already hammered oil markets, with the U.S. benchmark hovering above $98 per barrel on Monday while the Brent futures contract in London was above $113 per barrel.
Khalid Al Falih, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, said that the company had "met the additional needs resulting from the halt in Libyan exports." He did not specify how much additional crude the company had supplied its customers, saying that the situation "is continuously changing." Saudi Arabia's information minister also said the kingdom remains committed to ensuring stability of supply and reducing volatility in the market.
OPEC members have dismissed the need for an emergency meeting, even as consumer countries voiced alarm at the rally in prices.
Iran, which holds OPEC's revolving presidency this year, appeared to take issue with the Saudi efforts, with its oil minister, Masoud Mirkazemi, calling on Riyadh to "avoid any hasty decisions" regarding its crude oil output, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Libya's ongoing political struggle has hit hard at the country's vital oil sector.
The country sits atop Africa's largest proven reserves of crude. But it also relies of foreign companies for their expertise as it has tried to boost its production.
Many of those companies, which include international giants such as Exxon Mobil, BP PLC, Spain's Repsol, Italy's Eni SpA and Austria's OMV, however, pulled their foreign workers as the violence flared.
Eni, which before the crisis produced 244,000 barrels of gas and oil equivalent a day in Libya, about a quarter of the country's exports, said it was continuing to evacuate its employees.
The company last week announced that supplies of natural gas from Libya, through the Greenstream pipeline, had been suspended. But Eni said it was able to meet its customers' demand for gas. Up until the crisis, Libya supplied around 10 percent of Italy's gas.
Oil workers for Britain's OPS International oil field services company made it across the Egyptian border in a convoy of buses across the desert late Sunday night, and another bus full of oil workers reached the Libyan port of Ras Lanuf Monday and got on a ship Monday bound for Malta, said company chairman Gavin de Salis.
Meanwhile, France's Total SA said it evacuated all expatriate oil workers in the country, and their families, said spokeswoman Phenelope Semavoine. She said the company "continues to reduce some of our production" of Libya oil but declined to provide more detail.
Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix said Monday that the company is now "declining to give production figures because the situation is unclear and communications are difficult." He said the company was able to get the rest of its employees and contractors out of remote Libyan desert production areas over the weekend. In all, about 200 employees have been evacuated since the crisis began.
BP confirmed it has evacuated all 41 expat staff and their dependents. It has 100 local staff remaining in Tripoli.
The company had won a $900 million offshore Libya oil contract that sparked controversy amid speculation the deal was linked to the compassionate release from a Scottish prison of the sole person convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. BP was in the preparatory stages of drilling in Libya and, as a result, had no production.
Associated Press writers Paul Schemm in Brega, Libya, Raf Casert in Brussels, Alan Clendenning in Madrid, Angela Charlton in Paris and Jane Wardell in London contributed to this report.

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Thousands lose Vodafone service

Vodafone users have lost voice, text and internet service 
Vodafone's mobile network has been disrupted following a break-in at its exchange centre in Basingstoke.
The company said that several hundred thousand customers had lost voice, text and internet access.
Burglars hit the facility in the early hours of Monday morning, stealing computer equipment and network hardware.
Most of the users affected were in the M4 corridor area, to the west of London
In a statement, Vodafone said: "We had a break in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment. www.wdalaw.com
"We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can."
The company added that there had been no impact on the security of customers' private information.
Angry customers One Vodafone user, Leigh Elkins, from Reading, told BBC News that his service was disconnected at around 12.50am on Monday, while he was in the middle of a call.
Many angry customers turned to social networking sites to vent their frustration over the prolonged outage.
On Vodafone UK's Facebook page, Keri Rampersad asked: "When will this be fixed since this is a massive inconvenience."
Another user, Michael Tawroginski wrote: "Who cares about your issue? You should pay for every hour of this problem, or give some extras to all customers affected."
Vodafone refused to speculate on whether the break-in could be linked to several high-profile controversies involving the company.
It was recently the subject of protests over claims that the firm was let off paying part of an outstanding UK tax bill.
Vodafone was also criticised for shutting down its phone network in Egypt during the recent pro-democracy protests, although the company said it was obliged to comply with local laws.

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Oil price steadies despite Saudi Arabia protest fears

Libyan oil facilities could be attacked closing them for months, warns investment bank Merrill Lynch 
Saudi Arabia has sought to ease renewed pressure on the oil market on Monday.
Oil prices had risen 2% in early trading, due to the shutdown of Libyan production as well as fears that unrest might spread to Saudi Arabia itself.
But prices fell back again after Saudi state oil company Aramco announced that all demands for extra oil had been met.
Sentiment was also boosted by news that the eastern Libyan port of Tobruk had reopened and a Chinese tanker was being loaded.
By 1230 GMT, Brent crude was slightly higher for the day at $112.75, while US light, sweet crude was largely unchanged at $98.25.
Brent had earlier reached $114.50 - still well below its Thursday peak of $119.80 - while US light, sweet crude hit $99.50.
Stock market fall Libyan oil output is down an estimated 75% due to the revolt, but the Saudis promised to meet the shortfall.
However, on Sunday, the Saudi stock market fell 5% after 119 academics, activists and businessmen wrote an open letter to the king demanding reform.
The Tadawul all-share index has fallen a cumulative 10% in the last two weeks to its lowest level in six months, prompting some Saudi investors to call on the government to intervene to steady the market, or even to close it. Last Updated at 28 Feb 2011, 15:15 GMT *Chart shows local time

price	change	%
112.29	+ +0.15	+ +0.13
The index had recovered early losses and remained largely unchanged for the day on Monday.
The news comes as the Egyptian stock exchange is set to reopen on Tuesday after a month-long closure due to the popular uprising there, although protesters continued to gather outside the stock exchange building intent on forcing another delay.
'Spike and crash scenario' Libyan supply could be knocked out for months, according to a report by US investment bank Merrill Lynch.
The Wall Street firm said that as much as 1.2 million barrels-per-day of production may have been shut down already, and that production facilities in the west of the country were prone to attach by government or opposition forces, which would lead to a prolonged output loss.
There remained a substantial risk that oil prices could move sharply higher, undermining the global economic recovery, the research piece warned, and the market only had limited ability to withstand further unrest in the Middle East.
"The combination of a substantial run-up in demand coupled with a very severe supply shock makes a spike and crash scenario increasingly likely for global oil prices and the world economy," it said.
The investment bank said that a 10% rise in oil prices - if sustained - would lead to a 0.5% reduction in global oil demand.
Saudi 'day of rage' The letter to the Saudi king complained about the prevalence of corruption and nepotism and a widening gap between state and society.

Markets are beginning to fret that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia may be the next to face protests
Meanwhile a Facebook site calling for a "day of rage" in Saudi Arabia on 11 March has seen its number of subscribers increase from 400 to 12,000 in recent days.
Analysts fear the kingdom may face the same volatile generational schism that has affected Egypt and elsewhere.
Two-thirds of the Saudi population is aged under 30.
Youth unemployment is about three times the national average and there is an 18-year waiting list for government-provided housing.
The threat of protests has already wrung concessions from the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who only recently returned from three months of medical treatment in the US.
He has offered permanent work contracts to an estimated 50,000 state workers, and spent $36bn (£22.3bn; 26.1bn euros) of the country's $440bn in currency reserves on social initiatives, including a 15% pay rise for public sector employees.
Swing producer Saudi Arabia plays a critical role in global oil supplies.


Not only is it the world's biggest producer, with the world's largest reserves by far, but the country is also a key "swing producer" within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), retaining most of the world's spare production capacity.
The kingdom accounts for the bulk of Opec's additional 4.7 million barrels-per-day available, compared with Libya's exports estimated at 1.5 million.
Meanwhile violence flared on Sunday for the first time in non-Opec Oman - which produces about 865,000 barrels-per-day - as police cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations there.

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Libya unrest: UK rescue plane had a 'narrow escape'

Pictures from on-board the RAF Hercules on a recovery mission inside Libya. Courtesy MoD. 
Disaster was narrowly averted when small arms fire entered the cockpit of a RAF C130 Hercules evacuating Britons and foreign nationals from Libya, it has emerged.
One round bounced off the pilot's helmet but he was unscathed during Sunday's rescue of oil workers.
Earlier, 50 Britons and 150 foreign nationals arrived in Malta on HMS Cumberland as evacuation efforts go on.
David Cameron has urged Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to "go now".
The prime minister said the north African country had no future "that includes him".
The BBC's Frank Gardner confirmed details of the narrow escape during the evacuation of oil workers - 20 of whom were British - from the desert.
He said an insurgent group on the ground which fired at the aircraft had mistaken it for a Gaddafi regime plane. They have since apologised for the incident.
'Bang Bang' Some of those rescued described the moment the Hercules was shot at, forcing it to abandon a landing.
One British oil worker said: "The aircraft took two hits on the right hand side of the fuselage, you just heard 'bang bang' as the rounds actually struck."
Another said after failing to land at two blocked off fields, the Hercules was trying again at a third when the firing started, forcing them to abort.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that one of its C130 aircraft appeared to have suffered "minor damage consistent with small arms fire", adding that "there were no injuries to passengers or crew and the aircraft returned safely to Malta".
On Saturday, another 150 oil workers, many of them British nationals, were rescued from the desert by two RAF Hercules and flown to the safety of Malta.
They later caught flights back to the UK, which arrived at Gatwick airport on Sunday and early on Monday. 'Looters'The government said HMS York remained in the region and was "ready to assist as required".

Some of those who left Malta on another British warship - HMS Cumberland - in the latest stage of the British evacuation operation,
have spoken of their experiences of the unrest in Libya. Marsden Sims, 63, a civil engineer from Tonyrefail near Pontypridd, told the Ministry of Defence that locals had set light to a reading room at his site, and that looters had targeted cars and property.

HMS Cumberland has arrived in Malta carrying some 200 passengers
"We didn't have direct trouble to begin with but when word spread from the TV reports, things got quite agitated," he said.
"We were in one works compound at Messla and a few nights ago we saw looters outside taking vehicles and equipment."
And 25-year-old Natalie Brooks, who is returning home to Birmingham with her son Mustafa and daughter Naimah, told the MoD: "We thought it safer with the security situation to get out and bide our time.
"Where we lived in the city was not particularly affected by the fighting, but you don't know if the situation is going to get more dangerous."
The UK has frozen Col Gaddafi's British-held assets and those of his family, and withdrawn their diplomatic immunity.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has imposed an export ban on Libyan banknotes, which are printed in Britain. The authorities in Tripoli had asked permission to export an estimated £900m worth of currency to Libya, prompting fears the money could be used to fund further repression of anti-government protesters.
'Serious pressure' Mr Cameron said the measures, which followed a UN Security Council agreement to impose sanctions, were designed to show "just how isolated" Col Gaddafi's regime was.
The prime minister, who earlier chaired a meeting of the National Security Council focusing on developments in Libya and the wider region, added: "We are now putting serious pressure on this regime."
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for an immediate end to violence against anti-government demonstrators in Libya and warned Col Gaddafi's supporters that there will be a "day of reckoning" for anyone involved in human rights abuses.

Foreign Secretary William Hague: ''There will be a day of reckoning''
Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr Hague said there must be "no impunity" for those involved in violence against protesters.
He said: "We have signalled that crimes will not be condoned, will not go unpunished and will not be forgotten.
"This is a warning to anyone contemplating the abuse of human rights in Libya or any other country: Stay your hand. There will be a day of reckoning and the reach of international justice can be long.
"We must now maintain the momentum we have attained to ensure that there can be no impunity for crimes committed in Libya and to help bring about an immediate end to the violence."
BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said the "vast majority" of Britons who were in Libya and wanted to leave are now out. www.wdalaw.com
"There is a small number who still want to leave and British officials are in touch with them and are looking at ways of getting them out of the country," she added.
Our correspondent said there may be other Britons in Libya who have "decided for whatever reason that they are going to stay in the country".

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Libya unrest: Foreign ministers urge end to violence

 
Governments around the world have condemned attacks on Libyan civilians.
Speaking at a UN human rights conference in Geneva, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Libya's Col Muammar Gaddafi must "go now".
The EU on Monday imposed sanctions including an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on Libyan authorities, including Col Gaddafi.
Tens of thousands of migrants - many from Egypt - are stranded near Libya's Tunisian border, UN officials say.
Unrest continues in and around Tripoli, with a demonstration against Col Gaddafi in the capital's suburb of Tajoura, with protesters chanting: "The blood of martyrs won't go to waste."

---
There's a lot of anger building up on the border with thousands of migrant Egyptian workers trapped getting increasingly impatient and angry. They are clustered around the border crossing point saying: Why is our government not doing more for us? Where is the Egyptian army?
These people have all spent the night huddled with their possessions on the tarmac at the border crossing point and on the approach, completely clogging it, many many thousands of them, far beyond the capacity of the local authorities to cope.
There are now probably 30,000 Egyptian workers trapped or stranded inside Tunisia. Efforts are being made to get them out. There are going to be 40 flights here on Monday to get them back to Cairo. Two boats have been chartered and they will take about 3,000.
But that is just a drop in the ocean because for every 1,000 that are taken out of here there's another 1,000 coming across the border practically every single hour, just a solid line of them from the exit point here all the way back to where they get their passports stamped.

And reports from the coastal town of Misrata say Col Gaddafi's opponents have repelled a government counter-attack.
Witnesses said fighting had been taking place around the town, 200km east of Tripoli, and its airport.
'Braving the bullets' In Geneva, Mrs Clinton accused Col Gaddafi and his followers of using "mercenaries and thugs" to attack unarmed civilians, and of executing soldiers who refused to turn their guns on fellow citizens.
"Gaddafi and those around him must be held accountable for these acts, which violate international legal obligations and common decency," she said.
"It is time for Gaddafi to go, now, without further violence or delay."
Mrs Clinton said the Libyan protesters were "braving the dictator's bullets and putting their lives on the line to enjoy the freedoms that are the birthright of every man, woman and child on Earth".
Opening the meeting, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay warned the Libyan authorities that widespread attacks on civilians could amount to crimes under international law.
"The illegal and excessively heavy-handed response of a number of governments is unacceptable," she said.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the organisation's sanctions on Libya would take effect quickly. They reinforce Saturday's UN Security Council measures and target Col Gaddafi and 25 members of his close entourage.
"What is going on - the massive violence against peaceful demonstrators - shocks our conscience," she said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Libya had "failed shamefully in its responsibilities to its people".
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said the use of military force against the civilian population was "unacceptable".


His Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd called for a no-fly zone to protect the Libyan people, and said Col Gaddafi should depart.
"The peoples of the entire world are saying 'go'. And for the sake of humanity, 'go now'," he said.
In other developments:

• German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says he is proposing a 60-day freeze on all financial payments to Libya to prevent Col Gaddafi from "oppressing his people"
• At a news conference, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim denied any massacres or bombardments against cities, saying UN resolution 1970 had been formulated based on media reports
• Opposition forces controlling eastern citie# s - including Benghazi, where the uprising started 10 days ago - say they have formed a national council to act as the political face of the anti-Gaddafi movement
  # Anti-government forces now control the town of Zawiya, just 50km (30 miles) from Tripoli but pro-Gaddafi forces are surrounding the city
• On Sunday Italy's foreign minister said Italy had de facto suspended its 2008 friendship treaty with Libya, which includes a non-aggression clause
Transit camp About 100,000 people have fled anti-government unrest in Libya over the past week, the UN estimates.
The exodus of Egyptian workers from western Libya began on Wednesday, but has since been intensifying, says the BBC's Jim Muir at the Ras Jdir border crossing with Tunisia. About 1,000 people an hour are crossing into Tunisia, he says.

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Tripoli says a Libyan government spokesman has said there have been "no massacres"
Although more aircraft and ships are due in Tunisia to accelerate the evacuation of migrant workers, the country's authorities are no longer able to cope with the influx, the UN refugee agency's Liz Eyster told the BBC.
"They've been accommodating people in shelters, schools and places of their own," she said. "But we're now aware of the fact that they're very much stretched and they need the support of the international community."
Col Gaddafi is facing the biggest challenge to his 41-year rule, but still controls the capital Tripoli.
Meanwhile the BBC's Kevin Connolly in Benghazi says eastern Libya is getting back to some muted form of normality, but it is not clear what will happen when the money dries up.
Also, there is no rebel army to make the 1,600km (1,000-mile) journey across the desert to storm Col Gaddafi's last stronghold, he says.
Late on Saturday the UN Security Council unanimously backed an arms embargo and asset freeze on senior Libyan government officials.
It also voted to refer Col Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

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Hailee Steinfeld says she's in 'no rush' for next project 



Hailee Steinfeld, the youngest nominee for best supporting actress at the 83rd Academy Awards, said she's happy with where she's at in her career.
"I'm on the path that I want to be on and I'm doing what I love to do and I think as long as I'm loving it, then I am on the right track," Steinfeld told On The Red Carpet.

The 14-year-old didn't win for her role as an avenging teenager in Joel and Ethan Coen's western remake "True Grit." In fact, the box office hit failed to win a single Oscar despite having 10 nominations.

Steinfeld was picked out of thousands of young women for the role of Mattie Ross. Steinfeld hasn't chosen her next project, but she has enough going on as a freshman in high school. When asked how long her resume will be in a year, the actress said she doesn't know.

"I think that it could be way longer or it could be not as long as people may think. I think that as long as, you know, we're picking the right projects. We're in no rush. So however long it takes, just as long as it's right," said Steinfeld.

While Steinfeld didn't take home an Oscar, she seemed to win big on the red carpet. The star received a lot of praise for her light pink tea-length Marchesa dress.

"It was so cute. She looks so proper for what she's doing. That tea length was just perfect for her. It wasn't too young. Through the whole awards season, she really hit it on the head," said fashion expert Mondo Guerra.

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