Obama appeals to Iowa Democrats on caucus night (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Inserting his voice into a big night for Republicans, President Barack Obama was appealing to Iowa Democrats on the first balloting in the GOP presidential campaign, seeking to counter months of withering criticism in the state that launched his presidential ambitions four years ago.

Obama was hosting a live video teleconference for Democrats attending precinct caucuses across Iowa, outlining his progress during the first term and asking for their help in the upcoming campaign. Beyond the lead-off caucuses, Iowa is expected to be hotly contested in the fall election.

The president's re-election campaign emailed supporters a video of Obama's Iowa victory speech in January 2008, arguing he has kept the promises he made that night: making health care more affordable, cutting taxes for the middle class, ending the war in Iraq and reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

"A new chapter in the story of 2012 starts with what happens in Iowa tonight," said Mitch Stewart, a top Obama campaign aide, in a separate email to supporters. "Most of us will watch what happens on TV ? but as you do, remember that the end of this story is up to you and what you decide to do in the days and weeks ahead."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama would thank supporters for their help and discuss his efforts to keep the promises he made in Iowa four years ago. But Carney said the president "has a lot of work to do before he engages aggressively in the general election. That will come in due time."

Obama was wasting little time getting back in front of voters following a Hawaiian vacation spent largely out of the spotlight. Campaign officials said Obama was expected to take questions from voters during the Iowa session, which was airing only for those who attended the caucus meetings. On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Cleveland for an event focused on the economy.

Obama was seeking to counter months of pounding by Republicans in Iowa and the Republican National Committee, which has assailed Obama's economic record and tagged him as a president who has failed to live up to lofty expectations.

"Three years later, the president's promises of hope and change have been replaced with a record of failed leadership and policies that have made the economy worse," said RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski.

Iowa looks to be among about a dozen states that could shift either way in the 2012 campaign. Trying to build on his 2008 win there, Obama's campaign has opened 8 offices in the state and had held more than 1,200 training sessions, phone banks and other events and made more than 350,000 phone calls to supporters since last April.

"When the rest of the Republican field packs up their office and leaves town, we have been here, we will continue to be here and we will continue to take and treat Iowa seriously," said Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman.

Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, tried to raise expectations in Iowa for Republican Mitt Romney, saying anything but a top finish in the state would bode poorly for his campaign.

Democrats have tried to undermine Romney's business background, accusing him of outsourcing jobs and laying off workers while he led Bain Capital, a private equity firm, while questioning his principles on issues such as health care, abortion and gun control.

"Crawling over the finish line in Iowa after 5 years of effort is going to come at a price," Wasserman Schultz said.

Obama returns to Washington facing further debate on extending payroll tax cuts, the same issue that consumed Washington during the final days of December.

Congress broke through a stalemate just days before Christmas, agreeing to extend the cuts for two months. Lawmakers will get back to work later this month to negotiate a full-year extension of the cuts, which Obama supports.

White House officials say the tax cut extension is the last "must-do" legislative item on Obama's agenda this year. His strategy for his fourth year in office will focus largely on taking executive actions that do not need approval from lawmakers as he seeks to break away from a deeply unpopular Congress.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120103/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama

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Brewer misses Stanton?s swearing in as Phoenix mayor

View photo gallery (2 photos) Brewer

Brewer

Mike Sunnucks
Senior Reporter - Phoenix Business Journal
Email ?|?Twitter ?|?Facebook

The Arizona Governor?s Office and Phoenix City Hall are just a stone's throw away from each other, but Gov. Jan Brewer couldn?t make it to Greg Stanton?s swearing in ceremony as the city's mayor today.

Brewer was at the Arizona Commerce Authority?s offices in the Freeport McMoRan Building at the time announcing Silicon Valley Bank?

Just down the street this morning, Stanton was being sworn in to succeed the term-limited Phil Gordon.

Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said the Republican governor had some scheduling conflicts that precluded her attending Stanton?s inauguration.

?General Counsel Joe Sciarrotta was there representing the Governor?s Office,? Benson said.

Stanton is a Democrat and previously worked for former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. Brewer beat Goddard in a not-so-cordial 2010 governor?s race.

?The governor?s schedule did not permit her attendance today,? Benson said.

Mike Sunnucks writes about politics, law, airlines, sports business and the economy.
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SC police: Mother won't tell them where son is (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? A former college student who became depressed and erratic after becoming a mother is charged with lying about where her missing 18-month-old son has been for more than a month, police said Wednesday.

Authorities said they were desperately searching for Amir Jennings after his 22-year-old mother, Zinah Jennings, told them several inconsistent and false stories about the boy being with relatives and friends in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

"I'm trying to stay optimistic about this," Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott told The Associated Press Wednesday. "But short of being optimistic, this case bothers me."

The mother and son were reported missing in early December, but the mother turned up after she was involved in a car accident on Christmas Eve.

Scott said officers hope a tip line and media exposure will lead to more information.

"I want someone to call us and say, `We just saw this on the news, we have Amir, we're sorry, we didn't realize this was going on,'" he said. "Her stories are so across the board that our search right now is from Charlotte to Atlanta."

Investigators said they hoped Amir Jennings was alive but they weren't getting much help from his mother. In early December, grandmother Jocelyn Jennings Nelson reported her own daughter missing, saying that she hadn't seen her in several days and hadn't seen her grandson since the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to an incident report, Jennings had had a car wreck several days before and had been making "cryptic phone calls to other family members indicating her ongoing fight with depression is continuing."

That sort of behavior wasn't unusual for the young mother, according to relatives, who told investigators the one-time college student had begun disappearing for days on end, with her son, since his birth.

"The grandmother told me specifically that, when she was in school, she was a very good person, a very good student," said Scott, adding that relatives had previously filed several missing persons reports on Jennings. "But once the baby was born, the conduct kind of changed."

Jennings attended Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., for one academic year, from fall 2007 until spring 2008, according to a school spokeswoman.

Early on the morning of Christmas Eve, Jennings wrecked her Dodge Neon in a one-car accident near her house in Columbia. Authorities learned that Jennings was reported missing and they say Jennings began giving shaky stories about her son's whereabouts. They also spoke with Amir's father, who told them he had seen the boy during Thanksgiving but generally has had little contact with the boy.

"First it's, `He's with my sister in Atlanta. Oh no, I'm sorry, he's with my friend in Charlotte,'" Scott said. "It's all over the place. ... Everything she's telling us is just lies."

Several days later, police again spoke with Jennings, who said her son was with a friend in Columbia, but that story was also a dead end. After days of giving police bad information, the mother was charged Dec. 29 with unlawful conduct toward a child and is being held on $150,000 bond.

The police chief said he did not know if Jennings had an attorney. The number listed for both Jennings and her mother was not working, and the grandmother did not immediately return a message left on her work number. Police have not released the name of Amir's father.

At this point, Scott said investigators have two theories.

"It's either A: Zinah has given Amir to someone. Or Zinah has, in some way, shape or form, harmed Amir," Scott said. "Until we have something more on Amir, I do not rule out foul play. And in my mind, there's already an air of foul play, because no one will tell us where Amir is at. Foul play doesn't have to mean that someone is deceased. Foul play is lying to police."

Scott said he's struggling to remain optimistic that Amir will be found unharmed. He would not discuss any evidence police have collected from the mother's home or car.

"It's the way this whole case is playing out," Scott said. "It's more than just that the child is missing. The mother is lying about the whereabouts of the child."

There was no answer Wednesday at the blue two-story home where police say Jennings, her mother and son live, its door and front porch still festooned with Christmas decorations. The house, just a few blocks from one of Columbia's busiest thoroughfares, is on a quiet, tree-lined street of other one- and two-story homes, some with fenced-in yards and porches.

"We see each other and speak and say hello," said Selwyn Young, who lives across the street from the Jennings family and said he recalled seeing Jennings pushing the baby around the neighborhood and walking the family's dog. "Hopefully they find him. Hopefully they get it right."

___

Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

___

Online:

SC Crimestoppers: http://www.sccrimestoppers.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120104/ap_on_re_us/us_sc_missing_boy

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Hope for family of only US soldier held by Taliban

The family of the only U.S. soldier held by the Taliban expressed the hope he would be released "as soon as possible" following a possible deal to allow insurgents to open an office in Qatar.

The office plan is designed to enable the holding of peace talks with the United States.

Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, was taken prisoner June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan.

His parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, released a statement Wednesday through the Idaho National Guard expressing hope that their son would be returned home soon.

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"Our only son, Bowe Bergdahl, has been held captive for two and a half years. We hope he will be released as soon as possible. We know that serious discussions among diplomats are the most likely way to make this happen, and for Bowe to be returned safely to us, his family," it added.

Video: Taliban releases purported tape of U.S. captive (on this page)

The Taliban announced Tuesday that they had reached a preliminary understanding to open the representative office in Qatar, marking an unprecedented step toward peace negotiations.

Went missing
Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was a member of the 1st Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan when he went missing in June 2009. Three days later, the U.S. military declared him captured by the Taliban.

In May 2011, Robert Bergdahl posted an online appeal asking the government of Pakistan and its armed forces to help free his son.

Video: Pundit AWOL on support for POW (on this page)

In July, the NATO security force in Afghanistan said U.S. and NATO forces had made bringing Bergdahl home a top priority.

On Tuesday, the Afghan Taliban also asked for the release of prisoners held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Qatar office is seen by Western and Afghan officials as a crucial step to moving forward with secretive attempts to reach a negotiated end to a decade of war.

Slideshow: Living in the combat zone (on this page)

The Taliban statement pointedly made no mention of the Kabul government, set up after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 ousted the Taliban from power.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that Afghanistan agreed with U.S. efforts to talk with the Taliban, and the plan to open an office in Qatar, because they could prevent further conflict and the deaths of innocent civilians.

The branch of the Taliban believed to be holding Bergdahl operates on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and may be based in tribal lands in Pakistan, according to reports by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45881894/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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US Forest Service OKs 15-turbine Vt. wind project (AP)

SEARSBURG, Vt. ? The U.S. Forest Service has approved the construction of 15 wind turbines in southern Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest.

The project was placed on a list of 14 infrastructure projects around the country to be given what federal officials call expedited environmental reviews and permitting. It's planned for Searsburg and Readsboro.

Deerfield Wind LLC had proposed building 17 turbines. The Forest Service on Tuesday approved 15.

Deerfield Wind is owned by Iberdrola Renewables Inc., the U.S. division of Spanish energy company Iberdrola SA.

The Central Vermont Public Service Corp. plans to take two-thirds of the power generated by the project. Officials say the project will produce enough electricity to power 13,000 homes a year.

The project is next to another wind farm operated by the Green Mountain Power Corp.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120103/ap_on_bi_ge/us_deerfield_wind

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Matt Damon Cancels His Planned Directorial Debut

Despite much excitement over the opportunity to direct a film, Matt Damon has decided to pass off directing responsibilities for the upcoming untitled flick he co-wrote with John Krasinski. Meanwhile, Bret McKenzie teases his "The Hobbit" cameo, Kevin Smith updates fans on "Hit Somebody" and Emma Stone finds a "Little White Corvette." Today is January 5, [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/05/matt-damon-the-hobbit-bret-mckenzie/

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JPMorgan to open office in Ghana on better macro-economic policies in Africa

You Are Here: Home ? General News, Second Lead ? JPMorgan to open office in Ghana on better macro-economic policies in Africa

Page last updated at Tuesday, January 3, 2012 8:08 AM //

US-based investment bank, JPMorgan will early this year (2012) establish a representative office in Ghana, reports the Financial Times (FT) January 2, 2012.

The bank is also planning a similar move in Kenya.

Mr John Coulter, senior country officer for sub-Saharan Africa at JPMorgan explains to the FT that Africa is being taken more seriously as an investment and business destination saying ?If we invest now, then we will reap the upturn in Africa, whether it?s in five years, 10 years or 20 years, but we recognise that we need to make that investment now.?

?Better governance and macro-economic policies, together with greater political stability in a number of African countries, have contributed to a significant improvement in the overall economic performance of the continent,? Mr Coulter is quoted as saying.

It is estimated that at least 35 of JPMorgan?s top 100 global clients are already operating in Africa.

By Ekow Quandzie

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Investment in African Renewable Energy Reaches $3.6B in 2011

First, the bad news.

Although Africa has vast fossil and renewable energy sources, only twenty percent of its population has direct access to electricity and in some rural areas, four out of five people are completely without power. According to the UN, over 600 million Africans currently do not have access to electric power. A depressing 70 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa's population is living without access to clean and safe energy for their basic needs such as cooking, lighting and heating, making energy poverty among the most urgent issues facing Africa. Worldwide, more than 1.4 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity, and 1 billion more only have intermittent access.

Over 2.5 billion people, almost half of humanity, rely on traditional biomass - wood, coal, charcoal, or animal waste to cook their meals and heat their homes, exposing themselves and their families to smoke and fumes that damage their health and kill nearly two million people a year. More than 95 percent of these people are either in sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia.

The good news?

According to the Managing Director of Nigeria's Bank of Industry (BOI), Evelyn Oputu, total investments in renewable energy in Africa rose from $750 million in 2004 to $3.6 billion in 2011. To put this in a global context, worldwide investment in renewable energy has risen from $33 billion in 2004 to $211 billion in 2011.

And the future?

According to a report issued in August 2011 by Frost & Sullivan entitled "Mega Trends in Africa: A bright vision for the growing continent," investment in renewable power in Africa is set to grow from the 2011 total of $3.6-billion in 2010 to $57-billion by 2020, a staggering 1,583 percent increase in nine short years. According to the document, "The key growth sectors will be wind power, solar power, geothermal power and foreign direct investment (FDI) into energy and power infrastructure."

The reason for the spectacular projections? Africa's combination of a massive unmet demand, including remote communities, allied to an abundance of renewable power potential in the form of solar, wind and geothermal potential. To give but one example, Only seven percent of Africa's hydropower capacity has been developed up to now.

Africa is not yet locked into the inefficient, oft-polluting infrastructure of many Western countries. Accordingly, Africa with modern efficient technologies could build a renewable energy infrastructure that could bypass the inefficient, fossil fuel-centered energy infrastructure systems of the developed world.

Modest starts in renewable energy have already begun across the continent. Wind power projects in Africa are planned or under way in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Tanzania - including Kenya's 0.3 gigawatt Lake Turkana project and 0.7 gigawatt of capacity under construction in Morocco, while Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda all have existing biomass power capacity or plans for future development.

Solar? South Africa has its planned solar park in Upington, intended to contribute 5,000 megawatts to the national electrical grid, while North Africa's Desertec is the largest solar power project ever conceived, designed at a potential cost of $500 billion to provide a significant portion of the electricity needs of participating countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and up to 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050.

Africa's ambitions have the support of the United Nations, where in 2010 the General Assembly unanimously endorsed a resolution designating 2012 as "The International Year of Sustainable Energy for All." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has set three inter-linked objectives to support the goal of achieving "Sustainable Energy for All" by 2030, which are ensuring universal access to modern energy services, doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

The UN Sustainable Energy for All incorporates a number of initiatives focusing on Africa, including World Bank Group's Lighting Africa, the Paris-Nairobi Climate Initiative, the Africa-European Union Energy Partnership, and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, as well as the EU's decision to make access to sustainable energy a development priority through its "Agenda for Change." A number of countries, including South Africa, are also leading the way with national initiatives.

But these initiatives are relatively recent and need financial support to prosper. It was only in September 2010 that African and European leaders launched the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Program (RECP) at the First High-Level Meeting of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) in Vienna.

AEEP's agenda is nothing if not ambitious, as its targets on renewable energy to be reached by 2020 include 10,000 megawatts of hydropower facilities, 5,000 megawatts of wind power capacity, 500 megawatts of solar energy capacity and tripling the capacity of other renewables, such as geothermal, and modern biomass.

The downside to this picture? Three things - the need for massive amounts of investment capital, a problem attendant to massive amounts of cash - corruption, and the continent's changing political landscape, which is already impacting the Desertec North African solar initiative as the Arab Spring roils the south coast of the Mediterranean.

But both the need and potential are there - all that are currently lacking to make the future predictions a reality are cash and political will.

(John C.K. Daly of OilPrice.com. The original article appears here.)

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.


Source: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=113889&rss=true

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