Historic rivalry as Japan heads to North Korea

By JEAN H. LEE

updated 12:34 p.m. ET Nov. 14, 2011

PYONGYANG, North Korea - There are no hot dogs, peanuts or plastic cups of beer for sale when the North Korean soccer team takes the field. There are no noisemakers, and no one does the wave.

Yet the fans are passionate in their own way, packing the stadium to the rafters, stamping and booing every time the visiting team threatens to score. From schoolchildren in Adidas tracksuits to soldiers in uniform, they jostle for a good view of the team that has become a symbol of national pride.

That pride will be at stake Tuesday when the North Korean men play Japan at Kim Il Sung Stadium in a World Cup qualifier that promises to be about far more than just soccer.

Four of the North Korean players, including star striker Jong Tae Se, were born into ethnic Korean communities in Japan, and bitterness still runs deep over Japan's 35-year occupation of Korea, which ended in 1945.

More than six decades later, Tokyo and Pyongyang still do not have diplomatic ties. The last time the Japanese men played on North Korean soil was in 1989, when North Korea won 2-0.

Since then, relations have deteriorated: Japan has pressed North Korea to address the past abductions of Japanese citizens, and after North Korea fired ballistic missiles capable of reaching Japan's shores and tested a nuclear device in 2006, Japan joined the United States and other nations in imposing economic sanctions on North Korea as punishment.

Those sanctions have cut off much-needed sources of aid at a time when 6 million North Koreans ? a quarter of the population ? are going hungry, according to the World Food Program. Japan is also party to the stalled talks that would bring food aid to Pyongyang in exchange for an agreement to discontinue its nuclear program. The North Koreans walked away from those discussions two years ago, but efforts are now under way to get them back on track.

More than 200 Japanese citizens, including 150 Blue Samurai fans and two dozen journalists, were expected to travel to Pyongyang for Tuesday's game ? the largest Japanese delegation in years. As a precaution, Tokyo has sent a team of Japanese diplomats to North Korea to watch over them.

The fans have been warned to behave: No sightseeing, no straying from the group. No drums, speakers, banners or Japanese flags, according to Nishitetsu Travel, which is organizing the three-day, $3,740 tour for the Japanese Football Association.

"In principle, (North Korea) is a country where we have travel restrictions, and we are only allowing this trip as an exception," Osamu Fujimura, Japan's chief cabinet spokesman, said Friday in Tokyo. "Therefore, we would like the visitors to refrain from any activity other than watching the game while in (North Korea)."

The long gap between a North Korea-Japan game in North Korea serves as a "painful reminder" of how bad relations are, said Peter Beck, a research fellow at the East-West Center who is a specialist on Japanese-North Korean issues.

In 2005, a match scheduled to be played in Pyongyang was moved to Thailand because of security worries.

However, there have been tentative moves toward improving ties. Last month, Japanese doctors traveled to North Korea to examine Korean victims of the World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both the visit and the game represent a "very modest effort" to improve ties, Beck said.

As far as the soccer goes, it would appear to be an uneven match with little bearing on the World Cup: Japan is Asia's top-ranked team and No. 17 overall while North Korea is ranked 124th in the world by FIFA.

Japan has already secured its spot in the next round of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil while North Korea is out, its hopes of consecutive appearances dashed by back-to-back losses to Uzbekistan.

North Korea boasts a strong defense, but scoring goals has never been a strength. At January's Asian Cup, the North Koreans failed to score against the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Iraq. Japan, meanwhile, took the title.

Games between Japan and North Korea, however, are always close. Their last three meetings ended with one win each and a tie; of the last 15 games, Japan has won six and North Korea five.

In Pyongyang, Dr. Ri Tong Gyu, a researcher at North Korea's Institute of Physical Culture under the Academy of Sports Sciences, told the state-run Korean Central News Agency he expected a "hot match" Tuesday.

"I am sure that the DPRK footballers will score good results in the upcoming matches if they fully display their mental and physical power with efficient teamwork," he told KCNA. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.

For Jong and three fellow Japanese-born teammates, the game will be an interesting test of loyalty, pitting the country of their birth, Japan, against the nation to which they pledge allegiance: North Korea. The Japanese team features Tadanari Lee, a fourth-generation South Korean born in Tokyo.

Japan is home to some 600,000 ethnic Koreans, many of them descendants of Koreans who moved, by force or for work, to Japan during the colonial occupation. Ethnic Koreans born in Japan are automatically assigned South Korean citizenship but have the option of changing their loyalty to North Korea, as many who grow up in pro-North Korean communities do.

When Jong, An Yong Hak, Ryang Yong Gi and Kim Song Gi take the field Tuesday for North Korea, scores of fans from their ethnic Korean community will be cheering in Japan.

In Pyongyang, tickets to the match at 50,000-seat Kim Il Sung Stadium ? a stone's throw from the spot where Kim, then an anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter, made his triumphant return from exile after Japan's defeat in World War II ? will no doubt be sold out.

In communist North Korea, tickets are allocated based on one's work unit, but it's unclear how the lucky attendees are selected. It is believed the government and military elite are frequently offered perks unavailable to ordinary citizens. Foreigners pay anywhere from $27 to $137 for seats.

In a sports-crazed country, soccer is clearly the most popular. And, despite economic hardships, people make time both to play and watch games.

"A soccer hurricane is sweeping the whole country," the Pyongyang Times declared.

In the alleyways and dirt fields off the main streets, boys kick soccer balls in the autumn sunshine. The most promising among them may be plucked from playgrounds for training at an early age. In this country, where only the elite can travel overseas, top players from both the men's and women's teams are treated like celebrities.

At last month's World Cup qualifier between North Korea and Uzbekistan, Pyongyang's Yanggakdo Stadium was full. The only empty seats were in the section reserved for foreigners, a motley group of diplomats and tourists, some holding North Korean flags.

The fans were a mix of neatly dressed military officers and men in workaday suits smoking cigarettes. The women's soccer team also turned out in red tracksuits. A few rows behind them, a girl in a baseball cap turned backward sat at the edge of her seat, eyes fixed on the game.

"Strike! Strike" the crowed implored in Korean as the ball neared the Uzbekistan goal. One phrase, "Shoot! Shoot!" they cried in English.

The fans turned silent when the game ended 1-0 for Uzbekistan, the crowd rising to its feet and jostling for the exits.

Though North Korea's World Cup aspirations may be over for 2014, a different form of retribution may come Tuesday, for there would be no sweeter revenge than a victory over Japan.

___

Associated Press writers Foster Klug and John Duerden in Seoul, South Korea, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Follow Jean H. Lee on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean and photographer David Guttenfelder at twitter.com/dguttenfelder.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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US offense awakens

The United States won for just the second time since Jurgen Klinsmann took over as coach, with Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore scoring in a two-minute span late in the first half to lead the Americans over Slovenia 3-2 on a foggy Tuesday night in Ljubljana.

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Man City striker Carlos Tevez has decided to stay in his native Argentina instead of meeting with the Premier League leaders to discuss his future.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45289981/ns/sports-soccer/

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Crackdowns reach epicenter of Wall Street protests (AP)

NEW YORK ? The encampment is gone, but the movement lives on. What nobody knows is just how long it can survive without a literal place to call home.

For Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park was a rallying cry, a symbol of defiance. But in recent weeks, the park itself unwittingly morphed into a mirror image of the world it was trying to change: a microcosm of society rife with crime, drug problems and fights over things like real estate and access to medical care.

That's why, after protesters were hauled out of the park during a police raid early Tuesday, some organizers believe the loss of their camp is actually a blessing in disguise.

"This is much bigger than a square plaza in downtown Manhattan," said Hans Shan, an organizer who was working with churches to find places for protesters to sleep Tuesday night. "You can't evict an idea whose time has come."

The protesters have been camped out in the privately owned park since mid-September and had vowed to stay put indefinitely. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he ordered the sweep because health and safety conditions had become "intolerable" in the crowded plaza. The raid was conducted in the middle of the night "to reduce the risk of confrontation" and "to minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood," he said.

By early Tuesday evening, some protesters were being allowed back into the park two by two. But they could each take only a small bag after a judge ruled Tuesday afternoon that their free speech rights do not extend to pitching a tent and setting up camp for months at a time.

Pete Dutro, head of the group's finances, said the loss of the movement's original encampment will open up a dialogue with other cities and take the protest to the next level of action.

"We all knew this was coming," Dutro said. "Now it's time for us to not be tucked away in Zuccotti Park, and have different areas of occupation throughout the city."

Where will they go next remains unclear. Without a place to congregate, protesters will have a difficult time communicating with each other en masse. The leaders of the movement spent most of Tuesday gathering in small groups throughout the city ? in church basements, in public plazas and on street corners ? and relaying plans in scattered text messages and email.

For now, they're planning to move forward with plans for a day of civil disobedience and marches on Thursday, which has been in the works for weeks. And they'll be joined by angry city leaders who publicly denounced Bloomberg for the nighttime raid.

Robert Harrington, owner of a small importing business in New York, stood outside the barricade with a sign calling for tighter banking regulations.

"To be effective it almost has to move out of the park," Harrington said. "It's like the antiwar movement in the `60s, which started as street theater and grew into something else."

"The issues," he added, "are larger than just this camp."

The next challenge is figuring out how to decentralize the movement and give it staying power.

"People are really recognizing that we need to build a movement here," Shan said. "What we're dedicated to is not just about occupying space. That's a tactic."

The aggressive raid seemed to mark a shift in the city's dealings with the Wall Street protests. Only a week ago, Bloomberg privately told a group of executives and journalists that he thought reports of problems at the park had been exaggerated and didn't require any immediate intervention.

It was the third raid of a major camp in a span of three days, as police broke up camps Sunday in Portland, Ore., and Monday in Oakland, Calif.

The timing did not appear to be coincidental. On Tuesday, authorities acknowledged that police departments across the nation consulted with each other about nonviolent ways to clear encampments. Officers in as many as 40 cities participated in the conference calls.

When New York police began their crackdown at 1 a.m., most of the Occupy Wall Street protesters were sleeping.

Officers arrived by the hundreds and set up powerful klieg lights to illuminate the block. They handed out notices from Brookfield Office Properties, the park's owner, and the city saying that the plaza had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous.

Many people left, carrying their belongings with them. Others tried to make a stand, locking arms or even chaining themselves together with bicycle locks.

Dennis Iturralde was fast asleep on a cot when the shouting woke him up. Dark figures were running through the tents in the dim orange light of streetlamps. Something slammed into the cot, flipping him to the ground.

"They were tearing everything apart," Iturralde said. "They were hitting people, spraying people if they didn't move fast enough."

Within minutes, police in riot gear had swarmed the park, ripping down tents and tarps. The air was filled with the sound of rustling tarps, rumbling garbage trucks, shouts and equipment crashing to the ground.

Around 200 people were arrested, including a member of the City Council and dozens who tried to resist the eviction by linking arms in a tight circle at the center of the park.

At least a half-dozen journalists were arrested later in the day, including a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press who were held for four hours before being released.

In contrast to the scene weeks ago in Oakland, where a similar eviction turned chaotic and violent, the police action was comparatively orderly. But some protesters complained of being hit by police batons and shoved to the ground.

The police commissioner said officers gave the crowd 45 minutes to retrieve their belongings before starting to dismantle tents, and let people leave voluntarily until around 3:30 a.m., when they moved in to make mass arrests.

"Arresting people is not easy," he said, adding that he thought the officers "showed an awful lot of restraint in the face of "an awful lot of taunting, people getting in police officers' faces, calling them names."

The ouster at Zuccotti Park came as a rift within the movement had been widening between the park's full-time residents and the movement's power players, most of whom no longer lived in the park.

Some residents of the park have been grumbling about the recent formation of a "spokescouncil," an upper echelon of organizers who held meetings at a high school near police headquarters. Some protesters felt that the selection of any leaders whatsoever wasn't true to Occupy Wall Street's original anti-government spirit: That no single person is more important or more powerful than another person.

"Right now we're in the organizing stages of building a national movement," said protester Sandra Nurse. "I think this is going to serve as more momentum to draw people in."

___

Associated Press writers Samantha Gross, Verena Dobnik, Karen Matthews and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111116/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_protests

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Study Suggests Exercise May Help Memory of Fibromyalgia Patients (HealthDay)

SUNDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Fibromyalgia patients who stopped taking medication and then exercised regularly for six weeks reported improved memory function and less pain, according to a small, new study.

While the finding is encouraging, it does not suggest a potential change in clinical care for fibromyalgia patients, the study authors stressed.

Senior author Dr. Brian Walitt, director of the Fibromyalgia Evaluation and Research Center at Georgetown University Medical Center, is scheduled to present the findings Sunday with co-researcher, Manish Khatiwada, at the Society of Neuroscience annual meeting, in Washington, D.C.

Fibromyalgia is a disorder marked by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep and cognitive problems. It has no apparent cause and the pain is real, Walitt said, and likely originates from the central nervous system. It typically affects women more than men.

Exercise has long been recommended to fibromyalgia patients, and some find it improves their sense of well-being. "This is a first look at understanding how exercise alters memory performance," Walitt said of the study.

For the trial, nine women received a baseline brain image called a functional MRI test. They were also given tests to assess their working memory and asked about their well-being and pain while on medication. The memory tests involved reading back a sequence of letters at various times after learning them.

Next, the women stopped their medication for a six-week ''washout'' period. Then they had a second round of fMRIs and tests. Then they started a six-week supervised aerobic exercise program, consisting of three 30-minute sessions a week.

"When we took people off the medicine, they performed worse on the tests," Walitt said. But, he added, "As they stayed off the medications for a period of time and exercised, their cognitive performance returned to normal levels [the same as at the start of the study]," he said.

The finding potentially suggests that exercise may lead to improvement in the network of brain areas that are recruited for working memory to function.

"In some ways it is concerning," Walitt said. "One would have hoped that exercise would have made them better [at the memory test]."

Wallit isn't sure what the findings might mean for real-life situations. "It may be if you have a more efficient brain, doing real-life tasks will be better."

While more study is needed, Walitt said that "overall, exercise seems to be a beneficial thing for fibromyalgia patients, in terms of overall well-being. If you can exercise and make it work for you, that's great."

However, he noted, some people with the condition can't tolerate exercise. Working out "is not going to be the answer for everybody and it's not going to fix anybody," he said.

While the study has some flaws, it's basically encouraging for those with the condition, said Dr. I. Jon Russell, a San Antonio fibromyalgia researcher and consultant, and retired professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio.

He thought the amount of time spent off medication during the study should have been longer before repeat testing. But, he said, "the most encouraging thing about this study is that fibromyalgia is continuing to be investigated."

"We have many reasons to believe that aerobic exercise is good for our patients. This study gives some support [to that idea]," Russell said. However, "We shouldn't over-interpret that exercise is the answer."

If patients can and do exercise, he said, "It's likely they will experience additional benefits."

Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary since it has not undergone the scrutiny required of studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

More information

For more on fibromyalgia, visit the American Chronic Pain Association.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111114/hl_hsn/studysuggestsexercisemayhelpmemoryoffibromyalgiapatients

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'Immortals' reigns with $32M opening weekend (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The gods of ancient Greece have extended their rule to the weekend box office with a No. 1 debut for the action tale "Immortals."

The story of Greek hero Theseus took in $32 million domestically, while Adam Sandler's comedy "Jack and Jill" opened at No. 2 with $26 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The new movies bumped the animated hit "Puss in Boots" to the No. 3 spot after two weekends at the top. "Puss in Boots" earned $25.5 million, raising its domestic total to $108.8 million.

Director Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar," a film biography starring Leonardo DiCaprio as longtime FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, played in narrower release and opened at No. 5 with $11.5 million.

Released by Relativity Media, "Immortals" stars Henry Cavill and Freida Pinto in a tale of human heroes battling an evil king (Mickey Rourke) who aims to bring down the Olympian gods.

With males making up 60 percent of its audience, "Immortals" has a chance to corner much of the action market through Thanksgiving weekend and beyond, a period likely to be dominated by family movies such as "Happy Feet 2," "The Muppets," "Hugo" and "Arthur Christmas."

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" does open Friday, but that blockbuster action fantasy franchise mainly draws female crowds.

"There's really not another action movie until you approach the Christmas holidays," said Kyle Davies, head of distribution for Relativity. "Over the next few weeks, there's no real competition for us."

Sandler plays dual roles in "Jack and Jill," as a sturdy family man and his needy sister, who comes to visit for Thanksgiving.

"Jack and Jill" got off to a solid start but came in on the low end for Sandler, whose comedies typically open in the $30 million to $40 million range. Still, it continues Sandler's virtually unbroken string of strong openings for his broad comedies dating back to the late 1990s.

"A big part of his success is just that sort of Everyman appeal he has, whether it be the guys going out to have a beer or girls thinking he's just as charming as all hell," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, which released "Jack and Jill."

"J. Edgar" played in 1,910 theaters, compared with more than 3,000 for the rest of the top-five movies. It was the weekend's grown-up choice, with 66 percent of viewers over age 50, according to distributor Warner Bros.

Like "Immortals" with action crowds, "J. Edgar" has the prospect to dominate among older viewers through Thanksgiving weekend, one of the busiest times of the year for movie theaters.

"We're the adult choice," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner. "We feel we have really good play time ahead of us going into the holiday."

"J. Edgar" will join a parade of potential Academy Awards contenders arriving before year's end as Hollywood rolls into its most diverse season, when drama, comedy, action and family films share screen time.

"This was one of the first weekends we've seen in a while that had a nice combination of films that gave us a really solid weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "To me, this is what the holiday season is all about, having films like `Immortals' in the mix in the top-five with a drama like `J. Edgar.'"

The variety clicked with audiences this weekend. Overall revenues came in at $137 million, up 13 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Megamind" led with $29.1 million, according to Hollywood.com.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Immortals," $32 million.

2. "Jack and Jill," $26 million ($2.7 million international).

3. "Puss in Boots," $25.5 million.

4. "Tower Heist," $13.2 million ($7.6 million international).

5. "J. Edgar," $11.5 million.

6. "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," $5.9 million.

7. "In Time," $4.2 million.

8. "Paranormal Activity 3," $3.6 million.

9. "Footloose," $2.7 million.

10. "Real Steel," $2 million ($12 million international).

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111113/ap_en_mo/us_box_office

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Asia-Pacific leaders: Free trade vital to recovery

Asia-Pacific leaders said further freeing up trade is crucial to a lasting global economic recovery as they wrapped up an annual summit that produced tangible progress toward a regional trade bloc.

A declaration Sunday from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii said the region is now the vanguard for global growth due to previous progress in forging closer economic ties and free trade.

A U.S.-backed plan to forge a Pacific free trade bloc got a big boost Sunday when leaders of Canada and Mexico joined Japan in expressing support for a deal that has received a cool reception from rising power China.

Earlier Sunday, President Barack Obama said "we're not going to be able to put our folks back to work" unless the Asia-Pacific region is successful as an engine for the world.

"We consider it a top priority," Obama said of the region where his administration is pouring in time and political capital to expand exports and business ties.

The president spoke as he dove into a day of summit diplomacy, proudly using his home state of Hawaii as the American foothold to the Pacific. He gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose nations span from Chile to China and account for roughly half the world's trade and economic output.

In the midst of a hard re-election bid, Obama kept his message on jobs, even as he privately lobbied for help on containing the Iranian nuclear threat.

He was to cap the summit with a solo news conference in which topics on and off his scripted agenda were likely to emerge.

Story: Obama seeks joint approach with Russia on Iran nuclear bomb

Born in Hawaii, Obama reveled in having the world stage on his home turf, while back east the Republicans seeking to oust him from the White House assailed his foreign policy record.

Obama used his moment to signal to business executives and Asian leaders that the United States has shifted from a post-9/11 war focus to re-engagement all across the Pacific.

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"We represent close to 3 billion people, from different continents and cultures," Obama told his APEC partners on Saturday, ahead of some luau entertainment. "Our citizens have sent us here with a common task: to bring our economies closer together, to cooperate, to create jobs and prosperity that our people deserve so that they can provide for their families."

The president is on a 9-day venture away from Washington's daily political gridlock. He will visit Australia and Indonesia before returning to the White House on Nov. 20.

Unity sought on Iran
On Saturday, largely a day of sideline meetings here, Obama prodded the skeptical leaders of Russia and China for support in dialing back Iran's nuclear ambitions, but without winning endorsement from either man. Neither Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nor Chinese President Hu Jintao publicly echoed Obama's push for solidarity over Iran.

Obama did announce the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the United States and eight other nations before going into meetings with Hu and Medvedev where he raised a new report from the U.N. atomic agency. The report asserted in the strongest terms to date that Iran is conducting secret work to develop nuclear arms.

Russia and China remain a roadblock to the United States in its push to tighten international sanctions on Iran. Both are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and have shown no sign the new report will change their stand.

Alongside Medvedev, Obama said the two "reaffirmed our intention to work to shape a common response" on Iran.

Shortly after, Obama joined Hu, in a run of back-to-back diplomacy with the heads of two countries that have complicated and at times divisive relations with the United States, occasional partners in joint international endeavors, but also frequent rivals or adversaries on more difficult issues, especially those with strategic implications.

Obama said that he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by "international rules and norms."

Obama's comments were broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress.

Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.

White House aides insisted later that Russia and China remain unified with the United States and other allies in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and that Obama, Hu and Medvedev had agreed to work on the next steps. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the new allegations about Iran's programs demand an international response.

"I think the Russians and the Chinese understand that," he said. "We're going to be working with them to formulate that response."

Story: No aloha: Obama skips out on APEC tradition

GOP weighs in
As the president held forth on the world stage, Republicans vying to compete against Obama for the presidency unleashed withering criticism in a debate in South Carolina. It was a rare moment in which foreign policy garnered attention in a campaign dominated by the flagging U.S. economy.

"If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear work is in the peaceful pursuit of energy and research, not weaponry.

More broadly, Obama is seeking while in Hawaii to position the United States as a key player among economies that already account for 44 percent of world trade, a figure the administration believes will grow.

For businesses, Obama said, "this is where the action's going to be."

On the Pacific trade pact, Obama said details must still be worked out, but said the goal was to complete the deal by next year.

The eight countries joining the U.S. in the zone would be Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Obama also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda about Japan's interest in joining the trade bloc.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45279703/ns/politics-white_house/

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Obama urges Congress to reach consensus on deficit (AP)

KAPOLEI, Hawaii ? President Barack Obama is urging Congress to reach consensus on a plan to slash the nation's deficit, saying lawmakers are continuing to stick with "rigid positions" rather than solving the problem.

A committee in charge of cutting the deficit has until Nov. 23 to agree on how to reduce it by at least $1.2 trillion in the next decade.

Any amount less than that would be made up in automatic across-the-board cuts divided evenly between defense and domestic programs.

Obama says at a news conference in Hawaii that he hopes lawmakers will "bite the bullet and do what needs to be done."

He says it appears members of Congress "want to keep jiggering the math" to get a different outcome.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_supercommittee

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Charlize Theron Covers Vogue, Talks Single Life, Looks Very Attractive


Charlize Theron is featured in the latest Vogue, talking to the magazine about her new movie and her love life and... some other stuff. We assume, at least.

We were too busy remembering how wonderfully evil she looks as the queen in the Snow White and the Huntsman trailer, then staring at the actress' gorgeous cover photo to pay much attention. You can't really blame us, can you?

Charlize Theron Vogue Cover

Below, we've posted excerpts from Theron's interview:

On winning an Academy Awards: “It was life-changing - it opened a lot of doors. But it made people have a lot of opinions about what should happen next. You realize quickly that you can never please everybody.”

On filming Young Adult: “I realized how much I love what I do. I really, really missed it. Like around week three, I had this horrible, sappy moment where I got a little overwhelmed. It was just a really great f-cking experience.”

On her splitting with Stuart Townsend: “It was sinking, and I had to give it a fight. I really wanted to try and make it work. That was the priority. I wouldn’t do it any different way.”

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/charlize-theron-covers-vogue-talks-single-life-looks-very-attrac/

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UFC on Fox: Judging the first network broadcast

UFC on Fox: Judging the first network broadcast

With the UFC's first broadcast on Fox over and a new heavyweight champion in place, everyone involved with the show will likely relax over the weekend and enjoy the spoils of this massive event. On Monday, they'll sit down and look at what worked and what didn't.

The one-hour broadcast was well-paced and informative, but far from perfect. There were elements that the UFC and Fox should definitely do again, and a few they need to change.

The let's-do-this-again:

-- The use of the NFL on Fox music: Hearing the opening strains of the "NFL on Fox" music gave me goosebumps, and it sent a clear message from the start that the UFC on Fox would get the same big game treatment that the NFL gets every Sunday.

-- The history montage: UFC on Fox took place 18 years to the date after UFC 1, and the broadcast started with a pitch-perfect montage to show how far the promotion has come. Not only did it nod to hardcore and longtime fans, it also showed off some of the UFC's best-known stars.

-- The Dana White/Brock Lesnar segments: Lesnar was not afraid to verbally spar with his boss, and that made the segments more fun. Lesnar made it a little bit too much about himself, but White going back and forth with an intelligent fighter who knows how to speak on camera should be repeated.

-- Primetime, and the Primetime segments repeated: The Primetime special that aired on Fox to introduce viewers to dos Santos and Velasquez was smart, emotional, and fleshed out two men who were capable of such violence as real people. Not surprisingly, segments from those Primetimes were woven into the UFC on Fox broadcast and reminded new viewers that Velasquez is a doting father and dos Santos is a smiling mama's boy.

-- Introduction and rules from Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan: This was very well-done. It's clear that Goldberg and Rogan were well-rehearsed and prepared for this segment. They didn't belabor the rules, and gave viewers things to look out for from each fighter.

The let's-make-some-changes:

-- Identify people on the red carpet: This was a chance for both the UFC and Fox to push their stars, but they whiffed by not identifying who each person was. I watch plenty of television, but didn't recognize many of the non-athletes on the red carpet.

-- Remind Dana White to take a breath: He was excited and nervous, but my Twitter timeline was filled with people who don't usually watch MMA saying that they didn't understand White. Perhaps he can use the advice Mrs. Excell gave me in sixth grade about speaking into a microphone: If you think you're talking too slowly, you're just about perfect.

-- Make room for another fight, or at least show a highlight reel of the undercard: Something that the UFC has done much better than boxing is build up stars by stacking an undercard. It was Fox's decision to have just one fight, but they had a prime opportunity to highlight the exciting Benson Henderson win over Clay Guida, DaMarques Johnson's knockout or Ricardo Lamas' submission. With not so much as a highlight montage, they whiffed on that.

Afterwards, White said that the production went perfectly. On the flip side, CNBC sports business Darren Rovell did an unscientific Twitter poll to ask non-MMA fans if they would watch again based on Saturday night's broadcast. He has nearly 20,000 followers, and 46.2 percent of those who replied said that they are less likely to watch.

That is due mostly to the short fight. The UFC didn't get a chance to showcase how exciting their fights can be in just 1:04, but did the broadcast help or hinder? Anything the broadcast needs to add or subtract? Tell us in the comments or on Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-on-Fox-Judging-the-first-network-broadcast?urn=mma-wp9380

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One Millionth Tower documentary elevates the art of HTML5

Impressive demos of HTML5-based wizardry may be more common than ever now, but that doesn't mean there isn't still room to be impressed. One of latest to raise the bar is the One Millionth Tower documentary from the National Film Board of Canada's Highrise project. The main feature itself runs just over six minutes if you choose to simply sit back and watch, but things get quite a bit more interesting if you dive in and explore the highrise neighborhood that's the focus of the documentary, which is realized in WebGL-based 3D environment. Naturally, there's also a behind-the-scenes look at how the documentary was made, and the NFB has even made the source code available for those that want to dig deeper. Head on past the break for the trailer, and hit the source link below to check out the full thing for yourself -- we'd recommend switching your browser to full screen mode for the best experience.

[Thanks, Kat]

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