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Divorce hurts health more at earlier ages

Monday, January 30, 2012

Divorce at a younger age hurts people's health more than divorce later in life, according to a new study by a Michigan State University sociologist.

Hui Liu said the findings, which appear in the research journal Social Science & Medicine, suggest older people have more coping skills to deal with the stress of divorce.

"It's clear to me that we need more social and family support for the younger divorced groups," said Liu, assistant professor of sociology. "This could include divorce counseling to help people handle the stress, or offering marital therapy or prevention programs to maintain marital satisfaction."

Liu analyzed the self-reported health of 1,282 participants in Americans' Changing Lives, a long-term national survey. She measured the gap in health status between those who remained married during the 15-year study period and those who transitioned from marriage to divorce, at certain ages and among different birth cohorts, or generations.

Liu found the gap was wider at younger ages. For example, among people born in the 1950s, those who got divorced between the ages of 35 and 41 reported more health problems in relation to their continuously married counterparts than those who got divorced in the 44 to 50 age range.

From a generational perspective, the negative health impact was stronger for baby boomers than it was for older generations ? a finding that surprised Liu.

"I would have expected divorce to carry less stress for the younger generation, since divorce is more prevalent for them," she said.

Liu said this may be because the pressure to marry and stay married was stronger for older generations, and so those who did divorce may have been among the most unhappily married ? and thus felt a certain degree of relief when they did divorce.

Overall, the study found that those who transition from marriage to divorce experience a more rapid health decline than those who remain married. However, those who remained divorced during the entire study period showed no difference than those who remained married.

"This suggests it is not the status of being married or divorced, per se, that affects health, but instead is the process of transitioning from marriage to divorce that is stressful and hurts health," Liu said.

###

Michigan State University: http://www.newsroom.msu.edu

Thanks to Michigan State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117180/Divorce_hurts_health_more_at_earlier_ages

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Cell Therapeutics withdraws cancer drug application (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Cell Therapeutics Inc said on Monday it has voluntarily withdrawn the marketing application for its cancer drug, sending its shares down 17 percent before the bell.

The company said it withdrew the application as it needed additional time to prepare for the review of the drug, Pixuvri, designed as a treatment for relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in patients who failed two or more lines of prior therapy.

Cell Therapeutics said it had requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reschedule the drug's review date prior to the withdrawal, but the health regulator was unable to accommodate the request.

The company plans to resubmit the application later this year.

Shares of the Seattle-based company were down 17 percent at $1.13 in premarket trade. They closed at $1.33 on Friday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Kavyanjali Kaushik in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/hl_nm/us_celltherapeutics

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Quest for the golden cross (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? January has turned out strong for equities with just two trading days to go. If you're afraid to miss the ride, there's still time to jump in. You just might want to wear a neck brace.

The new year lured buyers into growth-related sectors, the ones that were more beaten down last year. The economy is getting better, but not dramatically. Earnings are beating expectations, but at a lower rate than in recent quarters. Nothing too bad is coming out of Europe's debt crisis - and nothing good, either - at least not yet.

"No one item is a major positive, but collectively, it's been enough to tilt it towards net buying," said John Schlitz, chief market technician at Instinet in New York.

Still, relatively weak volume and a six-month high hit this week make some doubt that the gains are sustainable.

But then there's the golden cross.

Many market skeptics take notice when this technical indicator, a holy grail of sorts for many technicians, shows up on the horizon.

As early as Monday, the rising 50-day moving average of the S&P 500 could tick above its rising 200-day moving average. This occurrence - known as a golden cross - means the medium-term momentum is increasingly bullish. You have a good chance of making money in the next six months if you put it to work in large-cap stocks.

In the last 50 years, according to data compiled by Birinyi Associates, a golden cross on the S&P 500 has

augured further gains six months ahead in eight out of 10 times. The average gain has been 6.6 percent.

That means the benchmark is on solid footing to not only hold onto the 14 percent advance over the last nine weeks, but to flirt with 1,400, a level it hasn't hit since mid-2008.

The gains, as expected, would not be in a straight line. But any weakness could be used by long-term investors as buying opportunities.

"The cross is an intermediate bullish event," Schlitz said. "You have to interpret it as constructive, but I caution people to take a bullish stance, if they have a short-term horizon ."

GREECE, U.S. PAYROLLS AND MOMENTUM

Less than halfway into the earnings season and with Greek debt talks over the weekend, payrolls data next week and the S&P 500 near its highest since July, there's plenty of room for something to go wrong. If that happens, the market could easily give back some of its recent advance.

But the benchmark's recent rally and momentum shift allow for a pullback before the technical picture deteriorates.

"We bounced off 1,325, which is resistance. We're testing 1,310, which should be support. We are stuck in that range," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.

"If over the weekend, Greece comes out with another big nothing, then you will see further weakness next week," he said. "A 1 (percent) or 2 percent pullback isn't out of the question or out of line."

On Friday, the S&P 500 (.INX) and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) closed their fourth consecutive week of gains, while the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dipped and capped three weeks of gains. For the day, the Dow dropped 74.17 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 12,660.46. The S&P 500 fell 2.10 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,316.33. But the Nasdaq gained 11.27 points, or 0.40 percent, to end at 2,816.55.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.47 percent, while the S&P 500 inched up 0.07 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.07 percent.

A DATA-PACKED EARNINGS WEEK

Next week is filled with heavy-hitting data on the housing, manufacturing and employment sectors.

Personal income and consumption on Monday will be followed by the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index, consumer confidence and the Chicago PMI - all on Tuesday.

Wednesday will bring the Institute for Supply Management index on U.S. manufacturing and the first of three key readings on the labor market - namely, the ADP private-sector employment report. Jobless claims on Thursday will give way on Friday to the U.S. government's non-farm payrolls report. The forecast calls for a net gain of 150,000 jobs in January, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Another hectic earnings week will kick into gear with almost a fifth of the S&P 500 components posting quarterly results. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Amazon (AMZN.O), UPS (UPS.N), Pfizer (PFE.N), Kellogg (K.N) and MasterCard (MA.N) are among the names most likely to grab the headlines.

With almost 200 companies' reports in so far, about 59 percent have beaten earnings expectations - down from about 70 percent in recent quarters.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

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Leadership scramble: GOP rivals vie for title

Evelyn Solomon of Boca Raton, Fla., a supporter of Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich waits during a Republican Jewish Coalition rally at the South County Civic Center, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Delray Beach, Fla. Romney and Gingrich square off over immigration and other issues as they look to woo Hispanics a day after a feisty, final debate before Tuesday?s Florida primary. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Evelyn Solomon of Boca Raton, Fla., a supporter of Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich waits during a Republican Jewish Coalition rally at the South County Civic Center, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Delray Beach, Fla. Romney and Gingrich square off over immigration and other issues as they look to woo Hispanics a day after a feisty, final debate before Tuesday?s Florida primary. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Audience members cheer as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Astrotech Space Operations in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Republican presidential contenders are making a pitch to voters that sounds a lot like a children's game: Follow the leader.

When Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich aren't puffing up their own leadership credentials, they're running down the leadership skills of one another and President Barack Obama.

If anyone missed Monday's conference call from the Romney campaign about Gingrich's record as a "failed leader," not to worry. They could have tuned in to Tuesday's conference call. Or Wednesday's. Or Thursday's. Or checked out the "unreliable leader" banner splashed across a Romney news release that labeled Gingrich "unhinged." Romney's political biography, meanwhile, is all about his leadership as a businessman, Massachusetts governor and savior of the 2002 Olympic Games.

It's hard to miss Gingrich's frequent broadsides at Romney, meanwhile, for failing to provide consistent, visionary leadership. Or the former House speaker's pronouncements that he, by contrast, offers "exactly the kind of bold, tough leader the American people want." Or Gingrich's muscular descriptions of all that was accomplished in his four years as speaker in the 1990s.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, lagging them in the polls, keeps trying to muscle his way into the leader palooza by offering himself as the steady bet who can be counted on to offer more reliable conservative leadership than "erratic" Gingrich or "moderate" Romney.

In a race where all the candidates are trying to out-conservative one another, stressing leadership credentials gives the GOP rivals a way to try to distinguish themselves. And in a year when Obama's own leadership skills are seen as one of his weakest qualities, it gives the Republicans another arrow in their quiver as they argue over who would be most electable in a matchup with Obama come November.

Leadership is always a part of the equation in presidential elections. In 2008, for example, the candidates all were abuzz with claims that they offered "transformational" leadership. Obama announced he was running by declaring, "I want to transform this country."

This year, leadership is getting an extra dose of attention, perhaps because of statistics such as this: The share of Americans who view Obama as a strong leader slipped from 77 percent at the start of his presidency to 52 percent in a Pew Research Center poll released this month. And among Republicans, only about a fourth of those surveyed in the most recent poll viewed Obama as a strong leader, compared with 80 percent of Democrats.

At a campaign debate last week in Tampa, Fla., Gingrich and Romney both turned a question about electability into an answer about the L-word.

"This is going to come down a question of leadership," Romney said. Then the former Massachusetts governor recited his track record as a leader in business and government and took a dig at Gingrich for having to "resign in disgrace" when he was speaker in the 1990s.

Gingrich, answering the same question, aligned himself with the leadership record of conservative hero Ronald Reagan and offered himself as someone "prepared to be controversial when necessary" to bring about great change.

The answers offer a window into how differently the two candidates define leadership ? Romney more as a manager with business school credentials, Gingrich more as a big-thinking visionary.

The leadership argument is a particularly potent campaign weapon for Romney because a number of Republicans who served in Congress with Gingrich have been happy to describe his shortcomings in running the House.

"If you were somebody trying to serve with him, you were always sort of left standing with your hands empty in terms of moving forward with an actual plan or putting a plan to paper," Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said of Gingrich on a Romney campaign conference call on Thursday. "So for me, it's an example that he's just not an effective leader. I think Mitt has the temperament and the ability to lead."

Gingrich, who resigned after a spate of ethics problems and a poor showing for House Republicans in the 1998 elections, managed to turn even his resignation as speaker into evidence that he's a strong leader.

"I took responsibility for the fact that our results weren't as good as they should be," he said in the Tampa debate. "I think that's what a leader should do."

As for the turbulence of his tenure as speaker, Gingrich casts that, too, as evidence of his bold leadership.

"Look, I wish everybody had loved me, but I'd rather be effective representing the American people than be popular inside Washington," he said earlier in the campaign.

Stephen Wayne, a presidential scholar at Georgetown University, said the harsh judgment of Obama's presidential leadership by Republicans and even some Democrats in part is due to the high hopes that he raised during the 2008 campaign. Obama the president has been measured against the words of Obama the candidate ever since.

Now that it's campaign season again, says Wayne, "he's not competing against his own image, he's competing against a real life person that has frailties. ... In a sense, that lowers the bar for Obama."

___

AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nancy Benac at http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-GOP-Follow%20the%20Leader/id-4296a33af707494cb8870640cc77c466

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Iran hits back at EU with own oil embargo threat (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Fighting sanctions with sanctions in a trial of strength with the West over its nuclear ambitions, Iran warned on Friday it may halt oil exports to Europe next week in a move calculated to hurt ailing European economies.

At the same time, the government in Tehran, grappling with its own economic crisis under Western trade and banking embargoes, will host a rare visit on Sunday by U.N. nuclear inspectors for talks that the ruling clergy may hope can relieve diplomatic pressure as they struggle to bolster public support.

Since the U.N. watchdog lent independent weight in November to the suspicions of Western powers that Iran is using a nuclear energy program to give itself the ability to build atomic bombs, U.S. and EU sanctions and Iranian threats of reprisal against Gulf shipping lanes have disrupted world oil markets and pushed up prices.

Amid forecasts Iran might be able to build a bomb next year, and with President Barack Obama facing re-election campaign questions on how he can make good on promises - to Americans and to Israel - not to tolerate a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic, a decade of dispute risks accelerating towards the brink of war.

Western diplomats see little immediate prospect of renewed talks between Iran and the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday in Tehran, as likely to elicit much in the way of concessions to Western demands.

For all the tension, there was little clear market response to Friday's talk by members of Iran's parliament that they may vote on Sunday to stop sending oil to the European Union - its second biggest customer - as early as next week, to spite EU states that gave themselves until July to enforce an oil import embargo on Iran.

While Greek and Italian refineries which rely on Iranian crude face hardships - recession-hit Greeks bought more than half their oil from Iran lately - analysts see Arab producers satisfying some shortfall, and demand for Iranian oil from China and other Asians that do not back Western sanctions may mean world oil flows are merely diverted rather than blocked.

RHETORIC

Traders admit to wearying of rhetorical thrust and parry.

"They are the masters of bluffing," one Mediterranean crude oil trader said of remarks by Iranian lawmakers on Friday. "And they aren't very reliable when they threaten extreme measures," he said, noting the serious practical difficulties for tankers and storage plants of diverting 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

"That said, we are living in strange and difficult times," he added, as Brent crude futures gained 0.8 percent to $111.64 on the threat, while disappointing U.S. growth data prices back.

In Tehran, Hossein Ibrahimi, vice-chairman of parliament's national security committee, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying: "On Sunday, parliament will have to approve a 'double emergency' bill calling for a halt in the export of Iranian oil to Europe starting next week."

Moayed Hosseini-Sadr, a member of the energy committee in the legislature, said there would be no delay of the kind the EU allowed to its members on Monday when it imposed a ban on oil imports from Iran that would take full effect only on July 1:

"If the deputies arrive at the conclusion that the Iranian oil exports to Europe must be halted, parliament will not delay a moment," Hosseini-Sadr said. "The Europeans will surely be taken by surprise and will understand the power of Iran."

Echoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said on Thursday that Europe would be the loser from its sanctions policy, the hardline cleric leading Friday prayers at Tehran university jibed: "Why wait six months, why not right away? The answer is clear. They are in trouble; they are grappling with crisis."

That comment from Ahmad Khatami indicated the pre-emptive export ban is backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. But China, India and others have made clear that they are keen to soak up any spare Iranian oil, even as U.S. Treasury measures to choke Tehran's dollar trade make it harder to pay for supplies.

SANCTIONS

Highlighting the difficulties of securing international sanctions when many other governments, including Russia and China, question their value or say they will only harden Iranian defiance, Turkish state-controlled Halkbank, a key player in handling payments for Iranian oil, said it would keep on doing so.

A manager at the bank told Reuters that, as far as it was concerned, it was not in breach of U.S. financial sanctions.

The European Union's response was muted, saying only that Iran's intentions had been reported and repeating that the goal of sanctions was to pull Tehran, a signatory to treaties banning the spread of nuclear weapons, back into negotiations intended to ensure its nuclear program was transparent and peaceful.

"We want to see Iran coming back to the negotiating table, engaging in meaningful discussion on confidence-building measures and demonstrate the willingness to address concerns over its nuclear program, without preconditions," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

In Paris, where President Nicolas Sarkozy has been vocal in criticizing Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero stressed that EU countries were already in the process of finding alternative supplies of oil and he was dismissive of the comments from Tehran:

"It's the little game of statements that they carry out artistically," Valero said.

A senior European executive for an oil company that buys Iranian crude told Reuters there could still be problems for some if Tehran cut off supplies immediately.

"We have to wait and be ready. The Iranians have been backed into a corner and it's hard to predict how they will react," he said.

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has previously shown it is ready to force the government to take action against what it sees as hostility from the West, and oil analyst Samuel Ciszuk said it was likely the assembly would pass the EU ban.

"It makes sense to demonstrate Iranian resolve and that it is not on the back foot, particularly as the measure could hit European refiners at a time of deep economic weakness," said Ciszuk of London consultancy KBC Energy Economics.

An abrupt halt might, however, force Iran to offer discounts to other buyers in order to shift excess output, he added.

RISKS

Asian buyers might be tempted but are also wary of U.S. disfavor: "Even though China and India could take the opportunity to capitalize on Iran's weakness they currently have little appetite for the resulting international fallout," said Paul Tossetti at consultancy PFC Energy in Washington.

Iran's clerical establishment, having faced down popular protests which followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009, is dealing with internal disagreement on policy while preparing to seek public endorsement at a closely managed parliamentary election in March.

Defending Iran's right to civilian nuclear power against the hostility of former colonial powers and Israel has been popular, but galloping inflation, which saw the rial formally devalued this week, is fuelling discontent with a ruling class that is also accused of corruption and putting its own interests first.

Meir Javedanfar, an Iran analyst based in Israel, said the parliament's threats were a potentially risky strategy: "Iran has to be careful here," he said. "If this turns out to be yet another bluff, it could damage its deterrence posture as its adversaries could stop taking its threats less seriously.

"But on the other hand if Iran does actually go through with its threat, it would reduce its own dwindling oil income even more while turning more EU countries against it. This would be a diplomatic victory for the U.S. and Israel."

INSPECTIONS

The diplomatic battleground will move to Tehran with the arrival late on Saturday or early Sunday of an IAEA delegation, expected to number about half a dozen led by inspections chief Herman Nackaerts.

The invitation by Iran could offer a way to reduce tension after a particularly harsh exchange of rhetoric and the announcement this month by Tehran that it had begun enriching uranium - material required for weapons if refined further - at a once secret and potentially bomb-proof underground site.

The IAEA director-general, Yukiya Amano, said in Davos on Friday: "I expect through this high level mission Iran tells us everything we need to know and resolve the issue."

Western officials who work with his agency view that kind of sentiment as diplomatic, but wildly unrealistic.

"Nobody is optimistic," one envoy said.

Some small concessions from Iran to demands for greater transparency might be forthcoming, if only as what they see as a familiar stalling tactic, diplomats said.

Iran rejects as forged accusations that it has coordinated efforts to process uranium, test high explosives and revamp a ballistic missile cone to accommodate a nuclear warhead.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had little time for such assertions. Speaking to business and political leaders in Davos, he said Iran may be close to reaching a point where its nuclear technology slips "into a zone of immunity" where any weapons program could not be stopped by external forces.

Barak, whose country says it is ready to strike Iran rather than face a bomb that would threaten the Jewish state's survival, called for an "urgent culmination of sanctions" and for Europe not to wait until July to stop buying Iranian oil.

The Obama administration, which publicly condemned the most recent assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in a hit which Tehran blamed on a Western-backed, Israeli covert war, has called on Israel to coordinate fully on policy toward Iran.

There has been concern in Washington that an Israeli strike on Iran could draw the United States into a new conflict in a region already in turmoil due to the Arab Spring uprisings, as well as to the mounting hostility between Sunni Muslim-ruled Arab powers and Shi'ite Muslim Iran and its allies.

Barak repeated the Israeli view that if Iran cannot be persuaded by sanctions to abandon alleged plans to prepare an atom bomb, then force should be applied: "Those who believe that 'Better a bomb than bombing' are totally wrong," he said.

"At least in the free world...all leaders are the same," he said, citing Obama and the EU leaders as sharing Israel's view: "We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear."

(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Richard Mably and Jessica Donati in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/wl_nm/us_iran

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SAG statuette has an interesting backstory (AP)

BURBANK, Calif. ? The television academy's Emmy has her wings. The motion picture academy's Oscar has his sword. But the Screen Actors Guild's statuette, known as "The Actor," may have the hottest bod of the Hollywood award season.

"The Office" actor and SAG award-winner Creed Bratton said the statuette's physique is nothing short of inspiring, especially what he calls its "buns of bronze."

"If you know this god-given tush," the 68-year-old Bratton joked, holding a statuette in one hand, and moving his other hand to his own behind. "That's very, very similar to this."

Bratton, who is nominated again this year at Sunday's SAG Awards, joined first-time nominee Betsy Brandt ("Breaking Bad") and SAG Awards committee member Daryl Anderson at a recent press event held at the Burbank, Calif., foundry where the statuettes are produced.

The Actor's posterior took the spotlight the night of the 2002 telecast, when actress Helen Mirren famously gave it a kiss after winning two awards for her work in "Gosford Park."

Anderson said there was no model for The Actor when it was designed 18 years ago ? just artists' sketches.

"Everybody who was there remembers themselves being the one who went, `Look at that!'" he recalled.

The design of The Actor prompted discussion of its other attributes, as well, among those who made the selection, Anderson said.

"Well, there was a man on the (SAG) board who said, `They say size doesn't matter,' Anderson recalled. "And there was a woman from another (SAG) branch who interrupted to say, `They lie!'"

So, why no "The Actress" statuette?

Anderson stumbled for a bit, as he grasped for a solid reply, revealing that female versions of the statuette were considered. Then he confessed, "Finally, just ... we ran out of time."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_en_tv/us_sag_awards_the_actor_s_anatomy

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Pat Sajak Says He Was Drunk With Vanna White On Wheel Of Fortune

“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak has said in a broadcast interview that he and fellow host Vanna White were drunk when they taped some early episodes of the show, but that he is too old for that now. The 65-year-old Sajak made the revelation in an appearance earlier this week on cable network ESPN2′s [...]

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Mitt Romney Paid His Fair Share in Taxes 150 Times Over (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | I'm a Democrat, but my party is dead wrong in the way it is treating millionaires like Mitt Romney in relation to their tax returns. According to Bloomberg, the GOP presidential contender has, over the past two years, paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent, about $6 million. This is far less than the 30 percent in taxes paid by most middle class Americans. Romney's rate is lower as the result of his income derivation of investments instead of active employment.

Democrats seem determined to castigate Romney and others in his income bracket as paying less than their fair share. According to the Sydney Herald, President Barack Obama accused millionaires of paying less than their fair share in taxes during his State of the Union address.

Indeed, during the address, as transcribed on NPR, the president said: "Before we take money away from our schools or scholarships away from our students, we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break. It's not a matter of punishing their success. It's about promoting America's success."

The problem is the president isn't "asking." He's demanding it through the tax code. Let's simplify this:

When I go to McDonalds, I can order a basic hamburger from the value menu for $1. Imagine now that Romney was right behind me in line, ordered the same hamburger but was told he would need to pay $150 for the same hamburger. Is that fair?

Our nation's budget isn't made up of percentages. It's made up of whole dollars -- about 6 trillion of them. We have 300 million inhabitants, splitting the same bill. If we were to fairly divide that bill by the number of inhabitants, each of us would owe $20,000.

I get that most of us can't afford to pay $20,000 per family member in taxes and as such, I am grateful that rich people pick up the lion's share of the tab. Otherwise, I'd be in real trouble.

But in Romney's case, he paid $3 million in a tax year -- 150 times his "fair share." But instead of being thanked, people are crying "foul." Why? They don't think he should pay $150 to the average person's $1 for our national hamburger. They think he should pay $300. We need to re-examine the meaning of fairness.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120125/pl_ac/10884549_mitt_romney_paid_his_fair_share_in_taxes_150_times_over

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Wrongfully convicted man awarded $25 million

By NBCChicago.com

CHICAGO -- A federal jury has?awarded $25 million to a man who sued the City of Chicago after spending 16 years in prison for a murder he didn?t commit.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, Thaddeus "T.J."?Jimenez, say they believe the award made Tuesday is the largest ever by a U.S. jury in a wrongful conviction case.

"Sometimes the criminal justice system makes a mistake,"?said Jon Loevy, one of Jimenez?s attorneys. "In this case, we proved that?s exactly what happened."

For more, visit NBCChicago.com

The jury, after sitting through a two-week trial at the Dirksen Federal Building, deliberated for about a day, Loevy said.

"We are very disappointed with the decision,"?said Roderick Drew, a spokesman for the city?s Department of Law. "We will be exploring all available options."

Jimenez was 13 when he was arrested in the 1993 gang-related slaying of Eric Morro, 19, near the intersection of West Belmont and North Sacramento avenues. Jimenez was convicted in two separate trials, but was freed in 2009, after a witness recanted and investigators analyzed a recording of a man admitting to the shooting. An Indiana man, Juan Carlos Torres, has been charged in Morro?s case and is awaiting trial.

In 2010, Cook County Criminal Court presiding Judge Paul Biebel Jr. signed Jimenez?s ?certificate of innocence,? clearing the way for Jimenez to receive state compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.

Loevy said Tuesday that police had ?framed? Jimenez.

"They strong-armed witnesses into falsely implicating [Jimenez], and when the real suspect turned up, they chose to ignore him because they had already built the case against the wrong guy,? Loevy said.

Loevy said he is hesitant to criticize Cook County prosecutors in their handling of the case because ?they recognized there had been an injustice and they corrected it.?

Jimenez, who now is in his early 30s, lives in the western suburbs and works at a Sonic restaurant, Loevy said.

In December 2011, Jimenez was convicted of illegally possessing drugs and now faces up to three years in prison at his sentencing Feb. 1.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10233263-wrongfully-convicted-man-awarded-25-million

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Greek military overspending (Americablog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/191616766?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Rebecca Anderson: Climate Science Education: It's Important

This week, an article came out in the LA Times describing climate change education as the new "evolution debate" in schools, reporting that some states are considering new policies that would require teachers to "teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position."

ACE was founded to fill an enormous gap in our educational sciences curriculum around this very subject. Currently, there are no state or national science standards in public high schools that address teaching of the science of global warming, even though 98 percent of the world's climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change, and the consequences could be extraordinary.

In 2009, ACE amassed a team of the best educators, communicators, and creative minds in the country to develop a 45-minute multimedia assembly presentation that explains basic climate science in a way that sticks with high school students. We take an issue that could be complex and ground students in the most current science, drawn from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We felt young people deserved to know what nearly all climate scientists understand -- and we set out to help communicate their scientific conclusions to our nation's youth. In just 2 years, ACE has reached over 1 million students nationwide.

With that in mind, one might find the news in the LA Times article disheartening. However, at ACE, we see it as an opportunity.

Science is all about discovery. It's about learning how the world works, and why, and connecting empirical data to a better understanding of the world we live in. It's about questioning hypotheses and building conclusions. ACE believes that if students in our nation's schools have the opportunity to learn the conclusions of 98 percent of the world's leading climate scientists -- no matter what else they hear -- it will help to reverse the recent increase in public skepticism about global warming.

Moreover, the recent effort to force climate change denial into the classroom underscores the importance and power of youth, the foundation of ACE's program. The cornerstone of a successful program for ACE is an inspired, educated and motivated youth population.

Students may well hear about climate change denial. For its part, ACE will continue to work every day to ensure that students also have the opportunity to learn about climate science, based on the scientific consensus, from an ACE Educator. This gives students a chance to begin the process of discovery and understanding about science for themselves.

ACE also helps young people focus on solutions. In our first nationwide energy efficiency competition last fall, called "Biggest Loser: Energy," student-led teams at over 60 schools across the country competed to see which school could achieve the greatest energy savings over a 20-day period -- and the results were amazing. While climate change might be a hot topic of debate for some, few people will argue that saving schools money in challenging economic times is not a good thing.

In our first two years of operations, ACE has already reached over 1 million high school students nationwide. Our goal is to continue to expand our program -- we want to reach every high school student in America. Sure, there will be challenges along the way, but we believe in the passion, authenticity, and leadership of youth. This Millennial Generation is diverse and large -- in 2012, this generation will make up 25 percent of the electorate. 13,000 young Americans turn 18 every single day. This demographic is important, powerful, and deserves our attention.

We believe it is important to convey to students the consensus of the world's scientific community, not the dissenting views of a very small minority. Students will benefit from a basic understanding of what we believe will be the greatest challenge their generation will ever face.

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Follow Rebecca Anderson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/climateed

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-anderson/climate-science-education_b_1224904.html

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Shhh: Pope urges silence to communicate better

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during the Angelus prayer from his studio overlooking St. Peter's square at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during the Angelus prayer from his studio overlooking St. Peter's square at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI is asking everyone to quiet down.

In his annual communications message released Tuesday, Benedict extolled the sounds of silence. He said a little bit of quiet makes people better listeners and better communicators by giving them more time to think about what they are hearing and saying.

And in a world inundated by Tweets and 24-hour news coverage, that precious time to think and reflect gives words greater value, he said.

"Joy, anxiety and suffering can all be communicated in silence ? indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression," he said in his written message.

Benedict has in recent years used his annual communications message to comment on social media. He has urged priests to blog and Catholics who spread the faith on Facebook and other social networks to be respectful of others.

This year, his attention turned to the need to occasionally tune out the social media information overload to allow time for greater reflection. He called for striking a balance between silence, words, images and sounds.

"By remaining silent, we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself, and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested," he said.

He noted that sometimes the most authentic communication takes place in utter silence, "between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other."

Silence also allows for greater discernment about what is really worth listening to, Benedict said. And of course, it allows for prayer, contemplation and silent conversation with God.

Benedict, for example, has marveled during recent trips to Croatia and Madrid for World Youth Day at the ability of tens of thousands of people gathered in fields and piazzas for prayers to go absolutely silent in contemplation.

The 84-year-old pontiff is known to be quiet by nature. A theologian and lover of classical music, he speaks softly and is said to be an excellent listener.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-25-EU-Vatican-Sounds-of-Silence/id-1cea1950699a47738ce877db0198f0cb

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Puppy Bowl VIII Starting Lineup: Revealed, Super Cute!

Forget the Giants and the Patriots for a moment.

The stars of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VIII have been revealed! The annual game, which is really just a bunch of tiny puppies running around a faux football field all day Super Bowl Sunday, has become a hit, and for good reason.

What's not to love about 11 adorable little dogs, doing dog stuff? For hours on end? It's at least worth checking out during the pregame ... or DVRing for the kids.

Check out these adorable dogs now!

From top to bottom and left to right, the stars of Puppy Bowl 8:

1. PETER, Dachshund mix, 10 weeks
2. TATTOO, Aussie mix, 14 weeks
3. SWEETIE PIE, Catahoula mix, 11 weeks
4. MARBLES, Dachsund, 13 weeks
5. HUNTER, Boxer, 9 weeks
6. HOLLIE, Border Collie, 11 weeks
7. FUMBLE, Chihuahua-terrier mix, 9 weeks
8. BRANDY, Pitbull/Collie mix, 11 weeks
9. BASKIN, Jack Russell, 15 weeks
10. AUGUSTA, Lab-Plott mix, 14 weeks
11. ANTHONY, Pitbull mix, 12 weeks

The starters for the kitten halftime show are still TBA, BTW.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/puppy-bowl-viii-starting-lineup-revealed-cute/

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YouTube hits 4 billion views per day, deals with 60 hours of uploaded content every minute (Update: Count it in nyans)

It looks like that redesign was worth it. The Google-owned video site has recently revealed that it's now streaming 4 billion videos every day, up 25 percent on daily views from eight months earlier. According to Reuter's report, the site now has to deal with around 60 hours of uploaded video every minute. As long as those education videos are kept separate and the cat content keeps coming, we'll be happy.

Update: Check out the official stats on Google's YouTube blog post, in the video embedded after the break, or a site chock-full of relevant visualizations the company has put together at OneHourPerSecond.com

Continue reading YouTube hits 4 billion views per day, deals with 60 hours of uploaded content every minute (Update: Count it in nyans)

YouTube hits 4 billion views per day, deals with 60 hours of uploaded content every minute (Update: Count it in nyans) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/KF9_490BOWs/

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Only 1 in 4 Young Teens Uses Sunscreen Regularly, Study Finds (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Despite the fact that sunburn in childhood greatly raises a person's lifelong risk for skin cancer, just 25 percent of 14-year-olds in a new U.S. study said they used sunscreen regularly.

What's more, behaviors linked to risky sun exposure increased as kids got older, with older teens reporting more time in the sun and less use of sunscreen than when they were young.

In the study, published in the February issue of Pediatrics, researchers led by Dr. Stephen Dusza of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City, examined data on 360 fifth graders in Massachusetts who were surveyed in 2004 and again three years later in 2007.

Looking at changes in sun-protective behaviors over that period of time, the team found that more than half (53 percent) of the youngsters had already suffered at least one sunburn by the age of 11 and that that rate of sunburn remained constant over the next three years.

But during that same time period, rates of using sunscreen "often or always" actually dropped: While half of the kids used such products at the beginning of the study, only 25 percent still did so three years later.

The authors noted that the proportion of children who admitted to "liking a tan and spending time outside to get a tan significantly increased" as they grew older, as well.

The years of "periadolescence" covered by the study (ages 11 to 14) appear to be "a crucial period" when young people often either "increase or decrease their use of sun protection, obtain sunburns, or change their tan-promoting attitudes," the authors wrote.

"Adolescence and teenage years are tremendously difficult because it is a period of flexing independence, coupled with feelings of invincibility," they added. Dusza and his team believe that educational outreach during these years will be key to ensuring kids make healthier choices that can help ward off skin cancers over their lifetime.

More information

For more on skin cancer, head to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120123/hl_hsn/only1in4youngteensusessunscreenregularlystudyfinds

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Video: Prince William to join Kate on vacation

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46090286#46090286

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Investing Gold and Buying Silver | FINANCE-WEB-GUIDE

Gold plays a crucial role keeping in mind the economical circle in our world alive. Most of the developed and third world countries of the world have committed to gold by means of shares. This can help different countries during economic downturns and works as a source of financial security. This means that gold investment is among the best investment options nowadays.
With time, gold has been proven as an even more stable store of worth when compared with currencies. If you?re holding Dollars or Euros, you will need to worry about sudden reduction in the confidence inside the particular currency. You might have seen that many countries that have indicated that they need to hold many Euro have backed off once they saw the collapse of the Greek economy. Whenever you look at the stock market, you may realize that the marketplace can crush overnight and turn billionaires to paupers, however, such a thing has never happened in the gold market.
Many people are never ready to start to see the dramatic changes which are coming, but instead prefer to reside in the concept of it wouldn?t happen here. The ones that head to the concept of gold investing and remain the course, will reap substantial rewards in the near future.

Back many years ago the standard was to have Ten percent of one?s portfolio in gold and silver coins. The times have changed plus a more realistic percentage will be 50 percent or even more. It will always be wise to understand that the buzz can be your friend, and right now the trend is changing to gold investing!
Gold is not only precious but in addition an uncommon resource. It is often used being an purchase of kinds of jewelry, gold bars, gold biscuits, coins, gold idols of God and Goddess, gold accessories and it has proved itself to become defiant to global economic disaster. Once the world markets crashed, gold was able to retain its value and so didn?t crash combined with markets. This is because of the stability that investors since centuries yearn to own it physically.

Another silver purchasing idea would be to make an investment into a silver mining company. With mining company investments, business energy is going to be greatly dictated through the company?s profit margins. And their profits rely on overhead costs in addition to numerous additional factors. When silver values commence to rise, their shares will too. Be advised that most sliver mining companies don?t only handle silver; typically, silver is mined alongside of copper and zinc. What this means is any profits you get from this kind of investment will greatly depend on other base metals besides silver.

People have opted to buy into metals for a very simple reason: Metals investing is merely more stable. Stock investments may go belly up, investment banks can close and realty prices can plummet.
The primary reason because of this high demand in gold investment can be a belief that rate of growth of bullion demand will quickly outpace the gold supply. The weak economy has forced many investors to improve their investment portfolios. Therefore, they?ve got rightly turned on the purchase of gold. A lot of the wise investors are actually keeping about 10 percent of the investments in the gold assets.
The main incentive for top gold investment demand is the belief that the rate of growth of need for bullion will outpace the provision of gold. The vulnerable economic situation has compelled the investors to diversify their domain portfolios. Hence, they have rightly looked to gold. The majority of the investors are actually holding no less than 10 percent of their investment holdings into real bullion or gold related assets. Bullioin is considered to be like an insurance policy against financial and monetary crisis.

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How To Invest In Physical Gold Corporation 1548 8th St Lakewood, CA	Best Gold Coins To Buy Inc. 12861 Western Ave Eau Claire, WI

Source: http://finance-web-guide.com/?p=126775

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Costa CEO says captain misled company, crew

Divers had to stay out of the water, at risk of getting injured by the beached ship. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated 7:30 p.m. ET

The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said Friday as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers.

CEO Pierluigi Foschi told Italian state TV that the company spoke to the captain at 10:05 p.m. , some 20 minutes after the ship ran aground on Jan. 13, but could not offer proper assistance because the captain's description "did not correspond to the truth," Reuters reported.?

Capt. Francesco Schettino said only that he had "problems" on board but did not mention hitting rocks.

Likewise, Foschi said crew members were not informed of the gravity of the situation.

Passenger video shown on Italian TV indicates crew members telling passengers to go to their cabins as late as 10:25 p.m. (2125 GMT; 4:25 p.m. EST). The abandon ship alarm sounded just before 11 p.m. (2200 GMT; 5:25 p.m. EST).

"That's because they also did not receive correct information on the gravity of the situation," Foschi said.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the island of Giglio a week ago. Eleven people have been confirmed dead.

Rescue crews working on the cruise ship that capsized off the coast of Italy are running out of time to find any possible survivors. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Updated at 2:25 p.m. ET

Rescuers have resumed the search for 21 missing people from the Costa Concordia that ran aground off the Tuscan coast a week ago. Rescue work is taking place at surface level, but not underwater.

Coast guard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said authorities will determine in the morning whether to send divers back to search sections of the partially submerged vessel that are now under water.?

Sensors installed Thursday show constant vibrations in the ship structure, NBC News has learned. The ship is resting on two points underwater, keeping it from sinking. The remainder of the vessel is hanging and moves. Officials are worried the Concordia will sink further or suffer a sudden drop.

The search was suspended earlier in the day after the luxury cruise liner shifted.

Updated at 12:55 p.m. ET

GIGLIO, Italy -- The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch, forcing the suspension Friday of search and rescue operations for the 21 people still missing.

Firefighters' spokesman Luca Cari said rescue squads would be discussing the next step after the movement made conditions unsafe for divers already hampered by poor visibility, floating objects and underwater debris.

Seven days after the ship ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, hopes of finding anyone alive have all but disappeared and the cold waters around the ship have become rougher, with worse weather expected at the weekend.

"The ship is not in safe enough conditions for rescue operations to continue," Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press.

Attention is now turning to how to remove more than 2,300 tons of fuel aboard the vessel, which lies on its side on a rock shelf in about 20 meters of water off the little island of Giglio and which could slide off its resting place.

Salvage crews are waiting until the search for survivors and bodies is called off before they can begin pumping the half-million gallons of fuel out of the wreck, a process expected to take at least two weeks.

Worries in paradise
The fuel is in danger of leaking out and polluting some of the Mediterranean's most unspoiled sea, where dolphins are known to chase playfully after sailboats and fishermen's catches are so prized that wholesalers come from across Italy to scoop up cod, lobsters, scampi, swordfish and other delicacies.

Concordia lies dangerously close to a drop-off point on the sea bottom. Should strong waves nudge the vessel from its precarious perch, it could plunge some 20-30 meters (65-90 feet), further complicating the pumping operation and possibly rupturing fuel tanks. Italy's environment minister has warned that if those tanks break, globs of fuel would block sunlight vital for marine life at the seabed.?

A week after the Concordia struck a reef off the fishing and tourism island of Giglio, flipping on its side, its crippled 114,000-ton hull rests on seabed rich with an underwater prairie of sea grass vital to the ecosystem. The dead weight has likely already damaged a variety of marine life, including endangered sea sponges, and crustaceans and mollusks, even before a drop of any fuel leaks, environmentalists contend.?

"The longer it stays there, the longer it impedes light from reaching the vegetation," said Francesco Cinelli, an ecology professor at the University of Pisa, in Tuscany. And the sheer weight of the Concordia will also crush sea life, he said.?

The seabed where the Concordia lies is a flourishing home to Poseidon sea grass native to the Mediterranean, Cinelli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.?

"Sea grass ... is to the sea what forests are to terra firma," Cinelli said: They produce oxygen and serve as a refuge for organisms to reproduce or hide from predators.?

The Tuscan archipelago's seven islands are at the heart of Europe's largest marine park, extending over some 60,000 hectares (150,000 acres) of sea.?

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.

They include Elba, where Napoleon lived in exile, and the legendary island of Montecristo, a setting for Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" ? where rare Mediterranean monk seals have been spotted near the coast.?

Montecristo has a two-year waiting list of people hoping to be among the 1,000 people annually escorted ashore by forest rangers to admire the uninhabited island. Navigation, bathing and fishing are strictly prohibited up to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from Montecristo's rocky, cove-dotted coast. A monastery, established on Montecristo in the 7th century, was abandoned nine centuries later after repeated pirate raids.?

Come spring, Porto Ercole's slips will be full, with yachts dropping anchor just outside the port. It lies at the bottom of a steep hill, whose summit gives a panoramic view of a sprawling seaside villa, once a holiday retreat of Dutch royals, and of the crescent-shaped island of Giannutri, with its ancient Roman ruins.?

Alberto Teodori, 49, who said he has been hired as a skipper for the yachts of Rome's VIPs for 30 years, noted that the area thrives on tourism in the spring and summer and survives on fishing in the offseason.

If the Concordia's fuel, "thick as tar," should pollute the sea, "Giglio will be dead for 10, 15 years," Teodori fretted, as workers nearby shellacked the hull of an aging fishing boat.

Questions about safety
Late Thursday, Costa-owner Carnival Corp. announced it was conducting a comprehensive audit of all 10 of its cruise lines to review safety and emergency response procedures in the wake of the Costa disaster. The evacuation was chaotic and the alarm to abandon the ship was sounded after the Concordia had capsized too much to get many life boats down.

The owners of the doomed Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia were not aware of unsafe practices involving ships coming close to shore to give tourists a better view, Costa Cruises chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi told a newspaper on Friday.

Investigators say Schettino, the captain of the Costa Concordia, steered the ship too close to the Tuscan island of Giglio, where the 114,500 ton vessel ran aground and capsized last week, apparently while performing a maneuver known as a "salute" which took it within 150 metres of the shore.

Foschi told the Corriere della Sera that ships sometimes passed near to shore during what he termed "tourist navigation" but he said this was always performed safely and he denied that the company knew the Concordia would be going so close.

He said the Concordia's onboard newspaper had announced that the ship would pass five miles from Giglio.

"I can't rule out that individual captains, without informing us, may have set a course closer to land. However I can rule out ever having known that they may have done it unsafely," he said.

Doubts have already been expressed about whether Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise operator, can have been unaware of the practice of ships "saluting."

The company had approved a similar maneuver in August and Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, says its tracking showed that the ship's August route actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused the grounding last week.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-marked rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. The ship then keeled over on its side and is still half-submerged nearly a week later.

'He saved over 3,000 lives'
Meanwhile,?a young Moldovan woman who translated evacuation instructions from the bridge after the Costa Concordia ran into a reef emerged as a potential new witness in the investigation into the captain's actions on that fateful night.

REUTERS/Zhurnal Tv via Reuters TV

Costa Concordia crew member Dominica Cemortan gestures in this still image from a Jan. 17 television interview. Cemortan defended the captain's actions, saying he helped to save the lives of passengers.

Italian media have said prosecutors want to interview 25-year-old Dominica Cermotan, who had worked for Costa as a hostess fluent in several languages but was not on duty when she boarded the ship Jan. 13 in the Italian port of Civitavecchia.

In interviews with Moldovan media and on her own Facebook page, Cermotan said she was called up to the bridge of the Concordia after it struck the reef to translate evacuation instructions for Russian passengers. She defended Schettino, who has been vilified in the Italian media for leaving his ship before everyone was evacuated safely.

"He did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives," she told Moldova's Jurnal TV.

Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

Costa is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10196829-costa-ceo-says-captain-misled-company-and-crews

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