USDA sets guidelines for healthier school meals (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? School meals for millions of children will be healthier under obesity-fighting U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards unveiled on Wednesday that double the amount of fruits and vegetables in cafeteria lunches - but won't pull French fries from the menu.

In the first major changes to school meals in more than 15 years, the new USDA guidelines will affect nearly 32 million children who eat at school. They will cost about $3.2 billion to implement over the next five years.

"Improving the quality of the school meals is a critical step to building a healthy future for our kids," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

The new meal requirements are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama. President Barack Obama approved the measure in late 2010.

The guidelines double the amounts of fruits and vegetables in school lunches and boost offerings of whole grain-rich foods. The new standards set maximums for calories and cut sodium and trans fat, a contributor to high cholesterol levels.

Schools may offer only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties and must assure that children are getting proper portion sizes, the USDA said.

The new standards will be largely phased in over a three-year period, starting in the 2012-13 school year.

About 17 percent of U.S. children and teenagers are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one-third of U.S. adults are obese.

FRIES WITH THAT?

Lawmakers altered the guidelines in November. They barred the USDA from limiting French fries and ensured that pizza counted as a vegetable because of its tomato paste.

Trade associations representing frozen pizza sellers like ConAgra Foods Inc and Schwan Food Co as well as French fry sellers McCain Foods Ltd and J.R. Simplot Co were instrumental in blocking changes to rules affecting those items.

Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for the non-profit Center For Science in the Public Interest, said that the new standards were a big improvement despite food industry lobbying and the congressional revamp.

"The new school meal standards are one of the most important advances in nutrition in decades," she said in a statement.

The Environmental Working Group said the changes could pack a financial punch since they may help reduce medical bills related to diabetes and other obesity-related chronic diseases.

"A healthier population will save billions of dollars in future health care costs," said Dawn Undurraga, EWG's staff nutritionist.

As an example of a new meal, the USDA said an elementary school lunch could be whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce and a whole wheat roll, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, low-fat milk, low-fat ranch dip and soft margarine.

That lunch would replace a meal of a hot dog on a bun with ketchup, canned pears, raw celery and carrots with ranch dressing, and low-fat chocolate milk.

As part of the new standards, schools will receive another 6 cents a meal. The USDA also will increase the number of inspections of school menus.

Food and beverages sold in vending machines and other school sites "will also contribute to a healthy diet," the USDA statement said.

The USDA gives school districts funds for meals through its National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs.

(Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles)

(Reporting By Ian Simpson. Editing by Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/hl_nm/us_school_food

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New Yahoo CEO says company needs to "do better" (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Scott Thompson said reviving the company's flagging display advertising business was his "highest priority," even as he crafts a broader plan to bring the struggling Internet company back to fighting form.

"There's no question that we need to do better," said Thompson on his first quarterly earnings since taking the reins earlier this month, as Yahoo reported another decline in sales and profit on Tuesday.

Analysts prodded Thompson for clues about his plans for Yahoo Inc, which fired former CEO Carol Bartz in September and last week saw co-founder Jerry Yang resign unexpectedly, but all they received were boilerplate comments about how the company needs to "do better" and "get innovative products that matter into the market."

The lack of details didn't damage Wall Street's assessment of Thompson's debut, with many analysts appearing willing to give the former PayPal President some breathing room to settle in and figure out a strategy.

"He seemed to be speaking with a greater sense of urgency to act than his predecessors have," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan.

Thompson, along with Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse, gave few hints about the progress of Yahoo's strategic review as well, dashing hopes that his arrival might hasten a transaction.

Morse said talks with Yahoo's Asian partners -- Alibaba and Softbank -- about a restructuring were continuing but beyond that provided little concrete detail on where things stand.

Thompson, who was only hired as CEO two weeks ago, added that the company's board has narrowed down its options to the ones that appear "most promising."

Shares of the company slipped 9 cents to $15.60 in after-hours trade.

TO INVEST IN CORE BUSINESSES

A Boston native with a thick accent, Thompson said he would infuse the roughly 14,000-employee organization with speed.

"When it comes to making decisions, I make them quickly and then push to move fast, fast, fast," he said.

"We will get speed back into the equation and move aggressively. To me that's how we get to playing offense rather than defense."

He stressed that Yahoo would invest the majority of its resources into its core businesses, while remaining open to potential acquisitions and looking for "revenue streams that look different from what we're doing today."

He also addressed the age-old identity question that has frustrated many of the company's previous CEOs, noting that Yahoo is "fundamentally" both a media company and a technology company. "We better be darn good at both," he said.

One of the most pressing concerns is Yahoo's display advertising business, which is facing increasing competition from Google and Facebook, and which declined in the fourth quarter.

"Their core display (business) is becoming an issue. It takes the company from being a growth company to being a melting ice cube. So it's a big deal," said Brett Harris, an analyst at Gabelli & Company.

Yahoo's Morse said that macroeconomic factors, particularly in Europe, resulted in weaker than expected display advertising revenue in the fourth quarter and continued to be a concern.

"We still look out, especially upon Europe, with some caution," Morse told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

But he said Yahoo was seeing some positive trends in the new year, noting that some large advertisers that had limited their ad spending with Yahoo in 2011, had already committed to "meaningful upfronts" in 2012.

The struggling Internet company projected that its net revenue in the first quarter would range between $1.025 billion and $1.105 billion.

The company earned $296 million in net income in the three months ended December 31, or 24 cents a share, compared with $312 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were expecting 24 cents per share in profit.

In the fourth quarter, Yahoo reported net revenue, which excludes fees that Yahoo shares with Web partners, of roughly $1.17 billion, compared with $1.205 billion the same time last year.

Display ad revenue, Yahoo's main source of revenue, totaled $612 million for the quarter. Search ad revenue for the quarter came in at $465 million, $48 million of which stemmed from its partnership with Microsoft.

Thompson said he had spent his first few weeks at Yahoo meeting with the company's employees, managers and customers.

While Thompson said he wouldn't lay out a detailed strategy until he has fully assessed Yahoo's direction, he pointed to data as a key building block for the company's future.

Yahoo will leverage its deep stockpile of data about the company's roughly 700 million users to provide better products for Websurfers and better services for advertisers, Thompson said.

"If you believe data and great technology and great technologists can begin to predict what is in a user's mind and what they want to do next, having that base of data to start from is a big, big advantage," said Thompson.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wr_nm/us_earnings_yahoo_options

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Ai Wa Sensdesu Needs Roleplayers!!!

What do you do when the one you love most...is supposed to be your worst enemy?

1000 years in the past
The 6 siblings stood in front of their castle, preparing for battle. The two oldest, a boy and a girl, held their shields and swords protectively in front of their other brothers and sisters, the two middle ones were twins, a boy and a girl with their bows ready, and finally the last two, a boy, and then the youngest, a girl they were prepared to strike with their magic. All were ready.

The 6 demons came over the hill and for a second, all was silent, and then, the battle began. It went on for hours and when it was finally over, the demons retreated and faded into the background, but not without a price, the eldest of the demons swore revenge on the family.

Two years later, there was a massacre at the castle, an attack by a crazed knight, the survivors buried the royal family's bodies under the floorboards in the main room to ward off evil. A demon pendant placed with the bodies, it hides the castle from demons.

The present
6 new siblings who are related in no way to the earlier 6 have moved into the old castle on the hill after their parents die in a railway accident. The main rooms were remodeled by a group of workers from the town below the castle, they were very generous with their remodeling, making the bedrooms perfect for each of the teens and even stocking the kitchen with plenty of food. Although, half of the place was not remodeled, because of the castle's massive size, and they weren't very thorough. The bones are still in the floorboards of the living area of the castle to ward off evil.
But, when one of the siblings find them, and they have them taken away, the moving of the pendant causes a great stirring. Little did they know, that they were the reincarnations of the earlier 6, sent here by fate.

The same demons from 1000 years earlier sense the stirring and decide now is the time to seek revenge. They come in the night as travelers who need a place to stay. The siblings decide to let them stay the night.

What happens when the demons don't find their revenge, but find love?

In one week, there will be a full moon, and everything changes with a full moon...

Points
>The demons come to the house for revenge, but in staying a night with the siblings, they fall in love.

>On the full moon, the demons will become like monsters, losing almost all consciousness to what they are doing, and attacking everything, the siblings don't know this.

>Who knows, maybe if a sibling surrounds the demon with love, the savage beast may dissapear?

>You may decide what your room looks like, and be creative.

>This is character driven, so don't ask me about every little thing, you are old enough to make your own decisions.

Characters
Demon 1- (male), he swore revenge on the 6 siblings, and is the last to fall in love. You may choose what he can turn into.
Demon 2- (female) She likes Human 2, though she does not show it, she tries to stay cold, but ends up falling even more in love with him. She can turn into a jaguar.
Demon 3- (Female) She is extremely in love with Human 3 and will do anything to win his heart. She can turn into a dove.
Demon 4- (male)Third youngest. He falls for human 4. He is very childish for a demon and only wants love, he is afraid of what he becomes during a full moon and afraid of what he might do to her. He can turn into a wolf.
Demon 5- (female) She is the jealous type, so when she finds out that he has a girlfriend, she kills her to get to him. She has a sweet side when she is around him. She can turn into a cat.
Demon 6- (male) He is very aggressive and short tempered, but would do anything to be with Human 6. He can turn into a lion.

Human 1- (female)She is the oldest and is very close to her brother. She tries to act indifferent to demon 1's love, but is taken in by his charm. She is amazing with a sword.
Human 2- (male) He is the second oldest, only younger than his sister by a year. He hates Demon 2, but slowly falls for her. Also good with a sword. Extremely protective of family.
Human 3- (male) 18 years old, he is the twin to Human 4. He falls in love with Demon 3, he is very protective of his twin sister, Human 4. He slowly falls in love with Demon 3, and he's not a fan of how close Demon 4 and Human 4 are getting, and tries to separate them.
Human 4- (female) Also 18, she is twin to Human 3. She falls for Demon 4 when she wakes up to him sitting at the bottom of her bed, waiting for her to wake up. She treats him more like a pet than a lover. Instead of taking to archery, she is very good with guns.
Human 5- (male)He is the second youngest, 16 years old. His girlfriend was cheating on him, and he knew it, so for some odd reason, he didn't feel that upset when he found out she was dead. He loved Demon 5 ever since he met her. He has the ability to conjure up fireballs.
Human 6- (female)She is the youngest at 15 years. She doesn't even notice Demon 6, instead, she ended up falling for Demon 4, completely making Demon 6 seem invisible. She has the ability to conjure up balls of energy and electricity.

Human 7- (female) This human is not one of the siblings, but she is like one of them. She is very close to the family and is Human 3 and 4's best friend. She practically lives at the castle with them, so she does have her own room. She likes Human 3, but won't tell him. She gets increasingly jealous of how close Demon 3 is getting to him, and has been plotting to get rid of her. This human is skilled with witchcraft and can summon weak spirits and small demons. Her strongest demons that she can summon are two hell hound like demons. She is also very superstitious. Though she is close to both of the twins, she herself is almost always around Human 4, because when she's around Human 3 she gets all nervous.

Pairings
It's not too hard to figure out- EXAMPLE: Demon 1 and Human 1, get it? :)
Also, the person playing Human 3 may decide who they want their character to be with, Demon 3 or Human 7. But, I don't want him to decide right away, let there be a struggle!

Slots
Human 1- Reserved by AmiOfTheRain
Human 2- Open
Human 3- Open
Human 4- Taken by MirrorMirror1498
Human 5- Open
Human 6- Played by brigitteanncastro
Human 7- Open

Demon 1- Played by LittleKitten
Demon 2- Reserved by broken-wings
Demon 3- Played by AlyxtheStubborn
Demon 4- Reserved by Jayu
Demon 5- Reserved by Horseygirl
Demon 6- Open

Please PM me if you are interested in any of these roles!!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/KknNAn1wDZ4/viewtopic.php

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Does the South Carolina Primary Change Anything? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The political atmosphere in my house is always interesting. I am a far-right person who feels the Republican Party does me a disservice every year, while my wife leans left and is slowly dipping her toes into voting Republican. As a social studies teacher, I love this time of year and find the discussion of elections, primaries and caucuses to be highly entertaining. And though I dislike much of our national political situation, I love living in South Carolina during primary season because it is the rare time that all eyes are here, at the home of the "first in the South" primary.

This year has been especially exciting leading to Saturday. Mitt Romney's and Rick Santorum's to the wire finish in Iowa will be discussed in political science classes for a while, I am sure. Meanwhile, Romney pulled a strong lead in New Hampshire, which was to be expected. Everyone began discussing South Carolina and our great claim to fame: the person who wins South Carolina wins the Republican nomination, election cycle after election cycle. All Romney had to do was win here and many pundits said it would be all over.

So what happened? Somehow, Newt Gingrich pulled out a victory in South Carolina. Now, instead of Romney being the assured victor of the Republican nomination, it is a contest considered wide open. Three states have chosen three winners. This completely blows my mind. I can't recall this happening in my life time in the Republican elections.

I must confess, I found this year's crop of candidates extremely disappointing. With voter dissatisfaction at an all-time high for all of Washington, the Republicans needed a decent candidate who could gain broad support across a spectrum of voters. Instead, we got niche candidates.

Santorum appeals to the social conservatives, which I certainly am, but has little excitement in his candidacy outside of his sweater vest collection, which I hear has a Web page devoted to it. Romney is a typical politician whose opinions change with the wind. He sounds good but when you pay any attention to his record, it is nearly impossible to tell where he would stand on issues.

My wife continues to remind me it is normal in politics, and I can't disagree, but I wish for more. Gingrich shot to national prominence 17 years ago as he led the Republicans to congressional victory but was cast out in a humiliating coup, when he was revealed to have all the moral fortitude of the president he led the charge to impeach.

Finally, there is Ron Paul. Paul is fun and has a great concept in returning to the Constitution, as a supreme guide for America. Meanwhile, he continues promoting an isolationist approach to world affairs, which would have been welcome 100 years ago but hardly seems possible in a world with satellite TV, cellphones and the Internet.

So where is the Republican Party headed now? Though many pundits have claimed recently the Republican Party is on the verge of collapse, due to the fractured primary, the majority of Republican-leaning voters will rally behind the eventual nominee, for fear of four more years of record unemployment, Obamacare and the constant downgrading of our allies to woo our enemies.

I don't believe the nominee will be chosen soon. This may be one of those once in a lifetime seasons where most of the states get a say, before a definite leader is seen. Before anyone says this is proof the Republican Party is in jeopardy, I remind you of the 2008 Democratic primary season, in which I was sure the hateful rhetoric between Hillary Clinton's and Obama's camps would tear the party apart. Instead, they now own the White House. This could be an interesting election year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120122/pl_ac/10867193_does_the_south_carolina_primary_change_anything

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Canadian man gets 18 years for credit fraud

FARGO, N.D. (AP) ? He was unemployed and receiving welfare, but Adekunle Adetiloye was somehow still living lavishly, complete with a Range Rover vehicle, extended trips to England and an expensive condominium.

That alone piqued authorities' interest, but then there were two credit cards tucked away in his wallet that seemed to confirm suspicions that the Canadian man was up to something nefarious. The pieces of plastic each bore different names ? Donald Douglas and Vincent Andriole ? and helped authorities prosecute a case they describe as one of the largest high-tech bank robberies in U.S. history.

"Characterizing this fraud scheme as massive, if anything, is an understatement," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase from North Dakota said in court documents.

Adetiloye, 30, was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in prison on fraud charges. He was convicted of mail fraud, but authorities believe he masterminded a scheme to open nearly 600 fraudulent bank accounts and bilk 22 major banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Federal prosecutor Nick Chase said during the sentencing hearing in North Dakota that Adetiloye had an "insatiable hunger for other people's money."

U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson handed down a 214-month prison term and scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing to discuss returning the nearly $1.5 million in losses to credit card companies and banks.

Defense attorney Richard Henderson had asked for a sentence of fewer than 16 years. Henderson said any prison time for his client, a native of Nigeria, is more difficult than it would be for American citizens because he has no family in the United States.

Ahead of the sentencing, lawyers on both sides declined requests from The Associated Press to comment.

But investigators' efforts to deconstruct the multifarious case are laid out in the nearly 12,000 pages of court documents filed by lawyers in federal court.

Greg Krier, lead credit card fraud investigator for U.S. Bank, testified that it was the most complex case he had ever seen. His company, which has its own fraud unit, launched special training sessions focusing on the case in hopes of catching the culprits.

The case wound up in North Dakota after U.S. Bank's customer service center in Fargo intercepted calls by Adetiloye and others. The complexity of the scheme, which took five years to investigate and litigate, was highlighted in a sentencing phase that has lasted nearly a year and included numerous hearings and briefings.

The lead investigator, one of 25 people who worked on the case, put in 2,000 hours, authorities said.

Defense attorneys had argued that their client, the only person charged in the case, was a "marginal and minimal participant" whose role was to handle mail and withdraw money from ATMs. The government and the judge have said otherwise.

Investigators said the operation accessed information of nearly 16,000 people, about 500 of whom had their identities stolen for the purpose of obtaining credit cards. It's alleged that more than 100 commercial mailboxes were opened under false or stolen identities.

The government said Adetiloye went so far as to mask his handwriting after a judge ordered a test of his calligraphy

Erickson, the federal judge, said in court documents ahead of the sentencing that the evidence "indisputably demonstrates" that Adetiloye was a leader or organizer of the scheme. The judge has calculated losses to banks at about $1.5 million, but said it could have been as high as $5 million if credit limits had been maxed out.

The trauma cannot be measured, Erickson said.

"The non-monetary harm to the victims was substantial," the judge wrote. "They lost sleep, they lost time with their families, they lost time at work, and they lost their sense of security. Some victims spent hours trying to reclaim their credit record and their identities."

Court documents show that U.S. Bank suffered the most number of tainted accounts, at 130, for a total loss of about $76,000. The companies alleged to have lost the most money were Citibank, at about $271,000, and Discover, at about $248,000.

Brett Bogan, the security investigations manager at Reed Elsevier, the parent company of LexisNexis and ChoicePoint, told the court that data breaches of this type are extremely rare and knew of only one other case like it. He said the company sent out notices to more than 32,000 people whose personal information was compromised by the scheme.

"With their combined extensive and nationwide perspective, those entities place this fraud scheme at or near the top of their historical lists in terms of size and complexity," Chase said in court documents.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-Credit%20Card%20Fraud/id-4af87ec3bcae4d1ea695780768e2e246

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Coordinated sect attack kills 143 in north Nigeria (AP)

KANO, Nigeria ? A coordinated attack by a radical Islamist sect in north Nigeria's largest city killed at least 143 people, a hospital official said Saturday, representing the extremist group's deadliest assault since beginning its campaign of terror in Africa's most populous nation.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed Kano's streets as Nigeria's president again promised the sect known as Boko Haram would "face the full wrath of the law." But the uniformed bodies of security agents that filled a Kano hospital mortuary again showed the sect can strike at will against the country's weak central government.

Friday's attacks hit police stations, immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that remains an important political and religious center in the country's Muslim north. A suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with powerful explosives outside a regional police headquarters, tearing its roof away and blowing out windows in a blast felt miles away as its members escaped jail cells there.

Authorities largely refused to offer casualty statistics as mourners began claiming the bodies of their loved ones to bury before sundown, following Islamic tradition. However, a hospital official told The Associated Press at least 143 people were killed in the attack.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the death toll to journalists. The toll could still rise, since other bodies could be held at other clinics and hospitals in the sprawling city.

State authorities enforced a 24-hour curfew in the city, with many remaining home as soldiers and police patrolled the streets and setup roadblocks. Gunshots echoed through some areas of the city into Saturday morning.

Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said volunteers offered first aid to the wounded, and evacuated those seriously injured to local hospitals. A survey of two hospitals by the Red Cross showed at least 50 people were injured in Friday's attack, he said.

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists Friday. He said the attack came because the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Saturday that he was "shocked and appalled" by the attacks in the former colony.

"The full horror of last night's events is still unfolding, but we know that a great many people have died and many more have been injured," Hague said in a statement. "The nature of these attacks has sickened people around the world and I send my deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of those killed and to those injured."

The U.S. Embassy said it had canceled all staff travel to northern Nigeria after Friday's attacks.

President Goodluck Jonathan also condemned an attack he said saw innocent people "brutally and recklessly cut down by agents of terror."

"As a responsible government, we will not fold our hands and watch enemies of democracy, for that is what these mindless killers are, perpetrate unprecedented evil in our land," Jonathan said in a statement. "I want to reassure Nigerians ... that all those involved in that dastardly act would be made to face the full wrath of the law."

But Jonathan's government has repeatedly been unable to stop attacks by Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north. The group has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law and avenge the deaths of Muslims in communal violence across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Authorities blamed Boko Haram for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count, including an August suicide bombing on the U.N. headquarters in the country's capital Abuja. So far this year, the group has been blamed for at least 219 killings, according to an AP count.

Boko Haram recently said it specifically would target Christians living in Nigeria's north, but Friday's attack saw its gunmen kill many Muslims. In a recent video posted to the Internet, Imam Abubakar Shekau, a Boko Harm leader, warned it would kill anyone who "betrays the religion" by being part of or sympathizing with Nigeria's government.

"I swear by Allah we will kill them and their killing will be nothing to us," Shekau said. "It will be like going to prayers at 5 a.m."

Friday's attacks also could cause more unrest, as violence in Kano has set off attacks throughout the north in the past, including postelection violence in April that saw 800 people killed. Kano, an ancient city, remains important in the history of Islam in Nigeria and has important religious figures there today.

Amid the recent unrest and attacks, at least two journalists have been killed in Nigeria. Journalist Enenche Akogwu, who worked as a correspondent in Kano for private news station Channels Television, was shot Friday while reporting on the attacks, colleagues said. In central Nigeria's city of Jos, Nansok Sallah, a news editor for a government-owned radio station called Highland FM, was found dead in a shallow stream Thursday, the victim of an apparent murder, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

___

Salisu Rabiu in Kano, Nigeria, and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell reported from Lagos, Nigeria and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_violence

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Rushdie cancels India visit after death threat warning (Reuters)

JAIPUR (Reuters) ? Salman Rushdie will not attend a literature festival in India after authorities warned the controversial author he was a potential target of assassins at the event, following threats of protests from Muslim groups at his planned appearance.

Opposition from some Indian Muslim groups erupted this month after Rushdie was invited to attend Asia's largest literature festival, and senior Muslim leaders called on the government to prevent the 65-year-old author from entering the country.

"I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to eliminate me," Rushdie said in a statement read out by the festival producer.

"While I have some doubts as to the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the festival in such circumstances."

The British-Indian author, whose 1988 novel the Satantic Verses is banned in India, was due to speak on the first day of the five-day Jaipur Literature Festival but organizers removed his name from the schedule last week.

Rushdie would instead participate via a video-link, festival director William Dalrymple told Reuters Friday.

"This is the result of a tragic game of Chinese whispers. The reality of Rushdie's writings are completely different from the way they have been cartooned and caricatured," Dalrymple told reporters.

The festival's directors had previously asserted that the invitation to Rushdie still stood after rescheduling his planned appearance after Muslim leaders in Jaipur threatened to protest.

"The Muslims of Jaipur were planning a protest against Rushdie. Since he is not coming, we have cancelled it," Abdul Haq Shamshi, member of the Jaipur Jama Masjid committee told Reuters.

"If he is deceiving us, and if he comes, we will protest at a minute's notice," he said, adding that thousands of protesters would take to the streets if the author arrived in the city.

HEAVY POLICE PRESENCE

Earlier Friday, thousands of guests arrived for the first sessions of the festival, which aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the world's fastest-growing publishing markets.

Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient, was the main draw Friday morning, at a festival expected to draw around 70,000 visitors and world-famous names such as Oprah Winfrey, Tom Stoppard, Richard Dawkins and Ariel Dorfman.

Scores of police officers guarded the festival entrance on Friday morning, as visitors queued to pass through X-ray scanners, a new addition to the 2012 festival.

Some 560 officers were stationed in and around the festival site, Rajendra Jhala, Jaipur's deputy commissioner of police, told Reuters, adding that hundreds of others had been deployed at major road junctions and locations across the city.

"I guess this is what you get for inviting Salman Rushdie," remarked one delegate in the security queue.

The publication of Rushdie's Satanic Verses over 20 years ago sparked a wave of protests and death threats around the world after Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini claimed that the novel's portrayal of the prophet Mohammad insulted Islam.

The vice-chancellor of India's Darul Uloom Deoband seminary said last week that Rushdie should be banned from the country, accusing the author of the Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children of offending Muslim sentiments.

"This festival at no point wants to offend any one religion, any one people. We stand by the freedom of expression," festival producer Sanjoy Roy told reporters.

(Editing by John Chalmers)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/wl_nm/us_india_rushdie

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