Vampire Fever Strikes With Twilight Eyes

by admin on June 23, 2011

Well it seems official now that Vampire Fever has struck. The Twilight sequel “Eclipse”, based on Stephanie Myer’s popular novel, seems to be breaking records. The third movie in the saga Twilight: Eclipse took over $30 million on its opening night in the US. Not quite as successful as the previous installment New Moon which took a staggering worldwide total of $709,827,462.

Sales of Twilight merchandise also recorded booming sales. With one unexpected mini boom in the sale of Brown Contact Lenses. Seems there are millions of smitten fans that are eager to complete their Vampire Ensemble with a pair of big brown eyes. The Twilight character Bella Swan captivating both men and women with her captivating brown eyes.
Strangely though, the sales of sharpened fangs have not been so dramatic. Seems fans are selective about their smouldering vampire appearance.


Coffee Coupons Big News For A struggling Economy



Lots and lots of people drink coffee on a regular basis and even though I drink it, I hate buying it at full price. This is why I will always go out there and find coupons before I make my purchase. Finding coupons for coffee isn’t really that hard and if you know where to look, you can find coupons to save too! One highly recommended source is Folgers Coffee Coupons

I wanted to give you some simple tips that you can use today in order to save on your next coffee purchase. If you’re brand loyal and like coffee brands such as Folgers, you will find that there are many ways to save.

>> Tips to find Folgers coffee coupons

Join the coffee club

The first thing that I would recommend is join the Folgers’ coffee club. You can find more information about this club when you go to their official website. When you give them your information, you’re going to get offers, coupons, tips, and more. It’s free and I’ve found it to be well worth it.

Search out the Sunday paper

The next time you get the Sunday paper, make sure you don’t throw those coupon packets away. If you don’t subscribe to the paper, I would recommend that you do so, as you’re going to find that you can save a decent amount of money each week with all of the coupons in there. Clip the coupons for future reference, as they don’t expire until months ahead.

Search for printable coupons

You don’t need the Sunday paper to find coupons but instead, you will find that you can get some great printable coupons online as well. Search for items such as, -Folgers printable coupons-, and see what you can find. You’ll be amazed at what you can print from the Internet. Just make sure you print out coupons that are valid.

Free samples online

You can go another route and look for free samples. Sure, it won’t be much but you can’t be free. Watch out for scams online though, because people love to take advantage and spam you to death if you sign up for the wrong offer!

These are all tips you can use to take advantage of finding Folgers coffee coupons. You can also use these tips when you’re looking for other coupons for other brands as well. If you have any tips you want to share, let me know in the comments!

{ 0 comments }

Syria violence kills 37, U.N. Security Council to meet

by admin on January 27, 2012

Syria violence kills 37, U.N. Security Council to meet
Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Yabroud near Damascus January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN |
Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:34pm EST

(Reuters) – Security forces killed 37 people in Syria on Friday, activists and residents said, as people in Homs mourned 14 members of a family they said were slain by militiamen in one of the worst sectarian attacks in a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.N. Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss Syria before a possible vote next week on a new Western-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting 10 months of bloodshed.

Russia, which joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft, said the Western-Arab version was unacceptable and vowed to block any text calling for Assad’s resignation.

There was no let-up in violence on Friday, when anti-Assad protests again erupted after weekly Muslim prayers.

Tank and mortar fire killed 15 people in Hama, a resident said, on the fourth day of an army assault on rebellious districts of the city, where Assad’s father crushed an armed Islamist uprising in 1982, killing many thousands.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 22 people killed elsewhere in Syria, including 12 when security forces fired on a funeral march in the southern town of Nowa, five in the normally peaceful city of Aleppo, and four in Homs.

Machinegun fire wounded five people in the Qusour district of Homs, one activist there said, adding that the city was calmer than it was at the height of Thursday’s violence, when 16 people were also killed by mortar fire from security forces.

The state news agency SANA said “terrorists” killed a security man in Homs on Friday and a bomb killed a child and wounded several civilians and security personnel in the Damascus district of Midan.

SANA also said a bomb wounded three civilians and three security men in the northeastern town of Albukamal and that a suicide bomber had wounded two security men at a checkpoint in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Arab League observers headed for the Damascus suburb of Douma, where government troops battled rebel fighters the previous day as the struggle to topple Assad rumbled close to the Syrian capital.

TRANSITION PLAN

The Arab League has demanded that the Syrian leader step down as part of a transition to democracy, a call rejected by Damascus. The government says it is fighting foreign-backed armed “terrorists” who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police.

“Any decision about a future political settlement in Syria must be made during the political process without … preliminary conditions,” Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying.

He stopped short of saying Moscow would veto a Western-Arab draft if the call for Assad to hand over power was not removed.

The text calls for a “political transition,” but not for United Nations sanctions against Assad’s government, which Moscow, an old ally and arms supplier of Syria, opposes.

Russia and Iran are among Syria’s few remaining allies.

In another sign of Assad’s isolation, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has effectively abandoned his headquarters in Damascus, diplomatic and intelligence sources said.

“He’s not going back to Syria,” a regional intelligence source said of Meshaal, who has long been based in the Syrian capital. He heads the Palestinian Islamist group which rules Gaza and is an armed offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Analysts say Meshaal was embarrassed by Assad’s crackdown, in which more than 5,000 people have been killed, many of them Sunni Muslim sympathisers of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Homs, a mostly Sunni city with minority Alawite enclaves, has become a battleground since protests against Assad began in March, inspired by pro-democracy revolts elsewhere in the Arab world. Armed rebels have joined the fray in recent months.

GRISLY FOOTAGE

Residents and activists said militiamen from Assad’s Alawite sect had shot or hacked to death 14 members of the Sunni Bahader family in Homs’s Karm al-Zaitoun district on Thursday, including eight children, aged eight months to nine years old.

YouTube video footage taken by activists, which could not be verified, showed the bodies of five children with wounds to the head and neck, three women and a man in a house.

There was no comment from Syrian authorities, which enforce tight restrictions on independent media.

At least 384 children have been killed since the uprising began in March and a similar number have been jailed, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

The British-based Observatory said 43 civilians were killed on Thursday, including 33 in Homs, of whom nine were children.

Hamza, an activist in Homs, said the militiamen who attacked the Sunni family were avenging deaths inflicted on their ranks by army defectors loosely grouped in the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Tit-for-tat sectarian killings began in Homs four months ago. Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, has dominated the political and security apparatus in Syria, a mostly Sunni nation of 23 million, for five decades.

“The Assads are the dirtiest of families,” shouted crowds in Deir Balba, on the edge of Homs, according to a YouTube clip that showed people waving pre-Baath party Syrian flags.

In the city’s Bab Amro district, demonstrators carried the body of a youth who had been shot in the head. “Bashar, your mother will bury you,” they chanted, YouTube footage showed.

It was not possible to verify the footage, which anti-Assad campaigners had posted on the Internet.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees said security forces had fired on an anti-Assad protest by refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights who live in Thiabieh near Damascus. It said several protesters were wounded.

Activists in the Damascus suburb of Irbin said 15,000 people had turned out to demonstrate against Assad.

Several thousand also gathered in the rain in the ancient, eastern desert town of Palmyra, clapping to anti-Assad anthems. “Bashar, God is greater (than you)!” they sang.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

{ 0 comments }

U.S. growth quickens, but speed bumps ahead

January 27, 2012

New homes under construction are seen at Hawaiian Gardens, California, June 28, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:53pm EST (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter of 2011, but a strong rebuilding of stocks by businesses and a slower pace of business spending hinted at softer growth early this year. U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent clip of the prior three months and the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010. It was, however, a touch below economists expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 percent rate, and two-thirds of rise in output was due to the build-up in business inventories. Soft underlying demand and a sharp slowing in core inflation supported the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep in place an ultra easy monetary policy to nurse the recovery. “We do not expect growth to accelerate meaningfully from its current pace,” said Michelle Girard, a senior economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut. She said Fed officials would focused on slack in the economy. Stocks on Wall Street opened lower as investors worried about the composition of growth, while Treasury debt prices were little changed. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. INVENTORIES REBOUND The economy in the fourth quarter got a temporary boost from the rebuilding of business inventories, which logged the biggest increase since the third quarter of 2010. The buildup followed a third quarter decline that was the first since late 2009. Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a tepid 0.8 percent rate, a sharp step-down from the prior period’s 3.2 percent pace and a sign of weak domestic demand. The robust stock accumulation suggests the recovery will lose a step in early 2012 as businesses are unlikely to keep building inventories at the same rate. Growth in business spending on capital goods was the slowest since 2009, a sign the debt crisis in Europe was starting to take its toll and another hint of weakness ahead. The Fed on Wednesday said it expected to keep interest rates at rock bottom levels at least through late 2014, and Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was mulling further asset purchases to speed the recovery. The central bank warned the economy still faced big risks, a suggestion the euro zone debt crisis could still hit hard. “We’re still repairing the damage done by the financial crisis. On top of that we face a more challenging world. We have a lot of challenges ahead in the United States,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Prospects of sluggish growth could hurt President Barack Obama’s chances of re-election in November. The economy grew 1.7 percent in 2011 after expanding 3 percent the prior year, and the unemployment stood at a still-high 8.5 percent in December. AUTOS PROP UP CONSUMER SPENDING Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, stepped up to a 2 percent rate from the third-quarter’s 1.7 percent pace – largely driven by pent-up demand for motor vehicles. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami had disrupted supplies early last year, leaving showrooms bereft of popular models. Consumers also benefited from a moderation in inflation. A price index for personal spending rose at a 0.7 percent rate in the fourth-quarter, the slowest increase in 1-1/2 years, after rising at a 2.3 percent pace in the July-September period. A core inflation measure, which strips out food and energy costs, increased at a 1.1 percent rate after rising 2.1 percent in the third quarter. The slowdown could concern the Fed, which wants the measure closer to their 2 percent inflation target. “Clearly, much work remains to achieve the Fed’s dual mandate of maximum sustainable employment in the context of price stability,” New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley told reporters. SLUGGISH INCOME GROWTH High unemployment has led to sluggish income growth, which in turn has prompted households to tap savings and credit cards to fund their purchases. Still, spending is unlikely to be a drag on growth, given that consumer sentiment is on the mend, as indicated by another report on Friday. “Though the unemployment rate has improved, the jobs market remains a major challenge. Part of the decline in the unemployment rate is due to the fact that … people have stopped looking for work,” said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. “The high level of people out of the workforce and underemployed people show there isn’t really much income generation to contribute to a better spending pattern.” A sustained growth pace of at least 3 percent would likely be needed to make noticeable headway in absorbing the unemployed and those who have given up the search for work. Business spending grew at a sluggish 1.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter, pulling back sharply from the third-quarter’s 15.7 percent pace. Though exports held up, an increase in imports left a trade gap that chipped growth. Unseasonably mild winter weather helped home construction post its fastest growth pace since the second quarter of 2010, with much of the increase going to meet rising demand for rental apartments. Government spending shrank for a fifth consecutive quarter, reflecting a large decline in defense and still weak state and local government outlays. A bounceback could support growth at the start of the year. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Tim Ahmann ) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers . Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks .

Read the full article →

Romney puts Gingrich on defensive in Florida debate

January 27, 2012

By Steve Holland and Ros Krasny JACKSONVILLE, Florida | Fri Jan 27, 2012 11:54am EST (Reuters) – Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took the fight to chief rival Newt Gingrich on Thursday in his most aggressive debate performance yet, five days ahead of Florida’s primary vote. A neck-and-neck race for Florida and its importance for the Republican presidential nomination made for a combustible atmosphere at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville as the candidates sparred repeatedly. Gingrich, who has displayed a mastery of debating skills during previous debates, was frequently caught flat-footed under attack from Romney who went after his chief rival in an attempt to put his campaign back on track after losing South Carolina last Saturday. Gingrich and Romney are running close in polls before next Tuesday’s primary vote in Florida, the biggest state so far in the early voting for the Republican nomination to face President Barack Obama in November. The most recent polls put Romney ahead. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, took umbrage at Gingrich’s description of him as “anti-immigrant.” “That’s inexcusable,” Romney said, turning to his rival. “I’m not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. … The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don’t use a term like that.” Gingrich, who has offered a softer version of immigration policy than most Republican conservatives, insisted the United States could not rationally deport millions of people and that some who had lived here for decades should be allowed to stay. But he added some confusion to his position by saying he would support some version of “self-deportation,” the very issue he has criticized Romney for supporting. “Newt needed a big night to turn around the momentum and he didn’t get it. He struck me as tired and too ticked for his own good,” wrote conservative columnist Rich Lowry on the National Review’s website. His blog post was titled “Newt’s worst night.” GINGRICH ATTACK FELL FLAT Gingrich has enjoyed support from rock-ribbed conservatives in debate audiences by attacking debate moderators. But this time, his effort to chastise CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer over a question about Romney’s tax disclosures fell flat when Blitzer stood his ground and insisted Gingrich explain a comment he made in a TV interview that Romney “lives in a world of Swiss bank and Cayman Island bank accounts. Gingrich did draw attention to Romney’s vast wealth, which was put under the microscope this week when the former private equity executive release two years of tax documents. “I don’t know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account. I’d be glad for you to explain that sort of thing,” he said. But Gingrich was ridiculed by Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul for telling laid-off space workers near Cape Canaveral on Wednesday that if elected president next November he would seek to build a permanent colony on the lunar surface. It was the kind of claim that supports criticism that Gingrich has grandiose yet far-fetched ideas. Romney said the money could be better spent elsewhere, that Gingrich’s proposal was a big idea but not a good one. Paul, a Texas congressman and libertarian, got off the zinger of the night. “I don’t think we should go to the moon,” said Paul. “I think maybe we should send some politicians up there.” Bickering erupted from the first question over illegal immigration, and intensified over Gingrich’s past work for the troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Romney raised Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac as a sign that his rival was an influence peddler, a “horn tooter” for Freddie Mac. Romney has attacked Gingrich all week for accepting $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac. Gingrich fought back. “Romney made $1 million dollars on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” he said, an attack that fell flat when Romney pointed out that Gingrich owns stock in the two government-sponsored entities at the heart of the U.S. housing crisis. The candidates, asked which of their wives would make the best first lady of the White House, chose their own, except for Gingrich, who said they would all be terrific, including his wife, Callista. “I would rather just talk about why I like Callista, and why I’d like her to be first lady, but she’s not necessarily in any way better. These are wonderful people, and they would be wonderful first ladies,” he said. (Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech ) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers . Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks .

Read the full article →

Exclusive: Chevron to face criminal charges over Brazil spill

January 26, 2012

By Jeb Blount and Joshua Schneyer CAMPOS, Brazil | Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:13pm EST (Reuters) – A Brazilian prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against Chevron Corp and some of its local managers within weeks, adding the threat of prison sentences to an $11 billion civil lawsuit as punishment for a November offshore oil spill. The filing in federal court in Campos, Brazil, will likely include a request for criminal indictment of George Buck, chief executive of Chevron’s Brazil unit, as well as other staff, three Brazilian government officials involved in the case told Reuters. Transocean Ltd, whose rig was used in the operation, and some of its employees in Brazil are also expected to be charged, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because the case has not been presented to a judge. It is up to a judge to determine whether to accept the charges and proceed with indictments. The backlash against the Chevron spill has highlighted the risks that energy companies face as they rush to get a piece of Brazil’s oil bonanza. Chevron’s legal troubles come as new oil rules give Brazil’s government more control over the country’s vast oil wealth. The regulatory overhaul has also delayed investment projects and new drilling licenses. Buck and Chevron acted in a “careless and irresponsible way,” an official who investigated the 2,400-barrel spill told Reuters. The official said it is unlikely that people facing charges will be arrested in the near term or be barred from leaving Brazil. As the case advances and more evidence is collected, however, such measures could be applied, the official added. When Reuters informed Chevron that charges were pending, company spokesman Kurt Glaubitz said “Chevron believes that the charges are without merit.” “Chevron is confident that once all the facts are fully examined, they will demonstrate that Chevron responded appropriately and responsibly to the incident,” he added. Transocean spokesman R. Thaddeus Vayda declined to comment. Transocean is the world’s biggest offshore oil rig operator. Brazilian prosecutors have become more active in going after alleged polluters, sometimes bringing aggressive charges to encourage offenders to settle cases. They are moving far more swiftly than their U.S. counterparts: BP’s 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 1,000 times larger in terms of oil, has not yet resulted in any criminal charges. In Brazil, charges in cases such as these can take a decade before all appeals are exhausted. That could saddle Chevron and Transocean with years of costly litigation, said Paulo Augusto Silva Novaes, a lawyer with the Rio de Janeiro firm of Benjo, Garcia, Souto & Novaes. The charges would come more than a month after a Federal Police investigator submitted a report saying Chevron and Transocean took “unacceptable” risks in the Frade oil field off Brazil’s southern coast, and recommended that 17 individuals be indicted. As many as 12 of those people are from Chevron, according to legal documents reviewed by Reuters. Chevron is also fighting a separate 20-billion-real ($11 billion) lawsuit brought by the same Brazilian federal prosecutors. Chevron also is contesting an $18 billion judgment in Ecuador related to environmental contamination from 1964 to 1992 by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001. PRESSURE KICK On November 7, a well drilled by Chevron using a Transocean rig 107 kilometers (73 miles) from the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, experienced a pressure “kick” after tapping into an oil reservoir in Frade. An emergency blow-out preventer was activated, plugging the well 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) below the ocean surface. But days later, Chevron discovered oil seeps from the seafloor hundreds of meters from the plugged well. Pressure caused a breach of the well wall far beneath the seabed, allowing oil to infiltrate surrounding rock and work its way into the ocean, Chevron said. Police and prosecutors allege that Chevron knew it was drilling in a high pressure area and that rock structures above the reservoir were fragile, factors that resulted in the spill and should have prompted more caution. “This well could not and should not have been drilled,” the Federal Police said in a December 20 report. Chevron denies taking any undue risk and says Brazilian authorities approved its drilling plans. “The pressure was estimated using complex modeling and the data obtained from the 50 wellbores previously drilled at the Frade project,” Chevron’s Glaubitz said in a statement. “However, it is not uncommon to experience different conditions or pressures during drilling operations than those previously experienced.” Chevron said it acted quickly and correctly to stanch the leak from the seafloor within four days. Its operations and spill response adhered to the “best practices” of the oil industry, the company said. Brazilian prosecutors have independence to file criminal and civil charges against companies and their employees for environmental damages, said Gustavo Trindade, who was chief legal advisor to Marina Silva, a former Brazilian Environment Minister and presidential candidate. These cases rarely result in convictions, large fines or prison sentences, said Novaes, a corporate law expert. For example, state-run oil company Petrobras, a partner with Chevron at Frade, is still appealing convictions and more than 100 million reais of damages resulting from an offshore oil platform accident in 2001 and a giant oil spill in Rio in 2000. Oil from the recent Chevron leak did not reach shore and was less than 0.1 percent of BP’s 4.9 million barrel Gulf of Mexico spill in 2010. The Frade leak was also much smaller than several previous spills in Brazil by Petrobras. Petrobras owns 30 percent of Frade. Chevron own 52 percent and is responsible for field management. The rest is owned by Frade Japao, a unit of Japan’s Inpex. Brazil’s oil regulator, the ANP, has suspended Chevron’s drilling license at Frade. The ANP and Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama have fined Chevron more than $50 million as a result of the spill. Chevron says that there is no evidence the Frade leak, which prosecutors estimate was closer to 3,000 barrels, has had any impact on aquatic life or on humans. Oil is still leaking from the sea floor, government officials said. The oil has leaked at an average rate of 1.4 liters a day for the last week and is being captured by undersea traps, Chevron said. Recent flyovers have not detected oil on the ocean surface, Chevron added. Brazil’s newfound oil wealth – including at least 15 billion barrels of deepwater discoveries since 2007 – puts the country among the world’s most promising oil frontiers. Since the new finds, the government has stopped auctions of oil concessions in its richest offshore areas. Petrobras will be the operator and hold a minimum 30 percent stake in all future oil projects in those areas. Under a new system, oil producers must share their production with the government. San Ramon, California-based Chevron has operated in Brazil for nearly 100 years. It has invested around $2 billion in the country and has plans to spend several billion more on future projects. Chevron shares were up 0.37 percent at $108.10 on Thursday in New York. Transocean shares rose 3.62 percent to 44.39 Swiss francs ($46.73) in Switzerland. (Editing by Todd Benson, Alix Freedman, Jonathan Leff and Bob Burgdorfer ) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers . Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks .

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries