Boeing to close Wichita facility by end of 2013

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) ? The Boeing Co. has told its employees that it plans to close its massive defense plant in Wichita by the end of 2013 in a bid to cut costs in a tight market for defense spending.

Wednesday's announcement means the loss of 2,100 well-paying jobs at its Kansas facility, which was once considered the centerpiece of Wichita's claim as the air capital of the world.

It also dashes hopes for an additional 7,500 direct and indirect jobs that the company once promised to bring to Wichita with the Air Force air refueling tanker contract.

The work will move to Boeing facilities in Texas, Oklahoma and Washington.

Job reductions at the Wichita facility are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2012.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-04-Boeing-Wichita/id-d48ed5bf444d4de4badc2ae61b6f35cc

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Film shows spread of conservative Islam in secular Syria (Reuters)

DUBAI (Reuters) ? A film about one of thousands of Koranic schools for girls in Syria has shocked some Syrians but impressed others with the implication that one of the bastions of Arab secularism has become a deeply religious society.

In "The Light In Her Eyes," Houda al-Habash opens up the mosque and school she runs where hundreds of teenage girls, sent there by their parents, spend the summer learning to memorize the Koran and take religious study classes that conclude with most of them taking to the hijab, or Muslim headscarf.

The documentary's directors, Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix, said they wanted to show that the conservatism depicted in the film reflects the mainstream in Syria today and should be seen as progressive in many respects.

"My experience was Syria and there is this religious population that's growing and that's a story that needs to be told about moderate Islam and it's a story we don't see, especially in the West," said Meltzer, who taught journalism at Damascus University in 2005 and 2006.

Speaking to Reuters at the Dubai International Film Festival which ended this weekend, she said that this Islamist community is more organized in many respects than state institutions.

"What I saw in that educational environment (university) was that people did not arrive on time, teachers didn't really seem to take things seriously," Meltzer said. "In contrast to that world, going to Houda's mosque was a really eye-opening, and complex, experience for me where girls were encouraged to read."

Houda lectures the girls that the veil is an Islamic duty -- a view that many Muslims would dispute -- that God intended as protection and which for Houda is part of a process of empowering girls to play an active role in society as Muslims.

"The flag is the symbol of the state, but the hijab is the symbol of Islam ... you have not been faithful to the symbol," she tells the girls in one of her group pep talks. "God made the hijab an obligation to protect women from inappropriate looks and preserve her for her husband."

However, she also tells them in another talk: "Does a woman have a right to be the president of the republic? Yes. Don't let go your mind, or your choice" -- an opinion that is the subject of dispute among Islamist political movements today.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has equivocated on whether women could rise the top positions in the state, while the leader of the Ennahda movement that won elections this year in Tunisia -- another bastion of Arab secularism in the post-colonial era -- says even non-Muslims could occupy such posts.

MODERATION VS. STRICT FUNDAMENTALISM

The directors splice the documentary with short segments from conservative preachers who argue on television that Muslim women should stay at home, avoid education and not work at all.

This debate between different visions of correct Islamic conduct is far more significant in Syria today than the polemic between secularists and Islamists over the religious values, women and politics, Meltzer said.

"That is the bigger question. Those people who are Salafi-influenced, more conservative, they don't engage in dialogue," she said. "The secular community in Syria has definitely been getting smaller."

Syria has been gripped by unrest since activists began protesting for democratic changes in one of the most tightly run police states in the region.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad argues that it is facing an armed insurrection by Islamists dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood whose rise to power would destroy the balance that Assad's secular state has maintained. Assad's Baath party has relied heavily on his Alawite sect to run the security, military and other key arms of the state.

Meltzer said it was not clear to her while living in Syria and filming, the extent of any Brotherhood role in the moderate Islamic conservativism she witnessed and documents in the film.

She said there were only a handful of such girls' schools in 1982, the year Assad's father Hafez crushed a Brotherhood revolt, but now there are thousands.

The film includes scenes of girls whose families have sent them to the school deciding to take the veil after gentle persuasion in Houda's lectures and one-on-one discussion.

Some Syrian expatriates during one screening were shocked at these scenes, but Meltzer said she wanted to leave the viewers to make their own decisions about the Islamic education and lifestyle depicted.

"I'm not convinced yet, but I'll get used to it," one girl tells Houda before her veiling ceremony. "It protects women, it shows you're a Muslim person," Houda says, adding: "No one can force anyone."

The camera brings out many of the contradictions facing the young women.

The girls discuss the hair styles of television presenters and visit fashion shops which they leave after concluding they could never wear the fancy dresses on display.

Satellite channels subject them to a barrage of entertainment programming which Houda says is hindering their ability to focus on learning the Koran. The overwhelming impression is of happy growing teenagers, however.

Houda's daughter Enas, a forthright 20-year-old studying at the American University in Sharjah, one of the more conservative cities of the United Arab Emirates, says she sees education as affording a chance to engage in Islamic missionary work that people of her mother's generation did not have.

"I can see I can serve Islam by studying politics or economy. My mum didn't have that," she says in fluent American-accented English.

The film's finale involves a celebration with the girls who have succeeded in memorizing the entire Muslim holy book dressed as if for a wedding in white dresses and tiaras.

They sing a song from which the title is derived: "Now we are veiled, there is light in our eyes."

(Writing by Andrew Hammond)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111219/lf_nm_life/us_syria_film_religion

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Verizon Galaxy Nexus review

It's the Galaxy Nexus. It has LTE. It's the phone we've been waiting (and waiting) for. Sure, some of our more globe-trotting members of the staff were suitably sated by the HSPA+ version that shipped a few weeks ago, but the rest of us domestic types simply need more bandwidth. Or, at least, we like to think that we do, and this $300 (on-contract) Verizon release certainly has that in spades.

However, there's something missing: Google Wallet. That company's attempt at reinventing commerce isn't here and, while nobody's saying for sure, it surely has something to do with Verizon not wanting to kneecap the Isis payment service it has invested in. That leaves us wondering: with restrictions on what apps can be installed, and some rather prominent carrier branding on the back, is this really a Nexus device at all? And, more importantly, is it a good phone? Those answers and more wait for you below.

Gallery: Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ vs. LTE

Continue reading Verizon Galaxy Nexus review

Verizon Galaxy Nexus review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Aj56bdsu8cM/

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Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney Stay Above Fray At Final Debate Before Iowa Caucus (ABC News)

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S&P downgrade threat a clarion call for euro reform (Reuters)

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) ? A threat by Standard & Poors to slash credit ratings across the euro zone sounded a clarion call on Tuesday, which could help Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel force through a change to the European Union treaty at a summit this week.

The French president and German chancellor are determined to change European rules to impose mandatory penalties on countries that exceed deficit targets, aiming to restore market confidence and prevent a sovereign debt crisis spiraling out of control.

Citing "continuing disagreements among European policy makers on how to tackle the immediate market confidence crisis," S&P threatened to cut the credit ratings of 15 countries, including Germany and France, by 1-2 notches.

The U.S.-based ratings agency went a step further on Tuesday, placing the top-notch rating of the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), on negative watch since it depends on the creditworthiness of the currency bloc's six AAA-rated sovereigns.

S&P also warned of slowing growth amid so much austerity, predicting a 40 percent chance of a fall in euro zone output.

A downgrade could automatically require some investment funds to sell bonds of affected states, making those countries' borrowing costs rise still further.

Merkel brushed off the threat.

"What a ratings agency does is its own responsibility," she said, promising European leaders would make decisions at this week's summit that would restore confidence.

Her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the wake-up call was S&P's way of urging European leaders to act, and reflected financial market uncertainty rather than economic fundamentals.

"It is simply an appeal to the heads of state and government that on December 9 everyone has to do their duty," Schaeuble told a panel discussion in Vienna.

Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the 17 euro zone finance ministers, said he was "astonished" by S&P's announcement.

He described it as "a wild exaggeration and also unfair" and said it failed to take into account a new austerity plan for Italy, which pulled borrowing costs for the biggest of the euro zone's ailing countries back from the brink.

In Paris, Sarkozy's office said S&P had taken its decision last Tuesday, before both the Italian budget and the Franco-German plan for stricter budget rules.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Europe to confer with key policymakers ahead of the summit on Thursday and Friday, a sign that Washington shares the view that the event will be a make-or-break moment for the global economy.

Geithner began his talks by meeting European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt. Neither man commented afterwards but ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny said the S&P move would have no bearing on the bank's policy.

"The ECB does not let itself be put under pressure. Our decisions are our responsibility," he told reporters in Vienna.

Geithner will also meet the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the EU institutions to press for decisive action to arrest the crisis.

Sarkozy and Merkel's plan to force states to cut deficits would be accompanied by an early launch of a permanent bailout fund for euro states in distress.

That could provide the political cover that the ECB needs to buy more bonds of ailing countries as a short-term stopgap, preventing countries from running out of money if they cannot sell bonds on the open market.

INVESTORS CHEER

ECB chief Draghi has signaled that a euro zone "fiscal compact" could encourage the central bank to act more decisively on the crisis. It has been reluctant to buy up debt from distressed euro states more aggressively, arguing doing so would take pressure off governments to fix their finances.

Investors cheered a plan announced on Monday by new technocratic prime minister Mario Monti, slashing its borrowing costs. Yields on Italian 10-year bonds fell below 6 percent for the first time since October 28.

Just last month, Italy - the euro zone's biggest debtor with 1.9 trillion euros of bonds outstanding - appeared headed for a crunch after the interest rate demanded by investors to lend to it soared above 7 percent, a rate at which other countries needed bailouts.

Were it not for his 30-billion-euro austerity plan, Monti declared, "Italy would have collapsed, Italy would go into a situation similar to that of Greece."

Goldman Sachs Asset Management Chairman Jim O'Neill told Reuters that Italian government debt yields now looked very attractive unless there was a "complete fiasco" at this week's EU summit. There would be no euro without Italy, he said.

Sarkozy and Merkel say they want treaty changes to be agreed in March and ratified after France wraps up presidential and legislative elections in June.

They won a boost on Tuesday when incoming Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said he would support a new treaty. Although not yet in office, Rajoy is expected to meet Merkel and Sarkozy and outline his policies at a congress of European conservative leaders in Marseille on Thursday.

However, some other EU governments, notably Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands, are reluctant to amend the treaty, either due to eurosceptics at home or because they fear losing possible referendums on ratification.

If countries such as euro outsider Britain blocked a treaty change for all of the 27 EU members, the 17 states that use the common currency could proceed with an agreement on their own, Merkel and Sarkozy said.

S&P said it would conclude its review "as soon as possible" after the summit, making clear that it wanted to see political as well as financial solutions.

It said ratings could be lowered by one notch for Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and by up to two notches for the remaining nine placed under review, including currently AAA-rated France. Cyprus was already on downgrade watch and Greece already has a 'junk' CC-rating.

European stocks, bond futures, and the euro were hit by the shock warning, halting a rally in global equities that began last week as the MSCI world equity index fell 0.6 percent.

Bond yields across the euro zone rose, with top-rated German and French bonds underperforming peripheral debt as a recent flight to quality began to unwind.

After two hours of talks with Merkel in Paris on Monday, Sarkozy told a joint news conference: "What we want ... is to tell the world that in Europe the rule is that we pay back our debts, reduce our deficits, restore growth."

Merkel added: "This package shows that we are absolutely determined to keep the euro as a stable currency and as an important contributor to European stability."

Sarkozy and Merkel said they would send their plan to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on Wednesday, in time for Friday's summit. The Belgian, who will chair that crucial meeting, would have preferred to avoid treaty change but has been sounding out other governments on their receptiveness.

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields and Sylvia Westall in Vienna, David Lawder in Frankfurt,; Writing by Peter Graff and Paul Taylor; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111206/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Wendell Potter: Using PR Playbook To Keep Us In The Dark About Health Insurance Coverage

If you wonder why the health insurance industry has to set up front groups and secretly funnel cash to industry-funded coalitions to influence public policy, take a look at the most recent results of the Kaiser Family Foundation's monthly Health Tracking Poll.

In its November poll, KFF added a few new survey questions to find out exactly which parts of the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare are the most popular and which are the least popular. Insurers were no doubt annoyed to see that the provision of the law they want most -- the requirement that all of us will have to buy coverage from them if we're not eligible for a public program like Medicare -- continues to be the single most hated part of the law. More than 60 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of that mandate.

When it comes to what Americans like most about the law, the runaway winner is one of the provisions insurers most despise--the one that requires them to provide us with easy-to-understand benefit summaries. That element of the reform law was viewed favorably by a whopping 84 percent of the public.

Until now, insurers have been able to get away with providing skimpy and often incomprehensible information about their benefit plans, including what is covered and what is not and how much policyholders will have to pay out of their own pockets if they get sick or injured. The insurance firms have shown no willingness to communicate with their customers in a more forthright way, which is why an act of Congress was necessary to get them to do just that.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the industry and its allies are lobbying the Obama administration to ignore that part of the law, arguing that to comply will cost millions of dollars that insurers would have to pass on to consumers. The companies insist that providing understandable information allowing us to compare plans serves no purpose that would justify the additional cost.

The reality is this: the estimated cost of compliance is just a tiny fraction of what insurance firms charge for their policies these days. No, the real reason for the industry's pushback is that insurers profit from our ignorance. They're concerned that if we can get information we've been denied all these years, we just might force them to provide better value for what we soon will be forced to buy.

Insurers are only the latest industry to protest requirements that they be more transparent and forthcoming with customers. In fact, what is playing out now in Washington is a replay of a similar protest by the food and beverage industries two decades ago.

You would have thought that the idea of forcing them to provide us with ingredients and nutritional information in a standard format was entirely unnecessary and would -- you guessed it -- cost consumers millions of dollars.

The Grocery Manufacturers of America, which refers to itself as "the voice of more than 300 leading food, beverage and consumer product companies," was especially vocal in its opposition to a plan enacted by Congress in 1990 to bring uniformity and clarity to food labeling.

"You're talking about relabeling every packaged product subject to FDA regulation," a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America was quoted as saying at the time. "It will be a nightmare."

The food and beverage industries found a reliable ally in an organization called the American Council on Science and Health, which, not surprisingly, received financial support from food and beverage makers. ACSH's president, Elisabeth Whelan, railed against the food labeling requirement in a December 9, 1992, Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

According to Ms. Whelan, "The (government's) labeling scheme is 'lite' on science, 'reduced' in common sense and 'high in fat' of the type that will inflate consumer costs."

Despite those protests, the government moved forward with its 'labeling scheme,' and required food and beverage makers to comply with it by May 9, 1994. There is little evidence that the industries' dire predictions came true, but there is ample evidence that millions of consumers have become much savvier grocery shoppers as a result of the labels.

I suspect that if KFF were to do a poll on whether Americans would like to go back to the old days when we didn't have any trustworthy information about what was in our food and drinks, there would be little support for it.

I also suspect that in a few years, Americans will find it hard to believe that we allowed insurers to keep us in the dark for so long. Let's hope the Obama administration will stand with consumers on this.

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Follow Wendell Potter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wendellpotter

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/using-pr-playbook-to-keep_b_1129221.html

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Yahoo! to bid for Bundesliga soccer rights: report (Reuters)

VIENNA (Reuters) ? Yahoo! Inc plans to bid for rights to show online highlights of German Bundesliga soccer matches in the 2013/14 season, its head of German operations told a magazine.

"Only the Internet rights are of interest for us," WirtschaftsWoche quoted Heiko Genzlinger as saying, adding Yahoo would bid under either scenario for highlights to appear online before or after they are shown on free television.

"All of our products are free, and that is true for the Bundesliga as well," he said, noting Yahoo had had a good experience showing soccer highlights online in Britain.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; editing by James Jukwey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111203/wr_nm/us_yahoo_germany

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