Emerging Senate proposal focus in budget battle

WASHINGTON (AP) — The focus of efforts to end the government shutdown and prevent a U.S. default shifted to the Senate on Saturday, where leaders were in talks aimed at resolving the twin stalemates.

Word of the negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the top Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, emerged as the Senate, as expected, rejected a Democratic effort to raise the government's borrowing limit through next year.

"This bill would have taken the threat of default off the table and given our nation's businesses and the economy the certainty we need," the White House said in a statement.

Republicans objected because they want the extension to be accompanied by spending cuts.

The spotlight turned to the Senate as the partial shutdown reached its 12th day. It also came with the calendar edging closer to Oct. 17, when administration officials have said the government will deplete its ability to borrow money, risking a first-time federal default that could jolt the world economy.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told fellow Republicans earlier Saturday that his talks with President Barack Obama had stalled.

"The Senate needs to hold tough," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Boehner told House GOP lawmakers. "The president now isn't negotiating with us."

GOP senators said the talks between Reid and McConnell had started Friday. That was confirmed by Senate Democratic aides.

"The only thing that's happening right now is Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell are talking. And I view that as progress," said the second-ranking Republican senator, John Cornyn of Texas.

Saturday's Senate vote derailing the Democrats' debt-limit measure was a near party-line 53-45 in favor of the bill. That fell seven short of the 60 required to overcome Republican objections to considering the measure.

The White House said it was "unfortunate that the common-sense, clean debt limit increase proposed by Senate Democrats was refused a yes or no vote."

House conservatives said Obama was to blame for the talks with their chamber running aground.

"Perhaps he sees this as the best opportunity for him to win the House in 2014," said Rep. John Fleming, R-La. "It's very clear to us he does not now, and never had, any intentions of negotiating."

"It doesn't have to be this way. It's not supposed to be this way," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "Manufacturing crises to extract massive concessions isn't how our democracy works, and we have to stop it. Politics is a battle of ideas, but you advance those ideas through elections and legislation — not extortion."

A bipartisan group of senators, closely watched by Senate leaders, is polishing a plan aimed at reaching compromise with Obama.

An emerging proposal by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and others would pair a six-month plan to keep the government open with an increase in the government's borrowing limit through January.

Obama has turned away a House plan to link the reopening of the government — and a companion measure to temporarily increase the government's borrowing cap — to concessions on the budget.

In the face of disastrous opinion polls, GOP leaders have signaled they will make sure the debt limit is increased with minimal damage to the financial markets. But they're still seeking concessions as a condition for reopening the government.

Obama met Senate Republicans on Friday and heard a pitch from Collins on raising the debt limit until the end of January, reopening the government and cutting the health care law at its periphery.

The plan also would strengthen income verification for people receiving subsidies through the health care law and set up a broader set of budget talks.

The Collins proposal would delay for two years a medical-device tax that helps finance the health care law, and it would subject millions of individuals eligible for subsidies to purchase health insurance under the program to stronger income verification.

Collins said Obama said the proposal "was constructive, but I don't want to give the impression that he endorsed it."

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and David Espo contributed to this report

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/emerging-senate-proposal-focus-budget-battle-140124033--politics.html
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TV-over-Internet service Aereo to come to Android

NEW YORK (AP) — Aereo, a service that delivers broadcast television stations over the Internet, will come to Android devices on Oct. 22.

The service started on iPhones and other Apple devices along with the Roku streaming box before expanding to personal computers. The company says that the Android offering took longer because of the many versions of Android available. Device makers are able to customize the version made by Google. Aereo says its Android app will run on phones and tablets with Android 4.2 or higher. It will be in a beta test mode at first.

Aereo is currently available in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Miami, Houston and Dallas. Service starts at $8 a month.

Aereo has won key court rulings against broadcasters who claim its service infringes copyrights.

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Portion-Size Label Influences Ingestion Intake

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The mayor of New York famously tried to ban super-sized sodas. But instead of legislating a drink?s volume, maybe we should change its name. Because a new study shows that the words we use to describe portion size affect how much we actually consume. The findings are in the journal Health Economics. [David R. Just And Brian Wansink, One Man's Tall Is Another Man's Small: How The Framing Of Portion Size Influences Food Choice] As portion sizes at many restaurants grow larger, so do our waistlines. Of course, no one says we have to finish that three-quarter pound burger or chug an entire Big Gulp. But what determines when we lay down the fork and push away from the table? To find out, researchers led by Brian Wansink of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab served up some spaghetti. Some volunteers received a portion labeled ?regular,? others got a dish described as ?double size.? Although both plates contained the same amount of pasta, people ate more when they thought their serving size was normal. Participants who thought they?d gotten the piggy-sized portion left 10 times more food on their plates. So if a big beverage were called, say, Double the Size of your Stomach, maybe we?d think twice about draining every last drop. ?Karen Hopkin [The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
? Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/portion-size-label-influences-ingestion-intake-134008074.html

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India eases investment rules to attract global retailing giants

New Delhi: India eased requirements for foreign retailers to invest in local supermarkets to lure global chains such as Wal-Mart Stores and Tesco to open stores in Asia's third-biggest economy.

Rules covering sourcing, infrastructure investment and store location have been amended, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday night. The cabinet also approved proposals to amend foreign direct investment rules for a range of businesses including commodity exchanges, he said.

The government is loosening rules to attract overseas investors to stem a ballooning current-account deficit and a weakening rupee. While the nation changed laws in September to allow foreign retailers to own majority stakes in stores selling multiple brands, no companies have sought such licenses yet.

"The government is showing really positive intentions," Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive officer of lobby group Retailers Association of India, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV India. "The state governments now have to go forward and invite the companies to come and invest."

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and other foreign chains already have some wholesale operations in the country. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is studying India's revisions and remains "optimistic" about the opportunity, Arti Singh, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart's Indian unit, said in an e- mailed statement. A Tesco spokesman said the company welcomed the proposed changes in the policy and is in the process of reviewing the conditions.

Heavy debt
Debt-heavy domestic retailers like Future Retail could be one of the "key beneficiaries" of these policies, as it would make it easier for them to seek overseas partners to trim their borrowings, said Dhvani Modi, an analyst at brokerage ICICI Direct. Future, which runs the Big Bazaar grocery chain, climbed as much as 14.7 per cent to Rs84.5, headed for the biggest gain since April 17. Apparel retailer Shoppers Stop advanced as much as four per cent before dropping 1.35 per cent to Rs355.15 as of 3.08pm.

Farmers' groups
Minister Sharma said foreign investment up to 49 per cent will be now allowed under the automatic route in sectors including petroleum and natural gas, commodity and power exchanges as well as in stock exchanges. In defense, the government will consider proposals of more than 26 per cent FDI on a "case to case" basis.

The government also amended a rule intended to help small industries supply to the big chains. Retailers were earlier required to source 30 per cent of their manufactured products from small- and mid-sized local firms, which were defined as companies with less than $1 million invested in factories and machinery.

The new rules allow sourcing from companies with investments of up to $2 million, broadening the supply base for retailers. Products from agricultural cooperatives and farmers groups would also be considered under this requirement, according to an e-mailed statement from the government. Allowing farmers groups in this category "is a huge deal as it includes all dairy products and fresh produce," Modi said. "This will make it very easy for retailers to meet the requirement."

Source: http://www.timesofoman.com/News/Article-20597.aspx

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3 teens charged in death of Minnesota woman, 79 (Providence Journal)

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London: Twitter apologises but campaigner says wants more action

The British arm of Twitter apologised on Saturday to a group of high-profile women who have been threatened with death and rape on the micro-blogging site, and announced measures to make it easier for users to report abusive tweets.

Twitter had come under increasing pressure to react after a feminist campaigner, several women members of parliament and female journalists were targeted by users who hurled misogynistic abuse at them and in some cases made violent threats.

"I personally apologise to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through," Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter UK, said on his own Twitter feed.

"The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter," he said.

Twitter UK said it was adding staff to help handle abuse reports. It also said an in-tweet "report abuse" button currently available on the Twitter app for iPhones would be added to the Twitter website and to platforms used on other mobile devices.

The problem of abuse by so-called internet "trolls" has been front-page news in Britain since activist Caroline Criado-Perez was hit by a barrage of vitriolic tweets after successfully campaigning for a woman's face to appear on bank notes.

In recognition of her role, Criado-Perez appeared alongside Bank of England Governor Mark Carney on July 24, when he announced 19th century novelist Jane Austen would become the face of the new 10-pound note.

Police arrested two men over rape threats against Criado-Perez. One of them was also suspected of making rape threats against opposition Labour legislator Stella Creasy, who backed the bank note campaign and also appeared with Carney on July 24.

In separate incidents days later, several high-profile female journalists received tweets from someone threatening to bomb their homes and "destroy everything" there.

... contd.

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