Russian TV struggles with Kremlin control (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? For one evening last week, Fox News was among Russian television's best sources of information on the swell of protest in Moscow against alleged fraud in a parliamentary election that handed victory to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party.

One of Russia's state-controlled national television networks was quick to seize on the U.S. news channel's erroneous use of footage showing rioting in Athens to illustrate its reports on comparatively sedate protests in central Moscow.

For many Russians, especially those in distant cities with access only to the country's three state-controlled terrestrial channels, it was the first they had seen and possibly heard of the protests that had gone all but unreported in Russia.

The editors were using one of their old moves to evade the threat of state retaliation for reporting on politically inexpedient facts. Instead of reporting the news itself, they reported on the foreigners reporting the news on Russia.

The move cut both ways. Even as it announced there was open dissent in the capital, it flattered the notion, promoted by Putin himself, that Moscow's Cold War enemy was encouraging and exaggerating dissent.

"There was informational schizophrenia about the unfortunate job done by Fox," said Anna Kachkayeva, dean of media communications at Moscow's Higher School of Economics and a media commentator for Radio Liberty's Russian language station.

That oblique report gave some insight into the pressure that Russia's state-controlled media are under, despite some signs of resurgent independence in the newsrooms where Moscow journalists make the news for the vast majority of the country.

"Everything is happening in a strange way, a nervous way," Kachkayeva said. "There are endless meetings, an endless tug-of-war. Television bosses are in the frying pan. They could make a mistake. They are trying to agree positions, trying to do whatever they can do while the window of opportunity is open."

The allegations of fraud tore through social media such as Facebook, where organizers raised a protest movement on a scale unseen since mass resistance to an attempted Communist power grab as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Ten days after the start of protests, one big question is whether they will bring real change not only to politics, but to the national televised media which have helped uphold Putin through his 12 years in power as president and prime minister.

UNLIKELY HERO

That question appeared to receive an answer on Saturday, as tens of thousands of protesters returned home from the biggest demonstration yet over the December 4 election.

Some of their hopes shifted to their television sets and an unlikely opposition hero - Alexei Pivovarov, a slight, redhaired news anchor for NTV, a national channel controlled by state natural gas monopoly Gazprom for nearly a decade.

Pivovarov was a reporter with NTV's feisty news team in the heyday of Russian television news, a free-for-all backed by wealthy industrialists who bankrolled the media to maintain political support for their business empires.

NTV news was all that and more -- independently owned, feared and sometimes exploited by the country's most powerful politicians. When its owner fell foul of the Kremlin, it ran into financial trouble and was taken over by Gazprom.

Under effective state control and financed by the energy giant, the channel went the way of other state channels, moving away from hard-hitting news toward serialized glamour and largely benign accounting of the day's events in Russia.

"For the past 10 years the television has reflected society's demands," said Kachkayeva, who says the state media agenda reflected a sort of social contract under which the government offered material comforts in exchange for consent.

"After the previous decade, which was romantic and unnerving, there was a buildup of wealth and consumerism," she said. "Serials were concordant with stability, a little island where everything was good."

Those demands changed, she said, on September 24, when Putin, who had already served the constitutional maximum of two consecutive terms before ceding the presidency to his ally Dmitry Medvedev, announced he would run for president again and hand the premiership to Medvedev.

The implication was that he would win and all had been decided long before the March 4 presidential election. He still is widely expected win - but perhaps not as easily as seemed likely before September 24.

GENIE LET OUT OF THE BOTTLE

"They let the genie out of the bottle on September 24. Putin would have easily won the election on March 4 if they had not treated people in such a way," said Ilya Ponomaryov, one of the protest organizers and a former member of the parliamentary committee on media for the Just Russia party.

"There were a lot of nice ways for Putin to return but this arrogant, undemocratic job swap alienated so many people, even their own followers, that his ratings started to fall."

Kachkayeva said it became clear that the "social contract" was not forever and television and politics could not longer co-exist with so much cynicism.

Unlike some former NTV colleagues who fled Gazprom-controlled NTV for radio and Internet broadcasters, Pivovarov is among a hard core of NTV veterans still working for the channel.

A newspaper reported on Friday that Pivovarov had said he would not read the news if he could not report on the demonstrations.

When the 7 p.m. news came on after Saturday's protest, Pivovarov was behind the desk on the blue and green NTV news set, describing the throngs on a central Moscow square.

"When we saw Pivovarov and the main news item was not biased, we were overjoyed," said Lada Bakal, a Moscow graphic designer whose family and friends turned out en masse for the protests.

"If we achieved that much, it's already something. But we can't stop now and say 'We did it'."

MORE COVERAGE TO FOLLOW

The head of NTV news, Tatyana Mitkova, told reporters the channel would keep up its coverage as she left the upper house of parliament on Wednesday with the heads of other national television channels.

Pivovarov could not be reached for comment. Sources at NTV said they could not confirm the authenticity of the report but, whether true or not, it had become a sign of the news team's discontent with tight political control.

A veteran Moscow reporter who spoke with Pivovarov said the agenda that night was decided the way it has been for years - with a phone call between the channel's owner - Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller - and its top executive, Vladimir Kulistikov.

Though national attention was pinned to Pivovarov, she said, the deciding factor was Kanal Rossiya, owned by the state media holding, which led the evening news on the protests.

"Miller and Kulistikov spoke on the phone, and said, well, Rossiya did, so we probably can too," the veteran reporter said.

The protests have become common currency on national television, with public approval from Putin and Medvedev, who called them a demonstration of civil rights in Russia.

"The Kremlin was in a lose-lose situation. They had to show the pictures because otherwise they would have faced too much anger," Ponomaryov said.

"But the pictures they showed to viewers across Russia were of peaceful protests, not State Department-sponsored, radical revolutionaries. Next time there will be more people and calmer people, less revolutionary people who turn out in bigger quantities."

PUTIN STILL HOLDS THE LEVERS

The Kremlin appears willing to run the risk that coverage of the protests will bring more people out into the street on December 24, when the next protest is scheduled in Moscow.

"The channels will have to keep covering the protests now they have starting showing them, but Putin has not lost control of the media," said political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser.

Television coverage remains guarded. It excludes direct criticism of Putin and one clear taboo remains - the reason the protests began in the first place.

The editor of a prominent weekly news magazine said on Wednesday he was sacked by the owner of the publishing house, mining tycoon Alisher Usmanov, after publishing a story on ballot fraud featuring a photograph of a ballot marked with an obscene phrase directed at Putin.

The issue has yet to receive an airing on state television. NTV'sSunday night news magazine, Central Television, a Russian hipster's answer to U.S. Sunday night institution 60 Minutes, was all about the protests.

"There is nothing else to talk about," its host, Vadim Takmenyov, told the camera, staring intensely from behind angular, thick-rimmed spectacles.

There may have been something else. In a public exchange on Kachkayeva's Facebook page, members of Moscow's media discussed a report prepared by another NTV veteran, Pavel Lobkov, on the ballot fraud itself. The report was not aired.

Lobkov, participating in the discussion, wrote that he had not made any guarantees to his sources that the piece would run. He did not respond to a request for comment.

"It is not about the legitimacy of the Duma, but about Putin's own situation," Kachkayeva said. "Because everything that is connected with the falsifications is undermining his own legitimacy."

(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Denis Dyomkin, Timothy Heritage and Elizabeth Piper; Writing by Melissa Akin; Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/wl_nm/us_russia_protests_media

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Fantasia Barrino Welcomes Son Dallas Xavier

The American Idol season 3 winner gave birth to a baby boy, Dallas Xavier Barrino, her rep tells PEOPLE.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/0nGCqV6Bxb0/

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GOP's Paul Ryan has a new plan for Medicare (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan says he has a new plan for Medicare. This time his co-author is Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon.

The top Republican budget writer in the House created a stir this year with a financial plan that essentially privatized Medicare for future retirees. The Senate rejected it after a backlash. Democrats want to use that plan against Republicans in 2012.

The new Wyden-Ryan plan would keep traditional Medicare as an option for future retirees and leave the eligibility age at 65. But it also sets up a regulated competition with private insurance. Seniors in private plans would get a fixed payment from the government that's more generous than in Ryan's original plan.

Wyden and Ryan say they want to start a bipartisan dialogue on Medicare.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_go_co/us_medicare_new_ryan_plan

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Local Kit Kats Japanese want to eat

By Ken Y-N ( December 5, 2011 at 01:37) ? Filed under Polls, Rankings

For snacks in particular in Japan, bringing out new flavours regularly is all-but-mandatory, it seems. Another related favoured marketing technique is local flavours only offered for sale in that particular region, which formed the basis of this survey from goo Ranking, what local edition Kit-Kats people would like to try.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 20th of October 2011 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 11.2% in their teens, 16.2% in their twenties, 25.7% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 11.5% in their fifties, and 9.5% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Note that it is all but impossible to find a boring old red-packaged Kit Kat here; the standard currently seems to be an ?Adult Kit Kat? in a black wrapper, made less sweet and with bitter chocolate, which is rather nice, but I want my plain ones!

I?ve had ordinary melon Kit Kats before, and they were horrendously sweet, but blueberry cheese cake sounds nice. I keep meaning to try the Kobe Purin, but as it?s for tourists, they only sell them in largish multi-packs. I don?t know what to make of the savoury flavours towards the end of the list ? has anyone tried them?

Here?s a blog about Japanese Kit Kats, and here?s a video from a successful Greenpeace campaign to get Nestle to stop using palm oil in Kit Kats and other products:

Ranking result

Q: What local Kit Kat would you like to try? (Sample size=1,092)

Rank	?	Score
1	Yubari Melon	100
2	Strawberry Cheese Cake	88.1
3	Blueberry Cheese Cake	76.6
4	Tochi-Otome (Posh strawberry brand)	74.0
5	Kobe Purin (Creme Brule without the brule) Flavour	71.7
6	Ito Iemon Uji Maccha	62.9
7	Shinshu Apple	62.3
8	Beni Imo (Purple potato)	59.2
9	Yamanashi Cherry	59.0
10	Sweet Potato Flavour	43.4
11	Annin Dofu (Almond jelly) Flavour	37.7
12	Ito Iemon Uji Houjicha (Roasted tea)	33.5
13	Zunda Flavour	32.7
14	Yuzu Kosho (Citrus and black pepper)	28.3
15	Tamaruya Honten Wasabi	19.2
16	Kankitsu Ougon (?Citrus Gold?) Blend	17.9
17	Le Lectier (Pear)	16.1
18	Miso Flavour	13.0
19	Soy Sauce Flavour	12.7
20	Yawataya Isogoro Ichimi (Chilli pepper)	7.3

Read more on: goo ranking,kit kat

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Feds to allow use of Medicare data to rate doctors (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Picking a specialist for a delicate medical procedure like a heart bypass could get a lot easier in the not-too-distant future.

The government announced Monday that Medicare will finally allow its extensive claims database to be used by employers, insurance companies and consumer groups to produce report cards on local doctors and hospitals.

By analyzing masses of billing records, experts can glean such critical information as how often a doctor has performed a particular procedure and get a general sense of problems such as preventable complications.

Doctors will be individually identifiable through the Medicare files, but personal data on their patients will remain confidential. Compiled in an easily understood format and released to the public, medical report cards could become a powerful tool for promoting quality care.

"There is tremendous variation in how well doctors do, and most of us as patients don't know that. We make our choices blind," said David Lansky, president of the Pacific Business Group on Health. "This is the beginning of a process to give us the information to make informed decisions." His nonprofit represents 50 large employers that provide coverage for more than 3 million people.

Medicare acting administrator Marilyn Tavenner called the new policy "a giant step forward in making our health care system more transparent and promoting increased competition, accountability, quality and lower costs."

Early efforts to rate physicians using limited private insurance data have thus far focused on primary care doctors, but Medicare's rich information could provide the numbers to start rating specialists as well, Lansky said. Consumers will see the first performance reports by late 2012, said a Medicare spokesman.

Medicare officials say they expect nonprofit research groups in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and other states to jump at the chance to use the data. With 47 million beneficiaries and virtually every doctor and hospital in the country participating, Medicare's database is considered the mother lode of health care information.

Tapping it has largely been forbidden because of a decades-old court ruling that releasing the information would violate the privacy of doctors. Insurance companies tried to fill the gap using their own claims data, but their files are nowhere near as comprehensive as Medicare's

Following appeals from lawmakers of both parties on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama's health care overhaul changed federal law to explicitly authorize release of the information. Medicare followed through in regulations issued Monday.

Consumer groups were still poring over the fine print, concerned about rules that could make it harder for them to gain access. But employer groups welcomed the new policy.

"There is pent-up demand for this data because everyone wants to be a more informed, intelligent consumer, especially as health care costs are still rising," said Maria Ghazal, policy director at the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of major companies providing coverage to some 35 million employees, retirees and family members.

Companies will use the data analyses in their annual updates to their insurance plans. But Ghazal said they also want to put report cards directly in the hands of their employees.

"We want to make it understandable and usable by our employees," said Ghazal.

Early ratings efforts using insurance company data have lacked sufficient statistical power to rank specialists. The numbers of cases of cancer and serious heart problems in the younger, working-age population simply weren't big enough. The Medicare data could change that, since older people are more prone to chronic illnesses.

"If you want to look at heart disease or cancer, suddenly you have more data to look at each doctor with," said Lansky. "It's the power of numbers."

Doctors groups that fought for years to prevent release of the Medicare data, have lately shifted to putting conditions on its use.

For example, Medicare's rule gives individual providers the right to see their information before it is publicly released, and 60 days to challenge it.

The American Medical Association had previously argued that such data could be misleading to untrained consumers. For example, a surgeon who has lots of patients who develop complications may actually be a top practitioner who takes cases that others less skilled would turn away.

Medicare says it will screen the analytical methods of groups that are requesting access to the data. The organizations will have to meet other qualifications, such as having access to claims data of their own. And they will have to pay for access to the Medicare files.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_medical_report_cards

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USDA announces $50 million for Gulf river basins (AP)

HOUSTON ? The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday pledged $50 million to a program designed to restore seven river basins from Florida to Texas in an attempt to show a blueprint for rebuilding the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem is more than just another federal report.

The USDA's announcement accompanied the presentation of the final report of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a team established by President Barack Obama after the April 2010 oil spill that highlighted decades of environmental decline in the Gulf of Mexico.

The task force's plan for reviving the Gulf and the ecosystems and watersheds linked to it calls for rebuilding and conserving wetlands; cleaning polluted rivers and streams; strengthening communities along the storm-prone area and better preparing them for the storms that brew over the warm ocean waters; and allowing more sediment to naturally flow downstream to slowly rebuild barrier islands meant to provide natural protection from storms.

"We are all dedicated to making sure that the treasures we grew up with are still around for future generations," said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, a New Orleans native who chaired the task force.

Jackson and officials from other federal and state agencies made the announcements in Houston at a summit sponsored by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. The summit focuses on the Gulf, its importance to the U.S. economy and the need to reverse decades of damage and neglect.

Jackson said the USDA project ? an offshoot of an existing national program aimed at conserving, improving and preserving the nation's watersheds ? is only the first of many initiatives she expects will be announced in the coming months.

"I expect a flurry of activity to get some meat on those bones," she said.

The Gulf of Mexico, long neglected and under-funded, is a vital part of the nation's economy. More than 90 percent of the nation's offshore oil and natural gas production originates in the Gulf and 13 of the top 20 ports by tonnage are in the region. If the five coastal states were a country, it would rank seventh in global gross domestic product. In 2009, the Gulf Coast produced 30 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

While this committee has been assigned the task of identifying problems and pinpointing possible solutions, Congress has been considering a bill called the Restore Act that would allow most of the penalties BP would pay for fouling the waters to go back toward restoring the environment in the five Gulf states: Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas. The House is to hold hearings on the proposed bill later this week.

The first project administered by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service gives farmers and ranchers the finances they need to change their land or water use practices to help clean, conserve and preserve the watersheds, said Harris Sherman, the USDA's undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment. The USDA provides them with a "tool kit" of options for joining the program, he added.

The program ? called the Gulf of Mexico Initiative ? also requires matching funds from state, local and nonprofit entities, and so the funds available could total some $90 million, Sherman said. Similar projects are already under way elsewhere, and have successfully reversed some damage done to waterways.

The $50 million commitment to the Gulf Coast, however, is unique because it significantly increases the department's funding to the region. Already, Sherman said, officials have met with ranchers and farmers in the area and are confident they will participate. The funding will be made available over the next three years, with the first $20 million available immediately.

The seven river basins identified for immediate assistance are already on the federal Clean Water Act's list of polluted waterways. In Alabama, the program's goal in the Weeks Bay watershed is to reduce agricultural-related nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment running downstream and to preserve wildlife habitats.

In a watershed shared by Alabama and Florida, the program aims to reduce the sediments and nutrients that flow into tributaries of the Escambia River. The USDA believes this will ultimately "improve wildlife habitat and the quality of water delivered to Pensacola Bay" and the Gulf. The project has similar goals for another Florida watershed.

In Louisiana, it will focus on the Baratoria-Terrebonne estuary and the Mermentau basin, once again by reducing the harm fertilizers have as they flow downstream from rivers and streams into the Gulf of Mexico. In Mississippi the Jourdan River basin is the focus, while in Texas the goal is to clean up the Guadalupe River basin.

Officials believe the project will improve water quality for thousands of residents in Pensacola, Fla., Mobile, Ala., and San Antonio.

"We're focusing on priority areas where we can get the greatest gains," Sherman said.

___

You can follow Ramit Plushnick Masti at https://twitter.com//RamitMastiAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_re_us/us_gulf_oil_spill_restoration

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Video: Navigating the European Crisis

Possible help from the IMF for Europe gave the markets a glimmer of hope and the euro a shot in the arm, but U.S. lawmakers vow to block the funds. Discussing the impact this action is taking on the equity and currency markets, with Ashraf Laidi, Inter...

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45528368/

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Transgender Woman Sues Khloe Kardashian for Alleged Assault (omg!)

A transgender woman is suing Khloe Kardashian, claiming the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star assaulted her two years ago, People reports.

In her filing, Chantal Spears, formerly Ronald Spears, says that Kardashian "violently" attacked her outside a Hollywood nightclub on Dec. 5, 2009, after she told Kardashian's husband, Lamar Odom, that he was too young to get married. "All of a sudden I get this big push from this girl," Spears told TMZ.

Check out photos of Khloe Kardashian

Spears states in the papers that she required medical care and suffered from "severe mental anguish" after the incident. No one was arrested or cited then.

Spears is seeking unspecified damages. Kardashian has yet to comment on the suit.

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98% Le Havre

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (1)

If the bummers and ambiguity of some of this season's movies are getting you down - or, hey, just the bummers and ambiguities of life - make your way to Le Havre. You won't be sorry.

The Finnish director's sense of humor is dry and dark as pitch, as he consistently finds moments of absurdity in the midst of strife and tragedy.

Kaurism?ki wrote the script, I think, with secret credit from Mother Goose and some fabric softener.

"Le Havre" is a small bit of movie magic, a story that plays more as a fable even as it deals with something as topical as immigration.

The film is especially comforting if you love old movies, as Kaurismaki does.

Does Kaurismaki believe in his own fairy tale? The movie, a humble delight, suggests the answer is yes.

A wonderfully concise, unfussy movie; it is "easy" by the director's standards, which is to say that it doesn't leave any significant ellipses in the narrative up until the aggressively darling ending.

...an upbeat little tome that leaves a good feeling to the spirit.

Kaurism?ki can almost restore your hope in humanity.

Kaurismaki dives into French film culture in 'Le Havre'

You almost become a citizen of Le Havre, watching this film and rejoicing at the end as two newfound, unexpected friends share a drink.

It's a straightforward yet completely artificial scenario, with welcome overtones of Italian Neo-Realism.

Unlike the director's typical hero, Wilms's spare performance conveys confidence rather than defeat. He and the kid warm the heart, thawing Kaurism?ki's usual icy aplomb.

Heart-wrenching but ultimately inspirational.

Le Havre is not the filmmaker's best work (see La Vie de Boh?me for that), but no matter the storm, we should be grateful to dock in this port.

An easygoing story of human relationships with a sharp political comment about European immigration.

So breezy that once the film ends, it simply drifts away

If the story outline seems simple, it is; this movie is all about attitude and style. The shabby-genteel hero, who has a keen sense of irony, and the people who help him...

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_havre_2011/

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PFT: Martz blames his players ... again

AP

As Super Bowl XLVI approaches, an embarrassing situation for the NFL regarding Super Bowl XLV still lingers.

And it possibly will linger for many more months.

On Wednesday, Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn denied an effort by the league and the Cowboys to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by fans who showed up at Cowboys Stadium to find there weren?t chairs to go along with their tickets, due to an inability to complete the installation of temporary seating.? Specifically, Judge Lynn has allowed the breach of contract claim to proceed.

Per the Associated Press, the 10-page order concludes that the plaintiffs could be eligible for compensation far beyond that which the NFL offered in the wake of the debacle.

In response, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy tells PFT that the league?s offers to the fans exceeded what the law allows.

?For months, the NFL has attempted legal maneuver after legal maneuver to deny the fans what they are entitled to,? said Michael Avenatti of Eagan Avenatti, LLP, lead counsel for the displaced fans, in a statement released to PFT.? ?But in litigation, much like in football, you have to play four quarters.? Now that the Court has ruled, we look forward to learning from the executives of the NFL what they knew before the game and what they did about it, if anything.?

Avenatti is referring to the discovery process, which will entail a series of depositions of high-level officials from the league office.

Other ancillary claims made by the plaintiffs were dismissed.? Avenatti said that Judge Lynn has allowed two of the other claims to be re-filed in a manner that complies with applicable requirements.? The NFL undoubtedly will file a new motion to dismiss those claims, once they are re-filed.

And so the process will continue to drag out, with the only question being whether this case will be resolved before the next Super Bowl that is played in Cowboys Stadium.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/30/martz-blames-players-for-execution-issues/related/

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US students: Turmoil can be dangerous lure abroad (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS ? American universities send tens of thousands of students to study abroad every year, thrusting them into one of the most exciting periods of their lives with a heavy dose of maternal advice: Mix with the locals, but be careful. Don't get in any tight spots. Avoid protests.

It's practical guidance that can be forgotten in the heady political ferment in countries like Egypt, where three American students were recently arrested near demonstrations at Tahrir Square.

The Americans made it safely home, but only after an ordeal they said lasted several days and included being struck, forced to lie for hours in the dark and threatened with guns. It's an experience schools and other students say they try very hard to avoid, balancing personal safety against the desire to engage with the culture that drew them in the first place.

Wittney Dorn, 20, from Appleton, Wis., said she traveled to Egypt because she wanted to study Arabic at the American University in Cairo. In an email Tuesday, the political science major wrote of "the beautiful change" she is seeing as her Egyptian classmates talk about voting for the first time. She said she could understand the urge to get nearer the protests.

"I think the temptation is there, to wrap up in a keffiyeh and try to look like any other Egyptian revolutionary, to feel a little exhilaration from a kind of danger you don't get in America," Dorn wrote.

But she said she wouldn't be doing that. More than 40 protesters were killed, mostly in Cairo, during clashes with police last week and nearly 900 more died in the uprising earlier this year that ousted Hosni Mubarak from power.

"It's not a brilliant idea to go exploring an area where people are being killed, despite how tempting it may be to watch history unfold before one's eyes," wrote Dorn, a student from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

A survey earlier this month from the nonprofit Institute of International Education found more than 270,000 U.S. students studied abroad during the 2009-10 school year, up about 4 percent from a year earlier. The great majority went to western Europe: Britain, Italy, Spain and France. But the survey found increasing numbers in less traditional destinations; Egypt hosted 1,923 Americans, up 8 percent.

"A lot of students are trying to find places that will help them understand the emerging world," said Peggy Blumenthal, who oversees research at the institute. They are preparing for careers in public health, the sciences and national security, for example, she said.

Many universities and study abroad program coordinators have been trying to prod students out of what can become a comfort zone of huddling with their fellow Americans. The push to engage can be broadening in a "safe" country; in a country with a suddenly dicey political situation, it can be hazardous.

Blumenthal said universities give students traveling abroad a fairly standard list of do's and don'ts, including blending in with the locals, obeying local laws and customs and staying sober. Students should avoid large crowds, seedy areas and steer clear of political events, she said.

"Really, these are not new, these guidelines, but they are even more vigorously stressed now," she said.

Derrik Sweeney, one of the three Americans arrested Nov. 20, said he had heard just such cautions from the American University and the U.S. State Department. He went to demonstrations anyway ? including one in early September and one the Friday before he was arrested.

"I value democracy and liberty, so I wanted to go to those protests more to witness them and to see them than to participate in them," said Sweeney, a student at Georgetown. "I wanted to see history being made."

Sweeney, 19, of Jefferson City, Mo., was arrested along with Luke Gates, 21, who attends Indiana University and is from Bloomington, Ind., and Gregory Porter, 19, who studies at Drexel University and is from Glenside, Pa.

Egyptian officials said they arrested the students on the roof of a university building and accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters. Sweeney said it didn't happen that way; he said he and the other Americans were with a group of protesters on the street near the Interior Ministry and fled when police dispersed the crowd.

Sweeney said he thought he could recognize danger and leave. He acknowledged it "seems kind of silly" now that he didn't stay away, but he said he doesn't regret it.

"I would have regretted it if I had gone to Egypt and never had gone to a protest," he said.

Georgetown hasn't pulled its other students out of Cairo because the U.S. State Department hasn't recommended it, spokeswoman Stacy Kerr said, but it has reminded them of policies against getting involved in demonstrations.

Drexel University also isn't telling its students to return to the U.S., said Daniela Ascarelli, director of the university's study abroad program. She said the university has spoken with the three students still in Egypt and all of them feel safe and want to stay.

Indiana University urged its two remaining students in Egypt to return to the U.S. One complied, but the other didn't, telling school officials he felt safe and wanted to finish the semester.

Last January, most schools followed a State Department recommendation to bring the students home as protests first broke out in Egypt.

Alex Hanna, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was in Egypt in February after the unrest began. Hanna did attend protests, saying he was able to fit in because he's of Egyptian descent.

Hanna said American students who want to lend their support to what they see as a Democratic movement can unwittingly play into the government's hands, allowing it to use reports of foreign protesters to argue the dissent is being stirred up by outsiders.

"U.S. students going over there can actually hurt the efforts," he said. "They need to be cognizant of that."

Katrina Gray, 22, of Madison, Wis., was finishing a year of study in Alexandria, Egypt, when she was evacuated in January. Gray was disappointed to miss "a huge part of history" but said she never considered defying the University of Wisconsin's order to come home.

"My mother would have killed me," she said.

___

Chris Blank contributed to this report from Jefferson City, Mo., Rich Callahan contributed from Indianapolis and Dinesh Ramde contributed from Milwaukee.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_us/us_egypt_american_students

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Iran's parliament orders ties with Britain reduced (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran's parliament on Sunday approved a bill requiring both Iran and Britain to withdraw their respective ambassadors from each other's countries, following London's support of recently upgraded U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

Tehran's relations with Britain have become increasingly strained over the past few months, largely driven by increasing tensions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The West says Iran is developing weapons; Tehran denies the claims.

During an open session broadcast live by state radio, 171 out of 196 lawmakers present voted for the bill requiring Iran to reduce its relationship with Britain to the level of charge d'affaires within two weeks. Ismail Kowsari, a lawmaker and one of the sponsors of the bill, told the official IRNA news agency that the bill would lead to the removal of ambassadors.

Britain's Foreign Office on Sunday said the decision to order the country's ambassador, Dominick John Chilcott, to leave Tehran was regrettable.

"This unwarranted move will do nothing to help the regime address their growing isolation, or international concerns about their nuclear program and human rights record," the ministry said in a statement. "If the Iranian government acts on this, we will respond robustly in consultation with our international partners."

The bill needs ratification by a constitutional watchdog to be a law. It also requires reduction of the volume of trade to a "minimum" level. It allows Iran's foreign ministry to restore ambassador-level relations if the "hostile policy" of Britain changes.

Parliament's decision is seen as a reaction to London's support of a new U.S. package of sanctions in Iran. The measures were coordinated with Britain and Canada and build on previous sanctions to target Iran's oil and petrochemical industries and companies involved in nuclear procurement or enrichment activity.

The annual volume of trade between Iran and Britain is about $500 million.

Iranian oil exports are a large component of this trade. In the first six month of 2011, Iran sold some 11,000 barrels of crude to Britain per day, some 0.5 percent of Iran's daily production.

British Midland International airline carries some 80, 000 between Tehran and London per year in its daily flight. Some 100.000 Iranians live in Britain.

The tension between the two countries is not limited to the nuclear dispute.

Earlier in October, the mayor of Tehran ordered a lawsuit to be filed contesting the ownership of the land on which Britain's embassy has stood since the 19th century.

In September, Iran detained and summoned a group of people for their alleged links to BBC's Farsi-language service.

Since the turmoil which followed Iran's 2009 elections, Tehran has repeatedly accused Britain of fomenting unrest. London denies the charge.

___

Associated Press writer David Stringer contributed to this report from London.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_britain

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