MILAN (AP) -AC Milan signed Sulley Muntari on loan from bitter rival Inter Milan until the end of the season on the last day of the winter transfer market on Tuesday.
Muntari will provide much needed midfield cover for Milan after Alexander Merkel joined Mathieu Flamini, Gennaro Gattuso and Alberto Aquilani on the sidelines.
Inter signed Muntari from Portsmouth in 2008 in a deal worth ?14 million and while he initially impressed, scoring the winner in his first derby match against Milan, he has slowly slipped down the pecking order.
Muntari spent last season on loan at Sunderland but failed to earn a permanent deal.
The Ghana international, who is currently at the African Nations Cup, becomes a free agent at the end of the campaign.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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No big deadline-day signings
??European football's January transfer window is closing with the leading clubs appearing to avoid any lavish outlays in the first season of UEFA's strict new financial controls.
LIMA (Reuters) ? A earthquake of 6.3 magnitude rattled the coast of Peru early on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The quake occurred shortly after midnight local time (1 a.m. ET) and was centered about 9 miles southeast of the city of Ica and about 170 miles south-southeast of Lima.
Witnesses said the quake shook buildings in coastal Lima, Peru's capital. Although there were no reported injuries or damage, local radio said residents near the epicenter were alarmed and ran outside their homes when they felt the quake. Power was out in nearby Pisco, the radio said.
"We felt a terrible earthquake that's really scared us," Ica resident Blanca Cabanilla told the local radio. "It was similar to what happened to us in 2007."
An 8.0 quake in 2007 killed more than 500 people in Ica and wrecked thousands of homes.
(Reporting by Helen Popper and Patricia Velez; Editing by Bill Trott)
Exxon Mobil Corp. is selling its Japanese refining and marketing business to partner TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K. in a deal valued at $3.9 billion.
TonenGeneral Sekiyu will buy 99 percent of the shares of Exxon Mobil Yugen Kaisha, which refines and sells fuel and lubricants, the Japanese refiner said. Exxon Mobil's stake in TonenGeneral will drop to 22 percent from 50 percent.
Exxon Mobil said the deal, announced Sunday, will result in a refining and marketing business "better positioned to meet Japan's energy needs."
Large oil and gas companies have been shedding refining operations in recent years, especially in developed markets where demand for gasoline and diesel has been weak. Tightening car and truck fuel economy rules are expected to keep demand for fuels low for years to come.
Marathon Oil spun off its refining operations last July. This summer ConocoPhillips also plans to split itself in two, separating its refining operations from its more profitable oil and gas exploration and production business. BP and Shell are selling refineries in the U.S. and Western Europe.
Exploring and producing oil and gas is generally more profitable than refining crude into gasoline and diesel. It offers investors a chance for faster growth. Also, oil prices are high and are expected to remain so, which has helped producer profits and funded a boom in new exploration.
PHILADELPHIA?? Singer Nancy Sinatra may have had boots made for walking, but she never attended Pottstown Middle School.
Starting Monday the Philadelphia suburban district is banning the wearing of fuzzy open-top boots, including the popular Ugg brand, to middle school classes because students have been stashing cell phones in the loose footwear, according to district director of community relations John Armato.
"Cell phones are a problem for obvious reasons," Armato said.
Superintendent Reed Lindley said the school principal asked for the boot ban "because of the classroom disruptions that are resulting from ringing cell phones."
Students at the school can avoid going toe-to-toe with school officials by wearing boots that lace up and usually have a snugger fit.
First time offenders will get detention, and subsequent violations include two detentions, followed by confiscation of the phone, Armato said.
Middle school parent Adrienne Beyer said she thinks the ban is extreme.
"I understand there may be a handful of kids that shove cell phones down their boots, but why does the handful have to ruin it for the other 600 students? But, I said to my daughter, 'It's a rule and we're going to follow it,'" Beyer said.
Ugg sheepskin boots originated in Australia and New Zealand and have become popular with pre-teens and teenagers in the United States in recent years.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
DAVOS, Switzerland ? The head of the International Monetary Fund appeared to be making headway Saturday in her drive to boost the institution's financial firepower so that it can help Europe prevent its crippling debt crisis from further damaging the global economy.
Christine Lagarde, who replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the fund six months ago, is trying to ramp up the IMF's resources by $500 billion so it can help if more lending is needed in Europe or elsewhere. The IMF is the world's traditional lender-of-last-resort and has been involved in the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Insisting that the IMF is a "safe bet" and that no country had ever lost money by lending to the IMF, Lagarde argued that increasing the size of the IMF's resources would help improve confidence in the global financial system. If enough money is in the fund the markets will be reassured and it won't be used, she said, using arguments similar to those that France has made about increasing Europe's own rescue fund.
"It's for that reason that I am here, with my little bag, to collect a bit of money," she said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps town of Davos.
Her plea appeared to find a measure of support from ministers of Britain and Japan, sizable IMF shareholders that would be expected to contribute to any money-raising exercise.
George Osborne, Britain's finance minister, said there is "a case for increasing IMF resources and ... demonstrating that the world wants to help together to solve the world's problems," provided the 17 countries that use the euro show the "color of their money."
Osborne said he would be willing to argue in Parliament for a new British contribution, though he may encounter opposition from some members from his own Conservative Party.
Japan's economy minister, Motohisa Furukawa, said his country would help the eurozone via the IMF, too, even though Japan's own debt burden is massive. Unlike Europe's debt-ridden economies, Japan doesn't face sky-high borrowing rates, partly because there's a very liquid domestic market that continues to support the country's bonds.
Europe once again dominated discussions on the final full day of the forum in Davos. Despite some optimism about Europe's latest attempts to stem the crisis, fears remain that turmoil could return.
Whether the markets remain stable could rest for now on if Greece, the epicenter of the crisis, manages to conclude crucial debt-reduction discussions with its private creditors. It's also seeking to placate demands from its European partners and the IMF for deeper reforms.
A failure on either front could force the country, which is now in its fifth year of recession, to default on its debt and leave the euro, potentially triggering another wave of mayhem in financial markets that could hit the global economy hard.
One German official even said Saturday that Greece should temporarily cede sovereignty over tax and spending decisions to a powerful eurozone budget commissioner to secure further bailouts. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because talks on the idea are confidential.
"The fact that we're still, at the start of 2012, talking about Greece again is a sign that this problem has not been dealt with," Britain's Osborne said.
For Donald Tsang, the chief executive of Hong Kong, efforts to deal with the 2-year-old debt crisis have fallen short of what is required. The failure to properly deal with the Greek situation quickly has meant the ultimate cost to Europe has been higher, he said.
"I have never been as frightened (about the global economy) than I am now," he said.
Most economic forecasters predict that the global economy will continue to grow this year, but at a fairly slow rate. The IMF recently reduced its forecasts for global growth in 2012 to 3.3 percent, from the 4 percent pace that the IMF projected in September.
Lagarde sought to encourage some countries that use the euro to boost growth to help shore up the ailing eurozone economy, which is widely expected to sink back into recession, adding that it would be counterproductive if all euro countries cut their budgets aggressively at the same time.
"Some countries have to go full-speed ahead to do this fiscal consolidation, but other countries have space and room," Lagarde said.
Though conceding that there aren't many such countries, Lagarde said it is important that those that have the headroom explore how they can boost growth. She carefully avoided naming any countries, but likely had in mind Germany, Europe's largest economy and a major world exporter. She didn't specify how to boost growth or how one eurozone country could help others grow.
Lagarde said members of the eurozone should continue the drive to tie their economies closer together. On Monday, European leaders gather in Brussels in the hopes of agreeing on a treaty that will force member countries to put deficit limits into their national laws.
Britain's Osborne said eurozone leaders should be praised for the "courage" they have shown over the past few months in enacting austerity and setting in place closer fiscal ties, but said more will have to be done if the single currency is to get on a surer footing.
Fiscal transfers from rich economies to poorer ones will become a "permanent feature" of the eurozone, Osborne predicted.
While politicians and business people were discussing the state of the global economy within the confines of the conference center, protesters questioned the purpose of the event as income inequalities grow worldwide.
Protesters from the Occupy movement that started on Wall Street have camped out in igloos at Davos and were demonstrating in front of City Hall to call attention to the needs of the poor and unemployed.
In a separate protest, three Ukrainian women were arrested when they stripped off their tops ? despite temperatures around freezing ? and tried to climb a fence surrounding the invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders.
"Crisis! Made in Davos," read one message painted across a protester's torso.
Davos police spokesman Thomas Hobi said the three women were taken to the police station and told they weren't allowed to demonstrate. He said they would be released later in the day.
___
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from Davos, Switzerland. Juergen Baetz in Berlin also contributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal and state law enforcement officials announced Friday that they have launched a fraud-fighting initiative to root out wrongdoing in the market for residential mortgage-backed securities.
Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference that bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hold violators accountable.
Residential mortgage-backed securities are the huge investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation's financial crisis.
Appearing with Holder, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a co-chair of the initiative, said the effort will link state and federal probes of the mortgage-backed securities bubble.
The collapse in value of mortgage-backed securities resulted in unprecedented losses and "all of us" in law enforcement are dedicated to holding accountable financial institutions that lied and cheated and misled investors, said Robert Khuzami, director of the enforcement division at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
President Barack Obama disclosed the effort in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? The near-capacity crowd of 12,000 seemed to be just waiting for somebody to bring up the subject. Finally, when someone rose in Joe Paterno's defense to argue that he had been made a scapegoat, the audience was instantly on its feet, applauding thunderously.
Anger and resentment came spilling out at a campus memorial service Thursday for the football coach, two months after he was summarily fired by the trustees.
It was Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight who broke the dam, defending Paterno's handling of child-sex allegations that were leveled against a former coaching assistant.
"If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response," Knight said. Paterno's widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.
Later, Paterno's son Jay received a standing ovation when he declared: "Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience."
Capping three days of mourning on campus, the 2 1/2-hour ceremony was filled with lavish praise that probably would have embarrassed Paterno, who died Sunday of lung cancer at 85 after racking up more wins ? 409 ? than any other major-college football coach and leading his team to two national championships in 46 seasons.
One by one, Penn State football stars and others credited Paterno with building not just better athletes but better men ? and women. He was saluted for his commitment to sportsmanship, loyalty, teamwork, character, academics and "winning with honor." He was called a good father, a good husband, a good neighbor, a good friend, a good teacher.
Players from each decade of Paterno's career spoke affectionately about him, saying he rode them hard but always had their best interests at heart and encouraged them to complete their educations and make something of themselves.
Though the Penn State campus has been torn with anger over the child-sex scandal and Paterno's dismissal, Jay Paterno said his father didn't hold a grudge.
"Perhaps his truest moment, his living testimony to all that he stood for, came in the last months of his life. Faced with obstacles and challenges that would have left a lesser man bitter, he showed his truest spirit and his truest self," Paterno said.
Only one member of the university administration ? the dean of the college of liberal arts ? and no one from the Board of Trustees spoke at the memorial, which was arranged primarily by the Paterno family.
Among the speakers were Michael Robinson, who played for Paterno from 2002 to 2005, quarterback Todd Blackledge from the 1980s and Jimmy Cefalo, a star in the 1970s. All three went on to play in the NFL.
Former NFL player Charles V. Pittman, speaking for players from the 1960s, called Paterno a lifelong influence and inspiration.
Pittman said Paterno pushed his young players hard, once bringing Pittman to tears in his sophomore year. He said he realized later that the coach was not trying to break his spirit but instead was "bit by bit building a habit of excellence."
"He was building a proud program for the school, the state and the hundreds of young men he watched over for a half-century," said Pittman, now a media executive on the board of The Associated Press.
Similarly, Chris Marrone, whose playing career at Penn State was cut short by injuries, said Paterno molded him into a young man with "the strength to overcome any challenge, any adversity."
Paterno was fired Nov. 9 after he was criticized for not going to police in 2002 when he was told that a former member of his coaching staff, Jerry Sandusky, had been seen sexually assaulting a boy in the showers. Sandusky was arrested in November and is awaiting trial on charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15-year span.
As the scandal erupted, Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said Paterno may have met his legal duty but not his moral one. Penn State president Graham Spanier was also fired in the fallout.
Among those at the memorial was former athletic director Tim Curley, who is awaiting trial on charges he lied to the grand jury that investigated Sandusky.
About midway through the ceremony, Knight became the first speaker to explicitly address the scandal. He said the coach "gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chains to the head of the campus police and the president of the school. The matter was in the hands of a world-class university, and by a president with an outstanding national reputation."
Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for the board, responded after the service by saying: "All the reasons for the board's difficult and anguished decision ? made unanimously, including former football players and everyone who still loves Coach Paterno and his memory ? reached a decision which was heartfelt. All 32."
"The facts speak for themselves" and include the grand jury testimony, he said.
After the memorial, Marrone said Knight was his "new hero" for expressing the "pent-up frustration" many people are feeling.
"I think the response that he got is indicative of how folks feel," Marrone said.
Jay Paterno, who served under his father as quarterback coach, began his remarks by imitating his father's raspy, high-pitched voice, telling the audience, "Sit down! Sit down!"
Growing serious, Paterno described his last moments with his father. As Paterno lay dying, his son kissed him and whispered in his ear.
"Dad, you won," Jay Paterno said he told him. "You did all you could do. You've done enough. We all love you. We won. You can go home now."
Science Online has become my favorite annual conference to attend, by far.? Where else can I be simultaneously surrounded by, tutored, and refreshed by hundreds of folks who are equally geeked about science, technology, outreach, quality education, and social justice and equality as I am? And I love, nay exhilarated by the fact that these comrades are like me, but like me in so many beautiful, complex and different ways.? It warms my heart and feeds my soul. It really does.
I was honored, again, that The Blogfather Bora Z, asked me moderate a session on Broadening Participation of Underrepresented Populations in Online Science Communication & Communities.? There was plenty of discussion and sharing among the participants, which I suppose was near 30 or so (I?m bad a mental math).
Alberto Roca of MinorityPostdoc.org aggregated the notes from the session (which I was typing on the spot).?The?notes include a list of Action Items generated from the discussion. ?It also some video from the session, thanks to Tim Skellet, as well as a Storify summary of? tweets related to the session that occurred both before, during, and after. In fact the tweets continue. Search the hashtags #scio12 #diversity to get the scoop.
The notes give you an idea of the issues we broached.? And truth be told, I believe we could have spent another hour exploring some of the topics more fully.? But there were some very good take home messages, for the people in the room and anyone else in the science, education, and communication worlds that could make the goal of bringing more people into the fold a reality.
1. Regarding blogging, we can each work to create more reader-friendly blog posts.? For example, add more detailed captions for photos.? Some people may be google images and this search activity could bring newer audiences to your blog.? Plus, with more people from urban communities using mobile devices to access the internet, make sure your page is optimized for such viewing.
2. Real life connections still matter, and perhaps more than ever.? Mentoring young scholars ? whether they become scientists/engineers or not is an important if not pivotal piece in the broadening participation jigsaw puzzles.? Plus, it?s important that we maintain real contact with people who may not read blogs very much. We still can be that key resource to them, personally, and their sole connection to science and innovation.
3. The highlight of the session was the incomparable and wise, Dr. Cynthia Coleman (Musings on Native Science). Through her very engaging (and almost hyponotic) story-telling style she eloquently illustrated the imperative of?comprehending cultural norms for different communities.? Many communities such as Native peoples of America have multi-generational traditions for passing on knowledge or us, oral history/story-telling traditions to explain natural phenomena or new discoveries.? And something that really touched the entire audience is that for Native Americans, science isn?t a separate way of knowing.? Science is mbedded/intertwined/enmeshed in everything.? It is a part of the spiritual traditions and rituals of the people. ?And I was heartened to learn that the Ecological Society of America (ESA) is recognizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge or TEK in its programming.? Which opened up the conversation and a member of the USDA Forest Service Eastern Forest & Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center reached out to members of the audience to partner with communicating with different audiences.
4. Finally, Gabe Lyon of Project Exploration really drove home a very important point: There is NO a single way to access STEM. The metaphor of the pipeline may not be the best because all of our solutions to ?plug up? or fix the ?leaky pipeline? are deficit models.?? We?ve got to work with people, all people where they are and help them find or rather navigate this twisty-turny maze to access STEM.
From this perspective, it gives everyone a chance to work At any point of time any or all of us might be called upon to be a
Map spelling out the way, the rewards, and the potential pitfalls to pursuing STEM;
Beacon shining light on new opportunities to students, blog readers, a family member or neighbor child;
Signpost pointing someone in the right direction for financial aid, academic support, or even social services so that they can stay on course;
Cheerleader who celebrates every victory ? a test passed, a presentation given, a lab project completed ? and who?offers unselfish obnoxious applause to persevere when a student falls short of victory;
Shelter offering students retreat when they encounter pitfalls or nasty antagonists along the way, because surely they will; or an
Ally welding your weapon to slay a dragon too ferocious or leding your strength to build bridges across moats too wide for a student to handle alone.
We?ve all got work to do. What will you do to broaden participation of under-represented communities in science and science communication?
DUBLIN (Reuters) ? An Irish man who falsely accused television star and pop impresario Louis Walsh of groping him in a Dublin night club was jailed for six months on Wednesday.
Walsh, who manages boy band Westlife and stars on the popular UK television talent show "X Factor," was accused in June last year of the assault by Leonard Watters, 24, who later retracted the allegations.
"The public must be protected from this type of untrue, unfounded allegations, he put the injured party through a lot of pain and anguish," said District Court Judge Dermot Dempsey.
Watters said he would appeal against the sentence.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries, editing by Paul Casciato)
President Barack Obama signs autographs after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
President Barack Obama signs autographs after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
President Barack Obama shakes hands after speaking about manufacturing and jobs during a visit to Intel Corporation's Ocotillo facility Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Chandler, Ariz. In 2011 Intel announced a more than $5 billion investment to build the new chip manufacturing facility, called the Fab 42, bringing thousands of construction and permanent manufacturing jobs to Intel's Arizona site. (AP Photo/Haraz Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama jogs toward a group of onlookers to shake hands after arriving at the airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama speaks about manufacturing jobs at the Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing plant, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
President Barack Obama speaks about manufacturing jobs, at the Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing plant, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
CHANDLER, Ariz. (AP) ? If President Barack Obama is showing some swagger, it shouldn't be a surprise.
His job approval ratings point to an uptick. The Navy SEAL unit that killed Osama bin Laden just pulled off a daring rescue that Obama authorized in Somalia. He's fresh off a big speech before Congress, and the Republicans who want his job are criticizing each other probably more than they are Obama.
As he hits the road for three days of travel to important political states, Obama is on a roll.
Feeling good, he even tried his hand at a bit of public crooning a few days ago, channeling the Rev. Al Green to a fundraising crowd at the Apollo Theater in New York and securing the highest of pop culture distinction: a ring tone.
It could be a fleeting moment for Obama. While the economy is improving with indicators trending positively, unemployment remains high at 8.5 percent and international debt crises and tensions could unravel the gains. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows signs of increasing optimism that the economy will improve with 37 percent saying it will get better in the next year, the highest level in that poll in more than a year.
For now, Obama is not hiding his upbeat demeanor.
Arriving in Iowa on Wednesday, he jogged, grinning, to a rope line of a couple of dozen supporters. He later expressed nostalgia for the days in 2007 when he was campaigning in Iowa, and he struck a defiant tone against congressional Republicans that was even sharper than the repudiation he offered Tuesday night in his State of the Union address.
"Our economy is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now," he told workers and guests at a conveyor manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids. Speaking of Republicans, he said, "Their philosophy is simple: We're better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules."
"Well, I am here to say they are wrong," he said.
In a stop later in the day in Arizona, Obama stripped off his jacket and joked about the warm weather to a crowd at an Intel chip plant, seeming to revel in being out on the stump.
He even mixed it up with the state's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, confronting her over how she depicted him in her book. Reporters witnessed the two in intense conversation after Brewer greeted Obama on the tarmac at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, and Brewer later said it was over a passage in her book in which she describes Obama as lecturing her over immigration.
A White House official said Obama, who opposes Arizona's controversial immigration law, responded to an invitation from Brewer to meet with her by telling the governor he'd be glad to, but adding that Brewer had inaccurately described their last meeting in her book.
The spring in his step comes as polls show slight improvement in his job approval ratings. A Washington Post/ABC poll last week had him evenly split 48-48 on that question. A Gallup tracking poll has him even in recent surveys, compared with a few months ago when more disapproved than approved.
On the road through Friday, Obama will bask in the afterglow of his prime-time address and use the power of the presidency to compete for headlines with leading GOP White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as they knock heads ahead of the Jan. 31 Florida primary. He will try to promote a populist message of income equality that Obama's team believes can resonate with voters.
Underscoring the political subtext, four of the five states he will visit will hold Republican presidential caucuses or primaries within the next month. The two caucuses ? in Nevada and Colorado ? come within two weeks of his visit.
If 2011 began with overtures to Republicans and big business, 2012 is about operating on his own terms. He will challenge Congress to pass his initiatives, some of which he has tried before without success. For now, Obama is liberated. The thrust and parrying of governing has not picked up in Washington yet.
The road gives him an opportunity to goad congressional Republicans, believing he has been able to sway public opinion with his presidential megaphone before. He cites Washington's decision to extend, for two months, a payroll tax cut for workers. He's now seeking to extend it for the full year, and while there's little doubt that Congress eventually will agree, Obama prodded anyway.
"Your voices convinced Congress to extend this middle-class tax cut before," he said. "You remember there was little resistance there last year. I need your help to get them to do it again. Tell Congress to pass this tax cut without drama, without delay. No soap operas. Just get it done."
Political events are going his way as well.
Just as he stepped up his call for a minimum 30 percent tax rate for millionaires, Romney released his tax returns under pressure, revealing that he paid an effective tax rate of 14 percent. That not only underscored Romney's wealth, it also provided an argument for altering the nation's tax laws, a central element of Obama's re-election campaign.
Gingrich on Wednesday helped keep the focus on Romney's wealth, saying that the wealthy businessman lived in "a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work."
Romney and Gingrich have been forced to target each other in the GOP presidential contest, freeing Obama from the fray. For instance, Romney has ads in Florida and Nevada blaming the housing crisis on Gingrich and concludes that nothing would make Obama happier than Gingrich winning the nomination.
___
AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington and Associated Press writer Cristina Silva in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
Normally, Palo Alto companies buy European ones, but sometimes there are exceptions. Case in point: today?OverBlog, a leading blog platform in Europe with over 32 million uniques according to comScore, is announcing it has acquired Timekiwi, a tool that helps you make a timeline using your social media postings. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but OverBlog says Timekiwi will be integrated into its platform by summer 2012.
Study: Off-campus college party hosts drink more than attendeesPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cynthia Buettner buettner.16@osu.edu 614-247-7854 Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio On any given weekend, at least 10 percent of students at a single college could be hosting a party, and on average, party hosts who live off campus are drinking more and engaging in more alcohol-related problem behaviors than are the students attending their bashes, research suggests.
In contrast, hosts of parties held on campus tend to drink less than do the students attending their gatherings, according to the study.
The research also suggests that college party hosts are more likely than the students attending parties to be male, living off campus, members of a Greek organization and in their second year or higher of college, and have more money to spend each month than other students.
The results come from an online survey of 3,796 students over the course of two academic years.
The findings could guide efforts by university personnel to curb excessive drinking at college parties, researchers say.
"Party hosts set the context for the attendees. They decide what kind of drinks are going to be there and how many people are going to attend," said Cynthia Buettner, assistant professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "So if you could get people to think about hosting a party in a particular way, you could reduce the risks for the people who attend."
The study is published in a recent issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Buettner used data from a larger study of campus drinking behavior to zero in on the activities of party hosts. To her knowledge, hers is the first study to examine how the behavior of party hosts differs from that of the students who attend college gatherings.
"It's all in the name of intervention. The more information you have, the better able you are to target prevention efforts," Buettner said.
The researchers contacted a random sample of registered students by e-mail, asking them to report on their alcohol use during eight different weekends from 2005 to 2007. If they reported in the online survey that they had attended or hosted a party, they were eligible for this study.
Of the 3,796 participants, 433 or more than 12 percent had hosted weekend parties. "It's not a small group," Buettner said. "That finding alone surprised us."
About 80 percent of the parties reported in the survey had been held at off-campus locations. The average number of guests at parties attended by survey respondents ranged from 25 to 60.
Off-campus party hosts consumed an average of almost nine drinks, compared to the 7 drinks consumed by party guests. On campus, the trend was reversed: Party hosts reported drinking an average of about 4 drinks, compared to the 7 drinks consumed by attendees. The total range of drinks consumed spanned from zero to 30, according to the survey.
Off-campus party hosts were more likely to participate in problem behaviors associated with drinking than were attendees at any party and on-campus party hosts. These included verbal arguments, public urination, flashing or mooning, vandalism to the party location or to nearby property, rioting, physically fighting, driving after drinking and riding with someone who had been drinking.
On the other hand, hosts of parties held on campus were less likely than party attendees at either type of location to observe risky drinking and related consequences. These behaviors included heavy drinking, underage drinking, unwanted sexual advances, verbal arguments, physical assault, public urination, flashing or mooning, vandalism or spontaneous rioting.
Though the questionnaires weren't designed to pursue more details about these outcomes, the researchers said the finding that hosts of on-campus parties drink less than their guests is probably associated with the risks of getting in trouble with the university.
"It's logical to think that off-campus party hosts would be more likely to drink a lot. They know they're not going to drive, they're home and they probably started before everyone arrived. Our theory is that on-campus party hosts may be worried about potential sanctions," Buettner said.
The findings could be used to influence intervention efforts on college campuses, the researchers say. For example, beyond advising students to "party smart," potential off-campus party hosts could be informed of their increased risk for heavy drinking.
"I'd be willing to bet, though we wouldn't know until we did the research, that there is a group of students who tend to be the host over and over again. This gives you a group of students for whom a very particular type of intervention would be helpful," Buettner said.
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This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Co-authors were Atika Khurana and Natasha Slesnick, also of Ohio State's Department of Human Development and Family Science.
Written by Emily Caldwell. 614-292-8310; caldwell.151@osu.edu
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Study: Off-campus college party hosts drink more than attendeesPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cynthia Buettner buettner.16@osu.edu 614-247-7854 Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio On any given weekend, at least 10 percent of students at a single college could be hosting a party, and on average, party hosts who live off campus are drinking more and engaging in more alcohol-related problem behaviors than are the students attending their bashes, research suggests.
In contrast, hosts of parties held on campus tend to drink less than do the students attending their gatherings, according to the study.
The research also suggests that college party hosts are more likely than the students attending parties to be male, living off campus, members of a Greek organization and in their second year or higher of college, and have more money to spend each month than other students.
The results come from an online survey of 3,796 students over the course of two academic years.
The findings could guide efforts by university personnel to curb excessive drinking at college parties, researchers say.
"Party hosts set the context for the attendees. They decide what kind of drinks are going to be there and how many people are going to attend," said Cynthia Buettner, assistant professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "So if you could get people to think about hosting a party in a particular way, you could reduce the risks for the people who attend."
The study is published in a recent issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Buettner used data from a larger study of campus drinking behavior to zero in on the activities of party hosts. To her knowledge, hers is the first study to examine how the behavior of party hosts differs from that of the students who attend college gatherings.
"It's all in the name of intervention. The more information you have, the better able you are to target prevention efforts," Buettner said.
The researchers contacted a random sample of registered students by e-mail, asking them to report on their alcohol use during eight different weekends from 2005 to 2007. If they reported in the online survey that they had attended or hosted a party, they were eligible for this study.
Of the 3,796 participants, 433 or more than 12 percent had hosted weekend parties. "It's not a small group," Buettner said. "That finding alone surprised us."
About 80 percent of the parties reported in the survey had been held at off-campus locations. The average number of guests at parties attended by survey respondents ranged from 25 to 60.
Off-campus party hosts consumed an average of almost nine drinks, compared to the 7 drinks consumed by party guests. On campus, the trend was reversed: Party hosts reported drinking an average of about 4 drinks, compared to the 7 drinks consumed by attendees. The total range of drinks consumed spanned from zero to 30, according to the survey.
Off-campus party hosts were more likely to participate in problem behaviors associated with drinking than were attendees at any party and on-campus party hosts. These included verbal arguments, public urination, flashing or mooning, vandalism to the party location or to nearby property, rioting, physically fighting, driving after drinking and riding with someone who had been drinking.
On the other hand, hosts of parties held on campus were less likely than party attendees at either type of location to observe risky drinking and related consequences. These behaviors included heavy drinking, underage drinking, unwanted sexual advances, verbal arguments, physical assault, public urination, flashing or mooning, vandalism or spontaneous rioting.
Though the questionnaires weren't designed to pursue more details about these outcomes, the researchers said the finding that hosts of on-campus parties drink less than their guests is probably associated with the risks of getting in trouble with the university.
"It's logical to think that off-campus party hosts would be more likely to drink a lot. They know they're not going to drive, they're home and they probably started before everyone arrived. Our theory is that on-campus party hosts may be worried about potential sanctions," Buettner said.
The findings could be used to influence intervention efforts on college campuses, the researchers say. For example, beyond advising students to "party smart," potential off-campus party hosts could be informed of their increased risk for heavy drinking.
"I'd be willing to bet, though we wouldn't know until we did the research, that there is a group of students who tend to be the host over and over again. This gives you a group of students for whom a very particular type of intervention would be helpful," Buettner said.
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This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Co-authors were Atika Khurana and Natasha Slesnick, also of Ohio State's Department of Human Development and Family Science.
Written by Emily Caldwell. 614-292-8310; caldwell.151@osu.edu
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How fast is Telstra's new 4G network? Pretty darned fast, according to a recent speed test that Ausdroid ran on an HTC Velocity -- Australia's first 4G handset. As the above image clearly demonstrates, the device impressively managed to reach download speeds of 32.82Mbps, with upload rates of 11.26Mbps. Ausdroid was quick to point out that speeds will likely vary across Telstra's network, though it wasn't the only one to report astronomic numbers. Trevor Long, in fact, actually managed to top Ausdroid's results, with a whopping 39.85Mbps downstream, and 11.88Mbps upstream. He also posted an image to his Twitter account, just to rub it in.
Mykonos (the security software company, not the lovely Greek island) has secured $4 million in a Series A funding round led by previous backer Tom Golisano, founder and chairman of Paychex.
When the film "Citizen Kane" came out in 1941, William Randolph Hearst gave it an unequivocal two thumbs down.
The press lord kept ads for the film out of his many newspapers. Just before its release, one of his allies in Hollywood tried to buy the footage in order to burn it. Another approached FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who launched a decade-long investigation of Orson Welles, the film's 26-year-old director, producer, co-writer and star.
But rosebuds bloom in unlikely places. Seventy-one years after Hearst's effort to derail it, "Citizen Kane" will be shown at Hearst Castle's visitors center, with the blessings of the Hearst family.
The March 9 screening on the five-story-tall screen at the Hearst Castle Theater is part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.
Wendy Eidson, the festival's director, said the film probably has never been seen on Hearst's sprawling estate. Since 1958, the opulent landmark, which Hearst called "La Cuesta Encantada" (The Enchanted Hill), has been open to the public as a state park.
"I tossed out the idea of screening 'Citizen Kane' there as a joke, and they didn't laugh," Eidson said. "I was sort of floored."
Steve Hearst, the mogul's great-grandson, said the event will present the film as a work of fiction rather than as a documentary about the life of the patriarch known to family members as W.R.
"It's a great opportunity to draw a clear distinction between W.R. and Orson Welles, between the medieval, gloomy-looking castle shown in 'Citizen Kane' and the light, beautiful, architecturally superior reality," he said.
"Citizen Kane" is the unflattering portrait of a character resembling Hearst, a sensationalistic newspaper tycoon with political ambitions, a young mistress in show business, a jaw-dropping mansion and an insatiable zeal for collecting art.
The parallels between Hearst and Charles Foster Kane are obvious ? but so, too, are the differences, said Steve Hearst, who manages the family's ranches and other business interests.
"The character Orson Welles depicted was quite a bit more flamboyant and outgoing than W.R. was," he said. "He wasn't the kind of guy who would be dancing in the editorial room with his staffers."
Another big difference was in the film's portrayal of Kane's love interest, a booze-soaked singer forced by Kane into a disastrous operatic career. Hearst's real-life mistress, Marion Davies, was a talented comic actress later described by Welles as "an extraordinary woman ? nothing like the character."
By all accounts, Hearst was angry over her portrayal. Decades later, Welles agreed: "I always thought he was right to be upset about that," he said in a 1969 interview with director Peter Bogdanovich.
In the film, Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his castle, a pathetic old man. His final word is the enigmatic "Rosebud" ? the name, as it turned out, of the sled Kane had kept from his childhood.
When Hearst died in 1951, he was surrounded by family at the Beverly Hills mansion he shared with Davies.
"His last words went unrecorded," said film scholar James Naremore.
Though Hearst knew enough about "Citizen Kane" to dislike it immensely, he never actually saw the film, according to Davies and others.
Welles even liked to tell a story about the tycoon declining a personal invitation to see it. In the 1969 interview, he said he bumped into Hearst in an elevator at the Fairmont Hotel the night the film opened in San Francisco.
"He and my father had been chums, so I introduced myself and asked if he'd like to come to the opening of the picture," Welles recalled.
The reception was chilly.
"He didn't answer," said Welles, who, ever the showman, took full advantage of the moment:
"As he was getting off at his floor, I said, "Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.' "
FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 file photo, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaks to reporters during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Sanaa, Yemen. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. regrets that Yemen's president has not complied with agreements to leave the country and allow elections for a successor. Her comments came as Yemen's foreign minister suggested next month's presidential vote could be delayed because of security concerns _ something that would violate the the U.S.-backed agreement that President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed recently. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hamoud, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 file photo, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaks to reporters during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Sanaa, Yemen. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. regrets that Yemen's president has not complied with agreements to leave the country and allow elections for a successor. Her comments came as Yemen's foreign minister suggested next month's presidential vote could be delayed because of security concerns _ something that would violate the the U.S.-backed agreement that President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed recently. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hamoud, File)
Protestors react after receiving the news of the departure of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Sanaa to Oman in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 22, 2012. A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
Protestors react after receiving the news of the departure of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Sanaa to Oman in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 22, 2012. A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration will allow Yemen's outgoing president to come to the U.S. temporarily for medical treatment, a move aimed at easing the political transition in Yemen, a key counterterrorism partner.
A senior administration official said Ali Abdullah Saleh would travel to New York this week, and probably stay in the U.S. until no later than the end of February. U.S. officials believe Saleh's exit from Yemen could lower the risk of disruptions in the lead-up to presidential elections planned there on Feb. 21.
A presidential spokesman in Yemen said Saleh had left the capital of Sanaa earlier Sunday on a jet headed for the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman. An official close to Saleh, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the trip, said the president would undergo medical exams in Oman before heading to the U.S.
The U.S. official did not say whether Saleh planned to return to Yemen, Oman or elsewhere after finishing his treatment in the U.S. The official was not authorized to discuss details about Saleh and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Yemeni embassy in Washington said Saleh planned to return home in February to attend a swearing-in ceremony for the country's newly elected president.
The mercurial Saleh, who ruled Yemen for more than three decades, agreed to transfer power to his vice president late last year in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He had faced months of protests calling for his ouster, to which the Yemeni government responded with a bloody crackdown, leaving hundreds of protesters dead and sparking wider violence in the capital with rival militia.
Even after agreeing to leave power, Saleh continued to wield his influence behind the scenes, and U.S. officials believed getting him out of Yemen was necessary in order to ensure the February elections took place. The U.S. also worried about instability in a nation grappling with growing extremism, including the dangerous al-Qaida branch known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Still, Saleh's request last month for a U.S. visa put the Obama administration in the awkward position of either having to bar a friendly president from U.S. soil or risking appearing to harbor an autocrat with blood on his hands.
As U.S. officials weighed Saleh's request, they sought assurances that he would not seek political asylum or any type of permanent relocation in the U.S.
"We wanted to make sure that there was an understanding that it would be for medical purposes and that's what it is for," John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said Sunday.
Saleh was badly burned and wounded during a June rocket attack on his compound in Yemen. He sought medical treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia for three months. American officials had hoped he would remain there, but the Yemeni leader returned and violence worsened anew.
Protesters and human rights groups have criticized Saleh's immunity clause and insisted he stand trial for his alleged role in protester deaths.
Brennan said there was a divide in Yemen over Saleh's future, with some Yemenis supporting Saleh's decision to seek medical treatment in the U.S. In the short-term, he said, it was imperative to ensure that the February elections take place.
"We thought it was important, given where Yemen is right now as far as moving forward with its political transition, to do what we can to support the government and the elections that are scheduled for the 21st of February, and that seems to be on track," he said.
Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is expected to be rubber-stamped as the country's new leader in the elections, in which he is expected to be the only candidate.
Brennan spoke with Hadi on Sunday, and told him the U.S. was encouraged by his leadership during a difficult period of transition. With fresh demonstrations likely in the weeks leading up to the elections, Brennan urged Hadi to ensure that Yemeni security forces exercise restraint.
The Obama administration's approval of Saleh's visa brought back memories from three decades ago, when President Jimmy Carter allowed the exiled shah of Iran into the U.S. for medical treatment. The decision contributed to rapidly worsening relations between Washington and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution in Tehran, with Iranian students occupying the U.S. Embassy in Iran a month later.
Fifty-two American hostages were held for 444 days in response to Carter's refusal to send the shah back to Iran for trial.
___
Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj and Ben Hubbard in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed to this report.
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Miles run year to date: 15 At this date last year: 6 Total run in 2011: 113 In 2010: 125 In 2009: 67 In 2008: 28 In 2007: 113 In 2006: 100 In 2005: 149 In 2004: 204 In 2003: 269
MADRID (AP) -Another loss to Barcelona has piled pressure on Jose Mourinho, with support for the Real Madrid coach ebbing after another ill-tempered and ineffective display against its biggest rival summed up by Pepe's ugly stamp on Lionel Messi's hand.
Barcelona rallied for a 2-1 Copa del Rey victory on Wednesday for its 10th victory in 13 games, and sixth win against Madrid since the Portuguese coach took over in 2010.
Mourinho's defensive tactics and use of centerback Pepe in midfield did little to stop Barcelona's attack, while his aggressive approach and lack of offensive inspiration drew jeers from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Even daily sports paper Marca, a staunch Madrid supporter, labeled Madrid's performance "woeful" and Pepe's stamp on Messi "repugnant."
"Madrid has thrown its entire history overboard by electing this woeful style, which did not produce a single benefit," Marca columnist Santi Segurola wrote. "(Pepe's) presence in midfield represented a minuscule, almost nothing, Madrid that disappointed because Spanish football remembers a lot of (Madrid) teams with less talent that made it more difficult for Barcelona.
"This team has bought the best players the market has to offer - what for? To play like an insignificant, distasteful team."
Mourinho surprised by sticking with a defensive game plan that had failed before against Barcelona, with Ricardo Carvalho and Hamit Altintop starting in defense and Madrid's focus of disrupting Barcelona's midfield creativity led by Pepe, who came under heavy criticism from the Spanish press, with Marca calling his stamp "unacceptable."
Pepe's actions were not surprising. The Portugal defender was red carded for a tackle on Barcelona's Daniel Alves in their Champions League semifinal in April, and he was also banned for 10 games in April 2009 after lashing out at two Getafe players in a skirmish that included him stamping on the back of Javier Casquero after pushing the player to the ground, unprovoked.
"Pepe always plays fairly," Carvalho said. "Sometimes he plays to the limit but his intention is always to play the ball and to play cleanly."
Pepe's stamp on Messi, who was also violently shoved in the head by Madrid defender Fabio Coentrao during the match, characterized Madrid's inability to deal with Barcelona, as the Catalans held the ball for nearly three-quarters of the match.
"Pepe has trouble managing his aggressiveness. There's a great feeling of impotence in Madrid, which is trying all possible methods and Mourinho probably feels incapable despite all of his history of successes," Juan Carlos Cubeiro, co-author of "Mourinho vs. Guardiola: Two Methods for Achieving the Same Objective," told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Mourinho tried a very intelligent strategy by hoping to strike on the counter. He is intelligent, he knows they can't play with Barca and the only way to success is on the counter."
Cubeiro said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola's belief in team play and the fact that so many of Barcelona's players came out of its youth academy were behind the highly paid Madrid squad's inability to find a way to beat the Catalans.
"You cannot copy the collective system that Guardiola relies on. Manchester United tried, Santos tried and neither succeeded," said Cubeiro, who echoed a sentiment that is unlikely to ever be adopted by Mourinho. "Madrid play better without Cristiano Ronaldo than with him, they have more options without him, which is quite a paradox" because Mourinho called the Portugal forward his best player on Wednesday night.
Madrid leads defending champion Barcelona by five points in the league, and must first play Athletic Bilbao on Sunday before trying to overturn the first leg result on Wednesday. While Mourinho said Pepe could be punished for the stamp, there is no certainty over whether there will be any consequences to his actions in another Barcelona performance eclipsed by Madrid's transgressions.
"There are people whose job is just that, to review the play. Let's see what they do," Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said on Thursday.
"People just want to watch football, good games, good football. We don't want to talk about bad things like this, because it is bad for Spanish football and we don't really want this."
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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??David Beckham considered other offers but decided nothing was better than his adopted home with the L.A. Galaxy.
BEIJING ? Desperate to return home for China's most important holiday, migrant worker Li Zhuqing lined up for six chilly days and nights at a train station ticket counter only to be told that all the seats were sold out.
Reports of Li's plight in Hangzhou prodded local media to help Li and his family travel home after his case touched a nerve in China, where getting home for Lunar New Year is a nightmare for tens of millions and represents the world's largest seasonal migration of people.
However, a new twist has been added this year with the introduction of online train ticket sales: Many of the country's less-computer-savvy migrants like 48-year-old Li seem to have been left out in the cold.
"I was very sad and angry," Li said. "Why couldn't I get a ticket while every train was full of passengers?"
In the days leading up to Monday's start of the Year of the Dragon, buses, trains and their stations will burst at the seams with people trying to return to hometowns for a holiday that's like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year rolled into one.
For many people, the holiday is the one chance a year to see family, and they return home laden with gifts.
"I told myself I must reunite with my parents whom I'd left in loneliness for a year," Li said in a phone interview after he successfully made it home to his parents' place in Hunan province.
"They had cried over the phone when they knew I didn't get the tickets and had fallen ill. They told me they didn't want anything from me. They just wanted me to be home," he said.
The importance of the holiday, combined with China's sheer size, makes the scale of the migration massive. Transport officials estimate that Chinese will make 3.2 billion trips, from intercity flights and trains to local bus rides to villages, in the six weeks around the holiday, which is also known as the Spring Festival.
Some 900,000 large- and mid-sized buses will be dispatched to transport 80 million people a day while 14,000 flights and nearly 700 trains have been added, state media report. In the south, traffic police have dispatched cars and helicopters to escort tens of thousands of migrants riding motorcycles home.
"Spring Festival travel in China is phenomenal. Nowhere else in the world do so many people move at one time," said John Scales, the World Bank's transport expert in Beijing.
Just five days of rail trips during the Chinese holiday equal all the trips made on the United States' Amtrak passenger rail system in one year, Scales said.
It's a Herculean undertaking for an authoritarian government which stakes its legitimacy in part on organizing large-scale events and which worries that mishaps might trigger questions about its competence.
With the memory of a bullet train crash last year still fresh on the minds of many, the government has emphasized safety in its preparations for this year's travel rush.
When thick smog, snow and rain halted trains in central China, grounded flights in the north and closed highways around the country this week, state media reported that transport officials acted quickly to reduce delays.
The biggest frustration for Chinese has been buying tickets.
For the first time, the government this year is allowing tickets to be bought online or by phone, instead of only in person or through agents. Rampant scalping, a scourge in the past, has reportedly been reduced by a new requirement that identification cards be presented whenever tickets are bought. Local railway bureaus have set up microblogs to answer questions and provide updates on ticket sales.
But the process is still an ordeal. Online services and phone hotlines have been overwhelmed by orders, meaning that many people have been forced to rely on the traditional way of waiting at ticket windows.
Even when they do work, the online services disadvantage older migrant workers with little Internet access, like Li in Hangzhou.
Early this month, Li prepared for what he thought would be a one-day wait in the cold at the Hangzhou train station, throwing on a wool sweater and heavy coat. He bought a piece of cardboard from a fruit seller to lay on the wet ground at night when the sales window closed.
For six days, he was told that tickets to his hometown of Yongzhou and nearby cities had already been sold out. But he kept waiting in case some tickets were returned ? which often happens.
In previous years, he was always able to get tickets after waiting several hours, he said.
News of Li's woes circulated widely on China's popular microblog sites. A few local media companies paid for Li and his family to take a train to another city and then arranged for a van to drive them the rest of the way home, he said.
In Shanghai, 61-year-old migrant Wang Yueying finally obtained a standing-room-only ticket for the 30-hour journey to the northern city of Changchun where her daughter lives after someone returned a ticket at the train station.
"In the past, I could spend 50 or 100 yuan ($15) more to buy a ticket from scalpers in the black market, but not any more," said Wang, a teacher. "The online system is much easier for white-collar workers, they can get online more quickly and have better skills. It is too hard for the migrant workers and the elderly."
Frustration over tickets has triggered noisy confrontations.
Photos posted online showed about 50 people in the southern city of Shenzen blocking a road last Saturday after being unable to buy tickets at a train station. Some of them appeared to be in heated arguments with police.
Rising incomes are giving some people the means to avoid the train crush altogether by a new alternative: car pooling. People who want to defray the costs of driving home can post notices on websites detailing their travel dates, destinations and contact numbers.
"Train tickets are very scarce right now and difficult to buy," said Zhao Yongliang, a manager for a water purifier company in Beijing, as he and a couple picked up another two passengers on Wednesday to head south to their homes in Henan.
Zhao said each passenger would chip in 200 yuan to cover highway tolls and gas.
"I'm in a really good mood because I can set off this morning and be reunited with my family by this evening," Zhao said with a big grin.
___
Associated Press researchers Yu Bing in Beijing and Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.
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