Romney lead over Gingrich up in Florida: Reuters/Ipsos poll (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney's lead over rival Newt Gingrich edged up to 12 percentage points in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos online poll results on Sunday, as Romney's front-runner status stabilized and Gingrich continued to slip.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive, was supported by 42 percent of likely Florida voters surveyed in the online three-day tracking poll, just down from 43 percent in the same poll on Saturday. Romney was at 41 percent on Friday.

But with just two days before the state's primary on Tuesday, Gingrich's support was at 30 percent, down from 32 percent in Saturday's results and 33 percent on Friday.

The gap between the two was 11 percent when poll respondents were asked about a hypothetical head-to-head race between the rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination to oppose President Barack Obama in the general election in November.

If the race were between Romney and Gingrich only, Romney would be at 55 percent to Gingrich's 44 percent, according to the Sunday's results. On Saturday the gap between the two was eight percentage points and on Friday it was just two, when respondents were asked the same question.

"Newt Gingrich's position in the primary race is really starting to lose support," said Chris Jackson, research director for Ipsos Public Affairs.

The poll results, similar to those of several other surveys, illustrated Romney's remarkable turnaround since South Carolina's primary on January 21, which Gingrich won in a surprise upset.

"Gingrich got a big boost out of South Carolina, but he's losing that," said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak.

"It's clear that Romney's run a much more focused and effective campaign in Florida than Newt," he said. "Newt's playing defense every single day in every way and doesn't seem to be able to make Romney play defense."

Romney had two strong debate performances this week and has jumped to a solid lead over Gingrich, whom he had trailed in earlier opinion polls in Florida. He has taken steady aim at Gingrich on the debate stage and in attack ads as a politician who left government under an ethics cloud and has remained a Washington insider ever since.

GINGRICH FACES TOUGH FEBRUARY

Romney has a solid advantage in money and organization over Gingrich in Florida, and the month ahead does not look much better for the former speaker as the state-by-state race for the Republican nomination continues.

Four states with February contests - Nevada, Maine, Colorado and Minnesota - use caucus systems, which can require greater organization to rally voter turnout. That could help Romney take advantage of his superior financial and staff resources.

On February 28, Michigan and Arizona hold primaries. Romney was raised in Michigan, where his father was a governor and car executive.

"February does not look like a good month for Newt," Mackowiak said.

But his failure to gain more support among likely voters in Florida's primary, which is limited only to registered Republicans, shows that Romney is still not electrifying the party faithful. "He's not the guy that everyone loves and rallies behind," Jackson said. "He's not getting that huge rally of support."

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum trailed well behind with 16 percent support, the same as Saturday's level. Santorum seemed to be gaining momentum as an "alternate" to Romney. Thirty-eight percent of likely voters said he would be their second choice if their first choice left the race, up from 33 percent on Saturday and 30 percent on Friday.

But it is probably too close to the January 31 vote to make a difference, Jackson said.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who is not campaigning in Florida, was at 6 percent.

Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online surveys, but this poll of 726 likely voters in the Florida primary has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points for registered voters.

Sunday's Reuters/Ipsos survey is the third of four daily tracking polls being released ahead of Tuesday's Florida primary.

(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign_poll

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VIDEO: The Best Shameless End Tag You May Have Missed (omg!)

Joan Cusack, Shameless  | Photo Credits: Chuck Hodes/Showtime

If viewers didn't stick around for Shameless' hilarious end tags, they missed a plane falling out of the sky on Sunday's episode.

No, this isn't Lost. Agoraphobe Sheila (Joan Cusack) has been making huge strides throughout the season, venturing just a few steps farther out her door every day. When it seems Sheila will make it to the local watering hole ? where she might learn the real truth of Frank's boozing, scheming ways ? Frank's prayers are answered when a giant piece of an airplane's landing gear falls precariously close to Sheila outside her home, sending her running back inside for comfort.

Photo Gallery: Winter TV's sexiest eye candy

Not that Shameless needed to drop a plane to get anyone's attention, but executive producer John Wells says he hopes this will get people to stick around for the show's dirty, pithy end tags.

He says that a problem with network television now is that at the end of the show "you're assaulted immediately by the local newscast or whatever it is. No matter how well you craft the end of the show to have an emotional response, it's interrupted almost immediately by some other piece of information. By putting the tags in we force everybody to stick around to see that there's something else coming up."

In case viewers did miss the tag, Sheila's return to her agoraphobic state will be explained at the beginning of next Sunday's episode. Just don't expect her leave the house again anytime soon. "She goes back into the covers for a while," Wells says. "She is constantly struggling with her own personal demons and trying to figure out how to move forward in her life."

Check out the best Shameless tag you may have missed:

Shameless airs Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.

Related Articles on TVGuide.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_video_best_shameless_end_tag_may_missed030000353/44350387/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/video-best-shameless-end-tag-may-missed-030000353.html

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Bad weather stops work on capsized Italian cruise ship (Reuters)

GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) ? Divers searching for bodies on the Costa Concordia, the wrecked cruise ship that lies capsized off the Italian coast, suspended work on Sunday after heavy seas and strong winds caused the vessel to shift noticeably, authorities said.

Operations to begin pumping fuel off the ship had already been called off because of bad weather a day earlier, but the search for bodies had continued and a 17th body was recovered on Saturday.

The victim, a woman, was identified as a member of the crew, leaving one body so far unidentified and 15 people still missing after the disaster on January 13.

"There was greater movement caused by heavy seas, wind and low tide and as a precaution, operations have been suspended," a spokesman for the rescue authorities said.

He said that measuring instruments placed on board the 290 meter long ship showed some 3.5 centimeters of movement in six hours, compared with a normal movement of one or two millimeters.

The ship lies half-submerged just meters from shore on a rock shelf near the Tuscan island of Giglio where it ran aground and foundered more than two weeks ago.

Officials have said it is stable and faces little immediate risk of sliding from its resting place in some 20 meters of water into deeper waters. But even the slight movements posed a potential risk to divers exploring the ship's dark interior.

With cloudy and windy weather and choppy seas expected to worsen in coming days, salvage crews are not expected to be able to start pumping the more than 2,300 tonnes of diesel fuel from the ship until the middle of the week.

The operation, aimed at preventing an environmental disaster in the pristine waters of a marine nature reserve, is expected to take between three weeks and one month.

The 114,500-tonne Concordia struck a rock which gashed its hull and caused it to sink after it sailed to within 150 meters of the shore to perform a display maneuver known as a "salute."

Its captain, Francesco Schettino, has been placed under arrest and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.

An extended legal battle is now in prospect after lawyers in the United States and Italy launched class action and individual suits against the ship's owner Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise operator.

(Reporting By Emilio Parodi, writing by James Mackenzie, editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_italy_ship

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Bloomberg exec in talks to run New Corp's Dow Jones (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is in "serious talks" to poach veteran Bloomberg LP executive Lex Fenwick to run its Dow Jones publishing business, which houses the Wall Street Journal, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Fenwick, who founded Bloomberg Ventures in 2008, was previously chief executive of Bloomberg LP, taking over from the company founder Michael Bloomberg in December 2001.

Wall Street Journal reported news of the talks earlier on Friday.

The top job at Dow Jones has been vacant since last July when then-Publisher and Chief Executive Les Hinton resigned in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp's UK newspaper unit, which had previously run.

Hinton told a UK parliamentary inquiry in 2009 that any problem with phone hacking at the company's papers was limited to one case. It was later revealed that thousands of ordinary people and celebrities had been the victims of the voice mail hacking.

Hinton, who worked with News Corp for 52 years, was perhaps Murdoch's closest associate.

Bloomberg and Dow Jones compete with Thomson Reuters.

(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/media_nm/us_newscorp_bloomberg

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Obama urges Congress to act in election year (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama rallied House Democrats for an election-year fight, urging them to work with Republicans if they show some willingness to put politics aside but telling the rank and file to call them out if they stand in the way.

Addressing Democrats on the final day of their three-day annual retreat, Obama outlined the political stakes over the next few months as congressional Democrats try to push his agenda in the face of Republican opposition, the GOP choses its nominee and signs of recovery in a fragile economy go a long way to determining his re-election chances and the party's fate.

Obama said Democrats should seize the opportunity "whenever there is a possibility that the other side is putting some politics aside for just a nanosecond in order to get something done for the American people, we've got to be right there ready to meet them," the president told the sometimes raucous crowd.

However, "where they obstruct, where they're unwilling to act, where they're more interested in party than they are in country, more interested in the next election than the next generation, then we've got to call them out on it," the president said. "We've got to push. We can't wait; we can't be held back."

Coming off a three-day tour to promote his State of the Union message, Obama promised a "robust debate about whose vision is more promising" when Republicans choose their nominee.

On a day when reports showed the economy picking up late in 2011 but still considered "fragile" by the White House, Obama told Democrats wondering about their re-election prospects: "It's going to be a tough election because a lot of people are still hurting out there and a lot of people have lost faith generally about the capacity of Washington to get anything done."

House Republicans, who held their retreat in Baltimore last week, have repeatedly said the election will be a referendum on Obama's policies, especially his handling of the economy.

The president acknowledged that Democrats have embraced parts of his agenda when it was politically difficult and in some cases costly. The party took a drubbing in the midterm elections, losing control of the House and seeing their ranks diminished in the Senate.

And despite some past clashes with House Democrats over his willingness to compromise with Republicans, Obama was warmly received and was introduced as "our champion" by Rep. John Larson of Connecticut.

The president returned the warmth with a vote of confidence that Democrats would win back the House in November, making a nod to their leader as "soon-to-be once-again Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."

"I believe in you guys. You guys have had my back through some very tough times," said the president, who received a small gift ? a DVD of House Democrats singing Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

Last week, at a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York, Obama stood on the stage and crooned a line from the Green classic.

Democrats were upbeat at their three-day session, energized by Obama's State of the Union address and its populist themes as well as recent polls showing more Americans say the country is on the right track and approve of Obama's handling of the economy. Divisions in the Republican ranks that were on full display last year in the fight over extending the payroll tax cut and the bitter battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for the GOP presidential nomination also lifted Democratic spirits.

But the relationship with the White House hasn't always been cordial. Vice President Joe Biden, who addressed the Democrats prior to Obama's speech, described some of the rough patches.

He noted that several members in the room were mad at him in December 2010 after Obama negotiated an extension of President George W. Bush's tax cuts over the objections of some House Democrats. Last year, frustrated Democrats complained the Obama gave away too much in negotiating a spending bill and an agreement to raise the government's borrowing authority.

Biden said Pelosi told him at the last conference to "get tough. Enough is enough." He said the "message was heard. The message was heard. And I think we've delivered."

The vice president was more pointed in his political remarks than Obama and called out some Republicans by name. He said the American people will reject GOP unwillingness to compromise and its blatant determination to make Obama a one-term president.

Of the presidential candidates, Biden said Romney's criticism of the auto bailout and a host of positions stated by rival Newt Gingrich on government intervention will create a clear contrast for voters.

"These guys are helping us by saying what they believe," Biden said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_co/us_house_democrats

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Southwest employee killed in airport accident

By msnbc.com news services

A Southwest Airlines employee at Washington Dulles International Airport died on Friday after being injured in a collision with a luggage cart and a vehicle used to transport passengers.

The incident, according to airline spokesperson Brandy King, occurred on Thursday at approximately 7 a.m. ET.

The employee, who has not been named, was rushed to an area hospital and received medical attention. The airline learned early Friday that the employee died.

"We continue to work with the local authorities and the airport to investigate the accident," King said in a statement to msnbc.com. "The Southwest Airlines Family is greatly saddened by the passing of our Southwest Family Member, and we extend our heartfelt sympathies and support to his entire family at this time."

The airline said it is not planning on releasing additional information at this time.

More from Overhead Bin:

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10251902-southwest-airlines-employee-killed-in-accident-at-dulles-airport

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Russia police investigate democracy protest by toys

By msnbc.com staff

Russian authorities are investigating whether demonstrations in favor of "clean elections" by Lego figures, stuffed dolls and other toys in the Siberian city of Barnaul this month are legal, according to reports.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the toy demonstrations occurred on Jan. 7 and 14 in response to Barnaul police dispersing two protests by people in December over the country's parliamentary election results.


"While the authorities restrict our constitutional rights of freedom of peaceful assembly, the rights of toys have so far been untouched," Andrei Teslenko, a protest organizer, wrote in a post on popular social network Vkontankte, RIA Novosti said.

The so-called "nano meeting" included dolls, stuffed animals, South Park figurines and Lego men, some holding miniature placards reading "I'm for clean elections" and "A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin," according to reports.

However, local police believe the demonstration may be breaking the law and have asked prosecutors to investigate.

"In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event," deputy Barnaul police chief Andrei Mulintsev said at a press conference this week, according to The Guardian newspaper.

Prosecutor Sergei Kirei spoke to RIA Novosti by phone, saying, "People are not stupid ... The figurines did not come there by themselves. They did not write the placards on their own."

He added that they toys were "agitation material."

Teslenko, one of the organizers, said the police investigation to "launch a trial against toys" was "absurd," RIA Novosti said.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10248317-russia-police-investigate-democracy-protest-by-toys

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Scientists reveal how cholera bacterium gains a foothold in the gut

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: David Garner
david.garner@york.ac.uk
44-190-432-2153
University of York

A team of biologists at the University of York has made an important advance in our understanding of the way cholera attacks the body. The discovery could help scientists target treatments for the globally significant intestinal disease which kills more than 100,000 people every year.

The disease is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is able to colonise the intestine usually after consumption of contaminated water or food. Once infection is established, the bacterium secretes a toxin that causes watery diarrhoea and ultimately death if not treated rapidly. Colonisation of the intestine is difficult for incoming bacteria as they have to be highly competitive to gain a foothold among the trillions of other bacteria already in situ.

Scientists at York, led by Dr. Gavin Thomas in the University's Department of Biology, have investigated one of the important routes that V. cholerae uses to gain this foothold. To be able to grow in the intestine the bacterium harvests and then eats a sugar, called sialic acid, that is present on the surface of our gut cells.

Collaborators of the York group at the University of Delaware, USA, led by Professor Fidelma Boyd, had shown previously that eating sialic acid was important for the survival of V. cholerae in animal models, but the mechanism by which the bacteria recognise and take up the sialic was unknown.

The York research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), demonstrates that the pathogen uses a particular kind of transporter called a TRAP transporter to recognise sialic acid and take it up into the cell. The transporter has particular properties that are suited to scavenging the small amount of available sialic acid. The research also provided some important basic information about how TRAP transporters work in general.

The leader of the research in York, Dr. Gavin Thomas, said: "This work continues our discoveries of how bacteria that grow in our body exploit sialic acid for their survival and help us to take forward our efforts to design chemicals to inhibit these processes in different bacterial pathogens."

The research is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and was primarily the work of Dr Christopher Mulligan, a postdoctoral fellow in the Dr Thomas's laboratory.

###


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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: David Garner
david.garner@york.ac.uk
44-190-432-2153
University of York

A team of biologists at the University of York has made an important advance in our understanding of the way cholera attacks the body. The discovery could help scientists target treatments for the globally significant intestinal disease which kills more than 100,000 people every year.

The disease is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is able to colonise the intestine usually after consumption of contaminated water or food. Once infection is established, the bacterium secretes a toxin that causes watery diarrhoea and ultimately death if not treated rapidly. Colonisation of the intestine is difficult for incoming bacteria as they have to be highly competitive to gain a foothold among the trillions of other bacteria already in situ.

Scientists at York, led by Dr. Gavin Thomas in the University's Department of Biology, have investigated one of the important routes that V. cholerae uses to gain this foothold. To be able to grow in the intestine the bacterium harvests and then eats a sugar, called sialic acid, that is present on the surface of our gut cells.

Collaborators of the York group at the University of Delaware, USA, led by Professor Fidelma Boyd, had shown previously that eating sialic acid was important for the survival of V. cholerae in animal models, but the mechanism by which the bacteria recognise and take up the sialic was unknown.

The York research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), demonstrates that the pathogen uses a particular kind of transporter called a TRAP transporter to recognise sialic acid and take it up into the cell. The transporter has particular properties that are suited to scavenging the small amount of available sialic acid. The research also provided some important basic information about how TRAP transporters work in general.

The leader of the research in York, Dr. Gavin Thomas, said: "This work continues our discoveries of how bacteria that grow in our body exploit sialic acid for their survival and help us to take forward our efforts to design chemicals to inhibit these processes in different bacterial pathogens."

The research is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and was primarily the work of Dr Christopher Mulligan, a postdoctoral fellow in the Dr Thomas's laboratory.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uoy-srh012712.php

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Minnesota laying groundwork for gray wolf hunt (Reuters)

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) ? Minnesota officials on Thursday outlined plans to permit a hunting season for the gray wolf this year following its removal from federal endangered species protections, prompting opponents of the plan to consider a court challenge.

Minnesota is home to the largest population of gray wolves in the lower 48 states, about 2,900, and could become the first upper Midwest state to set a hunting season for the animals as they are stripped of federal protections.

Federal officials have withdrawn safeguards under the Endangered Species Act effective Friday, allowing states to decide whether or not to allow the gray wolf to be hunted.

There are about 4,000 gray wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and adjacent states losing protections. Hunting seasons have not yet been proposed in Wisconsin or Michigan.

Federal court challenges brought by the Humane Society and other groups overturned de-listing bids by the fish and wildlife service in 2007 and 2009.

The Humane Society opposed the latest de-listing, opposes the hunting season and is considering another court challenge, Howard Goldman, the Minnesota state director of the Humane Society, said Thursday in a telephone interview.

"We are looking at the legal side and the biology," Goldman said. "We don't believe the wolf has recovered nationally. It only occupies 5 percent of its historic range."

Wolves were hunted to the edge of extinction nationwide, but populations have recovered to the point of conflict between ranchers, farmers and hunters who see them as a threat to livestock and big-game animals such as deer.

A separate population of about 1,200 wolves in Montana and Idaho were removed from the endangered species list last year under an unprecedented act of Congress.

There were fewer than 750 gray wolves in Minnesota in the 1950s. The population had grown to about 2,900 by the late 1990s, a level that has not changed significantly since, according to state natural resources department estimates.

Minnesota state officials plan to allow 400 gray wolves to be killed in a hunting season in late November and believe the population could sustain a higher quota. They discussed the plans with state lawmakers in committee hearings on Thursday.

(Reporting By David Bailey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/pets/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/us_nm/us_minnesota_wolves_hunting

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