Romney has money, momentum in GOP race (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has money and momentum on his side as he plows ahead into a series of February primary contests after a big win in Florida. Chief rival Newt Gingrich is fighting to recover from the significant loss and faces serious disadvantages in the next states to vote.

Talking unity like a nominee, Romney said Tuesday night he was "ready to lead this party and our nation" as he prepared to take his campaign to Minnesota and Nevada on Wednesday.

Gingrich, meanwhile, worked to convince supporters that the primary is still a two-person race. Vowing to stay the course, Gingrich said, "We are going to contest everyplace." He planned stops in three Nevada cities on Wednesday.

Nevada and Maine have caucuses on Feb. 4. Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri all hold contests on Feb. 7. Michigan and Arizona hold primaries on Feb. 28.

Romney begins February with formidable advantages in fundraising and organization. His campaign raised $24 million in the final months of 2011, dwarfing his competitors and leaving him with $20 million to fight a primary battle that's increasingly spread across many states.

The former Massachusetts governor has had staff and volunteers on the ground in upcoming states for months as he's prepared for a drawn-out fight for delegates to the Republican National Convention in August. Gingrich, meanwhile, doesn't have a strong ground game as he looks to contests in states that could prove problematic for him. And in a nomination fight so far defined by debates ? typically a strong point for the former House speaker ? he faces a three-week stretch without one. The candidates will next debate in Arizona on Feb. 22.

Romney won Nevada's caucuses in 2008, and a substantial Mormon population there could propel him to victory. Still, Texas Rep. Ron Paul has been organizing in the state for months and could pose a strong challenge. Romney's campaign is working to paint the nomination fight as a four-candidate contest, with Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum still in the mix. Santorum campaigned in Nevada and Colorado on Tuesday.

Romney's Florida win was a smart rebound from an earlier defeat and represented a major step toward the Republican presidential nomination. He'll receive Secret Service protection, beginning Wednesday, after his campaign requested it.

Tuesday night, he unleashed a strong attack on Democratic President Barack Obama and said the competitive fight for the GOP nomination "does not divide us, it prepares us" for the fall.

"Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it's time to get out of the way," Romney declared.

With 100 percent of Florida's precincts reporting, Romney had 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 32 percent. Santorum had 13 percent and Paul 7 percent; neither mounted a substantial effort in the state.

The winner-take-all primary was worth 50 Republican National Convention delegates, by far the most of any primary state so far.

But the bigger prize was precious political momentum in the race to pick an opponent for Obama in a nation struggling to recover from the deepest recession in decades.

That momentum belonged to Romney when he captured the New Hampshire primary three weeks ago, then swung stunningly to Gingrich when he countered with a South Carolina upset 11 days later.

Now it is back with Romney after a 10-day comeback that marked a change to more aggressive tactics, coupled with an efficient use of an overwhelming financial advantage to batter Gingrich in television commercials.

For the first time in the campaign, exit polls showed a gender gap in Romney's favor. He ran far better among women than Gingrich, winning just over half of their votes, to three in 10 for his rival.

Only about half of the women voters said they had a favorable view of the thrice-married Gingrich as a person, while about eight in 10 had a positive opinion of Romney.

As in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, about half of Florida primary voters said the most important factor for them was backing a candidate who can defeat Obama in November, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks.

Not surprisingly, in a state with an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent, about two-thirds of voters said the economy was their top issue. More than eight in 10 said they were falling behind or just keeping up. And half said home foreclosures have been a major problem in their communities.

Those issues are also likely to drive voters in Nevada, the state with the highest unemployment rate.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120201/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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"The Descendants" actress Judy Greer lands ABC pilot (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES, Jan 31 (TheWrap.com) ? "The Descendants" actress Judy Greer has landed a pilot with ABC.

Dubbed "American Judy," the half-hour, single-camera comedy will follow the exploits of a cosmopolitan woman who "gets married and becomes a fish out of water in the suburbs having to juggle step-kids, her mother-in-law, and the ex-wife of her husband who also happens to be the town sheriff."

Greer will star and executive-produce.

The project, which comes via ABC Studios, is written by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont ("Leap Year," "Made of Honor").

Greer has lately played a recurring role as Bridget Schmidt, the ex of Ashton Kutcher's internet billionaire Walden Schmidt, on "Two and a Half Men." She also provides the voice of Cheryl Tunt on FX's animated series "Archer."

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/media_nm/us_judygreer

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VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raises $1.5B to invest

(AP) ? Silicon Valley entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and his partners have raised another $1.5 billion to invest in technology startups as they prepare to profit from a previous bet on Internet social network Facebook.

The fundraising announced Tuesday serves as further validation of the success that Andreessen has enjoyed since he started his own venture capital firm in mid-2009. The Menlo Park, Calif., firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has invested in about 90 companies since then. The portfolio includes an unspecified stake in Facebook, which is expected to file its plans for a long-awaited initial public offering of stock as early as Wednesday.

Those IPO documents may divulge the holdings of Andreessen Horowitz, if it is among Facebook's biggest stockholders. Before co-founding his venture capital firm, Andreessen also personally invested in Facebook and joined the company's board of directors in 2008.

Andreessen, 40, got rich as one of the Internet industry's first big stars during the 1990s. He helped change the way people used the Internet as part of a team that developed a graphical Web browser called Mosaic in the early 1990s. He went on to co-found Netscape Communications before he had turned 25. After losing its early lead in the Web browser market to Microsoft Corp. in a bruising battle, Netscape was sold to AOL for $10 billion in 1999.

With the latest infusion, Andreessen Horowitz has raised $2.7 billion since the firm's inception. The firm's other partners include Andreessen's longtime business partner, Ben Horowitz, and Jeff Jordan, former CEO of online restaurant reservation service OpenTable Inc.

"We are single-mindedly focused on partnering with the best innovators pursuing the biggest markets," Andreessen said in a statement.

Facebook, which started eight years ago in CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard University dorm room, is expected to seek an IPO price that would value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Andreessen Horowitz also was among the early investors in Zynga Inc., a maker of "FarmVille," ''Words With Friends" and other games that are frequently played on Facebook's social network. Zynga's stock has received a lukewarm response since its Wall Street debut in December. Zynga's stock gained 10 cents to close at $10.49 on Tuesday, just slightly above its IPO price of $10.

Although it focuses on startups, Andreessen Horowitz has explored investing in older companies too. Last year, it was one of several firms discussing the possibility of buying a nearly 20 percent stake in long-slumping Internet company Yahoo Inc. There was even speculation that Andreessen might join Yahoo as an executive, an idea that he refuted in a posting on his personal blog in December.

Yahoo has since hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its fourth CEO in less than five years.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-31-Andreessen%20Horowitz-Venture%20Fund/id-46d1ea2cd18c40e2b14183adc2239f23

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First Drug Ok'd to Combat Spreading Basal Cell Skin Cancer (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a drug to treat the most common form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma.

Erivedge (vismodegib) is the first drug sanctioned in the United States to treat basal cell skin cancer that has metastasized, or spread. The once-daily pill is also designed for cases deemed unsuitable for surgery or radiation, the agency said in a news release.

This usually slow-growing, painless form of cancer starts in the epidermis, the top layer of skin. Frequent exposure to sunlight and other forms of ultraviolet radiation are the typical causes, the FDA said.

Researchers evaluated the safety and effectiveness of Erivedge in a clinical study of 96 people with locally advanced or metastatic cancer. Of those with metastatic disease, 30 percent had at least a partial response to the drug, while 43 percent of people with locally advanced basal cell had at least a partial response.

One specialist welcomed the drug's approval.

"Eviredge is an amazing revolutionary approach to treating skin cancer," said Dr. Michele Green, dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "I have many patients who are elderly and infirm for whom getting surgery is a major ordeal. Molecular biology has advanced to the point where such an important advance in therapy was unthinkable even a few years ago."

Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, and it is estimated that one in five Americans will develop it in their lifetime. Caught early, it is highly treatable.

The most frequently cited side effects of Erivedge included muscle spasms, hair loss, weight loss, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, distorted sense of taste, decreased appetite, constipation and vomiting.

Because of the potential risk for death or severe birth defects to a fetus, the drug will be packaged with a label warning, and doctors will not prescribe it to women who are pregnant, the agency said. Men and women will be advised to use birth control while taking the pills.

Erivedge, marketed by San Francisco-based Genentech, won expedited approval under a priority review program for drugs that may represent a major treatment advance.

More information

The Skin Cancer Foundation has details about basal cell.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120131/hl_hsn/firstdrugokdtocombatspreadingbasalcellskincancer

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Could This 5.4-Megapixel, 0.61-inch MicroOLED Replace Optical Viewfinders? [Displays]

For purist photographers, there is no alternative to the optical viewfinder. Current LED screens are, by comparison, like looking though the bottom of a bottle. But could this tiny, high-res display change that? More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/GBgNJfPtQgU/could-this-54+megapixel-061+inch-microoled-replace-optical-viewfinders

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Romney Cruising To Likely Florida Win But Not On 'Cruise Control' (The Note) (ABC News)

Private investors near deal on Greek debt (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? A disorderly and potentially devastating Greek debt default is looking much less likely.

Greece and investors who own its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.

Negotiators for the investors announced the agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week. If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weak financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept multibillion-dollar losses.

Still, it doesn't resolve the weakening economic conditions in Greece and other European nations as they rein in spending to get their debts under control.

Under the agreement, investors holding euro206 billion in Greek bonds would exchange them for new bonds worth 60 percent less.

The new bonds' face value is half of the existing bonds. They would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent. The existing bonds pay an average interest rate of 5 percent, according to the think tank Re-Define.

The deal would reduce Greece's annual interest expense on the bonds from about euro10 billion to about euro4 billion. And when the bonds mature, instead of paying bondholders euro206 billion, Greece will have to pay only euro103 billion.

Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least euro120 billion, the bonds held by banks, insurance companies and hedge funds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other countries that use the euro, which could also lose value in the event of a full-fledged Greek default. This is the scenario analysts fear most and why they hope investors will voluntarily accept a partial loss on their Greek bonds.

The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund. Besides restructuring its debt with private investors, Greece must also take other steps before getting aid. It must cut its deficit and boost the competitiveness of its economy through layoffs of government employees and the sale of several state companies, among other moves.

Greece faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.

The country got its first bailout in May 2010 when the EU and the IMF signed off on a euro110 billion aid package, most of which has already been disbursed.

Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 160 percent of the country's annual economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade. Without a deal, analysts forecast that ratio ballooning to 200 percent by the end of this year as the Greek economy falters.

Meanwhile, Greece's public creditors ? the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank ? are baffled by the government's repeated failure to meet deficit targets. They want more government wage cuts. That is meeting resistance by Greek politicians afraid of losing an election tentatively scheduled for the spring. But those same politicians also worry that the nation will be denied a second bailout if doesn't reduce its deficit.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Saturday night asked those who oppose structural changes to reconsider their stance.

"The coming days will be decisive for the next decade ... We must answer to tough dilemmas and we must do so with foresight and a sense of responsibility and not hide behind each other," he told reporters after meeting with the public creditors.

In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, Greece's problems will not be fixed simply by cutting government spending. In order to bring its debts to a more manageable level, the country must also find ways boost economic output, which would enable it to collect more taxes.

If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.

Sarah Ketterer, co-manager of Causeway International Value Fund, a $1.4 billion mutual fund that invests in European stocks, said the region's markets have rebounded this month largely on expectations that negotiators would reach a deal along the lines of the one being finalized now.

Any last-minute breakdown in the talks could trigger a sharp decline in European markets, she said. But a rally is unlikely if negotiations succeed.

"The equity markets have ... largely already discounted this, and you can see that in the confidence that has returned in European equities since the end of December, and especially for financial stocks," Ketterer said.

She said there "really was no other option" than reaching a deal for bondholders to take a haircut of 50 percent or more.

Ketterer said a Greek deal could help restore bond market confidence. That would help Italy manage its own debt crisis ? one that Ketterer views as more critical than Greece's because of Italy's greater size.

The investors who own Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.

___

AP personal finance writer Mark Jewell in Boston, Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

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Neeson's "Grey" wins box office weekend (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Survival story "The Grey" starring Liam Neeson in a battle against weather and wolves led the box office pack with a better-than-expected $20 million in ticket sales over the weekend.

"The Grey" knocked last weekend's winner, "Underworld: Awakening," to second place. The vampire and werewolf sequel starring Kate Beckinsale brought in $12.5 million from Friday through Sunday at domestic theaters, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters on Sunday.

In "The Grey," Neeson returns to an action role as a man who leads a team of plane crash survivors who must fight harsh weather and a fierce pack of wolves in the Alaskan wilderness.

The movie played at 3,185 North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters and earned a per-theater average of $6,279, according to the box office division of Hollywood.com.

Distributor Open Road Films acquired the film for about $5 million and had projected up to $12 million in debut weekend sales. The film beat that forecast because "it doesn't look like every other movie out there. In a crowded marketplace, I think it's important to be distinctive," said Open Road Films CEO Tom Ortenburg.

Katherine Heigl's new comedy, "One for the Money," finished in third place with $11.8 million, topping industry forecasts of less than $10 million for the film based on a best-selling book by Janet Evanovich. Distributor Lions Gate Entertainment said readers who loved the book helped the movie beat expectations.

"We think the audience that showed up are not frequent moviegoers. They're just huge fans of Janet Evanovich," said David Spitz, head of domestic distribution for Lions Gate.

In the film, Heigl plays a cash-strapped woman who joins a bail-bond business and must track down a wanted man who happens to be an ex-boyfriend. Audiences surveyed by exit polling firm CinemaScore game the movie a B-minus on average.

OSCAR BOOST

The weekend's other new movie, crime drama "Man on a Ledge," landed in fifth place. The film was distributed by Lions Gate's newly acquired Summit Entertainment unit as release dates and marketing plans were set well before the studios combined earlier this month.

"Man on a Ledge" took in $8.3 million, within studio forecasts. The movie features "Avatar" star Sam Worthington as a fugitive who threatens to jump from a hotel ledge.

"Red Tails," a drama about black fighter pilots in World War Two, brought in $10.4 million to land in fourth place in its second weekend in theaters.

Also this weekend, a crop of films capitalized off last week's Oscar nominations.

"The Descendants," starring George Clooney as a father dealing with a family crisis, expanded to 2,001 theaters from 560 and gained 176 percent from last weekend. The movie took in $6.6 million, lifting its domestic tally to $58.5 million since its release last November. The movie has added $27 million in international markets for a worldwide total of $85.5 million.

Black-and-white silent film "The Artist" increased its weekend sales by 40 percent from a week earlier, bringing in $3.3 million after adding 235 more screens. To date, the film has grossed $16.7 million domestically.

Family film "Hugo," which led the Oscar nominations with 11, also jumped 143 percent to $2.3 million. Its total sales to date stand at $58.7 million domestically.

Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc, released "The Grey." The film unit of Sony Corp distributed "Underworld: Awakening." "Red Tails" and "The Descendants" were released by divisions of News Corp's Fox Filmed Entertainment. Privately-held The Weinstein Co released "The Artist," and Viacom Inc unit Paramount Pictures distributed "Hugo."

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Xavier Briand and Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/film_nm/us_boxoffice

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UN nuclear officials want Iranian cooperation (AP)

VIENNA ? The head of a U.N. nuclear team traveling to Iran on Saturday urged the country to work with his mission on probing Tehran's alleged attempts to develop an atomic arms program, adding such cooperation is long overdue.

The unusually blunt comments by International Atomic Energy Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts reflected the importance the IAEA is attaching to the chief focus of the trip ? ending more than three years of Iranian refusal to answer questions about such suspicions.

Ahead of departure, Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport he hopes Iran "will engage with us on all concerns."

"So we're looking forward to the start of a dialogue," he said: "A dialogue that is overdue since very long."

Diplomats said Iran had accepted the inclusion of two senior weapons experts ? Jacques Baute of France and Neville Whiting of South Africa ? with relatively little fuss. That suggests the Islamic Republic may be prepared to address some issues related to the allegations.

Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's right-hand man.

Any progress would be significant.

Tehran has blocked IAEA attempts for more than three years to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence, dismissing the charges as baseless and insisting all its nuclear activities were peaceful and under IAEA purview.

Faced with Iranian stonewalling, the IAEA summarized its body of information in November, in a 13-page document drawing on 1,000 pages of intelligence. It stated then for the first time that some of the alleged experiments can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons.

Iran continues to deny the charges and no change in its position is expected during the three-day Tehran talks with IAEA officials. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from outright refusal to talk about them.

The diplomats said that the IAEA team was looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of weapons work, inspect documents relating to such suspected work and get commitments for future visits to sites linked to such allegations.

Iran says it is enriching only to generate energy. But it has also started producing uranium at a higher level than its main stockpile ? a move that would jump-start the creation of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium, should it chose to go that route. And it is moving its higher-enriched operation into an underground bunker that it says is safe from attack.

__

AP video reporter Philipp Jenne contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_eu/iran_nuclear

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