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Aung San Suu Kyi to Run for Burma Parliament

Photo: REUTERS

Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to members of the National League for Democracy in their head office in Rangoon November 18, 2011.

A spokesman for Burma democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she will run for a seat in parliament in the country's next bi-election, expected by the end of the year.

Nyan Win, a member of the National League for Democracy's executive committee, told reporters Monday the Nobel Peace laureate will run for one of the 48 seats available in Burma's new Senate, but has not yet decided which district she will represent.

The democracy activist hinted that she would run for office at a meeting of party delegates Friday, when they decided to re-register as a political party and take part in elections.

The NLD boycotted elections last year because of a law that prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from competing. The government recently repealed that law.
This will be the first time Aung San Suu Kyi has competed for a seat. Her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in Burma's 1990 general election. However, she was under house arrest by the time the elections took place.

Burma's then-military government ignored the election results and placed Suu Kyi under a lengthy house arrest. She has spent 15 of the past 22 years in some form of detention.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Arab League peace effort in Syria appears at impasse

President Bashar Assad's supporters, some carrying a giant Syrian flag, rally in Damascus during a demonstration to protest the Arab League decision to suspend Syria. (Muzaffar Salman / AP Photos)

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

November 20, 2011, 10:24 p.m.

Reporting from Beirut—

An Arab initiative to end violence in Syria appeared at an impasse Sunday, as Damascus and Arab foreign ministers failed to agree on a formula that would allow monitors into the country.

The Arab League rejected what it called a Syrian effort to "change radically" the league's peace blueprint, which calls for the government of President Bashar Assad to remove troops from cities and towns and conduct talks with the opposition.

Syrian officials repeated concerns that the league was being used as a "tool" and "pretext" for Western intervention.

Arab foreign ministers have already suspended Syria from the 22-member bloc because of what the league calls the government's failure to implement the peace plan, which Damascus agreed to on Nov. 2. But Arab ministers have been extending deadlines and granting reprieves to Syria in an apparent bid to keep the peace plan alive.

"The league is committed to solving the Syrian crisis within an Arab framework," the group said Sunday in a statement.

Syrian officials say they too want to settle the matter within the league context, even though they have criticized the country's suspension as an illegal bow to "U.S.-Western agendas."

Arab officials initially spoke of a team of 500 monitors, but more recently the number dropped to 30.

A core dispute appears to be the amount of freedom given to the planned Arab monitor mission, which is a key part of the peace road map. The league wants its monitors to have freedom to travel and meet with the opposition, visit conflict zones, hospitals and other relevant sites. This prospect appears to worry Damascus.

Syria says the monitors will have "freedom of movement," reported the official news agency, SANA, and will be allowed to meet with the opposition. But Damascus wants "to be informed of the places the mission will go," the news agency said, quoting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.

The dispute about monitors reflects the difficulty of knowing exactly what is happening on the ground in Syria, where, according to the United Nations, at least 3,500 civilians have been killed since protests began in mid-March. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and others have said the strategically situated nation of 22 million people could be sliding toward civil war.

The central city of Homs, epicenter of the uprising, has been widely depicted as a kind of urban war zone where sectarian killers roam the streets, the army shells opposition neighborhoods and troops fire on peaceful protesters. The government denies targeting civilians and blames the violence on "armed terrorists," including Muslim extremists.

On Sunday, Syria denied widely circulated opposition reports that rebels had launched a grenade attack on the Damascus headquarters of the ruling Baath Party. The opposition is seeking to oust Assad and end the more-than four-decade Baathist rule.

Syria has severely restricted access for journalists and human rights investigators, making it hard to know what exactly is going on. Both sides have issued inaccurate accounts.

Arab diplomats consider an independent observer mission crucial to understanding the complex reality on the ground.

Syria views with alarm reports that the league could call for "internationalization" of the conflict, perhaps seeking U.N. approval for the creation of "safe zones" within the country or even a no-fly zone — as the league requested in the case of Libya, opening the way for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing campaign in that nation. Western officials have denied any intention to intervene in Syria.

Assad, meanwhile, seemed to dismiss the Arab League plan as a "pretext" for Western nations "to conduct a military intervention against Syria," as he told the Sunday Times of London. Assad vowed to press an offensive against "armed terrorist acts," and insisted he would not "bow down" to pressure.

"The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighboring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order," Assad said.

Top court seeks to try Gaddafi son

LIBYA has been told it must hand over Saif al-Islam, the son of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, to the International Criminal Court, an official said, while holding out the prospect of a trial in Tripoli.
An ICC spokesman said chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo would travel to Libya this week for talks with the new regime, as world leaders called on the authorities in Tripoli to ensure that justice was done.
Saif al-Islam was arrested in the south of Libya on Saturday, a senior National Transitional Council official said, almost a month to the day since the capture and gruesome killing of his father.

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Saif al-Islam Photo: Reuters

Russia's special representative for Africa, Mikhail Margelov, articulated the concerns of the international community.
''We are happy that this time the new authorities in Libya did not resort to summary justice for Saif al-Islam, the son of the ousted leader Gaddafi,'' he said.
Saif al-Islam, who was considered Gaddafi's heir apparent, is wanted by the court for crimes against humanity, allegedly committed during the former regime's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in February.
He, his father and Gaddafi's security chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, were all accused of having orchestrated the deadly operations against the protesters to put down the revolt by ''any means necessary''.
The security forces, acting on their orders, killed or wounded hundreds of anti-regime demonstrators, arresting hundreds of others as they tried to quash the uprising, which began in mid-February.
''We are co-ordinating with the Libyan Ministry of Justice to ensure that any solution in regards to Saif al-Islam's arrest is in accordance with the law,'' Mr Moreno-Ocampo's spokeswoman said.
ICC spokesman Fadi al-Abdallah said the Libyan authorities were obliged to co-operate with the ICC and surrender him to the court as required by the UN resolution on Libya.
''If they want a trial in Libya, they must submit a request for dismissal and procedures in Libya must be conducted on the same charges as those contained in the warrant of the ICC,'' Mr Abdallah said.
The ignominious end of Muammar Gaddafi and another of his sons, Muatassim, both killed after being captured last month, has increased concerns in the international community for the fate of Saif al-Islam.
The US State Department called for him to receive humane treatment. His trial ''would be another step away from a 40-year dark chapter in Libyan history and help move the Libyan people towards the peaceful and democratic future they deserve'', it said.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security Council earlier this month his office was in contact with ''individuals linked to Saif al-Islam'' to negotiate the terms of his surrender.
Saif al-Islam's representatives had asked what would happen to him if he appeared before judges and the various possible outcomes.
AFP


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Rajoy Wins as Spain Grapples With Debt Crisis

Mariano Rajoy won the biggest parliamentary majority in a Spanish election in almost 30 years, and told Spaniards to brace for difficult times as the nation fights to avoid being overwhelmed by the debt crisis.

Rajoy’s People’s Party swept the ruling Socialists from power after eight years, winning 186 of the 350 seats in Parliament, compared with 110 for the ruling party’s candidate Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. That’s the worst result for the Socialists in more than three decades. Opinion polls in the month before the vote showed the PP winning 184 to 198 seats.

“Hard times lie ahead,” Rajoy told supporters outside the PP’s headquarters in Madrid, giving no new details of his plans. “We are going to govern in the most delicate situation Spain has faced in 30 years.”

Rajoy, 56, who said on Nov. 18 he hoped Spain wouldn’t need a bailout before he can be sworn in as prime minister in a month’s time, has pledged to slash the budget deficit and regain the nation’s AAA credit rating, without saying how he will do it. He inherits a stagnant economy with a 23 percent unemployment rate and borrowing costs back at the levels Spain was paying before it joined the euro.

Election ‘Not Sufficient’

“The victory of austerity-driven Rajoy is a positive step,” said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London. “However, this election alone will perhaps not be sufficient to cheer up market sentiment.”

Spain’s 10-year bond yield rose as high as 6.78 percent on Nov. 17, the most since the start of the euro, before ending the week at 6.38 percent and leaving the gap between Spanish and German borrowing costs at 441 basis points.

Rajoy pledged Spain would “stop being a problem and become part of the solution again,” in Europe, as he called for a “common effort.”

Hundreds of supporters gathered at PP headquarters, waving Spanish and party flags as Barry White, Shakira and Carlinhos Brown songs blasted from loudspeakers.
Spain faces a power vacuum of about a month as the new government can’t take over until the second half of December. Spanish law doesn’t allow Parliament to resume any sooner than Dec. 13, with Rajoy’s administration to be voted in the following week.

Slashing Deficit

“The room for maneuver of the new government is very limited,” said Jose Antonio Sanahuja, a professor of international relations at Madrid’s Complutense University. “Rajoy will have no option but to announce a package of extraordinarily tough reforms to convince the markets and his European partners Spain is different from Italy and Greece.’

Even as the PP says it will slash the deficit, create jobs and make life easier for businesses, fallout from the debt crisis may undermine Rajoy’s efforts to bring down bond yields.

“There are forces in motion that are not about which personality or interest group is implementing the various austerity programs,” Marc Chandler, chief currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. “The economies are deteriorating faster that the austerity is being implemented.”

The PP, which shepherded Spain into the single currency in 1999, has campaigned on its economic record, which includes eliminating a 7 percent budget deficit in the eight years to 2004 and reducing the gap between Spanish and German borrowing costs from 300 basis points to seven. Unemployment fell to 11 percent from 18 percent as a construction boom fueled hiring.

Fighting for Euro

Now seven years after the fall of the PP government that qualified Spain for the single currency, Rajoy will be fighting to remain in the euro. He inherits a deficit of almost 7 percent of gross domestic product and a banking system struggling to find funding and saddled by bad loans from the real-estate boom.
Rajoy has pledged to cut the deficit by a third to 4.4 percent of GDP next year and finish the “restructuring” of the banking system. The new government will also have to crack down on spending in Spain’s autonomous regions, where budget overruns threaten the deficit goal. The PP already controls 11 of the 17 regional governments and won control of most municipal administrations in May. That may make it easier to reorder finances in the regions, which have 133 billion euros in debt.

Protecting Pensions

Rajoy has said he will cut “superfluous spending,” without giving details, and hasn’t said how he will overhaul the financial system. He has pledged to maintain the purchasing power of pensions, which accounted for 112 billion euros ($151 billion) this year, and said everything else can be trimmed.

For Rajoy the victory over the socialists comes after he suffered two defeats to outgoing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. After Aznar decided not to run again, he chose Rajoy to lead the PP in the 2004 election.

Rajoy was ahead in the polls when three days before the vote a terrorist attack on commuter trains in Madrid’s Atocha train station killed 192 people. The bombing triggered a backlash against the PP government, which tried to blame the bombing on Basque terror group ETA, even after an Al-Qaeda- linked group claimed it carried out the attack to punish the Aznar government for backing the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Zapatero rode rising employment to a second victory over Rajoy in 2008, but the end of the country’s building boom contributed to the country’s worst recession in 60 years, quickly sapping support for the premier.

Socialists Sink

Zapatero, who alienated traditional Socialist voters by cutting wages and changing labor rules to favor employers, was replaced in the campaign by Rubalcaba, his former deputy. As unemployment continued to climb, Rubalcaba’s pledges to tax banks and the rich weren’t enough to woo back voters.
Still the landslide was due to a collapse in support for the Socialist, rather than a surge in backing for the PP. The PP won 10.8 million votes, compared with 10.3 million four years ago. Support for the Socialists plunged to almost 7 million votes, from 11.3 million in 2008. United Left, which includes Communists, won 11 seats, up from two, while Union Progress & Democracy, a party that wants to limit the power of the regions, took five seats, compared with one in the last election.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at

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Galaxy makes a big splash to win the MLS title

Landon Donovan scores the game-winning goal over Houston's Tally Hall on Sunday. It was also the game's only goal at the soggy Home Depot Center in Carson. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times / November 20, 2011)

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He came, he saw and finally on Sunday David Beckham conquered U.S. soccer, helping the Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer's Cup final in front of a soggy sell-out crowd of 30,281 at the Home Depot Center.

The championship, which came on Landon Donovan's goal in the 72nd minute, was the third for the Galaxy. And it gave Coach Bruce Arena a league-record three titles.

But it may have been most important for Beckham, who needed a title to add an exclamation point to his controversial and transformative five years in MLS, ones in which he brought the Galaxy unprecedented levels of credibility and cash yet couldn't bring them a title.

Now, however, he's a triple-crown winner, with his MLS championship joining ones won with Manchester United and Real Madrid.

"Being successful always feels good," said Beckham, who played Sunday despite a torn hamstring and the painful remnants of a mid-season stress fracture in his spine.

"It's always nice to have doubters along the way. And it's always nice to prove them wrong."

Fittingly, Beckham played a big part in the winning goal, heading the ball ahead to Robbie Keane in the penalty box. Keane, the newest member of the team, then gave a touch pass to Donovan, one of only three players remaining from the Galaxy's last championship team in 2005, who curled a shot just inside the post to the far side.

The goal made the Galaxy the first team to win an MLS Cup with a designated player, high-salaried stars whose earnings aren't fully counted against the team's salary cap. And all three of the Galaxy's designated players — Beckham, Donovan and Keane, who are paid $12.2 million combined, three times more than the entire Houston payroll — played a part in the decisive score.

When the game ended 20 nervous minutes later, Donovan raced toward Beckham and jumped in his arms.

"The way David has played through some pretty serious injuries the last few weeks, it inspired me," said Donovan, who had a tense relationship with Beckham in their first two seasons together.

Added Arena: "David's a champion. I've been around great athletes, competitors in my life in different sports. And this guy's as good as it gets. He gutted it out tonight. He obviously wanted to be there."

The Galaxy entered the Cup final having won more games — in both the regular season and the playoffs — over the last three seasons than any other MLS team. But until Sunday it had not won its final one in any of those three years.

And the road the Galaxy took to redemption was not an easy one, rutted by a season-long series of injuries that sidelined every starter for at least one game. It remained a team in transition until mid-August, when they added Keane, giving them the scoring threat they lacked up front.

The Galaxy hasn't lost a game in which Keane has played. Along the way it went unbeaten in 23 games at the Home Depot Center and won 11 games by 1-0 scores.

"The best team in the league from day one to now," Houston Coach Dominic Kinnear said.

Maybe, one questioner suggested to Arena after it was over, the best team in MLS history.

"I'd like to be able to say that," he said. "But how do you measure that? This is a good team and we accomplished a lot this year."

Keeping the team together could be tough though. Beckham, whose contract expires next month, hasn't said whether he'll be back, but his track record isn't promising: He left Manchester United and Real Madrid immediately after winning titles.

On Sunday, however, Beckham wasn't thinking past a long night of celebration.

"I'm going to enjoy the moment," he said. "It's going to be a great night."

Chinese vice premier, at talks with US, urges cooperation to revive global economy

BEIJING — A top Chinese economic official appealed to U.S. envoys for cooperation at trade talks Monday to revive the global economy, emphasizing shared goals instead of disputes over currency and other irritants that divide them.
The U.S. commerce secretary warned at the meeting that attitudes toward trade ties with China are worsening in Washington.

“We are facing a very serious global economic crisis,” said Vice Premier Wang Qishan at the meeting in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. “Ensuring economic health is the responsibility of every nation. Unbalanced progress is better than balanced decline.”
Leaders of the world’s biggest and second-biggest economies have pledged to work together to shore up global growth but ties have been strained by complaints about China’s exchange-rate controls and access to its markets. Beijing is uneasy about Washington’s moves to expand its political and military presence in Asia.
Trade is especially sensitive at a time of high U.S. unemployment and American hopes to revive economic growth by boosting exports.
The U.S.-Chinese Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade, which meets twice a year, is aimed at defusing trade tensions by focusing on individual policy disputes. Previous meetings have produced pledges by Beijing to lower barriers to imports of American beef and to fight rampant Chinese software piracy.
This week’s meeting comes amid mounting demands by some American lawmakers for punitive tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing fails to ease controls they say keeps its yuan undervalued and gives its exporters an unfair trade advantage.
“Many in the U.S., including the business community and the Congress, are moving toward a more negative view of our trading relationship,” U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson told Wang and Chinese officials.
The meeting’s agenda includes trade and investment, agricultural products and quality inspection, technology and standards and intellectual property rights.
President Barack Obama pressed Premier Wen Jiabao, China’s top economic official, over Beijing’s currency controls in a meeting last week on the sidelines of an Asian economic regional gathering in Indonesia.
The U.S. trade deficit with China hit a monthly high of $29 billion in August and is on track to surpass last year’s $273 billion, the highest ever recorded with a single country.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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'Breaking Dawn' the weekend's breakaway winner

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1." (Andrew Cooper / Summit Entertainment / November 23, 2010)

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• A solid start for George Clooney's 'Descendants'

By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times

November 21, 2011

The latest installment in the "Twilight" series didn't break franchise records this past weekend, but the film still had the fifth-best domestic opening of all time at the box office.

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1" raked in $139.5 million, according to an estimate from distributor Summit Entertainment. While that was an impressive opening, "Breaking Dawn" fell just short of the $142.8-million opening weekend record held by the second movie in the series, 2009's "New Moon."

Meanwhile, "Happy Feet Two," the weekend's only other new release from a major studio, did not have much to smile about. The 3-D animated sequel starring dancing penguins collected a disappointing $22 million.

"Breaking Dawn," the fourth movie in the series based on Stephenie Meyer's popular vampire romance novels, was only the second film this year to open to more than $100 million, behind the final installment in the long-running "Harry Potter" franchise, which Warner Bros. released in July. In 2010, four movies debuted with more than $100 million.

Heading into the weekend, Summit said it was not expecting "Breaking Dawn" to gross more than $125 million this weekend, though prerelease audience surveys had forecast an opening of as much as $150 million.

Richie Fay, Summit's domestic distribution president, surmised that "Breaking Dawn" may have opened to a slightly lower figure than "New Moon" because the "Twilight" audience is "aging up."

"As we all know, as folks get older, the impulse to get out and be the first one to see the movie isn't there," Fay said. He said he expects the film to ultimately gross around $700 million worldwide, about the sum the last two "Twilight" films ended up collecting globally.

"Breaking Dawn," starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, features a highly anticipated wedding and a dramatic, high-risk pregnancy. The Bill Condon-directed film — which has received the worst critical reviews of any movie in the series — cost Summit about $110 million to produce after tax rebates.

Those who saw the film this past weekend — an 80% female crowd — assigned it an average grade of B+, according to market research firm CinemaScore. ("Happy Feet Two" received the same grade.) In the U.S., the movie did the most business at two theaters in Salt Lake City. The top-grossing theater was the Megaplex Theaters at Jordan Commons, which also sold more tickets to the last "Harry Potter" film than any other multiplex in the country last summer.

Overseas, where Summit has presold the film to local distributors, "Breaking Dawn" grossed $144 million in 54 foreign markets. The film performed best in the United Kingdom, where its star Pattinson hails from. The fourth picture brought in $22 million there and had the highest debut of any "Twilight" movie in the region.

The movie also did exceptionally well in Russia, where it grossed $15 million, and in France, where it collected $14.5 million.

"Happy Feet Two" had a far softer debut than its predecessor. The first movie, which won the Oscar for animated feature, debuted with $41.5 million in November 2006 and ended up grossing $384.3 million worldwide without the benefit of 3-D ticket surcharges. Roughly 50% of this weekend's "Happy Feet Two" ticket sales came from 3-D receipts.

After its lackluster start, it remains to be seen if the second "Happy Feet" will collect as much in ticket sales as the original. Warner Bros. and co-financier Village Roadshow Pictures spent about $135 million to produce "Happy Feet Two."

About 57% of audience members who turned up for the animated sequel this weekend were female. But Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.' president of domestic distribution, said the film lost much of that key demographic to "Breaking Dawn" this weekend.

"We were fighting for females from 'Twilight,' and we were expecting to have a little issue with them, but our weekend figure certainly came in a little under our expectations," Fellman said.

Still, he added, the studio felt it was worth it to open against "Breaking Dawn" to get out ahead of three new family films opening over the Thanksgiving holiday, "The Muppets," "Hugo" and "Arthur Christmas."

Fellman said he was not worried about the competition those three PG-rated films could present for "Happy Feet Two."

"The tracking on the movies that are opening is not great," he said, referring to information gathered from early audience polling.

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As Blame Game Erupts, Debt Panel Appears Ready to Admit Failure

• 
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  Sept. 13, 2011: Members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction meet on Capitol Hill in Washington.

A special deficit-reduction Super Committee appears likely to admit failure on Monday, unable or unwilling to compromise on a mix of spending cuts and tax increases required to meet its assignment of saving taxpayers at least $1.2 trillion over the coming decade.

The panel is sputtering to a close after two months of talks in which the members were never able to get close to bridging a fundamental divide over how much to raise taxes to address a budget deficit that forced the government to borrow 36 cents of every

Republicans and Democrats on the committee can't agree on much. But as the deficit-cutting panel careens toward a Wednesday deadline without a deficit-cutting deal, they can agree on this -- it's all the other side's fault.

In separate interviews across Washington Sunday, members of the committee charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in savings hurled recriminations at one another for their apparent failure to strike an agreement. Sources close to the discussions indicate that, despite scattered last-ditch appeals for a deal, members of the panel are trying to figure out how to bring the process formally to a close.

The ignominious end for the committee once touted as a must-succeed effort to rein in the debt tees up what is sure to be a protracted blame game.

Republicans said Sunday they offered Democrats a "breakthrough" deal by putting tax hikes on the table, but that Democrats never got serious about curbing entitlements while insisting on "huge" tax increases instead.

Democrats said they put every one of their "sacred cows" on the chopping block, but that Republicans tried to exploit the process to extend, even lower, the tax rates set during the George W. Bush administration.

"We are not a tax-cutting committee. We're a deficit-reduction committee," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said.

The panel was established over the summer as a condition for raising the debt ceiling.

As analysts warn about the economic implications of failure, as well as the political punishment members of Congress could endure at the hands of frustrated voters, lawmakers worked to explain away the impasse as the proverbial sand slipped through the hourglass. The committee technically has until Wednesday to reach a deal, but officials have said Monday -- or even Sunday night -- is the de facto deadline, because budget scorekeepers would need time to review the package.

A visibly riled-up Kerry dismissed GOP accusations as "nonsense" Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"If this weren't so serious, I might laugh," Kerry said, warning about the "real threat" of a credit downgrade and financial market revolt.

"Just the confusion and gridlock is enough to say to the world, 'America can't get its act together,'" Kerry said.

To hear the senator and former Democratic presidential candidate tell it, there were two things that prevented members from reaching a deal -- a GOP calculation that they could just win the Senate and White House in 2012 and write their own deal, and "their insistence, insistence, insistence on the Grover Norquist pledge and extending the Bush tax cuts."

Norquist, head of the anti-tax-hike Americans for Tax Reform, emerged as the Democrats' bogeyman during the Super Committee process, with Democrats claiming Republicans' allegiance to the Norquist cause stood in the way of a deal.

Kerry said Democrats put "every single cow on the table," but Republicans insisted on extending the Bush tax cuts in the process.

"There's one thing standing between us and ... doing $1.2 trillion and that one thing is the Republican unwillingness to not push for the Bush tax cuts to be extended now," Kerry said.

But Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said that dealing with the Bush tax cuts was not originally part of the game plan.

He said Republicans wanted to use the panel to reform entitlements, but "our Democratic friends were never willing to do the entitlement reform." Kyl said they started fiddling with the Bush-era rates after Democrats insisted on tax hikes. Republicans agreed to close loopholes and take other steps to raise revenue -- in exchange they wanted to extend the Bush-era rates and reduce those rates at the top, while still raising about $250 billion.

"On the Republican side, you had the one true breakthrough," Kyl said.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., also a member of the committee, described the tax offer as "a reach for us to put that on the table."

"Grover Norquist was very critical of me personally and this idea," Toomey said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the GOP co-chairman of the committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that his side never saw Democrats willing to offer a proposal "that actually solves the problem" of entitlements. Without explicitly declaring failure, he described the situation on the committee as a "huge blown opportunity."

But Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Hensarling's Democratic counterpart, again disputed the claim that Democrats weren't willing to deal on entitlements.

"Democrats have made some really tough decisions and come to some pretty tough choices that we're willing to put on the line on entitlements, on spending cuts, but only if the Republicans are willing to cross the line on the Bush tax cuts and be willing to say revenues have to be a part of this solution," she said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Murray suggested there's still time for compromise.

"We have until the day before Thanksgiving. We have to file a bill by tomorrow. And so again, I'm at the table. I want to solve this," she said.

But the prospect for a deal has been steadily fading for days. While Super Committee members hit the Sunday show circuit, no in-person meetings were scheduled over the weekend. Many lawmakers left Washington Friday for the Thanksgiving break.

Without a deal in place, the law that established the Super Committee provides for $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts split between defense and a host of other programs.

Lawmakers have described those particular cuts as onerous, and the Pentagon has pleaded with Congress not to let them go into effect. With the cuts not set to go into effect until 2013, there's still time for lawmakers to fiddle with the formula and at least shield the military from some of the pain.

But any attempt to reduce the total size of the cuts could cause problems.

Moody's economist Mark Zandi told "Fox News Sunday" the markets and rating agencies will be watching to see if Congress keeps the cuts in place.

"If they don't, then that will be the fodder for problems in the financial markets and the economy," Zandi said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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'Al-Qaida Sympathizer' Accused of NYC Bomb Plots

An "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home remained in police custody after an arraignment Sunday on numerous terrorism-related charges.
Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.
"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."
Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 14 terrorist plots, including the latest alleged scheme, have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful, however. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.
Kelly said Sunday that Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

AP

Jose Pimentel, 27, right, represented by... View Full Caption

Jose Pimentel, 27, right, represented by attorney Joseph Zablocki, left, is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. Pimentel, 27, an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home, was charged with criminal possession of explosive devices with the intent to use in a terrorist manner. (AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel, Pool) Close

"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.
A U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said.
New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.
"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."
At Pimentel's arraignment, his lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.
"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."
Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was denied bail and remained in custody. The bearded, bespectacled man wore a black T-shirt and black drawstring pants and smiled at times during the proceeding. His mother and brother attended the arraignment, Zablocki said.
Pimentel is accused of having an explosive device Saturday when he was arrested, one he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.
Bloomberg said at the news conference that Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.
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ABC News' Exclusive Interview with Jackson's Dermatologist Arnold Klein

Michael Jackson leaves the Santa Barbara County Courthouse after a not guilty verdict in his child molestation trial June 13, 2005, in Santa Maria, Calif. (Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images)

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Dr. Arnold Klein was a shadowy presence at the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, blamed by the defense for getting Michael Jackson addicted to Demerol, which they said contributed to his death from a self-injected fatal dose of propofol.
The judge didn't allow jurors to hear from Klein, Jackson's dermatologist, during the trial, but the doctor spoke exclusively to ABC News' Jim Avila during the first day of jury deliberations.
Klein flatly denied the defense assertion that he got addicted Jackson to the painkiller Demerol.
"You know the answer, sir. No. 'Cause there were no results that show, in toxicology reports, there was any Demerol in his body," Klein said. "All they found in his body were all the drugs that were ... given to him by Conrad Murray -- so I had nothing to do with addicting him to any substance."
During his opening statement, Murray attorney Ed Chernoff said Jackson received Demerol three to four times a week from Klein, but Murray knew nothing about these regular doses of Demerol.
Klein said he gave Jackson doses of the drug during facial reconstructive surgeries, but maintains he never gave the musician doses large enough for him to become addicted. Jackson never showed any signs of addiction or withdrawal from Demerol, he said.
The defense said Jackson was taking propofol to help him overcome the difficulty sleeping that can by caused by withdrawal from Demerol addiction
.

Klein said he's being used as a scapegoat for Murray, who he said is an incompetent doctor responsible for the numerous needle marks found on Jackson's body after his death.
He also said it was irresponsible for Murray to give Jackson propofol at all, a statement echoed by the prosecution in court.
The defense argued that Murray was trying to wean Jackson off propofol as a sleep aid, and that Jackson's insomnia was exacerbated by an alleged addiction to Demerol.
Murray is accused of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of the King of Pop. Jackson died at age 50 of an overdose of propofol, a powerful sedative Jackson used to fall asleep.
The jury, which heard from 49 witnesses and saw hundreds of pieces of evidence during the six-week trial, was given the case Friday.
In order to find Murray guilty, the jurors have to conclude he either committed a legal act with criminal negligence or failed to perform a legal duty with criminal negligence. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license.
"You must discuss the case only in the jury room," Judge Michael Pastor told the jury Friday -- and with that, Murray's fate was placed in the hands of seven men and five women.
The jurors didn't ask any questions or request any help during their first day of deliberations. There are some clues, however, about what makes the jurors tick, from questionnaires they filled out before the trial began.
Half the jury is white, five jurors are Hispanic, and one is African-American. The jurors include a postal worker, a TV director, a cartoon animator, and viewers of TV crime shows. Several said they watched the O.J. Simpson trial on television -- and now, 16 years later, they're in the same courthouse debating Conrad Murray's fate.
Several jurors are Michael Jackson fans, and half of them say they believe celebrities use stardom to bend the rules -- including getting away with crimes.
Jury deliberations are set to resume at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
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Michael Jackson's Secret World: Willing Doctors, Hospital-Grade Sedatives

Michael Jackson arrives for the verdict at his child molestation trial at Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Maria June 13, 2005. (WireImage/Getty)

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By ALICE GOMSTYN (@AliceGomstyn) and CHRIS CONNELLY

Nov. 4, 2011

The involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist accused of causing the death of Michael Jackson, has offered a glimpse of the pop icon's secret world -- one dominated by powerful prescription drugs that ultimately claimed his life.
In Murray's trial, the prosecution argued that the array of drugs that Murray prescribed Jackson -- the anesthetic propofol, as well as the pre-anesthetic drug midazolam and lorazepam, an anti-anxiety drug -- and Murray's failure to properly monitor his patient was a recipe for disaster.
Jackson died on June 25, 2009, after receiving a fatal dose of propofol.
The defense claimed that Jackson injected himself with the lethal dose and that Murray had been trying to wean Jackson off of propofol. He prescribed it, lawyers said, to combat Jackson's insomnia, which, the defense said, was a side effect of Jackson's prior dependence on the narcotic painkiller Demerol.
Jackson used to be injected with that drug by his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, during painful dermatology treatments and, perhaps, by others.
Klein told ABC News' Jim Avila that redacted medical records presented during Murray's trial about Jackson receiving Demerol were not his records, though he conceded that he gave Jackson Demerol.
However, he added, it would be "nonsense" to believe Jackson was dependent on the drug.
"He was never addicted to narcotics," Klein said. "People have drugs of choice, sir. His choice was propofol."
Klein called propofol a "highly dangerous" drug that should not be used for sleep.
"But, unfortunately, when you're at that level of wealth, doctors will do anything for you," Klein said. "So I'm just telling you that this has been a long problem."

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Michael Jackson arrives for the verdict at... View Full Size

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Michael Jackson arrives for the verdict at his child molestation trial at Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Maria June 13, 2005.

Michael Jackson: Moment of Crisis Watch Video

Jackson's Children: What They Saw Watch Video

Prosecutor: Doc Caused MJ's Death Watch Video

While it was barred from being discussed at Murray's trial, Jackson's issues with prescription drugs and enabling doctors went back years.
"He was getting a number of different prescriptions from a number of different names," said spiritual guru and former endocrinologist Deepak Chopra, a friend of Jackson's. "This is a common thing amongst celebrity addicts because they demand what they want and there are certain kinds of doctors who will give it to them."
Frank Cascio, a longtime friend of Jackson's, said the singer was like a father to him. But in later years, Cascio said, he took it upon himself to keep Jackson's enabling doctors at bay, as he describes in his book, "My Friend Michael," which will be published Nov. 15.
Read more about Frank Cascio's book, "My Friend Michael," here.
"Don't get me wrong. There were some great doctors," Cascio said. "There were some doctors that were absolutely fantastic."
But then there were, as Cascio calls them, the "random people" -- doctors, he said, who saw Jackson as "a money pit."
"They were just selfish, disgusting doctors that knew they would get paid," Cascio said. "They would, like, push [medications] on him because they knew he would pay them."
As a teen, Cascio was on tour with Jackson with Mexico City in 1993 when Jackson was swept off to rehab by his good friend, screen legend Elizabeth Taylor.
"Elizabeth takes us aside and says to us, 'We're going to get him out of the country after the show. He's going to go to London,'" Cascio remembered.
Jackson would later release a videotaped statement to his fans, announcing he had undergone "treatment for a dependency on pain medications."
Years later, Cascio began working for Jackson. He said he would keep Jackson's stashes of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, the narcotic painkiller Percocet or the sedative Valium out of Jackson's reach at night.
"I wanted to always make sure I had them with me and not have anything in his room where he didn't wake up and say, 'I can't sleep tonight,' and not realize what he's taking. I was trying to think 10 steps ahead," Cascio said.
Jackson, he said, resorted to certain medications when he "just wanted to escape all the chaos."
Cascio said the drug he worried about most was Demerol.
"I didn't like what it did to him at all," Cascio said. "There was a change in personalities, especially when you saw him coming down from it and, you know, he became a different person."
Cascio said Jackson became angry, bitter and "mad at everyone just taking advantage of him."
"That's not a person that I was very fond of," he said. "That's not a person that I know that he wasn't fond of."
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Taylor Swift wins artist of the year at AMAs

Christopher Polk / Getty Images

Singer Taylor Swift accepts the artist of the year award onstage at the 2011 American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on Nov. 20, in Los Angeles.

Taylor Swift was crowned artist of the year at the American Music Awards for a second time. "This is so crazy!" the country superstar said after beat such contenders as Adele, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry to capture all three awards that she was nominated for at Sunday's ceremony, including artist of the year, the show's highest accolade that she previously claimed in 2009.
"I ended up writing the record by myself, so the fact that you would honor it this way, you have no idea what this means to me," said Swift after winning the trophy for favorite country album for "Speak Now." She was also awarded the prize for favorite country female artist.
Nicki Minaj, the pink-loving hip-hop diva, won two awards Sunday. She kicked off the 39th annual fan-favorite ceremony by sporting a pair of speakers on her much-talked about posterior and was later honored as favorite rap/hip-hop artist, besting a group that included mentor Lil Wayne, and won favorite rap/hip-hop album for "Pink Friday."
"There's so much love in this room," beamed the pink-haired Minaj.
Adele had been the night's leading nominee with four nods, but didn't have much of a presence at the show: She was absent from the ceremony because she is recovering from recent throat surgery. Adele tied Swift with three awards: favorite pop/rock female artist, adult contemporary artist and pop/rock album for "21."
Other winners included Maroon 5 as favorite pop-rock band/duo/group, Blake Shelton as favorite country male artist, Lady Antebellum as favorite country band/duo/group, Beyonce as favorite soul/R&B female artist, Rihanna for favorite soul/R&B album for "Loud" and Hot Chelle Rae as new artist of the year.
The ceremony inside the Nokia Theatre in an unusually rainy Los Angeles was drenched with 17 musical performances.
Justin Bieber got in the holiday spirit among a forest of neon lights with "Under the Mistletoe," and Kelly Clarkson, wearing a glittery red gown with her hair swept to the side, delivered a swinging rendition of her hit "Mr. Know It All" as back-up dancers dressed as 1930s-era photographers snapped the first-ever "American Idol" champion.
Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony shared custody of rapper Pitbull, who joined the former couple in a pair of separate performances. Lopez performed essentially a live version of a car commercial starring the "Idol" judge set to "Papi" — with the car onstage — before launching into her hit "On the Floor." Pitbull later returned to the stage and joined Anthony for "Rain Over Me."
Lopez expressed surprise when she won the favorite Latin music artist award.
"It's been up and down and just exciting and overwhelming and so many things," Lopez said of the last year.
Several artists delivered stripped-down performances: The Band Perry crooned an emotional "If I Die Young," a pink-haired Perry accompanied herself on guitar for "The One That Got Away" and a platinum-blonde Chris Brown simply sang "All Back" before being joined by a troop of helmet-clad back-up dancers for a flashy interpretation of "Say It With Me."
There were collaborations, too. Lopez joined a glowing-in-the-dark will.i.am for his new single "Hard." Christina Aguilera dueted with Maroon 5 on their "Moves Like Jagger," and then Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine teamed with Gym Class Heroes for their hit "Stereo Hearts." Bieber joined LMFAO in animal-print pants for the show's finale, which ended with everyone on stage — including David Hasselhoff — stripping down to smiley-face underwear.
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Meg Ryan, America's sweetheart, turns 50

By Kurt Schlosser

America's sweetheart is 50 years old today.
Meg Ryan, the bubbly blond actress from all those Nora Ephron movies that show up in multiple VHS copies at the thrift store, is 50.
That makes this as good a time as any to share our appreciation for the work that earned Ryan that sweetheart label. "When Harry Met Sally" comes to mind, particularly for this bit of cinematic gold:

I remember seeing "Sleepless in Seattle" before I moved to Seattle and thinking how lovely it might be to move to the Emerald City and live on a houseboat. Now I just wish I could go through the local airport and not see the film's title printed on oversized nightshirts in the bookstore. Let's all have a good cry:

And here's Ryan and "Sleepless" star Tom Hanks reunited in "You've Got Mail." In 1998 the Internet was a little less creepy. You can thank Meg:

None of these films should be confused with the critical greats of our time. But no doubt they hold a dear spot in the hearts of romantic comedy lovers, and Ryan gets the credit for that today. (Sorry, Hanks, it's not your birthday.)
We just spent a few minutes here trying to figure out who America's sweetheart actress is nowadays. We really couldn't come up with anyone who fits the bill the way Ryan did in the '90s. There are loveable actresses doing plenty of rom coms -- Anne Hathaway, Emma Stone, Ellen Page, Kate Hudson, Emma Roberts, Amy Adams -- but are they sweetheart material? Don't think so.
So, happy birthday, Meg Ryan. For those of you who have never used this "Top Gun" line, today would be a good day to start.
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