china economy

(CNN) — Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that racial politics played a role in South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s speech to Congress last week and in some of the opposition the president has faced since taking office.
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American,” Carter told “NBC Nightly News.” “I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that shares the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans.”

“That racism inclination still exists, and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people — not just in the South but around the country — that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply,” Carter said.

Michael Steele, who is the first African-American to chair the Republican National Committee, denied Wednesday that race is fueling protests.

“President Carter is flat-out wrong,” Steele said in a statement. “This isn’t about race. It is about policy.”

Carter made similar remarks at an event at his presidential center in Atlanta, Georgia, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, pointing to some protesters who have compared Obama to a Nazi. “Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care,” the former president said at the Carter Center, according to AP. “It’s deeper than that.” Watch Carter link animosity toward Obama to racism »

He grouped Wilson’s shout of “You lie!” during Obama’s speech in that category, according to AP. “I think it’s based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” he said.

“The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state. And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect.”
The House voted Tuesday to formally disapprove of Wilson’s behavior during the joint session of Congress. The resolution was approved largely along party lines, with Republicans calling the measure unnecessary partisan politics.

Wilson apologized to the White House last week, but congressional Democrats said he owed the chamber a similar statement of regret.

Steele said Democrats are just trying to divert attention from what he called the president’s “wildly unpopular government-run health care plan.”

“Injecting race into the debate over critical issues facing American families doesn’t create jobs, reform our health care system or reduce the growing deficit. It only divides Americans rather than uniting us to find solutions to challenges facing our nation,” he said.

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) — New Haven Police meticulously sifted through evidence Tuesday in their search for the killer of Yale student Annie Le, whose body was found Sunday in a basement wall of a medical research building off campus.
A senior police official told CNN investigators have interviewed more than 200 people in the case but have not issued an arrest warrant nor have they identified a “person of interest.”

The official also disputed Yale University President Richard Levin, who had indicated that the suspect pool would be a “limited number” of people who had been in the basement the day Le disappeared.

“We know everyone that was in the basement … and we passed that on to police,” Levin said. “There is an abundance of evidence.”

But the police official, whom CNN is not naming because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation, said investigators believe dozens of people could have had access to that area of the building. Watch how Le’s body was found »

Le, 24, disappeared September 8. She was last seen on surveillance video as she entered the four-story lab at 10 Amistad Street, about 10 blocks from the main campus. After going over hours of tapes, authorities said they had not found images of her leaving the building. Watch timeline leading up to Le’s death »

The police official said that investigators were unlikely to make any arrest until DNA evidence is returned from analysis and that the probe could take days or weeks.
Police have not released information on what DNA evidence may have been found, although investigators said earlier that bloody clothing was found hidden above tiles in a drop ceiling in another part of the building.

Authorities have not described the clothes that were found, nor said to whom they might have belonged. Teams of investigators at a Connecticut State Police lab worked through the weekend processing and examining the bloodstained clothes.

But Thomas Kaplan, editor in chief of the Yale Daily News, said a Yale police official told the paper that the clothes were not what Le was wearing when she entered the building.

On Sunday, New Haven Police spokesman Joe Avery said that Le’s killing was not a random act but would not elaborate.
Meanwhile, a home in Middletown, Connecticut — believed to be the home of a Yale technician — was the scene of a large police presence Tuesday. Police, however, would not say whether their presence at the home was related to their investigation of Le’s death.

Le, a graduate student in Yale’s pharmacology program, was to have been married Sunday on New York’s Long Island to Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student at Columbia University.

Her friend Vanessa Flores said Le was overjoyed about getting married.

“She was just so excited about this wedding and everything from, you know, her flowers to her wedding dress and just certain details about it,” Flores told HLN’s Nancy Grace. “We talked about this back in 2008. She was already thinking about the weather, whether June, July was going to be too hot, August, so September, would it be nice?”
Le was from Placerville, California, and seemed to have been well aware of the risks of crime in a university town. In February, she compared crime and safety at Yale with other Ivy League schools for a piece for B magazine, published by the medical school.

Among the tips she offered: Keep a minimum amount on your person. When she walked over to the research building on September 8, she left her purse, credit cards and cell phone in her office.

ANTIOCH, California (CNN) — Investigators from two police agencies were searching the home of the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping suspects Tuesday in connection with two other unsolved abductions, authorities said.
Dublin, California, police obtained the search warrant for Phillip and Nancy Garrido’s home, along with a neighboring property, in connection with the 1989 disappearance of 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff, police said in a written statement. “Dublin police have been unable to eliminate Phillip and Nancy Garrido as possible suspects in Ilene’s disappearance.”

In addition, Hayward, California, police obtained a search warrant for the same locations in the 1988 abduction of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht. Both warrants were being executed simultaneously Tuesday, police said.

The Garridos face a combined 29 felony counts in connection with the 1991 kidnapping of Dugard, then 11, from South Lake Tahoe, California. Authorities believe the couple held Dugard in a well-hidden compound behind their Antioch, California, home for 18 years, and have said Phillip Garrido fathered two children with Dugard.

Police from both agencies said that while Garrido has not been named a suspect in the other abductions, he cannot be eliminated as a suspect in either case.

There are no current plans in place to raze structures, Hayward police Lt. Chris Orrey told reporters at a news conference, but “we are very interested in what might be behind walls, under flooring, under the ground.” Authorities are prepared to “disassemble” structures if needed, she said.
Evidence collected so far from the property does not show a “strong connection” to the cases, she said, but since agencies that previously searched the property were not familiar with the Misheloff and Garecht cases, “we’re taking another shot at the property” to see what can be found. Learn more about Phillip Garrido’s history »

Misheloff failed to make it home from school on January 30, 1989, said Dublin police Lt. Kurt von Savoye. “For 20 years, we have been attempting to determine what happened.” There is no eyewitness that could say with certainty she was abducted, and evidence in the case was limited, he said.

A witness did report seeing Misheloff getting into a vehicle, a sedan similar to one found on the Garrido property, at the time of her disappearance, von Savoye said. Garrido “has demonstrated a propensity to abduct young girls,” police said in a statement, and he was released from prison a few months before Misheloff disappeared. Dublin is about 40 miles from Antioch.

Garecht was abducted by a stranger in front of a market in south Hayward on November 18, 1988, Orrey said. Over the last two decades, police have followed some 13,000 leads in investigating her disappearance.

She said Hayward police have also noted similarities between the Garecht and Dugard cases. The victims were similar in age and appearance, Orrey said, and both were abducted in daylight, in a “brazen” manner. The suspect vehicle in the Garecht case is also similar to the sedan found on the Garrido property, she added, and in pictures from that time, Garrido appears to resemble a sketch of a suspect based on a witness description.

A bone fragment police say is possibly human was found last week on the adjacent property — a residence Garrido has had access to, police said. “The fact that a possible human bone was located on that property is part of the reason why we are searching here today,” von Savoye said.

Garrido served as the home’s caretaker for a while, police said. The current occupant is not a suspect in either investigation. Police have said the fragment would undergo testing at the state DNA lab.

The search operation is expected to last at least a few days and possibly into next week, authorities said. Police have not interviewed Garrido, von Savoye said.

Orrey told reporters the warrant execution took a while to organize, as police had to verify information with other authorities, obtain the warrant and gather a number of personnel to assist. “We did it as soon as we could logistically.”

Misheloff’s family is aware of the search warrant execution, but are out of town on a family emergency, von Savoye said. Garecht’s mother will be at the scene to speak to reporters later Tuesday night, Orrey said.

Premier Wen Jiabao shared a light moment with 100 young students invited to his office in downtown Beijing.

In two hours squeezed from tight schedule, Wen danced, sang and chatted with the children from all over the country. He encouraged the youngsters to study hard, and to grow up well-educated with loving hearts.

“It is love that brings you together and here today. I hope you understand what love is, how to cherish love and learn to love others,” the 67-year-old premier, also a grandfather, told the excited children.

The outing resulted from an initiative of Beijing’s Zhongguancun No. 3 Primary School, which raised funds through student charity work to sponsor visits by children from other parts of China to the national capital on Children’s Day.

More than 70 children, belonging to 55 ethnic groups, were invited from 18 provinces and autonomous regions. In a letter to Wen, they asked if they could meet him.

Their wish came true on Monday when they arrived at Zhongnanhai, the central leadership’s compound near the Forbidden City in central Beijing.

Smiling Wen received a gift from the children — a red scarf usually worn by the Young Pioneers. He showed the children an office used by Premier Zhou Enlai before he died in 1976, where the children recited an article in their textbook describing how the widely-respected statesman was dedicated to his work.

At an auditorium specially decorated with children’s paintings, balloons and greeting cards, Wen listened attentively as the children discussed their trip to Beijing.

Sangye Lhamo, from Medog County in southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region, attracted the premier’s attention because he knew Medog was China’s only county without paved roads.

“You must come from the remotest place compared with other kids here. How did you make it?” Wen asked.

Sangye Lhamo said they spent 10 days traveling, trekking over snow-capped mountains.

Wen said he hoped Sangye Lhamo’s trip to Beijing would not be so hard in future, “because the government will build a road to your hometown from Lhasa (Tibet’s capital) soon.”

Shan Danleng’s hometown, Leigu in Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, was devastated by the magnitude 8 earthquake on May 12 last year. But she told Wen that she and her schoolmates had moved into new classrooms last month, with the support of loving people.

“Today we gather here like a big family. It’s all because of love,” Wen said. “I hope you will learn to love your parents, your hometowns and your country. With love we can unite together to build a better future for our motherland.”

He also told accompanying teachers and officials to use the true, the good and the beautiful as principles in education.

The young visitors each left a Chinese language dictionary and a set of Chinese literary classics, all autographed by Wen.

A Chinese delegation arrived in Washington on Saturday to attend the first round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic dialogues.

More than 100 Chinese officials, led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, landed at the Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., and were welcomed by U.S. State Department senior officials and Chinese embassy officials.

The first round of the strategic and economic dialogues, which will be held on July 27-78 in Washington, is a reincarnation in a broader format of the Strategic Economic Dialogue set up by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who used the forum to engage Beijing on an array of issues critical to longer-term bilateral relations.

The new mechanism was jointly launched by Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama during their meeting in London in April.

On the U.S. side, the dialogues will be headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry, Dai and Clinton will co- chair the “Strategic Track” of the dialogue, while Wang and Geithner will co-chair the “Economic Track.”

Obama will address the opening session of the dialogue, and meet with the Chinese delegation after the dialogue.

During the meetings, the two sides will have extensive discussions on issues of strategic, overall and long-term significance in order to “deepen understanding, enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman at a press conference earlier this month.

According to a Chinese finance official, China will explicitly raise at the “Economic Track” dialogue the hope that the United States “should make responsible economic policies, including financial and monetary policies, to maintain stability of the dollar and safeguard safety of China’s assets.”

On the agenda of the “Strategic Track” dialogues, Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that the two sides would discuss the resumption of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue for a peaceful resolution.

(Xinhua News)

I have seen the future and…umm…errr…it works!

-Barack Obama

I dig that cube thing at the Olympics, but “vastly” better? Have they seen Amtrack? The big dig in Boston (just kidding)? If that’s the case, however, we should start huge government programs to keep up with the Chinese. That’s the only reason we have anything, you know- massive government programs.

According to Obama, it’s not China’s slave labor- it’s their infrastructure that accounts for their success (What would China be like if they had adopted a free market system in 1949?). I think corporations would think America a better place to invest if the corporate tax were lower, frivolous lawsuits curtailed, regulation streamlined, and unions not pandered to. Oh wait! That’s McCain!

Finally, do you notice the way Obama’s eyes light up when he’s criticizing the United States?

**update**

Obama continued:

“And their school system rocks. They have five year old girls that aren’t only cute, but can belt out a tune. Their fireworks are way better, too. Not those cheap sparklers we have.

John Kennedy, the politician I most resemble- except for the tough foreign policy and tax cuts- once challenged America to go to the moon. Well, I’m challenging America right now: That by the end of the next decade, we’ll put on an even more spectacular opening ceremony than the Chinese!”

” Now YOU can be like the junior senator from Illinois who catapulted his career to the highest, hardest job on the planet in just 4 short years? And you can learn howhe did it while helping a worthwhile cause at the same time!”

Download Obama’s speaking skills

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NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) — Raymond J. Clark III, charged with murder in the death of Yale graduate student Annie Le, was smart, amiable and loved his dog, say those who knew him.One researcher said he often went by the lab in the Yale School of Medicine building where Le was found strangled and stuffed in a wall. Lufeng Zhang worked with Clark, he said, and thinks the police may have the wrong man.

“He’s a nice man, always,” he said.

Clark, 24, the same age as Le, was a technician in the school of medicine’s Animal Resources Center. While Le, who was pursuing a doctorate in pharmacology, conducted experiments on mice, Clark took care of the rodents and cleaned their cages.

Police will not say whether Clark and Le were acquainted or why they homed in on Clark after Le went missing September 8, less than a week before she was scheduled to marry a Columbia University graduate student who was her college sweetheart.

“They work in the same building, passed in the hallways,” New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said of Le and Clark. “Anything beyond that, I won’t talk about.”

Though details of the investigation are scant, police said they arrested Clark on Thursday and charged him with Le’s murder after collecting more than 250 pieces of evidence.

Clark was an honor student at Branford High School in suburban New Haven. He graduated in 2004, and according to the school’s yearbook, he was a member of the Asian Awareness Club his senior year.

High school friend Lisa Heselin remembers Clark “as a jokester, kind of a class clown,” she said. “Everybody knew him. Everybody liked him.”

She and others who knew Clark in high school are shocked that he was arrested in connection with Le’s murder, she said.

“They can’t believe it, and then, of course, you’re reminiscing, like, ‘Oh my God, remember when we went over to his house and we all hung out?’ You don’t expect somebody you grew up with to be involved in something like this,” Heselin said.

Most of his current neighbors in Middletown, about 30 miles northeast of New Haven, said they moved in after Clark or knew him only in passing. Many said he shared the second-floor apartment with his girlfriend and a dog.

Police said he drove a Ford Mustang, which was seized as evidence.

Neighbor Ashley Rowe described Clark as “decent” and said he asked a lot of questions when he spoke to people and wanted to know their full names and where they were from.

Rowe also remembered the first time she met his dog.

“His dog was very excited and he was just like, ‘Oh, don’t worry. He’s friendly.’ You could pet him,” she said. “Pretty much, he just loved his dog and he walked around with his dog all the time.”

Police arrived at his apartment Tuesday night to collect DNA samples and released him into the custody of his lawyer early Wednesday. Neighbors say they didn’t see him return to the apartment.

Clark was arrested early Thursday at a Super 8 motel in nearby Cromwell
There were reports that Clark was scheduled to wed his roommate and girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, also a lab technician in Yale’s Animal Resources Center, in December 2011. CNN could not confirm the report, and an Internet wedding page purportedly announcing the impending nuptials had been taken down Thursday.

Hromadka’s MySpace page was private as of Tuesday evening, but several media outlets reported she had posted messages about Clark last year after hearing a “rumor of a fling.”

“My boyfriend, Ray, if you don’t know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at [the Yale Animal Resources Center] as anything more than friends,” she reportedly wrote.

She said Clark had a “big heart” and tried to see the best in people, even if he didn’t always make the best decisions.

“He is a bit naive, doesn’t always use the best judgment, definitely is not the best judge of character, but he is a good guy,” she reportedly wrote.”He thinks everyone deserves a second chance and has a hard time hurting people’s feelings, and it takes him getting burned to learn.”

Clark is being held on $3 million bond, Lewis said, but he would not provide details of what prompted Clark’s arrest or whether DNA linked Clark to Le’s murder.

He said Clark’s arrest warrant was sealed, so he was prohibited from discussing the evidence.

Yale President Richard Levin said the school’s administration is “relieved” by the news of an arrest, but warned, “We must resist the temptation to rush to judgment.”

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — President Obama announced Tuesday that he plans to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as head of the Federal Reserve.

“Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through the one of the worst financial crises that this nation and this world have ever faced,” Obama said from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., as Bernanke stood by his side. “As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I’m sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another.”

Obama said that Bernanke’s “background, temperament, his courage, and his creativity” helped him to prevent another Great Depression.

Bernanke, a Republican, has played a central role in the government’s extraordinary response to the recession and 2008 banking panic.

Bernanke will have to be confirmed by the Senate. His term ends on Jan. 31. Fed chairmen serve four-year terms.

The question of Bernanke’s reappointment had been the focus of much speculation. Recently many economists and insiders had said they believed that he would more than likely keep his job.

The Fed has drawn criticism for not taking a stronger hand earlier in the crisis and for their part in inflating the housing bubble by keeping interest rates low for so long.

“The Federal Reserve like other economic policymakers has been challenged by the unprecedented events of the past few years,” Bernanke said Tuesday. “We have been bold or deliberate as the circumstances demanded, but our objective remains constant to restore a more stable financial, and economic environment in which opportunity can again flourish and Americans’ hard work and creativity can receive their proper rewards.”

The Fed is charged with examining bank soundness, as well as checking the cost and availability of money and credit in the economy. Given the more than $1 trillion the Fed has printed to get the credit markets moving, there’s a renewed focus on watching for signs of inflation.

Over the past three decades, the country has had only three Fed chairmen. New presidents have tended to keep Fed chiefs in place regardless of political party to maintain continuity in monetary policy and confidence in the markets.

Paul Volcker was appointed by President Carter in 1979 and retained by President Reagan. Alan Greenspan, a 1987 Reagan appointee, served under four presidents including President Clinton.

Bernanke, 55, was appointed to the top job in 2006 by President George W. Bush, after serving as Bush’s chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

An expert on the Great Depression, Bernanke previously chaired the economics department at Princeton University. He also did a three-year stint on the Fed’s board of governors ending in 2005.

On Tuesday, Obama praised the Fed chairman and made it clear he wants him to be a part of the team that strengthens financial regulation to prevent future crises.

“We have already seen how lax enforcement and weak regulation can lead to enormous wealth for a few and enormous pain for everyone else,” Obama said. “And that’s why even though there is some resistance on Wall Street from those who prefer things the way they are, we will pass the reforms necessary to protect consumers, investors, and the entire financial system.”

Obama also said that the expected change ahead would come with “debate and disagreement and resistance from those who prefer the status quo.”

That debate is likely to play out in the Senate, which has bumped heads with Bernanke over the past several months. Bernanke’s confirmation hearing could get tense.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement Monday night that he supported Bernanke’s nomination as the “right choice,” but he noted that he has had “serious differences” with the Fed under Bernanke’s tenure.

“Chairman Bernanke was too slow to act during the early stages of the foreclosure crisis, but he ultimately demonstrated effective leadership and his reappointment sends the right signal to the markets,” Dodd said in a statement.

Dodd said he expected that lawmakers would raise “many serious questions” about the Fed’s role and authority.

Overall, veteran Fed watchers say Bernanke’s reappointment is a good thing and sends a political message to Congress.

“I think, obviously, there are those who have concerns and criticisms, but the president’s reappointing him is a strong vote of confidence,” said Scott Talbot of the Financial Services Roundtable, a business lobbying group that approves of the reappointment.

Alice Rivlin, who served as White House budget director in the Clinton administration and later vice chairwoman of the Fed, said she was pleased but not surprised by Tuesday’s announcement.

“It’s the right thing for the president to do, because he’s done a very good job, the best job that could have been done during these horrendous economic times,” said Rivlin, who directs the Greater Washington Research project at the Brookings Institution. “It would have been hard to find someone better.”

from cnn

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama appealed Wednesday to faith-based groups to help garner support for his plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

“I need you to knock on doors, talk to neighbors, spread the facts and speak the truth,” he told religious leaders and reporters on a conference call that was streamed over the Web at faithforhealth.org.

“This debate over health care goes to the heart of who we are as a people,” he said. “I believe that nobody in America should be denied basic health care because he or she lacks health insurance.”

Some 140,000 people participated in the call, the coalition of more than 30 faith-based groups that organized the event said in a written statement.

Obama urged the listeners to reject misinformation about his plans, noting, “There are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness.”

He referred to some assertions as “ludicrous,” and cited as an example rumors that the government is planning to set up “death panels” to determine the fate of the nation’s elderly.
“That is just an extraordinary lie,” he said, adding that it was based on a provision in the House legislation that would allow Medicare to reimburse someone who voluntarily sought counseling on how to set up a living will for the end of life.

“It gives an option that people who can afford fancy lawyers already experience,” the Harvard-trained lawyer said.

In addition, the plan does not provide health insurance to illegal aliens, it does not represent a government takeover of health care and it would not lead to government funding of abortion, he said.

“These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation: that is, that we look out for one another; that is, I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. And in the wealthiest nation in the world right now we are neglecting to live up to that call.” Watch a discussion of the emotion and rhetoric of some town hall meetings »

Obama, who took no questions, said the opposition was no surprise. “Throughout history, whenever we have sought to change this country for the better, there have always been those who wanted to preserve the status quo,” he said. “These always boil down to a contest between hope and fear.”

Prior to the call, Obama’s director of domestic policy, Melody Barnes, said the president still believes that including a public option is the best way to achieve low-cost, affordable health care.

The autopsy results will not be released indefinitely because of the ongoing investigation into the singer’s death, according to authorities.

The Los Angeles coroner’s office said Monday that it would abide by a request from the police department to keep Jackson’s cause and manner of death confidential.

Investigators are trying to determine whether anyone should be charged in Jackson’s June 25 death. The singer’s physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, gave the anesthetic propofol to Jackson in the 24 hours before the singer died, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. The source asked not to be named because the individual was not authorized to speak to the news media.

Propofol is commonly known by the brand name Diprivan.

The court case about Jackson’s estate also has been stalled.

On Monday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff delayed for a week his decision on whether to approve several contracts for the Jackson’s estate to give the children’s new lawyer — whom he will appoint — time to weigh in on the deals.

Jackson’s three children will get their own lawyer because the judge overseeing the probate of Jackson’s will is concerned that their interests might sometimes conflict with their grandmother’s.

The delay was questioned by lawyers for the estate and the companies involved. They warned the judge that delaying the deals could cost the estate millions of dollars.

The contracts would provide for Jackson tribute concerts in London starting next July, and an exhibition of Jackson memorabilia that would travel to at least three cities, according to Kathy Jorrie, a lawyer for concert promoter AEG Live.

“The longer we wait, the more time passes, frankly, the less interest there will be on the part of the public to come see it,” Jorrie said.

The judge has already approved a contract to allow Columbia Pictures to use video that AEG Live shot of Jackson’s last rehearsals for a documentary due out this fall. Columbia is a division of Sony.

Sony Pictures issued a news release Monday announcing that it would deliver the movie “This Is It” to theaters starting October 30 “with the full support of the estate of Michael Jackson.”

Court papers filed last week revealed Columbia Pictures would pay a minimum of $60 million for the rights to make the Jackson movie.

Katherine Jackson’s lawyers, while endorsing the movie deal, have objected to terms given to AEG, saying it is too generous to the company.

Jackson’s lawyers objected to the estate’s agreement to let AEG recover all its expenses from that money and then take 10 percent of the remainder. It also gives the company a perpetual share of the profits from the video rights.

AEG Live’s lawyer said the company had made many concessions to the estate and could not make more.

The judge previously has said he might approve the contracts even over Katherine Jackson’s objection.

Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s older brother, told CNN’s Larry King last week that he likes the deals, which he said could bring in nearly $100 million into the estate.

Katherine Jackson and Jackson’s three children are the main beneficiaries of the estate, which is controlled by Jackson’s former lawyer, John Branca, and longtime Jackson friend and music executive John McClain.

Branca and McClain were named in Jackson’s will as executors. Katherine Jackson is considering a challenge of their control of the estate.

The decision to name a guardian ad litem, or lawyer appointed by the court, for the children came at the end of a Monday’s hearing.

Katherine Jackson was appointed last week as the guardian for the children, but she was not made the guardian for their interest in her son’s estate.

(CNN) — A Jewish Holocaust survivor who later lived on the streets of New York City has left half of her $300,000 estate to Hebrew University, the school said Monday.

“It moved us very much,” university spokesman Yefet Ozery said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem, where the school is based.

“Hebrew University has many, many donors and benefactors and supporters and many people remember us in their will, but I haven’t come across such a person that lived actually as a poor woman who would give half of her bequest to Hebrew University,” Ozery said.

The woman, who died two years ago in her 90s, has not been identified publicly at the request of her estate’s executor, he said.

“He didn’t want her name to be remembered as a homeless” person, Ozery said.

The woman, who had no known relatives, survived a concentration camp and was living on the streets of New York’s Upper West Side several years ago when a Jewish accountant befriended her, Ozery said.

“He and his wife adopted her pretty much to their home and supplied her with basic needs,” which included finding her public housing, he said.

In return, the woman moved the couple’s car from one side of the street to the other so that it would not be ticketed, he said.

At the time, they had no clue to her net worth, Ozery said.

“When the woman told him and his wife that she would be leaving a will, they thought to themselves that there would be nothing there because they knew her as owning nothing,” he said.

It was only when the woman died that the couple learned of her wealth, which she had kept in a bank.

“They were very surprised to find out that she left this amount and that half of it went to Hebrew University,” Ozery said.

How she accumulated the money, the balance of which went to other causes and to her friends, is not known, he said.

Her executor — the accountant who befriended her — told school officials of the gift three months ago, but they did not learn the circumstances behind it until last week, Ozery said. There was no obvious connection between her and the school.

A friend of the accountant took the first check to the school last week and told administrators the story behind it.

“Everybody was moved and excited,” Ozery said. “This was a special story and a special gift.”

In keeping with the woman’s wishes, the money is to be spent on medical research and scholarships for researchers, he said.
from CNN

(CNN) — The question may have been lost in translation, but a visibly angry Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bluntly told a town-hall meeting in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, “I will you tell you my opinion, I’m not going to channel my husband.”
The unscripted moment happened as Clinton spoke to students at a Congolese university in Kinshasa, the Congo capital.

A male student rose to ask a question about Chinese financial contracts with Congo.

The student asked Clinton what President Obama would think of the deal, but pool reporters in the room said the translator made a mistake, posing the question as what would Bill Clinton think.

Clinton looked surprised when she first heard the translation in the headset, and then sharply replied, “You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the secretary of state, I am. You ask my opinion. I will tell you my opinion; I’m not going to channel my husband.” Watch Clinton react to question »

At the State Department, Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley said the question she heard “struck a nerve,” that her opinion on the matter was apparently of less interest than that of her husband, the former president.

Crowley told CNN that Clinton’s answer must be considered in the context of her African trip.

“The secretary of state is going to Goma Tuesday, to draw attention to the plight of women who are victims of rape as a weapon of war” in Congo, Crowley said.

“She did react to what she heard,” Crowley explained, but regardless that the interpreter may have gotten it wrong, “you can’t separate the question from the setting.”

He said “If Africa, if Congo is going to advance, women have to play a more significant role. She was in the setting of a town hall, and the questioner was interested in what two men thought, not the secretary of state.”

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被过滤广告Crowley, who has just returned to Washington after traveling with Clinton during the first part of her trip to Africa, said the State Department has not yet reviewed recordings of the original question, in French, to learn whether the student clearly intended the question to refer to Obama, not former President Clinton.

“She did talk with the student afterward, and they seemed to have reached an understanding,” Crowley said.