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Sunday, January 23, 2011

MTV / Associated Press
A promotional image for MTV's new show "Skins"
It looks like MTV goofed when they aired two ads for the new Chevy Volt on the premiere of their controversial new teen reality drama, “Skins,” on Monday night.

“We received a lot of emails,” GM manager of communications Ryndee Carney tells FOX411 exclusively. “So then we began to investigate because we, of course, never intended to advertise on the show in the first place. We talked to MTV and they rectified the situation.”

The Parents Television Council, who launched a boycott of GM along with other brands who advertised on the controversial show on Thursday, applauded the move.

“PTC also thanks General Motors for swiftly responding to PTC members’ concerns about Chevy Volt advertisements," PTC president Tim Winter said in a statement released to FOX411. “GM told PTC that ‘Skins’ was on its ‘do not buy’ list on MTV, and that MTV admitted placing the Chevy commercial on ‘Skins’ in error. GM also stated that MTV had apologized for its error.”

In addition to the call for a boycott against “Skins” sponsors, the PTC asked lawmakers and law enforcement officials to open an investigation regarding possible child pornography on the cable network’s newest series

The show features several teenage actors engaging in “foul language, illegal drug use, illegal activity as well as thoroughly pervasive sexual content,” PTC President Tim Winter said in a letter sent to the chairmen of the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees and the Department of Justice.

The flurry of controversy follows a series of panicked meetings that the New York Times reported took place at MTV headquarters Tuesday, where executives even went so far as to discuss criminal charges.

In a statement released Thursday, MTV defended the show that they claim addresses “real-world issues confronting teens in a frank way.”

"We are confident that the episodes of 'Skins' will not only comply with all applicable legal requirements, but also with our responsibilities to our viewers,” they said.

Taco Bell announced Thursday they had pulled their ads from the show.

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The search is over for the woman who allegedly raised a child for 23 years after she was kidnapped as an infant. Ann Pettway turned herself in to authorities in Bridgeport, Connecticut and is due to appear in court in New York to face kidnapping charges.


Pettway is being accused in the kidnapping of Carlina White (pictured above) when she was only 19 days old. White found her birth mother after finding out that she was listed on a missing persons website. She also found it suspicious that her "mother" could not produce a copy of her birth certificate.

White was taken from a hospital in Harlem as a newborn after her real mother took her to the doctor for a fever. After being kidnapped, she was raised as Nejdra Nance in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

White was excited about reuniting with her family back in New York.

"I'm so happy," she said. "At the same time, it's a funny feeling because everything's brand new. It's like being born again."

The Carlina White case shocked the nation for a few reasons. First, most of us can identify with the serious trauma felt by this mother after losing her newborn child. To her credit, Joy White never gave up on her daughter and always remained spiritually connected: She celebrated her birthday and would think about her on a regular basis, always believing that she was somewhere alive. Secondly, Carlina White's extraordinary effort to determine the nature of her circumstances is simply remarkable. After realizing that something just wasn't right, she did her own research to find that there was another life she was meant to have lived. In some ways, her story reminds us of Cinderella, given that white reportedly suffered some degree of abuse while being raised by Ann Pettway.

Pettway deserves nothing less than the absolute maximum penalty allowed for her crime against Joy White. There's almost nothing a person can do that is worse than taking a child away from a mother. Pettway's actions were both shameful and unethical, and she deserves to pay a significant price for the 23 years of pain she's inflicted on Carlina and Joy.

The Carlina White case also reminds us that our kids eventually grow up. If you've lived a life in which you've hurt your children through selfish actions or deceived them in some meaningful way, you'd be remiss not to realize that chickens eventually come home to roost. Given that it's quite difficult to go through American life without a birth certificate and social security number, Pettway had to know that eventually, her "daughter" would learn the terrible truth.

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Mean Girls 2

Posted by Jamshaid Yousaf at 1/23/2011 10:22:00 PM
Mean Girls 2 is a 2011 American teen television film directed by Melanie Mayron. It is a stand-alone sequel/spin-off to the 2004 film, Mean Girls. The film was released on January 23, 2011 via ABC Family with a DVD release set for Februrary 1, 2011. The film stars Meaghan Jette Martin and features as cast of Jennifer Stone, Maiara Walsh, Nicole Anderson, Claire Holt, and returning Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows.

The film follows high school senior Jo Mitchell, who befriends outcast Abby Hanover, and follows the girls as they take on the school's mean girls, the Plastics.

Plot
The story revolves around a new high school student, Jo (Meaghan Jette Martin) , who agrees to befriend an outcast, Abby (Jennifer Stone), at the urging of Abby's wealthy father in exchange for paying all of Jo's costs for the college of her dreams. Jo and Abby team up to take on the school's mean girls, the Plastics, Mandi (Maiara Walsh), Hope (Nicole Anderson) and Chastity (Claire Holt).

Cast
* Meaghan Jette Martin as Jo Mitchell
* Jennifer Stone as Abby Hanover
* Maiara Walsh as Mandi Weatherly
* Nicole Anderson as Hope Plotkin
* Claire Holt as Chastity Meyer
* Diego Gonzalez as Tyler DuPont
* Bethany Anne Lind as Quinn Shinn
* Tim Meadows as Principal Ron Duvall
* Colin Dennard as Elliot Gold
* Amber Wallace as Violet
* Rhoda Griffis as Ilene Hanover

Production
Shooting of the film began on July 8, 2010 and finished on July 30, 2010, in Atlanta, Georgia. The official trailer released on November 22, 2010. The film premiered on ABC Family as a "Mean Girls: Double Feature" on January 23, 2011.


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Jack LaLanne, the seemingly eternal master of health and fitness who first popularized the idea that Americans should work out and eat right to retain youthfulness and vigor, has died. He was 96.


LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, Calif., his agent, Rick Hersh, told the Associated Press

Though for many years dismissed as merely a "muscle man" — a notion fueled to some extent by his amazing feats of strength — LaLanne was the spiritual father of the health movement that blossomed into a national craze of weight rooms, exercise classes and fancy sports clubs.

LaLanne opened what is commonly believed to be the nation's first health club, in Oakland in 1936. In the 1950s, he launched an early-morning televised exercise program keyed to housewives. He designed many now-familiar exercise machines, including leg extension machines and cable-pulley weights. And he proposed the then-radical idea that women, the elderly and even the disabled should work out to retain strength.

Full of exuberance and hyperbolic good cheer, LaLanne saw himself as a combination of cheerleader, rescuer and savior. And if his enthusiasm had a religious fervor to it, well, so be it.

"Well it is. It is a religion with me," he told What Is Enlightenment, a magazine dedicated to awareness, in 1999. "It's a way of life. A religion is a way of life, isn't it?"

"Billy Graham was for the hereafter. I'm for the here and now," he told The Times when he was almost 92, employing his usual rapid-fire patter.

Eating at home may be one of the few behavioral changes from the recession that stick.

Forced to eat more meals at home when money was tight, people learned new habits. Some discovered they enjoy cooking and dining in. As the economy improves and families have more spending money, they're still saving restaurants for special occasions.

Restaurants traditionally have led other types of businesses out of a recession. This time, they're at least a year and a half behind retailers. Sales of clothing grew 5 percent last year and autos rose 11 percent, as Americans started feeling better about their finances. At casual sit-down restaurants like Outback Steakhouse, the increase was just 1 percent. Some analysts say that could be the new norm.

President of her own marketing agency in Raleigh, N.C., Beverly Murray, 46, never thought she'd have time to cook. But in 2008, her business tanked. Suddenly dropping $10 or $20 on every meal was not an option. So she got to know her stove. Now she subscribes to Cooking Light magazine and even has a signature dish, chipotle seared chicken.

When she does go out, she says, it's a special occasion with friends. Having lost 30 pounds as a pleasant consequence of cooking at home, she is sticking to the new routine, even as business picks up.

"People are becoming not only accustomed to eating at home, they're enjoying it," says Darren Tristano, executive vice president of restaurant consulting firm Technomic Inc. "They can sit in front of their 50-inch flat-screens and not have to tip a waiter."

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BEAVER ISLAND, Mich. (AP) -- This school isn't a place you end up by accident.


A small propeller plane flight or a two-hour ferry ride into the northern reaches of Lake Michigan gets you as far as St. James, the northern hub of Beaver Island. But it takes another half hour by car, down bumpy gravel roads, to get to the south tip of the island and the small cluster of classroom buildings and log cabins, shadowed by the historic lighthouse for which this secluded alternative high school is named.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" That's exactly what 18-year-old Katie Daugherty thought as she arrived at the Beaver Island Lighthouse School last September.

She was scared, felt sick to her stomach. She hardly talked to anyone.

It is a common response for newbies, as the students who've already been at the school a semester or two call the newcomers. All of them are here because they've either dropped out of traditional high school, or are at risk of doing so.

This is, however, no boot camp, no forced existence. These students come to the school by choice, and they decide whether to stay.

For many, it is a last chance to get a diploma, to wipe the slate clean and move beyond past mistakes. Some are trying to escape family problems or friends who are a bad influence. Some have been kicked out of home. Others, for whatever reason, simply haven't been able to make it in the usual school setting.

Daugherty was living with friends, shifting from place to place, when a youth counselor came across her case.

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TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- Tunisian police have placed two former allies of the ousted president under house arrest, the official news agency reported Sunday, as protesters kept up pressure on the caretaker government to lock the old guard out of power.

The crackdown against former cronies of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali marked the latest moves by the tenuous interim government to respond to an incessant groundswell of opposition to his old guard.

Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution," which drove the iron-fisted Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, has sparked similar protests and civil disobedience across the Middle East and North Africa. Many observers are looking to see if Tunisians can complete their fervent push for democracy.

State news agency TAP said former Ben Ali allies Abdallah Kallel and Abdelaziz Ben Dhia have been placed under house arrest, and police are looking for a third man, Abdelwaheb Abdallah.

Kallel, the Senate president and a former government minister, was stopped from leaving the country after Ben Ali fled. A Geneva-based legal advocacy group, Trial, said torture was widespread in Tunisia while Kallel was interior minister in the early 1990s.

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CHICAGO (AP) -- Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler are two young quarterbacks on the rise, blessed with slingshot arms and nimble feet. Both can handle postseason pressure, earning their first career playoff victories in recent weeks.

They're friendly off the field, exchanging congratulatory text messages when their respective teams won last weekend to set up what might be the juiciest conference championship game ever.

And both men have a chance to cement a place among the NFL's top quarterbacks when the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears revive their historic rivalry in Sunday's NFC championship game at Soldier Field.

For fans, it's a passionate fight for ultimate bragging rights. For players, the game will likely be decided by the two quarterbacks' ability to make big plays and keep drives alive against two top defenses.

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The meat industry has its "Beef, It's What's for Dinner" promotion. Pork producers market their product as "the other white meat." Now, the U.S. seafood industry is preparing to cast its own marketing net in a bid to reel in more consumers.

More than 50 fishing and seafood organizations from 24 states have signed on to the National Seafood Marketing Coalition, a group that's working on a national plan to better market American seafood and is hoping for help from the federal government. Organizers say promotion, new product development, education and other marketing means will strengthen the U.S. seafood economy and generate jobs.

"Our experience is that a little bit of marketing goes a long way," said Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council who has been active with the national group. "Since nobody's doing much, when you do a little bit it's noticeable."

Americans eat a lot of seafood; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates they spent about $75.5 billion on fishery products in 2009.

In 2009, they consumed 4.8 billion pounds of fish and shellfish, or 15.8 pounds per person. However, 84 percent of that seafood was imported, up from 68 percent in 2000 and 54 percent in 1995, NOAA says.

But it's not just imports that domestic seafood producers are up against, said Bruce Schactler, a Kodiak, Alaska, fisherman who's serving as the coalition's volunteer director. The industry also competes against other proteins, such as meat, chicken and pork, as well as other foods, he said.

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- One of the largest proposed power company deals in New England that would form the region's biggest utility company has become an easy target for industry rivals, environmentalists and others taking part in the regulatory proceedings.

Northeast Utilities' proposed purchase of Nstar would give the company 3.5 million electric and gas customers in three states. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities is permitting more than a dozen power companies and consumer, labor and environmental groups to intervene in the review.

Northeast Utilities plans to buy Nstar in an all-stock deal for $4.36 billion based on the most recent price of NSTAR shares.

The price was $4.17 billion when the deal was announced in October, but investors have welcomed the news of the merger and bid up shares in Northeast and Nstar. The companies and industry analysts said customers should benefit from improvements to the power grid and cost savings the new Northeast Utilities may pass along.

However, critics are lining up to give their opinions to Massachusetts regulators. Hearings are scheduled to begin April 6. No date has been set for a decision.

Power generators worry about the possibility of a huge new competitor if the new and larger utility returns to generating, which it ended years ago with the industry's restructuring.

Energy retailers are concerned that the new Northeast Utilities will use ratepayer money to invest in new projects, gaining an unfair competitive advantage by shielding shareholders from risk.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly two years ago on a cold February day, President Barack Obama stood for the first time before a joint session of Congress and spoke of a national day of reckoning.

It was time not just to stabilize the shaken economy, he declared, but to reach for lasting prosperity.

His goals were expansive: overhauling health care, cutting the deficit, improving schools, finding a way out of Iraq and a way ahead in Afghanistan. Most of all, creating jobs. Jobs by the millions.

He had big plans and a Democratic majority in Congress to help him carry them out.

"We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," Obama said to rousing applause.

Grim as the economic news was at the time, the nation - and Obama - didn't know how bad it was going to get before things started to turn around. The economy hemorrhaged nearly 4 million jobs in 2009, Obama's first year as president.

Two years in to his term, as Obama prepares to stand before Congress once again on Tuesday, he will size up an altered State of the Union.

The economy undisputedly is on stronger footing, though far from robust. There's a new health care law. U.S. troops have come out of Iraq and gone into Afghanistan.

"The most productive two years that we've had in generations," the president pronounces it.

Yet he will speak to a radically reshaped Congress. His party's ranks have been thinned by voters who delivered a harsh verdict in November on two years of collaboration between Obama and the Democratic-controlled House and Senate.

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MOSCOW (AP) -- A new poll sponsored by the pro-Kremlin party is asking Russians to vote on whether it's time to bury Vladimir Lenin.

The embalmed body of the man who founded the Soviet Union still lies on public display in a Red Square mausoleum almost 20 years after the communist state collapsed.

The contentious issue is raised almost every year around the anniversary of his death on Jan. 21, 1924.

It is not clear whether the government intends to abide by the outcome of the United Russia party's poll, but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that the fate of Lenin's body will in the end be decided by the Russian people.

BEIJING (AP) -- The United States has beaten Canada 2-1 at the Four Nations tournament, a warmup for this summer's Women's World Cup in Germany.

In Sunday's other game, China defeated Sweden 2-1.

The top-ranked Americans won on a long shot by Lindsey Tarpley in the 70th minute. Lauren Cheney of the U.S. opened the scoring in the 53rd minute. Canada tied it two minutes later on a hard shot by Melissa Tancredi after a solo run.

In the first game, China's You Jia had the winning goal in the 61st minute. Josefine Oqvist opened the scoring in the 15th minute before Sweden's Lina Nilsson conceded an own-goal.

On Tuesday, China plays the U.S. and Canada faces Sweden. China did not qualify for World Cup and is trying to make the 2012 Olympics.

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LONDON (AP) -- Nearly two months after WikiLeaks outraged the U.S. government by launching the release of a massive compendium of diplomatic documents, the secret-spilling website has published 2,658 U.S. State Department cables - just over 1 percent of its trove of 251,287 documents.


Here's a look at what the consequences of the cables' release has been so far, and what the future could hold for WikiLeaks.

IT'S LIFTED THE VEIL ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

WikiLeaks has given the world's public an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at U.S. diplomacy. Among the most eye-catching revelations were reports that Arab countries had lobbied for an attack on Iran, China had made plans for the collapse of its North Korean ally, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had ordered U.S. diplomats to gather the computer passwords, fingerprints and even DNA of their foreign counterparts.

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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Martin Kaymer overtook Tiger Woods for the No. 2 ranking in the world Sunday, winning the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship by eight shots after shooting a 6-under 66.


Kaymer held a five-shot lead going into the day and had no problem securing his third win in four years in Abu Dhabi, finishing at 24-under 264. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland finished second after a 69, while Retief Goosen and Graeme McDowell were another two shots back in third.

It was the biggest winning margin and lowest total score in the history of the tournament.

Kaymer had been third in the rankings and now trails only Lee Westwood.

"It's quite nice to overtake somebody who is probably the best player in the world, perhaps the best player that ever lived," Kaymer said. "To be in front of him for a little bit - we'll see how long it takes him to overtake me again - but you know, it makes me very proud to be better in the world rankings than the best player in the world."

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MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Police say relatives of a young Pakistani woman are suspected of electrocuting her for marrying a man against their wishes.

Police official Afzal Lodhi says authorities arrested 21-year-old Saima Bibi's father and three of her uncles Sunday in a small village in eastern Pakistan.

He says police a day earlier recovered Bibi's body, which had burn marks indicating she had been electrocuted.

Lodhi says the woman eloped with another villager a month ago and got married in the southern port city of Karachi. He says the woman's relatives lured her back by falsely promising they would agree to her marriage.

Lodhi says woman's father denies relatives killed her and claims she took poison because she did not want to marry the man proposed by her family.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The new Republican House majority leader says he doesn't think questions about President Barack Obama's citizenship should play a role in the discussion of policy matters.


Two years into the Obama administration, so-called birthers continue to argue that Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and that he hasn't proved he's constitutionally qualified to be president. Birth records in Hawaii haven't dissuaded them.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he believes Obama is a citizen and that most Americans are beyond that question.

Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cantor refused to call people who question Obama's citizenship "crazy," saying it's not nice to call anyone crazy.

Cantor says he believes that Obama wants what's best for the country and that there are honest disagreements over how to achieve that.

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The King's Speech (2010)

Posted by Jamshaid Yousaf at 1/23/2011 07:04:00 AM
Movie Info
Genre: Drama
Synopsis: After the death of his father King George V (Michael Gambon) and the scandalous abdication of King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), Bertie (Colin Firth) who... [More]
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Running Time: 1 hr. 51 min.
In Theaters: Nov 26, 2010 Limited
US Box Office:$44.7M
Distributor:The Weinstein Company
Directed By: Tom Hooper
Written By: David Seidler

Cast

A Chinese stealth fighter jet that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority may borrow from US technology, it has been claimed.

Balkan military officials and other experts said China may have gleaned knowledge from a US F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," said Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war. "We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them."

The Nighthawk was downed by a Serbian anti-aircraft missile during a bombing raid on 27 March 1999. It was the first time one of the fighters had been hit, and the Pentagon blamed clever tactics and sheer luck. The pilot ejected and was rescued.

A senior Serbian military official confirmed that pieces of the wreckage were removed by souvenir collectors, and that some ended up "in the hands of foreign military attaches". Efforts to get comment from China's defence ministry and the Pentagon were unsuccessful.

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European Coptic churches are on high alert following
the New Year's Day bombing of a Coptic church in
Alexandria, Egypt.
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- The Palestinian Islamic Army, which has links to al Qaeda, carried out the New Year's Day attack on a Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, that left almost two dozen people dead, Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said Sunday.

It was not immediately clear what evidence he had or whether anyone had been arrested.

Egyptian authorities earlier this month released a sketch of a man they think is responsible for the attack.

"The man in the picture is unknown and authorities are trying to confirm his identity," Col. Alla Mahmoud of the Interior Ministry said at the time.

The Interior Ministry used forensic technology to re-create the face of the suspected suicide bomber.

Some Muslims attended Christmas services in solidarity with Coptic Christians after the bombing, and demonstrators marched in support of them at Egypt's prestigious Al-Azhar University.

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 Tunisian police have detained two politicians close to ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, state media report.
Abdallah Qallal was a key ally of ex-President Ben Ali

Mr Ben Ali's former adviser Abdelaziz bin Dhia and former Interior Minister and head of Senate Abdallah Qallal were now under house arrest, they said.

The news came as a new protest march against the interim government reached the capital Tunis.

Protesters want the prime minister, who served under Mr Ben Ali, to resign.

PM Mohamed Ghannouchi has pledged to quit after elections, which are expected within six months.

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Australian Open, Melbourne
Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 17-30 January
Coverage: Watch on BBC TV, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only) & Eurosport; listen on BBC 5 live sports extra and online; text commentary online;


Francesca Schiavone beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last 16 of the Australian Open after the longest women's match in Grand Slam history.

The Italian emerged a 6-4 1-6 16-14 winner after a marathon 4hr 44min tussle in Melbourne.

The pair beat the previous record of a 4hr 19min encounter between Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Regina Kulikova in the same tournament last year.

French Open champion Schiavone saved six match points on the way to victory.

In a match which swung both ways at the Hisense Arena, the final set alone between the 30-year-old and Kuznetsova lasted three hours.

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TONGI, Bangladesh (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Muslims seeking peace and the revival of Islam's tenets joined a mass prayer Sunday to wrap up an annual three-day Islamic congregation outside the Bangladeshi capital.

It was not clear how many devotees joined the final prayer, but the organizers had earlier said the congregation was expected to attract more than 4 million people on the sandy bank of the River Turag.

Local police chief S.M. Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzman said the gathering was peaceful like previous years as thousands walked to the site overnight and in the morning to join the final prayer of the World Congregation of Muslims, or Biswa Ijtema.

The gathering, held each year since 1966, is among the world's largest religious gatherings. It shuns politics.

Nuruzzman said some 12,000 foreigners from more than 95 countries joined the gathering.

Security was tight. More than 20,000 security officials patrolled the site, Nuruzzman said.

Live broadcasts by local stations showed the devotees raising their hands on boats and bridges at the scene.

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BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese athletic shoemaker Li-Ning knew it couldn't "out-Nike" Nike, especially in the sporting giant's own backyard. So the company is going low-budget edgy in its expansion to the U.S, using an irreverent YouTube video to play up its heritage while taking a lighthearted dig at the company name shared with its high-profile founder.

Li-Ning is among the first Chinese consumer product brands trying to build a following in the U.S., seeking to grab a slice of its saturated but highly coveted market. As China's economic might increases - it last year overtook Japan as the second-biggest economy after the U.S. - its companies are increasingly confident about expansion overseas. But corporate China has yet to produce a brand with the global name recognition of the likes of Apple, Sony or Google.

"It's a process of finding out - while staying true to our heritage, our brand - what side of our DNA is going to resonate with the American consumer," said Jay Li, general manager for Li-Ning International. "We're still searching, to be perfectly honest with you. And we're not in a hurry."

Americans might remember Li Ning (pronounced lee-NING) as the final torchbearer during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics - the former gymnastics gold medalist who "ran" along the opening in the stadium roof while suspended by wires.

His namesake company is a top domestic brand in China's lucrative athletic shoe and apparel industry, with more than 7,900 stores across the country. Though it has forecast slumping sales and a one percentage point decline in gross profit margin in 2011, CEO Zhang Zhiyong recently told the Wall Street Journal that Li-Ning plans to invest $10 million in U.S. operations this year.

"Our founder Mr. Li Ning has always said his vision was never about building China's Nike, it's about building the world's Li-Ning," Li said. "You can't be global without having a legitimate claim of market share in the most mature sporting goods market."

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(CNN) -- Three children and their mother who were found dead inside their partially burned house in southern Indiana had all been shot in the head, police said Saturday, with an internet rant tied to the woman drawing investigators' attention.

Results of a preliminary autopsy, conducted by the Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office, released Saturday revealed that Amanda Bennett, 30, had died from a gunshot wound to her head and smoke inhalation.

The same causes of death were listed for her 9-year-old daughter, Katelynn Bennett. Jasmine Abbott -- 14 and also Amanda's biological daughter -- was killed by a gunshot wound to the head, as was the woman's 4-year-old son, Ryan Bennett.

Shortly after 4:20 p.m. Friday, Austin, Indiana, police forced their way into the victims' residence after getting a request from a relative to check on them.

The police officer that went inside noticed that parts of the home had been burned and, after a "quick search," found the four bodies, according to a statement from Indiana State Police.

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(Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has drawn up an interim peace deal for a Palestinian state on up to 50 percent of West Bank land, far below Palestinian demands, the Haaretz daily said on Sunday.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters the idea of an interim deal is "entirely rejected". Speaking on Israel Army Radio, Erekat referred dismissively to the reported plan as Lieberman's "new invention".

Haaretz quoted a senior source in the Foreign Ministry as describing Lieberman's proposal as a "pre-emptive strike" before any wider international recognition of a Palestinian state throughout the West Bank, captured by Israel in a 1967 war.

With U.S.-brokered peace talks at a standstill, Israel has been alarmed in the past two months by a string of recognitions of a Palestinian state by Latin American states, including Brazil and Argentina.

Lieberman's plan, which outlines temporary borders of a state on 45 percent to 50 percent of West Bank territory, includes a network of roads that would cut through Israeli-held areas to connect Palestinian towns, the report said.


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Mexico City (CNN) -- A judge has given a Mexican singer accused of raping a teen a six-day extension to present evidence in the case, state media reported.

In a hearing Saturday that was closed to the media and the public, pop singer Kalimba signed a statement stating that he was innocent of the charges, lawyer Eliezer Garcia told the state-run Notimex news agency.

Prosecutors in the state of Quintana Roo allege he raped a 17-year-old girl in a hotel there in December.

Last week, the singer, whose full name is Kalimba Marichal Ibar, was deported from the United States to Mexico after an immigration violation in El Paso, Texas, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero said.

The 28-year-old singer is a former member of the group OV7, and also was the voice of Simba in a Spanish version of Disney's "The Lion King."

After Saturday's hearing, an employee and a guard at the prison where the singer is being held asked him for his autograph, Notimex said.

Outside the prison, the news agency reported that hundreds of fans marched to show their support. Groups of teenagers carried signs and shouted, "Let Kalimba out!" and "He is innocent!"

About 500 fans also gathered to show support for the singer in the nation's capital Saturday, Notimex said, carrying signs that said, "Kalimba we are with you" and "Kalimba, cheer up, Christ loves you."

Nearly two decades after making his film debut at Sundance in the indie drama Zebrahead -- and returning subsequently in countless indie films -- actor Michael Rapaport is back in Park City with his first effort as a documentary film director.

In Beats, Rhymes & Life (premiering January 22 at the Temple Theater as part of the U.S. documentary competition), the Bronx-born helmer chronicles the public and private dramas of the hip-group group A Tribe Called Quest. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Rapaport comes clean about the pain of realizing his passion project, what he remembers about his first Sundance and the “bloodbath” that is independent filmmaking.

The Hollywood Reporter: How did Beats, Rhymes & Life come about?

Michael Rapaport: I've been a huge fan of A Tribe Called Quest since they started. In 2006 they performed at the Wiltern Theater in L.A. and I went backstage and said to somebody 'I want to do a documentary about these guys.' Two years later, they were the headliners of the Rock the Bells tour, so I approached them about doing it and they gave me the green light.

THR: Why is Tribe a good documentary subject?

Rapaport: Well, first, there's never been a formal, proper independently-made documentary about a hip-hop group. They were one of the first acts to seamlessly use elements of jazz--taking the records that were in their parents' record collection and putting them in hip-hop. There was a consciousness without being overbearing and fun and innocence, at the same time Public Enemy was out. Tribe's music had inclusiveness. It was definitely soulful, black music, but it was for everybody.

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