Nicaragua volcano spews ash cloud, residents evacuated

 Nicaragua's tallest volcano has belched an ash cloud hundreds of meters (feet) into the sky in the latest bout of sporadic activity, prompting the evacuation of nearby residents, the government said on Wednesday.
The 5,725-foot (1,745-meter) San Cristobal volcano, which sits around 85 miles north of the capital Managua in the country's northwest, has been active in recent years, and went through a similar episode in September.
The latest activity began late on Tuesday.
Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo called on residents who live within a 1.9-mile (3-km) radius of the volcano to leave the area. Around 300 families live near the volcano.
"We have some families who have self-evacuated. ... We ask (the people) to go to a safe place, it's just for a few days during this emergency," she said, adding it was a precautionary measure.
A billowing grayish cloud could be seen drifting sideways from the volcano's peak.
The volcano also stirred in mid-2008, when it expelled gas and rumbled with a series of small eruptions.

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South Africa: Mandela released from the hospital

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was released Wednesday from the hospital after being treated for a lung infection and having gallstones removed, a government spokesman said.
The 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon will continue to receive medical care at home.
Mandela had been in the hospital since Dec. 8. In recent days, officials have said he was improving and in good spirits, but doctors have taken extraordinary care with his health because of his age.
Mandela was released Wednesday evening and will receive "home-based high care" at his residence in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton until he fully recovers, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj.
"We thank the public and the media for the good wishes and for according Madiba and the family the necessary privacy," said Maharaj in a statement, using Mandela's clan name, a term of affection. The statement requested that Mandela's privacy continue to be respected "in order to allow for the best possible conditions for full recovery."
David Phetoe, a resident of the Johannesburg township of Soweto, reacted with joy when he heard that Mandela was no longer in a hospital.
"It's not always the case, when people offer great expectations, that those expectations are fulfilled," he said. "In this case, we say in the same tone, in the Christmas mood and in the Christmas season, let him stick around for a while!"
Mandela is revered around the world as a symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation, his legacy forged in the fight against apartheid, the system of white minority rule that imprisoned him for 27 years.
The Nobel laureate served one five-year term as president after South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. Although the country today struggles with poverty and inequality, Mandela is widely credited with helping to avert race-driven chaos as South Africa emerged from apartheid.
South African President Jacob Zuma was among those who joined Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and other family members in wishing a Merry Christmas to Mandela at his hospital bedside in Pretoria, the South African capital.
"I think he is an icon of hope and we are very excited" that Mandela is out of the hospital, said Sipho Sibiko, a Soweto resident. "I personally know that he is one of the people that inspired me. He inspires a lot of people and we are excited that he has been released. We wish him many more joyous years and good health.

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Tensions hit French Embassy in C. African Republic

Angry protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French Embassy in Central African Republic on Wednesday, criticizing the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem a rapid rebel advance as fears grew that the insurgents aim to seize the capital.
The demonstrations began earlier in the day outside the U.S. Embassy before about 100 protesters then took to the French Embassy, carrying pieces of cardboard with messages that read: "No to war! No to France!"
"It's France who colonized us — they should support us until the end. Unfortunately, they have done nothing. In this case, we are merely asking purely and simply that they leave our country," shouted one young demonstrator in front of the French mission in Bangui.
The protesters then began stopping cars to verify whether any foreign nationals were inside.
"These people have taken down the French flag from its pole and removed it," said Serge Mucetti, the French ambassador to Central African Republic. "They have carried out stone-throwing in the area of the embassy and have broken windows. This kind of behavior is unacceptable."
Air France confirmed Wednesday that its once-a-week flight to Bangui turned back because of protests at the French Embassy. The decision was made independently by Air France, and the French government did not make the request, said an airline spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because company policy did not authorize her to speak on the record.
The French foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the armed attacks, saying they "gravely undermine the peace agreements in place and the efforts of the international community to consolidate peace" in the country, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
The U.N. chief appealed to all parties to refrain from any acts of violence against civilian and to respect human rights, he said.
The secretary-general welcomed the conclusions of the heads of state summit of the Economic Community of the Central African States in Ndjamena, Chad, on Dec. 21 and urged all parties to abide by the decisions "which provide a basis for a peaceful resolution of the dispute," Nesirky said.
But many fear that Bangui, a city of about 600,000 people, could be the scene of a battle between government forces and the rebels. The fighters already have seized at least 10 towns, meeting little resistance from soldiers.
Rebel Col. Djouma Narkoyo said Wednesday that his forces have continued taking towns in recent days because government forces are attacking their positions. But, he insisted via phone: "Our intention is not to take Bangui. We still remain open to dialogue."
Bangui residents were skeptical of the insurgents' intentions.
"We are afraid by what we see happening in our country right now," said Leon Modomale, a civil servant in the capital. "It's as if the rebels are going to arrive in Bangui any moment now because there are too many contradictions in their language."
The rebel advance began earlier this month, with a push by the Union for the Democratic Forces for Unity, known by its French acronym of UFDR. The group signed an April 13, 2007, peace accord, which paved the way for the fighters to join the regular army, but the group's leaders say the deal was never properly implemented.
Central African Republic is a desperately poor, landlocked country that has suffered numerous rebellions since independence from France. Despite the nation's wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped.
U.S. special forces troops have deployed to Central African Republic among other countries in the region in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army.

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Children, many ill, would be victims of Russia ban on U.S. adoption

Family Christmas cards and smiling snapshots of children sent by their adoptive American parents fill Galina Sigayeva's office in Russia's second city St Petersburg.
Many of them were crippled by illness and in desperate need of medical care before her agency helped organise their adoption into U.S. families, she recalls.
Children's rights campaigners say children like these will suffer most if President Vladimir Putin approves a law barring American adoptions that has been rubber-stamped by Russian lawmakers. The act retaliates against a new U.S. law that will punish Russians accused of human rights violations.
Critics of the bill say Russian orphanages are woefully overcrowded and the fate of vulnerable children should not be used as a bargaining chip in a bilateral feud.
"These children are not even offered to foreigners until they get a certain number of (adoption) refusals from Russians," said Sigayeva, a neatly styled brunette who heads the New Hope Christian Services Adoption Agency.
"These are children with complicated diagnoses, really complicated. They are very ill children."
She smiled as she flipped through photos of children embraced by their adoptive parents, playing with family pets and enjoying presents and other trappings of holiday cheer.
"What surprises me is that here they all look so healthy, so fantastic, but you should see what they look like when they are taken from here," Sigayeva said.
"Some had to be carried to the border. We had a girl with hepatitis whom we helped from the emergency room."
Both sides in the heated debate surrounding the bill agree Russia's orphanage system is overwhelmed, riddled with corruption and most failing to place children in families.
More than 650,000 children are considered orphans in Russia - though some were rejected by their parents or taken from dysfunctional homes. Of that total, 110,000 lived in state institutions in 2011, according to the Ministry of Science and Education.
By contrast, in the United States - which has more than twice Russia's population - about 58,280 children were living in group homes and institutions last year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Adoptions by Russian families remain modest, with some 7,400 adoptions in 2011 compared with 3,400 adoptions of Russian children by families abroad.
Russian politicians say it is an embarrassment that the country cannot care for its own, and supporters of the measure argue it will help stimulate reform and domestic adoptions.
"Foreign adoption is a result of the state and society's lack of attention to orphans ... It is, if you will, a result of our indifference," Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told officials at a ruling party congress last week.
American families adopt more Russian children - 956 last year - than those of any other country. Of the children adopted by Americans in 2011, 9 percent - or 89 - were disabled, according to official Russian figures.
Opponents of the legislation, who include senior officials such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, say politicking should not deprive orphans of this chance at better life.
"Russia is not able to provide for all its orphans," Boris Altshuler, director of the Moscow-based Rights of the Child advocacy group, said. "Although 1,000 is a small fraction - it was a help."
Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets has said the ban would violate international treaties on child rights, and the Kremlin's own human rights council called it unconstitutional.
"AMERICAN ROULETTE"
The ban responds to a U.S. law known as the Magnitsky Act, which punishes Russians suspected of being involved in the death in custody of anti-graft lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, and of other human rights violations, by barring them from entering the United States.
In a pointed echo of the Magnitsky Act, Russia's legislation is named the Dima Yakovlev law, after a Russian-born toddler who died of heat stroke after his American adoptive father left him locked in a sweltering car.
His death and that of 19 other Russian-born children in the hands of U.S. citizens in the last decade has helped drive support for the bill and for tougher adoption rules in a deal with the United States in June.
"It's American roulette," said Pavel Astakhov, Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner and a supporter of the ban.
"One handicapped girl from Russia got lucky. She was Jessica Long - a Paralympic champion. Another did not. She was Masha Allen ... who was raped by her paedophile adoptive father."
DISABLED CHILDREN
If Putin signs it into law, the ban will come into force on January 1, most immediately affecting the fate of children whose adoption is in the works.
The placement of 46 children with American families will be cancelled, Astakhov told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday.
"There is terrible irony in the fact that America's decision to speak out against human rights violations may cause the Russian government to deny many thousands of Russian orphans the possibility to grow up in loving, adoptive families," said Chuck Johnson, president of National Council For Adoption, a non-profit advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Sigayeva, of the New Hope Christian Services Adoption Agency, said a six-month halt on American adoptions until a new bilateral deal entered force in November showed how it would aggravate problems in Russia's strained child-protection system.
"Hospitals were overwhelmed. There was no room in orphanages or hospitals for children whom their parents had rejected. So what's next then?" said Sigayeva, whose agency has helped place some 200 children in American families since 1992.
Advocates who work with disabled children say a reform proposal drafted by Astakhov ignores their plight. They say it calls for a reduction in the number of institutions caring for children with disabilities without explaining how they will find foster homes and medical care.
"No concrete measures are being suggested. Nothing exists but a lot of children's pain, which will only increase now," said Sergei Koloskov, a campaigner for children with Down's Syndrome.
"They are being left parentless in addition to being ill.

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New turmoil hits Egypt's tourism

At Egypt's Pyramids, the desperation of vendors to sell can be a little frightening for some tourists.
Young men descend on any car with foreigners in it blocks before it reaches the more than 4,500 year-old Wonder of the World. They bang on car doors and hoods, some waving the sticks and whips they use for driving camels, demanding the tourists come to their shop or ride their camel or just give money.
In the southern city of Aswan, tour operator Ashraf Ibrahim was recently taking a group to a historic mosque when a mob of angry horse carriage drivers trapped them inside, trying to force them to take rides. The drivers told Ibrahim to steer business their way in the future or else they'd burn his tourist buses, he said.
Egypt's touts have always been aggressive — but they're more desperate than ever after nearly two years of devastation in the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.
December, traditionally the start of Egypt's peak season, has brought new pain. Many foreigners stayed away because of the televised scenes of protests and clashes on the streets of Cairo in the battle over a controversial constitution.
Arrivals this month were down 40 percent from November, according to airport officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Tourism workers have little hope that things will get better now that the constitution came into effect this week after a nationwide referendum. The power struggle between Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the opposition threatens to erupt at any time into more unrest in the streets.
More long term, many in the industry worry ruling Islamists will start making changes like banning alcohol or swimsuits on beaches that they fear will drive tourists away.
"Nobody can plan anything because one day you find that everything might be OK and another that everything is lost. You can't even take a right decision or plan for the next month," said Magda Fawzi, head of Sabena Management.
She's thinking of shutting down her company, which runs two hotels in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and four luxury cruise boats on the Nile between the ancient cities of Luxor and Aswan. In one hotel, only 10 of 300 rooms are booked, and only one of her ships is operating, she said. She has already downsized from 850 employees before the revolution to 500.
"I don't think there will be any stability with this kind of constitution. People will not accept it," she said.
Tourism, one of Egypt's biggest foreign currency earners, was gutted by the turmoil of last year's 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Scared off by the upheaval, the number of tourists fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.
This year, the industry struggled back. By the end of September, 8.1 million tourists had come, injecting $10 billion into the economy. The number for the full year is likely to surpass 2011 but is still considerably down from 2010.
For the public, it has meant a drying up of income, given that tourism provided direct or indirect employment to one in eight Egyptians in 2010, according to government figures.
Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor province, highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.
For the government, the fall in tourism and foreign investment since the revolution has worsened a debt crisis and forced talks with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8 billion loan.
Morsi has promised to expand tourism, but hotel owners and tour operators say he has yet to make clear any plans.
Their biggest fear is new violence causing shocks like December's. Ibrahim, of the Eagle Travels tourism company, said that because of this month's protests, two German operators he works with cancelled tours. They weren't even heading to Cairo, but to the Red Sea, Luxor and Aswan, far from the unrest.
But some in the industry fear that, with the constitution's provisions strengthening implementation of Shariah, Islamists will ban alcohol or restrict dress on Egypt's beaches, which rival antiquities sites as draws for tourism. Officials from the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, are vague about any plans.
Ultraconservative Salafis, who are key allies of Morsi, have been more direct.
Nader Bakkar, spokesman for the Salafi Nour Party, told a conference of tour guides in Aswan earlier this month that tourists should not be allowed to buy alcohol but could bring it with them and drink it in their rooms. Tourists should also be encouraged to wear conservative dress, he said.
"We welcome all tourists but we tell them ... there are traditions and beliefs in the country, so respect them," he said. "Most tourists will have no problem if you tell them" to bring their own alcohol.
One Salafi sheik earlier this year said the Pyramids and Sphinx should be demolished as anti-Islamic — like Afghanistan's then-Taliban rulers destroyed monumental Buddha statues in 2001. Bakkar dismissed the comments as the opinion of one cleric.
But tour guide Gladys Haddad sees the Salafis' attitude as a threat, saying the constitution should have said more to protect Egypt's pharaonic heritage. "We are talking about a civilization that they do not acknowledge. They see it as idolatrous."
"Why would a tourist come to a resort if he can't drink?" said Fawzi, of Sabena Management. "People are coming for tours and monuments, and to relax on the boats. If they feel that restriction, why should they come?"
Nahla Mofied of Escapade Travels said the Islamists might restrict what tourists can "wear and do" but, given its importance to the economy, "they may not destroy tourism fully."
Complicating attempts to draw tourists back is the lawlessness gripping Egypt the past two years. With police supervision low, tourist touts increasingly assault guides and even tourists to demand business. In September, 150 tour guides held a protest against attacks by vendors.
"We have struggled with this problem since before the revolution, but now the situation is completely out of control," Ibrahim said.
At the Giza Pyramids, police seem indifferent to the touts. Camel-riding police even join in, pushing tourists to take rides.
Gomaa al-Gabri, an antiquities employee, was infuriated at the sight, shouting, "You sons of dogs" and a slew of other insults at a policeman trying to get money off a tourist.
"They're trying to take away my income," said the father of 11. "In Mubarak's time we wouldn't dare talk to them like this. Now I can hit him with a shoe on his head and he can't speak."
For some tourists at the Pyramids, the chaos is part of the experience.

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Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with 'Jack Reacher'?

 Paramount hopes it's launching a franchise with "Jack Reacher," the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.
It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn't the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" to see how it might work. That film opened to $12 million on December 16 and went on to make $209 million and nearly $700 million worldwide for Paramount.
"Jack Reacher" will be in about 3,200 theaters, and it will have plenty of competition. Universal's Judd Apatow comedy "This Is 40" opens wide Friday, and Paramount's ‘Guilt Trip" and Disney's 3D re-release of "Monsters Inc." opened Wednesday.
A slew of limited releases, led by Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," along with this year's winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes "Amour," and tsunami survival tale "The Impossible" are also competing for moviegoers' attention, along with a number of holdover hits.
No movie, though, will come close to catching reigning box-office champ "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which remains in more than 4,000 theaters. Peter Jackson's latest Middle-earth epic will take in north of $40 million, industry analysts say, with "Jack Reacher" and "This Is 40" battling for second with less than half of that.
Warner Bros.' "Hobbit" has rolled to $106 million in the U.S. since opening to $85 million last weekend. Its international total - $188 million as of Thursday - is even bigger.
In "Jack Reacher," Cruise plays an ex-military investigator; the film is based on bestselling author Lee Child's novel "One Shot" and written for the screen and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It's from David Ellison's Paramount-based Skydance Productions and was produced for about $60 million by Cruise, Don Granger, Paula Wagner and Gary Levinsohn.
Robert Duvall and Richard Jenkins co-star in the PG-13 crime thriller, which has a 53 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence.
No is expecting "Jack Reacher" to match "MI:4" at the box office. The Reacher novels have a following, but nowhere near that of the "Mission Impossible" franchise. Cruise's recent box-office record has been uneven, and the film's Facebook and Twitter activity is not particularly strong.
"Jack Reacher" could wind up playing more like Cruise's "Knight and Day," which opened to $20 million and went on to make $76 million for Fox in 2010, or "Valkyrie," which did $83 million in 2008 after opening to $21 million. Cruise was critically lauded for his foray earlier this year as an aging rock icon in the musical "Rock of Ages," but that was one of the year's bigger box-office duds.
"Jack Reacher" should play strongly with action fans, but Cruise's personal problems could limit its broader appeal.
"I can't imagine his divorce from Katie Holmes and the custody battle hasn't hurt him some with women," BoxOffice.com vice president and chief analyst Phil Contrino told TheWrap Thursday. "Actions fans will come out, but going beyond that demographic is going to be tough for him."
On the other hand, Universal says that it tracking suggests "This Is 40" will do quite well with women -- and women over 25 in particular.
"This Is 40," is, as the marketing campaign points out, a "sort of sequel" to Apatow's "Knocked Up," which opened to $30 million and went on to make nearly $150 million five years ago. Like "This Is 40," that one was written and directed by Apatow and starred Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.
"40" is the fourth film Apatow has directed, all for Universal ("Funny People" and "40-Year-Old Virgin" are the other two). The ensemble cast also features Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Chris O'Dowd, Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy and Lena Dunham.
It's R-rated and has a 62 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence. The production budget was $35 million.
"This looks like the strongest comedy of the season," Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations told TheWrap, "but it's still a bit of a wild card. It's going to connect with the New York and L.A. crowds; the key will be whether the Heartland audiences embrace it or see it as a little too hip. It will take time to tell, because of the season."
Films released at this time of year tend to open lower because the marketplace is so crowded - by Friday, 11 new films will have hit opened this week - and the fact that many potential moviegoers are districted by shopping and other holiday preps. On the other hand, they often show lasting power and make up what they don't take in on the weekend with stronger showings on the weekdays.
"Things could well come in lower than people are expecting across the board this weekend," Bock said, "but look for many of these movies to make it up over the holidays."
Summit will be looking for that kind of slow build on "The Impossible," the English-language film from Spain based on a true story about a family's fight to survive the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, who received a Best Actress nomination from SAG recently, star.
Summit is releasing it Friday in 15 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. The plan is to go nationwide early next year.
"The Impossible" already has taken in $52 million in Spain, the home of the real-life couple upon whom the story is based as well as director Juan Antonio Bayona ("The Orphanage") and screenwriter Sergio Sanchez.
Other limited rollouts set for Friday include Paramount's 3D concert film "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away," in 800 theaters; "On the Road," IFC Films' adaptation of the Jack Kerouac's beat generation novel, in four theaters; and "Not Fade Away," the Paramount Vantage tale of a group of 1960 New Jersey friends launching a rock band, written and directed by "Sopranos" creator David Chase, in three locations.
Sony's "Zero Dark Thirty," about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, got off to a terrific start Wednesday. It racked up $124,848 from five theaters in its first day of release. That's an average of $24,969, making it one of the biggest limited mid-week openings in history.

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ReferralBuzz Announces Partnership with TruliaTwin Cities’ Referral Service for Home Remodeling Experts and Their Customers Partners with Leading Online Real Estate Market

Twin Cities’ referral service for home remodeling experts and their customers partners with leading online real estate marketplace.

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Starting in January 2013, ReferralBuzz Inc., in Minneapolis, will be the exclusive partner in the 7 county Twin Cities metro and St Cloud, MN, Madison, WI, Cedar Rapids, IA for the new "Find a Pro - Home Improvement" feature on Trulia. Trulia is a leading online marketplace for home buyers, sellers, renters, and real estate professionals. ReferralBuzz will be the first home improvement recommendation resource on the Trulia website.
Founded in 2011, ReferralBuzz gives consumers a free, easy way to find great service providers - including providers who’ve earned recommendations from social media, neighbors, and friends. ReferralBuzz also gives home remodeling experts the tools they need to market their services and increase referrals using the power of social media.
With unique info on areas people want to live that can’t be found anywhere else, Trulia provides the inside scoop on properties, places, and real estate professionals. Prospective home buyers, sellers, and renters can learn about agents, neighborhoods, schools, crime, commute times, and even ask the local community questions. Meanwhile, real estate professionals use Trulia to connect with millions of transaction-ready buyers and sellers each month via Trulia’s hyper-local advertising services, social recommendations, and top-rated mobile real estate apps.
"The partnership with Trulia will provide a huge benefit to our customers through greater exposure,” says ReferralBuzz Founder Lisa Schneegans. “We will be able to feed information onto the "find a pro" section of Trulia's website from the ReferralBuzz website and provide the inside scoop to homeowners, buyers and sellers on local home improvement service providers."
For ReferralBuzz Service Providers, the partnership with Trulia means:

Service Provider’s ReferralBuzz profile will be seen by hundreds of thousands of consumers interested in home improvement in your service area.
Service Providers ReferralBuzz subscription will include a Trulia "Find A Pro" listing that will be automatically be uploaded from your ReferralBuzz profile.
Referral Buzz Service Providers will be able to participate in Trulia Voices "Ask an Expert"
ReferralBuzz will have the exclusive banner ad on the new Trulia mobile app for our metro area. Subsequently giving the service provider’s profile an opportunity to be seen by thousands of people.
How It Works for Homeowners

To get started, homeowners simply sign on at http://www.referralbuzz.com. Homeowners can view exclusive deals, request estimates and get ideas for their own projects from other customers’ pictures and feedback. Homeowners can sign in through Facebook and see which providers their “Friends” have used and recommend.
How It Works For Service Providers

ReferralBuzz provides a set of very easy to use tools for service providers to help them enhance their business. Automated tools include:
Social Referrals-Get customer referrals through their social networks, the “word of mouth” in the digital age.
Customer Feedback-After a job is completed ReferralBuzz makes the request for feedback automatically.
Stay In Touch Email-This in-touch e-mail system turns great customers into repeat customers and helps customers keep you in mind.
Facebook Posting-Automatically post your projects, photos and specials on your own Facebook page.
Digital Portfolio-Keep your visual assets at your fingertips. Photos sell your service better than any sales pitch. Email your presentation to the prospect, right from your IPad.
Project Communication-Communication during a project is often the key to keeping a job on track. ReferalBuzz makes that easy. And, once the project is done, an automated sequence of feedback requests, social referrals and emails begins. Clients feel well taken care of, long after you’ve left the job site.

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Politis & Matovina, P.A. Earns BBB Accreditation

Politis & Matovina, P.A. announced its recent accreditation by BBB Serving Central Florida. As a BBB Accredited Business, Politis & Matovina, P.A. is dedicated to promoting trust in the marketplace.

Daytona Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Politis & Matovina, P.A. is committed to BBB's Standards of Trust. This week, Politis & Matovina, P.A. announced its recent accreditation by BBB Serving Central Florida. As a BBB Accredited Business, Politis & Matovina, P.A. is dedicated to promoting trust in the marketplace. According to BBB reports by Princeton Research, seven in ten consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company designated as a BBB Accredited Business. BBB is a resource for the public, providing objective, unbiased information about businesses.
"We are pleased to be a BBB Accredited Business because we value building trust with our clients," said Michael Politis, Senior Partner/Owner. "Our BBB Accreditation gives our clients confidence in our commitment to maintaining high ethical standards of conduct."
BBB Accredited Businesses must adhere to BBB's "Standards of Trust," a comprehensive set of policies, procedures and best practices representing trustworthiness in the marketplace. The standards call for building trust, embodying integrity, advertising honestly and telling the truth, being transparent, honoring promises, being responsive and safeguarding privacy.
About Politis & Matovina, P.A.

Politis & Matovina, P.A. is a personal injury law firm known for providing aggressive and high quality representation to injured victims, not insurance companies. With offices located in Port Orange, Ormond Beach, Palm Coast and Orange City, our firm focuses on ALL injury cases involving wrongful death, auto/motorcycle accidents, slips and falls, boating accidents, pedestrian accidents and bicycle/moped accidents. We also have departments dedicated to criminal defense and immigration law. We can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your legal emergencies. Driven to achieve justice for our clients, we know that Results Matter. Let us put our experience to work for you. Visit http://www.TheJusticeAttorneys.com for more information.
About BBB

BBB's mission is to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. BBB accomplishes this mission by creating a community of trustworthy businesses, setting standards for marketplace trust, encouraging and supporting best practices, celebrating marketplace role models and denouncing substandard marketplace behavior. Businesses that earn BBB Accreditation contractually agree and adhere to the organization's high standards of ethical business behavior. BBB is the preeminent resource to turn to for objective, unbiased information on businesses and charities. Contact BBB serving Central Florida at (407) 789-9008.

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Car-Specials.com Set to Give Customers a Fresh Car-Shopping Experience

Car-Specials.com is a new car search service that is bringing fun and excitement back to the car shopping game. With an ultra-fast, intuitive interface and a superior selection of new and used cars from local dealerships, Car Specials offers consumer-friendly search options and low-cost, dealer-centric service.

Carmel, Indiana (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Car-Specials.com is a new kind of online automotive marketplace, offering efficient, customizable search options that cater to every different kind of car shopper. Whether a customer is looking for a new or used vehicle, or wants to search by color, make or body style, Car-Specials.com provides incomparable search functionality and a large selection of vehicles.
Veering away from the kind of automotive website that focuses on the sale and not the customer relationship, Car Specials.com focuses on giving consumers the connection to a particular vehicle that they would expect from walking into a dealership, all from the comfort of their own home. Car-Specials.com is currently in its pilot phase, adding new and used car deals from new dealerships every week.
By enabling visitors the option of selecting make, model, year, price range, body style, geographic location, and more, Car-Specials.com allows customers to take total control over their search. Unlike some of the larger car search engines, visitors can even search new and used vehicles at the same time. From sedans and coupes to SUVs, wagons, and sports cars, a wide variety of vehicles and brands assures that each customer can find their ideal vehicle, matching their lifestyle and budget, all in one place.
“Online car shoppers don’t want just any vehicle, they want the perfect one,” said Roger Laurendeau, President of Car-Specials.com. “We strive to provide the best vehicle choices and a streamlined system that makes the process of finding and purchasing a new car fast, convenient, and fun.”
Online car shopping is packed with large companies that charge dealers huge sums of money to list their vehicles. By contrast, Car-Specials.com is a small company with lower costs for dealerships, affording dealers the option of passing those savings on to the customer.
Customers interested in taking Car Specials for a test drive may visit http://www.car-specials.com. Dealers interested in working with Car-Specials.com to market their vehicles should contact Roger Laurendeau at 317-805-4933.
About Car-Specials.com
Car-Specials.com is an online automotive marketplace, dedicated to providing dealers with a wide-reaching, low cost option for marketing their vehicles online. Car Specials offers its customers lightning-fast search with a variety of customizable search options for finding their next new or used vehicle.

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Brand id│Strategic Partners Launches Revolutionary Personal Branding Success Program for Women

The Breakfast Club is a 12-month strategic mastermind program for Baltimore women who are ready to expand their “circle of influence, strategically map out their personal and professional path to success, and uplevel their visibility in the marketplace through personal branding.

Baltimore, Maryland (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Two Maryland business women have partnered to unveil a program specifically designed to help 25 local entrepreneurs and executives dramatically elevate their personal and professional lives in 2013 and redefine the "goold old boy network.". The program is called The Breakfast Club, a 12-month strategic mastermind that will expand their “circle of influence” and strategically map out the personal and professional path to success of each participant through networking, personal branding, life coaching and strategic planning.
Founded by Jennifer Ransaw Smith, CEO of Brand id Strategic Partners, a full-service personal branding agency and Susan Stern, CEO of Live Now a Personal Success Coaching firm, The Breakfast Club is revolutionizing “business as usual.” This program leaves no stone unturned when it comes to mapping out a plan for success.
Although named The Breakfast Club, the program is so much more. In fact, a monthly breakfast is just a small component of what is being offered (held at Miss Shirley’s Inner Harbor). Twice a year, participants will meet at the Mt. Washington Conference Center for an all day “working session” to design personal and professional blueprints. In addition, each participant will have access to both Brand id Strategic Partners and Live Now group coaching programs, meaning they will spend six months working on their “personal brand” and four months working on their “life’s vision.”
“As far as the level of comprehensiveness, Susan and I wanted to put something uniquely special together that truly supported local women. So many women are not use to investing in themselves, so we wanted to use an affordable price point. “You are your greatest asset to your company, spouse, children and/or community. Our personal and professional lives are more connected than most people imagine, and investing in both aspects will dramatically uplevel your life this year, “says Susan.
Our members are going to get opportunities to elevate at every level. From networking monthly to yearly strategic planning and online support, we wanted women to be able to walk away knowing they had taken their lives to an entirely new level and felt supported every step of the way,” said Jennifer Ransaw Smith. “We wanted something for all of those women who know they want more, but just don’t know how to get it.”
The program is ideal for mid-to-senior-level executives and entrepreneurs who want to:

    Be surrounded by a group of women who are committed to helping you succeed
    Receive support, encouragement and inspiration as you skyrocket toward your goals
    Become more focused on where you are going and what you need to do to get there
    Expand their person “circle of influence”
    Be able to test ideas, connect with amazing resources and feedback
    Maximize what they are able to accomplish in a 12-month period
The Breakfast Club (http://www.breakfastclubonline.com) runs from January 24rd until December 31, 2013 and is limited to only 25 participants. First come, first served. The investment is $3,000 and payment options are available. For more information about the program, please visit http:///http://www.breakfastclubonline.com
Brand id│Strategic Partners is a full-service integrated personal branding agency that helps entrepreneurs, senior level executives, and subject matter experts transform from unknown to known. We offer a multi-disciplinary approach to brand elevation both on and offline by providing both business-to-consumer (personal branding) and business-to-business (leadership branding) communication strategy.

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New poll shows Israel's leader losing altitude

A new poll shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poised for an election victory but losing support to a rival who opposes Palestinian statehood.
The Dialog poll gave 35 of parliament's 120 seats to Netanyahu's Likud Beiteinu list, indicating he'll head the next government after the Jan. 22 vote. That's down from 39 in the previous Dialog survey.
The centrist Labor Party polled second, with 17 seats.
The poll shows a continued surge by the Jewish Home Party. Its leader, Naftali Bennett, stirred up a storm last week by saying he'd resist evacuating settlements if ordered to do so as a reserves soldier.
Bennett's party received 13 seats in the poll published Tuesday, up from 11.
The poll of 491 people had an error margin of 4.3 percentage points.

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Kenya Red Cross: 30 people killed in clashes

At least 30 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern Kenya early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, the Kenya Red Cross said.
Five children and five women were among the dead, the Red Cross said. Forty-five houses were set on fire during the attack, Red Cross spokeswoman Nelly Muluka said.
Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent attacks in the region, said that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the semi-nomadic Orma herding community at dawn in the Tana River Delta. He said the raiders were armed with spears and AK-47 rifles.
At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in August and September.
The tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, the U.N. Humanitarian coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said late August. However, on the surface the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture and other resources, he said.
Political tensions and tribal animosities have increased due to competition among potential candidates in the March election.
Violence after Kenya's last general election, in late 2007, killed more than 1,000 people. Officials are working to avoid a repeat during March's presidential election, but episodes of violence around the country are raising fears that pockets of the country will see violence during the voting period.
The Tana River area is about 430 miles (690 kilometers) from the capital, Nairobi.
The utilization of the waters of the Tana River has been at the middle of a conflict pitting the Pokomo against the Orma, according to research by the Institute of Security Studies in 2004, following clashes in the Tana River area in 2000 to 2002. The Pokomo claim the land along the river and the Orma claim the waters of the river, said the research by Taya Weiss, titled "Guns in the Borderlands Reducing the Demand for Small Arms." At least 108 people died in the 2000-2002 clashes, according to the parliamentary record.
The longstanding conflict between the two tribes had previously resulted in relatively low casualties but the increased availability of guns has caused the casualties to escalate and more property to be destroyed, said the report.
It said a catalyst to the conflict was the collapse of three irrigation schemes at Bura, Hola, and Tana Delta, which influenced residents' lifestyles in terms of employment and sources of income.
"The collapse of these schemes forced the nomadic pastoralists to move during the wet season, while the farmers remained along the river. During the dry season the pastoralists move back to the river in search of water and pasture," it said.
The Tana River area has the characteristics of any other conflict prone area in Kenya: underdevelopment, poor infrastructure, poor communication and social amenities, and social marginalization, according to the report.
"Communities are arming themselves because of the need to defend against perceived attacks," said the report. "They feel that the government security machinery has not been able to effectively respond to violence. Isolation has led to increased demand for guns.

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Burning pipeline fire sign of Nigeria's woes

 The gasoline pipeline burns unstopped near a village close to Nigeria's sprawling megacity of Lagos, shooting flames into the air as leaking fuel muddies the ground. All around it, the ground is littered with plastic jerry-cans, used by those who hacked into the line to steal the fuel within.
The pipeline explosion here in Ije Ododo shows the ongoing problems oil-rich Nigeria faces. While the nation's politicians and businessmen have long profited from the country's production of roughly 2 million barrels of oil a day, many Nigerians remain desperately poor and take dangerous risks to try and earn a living.
Meanwhile, nothing ever seems to change, locals say.
"That sort of thing always happens every year," resident Samuel Otor said with a shrug.
This pipeline explosion happened Monday in Ije Ododo, in a swampy mangrove forest in the western fringe of the sprawling city of Lagos. Officials say the explosion happened when locals tapped into the pipeline to steal the refined gasoline moving through it. A spark from the scavengers likely set the line ablaze. It's unclear how many people were injured by the initial blast.
On Thursday, the flames still burned as fire-fighters sprayed water around the site, trying to stop the fire from spreading. The ground turned to a foul-smelling mud, with puddles of fuel and dirt looking red.
The line belonged to the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. It is the second-such pipeline rupture in the recent months around Lagos. In September, the company said suspected thieves shot dead three of its workers in southeast Ogun state after rupturing a gasoline pipeline to steal fuel. Another pipeline rupture in Nigeria's southeastern Abia state killed about 20 people.
Pipeline ruptures remain common in Nigeria, where militants and criminals routinely tap into lines to steal crude oil and refined gasoline. Fires can easily and accidentally be sparked by those attempting to gather the fuel.
While the government criticizes theft from the lines, it often remains the only quick way to make money in a nation where most earn the equivalent of a $1 day. The International Energy Agency recently estimated that widespread thefts of crude oil in Nigeria cost the country $7 billion a year.
Despite efforts to crack down on oil and gasoline thieves, locally called bunkerers, the practice continues unstopped, just like the flames in this small village.

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55 people drowned or missing off Somali coast

The U.N. refugee agency says 55 people have drowned or are missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast.
UNHCR said the incident late Tuesday represented the biggest loss of life in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011, when 57 Somali refugees and migrants drowned while attempting to reach Yemen.
The U.N. says five people survived Tuesday's accident. The survivors said the boat was overcrowded and capsized 15 minutes into its journey. Twenty-three bodies were recovered; the rest are presumed to have drowned.
Bruno Geddo, the UNCHR representative for Somalia, said the deaths are a reminder of the risks Somalis take to flee their country. Geddo said the Gulf of Aden is the deadliest route for people fleeing conflict and rights abuses in the Horn of Africa.

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Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes

A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.
Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent the attacks, said Friday that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community, called Kipao, at dawn in the Tana River Delta.
The latest deaths in a tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, according to the U.N.
At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October.
Animosity between the two communities over land and water resources has existed for decades.

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RIM beats estimates in Q3, but subscriber base shrinks

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday posted its financial results for its fiscal third quarter, which ended on December 1st. Investor sentiment has been mixed leading up to the struggling vendor’s third-quarter report, with some analysts insisting there was still money to be made ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 launch and others already counting the days until the company buckles. Wall Street’s consensus for fiscal Q3 2013 saw RIM posting a loss of $0.35 per share on $2.65 billion in revenue and RIM beat expectations on Thursday, recording a net loss of $114 million, or $0.22 per share, on $2.7 billion in sales. This marks RIM’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss as the company pins its hopes on BlackBerry 10, which will be unveiled during a press conference on January 30th.
[More from BGR: iPhone 5, iPad mini users report iOS 6.0.2 is a big drain on battery life]

As far as product shipments go, RIM shipped 6.9 million BlackBerry smartphones on the quarter and just over 250,000 BlackBerry Playbook tablets. The 6.9 million smartphone shipments represent an 51% year-over-year drop from the third quarter of 2011. Even more ominously for RIM, its subscriber base shrunk by 1 million users over the quarter, as the company now counts 79 million total subscribers.

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RIM beats estimates in Q3, reports revenues of $2.7 billion

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday posted its financial results for its fiscal third quarter, which ended on December 1st. Investor sentiment has been mixed leading up to the struggling vendor’s third-quarter report, with some analysts insisting there was still money to be made ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 launch and others already counting the days until the company buckles. Wall Street’s consensus for fiscal Q3 2013 saw RIM posting a loss of $0.35 per share on $2.65 billion in revenue and RIM beat expectations on Thursday, recording a loss of $0.22 per share on $2.7 billion in sales. This marks RIM’s fourth consecutive quarterly loss as the company pins its hopes on BlackBerry 10, which will be unveiled during a press conference on January 30th.

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RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone to be called the ‘Z10′

Research In Motion’s (RIMM) first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, formerly known as the L-Series and “London” will apparently be called the “BlackBerry Z10″ according to marketing materials obtained by UnwiredView. RIM’s QWERTY BlackBerry 10 device that’s slated for a release sometime between March and June will reportedly go by the name “BlackBerry X10.” As we inch closer to BlackBerry 10′s launch on January 30th in New York City, all eyes are on RIM to deliver a new smartphone and OS that finally catches up to iOS and Android. Most recently, RIM’s Dev Alpha B smartphone running BB10 was spotted crushing the iPhone 5 on iOS 6 and HTC (2498) Windows Phone 8X running Windows Phone 8 in a Web browser speed and rendering comparison test. All RIM needs to do now is deliver compelling hardware and apps to sway users who have long since abandoned BlackBerrys for iPhones and DROIDS.

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RIM shares jump after hours following results

U.S.-traded shares Research In Motion rallied in after-hours trading on Thursday after the BlackBerry maker posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss excluding one-time items.
The company's Nasdaq-listed shares were last up 8 percent at $15.25, extending a 3.6-percent gain in regular trading hours. They are also on track to close with a fourth straight month of gains.
The stock has more than doubled since the start of September, including a more than 46 percent gain in November, but was still negative for the year at the close on Thursday.

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RIM posts smaller than expected loss; shares surge

 Research In Motion reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday and boosted its cash cushion, sending its shares soaring more than 7 percent.
But the struggling BlackBerry maker also recorded the first-ever decline in its subscriber base, barely a month before the crucial launch of the new BB10 smartphone line.
RIM reported a loss of $114 million or 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items. Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 35 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
RIM shares, which closed 3.6 percent higher at $14.12 on Thursday, rose 7.6 percent after the closing bell in the United States to $15.20, as investors cheered the surge in RIM's cash pile ahead of next month's launch of the new BB10 devices.
RIM built its cash cushion up to $2.9 billion in the quarter, from $2.3 billion in the prior period. RIM will need the funds to manufacture and promote its new line of products ahead of the January 30 launch.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company hopes to reinvent itself and revive its fortunes with the BlackBerry 10. It also reported a surprise net profit in its fiscal third-quarter, reflecting a one-time tax gain from restructuring of its international operations.
In the period ended December 1, RIM reported net income of $9 million, or 2 cents a share. That compared with a year-ago profit of $265 million, or 51 cents.
RIM said its subscriber base fell to about 79 million in the quarter from about 80 million in the period ended September 1.
The decline is a disconcerting marker in the history of RIM, which virtually invented the concept of on-the-go email. In recent years, RIM's user base has grown, even as the BlackBerry lost ground in North America and Europe, boosted by gains in emerging markets.
The company, whose aging line of BlackBerry devices has lost ground to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc's Android operating system, said it shipped 6.9 million smartphones in the quarter.

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