Is Kerry now a lock for secretary of state?

So, it's official: Ambassador Susan Rice will not?be Secretary of State ? she's withdrawn and President Obama has accepted, and John McCain is twisting his face in pleasure somewhere. Which means... John Kerry, right? Well, yes, probably ? all the conservatives just love him now. But speculation also puts some other options in front of the president between now and whenever Hillary Clinton steps down ? including, but not limited to, her husband.

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The Long Shot

Name: Richard Berman

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Credentials: 15 terms in Congress; served on important security committees; reputation for being discreet.?

RELATED: Huntsman: The Candidate Who Couldn't

Source of Speculation: A bunch of people talking about it to reporters. But not in a "we hear that Obama's thinking..." kind of way. Berman just lost re-election after his district in California was re-zoned, and the guy who beat him said he thought he might be good for the job???and so it went from there.?

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Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Slim. Berman doesn't even have the kind of national profile necessary for such an international job, and no White House officials are leaking his name. It's all good-will consolation prize quotes from his teammates after he just lost his job.?

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The Really?Long Shot

Name: Bill Clinton

Credentials: Served two terms as President; former Gov. of Arkansas; is insanely popular; Obama owes him a favor for helping to save his campaign with his legendary, mostly-improvised convention speech.?

Source of Speculation: Joe Nocera thinks it's a good idea, and a New York Post report from June said Clinton might be angling for the Secretary of State job under a potential Ander Cuomo Presidency if Hillary does decide not to run in 2016. "I think everyone who knows Bill Clinton knows he'd love to be secretary of state because he's so smart and because he knows so much about the world," an 'insider' told the Post.

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Dream on.

The Fool-Me-Twice Shot

Name: Jon Huntsman

Credentials: Former Utah Gov, former Ambassador to China and Singapore, former Republican presidential candidate.?

Source of Speculation: An Associated Press report?that said "officials" were looking at him for the job.?

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Slim, for different reasons. Namely that he'd probably never accept the appointment. Huntsman was the Republican Obama's team was most scared of?in the last election, and the President named him his Ambassador to China, so it's clear Obama thinks highly of him. But Huntsman has dreams of potentially running for the Big Job again, potentially against Hillary in 2016, and this would make it pretty hard ? if not impossible ? to get Republican support for that.?

The Safe Bet

Name: William Burns

Credentials: Current Deputy Secretary of State.

Source of Speculation: The same report that named Huntsman as a candidate.?

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Good, if not great. He's Hillary's current number two, and he's getting good buzz with "insiders," apparently. The report that floated his name left things a bit unspectacular, though. Burns, "is a career diplomat who has no political baggage and would be unlikely to stir significant opposition among lawmakers." So, basically, he's an unsexy pick that wouldn't garner any headlines.?

The Safest Bet

Name: John Kerry

Credentials: He's getting it.?

Source of Speculation: He's getting it.

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Guys, it's going to be Kerry. Just stop.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beyond-john-kerry-secretary-state-candidates-now-rice-224235393.html

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Israeli FM Lieberman resigns

FILE - in this Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 file photo, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks to the media during an event of his political party in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 Lieberman has announced he is resigning a day after an indictment for breach of trust was filed against him by the country's attorney general. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File)

FILE - in this Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 file photo, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks to the media during an event of his political party in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 Lieberman has announced he is resigning a day after an indictment for breach of trust was filed against him by the country's attorney general. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File)

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks to the media during an event in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012. Israel?s powerful foreign minister resisted calls to resign after he was charged Thursday with breach of trust for actions that allegedly compromised a criminal investigation into his business dealings, throwing the country's election campaign into disarray just weeks before the vote. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011 file photo, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman talks with members of the Bosnian Presidency during meeting in Sarajevo. Israel's powerful foreign minister was charged Thursday with breach of trust, but escaped more serious charges in a fraud and money-laundering case that could jeopardize his political career and upend the Israeli political system just a month before parliamentary elections. The decision by Israel's attorney general capped an investigation into Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that stretched back more than a decade. Lieberman, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately came under heavy pressure to resign. (AP Photo/Amel Emric, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's powerful foreign minister announced his resignation from government Friday, a day after an indictment for breach of trust was filed against him by the country's attorney general. Avigdor Lieberman's move shakes up Israel's election campaign and may impact Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political calculations barely a month before the vote.

Lieberman continued to maintain his innocence in a statement and indicated that he could return to politics in time for Jan. 22 national elections if he was cleared or could reach a plea bargain.

"Even though I know I did not break any law ... I have decided to resign from my position as foreign minister and deputy prime minister," Lieberman said. "After 16 years of investigations against me I can end this issue quickly without delay and completely clear my name," he said.

Lieberman said he made the decision Friday after conferring with his lawyers and with his election campaign staff. "I am doing this because I am convinced that Israel's citizens should be able to go to the polls after this matter has been settled ... and I can continue to serve the state of Israel and Israel's citizens as part of a strong united leadership that will cope with the security, economic and political challenges it faces," he said.

Lieberman was charged Thursday with breach of trust in a fraud and money-laundering case threatening to upend the Israeli political system just a month before parliamentary elections.

The Soviet-born Lieberman is head of Yisrael Beitenu, an ultranationalist party that is especially popular with immigrants from the former Soviet Union. With a tough-talking message that has questioned the loyalty of the Jewish state's Arab minority, sharply criticized the Palestinians and confronted foreign critics, he has at times alienated Israel's allies while becoming an influential voice in Israeli politics.

Yisrael Beitenu and Netanyahu's Likud Party recently joined forces and are running together on a joint list in the parliamentary elections. Opinion polls have predicted the list would be by far the largest bloc in parliament and lead a new coalition government.

Netanyahu is heavily favored to win the premiership, but Lieberman's departure will have a major impact on negotiations to build a governing coalition. Lieberman is Yisrael Beitenu's founder and main attraction to voters. His resignation could mean that Netanyahu would be stuck with a list of leftovers with little appeal to the general public.

Lieberman spokesman Tzachi Moshe said the minister is not resigning from the party list, meaning he is still running for parliament.

Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the new "Movement" Party issued a statement welcoming Lieberman's departure. "Avigdor Lieberman did the right thing," she wrote.

Prosecutors have long suspected that Lieberman illicitly received millions of dollars from businessmen and laundered the cash through straw companies in eastern Europe while he was a lawmaker and Cabinet minister. In his decision Thursday, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said the case was not strong enough for a prosecution.

"I am convinced that there is no reasonable chance of a conviction in the offenses Lieberman is suspected of and that case should be closed," Weinstein said in his decision.

Instead, Lieberman was charged with the lesser offense of receiving official material from the investigation against him from the former Israeli ambassador to Belarus.

The envoy had received the documents from the foreign ministry, which sought additional information on Lieberman from Belarus authorities. The ambassador, Zeev Ben-Aryeh, reached a plea bargain in the case earlier this year. At a press conference Thursday night, Lieberman said that when he received information about the investigation from his ambassador, he immediately ripped it up and flushed it down the toilet because he knew it was wrong.

Previous court rulings in other, more serious criminal cases against Cabinet officials have forced them to resign. Facing the prospect of an indictment, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced his decision to step down in 2008 before formal corruption charges were filed against him. Olmert this year was cleared of most charges, but convicted of breach of trust.

"Lieberman's resignation was very important because it strengthens the norms of our court system where if an official is suspected of corruption they step down even though legally they don't have to, in order to preserve the public's faith in the government," said Moshe Negbi, Israel Radio's legal affairs commentator.

Negbi told The Associated Press that it was unlikely a speedy trial or a plea bargain could clear the way for Lieberman to return to government before the election.

"I don't think there is a chance of a quick trial before the election because legal procedures take time. Even if there would be a trial, what kind of compromise could there be in this case? If the court charges him with moral turpitude then he cannot be a minister," he said.

Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at Hebrew University, said that Netanyahu would still probably be re-elected and might even take on the portfolio of foreign minister himself. But he said some voters might vote even further to the ultranationalist right now Lieberman has left and possibly bolster Naftali Bennett's party, the Jewish Home.

The blunt-talking Lieberman, a native of Moldova, has amassed power with support from immigrants from the Soviet Union and other Israelis drawn to his broadsides against Israeli Arabs, dovish groups, the Palestinians and Western Europe.

Known for his Russian-accented monotone, he became a national figure in 1996 when he served as Netanyahu's chief of staff during the latter's previous term as prime minister. He later quit the Likud and was elected to parliament in 1999 as head of Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home), a secular hawkish party he established to represent the more than 1 million immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

His party was the third largest in 2009 elections, drawing many votes from native Israelis as well as his traditional base.

Lieberman is known for inflammatory rhetoric that has at times agitated his partners in government. He has called for executing Israeli Arab lawmakers who met with leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. As a lawmaker in 2008, he said Egypt's then-President Hosni Mubarak "can go to hell."

More recently, Lieberman pushed a series of legislative proposals that critics said were anti-Arab, including a failed attempt to require Israelis to sign a loyalty oath or have their citizenship revoked. He has also called for redrawing Israel's border to place Arab towns under Palestinian jurisdiction.

He also has embarrassed Netanyahu by expressing contrasting views to that of the government, including skepticism over the chances of reaching peace with the Palestinians. Lieberman has called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an "obstacle to peace" and urged his removal.

Earlier this week, he lashed out at the international community, saying many world leaders would sacrifice Israel to radical Islam just as Europe appeased the Nazis before World War II.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-14-Israel-Politics/id-a590f9c975a140f88d5843dac81815be

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Population, Russian values key to our future: Putin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia must increase its population and develop its patriotic and spiritual values or lose its soul and face collapse, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

In his first state of the nation address since he started a six-year third term in May, Putin mixed discussion of the need to fight corruption and improve state services such as schools with lofty talk of the Russian identity and soul.

He issued a familiar warning to the West and his own political foes, saying that foreign meddling in Russian politics was unacceptable and that politicians must not accept financial support from abroad.

On the world stage, he said Russia was counteracting those who sow chaos, an apparent reference to U.S. military action abroad and Western support for government opponents in nations such as Libya and Syria.

But the focus in the speech to lawmakers in an ornate Kremlin reception room, was mostly domestic - and Putin suggested the biggest threat to Russia was from a population that has fallen by millions since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Russia's population fell to 141.9 last year from 148.7 in 1992, according to the World Bank.

"If the nation is not capable of preserving itself and reproducing, if it loses it vital bearings and ideals, then it doesn't need foreign enemies - it will fall apart on its own," Putin said.

"For Russia to be sovereign and strong, we must be more and we must be better," he said in comments televised nationwide.

Putin reiterated warnings against extremism and calls for ethnic harmony, saying that despite the country's diversity "we are one people - Russians."

SPIRITUAL BONDS

"We must not only preserve but develop our national identity and soul. We must not lose ourselves as a nation - we must be and remain Russia," he said in his 80-minute address.

Thirteen years after he rose to power, and more than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin still seems to be searching for an overarching idea to unite Russians.

With the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church sitting in the front row, Putin said it is crucial to "support institutions that are bearers of traditional values."

"It is painful for me to say this, but I must: Russian society today is experiencing an obvious deficit of spiritual bonds," Putin said. "Mercy, compassion and support for one another - a lack of those things that have always made us stronger, of which we always were proud."

His remarks appeared aimed to cast moral values as the lynchpin of Russian society without specifically singling out the Russian Orthodox Church, which most Russians identify themselves with though only a minority regularly go to church and the country has a millions-strong Muslim minority.

In power since 2000 as president or prime minister, Putin as used annual appearances to shape an image of a strong, sharp-minded leader in command of economic facts and figures and with a finger on the pulse of the people.

But public confidence in the government is low, and pressure is growing on the Kremlin to translate oil and gas income into improvements in roads, schools, police, pensions, housing and healthcare that millions find wanting.

Putin devoted much of the speech to such issues, and he vowed tougher efforts to tackle corruption that has hobbled Russia's post-Soviet resurgence and shown few signs of easing since he came to power.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel, Gabriela Baczynska, Thomas Grove and Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/population-russian-values-key-future-putin-105355862--business.html

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WSU researchers help boost business sales with scents | Local ...

PULLMAN, WA - It's a well known fact that certain scents can affect the way people shop, but researchers at Washington State University set out to find which ones can actually help increase sales.

Whether it's the smell of old books in a used bookstore, or coffee outside a local cafe, there are a lot of scents that we associate with shopping. Especially around the holidays.

"Kind of puts them in the spirit, they come in, they comment, 'Oh, this smells like Christmas," said Neill's Flowers & Gifts Owner Mitch Chandler. "And since this time of the year, we're kind of a Christmas store, you know, it's important that they feel Christmas when they come in."

But could a certain type of smell make you spend more? That's what Washington State University doctoral student Manja Zidansek has been researching for the last couple of years.

"So we've known for a while that certain smells impact shopping behavior, and what we wanted to find out is which scents worked best," said Zidansek. "And to be able to do that, what we've done is created a simple scent and a complex scent."

A simple scent has only one component, while a complex scent is the combination of simple scents. For example, Zidansek used orange as the simple sent, and orange combined with basil and green tea as the complex scent.

"They were of the same pleasantness, the same familiarity, the same attractiveness, everything was the same," said Zidansek. "The only difference was in that simplicity or complexity."

Part of the research was conducted on the WSU campus.

Researchers brought participants into a lab, filled the room with a certain scent, and had them do word problems.

"In the presence of a simple smell, we see that they are able to solve more problems correctly, and they actually solve them in a lesser amount of time," said Zidansek.

The other half was done at a store in Switzerland. They observed how shopping behavior in the presence of a simple and a complex scent, while all the prices and products stayed the same.

"And what we found is that when customers shop in the presence of a simple smell, the sales increases by about 20%," said Zidansek.

In conclusion, business owners could increase sales by adding a pleasant scent to their store, as long as it's the right one.

"Simple scents free up customer's mind, if you want," said Zidansek. "So, it's what we call 'processing fluency,' they focus more on shopping, what doesn't happen in the presence of a complex smell or no smell."

This is helpful information for business owners because filling a store with a simple scent is easy and relatively cheap to implement, and if it's done correctly, it can significantly benefit sales.

Source: http://www.klewtv.com/news/local/WSU-researchers-help-boost-businesses-with-scents-183075161.html

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Humans made cheese 7,500 years ago, researchers say

LONDON | Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:17pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found the earliest evidence of prehistoric cheese-making from a study of 7,500-year-old pottery fragments that are perforated just like modern cheese strainers.

Milk production and dairy processing allowed early farmers to produce food without slaughtering precious livestock, and making cheese turned milk into a less perishable food that was more digestible for a population who at the time would have been intolerant to the lactose contained in milk.

Researchers from the University of Bristol in Britain, with colleagues in the United States and Poland, analyzed fatty acids embedded in prehistoric pottery from the Polish region of Kuyavia, and found they had been used to separate milk into fat-rich curds for cheese and lactose-containing whey.

"The presence of milk residues in sieves ... constitutes the earliest direct evidence for cheese-making," said M?lanie Salque from Bristol, one of the authors of the research, which was published in the journal Nature.

Peter Bogucki, another researcher involved in the work, said: "Making cheese allowed them to reduce the lactose content of milk, and we know that, at that time, most of the humans were not tolerant to lactose."

Milk residues have been found at ancient sites up to 8,000 years old in Turkey and Libya, but there was no evidence that the milk had been processed into cheese.

Until now, the earliest evidence of cheese-making came from depictions of milk processing in murals several thousand years younger than the pottery fragments.

The researchers believe other vessels found in the same region were used for other specific purposes. Jars lined with beeswax were probably for storing water, and pottery containing the remnants of carcass fats was probably used for cooking meat.

"It is truly remarkable, the depth of insights into ancient human diet and food processing technologies these ancient fats preserved in archaeological ceramics are now providing us with," said Richard Evershed, who heads the Bristol team.

(Reporting by Chris Wickham; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/vIqzRXkBe5c/us-science-cheese-idUSBRE8BB1JS20121212

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