Romney credits change in tactics for Florida surge (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Looking for a convincing win, a confident Mitt Romney said Monday the Florida primary is breaking his way and urged voters to send Newt Gingrich "to the moon." Gingrich claimed he's gaining ground and will stay in the race until summer.

"You can sense that it's coming our way," Romney told reporters. The former Massachusetts governor was already looking ahead, making plans to stop in Minnesota on his way to Nevada on Wednesday, the day after Florida votes.

A day before the voting, Romney ridiculed Gingrich, his chief rival here: "Send him to the moon," Romney said at a rally early Monday, repeating an audience member's comment and using it to poke fun at Gingrich's claim to build a moon colony as president. Romney also scoffed at "the idea of the moon as the 51st state" as "not one that's come to my mind."

Gingrich countered that Romney is "pretending he's somebody he's not" and linked Romney to Obama, calling them the "twins of the establishment." Gingrich's allies, meanwhile, urged Rick Santorum to get out of the race to clear the way for conservatives to consolidate support behind the former House speaker.

In the final hours before Tuesday's critical primary, Romney sustained his barrage against Gingrich. He said he believes he bounced back from a tough South Carolina loss by aggressively answering Gingrich's attacks and hitting him for his ties to the government-backed, mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Gingrich threatened a long slog. "I think he's going to find this a long campaign," Gingrich said.

"That's why they're trying to carpet-bomb us here in Florida," said former Gingrich aide Rick Tyler, who runs the pro-Gingrich political action committee Winning Our Future. "They're trying to end this thing. But it's not going to end."

Tyler visited the first of three rallies Romney had planned Monday to rail against Romney and urge Santorum to leave the race.

"I'm here to get as many cameras and microphones so I can talk about Mitt Romney's incessant failure to tell the truth," Tyler said, echoing Gingrich's recent claims about Romney's character. Tyler called Romney "despicable" and "disgraceful."

He also called on Santorum to leave the race to clear the way for Gingrich. "I think it would give us Mitt Romney, and I think Rick would hurt himself" by staying in, Tyler said.

Speaking to reporters, Romney said Gingrich's threats indicated desperation. "That's usually the case when you think you're going to lose," he said. "Everybody has a right to stay in as long as they think" they should, Romney said.

Gingrich kept up his attacks, saying Monday that on the big, philosophical issues, Romney "is for all practical purposes a liberal. I am a conservative."

"It's closing here in Florida," Gingrich said, "and I think the next 24 hours in going to make a big difference."

Gingrich also defended his ties to President Ronald Reagan after Romney supporters questioned Reagan's rapport with the former speaker. "Mitt Romney may not know about the Reagan years because he was not there," Gingrich told supporters in Pensacola.

Polls showed Romney running ahead of Gingrich in the state. Romney earned positive reviews after two debates last week and has put the former House speaker on the defensive over his ethics and ties to Freddie Mac.

But instead of stepping back and refocusing on President Barack Obama ? as he did in Iowa when it became clear that Gingrich had lost ? Romney is ratcheting up his rhetoric and attacking until the very end. He hopes to close the Florida campaign strongly to push Gingrich as far back as possible.

Gingrich said Monday he was closing the gap with Romney in Florida. He said the Republican Party needed a "clear conservative" to run against Obama in the fall, and that there was very little difference between Obama and Romney when it came to their policies and politics, such as health care.

"Mitt Romney will have a very, very hard time trying to differentiate himself," Gingrich said.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, who was staggered by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of caucuses there next Saturday, illustrating the challenge ahead for Gingrich.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, skipped campaigning to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized. He planned to campaign Monday in Missouri and Minnesota.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, also looked to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

__

Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Pensacola, Fla., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Democratic Group Sees Romney As Changing His Tune On Immigration (ABC News)

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Madonna says charity plans 10 schools in Malawi (AP)

NEW YORK ? Nearly six years after it was created, Madonna's Raising Malawi charity is set to break ground on the construction of schools in the impoverished country, but they will be run by the local community, not the superstar's organization.

According to organizers, work on the first school will start on March 30 in the Kasungu area, about 80 miles from the capital of Lilongwe, and all of the schools should be built by June 2013. Raising Malawi is providing $300,000 to the non-governmental organization buildOn to develop the schools. They'll serve about 1,000 boys and girls in the southern African nation.

"This remains a very big priority in my life and I am excited that with the help of buildOn we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently," Madonna said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

Raising Malawi had originally intended to build all-girls schools that the organization would run. But it faced several obstacles in its goal, including complaints from some local farmers that they had been moved off land that Raising Malawi intended to use for its mission. Raising Malawi also had difficulty getting title to the land and there were concerns about the high costs of construction.

The new plan calls for "simple structures" that will be more practical and better serve Raising Malawi's original mission, said Trevor Neilson, who is helping to direct the project as partner of the Global Philanthropy Group. The approach will allow the program to serve twice as many children as before, Madonna said.

"I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel so much more confident that we can reach out goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more efficient and practical way," she said. Madonna has adopted two children from Malawi.

BuildOn has already built more than 50 schools in Malawi and 427 schools worldwide.

"For schools to be successful, they need to have community ownership and leadership," Neilson said in an interview Friday. "Raising Malawi shouldn't be running schools in Malawi. Local communities in Malawi should be running those schools, so that's a big part of the shift."

BuildOn has been working in Malawi for almost 20 years, said spokeswoman Carrie Pena. The organization works closely with the community, and locals even volunteer the labor to build the schools, according to Pena.

"It's absolutely a community-owned school," she said.

Neilson praised Madonna for sticking with her plan to build schools for Malawi's children despite several setbacks for the star, who is the director of the new movie "W.E.," out next week, and is this year's Super Bowl performer. Madonna brought in Global Philanthropy to work with Raising Malawi more than a year ago and removed the involvement of the Kabbalah Centre. She has practiced Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism.

"When the previous management team had those problems, I think a lot of people thought Madonna would give up," Neilson said "It would have been understandable, but instead she's going to reaching twice as many kids."

___

Online:

http://www.raisingmalawi.org

http://www.buildon.org/

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_ce/us_people_madonna_malawi

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Brazilian bikinis burgeon to fit the fat

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, women shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, women shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 25, 2012, Elisangela Inez Soares rinses off at a shower in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. According to Soares " not everyone is built like a model." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken on Jan. 25, 2012, Elisangela Inez Soares rinses off at a shower in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. According to Soares " not everyone is built like a model." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, people shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 24, 2012, people rinse off at the showers at Piscinao de Ramos, an artificial lake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Tall and tan and young and ... chunky?

The Girl From Ipanema has put on a few pounds, and for many sunbathers on Brazil's beaches the country's iconic itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini just doesn't suffice anymore.

A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines.

That's nothing short of a revolution in this most body-conscious of nations, where overweight ladies long had little choice but to hit the beach in comely ensembles of oversized T-shirts and biker shorts.

"It used to be bikinis were only in tiny sizes that only skinny girls could fit into. But not everyone is built like a model," said Elisangela Inez Soares as she sunbathed on Copacabana beach, her oiled-up curves packed into a black size 12 bikini.

"Finally, it seems like people are beginning to realize that we're not all Gisele," said the 38-year-old mother of four, referring to willowy Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Clothing designer Clarice Rebelatto said her own swimwear-hunting travails prompted her to found Lehona, an exclusively plus-size beachwear line.

"Honestly, the problem went way beyond just bikinis. In Brazil, it used to be that if you were even a little chunky, finding any kind of clothes in the right size was a real problem," said Rebelatto, herself a size 10. "And I thought, 'I'm actually not even that big compared to a lot of women out there, so if I have problems, what are they doing?'"

Since its launch in 2010, the line has become a hit.

In brash leopard spots and flower prints not meant for wallflowers, the label's 14 bikini styles aren't what you'd normally associate with plus-size swimsuits. The necklines plunge dramatically. Straps are mere strings. And while the bottoms provide too much coverage to qualify for the famed "fio dental" or "dental floss" category of Brazilian string bikinis, they're significantly more audacious than the standard U.S. cut.

"We're working from the principle that bigger women are just like everyone else: They don't want to look like old ladies, wearing these very modest, very covering swimsuits in just black," said Luiz Rebelatto, Clarice's son and director of Lehona.

He said that recent publicity of the brand and several other new swimwear lines catering to plus sizes has triggered an overwhelming number of calls and e-mails from would-be customers.

"They're all excited and they say, 'I've been looking everywhere for a bikini like that. Where can I get one?'" said Rebelatto.

Lehona is currently sold exclusively at big and tall specialty stores throughout Brazil. Its bikinis retail for about 130 reais or $75 ? a relatively high price-point here, but Rebelatto said sales have grown at a galloping pace, though he did not provide any figures.

It's the same story at Acqua Rosa, a conventional swimwear label that added a plus-size line in 2008. Now, plus-size purchases account for more than 70 percent of the brand's total sales, said director Joao Macedo.

It makes sense.

For centuries, large swaths of Brazil were beset by malnutrition, and in 1970, nearly 10 percent of the population in the country's poor, rural northeast region was considered underweight, according to Brazil's national statistics institute.

But the phenomenal economic boom that has lifted tens of millions out of poverty and into the burgeoning middle class over the past decade has also changed the nation's once-svelte physique: A 2010 study by the statistics institute showed that 48 percent of adult women and 50 percent of men are now overweight. In 1985 those figures were 29 percent for women and 18 percent for men.

(Still, there's been no rash of plus-size male swimwear lines, as men here wear Speedo-style suits that don't impinge on big guts.)

Analysts attribute Brazil's rapidly widening girth to changes in nutrition, with chips, processed meats and sugary soft drinks replacing staples like rice, beans and vegetables.

And while the country's elite are widely known to be fitness freaks ? and also among the world's top consumers of cosmetic surgery ? those recently lifted out of poverty and manual labor are becoming increasingly sedentary. A 2008 study showed that barely 10 percent of Brazilian teens and adults exercise regularly.

Still, despite their growing numbers, not everyone is eager to embrace "gordinhas" ? or "little fatties," as chunky women are affectionately known here.

Many high-end bikini-makers have turned a seemingly deliberately blind eye to the burgeoning plus-size market. Rio-based upmarket brand Salinas, for example, offers five sizes, from extra-small through extra-large. But their sizing runs notoriously small and it's hard to imagine anyone over a size 6 actually managing to fit into any of the brand's minuscule two-pieces.

Luis Rebelatto of Lehona chalked it partially up to snobbery.

"Some brands, they don't want their image to be associated with chunky women," he said. "Only the thin, the rich and the chic."

While Brazilians' increasing heft is a public policy preoccupation for the government, growth in the ranks of the overweight population has given them increased visibility in Brazilian society. Extra-wide bucket seats for the obese have been installed in Sao Paulo's metro system, and on Sunday the city will host Brazil's first ever Miss Plus Size beauty contest.

"It used to be that people would stare at me," said Soares, the voluptuous sun-worshiper on Copacabana beach. "Now when I come to the beach I see women who are much bigger than me ? and lots of them are wearing bikinis ? so I'm not self conscious any more.

"God makes some people thin but he made me like this," she said, rubbing down the well-oiled bulge of her stomach and thighs. "So who am I to think that he was wrong?"

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-LT-Brazil-Bulging-Bikinis/id-7a730c2e60784e4f9198967c0cf2033d

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Selig expects expanded playoffs to start this year

Djokovic tops Murray; to face Nadal in final

Novak Djokovic overcame his breathing problems and a "physical crisis" to beat Andy Murray in an almost five-hour Australian Open semifinal Friday night and move into his third straight Grand Slam final.

Memorial exposes anger over Paterno's treatment

Crediting him with building not just better athletes but better men, some 12,000 people ? including Penn State students, fans and football stars ? paid tribute to Joe Paterno in a campus memorial service Thursday that exposed a strong undercurrent of anger over his firing.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46170480/ns/sports-baseball/

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Wrecked cruise ship passengers offered $14,460

In an exclusive interview, the captain of the Costa Concordia says he feels as if his company has abandoned him as new video emerges from the day of the ship disaster. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 2:35 p.m. ET: ROME -- Passengers who were on the Costa Concordia are being offered $14,460 apiece to compensate them for their lost baggage and psychological trauma after the cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany when the captain deviated from his route.

In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding.

The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, many of whom have lost their jobs, the roughly 100 people who were injured in the chaotic evacuation or the families who lost loved ones. Sixteen bodies have already been recovered from the disaster and another 16 people who were on board are missing and presumed dead.

The agreement was announced Friday after a day of negotiations between Costa representatives and Italian consumer groups representing 3,206 people from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the Costa Concordia hit a reef on Jan. 13.

Passengers are free to pursue legal action on their own if they aren't satisfied with the deal and it was clear Friday ? two weeks after the grounding ? that some would.

Survivors of the Costa Concordia are realizing the limits of their legal claims, as they signed away their rights when they bought their tickets. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports on what travelers should know.

"We're very worried about the children," said Claudia Urru of Cagliari, Sardinia, who was on board the ship with her husband and two sons aged 3 and 12. Her eldest child, she said, is seeing a psychiatrist: He won't speak about the incident or even look at television footage of the grounding.

"He's terrorized at night," she told The Associated Press. "He can't go to the bathroom alone. We're all sleeping together, except my husband, who has gone into another room because we don't all fit."

As a result, she said, her family has retained a lawyer because they don't know what the real impact ? financial or otherwise ? of the trauma will be. She said her family simply isn't able to make such decisions now.

"We are having a very, very hard time," she said.

Some consumer groups have already signed on as injured parties in the criminal case against the Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all those aboard were evacuated. He is under house arrest.

In addition, Codacons, one of Italy's best-known consumer groups, has engaged two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects to get anywhere from $164,000 to $1.3 million per passenger.

German attorney Hans Reinhardt, who currently represents 15 Germans who survived the accident and is in talks to represent families who lost loved ones, said he is advising his clients not to take the settlement.

Instead, he, like Codacons, is working with the U.S. law firm to pursue the class-action suit in Miami.

But Roberto Corbella, who represented Costa in the negotiations, said the deal provides passengers with quick and "generous" restitution that consumer groups estimate could amount to some $18,500 per passenger when it includes the other reimbursements.

"The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them," he told AP.

Passengers who want to file a lawsuit in U.S. courts over the cruise ship disaster will likely face choppy seas. That's because the ticket contract includes what's known as a "choice of forum" clause stating that lawsuits must be filed in Italy.

Depending on each country's laws, passengers can be at a sharp disadvantage compared to the U.S. legal system. Italy, for example, requires plaintiffs to post a judiciary tax that is a certain percentage for larger amounts of damages, said attorney Bob Peltz, chairman of the Cruise Line Committee of the Maritime Law Association.

Maritime law experts say that similar attempts to sue in the U.S. despite these clauses have been turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court and that the expense of filing a lawsuit in a foreign court has deterred many plaintiffs in the past.

"It's well-settled law," said Jerry Hamilton, a maritime attorney who regularly defends cruise lines against lawsuits. "The Supreme Court has said those clauses are valid clauses. They will be upheld."

The clauses in the cruise industry are not as common in other forms of travel. Lawsuits against airlines, for example, can be brought virtually anyplace they do business for domestic flights; for international flights, lawyers can generally sue in the airline's home location or where the flight departed, among other venues.

At least one lawsuit has been filed against Carnival and Costa in U.S. courts, by Peruvian crew member Gary Lobaton. That case, filed in Chicago federal court on Thursday, seeks class-action status to represent all passengers and 1,000 crew members. It blames the companies for negligence because of an unsafe evacuation and seeks at least $100 million in damages, attorney Monica Kelly said in an email to the Associated Press on Friday.

Peltz said that case has two big problems: The passengers are covered by the forum clause, and crew members likely have contracts requiring them to submit first to arbitration.

"I think they are going to have a difficult time," he said of the Chicago lawsuit.?

The lawsuit sought to determine whether Carnival deviated from international safety standards when operating the cruise ship.

"Costa Concordia's Captain, Francesco Schettino, delayed the order to abandon ship and deploy the lifeboats," Lobaton's lawyers said in the filing.

Schettino has admitted he had taken the ship on "touristic navigation" near Giglio but has said the rocks he hit weren't charted on his nautical maps.

Codacons has called for a criminal investigation into the not-infrequent practice of "tourist navigation" ? steering huge cruise ships close to shore to give passengers a view of key sites.

The chief executive of Costa, Pier Luigi Foschi, told Italian lawmakers this week that "tourist navigation" wasn't illegal, and was a "cruise product" increasingly sought out by passengers and offered by cruise lines to try to stay competitive.

Neither Costa nor Carnival would comment about potential lawsuits. The case is Gary Lobaton vs Carnival Corp, Case No. 1:12-cv-00598, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

Authorities have now identified the bodies of three German passengers recovered from the Costa Cruises ship that capsized off the coast of Italy earlier this month. Meanwhile, the children of a American couple still missing after the disaster have released a new statement. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Search efforts for the missing resumed Friday as salvage crews set up to begin extracting some 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil on Saturday before it leaks into the pristine waters surrounding the ship. That pumping operation is expected to last nearly a month.

Italy's civil protection office on Friday released a list of some of the other possibly toxic substances aboard the cruise liner, including 50 liters of insecticide and 41 cubic meters of lubricants, among other things.

But so far, even though some film has been detected in the waters around the ship, tests on the waters indicate nothing outside the norm, according to Tuscany's regional environment agency.

"Toxic tests have all resulted negative," the agency said.

The crystal clear seas around Giglio are a haven for scuba divers and form part of a marine sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

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Related stories:

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10248750-wrecked-cruise-ship-passengers-offered-14460-plus-travel-medical-costs

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Romney failed to disclose income from Swiss bank (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Mitt and Ann Romney failed to list investment income from a Swiss bank account on financial disclosure forms filed last year. Other income was missing from the disclosure documents required of presidential candidates.

A Romney spokeswoman said Thursday the adjustments would be trivial and would not alter the overall picture of the Romneys' finances. The former Massachusetts governor has estimated his wealth at as much as $250 million.

The Swiss account was held in Ann Romney's blind trust. The tax returns show the Romneys made $1,783 in interest income from that account in 2010.

Romney's campaign said it was updating 2011 financial disclosure forms after the Romneys' 2010 tax return, released this week after intense pressure from his rivals, showed income from the Swiss account. Romney reported earning nearly $22 million that year, mainly from investments, and paid about $3 million in federal taxes.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had hammered Romney to release his tax returns while Republican voters were still choosing a nominee. Romney initially said he would release them in April, during tax filing season, but then gave in to demands that he make the tax returns public much earlier.

The missing income could become a campaign issue as Gingrich looks to criticize Romney ahead of Florida's Jan. 31 primary. Gingrich on Thursday called Romney's campaign desperate in the wake of attacks from the former Massachusetts governor and his supporters over Gingrich's fees for consulting for the quasi-government mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_swiss_account

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