Marines beat a retreat in Beyonce lip-sync flap

WASHINGTON: The US Marine Corps beat a hasty retreat Tuesday from a furore over whether Beyonce lip-synched "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's public inauguration ceremony.

First, the New York Times quoted a US Marine Band spokeswoman as saying that, just before Beyonce took the stage Monday, the musicians learned a version of the national anthem it had pre-recorded with her would be used.

"We don't know why," said the spokeswoman, Master Sergeant Kristin duBois. "But that is what we were instructed to do... It's not because Beyonce can't sing. We all know Beyonce can sing. We all know the Marine Band can play."

But later, the Marine Corps said only that a pre-recorded version of the band's musical track was played to the crowd outside the Capitol after Obama was sworn into office for a second term.

Since the band did not have a chance to rehearse with Beyonce beforehand, "it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high-profile event," it said.

But as for Beyonce's vocal performance, it added: "No one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded."

Beyonce's publicist did not respond to emails Tuesday, leaving it unclear as to whether or not the R&B diva had pulled off the biggest karaoke number in the history of US presidential inaugurations, or somehow just mimed the words.

Also unexplained was a black-and-white Instagram photo, supposedly taken Sunday, of Beyonce in a wool beret and cardigan in a recording studio with three soldiers behind her. She appeared to be listening intently to something.

Equally mysterious was why Beyonce removed the ear monitor mid-way through the song. Singers performing over an instrumental track might do so if the playback is clashing with what's coming out of the loudspeakers.

One way or another, fans of Beyonce -- who sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" live at last year's Super Bowl and returns to the American football classic in February as its half-time act -- rallied behind her on Twitter.

"Who cares that Beyonce Lip #Sync the National Anthem, it was recorded live an hour before. You try singing in that cold," tweeted one fan, referring to Monday's near-freezing temperatures in Washington.

"Beyonce certainly acted like a diva ... but I don't see how that can be compared to Lance Armstrong cheating for 7 straight years at the least," said another Twitter user, referring to the disgraced cyclist.

"Beyonce is the best lip-syncer I've seen," added a third fan. "Because she surely fooled me."

The US Marine Band is the premier musical ensemble of the US Marine Corps. It's also known as the President's Own for its longstanding connection with the White House and important national events.

It played live for most of Monday's inauguration on the Capitol steps, but prior to any major event, it routinely goes into the studio to record its repertoire as a precautionary measure.

"Each piece of music scheduled for performance in the Inauguration is pre-recorded for use in case of freezing temperatures, equipment failure or extenuating circumstances," the Marine Corps statement said.

Pop star Kelly Clarkson and folk singer James Taylor also performed at the inauguration.

- AFP/jc

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Whistle-blower not entirely honest: Court

NEW DELHI: While IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar was hailed as the "whistle-blower" of the Junior Basic Trained (JBT) teachers' recruitment scam, the special CBI court refused to show any leniency in his sentencing on the grounds that he was not entirely honest with the court.

Kumar, the erstwhile director of primary education in Haryana, had initially exposed the scam with a plea in the SC but was also found to be involved in the scam during the probe. In its order, Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar said, "What troubled me was to decide the question of sentencing Sanjiv Kumar. I have held him to be a 'whistle-blower'. There is no law present to protect the whistle-blowers. Had Sanjiv Kumar not taken the step to approach the SC and had he not produced the second set of award lists, this scam would not have come to light," the court said.

"The dilemma before this court in deciding the question of sentence is on account of the simple reason that sentencing such a person may send a wrong message that a whistle-blower is not appreciated by law, rather, he is put to trial and tribulation," the court said making legal suggestions on protection of whistle-blowers.

"Law welcomes whistle-blowers if the whistle-blower is innocent, and was only a victim of circumstances, he must be cited as prosecution witness. If the whistle-blower had a minor role in the commission of the offence or in the conspiracy for the commission of such offences, the courts should come forward to his rescue and in appropriate cases should not hesitate to make him 'approver'," it said.

The court suggested "if the whistle-blower had a major role in commission of such offences, he must come up with complete facts before the officer and during trial he must testify on oath at the stage of defence evidence and should disclose the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth during trial."

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Asteroid Mining Metal Abundance

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Great Energy Challenge Blog

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Left Turn? Obama Speech Invigorates Progressives

A presidential campaign that was largely about jobs and the economy gave way during Monday's inaugural ceremonies to a sweeping affirmation of progressivism and call for "collective action."

Now, liberal allies of President Obama say they're closely watching to see whether the second-term president follows through on issues with which he has struggled before.

Obama's groundbreaking references to climate change and gay rights in his second inaugural address particularly surprised many progressive interest groups, which said their first-term frustrations have been replaced by a new sense of optimism.

"We are hopeful that the president's progressive speech signals a major strategy shift for the Obama administration," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Green's group and other liberal Democrats have openly expressed disappointment in Obama since 2009, saying his agenda has fallen short. Many have cited his failure to advance an assault-weapons ban, as promised, enact climate change legislation or overhaul the nation's immigration system.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

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Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics.

Other progressives have chafed at Obama's extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy in 2010 and move last month to make some of the cuts permanent, while putting changes to Social Security and Medicare on the table as part of a deficit-reduction deal.

During the election campaign, Obama ran no paid TV advertising that mentioned gays or gay rights, or the term "climate change," for example. Only four of his ads mentioned environmental issues, and two explicitly portrayed Obama as a defender of the coal industry, something anathema to many environmentalists.

"If the president's inaugural words and action on guns are the template for his governing strategy in a second term, that will allow the president to win big victories and secure a legacy of bold progressive change," Green said, responding to Obama's inaugural address.

In interviews with ABC News, advocates stressed that success on many liberal priorities remains a big "if," with a politically divided Congress and a record of failure by the White House to bridge the divide.

On the environment, activists say they are most closely watching the president's upcoming decision on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project, which would carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Obama delayed a decision on the project in January 2012, ordering a new environmental-impact study. But with that study nearing completion, he will be forced to weigh in on an issue that has pitted a need for jobs and cheaper energy with environmental and health concerns.

"The decision on the Keystone XL pipeline will be the first indicator about how seriously he's taking climate change over the next four years," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group opposed to the pipeline. "We'll know in the next month and a half to two months whether he does."

Bill McKibben, an author and leading environmentalist, said in a blog post that he is not holding his breath. "With words like that, it's easy to let ourselves dream that something major might be about to happen to fix the biggest problem the world has ever faced," he wrote.
"And given the record of the last four years, we know that too often rhetoric has yielded little in the way of results."

McKibben is organizing a major environmental rally in Washington on Feb. 17.

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Obama invokes gay rights in inaugural address

President Obama on Monday became the first president to use the word “gay” as a reference to sexual orientation in an inaugural address, declaring the movement for equality to be part of the pantheon of America’s great civil rights struggles.

“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” the president said. “For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.”

Obama also made another reference in the speech to gay equality. He placed the 1969 riot protesting a police raid on a Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, as a signature event in the civil rights movement — and ranked it with historical turning points in the battles for women’s and racial equality.

“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall,” Obama said.

Seneca Falls referred to an 1848 convention of female activists in an Upstate New York hamlet that produced one of the first declarations of the then-radical proposition that women should be equal to men.

The March 7, 1965 Selma, Ala., march was organized to advocate for African American voting rights and to protest the killing of a young black man by a state trooper. It would become known as Bloody Sunday for the violence that was inflicted on marchers by police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, stirring national outrage.

By mentioning Stonewall with Seneca Falls and Selma, “it closely associates it with other freedom struggles that have great legitimacy,” said John D’Emilio, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor who has written extensively about Stonewall. “Think of it: Here is a group of people who in the president’s lifetime had been reviled.”

Gay rights advocates were jubilant.

Obama “made history today by connecting the lives of committed and loving lesbian and gay couples fighting for marriage equality to this nation’s proud tradition of equal rights for all,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a leading organization advocating on behalf of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.

In San Francisco, the epicenter of gay activism, Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, was watching the inaugural address with a diverse group of about 70 friends.

“Everyone was moved and felt this very strong sense of the privilege of watching amazing history being made,” she said in an interview. “We all had this sense of the privilege it is to be witnesses to a liberation moment.”

Adding to the resonance of Obama’s words was the fact that his second inauguration occurred on the national holiday celebrating the birth of the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The president was sworn in using Bibles that had belonged to King and Abraham Lincoln.

The timing of his comments was also significant. In March, the Supreme Court will take up two major cases involving state and federal efforts to preserve the traditional definition of marriage as limited to heterosexual couples. The court was seated nearby as Obama delivered his address.

The moment also marked the continuation of a progression in Obama’s own views and the intensity of his advocacy of gay rights.

When he was elected in 2008, he was opposed to same-sex marriage. Two years later, he said his position on the issue was “constantly evolving.” And in May, he became the first U.S. president to embrace the concept that same-sex couples should be allowed to wed.

In 2011, he lifted the ban on gays serving openly in the military. His administration has also refused to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that defines marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman.

Early in his administration, some gay rights advocates expressed frustration at what they saw as tepid support for their agenda. Columnist Andrew Sullivan observed acidly that the president had been seized by the “fierce urgency of whenever” — a jab mocking Obama’s frequent invocation of a favorite King quote that described the “fierce urgency of now.”

But after Obama’s turnaround on gay marriage last year, Sullivan wrote a Newsweek cover story that depicted the president with a rainbow-hued halo. It was headlined: “The First Gay President.”

Kendell said Obama has proved to be “an ally of the first order, and the sort of ally we have never had in the White House, and who we need if we are going to finish the job.”

“For any civil rights movement to succeed,” she added, “you need individuals who have access to power and who are willing to risk their power and their access and their political capital for you.”

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Football: Sundram to be interim Lions coach for Jordan game

SINGAPORE: V Sundramoorthy has been named the caretaker coach for the Lions for their opening Asian Cup group qualifying match against Jordan in Amman next month, while the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) continues its search for Radojko Avramovic's successor.

In a media statement, FAS president Zainudin Nordin said that the LionsXII head coach was appointed because of his experience.

"Having worked with Raddy (Avramovic) and the national age-group squads in recent years, Sundram has the relevant experience and I am confident that the Lions will be in good hands.

"The FAS will support Sundram and his team to the best of our abilities as they strive to put up a strong performance against a strong Jordan side."

This will be the second time that Sundram will be handling the national team as caretaker coach. He had filled in for a World Cup qualifier two years ago when Avramovic was serving a touchline ban.

TODAY understands that the 47-year-old former international was initially hesitant when approached earlier because he felt that the two Asian Cup qualifiers - against Jordan on Feb 6, and against Oman on March 22 - would clash with his coaching duties with the LionsXII.

However, the FAS have been notified since that the Oman has been postponed to Aug 14. The Oman FA had made the request to the Asian Football Confederation as they will be facing Australia in a World Cup fourth-round qualifier on March 26.

Sundram described his appointment as "a great honour" in the media statement and added: "I am now discussing with the backroom team and staff the composition of the squad for the Jordan game and I hope to finalise the names before the end of the week."

Meanwhile, Zainudin said that the FAS have received "an overwhelming response from interested parties" for the national coach position since announcing its availability in December.

"We will draw up an initial list of about 15 candidates... before trimming it to a final shortlist of between five and seven candidates," he said.

"While we hope to finalise the appointment soon, we will not rush into making any decision. We are determined to appoint the right person for the job."

- TODAY

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Tasar spins new work for tribals

PATNA: From soil to silk, tribals engaged in tasar sericulture now tread the full spectrum towards building sustainable livelihoods in Bihar's Banka and Jamui districts, hotbeds of naxal activity. The Central Silk Board (CSB) has been working with marginalized communities in these regions to draw women and young people into silk production, helping them make a better life for themselves.

Non-profit Pradhan was the agency that rolled out the programme, Swaranajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). CSB, set up in 1948, promotes tasar silk and works through micro-entrepreneurial models. Tasar silk is produced in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra and Maharashtra, and supports 2.5 lakh families in rural and semi-urban areas.

CSB's idea was to increase tribals' income, improve their lives and thereby help check migration to urban areas. CSB mooted the use of private wastelands to raise the plants that host silkworms. The project covered all stages of making silk: pre-cocoon, seed and post-cocoon. Kisan nurseries were set up to raise the host plants. Then block plantations of host plants were raised on 987 ha of private wastelands.

Rearer groups within Tasar Vikas Samitis then formed district-level cooperatives. Women reeler-spinners were grouped into Masuta Producers Company, an all-women tasar-yarn producers' collective. In the process, 3,526 people formed 57 activity groups, 24 producer organizations, one cooperative with 2,000 stakeholders and a producer company. Today, CSB's project has supported 11,000 beneficiaries since it began in 2003-04.

CSB also pitched in with technology to boost production. Traditionally, women used earthen pots (matka yarn) and wooden charkha to spin cocoons, a tedious process. Motored reeling-cum-twisting and spinning machines were distributed. But there was a problem. The CSB's machine ran on a 75-watt motor and most of the villages in Bihar's Banka district are power-starved. So, a 'modified' charkha was used to spin the tasar yarn and solar-powered reeling machines were developed.

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Obama's 2nd Term: Whose Time Is 'Our Time'?

Jan 21, 2013 12:50pm

Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

ANALYSIS By RICK KLEIN

President Obama used a brief pause in the partisan warfare that’s scarred his time in office to return to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, with his own declaration of urgency and a call to action that reflects shared sacrifice and responsibility.

This was no centrist conciliator. It was the speech of a committed, unapologetic progressive, an Obama doctrine for domestic policy that included concrete commitments in areas he made little progress on over his first four years. Above all, he was speaking to a changing America – the nation that propelled him to a second term, and whose voices he will need to channel to be effective over the next four years.

“My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together,” the president declared.

That word “together” appeared seven times in the president’s speech. He used the phrase, “we, the people” five times. Notably, the president said “our time” five times. It was a clear signal that Obama is not satisfied with the frustrations that marked his first term, and that he is cognizant of his opportunity at this moment.

And he sees those opportunities mainly to his left. Obama made a firm commitment to pursue climate-change legislation, in addition to immigration reform and gun control. In an era of budget-cutting, he delivered a rousing endorsement of the social safety net, including Medicare and Social Security.

Obama cited the civil-rights movement and listed Stonewall – the 1960s demonstrations over a police raid of a New York City gay bar that galvanized the gay-rights movement – alongside Seneca Falls and Selma. He also promised equality for “our gay brothers and sisters,” apparently becoming the first president to use the word “gay” in an inaugural address.

Obama’s defining challenge as president has been to deliver on the hope and promise he rode into office on in 2008. He may never hope to fulfill the expectations that surrounded his elevation. But speaking to the largest crowd he’s likely to ever appear before again, the president sounded both more optimistic and more committed to progress on his priorities than anything in our current political system would suggest is warranted.

“Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time,” the president said.

For a president whose very inauguration speaks to the promise of America, but whose first term ended with so much frustration, it was a return to his roots. President Obama is cognizant of his role in history, though clearly not content with leaving it at that.

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With an eye on legacy, Obama developing second-term strategy

Amid his fiscal negotiations with Congress and the shootings in Newtown, Conn., President Obama has managed to hold several “think-big” meetings recently with senior advisers in the Roosevelt Room, and this month he dined with historians in the White House, searching for a rough road map for second-term leadership.

As one senior administration official described the brainstorming sessions, Obama has made a request that challenges the instinctive pragmatism he has shown in office.

“Let’s not focus on what’s possible or doable,” Obama has advised, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. “Tell me what our goal should be, and let me worry about the politics.”

At the center of Obama’s search for a second-term strategy and lasting legacy sits a question being asked now by supporters outside the administration and officials within it:

Can Obama, given his political personality and partisan circumstances, be the transformational president he aspired to be or, instead, just a moderately effective manager during difficult times?

His domestic agenda includes politically challenging issues such as immigration reform, measures to address climate change and gun control — the last two emerging in part from a personal sense of regret that he did not do more to advance them in his first term.

Abroad, Obama will be challenged to define an agenda rather than to have one defined for him by events, including the uprisings remaking the Middle East.

“He knows what he’s done, he knows what he can’t do, he knows what he must accomplish and he knows what he’d like to accomplish,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution. “But beyond that there is the guts question — and, for much of the first term, the question was, ‘Where are the guts?’ How he addresses that in the next term may define his legacy.”

Agenda

Obama will move to build on what he considers the essential remedial work he had to do on the still-fragile economy and the mixed U.S. image abroad. His senior advisers say he is aware that second-term power is an hourglass running out of sand and that he must move quickly. “Days in your second term are in many ways more important than in your first,” said Dan Pfeiffer, Obama’s communications director.

The theme of protecting the middle class, which Obama will probably address Monday in his inaugural speech and detail next month in his State of the Union remarks, carries into a new term some of the liberal populism of his last election.

Gun control measures, immigration reform, clean-energy initiatives and college affordability are priorities that, at the outer end, Obama will have until the 2014 midterms to achieve before slipping into lame-duck irrelevance. He will also face the unfinished business of his first term, including

How he will pursue his goals will more closely resemble the successful elements of his campaign, particularly the ways in which the former community organizer works to mobilize public opinion around his agenda. Each issue will have its own campaign.

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Chavez getting stronger, entering "new phase": VP

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is "gaining strength" and entering a "new phase" of cancer treatment in Cuba, his anointed political heir said Sunday, as doubts about his health mount in Caracas.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a statement that the absent leader's "vital signs and organ function are stabilizing, he is conscious and gaining strength for the next stage."

But Maduro's remarks did not go far to address speculation among Venezuela's political foes that Chavez -- who has not spoken publicly since December 10 though he usually is ubiquitous in state media -- is unable to speak or dead.

Chavez designated Maduro as his deputy before flying to Cuba for a fourth round of cancer surgery on December 11. Opposition members have demanded Chavez speak to the Venezuelan people in state media if he is able, but he has not.

The last thing anyone who knows Chavez would believe him capable of is a long silence, his opponents contend.

The Venezuelan government has been releasing only minimal information on the condition of Chavez, a 58-year-old former paratrooper who first came to power in the oil-rich country in 1999 and won another six-year term last October.

Maduro said that Chavez is "finishing the post-operative period and will enter a new phase of treatment," following his surgery, but like his previous statements it lacked any specific prognosis from doctors.

The charismatic and bombastic figurehead of the region's anti-American left could not attend his scheduled inauguration on January 10 because of his poor health, and his swearing-in ceremony has been postponed indefinitely.

The Venezuelan government has only admitted Chavez suffered complications, including a severe pulmonary infection that led to "respiratory insufficiency."

Aides and family members have had to tamp down speculation that Chavez might not make a full recovery. Almost six weeks after he left Venezuela, he is yet to be seen in public and remains, presumably, in a Havana hospital.

Speaking to private Venezuelan television network Televen, Maduro said he had spoken with Chavez on several occasions, including a hospital visit on January 14 when the president "was very interested in oil prices."

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, which have allowed Chavez to project power across the region.

"We're always optimistic in the sense that sooner rather than later we will have the president here with us," Maduro said, adding that El Comandante was in good spirits and focused on his treatment.

Tensions are running high in Venezuela amid uncertainty over the future of Chavez, but for now the decision by the Supreme Court to allow the indefinite postponement of the inauguration is being respected.

Venezuela's opposition on Friday canceled a march planned for January 23. They said they feared Chavez's ruling party would "incite violence" with its own parallel mass demonstration.

Last week, the opposition seized on just a few words -- Chavez's stamped signature on a decree -- to demand he clarify how sick he is and what he can and cannot do.

The official government gazette published a decree dated Caracas and carrying the stamped signature of Chavez in which Elias Jaua was named as Venezuela's new foreign minister.

Henrique Capriles, a state governor whom Chavez beat in Venezuela's October presidential election, said it was puzzling that the decree carried the absent leader's name.

"If the president of the republic can sign decrees, I call on him to appear, and to speak to Venezuela and tell us what is happening in this government," Capriles said.

Officials have never disclosed the type or severity of Chavez's cancer, saying only that he has had a tumor removed from his pelvic region.

Before leaving Caracas, he urged his armed forces to be on the lookout for any attempt, "from outside or from within," to destabilize the OPEC member.

-AFP/ac

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