Mavs send Thunder to first loss with 100-87 win (AP)

DALLAS ? Dirk Nowitzki scored 10 of his 26 points during the third quarter, sending the Dallas Mavericks to a 100-87 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.

The Thunder, who topped Dallas on a buzzer-beater in Oklahoma City on Thursday, came in as one of only two unbeaten teams in the NBA at 5-0. Miami was the other but the Heat lost to Atlanta 100-92 earlier Monday night, also falling to 5-1.

Dallas began pulling away with a 9-2 run at the start of the second quarter, but Oklahoma City kept clawing back to keep things close. Then Nowitzki took over.

He opened the second half with a jumper over Kendrick Perkins that left the big man snarling at his own bench. He made another shot with defender James Harden ducking for cover, then scooped in a layup on a play that began with Delonte West spinning Harden to the floor. The layup put Dallas up by 15 and the game wasn't close again.

The Mavs came in 1-4 with a victory over lowly Toronto. Their best effort probably had been their loss at Oklahoma City. Yet before the game, coach Rick Carlisle said, "I don't think we're as far off as it may appear." Dallas fixed two flaws by scoring 56 points in the paint and keeping the rebounds even at 41.

Nowitzki was 10 of 16, with four of his misses from 3-point range. He had six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Shawn Marion scored 17 points, Jason Terry 15 and Vince Carter a season-high 14 ? eight on free throws ? for Dallas. Jason Kidd didn't score but had a season-high nine assists.

Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant scored 27 points, but had only four during the pivotal third quarter. Russell Westbrook added 18 points and eight rebounds, and Harden had 16 points and seven rebounds.

Notes: Nowitzki made a 10-foot, stepback jumper at 7:40 of the second quarter for his 8,000th career basket. He's fourth among active players (behind Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan) and 31st on the NBA career list. ... Oklahoma City's Daequan Cook (flu) was inactive. Thabo Sefalosha also had a touch of flu, but started. He didn't play the second half because of a sore right foot. ... The Mavericks don't play in Washington, D.C., this season, but they're headed there on Monday for the annual champion's visit to the White House. Team president Terdema Ussery set it up after the club realized the omission on the lockout-condensed schedule. Mavs owner Mark Cuban said "the league office was stupid or dumb or worse" to let that happen.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120103/ap_on_sp_bk_ga_su/bkn_thunder_mavericks

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Insert Coin: A look back at ten top projects from 2011

2011 has been a tremendous year for tech -- Amazon launched a $200 Android tablet, AT&T and Verizon continued their LTE expansion, Apple killed off the Mac mini's SuperDrive and Samsung introduced a well-received killer 5.3-inch smartphone. But tiny tech startups made their mark as well, proving that you don't need an enormous R&D budget to spur innovation. Still, development isn't free, and unless your social circle includes eager investors, seed money has been traditionally hard to come by.

For many of this year's indie devs, crowdfunding sites have been the answer, with Kickstarter leading the pack. We've seen an enormous variety of projects -- including a deluge of duds and plenty more semi-redundant iPhone accessories -- but a few treasures soared above the swill to be featured in our Insert Coin series, with many of those meeting their funding goals and even making their way into the hands of consumers. Now, as 2011 draws to a close, we've gone through this past year's projects to single out our top ten, and they're waiting for your consideration just past the break.

Continue reading Insert Coin: A look back at ten top projects from 2011

Insert Coin: A look back at ten top projects from 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/31/insert-coin-a-look-back-at-ten-top-projects-from-2011/

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Crowd fights Chinese police at mosque demolition (AP)

BEIJING ? A police employee says Chinese Muslims have fought with officers who demolished a mosque in China's northwest.

The employee who answered the phone at the police station in Hexi, a town in the Ningxia region, said the crowd tried to stop the demolition Friday night. She said about 80 people were detained and the mosque was demolished.

A Hong Kong monitoring group, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, said authorities demolished the mosque because it was declared an illegal religious place.

The Information Center cited a villager as saying two people died in the violence, but said it could not confirm that. The police employee, who refused to give her name, said there were no deaths.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120102/ap_on_re_as/as_china_mosque_clash

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Gingrich allies airing 30-minute show (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Newt Gingrich is getting a little help from his friends.

The Republican presidential candidate's allies plan to run a half-hour television special on local Iowa stations this weekend, a last-ditch attempt to help Gingrich rebound from a slide in polls ahead of Tuesday's Iowa caucuses. An independent outside organization made up of Gingrich backers, called a super PAC, also is running ads on his behalf as others are doing for his rivals.

It's the first time in this race where an organization has reserved 30 minutes of airtime to promote a candidate.

The conservative media company Newsmax hired Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, to host the special. It focuses on Gingrich's political career and successes as a conservative leader, and Michael Reagan calls Gingrich "a person who we believe will help continue my father's legacy."

It couldn't come at a better time for Gingrich. He doesn't have the money to counter the millions of dollars that his rivals have spent to blanket the state's airwaves with attack ads ? many from a super PAC aligned with rival Mitt Romney ? that have damaged his campaign.

Reagan told The Associated Press he agreed to host the program in part because he's concerned that the many conservative alternatives to Romney will splinter the conservative vote in Iowa and allow the former Massachusetts governor ? he is considered more moderate ? to win. Reagan has not endorsed a candidate for the 2012 election.

"Newt Gingrich and I have been friends for a long time and so when Newsmax asked me I was happy to say yes," Reagan said.

In the midst of a 22-stop bus tour across the state, Gingrich will continue campaigning through Iowa on Saturday, a day after he choked up and wiped away tears while recalling his late mother's struggle with depression and mental illness.

Speaking at an event with mothers in Des Moines, the former House speaker said his focus on brain science comes directly from "dealing with the real problems of real people in my family."

"And so it's not a theory. It's, in fact, my mother," he said as he wiped away tears.

"I do policy much easier than I do personal," Gingrich said. The tears flowed as the former speaker responded to questions about his mother from a pollster and longtime political ally.

Kit Gingrich died in 2003 at the age of 77. Gingrich said Friday she spent her final years in a long-term care facility where she suffered from depression, bipolar disease and gradually acquired physical ailments.

The moment was reminiscent of Hillary Rodham Clinton's teary-eyed response to a question just before the 2008 Democratic primary in New Hampshire. The former first lady's rare emotional response was credited with humanizing her in the eyes of voters and she went to pull off a win in the state.

His two daughters and his wife, Callista, were in the audience.

"Callista will tell you I get teary-eyed every time we sing Christmas carols," he said.

_____

Follow Kasie Hunt at www.twitter.com/kasie and Shannon McCaffrey at www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111231/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich

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Verizon ditches $2 fee after customer uproar (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Verizon Wireless has reversed its decision to charge a $2 fee for telephone and online bill payments, bowing to a storm of criticism from consumers and the U.S. communications regulator.

The biggest U.S. wireless operator retracted its decision on Friday, just a day after it announced the fee for one-time payments, which was to have begun January 15.

The consumer victory comes after Bank of America recently decided against a new $5 monthly fee for debit card users after consumers and lawmakers protested the charge.

"There is power in numbers and in the end, the customer is always right," one person said on the Verizon Wireless online forum. "How can any corporation expect to keep business by doing that? It's pure greed just like with Bank of America."

Verizon said it listened to its customers and made the decision based on customer input after many complained and some threatened to leave the service if the fee was instituted.

A spokesman said that the company had just wanted to encourage consumers to pay their bills via different methods such as autopay, where they give Verizon permission to charge their credit card or bank account automatically each month.

Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

The quick turn-around came after little more than a day of complaints, but not before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said it was "concerned" about the fee and that it was looking into it.

"On behalf of American consumers, we're concerned about Verizon's actions and are looking into the matter," an official for the FCC said earlier on Friday.

The prospect of a $2 fee created a flurry of online activity and one consumer organization, Change.org, said 95,000 people joined a campaign on its website urging Verizon to drop the fee.

"The era of corporations walking roughshod over consumers without consequence is officially over," Ben Rattray, chief executive of Change.org, said in a statement.

Verizon Wireless customers told the company, often in colorful language, that they would not put up with the fee.

"If this fee goes through, I will be taking my business elsewhere!!!" one person said on the Verizon Wireless website.

Another said "Victory is ours!" after the about-face.

The turnaround comes after another high-profile reversal of course earlier this year by video rental service Netflix Inc in the face of customer disgust.

In October it canceled plans to split its DVD rental service from its online streaming service. The move would have forced customers of both streaming and DVD options to visit different websites and maintain different accounts for each subscription.

The Verizon Wireless incident served to highlight fee practices elsewhere in the communications industry. Rivals AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel said on Friday that they charge some customers $5 for bill payments, revising their comments from the day before.

AT&T and Comcast Corp say that they charge some customers who look for personal assistance in paying their bills but that they do not charge for online payments. Sprint said it charges customers with bad credit if they refuse to enroll for auto pay.

The Sprint and AT&T fees are even higher than Verizon's proposed levy at $5 per transaction. Comcast's payment fee, which is only levied in some states, is $5.99.

The FCC did not comment on whether it would look into other companies' fee policies for bill payment.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/bs_nm/us_verizon_fcc

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Latest Iowa Poll: Romney on Top, Gingrich Falling (ABC News)

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