UPDATE 1-NHL-League owners approve new labor deal

* Players expected to ratify labor agreement on the weekend
* Bettman says he has no plans to step down as comissioner (Adds quotes, detail)
Jan 9 (Reuters) - The National Hockey League's (NHL) board of governors ratified the tentative labor deal on Wednesday, followed by Commissioner Gary Bettman's apology for dragging fans and sponsors through a four-month lockout.
Requiring a simple majority to pass, the 30 league owners voted unanimously to approve the 10-year deal that was agreed to early on Sunday after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session.
The NHL Players' Association is expected to vote on the collective bargaining agreement on Friday and Saturday.
If the players approve the deal it will remove the final obstacle standing in the way of what is expected to be a 48-game regular season that would begin Jan. 19.
The NHL said it will announce its schedule immediately after the agreement has been ratified by both parties.
After a rancorous 113-day lockout that cost both sides billions of dollars, players and owners have now turned their attention to mending fences with disgruntled fans and putting the focus back onto the ice.
"To the players, who were very clear they wanted to be on the ice and not negotiating labor contracts, to our partners who support the league financially and personally and most importantly to our fans that love and have missed NHL hockey, I am sorry," Bettman told reporters following the vote at a Manhattan hotel.
"I know an explanation or an apology will not erase the hard feelings that have built up of past few months but I owe you an apology nonetheless.
"We have a lot of work to do.
"The National Hockey League has a responsibility to earn back your trust and support whether you watch one game or every game and that effort begins today."
With training camps set to open on Sunday, Bettman would not elaborate on what plans the NHL has to make up with fans but said the league would take tangible steps and will be offering more than simple apologies.
"I think it's time to turn the page and look forward as quickly as possible," said Bettman. "It is in the process of being worked on and will be announced at the appropriate time.
"There will be outreach campaigns and efforts that will be made clear as we get closer to dropping the puck."
Having presided over three work stoppages during his time as commissioner, speculation swirled during the final days of the most recent lockout that Bettman had lost the confidence of owners and would soon be looking for new job.
But Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs offered Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly a vote of confidence on Wednesday praising the NHL's two chief negotiators for their work.
Bettman also laughed off talk of his demise, saying he was not going anywhere.
"It's nothing more than unfounded speculation," said Bettman who will mark his 29th anniversary in charge of the NHL in February. "I am looking forward to continuing to grow this game on and off the ice as we have over the last 20 years.
"I think the opportunities are great and I'm excited to be part of them." (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue)

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League owners approve new labor deal

(Reuters) - The National Hockey League's (NHL) board of governors ratified the tentative labor deal on Wednesday, followed by Commissioner Gary Bettman's apology for dragging fans and sponsors through a four-month lockout.
Requiring a simple majority to pass, the 30 league owners voted unanimously to approve the 10-year deal that was agreed to early on Sunday after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session.
The NHL Players' Association is expected to vote on the collective bargaining agreement on Friday and Saturday.
If the players approve the deal it will remove the final obstacle standing in the way of what is expected to be a 48-game regular season that would begin January 19.
The NHL said it will announce its schedule immediately after the agreement has been ratified by both parties.
After a rancorous 113-day lockout that cost both sides billions of dollars, players and owners have now turned their attention to mending fences with disgruntled fans and putting the focus back onto the ice.
"To the players, who were very clear they wanted to be on the ice and not negotiating labor contracts, to our partners who support the league financially and personally and most importantly to our fans that love and have missed NHL hockey, I am sorry," Bettman told reporters following the vote at a Manhattan hotel.
"I know an explanation or an apology will not erase the hard feelings that have built up of past few months but I owe you an apology nonetheless.
"We have a lot of work to do.
"The National Hockey League has a responsibility to earn back your trust and support whether you watch one game or every game and that effort begins today."
With training camps set to open on Sunday, Bettman would not elaborate on what plans the NHL has to make up with fans but said the league would take tangible steps and will be offering more than simple apologies.
"I think it's time to turn the page and look forward as quickly as possible," said Bettman. "It is in the process of being worked on and will be announced at the appropriate time.
"There will be outreach campaigns and efforts that will be made clear as we get closer to dropping the puck."
Having presided over three work stoppages during his time as commissioner, speculation swirled during the final days of the most recent lockout that Bettman had lost the confidence of owners and would soon be looking for new job.
But Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs offered Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly a vote of confidence on Wednesday praising the NHL's two chief negotiators for their work.
Bettman also laughed off talk of his demise, saying he was not going anywhere.
"It's nothing more than unfounded speculation," said Bettman who will mark his 29th anniversary in charge of the NHL in February. "I am looking forward to continuing to grow this game on and off the ice as we have over the last 20 years.
"I think the opportunities are great and I'm excited to be part of them."

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NHL owners approve new labor deal; players to vote

NEW YORK (AP) — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman secured unanimous ownership support for the pending labor deal, then apologized to everyone hurt by the long lockout and said he isn't going anywhere.
The league's board of governors met in a Manhattan hotel Wednesday and overwhelmingly approved the agreement that was reached early Sunday on the 113th day of the lockout.
Bettman felt the full brunt of anger, especially from fans, during the four-month dispute that kept hockey off the ice. But he was contrite in announcing the latest step by the owners. He said he wants to look forward and not back at the mess created by the work stoppage.
"Most importantly to our fans, who love and have missed NHL hockey, I am sorry," Bettman said. "I know that an explanation or an apology will not erase the hard feelings that have built up over the past few months, but I owe you an apology nevertheless.
"As commissioner of the National Hockey League it sometimes falls upon me to make tough decisions that disappoint and occasionally anger players and fans. This was a long and extremely difficult negotiation — one that took a lot longer than anybody wanted. I know it caused frustration, disappointment and even suffering to a lot of people who have supported the National Hockey League in many different ways."
In his nearly 20 years as commissioner, Bettman has presided over three lockouts. One caused the cancellation of the 2004-05 season, another led to a 48-game season in 1995 — much like is expected for this season.
The latest lockout wiped out 510 games. Overall, 2,208 games have been lost by labor disputes during his tenure. But Bettman was quick to call any speculation he might consider stepping down from his post as "unfounded."
"I am looking forward to continuing to grow this game, both on and off the ice, as we have over the last 20 years," he said. "I think the opportunities are great, and I am excited to be a part of them."
Players are expected to vote on the deal Friday and Saturday. If a majority of the more than 700 members in good standing agree to the terms, training camps can open Sunday. A 48-game season is likely to begin Jan. 19.
The NHL and the union are still drafting a memorandum of understanding that must be signed before training camps open. The players' association wants as much of the document as possible to be completed before voting begins.
The union is busy calling players and agents to educate them about the changes and additions to the agreement. The vote will be done electronically.
There will be no more than seven days between the opening of camps and the start of the season, and no preseason games will be played. Teams will be challenged to be ready right from the start.
"It's one thing to skate and check out their conditioning and everything else, but you don't get a chance to experiment much with lineups and lines and combinations," Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee said. "That's the hardest thing for managers right now. A lot of unknowns ... but we're excited nonetheless to get going."
Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman, who forged a Hall of Fame career over 22 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, isn't concerned about getting adjusted to the new deal because the key issue of the salary cap isn't all that different.
"As things go along, every change you make, every rule you put in whether it's on ice or off ice, generally has unforeseen consequences that come up with it," said Yzerman, who retired one season after the 2004-05 lockout. "I don't see it being terribly difficult.
"Over the next year or two the market will readjust and that will sort itself out."
The agreement is for 10 years, but either side can opt out after eight. The previous deal was in effect for seven seasons.
"It's one that will stand the test of time with a system where all teams can be competitive and have a chance to make the playoffs and even win the Stanley Cup," Bettman said. "It guarantees that our attention from now on will stay where it belongs, on the ice."
After the players vote to ratify, clubs can then begin the process of winning back fans. Bettman declined to give specifics because he didn't want to be presumptuous that the union would give its approval.
"The National Hockey League has the responsibility to earn back your trust and support, whether you watch one game or every game," Bettman said. "That effort begins today. The players are ready to play their hearts out for you, the teams are preparing to welcome you back with open arms, the wait is just about over.
"Like all of you, we can't wait to drop the puck."
The NHL won't release the new schedule until the players ratify the deal. The regular season was supposed to begin Oct. 11, but the lockout wrecked those plans after it took effect Sept. 16.
The outdoor Winter Classic and the All-Star game won't be played this season.
Last season, the NHL generated $3.3 billion of revenue. The new deal will lower the players' percentage from 57 to 50.
Players will receive $300 million in transition payments over three years to account for existing contracts, pushing their revenue share over 50 percent at the start of the deal. They also gained a defined benefit pension plan for the first time.
The salary cap for this season will be $70.2 million before prorating to adjust for the shortened season, and the cap will drop to $64.3 million in 2013-14 — the same amount as 2011-12. There will be a salary floor of $44 million in those years.
Free agents will be limited to contracts of seven years (eight for those re-signed with their former club).
Salaries within a contract may not vary by more than 35 percent year to year, and the lowest year must be at least 50 percent of the highest year.
The minimum salary will remain at $525,000, and there were no changes to eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration.
The threshold for teams to release players in salary arbitration will increase from $1.75 million to $3 million.
Each team may use two buyouts to terminate contracts before the 2013-14 or 2014-15 seasons for two-thirds of the remaining guaranteed income. The buyout will be included in the players' revenue share but not the salary cap.
Revenue sharing will increase to $200 million annually and rise with revenue.
An industry growth fund of $60 million will be funded by the sides over three years and replenished as needed.
Issues such as whether NHL players will participate in the 2014 Olympics and realignment within the league will be addressed with the union down the line.
"Together our collective future is extremely bright," said Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who is also the chairman of the board of governors. "Our only interest now is to look ahead and focus on what this great game can provide to the best sports fans in the world.

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What Happened to the 2012 Tech Bubble That Never Was

Turns out Facebook's fizzled IPO was a pretty good microcosm for 2012 in startup land: it was all one big fizzle. The final numbers for last year in venture-capital IPOs and acquisitions are in, and while there was no dot-com-era type of explosion, the much hyped new tech bubble appears to have just... petered out. There remains hope, as always, for the unpredictable year ahead. Here are some key stats from the Thompson Reuters and National Venture Capital Association survey released Wednesday:
RELATED: Mark Zuckerberg Promises Not to Bail on Facebook for the Next Year
Venture-backed companies made less money for their investors than they did a year ago.
There is less investment money out there, overall, with investors doling out $6.9 billion last quarter, compared to $10.1 billion the year before and $8.4 billion a quarter before that — a trend that The Wall Street Journal noted back in September, which we speculated may have had something to do with Facebook's IPO fail.
Acquisitions of "venture-backed companies" were also down, totaling $3.52 billion last quarter down from $4.99 the year before, as were acquisitions in general, which totaled $21.5 billion, down 11 percent from $24.09 billion in 2011.
The number of companies that opted to IPO fell to eight from 11 the year before.
The most positive figure from the entire report is actually skewed: Those eight companies that did IPO companies raised more money on average, combing out with higher valuations — an average that is weighed down almost entirely by Facebook. But venture-backed companies did raise $21.5 billion (way up from $10.7 billion the year before), which was the strongest annual funding since 2000.
RELATED: Ah, This Is Where the Real Silicon Valley Hackers Are
These numbers match the trends we saw all year, with Facebook's initial stock drop scaring away investors from start-ups, venture capitalists having a hard time raising money for tech ventures, and companies like Kayak pushing off their IPOs as long as possible until market conditions suit edtheir needs. It's just a lot of hesitancy. Part of that might just be a Facebook effect, or maybe 2012 was the "peak of the hype cycle" as Scott Sandell, a venture capitalist at New Enterprise Associates, described the year to The Wall Street Journal's Pui Wing-Tam.
RELATED: Tech Bubble Cautionary Tales: When Equity Replaces Money
And a descent generally follows a peak, right? Still, Sandell doesn't see 2013 as a year of doom or gloom for Silicon Valley. Things are sunny! "The end isn't anywhere near," he said, pointing to bright spots in companies that sell technologies to businesses. Of course, those aren't the big tech 2.0 companies we hear about all the time, the ones that made up the much discussed and much more specific social media bubble. What will become of the Twitters and Tumblrs, the Pinterests and Paths and SnapChats and all the clones they've already spawned? The path is less clear than ever, but, hey, it's only the first week fo January. And it probably won't be as bad as this.

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Patent hints Apple may bring its own unique stylus to iOS devices

Many people had a good laugh when Samsung (005930) unveiled the Galaxy Note last year and made a big deal out of the device’s Palm Pilot-like stylus. But once the Galaxy Note became a hit, people stopped snickering and began to take the stylus seriously as an accessory once again. Apple (AAPL) is apparently considering hopping on the stylus bandwagon, as HotHardware reports that the company has filed a patent for a pen accessory it describes as an “active stylus” that “can either act as a drive electrode to create an electric field between the drive electrode and the sense lines of a mutual capacitive touch sensor panel, or as a sense electrode for sensing capacitively coupled signals from one or more stimulated drive rows and columns of the touch sensor panel or both.”
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Putting things into plain English, HotHardware says that this active stylus “would perform the same functions as a traditional stylus, it would just do a better job” by allowing for “more accurate input.”
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Since Apple has willingly followed market trends over the past year by releasing a larger version of the iPhone and an 8-inch version of the iPad, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Apple is considering adding a stylus to its lineup of iOS products. That said, you probably shouldn’t expect Apple to release an “iNote” phablet anytime in the near future even if the company does release the next-generation iPhone in two different sizes.

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Quick fix for Boot Camp brings Windows 8 to new iMac computers

Early adopters of Apple’s (AAPL) new iMac computers who chose the 3TB Fusion Drive model have been unable to use Boot Camp Assistant. The program, which allows OS X users to install a Windows partition on their computers, is limited to drives of up to 2.2TB. Apple has hinted that the software may be updated in the future to support larger drives, however no set time frame has been given. Despite the set back, it has been discovered that it is still possible to create a working Boot Camp partition on new iMacs.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
TwoCanoes Software notes that, “since it is not possible to get around the 2.2 TB limitation with booting Windows, it is possible to organize the partitions so that Windows is the last of the first four partitons [sic] and is within the first 2.2 TBs of space on the drive. Since the Mac can see the remaining space above the 2.2 TB limit, this space can be used for addtional [sic] storage space for OS X.

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Is Iran's presence in Latin America a threat? The White House says yes.

When the United states government signed into law the Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act, the US was quickly criticized for being stuck in the past.
The law was the White House’s most public strategy to date to counter Iran’s influence in the Americas, and gives the State Department 180 days to draw up a plan to “address Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity.” The US received prompt criticism from Iran who said the US “still lives in the cold war era and considers Latin America as its back yard.”
“It is an overt intervention in Latin America[n] affairs,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, quoted in Al Jazeera.
Iran is increasingly isolated as it forges ahead with a nuclear program that has raised alarm across the globe. Iran says its nuclear development is for civilian purposes, like energy, while many international observers believe it is working toward creating a nuclear weapon. In the same time period, Iran’s growing influence in Latin America, especially within Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, has generated suspicion among those who worry that, at worst, Lebanon-based Hezbollah and supporters in Iran seek to attack the US from south of the American border. Many have called on the US to prioritize this new international threat.
Recommended: Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz.
But Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University in New York, does see some parallels with the 1950s, when many American politicians saw a “communist under every bed,” he says. “Now they see an Iranian under every bed.”
Mr. Sick says the signing of the act does not mean that the US has ramped up its view of Iran’s capabilities in Latin America, but that, as in the cold war, to vote “against security” is politically untenable.
“I don’t think the Obama administration is lying awake at night worrying if Iranians are going to attack from the south. But how can you possibly vote against increased alertness to our south?” Sick says.
The new law, which was passed by lawmakers in Washington late last year, calls upon the US to create a “comprehensive government-wide strategy to counter Iran's growing hostile presence and activity in the Western Hemisphere by working together with United States allies and partners in the region,” according to the bill.
In Latin America that includes a “multiagency action plan” which calls for the US and partners in the region to create “a counterterrorism and counter-radicalization plan to isolate Iran.” In Mexico and Canada, specifically, the US aims to tighten border control with its counterparts with an eye toward evading an Iranian security threat.
IRAN IN THE AMERICAS
Iran, under international sanctions for its nuclear program, has bolstered its relationship with leaders in Latin America in recent years. Iran has built 17 cultural centers in the region and increased its number of embassies from 6 in 2005 to 11 today. Perhaps most worrisome has been the blossoming friendship between Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. President Chávez has led a regional group of anti-American leaders who have also developed stronger ties with Iran.
Many view those relations as a diplomatic effort to gain friends at a time when Iran needs legitimacy. They say that anything more sinister is unrealistic, since Iran has neither the military might nor GDP to pose a substantial threat to the US.
Most of Iran's promises in Latin America in fact have been just that – promises. From factories to infrastructure deals, they have not amounted to more than paper pledges.
But Washington has expressed caution. When news emerged in October 2011 that two agents tied to Iran allegedly attempted to hire a Mexican drug trafficker to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Associated Press that the plot "creates a potential for international reaction that will further isolate Iran, that will raise questions about what they're up to, not only in the United States and Mexico.”
THE SAME PAGE
Stephen Johnson, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the new act is a response to legitimate concerns. “As the act is really a call to formally study the issue and develop a plan to deal with any threats, it responds to a history of heightened activity in the hemisphere on the part of Iran since the mid-1990s,” Mr. Johnson says. “The legislation has been in the works for a year and comes at a time of heightened concern over Iran’s nuclear program.”
The act is an effort to put the region on the same page in viewing Iran as a potential threat, says Daniel Brumberg, an Iran specialist at the United States Institute of Peace, though he considers it symbolic since the US already has plenty “on the books to deal with this challenge,” Mr. Brumberg says. Still, “this represents, from what I can see, the first effort to encourage a more public or articulated strategy vis-a-vis Iran … and South America.”
Brumberg says the US risks backlash from leaders such as Chávez, who will “invoke the law as another example of the US trying to dictate the diplomacy of the region.” But Brumberg says, the US views this kind of reaction as a small price to pay.
But, says Sick, the year 2013 looks very different than the 1950s and 1960s. “If Chávez survives, then he might indeed use it as ammunition against ‘the big boy to the north.’ But my guess is that [Latin America] will see [the new law] as a pretty minor thing too,” he says. “I don’t think it will cause much of a ripple.

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In Egypt a new cabinet, but same old IMF problem

A senior International Monetary Fund official visited Cairo to discuss the type of concessions Egypt would be willing to make in exchange for a $4.8 billion loan that the government hopes will stem the precipitous decline of the Egyptian pound.
The conversation included the new and politically untested Finance Minister al-Mursi al-Sayed Hegazy, a professor of Islamic Finance with no track record in politics until he was sworn in as part of a cabinet reshuffle on Sunday. Minister Hegazy, a career academic, said he was "completely ready" to cut a deal with the IMF, at a time when Egypt's public coffers have been drained.
Egyptian foreign currency reserves now stand at about $15 billion, down from $36 billion at the time former President Hosni Mubarak was pushed from power in Feb. 2011. Much of that money has been spent in the beleaguered defense of the pound, which has lost about 4 percent of its value against the dollar in the past week.
That's why there's so much pressure to secure a deal with the IMF (famous for demanding tax increases and subsidy cuts from clients) at a time when the Egyptian economy is suffering from a collapse in tourism and a withdrawal of investment.
But the economic – and political costs – of an IMF deal could be steep, with the Fund urging Egypt to raise taxes on a raft of basic goods and ultimately cut deeply into the subsidies that millions of Egyptian's rely on to survive.
Recommended: Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz.
Talk to an Egyptian cab driver, a housewife, the man that collects the rubbish, or a shop owner, and the refrain is the same: "Prices are rising, and our incomes remain the same."
Mustafa Said, who collects garbage in central Cairo and sells the recyclables such as glass and cardboard, says "the revolution promised a better situation, but it's only gotten harder to simply eat every day."
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The last time President Mohamed Morsi's government sought to raise taxes was in December. It quickly reversed course amid violence outside the presidential palace in Cairo sparked by Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's efforts to drive through a new Egyptian constitution with hardly any input from Egypt's secular-leaning political groups.
While Morsi ultimately won the battle regarding the constitution, Egypt's political turmoil is far from over, with a promised parliamentary election slated for less than two months away.
A DEAL?
Will a deal with the IMF – which, no matter how well-crafted, is likely to create short-term economic pain – see the Muslim Brothers punished at the polls? And will a new parliament accept an agreement crafted by Morsi and his allies shortly before lawmakers take office? These political questions are being weighed by both Morsi and IMF officials.
For now, all signs point to a deal. In addition to Hegazy's comment, IMF Middle East Director Masood Ahmed told reporters after meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and ahead of a sit-down with Morsi: "We will attend many meetings with the Egyptian government today. The technical team will come later. All details will be discussed."
The IMF has not been publicly specific about what it wants, and the Egyptian public has been left largely in the dark about what's being agreed to, which could make the deal a tough sell to average people once it's signed. Last November, the IMF did hint at the rough contours of what it wants. The Fund frequently speaks of the things it demands as coming from the desires of the sovereign they're dealing with, to avoid the public impression they're dictating to governments.
"Fiscal reforms are a key pillar under the program," the IMF's division chief for the Middle East and Central Asia Andres Bauer said in a statement last November. “Fiscal reforms" generally mean government spending cuts. That is, austerity. Mr. Bauer continued: "The authorities plan to reduce wasteful expenditures, including by reforming energy subsidies and better targeting them to vulnerable groups. At the same time, the authorities intend to raise revenues through tax reforms, including by increasing the progressivity of income taxation and by broadening the general sales tax (GST) to become a full-fledged value added tax (VAT)."
While the IMF is hoping that subsidies and social welfare programs will be better focused on the neediest, mechanisms to do so are often tricky and such ideas usually prove much easier on paper than in reality. It's clear the IMF is hoping for big changes. In the November statement, the Fund spoke of reducing Egypt's "large budget sector deficit" from 11 percent of gross domestic product in the last fiscal year to 8.5 percent in the fiscal year ending 2014.
What's more, the IMF hopes Egypt's "primary deficit" – essentially the balance of a government's revenue and expenses minus interest costs on existing debt – will plummet from 4 percent in the last fiscal year to almost zero in the fiscal year ending 2014 and to become a surplus by the year ending 2015.
That will require a swift, and drastic restructuring of Egyptian government spending and tax collection in the blink of an eye. Is it the right thing to do for Egypt's economic health long term? Arguably so. But it's hard to imagine avoiding serious pain for average consumers in the short and medium term.
Egypt is heading into dangerous waters. Proposed tax increases will hit the poorest hardest, and the government is focused on cutting fuel subsidies later this year, which will affect the price of everything from fresh fruit to cement. The country has a history of bread riots, and high food inflation in the winter of 2010/2011 contributed to the uprising against the government here and in neighbors like Tunisia.
BACK TO THE CABINET RESHUFFLE
And that comes back to the cabinet reshuffle. Three new ministers loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party were sworn in, as was a new interior minister after his predecessor was blamed for allowing protesters to burn Muslim Brotherhood offices in Cairo and briefly besiege the presidential palace, which forced Morsi to rapidly leave in a convoy by a back exit.
New Interior Minister Gen. Mohamed Ibrahim, now responsible for the police and internal security, vowed upon being sworn in Sunday that the police "will strike with an iron fist whoever compromises the security of the country and its people."
With painful economic concessions and what promises to be a raucous election looming, not to mention the second anniversary of the start of the uprising against Mubarak on Jan. 25, General Ibrahim may well have his work cut out for him.
The IMF, meanwhile, may find it hard to get any deal struck now to stick long term.

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Good Reads: Boomtown slum, democracy in progress, and 'rewilding' in the Netherlands

The image of an African shantytown does not usually conjure up hope for economic prosperity. But Kibera, one of Nairobi’s slums and arguably Africa’s largest slum, is exactly that for the Kenyans who call it home. In The Economist, a writer chronicled a day in Kibera, describing the slum’s ebbs and flows, capturing its entrepreneurial spirit. People from all over Kenya leave their towns and villages for a chance to find work in Kibera’s “thriving economic machine.”
The half-mile-by-two-mile area accommodates roughly 1 million people, wedged together in repurposed wood-and-corrugated-tin-roof structures. The alleys that wind through the slum vary in size, but there is no room for cars. Many of the residents work in nearby factories or offices. Others find economic opportunity in providing goods and services for Kibera’s residents.
Recommended: Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.
When Cecilia Achieng moved to the slum, she started a school, at first renting space from an empty church. She eventually saved enough money to build six makeshift classrooms. After school, Ms. Achieng starts her second job: catering. She caters church events, funerals, and is even trying to get into weddings. In the evening, Achieng goes door to door offering her services as a hairdresser.
“To equate slums with idleness and misery is to misunderstand them,” the correspondent writes. “Slums are far from hopeless places; many are not where economic losers end up, but rather reservoirs of tomorrow’s winners.”
THE PROMISE OF THE ARAB SPRING
As post-Arab Spring countries struggle to establish democratic institutions, pessimism about their ultimate success misses a broader lesson: Stable democracies have historically evolved from violent uprisings, initial failures, and stumbling blocks.
“These troubles ... are not a bug but a feature – not signs of problems with democracy but evidence of the difficult, messy process of political development through which societies purge themselves of the vestiges of dictatorship and construct new and better democratic orders,” writes Sheri Berman in Foreign Affairs.
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Critics who see Egypt, Libya, and other transitioning countries as democratic failures ignore the inherited social, cultural, and political dynamics in these countries, and a broader historical perspective. New democracies are not blank slates, writes Ms. Berman. In the aftermath of overthrowing dictators, countries must overcome the baggage that comes with authoritarian regimes – distrust, animosity, and lack of civil organizations to deal with people’s demands. Islamism is filling that void in Egypt after Hosni Mubarak’s fall as religious organizations were the only places where people could participate and express themselves.
Berman also points to history, particularly the political trials of France, Italy, and Germany on the democratization journeys. France took decades to establish a stable government, restructuring its economy in the process. Both Italy’s and Germany’s democratic experiments were interrupted by fascist takeovers.
RECALL OF THE WILD
The future of conservation may not be in saving nature from destruction, but rather creating a “new wilderness.” An ecological experiment in the Netherlands is turning traditional conservation theory on its head, and it has inspired a new movement called “rewilding,” which claims that nature can be created, not just managed or destroyed.
In the Netherland’s Flevoland Province – which used to be under water until a drainage project uncovered it in the 1950s – biologists used some of the new land to create a habitat similar to that found during Paleolithic times.
In The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert describes how biologists convinced the Dutch government to save a 15,000-acre reserve of the drained land – known as Oostvaardersplassen – as grazing land for herbivores most closely linked to their extinct predecessors: aurochs, red deer, tarpans, and European bison. The theory is that Europe used to have a more “parklike landscape,” which was maintained by herds of animals eating the vegetation. The reserve created an opportunity to see how this ecological system operated, and to see if other animal species would return.
“What we see here is that, instead of what many nature conservationists think – that something that is lost is lost forever – you can have the conditions to have it redeveloped,” Frans Vera, an ecologist, told Ms. Kolbert. Rewilding has spread to other areas in Europe as well, including Spain, Portugal, and Siberia. The scientists say the idea represents a “proactive agenda” as opposed to waiting to see what happens in nature.
Oostvaardersplassen attracts tourists who come to see the almost safari-like setting, but there is some controversy. Because the reserve aims to represent the wild, animals are left to the elements and suffer from such things as food shortages. Mr. Vera anticipates that the reserve will eventually attract the region’s natural predators – wolves – to reduce herd overpopulations.
“On a planet increasingly dominated by people – even the deep oceans today are being altered by humans – it probably makes sense to think about wilderness, too, as a human creation,” Kolbert writes.

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Soccer-Pro Patria given one-game fan ban over Boateng incident

Jan 8 (Reuters) - Italian fourth-tier side Pro Patria must play their next home league match behind closed doors after fans racially abused AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng, the league said on Tuesday.

Boateng walked off the pitch in last week's friendly because of monkey chants and his team mates followed him, drawing widespread praise across the game.

An Italian lower league (Lega Pro) statement said the taunts were "clearly racial discrimination" and deserved an immediate one-game stadium ban.

Italian soccer federation president Giancarlo Abete, whose organisation has long battled racism among fans, told reporters that officials could act in the future before players have to.

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UPDATE 2-Soccer-Bulgaria and Hungary told to play behind closed doors

BERNE, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Bulgaria and Hungary were ordered to play their next home World Cup qualifiers behind closed doors after their fans were found guilty of racist and anti-Semitic behaviour in recent games, FIFA said Tuesday.
Bulgaria were sanctioned after a group of supporters racially abused Denmark substitute Patrick Mtiliga every time he touched the ball after entering the field in the second half of their 2014 World Cup qualifier in Sofia in October.
Hungary's punishment followed anti-Semitic chanting by fans in a friendly at home to Israel in August.
In both cases, FIFA's disciplinary committee warned that a repetition could lead to harsher penalties which include a possible points deduction, the forfeiting of the match or even disqualification from the competition.
In an unusually strongly-worded statement, FIFA described the incidents in Sofia as "offensive, denigratory and discriminatory" while the incidents in Budapest were labelled "abhorrent."
The sanctions came as FIFA's European counterpart UEFA is accused of being too lenient on cases of racism, letting offending clubs off with fines.
Porto, Lazio and Serbia have all been given fines over recent racism cases by European soccer's disciplinary committee although UEFA itself has appealed the Serbia decision, relating to an under-21 match at home to England, and asked for stronger sanctions.
Bulgaria, whose next home game in Group B is against Malta in March, were also fined 35,000 Swiss francs and Hungary, who host Romania also in March in Group D, were fined 40,000 francs.
Hungary's match is potentially decisive as the two sides are level in second place with nine points, three behind leaders and clear favourites Netherlands.
FIFA said that during the Bulgaria match, also marred by a firework-throwing incident in the seventh-minute, fans were warned by the stadium announcer about their behaviour in the 73rd minute.
"Although the level of abuse subsided, audible racist abuse still continued until the final whistle," said FIFA.
"The disciplinary committee agreed that the offensive, denigratory and discriminatory actions of a small group of Bulgarian supporters, was shameful and a clear breach of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.
"In addition, the incendiary devices thrown, which can pose considerable threats to personal safety, are also not tolerated."
FIFA said that in Hungary's case, it had been informed by the FARE (Football Against Racism Europe) group that some supporters had made anti-Semitic chants and displayed offensive symbols.
"The members of the FIFA disciplinary committee were unanimous in condemning an abhorrent episode of racism, anti-Semitism, and of political provocative and aggressive nature perpetrated by supporters of the Hungarian national team," said FIFA.
It added that the Hungarian federation had acknowledged and regretted the fans' behaviour.
Last week, AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng, who played for Ghana at the 2010 World Cup, took his shirt off and walked off the pitch after being racially insulted in a pre-season friendly against a lower tier side. His team mates followed him and the match was abandoned.

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Soccer-Galatasaray say open talks to sign Sneijder

Jan 8 (Reuters) - Galatasaray have opened talks to try to sign Inter Milan's out-of-favour Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder, the Turkish league leaders said on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old has not played for the Italian side since negotiations aimed at getting him to accept a cut in wages broke down in November.
"Galatasaray have begun talks with Inter for the transfer of Wesley Sneijder," a statement from the Turkish champions said.

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Disney On Ice: Rockin’ Ever After Tickets Skate to Top of Most Popular List on BuyAnySeat.com

Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After is performing to packed houses at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia all this week, before gliding on to the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio from January 11 – 21, 2013. The show, resplendent with its classic Disney characters and musical hits, skated to the top of the Most Popular Theatre Tickets list last week, said Felina Martinez at online ticket marketplace BuyAnySeat.com.

Denver, CO (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After continues to captivate, charm and of course, melt hearts of all ages.
After highly successful Holiday runs at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey and the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York – as well as performances in Raleigh and Fayetteville, North Carolina and Albany, New York – the show is in Philadelphia this week, before heading on to Cleveland, Rosemont, Chicago and Boston for performances through-out January and February.
The traveling troupe then treks to Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, St. Louis, Kansas City, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston before a scheduled wrap in late April 2013.
“We’re seeing extremely high online traffic for Disney On Ice: Rockin’ Ever After tickets,” said Felina Martinez at online ticket marketplace BuyAnySeat.com. “Although many of the upcoming performances are starting to sell out, we’re proud to be able to offer fans and their families a great selection of discount Disney On Ice: Rockin’ Ever After tickets, with a worry-free guarantee to protect their purchase,” said Martinez.
“In fact, we have a huge selection of inexpensive tickets now available on our site,” said Martinez. “To access the complete selection of discount Disney On Ice: Rockin’ Ever After tickets we now have available, customers can go to BuyAnySeat.com and search for Disney On Ice: Rockin’ Ever After – then select their tickets,” said Martinez.
For the uninitiated, Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After is the music and the magic of Disney set to stunning choreography. Polished, professional skaters and other performers glide in and around familiar fairytale sets, playing favorite characters like Minnie and Mickey, Ariel, Belle, Merida, and Rapunzel. Plus, of course, it all takes place in tempo to the most popular Disney tunes, including the songs from the beloved popular princess movies. According to fans, it’s everything they could hope for and more.

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Larson Electronics Releases a 277 Volt AC A19 LED Bulb for the Industrial Marketplace

In an ongoing effort to meet the needs of the industrial marketplace, Larson Electronics announced the addition of their LED-A19-10-E26 A19 LED bulb. The unique feature of the Larson Electronics A19 LED bulb, which is a replacement for the standard 100 watt incandescent light bulb, is that it operates on voltages ranging from 120 to 277 VAC.

Kemp, TX (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
Larson Electronics announced the addition of an A19 style LED bulb, featuring 10 watts of power and operating on voltages ranging from 120 to 277 VAC. Equipped with a food safe plastic cover, the LED-A19-10-E26 fits into standard E26 (US) and E27 (Europe) sockets. With 10 watts of power, the Larson Electronics A19 LED bulb produces 1050 lumens. Designed for harsh environments, the Larson A19 LED bulb operates in temperature ranges from -50C to 85C.
“Given that most commercial facilities are wired to the grid at 480 Volts, they automatically have 277 VAC available, so our 277 Volt capable A19 bulb is a logical fit for this marketplace,” said Rob Bresnahan with LarsonElectronics.com. “The lumen output on this A19 LED bulb is at the top of the available choices in the marketplace, but the key feature of this bulb is its ability to operate on voltages ranging from 120 to 277 VAC. We also offer a 12/24 Volt DC version as well for the automation controls market.”
Larson Electronics produces a wide range of LED retrofit bulbs for 120/277 VAC applications and 12/24 VDC applications, including T-series bulbs, PAR38 and PAR46 bulbs. You can learn more at LarsonElectronics.com or contact 1-800-369-6671 (1-903-498-3363 international).

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HealthCompare Remains Confident about Business-as-Usual in Light of New States Being Added to the New Insurance Exchanges

HealthCompare remains confident as state health exchanges are being formed across the country.

Orange, CA (PRWEB) January 04, 2013
HealthCompare remains confident as state health exchanges are being formed across the country.
"In 10 months, consumers in all 50 states will have access to a new marketplace where they will be able to easily purchase affordable, high quality health insurance plans,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, as she reported new states being added to the list of conditionally approved state exchanges.
These new “exchanges” will operate in much the same way that HealthCompare has always operated, offering quality, affordable plans that consumers were able to compare side-by-side.
Understanding the complexity of health insurance, HealthCompare made the layout of their comparisons as simple as possible, allowing visitors to get a free health insurance quote in a way that enabled them to see premium to premium and deductible to deductible comparisons - a not easily found benefit with other online health insurance sites.
With the new setup of health insurance exchanges all over the country, HealthCompare is confident that they will continue to lead the way in their industry because they have what others don’t: apple to apple comparisons.
About

About Health Compare: HealthCompare was launched in 2009 to work with brokers and carriers to help individuals and families easily research, compare, buy, and enroll in the right health insurance plan at the right price. Based in Orange, Calif., it delivers accurate, customized, health insurance quotes for the country's diverse population.
Through a unique partnership with its sister company, CONEXIS, HealthCompare has the ability to quickly reach thousands of COBRA-qualifying consumers and provide them with COBRA alternatives at the moment they become eligible for COBRA benefits. This provides these consumers with an opportunity to enroll in individual or family plans and potentially save hundreds to thousands of dollars on COBRA premiums and, at the same time, rewards referring brokers with referral fee income for the life of each policy.

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Serena offers ominous warning for Australian Open rivals

BRISBANE (Reuters) - Serena Williams felt she was close to accessing the sporting "zone" during her emphatic 6-2 6-1 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final of the Brisbane International on Saturday.
Williams needed only 51 minutes to beat the Russian in an ominous warm-up for the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on January 14.
"I've been in the zone a few times," Williams told reporters.
"I don't know if I was in the zone today, but I was definitely heading in that direction. I've been in the twilight zone before, where I just felt so good I couldn't do anything wrong."
The world No.3's performance was so strong that Pavlyuchenkova said afterwards: "I always feel like I don't know how to play tennis when I play against you."
Williams captured the 47th title of her career. She has won 35 of her past 36 matches while claiming Wimbledon, the Olympics, the US Open, the season-ending tour championship and now the opening event of 2013.
The 31-year-old American roared through the Brisbane tournament without the loss of a set.
She said: "I was looking at a lot of old matches on YouTube, and I feel like right now I'm playing some of my best tennis. I feel like I want to do better and play better still."
Williams said a decision to seek on-court tranquillity after a shattering defeat to Virginie Razzano at the French Open last year had triggered her career resurrection.
"I really started being more calm on the court and just relaxing more, if it's possible for me to relax," she said.
"I feel better when I'm more calm. When I'm crazy like I was in Paris, as you can see, it doesn't do great for me. I think it is a really fine line between being too calm... I think sometimes if I'm too calm it doesn't work for me, either. I can be calm and still be pumped up and really excited.
"I can't do too much of either."
Williams said she wanted to take up meditation as an off-court routine, even though it would challenge her.
"I can never sit long enough for meditation," she said. "I really want to meditate more and I want to be still and be in that quiet area. But I just pick up my iPad and start playing some games, and then next thing I know I'm watching TV.
"Hopefully I can get there."
At Melbourne Park Williams will be chasing her 16th major championship and sixth Australian Open title.
She will start as the clear favourite after her irresistible progress through the Brisbane event coincided with injuries hampering the preparations of world No.1 Victoria Azarenka (toe) and No.2 Maria Sharapova

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Hussey finishes on a high with Australia sweep

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Michael Hussey ended his test career on a high on Sunday when Australia beat Sri Lanka by five wickets with a day to spare in the third test to sweep the series 3-0.
The 37-year-old was deprived of the ultimate fairytale ending when his batting partner Mitchell Johnson scored the winning run but Hussey, ever the team man, was not remotely concerned.
"It couldn't have ended any better," he said after being applauded off the pitch by both teams at the end of his 79th test.
"I feel very proud to have worn the baggy green cap and I've probably achieved a lot more in my career than I ever dreamed I could."
Australia, chasing 141 runs to win the test, lost three wickets in quick succession just before tea to bring Hussey out for his final test innings before retirement.
The break came with the hosts just five runs shy of victory and when Johnson pushed the ball wide of point for his only run of the innings, Hussey was already halfway down the pitch to secure the winning run.
"I was telling Mitch the over before if it comes up that you hit it, then I'm more than happy to let us get this over and done with," said Hussey, who finished unbeaten on 27 for a career average of 51.52.
"But I was more than happy to be out there when the winning run was hit. A dream come true. The important thing was making sure we won the test match."
Australia had dismissed the tourists for 278 before lunch to set up the run chase but they inched nervously towards the target after David Warner had departed for a duck without a run on the board.
Seamer Suranga Lakmal had the opener caught in the slips by his captain Mahela Jayawardene but it was the spin-bowling of Tillakaratne Dilshan and particularly Rangana Herath that was always going to provide most problems on a turning wicket.
The peace of a hot afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground was punctuated by the loud appeals of the Sri Lankans pretty much any time the ball came near a batsman's front pad.
Jayawardene, so profligate with his appeals to the TV umpire in this series, made the most of his first of the innings to remove Phil Hughes for 34 with Australia still 96 runs short of their target.
There was some confusion as to whether they were appealing for a catch or lbw off the Herath delivery. The TV pictures showed no nick or glove but did reveal that the ball would have hit the stumps so Hughes was out.
HUSSEY CHANTS
Clarke, the most prolific test batsmen of last year and later named Player of the Series, came to the crease for another duel with Herath, who took more test wickets than any other bowler in 2012.
In the end though, it was the spin of Dilshan which removed the Australia skipper for 29 although opener Ed Cowan (36) and Matthew Wade (9) did then quickly fall victim to Herath.
The crowd had already started chanting Hussey's name before Clarke's dismissal in the hope he would get out to bat again in his final test after being run-out in the first innings and they got their wish.
"What a place to finish. The SCG is probably my top three favourite grounds in the whole world," Hussey said.
"The crowd support and the support in general has been a bit overwhelming and I've been a bit embarrassed by it. In a way I'm quite relieved that it's over now."
Sri Lanka had resumed on 225-7 in the morning looking to bulk up their lead of 87 and give their bowlers something to work with.
Dinesh Chandimal hit a defiant 62 not out off 106 balls but ran out of partners when Jackson Bird had Nuwan Pradeep caught behind for nine half an hour before lunch.
Chandimal and Pradeep had put on 41 for the final wicket after Herath (10) and Lakmal (0) had departed relatively cheaply.
Bird, the least experienced of the four paceman deployed by Australia in the test, was named Man of the Match after bagging figures of 7-117.
Australia won the first test in Hobart by 137 runs and the second by an innings and 201 runs inside three days in Melbourne last week.
"I think we fought really well, but it wasn't good enough," said Jayawardene, who is stepping down as captain after this series.
"When you are competing at this level, I think we need to be much better prepared and show more character to win test matches in these conditions.

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Penguins' Private Lives Recorded in Antarctica

MCMURDO SOUND, Antarctica — Suppose someone monitors your whole life, from the moment you were born through childhood, puberty, adolescence and your midlife crisis, all the way to your ultimate death — recording what you eat, where you go, who you make love to, when you raise children and how your body ages. Pretty scary, right?
But that's exactly what biologist David Ainley is doing. Not with humans, but with Adélie penguins in Antarctica. If he could put TV cameras in the birds' master bedrooms, he wouldn't hesitate.
No detail too private
For 17 years now, Ainley has studied three penguin colonies in and around McMurdo Sound, located at the southern extent of the Ross Sea. "It's rare in science to collect data throughout the whole age structure of a population," Ainley told LiveScience, noting Adélie penguins live, on average, about 20 years. Some of the sedate, elderly colony members were just "screaming" newborn chicks when he first arrived here in 1996.
Back then, the three colonies were growing rapidly, at a rate of about 10 percent per year. "My original goal was to find out what caused this increase, and why the smaller colonies grew even faster than the larger ones," said Ainley, who is a biologist at H.T. Harvey & Associates, an ecological consultancy in San Jose, Calif.
Surprisingly, the baby boom turned out to be a side effect of the Antarctic ozone hole (an opening in the protective atmospheric layer), which reached huge dimensions in the 1990s. "A larger ozone hole means a cooler stratosphere, a more powerful polar vortex and, as a result of stronger winds, more open water in the immediate neighborhood of the colonies," he said. The penguins need the open water for finding their favorite foods — krill and fish.
With funding from the U.S. Antarctic Program, through the National Science Foundation, Ainley has discovered a lack of competition for scarce food resources is what drives the smaller colonies to grow faster than larger ones. Also, predator leopard seals, which aren't very efficient hunters, are more interested in the bigger colonies, where they have a better chance to catch their nourishing penguin snack.
Along the way, penguin privacy has gone out the window: To keep track of a representative selection of individual penguins, Ainley has banded them on one of their flippers, making it easy to identify each from afar through binoculars. [Image Gallery: Private Sex Lives of Penguins]
Moreover, at the exit of the colonies, Ainley has mounted electronic weigh bridges, over which the penguins have to pass when they go foraging in the open sea, and again when they return to feed their newborn chicks from their own stomachs. Radio-frequency chips identify the penguins, and the automatic measurements provide a detailed record of their foraging and feeding behaviors during the austral summer season.
An icy obstacle
All was going well with Ainley's research. But in March 2000, catastrophe struck. A huge part of the Ross Ice Shelf broke loose. The iceberg, nearly the size of the state of Connecticut, blocked access to the open waters of the Ross Sea, effectively cutting off the penguins' preferred route to their winter habitat, farther away from the pole. To reach these slightly warmer and less gloomy regions with their fish and krill in tow, the poor birds now had to take a 50-mile (80 kilometers) detour. Eventually, the iceberg would remain stuck for a period of five years, and the penguin colonies diminished markedly. [Album: Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice]
"At first, I was very disappointed," said Ainley, as it looked as if the iceberg had wrecked his research program. "But then it turned out that there was a lot of new information to gain from the whole episode." In particular, Ainley discovered many penguins from the small colony at Cape Royds did not return home at all in the summer season, but started a new life at one of the other two Adélie colonies at Ross Island — at Cape Crozier and Cape Bird.
This was completely unexpected, said Ainley. "The scientific gospel was that penguins live in the same colony for their entire life, and that they never migrate elsewhere. But the gospel was written by people who had never witnessed an iceberg event like this one."
Contemplating the universe
By now, everything is pretty much back to normal again. Together with his colleague Jean Pennycook, Ainley started his 17th field expedition in early December. Every other day at Cape Royds, he walks through the penguin colony, armed with a pair of binoculars, keeping track of what the birds are doing. "There's not very much to do, really,” he said. “Actually, I spend most of my time at my laptop." Research results, as well as daily pictures from breeding nests, are published at a special website, www.penguinscience.com, partly for educational reasons.
The small colony at Cape Royds has a population of about 2,000 penguin pairs, as opposed to Cape Bird, with some 50,000 pairs, and Cape Crozier, the biggest colony in the world, with a staggering 280,000 pairs. "At the other colonies, there's more than enough work to keep two people busy for seven days a week," he said.
But despite the cold, Ainley doesn't seem to mind the relative lack of work. Pointing at the male penguins that are solemnly breeding two fresh-laid eggs each, he notes: "They're just sitting there, contemplating the universe."
To many researchers in Antarctica, the combination of utter remoteness and overwhelming natural beauty is the main atttraction of the frozen continent. In fact, Ainley admits he choose penguin research for his doctoral work just to get a chance to go to Antarctica. "I just had to go there," he said. "I could've chosen geology instead, since I also majored in that discipline."
Then again, monitoring the full life cycle of a mountain or a glacier, from birth to death, is a bit beyond human scope. In the case of the Adélie penguins, Ainley almost accomplished this feat. "I'll return two more times on my current grant," he said. "If I'm creative enough to come up with a new research project, I may receive another five-year grant."
The penguins aren't likely to mind. Who knows, they might start to miss their human friend if he weren't to show up anymore.

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NHL players respond to lawsuit in labor dispute

 As the National Hockey League and the players' union sought to negotiate the end to a long labor dispute that has jeopardized the season, proceedings in a lawsuit pitting the two sides against each other moved forward.
In a court filing on Thursday, the players asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the league that sought a declaration confirming the legality of the player lockout.
The lockout has been in place since mid-September as the two sides have struggled to come to a new labor agreement. The league has canceled games up to January 14, more than 50 percent of the regular season which was scheduled to start in October.
The dispute moved to court last month after reports circulated that the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) would seek a vote from its members to proceed with a "disclaim of interest" and no longer represent players in bargaining.
Such a move would free players to file antitrust lawsuits against the league in an effort to block the lockout.
In its court filing on Thursday, lawyers for the NHLPA argued that the lawsuit filed by the league was premature and that it should be dismissed.
"They ask the Court to simply assume the outcome of events that had not yet taken place at the time the Complaint was filed, and then decree what the law would be on the basis of those assumptions," wrote lawyers for the players.
A spokesman for the NHL declined to comment on the filing.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of Manhattan immediately responded to the players' request by issuing an order scheduling a conference January 7 to establish a case-management plan for the litigation. He wrote that the goal of the plan should be to enhance "the parties' ability to resolve their disputes with dispatch.

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NHL-Labor talks at near standstill as season deadline looms

Jan 3 (Reuters) - Negotiations on a labor deal between the National Hockey League (NHL) and locked out players ground to a near standstill on Thursday, with time running out on salvaging even a partial season.
The optimism that surrounded talks on Wednesday vanished quickly as the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) dialed up the pressure, calling on the membership to vote again to give their executive board the power to file a disclaimer of interest that would dissolve the union and free individual players to file anti-trust lawsuits against the league.
The move came less than 24 hours after the union opted not to play the disclaimer card and let a self-imposed Wednesday midnight deadline pass, allowing negotiations to continue into the late evening.
However, the mood had changed dramatically when the two parties returned to the bargaining table early on Thursday afternoon with talks limited to small group discussions that did not include NHLPA chief Donald Fehr.
With very little bargaining taking place, the focus shifted to tactics and legal maneuvering, with the union going to court on Thursday to ask a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the league.
The dispute moved to court last month after reports circulated that the NHLPA would seek a vote from its members to proceed with a "disclaim of interest" and the NHL launched a pre-emptive strike asking to have the lockout declared legal.
In its court filing, lawyers for the NHLPA argued that the lawsuit filed by the league was premature and that it should be dismissed.
"They ask the court to simply assume the outcome of events that had not yet taken place at the time the complaint was filed, and then decree what the law would be on the basis of those assumptions," wrote lawyers for the players.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of Manhattan immediately responded to the players' request by issuing an order scheduling a Jan. 7 conference to establish a case-management plan for the litigation that "may enhance, and does not needlessly inhibit, the parties' ability to resolve their disputes with dispatch".
With more than half the season already wiped out and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman having set a Jan. 19 deadline for the puck to drop on a shortened 48-game schedule, time is running out on the league and players to get a deal done.
There had been indications the two sides were inching closer to agreement on major issues - such has how to split $3.3 billion in revenue - contract lengths, revenue sharing and length of the new collective bargaining agreement but they remain far apart on others.
Player pension plans and how they are funded has suddenly popped up as the hot topic, along with where the salary cap ceiling should be set.

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DISCOVER YAHOO! WITH YOUR FRIENDS close Labor talks at near standstill as season deadline looms

Negotiations on a labor deal between the National Hockey League (NHL) and locked out players ground to a near standstill on Thursday, with time running out on salvaging even a partial season.
The optimism that surrounded talks on Wednesday vanished quickly as the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) dialed up the pressure, calling on the membership to vote again to give their executive board the power to file a disclaimer of interest that would dissolve the union and free individual players to file anti-trust lawsuits against the league.
The move came less than 24 hours after the union opted not to play the disclaimer card and let a self-imposed Wednesday midnight deadline pass, allowing negotiations to continue into the late evening.
However, the mood had changed dramatically when the two parties returned to the bargaining table early on Thursday afternoon with talks limited to small group discussions that did not include NHLPA chief Donald Fehr.
With very little bargaining taking place, the focus shifted to tactics and legal maneuvering, with the union going to court on Thursday to ask a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the league.
The dispute moved to court last month after reports circulated that the NHLPA would seek a vote from its members to proceed with a "disclaim of interest" and the NHL launched a pre-emptive strike asking to have the lockout declared legal.
In its court filing, lawyers for the NHLPA argued that the lawsuit filed by the league was premature and that it should be dismissed.
"They ask the court to simply assume the outcome of events that had not yet taken place at the time the complaint was filed, and then decree what the law would be on the basis of those assumptions," wrote lawyers for the players.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of Manhattan immediately responded to the players' request by issuing an order scheduling a January 7 conference to establish a case-management plan for the litigation that "may enhance, and does not needlessly inhibit, the parties' ability to resolve their disputes with dispatch".
With more than half the season already wiped out and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman having set a January 19 deadline for the puck to drop on a shortened 48-game schedule, time is running out on the league and players to get a deal done.
There had been indications the two sides were inching closer to agreement on major issues - such has how to split $3.3 billion in revenue - contract lengths, revenue sharing and length of the new collective bargaining agreement but they remain far apart on others.
Player pension plans and how they are funded has suddenly popped up as the hot topic, along with where the salary cap ceiling should be set.
The league wants a cap locked in at $60 million while the players are believed to be seeking something in the $65-67 million range.

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