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Monday 31 October 2011
Leaders are increasingly willing to take a gamble (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
89% Attack the Block
All Critics (131) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (118) | Rotten (14) | DVD (6)
Attack the Block attacks the alien invasion genre with wit, energy and a cheeky insolence that makes it out of this world.
An energetic genre ride with social ambitions about race and class.
"Attack the Block" demands to be seen simply because it is a thrill - a pulse-raiser whose perfect construction and pointed wit make it one of the year's most exciting films.
The movie's amateurishly made. But the script is full of little surprises.
It's exciting, and there is plenty of gore for fans of that sort of thing, but one wishes the mix of horror and comedy leaned a little more to the horror side of the equation.
It's a doozy, offering tight and imaginative camerawork, electric thrills, and a sharp, twisty script that plays like a social satire.
The best science fiction movie of 2012.
There isn't a single thing I would change about the film's brisk 88-minute running time.
This year's best tribute to E.T.
Pits street kids against aliens in a fast-paced battle
Like a Brit Joe Dante, debuting writer-director Joe Cornish both respects and rattles the genre, and he transforms his low budget into a virtue.
(I)t's the ready reinvention of the whole alien invasion conceit that becomes Attack the Block's greatest artistic contribution.
Employs its sci-fi tale to wrestle with issues of race and class structure -- the sort of deep thought lost on Hollywood kingpins like Michael Bay, whose idea of sensitive racial exploration was to create Amos 'n' Andy robots for that Transformers flick.
Few movies this year have been as all-out fun to watch as this one.
The coolest part of "Attack the Block" is how it does a switcheroo with the thugs, initially encouraging us to think they're rotters and then showing us there's more to them than meets the eye.
Cornish makes a feature debut here that's almost as stunning as when his pal (and executive producer) Edgar Wright invaded the cineplex with "Shaun of the Dead."
Attack the Block wants us to believe that its heroes aren't all that bad . . . once you've given them your wallet.
A throwback monster movie made by people who clearly adore the films they're referencing.
So if you only go see one movie this weekend, please make it Attack the Block. See it twice in fact. Let's encourage good filmmaking.
Here is a shaggy monster movie that pulls double-duty as a satire of class and ethnic barriers, and how those barriers quickly disappear when we are forced to fight for our simple survival.
While it lacks originality, Attack the Block zooms along with energy and deadpan humor.
One of the greater imports to hit America since "Shaun of the Dead."
Attack the Block has a cast of nobodies, the cheesiest special effects this side of Velveeta, and it's the best sci-fi movie you'll see this summer.
The inky, somewhat shapeless beings aren't any scarier than your typical Muppet. Which is kind of a problem when you're offering an R-rated thriller.
More Critic ReviewsSource: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/attack_the_block/
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Protest drummers seen as both poisonous, inspired (Providence Journal)
Sunday 30 October 2011
Saturday 29 October 2011
Lawmakers want Palestinians in swap on terror list (AP)
WASHINGTON ? A bipartisan group of lawmakers is asking FBI Director Robert Mueller and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to put Palestinians released from prison in a swap for an Israeli soldier on the terrorist watch list.
In a letter this week to Mueller and Clinton, the lawmakers said the Palestinians who were convicted on various terrorism charges should not be allowed to enter the United States.
In the swap this month, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for tank crewman Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who had been held by Hamas militants for more than five years.
Signing the letter were 36 House Republicans and Democrats, led by Rep. Howard Berman, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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UFC 137 press conference video: ?Cro Cop? says this might be it
The 2011 version of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic is a different fighter in and out of the cage than we saw in the early 2000's. Whether that will lead to one final win tomorrow night is anyone's guess, but? Cro Cop is at peace with whatever happens.
"I'm relaxed, there's no pressure on me. I will do best to beat Roy, who I respect a lot. I don't want to underestimate him,"Cro Cop said during the UFC 137 press conference. "But if you ask me, this is the most important fight in my career. This will be the most important fight in my career and that's why I trained so hard for Saturday evening. I'm just looking forward to it."
Cro Cop's lost two straight and 3-of-5. More importantly, he was the victim of terrible knockout at UFC 128 at the hands of Brendan Schaub. He faces another fighter badly in need of a win in Roy Nelson. Cro Cop doesn't want to go out with three straight losses.
"[...] this could easily be my last fight in the UFC. It has nothing to do with the result, if I win or lose. Especially if I lose, but even if I win it could be my last fight in the UFC. And I'll really give my best and hope this will be an attractive fight. I cannot afford anymore, especially in this fight, that it's declared as the most boring fight of the evening like the fight with Frank Mir. I think me and Roy will perform a good fight and the fans will be satisfied and excited," said Cro Cop.
If he sounds too relaxed, don't be fooled because Cro Cop told the media on Wednesday he has some extra motivation, he wants to avoid ridicule in his home country.
"People in my country will say, 'If you beat him, you beat a fat guy', and if you lost to him they start laughing to me, 'You lost against him', but he's a super dangerous guy who can knock out anyone. Some people might be tricked by his body, but he's a dangerous guy," said Cro Cop.
Nelson is a minus-275 favorite in Las Vegas sportsbooks. A Cro Cop bet brings back plus-235.
Watch UFC 137 right here on Yahoo! Sports
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Friday 28 October 2011
Speaker says Russia's WTO entry hinges on Georgia (AP)
WASHINGTON ? House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that the Obama administration shouldn't consider Russia's decades-long bid to join the World Trade Organization until Moscow settles its border dispute with ex-Soviet state Georgia.
In a hardline speech to a conservative think tank, the Ohio Republican said Russia has displayed an inclination to "restore Soviet-style power and influence," using its wealth of natural resources such as oil, natural gas and metals as a political weapon.
Boehner pressured the administration to rethink its "reset" policy with Russia, and he specifically questioned the U.S. role in the border fight weighing heavily on Russia's bid to join the WTO by year's end.
"The administration should resolve this stalemate in a manner that respects the territorial integrity of Georgia," Boehner said. "Then ? and only then ? will movement on the WTO question be worth considering."
Russia is the largest economy still outside the WTO, which regulates trade among 153 member states, despite being in talks to join since 1993. It needs to negotiate its accession with individual WTO member states, and its conflict with Georgia has left talks in a deadlock.
Boehner said there have been "alarming reports" of the Obama administration pressuring Georgia to accept Russian boundaries set after their 2008 war.
The White House disputed Boehner's criticism, with spokesman Tommy Vietor arguing that the administration "remains unwavering in its commitment to Georgia's territorial integrity. We have made clear, both in private channels and in public statements, that the United States will not support Russia's WTO accession until Russia and Georgia reach agreement on their outstanding trade-related issues."
In August 2008, Georgian troops tried unsuccessfully to regain control over the Moscow-backed rebel province of South Ossetia. Russia sent troops that routed the Georgian military in five days. Georgia entirely lost control of both South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia.
In Russia on Tuesday, President Dmitry Medvedev's economic adviser said Moscow will never meet Georgia's demands. Georgia alleges that the two regions that split off in the war are occupied territory used as staging points for Russian terrorist incursions.
"We have not completed the talks with Georgia," said Arkady Dvorkovich, according to the Interfax news agency. "The demands put forward by our neighbors do not concern the demands of the WTO but concern something completely different, something we cannot and never will be able to meet."
Dvorkovich also warned of serious economic ramifications if Russia is unable to join the WTO.
"It will be worse for everyone, us and our partners," he said. "The barriers will remain high and could even increase because of the crisis."
If Russia joins the WTO, Congress would have to vote on approving permanent normal trade relations.
The WTO requires members to extend unconditional most-favored-nation trade status to all other members. But the U.S. currently denies this status to Russia under Jackson-Vanik, the law passed in 1974 in an effort to pressure the Soviet Union to allow emigration, primarily of Jews.
Boehner, who spoke at a daylong symposium at the Heritage Foundation titled "The Risks of the Reset," invoked former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and their toughness in dealing with the former Soviet Union.
He said Russia will soon be led by Vladimir Putin, who is "known to harbor intense Soviet nostalgia" and could remain in power until the middle of the next decade.
"I think it's only appropriate to ask whether the Obama administration will now reconsider its policy towards Russia," Boehner said. "Let me be clear: I'm not here to argue for open conflict, or against productive engagement."
The speaker said the United States can work with Russia on arms control, counterterrorism and trade. But he argued that the administration must push Moscow to limit its relationship with Iran, specifically its nuclear program, and pressure the Kremlin on its human rights record.
"The United States should insist Russia `reset' its own policies," Boehner said. "If those appeals require teeth, the House stands ready to provide them."
The speaker said the United States leads when it spells out its values, a step that is not an act of belligerence, "and certainly nothing to be sorry for."
"It's a duty, one we accept confidently and gratefully. And I would add, it's a president's duty as well," he said.
In response, Vietor said Obama's policy toward Russia has ensured supplies for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, sanctions against Iran, a new START II treaty to reduce nuclear weapons and resume inspections and securing nuclear materials to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists.
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Thursday 27 October 2011
Wednesday 26 October 2011
EU leaders press Italy for reform at crisis summit (Reuters)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? European Union leaders piled pressure on Italy on Sunday to speed up economic reforms to avoid a Greece-style meltdown as they began a crucial two-leg summit called to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis.
The aim is to agree by Wednesday on reducing Greece's debt burden, strengthening European banks, improving economic governance in the euro area and maximizing the firepower of the EFSF rescue fund to prevent contagion engulfing bigger states.
Before the 27 leaders began talks on a comprehensive plan to stem the crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy held a private meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, officials said.
Diplomats said they wanted to maximize pressure on Rome to implement structural labor market and pension reforms to boost Italy's economic growth potential and reassure investors worried about its huge debt ratio, second only to Greece's.
A German government source said Merkel and Sarkozy underlined "the urgent necessity of credible and concrete reform steps in euro area states," without which any collective EU measures would be insufficient.
Merkel warned in a speech on Saturday that if Italy's debt remained at 120 percent of gross domestic product "then it won't matter how high the protective wall is because it won't help win back the markets' confidence.
Arriving for Sunday's sessions of the full EU and the 17-nation euro zone, the leader of Europe's most powerful economy played down expectations of a breakthrough, telling reporters decisions would only be taken on Wednesday.
Before then, Merkel must secure parliamentary support from her fractious center-right coalition in Berlin for unpopular steps to try to save the euro zone.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, chairing the summit, painted a somber picture of the economic challenges facing Europe in his opening remarks, citing "slowing growth, rising unemployment, pressure on the banks and risks on the sovereign bonds."
"Our meetings of today and Wednesday are important steps, perhaps the most important ones in the series to overcome the financial crisis, even if further steps will be needed," he said.
LIFELINE
Finance ministers made progress at preparatory sessions on Friday and Saturday, agreeing to release an 8 billion euro lifeline loan for Greece and to seek a far bigger write-down on Greek debt by private bondholders.
They also agreed in principle on a framework for recapitalizing European banks, which banking regulators said would cost just over 100 billion euros, to help them withstand losses on sovereign bonds, although some details remain in dispute.
Sarkozy, who disagreed sharply with Merkel over strategy last week, pressing to put the European Central Bank in the front line of crisis-fighting, said after meeting her again on Saturday he hoped for a breakthrough in the middle of the week.
"Between now and Wednesday a solution must be found, a structural solution, an ambitious solution, a definitive solution," Sarkozy said. "There's no other choice."
Asked whether he was confident of a deal, he replied: "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be here."
The key outstanding issues were how to make Greece's debt burden manageable and scale up the euro zone rescue fund to shield Italy and Spain, the euro area's third and fourth largest economies, from bond market turmoil that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into EU-IMF bailouts.
Markets are concerned that Greek debt, forecast to reach 160 percent of GDP this year, will have to be restructured, but investors do not know what kind of damage they will have to take on their Greek portfolios.
The size of the losses private bond holders would have to suffer was the first issue that will be discussed on Sunday.
A debt sustainability study by international lenders showed that only losses of 50-60 percent for the private sector would make Greek debt sustainable in the long term.
This is much more than a 21 percent net present value loss agreed with investors on July 21 and some officials question whether it can be achieved voluntarily, or only through a forced default that would trigger wider market ructions.
Euro zone officials now argue the recession in Greece is much deeper than expected, the country is behind on privatization and fiscal targets and market conditions have deteriorated in the past three months.
To have enough money to support Italy and Spain, if needed, the euro zone wants to boost the firepower of its bailout fund, the 440 billion-euro European Financial Stability Facility.
But public opinion in many countries is strongly against more bailouts, and further commitments to the EFSF could drag down some countries' credit ratings, worsening the crisis.
How to raise the potential of the fund without new cash was probably the most contentious point to be discussed on Sunday, but not expected to be resolved until Wednesday.
France and several other countries would like the bailout fund to be turned into a bank so that it can get access to limitless financing from the European Central Bank. But Germany and the ECB itself are adamantly against that.
The most likely solution seems to be that the EFSF would guarantee a percentage of new borrowing of Spain and Italy in a bid to improve market sentiment toward those countries.
Such a solution might help ring-fence Greece, Ireland and Portugal, but some analysts say it could have perverse effects, creating a two-tier bond market in which secondary bond prices would be depressed, and removing the incentive for Italy to take politically unpopular action to cut its debt.
Another possibility under discussion is to create a special purpose vehicle that would enable non-euro zone countries and sovereign wealth funds to invest in government bonds, but EU officials are reluctant to give countries like China a seat at the euro zone table.
Unless European banks get more capital to cover potential losses on these bonds, other banks will be reluctant to lend to them on the interbank market, triggering a liquidity crunch, now prevented only by stepped-up ECB liquidity provisions.
The European Banking Authority told European Union finance ministers on Saturday that if all such bank assets were valued at market prices, EU banks would need 100-110 billion euros of new capital to have a 9 percent core tier 1 capital ratio, an EU source familiar with the discussions said.
Ministers agreed to give banks until June 2012 to achieve this capital ratio, first using their own funds or from private investors, and if that fails, by using public money from governments or as a last resort the EFSF.
With Italy, Spain and Portugal unhappy about the burden being placed on their banks, EU leaders were to discuss the issue on Sunday, but the source said it was unlikely an overall sum for recapitalization would be explicitly mentioned.
(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke, John O'Donnell, Harry Papachristou, Illona Wissenbach; Writing by Paul Taylor)
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Tuesday 25 October 2011
American, Dane kidnapped in Somalia
NAIROBI, Kenya?? Somali gunmen kidnapped an American aid worker and her Danish colleague on Tuesday from northern Somalia, officials said.
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The 60-year-old Danish man and the 30-year-old American woman were working for the Danish Demining Group when they were seized in northern Somalia, two Nairobi-based officials said. They asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The group did not immediately answer phone calls placed to its headquarters in Denmark following the attack, which happened near the Puntland capital of Galkayo.
The Danish Demining Group helps dispose of unexploded bombs and teaches communities about the dangers of land mines and other ordinance, according to its website. The role of the two aid workers was unclear.
The kidnapping come only weeks after the seizure of two women working for Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya, as well as the kidnappings of two European tourists from Kenya's coast. Somali gunmen were suspected in those attacks.
Kenya said that it sent some 1,600 forces into southern Somalia to attack al-Shabab militants in response to those kidnappings, though it's not clear al-Shabab militants were responsible for the abductions.
The northern semiautonomous province of Puntland is generally considered more stable than most of the rest of Somalia, which is riven between pirate gangs, Islamist insurgents and militias and the weak U.N.-backed government in the capital. It has not had a functioning central government for the last 20 years.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45030663/ns/world_news-africa/
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Monday 24 October 2011
Android Tablets Not Selling as Well as Claimed (ContributorNetwork)
A report by Strategy Analytics claimed that "Android captured 27 percent of global tablet shipments" in the third quarter. This statement, while sensational, was misleading.
The wording used in this report obscures what should be obvious at a cursory glance: Apple's "healthy 67 percent global tablet market share" that it reports is vastly less than what it should be. The iPad is the best-selling tech gadget in history, and no Android tablet on the market today even comes close to displacing it, nor does the Android tablet market as a whole.
Kevin Tofel of GigaOM asked Strategy Analytics to clarify its numbers a bit, and then explained the following facts based on its answers:
"Tablet shipments" are not tablet sales
Tech companies regularly report how many units of a product they have "shipped," but "shipping" a gadget does not mean it was sold to an end customer. It means that it was moved from the manufacturer's warehouse into a retail store, and may well be sitting on the shelves collecting dust right now.
As an example, earlier this year a Samsung vice president was proud to announce that "around 2 million" 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tabs were shipped. He declined to give specific numbers about the number that had been sold to customers.
Definitions of "tablet" vary
Google's Android division worked overtime to bring Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" to market, the first version of Android that was specifically designed for tablets and not just smartphone-style devices with big screens. But the Strategy Analytics report counted budget, sub-$200 devices running 2.x versions of Android, as well as e-readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook Color that run Android under the hood (so to speak).
How Android tablets actually perform in sales
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is the only "real," Honeycomb-running Android tablet to have sold out so far. This was due partly to its sub-$400 price tag, and (probably) partly to a supply shortage. In other words, there weren't many made for that first shipment to begin with.
Google's developer dashboard only shows about 1 in 50 activated Android devices are tablets running some version of Honeycomb. As Tofel explains, that adds up to about 3.42 million Android tablets in existence ... not too bad of a comparison to Andy Rubin's number, which probably counted Android 2.x tablets as well. But a far cry from the 10+ million iPads that Apple sold just this quarter.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Oil prices rise on US, European economic news (AP)
NEW YORK ? Oil prices rose Friday on encouraging economic news from the U.S. and Europe, raising hopes for stronger demand in the months to come.
Benchmark crude rose $1.33 to finish the day at $87.40 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price many international kinds of oil, fell 20 cents to end at $109.56 per barrel in London.
Benchmark crude prices rose as European finance ministers approved the next round of bailout loans for Greece, which should head off a disastrous default that could impact other countries in the region and slow their economies.
In the U.S., the government said jobless rates fell in half of the states last month as hiring picked up. That pointed to rising demand for oil and gas as unemployment lines shrink.
On Wall Street, stocks surged following strong earnings reports. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 220 points, or 2 percent, in afternoon trading.
At the pump, gasoline prices fell less than a penny Friday to a national average of $3.468 per gallon. Pump prices are about 64 cents higher than a year ago. Drivers in the West and the Northeast are paying the highest prices for gas. Prices are lowest in the South.
In other energy trading, heating oil fell 1.26 cents to finish at $3.0175 a gallon. Gasoline futures rose about a penny to end at $2.6846 a gallon. Natural gas was virtually unchanged at $3.6290 per thousand cubic feet.
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El Salvador asking US to extend migrant program (AP)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador ? El Salvador's president says he will ask Washington to halt deportations of Salvadorans and extend a program that allows those who are in the U.S. illegally to stay.
President Mauricio Funes says he wants to be sure El Salvador's "temporary protected status" doesn't expire in March.
That U.S. program benefits foreigners whose return to their home country may be dangerous because of a natural disaster or other reasons.
Funes said Friday that 10 days of heavy rains have destroyed crops and towns in El Salvador while killing 32 people. The storms have killed 105 across Central America.
The U.S. granted El Salvador temporary protected status in 2001 after earthquakes devastated the nation. It has been extended since.
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Sunday 23 October 2011
Nevada moves caucus to Feb. 4 after backlash (AP)
LAS VEGAS ? Nevada Republicans voted Saturday to shift the date of the state's presidential caucuses to Feb. 4 and avoid penalties from the national party for meddling with the election calendar.
It was only about two weeks ago when state party leaders set Jan. 14 for the nominating contest. They said moving the date from Feb. 18 would still give the state a big early role in determining the nominee.
But the change jumbled the election calendar and led New Hampshire to threaten to move its contest to the December holiday season. Some candidates raised the possibility they would stay away from Nevada unless the date was moved.
Nevada's January date also risked violating national party rules on nominating contests and the state could have lost delegates to the convention next year.
More than 200 members of the state party convened in Las Vegas overwhelmingly agreed to return the caucuses to February.
Former Gov. Bob List, a national Republican committeeman, urged Nevada Republicans to play peacemaker and agree to the date change.
"The candidates are anxious to come here and campaign and don't want to have the heat put on them by New Hampshire to stay away," List said. "We have to eat a little crow perhaps in some people's minds, but I think in the end it's a win-win."
Added Amy Tarkanian, Nevada's GOP chairwoman: "We just basically want to be the adults in the room here. This is not a matter of New Hampshire being a bully or telling us what to do. It's a matter of Nevada doing what needs to be done for Nevada."
The Republican National Committee had promised Nevada delegates they could sit on the floor "in the best positions," and would have prime hotel space if they made the change, Tarkanian said.
"This will be well worth it," she said. "We will be the good guys in the end because we don't need to be New Hampshire's pinata."
New Hampshire's secretary of state, Bill Gardner, had threatened to hold his state's primary in early December to avoid wedging it between the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the Jan. 14 vote in Nevada.
Several Republican presidential candidates, including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and businessman Herman Cain, pledged their support to New Hampshire and said they would boycott Nevada's contest if it wasn't pushed back. That led the Republican National Committee to suggest that Nevada move to Feb. 4.
List said the only benefit of keeping the Jan. 14 date was to send a message to New Hampshire, "that you are not going to tell us what we are going to do."
Nevada, Iowa and South Carolina moved their contests into January after Florida said it would violate national party rules and hold its primary on Jan. 31.
But only Nevada was subject to boycott threats that Nevada Republicans initially laughed it off. They reconsidered a new date after the national chairman, Reince Priebus, began calling for a compromise.
"The voters and our candidates are well served by a nomination process that starts in 2012 and today's action is a major step toward that goal," said the GOP chairman in Iowa, Matt Strawn.
Priebus said Nevada will maintain its status as the first state in the West to vote in the presidential race.
"Nevadans should be proud of their Republican leaders," he said in a statement. "They have restored their state's key role in the nomination process and in the 2012 presidential election.
Also Saturday, Nevada Democrats said they would hold their caucuses on Jan. 21 and South Carolina Democrats set their contest for Jan. 28. President Barack Obama is expected to win those noncompetitive contests.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who helped obtain the state's third-in-the nation status in 2008, decried the GOP's move.
"I'm deeply disappointed that the Nevada Republican Party has caved to the will of the Republican National Committee and New Hampshire," he said in a statement.
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Saturday 22 October 2011
Expert: Jackson didn't give himself propofol (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? Michael Jackson was so heavily drugged in the hours before his death that he would have been incapable of self-administering the massive dose of propofol that killed him, a medical expert testified Thursday at the trial of Jackson's doctor.
Dr. Steven Shafer, who presented a number of possible scenarios for Jackson's overdose, said one posed by Dr. Conrad Murray's defense ? that the star gave himself the powerful anesthetic ? is "crazy."
"He can't give himself an injection if he's asleep," Shafer told jurors.
The more likely scenario was that Murray placed Jackson on an IV propofol drip on the morning of his death then left later to make a series of phone calls as the singer slept, Shafer said.
Jackson probably stopped breathing before Murray returned, and the singer's lungs emptied while the propofol kept flowing into his body, the witness said.
"This fits all of the data in this case and I am not aware of a single piece of data that is inconsistent with this explanation," Shafer said.
Earlier, Shafer took the jury through a virtual chemistry class with diagrams and formulas projected on a large screen. He indicated the residue of drugs found during Jackson's autopsy suggested Murray gave his patient much larger doses of sedatives than he told police.
He also said Jackson would have been extremely groggy from the drugs administered by IV throughout the night.
Murray told police he was away from Jackson for just two minutes ? a period during which the defense says the singer could have grabbed a syringe and given himself additional propofol.
"People don't just wake up from anesthesia hell bent to pick up a syringe and pump it into the IV," Shafer said, reminding the jury that the procedure was complicated. "It's a crazy scenario."
He also said it was unlikely that Jackson injected himself with a needle because the pop star's veins were too deteriorated and the procedure would have been extremely painful.
Witnesses have said Jackson knew the drug had to be diluted with lidocaine in an IV to prevent burning when it entered the veins.
Shafer, a leading expert on anesthesiology who teaches at Columbia University Medical School, also rejected the claim that Jackson may have swallowed eight pills of the sedative lorazepam, also known as Ativan, causing his death.
Shafer said the amount of lorazepam found in Jackson's stomach was "trivial" and not linked to oral ingestion. He suggested Murray gave Jackson much more lorazepam by IV infusion than the four milligrams he said he did.
After receiving lorazepam, another sedative known as midazolam (Versed) and propofol, Jackson would have been too groggy to handle the infusion of more anesthetic through an IV pump, Shafer said.
His opinions set up an expected clash with the views of his colleague, Dr. Paul White, who was waiting to testify for the defense. The men have been friends and associates for 30 years.
White, who sat in the courtroom taking notes, has suggested to the defense in a written report that Jackson might have swallowed a vial of propofol, accounting for the high level of the drug in his autopsy.
But the defense announced last week it had abandoned the theory in May after running its own tests that disproved the theory.
Coroner's officials determined Jackson died on June 25, 2009, from acute propofol intoxication, and Murray has acknowledged giving the singer the drug as a sleep aid. The officials cited other sedatives as a contributing factor.
Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Shafer testified Wednesday that Murray was directly responsible for Jackson's death, citing what he said were 17 "egregious violations" of the standard of care provided by physicians.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
___
McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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Murdoch facing the wrath of shareholders
Nick Ut / AP
British lawmaker Tom Watson, who has led efforts to investigate the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp's British newspaper division, talks to reporters during a protest in front of Fox Studios in Los Angeles Friday. A few dozen people showed up to demonstrate outside Fox Studios where News Corp. is holding its annual shareholders meeting.
By msnbc.com news services
A growing number of News Corp shareholders with voting rights are considering sending a strong message of discontent to Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch by voting against several long-standing board members including his sons James and Lachlan.
In the run up to Friday's annual general meeting, holders of News Corp B stock, including normally compliant supporters of Murdoch and his family, are closely examining recommendations by proxy advisory groups ISS and Glass Lewis to vote out as many as 13 of the media conglomerate's current 15 directors.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time we vote with Glass Lewis on these kind of matters," said Donald Yacktman, president and co-chief investment officer of Yacktman Asset Management Co in Austin, Texas.
Dozens of people were already demonstrating outside Fox Studios in Los Angeles where News Corp?s meeting was getting underway Friday lunchtime. Some demonstrators carried anti-Murdoch signs, including one that stated ?Fire the Murdoch Mafia.?
Glass Lewis specifically recommended their fund clients withhold their votes for six directors including James and Lachlan Murdoch along with other News Corp insiders David Devoe, chief financial officer, and Arthur Siskind, a senior adviser to Murdoch.
While most major shareholders declined to comment publicly on their specific voting strategy, several said privately that the proxy advisory groups' comments would be an important factor in their decision. It follows the high profile and damaging fallout from the phone hacking scandal at News Corp's now defunct British paper News of the World.
The scandal has rocked the parent of Fox TV, the Wall Street Journal and the Sun in Britain, and raised serious questions about the leadership of News Corp's 80-year-old founder Rupert Murdoch. It has also undermined an unspoken succession plan once thought to involve one of his children.
News International, the U.K. newspaper publishing division of News Corp, said Friday it will pay 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) to the family of a murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler whose phone was hacked by the News of the World. The company also said it will donate 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) to charities chosen by the Dowler family.
Stage-managed meeting
After the furor of the last few months, this year's shareholder meeting is being more carefully stage-managed than in recent years, with only a strict and limited number of shareholders able to attend the meeting at the Zanuck Theater on the Fox Studios lot in Hollywood by using News Corp-provided transportation.
Simon Burge, Chief Investment Officer at Above the Index Asset Management, a top 20 investor in News Corp's Australian shares, said the fund would vote against James and Lachlan Murdoch, but declined to comment on whether it was voting against Rupert.
"We should vote as we see fit, but we need to acknowledge that all the resolutions are highly likely to pass, given that the family controls approximately 40 percent of the voting stock," Burge said.
But he added it would be silly to vote against 13 out of 15 directors as suggested by ISS. "If you vote against them all, you wouldn't have a board. Then you'd really have a governance problem," Burge said.
Ausbil Dexia, the biggest holder of News Corp's Australian stock, declined to comment on how it would vote.
"We do note there are some concerns there. We analyze what they have to say. We don't always agree with what they have to say," said Ausbil Dexia managing director Paul Xiradis, adding that the fund took its concerns directly to the company.
News Corp declined to comment.
The phone hacking scandal saw the company lose out on its biggest ever deal to buy the 61 percent of satellite broadcaster BSkyB it does not already own, and the arrest of nearly 20 former staffers and executives in Britain has given even strong Murdoch supporters pause for thought.
"This is one of those meetings that galvanizes shareholders to have a closer look," said a senior person at one proxy advisory group not permitted to talk about a specific case.
Shareholders against Murdoch
Major pension fund holders and advisory services including CalPERS and CalSTRS in the United States, Hermes Equity Ownership in Britain and Australian Council of Superannuation Investors in Australia have come out against the Murdoch-controlled board with similar criticism of poor corporate governance and the need for a board shake-up.
Yet even though the rumbling of dissent is growing it is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the board's membership. Murdoch and his family control 40 percent of the voting stock with the next largest B shareholder being Saudi Prince Al Waleed with 7 percent. The prince has publicly thrown his support behind Murdoch making it even more unlikely that Murdoch or his family could be shifted.
But proxy watchers and shareholders said they'd be paying attention to the percentage of the vote of non-Murdoch affiliated B shareholders. If support for key board members drops significantly below the usual 90 to 99 percent range it could be a damaging signal for Murdoch.
"No one realistically expects any director to be voted off the board at the AGM," said a person at a British proxy advisory firm. "What will be closely watched is whether a majority of the non-Murdoch vote is cast against key board directors. If that happens it will be an indication of major shareholder unease."
News Corp and Murdoch are sensitive to suggestions of poor corporate governance and overpaying management. The company hit back against criticism saying it "vehemently disagrees" with ISS proposals. But the company acknowledged the phone hacking scandal could affect the wider business' operations.
In a letter to shareholders last week, News Corp pointed to its strong performance despite the difficult global economy. Revenue rose 2 percent to $33.4 billion in the year ended on June 30, while operating profit increased 23 percent to $4.85 billion.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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