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By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 58 minutes ago
 MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin was named prime minister of Russia Thursday after a fervent speech full of ambitious plans that overshadowed his low-key successor and suggested that he will keep a strong hand in ruling the country.

Putin promised to build on Russia’s economic recovery and work to satisfy its people’s dreams of comfort and prosperity.

Loyal lawmakers in the State Duma confirmed Putin in a 392-56 vote after a confirmation hearing whose outcome was never in doubt. The new president, Dmitry Medvedev, portrayed his mentor’s eight-year presidency as a time of transformation. One legislator told the nationwide TV audience Putin had “raised Russia from its knees.”

Putin’s unprecedented move from the Kremlin to the No. 2 post will keep him politically prominent for the foreseeable future and could serve as a springboard back to the presidency. It has Russians wondering who will really hold the country’s reins.

In his own, far longer speech to lawmakers, Putin said that the “consolidation of political forces and solidarity of society” was imperative for Russia’s progress.

Focusing on the economy in the same commanding detail with which he prided himself as president, Putin set lofty goals, saying Russia must be among the top nations in terms of living standards within 10 or 15 years — a tantalizing prospect for Russians who have struggled for decades to get by.

He said inflation must be kept in the single digits — though last year it was over 10 percent.

He said Russia’s economy could surpass Britain’s this year and become the world’s sixth-largest.

Putin also acknowledged problems that have persisted amid the oil-fueled economic recovery that coincided with his presidency. He said Russia must lessen its reliance on its energy resources but also ease taxes to boost sluggish oil production, and warned of the toll taken by the nation’s drinking and smoking habits.

Putin took mostly light questions before the vote, with the only complaints coming from Communists who voiced concerns over high inflation and rampant corruption. One lawmaker set up Putin to accuse the West of hampering Russian investors’ access to markets.

The switch caps months of political maneuvering by the popular Putin to maintain influence after stepping down. Barred by term limits from running in the March presidential vote, he anointed Medvedev as his favored successor in December and pledged to serve as his prime minister.

Medvedev formally nominated Putin in one of his first acts as president Wednesday. Putin’s United Russia party holds 315 of the 450 seats in the Duma and two of the other three parties also support him.

Medvedev said lawmakers’ applause “means that Vladimir Vladimirovich needs no special recommendation” and credited Putin with recharging Russia’s economy and raising its global stature.

“Russia is respected once again,” Medvedev said.

Russia’s president is the undisputed head of state and sets policy on all fronts, while the prime minister heads the Cabinet and is responsible for running the economy. But Putin is expected to have strong influence on Medvedev, who at 42 is 13 years younger and owes his political ascent to his mentor.

Putin’s prime ministers, particularly during his second term, served largely as enforcers and fall guys, sometimes shouldering blame for problems and sometimes passing it down the line to Cabinet ministers. Putin, meanwhile, remained above the fray and any hint of criticism on state-run television was taboo.

Putin is expected to play a far stronger role as prime minister. He will also control the Duma and wield power nationwide as chairman of United Russia, a position he assumed last month after leading the party to a sweeping victory in December parliamentary elections.

Putin and Medvedev have stressed they will work together to help Russia modernize its economy, boost social welfare and tackle the severe infrastructure problems that are depleting its population and jeopardizing its future.

“I think nobody doubts that our tandem, our cooperation will only strengthen,” Medvedev told lawmakers.

He vowed to tread Putin’s path, saying their teamwork would “provide the necessary continuity and development of the course that has been supported by the Russian people.”

Critics say the show of solidarity by mentor and protege masks fears that Putin has navigated Russia into a dangerous period of political uncertainty, with two centers of power taking shape in a potentially debilitating and divisive arrangement.

Under the constitution, the prime minister temporarily replaces a president who dies or is incapacitated.

Putin, 55, a longtime KGB officer, served as prime minister for five months in 1999 under Boris Yeltsin, who stepped down on Dec. 31 of that year and handed him the presidency. Putin was elected to his first term three months later.

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Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Maria Danilova contributed to this report.

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Henry Ford would be proud of Ford Europe’s latest special edition. Offered only in black

– inside and out – the “Black Magic” edition is based on the new Focus Coupe-Cabriolet launched in this year Geneva. The package includes black powder-coated 17-inch alloys mounted to a sport suspension, plus tinted headlights and fog lamps. The interior is swathed in (you guessed it) black leather, complimented by special floor mats and bundled with an MP3- and Bluetooth-compatible stereo, parking sensors and wind deflector. Only 1500 copies of the Black Magic edition will be made available in Europe with a choice of 2-liter engines running on gasoline (145hp) or diesel (136hp) for Є28,100 or Є30,100 respectively. Check out the images in the gallery below for a closer look.source:autoblog

You may still not be able to get an iPhone in Canada (at least officially), but you can now at least grab a spiffy new 16GB Samsung YP-P2, which is a whole 8GB bigger than the model currently available in the US. From the looks of it, Best Buy Canada is the among the first to offer the beefed-up, Bluetooth-packin’ PMP, with it currently demanding $330 Canadian (a $40 discount off the $370 list price) on the retailer’s website. Apart from the bump in storage, however, there doesn’t look to be any other changes to the player, with it boasting the same 3-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth 2.0 support, and H.264, OGG, and WMV playback as before. Of course, it’s not very likely this’ll be a Canadian exclusive for long, though we’ve still yet to hear anything official on that from Samsung.
source:engadget

When did the practice of lawmaking require an accompanying press release issued by a professional PR firm? An embedded photo of the sponsoring state official, too? Shameless. Nevertheless, it did bring our attention to a new law in the state of Washington which prohibits “malicious” RFID spying. When the new law (said to be a first of its kind in the US) goes into effect in July, anyone caught scanning a person remotely “without his or her knowledge and consent, for the purpose of fraud, identity theft, or some other illegal purpose” will be charged with a Class C felony. Great, so that covers the obvious criminal abuse of the technology. However, the original bill also included an opt-in measure that would require your approval before retailers and others could track your activity via that handy, store-issued discount card you carry, the implant you received during that stint in the joint, new credit card, or personal ID card you’re required to carry. Unfortunately, the opt-in requirement was stricken from the bill (and therefore not in the final law) after succumbing to heavy corporate lobbying. You thinking what we’re thinking? Contact information posted in the read link below.
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source:engadget

Reincomm just announced the new iriver NV Life. New in that they’ve done away with the big, navigation pad of the original NV in favor of a more sleek, easily portable SatNav device with PMP functionality. Still, it’s a near spec-for-spec clone to the bigger, bulkier NV. Available in either 2GB ₩328,000 (about $367) or 4GB ₩358,000 (about $400) 4GB capacities, the SiRF Star III GPS device dedicates an SD slot to maps and second to augment the onboard flash. Inside, the WinCE 5.0-based device packs an FM-transmitter, DMB TV (with GPS PiP support), and a wide selection of codecs synonymous with the iriver name. The only downside is the display: 800 x 480 pixels spread across 7-inches of glass. On par with the industry but pretty poor when compared to cellphones which offer the same resolution on 2.8-inch displays.

source:engadget

The inexact science of putting together the NCAA tournament bracket turned out to be pretty exact this time around.

No big beefs with the top seeds—North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA.

No snubbed bubble teams with shout-it-to-the-mountaintop complaints—even if Arizona State and Virginia Tech do have somewhat compelling arguments.

And no defending champion, either. But not even that was a surprise.

Florida, completely rebuilt after winning two titles in a row, was written off well before Selection Sunday after losing its last four games, including the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

So, let March Madness begin, and call the Tar Heels (32-2) favorites if you must. Led by Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina earned the overall top seed in the tournament and won’t have to leave its home state on the road to the Final Four in San Antonio. Carolina’s first two games are scheduled for Raleigh, its next two would be in Charlotte.

“It’s an advantage if you play well,” said Carolina coach Roy Williams, trying to lead the Tar Heels to their second title in four years. “Just because the crowd’s cheering for you, I’ve never had a crowd win a game. I know it sounds wacko.”

Only four teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference made it, something of a surprise considering it was the top-ranked conference in the all-important RPI.

But what does the RPI really mean these days?

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg is certainly no fan. His ACC team got snubbed despite being ranked No. 53 on the list.

“We need to get rid of the RPI totally from people’s train of thought,” he said. “Because one second, the head of the committee says the RPI is inconsequential, and the next second, he says they can use the RPI to eliminate a team.”

That might have been the case with Arizona State, which was 83 on that list despite quality victories over third-seeded Stanford and Xavier and two over rival Arizona, which made it off the bubble for its 24th straight NCAA appearance.

But Sun Devils coach Herb Sendek refused to let the snub get the best of him.

“By playing the role of the victim, you let a great opportunity slide by to learn from the experience,” Sendek said.

Arizona State’s spot might have been taken by Georgia, which won four games at the SEC tournament—including two in one day after a tornado ripped past the Georgia Dome—to complete an inspiring run into the tournament with a 17-16 record.

“We found out we had more than we thought we did,” said coach Dennis Felton, who likely saved his job with this remarkable string. “We kind of persevered.”

Georgia, a 14th seed, opens against third-seeded Xavier in the West region.

The final bubble spots went to Villanova, a 12th seed in the Midwest, and St. Joseph’s, an 11th seed in the East that beat Xavier twice.

Baylor got in as an 11th seed in the West, an impressive rebound for a program that nearly disintegrated after the murder of Patrick Dennehy by a teammate in 2003.

Kentucky made it as a No. 11 seed in the South despite growing pains under Billy Gillespie, who’s in his first year at the school.

Kansas State was an 11th-seeded bubble team, and how could the committee resist bringing freshman-of-the-year candidate Michael Beasley into the tournament—then pairing him against another sensational freshman, O.J. Mayo of Southern California? They’ll play Thursday in a first-round Midwest region game.

The top-seeded teams offered no surprises or outrage, the way, say, Washington did three years ago when the Huskies were No. 1 in the West.

UCLA has been a top team all season and won the Pac-10 tournament to get the nod in the West. Kansas beat Texas in the Big 12 final Sunday, in a game almost everyone agreed would be for top seeding in the Midwest. Memphis is from the less-prestigious Conference USA and lost to Tennessee in the regular season, but the Tigers (33-1) won their conference and the Vols (29-4) helped smooth things out by losing in the SEC semifinals.

Maybe Memphis could quibble with a possible game against second-seeded Texas in the South regional final—in Houston. But the Tigers weren’t backing down from Final Four expectations after losing in the regional finals the last two years.

“We created those expectations before the year even started, and that’s what we’re living up to,” guard Chris Douglas-Roberts said. “We’re not taking that back at all. That’s what we want.”

The tournament begins Tuesday when Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Coppin State, the first team to make the tournament with 20 losses, plays Mount St. Mary’s in an opening-round game. The winner gets North Carolina.

With eight teams, the Big East placed the most schools in the tournament. The Pac-10, Big 12 and SEC followed with six each, while the ACC and Big Ten had four apiece.

Selection committee chairman Tom O’Connor called the RPI “a control point” when it comes to picking teams.

“It’s a data point and it’s a starting point, but it’s not an end-all,” he said. “We don’t look at conferences at all.”

Yet later, he cited Arizona State’s bad numbers in the same RPI as a reason for snubbing the Sun Devils, saying they would have been the worst RPI rating of any team to ever make the field.

“While Arizona State is very good, the committee didn’t feel it was one of the best 34 at-large teams in the country,” O’Connor said. “Also, they were 2-4 against the top teams in their conference.”

For the second straight year, only six of those 34 at-large bids went to teams from smaller conferences. That included St. Joe’s, which earned one of the final spots in the bracket, but didn’t include Illinois State. But how to argue against snubbing a team that lost by 30 points its last time out, in the finals of the Missouri Valley Conference against Drake?

Meanwhile, mid-major George Mason, the team that showed what March Madness is really all about with its incredible run to the Final Four two years ago, is back as a 12th seed after winning the Colonial Athletic Association crown.

Last year’s national runner-up, Ohio State, was also left on the bubble, meaning both of the previous season’s finalists will miss the tournament for the first time since the bracket was expanded in 1985.

O’Connor said the selection committee had eight contingency plans based on the possibilities from Sunday’s five conference title games, but the committee had done lots of advance work to make the last-second decisions less difficult.

“We said from the beginning, when you look at what happens in the NCAA tournament, all the publicity, all the hype, the economics … the real thing is playing the games with the kids on the court,” he said.

No argument there. And not much with the bracket his committee produced, either.