[TechCrunch] The Not-So-Crazy Rumors About Microsoft Taking Over Nokia?s Smartphone Division Resurface

Mobile industry watcher Eldar Murtazin took to Twitter today, claiming that Microsoft and Nokia executives will be meeting each other shortly to discuss the possibility and terms of a deal involving the sale of the Finnish phone maker's smartphone division (including "one or two" manufacturing plants).

Such an agreement between the two tech giants, which Murtazin says could be finalized in the second half of 2012, would leave Nokia with nothing but its 'dumbphone' or feature phone business, mapping services subsidiary Navteq and Nokia Siemens Networks, the flailing networking and telecom equipment company (a joint-venture with Siemens).

Murtazin also asserts that current Nokia head honcho Stephen Elop will resign from his chief executive role in the course of this year (possibly to return to Microsoft, where he used to run the Business Division?). Furthermore, Windows smartphones would no longer be branded 'Nokia'.

Source: http://nl.hardware.info/extern/22092740/the-not-so-crazy-rumors-about-microsoft-taking-over-nokias-smartphone-division-resurface

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Simpson Miller sworn in 2nd time as Jamaica PM (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica ? Portia Simpson Miller was sworn in for the second time as Jamaica's prime minister Thursday, pledging to ease its deep poverty, boost the sputtering economy, heal political divisions and sever colonial-era links with Britain.

Simpson Miller, whose 1 1/2-year-long first stint in office ended in 2007, took the oath of office before roughly 10,000 guests on the grounds of the rambling, colonial-style mansion that is the official residence of the governor-general.

The 66-year-old politician scored a dramatic victory in last week's national elections, leading her slightly left-leaning People's National Party to a 2-to-1 margin in Parliament over the center-right Jamaica Labor Party. Her opposition faction won a dominating 42 seats in the 63-seat legislature, leaving the incumbent party with 21.

The plainspoken, charismatic Simpson Miller, this Caribbean island's first female prime minister, takes over from Andrew Holness, a 39-year-old Labor lawmaker who was leader for just over two months.

"After being tested and tempered, I stand before you today a stronger and better person prepared to be of service to my country and people," Simpson Miller said at the start of a spirited 45-minute speech.

She said her government intends to abandon the British monarch as Jamaica's official head of state, and instead adopt a republican form of government. Jamaica declared independence from Britain in 1962 but remains within the Commonwealth and has Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

"I love the queen; she is a beautiful lady," Simpson Miller quipped, before speaking to the audience in Jamaican patois: "But I think time come."

Simpson Miller also said she will replace the Privy Council in London with the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice as Jamaica's highest court of appeal. She said this will "end judicial surveillance from London."

She vowed her government will "ease the burdens and the pressues of increasing poverty, joblessness and deteriorating standards of living" while also pursuing a tight fiscal policy and forging strong partnerships with the private sector and international partners such as the International Monetary Fund.

"My administration will work tirelessly that while we try to balance the books we balance people's lives as well," Simpson Miller said.

Jamaica is a cash-strapped island with a punishing debt of roughly $18.6 billion, or 130 percent of gross domestic product.

In the short- and medium-term, the prime minister said her administration will use "state resources" to stimulate jobs through the Jamaica Emergency Employment Program, a centerpiece of her party's campaign manifesto.

Her People's National Party said it will try to renegotiate roughly 25 percent of a troubled $400 million road program financed by China in order to transfer some of the money to the emergency employment program as a way to kickstart the economy.

The prime minister also urged Jamaicans to create a more civil and respectful society and earnestly strive to make the best of themselves.

"We will seek to make this country one of brothers and sisters, not of rivals and victims," she said.

After her speech, Simpson Miller elicited laughter from the audience by dragging a slightly embarrassed-looking Holness, now the leader of the opposition, to the podium and saying she was his "second mother."

___

David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadden

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120106/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_jamaica_prime_minister

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LA arson suspect also faces German fire probe (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Harry Burkhart's problems didn't start when he allegedly ignited more than 50 fires that terrorized Los Angeles last week. He's under investigation in Germany for a house fire near Frankfurt, and investigators searching his Hollywood apartment turned up news articles about the Los Angeles fires and a series of car blazes in Germany last year.

The disclosures Wednesday came on a day when Burkhart made an awkward first court appearance in Los Angeles, where he appeared dazed with his long hair matted on the front of his face, and alternated between sitting and standing.

The ponytailed Burkhart was arrested Monday near the Sunset Strip in a van with Canadian license plates loaded with fire-starting materials, and he has stonewalled investigators while being placed on a suicide watch. His mother, Dorothee Burkhart, appeared disoriented in federal court Tuesday after being arrested on a fraud warrant from Germany, where she referred to Nazis and questioned if her son had died.

Their family history remains murky, but documents reveal both mother and son struggled with mental illness. They had a vagabond lifestyle, with addresses at various times in Germany, the U.S. and Canada, and the son holds a German passport but authorities say he was born in Chechnya.

Medical records dated March 2010 and submitted in a lengthy dispute over commercial space the mother rented in Vancouver say she suffered from depression, anxiety, severe post traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks. A separate note, also dated March 2010, says Harry Burkhart suffered from autistic spectrum disorder since his childhood, and he has severe anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, depression and "is not stable mentally because of increase stress due to fear."

His mother said in court Tuesday that he is mentally ill.

Harry Burkhart was charged Wednesday with 37 counts of arson as part of a rash of fires that caused more than $3 million in damage, while his mother was being held without bail after being detained on 19 counts of fraud from Germany, including failing to pay for a 2004 breast-augmentation surgery and pilfering security deposits from renters and landlords.

In requesting Harry Burkhart be held on no bail, investigators said in court documents that a search of Burkhart's Hollywood apartment turned up news articles about the Los Angeles fires as well as a series of car fires in Frankfurt last September. Authorities couldn't comment on whether Burkhart is a suspect in the German fires. His bail was set at $2.85 million.

The fire at the German house that belonged to the Burkhart family has been ruled an arson, Marburg prosecutors' spokeswoman Annemarie Wied told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Burkhart did not live in the area, but his name surfaced as a suspect after he filed an insurance claim shortly after the fire, Wied said.

"When one files an insurance claim on a house the same day it burns down, it raises eyebrows," she said.

Burkhart, whom Wied identified only as "Harry B." in keeping with German privacy laws, has not yet been questioned in the case and no arrest warrant has been issued for him. She said she did not know how long ago he had been identified as a suspect in the arson investigation.

Burkhart was in Los Angeles by Oct. 26 ? 12 days after the Marburg area fire ? according to U.S. court papers, which say that he went with his mother on that day to the German consulate to renew his passport.

Neighbors say they kept mostly to themselves in a second-floor apartment across from a supermarket in Hollywood, where doors in the apartments are shielded by steel gates.

Their lives in the U.S. began unspooling last week.

Harry Burkhart watched as his mother was arrested on fraud charges from Germany, and a day later he exploded in a profanity-laced rant against the U.S. at her court hearing, saying "F--- the United States!" or "F--- all Americans," authorities said.

The next day, police say, he began setting car fires at night, many in the Hollywood area near his apartment. Authorities believe he began the rampage after being outraged by his mother's legal troubles.

Court documents give "a sense that this particular individual was set off by the incarceration of his mother, with whom he appears to be quite close, and he had latent anti-American views. That combination apparently set him off on this binge," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.

Harry Burkhart was taken into custody after authorities received a tip from federal officials who recognized him in a security video that showed a ponytailed man emerging from a garage where a car was set ablaze.

Burkhart's nonimmigrant visa is set to expire Jan. 18, authorities said. His mother last entered the country lawfully in January 2007 and she left four months later, officials said.

A website offering appointment-only sensual massage is registered to Dorothee Burkhart, though her name is not mentioned on the site.

Frankfurt court spokesman Guenther Meilinger told the AP that Dorothee Burkhart will go on trial for the fraud charges once she is extradited back to Germany.

"We expect and hope that the U.S. authorities will look into the request for extradition ... so that the proceedings against her can continue," he said.

The extradition request has yet to be drawn up and sent to the German Justice Ministry for relay to U.S. authorities, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt prosecutors.

Asked about the discovery of news articles in Harry Burkhart's Los Angeles apartment about a series of car fires in Frankfurt last September, Moeller-Scheu said that there was no active investigation of him in Frankfurt.

Dorothee Burkhart faces only the fraud charges, but that it was not unusual for an international arrest warrant to be issued in such a case, Meilinger said.

She was originally scheduled to go on trial in September 2007, but she fled before the proceedings opened, prompting the international arrest warrant, Meilinger said.

___

Associated Press writers Dorothee Thiesing in Frankfurt and Bradley Klapper and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report. Rising reported from Berlin.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_re_us/us_los_angeles_arson

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Kemba Walker Adjusting To NBA

Kemba Walker was lost. No, not in the NBA, not among the biggest and best.

Kemba was lost in the building he likes to call home.

"It's completely different," Walker said inside renovated Madison Square Garden before his Charlotte Bobcats beat an uninspired Knicks team 118-100 on Wednesday night. "When I was walking back here [near the locker rooms], I had no idea where I was going."
"It looks nice though. I'm home!"

The court, of course, looks the same just about everywhere and Walker always has seemed to know where he was going. After all, the kid from South Bronx did lead UConn to an improbable national title last April. He did have the greatest single season in school history.

And now he starts over with a team that he doesn't start with yet. He starts over with a Charlotte team that lost four of its first five games. This after Walker lost only nine games all last season, including none during a magical 28-day run when the Huskies ran off 11 in a row for the Big East and NCAA titles.

"Kemba knows how to win," Charlotte coach Paul Silas said. "He knows what to do. It's just learning our system now and learning our league. His outside shooting has to be consistent, because penetration to the hoop at his size [6-1] right now, it's tough for him."

"He won our opener for us. Since that time it hasn't been the same, but he'll get there."

Averaging 9.2 points and 3.3 assists, Walker has played as much as 24:20 and as little as 12:41 in games. On this night it would be 15:36, finishing with seven points on three-for-eight shooting and a career-high five assists.

An early assessment of Walker's play this season? Uneven. Against the Knicks, he missed his first five shots, looked a little nervous, before hitting a short jumper with 10 minutes left and quickly found his touch. He drained a three-pointer over Toney Douglas. He followed with a sweet tear-drop runner to put Charlotte up by 16. Knicks fans booed their team's defensive effort plenty on this night. And they were only a little nicer to Kemba.

"It was fun," Walker said. "It was exciting. I've played at MSG at basically every level of my career, starting from high school. But I felt like it's the first time I've ever played here."

"I'm used to hearing my name called at the Garden. Tonight, they were against me and I don't blame them. They're diehards. I didn't make as many shots as I'd like, but I thought I played really well and had a big impact on the game."

D.J. Augustin, who's leading Charlotte in scoring, is the starting point guard. He's 24. Walker, 21, has come off the bench every game.

"D.J. has been around for a while and knows the game," Walker said. "He's a guy I can learn from."

"The nice part is Kemba doesn't have to start and play all the time," Silas said. "I feel around midseason he is going to be terrific."

Walker's consistency as a perimeter shooter remains an area in which he needs to improve. Some nights with UConn, he simply willed his way to victories if the jumper wasn't falling. It doesn't work that way in the NBA.

He had 13 points and hit two key free throws to beat Milwaukee in his NBA debut. Since then he has been up and down. He hit 6 of 9 and 6 of 13 [a career-best 17 points] in games against Miami. He also shot 1 of 9 against Orlando and 1 of 6 at Cleveland.

"He is going to have to continue to improve on that," Silas said. "It's there, he has everything there is to be a heck of a player in the NBA. The maturity just isn't there yet, but he's learning."

UConn's five wins in five March days has become the stuff of college basketball legend, of course. The victory over Louisville to win the Big East title that Saturday night in March was not the last time he was at MSG. You may recall him sitting next to Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the Celtics-Knicks playoff game.

Source: http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men/hc-jacobs-kemba-walker-0105-20120105,0,595461.column?track=rss

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LevOnUSC: #USC hoops coach Kevin O'Neill isn't counting on PG Jio Fontan (knee) returning this season but expects him to be starting PG in '12-13.

Loader hoops coach Kevin O'Neill isn't counting on PG Jio Fontan (knee) returning this season but expects him to be starting PG in '12-13.

Source:

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Google tablet to take on Kindle Fire not iPad?

Google's mysterious future tablet may be a low-cost 7-inch affair intended to take on the Amazon Kindle Fire, rather than a high-end device in the iPad's ilk.

That's if you believe the often-inaccurate but occasionally spot-on Digitimes and its supply chain sources which claim that Google's own-brand tablet will launch in March or April rocking a 7-inch display, Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) and a very attractive price tag somewhere under the $199 mark.

That would put the slate at around ?128 if Google manages to bring it to the UK, which Amazon has thus far failed to do. So add on some tax and a few extra quid just because we're British and we're probably looking at somewhere between ?150 and ?199.

Tablet times

No one, but no one, was surprised when Eric Schmidt revealed that Google will release a tablet in the next six months, but like fools we all assumed the internet giant would be chasing Apple's iPad-shaped tail.

After all, the Google Nexus brand has always targeted the top end of the smartphone world; but it looks as though the company's tablet strategy might be quite different.

Google may partner with a third party to manufacture the tablets and we'd say Samsung's a front-runner given its successful Galaxy Tab range and the fact that Google favours the Korean company for its Nexus smartphones.

OLED-display also reckons Samsung's a shoo-in, positing that the company will provide Google with a 7-inch panel at WSVGA resolution (600 x 1024 pixels).

A tablet is definitely on the way from Google, and given its focus on Google Music, Google Books and film streaming on YouTube, a Kindle Fire style strategy isn't out of the realms of possibility.

Rumourmeter

From Digitimes

If you're after a tablet in the meantime, you could do worse than check out our buyer's guide below:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/mobile-computing-news/~3/sTA94-dOYj4/story01.htm

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31 inmates killed in northern Mexico prison fight (AP)

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico ? A fight among inmates armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones left 31 people dead in a prison in a drug-plagued state in northern Mexico, authorities said.

Another 13 prisoners were wounded in the brawl in the penitentiary in the Gulf Coast city of Altamira, Tamaulipas state's Public Safety Department said in a statement.

The fight started when a group of inmates burst into a section of the prison they were banned from and attacked the prisoners housed there, the department said.

Local media said the fight was between members of the rival Gulf and Zetas drug cartels but authorities wouldn't confirm the reports. Tamaulipas state has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the two former allies.

Tamaulipas state officials said many of the dead were killed by makeshift knives. A state official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said several of the inmates were beaten to death with clubs or stones.

Soldier and marines managed to take control of the prison, the official said.

The safety department said 22 of the inmates killed were serving sentences for state crimes and nine for federal offenses. It gave no other details.

The port of Altamira in southern Tamaulipas, near the border with the state of Veracruz, is in a region that has seen a spike in drug-violence in the last two months. Authorities say the port is used to bring in cocaine and precursor chemicals used to make methamphetamine into Mexico.

In 2010, four inmates at the Altamira prison were killed when an armed gang stormed the penitentiary as 11 inmates were being transferred. Authorities did not confirm reports that the raid was an attempt to free prisoners. Gang raids on prisons are common in Tamaulipas.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120105/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_prison_violence

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Ducati to launch Monster 795 superbike in India tomorrow

Home ? Bikes News, General ? Ducati to launch Monster 795 superbike in India tomorrow

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Ducati Monster 795 will be launched in India on January 6th 2012. Ducati Monster 795 will be brought in to take the place of Monster 796. Monster 795 has already been launched in both Thailand and Malaysia. Ducati Monster 795 is the first made for Asia version of Monster.

The bike will be powered by an 803cc petrol engine generating max power of 90 PS and max torque of 78 Nm. Monster 795 will weigh 165 kgs making it quite efficient to be maneuvered in Indian traffic conditions. Having a shorter seat height would entice female riders as well.

Prices of Ducati Monster 795 are expected in the range of Rs.7 lakhs and the company has announced that bookings would begin immediately after the bike is launched on January 6th 2012. Monster 795 is built in Thailand and is designed and engineered in Italy with engines being brought in from Borgo Pingale factory, Bologna. Assembly will be done by Ducati trained technicians and will be of legendary Ducati class and standards.

Ducati Monster 795 will have an 803cc Desmodue L twin air cooled and dual spark engine that generates 87 bhp at 8250 rmp and 8 kgm of peak torque at 6250 rmp.

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Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5702085647&f=378

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RIM's PlayBook 'fire sale': Will it help? (The Week)

New York ? RIM is dramatically slashing prices for every model of its lone tablet. Will it help?

After promising to more aggressively promote its "beleaguered" 7-inch tablet, RIM has dramatically slashed the prices of its $499 16GB, $599 32GB, and $699 64GB PlayBooks to a more manageable $299 ? each. Why would the Canadian-based company put its tiered models at odds with one another? And could a fire sale ? which ends on Feb. 4 ? actually help RIM claw its way out from the hole it dug for itself in 2011??

It's a win-lose for RIM: If you need a 64GB tablet priced more affordably than a base model iPad ($499), you're in luck ? as long as "you don't mind the part where it's called a BlackBerry PlayBook," says Matt Peckham at TIME. There should be enough takers for the company to clear out its 64GB models and use that "momentum" to sell some 16GB and 32GB models to late-comers. But that's "a win-lose situation for RIM," because it will take a $360 million hit just "to unload these things."
"Get Your BlackBerry PlayBooks Cheap: $299 Fire Sale on All Models"

But everyone else is doing it: Apple has resisted slashing prices, says Don Reisinger at CNET, but its rivals have found that aggressive pricing is "one of the easiest ways for tablet makers to attract consumers." HP's TouchPad sold out twice at $99, and Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire has moved fast. Remember: When Best Buy started selling the PlayBook for $199 in November customers cleaned them out. Maybe the demand for a 7-inch tablet is there, and the PlayBook just had the wrong price tag all along.
"BlackBerry PlayBook price now $299 for all models"

Consumers still shouldn't buy this thing: If you're smart, "don't even think about picking up a PlayBook for $299," says Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet. The PlayBook's OS was never finished, it's still missing essential features like an email client, the app support is dismal, and at $299, it's still a "long way off the $99 that HP's TouchPad ended up at when it went into it's final death spiral." If you're in the market for a 7-inch tablet, get a Kindle Fire instead. "You can do better."?
"Should I buy a PlayBook for $299?"

?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20120103/cm_theweek/222962

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George W. Bush barely mentioned in GOP campaign (AP)

PERRY, Iowa ? A funny thing happened recently in the presidential campaign in Iowa: The last Republican president's name actually surfaced.

"We've had, in the past, a couple of presidents from Texas that said they weren't interested in wars ... like George W. Bush," a voter said to Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who has been sharply critical of U.S. military entanglements overseas. "My question is: How can we trust another Texan?"

It was an odd, almost discordant moment in a GOP contest where Bush, a two-term president who left office just three years ago, has gone all but unmentioned. While the candidates routinely lionize Ronald Reagan and blame President Barack Obama for the nation's economic woes, none has been eager to embrace the Bush legacy of gaping budget deficits, two wars and record low approval ratings ? or blame him for the country's troubles either.

"Republicans talk a lot about losing their way during the last decade, and when they do they're talking about the Bush years," said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont-McKenna College. "For Republicans, the Bush administration has become the `yadda yadda yadda' period of American history."

The eight-year Bush presidency has merited no more than a fleeting reference in televised debates and interviews. When it does surface it's often a point of criticism, as when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum told CNN on Sunday that he regretted voting for the No Child Left Behind education law Bush championed.

The former president himself has been all but invisible since leaving office in 2009 with a Gallup approval rating of just 34 percent. His predecessor, Democrat Bill Clinton, had a 66 percent approval rating in early 2001 when he stepped down after two terms marred by a sex scandal and impeachment.

In a presidential contest dominated by concerns over the weak economy, government spending and the $15 trillion federal debt, the Republican candidates have been loath to acknowledge the extent to which Bush administration policies contributed to those problems. Republicans also controlled Congress for six of the eight years Bush was in the White House, clearing the way for many of his policies to be enacted.

There is no question that Obama's policies, including the federal stimulus program and the auto industry bailout, have swollen the deficit and deepened the debt. And three years into his presidency, Obama often falls back on complaints about the bad situation he inherited when seeking to defend his own economic performance.

But while Obama may be overly eager to blame the Bush years for the nation's problems, GOP presidential contenders seem just as eager to pretend those years never happened.

Taking office in 2001 with a balanced federal budget and a surplus, Bush quickly pushed through sweeping tax cuts that were not offset by spending cuts. The tax cuts have cost about $1.8 trillion, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Bush tax cuts were set to expire after 10 years, but Obama allowed them to remain in place temporarily in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cut.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks never were budgeted and have cost taxpayers about $1.4 trillion so far. Obama ordered the last troops out of Iraq in December, but the Afghanistan conflict will extend into 2014.

Bush signed legislation in 2003 enacting a prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare, the government health care plan for seniors ? a huge entitlement program projected to cost as much as $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank bailout program widely loathed by many conservatives, was another Bush-era program. Congress authorized nearly $700 billion for the program at the recommendation of Bush's treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs executive Henry Paulson, in response to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent financial crisis in the fall of 2008. As a presidential candidate, Obama supported the TARP bailout, as did his GOP rival, Sen. John McCain.

To be sure, today's GOP candidates occasionally acknowledge that not all was perfect pre-Obama.

"The reason we find ourselves in the problem today is because we had Republicans and Democrats ? you couldn't tell the difference in the way they were spending," Rick Perry told a campaign audience in Cedar Rapids.

The Texas governor has been sharply critical of Congress, insisting he would bring an outsider's perspective to tackling the nation's economic woes as president.

Others have also tried to distance themselves from Washington and, by implication, the Bush years.

Mitt Romney stresses his experience as a businessman and as Massachusetts governor. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman talks up his background as a chief executive. Newt Gingrich reminds voters that he presided over a balanced budget as speaker of the House during the Clinton years.

Santorum's surge into top-tier contention has sparked complaints from rivals about his votes on spending. Among other things, he voted in favor of the Medicare prescription drug program.

Bush still has loyal supporters who believe his legacy will be vindicated by history. But even they say the GOP field won't be embracing him anytime soon.

"Sad to say, they're looking at polling data that indicates they're better off not bringing him into the campaign," former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said. "I think President Bush has made America a safer nation and better nation and I'm proud of it. But politics isn't about what's fair, it's about winning."

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Cedar Rapids contributed to this report.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120103/ap_on_el_pr/us_campaign_where_s_bush

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