TODAY in the news

PRODUCTION **FINALLY** STARTS ON HOBBIT MOVIE
It will consist of two movies. Possibly released in late 2012.
Unofficial web site links page
WSJ (Feb 7, 2011) "‘The Hobbit’ Gets a Date" to start filming: March 21.

WHAT A SURPRISE
Three top French chess players have been found guilty of cheating in last year's world championship.

ART FRAUD
At a Mayan art auction in Paris a sculpture that fetched 2.9m euros ($4.2m, £2.5m) at a Paris auction was declared by the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology to be a fake. The other 66 pieces had also been carved recently. Mexico's Foreign Ministry reportedly alerted the French government about the fraudulent artifacts before the auction. (CBS story)

GE PAID NO TAXES ON $5.1 BILLION PROFITS
On top of that, they got a $3.2 billion tax credit. In an interesting twist, President Obama recently asked G.E. CEO Jeffrey Immelt to be his chief outside economic adviser. (Yahoo News - Outlook story by Brett Michael Dykes)
Joins New Economic Advisory Board in 2009
Also on board is Publisher & Chief Executive Officer, La Opinion, Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO; Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Dean, Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, among others.

NO REPEAT SURGERIES PLANNED
Brazilian plastic surgeon says he operated on Gadhafi (AP)

PERUVIAN POLICE DON'T BELIEVE van der Sloot
Joran van der Sloot claimed that he killed a young Peruvian woman in a fit of rage when she used his laptop to discover his connection to the murder of Natalee Holloway. Peruvian police claim it's a lie. His lawyer wants to use a rage defense in the murder trial.

BIRTHING TOURISM IN SAN GABRIEL
Southern California has become a hub of so-called birthing tourism. Three townhouses in San Gabriel shut down. (Los Angeles Times) From Pasadena Star-News: "Two weeks ago, San Gabriel officials uncovered the makeshift maternity ward with 10 newborns and about 12 Chinese nationals crammed into the illegally-converted townhouse in the 1300 block of South Palm Avenue, according to documents obtained by this newspaper." The Chinese women came to the United States to give birth to children who will gain automatic U.S. citizenship. The women paid $25,000 - $30,000 each.

NOT GOOD
Nato has named three-star Canadian general, Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, to run NATO's Libya operations. The last Canadian Lieutenant-General who ran operations for the U.N. oversaw the murder of 800,000 Rwandans.

UPCOMING ELECTIONS - GERMANY
May not bode well for Angela Merkel's coalition partners. In two state elections on Sunday, her junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats, stand to lose the most. The party is at risk of stumbling below the 5-percent threshhold in both votes. (Der Spiegel)

WEEKEND ELECTION - AUSTRALIA
Labor is expected to suffer a huge defeat in NSW in Saturday's elections. Labor has held power for 16 years in NSW. On a national level, Leftwing Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard is holding office by 1 seat. An advocate of carbon trading and carbon taxes, the issue has been resented by Australians.