Republicans see some leverage in "fiscal cliff" talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans may have some leverage in their fiscal cliffhanger with President Barack Obama: the threat of forcing a disproportionate number of Democrats to pay the so-called alternative minimum tax.
Under U.S. law, taxpayers each year must pay the greater of regular federal income tax, or the AMT. The latter requires taxpayers to give up certain tax breaks, typically exemptions and deductions for state and local taxes and medical costs.
Only about 4 million taxpayers pay the AMT because Congress routinely passes a law to adjust for inflation, to spare middle-income and upper-middle income taxpayers. Without this legislative fix, called a "patch" by lawmakers, up to 33 million taxpayers will have to pay an AMT liability for 2012, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
That is one in five taxpayers.
The number of taxpayers affected by the AMT would jump because the AMT exemption amounts and income brackets do not automatically rise with inflation and also because across-the-board individual tax cuts a decade ago did not cut AMT rates.
States with the wealthiest taxpayers and the steepest state taxes, which typically cannot be deducted under the AMT, include New York, California and Illinois - Democratic strongholds.
That may make the threat of a lapse one of the Republicans' strongest cards after Obama's re-election last month on a theme of tax fairness.
"The AMT is one of the more significant pieces of leverage that the Republicans have," said Evan Liddiard, a former tax adviser to Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "It will pinch harder in the blue states."
That may make Republicans less likely to agree to a bill that addresses only the AMT.
Obama's Democrats and Republicans, led by House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, have been battling while trying to keep from falling over a $600 billion "fiscal cliff" - a combination of tax increases and spending cuts due to be implemented early next year.
Now at a standstill, talks on how to avert the fiscal cliff have been largely focused on whether to renew low tax rates for the wealthiest taxpayers along with everyone else.
In a brief interview in the Capitol, Hatch said voters in the Democratic-leaning states will not be amused if their taxes go up unexpectedly.
"When they find out they are going to get hammered because of the AMT and the lack of plan by this administration to resolve that problem, yes, I think that will cost them (the Democrats) a few votes," Hatch said.
Because the latest AMT patch expired in 2011, it is in some ways more urgent to address the AMT than the Bush-era tax cuts expiring at the end of December.
Congress last patched the AMT in the lame-duck session in 2010. A bipartisan bill passed by the Senate finance committee to patch AMT for 2012 and 2013 was estimated to cost $132.2 billion.
The cost is one reason the AMT never gets patched permanently. Republicans generally want to scrap the AMT altogether; Obama's latest budget calls for adjusting it for inflation.
IRS WARNINGS
Further complicating the AMT picture is the chaos predicted for the tax-filing season due to begin on January 22, the first working day after Obama's inauguration ceremony in Washington.
A letter from the tax-collecting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller on potential agency problems related to the fiscal cliff focuses almost exclusively on the AMT.
Failure to "patch" the AMT could lead to 60 million taxpayers not being able to file tax returns or get a refund, in addition to a software nightmare for the IRS computer systems.
Miller wrote lawmakers on November 13 warning them of serious repercussions for taxpayers, including 28 million with a "very large unexpected tax liability," and delays in refunds for millions.
"Consistent with past practice, I have instructed IRS staff again this year to leave our core systems "as-is" with respect to the AMT, and hold off on the substantial design and engineering work" required otherwise, he wrote.
Miller last briefed the Senate Finance Committee about the need for action late last month, according to a Senate source.
Representative Richard Neal, a senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee who represents parts of Massachusetts, said fixing the AMT was an absolute must.
"It has to be done. It reaches too many people if it's not," Neal said. "I think it is again being used as (a) bargaining (chip)."
Republicans say they are holding out for a bigger deal.
"That is not going to solve the fiscal cliff," said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi, who leads the revenue sub-panel of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
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YEARENDER-Basketball-Lebron shines brightest on every stage

Dec 21 (Reuters) - LeBron James finally captured an elusive National Basketball Association title to cap a year where he silenced his critics and shared the spotlight with some unlikely players.
"Linsanity" became one of the new buzzwords in the NBA while a collegiate player took a sledgehammer to the record books and the Los Angeles Lakers made a blockbuster trade that rekindled memories of the team's "Showtime" era.
James, long considered the NBA's heir apparent to Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, finally delivered a performance worthy of that status with a championship in his ninth season, followed by a gold medal with the United States at the London Olympics.
A dominant force on the court, James had already earned the NBA's scoring title, Most Valuable Player honors and All-Star nods, but it took an elusive title, MVP honors for the regular season and NBA Finals to prove his detractors wrong.
The self proclaimed 'King James' became a player many NBA fans love to hate after going on national television in 2010 to announce his much-publicized move to Miami, but there is no denying his status as one of the game's greatest players.
"It was the hardest thing I've ever done as a basketball player," James said after winning the NBA title in June, beating Oklahoma City in the finals. "You just put a lot of hard work into it and you hope that one day it will pay off for you."
'LINSANITY' CRAZE
Basketball's marquee names were forced to share the limelight with undrafted Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin, who went from an unknown to an overnight sensation after being thrust into the New York Knicks' starting lineup in February.
Lin burst onto the public consciousness after a masterful series of dynamic displays, scoring at least 20 points in nine of 10 games during a season-high seven-game win streak for the Knicks that sparked the "Linsanity" craze around the globe.
Crowds at New York's Madison Square Garden held an array of pun signs declaring "To Lin-finity and Beyond," "The Sky's the LINit" and "LINCREDIBLE," while a mid-February game in Toronto had one spectator holding a "By my VaLINtine" sign.
Lin's incredible run was undone by a late-season injury but that did not stop Time Magazine from naming him as one of the world's 100 most influential people. He was the only basketball player on a list that included President Barack Obama and billionaire investor Warren Buffet.
At the London Games, a star-studded American team led by James were one of the hottest favorites but were tested by an inspired Spain team before prevailing 107-100 in the gold-medal game to retain their Olympic title.
The victory capped a remarkable run for James, who was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, an award whose previous winners include boxer Muhammad Ali, golfer Jack Nicklaus and swimmer Michael Phelps.
GOLD MEDAL
It also put the finishing touches on an American sweep of basketball gold as the U.S. women collected their fifth consecutive Olympic gold, solidifying the country's dominance in a sport that has become much more competitive since active NBA players first participated in the Olympics in 1992.
The Lakers were the biggest story during the NBA's offseason after landing Dwight Howard in a 12-player trade that rekindled memories of the team's "Showtime" era from 1979-1989 with Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Howard, a three-time defensive player of the year, joined a Lakers team that was already bursting with talent in the form of Kobe Bryant and Spain's Pau Gasol and still revelling in the acquisition of two-time league MVP Steve Nash a month earlier.
The massive trade immediately bolstered the Lakers championship credentials, a welcome development for a franchise that has suffered two straight early playoff exits since winning a 16th NBA title in 2010.
But despite the formidable Lakers lineup, the team stumbled out of the gate and their head coach was fired after a 1-4 start to the 2012-13 NBA as players were unable to grasp his new offensive system.
Some of the year's top stories even came from outside the professional ranks as Jack Taylor, a sophomore guard at Iowa's Grinnell College, shattered the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) scoring record with a 138-point performance in a Division III game.
The 22-year-old guard from Iowa's Grinnell College, drew national attention for his performance, which shattered the previous record of 113 points set in 1954.
Read More..

Lebron shines brightest on every stage

(Reuters) - LeBron James finally captured an elusive National Basketball Association title to cap a year where he silenced his critics and shared the spotlight with some unlikely players.
"Linsanity" became one of the new buzzwords in the NBA while a collegiate player took a sledgehammer to the record books and the Los Angeles Lakers made a blockbuster trade that rekindled memories of the team's "Showtime" era.
James, long considered the NBA's heir apparent to Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, finally delivered a performance worthy of that status with a championship in his ninth season, followed by a gold medal with the United States at the London Olympics.
A dominant force on the court, James had already earned the NBA's scoring title, Most Valuable Player honors and All-Star nods, but it took an elusive title, MVP honors for the regular season and NBA Finals to prove his detractors wrong.
The self proclaimed 'King James' became a player many NBA fans love to hate after going on national television in 2010 to announce his much-publicized move to Miami, but there is no denying his status as one of the game's greatest players.
"It was the hardest thing I've ever done as a basketball player," James said after winning the NBA title in June, beating Oklahoma City in the finals. "You just put a lot of hard work into it and you hope that one day it will pay off for you."
'LINSANITY' CRAZE
Basketball's marquee names were forced to share the limelight with undrafted Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin, who went from an unknown to an overnight sensation after being thrust into the New York Knicks' starting lineup in February.
Lin burst onto the public consciousness after a masterful series of dynamic displays, scoring at least 20 points in nine of 10 games during a season-high seven-game win streak for the Knicks that sparked the "Linsanity" craze around the globe.
Crowds at New York's Madison Square Garden held an array of pun signs declaring "To Lin-finity and Beyond," "The Sky's the LINit" and "LINCREDIBLE," while a mid-February game in Toronto had one spectator holding a "By my VaLINtine" sign.
Lin's incredible run was undone by a late-season injury but that did not stop Time Magazine from naming him as one of the world's 100 most influential people. He was the only basketball player on a list that included President Barack Obama and billionaire investor Warren Buffet.
At the London Games, a star-studded American team led by James were one of the hottest favorites but were tested by an inspired Spain team before prevailing 107-100 in the gold-medal game to retain their Olympic title.
The victory capped a remarkable run for James, who was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, an award whose previous winners include boxer Muhammad Ali, golfer Jack Nicklaus and swimmer Michael Phelps.
GOLD MEDAL
It also put the finishing touches on an American sweep of basketball gold as the U.S. women collected their fifth consecutive Olympic gold, solidifying the country's dominance in a sport that has become much more competitive since active NBA players first participated in the Olympics in 1992.
The Lakers were the biggest story during the NBA's offseason after landing Dwight Howard in a 12-player trade that rekindled memories of the team's "Showtime" era from 1979-1989 with Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Howard, a three-time defensive player of the year, joined a Lakers team that was already bursting with talent in the form of Kobe Bryant and Spain's Pau Gasol and still revelling in the acquisition of two-time league MVP Steve Nash a month earlier.
The massive trade immediately bolstered the Lakers championship credentials, a welcome development for a franchise that has suffered two straight early playoff exits since winning a 16th NBA title in 2010.
But despite the formidable Lakers lineup, the team stumbled out of the gate and their head coach was fired after a 1-4 start to the 2012-13 NBA as players were unable to grasp his new offensive system.
Some of the year's top stories even came from outside the professional ranks as Jack Taylor, a sophomore guard at Iowa's Grinnell College, shattered the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) scoring record with a 138-point performance in a Division III game.
The 22-year-old guard from Iowa's Grinnell College, drew national attention for his performance, which shattered the previous record of 113 points set in 1954.
"That's crazy," said five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant, "I don't care what level you're at, you score 138 points, it's pretty insane."
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NBA-Timberwolves end Thunder's 12-games winning streak

Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Minnesota Timberwolves, boosted by a brilliant fourth quarter from diminutive guard J.J. Barea, beat Oklahoma City 99-93 on Thursday to end the Thunder's 12-games winning streak.
The NBA-leading Thunder battled back after an early 14-points deficit to move within a point at 76-75 early in the fourth before Barea took over.
Barea scored 10 points in a 12-2 run that restored Minnesota's double-digit lead at 88-77 and then helped the T-Wolves hold off the Thunder the rest of the way.
The loss dropped Oklahoma, last year's losing NBA Finalists, to 21-5 while Minnesota improved to 13-11, seven games behind the Thunder in the Western Conference's Northwest Division.
Kevin Love led Minnesota with 28 points and 11 rebounds, and center Nikola Pekovic had 24 points and 10 boards, while Barea came off the bench to score 18 points.
Three-times scoring champion Kevin Durant paced the Thunder with 33 points, and Russell Westbrook added 30, but Oklahoma City's reserves contributed seven points in all. (Reporting by Larry Fine in New York, Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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UPDATE 1-NBA-Timberwolves end Thunder's 12-games winning streak

T-Wolves snap Thunder winning streak
* End their own losing skid against Oklahoma City (Adds details, quotes)
Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Minnesota Timberwolves, boosted by a brilliant fourth quarter from diminutive guard J.J. Barea, got a welcome shot of confidence with a 99-93 win over Oklahoma City on Thursday to snap the Thunder's winning streak at 12 games.
The uplifting win for the T-Wolves, coming off a pair of losses on a California road trip, snapped their own 12-game losing streak against Oklahoma City.
The NBA-leading Thunder battled back after trailing by 14 to move within a point at 76-75 early in the fourth before Barea took over.
Sinking long three-pointers and scrambling under the hoop, Barea scored 10 points in a 12-2 run that restored Minnesota's double-digit lead at 88-77 and then helped the T-Wolves hold off the Thunder the rest of the way.
"The fourth quarter for us has kind of been our Achilles heel this whole season, but we fought through and J.J. Barea was awesome tonight," said Minnesota's All Star forward Kevin Love.
The loss dropped Oklahoma, last year's losing NBA Finalists, to 21-5 while Minnesota improved to 13-11, seven games behind the Thunder in the Western Conference's Northwest Division.
Love led Minnesota with 28 points and 11 rebounds, and center Nikola Pekovic of Montenegro had 24 points and 10 boards, while Puerto Rico's Barea came off the bench to score 18 points.
Three-time scoring champion Kevin Durant paced the Thunder with 33 points, and Russell Westbrook added 30, but Oklahoma City's reserves contributed just seven points in all.
"This is a big win here against one of the top teams in the league," said Love, a team mate of Durant and Westbrook on the U.S. basketball team that won gold at the London Olympics.
"We learned we can fight through and beat any team in the league if we're playing well.
"Soon as guys really get in shape, get back healthy, and Ricky (Rubio) starts playing the way he's capable of playing and gets back from that injury, we're going to be a lot better team."
Spanish guard Rubio, working his way back from a serious knee injury, played 18 minutes without scoring for Minnesota but handed out three assists and had three rebounds.
The Timberwolves used brisk ball movement to spring Pekovic for easy layups and set up Love for open looks beyond the three-point arc as they went on a 19-6 run for a 25-11 lead in the first quarter.
Oklahoma City closed within seven points in the second quarter and got within five after intermission but Minnesota responded each time to restore a cushion, with Barea doing the job in the fourth quarter.
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Barea, Wolves snap Thunder's 12-game streak

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder have been blowing the doors off the rest of the Western Conference in these first two months, playing with the swagger born of their run to the NBA Finals last season.
J.J. Barea and the Minnesota Timberwolves tried to send a message on Thursday night that a second straight trip isn't going to come easy.
Playing with the tenacity that made him so important to the Mavericks' run to the title two years ago, Barea scored 14 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to help the Timberwolves snap Oklahoma City's 12-game winning streak with a 99-93 victory over the Thunder.
Kevin Love had 28 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists and Nikola Pekovic had 24 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota. But it was Barea who was the key, scoring 12 straight at one point for the Wolves to hold off the team with the best record in the league.
"It's important," coach Rick Adelman said of beating the best in the West. "But I would like to see us get to a point where this is not a big deal. It's a big game against the best team, but this is something we can do."
Kevin Durant had 33 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Russell Westbrook had 30 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for the Thunder, who had not lost a game since Nov. 23 at Boston.
"It's not the end of the world. A lot of people said the world is going to end today, tomorrow, but it's not the end of the world," Durant quipped. "We lost to a good team (Thursday). They came out and played extremely hard and they beat us. We're 21-5 and we've just got to go back and work."
That it was Barea, and not the Olympian Love or the sensation Ricky Rubio who was chiefly responsible was the biggest surprise of all.
Barea didn't join the Timberwolves until training camp had already started last season, then languished through the first injury plagued year of his career. Finally healthy, he's getting back to the super pest that helped the Dallas Mavericks to the title two years ago.
With the Thunder charging early in the fourth quarter, the smallest guy on the court played the biggest.
After Durant's two free throws cut Minnesota's lead to 80-77, Barea hit two 3s and scored on a putback under the rim amid the tall trees, an 8-0 run by himself that gave the Wolves a little breathing room. His long 3 with 5:26 to play made it 92-81, and the Wolves held on.
"I love it," Barea said. "We just needed a little bit more tonight, a little energy and I'm glad I was able to provide that for us tonight."
Barea was also a nuisance on defense, drawing an offensive foul on Durant with 2:24 to play. The normally super-cool Durant uncharacteristically lost his composure, picking up a technical foul for arguing the call as well.
"Seems like him and Kevin Love don't miss against us," Durant said of Barea, who tormented them in the Western Conference finals in 2011 and had a triple-double in a double-overtime loss to the Thunder last season. "Seems like every team has that guy and I think those are the guys against us. Next time we've just got to do a better job."
Serge Ibaka had 14 points and nine rebounds, but Westbrook missed 19 shots and turned the ball over eight times in an off night.
Alexey Shved had 12 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds for the Wolves, who are trying to claw their way back to respectability after years at the bottom of the Western Conference.
With a nucleus of Love, Rubio and Pekovic, there is optimism here for the first time in a long time.
The Thunder stormed into Target Center riding the longest winning streak since the team moved to Oklahoma City, bullying opponents by an average of 14.2 points per game as they warm up for a run at a second straight finals appearance.
Rubio was playing his third game since being activated from a torn ACL in his left knee that had kept him out since March 9. He had a scintillating debut last Saturday, throwing no-look passes between his legs and looking as if he'd never left. But it's been slower going in the ensuing two games. He was a non-factor in a loss in Orlando on Monday and had trouble getting going again against the Thunder.
His handle wasn't nearly as sticky as usual and he was thwarted every time he tried to penetrate, then could be seen wincing in pain after an awkward landing on a shot in the second quarter. Adelman immediately pulled him, but Rubio was able to return in the second half.
"We battled, we fought. I'm proud of our guys," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We had a great streak, a great month going. But we lost to a very good team. We knew sooner or later they were going to get hot. They got hot tonight."
NOTES: Kevin Martin did not play for the Thunder because of a right thigh contusion. ... The Timberwolves waived G/F Josh Howard on Thursday after an MRI revealed a torn ACL in his right knee. ... The Thunder lost for the first time in six tries on the second night of a back to back.
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Nobel literature winner says censorship necessary

STOCKHOLM (AP) — This year's Nobel literature winner Mo Yan, who has been criticized for his cozy relationship with China's Communist Party, defended censorship Thursday as something as necessary as airport security checks.

He also suggested he has no plans to join an appeal calling for the release of the jailed 2010 Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo.

Mo has been criticized by human rights activists for not being a more outspoken defendant of freedom of speech and for being a member of the Communist Party-backed writers' association.

His comments Thursday, made in Stockholm, appear unlikely to soften his critics' views toward him.

Awarding him the prize has also brought criticism from previous Nobel winners. Herta Mueller, the 2009 literature laureate, called the jury's choice of Mo a "catastrophe" in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter last month. She also accused Mo of protecting China's censorship laws.

Mo said he doesn't feel that censorship should stand in the way of truth but that any defamation, or rumors, "should be censored."

"But I also hope that censorship, per se, should have the highest principle," he said in comments translated by an interpreter from Chinese into English.

Mo, a Communist party member and vice president of China's official writers association, spoke at a news conference in Stockholm, where he is spending several days before receiving his prestigious prize in an awards ceremony next Monday.

Addressing an issue that is extremely sensitive for China's authoritarian Communist regime, Mo likened censorship to the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he traveled to Stockholm.

"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me — even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary."

Mo also dodged questions about fellow writer and compatriot Liu Xiaobo, who won the Peace Prize in 2010 but who remains in prison.

Although he has previously said he hopes Liu will be freed soon, he refused to elaborate more on the case.

"On the same evening of my winning the prize, I already expressed my opinion, and you can get online to make a search," he said, telling the crowd that he hoped they wouldn't press him on the subject of Liu.

Earlier this week, an appeal signed by 134 Nobel laureates, from peace prize winners like South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Taiwanese-American chemist Yuan T. Lee, called the detention of Liu and his wife a violation of international law and urged their immediate release.

But Mo suggested he had no plans of adding his name to that petition. "I have always been independent. I like it that way. When someone forces me to do something I don't do it," he said, adding that has been in his stance in the past decade.

Mo is to receive his Nobel prize along with the winners in medicine, physics, chemistry and economics.

The Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in a separate ceremony in Oslo on the same day.
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Chinese Nobel literature winner: censorship a must

STOCKHOLM (AP) — This year's Nobel Prize in literature winner, Mo Yan, who has been criticized for his membership in China's Communist Party  and reluctance to speak out against the country's government, defended censorship Thursday as something as necessary as airport security checks.

He also suggested he won't join an appeal calling for the release of the jailed 2010 Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a fellow writer and compatriot.

Mo has been criticized by human rights activists for not being a more outspoken defender of freedom of speech and for supporting the Communist Party-backed writers' association, of which he is vice president.

His comments Thursday, made during a news conference in Stockholm, appear unlikely to soften his critics' views toward him.

Awarding him the literature prize has also brought criticism from previous winners. Herta Mueller, the 2009 literature laureate, called the jury's choice of Mo a "catastrophe" in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter last month. She also accused Mo of protecting the Asian country's censorship laws.

China's rulers forbid opposition parties and maintain strict control over all media.

Mo said he doesn't feel that censorship should stand in the way of truth but that any defamation, or rumors, "should be censored."

"But I also hope that censorship, per se, should have the highest principle," he said in comments translated by an interpreter from Chinese into English.

Mo is spending several days in Stockholm before receiving his prestigious prize in an awards ceremony next Monday.

He won the Nobel for his sprawling tales of life in rural China. In its citation, the jury said Mo "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."

In addressing the sensitive issue of censorship in China, Mo likened it to the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he traveled to Stockholm.

"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me — even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary."

Mo also dodged questions about Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Peace Prize winner. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for co-authoring a bold call for ending China's single-party rule and enacting democratic reforms.

China's reception of the two Nobel laureates has been worlds apart.

While it rejected the honor bestowed on Liu, calling it a desecration of the Nobel tradition, it welcomed Mo's win with open arms, saying it reflected "the prosperity and progress of Chinese literature, as well as the increasing influence of China."

Although Mo has previously said he hopes Liu will be freed soon, he refused to elaborate more on the case.

"On the same evening of my winning the prize, I already expressed my opinion, and you can get online to make a search," he said, telling the crowd that he hoped they wouldn't press him on the subject of Liu.

Some, however, have interpreted Mo's October comments as if he hoped the release of Liu would make the jailed activist see sense and embrace the Communist Party line.

Earlier this week, an appeal signed by 134 Nobel laureates, from Peace Prize winners such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Taiwanese-American chemist Yuan T. Lee, called the detention of Liu and his wife a violation of international law and urged their immediate release.

But Mo suggested he had no plans of adding his name to that petition. "I have always been independent. I like it that way. When someone forces me to do something I don't do it," he said, adding that has been in his stance in the past decade.

Mo is to receive his Nobel prize along with the winners in medicine, physics, chemistry and economics.

The Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in a separate ceremony in Oslo on the same day.
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Belgian graphic artist breaks with comic tradition

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Comic artist Brecht Evens decided to break away from the traditional comic strip images of clear lines and pencil sketches developed in Belgium more than half a century ago.

After surviving at first on government subsidies, in 2010 he produced a graphic novel featuring vibrant watercolours and smudged scenes of sexuality and riotous nightlife, with characters blurred into their surroundings.

"The Wrong Place" - a graphic novel about the angst-filled night-time escapades of Robbie, a mysterious party animal - became an international success and made Evens the darling of the new wave of experimental comic artists currently sweeping across Belgium.

Traditional comics "seemed limited in what they could do and show", 26-year old Evens told Reuters. "They couldn't suck you in and just looked like toys laid out, or puppets."

His new style "lends movement and hustle and bustle".

Evens' success comes as graphic fiction, or comics, search for a new direction.

Traditional comic strips - with speech bubbles and clear pencil lines giving shape to the characters - are seen as old-fashioned. Even though they have die-hard fans in Belgium, that market is declining and was anyway tiny.

In big comic markets, such as Japan, South Korea and the United States, fans have long since moved on to new media, starting with television and now taking in smart phones and tablets. But these new media have flopped in Belgium, as readers are attached to the book-and-picture format.

Without new styles, the industry will not survive, says Johan Stuyck, professor at the Sint-Lukas School of Arts in Brussels and publisher at Oogachtend in Leuven.

"Those who stick to the old fashioned way of making comics, they are doomed," he says. "They will disappear."

Reverence for the past is perhaps unsurprising in a country with such a glorious history in comics.

Georges Remi, who worked under the pen name Herge, created Tintin in 1929 while working at Belgian newspaper Le XXe Siecle.

"The Adventures of Tintin" series became an immediate success and remained a top seller until the 1970s. "Spirou", the eight-page weekly magazine that disseminated comics to the Belgian public and gave artists exposure, was created in 1938.

Belgian artists pioneered the use of clear black lines to outline characters precisely and make them stand out against the background in the earlier half of the 20th century. Belgian comics went through another boom with the advent of the Smurfs in 1959.

But when new electronic and animated media emerged from the 1980s - and Hollywood eventually turned Tintin into a movie - Belgian artists largely shunned the new forms, as their conservative readers at home weren't interested.

Recently, however, Belgian artists have innovated in their own ways. Traditional comics required solid plots, like Tintin's traditional, documentary-style. For strips appearing in newspapers, artists had to provide a daily cliffhanger.

These are now disappearing in favor of vaguer, more psychological themes.

"Artists used to think more about their audience, what will work and what won't work," says Koen Van Rompaey, general director of Strip Turnhout, a Belgian comic festival. "Artists don't do that anymore. They do whatever they want."

They no longer stick to orderly strips to arrange their stories. And they sometimes don't outline their figures. That leads some illustrations - like Evens's - to lack structure and clarity, giving them an appearance of modernist paintings.

"Some are just drawing without tracing," says Stuyck. "The text is not necessarily put in balloons. It's experimental."

The new experimental styles are commercially risky, and publishers need to be patient with new artists. Most first works flop, selling just a few hundred copies and losing money. Success often comes only with a third book.

"Without those first two, the artist wouldn't have made a third," says Stuyck. "The publisher must take risks."

Even then, the Belgian market is saturated, with comic book production at a historic high, even as overall sales decline. Around 800 professional comic artists currently live and work in Belgium, says Willem De Graeve, director of the Belgian Comic Strip Centre.

One source of support is the Flemish Literature Fund, which provides government grants for illustrators working on the national art form in the Dutch dialect spoken in the northern half of Belgium.

"Without support from the Flemish Fund, this new wave of Flemish comics would not have been possible," Van Rompaey said. "It would have been five to 10 percent of what it is now."

During his final years at art school, Evens survived with help from this fund as he struggled with early drafts of "The Wrong Place".

His new style consisted of broad swathes of color with minimal line work. He then adds details in a series of layers.

"There are no pencil sketches. It differs from traditional comics because the lines and surfaces are independent," he says. "Traditionally, artists will make a pencil sketch, then trace over it in ink and add detail, then add color."

Critics loved "The Wrong Place", which has been translated in six different languages, placing Evens in the elite group of young, experimental Belgian artists that achieve more success globally than locally.

And now Evens has found a winning formula... he's going to change it.

"I wouldn't be happy with the feeling of pedaling in place," he said.
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Russia's Hermitage Museum denounces blasphemy investigation

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of Russia's renowned Hermitage Museum accused Russian authorities on Monday of fostering "mob rule" in taking up complaints by Russian Orthodox Christians over a British exhibit they said injured religious feelings.

The row coincides with a surge in religious, nationalist sentiment in Russia, with President Vladimir Putin moving closer to the Orthodox Church to consolidate his support after facing the biggest protests since he rose to power nearly 13 years ago.

The display, entitled "The End of Fun" and launched in the St Petersburg museum in October, includes figurines draped with Nazi insignia and a crucified Ronald McDonald, the mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain.

It has drawn over 100 complaints and state prosecutors are checking whether it violates a law against incitement to hatred, under which two members of the Pussy Riot punk protest band opposed to President Vladimir Putin were jailed.

"This (investigation) is an attempt to dictate conditions to us by mob rule and we should not allow this," said Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of Hermitage, one of the world's oldest and biggest museums.

Prosecutors acted after receiving complaints from visitors who said the exhibition by British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman offended the feelings of Russian Orthodox Christians.

"You can't force a celebrated actor to cancel his show just because someone would come and make a noise ... about someone's feelings," Piotrovsky told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Moscow. "Art has its own language, one needs to understand it. If you don't get it, just step aside."

The Hermitage Museum is housed in buildings including the Winter Palace, a former residence of the Russian emperors, and is now owned by the state.

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The Hermitage website describes the centerpiece of the Chapman brothers' display as a "three-dimensional collage consisting of miniature plastic figures ... arranged in such a way that it resembles a (Nazi) swastika from above".

"In the display cases, a single landscape of hell unfolds in which the figures ceaselessly kill one another with diabolical cruelty ... By placing cruelty in seal museum display cases or dioramas, the artists strive to cure society of that cruelty."

The museum's website said the exhibit belonged to a "Disasters of War" genre and that it was not suitable for viewing by anyone younger than 18.

Traditional religious conservatism has revived markedly in public since Pussy Riot members burst into a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow in February and, dressed in short dresses and colorful ski masks, performed a protest song against Putin's close ties with the church.

The two-year prison sentences handed down to two members of the all-women collective were criticized in the West, but the protest outraged many Russian Orthodox Christians and stirred a debate over the state of society in Russia.

Since the Pussy Riot trial this summer, Russian lawmakers allied to Putin have called for the introduction of jail sentences for people found guilty of offending religious feelings.

Critics say the law would blur the line between the state and the church. They regard the move as part of what they see as a clampdown on dissent and civil liberties since Putin began a new six-year term in May. He denies launching a crackdown.

Among other prominent instances of conservative Russians trying to protect their beliefs in court, American pop singer Madonna was sued by a group of Russians for spreading gay "propaganda" when she gave a concert in St Petersburg in August. The case was eventually thrown out.

The launch of patrols in Moscow by cossacks has also been widely interpreted as a result of Putin's calls for patriotism and his promotion of Russian traditions.
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