For the first time since fighting in the Middle East sent gasoline prices skyrocketing, President Obama is thinking about tapping the country's oil reserves. "We're looking at the options. The issue of the reserve is one we are considering," Obama's Chief of Staff Bill Daley said today on NBC's "Meet the Press." But he added: "It is something that only is done and has been done on very rare occasions." He is talking about the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's along the Gulf gucci outlet coast and is America's oil piggy bank. In underground salt domes, 727 million barrels of oil are stored. The oil is there to protect against a sudden cut off of supply. "It should be tapped when, physically, the market is lacking oil. And I don't think we're anywhere near that," Roger Diwan of PFC Energy told ABC News. Despite all the turmoil in the Middle East, there is no strain on demand. The Libyan oil fields and production have been shut down, but Saudi Arabia has promised to increase production to make up the difference. Still, gas prices in the United States have increased 25 percent in the past month. Diwan said the White House is sending the right message. "It's a good idea to signal the readiness to use it. But the conditions for using it are not there yet," he said. "It might help slow some of the speculation, but more importantly signal to the broader market that policy makers are watching." There is political pressure too. With the economy just starting to rebound, drivers (also known as voters) are complaining about gas prices. "This is probably not about economics. It's about when the public wants the political system to have an answer for something, they come up with an answer for something. And the answer is something called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," said Peter Van Doren, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Van Doren studied an earlier release from the reserve made by President Clinton in 2000 shortly before an election. He concluded politics played a prominent role, and there was no proof the release of oil actually led to a decrease in gas prices. Food for thought for President Obama."This decision would be, I think, have some, a bad odor to it. And so he's probably weighing whether the politics will go north or south," Van Doren said. As a candidate, Obama was not adverse to a release from the oil reserve in 2008. And while he's now considering such a move, he certainly didn't seem to be contemplating such a move two weeks ago when he said, "We actually think that we'll be able to ride out the Libya situation and it will stabilize."

The head of marketing for Research In Motion will leave the company in six months, raising questions about BlackBerry branding as the smartphone maker gets set to launch its long-awaited PlayBook tablet. Keith Pardy, who joined the Canadian technology company in December 2009, decided to leave for personal reasons, RIM said in a statement on Friday. He will stay with the company for the next six months to help with transition. His surprise resignation comes weeks before the expected launch of RIM's PlayBook -- supra almost a year after the introduction of Apple's iPad tablet. The RIM offering will also have to compete against devices powered by Google's Android platform. The appeal of the BlackBerry brand - once equal with Apple's -- has withered under Pardy's stewardship, according to a January ranking from Brand Keys consultancy. "The brand's been losing resonance over the past few years. It does not have the brand cachet ... to engage consumers the way an iPhone does," Brand Keys president Robert Passikoff said. RIM has sought to keep PlayBook in the minds of consumers and business customers with a drip feed of announcements and trade show appearances since first lifting the covers on the tablet in September. The company has yet to announce when it will ship or give details of its pricing. In contrast, Apple founder Steve Jobs received a standing ovation when he announced the iPad 2 on Wednesday. The product will ship later this month, possibly ahead of the PlayBook. But Pardy's imminent departure may not have much impact on the immediate success of the PlayBook when it finally launches, said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at market research firm IHS iSuppli. "Hopefully, when you're weeks away from product release, you've laid most of the groundwork for the marketing efforts," she said. "Others can execute the groundwork that's been laid out." Shares of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company dropped 2 percent to close at $66.47 on Nasdaq and at C$64.53 in Toronto. Pardy has long experience in consumer marketing. Prior to joining RIM, he worked for 17 years in marketing at Coca-Cola before joining Nokia in 2004.

Brent oil prices pushed above $116 a barrel and U.S. oil jumped more than $3 to its highest since September 2008 on Friday, as fighting in Libya worsened and protests in the Middle East intensified. Investors piled into the oil market fearing extended supply disruptions in Libya as rebels fought security forces in Ras Lanuf, a major oil terminal. And growing unrest in Bahrain and Yemen ratcheted up anxiety over Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Shi'ites staged protests on Thursday. Prices closed out a second big air yeezyweekly gain with news that hedge funds and big speculators had increased their bullish bets on U.S. oil prices by over 30 percent in the week to March 1, taking their net long position to a record high as they braced for further turbulence in the region. "Tension in the Middle East is like a runaway train," said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets in London. "Once it starts, it's very difficult to stop. And if there is a danger that it impacts the supply chain, people will understandably get nervous." Brent crude futures for April delivery rose $1.18 to settle at $115.97 a barrel, having reached a high of $116.49. Brent posted a 3.4-percent gain for the week, after rising 9.4 percent last week. U.S. crude for April delivery rose $2.51 to settle at $104.42 a barrel, the highest close since September 2008. West Texas Intermediate crude outpaced Brent for a third day, thanks to an upbeat U.S. jobs report and as traders took profits on short positions in the Brent/WTI spread after it hit a record $16.91 last week. Brent's premium to its U.S. counterpart fell $1.33 to $11.55 a barrel, based on settlement prices, continuing to retreat from last week's record $16.91. U.S. crude late reached a high of $105.17 in after-hours trade. The U.S. move was aided by data showing U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose more than forecast in February, hitting a nine-month high, and the jobless rate slipped to a nearly two-year low of 8.9 percent. News of refinery maintenance in Europe that will help offset the loss of Libyan crude also weighed on Brent. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces battled rebels on several fronts as the country's crisis worsened and unrest erupted in the capital. Rebels drove Gaddafi's forces from Ras Lanuf and have taken the eastern oil town, two rebel soldiers told Reuters by telephone. Al Jazeera television reported that an oil facility at Zueitina, south of Benghazi was damaged and on fire. Estimates of how much Libyan oil output is shut continued to creep higher, with the International Energy Agency revising up its estimate to 1 million barrels per day (bpd).

Two reports released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thursday reveal the sleep habits of adults in the United States, including their increasing tendency to get fewer than seven hours a night, hurting their ability to concentrate and raising the risk of driving. Residents of Hawaii have particular trouble sleeping well, according to the responses to one survey, and the CDC said more research on the matter is needed. In one report, based on a survey of nearly 75,000 people in 2009, CDC researchers examined four unhealthy sleep behaviors: inadequate sleep, snoring, nodding off during the day and nodding off while driving. Thirty-five percent reported getting fewer than seven hours of sleep on an average night, 48 percent reported snoring, 38 percent reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day sometime in the previous month, and nearly 5 percent said they'd nodded off while driving in the previous month. The number of U.S. gucci outlet adults reporting that they get fewer than seven hours of sleep rose from 1985 to 2004, and that increase could be attributed to trends such as the increased use of technology and more people working night shifts, the CDC said. Among people ages 25 to 54, nearly 40 percent reported getting fewer than seven hours of sleep. People over 65 were the least likely to say they got fewer than seven hours of sleep — about 25 percent of them reported this. About 46 percent of those currently unable to find work said they got fewer than seven hours of sleep, compared with 37 percent of employed people. And, of the 12 states in which adults were surveyed, Minnesota had the lowest rate (27 percent) of residents who got fewer than seven hours of sleep, while 45 percent of Hawaiians said the same. In fact, Hawaiians had the highest prevalence of all of the unhealthy sleep behaviors. The National Sleep Foundation suggests seven to nine hours of sleep per night for adults. Both shorter and longer durations can be worse for your health, the CDC said. More than 56 percent of men reported snoring, while 40 percent of women did. People ages 18 to 24 and those over 65 were the most likely to unintentionally fall asleep during the day — about 44 percent of these groups reported nodding off. And people ages 25 to 34 were the most likely to say they'd fallen asleep while driving sometime during the last month. Seven percent of them did, compared with just 2 percent of seniors, who were least likely to report this behavior. Nearly 6 percent of men said they'd done this, while 3? percent of women had.

Ind. Egypt's new prime minister holds two engineering degrees from Purdue University, and one of Essam Sharaf's professors says his ex-student is the kind of honest, progressive leader the Middle Eastern nation needs today. Egypt's military on Thursday named the ex-transportation minister to lead an interim government during the transition to civilian rule after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Sharaf came to the West Lafayette school in 1978, earning master's and doctoral supra store degrees. He did post-doctoral work in highway infrastructure management. Sharaf returned in 2006 to receive the Distinguished Engineering Alumni award. Engineering professor Kumares Sinha says his ex-student brought his family with him and told his sons "it all started at Purdue." Sinha calls Sharaf "a man who can change things" and "wants to advance the Arab world." Walker has said the state has to begin issuing layoff notices so that it can recoup the savings assumed if the bill passed. The layoffs will not be effective for 31 days and can be rescinded at any time. Some Democrats contend that the move is political posturing, and allege that the state remains solvent for now -- meaning that the layoff notices are unnecessary. All state workers except those that work in prisons, state hospitals and other facilities that are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week potentially could receive the notices.

A man armed with a handgun fatally shot two American airmen and wounded two others aboard a bus picking up U.S. military personnel at Frankfurt Airport yesterday, U.S. and German authorities said. A suspect, described as a 21-year-old from Kosovo, was arrested nearby, Andre Sturmeit, a Frankfurt police spokesman, said at a news conference at the airport, Europe’s third- busiest. Police haven’t determined a motive for the attack, he said. In Washington, U.S. gucci outlet President Barack Obama said the U.S. will work with German authorities and “will spare no effort in learning how this outrageous act took place.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking to reporters in Berlin, said the government will do “whatever is needed to determine what happened” in the “terrible event.” The attack may have started with an altercation outside the Air Force bus and then moved inside, said Manfred Fuellhardt, a Frankfurt police spokesman. While Fuellhardt said it appeared the gunman was acting alone, Obama said in his remarks that U.S. and German authorities will “ensure that all of the perpetrators are brought to justice.” The vehicle carrying 14 passengers was headed for the U.S. air base in Ramstein, southwest of Frankfurt, Sturmeit said. The security forces team, assigned to RAF Lakenheath air base in England, was on its way to an overseas deployment, according to an Air Force statement. The Air Force is withholding the names of the victims until their families are notified. Americans Targeted Spiegel Online, citing unidentified officials familiar with the matter, said the gunman specifically targeted American military personnel and was carrying a large amount of ammunition. Investigators haven’t determined whether the attacker was acting alone or as part of an organized group, Spiegel said. Relatives of the suspect in Kosovo described him as a devout Muslim who was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport, the Associated Press reported, citing an uncle identified at Rexhep Uka. Frankfurt Airport is operating normally, a spokeswoman for Fraport AG, the airport’s operator, said by telephone. She declined to be identified by name in accordance with the company’s policy. Germany had raised its terrorist threat level in November amid signs that Islamic extremists planned an attack in the country and the discovery of air-freight bombs. The anti- terrorist police presence at airports and train stations was scaled back Feb. 1. Obama said the shooting was “a stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our men and women in uniform are making all around the world.” --With assistance from Tony Czuczka in Berlin, Mike Dorning, Nicholas Johnston, Viola Gienger and Tony Capaccio in Washington and Christian Vits in Frankfurt. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Leslie Hoffecker.

U.S. crude oil futures hit the highest settlement in nearly 2-1/2 years on Wednesday as fighting in Libya intensified, raising more worries unrest could spread to other oil producers in the Middle East and North Africa. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi launched a land and air offensive to retake territory in Libya's east and later warned there will be a "bloody war" if the Unites States or other foreign powers such as NATO intervene. [ID:nKWStusJa] A Libyan warplane longchamp outlet dropped a bomb near an oil exporting terminal in the eastern port of Brega, helping extend the day's gains. Rebels warned foreign military help might be needed to "put the nail in (Gaddafi's) coffin" and end his long rule. [ID;nLDE721009] U.S. government weekly inventory data showed an unexpected drawdown in crude stocks and a higher-than-expected decline in gasoline stocks, also helping lift U.S. crude futures. [EIA/S] FUNDAMENTALS * On the New York Mercantile Exchange, April crude CLJ1 settled at $102.23 a barrel, trading from $99.21 to $102.41. The settlement was the highest since Sept. 26, 2008, when front month NYMEX crude closed at $106.89.Accessibility: Voice Over now reads the entire chart in stocks app while in landscape mode. Fixed issues that prevented controls from being dismissed, or that prevented the keyboard from returning when highlighting and swiping through search results ? Calendar: deleting a recurring event now make the alarm go away; fixed an all-day alarm going off an hour early. Canceled recurring CalDAV calendar events now removed on the event list. Fixed Exchange calendar event duplicating when passing Israeli daylight savings time. ? Language: updates inconsistent translations in Chinese, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese; fixes auto-correction issue when switch back from Emoji to English keyboard ? Mail: fixes orientation of Mail not following device orientation under specific conditions; fixes popover when drilling into a thread while the empty search field is focused; fixes mail message view and orientation when quickly selecting a message and hitting edit mode ? Safari: addresses issue that caused browser to crash after loading certain websites.

Just when oil markets appeared to be calming, crude prices surged again on Tuesday as the potential for more oil shipment disruptions spread across the Middle East and North Africa. With Libya’s oil exports almost entirely halted for the last several days, renewed unrest in Oman, Iran and Iraq rattled oil traders. An interruption of shipments from any of those countries would further tighten oil supplies, even as Saudi Arabia has rushedsupra store to fill the vacuum of Libyan supplies by pumping more oil from its fields. Gold prices also surged on the latest reports, and indexes on Wall Street declined sharply, with the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 1.1 percent. In the latest sign that the political contagion was spreading, demonstrators in Oman on Tuesday tried to block a major road leading to the industrial port town of Sohar. Protesters in recent days have set fire to at least one police station and two government office buildings in the normally stable Persian Gulf country, which is ruled by a family dynasty and is the largest non-OPEC oil producer in the Middle East. “To have protests in Oman, which had previously been seen as a sleepy gulf kingdom, heightens concerns that nowhere is immune from the contagion affects,” said Helima L. Croft, a director and senior geopolitical analyst at Barclays Capital. “Every day we seem to have a new country with a new problem.” Oman produces 860,000 barrels of oil daily, roughly 1 percent of world supplies, and its production has been rising in recent years with investments from Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Repsol and other international companies. Its importance is magnified by the fact that its crude is of such quality that it can be blended by most refineries around the world, although most of its exports now go to China and Japan. Oman straddles the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route through which 40 percent of the world’s oil tanker traffic crosses. On the other side of the strait lies Iran, another major producer, where there were reports on Tuesday that security forces had used tear gas to disperse protesters in Tehran. In afternoon trading, the price of light sweet crude rose more than 2 percent to $98.99 a barrel while Brent crude rose 2.5 percent to $111.94. Oil jumped above $100 a barrel in after-hours trading in New York. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose by nearly a penny on Tuesday to just over $3.37, which is 20 cents higher than a week ago. The rising tensions across the region also sent the Saudi Arabian stock market into a tailspin, with Saudi shares suffering the biggest daily decline in more than two years despite rising oil prices. The Saudi index fell 6.8 percent, to its lowest close since July 2009. Refiners around the world have been hoping that Iraq, as violence ebbed, would again become a major oil producer, with production stabilizing at 2.3 million barrels a day. But over the weekend rebels bombed the country’s largest refinery, seriously damaging an operation capable of producing 310,000 barrels a day of refined petroleum products. The attack came less than three weeks after a terrorist attack on a pipeline leading to a second refinery north of Baghdad.

Well, well, well. I’m sure you’ve been on the edges of your sequined armchairs waiting for my reaction to the new DWTS cast. Sorry about the delay — I had to spend the entire day figuring out who the hell these people are. Just kidding! Google is easy. No, I spent much of the day seeking out the rumored Star-Pro pairings for season 12. Sadly, Enthusiastic Activia Lady Jamie Lee Curtis could not find time in her busy schedule of eating yogurt and crafting paper bracelets to answer my late November prayers. WTF, EAL? The couples in the running for season 12′s COVETED MIRRORBALL TROPHY…. are…. longchamp outlet coming up, after the break! ‘DANCING WITH THE STARS’: THE SEASON 12 COUPLES I’m most excited about Kirstie and Maks. The Fat Actress and TV’s Ukrainian Bachelor have now both carried shows on their own, so I expect this to be a totally insane weight loss/sitcom/soap opera/reality show wrapped up very ungracefully into a low-fat sun-dried tomato pita. For a preview of what to expect from Kirstie in the spotlight, watch all 13 episodes of HBO’s The Comeback and then imagine Valerie Cherish eating her feelings for 15 more years. Boom. Even though this stable of extra-fringed My Little Ponies has less star power than we’ve seen in some other seasons, I’m pretty much cool with anyone at this point. My DWTS enjoyment is never really dependent on the Stars, anyway. For me, it’s about the things that will never ever change: our fearless hosts Tom and Boobs, the crazy set, Bruno’s salacious verbal warfare, inexplicable song choices, assorted sparkly ridiculata, and — of course — Our Pros. They could throw in a toasted Ritz cracker into the mix and I’d be amused. (Oh wait, they did, in season 2.) In fact, my general reaction to this cast has been best summed up by esteemed gem-hunter JH, who commented: “People complain like this every year the cast is revealed. I don’t know much about them, sure, but I’ve still at least heard of eight out of the 11. And you know what? I don’t care anyway. I enjoy getting to know the personalities I might not otherwise be exposed to. I’d never heard of Kyle Massey last year, and look what a joy he was to watch! I really like that there seems to be no obvious frontrunner in the bunch. I’m looking forward to the show, Annie’s recaps, and gem hunting! Bring it on!

New Zealand will fall silent on Tuesday to mark the moment a deadly earthquake killed at least 154 people and shattered the city of Christchurch a week ago, with muffled church bells to ring and rescuers pausing briefly to grieve. The country has been asked to observe two minutes silence at 12.51 p.m. (2351 GMT) the exact moment a week ago when the magnitude 6.3 quake struck, levelling buildings and sending masonry and bricks onto streets filled with lunchtime shoppers and office workers. "I expect this to be a very emotional day," said local mayor Bob Parker. longchamp outlet "We will all get out of our motorcars, we will all stand outside our buildings, we will stand in the streets, gather in small groups, in communities around the city, and we will all observe that silence." Rescue workers have toiled day and night since the quake looking for survivors, but have found no-one since last Wednesday and conceded it is unlikely anyone else will be found alive. Police have said the final death toll will probably be around 240, making it the country's second worst natural dsaster.Prime Minister John Key has said there will be an inquiry into how buildings in the city hit by last September's force 7.1 quake were passed as safe for use. "This is an event which has claimed the lives of many, many people so we need to provide some answers...both within the buildings where there's been wide loss of life (and) the wider issues around the adequacy of the building code," Key told reporters. Concern had been raised about the condition of the 25-year-old Canterbury Television Building, which housed a language school and where nearly half the confirmed dead were killed. A local council building official has said the CTV building and another site of many casualties, the Pyne Gould building, had been inspected and cleared as safe, but the strength of the quake was well above building standards. The overall cost of the Feb. 22 and the Sept. 4 quakes combined has been put at about NZ$20 billion ($15 billion), with the second, more destructive, earthquake costing about three-quarters of the total. The government has said it expects to borrow more in the short term. A package of emergency support measures for businesses and workers affected by the quake has been announced "It will be the recovery of business that gives the city the greatest opportunity to rebuild itself, so it was a necessary package and it is probably the first of what will be ongoing support," Earthquake Recovery minister Gerry Brownlee said.Shops and cafes have begun reopening in less affected areas, including the first cinema, with limited bus and postal services. Power supplies have been restored to 85 percent of the city with a 41-tonne transformer to be installed later on Tuesday to help get electricity to the worst affected areas, where 10,000 homes have been marked as uninhabitable. About two-thirds of the city has water but large areas still need to be supplied by tankers, and people are relying on portable toilets for sanitation. Thousands of people have fled the city, and some have said they will never return. "We have had enough. We want to go to Australia. Enough is enough," said Gary Johnson, standing with his wife Lisa and two children, aged 4 and 6, beside their smashed house in the suburb of Avonside. Expatriate New Zealanders around the world have rallied to the city. In Britain, a group from the Christchurch area said they would meet for "a pint, a curry and a cry". Those on social networking site Facebook have changed profile pictures to black and red -- Christchurch's colours -- in sympathy with the city, with some living in the United States holding fundraisers.