Taco Bell? Taco 12 Pack Helps College Football Fans Claim MVP of Bowl Championship Series Parties

Easy-to-Carry Box Includes QR Code for Exclusive ESPN Content

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Looking for the perfect game day food to bring to your friend?s place for this year?s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) parties? Make the right call: steer clear of grocery stores, go up the middle, straight to Taco Bell? ? an official BCS sponsor ? and pick up the crowd-friendly Taco 12 Pack, available at participating locations starting Dec. 22 for a suggested price of $10. Prices may vary and exclude tax. This special limited time BCS box includes a dozen of Taco Bell?s classic, crunchy tacos boxed up and in-hand, and also features a unique QR code that gives fans exclusive ESPN video content and game analysis.

?his mom probably just dropped him off.?

Available through a unique QR code, ESPN college football analyst Mark May breaks down each BCS bowl game (Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio, Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Allstate Sugar Bowl, Discover Orange Bowl, Allstate BCS National Championship Game), as well as giving fans past BCS bowl game highlights plus current season highlights. Anybody picking up the meal will be able to go toe-to-toe with the guys in the booth ? and no doubt be the best couch analyst at any gathering.

Taco Bell?s Taco 12 Pack will be featured in advertising on ESPN in the weeks before the game, and during the matchup itself ? including a mini-mercial with May. The meal will be promoted in an integrated campaign that includes TV, radio advertising, in-store promotions, Web site and social media activity as well as public relations. The TV advertising, handled through Draftfcb, Orange County and beginning today, will include a 30-second spot called ?Make an Entrance,? with a voiceover saying that you can tell a lot about a guy by what they bring to a party. The first guy: a bag of chips (?lazy,? ?woke up late?). The second guy: a bag of ice (?I?m cheap, too?). Third: seven-layer dip (?his mom probably just dropped him off.?). The hero enters with a Taco Bell Taco 12 Pack, telling the party he?s ?confident, original ? and has at least 11 friends.?

About Taco Bell Corp.

Taco Bell Corp. ("Taco Bell"), a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE: YUM), is the nation's leading Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, signature quesadillas, XXL Grilled Stuft Burritos, nachos, and other specialty items such as Crunchwrap Supreme?, in addition to the Why Pay More!? Value Menu. Taco Bell serves more than 36.8 million consumers each week in nearly 5,600 restaurants in the U.S.

Source: http://feeds.businesswire.com/click.phdo?i=44a8f1bc9bd775cca723fb018dd2593b

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Spanish Christmas lottery dishes out billions (AP)

MADRID ? Days before Christmas, a tiny town of 2,000 in cash-strapped Spain found itself richer by euro720 million ($940 million) Thursday after scooping the top prize in the nation's famed Christmas lottery.

Billed as the world's richest, the lottery dishes out some euro2.52 billion ($3.29 billion) to winners across the nation.

The top prize ? dubbed "El Gordo" (The Fat One) ? was split among the holders of tickets bearing the number 58268. The number appeared on 1,800 tickets, giving winners euro400,000 for their euro20 ticket.

The state lottery agency said all 1,800 tickets with that number were sold in the town of Granen, located in the arid and barren northeastern Los Monegros area.

Spain is struggling to emerge from a near two-year recession that has left it with a eurozone-high 21.5 percent unemployment rate.

The Gordo lottery aims for a share-the-wealth system, rather than a single jackpot, and thousands of numbers yield at least some kind of return. Lots of people chip in together and buy shares of several or many tickets, meaning it is common for multiple prizes to go to the same town.

Other lotteries have larger individual top prizes but El Gordo is ranked as the world's richest for the total sum paid out.

The winning number was picked and announced by pupils of Madrid's Saint Ildefonso School in a nationally televised draw.

Since it began in 1812, the Dec. 22 lottery has become a favorite holiday tradition. This year, it sold an estimated euro2.7 billion in tickets and the state lottery agency estimated per-capita spending of about euro70.

Spain holds another big lottery Jan. 6 to mark the Feast of the Epiphany. It is known as "El Nino" (The Child), in reference to the baby Jesus.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_christmas_lottery

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US alarmed by violence in Egypt (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration pressed its concerns Wednesday with Egyptian officials over the ongoing violence and abuse of female demonstrators in Egypt.

The State Department said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had spoken by phone a day earlier to Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri to register deep U.S. unease about the situation, particularly well-documented attacks on women participating in anti-military protests by security forces. The conversation came after Clinton earlier this week bluntly called the treatment of the women a "disgrace" that dishonored this year's revolution that ended decades of repressive rule.

"It was a very productive call, all focused in the right direction," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the exchange between Clinton and Ganzouri. "She, obviously, said that she had been greatly concerned, and particularly alarmed about the horrible images. And he was very clear that the Egyptian authorities want to see their security forces operate within the rule of law."

As the elections continue, Clinton told Ganzouri that the U.S. wanted to see a "genuine inclusive democratic process" that respects the rights of all Egyptians, including women and minorities.

The attacks on the women came in fierce clashes beginning last week as troops broke up protests by activists demanding the immediate end to the rule of the military, which took power after the Feb. 11 fall of Hosni Mubarak. The clashes saw military police chasing young men and women through Tahrir Square and nearby streets, beating them with clubs and sticks. The crackdown has killed 14 protesters, mostly from gunshots.

In a speech Monday, Clinton decried the abuse, saying: "This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people," she said.

Her comments were denounced as interference by some Egyptian officials, but Nuland rejected the characterization.

"People around the world will hear the United States speak out in defense of our values and in defense of our interests," Nuland said. "The secretary of state is not shy on those subjects. We are going to speak out for the human rights of people around the world. We do not consider that interference."

On Tuesday, some 10,000 women marched in central Cairo, demanding the military step down and expressing their anger over the abuse of female protesters by troops during the crackdown.

The military issued a statement expressing its regret but did not apologize for the brutality, which included pulling women by their hair, beating them with truncheons and stomping on them as they lay on the ground. The image of one woman ? stripped half naked by the troops, kicked and stomped on ? has particularly enraged women and drawn a sharp rebuke from the United States and the United Nations.

Nuland said the U.S. was "gratified to see (the Egyptian military) recognize that these issues need to be addressed."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_egypt

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PFT: Harrison loses appeal on suspension

Getty Images

We handle the big injury stories Friday in the rumor mill.

The rest goes right here, in America?s most enticing weekly segment about the injury report.

1. Here are the players were updated during the day on the rumor mill: Kevin Smith, Andre Johnson, Colt McCoy, Justin Tuck, and?Kyle Orton.

2. The Eagles are ready to go, except for defensive end Darryl Tapp who is doubtful with a broken rib.

3. The Jets get running back Joe McKnight and defensive lineman Mike Devito back in the lineup for their game against Philly.

4. The Packers are short a number of key players once again: Linebacker Desmond?Bishop (calf), Chad Clifton (hamstring), wideout Greg Jennings (knee), and defensive tackle Ryan Pickett (concussion) are all out. Running back Brandon Saine (concussion), James Starks (ankle), and guard Josh Sitton (knee) are questionable. Starks says he?ll play.

5. The Dolphins list quarterback?Matt Moore (head/neck), tackle Jake Long (back), and tight end Anthony Fasano (ribs) as questionable. They all practiced on a limited basis and look likely to face the Bills. ?Linebacker Koa Misi (shoulder) is out.

6. Mark Ingram is out again for the Saints because of his toe injury.

7. The Bills will be without Peter King?s favorite tight end Scott Chandler, who is out with an ankle injury.

8. The Bucs will be without receiver?Arrelious Benn on Saturday night against the Cowboys.?Defensive end Michael Bennett (toe), defensive tackle Brian Price (ankle) and wideout Sammie Stroughter (knee) are all questionable. Bennett is the longest shot of the questionables.

9. Dallas has a number of questionable starters: cornerback?Michael Jenkins (shoulder), center Phil Costa (concussion), and linebacker DeMarcus Ware (neck). Costa has been cleared, but still may sit.?Ware is a safe bet to play.

10. Three Broncos secondary members are questionable: David Bruton (achilles), Brian Dawkins (neck), and cornerback Andre? Goodman (concussion). Only Bruton missed practice all week.

11. ?The Patriots listed safety Patrick Chung and tackle Sebastian Vollmer as doubtful. That way they can downgrade them to out on Saturday and then I can get a cheap post out of it while trying to cram my ?family time? in for the week.

12. Devin Hester (ankle) is questionable for the Bears. Jay Cutler (thumb), Matt Forte (knee), and Sam Hurd (5-10 kilos) are all out.

13. The Panthers list tackle Jordan Gross (ankle) as questionable for Sunday?s game. They really missed him last week, but he returned for a limited practice Friday.

14. Kyle Orton is officially probable (thumb) for the Chiefs. He?ll start on Sunday against the Packers.

15. The Bengals will likely be without running back Brian Leonard, who is doubtful with a knee injury. The Bengals get Carlos Dunlap back. Tackle Andre Smith (ankle) is questionable after not practicing Friday.

16. The Raiders will be without wideout?Jacoby Ford (foot) and running back Darren McFadden (foot) yet again. Cornerback Chris Johnson is away from the team following the death of his sister. He?s out.

The team could get Denarius Moore (foot) back. He?s questionable. Also questionable:?safety Michael Huff (hamstring) and running back Taiwan Jones (hamstring). They didn?t practice all week. Oakland is very banged up.

17. Half of the Ravens team is questionable: Linebacker Ray?Lewis (toe), cornerback Lardarius Webb (toe), kicker Billy Cundiff (calf), ?guard Ben Grubbs (toe), defensive tackle Haloti Ngata (back), defensive tackle Cory Redding (ankle) and cornerback Chris Carr (back). Lewis is expected to return to the lineup Sunday night.

18. Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb (head) is officially questionable. He was limited in practice during the week, but the Cardinals? beat writers think John Skelton will get the start.

19. The Titans list quarterback?Matt Hasselbeck (calf) as questionable. He?s expected to start. Look for wideout Nate Washington (ankle) to play despite being questionable. He?s been playing in pain for weeks.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/16/james-harrisons-suspension-stands/related/

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Snacks protection racket? 5 bodies found in Mexico

By The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - Mexicans got a rare glimpse into the rough-and-tumble student organizations at many of Mexico's universities Thursday, after five bodies were found buried at one group's headquarters in the western city of Guadalajara.

Jalisco state Attorney General Tomas Coronado said relatives had identified three of the dead as high school students who were reported missing along with two other people last week after they complained that the student group was demanding protection money to sell snacks outside a campus.

---

Hector Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images

Forensic investigators work at the site of a clandestine grave found in the garden of the Federation of Students of Guadalajara on Thursday.

Police uncovered three bodies in a pit late Wednesday and two more in another pit late Thursday. Investigators were trying to determine if the latest two were a fried-dough vendor and his son who went missing with the three teenagers, Coronado said.

The vendor, Armando Gomez, his son and three of his high school friends disappeared last Friday after going to the Federation of Guadalajara Students' headquarters, where the bodies were found. They went to complain that the student group was demanding too much protection money for allowing him to sell snacks outside a high school campus.

The first three bodies were found two days after two college students in nearby Guerrero state were killed in a clash with police after student protesters hijacked buses, used them to block a highway and fought officers with rocks and sticks.

Highly organized, semiformal and often violent groups are commonplace at Mexican universities. It is a phenomenon that dates back at least to the 1950s, but swelled during student radicalization in the 1960s.

The organizations have become less ideological over the years, however, and are now often linked to, or protected by, political bosses known in Mexico as "caciques," or chieftains. The groups sometimes act as enforcers to strong arm a politician's rivals, or freelance in extortion or petty robbery.

Distracted government
Political analyst John Ackerman said Mexico's current political atmosphere, with tension heating up before the July presidential election and a lame-duck central government distracted by the fight against drug cartels, may have emboldened such local groups.

"Cacique power is alive and well in Mexico," said Ackerman, of the legal research institute at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "This is another aspect in which democracy is still incomplete in Mexico."

The Federation of Guadalajara Students, known as by its Spanish initials FEG, no longer has any formal ties to the university, but it operates at high schools affiliated with the university.

The FEG specialized in charging food and soft drink vendors to operate around the high schools, according to one university official familiar with the group. While the group was once leftist, the FEG switched decades ago to supporting the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before losing the presidency in 2000, said the official, who agreed to discuss the group only if not quoted by name because he wasn't authorized to speak about it.

The FEG has a website in which it describes itself as "a student political organization ... teaching the promotion of Democracy and Tolerance." It lists no phone number or email contact.

On Monday, many Mexicans were shocked by the shooting deaths of two protesters at a demonstration by students from a rural teachers college in Guerrero state, but were not at all surprised students had hijacked buses, used them to block the toll highway leading to the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco and threw stones when police tried to clear the road.

Grenades planted?
The Guerrero state prosecutors office said students from the teachers college regularly block highways or take over toll booths to raise funds, but had acted with unusual violence in Monday's protest, which was called to demand more funding for the college.

Police called in to clear the blockade apparently opened fire on the students. Federal police have said it was state police who fired the fatal shots, while Guerrero officials released video of federal officers kicking and beating detained protesters.

Lawyers for the students and rights groups, meanwhile, are accusing authorities of planting grenades at the scene and an assault rifle on one student to try to justify the shootings.

Ackerman, at the national university, said he considered the shootings unjustified. But he added there were indications that "outside forces," perhaps directed by a former governor, may have infiltrated the protest in an attempt to create a politically embarrassing situation for current Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre.

"The long-standing tradition of using student 'golpeadores' (street fighters) to implement a strategy that authorities can't carry out themselves is alive and well in Mexico," Ackerman said.

?

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9485867-protection-racket-over-snacks-5-bodies-found-at-mexico-student-groups-hq

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Irish economy shrinks 1.9 pct in Q3 as cuts bite (AP)

DUBLIN ? Ireland's economy shrank by 1.9 percent in the third quarter, an unexpectedly large drop that raises doubts about the country's painful austerity efforts.

Friday's report from the Central Statistics Office dashed forecasts of only a minor reduction. Ireland is midway through a seven-year deficit-fighting program that requires at least modest growth to succeed.

The report said gross domestic product fell 1.9 percent in the July-September period ? the worst quarterly fall recorded among the 17 nations of the eurozone. Economists had expected a drop of only around 0.5 percent following two quarters of gains.

The third-quarter drop means Irish growth is averaging just 0.7 percent so far this year. Economists said they doubted that the economy would rebound sufficiently in the current quarter, if at all, to meet the government's modest target of 1 percent GDP growth.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin, said Ireland would "do well" to reach 0.5 percent growth this year "given the deteriorating world economic backdrop and the fall-off in global demand."

Fergal O'Brien, chief economist at the Irish Business and Employers Confederation that represents 7,500 companies, noted that Irish exports were still growing, while much of the quarterly fall was caused by a 20.9 percent drop in business investment in new equipment. "It is likely that some firms are slowing investment decisions again due to the deteriorating international outlook," he said.

But David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions representing about a third of Ireland's 2 million-strong work force, said the government's austerity program was too severe and "making recovery almost impossible."

"No economy can sustain the sort of ongoing damage that is being inflicted on us," Begg said. "The latest figures show, yet again, a big drop in domestic demand while retailers warn of more closures in the new year. We need growth and we need it quickly."

All sides agree that Ireland cannot hope to meet its goal of reducing its 2015 deficit to 3 percent of GDP ? the central objective of its year-old international bailout agreement ? if its economy doesn't grow sufficiently.

Ireland's latest austerity plans published last month are based on the presumption that Irish GDP will grow 1.6 percent in 2012 and 2.8 percent annually in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Gross national product, meanwhile, fell 2.2 percent versus expectations of a flat performance. Many economists consider GNP a better barometer of Irish economic fortunes because it excludes the largely expatriated profits of nearly 1,000 foreign companies based in Ireland.

Ireland this year is spending euro57 billion ? including more than euro10 billion in aid to its five nationalized banks ? but collecting barely euro34 billion in taxes.

To try to reduce the gap, the government is imposing euro2.2 billion in 2012 spending cuts and raising euro1 billion in extra taxes, including a 2-point hike in sales tax to 23 percent and a new national property tax.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund last year extended a potential euro67.5 billion line of credit to Ireland on condition that the country slash its deficits to the eurozone's 3 percent limit by 2015. The Irish government already has spent around half of that cash and hopes to return to borrowing from bond markets in 2013.

Ireland posted an EU-record 2010 deficit of 32 percent of GDP but hopes to reduce it to 10.1 percent this year.

___

Online:

Ireland's GDP and GNP, http://bit.ly/vTKjuI

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_ireland_financial_crisis

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A journalism professor derides Iowa and faces fury (AP)

IOWA CITY, Iowa ? Only a few weeks before the first Republican presidential contest, some Iowans are on the attack like never before.

They're writing angry blog posts, doing research to discredit their opponent and railing against elites, but this vitriol isn't aimed at Republican candidates. It's focused on University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom, whose article for The Atlantic magazine painted Iowans as uneducated Jesus freaks who love hunting and don't deserve the political clout they will exercise Jan. 3.

Every four years, some pundits and voters complain about the small, largely white states of Iowa and New Hampshire getting to play outsized roles nominating presidential candidates with their first-in-the-nation contests. But what makes Bloom's critique stand out is that it came from within and was expressed in brutal terms by a talented writer who spent years reporting on Iowa.

Add in some factual inaccuracies, sweeping generalizations and stereotypes about Iowans, and you have an outrage that is playing out from Sioux City to Keokuk (which he labeled "a depressed, crime-infested slum town".)

Bloom said he wrote the article to expose "uncomfortable truths and unconventional truths" about Iowa's population and economy and generate a debate about whether its four-decade run as the first caucus state should continue.

In the article, he paints Iowa's cities and rural areas as economic wastelands with little culture. He calls the state politically schizophrenic with Republicans living west of Des Moines and Democrats to the east. He describes rural areas as hotbeds for suicide and filled with the uneducated, the elderly and meth addicts. He calls the Mississippi River "commercially irrelevant" and describes cities along it as "some of the skuzziest" he'd ever seen.

Bloom, who is Jewish, complains that Iowans constantly talk about Jesus and hunting. "That's the place that may very well determine the next U.S. president," Bloom, a New Jersey native who came to Iowa in the early 1990s from San Francisco, concludes.

The response has been bipartisan. "Professor Bloom is engaging here in just a remarkable level of stereotyping. He should know better," said Sue Dvorsky, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Iowa. "He's done two great books about life in Iowa. This commentary is not worthy of him."

"The saddest part of all of this is he's a journalism professor for crying out loud!" added Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, a Republican. "This is a condescending piece that I'm ashamed to say was funded by my constituents' tax dollars."

Some online critics have told Bloom to leave the state, called him a liar and worse. Others have used sarcasm to hit back. RayGun, a store that sells Iowa-themed clothing, released a shirt congratulating Iowans for surviving "meth, Jesus, hunting accidents, crime-filled river slums and old people. Unfortunately, you are going to die sad and alone soon."

Bloom has gotten little support at the university, where he earns an annual salary of $107,000. Spokesman Tom Moore said Bloom "does not speak for nor represent the university." One professor called him a "smug, self-important jerk" ? on Bloom's Facebook page.

Critics argued Iowa voters were some of the most educated in the country. Others noted the state's unemployment rate of 6 percent is below the national average. Iowa's population is slowly increasing, not "dropping precipitously" as Bloom wrote.

Bloom, currently at the University of Michigan as a visiting scholar, said critics are missing the larger point that Iowa needs to confront its problems for future generations.

"You can chip away if you want at this story, but it raises some fundamental central issues that Iowans and Americans need to confront," he said. "I think America should sit down and have a collective discussion on the wisdom of how we select our president and how inordinately important Iowa is in that process."

Bloom said he faced similar attacks when he wrote the 2000 book "Postville," which chronicled the clash between Iowans and Hasidic Jews who moved in to run a slaughterhouse. He said he was vindicated years later when authorities cracked down on the abuses he chronicled.

But readers aren't sure this piece will hold up. Some are questioning Bloom's claim that the state's second largest newspaper had "He Has Risen" as a front-page headline to mark Easter in 1993. A microfiche of the page shows no such headline, but Bloom insists that's his recollection.

And then there were Bloom's claims about his family dog. Bloom wrote that "he can't tell you how often over the years" he was walking the dog when pickup truck drivers stopped to ask whether she's a good hunter. Iowans, he said, would never get a dog for amusement but only "to track and bag animals that you want to stuff, mount, or eat."

That line prompted several Iowa dog owners to insist they've never been asked that and to accuse Bloom of exaggeration.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_el_pr/us_iowa_caucuses_professor

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