Fossil fuel subsidies in focus at climate talks


DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump.


"Thank God that our country is an oil producer and the price of gasoline is one of the lowest," al-Kubaisi said, filling up his Toyota Land Cruiser at a gas station in Doha. "God has given us a blessing."


To those looking for a global response to climate change, it's more like a curse.


Qatar — the host of U.N. climate talks that entered their final week Monday — is among dozens of countries that keep gas prices artificially low through subsidies that exceeded $500 billion globally last year. Renewable energy worldwide received six times less support — an imbalance that is just starting to earn attention in the divisive negotiations on curbing the carbon emissions blamed for heating the planet.


"We need to stop funding the problem, and start funding the solution," said Steve Kretzmann, of Oil Change International, an advocacy group for clean energy.


His group presented research Monday showing that in addition to the fuel subsidies in developing countries, rich nations in 2011 gave more than $58 billion in tax breaks and other production subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. figure was $13 billion.


The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has calculated that removing fossil fuel subsidies could reduce carbon emissions by more than 10 percent by 2050.


Yet the argument is just recently gaining traction in climate negotiations, which in two decades have failed to halt the rising temperatures that are melting Arctic ice, raising sea levels and shifting weather patterns with impacts on droughts and floods.


In Doha, the talks have been slowed by wrangling over financial aid to help poor countries cope with global warming and how to divide carbon emissions rights until 2020 when a new planned climate treaty is supposed to enter force. Calls are now intensifying to include fossil fuel subsidies as a key part of the discussion.


"I think it is manifestly clear ... that this is a massive missing piece of the climate change jigsaw puzzle," said Tim Groser, New Zealand's minister for climate change.


He is spearheading an initiative backed by Scandinavian countries and some developing countries to put fuel subsidies on the agenda in various forums, citing the U.N. talks as a "natural home" for the debate.


The G-20 called for their elimination in 2009, and the issue also came up at the U.N. earth summit in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. Frustrated that not much has happened since, European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Monday she planned to raise the issue with environment ministers on the sidelines of the talks in Doha.


Many developing countries are positive toward phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, not just to protect the climate but to balance budgets. Subsidies introduced as a form of welfare benefit decades ago have become an increasing burden to many countries as oil prices soar.


"We are reviewing the subsidy periodically in the context of the total economy for Qatar," the tiny Persian gulf country's energy minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, told reporters Monday.


Qatar's National Development Strategy 2011-2016 states it more bluntly, saying fuel subsides are "at odds with the aspirations" and sustainability objectives of the wealthy emirate.


The problem is that getting rid of them comes with a heavy political price.


When Jordan raised fuel prices last month, angry crowds poured into the streets, torching police cars, government offices and private banks in the most sustained protests to hit the country since the start of the Arab unrest. One person was killed and 75 others were injured in the violence.


Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Sudan have also seen violent protests this year as governments tried to bring fuel prices closer to market rates.


Iran has used a phased approach to lift fuel subsidies over the past several years, but its pump prices remain among the cheapest in the world.


"People perceive it as something that the government is taking away from them," said Kretzmann. "The trick is we need to do it in a way that doesn't harm the poor."


The International Energy Agency found in 2010 that fuel subsidies are not an effective measure against poverty because only 8 percent of such subsidies reached the bottom 20 percent of income earners.


The IEA, which only looked at consumption subsidies, this year said they "remain most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, where momentum toward their reform appears to have been lost."


In the U.S., environmental groups say fossil fuel subsidies include tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels.


Industry groups, like the Independent Petroleum Association of America, are against removing such support, saying that would harm smaller companies, rather than the big oil giants.


In Doha, Mohammed Adow, a climate activist with Christian Aid, called all fuel subsidies "reckless and dangerous," but described removing subsidies on the production side as "low-hanging fruit" for governments if they are serious about dealing with climate change.


"It's going to oil and coal companies that don't need it in the first place," he said.


___


Associated Press writers Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report


____


Karl Ritter can be reached at www.twitter.com/karl_ritter


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Wall Street set for flat start on fiscal cliff angst


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened flat on Tuesday as the market remains hostage to negotiations in Washington on how to avert a "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy into recession.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> shed 1.38 points, or 0.01 percent, to 12,964.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 0.92 points, or 0.07 percent, to 1,408.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dipped 3.94 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,998.26.


(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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India Ink: International Olympic Committee Suspends India

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended India’s national Olympic Association on Tuesday because of government interference in its election process, two officials with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.

After months of warnings, the IOC executive board imposed the sanction when the Indian Olympic Association failed to comply with the world body’s demands for holding independent elections, the officials said.

In New Delhi, the acting president of the Indian Olympic Association, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, told the A.P. that the association “has not been intimated about any suspension so far.”

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Student group to go to court over Facebook privacy policy












VIENNA (Reuters) – An Austrian student group plans to go to court in a bid to make Facebook Inc, the world’s biggest social network, do more to protect the privacy of its hundreds of millions of members.


Campaign group europe-v-facebook, which has been lobbying for better data protection by Facebook for over a year, said on Tuesday it planned to go to court to appeal against decisions by the data protection regulator in Ireland, where Facebook has its international headquarters.












The move is one of a number of campaigns against the giants of the internet, which are under pressure from investors to generate more revenue from their huge user bases but which also face criticism for storing and sharing personal information.


Internet search engine Google, for example, has been told by the European Union to make changes to its new privacy policy, which pools data collected on individual users across its services including YouTube, gmail and social network Google+, and from which users cannot opt out.


Europe-v-facebook has won some concessions from Facebook, notably pushing it to switch off its facial recognition feature in Europe.


But the group said on Tuesday the changes did not go far enough and it was disappointed with the response of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), which had carried out an audit after the campaign group filed numerous complaints.


Facebook, due to hold a conference call later on Tuesday to answer customer concerns about its privacy policy, said its data protection policies exceeded European requirements.


“The latest Data Protection report demonstrates not only how Facebook adheres to European data protection law but also how we go beyond it, in achieving best practice,” a Facebook spokesman said in an emailed comment.


“Nonetheless we have some vocal critics who will never be happy whatever we do and whatever the DPC concludes.”


LOSING PATIENCE


Europe-v-facebook founder Max Schrems, who has filed 22 complaints with the Irish regulator, said more than 40,000 Facebook users who had requested a copy of the data Facebook was holding on them had not received anything several months after making a request.


“The Irish obviously have no great political interest in going up against these companies because they’re so dependent on the jobs they create,” Schrems told Reuters.


Gary Davies, Ireland’s deputy data protection commissioner, denied Facebook’s investment in Ireland had influenced regulation of the company.


“We have handled this in a highly professional and focused way and we have brought about huge changes in the way Facebook handles personal data,” he told Reuters.


Schrems also questioned why Facebook had only switched off facial recognition for users in the European Union, even though Ireland is the headquarters for all of Facebook’s users outside the United States and Canada.


Facebook is under pressure to reverse a trend of slowing revenue growth by selling more valuable advertising, which requires better profiling of its users.


Investors are losing patience with the social network, whose shares have dropped 40 percent in value since the company’s record-breaking $ 104 billion initial public offering in May.


Last month, Facebook proposed to combine its user data with that of its recently acquired photo-sharing service Instagram, loosen restrictions on emails between its members and share data with other businesses and affiliates that it owns.


Facebook is also facing a class-action lawsuit in the United States, where it is charged with violating privacy rights by publicizing users’ “likes” without giving them a way to opt out.


A U.S. judge late on Monday gave his preliminary approval to a second attempt to settle the case by paying users up to $ 10 each out of a settlement fund of $ 20 million.


Europe-v-facebook said it believed its Irish battle had the potential to become a test case for data protection law and had a good chance of landing up in the European Court of Justice.


Schrems said the case could cost the group around 100,000 euros ($ 130,000), which it hoped to raise via crowd-funding – money provided by a collection of individuals – on the Internet.


(Additional reporting by Conor Humphries in Dublin; Editing by Mark Potter)


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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LeBron James Named Sports Illustrated's 2012 Sportsman of the Year















12/03/2012 at 10:00 AM EST







LeBron James on the cover of Sports Illustrated


Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated


All hail King James!

LeBron James is Sports Illustrated's 2012 Sportsman of the Year.

"He was the most dominant athlete this year – MVP of the NBA regular season, MVP of the NBA playoffs, led the Heat to the NBA championship and Team USA to the gold medal in London," Paul Fichtenbaum, Editor of Time Inc.'s Sports Group tells PEOPLE.

At just 27, the eight-time NBA All-Star and former all-time leading scorer of the Cleveland Cavaliers joins athletes including his teammate Dwayne Wade, Brett Favre, Michael Phelps, Derek Jeter and Drew Brees.

"The intangibles [James] brought to the court were significant in leading his teams to victory. He was a selfless player, doing whatever it took to will the Heat and Team USA, making all of his teammates better," Fichtenbaum says.

But it was more than his athleticism that led to James being honored. The basketball player – who is dad to LeBron Jr., 8, and Bryce, 5, with finacée Savannah Brinson – established a program to benefit children in Akron, Ohio.

Fichtenbaum says: "The program he built and developed in [the] Akron school district for young kids had a profound effect on children who ordinarily might fall through the cracks of an educational system," he says. "He didn't just lend his name to a cause, he was directly involved."

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Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — The now familiar term "Asperger's disorder" is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But "dyslexia" and other learning disorders remain.

The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation's psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.

Full details of all the revisions will come next May when the American Psychiatric Association's new diagnostic manual is published, but the impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

This diagnostic guide "defines what constellations of symptoms" doctors recognize as mental disorders, said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor. More important, he said, it "shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care."

Olfson was not involved in the revision process. The changes were approved Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., by the psychiatric association's board of trustees.

The aim is not to expand the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, but to ensure that affected children and adults are more accurately diagnosed so they can get the most appropriate treatment, said Dr. David Kupfer. He chaired the task force in charge of revising the manual and is a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

One of the most hotly argued changes was how to define the various ranges of autism. Some advocates opposed the idea of dropping the specific diagnosis for Asperger's disorder. People with that disorder often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on narrow subjects but lack social skills. Some who have the condition embrace their quirkiness and vow to continue to use the label.

And some Asperger's families opposed any change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services.

But the revision will not affect their education services, experts say.

The new manual adds the term "autism spectrum disorder," which already is used by many experts in the field. Asperger's disorder will be dropped and incorporated under that umbrella diagnosis. The new category will include kids with severe autism, who often don't talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms.

Kelli Gibson of Battle Creek, Mich., who has four sons with various forms of autism, said Saturday she welcomes the change. Her boys all had different labels in the old diagnostic manual, including a 14-year-old with Asperger's.

"To give it separate names never made sense to me," Gibson said. "To me, my children all had autism."

Three of her boys receive special education services in public school; the fourth is enrolled in a school for disabled children. The new autism diagnosis won't affect those services, Gibson said. She also has a 3-year-old daughter without autism.

People with dyslexia also were closely watching for the new updated doctors' guide. Many with the reading disorder did not want their diagnosis to be dropped. And it won't be. Instead, the new manual will have a broader learning disorder category to cover several conditions including dyslexia, which causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words.

The trustees on Saturday made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several work groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

The revised guidebook "represents a significant step forward for the field. It will improve our ability to accurately diagnose psychiatric disorders," Dr. David Fassler, the group's treasurer and a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said after the vote.

The shorthand name for the new edition, the organization's fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, is DSM-5. Group leaders said specifics won't be disclosed until the manual is published but they confirmed some changes. A 2000 edition of the manual made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

Olfson said the manual "seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 ... there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders."

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who was on the psychiatric group's autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger's in the old manual would be included in the new diagnosis.

One reason for the change is that some states and school systems don't provide services for children and adults with Asperger's, or provide fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Autism researcher Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said small studies have suggested the new criteria will be effective. But she said it will be crucial to monitor so that children don't lose services.

Other changes include:

—A new diagnosis for severe recurrent temper tantrums — disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Critics say it will medicalize kids' who have normal tantrums. Supporters say it will address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings and affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums.

—Eliminating the term "gender identity disorder." It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender. But many activists believe the condition isn't a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with "gender dysphoria," which means emotional distress over one's gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner .

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Wall Street up on China, U.S. data on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 rose for a fourth straight day on Monday as upbeat Chinese factory data lifted sentiment, but concerns over budget dealings in Washington are expected to keep traders cautious.


China's economy picked up in November even as a broader global recovery remains fragile, with factory activity patchy elsewhere in Asia as demand from the developed world remains weak.


"The good news out of China is encouraging and that's adding to the risk trade this morning," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.


Markets have focused for weeks on negotiations in Washington over some $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes scheduled to kick in next year that could tip the U.S. economy back into recession.


Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pushed Republicans on Sunday to offer specific ideas to cut the deficit and predicted that they would agree to raise tax rates on the rich to obtain a year-end deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff."


"Right now for both sides it's all about staying firm and determined to go to the very end," Cardillo said about the negotiations. "But we all know the stakes are high and (Congress) can't be that stupid as to induce another recession."


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 53.45 points, or 0.41 percent, to 13,079.03. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 6.79 points, or 0.48 percent, to 1,422.97. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 18.21 points, or 0.61 percent, to 3,028.45.


The S&P 500 on Friday closed its fifth positive month in six and is up 8 percent since the end of May.


The Institute for Supply Management releases its November manufacturing index at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey expect a reading of 51.3 for the main index versus 51.7 in October.


Also at 10 a.m., the Commerce Department releases October construction spending data. Economists forecast a rise of 0.5 percent compared with a 0.6 percent rise in September.


(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, editing by Nick Zieminski)


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Attackers at U.S.-Afghan Base Wore Coalition Uniforms





KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban forces attacked a large coalition airfield in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday, detonating three car bombs near the entrance and engaging in a two-hour gun battle that killed nine insurgents, four Afghan guards and at least four civilians whose vehicle was caught in the cross-fire, Afghan officials and witnesses said.







Noorullah Shirzada/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Afghan forces blocked the road to Forward Operating Base Fenty after an assault. Nine insurgents were killed, officials said.






Disguised in coalition military uniforms, the Taliban fighters attempted to enter the airfield, known as Forward Operating Base Fenty, after the initial explosions, which occurred just before 6 a.m., but were repelled by firepower that included helicopter gunships, officials said. Fewer than 10 coalition service members were wounded, according to official reports, though by late Sunday it remained unclear exactly how many had been hurt, and how severely. At least one of the guards killed in the fighting was a member of the Afghan military.


The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the operation, saying they had killed “tens” of foreign forces, though the insurgents routinely overstate the deadliness of their attacks.


But the coordinated assault, which left the entry to the base strewn with the remains of the bombers, was a potent reminder of the Taliban’s determination to continue the fight. As the coalition forces wind down the 11-year war, and with Western combat troops already withdrawing, the attacks serve as a reminder that the Taliban are not going anywhere, and that their firepower remains undiminished. How successful the nation’s defenses will be after the 2014 withdrawal of coalition forces is a question asked by many Afghans.


Forward Operating Base Fenty is primarily run by Americans and is one of the larger airfields in eastern Afghanistan. Like other large coalition bases, Fenty has been attacked before, including in February, when a suicide blast killed nine Afghans. The assaults have, in most cases, been repulsed before the insurgents could fight their way inside bases, and coalition casualties have been minimal, as appears to have been the case on Sunday.


But the Afghans who work or live near the base have not been so fortunate. Afghan officials said that two of the civilians killed were doctors, their car riddled by gunfire about 50 yards from the base. The doctors had been on their way to work in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar Province, said Hajji Niamatullah Khan, the district governor of Behsood. In addition, at least three private security guards on duty at the outer perimeter were killed, he said.


Coalition forces had few details about the extent of the damage from the Taliban assault.


Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said medical evacuation helicopters could be seen ferrying dead and wounded American soldiers from the scene, “which shows that heavy casualties were inflicted” by the attackers.


He also claimed that a Toyota sport utility vehicle packed with explosives had leveled one of the guard towers. He said that some of the attackers were wearing “foreign” military uniforms, a tactic that the Taliban have employed in previous assaults on coalition bases. An official from the American-led coalition confirmed that at least some of the attackers wore coalition uniforms.


The last major assault against a coalition base was in September, when the Taliban blew up eight Harrier attack jets and killed two Marines at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province. The militants, wearing United States Army uniforms, caused more than $200 million in damage in that attack.


Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.



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Hands-On With the World-Changing $40 Tablet












Aakash2


The Aakash2 is available for $ 40.41 (2,263 rupees), but the government of India will subsidize half the cost for schoolchildren. The tablet is conceived as a tool to help end India‘s rampant illiteracy. Aakash2 will bring school-age children connectivity and unprecidented access to books.


Click here to view this gallery.












[More from Mashable: Zynga Holiday Campaign Turns Virtual Goods Into Real-World Donations]


The Aakash2, the second generation of the monumental, ultra-cheap tablet from Indian manufacturer DataWind, arrived in the U.S. Wednesday, with a welcome at the U.N. Headquarters in New York.


DataWind is hoping to prove to the tech and development communities that the $ 40 Aakash2 is faster than its predecessor, the original Aakash, which was much-criticized for its glacial processor.


[More from Mashable: The Top 5 Gadget Innovations of 2012]


You may be wondering what exactly you can put in a tablet that sells for just $ 40.41. The 7-inch Android-powered device has 512 MB of RAM, a 1 Ghz processor, 4 GB of flash memory, a multi-touch capacitative screen, front-facing camera, an internal microphone and speakers. The Aakash2 includes a USB hub, an adapter cable, a wall charger and a 12-month warranty.


Sunseet Singh Tuli, DataWind’s CEO and the visionary behind the tablet, points out that Aakash2 wasn’t conceived for the same demographic as the iPad. It’s developed out of the requisite “frugal innovation” that guides India and the developing world.


“Frugal innovation isn’t about creating an iPad killer, it’s about creating an iPad for him,” said Tuli, pointing to a presentation slide of a lower-class man who’s primary motivation is to receive an education. “This is not a straight commerce effort — it’s an educational effort.”


Even the tablet’s name — Aakash, which means sky in Hindi — references that it was created to awaken students’ potential. The government of India has committed to subsidize 50% of the cost of the device for students, making it available for roughly $ 20.


According to DataWind, the technological breakthrough of the Aakash2, which is why the device can be made so inexpensively, is twofold. First, much of its memory and processing power is transfered to backend servers. Second, the parallel processing environment speeds the user experience in remote areas and congested networks.


The Aakash2 also eliminates hardware features deemed unnecessary for the target audience, such as bluetooth and the HDMI interface. It uses open source software to cut costs, as well.


“This tablet seeks to empower the world’s neediest and bridges the digital divide within our society,” said Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s permanent representative to the U.N. at the launch event. “To us, Aakash2 is the epitome of such high end innovation and excellence.”


The Aakash to was designed and developed in Canada, though it was conceived, assembled and programmed in India. DataWind and the Indian government have received criticism because the process is not entirely domestic, though both said they are committed to moving more of the production process to India when cost allows.


The Indian government has committed to equipping all 220 million students in the country with low-cost computing devices and Internet access over the next five years. To put that number in perspective, just 250,000 tablets were sold in India in 2011. It will cost $ 1.6 billion per year at the rate of equipping 40 million students for each of the next five years. The national government has committed to covering half the cost — $ 800 million per year — and will count on state governments and institutions to cover the remaining 50% of costs. Though it sounds like a daunting figure, $ 800 million is only 5% of India’s annual education budget.


“More and more schools in some of the most impoverished areas are using technology, text messaging and mobile applications to enhance the quality of education and open new doors,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday. “Our challenge is to leverage the power of technology and bridge the digital divide.”


During Wednesday’s event at the U.N., Tuli presented Ki-moon with an Aakash2 tablet for each of the U.N. ambassadors.


Not surprisingly, other countries throughout the developing world have noticed the Aakash tablet’s potential. Thailand, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil and Panama have all expressed interest in bringing the low-cost tablet to their students.


“The next arms race is to equip our children with knowledge and information,” Tuli said.


If you’re wondering when you can get your hands on an Aakash2 in the U.S., DataWind plans to begin selling the device in the U.S. in early 2013.


Do you think this low-cost tablet has the power to bridge the digital divide and combat illiteracy? Let us know in the comments.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum Are Married






People Exclusive








12/01/2012 at 06:15 PM EST







J.P. Rosenbaum and Ashley Hebert


Victor Chavez/Getty


It’s official: Bachelorette star Ashley Hebert and her fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum tied the knot Saturday afternoon in Pasadena, Calif.

Surrounded by family, friends and fellow Bachelor and Bachelorette alumni like Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick, the couple said "I do" in an outdoor ceremony officiated by franchise host Chris Harrison.

"Today is all about our friends and family," Hebert, whose nuptials will air Dec. 16 on a two-hour special on ABC, tells PEOPLE. "It's about standing with J.P., looking around at all the people we love in the same room there to celebrate our love."

The 28-year-old dentist from Madawaska, Maine, met New York construction manager Rosenbaum, 35, on season 7 of The Bachelorette. The couple became engaged on the season finale.

Hebert and Rosenbaum are the second couple in the franchise's 24 seasons to make it from their show finale to the altar, following in the footsteps of Bachelorette Trista Rehn, who married Vail, Colo., firefighter Ryan Sutter in 2003.

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