RIM shows how BlackBerry 10 touch screen keys could rival its traditional keyboards [video]
Label: TechnologyConnecticut Shooting: Bodies Removed from School, Positively Identified
Label: LifestyleConnecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance
Mary Altaffer/AP
A horrific day turned to a night of unspeakable grief as parents received formal notifications that their children were killed in the Connecticut school massacre.
The last of the dozens of bodies – most of them children – were removed by early Saturday from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
"Our objective certainly was to positively identify the victims to try to give the families some closure," State Police Spokesman Lt. Paul Vance tells CBS News. "Our detectives worked well through the night. By early this morning, we were able to positively identify all of the victims and make some formal notification to all of the families of the victims."
The gunman, identified by multiple law enforcement sources as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10 and six adults, before taking his own life at the school. His mother also was killed at a different location, bringing the total death toll to 28.
Eighteen children were pronounced dead at the scene and two at the hospital; six adult victims were pronounced dead at the scene, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Wall Street Week Ahead: Holiday "on standby" as clock ticks on cliff
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - The last two weeks of December are traditionally quiet for stocks, but traders accustomed to a bit of time off are staying close to their mobile devices, thanks to the "fiscal cliff."
Last-minute negotiations in Washington on the so-called fiscal cliff - nearly $600 billion of tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January that could cause a sharp slowdown in growth or even a recession - are keeping some traders and analysts from taking Christmas holidays because any deal could have a big impact on markets.
"A lot of firms are saying to their trading desks, 'You can take days off for Christmas, but you are on standby to come in if anything happens.' This is certainly different from previous years, especially around this time of the year when things are supposed to be slowing down," said J.J. Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.
"Next week is going to be a Capitol Hill-driven market."
With talks between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner at an apparent standstill, it was increasingly likely that Washington will not come up with a deal before January 1.
Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York, will also be on standby for the holiday season.
"It's a 'Look guys, let's just rotate and be sensible" type of situation going on," Charlop said.
"We are hopeful there is some resolution down there, but it seems to me they continue to walk that political tightrope... rather than coming up with something."
Despite concerns that the deadline will pass without a deal, the S&P 500 has held its ground with a 12.4 percent gain for the year. For this week, though, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent.
BEWARE OF THE WITCH
This coming Friday will mark the last so-called "quadruple witching" day of the year, when contracts for stock options, single stock futures, stock index options and stock index futures all expire. This could make trading more volatile.
"We could see some heavy selling as there is going to be a lot of re-establishing of positions, reallocation of assets before the year-end," Kinahan said.
RETHINKING APPLE
Higher tax rates on capital gains and dividends are part of the automatic tax increases that will go into effect next year, if Congress and the White House don't come up with a solution to avert the fiscal cliff. That possibility could give investors an incentive to unload certain stocks in some tax-related selling by December 31.
Some market participants said tax-related selling may be behind the weaker trend in the stock price of market leader Apple . Apple's stock has lost a quarter of its value since it hit a lifetime high of $705.07 on September 21.
On Friday, the stock fell 3.8 percent to $509.79 after the iPhone 5 got a chilly reception at its debut in China and two analysts cut shipment forecasts. But the stock is still up nearly 26 percent for the year.
"If you owned Apple for a long time, you should be thinking about reallocation as there will be changes in taxes and other regulations next year, although we don't really know which rules to play by yet," Kinahan said.
But one indicator of the market's reduced concern about the fiscal cliff compared with a few weeks ago, is the defense sector, which will be hit hard if the spending cuts take effect. The PHLX Defense Sector Index <.dfx> is up nearly 13 percent for the year, and sits just a few points from its 2012 high.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)
U.S., rebels urge gloomy Moscow to help oust Assad
Label: WorldBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over President Bashar al-Assad's future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital.
"We want to commend the Russian government for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," the U.S. State Department spokeswoman said after a senior Kremlin envoy conceded publicly on Thursday that Assad's opponents could win the 20-month-old civil war.
"The question now is, will the Russian government join those of us in the international community who are working with the opposition to try to have a smooth democratic transition?" U.S. spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added in Washington.
In Marrakech, where his new coalition won recognition from other international powers as the legitimate leadership of Syria, rebel political leader Mouaz al-Khatib said he believed Russia, ally and arms supplier to the Assad dynasty since Soviet times, was looking for ways out of its support for a lost cause.
"I believe that the Russians have woken up and are sensing that they have implicated themselves with this regime, but they don't know how to get out," al-Khatib told Reuters. He held them "particularly responsible" for helping Assad with arms but said Moscow need not "lose everything" in Syria if it changed tack.
Under President Vladimir Putin, wary since last year's Libyan war of what Russia sees as a Western drive to use the United Nations to overthrow national leaders it dislikes, Russia has blocked U.N. efforts to squeeze Assad, who has also had strong support from his long-time sponsor Iran.
But Mikhail Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister and the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, was quoted as saying in Moscow: "One must look the facts in the face."
"Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out." The Syrian government, he said, was "losing control of more and more territory" and Moscow was preparing to evacuate Russian citizens if necessary.
Nuland said Bogdanov's comments demonstrated that Moscow now "sees the writing on the wall" on Syria and said Russia should now rally behind U.N. efforts to prevent a wider bloodbath.
"They can withdraw any residual support for the Assad regime, whether it is material support (or) financial support," she said. "They can also help us to identify people who might be willing, inside of Syria, to work on a transitional structure."
DIPLOMACY
International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who has met Russian and U.S. officials twice in the past week, is seeking a solution based on an agreement reached in Geneva in June that called for the creation of a transitional government in Syria.
But Russia has repeated warnings that recognition of al-Khatib's coalition, notably by the United States, is undermining diplomacy, and rejected U.S. contentions that the Geneva agreement sent a clear message that Assad should step down.
Nuland said the Brahimi meetings could lay the framework for a political structure to follow Assad:
"We've said all along to the Russians that we are concerned that the longer that this goes on, and the longer it takes us to get to an alternative political path for Syria, the only path is going to be the military one and that is just going to bring more violence.
"We all ought to be working together."
Bogdanov, whose government has suggested that Assad himself should be allowed to see through a transition he has promised, suggested the rebels and their allies were set on a military solution and he gave little hint of detente with Washington.
"The fighting will become even more intense and (Syria) will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of civilians," Bogdanov was quoted as saying. "If such a price for the removal of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable."
The head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said elsewhere: "I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse."
A U.S. official said: "Assad probably still believes that Syria is his and illusions can die hard. But Assad and those closest to him have got to be feeling the psychological strain of fighting a long war that is not going their way."
DAMASCUS BATTLES
But Al-Khatib, who played down Western concerns of sectarian Sunni Islamists in rebel ranks, warned that the fighting was far from over, even as it has begun to rattle the heart of Assad's power in Damascus. On Wednesday, a car bomb killed at least 16 people in a nearby town which is home to many military families.
"The noose is tightening around the regime," al-Khatib said.
"(But) the regime still has power. People think that the regime is finished, but it still has power left, but it is demoralized and however long it lasted its end is clear."
Day and night, Damascenes can hear the thunderous sound of bombardment aimed at rebel-held and contested neighborhoods.
The city's streets have now turned into a labyrinth of checkpoints and road blocks, with several major roads permanently closed off to traffic by concrete barriers.
"We escape from one place and trouble follows," said one grandmother, Um Hassan, as she described to Reuters her family's flight from one neighborhood to another as fighting seeps into the capital. "I don't know where we can keep running to."
Nonetheless, al-Khatib played down demands for their allies to provide heavier weaponry - a request long resisted by governments wary of anti-aircraft missiles and other hardware reaching Islamist rebels who might turn them against the West.
"The Syrian people ... no longer need international forces to protect them," he said, not specifying whether he meant a no-fly zone, arms supplies or other military support.
The opposition chief said he was willing to listen to proposals for Assad to escape with his life - "The best thing is that he steps down and stops drinking the blood of the Syrian people" - and outlined three scenarios for a change of power:
Al-Khatib ruled out the Russian proposal suggesting Assad hand over power to a transitional government while remaining president, saying it was "disgraceful for a slaughtered nation to accept to have a killer and criminal at its head".
The British-based Syrian Observatory said war planes bombed rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and artillery was hitting Daraya and Moadamiyeh, southwestern areas near the centre where rebels have been fighting for a foothold.
Syria has relied on war planes and helicopters to bombard rebel districts but Damascus denied accusations by U.S. and NATO officials that it had fired Scud missiles in recent days. The foreign ministry said the long-range missiles were not used against "terrorist groups," a term it uses for the rebels.
At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Michael Roddy) For an interactive look at the uprising in Syria, please click on http://link.reuters.com/rut37s
Home invasion victim gets help over Xbox headset
Label: TechnologyNORTH APOLLO, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania man used his Xbox headphones to call for help after being bound with duct tape and menaced with a gun during a home invasion.
Investigators say the 22-year-old suburban Pittsburgh man was playing video games in an upstairs bedroom when he heard his front door open. The man initially thought it was a family member but saw an armed man wearing a ski mask when he looked downstairs.
Authorities say the intruder bound Derick Shaffer and led him around the North Apollo home to locate valuables, then fled in Shaffer’s car. Shaffer reached a friend over his Xbox Live headset and had him call police.
The missing car was located about an hour later. Police questioned three people but are still trying to identify a suspect.
Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News
The Hobbit Is a Great Adventure That Takes Too Long to Arrive
Label: Lifestyle
Moviegoers, on the other hand, could have first breakfast, second breakfast and elevenses in the nearly three hours it takes director Peter Jackson to deliver the first third of this trilogy in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. (Part 2 is slated for next year.)
It helps that the cast is so engaging, particularly Martin Freeman as Bilbo, a kind, fussy sort torn between the comforts of his divinely cozy hobbit hole and the promise of adventure.
And what adventure it is!
Bilbo, wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the dwarves take on Middle-Earth beasts in glorious 3D battles. (Note: Viewers prone to vertigo should see the film in the old-school 24 frames-per-second format.)
Like The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is violent, but there are sillier bits meant to appeal to kids. Whether they can stick it out through elevenses is another matter.
Fewer health care options for illegal immigrants
Label: HealthALAMO, Texas (AP) — For years, Sonia Limas would drag her daughters to the emergency room whenever they fell sick. As an illegal immigrant, she had no health insurance, and the only place she knew to seek treatment was the hospital — the most expensive setting for those covering the cost.
The family's options improved somewhat a decade ago with the expansion of community health clinics, which offered free or low-cost care with help from the federal government. But President Barack Obama's health care overhaul threatens to roll back some of those services if clinics and hospitals are overwhelmed with newly insured patients and can't afford to care for as many poor families.
To be clear, Obama's law was never intended to help Limas and an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants like her. Instead, it envisions that 32 million uninsured Americans will get access to coverage by 2019. Because that should mean fewer uninsured patients showing up at hospitals, the Obama program slashed the federal reimbursement for uncompensated care.
But in states with large illegal immigrant populations, the math may not work, especially if lawmakers don't expand Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor and disabled.
When the reform has been fully implemented, illegal immigrants will make up the nation's second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent. The only larger group will be people who qualify for insurance but fail to enroll, according to a 2012 study by the Washington-based Urban Institute.
And since about two-thirds of illegal immigrants live in just eight states, those areas will have a disproportionate share of the uninsured to care for.
In communities "where the number of undocumented immigrants is greatest, the strain has reached the breaking point," Rich Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Association, wrote last year in a letter to Obama, asking him to keep in mind the uncompensated care hospitals gave to that group. "In response, many hospitals have had to curtail services, delay implementing services, or close beds."
The federal government has offered to expand Medicaid, but states must decide whether to take the deal. And in some of those eight states — including Texas, Florida and New Jersey — hospitals are scrambling to determine whether they will still have enough money to treat the remaining uninsured.
Without a Medicaid expansion, the influx of new patients and the looming cuts in federal funding could inflict "a double whammy" in Texas, said David Lopez, CEO of the Harris Health System in Houston, which spends 10 to 15 percent of its $1.2 billion annual budget to care for illegal immigrants.
Realistically, taxpayers are already paying for some of the treatment provided to illegal immigrants because hospitals are required by law to stabilize and treat any patients that arrive in an emergency room, regardless of their ability to pay. The money to cover the costs typically comes from federal, state and local taxes.
A solid accounting of money spent treating illegal immigrants is elusive because most hospitals do not ask for immigration status. But some states have tried.
California, which is home to the nation's largest population of illegal immigrants, spent an estimated $1.2 billion last year through Medicaid to care for 822,500 illegal immigrants.
The New Jersey Hospital Association in 2010 estimated that it cost between $600 million and $650 million annually to treat 550,000 illegal immigrants.
And in Texas, a 2010 analysis by the Health and Human Services Commission found that the agency had provided $96 million in benefits to illegal immigrants, up from $81 million two years earlier. The state's public hospital districts spent an additional $717 million in uncompensated care to treat that population.
If large states such as Florida and Texas make good on their intention to forgo federal money to expand Medicaid, the decision "basically eviscerates" the effects of the health care overhaul in those areas because of "who lives there and what they're eligible for," said Lisa Clemans-Cope, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute.
Seeking to curb expenses, hospitals might change what qualifies as an emergency or cap the number of uninsured patients they treat. And although it's believed states with the most illegal immigrants will face a smaller cut, they will still lose money.
The potential impacts of reform are a hot topic at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In addition to offering its own charity care, some MD Anderson oncologists volunteer at a county-funded clinic at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital that largely treats the uninsured.
"In a sense we've been in the worst-case scenario in Texas for a long time," said Lewis Foxhall, MD Anderson's vice president of health policy in Houston. "The large number of uninsured and the large low-income population creates a very difficult problem for us."
Community clinics are a key part of the reform plan and were supposed to take up some of the slack for hospitals. Clinics received $11 billion in new funding over five years so they could expand to help care for a swell of newly insured who might otherwise overwhelm doctors' offices. But in the first year, $600 million was cut from the centers' usual allocation, leaving many to use the money to fill gaps rather than expand.
There is concern that clinics could themselves be inundated with newly insured patients, forcing many illegal immigrants back to emergency rooms.
Limas, 44, moved to the border town of Alamo 13 years ago with her husband and three daughters. Now single, she supports the family by teaching a citizenship class in Spanish at the local community center and selling cookies and cakes she whips up in her trailer. Soon, she hopes to seek a work permit of her own.
For now, the clinic helps with basic health care needs. If necessary, Limas will return to the emergency room, where the attendants help her fill out paperwork to ensure the government covers the bills she cannot afford.
"They always attended to me," she said, "even though it's slow."
___
Sherman can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/chrisshermanAP .
Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .
Wall Street steady on "cliff" apprehension, Apple drops
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Friday, with the Nasdaq weighed by a 3-percent drop in shares of tech giant Apple, amid investor worries about a lack of progress by politicians in ongoing fiscal negotiations.
Apple was down 2.8 percent at $515.11 as UBS cut its price target to $700 from $780. The stock has tumbled in recent months for a variety of reasons, including investors locking in profits ahead of scheduled capital-gains increases for next year.
President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner held a "frank" meeting Thursday to try to break an impasse in negotiations over the "fiscal cliff," tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in early in 2013.
"The uncertainty that (the fiscal talks) is creating is basically holding the markets hostage in the short term," said Andres Garcia-Amaya, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, in New York.
Frustration has mounted over the lack of progress in the discussions, with market participants' worries reflected in a 0.6 percent drop in the S&P 500 on Thursday. Investors are concerned that going over the cliff could tip the economy back into recession. While a deal is expected to ultimately be reached, a drawn-out debate - like the one seen over 2011's debt ceiling - can erode confidence.
Still, expectations of an eventual agreement have helped the S&P 500 bounce back over the last month, and on Wednesday, the index hit its highest intraday level since late October. For the year, the S&P has advanced more than 12 percent.
"For the end of this year, I wouldn't expect a lot of big decisions by investors," Garcia-Amaya said. "It's been a fairly good year for equities and for that reason a lot of people don't want to be a hero going into the end of the year."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> edged up 11.05 points, or 0.08 percent, at 13,181.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> slipped 2.49 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,416.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> lost 12.62 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,979.54.
Best Buy Co Inc
Consumer prices fell in November for the first time in six months, indicating U.S. inflation pressures were muted. A separate report showed manufacturing grew at its swiftest pace in eight months in December.
Meanwhile, data out of China was encouraging for its key trading partners, including the U.S., and for the prospects for global growth. It showed manufacturing in the world's second-largest economy grew at its fastest pace in 14 months in December.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Russia says Syrian rebels might win
Label: WorldMOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia's Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict.
"One must look the facts in the face," Russia's state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. "Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out."
Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister and the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, said the Syrian government was "losing control of more and more territory" and Moscow was preparing to evacuate Russian citizens if necessary.
Syria has relied on war planes and helicopters to bombard rebel districts but Damascus denied accusations by U.S. and NATO officials that it had fired Scud missiles in recent days.
The foreign ministry said the long-range missiles were not used against "terrorist groups," a term it uses for the rebels, who now hold an almost continuous arc of territory from the east to the southwest of Damascus.
The head of NATO said he thought Assad's government was nearing collapse and the new leader of Syria's opposition told Reuters the people of Syria no longer needed international forces to protect them.
"The horrific conditions which the Syrian people endured prompted them to call on the international community for military intervention at various times," said Mouaz al-Khatib, a preacher who heads Syria's National Coalition.
"Now the Syrian people have nothing to lose. They handled their problems by themselves. They no longer need international forces to protect them," he added in the interview on Wednesday night, accusing the international community of slumbering while Syrians were killed.
He did not specify whether by intervention he meant a no-fly zone that rebels have been demanding for month, a ground invasion - which the opposition has warned against - or arms.
He said the opposition would consider any proposal from Assad to surrender power and leave the country, but would not give any assurances until it saw a firm proposal.
In the latest blow to the government, a car bomb killed at least 16 men, women and children in Qatana, a town about 25 km (15 miles) southwest of Damascus where many soldiers live, activists and state media said.
The explosion occurred in a residential area for soldiers in Qatana, which is near several army bases, said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He put the death toll as 17, including seven children and two women. State news agency SANA said 16 people had died.
State television showed soldiers walking by a partly collapsed building, with rubble and twisted metal on the road.
The pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV said a second car bomb in the Damascus suburb of al-Jadideh killed eight, most of them women and children.
Apart from gaining territory in the outskirts of Damascus in recent weeks, rebels have also made hit-and-run attacks or set off bombs within the capital, often targeting state security buildings or areas seen as loyal to Assad, such as Jaramana, where twin bombs killed 34 people in November.
The Pakistani Foreign Office said security concerns had prompted it to withdraw the ambassador and all Pakistani staff from the embassy in the central suburb of East Mezzeh, a couple miles from the Interior Ministry.
BACK TO THE WALL
With his back to the wall, Assad was reported to be turning ever deadlier weapons on his adversaries.
"I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch said some populated areas had been hit by incendiary bombs, containing flammable materials such as napalm, thermite or white phosphorous, which can set fire to buildings or cause severe burns and respiratory damage.
The British-based Syrian Observatory said war planes were bombing rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and artillery was hitting Daraya and Moadamiyeh, southwestern areas near the centre where rebels have been fighting for a foothold.
At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts.
The United States, European powers and Arab states bestowed their official blessing on Syria's newly-formed opposition coalition on Wednesday, despite increasing signs of Western unease at the rise of militant Islamists in the rebel ranks.
Western nations at "Friends of Syria" talks in Marrakech, Morocco rallied around a new opposition National Coalition formed last month under moderate Islamist cleric al-khatib.
Russia, which along with China has blocked any U.N. Security Council measures against Assad, criticized Washington's decision to grant the coalition formal recognition, saying it appeared to have abandoned any effort to reach a political solution.
Bogdanov's remarks were the clearest sign yet that Russia is preparing for the possible defeat of Assad's government.
"We are dealing with issues of preparations for an evacuation. We have mobilization plans and are clarifying where our citizens are located," Bogdanov said.
A British Foreign Office spokesperson said the Russian position remained largely unchanged but the situation on the ground gave Moscow an interest in finding an agreed solution, even if the chances of such a solution remained slim.
"If Russia's position on Syria had been a brick wall, it is now a brick wall with a crack in it," the spokesperson said.
Paul McCartney Goes Grunge & 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief's Top Five Moments
Label: LifestyleMick Jagger and Kanye West
Larry Busacca/Getty; Dave Allocca/Startraks
Let's hear it for New York!
On Wednesday night, some of music's biggest stars came together for the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden.
The concert – which included performances from Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Alicia Keys, Kanye West and more – raised money to benefit those affected by the superstorm in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
With an all-star lineup, every moment was better than the last but here are our five favorites.
Mick Jagger's Still Got It
Maroon 5 wrote "Moves Like Jagger" for a reason! The 69-year-old Rolling Stones frontman proved on Wednesday night that age is just a number when he performed "You Got Me Rocking" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."
New Jersey Pride
Two of New Jersey's proudest sons Bon Jovi and Springsteen shared the stage for Bon Jovi's "Who Says You Can't Go home." As they sang the lyrics together, Madison Square Garden witnessed a moment the Garden State won't ever forget.
Kanye West Wears a Kilt
Always fashion forward, West had social media buzzing on Wednesday night when he performed in a leather skirt – his outfit choice even spawned a parody Twitter account, Kanye's Skirt. But girlfriend Kim Kardashian chimed in to let fans know she was supportive of the rapper's ensemble. "Awwwwwwww I'm so excited right now!!!!! He looks so cute!!" she Tweeted.
Chris Martin's Semi-Solo Act
The Coldplay frontman left his band at home to perform "Viva La Vida" followed by "Us Against the World" on piano. When Michael Stipe joined the singer for a duet of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion," a new take on the 1991 hit was born.
Nirvana and The Beatles Weren't That Different After All
When news first broke that McCartney would lead a Nirvana reunion 18 years after Kurt Cobain took his own life, fans had no idea what to expect. But Sir Paul delivered! "We're gonna do the song we jammed now," McCartney said introducing a new song with grunge-inspired vocals. Although Dave Grohl energized the set with his drumming, no one seemed to be having more fun than McCartney himself.
But not everyone was impressed by the performance. TMZ reports Cobain's widow Courtney Love was "not amused" by the reunion, saying "if John [Lennon] were alive it would be cool."
And, you can still donate: Visit www.robinhood.org/rhsandy to help.
Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney
Kevin Mazur / WireImage
Wall Street little changed as caution tempers data
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened little changed on Thursday after data showed first time claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, but investors were cautious about making aggressive bets in the midst of ongoing "fiscal cliff" negotiations.
Shares of Best Buy Co
Other economic data on Thursday showed retail sales rose in November after an October decline, brightening the picture for consumer spending.
Still, equities gains were constrained as the set of tax hikes and spending cuts that are set to come into effect in the new year remained at the forefront of investors' minds. Negotiators on Wednesday warned the showdown over reaching a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff could drag on past Christmas.
"With the suggestion that they're not any closer than they were a few days ago, we're really just in a market that's trying to figure out what the next catalyst might be," said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St Louis.
"I think we need to see either an actual plan or signs that they've worked out a way to be sure they don't end up disagreeing at the last minute. Either of those would be positive, but so far we're not seeing anything that suggests either one."
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a fresh bout of stimulus for the U.S. economy, but markets focused on comments from Chairman Ben Bernanke, who reiterated that monetary policy would not be enough to offset going over the fiscal cliff.
Investors are worried that doing so could send the economy back into recession, though most expect a deal will be struck eventually.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> inched up 2.11 points, or 0.02 percent, at 13,247.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> edged down 0.56 point, or 0.04 percent, at 1,427.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> eased 2.51 points, or 0.08 percent, to 3,011.31.
If the S&P 500 ends the session lower, it would break a six-day winning streak. Some of those days saw only slight gains on lower volume.
In the European Union, finance ministers reached a deal to make the European Central Bank the bloc's top banking supervisor. The move could boost confidence in leaders' ability to tackle the region's sovereign debt crisis.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 343,000, pointing to healing in the labor market.
Separate reports released at the same time showed producer prices fell more than expected in November, while retail sales rebounded though not by as much as expected.
CVS Caremark Corp
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)
North Korea launches rocket , raising nuclear arms stakes
Label: WorldSEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to opponents.
The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting targets as far away as the continental United States.
"The satellite has entered the planned orbit," a North Korean television news reader clad in traditional Korean garb announced, after which the station played patriotic songs with the lyrics "Chosun (Korea) does what it says".
The rocket was launched just before 10 a.m. (0100 GMT), according to defense officials in South Korea and Japan, and was more successful than a rocket launched in April that flew for less than two minutes.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said that it "deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit", the first time an independent body has verified North Korean claims.
North Korea followed what it said was a similar successful launch in 2009 with a nuclear test that prompted the U.N. Security Council to stiffen sanctions that it originally imposed in 2006 after the North's first nuclear test.
North Korea is banned from developing nuclear and missile-related technology under U.N. resolutions, although Kim Jong-un, the youthful head of state who took power a year ago, is believed to have continued the state's "military first" programs put in place by his late father, Kim Jong-Il.
North Korea hailed the launch as celebrating the prowess of all three members of the Kim family to rule since it was founded in 1948.
"At a time when great yearnings and reverence for Kim Jong-il pervade the whole country, its scientists and technicians brilliantly carried out his behests to launch a scientific and technological satellite in 2012, the year marking the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung," its KCNA news agency said. Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather, was North Korea's first leader.
The United States condemned the launch as "provocative" and a breach of U.N. rules, while Japan's U.N. envoy called for a Security Council meeting. However, diplomats say further tough sanctions are unlikely from the Security Council as China, the North's only major ally, will oppose them.
"The international community must work in a concerted fashion to send North Korea a clear message that its violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions have consequences," the White House said in a statement.
U.S. intelligence has linked North Korea with missile shipments to Iran. Newspapers in Japan and South Korea have reported that Iranian observers were in the North for the launch, something Iran has denied.
Japan's likely next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of an election on Sunday and who is known as a hawk on North Korea, called on the United Nations to adopt a resolution "strongly criticizing" Pyongyang.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman reiterated that the rocket was a "peaceful project".
"The attempt to see our satellite launch as a long-range missile launch for military purposes comes from hostile perception that tries to designate us a cause for security tension," KCNA cited the spokesman as saying.
"STUMBLING BLOCK"
China had expressed "deep concern" prior to the launch which was announced a day after a top politburo member, representing new Chinese leader Xi Jinping, met Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.
On Wednesday, its tone was measured, regretting the launch but calling for restraint on any counter-measures, in line with a policy of effectively vetoing tougher sanctions.
"China believes the Security Council's response should be cautious and moderate, protect the overall peaceful and stable situation on the Korean peninsula, and avoid an escalation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists.
Bruce Klingner, a Korea expert at the Heritage Foundation, said: "China has been the stumbling block to firmer U.N. action and we'll have to see if the new leadership is any different than its predecessors."
A senior adviser to South Korea's president said last week it was unlikely there would be action from the United Nations and Seoul would expect its allies to tighten sanctions unilaterally.
Kim Jong-un, believed to be 29 years old, took power when his father died on December 17 last year and experts believe the launch was intended to commemorate the first anniversary of his death. The April launch was timed for the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung.
Wednesday's success puts the North ahead of the South which has not managed to get a rocket off the ground.
"This is a considerable boost in establishing the rule of Kim Jong-un," said Cho Min, an expert at the Korea Institute of National Unification.
There have been few indications the secretive and impoverished state, where the United Nations estimates a third of people are malnourished, has made any advances in opening up economically over the past year.
North Korea remains reliant on minerals exports to China and remittances from tens of thousands of its workers overseas.
Many of its 22 million people need handouts from defectors, who have escaped to South Korea, for basic medicines.
Given the puny size of its economy - per capita income is less than $2,000 a year - one of the few ways the North can attract world attention is by emphasizing its military threat.
It wants the United States to resume aid and to recognize it diplomatically, although the April launch scuppered a planned food deal.
The North is believed to be some years away from developing a functioning nuclear warhead although it may have enough plutonium for about half a dozen nuclear bombs, according to nuclear experts.
It has also been enriching uranium, which would give it a second path to nuclear weapons as it sits on big natural uranium reserves.
"A successful launch puts North Korea closer to the capability to deploy a weaponized missile," said Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
"But this would still require fitting a weapon to the missile and ensuring a reasonable degree of accuracy. The North Koreans probably do not yet have a nuclear weapon small enough for a missile to carry."
The North says its work is part of a civil nuclear program although it has also boasted of it being a "nuclear weapons power".
(Additional reporting by Jumin Park and Yoo Choonsik in SEOUL; David Alexander, Matt Spetalnick and Paul Eckert in WASHINGTON; Linda Sieg in TOKYO, Sui-Lee Wee and Michael Martina in BEIJING,; Rosmarie Francisco in MANILA; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Robert Birsel)
Which Spice Girl Sizzled at the Viva Forever! Premiere?
Label: Lifestyle
Stylewatch
Style News Now
12/12/2012 at 10:45 AM ET
Landov
None of the Spice Girls dressed for their nicknames on Tuesday (well, maybe Posh), but they certainly spiced up the red carpet premiere of their new musical, Viva Forever!, in London.
Melanie Brown — Scary Spice — selected a sparkly gown with a high slit, while Sporty Spice, Melanie Chisholm, wore a structured gray mini. Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, pulled out a light-blue princess-like gown, and Baby Spice, Emma Bunton, chose a black mini covered up with a lacy blue overlay.
Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham, was the only member of the group to wear pants, selecting ankle-length slacks, a basic white blouse and simple black jacket (the rest of her brood was decked out in Burberry).
This reunion wasn’t quite as glam as the Girls’ turn at the London Olympics this summer — hello, bodysuits and Union Jacks! — but the stars gave us what we really, really wanted: some pretty major dresses. Tell us: Which Spice Girl wins your vote for best dressed last night? Vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comments!
PHOTOS: SEE MORE STARS ON THE RED CARPET IN ‘LAST NIGHT’S LOOK’
Wall Street climbs on stimulus anticipation
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose for a sixth day on Wednesday as investors anticipated that the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce a fresh stimulus plan to support the economy at the end of a two-day monetary policy meeting.
The Fed is expected to announce a new round of bond buying later on Wednesday to boost a fragile economic recovery threatened by political wrangling over the government's budget. The monetary policy committee's decision is expected around 12:30 p.m. ET.
The S&P 500 was up for a sixth day, its longest winning streak since August, although gains have been less than 0.5 percent per day, on average.
"The market is waiting on the Fed, anticipating the open check to be out again, but we will see. Anything less than enormous will be disappointing to the market," said Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of New Jersey-based brokerage Themis Trading LLC.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 35.56 points, or 0.27 percent, at 13,284.00. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 4.04 points, or 0.28 percent, at 1,431.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 4.31 points, or 0.14 percent, at 3,026.62.
With just two weeks of trading left this year, the S&P 500 is up about 14 percent so far; it ended the year flat in 2011.
BlackRock, one of the world's biggest asset managers, expects the S&P 500, the broad measure of U.S. stocks, to scale new heights in 2013 and reach 1,600 by the end of the year. That's a gain of more than 12 percent from current levels and would surpass the index's previous peak of 1,576.09 set in 2007.
Negotiations intensified to avert the "fiscal cliff" - tax hikes and spending cuts that kick in early in 2013 - ahead of a year-end deadline as President Barack Obama and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner spoke by phone on Tuesday after exchanging new proposals.
3M Co
Costco Wholesale Corp
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
IMF loan to Egypt delayed as crisis deepens
Label: WorldCAIRO (Reuters) - A vital $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan to Egypt will be delayed until next month, its finance minister said on Tuesday, intensifying the political crisis gripping the Arab world's most populous nation.
As rival factions gathered in Cairo and Alexandria for a new round of demonstrations, Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Said said the delay in the loan agreement was intended to allow time to explain a heavily criticised package of economic austerity measures to the Egyptian people.
The announcement came after President Mohamed Mursi on Monday backed down on planned tax increases, seen as key for the loan to go ahead. Opposition groups had greeted the tax package, which had included duties on alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and a range of goods and services, with furious criticism.
"Of course the delay will have some economic impact, but we are discussing necessary measures (to address that) during the coming period," the minister told Reuters, adding: "I am optimistic ... everything will be well, God willing."
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said Egypt had requested that the loan be delayed by a month.
"The challenges are economic not political and must be dealt with aside from politics," he told a news conference.
Kandil said the reforms would not hurt the poor. Bread sugar and rice would not be touched, but cigarettes and cooking oil would go up and fines would be imposed for public littering. In a bid to rebuild consensus, he said there would be a national dialogue about the economic program next week.
In Washington, the IMF said Egypt had asked for the loan to be postponed "in light of the unfolding developments on the ground". The Fund stood ready to consult with Egypt on resuming discussions on the stand-by loan, a spokeswoman said.
GUNMEN OPEN FIRE
On the streets of the capital, tensions ran high after nine people were hurt when gunmen fired at protesters camping in Tahrir Square, according to witnesses and Egyptian media.
The opposition has called for a major demonstration it hopes will force Mursi to postpone a referendum on a new constitution.
Outside the presidential palace, dozens of protesters succeeded in pushing down two giant concrete blocks forming a small part of a wall blocking access to the site.
Thousands of flag-waving Islamist Mursi supporters, who want the vote to go ahead as planned on Saturday, assembled at a nearby mosque, setting the stage for further street confrontations in a crisis that has divided the nation of 83 million.
In Egypt's second city of Alexandria, thousands of rival demonstrators gathered at separate venues. Mursi's backers chanted: "The people want implementation of Islamic law," while his opponents shouted: "The people want to bring down the regime."
The upheaval following the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year is causing concern in the West, in particular the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979.
The turmoil has also placed a big strain on the economy, sending foreign currency reserves down to about $15 billion, less than half what they were before the revolt two years ago as the government has sought to defend the pound.
"Given the current policy environment, it's hardly a surprise that there's been a delay, but it is imperative that the delay is brief," said Simon Williams, HSBC economist in Dubai. "Egypt urgently needs that IMF accord, both for the funding it brings and the policy anchor it affords."
The IMF deal had been seen as giving a seal of approval to investors and donors about the government's economic plans, vital for drawing more cash into the economy to ease a crushing budget deficit and stave off a balance of payments crisis.
MASKED ATTACKERS
In central Cairo, police cars surrounded Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the first time they had appeared in the area since November 23, shortly after a decree by Mursi awarding himself sweeping temporary powers that touched off widespread protests.
The attackers, some masked, also threw petrol bombs that started a small fire, witnesses said.
"The masked men came suddenly and attacked the protesters in Tahrir. The attack was meant to deter us and prevent us from protesting today. We oppose these terror tactics and will stage the biggest protest possible today," said John Gerges, a Christian Egyptian who described himself as a socialist.
The latest bout of unrest has so far claimed seven lives in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and opponents who are also gathering outside Mursi's presidential palace.
The elite Republican Guard which protects the palace has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the graffiti-daubed building, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades.
The army has told all sides to resolve their differences through dialogue, saying it would not allow Egypt to enter a "dark tunnel". For the period of the referendum, the army has been granted police powers by Mursi, allowing it to arrest civilians.
The army has portrayed itself as the guarantor of the nation's security, but so far it has shown no appetite for a return to the bruising front-line political role it played after the fall of Mubarak, which severely damaged its standing.
OPPOSITION MARCHES
Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups called for marches say the hastily arranged constitutional referendum is polarizing the country and could put it in a religious straightjacket.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition leader and Nobel prize winner, said the referendum should be postponed for a couple of months due to the chaotic situation.
"This revolution was not staged to replace one dictator with another," he said in an interview with CNN.
Opposition leaders want the referendum to be delayed and hope they can get sufficiently large numbers of protesters on the streets to change Mursi's mind.
Islamists, who dominated the body that drew up the constitution, have urged their followers to turn out to show support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning.
The opposition says the draft constitution fails to embrace the diversity of the population, a tenth of which is Christian, and invites Muslim clerics to influence lawmaking.
(Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Peter Graff and Will Waterman)
Miranda Lambert & Luke Bryan Win Big at American Country Awards
Label: LifestyleMiranda Lambert and Luke Bryan
Scott Kirkland/PictureGroup; Dave Proctor/Startraks
Luke Bryan may want to "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye," but he'll savor Monday night.
The headlining country artist was the big winner at the fan-voted American Country Awards, taking home nine awards, including entertainer of the year and male artist of the year.
"Rarely am I rendered speechless," he told reporters after his wins at the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas. "I don't know how to formulate a series of words that can truly tell how appreciative I am to the fans to make this night possible."
Though he's won previously at other award shows, Monday marked Bryan's first ACA wins.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Continuing her winning streak, Miranda Lambert didn't leave without some hardware. The "Over You" singer took home three awards, including female single of the year.
"Honey, we won an award," she said in her acceptance speech for female single of the year. Her husband Blake Shelton, who co-wrote the song, was unable to attend since he was in Los Angeles filming The Voice.
"We're on competing channels tonight. Blake and I live busy lives and we get to celebrate awesome moments together. I love that we have separate things," Lambert said. "As a couple I think it's important you have separate lives and hobbies and things to talk about when you get home."
New tests could hamper food outbreak detection
Label: HealthWASHINGTON (AP) — It's about to get faster and easier to diagnose food poisoning, but that progress for individual patients comes with a downside: It could hurt the nation's ability to spot and solve dangerous outbreaks.
Next-generation tests that promise to shave a few days off the time needed to tell whether E. coli, salmonella or other foodborne bacteria caused a patient's illness could reach medical laboratories as early as next year. That could allow doctors to treat sometimes deadly diseases much more quickly — an exciting development.
The problem: These new tests can't detect crucial differences between different subtypes of bacteria, as current tests can. And that fingerprint is what states and the federal government use to match sick people to a contaminated food. The older tests might be replaced by the new, more efficient ones.
"It's like a forensics lab. If somebody says a shot was fired, without the bullet you don't know where it came from," explained E. coli expert Dr. Phillip Tarr of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that losing the ability to literally take a germ's fingerprint could hamper efforts to keep food safe, and the agency is searching for solutions. According to CDC estimates, 1 in 6 Americans gets sick from foodborne illnesses each year, and 3,000 die.
"These improved tests for diagnosing patients could have the unintended consequence of reducing our ability to detect and investigate outbreaks, ultimately causing more people to become sick," said Dr. John Besser of the CDC.
That means outbreaks like the salmonella illnesses linked this fall to a variety of Trader Joe's peanut butter might not be identified that quickly — or at all.
It all comes down to what's called a bacterial culture — whether labs grow a sample of a patient's bacteria in an old-fashioned petri dish, or skip that step because the new tests don't require it.
Here's the way it works now: Someone with serious diarrhea visits the doctor, who gets a stool sample and sends it to a private testing laboratory. The lab cultures the sample, growing larger batches of any lurking bacteria to identify what's there. If disease-causing germs such as E. coli O157 or salmonella are found, they may be sent on to a public health laboratory for more sophisticated analysis to uncover their unique DNA patterns — their fingerprints.
Those fingerprints are posted to a national database, called PulseNet, that the CDC and state health officials use to look for food poisoning trends.
There are lots of garden-variety cases of salmonella every year, from runny eggs to a picnic lunch that sat out too long. But if a few people in, say, Baltimore have salmonella with the same molecular signature as some sick people in Cleveland, it's time to investigate, because scientists might be able narrow the outbreak to a particular food or company.
But culture-based testing takes time — as long as two to four days after the sample reaches the lab, which makes for a long wait if you're a sick patient.
What's in the pipeline? Tests that could detect many kinds of germs simultaneously instead of hunting one at a time — and within hours of reaching the lab — without first having to grow a culture. Those tests are expected to be approved as early as next year.
This isn't just a science debate, said Shari Shea, food safety director at the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
If you were the patient, "you'd want to know how you got sick," she said.
PulseNet has greatly improved the ability of regulators and the food industry to solve those mysteries since it was launched in the mid-1990s, helping to spot major outbreaks in ground beef, spinach, eggs and cantaloupe in recent years. Just this fall, PulseNet matched 42 different salmonella illnesses in 20 different states that were eventually traced to a variety of Trader Joe's peanut butter.
Food and Drug Administration officials who visited the plant where the peanut butter was made found salmonella contamination all over the facility, with several of the plant samples matching the fingerprint of the salmonella that made people sick. A New Mexico-based company, Sunland Inc., recalled hundreds of products that were shipped to large retailers all over the country, including Target, Safeway and other large grocery chains.
The source of those illnesses probably would have remained a mystery without the national database, since there weren't very many illnesses in any individual state.
To ensure that kind of crucial detective work isn't lost, the CDC is asking the medical community to send samples to labs to be cultured even when they perform a new, non-culture test.
But it's not clear who would pay for that extra step. Private labs only can perform the tests that a doctor orders, noted Dr. Jay M. Lieberman of Quest Diagnostics, one of the country's largest testing labs.
A few first-generation non-culture tests are already available. When private labs in Wisconsin use them, they frequently ship leftover samples to the state lab, which grows the bacteria itself. But as more private labs switch over after the next-generation rapid tests arrive, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene will be hard-pressed to keep up with that extra work before it can do its main job — fingerprinting the bugs, said deputy director Dr. Dave Warshauer.
Stay tuned: Research is beginning to look for solutions that one day might allow rapid and in-depth looks at food poisoning causes in the same test.
"As molecular techniques evolve, you may be able to get the information you want from non-culture techniques," Lieberman said.
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
Tech shares propel Wall Street higher; Fed eyed
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street opened higher on Tuesday, lifted by gains in shares of technology companies as investors picked up some recent laggards, including Apple.
Unexpected improvement in data out of Europe set the positive tone early as investors cast around for catalysts. The U.S. stock market has entered a traditionally quiet period heading into the end of the year, with thinner trading volumes.
The Nasdaq fared better than other major indexes, lifted by a 2 percent gain in Apple Inc . The company's shares have been beaten down recently, partly due to investors' booking profit before a possible rise in capital gains taxes next year. Apple was recently up 2.5 percent at $543.18.
Elsewhere in the tech sector, Intel Corp
Investors are picking up weaker stocks in hopes of a market turn around next year, said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.
"I doubt there's going to be a lot of conviction based on volume when everything is said and done at the end of the day," said Sheldon.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 90.31 points, or 0.69 percent, to 13,260.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 11.14 points, or 0.79 percent, to 1,429.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> climbed 33.73 points, or 1.13 percent, to 3,020.69.
Though the pace of talks in Washington to avert impending U.S. tax hikes and spending cuts quickened, senior politicians on both sides cautioned that an agreement on all the outstanding issues remained uncertain.
The lack of progress in negotiations about the "fiscal cliff" has kept investors from making aggressive bets in recent weeks, though most expect a deal will eventually be reached.
In Germany, analyst and investor sentiment rose sharply in December, entering positive territory for the first time since May, a leading survey showed. The data helped drive European shares higher.
The U.S. Treasury is selling its remaining stake in insurer American International Group Inc , bringing an end to government ownership of the company about four years after a $182 billion bailout. AIG's shares were up 3.6 percent at $34.55.
The Fed will begin its policy-setting meeting on Tuesday. The central bank is expected to announce a new round of Treasury bond purchases when the meeting ends on Wednesday to replace its "Operation Twist" stimulus which expires at the end of the year.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)
Egypt army gets temporary power to arrest civilians
Label: WorldCAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government has temporarily given the military the authority to arrest civilians to help safeguard a constitutional referendum planned for Saturday, the official gazette said.
The order, gazetted late on Sunday, said the military would support police and liaise with them to protect "vital institutions" until the referendum result is declared.
The decree gave army officers the right to make arrests and transfer detainees to prosecutors.
Despite its limited nature, the edict will revive memories of Hosni Mubarak's emergency law, also introduced as a temporary expedient, under which military or state security courts tried thousands of political dissidents and Islamist militants.
But a military source stressed that the measure, introduced by a civilian government, would have a short shelf-life.
"The latest law giving the armed forces the right to arrest anyone involved in illegal actions such as burning buildings or damaging public sites is to ensure security during the referendum only," the military source said.
"The armed forces secured polling stations during previous elections when it was in charge of the country," the source said, referring to 16 months of army rule after Mubarak fell.
"Now the president is in charge. In order for the armed forces to be involved in securing the referendum, a law had to be issued saying so," the source added.
Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said the committee overseeing the vote had requested the army's assistance.
"The armed forces will work within a legal framework to secure the referendum and will return (to barracks) as soon as the referendum is over," Ali said.
On Saturday, the military urged rival political forces to solve their disputes via dialogue and said the opposite would drag the country into a "dark tunnel", which it would not allow.
A statement issued by the military spokesman and read on state radio and television made no mention of President Mohamed Mursi, but said a solution to the political crisis should not contradict "legitimacy and the rules of democracy".
A military source close to top officers said the statement "does not indicate any future intervention in politics".
A military council took over after a popular revolt ended Mubarak's 30 years of army-backed rule last year. It then handed power to Mursi, who became Egypt's first freely elected leader in June. The military has not intervened in the latest crisis.
The army statement said the military's duty was to protect national interests and secure vital state institutions.
"The armed forces affirm that dialogue is the best and only way to reach consensus," it added. "The opposite of that will bring us to a dark tunnel that will result in catastrophe and that is something we will not allow."
Hassan Abu Taleb of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies said Saturday's army statement suggested the military wanted both sides to talk out their differences, but discounted the chance of direct military intervention.
"They realize that interfering again in a situation of civil combat will squeeze them between two rocks," he said.
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Alistair Lyon; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Connie Britton: Why I Adopted as a Single Mom
Label: Lifestyle
Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog
12/07/2012 at 04:00 PM ET
Cindy Ord/Getty
Connie Britton always knew she wanted to have a family — and she wasn’t about to let her single status stand in her way.
“I lost both of my parents within three years of each other and I kind of thought, ‘What am I waiting for?’” the Nashville star said during The View on Monday.
“The man will come and if I want to have my own kids I can do that, but I [knew] this was something I [wanted] to do.”
And after shining light on Africa’s orphan crisis, it didn’t take long for Britton, 45, to decide where she would find her first child. “I was going to do a documentary about Ethiopian orphans and spent a lot of time in orphanages there,” she shares.
“It was something I knew I always wanted to do — adopt from there.”
In 2011 the actress welcomed home Yoby – a “wonderful and life-changing experience,” Britton says — and, from the start, baby boy has been busy motivating his mama in ways she never imagined.
“It is really true, I sing to him all the time. Poor thing practically never hears me just say a straight word. I sing everything like we’re in a musical,” she jokes. “I guess he likes it. He wasn’t able to defend himself because he couldn’t speak until just recently.”
So when she was offered the role as country superstar Rayna James on the hit show Nashville, Britton didn’t think twice about belting out her voice. “When this came up, I thought to myself, ‘You know, I sound pretty good singing with Yoby. I’m sure I can pull it off.’ Not smart!” she says with a laugh.
– Anya Leon
Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana
Label: HealthSEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.
Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they cheered and sparked up in unison.
A few dozen people gathered on a sidewalk outside the north Seattle headquarters of the annual Hempfest celebration and did the same, offering joints to reporters and blowing smoke into television news cameras.
"I feel like a kid in a candy store!" shouted Hempfest volunteer Darby Hageman. "It's all becoming real now!"
Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to decriminalize and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21. Both measures call for setting up state licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores. Colorado's law is set to take effect by Jan. 5.
Technically, Washington's new marijuana law still forbids smoking pot in public, which remains punishable by a fine, like drinking in public. But pot fans wanted a party, and Seattle police weren't about to write them any tickets.
In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.
The mood was festive in Seattle as dozens of gay and lesbian couples got in line to pick up marriage licenses at the King County auditor's office early Thursday.
King County and Thurston County announced they would open their auditors' offices shortly after midnight Wednesday to accommodate those who wanted to be among the first to get their licenses.
Kelly Middleton and her partner Amanda Dollente got in line at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Hours later, as the line grew, volunteers distributed roses and a group of men and women serenaded the waiting line to the tune of "Chapel of Love."
Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.
In dealing with marijuana, the Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers on Wednesday, just before legalization took hold, that until further notice they shall not issue citations for public marijuana use.
Officers will be advising people not to smoke in public, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."
He offered a catchy new directive referring to the film "The Big Lebowski," popular with many marijuana fans: "The Dude abides, and says 'take it inside!'"
"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."
Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.
But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.
The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.
"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."
The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.
That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.
Alison Holcomb is the drug policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and served as the campaign manager for New Approach Washington, which led the legalization drive. She said the voters clearly showed they're done with marijuana prohibition.
"New Approach Washington sponsors and the ACLU look forward to working with state and federal officials and to ensure the law is fully and fairly implemented," she said.
___
Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
Wall Street edges up with help from McDonald's
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were modestly higher on Monday, helped by stronger-than-expected sales from McDonald's, but gains were constrained as investors awaited any sign of progress in talks to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.
Developments in Europe also tempered sentiment after Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said he would resign once the 2013 budget is approved. The move added to uncertainty about reducing euro zone debt and drove Italy's borrowing costs higher.
U.S. President Barack Obama met with Republican House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday to negotiate a deal for avoiding the "fiscal cliff" that is set to go into effect in the new year.
The two sides declined to provide details about the unannounced meeting. Obama is expected to make remarks at 2 p.m. (1900 GMT) from Michigan where he is touring an auto plant.
The fiscal cliff talks have kept markets on edge in the last month as investors worry the scheduled measures could send the economy into recession if politicians do not reach a deal.
While the negotiations are at the forefront of investors' minds, most have adopted the position that a deal will be reached, even if it is at the last minute, said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.
"We haven't had any 'progress' the last two weeks or so, yet all in all equity markets have continued to hang tough," said Detrick. "The rhetoric from Washington is strong, but Wall Street is betting something probably will get done."
The Dow was helped by a gain in McDonald's Corp
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 32.64 points, or 0.25 percent, to 13,187.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 1.09 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,419.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 9.90 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,987.95.
Ingersoll-Rand Plc
Cisco Systems
Egypt's Mursi scraps decree, fails to appease opponents
Label: WorldCAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's president scrapped a decree that gave him extra powers and ignited violent protests, but irate opponents said on Sunday he had deepened the conflict by pressing on with a vote on a constitution shaped by Islamists.
President Mohamed Mursi and his Islamist partisans have insisted the referendum go ahead on December 15 to seal a democratic transition that began when a popular uprising felled Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago after three decades of one-man rule.
The retraction of Mursi's November 22 decree, announced around midnight after a "national dialogue" boycotted by almost all the president's opponents, has failed to calm a war of words.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, a technocrat with Islamist leanings, said the referendum was the best test of opinion.
"The people are the makers of the future as long as they have the freedom to resort to the ballot box in a democratic, free and fair vote," he said in a cabinet statement.
But opposition factions, uncertain of their ability to vote down the constitution against the Islamists' organizational muscle, want the document redrafted before any vote.
Ahmed Said, a liberal leader of the main opposition National Salvation Front, said Mursi's withdrawal of his November 22 decree had not annulled its consequences, describing the race to a referendum as "shocking" and an "act of war" against Egyptians.
The Front has promised a formal response later on Sunday.
Egypt tipped into turmoil after Mursi grabbed powers to stop any court action to hinder the transition. An assembly led by Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists then swiftly approved the constitution it had spent six months drafting.
Liberals, leftists, Christians and others had already quit the assembly in dismay, saying their voices were being ignored.
The April 6 movement, prominent in the anti-Mubarak revolt, derided the result of Saturday's talks as "manipulation and a continuation of deception in the name of law and legitimacy".
A leftist group led by defeated presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy demanded the referendum be deferred until a consensus could be reached on a new draft, saying there could be "no dialogue while blood is being spilled in the streets".
But Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said scrapping Mursi's decree had removed any cause for controversy.
"We ask others to announce their acceptance of the referendum result," he said on the group's Facebook page, asking whether the opposition would accept "the basics of democracy".
"NOT LOGICAL"
More protests were planned near Mursi's palace, despite tanks, barbed wire and other barriers installed last week after clashes between Islamists and their rivals killed seven people.
"A constitution without consensus can't go to a referendum," said Hermes Fawzi, 28, a protester outside the palace. "It's not logical that just one part of society makes the constitution."
After the dialogue hosted by Mursi, a spokesman announced that the president had issued a new decree whose first article "cancels the constitutional declaration" of November 22. He said the referendum could not be delayed for legal reasons.
Egypt is torn between Islamists, who were suppressed for decades, and their rivals, who fear religious conservatives want to squeeze out other voices and restrict social freedoms. Many Egyptians just crave stability and economic recovery.
Each side has mobilized tens of thousands of supporters in rival rallies in Cairo and other cities. Mursi's foes have chanted for his downfall. Islamists fear a plot to oust the most populous Arab nation's first freely elected president.
Islamists reckon they can win the referendum and, once the new constitution is in place, an election for a new parliament about two months later. The Islamist-led lower house elected this year was dissolved after a few months by a court order.
Investors appeared relieved at Mursi's retraction of his decree, sending Egyptian stocks 4.4 percent higher on Sunday. Markets are awaiting approval of a $4.8 billion IMF loan later this month designed to support the budget and economic reforms.
The new decree removed some parts of the old one that had angered the opposition, including an article that had given Mursi broad powers to confront threats to the revolution or the nation - wording that critics said gave him arbitrary authority.
It also dropped an article that had shielded Mursi's actions from the courts until a new parliament was elected, reflecting his distrust of a judiciary largely unreformed from Mubarak's era. But the new decree said "constitutional declarations including this declaration" remained beyond judicial review.
The new decree also set procedures to form an assembly to write a new constitution if Egyptians vote this draft down.
The military, which led Egypt's transition for 16 turbulent months after Mubarak fell, told feuding factions on Saturday that only dialogue could avert "catastrophe". But a military source said these remarks did not herald an army takeover.
(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan and Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
MiFi With Touchscreen is a Road Warrior’s Dream
Label: TechnologyMeet the Novatel MiFi Liberate: the first mobile access point with a touchscreen, letting you configure it without connecting it to a computer.
If you’re not familiar with mobile access points, these handy gadgets allow you to hook up to the Internet via cellular networks. It’s useful, often essential, if you’re in an area that has no Wi-Fi. If you’re in range of a cellular tower, this MiFi Liberate lets you connect 10 Wi-Fi devices of any kind to the Internet.
[More from Mashable: Google Considering Wireless Network [REPORT]]
Mobile access points are ideal for frequent travelers, accommodating anyone who needs to get online wherever they are. Just the fact that you’re no longer at the mercy of hotels and their Wi-Fi price-gouging makes it worth the cost of admission.
The Novatel MiFi device we tested connects to the AT&T LTE network. That resulted in spectacular upload and download speed, rivaling that of wired broadband networks. The speed of LTE is variable — depending on how many people are using it and how close you are to one of its broadcast towers — but if you’ve been limping along with 3G connectivity, you’ll probably be astonished at the difference.
[More from Mashable: Samsung Galaxy Camera Goes on Sale Nov. 16]
How fast was this MiFi Liberate? We took multiple readings in a variety of locations. It averaged a zippy 19.70 Mbps for downloads, and a tremendous 20.66 Mbps for uploads. That kind of speed can make a big difference in your work, especially if you’re dealing with large files. In many ways, though, that’s more of a testament to the speed of AT&T’s network, rather than the alacrity of this particular device. Your mileage may vary.
Lovely Touchscreen
The best new feature of this device is its excellent 2.8-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen, the first of its kind. It responds to the slightest touch, letting you easily wander around its menus. And even while using that gorgeous screen, it still has in excess of 10 hours of battery life per charge.
That screen can come in handy in unexpected ways. For example, we were impressed with the way it indicated when a device has connected. Once it has, you can drill down farther, finding out more about that device. The screen adjusts for orientation, righting itself when you turn it upside down just like smartphones do.
If you and others are connected to this MiFi unit, it lets you share movies, photos and music via DLNA, with all of you accessing content on a microSD card inserted into the side of this versatile gadget.
It’s Expensive
All that versatility and convenience doesn’t come cheap. While the MiFi Liberate costs $ 49.99 with a two-year contract, you’ll also need to pay a monthly tariff for your LTE connectivity. Because of its blazing speed, we’re thinking you might want to spring for the 5 GB a month plan for $ 50 from AT&T. That takes the MiFi Liberate out of the value-priced category, and into one that you hope your boss will be willing to pay for.
After spending a couple of weeks with this unit, it was easy to conclude that the Novatel MiFi Liberate is the best portable access point we’ve ever tested.
If you need connectivity on the go at the fastest possible speed, this one will do the trick. And if you want to observe and adjust the unit on a bright and responsive touchscreen, look no further.
MiFi Liberate, Side View
It’s nice and small, except for that bulge, which contains a changeable lithium-ion battery.
Click here to view this gallery.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Copyright © News spoonerism. All rights reserved.
Design 
And Business Directories
