Egypt reformist warns of turmoil from Morsi decree

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CAIRO (AP) — Prominent Egyptian democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei warned Saturday of increasing turmoil that could potentially lead to the military stepping in unless the Islamist president rescinds his new, near absolute powers, as the country’s long fragmented opposition sought to unite and rally new protests.


Egypt‘s liberal and secular forces — long divided, weakened and uncertain amid the rise of Islamist parties to power — are seeking to rally themselves in response to the decrees issued this week by President Mohammed Morsi. The president granted himself sweeping powers to “protect the revolution” and made himself immune to judicial oversight.












The judiciary, which was the main target of Morsi’s edicts, pushed back Saturday. The country’s highest body of judges, the Supreme Judical Council, called his decrees an “unprecedented assault.” Courts in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria announced a work suspension until the decrees are lifted.


Outside the high court building in Cairo, several hundred demonstrators rallied against Morsi, chanting, “Leave! Leave!” echoing the slogan used against former leader Hosni Mubarak in last year’s uprising that ousted him. Police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of young men who were shooting flares outside the court.


The edicts issued Wednesday have galvanized anger brewing against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, ever since he took office in June as Egypt’s first freely elected president. Critics accuse the Brotherhood — which has dominated elections the past year — and other Islamists of monopolizing power and doing little to bring real reform or address Egypt’s mounting economic and security woes.


Oppositon groups have called for new nationwide rallies Tuesday — and the Muslim Brotherhood has called for rallies supporting Morsi the same day, setting the stage for new violence.


Morsi supporters counter that the edicts were necessary to prevent the courts, which already dissolved the elected lower house of parliament, from further holding up moves to stability by disbanding the assembly writing the new constitution, as judges were considering doing. Like parliament was, the assembly is dominated by Islamists. Morsi accuses Mubarak loyalists in the judiciary of seeking to thwart the revolution’s goals and barred the judiciary from disbanding the constitutional assembly or parliament’s upper house.


In an interview with a handful of journalists, including The Associated Press, Nobel Peace laureate ElBaradei raised alarm over the impact of Morsi’s rulings, saying he had become “a new pharaoh.”


“There is a good deal of anger, chaos, confusion. Violence is spreading to many places and state authority is starting to erode slowly,” he said. “We hope that we can manage to do a smooth transition without plunging the country into a cycle of violence. But I don’t see this happening without Mr. Morsi rescinding all of this.”


Speaking of Egypt’s powerful military, ElBaradei said, “I am sure they are as worried as everyone else. You cannot exclude that the army will intervene to restore law and order” if the situation gets out of hand.


But anti-Morsi factions are chronically divided, with revolutionary youth activists, new liberal political parties that have struggled to build a public base and figures from the Mubarak era, all of whom distrust each other. The judiciary is also an uncomfortable cause for some to back, since it includes many Mubarak appointees who even Morsi opponents criticize as too tied to the old regime.


Opponents say the edicts gave Morsi near dictatorial powers, neutering the judiciary when he already holds both executive and legislative powers. One of his most controversial edicts gave him the right to take any steps to stop “threats to the revolution,” vague wording that activists say harkens back to Mubarak-era emergency laws.


Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in nationwide protests on Friday, sparking clashes between anti-and pro-Morsi crowds in several cities that left more than 200 people wounded.


On Saturday, new clashed broke out in the southern city of Assiut. Morsi opponents and members of the Muslim Brotherhood swung sticks and threw stones at each other outside the offices of the Brotherhood‘s political party, leaving at least seven injured.


ElBaradei and a six other prominent liberal leaders have announced the formation of a National Salvation Front aimed at rallying all non-Islamist groups together to force Morsi to rescind his edicts.


The National Salvation Front leadership includes several who ran against Morsi in this year’s presidential race — Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished a close third, former foreign minister Amr Moussa and moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Fotouh. ElBaradei says the group is also pushing for the creation of a new constitutional assembly and a unity government.


ElBaradei said it would be a long process to persuade Morsi that he “cannot get away with murder.”


“There is no middle ground, no dialogue before he rescinds this declaration. There is no room for dialogue until then.”


The grouping seems to represent a newly assertive political foray by ElBaradei, the former chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. ElBaradei returned to Egypt in the year before Mubarak’s fall, speaking out against his rule, and was influential with many of the youth groups that launched the anti-Mubarak revolution.


But since Mubarak’s fall, he has been criticized by some as too Westernized, elite and Hamlet-ish, reluctant to fully assert himself as an opposition leader.


The Brotherhood‘s Freedom and Justice political party, once headed by Morsi, said Saturday in a statement that the president’s decision protects the revolution against former regime figures who have tried to erode elected institutions and were threatening to dissolve the constitutional assembly.


The Brotherhood warned in another statement that there were forces trying to overthrow the elected president in order to return to power. It said Morsi has a mandate to lead, having defeated one of Mubarak’s former prime ministers this summer in a closely contested election.


Morsi’s edicts also removed Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the prosecutor general first appointed by Mubarak, who many Egyptians accused of not prosecuting former regime figures strongly enough.


Speaking to a gathering of judges cheering support for him at the high court building in Cairo, Mahmoud warned of a “vicious campaign” against state institutions. He also said judicial authorities are looking into the legality of the decision to remove him — setting up a Catch-22 of legitimacy, since under Morsi’s decree, the courts cannot overturn any of his decisions.


“I thank you for your support of judicial independence,” he told the judges.


“Morsi will have to reverse his decision to avoid the anger of the people,” said Ahmed Badrawy, a labor ministry employee protesting at the courthouse. “We do not want to have an Iranian system here,” he added, referring to fears that hardcore Islamists may try to turn Egypt into a theocracy.


Several hundred protesters remained in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday, where a number of tents have been erected in a sit-in following nearly a week of clashes with riot police.


____


Brian Rohan contributed to this report from Cairo.


Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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15 Cheesy Christmas Music Videos on YouTube

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1. “Last Christmas” – Wham!



What would a cheesy Christmas music video roundup be without George Michael — and his mullet, covered by a furry, snow-covered hood? If you like this video, just wait until you see the a cappella Norwegian version.












Click here to view this gallery.


[More from Mashable: 10 Adorable Animals Feeding Other Animals [VIDEOS]]


Now that the turkey has been picked apart and you’ve survived another Black Friday, it is now officially acceptable to listen to Christmas music. If you’ve been secretly listening to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” since early November, crank it up!


One of the best — or worst, depending on your perspective — parts about the holidays is how we embrace corniness. The lyrics are cheesy, the wardrobe is tacky and some traditions are silly.


[More from Mashable: Rebecca Black Shows Off Hidden Talent in New Music Video]


To kick off the season, here are the 15 cheesiest holiday music videos we could find on YouTube. Which is your favorite? Share your pick in the comments below.


Image courtesy of Flickr, ronnie44052


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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“Lincoln” Women: How Sally Field and Gloria Reuben Stole Daniel Day-Lewis’ Show

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Steven Spielberg‘s “Lincoln” is, on the face of it, a standard “great man” biopic. Basked in a honeydew light, overflowing with sage advice, Daniel Day-Lewis‘ Great Emancipator is depicted as constantly and self-consciously speaking to the ages well before he belongs to them.


But let us now praise the film’s not-as-famous women. For what rescues “Lincoln” from bombast are the slier and subtler performances by a trio of fantastic and often under-utilized actresses – Sally Field, Gloria Reuben and S. Epatha Merkerson.












Each one uses her limited screen time to etch a devastating portrait of the limitations that faced women in a male-dominated society. After all, if the legislators debating the merits of the 13th Amendment in the movie fret openly that abolishing slavery will begin a slippery slope to black enfranchisement, they seem even more horrified at the prospect that it one day might lead to granting women the right to vote.


Though some critics have griped about Spielberg’s penchant for speechifying in “Lincoln,” there has been near universal praise for Day-Lewis and for Tommy Lee Jones’ work as the wily Thaddeus Stevens. Field’s take on First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln – a woman Louis C.K. quipped on “Saturday Night Live” recently was “historically insane” – has been more divisive.


In TheWrap, for instance, Steve Pond wrote, “Sally Field may well be nominated for Supporting Actress for her Mary Todd Lincoln, but to me her hysteria was one of the least-successful parts of the film.”


Yet Field’s work is in many ways more revelatory than that of Day-Lewis. True, the Irish-Anglo acting god daringly gives the 16th president a historically accurate high voice and indelibly paints a picture of a great orator with an outhouse sense of humor, but his modifications are slight tweaks to the Lincoln myth. Field’s interpretation is a whole-scale reinvention.


Field’s Mary is privately unhinged, true. But she is also a smooth Washington operator, comfortable sparring with Stevens over her White House redecorating and forcibly pressuring her husband to carry the 13th Amendment to the finish line while wielding little more than a fan.


Even her mania is rooted in the death of her young son Willy; an empathetic anchor that keeps Mary from becoming simply the backwoods, social-climbing hysteric she’s been portrayed as in the past.


In screenwriter Tony Kushner, Field finds an eager co-conspirator. As Kushner confessed on NPR, the Lincolns had a turbulent relationship in part because of Abraham Lincoln’s emotional coldness.


“People always think about Mary as being difficult and she absolutely was, but Lincoln wasn’t easy either,” Kushner said. “He was remote and complicated and rather interestingly fond of telling her things that would upset her horribly, like these dreams that he kept having and he would leave her kind of in a state night after night, telling her that he was having these kind of scary dreams.


It’s an enormously complicated relationship and the family is a tragic family.”


The only false note in an otherwise galvanizing portrayal, is having Mary deliver a line that is a too historically self-aware.


“All anyone will remember about me was that I was crazy and ruined your happiness,” Mary says at one point – to which my companion let forth a large guffaw.


Field who packed 25 pounds onto her slender frame and allowed the camera to scan her creased face is a revelation – it’s a reminder that the plucky star of “Norma Rae” is good for more than Boniva ads.


But Mary Todd Lincoln isn’t the only female who elbows her way into this big screen men’s club. Gloria Reuben‘s Elizabeth Keckley is also a marvel.


Dramaturgically it’s a thankless role with Reuben’s freed slave seamstress frequently used as a stand-in for all-antebellum African American suffering. Yet Reuben grounds the performance in a simmering fury and heartbreak, using her eyes to register the peigns of hurt that greets the racist slights Keckley is exposed to on a daily basis.


Her conversation in the White House portico with Daniel Day-Lewis about the meaning of emancipation is a bravura moment – a reminder of just how long a walk to freedom 19th century blacks faced.


Likewise, S. Epatha Merkerson‘s Lydia Smith is perhaps the greatest master class in doing a lot with a little since Judi Dench captured a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1998 for her eight-minute cameo in “Shakespeare in Love.”


Smith, the housekeeper and (spoiler alert) common-law wife of Thaddeus Stevens, has two fleeting scenes. In one, she gently removes Jones’ coat as he enters their Washington, D.C., home after the amendment passes, in the other she reads the constitutional addition aloud in bed to her secret-paramour. It is, in the words of another Kushner play, a reminder that “the world only spins forward.”


Indeed, the entire film represents a major step forward for Spielberg whose earlier boy’s adventures were largely all-male affairs. Aside from Embeth Davidtz’s frightened maid in “Schindler’s List,” Whoopi Goldberg’s martyr-like Celie in “The Color Purple” and Karen Allen’s fiery adventurer in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the Spielberg women are a weightless bunch. Even great actresses like Julianne Moore in “The Lost World” are given gossamer thin screen time.


Here, transported by Kushner’s words, he allows these women to step forward out of the shadows and into history. Next time maybe he’ll let them take center stage.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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First Person: Unemployed, Disabled and Hungry for Work

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Five million Americans are among the long-term unemployed–those without a job for 27 weeks or longer–according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 7.3 million are looking for work, while the unemployment rate sits at 7.9 percent. Numbers aside, individual stories illustrate how America is affected. To see how joblessness hits home, Yahoo News asked unemployed workers to share their job-hunting stories. Here’s one.


FIRST PERSON | I am 40 and live in Racine, Wis. I have been unemployed since I was 33. I try to find work, but I’ve been disabled since 27, and I do not collect Social Security or other income. On job applications, when I am asked if I have any disabilities, I answer yes.












I have even tried to travel to different states for employment. I am seeking employment where I can. I have tried Lowe’s, Home Depot and other similar stores. All I get are letters saying I do not qualify for employment.


By trade, I am a tattoo artist, a job I have been very good at until I became disabled. I have shoulder impingement syndrome, which consists of some of the following: torn ligaments, torn tendons, bone spurs, bursitis and arthritis.


And constant pain. I feel the weather. I hardly sleep. I wish I could be somewhere else, as it is hard on my mind to deal with on a daily basis.


Still, I try to find work where I can in this tough economy, and I am on several lists to be called and never have been called to date.


I am too proud to try to get Social Security. I cannot even afford insurance to get my condition fixed. I even have applied for local state insurance to get the problem resolved so I can work again, always with no luck. So I have remained unemployed now for over 10 years and going.


I injured myself, and I am not able to lift more than 10 pounds at a time or stand or sit for long periods of time.


I just want a job so I can try to cover the medical expenses myself since I cannot get help. Surgery costs are around $ 18,000, which sounds pretty reasonable to me.


I am no stranger to hard work. Since 12, I cut grass, shoveled snow, painted houses and fences, swept chimneys, worked in heat treatment plants with dirt and oil, worked in the casting of hot metals, laid brick, made bathroom sinks, swept floors in factories, did drill-press work, sanding work, and worked at fast food places.


I do not lie to get jobs or hid my injury. I do want to work, but I worry now that my disability will mean I won’t be hired by companies because they’re afraid it will come back on them and their company.


I cannot afford private insurance as I do not have steady income. Now I find whatever I can do to reach my goal of paying for my own surgery.


It is a sad world when you live in pain, day in and day out, and you want and need to find work.


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Tourists visit Texas ranch to remember 'Dallas' star Larry Hagman

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PARKER, Texas (AP) — Tourists and locals flocked to Southfork Ranch on Saturday, bringing flowers in memory of Larry Hagman, who played the infamous J.R. Ewing on the TV show "Dallas."

Hagman died in Dallas on Friday at age 81 due to complications from his battle with cancer.

Southfork, a ranch north of Dallas, was known to millions of viewers as the Ewing family home. Exterior shots of the house and pool were shown when the series aired from 1978 to 1991, although the show wasn't filmed there.

The ranch has been open for tours since the mid-1980s, and now sees more than 100,000 visitors each year. Each room of the house has a theme for each character.

On Saturday, J.R. Ewing's room had flowers and a card for tourists to sign.

"Today is about Larry Hagman and his family," said Janna Timm, a Southfork Ranch & Hotel spokeswoman. "He was such a wonderful person, and we will really miss him."

"Dallas" was recently revived on TNT this summer, and all of the scenes were filmed at Southfork or other places in the Dallas area. Hagman had revised his role as the scheming oilman who would even double-cross his own son.

Linda Sproule of Peterborough, Ontario, had been traveling through the U.S. the past couple of weeks and heard about Hagman's death Friday while in Dallas. She said she didn't know where Southfork was but wanted to come because she was a fan of the show in the 1980s.

"I remember on Friday nights we watched it, and J.R. was bigger than life in some ways," she said after taking the Southfork tour Saturday morning. "This ranch is beautiful. Being here is kind of emotional in a way."

Barbara Quinones and her husband were in town for their daughter's soccer tournament and had already planned to visit Southfork when they heard news of Hagman's death.

"We loved him because he was so ruthless," said Quinones, of Albuquerque, N.M. "This is a sad day, but I'm glad we're here."

Some of the show's stars, including Hagman, came to Southfork for the series' 25th anniversary. The Fort Worth-born actor also had visited several times before the show was revived.

"He was definitely a gentleman, a class act," said Jim Gomes, vice president of resorts at Southfork Ranch & Hotel. "He loved the fans as much as they loved him."

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Beijing’s S. China Sea rivals protest passport map

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China has enraged several neighbors with a few dashes on a map, printed in its newly revised passports that show it staking its claim on the entire South China Sea and even Taiwan.


Inside the passports, an outline of China printed in the upper left corner includes Taiwan and the sea, hemmed in by the dashes. The change highlights China’s longstanding claim on the South China Sea in its entirety, though parts of the waters also are claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.












China’s official maps have long included Taiwan and the South China Sea as Chinese territory, but the act of including them in its passports could be seen as a provocation since it would require other nations to tacitly endorse those claims by affixing their official seals to the documents.


Ruling party and opposition lawmakers alike condemned the map in Taiwan, a self-governed island that split from China after a civil war in 1949. They said it could harm the warming ties the historic rivals have enjoyed since Ma Ying-jeou became president 4 1/2 years ago.


“This is total ignorance of reality and only provokes disputes,” said Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, the Cabinet-level body responsible for ties with Beijing. The council said the government cannot accept the map.


Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters in Manila that he sent a note to the Chinese Embassy that his country “strongly protests” the image. He said China’s claims include an area that is “clearly part of the Philippines’ territory and maritime domain.”


The Vietnamese government said it had also sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi, demanding that Beijing remove the “erroneous content” printed in the passport.


In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry said the new passport was issued based on international standards. China began issuing new versions of its passports to include electronic chips on May 15, though criticism cropped up only this week.


“The design of this type of passports is not directed against any particular country,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily media briefing Friday. “We hope the relevant countries can calmly treat it with rationality and restraint so that the normal visits by the Chinese and foreigners will not be unnecessarily interfered with.”


It’s unclear whether China’s South China Sea neighbors will respond in any way beyond protesting to Beijing. China, in a territorial dispute with India, once stapled visas into passports to avoid stamping them.


“Vietnam reserves the right to carry out necessary measures suitable to Vietnamese law, international law and practices toward such passports,” Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi said.


Taiwan does not recognize China’s passports in any case; Chinese visitors to the island have special travel documents.


China maintains it has ancient claims to all of the South China Sea, despite much of it being within the exclusive economic zones of Southeast Asian neighbors. The islands and waters are potentially rich in oil and gas.


There are concerns that the disputes could escalate into violence. China and the Philippines had a tense maritime standoff at a shoal west of the main Philippine island of Luzon early this year.


The United States, which has said it takes no sides in the territorial spats but that it considers ensuring safe maritime traffic in the waters to be in its national interest, has backed a call for a “code of conduct” to prevent clashes in the disputed territories. But it remains unclear if and when China will sit down with rival claimants to draft such a legally binding nonaggression pact.


The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam are scheduled to meet Dec. 12 to discuss claims in the South China Sea and the role of China.


___


Associated Press writers Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines, Chris Brummitt in Hanoi, Vietnam, and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.


Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Research In Motion shares climb

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TORONTO (AP) — Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. Jumped nearly 14 percent Friday as investors seemingly grew more optimistic about a February launch of the Canadian company’s much-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones.


RIM will release the latest version of its smartphone “not too long” after a Jan. 30 launch event, Kristian Tear, the company’s chief operating officer, has said.












The new phones are seen as critical to RIM’s survival as the smartphone pioneer struggles in North America to hold on to customers who are abandoning BlackBerrys for flashier iPhones and Android phones.


The Waterloo, Ontario, company seems to be preparing for a February global launch, a month earlier than many analysts were expecting, according to an analyst with National Bank Financial, a Canadian bank. Kris Thompson raised his shipments forecast for RIM for fiscal 2014 in a research note from Wednesday.


Thompson also increased his price target for the BlackBerry maker to $ 15 from $ 12.


RIM shares on the Nasdaq closed up $ 1.41, or nearly 14 percent, to $ 11.67 Friday in an abbreviated trading session on Wall Street.


The spike in the BlackBerry maker’s shares came after a week of steady gains amid more positive sentiment.


On Wednesday, shares in Research In Motion gained almost 5 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange even though it was reported that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board had dropped the BlackBerry maker in favor of Apple’s iPhone 5.


Thompson, the National Bank Financial analyst, was bolstered by RIM’s new management team, which he said is maintaining the BlackBerry smartphone subscriber base, managing costs and cash, and seemingly readying a February 2013 BB10 global product release, a month earlier than expected.


He said certification of the new BlackBerrys by wireless carriers is the key risk to his prediction and estimate of BlackBerry shipments. Carrier certification, which tests the new devices, can take time.


The new BlackBerry 10 system is designed for the touch screen, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now expect. RIM’s current software is still focused on email and messaging and is less user-friendly, agile and robust than iPhone or Android.


Earlier this week, a prominent tech analyst gave RIM’s new operating system a small but improved chance of success. Analyst Peter Misek of New York-based Jefferies & Company said he’s still giving the BlackBerry 10 operating system only a 20 to 30 percent probability of success.


RIM was once Canada‘s most valuable company with a market value of more than $ 80 billion in 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $ 140 per share. Its decline evokes memories of Nortel, another former Canadian tech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Justin Bieber will not face charges from paparazzo run-in

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Teenage pop star Justin Bieber will not face charges for an alleged altercation with a man who was taking photos of him at a suburban shopping center in May, Los Angeles prosecutors said on Wednesday.


Deputy District Attorney Mara McIlvain said in a report there was “insufficient evidence for proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that the Canadian singer scuffled with paparazzo Jose Hernandez-Duran before leaving the shopping center with his girlfriend, actress Selena Gomez.












The photographer accused Bieber, 18, of leaving a van to kick him in the abdomen and punch him in the face. Officials called to the scene in Calabasas, 30 miles west of Los Angeles, found no apparent injury or trauma to the photographer.


A later doctor’s evaluation indicated “minor swelling” to the photographer’s right cheek and “redness” on his lower abdomen but labeled the injuries “superficial.”


McIlvain’s report indicated that Bieber became frustrated when photographers obstructed his vehicle as he attempted to leave the shopping center. He then left the vehicle, charged at Hernandez-Duran and fell after taking a swing at his camera.


Witnesses told investigators they could not determine if Bieber had struck Hernandez-Duran, who kept on taking photos of the singer after the incident. They said the photographer was approached by a lawyer soon after the run-in.


McIlvain said there were no photos of a scuffle between Bieber and Hernandez-Duran, even though many photographers were present.


Bieber’s publicist could not immediately be reached for comment.


The pop star swept the American Music Awards on Sunday, winning three, including the top prize of the night, and performed live during the show.


(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and David Brunnstrom)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Goldman Sachs sets value for minority holders of Amil stock

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – United Health Group Inc should pay minority shareholders in Brazilian health-insurance group Amil Participacoes SA between 25.84 reais and 27.07 reais ($ 12.42 and $ 13.01) a share for their stock as part of a takeover announced in October, Amil said in a statement on Friday.


The price was determined by the Brazilian unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc which was hired to set a value for Amil shares, the statement said. U.S.-based United Health agreed to pay $ 4.9 billion for Amil in its largest-ever foreign acquisition that was unveiled on October 8.












When the minority stakes are purchased, Amil will be de-listed from the Sao Paulo BM&FBovespa exchange.


The upper range of the Goldman Sach‘s estimate is 12 percent below the 30.74 reais that United Health paid for its controlling stake.


Under the takeover agreement, United Health will buy out nearly all minority shareholders and raise its stake to 90 percent of Sao Paulo-based Amil, which in addition to insurance operates hospitals.


The remaining 10 percent will be held by Amil founder and Chief Executive Edson Bueno and his partner Dulce Pugliese. Bueno has also agreed to buy $ 470 million of United Health shares. Bueno will continue to manage the company.


($ 1 = 2.08 Brazilian reais.)


(Reporting by Jeb Blount and Juliana Schincariol; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Powerful gas explosion levels Mass. buildings; at least 18 hurt

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A natural gas explosion in one of New England's biggest cities on Friday destroyed two buildings, including one housing a strip club, and damaged others beyond repair but didn't kill anyone, authorities said.

Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers in the area because of an earlier gas leak and odor report were among more than a dozen people injured, authorities said.

"This is a miracle on Worthington Street that no one was killed," Lt. Gov. Tim Murray said at a press conference.

The explosion in a downtown area of Springfield, 90 miles west of Boston, blew out all windows in a three-block radius, leaving three more buildings irreparably damaged and prompting emergency workers to evacuate a six-story apartment building that was buckling.

Police Sgt. John Delaney marveled at the destruction at the blast's epicenter, where a multistory building was leveled.

"It looks like there was a missile strike here," he said.

Officials at two nearby hospitals said at least 18 victims were transported there with injuries but none was critical.

Firefighters responded to the scene at 4:20 p.m. and were investigating the gas leak when the blast happened shortly after 5 p.m. The cause of the explosion hadn't been identified but was under investigation, they said.

Springfield, which has about 150,000 residents, is the largest city in western Massachusetts. It's known as the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, which is not in the vicinity of the blast.

The explosion, in an area of downtown Springfield with commercial properties and residences, destroyed a building that housed a Scores Gentlemen's Club.

Area resident Wayne Davis said he felt his apartment building shake a block away.

"I was laying down in bed, and I started feeling the building shaking and creaking," he said.

The Navy veteran said the boom from the explosion was louder than anything he'd ever heard, including the sound of a jet landing on an aircraft carrier.

The blast was so loud it was heard for miles around. Video from WWLP-TV showed the moment of the explosion, with smoke billowing into the air above the neighborhood.

Mayor Domenic Sarno said it was through "God's mercy" that nobody had been reported killed in the explosion.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the individuals that have been injured and the people who have been displaced," he said, adding that emergency shelter was being set up for those unable to go home.

___

Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this story.

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Former Ivory Coast leader’s wife wanted by ICC

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court unsealed an indictment Thursday against former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo‘s wife on charges including murder, rape and persecution. It was the first time in the court’s 10-year history it has charged a woman.


The world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal said the arrest warrant was issued on Feb. 29 for former first lady Simone Gbagbo for crimes against humanity.













Her husband, Laurent Gbagbo, is already in custody at the court’s detention unit in The Hague facing similar charges stemming from his fight to retain power after losing a 2010 presidential election. If his wife is extradited, they could face justice together in an unprecedented husband-wife trial.


But a senior member of Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara‘s government, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said Ivory Coast has already informed the ICC that the nation will not let her go.


“We informed them of this a long time ago,” he said.


The court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, urged Ivory Coast to extradite Gbagbo.


“The type of crimes committed in the aftermath of the 2010 elections did not happen by chance — they were planned and coordinated at the highest political and military levels and all those bearing the greatest responsibility must be held to account,” Bensouda said in a statement.


She said prosecutors continue to investigate crimes committed by both sides in Ivory Coast’s bloody power struggle and expect to issue further arrest warrants in the future.


“The investigations are objective, impartial and independent, and are conducted in strict accordance with the law,” she said.


Ivory Coast officials are holding the 63 year old under house arrest in the northwest town of Odienne. Last week, Ivorian prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau said lawyers had questioned Simone Gbagbo there for two days and that the domestic charges against her remained the same: genocide, blood crimes and economic crimes.


Unsealing the ICC arrest warrant issued nearly nine months ago appears to be a tactic by the court to put pressure on Ouattara’s administration to hand over Ms. Gbagbo.


If authorities in Ivory Coast want to prosecute her, they have to convince judges at The Hague tribunal that their case involves the same crimes she is charged with at the ICC. It is a court of last resort, meaning it only takes cases from countries unwilling or unable to prosecute them.


The international court said in the warrant that there is evidence pro-Gbagbo forces deliberately attacked perceived supporters of Ouattara in the aftermath of the election.


Judges who reviewed evidence supporting the charges against Ms. Gbagbo said they found “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms. Gbagbo bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes … as ‘an indirect co-perpetrator.’”


The warrant called Gbagbo an “alter ego for her husband” with the power to make state decisions. It said there is evidence to suggest she “instructed the pro-Gbagbo forces to commit crimes against individuals who posed a threat to her husband’s power.”


Her husband was the first former head of state to be taken into custody by the court when he was extradited to The Hague by the Ivory Coast government last year.


Prosecutors say about 3,000 people died in violence by both sides after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat following the election. Ouattara finally took power in April 2011 with the help of French and U.N. forces.


Ivory Coast is not a member state of the court, but has voluntarily accepted its jurisdiction.


It is very rare for a woman to be charged by an international war crimes court. In the past, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic of persecution and sentenced her to 11 years imprisonment.


The announcement of the arrest warrant and Ivory Coast’s refusal to hand over Gbagbo appeared likely to raise tensions between supporters of her husband and those who back Ouattara.


Moussa Toure Zeguen, a leader of the Gbagbo allies in exile in Ghana, said by phone from Accra that the former president’s supporters had no faith in the Ivorian authorities to give Simone Gbagbo a fair trial.


“We don’t trust them. The only thing that Ouattara is doing is revenge,” Zeguen said. “He wants to try us without trying any of the fighters from his side who also committed crimes. It is not fair, and this cannot bring reconciliation.”


____


Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, contributed to this report.


Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Ex-’Price is Right’ model gets $8.5M in damages

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The producers of “The Price is Right” owe a former model on the show more than $ 7.7 million in punitive damages for discriminating against her after a pregnancy, a jury determined Wednesday.


The judgment came one day after the panel determined the game show’s producers discriminated against Brandi Cochran. They awarded her nearly $ 777,000 in actual damages.













Cochran, 41, said she was rejected when she tried to return to work in early 2010 after taking maternity leave. The jury agreed and determined that FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions owed her more than $ 8.5 million in all.


“I’m humbled. I’m shocked,” Cochran said after the jury announced its verdict. “I’m happy that justice was served today not only for women in the entertainment industry, but women in the workplace.”


FremantleMedia said it was standing by its previous statement, which said it expected to be “fully vindicated” after an appeal.


“We believe the verdict in this case was the result of a flawed process in which the court, among other things, refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40 percent of our models have been pregnant,” and further “important” evidence, FremantleMedia said.


In their defense, producers said they were satisfied with the five models working on the show at the time Cochran sought to return.


Several other former models have sued the series and its longtime host, Bob Barker, who retired in 2007.


Most of the cases involving “Barker’s Beauties” — the nickname given the gown-wearing women who presented prizes to contestants — ended with out-of-court settlements.


Comedian-actor Drew Carey followed Barker as the show’s host.


___


Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .


Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Do drunks have to go to the ER?

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – With the help of a checklist, ambulance workers may be able to safely reroute drunk patients to detoxification centers instead of emergency rooms, according to a new study.


Researchers in Colorado found no serious medical problems were reported after 138 people were sent to a detox center to sleep it off, instead of to an ER.













In 2004, according to the researchers, it’s estimated that 0.6 percent of all U.S. ER visits were made by people without any problems other than being drunk. Those visits ended up costing about $ 900 million.


“Part of the issue has been – as it is in many busy ER departments – there’s a lot of chronic alcoholics that are brought in by ambulance, police or just come in. Often they are brought in because they have not committed a crime or there is limited space in our detoxification center. So the majority were brought to the ER department,” said Dr. David Ross, the study’s lead author from Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs.


Ross said the ambulance company where he serves as medical director created the checklist with the help of the local detox center, which provided limited medical care by a nurse, and the local hospitals to reduce the number of drunks without medical needs being sent to the local ERs.


They created a checklist with 29 yes-or-no questions, such as whether the patient is cooperating with the ambulance worker’s examination and if the patient is willing to go to the detox center.


The patient was sent to the ER if the ambulance worker checked “no” on any question.


The researchers then went back to look at the patients they transported between December 2003 and December 2005 to see whether or not any of them ended up having serious medical problems at the detox center.


During that two year period, the ambulance workers transported 718 drunks. The detox center received 138 and the local ERs got 580.


Overall, 11 of the patients who were taken to detox were turned away because there was no room, their blood alcohol level exceeded the limit, their family came to pick them up or they were combative.


Another four patients at the detox center were taken to the ER because of minor complications, including chest and knee pain. However, there were no serious complications reported.


“We really believe that we did not miss anybody with a serious illness and injury that didn’t go to the ER as they should have,” said Ross.


But the researchers write in the Annals of Emergency Medicine that their study did have some limitations.


Specifically, the researchers did not plan in advance to do a study when they were creating the checklist, which means their findings are limited to whatever information was collected at the detox center and ERs.


Also, the number of people who were sent to the detox center in their study is relatively small, so it’s hard to tell how many serious complications they’d see among a larger group of people.


“We tried to estimate how likely we would have been to encounter a serious event… We estimated at most we’d encounter three serious adverse events (in 748 patients),” Ross told Reuters Health.


SOURCE: http://bit.ly/QgPCT5 Annals of Emergency Medicine, online November 9, 2012.


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Thanksgiving Day parade offers respite for storm victims

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Some of the very same Republicans who have spent the last two weeks bashing Mitt Romney were, indeed, sucking up to him at a massive rally the Friday before the election — even angling for jobs in the Romney administration — a Romney adviser complains. At a rally with 100 Romney surrogates in West Chester, Ohio, Romney aide Dan Senor revealed on MSNBC Wednesday, the Romney bashers were Romney fawners. "I’m backstage with some of them, I won’t mention their names, but they’re talking about Romney like he’s Reagan," Senor said. ...
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Ivory Coast: New prime minister named

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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — President Alassane Ouattara has tapped Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan to serve as prime minister in a new government one week after the surprise dissolution of cabinet.


The appointment of Duncan, a member of the PDCI party of former President Henri Konan Bedie, was announced at a press conference Wednesday by Amadou Gon Coulibaly, general secretary of the presidency.













Ouattara dissolved the cabinet last week over a feud between his political party and the PDCI over proposed changes to the country’s marriage law.


The PDCI supported Ouattara in the November 2010 runoff election in exchange for the prime minister’s post, helping him defeat incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office led to five months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives before Ouattara’s forces won.


Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Exclusive: TV networks start seven-day ratings push with advertisers

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. television broadcast networks are taking the first steps to persuade advertisers to pay for commercial viewership that occurs up to seven days after a program airs, a shift that would provide a new revenue stream to help combat ratings erosion.


The networks argue that the rising popularity of digital video recorders is pushing a sizeable number of viewers to delay watching their favorite programs beyond the first three days, the time period most often used for calculating ad payments.













Some advertisers are ready to make the move to a seven-day metric. One of the big four networks, Walt Disney Co’s ABC, earlier this year reached deals with some sponsors that bring in payments for eyeballs counted between days four and seven.


The other broadcasters have begun talks with advertisers and hope to convince them to switch to the longer window in time for the “upfront” selling season that starts early next year, when billions of dollars in ad commitments will be made, according to people familiar with the discussions.


Since 2007, most TV ad time has been bought and sold based on “C3,” a ratings measurement based of the average number of commercial minutes watched during a program either live or within three days of its airing.


TV networks want advertisers to shift to “C7,” which captures commercials watched within seven days.


Advertisers hesitate to pay for the added days, particularly for time-sensitive ads pitching a department store’s one-day sale or the opening of a summer movie blockbuster. Media buyers are pushing for precise measurements of each commercial viewed, rather than an average for an entire program, as well as a tabulation of how many people are watching on mobile devices.


The debate intensified after Nielsen data showed a sharp decline in three-day viewing at the start of the fall TV season compared with last year.


The drop is partly due to “the greater penetration of DVRs and the greater usage of DVRs, which clearly have shifted the rating in the direction of C3, and ultimately, hopefully, C7,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told analysts on a November 8 conference call.


Most viewing of network prime time shows still takes place within three days. But the post-three day viewers are growing and can be significant. Ratings for ABC comedy hit “Modern Family” increased by 5 percent, to 6.5 million viewers age 18 to 49 viewers, when counted by the C7 measurement instead of C3.


The later viewers also are among the most-coveted by advertisers, according to ABC research, which showed people who watched a show after three days were more highly educated and had higher incomes. For days four through seven, “the people who are doing the viewing are some of the most desirable available from an advertiser’s perspective,” said Charles Kennedy, senior vice president of research for ABC and the ABC Family cable network.


Earlier this year, ABC made deals with some sponsors to pay for ad time based on C7 numbers, ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said. “We expect to do more of them if they make sense for us and our clients,” Brockman said.


At CBS, the flagship network of CBS Corp, CEO Leslie Moonves has been outspoken in pressing for a C7 metric and said it “represents a significant opportunity for us that is still in the very early stages.”


“As we move forward, we will make it a priority to get paid for all of the viewing that is going on across our shows, including DVR viewing beyond C3,” Moonves told analysts on a November 7 conference call.


Advertisers are not ready to commit to the switch and will be looking for something in return if they agree to a longer window. Timing is a big concern for many brands that want to get a message out to large numbers of consumers during a specific time period. Some commercials lose their value for sponsors over a few days.


“In moving to C7, you’ve got to be careful because you are taking away some of the advantage of why clients buy television,” said Sam Armando, director of strategic intelligence for SMGx, a division of media buying agency Starcom MediaVest Group.


Advertisers believe simply adding more days to the current metric fails to adequately capture viewership. Brands are lobbying for a more precise measurement that tracks viewership of each commercial, rather than an average for a program over a time period, they say. They also want information on how many people see their ads on programs watched on computers or Internet-connected mobile devices like phones and tablets.


“If the industry is going to make a move, we need to consider it all before we just make a little baby step to C7,” Armando said.


(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Edited by Ronald Grover and Andrew Hay)


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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“Man of Steel” Trailer to Play Before “The Hobbit”

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Director Zack Snyder has told MTV News that a trailer for “Man of Steel” will play before “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” when it opens on December 14.


“It’s fun. I can’t wait for ‘The Hobbit,’ so it will be fun to see our crazy ‘Man of Steel’ trailer and then enjoy ‘The Hobbit’ because tat’s going to be great,” Snyder told the network.













A teaser trailer for the feature was released earlier this year. “Man of Steel” opens on June 14, 2013.


Both films are distributed by Warner Bros., which declined to comment.


Earlier this month, it was announced that nine minutes of the “Star Trek” sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness” would be shown in 500 select theaters before the IMAX version of “The Hobbit.”


Russell Crowe stars in “Man of Steel.”


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Study: ADHD medicines help curb criminal behavior

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Older teens and adults with attention deficit disorder are much less likely to commit a crime while on ADHD medication, a provocative study from Sweden found.


It also showed in dramatic fashion how much more prone people with ADHD are to break the law — four to seven times more likely than others.













The findings suggest that Ritalin, Adderall and other drugs that curb hyperactivity and boost attention remain important beyond the school-age years and that wider use of these medications in older patients might help curb crime.


“There definitely is a perception that it’s a disease of childhood and you outgrow your need for medicines,” said Dr. William Cooper, a pediatrics and preventive medicine professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “We’re beginning to understand that ADHD is a condition for many people that really lasts throughout their life.”


He has researched ADHD but had no role in the new study, which was led by Paul Lichtenstein of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The findings were published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.


About 5 percent of children in the U.S. and other Western countries have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which can cause impulsive behavior and difficulty paying attention. Many youngsters are given medication to help them sit still and focus in school. Some people have symptoms into adulthood.


“It’s well known that individuals with ADHD have much higher rates of criminality and drug abuse than people without ADHD,” but the effect of treatment on this is not well known, Lichtenstein said.


Using Swedish national registers, researchers studied about 16,000 men and 10,000 women ages 15 and older who had been diagnosed with ADHD. The country has national health care, so information was available on all drugs prescribed.


Court and prison records were used to track convictions from 2006 through 2009 and see whether patients were taking ADHD drugs when their crimes were committed. A patient was considered to have gone off medication after six months or more with no new prescription.


For comparison purposes, researchers matched each ADHD patient with 10 similar people without the disorder from the general population.


They found:


— About 37 percent of men with ADHD were convicted of at least one crime during that four-year period, compared with just 9 percent of men without ADHD. For women, the crime rates were 15 percent with ADHD and 2 percent without it.


— Use of ADHD medicines reduced the likelihood of committing a crime by 32 percent in men and 41 percent in women.


The crimes were mostly burglaries or thefts. About 4,000 of more than 23,000 crimes committed were violent. ADHD medication use reduced all types of crime, Lichtenstein said.


Cooper called the results striking. “I was surprised by the magnitude of the effect of the medications and the fact that it was so consistent across all the analyses they did,” such as the type of drug being used and the types of crimes committed, he said.


The Swedish Research Council, the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Wellcome Trust and other agencies paid for the research.


ADHD medicines may help people organize their lives better and reduce impulsive behavior. They also bring a patient into counseling and health care, said Philip Asherson, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.


“It’s not necessarily just the medication” that is reducing the likelihood of crime, he said.


Still, Asherson said the study should lead to wider use of the drugs: “It firmly establishes the link between ADHD and criminality and establishes that medication has an impact on that criminality.”


___


AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.


___


Online:


Study: www.nejm.org


___


Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Mistrust runs deep despite cease-fire

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CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast doubt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last.


Even after the ceasefire came into force late on Wednesday, a dozen rockets from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, all in open areas, a police spokesman said. In Gaza, witnesses reported an explosion shortly after the truce took effect at 9 p.m (14:00 EDT), but there were no casualties and the cause was unclear.


The deal prevented, at least for the moment, an Israeli ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave following bombing and rocket fire which killed five Israelis and 162 Gazans, including 37 children.


But trust was in short supply. The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist movement would respect the truce if Israel did, but would respond to any violations. "If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," he told a news conference in Cairo.


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told his people a tougher approach might be required in the future.


Both sides quickly began offering differing interpretations of the ceasefire, brokered by Egypt's new Islamist government and backed by the United States, highlighting the many actual or potential areas of discord.


If it holds, the truce will give 1.7 million Gazans respite from days of ferocious air strikes and halt rocket salvoes from militants that unnerved a million people in southern Israel and reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.


"Allahu akbar, (God is greatest), dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in Gaza as the truce took effect. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."


Fifteen minutes later, wild celebratory gunfire echoed across the darkened streets, which gradually filled with crowds waving Palestinian flags. Ululating women leaned out of windows and fireworks lit up the sky.


Meshaal thanked Egypt for mediating and praised Iran for providing Gazans with financing and arms. "We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said, adding that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure".


Some Israelis staged protests against the deal, notably in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, where three people were killed by a Gaza rocket during the conflict, army radio said.


Netanyahu said he was willing to give the truce a chance but held open the possibility of reopening the conflict. "I know there are citizens expecting a more severe military action, and perhaps we shall need to do so," he said.


The Israeli leader, who faces a parliamentary election in January, delivered a similar message earlier in a telephone call with U.S. President Barack Obama, his office said.


"AN OPEN PRISON"


According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.


The deal also provides for easing Israeli restrictions on Gaza's residents, who live in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has called an "open prison".


The text said procedures for implementing this would be "dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire".


Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas, which rejects the Jewish state's right to exist, won a Palestinian election in 2006.


However, Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings. "The document stipulates the opening of the crossings, all the crossings, and not just Rafah," he said. Israel controls all of Gaza's crossings apart from the Rafah post with Egypt.


Hamas lost its top military commander to an Israeli strike in the conflict and suffered serious hits to its infrastructure and weaponry, but has emerged with its reputation both in the Arab world and at home stronger.


Israel can take comfort from the fact it dealt painful blows to its enemy, which will take many months to recover, and showed that it can defend itself from a barrage of missiles.


"No one is under the illusion that this is going to be an everlasting ceasefire. It is clear to everyone it will only be temporary," said Michael Herzog, a former chief of staff at the Israeli ministry of defence.


"But there is a chance that it could hold for a significant period of time, if all goes well," he told Reuters.


Egypt, an important U.S. ally now under Islamist leadership, took centre stage in diplomacy to halt the bloodshed. Cairo has walked a fine line between its sympathies for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood to which President Mohamed Mursi belongs, and its need to preserve its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its ties with Washington, its main aid donor.


Announcing the agreement in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said mediation had "resulted in understandings to cease fire, restore calm and halt the bloodshed".


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, standing beside Amr, thanked Mursi for peace efforts that showed "responsibility, leadership" in the region.


The Gaza conflict erupted in a Middle East already shaken by last year's Arab uprisings that toppled several veteran U.S.-backed leaders, including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and by a civil war in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is fighting for survival.


In his call with Netanyahu, Obama in turn repeated U.S. commitment to Israel's security and promised to seek funds for a joint missile defence program, the White House said.


BUS BOMBING


The ceasefire was forged despite a bus bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier in the day and despite more Israeli air strikes that killed 10 Gazans. It was the first serious bombing in Israel's commercial capital since 2006.


Israel, the United States and the European Union all classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. It seized the Gaza Strip from the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 in a brief but bloody war with his Fatah movement.


"This is a critical moment for the region," Clinton said. "Egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone for regional stability and peace."


In Amman, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged both sides to stick to their ceasefire pledges. "There may be challenges implementing this agreement," he said, urging "maximum restraint".


(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Yasmine Saleh, Shaimaa Fayed and Tom Perry in Cairo, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Margaret Chadbourn in Washington; Writing by Alistair Lyon and David Stamp; Editing by Louise Ireland)


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AP Exclusive: Syrian rebels seize base, arms trove

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BASE OF THE 46TH REGIMENT, Syria (AP) — After a nearly two-month siege, Syrian rebels overwhelmed a large military base in the north of the country and made off with tanks, armored vehicles and truckloads of munitions that rebel leaders say will give them a boost in the fight against President Bashar Assad‘s army.


The rebel capture of the base of the Syrian army’s 46th Regiment is a sharp blow to the government’s efforts to roll back rebels gains and shows a rising level of organization among opposition forces.













More important than the base’s fall, however, are the weapons the rebels found inside.


At a rebel base where the much of the haul was taken after the weekend victory, rebel fighters unloaded half a dozen large trucks piled high with green boxes full of mortars, artillery shells, rockets and rifles taken from the base. Parked nearby were five tanks, two armored vehicles, two rocket launchers and two heavy-caliber artillery cannons.


Around 20 Syrian soldiers captured in the battle were put to work carrying munitions boxes, barefoot and stripped to the waist. Rebels refused to let reporters talk to them or see where they were being held.


“There has never been a battle before with this much booty,” said Gen. Ahmad al-Faj of the rebels Joint Command, a grouping of rebel brigades that was involved in the siege. Speaking on Monday at the rebel base, set up in a former customs office at Syria’s Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, he said the haul would be distributed among the brigades.


For months, Syria’s rebels have gradually been destroying government checkpoints and taking over towns in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo along the Turkish border.


Rebel fighters say that weapons seized in such battles have been essential to their transformation from ragtag brigades into forces capable of challenging Assad’s professional army. Cross-border arms smuggling from Turkey and Iraq has also played a role, although the most common complaint among rebel fighters is that they lack ammunition and heavy weapons, munitions and anti-aircraft weapons to fight Assad’s air force.


It is unclear how many government bases the rebels have overrun during the 20-month conflict, mostly because they rarely try to hold captured facilities. Staying in the captured bases would make them sitting ducks for regime airstrikes.


“Their strategy is to hit and run,” said Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese army general and Beirut-based strategic analyst. “They’re trying to hurt the regime where it hurts by bisecting and compartmentalizing Syria in order to dilute the regime’s power.”


The 46th Regiment was a major pillar of the government’s force near the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s economic hub, and its fall cuts a major supply line to the regime’s army, Hanna said. Government forces have been battling rebels for months over control of Aleppo.


“It’s a tactical turning point that may lead to a strategic shift,” he said.


At the 46th Regiment’s base, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Aleppo, the main three-story command building showed signs of the battle — its walls punctured apparently from rebel rocket attacks. The smaller barracks buildings scattered around the compound, about 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in size, had been looted, with mattresses overturned. A number of buildings had been torched.


Reporters from The Associated Press who visited the base late Monday saw no trace of the government troops who had been defending it — other than the dead bodies of seven soldiers.


Two of them, in camouflage uniforms, lay outside the command building. One of them was missing his head, apparently blown off in an explosion.


The rest were in a nearby clinic. Four dead soldiers were on stretchers set on the floor, one with a large gash in his arm, another with what appeared to be a large shrapnel hole in the back of his head. The last lay on a gurney in another room, his arms and legs bandaged, a bullet hole in his cheek and a splatter of blood on the wall and ceiling behind him as if he had been shot where he lay.


It could not be determined how or when the soldiers had been killed.


The final assault that took the base came after more than 50 days of siege that left the soldiers inside demoralized, according to fighters who took part.


Working together and communicating by radio, a number of different rebels groups divided up the area surrounding the base and each cut the regime’s supply lines, said Abdullah Qadi, a rebel field commander. Over the course of the siege, dozens of soldiers defected, some telling the rebels that those inside were short of food, Qadi said.


The rebels decided to attack Saturday afternoon when they felt the soldiers inside were weak and the rebels had enough ammunition to finish the battle, Qadi said. The battle was over by nightfall on Sunday. Seven rebel fighters were killed in the battle, said al-Faj of the rebels’ Joint Command. Other rebel leaders gave similar numbers.


It remains unclear how many soldiers remained in the base when the rebels launched their attack and what happened to them.


Al-Faj said all soldiers inside were either killed or captured. He said he didn’t know how many were killed, but that the rebels had taken about 50 prisoners, all of whom would be tried in a rebel court. Aside from the 20 prisoners seen at the rebel’s Bab al-Hawa base, the AP was unable to see any other captured soldiers.


The Syrian government does not respond to requests for comment on military affairs and said nothing about the base’s capture. It says the rebels are terrorists backed by foreign powers that seek to destroy the country.


Disorganization has plagued the Syrian opposition since the start of the anti-Assad uprising in March 2011, with exile groups pleading for international help even when they have no control over those fighting inside of Syria.


A newly formed Syrian opposition coalition received a boost Tuesday, when Britain officially recognized it as the sole representative of the Syrian people.


The National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was formed in the Gulf nation of Qatar on Oct. 11 under pressure from the United States for a stronger, more united opposition body to serve as a counterweight to more extremist forces.


British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday the body’s members gave assurances to be a “moderate political force committed to democracy” and that the West must “support them and deny space to extremist groups.”


The United States and the European Union have both spoken well of the body but stopped short of offering it full recognition.


Key to the body’s success will be its ability to build ties with the disparate rebel groups fighting inside Syria. Many rebel leaders say they don’t recognize the new body, and a group of extremist Islamist factions on Monday rejected it, announcing that they had formed an “Islamic state” in Aleppo.


Anti-regime activists say nearly 40,000 people have been killed since Syria’s crisis started 20 months ago.


___


Associated Press write Elizabeth Kennedy contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.


Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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“Life of Pi” and “Rise of Guardians” Debut, but It’s Still “Twilight” Time at Box Office

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Ang Lee‘s lyrical epic “Life of Pi,” the computer-animated 3D holiday tale “Rise of the Guardians” and the “Red Dawn” reboot all debut in theaters Wednesday, as the holiday movie season kicks into high gear.


But the current No. 1, “Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2,” will almost surely out-earn the newcomers and dominate the Thanksgiving weekend box office, with a second week that analysts are projecting will hit $ 65 million over the five days. DreamWorks Animation‘s “Rise of the Guardians” will wind up with around $ 55 million and run second, they say.













Add in sturdy holdovers like Sony’s record-breaking James Bond movie “Skyfall” and Disney’s animated “Wreck-It Ralph,” along with expanding awards hopefuls “Lincoln” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” and it shapes up as a very busy weekend at the cineplexes.


Summit Entertainment’s “Breaking Dawn 2″ remains in 4,070 theaters after rolling up $ 141 million in its U.S. debut last weekend.


That was the year’s fourth best opening – behind “The Avengers,” “Dark Knight Rises” and “The Hunger Games” – but fell short of the franchise-best $ 142.8 million set by “New Moon” in 2009. “Breaking Dawn” is expected to play more strongly abroad than domestically, and the first-week numbers reflect that: It took in nearly $ 200 million in its first week of release overseas.


“In the U.S., it didn’t get that finale bump that the last Harry Potter movie did, which was surprising,” Exhibitor Relations senior analyst Jeff Bock told TheWrap, “Its fan base was committed, but Summit couldn’t expand it beyond that.”


“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2″ opened to $ 169 million in 2011, well ahead of “Deathly Hallows 2,” which opened to $ 125 million the previous year.


“Skyfall,” which took in $ 41 million in its second week as it became the top-grossing Bond film of all time, is looking at a five-day total of around $ 39 million, the analysts say. Its worldwide gross now stands at $ 672 million, $ 507 million of which has come from overseas.


Buoyed by surprisingly strong results, Disney is expanding “Lincoln” into roughly 2,000 theaters, up from 1,775, on Friday. The DreamWorks Oscar contender was a surprise No. 3 finisher with $ 21 million last weekend, well above analysts’ and the studio’s projections. It’s projected to finish with $ 24 million over the long weekend.


Among the newcomers, Oscar contender “The Life of Pi” is the most difficult to peg in terms of box-office potential.


It’s hard to imagine a tale tougher to bring to the screen than Yann Martel’s 2001 saga of an Indian youth lost at sea with a ravenous Bengal tiger aboard his small lifeboat and their ensuing adventures. But Lee brought martial arts (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and gay cowboys (“Brokeback Mountain”) into the movie mainstream, and he’s employed the highest-tech digital tools to bring David Magee’s adaptation to life in 3D.


Indian Suraj Sharma, who was 17 and had no acting experience when he shot “Pi,” plays the lead and spends a good bit of the film alone in a boat with the tiger.


The critics love it (92 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes), calling it gorgeous, innovative and a provocative and soulful examination of faith. Those are admirable qualities in a film, but hardly requisites for – or a guarantee of – box office success.


Fox has the PG-rated “Pi” in 2,700 theaters and it will have the advantage of premium pricing going for it. Analysts see it opening with about $ 25 million over the five days, and feel its long-term playability will hinge on word-of-mouth and awards buzz.


In terms of the box office, the most comparable film could be last year’s Martin Scorsese-directed 3D family adventure “Hugo.” Paramount opened that film around the same time last year to $ 11 million, and it went on to make $ 73 million, $ 185 million worldwide.


With its international cast and exotic settings, “Pi” is another example of a film expected to perform far better internationally than in the U.S. Fox is rolling it out in Taiwan Tuesday, China Wednesday and Hong Kong, India and Puerto Rico this weekend. With Lee’s following in China and young star Sharma expected to draw crowds in India, those two markets should give it fast start overseas.


“Pi” was produced for $ 120 million by Lee, Fox 2000 and special effects firm Rhythm and Hues.


Distributor Paramount is rolling out DreamWorks Animation‘s computer animated family film “Rise of the Guardians” on 3,500 3D screens.


The holiday rollout is a natural for the PG-rated “Rise of the Guardians,” which has a star-studded voice cast, and is executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro and produced by Gary Goetzman.


Based on the William Joyce’s “Guardians of Childhood” series, it tells the tale of Jack Frost (Chris Pine), who gets help from Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) and the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) after the evil Pitch (Jude Law) threatens the children of the world.


Awareness of the film is strong, and the critics think it’s pretty good. Seventy percent of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are positive, 67 percent at Movie Review Intelligence. DreamWorks Animation has been on a hot streak, and this its first release since “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” which has made over $ 735 million worldwide this year.


Red Dawn” is a remake of the 1984 John Millius war film that helped launch the careers of young stars Patrick Swayze, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen. Released at the peak of the Cold War, its populist and patriotic themes resonated strongly. In that film, Swayze’s character leads a group of teens who turn guerrilla fighters to resist Soviet and Cuban invaders who are occupying their state.


Shot in 2009, the “Red Dawn” reboot was to have been released in 2010, but was delayed by the financial troubles of the studio behind it, MGM.


Since then, the careers of several of the film’s stars have taken off. Since shooting “Red Dawn,” Chris Hemsworth has starred in “Thor,” “The Avengers” and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” while Josh Peck was featured in “The Hunger Games.” Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas and Jeffrey Dean Morgan co-star.


This “Red Dawn” plays more like an action film and is less jingoistic than the original, and FilmDistrict has marketed that way. In addition to targeting fan boys at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and college campuses, “Red Dawn” has been show at more than 100 military bases. The cast did a special screening at Port Hueneme Naval Base in Oxnard, Calif.


Speaking of militaries, while the film was on the shelf: the filmmakers digitally turned the invaders from Chinese into North Koreans after angry denunciations of the portrayals from the Beijing press. The switch shouldn’t hurt at the Chinese box office, either.


FilmDistrict is opening the PG-13-rated “Red Dawn” in 2,600 theaters. The original made the equivalent of $ 90 million when adjusted to today’s ticket prices, while this reboot will be fortunate to make half that amount. A five-day total of around $ 15 million is what the analysts are projecting for the opening.


Fox Searchlight is rolling out “Hitchcock,” starring Anthony Hopkins as the late director Alfred Hitchcock, in 17 theaters on Friday.


Directed by Sacha Gervasi, with a screenplay from John G. McLaughlin, the film explores the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife and partner Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) while they were working on “Psycho,” one of his most successful films.


Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Jessica Biel, Toni Collette, Michael Wincott, and James D’Arcy co-star in the Montecito Picture Company production.


“Hitchcock” premiered at the AFI Film Festival and has been well-received by the critics. It has a 76 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


Fox Searchlight plans to expand the film gradually over the next three weeks, ahead of its national release on December 14, when it will be on between 500 and 600 theaters.


The Weinstein Company is expanding its Oscar hopeful “Silver Linings Playbook” into 420 theaters. The dark romantic comedy is directed by David O. Russell and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.


“Silver Linings Playbook” averaged $ 28,652 on 16 screens in its debut and was to have expanded into 2,000 theaters on Wednesday. But the Weinstein Co. shifted gears last week and decided on a more gradual platform release in hopes of building awards buzz. The Weinstein Co. knows Oscar campaigns; they were behind the last two Best Picture winners, “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist.”


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FDA approves novel Novartis seasonal flu vaccine

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(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it approved a seasonal flu vaccine produced by Novartis using animal cell culture rather than the traditional manufacturing using chicken eggs – a speedier process that could help build stockpiles in the event of a pandemic.


The vaccine, to be sold by the Swiss drugmaker under the brand name Flucelvax, is approved to prevent season influenza in people aged 18 and over, the agency said.













To produce Flucelvax, virus strains for the vaccine are grown in animal cell cultures derived from mammals instead of in chicken eggs. Similar cell culture technology has long been used to produce other types of vaccines, FDA said.


“Today’s approval represents the culmination of efforts to develop a seasonal influenza vaccine using cell culture as an alternative to the egg-based process,” Karen Midthun, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.


Using cell cultures rather than chicken eggs allows for a faster start-up of the vaccine manufacturing process in the event of a health crisis, such as a flu pandemic. Traditional flu vaccine production requires a tremendous number of fertilized chicken eggs to grow virus strains and often takes several months before it is ready to be delivered to physicians or pharmacies.


The cell-based process also enables manufacturers to maintain a supply of readily available, previously tested cells for use in vaccine production.


“Modern cell-culture technology will likely become the new standard for influenza vaccine production,” predicted Andrin Oswald, head of Novartis’ vaccines and diagnostics division.


Flucelvax will eventually be manufactured at a new U.S. plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina, once that facility is ready for full-scale commercial production, Novartis said.


The production takes place in a sterile, controlled environment, which significantly reduces the risk of potential impurities, the company said.


In clinical trials, Flucelvax was 83.8 percent effective in preventing flu when compared with a placebo.


A limited supply of the new vaccine will be available for this year’s flu season, Novartis spokeswoman Liz Power said.


Novartis supplies the United States with about 30 million doses of flu vaccine annually, she said.


(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and David Gregorio)


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