GM recalls 145,628 mid-sized pickups for hood latch issue

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(Reuters) – General Motors Co said on Thursday it is recalling 145,628 mid-sized pickup trucks globally as the hood could open unexpectedly due to a possible missing latch.


Of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups affected by the recall, 118,800 are in the United States, 15,264 are in Canada, 7,492 are in Mexico and the rest are exports, GM said.






GM is recalling the model year 2010 to 2012 trucks because the hood may be missing a secondary hood latch, so if the primary latch is not engaged the hood could open and block the driver’s view and increase the risk of a crash, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


There are no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue, and there are four known cases of the secondary hood latch being missing, GM said.


GM said it will notify owners and instruct them to inspect their trucks for the presence of a secondary hood latch or take the truck to a dealer for inspection. If the secondary latch is missing, a new hood will be installed, the company said.


Dealers were notified of the issue on December 18 and GM expects to begin mailing letters to owners on January 17, according to NHTSA.


(Reporting By Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)


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Judge rejects part of Apple App Store suit vs Amazon

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday rejected part of Apple Inc‘s lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc‘s use of the term App Store, ruling Apple cannot bring a false advertising claim against the online retailer.


U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, granted Amazon‘s motion for partial summary judgment, which only challenged Apple’s false advertising allegations. Apple leveled other claims against Amazon, including trademark infringement.






An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, and an Amazon representative could not be reached immediately.


Amazon has stepped up competition against Apple in recent years, launching its cheaper Kindle tablet computer to go after the dominant iPad and trying to lure mobile application developers to its Kindle platform.


One of the first public clashes in their tussle was Apple’s 2011 lawsuit.


Apple accused Amazon of misusing what it calls its APP STORE to solicit developers for a mobile software download service. However, Amazon said its so-called Appstore has become so generic that its use could not constitute false advertising.


In a legal filing last year, Amazon added that even Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and his predecessor, Steve Jobs, used the term to discuss rivals. Cook commented on “the number of app stores out there” and Jobs referred to the “four app stores on Android.”


In her ruling on Wednesday, Hamilton wrote that the mere use of “Appstore” by Amazon cannot be taken as a representation that its service is the same as Apple’s.


“Apple has failed to establish that Amazon made any false statement (express or implied) of fact that actually deceived or had the tendency to deceive a substantial segment of its audience,” Hamilton wrote.


A trial on Apple’s remaining claims is scheduled for August.


The case is Apple Inc v. Amazon.com Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 11-01327.


(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Jeffrey Benkoe)


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U.S. soul singer Bobby Womack says he has signs of dementia

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(Reuters) – U.S. singer-songwriter Bobby Womack said he is beginning to show early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, including trouble remembering names and song lyrics.


“The doctor said, ‘You have signs of Alzheimer’s,’” Womack, 68, told Britain’s BBC Radio 6 music station over the weekend. “He said it’s not bad yet but it’s going to get worse.”






He added: “How can I not remember songs that I wrote? That’s frustrating.”


The 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, whose hits include “Woman’s Gotta Have It” and “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” suffered a number of health problems in the past year.


In March it was disclosed that he was diagnosed with colon cancer, which was later successfully treated, and he also underwent what was termed a “minor heart procedure.”


Other recent health issues included prostate cancer, pneumonia and collapsed lungs.


The soul veteran in October won the best album award from the British magazine Q for his 2012 release, “The Bravest Man in the Universe,” beating out much younger competition.


Womack got his start in the music business as the lead singer in the soul group The Valentinos, which he formed with his brothers, and played guitar for Sam Cooke.


He also wrote The Rolling Stones’ first chart topper in the UK, 1964′s “It’s All Over Now.”


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)


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CEOs pan fiscal cliff deal, vow to continue debt fight

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(Reuters) – U.S. executives largely panned the congressional deal to steer America away from the “fiscal cliff,” saying Washington wasted an opportunity to address the nation’s long-term debt, but said they would continue to agitate for a better budget plan.


While CEOs expressed relief that $ 600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts will not kick the fragile economy in the gut, their gratitude was salted with insults.






“I think this deal’s a disaster,” said Peter Huntsman, chief executive of chemical producer Huntsman Corp.


“We’re just living in a fantasy land. We’re borrowing more and more money. This did absolutely nothing to address the fundamental issue of the debt cliff.”


Former Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich said the agreement confirms that Washington and both parties are totally out of control.


“I think it’s a joke,” Kovacevich said of the deal. “It’s stunning to me that after working on this for months and supposedly really getting to work in the last 30 days that this is what you come up with.”


Kovacevich and others said business leaders need to consider a different approach, one that either bypasses lawmakers or lays out a much more specific plan for deficit reduction.


Corporate America had mounted a media blitz in the last two months, calling on Congress to both avert the potentially devastating fiscal cliff and replace it with a reasonable long-term plan to get the federal deficit under control.


Dozens of CEOs joined a loose coalition known as the “Fix the Debt” campaign, travelled to Washington to talk directly with lawmakers, visited the White House, and made regular rounds on TV news programs.


The executives scaled back their public posturing during the furious last-minute negotiations, which coincided with their holiday vacations, but some executives kept the phone lines to Washington open.


They are not happy with what their efforts bought them.


The final deal contained no meaningful spending cuts and adds trillions to the deficit, compared to the budget savings that would have occurred if the extreme measures of the cliff had kicked in.


It also set up another cliff of sorts in two months. That’s when the nation is expected to hit its borrowing limit, and when the across-the-board spending cuts known as “sequestration” are now scheduled kick in.


Despite executives’ distaste for the deal, they’re not turning their backs on Washington and are holding out hope for a greater deficit reduction plan.


“We cannot give up now, that’s not how a great nation acts,” said Honeywell International Inc CEO David Cote, a driving force behind the Fix the Debt group.


He said in a statement Wednesday that he’s “encouraged” by comments made by both Democrats and Republicans saying that more work needs to be done.


REGROUPING


Some in the business community are calling for a change in strategy due to the meager results of the fiscal cliff deal.


“It doesn’t work talking to the politicians, obviously,” former Wells CEO Kovacevich said. “What we’ve got to do is educate the American public that our country is going to hell.”


There are questions about how meaningful of a contribution Corporate America can make, especially if they do not deliver a unified voice on hard decisions such as industry-specific tax breaks.


Republican Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee said on CNBC on Wednesday morning that the business community could play a great role by pushing for concrete entitlement changes.


The business community appears reluctant to provide lawmakers with specific proposals.


Jon Romano, a spokesman for the Fix the Debt campaign, said the group has set out principles for a long-term deal, but it doesn’t want to prescribe what the policy should look like.


“We’re really looking to our elected leaders on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue to come up with that solution to this issue,” Romano said.


Mark Kennedy, who heads George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and served in Congress from 2001 to 2007, said business leaders need to do more.


He said executives should identify “sacred cows” that should no longer be protected, be more specific about how big a deficit reduction deal should be, and get specific about what they want included.


“It’s more helpful to get parameters as to what should be done than to just say, do something,” Kennedy said.


(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston, Emily Stephenson in Washington. Additional reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Ernest Scheyder in New York, Jim Finkle in Boston, Rick Rothacker in Charlotte and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Karey Wutkowski, Patricia Kranz, Dan Grebler and Leslie Gevirtz)


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Exclusive: McConnell defends 'imperfect' fiscal cliff deal

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Editor's note: This op/ed is by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.


The first day of a new Congress always represents a fresh start. This year, it also presents a perfect opportunity to tackle the single-greatest challenge facing our nation: reining in the out-of-control federal spending that threatens to permanently alter our economy and dim the prospects and opportunities of future generations of Americans.


Earlier this week, I helped negotiate an imperfect solution aimed at avoiding the so-called “fiscal cliff.” If I had my way taxes would not have gone up on anyone, but the unavoidable fact was this if we had sat back and done nothing taxes would have gone up dramatically on every single American, and I simply couldn’t allow that to happen.


By acting, we’ve shielded more than 99% of taxpayers from a massive tax hike that President Obama was all-too willing to impose. American families and small businesses that would have seen painfully smaller paychecks and profits this month have been spared. Retirement accounts for seniors won’t be whittled down by a dramatic increase in taxes on investment income. And many who’ve spent a lifetime paying taxes on income and savings won’t be slammed with a dramatically higher tax on estates.


Was it a great deal? No. As I said, taxes shouldn’t be going up at all. Just as importantly, the transcendent issue of our time, the spiraling debt, remains completely unaddressed. Yet now that the President has gotten his long-sought tax hike on the “rich,” we can finally turn squarely toward the real problem, which is spending.


Predictably, the President is already claiming that his tax hike on the “rich” isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over. Now the conversation turns to cutting spending on the government programs that are the real source of the nation’s fiscal imbalance. And the upcoming debate on the debt limit is the perfect time to have that discussion.


We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt.


The only way to achieve the balance the President claims to want is by cutting spending. As he himself has admitted, no amount of tax hikes or revenue could possibly keep up with the amount of money Washington is projected to spend in the coming years. At some point, high taxes become such a drag on the economy that the revenue stalls.


While most Washington Democrats may want to deny it, the truth is, the only thing we can do to solve the nation’s fiscal problem is to tackle government spending head on — and particularly, spending on health care programs, which appear to take off like a fighter jet on every chart available that details current trends in federal spending.


The President may not want to have a fight about government spending over the next few months, but it’s the fight he is going to have, because it’s a debate the country needs. For the sake of our future, the President must show up to this debate early and convince his party to do something that neither he nor they have been willing to do until now. Over the next two months they need to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution to the spending problem we have now achieved on revenue — before the 11th hour.


When it comes to spending, the time has come to rise above the special interest groups that dominate the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in Washington and act, without drama or delay. The President likes to say that most Americans support tax hikes on the rich. What he conveniently leaves out is that even more Americans support cuts. That’s the debate the American people really want. It’s a debate Republicans are ready to have. And it’s the debate that starts today, whether the President wants it or not.



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France counts 1,193 cars torched on New Year’s Eve

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PARIS (AP) — A New Year’s Eve tradition for some in France of torching empty, parked cars has continued.


Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country, where the stunt began in the 1990s.






There was no way to compare this figure to recent ones because the conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped making the numbers public while he was in office. But the rate of burned cars was apparently steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, 1,147 vehicles were burned.


For some, the decision of France’s current Socialist government to resume making public figures of New Year’s Eve’s torched cars is unwise.


Bruno Beschizza, a security chief for Sarkozy’s UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes.


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Heartwarming moments defy chill at Rose Parade

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PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — A couple who became husband and wife on the “Love Float,” a surprise reunion between a returning soldier and his little boy, and a grand marshal famed globally for her chimpanzee research were among the highlights of the 124th Rose Parade on Tuesday.


The parade’s spectacular 42 floral floats brightened an otherwise cloudy New Year’s morning and boosted the spirits of a chilled crowd estimated at some 700,000 spectators lining the 5-mile route.






“The only way that you’re going to experience the Rose Parade is to be here in person,” said Los Angeles resident Gineen Alcantara-Nakama, who camped out Monday night to save front row sidewalk spots.


“Growing up, I watched it on television, but it’s not the same — the smell, the atmosphere, smelling the flowers as they come down the street. And the energy. It’s like being with family all night long.”


Spectators rose to a standing ovation when Army Sgt. First Class Eric Pazz, who was riding on the Natural Balance Pet Foods float along with other service members, got off the float and walked over to his surprised wife Miriam and 4-year-old son Eric Jr., who came running out of the stands into the arms of his 32-year-old father.


Miriam Pazz had been told she had won a contest to attend the parade and did not know her husband, who is deployed in Afghanistan, would be there. A native of Clio, Mich., Pazz is a highly decorated soldier who has also served in Iraq. The family, who currently lives in Germany, climbed aboard the float for the rest of the route.


Cheers also went up for a Chesapeake, Va., couple who tied the knot aboard Farmers Insurance “Love Float.”


Gerald Sapienza and Nicole Angelillo were high school classmates who reconnected 10 years later and won the parade wedding over three other couples in a nationwide contest. They received a trip to Pasadena, a wedding gown, tuxedo, rings, marriage license fees, Rose Bowl game tickets and hair and makeup for the bride.


The parade’s theme this year was “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” named in honor of the Dr. Seuss book. It served as a fitting slogan for grand marshal British primatologist Jane Goodall, who has spent much of her life in Tanzania studying chimpanzees.


Goodall chose conservation as her message for the parade


“My dream for this New Year’s Day is for everyone to think of the places we can all go if we work together to make our world a better place,” said Goodall, 78.


“Every journey starts with a step and I am pleased to see the Tournament of Roses continue to take steps toward not only celebrating beauty and imagination, but also a cleaner environment.”


This year’s parade also saw the first-ever float entered by the Defense Department.


The $ 247,000 military float was a replica of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington to commemorate the veterans from that conflict.


The float that scooped up the parade’s grand “Sweepstakes” prize for the most beautiful floral presentation and design was “Dreaming in Paradise” by fruit and vegetable producer Dole.


According to parade rules, every inch of the floats must be covered with flowers or plant material, most of it applied by volunteers in the last weeks of December.


Besides floats, the parade also featured 23 marching bands and 21 equestrian units from around the world.


Banda El Salvador, a 200-plus member marching band and folkloric dance troupe, played sassy Latin rhythms and paid homage to their Central American country by dressing in the national colors of blue and white and shouting “Arriba El Salvador!”


The Aguiluchos band from Puebla, Mexico, earned cheers for their fancy footwork and vaquero rope tricks. Colorful dancers from Costa Rica and South Korea were other crowd pleasers.


Die-hard parade fans staked out their spots overnight or in pre-dawn hours with folding chairs, hammocks and portable barbeque grills despite frosty temperatures.


Emergency personnel received a number of cold-weather exposure calls, police department spokeswoman Lisa Derderian told City News Service.


As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, police had made a total of 22 arrests along the parade route since 6 p.m. Monday, said police Lt. Rick Aversan. All but one arrest were for suspected public intoxication. The other was for suspected possession of burglary tools that could have been used to break into cars, police said.


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“Fiscal cliff” crisis heads to resolution in Congress

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A months-long battle over the U.S. “fiscal cliff” headed to a close on Tuesday as the House of Representatives moved toward final approval of a bipartisan deal meant to prevent Washington from pushing the world’s biggest economy into recession.


The Republican-controlled House was expected to back a tax hike on the top U.S. earners shortly before midnight on Tuesday, ending weeks of high-stakes budget brinkmanship that threatened to spook consumers and throw financial markets into turmoil.






Approval of the bill would be a victory for President Barack Obama, who campaigned for re-election last November on a promise to raise taxes on the wealthiest but faced stiff opposition from congressional Republicans.


Republicans had earlier considered adding hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts after the bill had already passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. That would have triggered further partisan warfare and pushed the crisis well past a self-imposed January 1 deadline.


But party leaders abandoned the effort after determining they lacked the votes.


“We’ve gone as far as we can go and I think people are ready to bring it to a conclusion,” Republican Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia said. “We fought the fight.”


Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, a Republican, predicted the House would back the Senate bill, which also postpones for two months $ 109 billion in spending cuts on military and domestic programs set for 2013.


The bill easily cleared a procedural hurdle by a bipartisan vote of 408 to 10.


Lawmakers have struggled to find a way to head off across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that began to take effect at midnight, a legacy of earlier failed budget deals that is known as the fiscal cliff.


Strictly speaking, the United States went over the cliff in the first minutes of the New Year because Congress failed to produce legislation to halt $ 600 billion of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled for this year.


TAX HIKES FOR WEALTHIEST


While many Republicans were uneasy with the tax hikes and wanted more spending cuts in the bill, they seemed to realize that the fiscal cliff would begin to damage the economy once financial markets and federal government offices returned to work on Wednesday. Opinion polls show the public would blame Republicans if a deal were to fall apart.


House Republicans had earlier considered adding $ 330 billion in spending cuts over 10 years to the Senate bill, which raises taxes on the wealthiest U.S. households by $ 620 billion over the same period.


But Senate Democrats refused to consider any changes to their bill, which passed 89 to 8 in a rare display of unity early Tuesday.


That measure, which passed the Senate at around 2 a.m., would raise income taxes on families earning more than $ 450,000 per year and limit the amount of deductions they can take to lower their tax bill.


Low temporary rates that have been in place for the past decade would be made permanent for less-affluent taxpayers, along with a range of targeted tax breaks put in place to fight the 2009 economic downturn.


However, workers would see up to $ 2,000 more taken out of their paychecks annually with the expiration of a temporary payroll tax cut.


The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill would increase budget deficits by nearly $ 4 trillion over the coming 10 years, compared to the budget savings that would occur if the extreme measures of the cliff were to kick in.


But the bill would actually save $ 650 billion during that time period when measured against the tax and spending policies that were in effect on Monday, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent group that has pushed for more aggressive deficit savings.


(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Thomas Ferraro and David Lawder; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)


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House finally ready to vote on fiscal deal

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Maneuvered into a political corner, House Republicans abandoned demands for changes in emergency legislation to prevent widespread tax increases and painful across-the-board spending cuts and cleared the way for a final, climactic New Year's night vote.


The decision capped a day of intense political calculations for conservatives who control the House. They had to weigh their desire to cut spending against the fear that the Senate would refuse to consider any changes they made in the "fiscal cliff" bill, sending it into limbo and saddling Republicans with the blame for a whopping middle class tax increase.


Adding to the GOP discomfort, one Senate Democratic leadership aide said Majority Leader Harry Reid would "absolutely not take up the bill" if the House changed it. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a requirement to keep internal deliberations private.


The legislation cleared the Senate hours earlier on a lopsided pre-dawn vote of 89-8. Administration officials met at the White House to monitor its progress.


"I do not support the bill. We are looking, though, for the best path forward," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., declared after one meeting of the party's rank-and-file.


Despite Cantor's remarks, Speaker John Boehner took no public position on the bill as he sought to negotiate a conclusion to the final crisis of a two-year term full of them.


It wasn't the first time that the tea party-infused House Republican majority has rebelled against the party establishment since the GOP took control of the chamber 24 months ago. But with the two-year term set to end Thursday at noon, it was likely the last. And as was true in earlier cases of a threatened default and government shutdown, the brinkmanship came on a matter of economic urgency, leaving the party open to a public backlash if tax increases do take effect on tens of millions.


After intensive deliberations — a pair of rank-and-file meetings sandwiched around a leadership session, the GOP high command had not yet settled on a course of action by early evening.


Instead, they canvassed Republicans to see if they wanted simply to vote on the Senate measure, or whether they wanted first to try and add spending cuts totaling about $300 billion over a decade. The cuts had passed the House twice earlier in the year but are opposed by most if not all Senate Democrats.


"We've gone as far as we can go," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. "I think people are ready to bring this to a conclusion, and know we have a whole year ahead of us" for additional fights over spending.


The economic as well as political stakes were considerable.


Economists have warned that without action by Congress, the tax increases and spending cuts that technically took effect with the turn of the new year at midnight could send the economy into recession.


Even with enactment of the legislation, taxes are on the rise for millions.


A 2 percentage point temporary cut in the payroll tax, originally enacted two years ago to stimulate the economy, expired with the end of 2012. Neither Obama nor Republicans have made a significant effort to extend it.


The Senate-passed bill was designed to prevent that while providing for tax increases at upper incomes, as Obama campaigned for in his successful bid for a second term.


It would also prevent an expiration of extended unemployment benefits for an estimated two million jobless, block a 27 percent cut in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients, stop a $900 pay increase for lawmakers from taking effect in March and head off a threatened spike in milk prices.


At the same time, it would stop $24 billion in spending cuts set to take effect over the next two months, although only about half of that total would be offset with spending reductions elsewhere in the budget.


The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the measure would add nearly $4 trillion over a decade to federal deficits, a calculation that assumed taxes would otherwise have risen on taxpayers at all income levels. There was little or no evident concern among Republicans on that point, presumably because of their belief that tax cuts pay for themselves by expanding economic growth and do not cause deficits to rise.


The relative paucity of spending cuts was a sticking point with many House Republicans. Among other items, the extension of unemployment benefits costs $30 billion, and is not offset by savings elsewhere.


"I personally hate it," said Rep. John Campbell of California. "The speaker the day after the election said we would give on taxes and we have. But we wanted spending cuts. This bill has spending increases. Are you kidding me? So we get tax increases and spending increases? Come on."


Others said unhappiness over spending outweighed fears that the financial markets will plunge on Wednesday if the fiscal cliff hasn't been averted.


"There's a concern about the markets, but there's a bigger concern, which is getting this right, which is something we haven't been very good at over the past two years," said Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio.


House Democrats met privately with Biden for their review of the measure, and the party's leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, said afterward that Boehner should permit a vote.


"That is what we expect. That is what the American people deserve," she said.


For all the struggle involved in the legislation, even its passage would merely clear the way for another round of controversy almost as soon as the new Congress convenes.


With the Treasury expected to need an expansion in borrowing authority by early spring, and funding authority for most government programs set to expire in late March, Republicans have made it clear they intend to use those events as leverage with the administration to win savings from Medicare and other government benefit programs.


McConnell said as much moments before the 2 a.m. Tuesday vote in the Senate — two hours after the advertised "cliff" deadline.


"We've taken care of the revenue side of this debate. Now it's time to get serious about reducing Washington's out-of-control spending," he said. "That's a debate the American people want. It's the debate we'll have next. And it's a debate Republicans are ready for."


The 89-8 vote in the Senate was unexpectedly lopsided.


Despite grumbling from liberals that Obama had given way too much in the bargaining, only three Democrats opposed the measure.


Among the Republican supporters were Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, an ardent opponent of tax increases, as well as Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, elected to his seat two years ago with tea party support.


It marked the first time in two decades that Republicans willingly supported higher taxes, in this case on incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. Taxes also would rise on estates greater than $5 million in size, and on capital gains and dividend income made by the wealthy.


___


Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Larry Margasak and Julie Pace contributed to this story.


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Pope marks end of difficult year, notes God’s good

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI marked the end of a difficult year Monday by saying that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails.


Benedict celebrated New Year’s Eve with a vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He appeared tired during the service and used a cane afterward — an indication that the busy Christmas season may be taking a toll on the 85-year-old Benedict.






In his homily, Benedict said it’s tough to remember that goodness prevails when bad news — death, violence and injustice — “makes more noise than good.” He said taking time to meditate in prolonged reflection and prayer can help “find healing from the inevitable wounds of daily life.”


This past year was full of highs and lows for the pope, including a successful trip to Mexico and Cuba but also the betrayal of his butler, convicted in October of stealing Benedict’s personal papers and leaking them to a journalist.


After the service, Benedict was brought out in a covered car to pray before the Vatican’s main nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. Walking with a cane in the chilly piazza, Benedict chatted animatedly with the artist who crafted the scene, which recreated an entire village from the poor, southern Italian region of Basilicata which donated this year’s crèche.


The Vatican gladly accepted Basilicata’s donation after the €550,000 price tag the Vatican paid for the 2009 nativity scene was revealed in the documentation leaked by Benedict’s ex-butler Paolo Gabriele.


Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He received a pre-Christmas papal pardon and is expected to soon leave his Vatican City apartment for a new home and job elsewhere.


On Tuesday morning, Benedict celebrates a New Year’s Day Mass, which the Catholic Church celebrates as its world day of peace.


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Movers roundup: Facebook, Best Buy

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Among the stock activity stories for Monday, Dec. 31, from AP Business News:


— Shares of Facebook Inc. rose after an analyst said advertising spending was picking up on the Internet social network and raised his rating on its stock.






— Shares of Best Buy Co. rose on light volume as the struggling electronics retailer closed out a rocky year.


— Shares of Duff & Phelps Corp. rose on news that the company had agreed to be acquired.


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Is Tom Cruise still a go-to action hero? Hollywood, “Jack Reacher” say yes

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Given his age and the tough year he’s had in the tabloids, is Tom Cruise still a go-to guy when Hollywood is looking for an action hero?


The answer is yes, based on the performance of his current movie, Paramount‘s “Jack Reacher.” It’s taken in $ 45 million in the 10 days since opening with $ 15.6 million in a very crowded and competitive holiday market. Its second week was a solid $ 14 million, and it’s added $ 22 million from overseas.






Holiday movies tend to have legs and “Reacher” has yet to roll out in the majority of major foreign territories, so both of those numbers, particularly the international, will be growing. All signs point to it surpassing $ 200 million at the worldwide box office. That’s not a blockbuster figure, and Paramount is staying mum on a sequel, but with a $ 60 million budget, “Jack Reacher” will make money for Paramount.


There were questions coming in. With his divorce from Katie Holmes and subsequent custody battle, Cruise is carrying plenty of public relations baggage. His foray earlier this year into musicals with “Rock of Ages” was critically applauded but proved a box-office dud. That’s on top of his well-known support for Scientology.


He’s 50 now, which might be the new 40 in the real world, but is starting to get on in years in the realm of action heroes. Daniel Craig is 44. Jeremy Renner is 41. We are a long way from “Top Gun” – that was 1986 – so it probably won’t be too, too long until “The Expendables” franchise comes calling for Cruise.


But in the meantime, “Reacher” is going to be profitable for Paramount and Cruise’s portrayal of the tough, ex-military drifter has drawn critical kudos, so there’s a bit of momentum now. And it’s clear from his upcoming schedule that Hollywood is still convinced he can carry an action film.


Next for Cruise will be two sci-fi movies: Universal’s “Oblivion” is due in April and “All You Need is Kill” is set for March 2014 from Warner Bros. After that, there’s a potential “Van Helsing” remake at Universal and “Mission: Impossible 5″ is on Paramount‘s 2015 slate.


His recent track record at the box office, particularly when you look at his performance in the action genre, suggests the studios are making a pretty good bet.


“Rock of Ages” may have crumpled, but “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” was a huge hit for Paramount, taking in nearly $ 700 million worldwide in 2011. “Knight & Day,” from Fox in 2010, and “Valkyrie,” from United Artists in 2008, both made over $ 200 million worldwide.


Supporting roles in “Tropic Thunder” and “Lions for Lambs” preceded those, but those came on the heels of two Paramount movies: “Mission Impossible 3,” which made nearly $ 400 million worldwide in 2006, and “War of the Worlds,” which did $ 592 million in the previous year.


The bottom line: Hollywood is still convinced you can still take Tom Cruise, movie action hero, to the bank.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Steroids loom in major-college football

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WASHINGTON (AP) — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.


Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.






An investigation by The Associated Press — based on interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players — revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport say they believe the problem is under control, that control is hardly evident.


The sport’s near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn’t an accurate gauge among college athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs like marijuana allow them to say they’re doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.


“It’s nothing like what’s going on in reality,” said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA’s laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it was part of the reason he left the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.


___


EDITOR’S NOTE — Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.


___


While other major sports have been beset by revelations of steroid use, college football has operated with barely a whiff of scandal. Between 1996 and 2010 — the era of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong — the failure rate for NCAA steroid tests fell even closer to zero from an already low rate of less than 1 percent.


The AP’s investigation, drawing upon more than a decade of official rosters from all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, found thousands of players quickly putting on significant weight, even more than their fellow players. The information compiled by the AP included players who appeared for multiple years on the same teams.


For decades, scientific studies have shown that anabolic steroid use leads to an increase in body weight. Weight gain alone doesn’t prove steroid use, but very rapid weight gain is one factor that would be deemed suspicious, said Kathy Turpin, senior director of sport drug testing for the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which conducts tests for the NCAA and more than 300 schools.


Yet the NCAA has never studied weight gain or considered it in regard to its steroid testing policies, said Mary Wilfert, the NCAA’s associate director of health and safety.


The NCAA attributes the decline in positive tests to its year-round drug testing program, combined with anti-drug education and testing conducted by schools.


The AP’s analysis found that, regardless of school, conference and won-loss record, many players gained weight at exceptional rates compared with their fellow athletes and while accounting for their heights.


Adding more than 20 or 25 pounds of lean muscle in a year is nearly impossible through diet and exercise alone, said Dan Benardot, director of the Laboratory for Elite Athlete Performance at Georgia State University.


In nearly all the rarest cases of weight gain in the AP study, players were offensive or defensive linemen, hulking giants who tower above 6-foot-3 and weigh 300 pounds or more. Four of those players interviewed by the AP said that they never used steroids and gained weight through dramatic increases in eating, up to six meals a day. Two said they were aware of other players using steroids.


“I ate 5-6 times a day,” said Clint Oldenburg, who played for Colorado State starting in 2002 and for five years in the NFL. Oldenburg’s weight increased over four years from 212 to 290.


Oldenburg told the AP he was surprised at the scope of steroid use in college football, even in Colorado State’s locker room. “There were a lot of guys even on my team that were using.” He declined to identify any of them.


The AP found more than 4,700 players — or about 7 percent of all players — who gained more than 20 pounds overall in a single year. It was common for the athletes to gain 10, 15 and up to 20 pounds in their first year under a rigorous regimen of weightlifting and diet. Others gained 25, 35 and 40 pounds in a season. In roughly 100 cases, players packed on as much 80 pounds in a single year.


In at least 11 instances, players that AP identified as packing on significant weight in college went on to fail NFL drug tests. But pro football’s confidentiality rules make it impossible to know for certain which drugs were used and how many others failed tests that never became public.


Even though testers consider rapid weight gain suspicious, in practice it doesn’t result in testing. Ben Lamaak, who arrived at Iowa State in 2006, said he weighed 225 pounds in high school. He graduated as a 320-pound offensive lineman and said he did it all naturally.


“I was just a young kid at that time, and I was still growing into my body,” he said. “It really wasn’t that hard for me to gain the weight. I love to eat.”


In addition to random drug testing, Iowa State is one of many schools that have “reasonable suspicion” testing. That means players can be tested when their behavior or physical symptoms suggest drug use. Despite gaining 81 pounds in a year, Lamaak said he was never singled out for testing.


The associate athletics director for athletic training at Iowa State, Mark Coberley, said coaches and trainers use body composition, strength data and other factors to spot suspected cheaters. Lamaak, he said, was not suspicious because he gained a lot of “non-lean” weight.


But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Bryan Maneafaiga.


In the summer of 2004, Bryan Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice — once in pre-season and once in the fall — he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use but not steroids.


He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. Once on the team, he’d occasionally inject the milky liquid into his buttocks the day before games.


“Food and good training will only get you so far,” he told the AP recently.


Maneafaiga’s former coach, June Jones, said it was news to him that one of his players had used steroids. Jones, who now coaches at Southern Methodist University, believes the NCAA does a good job rooting out steroid use.


On paper, college football has a strong drug policy. The NCAA conducts random, unannounced drug testing and the penalties for failure are severe. Players lose an entire year of eligibility after a first positive test. A second offense means permanent ineligibility for sports.


In practice, though, the NCAA’s roughly 11,000 annual tests amount to a fraction of all athletes in Division I and II schools. Exactly how many tests are conducted each year on football players is unclear because the NCAA hasn’t published its data for two years. And when it did, it periodically changed the formats, making it impossible to compare one year of football to the next.


Even when players are tested by the NCAA, experts like Catlin say it’s easy enough to anticipate the test and develop a doping routine that results in a clean test by the time it occurs. NCAA rules say players can be notified up to two days in advance of a test, which Catlin says is plenty of time to beat a test if players have designed the right doping regimen. By comparison, Olympic athletes are given no notice.


Most schools that use Drug Free Sport do not test for anabolic steroids, Turpin said. Some are worried about the cost. Others don’t think they have a problem. And others believe that since the NCAA tests for steroids their money is best spent testing for street drugs, she said.


Doping is a bigger deal at some schools than others.


At Notre Dame and Alabama, the teams that will soon compete for the national championship, players don’t automatically miss games for testing positive for steroids. At Alabama, coaches have wide discretion. Notre Dame’s student-athlete handbook says a player who fails a test can return to the field once the steroids are out of his system.


The University of North Carolina kicks players off the team after a single positive test for steroids. Auburn’s student-athlete handbook calls for a half-season suspension for any athlete caught using performance-enhancing drugs.


At UCLA, home of the laboratory that for years set the standard for cutting-edge steroid testing, athletes can fail three drug tests before being suspended. At Bowling Green, testing is voluntary.


At the University of Maryland, students must get counseling after testing positive, but school officials are prohibited from disciplining first-time steroid users.


Only about half the student athletes in a 2009 NCAA survey said they believed school testing deterred drug use. As an association of colleges and universities, the NCAA could not unilaterally force schools to institute uniform testing policies and sanctions, Wilfert said.


“We can’t tell them what to do, but if went through a membership process where they determined that this is what should be done, then it could happen,” she said.


___


Associated Press writers Ryan Foley in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; David Brandt in Jackson, Miss.; David Skretta in Lawrence, Kan.; Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., and Alexa Olesen in Shanghai, China, and researchers Susan James in New York and Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.


___


Contact the Washington investigative team at DCinvestigations (at) ap.org.


Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.


Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Tentative ‘fiscal cliff’ deal reached in Senate

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President Barack Obama discusses the negotiations with Capitol Hill on the looming fiscal cliff in front of middle …Racing to beat a midnight deadline, Vice President Joe Biden arrived on Capitol Hill Monday night to sell wary Democratic senators on an 11th-hour deal to avert income tax hikes on all but a sliver of the richest Americans.


Grinning broadly, Biden ignored reporters questions on whether he and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had finally forged a compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that threatened the still-fragile economy with a new recession. "Happy new year," he replied.


But a Democratic Senate aide told Yahoo News that "the White House and Republicans have a deal," while a source familiar with the negotiations said President Barack Obama had discussed the compromise with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and "they both signed off."


The apparent agreement set up a Senate vote late Monday or possibly in the wee hours of Tuesday. The House of Representatives was due back at noon on Tuesday to take it up.


Under the compromise arrangement, taxes would rise on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill would face new limits. The accord would also raise the taxes paid on large inheritances from 35% to 40% for estates over $5 million. And it would extend by one year unemployment benefits for some two million Americans.


Biden, a 36-year Senate veteran, worked out the agreement with McConnell after talks between Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner collapsed.


But with time running short, the country appeared on track to go over the cliff at midnight -- though quick congressional action, and the fact that financial markets were to be closed on New Year's Day, were expected to limit the damage.


“Today, it appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year's tax hike is within sight, but it's not done,” Obama said in hastily announced midday remarks at the White House. “There are still issues left to resolve, but we're hopeful that Congress can get it done – but it’s not done.”


"One thing we can count on with respect to this Congress is that if there is even one second left before you have to do what you’re supposed to do, they will use that last second," he said.


Obama’s remarks – by turns scolding, triumphant, and mocking of Congress – came after talks between McConnell and Biden appeared to seal the breakthrough deal.


Efforts to modify the first installment of $1.2 trillion in cuts to domestic and defense programs over 10 years -- the other portion of the “fiscal cliff,” known as sequestration -- had proved a sticking point late in the game. Democrats had sought a year-long freeze but appeared to have caved to Republican pressure and signed on to just a two-month delay. That would put the next battle over those cuts right around the time that the White House and its Republican foes are battling it out over whether to raise the country's debt limit. Republicans have vowed to push for more spending cuts, equivalent to the amount of new borrowing. Obama has vowed not to negotiate as he did in 2011, when a bruising fight threatened the first-ever default on America's obligations and resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the country's credit rating.


Experts had warned that the fiscal cliff's tax increases and spending cuts, taken together, could plunge the still-fragile economy into a new recession.


“I can report that we’ve reached an agreement on all of the tax issues,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We are very, very close to an agreement.”


The Kentucky Republican later briefed Republicans on the details of the deal. Lawmakers emerged from that closed-door session offered hopeful appraisals that, after clearing a few last-minute hurdles, they could vote on New Year’s Eve or with 2013 just hours old.


“Tonight, I hope,” Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee told reporters. “It may be at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. Oh, I guess that’s technically tomorrow.”


Republican Senators said negotiators were still working on a way to forestall two months of the “sequester” spending cuts, about $20 billion worth. And some expressed disquiet that the tentative compromise ran high on tax increases and low on spending cuts -- while warning that failure to act, triggering some $600 billion in income tax increases on all Americans who pay it and draconian spending cuts, was the worse option.


McConnell earlier had called for a vote on the tax component of the deal.


“Let me be clear: We’ll continue to work on finding smarter ways to cut spending, but let’s not let that hold up protecting Americans from the tax hike,” McConnell urged. “Let’s pass the tax relief portion now. Let’s take what’s been agreed to and get moving.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., followed by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., second from right, leaves …


The final compromise needed to clear the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-held House. Aides in both chambers doubted that could happen by midnight – but emphasized that there was no need to move the family into the Doomsday bunker in the back yard. Yet.


Unlike a college student who writes an end-of-semester paper overnight before a morning deadline, then drops the assignment off hours after it was due, Congress can write its own rules to minimize the damage – and Americans whose taxes are staying the same won’t see a change in their bottom line.


“It’s basically a matter of saying it’s effective January 1,” one senior Republican aide shrugged.


But passage was not a sure thing: Both the AFL-CIO labor union and the conservative Heritage Action organization argued against the package.


The breakthrough came after McConnell announced Sunday that he had started to negotiate with Biden in a bid to "jump-start" stalled talks to avoid the fiscal cliff.


Under their tentative deal, the top tax rate on household income above $450,000 would rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent -- where it was under Bill Clinton, before the reductions enacted under George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.


Some congressional liberals had expressed objections to extending tax cuts above the $250,000 income threshold Obama cited throughout the 2012 campaign. Democrats were huddling in private as well to work out whether they could support the arrangement.


Possibly with balking progressives in mind, Obama trumpeted victories dear to the left of his party. "The potential agreement that’s being talked about would not only make sure the taxes don’t go up on middle-class families, it also would extend tax credits for families with children. It would extend our tuition tax credit that’s helped millions of families pay for college. It would extend tax credits for clean energy companies that are creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil. It would extend unemployment insurance to 2 million Americans who are out there still actively looking for a job."


Obama said he had hoped for "a larger agreement, a bigger deal, a grand bargain," to stem the tide of red ink swamping the country’s finances – but shelved that goal.


"With this Congress, that was obviously a little too much to hope for at this time," he said. "It may be we can do it in stages. We’re going to solve this problem instead in several steps."


The president also looked ahead to his next budgetary battle with Republicans, warning that “any future deficit agreement” will have to couple spending cuts with tax increases. He expressed a willingness to reduce spending on popular programs like Medicare, but said entitlement reform would have to go hand in hand with new tax revenues.


“If Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone … then they’ve another thing coming,” Obama said defiantly. “That’s not how it’s going to work.”


“If we’re serious about deficit reduction and debt reduction, then it’s going to have to be a matter of shared sacrifice. At least as long as I’m president. And I’m going to be president for the next four years, I hope,” he said.



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Pakistan militants kill 41 in mass execution, attack on Shi’ites

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PESHWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani militants, who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, killed at least 41 people in two separate incidents, officials said on Sunday, challenging assertions that military offensives have broken the back of hardline Islamist groups.


The United States has long pressured nuclear-armed ally Pakistan to crack down harder on both homegrown militants groups such as the Taliban and others which are based on its soil and attack Western forces in Afghanistan.






In the north, 21 men working for a government-backed paramilitary force were executed overnight after they were kidnapped last week, a provincial official said.


Twenty Shi’ite pilgrims died and 24 were wounded, meanwhile, when a car bomb targeted their bus convoy as it headed toward the Iranian border in the southwest, a doctor said.


New York-based Human Rights Watch has noted more than 320 Shias killed this year in Pakistan and said attacks were on the rise. It said the government’s failure to catch or prosecute attackers suggested it was “indifferent” to the killings.


Pakistan, seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize the region before NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, denies allegations that it supports militant groups like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.


Afghan officials say Pakistan seems more genuine than ever about promoting peace in Afghanistan.


At home, it faces a variety of highly lethal militant groups that carry out suicide bombings, attack police and military facilities and launch sectarian attacks like the one on the bus in the southwest.


Witnesses said a blast targeted their three buses as they were overtaking a car about 60 km (35 miles) west of Quetta, capital of sparsely populated Baluchistan province.


“The bus next to us caught on fire immediately,” said pilgrim Hussein Ali, 60. “We tried to save our companions, but were driven back by the intensity of the heat.”


Twenty people had been killed and 24 wounded, said an official at Mastung district hospital.


CONCERN OVER EXTREMIST SUNNI GROUPS


International attention has focused on al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.


But Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist Sunni groups, lead by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are emerging as a major destabilizing force in a campaign designed to topple the government.


Their strategy now, the officials say, is to carry out attacks on Shi’ites to create the kind of sectarian tensions that pushed countries like Iraq to the brink of civil war.


As elections scheduled for next year approach, Pakistanis will be asking what sort of progress their leaders have made in the fight against militancy and a host of other issues, such as poverty, official corruption and chronic power cuts.


Pakistan’s Taliban have carried out a series of recent bold attacks, as military officials point to what they say is a power struggle in the group’s leadership revolving around whether it should ease attacks on the Pakistani state and join groups fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.


The Taliban denies a rift exists among its leaders.


In the attack in the northwest, officials said they had found the bodies of 21 men kidnapped from their checkpoints outside the provincial capital of Peshawar on Thursday. The men were executed one by one.


“They were tied up and blindfolded,” Naveed Anwar, a senior administration official, said by telephone.


“They were lined up and shot in the head,” said Habibullah Arif, another local official, also by telephone.


One man was shot and seriously wounded but survived, the officials said. He was in critical condition and being treated at a local hospital. Another had escaped before the shootings.


Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attacks.


“We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn’t make any demand for their release because we don’t spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting,” he said.


The powerful military has clawed back territory from the Taliban, but the kidnap and executions underline the insurgents’ ability to mount high-profile, deadly attacks in major cities.


This month, suicide bombers attacked Peshawar’s airport on December 15 and a bomb killed a senior Pashtun nationalist politician and eight other people at a rally on December 22.


(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in DERA ISMAIL KHAN and Gul Yousufzai in QUETTA; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Michael Georgy and Ron Popeski)


World News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Kobe Bryant Finally Joins Twitter — Kind Of

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Long among the sports world’s biggest Twitter holdouts, Kobe Bryant has finally joined the social network. But he hasn’t opened an account, and won’t be around for long.


Social savvy fans are being blessed with his presence thanks to Nike Basketball, which has turned over its account to Bryant since Tuesday.






[More from Mashable: Avery Johnson’s Teenage Son Unloads on Twitter After NBA Firing]


Nike Basketball, which sponsors Bryant and produces his official sneaker, announced the Kobe takeover in a Christmas Day tweet. The account’s name is now “Kobe Bryant” although its handle remains @nikebasketball. Kobe has spent the past few days tweeting about a variety of subjects using a series of hashtags that play off the theme #counton-fill-in-the-blank.


He’s tweeted about the Lakers progress as a team:


[More from Mashable: FanDuel Is Fantasy Sports With a Twist]


He’s tweeted behind-the-scenes snippets of training and treatment:


And he’s tweeted a totally normal, typical, everyday holiday family portrait:


Bryant actually joined Twitter for realsies back in 2011, but then deleted the account after racking up more than 35,000 followers in a just a few hours. He’s one of the NBA’s few stars without a Twitter presence. Nearly 90% of the league’s players are on the social network, according to Twitter.


But Bryant did become much more active on Facebook this summer, especially while traveling with the United States’ Olympic basketball team. He has nearly 15 million fans there, and reportedly writes his status updates and messages himself, with editing and actual posting done by support staff. In November he asked Facebook fans whether to join Instagram or Twitter next, and on Monday hinted in a status update that he may soon open an Instagram account.


What athletes would you most like to see get more active on social media? Let us know in the comments.


BONUS: 30 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts This NBA SEASON


1. @NBA


The NBA is arguably the world’s most engaging sports league on social media. Follow its official Twitter account for news, highlights and promotions.


Click here to view this gallery.


Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr, Keith Allison


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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UK “X Factor” winner regains top chart spot

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LONDON (Reuters) – James Arthur, winner of this year’s British version of the “X Factor” TV talent show, saw his debut single climb back to number one in the British pop charts on Sunday.


Arthur’s “Impossible” shot straight to the top earlier this month but was overtaken last week by a tribute song to the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, a version of the ballad that was a worldwide hit for The Hollies.






That song has now slipped to fifth position, according to the Official Charts Company listings.


“Scream and Shout” by will.i.am, featuring Britney Spears, stayed at two while Psy’s monster video hit “Gangnam Style” was up three places to third.


In the album charts, British singer Emeli Sande stayed top with “Our Version Of Events”, with Olly Murs‘ “Right Place, Right Time” unchanged at two.


Rihanna was up three places to third with “Unapologetic”.


(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Alison Williams)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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New Year’s Resolutions For Better Health

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New Year’s resolutions are typically so singular, self-focused and private. How about making a resolution or two this year that has benefits beyond yourself? Here are some suggestions with lots of links to get you started.


You can help stop the spread of disease. Resolve to get up-to-date on your vaccines. While children have a full slate of vaccines, many adults don’t realize they have regular immunization obligations, too. Getting flu, pertussis, human papillomavirus and other vaccines can protect you and help stop the spread of diseases that harm others. Here’s a great guide to adult immunizations from the federal government. If the cost of vaccines is an issue, check into free or low-cost immunizations through your county’s public health department. Here’s a guide to finding your local office. Volunteer with an organization that needs your help. A group called Catchafire matches professionals who wish to volunteer their skills to organizations that need the help — including many important health organizations. The idea is to give great organizations access to top talent while respecting the professionals’ schedules and making their volunteer work meaningful. Here’s the link. Influence a healthier food climate. Americans spend about half of their food budgets eating out. So we had better demand thorough nutritional information about what we’re getting. Under healthcare reform, many restaurant chains will soon carry nutritional information. But the law has loopholes. If you don’t see the information you’re looking for on salt, fat, calories or other nutrients, ask the restaurant’s manager where you can find it. Nutritional information should be easy to access. Until it is, speak up and ask for it. Do your part to keep down healthcare costs. The Affordable Care Act will bring many consumers into the insurance healthcare system for the first time. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the cost of care. Rising healthcare costs remain a huge issue that could drag down the economy and bedevil some reform efforts. You can help by being a wise healthcare consumer. Read your insurance policy and know what it does and doesn’t cover. Take advantage of free preventive care services and screening tests under the ACA. Shop around for prescriptions to find the cheapest prices. Ask your doctor for generic equivalents. Finally, use your health savings account if your employer offers one. These accounts provide incentives for using your money wisely, shopping around to find the best healthcare prices and weighing the costs and benefits of certain drugs, tests or procedures.  Here’s a guide to understanding how HSAs work. Be responsible about the prescription drugs you store at home. You can reduce your own risk of addiction and lower the risk for others, too, if you are careful about medications kept in your home. This year marked a turning point in the nation’s epidemic of prescription-drug abuse and addiction.  Admissions to addiction treatment centers for use of narcotic painkillers rose 569 percent in the past decade, according to the federal government. More people now die from drug overdoses than from traffic accidents. More than six million Americans abuse prescription drugs, and more than 70 percent of addicts get their drugs through family or friends or by raiding a home medicine cabinet. Dispose of unused medications. The Drug Enforcement Agency operates a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day a few times a year (the next one is in April), that makes it easy to dispose of dangerous substance.  Go through your home today and collect unused medications. You can take them to a pharmacy for disposal or even flush them down the toilet. Some drugs carry disposal instructions on the label. Here’s information on how to dispose of prescription medications. Be a safe driver. One of the biggest safety issues on the nation’s roads these days is driver distraction. A large share of the distractions come from talking on a hand-held cell phone or text messaging while driving. You’re 23 times more likely to crash if you text while driving. Most states now prohibit texting while driving, but there are still many people who do it while knowing it’s unsafe. Break yourself of this terrible habit. The federal government has a website that provides people with information and tools to discourage distracted driving. Included in this package is a simple pledge sheet you can print out, sign and post on your refrigerator door or bathroom to help you make the commitment. There are a couple of other things you can do, too. Speak out if the driver you’re riding with is distracted. Encourage family and friends to drive phone-free. Run a race for the greater good. Who doesn’t love a good 5K walk or run? You benefit from the exercise and, if you choose a charity race, others reap rewards, too. There are thousands of charity races each year. Pick one and invite your friends to participate with you. Here’s a website to help you find a race.  Apply for a grant. There’s money out there for doing good. Saucony’s Run for Good Foundation aims at preventing child obesity by promoting running as part of a healthy lifestyle for kids. The foundation issues grant money to organizations that want to organize a kids’ running group. You can find information on how to apply at the foundation website. Sign a petition. Concerned about flame retardants in consumer products? Gun safety? Funding for research to fight a particular disease? There’s probably a petition for that. It’s an easy way to make your voice heard. Both change.org and thepetitionsite.com are good places to look to find a petition close to your heart.






Question: What resolutions can you make to help others? Tell us what you think in the comments.



Shari Roan is an award-winning health writer based in Southern California. She is the author of three books on health and science subjects.


Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Clinton admitted to hospital with blood clot

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(REUTERS/Gary Cameron) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington …Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been admitted to a New York hospital for treatment of a blood clot, her spokesman said Sunday.


State Department Spokesman Philippe Reines said Clinton had entered the hospital following a medical examination for a concussion she sustained earlier this month.
"In the course of a follow-up exam today, Secretary Clinton's doctors discovered a blood clot had formed, stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago," Reines said in a statement.  "She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours."


Reines added, "Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. They will determine if any further action is required."


Clinton was scheduled to return to work this week after treatment for the concussion. She is set to step down from her post shortly after President Barack Obama's inauguration on January 21. Last week, Obama announced he had chosen Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to replace Clinton as the nation's top diplomat.



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