Christina Ricci Is Engaged to James Heerdegen

02/02/2013 at 12:05 PM EST

Christina Ricci

Noel Vasquez/Getty. Inset:Splash News Online

Christina Ricci's happy secret has been confirmed – she's engaged!

The actress, 32, who has been wearing ring finger bling since October, is headed to the altar with James Heerdegen.

Heerdegen, is a camera technician and met Ricci when the two were working on ABC's former TV series Pan-Am. Their relationship was first public last February.

Ricci most recently stepped out (and showed off her ring!) Friday to join luxury beauty brand, Make Up For Ever, in Los Angeles to introduce a limited edition bag she helped to design.

– Julie Jordan

Read More..

New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

Read More..

"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.

That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.

Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.

Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.

Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.

"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."

The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.

Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.

Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .

But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.

Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.

During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.

MOM AND POP STILL WARY

Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.

This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.

"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.

Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.

He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.

Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.

On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.

Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.

Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.

Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

The Lede Blog: New Photographs Stir Doubts About Bashar's Baby and Iran's Space Monkey

Last Updated, Saturday, 12:37 p.m. Bad news, readers: new images appear to cast doubt on the accuracy of two of the week’s most widely-reported stories — the rumored pregnancy of Syria’s first lady, and the pioneering space flight of an Iranian monkey.

As the Washington Post correspondent Liz Sly reported, President Bashar al-Assad’s office posted five new photographs of his wife, Asma, on Facebook, as part of an effort to disprove a curious aside in a Lebanese newspaper report that she is pregnant. In each of the photographs, said to have been taken last week in Damascus, a very slender Mrs. Assad was pictured congratulating the winners of this year’s Syrian Science Olympiad.

As my colleague Rick Gladstone explained, “rumors that Mrs. Assad had conceived in June,” were first reported in November by Al Bawaba, an Amman-based news Web site. Since the British-born first lady has been out of public view for most of the past year, as her husband’s government struggled to regain control of the country, the rumors about her spread despite an absence of visual confirmation.

The photographs were released a day after Mr. Assad’s office issued an indignant statement taking exception to a Washington Post blogger’s reading of the Lebanese newspaper’s story. The statement said the blogger, Max Fisher, “based his analysis on false allegations that led him to wrong results which are far from reality.”

Since Syria’s Science Olympiad takes place every year, the president’s office could have recycled images of the first lady that were taken a year or more earlier, but that would require the cooperation of all of the students pictured with her in the photographs. At least one of the students pictured with Mrs. Assad in the new photographs, a girl with curly hair wearing brightly-patterned sneakers, does appear in another image of the winners posted on the Olympiad’s Facebook page.

While this set of images appears to back the official story coming out of Damascus, recently released photographs and video of the monkey that Iran says it sent into space seem to undermine Tehran’s claims.

Video broadcast on Iranian television this week showed what officials said were images of a monkey before and after a space flight.

As journalists at the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle pointed out on its Persian language site on Thursday, the first reports on the space mission published in Iran’s state-run media showed an anxious-looking monkey prepared for blast-off with a prominent mole above his right eye.

When Iran got around to releasing photographs and video of the monkey’s capsule being retrieved post-flight, there was no trace of a mole on his brow in the close-ups of him waiving to reporters or smiling for the cameras at a subsequent public appearance.

That led to speculation that Iran might have attempted to cover up a failed space mission by displaying a different monkey than the one that actually made a 150-mile round trip into the thermosphere and back. Or that the newly famous monkey had fallen prey to the Iranian penchant for cosmetic surgery.

DW: Iranian Astro Monkey went to space with a mole on his face, came back without it. Plastic surgery? #iran http://t.co/iN4jxecP

— negin shiraghaei (@neginsh) 31 Jan 13

The missing mole is not exactly hard evidence that Iranians had a spare monkey waiting in the wings to pretend he’d just got back from space, but Iran does have a track record of fictionalizing its achievements in the field of rocket-science. Last July, however, the Iranian Students’ News Agency — which released photographs of the monkey with and without the mole this week — did report that the space agency in Tehran had five monkeys in training for the mission.

Read More..

Apple TV Is Running Late

So, Apple‘s big plan to talk cable companies into making the iPod of the television industry thus far involves getting Time Warner to let it put HBO Go on its box (if you buy a cable subscription!), something other similar boxes already do. How very unexciting. It’s surprising that Apple TV doesn’t already offer HBO Go, since its biggest competitors Roku and Xbox 360 have had it for over a year. And it’s not like Apple has spent that time coming up with some innovative arrangement that would that would excite the cord-cutter (and cord-never) set. No, per Bloomberg’s   Edmund Lee and Adam Satariano, by mid-2013, Apple TV owners who also subscribe to cable or satellite TV can watch the premium channel through their TVs via Apple’s box. Yes, if you have an Apple TV, you can watch HBO either on it or through your cable box. The choice is yours!

RELATED: Apple Won’t Be Revolutionizing TV Anytime Soon if Cable Has Their Say

HBO Go is a modest improvement over the HBO On Demand offerings because it offers HBO’s entire library of shows, not just a select few. HBO also puts brand new episodes up right after they air, which is nice for people who forget to set or have a too-full DVR. But, cable subscribers already have access to HBO Go—on their computers. The improvement here is that existing subscribers now have another way to get those shows onto their TV screens.

RELATED: HBO Is Finally OK with Cord Cutting (In Scandinavia)

This too-late move to get Time Warner on its box surfaces a larger problem: Apple TV has very few apps so far, as AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka points out. HBO Go will bring its total outside app count up to 10, a ton fewer than Xbox and Roku. And yet, many have talked about Apple TV as the gadget that will change everything. Perhaps techies overlooked the deficit because the company has been in secret talks with cable companies to supposedly revolutionize TV for years. It’s coming, the Apple rumors promised, fending off any doubts that Apple would deliver something great. But, nothing exceptional has arrived yet, certainly nothing that sounds like the Apple TV code Steve Jobs claimed to have cracked shortly before his death. Rather, this sounds like something Apple should have done years ago. Apple, if anything, is playing catch-up. 

RELATED: Apple Might Be Making Apple TV Content Deals

But maybe Apple isn’t the place to look for the future of television. Elsewhere in TV land, something new, different, and possibly revolutionary is happening. Netflix, an entity that does not require a cable subscription, will release its first big-budget TV drama today. Unlike Apple, Netflix is trying to operate outside of the traditional cable-bundle structure in order to create an alternative for people who don’t want to pay into the old system. Instead of playing by HBO’s rules and selling its shows on its strict terms, Netflix wants to be the HBO of streaming TV, by creating premium shows that will draw people to Netflix for a premium price. Also in an attempt to do things differently, Netflix has released all the episodes at once, to appeal to our binge watching sensibilities. The experiment might not work. But at least, unlike Apple, Netflix is trying. 

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Apple TV Is Running Late
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/apple-tv-is-running-late/
Link To Post : Apple TV Is Running Late
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Jennifer Lawrence: 'My Pants Fell Off' at the SAG Awards!

Stylewatch
Style News Now

02/01/2013 at 12:00 PM ET

She’s been picking up Best Actress statues left and right for the few weeks, but we’re giving Jennifer Lawrence an award that really counts: Best Narration of a Wardrobe Malfunction.

“My pants fell off!” Lawrence exclaimed on Piers Morgan Tonight as he played her a video of her Dior Haute Couture gown “ripping” when she climbed the stairs at the SAG Awards to accept her win. Though the dress didn’t actually tear (it was the way it was designed) she still flashed a whole lotta leg.

Since the actress hadn’t seen the incident in action yet, we get to watch her cringe at the moment that set Twitter aflame. “Somebody trips me on the way I remember that,” she says during her play-by-play of the video. “I’m keepin’ it together, keepin’ it together … and then my pants fall off! Yep! Oh, god.”

Suggestion to the Academy Awards committee: Get this girl to narrate the entire telecast next year. We guarantee it’ll get you epic ratings. To see what we mean, check out her reaction to SAGs moment from the 2:30 mark in the video below.

–Jennifer Cress

PHOTOS: SEE THE BEST AWARD SHOW DRESSES SO FAR!

Read More..

Hedgehog Alert! Prickly pets can carry salmonella

NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.

In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials on Thursday say such cases seem to be increasing.

The CDC recommends thoroughly washing your hands after handling hedgehogs and cleaning pet cages and other equipment outside.

Other pets that carry the salmonella bug are frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, lizards, chicks and ducklings.

Seven of the hedgehog illnesses were in Washington state, including the death — an elderly man from Spokane County who died in January. The other cases were in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.

In years past, only one or two illnesses from this salmonella strain have been reported annually, but the numbers rose to 14 in 2011, 18 last year, and two so far this year.

Children younger than five and the elderly are considered at highest risk for severe illness, CDC officials said.

Hedgehogs are small, insect-eating mammals with a coat of stiff quills. In nature, they sometimes live under hedges and defend themselves by rolling up into a spiky ball.

The critters linked to recent illnesses were purchased from various breeders, many of them licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CDC officials said. Hedgehogs are native to Western Europe, New Zealand and some other parts of the world, but are bred in the United States.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

Read More..

S&P 500 rises one percent as Wall Street rallies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks hit five-year highs with each of the three major indexes up at least 1 percent on Friday, after jobs and manufacturing data showed the economy's sluggish recovery is still on track.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 139.22 points, or 1.00 percent, to 13,999.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 15.04 points, or 1.00 percent, to 1,513.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> advanced 35.47 points, or 1.13 percent, to 3,177.60.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

Scotland Yard Official Sentenced to 15 Months in Hacking Scandal

LONDON — A senior police officer in Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism command, Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn, was sentenced to a 15-month prison term on Friday for seeking cash payments from Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid in return for information about a Scotland Yard investigation into phone hacking at the paper.

A unanimous jury verdict after a four-day trial last month made Inspector Casburn, 53, the first person to be convicted of a criminal offense in the phone hacking scandal, which has enveloped Mr. Murdoch’s newspaper domain in Britain for 30 months. The judge told Inspector Casburn that she would have drawn a three-year term if she did not have a 3-year-old child who was still moving through the adoption process.

At the trial, the jury was told that evidence implicating Inspector Casburn was provided to Scotland Yard by an internal investigative unit, known as the management and standards committee, that was established by Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation as part of his pledge to give the police any incriminating information that it came across as it examined millions of e-mails and other documents relating to the hacking scandal.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said Inspector Casburn, who continued to draw her $102,000-a-year police salary during the trial, would now face an internal dismissal procedure. In a statement issued after her sentencing, Scotland Yard said Inspector Casburn had “betrayed the service and let down her colleagues.” It said her prison term “sends a strong message that the leaking of confidential information for personal gain is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Inspector Casburn, who was impassive as the judge pronounced sentence, had told the court that she had telephoned The News of the World in September 2010 because she was angry that her superiors had decided to divert money and resources from counterterrorism operations to the phone hacking scandal, and thought that she was acting in the public interest.

At the time, Inspector Casburn was head of the counterterrorism unit’s financial investigative team, tracking the financing of terrorist operations. She told the court that as a woman working with a closely knit group of men, she often felt isolated and excluded, and that her feelings on that score had contributed to what her lawyer described as a “mad” and deeply regrettable action.

Crucially, she denied asking for any payment from the newspaper — a pivotal issue in the case after the jury was told that the reporter who took the call said in an e-mail to his editors immediately after the conversation that the officer had asked to be paid for confidential information about police plans to revive an investigation into phone hacking that had been halted three years earlier. The e-mail said Inspector Casburn had named several people who were a target of the police inquiry.

But the judge, Sir Adrian Fulford, said Friday that Inspector Casburn’s actions could not be described as “whistle-blowing.” He noted that the jury had rejected her claim that she had not sought payment, and described her actions as “a corrupt attempt to make money out of sensitive and potentially very damaging information.” He added: “Activity of this kind is deeply damaging to the administration of criminal justice in this country. We are entitled to expect the very highest standards of probity from our police officers, particularly those at a senior level.”

 More trials are expected to follow this year as prosecutors work their way through the cases of more than 90 editors, reporters, investigators and news executives who have been arrested and questioned in a wide-ranging investigation that has spread beyond phone hacking to computer hacking, bribery of public officials and tampering with evidence, among other forms of wrongdoing.

The scandal has shaken Mr. Murdoch’s global media empire, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in legal settlements and other expenses. It also precipitated a breakup of Mr. Murdoch’s New York-based media conglomerate, News Corporation, into two companies that will separate the company’s newspaper holdings, some of them in a financially perilous state, and its far more lucrative television and film interests.

Revelations about the covert working practices of powerful British newspapers — mainly at two Murdoch-owned mass-circulation tabloids, the daily Sun and the Sunday News of the World, which was shuttered by Mr. Murdoch as the phone hacking scandal burgeoned in 2011 — have also had profound reverberations across Britain. A report last year from a public inquiry exposed, in addition to the widespread newsroom malpractice, a pattern of unhealthily cozy relationships among Britain’s newspapers, its senior politicians and the police.

With her sentencing on Friday, Inspector Casburn, one of the most senior female officers at Scotland Yard, became a totem for others facing prosecution and possible prison terms. Among them are Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who went on to become communications chief for Prime Minister David Cameron before quitting over the scandal; Rebekah Brooks, a former Sun and News of the World editor who became Mr. Murdoch’s handpicked chief executive at News International, the Murdoch newspaper subsidiary in Britain, before resigning with a multimillion-dollar buyout; and Charlie Brooks, Ms. Brooks’s husband, who is an Eton College contemporary and sometime riding companion of Mr. Cameron.

Before the sentencing of Inspector Casburn, the only convictions in the phone hacking scandal came in 2007, when an earlier police investigation resulted in jail terms of four months for Clive Goodman, The News of the World’s royal correspondent, and six months for Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator, for their role in hacking into the cellphone messages of royal family members and their aides.

Their trials brought a three-year hiatus in the Scotland Yard investigation after prosecutors accepted assurances from the Murdoch-owned papers that the activities of the two men constituted a “rogue” operation and that there was no wider pattern of criminal wrongdoing.

That changed in 2010, when Scotland Yard reopened its investigation, according to testimony at Inspector Casburn’s trial, on the basis of an article in The New York Times Magazine that concluded that there had been a widespread pattern of phone hacking at The News of the World. Within a week of that article, a senior Scotland Yard officer, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, was ordered to review police files. The Casburn jurors were told that she made her call to The News of the World shortly after Mr. Yates briefed members of the counterterrorism unit on his plans for the investigation.

Read More..

Google moves closer to resolving EU investigation

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Google has offered to take specific steps to allay competition regulators’ concerns about its business practices, in a major move towards ending a two-year investigation and avoiding billions of dollars in fines.

The European Commission said on Friday it had received detailed proposals from the world’s most popular search engine, which has been under investigation following complaints from more than a dozen companies, including Microsoft, that Google has used its market power to block rivals.

If the commission accepts the proposals under its settlement procedure, it would mean no fine and no finding of wrongdoing against Google.

Companies found to be in breach of EU rules can be fined as much as 10 percent of global turnover, which could mean up to $ 4 billion if there is no satisfactory resolution in Google’s case.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told Reuters he had received Google’s submission, but declined to give details of the proposal.

“We are analyzing it,” he said.

Google spokesman Al Verney said the group continues to work cooperatively with the commission.

The company ranks first in Internet searching in Europe, with an 82 percent market share, versus 67 percent in the United States, according to research firm comScore.

Lobbying group ICOMP, whose members include complainants Microsoft, Foundem, Hot-map, Streetmap and Nextag, said any solution should include measures ensuring that rivals could compete on a level playing field with Google.

The FairSearch coalition, whose members include online travel agencies and complainants Expedia and TripAdvisor, said a third-party monitor should be appointed to ensure that Google lives up to any promises.

The commission, which acts as competition regulator in the 27-member European Union, is now expected to seek feedback from Google’s rivals and other interested parties, before launching an official market test.

Last month, Google won a major victory when U.S. antitrust regulators ended their investigation, saying the company had not manipulated its web search results to block rivals.

The commission has said Google may have favored its own search services over those of rivals, and copied travel and restaurant reviews from competing sites without permission.

The EU executive is also concerned the company may have put restrictions on advertisers and advertising to prevent them from moving their online campaigns to competing search engines.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Rex Merrifield and Hans-Juergen Peters)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Google moves closer to resolving EU investigation
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/google-moves-closer-to-resolving-eu-investigation/
Link To Post : Google moves closer to resolving EU investigation
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Slain School Bus Driver Hailed as Hero After Gunman Demanded Students

True Crime

By Stephen M. Silverman

01/31/2013 at 12:50 PM EST

Law enforcement personnel and driver Charles Poland (inset)

Phil Sears/Landov; Inset: AP

When a gunman boarded a stopped school bus in Midland City, Ala., Tuesday afternoon and demanded that all the young students be turned over to him, bus driver Charles Albert Poland refused. He also took four fatal bullets for the kids – who all, but one, escaped to safety.

In the melee, a 5-year-old kindergartener, whose name is being withheld, was kidnapped and is still being held in an earthen bunker with a man identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, a 6-foot-tall Navy veteran and retired truck driver, according to the Greenville News.

"Right now the whole town seems like they're just in a mourning stage," Carl McKenzie, a convenience store manager, told station WSFA. "I would go take that child's place if I could, just to get him out of danger."

Law officials describe Dykes as "paranoid and combative," reports the Associated Press. His neighbors echoed those descriptions to the Greenville News.

"As far as we know there is no relation at all" between the boy and his alleged abductor, Michael Senn, a pastor who helped comfort other traumatized children after the attack, told the newspaper. "He just wanted a child for a hostage situation."

Sheriff Wally Olson said there was "no reason to believe that the child has been harmed."

Law enforcement agents, including those from the FBI, are on the rural highway near the alleged gunman's property, with police negotiators trying to win the kindergartener's safe release from the suspect by communicating with him through a PVC pipe leading into the shelter.

State Rep. Steve Clouse, who met with police and the boy's family, said the bunker had electricity, permitting the child to watch TV. The News further reported that police got medicine, a coloring book and crayons to the child.

Mourning a Hero

Poland, a driver for the Dale County Board of Education since 2009, is being described as a cheerful and happy man who loved his job. His wife, Jan Poland, told the Dothan Eagle that every day after work, the two of them would sit in their enclosed porch to drink coffee, watch the sun set, or listen to the rain.

As for the kids he drove every day, “He loved them," she said. "He loved everybody and he was loved."

Poland was so gentle, his local paper said, that it hurt him to have to discipline the unruly kids on his bus – so he never would.

"We are mourning a hero, 66 year-old Charles Poland, who gave his life to protect twenty-one students who are now home safely with their families," Schools Superintendent Donny Bynum said in a statement, reports station WCTV.

Read More..

Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.

All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.

Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting from real solutions to the nation's weight problems.

"The evidence is what matters," and many feel-good ideas repeated by well-meaning health experts just don't have it, said the lead author, David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Independent researchers say the authors have some valid points. But many of the report's authors also have deep financial ties to food, beverage and weight-loss product makers — the disclosures take up half a page of fine print in the journal.

"It raises questions about what the purpose of this paper is" and whether it's aimed at promoting drugs, meal replacement products and bariatric surgery as solutions, said Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies.

"The big issues in weight loss are how you change the food environment in order for people to make healthy choices," such as limits on soda sizes and marketing junk food to children, she said. Some of the myths they cite are "straw men" issues, she said.

But some are pretty interesting.

Sex, for instance. Not that people do it to try to lose weight, but claims that it burns 100 to 300 calories are common, Allison said. Yet the only study that scientifically measured the energy output found that sex lasted six minutes on average — "disappointing, isn't it?" — and burned a mere 21 calories, about as much as walking, he said.

That's for a man. The study was done in 1984 and didn't measure the women's experience.

Among the other myths or assumptions the authors cite, based on their review of the most rigorous studies on each topic:

—Small changes in diet or exercise lead to large, long-term weight changes. Fact: The body adapts to changes, so small steps to cut calories don't have the same effect over time, studies suggest. At least one outside expert agrees with the authors that the "small changes" concept is based on an "oversimplified" 3,500-calorie rule, that adding or cutting that many calories alters weight by one pound.

—School gym classes have a big impact on kids' weight. Fact: Classes typically are not long, often or intense enough to make much difference.

—Losing a lot of weight quickly is worse than losing a little slowly over the long term. Fact: Although many dieters regain weight, those who lose a lot to start with often end up at a lower weight than people who drop more modest amounts.

—Snacking leads to weight gain. Fact: No high quality studies support that, the authors say.

—Regularly eating breakfast helps prevent obesity. Fact: Two studies found no effect on weight and one suggested that the effect depended on whether people were used to skipping breakfast or not.

—Setting overly ambitious goals leads to frustration and less weight loss. Fact: Some studies suggest people do better with high goals.

Some things may not have the strongest evidence for preventing obesity but are good for other reasons, such as breastfeeding and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, the authors write. And exercise helps prevent a host of health problems regardless of whether it helps a person shed weight.

"I agree with most of the points" except the authors' conclusions that meal replacement products and diet drugs work for battling obesity, said Dr. David Ludwig, a prominent obesity research with Boston Children's Hospital who has no industry ties. Most weight-loss drugs sold over the last century had to be recalled because of serious side effects, so "there's much more evidence of failure than success," he said.

___

Online:

Obesity info: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

___

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

Read More..

Wall Street dips on profit taking, Friday data eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged lower on Thursday as investors took profit after a mixed bag of economic data, while stellar earnings from Qualcomm helped buoy the Nasdaq.

Even with the retreat, the S&P 500 is on track to post its best month since October 2011 and its best start to a year since 1997.

Investors are expecting a pullback in equities after recent gains, though they have bought on dips over the past four weeks, analysts said. The largest daily decline on the S&P 500 so far in 2013 was Thursday's 0.39 percent drop, after data showed the economy contracted in the last quarter of 2012.

"This is a highly rotational market," said Janelle Nelson, portfolio analyst at RBC Wealth Management in Minneapolis, noting how investors dive into beaten-down sectors on the smallest encouraging news.

Job market data released earlier on Thursday showed mildly positive signs for a still-fragile economy, with jobless claims slightly higher and incomes growing at the best pace since 2004.

Those reports come ahead of Friday's payrolls report, which is expected to show employers added 160,000 jobs in January after an increase of 155,000 in December. Friday will also bring reports on consumer confidence, U.S. manufacturing, construction spending and car sales.

"The market's lack of movement is due in part to the large number of economic releases coming out tomorrow," said Nelson.

Qualcomm Inc gained 4.6 percent to $66.43 as the top boost to the Nasdaq Composite after the world's leading supplier of chips for cellphones beat analysts' expectations for quarterly profit and revenue, and raised its targets for the year.

Facebook Inc lost 2.5 percent to $30.47, a day after the social network company said it doubled its mobile advertising revenue in the fourth quarter. However, growth trailed some of Wall Street's most aggressive estimates.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 34.71 points or 0.25 percent, to 13,875.71; the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 4.04 points or 0.27 percent, to 1,497.92 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 1.74 points or 0.06 percent, to 3,140.57.

The S&P 500 has advanced 5 percent in January after legislators in Washington temporarily sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could have derailed the economic recovery, and in the wake of better-than-expected corporate earnings.

United Parcel Service Inc lost 2 percent to $79.63 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that were below analysts' estimates on Thursday and forecasting weaker-than-expected profit for 2013.

Kirby Corp added 6.6 percent to $70.87 and Ryder Systems Inc climbed 2.9 percent to $55.81 after posting quarterly results.

Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning shows that of the 231 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season, 69.3 percent have exceeded expectations, a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to have risen 3.7 percent. That's above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season, but well below a 9.9 percent profit growth forecast on October 1, the data showed.

WMS Industries Inc surged 52.6 percent to $24.98 after the company agreed to be acquired by Scientific Games Corp for $26 per share in cash. Scientific Games jumped 11.9 percent to $9.99.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Read More..

Hagel Offers Endorsement of U.S. Military Might

Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Chuck Hagel arrived for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee to be secretary of defense, engaged in a sharp exchange with his old friend, Senator John McCain, at the opening of his confirmation hearing on Thursday when Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, pressed him on his opposition to the escalation, or surge, of American forces in Iraq in 2007.

Mr. Hagel dodged a direct answer as Mr. McCain asked him repeatedly if history would judge whether Mr. Hagel was right or wrong to oppose the surge in forces when he was a Republican senator from Nebraska. The escalation, along with other major factors, is credited in helping quell the violence in Iraq at the time. When Mr. Hagel said he wanted to explain, Mr. McCain bore in.

“Are you going to answer the question, Senator Hagel, the question is whether you were right or wrong,” Mr. McCain said.

“I’m not going to give you a yes or no answer,” Mr. Hagel replied.

Mr. McCain did not let up.

"I think history has already made a judgment about the surge sir, and you’re on the wrong side of it,” Mr. McCain said, then seemed to threaten that he would not vote for Mr. Hagel if he did not answer the question.

It took the next questioner, Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, to draw out Mr. Hagel out on the subject. “I did question the surge,” Mr. Hagel said. “I always asked the question, is this going to be worth the sacrifice?” He said 1,200 American men and women lost their lives in the surge. “I’m not certain it was required,” Mr. Hagel said. “Now, it doesn’t mean I was right.”

Mr. McCain, like many Republicans, was furious at Mr. Hagel’s skepticism about the Iraq War. It led to a falling-out between the two men, both Vietman veterans, that appeared to have been patched up when the two met last week after Mr. Hagel was nominated for the Pentagon job. Mr. McCain described their discussion as a “frank and candid” exchange between two “old friends.”

But Mr. McCain was only one of the Republicans who pressed Mr. Hagel at hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Before he even made his opening statement, Mr. Hagel faced a blast of objections from the ranking Republican on the committee, Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, who told Mr. Hagel that he would not vote for him because of his position of “appeasing” America’s adversaries.

“His record demonstrates what I view as a steadfast opposition to policies that diminish U.S. power and influence throughout the world, as well as a recent trend of policy reversals that seem based on political expediency rather than on core beliefs,” Mr. Inhofe said.

But even a reliable yes vote, Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who serves as the committee’s chairman, said in his opening statement that Mr. Hagel had made “troubling” statements about Israel and had expressed a willingness to negotiate on Iran on issues that Mr. Levin viewed as nonnegotiable. Mr. Levin said he expected Mr. Hagel to address those issues during the hearing.

Under aggressive but at times disjointed questioning from Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Hagel was asked why he thought the Iranian Foreign Ministry so strongly supported his nomination as defense secretary. Mr. Hagel swiftly replied, “I have a difficult time enough with American politics.” He then said, “I have no idea.”

Under more gentle but persistent questioning from Mr. Levin, Mr. Hagel said that he had voted against some unilateral American sanctions against Iran in 2001 and 2002 because it was a different era. “We were at a different place with Iran at that time,” he said.

Mr. Hagel faltered at one point, saying shortly before noon that he strongly supported the president’s policy on “containment” of Iran. He was quickly handed a note, which he read and then said to correct himself, “Obviously, we don’t have a position on containment.”

At that point Mr. Levin interjected, “We do have a position on containment, which is we do not favor containment.” The Obama administration’s policy on Iran remains prevention of its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

In his opening statement, Mr. Hagel said that the United States must lead other nations in confronting threats, use all tools of American power in protecting its people and “maintain the strongest military in the world.”

Read More..

The 7 most dedicated employees

You probably don’t want to forward this roster of tireless go-getters to your boss

Some people probably feel they deserve a medal for merely getting up and going to work every day, but only a few actually merit one. Take Deborah Ford, for example. This 64-year-old Detroit postal worker, who recently retired, didn’t use a single sick day in all of her 44 years on the job. Not a single one! For doctor’s appointments, she would take vacation days, and when she was feeling lousy she says she would just “shake it off.” At the end of her dedicated career, Ford had amassed a sick-leave balance of 4,508 hours. But before you give her the award for most dedicated employee, check out this lot:

1. Going the distance
Unless you work from home, chances are you endure a less-than-pleasant commute. But none is likely as arduous as that of Dave Givens. In 2006 the Mariposa, Calif., resident earned the unenviable award for “America’s Longest Commute” when tire company Midas set out to find the employee who trekked the most miles to work. From his ranch home in Mariposa, Givens drives 186 miles to his job at Cisco Systems, Inc., in San Jose. The electrical engineer has been making this 372-mile round trip, which equals a total of seven hours of driving, for 17 years. “I have a great job and my family loves the ranch where we live,” Givens said. “So this is the only solution.” His dedication to the horrendous commute earned Givens the grand prize of $ 10,000 and some much-needed gas money as well as an array of Midas maintenance services and products.

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

2. A life’s work
Rose Syracuse Richardone “just loves to work,” says Macy’s senior vice president Robin Hall of the 92-year-old employee. Richardone retired from Macy’s in September 2012 after working in a range of positions from her first job at the age of 17 in the accounts department — back when there weren’t credit cards and customers would set aside money in the in-store bank to pay for items — to her final position within the parade and entertainment group. To honor her 70th year with the company a few years ago, Macy’s management arranged for Richardone to cut the red ribbon that launched the iconic Thanksgiving parade. Had it not been for a broken hip, the diminutive employee might still be working today. “Life is good,” she said of her longevity. “You go on each day, you’re happy where you’re at. And people — bosses, supervisors, they appreciate you. And you stay.”

3. Hardest working unemployed man
You may not know Justin Knapp, but you’re likely familiar with his work. Knapp is a voluntary editor of the Wikipedia, and last April the 30-year-old became the first person to complete 1 million edits on the massive online, open-source encyclopedia. After coming across Wikipedia in 2003, Knapp registered as an editor in 2005 and now spends several hours per day combing, editing, and adding to Wikipedia articles. His edits can be as small as ensuring em dashes and en dashes are used properly or as substantial as building the most comprehensive George Orwell entry, which reportedly took about 100 hours. But Knapp relishes the work. “Editing these projects is relaxing and rewarding,” Knapp told Gizmodo. Knapp doesn’t get paid for his work, however plentiful, but he manages to get by financially with odd jobs while he pursues his nursing degree at Indiana University. Ultimately he feels his diligence is for the greater good. “Far be it for me to say that it’s an act of love to edit Wikipedia,” he said. “But I really do feel like that it helps other human beings. That makes me feel good — knowing that somehow I can be a small part of helping someone who I’ll never know.”

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

4. Dedicated volunteer
Don Moss is the “Energizer Bunny of volunteers.” As of 2010, the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center volunteer has clocked in more than 47,000 hours, setting a Guinness World Record for his time. For the last 28 years, Moss has worked at Wake Forest Monday through Thursday, 48 hours per week. The 63-year-old’s dedication is a personal one. In 1980, Moss was in a freak accident that landed him at Wake Forest Baptist where he spent three months in a coma with a major head injury. Doctors didn’t think he would make it and, after he woke up, specialists said he would never walk again. But Moss defied all expectations and now, after being encouraged to volunteer during his rehabilitation stint, he’s rarely idle. While working, Moss delivers letters to patients, helps out at the gift shop, and guides lost visitors to their destinations. And those free Fridays? Those are for his wife, he says: “That’s my honey-do list day.”

5. Hardest working mom
Dr. Helen Wright felt like she had it all — she loved her job as a headmistress at an exclusive British all-girls school, and she had time to enjoy her beautiful growing family. On February morning in 2010, when Wright was pregnant with her third child, she went into labor. Within an hour she had given birth to the baby, a girl named Jessica, and by lunchtime, Wright was back at work, her newborn in tow. This was nothing new for her. She had never taken maternity leave with any of her children. Her second child was born on a Friday; Wright was back at work by Monday. Given the ongoing can-women-have-it-all debate, Wright says she wants to be a role model for her students to show them that they too can have a career and a family, quite literally, in the same space. The rarely trodden path of bringing your baby to work is, Wright says, the option more women should consider. “Most women have a choice of taking maternity leave or going back to work and having their babies looked after. Why can’t there be a third way?”

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

6. Hardest working country
Do you feel like you work long hours? Well, here’s some food for thought: Employees in Asian countries have the highest proportion of employees who work more than 48 hours per week, which is considered “excessive.” Of those Asian countries, South Korea is the most overworked: According to data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Koreans work a whopping 2,193 hours per year. Chile comes in second with 2,068 hours, which far exceeds the average for most developing countries, which is 1,718 hours annually. The United States is just below the average with 1,695 hours. Germany and the Netherlands remain on the low end of the scale with 1,408 hours and 1,377 hours per year, respectively. Tighter labor laws in developed countries, particularly Europe, have contributed to reduced working hours, so, you know, don’t feel too bad about it, you’re just playing by the rules.

7. Hardest working American town
Columbia, Mo., managed to keep its unemployment rate of 6.0 percent throughout the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the help of its robust health-care and education sectors. The town has six hospitals and the second highest number of hospital beds per capita in the country. It’s also home to the University of Missouri-Columbia, which employs some 8,000 people, as well as six other institutions of higher education. More than 80 percent of households are dual-income, and the city ranked second on likelihood to work on the weekends, according to data compiled by Parade magazine in 2012. 

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

Sources: BBC, Daily Mail, Gizmodo, Parade, The Stir, Yahoo

View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week

Other stories from this section:

Like on Facebook - Follow on Twitter - Sign-up for Daily Newsletter
Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: The 7 most dedicated employees
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/the-7-most-dedicated-employees/
Link To Post : The 7 most dedicated employees
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Karolína Kurková: Why I Chose a Home Waterbirth

Target Presse Agentur Gmbh/Getty

For Karolína Kurková, there was no place like home to welcome her first child.

Setting up a birthing suite in the comforts of her Tribeca apartment, the model mama admits her motivation behind her decision to deliver naturally was simple: childbirth is nothing new.

“Of course we had the midwife, we had the doula, but that’s something we really did a lot of research on and we wanted to do,” Kurková, 28, tells Access Hollywood Live.

“Centuries women have been giving birth naturally and I think your body adjusts to it and you get into a zone.”

Her active labor lasted 2½ hours — a process she calls “quite quick” — and, by keeping her concentration on seeing her son, little time was left to think of the pain.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a pain. I’m dying, I’m dying,’” the supermodel coach of The Face says. “It was so gradual you just kind of deal with it. You get in a zone, you really focus.”

With her husband Archie Drury preparing “green juice and coconut water” to keep his wife hydrated, it wasn’t long before Kurková’s midwife let her know baby boy was on his way.

“I really wanted to do it in the water because it’s better for the baby to be born in the water — from water to water — and it’s less painful for the mom,” she explains of her decision to deliver in a birthing pool.

“When he’s born in the water, there’s still that umbilical cord so until you clip it they can still breathe through it. He was born in the water [then] we put him on my chest.”

Recalling the big day as an “incredible experience” Kurková will “absolutely” do it all over again — eventually. Until then, 3-year-old Tobin Jack has all his mama’s attention.

“I want to enjoy [Tobin] first and learn everything and really spend time with him,” she explains.

– Anya Leon

Read More..

APNewsBreak: EPA moves to ban some rodent poisons

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to ban the sale of a dozen rat and mouse poisons sold under the popular D-Con brand in an effort to protect children and pets.

The agency said Wednesday it hopes to reduce the thousands of accidental exposures that occur every year from rodent-control products. Children and pets are at risk for exposure because the products typically are placed on floors.

The agency had targeted a handful of companies two years ago, saying they needed to develop new products that are safer for children, pets and wildlife. All but Reckitt Benckiser Inc., manufacturer of D-Con, did so.

The company will have at least 30 days to request a hearing before an administrative law judge. If no hearing is requested, the ban will take effect.

Read More..

Wall Street flat after GDP shock, Fed awaited

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday as data showing the economy unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter was offset by positive parts of the report and strong results from Boeing Co and Amazon.com Inc.

Economists stressed that the 0.1 percent contraction in U.S. gross domestic product, caused partly by a plunge in government spending and lower business inventories, is not an indicator of recession.

"Inventories came down and that subtraction is actually positive for the private sector," said Jim Russell, chief equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Cincinnati.

"A lot of the important components going forth are there, like consumption by individuals and capital spending, and they are looking strong."

Wall Street opened slightly higher despite the GDP data, with traders awaiting a statement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday after its two-day policy-setting meeting. The Fed is expected to keep monetary policy on a steady, accommodative path, though debate continues over when it should curtail its bond-buying program.

The S&P 500 held above 1,500, seen by market technicians as an inflection point that will determine the overall direction in the near term. The index is on track to post its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997.

"This is a very modest pullback after a steep run," said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management in New York.

"It is too soon for the Fed to start talking about the end of (their bond buying program); the economy needs stimulus to sustain this recovery."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 3.7 points or 0.03 percent, to 13,950.72, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 0.96 point or 0.06 percent, to 1,506.88 and the Nasdaq composite <.ixic> added 4.9 points or 0.16 percent, to 3,158.55.

Both Boeing and Amazon shares gained after earnings beat expectations, continuing a trend this quarter of high-profile names advancing after results.

Amazon rose 6.1 percent to $276.28 and Boeing rose 1.2 percent to $74.53.

Thomson Reuters data showed that of the 192 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season 68.8 percent have been above analyst expectations, which is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

Chesapeake Energy rose 5.4 percent to $19.99 a day after it said Aubrey McClendon would step down as chief executive. The last year has been marked by civil and criminal probes into the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer.

Research In Motion shares fell 4.4 percent to $14.97 after the company, which is changing its name to BlackBerry, unveiled a long-delayed line of smartphones in hopes of a comeback into a market it once dominated.

Giving the market extra support, private sector employment topped forecasts with the ADP National Employment report showing 192,000 jobs added in January, higher than the 165,000 expectation.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

Syrian Opposition Leader Softens Position on Talks with Assad

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s top political opposition leader expressed willingness for the first time on Wednesday to talk with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad, softening what had been an absolute stand of refusing to negotiate with the government in an increasingly chaotic civil war.

The opposition leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, coupled his offer with two demands: the release of what he described as 160,000 prisoners held by Mr. Assad’s government, and the renewal of all expired passports held by Syrians abroad — a gesture apparently aimed at disaffected expatriates and exiled opposition figures who could not return home even if they wanted to.

Sheik Khatib’s offer quickly provoked sharp criticism from others in the Syrian opposition coalition, with some distancing themselves and complaining that the leader had not consulted with colleagues in advance. Nonetheless, the offer still represented a potential opening for dialogue in a nearly two-year-old conflict that has threatened to destabilize the Middle East.

He made the offer as the United Nations was scrambling to raise money to manage the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict, which has sent at least 700,000 Syrians into neighboring countries and left more than one million displaced inside Syria. A donor conference under way in Kuwait has produced commitments for about $1 billion of the $1.5 billion that the United Nations is seeking.

“I announce that I am willing to sit down with representatives of the Syrian regime in Cairo or Tunisia or Istanbul,” Sheik Khatib said in the offer, published in Arabic on his Facebook page. His motivation to make such an offer, he said, was “to search for a political resolution to the crisis, and to arrange matters for the transitional phase that could prevent more blood.”

There was no immediate Syrian government response to the offer by Sheik Khatib, a respected Sunni Muslim cleric who once had been the imam of the historic Umayyad mosque in Damascus. His unified Syrian opposition coalition, created at a meeting in Qatar two months ago, has been formally recognized by the Arab League, the European Union and the United States.

Sheik Khatib’s offer was made less than a day after the peace envoy for Syria from the United Nations and Arab League, Lakhdar Brahimi, gave the United Nations Security Council a pessimistic prognosis for negotiations.

It also followed a grisly massacre discovered on Tuesday in the contested northern city of Aleppo, from which anti-Assad activists posted videos online of scores of bound victims who had been shot in the head and dumped in a river. Some insurgents said the death toll exceeded 100, mostly abducted men in their 20s and 30s.

Both sides in the conflict blamed the other for those killings, just as they have traded accusations for other atrocities, including two major explosions a few weeks ago that killed more than 80 people at the University of Aleppo. Outside assessments based on video of the university blasts have suggested that a Syrian military missile was responsible.

Sheik Khatib did not hide his contempt for Mr. Assad’s government in his statement, saying, “One can’t trust a regime that kills children and attacks bakeries and shells universities and destroys Syria’s infrastructure and commits massacres against innocents, the last of which won’t be the Aleppo massacre, which is unprecedented in its savagery.”

But he decided to reach out, he wrote, partly because the Syrian government had publicly invited political opposition leaders this week to return to Damascus for what it called a dialogue.

Three weeks ago, Mr. Assad said in a speech that he was open to reconciliation talks but not with political opponents he described as terrorists, the government’s generic term for armed insurgents. At the time, most members of the political opposition dismissed Mr. Assad’s speech as meaningless.

The opposition’s longstanding position has been that Mr. Assad must resign as a precondition for any talks and that he cannot be part of any transitional government. Mr. Assad and his aides have said he has no intention of resigning and may even run for another term in elections next year.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut.

Read More..

California police probe stunts that shut down freeways

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California Highway Patrol is investigating two apparently unrelated stunts that jammed freeways over the weekend, including one involving hundreds of motorcyclists celebrating a marriage proposal that inconvenienced motorists east of Los Angeles.

Both events created a flurry of viral Internet videos, fueling concerns about a repeat performance by copycats.

On Interstate 10 east of Los Angeles on Sunday, up to 300 bikers stopped traffic so that one of them could propose to his girlfriend, said Officer Vince Ramirez, a Los Angeles-area spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

Video that surfaced online of the stunt showed some bikers creating a wall of smoke by spinning their tires against the concrete. In the middle of the gathering, pink smoke could be seen wafting into the air.

As they exited the freeway, several bikers were later ticketed for reckless riding unrelated to their possible role in the freeway shutdown, Ramirez said.

He said officers were working with the Los Angeles County District Attorney‘s office to prepare additional charges against some of the bikers.

The stunt did not cause any injuries or collisions, he said.

In Oakland on Saturday, traffic ground to a halt on Interstate 880 near the city’s sports coliseum, as several sports cars did doughnuts, spinning around and filling the air with tire smoke, officials said. Stunned motorists exited their cars and watched.

Several motorists caught in the sudden traffic jam were frightened or angry, according to recordings of calls to authorities released on Tuesday.

“I can’t believe this – I have three kids in the car,” one caller told an Oakland-area dispatcher. “It scares the hell out of me.”

Authorities have not found or identified any of the drivers, said California Highway Patrol Sergeant Diana McDermott.

California Highway Patrol officers said they feared the weekend events’ popularity on social media websites could start a dangerous trend. So far, such stunts have been rare, they said.

“That’s why the investigation is expanding,” Ramirez said.

“If there are any criminal charges that can be filed as a result of this incident, they will be filed,” he said.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Tom Brown and Eric Walsh)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: California police probe stunts that shut down freeways
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/california-police-probe-stunts-that-shut-down-freeways/
Link To Post : California police probe stunts that shut down freeways
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

The Most Dramatic Bachelor Style News ... Ever

Stylewatch
Style News Now

01/28/2013 at 04:00 PM ET

Tommaso Boddi/Wireimage

Bachelors come and go, but one constant remains: the show’s unflappable host Chris Harrison and his reliably dapper wardrobe. And since we’re always excited to see what he’ll wear next on the show, it didn’t surprise us to learn that people constantly ask him where he gets his outfits.

What did surprise us? The fact that Harrison is launching his own clothing line — a fact he shared with us exclusively when he visited the PEOPLE offices last week.

“I think there’s a huge market there for guys like me, who aren’t going to be wearing the ridiculous Ed Hardy stuff — we’re too old for that garbage — but at the same time, we don’t want to look like a slouch,” he says. “I like dressing up, but at the same time, I want to go pick up my kids from school and not look like a goofball.”

He plans to channel that passion for stylish, relatable clothing into the Chris Harrison Collection by Da Vinci, a partnership with his designer pal Christopher Wicks, whom Harrison calls “a genius.”

It’s a logical next step for the man who calls himself “a clothes hound — as much as you can be for a straight guy.” Harrison says he takes a lot of pride in the Bachelor wardrobe he puts together with the show’s stylist Cary Fetman, particularly noting his affinity for ties, vests and watches. “People come up to me saying, ‘Dude, I like what you wear, I like what you’re doing,’” he says of his style, “so I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s do our own [line].’”

Excited to add a little Bachelor magic into your guy’s wardrobe? Harrison says that he’ll be wearing his own designs in the next season of The Bachelorette (no premiere date yet, but likely later this year), so tune in and keep your eyes out for the first glimpse at The Harrison Collection. Tell us: Are you looking forward to Harrison’s new clothing line?

–Alex Apatoff

GET MORE BACHELOR STYLE SCOOP HERE!

Read More..

Study says leafy greens top food poisoning source

NEW YORK (AP) — A big government study has fingered leafy greens like lettuce and spinach as the leading source of food poisoning, a perhaps uncomfortable conclusion for health officials who want us to eat our vegetables.

"Most meals are safe," said Dr. Patricia Griffin, a government researcher and one of the study's authors who said the finding shouldn't discourage people from eating produce. Experts repeated often-heard advice: Be sure to wash those foods or cook them thoroughly.

While more people may have gotten sick from plants, more died from contaminated poultry, the study also found. The results were released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans — or 48 million people— gets sick from food poisoning. That includes 128,000 hospitalization and 3,000 deaths, according to previous CDC estimates.

The new report is the most comprehensive CDC has produced on the sources of food poisoning, covering the years 1998 through 2008. It reflects the agency's growing sophistication at monitoring illnesses and finding their source.

What jumped out at the researchers was the role fruits and vegetables played in food poisonings, said Griffin, who heads the CDC office that handles foodborne infection surveillance and analysis.

About 1 in 5 illnesses were linked to leafy green vegetables — more than any other type of food. And nearly half of all food poisonings were attributed to produce in general, when illnesses from other fruits and vegetables were added in.

It's been kind of a tough month for vegetables. A controversy erupted when Taco Bell started airing a TV ad for its variety 12-pack of tacos, with a voiceover saying that bringing a vegetable tray to a football party is "like punting on fourth-and-1." It said that people secretly hate guests who bring vegetables to parties.

The fast-food chain on Monday announced it was pulling the commercial after receiving complaints that it discouraged people from eating vegetables.

Without actually saying so, the CDC report suggests that the Food and Drug Administration should devote more staff time and other resources to inspection of fruits and vegetables, said Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety.

Earlier this month, the FDA released a proposed new rule for produce safety that would set new hygiene standards for farm workers and for trying to reduce contact with animal waste and dirty water.

Meanwhile, CDC officials emphasized that their report should not be seen as discouraging people from eating vegetables.

Many of the vegetable-related illnesses come from norovirus, which is often spread by cooks and food handlers. So contamination sometimes has more to do with the kitchen or restaurant it came from then the food itself, Griffin noted.

Also, while vegetable-related illnesses were more common, they were not the most dangerous. The largest proportion of foodborne illness deaths — about 1 in 5 — were due to poultry. That was partly because three big outbreaks more than 10 years ago linked to turkey deli meat.

But it was close. CDC estimated 277 poultry-related deaths in 1998-2008, compared to 236 vegetable-related deaths.

Fruits and nuts were credited with 96 additional deaths, making 334 total deaths for produce of all types. The CDC estimated 417 deaths from all kinds of meat and poultry, another 140 from dairy and 71 from eggs.

Red meat was once seen as one of the leading sources of food poisoning, partly because of a deadly outbreak of E. coli associated with hamburger. But Griffin and Doyle said there have been significant safety improvements in beef handling. In the study, beef was the source of fewer than 4 percent of food-related deaths and fewer than 7 percent of illnesses.

____

Online:

CDC journal: http://www.cdc.gov/eid/

Read More..

Defensive stocks extend rally as caution sets in

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Tuesday, led by defensive sectors, in a sign the cash piles moving into the market recently are being put to use by cautious investors to pick up more gains.

The S&P 500 is on track to post its best monthly performance since October 2011 as investors poured $55 billion in new cash into stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in January, the biggest monthly inflow on record.

Among rising defensive shares, which are companies relatively immune to economic swings, were drugmaker Pfizer, up 1.2 percent to $27.16 and AT&T , 1.5 percent higher to $34.64.

The S&P hovered near 1,500, and market technicians say the benchmark is at a turning point which will determine if the index will keep moving higher or find it difficult to break through, resulting in a move lower in the near term.

"Cyclicals were moving very nicely, now you see balance with some of the defensives. Many managers use that as an internal hedge in equity portfolios," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

She said the market is cautious ahead of Wednesday's statement following the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting. In addition, defensive stocks would hold up better if Friday's payrolls report surprises on the downside.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 57.42 points or 0.41 percent, to 13,939.35, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 4.88 points or 0.33 percent, to 1,505.06 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 3.24 points or 0.1 percent, to 3,151.06.

The top performing sectors on the S&P 500 were healthcare <.spxhc> and telecom services <.splrcl>, both up more than 1 percent.

The equity gains have largely come on a strong start to earnings season, though results were mixed on Tuesday with Pfizer rising but Ford Motor Co dropping after its report.

Both companies reported profits that topped expectations, but Ford also forecast a wider loss in its European segment. Shares dropped 3.6 percent to $13.32 as one of the biggest percentage losers on the S&P 500.

Thomson Reuters data showed that of the 174 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season, 68.4 percent have been above analyst expectations, which is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

The Nasdaq was pressured by disappointing outlooks from Seagate Technology and BMC Software . Seagate shares lost 8.3 percent to $34.30 and BMC fell 8.5 percent to $40.70.

Software maker VMware Inc lost 20 percent to $78.26 also after a cautious 2013 outlook.

Amazon was the biggest drag on the Nasdaq with a 2 percent drop to $270.57 before its results, expected after the closing bell.

U.S. home prices rose in November to rack up their best yearly gain since the housing crisis began, a further sign that the sector is on the mend, but consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in more than a year in the wake of higher taxes for many Americans.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

Read More..

Ukrainian General Given Life Sentence in Killing of Journalist

Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto Agency

Gen. Oleksei Pukach listened to his sentence from the defendant's cage during a court session of the Pechersk district court on charges of murder of the journalist Georgy Gongadze in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

MOSCOW — A Ukrainian court sentenced a former security official to life in prison on Tuesday for the death of Georgy Gongadze, a journalist whose mysterious death in 2000 provoked an international outcry and helped set off protests against the president at the time, Leonid D. Kuchma.

The former security official, Gen. Oleksei Pukach, who once headed a surveillance department for Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, testified that he had not intended to kill Mr. Gongadze, but strangled him with a belt accidentally in the course of an interrogation. He is the highest-ranking official to be convicted in Mr. Gongadze’s death.

Mr. Gongadze went missing in September 2000 and his body was found two months later, beheaded, in a forest 75 miles from Kiev, the capital. He had infuriated the president, Mr. Kuchma, with muckraking publications in Ukrainskaya Pravda, an Internet newspaper he had founded.

Suspicions of official involvement grew with the release of covert recordings made by one of Mr. Kuchma’s bodyguards, in which the a man who sounded like the president spoke of Mr. Gongadze, telling a subordinate to “throw him out, give him to the Chechens.”

The killing came to epitomize the role that crime had come to play in Ukrainian politics and provoked a wave of demonstrations that some describe as the first manifestation of the 2004 Orange Revolution.

Three former police officers who stood trial over Mr. Gongadze’s death said that he had climbed into what he believed to be a taxi and was taken to a location outside Kiev, where he was beaten and strangled, doused with gasoline and burned.

General Pukach said he had been trying to force Mr. Gongadze to confess to espionage, something Mr. Gongadze refused to do, though he did admit accepting $400,000 from Western diplomats for passing on information.

Volodymyr Shilov, a prosecutor, said that General Pukach had testified that he was carrying out an order, but would not say what the order was or who issued it, according to the Interfax news agency. But just before guards took him away on Tuesday, General Pukach gave a revealing response to journalists who asked him to comment on the verdict, telling them to direct their questions to Mr. Kuchma and his chief of staff, Volodymyr Lytvyn.

“Ask Kuchma and Lytvyn, they’ll tell you everything,” he said, shaking his finger angrily, according to television coverage of the trial. “I told everything during the investigation and trial. So ask Lytvyn and Kuchma about their motives and intentions.”

The trial was mostly closed to journalists, who were allowed to be present only for the verdict and sentencing. But a lawyer representing Mr. Gongadze’s widow complained that the investigation and trial were flawed and inconsistent, overlooking evidence that General Pukach had intended to kill Mr. Gongadze.

“He spoke clearly about receiving an order to kill burn and bury him, and he was prepared for this,” said the lawyer, Valentyna Telychenko, in comments broadcast on television. “He brought a shovel and a canister of gasoline, meaning his actions were directed toward murder, and nothing else.”

General Pukach testified that he had been ordered to conduct surveillance by Ukraine’s interior minister — a man who was found dead in 2005, hours before he was to be questioned by prosecutors in the matter. Officials called it a suicide, though Ukrainian news agencies said he had suffered two gunshot wounds.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 29, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated, on first reference, the year of Georgy Gongadze’s death. It was in 2000, not 2002.

Read More..