CDC says US flu season starts early, could be bad

NEW YORK (AP) — Flu season in the U.S. is off to its earliest start in nearly a decade — and it could be a bad one.

Health officials on Monday said suspected flu cases have jumped in five Southern states, and the primary strain circulating tends to make people sicker than other types. It is particularly hard on the elderly.

"It looks like it's shaping up to be a bad flu season, but only time will tell," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The good news is that the nation seems fairly well prepared, Frieden said. More than a third of Americans have been vaccinated, and the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far, CDC officials said.

Higher-than-normal reports of flu have come in from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. An uptick like this usually doesn't happen until after Christmas. Flu-related hospitalizations are also rising earlier than usual, and there have already been two deaths in children.

Hospitals and urgent care centers in northern Alabama have been bustling. "Fortunately, the cases have been relatively mild," said Dr. Henry Wang, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Parts of Georgia have seen a boom in traffic, too. It's not clear why the flu is showing up so early, or how long it will stay.

"My advice is: Get the vaccine now," said Dr. James Steinberg, an Emory University infectious diseases specialist in Atlanta.

The last time a conventional flu season started this early was the winter of 2003-04, which proved to be one of the most lethal seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. The dominant type of flu back then was the same one seen this year.

One key difference between then and now: In 2003-04, the vaccine was poorly matched to the predominant flu strain. Also, there's more vaccine now, and vaccination rates have risen for the general public and for key groups such as pregnant women and health care workers.

An estimated 112 million Americans have been vaccinated so far, the CDC said. Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.

A strain of swine flu that hit in 2009 caused a wave of cases in the spring and then again in the early fall. But that was considered a unique type of flu, distinct from the conventional strains that circulate every year.

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Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly

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Wall Street little changed before next "cliff" signal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Tuesday as the market awaited developments in negotiations in Washington to avert a "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy into recession.

Republicans in Congress proposed steep spending cuts to bring down the budget deficit on Monday but gave no ground on President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and the proposal was quickly dismissed by the White House.

The market has been subject to swings in reaction to the proposals floated so far by politicians. Still, many investors expect the two sides to come up with a deal before the year-end deadline, which could trigger a rally in equities.

"Investors everywhere are focused on what is happening here related to the fiscal cliff and the risk that nothing will happen," said Gail Dudack, Chief Investment Strategist, Dudack Research Group in New York.

"From what I have seen, there is a consensus that something will happen. Maybe if it is not ideal, something will happen."

Differences within the Republican Party over how to engage with the Democrats came to the fore on Tuesday as one senator opposed to raising taxes lashed out at House Speaker and fellow Republican John Boehner for proposing to increase revenue by closing some tax loopholes.

Despite the sudden moves in the market, a measure of investor anxiety has held surprisingly flat.

The CBOE volatility index <.vix>, a gauge of market anxiety, was at 17 but has not traded above 20 since July following its 2012 high near 28 hit in June. The VIX's 10-day Average True Range, an internal volatility measure, is at its lowest since early 2007.

Obama will meet with U.S. governors at the White House on Tuesday to talk about the fiscal cliff, a $600 billion package of tax hikes and federal spending cuts that would begin January 1.

The president is also expected to talk about the fiscal cliff during an interview scheduled for 12:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Bloomberg TV.

Coach became the latest company to advance the date of its next dividend payment. Expectations of higher taxes on dividends kicking in in 2013 have pushed many companies to pay special dividends this year or advance their next pay-back to investors. Shares of the upscale leather-goods maker shed 1.6 percent to $57.25.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 27.92 points, or 0.22 percent, to 12,993.52. The S&P 500 <.spx> edged up 0.44 points, or 0.03 percent, to 1,409.90. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> fell 4.44 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,997.76.

Darden Restaurants Inc plunged 10.1 percent to $47.14 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after warning its latest quarter would miss expectations after unsuccessful promotions led to a decline in sales at its Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse chains.

In contrast, Big Lots Inc jumped 8 percent to $30.28 after the close-out retailer posted a smaller-than-expected loss and boosted its full-year adjusted earnings forecast.

Toll Brothers shares advanced 0.3 percent to $32.53 after the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder reported a higher quarterly profit and said new orders rose sharply.

MetroPCS Communications shares dropped 6.5 percent to $10.07 after Sprint Nextel appeared unlikely to make a counter-offer for the wireless service provider.

Shares of Pep Boys-Manny Moe and Jack slumped 12.5 percent at $9.34 a day after the release of the auto parts retailer's results.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Malaysia Urged to Protect Domestic Workers

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia must punish the recruitment agents accused of forcing more than 100 foreign women to work as domestic help without pay and enforce laws to protect migrant workers, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and a migrant workers’ support group said on Monday.

Malaysian immigration officers on Saturday rescued 105 women, mostly Indonesians, who said they had been forced to work as domestic helpers and at food stalls, been given little food and been confined to a four-story building at night in the port town of Klang, near Kuala Lumpur.

“A few of them said they had been beaten by the supervisors,” said Chandran Muniandy, the assistant deputy director of immigration in Klang. “They locked them up. They couldn’t go anywhere.”

Some of the women in the group, which included 95 Indonesians, 6 Filipinos and 4 Cambodians, said that they had been forced to work for up to six months and had not been paid, Mr. Chandran added.

Twelve people who worked for the agency, including Malaysians and foreigners, have been arrested under Malaysia’s antitrafficking laws, Mr. Chandran said, adding that he expected to make more arrests.

The case is the latest in a series of episodes involving Indonesian domestic workers that have at times strained diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Malaysia. Last month, two Indonesian domestic workers reported that they had been raped. One alleged that she had been raped by three police officers, while the other woman said her employer had raped her.

In December 2011, Indonesia lifted a ban in place since 2009 that had prevented women from coming to Malaysia to work as domestic helpers.

“We will send a diplomatic note to the Malaysian government asking for tough punishment against them,” said Suryana Sastradiredja, a spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy, referring to those alleged to be the perpetrators in the Klang case.

Yusnida, an Indonesian woman, said that the agency had taken her and other women to work as maids in different homes each day from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to a report in The Star, a Malaysian newspaper. “My hands and legs were swollen from the long hours of work every day,” she was quoted as saying. “The agent only provided us with two meals a day. There was not enough food, and the workload was heavy.”

The agency told her that she could leave only once she had paid the agency a fee for bringing her to Malaysia, according to the report.

Mr. Suryana, of the Indonesian Embassy, urged the Malaysian authorities to take swift action against those who committed crimes against domestic workers.

He expressed anger that the three police officers charged with the rape of the Indonesian worker last month had been released on bail.

“I’m very, very angry with the situation,” he said. “If one Indonesian commits a crime, the Malaysian government is very quick to react, but a crime involving Malaysians, they are very slow.”

Irene Fernandez, the executive director of Tenaganita, an advocacy group for migrant workers in Kuala Lumpur, said the Malaysian authorities needed to provide better protection for domestic helpers and more effectively prosecute unscrupulous agents who abuse workers.

“A lot of homes are looking for part-time workers and cleaners, and so they are using that now and providing this form of labor where the workers are in a slavery-like situation,” she said, adding that women were often lured to Malaysia by agents who promised them factory jobs, only to find themselves forced to work as domestic helpers after their arrival.

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Is the iPad Mini as Good as the iPad?

The iPad Mini‘s screen doesn’t have the same “resolutionary” Retina display as its bigger brother, but don’t worry: the Apple snobs appear to have gotten over that. After spending time with his new baby-tablet, The New York Times‘s Nick Bilton gave in, calling the gadget his new “Desert Island Device.” (It replaced his iPhone, by the way.) The inferior screen had worried Bilton like it had others, but no longer: ”I used it for two weeks and my concerns about the screen’s quality are completely irrelevant.” It’s not that Bilton prefers the “fuzzy” screen, as he called it. But the portability of the lightweight Mini outweighs that for him, making this tablet, in his opinion, really the best tablet Apple has ever made.

RELATED: Prepare for an iPad Mini This Month

Considering all the fawning over the Retina display on the iPad proper, it’s pretty amazing to see reviewers toss that upgrade for something that Steve Jobs forbid the company to create. Bilton’s not the only one to prefer the new cousin, even if it is technically worse. Noted Apple-phile Jonathan Gruber said he hadn’t touched the fourth-generation iPad that Apple released this year as well “I’ve gone small and fuzzy,” he wrote. When the Retina display first came out, Gruber called it “pure joy” for his “dream iPad.” But a funny thing happened on the way out of the hype cycle: Apple put out something the masses were supposed to like more than the techies, and that just made everyone like it even more. Call it a holiday miracle, but the Apple snobs may be snobs no more.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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West Point Hosts First Same-Sex Marriages

By Julia Haskins

12/03/2012 at 12:35 PM EST

Brenda "Sue" Fulton and Penelope Gnesin

Jeff Sheng/Outserve-SLDN/AP

West Point Military Academy has made history by hosting the institution's first same-sex marriages. 

The 210-year-old Academy hosted the nuptials of Brenda "Sue" Fulton, a 53-year-old West Point graduate, and Penelope Gnesin, 52, at the Academy's Cadet Chapel on Dec. 1. "It was such a sacred, joyous day," Fulton told CNN. 

The chapel was the first place Fulton heard the Cadet Prayer – which includes the line, "make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong" – and it resonated with her.

"As both Penny and I worked to support LGBT military people, those principles were always in front of us," Fulton said. "To be able to celebrate this with so many of our straight and gay military folks, bi and trans, was really overwhelming."

Prior to Fulton and Gnesin's ceremony, Army 1st Lt Ellen Schick and Shannon Simpson wed in West Point's original Old Cadet Chapel on Nov. 24. 

"Ellen is very proud to serve her country and wanted a military wedding," Simpson told OutServe Magazine. "We felt that we should be allowed the same opportunity to marry on a military post as any heterosexual military couple."

The marriages come after two major victories for the LGBT community. In 2011, New York legalized same-sex marriage and the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was repealed.

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Explainer: Why was pregnant duchess hospitalized?

LONDON (AP) — While morning sickness in pregnant women is common, the problem the Duchess of Cambridge has been hospitalized with is not.

In a statement Monday, palace officials said she was hospitalized with hyperemesis gravidarum, a potentially dangerous type of morning sickness where vomiting is so severe no food or liquid can be kept down. Palace officials said the duchess was expected to remain hospitalized for several days and would require a period of rest afterwards.

"It's not unusual for pregnant women to get morning sickness, but when it gets to the point where you're dehydrated, losing weight or vomiting so much you begin to build up (toxic) products in your blood, that's a concern," said Dr. Kecia Gaither, director of maternal fetal medicine at Brookdale University and Medical Center in New York.

The condition is thought to affect about one in 50 pregnant women and tends to be more common in young women, women who are pregnant for the first time, those expecting multiple babies and in non-smokers. Gaither said that fewer than one percent of women with the condition need to be hospitalized.

Doctors aren't sure what causes it but suspect it could be linked to hormonal changes or nutritional problems.

Women admitted to the hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum are usually treated with nutritional supplements and given fluids intravenously to treat dehydration. Dr. Dagni Rajasingam, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said most women hospitalized with the condition are discharged within several days.

"It depends on how well the woman is keeping fluids down," she said.

If the problem is recognized and treated early, doctors say there are no long-term effects for either the mother or the child. Left untreated, the mother could be at risk of developing neurological problems — including seizures — or risk delivering the baby early.

Gaither said the condition usually subsides by the second trimester.

"The rest of the pregnancy could be entirely uneventful," she said, adding that pregnant women treated for the condition are usually advised to avoid fatty foods that could aggravate the problem.

Gaither said the duchess would probably be able to meet her usual royal obligations by her second trimester.

"She should be able to meet all her public obligations soon," she said, advising her to take her vitamins and ensure there are no other underlying health problems. "She should just be looking forward to having a healthy little plump person."

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Wall Street turns flat as U.S. factory data offsets China

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks barely budged on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq trimming early gains as disappointing U.S. factory numbers dented optimism spurred by positive data on China's economy.

Output by China's factories grew in November for the first time in more than a year, data showed. But that encouraging signal about the health of the world's second-largest economy was offset by a surprising contraction in U.S. manufacturing, which fell in November to its lowest level in more than three years, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

The market's reaction to the ISM data was somewhat muted, however, as concerns about budget dealings in Washington on the "fiscal cliff" remain the primary focus of investors. Political haggling continues over how to deal with large automatic spending cuts and tax hikes scheduled to kick in next year that could tip the U.S. economy back into recession.

"At this point, all you can say about the data is they are discounting it," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

"So barring some catastrophe here in terms of the fiscal cliff, we look pretty stable."

Among other factors serving to offset the ISM report were two developments in the euro zone: Spain formally requested the disbursement of more than $50 billion of European funds to recapitalize its crippled banking sector, while Greece said it would spend 10 billion euros ($13 billion) to buy back bonds in a bid to reduce its ballooning debt.

The PHLX Europe sector index <.xex> advanced 0.6 percent.

"The general feeling underneath here is things are improving - Europe appears to be improving, at least politically getting their act together," Mendelsohn said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> shed 10.45 points, or 0.08 percent, to 13,015.13. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> inched up just 0.62 of a point, or 0.04 pct to 1,417.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> added 3.68 points, or 0.12 percent, to 3,013.92.

The S&P 500 briefly moved above its 50-day moving average at about 1,420, a level that the index has been below since October 22, and now serving as a key resistance point for equities.

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

Dell shares rose 5.8 percent to $10.19 as one of the biggest percentage gainers in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 <.ndx> after Goldman Sachs upgraded its view on the stock to "buy" from "sell."

Singapore Airlines said it was in talks with interested parties to sell its 49 percent stake in British carrier Virgin Atlantic, with sources saying that Delta Air Lines was among the potential suitors. Delta shares fell 1.8 percent to $9.82.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Jan Paschal)

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Suspected Gaza Collaborators Face a Grisly Fate

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — When Fadel Shalouf’s family went to pick up his body at the morgue the day after he was executed on a busy Gaza street corner, they found his hands still cuffed behind his back. Hamas, the militant faction that rules Gaza, did not provide a van to carry the body to burial, so they laid him on two men’s laps in the back of a sedan.

It was an undignified end to a short, shrouded life. Mr. Shalouf, his family insisted, was an illiterate fisherman with a knack for designing kites when he was arrested at 19 by Gaza’s internal security service. Yet he was convicted in a Hamas court in January 2011 of providing Israel with information that led to the 2006 assassination of Abu Attaya, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees.

During last month’s intense eight-day battle with Israel, the military wing of the Hamas government brutally and publicly put an end to Mr. Shalouf, 24, and six other suspected collaborators. The vigilante-style killings by masked gunmen — with one body dragged through a Gaza City neighborhood by motorcycle and another left for crowds to gawk over in a traffic circle — highlighted the pathetic plight of collaborators, pawns preyed on by both sides in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Fadel lived poor and died poor,” said his cousin Ahmed Shalouf, 28. “They left the bodies for a few hours in the streets, people spitting on them, throwing stones. They did not execute only Fadel. They executed all of us.”

For Israel, despite its advanced technology for tracking terrorists, human sources remain an essential intelligence tool that allows for pinpoint strikes like the one that felled Ahmed al-Jabari, operations commander of Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigades, at the start of the recent escalation. To Hamas, they are the enemy within, and vigorous prosecution as well as the occasional high-profile lynching are powerful psychological tools to enforce loyalty and squelch dissent.

Former intelligence officials and experts on the phenomenon said many collaborators are struggling souls who are blackmailed into service by an Israeli government with great leverage over their lives. Some are enlisted when they apply for permits to seek medical treatment in Israel, for example, or in exchange for better conditions or early release from Israeli jails. Others are threatened with having behavior shunned in their religious Islamic communities — alcohol use, perhaps, or adultery — exposed.

“There is no substitute to a human source, because a human source goes into their house, sometimes even into their minds,” said Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. “With all the technology — drones, you name it — you need a background, and you need the assistance from a human source.”

Mr. Peri said Palestinian collaborators might be given money for expenses or a small salary, but “you’ll never be a rich guy.”

Hillel Cohen, a research fellow at the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who has written two books on the subject, said some Gaza collaborators “do it just for some money” and “some to be part of a big story”; few are actually supportive of Israel, he said, but many have problems with Hamas.

“I interviewed a lot of collaborators, and they have a kind of inferiority complex,” Mr. Cohen explained. “They see the West, Israel, as much better than the Arab. I hear expressions like, ‘We’re worth nothing.’ Sometimes it comes from there, and sometimes it’s part of what the Israeli officers put in their minds.”

Collaboration has underpinned Israeli-Palestinian relations since before there was a modern state of Israel, dating back at least to the Jewish underground that operated during the British Mandate era in the 1930s. The Oslo Accords signed by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in 1994 even made two villages — one in Gaza, one in the West Bank — safe refuges for about 1,500 Bedouins suspected of spying.

The very definition of collaboration has expanded in recent years. Some in Hamas and more militant groups consider the Palestinian Authority to be aiding the enemy when it coordinates security services in the West Bank with Israel. Since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 after winning elections, members of the rival Fatah faction who live here have almost universally been under suspicion. Selling land to Jews can be punishable by death.

Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, and Irit Pazner Garshowitz from Jerusalem.

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Nokia Siemens to sell optical networks unit

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Mobile telecoms equipment joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, which is focusing on its core business, is to sell its optical fiber unit to Marlin Equity Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Up to 1,900 employees, mainly in Germany and Portugal, will be transferred to the new company, NSN said on Monday.

The company, owned by Nokia and Siemens, has sold a number of product lines since it last year announced plans to divest non-core assets and cut 17,000 jobs, nearly a quarter of its total workforce.

Nordea Markets analyst Sami Sarkamies said he expected more divestments after the optical unit deal. This disposal was a small surprise, he said, because NSN needed some optical technology – where data is transmitted by pulses of light – for its main mobile broadband business.

The move may hint the company is preparing itself for further consolidation in the sector by cutting overlaps with other players, Sarkamies said.

The telecom equipment market is going through rough times with stiff competition. French Alcatel-Lucent is also cutting costs.

($ 1 = 0.7689 euro)

(Reporting by Harro ten Wold; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Dan Lalor)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Larry Hagman, Boy Meets World Re-Boot Get Top Reactions This Week

12/02/2012 at 12:25 PM EST

Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage; Larry Hagman

Everett, Hulton Archive/Getty

It was a post-Thanksgiving week of delightful highs and solemn lows. From the passing of favorite actors to confusion over the recent Two and a Half Men drama, this week's stories left you experiencing a whirlwind of emotions on PEOPLE.com.

As always, you've been reacting in droves, telling us what you love, what makes you mad and what leaves you to LOL.

Check out the stories with top reactions on the site this week, and keep clicking on the emoticons at the bottom of every story to tell us what you think!

Nostalgic readers loved the promise of a Boy Meets World spinoff getting the green light. Fans of the original show were thrilled to see that Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel will film for the Girl Meets World pilot.

The entertainment world lost some beloved members this week. Larry Hagman, best known as J.R. Ewing on Dallas, lost his battle with throat cancer at 81. Deborah Raffin of 7th Heaven also succumbed to leukemia at 59.

Celebrities are often ridiculed for giving their children bizarre names, but the Jameson family may have outdone them all by naming their baby girl "Hashtag". You agreed: Leave social media terms to the Internet.

Readers weren't sure what to make of Angus T. Jones's shocking rant about his show, Two and a Half Men. By calling the CBS sitcom "filth," and urging viewers to stop watching, Jones is said to be remaining with the program.

News of Demi Moore's new beau had readers snickering. But Moore, who is no stranger to dating younger men, seems to have no issue with dating 26-year-old art dealer Vito Schnabel.

Check back next week for another must-read roundup, and see what readers are reacting to every day here.

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