Chasing the Saturdays: First Look at the British Girl Group's U.S. Reality Show

From the Beatles in the '60s to the Spice Girls in the '90s and One Direction these days, American music fans have a long-running infatuation with British singing groups.

Now: meet The Saturdays!

The pop quintet – Rochelle Humes, Frankie Sandford, Mollie King, Vanessa White and Una Healy, who's Irish – are bringing their vivacious music and sexy dance moves to the U.S., and they're getting a boost from E!

Chasing the Saturdays, a new reality show on the network premiering Jan. 20, will follow the group's attempt to break into the U.S. market after their success at home.

"It's been our dream as a band since day one to actually come to America and try and break it," says Vanessa, the youngest member of the group, in a first look their series.

"It's a little bit like starting over for us," Frankie says.

"It's scary," adds Rochelle, "and a little bit daunting."

Their first U.S. single, "What About Us," featuring Sean Paul, is out now. The video is due out on Friday.

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Flu season has Boston declaring health emergency

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts public health officials are reporting 18 flu-related deaths in the state already this season, and Boston has declared a public health emergency.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino says the city is working with health care centers to offer free flu vaccines and also hopes to set up public locations where people can go for vaccinations. The city is reporting four flu-related deaths.

There have been about 700 confirmed cases of the flu in Boston so far this season, about 10 times more than in the same period last year.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says the state is one of many reporting above average flu hospitalization rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of a harsh flu season, which usually peaks in midwinter.

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Wall Street gains as earnings flow in; Alcoa up

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street Wednesday after U.S. corporate earnings reports got off to a good start.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 86 points to 13,415 as of noon EST. The Dow is coming off of two days of losses.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained six points to 1,463 and the Nasdaq composite rose 17 points to 3,109.

Stocks, having rallied after a last-minute resolution stopped the U.S. going from over the "fiscal cliff," are facing their first challenge of the year as companies start to report their earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012. Throughout last year, analysts had cut their outlook for earnings growth in the period and now expect them to rise by 3.21 percent, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.

"Maybe earnings expectations were a little too low," said Ryan Detrick, a strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "You don't need to have great earnings, you just need to beat those expectations" for stocks to rally, Detrick said.

Alcoa predicted rising demand for aluminum this year as the aerospace industry gains strength. Late Tuesday the company reported fourth-quarter revenue that beat analysts' estimates. Investors pay close attention to Alcoa's results and forecasts because the aluminum it makes is used in so many industries including construction and manufacturing.

Alcoa's stock rose 8 cents to $9.18.

Consumer products maker Helen of Troy, whose brands include Dr. Scholl's, Vicks and Fabreze, rose 89 cents to $34.42 after reporting a 15 percent increase in net income. Agricultural products giant Monsanto gained 84 cents to $99.34 after it said that its profit nearly tripled in the first fiscal quarter as sales of its biotech corn seeds expanded in Latin America.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 1.87 percent.

Among other stocks making big moves:

— Wireless network operator Clearwire jumped 22 cents to $3.14 after Dish network made an unsolicited offer to buy the company, which has already agreed to sell itself to Sprint. Dish rose $1.17 to $37.14 and Sprint fell 8 cents to $5.89.

— Online education company Apollo Group plunged 10 percent after reporting a sharp decline in fall-term student sign-ups at the University of Phoenix. The stock fell $2.04 to $18.88.

— Seagate Technology, a maker of hard-disk drives, jumped $1.52 to $32.91 after predicting revenue for its fiscal second quarter that topped Wall Street expectations late Tuesday.

— Bank of America fell 29 cents to $11.69 after Credit Suisse analysts lowered their outlook on the lender to "neutral" for "outperform," saying the current stock price overestimates the improvement in cost reduction that the bank can achieve this year.

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Private Manning of WikiLeaks Case Must Face Charges

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Pfc. Bradley Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, on Tuesday. His court-martial is scheduled to begin on March 6.

FORT MEADE, Md. — A military judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss charges against Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst accused of providing archives of military and diplomatic documents to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks, despite complaints by his defense team that he had been mistreated while being held at the Marines’ brig at Quantico, Va.

But the judge, Col. Denise Lind, ruled that brig officials had improperly kept Private Manning on stricter conditions, including procedures designed to prevent potentially suicidal detainees from injuring themselves, for excessive periods. As a remedy, she granted Private Manning 112 days of credit against any eventual prison sentence.

That amounted to little more than a symbolic victory for Private Manning, whose supporters had rallied around claims that he had been tortured at Quantico. Prosecutors are pursuing charges, including aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act, that could result in a life sentence if he is convicted. His court-martial is scheduled to begin on March 6.

The ruling by Colonel Lind came after a long pretrial hearing last month that amounted to a miniature trial over whether military officials had subjected Private Manning to unlawfully harsh conditions over the roughly eight months he spent at Quantico in 2010 and 2011. His defense team had asked for the charges to be dismissed or for 10-for-1 credit for time served for the bulk of his time in Quantico, which could have shaved around seven years from any eventual prison term.

But Colonel Lind, who spent nearly two hours reading her opinion in a small courtroom on Tuesday afternoon, found for the government on most of the disputed facts. She recounted in great detail Private Manning’s sometimes erratic behavior and mental problems both before and after his arrest in Iraq in 2010, including suicidal gestures and comments that she said made his captors legitimately fear that he was dwelling on suicide and biding his time until an opportunity arose.

“There was no intent to punish the accused by anyone in the Marine Corps brig staff or chain of command,” she said. “The intent was to make sure the accused was safe, did not hurt himself and was available for the trial.”

Still, Colonel Lind found that some steps brig officials had taken were excessive. The government had already conceded that Private Manning should not have been kept on the strictest status, “suicide risk,” on two occasions totaling seven days, after a brig medical official said that status was no longer necessary. She agreed, awarding one day of credit for each of those days.

She also said that it eventually became excessive and effectively punitive for brig officials to keep him on “prevention of injury” status — a category that did not require a doctor’s assent — for a 75-day period starting in November 2010, when his behavior had been stable for a lengthy period, and ending when he had an anxiety attack.

And she also awarded 20 days’ credit for a period beginning in April 2011 until he was transferred from Quantico later that month, when brig officials kept him on an extra-strict version of “prevention of injury” status. That included removing his underwear nightly after a comment he had laughingly made to a guard in early March that he could kill himself with its elastic band if he wanted.

Finally, she awarded him 10 days’ credit for a period in which brig officials allowed him just 20 minutes of exercise a day instead of the full hour other prisoners were granted.

Colonel Lind’s opinion also at one point discussed events reported in two articles in The New York Times in March 2011, recounting the removal of Private Manning’s clothing at night: a reaction, it is now clear, to his comment about killing himself with his underwear.

The first article said Private Manning had stood naked during inspection one morning in early March and cited his lawyer, David E. Coombs, as saying his client had been “forced” to do so. But Judge Lind portrayed the event as more ambiguous than an order: Private Manning, lacking clothes, had covered himself with a blanket, and a guard asked if that was how he stood at attention. He reacted by dropping the blanket.

The second article, published the next day, cited a Marine brig spokesman as saying that Private Manning would be required to stand outside his cell under similar conditions each morning. But starting the next day, she found, guards began giving Private Manning his clothing back each morning before inspection, and she said there was no evidence he had stood outside his cell rather than inside it.

Also on Tuesday, the judge began hearing arguments on a pair of motions by prosecutors seeking to restrict the ability of Private Manning’s defense team to call witnesses and introduce other testimony related to his motivation and whether the documents were overclassified.

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Why bother with a Facebook phone? Facebook’s app is already on 86% of iPhones and iPads

Rumors suggesting Facebook (FB) is working on a smartphone have resurfaced a number of times over the past year. Each time, Facebook denied the various claims. Facebook may indeed still be working on its own phone but as a new report from market research firm NPD Group shows, it probably doesn’t need to.

[More from BGR: Is Samsung the new Apple?]

Facebook makes money by gathering information about its users and serving targeted ads based on that data. Allowing users to update Facebook with fresh data as often as possible is obviously beneficial to the company, and smartphones present a terrific opportunity to give users access to their Facebook accounts from anywhere. The more people using Facebook’s mobile apps, the better, and Facebook’s smartphone penetration is absolutely staggering right now.

[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $ 45 Straight Talk plan]

According to data published by NPD Group on Tuesday, Facebook’s iOS application was used by 86% of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners as of November 2012. On the Android platform, 70% of smartphone and tablet owners used Facebook’s mobile app in November.

No other third-party app even comes close to approaching Facebook’s mobile penetration. Google’s (GOOG) YouTube app is the next most popular third-party app on iOS with 40% penetration and Amazon’s (AMZN) mobile application is the second most popular third-party Android app with just 28% penetration.

So why would Facebook bother making its own phone?

One answer — perhaps the obvious one — is that an own-brand smartphone with custom software would give Facebook access to far more personal data than it can reach using third-party applications. Considering Facebook’s track record with matters relating to privacy, however, users may be reluctant to buy a Facebook phone.

In any case, a Facebook phone certainly doesn’t seem like a necessity for the time being. Instead, focusing on ways to effectively monetize the hundreds of millions of users who interact with Facebook from a smartphone or tablet each month might be a wiser use of resources.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Alison Sweeney Blogs: 'Oh, Dreaded Week Two' on The Biggest Loser

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By Alison Sweeney

01/08/2013 at 12:00 PM EST

Oh, dreaded week two! Emotions run high and numbers are typically low at the second weigh-in on The Biggest Loser. Never ones to keep things the same from season to season, it seemed like the prefect time to introduce the outdoor gyms created by each of the trainers.

Dolvett's dungeon pushed his team, but nothing compared to Jillian's gym ... or to Jillian's frustration with her team. As I watched the workout, I felt for Danni and Pam. Jillian's tenacity and relentlessness was hard to watch. I thought their conversation the next day was really important – and not just for each of them as individuals but for the audience, as well, to help us understand why Jillian fights so hard for, and how to not give up when the going gets tough.

I personally also love NFL week because of the incredible athletes that motivate our contestants. This season, eight-time NFL Pro Bowler Antonio Gates didn't disappoint. The best part of the challenge was the kids being reunited with their teams and how encouraging everyone was with each other. I loved every aspect of the challenge – I thought it did equalize everything, giving each team a chance at the prize. And yet the white team has now won back-to-back challenges!

It was so fun to see Bob teasing Gina. "This is not the Biggest Loser Resort & Spa!" he told her. He cracks me up! And WOW, what a change from Jillian in the last chance work out with Pam! I was so impressed! She had the conversation with them, followed through on her end of the bargain, and so did Pam. When Jill told me about it at the weigh-in I was shocked, but to watch it in the context of the show ... I was moved.

Those kid statistics in the Biggest Loser Fitness test are so important. As Dolvett said, "We are responsible. We have to do something." It's such a great idea to get kids motivated and taking those first steps. Remember that test – it definitely comes back into play later in the season!

The hardest part for all of us was in losing Nate. He and TC were both such strong influences in the house and worked so hard. They deserved every second on the Ranch and so much more time. But the changes Jillian made with them in a short time will hopefully last a long and healthy lifetime.

Favorite moment of the week: when Jillian was confronting Pam and she accidentally (Freudian slip?) said "bear claw" instead of "bear CRAWL." I loved the way it broke the tension, the way they both took a moment and laughed about it. I would never admit to Jill I know the name of any donut. Lol! It was a great moment.

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.

Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.

"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.

But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.

Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.

The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.

Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.

Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.

But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.

Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.

Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.

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Wall Street loses ground as earnings season starts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as the market consolidated from last week's rally on the "fiscal cliff" deal in Congress and investors awaited the start of the earnings season with lowered expectations.

Profits in the fourth quarter are seen above the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The benchmark S&P index has fallen 0.7 percent in the wake of the 4.3 percent jump in the two days surrounding the conclusion of the fiscal cliff debate, and investors have found few catalysts to extend the brief rally.

"The path of least resistance at the moment is lower just because we had that explosion to the upside after (the debate) in Washington," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.

"People are concerned about earnings," Polcari said, adding that other worries include raising the federal debt ceiling and automatic spending cuts set to take effect in weeks unless Congress acts.

"You are going to get this kind of apathetic market until we start to see what earnings look like," he said.

In Tuesday's results, Monsanto Co shares rose 2.6 percent to $98.46 after hitting a more than four-year high at $99.99. The world's largest seed company raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2013 and posted strong first-quarter results.

Education provider Apollo Group and Dow component Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminum producer, round out the start of earnings season after the closing bell.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 66.38 points, or 0.50 percent, to 13,317.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 7.88 points, or 0.54 percent, to 1,454.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 17.31 points, or 0.56 percent, to 3,081.51.

AT&T Inc , which fell 1.8 percent to $34.30, was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 after the company said it had sold more than 10 million smartphones in the quarter, topping the same quarter in 2011 but also increasing costs for the wireless service provider.

Providers like AT&T pay hefty subsidies to handset makers so that they can offer device discounts to customers who commit to two-year contracts. Rival Verizon Wireless said on Monday it had its strongest fourth quarter ever.

The S&P telecom services index <.gspl>, down 2.8 percent, was the worst performing of the 10 major S&P sectors.

Shares of restaurant-chain operator Yum Brands Inc fell 4.5 percent to $64.82 a day after the KFC parent warned sales in China, its largest market, shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter.

Sears Holdings shares slumped 5.4 percent to $40.59 a day after the company said Chairman Edward Lampert would take over as CEO from Louis D'Ambrosio, who is stepping down due to a family member's health issue. The U.S. retailer also reported a 1.8 percent decline in quarter-to-date sales at stores open at least a year.

GameStop shares dropped 4.8 percent to $23.57 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after the video game retailer reported sales for the holiday season and cut its guidance.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Target to match some rivals’ online prices year-round

(Reuters) – Target Corp said on Tuesday it will match on a year-round basis the prices found on the websites of key rivals Amazon.com Inc, Best Buy Co Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Toys R Us, its latest tactic to hold onto shoppers focused on price.

The move extends an online price-matching program that Target introduced over the holiday season and which was supposed to last only from November 1 to December 16. It also comes after Target last week reported flat sales growth in December at stores open at least a year.

In November Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said the retailer was not seeing a lot of price-match activity in its stores.

While shopping online has grown rapidly in recent years, it still represents a small fraction of overall shopping in the United States. Target’s policy of matching online prices differs from policies at several chains, which match only printed advertised prices for items sold at stores.

Target said that throughout the year it will match the price when a customer buys an eligible item at one of its stores and finds the same item at a lower price in the following week’s Target circular or in a local competitor’s printed ad. It will also match the price if the customer finds the same item at a lower price within a week on Target’s website or the websites of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us.

Amazon says it offers competitive prices and does not offer price matching when an item’s price drops after a customer buys it, with the exception of televisions. Walmart matches the prices of print ads from competitors. Walmart also says it checks the prices of 30,000 items at competing chains each week to make sure it has the lowest prices.

Best Buy matches the price from a local competitor’s store, a local Best Buy store or its own web site. Toys R Us matches in-store prices and certain online prices.

(Reporting By Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and John Wallace)

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Kate Falls Under Vogue's Microscope

By Stephen M. Silverman

01/07/2013 at 12:45 PM EST

Duchess of Cambridge

Fame; Landov (2); WireImage

What's a little more scrutiny?

Arguably the most-watched fashion icon – certainly the most closely followed expectant mother – in the world, the Duchess of Cambridge has been placed under the microscope of U.K. Vogue for its February issue.

Before determining the key to her "feminine and traditional" style (at least, before her baby bump), the publication first categorizes Kate's look as "International Sleekness."

Just how close is the mag's inspection? Close enough to note exactly how often and the manner in which Kate, who turns 31 Jan. 9, holds her clutch bags: hands together, 48% of the time; one-handed, 31%.

As for when the Kate phenomenon actually started, the article's author, Lisa Armstrong, fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph, turns to Reiss's brand director, Andy Rogers. He pinpoints the moment to "when Kate wore that nude-pink Shola dress to meet the Obamas at Buckingham Palace in May 2011."

Comparing the two women's styles, Rogers says, "Michelle wore a beautiful blue silk dress and fuchsia jacket, very bold, and probably bang-on trend – but whoa, it clashed with the [gaudy] decor." As a result, "Kate," he insists, "dominates the picture."

She also helped put the fashion brand on the map. "In the past 18 months, thanks to the Kate Effect, Reiss's reputation has grown globally," Armstrong writes. "Before Kate, Reiss had eight stores in America. Now it has 14 more concessions, all in Bloomingdale's."

By Vogue's calculation, Kate also helped boost sales of hosiery at the British supermarket chain Asda by a staggering 500%.

Apparently, too, Kate is strictly hands-on when it comes to her appearance. "She's got someone who organizes appointments with designers," a fashion-industry fixer tells Vogue. "Obviously there are ladies-in-waiting who do the packing. But she had to work out her look herself."

Other vitals: the royal ringlets measure nearly one inch; she works out "all the time, apparently"; necklines are "usually curved"; she wears blue 24% of the time and cream or yellow only 5%; she positions her hats "to the right of the royal 'do at a 50-degree angle, thus emphasizing her cheekbones"; and she prefers three-quarter-length sleeves, the better to reveal her wrist bling and confirm the fact that her arms are not too thin.

So, what's ahead? "Diverting looks," writes Armstrong, "and a fair few raised waists that accommodate, rather than flaunt, the royal belly." But wait, there's more: "And even more luxuriant hair."

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