It's a Boy for Tamera Mowry-Housley

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

11/13/2012 at 10:45 AM ET

Katee Grace

He’s finally here!

Tamera Mowry-Housley delivered a son, Aden John Tanner Housley, on Monday, Nov. 12 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, PEOPLE confirms.

This is the first child for the Tia & Tamera star, 34, and her husband, FOX News correspondent Adam Housley.

Arriving two weeks after his due date of Oct. 30, Aden weighed in at 9 lbs., 5 oz. and is 21.5 inches long.

The actress, who blogged her pregnancy for PEOPLE.com, was more than ready for her baby boy to make his arrival.

“If I have yet to learn patience, my son is in the process of teaching me now,” Mowry-Housley wrote. “I have learned that I am not in control and that he will decide when he comes.”

She and Housley, 40, wed in May 2011 in Napa Valley.

RELATED GALLERY: Tamera Mowry-Housley’s Americana-Themed Nursery

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British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu

LONDON (AP) — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche.

"I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug.

Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu.

"We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization.

In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza.

"Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions.

"Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said.

Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

____

Online:

www.bmj.com.tamiflu/

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Home Depot earnings help lift stocks

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New Syrian opposition chief seeks recognition, arms

CAIRO (Reuters) - The leader of Syria's new opposition coalition urged European states on Tuesday to recognize it as the legitimate government, enabling it to buy the weapons it needs to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Britain and France appeared to set further conditions, notably that it first rally support inside the country, before they grant full recognition to the Syrian National Coalition. And, like the United States, Europeans are still reluctant to arm rebel forces which include anti-Western Islamist militants.

Western caution, and an Arab League endorsement that stopped short of full recognition, indicate that the coalition forged with such difficulty in Qatar two days ago may yet find it hard to win wholehearted support, even from its allies.

Speaking to Reuters by telephone as Arab and European ministers met to discuss Syria at the Arab League in Cairo, Mouaz Alkhatib, the Damascus preacher elected unopposed on Sunday to lead the new group, asked for diplomatic backing.

"I request European states to grant political recognition to the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to give it financial support," he said.

"When we get political recognition, this will allow the coalition to act as a government and hence acquire weapons and this will solve our problems," Alkhatib added.

France's defense minister and Britain's foreign minister both said that forming the new group under Alkhatib, a moderate noted for his embrace of Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, was an important milestone but not sufficient for full recognition as a government-in-waiting.

So far, concerted action on Syria has been thwarted by divisions within the opposition, as well as by big power rivalries and a regional divide between Sunni Muslim foes of Assad and his Shi'ite allies in Iran and Lebanon.

Russia and China, which have lent Assad diplomatic support since the uprising erupted in March last year, have shown no sign of warming towards his Western- and Arab-backed opponents.

Lebanese analyst Nadim Shehadi said Western conditions were just as great an obstacle to resolving the Syria crisis.

Where once the United States sought to convince Iraqis and Afghans that U.S. military intervention was for their own good, now Syrians seeking democracy and freedom were trying to persuade a reluctant Washington to act, he said.

"The U.S. is playing hard to get," he said. "It's like you have to pass a test to show you are united, have leadership, are not Islamist jihadists ... and the U.S. is still hesitant as though you have to 'deserve' all that before they intervene."

"STEP FORWARD"

Cajoled by Qatar and the United States, the ineffectual Syrian National Council, previously the main opposition body based abroad, agreed to join a wider coalition on Sunday.

But French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the new body still needed to unite armed rebel factions within Syria under its umbrella to earn full recognition.

"What happened in Doha is a step forward," he told reporters in Paris. "It is still not sufficient to constitute a provisional government that can be recognized internationally."

Britain's foreign minister, William Hague, also said the coalition must show it had support within Syria before London would acknowledge it as the rightful government.

"If they have this, yes, we will then recognize them as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people," he told reporters at the Arab-European meeting in Cairo.

The opposition had hoped its new-found unity would clear the way for outside powers to arm the rebels, but Western nations fear such weapons could reach the hands of Islamist militants.

Western concern has also been heightened by documented reports of atrocities by ill-disciplined insurgents.

"Syria's newly created opposition front should send a clear message to opposition fighters that they must adhere to the laws of war and human rights law, and that violators will be held accountable," New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

The French defence minister called for "a unification of military action to avoid haphazard military operations" and also urged rebels to rein in radical Islamist "Salafist elements".

BORDER VIOLENCE

Assad, whose family have ruled Syria for 42 years, has vowed to fight to the death in a conflict that has already killed an estimated 38,000 people and risks sucking in other countries.

His warplanes again struck homes in rebel-held Ras al-Ain. Civilians fled over the border dividing it from the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar and thick plumes of smoke billowed upwards.

Syrian jets and artillery hit the town of Albu Kamal on the frontier with Iraq, where rebels have seized some areas, according to the mayor of the Iraqi border town of Qaim.

Tension also remained high on the Golan Heights, where Israeli gunners have retaliated against stray Syrian mortar fire landing on the occupied plateau in the previous two days.

Twenty months of conflict have created a vast humanitarian crisis, with more than 408,000 Syrians fleeing to neighboring countries and up to four million expected to need aid by early next year, according to the United Nations.

Fighting has also displaced 2.5 million civilians inside Syria, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent estimates.

"If anything, they believe it could be more; this is a very conservative estimate," Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva.

"So people are moving, really on the run, hiding," she told a news briefing. "They are difficult to count and access."

In Cairo, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby urged other opposition factions to join what is formally known as the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces.

But although six Gulf Arab nations recognized the coalition as Syria's only legitimate representative on Monday, Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon prevented the League from following suit.

Iraq and Lebanon, with influential Shi'ite populations, have generally maintained better relations with Iran and with Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo, Jonathon Burch in Ceylanpinar, Turkey, and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Microsoft’s Surface tablet has “modest” start: Ballmer

PARIS (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp‘s new Surface tablet – its challenger to Apple‘s iPad – had a “modest” start to sales because of limited availability, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told French daily Le Parisien.

The world’s largest software company put the Surface tablet center stage at its Windows 8 launch event last month in its fightback against Apple and Google in the exploding mobile computing market.

“We’ve had a modest start because Surface is only available on our online retail sites and a few Microsoft stores in the United States,” Ballmer was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, 4 million upgrades to Windows 8 were sold in the three days following the system’s launch, Ballmer added. (Reporting by Lionel Laurent; Editing by David Cowell)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Elmo Puppeteer Kevin Clash Takes Leave from Sesame Street Amid Sexual Allegations

By Andrea Billups

11/12/2012 at 12:00 PM EST

The puppeteer who performs as the Sesame Street character Elmo has been granted a leave of absence from his job amid allegations he had an improper relationship with a 16-year-old boy, the Sesame Workshop tells PEOPLE.

Kevin Clash, who voices Elmo on the popular children's show, has denied the allegations, which were first reported by TMZ.com. According to report, Clash, who was 45-years-old at the time, says he had a consensual relationship with a man, who is now 23, that occurred when the accuser was of legal age. (The legal age of consent in New York, where Sesame Street films, is 17.)

Sesame Workshop officials said in a statement released to PEOPLE that they have investigated the claims and found that the underage sex allegations could not be substantiated.

"Although this was a personal relationship unrelated to the workplace, our investigation did reveal that Kevin exercised poor judgment and violated company policy regarding internet usage and he was disciplined," the company said in a statement.

Clash, now 52, told TMZ: "I had a relationship with [the accuser]. It was between two consenting adults and I am deeply saddened that he is trying to make it into something it was not."

Sesame Workshop officials told PEOPLE that the character Elmo would survive despite the scandal, saying, "Elmo is bigger than any one person and will continue to be an integral part of Sesame Street to engage, educate and inspire children around the world."

• Reporting by CHARLOTTE TRIGGS

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British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu

LONDON (AP) — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche.

"I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug.

Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu.

"We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization.

In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza.

"Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions.

"Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said.

Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

____

Online:

www.bmj.com.tamiflu/

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S&P 500 and Nasdaq inch higher, fiscal cliff a concern

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Violence flares in Golan even as Syria's opposition seeks recognition

DOHA (Reuters) - Syria's new opposition leadership, painfully forged under Arab and Western pressure, set out on Monday to gather recognition and wider backing for the struggle to take over the country from President Bashar al-Assad.

Violence flared again on the Turkish border and the line separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, underscoring how the conflict is spilling into the region.

Reformist Damascus cleric Mouaz Alkhatib flew to Cairo to seek the Arab League's blessing for the new assembly that unanimously elected him as its leader the day before.

Alkhatib, 50, jailed several times for criticizing Assad, fled into exile this year. He has long promoted a liberal Islam tolerant of Syria's Christian, Alawite and other minorities.

"The first step towards recognition will take place at the Arab League," he told a news conference in Doha. The body would then seek endorsement from Assad's Arab and Western foes in the "Friends of Syria" group and from the U.N. General Assembly.

Russia, which with China has foiled U.N. action on Syria and views Assad's opponents as pawns of the West, urged the new body to negotiate and to reject outside meddling.

Asked if China recognized the new coalition, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on all parties to initiate "a political transition process guided by the Syrian people".

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and most Arab League members want Assad removed, although some, such as Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria, take a more neutral stance on Syria, where violence raged on.

BORDER BOMBING

Israeli tanks fired shells into Syria and scored "direct hits" in response to a Syrian mortar round that struck the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

It was the second time in two days that Israel has responded to what it said was errant Syrian fire. On Sunday the military said it had a fired a "warning shot" across the disengagement line, while on Monday it said it had fired back at "the source".

Syria and Israel have not fought over the Golan since the 1973 Middle East conflict, but are still formally at war.

At the northern end of the country, Syrian jets and helicopters attacked the rebel-held town of Ras al-Ain, with some bombs landing just meters (yards) from the Turkish border, sending scores of civilians fleeing into Turkey.

A Reuters reporter on the border said one warplane flew right along the border and appeared to stray across it at one point, as bombs sent up plumes of black smoke.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 people, including seven Islamist militants, had been killed in the air strikes on Ras al-Ain, which fell to rebels on Thursday during an advance into Syria's mixed Arab and Kurdish northeast.

Another opposition group put the Ras al-Ain death toll at 16. The pro-opposition Observatory, which tracks the violence from Britain, said 140 people were killed in Syria on Sunday. More than 38,000 people have been killed since March last year.

Turkey, whose border security worries were heightened by a sudden influx of 9,000 refugees within 24 hours last week, has consulted its NATO allies about possibly deploying Patriot surface-to-air missiles to deter Syria's air force.

Such a move could be a prelude to enforcing a no-fly zone in Syria, although Western powers have fought shy of this.

Riad Seif, a respected Syrian dissident who proposed the new opposition body, said no such military intervention was needed.

"We will protect ourselves by owning developed weapons and networks of defence missiles," he said, citing what he said was a promise by the Friends of Syria to provide "methods" to counter shelling and air strikes by Assad's forces.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Prague that the alliance would "do what it takes to defend Turkey", without referring specifically to Patriot missiles.

After days of wrangling in Qatar, Syrian politicians, rebels and representatives of ethnic and religious minorities finally laid aside their disputes and, under U.S. and Qatari pressure, agreed to form the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, as a prelude to a government-in-exile.

INCLUSIVE APPROACH

Alkhatib, the former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, called on Syrian soldiers to desert and all sects to unite.

"We demand freedom for every Sunni, Alawi, Ismaili, Christian, Druze, Assyrian ... and rights for all parts of the harmonious Syrian people," the soft-spoken preacher said.

It is unclear whether the Coalition can succeed where the exile Syrian National Council (SNC) failed in overcoming the mutual suspicions and in-fighting that have weakened the nearly 20-month-old drive to end four decades of Assad family rule.

"This is a significant step forward, because they finally seem to be forging a more broadly-based platform that includes the SNC but without the SNC taking the lion's share," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Doha Brookings Center.

He said military councils fighting inside Syria should be plugged into the new political structure as a way of encouraging coordinated international support for the uprising.

"We need a unified channel of support," he said. "The United States still seems hesitant about training and arming the opposition, and I believe this is a mistake, because the U.S. has the capacity to do it more so than anyone else."

Qatar said recognition for a temporary Syrian government would allow it to seek weapons from abroad.

Washington, which promoted the Doha unity talks, hailed the outcome, promising to support the Syrian National Coalition "as it charts a course toward the end of Assad's bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future...".

Assad, whose Alawite minority is rooted in Shi'ite Islam, has support from Shi'ite Iran and its Lebanese Shi'ite allies, but has few friends among the region's Sunni-led nations.

With Syria enduring a bloody military stalemate almost 20 months after peaceful protests first erupted, Assad's opponents hope a more cohesive opposition can turn the tide, winning more military and diplomatic support from allies wary of the growing role of Islamist militants, some of them linked to al Qaeda.

"For the first time, there are credible multinational pledges to support the Syrian revolution, politically and logistically," said London-based Syria analyst Rima Allaf.

"With the promise of real weapons, the different groups of the Free Syrian Army are more likely to regroup under a unified opposition and command, as it is to their benefit."

She said success for the new opposition body could make the position of Russia and China irrelevant. "Their direct support of Assad may continue, perhaps until the stakes change and they see no more benefit to holding on to a losing side."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond in Doha, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Jonathon Burch in Ceylanpinar, Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Michael Martina in Beijing and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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