Katy Perry at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala
Lester Cohen/WireImage
The singer, who arrived at the charity event which raises money for musicians in need sans beau John Mayer, was interrupted by two young fans who asked to take a picture with her as she was talking to director J.J. Abrams. But that wasn't all: the pop star, who later hung out with Elton John, was approached by even more fans in the lobby at the show.
Other MusiCares attendees included Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who arrived hand-in-hand before the dinner began. (McGraw and Hill later performed "Tougher Than the Rest" during the concert.)
As for the man of the hour, when the auction slowed The Boss offered up the ultimate prize: himself.
While composer David Foster urged the crowd to bid on a guitar signed live by many of the music stars in attendance, Springsteen grabbed the mic himself and threw in a few very personal extras to amp up the bidding.
First, he offered a one-hour guitar lesson and a ride in the sidecar of his Harley Davidson. Next, he added eight tickets to an E Street Band show of the bidder's choice, plus backstage passes and a backstage tour he promised to conduct personally.
"So dig in you one-percenters," he urged the audience with a smile. Springsteen raised the winning bid to a whopping $250,000 by making it a family affair, promising to also include "a lasagna made by my mother!"
Auction winner Tracey Powell, a "full-time mom," was so thrilled that she ran to Springsteen and kissed him on the lips – twice!
"I'm a Jersey girl and that's why I did it," Powell, who now lives in California, tells PEOPLE of her generous bid. "He's an amazing musician and I've followed him for years. Plus it was for an amazing cause that I'm so happy to support."
Jon Stewart hosted the evening's entertainment, a the Springsteen tribute concert that featured artists Elton John, Mumford & Sons, Sting, Neil Young (who sang "Born in the USA"), John Legend, Natalie Maines, Ben Harper, Emmylou Harris, Kenny Chesney and others, who performed some of Springsteen's classics.
John Legend performing at the MusiCares pre-Grammy tribute to Bruce Springsteen
NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.
The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.
The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.
But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.
For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.
Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.
"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.
In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.
Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications
But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.
So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.
Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.
The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says
On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.
According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.
Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
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Online:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.
The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.
The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp
Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.
AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.
Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.
"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.
The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.
"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.
For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.
Shares of Dell
Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.
Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.
Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.
Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.
Molina Healthcare Inc
The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.
"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."
Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.
Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.
(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)
TUNIS (Reuters) - Thousands of Islamists marched in Tunis on Saturday in a show of strength, a day after the funeral of an assassinated secular politician drew the biggest crowds seen on the streets since Tunisia's uprising two years ago.
About 6,000 supporters of the ruling Ennahda movement rallied to back their leader Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who was the target of angry slogans raised by mourners at Friday's mass funeral of Chokri Belaid, a rights lawyer and opposition leader.
"The people want Ennahda again," the Islamists chanted, waving Tunisian and party flags as they marched towards the Interior Ministry on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the city centre.
The demonstration was dwarfed by the tens of thousands who had turned out in Tunis and other cities to honor Belaid and to protest against the Islamist-led government the day before, shouting slogans that included "We want a new revolution".
Belaid's killing by an unidentified gunman on Wednesday, Tunisia's first such political assassination in decades, has shaken a nation still seeking stability after the overthrow of veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
The family of the slain politician has accused Ennahda of responsibility for his killing. The party denies any hand in it.
"We are here to support legitimacy, but if you prefer the power of the street, look at the streets today, we have this power," Lotfi Zitoun, an Ennahda leader, said in a speech to the Islamist demonstrators in Tunis.
Tunisia's political transition has been more peaceful than those in other Arab nations such as Egypt, Libya and Syria, but tensions are running high between Islamists elected to power and liberals who fear the loss of hard-won liberties.
FREEDOMS THREATENED
"We have gained things - the freedom of expression, the freedom to meet, to form organizations, parties, to work in the open," said Radhi Nasraoui, a veteran human rights campaigner.
"The problem is that these freedoms are still threatened, and there are attempts (by Islamists) to touch the gains of women," she told Reuters.
After Belaid's death, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali promised to form a non-partisan, technocratic cabinet to run the country until an election could take place, despite complaints from within his own Ennahda party and its two junior non-Islamist coalition partners that he had failed to consult them.
Jebali told France 24 television on Saturday that he would resign if political parties refused to support his proposal, which he said was intended to "save the country from chaos".
The state news agency TAP said the prime minister would unveil his new government next week.
Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres, bars and individuals in recent months.
Prolonged political uncertainty and street unrest could damage an economy that relies on tourism. Unemployment and other economic grievances fuelled the revolt against Ben Ali in 2011.
Tunisia's stock exchange has fallen 3.32 percent since Belaid's assassination.
France, the former colonial power, ordered its schools in Tunis to stay closed on Friday and Saturday, warning its nationals to stay clear of potential flashpoints in the capital.
Some of the Islamist demonstrators shouted "France, out", in response to remarks by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls which were rejected by Jebali, the prime minister, on Friday.
"We must support all those who fight to maintain values and remain aware of the dangers of despotism, of Islamism that threatened those values today through obscurantism," Valls had said on Europe 1 radio on Thursday in comments on Tunisia.
"There is an Islamic fascism which is on the rise in many places."
Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem described Valls's remarks as "worrying and unfriendly".
A weird thing happened on Thursday night. Anytime you clicked on a link — or most of the time anyways — some strange Internet force directed you to an error page on Facebook. The URL is full of weird randomly generated code, but it’s definitely a Facebook page. You can even check your notifications even though you didn’t even want to visit Facebook. No, this is not a conspiracy. In all likelihood, it’s a bug that will be fixed within the hour. (Unless, it’s not, in which case things will get very interesting.) If you need to use the Internet before then, simply log out of Facebook, and you should be good to go.
RELATED: Are Facebook Users Higher Class?
Folks that understand how these Internet things work have quickly surmised that the bug must be related to Facebook Connect, the ubiquitous, one-click log-in feature that you’ve been using much more than you though you were. If true this would mean that every time you’re redirected by this bug or whatever it is, you’re heading to a site that’s controlled by Facebook. We couldn’t have said anything so dramatic yesterday, but today it’s become painfully apparent. Facebook rules the Internet. There are few corners that it does not touch, and whether you read your News Feed or not, Facebook can ruin your Thursday night of Internet surfing any time it wants to.
RELATED: Happy Hour Vid: Mashable CEO Sees Society Growing Tolerant of Less Privacy
This is a developing story, so check back soon for more details.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Katy Perry (left) and Allison Williams
Stephen Lovekin/Getty
Perry, 28, who is currently in a relationship with John Mayer, 35, plans to take gal pal and Girls star Allison Williams. Mayer, however, is expected to present at Sunday's show.
The chicks-only night on the town was confirmed by Williams to host Anderson Cooper when she appeared on a Thursday episode of his Anderson Live talk show.
"I am going to the Grammys and Katy Perry is my date," Williams said. "She's the hottest date. She's a friend of mine and she's nominated, as she should be. I can't wait to go."
The pop star and Williams reportedly became pals through their men. Williams dates College Humor founder Ricky Van Veen, and the couples have double-dated, E! Online reports.
Perry, who is currently in the studio working on new music, is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance for "Wide Awake."
Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.
It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.
Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.
"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.
In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.
"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.
Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.
The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:
—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.
—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.
—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.
—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.
—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.
"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.
Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.
There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.
There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.
The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.
Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.
"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.
"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."
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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index rose on Friday after a batch of positive economic data points, but gains were checked with the benchmark S&P index at five-year highs as investors looked for strong catalysts to push the market further upward.
Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand, while German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.
Another positive sign was U.S. economic data which showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.
But wholesale inventories unexpectedly fell 0.1 percent in December as auto dealers and agricultural suppliers drew down their stocks.
The S&P 500 <.spx> has risen for five straight weeks and is up 6.3 percent for the year. Its advance was helped by legislators in Washington averting a series of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes earlier in the year, as well as better-than-expected corporate earnings and data that pointed to modest economic improvement but no immediate change in the Federal Reserve's stimulus plans.
The index, hovering near five-year highs, has found it tougher to climb in recent days as investors await strong trading incentives to drive it further upward.
"We are going to have this churn and this consolidation, which actually isn't a bad thing - it's actually good the market isn't being so volatile and is actually consolidating because it is building a base," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.
"If it builds a base, from there it is easier to make the argument that you move ahead."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 67.62 points, or 0.48 percent, to 14,011.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> climbed 7.82 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,517.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 27.34 points, or 0.86 percent, to 3,192.47.
McDonald's Corp
Healthcare stocks were among the best performers, with the Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index <.hmo> up 2.3 percent. Molina Healthcare Inc
LinkedIn Corp
According to Thomson Reuters data through Friday morning, of 339 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 69.9 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.
Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies grew 5.2 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
TUNIS (Reuters) - Police and mourners clashed at the mass funeral on Friday of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid, whose assassination has plunged Tunisia deeper into political crisis.
Braving chilly rain, at least 50,000 people turned out to honor Belaid in his home district of Jebel al-Jaloud in the capital, chanting anti-Islamist and anti-government slogans.
It was Tunisia's biggest funeral since the death of Habib Bourguiba, independence leader and first president, in 2000.
Violence erupted near the cemetery as police fired teargas at demonstrators who threw stones and set cars ablaze. Police also used teargas against protesters near the Interior Ministry, a frequent flashpoint for clashes in the Tunisian capital.
Tunisia, cradle of the Arab uprisings, is riven by tensions between dominant Islamists and their secular opponents, and by frustration at the lack of social and economic progress since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in January 2011.
Belaid's assassination has shocked a country which had hitherto experienced a relatively peaceful political transition.
"The people want a new revolution," shouted mourners in Tunis, who also sang the national anthem.
Crowds surged around an open army truck carrying Belaid's coffin, draped in a red and white Tunisian flag, from a cultural center in Jebel al-Jaloud towards the leafy Jallaz cemetery, as a security forces helicopter flew overhead.
"Belaid, rest in peace, we will continue the struggle," mourners chanted, holding portraits of the politician killed near his home on Wednesday by a gunman who fled on a motorcycle.
Some demonstrators denounced Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party. "Ghannouchi, assassin, criminal," they chanted. "Tunisia is free, terrorism out."
Police fired teargas to disperse anti-government protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs in the southern mining town of Gafsa, a stronghold of support for Belaid, witnesses said.
Crowds there had chanted "The people want the fall of the regime", a slogan first used against Ben Ali.
CRADLE OF REVOLT
In Sidi Bouzid, the southern town where the revolt against the ousted strongman began, about 10,000 marched to mourn Belaid and shout slogans against Ennahda and the government.
Banks, factories and some shops were closed in Tunis and other cities in response to a strike called by unions in protest at Belaid's killing, but buses were running normally.
Tunis Air suspended all its flights because of the strikes, a spokesman for the national airline said. Airport sources in Cairo said EgyptAir had canceled two flights to Tunisia after staff at Tunis airport joined the general strike.
After Belaid's assassination, Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali, an Islamist, said he would dissolve the government and form a cabinet of technocrats to rule until elections could be held.
But his own Ennahda party and its secular coalition partners complained they had not been consulted, casting doubt over the status of the government and compounding political uncertainty.
No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of Belaid, a lawyer and secular opposition figure.
His family have blamed Ennahda but the party has denied any hand in the shooting. Crowds have attacked several Ennahda party offices in Tunis and other cities in the past two days.
"Hope still exists in Tunisia," Fatma Saidan, a noted Tunisian actor, told Reuters at Belaid's funeral. "We will continue to struggle against extremism and political violence."
She called for national unity, saying: "We are ready to accept Islamists, but they don't accept us."
SECULAR SYMBOL
While Belaid had only a modest political following, his criticism of Ennahda policies spoke for many Tunisians who fear religious radicals are bent on snuffing out freedoms won in the first of the revolts that rippled through the Arab world.
Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres and bars in recent months.
The economic effect of political uncertainty and street unrest could be serious in a country which has yet to draft a new constitution and which relies heavily on the tourist trade.
Mohamed Ali Toumi, president of the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies, described the week's events as a catastrophe that would have a negative impact on tourism, but he told the national news agency TAP no cancellations had been reported yet.
France, which had already announced the closure of its schools in Tunis on Friday and Saturday, urged its nationals to stay clear of potential flashpoints in the capital.
The cost of insuring Tunisian government bonds against default rose to its highest level in more than four years on Thursday and ratings agency Fitch said it could further downgrade Tunisia if political instability continues or worsens.
(For an interactive look at Tunisia please click on http://link.reuters.com/tub85t)
(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo and Brian Love in Paris; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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SRINAGAR, India – Three people have been arrested in Indian-controlled Kashmir for allegedly threatening the first Kashmiri all-girl rock band, which disbanded after its debut concert following abusive comments on social media and a demand from a top Muslim cleric that they stop performing, police said Thursday.
The three have been booked for criminal intimidation and violating internet laws, police officer Afadul Mujtaba said. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to seven years each. They were arrested Wednesday night
The controversy over the band Pragaash, or “First Light” in Kashmiri, highlights the simmering tension between modernity and tradition in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where an armed uprising against Indian rule and a crackdown by government forces have killed more than 68,000 people since 1989.
Police are looking for at least a dozen other people whose comments were abusive. However, no action has been taken against the cleric for describing the girls’ band as a non-Islamic activity.
The arrests came as one of the band members told India’s CNN-IBN channel that the group had decided to stop singing because of the cleric’s edict, and not merely because of the online abuses. “Everything was going fine till the fatwa was issued,” she said, referring to the cleric’s order.
The TV channel did not identify the band member, who also said the band members respected the cleric’s decision because he was “more aware of our religion.” She urged the media to stop reporting on the case.
Pragaash performed in public for the first time in December in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. It won third place in an annual “Battle of the Bands” rock show organized by an Indian paramilitary force as part of a campaign to win hearts and minds in the region.
Soon after the show, Kashmiri pages on social networking sites like Facebook hotly debated the band. Some wondered whether the performance was appropriate in Muslim-dominated Kashmir, while others raised broader questions on the Islamic approach to music and the role of women in the society.
Many commenters backed the girls, but others were abusive, calling them “sluts” and “prostitutes” and calling for them and their families to be expelled from the region.
The controversy deepened Saturday after Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, promised a police probe into the threats and wrote on Twitter that “the talented teenagers should not let themselves be silenced by a handful of morons.”
The all-girl band then came under the scrutiny of various groups.
Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir’s state-sponsored cleric, issued a fatwa on Sunday ordering the girls to “stop from these activities and not to get influenced by the support of political leadership.”
Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, also did not approve of the band, calling the band “a step toward westernization of young girls.”
However, the alliance also distanced itself from the cleric’s edict, and denied the girls were under threat. It said the Indian media was “blowing up a small issue with a purpose to defame the Kashmiri freedom struggle.”
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
02/07/2013 at 11:00 AM ET
Pacific Coast News
It’s a boy!
Cam Gigandet and his fiancée Dominique Geisendorff welcomed their second child on Wednesday, Jan. 23, his rep confirms to JustJared.com.
Son Rekker Radley Gigandet, who weighed in at 9 lbs. 9 oz., joins the couple’s daughter Everleigh Rae, 3½.
“All are happy and healthy,” the actor’s rep says in a statement.
Gigandet, 30, and Geisendorff confirmed that they were expanding their family in July.
The new dad has a number of upcoming films set for release later this year, including Red Sky, Free Ride, Johnson, In the Blood, One Square Mile and Plush.
– Anya Leon
NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.
Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.
"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.
An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.
The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.
In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.
The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.
In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.
"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.
The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.
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JournaL: http://www.nejm.org
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell further on Thursday, with the Nasdaq falling 1 percent, as a sharp drop in the euro against the safe-haven dollar and yen curbed investors' appetite for risky assets.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 119.84 points, or 0.86 percent, at 13,866.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 12.31 points, or 0.81 percent, at 1,499.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 30.76 points, or 0.97 percent, at 3,137.72.
(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problem between them.
"Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem," Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's air force carried on his official website.
"If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said.
"American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations."
Khamenei made his comments just days after Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. "That offer stands but it must be real and tangible," Biden said in a speech in Munich.
With traditional fiery rhetoric, Khamenei lambasted Biden's offer, saying that since the 1979 revolution the United States had gravely insulted Iran and continued to do so with its threat of military action.
"You take up arms against the nation of Iran and say: 'negotiate or we fire'. But you should know that pressure and negotiations are not compatible and our nation will not be intimidated by these actions," he added.
Relations between Iran and the United States were severed in 1979 after the overthrow of Iran's pro-western monarchy and diplomatic meetings between officials have since been very rare.
ALL OPTIONS STILL "ON THE TABLE"
Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and a so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran's disputed nuclear program which are to resume on February 26 in Kazakhstan.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said he was skeptical the negotiations in Almaty could yield a result, telling Israel Radio that the United States needed to demonstrate to Iran that "all options were still on the table".
Israel, widely recognized to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has warned it could mount a pre-emptive strike on Iranian atomic sites. Israel sees its existence as directly threatened by the prospect of an nuclear-armed Iran, given Tehran's refusal to recognize the existence of the Jewish state.
"The final option, this is the phrasing we have used, should remain in place and be serious," said Meridor.
"The fact that the Iranians have not yet come down from the path they are on means that talks ...are liable to bring about only a stalling for time," he said.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western powers are concerned it is intent on developing a weapons program.
Many believe a deal on settling the nuclear issue is impossible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw. But any rapprochement would require direct talks addressing many sources of mutual mistrust that have lingered since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.
Moreover, although his re-election last November may give President Barack Obama a freer hand to pursue direct negotiations, analysts say Iran's own presidential election in June may prove an additional obstacle to progress being made.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by William Maclean and Jon Boyle)
With Microsoft‘s Surface Pro going on sale this Saturday, the gadget experts have put out their lengthy takes on the bigger more expensive tablet-laptop hybrid, many of them confused about what the gadget is supposed to be. With its second piece of tablet hardware, Microsoft aimed for the perfect hybrid between the two portable devices, with all the power and operating system of a desktop, on a portable, touchable slab. The $ 899 device gets there in theory, but, in practice, it could use some work.
RELATED: Mixed Signals for Microsoft Surface Tablet Sales
The Surface Pro has a lot of good ideas, writes Gizmodo’s Kyle Wagner, but that’s about it:
While the Surface Pro might not be the future, exactly as it is, it’s absolutely full of ideas and functions that are just off the horizon, or just in from it. A pro-level stylus, touch-based everything, extreme portability, creative new ways to type.
As a tablet, it works okay. But as a laptop, not so much, as CNET explains:
The Surface Pro’s gutsy design successfully reinvents the Windows 8 laptop by cramming an ultrabook experience into the body of a 10-inch tablet. Those wanting to go all-in on the tablet experience won’t regret buying the Surface Pro, but we’re holding out for a future, more polished generation of the device.
Or actually, it’s not a tablet at all, notes Wired‘s Alexandra Chang:
But let me be clear: The Surface Pro is not a tablet. Many people have confusedly asked me if the Surface Pro is even a good tablet. The answer is a clear and resounding, “No.” It’s heavy and thick. It doesn’t invite you to curl up with it on the couch. It’s tough to read with it in bed, and it works much better propped up on a desk than it does resting on a knee or in a lap.
Actually, it’s neither, adds Ars Technica’s Peter Bright.
From the tablet perspective, Surface Pro is not acceptable. It gets too hot for a hand-held device, its battery life is woefully inadequate, and it’s too thick and heavy to be comfortable to hand hold for long sessions…
From a laptop perspective, Surface Pro falls down too. The traditional laptop has a stiff hinge to hold the screen at an angle of your choosing. It is hard to understate the importance of this hinge. I use laptops not just because they’re small and I want something that won’t take lots of space in my home, but because I actually need portable computing. I go to conferences, I stay in hotels, I ride trains, and take planes. My laptop’s hinge means I can comfortably use my laptop with coffee tables, dining tables, the little desks you get in hotel rooms, and wherever else I happen to be.
In other words, it’s “compromised,” as Engadget’s Tim Stevens puts it:
We’re still completely enraptured by the idea of a full-featured device that can properly straddle the disparate domains of lean-forward productivity and lean-back idleness. Sadly, we’re still searching for the perfect device and OS combo that not only manages both tasks, but excels at them. The Surface Pro comes about as close as we’ve yet experienced, but it’s still compromised at both angles of attack.
ABC News’s Joanna Stern gets a little more specific in her run-down of all the trade-offs:
The Surface Pro solves a lot of the issues I had with the Surface RT, but has some new ones. It can now run a lot more programs, but the tablet is much thicker and heavier. It is now a lot faster, but it only lasts five hours on a charge. It has a beautiful, high-resolution screen, but it’s now more expensive.
Or, a little harsher from AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg:
Some users may not mind the price or bulk of the Surface Pro if it frees them from carrying a tablet for some uses and a laptop for others. But like many products that try to be two things at once, the new Surface Windows 8 Pro does neither as well as those designed for one function.
Even TechCrunch’s John Biggs, who liked the gadget, hints at some trade-offs:
Instead it is a hybrid device that works surprisingly well as both a laptop and a tablet. There are obviously trade-offs, but the simplicity of form, the excellent design, and the promising OS make the Surface Pro a real treat – and threat to other manufacturers.
AnandTech’s Anand Lal Shimpi would recommend the tablet, but again, points out that using it as a lap computer has its drawbacks:
Surface Pro is an easier recommendation simply because you don’t have to wait for the Windows ecosystem to mature, you can already run all of your existing PC apps on the platform and it’s competitive with other Ultrabooks in terms of performance. If you’re shopping for an Ultrabook today and want that tablet experience as well, Surface Pro really is the best and only choice on the market. If however you do a lot of typing in your lap and in weird positions, a conventional notebook is better suited for you. The same goes for if you’re considering a tablet for reasons like all-day battery life or having something that’s super thin and light. Surface Pro is probably the best foot forward towards converging those two usage models, but it’s not perfect for everyone yet.
The Verge’s David Pierce wouldn’t mind the compromises, if they weren’t so expensive:
It’s as fast, consistent, and capable as any ultrabook I’ve tested in the last several months, and from a touch and responsiveness standpoint may be the best I’ve used. It has no confusing app incompatibilies, no weird performance issues. Sure, it’s heavier and thicker than the Surface RT and has frustratingly poor battery life, but it’s worth both the tradeoff and the extra expense. If you’re going to buy a Surface, buy the Surface Pro. Period. (And buy the 128GB model.) But if you’re going to buy a $ 900 tablet, get the decked-out iPad with LTE and 128GB of storage, and if you’re going to buy a Windows laptop
But despite all the issues, however, the Surface Pro is important, notes Computer World’s Michael Gartenberg.
Surface Pro is important, as it serves to raise the bar high for Windows 8 devices while also delivering a traditional, legacy PC experience that will be appreciated by many users. While it might not be the device for the masses, it is the device that points the way for Microsoft’s future. It demonstrates the power of integrating hardware and software tightly while declaring that there is room for multiple visions of personal computing in a world increasingly driven by applications and services.
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Design star Nate Berkus says gaining his father's trust and respect as he explained that he was born gay – and it wasn't a choice – changed their relationship and helped him move forward in his life.
Berkus, speaking candidly to his mentor, Oprah Winfrey on her Super Soul Sunday series, opened up in a two-part interview, sharing the emotional moments that came with discussing his sexuality.
"I asked my father: 'Do you trust me? Do you respect me? Do you think I'm smart?' He said, 'Yes,' " Berkus, 41, tells Winfrey.
"I said, 'Why would I choose to make my life more difficult – why would anyone choose to make their life more difficult? Do you think I would choose to have this hair? Do you think that I would choose to be 5'9"? I would have been 6'1". It's the exact same thing. The truth of the matter is being gay is the way I was born. I believe this to the core of my being.' "
Berkus continued: "I said, 'Dad, we are never going to have a real relationship if you don’t believe me.' He said, 'If you say you are born this way, and you didn't have a choice, then we are good.' That was really the moment. Then, I knew if I had this base level of respect that I could move forward."
The Chicago-based interior designer, whose latest book is The Things That Matter, rose to national prominence after he was invited in 2002 to do a makeover on a space for The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he become a frequent and charismatic guest. He was later given his own program, The Nate Berkus Show, which aired from 2010 to 2012.
Berkus also speaks to Oprah about the death of his longtime partner, Fernando Bengoechea, who was swept away from the beach resort where the couple was vacationing during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The show, Oprah & Nate Berkus, The Things That Matter, will air on Feb. 10 and Feb. 17 on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.
NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.
With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.
"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.
City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.
"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.
Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.
"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.
Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.
While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.
Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.
Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.
___
Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed in late morning trading on Wednesday as investors awaited fresh trading incentives after recent rallies took the S&P 500 to five-year highs.
Transportation stocks were among the worst performers, weighed down by a 10-percent drop in CH Robinson Worldwide
The Dow Jones Transportation index <.djt> shed 0.5 percent after closing at a record high Tuesday for a gain of more than 10 percent in 2013.
A 6-percent advance this year so far has lifted the benchmark S&P 500 index to its highest since December 2007, while the Dow <.dji> briefly climbed above 14,000 recently, making it a challenge for investors to continue pushing the equity market upward in the absence of strong catalysts.
"Overall, we believe that the next near-term market dip should provide an opportunity to buy stocks ahead of rallies higher in the coming months, but we are skeptical about the long-term sustainability of these gains due to the maturing age of the bull market," said Ari Wald, equity research analyst at C&Co\PrinceRidge in New York.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was supported by Apple Inc , which rose 1.2 percent to $463.62.
Walt Disney Co
According to Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning, of 301 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters. In terms of revenue, 65.8 percent of companies have topped forecasts.
Looking ahead, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to grow 4.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 11.25 points, or 0.08 percent, at 13,968.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 0.05 points, or 0.00 percent, at 1,511.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 2.69 points, or 0.08 percent, at 3,174.27.
The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2, when legislators sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that could have hurt a fragile U.S. economic recovery.
Ralph Lauren Corp
Time Warner Inc
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian opposition politician was shot dead on Wednesday, sending protesters onto the streets of cities nationwide two years after the uprisings that swept Tunisia's president from power and inflamed the Arab world.
The headquarters of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which rules in a fractious coalition with secularists, was set ablaze after Chokri Belaid, an outspoken critic of the government, was gunned down outside his home in the capital.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who said the identity of the attacker was not known, condemned Belaid's killing as a political assassination and a strike against the "Arab Spring" revolution. Ennahda denied any involvement by the part.
Despite calls for calm from the president, 8,000 protesters, massed outside the Interior Ministry, calling for the fall of the government, and thousands more demonstrated in cities including Mahdia, Sousse, Monastir and Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the revolution, where police fired teargas and warning shots.
"This is a black day in the history of modern Tunisia ... Today we say to the Islamists, 'get out' ... enough is enough," said Souad, a 40-year-old teacher outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis. "Tunisia will sink in the blood if you stay in power."
The small North African state was the first Arab country to oust its leader and hold free elections as uprisings spread around the region, leading to the ousting of the rulers of Egypt, Yemen and Libya and to the civil war in Syria.
But like in Egypt, many who campaigned for freedom from repression under autocratic rulers and better prospects for their future now feel their revolutions have been hijacked by Islamists they accuse of clamping down on personal freedoms, with no sign of new jobs or improvements in infrastructure.
HARDSHIP
Since the uprising, the government has faced a string of protests over economic hardship and Tunisia's future path, with many complaining hardline Salafists were taking over the revolution in the former French colony dominated previously by a secular elite under the dictatorship of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Last year, Salafist groups prevented several concerts and plays from taking place in Tunisian cities, saying they violated Islamic principles, worrying the secular-minded among the 11 million Tunisians, who fear freedom of expression is in danger.
Declining trade with the crisis-hit euro zone has also left Tunisians struggling to achieve the better living standards many had hoped for following Ben Ali's departure. Any further signs of unrest could scare off tourists vital to an industry only just recovering from the revolution.
"More than 4,000 are protesting now, burning tires and throwing stones at the police," Mehdi Horchani, a Sidi Bouzid resident, told Reuters. "There is great anger."
Jobless graduate Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December 2010 in the city, 300 km (180 miles) southwest of Tunis, after police confiscated his unlicensed fruit cart, triggering the "Jasmine Revolution" that forced Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia less than a month later, on January 14, 2011.
President Moncef Marzouki, who last month warned the tension between secularists and Islamists might lead to "civil war", canceled a visit to Egypt scheduled for Thursday and cut short a trip to France, where he addressed the European Parliament.
"We will continue to fight the enemies of the revolution," the secularist leader told European Union lawmakers in Strasbourg.
Belaid, who died in hospital, was a leading member of the opposition Popular Front party. A lawyer and human rights activist, he had been a constant critic of the government, accusing it of being a puppet of the rulers in the small but wealthy Gulf state of Qatar, which Tunisia denies.
"Chokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest," Ziad Lakhader, a leader of the Popular Front, told Reuters. "Doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia."
DENIES INVOLVEMENT
Ennahda Prime Minister Jebali said the killers wanted to "silence his voice".
"The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution," he said.
Party President Rached Ghannouchi denied any involvement in the killing. Belaid said earlier this week that dozens of people close to the government attacked a meeting of his party.
"Is it possible that the ruling party could carry out this assassination when it would disrupt investment and tourism?" Ghannouchi told Reuters.
He blamed those seeking to derail Tunisia's democratic transition after a 2011 uprising. "Tunisia today is in the biggest political stalemate since the revolution. We should be quiet and not fall into a spiral of violence. We need unity more than ever," Ghannouchi said.
He accused secular opponents of stirring up sentiment against his party following Belaid's death. "The result is burning and attacking the headquarters of our party in many areas," he said.
French President Francois Hollande condemned the shooting, saying he was concerned by the rise of violence in Paris's former dominion, where the government says al Qaeda-linked militants linked to those in neighboring countries have been accumulating weapons with the aim of creating an Islamic state.
"This murder deprives Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices," Hollande's office said in a statement.
Riccardo Fabiani, Eurasia analyst on Tunisia, described it as a "major failure for Tunisian politics".
"The question is now what is Ennahda going to do and what are its allies going to do?" he said. "They could be forced to withdraw from the government which would lead to a major crisis in the transition."
Marzouki warned last month that the conflict between Islamists and secularists could lead to civil war and called for a national dialogue that included all political groupings.
Ennahda won 42 percent of seats in a parliamentary election in 2011 and formed a government in coalition with two secular parties, the Congress for the Republic, to which President Marzouki belongs, and Ettakatol.
Marzouki's party threatened on Sunday to withdraw from the government unless it dropped two Islamist ministers.
(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalia‘s Islamist al Shabaab militants, who have used Twitter to announce assassinations and bombings, are back on the microblog service two weeks after their account was suspended.
“[Our new account] will function like the one they closed,” a spokesman who declined to be named said on Tuesday.
Al Shabaab’s previous official Twitter account was suspended around January 24, days after group, which is aligned with al Qaeda, used the social media site to threaten to kill two Kenyan hostages.
The group tweeted a link to a video of the abducted civil servants and threatened to kill them unless the Kenyan government released all Muslim prisoners in its jails.
Twitter rules say threats of violence are forbidden but the site declined at the time to comment on why al Shabaab’s account, which had thousands of followers, had been suspended.
Al Shabaab’s Somali- and Arabic-language Twitter accounts were never closed.
The new account, using the handle @HSMPRESS1, has attracted over 1,100 followers within two days.
Al Shabaab wants to impose its strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, across Somalia. However, it has lost significant territory in the southern and central parts of the country in the face of an offensive by African Union troops.
(Writing By Drazen Jorgic; Editing by James Macharia and Kevin Liffey)
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
02/05/2013 at 11:22 AM ET
Bauer-Griffin
When Kate Winslet married Ned Rocknroll in December, she got a killer new family name — and it turns out the ring that came with it isn’t half-bad either!
While grocery shopping in Hampshire, England, the actress, 37, gave the first glimpse of her engagement ring since Rocknroll, 34, proposed last summer — plus the wedding band she received from him in early December. It appears to be a simple yellow-gold setting with a solitaire stone and a matching band.
It would seem that Winslet has a preference for bold, chunky rings; her previous wedding ring (from her marriage to Sam Mendes) consisted of thick silver-colored bands with inlaid stones.
Tell us: What do you think of Winslet’s rings from Ned Rocknroll?
–Alex Apatoff
PHOTOS: SEE MORE STAR MEMBERS OF THE ‘GINORMOUS CARAT CLUB!’
CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.
The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.
The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.
In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.
That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.
In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.
"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."
The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.
But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.
In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.
The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.
Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.
"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.
Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.
"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.
Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.
"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.
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Online:
Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org
It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq gaining more than 1 percent, as investors sought bargains following the market's worst daily session since November and more companies reported results that beat Wall Street's expectations.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 114.81 points, or 0.83 percent, at 13,994.89. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 13.63 points, or 0.91 percent, at 1,509.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 30.81 points, or 0.98 percent, at 3,161.98.
(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday on the first trip by an Iranian president since the 1979 revolution, underlining a thaw in relations since Egyptians elected an Islamist head of state.
President Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood politician elected in June, kissed Ahmadinejad as he disembarked from his plane at Cairo airport. The leaders walked down a red carpet, Ahmadinejad smiling as he shook hands with waiting dignitaries.
Visiting Cairo to attend an Islamic summit that begins on Wednesday, the president of the Shi'ite Islamist republic is due to meet later on Tuesday with the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, one of the oldest seats of learning in the Sunni world.
Such a visit would have been unthinkable during the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the military-backed autocrat who preserved Egypt's peace treaty with Israel during his 30 years in power and deepened ties between Cairo and the West.
"The political geography of the region will change if Iran and Egypt take a unified position on the Palestinian question," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV station, on the eve of his visit.
He said he wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory which neighbors Egypt to the east and is run by the Islamist movement Hamas. "If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people," Ahmadinejad said.
Analysts doubt that the historic changes that brought Mursi to power in Egypt will result in a full restoration of diplomatic ties between states whose relations were broken off after the Iranian revolution and the conclusion of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
OBSTACLES TO FULL TIES
At the airport the two leaders discussed ways of boosting relations between their countries and resolving the Syrian crisis "without resorting to military intervention", Egyptian state media reported.
Egypt is concerned by Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush an uprising inspired by the revolt that swept Mubarak from power two years ago. Egypt's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population is broadly supportive of the uprising against Assad's Alawite-led administration.
The Mursi administration also wants to safeguard relations with Gulf Arab states that are supporting Cairo's battered state finances and are deeply suspicious of Iran.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr reassured Gulf Arab allies that Egypt would not jeopardize their security.
"The security of the Gulf states is the security of Egypt," he told the official MENA news agency, in response to questions about Cairo's opening to Iran and its impact on other states in the region.
Mursi wants to preserve ties with the United States, the source of $1.3 billion in aid each year to the influential Egyptian military.
His government has established close ties with Hamas, a movement backed by Iran and shunned by the West because of its hostility to Israel, but its priority is addressing Egypt's deep economic problems.
"The restoration of full relations with Iran in this period is difficult, despite the warmth in ties ... because of many problems including the Syrian crisis and Cairo's links with the Gulf states, Israel and the United States," said one former Egyptian diplomat.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of preparatory meetings for the two-day Islamic summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he was optimistic that ties could grow closer.
"We are gradually improving. We have to be a little bit patient. I'm very hopeful about the expansion of the bilateral relationship," he said. Asked where he saw room for closer ties, he said: "Trade and economics."
Ahmadinejad's visit to Egypt follows Mursi's visit to Iran in August for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the 1,000-year-old al-Azhar mosque and university, will meet Ahmadinejad at his offices in mediaeval Islamic Cairo, al-Azhar's media office said.
Salehi, the Iranian foreign Minister, stressed the importance of Muslim unity when he met Sheikh al-Tayeb at al-Azhar last month.
Egypt and Iran have taken opposite courses since the late 1970s. Egypt, under Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and became a close ally of the United States and Europe. Iran from 1979 turned into a center of opposition to Western influence in the Middle East.
Symbolically, Iran named a street in Tehran after the Islamist who led the 1981 assassination of Sadat.
Egypt gave asylum and a state funeral to Iran's exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown by the 1979 Iranian revolution. He is buried in a medieval Cairo mosque alongside his ex-brother-in-law, Egypt's last king, Farouk.
(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir and Alexander Diadosz; Editing by Andrew Roche and Paul Taylor)
Early sales figures from abroad suggest high demand for one of BlackBerry‘s two big comeback phones… in the struggling Canadian company’s strongest market. As the U.S. market remains on standby for sales and even ads, reports from both analysts and suppliers suggest sold-out new models in the United Kingdom, the first and only place the BlackBerry Z10 is available yet. “We believe Carphone Warehouse is seeing widespread sell-outs, while O2, Vodafone, Orange and EE are seeing robust demand,” Jefferies analyst Peter Misek writes. “We estimate sell-in to be at least several hundred thousand units,” he added. It’s not that these sales aren’t deserved — the gadget reviewers loved the touchscreen Z10, for the most part, and the full-keyboard Q10 model that also works with the new BlackBerry 10 OS isn’t on sale anywhere yet. But if any place would like a touchscreen BlackBerry, it would be the UK. Because the British may not have abandoned the smartphone keyboard, but they fell out of love it with a lot more slowly than Americans did — BlackBerry held on to 12 percent of its market share there last year, compared to the 2 percent in the U.S. Unfortunately for the company formerly known as Research in Motion, the earliest signs suggest the Z10 may not change that lack of enthusiasm in the states.
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The lack of stateside BlackBerry enthusiasm starts with American wireless carriers. U.S. customers can’t even buy the Z10 until sometime in March — we’ll be the last country to get it in this initial wave. The delay stems from a Federal Communications Commission approval process that will take weeks. While that might sound like a regulatory technicality, it may also reflect a lack of excitement to get the phone out there. None of the cellphone companies have started taking pre-sale orders, and all but one failed to provide an executive quote playing up the new BlackBerry, as PC Mag’s Sascha Segan pointed out. Sprint won’t even sell the Z10, opting to push out the more traditional Q10 and its signature keyboard when that phone starts to hit carriers in April.
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The Z10 sales delay could work in BlackBerry’s favor in one peculiar way — it should give consumers enough time to forget about the very weird, very desperate product unveiling. Still, two months is also enough time for initial hype to wear off, as other, newer phones get more and more attention — the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy SIV will supposedly come out around March as well. To keep Americans excited, BlackBerry has spent hundreds of millions on an ad campaign in the U.S., reports The Wall Street Journal. But the company’s new Super Bowl ad, which focused on all the things the new BlackBerry can’t do, has techies baffled:
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“It’s just hard to see how you can introduce a new product without covering a single feature,” wrote The Verge’s T.C. Sotteck of the new spot. Lucky for BlackBerry, the ad was a one-time Super Sunday move. Its “Keep Moving” campaign, which focuses on what the phone can do, will debut today. The 60-second preview sampled over at The Verge sounds like it does a better job selling Z10′s features. “[The ad] featured a side-scrolling view of people moving through different variations on work and play: a nod to the company’s enterprise-focused heritage,” Sottech writes.
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
In a stunning archaeological discovery, British scientists announced Monday that DNA results confirm "beyond reasonable doubt" that the human remains found under a parking lot in Leicester, central England, are those of the nation's King Richard III – who was killed two years into his reign, at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. He was 33.
"We're certain now, as certain as you can be of anything in life," said Richard Taylor, the University of Leicester registrar who coordinated the team of archaeologists, historians, genealogists and geneticists who, since the bones were discovered five months ago, set out to identify the remains, reports The New York Times.
Archaeologists say Richard – one of the most reviled monarchs in history, scheming, murderous, and physically deformed, as Shakespeare's play reminds audiences to this day – met his own violent death. As shown in his remains, he received two severe blows to the head, and that's not all, reports CNN.
The lead archeologist on the project, Richard Buckley, said it looks like Richard, who suffered curvature of the spine, was buried with his hands tied.
"The skull was in good condition, although fragile, and was able to give us detailed information," added Jo Appleby, a university lecturer in human bioarchaeology involved in the project.
The DNA tests were conducted with matches from the skeleton – found when archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar – and from Michael Ibsen, a Canadian who is a direct descendent of Richard's sister Anne of York.
Ibsen, a cabinetmaker, told CNN he reacted with "stunned silence" when told the top-secret results on Sunday. "I never thought I'd be a match, and certainly not that it would be so close, but the results look like a carbon copy," he said.
Next up for Richard, once his remains are more closely examined: a reburial, this time in Leicester Cathedral, in a memorial service likely to take place early next year.
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