Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the “Iron Dome” defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh – where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister – and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia’s foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.

In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh’s office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister’s office and pledged: “We will declare victory from here.”

Hamas‘s armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday’s rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

“Well that wasn’t such a big deal,” said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel’s operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel’s right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

RESERVIST CALL-UP

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: “Definitely.”

“We have a plan … it will take time. We need to have patience. It won’t be a day or two,” he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

“Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river,” Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel’s manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

“DE-ESCALATION”

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries,” the statement added.

The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington “wants the same thing as the Israelis want”, an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and “de-escalation”.

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt’s Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes – some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets – and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the “Iron Dome” defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh – where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister – and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia’s foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.

In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh’s office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister’s office and pledged: “We will declare victory from here.”

Hamas‘s armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday’s rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

“Well that wasn’t such a big deal,” said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel’s operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel’s right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

RESERVIST CALL-UP

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: “Definitely.”

“We have a plan … it will take time. We need to have patience. It won’t be a day or two,” he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

“Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river,” Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel’s manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

“DE-ESCALATION”

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries,” the statement added.

The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington “wants the same thing as the Israelis want”, an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and “de-escalation”.

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt’s Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes – some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets – and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

The Time Zynga’s CEO Almost Cried to Save His Failing Business

With the company stock at less than $ 3 per share and having just announced recent lay-offs including the loss of its COO, you might verge on tears too while making a plea to the one man who could save your ailing gaming company. So, when put that way, maybe it’s not so that embarrassing that “tears nearly welled up” in Zynga CEO Mark Pincus‘s eyes in a meeting with Apple director Bill Campbell, as The Wall Street Journal‘s Evelyn M. Rusli reports. Campbell, who has coached CEOs before had been called in by one of Zynga’s investor to (hopefully) help him through this rough patch. During that meeting Pincus was, in Campbell’s words, “discouraged” and “felt terrible about what was happening; he felt the turmoil.” So much so that during this business meeting the CEO of the company almost cried.

RELATED: Zynga’s Founder Mark Pincus: The Ultimate One Percenter

That’s not embarrassing. It is just very sad. 

RELATED: Games in Google+ Should Scare Facebook

But maybe this is karma. Zynga never had a warm and fuzzy culture, with the company’s “Do Evil” motto, a play on Google’s Do No Evil motto. “I would venture to say it is one of the most evil places I’ve run into, from a culture perspective and in its business approach. I’ve tried my best to make sure that friends don’t let friends work at Zynga,” a former senior employee told SF Weekly‘s Peter Jamison. Rusli described it as a “messy and ruthless war,” in a DealBook post. “Employees log long hours, managers relentlessly track progress, and the weak links are demoted or let go,” she wrote. These internal struggles are some of the reasons Pincus went to Campbell in the first place, says Rusli. Though we would never say Pincus deserves to cry. We imagine some hard working game-maker underlings cried over these tough working conditions or when they got let go for not performing—at least on the inside. You know what they say: A tear for a tear. 

RELATED: Zynga’s Stockholders Should Be Very Happy with Facebook Right Now

But hopefully (for Pincus’s pride) that meeting with Campbell got the tears out of the way. Following his coaching, Zynga did some “internal reshuffling” and is trying to reposition the company better to make mobile games. The results of that, says Rusli, “remain to be seen.” The game-maker has a long way to climb back up from the 75 percent value it has lost since going public. 

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

2 freshman TV series canceled at ABC, 1 at CBS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three low-rated new TV series are getting the ax.

ABC is saying goodbye to freshman dramas “Last Resort” and “666 Park Avenue” after 13 episodes each.

“Last Resort” stars Andre Braugher and Scott Speedman as officers of a U.S. nuclear sub targeted by the government. It airs at 8 p.m. EST Thursday.

The other canceled ABC drama, “666 Park Avenue,” is a supernatural tale set starring Terry O’Quinn and Vanessa Williams. It airs at 10 p.m. EST Sunday.

ABC didn’t announce Friday what will replace the two series after they finish their runs.

At CBS, the curtain is down on the sitcom “Partners.” It’s about two pals — one gay, one straight (Michael Urie, David Krumholtz). Starting Monday, it will be replaced for now with comedy reruns at 8:30 p.m. EST.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Irish rally for government action on abortion

DUBLIN (Reuters) – At least 5,000 people marched to the offices of Ireland‘s socially conservative prime minister on Saturday to call for clearer guidelines on abortion following the death of a woman denied a termination.

It was the largest of a wave of protests across Ireland in recent days in response to the death of 31-year old Indian woman Savita Halappanavar who died of septicaemia following a miscarriage 17 weeks into her pregnancy.

The Irish health authority (HSE) has launched an inquiry into the death, which has reopened a decades-long debate over whether the government should legislate to explicitly allow abortion when the health of a mother is at risk.

Activists in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, which has some of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion, say the refusal by doctors to terminate the pregnancy earlier may have contributed to Halappanavar‘s death.

“A vibrant, healthy woman starting her family life has died needlessly … because of the failure of successive governments to deal with this issue,” independent member of parliament Clare Daly told the crowd, which responded with chants of “shame.”

Irish law does not specify exactly when the threat to the life or health of the mother is high enough to justify a termination, leaving doctors to decide. Critics say this means doctors’ personal beliefs can play a role.

Despite a dramatic waning of the influence of the Catholic Church, which dominated politics in Ireland until the 1980s, successive governments have been loath to legislate on an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny, whose ruling Fine Gael party made an election pledge not to introduce new laws allowing abortion, on Friday said he would not be rushed into a decision on the issue.

Halappanavar was admitted to hospital in severe pain on October 21 and asked for a termination after doctors told her the baby would not survive, according to her husband Praveen.

The foetus was surgically removed when its heartbeat stopped days later, but her family believes the delay contributed to the blood poisoning that killed Halappanavar on October 28.

“I just feel outrage,” said Mary Sheehan, a midwife in her 50s, who took part in the march with a sign that read “Vatican Republic killed Savita. “I want the message to out her parents that the Irish people are demanding change.”

The crowd also targeted the government’s junior coalition partner, the Labour Party, which is more socially liberal, for not doing more to force change on the issue, chanting “shame on Labour.”

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Jason Webb)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Ikea ‘regrets’ forced labour use

16 November 2012 Last updated at 11:34 ET

Ikea has said it “deeply regrets” the use of political prisoners as forced labour in communist East Germany by some of its suppliers.

The Swedish furniture giant asked accountants Ernst & Young to look into the matter, dating back 25-30 years.

The study indicates that political and criminal prisoners were involved in manufacturing for Ikea suppliers.

It also said that Ikea representatives at the time knew that political prisoners were possibly used.

In the past Ikea had given contracts to the East German (GDR) government.

Former political prisoners of the Stasi, the feared secret police, said they worked on the furniture, leading to Ikea commissioning the Ernst & Young report in May this year.

Those former prisoners may now expect compensation.

Continue reading the main story

At the press conference, Ikea was keen to say that it deeply regretted what had happened. Its spokespeople emphasised that today better controls are in place to monitor the working conditions of suppliers.

The conditions in the Stasi prisons were horrific. One near Berlin, for example, had a room encased in thick rubber so that no sound or light could get in. It was designed to break people’s mental health. One former prisoner at the press conference said these rooms were used sometimes for people who hadn’t worked hard enough.

Ikea expressed much regret – but it also faced the allegation that if it had concerns at the time, it should have done more to find out. Some former prisoners just wanted the company to recognise what had happened. Others may take legal action.

Rainer Wagner, chairman of the victims’ group UOKG, has previously said that Ikea was just one of many companies that benefited from the use of forced prison labour in the former GDR from the 1960s to 1980s.

The group is campaigning for compensation for many former prisoners, whom they say carry psychological and physical scars from the labour they were forced to do.

“Ikea has taken the lead on this, for which we are very grateful,” Mr Wagner told a news conference in Berlin, where the findings of the report were presented.

Jeanette Skjelmose, Ikea’s sustainability manager, said: “We deeply regret that this could happen. Using political prisoners in production has never been accepted within the Ikea Group.”

She told the BBC that Ikea had met UOKG and had agreed “to financially support their investigation to go further and look at the whereabouts and situation for political prisoners in general in Eastern Germany”.

Reduced risk

The company said that although it took steps to try to ensure that prisoners were not used in production, “it is now clear that these measures were not effective enough”.

Ms Skjelmose added that Ikea now had one of the most rigorous codes of conduct for suppliers and this, together with close co-operation with suppliers and external inspections, effectively reduced the risk of something similar happening again.

She said the company carried out more than 1,000 audits every year to make sure suppliers were complying with its code of conduct.

Ernst & Young looked at 20,000 pages of documents from Ikea’s internal records and 80,000 archived items from German federal and state archives.

They interviewed about 90 people, both current and former Ikea employees and witnesses from the former GDR.

“Ikea had contracts with GDR Enterprises to produce their furniture here,” said Dr Hubertus Knabe, director of the Stasi Prison Memorial, a former prison that has been turned into a museum.

“They didn’t ask who were producing their furniture and under what kind of conditions,” he said prior to the report being published.

“In each case you are responsible [for] with whom you are dealing and if you are dealing with dictatorship, if you don’t have a look under what kind of conditions your furniture is produced, then you are responsible for that.”

BBC News – Business

Read More..

France urges Mali to step up talks with rebels

PARIS (AP) — France‘s president called Thursday for stepped-up talks between Mali’s government and any leaders from its breakaway north “who reject terrorism,” even as African nations geared up for a possible military operation against Islamic extremists there.

President Francois Hollande‘s comments suggested a growing openness to dialogue with the extremists, but he remained committed to supporting the military planning effort.

Northern Mali fell to Islamic extremists in April, after coup leaders toppled the government in Bamako, Mali‘s capital. Fearing that northern Mali could become the latest hotbed of terrorism, France has been a driving force in international efforts to bolster Mali’s army to drive the Islamists from power.

Hollande spoke with interim Mali President Dioncounda Traore by phone on Thursday, partly to detail European efforts to help strengthen Mali’s army.

In recent days, representatives from the most moderate of three al-Qaida-linked groups that control northern Mali have been meeting with Burkina Faso‘s president, appointed as a mediator.

“France reiterates its wish that political dialogue will intensify between Malian authorities and representatives of northern populations who reject terrorism,” Hollande’s office said in a statement. “The acceleration of this dialogue must accompany the progress in African military-planning efforts.”

Earlier this week, the African Union approved a plan that calls for 3,300 African troops to be deployed in order to win back Mali’s north. European countries including France and Germany have expressed a willingness to provide military trainers and logistics support, but have stopped short of committing combat troops.

France, like many European countries, fears that the arid, northern Sahel region of Mali could become a breeding ground for terrorism, where al-Qaida and its allies could plot hostage-takings and attacks in Europe or beyond.

France has millions of people whose families hail from former French colonies in north and west Africa. Authorities have long been concerned that French-born militants could travel abroad for terrorism training and return home later to possibly carry out attacks.

French authorities are already investigating two French citizens who were arrested in Mali and neighboring Niger and are suspected of seeking to join up with the al-Qaida-linked extremists, a judicial official told The Associated Press.

Ibrahim Ouattara, a 24-year-old native of the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers who has dual French and Malian nationality, was arrested inside Mali this month and remains in custody there, the official said.

Separately, a 27-year-old Frenchman was arrested in August in Niger and has since been handed over to authorities in France, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss terrorism cases publicly.

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

France urges Mali to step up talks with rebels

PARIS (AP) — France‘s president called Thursday for stepped-up talks between Mali’s government and any leaders from its breakaway north “who reject terrorism,” even as African nations geared up for a possible military operation against Islamic extremists there.

President Francois Hollande‘s comments suggested a growing openness to dialogue with the extremists, but he remained committed to supporting the military planning effort.

Northern Mali fell to Islamic extremists in April, after coup leaders toppled the government in Bamako, Mali‘s capital. Fearing that northern Mali could become the latest hotbed of terrorism, France has been a driving force in international efforts to bolster Mali’s army to drive the Islamists from power.

Hollande spoke with interim Mali President Dioncounda Traore by phone on Thursday, partly to detail European efforts to help strengthen Mali’s army.

In recent days, representatives from the most moderate of three al-Qaida-linked groups that control northern Mali have been meeting with Burkina Faso‘s president, appointed as a mediator.

“France reiterates its wish that political dialogue will intensify between Malian authorities and representatives of northern populations who reject terrorism,” Hollande’s office said in a statement. “The acceleration of this dialogue must accompany the progress in African military-planning efforts.”

Earlier this week, the African Union approved a plan that calls for 3,300 African troops to be deployed in order to win back Mali’s north. European countries including France and Germany have expressed a willingness to provide military trainers and logistics support, but have stopped short of committing combat troops.

France, like many European countries, fears that the arid, northern Sahel region of Mali could become a breeding ground for terrorism, where al-Qaida and its allies could plot hostage-takings and attacks in Europe or beyond.

France has millions of people whose families hail from former French colonies in north and west Africa. Authorities have long been concerned that French-born militants could travel abroad for terrorism training and return home later to possibly carry out attacks.

French authorities are already investigating two French citizens who were arrested in Mali and neighboring Niger and are suspected of seeking to join up with the al-Qaida-linked extremists, a judicial official told The Associated Press.

Ibrahim Ouattara, a 24-year-old native of the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers who has dual French and Malian nationality, was arrested inside Mali this month and remains in custody there, the official said.

Separately, a 27-year-old Frenchman was arrested in August in Niger and has since been handed over to authorities in France, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss terrorism cases publicly.

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Ruckus Wireless prices IPO at high end of range: market source

(Reuters) – WiFi products maker Ruckus Wireless Inc priced its initial public offering at $ 15 per share, the high end of its expected price range, a market source told Reuters.

The company, which is backed by Google Inc‘s Motorola Mobility LLC and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, raised $ 126 million by selling 8.4 million shares.

Ruckus offered 7 million shares while selling shareholders, including Telus Corp, offered 1.4 million shares.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company, which makes wireless LAN products for both indoor and outdoor use, competes with Meru Networks Inc and Aruba Networks Inc.

The company’s customers include Time Warner Cable Inc, Towerstream Corp, Tikona Digital Networks and Bright House Networks.

Goldman Sachs & Co and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters to the offering.

The company’s shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday under the ticker symbol “RKUS”.

(This story was fixed to correct description of Sequoia Capital to venture capital firm in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Sharanya Hrishikesh and Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Why David Geffen is getting the “American Masters” treatment

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – David Geffen is not a singer. Nor is he a movie star. Nor is he a writer.

Thus he would seem an odd subject for “American Masters,” a series devoted to artists ranging from Willa Cather to Woody Allen.

Yet series creator Susan Lacy claims that the mogul has had a profound impact on American popular culture that equals any of those figures. She pleads her case in “Inventing David Geffen,” which will be broadcast November 20 on PBS. The documentary had its premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

“He seems like a bit of an odd choice,” Lacy admitted to TheWrap. “But I have a degree in American Studies and I learned that the people with the most influence are often the ones behind the scenes.”

In Geffen, Lacy saw a figure like Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer whose lasting legacy was a series of modernist shows he held at his New York galleries that influenced visual arts in this country and brought cubism to the masses.

Some arm twisting must have been required to get the press-averse Geffen to emerge from semi-retirement to reflect on his career in movies, music and Broadway. Lacy said that part of the reason she was able to convince him to participate is that he was a fan of the series and had participated in her documentaries on figures such as Joni Mitchell.

“It wasn’t hard,” she said. “I knew from other people that he thinks my Leonard Bernstein documentary is one of the best documentaries anyone ever made. Mike Nichols told me that he makes everybody who stays with him watch it.”

In addition to Geffen, the documentary features interviews with his friends and colleagues — an A-list rolodex that includes Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Elton John, Neil Young, Clive Davis, Barry Diller, and Irving Azoff. His sphere was huge, Lacy claims because his influence was tectonic.

By championing musicians such as Jackson Browne and Laura Nyro, Geffen put his own imprint on the emerging singer-songwriter movement in the 1970s. Later, Geffen managed to adapt to shifting tastes, by aligning himself with groups like Aerosmith and Guns ‘N Roses and helping to usher in the heavy metal craze. For more than 30 years, his labels – Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DGC Records – represented the high-water mark for musicians, who clamored to get in the door.

“He had an incredible eye for talent,” Lacy said. “These people would have eventually found their way. But he helped them get there. He fixed their teeth and allowed them to write music that’s history.”

Though he made his name in music, Geffen also became a force in the theater and film businesses.

He enriched himself by producing hit musicals like “Cats” and “Dreamgirls,” and branched out into movies with memorable pictures like “Risky Business.” In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks SKG, the studio behind Oscar-winners like “American Beauty” and “Saving Private Ryan.”

“In each decade, he has done something that has affected the culture,” Lacy said. “If I had to boil it down to one thing it would be his genius at business.”

It’s a mastery of deal-making and talent-scouting that has made him a very wealthy man, worth an estimated $ 5.5 billion. It is also a trajectory that Lacy maintains cannot be replicated in a more fractured media landscape, where mega-corporations wield disproportionate influence and are more interested in quarterly earnings than fostering rising stars.

“Even he would say that nobody could do what he did today,” Lacy said. “The times have changed so much. I asked him if he could raise $ 2 billion to start a new studio, and he said ‘absolutely not.’ And record companies, well, we know what happened to them. Behind all the conglomerates and corporations, to find someone with a genuine sensibility like David Geffen‘s would be impossible. He was unique.”

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Tired after cancer treatment? Walking may help

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who have been treated for cancer often have lingering fatigue, but a new analysis of more than three dozen studies suggests regular walking or cycling might help boost their energy.

Patients’ long-lasting tiredness has been blamed both on the cancer itself, including cancer-related pain, and on the effects of treatments such as chemotherapy.

Prior studies point to talk therapy, nutrition counseling and acupuncture as possible ways to ease cancer-related fatigue during or after treatment (see Reuters Health story of October 29, 2012).

But light-to-moderate exercise has the advantage of being something people can do on their own time, for little or no cost.

“We’re not expecting people to go out and be running a mile the next day,” said Fiona Cramp, who worked on the analysis at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

“Some people will be well enough that they’re able to go for a jog or go for a bike ride, and if they can, that’s great. But we would encourage people to start with a low level of activity,” she told Reuters Health – such as a 20-minute walk a couple of times each day.

Cramp and her colleague James Byron-Daniel pooled findings from 38 studies that directly compared more than 2,600 people with cancer-related fatigue who did or didn’t go through an exercise program.

The majority of that research looked at women with breast cancer. The type of exercise program varied, from walking or biking to weight training or yoga. More than half of the studies included multiple exercises or allowed participants to choose their own type of physical activity.

The amount of prescribed exercise ranged from two times per week to daily workouts, lasting anywhere from ten minutes to two hours, depending on the study.

When they combined the results, the researchers found physical activity both during and after cancer treatment was tied to improved energy. In particular, aerobic exercise such as walking and cycling tended to reduce fatigue more than resistance training, they reported this week in the journal The Cochrane Library.

“What we do know is there will be an appreciable difference; the average patient will get a benefit from physical activity,” Cramp said. “The actual amount of reduction in fatigue is going to vary according to the individual.”

For example, the team saw exercise-related benefits for people with breast cancer and prostate cancer, although not for those with the blood and bone marrow cancers leukemia and lymphoma.

“Some of the hematologic patients may not have the reserves to always tolerate the aerobic exercise,” said Carol Enderlin, who has studied fatigue and cancer at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

“They do not always have the oxygen carrying capacity, for instance,” because the disease and treatment affect blood cell counts. For those people, non-aerobic exercise or exercise at a lower dose may be a better option, said Enderlin, who wasn’t part of the research team.

Regular moderate exercise is one non-drug therapy recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Although it might seem intuitive to deal with fatigue by getting lots of rest and avoiding extra activity, that could lead to more loss of muscle mass and fitness, according to Cramp and Byron-Daniel.

One cancer specialist not involved in the new study said that along with reducing fatigue, a combination of moderate exercise and nutrition therapy may help women with breast cancer in particular lower their risk of recurrence. Women being treated for breast cancer tend to gain weight, said Dr. Roanne Segal, from the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada.

“We are now pushing… lifestyle programs which incorporate diet and exercise to get you to either maintain your weight or reduce your weight,” she told Reuters Health.

But the most appropriate exercise program, Segal added, will depend on where patients are with their treatment and the details of their particular cancer.

Cramp emphasized that people will have different goals and abilities when it comes to exercise, and that they should discuss those with their doctor. And although most patients will be able to do some kind of physical activity, fragile bones and anemia might hold others back.

“Cancer patients should of course first talk with their doctor to see if it’s safe to exercise,” Enderlin told Reuters Health. “If it’s felt they are safe to exercise, they should maintain a level of at least comfortable activity in order to keep up their endurance, to keep up their strength (and) to promote function.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/TMV6SC The Cochrane Library, online November 14, 2012.

Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Asian stocks mixed on Europe, US woes; Japan gains

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Friday after data showed Europe slipped back into recession and several big U.S. retailers disappointed investors with weak forecasts.

The European Union‘s statistics agency said Thursday that the combined economy of the 17 countries that use the euro contracted 0.1 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter. Surveys pointing to difficult conditions ahead suggest the recession could deepen.

“Although unsurprising, data in Europe confirmed that the region fell back into recession, an outcome that will do little to ease tensions,” analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in an email commentary.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3 percent to 21,171.28. South Korea‘s Kospi fell 0.5 percent to 1,860.92. Australia‘s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent to 4,339.40. Benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and mainland China fell. Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines rose.

Japan‘s Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 1.8 percent to 8,990.80, rallying for a second straight day on expectations that the opposition Liberal Democratic Party may win elections next month and pursue more aggressive stimulus policies than the current leadership.

LDP leader Shinzo Abe has said he is determined to push for such policies and to find ways to weaken the yen, whose strength against other currencies has hammered exporters.

Stan Shamu, strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, said Abe wants an inflation target of between 2 and 3 percent as a way to cheapen the Japanese currency, perhaps by printing yen or bulking up on purchases of assets like Japanese government bonds. Still, the target might be difficult to achieve, given the economy’s weakness, he said.

“With such a big export economy, the yen has massive significance on how the local economy performs,” Shamu said.

Japan’s exporters, whose fortunes are linked to the yen’s valuation, were buoyed by the prospect of a changing of the guard. Mazda Motor Corp. soared 8.9 percent. Nissan Motor Co. jumped 5.8 percent. Nikon Corp. surged 6.9 percent and Canon Inc. gained 5 percent.

In Australia, Whitehaven Coal fell 1.4 percent after announcing it would scale back some operations due to the decline in global coal prices.

In the U.S., investors were dealt dual blows: worse-than-expected revenue from global retailing giant Wal-Mart and data showing that manufacturing weakened in the Philadelphia and New York regions, reflecting damage from Superstorm Sandy.

Wal-Mart, Ross Stores and Limited Brands, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, also disappointed investors by issuing profit forecasts that fell short of expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.2 percent to 12,542.38. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.2 percent to 1,353.33. The Nasdaq composite index lost 0.4 percent to 2,836.94.

Benchmark oil for December delivery was up 10 cents to $ 85.55 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 87 cents to close at $ 85.45 a barrel in New York on Thursday.

In currencies, the dollar weakened to 81.09 yen from 81.21 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro fell to $ 1.2769 from $ 1.2773.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Egypt recalls envoy to Israel after Gaza strike

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Israel after an Israeli airstrike killed the military commander of Gaza‘s ruling Hamas.

In a statement read on state TV late Wednesday, spokesman Yasser Ali said that President Mohammed Morsi recalled the ambassador and asked the Arab League‘s Secretary General to convene an emergency ministerial meeting in the wake of the Gaza violence.

Morsi also called for an immediate cease fire between Israel and Hamas, an offshoot of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. Israel says it struck in response to rocket attacks from Gaza.

Hours earlier, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group denounced the Israeli airstrike as a “crime that requires a quick Arab and international response to stem these massacres.”

Relations between Israel and Egypt have deteriorated since longtime President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Egypt recalls envoy to Israel after Gaza strike

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Israel after an Israeli airstrike killed the military commander of Gaza‘s ruling Hamas.

In a statement read on state TV late Wednesday, spokesman Yasser Ali said that President Mohammed Morsi recalled the ambassador and asked the Arab League‘s Secretary General to convene an emergency ministerial meeting in the wake of the Gaza violence.

Morsi also called for an immediate cease fire between Israel and Hamas, an offshoot of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. Israel says it struck in response to rocket attacks from Gaza.

Hours earlier, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group denounced the Israeli airstrike as a “crime that requires a quick Arab and international response to stem these massacres.”

Relations between Israel and Egypt have deteriorated since longtime President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

RIM CEO sees new BlackBerry powering growth

WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) – A new line of BlackBerry 10 devices will provide Research In Motion with a framework for growth over the next decade, offering long-term value for unhappy shareholders, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Reuters, Heins said RIM had identified $ 800 million of the $ 1 billion of savings it promised for the financial year ending in early March, and was confident of finding the rest as it gets ready to launch the new phones.

RIM is betting that the new smartphones will help it claw back the market share it has lost to the likes of Apple Inc’s iPhone and devices powered by Google’s Android operating system.

Both consumers and corporate customers have abandoned the BlackBerry in droves, even though the devices offer security features that rivals have been unable to match.

“There’s this high-level security that you cannot walk away from, and then there’s ‘good enough’ security,” Heins said in an interview at RIM’s Waterloo, Ontario, campus, a sprawl of low-rise buildings.

But analysts remain skeptical, especially after the botched 2011 launch of RIM’s PlayBook tablet computer, which the company had hoped would compete with Apple’s wildly popular iPad. The PlayBook had top-of-the-line hardware, but its software was far from complete at the launch and needed multiple updates.

RIM delayed the roll-out of the BlackBerry 10 phones to the first quarter of 2013 so as not to repeat the errors that surrounded the PlayBook launch.

Heins said the delay was the correct decision – the way to ensure the BB10 phones are a high-quality product rather than a rushed one that would not meet customer expectations.

“I think it’s all lining up. Sometimes you get the feeling that the universe is in disarray, and with BlackBerry 10 coming, I see the stars lining up,” Heins said.

SLEEK DEMO MODELS

Sleek demo models of the new phones look much like the high-end smartphones in the market today, and company executives proudly showed off a touch-screen version and a version with the miniature QWERTY keyboard popular with many BlackBerry users.

Users flick a thumb or finger to maneuver from one program to another and can sneak a look at an incoming email while browsing the Internet or using other applications, a multi-tasking ability that RIM says rival devices lack.

Personal and business profiles can be kept separately, something RIM calls BlackBerry Balance. Corporations can erase only their share of the data on a device if they need to do so for security reasons, leaving personal photos, contacts and emails untouched.

The app library available at launch will not match the vast number available on other devices. Heins said RIM had chosen to focus on providing those apps needed in different regional markets. It expects some 100,000 apps to be ready at launch.

The developer community has been broadly enthusiastic about the devices. But financial analysts have mixed views on their likely reception in an ultra-competitive market.

Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette warned last week that BlackBerry 10 is likely to be dead on arrival – with an operating system that gets “a lukewarm response at best,” due to the unfamiliar user interface and a shortage of apps.

SHAREHOLDER VALUE

Heins insisted morale was high at the company, despite 5,000 job cuts and a rapidly sliding market share ahead of the launch of the new phones.

RIM’s share price is down more than 90 percent from a 2008 peak of about $ 148. It has fallen even after Heins, a former Siemens AG executive, took over in January. The shares on Wednesday closed at $ 8.49 on Nasdaq.

“The message to our shareholders is that we understand this is and has been a difficult time for them and for us,” the tall, bespectacled CEO said. “But with the development of the BlackBerry 10 platform we are truly convinced that we will create long-term value for RIM’s shareholders and investors.”

RIM has already given the demo phones to developers and to carriers, and its new BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10, which runs the devices on corporate networks, is in beta testing with 20 key customers — both government agencies and corporates.

Next month, the company will give more than 50 top enterprise customers technical previews of both BES 10 and the devices.

Heins said the feedback he is getting from the customer base “is very encouraging.”

With the erosion of RIM’s base particularly strong in North America, there has been speculation the company could choose to launch the new phones in a region where the phones remain popular. Heins said that would not be the case.

“We cannot launch every carrier and every country on the same day, but what we have defined is a set of waves in the various regions,” he said. “It is going to be a global launch. There isn’t one preferred region. We are managing and planning it as we speak.”

(Reporting by Euan Rocha and Janet Guttsman; Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Judge throws out Justin Bieber paparazzo chase case

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Criminal charges filed against a photographer who pursued teen pop star Justin Bieber at high speeds on a Los Angeles freeway in July were thrown out on Wednesday, striking a blow to California’s crackdown on overly aggressive paparazzi.

Celebrity photographer Paul Raef was the first person to be prosecuted under the state’s 2010 law that criminalizes dangerous driving when taking photos commercially.

Raef was charged in July with two counts of violating the law stemming from a July 6 incident on a freeway in Los Angeles‘ San Fernando Valley.

Dismissing the charges, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Robinson called the state’s anti-paparazzi law “problematic” and “overly inclusive.”

The law “sweeps very widely and would increase the penalties for reckless driving” in unintended cases, Robinson said.

Robinson faulted the law’s vague definition of commercial photography, saying that it could also apply to a photographer who was speeding to reach an arranged photo shoot with Bieber.

Raef could have faced up to a year in prison and $ 3,500 in fines, if convicted. His attorney, Brad Kaiserman, said the law is “about protecting celebrities.”

A message left with Bieber’s publicist requesting comment was not immediately returned.

Raef still faces lesser charges of misdemeanor reckless driving and failing to obey police orders after he allegedly pursued Bieber, 18, at high speeds. He will be tried on those charges at a later date.

Bieber, who was pulled over by police for driving 80 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone, told officers at the time that he was being hounded by paparazzi, and police said they noticed Raef’s car following the “Boyfriend” singer.

About 30 minutes after the traffic stop, Bieber called police to report that Raef continued to follow him. Police later found Raef and other paparazzi together in downtown Los Angeles.

The Canadian singer received a speeding ticket at the time.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Public Health Service Aids Hurricane Sandy Relief

The U.S. Public Health Service has begun its third week assisting with Hurricane Sandy relief in New York City. Rapid Deployment Force 1 (RDF-1) assumed command of the medical special needs shelter at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center late yesterday afternoon from RDF-2. RDF-2 arrived in New York City on Oct. 31 and immediately set up a medical shelter at York College in Queens. Within two days they were moved to Brookdale Hospital to establish a new shelter.

Captain Dan Beck, director of the USPHS Commissioned Corps Readiness and Response Program, discussed the Public Health Service’s response to Hurricane Sandy in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon. The Public Health Service is currently operating two medical special needs shelters, one in Edison, N.J., and the one at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn. The shelters are for storm evacuees with medical needs that cannot be met at a standard shelter. The Brookdale shelter has about 100 evacuees from nursing homes that were in the path of the hurricane.

The U.S. Public Health Service has five Rapid Deployment Forces, Beck said. RDF-3 is at the New Jersey shelter. RDF-2 has just completed its two week deployment in Brooklyn and its role has been assumed by RDF-1. Both shelters have received assistance from other USPHS teams , such as mental health teams and services access teams. Of the 41 total teams in the response program, including the five RDF teams, 14 (three RDFs) have had some or all of their members deployed to this emergency.

Captain Beck noted that the hurricane has required the deployment of a significant portion of the Public Health Service’s RDF personnel and assets. RDF-4 and RDF-5 are being held in reserve, in the event of another disaster. If New York or New Jersey need the USPHS to continue to operate either shelter, “tiger teams” of qualified PHS officers currently on other assignments will be used.

The shelter at Brookdale has had a fairly steady patient population of around 100 since it opened, according to Beck. The majority of the patients are from skilled nursing homes and cannot be discharged to a regular shelter. Some of the LPNs and nursing aides from the homes that were evacuated accompanied their patients and are working alongside the Public Health staff in the shelter, which comprises the sixth and 11th floors of the hospital.

The U.S. Public Health Service has deployed rapid deployment force teams for many recent hurricanes. RDF-3 was stationed in Connecticut after Hurricane Irene. RDF’s also were used with Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Katrina. The role of an RDF in a disaster response, as Captain Beck described it, is to set up and operate a medical special needs shelter, using the cache of supplies from a Federal Medical Station. Patients in such shelters can be nursing home patients, or evacuees who have medical needs such as diabetics or those on home oxygen.

The U.S. Public Health Service is one of seven uniformed services in the United States government. Those consist of the four branches of the military, the Coast Guard, the uniformed members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Public Health Service. The 6,500 members of the commissioned corps of the USPHS are all officers, and the corps uses the ranks of the U.S. Navy. The corps consists of medical professionals in fifteen different areas, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists and dentists. Their normal assignments include work in the Bureau of Prisons, the Indian Health Service, the National Institutes of Health and other venues where the medical needs of disadvantaged citizens can be met.

Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

French CEOs: ‘Help!’

When some German politicians called on French President François Hollande recently to step up the pace of economic reform in France, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble sprang to Hollande’s defense in Berlin, saying it was wrong to call Europe’s second-largest economy the “sick man” of the region.

The heads of France’s biggest companies do not agree. Over the past few weeks, an extraordinary cry of alarm has risen from chief executives who warn that the French economy has gone dangerously off track. In an interview to be published on Nov. 15 in the magazine l’Express, Chief Executive Officer Henri de Castries of financial-services group Axa (CS:FP) warns that France is rapidly losing ground, not only against Germany but against nearly all its European neighbors. “There’s a strong risk that in 2013 and 2014, we will fall behind economies such as Spain, Italy, and Britain,” de Castries says.

On Nov. 5, veteran corporate chieftain Louis Gallois released a government-commissioned report calling for “shock treatment” to restore French competitiveness. And on Oct. 28, a group of 98 CEOs published an open letter to Hollande that said public-sector spending, which at 56 percent of gross domestic product is the highest in Europe, “is no longer supportable.” The letter was signed by the CEOs of virtually every major French company. (The few exceptions included utility Electricité de France, which is government controlled.)

The outcry is unusual for France Inc., which has tended to lobby behind the scenes and avoid public criticism of the government. That’s perhaps not surprising, since many CEOs attended the same schools as the country’s top politicians and often worked in government before going into business. De Castries was a classmate of Hollande’s at the elite Ecole Nationale d’Administration; Serge Weinberg, chairman of pharmaceutical giant Sanofi (SAN:FP) and a signatory of the Oct. 28 letter, used to work for Socialist Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

The problems they’re complaining about aren’t new. Heavy taxes and social charges required to support high government spending have eroded corporate profitability. In the l’Express interview, de Castries says that on average, the government charges incurred by his company for each employee are more than double the employee’s take-home pay. French labor costs are the second-highest in Europe, after Belgium, as companies are burdened with rigid and devilishly complicated work rules. No surprise, then, that operating margins at French companies have shrunk almost 40 percent over the past decade, while those of companies in Germany—where painful labor-market reforms were carried out—have risen about 40 percent.

With Europe mired in economic crisis, the French citizenry is now reaping the bitter results. Companies are shedding workers, pushing unemployment to a 13-year high of more than 10 percent, almost twice Germany’s rate. After three quarters of flat growth, the economy looks to be tipping into recession.

At the same time, the crisis has pushed other European governments—Italy’s, for example—to carry out long-overdue reforms. As Gallois put it in his report, France has become “unhooked” from the broader economic realities. Gallois listed 22 recommendations, including a €30 billion ($ 38 billion) reduction in payroll taxes, loosening of labor laws, and the lifting of a ban on shale-gas exploration.

Hollande’s government didn’t respond to most of the recommendations but said it would enact temporary tax credits for business totaling €20 billion over three years. Corporate bosses are not impressed. A temporary credit will not “structurally diminish the cost of labor” or reduce administrative burdens on business, Michel Landel, CEO of food-service group Sodexo (SW:FP), said in a Nov. 10 radio interview.

Businesses also fret that the process of applying for tax credits will add to already burdensome paperwork. “The first thing they do is to complicate the mechanism for lowering the social charges,” de Castries laments in the l’Express interview.

Businessweek.com — Top News

Read More..

General investigated for emails to Petraeus friend

PERTH, Australia (AP) — In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.

Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.

A senior defense official traveling with Panetta said Allen’s communications were with Jill Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., which is headquarters to the U.S. Central Command. She is not a U.S. government employee.

Kelley is said to have received threatening emails from Broadwell, who is Petraeus’ biographer and who had an extramarital affair with Petraeus that reportedly began after he became CIA director in September 2011.

Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday.

Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.

The senior official, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation, said Panetta believed it was prudent to launch a Pentagon investigation, although the official would not explain the nature of Allen’s problematic communications.

The official said 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen’s communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the official said. He said Allen currently is in Washington.

Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul. He praised Allen as having been instrumental in making progress in the war.

The FBI’s decision to refer the Allen matter to the Pentagon rather than keep it itself, combined with Panetta’s decision to allow Allen to continue as Afghanistan commander without a suspension, suggested strongly that officials viewed whatever happened as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of federal criminal law.

Allen was Deputy Commander of Central Command, based in Tampa, prior to taking over in Afghanistan. He also is a veteran of the Iraq war.

In the meantime, Panetta said, Allen’s nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has been put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined.” He had been expected to take that new post in early 2013, if confirmed by the Senate, as had been widely expected.

Panetta said President Barack Obama was consulted and agreed that Allen’s nomination should be put on hold. Allen was to testify at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Panetta said he asked committee leaders to delay that hearing.

NATO officials had no comment about the delay in Allen’s appointment.

“We have seen Secretary Panetta‘s statement,” NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels. “It is a U.S. investigation.”

Panetta also said he wants the Senate Armed Services Committee to act promptly on Obama’s nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan. That nomination was made several weeks ago. Dunford’s hearing is also scheduled for Thursday.

___

Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

General investigated for emails to Petraeus friend

PERTH, Australia (AP) — In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.

Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.

A senior defense official traveling with Panetta said Allen’s communications were with Jill Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., which is headquarters to the U.S. Central Command. She is not a U.S. government employee.

Kelley is said to have received threatening emails from Broadwell, who is Petraeus’ biographer and who had an extramarital affair with Petraeus that reportedly began after he became CIA director in September 2011.

Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday.

Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.

The senior official, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation, said Panetta believed it was prudent to launch a Pentagon investigation, although the official would not explain the nature of Allen’s problematic communications.

The official said 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen’s communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the official said. He said Allen currently is in Washington.

Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul. He praised Allen as having been instrumental in making progress in the war.

The FBI’s decision to refer the Allen matter to the Pentagon rather than keep it itself, combined with Panetta’s decision to allow Allen to continue as Afghanistan commander without a suspension, suggested strongly that officials viewed whatever happened as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of federal criminal law.

Allen was Deputy Commander of Central Command, based in Tampa, prior to taking over in Afghanistan. He also is a veteran of the Iraq war.

In the meantime, Panetta said, Allen’s nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has been put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined.” He had been expected to take that new post in early 2013, if confirmed by the Senate, as had been widely expected.

Panetta said President Barack Obama was consulted and agreed that Allen’s nomination should be put on hold. Allen was to testify at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Panetta said he asked committee leaders to delay that hearing.

NATO officials had no comment about the delay in Allen’s appointment.

“We have seen Secretary Panetta‘s statement,” NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels. “It is a U.S. investigation.”

Panetta also said he wants the Senate Armed Services Committee to act promptly on Obama’s nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan. That nomination was made several weeks ago. Dunford’s hearing is also scheduled for Thursday.

___

Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

She’s got the voice, now Christina Aguilera looks for hits

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Christina Aguilera has the vocal chops, the look, the strut and millions of new fans thanks to her stint as a judge on TV singing contest “The Voice.”

But can she still sell records?

The singer, who had global hits with “Genie in a Bottle” and the female empowerment ballad “Beautiful” more than 10 years ago, bids to reclaim her status as one of the world’s biggest pop stars with her new album, “Lotus,” released on Tuesday.

Aguilera, 31, says the title and the mixture of dance-pop, ballads and rock-tinged tracks reflect the hopes and disappointments of recent years that saw her 2010 tour for album “Bionic” canceled, a divorce and the box-office flop of her debut feature film, the musical “Burlesque.”

“Lotus represents the unbreakable flower that stands the test of time. No matter the roughest of weather conditions, it remains strong and continues to thrive. (The album) is a nod to my fans who have been here with me the whole journey, and a nod to myself,” she said.

“It is a record of freedom and embracing that…It is very artistic at times, it is very fun at times, it is very free. I think that’s how music and life should be, away from all the negativity,” the four-time Grammy winner said in an appearance at a Billboard Film and TV Music conference in Los Angeles last month.

Aguilera will perform one of the tracks – “Make the World Move” – with her fellow judge Cee Lo Green live on “The Voice” this week for the show’s more than 10 million viewers.

But music industry experts say Aguilera’s popularity on “The Voice” – where her powerhouse performances leave aspiring pop stars in the dust – may not guarantee huge album sales and won’t give the singer a No. 1 hit.

This week also sees new releases from British boy band One Direction and singer Susan Boyle as well as the new “Twilight” film soundtrack.

NOT A BLOCKBUSTER

“I think ‘Lotus’ will certainly debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. But we don’t see it as being a blockbuster out of the gate,” said Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard.

“It is a long road to rebuilding Christina as a brand and as a musician, after the last album didn’t so very well,” said Caulfield. “But it’s not always about first week sales.”

Much like Jennifer Lopez on “American Idol,” Aguilera has seen her star rocket in her 18 months on “The Voice.” Just a few months before the TV show made its debut in spring 2011, Aguilera was arrested for being drunk in public in West Hollywood, and her 2010 album “Bionic” had sold a disappointing 312,000 copies.

“‘The Voice’ has reinvigorated her entire career. A lot of people think she is the star of ‘The Voice’ – the judge you tune in for,” said Lyndsey Parker, managing editor at Yahoo! Music.

Yet the first single – “Your Body” – from the new album failed to make a big impact when it was released in September. It peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and never really caught fire on radio.

“It came and went, which surprised me because I think it is a very strong song. And pretty much everything I have heard on this album is strong. I think it’s a real return to form,” said Parker.

“There are very few people in pop who can sing like her. I do think there is a renewed appreciation for great singing that can be done live and that isn’t just about flash. And Christina is coming back to prove that. I think some people are looking at her to take back her crown,” Parker added.

“Lotus” includes duets with both Green and Aguilera’s fellow “Voice” judge, country singer Blake Shelton. It also features the piano-driven ballad “Blank Page,” which is reminiscent of her 2002 hit “Beautiful” and rock-tinged tracks like “Army of Me.”

Aguilera says she hopes to inspire a new generation of singers who were not around in 1999 for her first big hit “Genie in a Bottle.”

“It’s so exciting for me to show them what I do as an artist,” she said. “I’ve been through a lot over the past few years, going through ‘Burlesque,’ a divorce…having a few setbacks….Stuff happens! This is the business. It’s not going to be all cute and pretty and tied up in a bow.

“All of that combined is in ‘Lotus.’ It embraces the woman that I’ve become, and embracing myself coming full circle as a pop star,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Meningitis outbreak spurs calls to strengthen FDA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. and state health regulators called on Congress on Tuesday to strengthen federal oversight of compounding pharmacies as lawmakers prepared for two days of hearings on a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak linked to a compounded steroid.

But the main federal regulator, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said in a statement to Reuters that it faces legal restrictions in regulating drug compounders such as the New England Compounding Center. The Massachusetts pharmacy was at the center of the outbreak that has infected 438 people, including 32 who have died, in 19 states.

The chief public health officer for Massachusetts also urged immediate congressional action to bolster federal oversight of the little-known, lightly regulated compounding industry, which is primarily overseen by state pharmacy boards.

“It is clear that the patchwork of disparate state regulations is not enough to keep the public safe,” Dr. Lauren Smith, interim commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said in written testimony filed with a U.S. House of Representatives oversight panel.

Lawmakers hope to shed light on why regulators failed to act against NECC despite multiple problems dating back to 1999. They also are focusing on whether new legislation may be needed to grant FDA clear authority to police the drug compounding industry.

“FDA’s authority over compounding pharmacies is more limited by law and needs to be strengthened,” said the federal agency’s statement to Reuters. “We look forward to working with Congress to prevent this from happening again.”

Those sentiments were echoed on Tuesday by a new report from the minority Democratic staff of the oversight and investigations panel.

“Legal authority over compounding has been complicated by court decisions that have cast doubt on FDA’s authority to regulate compounders,” the report said. “Compounders operate in a regulatory gap between state-regulated pharmacies and federally regulated drug manufacturers.”

Smith and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg are scheduled to testify on Wednesday before the panel, the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee for oversight and investigations. A second congressional hearing is scheduled to take place before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday.

The Massachusetts health commissioner, who took office less than three weeks ago, said she is determined to find out why the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy voted to sanction the company in September 2004 but ultimately agreed to a far weaker consent agreement with NECC in January 2006.

“I will not be satisfied until we know the full story behind this decision,” she said in her written testimony.

DEFRAUDING FDA

Smith said the Massachusetts pharmacy board’s executive director and staff attorney learned in April 2006 that executives from a company hired to ensure NECC’s compliance were convicted of federal crimes related to defrauding the FDA.

“However, we found no evidence to indicate that the executive director or staff attorney … provided this crucial information to the board. Nor did they see fit to send inspectors back to NECC in 2006 to determine if they were fulfilling the requirements of the corrective action plan,” Smith said.

But in May 2006, the board affirmed NECC to be in compliance with the consent agreement.

Smith also believes the board would have acted immediately against NECC last July — a month before it produced the final doses of steroid injections linked to the outbreak — if board staff had told board members about a complaint against NECC brought by Colorado authorities.

Earlier this month, the state fired board director James Coffey and board counsel Susan Manning for failing to act on the Colorado complaint.

The Massachusetts pharmacy board was left to oversee NECC’s operations in 2003 when state and FDA officials agreed that its activities did not constitute a manufacturing operation that would need to meet stringent federal standards for safety and efficacy, the FDA acknowledged on Tuesday.

The decision was originally disclosed on Monday by a House Republican staff report.

Where to draw the line between drug manufacturing and drug compounding is a central question for Congress as lawmakers debate the potential need for new legislation to expand the FDA’s authority.

Drug compounding is a little-known practice in which pharmacists traditionally alter or recombine drugs to meet the special needs of specific patients. It is overseen mainly by state authorities who are often ill-equipped for the job.

The activity has evolved in recent decades to include large-scale production that some experts view as drug manufacturing that should be subject to FDA regulation.

Not everyone agrees that the FDA needed new authority to stop New England Compounding Center from operating, however.

Advocacy group Public Citizen earlier this month called on the Obama administration to launch an independent probe of the FDA’s lack of action against NECC. The group alleges that the FDA already has the authority it needs, but that agency officials failed to take steps that could have prevented the current outbreak.

Smith’s written testimony also shows that NECC co-owner Barry Cadden was named to a state task force to study oversight of the compounding pharmacy industry in 2002. The task force met for two years and discussed potential regulatory changes.

But there is no record of formal recommendations and no changes were ever adopted.

(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Dan Grebler)

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..