Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, a Revolutionary in the Study of the Brain, Dies at 103


Fabio Campana/European Pressphoto Agency


Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini in 2007. She discovered chemical tools the body uses to direct cell growth and build nerve networks.







Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, a Nobel Prize-winning neurologist who discovered critical chemical tools that the body uses to direct cell growth and build nerve networks, opening the way for the study of how those processes can go wrong in diseases like dementia and cancer, died on Sunday at her home in Rome. She was 103.




Her death was announced by Mayor Gianni Alemanno of Rome.


“I don’t use these words easily, but her work revolutionized the study of neural development, from how we think about it to how we intervene,” said Dr. Gerald D. Fishbach, a neuroscientist and professor emeritus at Columbia.


Scientists had virtually no idea how embryo cells built a latticework of intricate connections to other cells when Dr. Levi-Montalcini began studying chicken embryos in the bedroom of her house in Turin, Italy, during World War II. After years of obsessive study, much of it at Washington University in St. Louis with Dr. Viktor Hamburger, she found a protein that, when released by cells, attracted nerve growth from nearby developing cells.


In the early 1950s, she and Dr. Stanley Cohen, a biochemist also at Washington University, isolated and described the chemical, known as nerve growth factor — and in the process altered the study of cell growth and development. Scientists soon realized that the protein gave them a new way to study and understand disorders of neural growth, like cancer, or of degeneration, like Alzheimer’s disease, and to potentially develop therapies.


In the years after the discovery, Dr. Levi-Montalcini, Dr. Cohen and others described a large family of such growth-promoting agents, each of which worked to regulate the growth of specific cells. One, called epidermal growth factor and discovered by Dr. Cohen, plays a central role in breast cancer; in part by studying its behavior, scientists developed drugs to combat the abnormal growth.


In 1986, Dr. Levi-Montalcini and Dr. Cohen shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work.


Dr. Cohen, now an emeritus professor at Vanderbilt University, said Dr. Levi-Montalcini possessed a rare combination of intuition and passion, as well as biological knowledge. “She had this feeling for what was happening biologically,” he said. “She was an intuitive observer, and she saw that something was making these nerve connections grow and was determined to find out what it was.”


One of four children, Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin on April 22, 1909, to Adamo Levi, an engineer, and Adele Montalcini, a painter, both Italian Jews who traced their roots to the Roman Empire. In keeping with the Victorian customs of the time, Mr. Levi discouraged his three daughters from entering college, fearing that it would interfere with their lives as wives and mothers.


It was not a future that Rita wanted. She had decided to become a doctor and told her father so. “He listened, looking at me with that serious and penetrating gaze of his that caused me such trepidation,” she wrote in her autobiography, “In Praise of Imperfection” (1988). He also agreed to support her.


She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Turin medical school in 1936. Two years later, Mussolini issued a manifesto barring non-Aryan Italians from having professional careers. She began her research anyway, setting up a small laboratory in her home to study chick embryos, inspired by the work of Dr. Hamburger, a prominent researcher in St. Louis who also worked with the embryos.


During World War II, the family fled Turin for the countryside, and in 1943 the invasion by Germany forced them to Florence. The family returned at the close of the war, in 1945, and Dr. Hamburger soon invited Dr. Levi-Montalcini to work for a year in his lab at Washington University.


She stayed on, becoming an associate professor in 1956 and a full professor in 1958. In 1962, she helped establish the Institute of Cell Biology in Rome and became its first director. She retired from Washington University in 1977, becoming a guest professor and splitting her time between Rome and St. Louis.


Italy honored her in 2001 by making her a senator for life.


An elegant presence, confident and passionate, she was a sought-after speaker until late in life. “At 100, I have a mind that is superior — thanks to experience — than when I was 20,” she said in 2009.


She never married and had no children. In addition to her autobiography, she was the author or co-author of dozens of research studies and received numerous professional awards, including the National Medal of Science.


“It is imperfection — not perfection — that is the end result of the program written into that formidably complex engine that is the human brain,” Dr. Levi-Montalcini wrote in her autobiography, “and of the influences exerted upon us by the environment and whoever takes care of us during the long years of our physical, psychological and intellectual development.”


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 30, 2012

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the year Mussolini issued a manifesto barring non-Aryan Italians from having professional careers. It was 1938, not 1936.



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Kim Kardashian: From Divorce Drama to Baby Mama in 5 Clicks





Follow her odyssey from her messy split with Kris Humphries to her great expectation with Kanye West








Credit: Prahl/Winslow/Splash News Online



Updated: Monday Dec 31, 2012 | 11:45 AM EST




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FDA approves 1st new tuberculosis drug in 40 years


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.


The agency approved J&J's pill, Sirturo, for use with older drugs to fight a hard-to-treat strain of tuberculosis that has not responded to other medications. However, the agency cautioned that the drug carries risks of potentially deadly heart problems and should be prescribed carefully by doctors.


Roughly one-third of the world's population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. The disease is rare in the U.S., but kills about 1.4 million people a year worldwide. Of those, about 150,000 succumb to the increasingly common drug-resistant forms of the disease. About 60 percent of all cases are concentrated in China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe.


Sirturo, known chemically as bedaquiline, is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. That's a form of the disease that cannot be treated with at least two of the four primary antibiotics used for tuberculosis.


The standard drugs used to fight the disease were developed in the 1950s and 1960s.


"The antibiotics used to treat it have been around for at least 40 years and so the bacterium has become more and more resistant to what we have," said Chrispin Kambili, global medical affairs leader for J&J's Janssen division.


The drug carries a boxed warning indicating that it can interfere with the heart's electrical activity, potentially leading to fatal heart rhythms.


"Sirturo provides much-needed treatment for patients who have don't have other therapeutic options available," said Edward Cox, director of the FDA's antibacterial drugs office. "However, because the drug also carries some significant risks, doctors should make sure they use it appropriately and only in patients who don't have other treatment options."


Nine patients taking Sirturo died in company testing compared with two patients taking a placebo. Five of the deaths in the Sirturo group seemed to be related to tuberculosis, but no explanation was apparent for the remaining four.


Despite the deaths, the FDA approved the drug under its accelerated approval program, which allows the agency to clear innovative drugs based on promising preliminary results.


Last week, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized that approach, noting the drug's outstanding safety issues.


"The fact that bedaquiline is part of a new class of drug means that an increased level of scrutiny should be required for its approval," the group states. "But the FDA had not yet answered concerns related to unexplained increases in toxicity and death in patients getting the drug."


The FDA said it approved the drug based on two mid-stage studies enrolling 440 patients taking Sirturo. Both studies were designed to measure how long it takes patients to be free of tuberculosis.


Results from the first trial showed most patients taking Sirturo plus older drugs were cured after 83 days, compared with 125 days for those taking a placebo plus older drugs. The second study showed most Sirturo patients were cured after 57 days.


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Market rallies on emerging "fiscal cliff" deal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped on Monday after a deal emerged from negotiations in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff," sources familiar with the talks said.


Equities surged in a thinly traded session, on track to break a five-day streak of losses, as the sources said a majority of Senate Republicans were expected to support the legislation.


If adopted by Congress and President Barack Obama, the plan would sidestep a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that many feared could push the economy into recession.


The deal, which would still need to be approved by both the Senate and House of Representatives, would raise tax rates for individuals with annual income over $400,000 a year but permanently extend middle class tax cuts.


"The market just wants this resolved and especially resolved in a way where the impact is pushed as far down the road as possible," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont. "That is exactly what the market wants and I'm hoping that is what they deliver."


President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak on the fiscal cliff at 1:30 p.m.


"Right now the market is up 70 points, an hour from now we could be down 70 points, it all depends on what these people say," Mendelsohn said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 50.38 points, or 0.39 percent, at 12,988.49 after trimming some of its gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 9.73 points, or 0.69 percent, at 1,412.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 31.37 points, or 1.06 percent, at 2,991.68.


The S&P 500 is now up 12.4 percent for the year, compared with a flat performance in 2011. The Dow is about 6.4 percent higher and the Nasdaq is up 15 percent.


Gains in Apple Inc , the most valuable U.S. company, helped lift the Nasdaq. The stock rose 3.2 percent to $525.71, lifting the S&P information technology sector <.gspt> up 1 percent. For the year so far, Apple is up 29.1 percent.


The Dow was lifted by Caterpillar Inc and General Electric , both of which rallied more than 1 percent.


While a deal on the cliff is not yet official, investors may be ready to take on more risk next year in hopes of a greater reward.


Bank stocks rose after a New York Times report that U.S. regulators are nearing a $10 billion settlement with several banks that would end the government's efforts to hold lenders responsible for faulty foreclosure practices.


Bank of America Corp was up 0.8 percent at $11.46.


Financial stocks were among the strongest of the year, with the S&P financial index surging 24.5 percent for 2012 so far. Bank of America is the top-performing Dow component, with its stock price more than doubling over the past 12 months.


(Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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IHT Rendezvous: Trending in Asia in 2012: Our Top 10

Our most popular Asia posts of 2012, by the number of readers and/or the number of comments:

China Calls for ‘No Delay’ on Gun Controls in U.S. This recent post on China’s reaction to the Newtown shooting tragedy brought nearly 200 comments, some enraged at China’s hypocrisy, some enraged at the American gun lobby and a few saying that China, despite any hypocrisy, wasn’t wrong.

China Demands Apology From U.S. This post, about Chen Guangcheng, the 40-year-old human rights lawyer taken in by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing before leaving for New York, also generated nearly 200 comments.

The Best Countries to Be a Woman — and the Worst. After the recent events in India surrounding the rape and murder of a woman, the debate that ensued in the discussion of this post — whether India really was as bad for women as the poll respondents (experts in gender relations) said; worse than Saudi Arabia and China — takes on a new light.

From Milk to Peas, a Chinese Food-Safety Mess. Many of the 125 comments on this post came from outraged readers in China complaining about their government’s failure to safeguard their lives and their children’s.

Watch Your Language! (In China, They Really Do). Before China shut out most content from The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and Rendezvous, China was home to the third-largest number of Rendezvous readers, outranked only by the United States and Canada. Ironic.

East Asia’s Sea Disputes: Scar Tissue from War Wounds. This analysis, in August, about Chinese activists being arrested by the Japanese Coast Guard for planting flags on one of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, was just one of many seeking to explain a host of Asian territorial disputes, and the rising stakes.

A Telling Language Lesson in Hong Kong. When Leung Chun-ying, the new chief executive of Hong Kong, made his inaugural speech in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, it generated nearly 100 comments that showed the depth of the divide that still separates Hong Kong and the mainland. (As did this post, one of Rendezvous’s first, in January.)

It was not all geopolitics. This post on basketball phenom Jeremy Lin, Did ESPN Cross the Line Into Racism? received more than 100 comments, many touching on the role and view of Asian-Americans in the United States and globally. But our first post on Mr. Lin was back on Feb. 5: Asian-American Christian Basketball Star.

And this story generated nearly 100,000 page views: Finally, Outrage in China Against Bear Farming. Similarly, this story received more than 100 comments: The Slaughter of Elephants in Vietnam Is Nearly Complete.

‘Gangnam Style’ Becomes Most-Watched Video Ever on YouTube — 805 Million Views. Of course, the video by the K-pop star Psy has since surpassed the billion-view mark. But the comments, and those on an earlier post, showed the ambivalence many Asians felt toward the image of Asian men they said Psy was portraying.

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Who Was the Final Best Dressed Star of 2012?







Style News Now





12/29/2012 at 12:00 PM ET











Katie Holmes
Bill Davila/Startraks


It’s been a year of ups and downs for Katie Holmes, but she’s going out on a high note. Her effortlessly chic outfit earned top honors this week, making her the final best dressed star of 2012.


The stellar look consisted of a fuchsia Narciso Rodriguez dress and champagne bow-accented heels, topped off with an unexpected olive-green military-inspired trench worn to The Late Show with David Letterman in N.Y.C. The winning ensemble was a bright departure for the star, who tends to opt for more subdued colors. And the risk paid off because more than 6,000 PEOPLE.com readers gave it their style seal of approval.


PHOTOS: SEE THE TOP 10 BEST DRESSED STARS ON PEOPLE.COM THIS WEEK!


In a close second is Jessica Chastain (who had the number-one spot last week) in a leopard-print mini and a black coat, plus tights and lace-up boots, which she slipped into after her Broadway show in N.Y.C.


Click here to check out who else ranked in the top 10 and vote for your favorite looks of the week. Tell us: Does Holmes deserve the top spot? If not, who does?


–Jennifer Cress




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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money


NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.


Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.


Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.


"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."


"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."


The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.


Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.


"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.


She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.


A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.


"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.


Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.


One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.


Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.


___


Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.


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With hours remaining, hopes rise for stopgap fiscal deal


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hopes rose on Sunday that lawmakers could reach at least a limited deal to prevent the still-recovering economy from tumbling off a "fiscal cliff" at the New Year, sending the country into another recession.


Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell worked on a compromise over the weekend to stop automatic tax hikes for most Americans on January 1. Any agreement needs to be rushed through both chambers of Congress before midnight on Monday.


The main focus of negotiations was tax hikes on the wealthy, an increase sought by President Barack Obama but opposed by Republicans, particularly fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives.


"Well, there are certainly no breakthroughs yet between Senator McConnell and Senator Reid, but there's a real possibility of a deal," Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said on the ABC program "This Week."


"I don't disagree with Chuck," said Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona.


Another Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, conceded that an agreement would end up raising income taxes on the wealthy, thus sparing the rest of the country from the looming income tax hikes.


"President Obama is going to get tax rate increases. The president won," Graham tweeted, echoing earlier comments he made on "Fox News Sunday." He told the show that the chances of a bipartisan deal before the New Year's deadline were "exceedingly good."


Obama has alternatively offered Republicans a deal to increase income taxes for households earning over $250,000 a year, and over $400,000 a year.


Any deal on taxes in the Senate might meet resistance in the House from conservative Republicans.


If the politicians cannot agree, then tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts will begin on January 1. That would take $600 billion out of the economy, push unemployment up and curb federal spending.


"I think people don't want to go over the cliff if we can avoid it," said Graham, a conservative.


Putting pressure on Congress, Obama made a rare appearance on a Sunday television talk show where he warned of the fallout on financial markets if the two sides did not reach an agreement.


"If people start seeing that on January 1st this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have, had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them ... then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets," Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press."


He said he would avoid tax increases for most Americans, even if the talks fall apart.


"And if all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1st, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4th and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," Obama said.


The Senate - where the Democrats hold sway - was scheduled to hold a rare Sunday session beginning at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), but it was not clear whether the chamber would have fiscal-cliff legislation to act upon.


The Republican-controlled House also returns on Sunday and can vote on any deal in the evening if need be.


(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, Fred Barbash and Richard Cowan. Writing by Alistair Bell)



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Apple still said to account for 87% of North American tablet traffic as Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 gain






Apple’s (AAPL) share of the global tablet market is in decline now that low-cost Android slates are proliferating, but the iPad still appears to be the most used tablet by a huge margin. Ad firm Chitika regularly monitors tablet traffic in the United States and Canada and in its latest report, Apple’s iPad was responsible for almost 90% of all tablet traffic across the company’s massive network.


[More from BGR: Samsung looks to address its biggest weakness in 2013]






Using a sample of tens of millions of impressions served to tablets between December 8th and December 14th this year, Chitika determined that various iPad models collectively accounted for 87% of tablet traffic in North America. That figure is down a point from the prior month but still represents a commanding lead in the space.


[More from BGR: New purported BlackBerry Z10 specs emerge: 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera]


The next closest device line, Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle Fire tablet family, had a 4.25% share of tablet traffic during that period, up from 3.57% in November. Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy tablets made up 2.65% of traffic, up from 2.36%, and Google’s (GOOG) Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets combined to account for 1.06% of tablet traffic in early December.


“Despite these gains by some of the bigger players in the tablet marketplace, there has been a negligible impact to Apple’s dominant usage share,” Chitika wrote in a post on its blog.


This article was originally published by BGR


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Just Kidding! Shakira's Baby News Is a Prank




Celebrity Baby Blog





12/28/2012 at 11:00 AM ET



Gerard Pique Pulls Prank Over Shakira's Baby News
XPosure


Hold off on the congratulations — at least for now.


News and social media sites lit up on Thursday after Shakira‘s boyfriend, FC Barcelona soccer star Gerard Piqué, posted a message on Twitter, announcing the arrival of their baby boy.


“”Our son has been born!” he wrote in Spanish. “We’re very happy! Thank you all for your messages!”


But the baby buzz was short-lived after the father-to-be’s fan following started calling out the coincidental timing of it all — Dec. 28 is Dia de Los Santos Inocentes in Spain and parts of Latin America, a holiday much like April Fools’ Day.


And all bets on baby’s birth were officially off when Piqué confessed to his prank with a follow-up message Friday morning.



“He has a name! His name is Innocence!” he Tweeted. “Happy Day of the Innocents to everyone!”


– Aaron Parsley and Anya Leon


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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money


NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.


Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.


Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.


"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."


"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."


The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.


Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.


"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.


She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.


A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.


"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.


Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.


One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.


Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.


___


Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.


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Wall Street heads for longest losing streak in three months

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track for a fifth straight decline, as President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders were set to make a last-ditch attempt to steer the country away from severe fiscal austerity next year.


Obama and lawmakers from both political parties will meet at the White House on Friday afternoon for talks in an effort to agree on a solution before a New Year's deadline to keep large tax hikes and spending cuts from taking effect. Economists say that combination of automatic higher taxes and lower government spending - known as the "fiscal cliff" - could push the U.S. economy into a recession.


Trading was volatile and stocks rebounded from their session lows after unconfirmed reports that President Obama was about to offer a new plan to Republicans.


But investors' pessimism about achieving anything more than a stop-gap deal by the deadline was reflected in the benchmark S&P 500's drop of 1.3 percent so far this week. The broad index was on pace for its worst weekly performance since mid-November.


A five-day decline would be the S&P 500's longest losing streak in three months.


"There's a pretty good chance that we won't have something in hand by year-end," said Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist at UBS, in New York. "It should be pretty obvious that that is now the majority case."


Golub, however, said investors were still counting on a deal that would avoid most of the tax hikes and spending cuts next year even if it does come after the deadline.


"It is widely believed that we're going to get a deal," he said. "We are not going to go over the cliff to the extent that we have a huge economic contraction."


With time running short, members of Congress may attempt to pass a retroactive fix to neutralize tax increases and spending cuts soon after the automatic fiscal policies come into effect on January 1.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 65.65 points, or 0.50 percent, to 13,030.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dropped 6.03 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,412.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> slipped 7.29 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,978.62.


"It doesn't matter which side wins, but at this point, nobody wants to play a game where there aren't rules," said Joe Costigan, director of equity research at Bryn Mawr Trust, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.


"So everybody is talking about what the prospects are for changes in the rules. But at the end of the day, nothing is happening."


Highlighting Wall Street's sensitivity to developments in Washington, stocks tumbled slightly more than 1 percent on Thursday after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned that a deal was unlikely before the deadline. But late in the day, the three major U.S. stock indexes rebounded and ended down just 0.1 percent after the U.S. House of Representatives said it would hold an unusual Sunday session to work on a fiscal solution.


With many investors away for the holiday-shortened week, volume is expected to remain light and that could exacerbate the stock market's swings.


Positive economic data failed to alter the market's downtrend.


The National Association of Realtors said contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose in November to their highest level in 2-1/2 years, while a report from the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago showed business activity in the U.S. Midwest expanded in December.


Barnes & Noble Inc shares rose 6.2 percent to $15.24 after the top U.S. bookstore chain said British publisher Pearson Plc had agreed to make a strategic investment in its Nook Media subsidiary. But Barnes & Noble also said its Nook business will not meet its previous projection for fiscal year 2013.


Shares of magicJack VocalTec Ltd jumped 8.5 percent to $17.67 after the company, which provides VoIP or voice over Internet protocol services, forecast more than $39 million in GAAP revenue and over 70 cents per share in operating income for the fourth quarter. The company also said it has appointed Gerald Vento as president and CEO, effective January 1.


The U.S.-listed shares of Canadian drugmaker Aeterna Zentaris Inc surged 16.1 percent to $2.52 after the company said it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on a special protocol assessment by the FDA for a Phase 3 registration trial in endometrial cancer with AEZS-108 treatment.


(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)



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Japan Might Revise Apology on Wartime Sex Slaves





TOKYO — A top official hinted on Thursday that Japan’s newly installed conservative government might seek to revise a two-decade-old official apology to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, a move that would most likely outrage South Korea and possibly other former victims of Japanese militarism.




Speaking a day after the new cabinet was named, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who serves as the government’s top spokesman, refused to say clearly whether the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, would uphold the 1993 apology, which was issued by the chief cabinet secretary at the time, Yohei Kono.


Mr. Suga said at a news conference, however, that it would be “desirable for experts and historians to study” the statement, which acknowledged the Imperial Army’s involvement in forcing thousands of Asian and Dutch women to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.


Mr. Suga seemed to keep his comments intentionally vague, adding only that the matter “should not be made into a political or diplomatic issue.” He also said the Abe government would uphold a broader apology, issued in 1995 to observe the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, to all victims of Japan’s colonialism and aggression.


The sex slaves issue remains highly emotional in South Korea, a former Japanese colony. On Thursday, the South Korean Foreign Ministry responded to Mr. Suga’s comments by calling on Japan not to forget its militaristic past.


The Kono Statement has long been a sore point for Japanese rightists, who deny either that the women had been coerced or that the military had a hand in forcing them to become what many Japanese euphemistically call “comfort women.” These critics include Mr. Abe, an outspoken nationalist who has repeatedly called for revising the statement, most recently during an internal Liberal Democratic Party election in September.


The issue does not resonate broadly, however, among the general public, which would rather avoid confrontation with other Asian countries. During the national parliamentary elections this month that swept his Liberal Democrats back into power, Mr. Abe avoided talking about the matter, apparently so as not to be seen as too far to the right of mainstream voters.


His position has also caused concern in Washington, where the United States government has urged Japan and South Korea, its two closest Asian allies, to increase cooperation against security threats like North Korea.


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Ex-President George H.W. Bush Moved to Intensive Care After 'Setbacks'















12/27/2012 at 01:00 PM EST







George H. W. Bush in 2009


Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty


After suffering "a series of setbacks," including a "persistent fever," 88-year-old former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital, his spokesman says.

Originally admitted to Methodist Hospital on Nov. 23 with a stubborn cough related to bronchitis, Bush came down with the fever that prompted doctors to put him on a liquids-only diet this week, says spokesman Jim McGrath.

"He remains in guarded condition," says McGrath in a statement. "Doctors at Methodist continue to be cautiously optimistic about the current course of treatment. The President is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family."

Among those visiting the 41st president on Christmas were his wife Barbara, son Neil and a grandson. Since his hospitalization, he also has received visits from sons George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, the ex-governor of Florida, the Associated Press reports.

"He appreciates all the good wishes coming his way," his close aide, Jean Becker, says in an auto-reply to emails Thursday. "He would ask you to please put the harps away. He plans on staying put."

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money


NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.


Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.


Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.


"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."


"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."


The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.


Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.


"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.


She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.


A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.


"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.


Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.


One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.


Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.


___


Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.


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Dow falls more than 1 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell for a fourth day in a row on Thursday and a measure of investor anxiety hit its highest in five months after the top Senate Democrat warned a deal to avoid fiscal austerity measures may not be reached by the December 31 deadline.


The comments by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just days before the hefty tax hikes and spending cuts go into effect pushed stocks down. The S&P 500 has lost 2.7 percent over the past four days, its worst such run in over a month.


A four-day drop would also mark the S&P 500's longest losing streak in three months as Wall Street wakes up to the possibility that a deal may not be reached until next year.


The CBOE VIX volatility index <.vix>, a measure of investor fear, jumped above 20 for the first time since July, climbing around 4 percent in another sign of growing concern. Investors fear the so-called fiscal cliff could push the economy into recession next year.


The VIX's "recent spike seems to suggest that market participants are bracing for a rather significant uptick in market volatility in early 2013," said Frederic Ruffy, options strategist at WhatsTrading.com.


Stocks in the materials and the financial sectors, which are more vulnerable to the economy's performance, took the brunt of the selling. Shares in Bank of America fell 2 percent to $11.29, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold fell 1.6 percent to $33.38.


Reid criticized Republicans for refusing to go along with any tax increases as part of a compromise solution with Democrats. Referring to the fiscal cliff, he said: "It looks like where we're headed."


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 106.63 points, or 0.81 percent, at 13,007.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 12.33 points, or 0.87 percent, at 1,407.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 27.48 points, or 0.92 percent, at 2,962.68.


Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading in Chicago, said his clients have been delaying trading due to uncertainty about the fiscal cliff, making the year-end period quieter than usual.


"With the added drama in Washington, we have got even more people sidelined," he said. "No one knows how this turns out or how the markets are going to react to it."


President Barack Obama arrived back in Washington from Hawaii to restart stalled negotiations with Congress. House Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders were to hold a conference call with Republican lawmakers. The expectation was that lawmakers would be told to get back to Washington quickly if the Senate passed a bill.


Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the first of a series of measures that should push back the date when the U.S. government will hit its legal borrowing authority - a limit known as the debt ceiling - by about two months.


Economic data seemed to confirm worries about the impact of the fiscal cliff on the economy.


The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes in December fell to 65.1 as the budget crisis dented growing optimism about the economy. The gauge fell more than expected from 71.5 in November.


However, the job market continues to mend. Initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 last week and the four-week moving average fell to the lowest since March 2008.


But recent signs that the economy is improving have taken a back seat to the political uncertainty.


"The U.S. equity market has not yet adequately responded to a genuinely improving macro backdrop, and is probably held back by uncertainties surrounding the resolution of the 'fiscal cliff'," said Goldman Sachs in a research note.


Marvell Technology Group fell 4.2 percent to $7.09 after it said it would seek to overturn a jury's finding of patent infringement. The stock had fallen more than 10 percent in the previous session after a jury found the company infringed patents held by Carnegie Mellon University and ordered the chipmaker to pay $1.17 billion in damages.


(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Additional reporting by Doris Frankel; Editing by Jan Paschal and Kenneth Barry)



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United Arab Emirates Arrests Suspects in Terror Plots





DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) — Security forces in the United Arab Emirates have arrested members of a cell made up of militants from Saudi Arabia and the emirates who were planning to carry out attacks in both countries and in other states, the official Emirates News Agency said on Wednesday.




The federation of seven emirates, a major oil exporter and an ally of the United States, has had no attacks by Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. But Islamist sentiment has risen in recent years, and Dubai, a business and tourism hub that attracts many Westerners, could make an attractive target for militants, analysts say.


The suspects had acquired materials and equipment for use in what the news agency called terrorist operations.


“The security authorities in the U.A.E., in coordination with the related security parties in Saudi Arabia, announced the arrest of an organized cell from the deviant group that was planning to carry out actions against national security of both countries and some brotherly states,” the agency said, without elaborating.


The phrase “deviant group” is often used by the authorities in Saudi Arabia to describe Al Qaeda.


In August, the Saudi authorities arrested a group of militants in Riyadh — mostly Yemeni nationals — suspected of having links to Al Qaeda. Thousands of people believed to be militants have been arrested since dozens were killed in terrorist attacks between 2003 and 2006 on Saudi residential compounds and offices for foreign workers and on government facilities.


The United States has poured aid into Yemen to stem the threat of attacks from the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and to try to prevent any spillover of violence into Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter.


In 2010, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninusla, formed with the merger of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi branches, said it was behind a plot to send two parcel bombs to the United States. The bombs were intercepted in Britain and Dubai.


Though the emirates have escaped much of the upheaval that has shaken the Arab world, the authorities there have moved swiftly to stem any sign of political dissent, detaining more than 60 Islamists this year over suspected threats to state security and links to foreign groups.


Those detainees, who belong to an Islamist group called Al-Islah, have confessed to setting up a secret organization with an armed force whose aim was to take power and establish an Islamic state, the local news media reported in September. The group denied the accusations.


Many of the detained Islamists are from the more religiously conservative northern emirates like Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah, which produced one of the Sept. 11 hijackers.


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Harley Pasternak Blogs: The 5 Best Bodies of 2012






Celebrity Blog










12/26/2012 at 01:45 PM EST







Harley Pasternak


Courtesy Harley Pasternak


In 2012 we re-elected our president, fell in love with Honey Boo Boo and danced "Gangnam Style."

For me, 2012 was an incredibly rewarding year. First off, I'm healthy. Without health, nothing else matters. Second, as a fitness trainer I've been blessed with a profession that helps other people become healthier, feel better and look better. Below are five of my celebrity clients I was very proud to help this year. Their dedication to healthy eating and regular exercise sets a great example for all of their fans – including me.

1. Jessica Simpson's Post-Baby Weight Loss
Perhaps the biggest story this year in Hollywood bodies was Jessica's amazing post-baby transformation. With the help of Weight Watchers' point-based nutrition plan and three to four sessions a week with me, Jessica shed all her baby weight (and then some!).

During our workouts, we focused on training one upper body exercise, one lower body exercise and one core exercise to maximize calorie burn and muscle tone. I also got Jessica to wear a pedometer and go walking. Jessica even gave her whole Weight Watchers group pedometers to inspire them all to walk over 10,000 steps a day. (Of course, now that she's expecting baby No. 2, Jessica will modify her exercise and nutrition appropriately.)

2. Jordana Brewster
The Brazilian beauty and her husband Andrew have been longtime clients. As she appeared on both the big screen (The Fast and the Furious) and small screen (Dallas), Jordana was a busy – and fit! – lady.

Aside from our three workouts a week, she truly perfected her healthy eating lifestyle with three meals and two snacks a day. From my 5-factor oatmeal frittatas for breakfast, to my shrimp quesadillas for lunch and delicious stir-fries for dinner, Jordana was on top of her diet. She also started to use her blender this year, following some of my new Body Reset Diet recipes.

3. Maria Menounos
Fresh off of a grueling Dancing with the Stars season, the Extra host and WWE wrestler was riddled with injuries and had zero free time to exercise. So, we focused on her diet and non-gym physical activity to sculpt her incredible body into top form for the cover of Men's Health magazine.

Maria blended smoothies (from the Body Reset Diet) for breakfasts and lunches, cooked a variety of healthy salads, stir-fries and seafood for dinners, and ate her favorite Greek yogurt-covered snack bars between meals. It all paid off as she blew everyone away with her flawless photos.

4. The Year of the Kardashians
The Kardashian sisters continued to wow in 2012. Occasionally, I get the chance to kick their butts in the gym. I make sure to focus on their posterior muscle groups – the back, triceps, glutes and hamstrings – using strengthening moves like dumbbell deadlifts, superman and lying triceps extensions. These exercises improve posture and protect against injury.

I also got the girls and their age-defying mother, Kris Jenner, to get friendly with their blenders. The girls try to make at least one of their daily meals a delicious Body Reset Diet smoothie.

5. Megan Fox's Post-Baby Body

Harley Pasternak Blogs: The 5 Best Bodies of 2012| Celebrity Blog, Harley Pasternak, Jessica Simpson, Jordana Brewster, Khloe Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Megan Fox, Actor Class

Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green

John Shearer / Invision / AP

As 2012 was the year of many celeb post-baby transformations (including three of my clients), it's only fitting that the top two stories are new mommy bounce-backs. Largely due to the fact that Megan stayed so active and fit during her pregnancy, only three weeks after delivering baby Noah, she was red carpet ready and as stunning as ever. Megan and her husband, Brian Austin Green (also a client) made eating well and working out with me a top priority.

I hope 2012 was an incredibly happy, healthy and successful year for all of you. And may next year bring you even more of the same.

Tweet me your New Year's resolutions @harleypasternak

Check back every Wednesday for more insider tips from celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak on Hollywood's hottest bodies – and learn how to get one yourself! Plus: follow Harley on Twitter at @harleypasternak

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy


CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.


Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.


But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.


"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.


Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.


Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)


Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.


Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.


"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."


The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."


In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:


—Previous violent or aggressive behavior


—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse


—Guns in the home


—Use of drugs or alcohol


—Brain damage from a head injury


Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.


Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.


Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.


According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.


Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.


Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.


And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.


All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.


Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.


Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.


Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.


___


Online:


American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org


___


AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner


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Retailers lead Wall Street lower, "cliff" still a concern

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Wednesday, dragged lower by retail stocks after a report showed consumers were less enthusiastic about the holiday shopping season than last year.


Many investors said concerns about the "fiscal cliff" kept shoppers away from stores, suggesting markets may struggle to make any ground until next year.


Holiday-related sales rose 0.7 percent from October 28 through December 24, compared with a 2 percent increase last year, according to data from MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. The Morgan Stanley retail index <.mvr> skidded 1.8 percent while the SPDR S&P Retail Trust slipped 1.5 percent to 61.24.


"With the 'fiscal cliff' hanging over our heads, it was hard to convince people to shop, and now it's hard to convince investors that there's any reason to buy going into year-end," said Rick Fier, director of trading at Conifer Securities in New York.


President Barack Obama is due back in Washington early Thursday for a final effort to negotiate a deal with Congress to bridge a series of tax increases and government spending cuts set to begin next week, the so-called "fiscal cliff" many economists worry could push the economy into recession if it takes effect.


Coach Inc fell 6 percent to $54.08 as the biggest decliner on the S&P 500, followed by Ralph Lauren Corp , off 4 percent to $144.99. Online retailer Amazon.com fell 3.1 percent to $250.52. Gamestop Corp , Urban Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch were also among the S&P's biggest decliners.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 34.16 points, or 0.26 percent, at 13,104.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 6.57 points, or 0.46 percent, at 1,420.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 18.82 points, or 0.62 percent, at 2,993.78.


Volume was light, with only 2.17 billion shares having traded at midday on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT. Many senior traders were still on vacation during this holiday-shortened week and major European markets were closed for the day.


Still, Wednesday marked the third day of losses for the S&P 500 in its worst three-day decline since mid-November.


A Republican plan that failed to gain traction last week triggered the S&P 500's recent drop, highlighting the market's sensitivity to headlines centered on the budget talks.


During the last five trading days of the year and the first two of next year, it's possible for a "Santa rally" to occur. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has averaged a gain of 1.8 percent during that period and risen 79 percent of the time, according to data from PrinceRidge.


"While it's unlikely there could be a budget deal at any time, no one wants to get in front of that trade," said Conifer's Fier, who helps oversee about $12 billion in assets. "Investors can easily make up for any gains when there's more action in 2013."


The benchmark S&P 500 Index is up 12.8 percent for the year, and has recouped nearly all of the losses after the U.S. election, when the "fiscal cliff" concerns moved to the forefront. This is the best yearly gain for the S&P 500 since 2010.


Data showed U.S. single-family home prices rose in October, reinforcing the view that the domestic real estate market is improving, as the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.7 percent in October on a seasonally adjusted basis.


In the energy sector, China's Sinopec Group and ConocoPhillips will research potentially vast reserves of shale gas in southwestern China over the next two years, state news agency Xinhua reported. Conoco's stock fell 0.8 percent to $57.99.


An outage at one of Amazon.com Inc's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc's streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas Day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday. Netflix rose 0.8 percent to $90.97.


(Editing by Dan Grebler)



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Chinese Driver Runs Down Students





HONG KONG — A man angry over a court ruling in the case of his daughter’s murder used his car to run down a group of  high school students in northern China, causing 13 to be hospitalized with injuries, the local government and the state news media reported on Tuesday. It was the second major attack on students in China in less than two weeks.




The man, Yin Tiejun, 48, ran down 23 students at the school in Fengning County, in Hebei Province, during their lunch break on Monday, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. He then tried to set fire to his car by igniting a container of diesel fuel. Xinhua quoted the police as saying he was upset that the court had not sentenced all of his daughter’s killers to death. Mr. Yin was detained on charges of endangering public safety.  


One of the hospitalized students suffered a serious head injury, while another had two broken ankles and a third had a concussion, the local government said.


The Beijing Times said the driver made no apparent effort to slow down before hitting the students and did not stop until he hit a taxi soon after.


As with the previous attack, in which a man with a meat cleaver injured 23 students in adjacent Henan Province on Dec. 14, the episode received limited attention from the state news media. The Chinese media have given heavy coverage instead to the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., and the shootings on Monday of four firefighters, two of whom died, in Webster, N.Y.


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Jessica Simpson Confirms: I'm Pregnant Again!




Celebrity Baby Blog





12/25/2012 at 12:15 PM ET



Jessica Simpson Expecting Second Child
Courtesy Jessica Simpson; Jamie McCarthy/WireImage


It’s official: the stork is once again headed to Jessica Simpson‘s house!


Just seven months after the singer and actress delivered daughter Maxwell Drew, Simpson and fiancé Eric Johnson are expecting their second child, the couple announced via Twitter Christmas Day.


Amid growing pregnancy speculation online, the Fashion Star mentor, 32, shared a photo of her baby girl wearing holiday pajamas and smiling in the sand atop the words, “BIG SIS.”


“Merry Christmas from my family to yours!” Simpson writes.

Recently, Simpson has been spotted around Los Angeles in loose-fitting clothing. She also appeared, in a figure-hugging black dress, at best friend Cacee Cobb‘s recent wedding to Donald Faison, where she served as maid of honor.
Simpson also had been touting her recent post-pregnancy weight loss of 60 lbs. after starring in commercials for Weight Watchers and working out with celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak.


– Andrea Billups and Sarah Michaud


Read More..

Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy


CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.


Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.


But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.


"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.


Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.


Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)


Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.


Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.


"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."


The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."


In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:


—Previous violent or aggressive behavior


—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse


—Guns in the home


—Use of drugs or alcohol


—Brain damage from a head injury


Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.


Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.


Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.


According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.


Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.


Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.


And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.


All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.


Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.


Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.


Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.


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Online:


American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org


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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner


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Yen on defensive on U.S. fiscal worry, helps Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - Uncertainty over whether U.S. lawmakers will strike a deal by an end-of-year deadline to avert a severe fiscal retrenchment undermined the yen and bolstered Japanese shares on Tuesday in low volume, with many participants away on Christmas holiday.


The dollar rose to a 20-month high of 84.965 yen early on Tuesday in Asia, as Japanese markets caught up with global investors who had reacted overnight to incoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's weekend comments that raised the pressure on the Bank of Japan.


During a meeting on Tuesday with officials from Japan's major business lobby, Keidanren, Abe reiterated calls on the BOJ to conduct bold monetary easing to beat deflation by setting an inflation target of 2 percent.


The head of Abe's coalition partner said on Tuesday the coalition party and Abe had agreed to set a 2 percent inflation target and compile a large stimulus budget to help the economy return to growth and overcome deflation.


The yen has come under pressure as a result of expectations that the BOJ will be compelled to adopt more drastic monetary stimulus measures next year.


The dollar was expected to stay firm this week as investors repatriate dollars, and as the U.S. fiscal impasse is likely to continue to sap investor appetite for risky assets and raise the dollar's safe-haven appeal.


"The dollar is seen relatively well bid, with all focus on the fiscal cliff," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.


"Negotiations may be carried over the weekend, but markets still expect a deal to be struck by December 31. It is unthinkable that the U.S. will risk driving its economic growth sharply lower by not agreeing to avoid it."


U.S. lawmakers and President Barack Obama were on Christmas holiday and talks were unlikely to resume until later in the week.


House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner failed to gain support for a tax plan at the end of last week, raising fears that the United States may face the "fiscal cliff" of some $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to start on January 1.


Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> resumed trading after a three-day weekend with a 1.1 percent gain, recapturing the key 10,000 mark it ceded on Friday after Boehner's failure sparked a broad market sell-off and the Tokyo benchmark closed down 1 percent. The Nikkei was likely to be supported as long as the yen stayed weak. <.t/>


"Ongoing optimism about the weak yen is lifting hopes that exporters' earnings will be better than expected," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.


Analysts say a near-term correction may be possible as the index is now in "overbought" territory after gaining 16.2 percent over the last six weeks, hitting a nine-month high last Friday. Its 14-day relative strength index was at 72.34, above the 70 level that signals an overbought condition.


MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> nudged up 0.1 percent, driven higher by surging Shanghai shares, as most Asian bourses were shut for Christmas.


The Shanghai Composite Index <.ssec> soared over 2 percent to five-month highs as investors bought property stocks on mounting optimism about the sector. Taiwan shares <.twii> jumped 1.3 percent on gains in technology and financial shares.



Asset performance in 2012: http://link.reuters.com/muc46s


2012 commodities returns: http://link.reuters.com/faz36s


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>


U.S. HOLDS 2013 KEY


Goro Ohwada, president and CEO at Japan-based fund of hedge funds Aino Investment Corp, said investors were likely to focus on economic fundamentals and the United States for cues on investment direction in 2013.


"There is a feeling that an investment strategy based on economic fundamentals may finally work next year, with asset prices more closely reflecting fair value. The problem is, we don't know yet which asset is a better bet than others," Ohwada said, adding that oil and gold appeared to be near their highs.


Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory, said commodities and energy prices will likely move in tight ranges in 2013, with investors eyeing political events, including the U.S. fiscal cliff outlook, Italian parliamentary election set for February 24-25, and Germany's elections in September.


"The macroeconomic policies taken this year around the world to support growth are expected to result in a moderate recovery in 2013 to reduce an excessive downside risk to prices. This will likely keep commodities, gold and energy prices near their highs," Niimura said.


(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Daniel Magnowski)



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In Aiding Quake-Battered Haiti, Lofty Hopes and Hard Truths


Damon Winter/The New York Times


Vegetable vendors worked recently amid rubble in Port-au-Prince, three years after an earthquake devastated the city. More Photos »







PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A few days after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, Reginald Boulos opened the gates of his destroyed car dealership to some 14,000 displaced people who settled on the expansive property. Seven months later, eager to rebuild his business, he paid the families $400 each to leave Camp Boulos and return to their devastated neighborhoods.




At the time, Dr. Boulos, a physician and business magnate, was much maligned for what was portrayed as bribing the homeless to participate in their own eviction. But eventually, desperate to rid public plazas of squalid camps, the Haitian government and the international authorities adopted his approach themselves: “return cash grants” have become the primary resettlement tool.


This represents a marked deflation of the lofty ambitions that followed the disaster, when the world aspired not only to repair Haiti but to remake it completely. The new pragmatism signals an acknowledgment that despite billions of dollars spent — and billions more allocated for Haiti but unspent — rebuilding has barely begun and 357,785 Haitians still languish in 496 tent camps.


“When you look at things, you say, ‘Hell, almost three years later, where is the reconstruction?’ ” said Michèle Pierre-Louis, a former prime minister of Haiti. “If you ask what went right and what went wrong, the answer is, most everything went wrong. There needs to be some accountability for all that money.”


An analysis of all that money — at least $7.5 billion disbursed so far — helps explain why such a seeming bounty is not more palpable here in the eviscerated capital city, where the world’s chief accomplishment is to have finally cleared away most of the rubble.


More than half of the money has gone to relief aid, which saves lives and alleviates misery but carries high costs and leaves no permanent footprint — tents shred; emergency food and water gets consumed; short-term jobs expire; transitional shelters, clinics and schools are not built to last.


Of the rest, only a portion went to earthquake reconstruction strictly defined. Instead, much of the so-called recovery aid was devoted to costly current programs, like highway building and H.I.V. prevention, and to new projects far outside the disaster zone, like an industrial park in the north and a teaching hospital in the central plateau.


Meanwhile, just a sliver of the total disbursement — $215 million — has been allocated to the most obvious and pressing need: safe, permanent housing. By comparison, an estimated minimum of $1.2 billion has been eaten up by short-term solutions — the tent camps, temporary shelters and cash grants that pay a year’s rent.


“Housing is difficult and messy, and donors have shied away from it,” said Josef Leitmann, manager of the Haiti Reconstruction Fund.


Benefactors and Dysfunction


Beyond the numbers, the sluggish reconstruction has been the latest dispiriting chapter in the chronically dysfunctional relationship between Haiti and its benefactors.


After the earthquake, with good will and money pouring into Haiti, international officials were determined to use the disaster as a catalyst for transforming not only the intractably poor country but the world’s ineffectual strategies for helping it.


Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, invoked the “build back better” mantra he had imported from his similar role in South Asia after the tsunami. And Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton cautioned donors to stop working around the government and instead work with it, and to stop financing “a scattered array of well-meaning projects” rather than making “deeper, long-term investments.”


But an examination by The New York Times shows that such post-disaster idealism came to be undercut by the enormousness of the task, the weakness and volatility of the Haitian government, the continuation of aid business as usual and the limited effectiveness of the now-defunct recovery commission that had Mr. Clinton as co-chairman.


André Paultre and Damon Winter contributed reporting.



This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 24, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the date of the earthquake. It was on Jan. 12, 2010, not Jan. 10.



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