Walmart Moves Up Black Friday

Walmart is kicking off Black Friday shopping earlier than ever this year, opening stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

“In addition to offering amazing low prices on the season’s top gifts, Walmart is taking the historic step to ensure wishlist items like the Apple iPad2 are available for customers during a special one-hour event on Thanksgiving,” the world’s largest retailer said in a statement today.

“We know it’s frustrating for customers to shop on Black Friday and not get the items they want,” said Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising and marketing officer, Walmart U.S. “This year, for the first time ever, customers that shop during Walmart’s one-hour event will be guaranteed to have three of the most popular items under their tree at a great low price.”

Other retailers will also be opening earlier, including Sears at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, moved up from 4 a.m. on Black Friday last year. Kmart will be open Thanksgiving Day 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., then it will close and reopen 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Macy’s, Kohl’s and Best Buy open at midnight; Toys R Us hasn’t announced its plans. Advice on how to snag the best deals.

To help convince folks to head out to the store after dinner, Walmart said it will guarantee that customers who are inside the store and in line between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. can get these deals:

Apple iPad ®2 16GB with Wi-Fi – $ 399 plus get a $ 75 Walmart Gift Card

Emerson ® 32 720p LCD TV – $ 148

LG ® Blu-ray™ Player – $ 38

“If any of these items happen to sell out before 11 p.m. local time, Walmart will offer a Guarantee Card for the item which must be paid for by midnight and registered online. The product will then be shipped to the store where it was purchased for the customer to pick up before Christmas,” the retailer said.

A few of the top items available in store, while supplies last, include:

8 p.m. on November 22: Gifts for the Entire Family – Toys, Gaming, Home and Apparel

Xbox 360 ® 4GB + SkyLanders ™ Bundle – $ 149

Wii ™ Console- $ 89

More than 100 video games priced at $ 10, $ 15 or $ 25 each

Top Toys of the Season: Leappad ® 1.0 Learning Tablet ($ 65) and Furby ® ($ 45)

Razor ® Accelerator 12-Volt Electric Scooter – $ 79

Fisher Price Power Wheels ® Jeep ® Wrangler 6-Volt Ride Ons (Hot Wheels ® and Barbie ®) – $ 89 each

Licensed Boys’ and Girls’ 2-Piece Sleep Set – $ 4.50 each

Mens and Ladies Denim – $ 9.50 each

Home appliances such as a Crock Pot ® 6-Quart Slow Cooker and Mr. Coffee ® Programmable 12-Cup Coffee Maker – $ 9.44 each

Shark ® Steam Pocket Mop and Ninja ® Pulse Blender – $ 39 each

Fashion Dolls such as Barbie ®, Bratz ™ and Disney ® Princess – $ 5 each

Hundreds of DVD and Blu-ray movies such as Brave, The Amazing Spiderman, Hunger Game ranging from $ 1.96 to $ 9.96 each

Better Homes and Gardens ® 700-Thread Count Sheet Set – $ 19.96

48″ Air-Powered Hockey Table – $ 29.86

14′ Trampoline with Enclosure and Bonus Flash Light Zone – $ 159

10 p.m. on November 22: The BIG Event – Brand Name Electronics

Vizio ® 60″ 720p LED Smart TV with built in Wi-Fi – $ 688

Samsung ® 43″ 720p 600Hz Class Plasma HDTV – $ 378

HP ® 15.6″ Laptop with 4GB and 320GB hard drive – $ 279

Nikon ® D3000 Digital Camera with Lens Kit – $ 449

Samsung ® Smart ST195 Digital Camera – $ 99

Beats by Dr. Dre ® Headphones – $ 179.95

Nook ® Color ™ 8GB Tablet – $ 99

Virgin Mobile ® 3G/4G Hotspot – $ 39.88

5 a.m. on Nov. 23: Caffeine Not Needed – Great Savings on Gifts from Jewelry to Tires

Sharp ® 70″ 1080p 120Hz HDTV – $ 1,798

Acer ® 13.3″ Ultrabook ™ with 4GB and 320GB solid state drive – $ 499

$ 100 Walmart gift card with the purchase of select smartphones such as the Samsung ® Galaxy S III, Droid RAZR M by Motorola ® and HTC ® One X

Goodyear Tires ranging from $ 59 – $ 99 each

Forever Bride 1/3 -Carat T.W. Diamond Ring in 10K Gold – $ 198

Stanley ® 6-Drawer Rolling Tool Cabinet with 85-Piece Mechanic Tool Set – $ 99

Singer ® Sew Mate 5400 60-Stitch Sewing Machine – $ 99.97

5? Pre-Lit Harrison Christmas Tree – $ 20

Better Homes and Gardens Deluxe Recliner – $ 199

Black Friday Specials & More Online:

Samsung 50″ Class LED 1080p 60Hz HDTV – $ 698

Ematic 7″ Tablet Android 4.0 1GHz, 4GB – $ 49

Dsi XL Ultimate Bundle – $ 129

Razor A Kick Scooter, Multiple Colors – $ 25

Also Read
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

“Lincoln” Reviews: Is Steven Spielberg’s biopic Oscar-worthy?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Lincoln,” with a cast of acting titans like Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones, arrives in theaters Friday with many predicting big things come Oscar night. But does Steven Spielberg‘s biopic of the Great Emancipator live up to the early hype?

Based on initial reviews, it seems like Spielberg and company have delivered. Critics are raving about Day-Lewis’ performance and crediting the film with taking a historical figure who is cloaked in myth and making him relatable and sympathetically human. Instead of uncoiling a birth-through-death chronology of Father Abraham, “Lincoln” narrows its gaze to a few key months in 1865 when the president was trying to simultaneously end the Civil War and pass an amendment abolishing slavery.

The film, which will expand nationally next week after opening in limited release this weekend, scored a bullish 92 percent “fresh” rating on critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

In TheWrap, Alonso Duralde lavished praise on the film and its literate script from Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner for finding the man behind the monument. His one bone of contention was not with the film itself but with its gauzy ad campaign.

“The dreadful trailer makes ‘Lincoln‘ look like an awful collection of Spielbergian excesses, including swelling John Williams moments (admittedly, there are one or two) and Janusz Kaminski’s honey-baked lighting (OK, granted, it appears, but not too often), not to mention Tommy Lee Jones‘ terrible wig (which actually winds up being organic in his memorable turn as Thaddeus Stevens),” Duralde writes. “Don’t let the marketing campaign keep you from seeing one of the best American movies this year, and Spielberg’s finest work in decades.”

Perhaps no critical enthusiasm could match that of A.O. Scott. In a glowing review in The New York Times, Scott sounds the trumpets for Spielberg’s epic, urging parents to bundle their children into the local multiplex to see history unfurl across the screen.

“Some of the ambition of ‘Lincoln‘ seems to be to answer the omissions and distortions of the cinematic past, represented by great films like D. W. Griffith‘s ‘Birth of a Nation,’ which glorified the violent disenfranchisement of African-Americans as a heroic second founding, and ‘Gone With the Wind,’ with its romantic view of the old South,” Scott writes. “To paraphrase what Woodrow Wilson said of Griffith, Mr. Spielberg writes history with lightning.”

For Kenneth Turan, the greatness of the film lies in its understatedness. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, he lauded Spielberg for abandoning his more bombastic impulses to focus on the interior life of an American president.

“There is nothing bravura or overly emotional about Spielberg’s direction here, but the impeccable filmmaking is no less impressive for being quiet and to the point,” Turan writes. “The director delivers selfless, pulled-back satisfactions: he’s there in service of the script and the acting, to enhance the spoken word rather than burnish his reputation.”

It’s an “A,” declares Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, who hails the film for getting its hands dirty while depicting the sausage-making of politics.

“The Lincoln we see here is that rare movie creature, a heroic thinker,” he writes. “He has the serpentine intellect of a master lawyer, infused with a poet’s passion. ‘Lincoln’ brilliantly dramatizes the delicacy of politics, along with the raw brutality of it.”

In New York magazine, David Edelstein savored the film, but admitted that a few moments could have gone down more smoothly. In particular, he said the film’s initial scenes suffered from musty dialogue and some of the political wrangling it depicted was difficult to follow. Ultimately, however, he credited the picture with finding a fresh take on a president whose legacy has been dissected and debated for generations.

“By the time the movie ends, you don’t feel as if you know Lincoln – few, in his own time, claimed to know him,” Edelstein writes. “But you feel as if you know what it was like to be in his presence. And so an icon (it’s a measure of how promiscuously that word is thrown around that it seems inadequate for one of history’s truly iconic figures) has become a man – and, startlingly, within reach.”

There were a few critics, of course, who were not ready to endorse “Lincoln.” In the Newark Star-Ledger, Stephen Whitty slammed the movie for choking on its own self-serious and mocked it for too many scenes of intense debates held by men with copious facial hair.

“So if you’ve been sitting around wondering, ‘Gee, when is Spielberg ever going to make another ‘Amistad?’ ’ here’s your answer,” Whitty writes.

Apparently, Whitty would prefer another “Jaws.”

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

California teen steps into rattlesnake nest, survives

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A teenage California girl searching for a cell phone signal to call her mother in a rural area outside San Diego inadvertently stepped into a nest of rattlesnakes and was bitten six times, but survived.

The 16-year-old, Vera Oliphant, spent four days in the intensive care unit of Sharp Grossmont Hospital, and doctors gave her 24 vials of antivenom after she was bitten by an adult rattlesnake and five young rattlers outside her uncle’s home.

“I was trying to find a signal to call my mom and text my boyfriend,” Oliphant said on Friday, a day after she was released from the hospital following the October 27 incident.

“I didn’t see them until I already stepped on their nest and I felt them biting me.”

“My vision started to go right away. First it looked like the snakes blended into the leaves and then I started seeing black spots around the edges and I started blacking out.”

She returned to her uncle’s home in Jamul, outside San Diego, and he immediately packed her into the car and rushed her to the emergency room, she said.

On the way, she talked to her mom and her boyfriend, who told her to stay calm so the venom wouldn’t spread.

“I told my mom and my boyfriend I love them in case I don’t get to see them again,” she said.

Doctors there administered 24 vials of antivenom to quash the dangerous toxins, according to a hospital spokesman. Snakebites usually aren’t fatal, although a handful of people die in the United States each year from snake bites, including bites from rattlesnakes.

Oliphant has recovered and will be returning to classes at Chaparral High School in El Cajon on Monday. She said the next time she can’t get a signal, she will handle it differently.

“Be careful where you step,” she said. “If you don’t need to, just wait until you are somewhere that you can call people.”

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Wall Street Week Ahead: “Fiscal cliff” blues may lead to correction

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street‘s post-election sell-off may gather steam in the coming weeks as worries mount about the looming “fiscal cliff” and technical weakness suggests a possible correction ahead.

The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 <.SPX> closed below its 200-day moving average – a measure of the market’s long-term trend – on Thursday for the first time in five months, and ended below it again on Friday. More than half of the Dow components are trading below key technical levels.

“I don’t think you have to panic here, but I think you really want to be looking for the market to move lower for the next couple of months,” said Frank Gretz, market analyst and technician for Wellington Shields & Co., a brokerage in New York. “I think the next rally is the rally you want to sell.”

At the heart of the market’s worry is whether U.S. leaders can come to agreement on some $ 600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases that are due to kick in early next year. Some fear dramatic cutbacks could send the U.S. economy into another recession.

The prospect of higher tax rates in 2013 is driving investors to sell shares as they seek to decrease the tax impact from their positions this year and next.

“You would have thought the fiscal cliff scenarios would have been already mulled over and priced in, but they weren’t. It’s almost like the market has ADD and can only focus on one thing at a time,” said Natalie Trunow, chief investment officer of equities at Calvert Investment Management in Bethesda, Maryland, whose firm manages about $ 13 billion in assets.

The S&P 500 fell 2.4 percent for the week, its worst weekly percentage drop since June. The index is now down 6.4 percent from its intraday high for the year of 1,474.51 reached on September 14. That drop puts the benchmark index below its 50-day moving average, but not yet into correction territory, defined as a 10 percent drop from a peak.

READING THE TECHNICAL SIGNS

The S&P 500 has been trading in a range between the 50-day moving average of 1,433.50 and the 200-day moving average of 1,380.98 for about two weeks. A significant break below that lower level could be a precursor to further weakness, analysts said.

“There’s a technical breakdown in the market that indicates further losses,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York. “A 10 percent drop is the next big line in the sand.”

The primary driver of stock prices in coming weeks looks likely to be investor concern about the U.S. fiscal situation.

In a sign of the risks involved, comments by President Barack Obama on Friday about the upcoming negotiations caused stocks to sharply cut their gains.

The president, who defeated Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Tuesday’s U.S. election, outlined a position for the fiscal issues on Friday that is far apart from that of his political opponents, suggesting a long battle is to come.

“If the market anticipates a resolution to the fiscal cliff or Europe or any of the other bricks in the wall of worry, we could easily take off,” Sarhan said.

Seventeen of the Dow’s 30 components are trading below both their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, while another eight are under their 50-day levels, but not their 200. Only five components – Bank of America , JPMorgan Chase & Co , Home Depot Inc , Johnson & Johnson and Travelers Cos – are above both support levels.

Another big negative for the market has been heavy selling of Apple shares. The stock of the world’s biggest company, ranked by market capitalization, lost 5.2 percent this week, weighing heavily on both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq <.IXIC>. The stock is down 22.4 percent from its September 21 all-time intraday high of $ 705.07.

BIG RETAILERS’ REPORT CARDS

The election and fiscal cliff concerns, which came on the heels of Superstorm Sandy and its devastating effects on many parts of the U.S. Northeast, have captured so much attention that they’ve overshadowed weakness coming from third-quarter earnings.

With results in from 449 of the S&P 500 companies, third-quarter earnings now are estimated to have declined 0.3 percent from a year ago, which is slightly better than the forecast at the start of the reporting period. Results have been especially weak on the revenue side, however, with just 38 percent of companies beating on sales, Thomson Reuters data showed.

But recent stronger economic data, including a report on Friday showing consumer sentiment at more than a five-year high in early November, suggests that retailers, many of which have yet to report, could be among the stronger performers this earnings period.

Next week, results are expected from such big names as Target , Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Consumer discretionary companies have outperformed the broader S&P 500 in earnings, with 72 percent of the companies in that sector beating analysts’ expectations, compared with 63 percent for the S&P 500 as a whole.

Investors will be paying close attention to those results with the holiday shopping period around the corner, said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey, which oversees about $ 1 billion in assets.

“It’s really the beginning of the Christmas sell season, and I think there’s going to be a lot of interest with the outlook for that season and how promotional companies are going to be,” Meckler said.

(Wall St Week Ahead runs every Friday. Questions or comments on this column can be emailed to: caroline.valetkevitch(at)thomsonreuters.com )

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Syria opposition bloc elects Christian as leader

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Syria‘s main opposition group in exile has elected a Christian Paris-based former geography teacher as its new president.

George Sabra said Friday that his election as head of the Syrian National Council is a sign that the opposition is not plagued by sectarian divisions.

Sabra says the SNC‘s main demand is to receive weapons from the international community. The U.S. and some other foreign backers of rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad have so far refused to send weapons for fear they can fall into the wrong hands.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

US video game sales drop 25 percent in October

NEW YORK (AP) — A research firm says U.S. retail sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell 25 percent in October.

The drop marks the 11th straight month of declining sales for physical game products. Many gamers are waiting for big holiday releases such as Activision Blizzard Inc.‘s “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”

The NPD Group said Thursday that sales fell to $ 755.5 million from $ 1 billion a year earlier.

Sales of video games themselves, excluding PC titles, fell 25 percent to $ 432.6 million. Sales of hardware such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 fell 37 percent to $ 187.3 million. Sales of accessories, meanwhile, grew 5 percent to $ 135.6 million.

NPD estimates that retail sales account for about half of all video game spending. The rest is downloads, apps and the like.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

“Twilight” fans camp out days ahead of “Breaking Dawn-Part 2″

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Dozens of excited “Twilight” fans set up tents in Los Angeles on Thursday ahead of next week’s world premiere of the last film in the vampire romance franchise.

Some 2,200 people from all over the world have registered to camp on a concrete plaza outside a downtown Los Angeles movie theater, movie studio Summit Entertainment said.

The fans – most of them young women – will get guaranteed spots to see stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner walk the red carpet for the November 12 premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.”

Summit has laid on special activities during the five day wait, including a marathon screening of the four other films in the blockbuster franchise, surprise appearances from some cast members, and a “Twilight”-themed workout.

“We figured it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of us. This is the last movie. We’re never going to get to do it again and we wanted to hang out with some of our friends for the last one,” Bri-Anne Glover told Reuters Television as she settled in at the camp on Thursday.

“I love ‘Breaking Dawn’ because that’s kind of where I am in my life. I’ve got the husband, I’ve got my children, and we’re getting on with our lives and having a happy life and the same with Edward and Jacob and Bella,” said fan Eryka Bradford.

The “Twilight” books by author Stephenie Meyer have been a publishing sensation and the four movies have made more than $ 2.5 billion combined at box offices worldwide.

The final film sees the bliss of newlyweds Bella (Stewart) and Edward (Pattinson) and their daughter threatened by an ancient vampire coven.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ opens in several European countries on November 14 and arrives in U.S. movie theaters on November 16.

(Reporting by Lindsay Claiborn, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Hospital guidelines not linked to readmissions: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Procedural guidelines designed to ensure patients get quality care while in the hospital are also thought to reduce the chances a patient will need to be readmitted down the line, but a new study suggests there’s little connection between the two.

“The idea was, increasing the quality of care provided by these hospitals would improve the outcomes,” said the report’s lead author Dr. Michaela S. Stefan, an academic hospitalist at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.

In an effort to control costs, both hospitals and the federal government have been trying for some time to lower the number of patients who are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged.

Starting in October, a hospital’s readmission rates are one factor the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) take into account when deciding what to pay for patient treatment.

Right now, about one in four patients will be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days, according to Stefan and her colleagues. And it’s estimated that those unplanned rehospitalizations cost Medicare $ 17.6 billion in 2004.

One approach to lowering readmissions has been the creation of quality care guidelines for specific conditions, such as heart attack or pneumonia.

CMS also reports readmission numbers for hospitals on the website Hospital Compare: http://1.usa.gov/Z7TeXy.

Still, researchers have been asking whether these approaches make a difference in readmission rates.

Another recent study suggested that many factors outside a hospital’s control can cause a patient to need rehospitalization. For example, the person’s ability to keep up with their medications at home, or to make follow-up visits to a personal physician (see Reuters Health article of October 19, 2012, here: http://reut.rs/Z7uCy9).

For the new study, Stefan and her colleagues looked at whether the degree to which a hospital followed guidelines to the letter predicted how many Medicare patients came back within 30 days of their first discharge.

Using a 2007 database of patients on the government insurance program for seniors, the researchers analyzed patient outcomes for a number of ailments and surgical procedures, including heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and stomach, heart and orthopedic surgeries.

Overall, the study included information on patients from thousands of hospitals across the U.S.

For instance, 2,773 hospitals treated 322,668 people for heart failure during the study period while 2,940 hospitals treated 328,830 people with pneumonia.

The researchers gave each hospital a score between zero and 100 percent, based on the percentage of patients who received all the recommended treatments for their condition.

For heart attack patients, these could include receiving an aspirin when they arrived at the hospital or, if appropriate, smoking cessation counseling before discharge. For pneumonia patients, prescribing the correct antibiotics and checking on a patient’s flu vaccine status are among procedures on the checklist.

Of the 117,514 heart attack patients, about 96 percent received some of the recommended treatments. However, only about 88 percent got all of them.

And about 80 percent of stomach surgery patients got some of the recommended treatments, but only about 46 percent received them all.

The researchers then looked at how many of those patients returned to the hospital within 30 days after being discharged.

Overall, they found that hospitals with the best scores for following guidelines did not have “meaningfully” lower readmissions than hospitals with the worst scores.

“Even when the associations were statistically significant, the differences in the readmission rates of high and low-performing hospitals were small,” the team writes in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The researchers add that some possible reasons for the lack of association between the two measures could be that these guidelines have “little impact on the risk of readmission” or that the guidelines are too broadly defined.

The study itself did have limitations too, they acknowledge.

For example, it only looked at Medicare patients over 66 years old, so the findings may not apply to younger people. Also, the data are only from a single year and were based on what was reported to Medicare from the hospital records, so the information may not be complete.

Nevertheless, the researchers conclude that encouraging hospitals to report these guideline data to the public, such as on Hospital Compare, will do little to lower readmission rates.

Still, it’s good information to provide to patients, Stefan said.

“It’s important to know that the Hospital Compare site exists. Unfortunately, the public accesses Hospital Compare very little,” she added.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/SxsNpQ Journal of General Internal Medicine, online October 16, 2012.

Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Exclusive: Schulze’s Best Buy bid seen in December, below $8 billion range

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An eventual bid for Best Buy Co Inc by founder Richard Schulze could come below his initial proposal of around $ 8 billion and is now not expected to be made before December, sources familiar with the matter said, in a new twist to the months-long saga at the struggling electronics retailer.

Schulze has done most of his due diligence on Best Buy and has formed a business plan to turn around the world’s largest consumer electronics chain, with his efforts now focused on securing financing commitments, the sources said.

At least three private equity firms – Apollo Global Management LLC, TPG Capital LP and Leonard Green & Partners LP – are considering joining Schulze in the bid, the sources said. Cerberus Capital Management LP, which was among the buyout firms that weighed joining the bidding group, is no longer working on the deal, one of the four sources said.

The sources declined to be identified because the information is not public.

Schulze said in August he could buy Best Buy for $ 24 to $ 26 per share, valuing the deal between $ 8.16 billion and $ 8.84 billion and if debt is included, as much as $ 10.9 billion.

But Best Buy’s shares have since fallen 24 percent to trade around $ 15.

While a final decision on the offer price has not been made, the drop in shares has raised the likelihood that Schulze’s bid could be below $ 24 per share, the sources said.

Schulze is expected to take a 30-day extension to mid-December for submitting a final proposal to Best Buy’s board, they said.

The consortium’s efforts to clinch equity and debt commitments for what could be one of the largest leveraged buyouts of the year were delayed by superstorm Sandy which disrupted operations at several major Wall Street banks.

An extension will also give Schulze and the buyout firms a chance to see how Best Buy is performing in the crucial Christmas holiday season, the sources said.

Best Buy and Apollo declined to comment. The other private equity firms could not be reached for comment.

Best Buy has seen its fortunes falter over the years, as consumers increasingly use its big box stores as showrooms for products they end up buying online at Amazon and other websites. To add to its troubles, the company forced out Schulze’s protegy Brian Dunn as CEO earlier this year amid allegations the executive was having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee.

That scandal also led to the ouster of Schulze, who founded the company in 1966, from the board, and to Best Buy hiring turnaround expert Hubert Joly as its CEO to come up with its own restructuring plan.

In October, the retailer, which has suspended its profit forecasts and share buybacks for the rest of the year, warned that earnings and same-store sales would fall in the third quarter. Joly plans to meet investors in New York on Tuesday to unveil his turnaround plan.

One analyst has said that Best Buy’s declining fortunes could make a buyout more attractive for some investors.

“We are starting to believe that current shareholders may be more receptive to Schulze’s previously disclosed offer of $ 24-$ 26 per share than we previously believed,” Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said late last month.

There are no guarantees, however, that Schulze will ultimately be able to table an offer or that his eventual bid will be as attractive to shareholders.

Schulze has said he plans to fund any deal through a combination of private equity and debt financing, as well as the reinvestment of some of his own equity in the company.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim, Olivia Oran and Dhanya Skariachan, Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Edwina Gibbs)

(This story was fixed to correct syntax in headline)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Myanmar says Obama to visit later this month

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — President Barack Obama will make a groundbreaking visit later this month to Myanmar, an official said Thursday, following through with his policy of rapprochement to encourage democracy in the Southeast Asian nation.

The Myanmar official speaking from the capital, Naypyitaw, said Thursday that security for a visit on Nov. 18 or 19 had been prepared, but the schedule was not final. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to give information to the media.

The official said Obama would meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as government officials including reformist President Thein Sein.

It would be the first-ever visit to Myanmar by an American president. U.S. officials have not yet announced any plans for a visit, which would come less than two weeks after Obama’s election to a second term.

Obama’s administration has sought to encourage the recent democratic progress under Thein Sein by easing sanctions applied against Myanmar’s previous military regime.

Officials in nearby Thailand and Cambodia have already informally announced plans for visits by Obama that same week. Cambodia is hosting a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Thailand is a longtime close U.S. ally.

The visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, would be the culmination of a dramatic turnaround in relations with Washington as the country has shifted from five decades of ruinous military rule and shaken off the pariah status it had earned through its bloody suppression of democracy.

Obama’s ending of the long-standing U.S. isolation of Myanmar’s generals has played a part in coaxing them into political reforms that have unfolded with surprising speed in the past year. The U.S. has appointed a full ambassador and suspended sanctions to reward Myanmar for political prisoner releases and the election of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi to parliament.

From Myanmar’s point of view, the lifting of sanctions is essential for boosting a lagging economy that was hurt not only by sanctions that curbed exports and foreign investment, but also by what had been a protectionist, centralized approach. Thein Sein’s government has initiated major economic reforms in addition to political ones.

A procession of senior diplomats and world leaders have traveled to Myanmar, stopping both in the remote, opulent capital city, which was built by the former ruling junta, and at Suu Kyi’s dilapidated lakeside villa in the main city of Yangon, where she spent 15 years under house arrest. New Zealand announced Thursday that Prime Minister John Key would visit Myanmar after attending the regional meetings in Cambodia.

The most senior U.S. official to visit was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last December became the first U.S. secretary of state to travel to Myanmar in 56 years.

The Obama administration regards the political changes in Myanmar as a marquee achievement in its foreign policy, and one that could dilute the influence of China in a country that has a strategic location between South and Southeast Asia, regions of growing economic importance.

But exiled Myanmar activists and human rights groups are likely to criticize an Obama visit as premature, rewarding Thein Sein before his political and economic reforms have truly taken root. The military — still dominant and implicated in rights abuses — has failed to prevent vicious outbreaks of communal violence in the west of the country that have left scores dead.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

RIM’s BlackBerry 10 platform wins coveted U.S. security clearance

TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd said on Thursday it has won a much-coveted U.S. government security clearance for its yet-to-be launched platform for BlackBerry 10 devices that are expected to hit store shelves in the first quarter of 2013.

The company said its BlackBerry 10 platform has received the FIPS 140-2 certification, which would allow government agencies to deploy the devices, along with the new enterprise management platform to run the devices, as soon as the new smartphones are launched.

RIM, a one-time pioneer in the smartphone industry, has seen its fortunes fade in recent years as nimbler rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co have taken the game away from RIM with faster and snazzier devices. RIM’s fate now depends almost entirely on the long-awaited line of so-called BB 10 devices.

Last month, RIM said it had begun carrier tests on the new line of devices, which the company hopes will help it regain some of the market share it has ceded to the likes of Apple’s iPhone and a slew of other devices that run on Google Inc’s Android operating system.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said this is the first time BlackBerry products have been FIPS certified ahead of launch.

“Achieving FIPS certification for an entirely new platform in a very short period of time, and before launch, is quite remarkable,” RIM’s head of security certifications, David MacFarlane, said in a statement.

FIPS certification, which is given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is one of the minimum criteria that is required for products used by U.S. government agencies and regulated industries that collect, store, transfer, share and disseminate sensitive information.

The stamp of approval gives confidence to security-conscious organizations – including some of RIM’s top clients like U.S. and Canadian government agencies – that the data stored on smartphones running BlackBerry 10 can be properly secured and encrypted.

RIM promises that BlackBerry 10 will deliver a better user experience, along with the ability to separately manage both one’s corporate and personal data on the same device.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Mom of “Modern Family” actress denies abuse claims

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The mother of “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter on Wednesday denied that she abused her daughter after a judge temporarily placed the 14-year-old actress in her sister’s care.

“It’s all untrue, it’s all untrue,” Chris Workman, Winter’s mother, told People magazine. “I have my doctor’s letter that my daughter’s never been abused.”

According to court papers, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge last month put Winter, who plays the precocious teenager Alex Dunphy on the Emmy-winning TV comedy, under the temporary guardianship of her older sister, Shanelle Gray.

Celebrity website TMZ.com said Winter’s mother was alleged to have slapped and emotionally abused the teen, and had been ordered to stay away from her. Ariel has left her mother’s home, TMZ said.

Gray will retain guardianship of Winter at least until a November 20 hearing, a judge said.

Winter’s publicist did not return calls for comment on Wednesday.

“Modern Family” portrays the lives of three zany families and has won three consecutive Emmy award as American television’s best comedy series.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Nor’easter Threatens Sandy Victims

As those facing the devastation left in the wake of Sandy continue to seek shelter, meteorologists point to a new threat — a nor’easter heading for devastated areas.

The storm could pack 50-mile-per-hour gusts in coastal areas, 1 to 3 inches of rain from New York to Boston and a continuation of the frigid temperatures that followed last week’s superstorm.

It’s a situation that has some doctors worried that many of those affected by Sandy could face a life-threatening situation in the form of hypothermia.

“Many left without power and heat will be at risk of hypothermia as the Nor’easter is scheduled to hit the New York City and New Jersey area,” said Dr. Sharon Horesh Bergquist, assistant professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

The strong wind and rain is expected to hit the New Jersey and New York coast early Wednesday morning. Worse, some models are predicting a 40-50 percent chance of snow in the metro New York area by Wednesday night, and winds up to 40 miles per hour are expected to continue into Thursday.

The Red Cross is increasing efforts in New York, offering shelter to roughly 9,000 people and handing out an additional 80,000 blankets Monday night — a clear indication of where the organization’s concerns lie when it comes to those without heat or shelter.

“Certainly one of our biggest concerns is the cold, because you have people without power,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Melanie Pipkin. “We’re ramping up our efforts so these people have even more blankets, more hand warmers. We really want to make sure everyone stays warm.”

Hypothermia occurs when the body’s temperature falls below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. This puts people at risk to develop serious lung, heart, or nervous system problems, sometimes leading to death.

Symptoms of hypothermia include appearing confused or intoxicated or shivering, although shivering actually stops at severely cold body temperatures.

“As people get colder, they actually stop shivering, losing their ability to retain any heat,” said Dr. Darria Gillespie, emergency physician at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “They may also almost appear intoxicated, with confusion, clumsiness, slurred speech, and fatigue.”

In the most serious of cases, the potential complications from hypothermia can be severe, even fatal.

“The complications can range from minor cold related illness to death from prolonged exposure or complications from prolonged exposure,” said Dr. Henderson McGinnis, emergency physician at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The very young and very old may be at the highest risk.

“The elderly often have difficulty with thermoregulation and infants have a relatively larger body surface area thus are at increase heat loss risk,” said Dr. Christopher Russi, emergency physician at the Mayo Clinic.

As for preventative measures, seeking shelter and warm clothes is the overwhelmingly popular recommendation.

“Those without heat need to find a place with it as the temperatures fall these next few nights, dressing in layers and wearing a hat and avoiding alcohol are key factors to prevent it as well,” said Dr. Robert McNamara, chair of emergency medicine at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

The Red Cross’ Pipkin says it is “hard to speculate” as to what the worst case scenario would be in terms of the nor’easter’s impact on those affected by Sandy. But she says that it would be unwise to underestimate the approaching storm.

“We always try to prepare for the worst,” she said.

Also Read
Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

China to deepen economic reforms

8 November 2012 Last updated at 01:18 ET

China’s President Hu Jintao has said the country will deepen its economic reforms and boost domestic demand to spur a new wave of growth.

Opening the Communist Party congress, Mr Hu added that China needed to work towards a more “market-based” exchange rate for the yuan.

China has been trying to boost domestic consumption to offset a decline in exports.

The congress comes as China’s economic growth rate has hit a three-year low.

“We should step up efforts to transform to a new growth model and work hard to improve the quality and efficiency of the economy,” Mr Hu said.

“We will continue to deepen our economic system reform and stick to the policy of expanding domestic demand.”

Financial reforms

China has been introducing reforms in its tightly controlled financial sector, which many analysts say is the key to unlocking future growth.

Continue reading the main story

One has to wait until the new leaders take charge and start to formulate their policies and communicate them to domestic and international marke”

End Quote Tony Nash IHS Global Insight

In June this year China’s central bank gave the country’s lenders flexibility to decide the interest rates they want to offer to consumers, within a stipulated range.

Beijing also widened the range in which the yuan is allowed to trade against the US dollar to 1.0% on either side of a daily rate set by the central bank. The previous limit was 0.5%.

Meanwhile, China’s securities regulator has eased entry rules for foreign investors under its Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) programme.

It allowed the QFII’s to hold more shares in the firms listed in China and also to invest in the country’s interbank bond market.

On Wednesday, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that the regulator was considering speeding up QFII approvals to attract more long-term overseas investment.

It said the regulator had granted 57 new QFII licences this year.

Analysts said that it was not clear at this stage what further reforms Beijing may introduce in the sector.

“Lots has been talked about financial reforms in China over the past decade,” Tony Nash, managing director of IHS Global Insight told the BBC.

“But one has to wait until the new leaders take charge and start to formulate their policies and communicate them to domestic and international market.”

Inclusive growth

One of the areas of concern in China has been the gap between the rich and the poor.

In China’s richest places, such as Tianjin, Shanghai and Beijing, average incomes are just over $ 10,000 (£6,250) a year, comparable with some European countries, whereas in relatively poor areas such as Guizhou the average income is just over $ 2,000, more in line with countries such as Sudan.

There have been calls for China to ensure that the gap is reduced and that its economic growth is more inclusive.

Mr Hu said that to make China’s development, “much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, we should double its 2010 gross domestic product and per capita income for both urban and rural residents [by 2020]“.

He added that to achieve that target China needs to: “increase investment at a proper pace and expand the domestic market”.

BBC News – Business

Read More..

Merkel says Germany, Britain must work together on EU

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain must cooperate to work round their differences on the European Union‘s long-term spending plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

“Despite differences that we have it is very important for me that the UK and Germany work together,” Merkel said through a translator before a meeting in London with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss the EU‘s 2014-2020 budget.

“We always have to do something that will stand up to public opinion back home. Not all of the expenditure that has been earmarked has been used with great efficiency … We need to address that,” she said.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on November 22-23 to try to secure a seven-year budget for the 27-nation bloc amid signs of differences of opinion over what action should be taken.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Amid catcalls, Silicon Valley gets its reality TV treatment

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – They have been panned by television critics and disavowed by their own industry. Even for the entrepreneurs-cum-co-stars of Bravo TV‘s “Start-ups: Silicon Valley,” it is getting hard to put on a brave face.

“It’s been a nightmare,” confessed Sarah Austin, one of the series’ six pretty twentysomethings who code, party and hustle their way to fame and riches – or at least try to – in San Francisco‘s bubbly tech fishbowl.

“I’ve had a lot of figures in Silicon Valley tell me that it was a mistake,” Austin said. “I think sometimes that it wasn’t worth it.”

That is a little surprising, coming from an Internet personality (and self-described angel investor) whose first burst of notoriety came from uploading videos of herself crashing tech parties in 2006.

But her apprehension speaks to the scorn that has piled up like rush-hour traffic on Highway 101 for the eight-episode series.

Since Bravo announced the show in April, it has been greeted with horrified tweets and Facebook updates by geeks who feared the show would portray the Valley about as faithfully as “Jersey Shore” rendered the people of New Jersey. Tech blogger Sarah Lacy seemed to sum up the Valley’s reaction with a plaintive post titled, “Randi Zuckerberg: How Could You Do This to Real Entrepreneurs?”

But with California’s youth-obsessed startup economy booming – and seeping into popular culture (think “The Social Network”) – a Valley reality show seemed like a no-brainer for Bravo. Once dedicated to arts programming, the NBCUniversal-owned cable channel is now known for series such as “Real Houswives of New Jersey” and “Top Chef” – and the “Bravo-lebrities” its shows have spawned.

Produced by Randi Zuckerberg, sister of the Facebook Inc founder, the show purports to follow six young entrepreneurs in their habitat as they write code, party and try to get venture capital funding.

‘BROGRAMMERS’ AND BLONDES

The plotline revolves around Ben and Hermione Way, a brother-and-sister duo from London who are short on original startup ideas but long on cheerfulness and good looks.

There’s also Dwight Crow, a bundle of testosterone and the quintessential “brogrammer”; Austin, who is slotted halfheartedly into the blond vixen role; and David Murray, who ostensibly has coding chops and once worked at Google but just plays the typecasted gay guy trying to peddle a weight-loss app.

In the first episode, it is clear that what little hammed-up tension there is turns on the Hermione Way-Sarah Austin axis. Austin once had a fling with Ben Way, an incident his sister describes several times as “unprofessional.”

The show’s producers tap liberally into the overgrown-child-as-entrepreneur motif that might ring a bit too familiar to Valley denizens.

Crow is seen coding for long hours in his disheveled man-cave and downing liquor shots when he is let loose at night. The cast is seen heading to a crowded toga party, a familiar sight for, say, Facebook employees, who celebrated with a similar event in 2008.

Then there is the pitch meeting with angel investor Dave McClure, who met Hermione Way when he found her hungover and asleep under his conference table.

McClure gamely listens to a pitch from the Ways and promptly rejects them – but not before dispensing a pearl of startup-pitching wisdom that he likely conceived long before the cameras arrived: “You don’t need to sweep me off my feet. You just need to be a good kisser.”

Critics say they fear the show will makes startup life seem easy and glamorous while overlooking the endless grind and frequent failures that come before the success.

“The media wants to sell this story that you can come here, spend three days coding in your basement and then succeed overnight, but we learned the hard way it’s not like that at all,” said Jonathan Chin, the founder of Gothamlist, an e-commerce site in San Francisco that has yet to take off.

Still, he acknowledged, the Bravo program is the talk of the town. “Everybody’s been talking about it, tweeting, sending Facebook messages.”

Zuckerberg, who is launching her own media company, Zuckerberg Media, this week, said the show accurately captures the experiences of her cast. She said she would continue to roll out “nonfiction” TV productions in the Bay Area.

Zuckerberg sidestepped a question about what her friends and family thought of the show, saying only that no one close to her, including her husband or her brother Mark, have seen it yet.

“It’s like doing a startup,” she said. “At some point you just have to open up the alpha and let people see it.”

‘IT’S TV’

At the show’s premiere party on Sunday night in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, there were few Valley luminaries to be seen but plenty of young men in slim-cut suits and designer stubble and women in gauzy gowns and stilettos. They noshed on pizzas served on vinyl records and crispy cones of kampachi tartare that came perched in the holes of DVD discs – along with slabs of sushi served on iPads, an idea conceived by Zuckerberg‘s production team, said caterer Joshua Charles.

“The party seemed reminiscent of 1999,” said Brooke Hammerling, a veteran tech industry public-relations executive who is based in New York. “None of those on the program, including Randi, were in the tech world in the first generation of the dot-com world, when we saw the lack of awareness of what was going on around us.”

Hammerling feared the women in the show would be portrayed as stereotypes, more concerned about fashion and socializing than the business of technology.

But Hermione Way made no apologies on Sunday night as she swept into the party clad in a glittery gold dress.

“It’s TV. People want to look at glamorous people, so it was a balance of finding the tech and being entertaining enough to look at,” Way told Reuters.

“I’m a 27-year-old single girl,” she added. “Do I like to party? Yeah. Do I like to look really f-ing hot? Yeah.”

Way said she was focused on bringing her fitness app and the hardware accessory to market.

And after that?

“World domination,” she replied without skipping a beat.

That, or 15 minutes of “Bravo-lebrity,” at least.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih. Editing by Jonathan Weber and Douglas Royalty)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

ABC raises $16.8 million, MTV to hold fundraiser for NJ shore

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A “Day of Giving” across ABC television networks raised more than $ 16.8 million for victims of Hurricane Sandy, ABC said on Tuesday.

During the event, which aired on Radio Disney, ABC Family, ESPN and other units of the Disney/ABC group, viewers were encouraged to donate to the American Red Cross.

A concert and telethon on NBC last Friday raised almost $ 23 million for those affected by the storm, which came ashore in New Jersey last week and swept up the Eastern Seaboard. Thousands were left homeless and millions were without power.

MTV, a unit of Viacom Inc, is planning a fundraiser for November 15 called “Restore the Shore”. The hour-long special will feature the cast of MTV’s reality series “Jersey Shore“.

MTV said in a statement that it was partnering with the non-profit group Architecture for Humanity to collect donations aimed at rebuilding the Seaside Heights boardwalk and local businesses and homes in the neighborhood.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Study: Looking old may be a sign of heart risks

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Want a clue to your risk of heart disease? Look in the mirror. People who look old — with receding hairlines, bald heads, creases near their ear lobes or bumpy deposits on their eyelids — have a greater chance of developing of heart disease than younger-looking people the same age do, new research suggests.

Doctors say the study highlights the difference between biological and chronological age.

“Looking old for your age marks poor cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

She led the study and gave results Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference in Los Angeles.

A small consolation: Wrinkles elsewhere on the face and gray hair seemed just ordinary consequences of aging and did not correlate with heart risks.

The research involved 11,000 Danish people and began in 1976. At the start, the participants were 40 and older. Researchers documented their appearance, tallying crow’s feet, wrinkles and other signs of age.

In the next 35 years, 3,400 participants developed heart disease (clogged arteries) and 1,700 suffered a heart attack.

The risk of these problems increased with each additional sign of aging present at the start of the study. This was true at all ages and among men and women, even after taking into account other factors such as family history of heart disease.

Those with three to four of these aging signs — receding hairline at the temples, baldness at the crown of the head, earlobe creases or yellowish fatty deposits around the eyelids — had a 57 percent greater risk for heart attack and a 39 percent greater risk for heart disease compared to people with none of these signs.

Having yellowish eyelid bumps, which could be signs of cholesterol buildup, conferred the most risk, researchers found. Baldness in men has been tied to heart risk before, possibly related to testosterone levels. They could only guess why earlobe creases might raise risk.

Dr. Kathy Magliato, a heart surgeon at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., said doctors need to pay more attention to signs literally staring them in the face.

“We’re so rushed to put on a blood pressure cuff or put a stethoscope on the chest” that obvious, visible signs of risk are missed, she said.

__

Online:

Heart Association: http://www.heart.org

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Obama wins second term, Romney concedes defeat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama won a second term in the White House on Tuesday, overcoming deep doubts among voters about his handling of the U.S. economy to score a clear victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Americans chose to stick with a divided government in Washington, by keeping the Democratic incumbent in the White House and leaving the U.S. Congress as it is, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans keeping the House of Representatives.

Obama told thousands of supporters in Chicago who cheered his every word that “we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back” and that for America, the best is yet to come.

He vowed to listen to both sides of the political divide in the weeks ahead and said he would return to the White House more determined than ever to confront America’s challenges.

“Whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you. And you have made me a better president,” Obama said.

The nationwide popular vote remained extremely close with Obama taking about 50 percent to 49 percent for Romney after a campaign in which the candidates and their party allies spent a combined $ 2 billion.

Romney, the multimillionaire former private equity executive, came back from a series of campaign stumbles to make it close after besting the president in the first of three presidential debates.

The 65-year-old former Massachusetts governor conceded in a gracious speech delivered to disappointed supporters at the Boston convention center. He had called Obama to concede defeat after a brief controversy over whether the president had really won Ohio.

“This is a time of great challenge for our nation,” Romney told the crowd. “I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

He warned against partisan bickering and urged politicians on both sides to “put the people before the politics.”

Obama told his crowd that he hoped to sit down with Romney in the weeks ahead and examine ways to meet the challenges ahead.

The president Obama scored impressive victories in the crucial state of Ohio and heavily contested swing states of Virginia, Nevada, Iowa and Colorado. They carried the Democrat past the 270 electoral votes needed for victory in America’s state-by-state system of choosing a president, and left Romney’s senior advisers shell-shocked at the loss.

Obama, America’s first black president, won by convincing voters to stick with him as he tries to reignite strong economic growth and recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. An uneven recovery has been showing some signs of strength but the country’s 7.9 percent jobless rate remains stubbornly high.

Obama’s victory in the hotly contested swing state of Ohio – as projected by TV networks – was a major step in the fight for the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House and ended Romney’s hopes of pulling off a string of swing-state upsets.

Obama scored narrow wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire – all states that Romney had contested – while the only swing state captured by Romney was North Carolina, according to television network projections.

Romney initially delayed his concession as some Republicans questioned whether Obama had in fact won Ohio despite the decisions by election experts at all the major TV networks to declare it for the president.

The later addition of Colorado and Virginia to Obama’s tally – according to network projections – meant that even if the final result from Ohio were to be reversed, Romney still could not reach the needed number of electoral votes.

While Obama supporters in Chicago were ecstatic, Romney’s Boston event was grim as the news was announced on television screens there. A steady stream of people left the ballroom at the Boston convention center.

THE SAME PROBLEMS

At least 120 million American voters had been expected to cast votes in the race between the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a campaign that was focused on how to repair the ailing U.S. economy.

The same problems that dogged Obama in his first term are still there to confront him again.

He faces a difficult task of tackling $ 1 trillion annual deficits, reducing a $ 16 trillion national debt, overhauling expensive social programs and dealing with a gridlocked U.S. Congress that kept the same partisan makeup.

Obama’s Democrats held their Senate majority – taking hotly contested Republican-held seats in Massachusetts and Indiana – while the Republicans kept House control.

Democrat Claire McCaskill retained her U.S. Senate seat from Missouri, beating Republican congressman Todd Akin, who stirred controversy with his comment in August that women’s bodies could ward off pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.

Democrats gained a Senate seat in Indiana that had been in Republican hands for decades after Republican candidate Richard Mourdock called pregnancy from rape something that God intended. Democratic congressman Joe Donnelly won the race.

In another high-profile Senate race, Democrat Elizabeth Warren, a law professor who headed the watchdog panel that oversaw the government’s financial sector bailout, defeated incumbent Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown.

Former Maine Governor Angus King won a three-way contest for the Senate seat of retiring Republican Olympia Snowe. King ran as an independent, but he is expected to caucus with Democrats in what would amount to a Democratic pick-up.

Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson easily beat back a challenge from Republican congressman Connie Mack to win a third term, while Democratic congressman Chris Murphy beat Republican Linda McMahon, a businesswoman who had served as chief executive of a professional wrestling company.

Democrats were also cheered by several state referendums. Maryland voters approved same-sex marriage, the governor said, and a similar measure in Maine appeared on track to pass as well – marking the first time marriage rights have been extended to same-sex couples by popular vote.

In addition, Wisconsin Democratic congresswoman Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay U.S. Senator, defeating Republican former governor Tommy Thompson.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Chicago, Patricia Zengerle in Boston, Edith Honan in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Philip Barbara in New Jersey, Matt Spetalnick, Lisa Lambert, Susan Heavey, Thomas Ferraro, Susan Cornwell, Anna Yukhananov and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland and John Whitesides; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Will Dunham)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Family defends Malaysian held over Facebook insult

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The family of a Malaysian man detained for allegedly insulting a state sultan on Facebook called for his release Monday, saying the government is violating his free-speech rights.

Police arrested 27-year-old Ahmad Abdul Jalil in Kuala Lumpur and took him to southern Johor state late Friday. He was freed briefly Monday after a magistrate court in Johor refused to extend his remand order but police immediately arrested him again, said his sister Anisa Abdul Jalil.

Anisa said the family was told he was being investigated for seditious remarks against the Johor sultan.

She said the family did not know what the offensive postings were. Local media have reported that the Facebook postings at issue question Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar‘s abilities as leader of a special forces group.

Anisa said police told family lawyers they are pursuing the case under the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of the Internet.

“This is too much. He has a right to free speech and he should be freed immediately. There should be no charges against him,” Anisa told The Associated Press.

Fadiah Nadwa Fitri, a lawyer for the family, said the court has ruled that Ahmad’s detention was unjustifiable and that his rearrest was a “blatant abuse of power” by police in defiance of the court order.

District police chief Ruslan Hassan said the case is “highly sensitive” and should be referred to the state police headquarters. The state police chief didn’t answer his phone.

Nine Malaysian states have sultans and other royal figures. Though their roles are largely ceremonial, they command wide respect after centuries of hereditary rule.

Under Malaysian law, acts that provoke hatred against royal rulers are considered seditious. Only a few people have been charged with the crime in recent years.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Brad Pitt turns designer for high-end furniture collection

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Brad Pitt has turned his talents to creating furniture for a luxury design house with a high-end collection inspired by both Art Nouveau and Art Deco, according to Architectural Digest.

Pitt, who collaborated on the collection with U.S. furniture designer Frank Pollaro, discussed his inspirations for the capsule collection in the December issue of the magazine.

“I’m drawn to furniture design as complete architecture on a minor scale,” Pitt said. “I am obsessively bent on quality, to an unhealthy degree.”

Pitt said it was his obsession that introduced him to Pollaro, whom he said embodies the “same mad spirit of the craftsmen of yore, with their obsessive attention to detail.”

The dozen-piece collection, which will be unveiled by the Pollaro furniture house in New York between November 13 and 15, will include tables, chairs, an elaborate bed and a bathtub made of marble.

The 48-year-old “Fight Club” actor said he was influenced by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow Rose, drawn with a continuous line. He designed his collection with the fluidity of a single line, be it geometric or circular.

“There is something more grand at play, as if you could tell the story of one’s life with a single line — from birth to death, with all the bloody triumphs and perceived humiliating losses, even boredoms, along the way,” the actor said.

Pitt has previously worked with well-known architects for his Make It Right foundation to create affordable quality housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He also designed a diamond ring for his partner, Angelina Jolie, when the couple got engaged earlier this year.

The actor also became the latest and first male face of Chanel’s iconic women’s fragrance Chanel No.5 last month, mystifying critics and fashionistas with an enigmatic video commercial.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Patricia Reaney, Bernard Orr)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Factbox: Mitt Romney, Republican U.S. presidential candidate

(Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and private equity executive, is pursuing the White House for the second time in Tuesday’s election.

Here are key facts about him.

* Romney, 65, espouses traditional Republican positions to cut taxes, reduce federal regulations, shrink government spending and bolster the U.S. military. He vows to create 12 million new jobs in his first term with a plan focused on domestic energy development, expanded free trade, improving education, reducing the deficit and championing small business.

* He lost the 2008 Republican presidential nomination to Senator John McCain but entered this year’s race with a large campaign war chest and the blessing of many in the party establishment. Conservative unease over his reputation as a moderate led to a stiff challenge in the Republican primaries.

* His net worth has been estimated at between $ 190 million and $ 250 million, making him one of the wealthiest people to ever run for the presidency. Romney has been criticized for holding money overseas and for not disclosing as many tax releases as his opponents have demanded.

* Romney proposes to lower individual income taxes across the board to 20 percent while closing some loopholes, which he says would stimulate economic growth without widening the federal deficit. He supports restructuring the Social Security retirement program and the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

* He is a fifth-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormon church. He was a Mormon missionary in France for more than two years after leaving high school and later became bishop and stake president in Boston, roles akin to being a lay pastor. His faith, however, is viewed with suspicion by some conservative evangelical Christians.

* Born into a well-off family and raised near Detroit, Romney was exposed to politics early. His father, George, was chairman of American Motors Corporation and governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. George Romney lost a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and served in President Richard Nixon’s Cabinet.

* In 1994, the younger Romney ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts as a moderate Republican, but was handily defeated by incumbent Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. Eight years later, Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts, where he instituted a statewide healthcare reform that became a model for Obama’s 2010 national healthcare overhaul.

* In 1999, Romney took over as head of the committee organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, which had been plagued by cost overruns and scandal, and produced a successful event that helped establish his national reputation as a premier problem-solver.

* As his party moved to the right, Romney changed his positions on sensitive social issues, including abortion and gay rights. That fueled criticism that he lacked core beliefs and was motivated only by ambition. Romney referred to himself as “severely conservative” during the 2012 Republican primaries but has projected a more moderate image during the general election campaign.

* Romney met his wife, Ann, at a high school dance and they married in 1969, while they were still in college. They have five sons and 18 grandchildren. Romney has an English degree from Utah’s Brigham Young University, which is owned and run by the Mormon church, and a joint law degree and MBA from Harvard University. He speaks French.

* Romney joined the management consultancy Bain & Company in 1977 and climbed the ranks. In 1984, he co-founded the highly profitable private equity arm Bain Capital, which invested in start-ups and fledgling companies including Staples, Sports Authority and Domino’s Pizza. Critics have highlighted the number of jobs Bain cut while Romney was at its helm.

* Romney has battled a reputation for being uncomfortable and stiff when campaigning and somewhat aloof when relating to ordinary Americans. The New York Times once described his campaign persona as “All-Business Man, the world’s most boring superhero.”

* He has little foreign policy experience. He stumbled in August during a gaffe-filled trip to Britain, Israel and Poland that was meant to burnish his credentials on the world stage. He has labeled Russia as America’s “number one geopolitical foe” and said that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability should be Washington’s highest national security priority.

(Compiled by Americas Desk; Editing by Will Dunham)

Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..