How to turn an old Kindle Fire into a Nexus 7 with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean [video]

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“Silver Linings Playbook” sweeps Satellite Awards

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Silver Linings Playbook” was the big winner at Sunday night’s Satellite Awards, a show produced by and voted on by the International Press Academy and held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The David O. Russell comedy, which has been overshadowed in the awards picture by more recent films like “Les Miserables” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” won five awards, including Best Motion Picture. Rusell won the award for directing, while stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were named best actor and actress. The film also won for editing.

Supporting actor and actress awards went to Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables” and Javier Bardem for “Skyfall.”

Mark Boal won the original-screenplay award for “Zero Dark Thirty,” while David Magee won the adapted-screenplay honor for “Life of Pi.”

Other winners: “Rise of the Guardians,” best animated film; “Chasing Ice,” best documentary; and a tie between “The Intouchables” and “Pieta” for best foreign film.

Proving that the IPA is a body of voters inclined toward sweeps, the television series “Homeland” and “The Big Bang Theory” each won three awards in the TV categories, picking up honors as best drama and comedy series, respectively, and also winning the actor and actress awards.

The awards:

FILM AWARDS

Motion picture: “Silver Linings Playbook”

Director: David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Actor: Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Supporting actor: Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”

Supporting actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”

Original screenplay: Mark Boal, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Adapted screenplay: David Magee, “Life of Pi”

Motion picture, animated or mixed media: “Rise of the Guardians”

Motion picture, documentary: “Chasing Ice”

Motion picture, international: (tie) “The Intouchables,” “Pieta”

Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, “Life of Pi”

Editing: Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Score: Alexandre Desplat, “Argo”

Song: “Suddenly” from “Les Miserables”

Sound (editing and mixing): Andy Nelson, John Warhurst, Lee Walpole, Simon Hayes, “Les Miserables”

Visual effects: Michael Lantieri, Kevin Baillie, Ryan Tudhope, Jim Gibbs, “Flight”

Art direction & production design: Rick Carter, Curt Beech, David Crank, Leslie McDonald, “Lincoln”

Costume design: Manon Rasmussen, “A Royal Affair”

TELEVISION AWARDS

Miniseries or movie made for television: “Hatfields & McCoys”

Actor in a miniseries/movie made for television: Benedict Cumberbatch, “Sherlock

Actress in a miniseries/movie made for television: Julianne Moore, “Game Change”

Supporting actor in a miniseries/TV movie: Neal McDonough, “Justified”

Supporting actress in a miniseries/TV movie: Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”

Drama series: “Homeland”

Genre series: “Walking Dead”

Actor in a drama: Damian Lewis, “Homeland”

Actress in a drama: Claire Danes, “Homeland”

Comedy or musical series: “The Big Bang Theory”

Actor in a comedy: Johnny Galecki, “The Big Bang Theory”

Actress in a comedy: Kaley Cuoco, “The Big Bang Theory”

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry: Terence Stamp

Nikola Tesla Award: Walter Murch

Auteur Award: Paul Williams

Honorary Satellite Award: Bruce Davison

Newcomer Award: Quvenzhane Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Humanitarian Award: Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Motion picture ensemble: “Les Miserables”

Television ensemble: “Walking Dead”

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Amgen to plead guilty in criminal case Tuesday: prosecutors

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Biotech company Amgen Inc is scheduled to plead guilty on Tuesday in a criminal case in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, prosecutors said.

A brief statement from the U.S. Attorney‘s office gave no details of the charges Amgen would plead guilty to.

Representatives of Amgen could not immediately be reached to comment.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye)

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“Fiscal cliff” hopes lift Asian shares, other risk assets

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares and other risk assets rose on Tuesday as signs of compromise sparked new optimism that the U.S. “fiscal cliff” budget tussle could be settled before tax hikes and spending cuts begin to bite early next year.

Differences over how to resolve the fiscal cliff narrowed significantly Monday night as President Barack Obama made a counter-offer to Republicans that included a major change in position on tax hikes for the wealthy, according to a source familiar with the talks.

The move, which the source stressed was not Obama’s final offer, was welcomed by a spokesman for Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, potentially advancing negotiations towards a deal by the end-year deadline.

Oil, copper and gold also firmed on the prospect of progress in the U.S. budget talks, which reduced worries about economic damage, but expectations of more monetary easing in Japan kept the yen soft.

“The market will view any advance in talks as positive for confidence, which has been battered by the daily flow of political fighting,” Ben Taylor, sales trader at CMC Markets said in a report.

“Regardless of what is decided, the market is looking for a decision and any compromise will help provide a clearer picture for the future.”

European shares were expected to keep up the positive momentum, with financial spreadbetters predicting London’s FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris’s CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt’s DAX <.gdaxi> will open as much as 0.5 percent higher. A 0.3 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a higher Wall Street opening. <.l><.eu><.n></.n></.eu></.l></.gdaxi></.fchi></.ftse>

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was up 0.2 percent, following a rise in global shares on Monday. The index snapped an eight-day winning streak on Monday as investors took profits from last week’s rally.</.miapj0000pus>

Regional equities also took direction from local factors.

Australian shares <.axjo> gained 0.5 percent to a 17-month high, with resource stocks elevated by a rise in iron ore prices <.io62-cni> to a five-month high.</.io62-cni></.axjo>

“Iron ore is a very key commodity in the Chinese industrial machine, steel usage will bounce back and that is good news for our exporters,” said Baillieu Holst director Richard Morrow.

Seoul shares <.ks11> rose marginally but underperformed some others in Asia, as investors were reluctant to build positions ahead of South Korea’s presidential vote on Wednesday.</.ks11>

London copper was up 0.3 percent to $ 8,085 a metric ton (1.1023 tons).

“Before the end of the year, I don’t really see huge selling pressure, with improving data from China and expectations for a resolution to the fiscal cliff,” said analyst Bonnie Liu of Macquarie.

U.S. crude surged 0.8 percent to $ 87.85 a barrel and Brent rose 0.7 percent to $ 108.41.

Spot gold added 0.3 percent to $ 1,702.01 an ounce.

Solid performance in stocks boosted Asian credit markets, narrowing the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by two basis points.

JAPAN POLITICS MATTER

In Japan, the Nikkei average <.n225> closed up 1.0 percent at an 8-1/2-month high and edged closer to the key 10,000-mark, with sentiment bolstered by a landslide election win for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday. <.t></.t></.n225>

LDP leader Shinzo Abe, due to be confirmed as Japan’s premier on December 26, is calling for far more aggressive monetary stimulus and huge public works spending to rescue Japan from decades-long deflation. His pledges are seen as pressuring the yen and supporting Japanese stocks by improving earnings for the country’s exporters.

“The Nikkei is up today primarily due to the rise in U.S. stocks overnight, but the ‘Abe-effect’ is surprisingly longer-lasting as investors seem to be postponing the timing of unwinding their positions until they see the details and specifics in policies,” said Ayako Sera, market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 83.96 yen, off a 20-month high of 84.48 yen hit on Monday but well above its late New York levels on Friday.

Abe applied fresh pressure on the Bank of Japan on Monday, saying that the election result reflected strong public support for his views, which he hoped the BOJ would take into account at its two-day policy meeting starting on Wednesday.

“The dollar has more upside against the yen ahead of the BOJ’s meeting, with expectations for some additional easing steps being strengthened after Abe’s comments yesterday,” said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.

“The corrective fall in the dollar/yen after the election was small and it’s crawling up because the yen weakening trend is still intact. But after the BOJ meeting, there will likely be pre-holiday profit-taking, pushing the dollar/yen down by 1 to 2 yen,” Saito said, adding that the dollar could temporarily touch 85 yen before profit-taking sets in by year-end.

Concerns that big-scale fiscal stimulus could seriously increase the country’s debt burden pushed the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield to a one-month high of 0.750 percent.

U.S. Treasury yields also inched up in Asia, with the 10-year yields briefly reaching 1.796 percent, its highest level since October 26, on hopes for a deal on the U.S. fiscal cliff. [US/T

(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne and Manash Goswami and Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

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N. Korea displays Kim Jong Il a year after death

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea unveiled the embalmed body of Kim Jong Il, still in his trademark khaki jumpsuit, on the anniversary of his death Monday as mourning mixed with pride over a recent satellite launch that was a long-held goal of the late authoritarian leader.

Kim lies in state a few floors below his father, national founder Kim Il Sung, in the Kumsusan mausoleum, the cavernous former presidential palace. Kim Jong Il is presented lying beneath a red blanket, a spotlight shining on his face in a room suffused in red.

Wails echoed through the chilly hall as a group of North Korean women sobbed into the sashes of their traditional Korean dresses as they bowed before his body. The hall bearing the glass coffin was opened to select visitors — including The Associated Press — for the first time since his death.

North Korea also unveiled Kim’s yacht and his armored train carriage, where he is said to have died. Among the personal belongings featured in the mausoleum are the parka, sunglasses and pointy platform shoes he famously wore in the last decades of his life. A MacBook Pro lay open on his desk.

North Koreans paid homage to Kim and basked in the success of last week’s launch of a long-range rocket that sent a satellite named after him to space.

The launch, condemned in many other capitals as a violation of bans against developing its missile technology, was portrayed not only as a gift to Kim Jong Il but also as proof that his young son, Kim Jong Un, has the strength and vision to lead the country.

The elder Kim died last Dec. 17 from a heart attack while traveling on his train. His death was followed by scenes of North Koreans dramatically wailing in the streets of Pyongyang, and of the 20-something son leading ranks of uniformed and gray-haired officials through funeral and mourning rites.

The mood in the capital was decidedly more upbeat a year later, with some of the euphoria carrying over from last Wednesday’s launch. The satellite bears one of Kim Jong Il’s nicknames, Kwangmyongsong, or “Lode Star,” a moniker given to him at birth according to the official lore.

Cameras were not allowed inside the mausoleum, and state media did not release any images of Kim Jong Il’s body.

With the death anniversary came a hint that Kim Jong Un himself might soon be a father.

His wife, Ri Sol Ju, was seen on state TV with what appeared to be a baby bump as she walked slowly next to her husband at the mausoleum, where they bowed to statues of Kim’s father and grandfather.

There is no official word from Pyongyang about a pregnancy. In addition, Ri is shown wearing a billowing traditional Korean dress in black that makes it difficult to know for sure.

North Koreans are reluctant to discuss details of the Kim family that have not been released by the state. Still there are rumors even in Pyongyang about whether the country’s first couple is expecting.

To honor Kim’s father, North Koreans stopped in their tracks at midday and bowed their heads as the national flag fluttered at half-staff along streets and from buildings.

Pyongyang construction workers took off their yellow hard hats and bowed at the waist as sirens wailed across the city for three minutes.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans gathered in the frigid plaza outside, newly transformed into a public park with lawns and pergolas. Geese flew past snow-tinged firs and swans dallied in the partly frozen moat that rings the vast complex in Pyongyang’s outskirts.

“Just when we were thinking how best to uphold our general, he passed away,” Kim Jong Ran said at the plaza. “But we upheld leader Kim Jong Un. … We regained our strength and we are filled with determination to work harder for our country.”

Speaking outside the mausoleum, renamed the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the military’s top political officer, Choe Ryong Hae, said North Korea should be proud of the satellite, calling it “a political event with great significance in the history of Korea and humanity.”

Much of the rest of the world, however, was swift in condemning the launch, which was seen by the United States and other nations as a thinly disguised cover for testing missile technology that could someday be used for a nuclear warhead.

The test, which the U.N. Security Council said violated a ban on launches using ballistic missile technology, underlined Kim Jong Un’s determination to continue carrying out his father’s hardline policies even if they draw international condemnation.

Washington said Monday it has no option but to seek to isolate Pyongyang further.

“What’s left to us is to continue to increase pressure on the North Korean regime and we are looking at how to best to do that, both bilaterally and with our partners going forward until they (North Korea) get the message. We are going to further isolate this regime,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Some outside experts worry that Pyongyang’s next move will be to press ahead with a nuclear test in the coming weeks, a step toward building a warhead small enough to be carried by a long-range missile.

Despite inviting further isolation for his impoverished nation and the threat of stiffer sanctions, Kim Jong Un won national prestige and clout by going ahead with the rocket launch.

At a memorial service on Sunday, North Korea’s top leadership not only eulogized Kim Jong Il, but also praised his son. Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of North Korea’s parliament, called the launch a “shining victory” and an emblem of the promise that lies ahead with Kim Jong Un in power.

The rocket’s success also fits neatly into the narrative of Kim Jong Il’s death. Even before he died, the father had laid the groundwork for his son to inherit a government focused on science, technology and improving the economy. And his pursuit of nuclear weapons and the policy of putting the military ahead of all other national concerns have also carried into Kim Jong Un’s reign.

In a sign of the rocket launch’s importance, Kim Jong Un invited the scientists in charge of it to attend the mourning rites in Pyongyang, according to state media.

The reopening of the mausoleum on the anniversary of the leader’s death follows tradition. Kumsusan, the palace where his father, Kim Il Sung, served as president, was reopened as a mausoleum on the anniversary of his death in 1994.

___

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Jean Lee, AP’s bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul, at www.twitter.com/newsjean.

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iPad shipments could reach 100 million in 2013

Apple (AAPL) sold 42.8 million iPad tablets into channels through the first three quarters of 2012 and the most recent estimates suggest the company could ship 26 million more iPads during the holiday quarter. If Apple does manage to hit that record, total iPad shipments on the year would reach 68.8 million units. As impressive as that would be, however, DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh thinks 2013 iPad sales could climb as high as 100 million units as iPad mini demand explodes.

[More from BGR: Has the iPhone peaked? Apple’s iPhone 4S seen outselling iPhone 5]

In 2012, Hsieh estimates that 9.7-inch iPad panel shipments — that is, shipments of iPad displays from suppliers to Apple’s manufacturing partners —  will have totaled 70 million units, including 23 million iPad 2 displays and 47 million third- and fourth-generation iPad panels. He also believes Apple’s suppliers will ship 13.6 million iPad mini displays by the end of the year.

[More from BGR: Sony’s PlayStation 4 could lose to the next Xbox before it’s even released]

Next year, however, the analyst sees Apple hitting a major milestone.

“In 2013, it is likely that Apple will adjust its product portfolio to meet the strong demand for the iPad mini,” Hsieh wrote in a post on DisplaySearch’s blog. ”We believe that Apple is targeting total iPad shipments of 100 million in 2013, half accounted for by the iPad mini, and 40 million new iPad and 10 million iPad 2, as production continues at least until the middle of 2013.”

DisplaySearch estimates that more than 170 million tablets will ship in 2013 and Apple’s iPad will account for 60% of the market.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Keep thimerosal in vaccines: pediatricians

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A mercury-containing preservative should not be banned as an ingredient in vaccines, U.S. pediatricians said Monday, in a move that may be controversial.

In its statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed calls from a World Health Organization (WHO) committee that the preservative, thimerosal, not be considered a hazardous source of mercury that could be banned by the United Nations.

Back in 1999, a concern that kids receiving multiple shots containing thimerosal might get too much mercury – and develop autism or other neurodevelopmental problems as a result – led the AAP to call for its removal, despite the lack of hard evidence at the time.

“It was absolutely a matter of precaution because of the absence of more information,” said Dr. Louis Cooper, from Columbia University in New York, who was on the organization’s board of directors at the time.

“Subsequently an awful lot of effort has been put into trying to sort out whether thimerosal causes any harm to kids, and the bottom line is basically, it doesn’t look as if it does,” Cooper, who wrote a commentary published with the AAP’s statement, told Reuters Health.

In a 2004 safety review, for example, the independent U.S. Institute of Medicine concluded there was no evidence thimerosal-containing vaccines could cause autism. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came to the same conclusion in 2010.

With the exception of some types of flu shots, the compound is not used in vaccines in the United States, which are distributed in single-dose vials.

And nobody is arguing that should change, according to Dr. Walter Orenstein, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases and a researcher at the Emory Vaccine Center in Atlanta.

But in countries with fewer resources – where many children still die of vaccine-preventable diseases – it’s cheaper and easier to use multi-dose vials of vaccines against diphtheria and tetanus, for example.

Thimerosal prevents the rest of a multi-dose vial from getting contaminated with bacteria or fungi each time a dose is used.

Researchers estimated it could cost anywhere from two to five times as much to manufacture vaccines for developing countries without thimerosal, and both transporting vaccines and keeping them refrigerated would be much harder as well.

“If we had to take the thimerosal out of those multi-dose vials, we’re having a hard time completing the task of getting every kid immunized now, that would add a tremendous burden,” Cooper said – and more children would probably die as a result.

“Children who can now be protected from these life-threatening diseases could become vulnerable,” Orenstein told Reuters Health.

The new statement is published in the AAP’s journal Pediatrics.

Thimerosal contains a type of mercury called ethyl mercury. Toxic effects have been tied to its cousin, methyl mercury, which stays in the body for much longer.

Earlier this year, the WHO said replacing thimerosal with an alternative preservative could affect vaccine safety and might cause some vaccines to become unavailable.

Mercury, however, is still on the list of global health hazards to be banned in a draft treaty from the United Nations Environment Program – which would mean a ban on thimerosal.

Reducing mercury exposure “is a wonderful thing,” Orenstein said.

However, “We need this exception because thimerosal is so vital for protecting children.”

He said keeping thimerosal in vaccines is essential mostly for humanitarian reasons – although preventing childhood diseases in the developing world could also help the U.S. because other countries can serve as reservoirs for illness.

“For American parents, this is more looking at the world and our role and responsibility in protecting the children of the world than it is a direct impact,” Orenstein said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online December 17, 2012.

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Analysis: Huge mandate for Japan’s LDP may be less than meets the eye

TOKYO (Reuters) – Even Japan‘s next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, realizes that his party’s landslide election victory is not the sweeping mandate that it appears at first blush.

An analysis of the vote as well as Abe’s own comments suggests he would be best served by focusing on what matters most to voters – the economy – and steering clear of divisive issues such as revising Japan’s pacifist constitution.

That said, aggressive moves by China in a territorial row over tiny islands in the East China Sea could act to bolster support for Abe’s tough-talking stance toward its giant rival.

Three years after a crushing defeat, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) surged back to win 294 seats in Sunday’s vote for the 480-member lower house.

Together with a smaller ally, the New Komeito party, the LDP also took a two-thirds ‘super majority‘ that could help break Japan’s persistent policy deadlock in parliament.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), in comparison, managed a mere 57 seats – less than a fifth of its showing when it swept into power for the first time in a historic 2009 vote.

Abe himself, however, admitted the victory was more a rejection of the novice Democrats’ messy reign than a vote of confidence for the LDP, which ruled Japan for most of the past half-century before its ouster three years ago.

“Our victory this time does not mean trust in the Liberal Democratic Party has been completely restored. Rather, it was a decision by the public that they should put an end to the political stagnation and confusion over the past three years, caused by the Democratic Party‘s misguided political leadership,” Abe told a news conference on Monday.

“We must move forward and achieve results.”

Japanese voters have been on a roller coaster of hopes and disappointment for the past decade since charismatic leader Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001 pledging bold reforms.

Lured by Koizumi’s promises, voters handed the LDP a massive victory in 2005 only to kick out the long-ruling party four years later in hopes that the Democrats would do a better job.

In a sign that both enthusiasm and expectations are fading, turnout on Sunday was a record low 59 percent, according to a Kyodo news agency estimate.

Nor did the LDP win a majority of votes from those who did cast their ballots. The main opposition party won about 43 percent of the vote in the single-seat constituencies that supply 300 of the chamber’s seats, but a first-past-the post system and split votes amongst a clutch of new, small parties meant that the party secured 79 percent of those seats.

JULY ELECTION HURDLE

In the proportional representation blocks that provide the other 180 seats, the LDP won about 28 percent of the votes compared to 16 percent for the DPJ, while the new right-leaning Japan Restoration Party took 20 percent, media estimates showed.

“It’s clear that only 30 percent or less of voters solidly support the LDP. Unless Abe is careful, his cabinet support will go down to that level very quickly and even with a two-thirds majority, he would be in trouble,” said Sophia University political science professor Koichi Nakano.

Abe, who quit in 2007 after a troubled year in office, will have to persuade voters quickly that they made the right choice ahead of an election for parliament’s upper chamber in July.

Although the LDP-New Komeito “super majority” will allow the lower house to enact bills rejected by the upper chamber, doing so is a time-consuming and cumbersome process, so the new government will be keen to win a majority in July’s poll.

“He’s preparing for the next election and understands that what he does in the first few months will have a big impact and voters are most interested in the economy,” said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.

Abe has vowed to rescue Japan from its fourth recession since 2000, end deflation and tame the strong yen with a recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy and big spending on public works.

Equally central to his agenda, however, is a push to shed the shackles of Japan’s post-war pacifism by revising the U.S.-drafted constitution and rewriting wartime history with a less apologetic tinge.

Changing the charter – never altered since its adoption in 1947 – requires approval by two-thirds of both houses of parliament and a majority of voters in a national referendum.

Straw polls of voters suggest that the economy tops the list of public priorities and LDP ally New Komeito is not keen on revising the constitution’s pacifist Article 9.

But a strong showing by the nationalist Japan Restoration Party in the election also indicates simmering support for a tough stance towards China as well as hope for a decisive leader to restore Japan’s flagging self-respect.

That could grow if Beijing steps up its activities in waters and airspace near the disputed islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Last week, a Chinese government plane entered what Japan considers its airspace over the islets in the East China Sea, prompting Japanese fighters to scramble and escalating tension in the row between Asia’s two biggest economies.

“This has not been a strong mandate for Abe in foreign policy or security matters,” said Narushige Michishita, an associate professor at the National Institute for Policy Studies. “But if China continues to provoke us as they did several days ago, that might change.”

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Egyptians hand Islamists narrow win in constitution vote

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptians voted in favor of a constitution shaped by Islamists but opposed by other groups who fear it will divide the Arab world’s biggest nation, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage referendum.

Next week’s second round is likely to give another “yes” vote as it includes districts seen as more sympathetic towards Islamists, analysts say, meaning the constitution would be approved.

But the narrow win so far gives Islamist President Mohamed Mursi only limited grounds for celebration by showing the wide rifts in a country where he needs to build a consensus for tough economic reforms.

The Muslim Brotherhood‘s party, which propelled Mursi to office in a June election, said 56.5 percent backed the text. Official results are not expected until after the next round.

While an opposition official conceded the “yes” camp appeared to have won the first round, the opposition National Salvation Front said in a statement that voting abuses meant a rerun was needed – although it did not explicitly challenge the Brotherhood‘s vote tally.

Rights groups reported abuses such as polling stations opening late, officials telling people how to vote and bribery. They also criticized widespread religious campaigning which portrayed “no” voters as heretics.

A joint statement by seven human rights groups urged the referendum’s organizers “to avoid these mistakes in the second stage of the referendum and to restage the first phase again”.

Mursi and his backers say the constitution is vital to move Egypt’s democratic transition forward. Opponents say the basic law is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights, including those of Christians who make up 10 percent of the population.

The build-up to Saturday’s vote was marred by deadly protests. Demonstrations erupted when Mursi awarded himself extra powers on November 22 and then fast-tracked the constitution through an assembly dominated by his Islamist allies.

However, the vote passed off calmly with long queues in Cairo and several other places, though unofficial tallies indicated turnout was around a third of the 26 million people eligible to vote this time. The vote was staggered because many judges needed to oversee polling staged a boycott in protest.

The opposition had said the vote should not have been held given the violent protests. Foreign governments are watching closely how the Islamists, long viewed warily in the West, handle themselves in power.

“It’s wrong to have a vote or referendum with the country in the state it is – blood and killings, and no security,” said Emad Sobhy, a voter who lives in Cairo. “Holding a referendum with the country as it is cannot give you a proper result.”

INCREASINGLY DIVIDED

As polls closed, Islamists attacked the offices of the newspaper of the liberal Wafd party, part of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition that pushed for a “no” vote.

“The referendum was 56.5 percent for the ‘yes’ vote,” a senior official in the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party operations room set up to monitor voting told Reuters.

The Brotherhood and its party had representatives at polling stations across the 10 areas, including Cairo, in this round. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the tally was based on counts from more than 99 percent of polling stations.

“The nation is increasingly divided and the pillars of state are swaying,” opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on Twitter. “Poverty and illiteracy are fertile grounds for trading with religion. The level of awareness is rising fast.”

One opposition official also told Reuters the vote appeared to have gone in favor of Islamists who backed the constitution.

The opposition initially said its exit polls indicated the “no” camp would win comfortably, but officials changed tack during the night. One opposition official said in the early hours of Sunday that it would be “very close”.

A narrow loss could still hearten leftists, socialists, Christians and more liberal-minded Muslims who make up the disparate opposition, which has been beaten in two elections since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.

They were drawn together to oppose what they saw as a power grab by Mursi as he pushed through the constitution. The National Salvation Front includes prominent figures such as ElBaradei, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and firebrand leftist Hamdeen Sabahy.

If the constitution is approved, a parliamentary election will follow early next year.

DEADLY VIOLENCE

Analysts question whether the opposition group will keep together until the parliamentary election. The Islamist-dominated lower house of parliament elected earlier this year was dissolved based on a court order in June.

Violence in Cairo and other cities has plagued the run-up to the referendum. At least eight people were killed when rival camps clashed during demonstrations outside the presidential palace earlier this month.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of those casting ballots. There are 51 million eligible voters in the nation of 83 million.

Islamists have been counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and on Egyptians desperate for an end to turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt’s pound to eight-year lows against the dollar.

The army deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings. While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened in the present crisis.

(Additional reporting Yasmin Saleh and Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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U.S. gun website sued for alleged ties to slayings

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A prominent U.S. gun control group on Wednesday sued a gun auction website it says is linked to a mass shooting at a Wisconsin spa in October and the stalker slaying of a woman near Chicago in 2011.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence alleges that the design of armslist.com facilitates illegal online sales to unlawful gun buyers with no background checks, and enables users to evade laws that permit private sellers to sell guns only to residents of their own state.

“We as a nation are better than an anonymous Internet gun market where killers and criminals can easily get guns,” said Jonathan Lowy, the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project Director, in a statement.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of Jitka Vesel, 36, an immigrant from the Czech Republic who was shot and killed last year by Demetry Smirnov, a stalker.

The suit, which the Brady Center says is the first of its kind, alleges that Smirnov illegally bought the gun from a private seller he located through armslist.com.

Vesel was killed in the parking lot of the Chicago-area Czechoslovak Heritage Museum, where she was a volunteer preparing for a celebration in memory of Czech-American Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.

Cermak was slain with a handgun during an attempted assassination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

A representative for website owner Armslist, LLC was not immediately available for comment. The company is based in Noble, Oklahoma, according to public records.

The website includes a “terms of use” page on which users must promise they are age 18 or older and will not use the site for illegal purposes.

The Brady Center said that the case does not infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms, noting that 74 percent of National Rifle Association members believe that no guns should be sold without a criminal background check.

A representative for the NRA was not immediately available for comment.

Radcliffe Haughton, who killed his estranged wife and two other women and wounded four others before killing himself in a shooting in a Milwaukee suburb on October 21, also got his weapon through armslist.com, according to Wisconsin officials.

Haughton, who was under a restraining order for domestic violence, avoided a background check through a “lethal loophole” by buying a gun through the website, according to a letter to Armslist sent by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Wisconsin U.S. Representative Gwen Moore on October 26.

Sales conducted over the Internet also have been linked to mass killings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. In 1999 eBay announced it was prohibiting online gun sales, according to the Brady Center lawsuit.

Craigslist did the same in 2007. Amazon.com and Google AdWords also prohibits the listing of firearms for sale, the suit says.

An undercover investigation of online gun sales by New York City last year found that 62 percent of private gun sellers agreed to sell a firearm to a buyer who said he probably could not pass a background check.

(Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune and Xavier Briand)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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