Minka Kelly as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Pacific Coast News
"I'm not worthy. I feel so lucky and grateful. I was like, 'What am I doing here?!' " Kelly tells PEOPLE of starring alongside Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, John Cusack, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and more in the upcoming film, which tells the story of a butler who served eight presidents.
The movie also features another major star: the one and only Oprah Winfrey. "I didn't get to meet Oprah because our shooting schedules were different, but she's a pretty loved lady," Kelly says. "I have yet to hear a bad thing about her!"
Kelly found that the most difficult part of playing Jackie Kennedy was nailing the former first lady's distinct accent. "I think she spoke in a way she thought she should speak, so getting that down was hard. There's a musicality and rhythm to the way she speaks," Kelly explains. "I went to sleep listening to her."
Another tough task? Slipping into the retro costumes. "My body is so different from her because I have curves, so fitting into those vintage clothes was actually really hard," she shares. "Also it was hot – and there was a lot of wool!"
Jennifer Graylock / Getty
For the month of February, Diet Coke will donate $1 for every person who uploads a heart-inspired photo to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #showyourheart. Visit to dietcoke.com/showyourheart for more information.
NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.
The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.
The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.
But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.
For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.
Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.
"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.
In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.
Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications
But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.
So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.
Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.
The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says
On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.
According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.
Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
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Online:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.
The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.
The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp
Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.
AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.
Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.
"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.
The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.
"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.
For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.
Shares of Dell
Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.
Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.
Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.
Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.
Molina Healthcare Inc
The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.
"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."
Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.
Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.
(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan may release data it says will prove a Chinese naval vessel directed its fire control radar at a Japanese destroyer near disputed islands in the East China Sea, local media reported.
Japan has said a Chinese frigate on January 30 locked its targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer - a step that usually precedes the firing of weapons - but China insists that its vessel used only ordinary surveillance radar.
The incident has added to tensions between the two nations over the disputed islands.
Japan will consider how much normally classified data it can release, the media reports said, citing comments by Japan Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera on local television.
"The government is considering the extent of what can be disclosed," Kyodo news agency quoted Onodera as saying.
China has accused Japan of smearing its name with the accusations, and on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency continued the war of words.
"By spreading false accusations and posing as a poor victim, Japan had intended to tarnish China's image so as to gain sympathy and support, but a lie does not help," it said in an English language commentary.
"China has been exercising maximum restraint and stayed committed to solving the dispute through dialogue and consultation."
Japan and China have been involved in a series of incidents in recent months in the East China Sea where Chinese and Japanese naval vessels regularly shadow each others movements.
Both countries claim a small clusters of islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, believed to be rich in oil and gas. Controlled by Japan, possession of the uninhabited outcrops and the sea surrounding them would provide China with easier access to the Pacific.
Hopes had been rising for an easing in tensions, including a possible summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping. But the radar issue has seen China and Japan engage in a fresh round of invective.
China's Defence Ministry on Thursday said Japan's complaints did not "match the facts". The Chinese ship's radar, it said, had maintained regular alerting and surveillance operations and the ship "did not use fire control radar".
Japan's position against China has hardened since Abe led his conservative party to a landslide election victory in December, promising to beef up the military and stand tough in territorial disputes.
The commander of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific said the squabble between Japan and China underlined the need for rules to prevent such incidents turning into serious conflict.
China also has ongoing territorial disputes with other Asian nations including Vietnam and the Philippines over islands in the South China Sea.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Michael Perry)
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – LinkedIn Corp extended its hot streak on Thursday, announcing both blow-out quarterly profits and a bullish forecast for the new year that exceeded Wall Street’s already lofty expectations.
The results reaffirmed the “professional” social network’s reputation as a fast-growing but sure-footed business — and the star exception in a mostly disappointing social media sector.
Excluding certain items, net income was $ 40.2 million, or 35 cents a share, well above the 19 cents expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The results meant LinkedIn beat analyst estimates for the seventh quarter in a row and sent shares of the company, which have doubled in the past 12 months, soaring 9 percent higher to $ 135 after hours.
Revenue rose a better-than-expected 81 percent from a year ago to $ 303.6 million, as millions of new job seekers and corporate recruiters around the world signed up with LinkedIn to post resumes or poach competitors’ employees.
The company offered bullish forecasts for the first quarter as well, projecting revenue between $ 305 million and $ 310 million, above analyst estimates of $ 301 million.
“You can pick out a lot of things that were great, from customer adds to accelerating revenue to growth in international,” said Kerry Rice, an analyst at Needham & Co. “On top of that, guidance is pretty outstanding. And from a historical perspective, they’ll likely beat those numbers too.”
TURBOCHARGED GROWTH
Founded by former PayPal employees in 2002, LinkedIn remains one of the most profitable Web companies, with gross margins approaching 90 percent.
At a time when Facebook Inc stock trades 25 percent below its initial public offering price and basic questions loom over the business models of online gaming group Zynga Inc and daily deals company Groupon Inc, LinkedIn has proved it can consistently make money by selling access to its 200 million users’ resumes since it went public in May 2011 at $ 45 a share.
The size of LinkedIn’s user base has reinforced its position against competitors, few of whom pose a serious challenge. Facebook only recently announced a “Jobs Board” tool in November. And on Thursday, shares of Monster Worldwide Inc fell 7 percent after the human resources company reported a quarterly loss and said it would pull out of several countries.
Analysts in recent months, however, have begun to question how long LinkedIn can sustain its turbocharged growth as it becomes saturated in some U.S. markets.
On Thursday’s earnings call, company executives said the majority of LinkedIn’s users are now based outside of the United States, and the company is aggressively targeting job markets in Hong Kong and Brazil.
Sales from international markets more than doubled over the past year to $ 114.6 million, or 38 percent of total revenue in the quarter, the company said.
In response to a slowdown in user growth and the slide in page views, LinkedIn has introduced some social media features to encourage visitors to click more on its site, as opposed to uploading their resumes and never coming back.
LinkedIn has introduced personal blogs by successful businesspeople like Sir Richard Branson, whom users can “follow” for updates.
Chief Executive Jeff Weiner told analysts on Thursday’s earnings call that the blog series, called “Influencers,” has exceeded expectations and now features contributions from business luminaries like GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt and investor Mark Cuban.
Other social mechanics, such as a recent addition that encouraged users to endorse their colleagues for their professional skills, also helped keep users coming back to the site more frequently, Weiner said.
The endorsements feature had the effect of “creating the right kind of viral loops,” he said.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis and Richard Pullin)
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Clive Davis and Whitney Houston
Larry Busacca/WireImage
Gearing up for his annual pre-Grammy gala that centered last year on Houston's memorial, Davis, 80, says at Saturday's big event, he is "going to do something to remind everybody that her talent lived among us and in so many people."
On the same night as his event, a special is airing on CBS, dedicated to the fallen diva.
"I wanted her special to be meaningful and touching," Davis says. "I wanted everyone to remember why she was the greatest in her generation. I'm a great believer in carrying the torch and making sure that her legacy is as glittering as it should be. I'm very involved in that, emotionally and musically."
Asked for his all-time favorite memories from the start of his galas to the present, Davis said without hesitation, "I think Whitney's performances stand out as being special."
And while he won't give away much else about the highly anticipated evening, he would say, teasingly, "It's a different kind of opening. The opening has never been done before, with the kind of music that's unprecedented."
The 55th annual Grammys will air Sunday, Feb. 10, on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. CT) from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.
It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.
Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.
"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.
In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.
"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.
Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.
The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:
—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.
—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.
—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.
—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.
—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.
"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.
Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.
There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.
There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.
The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.
Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.
"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.
"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."
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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares rose and the euro hovered near a two-week low on Friday after the European Central Bank rekindled expectations that it could cut interest rates again.
Strong Chinese trade data also helped lift optimism about global growth prospects, boosting oil, copper and Asian shares, while the yen rose sharply after Japan's finance minister said the currency's recent drop had been overdone.
The ECB left rates at a record low 0.75 percent on Thursday but the bank's President Mario Draghi levered the door to a cut back open by saying it would monitor whether the euro's rise over recent months could push inflation below its comfort zone.
European shares were enjoying their best session of an otherwise low-key week as midday approached, on the hopes lower borrowing rates -- or at least the threat of them -- would reverse some of the 8 percent trade-weighted rise in the euro since August.
"The ECB had quite an impact on the euro-dollar and the positive Chinese data we have had has helped shares," said ABN Amro economist Aline Schuiling.
"Draghi signaled quite clearly yesterday that with the rise in the euro, the risks to price stability are to the downside. We expect the dollar to continue to strengthen, but if that reverses then markets would price in a rate cut."
London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were up 0.5, 0.6 and 0.2 percent respectively by 1100 GMT pushing the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.fteu3> up 0.5 percent, though it was still on course for its second consecutive weekly fall.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady start on Wall Street.<.n/>
Draghi said the euro's recent surge was a sign of a return of confidence, but cautioned: "We certainly want to see whether the appreciation is sustained and will alter our risk assessment as far as price stability is concerned."
The comments saw the currency tumble to $1.33705, the lowest since January 25, although a modest mid-morning rebound lifted it back to $1.3404. It had earlier also hit a two-week low against sterling and a one-week low versus the yen.
The yen, the other key focus of foreign exchange markets following the push by Japan's government to ease monetary policy, rose sharply after the country's finance minister said the currency's recent drop had been overdone.
The euro fell 1.5 percent against the yen to 123.54 yen with traders reporting selling by Asian funds. The dollar shed 1 percent to hit a session low of 92.17 yen as a U.S.-based investor sold the greenback.
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR
Helping to bolster strengthening global growth hopes, China said its exports grew 25 percent in January from a year ago, the strongest showing since April 2011 and well ahead of market expectations, while imports also beat forecasts, surging 28.8 percent on the year.
It lifted commodities, including copper, which ended a four day losing streak. Brent crude oil edged towards $118 per barrel.
Brent has gained over the last three weeks as positive data suggested the global economy had turned a corner, which augurs well for fuel demand, while supply worries stemming from tensions in the Middle East have also supported prices.
Earlier MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> added 0.3 percent and Australian shares rallied 0.7 percent to 34-month highs. Chinese markets are closed next week for the Lunar New Year holiday, while Hong Kong will resume trading on Thursday. Despite Friday's rises, MSCI's world equity index <.miwd00000pus> was on course for a weekly fall of about one percent, which would be its biggest drop since November and the first weekly decline of 2013.
However, the global index is still up four percent for the year to date and is not far from its best levels since mid-2008.
"China's economic conditions are improving and the trade data confirms the continuation of a recovery trend. Not just the trade data but retail, production and investment flows clearly show that the economy bottomed out in the third quarter last year," said Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
BANK REPAYMENTS
Money markets rates reversed some of their recent gains following Draghi's insistence that the ECB's policy will remain accommodative.
The central bank also said on Friday that banks will return another 5 billion euros of its crisis loans next week, suggesting the initial flood of repayments has turned into a steady trickle.
In the bond market, benchmark German Bund futures continued to push higher as Draghi's cautious tone on the euro zone's economy underpinned demand for low risk assets.
Nagging concerns about political stability in Spain and Italy were piling pressure on higher-yielding peripheral bonds to the benefit of Bunds, overshadowing an Irish bank debt deal that will cut Dublin's borrowing costs over the next decade.
"On the 10-year Spanish bonds, we could go significantly above 5.50 percent and reach the 5.60 area and it can be quite fast and on the BTP 4.70-75 area could be reached as well," BNP Paribas strategist Patrick Jacq said.
But "On a longer-term view we still expect market friendly outcomes of the political issues and the setbacks offer some opportunities to enter long positions."
Spanish 10-year yields were last at 5.42 percent while equivalent Italian yields were about 1 basis point up at 4.58 percent.
(Additional reporting by Richard Hubbard and Emelia Sithole-Matarise; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
TUNIS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Tunisians took to the streets amid scattered violence on Friday to mourn secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid, whose assassination has plunged Tunisia deeper into political crisis.
Braving chilly rain, at least 50,000 people turned out for Belaid's funeral in his home district of Jebel al-Jaloud in the capital, chanting anti-Islamist and anti-government slogans.
It was Tunisia's biggest funeral since the death of Habib Bourguiba, independence leader and first president, in 2000.
Tunisia, cradle of the Arab uprisings, is riven by tensions between dominant Islamists and their secular opponents, and by frustration at the lack of social and economic progress since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in January 2011.
"The people want a new revolution," shouted mourners in Tunis, who also sang the national anthem.
Crowds surged around an open army truck carrying Belaid's coffin, draped in a red and white Tunisian flag, from a cultural center in Jebel al-Jaloud towards the leafy Jallaz cemetery, as a security forces helicopter flew overhead.
Police fired teargas and shots in the air to disperse youths who were smashing cars near the cemetery, forcing some mourners to run from the choking clouds. Police also used teargas against demonstrators outside the Interior Ministry.
"Belaid, rest in peace, we will continue the struggle," mourners chanted, holding portraits of the politician killed near his home on Wednesday by a gunman who fled on a motorcycle.
Some demonstrators denounced Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party. "Ghannouchi, assassin, criminal," they chanted. "Tunisia is free, terrorism out."
Police fired teargas to disperse anti-government protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs in the southern mining town of Gafsa, a stronghold of support for Belaid, witnesses said.
Crowds there had chanted "The people want the fall of the regime", a slogan first used against Ben Ali.
CRADLE OF REVOLT
In Sidi Bouzid, the southern town where the revolt against the ousted strongman began, about 10,000 marched to mourn Belaid and shout slogans against Ennahda and the government.
Banks, factories and some shops were closed in Tunis and other cities in response to a strike called by unions in protest at Belaid's killing, but buses were running normally.
Tunis Air suspended all its flights because of the strikes, a spokesman for the national airline said, adding that flights operated by other airlines were not affected.
However, airport sources in Cairo said Egypt's national airline EgyptAir had canceled two flights to Tunisia after staff at Tunis airport joined the general strike.
After Belaid's assassination, Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali, an Islamist, said he would dissolve the government and form a cabinet of technocrats to rule until elections could be held.
But his own Ennahda party and its secular coalition partners complained they had not been consulted, casting doubt over the status of the government and compounding political uncertainty.
No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of Belaid, a lawyer and secular opposition figure.
His family have blamed Ennahda but the party has denied any hand in the shooting. Crowds have attacked several Ennahda party offices in Tunis and other cities in the past two days.
"Hope still exist in Tunisia," Fatma Saidan, a noted Tunisian actor, told Reuters at Belaid's funeral. "We will continue to struggle against extremism and political violence."
She called for national unity, saying: "We are ready to accept Islamists, but they don't accept us."
SECULAR SYMBOL
While Belaid had only a modest political following, his criticism of Ennahda policies spoke for many Tunisians who fear religious radicals are bent on snuffing out freedoms won in the first of the revolts that rippled through the Arab world.
Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres and bars in recent months.
The economic effect of political uncertainty and street unrest could be serious in a country which has yet to draft a new constitution and which relies heavily on the tourist trade.
Mohamed Ali Toumi, president of the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies, described the week's events as a catastrophe that would have a negative impact on tourism, but he told the national news agency TAP no cancellations had been reported yet.
France, which had already announced the closure of its schools in Tunis on Friday and Saturday, urged its nationals to stay clear of potential flashpoints in the capital.
"Unless unavoidable, it is best to stay away from the city center today, and steer clear of demonstrations and major road crossings or sensitive buildings," said Helene Conway-Mouret, minister in charge of French people living abroad.
The Austrian foreign ministry issued a similar warning.
The cost of insuring Tunisian government bonds against default rose to its highest level in more than four years on Thursday and ratings agency Fitch said it could further downgrade Tunisia if political instability continues or worsens.
(For an interactive look at Tunisia please click on http://link.reuters.com/tub85t )
(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo, Brian Love in Paris and Michael Shields in Vienna; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Tablets have continued to bleed the traditional PC market dry. The latest numbers from research firm Canalys revealed that tablets accounted for over a third of PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012. Worldwide PC shipments were found to have increased 12% year-over-year to 134 million units with 46.2 million units qualifying as tablets, a 75% year-over-year increase. Apple (AAPL) continued to lead the industry thanks to strong iPad sales, shipping 27 million units and taking a 20% share of the market for the first time. The iPad mini was a hit for the company and accounted for more than half of Apple’s total iPad shipments. Due to supply issues and cannibalization of the larger iPad, however, Apple’s tablet share dropped below 49% and for the first time the company did not control over half the tablet market.
[More from BGR: Microsoft Surface Pro review]
“Apple timed the launch of the iPad mini well,” said Pin-Chen Tang, a research analyst with Canalys. “Its success proves there is a clear demand for pads with smaller screens at a more affordable price. Without the launch, Apple would surely have lost more ground to its competitors.”
[More from BGR: Microsoft defends Surface Pro’s 4-hour battery life and low available storage]
Samsung (005930) also experienced strong tablet sales and found itself in a top five position for the first time in overall PC sales, sitting only behind Apple, HP (HPQ), and Lenovo (LNVGY). The company’s Galaxy tablet shipped 7.6 million units, a year-over-year increase of 226%, and its notebook computers shipped 4.1 million units for a 9% share of the PC market.
Amazon (AMZN) was found to have increased its worldwide shipments by 18% to 4.6 million units due to an expanded Kindle Fire lineup and sales in additional markets. Google’s (GOOG) Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablet also “performed relatively well” and shipped a combined 2.6 millin units in the fourth quarter.
It has now become a requirement for Android vendors to target low price points if they are interested in increasing their shipments. The success of Amazon, Samsung, and Google has helped Android’s tablet market share increase to 46%.
“The sub-$ 200 price bands now feature products from established players that do not rely on low-quality components,” said Tom Evans, a Canalys analyst. “Those who control ecosystems, such as Amazon and Google, can obtain revenue from content sales, but pure hardware OEMs must accept decreasing margins or exit.”
The research firm found that shipments of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Surface RT tablet are off to a shaky start with shipments of only 720,000 units in Q4.
“The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak. Hardware OEMs are ignoring it due, in part, to a pricing strategy that does not align with the economics of the pad market,” said Tim Coulling, a Canalys senior analyst.
The analyst added that he expects Microsoft to “rethink its pricing strategy for RT in the coming weeks,” and said that the company should drop the price of the operating system by 60% to get “OEMs back onside.” He believes that Microsoft will have a better chance of turning Windows RT around if it increases manufacturer support, and figures out a strategy to educate consumers and attract new developers.
This article was originally published on BGR.com
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
02/05/2013 at 05:30 PM ET
Universal Pictures
What’s funnier than Melissa McCarthy? Melissa McCarthy in ridiculous hair and makeup. And lucky for us, the star dons some crazy-bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) crunchy curls and ’80s-inspired eye shadow, blush and lipstick in her new film, Identity Thief.
“It was so fun to put all that together,” McCarthy said of her character’s beauty choices at the film’s L.A. premiere on Tuesday. But it also was labor-intensive to look that (awesomely) cheesy. “[It took] maybe two hours — an hour and a half [to put it on everyday]. Good drag takes a while!”
To create her character Diana’s signature style, McCarthy started with her frizzy, teased and permed mane. “I’m obsessed with wigs, so I started there and once I sort of locked into [a hairstyle], it was kind of more is more [when it came to makeup],” she told reporters.
When it came to Diana’s over-the-top purple and blue eyeshadow, McCarthy looked to an old soap star for inspiration. “I kept saying, ‘Donna Mills’s eyes!’ So we just kept piling [makeup] on, and then one day [the character] appeared.”
McCarthy’s reaction when she finally saw herself as the identity thief? “I thought, I’d like to spend a couple of months with her!” Tell us: Are you excited to see McCarthy’s new movie?
–Jennifer Cress, reporting by Melody Chiu
PHOTOS: SEE MORE BOLD BEAUTY LOOKS IN ‘OBSESSED OR HOT MESS’
NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.
Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.
"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.
An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.
The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.
In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.
The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.
In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.
"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.
The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.
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JournaL: http://www.nejm.org
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures advanced on Thursday, indicating the S&P 500 may rise for a third straight session ahead of a European Central Bank rate decision and data on the U.S. labor market.
The central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged, and the market will give more attention to comments from ECB President Mario Draghi, who will give his views on the region's growth prospects and faces tough questions over the euro's sharp rise and his connection to an Italian banking scandal.
"The ECB will come out and talk about how they are going to have buying programs and all that stuff but this is a danger point for U.S. investors because sometimes traders do pay attention to the woes of Europe," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst, Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
Economic data due at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) includes weekly jobless claims and preliminary fourth quarter productivity and unit labor costs. Initial claims are expected at 360,000 compared with 368,000 in the prior week. Estimates call for a 1.3 percent fall in productivity while unit labor costs are expected to rise 3.0 percent.
"The unemployment information, it has been interesting how much it's dropped off, but we could have a slowdown in firing, but that doesn't necessarily mean an uptick in hiring."
Recent data has pointed to a modest improvement in the economy, but one without enough strength to cause the Federal Reserve to back off it's easy monetary policy, helping the benchmark S&P index <.spx> climb 6 percent for the year.
S&P 500 futures rose 2.7 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 25 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 3.25 points.
Visa Inc's
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc
According to Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning, of 301 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 68.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters. In terms of revenue, 65.8 percent of companies have topped forecasts.
Looking ahead, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are now expected to grow 4.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.
Retailers will also be eyed as they report monthly sales results. Costco Wholesale Corp
European shares were little changed after sharp falls the previous day, with any recovery capped by mixed earnings and concerns about economic and political developments in the euro zone. <.eu/>
Asian shares and the euro paused from recent gains as investors awaited the European Central Bank's policy meeting later in the day and Draghi's view on euro zone growth prospects.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problem between them.
"Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem," Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's air force carried on his official website.
"If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said.
"American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations."
Khamenei made his comments just days after Joe Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. "That offer stands but it must be real and tangible," Biden said in a speech in Munich.
With traditional fiery rhetoric, Khamenei lambasted Biden's offer, saying that since the 1979 revolution the United States had gravely insulted Iran and continued to do so with its threat of military action.
"You take up arms against the nation of Iran and say: 'negotiate or we fire'. But you should know that pressure and negotiations are not compatible and our nation will not be intimidated by these actions," he added.
Relations between Iran and the United States were severed in 1979 after the overthrow of Iran's pro-western monarchy and diplomatic meetings between officials have since been very rare.
ALL OPTIONS STILL "ON THE TABLE"
Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and a so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran's disputed nuclear program which are to resume on February 26 in Kazakhstan.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said he was skeptical the negotiations in Almaty could yield a result, telling Israel Radio that the United States needed to demonstrate to Iran that "all options were still on the table".
Israel, widely recognized to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has warned it could mount a pre-emptive strike on Iranian atomic sites. Israel sees its existence as directly threatened by the prospect of an nuclear-armed Iran, given Tehran's refusal to recognize the existence of the Jewish state.
"The final option, this is the phrasing we have used, should remain in place and be serious," said Meridor.
"The fact that the Iranians have not yet come down from the path they are on means that talks ...are liable to bring about only a stalling for time," he said.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western powers are concerned it is intent on developing a weapons program.
Many believe a deal on settling the nuclear issue is impossible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw. But any rapprochement would require direct talks addressing many sources of mutual mistrust that have lingered since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.
Moreover, although his re-election last November may give President Barack Obama a freer hand to pursue direct negotiations, analysts say Iran's own presidential election in June may prove an additional obstacle to progress being made.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by William Maclean and Jon Boyle)
BlackBerry (BBRY) hasn’t yet announced launch details for its second BlackBerry 10 smartphone, the QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10, but it still wants to make sure that developers are ready for the new phone once it becomes available. Apropos, the vendor on Tuesday announced a new “Dev Alpha C” developer handset that features a QWERTY keyboard and the same display dimensions as the upcoming BlackBerry Q10. The handset will allow developers to get acclimated with the BlackBerry 10/QWERTY combination and prep apps that work as well with the Q10 as they do on the BlackBerry Z10.
[More from BGR: Google’s big potential problem: The ‘Galaxy’ brand is starting to beat the ‘Android’ brand]
This article was originally published on BGR.com
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News
"I was dating skinny jeans and I needed Wranglers," the singer, 30, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story.
So when she fell hard for music manager Brandon Blackstock a year ago, she knew it was something special.
Relaxing at their Nashville home together in December, Clarkson recalls, "Out of nowhere I just said, 'Thanks for being an awesome guy.' I've never been loved properly by a man, and I was just like, 'I thank you so much for that.'"
What she didn't realize was that Blackstock, 36, was about to propose. "Not a damn clue!" she says. "If I did I would have worn something besides Uggs and a sweatshirt with no bra."
Now the couple is busy planning an "earthy" outdoor fall wedding at home – think yellow roses for Texas – while Clarkson also works on two new albums and preps for the Grammys on Feb. 10.
"I didn't know life could be this happy," she says.
For much more from Kelly, including details of her wedding dress, engagement ring and how she feels about being a stepmom, pick up this week's PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday
NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.
With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.
"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.
City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.
"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.
Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.
"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.
Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.
While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.
Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.
Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.
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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, adding to the benchmark S&P 500's rally of more than 1 percent a day earlier, buoyed by solid corporate earnings and an optimistic outlook from Disney.
Walt Disney Co
With a lack of economic catalysts on Wednesday, investor focus has turned to an earnings season that has been better than anticipated.
According to Thomson Reuters data through Tuesday morning, of the 278 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.7 percent have beat analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.
In another positive sign, sixty-six percent of companies have topped revenue forecasts. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are now expected to rise 4.5 percent, according to the data, above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season.
S&P 500 futures rose 1.6 points and were slightly above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 42 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.75 points.
The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2, when legislators sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that could have hurt a fragile U.S. economic recovery.
Visa
Zynga Inc
European stocks rose, extending the previous session's recovery with an upbeat outlook from ArcelorMittal
Asian shares rose, with Japanese equities climbing to their highest since October 2008 on hopes of central bank monetary policy easing and optimism about the prospects for a global economic recovery.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Tunis (Reuters) - A Tunisian opposition politician was shot dead on Wednesday, sending thousands of protesters onto the streets of the capital and in Sidi Bouzid, the epicenter of uprisings that swept the Arab world and Tunisia's president from power.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who said the identity of the attacker was not known, condemned the killing of Shokri Belaid outside his Tunis home as a political assassination and a strike against the "Arab Spring" revolution.
Tension has been growing between Islamists and secularists such as Belaid, who was a staunch opponent of the moderate Islamist-led government elected in October 2011.
As news of the killing spread, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Interior Ministry, many calling for the fall of the government elected after their uprising chased out veteran ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
Protesters also took to the streets in Sidi Bouzid, where jobless university graduate Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in despair after police confiscated his unlicensed fruit cart, triggering protests that toppled the president.
"More than 4,000 are protesting now, burning wheels and throwing stones at the police", Mehdi Horchani a resident from Sidi Bouzid, told Reuters. "There is a great anger."
Tunisia was the first Arab country to oust its leader and hold free elections as uprisings spread around the region two years ago, leading to the ousting of the rulers of Egypt, Yemen and Libya and the civil war in Syria.
Since the revolution the government has faced a string of protests over economic hardship and Tunisia's future path, with many complaining hardline Salafis were hijacking the revolution in a country dominated previously by a secular elite.
Declining trade with the crisis-hit euro zone has left Tunisians struggling to achieve the better living standards many had hoped for following Ben Ali's departure.
President Moncef Marzouki, who last month warned the tension may lead to "civil war", called for calm and cut short a trip to France as well as cancelling a visit to Egypt scheduled for Thursday after the killing.
"We will continue to fight the enemies of the revolution," he told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, to applause.
FRANCE WORRIED BY RISING VIOLENCE
Compounding the political unrest, Tunisia says al Qaeda-linked militants have been accumulating weapons with the aim of creating an Islamic state.
"The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution. By killing him they wanted to silence his voice," said Jebali, who heads the government led by the Ennahda party, which won Tunisia's first post-Arab Spring election.
Belaid, who died in hospital, was a leading member of the opposition Popular Front party. A lawyer and human rights activist he had been a constant critic of the government, accusing it of being a puppet of the rulers in Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which Tunisia denies.
"Shokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest ... doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia," Ziad Lakhader, a leader of the Popular Front, told Reuters.
French President Francois Hollande condemned the shooting, saying he was concerned by the rise of violence in France's former colony.
"This murder deprives Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices," Hollande's office said in a statement.
"France is concerned by the mounting political violence in Tunisia and calls for the ideas cherished by the Tunisian people during their revolution to be respected."
TENSION OVER RULE
Marzouki warned last month that the conflict between Islamists and secularists could lead to civil war and called for a national dialogue that included all political shades.
The secular opposition has accused Ennahda of being too close to hardline Salafi groups, while Salafis who complain Ennahda is failing to defend Islamic values. Ennahda rejects the charges from both sides.
Ennahda party won 42 percent of seats in 2011 elections but formed a government in coalition with two secular parties, the president's Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.
Marzouki's party threatened on Sunday to withdraw from the government unless it dropped two Islamist ministers.
The opposition threatened unspecified retribution for the killing, that Ennahda president Rached Gannouchi condemned as "aimed at the democratic process of democratic transition". "The opposition will take historic decisions in response to this cowardly act", Maya Jribi secretary-general of the secularist Republican Party.
(Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Jon Boyle)
(This story was corrected to fix typo in the third paragraph)
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Every day, Kagonya Awori and her tech-savvy team trawl through Facebook and Twitter for warning signs that Kenya‘s elections in March may unleash the same ethnic violence that took the country to the brink of civil war five years ago.
Sifting through blogs and social media sites, the group of six search for hate speech and inflammatory postings – or any early indications that inter-tribal tensions are escalating.
Awori and her colleagues have reason to be worried.
The last presidential vote in late 2007 when incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the re-elected victor was disputed by opponents and erupted into bloodletting.
More than 1,200 people were slaughtered, many butchered by machete, burnt alive or shot with bows and arrows as the country’s biggest tribes turned on one another.
“The amount of dangerous speech is going up but, this time, the people who are saying these things are not hiding at all,” said Awori. She heads Umati, a web-based project monitoring dangerous speech for research firm iHub Research, which conducts Africa-focused tech research out of Nairobi.
“There are outright calls to kill, forcefully evict and steal as well as discriminate against members of particular communities,” she said.
Most of the hate speech Awori’s group has come across so far has been on Facebook, with users frequently revealing their names, and often their location.
Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, has ranked second for Twitter use in Africa in recent years, out-tweeting oil-producing powerhouse Nigeria and Egypt, where social media helped galvanise supporters of the Arab Spring revolution.
Kenyan authorities have passed legislation banning media outlets from re-printing hate speech, to curb the spread. But thus far they have been largely powerless to stop ordinary Kenyans from voicing tribal animosities on social media.
Kenyan law prohibits media from re-printing tribal hate speech in full.
Examples of online vitriol include calls to “chinja chinja”, or “butcher butcher” in Swahili, as well as to beat, loot, riot, kill, and drive out other tribes.
A repeat in March of the inter-tribal violence that bloodied the 2007 elections cannot be ruled out.
Alliances forged by Kenya’s main presidential contenders for the 2013 vote are lining up for a rerun of a largely ethnic-based contest for political power.
The two main opposing camps are headed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is backed by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta whose running mate is William Ruto, a former cabinet minister.
The head-on rivalry between Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founder president and from the predominant Kikuyu tribe, and Odinga, a Luo, raises the spectre again of ethnic confrontation.
Contributing to the tensions, both Kenyatta and Ruto face trial after the March vote at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague for their alleged role in fomenting the election violence five years ago.
EYE ON THREATS
Kenyan authorities say journalists should choose their words with care so as not to inflame tensions.
“We will set you on fire before you set us on fire,” government spokesman Muthui Kariuki warned international journalists at a breakfast meeting on Wednesday.
“We believe to a greater extent that (the violence of) 2007-08 was a result of a lot of information that journalists wrote and passed on to our people,” he said.
In the Kenyan blogosphere online users blast opposing tribe members as “snakes”, “maggots” and “vultures”, among other names.
“These are actually telling people to re-enact what happened in 2007, so it’s very vicious,” Mary Ombara, secretary of Kenya’s media monitoring body, said.
Ombara receives daily reports on online hate speech. The government has hired bloggers to monitor sites for inflammatory content. The government two weeks ago also enlisted the help of Awori’s Umati team and Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission.
Civil society NGOs are also helping.
A national agency formed to reconcile tribes after the last election violence said it was working with police to identify threats and hate speech to avoid a repeat of the 2007 mayhem.
Particular attention is being paid to political rallies and social media, Alice Nderitu, an official at National Cohesion and Integration Commission, told Reuters.
“We are monitoring and will take people to court for using abusive language on social media,” said Nicholas Kamwende, head of the police’s criminal investigations department in Nairobi.
FEAR THE TWEET
Radio has traditionally been the leading medium for the dissemination of hate speech in Kenya – a trend reflected by the inclusion of a local radio presenter among the ICC indictees in the aftermath of the 2007/2008 post-election violence.
Joshua Arap Sang faces charges of crimes against humanity alongside Kenyatta and Ruto. They all say they are innocent.
During the 2007-08 clashes, mobile phone text messages were a powerful tool for organising vigilante groups and mobs, according to the National Human Rights Commission.
To curb this, Kenya has ordered that all lines that cannot be traced to a known user be de-registered in a bid to clamp down on people sending out provocative texts.
However, the arrival of affordable smart phones on the Kenyan market has increased internet use on cell phones and caused an explosion of social media.
Some fear Facebook and Twitter will take the place of the SMS text this time around.
Awori’s team are part of a network called Ushahidi, which is Swahili for “testimony” or “witness,” that uses SMS, e-mail and social media to map out where violence is breaking out.
Created in 2008 as way for Kenyans to report instances of post-election violence, it has since been used to map acts of war in Gaza, earthquake devastation in Haiti and currently U.S. activist use it to chart human rights abuses in Syria.
During Kenya’s 2010 constitutional referendum, Ushahidi also showed it could play a key role in curbing aggression. When it received an SMS message of rumours that machete-wielding men had rushed to a polling station in western Kenya, it verified the threat with its sources on the ground and alerted the police.
Fifteen minutes later, dozens of police officers swooped on the polling station to halt any possible trouble.
“It looked like magic for the guy who sent the SMS,” recalled Daudi Were, Ushahidi’s project manager.
Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Eva Longoria
Denise Truscello/WireImage
The actress visited the new restaurant and nightclub, She by Morton's, in Las Vegas – in which she is a part owner – on Saturday night, and revealed what's on her agenda for the heartfelt holiday.
"Eva said she would be spending Valentine's Day with her girlfriends – like she always does," a source tells PEOPLE. But that's not the only thing on her agenda. The former Desperate Housewives star also said she's also made plans for her March birthday.
"She's taking a charity trip to South America, which she is really excited about," the source says. "She joked that you shouldn't celebrate birthdays after a certain age because we don't want to remind people how old we are!"
– Patrick Gomez
CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.
The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.
The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.
In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.
That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.
In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.
"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."
The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.
But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.
In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.
The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.
Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.
"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.
Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.
"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.
Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.
"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.
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Online:
Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org
It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org
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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures advanced on Tuesday retracing ground lost the prior day, indicating that Wall Street would rebound off its worst daily session since November.
Major averages dropped about 1 percent on Monday, pressured by renewed worries over the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. While the day's decline pushed the S&P 500 into negative territory for February, equities have been strong performers of late, and the benchmark index is up 4.9 percent for 2013.
Wall Street has advanced on strong fourth-quarter earnings and signs of improved economic growth, suggesting the market's longer-term trend remains higher.
"Markets may have been slightly ahead of themselves, but investors recognize that earnings and data are both more positive than we previously thought, so no one should worry that yesterday was the start of anything bigger," said Oliver Purshe, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York.
Archer Daniels Midland , Walt Disney Co
Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 4.4 percent, according to the data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent forecast on October 1.
S&P 500 futures rose 7.2 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 69 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 11.5 points.
At current levels, the S&P is about 5.4 percent away from its all-time intraday high of 1,576.09, reached in October 2011.
Investors will also be looking to the Institute for Supply Management's January non-manufacturing index, due at 10 a.m. Economists forecast a reading of 55.2, versus 55.7 in December.
Last week, the ISM's manufacturing index for January showed the pace of growth in manufacturing picked up to its highest level in nine months.
In company news, McGraw-Hill
The stock plummeted almost 14 percent in Monday's session, its worst daily losses since the October 1987 market crash.
U.S. shares of BP Plc
Dell Inc
U.S. stocks slid on Monday as worries about Europe caused the market to pull back from recent gains.
(Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday on the first trip by an Iranian president since the 1979 revolution, underlining a thaw in relations since Egyptians elected an Islamist head of state.
President Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood politician elected in June, kissed Ahmadinejad as he disembarked from his plane at Cairo airport. The leaders walked down a red carpet, Ahmadinejad smiling as he shook hands with waiting dignitaries.
Visiting Cairo to attend an Islamic summit that begins on Wednesday, the president of the Shi'ite Islamist republic is due to meet later on Tuesday with the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, one of the oldest seats of learning in the Sunni world.
Such a visit would have been unthinkable during the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the military-backed autocrat who preserved Egypt's peace treaty with Israel during his 30 years in power and deepened ties between Cairo and the West.
"The political geography of the region will change if Iran and Egypt take a unified position on the Palestinian question," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV station, on the eve of his visit.
He said he wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory which neighbors Egypt to the east and is run by the Islamist movement Hamas. "If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people," Ahmadinejad said.
Analysts doubt that the historic changes that brought Mursi to power in Egypt will result in a full restoration of diplomatic ties between states whose relations were broken off after the Iranian revolution and the conclusion of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
OBSTACLES TO FULL TIES
At the airport the two leaders discussed ways of boosting relations between their countries and resolving the Syrian crisis "without resorting to military intervention", Egyptian state media reported.
Egypt is concerned by Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush an uprising inspired by the revolt that swept Mubarak from power two years ago. Egypt's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population is broadly supportive of the uprising against Assad's Alawite-led administration.
The Mursi administration also wants to safeguard relations with Gulf Arab states that are supporting Cairo's battered state finances and are deeply suspicious of Iran.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr reassured Gulf Arab allies that Egypt would not jeopardize their security.
"The security of the Gulf states is the security of Egypt," he told the official MENA news agency, in response to questions about Cairo's opening to Iran and its impact on other states in the region.
Mursi wants to preserve ties with the United States, the source of $1.3 billion in aid each year to the influential Egyptian military.
His government has established close ties with Hamas, a movement backed by Iran and shunned by the West because of its hostility to Israel, but its priority is addressing Egypt's deep economic problems.
"The restoration of full relations with Iran in this period is difficult, despite the warmth in ties ... because of many problems including the Syrian crisis and Cairo's links with the Gulf states, Israel and the United States," said one former Egyptian diplomat.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of preparatory meetings for the two-day Islamic summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he was optimistic that ties could grow closer.
"We are gradually improving. We have to be a little bit patient. I'm very hopeful about the expansion of the bilateral relationship," he said. Asked where he saw room for closer ties, he said: "Trade and economics."
Ahmadinejad's visit to Egypt follows Mursi's visit to Iran in August for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the 1,000-year-old al-Azhar mosque and university, will meet Ahmadinejad at his offices in mediaeval Islamic Cairo, al-Azhar's media office said.
Salehi, the Iranian foreign Minister, stressed the importance of Muslim unity when he met Sheikh al-Tayeb at al-Azhar last month.
Egypt and Iran have taken opposite courses since the late 1970s. Egypt, under Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and became a close ally of the United States and Europe. Iran from 1979 turned into a center of opposition to Western influence in the Middle East.
Symbolically, Iran named a street in Tehran after the Islamist who led the 1981 assassination of Sadat.
Egypt gave asylum and a state funeral to Iran's exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown by the 1979 Iranian revolution. He is buried in a medieval Cairo mosque alongside his ex-brother-in-law, Egypt's last king, Farouk.
(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir and Alexander Diadosz; Editing by Andrew Roche and Paul Taylor)
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