Stars Tweet Over Gun Control Following Elementary School Shootings In Connecticut — Updated

Celebrities were outraged over the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. on Friday, and many immediately turned to Twitter, to share their sadness.

And some even urged America’s leaders to address gun control.

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“Gun control is our only road to freedom. Freedom from the fear of senselessly losing children. I’m so saddened. WE NEED LAWS NOW,” “Parks and Recreation” actress Rashida Jones Tweeted.

Singer Michelle Branch also touched on the topic in her Tweet, writing, “Gun control people!!! My heart is breaking. As a parent this is my worst nightmare.”

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“Two and a Half Men’s” Holland Taylor wrote, “Just heard re CT shooting coming in from a walk… MY GOD. The “right” to carry concealed weapons … this has become a truly INSANE issue.”

Michael Raymond-James, who plays Neal Cassady on “Once Upon A Time,” also tackled gun control in his Tweet, writing, “Unfortunately, we have more access to assault weapons than we do to quality mental health care. That needs to change. #HowManyMoreTimes.”

Brit Piers Morgan wrote, “Why does any civilian in America need a weapon that can fire 100 rounds of ammunition at rapid speed? Give me ONE good reason?” and added, “#GunControl.”

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Filmmaker Michael Moore Tweeted, “The way to honor these dead children is to demand strict gun control, free mental health care, and an end to violence as public policy.”

“General Hospital” actress Lisa LoCicero also Tweeted about gun control, in the wake of the tragedy, writing, “anyone still not ready for us to err on the side of losing some gun rights at this point, needs to leave the country.”

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“Raising Hope” star Martha Plimpton Tweeted, “When can we talk about it? WHEN? Ever? Never? If not now, when we are staring it in the face, then WHEN? #GunControl.”

Motley Crue singer Vince Neil wrote, “Sad day today. Prayers to all the families. Gun Control!!!”

“True Blood” star Denis O’Hare Tweeted, “When do we get to seriously talk about gun control?”

“Malibu Country” actor Jai Rodriguez also Tweeted about gun control, writing, “Sick over what happened in the world this week. We need better gun laws. My heart goes out to all those affected by the horrors.”

Eric Benet Tweeted, “Half of the U.S. will say,”How dare u bring up gun control at a time like this?!” But the sane half will say,”How dare we not!?” pls RT”

Susan Sarandon wrote, “How much more suffering & loss will it take before we better regulate the sale of arms in our country? Let @NRA know how you feel.”

Jaime King wrote, “We do not have time to wait to tighten gun control- we cannot loose anymore innocent lives. I beg the government to stop F-ing around.”

Jason Biggs Tweeted, “Hey-I love guns. I’ve shot, killed, n eaten my own food-n grown cuz of the experience. But clearly, restrictions need to be put into place.”

Hill Harper ‏Tweeted, “Can we please re-institute the assault weapons ban & a ban on selling high load gun clips.”

Ginnifer Goodwin wrote, “I just emailed my representative & it was super easy. http://m.house.gov/ #guncontrol.”

“General Hospital” star Finola Hughes Tweeted, “I believe that ‘other day’ for debating gun laws is now.”

Mehcad Brook, from the USA series “Necessary Roughness” Tweeted, “Why do we go through more scrutiny getting a driver’s license bcuz cars CAN kill than we do obtaining a gun which ONLY kills?”

Other stars shared their deep sadness over the senseless deaths in Connecticut.

“God have mercy!!!! No one deserves this! Praying for the families of the victims of the Connecticut shooting!! What a Christmas it will be,” Rihanna wrote.

“Everyone reading this PLEASE get on your knees and PRAY for the sweet babies, families, and for everyone hurting in Connecticut right now,” Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott Tweeted.

“There have been 31 school shootings since Columbine, 14yrs ago. This time, kindergarteners. #NoWords,” Anika Noni Rose wrote.

Jennifer Hudson Tweeted, “Yal, we need to pray! This can’t keep happening . My mama always said ” if u think you’ve seen it all just keep on living.’”

Oprah Winfrey responded to Jennifer’s Tweet, writing, “@IAMJHUD for sure . Pray and take action.. Another WAKE UP for guns.”

Here’s more of what the stars had to say on Twitter:

Katie Couric: Shocked & saddened to hear this morning’s news… My heart goes out to the families of #SandyHook Elementary children, faculty, staff

Joy Behar: My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Sandy Hook Elementary.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy: I hate the “my heart is with” this and “my prayers go out” that… We ALL need to get f***ing angry and DO something more than ‘feel sad’…

Vivica A. Fox: Wow! It seems like we r gonna have to put metal detectors everywhere and armed guards! Seems like u can’t b safe anywhere!! WTH??

Jack Wagner: OMG prayers 4 those affected by the shooting in Connecticut…so sad

Ian Somerhalder: We are sad.Our hearts,thoughts&help are w/you.Im so sorry to all affected by this.So sorry.May all thelove in the world hug you in this time

Ralph Macchio: There are no words… Prayers #Connecticut

Rachel Dratch: Our weekly mass shootings aren’t happening in other countries. And this time, children? WHEN WILL OUR “LEADERS” PUT AN END TO THIS INSANITY?

Teresa Giudice: On days like this, we should hug our children just a little bit tighter.

Steve Levitan: My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the victims. I should have said that first, but I’m tired of these tragedies. #standuptothenra

Marlee Matlin: I am numb as the numbers of the dead – children and adults – keep ticking up. #PrayForNewtown

Christina Applegate: There are just no words. Only sorrow. We are all shedding tears today for those families.

Karina Smirnoff: We need to pray for all the families affected by the Newtown, CT school shooting. Absolutely devastating….

Kim Kardashian: These kids come to school to learn, never expecting this tragedy to happen. They didn’t deserve this. Praying for everyone involved!

Brandi Glanville: I can not believe this school shooting, what is wrong with people!!!! My heart is breakking for the kids and families.

Jackie Collins: My heart breaks for the Newtown community…for these families.

Damon Lindelof: I’m not “politicizing” squat. I’m heartbroken, angry, confused and scared and I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING.

DJ Pauly D: My Prayers Go Out To Everyone Affected By This Horrible Shooting In Connecticut

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Venezuela’s Chavez in satisfactory condition: government

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela‘s President Hugo Chavez is recovering “satisfactorily” from his cancer surgery in Cuba although the process remains slow, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Friday.

Reading the latest of regular government updates on the socialist leader’s condition, three days after his operation, Villegas said the 58-year-old president had communicated with relatives and sent greetings to all Venezuelans.

“The recovery has been slow but progressive,” he said.

(Reporting by Eyanir Chinea, Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Will Dunham)

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Boeing delivers first new jet to Iraq in years

BAGHDAD (AP) — The first new Boeing jetliner sold to Iraq in years touched down in Baghdad on Saturday, signaling the country’s determination to rebuild its economy after decades of war and sanctions.

Iraq is eager to improve its creaky aviation industry, which lags far behind that of its energy-rich neighbors. Boeing‘s delivery of the twin-aisle 777-200LR plane comes less than two weeks after the company’s chief rival Airbus announced the delivery of one of its own wide-body planes to Iraq.

“The arrival of the Boeing today is a step forward in building a big and reliable Iraqi Airways fleet,” Iraqi Transportation Ministry spokesman Karim al-Nouri said.

More planes are coming. Iraq has ordered another 30 of Boeing’s smaller 737-800 model and 10 of its new 787. The first of the 737s will be delivered in the middle of next year, according to the Chicago-based plane maker.

Airbus in early December said it had delivered its first A330-200 to Iraq. Iraqi Airways, which plans to use that plane on European and other international routes, already operates two Airbus A321s.

Iraqi Airways’ efforts to turn itself around have been hobbled by ageing equipment, a lack of adequately trained staff and a long-running dispute with Kuwait stemming from Saddam Hussein‘s invasion in 1990.

The disagreement centered on Kuwait‘s accusations that Saddam’s regime stole 10 airplanes and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and spare parts during the invasion. Kuwait earlier wanted to $ 1.2 billion in reparations, which Iraq’s postwar leaders had resisted paying.

Iraq and Kuwait earlier this year reached a $ 500 million deal to settle the airline feud, paving the way for Iraqi Airways to resume normal operations. The dispute had scuttled at least one planned Iraqi Airways route, between Baghdad and London, after Kuwait attempted to confiscate the Iraqi plane in the British capital.

As Iraqi Airways has struggled, foreign airlines have increasingly begun flying to the country, eating into the national carrier’s share of the market.

They include airlines from neighboring countries, including Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian, and well-funded Gulf airlines such as Emirates and Etihad Airways. Austrian Airlines last year became the first major western carrier to resume regular flights to Baghdad since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Foreign airlines are increasingly offering flights to other Iraqi cities as well, particularly Irbil in the self-ruled Kurdish region. The Kurds’ northern enclave is much safer than the capital and is a popular destination for foreign investors looking to break into the Iraqi market.

No U.S. commercial airlines fly regularly to Iraq. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration last week lifted a 16-year-old a ban on American carriers flying to Irbil and Sulaimaniyah, also in the Kurdish area. The agency said flights to other Iraqi airports may be allowed in the future.

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Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed reporting.

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Online gambling companies struggle to clear EU hurdles

LONDON (Reuters) – A partnership stuck on Friday between bwin.party Digital Entertainment and a Belgian casino group has defused one of many disputes pitting online gambling companies against governments across Europe.

The agreement came a month after bwin.party’s co-CEO was questioned by Belgian authorities in an escalating license dispute the company said was costing it 700,000 euros ($ 916,000) in monthly revenue.

By joining forces with Belcasinos, a unit of local casino owner Group Partouche, bwin.party neatly met a requirement to have a presence in Belgium to win a license for online poker, casino and sports betting.

The agreement is a rare bright spot in a tough regulatory environment for online gambling companies across the continent.

Betting online on sports events or playing poker on the Internet are increasingly popular pastimes in Europe, where operators say they are held back by unfair and discriminatory rules in many European Union countries.

“It is not a European Union in any way, it is a patchwork of different countries who happen to be in the EU,” said Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the betting research unit at Nottingham Business School in central England.

“Different countries have different vested interests and different ideas they are trying to promote. Are they trying to protect consumers or to maximize their tax take?” he said.

The 27 EU member states retain the right to regulate their gambling sectors as they see fit, but rules must comply with EU law, broadly meaning they must be consistent and proportionate.

Some companies are scaling back activities in European markets where, they say, regulatory risks are too high or tax rates are punitive.

Betting exchange operator Betfair for instance said this week it was halting marketing and investment in unregulated markets, including EU members Cyprus, Germany and Greece.

William Hill, Britain‘s largest bookmaker, has joined Betfair in pulling out of Greece and has also stopped offering sports betting to German residents because of a 5 percent turnover tax.

STAKES RISE

The stakes are high. Online gambling is growing at an annual rate of almost 15 percent in the EU and will be worth an estimated 13 billion euros ($ 17 billion) by 2015, according to EU figures.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, stepped in to the debate in October when it published a medium-term plan to clarify regulations and promote cooperation between member states, ruling out EU-wide legislation for the time being.

“All citizens must be adequately protected, money laundering and fraud must be prevented, sport must be safeguarded against betting-related match-fixing and national rules must comply with EU law,” Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said, setting out his approach.

The online operators accuse the European Commission of failing to follow through properly on complaints lodged about regulation in no fewer than 20 or the 27 EU member states.

Barnier has written to member states accused of breaching EU law in the way they handle gambling, seeking an update on the situation by the end of the year.

However, the industry questions whether the EU will go into battle over gambling when it is facing so many other problems.

“They will chip away at some of the most blatant ones,” said Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of trade body the Remote Gambling Association. “What we really need is for them to take some to the European Court and take enforcement action.”

BRITISH TAXES

Gambling companies themselves have taken advantage of different tax regimes where they work in their favor.

This is illustrated in Britain, historically the biggest betting market in Europe and a place with a well-developed gambling culture where bookmakers have operated in town centers for 50 years.

In recent years, most betting companies have moved their British online betting operations to Britain’s overseas territory of Gibraltar. There they are sheltered from a 15 percent tax on gross profit faced by operators based in Britain.

New legislation will close off that loophole after 2014. The shift to a taxation model based on the location of the consumer was expected to cost gambling companies as much as 270 million pounds ($ 435 million) by 2016-17.

Analyst Nick Batram at brokerage Peel Hunt said smaller players would likely be picked off because of the impact of higher tax and regulatory burdens across Europe.

“It is getting more complicated and more expensive. There is more change afoot but it should ultimately play into the hands of the better-capitalized companies.”

In that vein, William Hill has provisionally agreed a 485 million pound takeover of smaller rival Sportingbet, keen to get its hands on the company’s regulated Australian betting business.

“I think there is a lot more M&A activity to come,” said Batram.

(Additional reporting by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by David Holmes)

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Sally Struthers enters not guilty plea for DUI

YORK, Maine (AP) — Sally Struthers has entered a not guilty plea on charges she drove drunk in Maine, where she was performing in a musical.

The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/XleJBq) reports the 65-year-old Struthers did not appear in York District Court on Thursday, and entered the plea through her lawyer.

Police arrested Struthers on Sept. 12 on U.S. Route 1 in the resort town Ogunquit (oh-GUHNG’-kwit). She was charged with criminal operating under the influence.

Struthers is best known for her role as Gloria Stivic in the 1970s TV sitcom “All in the Family.” She had been performing at the Ogunquit Playhouse in the musical “9 to 5.”

Struthers is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 13 for a bench trial.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

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EU agency rejects Sanofi, Isis cholesterol drug

LONDON (Reuters) – European regulators on Friday recommended against approval of Sanofi and Isis Pharmaceutical‘s drug Kynamro for treatment of a rare genetic disorder that causes unusually high cholesterol.

The European Medicines Agency said it was concerned about the medicine’s safety, noting that a high proportion of patients stopped taking it within two years, mainly due to side effects such as flu-like symptoms, injection site reactions and liver toxicity.

The European rebuff contrasts with a green light for the drug, known generically as mipomersen, by a U.S. advisory panel in October.

Sanofi’s Genzyme unit said it was disappointed by the decision and planned to request a re-examination.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler)

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Construction output decline slows

14 December 2012 Last updated at 05:52 ET

Output in the UK construction industry fell in October, down 5.1% from the same month last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Compared with the previous month, construction output rose 8.3%.

Construction is a component of gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of everything produced in the economy.

This figure is the first contributor to the eagerly-awaited fourth quarter GDP, which will be released next month.

The year-on-year construction output figure has fallen for 14 of the past 15 months, although October’s fall was the smallest decline since February.

Output had dropped 13.2% in September, compared with September 2011.

Figures for each of the 12 previous months were revised by the ONS, although it said the revisions had had a “negligible” effect on GDP figures.

The month-on-month growth mirrors the result of the Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index for October, which was released last month and suggested fractional growth in the sector.

At the time, Markit economist Tim Moore said: “The bigger picture remains bleak,”

The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that the UK economy will contract slightly in the whole of 2012, which would mean a negative reading for GDP for the last three months of the year.

The construction sector reading has a relatively small weighting in the GDP figures.

It is outweighed by the service sector, the October figures for which are due to be released on Friday 21 December.

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iPad mini deemed a ‘game changer,’ outgrew Kindle Fire by nearly 50%

Smaller tablets in the 7-inch range have been on the market for more than two years now, but it looks like it took Apple (AAPL) just one month to vault to the top of the category. Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media recently published the findings of a study pitting the iPad mini against Amazon’s (AMZN) popular Kindle Fire, which has been an extremely popular iPad alternative since it first launched last year. According to Millennial, iPad mini usage grew about 50% faster during early November than the Kindle Fire did immediately following its successful launch last year, as measured by ad impressions served by the firm’s network.

Millennial found that impressions served to the iPad mini in early November grew at an average daily rate of 28%. In the weeks following the Kindle Fire’s launch last year, usage of Amazon’s tablet grew roughly 19% each day.

“In the first weeks after the iPad mini went on sale, we saw an average daily growth in impressions of 28 percent. Last holiday season, Amazon launched the Kindle Fire to much anticipation, Millennial Media’s Matt Mills wrote on the company’s blog. “As a comparison, we saw Kindle Fire impressions grow at an average daily rate of 19 percent in the first two weeks after it went on sale last year. So, by our math it looks like Apple could have itself another massive holiday season.”

Mills called the iPad mini a “game changer” and said he expects “a massive amount” of iPad mini tablets to be given as gifts this holiday season.

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CVS Caremark sees Obamacare as expansion opportunity

(Reuters) – CVS Caremark Corp is looking at changes in U.S. healthcare as an opportunity to serve more customers, whether they are picking up prescriptions, getting them through the mail, or stopping by an in-house MinuteClinic for a checkup.

The company, formed when drugstore chain CVS bought pharmacy benefits manager Caremark in 2007 in a $ 27 billion all-stock deal, is set to give details on its strategy as it meets with analysts and investors in New York on Thursday. It also plans to discuss its 2013 financial forecasts.

The coming year stands to be a busy one for the healthcare sector as the United States prepares for 30 million people to join the ranks of insured patients under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, starting in 2014. At the same time, the large population of aging baby boomers and rising demand for specialty drugs stand to be opportunities for companies such as CVS.

The industry is already seeing rapid growth in the number of people signing up for Medicare Part D prescription plans.

“You’ve got 10,000 baby boomers becoming eligible for Medicare every day now,” CVS Chief Executive Larry Merlo said, referring to the health insurance plan for seniors. “The change is upon us and it will evolve over the next several years.”

Merlo asserts that CVS can play a bigger role in getting patients with chronic conditions to stick to their drug regimens, which can save billions of dollars.

About half of Americans suffer from one or more chronic diseases and of those who are newly diagnosed with a chronic disease, such as diabetes, almost 50 percent failed to stick with their drug regimen in the first year, Merlo said.

“The lack of medication adherence is costing our healthcare system some $ 300 billion a year in unnecessary costs,” he said.

While CVS prepares for next year, its main competitors have come under pressure.

Drugstore leader Walgreen Co is trying to lure patients back to its stores after reaching a new contract with Express Scripts Holding Co , CVS Caremark’s largest competitor in the pharmacy benefits manager business (PBM).

In November, Express Scripts said that its business would come under pressure in the weak economy, leaving analysts to question that company’s strategy in the wake of its acquisition of another PBM, Medco Health Solutions.

Merlo declined to comment on whether CVS’s strategy would include any acquisitions, though “bolt-on” acquisitions to support its retail or PBM units are always being reviewed.

CVS also runs roughly 650 MinuteClinic health care clinics, which have seen more patients come in. The day after Thanksgiving was the clinics’ busiest day to date, with 19,000 visits on November 23. CVS expects more than 3 million visits to MinuteClinic in 2012.

Eight of the more than 7,400 CVS stores remain closed after being significantly damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Six should reopen by the end of 2012 and the rest may reopen by the end of the first quarter of 2013, Merlo said.

CVS already said that costs associated with the massive storm would reduce its fourth-quarter earnings by as much as 1 cent per share.

Its third-quarter profit came in a penny ahead of analysts’ expectations, with growth in both the pharmacy benefits management business and the drugstore chain.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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Airlines: 2013 profits to rise thanks to cost cuts

GENEVA (AP) — Airlines‘ profits will improve to $ 8.4 billion in 2013, mainly reflecting cost cuts and restructuring measures taken to compensate for stalling economic growth, the global industry‘s trade group forecast Thursday.

For 2012, the industry anticipates net profits of $ 6.7 billion based on strong second and third quarters — particularly for larger carriers with bigger economies of scale — despite high fuel prices and weaker demand.

But the 2013 results would still be below the $ 8.8 billion earned in 2011 and $ 15.8 billion in 2010. The net profit margin, at 1 percent, would also be well below the 7 to 8 percent officials say is needed to recover capital costs.

The International Air Transport Association‘s annual review focused on the impact of annual world economic growth falling below 2 percent and Brent crude oil trading at $ 109.5 a barrel.

“Airlines have adjusted to this difficult environment through improving efficiency and restructuring,” said Tony Tyler, chief executive of the Geneva-based global trade group.

Tyler told reporters in Geneva that airlines’ financial performance hinged partly on their size.

“Economies of scale are helping larger airlines to cope much better with the difficult environment than small and medium-sized carriers which continue to struggle,” he said.

IATA, whose 240 member airlines carry 84 percent of all passengers and cargo, said the industry’s overall revenue in 2013 is expected to rise to $ 659 billion from $ 637 billion this year, while costs will go up to $ 640 billion from $ 623 billion.

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Here’s the Pope’s First Tweet

The long wait is over and we’ve finally got the first words of Twitter wisdom from Pope Benedict XVI. 

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

Ok, so not that funny, but it was all spelled right and we got blessed by a pope, so that’s a good start. And the Pope did actually send the message himself. Pope Benedict appeared on Wednesday morning for his regular weekly address in front of throngs of media and worshipers, and personally hit the tweet button himself on his iPad. Vatican officials say that before the end of the day he will be answering three questions that were submitted to the #askpontifex hashtag earlier this month. Here’s the first of those:

How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

He actually tweeted in Italian first and his other language accounts weren’t far behind. Follow @Pontifex for more 140 character sermons.

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Publisher Bonnier, Flingo partner to make Smart TV Apps

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Bonnier, the publisher of magazines like Savuer and Popular Science, and Flingo, the largest publisher of apps for Smart TVs, have partnered to create a series of apps extending Bonnier’s titles onto Internet-enabled TV sets and set-tops boxes like the Roku.

Together, they will release a new app for each magazine, offering videos, images and archival content for fans. Savuer has a couple of web series, including “The Test Kitchen” which helps home chefs learn how to peel garlic or dice an onion. Those videos, currently on Saveur’s website YouTube channel, will resurface in the apps, which will be distributed for free in app markets thanks to advertising and sponsors.

Though smart TVs remain a small segment of the TV market, Bonnier believes it is an ideal platform for leading media companies to extend their brand.

“This is about going after new technologies and being at the forefront,” Sean Holzman, Bonnier’s Chief Brand Development Officer, told TheWrap. “We don’t look closely at what other publishing companies may be doing. Flingo has a universe of 15 million devices and that should double in 2013.”

The emphasis will be on video since research demonstrates that it remains the top activity, even more than gaming.

Ashwin Navin, CEO of Flingo, said that while many media companies are putting secondary titles on Internet-enabled TVs, Bonnier is using its top titles.

“Major media companies aren’t putting their crown jewels on smart TVs,” Navin told TheWrap. He added that when they measure how long users spend online with certain brands, websites register just a few minutes.

“You see 10 times that in a TV app. People are more captive and less ADD.”

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Outlook remains cloudy for fiscal “cliff” deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More public jousting from both sides in the “fiscal cliff” talks is expected on Wednesday in what has become a daily ritual of mutual “you go first” calls for more specifics in proposals to avert the steep tax hikes and budget cuts set for the end of the year.

On Tuesday the White House and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner traded offers still couched in broad and familiar terms that neither side found sufficiently detailed.

If the public back and forth between Boehner and President Barack Obama reflects what’s happening behind the scenes, negotiations to avoid the cliff have a long way to go in the short time remaining in 2012.

Obama and Boehner each have proposed cutting deficits by more than $ 4 trillion over the next 10 years as a way of averting the cliff, but they differ on how to get there. Economists have warned that failure to strike a deal could send the economy back into a recession.

On Tuesday Boehner rejected what the White House viewed as a concession, shrinking the proportion of deficit reduction to come from revenue from $ 1.6 trillion over 10 years to $ 1.4 trillion. Boehner has called for $ 800 billion in revenue through tax reform.

There were also reports, unconfirmed by either side, that the White House has repeated a proposal it made in February to consider reductions in corporate tax rates.

That proposition is considered relatively uncontroversial compared to such politically sensitive matters as cutting entitlement programs such as Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly.

‘PLAYING TO THE MEDIA’

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, commenting Tuesday on suggestions of vagueness in Obama’s dealings with Boehner, responded by holding up copies of prior administration budget proposals that include, among other things, corporate tax reductions, and comparing them to the two-page offer that Boehner has sent to the White House.

A senior Republican fiscal hawk, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, faulted both sides for playing politics.

“There’s no leadership in Washington either at the presidential level or the leadership level in Congress,” Coburn said on CNN Tuesday night. “People are playing to the media rather than playing to the future of the country.”

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul suggested in a Fox News interview late on Tuesday that, to get things moving, the House vote on the stickiest issue, whether to extend expiring tax cuts to all taxpayers except high-earners, as Democrats want, or to everyone, as Boehner wants.

Republicans would simply vote “present” on the Democratic plan, he said, allowing it to pass.

Let the Democrats approve a tax increase on upper-income taxpayers, he said.

But “do it with their votes, not our votes. Republicans vote present in the House. Democrats can pass the tax increase with only Democrat votes and then the Democrats are the parties of high taxes and the Republicans are the party of lower taxes. And I think that’s the way it should be.”

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Doing the College Bowl Game Shuffle

In 1997, when the Arizona-based Copper Bowl was rechristened the “Insight.com Bowl”—and billed as “the first bowl game to be sponsored by an electronic commerce Web site”—it touched a nerve. Sports columnists called the tech suffix “ridiculous.” To echo one cantankerous newspaper writer: “What next? A flag game matching sororities, sponsored by AirTouch?”

Be careful what you wish for. More than a decade later, the Peach Bowl and the Citrus Bowl have been replaced by the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the Capital One Bowl (COF), respectively. The Humanitarian Bowl is no more—it’s now the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Teams from the Big East and Conference USA conferences duke it out in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, located in St. Petersburg, Fla. Speaking of which, the Gator Bowl, hosted every year in Jacksonville, Fla., is now the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl. And starting this year, the once controversial Insight Bowl (the “.com” was dropped in 2002 after the bubble burst) will be known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (BWLD), named after the Minneapolis-based chain of sports bars.

Some fear the bowl market is getting saturated. “I understand the financial considerations of getting those [sponsorship] checks,” says Kevin Adler, president of Engage Marketing. “But I think some of these bowls devalue themselves with the type of brands they associate with.”

Regardless, this year marks the introduction of three newly renamed bowl games to the mix. What they pay for the title sponsorships is just as mutable as the ever-shape-shifting bowl landscape. “The agreements are always changing,” says Doug Shabelman of Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing. “With the economy, you’re seeing these bowls and marketers getting as creative as possible. The marketer might pay $ 350,000 to be the title sponsor, but they’ll guarantee exposure in other advertising. It’s like a combination of marketing efforts. Everyone is looking to see where they can get added value.”

Here’s a quick rundown of the NCAA’s newest postseason sponsorships, as well as a rough estimate of what they paid for the title rights:

The Russell Athletic Bowl
Estimated title sponsorship value: $ 350,000 to $ 550,000
This summer, the Kentucky-based sports-apparel manufacturer Russell Athletic partnered with Florida Citrus Sports on a deal to be the title sponsor of the Orlando-based game through 2015. The previous title sponsor from 2004 to 2011 was Champs Sports. The agreement makes Russell Brands (no relation to this guy) the sole apparel provider for this game, the nearby Capital One Bowl, and the Fresh From Florida Parade. Last year’s Champs Sports Bowl, between Florida State and Notre Dame, drew 68,305 ticket holders and 6 million viewers on ESPN.

Heart of Dallas Bowl
Estimated title sponsorship value: $ 350,000 to $ 550,000

In 2010, the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic (T) was relocated from the Cotton Bowl, a stadium in downtown Dallas, to the gleaming Cowboys Stadium in nearby Arlington. Last year, the contest that took place in the actual Cotton Bowl was the TicketCity Bowl. This year, the game will bear the name Heart of Dallas, a new nonprofit group that will direct funding to a local homeless charity. The “presenting sponsor” is PlainsCapital Bank (HTH), “with additional support from MetroPCS (PCS), Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, Omni Hotels and Hyatt (H).” The payout to participants is $ 1.1 million. According to an editorial in the Dallas Morning News, locals are pleased—mostly with the name. “Simple and descriptive, the name also carries potentially great meaning,” the editorial board wrote.

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
Estimated title sponsorship value: “$ 2 million plus”
This year, Arizona’s Fiesta Bowl, which had operated the Insight Bowl, announced that it had entered into a multi-year deal with the Minnesota-based sports-bar chain after Insight Enterprises (NSIT), based in Tempe, Ariz., didn’t re-up its title sponsorship. The payout to participants in the game is $ 3.35 million. According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it’s estimated that Insight paid roughly $ 2 million for the last two bowl games.

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North Korea’s new leader burnishes credentials with rocket

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents.

The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting targets as far as the continental United States.

“The satellite has entered the planned orbit,” a North Korean television news-reader clad in traditional Korean garb triumphantly announced, after which the station played patriotic songs with the lyrics “Chosun (Korea) does what it says”.

The rocket was launched just before 10 a.m. Korea time (9 p.m. ET on Tuesday), according to defense officials in South Korea and Japan, and easily surpassed a failed April launch that flew for less than two minutes.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said that it “deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit”, the first time an independent body has verified North Korean claims.

North Korea followed what it said was a similar successful launch in 2009 with a nuclear test that prompted the United Nations Security Council to stiffen sanctions that it originally imposed in 2006 after the North’s first nuclear test.

The state is banned from developing nuclear and missile-related technology under U.N. resolutions, although Kim Jong-un, the youthful head of state who took power a year ago, is believed to have continued the state’s “military first” programs put into place by his deceased father Kim Jong-il.

North Korea lauded Wednesday’s launch as celebrating the prowess of all three Kims to rule since it was founded in 1948.

“At a time when great yearnings and reverence for Kim Jong-il pervade the whole country, its scientists and technicians brilliantly carried out his behests to launch a scientific and technological satellite in 2012, the year marking the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung,” its KCNA news agency said.

Washington condemned Wednesday’s launch as a “provocative action” and breach of U.N. rules, while Japan’s U.N. envoy called for a Security Council meeting. However, diplomats say further tough sanctions are unlikely to be agreed at the body as China, the North’s only major ally, will oppose them.

“The international community must work in a concerted fashion to send North Korea a clear message that its violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions have consequences,” the White House said in a statement.

Japan’s likely next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of an election on December 16 and who is known as a North Korea hawk, called on the United Nations to adopt a resolution “strongly criticizing” Pyongyang.

BEIJING BLOCK

China had expressed “deep concern” prior to the launch which was announced a day after a top politburo member, representing new Chinese leader Xi Xinping, met Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

On Wednesday its tone was measured, regretting the launch but calling for restraint on possible counter-measures, in line with previous policy when it has effectively vetoed tougher sanctions.

“China believes the Security Council’s response should be cautious and moderate, protect the overall peaceful and stable situation on the Korean peninsula, and avoid an escalation of the situation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists.

Bruce Klingner, a Korea expert at the Heritage Foundation, told a conference call: “China has been the stumbling block to firmer U.N. action and we’ll have to see if the new leadership is any different than its predecessors.”

A senior adviser to South Korea’s president said last week it was unlikely there would be action from the U.N. and that Seoul would expect its allies to tighten sanctions unilaterally.

Kim Jong-un, believed to be 29 years old, took power when his father died on December 17 last year and experts believe the launch was intended to commemorate the first anniversary of the death.

The April launch was timed for the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of its current ruler.

Wednesday’s success puts the North ahead of the South which has not managed to get a rocket off the ground.

“This is a considerable boost in establishing the rule of Kim Jong-un,” said Cho Min, an expert at the Korea Institute of National Unification.

There have been few indications the secretive and impoverished state, where the United Nations estimates a third of the population is malnourished, has made any advances in opening up economically over the past year.

North Korea remains reliant on minerals exports to China and remittances from tens of thousands of its people working on labor projects overseas.

The 22 million population often needs handouts from defectors who have escaped to South Korea in order to afford basic medicines.

Given the puny size of its economy – per capita income is less than $ 2,000 a year – one of the few ways the North can attract world attention is by emphasizing its military threat.

Pyongyang wants the United States to resume aid and to recognize it diplomatically, although the April launch scuppered a planned food deal.

It is believed to be some years away from developing a functioning nuclear warhead although it may have enough plutonium for around half a dozen nuclear bombs, according to nuclear experts.

The North has also been enriching uranium, which would give it a second path to nuclear weapons as it sits on vast natural uranium reserves.

“A successful launch puts North Korea closer to the capability to deploy a weaponized missile,” said Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

“But this would still require fitting a weapon to the missile and ensuring a reasonable degree of accuracy. The North Koreans probably do not yet have a nuclear weapon small enough for a missile to carry.”

Pyongyang says that its development is part of a civil nuclear program, but has also boasted of it being a “nuclear weapons power”.

(Additional reporting by Jumin Park and Yoo Choonsik in SEOUL; David Alexander, Matt Spetalnick and Paul Eckert in WASHINGTON; Linda Sieg in TOKYO; Sui-Lee Wee in BEIJING; Rosmarie Francisco in MANILA; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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BlackBerry Messenger 7 adds free Wi-Fi voice calling, split-screen multitasking and more

Research in Motion (RIMM) updated its BlackBerry Messenger to version 7 on Monday, adding a new key feature called “BBM Voice” that “will allow customers to make free voice calls to their BBM contacts around the world over a Wi-Fi connection.” BBM 7 also introduces multitasking with split-screen, which allows users to BBM, check email, or use other apps while on a BBM Voice call; new compatibility with Bluetooth headsets and accessories, 16 new emoticons; direct BBM Update Notification that provides in-app alerts when new versions of an app are available and an easier way to synchronize BBM profiles; Groups; and Contacts with BBIDs for simpler backup and restores. BBM 7 is available as a free update for all BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry 6 OS or higher. Users on BlackBerry OS 5 will get BBM Voice “early next year.”

“BBM began as a convenient and effective business messaging tool, and today it is an essential part of daily communications for customers around the world,” said T.A. McCann, RIM’s Vice President of BBM and Social Communities. ”Now, with BBM version 7, customers have a new option: they can text and talk with their BBM contacts near and far, for free.”

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Luke Bryan cleans up at ACAs with 9 awards

Luke Bryan didn’t want the American Country Awards to end.

He cleaned up during the fan-voted show, earning nine awards, including artist and album of the year. His smash hit “I Don’t Want This Night To End” was named single and music video of the year.

Miranda Lambert took home the second most guitar trophies with three. Jason Aldean was named touring artist of the year. Carrie Underwood won female artist of the year, and a tearful Lauren Alaina won new artist of the year.

Bryan, Aldean, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and Trace Adkins with Lynyrd Skynrd were among the high-energy performances.

The third annual ACAs were held at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas Monday night.

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Online: http://www.theACAs.com

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Follow http://www.twitter.com/AP_Country for the latest country music news from The Associated Press.

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Novo bets on high-price niche for obesity drug

LONDON (Reuters) – Denmark’s Novo Nordisk is sizing up a high-price niche market for its drug liraglutide as a weight-loss treatment, with the United States the prime opportunity.

The premium-price approach could turn it into a multibillion-dollar-a-year product, the company believes.

Novo is studying the injected drug – already on the market as a treatment for type-2 diabetes under the brand name Victoza – as a therapy for the seriously obese, with pivotal clinical trial results due in the first half of next year.

While some in the industry are sceptical about using so-called GLP-1 diabetes drugs such as liraglutide to fight obesity, Novo’s Chief Science Officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen believes the approach can offer cost-effective benefits.

Glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, drugs work by stimulating insulin release when glucose levels become too high. Their ability to induce weight loss is an added benefit, since type-2 diabetes is linked to obesity.

What is more, the willingness of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to license new obesity pills from Vivus and Arena Pharmaceuticals last summer shows the door is open to such new medicines, Thomsen said.

“It’s positive. More physicians are now knowledgeable that pharmacotherapy can make a difference and the political establishment in the U.S. now knows that behavior change alone is not enough,” he said in an interview in London.

More than a third of American adults, or some 100 million people, are obese and the figure is rising fast, posing a growing threat to the nation’s health.

Among this population group, liraglutide may help the severely obese, including those with related problems like interrupted breathing during sleep and pre-diabetes, who might otherwise receive stomach surgery.

“We are not going out to treat the 100 million … We see this as solving a problem in a niche of maybe a few million patients,” Thomsen said.

“If you took one million patients and gave them liraglutide at 3.0 milligrams (a day) at the U.S. price that would be a $ 6 billion market.”

When used in diabetes as Victoza, liraglutide is given at daily doses of either 1.2 or 1.8 mg. Novo is betting on a higher dose to produce greater weight-loss in the obese. A key unknown is whether this will produce unacceptable side effects – and Thomsen admits this makes it something of a “joker” in the company’s line-up of new products.

The main adverse effect of Victoza is nausea in some patients, although this is not strong enough in itself to account for the weight loss seen with the drug and Thomsen does not see nausea as a hurdle to regulatory approval.

More worrying, would be any evidence that high-dose liraglutide is linked to pancreatitis.

Given the high safety bar required for a new obesity drug, analysts are currently divided as to whether liraglutide will make it for weight loss – especially given past disappointments with diet drugs such as Sanofi’s Acomplia.

If all goes according to plan, however, Novo aims to file for approval at the end of next year, implying a potential U.S. launch in late 2014 or early 2015 for a product that would add a new string to the bow of the world’s biggest maker of insulin.

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Northern Rock will repay £270m

11 December 2012 Last updated at 08:19 ET

Some 152,000 Northern Rock Asset Management customers will receive hundreds of pounds each in compensation owing to mistakes made in paperwork.

Customers who took out personal loans of less than £25,000 will receive an average of £1,770 each.

Bank staff failed to include key details on annual statements about loans, including the original amount which had been borrowed.

Refunds of the interest paid by customers will now be made.

‘Right thing’

Many of the loans were provided on top of Northern Rock’s Together mortgage which was popular before the credit crunch, and allowed homebuyers to borrow more than their homes were worth.

The rules on loan paperwork changed, but this was not implemented properly on these loans after the bank was nationalised in 2008.

All of the interest charged on these loans since 2008 will be refunded.

The £270m bill for the refunds will have to come from the taxpayer, as this section of the bank has been owned by the government since 2008.

The problems with the paperwork arose as a result of an investigation by UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), which looks after rescued banks for the government.

Continue reading the main story

Where redress is required, this will be made by correcting a customer’s account balance”

End Quote Sajid Javid Economic secretary to the Treasury

“Northern Rock Asset Management is acting in accordance with its legal responsibilities and we are determined to do the right thing for customers and the taxpayer,” said UKAR chief executive, Richard Banks.

“We will be writing to all customers who are affected and advising them on next steps. We have not received any complaints or claims as a result of this matter and as far as we are aware it has not resulted in financial loss for customers.”

Letters

Affected customers would be refunded for all the interest they paid after the mistakes were made in 2008, economic secretary to the Treasury Sajid Javid confirmed in a written statement.

Customers did not need to do anything at this stage. They will receive a letter in the next few days.

There are 107,000 accounts which remain live and so the balance will be altered to take the refunds into account.

“Where redress is required, this will be made by correcting a customer’s account balance to reverse the consequences of them being charged any interest over the period in which the documentation is non-compliant,” Mr Javid said in the statement,

An additional 45,000 customers have paid back their loans and will receive a refund of the interest charged.

The mistakes pre-date the separation of Northern Rock plc and Northern Rock Asset Management.

The bill would not delay the repayment of government funding, which stood at £19.6bn in June. The Treasury said it would fully recover the whole of the taxpayer support for the bank.

This part of the bank is being wound down, while the mortgage lending and savings arm, Northern Rock plc, was sold to Virgin Money in 2011.

BBC News – Business

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#OccupyCheerios: A Facebook Revolt

It wasn’t an obvious forum for an anti-GMO protest.

A YouTube video posted on Cheerio’s Facebook page depicts an elderly woman leaning over the highchair of her infant grandchild, cooing about family and the holidays, drawing a map with pieces of cereal representing relative’s far-flung houses. “But don’t you worry,” the grandmother says, pushing two Cheerios together, “we’ll always be together for Christmas.”

More than 1,200 users have commented on the vintage Cheerios commercial since it was posted last week, expressing outrage over the General Mills-owned brand’s use of genetically modified ingredients. Commenters have also been critical—like heavy-exclamation-points-use critical—of General Mills’ significant financial support of Prop. 37, California’s defeated GMO-labeling ballot initiative

Comments like “Can you please inform the public exactly why it is that General Mills spent $ 1.2 million to keep consumers in the dark about GMOs????” and “Nostalgic old commercials are no substitute for healthy ingredients. I won’t buy Cheerios until they are GMO-free” are a far cry from the stories of spending holidays with family—and perhaps a bit of Cheerios nostalgia—the post was surely intended to elicit.

The protest campaign was stoked by GMO Inside, an organization born of the failed Yes on 37 campaign. The group also called on people to comment-bomb a Cheerios app, which has since been removed from the company’s Facebook page. But beyond that, Cheerios’ response to the criticism has been . . . nothing. Anti-GMO comments are still piling up on the post, and no new material has been added to page in order to bury the video in the timeline.

Do 1,256 comments (and counting) cancel out $ 1.2 million of anti-Prop. 37 funding? Of course not. But just as the Occupy-style tactics being employed by protesters at Cooper Union and the Michigan State Capitol exhibit, showing up and voicing an opinion can be a powerful gesture, even if it’s not overpowering. 

Similar stories on TakePart

• Will GMOs Spell the End of Mexican Maize?

• Kellogg Recalls 2.8 Million Boxes of Cereal Due to Hazardous Metallic ‘Surprise’

• Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: Nude Protests, Stripped Down

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Willy Blackmore is the food editor at TakePart. He has also written about food, art, and agriculture for such publications as Los Angeles Magazine, The Awl, GOOD, LA Weekly, The New Inquiry, and BlackBook. Email Willy | TakePart.com

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Singer feared dead in Mexican plane crash

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s music world mourned Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer presumed killed in a plane crash whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles had made her a Mexican-American superstar.

Authorities have not confirmed her death, but Rivera’s relatives in the U.S. say they have few doubts that she was on the Learjet 25 that disintegrated on impact Sunday in rugged territory in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico.

“My son Lupillo told me that effectively it was Jenni’s plane that crashed and that everyone on board died,” her father, Pedro Rivera told dozens of reporters gathered in front of his Los Angeles-area home. “I believe my daughter’s body is unrecognizable.”

He said that his son would fly to Monterrey early Monday to identify her presumed remains

Messages of condolence poured in from fellow musicians and celebrities.

Mexican songstress and actress Lucero wrote on her Twitter account: “What terrible news! Rest in peace … My deepest condolences for her family and friends.” Rivera’s colleague on the Mexican show “The Voice of Mexico,” pop star Paulina Rubio, said on her Twitter account: “My friend! Why? There is no consolation. God, please help me!”

Born in Long Beach, California, Rivera was at the peak of her career as perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated regional style influenced by the norteno, cumbia and ranchero styles.

A 43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, the woman known as the “Diva de la Banda” was known for her frank talk about her struggles to give a good life to her children despite a series of setbacks.

She was recently divorced from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and she publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked her in 2011.

Her openness about her personal troubles endeared her to millions in the U.S. and Mexico.

“I am the same as the public, as my fans,” she told The Associated Press in an interview last March.

Rivera sold 15 million records, and recently won two Billboard Mexican Music Awards: Female Artist of the Year and Banda Album of the Year for “Joyas prestadas: Banda.” She was nominated for Latin Grammys in 2002, 2008 and 2011.

Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said “everything points toward” the wreckage belonging to the plane carrying Rivera and six other people to Toluca, outside Mexico City, from Monterrey, where the singer had just given a concert.

“There is nothing recognizable, neither material nor human” in the wreckage found in the state of Nuevo Leon, Ruiz Esparza said. The impact was so powerful that the remains of the plane “are scattered over an area of 250 to 300 meters. It is almost unrecognizable.”

A mangled California driver’s license with Rivera’s name and picture was found in the crash site debris.

No cause was given for the plane’s crash, but its wreckage was found near the town of Iturbide in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental, where the terrain is very rough.

The Learjet 25, number N345MC, took off from Monterrey at 3:30 a.m. local time and was reported missing about 10 minutes later. It was registered to Starwood Management of Las Vegas, Nevada, according to FAA records. It was built in 1969 and had a current registration through 2015.

Also believed aboard the plane were her publicist, Arturo Rivera, her lawyer, makeup artist and the flight crew.

Though drug trafficking was the theme of some of her songs, she was not considered a singer of “narco corridos,” or ballads glorifying drug lords like other groups, such as Los Tigres del Norte. She was better known for singing about her troubles in love and disdain for men.

Her parents were Mexicans who had migrated to the United States. Two of her five brothers, Lupillo and Juan Rivera, are also well-known singers of grupero music.

She studied business administration and formally debuted on the music scene in 1995 with the release of her album “Chacalosa”. Due to its success, she recorded two more independent albums, “We Are Rivera” and “Farewell to Selena,” a tribute album to slain singer Selena that helped expand her following.

At the end of the 1990s, Rivera was signed by Sony Music and released two more albums. But widespread success came for her when she joined Fonovisa and released her 2005 album titled “Partier, Rebellious and Daring.”

Besides being a singer, she is also a businesswoman and actress, appearing in the indie film Filly Brown, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, as the incarcerated mother of Filly Brown.

She was filming the third season of “I love Jenni,” which followed her as she shared special moments with her children and as she toured through Mexico and the United States. She also has the reality shows: “Jenni Rivera Presents: Chiquis and Raq-C” and her daughter’s “Chiquis ‘n Control.”

In 2009, she was detained at the Mexico City airport when she declared $ 20,000 in cash but was really carrying $ 52,167. She was taken into custody. She said it was an innocent mistake and authorities gave her the benefit of the doubt and released her.

In 2011, her brother Juan assaulted a drunken fan at a popular fair in Guanajuato. In the face of heavy criticism among her fans and on social networks, Rivera publicly apologized for the incident during a concert in Mexico City, telling her fans: “Thank you for accepting me as I am, with my virtues and defects.”

On Saturday night, Rivera had given a concert before thousands of fans in Monterrey. After the concert she gave a press conference during which she spoke of her emotional state following her recent divorce from former Major League Baseball pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who played for teams including the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I can’t get caught up in the negative because that destroys you. Perhaps trying to move away from my problems and focus on the positive is the best I can do. I am a woman like any other and ugly things happen to me like any other woman,” she said Saturday night. “The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up.”

Rivera had announced in October that she was divorcing Loaiza after two years of marriage.

There have been several high-profile crashes involving Learjets, known as swift, longer-distance passenger aircraft popular with corporate executives, entertainers and government officials.

A Learjet carrying pro-golfer Payne Stewart and five others crashed in northeastern South Dakota in 1999. Investigators said the plane lost cabin pressure and all on board died after losing consciousness for lack of oxygen. The aircraft flew for several hours on autopilot before running out of fuel and crashing in a corn field.

Former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker was severely injured in a 2008 Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people.

That same year, a Learjet slammed into rush-hour traffic in a posh Mexico City neighborhood, killing Mexico’s No. 2 government official, Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, and eight others on the plane, plus five people on the ground.

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Associated Press Writer Galia Garcia-Palafox and Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report from Mexico City.

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Britain launches genome database to improve patient care

LONDON (Reuters) – Up to 100,000 Britons suffering from cancer and rare diseases are to have their genetic codes fully sequenced and mapped as part of government efforts to boost drug development and improve treatment.

Britain will be the first country to introduce a database of genetic sequences into a mainstream health service, officials say, giving doctors a more advanced understanding of a patient’s illness and what drugs and other treatments they need.

It could significantly reduce the number of premature deaths from cancer within a generation, Prime Minister David Cameron‘s office said in a statement.

“By unlocking the power of DNA data, the NHS (National Health Service) will lead the global race for better tests, better drugs and above all better care,” Cameron said on Monday.

His government has set aside 100 million pounds ($ 160 million) for the project in the taxpayer-funded NHS over the next three to five years.

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of the charity Cancer Research UK, said the work would uncover new information from which doctors and scientists will learn about the biology of cancers and develop new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat them.

He said some targeted, or personalized, cancer treatments such as Novartis’ Gleevec, or imatinib – a drug for chronic myeloid leukemia – are already helping to treat patients more effectively.

Some critics of the project, known as the “UK genome plan”, have voiced concerns about how the data will be used and shared with third parties, including with commercial organizations such as drug companies.

Genewatch, a campaign group fighting for genetic science and technologies to be used in the public interest, has said anyone with access to the database could use the genetic codes to identify and track every individual on it and their relatives.

Cameron’s office said the genome sequencing would be entirely voluntary and patients would be able to opt out without affecting their NHS care. It said the data would be made anonymous before it is stored.

($ 1 = 0.6242 British pounds)

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Stephen Powell and Tom Pfeiffer)

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These Christmas Trees Have Frequent Flier Miles

People are finicky about their Christmas trees. For some, that holiday staple must hail from Wisconsin. That’s where Wayne Raisleger comes in. He’s been FedExing Wisconsin trees from his Windswept Tree Farm to customers across the nation since 1999.

“A lot of my customers are ex-Wisconsin residents,” he says, noting that he’s shipped to at least 40 states. “They’re used to quality Christmas trees but are unable to get them, if they live in, say, Georgia, or Coral Gables, or the Los Angeles area, or what have you.”

Raisleger, who with his 23-year-old daughter runs the site ChristmasTreesNow.com, says orders have tripled over the past two decades. These days he sends out hundreds of trees each holiday season, for $ 75 a pop, plus shipping. Many of his customers are urbanites from Chicago and New York. “For them, it’s a question of convenience,” he says. It’s also among their only options for buying a freshly cut pine. Many Christmas trees sold on city street corners, Raisleger points out, are cut anywhere from six weeks to two months in advance. “I get calls from people who say they bought their tree and within a couple days the needles started falling off,” he says.

Still, the mail-order tree business isn’t for the faint of heart. Raisleger has a good deal of competition, not only in Wisconsin, but also from other big Christmas tree-growing states such as Michigan. There are also some unique challenges. Packaging, for example.

“Every tree is different—just like every person is different—and here I am, I have to package a very nonstandard Christmas tree into a standard-size box,” says Raisleger. He solved the problem by making his own boxes. “We buy huge [cardboard] blanks that are like 100-inch x 100-inch squares, and we start making boxes in early November,” he says. “In packing the trees, you have to be very attuned to the branching, the configuration, the density—and if the tree is too cold, the limbs can snap off.”

The cost of shipping varies from state to state. Shipping a tree via FedEx (FDX) from Wisconsin to Florida or California costs roughly $ 65, while shipping to Texas costs about $ 40. Last minute buyers, of course, pay a lot more. “Invariably I get an order or two around the 20^th, when someone wants a tree air freighted by FedEx,” says Raisleger. “I’m serious. Last year there was a fella in North Carolina. I think the tree was like $ 75 and the FedEx Air was like $ 225.”

Raisleger also keeps his eye out for tree scams. “Every year I have at least one fraudulent order on a stolen credit card,” he says. “This year, one of my first ones, right off the bat, was somebody from New York who ordered a tree to be delivered to Miami.”

A much more serious problem, which affects both online and offline sales, is the weather. This year Wisconsin, along with other Midwest states, suffered the worst drought since 1988. According to Donna Gilson, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection, thousands of trees were wiped out. “We inspected 212 of our licensed growers this year—that was 446 fields,” she says. “What we found was that 97 fields had drought damage, meaning that that they had 40 percent or more mortality rates.” The trees that did survive, she notes, were typically older trees, with deeper root systems.

Windswept Tree Farm suffered immensely. “I got to tell ya, I have partnerships with a couple growers—and I grow right here too—and we’ve lost everything we planted this spring,” says Raisleger. “We’re talking thousands and thousands and thousands of trees.”

Christmas trees normally take six to eight years to mature, which means we won’t see repercussions from the drought this year. We may, in fact never see any at all, if growers can manage to make up for their loss in coming seasons. “Those farms in Wisconsin, they might plant twice as many trees next year, and they might grow twice as fast in 2015 or 2016,” says Rick Dungey, a spokesman for the National Christmas Tree Association. “The trees also might be ready to harvest at 5 feet tall, or maybe they’re going to wait for them to be harvested at 8 feet tall,” he says.

Raisleger isn’t so sure. “I’m not going to say that there’s going to be a shortage of trees, because there are trees growing in other parts of the country,” he says. “But I think that quality might be diminished somewhat—I was just looking at my home plantation here, and some of the trees are still turning brown, and we’re into December now.”

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Barnes and Noble Nook HD+ is a Big Screen, Good Value Tablet

Barnes and Noble Nook-HD+

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[More from Mashable: 7 Stylish iPad Cases With Notepads]

The other night I handed the new Barnes and Noble HD+ to my son to see his reaction to one of the latest 9-inch tablets. He held it, played with the screen and said, “Which one is this?” I told him and he answered, “I can’t tell the difference anymore.” It’s true, with the sudden explosion of 7-, near-8-, 9- and 10-inch-plus tablets, it’s getting a little hard to tell which one is which — especially when many larger tablets look like their tinier siblings.

Barnes and Noble’s large-format (9-inch) HD-screen entry, the HD+, is a quite similar to the 7-inch Nook HD. However, with its somewhat sharper corners and far-reduced black-screen border, it’s also more similar in appearance to larger tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9. What sets the Nook apart visually is the trademark nook hole in the lower left-hand corner. It appears to serve no visible purpose, though you could hold the roughly 18-ounce tablet by that corner without too much stress on your hand. It is one of the lightest tablets on the market, although it’s thicker than the Google Nexus 10, Kindle Fire 8.9 and fourth-generation Apple iPad.

[More from Mashable: The 7 Best Tablets for Kids]

Nook HD+’s other distinctive feature is the physical “N” home button on the face of the device. It’s an attribute the Nook HD+ (and 7-inch Nook HD) share with the iPad. As I’ve said before, having that obvious “take me home” button on the front of the device is something I wish every tablet manufacturer would replicate.

Interface

Speaking of replicate, much of what is important and what you need to know about Barnes and Noble’s biggest tablet can be found in my review of the 7-inch Nook HD. The interfaces are exactly the same, so I won’t waste too much space recounting every bit of the Nook HD+ interface, which obscures any trace of Android 4.0, and is exquisitely usable.

The biggest difference between the Nook HD and the HD+ is screen resolution. The HD gets you 1440×900 pixels, while the HD+ offers 1920×1280, which is slightly more than the Kindle Fire HD 8.9’s 1920×1200. The latter two devices are almost the exact same size. By contrast, the competitors’ 7-inch devices are quite different because Amazon includes a front-facing camera, while Barnes and Noble does not include cameras on any of its tablets (if you plan on taking photos or video with your tablet, you can stop reading now). In the case of the Nook HD+, Barnes and Noble uses the space it saves on a camera for, it appears, 80 extra pixels of space. For the record, neither device beats the iPad’s 2048×1536 resolution.

Connectvity

Barnes and Noble also chose to leave out a cellular option from all of its tablets. Amazon, on the other hand, adds it in for the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 LTE. This is not as big of a deal as it seems since the world is filled with high-speed Wi-Fi. Still, if you plan to surf the web on your tablet while sitting on a train without another device to which to tether your HD+, look for products with the mobile broadband option, instead.

When it comes to connectivity, Amazon adds dual-band Wi-Fi to its HD Kindle Fires, while Barnes and Noble’s tablet remains single band. I’ve tested both devices in the most stressful situation -– streaming HD video -– and the difference is negligible.

Using It

Barnes and Noble Nook HD+’s profile-centric interface remains one of the best on the market. There is no learning curve; you simply drag your profile image to the unlock icon, and you have access to the large and uncluttered interface that features a carousel (which like the Kindle is a hodge-podge of disparate icons), your library and some recently used apps. Persistent menu items include the Library, Apps, Web, email and Shop. The screen also includes “your Nook Today,” which, along with the weather, is a place for Barnes and Noble to push shopping options based on your interests.

As you would expect, reading books and magazines is a pleasurable experience, especially on this larger screen. Magazines such as Esquire look great and, yes, Barnes and Noble still employs the animated page turn (though I don’t know for how much longer). Email and Web browsing are solid, and I prefer Barnes and Noble’s web solution to Amazon’s home-grown Silk browser, which crashed too often for my taste.

Social integration is fairly good on the Nook HD+. When I installed the Twitter client, it became one of my options for social sharing. That said, the app looks like it would be more at home on a small-screen smartphone than on the HD+’s 9-inch display. For Facebook, I opted for the web interface, which looks too tiny in portrait mode, but just right in landscape.

Movies and Music

I had no trouble buying, renting and streaming HD-quality movies such Arthur Christmas, and Netflix worked smoothly. Barnes and Noble, however, lacks its own streaming option. If you pay $ 75 a year for Amazon Prime, you get access to a vast library of streaming content. Both devices will let you play HD content on your big-screen TV, though they do it in slightly different ways.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9 comes complete with a mini-HDI-out port, and can accommodate a mini-to-standard HDMI cable (not included), so I could watch the HD content on my big-screen TV. The Nook HD+ lacks an HDMI port, but you can buy a $ 39 adapter (with an HDMI cable), which plugs into the tablet’s 30-pin port, to do the same thing.

I still prefer the Kindle HD platform for music since Amazon’s music services are more deeply integrated into the device and its cloud-based storage offering. On the Nook HD+ you have to start by finding the music service under Apps. If Barnes and Noble is serious about music, it should be on the main menu. Worse yet, if you open the Music app, it offers no instruction on how to fill your music library. You have to add tunes via your computer, by connecting to your PC with the proprietary cable or through the Micro SD slot where you can add more storage or place, say, an entire library of songs.

If you have a Rhapsody Account, you can use it to manage your music needs on the Nook HD+.

I almost never use my large tablet for music (that’s a job for my iPhone or iPod), so I don’t miss the rich music capabilities as much as some others likely would.

Apps and Performance

Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble curates its app library, which generally makes it safe and usable. The key apps, such as Netflix, Twitter, Dropbox, MobiSystems’ OfficeSuite, FlipBoard and Evernote, are all there.

I found some games on there, too, such as the Angry Birds Series and Cut the Rope. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble has very few action games. This may be because, while it’s running the same Texas Instruments Dual core 4470 CPU as the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, it doesn’t offer the same quadcore graphics processing power as Apple’s fourth-generation iPad.

Amazon actually includes the GPU-hungry Asphalt 7 in its app library, but the game does not look particularly good on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Obviously, Barnes and Noble chose not to take that risk.

Price

At $ 269 for the 16 GB model (I tested the $ 299 32 GB option), Barnes and Noble’s Nook HD+ is one of the most affordable large-screen tablets on the market — that price even includes the AC adapter. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9 costs $ 299, but does not include the charger, and adds subsidizing sleep-screen ads. A 16 GB Wi-Fi-only fourth-generation iPad starts at $ 499.

Obviously, the iPad is more powerful, has a higher resolution and two cameras, while the Kindle, which also includes a camera, offers powerful Dolby stereo speakers (Nook HD+ has ones with decent volume) and unlimited cloud-based storage for your Amazon content. But if those features don’t matter to you, and you’re looking for an attractive, large-screen, light-weight, fun, effective and very affordable tablet from a company that knows a thing or two about good content, you can’t do better than the Nook HD+.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Rick Ross cancels shows after gang threats

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Rick Ross has canceled two shows in North Carolina after a gang named Gangster Disciples published a series of YouTube videos threatening the Southern rapper.

Ross, a solo artist, is the founder of Maybach Music Group, a record label that release albums through Warner Bros Records. He was set to perform with fellow Maybach artists Wale, Meek Mill and Machine Gun Kelly in Greensboro on Friday and Charlotte on Saturday. A quick look at the Ticketmaster page evinces that Live Nation has canceled the shows, but a Live Nation spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Various sects of the Gangster Disciples (GDs), a gang founded on the South Side of Chicago, appear in videos on YouTube threatening Ross and asking him for money. A nearly 10-minute video published recently featuring members of the North Carolina crew is titled “Rick Ross In Trouble with the GD’s North Carolina.”

They claim to have already given Ross a pass “for using our honorable chairman’s name in a disorderly fashion – a dishonest fashion.” That courtesy is over, and they know where Ross will be, mentioning Greensboro and Charlotte. They then say when they catch him in his Maybach his “time is through” and that Ross should know his penalty.

Some of the conflict seems to arise out of a reference to Gangster Disciples’ leader Larry Hoover in Ross’ song “B.M.F (Blowin Money Fast)” – hence the comment about “our honorable chairman.”

Others have said it is not about Hoover and the GDs also appear to be upset that Ross has been acting like more of a gangster than he really is. Affiliated groups, such as ones in Florida and Georgia, have made their displeasure known on YouTube and demanded money.

“We need that cash now, we need that cash – now. We need that cash right now,” one man says in a video from a Florida sect.

“We coming to you as a man William, he adds. “As a man, you supposed to honor your obligations. Therefore you going to do so. Until you do, you going to deal with the mob.”

While both those shows have been canceled, a Sunday show in Nashville, Tenn. remains on schedule.

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Insight: Making France work again

ECUEILLE, France (Reuters) – Shirt manufacturer Marc Roudeillac was delighted when 48 of the 49 staff in his factory in central France voted to adapt their strict 35-hour week contracts to meet the up-and-down demand of the fashion trade.

Then the labor inspector stepped in and ruled the contracts must not be changed. So Roudeillac began an overtime system with 25 percent hourly bonuses. Again, the seamstresses were happy – until the government this year scrapped tax breaks on overtime.

“Now, no one wants to do overtime anymore – they say it’s just not worth their while,” Roudeillac said at his Confection du Boischaut Nord (CBN) company in the region of Indre, a two-hour drive south of Paris.

CBN is a small miracle of manufacturing: it is one of the few firms in Indre’s once-buoyant local textiles sector to have withstood the onslaught of foreign competition, first from southern Europe, then North Africa and now Asia.

Yet the overtime episode is a telling insight into a France struggling with itself: the France whose appetite for work sits uneasily with the France whose priority is to sustain one of highest standards of living in the world.

In just over 30 years after World War Two, France lifted itself from the ignominy of Nazi occupation into a sleek and modern Group of Seven economy with world-beating industrial champions in sectors such as energy and aerospace.

Its welfare system is among the most generous in the world. A road and rail transport network means its companies are within hours of tens of millions of potential customers. It is a leader in luxury goods and is the world’s top tourist destination.

But somehow that Gallic vigour is being lost.

Unemployment is at 14-year highs as plant closures mount, France’s share of export markets is declining, and the fact that no government in three decades has managed a budget surplus has created a public debt pile almost as big as national output.

Louis Gallois, the industrialist charged by President Francois Hollande to address France’s waning competitiveness, even warned in a November report: “French industry has hit a critical threshold below which it risks breaking apart.”

The euro zone’s debt crisis too has shone a harsh spotlight on France. The International Monetary Fund believes France could get left behind as Italy and Spain are pushed by the crisis into profound economic reform. Ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s have stripped French debt of its AAA rating.

Diagnosing France’s ills has created a whole new literary genre – the work of the self-appointed “declinologues” whose tomes compete on bookshelves to explain and fix the problem.

But the simplest test of France’s health is whether a business like CBN can keep selling the world its shirts.

THE GLORIOUS…

One hundred years ago, local entrepreneur Marcel Boussac put Indre on the world textiles map when he ended what was known as the “black look” in France by introducing color into the clothes manufacturing process.

Boussac founded a conglomerate that acted as its own bank and insurance broker and in 1946 bankrolled the first Paris fashion house of an up-and-coming designer called Christian Dior. He had a stable of racehorses, a country chateau and was at one point reputed to be Europe’s richest man.

Boussac, like millions of French, was the beneficiary of France’s “Glorious 30″ – 30 years of uninterrupted boom in which post-World War Two U.S. aid and heavy state planning wrenched its transport, energy, housing, financial and farming sectors into the second half of the 20th century.

It was a period of high wages, high consumption, full employment and very little foreign competition. And it all came to a juddering halt when the 1973 oil crisis sent energy costs soaring and capped the Western world’s growth rates for good.

There are no racehorses or country estates for Roudeillac and business partner Richard Boireau, who arrive for work in modest family saloon cars and share a desk in a cramped six-meter-square office.

If their company survives, it is largely thanks to a 20-year alliance serving a major Japanese fashion brand – whose name they asked should not be published – and a manufacturing model pared right down to the bone.

A trained engineer, Roudeillac, 45, says 80 percent of CBN‘s costs are labor – the local mushroom-picker, beautician or school-leaver whom he and Boireau meticulously train to contribute to the CBN production line.

Because CBN gets the client to purchase the raw materials, and all other overheads are low, CBN‘s slender gross margin of around six percent depends on optimizing what Roudeillac calls the “productive minute” of the seamstresses.

“What we do is sell French labor – by the minute,” he says of their daily output of 200 shirts and 90 jackets.

Now CBN wants to strike out and revive an 86-year-old French brand of shirt called “Lordson” which fell prey to the textile sector’s decline but which CBN believes has potential in the high-end quality segment of the market.

The “Lordson” will feature a rich cotton that feels smoother on the back after three years of washes, sleek three-millimeter seams about half the size of normal stitching, and buttons stuck on with a special machine of which only three exist in France.

There is one snag.

“Given our costs, it is impossible to retail a “Made in France” quality shirt for less than 140 euros,” said Boireau, who entered the trade sweeping factory floors.

“At 120 euros a shirt it works. But at 140 – not sure.”

…AND THE PITIFUL

If veteran textile entrepreneurs like Boireau fear they cannot hit the price point on their signature shirt, it is a direct result of choices made by France after the oil crisis.

By 1980, French economic growth had shrunk to two percent compared to its pre-oil crisis rate of above six percent – a rate which France and most rich states have not seen since.

In the years that followed, governments around the world reacted in their fashion: Britain’s Margaret Thatcher faced down Britain’s unions in a drive to free up labor markets, while Scandinavian leaders sought to free their economies of debt.

In France, governments of left and right chose entrenchment: strong rises in public spending which helped ease the social and employment shocks but which sent national debt soaring from 20 percent of output in 1980 to its current record of 91 percent.

The next three decades are sometimes called the “Pitiful 30″

Unwilling to switch from a pre-oil crisis policy of boosting consumption with low sales taxes, French politicians used labor to fund the bulk of the welfare spend. The result, 30 years later, is that French labor charges are among the highest in the European Union with those in Sweden and Belgium.

The high productivity of its workers might have compensated for their rising cost. But decisions such as the 1997 cut in the working week from 39 to 35 hours meant many French were also starting to work less.

A 2008 paper on “the Liberation of French growth” by Jacques Attali, ex-adviser to Socialist President Francois Mitterand, calculated that while the French lived 20 years longer than they did in 1936, they worked 15 years less over their lifespan – a shortfall he labeled “35 years of extra inactivity”.

“Even given that each French worker produces five percent more per hour than an American, he produces 35 percent less over his working life,” he found in the 245-page report.

Even that would not be disastrous if employers simply hired more people – the whole point of the 35-hour week after all was to reduce unemployment by requiring more workers to be taken on to do the same job.

But small companies like CBN insist it was plain unrealistic to assume they can simply hire more people for the same cost and without disruption to existing work patterns.

“When they brought in the 35-hour week, I wrote a letter to our clients saying, “Sorry, but as of tomorrow, prices are going up 11 percent,” recalls Boireau.

INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS

French laws which make it difficult to lay off workers have created the perverse incentive for employers to stop offering permanent contracts that in many cases equate to a job for life.

Instead they turn to temporary contracts when they need extra labor, creating for millions of French the very labor insecurity which the law was supposed to prevent.

While today the majority of French workers still benefit from a permanent contract, three out of four new jobs are on fixed-term contracts, often for no more than a month.

The split personality of the labor market is, experts agree, a major drag on its economy. At one end there is expensive but inflexible labor and at the other cheap but ill-trained and often demoralized fill-in workers.

Roudeillac acknowledges that CBN is one of the employers who turn to temporary labor to help with peak production periods – but he would prefer not to. “We could take on six or seven more people. But in France, hiring people is a risk,” he said.

For think tanks such as the OECD, the solution is simple: the first group needs to hand over some of their job security to the second group by accepting more flexible contracts. Surely such a burden-sharing should be easy for a country built on the ideals of “Liberty, equality and fraternity”?

Not a bit of it. In the past 30 years, France became not one country but two: the France of the “insiders” and the France of the “outsiders”. And the reason it is so hard to reform is that the insiders are determined to keep the rest out.

Those “in” the system include workers on long-term contracts, labor groups protecting their interests, and the mostly large companies who have found an accommodation with the system. Those left “out” are the growing army of temporary contract workers, small firms such as CBN who do not have the economies of scale to allay the high cost of labor, and of course France’s three million-plus unemployed.

“Neither the employers nor the trade unions want real reform – they are both in the insiders’ camp,” explains Eric Chaney, chief economist for insurer Axa Group. “The employers are scared of strikes and unions don’t want to change anything in the system because the people they are protecting are insiders too.”

Hollande has begun his plan to restore France’s competitive position with corporate tax credits linked to labor hires. He has also launched a public investment bank aimed to make up for France’s lack of venture capital. At his behest, French trade unions and employers have a year-end deadline to negotiate rules offering more flexibility and greater job security.

Yet it is unclear whether any accord will crack the mould. A dramatic cut in labor charges is not on the table and the 2013 budget stays clear of spending cuts sought by the reform lobby.

As CBN’s managers gear up to bring the world the Lordson shirt next year, they will need Hollande to go a few steps further in helping them sell the product of French labor.

“We need something better adapted to the world now,” said Boireau. “It needn’t take very much.”

(editing by Janet McBride)

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