Wall Street Week Ahead: Bears hibernate as stocks near record highs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks have been on a tear in January, moving major indexes within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now.


Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labor markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of 2012, and money has returned to stock funds again.


The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> has gained 5.4 percent this year and closed above 1,500 - climbing to the spot where Wall Street strategists expected it to be by mid-year. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> is 2.2 percent away from all-time highs reached in October 2007. The Dow ended Friday's session at 13,895.98, its highest close since October 31, 2007.


The S&P has risen for four straight weeks and eight consecutive sessions, the longest streak of days since 2004. On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 ended at 1,502.96 - its first close above 1,500 in more than five years.


"Once we break above a resistance level at 1,510, we dramatically increase the probability that we break the highs of 2007," said Walter Zimmermann, technical analyst at United-ICAP, in Jersey City, New Jersey. "That may be the start of a rise that could take equities near 1,800 within the next few years."


The most recent Reuters poll of Wall Street strategists estimated the benchmark index would rise to 1,550 by year-end, a target that is 3.1 percent away from current levels. That would put the S&P 500 a stone's throw from the index's all-time intraday high of 1,576.09 reached on October 11, 2007.


The new year has brought a sharp increase in flows into U.S. equity mutual funds, and that has helped stocks rack up four straight weeks of gains, with strength in big- and small-caps alike.


That's not to say there aren't concerns. Economic growth has been steady, but not as strong as many had hoped. The household unemployment rate remains high at 7.8 percent. And more than 75 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 are above their 26-week highs, suggesting the buying has come too far, too fast.


MUTUAL FUND INVESTORS COME BACK


All 10 S&P 500 industry sectors are higher in 2013, in part because of new money flowing into equity funds. Investors in U.S.-based funds committed $3.66 billion to stock mutual funds in the latest week, the third straight week of big gains for the funds, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Thursday.


Energy shares <.5sp10> lead the way with a gain of 6.6 percent, followed by industrials <.5sp20>, up 6.3 percent. Telecom <.5sp50>, a defensive play that underperforms in periods of growth, is the weakest sector - up 0.1 percent for the year.


More than 350 stocks hit new highs on Friday alone on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Transportation Average <.djt> recently climbed to an all-time high, with stocks in this sector and other economic bellwethers posting strong gains almost daily.


"If you peel back the onion a little bit, you start to look at companies like Precision Castparts , Honeywell , 3M Co and Illinois Tool Works - these are big, broad-based industrial companies in the U.S. and they are all hitting new highs, and doing very well. That is the real story," said Mike Binger, portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, in Shoreview, Minnesota.


The gains have run across asset sizes as well. The S&P small-cap index <.spcy> has jumped 6.7 percent and the S&P mid-cap index <.mid> has shot up 7.5 percent so far this year.


Exchange-traded funds have seen year-to-date inflows of $15.6 billion, with fairly even flows across the small-, mid- and large-cap categories, according to Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group, in New York.


"Investors aren't really differentiating among asset sizes. They just want broad equity exposure," Colas said.


The market has shown resilience to weak news. On Thursday, the S&P 500 held steady despite a 12 percent slide in shares of Apple after the iPhone and iPad maker's results. The tech giant is heavily weighted in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 <.ndx> and in the past, its drop has suffocated stocks' broader gains.


JOBS DATA MAY TEST THE RALLY


In the last few days, the ratio of stocks hitting new highs versus those hitting new lows on a daily basis has started to diminish - a potential sign that the rally is narrowing to fewer names - and could be running out of gas.


Investors have also cited sentiment surveys that indicate high levels of bullishness among newsletter writers, a contrarian indicator, and momentum indicators are starting to also suggest the rally has perhaps come too far.


The market's resilience could be tested next week with Friday's release of the January non-farm payrolls report. About 155,000 jobs are seen being added in the month and the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.8 percent.


"Staying over 1,500 sends up a flag of profit taking," said Jerry Harris, president of asset management at Sterne Agee, in Birmingham, Alabama. "Since recent jobless claims have made us optimistic on payrolls, if that doesn't come through, it will be a real risk to the rally."


A number of marquee names will report earnings next week, including bellwether companies such as Caterpillar Inc , Amazon.com Inc , Ford Motor Co and Pfizer Inc .


On a historic basis, valuations remain relatively low - the S&P 500's current price-to-earnings ratio sits at 15.66, which is just a tad above the historic level of 15.


Worries about the U.S. stock market's recent strength do not mean the market is in a bubble. Investors clearly don't feel that way at the moment.


"We're seeing more interest in equities overall, and a lot of flows from bonds into stocks," said Paul Zemsky, who helps oversee $445 billion as the New York-based head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. "We've been increasing our exposure to risky assets."


For the week, the Dow climbed 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 0.5 percent.


(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)



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IHT Rendezvous: Gallery Stroll: Istanbul

ISTANBUL — Unpredictable weather means winter isn’t the most popular season for visiting Istanbul, but it is a great time for gallery-hopping: Many of the best museums and art spaces in the Beyoglu district have just opened compelling new exhibitions.

At Arter, the curator Emre Baykal has gathered mostly new works by Turkish artists to create the second installment of “Envy, Enmity, Embarrassment.” Here, the artist known as Canan presents the installation, “I beg you please do not speak to me of love,” a room plastered with erotic movie posters from the heyday of the Yesilcam porn industry of the 1970s. In a transparent case in one corner of the room is a seemingly innocent white bathrobe. Embroidered on its back is a suicide note.

Other interesting works include “Twin Goddess: The Sketch of an Encounter,” an embroidered collage by Nilbar Gures using ancient symbols from Anatolian archaeology, and “The Island” by Hera Buyuktasciyan, a look at taboos swept under the rug.

The most powerful piece in this show is Hale Tenger’s “I Know People Like This III.” Visitors who enter the gallery from Istiklal Caddesi walk through this chronological maze of x-ray prints, a sort of light-box labyrinth, that lays out traumatic images from Turkish political history, including public protests, the killing of journalists and scenes of violence that followed the 1980 military coup.

On the parallel street, Mesrutiyet Caddesi, the Pera Museum has just opened a double-barreled program. A retrospective of the works of the Hungarian-American photographer Nickolas Muray covers the dashing man-about-town’s early black-and-white art nudes as well as his color-saturated portraits of beauties like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and a woman he adored, Frida Kahlo. On another floor, “Between Desert and Sea” presents a selection of 52 works from the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, pieces that speak to topical issues like religion, the rights of women, and the impact of the Arab Spring revolutions.

At the Salt Galata, a 10-minute stroll away on Bankalar Caddesi, “1 + 8″ is an installation of large-screen videos by Cynthia Madansky and Angelika Brudniak, who traveled to the borders between Turkey and its eight neighbors: Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Nakchivan, Iran, Iraq and Syria to tape local residents talking about their daily lives and hopes. In the case of Iran, just a black screen is shown: The artists were refused permission to film in Iran, but they managed to record audio of Iranians who had crossed into Turkey for personal or business reasons. None felt safe having their faces shown.

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Facebook Profile May Expose Mental Illness






A person’s Facebook profile may reveal signs of mental illness that might not necessarily emerge in a session with a psychiatrist, a new study suggests.


“The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting,” said study researcher Elizabeth Martin, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Missouri. “For example, questionnaires often depend on a person’s memory, which may or may not be accurate.”






Martin’s team recruited more than 200 college students and had them fill out questionnaires to evaluate their levels of extroversion, paranoia, enjoyment of social interactions, and endorsement of strange beliefs. (For example, they were asked whether they agreed with the statement, “Some people can make me aware of them just by thinking about me.”)


The students also were asked to log onto Facebook. They were told they would have the option to black-out parts of their profile before some of it was printed out for the researchers to examine.


“By asking patients to share their Facebook activity, we were able to see how they expressed themselves naturally,” Martin explained in a statement. “Even the parts of their Facebook activities that they chose to conceal exposed information about their psychological state.”


Participants who showed higher levels of social anhedonia — a condition characterized by lack of pleasure from social interactions — typically had fewer Facebook friends, shared fewer photos, and communicated less frequently on the site, the researchers found.


Meanwhile, those who hid more of their Facebook activity before presenting their profiles to researchers were more likely to hold odd beliefs and show signs of perceptual aberrations, which are irregular experiences of one’s senses. They also exhibited higher levels of paranoia.


“However, it should be noted that participants higher on paranoia did not differ from participants lower in paranoia in terms of the amount of personal information shared,” the researchers wrote in their study detailed Dec. 30, 2012, in the journal Psychiatry Research. That finding suggests this group might be more comfortable sharing information in an online setting than in the face-to-face interactions with the experimenter.


The researchers said information culled from social networking sites potentially could be used to inform diagnostic materials or intervention strategies for people with mental health issues.


Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.


Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Waiter Michael Garcia Refuses to Serve Man Who Insulted Boy with Down Syndrome















01/26/2013 at 09:00 AM EST



Waiter Michael Garcia made his regular customer Kim Castillo feel like family last week at the Houston restaurant Laurenzo's Prime Rib.

Castillo was eating there with her husband and their 5-year-old son Milo when several waiters came by their table to chat. Milo, who has Down syndrome, has slightly delayed speech. He showed off some new words, while talking about his recent birthday.

The chatter apparently displeased a nearby customer, who, according to NBC affiliate KPRC-TV, said, "Special needs children need to be special somewhere else."

Once Garcia heard the man's comment, "My personal feelings took over, and I told him, 'I'm not going to be able to serve you, Sir,' " he told the news channel. "[I said], 'How could you say that? How could you say that about a beautiful 5-year-old angel?' "

Castillo, "impressed" with Garcia's actions, says the waiter "put [his] job on the line … to stand up for somebody else."

Calling the man who insulted her son, "ignorant," Castillo adds, "I know Michael [stood up for Milo] from his heart, and from reacting to the situation. I don't think he stopped and thought about what he was doing."

Following the incident, Castillo wrote a blog post defending her son.

"Was he loud? Maybe a little in the moment, but honestly, the adults at our table were three times louder than he was," she said. "If he had been obnoxious, which like any other 5-year-old he can be, I wouldn't have thought twice about the family asking to move."

Meanwhile the restaurant's Facebook page has lit up with praise for Garcia and the supportive staff there.

"I am a Father of a special needs child and I applaud you and your employee, Michael Garcia, for standing up to intolerance and helping to educate people who fear the most precious of all children, those with special needs and disabilities," read one post.

He added, "Although I am a resident of California, I work for a [company] headquartered in Texas and am there on occasion for business. I will be sure to drop by and say hello and thank you when in town!"

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West


New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.


Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.


There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.


___


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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Stock futures up, S&P 500 poised to rally for an eighth day


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures gained on Friday and the S&P 500 looked set to extend its best winning streak in more than six years, as rosy earnings from Procter & Gamble came amid a broader backdrop of healthy corporate results.


The strong start to the year for the equities market has also been attributed to agreement in Washington to extend the government's borrowing power through mid-May, encouraging signs of recovery in the global economy and seasonal inflows to equity markets.


Those factors helped the S&P 500 rally for a seventh day on Thursday to a five-year peak. Still, the index is struggling to climb convincingly above 1,500, a level it surpassed briefly Thursday for the first time since December 2007.


"You have had more confidence from fund managers to provide more allocations to equity markets," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management, who added equities were looking more attractive than bonds or cash.


S&P 500 futures rose 4.7 point 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 rose 44 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 12.50 points.


If the S&P 500 rises for an eighth day, it will be its longest winning in eight years. The index had climbed for nine straight days in a run that ended in November 2004.


Procter & Gamble , the world's top household products maker, said Friday quarterly profit soared past expectations and raised its sales and earnings outlook for the fiscal year. Shares were up 1.7 pct at $71.58 in premarket trading.


Pointing to a rotation out of bonds, U.S. 30-year Treasury bonds traded more than a point lower in price on Friday, with yields touching session highs at 3.10 percent.


Recent company earnings have been encouraging. Thomson Reuters data through early Thursday showed that of the 133 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 66.9 percent exceeded expectations, more than the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.


Microsoft Corp's reported lower quarterly profit on Thursday as Office software sales slowed ahead of a new launch, offsetting a solid but unspectacular start for its Windows 8 operating system and sending the company's shares down 0.8 percent in premarket trading.


Apple stepped up audits of working conditions at major suppliers last year, discovering multiple cases of underage workers, discrimination and wage problems. The shares, which fell 12 percent Thursday after disappointing earnings, edged up 0.6 percent to $453.40.


German business morale improved for a third consecutive month in January to its highest in more than half a year, providing further evidence that growth in Europe's largest economy was gathering speed after contracting late last year.


Echoing a more positive tone in Europe, ECB President Mario Draghi said he expects the euro zone economy to recover later this year, adding that financial market improvements have not yet trickled into the general economy. Draghi was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday.


The U.S. Commerce Department releases new home sales data for December at 10:00 a.m. Economists forecast a total of 385,000 annualized units, compared with 377,000 in November.


Economic Cycle Research Institute releases its weekly index of economic activity for January 18 at 10:30 a.m. In the prior week the index read 130.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Clashes Turn Deadly After Iraqi Forces Open Fire on Protesters





BAGHDAD – At least four protesters and two soldiers were shot dead on Friday in clashes that started after Iraqi Army forces opened fire on demonstrators who had pelted them with rocks on the outskirts of Falluja. It was the first time that one of the anti-government protests that have been seething in Iraq for more than a month have led to deadly confrontation between the protesters, who are mostly Sunni opponents of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and government forces.




A security source said one clash started when protesters began attacking the government forces with rocks at a checkpoint near a main highway. The forces opened fire, angering demonstrators who responded by burning army vehicles and two cars belonging to a lawmaker from the mainly Sunni Iraqiya bloc and to a local politician from Anbar Province where Falluja is located. A medical source in Falluja, west of Baghdad, said a civilian was killed and about 40 people were wounded.


Later, unidentified gunmen shot dead two soldiers and wounded one at an army checkpoint south of Falluja in apparent retaliation, and gunmen kidnapped three soldiers, a police source said.


The Iraqi Defense Ministry later broadcast a statement saying it would investigate and punish those responsible for the gunfire, while compensating the people who were harmed.


Sectarian unrest and political tension have been worsening since December, when security forces loyal to Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, raided the home of the country’s Sunni finance minister.


The raid revived accusations by Sunnis and others that Mr. Maliki and his political bloc were seeking to monopolize power before provincial elections in April. Mr. Maliki, who became prime minister during the American-led military occupation of Iraq, has denied the accusations and rejected demands to resign.


Protests have been seething since then, mostly intensifying on Fridays when the week’s largest communal prayer sessions are held, inspiring what are now known as “No Retreat Fridays.” There were also demonstrations in Ninevah, Salahuddin, Diyala and Kirkuk provinces calling for government reforms.


“The army must get out of Anbar now and leave it to the police forces, because the people are very angry about the direct gunfire from the army toward the peaceful protesters,” said a local religious leader, Imam Ahmed Deri, who was at the demonstration in Falluja.


“We will continue protesting and this will give us more strength to face any kind of force,” he added, while warning about the potential for retaliation from protesters angered over the shooting. “We will do our best to keep it peaceful.”


One of the protesters, Muhammed Abdula, said: “This army is not wanted here anymore. We will not allow them in anymore, we are peaceful  protesters. The army must protect us, not attack us. Is this the democracy that Maliki talks about? We give them words and they give us gunfire?”


In Nineveh, thousands of protesters called on the government to step down.


“Today we protest in Mosul, tomorrow we take the streets of Baghdad,” they shouted.


 But in Baghdad, in Firdous Square, where the Americans orchestrated the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in 2003, hundreds gathered to support Mr. Maliki’s government and to demand that efforts be made to prevent the return of Baathist leaders to power.


 ‬


Christine Hauser contributed reporting in New York.



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Nokia CEO closes the door on a potential Android smartphone






Nokia (NOK) CEO Stephen Elop on Thursday shot down rumors that his company might be interested in developing Android-based smartphones. During Nokia’s fourth-quarter earnings call, the executive reiterated his support for the company’s Asha phones and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, while shutting the door on earlier Android rumors.


[More from BGR: Unlocking your smartphone will be illegal starting next week]






“We are clearly innovating with Microsoft around Windows Phone, and are focused on taking that to lower and lower price points,” he said, according to TechCrunch. “You will see that over time [we will] compete with Android. But at the same time we’ve said consistently — and we’re just beginning to see it in the Asha full-touch products — that we will continue to innovate around our Asha smartphone line in order to compete with the very lowest levels of Android.”


[More from BGR: Why the iOS-Android feud is so intense: It’s about core philosophy more than products]


The executive also took shots at Google (GOOG) and the openness of its Android operating system, or lack thereof.


“The situation that Android is facing, where the amount of fragmentation that you’re seeing is increasing as people take it in different directions, is of course offset by Google’s efforts to turn an open ecosystem into something that’s quite a bit more closed as you’ve seen quite recently,” Elop said.


Elop concluded by saying that Nokia is “not in a situation where we are considering something other than Windows Phone combined with what we’re doing with Asha.”


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Matt Damon Takes Over Jimmy Kimmel Live















01/25/2013 at 08:00 AM EST







Matt Damon (foreground) and Jimmy Kimmel



Matt Damon more than made up for his decade of being bumped from Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Declaring "I am in command of this ship," Damon not only hijacked the show Thursday night, but he brought along a little big-name help.

Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Amy Adams, Sally Field, Robert De Niro, Don Cheadle, John Krasinski and Oprah Winfrey all played a part.

Andy Garcia sat in as sidekick. Sheryl Crow led the band.

And where was Kimmel? Oh, he was there, all right: gagged and tied on the back of the set, as Damon took over.

"Just for starters," Damon told the ecstatic in-studio crowd, "let me ask you guys this: As an audience, is it weird to see a person with actual talent host this show?"

Admitting he'd been waiting a long time to do this, Damon – before turning his monologue over to Robin Williams – struck a personal note and said, "This is like the time I lost my virginity, except this is going to last way longer than one second."

Damon, tongue planted firmly in cheek for this all-star publicity stunt – earlier this month, Kimmel's show was moved into direct competition with CBS's David Letterman and NBC's Jay Leno – explained the basis for the Kimmel-Damon feud. The comic always wanted to be an actor, claimed Damon.

"I beat him out for every role he ever truly wanted," said the Bourne series star, now starring with Krasinski in Promised Land. "Jimmy has auditioned for every movie I've ever been in, every single one of them. How many did he get? None. So, he hates me."

Then there was the matter of Kimmel's ex, comedian Sarah Silverman, who in 2008 memorably sang a song about cheating with Matt Damon. (Kimmel retaliated at the time by saying he was "dating" Ben Affleck.) Silverman just happened to be Thursday night's guest.

"Is there anything you'd like to say to Jimmy?" Damon asked her, with Kimmel still held firmly in place, squirming. "He's a captive audience."

Replied Silverman: "No, I'm good."

Check out another hilarious moment with Affleck, who trick Damon into saying something nice about his captive:

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Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul


WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.


The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.


For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.


Younger smokers could be charged lower penalties under rules proposed last fall by the Obama administration. But older smokers could face a heavy hit on their household budgets at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge.


Workers covered on the job would be able to avoid tobacco penalties by joining smoking cessation programs, because employer plans operate under different rules. But experts say that option is not guaranteed to smokers trying to purchase coverage individually.


Nearly one of every five U.S. adults smokes. That share is higher among lower-income people, who also are more likely to work in jobs that don't come with health insurance and would therefore depend on the new federal health care law. Smoking increases the risk of developing heart disease, lung problems and cancer, contributing to nearly 450,000 deaths a year.


Insurers won't be allowed to charge more under the overhaul for people who are overweight, or have a health condition like a bad back or a heart that skips beats — but they can charge more if a person smokes.


Starting next Jan. 1, the federal health care law will make it possible for people who can't get coverage now to buy private policies, providing tax credits to keep the premiums affordable. Although the law prohibits insurance companies from turning away the sick, the penalties for smokers could have the same effect in many cases, keeping out potentially costly patients.


"We don't want to create barriers for people to get health care coverage," said California state Assemblyman Richard Pan, who is working on a law in his state that would limit insurers' ability to charge smokers more. The federal law allows states to limit or change the smoking penalty.


"We want people who are smoking to get smoking cessation treatment," added Pan, a pediatrician who represents the Sacramento area.


Obama administration officials declined to be interviewed for this article, but a former consumer protection regulator for the government is raising questions.


"If you are an insurer and there is a group of smokers you don't want in your pool, the ones you really don't want are the ones who have been smoking for 20 or 30 years," said Karen Pollitz, an expert on individual health insurance markets with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "You would have the flexibility to discourage them."


Several provisions in the federal health care law work together to leave older smokers with a bleak set of financial options, said Pollitz, formerly deputy director of the Office of Consumer Support in the federal Health and Human Services Department.


First, the law allows insurers to charge older adults up to three times as much as their youngest customers.


Second, the law allows insurers to levy the full 50 percent penalty on older smokers while charging less to younger ones.


And finally, government tax credits that will be available to help pay premiums cannot be used to offset the cost of penalties for smokers.


Here's how the math would work:


Take a hypothetical 60-year-old smoker making $35,000 a year. Estimated premiums for coverage in the new private health insurance markets under Obama's law would total $10,172. That person would be eligible for a tax credit that brings the cost down to $3,325.


But the smoking penalty could add $5,086 to the cost. And since federal tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty, the smoker's total cost for health insurance would be $8,411, or 24 percent of income. That's considered unaffordable under the federal law. The numbers were estimated using the online Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator.


"The effect of the smoking (penalty) allowed under the law would be that lower-income smokers could not afford health insurance," said Richard Curtis, president of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, a nonpartisan research group that called attention to the issue with a study about the potential impact in California.


In today's world, insurers can simply turn down a smoker. Under Obama's overhaul, would they actually charge the full 50 percent? After all, workplace anti-smoking programs that use penalties usually charge far less, maybe $75 or $100 a month.


Robert Laszewski, a consultant who previously worked in the insurance industry, says there's a good reason to charge the maximum.


"If you don't charge the 50 percent, your competitor is going to do it, and you are going to get a disproportionate share of the less-healthy older smokers," said Laszewski. "They are going to have to play defense."


___


Online:


Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator — http://healthreform.kff.org/subsidycalculator.aspx


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Stock futures drop as Apple revenue miss to halt stocks rally


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were set to fall Thursday as Apple slid nearly 10 percent following a revenue miss, and analysts said equities may be due for a pullback after a six-day rally.


Apple Inc missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for a third straight quarter after iPhone sales came in below expectations, fanning fears its dominance of consumer electronics is slipping. The shares dropped 9.8 percent to $463.84 in premarket trading, wiping out about $50 billion of its market value.


However, some positive economic news looked set to put a floor under stock prices. Growth in Chinese manufacturing accelerated to a two-year high this month and a buoyant Germany took the euro zone economy a step closer to recovery, business surveys showed on Thursday.


That chimed with positive U.S. data, showing the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to its lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market.


With signs the economy is improving and futures indicating only slight losses in the S&P 500 after the open, some investors are lauding the strength of the stock market rather than calling an end to the rally.


"The market has disconnected itself with Apple," said Jack de Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "I think it shows great strength in the overall S&P."


The S&P 500 rose for a sixth day on Wednesday following stronger-than-expected results from IBM and Google . But Apple could now halt that rally, which had lifted stocks to five-year highs.


On Thursday, S&P 500 futures fell 1.5 point and were below 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 rose 10 points and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 38.50 points.


Netflix Inc surprised Wall Street Wednesday with a quarterly profit after the video subscription service added nearly 4 million customers in the U.S. and abroad. Shares jumped nearly 40 percent in premarket trading.


Apple's disappointing results drew a round of price-target cuts from brokerages. At least 14 brokerages, including Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, cut their price target on the stock by $142 on average. Morgan Stanley removed the stock from its 'best ideas' list.


"The march to 1,500 on the S&P is looking quite strong, the question is will Apple be the spoiler?" said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.


"My guess is that while Nasdaq might suffer losses today, both the Dow and the S&P may do otherwise based on economic news out of China and Europe."


Diversified U.S. manufacturer 3M Co reported a 3.9 percent rise in profit, meeting expectations, on solid growth in sales of its wide array of products, which range from Post-It notes to films used in television screens. The shares shed 0.6 percent in premarket trading.


Corporate earnings have helped drive the recent stock market rally. Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday showed that of the 99 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings, 67.7 percent have exceeded expectations, above the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.


Investors in U.S.-based mutual funds pumped $9.32 billion into stock funds in the week ended January 16, the second consecutive week of inflows for such funds, data from the Investment Company Institute showed Wednesday.


Removing an element of political uncertainty from markets, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a Republican plan to allow the federal government to keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for fast enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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India Ink: India Rape Trial Starts With Renewed Ban on Media Coverage

The trial of five men accused in the gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in New Delhi is being watched closely as a symbol of India’s commitment to justice for women, but information about the ongoing court proceedings may be scarce.

As court proceedings began Thursday, the presiding judge said  there would be a blanket ban on reporting on the trial. The judge, Yogesh Khanna,  also warned defense lawyers, who have been openly speaking about the case, not to provide information about the proceedings to the press.

The five men accused in the Dec. 16 rape and murder of a physiotherapy student were ushered into the special fast-track court in South Delhi on Thursday at noon, flanked by policemen, with their faces were covered with gray woolen caps. During the two-hour court proceedings, the prosecution used the opening arguments to lay out charges against the men, which include gang rape, murder, robbery and destruction of evidence.

The police allege that the five accused men and a sixth teenager, who is being tried as a juvenile, committed a premeditated, vicious crime that included plans to kill their victim. The woman died nearly two weeks after the rape from injuries suffered during the attack, which included an assault with an iron rod. Her companion, a 29-year-old man, was also beaten, and is expected to testify  at the trial.

The court proceedings took place in room 305 of the Saket District Court complex, a small wood-paneled chamber. The next hearing will be on Monday, when the defendants’ lawyers will respond to the charges the prosecution has laid out.

The new fast-track court will try only cases related to crimes against women, and once trials have started, they will not adjourn for weeks or months, as is common in other courts. Several fast-track courts have already  been set up in Delhi to hear crimes against women in the wake of the Delhi gang rape, which brought thousands of protesters to the streets demanding justice for the victim and other victims of sexual assault.

Judge Khanna ordered  Monday that all court proceedings in ths current case would take place “in camera,” allowing only those directly connected with the case to be present in the courtroom, reiterating an earlier magistrate’s order on the case. He also renewed a blanket ban Monday on the printing or publishing of any information relating to the case’s proceedings.

Defense lawyers were instructed by the court during the proceedings to “honor the spirit” of the gag order, they said, after the special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan said he would file a petition of contempt of court if lawyers for the defendants continued to brief the media on developments.

V. K. Anand, the lawyer for Ram Singh, one of the accused, confirmed Thursday that he would now also represent Mr. Singh’s brother Mukesh. Mr. Anand and Vivek Sharma, a second lawyer for accused, told the media after Thursday’s court proceedings that they could not answer any further questions.

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Adrienne Maloof: Why I'm 'Casually Dating' Rod Stewart's Son















01/24/2013 at 08:00 AM EST







Adrienne Maloof and Sean Stewart


Splash News Online


Adrienne Maloof wants to make one thing clear about Sean Stewart: "We are not living together. He has his own place. He has a nice place."

Otherwise, she tells PEOPLE, what you've read is true: The 51-year-old, recently single star of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is, in fact, enjoying a budding relationship with the 32-year-old son of Rod Stewart.

"This started as a business relationship and now were casually dating," she says, emphasizing, "It's casual, real casual."

Stewart, she says, is "a lot more mature than a lot of 60-year-olds at this time in his life," and he's long since left behind his partying ways.

"That was when he was a young kid," says Maloof. "He's been clean and sober for years."

Maloof, looking great and sounding carefree, with no sign of her recent, notes that her family "has always been in youth-oriented businesses" – they run a Las Vegas casino among other enterprises – so she can relate.

"I'm a modern business woman," she says. "I don't think of age."

And the fact that Stewart comes from a famous family is a plus. "He understands my world, the entertainment industry and being a public figure," she says.

So what does she think about Sean's father, the legendary Rod, who is still going strong at 68?

"His dad is lovely," she says, "A very nice person."

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AP Interview: UN wants better family planning


DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The U.N.'s top population official wants governments to do more to ensure that women have access to family planning.


The U.N. says the world will add a billion people to its current population of some 7 billion within a decade, further straining the planet's resources.


Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, says more than 220 million women in the developing world want family planning but aren't getting it.


Speaking to The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said many women want to have fewer children and that "30 percent of those who die giving birth we can prevent with family planning."


He also called for providing girls with "comprehensive sexuality education."


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Stock futures flat, but techs rally in premarket


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were flat on Wednesday, with investors reluctant to make big bets following a five-day rally that took major averages to levels not seen since December 2007.


Tech shares will be in focus with earnings due from tech heavyweight Apple and following strong results from both IBM and Google, which rallied in premarket trading and continued the string of major companies outperforming following results.


Investors were also cautious as they awaited another onslaught of earnings reports, including from Dow component McDonald's Corp . Apple Inc reports after the market's close and investors will scour that report for signs the company can continue to grow at an accelerated pace.


"The market has an upward bias because earnings have generally been better than most expected, but whether we take another leg up from here depends on Apple," said Oliver Purshe, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York. "That is such a heavily watched stock that if it doesn't come out with strong numbers we could take a pause."


Google Inc rose 5.1 percent to $738.61 in light premarket trading a day after the search giant's core Internet business outpaced expectations. Revenue was also higher than expected.


International Business Machines Corp late Tuesday forecast better-than-anticipated 2013 results and also posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations. The results helped to allay concerns about the tech sector that arose when Intel Corp gave a weak outlook last week. IBM, which is a Dow component, rose 3.9 percent to $203.81 before the bell.


Dow component United Technologies Corp reported earnings that fell from the prior year, hurt by large restructuring charges.


Coach Inc slumped 12 percent to $53.20 before the bell after reporting sales that missed expectations.


According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of the 74 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 62.2 percent have topped expectations, roughly even with the 62 percent average since 1994, but below the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.


Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings rose 2.6 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast from the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast from October 1, the data showed.


S&P 500 futures fell 1.8 points and were below 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 rose 3 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 4 points.


Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average hit five-year closing highs on Tuesday, and recent gains have largely been fueled by a strong start to the earning season. The S&P has jumped 6.4 percent over the past four weeks.


Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives aim on Wednesday to pass a bill to extend the U.S. debt limit by nearly four months, to May 19. The White House welcomed the move, saying it would remove uncertainty about the issue.


The debt limit issue has been viewed as a market overhang for the past few weeks, with many investors worried that if no deal is reached to raise the limit, it could have a negative impact on the economy.


"We're raising our year-end target from 1,535 to about 1,575, in part because of the strong fourth-quarter earnings, but also because with the debt ceiling off the table that's a headwind removed from the market," Purshe said.


(Editing by W Simon and Kenneth Barry)



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IHT Rendezvous: Taiwan's Diverse Literature and History on Show in Two New Museums

TAINAN — Two new museums in Tainan, a city in Taiwan’s south, say much about how the island’s people have worked in recent years to build an unusually inclusive cultural identity, a model for Chinese-speaking societies, as I write in my Letter from Taiwan this week.

At the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, founded in 2003, exhibits explore the writing, film and music of indigenous cultures such as the Siraya, and of speakers of Taiyu, Holo and Hakka. (The name “Taiwan” is widely believed to come from the Sirayan word for a port in the south of the island, Tayovan.)

Another exhibit, “The Inner World of Taiwan Literature,” shows diverse voices from both before and after the Chinese Nationalists moved their seat of government to Taiwan in 1949.

Page Two

Posts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.

The National Museum of Taiwan History opened at the end of 2011. Its vision is “To protect Taiwan, our homeland, and to creating a single diverse and harmonious society,” as it says on its Web site, and offers exhibits such as “Taiwan Memories: A Century of Life,” and “On the Tracks of Anthroplogists,” an exhibit of Taiwan anthropology.

At the museum’s opening, its director, Lu Li-cheng, noted its tens of thousands of objects of local cultural life, and the museum’s emphasis on the interactions among ethnic groups in Taiwan through history.

“Of particular note is the collection of historic maps, charts and documents that the museum has obtained from foreign collectors,” Taiwan Today reported, quoting Mr. Li: “They will provide us with different viewpoints from which to look at Taiwan’s history.”

As Mark Harrison, a Taiwan specialist at the University of Tasmania, said in a telephone interview, it’s all part of Taiwanese people’s attempts to build an inclusive society.

“Taiwan’s history is very complex, and it’s a very strange history,’’ said Mr. Harrison. “In that history, there have been whole periods erased by various regimes,” as they asserted power over the island, including the Qing dynasty from China, the Japanese colonialists and, finally, the Nationalists.

“What’s been really interesting about Taiwan,’’ he said, “is how it has gone about recovering its history and understanding itself, and many nations could learn from that.’’

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First “Firefox OS” Phones Previewed, to Launch in February






Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, has been promoting its Firefox OS project (once known as “Boot to Gecko”) for some time now. A hardware partnership with Telefonica, the international telecom giant, had been announced, but no phones had yet been unveiled.


But in an announcement today on its blog, Mozilla announced the impending launch of its first “developer preview” phones, the Keon and the Peak. Made in partnership with Geeksphone, a Spanish smartphone producer which used to make Android phones, these devices are meant to help app developers preview their work on the small screen. But they may also serve as a sneak preview of Mozilla’s plan to enter the smartphone market.






Introducing Firefox OS


Designed as an alternative to Google’s Android for low-powered smartphones, Firefox OS’ claim to fame is that it’s “built entirely using open web standards,” or open-source code written in the programming languages which make up the web, like JavaScript. Likewise, Firefox OS apps are websites specially formatted to look and feel like apps, and to respond to touchscreen controls and access phone features like vibration and the GPS.


A selection of Firefox apps is already available in the Mozilla Marketplace, but developers will eventually be able to take the open-source code behind it and create their own app markets like it if they so choose. These apps also run on the preview “Aurora” version of Firefox for Android, which is available for download from Mozilla’s website.


“Say ‘hola’” to the Keon and Peak


The Keon is Mozilla’s entry-level developer smartphone, while the Peak has somewhat more modern hardware specs.


The Keon has a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 512 MB of RAM, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, and 4 GB of flash memory, plus a microSD card slot to expand storage space. Its built-in camera is a basic 3-megapixel shooter, and lacks an LED flash. It’s roughly comparable to 2010′s iPhone 4 in terms of raw hardware specs, although it probably won’t be able to play the same kinds of 3D games since they’ll be written as web applications.


The Peak has a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, a 4.3-inch IPS display, and an 8-megapixel camera with a flash, plus a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It has the same amount of RAM and flash storage as the Keon does, though.


Both the Keon and the Peak are unlocked GSM smartphones, which may mean they will work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks in the States.


Pricing and availability


According to Peters, the “First phones will be available in February.” Prices have yet to be announced.


Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.


Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Melissa Rycroft Tricks Her Daughter at the Dinner Table




Celebrity Baby Blog





01/22/2013 at 09:00 AM ET



Melissa Rycroft Tricks Her Daughter at the Dinner Table
FameFlynet


She triumphed with her fancy footwork on the dance floor, but Melissa Rycroft may have finally met her match.


Although completely head over heels in love with daughter Ava Grace, 2 next month, the first-time mom admits her little girl has her beat.


“She pushes my buttons like nobody else on this earth can do,” Rycroft, 29, tells PEOPLE.


“She’s going through that phase right now, the ‘I’m sorry, Mommy, you didn’t want me to touch this? This right here I wasn’t supposed to touch?’ And she just gives you this look and I want to be so angry with her, but I can’t!”


Rycroft isn’t the only one being tested by the toddler; Dad Tye Strickland has been known to be on the receiving end of a few of Ava’s tricks, too.

“It’s Daddy’s day with her while Mommy goes and works and as I was leaving [Ava] pooped in the bathtub,” she says with a laugh. “It’s little things like that where I go, ‘That’s my girl! There you go, Tye!’”


At the end of the day, however, it’s Rycroft versus the father-daughter duo — at least when it comes to the dinner table.


“We don’t want to make her a vegetarian or just a meatatarian or just a hot dogatarian like most toddlers are,” she quips. “It doesn’t help in my house that my husband also eats like a 5-year-old, so it’s almost like I’m raising two kids [and] trying to get vegetables in both of them.”


Noting that “if it’s green [Ava's] not going to eat it,” a crafty Rycroft reveals she may have finally found the secret to her struggles.


“I’m finding new recipes online of how you can kind of hide vegetables in meals and so far they can’t tell that it’s there,” she shares. “There’s a nice stuffed chicken you can do [where] you can put some spinach and cheese right in there. They’ll never know it’s there!”


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');var targetVideoWidth = 300;brightcove.createExperiences();/* iPhone, iPad, iPod */if ((navigator.userAgent.match('iPhone')) || (navigator.userAgent.match('iPad')) || (navigator.userAgent.match('iPod')) || (location.search.indexOf('ipad=true') > -1)) { document.write('
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Foes of NYC soda size limit doubt racial fairness


NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents of the city's limit on the size of sugary drinks are raising questions of racial fairness alongside other complaints as the novel restriction faces a court test.


The NAACP's New York state branch and the Hispanic Federation have joined beverage makers and sellers in trying to stop the rule from taking effect March 12. With a hearing set Wednesday, critics are attacking what they call an inconsistent and undemocratic regulation, while city officials and health experts defend it as a pioneering and proper move to fight obesity.


The issue is complex for the minority advocates, especially given obesity rates that are higher than average among blacks and Hispanics, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. The groups say in court papers they're concerned about the discrepancy, but the soda rule will unduly harm minority businesses and "freedom of choice in low-income communities."


The latest in a line of healthy-eating initiatives during Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration, the beverage rule bars restaurants and many other eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces. Violations could bring $200 fines; the city doesn't plan to start imposing those until June.


The city Board of Health OK'd the measure in September. Officials cited the city's rising obesity rate — about 24 percent of adults, up from 18 percent in 2002 — and pointed to studies linking sugary drinks to weight gain. Care for obesity-related illnesses costs more than $4.7 billion a year citywide, with government programs paying about 60 percent of that, according to city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.


"It would be irresponsible for (the health board) not to act in the face of an epidemic of this proportion," the city says in court papers. The National Association of Local Boards of Health and several public health scholars have backed the city's position in filings of their own.


Opponents portray the regulation as government nagging that turns sugary drinks into a scapegoat when many factors are at play in the nation's growing girth.


The American Beverage Association and other groups, including movie theater owners and Korean grocers, sued. They argue that the first-of-its-kind restriction should have gone before the elected City Council instead of being approved by the Bloomberg-appointed health board.


Five City Council members echo that view in a court filing, saying the Council is "the proper forum for balancing the city's myriad interests in matters of public health." The Bloomberg administration counters that the health board, made up of doctors and other health professionals, has the "specialized expertise" needed to make the call on limiting cola sizes.


The suit also argues the rule is too narrow to be fair. Alcohol, unsweetened juice and milk-based drinks are excluded, as are supermarkets and many convenience stores — including 7-Eleven, home of the Big Gulp — that aren't subject to city health regulations.


The NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, a network of 100 northeastern groups, say minority-owned delis and corner stores will end up at a disadvantage compared to grocery chains.


"This sweeping regulation will no doubt burden and disproportionally impact minority-owned businesses at a time when these businesses can least afford it," they said in court papers. They say the city should focus instead on increasing physical education in schools.


During Bloomberg's 11-year tenure, the city also has made chain restaurants post calorie counts on their menus and barred artificial trans fats in french fries and other restaurant food.


In general, state and local governments have considerable authority to enact laws intended to protect people's health and safety, but it remains to be seen how a court will view a portion-size restriction, said Neal Fortin, director, Institute for Food Laws and Regulations at Michigan State University.


___


Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


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Stock futures flat at five-year highs, investors await earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were flat on Tuesday as investors held back from making large bets ahead of an onslaught of corporate earnings and after recently notching five-year highs.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 closed at their highest levels the earnings season. U.S. markets were closed on Monday for a public holiday.

Despite stronger-than-expected earnings results from major companies, including big banks, at the start of the quarterly reporting season, many investors are worried that other reports will reflect economic uncertainty in the fourth quarter.

"The market has been pleased with earnings thus far, and it is encouraging to see a cyclical company like DuPont show revenue strength, but I'm waiting on more tech and energy earnings until I come down one way or the other on this season," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.

posted a steep drop in earnings on reduced demand for paint pigment, though revenue was ahead of expectations.

Verizon Communications Inc fell 1.1 percent to $42.06 in premarket trading after reporting a steep loss due to pension liabilities and charges related to superstorm Sandy that offset strength in its wireless business. Travelers Cos Inc also posted earnings that were hurt by losses related to Sandy.


DuPont, Verizon and Travelers are all Dow components, as is Johnson & Johnson , slated to report later Tuesday along with Google Inc and Texas Instruments . Tech earnings will be in particular focus after Intel Corp last week gave a revenue outlook that was below expectations.


Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to have risen 2.5 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast from a week ago but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast from October 1, the data showed.


S&P 500 futures rose 0.3 point but remained below 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 fell 8 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 5 points.


Monday was a market holiday for Martin Luther King Day in the United States, and also marked the start of a second term for President Barack Obama, who called for aggressive action on climate change, economic equality and the federal budget.


"It remains a question whether Obama will be able to deliver on his agenda, but a sector like solar power companies could continue to be strong as he pushes for action," Sarhan said.


Markets have recently been pressured by uncertainty stemming from Washington about the federal debt limit and spending cuts that could hamper U.S. growth.


Republican leaders in the House of Representatives said they aim to pass on Wednesday a nearly four-month extension of the U.S. debt limit, allowing the government to borrow enough to meet its obligations during that period.


U.S. shares of Research in Motion jumped 8.9 percent to $17.25 in premarket trading after its chief executive said the company may consider strategic alliances with other companies after the launch of devices powered by RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system.


The Dow and S&P 500 closed at five-year highs on Friday as the market registered a third straight week of gains on a solid start to the quarterly earnings season, including from Morgan Stanley and General Electric Co .


(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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IHT Rendezvous: Oscar Anticipation in the Subtitle Category

PARIS—With the multiple nominations for “Lincoln,” “Django Unchained” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” Europeans may see this year’s Academy Award field as something of a celebration of American history, in the age of Obama.

Still, “Amour,” Michael Haneke’s Austrian film shot in France and in French, made it into the best picture category, confirmation that the Academy thinks subtitled films can hold their own against American blockbusters. “Amour,” about life, death, age and love, is nominated in five categories (best picture, best foreign film, best actress, director and screenplay).

As Vanessa Thorpe wrote recently in The Guardian, “Academy voters appear to be hinting at a new openness to other cultures and the growing acceptability of subtitled entertainment.”

She theorized that a larger cultural shift is happening:

The new appetite for foreign fare might have started with the mass popularity of translated Scandinavian thrillers, from Stieg Larsson to Jo Nesbo, or it may have been the accidental result of cash-strapped public television schedulers searching for new quality drama with a reasonable price tag.

France took great national pride in last year’s best picture winner, “The Artist,” but, as Elaine Sciolino wrote at the time, it was shot in Los Angeles with an American crew, the rights were bought by an American, and it is all about Hollywood.

The fierce competition this year, and perhaps its grim subject matter, makes “Amour” something of a long shot as best picture. Among the best foreign-language film nominees, however, it stands as the overwhelming favorite to take the prize at the awards ceremony on Feb. 24.

The film has already swept all the European awards, including the 2012 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or; it was given the Golden Globe last week for best foreign language film, and more than 20 other awards and nominations. Oscar observers tend to agree it should leave with a golden statue, if not for best picture then surely for best foreign film.

But award ceremonies sometimes welcome surprises, and the foreign film category this year has some other strong contenders. The selection was made from a record-breaking 71 submissions in the category this year.

With two Scandinavian films in the running, three of the five nominees are from Europe. Denmark’s entry, “A Royal Affair,” a sumptuous romantic drama set in the 18th century, lost to “Amour” at the Golden Globes but took two awards at the Berlin International Film Festival: for best script and best actor for Mads Mikkelsen, whom you might recognize as the villain from “Casino Royale.”

“Kon-Tiki,” a box-office hit from Norway, got a double Golden Globe-Oscar nomination. It tells the story of Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 trip across the Pacific on a small raft with five other men. Larry Rohter, who has been following the foreign film race closely for The New York Times, writes on the Carpetbagger blog that the Weinstein brothers are reportedly planning to release it in English this year.

Last year’s contenders included Iranian and Israeli films, this year the remaining two nominees are from the Americas.

The Chilean director Pablo Larrain was third-time lucky with “No,” his third film about the Pinochet years. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal, the film is about the 1988 referendum that ended the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. This is Mr. Larrain’s second attempt at the award after being shortlisted in 2008 for his film “Tony Manero,” With “No,” which opens in February in the United States, Mr. Larrain won the top prize in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes.

In a recent Q&A with Larry Rohter, the 36-year-old director talked about the difficulty that film committees face in choosing their entries for the Oscars. “What happens when the committee in each country meets to decide, sometimes they make the mistake that they think the movie that should be submitted is the one that they like more themselves,” he said.

Canada got a nod with “War Witch,” a film shot primarily in Congo about an adolescent girl-soldier trapped in civil war. The film, in French and the African language Lingala, wowed the critics and was awarded a top prize at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The nomination was yet another win for the government-supported National Film Board of Canada, which has garnered Oscar nominations for three years in a row.

Neither “No” nor “War Witch” made it into the Golden Globes selection.

The nomination will probably help “No” when it begins its release in Europe and the United States next month, as being in the Oscar race often gives movies a “nomination bump” in box-office figures, though Edmund Helmer wrote in an analysis recently for Reuters that a Golden Globe may be a better win financially.

One film that didn’t need to wait for its Golden Globe nomination to rock the box-office was “The Intouchables,” perhaps the most surprising absentee of the Oscars’ foreign film selection. The French movie, about the friendship between a rich Parisian quadriplegic and his caretaker, has become the highest-grossing film ever made in a language other than English, with a worldwide box-office take of roughly $410 million, about three times that of “The Artist.” Take that, Oscar.

Are you more likely to see a movie if it has won awards? Does the prospect of subtitles keep you from seeing a movie? And are there films you’ve seen that you think should have been nominated in the foreign film category that weren’t?

Fill out your own ballot in The New York Times Oscar poll.

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I Might Be Too Old for Facebook Graph Search






On Sunday, I turned 30.


That’s not too old, I tell myself, yet the signs of aging are creeping in. Teenagers listen to music that I either haven’t heard of or believe to be mostly terrible. They use slang I don’t recognize, and I imagine my slang would sound to them like “groovy” or “far out” sound to me.






But for the purposes of our tech blog, the most notable sign is how much more active teens are on Facebook than I am. To hear it from my wife, who works with children and teens at her job, they’re constantly signed in and active, to the point that reaching them by voice call is unreliable. Send them a Facebook message, even during school hours, and they’ll respond right away. (The reality isn’t quite that extreme; according to a Pew survey, most teens communicate through text messages and phone calls more than Facebook, but e-mail is far behind.)


So when Facebook announces a new feature, like Graph Search, I imagine those teens getting the most use out of it. Graph Search lets you look up people, places, photos and other things using natural search queries. Think of it like Google for everything that your friends know; instead of searching the Web for somewhere to eat or something to do, you could just search through the collective wisdom of your network.


Here are some of the example searches on Facebook’s Graph Search home page:


  • Music my friends like

  • Restaurants in London my friends have been to

  • People who like cycling and are from my hometown

  • Photos before 1990

Being able to find all that information–and provide your own information for friends–sounds great. But unless you and your pals are putting lots of data in, you’re probably not going to get a lot of data out. I know for sure that I haven’t put much effort into connecting my real life story to Facebook, and as I poke around my network, I see that many of my friends haven’t either. They don’t check in to places they visit. They don’t “Like” everything that they actually like. They haven’t uploaded photos from before 1990. Collectively, we haven’t invested in making Graph Search as useful as it could be.


It might be different if I was part of the generation that uses Facebook more often. Though it’s hard to find data on how Likes and check-ins vary by age, younger users tend to have more Facebook friends than older ones, according to Edison Research, so at least they have a bigger base of people to work with. And according to a 2011 study, teens spend more time on the network per day than older users. If posting on Facebook is part of your social circle’s daily life–that is, it’s not just a way to see what old high school buddies are up to–I imagine Graph Search will be a lot more useful.


That’s not to say Graph Search won’t be of any value to someone like me. It could come in handy as a way to sort through photos, for instance. There’s also a chance that Facebook will improve the ways that it picks up on our interests, and integrate frictionless sharing so there’s less work involved in becoming an information source.


But while I plan to keep up with technology for a long time, I realize it’s hard to keep using social networks like a teenager when your friends are getting older too. Facebook isn’t part of my daily life anymore, so I can’t imagine rewiring my habits and turning it into a primary information source, especially if my friends aren’t doing the same.  It’s much easier to rely on the tools I already have, such as traditional search engines and sites like Yelp–just like it’s easy to stop keeping track of popular music or to pick up on new slang.


Graph Search is in “very limited” beta now, and users who want to try it can join the waiting list. I look forward to seeing what I can do with it, even if it’s not really for me. In the meantime, here’s to growing older.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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The Biggest Loser's Alison Sweeney Blogs: The Entire Family Needs Fight Childhood Obesity Together















01/22/2013 at 08:30 AM EST



Alison Sweeney hosts NBC's The Biggest Loser and is the award-winning star of Days of Our Lives, in addition to being an author, director, producer, wife and mom. Like she has for the past two seasons, Alison will blog each week about the latest episode of The Biggest Loser. Follow her on Twitter @Ali_Sweeney

Can you imagine if Bob Harper surprised you at dinner or if Dolvett Quince walked into your classroom? How would you react?

Watching the kids's reactions to Bob, Jillian and Dolvett surprising them was priceless.

Seeing how Biingo and his family have struggled financially breaks my heart but, like Bob, I was impressed by how they've managed and that they've been able to make healthier choices without spending more money. One thing that was reinforced this week was that the entire family needs to work together to combat childhood obesity. All the pressure can't be placed on the kids.

While the trainers were gone, I had a blast running with the contestants in the 5K. I always try to get a workout in each day and by doing the run at work, I was set for the day!

Plus, it was a gorgeous setting at the beach and anyone who follows my blogs on my website knows how much I love to work out outdoors.

While the competitor in me wanting to be at the front of the pack, there was something really special about staying with some of the contestants who were struggling and helping to keep them motivated.

At the end, I did have to pick up my pace to welcome the contestants across the finish line, and it was so fun to cheer them to the end.

Francelina jammed at the end and Jackson made sixth place despite his physical restrictions. As some of the contestants ran back to help Michael and Alex at the end, it was a reminder of what The Biggest Loser is all about – helping one another to get in shape and accomplish their goals.

By the time we got to the weigh-in, tensions were high.

Favorite moment of the week: Any moment with Jackson – when he was leading his team and especially at the weigh-in. He's just so funny and in that way, he reminds me of Dan Evans. Remember him?

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws


NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.


A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.


"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.


An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.


Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.


Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.


The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.


Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.


But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.


Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."


"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.


Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.


To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.


"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.


Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.


Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.


In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.


The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.


Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.


While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.


"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."


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Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.


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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


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European shares test two-year highs, yen volatile before BOJ

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares inched towards two-year highs and German Bund futures dipped on Monday, as a political attempt to break a budget impasse in the United States revived appetite for shares and dented demand for safe-haven assets.


U.S. House Republican leaders said on Friday they would seek to pass a three-month extension of federal borrowing authority in the coming days to buy time for the Democrat-controlled Senate to pass a plan to shrink budget deficits.


European shares <.fteu3> were supported by the news <.eu>, but with no clear response from the Democrats and a thin session expected due to a market holiday in the United States, the impact on other assets such as Bunds is likely to be limited.


An early morning push by London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> was beginning to fade by mid-morning, leaving the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.1 percent and MSCI's world index <.miwd00000pus> steady at a 20-month high. <.l><.eu/>


"There's a bit of encouragement coming out of the U.S.," said Toby Campbell-Gray, head of trading at Tavira Securities in Monaco.


He added that equity markets had remained resilient in the face of an uncertain economic outlook as many investors had stepped in to buy "on the dip" on days when shares had fallen.


Ahead of the region's first finance ministers' meeting of the year, the euro was down slightly at just over $1.33 against the dollar, while the yen firmed after touching a new low, ahead of a Bank of Japan decision expected to deliver bold monetary easing.


According to sources familiar with the Bank of Japan's thinking, the government of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the central bank have agreed to set 2 percent inflation as a new target, supplanting a softer 1 percent 'goal'.


The dollar rose to as high as 90.25 yen earlier on Monday, its highest since June 2010. It later slipped 0.7 percent on the day to 89.39 yen, as traders cut short positions given the BOJ has often fallen short of market expectations.


"Investors are being mindful that the moves we have seen over the course of the last month or two are just worth locking in at least until we understand how the BOJ are really going to play in the future," said Jeremy Stretch, head of currency strategy at CIBC World Markets.


CURRENCY WAR


Japanese equities have surged in recent weeks in anticipation of a more aggressive monetary policy stance, but not everyone is happy.


The slump in the yen has prompted Russia's deputy central bank governor to warn of a new round of 'currency wars' and the medium-term risk of running ultra-loose monetary policies is likely to be a theme of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which opens on Wednesday.


With little in the way of economic data or debt issuance and U.S. markets shut for the Martin Luther King public holiday, the rest of the day was expected to be a fairly quite day for investors.


In bond markets, German Bund yields rose close to the top of this year's 30 basis points range, after Republican lawmakers' efforts to give the U.S. government leeway to pay its bills for another three months. Most other euro zone bonds were trading virtually flat.


The U.S. Treasury needs congressional authorisation to raise the current $16.4 trillion limit on U.S. debt sometime between mid-February and early March. A failure to achieve that could lead to a debt default.


"This is part of the political game, it remains to be seen whether the Democrats will accept it," KBC strategist Piet Lammens said, adding that investors' working scenario was that a solution to raise the ceiling would be eventually found anyway.


OIL OVERSUPPLY


German markets showed no reaction after the country's centre-left opposition party edged Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives from power in a regional election on Sunday, reviving its flagging hopes for September's national election.


Oil prices took their cues from a report in the United States at the end of last week that showed consumer sentiment at its weakest in a year as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the country's debt crisis.


Concerns about demand overshadowed supply disruption fears reinforced by the Islamist militant attack and hostage-taking at a gas plant in Algeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.


Brent futures were down by 17 cents to $111.72 per barrel by 1030 GMT. U.S. crude shed 40 cents to $95.16 per barrel after touching a four-month high last week.


"The over-riding fundamental feeling in the market is that crude oil is over-supplied in 2013," said Tony Nunan, an oil risk manager at Mitsubishi.


Last week's data showing a pick-up in the Chinese economy helped keep growth-sensitive copper prices steady at roughly $8,058 an ounce. Gold, meanwhile, reversed Friday's losses to stand at $1,688 an ounce.


(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Marious Zaharia and Anooja Debnath; Editing by Will Waterman and Giles Elgood)



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