Lone Chinese home destroyed; farmer accepts deal

BEIJING (AP) — Authorities have demolished a five-story home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road and had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation.

Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai told The Associated Press the house was bulldozed Saturday after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan ($41,000).

There was no immediate confirmation from Luo, whose cellphone was turned off Saturday.

The couple had been the lone holdouts from a neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the main thoroughfare heading to a newly built railway station on the outskirts of the city of Wenling in Zhejiang province.

The razing comes a week after images of the house circulated widely online in China, triggering a flurry of domestic and foreign media reports about the latest "nail house," as buildings that remain standing as their owners resist development are called.

Luo, 67, had just completed his house at a cost of about 600,000 yuan ($95,000) when the government approached him with their standard offer of 220,000 ($35,000) to move out — which he refused, Chen has previously said. The offer then went up to 260,000 yuan ($41,000) last week.

It was not immediately clear why Luo accepted the compensation in a meeting with officials Friday afternoon when the amount of money offered was the same as a week ago.

Village chief Chen said Luo was tired of all the media attention and voluntarily consented to the deal. "Luo Baogen received dozens of people from the media every day and his house stands in the center of the road. So he decided to demolish the house," Chen said.

Authorities commonly pressure residents to agree to make way for development with sometimes extreme measures, such as cutting off utilities or moving in to demolish when residents are out for the day. In Luo's case, however, he had told local reporters last week his electricity and water were still flowing.

Real estate is one of the big drivers of China's runaway growth in recent decades. But the rapid development has run into objections from many of the hundreds of thousands of residents who have been forced out to make way for new housing, factories and other business ventures, creating a major source of unrest.

Read More..

Ricky Martin finds new home on small screen

NEW YORK (AP) — Ricky Martin is saying goodbye to Broadway's "Evita." But don't cry for him.

The Latin superstar has a slew of new projects in the works, including two television series and a children's book.

"It's about growing," said Martin in an interview Friday. "It's a moment in my life where I just need to absorb and be surrounded by amazing actors and musicians and grow as an entertainer. I think this is going to be an amazing year for that."

Martin takes his final bow in the Andrew Lloyd Webber revival on Jan. 26. Then he heads down under to join the second season of the Australian edition of "The Voice." But the Grammy winner says not to expect any biting, Simon Cowellesque critiques.

"I don't believe in tough love. I believe in love, and I believe in being nurturing to new talented men and women," he said at an M.A.C. Viva Glam event for Saturday's World AIDS Day. Martin partnered with the cosmetics brand to raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS programs worldwide.

The "Livin' la Vida Loca" singer is developing a new series for NBC, expected in 2013. He's producing, writing and will star in the currently untitled dramedy, where he hopes to tackle social issues with humor.

He's also writing his second book and admitted he didn't have to look far for inspiration.

"I think it's time to write about things that I've been through with my kids that I'm sure many daddys out there will understand," said the father of 4-year-old twins Matteo and Valentino.

The family-friendly story about self-esteem is slated for release next summer.

___

AP writer Sigal Ratner-Arias contributed to this story.

___

Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt

Read More..

Psychiatrists OK vast changes to diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — For the first time in almost two decades the nation's psychiatrists are changing the guidebook they use to diagnose mental disorders. Among the most controversial proposed changes: Dropping certain familiar terms like Asperger's disorder and dyslexia and calling frequent, severe temper tantrums a mental illness.

The board of trustees for the American Psychiatric Association voted Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., on scores of revisions that have been in the works for several years. Details will come next May when the group's fifth diagnostic manual is published.

The trustees made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several task force groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

Board members were tightlipped about the update, but its impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide.

The manual "defines what constellations of symptoms health care professionals recognize as mental disorders and more importantly ... shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care," said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor who was not involved in the revision process.

The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

The guidebook's official title is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The new one is the fifth edition, known as the DSM-5. A 2000 edition made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

The manual "seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 ... there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders," Olfson said.

Expected changes include formally adopting a term for children and adults with autism — "autism spectrum disorder," encompassing those with severe autism, who often don't talk or interact, and those with mild forms including Asperger's. Asperger's patients often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on quirky subjects but lack social skills.

Some Asperger's families opposed the change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services. And some older Asperger's patients who embrace their quirkiness vowed to continue to use the label.

But experts say the change won't affect the special services available to this group.

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College who was on the psychiatric group's autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger's in the old manual would be included in the recommended new diagnosis.

One reason for the recommended change is that in some states and some school systems, children and adults with Asperger's receive no services or fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Other proposed changes include:

—A new diagnosis — disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, which critics argued would medicalize kids' normal temper tantrums. Supporters said it would address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings from feeling sad and depressed to unusually happy or energetic. Affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums. The new diagnosis would be given to children and adults who can't control their emotions and have frequent temper outbursts in inappropriate situations.

—Eliminating the term "dyslexia," a reading disorder that causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words. The term would be encompassed in a broader learning disorder category.

—Eliminating the term "gender identity disorder." It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender — they dispute their normal biological anatomy. But many activists believe the condition isn't a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with "gender dysphoria," which means emotional distress over one's gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

___

Online:

Diagnostic manual: http://www.dsm5.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Read More..

Police: NFL player kills girlfriend, takes own life

Chiefs and Panthers will play at regularly scheduled time on Sunday:
The Kansas City Chiefs announced that Sund... http://t.co/Ah1nFJf4

Read More..

Suu Kyi wants gov't apology for violent crackdown

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday said authorities must apologize for a violent crackdown on monks and other foes of a mine in northwest Myanmar, but she also stuck to the government's view that the country must follow through on its commitment to build the project.

Speaking Friday morning to a crowd of more than 10,000 in the northwestern town of Monywa, the Nobel Peace laureate said people had the right to ask why authorities cracked down so harshly on the nonviolent protesters who had occupied the nearby Letpadaung copper mine for 11 days. It was the government's biggest crackdown on demonstrations since reformist President Thein Sein took office last year.

The United States also voiced concern Friday over the "forcible eviction" of peaceful protesters. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. has been urging the government to ensure security forces exercise maximum restraint and protect the right of free assembly.

Police used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs to break up the protest early Thursday. Weapons that protesters described as flare guns caused severe burns to protesters and set shelters ablaze. A nurse at a Monywa hospital said 27 monks and one other person were admitted there to be treated for burns.

"I want to ask, 'What was their purpose of doing this?' Frankly, there's no need to act like this," Suu Kyi said. People in the crowd shouted back: "Right!"

"I'm not saying this to agitate people," she continued. "I never persuade people by agitating. I explain to people so that they can decide by thinking."

In remarks to reporters Friday, Suu Kyi said the authorities "need to apologize to the monks."

Yet she has taken a soft line on the broader conflict over the expanding mine, which protesters say is damaging the environment and forcing villagers to move without adequate compensation.

She noted that many people asked her to help stop the project at once, but said she did not know details of the original contract and a parliamentary investigating committee had yet to do its work.

She went on to suggest that Myanmar should honor the contracts establishing the project, especially since they involved a neighboring country. The mine is a joint venture between a military-controlled holding company and a Chinese mining company.

She said that even in some cases where the people's interest was not taken into account, the agreement should be followed "so that the country's image will not be hurt."

Senior government officials have said the protesters' demands to stop operating the mine risk scaring off foreign investment in Myanmar's long-neglected economy.

Now serving in parliament after years as a political prisoner of the long-ruling junta, Suu Kyi received a hero's welcome in Monywa. Her visit had been scheduled before the crackdown, and she has said she will try to negotiate a solution to the conflict over the mine.

On Thursday she met mining company officials, activists and injured protesters, and she met security officials Friday.

The crackdown is a big blot on the government's efforts to woo popular support, especially because many of the targets were monks, who are admired for their social activism as much as they are revered for their spiritual beliefs in deeply religious Myanmar.

The previous military government infamously cracked down violently on monks who were leading the 2007 pro-democracy protests that came to be known as the "Saffron Revolution," from the color of their robes.

Monks in Myanmar's two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, staged small nonviolent protests Friday.

The Upper Myanmar Monks organization in Mandalay issued a statement calling on the government to formally apologize for the action within five days, to provide sufficient health care for those who were injured and to release seven monks they say were detained.

U Withuta, a prominent activist monk who is a member of the group, said more than 40 monks were hurt, some seriously and at risk of losing their eyesight. He said he was lightly burned on the thigh.

"We wanted to forget what happened in 2007 and proceed forward, but what happened yesterday was like opening an old wound," Withuta said. He said it was premature to say what the monks would do if their demands were not met.

Citizen activism has increased since the elected government took over last year. Street demonstrations have been legalized, and are generally tolerated, though detentions have occurred in sensitive cases.

Political and economic liberalization under Thein Sein has won praise from Western governments, which have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military government because of its poor record on human and civil rights.

The Letpadaung mine is a joint venture between China's Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd. and the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. Many in Myanmar remain suspicious of the military and see China as an aggressive and exploitive investor that helped support its rule.

In Yangon, more than 30 monks who staged a peaceful protest at downtown Sule pagoda, were joined by nearly 100 people who chanted prayers in front of the office of the army's holding company.

"May all be free from harm, may all be peaceful and may the Letpadaung mountains be green," they chanted in the Friday dusk.

____

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Read More..

Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen get Billboard honors

NEW YORK (AP) — Billboard named Katy Perry its woman of the year, but the pop star thought her year was 2011.

"I felt like my year was last year ... I thought my moment had passed," Perry said in an interview with Jon Stewart at Billboard's Women in Music event Friday in New York City.

Perry released "Teenage Dream" in 2010, and the double platinum album sparked five No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that spilled over to 2011. She tied the record Michael Jackson set with "Thriller" for most hits from a single album.

She re-released the album this year, which launched two more hits and a top-grossing 3-D film.

Perry thanked her fans, who stood outside of Capitale hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

"I don't really like to call myself a role model for my fans, but I hope I'm an inspiration, especially for young women," she said when she accepted the honor.

Perry also thanked her mom at the event, which honored women who work in the music industry.

In like fashion, newcomer Carly Rae Jepsen also thanked her mom — and stepmom — when accepting the rising star honor. The "Call Me Maybe" singer said she's happy and surprised by her success.

"It was sort of the key to unlocking the rest of the world for me and was something that none of us were expecting," she said, in an interview, of her viral hit.

British singer Cher Lloyd performed Perry's "E.T." at the luncheon, which also featured a performance from rising country singer Hunter Hayes.

Perry, who wore a fitted pink dress, joked about recording a follow-up to "Teenage Dream."

"Have you heard it? I haven't," the smiling singer said on the red carpet.

___

Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

Read More..

Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.

Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents — eight grandfathers among them — saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of one another.

Saturday is World AIDS Day, but the executive director of the aid group Nyumbani, which oversees the village of the same name, hates the name which is given to the day because for her the word AIDS is so freighted with doom and death. These days, it doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence. Millions live with the virus with the help of anti-retroviral drugs, or ARVs. And the village she runs is an example of that.

"AIDS is not a word that we should be using. At the beginning when we came up against HIV, it was a terminal disease and people were presenting at the last phase, which we call AIDS," said Sister Mary Owens. "There is no known limit to the lifespan now so that word AIDS should not be used. So I hate World AIDS Day, follow? Because we have moved beyond talking about AIDS, the terminal stage. None of our children are in the terminal stage."

In the village, each grandparent is charged with caring for about a dozen "grandchildren," one or two of whom will be biological family. That responsibility has been a life-changer for Janet Kitheka, who lost one daughter to AIDS in 2003. Another daughter died from cancer in 2004. A son died in a tree-cutting accident in 2006 and the 63-year-old lost two grandchildren in 2007, including one from AIDS.

"When I came here I was released from the grief because I am always busy instead of thinking about the dead," said Kitheka. "Now I am thinking about building a new house with 12 children. They are orphans. I said to myself, 'Think about the living ones now.' I'm very happy because of the children."

As she walks around Nyumbani, which is three hours' drive east of Nairobi, 73-year-old Sister Mary is greeted like a rock star by little girls in matching colorful school uniforms. Children run and play, and sleep in bunk beds inside mud-brick homes. High schoolers study carpentry or tailoring. But before 2006, this village did not exist, not until a Catholic charity petitioned the Kenyan government for land on which to house orphans.

Everyone here has been touched by HIV or AIDS. But only 80 children have HIV and thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, none of them has AIDS.

"They can dream their dreams and live a long life," Owens said.

Nyumbani relies heavily on U.S. funds but it is aiming to be self-sustaining.

The kids' bunk beds are made in the technical school's shop. A small aquaponics project is trying to grow edible fish. The mud bricks are made on site. Each grandparent has a plot of land for farming.

The biggest chunk of aid comes from the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has given the village $2.5 million since 2006. A British couple gives $50,000 a year. A tree-growing project in the village begun by an American, John Noel, now stands six years from its first harvest. Some 120,000 trees have already been planted and thousands more were being planted last week.

"My wife and I got married as teenagers and started out being very poor. Lived in a trailer. And we found out what it was like to be in a situation where you can't support yourself," he said. "As an entrepreneur I looked to my enterprise skills to see what we could do to sustain the village forever, because we are in our 60s and we wanted to make sure that the thousand babies and children, all the little ones, were taken care of."

He hopes that after a decade the timber profits from the trees will make the village totally self-sustaining.

But while the future is looking brighter, the losses the orphans' suffered can resurface, particularly when class lessons are about family or medicine, said Winnie Joseph, the deputy headmaster at the village's elementary school. Kitheka says she tries to teach the kids how to love one another and how to cook and clean. But older kids sometimes will threaten to hit her after accusing her of favoring her biological grandchildren, she said.

For the most part, though, the children in Nyumbani appear to know how lucky they are, having landed in a village where they are cared for. An estimated 23.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV as of 2011, representing 69 percent of the global HIV population, according to UNAIDS. Eastern and southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions. Millions of people — many of them parents — have died.

Kitheka noted that children just outside the village frequently go to bed hungry. And ARVs are harder to come by outside the village. The World Health Organization says about 61 percent of Kenyans with HIV are covered by ARVs across the country.

Paul Lgina, 14, contrasted the difference between life in Nyumbani, which in Swahili means simply "home," and his earlier life.

"In the village I get support. At my mother's home I did not have enough food, and I had to go to the river to fetch water," said Lina, who, like all the children in the village, has neither a mother or a father.

When Sister Mary first began caring for AIDS orphans in the early 1990s, she said her group was often told not to bother.

"At the beginning nobody knew what to do with them. In 1992 we were told these children are going to die anyway," she said. "But that wasn't our spirit. Today, kids we were told would die have graduated from high school."

___

On the Internet:

http://www.trees4children.org/

Read More..

Pelosi will try to force vote to extend tax rates

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will try to force a vote on the House floor to extend current tax rates for the middle class next week if Republicans do not act, the California Democrat announced on Friday.

During a press conference on Capitol Hill, Pelosi called on House Republicans, who control the chamber, to hold another floor vote on whether to extend current tax rates for individuals who earn $200,000 or less and families making $250,000 or less. If they don't, Pelosi vowed to file a "discharge petition" that would force a vote if 218 House members sign it, which is unlikely.

The bill Pelosi wants to see put to a vote is identical to a measure passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate in July that extends the rates for middle-income earners for one year. House Republicans responded by rejecting the bill and passing their own measure that extends current tax rates for all income brackets.

"We're calling upon the Republican leadership in the House to bring this legislation to the floor next week. We believe that not doing that would be holding middle-income tax cuts hostage to tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich, which do not create jobs, just increase the deficit, keeping mountains of debt for generations," Pelosi said. "To that end ... if it is not scheduled, then on Tuesday we will introduce a discharge petition."

Discharge petitions, which allow individual members of Congress to put a bill to a vote without committee or leadership approval, are rarely successful. In this case, Pelosi would need Republican support. But when asked if any Republicans had signaled that they would sign a discharge petition to force a vote, Pelosi responded, "No."

Pelosi said she wanted the bill passed so Congress will have more time to negotiate broader tax reform in 2013.

Read More..

Myanmar cracks down on mine protest; dozens hurt

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs Thursday to clear protesters from a copper mine in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks in the biggest use of force against demonstrators since the reformist government of President Thein Sein took office last year.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who arrived in the area hours later on a previously scheduled visit, said she would try to negotiate a solution.

In a statement broadcast on state television, the government initially acknowledged using the riot-control measures but denied using excessive force. In an unusual move, it later retracted the statement without explanation.

Monks and other protesters had serious burns after the crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa. Protesters who oppose the mine's impact on villagers and the environment had occupied the area for 11 days.

"I didn't expect to be treated like this, as we were peacefully protesting," said Aung Myint Htway, a peanut farmer whose face and body were covered with black patches of burned skin.

The police action risks becoming a public relations and political fiasco for Thein Sein's government, which has been touting its transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

"This is unacceptable," said Ottama Thara, a 25-year-old monk who was at the protest. "This kind of violence should not happen under a government that says it is committed to democratic reforms."

Police moved early Thursday to disperse protesters after some heeded earlier warnings to leave.

"Around 2:30 a.m. police announced they would give us five minutes to leave," Aung Myint Htway said. He said police fired water cannons first and then shot what he and others called flare guns.

"They fired black balls that exploded into fire sparks. They shot about six times. People ran away and they followed us," he said, still writhing hours later from pain. "It's very hot."

Photos of the wounded monks showed they had sustained serious burns on parts of their bodies. It was unclear what sort of weapon caused them, or whether the burns were caused by their shelters catching fire from whatever devices police used.

The government had defended its actions in a statement issued by the government's official information office Thursday afternoon. It denied using excessive force and said it used fire hoses, tear gas and smoke bombs according to international standards for riot control. The statement declared that the authorities took action for the sake of rule of law and in the interests of the country and its people, and said the project operated in accordance with international environmental standards.

Later, however, the president's office issued a one-sentence statement recalling the information office's statement without explanation. The move may reflect sensitivities over the injuries monks suffered, or second thoughts over admitting that authorities used force.

Suu Kyi's visit to nearby Kan-Kone village had been scheduled before the crackdown. The Nobel Peace laureate, elected to parliament after spending most of the last two decades under house arrest, unexpectedly went to the mine to meet with its operators before making her speech.

"I already met one side. I met with mine operators. I want to meet with villagers and protesters," she said. "I want to negotiate hearing from both sides."

She asked the crowd to be patient. "I haven't made any decision yet. I want to meet with both sides and negotiate," she said in a speech that lasted less than 15 minutes. "Will you agree with my negotiating?" The crowd shouted its assent.

Some of Suu Kyi's comments suggested that she may not fully embrace the tactics of the protesters. "When dealing with people, I don't always follow what people like. I only tell the truth," she said. "I will work for the long-term benefit of the country."

After her speech she went to the hospital where many of the injured were being treated, and met with protest leaders at the hotel in Monywa where she is staying. Thwe Thwe Win, a female protest leader, said afterward: "We will wait for Aung San Suu Kyi to negotiate with the companies. But we will not stop the protest until we achieve our demands, though I cannot tell you how we will proceed at this point."

Ohn Kyaing, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said she told the mine's executives that force should not have been used. He said the executives said they did not direct the action, and that it had been the work of the state security forces. Ohn Kyaing said Suu Kyi on Friday would meet with officials in charge of the crackdown, as well as local villagers and their representatives.

Villagers affected by the mine claim they did not receive satisfactory compensation and demand a more comprehensive environmental impact assessment.

The mine, which is being expanded, is a joint venture between a Chinese company and a holding company controlled by Myanmar's military.

Most people remain suspicious of the military, while China is widely seen as having propped up army rule for years, in addition to being an aggressive investor exploiting the country's many natural resources.

Government officials had publicly stated that the protest risked scaring off foreign investment that is key to rebuilding the economy after decades of neglect.

State television had broadcast an announcement Tuesday night that ordered protesters to cease their occupation of the mine by midnight or face legal action. It said the protesters began occupying the mine area Nov. 18, and operations had been halted since then.

Some villagers among a claimed 1,000 protesters left the mine after the order was issued. But others stayed through Wednesday, including about 100 monks.

The protesters' concerns about the mine do not yet appear to be widely shared by the broader public. But hurting monks — as admired for their social activism as they are revered for their spiritual beliefs — is sure to antagonize many.

Aung Myint Htway said he didn't care that police treated him badly but added, "I won't forgive them for what they did to our monks."

According to a nurse at a Monywa hospital, 27 monks and one other person were admitted with burns caused by some sort of projectile that released sparks or embers. Two monks with serious injuries were sent for treatment in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, a 2½ hour drive away.

Other evicted protesters gathered at a Buddhist temple about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the mine's gates.

The protest is the latest major example of increased activism by citizens since the elected government took over last year. Street demonstrations have been legalized, and are generally tolerated, though detentions have occurred in some cases involving sensitive issues.

Political and economic liberalization under Thein Sein has won praise from Western governments, which have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military government because of its poor record on human and civil rights.

However, the military still retains major influence over the government, and some critics fear that democratic gains could be rolled back.

The government's surprise suspension last year of a Chinese-backed hydroelectric project, in response to similar concerns about social and economic consequences, was seen as a significant indicator of its commitment to democratic reform. But China was unhappy about the decision, and Thein Sein's ministers have warned about offending Myanmar's big neighbor to the north and scaring off other foreign investors.

China's foreign ministry defended the mining venture Thursday as mutually beneficial and said that environmental remediation and compensation to relocate affected residents all conformed to Myanmar law.

Like many throughout the country, villagers near the project are keen to have Suu Kyi involved.

"We feel really encouraged when we heard Mother Suu is coming," said Sartone village resident Thein Thein, using a popular familiar term for Suu Kyi. "She's our only hope."

Suu Kyi, however, recently told Myanmar reporters that not everything should be resolved through demonstrations, and sometimes it is better to use negotiations.

Read More..

Attorney expects Lohan will be cleared in NYC case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lindsay Lohan was charged Thursday with crimes in New York and Los Angeles, marking her latest setbacks as she tries to revive her career and avoid a return to jail.

Prosecutors in Santa Monica charged Lohan with three misdemeanors related to a June accident. Hours earlier, the actress was arrested and charged with third-degree assault, also a misdemeanor, after a woman was punched in a New York City nightclub.

The California charges came about six months after Lohan's Porsche crashed into the back of a dump truck. She told police her assistant was driving, but detectives now believe the actress was behind the wheel as she headed to a movie set.

In that case, Lohan, 26, was charged with lying to police, reckless driving and obstructing a police officer from performing duties.

Lohan's California attorney, Shawn Holley, did not return messages seeking comment.

In New York, her attorney Mark Heller said he expects the assault charge to be dismissed.

"Once again, Lindsay Lohan is a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame," Heller wrote in a statement. "From my initial investigation, I am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that Lindsay will be totally exonerated."

The California charges could trigger another probation violation for Lohan, who was ordered to stay out of trouble when she was released from supervised probation in March after being convicted of the misdemeanor theft of a necklace and two DUI charges.

Since then she has been arrested twice in New York, crashed her car on Pacific Coast Highway, been treated by paramedics in her hotel room, and gotten in an argument with her mother that prompted a 911 call.

None of the events are likely what the clearly relieved actress anticipated in March when she thanked Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner, who warned the actress that she could face up to 245 days in jail if she violated her probation again.

"You need to live your life in a more mature way, stop the nightclubbing and focus on your work," Sautner said.

In recent years, Lohan has been sentenced to the Los Angeles-area women's jail five times. Most of her stays have been short due to overcrowding, and she was allowed to serve 35 days on house arrest in 2011.

Lately, Lohan has been filming two movies and doing a cameo in the latest installment of the "Scary Movie" franchise. The first film, "Liz & Dick," premiered Sunday night on Lifetime to mostly negative reviews.

She was on her way to shoot scenes for "Liz & Dick" in June when her Porsche crashed into the dump truck and the actress was briefly hospitalized. A week later, paramedics were summoned to her hotel room. Her then-publicist Steve Honig attributed the health scare to exhaustion and dehydration.

Lohan relocated to New York after finishing her work on "Liz and Dick" and a Bret Easton Ellis film titled "The Canyons" was complete.

Her arrest at 4 a.m. EST Thursday was the latest by New York police since September, when a man accused her of hitting him with her car. Prosecutors did not pursue charges.

The following month, police were called to Lohan's childhood home on Long Island after a report of a fight between her and her mother. An investigation revealed what authorities called "no criminality."

On Thursday, police said Lohan got into a spat with a woman at Club Avenue in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. The woman was punched in the face and did not require medical attention, authorities said.

It remains unclear when Lohan will return to Los Angeles. No court date was announced for the crash-related charges.

People charged with misdemeanors in California can generally avoid court appearances if they have an attorney, but Lohan would have to be present for a probation violation hearing.

___

Associated Press Writer Ula Ilnytzky in New York contributed to this report.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Read More..

Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

"Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

"We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they'll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men's risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $5.6 billion.

Thursday's report from PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn't just disappointing, it's deadly."

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

"The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up" to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday's report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

"We have to go where the virus is," Clinton said.

Read More..

U.N. recognizes state of Palestine

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly has voted by a more than two-thirds majority to recognize the state of Palestine.

The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations was approved by the 193-member world body late Thursday by a vote of 138-9 with 41 abstentions.

Read More..

Rapper PSY wants Tom Cruise to go 'Gangnam Style'

BANGKOK (AP) — The South Korean rapper behind YouTube's most-viewed video ever has set what might be a "Mission: Impossible" for himself.

Asked which celebrity he would like to see go "Gangnam Style," the singer PSY told The Associated Press: "Tom Cruise!"

Surrounded by screaming fans, he then chuckled at the idea of the American movie star doing his now famous horse-riding dance.

PSY's comments Wednesday in Bangkok were his first public remarks since his viral smash video — with 838 million views — surpassed Justin Bieber's "Baby," which until Saturday held the record with 803 million views.

"It's amazing," PSY told a news conference, saying he never set out to become an international star. "I made this video just for Korea, actually. And when I released this song — wow."

The video has spawned hundreds of parodies and tribute videos and earned him a spotlight alongside a variety of superstars.

Earlier this month, Madonna invited PSY onstage and they danced to his song at one of her New York City concerts. MC Hammer introduced the Korean star at the American Music Awards as, "My Homeboy PSY!"

Even President Barack Obama is talking about him. Asked on Election Day if he could do the dance, Obama replied: "I think I can do that move," but then concluded he might "do it privately for Michelle," the first lady.

PSY was in Thailand to give a free concert Wednesday night organized as a tribute to the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turns 85 next month. He paid respects to the king at a Bangkok shopping mall, signing his name in an autograph book placed beside a giant poster of the king. He then gave an outdoor press conference, as screaming fans nearby performed the pop star's dance.

Determined not to be a one-hit wonder, PSY said he plans to release a worldwide album in March with dance moves that he thinks his international fans will like.

"I think I have plenty of dance moves left," he said, in his trademark sunglasses and dark suit. "But I'm really concerned about the (next) music video."

"How can I beat 'Gangnam Style'?" he asked, smiling. "How can I beat 850 million views?"

___

Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.

Read More..

Microsoft CEO defends its innovation record, financial results

BELLEVUE, Washington (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended his company’s record on innovation and financial performance at the annual shareholders’ meeting, but conceded that he should have moved faster to get into the booming tablet market dominated by Apple Inc‘s iPad.

Bill Gates, co-founder and now chairman of the world’s largest software company, was one of the first to champion tablet-sized devices more than 10 years ago, but Microsoft failed to come up with a product that worked as well as the iPad. Gates was silent throughout the meeting, attended by about 450 shareholders.

“We’re innovating on the seam between software and hardware,” said Ballmer, asked why his company had fallen behind rival Apple. “Maybe we should have done that earlier.”

A month ago, Microsoft launched the Surface tablet – its first own-brand computer – but has not revealed sales figures.

In the tablet market, “we see nothing but a sea of upside,” Ballmer said, an acknowledgement that until now Microsoft has effectively had zero presence in the tablet market.

“I feel pretty good about our level of innovation,” he added.

Ballmer said smartphones running Microsoft’s new Windows software were selling four times as much as they did at this time last year. Microsoft has never given sales numbers of Windows phones, primarily made by Nokia, Samsung and HTC.

Windows currently has 2 to 4 percent of the global smartphone market, according to various independent data providers. Its overall market share will not likely grow in proportion to its own sales, given that sales of other smartphones – mostly running Google’s Android system – are also growing quickly.

Ballmer, flanked by Gates and Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein, was asked by several shareholders to explain Microsoft’s lackluster share price, which has been stuck for a decade, and has been outperformed by Apple and Google Inc stock in recent years.

“I understand your comment,” he told one shareholder. He went on to explain that Microsoft had “done a phenomenal job of driving product volumes” and was focusing on profiting from that growth.

He suggested that whether investors recognized that value at any given time was out of his hands.

“The stock market‘s kind of a funny thing,” he said, adding that Microsoft had handed back $ 10 billion in dividends and share buybacks to investors in the last fiscal year.

Several shareholders at the meeting in Bellevue, an upscale suburb of Seattle, complimented the executives on how they had grown and managed the company.

Microsoft’s shares rose almost 18 percent during fiscal 2012, which ended in June of this year, compared with a 3 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500.

Despite such fluctuations, Microsoft’s shares stand around the same level they did 10 years ago.

To see a graphic on U.S. tech share price performance, 1990 to present, click on http://link.reuters.com/rug53t

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Oh, Yoko! Ono's fashion line gropes for Lennon

NEW YORK (AP) — You remember that Beatles classic "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"? Turns out Yoko Ono had other things in mind.

Ono's new menswear collection inspired by John Lennon includes pants with large handprints on the crotch, tank tops with nipple cutouts and even a flashing LED bra.

The collection of menswear for Opening Ceremony is based on a series of drawings she sketched as a gift for Lennon for their wedding day in 1969. Ono said she the illustrations were designs for clothing and accessories to celebrate Lennon's "hot bod."

Also in the collection are a "butt hoodie" with an outline suggesting its name, pants with cutouts at the behind, a jock strap with an LED light, open-toed boots and a transparent chest plaque with bells and a leather neck strap.

Read More..

Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a 10-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

___

Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Read More..

Behind the curtain of the Great and Powerful Grover Norquist

(Michael D'Antuono/www.artandresponse.com)

WASHINGTON—If aliens landed in Washington, D.C. right now, they might assume in their search for a terrestrial leader that a bespectacled man called "Grover Norquist" controlled the planet's most powerful nation. They might also conclude that this person had magical powers.

The misunderstanding wouldn't necessarily be their fault.

Grover Fever has swept the nation's capital this week, shortly after thousands of politicos waddled back into the city after a Thanksgiving break. After years of notoriety in Washington but near obscurity elsewhere, Norquist is becoming a household name around the dinner table.

"The Colbert Report" recently devoted a feature to Norquist, portraying the 56-year-old Harvard graduate as an omniscient creature whose power knows no bounds. Norquist has been all over cable news shows and the subject of lengthy profiles in prestigious newspapers and magazines. Outside Washington's Metro stations this week, hawkers handed out free tabloid dailies bearing the image of his face. Politico devoted an entire hour to him at a newsmakers breakfast on Wednesday morning.

His name is on the lips of top Democrats in Congress who blame him for single-handedly bringing the United States of America to an immediate standstill. Norquist is "one obstacle standing between Congress and compromise," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid exclaimed from the Senate floor on Tuesday morning.

His crime? Norquist has persuaded more than 1,000 politicians to sign a pledge never to raise taxes through his organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). But with Congress now debating how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff—a series of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to kick in Jan. 1 if a budget deal isn't reached with President Barack Obama—some Republicans appear to be wiggling away from Norquist's grip.

A few GOP lawmakers have voiced a willingness to eliminate deductions within the tax code, which, without offsetting tax cuts elsewhere, would technically violate the pledge. One of the possible pledge violators, Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, called Norquist a "low-life" and said his wife would "knock his head off" after Norquist compared the taxpayer pledge to King's marriage vows.

But Norquist is like a bearded Lernaean Hydra, which grows only more powerful the more you attack it. The evidence? A majority of Republicans have not publicly joined the rogue moderates, reinforcing the narrative that they remain under Norquist's binding spell.

But Norquist isn't necessarily the most powerful conservative activist in town. And many conservatives don't always move in lockstep with him, which is clear in the current debate over the fiscal cliff.

While there is a consensus among Republicans against increasing marginal tax rates for the sake of a deal, the disagreement lies in whether to eliminate deductions and close loopholes in the tax code.

Norquist insists that eliminating the loopholes without offsetting them by tax cuts would violate the pledge, but others say the deductions violate conservative principles by inserting the hand of government into the market.

"We look at things differently than Grover does," Chris Chocola, president of the free-market group the Club for Growth, told Yahoo News. "We have always been advocates of lowering the marginal rate, broadening the base, eliminating what we think are market-distorting tax credits and loopholes."

Chocola said the approach would produce benefits that could please both parties: It would force companies that manipulate the system of loopholes to pay more in taxes and increase revenue by growing the economy.

Matt Kibbe, who heads the tea party organizing network FreedomWorks, agreed that any deal that scrapped the thousands of tax code loopholes would be progress.

"An ideal tax code doesn't choose favorites, and it shouldn't matter that you have a great lobbyist in Washington, D.C.," Kibbe said. "I think all conservatives generally support fundamental tax reform—they don't like the idea that GE gets a special credit for green energy or that some other company gets different treatment from anyone else."

Despite the differences, Norquist remains the man in the spotlight. He seems to be enjoying every minute of it, using the opportunity to promote his organization and raising his own profile.

On Wednesday, Norquist presided over a gathering of conservative activists who piled into a massive conference room at ATR's Washington office. The hump-day confab, known as "The Wednesday Meeting," puts what Hillary Clinton famously called "the vast right-wing conspiracy" in one room for an hour and a half every week.

The meeting is strictly off the record, but reporters can attend if they agree not to disclose details of the discussion.

On each chair in the room, representatives stacked press releases, pamphlets and articles promoting their organizations. From ATR, everyone received a full-page, color picture of former Republican President George H.W. Bush, whose bid for a second term was foiled after he agreed to raise taxes. It was a warning to anyone who might be thinking of breaking the pledge.

This week's meeting was standing-room only, and Norquist, wearing a headset microphone, was in his element, roaring through presentations. Seated at the head of the table, he called on activists, think-tankers and members of Congress to share how they are promoting the conservative movement.

Despite his image as a puppeteer who controls the strings of Republican lawmakers, Norquist is not so much the Secret Master of the GOP as he is the Grand Facilitator of the coalitions that hold it together.

In the meantime, he doesn't seem to mind the confusion.

Read More..

China's party paper falls for Onion joke about Kim

BEIJING (AP) — The online version of China's Communist Party newspaper has hailed a report by The Onion naming North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest Man Alive" — not realizing it is satire.

The People's Daily on Tuesday ran a 55-page photo spread on its website in a tribute to the round-faced leader, under the headline "North Korea's top leader named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012."

Quoting The Onion's spoof report, the Chinese newspaper wrote, "With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true."

"Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," the People's Daily cited The Onion as saying.

The photos the People's Daily selected include Kim on horseback squinting into the light and Kim waving toward a military parade. In other photos, he is wearing sunglasses and smiling, or touring a facility with his wife.

People's Daily could not immediately be reached for comment. A man who answered the phone at the newspaper's duty office said he did not know anything about the report and requested queries be directed to their newsroom on Wednesday morning.

It is not the first time a state-run Chinese newspaper has fallen for a fictional report by the just-for-laughs The Onion.

In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the capital city's biggest tabloids at the time, published as news the fictional account that the U.S. Congress wanted a new building and that it might leave Washington. The Onion article was a spoof of the way sports teams threaten to leave cities in order to get new stadiums.

Two months ago, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reprinted a story from The Onion about a supposed survey showing that most rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than President Barack Obama. It included a quote from a fictional West Virginia resident saying he'd rather go to a baseball game with Ahmadinejad because "he takes national defense seriously."

Read More..

Woman locked up in Alec Baldwin NY stalking case

NEW YORK (AP) — A Canadian actress accused of stalking Alec Baldwin has been locked up again.

New York City police detectives arrested Genevieve Sabourin (JEHN'-uh-veev SAB'-oo-rin) at a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday after she apparently violated a restraining order.

Baldwin and Sabourin met on the set of the 2002 sci-fi comedy "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," in which he had a cameo and she was a publicist. Baldwin says they had dinner together in 2010.

A judge had ordered Sabourin to stay away from Baldwin following her arrest earlier this year on harassment charges. Recent news reports said she had been tweeting angry comments about the "30 Rock" star's new wife.

Sabourin was in court Tuesday after her lawyer asked to be taken off the case. Her new lawyer has no comment on her re-arrest.

Read More..

CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

Read More..

W.H. blasts GOP 'obsession' with Rice

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee—flanked by fellow committee …The White House sharply escalated its attacks Tuesday on Republicans trying to stop Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice from succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state. Press secretary Jay Carney described GOP lawmakers as being gripped by a politically fueled "obsession" with a series of television appearances Rice made shortly after the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which she wrongly suggested the attack had stemmed from a demonstration over an anti-Muslim video rather than a terrorist assault.

Carney's comments came after Rice met privately on Capitol Hill with Republican senators who have said they intend to block her nomination if President Barack Obama chooses her to replace Clinton as the nation's top diplomat. Rice also acknowledged for the first time, in a written statement issued by her office, that her initial public comments on the Benghazi assault were wrong because there had been no protest outside the compound.

Carney said the U.S. still does not know who carried out the assault, which claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. But he said GOP focus on Rice's early statements was a politically motivated distraction from efforts to identify those responsible for the killings.

"The questions that remain to be answered have to do with what happened in Benghazi, who was responsible for the deaths of four Americans, including our ambassador, and what steps we need to take to ensure that something like that doesn't happen again." Carney said.

In appearance after appearance, Rice said that American intelligence had pinned the blame on the assault on extremists who took advantage of a demonstration outside the facility.

Tuesday, Rice acknowledged the information initially provided by the intelligence community was wrong.

"Neither I nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved," Rice said.

Rice, accompanied by Acting CIA Director Michael Morell, met with Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who have accused Rice (and the Obama administration in general) of misleading the public by tying the assault to the video. Republicans have suggested the administration hoped to blunt the potential political impact of the attack—the first to claim the life of an American ambassador in 30 years—shortly before the presidential election.

"Bottom line: I'm more disturbed now than I was before," Graham told reporters after the meeting. "We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get," McCain said.

Carney shot back, saying there were "no unanswered questions" about Rice's early televised statements.

"The focus on—some might say obsession on—comments made on Sunday shows seems to me and to many to be misplaced," Carney said. "I know that Sunday shows have vaunted status in Washington, but they have almost nothing to do—in fact zero to do—with what happened in Benghazi."

And neither, to hear Carney tell it, did Rice.

"Ambassador Rice has no responsibility for collecting, analyzing and providing intelligence, nor does she have responsibility as the United States ambassador to the United Nations for diplomatic security around the globe," he said.

So why, then, did the White House anoint Rice the administration point person to answer questions about a possible intelligence failure and consular security? Why not Secretary of State Clinton? Director of National Intelligence James Clapper? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta? National Security Adviser Tom Donilon?

"She is a principal on the president's foreign policy team," Carney said.

He added, "To this day it is the assessment of this administration and of our intelligence community … that they acted at least in part in response to what they saw happening in Cairo and took advantage of that situation."

In other words, according to one well-placed source, the perpetrators of the attack may have concluded that anger at the video gave them the maximum opportunity to get sympathy or support across the Muslim world, and might even inspire copycat attacks. Rice's much-dissected Sept. 16 comments broadly follow those lines.

Obama has fiercely defended Rice, while carefully declining to say whether he has chosen her to succeed Clinton. Another leading contender is the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry.

McCain and Graham have pledged to try to filibuster her confirmation, but they are well short of the votes needed to do so.

Read More..

Pakistani TV anchor survives attempted bombing

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Police on Monday found and defused a bomb planted under the car of a prominent Pakistani TV anchor threatened by the Taliban for his coverage of a schoolgirl shot by the militants, police said.

The bomb was made up of half a kilogram (one pound) of explosives stuffed in a tin can, said Bani Amin, the police chief in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, where the incident occurred. It was placed in a bag and attached to the bottom of Mir's car, said Amin.

One of Mir's neighbors noticed the bomb under the car after the TV anchor returned from a local market, and the police were notified, said Rana Jawad, a senior official at Geo TV.

No group has claimed responsibility.

The Pakistani Taliban threatened Mir and other journalists last month over their coverage of an assassination attempt against Malala Yousufzai, a 15-year-old schoolgirl activist who was shot in the head by the militants in the northwest Swat Valley.

The Taliban targeted Malala for criticizing the militant group and promoting secular girls' education, which is opposed by the Islamist extremists. She is recovering in Britain.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik offered 50 million rupees ($500,000) for information about those responsible for the attempted attack against Mir.

The anchor said on TV after the incident that it would not deter him from speaking the truth.

"It was proven today that the Protector is more powerful than the attacker," said Mir.

He said he wasn't prepared to blame the Taliban for the attempted bombing, claiming he had received threats from others as well.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, a bomb hidden in a cement construction block exploded in the southern city of Karachi, killing one person, said senior police officer Farooq Awan. Four other people were wounded, he said.

The bomb contained about one kilogram (two pounds) of explosives and was detonated by a mobile phone, Awan said.

Pakistan suspended mobile phone service throughout most of the country on Saturday and Sunday to prevent attacks against Shiite Muslims during a major religious commemoration.

Despite the ban, a pair of bombings over the weekend killed at least 13 people.

Awan said he suspected the bomb in Karachi was meant to target Shiites over the weekend, but militants were not able to detonate it at the time because of the mobile phone cutoff.

Shiites are observing the holy month of Muharram. Pakistani Shiites on Sunday marked Ashoura, the most important day of the month.

Pakistan has a long history of Sunni Muslim extremists targeting Shiites, whom they consider heretics.

Also Monday, police said 16 addicts have died in the eastern city of Lahore after drinking cough syrup suspected of being toxic, said police officer Multan Khan.

Khan said they died at various hospitals in Lahore over the past three days. Two people were still being treated at the city's main hospital.

Police arrested the owners of three drug stores where the cough syrup was sold and sent a sample for analysis to determine whether it was toxic, Khan said.

____

Associated Press writers Adil Jawad in Karachi, Pakistan, and Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Read More..

Fox interview ends after author criticizes network

NEW YORK (AP) — A Fox News Channel interview ended abruptly Monday after an author accused the network of hyping the killing of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and "operating as a wing of the Republican Party."

The charges were made by Thomas Ricks, a veteran newspaper reporter and author of "The Generals," who was brought on for an interview with anchor Jon Scott about GOP criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's comments about the attacks.

Ricks said he thought the story of the Benghazi attacks was "hyped, by this network especially."

Scott asked why Ricks would call it hype when four Americans were killed, including the first U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years.

Ricks responded that few people knew how many U.S. security contractors were killed in Iraq and compared that to the attention paid to "what was essentially a small firefight" in Libya.

"I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party," Ricks said.

With that, Scott thanked him and turned to a co-anchor, who introduced a commercial.

"When Mr. Ricks ignored the anchor's question, it became clear that his goal was to bring attention to himself and his book," Fox News executive Michael Clemente said.

Read More..

Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Read More..

Bin Laden movie based on controversial first-hand accounts

It was the greatest manhunt of all time, the stealthy nighttime raid by the elite SEAL Team Six on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, which led to the death of the world's most wanted terrorist leader.

It is the subject of "Zero Dark Thirty," a riveting new film by director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, both of Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker" fame. But when they began making a film about the hunt for bin Laden six years ago, right after they finished "The Hurt Locker," the movie they had in mind was about the failed attempt to find bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan.

That plan changed drastically on May 1, 2011 when bin Laden was killed. Boal, a meticulous investigative reporter, picked up the phone and started working his sources.

"It was a thrilling journey to go on and also thrilling to discover what the people who were involved in this mission were really like," Boal said.

In an exclusive interview with "Nightline," Bigelow and Boal talked about bringing "Zero Dark Thirty" to the screen based on Boal's interviews and Bigelow's dramatic vision.

"It was all based on first hands accounts so it really felt very vivid and very vital and very, very immediate and visceral of course which is very exciting as a film maker," Bigelow said.

Watch ABC's Martha Raddatz's exclusive interview with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal on "Nightline" tonight at 11:35 p.m. ET

Bigelow said she and Boal were working in his office when they heard President Obama's now famous announcement that the United States had "conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden."

"It was a personal moment for me because I grew up in New York City," Boal said. "I think for a lot of people, just kind of an overwhelming moment."

All of a sudden, Bigelow said it put their project in a very different perspective.

"It was not just as a film concern, it was kind of a global concern," she said. "We both realized simultaneously that we had to pivot."

"I picked up the phone and started calling sources and asking them what they knew and taking referrals and knocking on doors and really approached it as comprehensively as I could," Boal said.

Almost immediately, the filmmakers found themselves in the middle of an election year firestorm, accused of receiving classified documents to bolster the president's role. It's something they both deny.

"I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified material," Boal said. "To my knowledge I never received any."

In fact, President Obama makes only a fleeting appearance in the film. The star of this real-life drama is, surprisingly, a young female CIA officer, played by Jessica Chastain, who helps find bin Laden through a long-forgotten courier.

"It was a couple of months into the research when I heard about a woman, part of the team, and she has played a big role and she had gone to Jalalabad and been deployed with the SEALs on the night of the raid," Boal said.

"When I realized at the heart of this hunt, at the heart of this 10-year odyssey was this woman, this young woman who had a kind of tenacity and a dedication and a courage, she would never say no, I was excited to take it on," Bigelow said.

The Story Behind "Zero Dark Thirty"

Both Bigelow and Boal felt a responsibility to accurately portray the lives of the people who normally work in the shadows, their efforts rarely known to the outside world. While some of the dialog is word for word real, based on interviews with the young CIA officer and others, some of the dialog is dramatized and the decade-long narrative of events condensed.

"They were proud of what they had done, but they had more or less resigned themselves to the fact that what they had done is not something they could talk about publically," Boal said. "But one of the things a movie allows people to do is talk in a way that is a little bit freer because they know that movies can change the way people look, [and] that I don't have quite the same standards of having to reveal sources as I would if I was, let's say, running a front page piece in the New York Times."

The climax of the film is, of course, the raid that killed bin Laden. The scene was a challenge for the filmmakers who were presenting it to a world that knew how it ended.

"But they don't know how it happened," Bigelow said. "They don't know, OK what was the choreography of the assault itself, where did they land, where did they crash, who did they kill first?"

Although it only takes up about one-fifth of "Zero Dark Thirty" -- the title comes from the code for SEAL team's landing time of 12:30 a.m. -- the filmmakers said the assault on bin Laden's compound, like the rest of the film, is as accurate as possible. A full scale version of the compound -- no Hollywood facades for this movie – was built in Jordan, where they shot for almost four weeks. The floor, the tile, the carpet, the furniture and the marks on the walls, were copied from images seen in ABC News footage that Bigelow said they reviewed frame by frame.

And the famous stealth helicopters that swept over the border into Pakistan were real Black Hawks with computer generated graphics replicating the stealthy skin. Bigelow said the actors told of the terrifying and challenging conditions their real-life counterparts faced.

"You are in the elements, you are in the wind, you are in the sand, the sound of the rotor wash and you can't see anything. So you imagine what it would be like to land in this place," she said.

And Bigelow takes viewers beyond the clinical news accounts, the soundless descriptions and even though you might think you know how it ends, there is more to the story.

"For both of us I think it's fair to say the story itself and the making of it was really hard but really thrilling and exciting," Boal said. "Because you are at the center of something that is so epic and that doesn't come along very often and I think we were both aware of the fact that we probably won't have another story like this."

"I can't imagine," Bigelow said. "I think it's the story of a lifetime."

Also Read

Read More..

112 killed in fire at Bangladesh garment factory

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Fire raced through a garment factory that supplies major retailers in the West, killing at least 112 people, many of whom were trapped by the flames because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits, an official said Sunday.

The blaze broke out late Saturday at a factory operated just outside Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group, which makes products for Wal-Mart and other companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Firefighters recovered at least 100 bodies from the factory, Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, told The Associated Press. He said 12 other people who were injured after they jumped from the building to escape died at hospitals.

Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, and authorities ordered an investigation.

Army soldiers and border guards were sent to help police keep order as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered, Mahbub said.

Tazreen was given a "high risk" safety rating after a May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an "ethical sourcing" assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group's website. It did not specify what led to the rating.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating an orange or "high risk" assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or "medium risk" report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory where the fire broke out. The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.

Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.

If a factory is rated "orange" three times in a two-year period, Wal-Mart won't place any orders for one year. The May 2011 report was the first orange rating for the factory.

Neither Tazreen's owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.

The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients also include Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the U.S. and Europe.

In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said that "fire safety continues to be a key focus for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh." Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.

At the factory, relatives of the workers frantically looked for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, but had seen no trace of her son, who also worked there.

"Oh, Allah, where's my soul? Where's my son?" wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. "I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone."

Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors. Many workers who retreated to the roof were rescued, he said. But he said that with no emergency exits leading outside the building, many victims were trapped, and firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor alone.

"The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor," Mahbub said. "So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building."

"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.

Many victims were burned beyond recognition. The bodies were laid out in rows at a school nearby. Many of them were handed over to families; unclaimed victims were taken to Dhaka Medical College for identification.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families.

Read More..

Saudi telco regulator suspends Mobily prepaid sim sales

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia‘s No.2 telecom operator Etihad Etisalat Co (Mobily) has been suspended from selling pre-paid sim cards by the industry regulator, the firm said in a statement to the kingdom’s bourse on Sunday.

Mobily’s sales of pre-paid, or pay-as-you-go, sim cards will remain halted until the company “fully meets the prepaid service provisioning requirements,” the telco said in the statement.

These requirements include a September order from regulator, Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC). This states all pre-paid sim users must enter a personal identification number when recharging their accounts and that this number must be the same as the one registered with their mobile operator when the sim card was bought, according to a statement on the CITC website.

This measure is designed to ensure customer account details are kept up to date, the CITC said.

Mobily said the financial impact of the CITC’s decision would be “insignificant”, claiming data, corporate and postpaid revenues would meet its main growth drivers.

The firm, which competes with Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Zain Saudi, reported a 23 percent rise in third-quarter profit in October, beating forecasts.

Prepaid mobile subscriptions are typically more popular among middle and lower income groups, with telecom operators pushing customers to shift to monthly contracts that include a data allowance.

Customers on monthly, or postpaid, contracts are also less likely to switch provider, but the bulk of customers remain on pre-paid accounts.

Mobily shares were trading down 1.4 percent at 0820 GMT on the Saudi bourse.

(Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Dinesh Nair)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

'Twilight,' Bond, 'Lincoln' lead record weekend

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bella Swan, James Bond and Abe Lincoln have combined to lift Hollywood to record Thanksgiving revenue at the box office.

Kristen Stewart's finale as Bella in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2" was No. 1 again with $64 million during the five-day holiday stretch that began Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Daniel Craig's Bond adventure "Skyfall" came in at No. 2 with $51 million, while Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg's Civil War saga "Lincoln" finished third with $34.1 million.

According to box-office tracker Hollywood.com, the three films paced Hollywood to an all-time Thanksgiving week best of about $290 million from Wednesday to Sunday.

That tops the previous record of $273 million over Thanksgiving in 2009, when "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" led the weekend.

This Thanksgiving also was a huge 25 percent jump from a year ago, when domestic revenues were a weak $232 million as some big holiday releases fizzled.

With a strong December lineup ahead, Hollywood has resumed its record revenue pace for the year after a brief box-office lull in late summer and early fall.

Domestic revenues for 2012 are at $9.75 billion, putting Hollywood potentially on track for its first $11 billion year, which would beat the 2009 record of $10.6 billion, said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

"We're barreling toward a record-breaking box-office year," Dergarabedian said. "It's built on the back of just a lot of really strong movies that have come out over the past few weekends. It bodes very well for the rest of the holidays."

The "Twilight" finale, "Skyfall" and "Lincoln" finished in the same top-three rankings for the second-straight weekend as new releases were unable to dislodge the holdovers.

Released by Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment banner, "Breaking Dawn — Part 2," pulled in $43.1 million from Friday to Sunday, raising its domestic total to $227 million. The movie added $97.4 million overseas to bring its international total to $350.8 million and its worldwide take to $577.7 million.

Sony's "Skyfall" also topped $200 million domestically, ringing up $36 million for the three-day weekend to put its U.S. total at $221.7 million. With $41.3 million more overseas, "Skyfall" raised its international revenues to $568.4 million and its worldwide sales to $790.1 million.

"Lincoln," a DreamWorks film distributed by Disney, took in $25 million over the weekend to lift its domestic revenue to $62.2 million.

Leading the newcomers was Paramount and DreamWorks Animation's tale "Rise of the Guardians" at No. 4 with $24 million for the weekend and $32.6 million since opening Wednesday.

Based on William Joyce's "Guardians of Childhood" books, "Rise of the Guardians" gathers Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and other mythical beings as a team of heroes battling an evil overlord.

Close behind at No. 5 was director Ang Lee's shipwreck saga "Life of Pi" at No. 5 with $22 million over the weekend. The 20th Century Fox release has taken in $30.2 million domestically since its Wednesday debut and added $17.5 million in four Asian markets.

"Life of Pi" was adapted from Yann Martel's best-selling novel about an Indian youth adrift on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. Many fans considered the introspective novel impossible to film, but Lee has charmed audiences and critics with an inspiring survival story told through dazzling 3-D images.

The weekend's other new wide release, a remake of the 1980s U.S.-invasion tale "Red Dawn," opened at No. 7 with $14.6 million, raising its total to $22 million since debuting Wednesday.

"Red Dawn" sat on the shelf for three years while studio backer MGM went through bankruptcy, with distributor FilmDistrict eventually picking it up for domestic release. The movie's cast includes Chris Hemsworth ("Thor") and Josh Hutcherson ("The Hunger Games") in a story of young guerrillas battling North Korean invaders.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight's "Hitchcock" opened solidly with about $300,000 in 17 theaters. The movie stars Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock in a behind-the-scenes story of the making of "Psycho."

The weekend's overall strength came from a broad range of films that clicked with various audiences, from action and family fare to thoughtful drama.

"This is a marketplace that has something for everyone," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox. "You have something deeper like 'Life of Pi,' yet you have a very successful sequel in 'Twilight' at the same time. Adult bio-drama, if you will, in 'Lincoln,' and you have Bond. That's the secret to a very successful and balanced marketplace."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2," $43.1 million ($97.4 million international).

2. "Skyfall," $36 million ($41.3 million international).

3. "Lincoln," $25 million.

4. "Rise of the Guardians," $24 million ($10 million international).

5. "Life of Pi," $22 million ($17.5 million international)

6. "Wreck-It Ralph," $16.8 million ($2.1 million international).

7. "Red Dawn," $14.6 million.

8. "Flight," $8.6 million ($723,000 international).

9. "Silver Linings Playbook," $4.6 million ($1.6 million international).

10. "Argo," $3.9 million ($6 million international).

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2," $97.4 million.

2. "Skyfall," $41.3 million.

3. "Life of Pi," $17.5 million.

4. "Rise of the Guardians," $10 million.

5. "Argo," $6 million.

6. "Hotel Transylvania," $5.5 million.

7. "A Werewolf Boy," $4.2 million.

8 (tie). "Don't Cry, Mommy," $3.6 million.

8 (tie). "Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo," $3.6 million.

10. "Wreck-It Ralph," $2.1 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Read More..