Sarah Michelle Gellar Names Son Rocky

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

11/17/2012 at 07:00 PM ET

Claire Greenway/Getty

Update: The couple have named their son Rocky James Prinze, a source close to the family confirms to PEOPLE.

Originally posted Sept. 24: Hello, little Prinze.

Sarah Michelle Gellar ”had a baby boy last week in Los Angeles,” her rep tells PEOPLE.

She and husband Freddie Prinze, Jr. “are thrilled to announce” the news, the rep confirms to Access Hollywood, adding that ”mother and baby are doing great.”

The newborn joins the couple’s daughter Charlotte Grace at home.

Their 3-year-old, who was spotted out with a still-pregnant Gellar last Tuesday, “is very excited to be a big sister,” the rep adds.

“They are thrilled that Charlotte [has] a little brother,” a source close to the couple told PEOPLE in July.

“They love their little girl more than anything in the world and know that love will only multiply.”

Gellar, 35, and Prinze, 36, were married in September 2002.

– Sarah Michaud with reporting by Charlotte Triggs

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

Read More..

Wall Street Week Ahead: Going off "cliff" with a bungee cord

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 1987 crash. The Y2K bug. The debt ceiling debacle of 2011.

All these events, in the end, turned out to be buying opportunities for stocks. So will the "fiscal cliff," some investors say as they watch favorite stocks tumble during the political give-and-take happening in Washington.

The first round of talks aimed at avoiding the "fiscal cliff" caused a temporary rise in equities on Friday, signaling Wall Street's recent declines could be a buying opportunity. The gains were small and sentiment remains weak, but it suggests hope for market bulls.

Though shares ended moderately higher on Friday, it was not enough to offset losses for the week. The S&P was down 1.5 percent, while both the Dow and the Nasdaq fell 1.8 percent.

The S&P 500 is down more than 5 percent in the seven sessions that followed President Barack Obama's re-election. Uncertainty arose as attention turned to Washington's task of dealing with mandated tax hikes and spending cuts that could take the U.S. economy back into recession.

Some see the market's move as an overreaction to hyperbolic headlines about policy gridlock in Washington, believing stocks may start to rebound in what should be a quiet few days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday next Thursday.

"It just doesn't seem to make any sense that you suddenly wake up the day after the election and realize we've got a fiscal cliff," said Krishna Kumar, partner at New York hedge fund Goose Hollow Alpha Advisors.

Not long ago the S&P was on target for its second-best year in the last 10, riding a 17 percent advance in 2012. That's been halved to about 8 percent, which isn't bad but disappointing compared with just a month ago.

Investors have been selling the year's winners. Apple is down 25 percent from its peak above $700. General Electric is down 14 percent; Google has lost 16 percent. Overall, the stocks that make up the top 10 percent of performers in the month prior to Election Day have been the worst performers since, according to Bespoke Investment Group of Harrison, New York.

"I think it's a good opportunity to be long stocks at these levels," said Kumar.

Hikes on capital gains and dividend taxes are on the line, and Obama has dug in his heels on what he sees as a mandate to make the tax code more progressive.

He seems to have the upper hand in dealings with Congress because Republican lawmakers don't want to see tax rates increase, which is what will happen if no solution is found by the beginning of 2013. Republicans don't want to take the blame for driving the economy over the cliff.

The current crisis is similar to last year's fight to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which led to the downgrade of the United States' top credit rating in early August 2011.

During the dealings, the S&P 500 lost 18.8 percent between its peak in July 2011 and its bottom in August. As the market slid, the political standoff badly hurt investors' confidence in Washington, setting off a spike in volatility.

In the end a deal was announced that raised the ceiling and put off longer-term fiscal decisions until January 1, 2013, setting the stage for today's "fiscal cliff" crisis.

After staying flat through September 2011, the S&P 500 jumped 31 percent between its October low and the end of March.

BUY THE DIP?

Gridlock in Washington and all that could possibly go wrong with the economy if a deal is not reached have grabbed the headlines, but the negotiations leave room for stock market gains. Congressional leaders said Friday they will work through the Thanksgiving holiday recess to find a solution.

"The debate over how to solve (the fiscal cliff) may be more productive than is commonly recognized," said Brad Lipsig, senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services in New York.

"The U.S. is facing a major debt overhang, and serious steps toward addressing it might ultimately be viewed as a positive for future growth," he said. "The market may recognize this and, after a time of hand wringing, recover from the concerns with a renewed sense of optimism."

The recent selling took the S&P 500's relative strength index - a technical measure of internal strength - below 30 this week, indicating the benchmark is oversold and due for a rebound.

The RSI in four of the 10 S&P sectors - utilities, telecoms, consumer staples and technology - is below 30 and the highest RSI reading, for the consumer discretionary sector, is below 40, suggesting a bounce is in store.

"What I want to do is what we did during the decline following the budget negotiations in the summer of 2011: The lower the stock market goes, the more I want to own stock," said Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist at New York-based Rosenblatt Securities.

"If we go off the cliff it will be with a bungee cord attached," he said.

KEEP CALM AND HEDGE

Volatility is expected to rise through the end of November and to spike in late December if no agreement on the fiscal cliff is reached in Congress. Alongside comes opportunity for those with high risk tolerance.

"Recently, volatility has increased in the market overall. You can't really pick it up in the VIX yet, but I think as we get through November, I think you're likely to see the VIX be at a relatively higher level," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston.

In 2011, the VIX averaged 19.2 in July and 35 in August. So far this month the average is 17.8 and it is expected to spike if negotiations on the cliff drag into late next month.

"Looking at the range of possibilities, I would say any of them would be better than sitting here waiting. I would even put going off the fiscal cliff in that category," said Jill Cuniff, president of Seattle-based Edge Asset Management Inc, which manages about $20 billion.

"But we don't believe Congress will let that happen; there's going to be some middle ground here."

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Jonathan Spincer, additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

Israel Steps Up Aerial Strikes in Gaza

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

A man injured by bombing in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Saturday that also killed one person.

GAZA CITY — Israel broadened its assault on the Gaza Strip on Saturday from mostly military targets to centers of government infrastructure, obliterating the four-story headquarters of the Hamas prime minister with a barrage of five bombs before dawn.

The attack, one of several on government installations, came a day after the prime minister, Ismail Haniya, hosted his Egyptian counterpart in that very building, a sign of Hamas’s new legitimacy in a radically redrawn Arab world. That stature was underscored Saturday by a visit to Gaza from the Tunisian foreign minister and the rapid convergence in Cairo of two Hamas allies, the prime minister of Turkey and the crown prince of Qatar, for talks with the Egyptian president and the chairman of Hamas on a possible cease-fire.

But as the fighting ended its fourth day, with Israel continuing preparations for a ground invasion, the conflict showed no sign of abating. Gaza militants again fired long-range missiles at Tel Aviv, among nearly 60 that soared into Israel on Saturday. Israel said it hit more than 200 targets overnight in Gaza, and continued with afternoon strikes on the home of a Hamas commander and on a motorcycle-riding militant.

The White House reiterated its strong support for Israel, with Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, describing rocket fire from Gaza as “the precipitating factor for the conflict.”

“We believe Israel has a right to defend itself, and they’ll make their own decisions about the tactics that they use in that regard,” Mr. Rhodes told reporters on Air Force One en route to Asia.

Hamas health officials said 45 Palestinians had been killed and 385 wounded since Wednesday’s escalation in the cross-border battle. In Israel, 3 Israeli civilians have died and 63 have been injured. Four soldiers were also wounded on Saturday.

Two rockets were fired at Tel Aviv on Saturday. One landed harmlessly, probably at sea. The other was intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system in the sky above the city. An Iron Dome antimissile battery had been hastily deployed near the city on Saturday in response to the threat of longer-range rockets.

Since Wednesday, Iron Dome has knocked 245 rockets out of the sky, the military said, while 500 have struck Israel. The American-financed system is designed to intercept only rockets streaking toward towns and cities and to ignore those likely to strike open ground.

There have been failures — on Saturday a rocket crashed into an apartment block in the southern port city of Ashdod, injuring five people — but officials have put its success rate at 90 percent.

Analysts said there is no clear end to the conflict in sight, since Israel neither wants to re-engage in Gaza nor to eliminate Hamas and leave the territory to the chaos of more militant factions.

“Ultimately,” said Efraim Halevy, a former chief of Israel’s intelligence service, “both sides want Hamas to remain in control, strange as it sounds.”

But Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Al Azhar University here, cautioned that “there is no military solution to the Gaza problem.”

“There has to be a political settlement at the end of this,” he said. “Without that, this conflict is just going to go on and on.”

President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt said late Saturday night that “there could be a cease-fire soon,” after he and other members of his government spent the day in meetings with the Turkish premier, the Qatari prince, the political leaders of Hamas and other Gaza factions. But Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, denied reports that a truce was imminent.

It was unclear whether the deal under discussion would solely suspend the fighting or include other issues. Hamas — which won elections in Gaza in 2006 and took full control in 2007 but is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States — wants to turn its Rafah crossing with Egypt into a free-trade zone and seeks Israel’s withdrawal from the 1,000-foot buffer it patrols on Gaza’s northern and eastern borders.

Mr. Rhodes said the Turkish and Egyptian leaders “have the ability to play a constructive role in engaging Hamas and encouraging a process of de-escalation.”

Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, spoke Saturday with the leaders of Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, according to a statement from his office.

Jodi Rudoren reported from Gaza City, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Reporting was contributed by Fares Akram and Tyler Hicks from the Gaza Strip, Carol Sutherland and Iritz Pazner Garshowitz from Jerusalem, and David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh from Cairo.

Read More..

Google Considering Wireless Network [REPORT]

Google is looking to cut out the middleman for its Android mobile devices and begin offering wireless service itself, according to a report.

The search giant met with reps from Dish Network to partner on a wireless service “that would rival” wireless networks like AT&T and Verizon, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited “people familiar with the discussions.” The talks, however, could amount to nothing, the article notes.

[More from Mashable: Google Updates Blogger Mobile Apps to Version 2.0]

Dish bought wireless spectrum in 2008 that it plans to build out into such a network. The company has met with other, unnamed companies aside from Google, according to the report. In an interview this week, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said potential partners include companies “who would like to be in the industry” and don’t offer wireless service. He did not name Google or any other of the companies. Despite the talk, there’s speculation that AT&T might partner with Dish on the spectrum offering.

Google bid on wireless spectrum in 2008, but lost to Verizon and AT&T. Google also took a $ 500 million stake in mobile broadband firm Clearwire, which it sold this year for $ 66.5 million.

[More from Mashable: Google Launches Mobile Game You Play in Real Life]

Despite being shut out of wireless for now, Google is offering wired broadband service in Kansas City. The company also diversified into the wireless handset business last year with its $ 12.5 billion purchase of Motorola.

Bonus Gallery: Hands-On: Verizon’s Droid DNA Wows With High-Def Display

Verizon’s Droid DNA

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Khloé Kardashian and Lamar Odom Will Be Apart for Thanksgiving

TV Watch

The X Factor

By Andrea Billups

11/16/2012 at 08:00 PM EST

Lamar Odom and Khloé Kardashian

Denise Truscello/Wireimage

As most Americans sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, he'll be on the court with the Los Angeles Clippers in New York and she'll be on the stage in Los Angeles.

But even if Khloé Kardashian, 28, and her basketball star husband Lamar Odom, 33, won't be together this year for the family holiday, they remain connected and supportive as both continue their busy careers.

"Honestly, I'm fine with it, because I'm obsessed with my husband – in a healthy way – but he's on the road. He has a game in Brooklyn, so I don't feel guilty, like, 'I'm not going to be able to cook for him!' " Kardashian told PEOPLE from the set of The X Factor on Thursday.

"So, he'll be on the road. He'll be working anyway. So, I feel better about that, and my sister Kim will be here. And I think my mom will come here that night, too. Thanksgiving at The X Factor!"

Wherever her husband may be, Kardashian says Odom lovingly takes time to watch her show, even if it's a replay on YouTube, where he often makes fun of her voice. Odom, she adds, has also given her other advice, chiding her for being a bit ... overexposed.

"The only tip he gave me was don't show your nipples anymore," Kardashian joked. He said, "Please do not have your [breasts] out." I said, 'Oh, good tip.' "

As she gets emotionally invested in the show's talented contestants and in watching their gut-wrenching departures, Kardashian says she is also trying to improve her own skills co-hosting the show with Mario Lopez. Her famous siblings have been supportive thus far, offering their own tips.

"I'm still learning. I'm still just trying to get better, and better every week," she said of her new role. "I like constructive criticism, but still it's only a one or two-hour show, and there's still so many people. I just don't have time to just talk, and be myself yet."

"And right now, it's so technical. I feel like, when more people go, there's going to be more time to fill. And I feel like that's where I can kind of do my thing."

• Reporting by Patrick Gomez

Read More..

EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

Read More..

Wall Street Week Ahead: Going off "cliff" with a bungee cord

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 1987 crash. The Y2K bug. The debt ceiling debacle of 2011.

All these events, in the end, turned out to be buying opportunities for stocks. So will the "fiscal cliff," some investors say as they watch favorite stocks tumble during the political give-and-take happening in Washington.

The first round of talks aimed at avoiding the "fiscal cliff" caused a temporary rise in equities on Friday, signaling Wall Street's recent declines could be a buying opportunity. The gains were small and sentiment remains weak, but it suggests hope for market bulls.

Though shares ended moderately higher on Friday, it was not enough to offset losses for the week. The S&P was down 1.5 percent, while both the Dow and the Nasdaq fell 1.8 percent.

The S&P 500 is down more than 5 percent in the seven sessions that followed President Barack Obama's re-election. Uncertainty arose as attention turned to Washington's task of dealing with mandated tax hikes and spending cuts that could take the U.S. economy back into recession.

Some see the market's move as an overreaction to hyperbolic headlines about policy gridlock in Washington, believing stocks may start to rebound in what should be a quiet few days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday next Thursday.

"It just doesn't seem to make any sense that you suddenly wake up the day after the election and realize we've got a fiscal cliff," said Krishna Kumar, partner at New York hedge fund Goose Hollow Alpha Advisors.

Not long ago the S&P was on target for its second-best year in the last 10, riding a 17 percent advance in 2012. That's been halved to about 8 percent, which isn't bad but disappointing compared with just a month ago.

Investors have been selling the year's winners. Apple is down 25 percent from its peak above $700. General Electric is down 14 percent; Google has lost 16 percent. Overall, the stocks that make up the top 10 percent of performers in the month prior to Election Day have been the worst performers since, according to Bespoke Investment Group of Harrison, New York.

"I think it's a good opportunity to be long stocks at these levels," said Kumar.

Hikes on capital gains and dividend taxes are on the line, and Obama has dug in his heels on what he sees as a mandate to make the tax code more progressive.

He seems to have the upper hand in dealings with Congress because Republican lawmakers don't want to see tax rates increase, which is what will happen if no solution is found by the beginning of 2013. Republicans don't want to take the blame for driving the economy over the cliff.

The current crisis is similar to last year's fight to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which led to the downgrade of the United States' top credit rating in early August 2011.

During the dealings, the S&P 500 lost 18.8 percent between its peak in July 2011 and its bottom in August. As the market slid, the political standoff badly hurt investors' confidence in Washington, setting off a spike in volatility.

In the end a deal was announced that raised the ceiling and put off longer-term fiscal decisions until January 1, 2013, setting the stage for today's "fiscal cliff" crisis.

After staying flat through September 2011, the S&P 500 jumped 31 percent between its October low and the end of March.

BUY THE DIP?

Gridlock in Washington and all that could possibly go wrong with the economy if a deal is not reached have grabbed the headlines, but the negotiations leave room for stock market gains. Congressional leaders said Friday they will work through the Thanksgiving holiday recess to find a solution.

"The debate over how to solve (the fiscal cliff) may be more productive than is commonly recognized," said Brad Lipsig, senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services in New York.

"The U.S. is facing a major debt overhang, and serious steps toward addressing it might ultimately be viewed as a positive for future growth," he said. "The market may recognize this and, after a time of hand wringing, recover from the concerns with a renewed sense of optimism."

The recent selling took the S&P 500's relative strength index - a technical measure of internal strength - below 30 this week, indicating the benchmark is oversold and due for a rebound.

The RSI in four of the 10 S&P sectors - utilities, telecoms, consumer staples and technology - is below 30 and the highest RSI reading, for the consumer discretionary sector, is below 40, suggesting a bounce is in store.

"What I want to do is what we did during the decline following the budget negotiations in the summer of 2011: The lower the stock market goes, the more I want to own stock," said Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist at New York-based Rosenblatt Securities.

"If we go off the cliff it will be with a bungee cord attached," he said.

KEEP CALM AND HEDGE

Volatility is expected to rise through the end of November and to spike in late December if no agreement on the fiscal cliff is reached in Congress. Alongside comes opportunity for those with high risk tolerance.

"Recently, volatility has increased in the market overall. You can't really pick it up in the VIX yet, but I think as we get through November, I think you're likely to see the VIX be at a relatively higher level," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston.

In 2011, the VIX averaged 19.2 in July and 35 in August. So far this month the average is 17.8 and it is expected to spike if negotiations on the cliff drag into late next month.

"Looking at the range of possibilities, I would say any of them would be better than sitting here waiting. I would even put going off the fiscal cliff in that category," said Jill Cuniff, president of Seattle-based Edge Asset Management Inc, which manages about $20 billion.

"But we don't believe Congress will let that happen; there's going to be some middle ground here."

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Jonathan Spincer, additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

Jerusalem Targeted by Rockets for First Time in Gaza Conflict

JERUSALEM — Emboldened by displays of Egyptian solidarity and undeterred by Israel’s advanced aerial firepower, Palestinian militants under siege in Gaza broadened their rocket targets on Friday, aiming at the holy city of Jerusalem for the first time, sending a second volley screeching toward Tel Aviv and pushing the Israelis closer to a ground invasion.

Israel’s government more than doubled the number of army reservists it could call to combat if needed in the increasingly lethal showdown with Gaza’s Hamas fighters and their affiliates, after they fired more than 700 rockets into southern Israel over the last year. The escalation has raised fears of a new chapter of war in the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli military closed some roads adjacent to Gaza in anticipation of a possible infantry move into the territory, which would be the first Israeli military presence on the ground in Gaza since the three-week invasion of 2008-2009. The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, went south to brief regular forces and reservists.

“We are here tonight on the eve of a possible ground operation,” he said.

Many residents of Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital despite objections from the city’s large Palestinian population and others throughout the Middle East, were startled when wartime sirens warning of impending danger wailed at dusk, followed by at least two dull thuds. Hamas’s military wing claimed in a statement that they were rockets fired from Gaza, 48 miles away, and had been meant to hit the Israeli Parliament.

The police said one of the rockets crashed harmlessly in open space near an Israeli settlement south of Jerusalem. It was unclear where the others landed, but no damage or injuries were reported.

Earlier in Tel Aviv, 40 miles from the Gaza border, air-raid sirens wailed for a second day as a rocket fired from the territory approached. A police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said it apparently fell into the Mediterranean.

Although the rockets missed their intended targets, the launchings aimed at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the two biggest population centers, underscored the ability and willingness of Hamas rocket teams to target Israeli or Israeli-occupied areas that up until the past few days had been thought relatively immune.

“We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist or any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the military of wing of Hamas, in a message reported by news agencies.

Even Saddam Hussein, when he led Iraq, avoided targeting Jerusalem when he aimed Scud missiles at Israel during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991, not wishing to inadvertently destroy Muslim shrines or hit Arab neighborhoods.

Despite three days of repeated Israeli aerial assaults on suspected stockpiles of rockets in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said more than 100 were fired into Israel on Friday, apparently including Iranian-made Fajr-5 projectiles that Israeli officials say are the only ones in the Hamas arsenal with a range that can reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

Hamas contended it had produced those rockets, which the group called M75’s, referring to a range of 75 kilometers or roughly 47 miles. Israeli munitions experts said they had never heard of that weapon.

Regardless, the rocket barrage caused widespread panic and damage. It also shattered plans for a temporary cease-fire during an unprecedented trip to Gaza by the Egyptian prime minister, Hesham Qandil, a visit that illustrated the shifting dynamics of Middle East politics since the turmoil of the Arab Spring uprisings began nearly two years ago. Under the last president, Hosni Mubarak, regarded by Israel as an important strategic ally, any relationship with Hamas would have been unthinkable.

“The time in which the Israeli occupation does whatever it wants in Gaza is gone,” said Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister, in a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart.

The persistent ability of Hamas to keep firing missiles at Israel on Friday appeared to weigh heavily in the Israeli military’s calculations about a ground invasion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli Army was “continuing to hit Hamas hard and is ready to expand the operation into Gaza.” Israeli television later reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had authorized the military to call up 75,000 reservists if necessary — more than double the 30,000 authorized Thursday.

No Israelis were reported killed in the rocket attacks on Friday, leaving the reported death toll on Israel’s side at three civilians. The number of Palestinians killed so far in the three days rose to at least 30, Gaza health officials said, underscoring what critics of Israeli policy called Israel’s disproportionate use of military force. Israeli leaders have said they are selectively targeting militants in the Gaza attacks and blame Hamas for installing rocket batteries in civilian areas.

The Israeli military said Friday night that it had killed Muhammad Abu Jalal, a Hamas company commander in Gaza, and Khaled Shaer, who was involved in rocket development. A military spokesman said that earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces had sent text messages to about 12,000 Gaza residents warning them to stay away from Hamas operatives.

In addition, the military said it had crippled Hamas’ burgeoning drone capabilities after striking a number of sites. Hamas, it said, had been developing unmanned aerial vehicles for use as another means of striking Israel.

The Egyptian prime minister’s visit to Gaza in a three-hour tour early in the day produced dramatic imagery to underpin his government’s support for Hamas, which Israel, the United States and much of the West consider to be a terrorist organization that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Mr. Qandil, noting that he had been accompanied by a delegation from the Egyptian Health Ministry, said “the aim of this visit is not only to show political support but to support the Palestinian people on the ground.”

He said a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel was “the only way to achieve stability in the region” and called on the Palestinians to repair the rift between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

“We call on the Palestinian people to unite because their power and strength is in their unity,” Mr. Qandil said. “That’s the only way to liberate Palestine.”

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram from Gaza City, Alan Cowell from Paris, Rina Castelnuovo from the Gaza-Israel border, and Mayy El Sheikh and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo.

Read More..

TV, movie features on new Wii U delayed until Dec.

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the entertainment features on Nintendo’s new Wii U won’t be available when the game machine goes on sale Sunday.

Nintendo didn’t give a reason for the delay in Friday’s news release. In a statement, the company said it wanted the service “to be the best possible experience for all consumers.” Nintendo said it was still working to “make it available as soon as possible.”

The new service, Nintendo TVii, promises to take into account all the ways users watch movies, TV shows and sports.

If you like the TV show “Modern Family,” for example, it will present you with a list of the show’s episodes gathered from available sources, whether that’s Hulu, Netflix or traditional cable TV.

The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. The free TVii — pronounced “tee-veeee” — features were supposed to be available at the time of Wii U’s launch in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo said the TVii service will now be activated sometime in December.

With TVii the GamePad controller that comes with Wii U is supposed to work as a fancy remote control. Viewers will be able to browse shows to watch or send suggestions to other Wii users. The service also captures scenes from live TV and displays them on the controller’s touch-screen display.

Nintendo also said the ability to watch Amazon, Hulu and Netflix content on the Wii U won’t be available for a few more weeks. These are separate apps, though the content services will also be available through the Wii U app.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Cesar Millan Reveals: I Attempted Suicide

People Pets

11/15/2012 at 06:30 PM EST

Cesar Millan with dog Daddy

Meredith Jenks

It seemed Cesar Millan had been on top of the world, but then it all came crashing down.

In 2010, the trainer and television personality known as the Dog Whisperer was working with celebrity clients, had a hit show and was becoming an international advocate for bully breeds.

Millan, 43, was dealt his first loss when Daddy, the 16-year-old pit bull who had been Millan's best example of a "calm, submissive" dog, died in February.

Then, in June of that year, Millan learned that his wife of 16 years, Ilusion Millan, had filed for divorce.

"I was at the lowest level I had ever been emotionally and psychologically," Millan wrote on his blog in August of this year.

So low, in fact, that he attempted suicide, a revelation Millan makes in Cesar Millan: The Real Story, a documentary airing on Nat Geo Wild on Nov. 25.

"Daddy was my Tibet, my Himalaya, my Gouda, my Buddha, my source of calmness," Millan tells the Associated Press.

After surviving the overdose, Millan opted for work, exercise and affection over antidepressants. His recovery progressed further when he met Jahira Dar, a woman Millan calls "the one."

He plans to propose soon. "I am a traditional guy, so I like to do the whole parent thing," Millan said. "I know they are going to say yes, but I like the whole Cinderella story."

Read More..

Diabetes rates rocket in Oklahoma, South

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's diabetes problem is getting worse, and the biggest jump over 15 years was in Oklahoma, according to a new federal report issued Thursday.

The diabetes rate in Oklahoma more than tripled, and Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama also saw dramatic increases since 1995, the study showed.

The South's growing weight problem is the main explanation, said Linda Geiss, lead author of the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

"The rise in diabetes has really gone hand in hand with the rise in obesity," she said.

Bolstering the numbers is the fact that more people with diabetes are living longer because better treatments are available.

The disease exploded in the United States in the last 50 years, with the vast majority from obesity-related Type 2 diabetes. In 1958, fewer than 1 in 100 Americans had been diagnosed with diabetes. In 2010, it was about 1 in 14.

Most of the increase has happened since 1990.

Diabetes is a disease in which the body has trouble processing sugar; it's the nation's seventh leading cause of death. Complications include poor circulation, heart and kidney problems and nerve damage.

The new study is the CDC's first in more than a decade to look at how the nationwide boom has played out in different states.

It's based on telephone surveys of at least 1,000 adults in each state in 1995 and 2010. Participants were asked if a doctor had ever told them they have diabetes.

Not surprisingly, Mississippi — the state with the largest proportion of residents who are obese — has the highest diabetes rate. Nearly 12 percent of Mississippians say they have diabetes, compared to the national average of 7 percent.

But the most dramatic increases in diabetes occurred largely elsewhere in the South and in the Southwest, where rates tripled or more than doubled. Oklahoma's rate rose to about 10 percent, Kentucky went to more than 9 percent, Georgia to 10 percent and Alabama surpassed 11 percent.

An official with Oklahoma State Department of Health said the solution is healthier eating, more exercise and no smoking.

"And that's it in a nutshell," said Rita Reeves, diabetes prevention coordinator.

Several Northern states saw rates more than double, too, including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Maine.

The study was published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://tinyurl.com/cdcdiabetesreport

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Wall Street ends flat as wary investors stay defensive

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Thursday as the prospect of a drawn-out battle over impending tax and spending changes made investors wary of getting into the water, while retailer Wal-Mart tumbled after disappointing sales.

The S&P 500 is down nearly 2 percent for the week, adding to last week's selloff and eroding more of the market's gains for the year.

What had looked like a stellar 2012 for stocks has turned into merely an average year, and as 2012 draws to a close, investors are becoming more inclined to protect the gains they have.

The worry is the economy could contract again if no deal is reached in Washington to avoid the "fiscal cliff" - large, automatic budget cuts and tax hikes that begin to take effect in the new year.

Combined with the euro zone debt crisis, the uncertain outlook for corporations makes it hard to know how much a stock is worth, said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates in Toledo, Ohio.

"Valuation is going to be uncertain because you don't know what the growth will be," said Lancz. "That is definitely not a good scenario for someone to step up to the plate and do a lot of buying."

The euro zone relapsed into its second recession since 2009 in the third quarter as the region was hurt by its debt problems.

Wal-Mart fell 3.6 percent to $68.72 and was the biggest drag on the Dow as frugal consumers hurt the company's quarterly sales.

Investors will be watching Friday's meeting at the White House between President Barack Obama and Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress over deficit reduction for any sign the two sides are moving closer.

The memory of last year's political impasse over raising the debt ceiling has also made analysts nervous.

"(There is) uncertainty of whether we're going to have a functioning government going forward. That is a weight that sits on markets right now," said Troy Logan, managing director and senior economist at Warren Financial Service in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Even if the economy avoids an outright recession, there are fears a lengthy political dispute could sap business investment and consumer spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 28.49 points, or 0.23 percent, to 12,542.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 2.16 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,353.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was off 9.87 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,836.94.

The S&P 500 sunk to a 3 1/2-month closing low and was well below its 200-day moving average, which it pierced last week.

Data on Thursday showed new claims for unemployment benefits surged last week, while factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly shrank in November as the economy felt the effects of superstorm Sandy.

A flare-up in violence in the Middle East added to market unease as Israeli warplanes bombed targets in and around Gaza city for a second day, while two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted Tel Aviv.

Apple Inc shares dragged the Nasdaq lower, falling 2.1 percent to $525.62 and down about 25 percent since September's high.

Also in the tech sector, shares of Dell Inc fell in after-hours trading after it reported revenue that was shy of Wall Street's expectations. Dell was down 2.2 percent at $9.35.

Target Corp bucked the trend, rising 1.7 percent to $62.44 after it reported a profit that beat expectations.

Volume was roughly 7.26 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, topping the year-to-date average daily closing volume of around 6.5 billion.

Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 2,069 to 975 on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners also had the upper hand on the Nasdaq, outpacing advancers 1,506 to 948.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Palestinian Rockets Kill Three Israelis and Trigger Air Sirens in Tel Aviv

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel — Israel and Hamas widened their deadly conflict over Gaza on Thursday, as militants fired dozens of rockets — including one that killed three civilians in an apartment block in this small southern Israeli town — and two longer-range rockets aimed at Tel Aviv, causing no harm but triggering the first air raid warning there set off by incoming fire from Gaza. The death toll in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes rose to at least 19, including five children and a pregnant teenager.

There was no sign that either side was prepared to dial back the confrontation that has threatened a new war in the Middle East, despite entreaties for restraint by world leaders including President Obama and Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, who planned a visit there in coming days. If anything, the Israelis intensified their attacks on Gaza after the Tel Aviv scare and made new moves toward a possible ground invasion.

The Israeli deaths were the first since Israel’s military launched ferocious aerial assaults on Wednesday to stop the chronic rocket fire from Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave controlled by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a cryptic statement that one of the two longer-range rockets aimed at Tel Aviv landed but did not hit the ground — meaning that it likely crashed into the Mediterranean Sea — and that the other appeared to have landed far outside the city. Exact locations were not specified.

But the Tel Aviv air raid warnings — which residents of Israel’s largest metropolis had not heard except for drills or malfunctions since Saddam Hussein’s Scuds threatened them in the first Persian Gulf War, more than two decades ago — were a reminder of their vulnerability to an attack from Gaza, less than 40 miles away. They also underscored Israel’s stated reason for seeking to destroy the missile-launching sites in Gaza.

Ehud Barak, the minister of defense, said the targeting of Tel Aviv and the scope of the Palestinian rocket fire “represents an escalation, and there will be a price for that escalation that the other side will have to pay.”

Mr. Barak also dropped a further hint that planning for a ground invasion of Gaza had begun, saying he had instructed the army to broaden its draft of reservists to “be prepared for any kind of development if and when it will be required.” Israeli officials said 30,000 reservists could be called, and heavy machinery and tanks rumbled south along Israeli roads leading to Gaza on Thursday in preparation for a possible invasion.

The Israel Defense Forces said that within hours of the Tel Aviv air raid warning, they had attacked 70 underground rocket-launching sites in Gaza, and “direct hits were confirmed.” There were also unconfirmed reports that Israeli rockets had struck near Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt, forcing the Egyptians to close it.

.

Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said its aerial assaults had hit more than 200 sites in Gaza by late Thursday, and “we’ll continue tonight and tomorrow.” He also said militants in Gaza had fired about 300 rockets into southern Israel and at least 100 more had been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system.

The Israeli aerial assault on Gaza that began on Wednesday was the most intense military operation by Israel in Gaza since an invasion four years ago.

The regional perils of the situation sharpened as President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt warned that his country stood by the Palestinians against what he termed Israeli aggression, echoing similar condemnation on Wednesday.

“The Egyptian people, the Egyptian leadership, the Egyptian government and all of Egypt is standing with all its resources to stop this assault, to prevent the killing and the bloodshed of Palestinians,” Mr. Morsi said in nationally televised remarks before a crisis meeting of senior ministers. He also instructed his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza on Friday and said he had contacted President Obama to discuss strategies to “stop these acts and doings and the bloodshed and aggression.”

Isabel Kershner reported from Kiryat Malachi, Israel, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Fares Akram from Gaza, Rina Castelnuovo from Kiryat Malachi, Mayy El Sheikh and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo, Gabby Sobelman from Jerusalem and Alan Cowell from Paris.

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Sina’s profit beats on Weibo; co forecasts weak 4th-quarter revenue

(Reuters) – Chinese internet company Sina Corp eked out a profit in the third quarter that beat analysts’ estimates as strong advertising sales on its microblogging platform offset weaker website advertising but it forecast current-quarter revenue below expectations.

Shares of the company fell 6 percent to $ 49.72 in extended trading. They closed at $ 53.10 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Sina expects adjusted net revenue to range between $ 132 million and $ 136 million in the fourth quarter, with advertising revenues forecast to increase between 6 percent and 8 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $ 151.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sina, which makes most of its revenue from online advertising both on its website and through its microblogging platform, Weibo, is facing stiff headwinds this year as firms slash advertising budgets due to a worsening economic outlook.

Analysts said the spat between Japan and China over a few uninhabited islands in the East China Sea may have affected Sina’s website advertising sales as Japanese automakers cut back on advertising in China.

Net profit was $ 9.9 million for the September quarter, compared to a loss of $ 336.3 million a year earlier. The profit beat analysts’ expectations of $ 7.5 million.

Sina’s advertising revenue rose 19 percent to $ 120.6 million in the third quarter, while non-advertising revenue rose 9 percent to $ 31.8 million. Overall net revenue was $ 152.4 million, up from $ 130.3 million, a year earlier.

The company started monetizing Weibo by offering special services to business accounts and selling VIP memberships to regular users earlier this year.

Weibo contributed about 10 percent to total advertising revenue in the second quarter and had 368 million registered accounts.

(Reporting By Melanie Lee in Shanghai & Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Hope Solo Weds Jerramy Stevens Amid Assault Allegations?

By Dahvi Shira

11/14/2012 at 06:35 PM EST

Jerramy Stevens and Hope Solo

NFL/Getty; Jeff Vinnick/Getty

One day after former Seattle Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his fiancée, U.S. women's soccer team goalkeeper Hope Solo, the pair reportedly tied the knot.

"Confirmed," Sportsradio 950 AM and 102.9 FM radio host Dave Mahler Tweeted on Tuesday. "Jerramy Stevens and Hope Solo were married tonight. Events of yesterday morning didn't change plans."

The pair, who had only been dating for about two months, applied for a marriage license last Thursday. According to court documents, the athletes were arguing over whether to wed in Florida or Washington State.

Stevens, 33, was reportedly released from custody by a Kirkland, Wash., Municipal Court judge on Tuesday after determining there wasn't enough evidence to hold the former football star.

All of the former Dancing with the Stars contestant's social media pages have gone silent since Nov. 6., and calls to her rep have not been returned.

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New gene triples risk for Alzheimer's disease

Scientists have identified a new gene variant that seems to strongly raise the risk for Alzheimer's disease, giving a fresh target for research into treatments for the mind-robbing disorder.

The problem gene is not common — less than 1 percent of people are thought to have it — but it roughly triples the chances of developing Alzheimer's compared to people with the normal version of the gene. It also seems to harm memory and thinking in older people without dementia.

The main reason scientists are excited by the discovery is what this gene does, and how that might reveal what causes Alzheimer's and ways to prevent it. The gene helps the immune system control inflammation in the brain and clear junk such as the sticky deposits that are the hallmark of the disease. Mutations in the gene may impair these tasks, so treatments to restore the gene's function and quell inflammation may help.

"It points us to potential therapeutics in a more precise way than we've seen in the past," said Dr. William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association, which had no role in the research. Years down the road, this discovery will likely be seen as very important, he predicted.

It is described in a study by an international group published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.

About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's. Medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.

Until now, only one gene — ApoE — has been found to have a big impact on Alzheimer's risk. About 17 percent of the population has at least one copy of the problem version of this gene but nearly half of all people with Alzheimer's do. Other genes that have been tied to the disease raise risk only a little, or cause the less common type of Alzheimer's that develops earlier in life, before age 60.

The new gene, TREM2, already has been tied to a couple other forms of dementia. Researchers led by deCODE Genetics Inc. of Iceland honed in on a version of it they identified through mapping the entire genetic code of more than 2,200 Icelanders.

Further tests on 3,550 Alzheimer's patients and more than 110,000 people without dementia in several countries, including the United States, found that the gene variant was more common in Alzheimer's patients.

"It's a very strong effect," raising the risk of Alzheimer's by three to four times — about the same amount as the problem version of the ApoE gene does, said Dr. Allan Levey, director of an Alzheimer's program at Emory University, one of the academic centers participating in the research.

Researchers also tested more than 1,200 people over age 85 who did not have Alzheimer's disease and found that those with the variant TREM2 gene had lower mental function scores than those without it. This adds evidence the gene variant is important in cognition, even short of causing Alzheimer's.

"It's another piece in the puzzle. It suggests the immune system is important in Alzheimer's disease," said Andrew Singleton, a geneticist with the National Institute on Aging, which helped pay for the study.

One prominent scientist not involved in the study — Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a Harvard Medical School geneticist and director of an Alzheimer's research program at Massachusetts General Hospital — called the work exciting, but added a caveat.

"I would like to see more evidence that this is Alzheimer's" rather than one of the other dementias already tied to the gene, Tanzi said. Autopsy or brain imaging tests can show whether the cases attributed to the gene variant are truly Alzheimer's or misdiagnosed, he said.

___

Online:

Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org

Alzheimer's info: http://www.alzheimers.gov

Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Changing of the Guard: Corruption in China Military Poses Test

Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times

Hostesses posed outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday as the Communist Party Congress closed.

BEIJING — An insider critique of corruption in China’s military, circulating just as new leadership is about to take over the armed forces, warns that graft and wide-scale abuses pose as much of a threat to the nation’s security as the United States.

Col. Liu Mingfu, the author of the book, “Why the Liberation Army Can Win,” is not a lone voice.

Earlier this year, a powerful army official gave an emotional speech describing corruption as a “do-or-die struggle,” and days later, according to widely published accounts, a prominent general, Gu Junshan, a deputy director of the logistics department, was arrested on suspicion of corruption. He now awaits trial. The general is reported to have made huge profits on illicit land deals and given more than 400 houses intended for retired officers to friends.

Those excesses may be mere trifles compared with the depth of the overall corruption, the speech by Gen. Liu Yuan, an associate of the presumptive new party leader, Xi Jinping, suggested.

For Mr. Xi, who boasts a military pedigree from his father — a guerrilla leader who helped bring Mao Zedong to power in 1949 — China’s fast modernizing army will be a bulwark of his standing at home and influence abroad.

But the depth of graft and brazen profiteering in the People’s Liberation Army poses a delicate problem for the new leader, one that Colonel Liu and others have warned could undermine the status of the Communist Party.

As part of the nation’s once-a-decade handover of power, Mr. Xi is also expected to assume the chairmanship of the 12-member Central Military Commission immediately. Hu Jintao, the departing party leader, is expected to break precedent and not retain his position atop the body, which oversees the armed forces, for an extended period after his retirement, unlike previous leaders.

Recent territorial disputes with Japan and Southeast Asian neighbors have raised nationalist sentiment in China, and the popular desire for a strong military could make it politically dangerous for Mr. Xi to embark on a campaign that unmasks squandering of public funds.

In his opening speech to the 18th Party Congress, Mr. Hu said China would aim to become “a maritime power.” It was one of the few references in the address about foreign affairs, and one that suggested the government would continue the double-digit increases in expenditures for the military.

But along with the modernization and bigger budgets has come more corruption, a problem that pervades China’s ruling party and its government.

For the first time in the history of the People’s Liberation Army, Chinese analysts say, the land-based army has had to give up its dominance of the military commission.

The former commander of the air force, Xu Qiliang, will be a vice chairman, giving the air force new weight in big decisions, they said. An army general, Fan Changlong, the former commander of the Jinan Military Region, will also be a vice chairman.

These two men will run the day-to-day operations of the military, Chinese analysts said.

In his book, Colonel Liu, a former professor at China’s National Defense University, wrote that the army had not been tested in decades and had grown complacent. “As a military that has not fought a war for 30 years, the People’s Liberation Army has reached a stage in which its biggest danger and No. 1 foe is corruption,” he wrote.

Colonel Liu first became prominent in 2010 with the publication of his book “The China Dream,” an ultranationalist tract arguing that China should build the world’s strongest military and move swiftly to supplant the United States as the global “champion.”

In his new work, the colonel drew a parallel with 1894, when China’s forces were swiftly defeated by a rapidly modernizing Japan, even though the Chinese were equipped with expensive ships from Europe. Historians often attribute the defeat to corruption.

Another retired army officer, and a member of the aristocratic class known as the princelings, said that corruption existed throughout the military but that the new commission would probably refrain from a sustained campaign against it.

Bree Feng contributed research.

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Android 4.2 For Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus Now Available

When Google’s Nexus 10 tablet was unveiled recently, it was running Android 4.2, a new version which adds several features. That version is coming to your Nexus 7 or Galaxy Nexus device as well. Here’s what Android 4.2 brings, where to get it, and which Nexus devices are missing out.

​New features in Android 4.2

Mashable’s Christina Warren has the scoop on what Android 4.2′s bringing. Flashy additions include Daydream, a sort of screensaver for your smartphone or tablet, and Photo Sphere, a new way to take panoramic photographs that capture the whole world around you. Right now you can only see Photo Sphere images on Google+ or in Google Maps, but according to David Ruddock of the Android Police blog Google has made it so “Anyone could, in theory, build a Photo Sphere viewer.”

Less immediately noticeable improvements include a Swype-style gesture keyboard, where you don’t need to type individual letters, and a feature that lets multiple people share the same Android tablet without their apps and things getting in each others’ way. You’ll also be able to mirror your Android device’s screen on your HDTV, Apple AirPlay style, although instead of an Apple TV box you’ll need a third-party wireless display adapter.

​Who’s getting the upgrade now

Nexus 7 owners are already beginning to receive the Android 4.2 upgrade over the air. Your tablet will automatically check for it every so often, but if you want to hurry it along you can go to Settings -> About tablet -> System updates, and tell it to check again. You can also download it from Google and manually install it using Liam Spradlin’s instructions, although this is not recommended unless you’re an experienced Android hacker and are using the Wi-Fi version of the Nexus 7.

Galaxy Nexus owners who bought their phones from a wireless carrier have had to wait an unusually long time for upgrades, as long as several months after a new Android version’s announced. If you bought your Galaxy Nexus phone from a wireless carrier, an upgrade probably won’t be available anytime soon. People who purchased their Galaxy Nexus from the Google Play store are reporting that they are getting the upgrade, though, and Spradlin again has instructions for how to install manually if you are using a Galaxy Nexus bought from the Google Play store.​

Who’s being left out

While announcing that Android 4.2′s programming code was being released to the Android Open-Source Project, Google rep Jean-Baptiste Queru said “There is no support for 4.2 on Nexus S and Xoom.” The Nexus S was a Nexus smartphone released about two years ago, in late 2010, while the Motorola Xoom was the first tablet released (in early 2011) running the Honeycomb version of Android. The Xoom was not an official Nexus device, but was also made in close partnership with Google, and showcased the latest Android software.

Both devices received upgrades to Android 4.1, the first Jelly Bean version. It looks like this is where the upgrade train ends for them, though, after almost two years of support. In contrast, Apple’s iPhone 3GS, released in mid-2009, just recently received an upgrade to the latest version of iOS.

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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GIF Named Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year

By Maggie Coughlan

11/13/2012 at 07:10 PM EST

Being a computer geek just got a little sexier.

Oxford Dictionaries announced Monday the Oxford Dictionaries USA Word of the Year for 2012 is GIF.

If you're not familiar with the verb, it's defined as "a compressed file format for images that can be used to create simple, looping animations," according to Katherine Martin, Head of the U.S. Dictionaries Program at Oxford University Press USA.

After popping up everywhere from PEOPLE.com to Tumblr, the word had an amazing year.

The tech-savvy term beat out some fierce competition, including Eurogeddon (the potential financial collapse of the Eurozone), Superstorm (an unusually large and destructive storm), YOLO ("you only live once"), Nomophobia (anxiety caused by being without one's mobile phone) and more.

While you're contemplating what buzzword will make the cut next year, ogle these sexy GIFs of Hugh Jackman, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Zac Efron and William Levy!

PEOPLE's choice for the Sexiest Man Alive title will be revealed Nov. 14. Be one of the first to find out.

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Report: FDA wanted to close Mass pharmacy in 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a decade ago, federal health inspectors wanted to shut down the pharmacy linked to a recent deadly meningitis outbreak until it cleaned up its operations, according to congressional investigators.

About 440 people have been sickened by contaminated steroid shots distributed by New England Compounding Center, and more than 32 deaths have been reported since the outbreak began in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That has put the Framingham, Mass.-based pharmacy at the center of congressional scrutiny and calls for greater regulation of compounding pharmacies, which make individualized medications for patients and have long operated in a legal gray area between state and federal laws.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a detailed history of NECC's regulatory troubles on Monday, ahead of a meeting Wednesday meeting to examine how the outbreak could have been prevented. The 25-page report summarizes and quotes from FDA and state inspection memos, though the committee declined to release the original documents.

The report shows that after several problematic incidents, Food and Drug Administration officials in 2003 suggested that the compounding pharmacy be "prohibited from manufacturing" until it improved its operations. But FDA regulators deferred to their counterparts in Massachusetts, who ultimately reached an agreement with the pharmacy to settle concerns about the quality of its prescription injections.

The congressional report also shows that in 2003 the FDA considered the company a pharmacy. That's significant because in recent weeks public health officials have charged that NECC was operating more as a manufacturer than a pharmacy, shipping thousands of doses of drugs to all 50 states instead of small batches of drugs to individual patients. Manufacturers are regulated by the FDA and are subject to stricter quality standards than pharmacies.

The report offers the most detailed account yet of the numerous regulatory complaints against the pharmacy, which nearly date back to its founding in 1998. Less than a year later, the company was cited by the state pharmacy board for providing doctors with blank prescription pads with NECC's information. Such promotional items are illegal in Massachusetts and the pharmacy's owner and director, Barry Cadden, received an informal reprimand, according to documents summarized by the committee.

Cadden was subject to several other complaints involving unprofessional conduct in coming years, but first came to the FDA's attention in 2002. Here are some key events from the report highlighting the company's early troubles with state and federal authorities:

__ In March of 2002 the FDA began investigating reports that five patients had become dizzy and short of breath after receiving NECC's compounded betamethasone repository injection, a steroid used to treat joint pain and arthritis that's different from the one linked to the current meningitis outbreak.

FDA inspectors visited NECC on April 9 and said Cadden was initially cooperative in turning over records about production of the drug. But during a second day of inspections, Cadden told officials "that he was no longer willing to provide us with any additional records," according to an FDA report cited by congressional investigators. The inspectors ultimately issued a report citing NECC for poor sterility and record-keeping practices but said that "this FDA investigation could not proceed to any definitive resolution," because of "problems/barriers that were encountered throughout the inspection."

__ In October of 2002, the FDA received new reports that two patients at a Rochester, N.Y., hospital came down with symptoms of bacterial meningitis after receiving a different NECC injection. The steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, is the same injectable linked to the current outbreak and is typically is used to treat back pain. Both patients were treated with antibiotics and eventually recovered, according to FDA documents cited by the committee.

When officials from the FDA and Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy visited NECC later in the month, Cadden said vials of the steroid returned by the hospital had tested negative for bacterial contamination. But when FDA scientists tested samples of the drug collected in New York they found bacterial contamination in four out of 14 vials sampled. It is not entirely clear whether FDA tested the same lot shipped to the Rochester hospital.

__ At a February 2003 meeting between state and federal officials, FDA staff emphasized "the potential for serious public consequences if NECC's compounding practices, in particular those relating to sterile products, are not improved." The agency issued a list of problems uncovered in its inspection to NECC, including a failure to verify if sterile drugs met safety standards.

But the agency decided to let Massachusetts officials take the lead in regulating the company, since pharmacies are typically regulated at the state level. It was decided that "the state would be in a better position to gain compliance or take regulatory action against NECC as necessary," according to a summary of the meeting quoted by investigators.

The FDA recommended the state subject NECC to a consent agreement, which would require the company to pass certain quality tests to continue operating. But congressional investigators say Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy did not take any action until "well over a year later."

__ In October 2004, the board sent a proposed consent agreement to Cadden, which would have included a formal reprimand and a three-year probationary period for the company's registration. The case ended without disciplinary action in 2006, when NECC agreed to a less severe consent decree with the state.

Massachusetts officials indicated Tuesday they are still investigating why NECC escaped the more severe penalty.

"I will not be satisfied until we know the full story behind this decision," the state's interim health commissioner Lauren Smith said in a transcript of her prepared testimony released a day ahead of delivery. Smith is one of several witnesses scheduled to testify Wednesday, including FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

The committee will also hear from the widow of 78-year-old Eddie C. Lovelace, a longtime circuit court judge in southern Kentucky. Autopsy results confirmed Lovelace received fungus-contaminated steroid injections that led to his death Sept. 17.

Joyce Lovelace will urge lawmakers to work together on legislation to stop future outbreaks caused by compounded drugs, according to a draft of her testimony.

"We now know that New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc. killed Eddie. I have lost my soulmate and life's partner with whom I worked side by side, day after day for more than fifty years," Lovelace states.

Barry Cadden is also scheduled to appear at the hearing, after lawmakers issued a subpoena to compel him to attend.

The NECC has been closed since early last month, and Massachusetts officials have taken steps to permanently revoke its license. The pharmacy has recalled all the products it makes, including 17,700 single-dose vials of a steroid that tested positive for the fungus tied to the outbreak.

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Microsoft leads Wall Street lower, but retailers gain

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Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.Media.Article.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.AuthorBadge();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.Branding();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.on("load", function () {
YUI.namespace("Media.SocialButtons");

var instances = YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances || [],
globalConf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.conf || {},
vplContainers = [];

Y.all(".ymsb").each(function (node) {
var id = node.get("id"),
conf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.configs[id],
instance;

if (conf) {
instance = new Y.SocialButtons({
srcNode: node,
config: Y.merge(globalConf, conf.config || {}),
contentMetadata: conf.content || {},
tracking: conf.tracking || {}
});
vplContainers.push(
{
selector: "#" + id,
callback: function(node) { instance.render(); instance = conf = id = null; }
});

if (conf.config && conf.config.dynamic) {
instances.push(instance);
}
}
});

Y.Global.Media.ViewportLoader.addContainers(vplContainers);
YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances = instances;
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {if (!Y.Media) {

return;

}

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist || {};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets['lightbox3631b2c432a93b5afb10b686e1eecfd4'] = {"lightboxId":"a91e89cc53a3f52dc6320d09aad48d2f","pivotId":"7c747473-1467-3625-8ab9-0c578774c86e"};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset['a91e89cc53a3f52dc6320d09aad48d2f'] = {"spaceid":"2022398630","total":1,"photoby":"Photo By","xhrtype":"slideshow","videoconf":{"autoplay":true,"continuousPlay":true,"mute":false,"volume":"1.00","lang":"en-US","site":"news","region":"US","jurisdiction":"US","YVAP":{"accountId":"145","playContext":"default"},"pageSpaceId":"2022398630","comscoreC4":"US News","comscoreC6":"","showEmbedCode":true,"showShareUrl":true,"expName":"MediaArticleRelatedLightbox","expType":"inline","apiEnv":"prod"},"slideshow_id":null,"slideshow_title":null,"slideshow_title_baked_html":null,"slideshow_desc":null,"slideshow_rev":null,"slideshow_plink_vita":null,"photos":[{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l3.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/PJN9IJN0dUi4nHCulko8IQ--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMjY7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-13T124523Z_6_CBRE8AB0UHT00_RTROPTP_2_MARKETS-STOCKS.JPG","width":450,"height":326,"uuid":"7c747473-1467-3625-8ab9-0c578774c86e","caption":"Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, November 9, 2012. REUTERS\/Brendan McDermid","captionBakedHtml":"

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Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['a91e89cc53a3f52dc6320d09aad48d2f'] = {"spaceid":"2022398630","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=92988cfc-4770-3060-86c4-a77f67a2aaa6","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1",
mod_total:"10", total:"0",
content_id:"92988cfc-4770-3060-86c4-a77f67a2aaa6",
spaceid:"2022398630",
related_count:"-1"
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js';
})(document);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {
if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};}
if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};}
if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");}
YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_ce1f470bc236c87bbaac0652e7ea081c = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"1b1f38ea-85f3-4829-9e56-8f8a5d659d43","sCrumb":"","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-ce1f470bc236c87bbaac0652e7ea081c","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"2022398630","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/stock-futures-fall-fiscal-cliff-home-depot-rises-122255577--sector.html?_esi=0","artContentId":"92988cfc-4770-3060-86c4-a77f67a2aaa6","sUltQstnTxt":"Who do you think won the second debate?","artContentTitle":"Microsoft leads Wall Street lower, but retailers gain","artContentDesc":"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks sold off late in the session on Tuesday, led by a slide in Microsoft shares, though retailers were a notable bright spot after Home Depot raised its outlook. Microsoft Corp was the most actively traded on Nasdaq, weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite after the surprising departure of a key executive. The stock fell 3.2 percent to $27.09. After the closing bell, Cisco Systems shares rose 6.8 percent to $18 after it reported quarterly revenue and earnings that beat analysts\\' estimates. ...","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"Barack Obama","labelRight":"Mitt Romney","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"768084","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"468047","rightBlocksNum":"300052","leftBlocksPerCent":"61","rightBlocksPerCent":"39","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":404077,\"s2\":14239,\"s3\":14727,\"s4\":20832,\"s5\":14172,\"s6\":300052,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Thank you for sharing your feeling on this article!\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Start the Conversation\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Sure, that's how you feel... But what do your friends think?\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 768,084 people have responded\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 768,084 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":404077,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":14239,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":14727,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":20832,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":14172,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":300052,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_ce1f470bc236c87bbaac0652e7ea081c","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"

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