Angus T. Jones Is Not Leaving Two and a Half Men: Source
Label: Lifestyle
TV Watch
The Half is back!
Ever since Angus T. Jones bashed Two and a Half Men in a now-viral video, it begged the question: Will the 19-year-old actor return to the hit show?
If he has it his way, he will.
"Angus expects to report to work after the holiday break in January," says a source close to the star. "He intends to honor his contract through the end of the season."
Jones, who called the show "filth" and urged viewers in a video interview on a religious website to stop watching, issued an apology Tuesday night, saying he has the "highest regard" for the "wonderful people" on the show.
Although Jones is not featured in an episode that tapes next week, he intends to show up on schedule after the break, the source says.
In the meantime, the source adds, "Angus is feeling positive and he is concentrating on spending some downtime with family and friends."
Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals
Label: HealthCHICAGO (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.
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Online:
Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org
American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org
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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
Asian shares up on hopes of U.S. budget deal
Label: BusinessTOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares touched their highest levels in more than three weeks and commodities rose on Thursday as sentiment improved after a senior U.S. lawmaker said he was "optimistic" on reaching a budget deal before the end of the year to avoid a fiscal crisis.
European shares will likely extend gains seen in the previous session, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> will open up as much as 0.4 percent.
A 0.4 percent climb in U.S. stock futures also hinted at a solid Wall Street open. <.l><.eu><.n/>
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> surged 1 percent, after ending a seven-day winning streak on Wednesday with a 0.3 percent drop.
Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> also advanced 1 percent, rebounding from the previous session's one-week closing low on optimism over the U.S. budget talks and a weaker yen. The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 82.17 yen. <.t/>
Australian shares <.axjo> added 0.7 percent to three-week highs, supported by banks and gains in global miner Rio Tinto
Market gains were subdued, however, with moves largely attributed to position adjustments ahead of year-end bookclosing, as investors were reluctant to make bets given a lack of clarity on the prospects for U.S. budget talks as well as global growth.
"There is less negative news but there are also few decisively positive news, leaving investors rotating in and out of assets which have been overbought or battered, but basically keeping their positions more or less neutral in whatever assets they have," said Yuuki Sakurai, chief executive of Fukoku Capital Management.
"Whether it's the U.S. fiscal cliff or the euro zone debt crisis, it's the same process of muddling through, taking three steps forward and two steps backward, but nevertheless making progress, so that's helping ease concerns of sharp downside risks and keeping markets in ranges," he said.
U.S. equities jumped overnight after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner voiced optimism that Republicans could broker a deal with the White House to avoid year-end austerity measures.
President Barack Obama later said he hoped an agreement can be reached before Christmas to avoid a "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts worth $600 billion due to start in the new year and aimed at shrinking the budget deficit.
Market players remain wary of a lack of specifics on how the two major political parties plan to arrive at a compromise.
But sentiment has tended to improve on positive comments, reflecting nervousness that if U.S. lawmakers fail to strike a deal, they risk pushing the U.S. economy into recession and dragging down global growth.
The U.S. economy remains on a moderate recovery trend with modest hiring and a fragile housing market.
NO CLEAR TREND
Asia's growth prospects remain mixed, with economies such as Indonesia and the Philippines underpinned by healthy domestic demand and government spending while others such as South Korea and Japan are dragged down by sluggish domestic demand and falling exports.
A key South Korean manufacturing business survey showed on Thursday its index for December fell to match a more than 3-year low, with companies citing economic uncertainties.
China's economy appears to have emerged from its lows but the outlook is uncertain.
"It's not the best time to be making big positional changes now. Most investors are waiting for policy guidance on the structural reforms the Chinese leadership has been talking a lot about," said Alan Lam, Julius Baer's Greater China equity analyst.
"With the United States, Japan and the euro zone focused on spending cuts, and China's patchy success in turning domestic consumption into the main driver of its economy, the global economy may find it tough to muster momentum," said Thomas Lam, chief economist at DMG & Partners Securities.
"If that's the case, then that's probably going to hold back any substantial increase in demand for metals or other commodities," he added.
The euro was steady around $1.2954 after peaking at $1.3010 on Tuesday, its highest level since October 31, on news of a deal on Greece's debt reduction plan paved the way for further aid to prevent Athens' from an imminent default.
U.S. crude futures rose 0.4 percent to $86.86 a barrel and Brent inched up 0.3 percent to $109.82.
Spot gold steadied around $1,720.06 an ounce after slumping 1.5 percent on Wednesday for its biggest one-day drop in nearly a month when deflation worries related to a U.S. fiscal crisis and debt-stricken Greece triggered a heavy bout of stop-loss orders from momentum-driven fund investors.
But investment interest remained high, as illustrated by holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, hitting a record high for a second consecutive day at 1,347.018 metric tons (1484.8 tons) on November 28.
"Generally, people are still pretty bullish on gold and last night was just a one-off correction, nothing extraordinary," said a Singapore-based trader, adding that $1,650-$1,700 would be a good buying level.
Investors were cautiously bullish in Asian credit markets, tightening the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by 1 basis point.
(Additional reporting by Rujun Shen and Melanie Burton in Singapore and Clement Tan in Hong Kong; Editing by Michael Perry & Kim Coghill)
U.S. Is Weighing Stronger Action in Syrian Conflict
Label: World
Francisco Leong/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Rebels in northern Syria celebrated on Wednesday next to what was reported to be a government fighter jet.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, hoping that the conflict in Syria has reached a turning point, is considering deeper intervention to help push President Bashar al-Assad from power, according to government officials involved in the discussions.
While no decisions have been made, the administration is considering several alternatives, including directly providing arms to some opposition fighters.
The most urgent decision, likely to come next week, is whether NATO should deploy surface-to-air missiles in Turkey, ostensibly to protect that country from Syrian missiles that could carry chemical weapons. The State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Wednesday that the Patriot missile system would not be “for use beyond the Turkish border.”
But some strategists and administration officials believe that Syrian Air Force pilots might fear how else the missile batteries could be used. If so, they could be intimidated from bombing the northern Syrian border towns where the rebels control considerable territory. A NATO survey team is in Turkey, examining possible sites for the batteries.
Other, more distant options include directly providing arms to opposition fighters rather than only continuing to use other countries, especially Qatar, to do so. A riskier course would be to insert C.I.A. officers or allied intelligence services on the ground in Syria, to work more closely with opposition fighters in areas that they now largely control.
Administration officials discussed all of these steps before the presidential election. But the combination of President Obama’s re-election, which has made the White House more willing to take risks, and a series of recent tactical successes by rebel forces, one senior administration official said, “has given this debate a new urgency, and a new focus.”
The outcome of the broader debate about how heavily America should intervene in another Middle Eastern conflict remains uncertain. Mr. Obama’s record in intervening in the Arab Spring has been cautious: While he joined in what began as a humanitarian effort in Libya, he refused to put American military forces on the ground and, with the exception of a C.I.A. and diplomatic presence, ended the American role as soon as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was toppled.
In the case of Syria, a far more complex conflict than Libya’s, some officials continue to worry that the risks of intervention — both in American lives and in setting off a broader conflict, potentially involving Turkey — are too great to justify action. Others argue that more aggressive steps are justified in Syria by the loss in life there, the risks that its chemical weapons could get loose, and the opportunity to deal a blow to Iran’s only ally in the region. The debate now coursing through the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and the C.I.A. resembles a similar one among America’s main allies.
“Look, let’s be frank, what we’ve done over the last 18 months hasn’t been enough,” Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, said three weeks ago after visiting a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. “The slaughter continues, the bloodshed is appalling, the bad effects it’s having on the region, the radicalization, but also the humanitarian crisis that is engulfing Syria. So let’s work together on really pushing what more we can do.” Mr. Cameron has discussed those options directly with Mr. Obama, White House officials say.
France and Britain have recognized a newly formed coalition of opposition groups, which the United States helped piece together. So far, Washington has not done so.
American officials and independent specialists on Syria said that the administration was reviewing its Syria policy in part to gain credibility and sway with opposition fighters, who have seized key Syrian military bases in recent weeks.
“The administration has figured out that if they don’t start doing something, the war will be over and they won’t have any influence over the combat forces on the ground,” said Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence officer and specialist on the Syria military. “They may have some influence with various political groups and factions, but they won’t have influence with the fighters, and the fighters will control the territory.”
Samsung takes aim at Japanese rivals with Android camera
Label: TechnologySEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co is taking aim at its Japanese rivals with an Android-powered digital camera that allows users to swiftly and wirelessly upload pictures to social networking sites.
The Galaxy camera lets users connect to a mobile network or Wi-Fi to share photographs and video without having to hook up the camera to a computer.
While it’s not the first to the market, Samsung‘s financial and marketing clout suggest it could be the biggest threat to Japanese domination of a digital camera industry which research firm Lucintel sees growing to $ 46 billion by 2017 and where big brands include Canon Inc, Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp, Nikon Corp and Olympus Corp.
“Samsung has a tough row to hoe against the likes of Canon and Nikon in the camera brand equity landscape,” said Liz Cutting, senior imaging analyst at research firm NPD Group. “Yet as a brand known more in the connected electronic device arena, Samsung has a unique opportunity to transfer strength from adjacent categories into the dedicated camera world.”
The Korean group, battling for mobile gadget supremacy against Apple Inc, is already a global market leader in televisions, smartphones and memory chips.
Samsung last year brought its camera and digital imaging business – one of its smallest – under the supervision of JK Shin, who heads a mobile business that generated 70 percent of Samsung’s $ 7.4 billion third-quarter profit.
“Our camera business is quickly evolving … and I think it will be able to set a new landmark for Samsung,” Shin said on Thursday at a launch event in Seoul. “The product will open a new chapter in communications – visual communications,” he said, noting good reviews for the Samsung Galaxy camera which went on sale in Europe and the United States earlier this month.
AIMING AT ‘PRO-SUMERS’
The Galaxy camera, which sells in the United States for $ 499.99 through AT&T with various monthly data plans, features a 4.8-inch LCD touchscreen and a 21x optical zoom lens. Users can send photos instantly to other mobile devices via a 4G network, access the Internet, email and social network sites, edit photos and play games.
The easy-to-use camera, and the quality of the pictures, is aimed at mid-market ‘pro-sumers’ – not quite professional photographers but those who don’t mind paying a premium for user options not yet available on a smartphone – such as an optical, rather than digital, zoom, better flash, and image stabilization.
The appeal of high picture quality cameras with wireless connection has grown as social media services such as Facebook Inc drive a boom in rapid shoot-and-share photos.
“At a price point higher than some entry-level interchangeable-lens cameras, the Galaxy camera should appeal to a consumer willing to pay an initial and ongoing premium for 24/7 creative interactivity,” said Cutting.
Traditional digital camera makers are responding.
Canon, considered a leader in profitability in corporate Japan with its aggressive cost cutting, saw its compact camera sales eroded in the most recent quarter by smartphones, and has just introduced its first mirrorless camera to tap into a growing market for small, interchangeable-lens cameras that rival Nikon entered last year.
Nikon has also recently introduced an Android-embedded Wi-Fi only camera.
($ 1 = 1086.4000 Korean won)
(This story fixes typing error in paragraph 9)
(Additional reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in NEW YORK; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Dancing with the Stars Crowns an All-Star Winner
Label: Lifestyle
TV Watch
Update
Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke Charvet
Adam Larkey/ABC
There's a new leading lady!
The first all-female finale of Dancing with the Stars featured all-stars Shawn Johnson, Kelly Monaco and Melissa Rycroft in a fierce battle Tuesday night for the mirror ball trophy.
After taking big risks in Monday night's performance show, the stars and their pro partners – Derek Hough, Val Chmerkovskiy and Tony Dovolani – performed "instant dances."
With the competitors getting their dance-style instructions less than an hour before hitting the floor, the field was whittled down to two couples. Read on to find out who won.
After Monaco was the first eliminated, it came down to Johnson and Rycroft. And the winner was ... Rycroft!
Amid showering confetti, the reality star and Dovolani clutched the trophy. They embraced and jumped up and down.
Rycroft was the only competitor among the final three all-stars to not have won before. Dovolani had labored 14 seasons without previously winning.
CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males
Label: HealthNEW 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.
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Online:
CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns
Asian shares fall as focus shifts to U.S. budget talks
Label: BusinessTOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares ended a seven-day winning streak on Wednesday and commodities eased as investors fretted that a lack of progress in talks on U.S. budget woes risked putting the world's largest economy into recession, dragging down global growth with it.
European shares will likely track Asian peers lower. Financial spreadbetters predicted London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> will open down as much as 0.5 percent. A 0.1 percent drop in U.S. stock futures also hinted at a soft Wall Street open. <.l><.eu><.n/>
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.5 percent, retreating from Tuesday's nearly three-week highs, with materials and energy sectors <.miapjmt00pus><.miapjen00pus> leading the declines.
"The global economy, China, Europe, needs the U.S. economy to grow, and that is why the pressure to get this deal done is greater than before," said Carl Larry, a derivatives broker at the Houston-based Atlas Commodities. "The global economy can't afford for America to slip back into a recession."
Shares in resource-reliant Australian <.axjo> eased 0.2 percent, off Tuesday's two-week highs as top miners fell on weaker gold prices.
Australia's Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics said committed investment in major resources and energy projects, the main driver of Australian growth, still rose to A$268.4 billion ($280.5 billion) at October 31 from A$260.8 billion at end-April, but the rise partly reflected higher project costs and masked a fall in the number of projects. A fall in commodity prices due to a drop-off in Chinese demand also weighed on shares.
"Markets don't really provide any sort of compelling investment value here at present because the grey cloud of uncertainty still overhangs the economic climate, in particular across Europe and the U.S., but also filtering into this part of the world as well," Jamie Spiteri, senior dealer at Shaw Stockbroking, said of Australian shares.
U.S. stocks slid overnight after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed disappointment over little progress in dealing with the approaching "fiscal cliff" of deep cuts in government spending and big tax hikes early next year.
The Shanghai Composite Index <.ssec> slid 0.9 percent to its lowest in nearly four years as growth-sensitive sectors sank, extending losses after closing on Tuesday below 2,000 points for the first time since January 2009.
The weak Chinese stock market, along with doubts over the U.S. ability to resolve its fiscal crisis, strengthened demand for sovereign debt, helping to push the 10-year Japanese government bond futures price to a 9-1/2-year high of 144.79, while U.S. Treasuries clung to gains made on Tuesday.
Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> slumped 1 percent, after closing on Tuesday at a seven-month high.
The Nikkei had risen 8.8 percent over the past two weeks since the government announced a December 16 election. Japan's main opposition party is forecast to win power, and investors expect it will force the Bank of Japan into aggressive easing. <.t/>
EUROPE LACKS CONFIDENCE
Tuesday's agreement by international lenders to cut Greece's debt offered relief that it has averted an imminent bankruptcy, but uncertainty remained over the lack of details on how Athens will carry out budget reforms to meet its new debt targets as analysts cited the deal as falling short of addressing medium-term financing and debt sustainability issues.
"The uncertainty brought by this approach makes European assets, including the EUR, vulnerable to global growth risks. For that reason, we think the European muddle through amplifies the market's response to the fiscal cliff discussion in the US," Barclays Capital analysts said in a note.
The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.2924, after peaking at $1.3010 on the Greece news on Tuesday, its highest level since October 31.
Worries over the fiscal crisis overshadowed positive U.S. economic data that showed improvement in durable orders, the real estate sector and consumer confidence, which hit a 4-1/2-year high in November.
The dollar dropped 0.3 percent against the yen to 81.85. U.S. crude futures were steady around $87.16 a barrel while Brent edged up 0.2 percent to $110.13. London copper dropped 0.4 percent to $7,776 a metric ton (1.1023 tons).
Spot gold inched down 0.1 percent to $1,739.40 an ounce after slipping on Tuesday for a second session.
Southeast Asia kept some hopes that the damage to their economies may be contained from global growth deterioration triggered by the prolonged euro zone debt crisis.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, sees annual economic growth in the fourth quarter at 5.9-6.3 percent, while the Philippine economy picked up more than expected in the third quarter, with the government expecting the economy to surpass its 2012 full-year growth target of 5-6 percent.
Investors were sidelined in Asian credit markets, keeping the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index little changed from Tuesday's levels.
(Additional reporting by Miranda Maxwell in Melbourne and Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
News Analysis: Sunni Leaders Gaining Clout in Mideast
Label: World
Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency
A Palestinian woman in Gaza City on Tuesday walked amid the rubble left from eight days of fighting that ended in a cease-fire.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — For years, the United States and its Middle East allies were challenged by the rising might of the so-called Shiite crescent, a political and ideological alliance backed by Iran that linked regional actors deeply hostile to Israel and the West.
But uprising, wars and economics have altered the landscape of the region, paving the way for a new axis to emerge, one led by a Sunni Muslim alliance of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. That triumvirate played a leading role in helping end the eight-day conflict between Israel and Gaza, in large part by embracing Hamas and luring it further away from the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah fold, offering diplomatic clout and promises of hefty aid.
For the United States and Israel, the shifting dynamics offer a chance to isolate a resurgent Iran, limit its access to the Arab world and make it harder for Tehran to arm its agents on Israel’s border. But the gains are also tempered, because while these Sunni leaders are willing to work with Washington, unlike the mullahs in Tehran, they also promote a radical religious-based ideology that has fueled anti-Western sentiment around the region.
Hamas — which received missiles from Iran that reached Israel’s northern cities — broke with the Iranian axis last winter, openly backing the rebellion against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. But its affinity with the Egypt-Qatar-Turkey axis came to fruition this fall.
“That camp has more assets that it can share than Iran — politically, diplomatically, materially,” said Robert Malley, the Middle East program director for the International Crisis Group. “The Muslim Brotherhood is their world much more so than Iran.”
The Gaza conflict helps illustrate how Middle Eastern alliances have evolved since the Islamist wave that toppled one government after another beginning in January 2011. Iran had no interest in a cease-fire, while Egypt, Qatar and Turkey did.
But it is the fight for Syria that is the defining struggle in this revived Sunni-Shiite duel. The winner gains a prized strategic crossroads.
For now, it appears that that tide is shifting against Iran, there too, and that it might well lose its main Arab partner, Syria. The Sunni-led opposition appears in recent days to have made significant inroads against the government, threatening the Assad family’s dynastic rule of 40 years and its long alliance with Iran. If Mr. Assad falls, that would render Iran and Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, isolated as a Shiite Muslim alliance in an ever more sectarian Middle East, no longer enjoying a special street credibility as what Damascus always tried to sell as “the beating heart of Arab resistance.”
If the shifts seem to leave the United States somewhat dazed, it is because what will emerge from all the ferment remains obscure.
Clearly the old leaders Washington relied on to enforce its will, like President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, are gone or at least eclipsed. But otherwise confusion reigns in terms of knowing how to deal with this new paradigm, one that could well create societies infused with religious ideology that Americans find difficult to accept. The new reality could be a weaker Iran, but a far more religiously conservative Middle East that is less beholden to the United States.
Already, Islamists have been empowered in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, while Syria’s opposition is being led by Sunni insurgents, including a growing number identified as jihadists, some identified as sympathizing with Al Qaeda. Qatar, which hosts a major United States military base, also helps finance Islamists all around the region.
In Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi resigned as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood only when he became head of state, but he still remains closely linked with the movement. Turkey, the model for many of them, has kept strong relations with Washington while diminishing the authority of generals who were longstanding American allies.
“The United States is part of a landscape that has shifted so dramatically,” said Mr. Malley of the International Crisis Group. “It is caught between the displacement of the old moderate-radical divide by one that is defined by confessional and sectarian loyalty.”
The emerging Sunni axis has put not only Shiites at a disadvantage, but also the old school leaders who once allied themselves with Washington.
The old guard members in the Palestinian Authority are struggling to remain relevant at a time when their failed 20-year quest to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands makes them seem both anachronistic and obsolete.
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