C. African Republic president seeks foreign help

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The president of Central African Republic on Thursday urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching the capital, but French officials declined to offer any military assistance.

The developments suggest Central African Republic could be on the brink of another violent change in government, something not new in the history of this resource-rich, yet deeply impoverished country. The current president, Francois Bozize, himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion.

Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic’s former colonial ruler.

About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.

“France has the means to stop (the rebels) but unfortunately they have done nothing for us until now,” Bozize said.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize’s government. The comments came a day after dozens of protesters, angry about a lack of help against rebel forces, threw rocks at the French Embassy in Bangui and stole a French flag.

Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels, with the French Foreign Ministry noting in a statement that negotiations are due to “begin shortly in Libreville (Gabon).” But it was not immediately clear what, if any, dates have been set for those talks.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, meanwhile, spoke via phone with Bozize, asking the president to take responsibility for the safety of French nationals and diplomatic missions in Central African Republic.

U.S. officials said Thursday the State Department would close its embassy in the country and ordered its diplomatic team to leave. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss the evacuation publicly.

The United Nations Security Council issued a press statement late Thursday reiterating its concern about the situation in the country and condemned the attacks.

“The members of the Security Council reiterate their demand that the armed groups immediately cease hostilities, withdraw from captured cities and cease any further advance towards the city of Bangui,” the statement reads.

Bozize’s government earlier reached out to longtime ally Chad, which pledged to send 2,000 troops to bolster Central African Republic’s own forces. But it was unclear if the Chadian troops had all arrived, and even then, it is far from certain if the combined government forces could withstand rebel attacks.

At least four different rebel groups are involved, though their overall numbers could not immediately be confirmed.

Central African Republic, a landlocked nation of some 4.4 million people, is roughly the size of France. It has suffered decades of army revolts, coups and rebellions since gaining independence in 1960 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

The rebels behind the most recent instability signed a 2007 peace accord allowing them to join the regular army, but insurgent leaders say the deal wasn’t fully implemented.

Already, the rebel forces have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north of the country, and residents in the capital now fear the insurgents could attack at any time, despite assurances by rebel leaders that they are willing to engage in dialogue instead of attacking Bangui.

The rebels have claimed that their actions are justified in light of the “thirst for justice, for peace, for security and for economic development of the people of Central African Republic.”

Despite Central African Republic’s wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped. Filip Hilgert, a researcher with Belgium-based International Peace Information Service, said rebel groups are unhappy because they feel the government doesn’t invest in their areas.

“The main thing they say is that the north of the country, and especially in their case the northeast, has always been neglected by the central government in all ways,” he said.

But the rebels also are demanding that the government make payments to ex-combatants, suggesting that their motives may also be for personal financial gain.

Bozize, a former military commander, came to power in a 2003 rebel war that ousted his predecessor, Ange-Felix Patasse. In his address Thursday, Bozize said he remained open to dialogue with the rebels, but he also accused them and their allies of financial greed.

Those allies, he implied, are outside Central African Republic.

“For me, there are individuals who are being manipulated by an outside hand, dreaming of exploiting the rich Central African Republic soil,” he said. “They want only to stop us from benefiting from our oil, our diamonds, our uranium and our gold.”

___

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

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Piano maker Steinway takes down “for sale” sign

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Steinway Musical Instruments Inc, the famous manufacturer of pianos, saxophones and trumpets, said on Wednesday it had decided not to sell itself following a 17-month-long exploration of strategic alternatives.

An American icon synonymous with handmade grand pianos, Steinway has struggled to keep its production margins competitive amid stagnant sales, and has seen its shares plunge 10 percent year-to-date. Still, its third-quarter earnings last month offered signs that cost-cutting was paying off.

In a statement on Wednesday, Steinway said it had received several non-binding indications of interest in buying the company, following talks with other companies in the sector as well as private equity, yet these did not offer more value than its own strategic plan.

“We will continue to focus management’s efforts on execution of that plan and we look forward to a prosperous 2013,” Steinway CEO Michael Sweeney said in the statement.

An in-principle agreement to sell its band instrument division to an investor group led by two of its board members, Dana Messina and John Stoner, was also scrapped in light of the current operating performance of the band division, Steinway said.

In July 2011, Messina, Stoner and other members of management made an offer for Steinway’s band instrument and online music divisions, prompting the company to set up a special committee in order to assess it.

Later that month, Steinway asked investment bank Allen & Company LLC to a assist the special committee on exploring strategic alternatives that could also include selling the whole company outright to other interested parties.

By October 2011, Messina had stepped down as CEO of the company after 15 years at the helm to pursue his bid, yet he remained a board member. He was replaced by Sweeney, a chairman of the board of Star Tribune Media Holdings and a former president of Starbucks Coffee Company (UK) Ltd.

Steinway said on Wednesday that it was continuing a separate process to sell its leasehold interest in New York’s Steinway Hall building, situated on Manhattan’s 57th Street, and was in talks with several parties.

According to its website, Steinway & Sons, the company’s piano unit, opened the first Steinway Hall on 14th Street in Manhattan in 1866.

With a main auditorium of 2,000 seats, it became New York City’s artistic and cultural center, housing the New York Philharmonic until Carnegie Hall opened in 1891. These days, Steinway Hall is a showroom for the company’s instruments.

The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company’s pianos have been used by legendary artists such as Cole Porter and Sergei Rachmaninoff and by contemporary ones like Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by M.D. Golan)

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MSF warns Kenya not to send more refugees to stricken camp

LONDON (Reuters) – Conditions in a camp for Somali refugees in Kenya are deplorable and a government plan to send in thousands more would pose a major risk to health, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Friday.

Kenya has more than half a million refugees from Somalia, which has lacked an effective central government since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

A series of bombings, shootings and hand-grenade attacks blamed on Somali militants prompted the government on December 18 to stop registering asylum seekers and refugees in urban areas.

A Kenyan official said more than 100,000 refugees must now head to the remote Dadaab camp in the country’s remote north. Amnesty International said the order breached international law.

Dadaab camp was set up 20 years ago and already houses four times the population it was built for. Hunger and disease outbreaks are common.

MSF says its inhabitants suffer from overcrowding and poor sanitation that recent floods had worsened.

“The assistance provided here in Dadaab is already completely overstretched and is not meeting the current needs,” said Elena Velilla, MSF’s head of mission in Kenya.

In the last month, the number of children admitted to Dadaab’s hospital for severe acute malnutrition has doubled to around 300, MSF said. Sixty-three of those were taken to intensive care this week after developing serious complications.

Most of the sick are also suffering from acute watery diarrhea or severe respiratory tract infections, MSF said.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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Pending home sales hit two-and-half year high in November

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose in November to their highest level in 2-1/2 years, an industry group said on Friday, further evidence of a strengthening housing market recovery.

The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed last month, increased 1.7 percent to 106.4 – the highest level since April 2010 when the home-buyer tax credit expired.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected signed contracts, which become sales after a month or two, to rise 1.0 percent after a revised 5.0 percent increase in October. It was the third straight month of gains.

“Home sales are recovering now based solely on fundamental demand and favorable affordability conditions,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

Pending home sales were up 9.8 percent in the 12 months through November.

The housing market has turned the corner after a dramatic collapse, which dragged the economy through its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Home sales and prices are rising, encouraging builders to undertake new construction projects.

Home resale contracts were up in three of the country’s four regions. They were unchanged in the South.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

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Cuba has much to lose as ally Chavez fights cancer

HAVANA (AP) — Cubans who were tuned in to the nightly soap opera on a recent Saturday received a sudden burst of bad news, from the other side of the Caribbean.

State TV cut to the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez revealed that his cancer had returned. Facing his fourth related surgery in 18 months, he grimly named Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his possible successor.

The news shocked not only Venezuelans but millions of Cubans who have come to depend on Chavez’s largesse for everything from subsidized oil to cheap loans. Venezuela supplies about half of Cuba‘s energy needs, meaning the island’s economy would be in for a huge shock and likely recession if a post-Chavez president forced the island to pay full price for oil.

Despite the drama, the news likely wasn’t a surprise to Cuba’s Communist government, and not only because Chavez has been receiving medical care on the island.

Havana learned important lessons about overdependence when the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union threw the country into a deep crisis. Trying to avoid the consequences of a similar cut, the Cuban government has been diversifying its portfolio of economic partners in recent years, looking to Asia, Europe and other Latin American nations, and is only about half as dependent on Caracas as it was on the former Soviet Union.

Cuba is also working to stimulate its economy back home by allowing more private-sector activity, giving a leg up to independent and cooperative farming, and decentralizing its sugar industry. A stronger Cuban economy would in theory have more hard currency to pay for energy and other imports.

Also getting off the ground is an experiment with independent nonfarm collectives that should be more efficient than state-run companies. And next year, another pilot program is planned for decentralized state enterprises that will enjoy near-autonomy and be allowed to control most of their income.

“This could have good results,” said a Cuban economist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the foreign media. Cuba “is also thinking of boosting foreign investment in areas of the national economy, including in restricted areas like the sugar industry.”

One of the country’s top goals has been to make the island’s struggling economy less dependent on a single benefactor.

Under the leadership of Chavez, who regularly calls former Cuban President Fidel Castro his ideological father and has followed parts of the Communist leader’s governance playbook, Venezuela has sent billions of dollars a year to Cuba through trade and petro-aid.

Bilateral trade stood at a little over $ 8 billion last year, much of it in Cuban imports of oil and derivatives. In return, Havana primarily provides Venezuela with technical support from Cuban teachers, scientists and other professionals, plus brigades of health care workers. Analysts say those services are overvalued by outside standards, apparently costing as much as $ 200,000 per year per doctor. Experts peg the total Venezuelan subsidy to Cuba at around $ 2 billion to $ 4 billion a year.

While business with Venezuela makes up 40 percent of all Cuban trade, it’s still a far cry from the days when the Communist Eastern Bloc accounted for an estimated 80 percent.

“A (loss of) $ 2 billion to $ 4 billion would definitely pinch. But it is not the same relative weight as the sudden complete withdrawal of the Soviet subsidies in the early ’90s,” said Richard E. Feinberg, a professor of international political economy at the University of California, San Diego. “Cuba’s not going to go back to the days of bicycles. Could it throw the Cuban economy into recession? Yes.”

That kind of resilience would result largely from Cuba’s successes in courting foreign investors for joint ventures.

Last month, authorities announced a deal with a subsidiary of Brazil’s Odebrecht to manage a sugar refinery, a rare step in an industry that has long been largely off limits to foreign involvement.

China has invested in land-based oil projects, and along with Canada is a key player in Cuba’s important nickel industry. Spain has ventures in tourist hotels and tobacco, while French company Pernod Ricard helps export Cuban liquors. And since 2009, Brazil has been a partner in a massive project to modernize and expand the port at Mariel, west of the capital.

Trade with China alone was $ 1.9 billion and rising in 2010, and Raul Castro paid a visit to Chinese and Vietnamese leaders earlier this year to help cement Asian relationships.

But while Havana says it wants to boost foreign investment, obstacles remain. The approval process for investment projects can be long and cumbersome, and pilferage, disincentives to productivity and government intervention can cut into efficiencies. Foreign companies also pay a sky-high payroll tax.

Feinberg, who wrote a report on foreign investment in Cuba published this month by the U.S. think tank the Brookings Institution, said that while a number of foreign companies are successfully doing business with the island, others have run into problems, sending a chilly message to would-be investors. In particular he noted the recent cases of a government takeover of a food company run by a Chilean businessman accused of corruption, and contentious renegotiations of a contract with Dutch-British personal and home care products giant Unilever amid shifting government demands.

“The Cuban government has to decide that it wants foreign investment unambiguously. I think now there seem to be divisions among the leadership,” Feinberg said. “Some are afraid that foreign investment compromises sovereignty, creates centers of power independent of the leadership or is exploitative.”

He estimated Cuba has left on the table about $ 20 billion in missed investment over the past decade by not following practices typical of other developing nations. Instead, Cuba received $ 3.5 billion in foreign investment in that period.

Experts say a worst-case scenario for Chavez wouldn’t automatically translate into the oil spigot shutting off overnight.

If Chavez’s hand-picked successor, Vice President Maduro, were to take office, he would likely seek to continue the special relationship.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles has said he wants to end the oil-for-services barter arrangements, but could find that easier said than done should he win. The two countries are intertwined in dozens of joint accords, and poor Venezuelans who benefit from free care by Cuban doctors would be loath to see that disappear.

“You can’t flip the switch on a relationship like this,” said Melissa Lockhart Fortner, a Cuba analyst at the Pacific Council on International Policy, a Los Angeles-based institute that focuses on global affairs. “It would be terrible politics for him. … Switching that off would really endanger his support far too much for that to be really a feasible option.”

For Cuba, Chavez’s latest health scare capped off a year of disappointments in the island’s attempt to wean itself from Venezuelan energy.

Three deep-water exploratory oil wells drilled off the west coast failed to yield a strike, and last month the only oil rig in the world capable of drilling there without violating U.S. sanctions sailed away with no return in sight.

Yet time and again Havana has shown that it’s nothing if not resilient, weathering everything from U.S.-backed invasion and assassination plots in the 1960s to the austere “Special Period” in the early 1990s, when the Soviet collapse sent Cuba’s GDP plummeting 33 percent over four years. When hurricanes damaged the country’s agriculture sector and the global financial crisis squeezed tourism four years ago, Cuba tightened its belt, slashed imports and survived.

“Some people are saying the demise of Chavez is also going to be the demise of Communism in Cuba because the regime’s going to collapse and the people are going to rise up,” Feinberg said. “That’s probably yet another delusion of the anti-Castro exile community.”

Still, many Cubans are nervously tuning into the near-daily updates about Chavez’s health, carried prominently in state media.

“I don’t know what would happen here,” said 52-year-old Havana resident Magaly Ruiz. “We might end up eating grass.”

___

Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana contributed to this report.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Temple Run was downloaded more than 2.5 million times on Christmas Day

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British actress Kate Winslet marries for third time

LONDON (Reuters) – British Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet has married for the third time, her publicist confirmed on Thursday.

The 37-year-old, best known for her starring role in the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic”, married Ned RocknRoll, a nephew of music and aviation tycoon Richard Branson.

The private ceremony was attended by Winslet’s two children from previous marriages and “a very few friends and family”, according to the publicist, and took place in New York earlier this month.

“The couple had been engaged since the summer,” Winslet’s spokeswoman said in a statement.

Winslet has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won once for her lead role in “The Reader”.

Her other notable performances include Iris Murdoch in “Iris”, Clementine Kruczynski in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and April in “Revolutionary Road“.

That film was directed by Sam Mendes, whom Winslet wed in 2003 and divorced seven years later. Her first marriage was to Jim Threapleton, which lasted from 1998 to 2001.

According to online reports, RocknRoll had his name changed by deed poll from Ned Abel Smith and is an executive for Branson’s space flight venture Virgin Galactic.

The Sun newspaper said the New York wedding was so secret that even the couple’s parents did not know about it.

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who co-starred with Winslet in Titanic and Revolutionary Road, gave her away, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; editing by Steve Addison)

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Poor reading skills tied to risk of teen pregnancy

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Seventh grade girls who have trouble reading are more likely to get pregnant in high school than average or above-average readers, according to a new study from Philadelphia.

Researchers found that pattern stuck even after they took into account the girls’ race and poverty in their neighborhoods – both of which are tied to teen pregnancy rates.

“We certainly know that social disadvantages definitely play a part in teen pregnancy risk, and certainly poor educational achievement is one of those factors,” said Dr. Krishna Upadhya, a reproductive health and teen pregnancy researcher from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.

Poor academic skills may play into how teens see their future economic opportunities and influence the risks they take – even if those aren’t conscious decisions, explained Upadhya, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

Dr. Ian Bennett from the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues looked up standardized test reading scores for 12,339 seventh grade girls from 92 different Philadelphia public schools and tracked them over the next six years.

During that period, 1,616 of the teenagers had a baby, including 201 that gave birth two or three times.

Hispanic and African American girls were more likely than white girls to get pregnant. But education appeared to play a role, as well.

Among girls who scored below average on their reading tests, 21 percent went on to have a baby as a teenager. That compared to 12 percent who had average scores and five percent of girls who scored above average on the standardized tests.

Once race and poverty were taken into consideration, girls with below-average reading skills were two and a half times more likely to have a baby than average-scoring girls, according to findings published in the journal Contraception.

Birth rates among girls ages 15 through 19 were at a record low in the U.S. in 2011 at 31 births for every 1,000 girls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that rate is still much higher in minority and poorer girls than in white, well-off ones, researchers noted.

And in general, it’s significantly higher than teen birth rates in other wealthy nations.

Teen pregnancies are a concern because young moms and their babies have more health problems and pregnancy-related complications, and girls who get pregnant are at higher risk of dropping out of school.

Upadhya said the answer to preventing teen pregnancy in less-educated girls isn’t simply to add more sex ed to the curriculum.

“This is really about adolescent health and development more broadly, so it’s really important for us to make sure that kids are in schools and in quality educational programs and that they have opportunities to grow and develop academically and vocationally,” she told Reuters Health.

“That is just as important in preventing teen pregnancy as making sure they know where to get condoms.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/TcHB0s Contraception, online December 13, 2012.

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‘Boxing Day record’ for web retail

27 December 2012 Last updated at 07:44 ET

By Kevin Peachey Personal finance reporter, BBC News

Record numbers visited UK retail websites on Boxing Day, with analysts suggesting shoppers are also using the internet to identify bargains.

Information service Experian said UK consumers made 113 million visits to retailers’ websites during 26 December.

High Streets are expected to be busy again for the post-Christmas sales, with large department stores such as John Lewis throwing open their doors.

Some big name retailers started their online sales on Christmas Day.

UK internet users made 84 million visits to retail websites on Christmas Eve and 107 million visits on Christmas Day, up 86% and 71% respectively compared to the same days in December 2011, according to Experian.

“The UK sales creep continues to advance so that now the post-Christmas sales are starting before Christmas,” said James Murray, digital insight manager at Experian.

“Five years ago we called it the January sales, before it became the Boxing Day sales, now retailers have to call it the winter sales as discounting starts earlier to encourage higher spending.”

Retail consultants have said that many people heading out to the shops will have already browsed online to choose the items they want.

Activity

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

[The internet] has an influence on the High Street with shoppers doing more research beforehand”

End Quote Matt Piner Founder, Conlumino

The squeeze on family finances is likely to keep the lid on retail sales, especially on big ticket items.

A lack of activity in the housing market is also reducing demand for some household items that might have been replaced as people move home.

However, some positive news in employment levels means that some stores could still record a decent level of sales in the significant post-Christmas sales period.

The first indications of the level of activity in the post-Christmas sales, the footfall figures from Experian, will be published later.

Online research

The growth of the internet means that the peak in sales might already have taken place.

Mr Murray, of Experian, said that 26 December was traditionally the single biggest shopping day of the year online.

And now, shoppers are using digital devices such as tablets and smartphones to search for bargains – then only travel to those specific shops to buy those items.

“The internet has been a huge factor in retail all year, and has an influence on the High Street with shoppers doing more research beforehand,” said Matt Piner, founder of retail research agency Conlumino.

He said items such as laptops and furniture in particular were identified by shoppers during online browsing, rather than in a store.

‘Cautious’

John Lewis, which starts its sale in department stores on Thursday, said it had seen notable activity during its online clearance sale. That started at 1700GMT on 24 December.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

UK retailing is set for another year of tough trading”

End Quote Maureen Hinton Verdict

On Christmas Day, the department store said online sales peaked late in the evening. Items that proved popular included electrical items, sheets and pillowcases, luxury towels and candles.

Analysts said the departure of some high-profile names from the High Street had helped some of the remaining department stores. However, many had targeted “cautious” shoppers with discounts in the run-up to Christmas, according to Rahul Sharma, of Neev Capital, a retail consultancy.

He said that shoppers were offered discounts of 20% to 30% in the build up to Christmas, to tempt them into buying items for themselves, as well as presents.

This meant that clearance sales might be muted this year, with many of the items that stores wanted to shift already having been sold.

Predictions

Analysts have suggested that DIY and gardening will see the strongest performance in the retail sector in 2013, compared with 2012.

Poor weather in the past 12 months meant that sales have been low. This, together with homeowners improving homes ready to go on the market, should lead to a rebound in the coming year, according to Verdict and SAS UK.

The groups predicted that spending on food was likely to raise roughly in line with inflation.

However, they say that music and video spending will be hit the hardest, with a predicted 6.3% fall compared with 2012, owing to online streaming and cheaper internet prices.

The amount people spent online was expected to account for 12% of total retail spending, they added.

“UK retailing is set for another year of tough trading,” said Maureen Hinton, of Verdict.

BBC News – Business

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VP says Chavez up, walking; doubts persist

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Vice President Nicolas Maduro surprised Venezuelans with a Christmas Eve announcement that President Hugo Chavez is up and walking two weeks after cancer surgery in Cuba, but the news did little to ease uncertainty surrounding the leader’s condition.

Sounding giddy, Maduro told state television Venezolana de Television that he had spoken by phone with Chavez for 20 minutes Monday night. It was the first time a top Venezuelan government official had confirmed talking personally with Chavez since the Dec. 11 operation, his fourth cancer surgery since 2011.

“He was in a good mood,” Maduro said. “He was walking, he was exercising.”

Chavez supporters reacted with relief, but the statement inspired more questions, given the sparse information the Venezuelan government has provided so far about the president’s cancer. Chavez has kept secret various details about his illness, including the precise location of the tumors and the type of cancer. His long-term prognosis remains a mystery.

Dr. Michael Pishvaian, an oncologist at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington, said it was an encouraging sign that Chavez was walking, and it indicated he would be able to return to Venezuela relatively soon. But he said the long term outlook remained poor.

“It’s definitely good news. It means that he is on the road to recover fully from the surgery,” Pishvaian said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “The overall prognosis is still pretty poor. He likely has a terminal diagnosis with his cancer that has come back.”

Pishvaian and other outside doctors have said that given the details Chavez has provided about his cancer, it is most likely a soft-tissue sarcoma.

Chavez first underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011 and went back this month after tests had found a return of malignant cells in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Venezuelan officials said that, following the six-hour surgery two weeks ago, Chavez suffered internal bleeding that was stanched and a respiratory infection that was being treated.

Maduro’s announcement came just hours after Information Minister Ernesto Villegas read a statement saying Chavez was showing “a slight improvement with a progressive trend.”

Dr. Carlos Castro, director of the Colombian League against Cancer, an association that promotes cancer prevention, treatment and education, said Maduro’s announcement was too vague to paint a clear picture of Chavez’s condition.

“It’s possible (that he is walking) because everything is possible,” Castro told AP. “They probably had him sit in up in bed and take two steps.”

“It’s unclear what they mean by exercise. Was it four little steps?” he added. “I think he is still in critical condition.”

Maduro’s near-midnight announcement came just as Venezuelan families were gathering for traditional late Christmas Eve dinners and setting off the usual deafening fireworks that accompany the festivities. There was still little outward reaction on a quiet Christmas morning.

Danny Moreno, a software technician watching her 2-year-old son try out his new tricycle, was among the few people at a Caracas plaza who said she had heard Maduro’s announcement. She said she saw a government Twitter message saying an announcement was coming and her mother rushed to turn on the TV.

“We all said, thank God, he’s okay,” she said, smiling.

Dr. Gustavo Medrano, a lung specialist at the Centro Medico hospital in Caracas, said if Chavez is talking, it suggests he is breathing on his own despite the respiratory infection and is not in intensive care. But Medrano said he remained skeptical about Maduro’s comments and could deduce little from them about Chavez’s prognosis for recovery.

“I have no idea because if it was such a serious, urgent, important operation, and that was 14 days ago, I don’t think he could be walking and exercising after a surgery like that,” Medrano said.

Over the weekend, Chavez’s ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales, made a lightning visit to Cuba that only added to the uncertainty.

Journalists had been summoned to cover his arrival and departure in Havana, but hours later that invitation was canceled. No explanation was given, though it could have been due to confusion over Morales’ itinerary as he apparently arrived later than initially scheduled.

Cuban state media published photos of President Raul Castro receiving Morales at the airport and said he came “to express his support” for Chavez, his close ally, but did not give further details. He left Sunday without making any public comments.

For the second day in a row Tuesday, Morales made no mention of his trip to Cuba during public events in Bolivia.

Yet more questions surround Chavez’s political future, with the surgery coming two months after he won re-election to a six-year term.

If he is unable to continue in office, the Venezuelan Constitution calls for new elections to be held. Chavez has asked his followers to back Maduro, his hand-picked successor, in that event.

Venezuelan officials have said Chavez might not return in time for his Jan. 10 inauguration.

Opposition leaders have argued that the constitution does not allow the president’s swearing-in to be postponed, and say new elections should be called if Chavez is unable to take the oath on time.

But government officials have said the constitution lets the Supreme Court administer the oath of office at any time if the National Assembly is unable to do it Jan. 10 as scheduled.

___

Associated Press writers Peter Orsi in Havana, Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Camilo Hernandez in Bogota, Colombia, and Paola Flores in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.

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Carlyle takes on KKR in race for Reynolds and Reynolds: sources

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firms Carlyle Group LP and KKR & Co LP have emerged as the lead contenders to take over Reynolds and Reynolds, a software company hoping to sell itself for $ 5 billion, three people familiar with the matter said.

Dayton, Ohio-based Reynolds, which provides business management software for auto dealers in North America and Europe, had hired technology-focused investment bank Qatalyst Partners to run a sale, people familiar with the matter told Reuters in October.

The process has progressed and is now in its final stages, though no decision is expected before January, the sources said.

Reynolds may be sold to Carlyle or KKR for between $ 4 billion and $ 5 billion, less than the company had hoped, one of the people added.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential. Spokesmen for Reynolds, Carlyle and KKR declined to comment.

Reynolds sells software tools that allow car dealers to run their operations, including providing car dealer websites, digital advertising and marketing services, as well as data archiving.

Reynolds was founded in 1866 by Lucius Reynolds and his brother-in-law as a company that prints standardized business forms. It started to serve automotive retailers as major clients in the 1920s.

In October 2006, the company was acquired by Universal Computer Systems (UCS) for $ 2.8 billion. The merged company retained the Reynolds name and is currently headed by Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Brockman, who used to run UCS.

Brockman’s $ 2.8 billion buyout was funded primarily by a group of investors that included Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, and Vista Equity Partners.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim in New York; editing by John Wallace)

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Britain’s royal family attends Christmas services

LONDON (AP) — Britain‘s royal family is attending Christmas Day church services — with a few notable absences.

Wearing a turquoise coat and matching hat, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at St. Mary Magdelene Church on her sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk. She was accompanied in a Bentley by granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie.

Her husband, Prince Philip, walked from the house to the church with other members of the royal family.

Three familiar faces were missing from the family outing. Prince William is spending the holiday with his pregnant wife Kate and his in-laws in the southern England village of Bucklebury. Prince Harry is serving with British troops in Afghanistan.

Later Tuesday, the queen will deliver her traditional, pre-recorded Christmas message, which for the first time will be broadcast in 3D.

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Light Therapy Helps Ease Winter Blues

Every October as the clocks are turned back, Jose Balido notices that his mood changes, almost as if his body were going into hibernation.

His limbs are heavy and he has trouble moving around. Simple household chores like loading the dishwasher seem “insurmountable,” he said. But when spring arrives, the lethargy lifts.

“It took me a while to realize what it was,” said Balido, owner of a travel social network site, Tripatini. “I was cranky, short-tempered, depressed, feeling hopeless and having difficulty concentrating.”

Balido, 51, was diagnosed a decade ago with seasonal affective disorder or SAD. The condition affects 62 million Americans, according to Michael Terman, director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University and a leader in the field.

About 5 percent of the population experiences the most severe symptoms of SAD — depression and hopelessness — while another 15 percent have the so-called “winter blues” or “winter doldrums.”

The vast majority never fall into full depression, according to Terman, but “plod through winters with slowness and gloominess that takes effort to hide from others.”

Two decades ago, SAD was identified as a legitimate disorder by the National Institute of Mental Health. Since then, the treatment of choice has been light therapy.

Balido, who lives in Miami, sought help from Terman and now undergoes light therapy. He sits in front of a daylight simulator for a half an hour each morning before 10 a.m.

“Within two or three days, the difference was mind-blowing,” he said.

The standard treatment for SAD is 30 minutes of 10,000-lux, diffused, white fluorescent light, used early in the morning. About half the patients are helped quickly — and when treatment is tailored to a person’s individual wake-sleep cycle, remission can climb to 80 percent, according to Terman.

This year, a utility company in the northern Swedish town of Umea installed ultraviolet lights at 30 bus stops to combat the effects of SAD.

“We wanted to celebrate the fact that all our electricity comes from green sources and we wanted to do this in a way that contributed to the citizens in one way or another,” said Umea Energi marketing chief Anna Norrgard in an email to ABCNews.com.

“As it is very dark where we live this time of year, a lot of us are longing for the daylight,” she said. “A lot of us are also a bit more tired this time of year and I would also say we sleep a little bit more. …We wanted to give the citizens of Umea a little energy boost, to be more alert.”

The town is located about 400 miles north of Stockholm. In December, the sun rises at about 10 a.m. and sets around 2:30 p.m. Some towns north of the Arctic Circle have no daylight for several weeks in the winter.

Geography has a strong influence on the prevalence of SAD symptoms, according to Terman.

“The common wisdom is that it’s worse the farther north you live, because winter days are so much shorter,” he said. “Not so simple.”

Columbia research shows that in North America, the incidence of SAD rises from the southern to the middle states, but levels off and stays bad from about 38 degrees North latitude (near such cities as San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.) up through the northernmost states and Canada, according to Terman.

But the problem becomes “more severe” at the western edges of the northern states and provinces.

“This important finding reveals the underlying trigger for relapses into winter depression, since the sun rises an hour more later at the western edge of a zone,” said Terman, whose book, “Chronotherapy,” looks at the phenomenon.

Esther Kane, a clinical counselor from Vancouver, Canada, said her practice is filled with patients as the long days descend on British Columbia.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Hits Hard in Canada

“On the West Coast where we live it’s so rampant, I can’t even tell you how many people have it,” said Kane. “Everyone is feeling it with the gray skies and rain. It’s like nighttime all the time here.”

Doctors there routinely prescribe fish oil and vitamin D, as well as light therapy to balance out the sleep hormone melatonin and “boost” the feel-good hormone serotonin, according to Kane. Many are also on antidepressants.

“A lot of people depend on alcohol and drugs all of a sudden,” she said. “They are stuffing themselves with carbs and their food intake is up. They have depression symptoms — what’s the point of getting out of bed in the morning when they feel no energy and there is dark all over them?”

“Some suffer so bad, they can’t function,” said Kane. “Everyone here who can afford to get away for two weeks in the winter, go to Hawaii.”

Even those who live south of the Mason-Dixon Line in the United States can be affected.

Tina Saratsiotis, who works for a faith-based nonprofit group in Towson, Md., was surprised to develop SAD several years ago.

“I used to be a night person and like the dark. Then something changed,” she said. “By fall when it gets darker and the fatigue and sadness comes and by Christmas, it’s difficult to function.”

“It creeps in slowly — I eat more and have trouble concentrating,” she said. “I am more irritable and weeping, like a prolonged version of PMS. It makes it hard to get things done and to enjoy things.”

Columbia’s Terman said there may be genetic influences in who gets SAD — a vulnerability to depression and to insufficient light exposure.

SAD sufferers say it’s especially hard on their relationships when their winter moods kick in.

“Now, he’s very understanding,” said Saratsiotis, who uses both light therapy and antidepressants to deal with the condition. “But before, when I didn’t feel up to going out, I couldn’t explain not feeling great. People wonder, ‘Why doesn’t she like me?’ and, ‘She’s no fun.’”

But when spring rolls around, so does her old self.

“I love the solstice — thank you, Lord, for the solstice,” she said. “I really need [the medication] now, but I may not in the spring and summer.”

But now, in when the days are their shortest, SAD puts a crimp on the holidays.

“It kills Christmas,” said Saratsiotis. “I sit in the middle of the department store with that particular song about the sleigh bells ringing, and I am sobbing. I burst into tears and think, ‘Just kill that song.’”

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Tube drivers in Boxing Day strike

26 December 2012 Last updated at 07:01 ET

BBC News spoke to commuters at Edgware Road station in London, some branding the strike “really inconvenient”

A number of London Underground drivers have gone on strike in a long-running row over bank holiday pay.

Transport for London (TfL) says there is likely to be “significant disruption” to Tube services, and more buses will be laid on.

Members of the Aslef union have walked out for 24 hours after voting 9-1 in favour of strike action.

TfL said limited services were running on the Tube, although there are some services running on all lines.

It urged passengers to check before travelling. There are no services on London Overground.

TfL said the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines were running services through central London.

The District, Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan, Northern and Jubilee lines are running limited services.

The Piccadilly line is operating a shuttle service between Heathrow terminals and Hammersmith, and between Arnos Grove and Cockfosters.

The Docklands Light Railway is also operating, except between Canning Town and Beckton and between Shadwell and Bank.

‘Scandalous actions’

Tfl said services could vary throughout the day depending on the resources available.

It said there would be extra buses for shoppers heading for the West End and for the Westfield shopping centres in east and west London.

Otherwise, the capital’s 700 bus routes will operate a Sunday service.

The congestion charge for vehicles entering central London does not apply during the festive period and there are no on-street parking charges in Westminster.

It is the third successive walkout by Tube drivers on what is the first day of the post-Christmas sales.

Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer, criticised the union for demanding to be paid “twice for the same work”.

“The scandalous actions of the Aslef leadership are an attempt to hold Londoners to ransom, and demonstrate a wholesale disregard for our customers,” he said.

“We will be running as many services as possible, supported by London’s 700 bus routes, but there will be disruption.”

The disruption, which led to the Premier League derby between Arsenal and West Ham United being postponed, is due to continue with two further walkouts on the last two Fridays in January.

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U.N. General Assembly voices concern for Myanmar’s Muslims

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly expressed serious concern on Monday over violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar and called upon its government to address reports of human rights abuses by some authorities.

The 193-nation General Assembly approved by consensus a non-binding resolution, which Myanmar said last month contained a “litany of sweeping allegations, accuracies of which have yet to be verified.”

Outbreaks of violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingyas have killed dozens and displaced thousands since June. Rights groups also have accused Myanmar security forces of killing, raping and arresting Rohingyas after the riots. Myanmar said it exercised “maximum restraint” to quell the violence.

The unanimously adopted U.N. resolution “expressing particular concern about the situation of the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state, urges the government to take action to bring about an improvement in their situation and to protect all their human rights, including their right to a nationality.”

At least 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Rakhine State along the western coast of Myanmar, also known as Burma. But Buddhist Rakhines and other Burmese view them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who deserve neither rights nor sympathy.

The resolution adopted on Monday is identical to one approved last month by the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on human rights. After that vote, Myanmar’s mission to the United Nations said that it accepted the resolution but objected to the Rohingyas being referred to as a minority.

“There has been no such ethnic group as Rohingya among the ethnic groups of Myanmar,” a representative of Myanmar said at the time. “Despite this fact, the right to citizenship for any member or community has been and will never be denied if they are in line with the law of the land.”

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Just got a new iPhone, iPad or Android device for Christmas? Gameloft cuts popular iOS and Android games to 99¢

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A huge collection of odd TV stuff needs a home

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Comisar is the first to acknowledge that more than a few have questioned his sanity for spending the better part of 25 years collecting everything from the costume George Reeves wore in the 1950s TV show “Superman” to the entire set of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

Then there’s the pointy Spock ears Leonard Nimoy wore on “Star Trek” and the guns Tony Soprano used to rub out a mob rival in an episode of “The Sopranos.”

“Along the way people thought I was nuts in general for wanting to conserve Keith Partridge’s flared pants from ‘The Partridge Family,’” the good-natured former TV writer says of the 1970s sitcom as he ambles through rows of costumes, props and what have you from the beginnings of television to the present day.

“But they really thought I needed a psychological workup,” Comisar, 48, adds with a smile, “when they learned I was having museum curators take care of these pieces.”

A museum is exactly where he wants to put all 10,000 of his TV memorabilia items, everything from the hairpiece Carl Reiner wore on the 1950s TV variety program “Your Show of Shows” to the gun and badge Kiefer Sutherland flashed on “24″ a couple TV seasons ago.

Finding one that could accommodate his collection, which fills two sprawling, temperature-controlled warehouses, however, has sometimes been as hard as acquiring the boots Larry Hagman used to stomp around in when he was J.R. on “Dallas.” (The show’s production company finally coughed up a pair after plenty of pleading and cajoling.)

Comisar is one of many people who, after a lifetime of collecting, begin to realize that if they can’t find a permanent home for their artifacts those objects could easily end up on the trash heap of history. Or, just as bad as far as he’s concerned, in the hands of private collectors.

“Some of the biggest bidders for Hollywood memorabilia right now reside in mainland China and Dubai, and our history could leave this country forever,” says Comisar, who these days works as a broker and purchasing expert for memorabilia collectors.

What began as a TV-obsessed kid’s lark morphed into a full-fledged hobby when as a young man writing jokes for Howie Mandel and Joan Rivers, and punching up scripts for such producers as Norman Lear and Fred Silverman, Comisar began scouring studio back lots, looking for discarded stuff from the favorite shows of his childhood. From there it developed into a full-on obsession, dedicated to preserving the entire physical spectrum of television history.

“After a couple years of collecting, it became clear to me,” he says, “that it didn’t much matter what TV shows James watched in the early 1970s but which shows were the most iconic. In that way, I had sort of a curator’s perspective almost from the beginning.”

In the early days, collecting such stuff was easy for anyone with access to a studio back lot. Many items were simply thrown out or given away when shows ceased production. When studios did keep things they often rented them out for small fees, and if you lost or broke them you paid a small replacement fee. So Comisar began renting stuff right and left and promptly losing it, acquiring one of Herman Munster’s jackets that way.

These days almost everything has a price, although Comisar’s reputation as a serious collector has led some people to give him their stuff.

If he simply sold it all, he could probably retire as a millionaire several times over. Just last month someone paid $ 480,000 for a faded dress Judy Garland wore in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.” What might Annette Funicello’s original Mickey Mouse Club jacket fetch?

He won’t even think about that.

“I’ve spent 25 years now reuniting these pieces, and I would be so sick if some day they were just broken up and sold to the highest bidder,” he says.

He, and every other serious collector of cool but somewhat oddball stuff, face two major obstacles, say museum curators: Finding a museum or university with the space to take their treasures and persuading deep-pocketed individuals who might bankroll the endeavor that there’s really any compelling reason to preserve something like Maxwell Smart’s shoephone.

“People hold television and popular culture so close to their hearts and embrace it so passionately,” says Dwight Bowers, curator of entertainment collections for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, who calls Comisar’s collection very impressive. “But they don’t put it on the same platform as military history or political history.”

When the Smithsonian acquired Archie Bunker’s chair from the seminal TV comedy “All in the Family,” Bowers said, museum officials took plenty of flak from those offended that some sitcom prop was being placed down the hallway from the nation’s presidential artifacts.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, took similar heat when it accepted the Grateful Dead archives, 30 years of recordings, videos, papers, posters and other memorabilia gifted by the band, said university archivist Nicholas Meriwether.

“What I always graciously say is that if you leave the art and the music aside for one moment, whatever you think of it, what you can say is they are still a huge part of understanding the story of the 1960s and of understanding the nation’s counterculture,” says Meriwether.

Comisar sees his television collection serving the same purpose, tracing societal changes TV shows documented from the post-World War II years to the present.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation looked into establishing such a museum some years back, and Comisar’s collection came up at the time, said Karen Herman, curator of the foundation’s Archive of American Television.

Instead, the foundation settled on an online archive containing more than 3,000 hours of filmed oral history interviews with more than 700 people.

While the archive doesn’t have any of Mr. Spock’s ears, anyone with a computer can view and listen to an oral history from Spock himself, the actor Leonard Nimoy.

Comisar, meanwhile, believes he’s finally found the right site for a museum, in Phoenix, where he’s been lining up supporters. He estimates it will cost $ 35 million and several years to open the doors, but hopes to have a preview center in place by next year.

Mo Stein, a prominent architect who heads the Phoenix Community Alliance and is working with him, says one of the next steps will be finding a proper space for the collection.

But, really, why all the fuss over a place to save one of the suits Regis Philbin wore on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”?

“In Shakespeare’s time, his work was considered pretty low art,” Comisar responds.

Oh, he’ll admit that “Mike and Molly,” the modern TV love story of a couple who fall for each other at Overeaters Anonymous, may never rank in the same category as “Romeo and Juliet.”

“But what about a show like ‘Star Trek’?” he asks.

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The Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

Anna Karenina lies febrile on her post-partum bed, her husband, Karenin, and lover, Vronsky, flanking her in sorrow. She repents to each, anticipating her end, and just when the romance soars to its peak, you wonder aloud — why does she have a fever? And, could this really happen?

Luckily, we’ve got Hollywood’s holiday ailments covered. Our unofficial disease guide takes a shot at unraveling the medical mysteries you’ll see woven throughout the biggest hits of the season.

Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

Denzel Washington plays a drug-addicted, alcoholic airline pilot who executes a miracle crash landing but is later blamed for the incident.

ALCOHOLISM

It turns out that drinking and flying is relatively rare. But that wasn’t true in the 1960s. A landmark article on aviation and alcohol found that in 35 percent of all fatal airline accidents in 1963, the pilots had measurable levels of alcohol in their blood. A disproportionate amount of these accidents occurred at night and most occurred within the first half-hour of flight.

So how does alcohol affect flight performance? One scientific article reports that blood alcohol concentrations in the range of 0.03 to 0.05-percent can impair performance of tasks like tracking radio-frequency signals, airport traffic control vectoring, traffic observation and avoidance, and aircraft descent. That’s about the amount present after just one drink for an average size adult.

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS SYNDROME (PTSD)

According to the book, Aviation Mental Health, pilots may be at risk for PTSD if they’ve ever experienced an aircraft mishap or near mishap. Because of this, the airline industry has a program in place called the Critical Incident Response Program that guides pilots through any potential PTSD inciting events. In addition to this, Federal law requires that all airline employees and their families have access to such counseling programs when faced with significant incidents like aircraft accidents.

When it comes to needing medication however, pilots face a double-edged sword. While counseling services for psychiatric conditions like PTSD are not reportable to the FAA, the use of certain medications is. Pilots are required to report use of any psychotropic medications beyond common antidepressants and refrain from flying until they are medication-free.

Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field recreate the spirit of America’s first power couple and highlight the staggering height difference between Abe and Mary Todd.

MARFAN SYNDROME

At 6 feet, 4 inchesl, Abe Lincoln towered nearly 9 inches taller than the average 1860s man. Like a taupe, tailless Na’vi from the movie Avatar, his long legs and spidery fingers intimidated adversaries near and far. But his stately frame was more than just a normal variant. Historians have speculated that Lincoln was afflicted with a rare genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. The disorder affects connective tissues in the body, causing skeletal abnormalities, and problems with the heart, eyes, and lungs. In addition to being extraordinarily tall, people with Marfan’s are often lanky, with long, slender limbs (dolichostenomelia) and fingers (arachnodactyly).

Some experts argue however that Lincoln instead had a condition called multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2, or MEN2. People with this disorder can also be unusually tall. Either way, his condition would have gone unnamed during his lifetime as Dr. Antoine Marfan, the French pediatrician who first described the condition, didn’t do so until 1896—well after President Lincoln’s untimely death.

Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

Keira Knightly stars in yet another period piece, this time portraying Leo Tolstoy’s beloved, Anna Karenina — a 19th century Russian aristocratic beauty caught in a nasty love triangle.

ENDOMETRITIS

Shortly after giving birth, Karenina experiences a high-grade fever that sends both her lovers to their knees, anticipating the worst. Puerperal fever, or endometritis as it’s now called, was known historically as “the doctor’s plague.” With no concept of germs, doctors often had no reason to wash their hands before attending to births. As such, they often precipitated such post-partum infections, giving thousands of women a simultaneous childbed and deathbed.

Other famous victims include Elizabeth of York, King Henry VIII’s mother, and his third wife, Jane Seymour. It is worth noting that, with the advent of antibiotics and modern-day hygiene, the chances of dying from a post-partum infection today are now incredibly rare.

Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

An all-star cast brings this classic tale of love and loss to the big screen this Christmas Day. And given its historical precedence, we’ll assume we’re not spoiling too much by first announcing Fantine’s death before diving into an explanation of the disease that kills her.

TUBERCULOSIS

Was there ever a more culturally documented medical affliction than consumption, or tuberculosis as it’s known medically? Perhaps not, and that’s why we see so many references to it in popular literature, music and film. Les Miserables is the latest creation to highlight the devastating effects of an infectious disease still commonly seen in third world countries.

TB is a contagious bacterial infection that attacks the lungs and less commonly, other organs. It causes fever, night sweats, weight loss, and sometimes hemetemesis—the coughing up of blood. It’s no wonder that folklore has often associated this disease with vampirism. An article in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology reports that prior to the Industrial Revolution, people interpreted the subsequent deaths of TB patients’ family members as proof that the initial victim was draining them of their lives. In other words, patient zero coughed up blood and therefore, was a vampire.

Today, some countries vaccinate against tuberculosis with a strain of the live, but weakened form of bacteria that infects cows. The vaccine works for only a limited amount of time and its efficacy is limited by geographic region. In the U.S., doctors screen only high risk populations like health care workers and recent immigrants.

Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

Bilbo Baggins returns in this prequel to Lord of the Rings, leading a group of dwarves on a riveting adventure through Middle Earth.

DWARFISM

Is it the hobbits that are really short or the elves that really tall? It’s all relative when it comes to height. If we assume however, that hobbits truly are little people, then it’s safe to say this is a generalized condition that’s associated with upwards of 200 different medical conditions. Either way, the National Institutes of Health defines a dwarf as someone of very short stature — usually under 4’10″ as an adult. Almost 70 percent of all dwarfism cases are due to a condition called achondroplasia, which is a genetic disorder affecting up to 1 in 15,000 people.

Dwarfism itself is not a disease and most little people go on to live healthy, long, and normal lives. Historical prejudice however, often led to their stigmatization as a different kind of being. During the Holocaust, the Nazis went so far as to conduct medical experiments on little people. A shocking example of this was German doctor Josef Mengele’s human zoo — a collection of different looking Jewish prisoners, including a family of dwarves called the Ovitzes.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)

Greedy little Gollum exhibits the classic signs and symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. His obsession with the One Ring is concerning for an all-consuming, socially isolating disorder that nearly 1.5 percent of Americans experience. OCD is an anxiety disorder that causes repetitive, unwanted thoughts or behaviors, often plaguing its victims on a daily basis.

Luckily for patients with OCD, there are many treatment options available. Whether or not Gollum can access these in Middle Earth is an entirely different issue.

Medical Guide to Holiday Movies

Vampires are not real… or are they?

PORPHYRIA

In 1963, an article from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine entitled, “On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werwolves” made the case for real life creatures of the night. The paper argued that these so-called beasts were, in fact, humans suffering from congenital prophyria. It references run-ins with these creatures by Pliny, Herodotus, and Virgil, and even offers photographic evidence of the scarring and mutilated human faces that could easily be mistaken for beast.

In 1985, biochemist David Dolphin furthered this association with his widely popularized scientific paper, “Porphyria, Vampires, and Werewolves: The Aetiology of European Metamorphosis Legends.” Not surprisingly, medical experts criticize this and other references for being both fake and promoting of an anti-porphyria stigma.

Porphyria itself is a disorder of the enzymes involved in red blood cell production. It causes neurologic complications and skin problems when affected people are exposed to light. Photosensitivity, blisters, itching, and swelling are just some of the symptoms that no doubt led to a corollary to vampirism. But if sun causes your skin to peel off, doesn’t it make sense that you’d avoid daylight?

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Monti ‘available to lead Italy’

23 December 2012 Last updated at 08:29 ET

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says he is not siding for now with any party in upcoming elections, but remains available to head a future government.

Mr Monti said he was ready to lead any coalition committed to his reforms.

The caretaker prime minister said he was unable to accept an offer from former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to lead a centrist coalition.

Elections are to be held in February. Mr Monti resigned after Mr Berlusconi’s party withdrew its support.

Mr Monti was nominated as technocratic prime minister in November 2011, after Mr Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition government fell amidst a financial and economic crisis.

Speaking at a news conference in Rome, Mr Monti urged Italian parties not to destroy what he said was his government’s achievement in saving Italy from that crisis.

“That financial emergency has been overcome,” he said. “Italians can once again hold their heads high as citizens of Europe.”

Keeping options open

Asked repeatedly if he was going to run in the 24-25 February election, Mr Monti said he cared more about policies than about the personalities involved in the election.

“I’m not siding with anyone – I’d like parties and social forces to side with ideas,” he said.

But he added: “To the forces that show convinced and credible adherence to the Monti agenda, I would be ready to give my advice, my encouragement and if necessary leadership,” he said.

“I would also be ready to assume one day, if required by circumstances, the responsibilities that would be entrusted to me by the parliament.”

The BBC’s David Willey says Mr Monti, whose possible role in February’s election has been the subject of intense speculation in Italy, is playing his cards close to his chest – whilst keeping his options open.

Mr Monti, 69, is an economist and former EU commissioner who first served as a minister under Mr Berlusconi in 1994.

His government has been praised for its initial reforms and for calming financial markets, though much of its reform agenda has been watered down or blocked.

On Sunday, he appealed to parties to push through further reforms of Italy’s labour market and its institutions.

He also criticised Mr Berlusconi for recently attacking the technocratic government, despite having previously praised it.

“I struggle to follow his line of thought,” Mr Monti said.

Mr Berlusconi, 76, has been mired in a series of sexual and financial scandals.

He made conflicting statements about whether he would remain in politics before launching into his sixth general election campaign.

Current polls suggest the centre-left Democratic Party led by Pier Luigi Bersani would win the most votes in a general election.

BBC News – Business

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New Zealand level series thanks to Guptill century

EAST LONDON, South Africa (Reuters) – A brilliant, unbeaten century from opener Martin Guptill led New Zealand to an eight-wicket victory off the final ball against South Africa in the second T20 international on Sunday.

Chasing 169 for victory in 19 overs at Buffalo Park, Guptill helped erase the memory of Friday’s embarrassing capitulation to 86 all out in Durban with a stunning batting display as the tourists reached their target for the loss of just two wickets to level the series 1-1.

Requiring 39 from the final four overs and 11 off the last, Guptill was on 97 and needing four for victory when Rory Kleinveldt bowled the final delivery – a low full toss which was eased away through extra cover.

Guptill’s unbeaten 101 was just the third T20 international century by a New Zealander, the first two belonging to captain Brendon McCullum who was almost anonymous with 17 from 15 balls during a second-wicket partnership of 73 with Guptill.

The right-handed opener was similarly dominant during an opening stand of 76 with Rob Nicol (25) as he drove the Proteas attack impeccably straight and displayed the skills – and patience – so obviously missing from the New Zealand batsman in Durban.

Captain Faf du Plessis led from the front once again as South Africa posted a competitive 165-5 in 19 overs after losing the toss and being asked to bat first.

Du Plessis paced his innings to perfection on a tricky pitch to reach 63 from 43 balls with eight fours and a six in a match reduced to 19 overs per side following a 52-minute floodlight failure.

The deciding match takes place in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Australia / Antarctica News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Pro-gun rights US petition to deport Piers Morgan

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for British CNN host Piers Morgan to be deported from the U.S. over his gun control views.

Morgan has taken an aggressive stand for tighter U.S. gun laws in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting. Last week, he called a gun advocate appearing on his “Piers Morgan Tonight” show an “unbelievably stupid man.”

Now, gun rights activists are fighting back. A petition created Dec. 21 on the White House e-petition website by a user in Texas accuses Morgan of engaging in a “hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution” by targeting the Second Amendment. It demands he be deported immediately for “exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.”

The petition has already hit the 25,000 signature threshold to get a White House response. By Monday, it had 31,813 signatures.

Morgan seemed unfazed — and even amused — by the movement.

In a series of Twitter messages, he alternately urged his followers to sign the petition and in response to one article about the petition said “bring it on” as he appeared to track the petition’s progress.

“If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me?” he wrote.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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