Auto sales race to five-year high for November

(Reuters) – Auto sales in November raced to a five-year high for that month on a rebound from storm-ravaged October and the need to replace aging vehicles, leaving industry executives optimistic about 2013.

Sales in November rose 15 percent to 1.14 million vehicles, the highest level for that month since 2007, before a recession caused a dramatic decline in demand and led to the bankruptcy filings of General Motors Co and Chrysler.

“Vehicle sales are one of the encouraging spots of our economy,” said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.

Ford Motor Co , Honda Motor Co <7267.T> and Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> posted better-than-expected sales, while Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> and Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS> also reported strong increases that industry executives and investors said should continue through the end of the year.

However, sales for GM came in short of expectations. The No. 1 U.S. automaker said it benefited less than its rivals from the November recovery after Superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. Northeast as a smaller share of GM‘s sales come from that region. It also relied less on incentives.

Auto sales are an early indicator each month of U.S. consumer demand, and the improving housing market and rising consumer confidence have industry executives optimistic heading into 2013.

“Looking at the national picture, the apparent recovery in housing that we talked about last month and the encouraging new data on consumer sentiment and confidence are all positive factors,” Kurt McNeil, GM‘s vice president of U.S. sales operations, said on a conference call.

He declined, however, to provide a 2013 industry sales forecast until a deal is reached to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of federal spending cuts and steep tax increases that could tip the U.S. economy back into recession.

“Exactly how much growth we can expect next year will depend in part on how Congress and the president resolve the fiscal cliff issue,” McNeil added. “Consumers hate the uncertainty, so an agreement on ways to reduce long-term federal budget deficits could remove an impediment to growth.”

POST-SANDY SALES

The 15 percent sales gain in November easily surpassed the gain of 11 to 13 percent most analysts had expected. The annual sales rate in November of 15.54 million was the industry’s strongest for any month since the 15.55 million rate of February 2008.

Superstorm Sandy hurt the last few days of sales in October, which finished below expectations, but many consumers simply shifted their purchases to November. In addition, the average age of cars on the road has risen to just above 11 years, and industry officials say that will continue to drive demand.

McNeil said the auto industry is clearly heading this year toward the high end of GM‘s forecasted range of 14 million to 14.5 million. Many analysts expect the industry to finish 2012 with 14.4 million sales, which would mark the strongest year since the 16.1 million of 2007.

TrueCar.com analyst Jesse Toprak expects U.S. auto sales to rise to 15.4 million next year. “Stable growth is really the motto of the industry.”

STEADY RECOVERY

Jonathan Browning, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, sees a continuation of a steady recovery for the economy as well as for U.S. December and early 2013 auto sales, but expressed concern about the negative impact on consumer confidence if the fiscal cliff occurs. VW brand sales rose more than 29 percent in November.

Ken Czubay, Ford’s vice president of U.S. sales, agreed, saying “the clock is kind of ticking,” in reference to the Washington talks on avoiding the fiscal cliff.

Ford’s November sales rose 6.5 percent to 177,673 vehicles, better than even some of the most optimistic forecasts for the No. 2 U.S. automaker. In a more positive sign for consumer demand, Ford’s retail sales rose 12 percent.

The company had its strongest small-car sales for the month in 12 years. Demand for Ford’s popular F-150 full-size pickup truck increased 17 percent, while GM‘s Chevrolet Silverado pickup saw sales drop 10 percent.

GM, with 139 days’ worth of Silverado inventory at the end of November, blamed aggressive incentives by Chrysler, Nissan and Ford for the decline, and said it would focus on curtailing production of trucks rather than risk becoming trapped in a price war.

GM, with 96 days’ worth of Cruze small cars in inventory at the end of November, plans to idle the Lordstown, Ohio, plant where the car is built for two weeks in December instead of the planned one week to reduce supplies, said two people with knowledge of the plans who asked not to be identified. A spokesman did not confirm the plans.

Ford’s shares closed down 0.3 percent at $ 11.41, while GM shares fell 1.4 percent to $ 25.51 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

Ford said it planned to build 750,000 vehicles in North America in the first quarter of 2013, which would be an 11 percent increase from 2012. That would be the highest first-quarter production level since 2006.

GM’s sales rose 3 percent to 186,505 cars and trucks, below the expectations of several analysts. The company said the average price paid per vehicle rose $ 750 from last year.

TrueCar estimated that the industry’s average vehicle selling price in November rose 1.1 percent, or $ 335, from last year, and rose a similar amount from October to $ 30,832.

Chrysler, majority-owned by Fiat SpA , said sales rose 14 percent to 122,565 cars and trucks, its strongest result since 2007.

Toyota’s sales rose more than 17 percent to 161,695 vehicles. Honda and Nissan both reported better-than-expected results, with the former jumping about 39 percent and the latter increasing 13 percent.

Hyundai said sales increased 8 percent to the company’s all-time high for the month. November marked the first sales results since the South Korean automaker and its Kia Motors Corp <000270.KS> affiliate announced they had overstated the fuel economy ratings by at least a mile per gallon on more than 1 million recently sold vehicles.

In the battle for the luxury sales title for the U.S. market, Daimler’s Mercedes brand leads last year’s winner, BMW , by fewer than 2,000 vehicles with one month to go.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman and Bernie Woodall in Detroit; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Maureen Bavdek and Matthew Lewis)

Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Egypt’s anti-Morsi rebellion of judges is complete

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt‘s rebellion of the judges against President Mohammed Morsi became complete on Sunday with the country’s highest court declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.

The strike by the Supreme Constitutional Court and opposition plans to march on the presidential palace on Tuesday take the country’s latest political crisis to a level not seen in the nearly two years of turmoil since Hosni Mubarak‘s ouster in a popular uprising.

Judges from the country’s highest appeals court and its sister lower court were already on an indefinite strike, joining colleagues from other tribunals who suspended work last week to protest what they saw as Morsi‘s assault on the judiciary.

The last time Egypt had an all-out strike by the judiciary was in 1919, when judges joined an uprising against British colonial rule.

The standoff began when Morsi issued decrees on Nov. 22 giving him near-absolute powers that granted himself and the Islamist-dominated assembly drafting the new constitution immunity from the courts.

The constitutional panel then raced in a marathon session last week to vote on the charter’s 236 clauses without the participation of liberal and Christian members. The fast-track hearing pre-empted a decision from the Supreme Constitutional Court that was widely expected to dissolve the constituent assembly.

The judges on Sunday postponed their ruling on that case just before they went on strike.

Without a functioning justice system, Egypt will be plunged even deeper into turmoil. It has already seen a dramatic surge in crime after the uprising, while state authority is being challenged in many aspects of life and the courts are burdened by a massive backlog of cases.

“The country cannot function for long like this, something has to give,” said Negad Borai, a private law firm director and a rights activist. ‘We are in a country without courts of law and a president with all the powers in his hands. This is a clear-cut dictatorial climate,” he said.

Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a rights lawyer, said the strike by the judges will impact everything from divorce and theft to financial disputes that, in some cases, could involve foreign investors.

“Ordinary citizens affected by the strike will become curious about the details of the current political crisis and could possibly make a choice to join the protests,” he said.

The Judges Club, a union with 9,500 members, said late Sunday that judges would not, as customary, oversee the national referendum Morsi called for Dec. 15 on the draft constitution hammered out and hurriedly voted on last week.

The absence of their oversight would raise more questions about the validity of the vote. If the draft is passed in the referendum, parliamentary elections are to follow two months later and they too may not have judicial supervision.

The judges say they will remain on strike until Morsi rescinds his decrees, which the Egyptian leader said were temporary and needed to protect the nation’s path to democratic rule.

For now, however, Morsi has to contend with the fury of the judiciary.

The constitutional court called Sunday “the Egyptian judiciary’s blackest day on record.”

It described the scene outside the Nile-side court complex, where thousands of Islamist demonstrators gathered since the early morning hours carrying banners denouncing the tribunal and some of its judges.

A statement by the court, which swore Morsi into office on June 30, said its judges approached the complex but turned back when they saw the protesters blocking entrances and climbing over its fences. They feared for their safety, it added.

“The judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court were left with no choice but to announce to the glorious people of Egypt that they cannot carry out their sacred mission in this charged atmosphere,” said the statement, which was carried by state news agency MENA.

Supporters of Morsi, who hails from the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, claim that the court’s judges remain loyal to Mubarak, who appointed them, and accuse them of trying to derail Egypt’s transition to democratic rule.

In addition to the high court’s expected ruling Sunday on the legitimacy of the constitution-drafting panel, it was also expected to rule on another body dominated by Morsi supporters, parliament’s upper chamber.

Though Morsi’s Nov. 22 decrees provide immunity to both bodies against the courts, a ruling that declares the two illegitimate would have vast symbolic significance, casting doubt on the standing of both.

The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, sought to justify the action of its supporters outside the court as a peaceful protest. It reiterated its charge that some members of the judiciary were part and parcel of Mubarak’s autocratic policies.

“The wrong practices by a minority of judges and their preoccupation with politics … will not take away the respect people have for the judiciary,” it said.

Its explanation, however, failed to calm the anger felt by many activists and politicians.

“President Morsi must take responsibility before the entire world for terrorizing the judiciary,” veteran rights campaigner and opposition leader Abdel-Halim Kandil wrote in his Twitter account about the events outside the constitutional court.

Liberal activist and former lawmaker Amr Hamzawy warned what is ahead may be worse.

“The president and his group (the Muslim Brotherhood) are leading Egypt into a period of darkness par excellence,” he said. “He made a dictatorial decision to hold a referendum on an illegal constitution that divides society, then a siege of the judiciary to terrorize it.”

Egypt has been rocked by several bouts of unrest, some violent, since Mubarak was forced to step down in the face of a popular uprising. But the current one is probably the worst.

Morsi’s decrees gave him powers that none of his four predecessors since the ouster of the monarchy 60 years ago ever had. Opposition leaders countered that he turned himself into a new “pharaoh” and a dictator even worse than his immediate predecessor Mubarak.

Then, following his order, the constituent assembly rushed a vote on the draft constitution in an all-night session.

The draft has a new article that seeks to define what the “principles” of Islamic law are by pointing to theological doctrines and their rules. Another new article states that Egypt’s most respected Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, must be consulted on any matters related to Shariah law, a measure critics fear could lead to oversight of legislation by clerics.

Rights groups have pointed out that virtually the only references to women relate to the home and family, that the new charter uses overly broad language with respect to the state protecting “ethics and morals” and fails to outlaw gender discrimination.

At times the process appeared slap-dash, with fixes to missing phrasing and even several entirely new articles proposed, written and voted on in the hours just before sunrise.

The decrees and the vote on the constitution draft galvanized the fractured, mostly secular opposition, with senior leaders setting aside differences and egos to form a united front in the face of Morsi, whose offer on Saturday for a national dialogue is yet to find takers.

The opposition brought out at least 200,000 protesters to Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Tuesday and a comparable number Friday to press demands that the decrees be rescinded. The Islamists responded Saturday with massive rallies in Cairo and across much of Egypt.

The opposition is raising the stakes with plans to march on Morsi’ palace on Tuesday, a move last seen on Feb. 11, 2011 when tens of thousands of protesters marched from Tahrir Square to Mubarak’s palace in the Heliopolis district to force him out. Mubarak stepped down that day, but Morsi is highly unlikely to follow suit on Tuesday.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

“Silver Linings” David O. Russell on how Jennifer Lawrence skyped her way to Oscar front-runner

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Jennifer Lawrence is at the forefront of best actress Oscar talk for her lead role in “Silver Linings Playbook.” But, as writer-director David O. Russell explained to the audience at TheWrap screening series Thursday night, he was so convinced she wasn’t right for the role that he only had her audition via Skype.

“Quite frankly, it was like a formality,” Russell told the capacity crowd at the Landmark Theatre. “I didn’t think she was really a contender. We had three very serious contenders (already). We had a lot of major actresses in town interested in the role, from Angelina Jolie to some other big stars, because it’s a dimensional role for a young woman. Jennifer we frankly thought was too young” -until she pointed the tiny camera at herself at her parents’ home in Kentucky.

“She kind of has an ageless quality about her, which is remarkable,” said Russell. “Harvey (Weinstein) said, ‘Isn’t she too young?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, she could be 20, she could be 40. Look for yourself’- and I showed him the Skype (audition), and he said ‘Wow.’ So that was a blessing for us to find our Tiffany. She came onto the set saying to Bradley Cooper, ‘Wow, what’s it like for people to take pictures of you?’ By the end of the shoot, I think she knew for herself. Now she can’t get rid of people taking pictures of her.”

Russell added that “we saw her become a woman before our eyes. She has a presence about her and an emotion that’s very available. She’s a little bit like her character. But she’s not neurotic; she’s direct, she speaks her mind. And she’s kind of confident and fearless – but so far, not in an obnoxious way. She has a lot of power coming her way she’s going to have to deal with.”

Russell’s five-year quest to make the film involved a lot of casting turnover and near-misses. “I originally wrote it for other people. But as Matt Damon very graciously said to me about the Christian Bale role in ‘The Fighter’–which he was originally intended to play – ‘It just goes to show, the right people play the right role at the right time.’”

With “Silver Linings,” “I wrote it with Vince (Vaughn) and Zooey (Deschanel) in mind, because I love Vince’s cadences.” But these developments are “in the hands of the movie gods. And then Mark Wahlberg, who I love and made three movies with, there was a moment where he was going to do it. That didn’t work out with Harvey and him, and it was out of my hands.”

Few of the movie’s champions (who seem, with the exception of New Yorker critic David Denby, nearly universal) would argue that the casting didn’t end up exactly as it should, however many disagreements there were between Russell and Weinstein about it along the way.

(“There were instances where Harvey really wanted somebody and I did not. We had about a one or two year standoff about that at one point,” Russell admitted.) But moderator Steve Pond, TheWrap’s awards editor, confessed that, like many, he “didn’t know Bradley Cooper had it in him” until the proof was on the “Silver” screen.

“I did know,” said Russell, “the way I knew Amy Adams had it in her for ‘The Fighter.’ People said, ‘Amy Adams, the princess from “Enchanted”? I’m not gonna believe her as a barmaid bitch in Lowell, Massachusetts.’ Or Christian Bale having a goofy warmth to him. So I welcome as a director the opportunity to surprise audiences with a performance that they don’t see coming, and to turn out an actor in new ways.”

It was seeing Cooper in “Wedding Crashers” that convinced Russell the actor could be a convincing bipolar rageaholic in his off-the-meds scenes. “From that role, I thought, this seems like an angry guy – I mean, the guy off the camera as well as the guy on the camera. I told him that when I met him, and his reaction was not at all defensive. He said that he had been an angry guy, at the time, and less happy, and that he had weighed 30 pounds more – and so far I’m the character, the character, the character! He had substance issues, which is different. But he was so open and vulnerable and honest about it. And I saw that, combined with the scary/angry thing he had done. There’s nothing like the hunger in an actor when he really, really, really wants it bad. Because that matched up to the hunger of the character. The character wanted to get his life back really bad.”

And, Russell added, “it didn’t hurt” that Cooper had made “Limitless” with Robert DeNiro and the two had developed “a father/son-type thing.” As for “Mr. DeNiro,” as Russell always refers to him, “He has had family experiences such as I had, and it was very personal to him as well. When I met him at his home to discuss the script and my own life, he cried. I thought this meant he was really taking this project seriously and it was personal to him. And it did mean that. It shows up on the screen.”

The filmmaker was explicit about just what kind of “family experiences” he was referring to, and that there’s nothing glib or unknowing about the film’s treatment of mental illness, however many the laughs or however happy the denouements.

“I did it because my son has bipolar issues,” Russell said, “and I had long been looking for a project that would invite his world into the world and put it on the screen for him — which you want to do for your kids — so he didn’t feel so different, and so he could also feel like he was part of my work.

Bradley Cooper and Mr. DeNiro are in a world that is about things he can relate to very directly. And he earned a role in the picture. He had to do very good at school and in his behavior. So he was the guy who rings the doorbell” – playing a pesky student who wants to interview the family for a school project on mental illness.

The source novel immediately connected with Russell when should-have-been producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella gave it to him “the year they both died.” “I think the sensibility of the book is a sensibility I understand: It’s emotional and it dares to be romantic but it’s also funny – and based in reality. I think those are the big lessons I’ve learned in what I call the second phase of my filmmaking life: do it from the heart, really make it life or death emotionally, and make it real. So if something’s funny, it has to be because it’s real. I think ‘Raging Bull’ is one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen, because of how real the people are.”

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Diabetes may be linked to hearing loss: study

(Reuters) – Diabetes has already been tied to an increased risk of kidney and cardiovascular troubles, nerve damage and vision loss, and now a Japanese study finds diabetics to be more than twice as likely as those without the disease to have hearing impairment.

In a review of past research on the issue, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, scientists found that younger diabetics were at even higher risk than older adults, though they could not explain why.

“Current meta-analysis suggests that the higher prevalence of hearing impairment in diabetic patients compared with nondiabetic patients was consistent regardless of age,” wrote lead researcher Chika Horikawa, at Niigata University Faculty of Medicine, and colleagues.

It’s not the first time researchers have found a link between diabetes and hearing loss. In 2008, researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) saw similar patterns in a sample of more than 11,000 people, with people with diabetes twice as likely to have hearing loss as those without.

It’s thought that high blood sugar levels brought on by diabetes may lead to hearing loss by damaging blood vessels in the ears, said Horikawa.

Horikawa and colleagues collected information from 13 previous studies examining the link between diabetes and hearing loss and published between 1977 and 2011. Together, the data covered 7,377 diabetes and 12,817 people without the condition.

Overall, Horikawa‘s team found that diabetics were 2.15 times as likely as people without the disease to have hearing loss. But when the results were broken down by age, people under 60 had 2.61 times the risk while people over 60 hand 1.58 times higher risk.

Some experts caution that this kind of study does not prove that diabetes is directly responsible for the greater hearing loss rates.

“It doesn’t definitively answer the question, but it continues to raise an important point that patients might ask about,” said Steven Smith, a diabetes specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The researchers note that future studies that take more factors into account, such as age and noisy environment, are needed to clarify the link between diabetes and hearing loss.

Still, Horikawa told Reuters Health in an email, people should recognize that diabetics may be at risk for hearing loss based on their results.

“Furthermore, these results propose that diabetic patients are screened for hearing impairment from (an) earlier age compared with non-diabetics,” said Horikawa, adding that hearing loss has also been linked to an increased risk of depression and dementia. SOURCE: http:.//bit.ly/RIVeeW

(Reporting from New York by Andrew Seaman at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

MPs in minority women job warning

2 December 2012 Last updated at 02:29 ET

Black and minority ethnic women face “catastrophic” levels of unemployment and are discriminated against at “every stage” of the recruitment process, a group of MPs has warned.

The BBC has seen a report from the all-party parliamentary group on race and community which says racial bias holds some women back from getting a job.

Labour MP David Lammy, the committee’s chairman, says the situation is “deeply worrying”.

The report will be published on Friday.

The inquiry examined written and verbal evidence through the summer.

Despite latest official figures showing, nationally, unemployment has continued to fall, the report says racial bias is holding some women back from getting a job.

One woman said she changed her Muslim-sounding name after using a different one secured her more job interviews.

And a black African woman said she was overlooked for a law-based job in favour of two less qualified white women, but then offered the job when the women were sacked for incompetence.

Mr Lammy said: “There have been a lot of cuts to the public sector. Black and minority ethnic women have been traditionally employed in the public sector and are losing their jobs in droves at this time.

“They complain of struggling with no support around child care and around helping them to stay in work. Many are doing just casual employment, so the picture is bleak and depressing.”

BBC News – Business

Read More..

Egypt’s Mursi calls referendum as Islamists march

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt‘s President Mohamed Mursi called a December 15 referendum on a draft constitution on Saturday as at least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo to back him after opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.

Speaking after receiving the final draft of the constitution from the Islamist-dominated assembly, Mursi urged a national dialogue as the country nears the end of the transition from Hosni Mubarak‘s rule.

“I renew my call for opening a serious national dialogue over the concerns of the nation, with all honesty and impartiality, to end the transitional period as soon as possible, in a way that guarantees the newly-born democracy,” Mursi said.

Mursi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he gave himself extensive powers and put his decisions beyond judicial challenge, saying this was a temporary measure to speed Egypt’s democratic transition until the new constitution is in place.

His assertion of authority in a decree issued on November 22, a day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, dismayed his opponents and widened divisions among Egypt’s 83 million people.

Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests by disparate opposition forces drawn together and re-energized by a decree they see as a dictatorial power grab.

A demonstration in Cairo to back the president swelled through the afternoon, peaking in the early evening at least 200,000, said Reuters witnesses, basing their estimates on previous rallies in the capital. The authorities declined to give an estimate for the crowd size.

“The people want the implementation of God’s law,” chanted flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bussed in from the countryside, who choked streets leading to Cairo University, where Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had called the protest.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians had protested against Mursi on Friday. “The people want to bring down the regime,” they chanted in Cairo‘s Tahrir Square, echoing the trademark slogan of the revolts against Hosni Mubarak and Arab leaders elsewhere.

Rival demonstrators threw stones after dark in the northern city of Alexandria and a town in the Nile Delta. Similar clashes erupted again briefly in Alexandria on Saturday, state TV said.

“COMPLETE DEFEAT”

Mohamed Noshi, 23, a pharmacist from Mansoura, north of Cairo, said he had joined the rally in Cairo to support Mursi and his decree. “Those in Tahrir don’t represent everyone. Most people support Mursi and aren’t against the decree,” he said.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a hardline Salafi Islamist scholar and a member of the constituent assembly, said secular-minded Egyptians had been in a losing battle from the start.

“They will be sure of complete popular defeat today in a mass Egyptian protest that says ‘no to the conspiratorial minority, no to destructive directions and yes for stability and sharia (Islamic law)’,” he told Reuters.

Mursi has alienated many of the judges who must supervise the referendum. His decree nullified the ability of the courts, many of them staffed by Mubarak-era appointees, to strike down his measures, although says he respects judicial independence.

A source at the presidency said Mursi might rely on the minority of judges who support him to supervise the vote.

“Oh Mursi, go ahead and cleanse the judiciary, we are behind you,” shouted Islamist demonstrators in Cairo.

Mursi, once a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, has put his liberal, leftist, Christian and other opponents in a bind. If they boycott the referendum, the constitution would pass anyway.

If they secured a “no” vote to defeat the draft, the president could retain the powers he has unilaterally assumed.

And Egypt’s quest to replace the basic law that underpinned Mubarak’s 30 years of army-backed one-man rule would also return to square one, creating more uncertainty in a nation in dire economic straits and seeking a $ 4.8 billion loan from the IMF.

“NO PLACE FOR DICTATORSHIP”

Mursi’s well-organized Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi allies, however, are convinced they can win the referendum by mobilizing their own supporters and the millions of Egyptians weary of political turmoil and disruption.

“There is no place for dictatorship,” the president said on Thursday while the constituent assembly was still voting on a draft constitution which Islamists say enshrines Egypt’s new freedoms.

Human rights groups have voiced misgivings, especially about articles related to women’s rights and freedom of speech.

The text limits the president to two four-year terms, requires him to secure parliamentary approval for his choice of prime minister, and introduces a degree of civilian oversight over the military – though not enough for critics.

The draft constitution also contains vague, Islamist-flavored language that its opponents say could be used to whittle away human rights and stifle criticism.

For example, it forbids blasphemy and “insults to any person”, does not explicitly uphold women’s rights and demands respect for “religion, traditions and family values”.

The draft injects new Islamic references into Egypt’s system of government but retains the previous constitution’s reference to “the principles of sharia” as the main source of legislation.

“We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society,” said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester in Tahrir and member of a party set up by opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.

Several independent newspapers said they would not publish on Tuesday in protest. One of the papers also said three private satellite channels would halt broadcasts on Wednesday.

Egypt cannot hold a new parliamentary election until a new constitution is passed. The country has been without an elected legislature since the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated lower house in June.

The court is due to meet on Sunday to discuss the legality of parliament’s upper house.

“We want stability. Every time, the constitutional court tears down institutions we elect,” said Yasser Taha, a 30-year-old demonstrator at the Islamist rally in Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Jason Webb)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Facebook Cover Photos Are Disappearing

In the scope of a couple of days, several people — including Mashable staffers — have seen their Facebook cover photos disappear without explanation. The issue appears to be a move by Facebook to aggressively crack down on images that are considered promotional.

[More from Mashable: 500,000 Facebook Users Chase Fake $ 1 Million From Powerball ‘Winner’]

I first encountered the issue yesterday when Facebook ostensibly removed a promotional still from the TV series Doctor Who that I used as a cover photo. When I attempted to upload another image, I saw this message:

Pick a unique photo from your life to feature at the top of your timeline. Note: This space is not meant for banner ads or other promotions. Please don’t use content that is commercial, promotional, copyright-infringing or already in use on other people’s covers.

[More from Mashable: This Facebook App Gives Annoying Friends a ‘Time Out’]

Since we published the original article about the incident, several readers have come forward, reporting the same thing happened to them in the comments. In addition, three other Mashable staffers reported Facebook removing their cover photos in the last 24 hours.

When asked if there was some kind of crackdown going on, a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable via email that Facebook’s policies regarding photos and cover photos haven’t changed. Facebook’s terms of service specifies that a cover photo should be a “unique image that represents your Page.”

The exact reason why Facebook removed each cover is a mystery, since the user is not informed, except by the glaring empty space where the photo used to be. It could be due to a copyright violation or that the photo was deemed to “promotional.” Although Facebook removes the photo from the cover position, it doesn’t actually delete the photo itself.

“Facebook is in business to make money,” says Lou Kerner, a former social media analyst and founder of the Social Internet Fund. “The great thing about that is most ways they’re going to make money is by letting people do what they want — as long as it doesn’t break the law. For the most part, if they act in the user’s best interest, they act in their own best interests.”

While I speculated Facebook was removing cover photos to prevent the site from becoming too tacky, one of Mashable‘s commenters suggested Facebook was looking to preserve its business model. After all, if brands recruit “ambassadors” by encouraging — or paying — them upload promotional cover photos, that would detract from Facebook’s own tools that are meant to help brands engage with their fans on the service.

Disney, for example, offers fans of its franchises images to download that are specifically formatted for Facebook Timeline. If this is indeed a crackdown, that practice could cease.

“That seems more heavy-handed than Facebook generally acts,” says Kerner. “That sounds very egregious to me in terms of how they want brands and people to interact. I don’t see how Facebook benefits by not allowing a brand’s fans to engage with the brand like that.”

How widespread is the practice? It’s hard to say from the evidence so far, but based on Twitter reactions over the last day, it’s definitely been happening regularly. Although some users say the removed photos were their own, the pattern that seems to be emerging is that the photos are either promotional or violate copyright:

Why do you think Facebook is removing users’ cover photos and should it be doing so? Share your reactions in the comments.

1. Red Bull

Not only has Red Bull taken advantage of Timeline, it has also created a scavenger hunt with prizes to get fans interacting with the company’s history.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Obama warns of Scrooge Christmas

30 November 2012 Last updated at 16:33 ET

US President Barack Obama has warned of a “Scrooge Christmas” if tax breaks are not renewed for working families in a deal to avert a so-called fiscal cliff.

Mr Obama made the remarks as he tried to win public support for his plan on a visit to a toy-maker in Pennsylvania.

But Republican House Speaker John Boehner said talks with the White House had gone “almost nowhere”.

He said President Obama’s plan to raise $ 1.6tn (£1tn) of revenue over 10 years was not a “serious proposal”.

Planned tax rises and spending cuts due to take effect on 1 January could send the US back into recession, economists warn.

‘Lump of coal’

On Friday, Mr Obama toured the Rodon Group manufacturing facility, where parts for the children’s toy K’nex are made.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There’s a stalemate – let’s not kid ourselves”

End Quote John Boehner Speaker of the House

The Democratic president said it was the type of company that depended on middle-class customers to buy its goods, adding it would be hurt if ordinary Americans faced a tax rise.

In a speech at the factory, Mr Obama said both parties would have to “get out of our comfort zones” in order to negotiate a deal on the fiscal cliff, and pledged he would be willing to do the same.

He said that if Congress did not extend soon-to-expire tax breaks for the middle-class, it would be like receiving a “lump of coal” at Christmas.

“That’s a Scrooge Christmas,” Mr Obama added.

Tax cuts passed during the presidency of George W Bush are due to expire under the fiscal cliff.

Mr Obama favours extending the break for households earning below $ 250,000. But he wants taxes to rise for those on income above that sum.

Mr Boehner said that asking the top 2% of US taxpayers to pay more would deal a “crippling blow” to a fragile economy.

He also criticised as inadequate spending cuts that were proposed on Thursday by the Obama administration.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner put forward a plan to congressional leaders that would raise $ 1.6 trillion in higher taxes over a decade.

Continue reading the main story

What is the fiscal cliff?

• Under a deal reached last year between President Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress, existing stimulus measures – mostly tax cuts – will expire on 1 January 2013


• Cuts to defence, education and other government spending will then automatically come into force – the “fiscal cliff” – unless Congress acts


• The economy does not have the momentum to absorb the shock from going over the fiscal cliff without going into recession

The proposal also envisages spending more money to help the unemployed and struggling homeowners.

And it called for savings of as much as $ 400bn from Medicare and other benefit programmes over 10 years.

Mr Boehner told reporters on Friday: “There’s a stalemate. Let’s not kid ourselves. Right now, we’re almost nowhere.”

Some Republicans have said they would consider increased tax revenue as part of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.

But the White House believes that simply ending tax deductions would not address the yawning budget deficit.

White House press secretary Jay Carney has indicated Mr Obama would not support any deal that did not increase tax rates on the wealthiest.

The fiscal cliff would suck about $ 600bn (£347bn) out of the economy.

The measures were partly put in place within a 2011 deal to curb the yawning US budget deficit.

BBC News – Business

Read More..

Oliver Stone, Benicio del Toro visit Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Benicio Del Toro didn’t wait long to collect on a favor that Oliver Stone owed him for working extra hours on the set of his most recent movie, “Savages”, released this year.

The favor? A trip to Del Toro‘s native Puerto Rico, which Stone hadn’t visited since the early 1960s.

“I told him, you owe me one,” Del Toro said with a smile as he recalled the conversation during a press conference Friday in the U.S. territory, where he and Stone are helping raise money for one of the island’s largest art museums.

Del Toro, wearing jeans, a black jacket and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of local reggaeton singer Tego Calderon, waved to the press as he was introduced.

“Hello, greetings. Is this a press conference?” he quipped as he and Stone awaited questions.

Both men praised each other’s work, saying they would like to work with each other again.

“I deeply admire him as an actor, the way he thinks, the way he expresses himself,” Stone said. “Of all the actors I’ve worked with, he’s the most interesting.”

Stone said Del Toro always delivers surprises while acting, even when it’s as something as subtle as certain gestures between dialogue.

“I think Benicio is the master of keeping you watching,” he said.

Stone said he enjoys meeting up with Del Toro off-set because he’s one of the few actors in Hollywood who can talk about something other than movies.

“He is very interested in the world around him,” Stone said, adding that the conversations sometimes center around politics and other topics.

Del Toro declined to answer when asked what he thought about Puerto Rico’s referendum earlier this month, which aimed to determine the future of the island’s political status. He said the results did not seem to point to a clear-cut outcome.

Del Toro then said he would like the island’s movie business to grow, especially in a way that would encourage learning.

“I’m talking about movies in an educational sense, as a way to discover other parts of the world,” he said. “Create a film class. You’ll see, kids won’t skip it.”

Del Toro also shared his thoughts on being a father after having a daughter with Kimberly Stewart in August 2011.

He said the girl is learning how to swim and is discovering the world around her.

“She has her own personality,” Del Toro said. “She’s not her mother. She’s not me.”

Both Del Toro and Stone are expected to remain in Puerto Rico through the weekend to raise money for the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, which is hosting its annual movie festival and will honor Stone’s movies.

Museum curator Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero said the money raised will be used to enhance the museum’s permanent collection, especially with Puerto Rican paintings from the 19th century and early 20th century.

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Act of kindness turns New York cop into media darling

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. national media just got the perfect holiday gift: a feel-good tale about a young police officer who dug into his own pocket to put boots on a barefoot panhandler on a freezing city sidewalk.

Even better was the way the story of New York City Police Officer Larry DePrimo‘s kindness unfolded.

Thanks to a blurry Facebook photo snapped on a cell phone by a tourist who happened the incident in Times Square, DePrimo, 25, went from anonymous Good Samaritan to national media celebrity in less than 72 hours.

The photo of the officer crouching with the new pair of boots next to the bedraggled man was featured on the front pages of New York‘s two popular tabloids, the New York Post and the New York Daily News, on Friday. An article describing the good deed was the most viewed story of The New York Times’s website on Friday morning.

DePrimo told and retold the story of his labor of love in interviews Friday on a half dozen national TV morning shows, including NBC’s “Today” show, ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “Morning Show,” CNN’s “Starting Point” and Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

“We’ve been speaking a lot the last couple of days about who should be the ‘Time’ person of the year — Time magazine. I’d like to nominate you,” “Fox & Friends” host Gretchen Carlson told DePrimo.

Little was known about the man to whom DePrimo gave the boots. He is said to be a veteran who was at one time homeless and was placed in veterans’ housing sometime in the past year, according to NBC 4 New York.

DePrimo’s story has been particularly appealing because most pictures and video civilians take of police officers expose cruelty, not generosity, said Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.

In contrast, “everything about this feels good and right and worthy,” Clark said, adding that the way the story came to the media’s attention contributed to its poignancy.

Squeezed into the spotlight was Jennifer Foster, the tourist who quietly snapped the photo of DePrimo that was posted to the New York Police Department’s Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon. She was flown to New York from Arizona for a Friday morning appearance on “Today” with DePrimo – meeting him for the first time.

“We decided that we were best friends now,” Foster said on the program.

Back in Times Square, television trucks and their crews swarmed the Skechers store where DePrimo bought the boots with the help of a worker who rang up the purchase with his employee discount. Even the small kindness of the discount triggered a wave of thank you calls and emails to the store, including from a retired detective from Arizona, said assistant manager Holli Barton.

(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Leslie Adler)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..