Google's Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones

'},"otherParams":{"t_e":1,".intl":"US"},"events":{"fetch":{lv:2,"sp":"1197280665","ps":"LREC,MON","npv":true,"bg":"#FFFFFF","em":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33\' sensitivity=\'0\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'fn_news;News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}'),"em_orig":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33\' sensitivity=\'0\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'fn_news;News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}')}}};var _createNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);var nodeHTML;if(center && !node){nodeHTML=_conf.nodes[nId];center.insert(nodeHTML);};};};var _prepareNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-ad-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);if(center && node){center.set("innerHTML","");center.insert(node);node.setStyle("display","block");};};};var _darla;var _config=function(){if(YAHOO.ads.darla){_darla = YAHOO.ads.darla;_createNodes();};};var _fetch=function(spaceid,adssa,ps){
if (typeof(ps)!='undefined')
_conf.events.fetch.ps = ps;if(typeof spaceid != "undefined") _conf.events.fetch.sp=spaceid;adssa = (typeof adssa != "undefined" && adssa != null) ? escape(adssa.replace(/\"/g, "'")) : "";_conf.events.fetch.em=_conf.events.fetch.em_orig.replace("ADSSA", adssa);if(_darla){_prepareNodes();_darla.setConfig(_conf);_darla.event("fetch");};};Y.on("domready", function(){_config();});;var that={"fetch":_fetch,"getNodes":_conf.nodes,"getConf":_conf};return that;}();/* Backwards compatibility - Assigning the latest instance to the main fetch function */YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.fetch=YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.photoslightboxdarla.fetch;
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {YAHOO.namespace('Media.Social').Lightbox = {};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.Media.Article.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.AuthorBadge();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.Branding();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.on("load", function () {
YUI.namespace("Media.SocialButtons");

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

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

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

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

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

return;

}

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

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

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

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


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets['lightbox7b074328ba80f0e906939c94408a9450'] = {"lightboxId":"5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570","pivotId":"8c9c5d48-1003-38e5-8cba-ae9828acbda7"};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset['5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","total":1,"photoby":"Photo By","xhrtype":"slideshow","videoconf":{"autoplay":true,"continuousPlay":true,"mute":false,"volume":"1.00","lang":"en-US","site":"news","region":"US","jurisdiction":"US","YVAP":{"accountId":"145","playContext":"default"},"pageSpaceId":"1197280665","comscoreC4":"US News","comscoreC6":"","showEmbedCode":true,"showShareUrl":true,"expName":"MediaArticleRelatedLightbox","expType":"inline","apiEnv":"prod"},"slideshow_id":null,"slideshow_title":null,"slideshow_title_baked_html":null,"slideshow_desc":null,"slideshow_rev":null,"slideshow_plink_vita":null,"photos":[{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l3.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/V9xx2l9jTi4JXe9pC3c9TQ--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMDA7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T201400Z_1_CBRE8A11JVJ00_RTROPTP_2_GOOGLE.JPG","width":450,"height":300,"uuid":"8c9c5d48-1003-38e5-8cba-ae9828acbda7","caption":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS\/Stephen Lam","captionBakedHtml":"

Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS\/Stephen Lam","date":"Fri, Nov 2, 2012 4:16 PM EDT","credit":"Reuters","byline":"\ufffd Stephen Lam \/ Reuters","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference in San Francisco","pivot_alias_id":"attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766","plink":"\/photos\/attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766.html","srchtrm":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference in San Francisco","revsp":"","rev":"21e4e7c0-252a-11e2-a7d5-a4e5802e1c8f","surl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/aXNb.Hjk6iN0EEJTYGBVkg--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9ODQ-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T201400Z_1_CBRE8A11JVJ00_RTROPTP_2_GOOGLE.JPG","swidth":84,"sheight":56}]};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1",
mod_total:"10", total:"0",
content_id:"048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33",
spaceid:"1197280665",
related_count:"-1"
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js';
})(document);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {
if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};}
if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};}
if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");}
YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_a3892574071a0307942d012a698560e8 = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"1b05b3fc-d288-43a3-bf0f-c88b56b4f5a8","sCrumb":"joLzFWo0yuj","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-a3892574071a0307942d012a698560e8","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"1197280665","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/obama-not-very-forgiving-president-155100124.html","artContentId":"ce046a10-4b9f-309f-89d2-8f861b0d84f5","sUltQstnTxt":"What do you think of the iPad Mini?","artContentTitle":"Obama Is Not a Very Forgiving President","artContentDesc":"A former brothel manager who helped the FBI bust a national prostitution ring. A retired sheriff who inadvertently helped a money launderer buy land. A young woman who mailed ecstasy tablets for a drug-dealing boyfriend, then worked with investigators to bring him down.","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"Yawn..","labelRight":"I need to have it!","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"8824","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"7624","rightBlocksNum":"1197","leftBlocksPerCent":"86","rightBlocksPerCent":"14","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":6017,\"s2\":458,\"s3\":344,\"s4\":418,\"s5\":387,\"s6\":1197,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Share your response with your friends on Facebook\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Share\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Your response has been shared with your friends on Facebook\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 8,824 people have responded\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 8,824 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":6017,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":458,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":344,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":418,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":387,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":1197,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_a3892574071a0307942d012a698560e8","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"
Read More..

Colin Firth, Michael Fassbender set for A. Scott Berg adaptation ‘Genius’

























LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender will star in “Genius,” directed by Michael Grandage, with Film Nation handling international sales, the company announced on Thursday.


Based on A. Scott Berg‘s biography “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” the tells the story of the relationship between Thomas Wolfe (Fassbender) and editor Max Perkins (Firth), the screenplay is written by John Logan.





















“Genius” will be produced by James Bierman for the Michael Grandage Company, launched at the end of 2011 by Grandage, the former artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse. Bierman served as executive producer at Donmar and co-formed MGC with Grandage. MGC is producing Logan’s new play, “Peter and Alice,” to be directed by Grandage, as part of a season of plays in London in Spring 2013.


FilmNation is selling the film at the AFM. CAA will arrange the financing and represent the film’s North American distribution rights. Principal photography is scheduled to start early in 2014.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Nurses Who Saved NICU Babies Remember Harrowing Hurricane Night

























Nurses at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at New York University’s Langone Medical Center have challenging jobs, even in the best of times. Their patients are babies, some weighing as little as 2 pounds, who require constant and careful care as they struggle to stay alive.


On Monday night, as superstorm Sandy bore down on Manhattan, the nurses’ jobs took on a whole new sense of urgency as failing power forced the hospital’s patients, including the NICU nurses’ tiny charges, to evacuate.





















“20/20″ recently reunited seven of those nurses: Claudia Roman, Nicola Zanzotta-Tagle, Margot Condon, Sandra Kyong Bradbury, Beth Largey, Annie Irace and Menchu Sanchez. They described how they managed to do their jobs – and save the most vulnerable of lives – under near-impossible circumstances.


On Monday night, as Sandy’s wind and rain buffeted the hospital’s windows, the nurses were preparing for a shift change and the day nurses had begun to brief the night shift nurses. Suddenly, the hospital was plunged into darkness. The respirators and monitors keeping the infants alive all went silent.


For one brief moment, everyone froze. Then the alarms began to ring as backup batteries kicked in. But the coast wasn’t clear – the nurses were soon horrified to learn that the hospital’s generator had failed, and that the East River had risen to start flooding the hospital.




Vanishing America: Jersey Shore Boardwalks Washed Away Watch Video



“Everybody ran to a patient to make sure that the babies were fine,” Nicola Zanzotto-Tagle recalled. “If you had your phone with a flashlight on the phone, you held it right over the baby.”


For now, the four most critical patients – infants that couldn’t breathe on their own – were being supplied oxygen by battery-powered respirators, but the clock was ticking. They had, at most, just four hours before the machines were at risk of failing.


Annie Irache tended to the most critical baby — he had had abdominal surgery just the day before – as an evacuation of 20 NICU babies began.


“[He] was on medications to keep up his blood pressure,” Irache said, “and he also had a cardiac defect, so he was our first baby to go.”


One by one, each tiny infant, swaddled in blankets and a heating pad, cradled by one nurse and surrounded by at least five others, was carried down nine flights of stairs. Security guards and secretaries pitched in, lighting the way with flashlights and cell phones.


The procession moved slowly. As nurses took their careful steps, they carefully squeezed bags of oxygen into the babies’ lungs.


“We literally synchronized our steps going down nine flights,” Zanzotto-Tagle said. “I would say ‘Step, step, step.”


With their adrenaline pumping, the nurses said, it was imperative that they stay focused.


“We’re not usually bagging a baby down a stairwell … n the dark,” said Claudia Roman. “I was most worried about, ‘Let me not trip on this staircase as I’m carrying someone’s precious child, because that would be unforgivable.”


When the medical staff and the 20 babies emerged, a line of ambulances was waiting. A video of Margot Condon cradling a tiny baby as she rode a gurney struck a chord worldwide. But Condon said she had a singular goal.


“I was making sure the tube was in place, that the baby was pink,” she said. “I was not taking my eyes off that baby or that tube.”


Like other nurses, she did not feel panic. Her precious patient helped keep her calm.


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Gruesome video raises concerns about Syria rebels

























BEIRUT (AP) — A video that appears to show a unit of Syrian rebels kicking terrified, captured soldiers and then executing them with machine guns raised concerns Friday about rebel brutality at a time when the United States is making its strongest push yet to forge an opposition movement it can work with.


U.N. officials and human rights groups believe President Bashar Assad‘s regime is responsible for the bulk of suspected war crimes in Syria‘s 19-month-old conflict, which began as a largely peaceful uprising but has transformed into a brutal civil war.





















But investigators of human rights abuses say rebel atrocities are on the rise.


At this stage “there may not be anybody with entirely clean hands,” Suzanne Nossel, head of the rights group Amnesty International, told The Associated Press.


The U.S. has called for a major leadership shakeup of Syria’s political opposition during a crucial conference next week in Qatar. Washington and its allies have been reluctant to give stronger backing to the largely Turkey-based opposition, viewing it as ineffective, fractured and out of touch with fighters trying to topple Assad.


But the new video adds to growing concerns about those fighters and could complicate Washington’s efforts to decide which of the myriad of opposition groups to support. The video can be seen at http://bit.ly/YxDcWE .


“We condemn human rights violations by any party,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, commenting on the video. “Anyone committing atrocities should be held to account.”


She said the Free Syrian Army has urged its fighters to adhere to a code of conduct it established in August, reflecting international rules of war.


The summary execution of the captured soldiers, purportedly shown in an amateur video, took place Thursday during a rebel assault on the strategic northern town of Saraqeb, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.


It was unclear which rebel faction was involved, though the al-Qaida-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra was among those fighting in the area, the Observatory said.


The video, posted on YouTube, shows a crowd of gunmen in what appears to be a building under construction. They surround a group of captured men on the ground, some on their bellies as if ordered to lie down, others sprawled as if wounded. Some of the captives are in Syrian military uniforms.


“These are Assad’s dogs,” one of the gunmen is heard saying of those cowering on the ground.


The gunmen kick and beat some of the men. One gunman shouts, “Damn you!” The exact number of soldiers in the video is not clear, but there appear to be about 10 of them.


Moments later, gunfire erupts for about 35 seconds, screams are heard and the men on the floor are seen shaking and twitching. The spray of bullets kicks up dust from the ground.


The video’s title says it shows dead and captive soldiers at the Hmeisho checkpoint. The Observatory said 12 soldiers were killed Thursday at the checkpoint, one of three regime positions near Saraqeb attacked by the rebels in the area that day.


Amnesty International’s forensics analysts did not detect signs of forgery in the video, according to Nossel. The group has not yet been able to confirm the location, date and the identity of those shown in the footage, she said.


After their assault Thursday, rebels took full control of Saraqeb, a strategic position on the main highway linking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo — which rebels have been trying to capture for months — with the regime stronghold of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.


On Friday, at least 143 people, including 48 government soldiers, were killed in gunbattles, regime shelling attacks on rebel-held areas and other violence, the Observatory said.


Of the more than 36,000 killed so far in Syria, about one-fourth are regime soldiers, according to the Observatory. The rest include civilians and rebel fighters, but the group does not offer a breakdown.


Daily casualties have been rising since early summer, when the regime began bombing densely populated areas from the air in an attempt to dislodge rebels and break a battlefield stalemate.


Karen Abu Zayd, a member of the U.N. panel documenting war crimes in Syria, said the regime is to blame for the bulk of the atrocities so far, but that rebel abuses are on the rise as the insurgents become better armed and as foreign fighters with radical agendas increasingly join their ranks.


“The balance is changing somewhat,” she said in a phone interview, blaming in part the influx of foreign fighters not restrained by social ties that bind Syrians.


Abu Zayd said the panel, though unable to enter Syria for now, has evidence of “at least dozens, but probably hundreds” of war crimes, based on some 1,100 interviews. The group has already compiled two lists of suspected perpetrators and units for future prosecution, she said.


Many rebel groups operate independently, even if they nominally fall under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army. In recent months, rebel groups have formed military councils to improve coordination, but the chaos of the war has allowed for considerable autonomy at the local level.


“The killing of unarmed soldiers shows how difficult it is to control the escalation of the conflict and establish a united armed opposition that abides by the same ground rules and norms in battle,” said Anthony Skinner, an analyst at Maplecroft, a British risk analysis company.


Rebel commanders and Syrian opposition leaders have promised human rights groups that they would try to prevent abuses. However, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report in September that statements by some opposition leaders indicate they tolerate or condone extrajudicial killings.


Free Syrian Army commanders contacted by the AP on Friday said they were either unaware or had no accurate details about the latest video.


Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, called for the gunmen shown in the video to be tracked down and brought to justice.


He added, however, that atrocities committed by rebels are relatively rare compared to what he said was a “massive genocide by the regime.”


Regime forces have launched indiscriminate attacks on residential neighborhoods with tank shells, mortar rounds and bombs dropped from warplanes, devastating large areas. In raids of rebel strongholds, Assad’s forces have carried out summary executions, rights groups say.


Rebels have also targeted civilians, setting off car bombs near mosques, restaurants and government offices. Human Rights Watch said in September it collected evidence of the summary executions of more than a dozen people by rebels.


In August, a video showed several bloodied prisoners being led into a noisy outdoor crowd in the northern city of Aleppo and placed against a wall before gunmen shot them to death. That video sparked international condemnation, including a rare rebuke from the Obama administration.


The latest video emerged on the eve of a crucial opposition conference that is to begin Sunday in Qatar’s capital of Doha. More than 400 delegates from the Syrian National Council and other opposition groups are expected to attend to choose a new leadership.


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for a more unified and representative opposition, even suggesting the U.S. would handpick some of the candidates.


Clinton’s comments reflected growing U.S. impatience with the Syrian opposition, which, in turn, has accused Washington of not having charted a clear path to bringing down Assad.


The Syrian National Council plans to elect new leaders during the four-day conference but is cool to a U.S. proposal to set up a much broader group and a transitional government, said Monajed, the SNC member who runs a think tank in Britain.


U.S. officials have said Washington is pushing for a greater role for the Free Syrian Army and representation of local coordinating committees and mayors of liberated cities in Syria.


Nuland said that it would be easier for the international community to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians and non-lethal aid to the rebels once a broader, unified opposition leadership is in place.


Such a body could also help persuade Assad backers Russia and China “that change is necessary” and that Syria’s opposition has a better plan for the country than the regime, she said.


___


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


Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Bloomberg cancels marathon amid outcry

It's a good time to be a free agent in baseball. Josh Hamilton and Zack Greinke appear to be ready to cash in --> http://t.co/XC3i3dLF
Read More..

Google's Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones

'},"otherParams":{"t_e":1,".intl":"US"},"events":{"fetch":{lv:2,"sp":"1197280665","ps":"LREC,MON","npv":true,"bg":"#FFFFFF","em":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33\' sensitivity=\'0\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'fn_news;News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}'),"em_orig":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33\' sensitivity=\'0\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'fn_news;News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}')}}};var _createNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);var nodeHTML;if(center && !node){nodeHTML=_conf.nodes[nId];center.insert(nodeHTML);};};};var _prepareNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-ad-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);if(center && node){center.set("innerHTML","");center.insert(node);node.setStyle("display","block");};};};var _darla;var _config=function(){if(YAHOO.ads.darla){_darla = YAHOO.ads.darla;_createNodes();};};var _fetch=function(spaceid,adssa,ps){
if (typeof(ps)!='undefined')
_conf.events.fetch.ps = ps;if(typeof spaceid != "undefined") _conf.events.fetch.sp=spaceid;adssa = (typeof adssa != "undefined" && adssa != null) ? escape(adssa.replace(/\"/g, "'")) : "";_conf.events.fetch.em=_conf.events.fetch.em_orig.replace("ADSSA", adssa);if(_darla){_prepareNodes();_darla.setConfig(_conf);_darla.event("fetch");};};Y.on("domready", function(){_config();});;var that={"fetch":_fetch,"getNodes":_conf.nodes,"getConf":_conf};return that;}();/* Backwards compatibility - Assigning the latest instance to the main fetch function */YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.fetch=YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.photoslightboxdarla.fetch;
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {YAHOO.namespace('Media.Social').Lightbox = {};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.Media.Article.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.AuthorBadge();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.Branding();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.on("load", function () {
YUI.namespace("Media.SocialButtons");

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

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

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

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

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

return;

}

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

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

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

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


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets['lightbox7b074328ba80f0e906939c94408a9450'] = {"lightboxId":"5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570","pivotId":"8c9c5d48-1003-38e5-8cba-ae9828acbda7"};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset['5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","total":1,"photoby":"Photo By","xhrtype":"slideshow","videoconf":{"autoplay":true,"continuousPlay":true,"mute":false,"volume":"1.00","lang":"en-US","site":"news","region":"US","jurisdiction":"US","YVAP":{"accountId":"145","playContext":"default"},"pageSpaceId":"1197280665","comscoreC4":"US News","comscoreC6":"","showEmbedCode":true,"showShareUrl":true,"expName":"MediaArticleRelatedLightbox","expType":"inline","apiEnv":"prod"},"slideshow_id":null,"slideshow_title":null,"slideshow_title_baked_html":null,"slideshow_desc":null,"slideshow_rev":null,"slideshow_plink_vita":null,"photos":[{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l3.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/V9xx2l9jTi4JXe9pC3c9TQ--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMDA7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T201400Z_1_CBRE8A11JVJ00_RTROPTP_2_GOOGLE.JPG","width":450,"height":300,"uuid":"8c9c5d48-1003-38e5-8cba-ae9828acbda7","caption":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS\/Stephen Lam","captionBakedHtml":"

Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS\/Stephen Lam","date":"Fri, Nov 2, 2012 4:16 PM EDT","credit":"Reuters","byline":"\ufffd Stephen Lam \/ Reuters","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference in San Francisco","pivot_alias_id":"attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766","plink":"\/photos\/attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766.html","srchtrm":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference in San Francisco","revsp":"","rev":"21e4e7c0-252a-11e2-a7d5-a4e5802e1c8f","surl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/aXNb.Hjk6iN0EEJTYGBVkg--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9ODQ-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T201400Z_1_CBRE8A11JVJ00_RTROPTP_2_GOOGLE.JPG","swidth":84,"sheight":56}]};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1",
mod_total:"10", total:"0",
content_id:"048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33",
spaceid:"1197280665",
related_count:"-1"
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js';
})(document);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {
if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};}
if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};}
if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");}
YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_fd3182a74fc12b41f9c3ecb0597e49b1 = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"1b05b3fc-d288-43a3-bf0f-c88b56b4f5a8","sCrumb":"","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-fd3182a74fc12b41f9c3ecb0597e49b1","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"1197280665","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/googles-android-software-3-4-smartphones-200645049--sector.html?_esi=0","artContentId":"048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33","sUltQstnTxt":"What do you think of the iPad Mini?","artContentTitle":"Google\\'s Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones","artContentDesc":"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter featured Google Inc\\'s Android mobile operating system, as the gap between Google and Apple Inc-based phones widened further, according to a new research report. Shipments of Android-based smartphones made by Samsung, HTC and other vendors nearly doubled in the third quarter, reaching 136 million units, according to industry research firm IDC. The strong sales boosted Android\\'s share of the worldwide smartphone market to 75 percent, from 57.5 percent in the year-ago period. ...","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"Yawn..","labelRight":"I need to have it!","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"3739","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"3250","rightBlocksNum":"487","leftBlocksPerCent":"87","rightBlocksPerCent":"13","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":2524,\"s2\":216,\"s3\":157,\"s4\":191,\"s5\":162,\"s6\":487,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Share your response with your friends on Facebook\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Share\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Your response has been shared with your friends on Facebook\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 3,739 people have responded\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 3,739 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":2524,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":216,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":157,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":191,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":162,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":487,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_fd3182a74fc12b41f9c3ecb0597e49b1","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"
Read More..

“The Man with the Iron Fists” review: RZA serves up half-baked chop-socky

























LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Homage is a tricky thing – you can be full of love for the object of your tribute, and recreate its trappings with accuracy and sincerity, but that doesn’t mean your results will match the original.


Take “The Man with the Iron Fists,” the first film directed by RZA, founding father of legendary hip-hop combo the Wu-Tang Clan. From the name of his group to the look of his movie, this is a guy who has clearly watched a whole lot of vintage martial-arts movies. If I were on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and my multiple-choice answers were down to “Five Deadly Venoms” and “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” this is the guy I’d want for my lifeline.





















I’d even hire him to create one of those fake trailers in “Grindhouse,” since he clearly appreciates the pacing and the acting style of the Shaw Brothers kung fu classics of the 1970s. Instead, RZA hooked up with “Grindhouse”-meisters Eli Roth (who co-wrote “Fists”) and Quentin Tarantino (who “presents” this new film) to create this full-on, feature-length homage.


The blood spurts, the knives shoot out, and the fists fly – but “The Man with the Iron Fists” never takes off. As the old saying goes, RZA knows the words, but he doesn’t know the music.


He’s also not actor enough to tackle the pivotal role he’s given himself, as Blacksmith in Jungle Village, a tiny hamlet beset by various warring clans. Blacksmith just wants to liberate his lover Lady Silk (Jamie Chung) from the brothel owned by Madam Blossom (Lucy Liu), but instead he must forge weapons for members of the Lion and Fox clans.


The Lions have problems of their own – engaged by the emperor to protect a shipment of gold, second-in-command Silver Lion (Byron Mann) assassinates Gold Lion (Kuan Tai Chen) with the intent of stealing the gold. Word of his treachery reaches Gold Lion’s son Zen Yi (Rick Yune), who returns to Jungle Village seeking vengeance.


Meanwhile, mysterious Englishman Jack Knife (Russell Crowe) shows up at Madam Blossom‘s with a vast array of appetites – and an even more varied collection of weapons.


Word is that RZA originally had a four-hour cut that he hoped to release in two parts, “Kill Bill”-style, but instead was forced to slash his vision down to 90 minutes. That might excuse the choppiness of the plot and exposition, but it doesn’t explain why the fighting scenes are so listless and the acting (with the notable exception of Liu and Crowe, who were smart enough to create their own amusement) so stiff.


Regarding the latter, the performances aren’t even bad in an homage-to-the-bad-acting-of-the-original way; they’re just dull and not ironically so. As for the action sequences, the choreography and camera movements suggest 1970s chop-socky, but they are simulacra under glass — it’s like watching a bad high school production of “West Side Story,” where the Jets and the Sharks are clearly never going to hurt each other.


(The midnight audience that watched the film with me didn’t whoop or laugh a single time during these gory but bloodless melees.)


The one fresh idea that “The Man with the Iron Fists” has – namely, to contrast the 18th century settings with contemporary hip-hop music – is quickly abandoned; after the first one or two fight scenes, we’re back to very generic scoring. The film also might have scored points for allowing the African-American Blacksmith character to exist in feudal China without explaining how he got there…but no, they explain it, in a tedious flashback that adds little except an all-too-brief cameo by an exploitation legend.


If RZA wanted to host a retrospective of kung fu classics, I’d be first in line. But his admiration for the genre doesn’t translate into capably executing it himself.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

The Final Attack Ads

























Both sides in the presidential race are making one last push for votes with false and distorted claims on television, radio and even in text messages:


  • A liberal super PAC’s radio ad in Ohio twists Mitt Romney’s words by having him say six times: “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” He actually said: “I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”

  • A conservative super PAC falsely claims in a TV ad that President Obama’s health care law “creates an unaccountable new board that can cut Medicare benefits with no notice — and no one, not even Congress can stop it.” It is not “unaccountable.” It cannot “cut Medicare benefits.” And Congress can vote to “stop” its proposals.

  • A pro-Romney super PAC falsely claims that “America’s health care is becoming more like the Canadian system.” But the health care law signed by Obama does not impose a single-payer, taxpayer-supported system like Canada’s.

  • Planned Parenthood Action Fund is running a radio ad in Ohio, Colorado and Virginia, that falsely claims Romney wants to “get rid” of Planned Parenthood. Romney said he wants to eliminate federal funding for the organization, not end it.

  • An Obama campaign radio ad in Florida falsely claims that the Bush-era tax cuts led to the 2008 financial meltdown. A national commission that examined the causes of the crisis did not list the tax cuts as a factor in its 2011 report.

  • A Virginia-based Republican firm is sending text messages that, among other things, falsely claims Obama has raised taxes by $ 2,000 on “the average American.” Not only have income tax rates remained unchanged, but Obama cut payroll taxes and provided a tax credit benefiting average Americans.

Twisting Romney’s Words on the ‘Very Poor’





















While campaigns historically turn to positive ads in the days just prior to the election, the same is not true for independent groups.


In Ohio, a newly formed super PAC called Black Men Vote, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the final days on radio ads, including one that makes two false claims:


  • It takes a statement that Romney made about the very poor out of context — six times in 60 seconds. Listeners hear Romney say over and over, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” He actually said, “I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”

  • The ad also says Romney “wants to cut taxes for rich people.” His tax plan would cut tax rates, but not necessarily taxes. He says his plan will be revenue neutral, but he has not provided a complete plan — so the distributional effects of it are not known.

Black Men Vote was formed only two months ago — boosted by a $ 250,000 contribution from hip-hop star Prakazrel Michel. To date, it has spent a little more than $ 1 million – much of it recently on radio ads in Ohio.


Its latest radio ad, which began airing in Cleveland on Oct. 31, starts with an audio clip of the Rev. Al Sharpton saying, “Mitt Romney had this to say.” The ad then plays Romney saying, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” But Romney’s words — which he said on CNN — are cut off mid-sentence, and distort what he actually said.


Here’s Romney’s complete thought:



Romney, Feb. 1, 2012: I’m in this race ’cause I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America – the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.



A reading of this makes it clear that Romney said he does care about the poor — at least enough to maintain the safety net and fix it “if it needs repair.”


The ad could have easily used another clip from this very statement to claim that Romney doesn’t care about the very rich — but, in fact, the ad makes the opposite claim. It says that Romney not only doesn’t care about the poor, but that “he wants to cut taxes for rich people.”


The Obama campaign has repeatedly made false statements about Romney’s tax plan — which would reduce tax rates across the board by 20 percent, among other things. The Obama campaign has said that the plan will provide tax cuts to the wealthy and increase taxes on the middle class. But as the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has said: “Because Gov. Romney has not specified how he would increase the tax base, it is impossible to determine how the plan would affect federal tax revenues or the distribution of the tax burden.”


Gross ‘Obamacare’ Falsehoods


Super PAC for America, a group formed by media consultant and political commentator Dick Morris, packs numerous bogus claims about the federal health care law into 30 seconds.


It falsely claims the federal health care law:



“Ends Medicare Advantage.” The law reduces payment levels for Medicare Advantage, which covers Medicare beneficiaries through private insurance. It doesn’t end it.


“Creates an unaccountable new board that can cut Medicare benefits with no notice — and no one, not even Congress can stop it.” The Independent Payment Advisory Board, by law, cannot cut benefits, and it is accountable to Congress, which can vote to reject the board’s recommendations.


“Cuts Medicare by $ 716 billion.” This bogus claim has been cited so often it landed on our 2012 Whoppers list. The law would slow the future growth of Medicare spending by $ 716 billion over 10 years, mostly through reductions in payments to medical providers.



The TV ad, titled “Obamacare Hurts Seniors,” started running Nov. 1 in Pennsylvania. It repeats some of the false claims that we covered in “A Campaign Full of Mediscare,” such as the claim about “cutting” Medicare by $ 716 billion. But the ad in two instances distorts familiar bogus claims far beyond what we’ve heard before when it discusses Medicare Advantage and the Independent Payment Advisory Board.


Medicare Advantage, which covers about 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries, will see reduced payment levels through 2017, to bring its costs in line with traditional Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans receive higher payments from the government on average than traditional Medicare. It was 9 percent higher in 2010.


Phasing out extra payments to Medicare Advantage will reduce Medicare spending, is likely to reduce added benefits that Medicare Advantage subscribers enjoy (such as an extra free pair of eyeglasses or gym memberships), and reduce total participation in Medicare Advantage. Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, told Congress in March 2011, that enrollment in Medicare Advantage will decline by about 60 percent by 2017, when the payment changes are fully phased in.


But it’s not ending. Here’s what the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation said about the current and future state of Medicare Advantage:



Kaiser Family Foundation, November 2011: Over the longer term, companies offering Medicare Advantage plans may respond to payment changes in different ways, depending on the circumstances of the company, the location of their plans, their historical commitment to the Medicare market, their ability to leverage efficiencies in the delivery of care to enrollees, and possibly their quality ratings and bonus payments. Decisions made by these firms could have important implications for beneficiaries with respect to their choice of plans, out-of-pocket costs, and access to providers.



As for the claim about Medicare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board, the ad packs three false statements into a single sentence. It is not “unaccountable.” It cannot “cut Medicare benefits.” And Congress can “stop” the board’s recommendations.


The law (page 490) says that the board cannot make “any recommendation to ration health care … or otherwise restrict benefits.” Furthermore, as we wrote before, Congress can override the board’s recommendations for reducing spending with a three-fifths majority of both houses of Congress, or it could institute its own reductions of an equal amount to what the board puts forth.


Not a Canadian-Style Health Care System


A conservative super PAC Americans for Prosperity has revived content from a 2009 ad — making the misleading claim that the health care law is a step toward the Canadian system — in a last-minute attack against Obama. The ad features the testimonial of a Canadian woman, Shona Holmes, who sought treatment for a brain condition in the U.S. after she says she learned that delays to getting treatment through Canada’s government-run health care system could prove fatal.


The ad then shows the words, “But under President Obama, America’s health care is becoming more like the Canadian system that failed Shona.”


Longtime faithful readers of FactCheck.org may be feeling a sense of deja vu. We wrote about an ad featuring Holmes back in 2009, when Americans for Prosperity was making a pitch against the health care law.


We noted that CBC News (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) aired a story July 31 quoting a top neurosurgeon in Canada saying that the claim that Holmes would have died is “an exaggeration.” Holmes was diagnosed with Rathke’s cleft cyst, a rare, benign cyst that forms near the pituitary gland. It’s not known to be fatal. Another neurosurgeon told CBC News that he’d never heard of someone dying from the condition.


Back then, we also asked the Mayo Clinic — where Holmes was treated — about the usual prognosis of the condition. Fredric Meyer, M.D., chair of neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., responded in a statement that “RCC is a benign lesion and is not typically life-threatening.”


After our story ran, Holmes released a statement through Americans for Prosperity in which she says her husband “was told in no uncertain terms that if I waited the time scheduled to see specialists back in Canada I would be dead.” Holmes noted that she was suing the Canadian government and could not release her medical files, but she said that she suffered from a rare disorder and that doctors she spoke with before and after her treatment said she needed surgery within hours to days.


Ultimately, we don’t know what an American doctor may have told Holmes’ husband about whether her condition was life-threatening, or whether there were complicating factors with her conditions that might have made it so.


Perhaps more importantly, as we noted in our original story about an ad that featured Holmes in 2009, the health care law does not impose a single-payer system like Canada’s, where all citizens have health care coverage provided by the government and paid for with taxes. Under the health care law signed by Obama, Americans would continue to buy insurance on the private market.


Planned Parenthood Piffle


In a radio ad running in Colorado, Ohio and Virginia, Planned Parenthood Action Fund claims that Romney wants to “get rid” of Planned Parenthood. That’s not true. Romney said he wants to eliminate federal funding for the organization.


Although it’s unclear how much federal funding goes toward Planned Parenthood, less than half of the organization’s total revenue comes from government sources, including state budgets.


Romney did utter the words “Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that” while talking with a Missouri television reporter in March. But he was talking about ways to reduce the federal debt and therefore federal spending. The program would not be eliminated, despite attempts by Democrats to spin Romney’s words.


The “spending” section on Romney’s website specifically targets “Title X Family Planning Funding,” which the federal government awards to organizations such as Planned Parenthood.


The federal government awarded $ 317.5 million to Title X clinics such as Planned Parenthood in fiscal year 2010. But as we’ve written before, Planned Parenthood doesn’t receive all of that money.


Planned Parenthood told us in 2011 that it received about $ 70 million in Title X money during the 2008-09 year, which was 19 percent of all government sources of revenue for that year.


Romney has also said that, in general, he will “remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget.” But it’s difficult to assess how much federal funding beyond Title X goes toward the organization.


Planned Parenthood’s 2009-2010 annual report listed $ 1,048,200,000 in total revenue. The organization said 46 percent — or $ 487 million — of its revenue came from “government health services, grants and reimbursements.”


Not all of that money came from the federal government. That figure includes money from Title X and other funding sources such as Medicaid, which includes federal and state funds.


Tall Tax Cut Tale


The Obama campaign is airing a radio ad in Florida that falsely claims that the Bush-era tax cuts led to the 2008 financial meltdown, and implies that Romney’s tax plan will cause more harm. A national commission that examined the causes of the crisis did not list the tax cuts as a factor in its 2011 report. And neither did we when we wrote in 2008 about the many factors contributing to the collapse.



Radio ad: More huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would just take us back to the same failed approach that drove Florida’s economy into the ditch four years ago.



In 2008, we cited several institutions for the meltdown. They included:


  • The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.

  • Wall Street firms who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.

  • The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.

And in 2011, the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis of the United States offered plenty of reasons in a 600-plus page report.



While the vulnerabilities that created the potential for crisis were years in the making, it was the collapse of the housing bubble—fueled by low interest rates, easy and available credit, scant regulation, and toxic mortgages— that was the spark that ignited a string of events, which led to a full-blown crisis in the fall of 2008…


The crisis reached seismic proportions in September 2008 with the failure of Lehman Brothers and the impending collapse of the insurance giant American International Group (AIG). Panic fanned by a lack of transparency of the balance sheets of major financial institutions, coupled with a tangle of interconnections among institutions perceived to be “too big to fail,” caused the credit markets to seize up. Trading ground to a halt. The stock market plummeted. The economy plunged into a deep recession.



Nowhere in the lengthy report does it list the Bush tax cuts as one of the causes of the economic meltdown.


There are a lot of people, institutions and policies to blame for the crisis — the effects of which are still being felt in Florida, where the foreclosure rate ranks highest in the nation. But the Bush tax cuts aren’t among them.


The radio ad also repeats two other false claims. It says the Romney-Ryan Medicare plan “threatens to raise Florida seniors out-of-pocket health care costs by more than $ 6,000 a year,” while doling out “a massive new $ 5 trillion tax cut” that will benefit “millionaires and billionaires.” Neither claim is true.


As we noted in our Aug. 14 item “Outdated Attacks on Ryan,” the claim that the GOP Medicare plan will cost seniors more than $ 6,000 a year stems from a less generous plan Ryan released last year, not his most recent budget plan. There is no estimate for how much Ryan’s might cost seniors, if anything. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which is where the $ 6,000 figure comes from in the first place, says only that “beneficiaries might face higher costs” under the new Ryan plan.


And, as we also wrote before, Romney promises his tax plan will be offset by reducing tax deductions and credits and won’t add to the deficit — so he is not proposing “a massive new $ 5 trillion tax cut.”


Viral Texts


Technology has made it possible for campaigns to push out their message in a lot of new ways. Reuters reported that a Virginia-based Republican advertising firm, ccAdvertising, appeared to have found a legal loophole allowing it to send out a flood of unsolicited anti-Obama text messages.


The texts could actually cost the receiver of them money if they don’t have an unlimited data plan, Reuters noted. On top of that, they might be paying for political messages that aren’t accurate.


Reuters correspondent Alina Selyukh provided us with a list of 11 different text messages passed on to her by colleagues who had received them. They deal with a variety of topics ranging from taxes, to debt, to abortion. We chose two to point out that they also contain misleading information.


The first is a text that claims, “The average American pays at least $ 2000 more in taxes than 4 years ago. STOP OBAMA!” That’s not accurate. Income tax rates have remained unchanged under Obama, and there have been two notable tax breaks that have benefited average Americans.


As we have noted before when Republicans made misleading claims about the president raising taxes on middle-income people, Obama’s 2 percentage point reduction in the Social Security payroll tax started in 2011, and is scheduled to continue through the end of 2012. The cut is equal to $ 1,000 this year for a worker making $ 50,000 a year — or as much as $ 2,202 to any worker earning at least the maximum taxable level of wages or salary ($ 110,100 for 2012). Prior to that, he signed the stimulus bill into law, which included the “Making Work Pay” tax credit that benefited nearly all working families, and was in effect from 2009 through 2010. That credit was worth a maximum of $ 400 per person, or $ 800 for couples during those years.


According to data from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, those in the middle quintile of cash income in 2008, the year before Obama took office, had an average income of $ 46,943, and had an average federal tax burden of $ 6,549. The average rate they paid was 14 percent.


In 2012, the average income for those in the middle income group rose to $ 50,863, and they paid an average federal tax burden of $ 7,165. But the average rate was almost identical, 14.1 percent.


So, the average federal tax burden for people in the middle quintile went up by $ 616. But their average income also rose by $ 3,920. More important, the rate was nearly identical.


Another text from the group made contradictory claims. One stated, “Medicare goes bankrupt in 4000 days while Obama plays politics with senior health.” Another said, “Seniors cant afford to have 4 more years of Obama budget cuts to Medicare.”


As we noted above, Obama’s health care law proposes to reduce the future growth of Medicare spending by $ 716 billion over the next 10 years. That will extend the solvency of the program by eight years, from 2016 to 2024.


Romney proposes to repeal those cuts along with the rest of the new health care law (although his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, as chairman of the House Budget Committee, proposed to keep those same cuts, applying the savings to different ends). Romney’s plan would, in effect, return Medicare’s insolvency deadline back to 2016.  So, it is contradictory for the texts to fault Obama both for making cuts to the growth of Medicare while at the same time warning that he is doing nothing about the pending insolvency of the program.


The Hill reported that GoDaddy, a domain registrar, suspended the firm’s websites a day after the text messages started going out.


– Eugene Kiely, Robert Farley and Ben Finley


Also Read
Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Canada will push to keep bank capital rules on schedule

























OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will urge all countries to stick to the agreed schedule for implementing tougher bank capital rules at a November 4-5 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.


The so-called Basel III rules are the world’s regulatory response to the financial crisis, forcing banks to triple the amount of basic capital they hold in a bid to avoid future taxpayer bailouts.





















They were to be phased in from January 2013 but areas such as the United States and the European Union are not yet ready and U.S. and British supervisors have criticized them as too complex to work.


The Canadian official, who briefed reports ahead of the meeting on condition that he not be named, said it was imperative that the rules, the timelines and the principles behind them be respected and said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty would make that view known to his G20 colleagues.


Canada sees the European debt crisis as the biggest near-term risk to the global economy, and it also expects the U.S. debt crisis to be top of mind at the talks, the official said.


But the meeting takes place just before the U.S. presidential election and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be absent, so it remains unclear how much the G20 can pressure Washington on that front.


Some other countries have also scaled back their delegations, raising doubts about how meaningful the meeting will be.


The official dismissed that argument, saying high-level officials substituting for their ministers allowed for extremely important issues to be addressed anyway.


He said holding each country around the table accountable to its past commitments helped keep the momentum going toward resolving global economic problems.


(Reporting by Louise Egan; Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by M.D. Golan)


Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Fuel scarce as East Coast struggles to recover

NEW YORK/SEASIDE HEIGHTS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded homes for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms to hit the United States.


New York subway trains crawled back to limited service after being shut down since Sunday, but the lower half of Manhattan still lacked power and surrounding areas such as Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken remained crippled from a record storm surge and flooding.


At least 95 people died in the "superstorm" that ravaged the Northeastern United States on Monday. Officials said the number could rise as rescuers searched house-by-house in coastal towns.


"I worked all my life, and everything I had is right there," said Bob Stewart, 59, standing on the Jersey Shore beach in the town of Seaside Heights and looking at the pile of debris that was once his home. "I put my life right there."


New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Thursday that nearly a 1,000 people had been rescued by authorities.


In blackened New York City neighborhoods, some residents complained there was a lack of police and feared an increase in crime. Some were also concerned about traffic safety. New York police officials were not immediately available to comment.


"People feel safe during the day but as soon as the sun sets, people are extremely scared. The fact that Guardian Angels are on the streets trying to restore law just shows how out of control the situation is in lower Manhattan," said Wolfgang Ban, owner of Edi & The Wolf restaurant in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood.


The Guardian Angels are a group of anti-crime volunteers.


More than 15 people in the borough of Queens were charged with looting, and a man was charged on Thursday with threatening another driver with a gun after he tried to cut in on a line of cars waiting for gas, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.


The financial cost of the storm promised to be staggering. Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast.


At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe ever, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.


POWER OUT, GAS SHORTAGE


The presidential campaign was back in full swing on Thursday after being on hold for several days because of the storm. President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney head of next Tuesday's election, appeared to gain politically from his disaster relief performance.


Christie, a vocal Romney supporter, praised Obama, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, endorsed Obama on Thursday.


In New York, U.N. headquarters suffered severe damage and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered recovery help to the United States and Caribbean nations affected by the storm.


The hunt for gasoline added to a climate of uncertainty as Sandy's death toll and price tag rose.


"I'm so stressed out," said Jessica Bajno, 29, a teacher from Elmont, Long Island, who was waiting in line for gas. "I've been driving around to nearby towns all morning, and being careful about not running out of gas in the process. Everything is closed. I'm feeling anxious."


Some residents may lack electricity for weeks. New York utility Consolidated Edison restored power to 250,000 customers, with 650,000 others still in the dark.


The vast majority will be restored by the weekend of November 10-11, but "the remaining customer restorations could take an additional week or more," the company said.


Advertising creative director Chris Swift, 37, lost power in his apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea district on Monday and by Thursday he was so fed up he got on a bus to Boston.


"I tried 20 (New York City) hotels on foot as couldn't call them with no battery left on my phone, but they were all booked. I tried to get to (friends in) Brooklyn but cabs would not take me as they we're running out gas," he said.


About 4.6 million homes and businesses in 15 U.S. states were without power on Thursday, down from a record high of nearly 8.5 million.


More deaths were recorded overnight in the New York borough of Staten Island, where authorities recovered 17 bodies after the storm lifted whole houses off their foundations. Among the dead were two boys, aged 4 and 2, who were swept from their mother's arms by the floodwaters, police said.


In all, 39 people died in New York City, officials said.


"It was like living through Titanic but on ground," said Krystina Berrios, 25, of Staten Island, looking at her bedroom caked in mud, furniture upended. "You would never think in a million years having to live through something like this."


JERSEY SHORE FLOORED


Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.


In New Jersey, where entire neighborhoods in oceanside towns were swallowed by seawater and the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed, the death toll rose to 13.


Floodwaters receded from the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, leaving behind a smelly mess of submerged basements and cars littering the sidewalks.


"The water was rushing in. It was like a river coming," said Benedicte Lenoble, a photo researcher from Hoboken. "Now it's a mess everywhere. There's no power. The stores aren't open. Recovery? I don't know."


New Jersey natives Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will headline a benefit concert for storm victims Friday on NBC television, the network announced.


The Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to cover 100 percent of emergency power and public transportation costs through November 9 for affected areas of New York and New Jersey, up from the traditional share of 75 percent.


More than 36,000 disaster survivors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have applied for federal disaster assistance and more than $3.4 million in direct assistance has already been approved, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.


The Pentagon was airlifting power restoration experts and trucks from California to New York to assist millions of people still living in darkness.


Fuel supplies into New York and New Jersey were hit by idled refineries, a closed New York Harbor, damages to import terminals, and a closed oil pipeline.


The scarcity of fuel, electricity and supplies made cleanup more daunting for barrier towns.


Seaside Heights residents who obeyed the mandatory evacuation order were cut off from their homes. The entire community was submerged by the storm surge, which washed over the island and into the bay that separates it from the mainland.


Chris Delman, 30, saw a photograph of his house in a local newspaper on Wednesday. It was still standing.


"We ain't living in Seaside no more, that's obvious," Delman said. "I just want to know what I have left."


(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus throughout the U.S. Northeast; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jim Loney and Peter Cooney)


Read More..