Israeli Settlement Plan Would Split West Bank

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

A point in East Jerusalem overlooking a region to the left called E1, where Israel plans to build.

JERUSALEM — High up in an empty, mountainous expanse east of this city there is a stone patio with a pair of green metal benches and a plaque marking the cornerstone of a future Jewish community. Dedicated in 2009, the plaque promises the new city will be built “adjacent to the united Jerusalem, which will be quickly re-established.”

Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinians see as their capital, is anything but united, with fierce fights over its development posing perhaps the greatest threat to the prospects of peace. And beyond the cornerstone, nothing has been erected since in this contentious 4.6-square-mile area, known as E1, where there are many more goats than people.

But Israel’s announcement on Friday that it was moving ahead with zoning and planning preparations for the area could change all that, and many fear that it could close the window on the chance for a two-state solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Construction in E1, in fWest Bank territory that Israel captured in the 1967 war, would connect the large Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, dividing the West Bank in two. The Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem would be cut off from the capital, making the contiguous Palestinian state endorsed by the United Nations last week virtually impossible.

Although Israeli officials did not call the move retaliation for the United Nations vote, most people here assumed the timing was not coincidental.

“It’s like two 3-year-old children playing, and one is hitting and the other is slapping instead of sitting down,” said Alex Lash, 56, an Israeli who was having a breakfast at a bustling restaurant here on Saturday morning in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina after a three-hour mountain-bike ride. “It’s a never-ending story: we are doing something, they are doing something, one movement brings the other side’s movement. There is no end for that.”

Zakaria al-Qaq, a professor of national security at Al Quds University here and a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, also described the situation as a hopeless “cycle of action and reaction,” and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under pressure to act because of the Israeli elections on Jan. 22.

“Maybe the Palestinians got something on paper and morally, but he got something on the ground,” Mr. al-Qaq said. “Netanyahu is trying to enforce something on the ground and gain the hearts and minds of the Israeli public. It’s a strong message to the Palestinian leadership that Netanyahu is not without cards in his hand.”

The development of E1, a project that the United States has blocked several times since 1994, has long been seen as a diplomatic third rail, and several experts said Saturday that they expected that Israel may once again back down from building there. But several other controversial housing projects within Jerusalem have sped forward in recent months, raising the ire of the Palestinian leadership, left-leaning Israelis and the international community, most of whom see the settlements as a violation of international law.

Along with zoning and planning for E1, Israel on Thursday approved 3,000 new housing units in unspecified parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Dani Seidemann, a Jerusalem lawyer and longtime antisettlement activist, said that even before the latest decision, the government had issued tenders for the construction of 2,366 units in 2012, more than twice the number built in the previous three years combined.

These include more than 1,200 units in Ramot and Pisgat Zeev — decades-old upscale Jewish neighborhoods of 40,000-plus residents that straddle Beit Hanina in the northern reaches of the municipality. Late last month, final approval of 2,610 units in an undeveloped southern stretch known as Givat Hamatos was postponed under international pressure because it was scheduled while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the region trying to negotiate an end to Israel’s bloody conflict with the Gaza Strip.

“Now approaching the point of no return,” Mr. Seidemann said during a tour of the area Saturday. “It’s the largest settlement surge in Jerusalem since the 1970s.”

Israel began building and expanding East Jerusalem in 1968, shortly after it wrested control of the area from Jordan. There were about 69,000 Palestinians living there then. Now, nearly 300,000 Palestinians and more than 190,000 Jews live in dozens of separate communities scattered throughout the areas north, east and south of the Old City that are collectively called East Jerusalem. (Some 2,500 Jews have also settled house by house in close-in neighborhoods like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah.)

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Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie's Wedding Will Be 'All About Family'

Brad Pitt recently told PEOPLE he has a "good feeling" his wedding with Angelina Jolie will happen "soon."

"One thing for sure, he says it's going to be all about family: a simple affair with Angie and the kids," PEOPLE senior writer Jennifer Garcia says, adding that the official "I do" date is still being kept a secret.

But a "jovial" Pitt, who was "in a great mood throughout the interview" (which is this week's revealing cover story) shared other personal details aside from just his upcoming walk down the aisle.

Garcia says that the Killing Them Softly star "talked to PEOPLE about a range of topics – everything from the kids and the holidays, to politics." Not to mention his thoughts on turning the big 5-0.

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South Africa makes progress in HIV, AIDS fight

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In the early '90s when South Africa's Themba Lethu clinic could only treat HIV/AIDS patients for opportunistic diseases, many would come in on wheelchairs and keep coming to the health center until they died.

Two decades later the clinic is the biggest anti-retroviral, or ARV, treatment center in the country and sees between 600 to 800 patients a day from all over southern Africa. Those who are brought in on wheelchairs, sometimes on the brink of death, get the crucial drugs and often become healthy and are walking within weeks.

"The ARVs are called the 'Lazarus drug' because people rise up and walk," said Sue Roberts who has been a nurse at the clinic , run by Right to Care in Johannesburg's Helen Joseph Hospital, since it opened its doors in 1992. She said they recently treated a woman who was pushed in a wheelchair for 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) to avoid a taxi fare and who was so sick it was touch and go. Two weeks later, the woman walked to the clinic, Roberts said.

Such stories of hope and progress are readily available on World AIDS Day 2012 in sub-Saharan Africa where deaths from AIDS-related causes have declined by 32 percent from 1.8 million in 2005 to 1.2 million in 2011, according to the latest UNAIDS report.

As people around the world celebrate a reduction in the rate of HIV infections, the growth of the clinic, which was one of only a few to open its doors 20 years ago, reflects how changes in treatment and attitude toward HIV and AIDS have moved South Africa forward. The nation, which has the most people living with HIV in the world at 5.6 million, still faces stigma and high rates of infection.

"You have no idea what a beautiful time we're living in right now," said one of the doctors at the clinic, Dr. Kay Mahomed, over the chatter of a crowd of patients outside her door.

President Jacob Zuma's government decided to give the best care, including TB screening and care at the clinic, and not to look at the cost, she said. South Africa has increased the numbers treated for HIV by 75 percent in the last two years, UNAIDS said, and new HIV infections have fallen by more than 50,000 in those two years. South Africa has also increased its domestic expenditure on AIDS to $1.6 billion, the highest by any low-and middle-income country, the group said.

Themba Lethu clinic, with funding from the government, the United States Agency for International Development and the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is now among some 2,500 anti-retroviral therapy facilities in the country that treat approximately 1.9 million people.

"Now, you can't not get better. It's just one of these win-win situations. You test, you treat and you get better, end of story," Mahomed said.

But it hasn't always been that way.

In the 1990s South Africa's problem was compounded by years of misinformation by President Thabo Mbeki, who questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who promoted a "treatment" of beets and garlic.

Christinah Motsoahae first found out she was HIV positive in 1996, and said she felt nothing could be done about it.

"I didn't understand it at that time because I was only 24, and I said, 'What the hell is that?'" she said.

Sixteen years after her first diagnosis, she is now on anti-retroviral drugs and her life has turned around. She says the clinic has been instrumental. To handle the flow of patients, they're electronically checked in at reception, several nursing stations with partitions are set up to check vital signs and a new machine even helps dispense medicine to the pharmacists.

"My status has changed my life, I have learned to accept people the way they are. I have learned not to be judgmental. And I have learned that it is God's purpose that I have this," the 40-year-old said.

She works with a support group of "positive ladies" in her hometown near Krugersdorp. She travels to the clinic as often as needed and her optimism shines through her gold eye shadow and wide smile. "I love the way I'm living now."

Motsoahae credits Nelson Mandela's family for inspiring her to face up to her status. The anti-apartheid icon galvanized the AIDS community in 2005 when he publicly acknowledged his son died of AIDS.

Motsoahae is among about a hundred people waiting in a room to see one of about 10 doctors or to collect medications. A woman there rises up, slings her baby behind her back in a green fleece blanket, and tries to leave by zigzagging through the intercrossing legs of those seated.

None of Motsoahae's children was born with HIV. The number of children newly infected with HIV has declined significantly. In six countries in sub-Saharan Africa — South Africa, Burundi, Kenya, Namibia, Togo and Zambia —the number of children with HIV declined by 40 to 59 percent between 2009 and 2011, the UNAIDS report said.

But the situation remains dire for those over the age of 15, who make up the 5.3 million of those infected in South Africa. Fear and denial lend to the high prevalence of HIV for that age group in South Africa, said the clinic's Kay Mahomed.

About 3.5 million South Africans still are not getting therapy, and many wait too long to come in to clinics or don't stay on the drugs, said Dr. Dave Spencer, who works at the clinic .

"People are still afraid of a stigma related to HIV," he said, adding that education and communication are key to controlling the disease.

Themba Lethu clinic reaches out to the younger generation with a teen program.

Tshepo Hoato, 21, who helps run the program found out he was HIV positive after his mother died in 2000. He said he has been helped by the program in which teens meet one day a month.

"What I've seen is a lot people around our ages, some commit suicide as soon as they find out they are HIV. That's a very hard stage for them so we came up with this program to help one another," he said. "We tell them our stories so they can understand and progress and see that no, man, it's not the end of the world."

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Cliff fight may knock out December rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In normal times, next week's slew of U.S. economic data could be a springboard for a December rally in the stock market.

December is historically a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 has risen 16 times in the past 20 years during the month.

But the market hasn't been operating under normal circumstances since November 7 when a day after the U.S. election, investors' focus shifted squarely to the looming "fiscal cliff."

Investors are increasingly nervous about the ability of lawmakers to undo the $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that are set to begin in January; those changes, if they go into effect, could send the U.S. economy into a recession.

A string of economic indicators next week, which includes a key reading of the manufacturing sector on Monday, culminates with the November jobs report on Friday.

But the impact of those economic reports could be muted. Distortions in the data caused by Superstorm Sandy are discounted.

The spotlight will be more firmly on signs from Washington that politicians can settle their differences on how to avoid the fiscal cliff.

"We have a week with a lot of economic data, and obviously most of the economic data is going to reflect the effects of Sandy, and that might be a little bit negative for the market next week, but most of that is already expected - the main focus remains the fiscal cliff," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

Concerns about the cliff sent the S&P 500 <.spx> into a two-week decline after the elections, dropping as much as 5.3 percent, only to rally back nearly 4 percent as the initial tone of talks offered hope that a compromise could be reached and investors snapped up stocks that were viewed as undervalued.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 gained more than 20 points from its intraday low after House Speaker John Boehner said he was optimistic that a budget deal to avoid big spending cuts and tax hikes could be worked out. The next day, more pessimistic comments from Boehner, an Ohio Republican, briefly wiped out the day's gains in stocks.

On Friday, the sharp divide between the Democrats and the Republicans on taxes and spending was evident in comments from President Barack Obama, who favors raising taxes on the wealthy, and Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, who said Obama's plan was the wrong approach and declared that the talks had reached a stalemate.

"It's unusual to end up with one variable in this industry, it's unusual to have a single bullet that is the causal factor effect, and you are sitting here for the next maybe two weeks or more, on that kind of condition," said Sandy Lincoln, chief market strategist at BMO Asset Management U.S. in Chicago.

"And that is what is grabbing the markets."

BE CONTRARY AND MAKE MERRY

But investor attitudes and seasonality could also help spur a rally for the final month of the year.

The most recent survey by the American Association of Individual Investors reflected investor caution about the cliff. Although bullish sentiment rose above 40 percent for the first time since August 23, bearish sentiment remained above its historical average of 30.5 percent for the 14th straight week.

December is a critical month for retailers such as Target Corp and Macy's Inc . They saw monthly retail sales results dented by Sandy, although the start of the holiday shopping season fared better.

With consumer spending making up roughly 70 percent of the U.S. economy, a solid showing for retailers during the holiday season could help fuel any gains.

Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, believes the recent drop after the election could be a market bottom, with sentiment leaving stocks poised for a December rally.

"The concerns on the fiscal cliff - as valid as they might be - could be overblown. When you look at a lot of the overriding sentiment, that has gotten extremely negative," said Detrick.

"From that contrarian point of view with the historically bullish time frame of December, we once again could be setting ourselves up for a pretty nice end-of-year rally, based on lowered expectations."

SOME FEEL THE BIG CHILL

Others view the fiscal cliff as such an unusual event that any historical comparisons should be thrown out the window, with a rally unlikely because of a lack of confidence in Washington to reach an agreement and the economic hit caused by Sandy.

"History doesn't matter. You're dealing with an extraordinary set of circumstances that could very well end up in the U.S. economy going into a recession," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.

"And the likelihood of that is exclusively in the hands of our elected officials in Washington. They could absolutely drag us into a completely voluntary recession."

(Wall St Week Ahead runs every Friday. Questions or comments on this column can be emailed to: charles.mikolajczak(at)thomsonreuters.com )

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Peter Facinelli Finds Love with Costar Jaimie Alexander

By Michelle Ward

11/30/2012 at 03:45 PM EST

Peter Facinelli and Jaimie Alexander

Theo Wargo/Getty

Peter Facinelli's friendship with Jaimie Alexander has blossomed into romance. Something Alexander says has her feeling good if not a little scared.

"We've been friends forever and had a lot of mutual friends and we reconnected in the middle of the year," Alexander told PEOPLE Thursday night at the Tommy Hilfiger and GQ "Men of New York" event at Hilfiger's 5th Avenue flagship in New York. "It was one of those things where I'd been single for a very long time and he was going through a lot. We sort of bonded." 

Facinelli, who split with Jennie Garth in March, and Alexander met on the set of Loosies, which Facinelli co-wrote, and went on to work together on Nurse Jackie.  

"It's very new to me and it's scary," Alexander said of their relationship. "But it's also something we don't want to give up on because I know how it makes me feel in my heart, … It makes me feel really good. He's a good guy with a great family and I couldn't be any luckier."

Alexander can even count on her beau for fashion advice.

"Peter put this coat with this dress!" she said of her Catherine Malandrino coat and Naeem Khan gold frock. As for Facinelli's own style, Alexander said "he picks out his own clothes, and I think, of course that he looks handsome in everything."

Hilfiger donated 20-percent of the evening's sales to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City for Hurricane Relief.

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Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.

Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents — eight grandfathers among them — saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of one another.

Saturday is World AIDS Day, but the executive director of the aid group Nyumbani, which oversees the village of the same name, hates the name which is given to the day because for her the word AIDS is so freighted with doom and death. These days, it doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence. Millions live with the virus with the help of anti-retroviral drugs, or ARVs. And the village she runs is an example of that.

"AIDS is not a word that we should be using. At the beginning when we came up against HIV, it was a terminal disease and people were presenting at the last phase, which we call AIDS," said Sister Mary Owens. "There is no known limit to the lifespan now so that word AIDS should not be used. So I hate World AIDS Day, follow? Because we have moved beyond talking about AIDS, the terminal stage. None of our children are in the terminal stage."

In the village, each grandparent is charged with caring for about a dozen "grandchildren," one or two of whom will be biological family. That responsibility has been a life-changer for Janet Kitheka, who lost one daughter to AIDS in 2003. Another daughter died from cancer in 2004. A son died in a tree-cutting accident in 2006 and the 63-year-old lost two grandchildren in 2007, including one from AIDS.

"When I came here I was released from the grief because I am always busy instead of thinking about the dead," said Kitheka. "Now I am thinking about building a new house with 12 children. They are orphans. I said to myself, 'Think about the living ones now.' I'm very happy because of the children."

As she walks around Nyumbani, which is three hours' drive east of Nairobi, 73-year-old Sister Mary is greeted like a rock star by little girls in matching colorful school uniforms. Children run and play, and sleep in bunk beds inside mud-brick homes. High schoolers study carpentry or tailoring. But before 2006, this village did not exist, not until a Catholic charity petitioned the Kenyan government for land on which to house orphans.

Everyone here has been touched by HIV or AIDS. But only 80 children have HIV and thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, none of them has AIDS.

"They can dream their dreams and live a long life," Owens said.

Nyumbani relies heavily on U.S. funds but it is aiming to be self-sustaining.

The kids' bunk beds are made in the technical school's shop. A small aquaponics project is trying to grow edible fish. The mud bricks are made on site. Each grandparent has a plot of land for farming.

The biggest chunk of aid comes from the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has given the village $2.5 million since 2006. A British couple gives $50,000 a year. A tree-growing project in the village begun by an American, John Noel, now stands six years from its first harvest. Some 120,000 trees have already been planted and thousands more were being planted last week.

"My wife and I got married as teenagers and started out being very poor. Lived in a trailer. And we found out what it was like to be in a situation where you can't support yourself," he said. "As an entrepreneur I looked to my enterprise skills to see what we could do to sustain the village forever, because we are in our 60s and we wanted to make sure that the thousand babies and children, all the little ones, were taken care of."

He hopes that after a decade the timber profits from the trees will make the village totally self-sustaining.

But while the future is looking brighter, the losses the orphans' suffered can resurface, particularly when class lessons are about family or medicine, said Winnie Joseph, the deputy headmaster at the village's elementary school. Kitheka says she tries to teach the kids how to love one another and how to cook and clean. But older kids sometimes will threaten to hit her after accusing her of favoring her biological grandchildren, she said.

For the most part, though, the children in Nyumbani appear to know how lucky they are, having landed in a village where they are cared for. An estimated 23.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV as of 2011, representing 69 percent of the global HIV population, according to UNAIDS. Eastern and southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions. Millions of people — many of them parents — have died.

Kitheka noted that children just outside the village frequently go to bed hungry. And ARVs are harder to come by outside the village. The World Health Organization says about 61 percent of Kenyans with HIV are covered by ARVs across the country.

Paul Lgina, 14, contrasted the difference between life in Nyumbani, which in Swahili means simply "home," and his earlier life.

"In the village I get support. At my mother's home I did not have enough food, and I had to go to the river to fetch water," said Lina, who, like all the children in the village, has neither a mother or a father.

When Sister Mary first began caring for AIDS orphans in the early 1990s, she said her group was often told not to bother.

"At the beginning nobody knew what to do with them. In 1992 we were told these children are going to die anyway," she said. "But that wasn't our spirit. Today, kids we were told would die have graduated from high school."

___

On the Internet:

http://www.trees4children.org/

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Wall Street edges lower as "fiscal cliff" debate drags

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dipped on Friday as President Barack Obama and top Republicans remained at odds about how to avert a series of tax hikes and spending cuts next year that could push the economy into recession.

Trading has been choppy as investors react to a barrage of mixed statements from policymakers on the state of discussions about how to avoid going over the "fiscal cliff."

Obama accused a "handful of Republicans" in the U.S. House of Representatives of holding up legislation to extend tax cuts for middle-class Americans in order to try to preserve them for the wealthy.

Speaking shortly after the president, House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said: "There is a stalemate; let's not kid ourselves."

The market, however, has remained resilient, with the benchmark S&P 500 set to finish the month almost flat as many investors are betting that a deal will be struck - if only at the zero hour.

"There is no sign of it from the rhetoric, but there are expectations it will happen," said Steve Goldman, principal at Goldman Management in Short Hills, New Jersey. "The rhetoric will get worse before it gets better."

Corporations still anticipate a harsher tax regime next year. Whole Foods Market Inc was the latest to announce a special cash dividend of $2.00 per share to skirt higher dividend tax rates in 2013. The stock was up 0.5 percent at $93.51.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 14.56 points, or 0.11 percent, to 13,007.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> fell 2.17 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,413.78. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> lost 6.66 points, or 0.22 percent, to 3,005.37.

The S&P 500 was on track to end the month up about 0.1 pct, or nearly flat, after declining almost 2 percent in October. The index has recovered 4.5 percent since shedding 8 percent following the U.S. presidential election earlier in November.

"The correction from the S&P 500's September peak has allowed overbought momentum and optimistic sentiment conditions to recede, and we believe the index is closer to an intermediate-term buy signal than a sell signal," said Ari Wald, an analyst at PrinceRidge Group.

Yum Brands Inc shares slid 9.2 percent to $67.59. The company said late Thursday it expects a drop in fourth-quarter sales at established restaurants in China, where a cooling economy is making it difficult to exceed the 21 percent gain it enjoyed there a year earlier.

After a close relationship for several years, Facebook Inc and Zynga Inc revised terms of a partnership agreement, according to regulatory filings on Thursday. Under the new pact, Zynga, creator of the "Farmville" game, will have limited ability to promote its site on Facebook.

Zynga's stock dropped 6.5 percent to $2.45. Facebook's stock slipped 0.2 percent to $27.26.

The markets' reaction to data on Friday was muted.

Data from the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago showed that business activity in the U.S. Midwest expanded for the first time since August, buoyed by an improvement in the labor market.

But Commerce Department data showed U.S. consumer spending fell in October for the first time in five months as income growth stalled, suggesting slower economic growth in the fourth quarter.

Apple Inc's latest iPhone has received final clearance from Chinese regulators, paving the way for a December debut in a highly competitive market where the lack of a new model had severely eroded its share of product sales. Apple's stock fell 0.8 percent to $584.57.

Verisign Inc said the U.S. Department of Commerce had approved its agreement with ICANN to run the .com internet registry, but the company wouldn't be able to raise prices as before. The stock dropped 14 percent to $33.84.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jan Paschal)

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Hacking Report Criticizes Murdoch Newspaper and British Press Standards

LONDON — The leader of a major inquiry into the standards of British newspapers triggered by the phone hacking scandal offered an excoriating critique of the press as a whole on Thursday, saying it displayed “significant and reckless disregard for accuracy,” and urged the press to form an independent regulator to be underpinned by law.

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson on Thursday with his inquiry on press standards.

The report singled out Rupert Murdoch’s defunct tabloid The News of the World for sharp criticism.

“Too many stories in too many newspapers were the subject of complaints from too many people with too little in the way of titles taking responsibility, or considering the consequences for the individuals involved,” the head of the inquiry, Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, said in a 46-page summary of the findings in his long-awaited, 1,987-page report published in four volumes.

“The ball moves back into the politicians’ court,” Sir Brian said, referring to what form new and tighter regulations should take. “They must now decide who guards the guardians.”

The report was published after some 337 witnesses testified in person in 9 months of hearings that sought to unravel the close ties between politicians, the press and the police, reaching into what were depicted as an opaque web of links and cross-links within the British elite as well as a catalog of murky and sometimes unlawful practices within the newspaper industry.

“This inquiry has been the most concentrated look at the press this country has ever seen,” Sir Brian said after the report was made public.

But in a first reaction, Prime Minister David Cameron resisted the report’s recommendation that a new form of press regulation should be underpinned by laws, telling lawmakers that they “should be wary” of “crossing the Rubicon” by enacting legislation with the potential to limit free speech and free expression.

Mr. Cameron’s remarks drew immediate criticism from the leader of the Labour opposition, Ed Miliband, who said Sir Brian’s proposals should be accepted in their entirety.

Mr. Cameron ordered the Leveson Inquiry in July, 2011, as the phone hacking scandal at The News of the World blossomed into broad public revulsion with reports that the newspaper had ordered the interception of voice mail messages left on the cellphone of Milly Dowler, a British teenager who was abducted in 2002 and later found murdered. Sir Brian said there had been a “failure of management and compliance” at the 168-year-old News of the World, which Mr. Murdoch closed in July, 2011, accusing it of a “general lack of respect for individual privacy and dignity.”

“It was said that The News of the World had lost its way in relation to phone hacking,” the summary said. “Its casual attitude to privacy and the lip service it paid to consent demonstrated a far more general loss of direction.”

Speaking after the report was published, Sir Brian said that while the British press held a “privileged and powerful place in our society,” its “responsibilities have simply been ignored.”

“A free press in a democracy holds power to account. But, with a few honorable exceptions, the U.K. press has not performed that vital role in the case of its own power.”

“The press needs to establish a new regulatory body which is truly independent of industry leaders and of government and politicians,” he said. “Guaranteed independence, long-term stability and genuine benefits for the industry cannot be realized without legislation,” he said, adding: “This is not and cannot reasonably or fairly be characterized as statutory regulation of the press.”

In the body of the exhaustive report, reprising at length the testimony of many of the witnesses who spoke at the hearings, the document discusses press culture and ethics; explores the press’s attitude toward the subjects of its stories; and discusses the cozy relationship between the press and the police, and the press and politicians.

John F. Burns, Sandy Lark Turner and Sandy Macaskill contributed reporting.

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Diem Brown Shares How Her Chemo-Brain Sends Her to Dumb-Dumbville

In her PEOPLE.com blog, Diem Brown, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestant recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the second time, opens up about her desire for a child and the ups and downs of cancer and fertility procedures.

I have always been a list girl: Things I need to accomplish by a certain age; places I want to visit within five years; must-haves for my fall wardrobe. I actually have lists of my lists! 

I have always believed that by writing your hopes, dreams and your daily errands down, the lists become achievable. I guess it's that whole The Secret thang Oprah talked about, but basically for me, lists equal getting things done and moving forward.

At this moment in my life, I HAVE to make lists just to keep my head on straight! Any patient will tell you: Just because you're ill, the world doesn't slow down. If anything your world becomes more cluttered and overwhelming.

Admittedly I have slacked on certain areas in my life, like getting back to people in a timely manor, daily errands, bills – even my work has taken a hit. But making a list helps me map out how to get back on track.

I mentioned feeling overwhelmed and having to make a list to keep your head on straight, well this is why …
 

You have heard of "pregnancy brain"? Well, I imagine "chemo brain" works the same way. I feel like my head is so clouded that seemingly simple tasks take SO much effort to accomplish.
 

Returning an item to a store but leaving your receipt at home. Frantically searching for your keys only to find them right in front of your face . Walking out the front door, forgetting the keys you just found and locking yourself out.

Oh, and my favorite: missing your flight home for Thanksgiving because you told the cab diver the wrong airport (JFK not LGA) so you book a last-minute train home to D.C. Then, when your train arrives at your destination, you leave your purse on the train!
 

Yep that pretty much sums up my Thanksgiving travel day from hell. I had chemo on the Monday before Thanksgiving so traveling on Wednesday felt like my world was crashing over me. The train from N.Y.C. to Washington D.C. was completely FULL, yet I looked so green in the face no one sat next to me. I had to laugh a lil inside because I don't think I would have sat next to me either ... I looked like a ticking time bomb!
 

When the train arrived in D.C. I gathered my items and headed outside, thankful to see a street vender selling watermelon (my go-to post chemo food). I reached for my wallet and BOOM! You know that moment when you realized you've misplaced something? Your mind instantly paints the picture of exactly where the item is.

Mentally retracing my steps leaving the train, I remembered grabbing my jacket, getting my suitcase down from over head, packing up my Tina Fey Bossy Pants book and errr ... the seat back pocket! DAMN! How did I forget to check the seat back pocket?!

A vivid image of my sad lonely purse on an empty train makes my mind race of what's inside my purse. My ID, my credit cards, my apartment keys, checks I haven't cashed and MY MEDS.

Damn damn damn … now you start making a NEW list while realizing how much money and time your absent mind will cost you. Okay, I have to cancel my credit cards, see if I can remember who the checks in my wallet were from and ask them to stop payment, get my sister's apartment key to make a copy, try to find a doctor that's working on Thanksgiving to write me a new prescription, oh, and my ID! I also have to make a DMV appointment. Great, just great.
 

The floodgates have opened and tears start trailing down your face. Stressed out, overwhelmed and soooo annoyed that your mind isn't working as it should. This, my friends, is an example of chemo brain!
 

I called my sister crying, asking her to pick me up as I had no cash or credit cards for a cab home to my dad's house in Virginia. I was being overly emotional over a lost purse so my sister tried to talk me down saying each of the items are replaceable and that it was so clear to her my emotions were from my recent chemo treatment.
 

I have had so many of these "chemo brain" moments they really do start to make you feel crazy! Like there is a tiny mischievous elf inside your head playing hide and seek with things you should remember. No one really talks about "chemo brain" but it is soooo real. Now I have so much compassion for women dealing with pregnancy brain!
 

My sister keeps telling me to not be so hard on myself, that chemo is powerful and I'm more or less doped up 24/7. I hear my sisters words and realize my only way to fight this mischievous lil "chemo brain"-inducing self is to take a deep breath and continue making my lists!
 

This Week's List  

1. Don't be so hard on yourself for chemo brain, Dopey, and make that N.Y.C. DMV appointment! 

Ahhh, much better. If any of you have any chemo brain, pregnancy brain or just plain dodo brain stories I'd love to hear them. I think sharing our crazy moments makes us all feel way better and a heck of a lot less crazy! :)

Check back for updates every Thursday: Diem will be chronicling exclusively for PEOPLE.com her journey through fertility treatments, chemotherapy and her quest to educate others about ovarian health. You can also follow her on Twitter @DiemBrown.

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Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

"Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

"We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they'll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men's risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $5.6 billion.

Thursday's report from PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn't just disappointing, it's deadly."

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

"The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up" to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday's report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

"We have to go where the virus is," Clinton said.

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As Opposition Meets in Cairo, More Violence Mars Syria

The Syrian opposition pushed ahead on military and political fronts on Wednesday, as rebels shot down a government warplane in the north of Syria and a newly formed coalition started talks in Cairo on how to pick a transitional government to replace that of President Bashar al-Assad.

The coalition, whose official name is the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, was formed at a meeting in Qatar earlier this month, and has already been anointed with official recognition from Britain, France, Turkey and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. But in order to encourage further recognition internationally, it must tackle the broader problem of uniting multiple groups in exile and rebels on the ground in Syria.

That challenge was apparent on the first day of what are expected to be two days of talks in Egypt. Disagreements emerged over the composition of the coalition when the Syrian National Council, one of its members, tried to increase the number of its representatives.

“Nothing will proceed until we work this out,” said one council member at the talks, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The talks took place against the backdrop of a 20-month civil war in which about 40,000 people have been killed so far in clashes between armed rebels and jihadist forces on one side and Mr. Assad’s military on the other. The conflict has flared at various times along Syria’s borders with Lebanon, Israel, Turkey and Jordan and in most of the country’s cities, including deadly car bombings on Wednesday near Damascus, the capital.

In Turkey, once an ally of the Assad government, a team of NATO inspectors visited sites on Wednesday where the alliance might install batteries of Patriot antiaircraft missiles that Turkey, a member, has requested to prevent any incursions by the Syrian air force, which has become the Assad government’s main weapon against the rebels. Patriot missiles have also been discussed as a way of enforcing a no-fly zone over rebel-held areas of Syria near the Turkish border if one is imposed.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians gathered in a Cairo hotel to shape an alternative government. Ahmad Ramadan, a member of the national council, said in an interview with Radio Sawa, an Arabic-language broadcaster sponsored by the United States government, that the talks were more likely to decide on the selection process than to choose actual candidates.

Khaled Khoja, a coalition member attending the talks, said: “I don’t think we’ll be discussing the election of a transitional government during the meeting today. We’re still discussing whether to have a government or to have committees instead.”

State media said on Wednesday that at least 34 people, and possibly many more, died in the two car bombings in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus that is populated by minorities.

The official SANA news agency said the explosions struck at about 7 a.m. and were the work of “terrorists,” the word used by the authorities to denote rebel forces seeking the overthrow of President Assad.

The agency said the bombings were in the main square of Jaramana, which news reports said is largely populated by members of the Christian and Druse minorities. Residents said the neighborhood was home to many families who have fled other parts of Syria because of the conflict and to some Palestinian families. The blasts caused “huge material damage to the residential buildings and shops,” SANA said.

The death toll was not immediately confirmed. An activist group, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, initially said that 29 people had died but revised the figure later to 47, of whom 38 had been identified. Of the 120 injured, the rebel group said, 23 people were in serious condition, meaning that the tally could climb higher.

There were also reports from witnesses in Turkey and antigovernment activists in Syria that for the second successive day insurgents had shot down a government aircraft in the north of the country, offering further evidence that the rebels are seeking a major shift by challenging the government’s dominance of the skies. It was not immediately clear how the aircraft, apparently a plane, had been brought down.

Video posted on the Internet by rebels showed wreckage with fires still burning around it. The aircraft appeared to show a tail assembly clearly visible jutting out of the debris. Such videos are difficult to verify, particularly in light of the restrictions facing reporters in Syria. However, the episode on Wednesday seemed to be confirmed by other witnesses.

“We watched a Syrian plane being shot down as it was flying low to drop bombs,” said Ugur Cuneydioglu, who said he observed the incident from a Turkish border village in southern Hatay Province. “It slowly went down in flames before it hit the ground. It was quite a scene,” Mr. Cuneydioglu said.

Video posted by insurgents on the Internet showed a man in aviator coveralls being carried away. It was not clear if the man was alive but the video said he had been treated in a makeshift hospital. A voice off-camera says, “This is the pilot who was shelling residents’ houses.”

The aircraft was said to have been brought down while it was attacking the town of Daret Azzeh, 20 miles west of Aleppo and close to the Turkish border. The town was the scene of a mass killing last June, when the government and the rebels blamed each other for the deaths and mutilation of 25 people. The video posted online said the plane had been brought down by “the free men of Daret Azzeh soldiers of God brigade.”

On Tuesday, Syrian rebels said they shot down a military helicopter with a surface-to-air missile outside Aleppo and they uploaded video that appeared to confirm that rebels have put their growing stock of heat-seeking missiles to effective use.

In recent months, rebels have used mainly machine guns to shoot down several Syrian Air Force helicopters and fixed-wing attack jets. In Tuesday’s case, the thick smoke trailing the projectile, combined with the elevation of the aircraft, strongly suggested that the helicopter was hit by a missile.

Rebels hailed the event as the culmination of their long pursuit of effective antiaircraft weapons, though it was not clear if the downing on Tuesday was an isolated tactical success or heralded a new phase in the war that would present a meaningful challenge to the Syrian government’s air supremacy.

Hala Droubi reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris; Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Istanbul, and Hania Mourtada from Beirut, Lebanon.

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Is Jessica Simpson Pregnant Again?

Buzz

By Rennie Dyball

11/28/2012 at 03:00 PM EST

Is 7-month-old Maxwell Drew a big sister-to-be?

Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson – who welcomed their daughter in May – are expecting another child, according to reports widely circulating online.

When asked about the latest baby buzz, Simpson's publicist told PEOPLE, "I'm not going to comment on this speculation."

The star and Weight Watchers spokeswoman, 32, (who showed off her 60-pound weight loss this month) called Maxwell's birth "the greatest experience of our lives."

In May, she told PEOPLE, "I don't want to have another baby right away but I do want to have more kids. Having babies back to back has to be so hard."

Having baby No. 2 is all about timing, she added during the interview about becoming a mom.

"I really want to give Maxwell all of the attention and all of the love and time that I possibly can give her," she said. "When I feel like it's the right time to bring another little one into the family, I will. I won't wait too long but I won't do it immediately."

Simpson and former NFL player Johnson, 32, started dating in May 2010 and were engaged six months later.

Tweeted Simpson this month: "I am so grateful for my new lil family! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!"

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a nine-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Wall Street rises as "fiscal cliff" remarks lift market

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose in volatile trade on Wednesday after comments from the top Republican in Congress on a possible compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" turned the market on its head.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he was optimistic that a budget deal to avert large tax hikes and spending cuts currently under discussion in Washington could be reached. President Barack Obama, speaking later in the day, said he hoped to get a deal done in the next four weeks.

"The fiscal cliff is dominating the discussion, and short term, we're a little bit too optimistic on it being fixed right away," said John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in New York.

The market has been swinging on headlines from Washington for weeks now, with Wednesday's gyrations once again highlighting the importance that Wall Street is giving to finding a solution to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

Liberals want tax increases on the wealthiest Americans to help balance the budget, while conservatives make a case for deep cuts in programs for the poor and a widening of the tax base to raise revenues without raising tax rates.

"Both (Democrats and Republicans) have potential to benefit from compromise. It's just a question of not losing face in the process," Manley said.

Boehner's words triggered a comeback in stocks after the S&P 500 fell 1 percent, partly on weak data on the housing sector.

Shares of Costco Wholesale Corp jumped 5.9 percent to $102.19 after the retailer became the latest company to announce a special dividend ahead of expected tax hikes that are part of the negotiations.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 65.16 points, or 0.51 percent, to 12,943.29. The S&P 500 Index <.spx> gained 4.71 points, or 0.34 percent, to 1,403.65. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 10.20 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,977.99.

Housing stocks fell after data showed new U.S. single-family home sales fell slightly in October, while September's pace of sales was revised sharply lower.

The PHLX housing index <.hgx> slipped 0.6 percent, but is still up more than 8 percent in the last eight sessions.

Knight Capital Group Inc shares jumped 13.5 percent to $3.37 on news that Getco Holding proposed a $1.4 billion merger with Knight, while Virtu Financial offered to buy Knight for at least $1.1 billion.

Apparel retailer Express Inc rose 9.8 percent to $14.26 after it forecast strong earnings for the current quarter as lower prices and easy-to-understand discounts led to robust Black Friday sales.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters stock surged 27.3 percent to $36.86 a day after it forecast quarterly and full-year earnings well ahead of analysts' expectations.

(Reporting by Ed Krudy; Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Tibetan Protesters Injured in Crackdown; Self-Immolations Continue

BEIJING — At least five Tibetans have set fire to themselves in recent days to protest Chinese rule in Tibetan regions, while at least 5 Tibetan students were in critical condition and 15 others were being treated for injuries after security forces cracked down on a large protest in western China on Monday, according to reports by Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet, an advocacy group.

The protest took place in an area of Qinghai Province that the Chinese call Hainan Autonomous Prefecture, and that Tibetans call Tsolho. More than 1,000 Tibetans, mostly students and teachers, took to the streets to demand equal rights for ethnic minorities and the freedom to study and use the Tibetan language. Several reports said the protest began after local officials distributed a booklet that condemned Tibetans who had self-immolated and belittled the Tibetan language.

With the five recent self-immolations, at least 22 Tibetans have set fire to themselves this month alone, and 86 since 2009, according to Radio Free Asia. The first case was a monk from Kirti Monastery, which became the heart of the self-immolations last year and earlier this year, though the acts have since become more widespread and now constitute one of the largest such phenomena anywhere in the world in recent memory. The latest four cases were reported Sunday and Monday in the western China provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai, which all have significant Tibetan populations.

The students who protested Monday were from the Chabcha Sorig Lobling School, according to Free Tibet. They gathered at 5:40 a.m. and marched peacefully into the town of Chabcha. Chinese security forces began a violent crackdown at 9 a.m., the report said. “It’s still unclear what happened next, but many young students were so badly injured they were taken straight to hospital,” Free Tibet said. Security forces locked down the town, the group added. Radio Free Tibet reported that security forces fired tear gas and beat students with rifle butts, arresting four.

The events could not be independently confirmed; Chinese officials have barred foreign journalists from traveling to the sites of protests or self-immolations by Tibetans. Phone calls made on Tuesday to offices of the prefecture government and party committee went unanswered. A woman answering a call on the prefecture emergency hot line said she had not heard of any protests.

Radio Free Asia, which is financed by the United States government, said the school in Chabcha, known as Gonghe in Chinese, trained students in medicine. The offending booklet that inspired the protests was called “Ten Real Views of Tsolho Area,” and the medical students burned all the copies given to them and “called for equality among nationalities and freedom to study the Tibetan language,” according to a person who was quoted anonymously by Radio Free Asia.

Moves by officials in Qinghai to restrict the use of the Tibetan language, particularly in classrooms, have resulted in protests by students before. The northeast Tibetan region that Qinghai encompasses, generally called Amdo, is historically an area known for Tibetan scholarship and the production of cultural works. Even today, poets, writers and singers in Qinghai create works in the Tibetan language that are distributed widely across the Tibetan world.

Mia Li contributed research.

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What Does Brad Pitt Think of the Parodies of His Chanel No. 5 Commercial?

Stylewatch
Style News Now

11/27/2012 at 11:00 AM ET

Saturday Night Live spoofed him. Several times. Heck, even dogs did it. But Brad Pitt still stands by his not-so-popular Chanel No. 5 commercial.

“I kind of liked it,” he told Access Hollywood on Monday. “I respect what [Chanel does]. They do some really quality things.”

However, he also respects the people who’ve made fun of it.

“I haven’t [seen the parodies],” he added, “but I say absolutely fair play.”

Yep — the man who made millions off the trippy 30-second spot hasn’t had the chance to catch SNL on Hulu yet. “I’ve been overseas,” he shared, “so I’ve been blissfully protected.”

But that’s not to say he won’t have a chuckle eventually; he told Extra he would probably watch the SNL spoofs (starring Taran Killam) when he wasn’t working so much. And we’ll look forward to hearing his reaction. Tell us: Are you still not so into the Chanel No. 5 ads?

PHOTOS: FIND THE BEST FALL FRAGRANCE FOR YOU!

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CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

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Wall Street slips on cliff caution, but homebuilders shine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks declined on Tuesday as wrangling continued in Washington over budget talks, while homebuilders' stocks outperformed the broader market after positive data.

Strengthening the case for a sustained rebound in housing, single-family home prices rose for an eighth straight month in September. The PHLX housing sector index <.hgx> advanced 0.5 percent, with all but one of its 19 components posting gains.

"As long as you have interest rates as low as they are right now, housing is definitely back," said Brian Amidei, managing director at HighTower Advisors in Palm Desert, California.

Despite strong housing data, an increase in planned business spending and a more than 4-year high in consumer sentiment, traders were cautious as politicians in Washington made little progress in dealing with the "fiscal cliff."

Markets have lately focused on whether Congress and the White House can agree on ways to avoid some $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases that are due to kick in early next year.

"If there's any reason why the (stock) market has stalled out, it's because large investors have decided to step back and see this play out, because I think they're very aware of how important this is," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC in Albany, New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 74.53 points, or 0.57 percent, to 12,892.84. The S&P 500 Index <.spx> dropped 5.68 points, or 0.40 percent, to 1,400.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 4.80 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,971.98.

The S&P 500 was holding at 1,400, a key psychological level it reclaimed last week. Last week, the S&P 500 gained nearly 4 percent.

As budget talks linger, Las Vegas Sands and Supertex added their names to a growing list of companies announcing special dividends aimed at helping investors avoid a possibly higher tax burden next year.

Las Vegas Sands jumped 5.5 percent to $46.46. Supertex rose 3.4 percent to $17.41.

Food maker Ralcorp Holdings shares jumped 26.5 percent to $88.82 after long-time suitor ConAgra Foods sealed a deal to buy it for $5 billion. ConAgra shares gained 4.3 percent to $29.50.

Corning Inc shares rose 6.7 percent to $12.11 after the specialty glass maker said it expects full-year sales of its Gorilla glass, used in smartphones and tablets, to approach $1 billion.

McMoRan Exploration Co shares tumbled 11.8 percent to $8.51 a day after the oil and gas driller gave a disappointing update on a key gas prospect in a Gulf of Mexico well.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editibg by Jan Paschal)

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Egypt’s President Said to Limit Scope of Judicial Decree

CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi agreed Monday to scale back a sweeping decree he had issued last week that raised his edicts above any judicial review, according to a report by a television network allied with his party. The agreement, reached with top judicial authorities, would leave most of Mr. Morsi’s actions subject to review by the courts, but preserve a crucial power: protecting the constitutional council from being dissolved by the courts before it finishes its work.

Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

Protesters ran for cover during clashes with riot police at Tahrir square in Cairo on Monday.

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

Egyptians mourned Mohammed Gaber Salah, an activist who died Sunday from injuries sustained during protests, before his funeral on Monday in Cairo.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that sponsored Mr. Morsi and his party, announced that it was canceling a major demonstration in support of the president that had been planned for Tuesday.

Cracks appeared in Mr. Morsi’s government on Sunday over the decree after the justice minister, Ahmed Mekki, began arguing publicly for a retreat, and at least three other senior advisers resigned over the measure. The move had also prompted widening street protests and cries from opponents that Mr. Morsi, who already governs without a legislature, was moving toward a new autocracy in Egypt, less than two years after the ouster of the strongman Hosni Mubarak.

With a threatened strike by the nation’s judges, a plunge in the country’s stock market and more street protests looming, Mr. Morsi’s administration initially sent mixed messages on Sunday over whether it was willing to consider a compromise: a spokesman for the president’s party insisted that there would be no change in his edict, but a statement from the party indicated for the first time a willingness to give political opponents “guarantees against monopolizing the fateful decisions of the homeland in the absence of the Parliament.”

Mr. Mekki, the influential leader of a judicial independent movement under Mr. Mubarak and one of Mr. Morsi’s closest aides, actively tried to broker a deal with top jurists to resolve the crisis.

The reaction to the decree had presented the most acute test to date of the ability and willingness of Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president and a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, to engage in the kind of give and take that democratic government requires. But he also must contend with real doubts about the willingness of his anti-Islamist opponents to join him in compromise. Each side is mired in deep suspicion of the other, a legacy of the decades when the Brotherhood survived here only as an insular secret society, demonized as dangerous radicals by most of the Egyptian elite.

“There is a deep mistrust,” said Emad Shahin, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo who studies the Brotherhood. “It is an ugly round of partisan politics,” he said, “a bone-crushing phase.”

The scale of the backlash against the decree appeared to catch Mr. Morsi’s government by surprise. “In his head, the president thought that this would push us forward, but then it was met with all this inflammation,” Mr. Mekki said. He faulted the president for failing to consult with his opponents before issuing it, but he also faulted the opponents for their own unwillingness to come to the table: “I blame all of Egypt, because they do not know how to talk to each other.”

Government and party officials maintained that Mr. Morsi was forced to claim the expansive new powers to protect the process of writing the country’s new constitution, and that the decree would be in effect only until the charter was in place. A court of judges appointed under the Mubarak government was widely rumored to be about to dissolve the elected constitutional assembly, dominated by Mr. Morsi’s Islamist allies — just as the same court had previously cast out the newly elected Islamist-led Parliament — and the decree issued by Mr. Morsi on Thursday gave him the power to stop it.

“I see with all of you, clearly, that the court verdict is announced two or three weeks before the court session,” Mr. Morsi told his supporters on Friday, referring to the pervasive rumors about the court’s impending action in a fiery speech defending his decree. “We will dissolve the entire homeland, as it seems! How is that? How? Those waywards must be held accountable."

He said that corrupt Mubarak loyalists were “hiding under the cover of the judiciary” and declared, “I will uncover them!”

But instead of rallying the public to his side and speeding the country’s political transition, as Mr. Morsi evidently hoped, his decree has unleashed new instability across the country. On Sunday, the first day of business here since the decree was issued, the Egyptian stock market fell by about 9.5 percent, erasing more than $4 billion of value.

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Angus T. Jones: 'Please Stop Watching Two and a Half Men'

TV Watch

11/26/2012 at 03:15 PM EST

Has Angus T. Jones pulled a Charlie Sheen?

The 19-year-old Two and a Half Men star has spoken out against the CBS sitcom in a manner that's sure to ruffle some network feathers.

"If you watch Two and Half Men, please stop watching Two and Half Men," Jones says in a video posted on YouTube by TheForerunner777 (watch it below) in which the actor discusses his Christian faith. "I'm on Two and Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth."

"People say it's just entertainment," he continues. "Do some research on the effects of television in your brain and I promise you, you'll have a decision to make when it comes to ... what you watch on television. It's bad news."

Jones, who in 2008 was paid roughly $1.2 million a season, then references "the enemy" and how someone like him cannot appear on a TV show. (Jones has played Jake Harper on Men since 2003.)

"A lot of people don't like to think about how deceptive the enemy is," says Jones. "There's no playing around when it comes to eternity ... People will see us and be like, 'I can be a Christian and be on a show like Two and a Half Men.' You can't. You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can't."

On the subject of his series, Jones concludes, "I'm not okay with what I'm learning [about] what the Bible says and being on that television show. You go all or nothing."

A rep for CBS has not responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.

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Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Wall Street slips after recent rally, retailers off

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slipped on Monday after Wall Street posted its best week in over five months as investors reacted to a lack of visible progress in budget deficit discussions in Washington.

The S&P 500 was holding above the 1,400 level it retook last week, and volume continued to be weak as traders awaited any advance in talks over a series of spending cuts and tax hikes scheduled to begin next year, which threaten to drag the economy into recession.

Retailer shares fell, with the S&P 500 retail index <.spxrt> off 0.7 percent after the start of the holiday shopping season over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend.

"The concern is big retailers are discounting so much, sales look better, but at what cost?" said Angel Mata, managing director of listed equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore.

Bucking the trend, shares of eBay hit their highest in almost eight years with a 4.6 percent jump to $51.27 on strong sales data for Monday. Amazon gained 1.1 percent to $242.45. Black Friday sales online topped $1 billion for the first time.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have made little progress toward a compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff," according to a top Senate Democrat who was interviewed over the weekend.

Indications of progress in talks, or just political willingness to negotiate, were part of the reason why the market rallied last week.

In the other major worry for the market, euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund made their third attempt in as many weeks to agree on releasing emergency aid for Greece, with policymakers saying a write-down of Greek debt is off the table for now.

"We had a good week last week and absent any news we were going to give something back today," Mata said. "There's no catalyst to continue the rally we saw last week, though Greece would have been important if we weren't dealing with the fiscal cliff."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 77.92 points, or 0.60 percent, to 12,931.76. The S&P 500 Index <.spx> dropped 6.99 points, or 0.50 percent, to 1,402.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed less than a point at 2,966.75.

Major indexes ended last week with gains of 3 to 4 percent, with the Dow above 13,000 and the S&P above 1,400 for the first time since November 6.

Shares of Knight Capital Group Inc jumped 17.7 percent to $2.93 following reports that rivals might be preparing to bid for part or all of the electronic trading firm.

Apple Inc has asked a federal court to add six more products to its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics , including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, in the latest move in an ongoing legal war between the two companies. Apple shares were up 2.8 percent at $587.37.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Bangladesh Fire Kills More Than 100 and Injures Many

MUMBAI — More than 100 people died Saturday and Sunday in a fire at a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, in one of the worst industrial tragedies in that country.

It took firefighters all night to put out the blaze at the factory, Tazreen Fashions, after it started about 7 p.m. on Saturday, a retired fire official said by telephone from Dhaka, the capital. At least 111 people were killed, and scores of workers were taken to hospitals for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation.

“The main difficulty was to put out the fire; the sufficient approach road was not there,” said the retired official, Salim Nawaj Bhuiyan, who now runs a fire safety company in Dhaka. “The fire service had to take great trouble to approach the factory.”

Bangladesh’s garment industry, the second-largest exporter of clothing after China, has a notoriously poor fire safety record. Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi workers have died in factory fires, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, an antisweatshop advocacy group in Amsterdam. Experts say many of the fires could have been easily avoided if the factories had taken the right precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods and have too few fire escapes, and they widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.

Activists say that global clothing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and the Gap and those sold by Walmart need to take responsibility for the working conditions in Bangladeshi factories that produce their clothes.

“These brands have known for years that many of the factories they choose to work with are death traps,” Ineke Zeldenrust, the international coordinator for the Clean Clothes Campaign, said in a statement. “Their failure to take action amounts to criminal negligence.”

The fire at the Tazreen factory in Savar, northwest of Dhaka, started in a warehouse on the ground floor that was used to store yarn, and quickly spread to the upper floors. The building was nine stories high, with the top three floors under construction, according to an garment industry official at the scene who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. Though most workers had left for the day when the fire started, the industry official said as many as 600 workers were still inside working overtime.

The factory, which opened in May 2010, employed about 1,500 workers and had sales of $35 million a year, according to a document on the company’s Web site. It made T-shirts, polo shirts and fleece jackets.

Most of the workers who died were on the first and second floors, fire officials said, and were killed because there were not enough exits. None of them opened to the outside.

“The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor,” said Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, the operations director for the Fire Department, according to The Associated Press. “So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building.”

In a telephone interview later on Sunday, Major Mahbub said the fire could have been caused by an electrical fault or by a spark from a cigarette.

In a brief phone call, Delowar Hossain, the managing director of the Tuba Group, the parent company of Tarzeen Fashions, said he was too busy to comment. “Pray for me,” he said and then hung up.

Television news reports showed badly burned bodies lined up on the floor in what appeared to be a government building. The injured were being treated in hallways of local hospitals, according to the reports.

The industry official said that many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and that it would take some time to identify them.

One survivor, Mohammad Raju, 22, who worked on the fifth floor, said he escaped by climbing out of a third-floor window onto the bamboo scaffolding that was being used by construction workers. He said he lost his mother, who also worked on the fifth floor, when they were making their way down.

“It was crowded on the stairs as all the workers were trying to come out from the factory,” Mr. Raju said. “There was no power supply; it was dark, and I lost my mother in dark. I tried to search for her for 10 to 15 minutes but did not find her.”

A document posted on Tarzeen Fashions’ Web site indicated that an “ethical sourcing” official for Walmart had flagged “violations and/or conditions which were deemed to be high risk” at the factory in May 2011, though it did not specify the nature of the infractions. The notice said that the factory had been given an “orange” grade and that any factories given three such assessments in two years from their last audit would not receive any Walmart orders for a year.

It was unclear whether Walmart had suspended the company or was still buying clothes from it. The Web sites of Tuba Group lists the retailer and others like Carrefour, a French retail chain, as customers. A spokesman for Walmart, Kevin Gardner, said the company was “so far unable to confirm that Tazreen is supplier to Walmart nor if the document referenced in the article is in fact from Walmart.”

Bangladesh exports about $18 billion worth of garments a year. Employees in the country’s factories are among the lowest-paid in the world, with entry-level workers making a government-mandated minimum wage of about $37 a month.

Tensions have been running high between workers, who have been demanding an increase in minimum wages, and the factory owners and government. A union organizer, Aminul Islam, who campaigned for better working conditions and higher wages, was found tortured and killed outside Dhaka this year.

Fire safety remains weak across much of South Asia. In September, nearly 300 workers were killed in a fire at a textile factory in Karachi, Pakistan, just weeks before it passed an inspection that covered several issues, including health and safety.

Julfikar Ali Manik contributed reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Stephanie Clifford from New York.

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