Flu season has Boston declaring health emergency


BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts public health officials are reporting 18 flu-related deaths in the state already this season, and Boston has declared a public health emergency.


A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino says the city is working with health care centers to offer free flu vaccines and also hopes to set up public locations where people can go for vaccinations. The city is reporting four flu-related deaths, all seniors.


Menino said Wednesday there have been about 700 confirmed cases of the flu in Boston so far this season, compared with 70 all of last season.


The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says the state is one of 29 reporting higher-than-normal rates of flu-like illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of a harsh flu season, which usually peaks in midwinter.


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Wall Street modestly higher as Alcoa beats revenue estimates

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged up on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year.


The market's rise came after two-days of declines, with few catalysts to give direction and investors fretting about the start of earnings season after the prior quarter's lackluster performance.


Alcoa Inc said late on Tuesday it expects global demand for aluminum to grow in 2013, though the company expressed concern about the impact on business from a confrontation in Washington over the U.S. budget. Shares of Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, were trading flat in early afternoon at around $9.12, after earlier trading higher.


Overall, corporate profits were expected to beat the previous quarter's meager 0.1 percent rise. Both earnings and revenues in the fourth quarter were expected to grow by 1.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.


But the lowered expectations leave room for companies to surprise investors even if their results are not particularly strong, analysts said.


The current quarter was shaping up like the previous one, with companies lowering expectations in recent weeks, said James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.


"So the big question and focus is on revenue, and Alcoa had better-than-expected revenue," calming the market a little, Dailey said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 56.44 points, or 0.42 percent, at 13,385.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 3.31 points, or 0.23 percent, at 1,460.46. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 11.50 points, or 0.37 percent, at 3,103.31.


Shares of Herbalife Ltd rose 3.5 percent to $39.70, following news that hedge fund manager Dan Loeb has taken a stake of more than 8 percent in the nutritional supplements seller, according to a regulatory filing. Herbalife has come under fire from prominent short-seller Bill Ackman, who has accused the company of being a "pyramid scheme," a charge it vehemently denies.


Facebook Inc shares rose above $30 per share for the first time since July, 2012. The social network sent out a media invitation on Tuesday saying, "Come and see what we're building." Facebook, which has been tight-lipped about its plans after its botched IPO in May, invited the media to its Menlo Park, California, campus on January 15.


Among other companies reporting earnings, Constellation Brands , whose labels include Robert Mondavi and Ravenswood wines, reported higher profit and raised its forecast. The stock was down 0.8 percent at $35.74.


Apollo Group Inc slid more than 11 percent after it reported lower student sign-ups for the third straight quarter and cut its operating profit outlook for 2013. Apollo's shares were last at $18.63.


(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Dan Grebler)



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Oil Sand Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level


Todd Korol/Reuters


An oil sands mine Fort McMurray, Alberta.







OTTAWA — The development of Alberta’s oil sands has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding lakes well beyond natural levels, Canadian researchers reported in a study released on Monday. And they said the contamination covered a wider area than had previously been believed.




For the study, financed by the Canadian government, the researchers set out to develop a historical record of the contamination, analyzing sediment dating back about 50 years from six small and shallow lakes north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the center of the oil sands industry. Layers of the sediment were tested for deposits of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, groups of chemicals associated with oil that in many cases have been found to cause cancer in humans after long-term exposure.


“One of the biggest challenges is that we lacked long-term data,” said John P. Smol, the paper’s lead author and a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “So some in industry have been saying that the pollution in the tar sands is natural, it’s always been there.”


The researchers found that to the contrary, the levels of those deposits have been steadily rising since large-scale oil sands production began in 1978.


Samples from one test site, the paper said, now show 2.5 to 23 times more PAHs in current sediment than in layers dating back to around 1960.


“We’re not saying these are poisonous ponds,” Professor Smol said. “But it’s going to get worse. It’s not too late but the trend is not looking good.” He said that the wilderness lakes studied by the group were now contaminated as much as lakes in urban centers.


The study is likely to provide further ammunition to critics of the industry, who already contend that oil extracted from Canada’s oil sands poses environmental hazards like toxic sludge ponds, greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of boreal forests.


Battles are also under way over the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move the oil down through the western United States and down to refineries along the Gulf Coast, or an alternative pipeline that would transport the oil from landlocked Alberta to British Columbia for export to Asia.


The researchers, who included scientists at Environment Canada’s aquatic contaminants research division, chose to test for PAHs because they had been the subject of earlier studies, including one published in 2009 that analyzed the distribution of the chemicals in snowfall north of Fort McMurray. That research drew criticism from the government of Alberta and others for failing to provide a historical baseline.


“Now we have the smoking gun,” Professor Smol said.


He said he was not surprised that the analysis found a rise in PAH deposits after the industrial development of the oil sands, “but we needed the data.” He said he had not entirely expected, however, to observe the effect at the most remote test site, a lake that is about 50 miles to the north.


Asked about the study, Adam Sweet, a spokesman for Peter Kent, Canada’s environment minister, emphasized in an e-mail that with the exception of one lake very close to the oil sands, the levels of contaminants measured by the researchers “did not exceed Canadian guidelines and were low compared to urban areas.”


He added that an environmental monitoring program for the region announced last February 2012 was put into effect “to address the very concerns raised by such studies” and to “provide an improved understanding of the long-term cumulative effects of oil sands development.”


Earlier research has suggested several different ways that the chemicals could spread. Most oil sand production involve large-scale open-pit mining. The chemicals may become wind-borne when giant excavators dig them up and then deposit them into 400-ton dump trucks.


Upgraders at some oil sands projects that separate the oil bitumen from its surrounding sand are believed to emit PAHs. And some scientists believe that vast ponds holding wastewater from that upgrading and from other oil sand processes may be leaking PAHs and other chemicals into downstream bodies of water.


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Target to match some rivals’ online prices year-round






(Reuters) – Target Corp said on Tuesday it will match on a year-round basis the prices found on the websites of key rivals Amazon.com Inc, Best Buy Co Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Toys R Us, its latest tactic to hold onto shoppers focused on price.


The move extends an online price-matching program that Target introduced over the holiday season and which was supposed to last only from November 1 to December 16. It also comes after Target last week reported flat sales growth in December at stores open at least a year.






In November Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said the retailer was not seeing a lot of price-match activity in its stores.


While shopping online has grown rapidly in recent years, it still represents a small fraction of overall shopping in the United States. Target’s policy of matching online prices differs from policies at several chains, which match only printed advertised prices for items sold at stores.


Target said that throughout the year it will match the price when a customer buys an eligible item at one of its stores and finds the same item at a lower price in the following week’s Target circular or in a local competitor’s printed ad. It will also match the price if the customer finds the same item at a lower price within a week on Target’s website or the websites of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us.


Amazon says it offers competitive prices and does not offer price matching when an item’s price drops after a customer buys it, with the exception of televisions. Walmart matches the prices of print ads from competitors. Walmart also says it checks the prices of 30,000 items at competing chains each week to make sure it has the lowest prices.


Best Buy matches the price from a local competitor’s store, a local Best Buy store or its own web site. Toys R Us matches in-store prices and certain online prices.


(Reporting By Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and John Wallace)


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See Tori Spelling's Amazing Jade and Gold Push Present




Celebrity Baby Blog





01/08/2013 at 02:00 PM ET



Better late than never!


When Tori Spelling gave birth to Finn Davey in August 2012, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for husband Dean McDermott to find the perfect push present. But you can’t really blame the guy. He and Spelling more than have their hands full with three other kids together — Liam Aaron, 5½, Stella Doreen, 4½, and Hattie Margaret, 15 months.


Tori Spelling Stella Saved My Life
Inset:Gregg DeGuire/PictureGroup


“I got a call from Dean and he said he was really late but he wanted to get Tori a very special push present to celebrate the birth of baby Finn,” jeweler Neil Lane, who designed the couple’s wedding bands and most recently created an antique gold and coral ring for their sixth anniversary, tells PEOPLE exclusively.


“He wanted something pretty, but different. He really cares and said he’d been thinking about it for a long time.”



While Lane offered an array of options, including an Indian vintage ring and a rare amethyst, McDermott honed in on a jade and gold ring from the celebrity jeweler’s collection.


Acquired in China in the 1920s, the 10-carat cabochon-cut jade stone with a fancy gold filigree design has the original delicate Chinese hallmarks. “Tori loves green, she loves perfectly rounded stones like this one and the abstract floral style is just beautiful,” Lane explains.


McDermott surprised Spelling with it around the holidays and the gift was a hit. “Dean adores her and he looks at jewelery as a connection to the relationship [to mark] milestones in their life,” says Lane. “The ring was a token of his love, affection and appreciation of their love and this new baby. They’re really happy and romantic!”


– Elizabeth Leonard


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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down


WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.


Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.


"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.


But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.


Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.


The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.


Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.


Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.


But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.


Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.


Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.


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Wall Street declines as earnings clarity awaited

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks declined on Tuesday as the market continued its retreat from last week's rally on the "fiscal cliff" deal in Congress as investors awaited the start of the earnings season with muted expectations.


Profits in the fourth quarter are seen above the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.


The benchmark S&P index has fallen 0.5 percent in the wake of the 4.3 percent jump in the two days surrounding the conclusion of the fiscal cliff debate, and investors have found few catalysts to extend the brief rally.


"We had a brief respite courtesy of what happened on the fiscal cliff deal and the flip of the calendar with new money coming into the market," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.


"But now the stark reality of uncertainty with regard to earnings, plus the negotiations on the debt ceiling, are there and that doesn't give investors a lot of reason to take bets on the long side."


In Tuesday's results, Monsanto Co shares rose 2.6 percent to $98.45 after hitting a more than four-year high at $99.99. The world's largest seed company raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2013 and posted strong first-quarter results.


Education provider Apollo Group and Dow component Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminum producer, round out the start of earnings season after the closing bell.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 73.13 points, or 0.55 percent, to 13,311.16. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 6.91 points, or 0.47 percent, to 1,454.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> fell 12.68 points, or 0.41 percent, to 3,086.13.


AT&T Inc , which fell 1.8 percent to $34.30, was among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 after the company said it had sold more than 10 million smartphones in the quarter, topping the same quarter in 2011 but also increasing costs for the wireless service provider.


Providers like AT&T pay hefty subsidies to handset makers so that they can offer device discounts to customers who commit to two-year contracts.


The S&P telecom services index <.gspl>, down 2.4 percent, was the worst performing of the 10 major S&P sectors.


Shares of restaurant-chain operator Yum Brands Inc fell 4.2 percent to $65.04 a day after the KFC parent warned sales in China, its largest market, shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter.


Sears Holdings shares dropped 3.8 percent to $41.31 a day after the company said Chairman Edward Lampert would take over as CEO from Louis D'Ambrosio, who is stepping down due to a family member's health issue. The U.S. retailer also reported a 1.8 percent decline in quarter-to-date sales at stores open at least a year.


GameStop shares slumped 6.2 percent to $23.22 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after the video game retailer reported sales for the holiday season and cut its guidance.


(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)



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American Delegation Arrives in North Korea on Controversial Private Trip


David Guttenfelder/Associated Press


Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, arrived in Pyongyang on Monday.







SEOUL, South Korea — Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, led a private delegation including Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, to North Korea on Monday, a controversial trip to a country that is among the most hostile to the Internet.








Kim Kwang Hyon/Associated Press

Bill Richardson led a private delegation to North Korea on Monday.






Mr. Richardson, who has visited North Korea several times, called his four-day trip a private humanitarian mission and said he would try to meet with Kenneth Bae, a 44-year-old South Korea-born American citizen who was arrested on charges of “hostile acts” against North Korea after entering the country as a tourist in early November.


“I heard from his son who lives in Washington State, who asked me to bring him back,” Mr. Richardson said in Beijing before boarding a plane bound for Pyongyang. “I doubt we can do it on this trip.”


In a one-sentence dispatch, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency confirmed the American group’s arrival in Pyongyang, calling it “a Google delegation.”


Mr. Richardson said his delegation planned to meet with North Korean political, economic and military leaders and visit universities.


Mr. Schmidt and Google have kept quiet about why Mr. Schmidt joined the trip, which the State Department advised against, calling the visit unhelpful. Mr. Richardson said Monday that Mr. Schmidt was “interested in some of the economic issues there, the social media aspect,” but did not elaborate. Mr. Schmidt is a staunch proponent of Internet connectivity and openness.


Except for a tiny portion of its elite, North Korea’s population is blocked from the Internet. Under its new leader, Kim Jong-un, the country has emphasized science and technology but has also vowed to intensify its war against the infiltration of outside information in the isolated country, which it sees as a potential threat to its totalitarian grip on power.


Although it is engaged in a standoff with the United States over its nuclear weapons and missile programs and habitually criticizes American foreign policy as “imperial,” North Korea welcomes high-profile American visits to Pyongyang, billing them as signs of respect for its leadership. It runs a special museum for gifts that foreign dignitaries have brought for its leaders.


Washington has never established diplomatic ties with North Korea, and the two countries remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.


But Mr. Richardson’s trip comes at a particularly delicate time for Washington. In the past weeks, it has been trying to muster international support to penalize North Korea for its launching last month of a long-range rocket, which the United States condemned as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning the country from testing intercontinental ballistic missile technology.


North Korea has often required visits by high-profile Americans, including former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, before releasing American citizens held there on criminal charges. Mr. Richardson, who is also a former ambassador to the United Nations, traveled to Pyongyang in 1996 to negotiate the release of Evan Hunziker, who was held for three months on charges of spying after swimming across the river border between China and North Korea.


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Kuwait sentences second man to jail for insulting emir: lawyer






DUBAI (Reuters) – A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country’s ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second to be jailed for the offence in as many days.


The U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state has clamped down in recent months on political activists who have been using social media websites to criticize the government and the ruling family.






Kuwait has seen a series of protests, including one on Sunday night, organized by the opposition since the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, used emergency powers in October to change the voting system.


The court sentenced Ayyad al-Harbi, who has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter, to the prison term two months after his arrest and release on bail.


Harbi used his Twitter account to criticize the Kuwait government and the emir. He tweeted on Sunday: “Tomorrow morning is my trial’s verdict on charges of slander against the emir, spreading of false news.”


His lawyer, Mohammed al-Humidi, said Harbi would appeal against the verdict. “We’ve been taken by surprise because Kuwait has always been known internationally and in the Arab world as a democracy-loving country,” Humidi told Reuters by telephone. “People are used to democracy, but suddenly we see the constitution being undermined.”


On Sunday, Rashid Saleh al-Anzi was given two years in prison over a tweet that “stabbed the rights and powers of the emir”, according to the online newspaper Alaan. Anzi, who has 5,700 Twitter followers, was expected to appeal.


Kuwait, a U.S. ally and major oil producer, has been taking a firmer line on politically sensitive comments aired on the Internet.


In June 2012, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of endangering state security by insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on social media.


Two months later, authorities detained Sheikh Meshaal al-Malik Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, over remarks on Twitter in which he accused authorities of corruption and called for political reform, a rights activist said.


Public demonstrations about local issues are common in a state that allows the most dissent in the Gulf, and Kuwait has avoided Arab Spring-style mass unrest that has ousted four veteran Arab dictators in the past two years.


But tensions have risen between Kuwait’s hand-picked government, in which ruling family members hold the top posts, and the elected parliament and opposition groups.


(Reporting by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Claire Danes: I'd Make a Lousy Stay-at-Home Mom




Celebrity Baby Blog





01/07/2013 at 11:00 AM ET



Claire Danes Covers ELLE
Courtesy ELLE


Long before she welcomed son Cyrus Michael Christopher in December, Claire Danes always knew a family was in her future.


But the actress also knew a brood of babies would not close the curtain on her career.


“I’ve always wanted to have kids, but I’m glad I didn’t until now. When I was thinking about [working and being a mother] originally, I was really nervous about it,” the Homeland star, 33, says in Elle‘s February issue.


“I think I would make a lousy stay-at-home mom. It just wouldn’t suit me. I feel so fortunate in that I’ve had this straight-arrow focus … that I wanted to act.”

But while she may have worked hard to achieve her success in the spotlight, other aspects of her life — mainly her marriage with husband Hugh Dancy — have fallen into place on their own.


“Hugh was just the right partner for me. I got very, very lucky. There’s only so much credit you can take when it just sort of works, you know?” she shares.


“And obviously we work hard at maintaining our relationship — that is central to both our lives — but at the same time, it’s just this kind of ease that I can’t really account for.”


Claire Danes Covers ELLE
Courtesy ELLE


– Anya Leon


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