Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit


NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.


With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.


"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.


City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.


"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.


Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.


Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.


"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.


Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.


While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.


Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.


Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.


___


Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


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S&P 500 gains more than 1 percent


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday as stronger-than-expected earnings helped the outlook for profit growth while the Nasdaq also traded more than 1 percent higher.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 121.55 points, or 0.88 percent, at 14,001.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 16.25 points, or 1.09 percent, at 1,511.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 38.08 points, or 1.22 percent, at 3,169.25.


(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)



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Europol Investigation Shows Fixing Is Suspected in 680 Soccer Matches





Soccer is known throughout much of the world as the beautiful game. But the sport’s ugliest side — the scourge of match-fixing — will not go away.




With next summer’s World Cup in Brazil drawing closer, a European police intelligence agency said Monday that a 19-month investigation revealed widespread occurrences of match-fixing in recent years, with nearly 700 games globally deemed suspicious. The list of matches is staggering and encompasses about 380 games in Europe, covering World Cup and European championship qualifiers, as well as Champions League games, including one match played in England.


Officials of Europol, an agency that works with countries across the continent, offered details that strike at the sport’s core: nearly $11 million in profits and nearly $3 million in bribes were discovered during the investigation, which uncovered “match-fixing activity on a scale we have not seen before,” said Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol.


Fixers typically seek to dictate a game’s result by corrupting the players or the on-field officials, and officials said Monday that roughly 425 people were under suspicion because of the investigation, with 50 people having been arrested. The scope of the investigation covered games from 2008 to 2011.


An organized crime syndicate based in Asia is believed to be the driving force behind the fixing activity, which stretches across at least 15 countries, officials said. Individual bribes were, in some instances, upward of $136,000, and fixers would place bets on the tainted matches through bookmakers in Asia. Various matches in Africa, Asia and South and Central America were identified as suspicious, though the European element of the investigation is the most significant.


“This is a sad day for European football,” Wainwright said at a news conference in the Netherlands, adding: “It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded major results, which we think have uncovered a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe.”


But officials at the news conference repeatedly dodged questions from reporters on how many of the 680 matches cited were previously known and how many were newly discovered.


Nor would they identify any of the teams and individuals newly linked to match-fixing, citing the need to guard the confidentiality of police procedures.


Still, the breadth of the investigation was significant, and it inspired strong reactions from global fans. Even as the news conference continued, fans took to social media to speculate on which matches might have been fixed, with a particular fascination as to what English Champions League contest drew the investigators’ scrutiny. Indeed, the notion that corruption has been identified in British soccer, home of the English Premier League, the world’s most popular grouping, will reverberate globally.


“It would be naïve and complacent of those in the U.K. to think such a criminal conspiracy does not involve the English game and all the football in Europe,” Wainwright said.


Europol and Interpol officials said an international arrest warrant had been issued for the ringleader of the Asian syndicate so that he can be extradited to Europe to face fraud and bribery charges.


Europol did not publicly identify the ringleader, but several knowledgeable law enforcement officials later said on condition of anonymity that it was a man based in Singapore known as Dan Tan. They said Tan had been implicated in match-fixing cases dating to 1999.


The conclusion of Europol’s investigation comes after a slew of high-profile incidents. Last month FIFA, the sport’s governing body, barred 41 players for fixing matches in South Korea; in December 2012 the president of the South African Football Association was suspended after FIFA determined that four exhibition matches before the 2010 World Cup had been fixed; and last summer a complex match-fixing network was discovered in Italy, rocking that country’s high-profile professional leagues.


David Jolly contributed reporting from The Hague.



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BlackBerry shares jump after Bernstein upgrades stock






TORONTO (Reuters) – Shares of BlackBerry rose more than 8 percent in on Monday after Bernstein Research said it was upgrading the stock to “outperform” after last week’s launch of the company’s new line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones.


The brokerage firm, which has not had an “outperform” rating on the stock for more than three years, also lifted its price target to $ 22 from $ 12, saying it has grown much more confident about the success of the smartphones, powered by the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.






Shares of BlackBerry, which is in the process of changing its legal name from Research In Motion, rose 8.9 percent to $ 14.18 in early Nasdaq trading. BlackBerry’s Toronto-listed shares were up 9.1 percent at C$ 14.21 at 10:30 EST.


The stock began trading under the “BBRY” symbol on Nasdaq on Monday and under the “BB” symbol on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock used to trade as “RIMM” on the Nasdaq and “RIM” on the TSX.


“We upgrade BlackBerry to outperform today as we believe BB 10 is set for a strong launch,” Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said in a note to clients. “Even if the long-term prospects for the platform are very uncertain, we believe all is in place for BlackBerry 10 to enjoy a great debut.”


BlackBerry, a one-time pioneer in the smartphone industry, has ceded market share in recent years to the likes of Apple’s iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy line and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc’s market-leading Android operating system.


In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced its new line of smartphones to much fanfare on Wednesday. However, its stock fell more than 10 percent following the launch as investors were disappointed that the new smartphones will only go on sale in mid-March in the crucial U.S. market.


“The strength of this launch is overlooked by investors, creating strong opportunity to buy BlackBerry,” said Ferragu, adding that he expects strong initial corporate demand for the new devices.


“We believe BlackBerry should trade in the $ 20-$ 25 range once a decent launch for Blackberry 10 and a stabilized trajectory for fiscal year 2014 are priced in,” he said.


BlackBerry unveiled both a touch-screen device and a physical-keyboard device last week. While the traditional keyboard model only goes on sale in April, the touch-screen device is already on sale in the United Kingdom and hits store shelves in Canada this week.


Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry said the U.S. launch was delayed until mid-March because U.S. wireless carriers have a longer testing phase than carriers in other countries. The devices, which are set to retail for C$ 599 ($ 600) in Canada, are currently attracting bids of more than $ 1,000 each on auction site ebay.com.


(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn; and Peter Galloway)


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Baby Girl on the Way for Kathryn Fiore




Celebrity Baby Blog





02/04/2013 at 01:00 PM ET



Kathryn Fiore Pregnant Expecting First Child
Courtesy Katheryn Fiore


Cue the lullaby: The Wedding Band is prepping for its littlest fan yet.


Actress Kathryn Fiore, 33, and her husband, actor Gabriel Tigerman, 32, are expecting a daughter in late May, her rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.


“We are expecting a baby girl!” the couple tell PEOPLE. “This is our first and we are over the moon excited!”


Fiore — who is also known for her sketch comedy on MADtv — and Tigerman, who has had roles on Supernatural and Journeyman, tied the knot at Malibu’s Pepperdine University in October 2008.


Her godfather, movie critic Rex Reed, served as their officiant.


– Anya Leon


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APNewsBreak: Catholic hospital acknowledges error


DENVER (AP) — A Catholic hospital on Monday acknowledged it was "morally wrong" for its attorneys to argue in court that a fetus is not a human being under Colorado law.


The admission comes after executives of Catholic Healthcare Initiatives met with Colorado's Roman Catholic bishops to discuss its defense in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after a mother and her unborn twins died in the emergency room of St Thomas More Medical Center in Canon City in 2006.


Disclosure of the hospital's successful legal arguments last month drew sharp criticism because they appeared to contradict church doctrine that life begins at conception. Colorado's bishops vowed to review the case. Catholic Healthcare Initiatives operates Thomas More and dozens of other Catholic hospitals.


In joint statements released Monday morning, the Bishops and CHI said the operation was "unaware" of the lawyers' legal arguments. They said that CHI executives acknowledged "it was morally wrong" to make that contention because it "directly contradicts the moral teachings of the Church."


The statements also noted that, while the legal status of the fetus was key to getting the case dismissed before trial, the hospital also won on appeal by arguing there was no proof that medical error caused the fetuses' deaths. The father of the unborn children is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to hear the case.


The Bishops and CHI extended their condolences to the family. They also pledged to pursue stronger legal protections for unborn children.


"Catholic healthcare institutions are, and should, be held to the high standard of Jesus Christ himself, who is our divine and eternal healer," said the Bishops' statement.


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Wall Street retreats from five-year high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday after a disappointing report on factory orders, retreating from gains in the prior session that left the S&P 500 at a five-year high and the Dow above 14,000.


Investors also grew wary on political uncertainty in the euro zone, leading to a sharp rise in Spanish government bond yields.


Chevron and Wal-Mart were among the biggest drags on the Dow after analyst downgrades.


"S&P technicals are at overbought levels, and risk-off harbingers, such as Spanish 10-year yields, which are much more difficult for central bankers to tame, have bounced off recent lows," said Peter Cecchini, managing director at New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.


Spanish and Italian bond yields rose, renewing worries about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. Spain's prime minister faced calls to resign over a corruption scandal, while a probe of alleged misconduct involving an Italian bank was expected to widen three weeks before a national election.


The benchmark S&P 500 rose on Friday, leaving it roughly 60 points away from its all-time intraday high of 1,576.09, while the Dow's march above 14,000 was the highest for the index since October 2007.


The S&P index <.spx> is up 5.5 percent for the year, with nearly half of the gains coming after U.S. legislators temporarily sidestepped the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.


Data from the Commerce Department showed overall factory orders rose 1.8 percent in December, below economists' expectations. The report said capital goods orders outside of the defense and aircraft industries, edged 0.3 percent lower. The category is seen as a gauge of U.S. business investment plans.


Economic data has pointed to a modest U.S. recovery, but the data have not been strong enough to upset investor expectations the Federal Reserve will continue its stimulus policy that has buoyed stocks.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 117.19 points, or 0.84 percent, at 13,892.60. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 13.72 points, or 0.91 percent, at 1,499.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 37.77 points, or 1.19 percent, at 3,141.33.


The CBOE Volatility index VIX <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, jumped more than 10 percent to 14.48 by afternoon trade.


Chevron Corp dipped 1 percent to $115.34 after UBS cut its rating to neutral, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc shed 1.5 percent to $69.46 after JP Morgan lowered its rating on the world's largest retailer and reduced its price target.


Oracle Corp lost 2.6 percent to $35.28 after the company agreed to buy network gear maker Acme Packet Inc for about $1.9 billion. Acme Packet shares surged 22 percent to $29.20.


Shares of household products company Clorox rose 1.3 percent to $80.23 after quarterly profit beat analysts' estimates as a severe flu season boosted sales of disinfecting wipes.


Earnings are due from Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Yum! Brands Inc , owner of fast-food chains, after the closing bell.


According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 256 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Monday morning, 68.4 percent have reported earnings above analyst expectations compared with the 62 percent average since 1994 and the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.


S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are expected to rise 4.4 percent, according to the data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast on October 1.


Herbalife Ltd slumped 3 percent to $34.03 after the New York Post newspaper reported the seller of weight loss products is facing a probe by the Federal Trade Commission.


(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)



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Lino Oviedo, Candidate in Paraguay, Dies in Crash





RIO DE JANEIRO — Lino Oviedo, a candidate in Paraguay’s presidential elections and one of the country’s most polarizing political figures, was killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday night while returning from a political rally in northern Paraguay, government officials said Sunday.




The fiery crash, which killed Mr. Oviedo, 69, an aide and the pilot of the helicopter, opens a new phase of uncertainty in Paraguay, one of Latin America’s most politically unstable countries. After authorities confirmed his death and called it an accident, officials in his party, the National Union of Ethical Citizens, immediately questioned whether Mr. Oviedo had been assassinated.


The death of Mr. Oviedo, a retired general who had led Paraguay’s army, brought an end to a tumultuous political career.


He initially gained prominence in 1989, when he helped topple Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, the dictator who ruled Paraguay for 35 years.


Mr. Oviedo fled the country in 1996, seeking exile first in Argentina then in Brazil, after being charged of organizing an aborted coup attempt against Juan Carlos Wasmosy, then Paraguay’s president.


The authorities also indicted Mr. Oviedo on charges of masterminding the assassination of Luis María Argaña, the vice president who was killed by gunmen outside Asunción in March 1999. But after Mr. Oviedo returned to Paraguay in 2004 and served time in prison in connection to the coup-plotting conviction, Paraguay’s Supreme Court absolved him of the various charges.


He then took up a hard-charging political career, campaigning as a populist who nimbly used Guaraní, Paraguay’s widely-spoken indigenous language, in his speeches. He became known as the “bonsai horseman,” in a nod to his short stature, and came in third in the country’s last presidential vote, in 2008.


Paraguay was officially commemorating Stroessner’s overthrow on Sunday, making the timing of the helicopter crash questionable for some of Mr. Oviedo’s political supporters. Paraguayan aviation authorities, while claiming that the helicopter went down in an area of northern Paraguay with stormy weather on Saturday night, said they would investigate the causes of the crash.


“Twenty-four years ago today General Oviedo overthrew the dictatorship,” César Durand, a spokesman for Mr. Oviedo’s party, told Radio Ñanduti. “This is a message from the mafia,” he said, employing a blanket term often used by Paraguayans to refer to shadowy organizations involved in drug trafficking and the contraband of pirated goods into neighboring Brazil.


Mr. Oviedo’s chances of winning Paraguay’s presidential election, scheduled for April, appeared to be slim, political analysts said. According to recent polls, support for Mr. Oviedo remained in the single digits, placing him far behind the front-runner in the race, Horacio Cartes, a banking and tobacco magnate.


The election comes after a stretch of political turmoil in Paraguay in which Paraguay’s Senate hastily ousted the president, Fernando Lugo, from office in June. Mr. Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, had ended six decades of one-party rule when he was elected, but faced fierce opposition from lawmakers to his attempts to reduce Paraguay’s disparity in landholdings.


If Mr. Cartes, 56, holds his lead, the presidency will return to the Colorado Party which long dominated Paraguay. Still, his campaign is facing questions over his business dealings. State Department diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks revealed claims in 2007 that a bank under Mr. Cartes’s control was involved in a great deal of Paraguay’s money-laundering activities.


Mr. Cartes has rejected the money-laundering claims, calling them “laughable rubbish.”


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Innovative Ways the Autism Community Uses iPads






The iPad has proven to be an especially useful communication tool for young people with autism. It provides a way to express themselves through words and images; it can be used to teach them about everyday scenarios and give them more independence. It’s also far less bulky than some communication devices of the past.


Autism Spectrum Disorders are developmental disabilities that affect about one in every 88 children, and one in 54 boys.






[More from Mashable: 10 Essential Tools for the Lean Web Developer]


Jonathan Izak‘s 12-year-old autistic brother inspired him to develop the AutisMate app for iPad. His brother, Oriel, is mostly nonverbal and used to struggle to communicate, sometimes throwing tantrums when he was unable to get his point across, Izak tells Mashable.


At 7 years old, Oriel had to wear a heavy communication device around his neck, which further set him apart from other children at school. Now, Oriel carries an iPad and uses the app his brother developed to communicate and learn new behaviors like how to act in specific social situations.


[More from Mashable: Tablet Shipments Hit Record Levels While Apple’s Market Share Declines]


With AutisMate, parents or caretakers take and upload photos of their child’s bedroom, the kitchen, his or her school to the app. When the app launches, the iPad’s GPS will know where the user is and allows them to tap pictures of their surrounding environment. The child can tap the refrigerator, for instance, to express that he or she is hungry.


Izak says these visual tools for communication don’t become a permanent crutch but rather promote speech and communication.


It’s not uncommon for children with autism to be nonverbal and need the iPad to communicate. AutismSpeaks.org says it’s estimated that 25% of people with autism are completely nonverbal.


Izak explains that, for someone with autism, the unknowns in life can be scary, so to prepare that person for the world, apps like AutisMate show scenes of how to do everyday things like go to a restaurant or the doctor’s office.


Parents, caretakers and doctors know early intervention with autism is a key factor to increasing their child’s likelihood of communicating, which is probably why most autism apps focus on children. iPad apps to help children with autism develop their communication skills are part of a rapidly growing market and have proved to be effective tools. Check out some of the apps we found and others recommended to us. Let us know if you know of any other useful apps for people with autism.


Click here to view the gallery: Autism Apps


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, UrsaHoogle


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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The Duchess of Cambridge Reveals Royal Baby Bump









02/03/2013 at 01:20 PM EST



Royal baby-watchers, rejoice: Here's comes the bump!

Although she was wearing an oversize, tartan-print cape, Kate stepped out on Wednesday in West London revealing a new curve – and we're not just talking about her smile!

With her hair back in a ponytail, the Duchess of Cambridge, 30, pulled her look together with a black scarf, black leggings and riding boots.

The mother-to-be was also recently spotted in London's Chelsea neighborhood shopping for jeggings at the Gap.

The public outings show that Kate's health is on the upswing after being hospitalized with severe morning sickness in the early days of her pregnancy.

The baby is due in July.

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