State fires contractor on tech project

SACRAMENTO – The state has fired the contractor on one of its biggest and most troubled technology projects after deep problems with the system were revealed.

The decision to terminate the contract Friday stalls the costly effort to overhaul an outdated and unstable computer network that issues paychecks and handles medical benefits for 240,000 state employees. The $371-million upgrade, known as the 21st Century Project, has fallen years behind schedule and tripled in cost.

The state has already spent at least $254 million on the project, paying more than $50 million of that to the contractor, SAP Public Services. The company was hired three years ago after the job sputtered in the hands of a previous contractor, BearingPoint.

But when SAP's program was tested last summer, it made errors at more than 100 times the rate of the aging system the state has been struggling to replace, according to state officials.

"It would be totally irresponsible to move forward," said Jacob Roper, a spokesman for the California controller.

The Times highlighted problems with the state's 21st Century Project in December, soon after officials sent a letter to SAP saying the overhaul was "in danger of collapsing."

During a trial run involving 1,300 employees, Roper said, some paychecks went to the wrong person for the wrong amount. The system canceled some medical coverage and sent child-support payments to the wrong beneficiaries.

Roper said the state also had to pay $50,000 in penalties because money was sent to retirement accounts incorrectly.

"State employees and their families were in harm's way," he said. "Taxpayers were in harm's way."

The controller's office, which oversees the upgrade, will try to recoup the money paid to SAP, Roper said. Meanwhile, officials will conduct an autopsy on the system to determine what can be salvaged.

And Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) called for a hearing to examine how so much money could be spent on the project with "apparently little to show for it."

A spokesman for SAP, Andy Kendzie, said the company was "extremely disappointed" that the controller terminated the contract.

"SAP stands behind our software and actions," Kendzie said in a statement. "SAP also believes we have satisfied all contractual obligations in this project."

Kendzie did not directly address the controller's concerns about errors during testing, nor did he say whether the company would fight any state effort to recover the $50 million.

Other California entities have struggled with SAP's work.

A $95-million plan to upgrade the Los Angeles Unified School District's payroll system with SAP software became a disaster in 2007, when some teachers were paid too much and others weren't paid at all.

More recently, Marin County officials decided to scrap their SAP-developed computer system, saying it never worked right and cost too much to maintain.

Both of those projects were managed by Deloitte Consulting.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Anne Hathaway's Channeling Audrey Hepburn In Your Favorite Dress This Week

Stylewatch
Style News Now

02/09/2013 at 12:00 PM ET

Kevin Winter/Getty

We’ve always said that StyleWatch readers appreciate the power of the perfect little black dress. The two most loved star looks this week weren’t jaw-dropping gowns, but instead perfectly executed versions of the wardrobe staple.

Anne Hathaway nabbed the No. 1 spot, with more than 15,000 votes, thanks to the simple black sleeveless number she wore to the Academy Awards Nominations Luncheon in Beverly Hills. She gave the pretty piece even more polish with black ankle-strap sandals, Jamie Wolf earrings and Jennifer Meyer bracelets and rings.

PHOTOS: SEE THE TOP 10 BEST DRESSED STARS ON PEOPLE.COM THIS WEEK!

The runner-up LBD was spotted on Jessica Chastain, who paired her peplum sheath with nude pumps and a pretty pink lip at the The Hollywood Reporter‘s Oscar Nominees Night in L.A.

Click here to see which other stars earned a spot in the top 10 and vote for your favorite looks here. Tell us: Is Hathaway your best dressed celeb of the week? If not, who is?

–Jennifer Cress

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Email hacker reveals Bush family photos, addresses

(Reuters) – The Secret Service is investigating the hacking of email accounts belonging to members of the Bush family that divulged correspondence, addresses, phone numbers and a picture of a self-portrait painted by former President George W. Bush standing in a shower.

A report on the Smoking Gun website, said the pilfered emails provided a rare glimpse into the private lives of one of America’s most powerful political dynasties. The Bushes are only the second family in U.S. history to send a father and son to the White House.

The website said a hacker known as Guccifer raided the email accounts and posted the photos online. The pictures include an image of former President George H.W. Bush, who was released from a Houston hospital last month after seven weeks of treatment for bronchitis and related ailments, in a hospital bed.

Another photo showed the elder Bush, 88, posing outside a home with Bill Clinton, who was president between the two Bushes.

The intercepted photos also featured a portrait painted by George W. Bush of himself showering. It shows a gray-headed man, nude from the waist up, regarding the viewer with Bush-like features from the reflection in a shaving mirror. Another painting in the same style shows a pair of legs in a bathtub.

“I really like the paintings of George W. Bush,” New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz wrote Friday.

Saltz, who normally reserves his criticism for the likes of French painter Henri Matisse, found the president’s portraiture “wonderful, unself-conscious, intense.”

Other photos showed Bush painting a picture of a house and posing with a cut-out of himself in an artist’s smock, beret and mustache.

SIX EMAIL ACCOUNTS HIT

The Smoking Gun site, known for posting legal documents and arrest records related to celebrities, said the hacker invaded six email accounts, including one belonging to Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of George H.W. Bush, as well as other Bush family members and friends.

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating whether former President George H.W. Bush‘s email was hacked as well, the agency said on Friday. A Bush family spokesman declined to comment.

Among the material that was lifted were an October 2012 list of home addresses, cell phone numbers and email addresses for the former presidents and other relatives, according to the Smoking Gun.

The site said the emails revealed that when the elder Bush was in poor health, George W. Bush wrote his siblings the day after Christmas to say he was “thinking about eulogy.”

“Hopefully I’m jumping the gun,” he said, “but since the feeling is that you all would rather me speak than bubba, please help.”

“Bubba” is a well-known sobriquet for Clinton.

Since leaving office in 2009, Bush has taken up painting portraits of Texas landscapes and dogs. He has live a reserved life, largely hidden from view, with his wife, Laura, in Dallas.

Bush is likely to make a more sustained return to the spotlight when his presidential library, located at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is completed and dedicated in April.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Samuel P. Jacobs; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Doina Chiacu and Bill Trott)

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Venezuela, Despite Myriad Problems, Seizes On a Hat

Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Vice President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela wore a patriotic cap to a parade Monday in Caracas.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela seems to lurch from one crisis to another. President Hugo Chávez has virtually disappeared since going to Cuba for cancer surgery more than eight weeks ago. Last month, 58 people were killed in a prison when inmates clashed with soldiers. Inflation is spiking, the government just announced a currency devaluation and lurid murders are the stuff of daily headlines.

But high on the list of government priorities last week was an unexpected item: baseball caps.

Even in a country where political theater of the absurd is commonplace, the great cap kerfuffle took many Venezuelans by surprise.

It all started over the summer, when a young state governor, Henrique Capriles, ran for president against Mr. Chávez. Mr. Capriles started wearing a baseball cap decorated with the national colors — yellow, blue and red — and the stars of the Venezuelan flag.

In response, the electoral council, dominated by Chávez loyalists, threatened to sanction Mr. Capriles for violating a rule against using national symbols in the campaign. The move struck many people as patently partisan because Mr. Chávez regularly wore clothes made up of the national colors and patterned on the flag and used vast amounts of government resources to promote his re-election.

Suddenly, the tricolor cap became a symbol of Mr. Capriles’s underdog campaign, and soon it could be seen everywhere, on the noggins of his supporters.

But Mr. Capriles lost the election in October, and the cap was mostly forgotten. Until now.

At a rally on Monday to celebrate the anniversary of a failed 1992 coup led by Mr. Chávez, a host of government officials unexpectedly pulled out caps like the one Mr. Capriles had made famous and put them on.

Had Mr. Chávez’s top cadre switched sides? Nothing of the sort.

“It is the cap of the revolution,” Vice President Nicolás Maduro said from the stage. “They can’t steal it like they’re accustomed to stealing it.”

He held up the hat, which had a small emblem commemorating the coup’s anniversary, and shouted, “Cap in hand! Tricolor in hand, everyone!”

A day later, at a session of the National Assembly, legislators on both sides of the aisle showed up wearing caps. The chamber looked like the stands at a baseball game.

All of this has given rise to plenty of jokes.

“The cap — expropriate it!” said one wag on Twitter, referring to a famous episode when Mr. Chávez, a socialist, in what seemed like a spontaneous act, ordered the nationalization of several buildings in the center of Caracas.

Then came a new twist on Thursday night, when the government interrupted regular television and radio programming with a special broadcast. Anxious Venezuelans worried about Mr. Chávez’s long absence might have wondered if they were about to get an update on the president’s health.

Nope. The two-minute broadcast consisted of images of Mr. Chávez, at various points of his 14-year presidency, wearing the tricolor cap.

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Bar trivia is more than just fun and games

The door to the bar in Palms swung open, and strains of the theme from "Rocky III" burst into the street: "It's the eye of the tiger / It's the thrill of the fight!"

It was the call to arms for the Tuesday trivia night at the Irish Times pub.

A tall man stood among the Irish flags and faux-antique Guinness etchings and shot off the first question: "An NFL broadcaster who earned a law degree." Regulars nursing craft brews and munching on mozzarella sticks at the bar ignored him. But in the corner, John Verran and his trivia team worked intently on the correct answer.

"It's very competitive," said Verran, 27, a geographical information systems graduate student.

Bar trivia in Los Angeles is no trifling matter. Building on the runaway popularity of the game Trivial Pursuit in the 1980s, the pub quiz phenomenon exploded in British and Irish watering holes, spread to the East Coast and arrived in Southern California in earnest five years ago. As many as 70 local bars put on trivia nights, with more joining every day, said Andy Roth, owner of Action Trivia, one of the larger promoters.

"It's Manifest Destiny, man," said Roth, talking of the trend's momentum after hosting a pub quiz Wednesday at Michael's Bar & Grill in Burbank. "The hipsters love this."

The Irish Times game is highly organized — printed answer forms, weighted categories, intricate scoring. Some promoters hire staff members to research questions; others rely on hosts and players for suggestions. Prizes are usually nominal: a free dinner, or cash off the bar tab.

It's a know-it-all's paradise, and I should know. My childhood nickname was "Mrs. Dictionary." Does anyone else remember the Knowledge Bowl at the Balboa Fun Zone?

The players are Type-Aers whose idea of relaxation is a savage intellectual dogfight. All in good fun, of course. The top teams skew young, 20-somethings who spend all day online and are hungry for human contact. Structured play is safe ground for a generation raised in day care with their off-hours strictly regimented, and who suffer from early-onset nostalgia — Teletubbies, '90s pop.

Verran's team, Deliveries in the Rear ("It seemed amusing at the time," he said), formed around a nucleus of classmates from USC law school. They've been playing trivia at Irish Times for four years, returning week after week to face familiar rivals.

Verran was captain of his high school's championship Quizbowl team in Huntington Beach and is a lifelong trivia buff. "My mind just works that way," he said. Avi Schwartz, a patent lawyer with a chemistry degree, is the science nerd. Kristen Sales, who writes about movies for a film website, just likes games. "I grew up playing games," Sales said. "Me at 25 and me at 12 are basically the same person."

Some teams study on their own time, or enlist ringers to shore up their weak areas. Players size each other up in competition, then come together to form superteams.

"There are even headhunters out there recruiting," said entertainment attorney and Deliveries member Vanessa Flanders.

Greg Beron of Dreambuilders Multi-Media was the evening's host. A former lawyer, he runs a home brewing supply store in Culver City and does trivia on the side.

The Irish Times game is tough, he conceded. His musical interludes are sometimes clues to the answers, but not always. Beron doesn't want me to say which were which, and was touchy about my printing answers to any of his questions; he's saving the game for another pub quiz.

"We're not there to make it easy for people," Beron said.

Early in the first round, Deliveries faced their first big challenge, a four-part bonus question: Name double-word song titles performed by musicians David Bowie, Billy Idol, Paula Abdul and Run DMC.

A thrill of excitement ran through me when I heard it: "Rebel Rebel!" I cried. Bowie, my era!

Deliveries also got the Bowie tune and Idol's "Mony Mony" ("Spelling counts on this one," Beron said.) But Run DMC's "Mary, Mary" and Abdul's "Rush Rush" eluded the team.

"We almost had it — we put 'Hush Hush,' " Verran said of fluffing the Abdul answer.

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Nigella Lawson: Inside Her Kitchen

By Liza Hamm

02/08/2013 at 05:15 PM EST

One day British cook Nigella Lawson found herself inspired while watching an episode of MTV Cribs.

"I saw Missy Elliott had the world's biggest fridge, and I thought, 'One day I've got to have that fridge!' " says Lawson, as she gestures toward the 7-ft.-tall Sub-Zero appliance at one end of her expansive London kitchen.

"So it's called the Missy Elliott Memorial Fridge. It is so huge, but I love it."

In recent weeks, however, Lawson, 53, has barely been around to cook from the vast quantities of food stored inside. Along with promoting her new Italian cookbook Nigellissima in the U.K. and preparing for a U.S. book tour, Lawson has been starring as a judge and mentor on ABC's new reality cooking competition The Taste, providing the compassionate counterpoint to Anthony Bourdain's acerbic wit.

"When I'm doing my own shows, I have total control," she says, "but I felt drawn to do reality TV – and a little frightened." And a little exhausted. Given her whirlwind start to the new year, "I'd like to take a little time off and be a normal person at home and cook."

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Dell’s largest investor opposes buyout as too low

(Reuters) – Dell Inc’s largest independent shareholder Southeastern Asset Management said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell who is leading the effort to operate the company away from public scrutiny.

Southeastern sent a letter to Dell’s board expressing its “extreme disappointment” in the offer price of $ 13.65 a share, it said in a regulatory filing.

It said it “currently intends to avail itself of all options at its disposal to oppose proposed transaction.”

Reuters had reported earlier that the Southeastern was unhappy with the offer.

The Memphis, Tennessee-based fund, which owns a 8.5 percent stake in Dell, said it values the entire company at about $ 24.00 per share.

The fund said it believes Dell board had several alternatives that would have produced far better outcome for public shareholders, including breaking up the company and selling the unit separately.

“Selling multiple business units to strategic buyers could easily exceed $ 13.65 per share,” it said.

A representative of Silver Lake declined to comment.

With Southeastern’s objections, shareholders representing 11 percent of the Dell shares not held by Michael Dell have now said they will vote against the deal.

Under the buyout’s terms, a majority of shares not held by Michael Dell must be voted in favor of the deal for it to proceed.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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IHT Rendezvous: French Communists Abandon Hammer and Sickle

LONDON — The Communist Party of France has sparked a revolution among the comrades by removing the hammer and sickle from their membership cards.

The iconic symbol of the international proletariat has been replaced with the star of the multi-party European Left alliance, much to the horror of traditionalists at the party’s 36th congress that opened near Paris on Thursday.

What was billed by the party leadership as a forward-looking move was denounced by others as revisionist backsliding and part of a conspiracy to abandon the movement to the embrace of social democracy.

Emmanuel Dang Tran, secretary of the party’s Paris section, told France Info radio that members were shocked at the abandoning of “what represents, for the working class of this country, a historic element in resistance against the politics of capitalism.”

An anonymous commenter on the radio’s website suggested wryly: “It’s natural that they’ve abandoned their tools. There’s no work anymore!”

Mr. Tran was among those who believed the symbol change amounted to the party paying allegiance to the European Left, a coalition of left-wing movements formed in 1999 to cooperate within the European Parliament.

He said the leadership was trying to create a social democracy mark-2 alongside “Greens, socialists, Trotskyists and I don’t know who else.”

Pierre Laurent, the party’s national secretary, defended the decision to dump the hammer and sickle, saying it no longer represented present-day realities. “We want to turn towards the future,” he said on Friday.

The internal spat was the latest upset for a communist party that was once powerful on the left in France, with ministers serving in a number of Socialist-led administrations.

It remains the country’s largest left-wing party in terms of membership. But its standing has declined rapidly since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

For the first time last year, it failed to put up its own candidate at a presidential election and opted instead to support Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Left Front.

Although the Communist Party is the largest grouping in the Left Front, hardliners complain it risks playing second fiddle to other movements in the alliance despite being its “sole historically revolutionary component.”

The 20Minutes news Website asked whether the loss of the hammer and sickle meant the party was becoming a “Communist Party light” and noted that this week’s congress had also adopted Mr. Mélenchon’s “people first” slogan.

“That is something to chew on for the many who fear the party will be dissolved into a Left Front led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” it wrote.

L’Humanité, the former official Communist newspaper that retains close links with the party, managed to remain upbeat as the congress opened. It ran a poll that indicated the party’s public image had improved since the creation of the Left Front.

It also interviewed the rank and file at the party congress who said that, among other things, they saw the gathering as an occasion for communists to go on the offensive, continue a citizens’ revolution, or simply spend a “fraternal moment with all the comrades.”

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Police on high alert after ex-LAPD cop's alleged serial shootings

Authorities across Southern California were on high alert Thursday morning as a massive manhunt was underway for an ex-Los Angeles police officer sought in connection with a double homicide and the shootings of three police officers, one of whom was killed.

Local, state and federal authorities are involved in the search for Christoper Jordan Dorner, 33, who is believed to threatened "unconventional
and asymmetrical warfare" against police in a manifesto posted on what authorities believe to be his Facebook page.

Dorner also threatened more than two dozen people -- including police officials -- in his manifesto. Officers from around Southern California have been deployed
to protect those people. In some cases, police said, those at risk have relocated for their safety.

PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

 LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is expected to hold a news conference at
10 a.m.

When asked if police felt they were under attack, Riverside Police Lt. Guy Toussaint said: “Based on the circumstances of the
shooting, yes I do.”

Hours after authorities announced they were looking for Dorner in connection with a double homicide in Orange County, the search intensified after three police officers were shot in Riverside County and Dorner was identified as a possible suspect.

Ex-LAPD cop tried to steal boat, flee to Mexico, authorities say

Freeway signs urged motorists to call 911 if they saw the suspect's vehicle as officers patrolled the streets near one of the Riverside County crime scenes with rifles at the ready. Los Angeles was put on a citywide tactical alert and California Highway Patrol issued a "blue alert" for nine Southern California counties warning Dorner was considered "armed and extremely dangerous."

The first shooting occurred about 1:30 a.m. Thursday in Corona, where two Los
Angeles Police Department officers providing protection for
someone mentioned in Dorner's manifesto, officials said. One
officer suffered a graze wound to the head during a shootout and Dorner fled
the scene, police said.

A short time later, two Riverside officers were shot at the corner of Magnolia Avenue and Arlington
Avenue in
Riverside. Toussaint said the officers were
sitting at a red light when they were ambushed. One was killed, the
other was still in surgery Thursday morning.

Ex-LAPD officer threatened to kill in online manifesto

There was no indication the officers were "actively seeking Dorner," Toussaint said.

“Our
officers were stopped at an intersection at a red light when they were
ambushed," he said. "Because of the close proximity to the timeline, we believe there is a
strong likelihood that former LAPD Officer Christopher Dorner was involved in
our incident.”

In the online manifesto, Dorner specifically named the father of
Monica Quan, the Cal State Fullerton assistant basketball coach who was
found dead Sunday in Irvine along with her fiance, Keith Lawrence.

Randy Quan, a retired LAPD captain, was involved in the review
process that ultimately led to Dorner’s dismissal. A former U.S. Navy
reservist, Dorner was fired in 2009 for allegedly making false
statements about his training officer. In the manifesto, he complained that Randy Quan and others did not fairly represent him at the review hearing.

“The violence of action will be high .... I will bring unconventional
and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off
duty," Dorner wrote.

As authorities swarmed the area, two officer-involved shootings occurred in Torrance after police came across vehicles they thought might be Dorner's.

The first Torrance incident occurred about 5:20 a.m. in the 19500
block of Redbeam Avenue in Torrance, Lt. Devin Chase said. That incident involved
Los Angeles police detectives from the Hollywood division, sources said.

Two people were struck by gunfire and transported to an area hospital with unknown injuries, Chase said. No officers were injured.

The second incident, which involved Torrance police officers,
occurred at Flagler Lane and Beryl Street about 5:45 a.m. No injuries
were reported in that incident.

Chase said both incidents involved vehicles matching the description of the one sought in connection with Dorner.

"Now it appears neither of them are directly related," Chase said. "In both of them, officers believed they were at the time."

Authorities said they believe Dorner attempted to steal a boat from an elderly man about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday
at the Point Loma Yacht Club in San Diego, hours before the shootings in
Riverside County.

The boat owner reported being accosted by a burly man who tied him up, threatened
him with a gun and said he wanted the boat to flee to Mexico.

PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

But while they were trying to get underway, a rope became entangled
in the propeller and the boat was inoperable, authorities said.

The suspect fled the scene and the boat owner was unharmed.

About 2 a.m., a citizen reported finding property belonging to Dorner
on a street near Lindbergh Field, not far from the scene of the
attempted boat theft. The property included a briefcase and Dorner's
LAPD badge.

ALSO:

Riverside police 'ambushed' by shooter, official says

Police shoot two in Torrance in search for ex-LAPD cop

Manhunt underway for ex-LAPD officer suspected of shooting 3 cops

— Andrew Blankstein, Kate Mather, Phil Willon and Tony Perry

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.

Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.

"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.

In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.

"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.

Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:

—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.

—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.

—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.

—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.

"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.

Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.

There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.

There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.

The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.

Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.

"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.

"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Phaedra Parks: I Do Not Eat for Two When I'm Pregnant

TV Watch

The Real Housewives of Atlanta

By Dahvi Shira

02/07/2013 at 05:35 PM EST

Unlike many other famous moms-to-be, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks doesn't consider her pregnancy as an excuse to overindulge.

"Some people subscribe to the myth, 'I'm eating for two people,' " Parks tells PEOPLE.

"Well, not really. The other person is half of a pound. I wouldn't really count that as an individual. It's obviously a living organism, but something weighing 7 lbs. doesn't really allow you to eat two meals. Doctors say you only need an additional 500 calories."

Parks – who already has a son Ayden, 4, with her husband Apollo Nida – doesn't find it difficult to remain a healthy weight while pregnant.

"I don't count calories," she says. "I just try to eat organic, healthy food. I eat a lot of small meals per day. If I want something, I try to eat it in moderation if it's something that's not good for me. I don't really have any cravings. The only thing I [craved] during my last pregnancy were oranges. I love citrus fruit."

Adds Parks, "I really have little or no time to ponder about food all day. I just eat to live. I don't live to eat. Some people are living to eat, and I try to have a healthy relationship with food."

Nutrition habits aside, Parks – who recently released a new exercise video, Donkey Booty 2, on Jan. 31 – stays in shape with a rigorous fitness routine.

"Now I'm really doing a lot of water aerobics and stretching," she explains. "When you're pregnant, everything's moving and shifting and you've got aches and pains that you never even knew of."

The new video, she says, "focuses on arms, chest area, the entire body. It's a little more challenging than the first one, but it's still anaerobic. You're going against your own body weight and you're only using household products – milk jugs, cans of green beans, things that everyone has in the house. We try to make it easy for everyone."

Once baby is born, Parks strongly advises breastfeeding for getting a woman's body back post-pregnancy.

"I tell people to nurse their baby," she says. "It tightens up your uterus. It brings everything back in places very quickly. And it cuts down on buying milk and going to the grocery store. Milk does a body good, and if you can make it yourself, then why not?"

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TSX ends lower as ECB comments weigh; BlackBerry up

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index closed slightly lower on Thursday as a wave of negative sentiment after the European Central Bank warned about weak euro zone economies pulled down energy and financial shares, offsetting a rise in BlackBerry .

The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> unofficially ended down 5.67 points, or 0.04 percent, at 12,755.92. Four of the 10 main sectors on the index were in the red.</.gsptse>

(Reporting by John Tilak)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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IHT Rendezvous: Baron Von Fancy Goes to Paris

PARIS—Baron Von Fancy’s name may belong in an 18th-century German royal court, but he is very much a 20th-century child. He’s a multimedia artist who lives in New York and surfs on the vintage-is-cool wave, using social media as his manager, agent and public relations firm.

His latest exhibition, “A Thing Called Love,” opened on Monday at the Paris Colette shop, a European mecca of all things fashionable, and runs through Feb. 23. It’s his first big break. “I’m honored to be shown in Colette. I couldn’t have asked for more,” said Baron Von Fancy, who is 28, while sipping tea in a cafe across the street from the store.

The exhibition is a collection of handpainted 1950s-looking signs of catchphrases overheard in the subway and in conversation. Some of them are poetic, some are jokes and some clichés. The theme for the show, whose run encompasses Valentine’s Day, is love. “Crazy About You,” “To the Moon and Back,” “Just Kids” (referencing Patti Smith’s book) are a few examples. He added “Bisous,” and “Loin des yeux, loin du coeur,” as a nod to his new French audience. He also redesigned Colette’s Water Bar menu and painted huge murals. The one behind the cash register reads “The Thrill Is Gone.”

Outside, along the wall, he had started painting the words Very Fancy, but the person who was supposed to help him paint was late and he didn’t have time to finish before the opening of the show. Welcome to France, Mr. Fancy.



Baron Von Fancy isn’t – surprise, surprise – his real name. He was born Gordon Stevenson, in New York, in the early 1980s, one of seven siblings and half-siblings. He is not without connections: his father, Charles Stevenson, is an investor; his stepmother is the writer Alex Kuczynski, who contributes to The New York Times. The story behind his strange but catchy moniker is a mix of many anecdotes including a nickname of an ex-girlfriend’s dog and his fancy collection of vintage Versace jeans.

Baron Von Fancy (why call him Gordon when you can call him Baron Von Fancy?) epitomizes Generation Y, also known as Generation Sell. He creates art under both names, but uses Baron Von Fancy as a brand for his more commercial art. As Gordon Stevenson, he paints, dyes waterfalls, and does light installations. When he is Baron, as he says his mother now often calls him, he does lighters, bow ties, socks and his painted signs.

Baron doesn’t whip out a battered Moleskine when he has an idea, he uses Twitter is his notebook. He tweets several times a day, to more than a thousand people, phrases that could end up on a sign in an exhibition.

His Instagram account has more than 4,000 subscribers, and serves as his PR office.

As it happens, Instagram, the photo-sharing application with  90 million users, had a key role in securing his Colette exhibition. 

Several months ago, one of Baron Von Fancy’s friends noticed a picture of a T-shirt on Colette’s Instagram account with what looked like a Baron Von Fancy sign, and notified him. He wrote to Colette’s owner Sarah Andelman and showed her a picture of his art. She agreed the brand they were selling must have copied Baron Von Fancy’s art and invited him to exhibit his work in her store.

“I can’t help but thank Instagram,” says Baron Von Fancy with a laugh. “I realize how crazy that sounds, and people may say I take Instagram too seriously, but it has done so much for me. It has changed my life.”

You can already here a vast group of people shriek and shake their heads at his statement but the fact is that today social media is the way young artists to get themselves known. 

He uses the application to share his vision and show his inspiration, but also to showcase his work.

“All I think of when I wake up in the morning is create,” he says. And although he makes a living writing sentences, he says he’s not a writer, but expresses himself visually. “I’m not very good a keeping a blog, but Instagram is a perfect way to communicate and get visibility.”

Technology has opened many opportunities for him. Through social media, he has started a collaboration with the clothing brand Patagonia (the New York art director followed his Instagram account) and a collaboration with a rapper on socks.

Although Baron Von Fancy is very much an artist of our time, his art is turned toward the past, inspired by old-school classic sign painting. “Today everyone uses computer-generated fonts,” he says, looking out the window at the Parisian store fronts, “but I think that in general there is a real movement of people who are going back to things being made by hand and with care.”

To learn the art of handmade signs, Baron Von Fancy turned toward a old Latvian man called Fred who has a sign store in Queens, New York, and who taught him his art. “I sat there and looked at how he moved his hand,” he explains.

Fred has always worked in Queens, and has no idea what Colette is. He has no idea that this show means his student plays with the big boys now. “He doesn’t even get why I use most of my catchphrases,” says Baron Von Fancy.

But that is exactly what Baron Von Fancy does, and why he’s representative of his generation. He takes something basic and old, and turns into something nostalgically new and cool. Fancy, as it were.

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Woman drugged girl, use her in hard-core porn, police allege

This post has been corrected. Please see below for details.

A North Hills woman who authorities allege plied a young girl with crack cocaine and photographed her having sex with an older man was indicted Tuesday on federal charges of producing child pornography and child sex trafficking.

Letha Montemayor Tucker was named Tuesday in a four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury. If convicted of all the charges, Tucker would face a mandatory minimum federal prison sentence of 10 years and could get up to life in prison, authorities said.

The charges come a month after authorities sought the public's help in the investigation by releasing photographs of a man and woman depicted in a set of widely circulated child pornography photos. 

Tips started pouring in immediately after the photos were released, investigators said.

Tucker, who goes by the name Butterfly, was located about 10 hours after the release of the photos and taken into custody, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The alleged victim, who was about 12 years old when the photos were taken, was located within a week of the case going public, Arnold said. She is an adult now and is cooperating with authorities, he said. In addition to photographing the girl having sex with the man, authorities say, Tucker also committed sex acts with the victim.

Authorities are still trying to identify the man in the photographs.  

The photos were part of a child pornography collection known as the "Jen Series." The 40-some photos were first discovered by investigators in the Chicago area in 2007. Investigators say images in the series have been reported about 300 times and have been found on computers across the country.

The victim "didn't even know these images were out there," Arnold said.

An arraignment for Tucker is scheduled Feb. 13.

For the record, 6:06 p.m.: A previous version of this post gave the incorrect job title for Arnold.

ALSO:

Chris Brown case raises tough questions for Virginia authorities

L.A. supervisors approve task force to examine 'maternity hotels'

Amid molestation scandal, archdiocese mulls over $200-million fund-raiser

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

Photo: Letha Montemayor Tucker, 52, of North Hills is led away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after her arrest on suspicion of child pornography Jan. 3. Credit: Associated Press

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

___

JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Jack Osbourne: How Marriage and a Baby Changed My Life

Jack Osbourne says his life has changed so much now that's married with a child that the only rockstar he hangs out with is Grandpa Ozzy Osbourne.

"Getting married and having a child definitely has focused me," the senior correspondent for Fuse News tells PEOPLE. "Now I'm not so much worried about going out on a Tuesday night and staying up until 3 in the morning and meeting hot chicks. No."

Jack, 27, and "hen-fiancée Lisa welcomed daughter Pearl Clementine last April. Then last October, they made it official by exchanging vows in front of 48 friends and family members in Hawaii.

But Jack isn't the only one adjusting to a new baby in the family, he says that Sharon, 60, and Ozzy, 64, are too.

"Nana and Grandpa are busy, but they're very involved," Jack says. "Every Sunday we have lunch together. We've always gone to their house, they never come to my house. It's taken me nine months to really hammer into them that driving all the way across town with a newborn baby is a lot more difficult than them driving all the way across town to visit me and a newborn baby. And they're starting to actually understand that now!"

But even with a wife and child at home, Jack is remaining true to his musical roots. On Fuse News – which kicks off Wednesday with pre-Grammy coverage at 6 p.m. EST – Jack is reporting on the "snub club," iconic artists who have been shut out of the Grammys over the years.

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Exclusive: Microsoft and Symantec disrupt cyber crime ring

BOSTON (Reuters) – Software makers Microsoft Corp and Symantec Corp said they disrupted a global cyber crime operation by shutting down servers that controlled hundreds of thousands of PCs without the knowledge of their users.

The move made it temporarily impossible for infected PCs around the world to search the web, though the companies offered free tools to clean machines through messages that were automatically pushed out to infected computers.

Technicians working on behalf of both companies raided data centers in Weehawken, New Jersey, and Manassas, Virginia, on Wednesday, accompanied by U.S. federal marshals, under an order issued by the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

They seized control of one server at the New Jersey facility and persuaded the operators of the Virginia data center to take down a server at their parent company in the Netherlands, according to Richard Boscovich, associate general counsel with Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit.

Boscovich told Reuters that he had “a high degree of confidence” that the operation had succeeded in bringing down the cyber crime operation, known as the Bamital botnet.

“We think we got everything, but time will tell,” he said.

The servers that were pulled off line on Wednesday had been used to communicate with what Microsoft and Symantec estimate are between 300,000 and 600,000 PCs currently infected with malicious software that enslaved them into the botnet.

The companies said that the Bamital operation hijacked search results and engaged in other schemes that the companies said fraudulently charge businesses for online advertisement clicks.

Bamital’s organizers also had the ability to take control of infected PCs, installing other types of computer viruses that could engage in identity theft, recruit PCs into networks that attack websites and conduct other types of computer crimes.

Now that the servers have been shut down, users of infected PCs will be directed to a site informing them that their machines are infected with malicious software when they attempt to search the web.

Microsoft and Symantec are offering them free tools to fix their PCs and restore access to web searches via messages automatically pushed out to victims.

The messages warn: “You have reached this website because your computer is very likely to be infected by malware that redirects the results of your search queries. You will receive this notification until you remove the malware from your computer.”

It was the sixth time that Microsoft has obtained a court order to disrupt a botnet since 2010. Previous operations have targeted bigger botnets, but this is the first where infected users have received warnings and free tools to clean up their machines.

Microsoft runs a Digital Crimes Unit out of its Redmond, Washington, headquarters that is staffed by 11 attorneys, investigators and other staff who work to help law enforcement fight financial crimes and exploitation of children over the web.

Symantec approached Microsoft about a year ago, asking the maker of Windows software to collaborate in trying to take down the Bamital operation. Last week they sought a court order to seize the Bamital servers.

The two companies said they conservatively estimate that the Bamital botnet generated at least $ 1 million a year in profits for the organizers of the operation. They said they will learn more about the size of the operation after they analyze information from infected machines that check in to the domains once controlled by Bamital’s servers.

Their complaint identified 18 “John Doe” ringleaders, scattered from Russia and Romania to Britain, the United States and Australia, who registered websites and rented servers used in the operation under fictitious names. The complaint was filed last week with a federal court in Alexandria and unsealed on Wednesday.

The complaint alleges that the ringleaders made money through a scheme known as “click fraud” in which criminals get cash from advertisers who pay websites commissions when their users click on ads.

Bamital redirected search results from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing search engines to sites with which the authors of the botnet have financial relationships, according to the complaint.

The complaint also charges that Bamital’s operators profited by forcing infected computers to generate large quantities of automated ad clicks without the knowledge of PC users.

Boscovich said he believes the botnet originated in Russia or Ukraine because affiliated sites install a small text file known as a cookie that is written in Russian on infected computers.

The cookie file contains the Russian phrase “yatutuzebil,” according to the court filing. That can loosely be translated as “I was here,” he said.

(Reporting By Jim Finkle; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Mystery after basketball coach, fiance murdered in parking lot

This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.

Family and friends had only praise for a Cal State Fullerton coach and her fiance Monday, a day after the recently engaged college sweethearts were found fatally shot in the parking structure of their condominium near UC Irvine.

The bodies of Monica Quan, an assistant women's basketball coach, and Keith Lawrence, who worked as a campus officer at USC, were discovered Sunday night in their parked car on the top floor of the parking structure at the upscale, high-security condominium complex.

They were each shot multiple times, and authorities said they have
tentatively ruled out the possibility of the crime being a murder-suicide or
motivated by robbery.

PHOTOS: Memorial for slain basketball coach

Those that knew the couple said they were shaken by the news.

Marcia Foster, the head basketball
coach at Cal State Fullerton, described her assistant as a special
person: "bright, passionate and empowering."

"I'm sorry we're gathered here today for news like this," Foster said at a campus news
conference Monday. "There just aren't words."

Friends said Quan shared a love of basketball with Lawrence, whom she met at Concordia University in Irvine, where the two played basketball. A tweet from Concordia on Monday described the two as "incredible alum."

Lawrence was a standout player, both at Concordia, where he helped lead his team to the 2007 NAIA national championship game, and at Moorpark High, where he was a starter.

Tim Bednar,
who coached Lawrence at Moorpark, said the point guard and shooting guard came from a family of athletes, was
talented, yet quiet and humble. After Lawrence graduated in 2003, he
continued to participate in summer youth camps.

When he returned for the camps, Bednar said, he was known as the "best basketball player that ever came through" the school.

"He was awesome with the kids," Bednar said. "They all wanted to be around Keith Lawrence."

Lawrence's friends and family put up a Facebook page. "RIP Keith
Lawrence, you will be missed," it said. Within hours, 840 people had
left comments or indicated they "liked" it. Concordia put up a link to
Lawrence's game-winning shot that carried the school into a post-season
tournament.

Michelle Thibeault, 27, said in a Facebook message that she had known
Quan for more than a decade. The two were on the same athletic teams
and went to junior high and high school together. "Monica was loved by
everyone," she said.

During a somber gathering at the Cal State Fullerton gymnasium Monday, Foster said: "We just shared a moment of incredible joy on her recent engagement. A bright light was just put out."

[Updated, 9:35 a.m. Feb.5: An earlier version of this post attributed a statement about Monica Quan to Quan's brother, Ryan. It should have been attributed to Marcia Foster, head basketball
coach at Cal State Fullerton.]

About 40 people later gathered at Walnut High School to remember Quan, whose aunt described her as "vivacious and energetic."

“Monica is like the daughter we never had,” Nicki Lew said.

ALSO:

2 women slain in rural Riverside County

Students sever fingers during game of tug of war

Woman and child abducted at Sam's Club in Orange County

-- Nicole Santa Cruz, Lauren Williams and Kate Mather

Read More..

Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway & More Share Oscar Dress Hints

By Alex Apatoff

02/05/2013 at 04:30 PM EST

Clockwise from top left: Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Amy Adams

Splash News Online; PR Photos; Getty; WireImage

The countdown to the Academy Awards has officially begun, and so has the buzz around what the nominees will be wearing.

Nominated actresses shared their gown plans with reporters at a Beverly Hills luncheon in their honor Monday.

Though Jennifer Lawrence joked, "I'm going to wear sweatpants," it turns out just the opposite is true. "Last time was comfort. This year, I'm like, 'Suck it up, wear a corset,'" she said. "I am going to go for fashion this time."

Last year, before donning her skintight red Calvin Klein Collection number, "I ate a Philly cheesesteak and fries, and I was like 'This is definitely going to help,'" she said. "It didn't, 'cause I had to double-Spanx it."

Another star eyeing extra Spanx? Anne Hathaway, who said she couldn't start preparing for a very important reason: "It was the Super Bowl! I couldn't think about dresses with all that delicious fried food around!"

Though she did say she's looking at some "cool options," let's hope they're all more drama-free than her Giambattista Valli SAG dress, which she revealed had a broken zipper – but her "magician" stylist made it work anyway.

The Master's Amy Adams was tight-lipped about her pick for the Oscars, allowing only that it will be "a dress! No girl ever tells you. Has any girl ever gotten up here and said, 'I'm wearing this designer and it will be this color?' " she teased.

But Jessica Chastain was a bit more forthcoming about her plans, saying, "I'm going to go for something that's perhaps colorful."

Her reasoning: "Most little girls dream about their wedding dresses, but I always dreamed about my Oscar dress – maybe because I like color!" Also on her wish list for the gown: "I love fashion that celebrates a woman's body [and] maybe is a throwback to the glamour of Old Hollywood, that silhouette, but somehow making it modern."

• Reporting by MELODY CHIU

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BlackBerry eyes future beyond its new line of devices

TORONTO (Reuters) – Barely a week after launching an all-new, make-or-break line of smartphones, BlackBerry is already looking at a future in which it is a leader in “mobile computing,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on Tuesday.

Heins said BlackBerry is aiming to reclaim its spot as an innovator in a world where smartphones already have the processing power to replace tablets and laptops.

The company, which changed its name from Research In Motion when it launched its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones a week ago, pioneered on-the-go email before losing ground to nimbler rivals with faster devices. It is now out to explore new territory.

“This isn’t just about smartphones and tablets,” Heins, who took over as CEO just over a year ago, said in an interview soon after the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices.

“The architecture we have built is true mobile computing architecture. It’s not a downgraded PC operating system. It is a whole new innovation built from scratch. It’s built for mobile.”

While speaking at the Empire Club of Canada on Tuesday, Heins reiterated his message: “BlackBerry 10 is not just a device. It is a whole new mobile computing platform,” he said.

Despite a number of glowing reviews for the BB10 and reports of strong initial sales, however, some analysts and technology pundits are skeptical about BlackBerry’s chances of mounting a comeback, doubting its ability to sell either enough smartphones or manage to transform the way people work.

“The Street cares about how many units of these (devices) they’re going to sell and that is the balancing act,” said John Jackson, an industry analyst at consulting firm IDC.

Jackson said he can see a future in which the BlackBerry 10 operating system will allow users to control a vast array of devices, but added: “They need to sell devices to keep the lights on while they transform themselves into a next-generation computing platform.”

BlackBerry’s marketing head, Frank Boulben, said the company is moving quickly enough to do just that.

“The vision is going to start to materialize this year,” he said. “You will be able to plug the (Z10) device into a docking station at the office and then all you need is a keyboard, a mouse and a screen. Combined with cloud services this would mean you don’t need a laptop or a desktop.”

BlackBerry last week unveiled two versions of devices that run on the BB10 OS, a touchscreen smartphone dubbed Z10 and one with a physical keyboard called the Q10, betting they will help it win back some of the market share it has bled to the likes of Apple and Samsung Electronics.

IT’S ABOUT THE PLATFORM

On launch day, Heins spent the first 20 minutes of the event talking about the BlackBerry 10 platform, rather than about the new smartphone models themselves.

“Over the short term, yes, we have to be successful with the devices, we have got to win back the enterprises, we’ve got win back consumers,” he said. “But in the longer term, we have to understand where this company is going.”

Initial checks from analysts point to strong sales for the Z10 in its early launch countries of Canada and Britain. The Q10 device will not be on sale until April.

“We spoke to a range of U.K. vendors over the weekend who indicated BlackBerry’s Z10 sales were strong,” Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal said in a note. “Some store locations were completely sold out of the Z10 device, while others had limited stock.”

Two of Canada’s largest wireless carriers, Rogers and Bell, say demand for the new devices is strong. Rogers said pre-orders for the Z10 device are already in the thousands, while Bell said customer pre-registration numbers for the new smartphone are unprecedented for a new BlackBerry device.

Analyst upgrades, coupled with the Z10 sales reports, have sparked a surge in BlackBerry’s shares this week. The stock is up more than 24 percent from Friday’s close of $ 13.03 on the Nasdaq.

The stock, which remains some 90 percent below its 2008 peak, fell more than 20 percent in the two days following the BlackBerry launch, partly on disappointment that the new devices will not hit the crucial U.S. market until next month.

ALL OPTIONS OPEN

At the launch, BlackBerry did not address its so far unsuccessful foray into the tablet market, but Heins said the company remains committed to this segment.

“I’m not getting out of the tablet business, I’ve asked my teams to build another one, but I need to make money from it. If the hardware doesn’t provide the margins I need, then it makes no sense in doing it,” he said.

BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablets debuted in 2011, but never gained traction against Apple’s iPad and other devices. The company was forced to write down the value of the devices and it has since sold them at sharply reduced prices.

Heins said BlackBerry will remain focused on expanding its business in mobile computing over the next two to four years.

BlackBerry’s QNX operating system, which forms the basis of its new BlackBerry 10 OS, already runs cars, nuclear reactors and manufacturing plants, and Heins said this opens new vistas for the company, although he gave no clear description of what they are.

“What we need to decide is where do we play? It could be a software play, a licensing play, an end-to-end horizontal play, we’ll figure that out,” he said. “In five years, yes we might still be in hardware, but we may not be in hardware … I’m not ruling anything out.”

“Mobile computing is not going to be decided in the next quarter … We have got to figure out as an industry how we get there. All I know is that I want us to be a leader there.”

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Janet Guttsman; and Peter Galloway)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Lede Blog: Ahmadinejad Attacked With Shoe in Cairo

Last Updated, 5:44 p.m. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Cairo, which started with an affectionate welcome on Tuesday from Egypt’s new Islamist president, turned less pleasant as the day wore on. First, Mr. Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, was lectured by a senior Sunni Muslim cleric and then was nearly struck with a shoe by a man furious at Iran’s support for the Syrian government.

A correspondent for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency captured the unsuccessful shoe attack on video and reported that the bearded man who tried to strike Mr. Ahmadinejad was a Syrian who shouted, “You killed our brothers!”

Video from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency of a man hurling a shoe at Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Cairo on Tuesday.

According to the Turkish news agency’s report, the man “was immediately detained” after hitting Mr. Ahmadinejad’s bodyguards with his shoe at Cairo’s al-Hussein mosque.

While striking someone with the sole of one’s shoe is a common sign of disrespect in Arab countries, the insult spread to other parts of the world after an Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, nearly hit President George W. Bush with both of his shoes at a news conference in Baghdad in 2008.

Associated Press video of an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad in 2008.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Ahmadinejad was apparently harangued during his meeting with Grand Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning. According to a statement released by Al-Azhar, Mr. Ahmadinejad was criticized for Iran’s role in what the cleric called the “spread of Shiism in Sunni lands.” The Sunni cleric also pressed the Shiite president to “not interfere in the affairs of Gulf states,” like Bahrain, where Iran is accused of lending support to protests against the ruling Sunni monarchy.

At a news conference after that meeting, Agence France-Press reported that Mr. Ahmadinejad “listened with noticeable unease” as another senior cleric complained about the disrespect shown to the Prophet Muhammad’s companions by “some Shiites.” Sunnis and Shiites disagree about whether the prophet’s companions or relatives were his rightful successors.

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Parole Board urges Brown to release former Charles Manson follower

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California's governor has been asked to make the final decision on whether a former Charles Manson follower will be released on parole after serving more than 40 years in prison.

The state's Board of Parole Hearings submitted to Gov. Jerry Brown its recommendation that Bruce Davis is suitable for parole.

The 70-year-old Davis was convicted with cult leader Manson and another man in the killings of a musician and a stuntman. He was not involved in the infamous Sharon Tate murders.

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton says the board had until Monday to deliver legal documents to Brown, but they submitted the package Friday.

Brown has up to 30 days to act on the parole decision. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a previous parole recommendation for Davis.

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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.

The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.

That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.

In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.

"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."

The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.

But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.

In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.

The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.

Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.

"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.

Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.

"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.

Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.

"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org

___

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

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Sean Lowe: Three Reasons He Makes The Bachelor Special

TV Watch

The Bachelor

By Rennie Dyball

02/04/2013 at 06:00 PM EST

What is it about this season of The Bachelor?

For the past few installations, I've watched with just a passing interest, armed with my iPad so I can enjoy other diversions during the boring or painfully awkward Bachelor and Bachelorette dates.

The TV franchise has been around for so long that I was almost watching out of obligation ... I've spent so much of my life following these people and their televised quests for love that I've got to keep up for tradition's sake alone.

But this season is different. I'm excited for Monday nights and find myself watching without any outside distractions. I've had several girlfriends tell me they feel the same way – for some, after nearly deciding to stop watching the series entirely, they're excited about it all over again.

We've got Sean Lowe to thank for that.

Here's why I think the 29-year-old is a rare breed of Bachelor who's breathed new life into the long-running series:

1. He Seems Like a Truly Genuine Guy
In all honesty, Sean didn't wow me on Emily Maynard's season of The Bachelorette. I found him to be a little dull (sorry, Sean!) and not entirely believable. So I didn't expect to be thrilled by his turn handing out the roses. But week after week, I find myself really believing in his assertions that he's look for lasting love.

I mean, really, don't they all say that? But from night one, he's been straight up with his bachelorettes about his feelings, and he's just got that intangible "something" about him – you can't help but root for this guy. Even my often-jaded colleagues who've met him in person were impressed!

2. He's Easily Smitten
Maybe this makes him more endearing, or maybe it's indicative of the dramatics to come when he'll need to whittle down the list. Either way, I'm so tickled by the fact that after the majority of dates, Sean is just smitten by a new woman. So far, he seems to be falling for AshLee, Desiree, Lesley, Lindsay, Sarah, Selma and, of course, Tierra.

It's refreshing and sweet, not to mention believable ... What guy wouldn't fall for a group of beautiful women on budget-less dates?

3. He's Got Quite the Cast of Costars
Bravo to the casting department on this one. The mix of women vying for Sean's affections is diverse, dramatic and destined for medical emergencies. (Chris Harrison promises more ambulances this season!)

And did anyone else find last week's kiss-less date with Selma incredibly hot? They didn't need to get their lips involved for viewers to feel the intense heat between them. So this week, call me a marketer's dream: Two Bachelor episodes in the next two nights? Sold. Thanks, Sean.

This week's double episode of The Bachelor will air Monday (8 p.m. ET) and Tuesday at (9 p.m. ET) on ABC.

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Second-generation iPad mini could pack a display with 324 pixels per inch

Apple (AAPL) may be about to make up for delivering a disappointingly low resolution for its first-generation iPad mini display. BrightWire reports that supply chain sources have told Chinese website My Drivers that the next-generation iPad mini will indeed feature a 7.9-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, or 324 pixels per inch. For comparison, consider that the original iPad mini delivered a resolution of just 163 pixels per inch, less than both the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle Fire HD and the Google (GOOG) Nexus 7, which both featured displays with resolutions of 216 pixels per inch. BrightWire’s report also backs up earlier rumors we’ve heard about Apple choosing AU Optronics to make an HD Retina display for its next-generation iPad mini.

[More from BGR: iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak now available for download, compatible with iPhone 5 and iPad mini]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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The Lede Blog: Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Girl Shot by Taliban Militants, Speaks in New Videos

Last Updated, 4:54 p.m. Speaking on camera for the first time since she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban last year, the young activist Malala Yousafzai began with the words, “Today you can see that I’m alive.” The 15-year-old, who was shot in the head as she left school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley four months ago, promised that she would continue to be an outspoken advocate of the right for “every girl, every child, to be educated.”

In the brief statement, the young advocate attributed her survival to the prayers of her supporters and urged them to contribute to a fund established in her name to further the cause of education for girls. “Because of these prayers, God has given me this new life,” Ms. Yousafzai said. “And this is a second life; this is a new life. And I want to serve, I want to serve the people.”

A video statement from Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani activist who was shot in the head by Taliban militants.

The English-language statement was recorded just before Ms. Yousafzai underwent surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, over the weekend to repair damage to her skull caused by the bullet fired into her head at point-blank range in October.

On Monday, the hospital released more video of the young patient, speaking to one of her doctors after the five-hour operation to reconstruct her skull and implant a device to restore hearing to her left ear.

Video of Malala Yousafzai speaking to a doctor in Birmingham, England after an operation on Saturday.

“I’m feeling alright and I’m happy that the operations, both the operations, were successful,” she told Dr. Mav Manji, a critical care specialist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Asked about the future, she said, “My mission is the same, to help people, and I will do that.” She also expressed her gratitude to the doctors in Pakistan and Britain who cared for her. “God gave me a new life,” she said, “because of the prayers of people and because of the talent of doctors.”

At a news conference on Monday, Dr. Anwen White, the neurosurgeon who led the reconstructive surgery, and Dr. Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director, explained that the titanium cranioplasty, which involved repairing the missing area of her skull with a specially molded titanium plate, “went very well.” (Video of the news conference was posted online by Britain’s Channel 4 News and the hospital uploaded images of the surgery in progress to YouTube.)

An update posted on the hospital’s Web site explained that, after the skull surgery, “Malala then had a cochlear implant fitted – a small, complex electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is to restore hearing to her left ear after she was left deaf in that ear by the bullet.”

As Fatima Manji of Britain’s Channel 4 News reports, the activist also recorded statements in Urdu and Pashto, languages spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Urdu version, Ms. Manji notes, the girl said, “I would be willing to sacrifice myself again.”

#Malala has released her first public statement on camera #c4news http://t.co/2ZJKCwCO

— Fatima Manji (@fatimamanji) 4 Feb 13

In her Urdu statement #Malala says she is willing to “sacrifice herself again” so that all children can get an education. #c4news

— Fatima Manji (@fatimamanji) 4 Feb 13

The video statement was produced for the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington “that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders,” which will administer the new “Malala Fund,” in cooperation with the young activist and her family.

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