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Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 9:04 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — More New Yorkers awoke Saturday morning to power being restored for the first time since Superstorm Sandy pummeled the region, and those whose lights were back on celebrated it, but patience was wearing thin among those in the region who had been without power for most of the week.
From storm-scarred New Jersey to parts of Connecticut, a widespread lack of gasoline frustrated people who were just trying to get to work or pick up a load of groceries. Gas was to be rationed starting at noon Saturday in northern New Jersey, where drivers will be allowed to buy it only every other day, the governor declared.
The ongoing recovery also forced the cancellation of Sunday's New York City Marathon. Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed himself Friday and yielded to mounting criticism that this was no time to run the race, which starts on hard-hit Staten Island and wends through all five of the city's boroughs.
Bloomberg, who as late as Friday afternoon insisted the world's largest marathon should go on as scheduled Sunday, changed course shortly afterward amid intensifying opposition from the city comptroller, the Manhattan borough president and sanitation workers unhappy they had volunteered to help storm victims but were assigned to the race instead. The mayor said he would not want "a cloud to hang over the race or its participants."
Many runners understood the rationale behind the decision. The death toll in the city stood at 41 and thousands of people were shivering without electricity, making many New Yorkers recoil at the idea of police officers protecting a foot race and evicting storm victims from hotels to make way for runners.
But the suddenness of it all forced runners to deal with an unexpected twist: what to do with no race.
Well over half of the 40,000 athletes were from out of town. Their entry fees were paid. Their airline tickets were purchased. Their friends and family had hotel rooms. And all week the race was a go, even after Sandy came ashore Monday.
"I understand why it cannot be held under the current circumstances," Meb Keflezighi, the 2009 men's champion and 2004 Olympic silver medalist, said in a statement. "Any inconveniences the cancellation causes me or the thousands of runners who trained and traveled for this race pales in comparison to the challenges faced by people in NYC and its vicinity."
ING, the financial company that is the title sponsor of the marathon, said it supported the decision to cancel. The firm's charitable giving arm has made a $500,000 contribution to help with relief and recovery efforts and is matching employee donations. Sponsor Poland Spring said it would donate the bottled water earmarked for the marathon to relief agencies, more than 200,000 bottles.
"When you have a significant amount of people voicing real pain and unhappiness over its running, you have to hear that. You have to take that into consideration," said Howard Wolfson, deputy mayor for government affairs and communications.
"Something that is such a celebration of the best of New York can't become divisive," he said. "That is not good for the city now as we try to complete our recovery effort, and it is not good for the marathon in the long run."
Each day has brought signs of recovery in the region. Fewer than 1 million customers in New York were without power Saturday, the lowest the number has been since the storm hit.
Aida Padilla, 75, was thrilled that the power at her large housing authority complex in New York City's Chelsea section had returned late Friday.
"Thank God," said Padilla, 75. "I screamed and I put the lights on. Everybody was screaming. It was better than New Year's."
Asked about whether she had heat, she replied, "hot and cold water and heat! Thank God, Jesus!"
NYU Langone Medical Center, one of two New York hospitals that had to evacuate patients at the height of the storm, said it would reopen Monday, though some doctors would see patients at alternate sites.
Seven backup generators at the hospital failed during the storm surge on Monday night, forcing the evacuation of 300 patients.
At Bellevue Hospital Center, some 700 patients had to be evacuated after the power failed. An official there said Thursday the hospital could be out of commission at least two more weeks.
In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie announced that he would make public a list of when utility companies intend to restore power to each community. Even if they end up working faster or slower, he said, residents will have a sense of when they will have power restored so they can plan their lives a bit better.
Commuter rail operator NJ Transit said it would have more service restored in time for the workweek to start Monday, most of Atlantic City's casinos reopened, and many school districts decided to hold classes next Thursday and Friday, days previously reserved for the New Jersey Education Association's annual conference, which has been canceled because of the storm.
Posted by Gagalha at 9:02 AM
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria’s main north-south highway, a monitoring group said.
Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them “Assad’s Dogs”, before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground.
The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. Saraqeb lies about 40 km (25 miles) south of Aleppo
In other developments, China put forward a new initiative to resolve the 19-month-old conflict, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the setting up of a transitional governing body.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing had made the proposal to international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi – whose own call for a truce over the Muslim holiday of Eid was largely ignored by both sides.
The United States meanwhile has called for an overhaul of Syria’s opposition leadership, signaling a break with the largely foreign-based Syrian National Council to bring in more credible figures.
A meeting in Qatar next week of foreign powers backing the rebels will be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Zagreb on Wednesday.
The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition, while Assad has counted on the support of Russia, Iran and, to a lesser extent, China. International efforts to end the violence have all foundered.
More than 32,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad, an Alawite who succeeded his late father Hafez in ruling the mostly Sunni Muslim country, first broke out on city streets. The revolt has since degenerated into full-scale civil war, with the government forces relying heavily on artillery and air strikes to thwart the rebels.
CHECKPOINT ATTACKS
The army has lost swathes of land in Idlib and Aleppo provinces but is fighting to control towns along supply routes to Aleppo city, where its forces are fighting in many districts.
The head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdelrahman, said two of the attacked checkpoints at Saraqeb were on the Damascus-Aleppo highway. The third was near a road linking Aleppo with Latakia, a port city still mostly controlled Assad’s forces.
“The rebels will not stay at the checkpoints for long as Syrian warplanes normally bomb positions after rebels move in,” Abdelrahman said.
Five rebels died in the fighting and at least 20 soldiers were killed at the third site, including those shot after surrendering, he said.
The video footage showed a group of petrified men, some bleeding, lying on the ground as rebels walked around, kicking and stamping on their captives.
One of the captured men says: “I swear I didn’t shoot anyone” to which a rebel responds: “Shut up you animal … Gather them for me.” Then the men are shot dead.
Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
The Observatory said the al Qaeda-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group was responsible for the executions.
Islamist rebel units are growing in prominence in the war – a cause for concern for international powers as they weigh up what kind of support to give the opposition.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance. It concedes, however, that some of its allies are providing lethal assistance.
Russia and China have blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on the Assad government, leading the United States and its allies to say they could move beyond U.N. structures for their next steps.
China has been strongly criticized by some Arab countries for failing to take a stronger stance on the conflict. Beijing has urged the Assad government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change.
“More and more countries have come to realize that a military option offers no way out, and a political settlement has become an increasingly shared aspiration,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.
He said China’s new proposal was aimed at building international consensus and supporting peace envoy Brahimi’s mediation efforts.
(Additional reporting by Ayat Basma, Laila Bassam and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Terril Yue Jones in Beijing; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
World News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 9:10 AM
SYDNEY/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The launch of Apple Inc's iPad mini attracted smaller crowds from Sydney to New York on Friday than have been typical for previous Apple product debuts, events marked by people lining up for hours or even days.
A proliferation of comparable rival devices may have sapped some interest for the device, which is priced above rival gadgets from Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
A few hundred people were in line at Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York at about 8 a.m., days after the city was battered by Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the United States.
Lisa Sieber, 59, from Germany rode a bike to the Apple store on Friday as she said she's been going 'stir crazy' from lack of power and water at her 81-year-old mother's home in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
"I didn't think I needed an iPad but once you get your first Mac, you slide into the iPhone and the next one and it makes it easy to get more Apple products," she said, adding that "there's not much to do without power and lights."
While many people have been happy to camp overnight at the New York store for past launches, some were angry on Friday that Apple changed the store's opening time to 10 a.m. for this launch from 8 a.m. previously.
"Usually it's 8 a.m.," said Vincent Leroy, 27, a student from Long Island City in Queens who showed up at the store at 6:30 a.m. His friends complained loudly in unison when he told them he had found out about the delayed opening.
In Amsterdam two hours after the Apple store opened, it looked like a typical day at the store with no lines outside the door. An Apple employee on the scene told Reuters that people had lined up ahead of the store opening.
About 50 people waited for the Apple store in Sydney, Australia, to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the company debuted new iPhones.
At the head of Friday's line was Patrick Li, who had been waiting since 4:30 a.m. and was eager to get his hands on the 7.9-inch slate.
"It's light, easy to handle, and I'll use it to read books. It's better than the original iPad," Li said.
There were queues of 100 or more outside Apple stores in Tokyo and Seoul when the device went on sale, but when the company's flagship Hong Kong store opened staff appeared to outnumber those waiting in line.
The iPad mini marks Apple's first foray into the smaller-tablet segment, and the latest salvo in a global mobile-device war that has engulfed combatants from Internet search leader Google, whose Android software runs on tablets from several vendors, to Web retailer Amazon.com and software giant Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft's 10-inch Surface tablet, powered by the just-launched Windows 8 software, went on sale in October, while Google and Amazon now dominate sales of smaller, 7-inch multimedia tablets.
POSITIVE REVIEWS
Unveiled last week, the iPad mini has won mostly positive reviews, with criticism centering on a lofty price tag and a screen considered inferior to those of rivals. The new tablet essentially replicates most of the features of its full-sized sibling, but in a smaller package.
"Well, first of all it's so thin and light and very cute - so cute!" said iPad mini customer Ten Ebihara at the Apple store in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district.
At $329 for a Wi-Fi only model, the iPad mini is a little costlier than predicted, but some analysts see that as Apple's attempt to retain premium positioning.
Some investors fear the gadget will lure buyers away from Apple's $499 flagship 9.7-inch iPad, while proving ineffective in combating the threat of Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7, both of which are sold at or near cost.
Also on Friday, Apple rolled out its fourth-generation iPad, with the same 9.7-inch display as the previous version but with a faster A6X processor and better Wi-Fi. Both devices were going on sale in more than 30 countries.
Apple will likely sell between 1 million and 1.5 million iPad minis in the first weekend, far short of the 3 million third-generation iPads sold last March in their first weekend, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
"The reason we expect fewer iPad minis compared to the 3rd Gen is because of the lack of the wireless option and newness of the smaller form factor for consumers," Munster said in a note to clients. "We believe that over time that will change."
Reviewers have applauded Apple for squeezing most of the iPad's features into a smaller package that can be comfortably manipulated with one hand.
James Vohradsky, a 20-year-old student who previously queued for 17 hours at the Sydney store to buy the iPhone 5, only stood in line for an hour and a half this time.
"I had an iPad 1 before, I kind of miss it because I sold it about a year ago. It's just more practical to have the mini because I found it a bit too big. The image is really good and it's got the fast A5 chip too," Vohradsky said.
The iPad was launched in 2010 by late Apple boss Steve Jobs and since then it has taken a big chunk out of PC sales, upending the industry and reinventing mobile computing with its apps-based ecosystem.
A smaller tablet is the first device to be added to Apple's compact portfolio under Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over from Jobs just before his death a year ago. Analysts credit Google and Amazon for influencing the decision.
Some investors worry that Apple might have lost its chief visionary with Jobs, and that new management might not be able to stay ahead of the pack as rivals innovate and encroach on its market share.
Apple shares were down 1 percent at $590.56 in morning trade on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Mariko Lochridge in Tokyo, Stefanie McIntyre in Hong Kong and Miyoung Kim in Seoul, Roberta Cowan in Amsterdam; Writing by Noel Randewich and Edwin Chan in San Francisco, Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz, Alex Richardson and Steve Orlofsky)
Posted by Gagalha at 9:08 AM
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Get ready to shut down the rumor mill; “Gossip Girl” will officially come to an end in December.
CW’s scandalicious drama will end its six-season run with a two-hour finale on December 17 at 8 p.m., bringing an end to more than half a decade of gasp-inducing twists, the network said Wednesday.
“All will be revealed in the drama-filled series finale, featuring a look back at the unforgettable OMG moments of the series that made headlines, including interviews with the cast and creators themselves,” the network promised in a release.
The “Gossip Girl” finale will also include a sneak peek at the CW’s upcoming “Sex and the City” offshoot “The Carrie Diaries,” which will chronicle sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw‘s early years as a young woman growing up in the 1980s.
TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 9:06 AM
(Reuters) – Health regulators will delay decisions on some drugs for up to two days because of the massive storm Sandy, which closed the federal government.
The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that the delay in meeting regulatory timelines for prescription drugs, medical devices and biosimilar drugs would apply to those with target dates around October 29 and 30, when offices were closed.
For those drugs with target dates on October 31 or later, the agency will consider whether a delay is warranted, but it will not exceed two days.
Sandy hit the East Coast late on Monday. The U.S. government closed ahead of the storm, and again on Tuesday due to widespread power outages and transit issues.
The FDA has set times to review drugs under a user fee program that manufacturers help fund in return for the agency’s meeting certain performance goals. For instance, it must review a certain percentage of drug applications within a set time.
New drug application target approval dates under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, are closely watched because they indicate when companies will be able to start selling their new products.
The Biosimilar User Fee Act – which applies to a new generation of generic biotech treatments – and the Medical Device User Fee Act also have approval schedules.
The FDA also said that applications submitted while it was closed might have adjusted timelines.
(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 9:04 AM
Tempers are beginning to flare as Sandy's victims woke in cold, dark homes today to face yet another grinding day of waiting for help while temperatures are forecast to drop into the 30s with a possible Nor'easter on the way.
Nearly 4 million people spent a fourth day without power and were told some will have to wait weeks.
In the meantime, they waited for hours in line yet again for scarce gasoline supplies, water and food, or endured marathon commutes.
Police have been keeping order at hours-long gas station lines, but the fight for fuel is starting to get nasty. Authorities say a motorist was arrested after he tried to cut in line at a gas station in Queens Thursday and allegedly pointed a pistol at another motorist who complained, according to the Associated Press.
The man was identified as Sean Bailey, 35, and he faces charges of menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
Conditions will worsen for those without power as temperatures dip into the 30s this weekend and the National Weather Service warns that a Nor'easter could rake the Northeast coastline starting Tuesday.
In addition, the death toll from Sandy's rampage edged up to 90.
Some parts of the area hammered by Sandy feel they have been left behind in the rush to restore power to Manhattan.
Staten Island was one of the hardest-hit communities in New York City. More than 80,000 residents are still without power, many are homeless, and at least 19 people died there because of the storm.
Hurricane Sandy: Full Coverage
Four days after the storm, supplies are finally making their way to the borough and Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro is boiling over in anger at what he sees as a slow relief effort.
"This is America, not a third world nation. We need food, we need clothing," Molinaro said.
Staten Island resident Desi Caruso told ABC News said Sandy has destroyed his neighborhood.
"This neighborhood, we are close. We like each other and now all of our lives here are going to separate and we're going to be broken apart," Caruso said.
Photos: Assessing Sandy's Destruction
Caruso, a music producer who has lived in Staten Island for 20 years, plans to move because the risk of another storm causing massive damage is too great.
"Just how you see everything look, that's how my life feels right now. Just a mess. It's a mess," he said.
Red Cross worker Josh Lockwood, on Staten Island, defended relief efforts.
"So many people are in need right now on such a scale that getting the materials to them as quickly as we can so that their needs are met, that's the chief challenge," said Lockwood.
The Red Cross says it's trying to get more out-of-town volunteers to help with storm relief efforts in the Northeast. Volunteer Joe Hawkins, of Greenville, S.C., is helping people in Staten Island.
"I've been on a lot of disasters, you know, from Katrina on, but some of your areas down near the coast are bad as I've ever seen," Hawkins said.
Some on the New Jersey coastline were hit just as hard as Staten Island residents and they were allowed back into their communities Thursday to get their first look at the devastation.
"That's it. I have nothing. I can't get to my job. I had two cars down there because we thought they'd be safe. They're gone," Marianne Russell, of Moonachie, N.J., told WABC.
"A lot of tears are being shed today," said Dennis Cucci, whose home near the ocean in Point Pleasant Beach was heavily damaged. "It's absolutely mind-boggling."
President Obama held a call with state and local officials from New York, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to discuss the repair effort late Thursday night, according to a White House official.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino will travel to Staten Island today to meet with state and local officials and inspect recovery efforts.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the main concern now is over the elderly and poor all but trapped on upper floors of housing complexes in the powerless buildings.
"Our problem is making sure they know that food is available," Bloomberg said Thursday, as officials expressed concern about people having to haul water from fire hydrants up darkened flights of stairs.
In Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, Mary Wilson, 75, walked downstairs from her 19th floor apartment for the first time Thursday because she ran out of bottled water and felt she was going to faint. She said she met people on the stairs who helped her down.
"I did a lot of praying: 'Help me to get to the main floor.' Now I've got to pray to get to the top," she said, after buying water from a convenience store
.
"I said, 'I'll go down today or they'll find me dead," she added.
As essentials dwindle in powerless areas, reports of looting have occurred. Early Thursday morning 18 individuals were arrested for burglary of a Key Food in Coney Island, according to police.
In Far Rockaway, Queens, four arrests were made Thursday stemming from the entry of a closed Radio Shack.
ABC News' Alexis Shaw, Jennifer Abbey, ABC News Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted by Gagalha at 9:02 AM
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's new go-to management team of mostly familiar faces failed to drum up much excitement on Wall Street, driving its shares to a three-month low on Wednesday.
The world's most valuable technology company, which had faced questions about a visionary-leadership vacuum following the death of Steve Jobs, on Monday stunned investors by announcing the ouster of chief mobile software architect Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett -- the latter after six months on the job.
Cook gave most of Forstall's responsibilities to Macintosh software chief Craig Federighi, while some parts of the job went to Internet chief Eddy Cue and celebrated designer Jony Ive.
But the loss of the 15-year veteran and Jobs's confidant Forstall, and resurgent talk about internal conflicts, exacerbated uncertainty over whether Cook and his lieutenants have what it takes to devise and market the next ground-breaking, industry-disrupting product.
Apple shares ended the day down 1.4 percent at 595.32. They have shed a tenth of their value this month -- the biggest monthly loss since late 2008, and have headed south since touching an all-time high of $705 in September.
For investors, the management upheaval from a company that usually excels at delivering positive surprises represents the latest reason for unease about the future of a company now more valuable than almost any other company in the world.
Apple undershot analysts targets in its fiscal third quarter, the second straight disappointment. Its latest Maps software was met with widespread frustration and ridicule over glaring mistakes. Sources told Reuters that Forstall and Cook disagreed over the need to publicly apologize for its maps service embarrassment.
And this month, Apple entered the small-tablet market with its iPad mini, lagging Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc despite pioneering the tablet market in 2010.
Investor concerns now center around the demand, availability and profitability of new products, including the iPad mini set to hit stores on Friday.
"The sudden departure of Scott Forstall doesn't help," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee. "Now there's some uncertainty in the management."
"There appears to be some infighting, post-Steve Jobs, and looks like Cook is putting his foot down and unifying the troops."
Apple declined to comment beyond Monday's announcement.
Against that backdrop, Cook's inner circle has some convincing to do. In the wake of Forstall's exit, iTunes maestro Eddy Cue -- dubbed "Mr Fixit", the sources say -- gets his second promotion in a year, taking on an expanded portfolio of all online services, including Siri and Maps.
The affable executive with a tough negotiating streak who, according to documents revealed in court, lobbied Jobs aggressively and finally convinced the late visionary about the need for a smaller-sized tablet, has become a central figure: a versatile problem-solver for the company.
Ive, the British-born award-winning designer credited with pushing the boundaries of engineering with the iPod and iPhone, now extends his skills into the software realm with the lead on user interface.
Marketing guru Schiller continues in his role, while career engineer Mansfield canceled his retirement to stay on and lead wireless and semiconductor teams. Then there's Federighi, the self-effacing software engineer who a source told Reuters joined Apple over Forstall's initial objections, and has the nickname "Hair Force One" on Game Center.
"With a large base of approximately 60,400 full-time employees, it would be easy to conclude that the departures are not important," said Keith Bachman, analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "However, we do believe the departures are a negative, since we think Mr. Forstall in particular added value to Apple."
TEAM COOK
Few would argue with Forstall's success in leading mobile software iOS and that he deserves a lot of credit for the sale of millions of iPhones and iPads.
But despite the success, his style and direction on the software were not without critics, inside and outside.
Forstall often clashed with other executives, said a person familiar with him, adding he sometimes tended to over-promise and under-deliver on features. Now, Federighi, Ive and Cue have the opportunity to develop the look, feel and engineering of the all-important software that runs iPhones and iPads.
Cue, who rose to prominence by building and fostering iTunes and the app store, has the tough job of fixing and improving Maps, unveiled with much fanfare by Forstall in June, but it was found full of missing information and wrongly marked sites.
The Duke University alum and Blue Devils basketball fan -- he has been seen courtside with players -- is deemed the right person to accomplish this, given his track record on fixing services and products that initially don't do well.
The 23-year veteran turned around the short-lived MobileMe storage service after revamping and wrapping it into the reasonably well-received iCloud offering.
"Eddy is certainly a person who gets thrown a lot of stuff to ‘go make it work' as he's very used to dealing with partners," said a person familiar with Cue. The person said Cue was suited to fixing Maps given the need to work with partners such as TomTom and business listings provider Yelp.
Cue's affable charm and years of dealing with entertainment companies may come in handy as he also tries to improve voice-enabled digital assistant Siri. He has climbed the ladder rapidly in the past five years and was promoted to senior vice president last September, shortly after Cook took over as CEO.
Both Cue and Cook will work more closely with Federighi, who spent a decade in enterprise software before rejoining Apple in 2009, taking over Mac software after the legendary Bertrand Serlet left the company in March last year
Federighi was instrumental in bringing popular mobile features such as notifications and Facebook integration onto the latest Mac operating system Mountain Lion, which was downloaded on 3 million machines in four days.
The former CTO of business software company Ariba, now part of SAP, worked with Jobs at NeXT Computer. Federighi is a visionary in software engineering and can be as good as Jobs in strategic decisions for the product he oversees, a person who has worked with him said.
His presentation skills have been called on of late, most recently at Apple annual developers' gathering in the summer.
Then there's Ive, deemed Apple's inspirational force. Among the iconic products he has worked on are multi-hued iMac computers, the iPod music player, the iPhone and the iPad.
Forstall's departure may free Ive of certain constraints, the sources said. His exit brought to the fore a fundamental design issue -- to do or not to do digital skeuomorphic designs. Skeuomorphic designs stay true to and mimic real-life objects, such as the bookshelf in the iBooks icon, green felt in its Game Center app icon, and an analog clock depicting the time.
Forstall, who will stay on as adviser to Cook for another year, strongly believed in these designs, but his philosophy was not shared by all. His chief dissenter was Ive, who is said to prefer a more open approach, which could mean a slightly different design direction on the icons.
"There is no one else who has that kind of (design) focus on the team," the person said of Ive. "He is critical for them."
(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Edwin Chan and Ken Wills)
Posted by Gagalha at 9:08 AM
BERLIN (Reuters) – Erwin Rommel, the World War Two German field marshal celebrated as the brilliant and humane “Desert Fox“, is portrayed in a new film as a weak man torn by his loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the dawning realization that he was serving a devil.
The drama, due to be broadcast on the public ARD television on Thursday, has angered Rommel‘s son and granddaughter who believe it underplays his role in the resistance against Hitler.
Rommel was forced to commit suicide in 1944 after Hitler suspected the general of being linked to the July 1944 plot to kill him, though historians disagree about how close he was to the failed assassination attempt.
Nazi propaganda feted Rommel as a military genius after his successful, bold offensives against the Allies in North Africa from 1941 until late 1942 when his Afrikakorps was defeated at El Alamein, a battle commemorated in London last week by the dwindling band of surviving British and Commonwealth veterans.
Even wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed Rommel as a “great general”.
Rommel’s standing among his enemies was enhanced by his humane treatment of prisoners. The Afrikakorps eschewed the atrocities committed by the German army in other theatres of war, especially on the Eastern Front.
By 1944, in Normandy trying to defend the coast from an impending Allied landing, Rommel realized the war was lost and grew disillusioned. Despite having links to some of the plotters, he never joined the abortive July 20, 1944 conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.
“The idea is to demystify Rommel,” producer Nico Hofmann told Reuters.
“There is a lot of speculation surrounding the myth of Rommel. To some he is a brave, proud soldier, the ‘Desert Fox’. Some people don’t know he committed suicide under pressure from Hitler and think he perished in the war and there are many questions about how close he was to the resistance.”
“These are taboos, subjects for discussion and historical evaluation,” he said.
Film director Niki Stein described Rommel as a “weak man” who chose to look away and many historians say he was primarily bent on serving Hitler to advance his career.
Rommel’s family has denounced the script of the 6 million euro film which focuses on his growing internal conflict during the seven months of his life leading up to his death.
His son, Manfred – who was 15 when his father died and is now 83 – and granddaughter wrote to the producers last year accusing the script of the film “Rommel” of presenting “lies”.
They argued that he played a greater role in the resistance than the producers believed, said Hofmann.
The family have declined to talk to media about the film.
CYANIDE ULTIMATUM
Historians say the film is important as it will show millions of viewers the dramatic last months of the general’s life and the dilemma faced by many Germans who felt a sense of duty to their country, but were disenchanted with Hitler.
“Please watch, this film explains a little how it was back then with our grandparents, with Hitler, with fear, with joining in,” wrote a columnist in top-selling Bild daily, which has been serializing Rommel’s life.
“The Rommel film shows how a man believes he is serving a king and realizes too late that he is a devil.”
Other newspapers have also run long articles on the Rommel figure and the authoritative weekly Der Spiegel splashed “The Myth of Erwin Rommel” on its cover this week.
The film shows how a conflicted general, who was one of the Nazi regime’s biggest propaganda tools, gradually turned against Hitler. In line with the historical evidence, it leaves open his role in the plot against Hitler led by Claus von Stauffenberg.
Although he had contact with some of those involved, his son has written that he knew nothing of the assassination attempt.
Rommel was wounded by a Spitfire attack on his staff car days before the July 20 coup attempt, but soon after the plot ringleaders were executed Hitler grew suspicious about him.
Realizing the potential damage of putting Rommel on trial for treason, Hitler sent two officers to put an ultimatum to his once favorite general: if he wanted his wife and son to be looked after, he should swallow a cyanide capsule.
Hitler wrote to his widow and gave the field marshal a state funeral with his coffin draped in a swastika flag.
“I don’t see him as a hero. He is a tragic figure. He was a weak man drawn into an incredible internal conflict,” Stein, the director and author of the screenplay, told Reuters.
“I hope young Germans watch. We’re talking about our grandparents. It explains a lot about the way people act in a dictatorship.”
With popular actor Ulrich Tukur playing the main role, Stein thinks people will identify with Rommel but not necessarily sympathize with him. “Perhaps they will be shocked when they realize he is not so clean,” he said.
Underscoring the many contradictions of his character, Rommel’s legacy has shifted over the years.
Immediately after World War Two, Germans latched on to the myth of Rommel as a “soldier’s soldier” who had no close links to Nazi ideology and was forced to kill himself by the regime.
Much was made of the behavior of his Afrikakorps and his decision to disobey Hitler’s “victory or death” order at El Alamein and instead oversee a retreat which saved many lives.
“By the 1970s a German destroyer and army barracks were named after him,” said history Professor Soenke Neitzel, who has written about Rommel and advised the filmmakers.
He was favorably portrayed in 1951 by James Mason in “The Desert Fox”, which gave prominence to his disputed role in the von Stauffenberg plot.
But many historians say it is implausible that a field marshal who regularly met top Nazis, including Hitler, did not know of the Holocaust, a point critics say the film brushes over.
“On the one hand he didn’t commit war crimes that we know of and ordered a retreat at El Alamein despite Hitler’s order,” said Neitzel.
“But he took huge German casualties elsewhere and he was a servant of the regime. He was not exactly a shining liberal or Social Democrat. Mostly, he was interested in his career.”
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 9:06 AM
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Dieters who eat meals and snacks high in protein might lose a bit more weight than those who get less protein and more carbohydrates – all other things being equal, a new analysis of past studies suggests.
Researchers found that over an average of 12 weeks, people assigned at random to a high-protein diet lost about 1.8 extra pounds, and more body fat, than those assigned to a standard-protein diet.
There was no difference, however, in how much participants’ blood pressure, cholesterol levels or markers for diabetes risk changed based on the protein content of their diets.
Thomas Wycherley from the University of South Australia in Adelaide, the lead author on the study, said in an email to Reuters Health that the extra weight loss in the high-protein group was “only modest,” but that “it may still represent clinical relevance on a population level.”
For the study, he and his colleagues analyzed 24 past trials that included a total of 1,063 people.
Participants were all put on a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet designed to help them lose weight. About half were prescribed a high-protein version of that diet – containing about 85 grams of protein per day for a 150-pound person – and the other half a standard-protein diet, with 49 grams per day, on average, for a 150-pound person.
Across all trials, high-protein and standard-protein diets were designed to provide the same calorie reduction.
Depending on the study, participants lost an average of anywhere from 2.4 to 25.1 pounds, according to findings published last week in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
It’s not obvious why a higher protein-to-carbohydrate ratio might help people shed more pounds – and one obesity researcher not involved in the new analysis questioned whether the trials were even robust enough to make that conclusion.
“The studies are generally far too short to tell impact,” Dr. James Levine from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, told Reuters Health in an email. What’s more, he added, “many are inadequately conducted to be relevant.”
Wycherley said it’s possible the body may spend more energy, and burn more calories, processing protein compared to carbohydrates. Another potential explanation for the link his team observed is that eating protein helps preserve muscle mass – and muscle mass burns more calories, even when the body is resting, than other types of mass.
He said people in the studies tended to get protein from a variety of animal and vegetable sources. Vegetable sources of protein include beans and other legumes.
Substituting protein for carbohydrates as part of an energy-restricted diet, Wycherley said, is one option for people hoping to lose weight.
But given the limitations of the current evidence, Levine said, “it makes no real difference which of the (weight-loss) approaches one chooses.”
SOURCE: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online October 24, 2012.
Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Posted by Gagalha at 9:04 AM
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