Snow hit Paris and London for the second and third day, respectively, as locals and tourists reveled in the wonder of winter that usually bypasses these European capitals. But travel headaches afflicted both cities, as mere inches of snow shut down both roads and runways. After repeated years of cold and precipitation, at what point will we have to stop calling these European snowfalls “unusual”? And when will European airports and transportation authorities start greeting winter with salt and snow plows for what may be the new normal?
IHT Rendezvous: Paris and London, Snowy, More Beautiful and More Treacherous
Label: WorldNotre Dame football star says he was not in on hoax – ESPN
Label: Technology(Reuters) – Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o has denied ever being in on an elaborate hoax, telling ESPN he had believed his relationship with a woman who turned out to be an online fabrication was real.
The tragic story of his girlfriend and her injuries from a car accident and death from leukemia was one of the most widely recounted U.S. sports stories last year as Notre Dame made a drive toward the national championship game.
“I wasn’t faking it,” Te’o told ESPN in an off-camera interview on Friday, excerpts of which were posted on ESPN.com. “I wasn’t part of this.”
When asked whether he had made up the tale to support his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy, the highest individual honor for a college football player, Te’o replied: “Well, when they hear the facts they’ll know. They’ll know that there is no way that I could be part of this.”
The interview was Te’o's first since the sports blog Deadspin.com on Wednesday exposed the heart-wrenching tale of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, and her death as a hoax and that a friend of Te’o's named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was behind it.
Te’o told ESPN that Tuiasosopo called him on Wednesday and admitted he was behind the hoax and it was then Te’o was sure the woman had never existed.
“I don’t wish an ill thing to somebody,” Te’o said of Tuiasosopo, according to ESPN. “I just hope he learns. I think embarrassment is big enough.”
Outside Tuiasosopo’s home in Palmdale, California, on Thursday, a member of his family who did not identify himself told reporters they had no comment.
Te’o acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that he had never met the woman in person, though he considered her his girlfriend and said he had been duped.
In the ESPN interview, Te’o said he tried to video chat with her several times, but she could never be seen on the other end. He also said he intentionally told people stories about her in a way that would make people believe they had met in person.
“I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn’t meet,” Te’o said.
NATIONAL PROMINENCE
ESPN said the interview was held at a training facility in Florida where Te’o has been preparing for the National Football League draft. The star linebacker was expected to be a high draft pick before the hoax was revealed.
Te’o sprang to national prominence last fall when he led Notre Dame to a victory over Michigan State within days of learning his grandmother and girlfriend had both died. The grandmother’s death was real.
The story grew to become a big feature in coverage of the team, which went undefeated in the regular season and reached the national championship game. Alabama defeated Notre Dame in the title game on January 7.
Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in U.S. collegiate athletics, held a news conference within hours of the Deadspin.com article to say that Te’o had been duped.
Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said on Friday the Indiana university was comfortable, based on a private investigation it launched and on four years experience with Te’o, that he was the victim and encouraged Te’o to speak publicly.
(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Eric Beech)
Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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Selena Gomez: It Helps Being Friends with Taylor Swift and Vanessa Hudgens
Label: LifestyleFrom left: Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens
Stephen Lovekin/Getty; Bryan Bedder/Getty; Javier Mateo/StarTraks
Boyfriends come and go, but Selena Gomez has a few very special – and very, very famous – faces to depend on.
The starlet, 20, counts Taylor Swift, 23, and Vanessa Hudgens, 24, among her inner circle, and she has plenty of compliments for their support along the way.
"It’s helped having Taylor and Vanessa both be older than me," she told PEOPLE at her New York City acoustic concert benefit for UNICEF, the children's rights organization for which she is a goodwill ambassador. "They’ve kind of experienced a little bit more, and at the same time we’re experiencing the exact same things together."
Her pals are just a call away, and "it's nice just to be able to pick up the phone and be like, 'Ugh, I had this person say this and it's annoying,' and have someone understand and really get what you're going through," adds Justin Bieber's on-again, off-again girlfriend. "I think that's [our] main connection. I just enjoy having people in the business in my life because it helps."
She recently worked with Hudgens on Spring Breakers, a comedy following four college gals that arrives in theaters in March. “I feel like I want to be her," Gomez says of her costar. "She’s been such an incredible person, and she’s fantastic in [Spring Breakers]. "She’s a really good friend.”
And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, her feelings on Swift – whom she called "one of the most inspirational, positive, good-hearted people that I know" – were clear by an addition to her concert set-list: a cover of the Red singer's hit, "I Knew You Were Trouble." (Yes, she also learned a dance to her friend's tune, just before the two hit the Utah ski slopes in December with their boyfriends at the time.)
“I met [Swift] when she was 18. This is before [Swift's 2008 album] Fearless came out, and it was absolutely incredible to see someone so successful and so humble," she says. "I think she has been a big part of me kind of staying the way I am too."
Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws
Label: HealthNEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.
A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.
"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.
An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.
Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.
Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.
The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.
Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.
But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.
Michael Sinesky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."
"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinesky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.
Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.
To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.
"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.
Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.
In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.
The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.
Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.
While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.
"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."
___
Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
___
Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz
FBI agent admits having sex with karaoke bar worker
Label: BusinessAn FBI agent testified Friday that he had sex with
an employee of a karaoke bar in the Philippines whom he met while working
undercover on a case involving weapons smuggling.
Marc Napolitano was working as a member of a surveillance team
during meetings at karaoke bars in which another undercover agent, Charles
Ro, spent time with three Filipino nationals now accused of smuggling
weapons into the U.S.
Napolitano received text messages from several young Filipino
women on a cellphone paid for by the government, he said. One woman, who went
by the name Maui, came to his hotel room -- also paid for by the
government -- where they had sex, he said.
Napolitano testified as part of a defense motion seeking to throw
out the criminal charges against the defendants. A deputy federal public
defender representing one of the three defendants has alleged the government
committed "outrageous government misconduct" while investigating the
case.
Defense attorneys have
accused agents of spending taxpayer dollars during their investigation in
karaoke bars that were widely-known to offer prostitution.
Government attorneys and agents dispute the allegations.
Napolitano denied Maui was a prostitute and said he never paid to
have sex while working on the investigation.
The defense motion is expected to continue Tuesday.
ALSO:
California reporting widespread flu illnesses
Manti Te'o hoax: Uncle says linebacker manipulated by 'liar'
Mark Yudof to step down as president of UC system in August
-- Hailey Branson-Potts
Algeria Begins ‘Final Assault’ on Gas Field; 7 Hostages Reported Killed
Label: World
Louafi Larbi/Reuters
Algerian police officers escorted a freed Norwegian hostage as he left the In Amenas police station on Saturday.
BAMAKO, Mali — The hostage crisis in the Algerian desert reached a bloody conclusion Saturday as the army carried out a final assault on the gas field taken over by Islamist militants, killing 11 of them, but only after the militants had killed seven more hostages, the official Algerian news agency reported.
French, British and American officials said the Algerian government had told them the military operation was over, but a senior Algerian government official said security forces were “doing cleanup” to make sure no kidnappers were hiding in the sprawling industrial complex.
Western officials deplored the loss of life during the four-day siege, which Philip Hammond, the British defense secretary, called “appalling and unacceptable.” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who appeared with Mr. Hammond at a news conference in London, said he did not yet have reliable information about the fate of Americans at the facility, although the Algerian official said two had been found “safe and sound.”
Late Saturday, Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, emerged from a meeting of the British government’ crisis committee and told reporters that five Britons and one British resident had died in the final battle for the plant. He declined to provide details, saying the government had not yet received a full picture of what happened and that police forces were still fanning out across Britain visiting each of the victims’ families and giving them “the support they need at this very difficult time.”The provisional death toll for the four days released by Algeria Saturday, even by the government’s reckoning, was heavy. Out of dozens taken hostage on a site that employed hundreds of workers, 23 were dead while 32 kidnappers were killed, according to the government news service. That represents close to the initial estimate of hostage-takers.
The government said it had recovered machine guns, rocket launchers, suicide belts and small arms.
The Algerian news agency report did not give the nationalities of the hostages it said were executed Saturday, and it remained unclear whether there were other hostages at the remote plant and whether they were alive. Earlier news reports said at least 10 and as many as dozens of hostages from several nations were in the hands of the kidnappers as of Friday.
United States officials had said that “seven or eight” Americans had been at the In Amenas field when it was seized by the militants on Wednesday.
One American, Frederick Buttaccio, 58, of Katy, Tex., was confirmed dead on Friday, and the French government said one of its citizens, identified as Yann Desjeux, had also died before Saturday’s raid. Britain earlier said at least one of its citizens had been killed, and an Algerian state news agency said Algerians had also been killed as of Friday.
The Algerian official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said a precise tally would take time.
“There are corpses that are totally charred,” he said. “We’ve got to do identification work. It’s very difficult.” Algerian officials have said some of the kidnappers blew themselves up. The Algerian news agency said the militants had set fire to part of the complex Friday night, which prompted the troops to launch the military assault Saturday.
The raid, if it swept up all the attackers, would bring to an end a siege involving dozens of hostages and kidnappers that drew criticism from Western governments for the tough manner in which it was handled by the Algerian security services. Attacks on the kidnappers by the government forces caused an unknown number of deaths among the hostages, in addition to those who were executed by the militants, who may be linked to Al Qaeda.
A militant who claimed responsibility for the attack, and who was blamed by the Algerians for leading it, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was until recently a leading commander of Al Qaeda’s North and West African branch, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
One Algerian who managed to escape told France 24 television late Friday night that the kidnappers said, “We’ve come in the name of Islam, to teach the Americans what Islam is.” The haggard-looking man, interviewed at the airport in Algiers, said the kidnappers then immediately executed five hostages.
The militants who attacked the plant said it was in retaliation for French troops sweeping into Mali this month to stop an advance of Islamist rebels south toward the capital. However the militants later said they had been planning an attack in Algeria for two months on the assumption that the West would intervene in Mali.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 19, 2013
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the nationality of a government official who said security forces were searching the gas complex. The official is Algerian, not Turkish.
Raspberry Pi creator says sequel unlikely in 2013
Label: TechnologyRaspberry Pi’s $ 35 Linux-based computer is a runaway success. Creator Eben Upton told ZDNet in a recent interview that his team thought they would sell 1,000 units when they were designing the mini PC, but sales have now topped 700,000. ”We honestly did think we would sell about 1,000, maybe 10,000 in our wildest dreams,” Upton said. “We thought we would make a small number and give them out to people who might want to come and read computer science at Cambridge.” On a slightly disappointing note to those hoping for an upgraded model in 2013, Upton said in the interview that the company has no plans to launch a sequel to the latest Raspberry Pi “Model B” this year.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
This article was originally published on BGR.com
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Deadly Pills: A National Epidemic
Label: LifestyleJace Uher-Flom's mom dies two weeks after her birth of an overdose of prescription drugs
Grant Delin
Drugs are now the No. 1 accidental killer in the U.S., with the vast majority of deaths caused by prescription meds. A look at how medicines that are now a part of everyday life can also turn families upside down forever.
The statistics are staggering, the medicines powerful and highly addictive: This year more Americans will die of drug over-doses than in any other type of accident – including car crashes. In most cases, those deaths are caused by pills in many people's medicine cabinets given to them by trusted doctors, left over from routine surgeries or prescribed to manage chronic conditions.
"Prescription drug overdoses are a serious nationwide problem," says Dr. Leonard Paulozzi of the C.D.C.'s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, "for which we haven't yet found a solution."
How did we get here? For the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain, heavy-duty painkillers are the wonder drugs that help them lead more comfortable lives. But in the past 20 years, as opiate painkillers have become more routinely prescribed, the number of people dying from them – as a result of misuse or accidentally – has skyrocketed.
Often those deaths are due to bad interactions with other substances: Combined with alcohol some antidepressants can cause dangerous spikes in blood pressure, and mixing pain pills with a few drinks "can depress the brain," says Paulozzi, "and lead to death."
It's a problem even the drug industry acknowledges, says Sharon Brigner, of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America: "These medicines can be an important tool – we tell anyone we talk to that medicines save and improve lives every day. But if misused, they can kill."
Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer's prevention study
Label: HealthResearchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it.
The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients' brains.
Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's but it showed some promise against milder disease. Researchers think it might work better if given before symptoms start.
"The hope is we can catch people before they decline," which can come 10 years or more after plaques first show up in the brain, said Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Alzheimer's center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
She will help lead the new study, which will involve 1,000 people ages 70 to 85 whose brain scans show plaque buildup but who do not yet have any symptoms of dementia. They will get monthly infusions of solanezumab or a dummy drug for three years. The main goal will be slowing the rate of cognitive decline. The study will be done at 50 sites in the U.S. and possibly more in Canada, Australia and Europe, Sperling said.
In October, researchers said combined results from two studies of solanezumab suggested it might modestly slow mental decline, especially in patients with mild disease. Taken separately, the studies missed their main goals of significantly slowing the mind-robbing disease or improving activities of daily living.
Those results were not considered good enough to win the drug approval. So in December, Lilly said it would start another large study of it this year to try to confirm the hopeful results seen patients with mild disease. That is separate from the federal study Sperling will head.
About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's. Current medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.
___
Online:
Alzheimer's info: http://www.alzheimers.gov
Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org
___
Follow Marilynn Marchione's coverage at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
Police swarm Kardashian home; 'swatting' call suspected
Label: BusinessAuthorities on Saturday said they were investigating whether the Kardashian family is the latest victim of a celebrity "swatting" incident, in which a crank caller alleges violence is occurring at a star's home.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department responded to a crank call Friday at the Malibu home where the Kardashian family lives.
There was no one home when deputies arrived, but they were able
to eventually confirm that the family was fine and at different
location, officials said.
Kardashian family members tweeted that numerous sheriff's patrol cars converged on the Malibu home.
The exact nature of the phone call to authorities was not revealed.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said authorities were trying to determine whether this was another "swatting" incident. Other celebrities have been victimized by such hoaxes, including Tom Cruise and Ashton Kutcher.
ALSO:
California reporting widespread flu illnesses
Manti Te'o hoax: Uncle says linebacker manipulated by 'liar'
Mark Yudof to step down as president of UC system in August
-- Andrew Blankstein
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