Palestinians and Israel Seek Next Step After Vote

JERUSALEM — Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, recently said that the day after Palestine gained recognition as a nonmember state at the United Nations, “Life will not be the same.”

True, there would still be the occupation, he said; Israeli settlement and closing policies would continue. But no Israeli official could argue that the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem were disputed territories, he said, adding, “Palestine will become a country under occupation. The terms of reference for any negotiations become withdrawal.”

Now that the United Nations has voted to grant the Palestinian territories status as a nonmember state, one question is whether the Palestinians will use their enhanced status for renewed negotiations in the spirit of peace and reconciliation or for confronting Israel in new ways through the United Nations system, and possibly the International Criminal Court.

The answer may be both. But for now, at least, as Israel heads into January elections after a resounding diplomatic defeat at the General Assembly, the sides seemed, at best, stuck in the same stalemate as before, analysts said.

Mr. Erekat, speaking by telephone from New York a day before Thursday’s Assembly vote, said that the Palestinians would be willing to “sit with the Israelis and define a road map,” and to talk about how to return to talks. For example, he asked, would negotiations pick up where they left off at the end of 2008, when Ehud Olmert was prime minister of Israel, or would they go back to the start?

Negotiations for a two-state solution have been stalled with the Palestinians, who insist on a halt to settlement building. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says he is ready for negotiations without preconditions and has refused to renew a temporary freeze that expired in 2010.

With the new emphasis on the territory as occupied, Palestinian officials said, the demand for a settlement freeze was unlikely to be dropped.

Israel has long argued that a Palestinian state can only come through negotiations, but that the new resolution would make negotiations more difficult. Israeli critics say that the resolution enshrines the principle of a state based on the pre-1967 borders, a position rejected by the Israeli government, while upholding the Palestinian refugee claim for a right of return to the Israeli side of the lines.

“They got a state without end of conflict,” a top Israeli official said. “This sets new terms of reference that will never allow negotiations to start.”

The absence of negotiations may then open the way for a more confrontational approach.

Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian politician and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s “Day After” committee, said that as an occupied state, if the Israelis failed to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention, Palestine as an occupied state could “at some time in the future” seek prosecution in the International Criminal Court or work through the United Nations system to push for sanctions.

“There is a very long list of actions by Israel that violate international law,” Mr. Barghouti said, citing the settlements, economic projects in the West Bank and Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners. While Israel considers settlements it has established with government approval to be legal, most of the world disagrees. The convention prohibits an occupying power from deporting or transferring parts of its own civilian population into territory it occupies.

In an effort to garner the widest support possible for their United Nations bid, Palestinian officials had in recent months toned down threats of prosecuting Israel for settlement building or suspected war crimes, instead emphasizing that the move was intended to jump-start a more meaningful, nonviolent political process toward a two-state solution.

“We say it is in no way a substitute to negotiations,” Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said in a recent interview. “It is in no way meant to delegitimize Israel.”

But in the days before the vote, officials refused to make any public commitment that the Palestinians would not seek to prosecute Israel, saying they would not accept any limits on their statehood.

“Those who worry about the International Criminal Court should not commit acts that will take them there,” Mr. Erekat said.

Some experts suggested that the Israeli fears were overblown.

“Most countries have been saying for the last 40 years that this is an occupation,” said Robbie Sabel, a professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former legal adviser of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

Mr. Sabel said that Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank and Gaza could now “cease to be refugees and become Palestinian nationals in their own country.”

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Zynga slides after updated agreement with Facebook

NEW YORK (AP) — Zynga shares tumbled nearly 12 percent in after-hours trading Thursday after the online game company and Facebook disclosed that they changed their relationship status to become less attached to each other.

Zynga Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it will no longer have to display Facebook ads or use Facebook payments on its own properties — such as Zynga.com. In addition Zynga will no longer be required to use Facebook as the exclusive social site for its games, or to grant Facebook exclusive games.

Facebook Inc., which filed a similar disclosure, will also be able to develop its own games after the end of March. Its deal with Zynga previously prohibited that.

The amendments change the companies’ 2010 contract that gave Zynga special status among Facebook game developers. San Francisco-based Zynga relies on Facebook for most of the revenue it generates, but the company has been working to establish its independence — while also maintaining ties with Facebook.

Zynga’s titles range from “FarmVille” to “CityVille” to “Words With Friends,” the Scrabble-like game made popular on mobile devices.

Zynga shares fell 31 cents, or 11.8 percent, to $ 2.31 in after-hours trading. The stock closed up 11 cents, or 4.4 percent, at $ 2.62 in the regular session.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry Reach Truce in Custody War

By Ken Lee

11/29/2012 at 07:40 PM EST

Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry

Jason Merritt/Getty; Chris Weeks/WireImage

After a long court battle and an ugly fistfight outside her house, Halle Berry and her ex Gabriel Aubry appear to have settled their key differences over custody of 4 ½-year-old daughter Nahla – for now.

"The parties have reached an amicable agreement," read a written statement held up by attorney Blair Berk, who represents Berry, after a hearing Thursday in Los Angeles. "There will be no further statements regarding this matter."

Aubry, wearing a black sport coat with dark sunglasses to mask his bruised
face, was present, but Berry and her fiancé Olivier Martinez did not
attend.

Just exactly what they agreed to – earlier issues ranged from residency to restraining orders – wasn't known.

But the deal was worked out on the same day an emergency protective order issued against Aubry was to expire. That order barred him from seeing his daughter or going anywhere near Berry and Martinez.

It's also unclear whether Aubry's restraining order against Martinez, filed Monday, remains in effect or if it had been, or will be, withdrawn.

Meanwhile, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith tells PEOPLE the Thanksgiving Day altercation between Aubry and Martinez is still under investigation. "Our officers have initially concluded that Aubry was the primary instigator," he says, but adds it's too early
to say whether the case will be referred to prosecutors.

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Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

"Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

"We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they'll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men's risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $5.6 billion.

Thursday's report from PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn't just disappointing, it's deadly."

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

"The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up" to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday's report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

"We have to go where the virus is," Clinton said.

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Wall Street jumps in another "fiscal cliff" swing

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rallied on Wednesday after comments from House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, on a possible compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" turned the market around.

The S&P 500 rebounded from a 1 percent decline, gaining more than 20 points from its low after Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he was optimistic that a budget deal to avoid big spending cuts and tax hikes can be worked out. President Barack Obama added to the good feelings, saying he hoped to get a deal done in the next four weeks.

Whether or not those remarks reflect the reality of negotiations is another story.

"The fiscal cliff is dominating the discussion, and short term, we're a little bit too optimistic on it being fixed right away," said John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in New York.

In expectation of higher dividend tax rates in 2013, companies have been shifting dividends or announcing special payouts to shareholders.

Costco Wholesale Corp , up 6.3 percent at $102.58, was the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer after it became the latest company to announce a special dividend.

The market's move marked the second straight day where a leading legislator dictated trading action. On Tuesday, stocks fell on pessimistic remarks from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada.

The market has been swinging for weeks now on headlines from Washington, with Wednesday's gyrations once again highlighting the importance that Wall Street is giving to finding a solution to avoid the series of tax increases and spending cuts that could push the U.S. economy into recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 106.98 points, or 0.83 percent, to 12,985.11 at the close. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 10.99 points, or 0.79 percent, to 1,409.93. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 23.99 points, or 0.81 percent, to close at 2,991.78.

The S&P 500 bounced off a strong support area near 1,385 that includes both its 200- and 14-day moving averages. It closed above 1,400 for the third session in four - an optimistic sign for stock bulls.

Knight Capital Group Inc shares jumped 15.2 percent to $3.42 on news that Getco Holding proposed a $1.4 billion merger with Knight, while Virtu Financial offered to buy Knight for at least $1.1 billion.

Apparel retailer Express Inc rose 8.9 percent to $14.15 after it forecast strong earnings for the current quarter as lower prices and easy-to-understand discounts led to robust Black Friday sales.

The S&P retail index <.spxrt> gained 1.4 percent.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters surged 27.3 percent to $36.86 a day after it forecast quarterly and full-year earnings well ahead of analysts' expectations.

Nearly 6.1 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.48 billion shares.

On the NYSE, roughly seven stocks rose for every three that fell, and on Nasdaq, five issues rose for every three that fell.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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For Alan Gross Imprisoned in Cuba, Suit Against U.S. Is Part of New Strategy

MEXICO CITY — The Cuban government says he is perfectly fine. His lawyers say he could soon die of cancer. After nearly three years, the drama of Alan Gross, an American contractor imprisoned in Cuba nearly three years ago, has come down to this: a battle over a bulge of tissue on his shoulder.

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday asserting that Mr. Gross was healthier than his lawyers claimed, and that a biopsy had shown that a growth on his shoulder was not cancerous, as his legal team has suggested.

In response, Mr. Gross’s lawyer, Jared Genser, issued a statement declaring that a full examination by an independent doctor would be the best way to determine whether Mr. Gross was cancer free.

The dueling statements came as Mr. Gross’s family has intensified its campaign to win his release, through public rallies, a campaign in the United Nations accusing Cuba of human rights violations, and a lawsuit against the United States government.

And while the sparring over Mr. Gross’s health pushed his case back into the public eye — State Department officials called again for his release on Wednesday — it also revealed that the larger dispute over his detention and his work in Cuba is far from being resolved.

Both Cuba and the United States have resisted efforts to negotiate. Each has blamed the other side while holding firm to its own position.

“They are like a divorced couple who cannot talk civilly with one another, or refuse to do so for fear of recognizing one another’s legitimacy or point of view,” said Ted Henken, a Latin American studies professor at Baruch College.

Judy Gross, Mr. Gross’s wife, said the lack of meaningful negotiations led to the family’s more aggressive strategy. “I don’t like to shame people, but if that’s what it’s going to take, that’s what we need to do,” she said in an interview. And while she said that Cuba deserved much of the blame, as “a brutal Communist government,” the United States also deserved to be held accountable.

The lawsuit filed by Mr. and Mrs. Gross on Nov. 16 in federal court in Washington seeks up to $60 million from the United States and DAI, the contractor that hired Mr. Gross to go to Cuba in 2009 as part of a State Department program delivering satellite Internet equipment to Jewish groups. It accuses his employers of sending him on five semicovert trips to Cuba without proper training, protection or even a clear sense of the Cuban laws that led to his detainment.

Scott Gilbert, a member of the Gross’s legal team, said the lawsuit could be especially damaging for the State Department and DAI if the discovery process produces more examples of unqualified and ill-prepared contractors sent to Cuba. He said the lawsuit would, at the very least, draw more scrutiny to the American government’s pro-democracy effort.

The program was authorized in 1996 by the Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the Cuban trade embargo and allowed for money to be set aside for “democracy building efforts” that might hasten the fall of Fidel and Raúl Castro.

Soon after that, Cuba made collaboration with the program illegal, but it continued and grew.

President Obama inherited its $20 million budget when he took office. After Mr. Gross was detained on Dec. 3, 2009 — charged with subversive acts, and later sentenced to 15 years in prison — administration officials sought to reduce financing and alter elements of the programs. But the president’s efforts were rebuffed by Cuban-American lawmakers, including Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who said in an interview that he had always opposed cuts to the program.

State Department officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, which indicated that Mr. Gross became more worried about his work with each trip. After his first visit working with DAI in the spring of 2009, he wrote a memo that said the group he met with “has specific concerns about government informants and the highest level of discretion is warranted.” By his third trip in June, he had become more blunt, writing to DAI that “this is very risky business in no uncertain terms.”

The lawsuit argues that these memos should have been enough to prompt additional training for Mr. Gross, or a new approach. Instead, the complaint says, DAI and the American government “failed to take an action to protect Mr. Gross.”

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Wii U Sells 400,000 Units in First Week

Nintendo‘s Wii U sold 400,000 units during its first week of sales, and Nintendo’s president has said the console is “virtually sold out” at retailers.

[More from Mashable: YouTube-Exclusive ‘Halo’ Miniseries Nets 26 Million Views]

The Wii U, Nintendo’s next-generation console that features a touch screen as a controller centerpiece, was released on Nov. 18 across the United States. Despite large crowds at Nintendo’s flagship store in New York, users on Twitter reported there were few lines if they wanted to get their console on launch day.

The Wii U’s sales on made up only of a portion of Nintendo’s sales last week. Nintendo sold 300,000 Wii units last week; the console was released in 2006, but many retailers had Black Friday deals that dropped it under the $ 100 price point. Nintendo’s 3DS and DS handheld consoles also sold well, with 275,000 and 250,000 units respectively.

[More from Mashable: Double Fine Opens Top Secret Game Brainstorm to Fans]

For context, the Wii sold 475,000 units during its first eight days in the U.S. marketplace in 2006.

CNET reports that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amie said significant Black Friday discounts lead to the 8-year-old Nintendo DS to outsell the newer model. According to VGChartz, the 3DS has sold about 6 million units in America since being released last year.

BONUS: First Look at the Wii U

GamePad

The Wii U GamePad has a 6.2-inch touchscreen.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Halle Berry's Unhappy Endings

Gabriel Aubry isn't the first – from David Justice to Wesley Snipes, the Oscar winner has had a history of bad breakups

Credit: Jon Kopaloff/Filmmagic

Updated: Wednesday Nov 28, 2012 | 01:00 PM EST
By: Aili Nahas

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a 10-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

___

Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org

___

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

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Wall Street falls, hit by Reid's "fiscal cliff" comments

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slid on Tuesday in a choppy session, losing ground in the last hour before the close after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed disappointment that there has been "little progress" in dealing with the "fiscal cliff."

The market was flat for most of the session but fell sharply after Reid's comments, a signal that investors remain skittish about the wrangling in Washington. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, rose on Reid's words.

"It may be that the market feels the goodwill before (last week's) Thanksgiving is evolving into more political intransigence," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark.

"The clock is ticking on Wall Street, regarding a framework for (political) consensus," she said.

Markets are focused on whether Congress and the White House can agree on ways to avoid some $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases that are due to kick in early next year.

As budget talks linger, Las Vegas Sands and Supertex added their names to a growing list of companies announcing special dividends aimed at helping investors avoid a possibly higher tax burden next year.

Higher dividend and capital gains taxes are part of the negotiations in Washington and may rise even if a deal is crafted.

Las Vegas Sands jumped 5.3 percent to $46.36. Supertex rose 6.9 percent to $18.

The S&P 500's modest losses on Tuesday marked its worst day in eight sessions - indicating traders are unwilling to sell aggressively as a deal probably would trigger a rally. The benchmark S&P 500 once again closed below 1,400, a key psychological level that it had reclaimed last week as it rose nearly 4 percent.

The VIX <.vix> shot up 2.7 percent to 15.92 at the close. Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. in New York, the VIX was up 3.9 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 89.24 points, or 0.69 percent, to 12,878.13 at the close. The S&P 500 <.spx> dropped 7.35 points, or 0.52 percent, to finish at 1,398.94. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> lost 8.99 points, or 0.30 percent, to end at 2,967.79.

Dealings in Washington obscured strong economic figures, including an increase in planned business spending and consumer confidence hitting its highest level in more than four years.

Strengthening the case for a sustained rebound in housing, single-family home prices rose for an eighth straight month in September. Shares of M/I Homes gained 2.1 percent to $22.36. KB Home added 1.1 percent to $14.61.

"As long as you have interest rates as low as they are right now, housing is definitely back," said Brian Amidei, managing director at HighTower Advisors in Palm Desert, California.

In another good sign for consumer demand, Corning Inc shares rose 6.9 percent to $12.13 after the specialty glass maker said it expects full-year sales of its Gorilla glass, used in smartphones and tablets, to approach $1 billion.

Food maker Ralcorp Holdings shares jumped 26.4 percent to $88.80 after long-time suitor ConAgra Foods sealed a deal to buy it for $5 billion. ConAgra shares gained 4.7 percent to $29.63.

McMoRan Exploration Co shares tumbled 15.2 percent to $8.18 a day after the oil and gas driller gave a disappointing update on a key gas prospect in a Gulf of Mexico well.

About 5.9 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.5 billion shares.

On the NYSE, roughly five issues fell for every four that rose. On Nasdaq, six stocks fell for every five that rose.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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