Standoff After Militants Seize Americans and Other Hostages in Algeria





BAMAKO, Mali — The Algerian military launched an operation on Thursday against armed Islamist extremists holding dozens of hostages including Americans and other foreigners at a remote gas field on Thursday, and a top Algerian official said at least four hostages were freed. There were unconfirmed reports of multiple casualties.







Kjetil Alsvik/Statoil, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An undated photo of the In Amenas gas field in Algeria, where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign hostages on Wednesday.






The military operation, confirmed by an Algerian official and the governments of Japan and Britain, which said they had been informed by Algerian authorities, came more than 24 hours after the armed extremists seized the hostages at the internationally managed gas field near the Libyan border in retaliation for the French military intervention in Mali last week.


“There was an assault, yes,” said the Algerian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation. “There are burned-out vehicles. Four hostages have been saved.”


The official said reports that Algerian army helicopters had strafed the gas field and had killed 35 hostages and 15 kidnappers were “exaggerated.” He said that some kidnappers had been killed but he would not say whether any hostages had been killed.


“We are waiting for official confirmation,” he said.


News agencies in Algeria and neighboring Mauritania said the helicopters may have attacked when the kidnappers sought to move their hostages from one part of the installation to another.


British officials in London said Algerian authorities had informed them that an “operation” was under way at the remote location in the desert, but gave no further details. “It remains an ongoing situation,” one official said, speaking in return for anonymity under departmental rules. Japanese authorities were still trying to ascertain if any Japanese hostages had escaped, the top Japanese government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, told a news conference.


The situation is “very confused,” President François Hollande of France said at a news conference in Paris and was “evolving hour by hour.” Mr. Hollande confirmed for the first time officially that French citizens were among the captives.


The kidnapping in Algeria was a retaliation for the continuing French military assault on Islamist extremists in Mali that has escalated into a much broader conflict spilling beyond Mali and North Africa to the United States and other countries with citizens held hostage. Reuters said the survivors of the Algerian assault included hostages from the United States, Belgium, Japan and Britain. The full extent of the casualties was not immediately clear.


Before reports of an assault began to emerge, many hostages — both Algerian and foreign — were reported to have escaped as the kidnappers sought and failed to persuade Algerian authorities to give them safe passage with their captives.


The Algerian news Web site TSA, quoted a local official, Sidi Knaoui, as saying 10 foreign hostages and 40 Algerians had escaped Thursday after the kidnappers had made several aborted attempts to flee with their captives. Mr. Knaoui said he had been scheduled to meet with the hostage takers in an attempt at negotiations. He could not be reached for confirmation.


The Irish government confirmed that an Irish national had escaped or been released. The man had contacted his family and was "understood to be safe and well and no longer a hostage," Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.


Other Algerian news reports said that 30 Algerian hostages and 15 foreigners escaped, but there was no immediate independent confirmation of that account. The Associated Press, quoting an unidentified Algerian official, said 20 foreigners, including some Americans, had escaped.


Earlier, a French television station, France 24, quoted an unidentified hostage as saying the attackers “were heavily armed and forced several hostages to wear explosives belts. They threatened to blow up the gas field if Algerian forces attempted to enter the site,” the station reported.


Adam Nossiter reported from Bamako, and Alan Cowell and Scott Sayare from Paris. Reporting was contributed by Clifford Krauss from Houston, Rick Gladstone from New York, Elisabeth Bumiller from Rome, and Steven Erlanger from Paris.



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PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 could cost just $350, expected to launch this fall






Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) are both expected to announce their next-generation gaming consoles at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in June, or even a little before then. While we have seen rumored specs for both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720, one thing that has escaped us is a possible price tag. In a research note to investors on Monday, Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research suggested that both consoles could retail for between $ 350 and $ 400 in the U.S., Games Industry International reported. The analyst revealed that during the Consumer Electronics Show last week he spent time “with a number of companies involved in video game development and distribution,” who informed him that the next-generation consoles will be “largely built from ‘off the shelf’ high-end PC components, along with hybrid physical/digital distribution models, enhanced voice controls and motion sensing, and broad multi-media capabilities.”


[More from BGR: HTC One SV review]






Sebastian believes that “a PC-based architecture (Intel chips in the case of Xbox) should have a number of advantages over custom-developed silicon.” In his opinion, there will be less of a “learning curve” for software developers compared to completely new technology, and the cost of production and retail price points should be lower than prior console launches.


[More from BGR: Dell’s bold plan to reinvent itself: A USB-sized PC that gives access to Windows, Mac OS, Chrome OS]


Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in 2005 with a top end price of $ 399, while Sony released the PlayStation 3 a year later for $ 499 and $ 599 respectively.


“It will be easier to build online services around PC chip architecture, including flexible business models (free-to-play, subscriptions) and multi-media (over the top) content offerings,” the analyst added. “For Microsoft, this design will also allow for more integration with Windows 8 and Windows Mobile devices.”


Sebastian expects Sony to launch the PlayStation 4 in October and Microsoft to launch the Xbox 720 in November.


This article was originally published on BGR.com


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News




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Betty White's 91st Birthday Gift: A Boa Constrictor















01/17/2013 at 10:45 AM EST



Betty White received a very special – albeit very slimy – gift for her 91st birthday.

To mark her Thursday milestone, the Lifeline Program – a company dedicated to life-settlement specialists for which she is a spokesperson – adopted a red-tailed boa from the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens in her name.

For White, a longtime supporter and ambassador to the zoo, the snake was a familiar face.

She first met Jacob on the set of "I'm Still Hot," her 2011 viral music video with singer Luciana that benefited the Los Angeles Zoo.

"Jacob the boa constrictor is good as gold and cuddles in my arms," she says in a statement, "and around my neck." (Look out, Pontiac!)

Slimy presents aside, White has a simple wish for her birthday this year. She's asking fans to donate to the Morris Animal Foundation, a nonprofit committed to animal health science. Her goal: to raise $10,000.

"Animals are near and dear to my heart, and I've devoted my life to trying to improve their lives," she writes in a blog for the Huffington Post. "Since a girl like me already has more than I could hope for, I'm asking fellow animal lovers for a special birthday gift this year."

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Large study confirms flu vaccine safe in pregnancy


NEW YORK (AP) — A large study offers reassuring news for pregnant women: It's safe to get a flu shot.


The research found no evidence that the vaccine increases the risk of losing a fetus, and may prevent some deaths. Getting the flu while pregnant makes fetal death more likely, the Norwegian research showed.


The flu vaccine has long been considered safe for pregnant women and their fetus. U.S. health officials began recommending flu shots for them more than five decades ago, following a higher death rate in pregnant women during a flu pandemic in the late 1950s.


But the study is perhaps the largest look at the safety and value of flu vaccination during pregnancy, experts say.


"This is the kind of information we need to provide our patients when discussing that flu vaccine is important for everyone, particularly for pregnant women," said Dr. Geeta Swamy, a researcher who studies vaccines and pregnant women at Duke University Medical Center.


The study was released by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday as the United States and Europe suffer through an early and intense flu season. A U.S. obstetricians group this week reminded members that it's not too late for their pregnant patients to get vaccinated.


The new study was led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It tracked pregnancies in Norway in 2009 and 2010 during an international epidemic of a new swine flu strain.


Before 2009, pregnant women in Norway were not routinely advised to get flu shots. But during the pandemic, vaccinations against the new strain were recommended for those in their second or third trimester.


The study focused on more than 113,000 pregnancies. Of those, 492 ended in the death of the fetus. The researchers calculated that the risk of fetal death was nearly twice as high for women who weren't vaccinated as it was in vaccinated mothers.


U.S. flu vaccination rates for pregnant women grew in the wake of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, from less than 15 percent to about 50 percent. But health officials say those rates need to be higher to protect newborns as well. Infants can't be vaccinated until 6 months, but studies have shown they pick up some protection if their mothers got the annual shot, experts say.


Because some drugs and vaccines can be harmful to a fetus, there is a long-standing concern about giving any medicine to a pregnant woman, experts acknowledged. But this study should ease any worries about the flu shot, said Dr. Denise Jamieson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


"The vaccine is safe," she said.


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Online:


Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org


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Wall Street climbs, boosted by eBay results, rosy data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 hitting a five-year intraday high, as investors were cheered by rosy economic data and better-than-expected results from online marketplace eBay .


In encouraging signs for the labor and housing sectors, data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-year low last week, while residential construction jumped in December.


"It reminds us that although the situation on the job front hasn't improved significantly, slowly but surely it is getting better," said Andres Garcia-Amaya, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, in New York.


EBay's shares rose 3 percent to $54.50 a day after it reported holiday quarter results that just beat Wall Street expectations. It gave a 2013 forecast that was within analysts' estimates.


The S&P climbed above an intraday peak set in September to its highest since December 2007.


Gains were capped by weakness in the financial sector, with Bank of America and Citigroup down more than 2 percent following results.


Bank of America's fourth-quarter profit fell as it took more charges to clean up mortgage-related problems. Citigroup posted $2.32 billion of charges for layoffs and lawsuits, while its new chief executive cautioned the bank needed more time to deal with its problems.


Bank of America fell 3.7 percent to $11.36, while Citigroup dropped 2.3 percent to $41.50.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 61.49 points, or 0.46 percent, to 13,572.72. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 6.36 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,478.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 18.19 points, or 0.58 percent, to 3,135.73.


Overall, S&P 500 corporate earnings for the fourth quarter are expected to see a 2.3 percent gain, Thomson Reuters data showed. Expectations for the quarter have moderated significantly since October.


With investors anticipating the current earnings season to be lackluster, their focus will be on the corporate earnings outlook for the months ahead, analysts said.


Shares of Boeing extended recent declines after the United States and other countries grounded the company's new 787 Dreamliner after a second incident involving battery failure. That comes in the wake of a series of other recent mishaps that have raised safety-related concerns about the aircraft. Boeing slipped 0.8 percent to $73.77 and is down nearly 2 percent for the week so far.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Berlusconi Stirs Up Elections in Italy





ROME — The dark, double-breasted suits have long been a mainstay, but now former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has taken to wearing the occasional fedora. It lends him a rakish, retro air as he embarks on what many Italians, foreign investors and no doubt Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany hoped would never happen: another election campaign.




In recent weeks, Mr. Berlusconi, a center-right candidate, has blitzed the airwaves with a theatrical blend of anti-establishment populism, this from someone who governed Italy for the better part of the last decade. His prime targets are Prime Minister Mario Monti, a well-behaved technocrat now vying to retain his post, and Ms. Merkel, cast as the taskmaster of the austerity that is suffocating southern Europe.


With every hour that he appears on television, the medium he knows best and that made him rich, Mr. Berlusconi rises in opinion polls. His People of Liberty party is now in second place, after the center-left Democratic Party and before Mr. Monti’s nascent and still incoherent centrist bloc. They are trailed by the grass-roots Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, a comedian, which has tapped into a groundswell of antipolitical sentiment.


Analysts widely agree that there is little chance Mr. Berlusconi will govern Italy again after elections scheduled for February. But they say he is likely to win enough seats in Parliament to achieve his goals: protecting his interests on issues like justice reform, digital television rights and wiretap laws — and weakening the center-left Democratic Party and Mr. Monti, whose popularity has dropped since the economist became a candidate.


“It’s a very confusing time,” said Giuliano Ferrara, the editor of the conservative daily Il Foglio and a sometime Berlusconi adviser. “People don’t want the insider,” he said of Mr. Berlusconi, “and they don’t want the outsider,” he added of Mr. Monti.


Mr. Berlusconi, a skilled campaigner, has cast himself as an outsider while making an “insider” of Mr. Monti, who was lionized when he first took office in November 2011 precisely because he was seen as apolitical.


Despite his many legal tangles and the dire performance of Italy’s economy under his leadership, Mr. Berlusconi maintains a residual popularity through charm, mastery of the media and a lack of strong competing parties.


Last week, Mr. Berlusconi appeared for two hours on a television program hosted by one of his old enemies. Questioned about the number of politicians with criminal records elected on his party’s slate over the years, Mr. Berlusconi said he had not sought them out. “You take 100 priests and you don’t find 100 saints,” he said.


“This country is ungovernable!” he said with glee at one point, only to be reminded that his governments had the largest majority in postwar Italian history. At another moment, Mr. Berlusconi stood up in outrage, threatened to leave but eventually calmed down, deftly taking out a white handkerchief to brush off his chair before sitting back down.


The show drew nine million viewers, a quarter of the Italian audience share.


“He’s an ex-prime minister who is doing showmen’s gags on television,” said Marco Damilano, a political correspondent for L’Espresso, a left-wing weekly magazine, whom Mr. Berlusconi cheerfully pretended to hit on the head with a poster on a television program on Tuesday.


Always a savvy populist, Mr. Berlusconi now rails against the fiscal consolidation policies advocated by Germany, sounding not unlike the leftist Syriza party in Greece, which leads in opinion polls there. He has also taken to quoting the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, a critic of austerity.


His message has struck a nerve in Italy and has helped put Mr. Monti, the darling of Europe and the United States, who calmed financial speculation and put Italy back on the world stage, on the defensive on television, a medium that Mr. Berlusconi dominates the way Fred Astaire did the dance floor.


Appearing on Italy’s most widely watched interview program on Monday evening, Mr. Monti, who routinely treats his predecessor with understated irony, compared Mr. Berlusconi to “the Pied Piper” who entranced Italy but ultimately led it to its death.


Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.



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Leaked BlackBerry 10 sales manual reveals new images and details







The buzz continues to mount leading up to the January 30th unveiling of Research In Motions’s (RIMM) next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform, but we’re not sure how much is left to learn. Many BlackBerry 10 features have already been announced, we’ve seen RIM’s first two next-generation handsets — the BlackBerry Z10 and the BlackBerry X10 — a number times, and now Rogers’ internal sales manual for BlackBerry 10 devices has leaked thanks to CrackBerry. The manual is packed full of images and it also confirms some specs reported a few months ago, and the full document is embedded at the source link below. RIM’s next-generation operating system and handsets will be unveiled during a press conference on January 30th, and BGR will be on hand reporting live.


[More from BGR: Dell’s bold plan to reinvent itself: A USB-sized PC that gives access to Windows, Mac OS, Chrome OS]






This article was originally published on BGR.com


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Joey Fatone Runs a Half Marathon - and a Full Marathon - in One Weekend















01/16/2013 at 10:25 AM EST



For two years, Joey Fatone cheered on his wife, Kelly, as she ran the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World: a half marathon followed by a full marathon the following day. But when Kelly fractured her foot two months ago, Fatone decided to run in her place.

"I just said, 'I'll do it for you,'" he tells PEOPLE. "And it became something I really wanted to do for her."

After competing on Dancing with the Stars, Fatone, 35, had decided to get into shape.

"I wasn't training to run a marathon," he says. "I just wanted to start working out. I wanted to build more muscle and upper body strength. I have no definition in my chest! So that's how I started. Then I decided, 'Let's see how far I can run.' And it went from there."

The night before the marathon, Fatone did something that could have derailed the entire thing: at the birthday party for his 3-year-old daughter, Kloey, he jumped on a trampoline for three hours. "I knew I could hurt myself," he says. "But it was her birthday. What was I going to do? I woke up the next day feeling really good and ready to run."

On Saturday, Kelly Fatone packed Joey a lunch – along with Advil and blister ointment. During the 13.1 mile trek, Fatone would run for a minute, followed by a minute of brisk walking. He finished the course in three hours, 10 minutes. "It really wasn't that bad," he says.

The next day, he tackled the 26.1-mile marathon. "I never thought, 'I'm not going to do this,' but I did think, 'What am I doing?'" he says.

Around mile 18, his left knee started to throb. "I knew if I stopped, I'd be screwed," he says. "So I just kept going."

Finishing the marathon in six hours, 19 minutes, Fatone was triumphant. "Your body can do so much if you mentally prepare," he says. "I really do feel like I can do anything now. It's a great feeling."

On another hot topic, pal Justin Timberlake's new song "Suit & Tie," Fatone has nothing but praise for his former boy bandmate. "I like it," he says. "It's a different sound for him, but Justin's music grows on you. After you hear it a few times, you love it!"

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ER visits tied to energy drinks double since 2007


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A new government survey suggests the number of people seeking emergency treatment after consuming energy drinks has doubled nationwide during the past four years, the same period in which the supercharged drink industry has surged in popularity in convenience stores, bars and on college campuses.


From 2007 to 2011, the government estimates the number of emergency room visits involving the neon-labeled beverages shot up from about 10,000 to more than 20,000. Most of those cases involved teens or young adults, according to a survey of the nation's hospitals released late last week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.


The report doesn't specify which symptoms brought people to the emergency room but calls energy drink consumption a "rising public health problem" that can cause insomnia, nervousness, headache, fast heartbeat and seizures that are severe enough to require emergency care.


Several emergency physicians said they had seen a clear uptick in the number of patients suffering from irregular heartbeats, anxiety and heart attacks who said they had recently downed an energy drink.


More than half of the patients considered in the survey who wound up in the emergency room told doctors they had downed only energy drinks. In 2011, about 42 percent of the cases involved energy drinks in combination with alcohol or drugs, such as the stimulants Adderall or Ritalin.


"A lot of people don't realize the strength of these things. I had someone come in recently who had drunk three energy drinks in an hour, which is the equivalent of 15 cups of coffee," said Howard Mell, an emergency physician in the suburbs of Cleveland, who serves as a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "Essentially he gave himself a stress test and thankfully he passed. But if he had a weak heart or suffered from coronary disease and didn't know it, this could have precipitated very bad things."


The findings came as concerns over energy drinks have intensified following reports last fall of 18 deaths possibly tied to the drinks — including a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died after drinking two large cans of Monster Energy drinks. Monster does not believe its products were responsible for the death.


Two senators are calling for the Food and Drug Administration to investigate safety concerns about energy drinks and their ingredients.


The energy drink industry says its drinks are safe and there is no proof linking its products to the adverse reactions.


Late last year, the FDA asked the U.S. Health and Human Services to update the figures its substance abuse research arm compiles about emergency room visits tied to energy drinks.


The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's survey was based on responses it receives from about 230 hospitals each year, a representative sample of about 5 percent of emergency departments nationwide. The agency then uses those responses to estimate the number of energy drink-related emergency department visits nationwide.


The more than 20,000 cases estimated for 2011 represent a small portion of the annual 136 million emergency room visits tracked by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


The FDA said it was considering the findings and pressing for more details as it undertakes a broad review of the safety of energy drinks and related ingredients this spring.


"We will examine this additional information ... as a part of our ongoing investigation into potential safety issues surrounding the use of energy-drink products," FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said in a statement.


Beverage manufacturers fired back at the survey, saying the statistics were misleading and taken out of context.


"This report does not share information about the overall health of those who may have consumed energy drinks, or what symptoms brought them to the ER in the first place," the American Beverage Association said in a statement. "There is no basis by which to understand the overall caffeine intake of any of these individuals — from all sources."


Energy drinks remain a small part of the carbonated soft drinks market, representing only 3.3 percent of sales volume, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest. Even as soda consumption has flagged in recent years, energy drinks sales are growing rapidly.


In 2011, sales volume for energy drinks rose by almost 17 percent, with the top three companies — Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar — each logging double-digit gains, Beverage Digest found. The drinks are often marketed at sporting events that are popular among younger people such as surfing and skateboarding.


From 2007 to 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, people from 18 to 25 were the most common age group seeking emergency treatment for energy drink-related reactions, the report found.


"We were really concerned to find that in four years the number of emergency department visits almost doubled, and these drinks are largely marketed to younger people," said Al Woodward, a senior statistical analyst with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration who worked on the report.


Emergency physician Steve Sun said he had seen an increase in such cases at the Catholic hospital where he works on the edge of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.


"I saw one young man who had mixed energy drinks with alcohol and we had to admit him to the hospital because he was so dehydrated he had renal failure," Sun said. "Because he was young he did well in the hospital, but if another patient had had underlying coronary artery disease, it could have led to a heart attack."


___


Follow Garance Burke on Twitter at http://twitter.com/garanceburke


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Wall Street off five-year highs, Boeing weighs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell off five-year highs on Wednesday as concerns about global economic growth offset strong bank results and shares of Boeing weighed on the Dow after two Japanese airlines grounded their Dreamliner fleets.


Goldman Sachs shares hit an 18-month high as its earnings nearly tripled on increased revenue from dealmaking and lower compensation expenses, while JPMorgan Chase said fourth-quarter net income jumped 53 percent and earnings for 2012 set a record.


JPMorgan shares were last down 0.8 percent at $46 and Goldman added 2 percent to $138.26.


Concern about global economic growth was weighing on the markets, said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois.


A slow economic recovery in developed nations is holding back the global economy, the World Bank said on Tuesday, as it sharply scaled back its forecast for world growth in 2013 to 2.4 percent from an earlier forecast of 3.0 percent.


Shares of Dow component Boeing fell 3.5 percent to $74.25 on concerns about the safety of its new Dreamliner passenger jets. Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of 787s after an emergency landing, adding to safety concerns triggered by a ream of recent incidents.


"It's certainly going to pull averages down, given Boeing's large market cap, but I don't see it as having broader market implications," Jankovskis said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 61.79 points or 0.46 percent, to 13,473.1, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 4.39 points or 0.3 percent, to 1,467.95 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 2.72 points or 0.09 percent, to 3,108.06.


Losses on Nasdaq were limited by gains in Apple shares, which were up 2 percent at $495.75.


Talks to take Dell Inc private were at an advanced stage, with at least four major banks lined up to provide financing, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Shares fell 3.6 percent to $12.69 after jumping more than 21 percent over the past two sessions.


U.S. consumer prices were flat in December, pointing to muted inflation pressures that should give the Federal Reserve room to prop up the economy by staying on its ultra-easy monetary policy path.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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