Google's Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones

'},"otherParams":{"t_e":1,".intl":"US"},"events":{"fetch":{lv:2,"sp":"1197280665","ps":"LREC,MON","npv":true,"bg":"#FFFFFF","em":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33\' sensitivity=\'0\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'fn_news;News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}'),"em_orig":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33\' sensitivity=\'0\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'fn_news;News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}')}}};var _createNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);var nodeHTML;if(center && !node){nodeHTML=_conf.nodes[nId];center.insert(nodeHTML);};};};var _prepareNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-ad-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);if(center && node){center.set("innerHTML","");center.insert(node);node.setStyle("display","block");};};};var _darla;var _config=function(){if(YAHOO.ads.darla){_darla = YAHOO.ads.darla;_createNodes();};};var _fetch=function(spaceid,adssa,ps){
if (typeof(ps)!='undefined')
_conf.events.fetch.ps = ps;if(typeof spaceid != "undefined") _conf.events.fetch.sp=spaceid;adssa = (typeof adssa != "undefined" && adssa != null) ? escape(adssa.replace(/\"/g, "'")) : "";_conf.events.fetch.em=_conf.events.fetch.em_orig.replace("ADSSA", adssa);if(_darla){_prepareNodes();_darla.setConfig(_conf);_darla.event("fetch");};};Y.on("domready", function(){_config();});;var that={"fetch":_fetch,"getNodes":_conf.nodes,"getConf":_conf};return that;}();/* Backwards compatibility - Assigning the latest instance to the main fetch function */YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.fetch=YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.photoslightboxdarla.fetch;
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {YAHOO.namespace('Media.Social').Lightbox = {};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.Media.Article.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.AuthorBadge();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.Branding();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.on("load", function () {
YUI.namespace("Media.SocialButtons");

var instances = YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances || [],
globalConf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.conf || {},
vplContainers = [];

Y.all(".ymsb").each(function (node) {
var id = node.get("id"),
conf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.configs[id],
instance;

if (conf) {
instance = new Y.SocialButtons({
srcNode: node,
config: Y.merge(globalConf, conf.config || {}),
contentMetadata: conf.content || {},
tracking: conf.tracking || {}
});
vplContainers.push(
{
selector: "#" + id,
callback: function(node) { instance.render(); instance = conf = id = null; }
});

if (conf.config && conf.config.dynamic) {
instances.push(instance);
}
}
});

Y.Global.Media.ViewportLoader.addContainers(vplContainers);
YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances = instances;
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {if (!Y.Media) {

return;

}

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist || {};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets['lightbox7b074328ba80f0e906939c94408a9450'] = {"lightboxId":"5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570","pivotId":"8c9c5d48-1003-38e5-8cba-ae9828acbda7"};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset['5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","total":1,"photoby":"Photo By","xhrtype":"slideshow","videoconf":{"autoplay":true,"continuousPlay":true,"mute":false,"volume":"1.00","lang":"en-US","site":"news","region":"US","jurisdiction":"US","YVAP":{"accountId":"145","playContext":"default"},"pageSpaceId":"1197280665","comscoreC4":"US News","comscoreC6":"","showEmbedCode":true,"showShareUrl":true,"expName":"MediaArticleRelatedLightbox","expType":"inline","apiEnv":"prod"},"slideshow_id":null,"slideshow_title":null,"slideshow_title_baked_html":null,"slideshow_desc":null,"slideshow_rev":null,"slideshow_plink_vita":null,"photos":[{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l3.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/V9xx2l9jTi4JXe9pC3c9TQ--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMDA7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T201400Z_1_CBRE8A11JVJ00_RTROPTP_2_GOOGLE.JPG","width":450,"height":300,"uuid":"8c9c5d48-1003-38e5-8cba-ae9828acbda7","caption":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS\/Stephen Lam","captionBakedHtml":"

Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 28, 2012. REUTERS\/Stephen Lam","date":"Fri, Nov 2, 2012 4:16 PM EDT","credit":"Reuters","byline":"\ufffd Stephen Lam \/ Reuters","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference in San Francisco","pivot_alias_id":"attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766","plink":"\/photos\/attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/attendees-gather-android-developer-sandbox-during-google-o-photo-200645766.html","srchtrm":"Attendees gather at the Android developer sandbox during the Google I\/O Conference in San Francisco","revsp":"","rev":"21e4e7c0-252a-11e2-a7d5-a4e5802e1c8f","surl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/aXNb.Hjk6iN0EEJTYGBVkg--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9ODQ-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T201400Z_1_CBRE8A11JVJ00_RTROPTP_2_GOOGLE.JPG","swidth":84,"sheight":56}]};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['5beaad150e48e74b27ba30e31680d570'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1",
mod_total:"10", total:"0",
content_id:"048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33",
spaceid:"1197280665",
related_count:"-1"
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js';
})(document);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {
if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};}
if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};}
if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");}
YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_fd3182a74fc12b41f9c3ecb0597e49b1 = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"1b05b3fc-d288-43a3-bf0f-c88b56b4f5a8","sCrumb":"","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-fd3182a74fc12b41f9c3ecb0597e49b1","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"1197280665","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/googles-android-software-3-4-smartphones-200645049--sector.html?_esi=0","artContentId":"048ccb9d-45dd-354e-b2f5-74c9b098ca33","sUltQstnTxt":"What do you think of the iPad Mini?","artContentTitle":"Google\\'s Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones","artContentDesc":"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter featured Google Inc\\'s Android mobile operating system, as the gap between Google and Apple Inc-based phones widened further, according to a new research report. Shipments of Android-based smartphones made by Samsung, HTC and other vendors nearly doubled in the third quarter, reaching 136 million units, according to industry research firm IDC. The strong sales boosted Android\\'s share of the worldwide smartphone market to 75 percent, from 57.5 percent in the year-ago period. ...","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"Yawn..","labelRight":"I need to have it!","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"8493","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"7359","rightBlocksNum":"1134","leftBlocksPerCent":"87","rightBlocksPerCent":"13","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":5812,\"s2\":439,\"s3\":333,\"s4\":402,\"s5\":373,\"s6\":1134,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Share your response with your friends on Facebook\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Share\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Your response has been shared with your friends on Facebook\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 8,493 people have responded\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 8,493 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":5812,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":439,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":333,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":402,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":373,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":1134,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_fd3182a74fc12b41f9c3ecb0597e49b1","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"
Read More..

Colin Firth, Michael Fassbender set for A. Scott Berg adaptation ‘Genius’

























LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender will star in “Genius,” directed by Michael Grandage, with Film Nation handling international sales, the company announced on Thursday.


Based on A. Scott Berg‘s biography “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” the tells the story of the relationship between Thomas Wolfe (Fassbender) and editor Max Perkins (Firth), the screenplay is written by John Logan.





















“Genius” will be produced by James Bierman for the Michael Grandage Company, launched at the end of 2011 by Grandage, the former artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse. Bierman served as executive producer at Donmar and co-formed MGC with Grandage. MGC is producing Logan’s new play, “Peter and Alice,” to be directed by Grandage, as part of a season of plays in London in Spring 2013.


FilmNation is selling the film at the AFM. CAA will arrange the financing and represent the film’s North American distribution rights. Principal photography is scheduled to start early in 2014.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Nurses Who Saved NICU Babies Remember Harrowing Hurricane Night

























Nurses at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at New York University’s Langone Medical Center have challenging jobs, even in the best of times. Their patients are babies, some weighing as little as 2 pounds, who require constant and careful care as they struggle to stay alive.


On Monday night, as superstorm Sandy bore down on Manhattan, the nurses’ jobs took on a whole new sense of urgency as failing power forced the hospital’s patients, including the NICU nurses’ tiny charges, to evacuate.





















“20/20″ recently reunited seven of those nurses: Claudia Roman, Nicola Zanzotta-Tagle, Margot Condon, Sandra Kyong Bradbury, Beth Largey, Annie Irace and Menchu Sanchez. They described how they managed to do their jobs – and save the most vulnerable of lives – under near-impossible circumstances.


On Monday night, as Sandy’s wind and rain buffeted the hospital’s windows, the nurses were preparing for a shift change and the day nurses had begun to brief the night shift nurses. Suddenly, the hospital was plunged into darkness. The respirators and monitors keeping the infants alive all went silent.


For one brief moment, everyone froze. Then the alarms began to ring as backup batteries kicked in. But the coast wasn’t clear – the nurses were soon horrified to learn that the hospital’s generator had failed, and that the East River had risen to start flooding the hospital.




Vanishing America: Jersey Shore Boardwalks Washed Away Watch Video



“Everybody ran to a patient to make sure that the babies were fine,” Nicola Zanzotto-Tagle recalled. “If you had your phone with a flashlight on the phone, you held it right over the baby.”


For now, the four most critical patients – infants that couldn’t breathe on their own – were being supplied oxygen by battery-powered respirators, but the clock was ticking. They had, at most, just four hours before the machines were at risk of failing.


Annie Irache tended to the most critical baby — he had had abdominal surgery just the day before – as an evacuation of 20 NICU babies began.


“[He] was on medications to keep up his blood pressure,” Irache said, “and he also had a cardiac defect, so he was our first baby to go.”


One by one, each tiny infant, swaddled in blankets and a heating pad, cradled by one nurse and surrounded by at least five others, was carried down nine flights of stairs. Security guards and secretaries pitched in, lighting the way with flashlights and cell phones.


The procession moved slowly. As nurses took their careful steps, they carefully squeezed bags of oxygen into the babies’ lungs.


“We literally synchronized our steps going down nine flights,” Zanzotto-Tagle said. “I would say ‘Step, step, step.”


With their adrenaline pumping, the nurses said, it was imperative that they stay focused.


“We’re not usually bagging a baby down a stairwell … n the dark,” said Claudia Roman. “I was most worried about, ‘Let me not trip on this staircase as I’m carrying someone’s precious child, because that would be unforgivable.”


When the medical staff and the 20 babies emerged, a line of ambulances was waiting. A video of Margot Condon cradling a tiny baby as she rode a gurney struck a chord worldwide. But Condon said she had a singular goal.


“I was making sure the tube was in place, that the baby was pink,” she said. “I was not taking my eyes off that baby or that tube.”


Like other nurses, she did not feel panic. Her precious patient helped keep her calm.


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Bloomberg mishandles New York City marathon controversy

NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to sell the New York City Marathon as a symbolic victory for the city after a devastating storm, invoking two of the biggest symbols of them all — Rudy Giuliani and 9/11.

The former mayor, Bloomberg said, made the right decision by holding the marathon less than two months after the 2001 terror attacks: "It pulled people together, and we have to find some ways to express ourselves and show our solidarity with each other."

Then, he kept talking.

"You have to keep going and doing things, and you can grieve, you can cry and you can laugh all at the same time," he said.

And once again, the city cringed, hearing another false note that renewed familiar criticism that New York's billionaire businessman mayor is tone-deaf to suffering during a crisis. By the time Bloomberg changed course three hours later Friday and called off the world's largest marathon, he already had offended a passel of flood-weary New Yorkers.

"He is clueless without a paddle to the reality of what everyone else is dealing with," fumed Joan Wacks, whose waterfront condo in Staten Island was under 4 feet of water. "He's supposed to be the mayor of all the city, but he's really the mayor of Manhattan."

It was a rare reversal for Bloomberg, who's known for sticking by his decisions, however unpopular. He's built a reputation for being an efficient, independent-minded pragmatist in office, a philanthropist and public health innovator, and he has gotten praise for the city's preparedness for the storm.

In his first comments Saturday since canceling the race, Bloomberg continued to defend his belief that the event could have gone on but conceded the controversy had become a distraction.

"I still think that we had the resources to do both," Bloomberg told WCBS-TV during a visit to Queens. "There are lots of people in this city — some hurt, some not. It's a big part of our economy."

"But it was just becoming so divisive that whether it's a good idea or not, we just don't need the distraction."

To the people who came from all over the world for the race, Bloomberg said he would tell them: "I'm sorry. I fought the battle, and sometimes things don't work out."

As the mayor was speaking, he was met by catcalls from Queens residents angry about the city's response to the storm.

It was not the first time that the mayor has seemed out of synch with the people he leads.

There was the post-Christmas blizzard that dumped 2 feet of snow on the city in 2010, when the mayor raised hackles by encouraging New Yorkers to enjoy the snow or see a Broadway show to help the city's economy. Residents said the mayor failed to appreciate the outer-borough New Yorkers stranded by snow drifts that hadn't been plowed, unable and without the money to go to the theater.

There was a long-running feud about Sept. 11 victims' remains that were recovered in downtown Manhattan five years after the attacks. A victim's family member, Diane Horning, said then that the mayor indicated he didn't identify with families wanting their loved ones' remains because he wanted to donate his body to science.

Bloomberg was branded an out-of-touch, big-business cheerleader when he said Con Edison's chairman "deserves a thanks from this city" amid a 10-day blackout that affected 174,000 people in parts of Queens in July 2006.

"Going after the CEO just because somebody wants to have somebody to blame doesn't make a lot of sense," Bloomberg said as the outage was in its eighth sweltering day. The remark raised eyebrows, even among the politicians standing behind the mayor at a news briefing.

All this week, the mayor kept returning to economics when defending his decision to keep the marathon going. Officials said the marathon brings in $340 million; it was unclear how much the city still stands to get from the thousands of runners already in town.

"For those who were lost," he said earlier this week, "you've got to believe they would want us to have an economy and have a city go on."

Before Friday's cancellation, Bloomberg had faced criticism from everyone from sanitation workers unhappy that they had volunteered to help storm victims but were assigned to the race, to police union leaders, to the Manhattan borough president to his ally, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Melanie Bright, who went three days without electricity and hot water, said the mayor didn't get it. "He feels like we should carry on with our lives, even though people have lost everything," she said.

In a sign of how swiftly the tide turned, City Hall told local officials well into midafternoon Friday that the race was on, according to a person familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes conversations.

Ultimately, though, Bloomberg relented and canceled the event.

"We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event — even one as meaningful as this — to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm," he said.

The decision quickly drew praise from some of the same officials who had slammed the marathon schedule hours earlier. The mayor made a "sensitive and prudent decision that will allow the attention of this city to remain focused on its recovery," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

But for Eddie Kleydman, motioning toward huge piles of ruined furniture in his Staten Island street, the mayor's last-minute change of heart wasn't enough.

"He's worried about the marathon. I'm worried about getting power," Kleydman said. "So he called it off. He has to come here and help us clean."

___

Associated Press writers Leanne Italie, Christine Rexrode and Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report.

Read More..

Gruesome video raises concerns about Syria rebels

























BEIRUT (AP) — A video that appears to show a unit of Syrian rebels kicking terrified, captured soldiers and then executing them with machine guns raised concerns Friday about rebel brutality at a time when the United States is making its strongest push yet to forge an opposition movement it can work with.


U.N. officials and human rights groups believe President Bashar Assad‘s regime is responsible for the bulk of suspected war crimes in Syria‘s 19-month-old conflict, which began as a largely peaceful uprising but has transformed into a brutal civil war.





















But investigators of human rights abuses say rebel atrocities are on the rise.


At this stage “there may not be anybody with entirely clean hands,” Suzanne Nossel, head of the rights group Amnesty International, told The Associated Press.


The U.S. has called for a major leadership shakeup of Syria’s political opposition during a crucial conference next week in Qatar. Washington and its allies have been reluctant to give stronger backing to the largely Turkey-based opposition, viewing it as ineffective, fractured and out of touch with fighters trying to topple Assad.


But the new video adds to growing concerns about those fighters and could complicate Washington’s efforts to decide which of the myriad of opposition groups to support. The video can be seen at http://bit.ly/YxDcWE .


“We condemn human rights violations by any party,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, commenting on the video. “Anyone committing atrocities should be held to account.”


She said the Free Syrian Army has urged its fighters to adhere to a code of conduct it established in August, reflecting international rules of war.


The summary execution of the captured soldiers, purportedly shown in an amateur video, took place Thursday during a rebel assault on the strategic northern town of Saraqeb, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.


It was unclear which rebel faction was involved, though the al-Qaida-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra was among those fighting in the area, the Observatory said.


The video, posted on YouTube, shows a crowd of gunmen in what appears to be a building under construction. They surround a group of captured men on the ground, some on their bellies as if ordered to lie down, others sprawled as if wounded. Some of the captives are in Syrian military uniforms.


“These are Assad’s dogs,” one of the gunmen is heard saying of those cowering on the ground.


The gunmen kick and beat some of the men. One gunman shouts, “Damn you!” The exact number of soldiers in the video is not clear, but there appear to be about 10 of them.


Moments later, gunfire erupts for about 35 seconds, screams are heard and the men on the floor are seen shaking and twitching. The spray of bullets kicks up dust from the ground.


The video’s title says it shows dead and captive soldiers at the Hmeisho checkpoint. The Observatory said 12 soldiers were killed Thursday at the checkpoint, one of three regime positions near Saraqeb attacked by the rebels in the area that day.


Amnesty International’s forensics analysts did not detect signs of forgery in the video, according to Nossel. The group has not yet been able to confirm the location, date and the identity of those shown in the footage, she said.


After their assault Thursday, rebels took full control of Saraqeb, a strategic position on the main highway linking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo — which rebels have been trying to capture for months — with the regime stronghold of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.


On Friday, at least 143 people, including 48 government soldiers, were killed in gunbattles, regime shelling attacks on rebel-held areas and other violence, the Observatory said.


Of the more than 36,000 killed so far in Syria, about one-fourth are regime soldiers, according to the Observatory. The rest include civilians and rebel fighters, but the group does not offer a breakdown.


Daily casualties have been rising since early summer, when the regime began bombing densely populated areas from the air in an attempt to dislodge rebels and break a battlefield stalemate.


Karen Abu Zayd, a member of the U.N. panel documenting war crimes in Syria, said the regime is to blame for the bulk of the atrocities so far, but that rebel abuses are on the rise as the insurgents become better armed and as foreign fighters with radical agendas increasingly join their ranks.


“The balance is changing somewhat,” she said in a phone interview, blaming in part the influx of foreign fighters not restrained by social ties that bind Syrians.


Abu Zayd said the panel, though unable to enter Syria for now, has evidence of “at least dozens, but probably hundreds” of war crimes, based on some 1,100 interviews. The group has already compiled two lists of suspected perpetrators and units for future prosecution, she said.


Many rebel groups operate independently, even if they nominally fall under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army. In recent months, rebel groups have formed military councils to improve coordination, but the chaos of the war has allowed for considerable autonomy at the local level.


“The killing of unarmed soldiers shows how difficult it is to control the escalation of the conflict and establish a united armed opposition that abides by the same ground rules and norms in battle,” said Anthony Skinner, an analyst at Maplecroft, a British risk analysis company.


Rebel commanders and Syrian opposition leaders have promised human rights groups that they would try to prevent abuses. However, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report in September that statements by some opposition leaders indicate they tolerate or condone extrajudicial killings.


Free Syrian Army commanders contacted by the AP on Friday said they were either unaware or had no accurate details about the latest video.


Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, called for the gunmen shown in the video to be tracked down and brought to justice.


He added, however, that atrocities committed by rebels are relatively rare compared to what he said was a “massive genocide by the regime.”


Regime forces have launched indiscriminate attacks on residential neighborhoods with tank shells, mortar rounds and bombs dropped from warplanes, devastating large areas. In raids of rebel strongholds, Assad’s forces have carried out summary executions, rights groups say.


Rebels have also targeted civilians, setting off car bombs near mosques, restaurants and government offices. Human Rights Watch said in September it collected evidence of the summary executions of more than a dozen people by rebels.


In August, a video showed several bloodied prisoners being led into a noisy outdoor crowd in the northern city of Aleppo and placed against a wall before gunmen shot them to death. That video sparked international condemnation, including a rare rebuke from the Obama administration.


The latest video emerged on the eve of a crucial opposition conference that is to begin Sunday in Qatar’s capital of Doha. More than 400 delegates from the Syrian National Council and other opposition groups are expected to attend to choose a new leadership.


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for a more unified and representative opposition, even suggesting the U.S. would handpick some of the candidates.


Clinton’s comments reflected growing U.S. impatience with the Syrian opposition, which, in turn, has accused Washington of not having charted a clear path to bringing down Assad.


The Syrian National Council plans to elect new leaders during the four-day conference but is cool to a U.S. proposal to set up a much broader group and a transitional government, said Monajed, the SNC member who runs a think tank in Britain.


U.S. officials have said Washington is pushing for a greater role for the Free Syrian Army and representation of local coordinating committees and mayors of liberated cities in Syria.


Nuland said that it would be easier for the international community to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians and non-lethal aid to the rebels once a broader, unified opposition leadership is in place.


Such a body could also help persuade Assad backers Russia and China “that change is necessary” and that Syria’s opposition has a better plan for the country than the regime, she said.


___


Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.


Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

“The Man with the Iron Fists” review: RZA serves up half-baked chop-socky

























LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Homage is a tricky thing – you can be full of love for the object of your tribute, and recreate its trappings with accuracy and sincerity, but that doesn’t mean your results will match the original.


Take “The Man with the Iron Fists,” the first film directed by RZA, founding father of legendary hip-hop combo the Wu-Tang Clan. From the name of his group to the look of his movie, this is a guy who has clearly watched a whole lot of vintage martial-arts movies. If I were on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and my multiple-choice answers were down to “Five Deadly Venoms” and “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” this is the guy I’d want for my lifeline.





















I’d even hire him to create one of those fake trailers in “Grindhouse,” since he clearly appreciates the pacing and the acting style of the Shaw Brothers kung fu classics of the 1970s. Instead, RZA hooked up with “Grindhouse”-meisters Eli Roth (who co-wrote “Fists”) and Quentin Tarantino (who “presents” this new film) to create this full-on, feature-length homage.


The blood spurts, the knives shoot out, and the fists fly – but “The Man with the Iron Fists” never takes off. As the old saying goes, RZA knows the words, but he doesn’t know the music.


He’s also not actor enough to tackle the pivotal role he’s given himself, as Blacksmith in Jungle Village, a tiny hamlet beset by various warring clans. Blacksmith just wants to liberate his lover Lady Silk (Jamie Chung) from the brothel owned by Madam Blossom (Lucy Liu), but instead he must forge weapons for members of the Lion and Fox clans.


The Lions have problems of their own – engaged by the emperor to protect a shipment of gold, second-in-command Silver Lion (Byron Mann) assassinates Gold Lion (Kuan Tai Chen) with the intent of stealing the gold. Word of his treachery reaches Gold Lion’s son Zen Yi (Rick Yune), who returns to Jungle Village seeking vengeance.


Meanwhile, mysterious Englishman Jack Knife (Russell Crowe) shows up at Madam Blossom‘s with a vast array of appetites – and an even more varied collection of weapons.


Word is that RZA originally had a four-hour cut that he hoped to release in two parts, “Kill Bill”-style, but instead was forced to slash his vision down to 90 minutes. That might excuse the choppiness of the plot and exposition, but it doesn’t explain why the fighting scenes are so listless and the acting (with the notable exception of Liu and Crowe, who were smart enough to create their own amusement) so stiff.


Regarding the latter, the performances aren’t even bad in an homage-to-the-bad-acting-of-the-original way; they’re just dull and not ironically so. As for the action sequences, the choreography and camera movements suggest 1970s chop-socky, but they are simulacra under glass — it’s like watching a bad high school production of “West Side Story,” where the Jets and the Sharks are clearly never going to hurt each other.


(The midnight audience that watched the film with me didn’t whoop or laugh a single time during these gory but bloodless melees.)


The one fresh idea that “The Man with the Iron Fists” has – namely, to contrast the 18th century settings with contemporary hip-hop music – is quickly abandoned; after the first one or two fight scenes, we’re back to very generic scoring. The film also might have scored points for allowing the African-American Blacksmith character to exist in feudal China without explaining how he got there…but no, they explain it, in a tedious flashback that adds little except an all-too-brief cameo by an exploitation legend.


If RZA wanted to host a retrospective of kung fu classics, I’d be first in line. But his admiration for the genre doesn’t translate into capably executing it himself.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Painkillers not as addictive as feared: study

























NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Fewer than five percent of patients prescribed narcotics to treat chronic pain become addicted to the drugs, according to a new analysis of past research.


The finding suggests that concerns about the risk of becoming addicted to prescription painkillers might be “overblown,” said addiction specialist Dr. Michael Fleming at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.





















“If you’re a person that doesn’t have a history of addiction and doesn’t have any major psychiatric problems, narcotics are relatively safe as long as your doctor doesn’t give you too much and uses the right medication,” Fleming, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.


Some recent research has concluded the same thing, but another expert remained skeptical about the new report because many of the studies it included were not considered the best quality research, and they varied widely in their results.


“I think the jury’s still out” on how worrisome prescription opioid addiction is, said Joseph Boscarino of the Geisinger Clinic in Danville, Pennsylvania, who studies pain and addiction.


Opioid painkillers, which include oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine, have only recently become available for patients with chronic pain, said Boscarino, who was not part of the new study.


In the past, the drugs were almost exclusively reserved for cancer patients and people with short-term pain – on the theory that in the first category of patients the need outweighed the risk, and in the second group, short term use was unlikely to lead to long-term addiction.


“They opened up (to chronic pain patients), and since then there’s been a wave of addiction, especially in the last five years,” Boscarino said.


One recent study found that the number of people diagnosed with a substance abuse problem increased by 70 percent from 2001 to 2009, and doctors suspect the increased popularity of prescription painkillers is a primary driver (see Reuters Health story of October 22, 2012).


Of course, not all these cases reflect patients who are using the drugs as directed – or who even have a prescription to treat chronic pain.


To get a sense of how addictive opioid painkillers are for those patients who do have a prescription, researchers from The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group that reviews research on medications, collected the results from 17 studies covering more than 88,000 people.


All of the patients had been prescribed opioids to treat chronic pain, and nearly all of them had pain unrelated to cancer.


In 10 of the studies, patients used the painkillers for anywhere from three months to several years, while one study included just short-term use of several days and the others did not report the length of time patients were on the drugs.


Taken together, the studies found that 4.5 percent of people developed a dependency on the painkillers.


“It’s a low percentage,” said Dr. Silvia Minozzi, lead author of the study and a member of the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group in Rome.


Although 4.5 percent was the most common rate of addiction among the studies, Minozzi pointed out there were large differences in the rates each study found – ranging from zero to 31 percent.


For instance, a study by Boscarino and his colleagues that was included in Minozzi’s review found that 25 percent of patients became addicted.


The group of patients Boscarino surveyed had a high rate of alcoholism and illegal drug use, though.


He said the disparities among the various studies could also be a result of how people were surveyed about their behaviors.


“We surveyed the patients about their pain in their homes (where) they were relaxed,” he said. “I think they were more inclined not to try to hide their symptoms.”


Minozzi’s review found that, among the three studies with information on substance abuse, people with a history of drug use were more likely than other patients to develop an addiction to their prescription pain pills.


For most people, addiction “does happen, but it’s not very common,” Fleming told Reuters Health. “But if you give a big bottle of Percocets to someone who has an addiction history, who may or may not be using cocaine and marijuana at the same time, they have pain and maybe they should be treated, but they’re much more likely to get into trouble with that.”


Knowing this can help physicians screen patients to judge who might be the most vulnerable to becoming addicted and get them into the appropriate interventions, he said.


Minozzi noted the fact that her review found a “deficiency of good-quality” studies on this subject, “seems to stand in contrast to the widespread concern of doctors and authorities relating to the prescription of opioids for pain.”


SOURCE: http://bit.ly/U0ye5P Addiction, online October 18, 2012.


Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Bloomberg cancels marathon amid outcry

Eric Gordon will be out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury reports Yahoo! Sports' @SpearsNBAyahoo --> http://t.co/JXGOWjyv
Read More..

Canada will push to keep bank capital rules on schedule

























OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will urge all countries to stick to the agreed schedule for implementing tougher bank capital rules at a November 4-5 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday.


The so-called Basel III rules are the world’s regulatory response to the financial crisis, forcing banks to triple the amount of basic capital they hold in a bid to avoid future taxpayer bailouts.





















They were to be phased in from January 2013 but areas such as the United States and the European Union are not yet ready and U.S. and British supervisors have criticized them as too complex to work.


The Canadian official, who briefed reports ahead of the meeting on condition that he not be named, said it was imperative that the rules, the timelines and the principles behind them be respected and said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty would make that view known to his G20 colleagues.


Canada sees the European debt crisis as the biggest near-term risk to the global economy, and it also expects the U.S. debt crisis to be top of mind at the talks, the official said.


But the meeting takes place just before the U.S. presidential election and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be absent, so it remains unclear how much the G20 can pressure Washington on that front.


Some other countries have also scaled back their delegations, raising doubts about how meaningful the meeting will be.


The official dismissed that argument, saying high-level officials substituting for their ministers allowed for extremely important issues to be addressed anyway.


He said holding each country around the table accountable to its past commitments helped keep the momentum going toward resolving global economic problems.


(Reporting by Louise Egan; Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by M.D. Golan)


Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Apple rolls out iPad mini in Sydney to shorter lines

'},"otherParams":{"t_e":1,".intl":"US"},"events":{"fetch":{lv:2,"sp":"1197280665","ps":"LREC,MON","npv":true,"bg":"#FFFFFF","em":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'2c487375-07e4-3ddb-b08e-77913e7d8f5b\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}'),"em_orig":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'2c487375-07e4-3ddb-b08e-77913e7d8f5b\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}')}}};var _createNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);var nodeHTML;if(center && !node){nodeHTML=_conf.nodes[nId];center.insert(nodeHTML);};};};var _prepareNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-ad-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);if(center && node){center.set("innerHTML","");center.insert(node);node.setStyle("display","block");};};};var _darla;var _config=function(){if(YAHOO.ads.darla){_darla = YAHOO.ads.darla;_createNodes();};};var _fetch=function(spaceid,adssa,ps){
if (typeof(ps)!='undefined')
_conf.events.fetch.ps = ps;if(typeof spaceid != "undefined") _conf.events.fetch.sp=spaceid;adssa = (typeof adssa != "undefined" && adssa != null) ? escape(adssa.replace(/\"/g, "'")) : "";_conf.events.fetch.em=_conf.events.fetch.em_orig.replace("ADSSA", adssa);if(_darla){_prepareNodes();_darla.setConfig(_conf);_darla.event("fetch");};};Y.on("domready", function(){_config();});;var that={"fetch":_fetch,"getNodes":_conf.nodes,"getConf":_conf};return that;}();/* Backwards compatibility - Assigning the latest instance to the main fetch function */YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.fetch=YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.photoslightboxdarla.fetch;
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {YAHOO.namespace('Media.Social').Lightbox = {};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.Media.Article.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.AuthorBadge();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.Branding();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.on("load", function () {
YUI.namespace("Media.SocialButtons");

var instances = YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances || [],
globalConf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.conf || {},
vplContainers = [];

Y.all(".ymsb").each(function (node) {
var id = node.get("id"),
conf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.configs[id],
instance;

if (conf) {
instance = new Y.SocialButtons({
srcNode: node,
config: Y.merge(globalConf, conf.config || {}),
contentMetadata: conf.content || {},
tracking: conf.tracking || {}
});
vplContainers.push(
{
selector: "#" + id,
callback: function(node) { instance.render(); instance = conf = id = null; }
});

if (conf.config && conf.config.dynamic) {
instances.push(instance);
}
}
});

Y.Global.Media.ViewportLoader.addContainers(vplContainers);
YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances = instances;
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {if (!Y.Media) {

return;

}

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist || {};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets['lightboxd6bbbd13062b4fb7677592a41e3ecc44'] = {"lightboxId":"28d6b865ad4553df0d4fab52d2d749a4","pivotId":"2f7da9d5-b157-38f2-8374-2c87eac29293"};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset['28d6b865ad4553df0d4fab52d2d749a4'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","total":1,"photoby":"Photo By","xhrtype":"slideshow","videoconf":{"autoplay":true,"continuousPlay":true,"mute":false,"volume":"1.00","lang":"en-US","site":"news","region":"US","jurisdiction":"US","YVAP":{"accountId":"145","playContext":"default"},"pageSpaceId":"1197280665","comscoreC4":"US News","comscoreC6":"","showEmbedCode":true,"showShareUrl":true,"expName":"MediaArticleRelatedLightbox","expType":"inline","apiEnv":"prod"},"slideshow_id":null,"slideshow_title":null,"slideshow_title_baked_html":null,"slideshow_desc":null,"slideshow_rev":null,"slideshow_plink_vita":null,"photos":[{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/.2UXEpDRQ2GaP6dRu3.scQ--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zMTM7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T003507Z_1_CBRE8A101MR00_RTROPTP_2_CTECH-US-APPLE-IPAD-MINI.JPG","width":450,"height":313,"uuid":"2f7da9d5-b157-38f2-8374-2c87eac29293","caption":"People try out Apple's new iPad mini at Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo November 2, 2012. REUTERS\/Yuriko Nakao","captionBakedHtml":"

People try out Apple's new iPad mini at Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo November 2, 2012. REUTERS\/Yuriko Nakao","date":"Thu, Nov 1, 2012 8:48 PM EDT","credit":"Reuters","byline":"\ufffd Yuriko Nakao \/ Reuters","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"People try out Apple's new iPad mini at Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo","pivot_alias_id":"people-try-apples-ipad-mini-apple-store-ginza-photo-003959271","plink":"\/photos\/people-try-apples-ipad-mini-apple-store-ginza-photo-003959271.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/people-try-apples-ipad-mini-apple-store-ginza-photo-003959271.html","srchtrm":"People try out Apple's new iPad mini at Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo","revsp":"","rev":"13e33b20-2487-11e2-9ffe-9bcd90eea553","surl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/mv5w.4sL2l9Q1UrNlTyYaA--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9ODE-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-02T003507Z_1_CBRE8A101MR00_RTROPTP_2_CTECH-US-APPLE-IPAD-MINI.JPG","swidth":81,"sheight":56}]};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['28d6b865ad4553df0d4fab52d2d749a4'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=2c487375-07e4-3ddb-b08e-77913e7d8f5b","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1",
mod_total:"10", total:"0",
content_id:"2c487375-07e4-3ddb-b08e-77913e7d8f5b",
spaceid:"1197280665",
related_count:"-1"
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js';
})(document);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {var Topstory = new Y.Media.Topstory({
'useJapi' : '1',
'tabbedListId' : 'mediatopstorycoketemp',
'content_id' : '2c487375-07e4-3ddb-b08e-77913e7d8f5b',
'ids' : ["f3b45110-f8e6-4241-b299-bfc5c89f4324"],
'latestList' : [0],
'argsList' : [{"storycount":"7","img_start":"","img_end":"","popup_switch":"1","provider_switch":"0","timestamp_switch":"0","max_title_length":"150","max_summary_length":"","item_template":"title_bullet","storystart":"1","list_source":"listid","categories":[]}],
'labels' : { "more" : 'More' },
'defaultSec' : '' || 'MediaTopStoryCokeTemp',
'spaceId' : '1197280665',
'pagequery' : '',
'popupswitch' : '"1"',
'more_inline' : '1',
'ads_refresh' : [],
'apply_filter' : '',
'filters' : '[]',
'queryUrl' : 'list_id={list_id}&list_source={list_source}&apply_filter={apply_filter}&filters={filters}&content_id={content_id}&categories={categories}&selected_tab={selected_tab}&relatedcollections_index={relatedcollections_index}&latest_on={latest_on}&s=1197280665&sec={sec}&pagequery={pagequery}&story_start={story_start}&storycount={storycount}&img_start={img_start}&img_end={img_end}&popup_switch={popup_switch}&provider_switch={provider_switch}&author_switch={author_switch}&timestamp_switch={timestamp_switch}&max_title_length={max_title_length}&max_summary_length={max_summary_length}&item_template={item_template}&more_inline={more_inline}&base_start={base_start}&cache_ttl=TTL_LEVEL_30',
'enableSC' : '0'
});
Topstory.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {
if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};}
if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};}
if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");}
YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_dd9772a6029e0d27d842d638453bcd9d = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"485964d3-925b-45d6-82ef-14ebce6f2c6f","sCrumb":"","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-dd9772a6029e0d27d842d638453bcd9d","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"1197280665","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/apple-rolls-ipad-mini-sydney-shorter-lines-003507221--sector.html?_esi=0","artContentId":"2c487375-07e4-3ddb-b08e-77913e7d8f5b","sUltQstnTxt":"Do you plan on upgrading to Windows 8?","artContentTitle":"Apple rolls out iPad mini in Sydney to shorter lines","artContentDesc":"SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple fans lined up in Sydney, Australia, to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company\\'s previous global rollouts. About 50 people waited for the Apple store to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the company launched new iPhones. Apple Inc\\'s global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. ...","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"Not until I have to","labelRight":"As soon as I get a chance","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"3154","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"2581","rightBlocksNum":"573","leftBlocksPerCent":"82","rightBlocksPerCent":"18","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":2101,\"s2\":114,\"s3\":85,\"s4\":138,\"s5\":143,\"s6\":573,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Share your response with your friends on Facebook\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded to this question. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Share\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Your response has been shared with your friends on Facebook\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 3,154 people have responded to this question\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded to this question. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded to this question. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 3,154 people have responded to this question. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":2101,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":114,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":85,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":138,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":143,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":573,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_dd9772a6029e0d27d842d638453bcd9d","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"
Read More..

Judge throws out lawsuit against Britney Spears and parents

























LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Los Angeles judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by the one-time confidante of pop star Britney Spears, ruling there was insufficient evidence to go forward with the trial on allegations of defamation, assault and breach of contract.


“I really thought long and hard. It’s the right thing to do, so I am going to do it,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bruguera said, announcing her decision to throw out the case after hearing two weeks of evidence in the civil trial.





















Bruguera’s ruling was a major victory for Spears and her family, despite damaging and sometimes humiliating testimony that lifted the lid on the singer’s controversial career and personal meltdown five years ago.


Sam Lutfi, the self-styled manager of the pop star for a brief period in 2007 and early 2008, had sued Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, for defaming him in her 2008 book “Through the Storm.” Lynne Spears wrote that Lutfi controlled her daughter, cut her telephone lines and tried to cut the star off from her family.


Bruguera also dismissed claims filed by Lutfi against Spears. He said the singer hired him as her manager after they met in a nightclub in 2007, and he was entitled to a portion of her earnings.


Lutfi case against Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, was also thrown out. Lutfi alleged that Jamie Spears punched him in 2008 while the singer was in a Los Angeles psychiatric ward.


Lutfi, 38, said he would appeal the ruling.


Spears, 30, has since staged a comeback with world tours, hit albums and a new job as judge on Fox’s TV talent show “The X-Factor.” She did not attend the trial.


In testimony last week, Lutfi sobbed on the witness stand, saying he received death threats because of the villainous portrayal of him in the book. He also claimed he tried to get Spears off drugs and protect her from paparazzi photographers who hounded her day and night.


His most sensational claim was that Spears shaved her head in February 2007 because she feared her hair could be tested for drug use in her bitter child custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline.


Lutfi also told the court that he brought drug-sniffing dogs to her home and flushed a bag of white powder down the toilet.


Jamie Spears’ attorney told the court that his client was afraid that his daughter would die from drug abuse and believed that Lutfi was making her problems worse.


Lynne Spears testified that Lutfi crushed up drugs and put them into the singer’s food to help her sleep.


Spears’ meltdown led to her father’s conservatorship, which gives him legal control over her finances and health.


(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

UK cost agency backs melanoma drugs after price cuts

























LONDON (Reuters) – Two new drugs for skin cancer have been recommended for use on Britain’s state-run health service after the rival manufacturers – Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb – agreed to cut their prices.


The move underscores the growing pressure on drug companies to cut deals with austerity-hit European governments in order to prove their expensive new medicines offer value for money.





















The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said on Friday it had issued final draft guidance recommending both Roche’s Zelboraf and Bristol‘s Yervoy after the companies offered undisclosed discounts.


NICE, which determines if products should be used by the National Health Service (NHS), had initially rejected both medicines, despite acknowledging that they represented a breakthrough in treating melanoma.


The list price for Zelboraf, which is only suitable for patients with a particular genetic profile, is 52,500 pounds ($ 84,600) for an average treatment span of seven months.


The price of a four-dose course of Yervoy, which is recommended only for people who have received prior chemotherapy, is 75,000 pounds.


($ 1 = 0.6207 British pounds)


(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)


Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Fuel scarce as East Coast struggles to recover

NEW YORK/SEASIDE HEIGHTS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded homes for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms to hit the United States.


New York subway trains crawled back to limited service after being shut down since Sunday, but the lower half of Manhattan still lacked power and surrounding areas such as Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken remained crippled from a record storm surge and flooding.


At least 95 people died in the "superstorm" that ravaged the Northeastern United States on Monday. Officials said the number could rise as rescuers searched house-by-house in coastal towns.


"I worked all my life, and everything I had is right there," said Bob Stewart, 59, standing on the Jersey Shore beach in the town of Seaside Heights and looking at the pile of debris that was once his home. "I put my life right there."


New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Thursday that nearly a 1,000 people had been rescued by authorities.


In blackened New York City neighborhoods, some residents complained there was a lack of police and feared an increase in crime. Some were also concerned about traffic safety. New York police officials were not immediately available to comment.


"People feel safe during the day but as soon as the sun sets, people are extremely scared. The fact that Guardian Angels are on the streets trying to restore law just shows how out of control the situation is in lower Manhattan," said Wolfgang Ban, owner of Edi & The Wolf restaurant in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood.


The Guardian Angels are a group of anti-crime volunteers.


More than 15 people in the borough of Queens were charged with looting, and a man was charged on Thursday with threatening another driver with a gun after he tried to cut in on a line of cars waiting for gas, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.


The financial cost of the storm promised to be staggering. Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast.


At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe ever, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.


POWER OUT, GAS SHORTAGE


The presidential campaign was back in full swing on Thursday after being on hold for several days because of the storm. President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney head of next Tuesday's election, appeared to gain politically from his disaster relief performance.


Christie, a vocal Romney supporter, praised Obama, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, endorsed Obama on Thursday.


In New York, U.N. headquarters suffered severe damage and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered recovery help to the United States and Caribbean nations affected by the storm.


The hunt for gasoline added to a climate of uncertainty as Sandy's death toll and price tag rose.


"I'm so stressed out," said Jessica Bajno, 29, a teacher from Elmont, Long Island, who was waiting in line for gas. "I've been driving around to nearby towns all morning, and being careful about not running out of gas in the process. Everything is closed. I'm feeling anxious."


Some residents may lack electricity for weeks. New York utility Consolidated Edison restored power to 250,000 customers, with 650,000 others still in the dark.


The vast majority will be restored by the weekend of November 10-11, but "the remaining customer restorations could take an additional week or more," the company said.


Advertising creative director Chris Swift, 37, lost power in his apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea district on Monday and by Thursday he was so fed up he got on a bus to Boston.


"I tried 20 (New York City) hotels on foot as couldn't call them with no battery left on my phone, but they were all booked. I tried to get to (friends in) Brooklyn but cabs would not take me as they we're running out gas," he said.


About 4.6 million homes and businesses in 15 U.S. states were without power on Thursday, down from a record high of nearly 8.5 million.


More deaths were recorded overnight in the New York borough of Staten Island, where authorities recovered 17 bodies after the storm lifted whole houses off their foundations. Among the dead were two boys, aged 4 and 2, who were swept from their mother's arms by the floodwaters, police said.


In all, 39 people died in New York City, officials said.


"It was like living through Titanic but on ground," said Krystina Berrios, 25, of Staten Island, looking at her bedroom caked in mud, furniture upended. "You would never think in a million years having to live through something like this."


JERSEY SHORE FLOORED


Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.


In New Jersey, where entire neighborhoods in oceanside towns were swallowed by seawater and the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed, the death toll rose to 13.


Floodwaters receded from the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, leaving behind a smelly mess of submerged basements and cars littering the sidewalks.


"The water was rushing in. It was like a river coming," said Benedicte Lenoble, a photo researcher from Hoboken. "Now it's a mess everywhere. There's no power. The stores aren't open. Recovery? I don't know."


New Jersey natives Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will headline a benefit concert for storm victims Friday on NBC television, the network announced.


The Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to cover 100 percent of emergency power and public transportation costs through November 9 for affected areas of New York and New Jersey, up from the traditional share of 75 percent.


More than 36,000 disaster survivors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have applied for federal disaster assistance and more than $3.4 million in direct assistance has already been approved, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.


The Pentagon was airlifting power restoration experts and trucks from California to New York to assist millions of people still living in darkness.


Fuel supplies into New York and New Jersey were hit by idled refineries, a closed New York Harbor, damages to import terminals, and a closed oil pipeline.


The scarcity of fuel, electricity and supplies made cleanup more daunting for barrier towns.


Seaside Heights residents who obeyed the mandatory evacuation order were cut off from their homes. The entire community was submerged by the storm surge, which washed over the island and into the bay that separates it from the mainland.


Chris Delman, 30, saw a photograph of his house in a local newspaper on Wednesday. It was still standing.


"We ain't living in Seaside no more, that's obvious," Delman said. "I just want to know what I have left."


(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus throughout the U.S. Northeast; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jim Loney and Peter Cooney)


Read More..

Clinton calls for overhaul of Syrian opposition

























ZAGREB (Reuters) – The United States called on Wednesday for an overhaul of Syria‘s opposition leadership, saying it was time to move beyond the Syrian National Council and bring in those “in the front lines fighting and dying”.


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signaling a more active stance by Washington in attempts to form a credible political opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said a meeting next week in Qatar would be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against him.





















“This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but who, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30, 40 years,” she said during a visit to Croatia.


“There has to be a representation of those who are in the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom.”


Clinton’s comments represented a clear break with the Syrian National Council (SNC), a largely foreign-based group which has been among the most vocal proponents of international intervention in the Syrian conflict.


U.S. officials have privately expressed frustration with the SNC’s inability to come together with a coherent plan and with its lack of traction with the disparate internal groups which have waged the 19-month uprising against Assad’s government.


Senior members of the SNC, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other rebel groups ended a meeting in Turkey on Wednesday and pledged to unite behind a transitional government in coming months.


“It’s been our divisions that have allowed the Assad forces to reach this point,” Ammar al-Wawi, a rebel commander, told Reuters after the talks outside Istanbul.


“We are united on toppling Assad. Everyone, including all the rebels, will gather under the transitional government.”


Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, a senior Syrian military defector, told a news conference after the meeting: “We are still facing some difficulties between the politicians and different opposition groups and the leaders of the Free Syrian Army on the ground.”


Clinton said it was important that the next rulers of Syria were both inclusive and committed to rejecting extremism.


“There needs to be an opposition that can speak to every segment and every geographic part of Syria. And we also need an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution,” she said.


Syria’s revolt has killed an estimated 32,000. A bomb near a Shi’ite shrine in a suburb of Damascus killed at least six more people on Wednesday, state media and opposition activists said.


NEW LEADERSHIP


The meeting next week in Qatar’s capital Doha represents a chance to forge a new leadership, Clinton said, adding the United States had helped to “smuggle out” representatives of internal Syrian opposition groups to a meeting in New York last month to argue their case for inclusion.


“We have recommended names and organizations that we believe should be included in any leadership structure,” she told a news conference.


“We’ve made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice which must be heard.”


The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition.


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 – a fact that Assad’s chief backer Russia says shows western powers are intent on determining Syria’s future.


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.


Clinton said she regretted but was not surprised by the failure of the latest attempted ceasefire, called by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi last Friday. Each side blamed the other for breaking the truce.


“The Assad regime did not suspend its use of advanced weaponry against the Syrian people for even one day,” she said.


“While we urge Special Envoy Brahimi to do whatever he can in Moscow and Beijing to convince them to change course and support a stronger U.N. action we cannot and will not wait for that.”


Clinton said the United States would continue to work with partners to increase sanctions on the Assad government and provide humanitarian assistance to those hit by the conflict.


(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Andrew Roche)


World News Headlines – Yahoo! News



Read More..

Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Street

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)


Read More..