Investors face another Washington deadline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors face another Washington-imposed deadline on government spending cuts next week, but it's not generating the same level of fear as two months ago when the "fiscal cliff" loomed large.

Investors in sectors most likely to be affected by the cuts, like defense, seem untroubled that the budget talks could send stocks tumbling.

Talks on the U.S. budget crisis began again this week leading up to the March 1 deadline for the so-called sequestration when $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.

"It's at this point a political hot button in Washington but a very low level investor concern," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The fight pits President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats against congressional Republicans.

Stocks rallied in early January after a compromise temporarily avoided the fiscal cliff, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> has risen 6.3 percent since the start of the year.

But the benchmark index lost steam this week, posting its first week of losses since the start of the year. Minutes on Wednesday from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which suggested the central bank may slow or stop its stimulus policy sooner than expected, provided the catalyst.

National elections in Italy on Sunday and Monday could also add to investor concern. Most investors expect a government headed by Pier Luigi Bersani to win and continue with reforms to tackle Italy's debt problems. However, a resurgence by former leader Silvio Berlusconi has raised doubts.

"Europe has been in the last six months less of a topic for the stock market, but the problems haven't gone away. This may bring back investor attention to that," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

OPTIONS BULLS TARGET GAINS

The spending cuts, if they go ahead, could hit the defense industry particularly hard.

Yet in the options market, bulls were targeting gains in Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's biggest supplier.

Calls on the stock far outpaced puts, suggesting that many investors anticipate the stock to move higher. Overall options volume on the stock was 2.8 times the daily average with 17,000 calls and 3,360 puts traded, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.

"The upside call buying in Lockheed solidifies the idea that option investors are not pricing in a lot of downside risk in most defense stocks from the likely impact of sequestration," said Jared Woodard, a founder of research and advisory firm condoroptions.com in Forest, Virginia.

The stock ended up 0.6 percent at $88.12 on Friday.

If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on reducing the U.S. budget deficit in the next few days, a sequester would include significant cuts in defense spending. Companies such as General Dynamics Corp and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp could be affected.

General Dynamics Corp shares rose 1.2 percent to $67.32 and Smith & Wesson added 4.6 percent to $9.18 on Friday.

EYES ON GDP DATA, APPLE

The latest data on fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is expected on Thursday, and some analysts predict an upward revision following trade data that showed America's deficit shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years.

U.S. GDP unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter, according to an earlier government estimate, but analysts said there was no reason for panic, given that consumer spending and business investment picked up.

Investors will be looking for any hints of changes in the Fed's policy of monetary easing when Fed Chairman Ben Bernake speaks before congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Shares of Apple will be watched closely next week when the company's annual stockholders' meeting is held.

On Friday, a U.S. judge handed outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn a victory in his battle with the iPhone maker, blocking the company from moving forward with a shareholder vote on a controversial proposal to limit the company's ability to issue preferred stock.

(Additional reporting by Doris Frankel; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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North Korea Warns U.S. Forces of ‘Destruction’ Ahead of Drills

SEOUL (Reuters) — North Korea on Saturday warned the top U.S. military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would “meet a miserable destruction” if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said.

Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.

It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North’s third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation.

A direct message from the North’s Panmunjom mission to the U.S. commander is rare.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 U.S. troops.

The command also plans to hold Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving land, sea and air manoeuvres. About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 U.S. forces are expected to be mobilized for the two month-long exercise which starts on March 1.

“If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises...at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour,” Pak was quoted as saying.

“You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction.”

Washington and Seoul regularly hold military exercises which they say are purely defensive. North Korea, which has stepped up its bellicose threats towards the United States and South Korea in recent months, sees them as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korea threatened South Korea with “final destruction” during a debate at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Sung-won Shim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Jobs, factory, inflation data favor easy Fed policy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A raft of U.S. economic data on Thursday from claims for jobless aid to factory activity and consumer prices pointed to a still tepid recovery and supported the argument for the Federal Reserve to maintain its monetary stimulus.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion in bonds per month and has said it would keep up purchases until the labor market outlook improves substantially, although officials are increasingly divided over the wisdom of that course.

"The economy is in a holding pattern. It's not going to strengthen sufficiently to justify an end of the current program," said Millan Mulraine, senior economist at TD Securities in New York.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 362,000, unwinding the bulk of the prior week's decline, the Labor Department said.

A second report from the department showed consumer prices were flat for a second straight month in January as gasoline prices fell and the cost of food held steady.

In the 12 months through January, consumer prices rose 1.6 percent, the smallest gain since July. That suggested there was little inflation pressure to worry the Fed.

Concerns over tepid job growth prompted the U.S. central bank last year to embark on its open-ended bond buying program.

However, minutes of the Fed's January 29-30 policy meeting published on Wednesday showed some policymakers feel the central bank may have to slow or stop the asset purchases before it sees an acceleration in job growth because of concerns over the financial risks of the program.

Those diverging views were evident on Thursday, with two Fed officials signaling support for scaling back the program, while another outlined the case for maintaining bond purchases until well into the second half of the year.

MANUFACTURING SLOWING

News on the manufacturing sector, which has supported the economy's recovery from the 2007-09 recession, was downbeat.

The Philadelphia Fed's business activity index dropped to minus 12.5 in February, the lowest level since June. The index, which measures factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region, had fallen to minus 5.8 in January.

A reading below zero indicates contraction in the region's manufacturing sector. The survey covers factories in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

Another report from financial data firm Markit that tries to gauge overall national factory activity showed manufacturing growth slowed in February but remained near a nine-month peak.

"We believe manufacturing activity will continue to expand early in 2013," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

The claims and factory reports, as well as weak data from Europe weighed on U.S. stocks. The Standard & Poor's 500 index recorded its worst two-day loss since November.

Prices for U.S. government debt rose and the dollar touched a 5-1/2-month high against a basket of currencies.

Growth in the U.S. economy braked sharply in the fourth quarter, but it expanded at a 2.2 percent clip for the full year. Output is being hampered by lackluster demand as employment struggles to gain traction.

Job growth has been far less than the at least 250,000 per month over a sustained period that economists say is needed to significantly reduce the ranks of unemployed. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 7.9 percent in January.

Last week's claims data covered the survey period for the government's closely watched monthly tally of nonfarm jobs. Claims were up 27,000 between the January and February survey periods.

However, the increase probably does not suggest any material change in the pace of job growth given that claims have been very volatile since January because of difficulties smoothing the data for seasonal fluctuations.

Despite the weak factory and jobs data, there is reason for optimism about the economy. The housing market recovery is gaining momentum.

A report from the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales rose 0.4 percent last month, pushing the supply of homes on the market to a 13-year low. The median home price rose 12.3 percent from a year earlier.

Rising home values should help to support consumer spending.

Although consumer prices excluding food and energy rose 0.3 percent - the largest gain since May 2011 - most of that reflected outsized increases in apparel and education costs.

"January is a tough month because you get a lot of price hikes at the start of the new year and the seasonals have a hard time sort of adjusting," said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

"I don't expect the core CPI to maintain that pace of increase in the near term."

(Additional reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Steven C Johnson in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci and James Dalgleish)

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Pistorius Bail Hearing Set to Resume

PRETORIA, South Africa — Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, was to return to court on Friday on the fourth day of hearings this week about whether he should be granted bail in a case that has riveted the nation.

News reports said he slipped into the courthouse, his head covered by a jacket, some time before the scheduled start of hearings that have packed the courtroom with a scrum of journalists alongside legal teams, family members and onlookers.

In the latest in a series of abrupt twists in the affair on Thursday, the South African police replaced the lead investigator after revelations that he was facing seven charges of attempted murder stemming from an episode in which police officers fired at a minivan.

The change was announced a day after the investigator, Detective Warrant Officer Hilton Botha, acknowledged several mistakes in the police work and conceded that, based on the existing evidence, he could not rule out the version of events presented by Mr. Pistorius.

The prosecution says Mr. Pistorius committed the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate, when he fired four shots through a locked bathroom door while she was on the other side in the early hours of Feb. 14.

After widespread news reports about the charges against Detective Botha, Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor, said at the start of a hearing on Thursday that he had just learned about them.

Mr. Pistorius has said that he opened fire believing there was an intruder in his home, in a gated community in Pretoria, and that he had no intention of killing Ms. Steenkamp, 29, a model and law school graduate.

But prosecutor Nel labeled Mr. Pistorius’s account “improbable.”

“What we can’t forget is the applicant is charged with murdering a defenseless, innocent woman,” Mr. Nel said.

Mr. Pistorius has said that he did not realize Ms. Steenkamp was no longer in bed as he rose to check for an intruder, shouting to her to call the police.

“You want to protect her, but you don’t even look at her?” Mr. Nel said. “You don’t even ask, ‘Reeva, are you all right?’ 

On Thursday, a police brigadier, Neville Malila, told reporters that Detective Botha was scheduled to appear in court in May on the attempted murder charges in connection with an episode in which Mr. Botha and two other police officers fired at a minivan.

“Botha and two other policemen allegedly tried to stop a minibus taxi with seven people,” Brigadier Malila said. “They fired shots.” While the charges were initially dropped, “we were informed yesterday that the charges will be reinstated,” he said.

Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, told reporters that the decision to reinstate the charges was made on Feb. 4, long before Ms. Steenkamp was killed.

Lydia Polgreen reported from Pretoria, South Africa, and Alan Cowell from London.

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Will the PlayStation 4 Play Used Games? Maybe, Maybe Not

Ahead of Sony’s PlayStation 4 announcement Wednesday night, the rumor mill put odds on the new game console’s ability to play used games at right about zero. Bear in mind the rumors came from gossip blogs known for chasing the moon, but the notion struck a chord with gamers because it’s been happening for years over on the PC side of the biz: bigwigs like Valve and Blizzard eliminated the secondary PC games market entirely years ago by tethering Steam and Battle.net accounts to game activations, whether via digital or physical copies. Maybe you’ll make a few bucks reselling your collector’s edition of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, but the disc inside might as well be a coaster: Whoever you sell to still has to pay for a code to unlock the game itself.

That’s essentially how the rumor mill claimed Sony was planning to roll with the PS4, tethering game content to online user accounts and establishing an activation system that’d put the thumbscrews to resales, digital or physical.

Sony was mum on the subject at its PS4 press event, preferring instead to highlight the console’s graphical brawn, tease the modestly redesigned controller and talk up social interactivity, but Eurogamer managed to corner Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida and pop the question “Will it or won’t it?”

Sony’s answer, concludes Eurogamer, is that the PS4 will play used games (the article’s subtitled “PlayStation 4 will not block used games”). But reading what Yoshida actually said, I’d say the answer’s still clear as mud.

“So if someone buys a PlayStation 4 game … you’re not going to stop them reselling it?” asks Eurogamer, to which Yoshida doesn’t immediately respond, eventually saying: “So, used games can play on PS4. How is that?”

Mission accomplished? Not so fast. Remember when you asked your elementary school teacher “Can I go to the bathroom?” and she/he answered “I don’t know, can you?” Silly semantics, I know, but when you’re parsing potentially game-changing corporate directives, they mean everything.

It’s possible Yoshida meant “will” play, but without clarification, who knows? Technically he’s saying “can” here, which formally means “is capable of,” not “will without restrictions” (even “will” can be employed as synonymous with “can” — headache yet?). For example, the PS3 is technically capable of playing PlayStation 2 games (with a software emulator), so it’s accurate to say “The PS3 can play PS2 games.” But it would be inaccurate to claim the PS3 actually does play PS2 games.

Will the PS4 play used games, no gotchas? All or just some? Will digitally downloaded games be resalable somehow? The Eurogamer chitchat doesn’t bring us any closer to an answer. If Sony wants us to know at this point, it needs to say so using non-evasive language. Barring that, I think it’s safe to assume the question’s either still up in the air at Sony HQ, or it’s already been decided, and not in the secondary market’s favor. If Sony’s decision involves locking down used content as originally surmised, I wouldn’t expect the company to say much at all, for the time being, in hopes of staving off the looming backlash.

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American Idol: Sudden-Death Round Begins for Men

TV Watch

By Steve Helling

02/21/2013 at 11:00 PM EST

From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban

George Holz/FOX

On Wednesday, 10 women sang for five spots on American Idol's live shows. On Thursday, it was the remaining guys' turn.

The judges have their own euphemisms when they don't like a performance – it's usually easy to read between the lines: If they compliment a singer on his shoes, he won't advance. On Thursday, Nicki Minaj actually told a contestant, "Kudos to you for being really freshly, nicely groomed." They might as well have had a stagehand pull him offstage with an oversized vaudeville hook.

After several weeks of good behavior by the judges, Thursday's episode showed a spark of life when Nicki – who was wearing her very best Jan Brady wig – began rolling her eyes whenever Randy Jackson spoke. At one point, Ryan Seacrest even tried to get them to kiss and make up. There was talk about lipstick, and Mariah Carey did her best to look at anything other than the awkward air kiss that followed.

But the theatrics did not eclipsed some solid singers – and a few performances that just weren't good enough for the competition.

The Good: Curtis Finch Jr. wowed judges with his version of Luther Vandross's "Superstar." It was oversung. But there was no denying Finch's vocal talent. Charlie Askew's rendition of Elton John's "Rocketman" was interesting and well-suited to his voice. And Devin Velez pleased the crowd when he infused Spanish lyrics into Beyoncé's "Listen." The three of them advanced easily.

The Okay: Elijah Liu chose Bruno Mars's "Talking to the Moon," a song that felt current and new. Paul Jolley sang Keith Urban's "Tonight I'm Gonna Cry." Generally, it's a risky move to sing a song made popular by one of the judges, but Jolley's performance was pleasant, if a little shaky. Both advanced, although the judges were split on their assessment of Jolley.

The Others: Johnny Keiser, Kevin Harris, Chris Watson and Jimmy Smith sang unspectacular versions of various songs that everyone knows. Each of them had a decent voice, but none of their performances were all that unique, and none of them advanced. On the other side of the spectrum, J'DA performed an over-the-top rendition of Adele's "Rumor Has It." It wasn't enough for him to advance, but his performance – at one point he collapsed on the floor but continued singing – was by far the most memorable of the night.

There are ten contestants – five men and five women – who have made it to the next round. Next week, the remaining 20 contestants will complete for the remaining 10 spots – and all will hope the judges don't compliment what they're wearing.

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APNewsBreak: Govs to hear Oregon health care plan

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber will brief other state leaders this weekend on his plan to lower Medicaid costs, touting an overhaul that President Barack Obama highlighted in his State of the Union address for its potential to lower the deficit even as health care expenses climb.

The Oregon Democrat leaves for Washington, D.C., on Friday to pitch his plan that changes the way doctors and hospitals are paid and improves health care coordination for low income residents so that treatable medical problems don't grow in severity or expense.

Kitzhaber says his goal is to win over a handful of other governors from each party.

"I think the politics have been dialed down a couple of notches, and now people are willing to sit down and talk about how we can solve the problem" of rising health care costs, Kitzhaber told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Kitzhaber introduced the plan in 2011 in the face of a severe state budget deficit, and he's been talking for two years about expanding the initiative beyond his state. Now, it seems he's found people ready to listen.

Hospital executives from Alabama visited Oregon last month to learn about the effort. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it's giving Oregon a $45 million grant to help spread the changes beyond the Medicaid population and share information with other states, making it one of only six states to earn a State Innovation Model grant.

Kitzhaber will address his counterparts at a meeting of the National Governors Association. His talk isn't scheduled on the official agenda, but a spokeswoman confirmed that Kitzhaber is expected to present.

"The governors love what they call stealing from one another — taking the good ideas and the successes of their colleagues and trying to figure out how to apply that in their home state," said Matt Salo, director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

There's been "huge interest" among other states in Oregon's health overhaul, Salo said, not because the concepts are brand new, but because the state managed to avoid pitfalls that often block health system changes.

Kitzhaber persuaded state lawmakers to redesign the system of delivering and paying for health care under Medicaid, creating incentives for providers to coordinate patient care and prevent avoidable emergency room visits. He has long complained that the current financial incentives encourage volume over quality, driving costs up without making people healthier.

Obama, in his State of the Union address this month, suggested that changes such as Oregon's could be part of a long-term strategy to lower the federal debt by reigning in the growing cost of federally funded health care.

"We'll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn't be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital — they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive," Obama said.

The Obama administration has invested in the program, putting up $1.9 billion to keep Oregon's Medicaid program afloat over the next five years while providers make the transition to new business models and incorporate new staff and technology.

In exchange, though, the state has agreed to lower per-capita health care cost inflation by 2 percentage points without affecting quality.

The Medicaid system is unique in each state, and Kitzhaber isn't suggesting that other states should adopt Oregon's specific approach, said Mike Bonetto, Kitzhaber's health care policy adviser. Rather, he wants governors to buy into the broad concept that the delivery system and payment models need to change.

That's not a new theory. But Oregon has shown that under the right circumstances massive changes to deeply entrenched business models can gain wide support.

What Oregon can't yet show is proof the idea is working — that it's lowering costs without squeezing on the quality or availability of care. The state is just finishing compiling baseline data that will be used as a basis of comparison.

One factor driving the Obama administration's interest in Oregon's success is the president's health care overhaul. Under the Affordable Care Act, millions more Americans will join the Medicaid rolls after Jan. 1, and the health care system will have to be able to absorb the influx of patients in a logistically and financially sustainable way.

The federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs for those additional patients in the first three years before scaling back to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.

"There are a lot of governors who are facing the same challenges we're facing in Oregon," Kitzhaber said. "They recognize that the cost of health care is something they're going to have to get their arms around."

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Wall Street ends down sharply after Fed minutes

TORONTO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Canada's Rebecca Marino, a rising star in women's tennis, stepped away from the sport in search of a normal life on Wednesday, weary of battling depression and cyber-bullies. Ranked number 38 in the world two years ago, the 22-year-old admitted she had long suffered from depression and was no longer willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reach the top. "After thinking long and hard, I do not have the passion or enjoyment to drive myself to the level I would like to be at in professional tennis," Marino explained in a conference call. ...

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India Ink: Image of the Day: Feb. 20

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Apple supplier Foxconn freezes hiring at largest plant

TAIPEI/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group has frozen hiring at a Shenzhen plant that makes gadgets including the iPhone 5 and put the brakes on recruiting for other factories across China, but said the move was not linked to any single client.

Foxconn, which runs a network of factories across the world’s No. 2 economy that make products for tech companies from Hewlett Packard to Dell, sought to pour cold water on a Financial Times report that it had imposed a hiring freeze while it slows production of Apple‘s latest smartphone.

“Due to an unprecedented rate of return of employees following the Chinese New Year holiday compared to years past, our company has decided to temporarily slow down our recruitment process,” the company said in a statement.

“This action is not related to any single customer and any speculation to the contrary is false and inaccurate.”

Like other Chinese contract manufacturers, Foxconn relies on a large number of migrant laborers from across the country, who journey home for the most important holiday of the year. Many do not make it back to work, but Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo said this year they saw as many as 97 percent of employees return.

Apple sold a less-than-expected 47.8 million iPhones in the 2012 holiday quarter, fanning fears that its dominance of consumer electronics is on the decline as Samsung Electronics Co and other manufacturers that use Google Inc’s Android software gradually gain market share.

The iPhone is Apple’s most important product, accounting for half its revenue. The company’s shares slipped almost 2 pct on Wednesday to $ 451, and are down about 34 percent from their September peak above $ 700, as investors fret about sliding margins and intensifying competition.

IMPLICATIONS FOR APPLE

Apple watchers often take cues from its component suppliers and manufacturing partners. In January, CEO Tim Cook took the unusual step of warning investors that it is difficult to extrapolate from limited “data points”.

RBC estimates that just 70 to 80 percent of Chinese workers return to factories it tracks.

“This year we believe the return rates have been closer to 90 percent, which may minimize the need to hire,” RBC analyst Amit Daryanani wrote in a Wednesday research note.

“Given the timing of the freeze, it may have more to do with higher return rates of employees versus what was expected by Foxconn and other supply chain companies.”

Foxconn’s latest statement contradicts another Foxconn spokesman, Liu Kun, who is cited in the newspaper on Wednesday as saying, “Currently, none of the plants in mainland China have hiring plans.”

A check on Foxconn’s recruitment website on Wednesday showed the company’s Taiyuan and Hangzhou plants were hiring. But its factory complex in the southern city of Shenzhen is its single largest production base.

The Shenzhen plant “is not hiring at the moment because workers’ return rate after Chinese New Year is very high this year, reaching 97 pct”, Woo said.

“We replenish each year depending on the return rate.”

(Editing by Edwin Chan, John Wallace and Dale Hudson)

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American Idol: Women Face Sudden-Death Round

American Idol

By Jamie Bufalino

02/20/2013 at 11:00 PM EST

Mariah Carey

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Landov

American Idol threw yet another new twist at its 40 remaining contestants: a sudden-death round.

"One song, one chance, no mercy," Ryan Seacrest said as the first group of 10 female contestants gathered in Las Vegas to try to finally sing their way – in front of a boisterous studio audience – through to the "America votes" phase of the competition.

Five women moved on, five went home.

Kentucky high school junior Jenny Beth Willis, whose rendition of a Trisha Yearwood song earned mixed reviews from the judges, was the first up. Although Keith Urban appreciated her "effortless confidence," Nicki Minaj said her performance lacked excitement (a comment that elicited the first audience boos of the season). Final result: It was the end of the road for Willis.

Tenna Torres, 28, – who attended Mariah Carey's camp for kids as a youngster – took the stage next and impressed the judges with her take on the Natasha Bedingfield's "Soulmate." But she lost style points with Minaj, who didn't like one particular aspect of her look. "Lose the hair," said Minaj, who felt the contestant's coif aged her. Final result: She made it through to the Top 20.

The three most powerful performances of the night all made it to the next round: Nashville's Kree Harrison, who despite taking a decidedly plain-Jane approach to styling, wowed the judges with her version of Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain." "You sang the hell out of that song," said Carey.

Angela Miller, 18, of Massachusetts, belted out Jessie J's hit "Nobody's Perfect." But she pretty much was.

And Amber Holcomb, an assistant teacher from Texas, closed the show with a rousing (and well received) rendition of "My Funny Valentine."

For the final spot of the night, it came down to Anchorage, Alaska, resident Adriana Latonio, 17, who tackled Aretha Franklin's "Ain't No Way," and Shubha Vedula, a Michigan high school senior who sang Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."

Although the judges saw potential in both contestants, they ultimately picked Lantonio's powerhouse vocals in a final emotional moment.

Thursday will bring out the guys. The first round of 10 will take the stage to try to make the top 20 – but once again, five will go home.

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Adults get 11 percent of calories from fast food

ATLANTA (AP) — On an average day, U.S. adults get roughly 11 percent of their calories from fast food, a government study shows.

That's down slightly from the 13 percent reported the last time the government tried to pin down how much of the American diet is coming from fast food. Eating fast food too frequently has been seen as a driver of America's obesity problem.

For the research, about 11,000 adults were asked extensive questions about what they ate and drank over the previous 24 hours to come up with the results.

Among the findings:

— Young adults eat more fast food than their elders; 15 percent of calories for ages 20 to 39 and dropping to 6 percent for those 60 and older.

— Blacks get more of their calories from fast-food, 15 percent compared to 11 percent for whites and Hispanics.

— Young black adults got a whopping 21 percent from the likes of Wendy's, Taco Bell and KFC.

The figures are averages. Included in the calculations are some people who almost never eat fast food, as well as others who eat a lot of it.

The survey covers the years 2007 through 2010 and was released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The authors couldn't explain why the proportion of calories from fast food dropped from the 13 percent found in a survey for 2003 through 2006.

One nutrition professor cast doubts on the latest results, saying 11 percent seemed implausibly low. New York University's Marion Nestle said it wouldn't be surprising if some people under-reported their hamburgers, fries and milkshakes since eating too much fast food is increasingly seen as something of a no-no.

"If I were a fast-food company, I'd say 'See, we have nothing to do with obesity! Americans are getting 90 percent of their calories somewhere else!'" she said.

The study didn't include the total number of fast-food calories, just the percentage. Previous government research suggests that the average U.S. adult each day consumes about 270 calories of fast food — the equivalent of a small McDonald's hamburger and a few fries.

The new CDC study found that obese people get about 13 percent of daily calories from fast food, compared with less than 10 percent for skinny and normal-weight people.

There was no difference seen by household income, except for young adults. The poorest — those with an annual household income of less than $30,000 — got 17 percent of their calories from fast food, while the figure was under 14 percent for the most affluent 20- and 30-somethings with a household income of more than $50,000.

That's not surprising since there are disproportionately higher numbers of fast-food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods, Nestle said.

Fast food is accessible and "it's cheap," she said.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

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Asian shares hit 18-month high on growth hopes

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares scaled their highest levels since August 2011 on Wednesday after an improving global economic outlook whetted investor appetite for risk, while the yen firmed amid doubts over Japan's commitment to drastic reflation.

Asian shares have been on an uptrend as risks from the euro zone debt crisis and the U.S. fiscal impasse abated and signs of recovery emerged in major economies including China. Corporate earnings have also been generally positive.

"The tide continued to push higher for equity markets across Asia today, with solid leads from Europe and the U.S. enough to keep traders in a buying frame of mind," said Tim Waterer, senior trader at CMC Markets.

News of new possible mergers boosted U.S. stocks on Tuesday, pinning the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> near a five-year high, while European shares rose after the German ZEW investor sentiment index rose to a three-year high.

European markets will likely consolidate, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open down 0.1 percent. U.S. stock futures were flat to suggest a subdued start for Wall Street. <.l><.eu><.n/>

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> added 0.8 percent, up for a third day in a row, led by a 1.9 percent gain in its technology sector <.miapjit00pus>. The index has risen 4.3 percent year to date.

South Korean shares <.ks11> outperformed their peers with a 1.8 percent jump to a one-month high, as foreigners stepped up buying and a pause in the yen's falling trend soothed sentiment.

Australian shares <.axjo> rose 0.3 percent, extending their bull run at 4-1/2-year highs on improving sentiment overseas and a better-than-expected domestic earnings season. The Australian market has risen nearly 10 percent this year.

Positive growth in Southeast Asia has drawn foreign investors, keeping regional stocks robust. The Philippines stock market <.psi> extended gains to a record high while Bangkok's SET index <.seti> hit a fresh 18-year high.

Rallying stocks weighed on assets perceived as safe-haven, with spot gold inching up 0.2 percent to $1,606.84 an ounce but stuck near a six-month low.

Asian credit markets took their cues from stocks, tightening the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by two basis points.

London copper edged up 0.2 percent to $8,067.75 a metric ton, off Tuesday's three-week lows.

"A shift to cyclicals from defensives has come full circle and investors are now looking at sector-specific factors within an asset class, selecting those with a tight supply/demand outlook," said Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory.

He said industrial metals and oil are favored by investors. Within base metals, copper will likely rise further as economic activity increases, as will Brent crude oil, while U.S. crude was seen weighed by ample supply.

U.S. crude steadied around $96.72 a barrel but Brent eased 0.2 percent to $117.31.

Platinum and palladium also have further upside scope due to supply concerns.

The rise in equities weighed on assets perceived as safe-haven, such U.S. Treasuries and gold on Tuesday. Spot gold inched up 0.2 percent to $1,607.94 an ounce, but hovered near a six-month low hit the day before.

YEN INSTABILITY RISES

Tokyo's Nikkei stock average <.n225> closed 0.8 percent higher at its highest close since late September 2008. <.t/>

The yen remained jittery, swinging in narrow ranges on concerns Japan may not be able to pursue as strong a reflationary policy mix as previously perceived.

The government delayed nominating a new Bank of Japan governor, fuelling talk of friction between the prime minister and the finance minister over who is best suited to implement the bold steps needed to reignite the economy.

The G20 meeting last weekend gave tacit approval to a weak currency as long as it was as a result of domestic monetary easing, but maintained its traditional opposition to currency manipulation aimed at fostering exports and growth of one country at others' expense.

"In light of the G20 statement to avoid competitive devaluation, it will be difficult to talk down the yen specifically. I think the onus now is on policy to do the work," said Sim Moh Siong, FX strategist for Bank of Singapore.

The dollar fell 0.4 percent to 93.15 yen, off its highest since May 2010 of 94.465 hit on February 11. The euro eased 0.3 percent to 124.91 yen. It touched a peak since April 2010 of 127.71 yen on February 6.

Japan logged its biggest monthly trade deficit on record in January, underscoring the country's deteriorating trade balances and accenting the yen's weak fundamental trend.

Sterling was under pressure on growing speculation the UK could soon lose its prized triple-A credit rating. Sterling traded at $1.5444, having plumbed a seven-month low at $1.5414 in New York.

Investors remained wary of possible U.S. federal spending cuts and outcome of the upcoming Italian election. They also awaited the release later in the session of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's January policy meeting for clues to its future bond-buying plans.

The ZEW report was a positive sign ahead of the more important euro zone flash PMIs on Thursday and Germany's IFO business sentiment on Friday, said Vassili Serebriakov, a strategist at BNP Paribas.

The euro extended its gains, rising 0.2 percent to $1.3413.

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano in Singapore and Thuy Ong in Sydney; Edting by Eric Meijer)

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Prosecutors in Oscar Pistorius Case to Resist Bail

PRETORIA, South Africa — Prosecutors were expected on Wednesday to lay out their reasons for opposing bail for Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee global track star accused of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend — a crime he denies.

Mr. Pistorius, 26, arrived early at a courthouse here in a police car, his head covered by a blue blanket, news reports said, to press his case to be released on bail pending trial in the death of Reeva Steenkamp, 29, a model and law graduate found dead with gunshot wounds at his home in a gated community in Pretoria early last Thursday.

His appearance in court later on Wednesday will be his third since the shooting. The scene at the courtroom was described by witnesses as bedlam with journalists battling for space to follow the proceedings.

Mr. Pistorius told the court on Tuesday that on the day of the shooting he heard a strange noise coming from inside his bathroom, climbed out of bed, grabbed his 9-millimeter pistol, hobbled on his stumps to the door and fired four shots.

“I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated,” Mr. Pistorius said in an affidavit read by his defense lawyer, Barry Roux. “I had no intention to kill my girlfriend.”

Prosecutors painted a far different picture, one of a calculated killer, a world-renowned athlete who had the presence of mind and calm to strap on his prosthetic legs, walk 20 feet to the bathroom door and open fire as Ms. Steenkamp cowered inside, behind a locked door.

“The applicant shot and killed an unarmed, innocent woman,” Gerrie Nel, the chief prosecutor, said in court on Tuesday. That, Mr. Nel argued, amounted to premeditated murder, a charge that could send Mr. Pistorius to prison for life.

Lydia Polgreen reported from Pretoria, South Africa, and Alan Cowell from London.

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The U.S. Postal Service Is Getting into the ‘Wearable Electronics’ Business?

Yes, you read that headline right. Strapped for cash and obviously desperate, the United States Postal Service is launching a new line of “‘smart apparel,’ — also known as wearable electronics.” The mailmen-turned-fashionistas will call the new line Rain Heat & Snow, first for men and later for women, and while it’s unclear exactly how smart the apparel gets, reports suggest that you’ll  be able to plug your iPod into your new Postal Service jacket. The agency’s licensing manager, Steven Mills, says that the new line “will put the Postal Service on the cutting edge of functional fashion.” Which is basically true. When was the last time you plugged your iPod into your jacket? That said, when was the last time you used an iPod? Or the U.S. Postal Service?

RELATED: Snail Mail Is Still Too Fast for the U.S. Postal Service

It’s hard to not to give the old USPS a slow clap for this one. It would be one thing if the Postal Service wanted to sell some t-shirts and Dad ties with pictures of stamps on them — they actually tried that back in the 80s, and it didn’t work — but it sounds like they’re actually going after serious outerwear brands like North Face and Burton Snowboards with this one. It’s unclear if the Postal Service can keep up, though. Burton, for one, has a head start, since it partnered with Motorola and released a Bluetooth-enabled snowboarding jacket with a matching, headphone studded beanie back in 2005. The geeks at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) loved it, called it “space age.” The Postal Service, by contrast, opted not to take the fancy brand-name strategy, instead teaming up with the Cleveland-based Wahconah Group. You might know them from their Legends line of men’s clothing, but you probably don’t.

RELATED: The U.S. Postal Service Lost $ 3.3 Billion Last Quarter

The big question remains: Will it work? The Postal Service lost $ 16 billion last year and plans to halt Saturday mail service in an attempt to cut costs and dig itself out of debt. Unfortunately, the drastic measure will cut 22,000 jobs, but it will only save the agency $ 2 billion a year. Suffice it to say that the Postal Service needed to get creative with their revenue streams — and you can’t get much more creative than cyborg jackets. After all, the new ad campaign last year didn’t work, and the Simpson’s stamp venture definitely didn’t work. So why not get into the outdoor gear business? If anybody knows anything about being outside, it’s those letter carriers, right? You know the riff: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

RELATED: Your Pants Are Lying to You

Here’s a little bit of encouraging news. Other companies have tried the apparel route in the past, albeit without the whole sexy wearable electronics angle. Apple released its own clothing line in 1986, and look at where the company is now!

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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What's Next for Mindy McCready's Two Young Boys?

By Steve Helling

02/19/2013 at 07:00 PM EST

Mindy McCready's apparent suicide on Sunday has left her two young sons in custodial limbo.

The boys – Zander, 6, and Zayne, 10 months – had been in state custody since Feb. 7, when McCready called police to ask for help in making her father and stepmother leave her home. When police arrived, McCready appeared to be intoxicated, according to a Department of Human Services report.

In a subsequent petition, the singer's father, Tim McCready, asked the court to order her to undergo mental health and substance abuse evaluation and treatment, alleging that his daughter, who had recently lost her boyfriend, "hasn't had a bath in a week ... screams about everything ... [is] very verbally abusive to Zander."

After a judge granted the petition, the children were quickly removed and placed into foster care. Although McCready was released from treatment, the boys remained in state custody.

At the time, Zander's father, Billy McKnight, requested custody of his son. "My son needs me," he told PEOPLE on Feb. 8. "I'm married, working and successful. I'm on the right track and proud of it. I've been sober for years. I just want my son."

But McCready's mother and stepfather, Gayle and Michael Inge, also want custody of the children – and authorities seem to agree.

In a proposed order sent to Circuit Judge Lee Harrod, the Department of Human Services proposed that the Inges might be a better fit for the children, claiming that they have "a substantial relationship." The Inges had custody of Zander for much the past few years, during McCready’s rehab and jail stints.

With McCready's death, the judge will have to determine what is in the children's best interest. A custody hearing has been scheduled for April 5.

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Drug overdose deaths up for 11th consecutive year

CHICAGO (AP) — Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines.

"The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gathered and analyzed the data.

In 2010, the CDC reported, there were 38,329 drug overdose deaths nationwide. Medicines, mostly prescription drugs, were involved in nearly 60 percent of overdose deaths that year, overshadowing deaths from illicit narcotics.

The report appears in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

It details which drugs were at play in most of the fatalities. As in previous recent years, opioid drugs — which include OxyContin and Vicodin — were the biggest problem, contributing to 3 out of 4 medication overdose deaths.

Frieden said many doctors and patients don't realize how addictive these drugs can be, and that they're too often prescribed for pain that can be managed with less risky drugs.

They're useful for cancer, "but if you've got terrible back pain or terrible migraines," using these addictive drugs can be dangerous, he said.

Medication-related deaths accounted for 22,134 of the drug overdose deaths in 2010.

Anti-anxiety drugs including Valium were among common causes of medication-related deaths, involved in almost 30 percent of them. Among the medication-related deaths, 17 percent were suicides.

The report's data came from death certificates, which aren't always clear on whether a death was a suicide or a tragic attempt at getting high. But it does seem like most serious painkiller overdoses were accidental, said Dr. Rich Zane, chair of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The study's findings are no surprise, he added. "The results are consistent with what we experience" in ERs, he said, adding that the statistics no doubt have gotten worse since 2010.

Some experts believe these deaths will level off. "Right now, there's a general belief that because these are pharmaceutical drugs, they're safer than street drugs like heroin," said Don Des Jarlais, director of the chemical dependency institute at New York City's Beth Israel Medical Center.

"But at some point, people using these drugs are going to become more aware of the dangers," he said.

Frieden said the data show a need for more prescription drug monitoring programs at the state level, and more laws shutting down "pill mills" — doctor offices and pharmacies that over-prescribe addictive medicines.

Last month, a federal panel of drug safety specialists recommended that Vicodin and dozens of other medicines be subjected to the same restrictions as other narcotic drugs like oxycodone and morphine. Meanwhile, more and more hospitals have been establishing tougher restrictions on painkiller prescriptions and refills.

One example: The University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora is considering a rule that would ban emergency doctors from prescribing more medicine for patients who say they lost their pain meds, Zane said.

___

Stobbe reported from Atlanta.

___

Online:

JAMA: http://www.jama.ama-assn.org

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

___

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

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Philippine, Aussie shares at new peaks; yen firms

TOKYO (Reuters) - Philippine and Australian shares scaled new heights on Tuesday but other Asian shares were mixed, with worries about the risk of an inconclusive outcome in Italy's election and about U.S. budget talks limiting the upside after strong rallies in early February.

European markets looked set to inch higher, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open up 0.1 percent. <.l><.eu/>

U.S. stock futures rose 0.1 percent to suggest Wall Street will reopen with a firmer tone after the President's Day holiday on Monday. <.n/>

"Markets have become top-heavy after rallying through early February on signs of economic recovery in the United States and Europe, and investors now await fresh factors to push prices higher from here," said Tomomichi Akuta, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting in Tokyo.

"The broad sentiment is underpinned by a lack of tail risks, but investors are turning to some potentially worrying elements such as Italian elections and U.S. budget talks," he said.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> edged up 0.1 percent. Earlier in the day it had touched a 18-1/2-month high. The index has gained 3.5 percent this year.

Shares in the Philippines <.psi>, where a strong economic growth has led to rising interest in the country as an investment destination, hit a record. The Thai index <.seti> was also up 0.3 percent after recent data showed robust fourth-quarter economic numbers.

Australian shares ended 0.4 percent up at a 4-1/2 year high, continuing a recent rally on better-than-expected corporate earnings.

But Hong Kong shares <.hsi> fell 0.2 percent and Shanghai shares <.ssec> shed 1.1 percent, with real estate and financials leading the declines on concerns that rising property prices would lead to fresh restrictions on the sector.

Tokyo's Nikkei stock average <.n225> ended down 0.3 percent, after surging on Monday to approach its highest level since September 2008 of 11,498.42 tapped on February 6. <.t/>

The concerns about Italy's election this weekend and the talks in Washington over a package of budget cuts set to kick in March 1, also helped limit gains in commodities and also weighed on the euro.

The dollar's strength against a basket of currencies <.dxy> capped gains in gold, with the spot price up 0.2 percent at $1,613.01 an ounce.

London copper steadied at $8,122.50 a metric ton as Monday's three-week low drew bargain hunting given prospects for a slowly improving global economic recovery. Unease over China's limp return to the market from a week-long break held back upside momentum, however.

"I think we've already had the nicest rally that we're going to get this year," Singapore-based Credit Suisse analyst Ivan Szpakowski said. "You can still get some more mild upturns, but frankly as you move to the second half of the year industrial metals are going to trend down.

U.S. crude fell 0.5 percent to $95.43 a barrel while Brent steadied around $117.37.

The euro was steady around $1.3348.

YEN JITTERY

Bank of Japan minutes revealed board members had discussed buying longer-dated government debt at their January meeting, sending the yield on five-year Japanese government bonds to record low.

The yen firmed, however, after Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters Japan has no plans to buy foreign currency bonds as part of monetary easing and as attention remained focused on who will be the next Bank of Japan governor.

The dollar fell 0.3 percent to 93.61 yen, but remained near its highest since May 2010 of 94.465 hit on February 11. The euro eased 0.4 percent to 125.00 yen, below its peak since April 2010 of 127.71 yen touched on February 6

The yen, which has dropped 20 percent against the dollar since mid-November, fell further at the start of the week after financial leaders from the G20 promised not to devalue their currencies to boost exports and avoided singling out Japan for any direct criticism.

The choice of the next BOJ governor and two deputies has drawn attention as a gauge of how strongly Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is committed to reflating the economy. The G20's message was that as long as Japan pursues aggressive monetary easing to achieve that goal, a weaker yen as a result of such domestic monetary policy will be tolerated, analysts say.

"But that means that some other economy's monetary conditions have been tightened," said Barclays Capital in a note.

"Japan hasn't even changed its policy stance thus far, and the effect of expectations of a looser setting have led to limited moves in domestic interest rates, but the sell-off of the JPY has been marked and has clearly caused unease in other economies," the note said.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 19

NEWS An overwhelming percentage of online attacks toward U.S. companies, organizations and government agencies originate from one area of a Shanghai neighborhood, home to a Chinese army unit, according to a report by the computer security firm Mandiant. David E. Sanger, David Barboza and Nicole Perlroth report.

In a surprise predawn homecoming, President Hugo Chávez returned to Venezuela more than two months after having cancer surgery in Cuba, potentially clearing up some of the legal questions that have roiled the nation during his absence but doing little to dispel the uncertainty over who is running the country. William Neuman reports from Caracas.

With conditions continuing to deteriorate, President Obama may reopen the debate over providing weapons to opponents of President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria. Mark Landler and Michael R. Gordon report from Washington.

The president of the European Central Bank sought to ease fears that countries including Japan were deliberately weakening their currencies. James Kanter reports from Brussels.

Striking ground workers and flight attendants for Iberia, the money-losing Spanish airline, clashed with riot police officers at Madrid-Barajas Airport on the first day of work stoppages to protest a plan to eliminate more than 3,800 jobs. Nicola Clark reports.

The online retailer Amazon severed all contact with the security company whose guards are alleged to have worn clothing associated with neo-Nazis and intimidated immigrant temporary workers. Melissa Eddy reports from Berlin.

FASHION Christopher Kane’s first show for PPR is a blend of original ideas, new silhouettes and otherworldly effects. Suzy Menkes writes from London.

ARTS Two exhibitions in Udine, Italy, reflect the grand ambitions of Giambattista Tiepolo, the 18th-century Venetian artist. Roderick Conway Morris reviews from Udine, Italy.

SPORTS Back on top at age 31, Serena Williams’s achievement should rank high on a list of career achievements that already includes 15 Grand Slam singles titles. Christopher Clarey reports.

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Burger King apologizes after Twitter hacking

Somebody hacked Burger King‘s Twitter account on Monday, posting obscene messages and changing its profile picture to a McDonald’s logo.

The tweets stopped after a little more than an hour, and Burger King said it had reached out to Twitter to suspend the account. A Twitter spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone message left on Monday.

Late Monday, Burger King tweeted: “Interesting day here at BURGER KING, but we’re back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!”

Burger King, which usually tweets several times a week, typically does so to promote sales on chicken sandwiches, or to ask questions such as how many bites it takes to eat a chicken nugget.

But just after noon EST on Monday, someone tweeted via Burger King’s account, “We just got sold to McDonalds!” They also changed the icon to rival McDonald Corp.‘s golden arches and the account’s background picture to McDonald’s new Fish McBites.

About 55 tweets and retweets followed over the next hour and a quarter, including some that contained racial epithets, references to drug use and obscenities. The account tweeted: “if I catch you at a wendys, we’re fightin!”

Monday’s appropriation of Burger King’s Twitter account was a relatively mild example of cybersecurity problems, which are causing increasing concern in Washington and for industry. Media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have all said this year that their computer systems were breached, while several NBC websites were briefly hacked in November. White House officials and some lawmakers are pursuing legislation that would make it easier for the government and industry to share information on how to defend against hacking.

Burger King didn’t know who hacked the account, and no other social media accounts were affected, said Bryson Thornton, a spokesman for Miami-based Burger King Worldwide Inc. Its social media team and an outside agency manage the Twitter account, but Thornton declined to say how many people knew the account’s password. Late Monday, Thornton issued an apology to the company’s Twitter followers.

“Earlier today, our official BK Twitter Account was compromised by unauthorized users,” Thornton said in a statement. “Upon learning of this incident, our social media teams immediately began working with Twitter security administrators to suspend the compromised account until we could re-establish our brand’s official Twitter page. We apologize to our loyal fans and followers, whom might have received unauthorized tweets from our account. We are pleased to announce that the account is now active again.”

Twitter acknowledged on Feb. 1 that cyber attackers may have stolen user names and passwords of 250,000 users. It said at the time that it notified users of the breach.

Competitors were sympathetic.

McDonald’s responded on Twitter that it empathized with its Burger King counterparts. “Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking.”

“My real life nightmare is playing out” on Burger King’s twitter feed, wrote Wendy’s social media worker Amy Rose Brown.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Mindy McCready: Under Police Scrutiny at Time of Suicide?

By Steve Helling and Mike Fleeman

02/18/2013 at 06:00 PM EST

Mindy McCready and David Wilson

Courtesy Mindy McCready

When Mindy McCready talked to police in recent weeks, her account of how her boyfriend came to be found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head concerned police, a law enforcement source tells PEOPLE.

"At first, she said she hadn't heard the gunshot because the TV was too loud. Then she said she had heard the gunshot," the source says. "So obviously there were a lot of questions, and the Sheriff was asking for clarification."

But before investigators could re-interview her, the long-troubled country singer also would die under eerily similar circumstances, her body discovered at the same Heber Springs, Ark., house just feet away from where David Wilson died.

McCready's death was blamed on what "appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

This differed from how the sheriff characterized Wilson's case. His cause and manner of death still have not been established by the coroner. It was McCready's publicist, and not a law enforcement official, who announced that Wilson had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

After Wilson's death, McCready, 37, spoke to investigators three times, but they didn't feel as if they were through with her.

"At no point did [police] tell her she was a suspect, and she wasn't officially one," says the source. "But she knew that some of her answers didn't stand up to questioning. She was very cooperative, but she just wasn't making a lot of sense."

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Hip implants a bit more likely to fail in women

CHICAGO (AP) — Hip replacements are slightly more likely to fail in women than in men, according to one of the largest studies of its kind in U.S. patients. The risk of the implants failing is low, but women were 29 percent more likely than men to need a repeat surgery within the first three years.

The message for women considering hip replacement surgery remains unclear. It's not known which models of hip implants perform best in women, even though women make up the majority of the more than 400,000 Americans who have full or partial hip replacements each year to ease the pain and loss of mobility caused by arthritis or injuries.

"This is the first step in what has to be a much longer-term research strategy to figure out why women have worse experiences," said Diana Zuckerman, president of the nonprofit National Research Center for Women & Families. "Research in this area could save billions of dollars" and prevent patients from experiencing the pain and inconvenience of surgeries to fix hip implants that go wrong.

Researchers looked at more than 35,000 surgeries at 46 hospitals in the Kaiser Permanente health system. The research, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, was funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

After an average of three years, 2.3 percent of the women and 1.9 percent of the men had undergone revision surgery to fix a problem with the original hip replacement. Problems included instability, infection, broken bones and loosening.

"There is an increased risk of failure in women compared to men," said lead author Maria Inacio, an epidemiologist at Southern California Permanente Medical Group in San Diego. "This is still a very small number of failures."

Women tend to have smaller joints and bones than men, and so they tend to need smaller artificial hips. Devices with smaller femoral heads — the ball-shaped part of the ball-and-socket joint in an artificial hip — are more likely to dislocate and require a surgical repair.

That explained some, but not all, of the difference between women and men in the study. It's not clear what else may have contributed to the gap. Co-author Dr. Monti Khatod, an orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles, speculated that one factor may be a greater loss of bone density in women.

The failure of metal-on-metal hips was almost twice as high for women than in men. The once-popular models were promoted by manufacturers as being more durable than standard plastic or ceramic joints, but several high-profile recalls have led to a decrease in their use in recent years.

"Don't be fooled by hype about a new hip product," said Zuckerman, who wrote an accompanying commentary in the medical journal. "I would not choose the latest, greatest hip implant if I were a woman patient. ... At least if it's been for sale for a few years, there's more evidence for how well it's working."

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Online:

Journal: http://www.jamainternalmed.com

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Japan stocks rally to near four-year highs, yen resumes fall after G20

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese shares surged 2.1 percent on Monday and were on the brink of revisiting four-year highs tapped recently, as the yen slumped after Tokyo dodged direct criticism from G20 peers on its aggressive reflation plans that have weakened the currency.

The G20 opted not to single out Tokyo, but committed members to refrain from competitive devaluations and said monetary policy would be directed only at price stability and growth. Japan said this decision is a green light to pursue its expansionary policies.

The market's focus is now on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nominee for the next Bank of Japan governor. Abe is expected to announce his choice in coming days.

Sources told Reuters on Friday that former top financial bureaucrat Toshiro Muto is leading the field of candidates to govern the bank. He may intensify stimulus efforts to energise the economy but might not pursue unconventional easing measures.

"The G20 basically gave tacit approval for currency weakening as a result of monetary easing, and not intervention. So that puts focus on what the BOJ will do next. As long as the BOJ shows its seriousness about stamping out deflation, the yen's decline will likely be tolerated," said Citibank Japan chief FX strategist Osamu Takashima.

The dollar gained 0.5 percent to 93.97 yen inching closer to its highest since May 2010 of 94.465 hit on February 11. The euro added 0.3 percent to 125.34 yen, still below its peak since April 2010 of 127.71 yen touched on February 6.

The Nikkei average <.n225> closed up 2.1 percent as exporters and banks led the pack on the softening yen, after surging as much 2.4 percent earlier to come close to its highest level since September 2008 of 11,498.42 tapped on February 6. <.t/>

"The G20 effect is already seen in Abe's general comments on forex today which steered away from giving specifics on a preferred level or direction for the yen," said Yunosuke Ikeda, a senior FX strategist at Nomura Securities.

Abe said on Monday that the BOJ's monetary easing is aimed at beating deflation, not at manipulating the forex market and weakening the yen, and said correcting excessive yen rises would be an appropriate policy direction. Previously, Japanese officials have noted that the current yen selling was a correction to the past excessive yen strength.

The yen's weakness weighed on emerging Asian currencies while South Korean shares <.ks11> eased 0.3 percent on concerns about the eroding competitive edge for the country's exporters.

Japan will keep pursuing its current policy, said Yuna Park, a currency and bond analyst at Dongbu Securities in Seoul. "The rest of Asia will not just wait and see. That will put more pressure on Asian currencies," he said.

A weaker yen would make other currencies relatively stronger against the dollar and fuel speculation that other Asian countries could step in to curb the strength of their currencies, Nomura's Ikeda said.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> paused, after moving in a narrow range. The pan-Asian index briefly hit a 18-1/2-month high on Friday and had its best performance since the week of January 6 with a 1.2 percent weekly gain.

Australian shares led the pan-Asian index with a 0.6 percent rise as a string of earnings reports supported a view that the local economy was in better-than-expected shape.

Markets in China and Taiwan resumed trading after a week-long holiday.

Indonesian stocks <.jkse> inched up 0.1 percent after setting a record high for a fifth straight session on Friday, while shares in Thailand <.seti> were up 0.2 percent as the country's economy grew a robust 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months.

European markets may track lower, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open down 0.1 percent. U.S. stock futures were barely changed. U.S. markets will be closed on Monday for the President's Day holiday. <.l><.eu><.n/>

STOCKS CONSOLIDATE

Data from EPFR Global on Friday underscored that a consolidation was underway in global equities after their recent rally. It showed investors worldwide pulled $3.62 billion from U.S. stock funds in the latest week, the most in ten weeks after taking a neutral stance the prior week. But demand for emerging market equities remained strong, with investors putting $1.81 billion in new cash into stock funds, the fund-tracking firm said.

Commodities markets awaited clues on demand from China, the top consumer.

"China's overall economy is still strong, so the appetite for base metals after Chinese New Year will gradually pick up," said Helen Lau, senior commodity analyst at UOB-Kay Hian in Hong Kong.

London copper fell 0.4 percent to $8,170 a tonne as traders played catch up after a week-long holiday in China, with worries about the euro zone economy weighing on sentiment.

U.S. crude fell 0.2 percent to $95.68 a barrel but Brent inched up 0.1 percent to $117.82.

Gold rebounded from a six-month low on bargain hunting and as jewellers in China returned to the physical market after the Lunar New Year holiday.

(Additional reporting by Jongwoo Cheon; and Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Eric Meijer)

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IHT Rendezvous: In Singapore's Immigration Debate, Sign of Asia's Slipping Middle Class?

BEIJING — Immigration is a hot-button issue nearly everywhere in the world, though the contours of the debate vary from place to place. In the United States, sweeping changes to the law may offer legal residency for millions of people who have entered the country illegally, my colleague Ashley Parker reports.

In Singapore, the debate looks somewhat different: The government plans to increase the population from just over five million to a possible high of nearly seven million by 2030, via regulated, legal immigration, and this is provoking opposition.

So much so that on Saturday, about 3,000 people turned out for what some commentators said was one of the biggest demonstrations in the nation’s history. (If the number seems small, it reflects the tight political control exerted over Singapore life by the People’s Action Party, which has run the country for about half a century and discourages public protest.)

What are the contours of the debate in Singapore?

Concern over booming immigration, often focused on new arrivals from increasingly rich China, has been simmering in the nation, with many feeling that the immigrants do not play by the same rules, that their manners are poor and that they are pushing up prices. That feeling crystallized last year when a wealthy Chinese man driving a Ferrari at high speed killed three people (including himself) in a nighttime accident.

(Similar sentiments are found in Hong Kong, as my colleagues Bettina Wassener and Gerry Mullany wrote.)

Vividly illustrating the resentment, Singaporeans sometimes call the wealthy immigrants “rich Chinese locusts,” according to an article in the Economic Observer’s Worldcrunch.

So the Singapore government’s Population White Paper that passed in Parliament earlier this month, just before Chinese New Year, was bound to stir things up.

The government is presenting the rise in immigration as a target that is needed if Singapore, where immigrants already make up about 40 percent of the population, and which has the highest concentration of millionaires in the world, is to continue to flourish, reports said. Singaporeans just are not having enough children, said the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

“In my view, in 2030, I think six million will not be enough to meet Singaporeans’ needs as our population ages because of this problem of the baby boomers and bulge of aging people,” Mr. Lee said in Parliament, adding that 6.9 million was not a target but a number to be used to help plan for infrastructure.

“Do we really need to increase our population by that much?” wrote a person called Chang Wei Meng in a letter to The Straits Times, according to Reuters. “What happened to achieving the Swiss standard of living?”

Gilbert Goh, a main organizer of the rally Saturday at Singapore’s Speaker’s Corner in a public park, said the protesters had a message: “They want to tell the government, please reconsider this policy. The turnout is a testimony that this policy is flawed and unpopular on the ground,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Goh as saying.

Yet amid the familiar rhetoric about immigrants, heard around the world – they don’t fit in, they’re rude, they’re different – might something more important be going on here?

In a blog post on Singapore News Alternative, Nicole Seah, a politician who has run for Parliament and comments on social issues, wrote: “Along with many other Singaporeans, I oppose the White Paper.”

Why? She is looking for “a society that lives in harmony, rather than tense and overcrowded conditions,” she writes.

“Not the Singapore Inc. that has been aggressively forced down our throats the past few years – a Singapore which is in danger of becoming a transient state where people from all over, come, make their fortunes, and leave.”

Not “a Singapore that has become a playground for the rich and the people who can afford it. A Singapore where the middle class is increasingly drowned out because they do not have the social clout or sufficient representatives in Parliament to voice their concerns.”

Ms. Seah’s statements raise an interesting question: Is this part of a phenomenon that the columnist Chrystia Freeland has written about so ably for this newspaper, the ascendancy of a wealthy, “plutocrat” class and the slipping status of the middle class?

As Ms. Freeland wrote last week: “The most important fact about the United States in this century is that middle-class incomes are stagnating. The financial crisis has revealed an equally stark structural problem in much of Europe.” Is it hitting Asia, too, and does Singapore’s protest speak, at least in part, to this? Hong Kong’s dissatisfaction too?

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Can Vanilla Ice, Hardwick take Streamys to the mainstream?

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Nerd god Chris Hardwick, 1990s rap icon Vanilla Ice and a gallant troupe of YouTube stars have the same mission this weekend – to turn the unknown Streamy Awards into the Golden Globes of online video.

That’s why Tubefilter, which conceived the show to honor the best in online video and helped produce its first two iterations, has partnered with Dick Clark Productions, the company that produces the Globes, as well as the American Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards.

Unlike those events, this show will not be broadcast — it will stream online — but DCP and Tubefilter have planned the event like a major awards show.

They recruited Hardwick, a popular figure with the young, male online community. A former radio DJ turned stand-up comedian and creator of Nerdist Industries, he is something of a professional emcee, hosting podcasts and TV shows — and an unavoidable presence at Comic-Con in San Diego.

They’ve set it at the Palladium, square in the middle of Hollywood, with an after party on the Sunset Strip.

Deep-pocketed companies like Coca-Cola have agreed to sponsor the show, adding a veneer of credibility to a show three years removed from disaster.

Technological glitches, tasteless jokes and streakers marred the 2010 edition, prompting the board of directors of the International Academy of Web Television, which produced the show, to pen a self-lacerating memo.

“Last night in the end was a step backwards for all of us,” Michael Wayne, the board of directors for the IAWTV, wrote. “Like you we watched the show with great embarrassment as our industry was ridiculed and debased.”

He concluded with: “I hope you will judge us not by how hard we have fallen, but by how well we get up, dust ourselves off, and learn from our mistakes.”

Yet IAWTV abandoned the show, launching its own awards that occur during January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Streamys took three years off, and Tubefilter brought in DCP to, in the words of DCP’s Ariel Elazar, “reinvigorate the brand.”

Still, doubts remain.

“An awards show should highlight the best of what it’s honoring for the public outside of that community to have an understanding of what’s going on. Because of problems over the last few years of shows attempting to do that and failing miserable, we may still be too early,” Rafi Fine, who with his brother Benny constitute popular YouTubers The Fine Brothers, told TheWrap.

The Fine Brothers created original video content for each of the first two shows, and though apprehensive, expressed some optimism that the show has found the right formula. They are nominated nine times and are also presenting.

Tubefilter co-founder Drew Baldwin said the first two shows suffered because they were tailored to people in the industry rather than outside fans.

Taking a cue from the Grammys and AMAs, they hope to overcome that problem with Hardwick and memorable musical performances. The lineup mixes well-known musical acts like Vanilla Ice and Soulja Boy with YouTube talent, such as DeStorm and Mike Tompkins.

“At the Golden Globes, Dick Clark brought out Bill Clinton, and it was one of those moments where everyone was freaking out,” Baldwin said.

While few would equate Vanilla Ice with the former president, the goal this year is to inspire through collaboration. Just as the Grammys pair iconic musicians with up-and-comers, Streamy producers hope pairing nouveau digital stars with more mainstream talent will push the awards toward the mainstream without alienating its core audience.

The third edition of the Streamys arrive at a golden time for the online video industry. Premiere Hollywood talent has jumped into the space, writing, directing, producing and starring in shows for YouTube, Yahoo and others. YouTube stars like The Annoying Orange and Fred have amassed enough fans on YouTube — with millions of subscribers — to cross over into television and film. Successful shows like Yahoo’s “Burning Love” are screening at film festivals like South by Southwest.

“The YouTube culture, in a way, does shun television culture and other forms of media,” Corey Moss, vice president of digital at Principato-Young, which manages talent and produces shows, told TheWrap. “There are fans of KassemG and Toby Turner who don’t want their idol to start popping up on TV or awards shows. On the opposite end of that, there are people making great digital content with A-list Hollywood talent who would appreciate that their talent is recognized.”

To please both sides, Dick Clark and Tubefilter have created separate awards for user-generated content and higher-budget series.

So, for example, in the Best Host category, old media stalwart Larry King will compete against YouTube sensation KassemG and the relatively unknown Mark Malkoff.

The Best Comedy Series category pits “Burning Love,” a Yahoo series whose backers include Ben Stiller and Paramount, against “MyMusic,” a channel from the Fine Brothers, YouTube pioneers unknown to wide swaths of the population.

“Every time I’ve seen the nominees list for the Streamys or IAWTV it made me go ‘we’re nowhere,’” Benny Fine told TheWrap. “Until the Streamys this year where I felt OK. It could be the first time outsiders looking in have something to really look at.”

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

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