Egypt protests continue in deadlock over Mursi powers

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters were in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a sixth day on Wednesday, demanding that Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi rescind a decree they say gives him dictatorial powers.


Five months into the Islamist leader's term, and in scenes reminiscent of the popular uprising that unseated predecessor Hosni Mubarak last year, police fired teargas at stone-throwers following protests by tens of thousands on Tuesday against the declaration that expanded Mursi's powers and put his decisions beyond legal challenge.


Protesters say they will stay in Tahrir until the decree is withdrawn, bringing fresh turmoil to a nation at the heart of the Arab Spring and delivering a new blow to an economy already on the ropes.


Senior judges have been negotiating with Mursi about how to restrict his new powers, while protesters want him to dissolve an Islamist-dominated assembly that is drawing up a new constitution and which Mursi protected from legal review.


Any deal to calm the street will likely need to address both issues. But opposition politicians said the list of demands could grow the longer the crisis goes on. Many protesters want the cabinet, which meets on Wednesday, to be sacked, too.


Mursi's administration insists that his actions were aimed at breaking a political logjam to push Egypt more swiftly towards democracy, an assertion his opponents dismiss.


"The president wants to create a new dictatorship," said 38-year-old Mohamed Sayyed Ahmed, who has not had a job for two years. He is one of many in the square who are as angry over economic hardship as they are about Mursi's actions.


"We want the scrapping of the constitutional declaration and the constituent assembly, so a new one is created representing all the people and not just one section," he said.


The West worries about turbulence in a nation that has a peace treaty with Israel and is now ruled by Islamists they long kept at arms length. The United States, a big donor to Egypt's military, has called for "peaceful democratic dialogue".


Two people have been killed in violence since the decree, while low-level clashes between protesters and police have gone on for days near Tahrir. Violence has flared in other cities.


WRANGLES


Trying to ease tensions with judges, Mursi assured Egypt's highest judicial authority that elements of his decree giving his decisions immunity applied only to matters of "sovereign" importance, a compromise suggested by the judges in talks.


That should limit it to issues such as declaring war, but experts said there was much room for interpretation. The judges themselves are divided, and the broader judiciary has yet to back the compromise. Some have gone on strike over the decree.


The fate of the assembly drawing up the constitution has been at the centre of a wrangle between Islamists and their opponents for months. Many liberals, Christians and more moderate Muslims have walked out, saying their voices are not being heard in the body dominated by Islamists.


That has undermined the work of the assembly, which is tasked with shaping Egypt's new democracy. Without a constitution in place, the president's powers are not permanently defined and a new parliament cannot be elected.


For now, Mursi holds both executive and legislative powers. His decree says his decisions cannot be challenged until a new parliament is in place. An election is expected in early 2013.


"If Mursi doesn't respond to the people, they will raise their demands to his removal," said Bassem Kamel, a liberal and former member of the now dissolved parliament that was dominated by Mursi's party, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.


He said Tuesday's protest showed that Egyptians "understood that the Brotherhood isn't for democracy but uses it as a tool to reach power and then to get rid of it".


Protecting his decisions and the constituent assembly from legal review was a swipe at the judiciary, still largely unreformed since Mubarak's era. In a speech on Friday, Mursi praised the judiciary as a whole but referred to corrupt elements he aimed to weed out.


One presidential source said Mursi wanted to re-make the Supreme Constitutional Court, a body of top judges that earlier this year declared the Islamist-led parliament void, leading to its dissolution by the then ruling military.


Both Islamists and their opponents broadly agree that the judiciary needs reform, but Mursi's rivals oppose his methods.


The courts have dealt a series of blows to Mursi and the Brotherhood. The first constituent assembly, also packed with Islamists, was dissolved. An attempt by Mursi in October to remove the unpopular general prosecutor was also blocked.


In his decree, Mursi gave himself the power to sack the prosecutor general and appoint a new one, which he duly did.


(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Will Waterman)


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Nokia wins tribunal ruling on wireless patents












HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia has won its dispute with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) over use of its patents related to wireless local access network (WLAN) technology, the Finnish company said on Wednesday.


Announcing that an arbitrator had ruled in its favor, Nokia said: “It found that RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties.”












Nokia, which is trying to boost its royalty income as its phone business tumbles, said that it had filed cases in the United States, Britain and Canada to enforce the arbitrator’s ruling.


“This could have a significant financial impact, as all BlackBerry devices support WLAN, although the volumes are currently very low in these countries,” IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said.


RIM was not immediately available to comment.


Nokia said it signed a cross-license agreement with RIM covering standards-essential cellular patents in 2003; a deal that was amended in 2008. RIM sought arbitration in 2011, arguing that the license should be extended to cover WLAN patents.


Nokia, along with Ericsson and Qualcomm, is among the leading patent holders in the wireless industry. Patent royalties generate annual revenue of about 500 million euros ($ 646 million) for Nokia.


Based on a Nortel patent sale and Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, some investors and analysts say that Nokia’s patent portfolio alone merits its current share price of 2.50 euros.


However, the patent market has cooled since those deals were made and industry experts say that fair value of patents in large portfolios is $ 100,000 to $ 200,000, pricing Nokia’s portfolio at up to 0.50 euros per share. ($ 1 = 0.7733 euros)


(Editing by David Goodman)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Dancing with the Stars Crowns an All-Star Winner






Update








UPDATED
11/27/2012 at 11:00 PM EST

Originally published 11/27/2012 at 10:50 PM EST







Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke Charvet


Adam Larkey/ABC


There's a new leading lady!

The first all-female finale of Dancing with the Stars featured all-stars Shawn Johnson, Kelly Monaco and Melissa Rycroft in a fierce battle Tuesday night for the mirror ball trophy.

After taking big risks in Monday night's performance show, the stars and their pro partners – Derek Hough, Val Chmerkovskiy and Tony Dovolani – performed "instant dances."

With the competitors getting their dance-style instructions less than an hour before hitting the floor, the field was whittled down to two couples. Read on to find out who won.

After Monaco was the first eliminated, it came down to Johnson and Rycroft. And the winner was ... Rycroft!

Amid showering confetti, the reality star and Dovolani clutched the trophy. They embraced and jumped up and down.

Rycroft was the only competitor among the final three all-stars to not have won before. Dovolani had labored 14 seasons without previously winning.

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Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

___

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

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Stock futures signal slightly higher open

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising 0.1 to 0.2 percent.


Market sentiment improved after Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund clinched agreement late on Monday on reducing Greece's debt in a breakthrough to release urgently needed loans to keep the near-bankrupt economy afloat.


The Commerce Department releases October durable goods orders at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists expect a 0.6 percent fall in orders in October, against a 9.8 percent rise in September.


ConocoPhillips' partners in Kazakhstan's Kashagan field have 60 days to exercise pre-emption rights to prevent India's ONGC Videsh from buying an 8.4 percent stake in the project held by the U.S. company, the Indian firm's managing director said.


ICSC/Goldman Sachs release chain store sales for the week ended November 24 at 7.45 a.m. ET. In the previous week, sales fell 0.3 percent.


Redbook releases its Retail Sales Index of department and chain store sales for November at 8.55 a.m. ET. In the prior period, sales were unchanged.


Standard & Poor's releases its S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for September at 9 a.m. ET. Economists expect an adjusted 20 city index to rise 0.4 percent, versus a 0.5 percent increase in the previous month.


Europe is preparing to follow the United States in delaying the introduction of stricter rules on bank capital, while it lobbies for a rethink of the U.S. stance, EU sources said.


However, the head of the Basel Committee at the Bank of International Settlements told Reuters on Tuesday that the introduction of stricter capital rules for banks will go ahead as planned on January 1.


Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago releases its Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index for October at 8.30 a.m. ET. The index read 93.4 in the prior month.


Conference Board releases November consumer confidence at 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect a reading of 73.0, compared with 72.2 in October.


The Federal Housing Finance Agency issues its Home Price Index for September at 10 a.m. ET. In the prior month, the index rose 0.7 percent.


European stocks <.fteu3> rose 0.5 percent on Tuesday, recovering after weakness in the previous session.


U.S. stocks slipped on Monday after posting their best week in over five months as investors reacted to a lack of visible progress in budget deficit discussions in Washington.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 77.92 points, or 0.60 percent, to 12,931.76. The S&P 500 Index <.spx> dropped 6.99 points, or 0.50 percent, to 1,402.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed less than a point at 2,966.75.


(Reporting by Atul Prakash; editing by Patrick Graham)


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Arafat's grave opened for poison tests

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Forensic experts took samples from Yasser Arafat's buried corpse in the West Bank on Tuesday, trying to determine if he was murdered by Israeli agents using the hard-to-trace radioactive poison, Polonium.


Palestinians witnessed the funeral of their hero and longtime leader eight years ago, but conspiracy theories surrounding his death have never been laid to rest.


Many are convinced their icon was the victim of a cowardly assassination, and may stay convinced whatever the outcome of this autopsy. But some in the city of Ramallah where he lies deplored the exhumation.


"This is wrong. After all this time, today they suddenly want to find out the truth?" said construction worker Ahmad Yousef, 31, who stopped to watch the disinterment, carried out behind a wall of blue plastic near the Palestinian presidency headquarters.


"They should have done it eight years ago," he said.


French magistrates in August opened a murder inquiry into Arafat's death in Paris in 2004 after a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of polonium on clothing of his which was supplied by his widow, Suha, for a television documentary.


"Samples will be taken according to a very strict protocol and these samples will be analyzed," said Darcy Christen, spokesman for Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland that carried out the original tests on Arafat's clothes.


"In order to do these analyses, to check, cross-check and double cross-check, it will take several months and I don't think we'll have anything tangible available before March or April next year," he added.


Arafat was always a freedom fighter to Palestinians but a terrorist to Israelis first, and a partner for peace only later. He led the bid for a Palestinian state through years of war and peacemaking, then died in a French hospital aged 75 after a short, mysterious illness.


No autopsy was carried out at the time, at the request of Suha, and French doctors who treated him said they were unable to determine the cause of death.


But allegations of foul play immediately surfaced, and many Palestinians pointed the finger at Israel, which confined Arafat to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah for the final two and a half years of his life after a Palestinian uprising erupted.


Israel denies murdering him. Its leader at the time, Ariel Sharon, now lies in a coma from which he is expected never to awake. Israel invited the Palestinian leadership to release all Arafat's medical records, which were never made public following his death and still have not been opened.


FRENCH INVESTIGATORS


Polonium, apparently ingested with food, was found to have caused the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. But some experts have questioned whether Arafat could have died in this way, pointing to a brief recovery during his illness that they said was not consistent with radioactive poisoning. They also noted he did not lose all his hair.


Eight years is considered the limit to detect any traces of the fast-decaying polonium and Lausanne hospital questioned in August if it would be worth seeking any samples, if access to Arafat's body was delayed as late as "October or November."


Not all of Arafat's family agreed to the exhumation, and his wife Suha chose not to attend the operation she had prompted.


Working in parallel with the forensic team, French magistrates were in Ramallah this week to ask if members of Arafat's inner circle might be able to shed light on his death.


One source told Reuters the French had a list of 60 questions, and had questioned one man for five hours.


Many Palestinians acknowledge that a Palestinian would almost certainly have had to administer any poison, wittingly or unwittingly.


(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Tom Pfeiffer)


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India: 2 policemen suspended, magistrate transferred for arrest of 2 women over Facebook post












NEW DELHI – An Indian official says two senior policemen have been suspended for arresting two women over a Facebook post criticizing the shutdown of Mumbai for the funeral of a powerful politician.


Maharashtra state Home Minister R.R. Patil said Tuesday the policemen were suspended indefinitely and the magistrate who registered the case against the women has been transferred to another district.












Police also arrested nine men who vandalized a medical clinic run by the uncle of one of the women, Patil said.


One of the women had posted a Facebook comment complaining that Mumbai had come to a standstill after the death of rightwing leader Bal Thackeray. Her friend “liked” the post.


Their arrest last week was seen as a misuse of Internet laws and an attempt to curb freedom of expression.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Women Sizzle in Dancing with the Stars All-Star Finale















11/26/2012 at 09:35 PM EST







From left: Shawn Johnson, Kelly Monaco and Melissa Rycroft


Craig Sjodin/ABC (3)


It's raining 10s, hallelujah!

On the final Monday night of competition for the all-star season of Dancing with the Stars, the all-female top three – Melissa Rycroft, Shawn Johnson and Kelly Monaco – took big risks during two final routines with their partners.

Each couple performed their favorite dance of the season and "super-sized freestyle," which allowed the pros – Tony Dovolani, Derek Hough and Val Chmerkovskiy – to incorporate the music and choreography of their choice with sets, additional performers and costumes to create routines to wow the judges and the voters at home.

Here's how it all played our inside the ballroom on Monday night:

Melissa and Tony dominated with two perfect 30s for a total of 60. Kelly and Val were close behind with 59 points. And Shawn and Derek remained very much in it with 57.

ROUND 1
Kelly and Val, who have not scored a 10 this season, chose the paso doble as their favorite dance. "I want to make it so technically perfect, so passionate that the judges have no choice but to give us a 10," she said before doing a routine that judge Len Goodman called their "best dance to date." But it wasn't perfect: Carrie Ann Inaba spotted a "little slip-up," an unintentional release, and knocked off half a point, leaving them just shy of 30 with 29.5.

Melissa and Tony performed their favorite dance, a samba. Bruno Tonioli called her a "deliciously irresistible Brazilian bombshell," and said, "You've grown so much as a performer. You really have blossomed." Added Len: "You captured the party flavor of the samba, great technique, great rhythm, fabulous." They earned a perfect 30.

Shawn and Derek decided to revisit their quickstep and performed their original choreography even though some of the moves were against the rules. "The standing ovation means everything to us," Shawn said, explaining their determination to entertain rather than just earn points. Though the judges said the routine was "fantastic," they also called them out for their controversial decision. "You're not allowed to break hold, which you did, you're not allowed to do lifts, which you did," Len said. "You leave me nowhere to go." Added Carrie Ann: "Points do matter ... I'm a little disappointed but I hope your risk pays off." They scored 27 our of 30.

ROUND 2
Kelly started her super-size freestyle by performing aerial work hanging from the ballroom rafters as Val played the violin. According to Bruno the routine, which they danced to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," combined Cirque du Soleil with Dirty Dancing. "This was the perfect dance," Carrie Ann said of their 29.5-point performance. "You executed everything great, you added artistry and you told us a happy ending to a beautiful love story."

Melissa and Tony did something never done before in the finale – a contemporary routine. "We're taking a huge risk," she said of their lift-heavy dance. Carrie Ann agreed: "With great risk comes great rewards," she said, "Freestyle jackpot!" The routine left Len speechless but when he held up his 10-point paddle, he said, "I wish I had an 11." They earned another perfect 30.

Shawn and Derek performed the final dance of the night with the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team – a.k.a. The Fierce Five. "It was a medley of Derek and Shawn's greatest hits," was Len's assessment. Carrie Ann called it "sensational." Bruno said it was "the crowning glory on a fantastic night," and they got a perfect 30.

But will it be enough to make up for their unconventional quickstep? On Tuesday the couples will perform one more time for points when they pick their music and dance live on the air. And then an all-star winner will be crowned.

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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Stock futures signal early losses

PARIS (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.29 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.21 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.23 percent at 4.37 a.m. ET.


European equities inched lower following last week's strong rally in morning trade on Monday while the euro hovered near a one-month peak against the dollar as investors awaited the outcome of talks to provide a new tranche of emergency loans to Greece.


Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund will seek to unfreeze the second bailout package for Greece on Monday, but they first need to agree if some of the official loans to Athens might eventually be forgiven to cut Greek debt.


U.S. lawmakers have made little progress in the past 10 days toward a compromise to avoid the harsh tax increases and government spending cuts scheduled for January 1, a senior Democratic senator said on Sunday.


Knight Capital Group Inc is in talks about possibly selling its market-making operation, its largest and most profitable business, but it is not known if a deal will happen, a source said on Saturday.


Apple Inc has asked a federal court to add six more products to its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co , including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, in the latest in move in an ongoing legal war between the two companies.


U.S. shoppers went to stores earlier this Thanksgiving weekend and bought online more than in years past, giving retailers a strong start to the holiday shopping season, data showed on Sunday.


Black Friday's online sales topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the internet do their early holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday.


U.S.-based stock funds suffered the most outflows since late July as U.S. lawmakers inched ahead in talks to avert the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts set to occur in January, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Friday.


European banks have asked the European Commission to postpone the introduction of tougher global bank capital rules by a year to 2014 after U.S. regulators delayed application of the new requirements.


U.S. stocks rose for a fifth day during a holiday-shortened, thinly traded session on Friday as investors picked up recently beaten-down shares of large technology companies.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 172.79 points, or 1.35 percent, to 13,009.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 18.12 points, or 1.30 percent, to 1,409.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> climbed 40.30 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,966.85.


(Reporting by Blaise Robinson/editing by Chris Pizzey)


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