Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.

Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans public use of marijuana, which is punishable by a fine, just like drinking in public.

Nevertheless, some people planned to gather at 12:01 a.m. PST Thursday to smoke in public beneath Seattle's Space Needle. Others planned a midnight party outside the Seattle headquarters of Hempfest, the 21-year-old festival that attracts tens of thousands of pot fans every summer.

"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."

In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

That law also takes effect Thursday, when gay and lesbian couples can start picking up their wedding certificates and licenses at county auditors' offices. Those offices in King County, the state's largest and home to Seattle, and Thurston County, home to the state capital of Olympia, planned to open the earliest, at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, to start issuing marriage licenses. Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.

The Seattle Police Department provided this public marijuana use enforcement guidance to its officers via email Wednesday night: "Until further notice, officers shall not take any enforcement action — other than to issue a verbal warning — for a violation of Initiative 502."

Thanks to a 2003 law, marijuana enforcement remains the department's lowest priority. Even before I-502 passed on Nov. 6, police rarely busted people at Hempfest, despite widespread pot use, and the city attorney here doesn't prosecute people for having small amounts of marijuana.

Officers will be advising people to take their weed inside, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.

But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.

The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.

"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress" — a non-issue, since the measures passed in Washington and Colorado don't "nullify" federal law, which federal agents remain free to enforce.

The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.

That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

Colorado's measure, as far as decriminalizing possession goes, is set to take effect by Jan. 5. That state's regulatory scheme is due to be up and running by October 2013.

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Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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Stock futures signal early gains

PARIS (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.1 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.2 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.1 percent at 5:20 a.m. EDT.

* European stocks were up on Thursday morning, with a number of benchmark indexes hitting their highs for the year, boosted by hopes a U.S. budget deal will be reached before the year-end and that the worst of Europe's debt crisis might be over.

* Investors will keep a close eye on the European Central Bank on Thursday, which is expected to keep interest rates on hold but may offer clues on its policy path for next year with updated forecasts likely to present a grim outlook for the euro zone economy in 2013.

* Chevron Corp added $15 billion to the cost of the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) export complex, as the U.S. oil company's largest single development joins a growing list of Australian LNG projects to run over budget.

* U.S. securities regulators charged a Wells Fargo investment banker and nine others with fraud on Wednesday in connection with their alleged role in an insider-trading ring that earned more than $11 million by trading on tips about impending mergers.

* CME Group Inc , the biggest operator of U.S. futures exchanges, on Wednesday joined a number of companies moving 2013 dividend payouts to this month to shield shareholders from expected tax increases.

* Starbucks Corp plans to increase the number of its cafes in the Americas by more than 20 percent by opening more than 3,000 new shops there in the next five years as it looks to rely on tea and juice as much as coffee, it said on Wednesday.

* Apple Inc's rank in China's smartphone market, which is set to become the world's largest this year, fell to No.6 in the third quarter as it faces tougher competition from Chinese brands, research firm IDC said on Thursday.

* Research In Motion outlined a step-by-step program on Thursday to help its large base of enterprise clients transition across to its soon to be launched new BlackBerry 10 platform.

* U.S. tax preparer H&R Block Inc reported a lower quarterly loss, helped by higher savings from cost reduction measures aimed at narrowing its focus to its core tax business.

* On the macro front, investors awaited weekly jobless claims, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 380,000 new filings compared with 393,000 in the prior week.

* A volatile trading session ended with U.S. stocks mostly higher on Wednesday, even as Apple, the most valuable company in the United States, suffered its worst day of losses in almost four years.

In a strange occurrence, Apple accounted for the entirety of the Nasdaq 100's <.ndx> fall of 1.1 percent, while the Dow industrials - which do not include Apple as a component - enjoyed the best day since November 28.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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Rivals clash despite tanks at Egypt presidential palace

CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamists and their rivals clashed in an outbreak of stone-throwing near the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday, even though Egyptian army tanks had moved in to try to halt violence that has killed seven people.

The military played a crucial role in ending Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule by taking over from him to manage a transitional period, but it has stayed out of the latest crisis.

The commander of the Republican Guard, whose units were involved in the deployment around the palace, said it was meant to separate the opposing sides, not to repress them.

"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.

Armored troop carriers also deployed and troops unfurled barbed wire to protect the palace and help police pacify what had become a chaotic battleground for thousands of supporters of Mohamed Mursi and opponents of the Islamist president.

Mursi himself, silent in the turbulence of the last few days, will address the nation later in the day, state television quoted a presidential adviser as saying.

After opposing crowds fought long into the night, the streets around the palace were much calmer in the morning, apart from the brief period of rock-throwing between the hundreds of Islamists and dozens of opposition partisans still at the scene.

Army officers on the spot urged the combatants to back off and stop bloodshed that is further dividing Egypt and imperiling its quest for political stability and economic recovery nearly two years after mass protests overthrew Mubarak.

Officials said 350 people had been wounded, in addition to the seven deaths, underlining the scale of the conflict in the Egyptian capital and other cities, following bitter rows over Mursi's assumption of wide powers on November 22 to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.

MORE PROTESTS PLANNED

The Supreme Guide of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, to which Mursi belonged before he was narrowly elected president in June, appealed for unity. Divisions among Egyptians "only serve the nation's enemies", Mohamed Badie said in a statement.

With at least seven tanks at the palace corners, backed by about 10 armored troop carriers and 20 police trucks, the two sides mostly shouted slogans at each other from a distance.

But opposition activist Hamdi Ghassan told Reuters at the scene that protesters would arrive from other parts of Cairo later in the day, accusing Mursi's supporters of bussing in people from the countryside to boost their presence.

Mursi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new "dictatorship" with his November 22 decree and were further angered when an Islamist-dominated assembly hastily approved a draft constitution due to go to a referendum on December 15.

The president has defended his decree as necessary to prevent courts still full of judges appointed by Mubarak from derailing a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition.

Around the palace, traffic was moving through streets strewn with rocks thrown during violence in which petrol bombs and guns were also used. Hundreds of Mursi supporters were still in the area, many wrapped in blankets and some reading the Koran.

"We came here to support President Mursi and his decisions. He is the elected president of Egypt," said demonstrator Emad Abou Salem, 40. "He has legitimacy and nobody else does."

Mursi's opponents say the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled the president to power in a June election, is behind the violence. The Brotherhood says the opposition is to blame and that six of the dead were Mursi supporters.

WESTERN CONCERN

The United States, worried about the stability of an Arab state which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid, urged dialogue. Britain also called for restraint and an "inclusive" political process.

Vice President Mahmoud Mekky proposed "personal ideas" for a negotiated way out on Wednesday, saying amendments to disputed articles in the constitution could be agreed with the opposition. A written agreement could then go to parliament, to be elected after this month's referendum on the constitution.

"There must be consensus," he told a news conference in the presidential palace as fighting raged outside on Wednesday. But the opposition stuck by its demand for Mursi to cancel the November 22 decree and postpone the referendum before any dialogue.

Protests spread to other cities, and offices of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party in Ismailia and Suez were torched.

But Mursi has shown no sign of buckling under pressure from protesters, confident that the Islamists, who have dominated both elections since Mubarak was overthrown, can win the referendum and the parliamentary election to follow.

As well as relying on his Brotherhood power base, Mursi may also draw on a popular yearning for stability and economic revival after almost two years of political turmoil.

Opposition coordinator Mohamed ElBaradei said on Wednesday the street action and the polarization of society were pushing Egypt into violence and "could draw us to something worse".

The Egyptian pound plunged 4 percent on Thursday to its lowest level in eight years, after previously firming on hopes that a $4.8 billion IMF loan would stabilize the economy. The Egyptian stock market fell 4.4 percent after it opened.

(Additional reporting by Reuters TV; Tamim Elyan, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry, Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Perry; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Giles Elgood)

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Zynga Wants to Get into the Gambling Business

Zynga recently filed a preliminary application for a gambling license in Nevada. We’re not talking about gambling with Farmville credits, either. We’re talking cold hard cash.

RELATED: Irish Olympic Athlete Accused of Betting on an Opponent

Getting a gaming license is no easy task in Nevada. The paperwork that Zynga filed this week is just the beginning of a process that the company’s executives expect to take between a year and 18 months. During that time, the state will review Zynga’s financial records and decide whether or not its fit to hold a license. Even then, it’s unclear exactly what the world of real money online gambling will hold. Only this year did the Justice Department lift its ban on online gambling, and so far, Nevada is the first and only state to begin issuing licenses to companies offering online poker games. And even then, the license is only good inside the state of Nevada, where there’s more sand than people.

RELATED: It’s Official: The Maker of Farmville Is Worth $ 8.9 Billion

Zynga’s willing to take its chances. A lot could happen in the next year or so, and there’s been talk of some sort of agreement between states that would open up the market significantly. And new openings in the market is exactly what Zynga really wants. “As we’ve said previously, the broader U.S. market is an opportunity that’s further out on the horizon based on legislative developments, but we are preparing for a regulated market,” said Zynga Chief Revenue Officer Barry Cottle in a statement.

RELATED: Romney Triumphs in Nevada, Says Obama is ‘Trying to Take a Bow’

This could be really good for Zynga. The five-year-old company has been on a bit of downward spiral, lately. With its earnings per user on a steady decline, Zynga’s stock price has plummeted by more than 75 percent, and a number of key executives have left this year. It’s hard to say exactly why people have cooled on Zynga’s games, most of which live in the Facebook ecosystem, but if the company didn’t do something soon, there was a chance that it could be in real trouble, real soon. And what’s the best way to get out of financial trouble? Gambling. At least if you’re on the right side of the table, it does.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift Collect Grammy Nominations

12/06/2012 at 01:00 AM EST

How FUN!

The Grammys handed out their nominations Wednesday night at a concert in Nashville and there was a decidedly youthful feel: Taylor Swift earned a nod for record of the year and the band FUN joined Frank Ocean with the trifecta of album and record of the year and best new artist.

In the country categories, Blake Shelton is up against Carrie Underwood for best solo performance and Miranda Lambert was nominated for best album.

Here are some of the major nominations. For a complete list go to Grammy.com:

Album of the Year:
El Camino – The Black Keys
Some Nights– FUN.
Babel – Mumford & Sons
Channel Orange – Frank Ocean
Blunderbuss – Jack White

Record of the Year:
Lonely Boy – The Black Keys
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
We Are Young – FUN. featuring Janelle Monáe
Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye Featuring Kimbra
Thinkin Bout You – Frank Ocean
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift

Best New Artist:
Alabama Shakes
FUN
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean

Song Of The Year:
"The A Team" – Ed Sheeran, songwriter (Ed Sheeran)
"Adorn" – Miguel Pimentel, songwriter (Miguel)
"Call Me Maybe" – Tavish Crowe, Carly Rae Jepsen & Josh Ramsay, songwriters (Carly Rae Jepsen)
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" – Jörgen Elofsson, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin & Ali Tamposi, songwriters (Kelly Clarkson)
"We Are Young" – Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (FUN. featuring Janelle Monáe)

Best Country Solo Performance:
"Home" – Dierks Bentley
"Springsteen" – Eric Church
"Cost Of Livin'" – Ronnie Dunn
"Wanted" – Hunter Hayes
"Over" – Blake Shelton
"Blown Away" – Carrie Underwood

Best Country Album:
Uncaged – Zac Brown Band
Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes
Living For A Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran – Jamey Johnson
Four The Record– Miranda Lambert
The Time Jumpers – The Time Jumpers

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Study: Drug coverage to vary under health law

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says basic prescription drug coverage could vary dramatically from state to state under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

That's because states get to set benefits for private health plans that will be offered starting in 2014 through new insurance exchanges.

The study out Tuesday from the market analysis firm Avalere Health found that some states will require coverage of virtually all FDA-approved drugs, while others will only require coverage of about half of medications.

Consumers will still have access to essential medications, but some may not have as much choice.

Connecticut, Virginia and Arizona will be among the states with the most generous coverage, while California, Minnesota and North Carolina will be among states with the most limited.

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Online:

Avalere Health: http://tinyurl.com/d3b3hfv

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Stock futures signal gains at open

PARIS (Reuters) - Stocks were indicated to open higher on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.35 percent, Dow Jones up 0.43 percent and Nasdaq 100 up 0.41 percent at 4:55 a.m. EDT.

* European shares resumed a recent sharp rally on Wednesday after comments from China's new leader boosted global growth expectations.

* Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said the country will maintain its fine-tuning of economic policies in 2013 to ensure stable economic growth, sparking a sharp rally in Chinese shares with the Shanghai Composite Index <.ssec> surging 2.9 percent.

* Xi listed tax reform, urbanization and allowing the market to play a bigger role in setting resource prices as among his key priorities.

* On the domestic front, investors awaited ADP's November employment report, due at 8:15 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey expect 125,000 jobs were created versus 158,000 in October. Other data on Wednesday include factory orders and ISM's November non-manufacturing index, both due at 11 a.m. EDT.

* Repsol filed a U.S. lawsuit to block Chevron Corp's deal with Argentina's YPF , ramping up the Spanish oil company's legal response to the loss of its assets in Argentina.

* Programmable chipmaker Altera Corp trimmed its fourth-quarter revenue expectation citing fewer orders for its older products, sending its shares down 2 percent after the bell.

* Aerovironment Inc posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit as its unmanned aircraft unit sold more fixed-price products, sending its shares up 9 percent after the bell.

* Pandora Media Inc

lowered its fourth-quarter guidance, blaming a pull-back by advertisers on concerns about the U.S. budget, but analysts suggested it was due more to increasing competition.

* The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 98-0 to approve a wide-ranging defense bill that authorizes $631.4 billion in funding for the U.S. military, the war in Afghanistan and nuclear weapons.

* Walt Disney gave a much needed boost to Netflix , becoming the first major Hollywood studio to use the video service to bypass premium channels like HBO that traditionally controlled the delivery of movies to TV subscribers.

* The U.S. securities regulator is investigating a $10 million stock sale in March by Steven Fishman, chief executive of close-out retailer Big Lots Inc who announced his retirement on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the inquiry.

* U.S. stocks finished slightly lower in a quiet session on Tuesday as the back-and-forth wrangling over the "fiscal cliff" gave investors little reason to act.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 13.82 points, or 0.11 percent, to 12,951.78 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dipped 2.41 points, or 0.17 percent, to 1,407.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 5.51 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 2,996.69.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by John Stonestreet)

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Egypt's Mursi back at palace after night of protests

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi returned to work on Wednesday a day after slipping out of his palace when it came under siege from protesters furious at his drive to push through a new constitution after temporarily expanding his own powers.

The Health Ministry said 35 protesters were wounded and the Interior Ministry said 40 policemen were hurt in clashes around the presidential palace on Tuesday. While they fired tear gas when protesters breached barricades to reach the palace walls, riot police appeared to handle the disturbance with restraint.

A presidential source said Mursi was back in his office even though up to 200 demonstrators had camped out near one entrance to the palace in the northern Cairo district of Heliopolis overnight. Traffic was flowing normally in the area where thousands of people had protested the night before, and riot police had been withdrawn, a Reuters witness said.

The rest of the Egyptian capital Cairo was calm, despite the political furore over Mursi's November 22 decree handing himself wide powers and shielding his decisions from judicial oversight.

The Islamist leader says he acted to prevent courts from derailing a newly drafted constitution that will go to a referendum on December 15, after which Mursi's decree will lapse.

"Our demands from the president: retract the presidential decree and cancel the referendum on the constitution," read a placard hung by demonstrators on a palace gate.

The crowds had gathered in what organizers had dubbed a "last warning" to Mursi. "The people want the downfall of the regime!" they chanted, roaring the signature slogan of last year's uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

But the "last warning" may turn out to be one of the last gasps for a disparate opposition which has little chance of stopping next week's vote on a constitution drafted over six months and swiftly approved by an Islamist-dominated assembly.

Facing the gravest crisis of his six-month-old tenure, the Islamist president has shown no sign of buckling under pressure, confident that the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies can win the referendum and a parliamentary election to follow.

Many Egyptians yearn for an end to political upheaval that has scared off investors and tourists, worsening an economic crisis.

COURT PROTEST

Dozens of pro-Mursi demonstrators, watched by equal numbers of police, waved flags outside the Supreme Constitutional Court, whose rulings have complicated the Islamists' rise to power.

"You are not a political agency," read one banner held by the demonstrators, addressing a court that in June ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-led lower house of parliament.

Mursi issued his November 22 decree temporarily putting his actions above the law to forestall any court ruling to dissolve the upper house or the assembly that wrote the constitution.

Now that the document has been approved and preparations for the referendum are under way, it is not clear whether the president might roll back his decree as a sop to the opposition.

State institutions, with the partial exception of the judiciary, have mostly fallen in behind Mursi, who emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood to win a free election in June.

The army, which backed all Egypt's previous presidents in the republic's six-decade history, has gone back to barracks, having apparently lost its appetite to intervene in politics.

In a bold move, Mursi sacked Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the Mubarak-era army commander and defense minister, in August and removed the sweeping powers that the military council which took over after Mubarak's fall had grabbed two months earlier.

The liberals, leftists, Christians, ex-Mubarak followers and others opposed to the president who was narrowly elected in June against a secular rival have yet to generate a mass movement or a grassroots political base to challenge the Brotherhood.

Protesters have scrawled "leave" over Mursi's palace walls, but the president has made clear he is not going anywhere.

"The crisis we have suffered for two weeks is on its way to an end, and very soon, God willing," Saad al-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, told Reuters on Tuesday, saying approval of the constitution in the forthcoming referendum would end the turmoil set off by Mursi's decree.

The Islamic Forces Coalition, which includes the Brotherhood, Salafis and other Islamic parties, condemned the "insulting" demonstrations outside the presidential palace.

"We remind (opposition figures) that the deciding factor in these differences is what the ballot boxes say, not what sabotage attempts create," it said in a statement.

Investors have seized on hopes that Egypt's turbulent transition, which has buffeted the economy for two years, may now be heading for calmer waters, sending stocks 1 per cent higher in early trading after a 3.5 percent rally on Tuesday.

The most populous Arab nation has turned to the IMF for a $4.8 billion loan to help it out of a crisis that has depleted its foreign currency reserves.

The government said on Wednesday the process was on track and Egypt's request would go to the IMF board as expected.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Software guru McAfee says to seek asylum in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – U.S. anti-virus software guru John McAfee, who is on the run from police in Belize seeking to question him in a murder probe, has crossed into Guatemala and said on Tuesday he will seek political asylum there.

McAfee has been in hiding for three weeks since police in Belize said they wanted to question him as “a person of interest” about the murder of fellow American Gregory Faull, with whom McAfee had quarreled.

McAfee smuggled himself and his girlfriend, Samantha, across the porous land border that Belize shares with Guatemala. He stayed at a hotel in a national park before heading for Guatemala City on Monday evening.

“I have no plans much for the future now. The reason I chose Guatemala is two-fold,” McAfee told Reuters by telephone from Guatemala’s Supreme Court, flanked by his lawyer, former attorney general and lawyer Telesforo Guerra.

“It is a country bordering Belize, it is a country that understands the corruption within Belize and most importantly, the former attorney general of the country is Samantha’s uncle and I knew that he would assist us with legal proceedings.”

McAfee has denied involvement in the murder and told Reuters on Monday he would not turn himself in. He posted repeatedly on his blog www.whoismcafee.com while on the run, describing how he would constantly change his disguise to elude capture.

On Tuesday, he appeared with his hair and goatee died black, and wearing a dark suit and tie – a far cry from the surfer-style blonde hair highlights, shorts and tribal-tattooed bare shoulders he sported in Belize.

“(Guerra) is now attempting to get political asylum for myself and for Sam. I don’t think there will be much of a problem. From here I can speak freely and safely,” McAfee said.

TECH GENIUS, “BONKERS”

McAfee says he believes authorities in Belize would kill him if he turned himself in for questioning. Belize’s prime minister has denied the claim and called the 67-year-old paranoid and “bonkers.”

On the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, residents say he is eccentric, impulsive, erratic and at times unstable, with a penchant for guns and young women.

He would often be seen with armed bodyguards, pistols tucked into his belt, and McAfee’s neighbor had complained about the loud barking of dogs that guarded his exclusive beachside compound.

His run-in with authorities in Belize is a world away from a successful life in the United States, where he started McAfee Associates in 1989 and made millions of dollars developing the Internet anti-virus software that carries his name.

There was already a case against McAfee in Belize for possession of illegal firearms, and police had previously raided his property on suspicion he was running a lab to make illegal synthetic narcotics.

McAfee says he has been persecuted for refusing to donate money to politicians, that he loves Belize, and considers it his home.

Guatemala is a canny choice to seek refuge. It has long been embroiled in a territorial dispute with Belize. Guatemala claims the southern half of Belize and all of its islands, or cayes, rightfully belong to it. There is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

A Guatemalan government source said there was “no reason” to detain McAfee because there was no legal case against him pending in the country.

Harold Caballeros, Guatemala’s foreign minister, said his government was unaware of any arrest warrant and would study McAfee’s asylum request once presented, saying its success would “depend on the arguments.”

Guerra told Reuters McAfee would return to Belize once his situation in Guatemala was made legal, citing the fact he had crossed into the country illegally to avoid capture by police in Belize.

“He can go to the United States, there is no problem with that,” he added. “We have asked the U.S. embassy for support with our (asylum) request.”

He said the asylum request would be formally presented on Wednesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City said in a statement McAfee would have to work within the country’s legal framework, but declined to elaborate. “The embassy does not comment on the actions of American citizens, due to privacy considerations.”

(Reporting by Simon Gardner and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Kieran Murray and Eric Walsh)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Voice Reveals Top Four Contestants

TV Watch

By Julia Haskins

12/04/2012 at 09:35 PM EST

The Voice"'s top six contestants were under double pressure Monday night when they had to sing two songs each. But there was even more stress at Tuesday's elimination.

"It went as well as it could have gone," Team Blake's Terry McDermott said on Monday of his performances of "I Want to Know What Love Is" and Rod Stewart's "Stay with Me." "There was a lot of pressure stripping a song down, but it worked to my advantage."

"I felt good," said Team Cee Lo's Trevin Hunte, who performed "Walking on Sunshine" and Jennifer Hudson's "And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going)." "I'm confident. I feel like I've really grown. I'm definitely happy with my performance. I just want to see how America votes."

His chance came Tuesday when he and McDermott stood alongside competitors Nicholas David (Team Cee Lo), Cassadee Pope (Team Blake), Melanie Martinez and Amanda Brown (both Team Adam) to hear host Carson Daly reveal the voting results. Keep reading to find out ...

America saved McDermott, Hunte and Pope, but Martinez said goodbye to the competition for good. "I love all of you who have supported me," she said to her fans. "I'm just so grateful for you."

Brown also met the same fate, making David the final member of the top four.

The semi-final show airs Monday at 8:00 p.m. on NBC.

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