Euro surges to 14-month high, Fed decision awaited

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro hit its highest level in over a year and shares and commodities also rose on Wednesday helped by optimism about the global economy ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision.

The Fed is expected to maintain asset buying at $85 billion a month when it concludes its meeting later and stick to its commitment to hold interest rates near zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent.

Ahead of the decision, a rise in European economic confidence, ECB crisis loan repayments and Italy's solid sale of five and 10-year bonds provided investors with fresh evidence of a better sentiment in the region.

The euro broke above $1.35 for the first time since December 2011.

European shares were down 0.3 percent by 1125 GMT, but an earlier rise in Asian equities meant the MSCI world share index was holding firm at a new 21-month high.

U.S. stock futures suggested a steady start on Wall Street where focus will be on the Fed's outlook for the economy and its bond buying program after it sounded slightly more hawkish last month.

Alongside the recent rebound in confidence in the euro zone, one of the drivers behind the recent spike has been the eagerness of banks to repay the crisis loans they took from the European Central Bank just over a year ago.

Banks returned 137.2 billion euros of those loans on Wednesday and surprised analysts again by also trimming their three-month funding despite predictions they would use it to partly restock their coffers.

"It (the euro rise) is just a carry on with the current trend, risk is pretty healthy and equities are doing well," said Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi strategist Derek Halpenny.

"The danger is European policymakers allow a spike (in euro and market rates) as a result of a removal of one of the principle support measures ... With the Fed and the BOJ still easing the euro is clearly the path of least resistance."

CONFIDENCE RALLY

New data from Brussels showed euro zone economic sentiment improved more than expected across all sectors in January, rising for the third time in a row in a sign the economy could be emerging from a low point in the fourth quarter of 2012.

However, Spain's economy sank deeper into recession in the fourth quarter of 2012, shrinking at the fastest pace in a year as budget cutbacks and high unemployment prompted households to slash spending.

An ECB survey of Europe's banks also darkened the mood, showing that most expect to continue toughening up their lending rules in the coming months and see another drop in demand for loans.

Strong U.S. housing data on Tuesday and China's promising economic growth forecast for 2013 raised expectations for robust demand for fuel and industrial commodities, underpinning oil prices and lifting copper.

In the bond market, traditional safe-haven German bonds fell after a solid Italian debt auction underscored the new appetite from yield-hungry investors for peripheral euro zone debt.

Just six months ago yields on Italian and Spanish debt soared but the ECB's promise to keep the euro together has prompted a turnaround. Rome sold 3.5 billion euros ($4.7 billion) of 10-year bonds at 4.17 percent on Wednesday, its lowest cost since October 2010.

"(It went) pretty well. They achieved the target without too much difficulty, and the average yield is certainly lower than previously," said Nick Stamenkovic, a bond strategist at Ria Capital Markets in Edinburgh.

"What we've been seeing recently is increased demand particularly from overseas, for Italian bonds, not just the short end but particularly the longer end... I think today's auction provides further evidence that is indeed occurring."

(Additional reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Giles Elgood and Anna Willard)

Read More..

Mursi heads to Germany on trip cut back by Egypt crisis

CAIRO/BERLIN (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi flew to Germany on Wednesday to try to convince Europe of his democratic credentials, leaving behind a country in crisis after a week of violence that has killed more than 50 people.

Two more protesters were shot dead before dawn near Cairo's central Tahrir Square on the seventh day of what has become the deadliest wave of unrest since Mursi took power in June.

The Egyptian army chief warned on Tuesday that the state was on the brink of collapse if Mursi's opponents and supporters did not end street battles that have marked the two-year anniversary of the revolt that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Because of the crisis, Mursi has curtailed his European visit, cancelling plans to go to Paris after Berlin. He is due to return to Cairo later in the day.

Near Tahrir Square on Wednesday morning, dozens of protesters threw stones at police who fired back teargas, although the scuffles were brief.

"Our demand is simply that Mursi goes, and leaves the country alone. He is just like Mubarak and his crowd who are now in prison," said Ahmed Mustafa, 28, a youth who had goggles on his head to protect his eyes from teargas.

Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei called for a meeting between the president, government ministers, the ruling party and the opposition to halt the violence. But he also restated the opposition's precondition that Mursi first commit to seeking a national unity government, which the president has so far rejected.

Mursi's critics accuse him of betraying the spirit of the revolution by keeping too much power in his own hands and those of his Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement banned under Mubarak which won repeated elections since the 2011 uprising.

Mursi's supporters say the protesters want to overthrow Egypt's first democratically elected leader. The unrest has prevented a return to stability ahead of parliamentary elections due within months, and worsened an economic crisis that has seen the pound currency tumble in recent weeks.

The worst violence has been in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, where rage was fuelled by death sentences passed against soccer fans for deadly riots last year. Mursi responded by announcing on Sunday a month-long state of emergency and curfew in Port Said and two other Suez Canal cities.

Protesters have ignored the curfew and returned to the streets. Human Rights Watch called for Mursi to lift the decree.

Mursi will be keen to allay the West's fears over the future of the most populous Arab country when he meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel and powerful industry groups in Berlin.

"DISTURBING IMAGES"

"We have seen worrying images in recent days, images of violence and destruction, and I appeal to both sides to engage in dialogue," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a radio interview on Wednesday ahead of Mursi's arrival.

Germany's "offer to help with Egypt's transformation clearly depends on it sticking to democratic reforms", he added.

Germany has praised Mursi's efforts in mediating a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza after a conflict last year, but became concerned at Mursi's efforts to expand his powers and fast-track a constitution last year.

Berlin was also alarmed by video that emerged in recent weeks showing Mursi making vitriolic remarks against Jews and Zionists in 2010 when he was a senior Brotherhood official. Germany's Nazi past and strong support of Israel make it highly sensitive to anti-Semitism.

Mursi's past anti-Jewish remarks were "unacceptable", Westerwelle said. "But at the same time President Mursi has played a very constructive role mediating in the Gaza conflict."

Egypt's main liberal and secularist bloc, the National Salvation Front, has so far refused talks with Mursi unless he promises a unity government including opposition figures.

"Stopping the violence is the priority, and starting a serious dialogue requires committing to guarantees demanded by the National Salvation Front, at the forefront of which are a national salvation government and a committee to amend the constitution," ElBaradei said on Twitter.

Those calls have also been backed by the hardline Islamist Nour party - rivals of Mursi's Brotherhood. Nour and the Front were due to meet on Wednesday, signaling an unlikely alliance of Mursi's critics from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy dismissed the unity government proposal as a ploy for the Front to take power despite having lost elections. On his Facebook page he ridiculed "the leaders of the Salvation Front, who seem to know more about the people's interests than the people themselves".

German industry leaders see potential in Egypt but are concerned about political instability: "At the moment many firms are waiting on political developments and are cautious on any big investments," said Hans Heinrich Driftmann, head of Germany's Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Mursi's supporters blame the opposition for preventing an economic recovery by halting efforts to restore stability. The opposition says an inclusive government is needed to bring calm.

"The economy depends on political stability and political stability depends on national consensus. But the Muslim Brotherhood does not talk about consensus, and so it will not lead to any improvement in the political situation, and that will lead the economy to collapse," said teacher Kamal Ghanim, 38, a protester in Tahrir Square.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad in Cairo, Stephen Brown and Gernot Heller in Berlin and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood and Paul Taylor)

Read More..

RIM to debut new BlackBerry smartphones in a heavily hyped unveiling

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Following several delays and much anticipation, the new BlackBerry smartphones will be unveiled this morning in New York.

Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), the company behind the once dominant smartphones, is holding a splashy event in Manhattan to usher in the new devices, which were originally due for release last year.

The debut is expected to showcase the device as well as provide key launch details.

That will likely include its release date, which is expected in the next four to six weeks, the phone’s features and how much it will cost.

The company says the new BlackBerry will be released first in a touchscreen version, while a keypad alternative will follow in the weeks or months afterward.

The new phone launch is RIM’s attempt to regain its position in the highly competitive North American and European smartphone markets, which are now dominated by iPhone and Android devices.

While the first hurdles to overcome are the opinions of tech analysts and investor reaction, the true measure of success — actual sales of the phones — is still weeks away.

The BlackBerry has dramatically lost marketshare in recent years after a series of blunders.

Several network outages left customers without the use of the smartphones they had come to rely on, while the BlackBerry’s hardware hasn’t received a significant upgrade in years.

RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins has already offered a glimpse of some features on the new devices. They include BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows one phone to operate as both a business and personal device entirely separate from each other.

The new BlackBerry will also let users seamlessly shift between the phone’s applications like they’re flipping between pages on a desk.

In the coming weeks, RIM will launch an advertising blitz to promote the phones, including aggressive social media campaigning, which includes plugs from celebrities on their Twitter accounts, and a 30-second advertisement on the Super Bowl, the most watched television program of the year.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: RIM to debut new BlackBerry smartphones in a heavily hyped unveiling
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/rim-to-debut-new-blackberry-smartphones-in-a-heavily-hyped-unveiling/
Link To Post : RIM to debut new BlackBerry smartphones in a heavily hyped unveiling
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Charlize Theron Relaxes With a Girls' Dinner in West Hollywood

Caught in the Act

01/30/2013 at 06:00 AM EST

Charlize Theron shared dinner with a girlfriend at Tortilla Republic in West Hollywood on Monday.

Wearing a black blouse, blue jeans and high heels – while sporting her new short dark hair style – the Snow White and the Huntsman actress and her friend ordered up huarache hongos flatbread, housemade guacamole and jalapeño Margaritas.

Theron – who is mom to son Jackson – seemed to be enjoying her down time.

"She was relaxed and in a good mood," an onlooker tells PEOPLE.

– Jennifer Garcia

Read More..

Soldier talks about his new arms after transplant

BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital on Tuesday to discuss the new limbs.

The transplants are only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever conducted in the United States.

The infantryman was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. The New York City man also received bone marrow from the same dead donor. The approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new arms with minimal medication to prevent rejection.

The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.

Read More..

Stock index futures point to slightly lower start

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent.

Futures for the Dow Jones were flat, while contracts on the Nasdaq 100 shed 0.2 percent at 04.47 a.m. EST.

European shares edged up to hover near two-year highs, with strong earnings reports and a brightening economic outlook lifting sentiment, although technical factors could limit gains in the near term.

Yahoo Inc said it forecasts a modest uptick in revenue for the current year, sending shares in the Internet group 3 percent higher in after hours trade.

The second-largest U.S. automaker, Ford, is expected to report earnings per share of $0.26, up from $0.20 one year earlier, when it unveils fourth-quarter results at 1200 GMT. Ford, which is heavily reliant on its pickup trucks for profits, is bound to benefit from an uptick in construction this year.

Drugmaker Pfizer is expected to report EPS of $0.44, down from $0.50 in the previous year, on plunging U.S. sales of its Lipitor cholesterol drug - which is facing generic competition since November 2011 - and disappointing demand for its Prevnar vaccine against childhood infections.

Online retailer Amazon.com reports results for the holiday quarter. They were expected to show strong sales growth, tempered by little to no profit as the world's largest Internet retailer spent heavily on its Kindle mobile gadget platform, cloud computing service and its rapidly expanding chain of shipping warehouses.

Standard & Poor's releases its S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for November at 1400 GMT. Prices are expected to have continued their recovery, up 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, pointing to a housing market that is mending.

The Conference Board releases January consumer confidence figures at 1500 GMT, expected to have fallen to 64 from 65.1. The market will be looking for any impact from the "fiscal cliff" debate or the payroll tax increases at the beginning of the year.

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee begins two days of meetings on interest rates. Traders speculated more solid U.S. growth indicators might see the Fed pull back on its aggressive easing stimulus, which has played a key role in fuelling an equity market rally since the second half of last year.

Elon Musk has long considered Tesla Motors Inc the bold, nimble answer to the auto industry's cautious culture. Now the electric car maker's top executive has extended his help to another industrial giant: Boeing Co .

Pentagon and industry officials said on Monday a manufacturing problem was the most likely cause of an engine failure that led to the grounding of all 25 Marine Corps versions of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet 10 days ago.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closed down 14.05 points, or 0.10 percent, at 13,881.93 on Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 2.78 points, or 0.18 percent, at 1,500.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 4.59 points, or 0.15 percent, at 3,154.30.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Read More..

Army says political tussle taking Egypt to brink

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief said political strife was pushing the state to the brink of collapse - a stark warning from the institution that ran the country until last year, as Cairo's first elected leader struggles to contain bloody street violence.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last year to head the military, added in a statement on Tuesday that one of the primary goals of deploying troops in cities on the Suez Canal was to protect the waterway that is vital for Egypt's economy and world trade.

Sisi's comments, published on an official army Facebook page, followed 52 deaths in the past week of disorder and highlighted the mounting sense of crisis facing Egypt and its Islamist head of state who is struggling to fix a teetering economy and needs to prepare Egypt for a parliamentary election in a few months that is meant to cement the new democracy.

The comments are unlikely to mean the army wants to take back the power it held, in effect, for six decades since the end of the colonial period and in the interim period after the overthrow of former general Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

But it sends a powerful message that the Egypt's biggest institution, with a huge economic as well as security role and a recipient of massive direct U.S. subsidies, is worried about the fate of the nation after five days of turmoil in major cities.

"The continuation of the struggle of the different political forces ... over the management of state affairs could lead to the collapse of the state," said General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also defense minister in the government Mursi appointed.

He said the economic, political and social challenges facing the country represented "a real threat to the security of Egypt and the cohesiveness of the Egyptian state" and the army would remain "the solid and cohesive block" on which the state rests.

Sisi was appointed by Mursi after the army handed over power to the new president in June. Mursi sacked Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who had been in charge of Egypt during the transition and who had also been Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years.

Political opponents spurned a call by Mursi for talks on Monday to try to end the violence. Instead, huge crowds of protesters took to the streets in Cairo and Alexandria, and in the three Suez Canal cities - Port Said, Ismailia and Suez - where Mursi on Sunday imposed emergency rule and a curfew.

"DOWN, DOWN MURSI"

Residents in the three canal cities demonstrated overnight in defiance of the curfew. At least two men died in fighting in Port Said, raising to at least 42 people who have now been killed there, most of them by gunshot wounds.

Protests first flared to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later. They have been exacerbated by riots in Port Said by residents enraged by a court ruling sentencing several people from the city to death over deadly soccer violence last year.

"Down, down with Mohamed Mursi! Down, down with the state of emergency!" crowds shouted in Ismailia. In Cairo, flames lit up the night sky as protesters set vehicles ablaze.

The demonstrators accuse Mursi of betraying the two-year-old revolution. Mursi and his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood accuse the protesters of seeking to overthrow Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader by undemocratic means.

Debris from days of unrest was strewn on the streets around Cairo's Tahrir Square, cauldron of the anti-Mubarak uprising.

Youths clambered over a burned-out police van. But unlike on previous mornings in the past few days, there was no early sign of renewed clashes with police.

Since the 2011 revolt, Islamists who Mubarak spent his 30-year rule suppressing have won two referendums, two parliamentary elections and a presidential vote.

But that legitimacy has been challenged by an opposition that accuses Mursi of imposing a new form of authoritarianism, and punctuated by repeated waves of unrest that have prevented a return to stability in the most populous Arab state.

U.S. UNEASE

The army has already been deployed in Port Said and Suez and the government agreed a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians as part of the state of emergency.

The instability has provoked unease in Western capitals, where officials worry about the direction of a powerful regional player that has a peace deal with Israel. The United States condemned the bloodshed and called on Egyptian leaders to make clear violence is not acceptable.

Mursi's invitation to rivals to hold a national dialogue with Islamists on Monday was spurned by the main opposition National Salvation Front coalition, which described it as "cosmetic".

The only liberal politician who attended, Ayman Nour, told Egypt's al-Hayat channel after the meeting ended late on Monday that attendees agreed to meet again in a week.

He said Mursi had promised to look at changes to the constitution requested by the opposition but did not consider the opposition's request for a government of national unity. Mursi's pushing through last month of a new constitution which critics see as too Islamic remains a bone of contention.

The president announced the emergency measures on television on Sunday. "The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," Mursi said.

His demeanor infuriated his opponents, not least when he wagged a finger, imperiously, at the camera.

Some activists said Mursi's measures to try to impose control on the turbulent streets could backfire.

"Martial law, state of emergency and army arrests of civilians are not a solution to the crisis," said Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement that helped galvanize the 2011 uprising. "All this will do is further provoke the youth. The solution has to be a political one that addresses the roots of the problem."

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Read More..

Troubled smartphone pioneer RIM prepares to raise the curtain on BlackBerry 10

NEW YORK, N.Y. – After several technical blunders, two unexpected delays and one major shakeup in its leadership, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion is about to raise the curtain for its new smartphone devices in hopes that consumers share the excitement.

The unveiling of the phones and operating system on Wednesday marks the start of an advertising blitz that will stretch to social media, the Super Bowl and beyond as RIM tries to regain the cool factor that was once firmly in its grasp.

If all goes according to plan, the event will also mark the end of a troublesome 12 months that has seen RIM try to stay afloat while its future was constantly in question by outsiders, and its stock price tumbled to the lowest level in about a decade.

While the first hurdles to overcome on Wednesday are the opinions of tech analysts and investor reaction, the true measure of success — actual sales of the phones — is still weeks away.

As a crowd of thousands gathers Wednesday at Pier 36, a massive entertainment venue on the shores of Manhattan, chief executive Thorsten Heins will step onto the stage holding the BlackBerry that has been at once considered the company’s last hope, but also its biggest hurdle.

Just over a year ago, when Heins took over the top spot at RIM, the smartphone maker was in a state of flux as its marketshare tumbled in North America against growing competition from Apple’s iPhone and various devices on the Android operating system.

Analysts had widely blamed the lack of leadership from former co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as the reasons that RIM failed to innovate its way out of trouble, but they also said that Heins had much to prove in hardly any time.

The company was in a bubble, insisting that it hadn’t lost its footing in the smartphone industry, even though from the outside their downfall was indisputable.

But as the dust settled from Balsillie’s exit in March 2012, Heins began to face the realities of RIM’s problems and launched a major overhaul of its middle management and deep cuts to its operations.

While Heins preferred to call it removing a “little fat on the hips,” the changes at RIM were a far more strategic and complex surgery.

The company closed some of its manufacturing facilities and announced plans to lay off about 5,000 workers, as it aimed to save $ 1 billion across RIM’s operations by February 2013. Heins reached that savings goal, and he did it three months ahead of schedule.

“He is probably one of the least dogmatic people at RIM,” said Carl Howe, vice-president of consumer research at Yankee Group.

“I think he learned from his predecessors.”

Despite all of the changes, Heins was still up against the fact that development of the BlackBerry 10 operating system was woefully behind schedule. Already delayed from a launch in 2011, the CEO was forced in June to further push the debut into 2013, missing crucial sales periods like the back-to-school and Christmas holiday shopping seasons.

While analysts hated the idea of another delay, it also bought the company some extra time to tweak the software to capitalize on the weaknesses of competitors’ smartphones.

One of those features is the BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows one phone to operate as both a business and personal device entirely separate from each other. Another one lets users seamlessly shift between the phone’s applications like they’re flipping between pages on a desk.

The BlackBerry Messenger chat program will also get an update that includes video chat and screen sharing options.

RIM’s executives also began an aggressive campaign last year to win the developer community. Under its previous leadership, the BlackBerry had practically ignored the growing popularity of smartphone applications for services like Netflix, Skype and Instagram.

A sea of change was coming under its new leaders, and Heins had managed to at least steady a company that was swaying on its pillars by coming up with unconventional ideas.

As the BlackBerry lost steam in North America and Europe, he turned to developing countries like Indonesia and Nigeria to keep revenues flowing in the near term. In those places, consumers were hungry for low-cost smartphones and the BlackBerry was still considered a status symbol.

The decision helped RIM keep its subscriber base steady, and maintain its $ 2-billion cash reserve, which was set aside for emergencies. It will use some of that money to promote the new phones.

“Up until now I think everything (Heins) laid out in terms of his plan … he’s shown that he’s executed on it,” said Richard Tse, an analyst at Cormark Securities Inc.

“In terms of what they’ve done on the development side, in terms of streamlining the operations and preserving the cash, I think he’s done a very good job to date.”

Investors aren’t satisfied with all of his decisions, however, especially when Heins unveiled a rough plan in December that will likely eat into the lucrative service fees charged to BlackBerry subscribers.

Heins told analysts on its most recent earnings conference call that RIM plans to launch an a la carte menu of services where both enterprise customers and casual smartphone users can pick their packages. The change would likely mean reduced revenues in one of the most lucrative areas of its business.

Even on the dawn of the new BlackBerry unveiling, there are still questions about whether RIM will exist in its current form this time next year. Some analysts have said the company will eventually be forced to sell off at least its hardware division, if not more.

“They’re in such a difficult position that I can’t think of a management change that would help them get out of it,” Tim Long of BMO Capital Markets.

“Clearly there are people out there that think the BlackBerry 10 is going to be something that gets them back on the map. We don’t think so.”

Long said his checks within the mobile phone industry have shown that carriers aren’t particularly interested in RIM’s touchscreen smartphone, but they’re more anxious for the keypad version, or QWERTY phone, due sometime after the initial launch.

“We think that’s an issue,” he said.

If the stock price is any sign, RIM’s investors are at least more confident this month then they’ve been in a long time. As of Monday’s closing price, RIM’s shares have risen 167 per cent from its lowest level in about a decade, reached in September, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Several analysts have boosted their target prices for the company’s stock in the past two weeks.

Whatever happens after the new BlackBerrys are unveiled, it’s certain that RIM isn’t in the clear yet.

“Product transitions are always pretty ugly,” said Howe.

“The good news is if you can get yourself through to the other side … you have an opportunity to disrupt the market yourself.”

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Anne Hathaway Says She 'Met A Lot of Bad Ones' Before Meeting Her Husband

Caught in the Act

01/29/2013 at 06:00 AM EST

Adam Shulman and Anne Hathaway

Christopher Polk/WireImage

Following the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Anne Hathaway was feeling the love at an after party at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.

Hathaway – who won an Actor for her role in Les Misérables – was overheard saying, "I'm in a celebratory mood."

With a drink in her hand, Hathaway told friends that her engagement ring from husband Adam Shulman is her "prized possession" and that her wedding band "isn't bad either," an onlooker tells PEOPLE.

Hathaway – who, according to a source "was playing matchmaker all night" – was later overheard telling her friends that she "met a lot of bad ones" before meeting Shulman.

– Patrick Gomez

Read More..

CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.

Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.

There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.

___

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Read More..