Avigdor Lieberman of Israel Vents Anger at Europe

JERUSALEM — Israel’s blunt-talking foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, gave vent on Wednesday to the government’s anger over recent diplomatic gains by the Palestinians paired with international rebukes for Israel, comparing Israel’s situation to that of Czechoslovakia in 1938 before the Nazi invasion.

Israel was dismayed last month when all the countries of Europe, other than the Czech Republic, supported the Palestinians or abstained when the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the status of the Palestinians at the United Nations.

The country was further aggrieved when several major countries responded to its immediate announcement of plans for further settlement planning and construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank by summoning Israeli ambassadors to protest.

Defiantly standing by the settlement plans Mr. Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have expressed outrage over what Mr. Netanyahu described as a “deafening silence” abroad after Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, vowed to build an Islamic Palestinian state on all the land of Israel during a visit to Gaza over the weekend.

Addressing members of the foreign press here on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu asked why Palestinian diplomats were not summoned in European capitals to explain why Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, had not only failed to condemn Mr. Meshal’s remarks but instead was speaking about reconciliation with the rival Hamas, which Israel, the United States and the European Union regard as a terrorist organization.

Mr. Lieberman, who leads the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu Party, has often spoken his mind in terms that critics would describe as undiplomatic . Mr. Netanyahu, of the conservative Likud Party, has on occasion distanced himself from his foreign minister’s remarks. But in October these two coalition partners announced that their parties would run on a joint ticket in the January elections, and Mr. Lieberman has effectively become Mr. Netanyahu’s No. 2.

Speaking in English at a conference for foreign diplomats in Israel sponsored by the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Mr. Lieberman said, “When push comes to shove many key leaders would be willing to sacrifice Israel without batting an eyelid in order to appease Islamic radicals and ensure quiet for themselves.” He added, “We are not willing to become a second Czechoslovakia and sacrifice vital security interests.”

Excerpts of the speech were broadcast and reported on the Jerusalem Post Web site.

In another response to the Palestinians’ successful bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations to that of a nonmember observer state, Israel refused to transfer tax revenues it had collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority last month, instead using the money to pay off part of a debt run up by the Palestinian Authority to the Israel Electric Corporation and other Israeli providers.

Mr. Lieberman said on Wednesday that it would take four months for the Palestinian Authority to repay its debts from tax revenues and that no money would be transferred from Israel to the authority until the debts were paid off.

A day earlier, in response to a statement by the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union that strongly condemned Israel’s plans for settlement expansion, Mr. Lieberman told Israel Radio, “We have already been through this with Europe at the end of the 1930s and in the 1940s,” accusing Europe of ignoring calls for Israel’s destruction.

Mr. Lieberman said that it did not stem from “an anti-Semitic motive but rather it is a narrow motive of interests,” adding: “Then too, back in the 1940s. They already knew by the start of the 1940s exactly what was happening in the concentration camps, what was happening with the Jews and they didn’t exactly act.”

The European Union statement included a denunciation of the Hamas leader’s remarks, saying it found “inflammatory statements by Hamas leaders that deny Israel’s right to exist unacceptable.” It also pledged to continue efforts to combat terrorism and reiterated the European Union’s “fundamental commitment to the security of Israel.”

Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister who is running in the elections at the head of a new centrist party, Hatnuah (The Movement), accused Mr. Lieberman of cheapening the Holocaust with his Nazi-era comparisons.

“It’s an incorrect comparison, and incomprehensible,” she said at the Jerusalem Post conference on Wednesday. “There is absolutely no similarity between the situation of Israeli citizens today and that of European Jews then.”

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Obama election tweet most repeated but Olympics tops on Twitter

(Reuters) – An election victory tweet from President Barack Obama — “Four more years” with a picture of him hugging his wife — was the most retweeted ever, but the U.S. election was topped by the Olympics as the most tweeted event this year.

Obama’s tweet was retweeted (repeated) more than 810,000 times, Twitter said as it published a list of the most tweeted events in 2012. (http://2012.twitter.com/)

“Within hours, that Tweet simultaneously became the most retweeted of 2012, and the most retweeted ever. In fact, retweets of that simple message came from people in more than 200 countries around the world,” Twitter spokeswoman Rachael Horwitz said.

Twitter users were busiest during the final vote count for the presidential elections, sending 327,452 tweets per minute on election night on their way to a tally of 31 million election tweets for the day.

The 2012 Olympic Games in London had the most overall tweets of any event, with 150 million sent over the 16 days.

Usain Bolt’s golden win in the 200 meters topped 80,000 tweets per minute but he did not achieve the highest Olympic peak on Twitter. That was seen during the closing ceremony when 115,000 tweets per minute were sent as 1990s British pop band the Spice Girls performed.

Syria, where a bloody civil war still plays out, was the most talked about country in 2012 but sports and pop culture dominated the tally of tweets.

Behind Obama was pop star Justin Bieber. His tweet, “RIP Avalanna. i love you” sent when a six-year-old fan died from a rare form of brain cancer, was retweeted more than 220,000 times.

Third most repeated in 2012 was a profanity-laced tweet from Green Bay Packers NFL player TJ Lang, when he blasted a controversial call by a substitute referee officiating during a referee dispute. That was retweeted 98,000 times.

This was the third year running that the microblogging site published its top Twitter trends, offering a barometer to assess the biggest events in social media.

Superstorm Sandy, which slammed the densely populated U.S. East Coast in late October, killing more than 100 people, flooding wide areas and knocking out power for millions, attracted more than 20 million tweets between October 27 and November 1.

European football made the list of top tweets when Spain’s Juan Mata scored as his side downed Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final — sparking 267,200 tweets a minute.

News of pop star Whitney Houston‘s death in February generated more than 10 million tweets, peaking at 73,662 per minute.

Romantic comedy “Think Like a Man” was the most tweeted movie this year, topping “The Hunger Games”, “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Rapper Rick Ross who notched his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart this year, was the most talked about music artist.

(Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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PHOTO: Sheryl Crow and Son Splash Down

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

12/11/2012 at 04:00 PM ET

Water baby! Sheryl Crow takes elder son Wyatt Steven, 5½, for a spin on a jet-ski while vacationing in the Bahamas on Tuesday. The musician, 50, is also mom to son Levi James, 2½.

Crow is currently taking a break from working on her new record — her first country album! — at home in Nashville.

Butterworth/Splash News Online

RELATED: Sheryl Crow Assures Fans Her Brain Tumor Is Non-Cancerous

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APNewsBreak: DA investigating Texas cancer agency

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas prosecutor responsible for investigating public corruption among state officials said Tuesday that he has opened an investigation into the state's troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting agency.

Gregg Cox, director of the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit, told The Associated Press that an investigation has begun into the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The agency also is under investigation by the Texas attorney general's office after an $11 million grant to a private company did not receive the proper review.

Cox said his unit, which prosecutes crimes related to the operation of state government, is beginning its investigation not knowing "what, if any, crime occurred" at CPRIT.

His announcement came on the same day that CPRIT said its executive director had submitted his resignation letter and amid escalating scrutiny over the management of the nation's second-biggest pot of cancer research dollars.

CPRIT has not been able to focus on fighting the disease due to "wasted efforts expended in low value activities" during the past tumultuous eight months, Executive Director Bill Gimson wrote in a resignation letter dated Monday. Gimson offered to stay on until January, and the agency's board must still approve his request to step down.

Gimson has led the state agency since it launched in 2009. But he fell under mounting criticism over the recent disclosure that an $11 million award to a private company was never reviewed. It was the second time this year that a lucrative taxpayer-funded grant instigated backlash and raised questions about oversight.

"Unfortunately, I have also been placed in a situation where I feel I can no longer be effective," Gimson wrote.

The Texas attorney general's office has said it is looking into CPRIT's $11 million grant to Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics. An internal audit performed by the agency revealed that Peloton's proposal was approved for funding in 2010 without being reviewed by an outside panel.

Gimson said last week that Peloton's funding was the result of an honest mistake that happened when the agency was still young and in the process of installing checks and balances. Agency emails surrounding the Peloton grant are no longer available, Gimson said, and state investigators said they will work to find them.

Only the National Institutes of Health doles out more cancer research dollars than CPRIT, which has awarded more than $700 million so far. The agency's former chief science officer, Nobel laureate Alfred Gilman, resigned earlier this year over a separate $20 million award that Gilman claimed received a thin review. That led some of the nation's top scientists to accuse the agency of charting a politically-driven path.

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Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

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Big tech boosts S&P 500 to best close since election

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Tuesday, led by gains in technology companies, helping the S&P 500 end at its highest level since Election Day.

A 2.2 percent gain to $541.39 in Apple's stock lifted the Nasdaq, as the largest U.S. company by market value rebounded from a week in which investors took profits before a possible tax rise next year. Prior to Tuesday's trading, Apple shares had lost 25 percent from an all-time intraday high hit in September.

Stocks pared some gains by late afternoon as more news on the "fiscal cliff" negotiations emerged. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it will be difficult to reach agreement resolving the cliff tax hikes and spending cuts before Christmas.

"There's been a real explosion in anxiety over this thing. Because markets have become the way they are, you've got people just stepping back," said James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

"There's a tremendous absence of liquidity in the market," he said.

The S&P 500 had lost 5.3 percent in the seven sessions following Election Day as investors refocused on the threat posed to the economy by the fiscal cliff, a series of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. Markets have mostly recovered those losses, but volume has been thin, suggesting investors are not betting aggressively due to the uncertainty.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 78.56 points, or 0.60 percent, at 13,248.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 9.29 points, or 0.65 percent, at 1,427.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 35.34 points, or 1.18 percent, at 3,022.30.

Other major tech stocks also rose. Texas Instruments gained 4 percent to $31.01 after bumping up its profit target late Monday. That helped other chipmakers rally, with the PHLX Semiconductor index <.sox> up 1.9 percent. Microsoft rose 1.4 percent to $27.32.

The lack of demonstrable progress in the fiscal cliff negotiations has kept investors from making aggressive bets in recent weeks.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner called on President Barack Obama to propose a counter-offer on Tuesday.

Retailers like luggage maker Tumi Holding Inc and Michael Kors Holding gained on Tuesday after a positive report from Goldman Sachs Equity Research. Tumi was up 4.7 percent to $21.92 and Michael Kors gained 2.4 percent, reaching $50.92.

By contrast, discount retailers Dollar General and Family Dollar declined. Dollar General said it sees margins under pressure in 2013.

SPX Corp shares fell 9.1 percent to $62.07 and the stock was the biggest percentage decliner on the New York Stock Exchange after sources said the company is in exclusive talks to buy rival Gardner Denver , in a merger that could create an industrial machinery conglomerate with a market value over $7 billion.

The U.S. Treasury is selling its remaining stake in insurer American International Group Inc . AIG's shares were up 5.7 percent at $35.26.

The Fed began a two-day policy-setting meeting on Tuesday. The central bank is expected to announce a new round of Treasury bond purchases when the meeting ends on Wednesday to replace its "Operation Twist" stimulus, which expires at the end of the year.

(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

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In Egypt, New Challenge to Referendum as Loan Is Postponed

Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

Protests continued on Tuesday outside the presidential palace in Cairo.

CAIRO — In the latest challenge to President Mohamed Morsi, the main association of Egyptian judges announced on Tuesday that 90 percent of its members will refuse to monitor the referendum set for Saturday on an Islamist-backed draft constitution. The action is meant to protest the draft and the president’s decree, since withdrawn, that temporarily set his decisions beyond the reach of judicial review.

Egyptian law requires judicial supervision of elections. Advisers to Mr. Morsi said that they had lined up enough willing judicial officials to proceed with the voting on Saturday. But the announcement by Ahmed Zend, chief of the Judges Club, may influence the debate among opponents over whether to campaign for votes against the draft constitution or boycott the referendum entirely.

In his remarks, Mr. Zend accused Mr. Morsi of repeatedly attacking the “sacredness” of the Egyptian judiciary. “The head of the Judges Club does not betray the judiciary, and does not betray Egypt,” Mr. Zend said, referring to himself.

Still, Mr. Zend has little influence over Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters. He has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Morsi and his Islamist political allies, and was a loyalist of former President Hosni Mubarak; he was installed at the top of the Judges Club in a takeover after the group became part of a movement seeking judicial independence years ago.

Protests continued on Tuesday outside the presidential palace in Cairo, and tensions mounted over reports that unidentified gunmen had fired birdshot at protesters in a tent camp in Tahrir Square overnight, injuring nine people, a security official said. By Tuesday night, security officials had concluded that the birdshot was fired in a personal, apolitical dispute after an unidentified man was denied access to the sit-in, scuffled with protesters, and returned with friends armed with at least one shotgun.

New uncertainty over the country’s economy added to the political turmoil. On Tuesday, Mr. Morsi’s government postponed a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund that was intended to help Egypt avert financial collapse, saying that the delay would give Egyptian officials more time to discuss the related package of economic policy changes with the public, the country’s finance minister told Reuters.

The monetary fund’s board had been expected to approve the loan this month to prop up the economy, which has been battered by the near-evaporation of tourism and general slow growth since the revolution that unseated Mr. Mubarak nearly two years ago. But a huge public outcry against planned tax increases prompted Mr. Morsi to back away from them on Monday, and Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Said told Reuters on Tuesday that the government had asked to postpone the loan until the fund’s board meets next in January.

The military-led transitional government that followed Mr. Mubarak drained the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which were propping up the Egyptian pound, and economists say the aid package from the fund is essential to avoid a collapse of the currency and the soaring inflation and worsened unrest that might follow.

“Of course the delay will have some economic impact, but we are discussing necessary measures” to address that issue until the loan can be completed, Mr. Said told Reuters.

Meanwhile, as the main opposition coalition prepared to formally announce its position on the 0referendum, there were hints of cracks in its unity.

On Sunday, the coalition seemed to favor a boycott, saying in a statement that it rejected “lending legitimacy to a referendum that will definitely lead to more sedition and division.” But in an interview broadcast Monday, the coalition’s coordinator, Mohamed ElBaradei, said, “We might go to the vote.” And on Tuesday, Amr Moussa, a leading coalition figure and foreign minister under Mr. Mubarak, said that while the referendum should be canceled or postponed, if it is carried out anyway, “I call on citizens to vote no.”

The April 6th Revolutionary Youth Group, which is not a member of the coalition but coordinates its activities with the National Salvation Front, began a campaign on Tuesday urging a no vote in the referendum under the slogan, “Your Constitution does not represent us.”

A group representing administrative court judges said that its members would supervise the referendum under certain conditions: they demanded a secure environment and life insurance policies for the judges. Other judges’ groups have said they would not take part.

Mayy El Sheikh and Kareem Fahim contributed reporting.

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New leaks suggest Microsoft Office for iOS could launch soon

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PHOTOS: Remembering Jenni Rivera

Moments before her fatal flight, Mexican American superstar Jenni Rivera shared a smile from inside the Leer jet that crashed Dec. 9, outside Monterrey. The shot was taken by her makeup artist, Jacob Llenares, who also perished, and shared on Instagram.

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers.

Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers.

"Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.

Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee.

The Obama administration says it is a temporary assessment levied for three years starting in 2014, designed to raise $25 billion. It starts at $63 and then declines.

Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014.

The program "is intended to help millions of Americans purchase affordable health insurance, reduce unreimbursed usage of hospital and other medical facilities by the uninsured and thereby lower medical expenses and premiums for all," the Obama administration says in the regulation. An accompanying media fact sheet issued Nov. 30 referred to "contributions" without detailing the total cost and scope of the program.

Of the total pot, $5 billion will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees.

The $25 billion fee is part of a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama's expansion of coverage to the uninsured. It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000. People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.

But the insurance fee had been overlooked as employers focused on other costs in the law, including fines for medium and large firms that don't provide coverage.

"This kind of came out of the blue and was a surprisingly large amount," said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee, a group that represents large employers on benefits issues.

Word started getting out in the spring, said Young, but hard cost estimates surfaced only recently with the new regulation. It set the per capita rate at $5.25 per month, which works out to $63 a year.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group for health insurers, says the fund is an important program that will help stabilize the market and mitigate cost increases for consumers as the changes in Obama's law take effect.

But employers already offering coverage to their workers don't see why they have to pony up for the stabilization fund, which mainly helps the individual insurance market. The redistribution puts the biggest companies on the hook for tens of millions of dollars.

"It just adds on to everything else that is expected to increase health care costs," said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The fee will be assessed on all "major medical" insurance plans, including those provided by employers and those purchased individually by consumers. Large employers will owe the fee directly. That's because major companies usually pay upfront for most of the health care costs of their employees. It may not be apparent to workers, but the insurance company they deal with is basically an agent administering the plan for their employer.

The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63.

It will phase out completely in 2017 — unless Congress, with lawmakers searching everywhere for revenue to reduce federal deficits — decides to extend it.

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Wall Street gets small lift from technology and McDonald's

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged higher on Monday as technology shares bounced back after recent weakness and McDonald's posted strong monthly sales.

Technology stocks were led by Hewlett-Packard Co , which climbed 2.6 percent to $14.16 on rumors that activist investor Carl Icahn is building a stake in the PC maker. The stock is down 44.5 percent for the year and ranks as the Dow's worst performer. The S&P technology index <.gspt> was up 0.3 percent.

Tech also was supported by Cisco Systems , which gained 2.4 percent to $19.79 after the company presented its midterm growth strategy on Friday.

McDonald's Corp gave the Dow a jolt, gaining 1.1 percent to $89.41, as its November sales were stronger than expected and showed a bounce back from a decline in October.

There was little news Monday about the negotiations over the "fiscal cliff," a series of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that could hurt economic growth next year. Concerns that lawmakers will not broker a deal have kept a lid on optimism in the equity market.

"There is a general sense that if a deal is struck, that we could have a further advance in the market at the end of this year as well as the first part of next year," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.

A breakout to the upside on a cliff deal could take the S&P 500 back up to 1,474, just off the 2012 high for the index, said Elliot Spar, Stifel Nicolaus option market strategist in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

The benchmark S&P 500 index has yet to see a move greater than 0.5 percent in either direction on any day in December, and hasn't moved more than 1 percent either way in any session since November 23. However, the market has regained most of the losses incurred post-election as investors refocused on the fiscal cliff.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Republican House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday to negotiate a budget deal. A Boehner aide said Monday that talks are continuing.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 14.75 points, or 0.11 percent, to 13,169.88 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> inched up just 0.48 of a point, or 0.03 percent, to 1,418.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> advanced 8.92 points, or 0.30 percent, to close at 2,986.96.

News out of Italy kept sentiment in check as Prime Minister Mario Monti said he would resign after the approval of the 2013 budget. The move added to uncertainty about progress being made to tackle the euro zone's debt problem and drove Italy's borrowing costs higher.

U.S.-listed shares of Nexen jumped 13.8 percent to $26.77 and the stock was the second-most actively traded on the New York Stock Exchange. On Friday, Canada approved a $15.1 billion bid by CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen.

The S&P materials index <.gspm> gained 0.7 percent and led the S&P 500's sector index gains as shares of mining companies rose in sync with copper and gold prices. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan gained 1.1 percent to $32.04.

Volume was roughly 5.3 billion shares traded on the NYSE, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the year-to-date average daily closing volume of roughly 6.5 billion.

Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of about 17 to 13, while on the Nasdaq, seven stocks rose for every five that fell.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Doris Frankel in Chicago and Gabriel Debenedetti in New York; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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