‘Lincoln,’ ‘Les Mis,’ ‘Playbook’ lead SAG awards






LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Civil War saga “Lincoln,” the musical “Les Miserables” and the comic drama “Silver Linings Playbook” boosted their Academy Awards prospects Wednesday with four nominations apiece for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.


All three films were nominated for overall performance by their casts. Also nominated for best ensemble cast were the Iran hostage-crisis thriller “Argo” and the British retiree adventure “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”






Directed by Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln” also scored individual nominations for Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role as best actor, Sally Field for supporting actress as Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones for supporting actor as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens.


“Les Miserables,” from “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper, had nominations for Hugh Jackman for best actor as Victor Hugo’s long-suffering hero Jean Valjean and Anne Hathaway for supporting actress as a woman fallen into prostitution, plus a nomination for its stunt ensemble.


“Silver Linings Playbook,” made by “The Fighter” director David O. Russell, also had lead-acting nominations for Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as lost souls who find a second chance at love and Robert De Niro for supporting actor as a football-obsessed dad.


Besides Lawrence, best-actress nominees are Jessica Chastain as a CIA analyst pursuing Osama bin Laden in “Zero Dark Thirty”; Marion Cotillard as a woman who finds romance after tragedy in “Rust and Bone”; Helen Mirren as Alfred Hitchcock’s strong-willed wife in “Hitchcock”; and Naomi Watts as a woman caught in the devastation of a tsunami in “The Impossible.”


Joining Cooper, Day-Lewis and Jackman in the best-actor field are John Hawkes as a polio victim aiming to lose his virginity in “The Sessions” and Denzel Washington as a boozy airline pilot in “Flight.”


SAG nominees are almost all familiar names in Hollywood’s awards season. Eighteen of the 20 film acting contenders are past Academy Awards nominees and 13 have won Oscars, among them five two-time winners. Only Cooper and Jackman have never before earned Oscar nominations.


One of the year’s most-acclaimed films, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master,” earned only one nomination, supporting actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman as a mesmerizing cult leader. The film was snubbed on nominations for ensemble, lead actor Joaquin Phoenix and supporting actress Amy Adams.


Other individual performances overlooked by SAG voters include Anthony Hopkins in the title role of “Hitchcock,” Keira Knightley in the title role of “Anna Karenina,” Bill Murray as Franklin Roosevelt in “Hyde Park on Hudson” and “Argo” director Ben Affleck, who also starred in the film.


The SAG Awards will be presented Jan. 27. The guild nominations are one of Hollywood’s first major announcements on the long road to the Feb. 24 Oscars Awards, whose nominations will be released Jan. 10.


Nominations for the Golden Globes, the second-biggest film honors after the Oscars, come out Thursday.


Maggie Smith had four individual and ensemble nominations. Along with sharing the ensemble honor for “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” Smith joined the cast of “Downton Abbey” among TV ensemble contenders and had nominations for supporting film actress as a cranky retiree in “Marigold Hotel” and TV drama actress for “Downton Abbey.”


Nicole Kidman earned two individual nominations, as supporting film actress as a woman smitten with a prison inmate in “The Paperboy” and best actress in a TV movie or miniseries as war correspondent Martha Gellhorn in “Hemingway & Gellhorn.”


Bryan Cranston had three overall nominations, as best actor in a TV drama for “Breaking Bad,” an ensemble honor for that show and a film ensemble honor for “Argo.”


Along with “Breaking Bad” and “Downton Abbey,” best TV drama ensemble contenders are “Boardwalk Empire,” ”Homeland” and “Mad Men.” TV comedy ensemble nominees are “30 Rock,” ”The Big Bang Theory,” ”Glee,” ”Modern Family,” ”Nurse Jackie” and “The Office.”


___


Online:


http://www.sagawards.org


Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Venezuela’s Chavez in “complex” post-operation condition: VP






CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in a “complex” and delicate condition after his latest surgery for cancer in Cuba, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday.


Looking grave-faced in an address to the nation, he urged Venezuelans to unite in prayer for their 58-year-old president, and to keep faith that Chavez would return soon.






(Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Editing by Will Dunham)


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Stocks edge higher as Fed ends two-day meeting






NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks edged higher, extending a winning streak, as investors awaited news on whether the Federal Reserve will announce more bond purchases to stimulate the U.S. economy. Wall Street also watched for developments from budget talks in Washington.


The Dow Jones industrial average was up 10 points at 13,260 as of noon in New York. The Standard and Poor‘s 500 was up three points at 1,431. The Nasdaq composite was little changed at 3,022.






The U.S. central bank is expected to announce a revamped bond-buying plan at the end of a two-day policy meeting Wednesday to help hold down interest rates and encourage borrowing. The expectation is that the Fed will unveil a program Wednesday to buy $ 45 billion a month in long-term Treasurys. That would replace a program that expires at the end of the year.


In Washington, lawmakers are still trying to reach a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” a series of sharp tax increases and spending cuts that will hit the economy in January if Congress and President Barack Obama are unable to thrash out an agreement to reduce the U.S. budget deficit.


House Speaker John Boehner and Obama spoke on the phone Tuesday, a day after the president offered to reduce his initial demand for $ 1.6 trillion in higher tax revenue over a decade to $ 1.4 trillion.


Boehner says “serious differences” remain between him and President Barack Obama in negotiations to avert automatic spending cuts and tax increases that economists fear could send the U.S. economy over a “fiscal cliff.” Democrats are resisting GOP demands for steps like raising the Medicare eligibility age.


Both the Dow and the S&P have advanced for the past five days as optimism increased that a deal can be struck. The S&P is trading at its highest in five weeks and has now erased all of its post-election losses. Stocks fell immediately after the vote Nov. 6 on concern that a divided government would struggle to resolve the budget issue.


“There’s some optimism that we are going to have some sort of an agreement on the cliff before December 31,” said JJ Kinahan, Chief Derivatives Strategist for TD Ameritrade. More Fed stimulus is “pretty much mostly priced in,” he said, because policymakers would be unlikely to risk disappointing market expectations given the concerns about the unresolved fiscal situation.


Chemicals giant DuPont advanced 83 cents to $ 44.52 after the company unveiled plans to buy back up to $ 1 billion of its shares next year and said that profit for this year will reach the high end of its forecasts.


The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed 1.66 percent.


Other stocks making big moves:


Eli Lilly and Co. fell $ 1.65 to $ 48.95 after the Indianapolis drugmaker it will conduct the additional, late-stage study of its possible Alzheimer’s treatment solanezumab. The move delays a regulatory decision on a drug that flashed potential to help patients with mild cases of the disease.


—Health insurer Aetna Inc. rose $ 1.94 to $ 46.41 after the company said late Tuesday that it expects sales and profit to grow next year.


Economy News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family






CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.


Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum contribution of A$ 500,000 ($ 525,000), to a memorial fund for the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who answered the telephone at the hospital treating Prince William’s pregnant wife, Kate.






The company has suspended the Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, scrapped their “Hot 30″ programme and suspended advertising on the station in the wake of the Saldanha’s death. Southern Cross said it would resume advertising on its station from Thursday.


“It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family,” Southern Cross Chief Executive Officer Rhys Holleran said in a statement.


“We hope that by contributing to a memorial fund we can help to provide the Saldanha family with the support they need at this very difficult time.”


(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Robert Birsel)


Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Notorious patent troll hits RIM with new lawsuit, seeks BlackBerry sales ban






Well-known patent troll Wi-LAN has filed a new lawsuit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Wi-LAN, which describes itself as “a leading intellectual property licensing company,” claims RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones infringe U.S. Patent No. 6,260,168, owned by Wi-LAN, which relates to Bluetooth implementation. The lawsuit covers multiple BlackBerry handsets including Bold, Torch, Pearl and Storm models, Reuters reports. Wi-LAN is reportedly seeking unspecified damages and is looking to ban sales of RIM’s infringing BlackBerry phones in the United States.


Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook






Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

‘Lincoln’ leads Critics’ Choice Awards nominees






LOS ANGELES (AP) — Film critics love “Lincoln.” The historical drama earned a record-breaking 13 nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.


The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the nominees for its 18th annual awards ceremony Tuesday in Los Angeles.






“Lincoln” beat the 12 nods earned by 2010′s “Black Swan” with bids for director Steven Spielberg, star Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting actors Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones, as well as cinematography, adapted screenplay, costume design, makeup, editing, art direction, score and acting ensemble.


“Les Miserables” follows with 11 nominations and “Silver Linings Playbook” has 10. “Life of Pi” earned nine nods. “Argo,” ”Skyfall” and “The Master” each have seven.


Winners will be announced Jan. 10, 2013, at a ceremony set to be broadcast live on the CW network.


___


Online:


www.criticschoice.com


Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Head of $3B Texas cancer effort asks to resign






AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The executive director of a troubled $ 3 billion cancer-fighting effort in Texas has submitted his resignation letter amid escalating scrutiny over the management of the nation’s second-biggest pot of cancer research dollars.


The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas made Bill Gimson‘s resignation letter public on Tuesday. Gimson has led the state agency since it launched in 2009 but fell under mounting criticism over the recent disclosure that an $ 11 million award to a private company was never reviewed.






Gimson wrote that he had been “placed in a situation where I can no longer feel effective.”


The agency’s board must still approve his request to resign.


Only the National Institutes of Health doles out more cancer research dollars than CPRIT.


Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

The Pope’s Social Media Guru Talks About That First Tweet






As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to send out his first tweet on Dec. 12, few wait with greater anticipation than Monsignor Paul Tighe. As Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Tighe is the Pope’s social media guy. I spoke with the Irish-born priest about how he’s easing the leader of the Catholic Church—who will tweet under @Pontifex—into the digital world.


How does the Pope feel about doing his first tweet?
I think he’s intrigued and he’s pleased. We’ve been waiting for the questions. We have to select questions and engage him around those questions. I wish we could just have it lined up, but each tweet will have been seen and approved by the pope.






Do you anticipate daily tweets?
Initially, I think it will be infrequent and regular, probably related to those set piece moments where the Pope addresses the world. On Sunday, he gives a public address in St. Peter’s Square. Wednesday audience is another public occasion. In the preparation of that, the Pope can give some attention to the formulation of a tweet so that it’s actually coming from him. For the initial launch, he will respond directly to a number of questions pertaining to faith.


Did Twitter help?
They know how to establish a sense of occasion. They’ve been extremely helpful, particularly the vice president for social innovation, Claire Diaz-Ortiz.


The prospect of being hacked must be a particular concern.
We’ve worked with Twitter on this. They’ve worked with other major global figures and they’ve been able to assure them and help them have appropriate levels of security, whether it’s Barack Obama or the Dalai Lama. We feel we have as good security as it’s possible to have with that medium.


Why doesn’t the Pope follow anyone?
The choice between following and not following was partly because we noticed the Dalai Lama didn’t follow anyone. How do you decide who do you follow? That’s one reason why Facebook (FB), where you have to consciously decide who is and who isn’t a friend, wouldn’t be the best medium. We could have looked at following cardinals and bishops but then what?


Barack Obama follows more than 600,000 people.
Maybe we should talk about this as a best practice for global Church leaders.


Why now?
A number of figures, from cardinals and bishops to individual believers, are quite present in Twitter. In a sense, the Pope’s presence is, ex post facto, an endorsement or encouragement of them. We have a lot of people who are saying, “If the Pope is going in there, maybe it’s time for me.” We’ve been looking at this actively at least since January, when the Pope gave a message focused on silence in advance of World Communications Day.


Silence?
Silence is an integral part of communications. If you’re not not silent, you’re not listening. He feels that if we use these well, we can be listening. Social media gives you a means to listen. This has extraordinary potential in helping to figure out how people are interpreting your message. The Pope feels new media can also help to foster attitudes of silence and reflection and teach people meditation. He also said that it’s possible, using very small phrases, to communicate important truths.


How do you get those truths down to 140 characters?
It’s a challenge, but the essence of biblical teaching is short. They’re pithy. Last year, we divided the Pope’s message for Lent into 40 tweets or 40 short phrases. We went on a site we created about four years ago called Pope2you.net and asked if anyone wanted to get it. About 30,000 wanted to get one of the Pope’s tweets every day for Lent.


I saw a video on the home page for Advent, Gangnam Style.
The Diocese of Sydney was responsible for that. It’s a great site. We spent about €2,000 ($ 2,599) on it. In the first week, we had 5 million hits. We have 25 people working full time in the council. The Church is a community of communities. It’s not unlike a network. Look at that Advent video. We liked it. We put it on our website and other dioceses picked it up. I sent it to my nephews and nieces in Ireland and they loved it. That’s the power of social media.


I know. The pope has 610,000 followers without having done a single tweet.
It’s not about trying to clock up the number of followers. But there’s a certain little pleasure in seeing that the numbers are relatively good. But we’re not in competition with anyone. The name of the game is not about followers of the Pope. It’s about ways to reach people who may be touched by, strengthened by, encouraged by the words of the Gospel. If there are followers, they’re followers of Christ.


So Twitter is a new place to preach.
It’s almost like the equivalent of the old marketplaces where Jesus went to engage people. That’s where we have to be, with all of its ambiguities and difficulties, because that’s where the people are.


Businessweek.com — Top News


Read More..

McAfee wants to return to US, ‘normal life’






BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and “settle down to whatever normal life” he can.


In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said “I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years.”






Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November.


The creator of the McAfee antivirus program again denied involvement in the killing during the Sunday Internet video hook-up, during which he answered what he said were reporters’ questions.


His comments were sometimes contradictory. McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications.


The British-born McAfee first said that returning to the United States “is my only hope now.” But he later added, “I would be happy to go to England, I have dual citizenship.”


He was emphatic that “I cannot ever return to Belize …. there is no hope for my life if I am ever returned to Belize.”


“If I am returned,” he said, “bad things will clearly happen to me.”


He descibed the health problems that had him briefly hospitalized earlier this week after Guatemalan authorities detained him for entering the country illegally. He apparently snuck in across a rural, unguarded spot along the border.


“I did not eat for two days, I drank very little liquids, and for the first time in many years I’ve been smoking almost non-stop,” he said. “I stood up, passed out hit my head on the wall, came to,” though he now said he was feeling better.


McAfee praised the role his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas, played in his escape from Belize, where he claims he is being persecuted by corrupt politicians. Authorities in Belize deny that they are persecuting him and have questioned his mental state.


“Sam saved the day many times” during their escape, he said, and suggested he would take her with him to the United States if he is allowed to go there.


He confirmed that journalists from Vice magazine who accompanied him on his escape after weeks of hiding in Belize had unwittingly posted photos with embedded data that revealed his exact location.


“It was an error anyone could make,” he said, noting they were under a lot of pressure at the time.


McAfee has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.


He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $ 4 million of his $ 100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as “not very accurate at all.”


McAfee’s Guatemalan attorney, Telesforo Guerra, says that he has filed three separate legal appeals in the hope that his client can stay in Guatemala, where his political asylum request was rejected.


Guerra said he filed an appeal for a judge to make sure McAfee’s physical integrity is protected, an appeal against the asylum denial and a petition with immigration officials to allow his client to stay in this Central American country indefinitely.


The appeals could take several days to resolve, Guerra said. He added that he could still use several other legal resources but wouldn’t give any other details.


Fredy Viana, a spokesman for the Immigration Department, said that before the agency looks into the request to allow McAfee to stay in Guatemala, a judge must first deal with the appeal asking that authorities make sure McAfee’s physical integrity is protected.


“We won’t look into (allowing him to stay) until the other appeal is resolved,” Viana said. “The law gives me 30 days to resolve the issue.”


McAfee went on the run last month after Belizean officials tried to question him about the killing of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November.


McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. Faull’s home was a couple of houses down from McAfee’s compound in Ambergris Caye, off Belize’s Caribbean coast.


Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

RIM teases BlackBerry 10 launch with image of first BB10 smartphone






Read More..