6 ways to tweet yourself out of a job

Hate your job? Want to leave without giving two weeks notice? Thanks to Twitter, it’s never been easier to get fired, says Rob Lammie at Mental Floss

Step 1: Drunk tweet
As any Spring Break partier knows, drinking impairs your judgment. It seems to have also impaired the judgment of Major League pitcher-turned-sports-radio-host Mike Bacsik, who put on quite a show during a San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks NBA game in April 2010. While watching the game, Bacsik bragged that he was “About 12 deep and some shots.” He proceeded to unleash a string of insults aimed at NBA commissioner David Stern, accused the refs of fixing the game, and even threatened to blow up the NBA’s offices. But the one that really got people riled up came after the Mavericks lost the game, when Bacsik tweeted: 

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@MikeBacsik: “Congrats to all the dirty mexicans in San Antonio.”

After sobering up, Bacsik deleted the offending tweets and issued an apology. But it was too little, too late. Numerous people complained to his radio station, which first suspended Bacsik and later fired him. After his dismissal, he told ESPN Dallas, “When you tweet like that, it’s not a playful, harmless thing… I’m very sorry and will try my best for my actions to speak louder than my tweets.”

Step 2: Break the law (or just anger your governor)
Twitter has become a great tool for politicians to connect to the voting public. Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, for one, has really embraced the technology as a way to share his opinions and views. For example, in December 2009, he sent out a tweet saying:

 @HaleyBarbour: “Glad the Legislature recognizes our dire fiscal situation. Look forward to hearing their ideas on how to trim expenses.”

Jennifer Carter, one of his Twitter followers who worked for the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC), read this message and offered up a suggestion on how Governor Barbour could personally save the taxpayers money:

“Schedule regular medical exams like everyone else instead of paying UMC employees overtime to do it when clinics are usually closed.” 

This “Oh, snap!” moment referred to an incident that had occurred three years earlier, when the governor requested the medical center open on a Saturday, when they were normally closed, and bring in a staff of 15-20 people who were paid overtime to administer his annual check-up. This happened before Carter worked for UMC and she was simply repeating what she had been told by other employees. 

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The governor’s office tracked down Carter and made a formal complaint to UMC, saying Carter had violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a privacy law that states no employee of a medical facility can reveal any information about a person’s “protected health information.” Some argued that Carter didn’t violate HIPAA, since she didn’t actually give out any information about the health of the governor. However, others believe that simply saying the governor had even visited a doctor is a violation. 

Semantics aside, UMC administrators said it was a violation, so they suspended Carter for three days without pay and strongly suggested she resign to avoid further disciplinary action, which she did.

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Step 3: Have an NSFW lifestyle
St. Louis-based blogger “The Beautiful Kind” had been writing online about her polyamorous sex life for years. Knowing that not everyone would agree with her chosen lifestyle, she was always very careful about maintaining her anonymity, especially when it came to the workplace. So when she signed up for Twitter, she wanted to be anonymous there as well. She thought that, thanks to the similarities between the two, it was like signing up for an online message board — you supplied your real name to the website privately, but could choose to be known publicly by your username only. But when she logged in for the first time and saw that, not only did it show her username (@TBK365), but also her real name on her profile, she immediately went back and removed it. 

Thinking she was now safely anonymous, she used Twitter to promote her blog and to discuss sexually explicit topics with her followers. However, when her boss at the non-profit group where she worked was told by upper management to do a Google search of all employees, TBK’s Twitter account information — with her real name still associated — came up on the Twitter tracking site topsy.com.

The next day, TBK was called into her boss’ office and fired on the spot. Afterwards, her former boss sent her a letter saying, “While I know you are a good worker and an intelligent person, I hope you try to understand that our employees are held to a different standard. When it comes to private matters, such as one’s sexual explorations and preferences, our employees must keep their affairs private.” Because Missouri is an at-will employment state, meaning employers can fire someone for just about any reason, TBK was SOL.

Step 4: Question company policy
When California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) traded in their standard white shirts for black ones, employee Tim Chantarangsu wasn’t happy with the change. So he tweeted @calpizzakitchen his opinion:

@traphik: “black button ups are the lamest s**t ever!!!”

He didn’t expect anyone to notice or care, but the next day he received a direct message from corporate asking what restaurant he worked for. He knew better than to respond, but they tracked him down anyway and he was fired. They not only referenced his tweet about the shirts, but also an earlier one where he had said he was getting ready to work at “Calipornia Skeetza Kitchen.” 

Little did they know that Chantarangsu is kind of a big deal on another social website, YouTube. Under the name TimothyDeLaGhetto2, Chantarangsu has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, accounting for over 10,500,000 views of his videos at the time. Of course he made a YouTube video telling his Twitter story and it has been viewed well more than 100,000 times. Shortly after the incident, he asked his followers to bombard CPK’s Twitter account with RTs (re-tweets) of his offending message, which they were more than happy to oblige.

Step 5: Make a celebrity look bad
During his five years on the job, Jon Barrett-Ingels had served a lot of celebrities as a waiter at Barney Greengrass, an upscale restaurant in Beverly Hills. One day, Jane Adams, star of the HBO series Hung, came in and had lunch to the tune of $ 13.44. Unfortunately, when the bill came, Adams realized she had left her wallet in the car. Ingels knew who she was, so he told her she could run out and grab it and come back. The actress left, but didn’t return. Instead, someone from her agency called the next day and paid the bill. However, they didn’t leave a tip. Ingels had recently signed up for Twitter and so, his sixth tweet to his 40 followers said:

@PapaBarrett: Jane Adams, star of HBO series “Hung” skipped out on a $ 13.44 check. Her agent called and payed the following day. NO TIP!!!” 

Over the next few weeks, Ingels started using Twitter to send out a few harmless observations about celebrities that came in to eat — mainly what they ordered or what they looked like that day. Then, out of the blue, Jane Adams came back to the restaurant. According to Ingels’ blog, she was clearly upset and begrudgingly slapped $ 3 on the bar for Ingels as a tip. Surprised, Ingels told the actress she really didn’t have to do that, but her gesture was appreciated. She allegedly replied with, “My friend read about it on Twitter!” before storming off. Adams complained about the tweet to management, so someone from Barney’s corporate started following Ingels on Twitter to see what he was up to. After reading his celebrity tweets, it didn’t take long before they gave him the boot.

Step 6: Don’t get hired in the first place
If you’ve followed steps 1 – 5 and you still have a job, here’s the ultimate way to make sure Twitter will keep you from gainful employment.

When recent college grad Skye Riley heard back from Cisco, the computer networking giant, about her job application, one of her first instincts was to tweet about it. Unfortunately, this is what she tweeted:

@theconnor: Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

The unfortunate part? An employee of Cisco, Tim Levad, came across her post while doing a Twitter search for Cisco. He replied to her by saying:

@timmylevad: Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Riley’s story was the tweet heard round the world. It became a hot topic on tech blogs for weeks afterwards, with writers calling it the “Cisco Fatty” incident. She later claimed that the tweet was taken out of context — that part of her message was referring to a well-paid internship she had turned down — but it appears the damage had already been done. While only she and Cisco know what really happened, according to her online resume, she has never worked for the company.

 — Rob Lammie

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Four new cases of SARS-like virus found in Saudi, Qatar

LONDON (Reuters) – A new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September has now killed two people in Saudi Arabia, and total cases there and in Qatar have reached six, the World Health Organisation said.

The U.N. health agency issued an international alert in late September saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.

On Friday it said in an outbreak update that it had registered four more cases and one of the new patients had died.

“The additional cases have been identified as part of the enhanced surveillance in Saudi Arabia (3 cases, including 1 death) and Qatar (1 case),” the WHO said.

The new virus is known as a coronavirus and shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a 10th of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Among the symptoms in the confirmed cases are fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

Of the six laboratory-confirmed cases reported to WHO, four cases, including the two deaths, are from Saudi Arabia and two cases are from Qatar.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency, which helped to identify the new virus in September, said the newly reported case from Qatar was initially treated in October in Qatar but then transferred to Germany, and has now been discharged.

Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections, such as flu, travelling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The WHO said investigations were being conducted into the likely source of the infection, the method of exposure, and the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

“Close contacts of the recently confirmed cases are being identified and followed-up,” it said.

It added that so far, only the two most recently confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia were epidemiologically linked – they were from the same family, living in the same household.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that these two cases presented with similar symptoms of illness. One died and the other recovered,” the WHO’s statement said.

Two other members of the same family also suffered similar symptoms of illness, and one died and the other is recovering. But the WHO said laboratory test results on the fatality were still pending, and the person who is recovering had tested negative for the new coronavirus.

The virus has no formal name, but scientists at the British and Dutch laboratories where it was identified refer to it as “London1_novel CoV 2012″.

The WHO urged all its member states to continue surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections.

“Until more information is available, it is prudent to consider that the virus is likely more widely distributed than just the two countries which have identified cases,” it said.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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Trust lacking in comparison sites

23 November 2012 Last updated at 07:23 ET

Consumers’ lack of trust in some price comparison websites means that they miss out on potential savings, a regulator has said.

A previous study by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said that consumers could collectively save up to £240m a year by using these websites effectively.

But the OFT has now written to 100 leading operators asking them to make information on websites clearer.

One consumer group recently called for comparison websites to be regulated.

‘Step forward’

The use of price comparison websites has grown significantly as more and more consumers gain internet access.

For example, the majority of motor insurance policies are now bought by drivers who search through price comparison sites.

In its latest report, the OFT said these websites had brought a “major step forward” for consumers in getting better value for money.

Yet it said that a review of 55 different sites had shown that many could improve on their privacy settings, their complaints process, the way results were displayed, and clear identification of who was operating the site.

The Data Protection Act requires that all businesses collecting personal data explain to consumers who is collecting their information, what they intend to do with it and who it will be shared with.

The report also urged consumers to:

• Look for opt-out options if they do not want their information to be shared


• Be aware of how results are displayed – by relevance, price or popularity


• Use different websites, rather than relying on a claim that the website has “found the best deal”


• Check who runs the site, not just the name, and use accredited websites if possible

“Price comparison websites help busy shoppers find a good deal, but people might not realise that by being a bit savvier they can get even more out of these websites,” said Clive Maxwell, chief executive of the OFT.

“Not all price comparison websites have the same standards.”

Watchdog Consumer Focus, which runs an accreditation service, said that these websites needed to trade fairly and openly to be regarded as trustworthy brokers between consumers and markets.

“An open and honest relationship with customers is vital given the consumer distrust of many of the markets they use comparison sites to shop around,” said chief executive Mike O’Connor.

The consumers’ association Which? has previously called for price comparison websites to be regulated because the information they provided was not always fair.

It said that initial prices could seem very cheap because sites automatically pre-selected certain options for insurance products.

That led to some quotes being misleading and could cause customers to spend more than necessary – a claim that was disputed by one comparison site.

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Cricket-Australia v South Africa – second test scoreboard

ADELAIDE, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Scoreboard at the close of the

third day of the second test between Australia and South Africa

at Adelaide Oval on Saturday:

Australia won the toss and chose to bat

Australia first innings 550

South Africa first innings

G. Smith c Wade b Siddle 122

A. Petersen run out 54

H. Amla st Wade b Warner 11

J. Rudolph c Quiney b Lyon 29

AB de Villiers lbw b Siddle 1

F. du Plessis c Clarke b Hilfenhaus 78

D. Steyn c Ponting b Hilfenhaus 1

R. Kleinveldt b Hilfenhaus 0

J. Kallis c Wade b Clarke 58

M. Morkel b Lyon 6

I. Tahir not out 10

Extras (b-7, lb-2, w-3, nb-6) 18

Total: (all out, 124.3 overs) 388

Fall of wickets: 1-138 2-169 3-233 4-233 5-240 6-246 7-250

8-343 9-352 10-388

Bowling: B. Hilfenhaus 19.3-6-49-3, J. Pattinson 9.1-0-41-0

(nb-4, w-1) N. Lyon 44-7-91-2, P. Siddle 30.5-6-130-2 (nb-2), M.

Clarke 7-1-22-1, M. Hussey 1-0-7-0 (w-2), D. Warner 5-0-27-1, R.

Quiney 8-3-12-0

Australia second innings

D. Warner c Du Plessis b Kleinveldt 41

E. Cowan b Kleinveldt 29

R. Quiney c De Villiers b Kleinveldt 0

R. Ponting b Steyn 16

M. Clarke not out 9

P. Siddle c De Villiers b Morkel 1

M. Hussey 5

Extras (lb-7, nb-3) 10

Total (for five wickets, 32 overs) 111

Fall of wickets: 1-77 2-77 3-91 4-98 5-103

Still to bat: M. Wade, B. Hilfenhaus, J. Pattinson, N. Lyon.

Bowling: Steyn 10-4-28-1, Morkel 9-2-24-1, Kleinveldt

6-1-14-3 (nb-2), Tahir 7-1-38-0 (nb-1)

- -

Third test: WACA, Perth Nov. 30-Dec. 4

(Compiled by Ian Ransom; Editing by Alastair Himmer)

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Fitch cuts Sony, Panasonic debt ratings to “junk” status

TOKYO (Reuters) – Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the debt ratings of Japan’s Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp to “junk” status citing weakness in their consumer electronics and TV operations, further diminishing the luster of the once-great Japanese brands.

The cut to below investment grade, the first by a ratings firm, comes as the floundering Japanese tech giants face weak demand and fierce competition from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

A strong yen and bumps in China, where growth has slowed and Japanese goods have been targeted in sometimes violent protests recently, have also weighed on their earnings.

The two companies, along with Sharp Corp, racked up combined losses of $ 20 billion last year, leading them to axe jobs, sell assets and close facilities.

“Both Sony and Panasonic are struggling to generate operating profits, but each is restructuring and I don’t envision the current situation continuing,” said Masahi Oda, Chief Investment Officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

“A collapse of their core business would be a problem, but we are not at the point yet, and to me Fitch looks too negative,” Oda added.

Fitch downgraded Sony by three notches to BB-minus from BBB- minus, saying meaningful recovery will be slow. The move came after Sony, the maker of PlayStation game consoles and Vaio laptops, last week announced plans to raise 150 billion yen ($ 1.82 billion) through the sale of convertible bonds.

“Fitch believes that continuing weakness in the home entertainment and sound and mobile products and communications segments will offset the relatively stable music and pictures segments and improvement in the devices segment which makes semiconductors and components,” it said in statement.

In a separate statement, Fitch cut Panasonic to BB from BBB-minus, a two-notch downgrade, citing weakened competitiveness in its TVs and display panels as well as weak cash generation from its operations. It has a negative outlook on both the companies.

The downgrade sent Sony’s five-year credit default swaps (CDS), insurance-like contracts against debt default or restructuring, 5 basis points wider to 382.5/402.5 basis points.

Panasonic’s CDS for the same maturity were quoted at 295/315 basis points, 15 basis points wider than in Thursday morning Asian trade.

Standard & Poor’s rates the two consumer electronics makers at BBB, the second lowest of the investment grade, while Moody’s Investors Service has Baa3 on them, the lowest of the high-grade category.

With two of the three major ratings agencies still having the two companies as investment grade, institutional investors won’t face too great a pressure to cut their debt holdings in them, analysts said.

SONY SHARES TUMBLE

Sony shares shed 4.4 percent in Frankfurt on Thursday. The shares ended 1.8 percent higher at 834 yen in Tokyo before the Fitch announcement, trading not too far from their 32-year closing low of 793 yen hit on November 15. Sony stock is down 40 percent so far this year.

Panasonic shares were down 0.6 percent in Frankfurt in low volume. The stock inched up 0.7 percent to close at 407 yen in Tokyo trading, near its 34-year closing low of 385 yen reached on November 13.

Last month, Panasonic cut its forecast and warned it will lose close to $ 10 billion in the year to March, as it writes off billions of yen in tax-deferred assets and goodwill related to its mobile phone, solar panel and small lithium battery businesses.

Ahead of its earnings revision, Panasonic won $ 7.6 billion in loan commitments in October from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a funding backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital from credit markets.

Sony made a small operating profit in the July-September quarter, helped by the sale of a non-core chemicals business, and kept its forecast for a full-year profit of $ 1.63 billion.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau in Tokyo and Umesh Desai in Hong Kong; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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SpongeBob Christmas special goes stop-motion

LOS ANGELES (AP) — How does “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!” squeeze even more fun out of our porous little hero and the Bikini Bottom gang? By turning the animated characters three-dimensional for their holiday special.

In a tribute to classic fare such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the “SpongeBob SquarePants” crew has been re-imagined as puppets and put through their comedy paces for stop-motion photography.

The story line as dreamed up by Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, and his musical collaborator Andy Paley: The denizens of Bikini Bottom are suddenly rude because of exposure to jerktonium, a plot by naughty Plankton to get on Santa’s (voiced by guest star John Goodman) nice list.

Plankton “wants to put everyone on their worst behavior when they should be on their best behavior, and zany mayhem ensues,” Kenny said.

“It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!” debuts 9:30 p.m. EST Friday on CBS, followed by an encore on the show’s home network, Nickelodeon, at 7:30 p.m. EST Sunday, Dec. 9.

The first-time foray into stop-motion is a welcome change for the 13-year-old “SpongeBob,” Kenny said.

“It’s fun that after all these years we can still do stuff that’s a little different. It’s like reinventing the wheel a little bit — if you can refer to a square character as a wheel,” he added, unable to resist the quip.

The actor looks back fondly on childhood memories of “Rudolph” from the Rankin-Bass studio and other stop-action projects. Even the TV commercial that put Santa on an electric razor subbing for a sleigh gets a Kenny shoutout.

Asked if young viewers might be fazed by seeing the familiar characters in a new guise, Kenny mulled the question before rebutting it.

“The characters act the same, the recording process is exactly the same. Our job is exactly the same. … There’s still plenty of the animated mayhem and anarchy that happens in the 2-D version of the show.”

Screen Novelties, the Los Angeles studio that produced the Christmas special, made a feast out of the job. In just one of their inventive approaches, filmmakers used fruit-flavored cereal to create a coral reef.

“I came to the studio and they had hundreds of boxes of cereal open and were hot-gluing it together,” Kenny recalled.

The Patrick Star puppet was covered in wool-like material and SpongeBob “wasn’t a sponge but some kind of weird material they found somewhere,” he said. “They’re like ‘MacGyver,’ always repurposing something.”

The TV special has a small element of recycling. Kenny calls it a testament to “a goofy little song” he and Paley wrote three years ago — “Don’t Be a Jerk, (It’s Christmas).”

“Bring joy to the world, it’s the thing to do. But the world does not revolve around you. Don’t be a jerk, it’s Christmas” is among its bouncy yet cautionary verses.

The tune is among a dozen included on the digital release “It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! Album,” most written by Kenny and Paley (a songwriter-producer who’s worked with artists including Brian Wilson and Blondie). Four songs are part of the special.

Music fans might want to check out the album for its craftsmanship. The veterans who play on it include harpist Corky Hale and harmonica player Tommy Morgan, both of whom have backed a roster of big stars, including Billie Holliday and Frank Sinatra.

The recording sessions proved an early holiday gift for Kenny.

“We’d spend a half-hour working and then make the musicians tell stories about who they played with,” he said.

___

Online:

http://spongebob.nick.com/

http://www.cbs.com/

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How to Beat Black Friday Stress

Eva Cevallos with her eleven-month daughter, Quinn, shop at the Pre-Black Friday event at the Walmart Supercenter store in Rosemead, Calif., Nov. 21, 2012. (Image credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Black Friday – a day famous for long lines, scary stampedes and even pepper spray - can be stressful. But with a bit of preparation, you can get great deals without the headache.

Click here to see how to save money on Black Friday.

Check out these tips to beat Black Friday stress.

Use Bricks and Clicks

You might be tempted to avoid the lines by shopping online, but spreading out purchases between stores and sites can help cut stress, according to a 2011 market research study.

“You would think sitting in an armchair wearing a robe waiting for a site to go live would be far less stressful,” John Ross, chief executive officer of Shopper Sciences, told ABCNews.com. “Even though you don’t have the pushing and shoving, shopping purely online tends to be pretty stressful, too.”

Ross said people who shopped in stores and online experienced less stress and spent more money overall, possibly because they found more good deals.

“You can browse online, do your shopping in the morning, have your turkey in the afternoon, line up your day for going into the stores on Friday, and then hit the stores early and get the best of both the online and the offline deals,” Best Buy Online president Scott Durschlag told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It’s really bricks and clicks.”

Click here to check out Cyber Monday deals you can get now.

Tap the Apps

A new set of smartphone apps can help you manage coupons and compare deals on the go. And with online price tags fluctuating throughout the day, some apps can even also help you decide when to pull the trigger.

Click here to see five Black Friday apps.

Don’t Sweat It in Line

The dread of waiting in long snaking lines can quash the excitement of finding great Black Friday deals, according to a 2011 market research study that measured shopper stress with sweat-sensing bracelets.

“The data shows the highest stress level occurred while shoppers were waiting for the store to open,” Shopper Sciences’ Ross said. “Once the store was open, shoppers were really happy, until they had to wait in the checkout line.”

But some simple relaxation techniques can help you keep your cool. Tell yourself, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” Dr. Redford Williams, director of Duke University’s Behavioral Medicine Research Center, said of waiting in lines. “Instead of fuming at the slowness, take a deep breath and say, ‘There’s no way I can make those people go faster, so I might as well just chill.”

Click here for tips on beating holiday stress.

Keep It Clean

It’s cold-and-flu season, and busy stores teem with germs. Make sure you bring home deals and not diseases like the flu by arming yourself with a flu shot and hand sanitizer. And be particularly careful when testing toys and electronics fondled by thousands before you.

“Try out your candidate iPhone, look at it, play with it, and then do your hand sanitizer thing,” Dr. William Schaffner, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., told ABCNews.com.

Click here to see the germiest places at the mall.

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Euro zone consumer confidence falls in November

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone consumer confidence fell in November compared to the previous month, the first estimate from the European Commission showed on Thursday.

The Commission said consumer confidence in the 17-member euro zone slipped to -26.9 this month from a revised October figure of -25.7.

Consumer spending accounts for more than half of euro zone economic output, but with the effects of the debt crisis cutting disposable income, households have been in no position to contribute much to economic recovery.

In the wider 27-member European Union, consumer sentiment improved a fraction, to -23.7, compared to -24.3 last month.

EU leaders want to drive economic growth and employment after nearly three years of crisis and austerity, but the bloc has little immediate cash to invest and faces the longer-term challenge of falling productivity and an ageing workforce.

For European Commission data click on:

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/db_indicators/surveys/index_en.htm

(Rex Merrifield, Brussels newsroom)

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Bank of Canada keeps “over time” condition on rate hike

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Tim Lane repeated on Wednesday the central bank‘s message that interest rate increases will likely be needed, but only over time.

The “over time” phrase was introduced in the bank’s key guidance in its rate statement on October 23 as a way of signaling that while the next rate move is likely to be up, such a move was less imminent than it had been.

“Over time, some gradual withdrawal of monetary policy stimulus will likely be required, consistent with achieving the inflation-control target,” Lane said, according to a prepared presentation he was giving on Wednesday in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Another part of the presentation, which was posted on the central bank’s website, noted: “The Canadian economy continues to operate with a small amount of excess supply.”

The Bank of Canada is alone in the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries in signaling an intention to raise rates despite expectations of modest and unbalanced global growth.

Lane forecast “very robust growth” in emerging markets, stagnation in Europe and significant dampening of U.S. growth due to fiscal consolidation. He said Canada‘s real gross domestic product was still expected to grow at a moderate pace.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)

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NJ jury convicts NY man in iPad data breach case

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a man of illegally gaining access to AT&T‘s servers and stealing more than 120,000 email addresses of iPad users including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and film mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Andrew Auernheimer, of New York, was convicted of identity theft and conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Prosecutors said the former Fayetteville, Ark., resident was part of an online group that tricked AT&T’s website into divulging email addresses including those of Bloomberg, Weinstein, then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who’s now Chicago’s mayor, and other celebrities.

The group then shared the addresses with the website Gawker, which published them in redacted form accompanying a news article about the breach, prosecutors said.

A second man arrested with Auernheimer early last year, Daniel Spitler, of San Francisco, pleaded guilty that June.

At the time of the arrests, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said there was no evidence the men used the swiped information for criminal purposes. But authorities cautioned that it could have wound up in the hands of spammers and scam artists.

According to court papers, the men used a computer script they called the iPad3G Account Slurper to fool AT&T’s servers into thinking they were communicating with an iPad. The theft of the email addresses occurred in June 2010.

Prosecutors said at the time of Auernheimer’s arrest that he had bragged about the operation in a blog posting and in an interview with CNET published online after the Gawker article. Court papers also quoted him declaring in a New York Times article: “I hack, I ruin, I make piles of money. I make people afraid for their lives.”

Auernheimer, after he was charged and released on bail, had declined to comment.

iPad maker Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, Calif., referred questions to AT&T, which acknowledged a security weak spot on a website that exposed the email addresses. AT&T said the vulnerability affected only iPad users who signed up for its 3G wireless Internet service and said it had fixed the problem.

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Docs Push for Over-the-Counter Pill

In an attempt to lower the alarmingly high rate of unplanned pregnancy — and the high cost associated with it — an expert panel of doctors recommended Tuesday that birth control pills be made available without a prescription.

Specifically, the committee said the potential benefits of over-the-counter birth control pills outweigh the danger, which includes a small risk of dangerous blood clots.

Nearly half of all pregnancies happen by accident, according to government data. These pregnancies cost taxpayers an estimated $ 11.1 billion each year, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Committee on Gynecologic Practice.

The birth control pill, commonly called “the pill,” is a formulation of hormones, usually progestin and estrogen, that helps prevent pregnancy mainly by keeping the ovaries from releasing eggs. Right now “the pill” is only available in the United States with a prescription, which the committee said poses a significant barrier.

“Access to and cost issues are common reasons why women do not use contraception or use it inconsistently,” said Dr. Kavita Nanda, one of the physicians on the committee.

A survey from 2004, cited by the committee, found that almost half of all uninsured women and 40 percent of low-income women who were not using birth control pills, the patch or the ring, said they would more likely use the pill if it were available over the counter.

This same survey also found that more than two out of three women at risk of an unintended pregnancy would use their pharmacy if more methods of birth control were available over the counter.

The committee said that birth control pills are good options for these women, with efficacy ranging from 92 to 99 percent depending on use.

Dr. Daniel Grossman, an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists fellow, who was not part of the committee, said oral contraceptives are also safe. “We have over 50 years of experience with this method,” he said.

There are still many steps that would have to occur for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommendation to translate into the availability of birth control pills over the counter. And not all doctors support the idea that birth control pills are safely sold without a prescription.

“I think that the risks far outweigh the benefits,” said ABC News’ senior medical contributor Dr. Jennifer Ashton, who is also an obstetrician and gynecologist.

“Even though they’re hormones … they’re at much higher doses than our body makes, and as such there can be side effects ranging from minor to life threatening,” Ashton said. She went on to list some of the side effects associated with birth control pills, including low risks of blood clot, stroke and heart attack. “It’s a full spectrum of things that really needs a medical provider in the picture.”

Still, the committee noted in its recommendation that the risk of blood clots associated with birth control pills was low, with three to 10 women out of 10,000 taking the pill experiencing such a problem each year. By comparison, past research has found that the risk of blood clots associated with being pregnant is five to 20 women out of 10,000 each year, while the risk of clots associated with having just given birth is 40 to 65 per 10,000.

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Leading economic indicator rises in October

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A gauge of future U.S. economic activity rose marginally in October, pointing to modest growth in the near term.

The Conference Board said on Wednesday its Leading Economic Index increased 0.2 percent to 96.0 after advancing 0.5 percent in September. It was the second consecutive month of gains and was in line with economists’ expectations.

“Based on the trends, the economy will continue to expand modestly through the early months of 2013,” said Ken Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board.

Goldstein said superstorm Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast at the end of October, was not yet fully reflected in the LEI data. He cautioned, however, that the storm could adversely affect consumer spending and home building in the short-term.

“In addition, the outcome of the fiscal cliff debates is another factor that could alter the outlook,” said Goldstein.

The fiscal cliff refers to automatic government spending cuts and higher taxes that could suck about $ 600 billion from the economy early next year. Business confidence has taken a dive in recent months on fears of tighter fiscal policy.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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Greek PM presses for deal on loan

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece has reacted with dismay to the European Union‘s failure to agree to release vital rescue loan funds for the debt-ridden country, with the prime minister warning it was not just Greece’s future that hangs in the balance.

The delay prolongs uncertainty over the future of Greece, which faces a messy default that would threaten the entire euro currency used by 17 EU nations.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stressed that Greece has done what its creditors from the EU and International Monetary Fund required. “Our partners, along with the IMF, also must do what they have committed to doing,” he said.

He said that “it is not just the future of our country, but the stability of the entire eurozone” that depend on the success of negotiations in coming days.

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Kopp: Impostor filed motion in NY Facebook case

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Lawyers fighting a New York man’s ownership claim against Facebook Inc. say a bizarre motion bearing the name of convicted abortion doctor killer James Charles Kopp earlier this month was apparently filed by an impostor.

In court papers, Facebook lawyers say they received a sworn statement from the imprisoned Kopp Monday denying he’s filed any motion in Paul Ceglia‘s lawsuit. An accompanying letter from Kopp to the federal judge handling the case says someone is impersonating him.

The motion signed with Kopp’s name had sought permission to intervene in Ceglia’s lawsuit while accusing Ceglia of a litany of personal slights, threats and crimes. Kopp’s serving life in prison for the 1998 killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian in suburban Buffalo.

Facebook says the Kopp motion, even if it’s real, should be denied.

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Task Force Backs HIV Screening

In an effort to curb HIV transmission and get treatment to those already infected, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended that every American between the ages of 15 and 65 be tested for HIV.

Experts hope that the new recommendations will encourage more Americans to get tested and, if necessary, get treated.

“HIV screening is an important way to help people who have HIV, and also to prevent transmission,” said Dr. Doug Owens, a leader of the task force and professor of medicine at Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Owens said that HIV treatment “decreases the amount of circulating virus,” making it less likely for it to spread from person to person.

Roughly 1.2 million Americans are currently living with HIV, a number that has been increasing steadily over the past five years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There continue to be about 48,000 new cases per year in the United States, but new treatments are allowing people to live long lives after they’re diagnosed.

“Hopefully, more people with HIV will be identified and treated earlier,” said Dr. Roger Chou of the Pacific Northwest Evidence Based Practice Center, whose study on the evidence supporting the new recommendation was published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

HIV-positive patients who start treatment while their immune systems are relatively intact live longer and are less likely to spread the virus to other people. But 20 percent of patients are unaware they have the virus, said Dr. Carlos Del Rio, co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS research in Atlanta.

“This news about screening is very exciting,” Del Rio said.

Previous task force recommendations on HIV testing, published in 2005, called for adults to get tested only if they’d had unprotected sex with multiple partners or used intravenous drugs — in other words, were at high risk. But up to a quarter of patients who test positive for HIV report no risk factors, according to the new Preventive Services Task Force statement.

“People are terrible at knowing their own risk,” said Del Rio, adding that people may be unaware of the HIV status of their sexual partners. “And doctors are terrible at asking them about risk. It can be difficult to discuss sex and drugs with our patients.”

The task force recommendations are used by Medicare and other insurance companies to determine what laboratory tests should be covered. Other important task force recommendations included screening for breast and colon cancer, as well as high cholesterol.

“I don’t have to ask my patients if they eat hamburgers before ordering a cholesterol test,” said Del Rio. “Now I can do a routine HIV test when patients come to clinic.”

In order for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to make a testing recommendation, the test has to be accurate, treatment for the disease must be available and the benefits of the treatment outweigh the harms.

“HIV testing is one of the most accurate tests that we have for any condition,” said Chou.

Coupled with the fact that the benefits of HIV treatment are now known to outweigh the risks, screening now makes sense, according to the experts on the task force.

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The New York Times’ Murdoch Moment

Why is Mark Thompson increasingly reminding us of James Murdoch?

Not long ago, Thompson and Murdoch were rivals of sorts. Murdoch was the head of News International in London. Thompson was the head of the BBC. Sometimes they took turns criticizing each other’s media operations in public.

Then scandals hit both organizations. And in the aftermath, as they have both repeatedly explained how the problems might have occurred on their watch without them knowing, as they have tried to distance themselves from widening probes and allegations of corporate cover-ups, and as they left London for new jobs in New York, the two rivals have started to sound a lot alike.

Recall Murdoch’s situation first.

In the summer of 2011, revelations of widespread phone hacking at News International triggered a huge wave of public outrage in the U.K., a range of public investigations, and allegations of a company cover-up on Murdoch’s watch.

In the immediate aftermath of the revelations, Murdoch said repeatedly that he was not part of any alleged cover-up; that for a long time he had been led to believe the phone hacking had been limited to a single “rogue” reporter; and that he had never been made aware of any allegations of widespread phone hacking taking place at News International until after the whole thing had erupted in public.

But then a correspondence involving lawyers for Murdoch surfaced, raising questions about those claims.

In the e-mail chain, an editor for one of News International’s papers updated Murdoch on a union official who was suing the company, noting that the situation “is as bad as we feared.” He also forwarded Murdoch two e-mails from company lawyers, one of which explained that the union official was eager to show that phone hacking was “rife” at News International and not limited to a single “rogue” reporter. The e-mail was sent to Murdoch well before the scandal erupted publicly—which seemed to cast serious doubt on his claims that he had been kept in the dark about the possibility of a broader problem.

But even after the e-mail surfaced, Murdoch stood firm.

He explained that when he had originally received the correspondence, he had just returned from overseas, was in the company of his young children, and so he might not have read to the bottom of the e-mail chain. Thus, he had apparently failed to absorb its meaning.

This past week, Thompson offered up a story reminiscent of Murdoch’s.

In October, allegations that the late Jimmy Savile, the former BBC star, had used his position to sexually abuse a large number of minors over the years triggered a huge wave of public outrage in the U.K., touched off multiple investigations, and raised allegations that a company cover-up had taken place on Thompson’s watch.

Like Murdoch, Thompson has denied that he was part of a cover-up. He explained that he had never been made aware of any allegations of sexual abuse until after the whole thing erupted in public.

“During my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile,” Thompson  told the New York Times in mid-October.

Then a correspondence involving lawyers for Thompson emerged, casting doubt on those claims.

The Times reported that 10 days before Thompson left the BBC in September 2012, lawyers representing him threatened in a letter to sue a newspaper in London that was preparing to publish an article suggesting, among other things, that Thompson had been involved in killing a BBC news investigation into Savile. “Interviews show that the letter included a summary of the alleged abuse, including the allegation that some abuse might have occurred at the BBC,” reported the Times.

Even after the Times broke the news of the letter’s content, however, Thompson stood firm.

An aide to Thompson explained to the Times that while Thompson had “orally authorized the sending of the letter” he might not have read its content—in part, because he had recently been traveling on vacation. In any case, he had apparently failed to absorb its meaning.

In February, Murdoch stepped down as the head of News International and relocated to New York for a job overseeing News Corp.’s (NWSA) international TV businesses. The ongoing investigations into wrongdoing at News International have raised questions about the future of his leadership role at the company. “I look forward to expanding my commitment to News Corporation’s international television businesses and other key initiatives across the Company,” said Murdoch at the time of his announced relocation to New York.

Recently, Thompson relocated to New York to become the new chief executive officer of the New York Times Co. (NYT). The ongoing investigations into wrongdoing at the BBC have raised questions about the future of his leadership role at the company. Last week, on his first day at work, camera crews greeted him outside his new office. A reporter asked if the crisis at the BBC would impact his role at the Times.  ”No,” said Thompson. “I believe that it will not in any way affect my new job, which I’m starting right now.”

Businessweek.com — Top News

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U.S. fiscal impact of great concern to Canada: Canada’s Harper

TORONTO (Reuters) – Any fiscal problems that would significantly slow the U.S. economy would be of great concern to Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

The United States needed a credible medium-term fiscal plan, Harper said at a business forum in Ottawa, adding that he was following the U.S. fiscal debate with “great interest.”

(Reporting by Solarina Ho)

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Amazon’s larger Kindle Fire HD ships early

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon has started shipping the larger version of its Kindle Fire HD tablet computer on Thursday, five days ahead of schedule.

Amazon is short on stock, though, so new orders won’t ship until Dec. 3. Amazon.com Inc. had been taking orders for shipment on Nov. 20.

The Kindle Fire is one of several tablets challenging Apple’s iPad.

The tablet, which has an 8.9-inch screen measured diagonally, is available on Amazon’s website for $ 299. The tablet will be available at Best Buy stores beginning Friday and at more retailers in the coming weeks.

A version with cellular access is available for $ 499 and will start shipping next week as planned, though new orders won’t ship until Dec. 3.

The smaller version, which has a 7-inch screen, has been available since September.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Teens Turn to Protein Shakes to Pump Up

Teens may be chugging protein shakes and taking other muscle-enhancing supplements more often than previously thought, a new study found.

According to a self-reported survey conducted among adolescent males and females, nearly 35 percent said they used protein powders and shakes, while almost 6 percent reported using steroids, according to study author Maria Eisenberg of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues. Both both behaviors were more common among boys versus girls.

Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.

In comparison, recent studies with population-based samples of U.S. youth have indicated that 8 percent of females and 10.2 percent of males reported the use of protein supplements.

Use of muscle-enhancing products or behaviors to bulk up, such as different eating habits or exercising more, were significantly associated with grade level, Asian race, body mass index, and sports team participation, the current authors wrote in Pediatrics online.

Women and how media images impact thinness and body image has been the subject of a great deal of research, but images of men depicted in the popular media show people who are increasingly large, lean, and muscular, the authors pointed out.

“Boys’ body dissatisfaction has simultaneously increased, and research has demonstrated that exposure to images of extremely muscular models contributes to body dissatisfaction and muscle dysmorphia in young men,” they wrote.

For the current study, they gathered data through the Eating and Activity in Teens (EAT 2010) study, a large, population-based study of weight status, dietary intake, physical activity, weight control behaviors, and related factors for adolescents from the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area during the 2009 to 2010 school year.

The study included a 235-question self-report survey and physical measurements of participants height and weight.

The authors focused on participant response to questions related to frequency of participation in any of five muscle-enhancing behaviors over the year prior to the survey, including altered eating behaviors and exercising more — considered “healthy” behaviors as well as use of protein powder or shakes, use of steroids, or use of other muscle-building substances, such as creatine, amino acids, or growth hormones, considered “unhealthy” behaviors.

Participants also reported their school level, gender, race, socioeconomic status based on parental educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), sports team participation, and weight status.

The study population consisted of 2,793 students with a mean age of 14.4 and almost equally divided among females (53.2 percent) and males (46.8 percent). Nearly 30 percent of the participants were black and about 20 percent were white or Asian.

Almost 60 percent of the study population played at least one after-school sport.

Among boys, the authors found that more than two-thirds reported changing their eating to increase their muscle size or tone, and 90 percent exercised more to increase their muscle mass or tone. In terms of the prevalence of “unhealthy” behaviors:

34.7 percent reported using protein powders or shakes

5.9 percent reported using steroids

10.5 percent reported using some other muscle-enhancing substance

Among the girls, 21.2 percent reported using protein powders, while 4.6 percent said they used steroids, and 5.5 percent used other muscle-enhancing substances.

The authors also found that overweight and obese girls had significantly greater odds of using protein powders or shakes than girls of average BMI.

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Wall Street rises on budget talk optimism

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose more than 1 percent on Monday, rebounding after last week’s decline, on signs of progress in talks to resolve the fiscal crunch.

Adding to optimism, U.S. home resales unexpectedly rose in October, a sign that the slow improvement in the job market is helping the housing sector.

In another positive report on housing, sentiment among home builders rose for a seventh straight month in November to the highest level in over six years as demand for new homes increased.

Over the weekend, leading Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed confidence that they could reach a deal to avert the “fiscal cliff” even as they laid down markers on raising taxes and spending cuts that may make any agreement more difficult.

“While not our base case, we believe that stocks could rise substantially if U.S. policymakers can negotiate a ‘grand bargain’ that credibly addresses long-term tax, spending and entitlement reforms,” said Jonathan Golub, strategist at UBS in New York.

“Unfortunately, our sense is that the most important structural issues will be pushed off into the future, leaving significant uncertainty about the long-term direction of the economy and corporate profits.”

Reflecting the uncertainty, UBS introduced a cautious outlook with a year-end 2013 price target on the S&P 500 at 1,425.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 152.40 points, or 1.21 percent, at 12,740.71. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> was up 20.35 points, or 1.50 percent, at 1,380.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 39.37 points, or 1.38 percent, at 2,892.50.

U.S. financial markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Stronger-than-expected earnings also contributed to the market’s advance.

Shares of Lowe’s Cos Inc , the world’s No. 2 home improvement chain, rose 7.3 percent to $ 34.28 after the company reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its full-year sales forecast.

Shares of Tyson Foods Inc jumped 7 percent to $ 18.07 after the company reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by higher prices.

But Intel shares fell 0.7 percent to $ 20.06 on news that the company’s Chief Executive Paul Otellini will retire in May, and that the board will consider internal and external candidates to choose Otellini’s successor.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Canada pledges again to balance budget by 2015

OTTAWA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Canadian government on Friday reiterated its intention to balance its budget by 2015, three days after projecting there would be deficits until 2016-17.

In separate appearances in Quebec City and New York, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty were at pains to say they still intended to end the red ink by 2015.

“It remains the government’s plan, intention, to balance the budget prior to the next federal election. The recent economic and fiscal update by the minister indicates we are actually very close to that objective,” Harper told reporters in Quebec City. The next election is in October 2015.

Flaherty’s fall fiscal update on Tuesday had pushed back the target date for eliminating the deficit by a year, to 2016-17, citing a weak global economy.

But the minister said in a speech in New York that the government was on track to balance the budget in the next two to three years, barring major external events, and he later clarified that he intended a balanced budget by 2015.

“The prime minister’s always correct,” he chuckled.

He sought to explain the discrepancy by saying the fiscal update had built in a C$ 3 billion ($ 3 billion) contingency cushion, meaning there was an underlying surplus of C$ 1.2 billion for 2015-16. He said the projection of a C$ 1.8 billion deficit amounted to about half a percent of the C$ 275 billion federal budget.

“There’s lots of water to go under the bridge between now and then,” he said.

The opposition New Democratic Party noted the discrepancy in a release headlined: “Stephen Harper makes stuff up about balancing the budget.”

It pointed out that balancing the budget by the next election was not the same as balancing it by 2016-17.

As it is, even the 2015-16 timetable is a year later than offered in the Conservative campaign for reelection in May 2011. They had promised a balanced budget by 2014-15, followed by major personal income tax relief before the 2015 election.

Flaherty’s timetable drew criticism this week from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which said the minister had become expert at kicking the can down the road.

The projections could be thrown out of whack if the United States goes off the fiscal cliff, a set of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that are to be triggered on January 2 if legislators and the White House cannot agree on a more nuanced budget deal.

Flaherty said U.S. failure to avert the fiscal cliff would cause a significant and immediate decline in Canada’s gross domestic product, and he would counter it.

Referring to a possible economic shock from Europe or the United States, he said: “If that were to happen and if the Canadian economy were to be pushed back into recession with the resulting danger for higher unemployment and the danger always of a prolonged recession, then we would act.”

He added: “We would not stand by and let that happen. The kinds of measure we can take: there are various tax measures we can take, there are measures with respect to stimulus we can take, these are things that we have done before and we can do again.”

On Tuesday, Flaherty spoke of having prepared various contingency plans.

(Additional reporting by Louse Egan; Editing by David Gregorio)

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So, Here’s That ‘Big Bang Theory’ Flashmob You Wanted

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

RELATED: Beating Novak Djokovic: Never Forget Three-Fingered Steve

Psychologist Richard Wiseman has an interactive game for you to let you know you’re just predictable. To be fair, a couple of us tried it out and were not as predictable as Wiseman thought we were going to be. But without further ado, here it is (have some screen cleaner ready):

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We too are very excited for the Disney installments of Star Wars. New movies, Ewoks, whatever count us in. We’re just not this excited: 

RELATED: A Video to Restore Our Faith in Humanity and a Glacier Tsunami

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If you don’t know, The Big Bang Theory is basically a show about a bunch of really smart, really nerdy dorks. Now when it comes to the actual cast of The Big Bang Theory, we’re only pretty sure (and happy to be proven wrong) only one of those things apply:

And finally, do you have $ 37? If so, would you mind donating it to The Atlantic Wire robot fish aquarium fund? We promise, it’s totally a great cause. Thanks in advance!

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Questions of Blame Linger 34 Years After Jonestown

From the age of 13, Leslie Wagner Wilson had been indoctrinated in the California-based Peoples Temple, led by the charismatic Jim Jones, whose mission was to foster racial harmony and help the poor.

But on Nov. 18, 1978, she and a handful of church members fought their way through thick jungle in the South American country of Guyana, escaping a utopian society gone wrong where followers were starved, beaten and held prisoner in the Jonestown compound.

She walked 30 miles to safety with her 3-year-old son, Jakari, strapped to her back and a smaller group of defectors. But just hours later, the mother, sister and brother and husband she left behind were dead.

“I was so scared,” said Wagner, now 55. “We exchanged phone numbers in case we died. I was prepared to die. I never thought I would see my 21st birthday.”

Today, on the 34th anniversary, Wilson said it’s important to remember the California-based Peoples Temple Jonestown massacre, especially the survivors who have wrestled with their consciences for decades.

PHOTOS: Jonestown Massacre Anniversary

Nine members of her family were among the 918 Americans who died that day, 909 of them ordered by Jones to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in the largest ritual suicide in history.

Her husband, Joe Wilson, was one of Jones’ top lieutenants who helped assassinate congressman Leo Ryan and his press crew when they tried to free church members who were being held against their will.

After arriving back in the United States, Wilson said she “went through hell” — three failed marriages, drug use and suicidal thoughts she describes in her 2009 book, “Slavery of Faith.”

“I was like Humpty Dumpty, but you couldn’t put me back together again,” she said.

Survivors, many of them African-American like Wilson, say they felt guilt and shame and faced the most agonizing question surrounding the nation’s single largest loss of life until 9/11: Was it suicide or murder?

Full Coverage: Jonestown Massacre

In the now-famous “death tape,” supporters clapped and babies cried as Jones instructed families to kill the elderly first, then the youngest in protest against capitalism and racism. Mothers poisoned 246 children before taking their own lives.

“We really can’t understand the Peoples Temple without looking at the historical time period when it arose,” said Rebecca Moore, a professor of religious studies at San Diego State University.

“With the liberation movements of the ’60s and ’70s, the collapse of the black-power movement, the Peoples Temple was the main institution in the San Francisco Bay area that promoted a message of integration and racial equality.”

Moore lost her two sisters and her nephew, the son of Jim Jones. “They were hardcore believers,” she said of her siblings.

Jim Jones, who was white, came from a “wrong side of the tracks,” poor background in Indiana where in the 1950s he became known as a charismatic preacher with an affinity for African-Americans.

“A number of survivors, including those who defected, believe to this day he had paranormal abilities,” said Moore, who met him years later. “He could heal them and read their minds.”

In the 1960s, Jones moved to San Francisco, where at the height of the Peoples Temple there were about 5,000 members.

WATCH: A Look Back at Jonestown Massacre

“They wanted my parents to join,” she said. “Like most outsiders, we didn’t have any idea what was happening outside closed doors.”

Jones ingratiated himself with celebrities and politicians, mobilizing voters to help elect Mayor George Moscone in 1975 and becoming chairman of the city’s housing authority.

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Cable attacks company ‘tax abuse’

18 November 2012 Last updated at 07:14 ET

Vince Cable: “It is completely unacceptable when there is systematic abuse taking place”

Business Secretary Vince Cable has condemned corporate tax avoidance as “completely unacceptable”, saying there are “appalling stories of abuse”.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show UK authorities should do more to stop it.

However, he said that tackling the issue required international agreement as well as domestic action.

His comments came after executives from Starbucks, Google and Amazon were grilled by MPs, although the firms say they operate within the tax rules.

The executives were questioned earlier this month by the Public Accounts Committee about how they used favourable European tax jurisdictions for their UK businesses.

Starbucks, for example, has made a taxable profit only once in its 15 years of operating in the UK. As a consequence, the company is thought to have paid just £8.6m in corporation tax over the period.

During the hearing with MPs, Starbucks admitted the Dutch government had granted a special tax deal on its European headquarters, which receives royalty payments from its UK business.

‘Intensive investigation’

Mr Cable told Andrew Marr: “The best off in society have got to contribute more, and that includes companies.”

Amazon’s Andrew Cecil was condemned by MPs for failing to answer questions

He acknowledged that smaller companies, many of which face competitive pressures from the major firms, will be angered by the situation.

“There’s nothing more galling to small and medium-sized enterprises when they are paying (tax), and others are dodging it,” Mr Cable said. “Our own tax authorities have got to be very tough on things like royalty payments, which is where a lot of the subterfuge takes place.”

However, he said that finding a solution was difficult, especially as the UK had to make itself attractive to inward investors. “The big question is whether you can get wider (international) agreement,” he said.

As companies are using favourable tax jurisdictions overseas there needs to “a combination of action at the international level as well as beef up our own capacity to deal with it”.

Mr Cable said: “It is quite difficult to drill down to what the problems are. Starbucks claims they are actually making losses in the UK. I don’t know whether they are not but you would need some pretty intensive investigation by the Inland Revenue to establish what exactly is going on, whether their transfer prices and their royalties are being fiddled or not.”

All the companies under fire over the amount of corporation tax paid said that they operated within the tax rules and regulations and have done nothing wrong.

BBC News – Business

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Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel bombed Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip from air and sea for a fifth straight day on Sunday, preparing for a possible ground invasion though Egypt saw “some indications” of a truce ahead.

Militant rocket fire into Israel subsided during the night but resumed in the morning with three rockets fired at the nearby coastal city of Ashkelon, the Israeli army said.

“As of now we have struck more than 1,000 targets, so Hamas should do the math over whether it is or isn’t worth it to cease fire,” Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, over Twitter.

“If there is quiet in the South and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel’s citizens nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack.”

Forty-eight Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 13 children, have been killed in Israel’s raids, Palestinian officials said. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Israel unleashed intensive air strikes on Wednesday, killing the commander of the Hamas Islamist group that governs Gaza and spurns peace with the Jewish state. Israel’s declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and press Hamas into stopping cross-border rocket fire that has plagued Israeli border towns for years.

Air raids continued past midnight into Sunday, with warships shelling from the sea. A Gaza City media building was hit, witnesses said, wounding 6 journalists and damaging facilities belonging to Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV as well as Britain’s Sky News.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the strike had targeted a rooftop “transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity”.

Two other predawn attacks on houses in the Jabalya refugee camp killed two children and wounded 13 other people, medical officials said.

These attacks followed a defiant statement by Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida, who told a news conference: “This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning.”

The masked gunman dressed in military fatigues insisted that despite Israel’s blows Hamas “is still strong enough to destroy the enemy”.

An Israeli attack on Saturday destroyed the house of a Hamas commander near the Egyptian border.

Casualties there were averted however, because Israel had fired non-exploding missiles at the building beforehand from a drone, which the militant’s family understood as a warning to flee, and thus their lives were spared, witnesses said.

Israeli aircraft also bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.

Among those killed in air strikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding motorcycles, and several civilians including a 30-year-old woman.

ISRAELI SCHOOLS SHUT

Israel said it would keep schools in its south shut on Sunday as a precaution to avoid casualties from rocket strikes reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the past few days.

Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile interceptor system destroyed in mid-air a rocket fired by Gaza militants at Tel Aviv on Saturday, where volleyball games on the beach front came to an abrupt halt as air-raid sirens sounded.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it had fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Israel’s operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel’s right to self-defense, but there was also a growing number of calls from world leaders to seek an end to the violence.

British Prime Minister David Cameron “expressed concern over the risk of the conflict escalating further and the danger of further civilian casualties on both sides,” in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesperson for Cameron said.

London was “putting pressure on both sides to de-escalate,” the spokesman said, adding that Cameron had urged Netanyahu “to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end.”

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through “de-escalation” and diplomacy, but also believes Israel has a right to self-defense.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that “there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees.”

Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unraveled with recent violence.

A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying “there is hope,” but it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli official declined to comment on the negotiations. Military commanders said Israel was prepared to fight on to achieve a goal of halting rocket fire from Gaza, which has plagued Israeli towns since late 2000, when failed peace talks led to the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising.

Diplomats at the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt in the coming week to push for an end to the fighting.

POSSIBLE GROUND OFFENSIVE

Israel, with tanks and artillery positioned along the frontier, said it was still weighing a ground offensive.

Israeli cabinet ministers decided on Friday to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000 and around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: “Definitely.”

“We have a plan. … It will take time. We need to have patience. It won’t be a day or two,” he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favored to win a January election.

The last Gaza war, a three-week Israeli blitz and invasion over the New Year of 2008-09, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel’s maneuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Douglas Hamilton)

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