Ghana election, test of democratic reputation

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Voters in Ghana were selecting their next president and a 275-seat parliament in elections Friday, solidifying the West African nation‘s reputation as a beacon of democracy in the region.

Some 14 million people are expected to turn out. President John Dramani Mahama, in office for only five months, is running against seven contenders. A former vice president, Mahama became president in July after the unexpected death of former President John Atta Mills. The 54-year-old is also a former minister and parliamentarian and has written an acclaimed biography, “My First Coup d’Etat.”

His main challenger is Nana Akufo-Addo, a former foreign minister and the son of one of Ghana’s previous presidents. The contender lost the 2008 election to Mills by less than 1 percent. Both men are trying to make the case that they will use the nation’s newfound oil wealth to help the poor.

Ghana, a nation of 25 million, is one of the few established democracies in the region as well as the fastest-growing economy. But a deep divide still exists between those benefiting from the country’s oil, cocoa and mineral wealth and those left behind financially.

In an interview on the eve of the vote, Akufo-Addo told The Associated Press that the first thing he will do if elected is begin working on providing free high school education for all. “It’s a matter of great concern to me,” he said, adding that he plans to use the nation’s oil wealth to educate the population, industrialize the economy and create better jobs for Ghanaians.

Policy-oriented and intellectual, Akufo-Addo is favored by the young and urbanized voters. He was educated in England and comes from a privileged family. The ruling party has depicted him as elitist, which Akufo-Addo calls “a little PR construct.”

“The idea that merely because you are born into privilege that automatically means you are against the welfare of the ordinary people, that’s nonsense,” he said.

Ghana had one of the fastest growing economies in the world in 2011. Allegations of corruption against the ruling party are rife.

Akufo-Addo said that if elected, he would not be able to weed out corruption in the government overnight.

“It’s a long fight,” he said. “But we build the institutions that can fight it.”

He said that in 30 years in politics he has never been accused of corruption.

Many analysts believe Mahama and Akufo-Addo are neck-and-neck.

Results are expected to be announced by Sunday, but could be delayed. If no one wins an absolute majority, a second round of voting will be held on December 28.

All candidates have signed a peace pact and have promised to accept the results of Friday’s poll.

Ghana, a nation of 25 million, has previously held five transparent elections in a row. Nearby Mali, which was also considered a model democracy, was plunged into chaos this March following a military coup.

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Associated Press writer Francis Kokutse contributed to this report from Accra, Ghana.

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Apple to return some Mac production to U.S. in 2013: report

(Reuters) – Apple Inc is planning to bring back some of its production of Mac computers to the United States from China next year, Chief Executive Tim Cook said, according to a report published Thursday.

The company will spend more than $ 100 million to build the computers in the United States, Cook was cited as saying in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.

“This doesn’t mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people and we’ll be investing our money,” Cook said.

He told NBC in an interview to be aired late Thursday that only one of the existing Mac lines would be manufactured exclusively in the United States.

Higher-tech products are largely made overseas, often in subcontracted factories not owned by the brands whose products they are making.

Cheaper labor costs have been key in encouraging U.S. manufacturers to have move production to China, but with Chinese wage and transport costs increasing, the advantage against the U.S. has narrowed in recent years.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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“Community”: Jason Alexander filming “Crazy” guest spot

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Community” might be losing a Chevy Chase, but it’s gaining a Jason Alexander.

Former “Seinfeld” star Alexander, who played neurotic bumbler George Costanza on the series, will guest-star on the beleaguered NBC comedy, and while the actor is tight-lipped on the details, he promises that the episode will be a doozy.

“Filming a crazy episode of ‘Community’ this week,” the actor tweeted early Tuesday. “Can’t say much about it but it’s a fun one.”

It is not known what role Alexander, who guest-starred on “Two and a Half Men” earlier this year, will play on the series, or if he will appear on more than one episode. A spokeswoman for the NBC series has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Last month, news broke that Chevy Chase – who plays Pierce Hawthorne on the series – is leaving “Community,” following an ugly standoff with the show’s creator and former showrunner, Dan Harmon, and an incident when he reportedly tossed out the N-word, after complaining about his character’s racism. Chase will appear in most of the episodes of the upcoming fourth season.

“Community” returns to the air February 7.

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When Microorganisms Control the Mind

Reported by Dr. Lauren Browne:

By the time famed Victorian artist Louis Wain was committed to the pauper ward of Springfield Mental Hospital in South London in 1924, he had painted and sketched thousands of cats.

His early works depicted humorous wide-eyed human-like cats, but his later feline creations were abstract figures exploding in fiery kaleidoscopes of geometric shapes, thought to mirror his own mental deterioration.

The exact nature of Wain’s mental illness is still debated, but many agree that he suffered from schizophrenia, becoming hostile and delusional prior to hospitalization.  And some speculate further that it was a parasite from one of his beloved cats that ultimately triggered his schizophrenic break.

Bugs that hijack the brain and manipulate behavior are now the focus of a special newly released edition of The Journal of Experimental Biology.  This collection of review articles tips its hat to the ever-growing body of research devoted to the field of neuroparasitology, a field where “science meets science fiction,” according to journal editor Michael Dickinson.

Wain’s psychosis was thought to be caused by Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that infects humans after exposure to cat feces, and is well known for causing dementia and delirium in people with weak immune systems, like in advanced AIDS.  Yet even in relatively healthy individuals, it appears that the parasite can manipulate human behavior.

Silent, or asymptomatic, infections have been linked to increased risk of traffic and workplace accidents as well as mood and neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and even suicide, according to several studies reviewed by Joanne Webster and colleagues of the Imperial College of London.

“Some studies have shown that when you look at people who have a history of some sort of mental illness, a higher percentage of them have a higher exposure to toxoplasmosis.  That’s an intriguing thing,” said Dr. Anthony Fiore, director of science for the CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases.

No studies have yet proven that the infection actually causes mental illness and in all likelihood it is a combination of factors that trigger schizophrenia or other illnesses, said Fiore.

But toxoplasma is just one of many microorganisms that have the potential to manipulate the human brain.

The rabies virus, which is largely transmitted through dog bites and is responsible for over 55,000 human deaths around the world each year, is particularly fond of infecting the brain.  It has the ability to catapult its victims into a downward psychotic spiral of delirium, hallucinations, and aggression that almost uniformly ends in death.

“A patient in Manila went on a rampage and attacked multiple people, beating people with wood, and causing quite a lot of physical destruction,” said Dr. Charles Rupprecht, a leading rabies expert and director of research of The Global Alliance for Rabies Control.

The rabies virus is just one member of a group of deadly, brain-loving viruses known as Lyssaviruses, named after the Greek goddess of madness, rage, and frenzy.   These almost universally lethal viruses are currently only transmitted to humans through animals and, with the exception of rabies, all occur outside of the United States.  Yet, without proper control measures, the viruses have the potential to hop from one location to the next and thrive in countries that were not previously infested, explained Rupprecht.

Prior to the development of modern medicine, rampant infections like rabies inspired tales of vampires, zombies, and werewolves.  Today, these tales persist in the form of movies like “Contagion,” and in the TV show ‘”The Walking Dead.”

But the journal’s new special edition highlights that brain-invading bugs are anything but fiction.

Though vaccines and medicine have helped to control these infections, there is still much to be done.   The collection calls on researchers to adopt new methods for understanding these manipulative parasites, which may ultimately shed light on the basic underpinnings of human and animal behavior.

“These infections are preventable things and if more efforts could be focused on this research, there could be quite an impact,” said Fiore.

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Canada’s Ivey PMI index unexpectedly fell in November

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South Africa military plane crashes in mountains

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African military aircraft on an unknown mission to an area near the village where former President Nelson Mandela lives crashed in a mountain range, officials said Thursday. It was unclear whether there were any survivors.

The Douglas DC-3 Dakota, a twin-propeller aircraft, had taken off from Pretoria’s Waterkloof Air Force Base on Wednesday night, said Brig. Gen. Xolani Mabanga, a military spokesman. On Thursday morning, soldiers found the wreckage of the airplane in the Drakensberg mountains near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal province, some 340 kilometers (210 miles) southeast of the air base, Mabanga said.

Mabanga said soldiers had been sent to the scene to look for survivors. Mabanga said he did not know what the mission of the aircraft was, though it had planned to land in Mthatha in the country’s Eastern Cape. Siphiwe Dlamini, a Defense Ministry spokesman, declined to immediately comment Thursday morning.

Mthatha is about 30 kilometers (17 miles) north of Qunu, the village where Mandela now lives after retiring from public life. South Africa‘s military remains largely responsible for the former president’s medical care. However, military officials declined to say whether those on board had any part in caring for Mandela.

In November, another South African military flight crash landed at Mthatha, sending several people to the hospital with injuries. However, at that time, the military denied that those on board had anything to do with Mandela’s care.

Mandela, 94, was imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against apartheid before becoming the nation’s president in the country’s first fully democratic vote in 1994.

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

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Austrian farmers dip into Internet “milking” craze

VIENNA (Reuters) – Dumping a bottle of milk over your head and filming it for a video post on the Internet has become a popular youth craze, but Austrian farmers say the spillage is a crying shame.

“Milking”, as the trend is known, is among a variety of tongue-in-cheek stunts in which young people shoot pictures or videos of themselves posing as owls, planks of wood, or famous people and then share them on YouTube and other social media.

Austria’s AMA farm lobby on Wednesday launched its own “true milking” campaign to decry the wanton waste of dairy resources and to encourage consumers to drink it instead.

“At a time when too much food already lands in the trash, it is worth questioning dumping milk. This is a valuable product of nature that our farmers provide daily with lots of love and labor,” AMA milk marketing manager Peter Hamedinger said.

Milking has become an Internet hit, with one video from Newcastle in England getting more than half a million clicks on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtJPAv1UiAE

AMA’s marketing arm said the milking craze seemed to reflect a strange youthful protest against authority. It sought to one-up the video trend with its own clip featuring a young man who holds a carton of milk high above his head and drinks the contents without spilling a drop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJ3OsP1Fks&feature=youtu.be

“In line with the nature of the medium, this message is not communicated in a commercial way and absolutely not with finger pointing, but rather with a wink of the eye for the Internet generation,” the farm products board said in a statement.

(Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Watch: World’s Oldest Person Dies at 116

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Fuel rise axed as economy worsens

5 December 2012 Last updated at 10:02 ET

George Osborne: “There will be no fuel tax rise this January”

Chancellor George Osborne has scrapped a planned 3p rise in fuel duty, but benefits face a further squeeze as he admitted the UK economy was struggling.

There will be more money for roads, London’s Underground and schools, but councils were warned of cuts to come.

Austerity measures will be extended to 2018, as debt-cutting targets are missed, his Autumn Statement revealed.

“Turning back now would be a disaster” for the UK, he said. But Labour said his economic plans were “in tatters”.

Mr Osborne had said debt would start falling as a proportion of GDP by 2015/16 – the year of the next general election.

But he has been forced to delay that target by a year because of the worse than expected state of the economy, which is now expected to shrink this year by 0.1%.

The Office for Budgetary Responsibility says the UK has a “better than 50% chance of eliminating the structural current deficit in five years time”, said the chancellor – meaning his other key objective has been pushed back by a year to 2017/18.

This move heralds a fresh benefits squeeze and a raid on the pensions of the wealthy.

‘In this together’

Most working age benefits, such as Jobseekers Allowance and Child Benefit, will be go up by 1%, less than the rate of inflation, for the next three years.

Continue reading the main story

What is the Autumn Statement?

• One of the two major statements the chancellor has to make to Parliament every year


• Since 1997 the main Budget – which contains the bulk of tax, benefit and duty changes – has been in the spring before the start of the tax year in April


• The second statement has tended to focus on updating forecasts for government finances


• Over the past few years this distinction has become blurred, with the Autumn Statement becoming more of a mini Budget


• Under the last Labour government it was called the pre-Budget report

And there will be a further cut in tax relief on large pension pots, saving £1bn a year.

He told MPs: “I know these tax measures will not be welcomed by all; ways to reduce the deficit never are. But we must show we’re all in this together. When you’re looking for savings, I think it’s fair to look at the tax relief we give to the top 2%.”

Income tax personal allowances will go up by £1,335 – £235 more than previously announced – so no tax will be paid on earnings under £9,440.

The threshold for the 40% rate of income tax is to rise by 1% in 2014 and 2015 from £41,450 to £41,865 and then £42,285.

The basic state pension will rise by 2.5% next year to £110.15 a week.

Mr Osborne announced a fresh crackdown on tax avoidance and a squeeze on Whitehall budgets to pay for a new road and school building programme.

He told MPs: “It’s taking time, but the British economy is healing.”

But Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, for Labour, accused Mr Osborne of breaking his own rules on falling debt on which his credibility depended.

“Today after two and a half years we can see, and people can feel in the country, the true scale of this government’s economic failure,” Mr Balls told MPs,

He said the average family with children on £20,000 a year would be “worse off” – even with the personal allowance changes.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

At a time when his critics – and Ed Balls in particular – are able to say “I told you so”, George Osborne looked and sounded confident whilst the shadow chancellor looked the reverse.”

End Quote

Mr Balls claimed Mr Osborne’s plan to raise £1bn from pension tax relief on the well-off raised less than £1.6bn given away in Mr Osborne’s first Budget on the same reliefs.

CBI director general John Cridland welcomed the promised investment in infrastructure and new tax relief measures for small firms but said businesses now “need to see the chancellor’s words translated into building sites on the ground”.

“It is no surprise that after a difficult year the economic realities dictate that austerity and debt reduction will take longer,” he added.

“The chancellor has stuck to his guns on deficit reduction – avoiding deeper cuts or more borrowing in order to retain international credibility.”

But TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “What is missing today is any vision of a future economy that can deliver decent jobs and living standards – it’s pain without purpose.”

He added: “When you are self-harming you should stop, not look for better sticking plasters.”

BBC News – Business

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Sri Lanka see backlash from Aussie ‘wounded soldiers’

(Reuters) – Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has warned his team to be wary of a backlash from Australia in their three-test series after the hosts were stung by their series defeat to South Africa earlier this week.

Australia’s hopes of snatching the Proteas’ top test ranking ended in a crushing 309-run defeat in the third and final test in Perth on Monday, but Jayawardene took little comfort from the home side’s disappointment.

“I see them as wounded soldiers – they could come back stronger against us,” Jayawardene told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday, on the eve of a three-day tour match against a Chairman’s XI side.

“So we just need to make sure we are ready for that and start well.

“We can’t be complacent – we need to make sure we know from ball one we give them a good go at it.”

Sri Lanka have their own problems coming into the first test at Hobart next week, losing their last test at home to New Zealand by 167 runs to level a two-match series 1-1, with key batsmen out of form.

Kumar Sangakkara scored five, nought and 16 in his three innings against New Zealand, but Jayawardene backed the veteran to bounce back in Sri Lanka’s bid to win their first test Down Under.

“I am happy that he went through a lean phase because he’ll be really hungry for runs – that’s Kumar for you,” Jayawardene said of the 35-year-old stalwart.

Jayawardene also said he would weigh up his future as captain after the series, which includes tests in Melbourne and Sydney, after taking on the role for a second time in the wake of Tillakaratne Dilshan’s sudden resignation in January.

“After this, we get a well-deserved four weeks off, after about three years, so it gives me a bit of time to think (about) what I need to do,” said Jayawardene, who captained the team for more than three years in his first stint from 2006.

“We need to groom another leader as well. It’s very important to have that changeover done smoothly while the senior players are still in the side.”

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