JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Former South African President Nelson Mandela‘s recovery is ‘on track’ at his home in Johannesburg, the government said on Wednesday in its first statement since the anti-apartheid hero was released from hospital a week ago.
Mandela, 94, who has been in frail health for several years, spent nearly three weeks in a Pretoria hospital in December for treatment of a lung infection and surgery to remove gallstones, his longest stay for medical care since his release from prison in 1990.
“Madiba’s recovery continues on track,” presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj said referring to Mandela by his clan name.
“We are now in the phase where if we do not hear from his doctors, we assume he is all right,” he said, without giving details on Mandela’s condition.
Mandela has been receiving what the government calls “home-based high care” at his residence in an upscale Johannesburg neighborhood.
Mandela became South Africa‘s first black president after the first all-race elections in 1994, serving a five-year term.
He has been mostly absent from the political scene for the past several years due to poor health, while questions have been raised as to whether his ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lost the moral compass he left behind.
Under such leaders as Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, the ANC gained a stellar global reputation. Once the yoke of apartheid was thrown off, it began ruling South Africa in a blaze of goodwill from world leaders who viewed it as a beacon for a troubled continent and world.
Close to two decades later, this image has dimmed as critics inside and outside the country, and in the movement itself, accuse ANC leaders of indulging in the spoils of office, squandering mineral resources and engaging in power struggles.
Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation” of reconciliation has come under strain under President Jacob Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist with a history of racially charged comments, including a statement in December where he reportedly said dog ownership was for whites and not part of African culture.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent 27 years in prison, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off Cape Town.
Mandela was also admitted to hospital in February because of abdominal pain but released the following day after a keyhole examination showed there was nothing seriously wrong with him.
He has spent most of his time since then in another home in Qunu, his ancestral village in the impoverished Eastern Cape province.
His poor health has prevented him from making public appearances in the past two years, although he has continued to receive high-profile visitors, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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Global stock markets have rallied after a short-term deal to stave off the US “fiscal cliff” was reached.
The Dow Jones gained 1.8% at the open on Wall Street, while European shares were up by more than 2% for the day.
Failure to agree a deal would have triggered spending cuts and tax rises worth $ 600bn (£370bn), expected to throw the US back into recession.
However, the deal has only postponed by two months negotiations over spending cuts and the government debt ceiling.
Just before the New Year, the US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner indicated that the federal government would run up against the debt ceiling – a legal cap on its total borrowing set by Congress – by the end of February.
The fiscal cliff deal does not include an increase in the debt ceiling. It also postpones by two months steep automatic spending cuts to federal government spending on things like defence and education.
The fiscal cliff measures – immediate tax rises worth $ 536bn, as well as spending cuts of $ 109bn from benefit payments and domestic and military programmes – were due to come into effect automatically at midnight on Monday.
Tax rises
The deal has averted most of these measures, including:
Continue reading the main story
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This week’s deal lifts the risk of an accidental recession – at least for a while”
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making permanent tax cuts dating back to George W Bush’s presidency, for individuals earning less than $ 400,000
postponing the $ 65bn of automatic spending cuts for two months
keeping benefits available for the long-term unemployed, worth $ 26bn, for another year
postponing for another year an $ 11bn cut in Medicare payments
However, the deal did also allow some tax rises to go ahead, namely:
the expiry of a payroll tax holiday, expected to raise $ 95bn in additional annual revenue
allowing the Bush-era income tax cuts for individuals earning over $ 400,000 to come to an end, with the top rate increasing from 35% to 40%
higher taxes on dividend income, capital gains and inheritance for these same top earners
phasing out certain income tax deductions for individuals earning more than $ 200,000
The increase in payroll taxes is likely to be the most significant of these measures, in terms of how much it raises in revenue for the government, the number of taxpayers affected, and its impact on the economy.
Payroll tax is paid by all employees. The tax holiday – which cut the rate from 6.2% to 4.2% – was introduced by President Barack Obama three years ago to help stimulate the lethargic economy by putting more money in the pockets of ordinary American workers, who were most likely to go out and spend it.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
The battle [over spending cuts] has just been shoved two months down the road”
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Economists suggest that its expiry is likely to have the biggest impact on spending – particularly consumer spending – in the US.
Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, has said it would reduce US economy growth by 0.6%.
‘Disappointment’
The deal has postponed the hardest decisions that Republican and Democratic politicians must still reach agreement on – over spending cuts and the debt ceiling.
Both issues will need to be addressed at the end of February, with Republicans likely to demand deep cuts, particularly to entitlement programmes such as social security, in return for an increase in the legal cap on government borrowing.
President Obama’s Democrats would prefer to reduce the government’s deficit via further tax rises.
“In the most immediate sense, they took their feet of the cliff, but once again they have taken the hard work and pushed it down the street,” said Daniel Costello, a US economics commentator.
Continue reading the main story
Fiscal cliff explained
On 1 January 2013, tax increases and huge spending cuts were due to come into force – the so-called fiscal cliff
The deadline was put in place in 2011 to force the president and Congress to agree ways to save money over the next 10 years
The fear was that raising taxes while massively cutting spending would have huge impact on households and businesses
Experts believed it could have pushed the US into recession, and had a global impact on growth
A deal has been reached delaying some of the tax rises and all of the spending cuts by at least two months
“It’s a huge disappointment. The Republicans deeply wanted spending cuts. Their long-term goal is to finally start chipping away at some of the entitlement spending [on welfare payments] that is just getting out of control.”
Entitlement payments are expected to rise sharply in the coming decades as the post-World War II baby-boom generation retires and enters old age, entailing more government-funded medical care.
“Two-thirds of all federal spending comes from entitlement spending – that means when you wake up in the morning, two-thirds of the money is already spent. By 2020, that goes up to 90%.”
When President Obama last faced off against the largely Republican-controlled Congress over the debt ceiling in 2011, negotiations went to the wire before agreement was reached to increase the ceiling from $ 14.3tn to $ 14.7tn.
Markets fell sharply at the time on fears that, legally barred from borrowing any more, the government might be forced to default on some of its payment obligations, with unknown but potentially significant legal consequences.
The political wrangling also prompted ratings agency Standard and Poor’s to deprive the US of its top AAA credit rating.
Temporary lift
Despite the deal’s shortcomings, markets took cheer from the fact that agreement had been reached on how to postpone and moderate the process of bringing the government’s overspending back under control.
Richard Hunter, Hargreaves Lansdown: “This points the market in the right direction”
The FTSE 100 index rose 145 points to 6,043 points, the first time it has been above the 6,000 level in 17 months, with mining shares leading the way.
The UK market was also boosted by a survey of production and new orders in the manufacturing sector, which showed activity at a 15-month high in December.
Shares worldwide had been hurt in November and December by fears that the US would not be able to reach any kind of agreement and would go off the cliff.
Analysts said the relief would not last.
Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at stockbroker Interactive Investor said: “There will no doubt be a few more twists and turns in the days ahead… but for now, investors have the concrete news they were hoping for.”
Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital, said: “Today’s bullish tone may continue as we head toward the weekend. but the euphoria will most certainly evaporate, as the deal voted through does not include raising the debt ceiling and longer-term budget cuts.
“It’s only a matter of time before market participants lose their buzz as US lawmakers will have to reconvene to address the remainder of unresolved issues.”
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TAMOUN, West Bank (AP) — An arrest raid by undercover Israeli soldiers disguised as vegetable vendors ignited rare clashes in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, residents said, leaving at 10 Palestinians wounded.
Israeli army raids into Palestinian areas to seize activists and militants are fairly common. The raids are normally coordinated with Palestinian security forces, and suspects are usually apprehended without violence.
The clashes began early Tuesday after Israeli forces disguised as merchants in a vegetable truck arrested one man. Regular army forces then entered the town, prompting youths to hurl rocks to try to prevent more arrests.
Israeli forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition as youths set tires and bins on fire to block the passage of military vehicles. In several hours of clashes, dozens of masked youths hid behind makeshift barriers, hurling rocks and firebombs at soldiers.
Faris Bisharat, a resident of Tamoun, said 10 men were wounded, some by live fire. Bisharat said the wanted men belong to Islamic Jihad, a violent group sworn to Israel’s destruction. It wasn’t clear how many men Israeli forces sought to arrest. There were no immediate details on how seriously the 10 were hurt.
The Israeli military said it arrested a “terrorist affiliated with the Islamic Jihad terror group.” It said two soldiers were injured during the raid.
The fighting, which broke out in several parts of the town of some 8,000 people, were a rare, angry response. It was also unusual for Israeli forces to use live fire toward Palestinian demonstrators. Israel says it uses live fire only in extremely dangerous situations.
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Back in July, we covered how social media would be critical to the success of the 2012 Paralympic Games. The Paralympics ended in September, but the International Paralympic Committee is still using the web to shine a light on unheralded athletes and tell stories of remarkable inspiration.
[More from Mashable: Watch the Scariest Skiing Lesson of All Time]
The committee revealed its top moment of 2012 in a video posted to YouTube on Sunday. It profiles Italian cyclist Alex Zanardi winning gold in London after losing his legs in an auto racing accident in 2001. The image of a triumphant Zanardi lifting his hand-cycling tricycle above his head with one arm post-race is nothing short of astounding.
[More from Mashable: NBA Star’s Kick to the Groin Sparks Online Debate]
For a longer look at Zanardi’s amazing achievement and to relive one of 2012′s sweetest sports moments, watch the full video above.
BONUS: 2012′s best sports social media moments
1. Devin McCourty Tweets While Playing in the Super Bowl (Sort of)
As New England Patriot Devin McCourty took on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, his followers were still able to receive real-time updates from his social feeds. But he wasn’t sneaking tweets between plays or during timeouts. Devin and twin brother Jason, who plays for the Tennessee Titans, share their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Super Bowl showcased one of the more creative approaches to social media in the sports world.
Image courtesy of Devin and Jason McCourty’s Instagram.
Click here to view this gallery.
Thumbnail image credit Getty Images/AFP/Leon Neal
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN anchor Hannah Storm returns to the air New Year’s Day, exactly three weeks after she was seriously burned in a propane gas grill accident at her home.
Storm suffered second-degree burns on her chest and hands, and first-degree burns to her face and neck. She lost her eyebrows and eyelashes, and roughly half her hair.
Storm will host ABC’s telecast of the 2013 Rose Parade on Tuesday. Her left hand will be bandaged and she said viewers might notice a difference in her hair texture where extensions have been added.
“I’m a little nervous about things I used to take for granted,” she said by phone this weekend from Pasadena, Calif. “Little things like putting on makeup and even turning pages on my script.”
The award-winning sportscaster and producer was preparing dinner outside her home in Connecticut on the night of Dec. 11 when she noticed the flame on the grill had gone out. She turned off the gas and when she reignited it “there was an explosion and a wall of fire came at me.”
“It was like you see in a movie, it happened in a split-second,” she said. “A neighbor said he thought a tree had fallen through the roof, it was that loud. It blew the doors off the grill.”
With her left hand, she tore off her burning shirt. She tried to use another part of her shirt to extinguish the flames that engulfed her head and chest, while yelling for help. Her 15-year-old daughter, Hannah, called 911 and a computer technician who was working in the house grabbed some ice as Storm tried to cool the burns.
Soon, police and rescue teams arrived at the house. Storm’s husband, NBC sportscaster Dan Hicks, also had returned home with another of the couple’s three daughters. As her mother was being treated, the younger Hannah calmly said something that, days later, her mom could laugh about.
“OK, Mommy, I’m going to do my homework now,” she said.
Storm was taken by ambulance to the Trauma and Burn Center at Westchester Medical Center and was treated for 24 hours.
“I didn’t see my face until the next day and you wonder how it’s going to look,” she said. “I was pretty shocked. But my overarching thought was I’ve covered events with military members who have been through a lot worse than me, and they’ve come through. I kept thinking, ‘I can do this. I’m fortunate.’”
Other than going to Christmas Eve Mass, Storm hadn’t been outside until her trip to California. ESPN reworked its anchor schedule while she was recovering, and NBC and the Golf Channel rearranged their staffing while Hicks attended to his wife.
Storm is set to host her fifth Rose Parade, with some changes. She’s left-handed, and taking notes is almost impossible. Dressing and showering are challenges, too.
Storm said that long before her accident, she’d been inspired by Iraq War veteran, actor and “Dancing With the Stars” winner J.R. Martinez, the grand marshal at last year’s parade. He was severely burned in a land mine accident while serving overseas.
One attraction of this year’s parade that she was eager to see — the Nurses’ Float, and she hoped to use that moment on air to thank everyone who had taken care of her.
Storm wants to anchor “SportsCenter” in Bristol, Conn., next Sunday. After that, the Notre Dame alum is ready to go in person to watch the No. 1 Irish play Alabama in the national championship game at Miami. She said the school reached out after hearing about her injuries and had been very supportive.
“More than anything, I feel gratitude,” she said. “Something like this really makes you appreciate everything you have, even the chance to wake up on New Year’s Day and do your job.”
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Sorry, Charlie, but fish oil supplements did not prevent atrial fibrillation in patients who had already experienced episodes of the heart rhythm malfunction, a new clinical trial has found.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, adds to a growing pool of disappointing evidence regarding the protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids on heart health.
“The results for atrial fibrillation are important negative findings, answering key clinical and research questions,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an omega-3 expert at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the current study.
The new research, combined with other trials, “indicates that short-term fish oil use is unlikely to prevent recurrent atrial fibrillation,” he said.
But if the supplements don’t prevent heart rhythm problems, they don’t appear to be dangerous, either. “In all these studies, fish oil was safe and well-tolerated, with no evidence for increased bleeding,” Mozaffarian told Reuters Health.
Atrial fibrillation, in which the heart’s upper chambers beat out of step with those below, affects nearly one in 10 Americans in their 80s. The condition is linked to potentially life-threatening strokes and heart failure.
Although doctors prescribe certain medications to treat the condition, none to date has proven particularly effective. As a result, most drug treatment focuses on preventing strokes by administering blood thinners to dissolve clots caused by the fibrillation.
Some evidence suggests that omega-3 fatty acids, found in oily fish like sardines and tuna, might reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation, although exactly how they would produce their effect is not clear.
A study published earlier this year in Circulation, for example, found that people with the most omega-3s in their blood had a 30 percent lower chance of developing an irregular heart beat than those with the lowest concentrations of the substances (see Reuters Health story of February 1, 2012).
That 30 percent difference would work out to eight fewer cases of atrial fibrillation per 100 people – which would be a meaningful benefit if it could be enjoyed by those with fibrillation or at risk for it, just by consuming more omega 3s.
But the latest study suggests that it probably can’t. The trial included 586 men and women with a history of atrial fibrillation who were given a gram a day of fish oil or dummy capsules for a year. Participants also were allowed to take other drugs to control their heart rhythms, as prescribed by their doctors.
At the end of the study period, about 24 percent of the people who took fish oil, and 20 percent of those who did not, had experienced a recurrence of atrial fibrillation – a difference so small, statistically, it was likely due to chance.
The supplements also did not appear to reduce the risk of other cardiovascular ailments – including stroke, heart attack, heart failure – or death from any cause.
The findings on atrial fibrillation echo results from a study led by Mozaffarian published in November, of patients recovering from heart surgery.
Even so, Dr. Alejandro Macchia, a cardiologist at the GESICA Foundation in Buenos Aires, who led the current study and collaborated with Mozaffarian on the previous one, said fish oil may still prove beneficial for heart health, at least in some patients.
“I am not sure the story is over,” Dr. Macchia told Reuters Health. “I think we have enough evidence to say that there is no role of (omega-3 fatty acids) for the prevention of atrial fibrillation” in patients with a history of the condition, he said. “However in the context of primary prevention – those people who had never had a previous episode of atrial fibrillation – there is a reasonable room for a well-designed and very large clinical trial.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/VrTKiY Journal of the American College of Cardiology, online December 19, 2012.
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The UK is assuming its year-long presidency of the G8 group of nations.
The presidency – which rotates through the G8 members – means it will host the annual leaders’ summit and choose the global priorities that are discussed.
June’s summit is to be held at Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, while topics discussed will include tax havens.
The G8 is made up countries who have, historically, been the richest in the world – France, the US, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada and the UK.
As prime minister of the presidency holding nation, David Cameron has said he wants to focus on combating trade protectionism, cracking down on tax havens and promoting greater government transparency.
These topics will be discussed in ministerial meetings ahead of the summit along with urgent issues like the crisis in Syria.
Although G8 summits are renowned for fine communiques, the group increasingly suffers from a credibility problem – some of the world’s largest economies like China, India and Brazil are not members, says BBC world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan.
Our correspondent also adds that organisers will at least be hoping the June summit will be trouble-free.
The last time the UK was the host in 2005, in Gleneagles, more than 200,000 people marched against world poverty.
The proceedings were then overshadowed by the 7/7 bus and underground bombings in London.
Mr Cameron announced in November that the G8 summit would be held at the Lough Erne golf resort near Enniskillen.
It is the first time an event of this size has been held in Northern Ireland.
Speaking at the time, the prime minister said: “I want the world to see just what a fantastic place Northern Ireland is – a great place for business, a great place for investment, a place with an incredibly educated and trained workforce ready to work for international business.
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Samsung (005930) is the world’s top Android smartphone vendor by a staggering margin. Aside from LG (066570), which managed a small $ 20 million profit from its mobile division last quarter, no other global Android vendor can figure out how to make money selling Android phones. Meanwhile, Samsung posted a $ 6 billion profit on $ 47.6 billion in sales in the third quarter, thanks largely to record smartphone shipments and a massive marketing budget. Even as industry watchers turn sour on Apple, Samsung is seen steamrolling into 2013 and its stock is up nearly 50% on the year while Apple (AAPL) shares continue to fall from a record high hit in September. As unstoppable as Samsung appears right now, one key question remains: Is Samsung driving Android’s success or is Android driving Samsung’s success? Starting in 2013, we may finally begin to find out.
[More from BGR: Unreleased ‘BlackBerry X10′ QWERTY phone appears again in new photos]
Earlier this year, BGR wrote about Samsung’s effort to look beyond Android. Even with its own UI and application suite — and even with its own content services — Samsung will always rely on Google (GOOG) if it continues to base its devices on Google’s latest Android builds.
[More from BGR: RIM teases BlackBerry 10 launch with image of first BB10 smartphone]
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means Samsung will never truly control the end-to-end experience on its products. It also means Samsung will never truly own its smartphones and tablets. Instead, Samsung’s devices will deliver an experience that is an amalgamation of Google’s vision and its own.
But there are alternative options. One example is the path Amazon (AMZN) has taken. Amazon let Google do the grunt work and then took its open-source Android OS and built its own software and service layer on top. Kindle Fire users don’t sit around waiting for Android updates — many of them don’t even know they’re using an Android-powered tablet.
Samsung could do the same thing, but there is a great deal of prep work that would need to be done first. Amazon’s efforts were so successful (depending on your measure of success) because the company already had a massive ecosystem in place before it even launched its first device. Streaming movies and TV shows, eBooks, retail shopping and a stocked application store were all available on the Kindle Fire from day one.
Samsung doesn’t have this luxury. Yet.
Samsung could also take ownership of a new OS, and Tizen may or may not end up being that OS. Samsung is co-developing the new Linux-based mobile platform with Intel (INTC) and others, and a new rumor from Japan’s The Daily Yomiuri suggests Samsung plans to launch its first Tizen phone in 2013. “Samsung will probably begin selling the [Tizen] smartphones next year and they are likely to be released in Japan and other countries at around the same time,” the site’s sources claim.
This will be a slow process. If Samsung follows the same path it took with Bada, Samsung’s earlier Linux-based OS that was folded into the Tizen project, things will start out slow as Samsung launches regional devices that are restricted to a few Eastern markets. Testing the waters before dumping serious marketing dollars into the project isn’t a bad idea, especially considering the battle at the bottom of the smartphone OS food chain that will already be taking place in 2013.
But one thing is clear: Samsung is looking to broaden its strategy and move beyond a point where it relies entirely on another company for its smartphone software.
This article was originally published by BGR
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it has approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.
The agency approved J&J’s pill, Sirturo, for use with other older drugs to fight hard-to-treat tuberculosis.
Sirturo is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. That’s an increasingly common form of the disease that cannot be treated with at least two of the four primary antibiotics used to treat tuberculosis.
The standard drugs used to fight the disease were developed in the 1950s and 1960s.
Roughly one-third of the world’s population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis.
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