Black Friday sales slip as shoppers opt for Thursday ‘doorbusters’

Security guards break up a fight between shoppers outside a Bowling Green, Ky., Target, Nov. 22, 2012. (AP)


Black Friday, the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season, saw more foot traffic than ever before, according to estimates. But it appears so-called "doorbuster" deals offered the day before dinged sales.


According to ShopperTrak, which tracks retail foot traffic, there were more than 307 million store visits on Friday, up 3.5 percent. But Black Friday shoppers spent an estimated $11.2 billion, down 1.8 percent over 2011, when consumers spent $11.4 billion.


And for once, the sluggish economy is not to blame.


"It is all Black Thursday's fault," ZeroHedge.com said.


[Slideshow: Black Friday madness]


Shopping malls were "less hectic" on Black Friday this year, Bloomberg.com reported, as retailers "have turned Black Friday, once a one-day event after Thanksgiving, into a week's worth of deals and discounts."


And Thursday's deals "attracted some of the spending that's usually meant for Friday," ShopperTrak said.


Big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target were open on Thanksgiving night, drawing crowds that were--in some cases--rowdy. (Thankfully, it was nothing like the dystopian version of shopping hell recently envisioned by "Saturday Night Live.")


Another reason for the Black Friday dip: people skipped lines and shopped online. According to comScore, Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion for the first time, jumping 26 percent to $1.04 billion, compared to $816 million last year.


And according to IBM Benchmark, online sales rose 17 percent on Thanksgiving and 21 percent on Black Friday.



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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)


Australia / Antarctica News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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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


13f4a  MentalFloss Best FINAL 6 ways to tweet yourself out of a job












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: 


SEE MORE: Why popular kids make more money as adults


@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. 


SEE MORE: Does a shaved head give you an advantage in corporate America?


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.


SEE MORE: Facebook’s new jobs board: Is LinkedIn toast?


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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“Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik, husband divorcing












NEW YORK (Reuters) – “The Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik and her husband are divorcing after nine years of marriage, she said in a statement on her Facebook page.


Bialik, who starred in the 1990s sitcom “Blossom,” and Michael Stone have two sons together.












“Divorce is terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible for children,” Bialik, 36, said in the statement. “It is not something we have decided lightly.”


Bialik, a proponent of “attachment parenting” who authored a book on the subject that was published in September, said it “played no role” in the couple’s divorce.


Attachment parenting advocates the nurturing of strong bonds between parents and children, which can include extended breast-feeding and parents and children sleeping in the same bed until the children are as old as 7. A controversial Time magazine cover on the subject in May drew strong reactions across the United States.


“The main priority for us now is to make the transition to two loving homes as smooth and painless as possible,” Bialik wrote in the statement, which was posted to her Facebook page on Wednesday. “Our sons deserve parents committed to their growth and health and that’s what we are focusing on.”


“We will be OK,” the statement concludes.


Bialik is a former child star who appeared in the 1980s television series “Webster” and “The Facts of Life” before landing the title role in the coming-of-age television show “Blossom,” which ran from 1991 to 1995. The show was about a smart teenage girl whose parents have divorced and is learning about life.


The actress attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she obtained a doctorate in neuroscience.


She met Michael Stone, a fellow graduate student, in calculus class, according to a description of her wedding she previously posted online.


In her most recent role on CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler, a neuroscientist who dates one of the two main stars of the show, the socially inept but brilliant physicist Sheldon Cooper.


(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Bill Trott)


Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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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)


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Egypt's top judges slam president's new powers

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's highest body of judges slammed on Saturday a recent decision by the president to grant himself near-absolute power, calling the move an "unprecedented assault" on the judiciary.

The statement from the Supreme Judicial Council came as hundreds protested outside a downtown courthouse against Thursday's declaration by President Mohammed Morsi. The president's decision means that courts cannot overrule his decrees until a new constitution and parliament is in place, several months if not more in the future.

The judges' condemnation of the president's edicts are the latest blow to Morsi, whose decision set off a firestorm of controversy and prompted tens of thousands of people to take to the streets in nationwide protests on Friday.

Through their statement, carried by the official MENA agency, the judges join a widening list of leaders and activists from Egypt's political factions, including some Islamists, who have denounced the decree.

The Supreme Judicial Council is packed with judges appointed by former President Hosni Mubarak. It regulates judicial promotions and is chaired by the head of the Court of Cassation.

Their move reflects a broader sense of anger within the judiciary against the president. Some judges' groups and prosecutors have already announced partial strikes to protest Morsi's decree.

Morsi has accused pro-Mubarak elements in the judiciary of blocking political progress. In the last year, courts have dissolved the lower house of parliament as well as the first panel drafting the constitution, both led by his Muslim Brotherhood group.

The edicts Morsi issued mean that no judicial body can dissolve the upper house of parliament or the current assembly writing the new constitution, which are also both led by the Brotherhood. Supporters of Morsi feared that courts reviewing cases against these bodies might have dissolved them, further postponing Egypt's transition under the aegis of a new constitution.

They say Morsi has a mandate to guide this process as Egypt's first freely elected president, having defeated one of Mubarak's former prime ministers this summer in a closely contested election.

The judges' council's stand against the president sets the ground for an uneasy alliance between former regime officials and activist groups that helped topple Mubarak's regime and have in the past derided those officials as "felool," or remnants.

The presidents' opponents nonetheless see the judiciary as the only remaining civilian branch of government with a degree of independence, since Morsi already holds executive power and as well as legislative authority due to the dissolution of parliament.

The judges released their statement following an emergency meeting Saturday. They said Morsi's decision is an "unprecedented assault on the judiciary and it rulings" and called on the president to "distance himself from the declaration and all things that touch judicial authority, its specifications or interference in its members or its rulings."

The primary court in Alexandria and the judges' club there announced Saturday they and public prosecutors have suspended all work until the declaration is withdrawn, according to the state news agency MENA.

One of the most controversial edicts states that the president has the right to take any steps to prevent "threats to the revolution," wording that activists say is vague and harkens back to the type of language employed by Mubarak to clamp down on dissent.

Morsi said Friday, before thousands of Brotherhood supports outside his presidential palace in Cairo, that he decision was aimed at protecting the nation from old regime loyalists using the judiciary to "harm the country."

He removed on Thursday the country's longtime attorney general, widely seen as a Mubarak holdover who did not effectively pursue the many cases against former regime officials accused of corruption, and ordered the retrial of former officials if new evidence against them is brought forth.

The ousted attorney general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, appeared before a gathering of Egyptian judges on Saturday — his first public appearance since Morsi's decree. He was greeted by raucous applause and cries of "Illegitimate! Illegitimate!" in reference to the president's decision. He read out a statement saying judicial authorities are looking into the legality of the president's decision to remove him.

"I thank you for your support of judicial independence," he told the judges, gathered in a downtown courthouse. The head of Egypt's judges' club, Ahmed el-Zind, declared Morsi's move as "unconstitutional." He was a vocal critic of Morsi during the presidential campaign and warned of a Brotherhood-dominate state if he won.

Morsi had tried once before to fire Mahmoud, in October, but rescinded his decision when judges and the attorney general stood against him, saying that he did not have the authority to do so.

Others gathered outside the courthouse, denouncing the president and chanting "Leave, leave." Police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of young men who were shooting flares.

"Morsi will have to reverse his decision to avoid the anger of the people," said Ahmed Badrawy, a labor ministry employee protesting at the courthouse. "We do not want to have an Iranian system here," he added, referring to fears that hardcore Islamists may try to turn Egypt into a theocracy.

Several hundred protesters remained in Cairo's Tahrir Square Saturday, where a number of tents have been erected in a sit-in following nearly a week of clashes with riot police. The country's most prominent opposition groups called for another mass rally on Tuesday, saying that the edicts make Morsi a "new pharaoh."

Health ministry officials quoted in state media said more than 200 people were wounded nationwide in the clashes Friday. Security officials said more than 100 police were also wounded in clashes in Cairo near Tahrir Square where protesters have been battling security forces for days to demand retribution for the killing of 42 protesters in November of last year.

____

Brian Rohan contributed to this report from Cairo.

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Canada wants to balance budget in 2015, may invest to grow economy












TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday he is aiming to wipe out the federal budget deficit by 2015, in time for the next election, but cautioned the Conservative government would be flexible with that target if the economy soured.


Canada’s fiscal shortfall of 1.4 percent of gross domestic product is tiny compared to that of the United States and some other major economies. But it is a sore point for policy makers in a country that ran an 11-year string of surpluses prior to the global financial crisis.












“It remains our intention to balance the budget during this session of Parliament,” Flaherty said in the prepared text of a speech he was delivering in Toronto.


“Although we are prepared to be flexible and pragmatic should circumstances warrant — our plan is to stick to our plan: balanced budgets and low taxes,” he said.


The parliamentary session is due to end in October 2015, the same month a federal election is scheduled.


Last week, Flaherty presented a fiscal update that showed a return to balanced budgets in 2016-17, including a C$ 3 billion ($ 3 billion) contingency cushion in case the global economy worsens.


Three days later, amid criticism, both he and Prime Minister Stephen Harper were at pains to say they still intended to end the red ink by 2015.


Flaherty said on Thursday the next budget in early 2013 would continue with what he called “pro-growth initiatives” of the past year, giving as examples previously-announced initiatives to strengthen the venture capital system and to provide skills training for the work force.


He hinted there would be “much more,” without giving details.


The plan will not include tax hikes and the government will continue to look for ways to cut spending, he said.


“From the experience of Greece and beyond, Canadians know that the consequences of unsustainable finances are all too painful,” he said.


($ 1 = $ 1 Canadian)


(Writing by Louise Egan; editing by Andrew Hay)


Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Fired colleague of UBS rogue trader Adoboli opens betting site












LONDON (Reuters) – A former senior trader at UBS, sacked for failing to prevent colleague Kweku Adoboli from perpetrating the biggest fraud in British history, has set up a gambling website.


In a decision likely to be seized upon by critics who say traders have often made casino-style bets, John Hughes started his gambling firm even though his website said his old job had “removed all sense of optimism from his character”.












Adoboli, his former subordinate now serving seven years in jail for running up losses of $ 2.3 billion, argued during his trial that his own behavior was the result of a risky trading culture encouraged by senior colleagues, and his lawyers alleged that Hughes had played a major role in “off-book” trading.


Hughes admitted he had known of Adoboli’s scheme to hide his giant losses and that he had booked several fictitious trades himself, but denied knowledge of some of Adoboli’s biggest multi-billion dollar trades.


Hughes said he had chosen to call his new gambling website ‘BetsofMates’, a play on the expression “Best of Mates”.


That may grate with Adoboli who complained that his colleagues, including Hughes, had “sold me down the river” after a meeting at which he said it was decided he alone would carry the can for the huge losses.


Hughes and the others said they had no memory of such a meeting.


“We’re not a standard bookie,” Hughes said of his new website, which enables users to play against each other in leagues, with each player placing bets of between two and 200 pounds.


“We facilitate competition. The emphasis is a lot more on competition than yield enhancement,” he told Reuters on Thursday.


The former senior trader on the Exchange Traded Funds desk at UBS in London said Adoboli’s conviction was “just incredibly sad”. He declined to comment further.


Despite a large salary and bonus, Adoboli was himself an avid gambler and lost 123,000 pounds ($ 200,000) on spread-betting in the year before his arrest.


One prosecutor accused him of being addicted to gambling to which Adoboli countered that spread-betting was common among City traders “like a taxi driver driving his own taxi home”.


Hughes’ profile on his new firm’s website says that “seven years in the City (had) removed all sense of optimism from his character, and made him absurdly superstitious.”


He told Reuters such feelings had arisen “sitting there watching the markets for seven years and watching different news hit the tapes and obviously the last seven years haven’t been the easiest in the financial markets.”


Britain’s Gambling Commission granted a license to his pool betting company ‘Bets of Mates Limited’, which is registered to an East London address, in September 2012, two months before Adoboli was convicted.


(Editing by Andrew Osborn)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Halle Berry’s ex headed to court after Thanksgiving brawl












LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The father of Halle Berry‘s daughter is headed to court after he was arrested following a fistfight with her fiancé outside the Oscar winning actress’ Los Angeles home on Thanksgiving, police said.


Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, 37, was later released on $ 20,000 bail after being charged with misdemeanor battery following the punch-up with Berry’s fiancé, French actor Olivier Martinez, 46, in the driveway of her house on Thursday.












The altercation occurred during a custodial hand-off involving Berry’s 4-year-old daughter with Aubry, Nahla, according to Los Angeles police officer Julie Boyer.


Following the scuffle, Aubry and Martinez were both taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with “non-life-threatening injuries,” Boyer said. Aubry is due to appear in court on December 13.


Berry, 46, who won a best actress Oscar for her role in 2001 film “Monster’s Ball,” has been embroiled in a bitter custody battle with Aubry since they broke up in April 2010. Earlier this month, a judge denied Berry’s request to move to France with Nahla.


Berry and Martinez met while filming the movie “Dark Tide.” They announced their engagement in March.


A judge has since issued an emergency protective order requiring Aubry to stay at least 100 yards (meters) from Berry, their daughter and Martinez, according to celebrity website, TMZ.com.


(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Sandra Maler)


Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Factores “irracionales” elevarían acceso a radioterapia al final de la vida












NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – Los costos y otros factores no


médicos impulsarían el acceso a la radioterapia para aliviar los












síntomas del cáncer en los últimos días de vida, indicó un


reciente estudio.


Un equipo de Estados Unidos que analizó las prestaciones de


Medicare durante casi una década descubrió que una pequeña


proporción de los pacientes oncológicos había recibido


radioterapia en sus últimos 30 días de vida, pero a uno de cada


cinco de ellos se le administró más dosis que las recomendadas.


“El uso de la radioterapia fue bajo, pero el porcentaje de


pacientes que recibió el tratamiento durante 10 días o más fue


alto”, dijo la autora principal del estudio, doctora Ashleigh


Guadagnolo, del Centro de Oncología MD Anderson de University of


Texas.


Guadagnolo se negó a decir cuántas sesiones de radioterapia


eran adecuadas, pero un oncólogo opinó que el estudio demuestra


que existe un uso excesivo e irracional de la terapia.


El doctor Otis Brawley, jefe médico de la Sociedad


Estadounidense del Cáncer, dijo que aunque es razonable el uso


de radioterapia con fines paliativos, 10 o más sesiones durante


el último mes de vida de un paciente son “recursos


desperdiciados”.


El problema, según dijo Brawley a Reuters Health, era que


los pacientes que accedían a la radioterapia recibían demasiadas


dosis y muchas personas que se podrían haber beneficiado con el


tratamiento no lo recibían.


“El estudio demuestra que existe bastante irracionalidad en


cómo tratamos a los pacientes”, dijo Brawley, que no participó


del estudio.


Los autores aseguran que el estudio, publicado en el Journal


of Clinical Oncology, es el primero que analizó cómo los médicos


utilizan la radioterapia en los pacientes terminales.


Para eso, evaluaron a más de 202.000 prestaciones de


Medicare a pacientes mayores de 65 años que murieron por los


cinco cánceres más comunes de Estados Unidos (pulmonar, mamario,


prostático, colorrectal y pancreático) entre el 2000 y el 2007.


Asumieron que la mayoría de los tratamientos del último mes


de vida eran paliativos.


Unos 15.000 pacientes (más del 7 por ciento) recibieron


radioterapia en el último mes de vida. El 18 por ciento de ellos


dedicó más de 10 de esos 30 días a recibir el tratamiento.


Los factores asociados con la administración de 10 o más


sesiones de radioterapia fueron ser blancos, no recibir atención


cuidados paliativos y ser paciente de un centro de tratamiento


oncológico independiente en lugar de un hospital universitario.


Los costos de la radioterapia acumularon unos 3453 dólares


adicionales por paciente. En los que recibían cuidados


paliativos y radioterapia, el costo combinado fue de 2.675


dólares menos que en los casos que no recibían radioterapia ni


cuidados paliativos.


Medicare cubre los costos de los pacientes que optan por


cuidados paliativos con un valor diario menor que el de la


radioterapia. Y una reducción del uso de la radioterapia entre


el 2000 y el 2007 coincide con un aumento del uso de los


cuidados paliativos.


“El mensaje del estudio es que no vamos a ahorrar dinero si


renunciamos a la radioterapia y, de hecho, es un tratamiento que


probablemente esté subutilizado”, dijo el doctor Stephen Lutz,


radiólogo del Centro Regional de Oncología de Blanchard Valley,


Ohio, y que no participó del estudio.


El doctor Michael Steinberg, oncólogo radiólogo de la


Escuela de Medicina David Geffen de UCLA, consideró que hay que


poner los costos en contexto. Muchos de sus pacientes no quieren


usar narcóticos o esteroides con efectos secundarios


desagradables.


Por otro lado, la radioterapia para aliviar los síntomas del


cáncer tiene límites porque sus efectos analgésicos demoran


días, mientras que los narcóticos actúan en horas, según indicó


el doctor Stephen Gripp, oncólogo radiólogo del Hospital


Universitario de Düsseldorf de la Universidad Heinrich Heine.


Además, está la incomodidad: “La radioterapia (el traslado,


la ubicación en la camilla y la espera) es molesta y hasta


dolorosa para los pacientes terminales”, dijo Gripp por e-mail.


FUENTE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2012


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