Strong quake strikes Myanmar; at least 6 killed

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A strong earthquake struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, collapsing a bridge, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving at least six people dead, according to local media reports.No casualties or major damage was reported in the nearest major population center, Myanmar's second-biggest city of Mandalay, about 117 kilometers (72 miles) south of the quake's epicenter near...

Read More..

War photography exhibit debuts in Houston museum

HOUSTON (AP) — It was a moment Nina Berman did not expect to capture when she entered an Illinois wedding studio in 2006. She knew Tyler Ziegel had been horribly injured, his face mutilated beyond recognition by a suicide bombing in the Iraq War. She knew he was marrying his pretty high school sweetheart, perfect in a white, voluminous dress.It was their expressions that were surprising."People don't...

Read More..

Malaria vaccine a letdown for infants

LONDON (AP) — An experimental malaria vaccine once thought promising is turning out to be a disappointment, with a new study showing it is only about 30 percent effective at protecting infants from the killer disease.That is a significant drop from a study last year done in slightly older children, which suggested the vaccine cut the malaria risk by about half — though that is still far below the...

Read More..

FBI probe of Petraeus began with 'suspicious emails'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI investigation that led to the discovery of CIA Director David Petraeus' affair with author Paula Broadwell was sparked by "suspicious emails" that initially did not contain any connection to Petraeus, U.S. law enforcement and security officials told Reuters on Saturday. But the CIA director's name unexpectedly turned up in the course of the investigation,...

Read More..

China congress highlights contrast with Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — While ties between China and Taiwan may be closer than at any time since they split in a civil war, the staid, formal Communist Party congress being held in Beijing highlights how far apart the two sides are politically."Taiwan's democracy has learned from the United States," said Wang Yingying, who moved from eastern China to Taiwan in 2005 with her Taiwanese spouse. "We in...

Read More..

Madonna fan guilty in NYC resisting arrest trial

NEW YORK (AP) — A former firefighter with a crush on Madonna has been convicted of resisting arrest outside her former New York City apartment building as he spray-painted poster boards with love notes.A jury delivered its verdict Friday in Robert Linhart's trial. He could face up to a year in jail.Defense lawyer Lawrence LaBrew tells the New York Post (http://bit.ly/ZgI4jl) that Linhart will appeal.Linhart...

Read More..

Malaria vaccine a letdown for infants

LONDON (AP) — An experimental malaria vaccine once thought promising is turning out to be a disappointment, with a new study showing it is only about 30 percent effective at protecting infants from the killer disease.That is a significant drop from a study last year done in slightly older children, which suggested the vaccine cut the malaria risk by about half — though that is still far below the...

Read More..

How 'poor judgment' felled military star Petraeus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - David Petraeus was a star on the battlefield, commanding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but was undone by "poor judgment" in engaging in an extramarital affair that led to his downfall as CIA director. Just two days after his 60th birthday, Petraeus stepped down from the spy agency where he had held the top office since September 6, 2011. "After being married for over...

Read More..

Contrasting politics of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan

China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — all societies rooted in Chinese culture — have developed very different ways of selecting their leaders and taking part in public affairs. The distinctions are highlighted as China undergoes its once-a-decade transition to a new slate of Communist Party leaders in Beijing this month. Despite China's dramatic transformation into an economic superpower, the authoritarian...

Read More..

Dancing With The Stars Family Rallies On Twitter In Support Of Brooke Burke-Charvet Following Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis

Members of the “Dancing with the Stars” family Tweeted their well-wishes for the show’s co-host, Brooke Burke-Charvet, who revealed on Thursday she has thyroid cancer.Helio Castroneves, who was recently eliminated from the “All-Stars” season, said he is confident she will overcome the disease. PLAY IT NOW: Brooke Burke-Charvet’s...

Read More..

Mark Wahlberg to star in next 'Transformers' movie

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mark Wahlberg, roll out."Transformers" director Michael Bay says the 41-year-old actor will star in the franchise's fourth film.Bay called Wahlberg the "perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers' legacy" in a post on his blog Thursday. He previously squashed rumors that Wahlberg was joining the film franchise about warring robots.Bay worked with Wahlberg...

Read More..

Calif. city plans to provide transgender surgeries

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco is preparing to become the first U.S. city to provide and cover the cost of sex reassignment surgeries for uninsured transgender residents.The city's Health Commission voted Tuesday to create a comprehensive program for treating transgender people experiencing mental distress because of the mismatch between their bodies and their gender identities. San Francisco...

Read More..

Obama breaks down while speaking to staff, volunteers

The morning after he won re-election, an emotional President Barack Obama credited his youthful staff of several hundred with running a campaign that will "go on in the annals of history.""What you guys have accomplished will go on in the annals of history and they will read about it and they'll marvel about it," said Obama told his team Wednesday morning inside the Chicago campaign headquarters,...

Read More..

Truck bomb rocks Pakistan's largest city, kills 1

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber smashed a truck packed with explosives into housing for a paramilitary force protecting Pakistan's largest city, killing at least one person in the explosion Thursday morning that sent a large plume of smoke into the sky, officials said.The blast underlined deteriorating security in Karachi, the sprawling port city of 18 million people that is considered the...

Read More..

RIM's BlackBerry 10 platform wins coveted U.S. security clearance

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd said on Thursday it has won a much-coveted U.S. government security clearance for its yet-to-be launched platform for BlackBerry 10 devices that are expected to hit store shelves in the first quarter of 2013. The company said its BlackBerry 10 platform has received the FIPS 140-2 certification, which would allow government agencies to deploy...

Read More..

Rihanna a rock star on Victoria's Secret catwalk

NEW YORK (AP) — Rihanna rocked the lingerie look at Wednesday night's Victoria's Secret fashion show in New York, providing the highlight of the live-music soundtrack and holding her own on the catwalk with some of the world's top models.And those models even had props, including Adriana Lima's ringmaster wand, Doutzen Kroes' body cage and several pairs of the oversized wings that the retailer has...

Read More..

Experts raise concerns over superhuman workplace

LONDON (AP) — Performance-boosting drugs, powered prostheses and wearable computers are coming to an office near you — but experts warned in a new report Wednesday that too little thought has been given to the implications of a superhuman workplace.Academics from Britain's leading institutions say attention needs to be focused on the consequences of technology which may one day allow — or compel —...

Read More..

How did America become so polarized?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The election laid bare a dual — and dueling — nation, politically speaking, jaggedly split down the middle on the presidency and torn over much else. It seems you can please only half of the people nearly all of the time.Americans retained the fractious balance of power in re-electing President Barack Obama, a Republican House and a Democratic Senate, altogether serving as guarantors...

Read More..

Hu Jintao's legacy: A strong but strained China

{ttle}

{cptn}","template_name":"ss_thmb_play_ttle","i18n":{"end_of_gallery_header":"End of Gallery","end_of_gallery_next":"View Again"},"metadata":{"pagination":"{firstVisible} - {lastVisible} of {numItems}","ult":{"spaceid":"2145868274","sec":""}}},{"id": "hcm-carousel-1969701642", "dataManager": C.dmgr, "mediator": C.mdtr, "group_name":"hcm-carousel-1969701642", "track_item_selected":1,"tracking":{
"spaceid" : "2145868274",
"events" : {
"click" : {
"any" : {
"yui-carousel-prev" : {
"node" : "a",
"data" : {"sec":"HCMOL on article right rail","slk":"prev","itc":"1" },
"bubbles" : true,
"test": function(params){
var carousel = params.obj.getCarousel();
var pages = carousel._pages;

// if same page, don't beacon
if(("_ult_current_page" in carousel) && carousel._ult_current_page==pages.cur) return false;

// keep track of current position within this closure
carousel._ult_current_page = pages.cur;

return true;
}
},
"yui-carousel-next" : {
"node" : "a",
"data" : {"sec":"HCMOL on article right rail","slk":"next","itc":"1" },
"bubbles" : true,
"test": function(params){
var carousel = params.obj.getCarousel();
var pages = carousel._pages;

// no more pages, don't beacon again
// if same page, don't beacon
if(("_ult_current_page" in carousel) && carousel._ult_current_page==pages.cur) return false;

// keep track of current position within this closure
carousel._ult_current_page = pages.cur;
return true;
}
}
}
}
}
}
}));
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function() {
try{
if (Math.floor(Math.random()*10) == 1) {
var loc = window.location,
decoded = decodeURI(loc.pathname),
encoded = encodeURI(decoded),
uri = loc.protocol + "//" + loc.host + encoded + ((loc.search.length > 0) ? loc.search + '&' : '?') + "_cacheable=1",
xmlhttp;

if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
else
xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");

xmlhttp.open("GET",uri,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
}catch(e){}
})();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.namespace("Media").ywaSettings = '"projectId": "10001256862979", "documentName": "", "documentGroup": "", "ywaColo" : "vscale3", "spaceId" : "2145868274" ,"customFields" : { "12" : "classic", "13" : "story" }';
Y.Media.YWA.init(Y.namespace("Media").ywaSettings);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {if(document.onclick===YAHOO.Media.PreventDefaultHandler.newClick){document.onclick=YAHOO.Media.PreventDefaultHandler.oldClick;}
});
});
});

Read More..

Exclusive - Amazon to win EU e-book pricing tussle with Apple

'},"otherParams":{"t_e":1,".intl":"US"},"events":{"fetch":{lv:2,"sp":"2145892301","ps":"LREC,MON","npv":true,"bg":"#FFFFFF","em":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'38c9a5d1-884c-3226-a2e9-00bf0b1e4f04\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489;1092500;1055500;2063500\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}'),"em_orig":escape('{"site-attribute":"_id=\'38c9a5d1-884c-3226-a2e9-00bf0b1e4f04\' rs=\'lmsid:a0770000002GZ5iAAG\' ctype=\'News\' ctopid=\'1499989;1550500;2299500;1507989;1506989;1542500;1550000;1507489;1092500;1055500;2063500\' can_suppress_ugc=\'1\' content=\'no_expandable;ajax_cert_expandable;\' ADSSA"}')}}};var _createNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);var nodeHTML;if(center && !node){nodeHTML=_conf.nodes[nId];center.insert(nodeHTML);};};};var _prepareNodes=function(){var nIds=_conf.nodeIds;for(var i in nIds){var nId=nIds[i];var dId=_conf.destinationMap[nIds[i].replace("yom-ad-","")];n=Y.one("#"+nId);if(n)var center=n.one("center");var node=Y.one("#"+dId);if(center && node){center.set("innerHTML","");center.insert(node);node.setStyle("display","block");};};};var _darla;var _config=function(){if(YAHOO.ads.darla){_darla = YAHOO.ads.darla;_createNodes();};};var _fetch=function(spaceid,adssa,ps){
if (typeof(ps)!='undefined')
_conf.events.fetch.ps = ps;if(typeof spaceid != "undefined") _conf.events.fetch.sp=spaceid;adssa = (typeof adssa != "undefined" && adssa != null) ? escape(adssa.replace(/\"/g, "'")) : "";_conf.events.fetch.em=_conf.events.fetch.em_orig.replace("ADSSA", adssa);if(_darla){_prepareNodes();_darla.setConfig(_conf);_darla.event("fetch");};};Y.on("domready", function(){_config();});;var that={"fetch":_fetch,"getNodes":_conf.nodes,"getConf":_conf};return that;}();/* Backwards compatibility - Assigning the latest instance to the main fetch function */YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.fetch=YUI.PhotoAdsDarla.photoslightboxdarla.fetch;
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {YAHOO.namespace('Media.Social').Lightbox = {};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.Media.Article.init();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.AuthorBadge();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.Branding();
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {Y.on("load", function () {
YUI.namespace("Media.SocialButtons");

var instances = YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances || [],
globalConf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.conf || {},
vplContainers = [];

Y.all(".ymsb").each(function (node) {
var id = node.get("id"),
conf = YAHOO.Media.SocialButtons.configs[id],
instance;

if (conf) {
instance = new Y.SocialButtons({
srcNode: node,
config: Y.merge(globalConf, conf.config || {}),
contentMetadata: conf.content || {},
tracking: conf.tracking || {}
});
vplContainers.push(
{
selector: "#" + id,
callback: function(node) { instance.render(); instance = conf = id = null; }
});

if (conf.config && conf.config.dynamic) {
instances.push(instance);
}
}
});

Y.Global.Media.ViewportLoader.addContainers(vplContainers);
YUI.Media.SocialButtons.instances = instances;
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {if (!Y.Media) {

return;

}

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset || {};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist = Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_whitelist || {};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_targets['lightbox20cfa37b468de4ed88976b3b9c620d87'] = {"lightboxId":"242c52af30c83b22ef4066d0fd107a6d","pivotId":"c93e3211-d7ba-342b-b200-20fbb1d985c9"};


Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_dataset['242c52af30c83b22ef4066d0fd107a6d'] = {"spaceid":"2145892301","total":1,"photoby":"Photo By","xhrtype":"slideshow","videoconf":{"autoplay":true,"continuousPlay":true,"mute":false,"volume":"1.00","lang":"en-US","site":"news","region":"US","jurisdiction":"US","YVAP":{"accountId":"145","playContext":"default"},"pageSpaceId":"2145892301","comscoreC4":"US News","comscoreC6":"","showEmbedCode":true,"showShareUrl":true,"expName":"MediaArticleRelatedLightbox","expType":"inline","apiEnv":"prod"},"slideshow_id":null,"slideshow_title":null,"slideshow_title_baked_html":null,"slideshow_desc":null,"slideshow_rev":null,"slideshow_plink_vita":null,"photos":[{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l1.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/qbJuQyHAosuIaWgdBp0fzQ--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0yOTI7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-07T013313Z_4_CBRE8A5154200_RTROPTP_2_APPLE-IPAD-MINI.JPG","width":450,"height":292,"uuid":"c93e3211-d7ba-342b-b200-20fbb1d985c9","caption":"A customer looks over the iPad mini after the device went on sale at Apple's retail store in Palo Alto, California November 2, 2012. REUTERS\/Robert Galbraith","captionBakedHtml":"

A customer looks over the iPad mini after the device went on sale at Apple's retail store in Palo Alto, California November 2, 2012. REUTERS\/Robert Galbraith","date":"Tue, Nov 6, 2012 8:44 PM EST","credit":"Reuters","byline":"ROBERT GALBRAITH","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"A customer looks over the iPad mini after the device went on sale at Apple's retail store in Palo Alto","pivot_alias_id":"customer-looks-over-ipad-mini-device-went-sale-photo-013313412","plink":"\/photos\/customer-looks-over-ipad-mini-device-went-sale-photo-013313412.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/customer-looks-over-ipad-mini-device-went-sale-photo-013313412.html","srchtrm":"A customer looks over the iPad mini after the device went on sale at Apple's retail store in Palo Alto","revsp":"","rev":"a64435c0-287c-11e2-bbfb-72660cbb7c1f","surl":"http:\/\/l2.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/ezDaaQ_PgVL.c5HQv2L9wg--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9ODY-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-11-07T013313Z_4_CBRE8A5154200_RTROPTP_2_APPLE-IPAD-MINI.JPG","swidth":86,"sheight":56}]};

Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['242c52af30c83b22ef4066d0fd107a6d'] = {"spaceid":"2145892301","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=38c9a5d1-884c-3226-a2e9-00bf0b1e4f04","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true};
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1",
mod_total:"10", total:"0",
content_id:"38c9a5d1-884c-3226-a2e9-00bf0b1e4f04",
spaceid:"2145892301",
related_count:"-1"
});
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js';
})(document);
});
Y.later(10, this, function() {
if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};}
if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};}
if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");}
YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_d95bd1b26615db0262b7c034057b08c3 = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"9563d0d6-df7d-4726-8e78-0957e6a90a3c","sCrumb":"","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-d95bd1b26615db0262b7c034057b08c3","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"2145892301","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/mitt-romney-20111104.html?_esi=1","artContentId":"366155b6-7533-3afa-9ac1-3ad21adbf5dc","sUltQstnTxt":"Are you optimistic about President Obama\\'s second term?","artContentTitle":"Mitt Romney","artContentDesc":"Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, launched his second campaign for the White House on Thursday, June 2, in Stratham, N.H., the state where the first presidential primary is held.","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"Yes","labelRight":"No","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"120835","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"69419","rightBlocksNum":"51414","leftBlocksPerCent":"57","rightBlocksPerCent":"43","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":57028,\"s2\":3875,\"s3\":2955,\"s4\":2830,\"s5\":2731,\"s6\":51414,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Share your response with your friends on Facebook\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Share\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Your response has been shared with your friends on Facebook\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 120,835 people have responded\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 120,835 people have responded. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":57028,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":3875,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":2955,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":2830,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":2731,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":51414,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_d95bd1b26615db0262b7c034057b08c3","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"

Read More..

Quiet media night explodes suddenly, Rove protests

NEW YORK (AP) — Careful media coverage of a close presidential election Tuesday exploded so suddenly Tuesday that it left the bizarre spectacle of Fox News Channel analyst Karl Rove, a major fundraiser for Republican Mitt Romney, publicly questioning his network's declaration that President Barack Obama had been re-elected.

ABC News was also frantically trying to repair a power outage that left much of its set inoperable precisely at the time the election was being decided.

For several hours, election coverage resembled the run-up to a Super Bowl, with plenty of talk signifying little. Then NBC News, at 11:12 p.m. ET, was the first to declare Obama had won by virtue of winning the battleground state of Ohio. "He remains president of the United States for a second term," said anchor Brian Williams.

Other networks followed suit, including Fox five minutes later. But Rove, the former top political aide to President George W. Bush whose on-air presence on Fox this campaign raised some eyebrows because of his prominent role supporting Romney, suggested the call was premature.

"We've got to be careful about calling things when we have like 991 votes separating the candidates and a quarter of the vote left to count ... I'd be very cautious about intruding in this process," said Rove, a behind-the-scenes player in the wild 2000 election between Bush and Al Gore that took weeks to decide. (Gore was on TV Tuesday, too, as anchor of Current TV's election coverage).

It left Rove's colleagues struggling for words.

"That's awkward," said co-anchor Megyn Kelly. She then went backstage to interview on camera two men who were part of Fox's team in charge of making election calls. They had concluded that based on the precincts where votes were left to be counted, Romney couldn't beat Obama.

Later, Rove tried to make light of the encounter. "This is not a cage match," he said. "This is a light intellectual discussion."

As the evening had progressed for Fox and it became clear that Romney, the clear favorite of most of its audience, would find it hard to win, commentators like Sarah Palin and Peggy Noonan looked stricken.

"This was the referendum that Mitt Romney wanted on Barack Obama," said Huffington Post's Howard Fineman on MSNBC. "And guess what? Barack Obama won the referendum. And that's pretty darned emphatic."

Much of ABC's New York election studio was left powerless for about 20 minutes at the height of Tuesday's coverage. The network didn't inform viewers, and tried to compensate by taking anchors Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos away from their desks, and cutting away to crowd shots at Times Square.

Sawyer's relaxed, folksy delivery in her first presidential election night as anchor drew considerable social media attention. The rock group They Might Be Giants tweeted: "and Diane Sawyer declares tonight's winner is ... chardonnay!"

Sawyer and Stephanopoulos were a new election anchor team for ABC, and Scott Pelley led the CBS coverage. Of the three anchors for the biggest broadcast networks, only NBC's Williams was a returnee from 2008.

But it was a far different media world anyway. 2012 was notable for the vast array of outlets that an interested consumer could command to create their own media experience on multiple screens. Web sites offered deep drill-downs in data and social media hosted raucous conversations.

"If you started a drinking game with the words 'exit poll' in it, please stop now. You will die!" tweeted TV critic Tim Goodman.

Obama's Twitter account tweeted a picture of the president hugging First Lady Michelle Obama, and within 45 minutes it was retweeted more than 300,000 times.

Earlier in the evening, journalists took special care not to rely too heavily on exit polls. Perhaps they remembered how misleading exit polls in 2004 led TV networks astray then or perhaps, in CBS' Bob Schieffer's words, its results this year were too contradictory.

News outlets carefully parsed information and sometimes used the same facts for contradictory conclusions.

Fox News analyst Brit Hume noted an exit poll finding that 42 percent of voters said Superstorm Sandy was an important factor in their vote, suggesting that was a positive for Obama since he was widely considered to have been effective in his response. With the same information, the web site Politico headlined: "Exit Survey: Sandy Not a Factor."

There was a certain amount of vamping time, too. Glenn Beck's online network, The Blaze, had a blackboard straight out of the 1960s as a tote board. Beck killed time on the air by asking for cookie dough ice cream from the on-set food bar.

"Waffle cone, please," Beck said.

When Sawyer asked David Muir for the latest news from the Romney campaign, he reported the family had pasta for dinner and the candidate indulged in his favorite peanut butter and honey sandwich.

The media personality with perhaps the most on the line was Nate Silver of The New York Times, whose FiveThirtyEight blog was sought out by 20 percent of the people who visited the newspaper's website on Monday. He has used statistical data throughout the campaign to predict an Obama victory and by Tuesday, had forecast a 90.9 percent chance that Obama would win.

After Obama's victory became clear, Gavin Purcell, producer of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," tweeted that "Nate Silver is the only white male winning tonight." CNN's Piers Morgan tweeted Silver an invitation to appear on his show Wednesday.

___

Television Writers Frazier Moore in New York and Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Read More..

Study: Stem cells from strangers can repair hearts

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Researchers are reporting a key advance in using stem cells to repair hearts damaged by heart attacks. In a study, stem cells donated by strangers proved as safe and effective as patients' own cells for helping restore heart tissue.

The work involved just 30 patients in Miami and Baltimore, but it proves the concept that anyone's cells can be used to treat such cases. Doctors are excited because this suggests that stem cells could be banked for off-the-shelf use after heart attacks, just as blood is kept on hand now.

Results were discussed Monday at an American Heart Association conference in California and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study used a specific type of stem cells from bone marrow that researchers believed would not be rejected by recipients. Unlike other cells, these lack a key feature on their surface that makes the immune system see them as foreign tissue and attack them, explained the study's leader, Dr. Joshua Hare of the University of Miami.

The patients in the study had suffered heart attacks years earlier, some as long as 30 years ago. All had developed heart failure because the scar tissue from the heart attack had weakened their hearts so much that they grew large and flabby, unable to pump blood effectively.

Researchers advertised for people to supply marrow, which is removed using a needle into a hip bone. The cells were taken from the marrow and amplified for about a month in a lab at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, then returned to Miami to be used for treatment, which did not involve surgery.

The cells were delivered through a tube pushed through a groin artery into the heart near the scarred area. Fifteen patients were given cells from their own marrow and 15 others, cells from strangers.

About a year later, scar tissue had been reduced by about one-third. Both groups had improvements in how far they could walk and in quality of life. There was no significant difference in one measure of how well their hearts were able to pump blood, but doctors hope these patients will continue to improve over time, or that refinements in treatment will lead to better results.

The big attraction is being able to use cells supplied by others, with no blood or tissue matching needed.

"You could have the cells ready to go in the blood bank so when the patient comes in for a therapy — there's no delay," Hare said. "It's also cheaper to make the donor cells," and a single marrow donor can supply enough cells to treat as many as 10 people.

Dr. Elliott Antman of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who heads the heart conference, praised the work.

"That opens up an entire new avenue for stem cell therapy, like a sophisticated version of a blood bank," he said. There's an advantage in not having to create a cell therapy for each patient, and it could spare them the pain and wait of having their own marrow harvested, he said.

The study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Hare owns stock in a biotech company working on a treatment using a mixture of cells.

Juan Lopez received his own cells in the study, and said it improved his symptoms so much that at age 70, he was able to return to his job as an engineer and sales manager for a roofing manufacturer and ride an exercise bike.

"It has been a life-changing experience," said Lopez, who lives in Miami. "I can feel day by day, week by week, month by month, my improvement. I don't have any shortness of breath and my energy level is way up there. I don't have any fluid in my lungs."

And, he said happily, "My sex drive has improved!"

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP .

Read More..

Four more years for Obama

Supporters cheer after networks project an Obama victory. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama handily defeated Gov. Mitt Romney and won himself a second term Tuesday after a bitter and historically expensive race that was primarily fought in just a handful of battleground states. Obama beat Romney after nabbing almost every one of the 12 crucial battleground states.

In a sweeping victory speech early Wednesday morning, Obama thanked every American who voted, and said he plans to work with leaders from both parties in the next four years to tackle looming challenges.

"Our economy is recovering, a decade of war is ending, a long campaign is now over," he told a crowd of cheering supporters in Chicago. "And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you and you have made me a better president." Obama added he has "never been more hopeful about America" as he returns to the White House. "We're not as divided as our politics suggest," Obama said. "We remain more than a collection of blue states and red states."

Romney conceded in Boston in an earlier speech around 1:00 AM ET. "Like so many of you, Paul [Ryan] and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign," Romney said. "I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead your ocuntry in another direction. But the nation chose another leader." Romney congratulated the president and his campaign on their victory.

The Romney campaign's last-ditch attempt to put blue-leaning Midwestern swing states in play failed as Obama's Midwestern firewall sent the president back to the White House for four more years. Obama picked up the swing states of New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico, Iowa, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Ohio. Of the swing states, Romney only picked up North Carolina. Florida is still too close to call, but even if Romney won the state, Obama still handily beats him in the Electoral College vote. The popular vote will most likely be much narrower than the president's decisive Electoral College victory.

The Obama victory marks an end to a years-long campaign that saw historic advertisement spending levels, countless rallies and speeches, and three much-watched debates.

The Romney campaign cast the election as a referendum on Obama's economic policies, frequently comparing him to former President Jimmy Carter and asking voters the Reagan-esque question of whether they are better off than they were four years ago. But the Obama campaign pushed back on the referendum framing, blanketing key states such as Ohio early on with ads painting him as a multimillionaire more concerned with profits than people. The Obama campaign also aggressively attacked Romney on reproductive rights issues, tying Romney to a handful of Republican candidates who made controversial comments about rape and abortion.

These ads were one reason Romney faced a steep likeability problem for most of the race, until his expert performance at the first presidential debate in Denver in October. After that debate, and a near universal panning of Obama's performance, Romney caught up with Obama in national polls, and almost closed his favoribility gap with the president. In polls, voters consistently gave him an edge over Obama on who would handle the economy better and create more jobs, even as they rated Obama higher on caring about the middle class.

But the president's Midwestern firewall--and the campaign's impressive grassroots operation--carried him through. Ohio tends to vote a bit more Republican than the nation as a whole, but Obama was able to stave off that trend and hold an edge there over Romney, perhaps due to the president's support of the auto bailout three years ago. Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan all but moved to Ohio in the last weeks of the campaign, trying and ultimately failing to erase Obama's lead there.

A shrinking electoral battleground this year meant that only 14 states were really seen as in play, and both candidates spent most of their time and money there. Though national polls showed the two candidates in a dead heat, Obama consistently held a lead in the states that mattered. That, and his campaign's much-touted get out the vote efforts and overall ground game, may be what pushed Obama over the finish line.

Now, Obama heads back to office facing what will most likely be bitterly partisan negotiations over whether the Bush tax cuts should expire. The House will still be majority Republican, with Democrats maintaining their majority in the Senate.

The loss may provoke some soul searching in the Republican Party. This election was seen as a prime opportunity to unseat Obama, as polls showed Americans were unhappy with a sluggish economy, sky-high unemployment, and a health care reform bill that remained widely unpopular. Romney took hardline positions on immigration, federal spending, and taxes during the long Republican primary when he faced multiple challenges from the right. He later shifted to the center in tone on many of those issues, but it's possible the primary painted him into a too-conservative corner to appeal to moderates during the general election. The candidate also at times seemed unable to effectively counter Democratic attacks on his business experience and personal wealth.

Read More..