NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened higher on Friday as strong upward revisions to job creation estimates for December and November offset a slight disappointment in the January payroll report.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 98.56 points or 0.71 percent, to 13,959.14, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 8.98 points or 0.6 percent, to 1,507.09 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 21.41 points or 0.68 percent, to 3,163.54.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
LONDON — European police said on Wednesday that they had dismantled a criminal network that smuggled illegal migrants into the European Union, arresting more than 100 suspects across the Continent, from France to the Balkans.
The network smuggled people principally from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey.
Europol, a joint law enforcement agency set up to fight serious crime in the 27-member Union, said 117 house searches had been carried out in operations in the early hours of Tuesday morning that involved more than 1,200 police officers.
The latest crackdown on people-smugglers highlighted a chronic problem for European authorities as would-be migrants, desperate to escape poverty and conflict in their home countries, put their fate in the hands of organized criminal gangs to take a well-worn route via Turkey and the Balkans.
Interpol says the traffic is a high-profit, low-risk enterprise for transnational criminal syndicates.
“People smuggling syndicates are drawn by the huge profits that can be made, while benefiting from weak legislation and the relatively low risk of detection, prosecution and arrest,” according to the international police organization.
The International Organization for Migration (I.O.M.) said in a 2011 report that the activity earns organized crime groups an estimated $3 to $10 billion a year worldwide.
Europol described this week’s action as one of the largest coordinated efforts against people smugglers at a European level. It was also the latest indication that countries are pooling resources to fight international organized crime gangs.
Police and migration experts say there is a difference between people-smuggling, in which would-be migrants voluntarily pay to illegally cross transnational borders, and people-trafficking, which involves the criminal exploitation of duped or unwilling victims.
“Smuggling implies the procurement of irregular entry into a state of which the individual is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident, for financial or material gain,” according to the I.O.M. “Trafficking, on the other hand, occurs for the purpose of exploitation, often involving forced labor and prostitution.”
However, that may turn out to be a fine distinction for would-be illegal migrants who face abuse at the hands of the crime gangs.
Europol said migrants were often smuggled in inhuman and dangerous conditions in small hidden compartments in the floor of buses or trucks, in freight trains or on boats.
Gangs operating on the so-called West Balkans smuggling route have proved to be innovative and flexible in the face of increased international cooperation to tackle the trade.
Greek police broke up a smuggling network in 2007 that was transporting Albanian migrants across a dangerous mountain route. The smugglers then switched to alternative routes via Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia to Italy, Hungary and Slovenia.
The main destinations of the illegal migrants are France, Britain, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The raids this week involved operations in France and Germany as well as eastern Europe and Turkey.
Europol reported 103 arrests and said cell phones, computers, cash and a semi-automatic rifle with a large amount of ammunition were among the items seized.
In November, British immigration officers arrested eight suspects in an alleged criminal network suspected of helping Iranian migrants reach Britain from mainland Europe. That followed a joint investigation with Spain’s Guardia Civil that led to 11 other arrests in Madrid and Alicante.
Although the illegal immigrants may be traveling willingly in the search of a better life, people-smuggling is not a victimless crime.
The I.O.M. said in its 2011 report: “Numerous other crimes are oftentimes linked to people smuggling – human trafficking, identity fraud, corruption and money laundering – creating shadow governance systems that undercut the rule of law.”
(Reuters) – Shares of Facebook Inc were set to open 7 percent lower on Thursday as a surge in fourth-quarter mobile advertising revenue failed to live up to Wall Street’s high expectations.
Three brokerages downgraded the stock of the No. 1 social network, which has struggled to develop a full-fledged mobile advertising business.
Facebook has long established itself as one of the most important websites, but investors have worried that until the company’s mobile advertising strategy takes off, revenue growth will remain shaky.
The company reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday and said its mobile advertising revenue doubled to $ 306 million, suggesting it was making inroads into handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Investors were looking for at least $ 350 million in mobile advertising revenue, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a note to clients.
“While the trajectory of mobile growth may not be as steep as some investors were hoping, the theme of mobile as the future of Facebook remains intact,” he said.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Daniel Salmon, who downgraded the stock to “market perform” from “outperform”, however said Facebook’s 2013 stock performance would not be dictated by its ability to generate mobile ad dollars.
He said new catalysts were necessary to drive Facebook’s stock price up.
Facebook’s stock, which has lost over a quarter of its value since its botched debut in May, were down at $ 29.08 in premarket trading. The shares closed at $ 31.24 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Neha Alawadhi in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
01/31/2013 at 10:00 AM EST
Turns out, they had nothing to worry about.
Zachary "is as excited as we are," says John, 65, who, with Furnish, 50, welcomed Elijah on Jan. 11 in L.A. via the same surrogate who delivered Zachary in 2010 (they also used the same egg donor and again chose not to learn which of them was their son's biological father).
"Zachary has given him lots of cuddles," says Furnish. "But we suspect he's wondering how much longer he has to wait until they can play together!"
Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.
All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.
Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting from real solutions to the nation's weight problems.
"The evidence is what matters," and many feel-good ideas repeated by well-meaning health experts just don't have it, said the lead author, David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Independent researchers say the authors have some valid points. But many of the report's authors also have deep financial ties to food, beverage and weight-loss product makers — the disclosures take up half a page of fine print in the journal.
"It raises questions about what the purpose of this paper is" and whether it's aimed at promoting drugs, meal replacement products and bariatric surgery as solutions, said Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies.
"The big issues in weight loss are how you change the food environment in order for people to make healthy choices," such as limits on soda sizes and marketing junk food to children, she said. Some of the myths they cite are "straw men" issues, she said.
But some are pretty interesting.
Sex, for instance. Not that people do it to try to lose weight, but claims that it burns 100 to 300 calories are common, Allison said. Yet the only study that scientifically measured the energy output found that sex lasted six minutes on average — "disappointing, isn't it?" — and burned a mere 21 calories, about as much as walking, he said.
That's for a man. The study was done in 1984 and didn't measure the women's experience.
Among the other myths or assumptions the authors cite, based on their review of the most rigorous studies on each topic:
—Small changes in diet or exercise lead to large, long-term weight changes. Fact: The body adapts to changes, so small steps to cut calories don't have the same effect over time, studies suggest. At least one outside expert agrees with the authors that the "small changes" concept is based on an "oversimplified" 3,500-calorie rule, that adding or cutting that many calories alters weight by one pound.
—School gym classes have a big impact on kids' weight. Fact: Classes typically are not long, often or intense enough to make much difference.
—Losing a lot of weight quickly is worse than losing a little slowly over the long term. Fact: Although many dieters regain weight, those who lose a lot to start with often end up at a lower weight than people who drop more modest amounts.
—Snacking leads to weight gain. Fact: No high quality studies support that, the authors say.
—Regularly eating breakfast helps prevent obesity. Fact: Two studies found no effect on weight and one suggested that the effect depended on whether people were used to skipping breakfast or not.
—Setting overly ambitious goals leads to frustration and less weight loss. Fact: Some studies suggest people do better with high goals.
Some things may not have the strongest evidence for preventing obesity but are good for other reasons, such as breastfeeding and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, the authors write. And exercise helps prevent a host of health problems regardless of whether it helps a person shed weight.
"I agree with most of the points" except the authors' conclusions that meal replacement products and diet drugs work for battling obesity, said Dr. David Ludwig, a prominent obesity research with Boston Children's Hospital who has no industry ties. Most weight-loss drugs sold over the last century had to be recalled because of serious side effects, so "there's much more evidence of failure than success," he said.
___
Online:
Obesity info: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened flat on Thursday as economic data continued to paint a mixed picture of the economy and as investors sifted through a host of corporate earnings reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 16.05 points, or 0.12 percent, at 13,894.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 1.81 points, or 0.12 percent, at 1,500.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 0.55 points, or 0.02 percent, at 3,141.75.
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Following the recent killings of Indian and Pakistani soldiers near the Kashmir border, a local newspaper reported classified United Nations documents show that the cycle of violence between troops of the two countries has continued despite the cease-fire in 2003.
The Hindu, a national English-language daily newspaper, said Wednesday that Pakistan has repeatedly complained to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan about the killings of at least 18 of its soldiers, including four beheadings, by Indian forces between 2000 and 2011. The United Nations group was set up in 1949 to monitor cease-fire violations between the two countries.
Indian officials denied the report on Wednesday.
In the worst flare-up since the 2003 cease-fire, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged gunfire near the Line of Control earlier this month, resulting in deaths on both sides. At the time, India accused Pakistan of beheading one of its soldiers, a charge Pakistan denies.
Among the complaints it filed, Pakistan alleged in 2003 that Indian forces decapitated one of its soldiers, the Hindu said.
The Hindu also reported that Pakistan also complained that Indian forces decapitated two civilians during a massacre in the village of Bandala in 1998, which claimed 22 civilian lives.
Indian army spokesperson Col. Jagdeep Dahiya described the article as “erroneous and speculative.”
“The Indian Army is highly professional and does not indulge in un-soldierly acts as alleged in the article,” he said. “The very fact that Pakistan has not raised such issues in bilateral interactions since 1998 bears testimony to allegations leveled against the Indian army being misleading,” he said.
Col. Dahiya also said that there is an existing mechanism to regulate conflict near the line of control between India and Pakistan. “The article seems to have been based on one-sided allegations made by the Pakistan army to UNMOGIP,” he said, an organization whose status is questionable.
Sitanshu Kar, spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Defense, said that he had no knowledge of Pakistan’s complaints to the United Nations group, and that he had not been contacted for The Hindu article. “It’s the first time I’m hearing about this,” he said. “I have not seen any such document.”
Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesman for the India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said that India did not have any formal exchange with the United Nations Military Observer Group. “We feel that Unmogip has outlived its relevance,” he said. The country’s relationship with the organization ended after India and Pakistan entered the 1972 Simla Agreement, in which both countries said they would resolve their disputes bilaterally.
Mr. Akbaruddin added that Pakistan had not raised these complaints directly with India. “Frankly, this is not a discussion we have had diplomatically,” he said.
An official at the United Nations organization’s office in Srinagar refused to comment on the report, or whether such complaints by Pakistan had been received. Calls made to the group’s office in Delhi were not answered.
Lt. Gen. Baljit Singh Jaswal, who from October 2009 to December 2010 led the Northern Command, which supervises troops in Jammu and Kashmir, said that India had engaged in no cross-border violations during that time.
General Jaswal, now retired, added that Pakistan had violated the cease-fire “numerous times” and that India had exchanged retaliatory fire.
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian internet company Yandex has put an experimental application that allows users to search social networking sites from mobile devices on hold after it was blocked by Facebook.
Facebook, which launched its own search tool earlier this month, blocked the Wonder app three hours after its launch on January 24 for U.S. users.
The application allows users to look for recommendations on, for example, music or restaurants based on information from their friends on social network sites.
Facebook believes Wonder violates its policies, which state that no data obtained from Facebook can be used in any search engine without the company’s written permission, Yandex said on Wednesday, adding access to Facebook would not be restored.
“Since this access was revoked, we decided to put our application on hold for the time being,” the Russian firm said, adding it would consider partnership with other social networks and services.
Existing Wonder users are still able to search in Instagram, Foursquare and Twitter, a Yandex spokeswoman said, but marketing and further development of the application is on hold.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Mark Potter)
Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News
By Andrea Billups
01/30/2013 at 10:00 AM EST
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
REX USA; AFP/Getty; REX USA
So is it any wonder that women also want Kate's nose?
British plastic surgeons say requests for the Duchess of Cambridge's "near perfect" and petite nose have tripled since 2011, according to the Daily Mail, which has interviewed several women who said having a similar eye-catching royal profile was exactly the look they sought as they underwent rhinoplasty.
"Her nose is straight with a cute, rounded tip and is perfectly in proportion to her face," plastic surgeon Maurizio Persico said. "This gives Kate an attractive and striking profile."
"Plus, she always looks happy and confident in photos, which is especially appealing to women whose own appearance makes them unhappy – those who feel self-conscious about larger or crooked noses, which they believe dominate their faces," Persico added.
According to psychologist Carmen Lefevre, who studies facial attributes and behavior at the University of St. Andrews, it's not just because Kate's a princess that her nose inspires envy.
"The symmetry of Kate's nose, the angle between her lip and the tip of her nose and the minimal amount of nostril on show, are all near-perfect," Lefevre told the paper.
BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.
Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after getting a double-arm transplant.
Wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, the former soldier said he could get by without legs, but he hated living without arms.
"Not having arms takes so much away from you. Even your personality, you know. You talk with your hands. You do everything with your hands, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," the 26-year-old New Yorker told reporters Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Doctors don't want him using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery, which has been performed in the U.S. only seven times.
That's the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.
"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better, and you're still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There's a lot of people who will say you can't do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."
Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of the team that conducted the surgery, said the new arms could eventually provide much of the same function as his original arms and hands. Another double-arm transplant patient can now use chopsticks and tie his shoes.
Lee said Marrocco's recovery has been remarkable, and the transplant is helping to "restore physical and psychological well-being."
Tuesday's news conference was held to mark a milestone in his recovery — the day he was to be discharged from the hospital.
Next comes several years of rehabilitation, including physical therapy that is going to become more difficult as feeling returns to the arms.
Before the surgery, he had been living with his older brother in a specially equipped home on New York's Staten Island that had been built with the help of several charities. Shortly after moving in, he said it was "a relief to not have to rely on other people so much."
The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.
"We'll get it back together. We've been through a lot worse than that," his father, Alex Marrocco, said.
For the next few months, Marrocco plans to live with his brother in an apartment near the hospital.
The former infantryman said he can already move the elbow on his left arm and rotate it a little bit, but there hasn't been much movement yet for his right arm, which was transplanted higher up.
Marrocco's mother, Michelle Marrocco, said he can't hug her yet, so he brushes his left arm against her face.
The first time he moved his left arm was a complete surprise, an involuntary motion while friends were visiting him in the hospital, he said.
"I had no idea what was going through my mind. I was with my friends, and it happened by accident," he recalled. "One of my friends said 'Did you do that on purpose?' And I didn't know I did it."
Marrocco's operation also involved a technical feat not tried in previous cases, Lee said in an interview after the news conference.
A small part of Marrocco's left forearm remained just below his elbow, and doctors transplanted a whole new forearm around and on top of it, then rewired nerves to serve the old and new muscles in that arm.
"We wanted to save his joint. In the unlucky event we would lose the transplant, we still wanted him to have the elbow joint," Lee said.
He also explained why leg transplants are not done for people missing those limbs — "it's not very practical." That's because nerves regrow at best about an inch a month, so it would be many years before a transplanted leg was useful.
Even if movement returned, a patient might lack sensation on the soles of the feet, which would be unsafe if the person stepped on sharp objects and couldn't feel the pain.
And unlike prosthetic arms and hands, which many patients find frustrating, the ones for legs are good. That makes the risks of a transplant not worth taking.
"It's premature" until there are better ways to help nerves regrow, Lee said.
Now Marrocco, who was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and hand-cycling a marathon.
Asked if he could one day throw a football, Dr. Jaimie Shores said sure, but maybe not like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.
"Thanks for having faith in me," Marrocco interjected, drawing laughter from the crowd.
His mother said Marrocco has always been "a tough cookie."
"He's not changed that, and he's just taken it and made it an art form," Michelle Marrocco said. "He's never going to stop. He's going to be that boy I knew was going to be a pain in my butt forever. And he's going to show people how to live their lives."
___
Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee and AP writer David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.
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