Islamists to rule Tunisia; clashes in cradle of revolt (Reuters)

TUNIS (Reuters) ? The leader of the Islamist party which won Tunisia's first free election appealed for calm in the town where the "Arab Spring" began, accusing forces linked to the ousted president of fanning violence there.

Party officials said coalition talks were already under way and they expected to form a new government within 10 days.

Troops fired in the air on Friday to disperse a crowd attacking government offices in Sidi Bouzid, where 10 months ago vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in a protest that ignited revolts around the Arab world.

The Ennahda party, which was banned for decades and its leaders forced to flee abroad, will lead Tunisia's new government after an election victory likely to set a template for other Middle Eastern states rocked by uprisings this year.

Ennahda has tried to reassure secularists by stressing it will not impose a Muslim moral code.

It will not impose the wearing of the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, on women because all attempts to do that in other Arab states have failed, the party's leader said on Friday.

Rachid Ghannouchi said women would have jobs in the new government "whether they wear a veil or don't wear a veil".

Ennahda would honor an undertaking to finish writing a new constitution within one year, he said at his first news conference since the election. It would respect all Tunisia's international treaties when it forms a new government.

He blamed the Sidi Bouzid clashes on forces connected with ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

The unrest was not linked directly to the Ennahda win, but to the fact that a party headed by a businessman popular in the town, a former supporter of Ben Ali, had been eliminated from the ballot over allegations of campaign finance violations.

UNREST IN TOWN OF "MARTYR"

Two witnesses in Sidi Bouzid told Reuters a large crowd had tried to attack the local government headquarters.

"The military are trying to disperse the people with shots in the air and tear gas," one of the witnesses, Attia Athmouni, said by telephone.

The witnesses said shops and schools were shut and a security forces helicopter was hovering overhead.

Late on Thursday, after officials announced they would cancel several seats won by the Popular List, a crowd set fire to an Ennahda office and the office of the mayor. The party had been running in fourth place in the election, according to preliminary results, before its seats were canceled.

An Interior Ministry source said a night curfew would be imposed in the town from 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) until 5 a.m.

Ghannouchi paid tribute to the town's role in the revolution which forced Ben Ali to flee the country.

"We salute Sidi Bouzid and its sons who launched the spark and we hope that God will have made Mohamed Bouazizi a martyr," said the Islamic scholar, who spent 22 years exiled in Britain.

Announcing the results, election commission members said Ennahda had won 90 seats in the 217-seat assembly, which will draft a new constitution, form an interim government and schedule new elections, probably for early 2013.

The Islamists' nearest rival, the secularist Congress for the Republic, won 30 seats.

TURKISH PM IS MODEL

The complex election system that replaced the rigged, one-horse races conducted before the revolution made it impossible for one party to win a majority of seats. Ennahda is expected to form a government with two of the secularist runners-up.

The Islamists have already said they will put forward Hamadi Jbeli, Ghannouchi's deputy and a former political prisoner, for the post of prime minister. Jbeli said on Friday the economy would take priority in coalition negotiations.

"We are going to speed up to build the new government," he said. "It will take between a week and 10 days."

Ghannouchi told Reuters in an interview he would pursue a liberal economic policy, including making the dinar currency convertible. [nL5E7LS2ZF]

Ennahda lies at the moderate end of the spectrum of Islamist parties in the Middle East. Ghannouchi models his approach on the that of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

His officials say there will be no restrictions on foreign tourists -- a big source of revenue -- drinking alcohol or wearing bikinis on the country's Mediterranean beaches.

The victory is the first for Islamists since the Hamas faction won a Palestinian election seven years ago.

It will resonate in Egypt, where a party with ideological ties to Ennahda is expected to do well in a multi-stage parliamentary poll that starts in November.

One of the party's most prominent candidates is a businesswoman who does not wear the Islamic veil, or hijab, and this week sang along to pop songs at a party rally.

Ennahda has also reached out to anxious investors by saying it will not impose Islamic banking rules. It says it is inclined to keep the finance minister and central bank governor in their posts when it forms the new government.

(Additional reporting by Abdelaziz Boumzar; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/wl_nm/us_tunisia

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McDonald's bans mom on clean play-area crusade (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/153808498?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Dr. Conrad Murray Defense Witness Sort of Takes Back Key Theory

Anesthesiologist and Propofol expert Dr. Paul White, a witness called by Dr. Conrad Murray's defense team, isn't doing the defendant a lot of favors this week.

Having somewhat altered his original claim that Michael Jackson could have died from ingesting Propofol, he may have erased any lingering reasonable doubt.

White's initial theory was that swallowing Propofol could've been fatal for Michael Jackson, whose death Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter for.

Now, though, he's singing a different tune.

He claims he included that theory in a prior report for the defense attorneys, but that was just a plausible suggestion, not a foregone conclusion as to how MJ died.

Yes, he says it's still possible, but the backtracking can't help Murray ... especially after the beating he's taken by expert after expert called by the prosecution.

Also, during opening statements, the defense argued the The King of Pop may have killed himself by ingesting Propofol, but has since dropped that claim after a study revealed drinking the anesthetic would not be fatal.

White said he wouldn't expect Jackson to have died from the amount of Propofol Murray claims he gave the singer, but when asked if he could justify administering the drug and then leaving the room, he said, "absolutely not."

Bottom line: It's looking grim for the doc.

[Photo: Fame Pictures]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/dr-conrad-murray-defense-witness-sort-of-takes-back-theory/

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Surgical Device Company Failed to Report Its Spinal Implant Causes Cancer [Science]

Surgical device company Medtronic paid surgeons millions of dollars to investigate the safety of their spinal implant products. Turns out they cause cancer, but no one reported it. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/dHFdy9oFidM/surgical-device-company-failed-to-report-its-spinal-implant-causes-cancer

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Exclusive: U.S. considers unusual arms deal for Turkey (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Obama administration is consulting Congress on an unusual proposal to transfer U.S. Marine Corps attack helicopters to Turkey, U.S. officials said on Thursday, as Ankara tries to exact revenge for a major attack by Kurdish separatists.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has been seeking AH-1 SuperCobra helicopters to replace those lost in its long struggle against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Under the administration's plan, the Marines would get two new, late-model Textron Inc Bell AH-1Z SuperCobras in exchange for the three AH-1W aircraft that would be transferred to Ankara from current inventory, a congressional official said.

The officials declined to be identified because of the matter's sensitivity and because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The idea to take weapons from the U.S. arsenal was rare, they said.

The proposal has been held up amid lawmakers' questions about increasingly distant relations between Muslim-majority Turkey and Israel, a key U.S. ally, among other matters.

The AH-1W has sold previously for about $10 million. Turkey bought 10 of them in the 1990s. The larger, twin-engine AH-IZ may sell for about $30 million, according to industry sources.

Under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, the executive branch must provide 15 days' formal notice to Congress before going ahead with significant arms transfers to a NATO partner. It was not immediately clear when such notice might take place, with informal congressional consultations continuing.

Turkey last week launched air and ground assaults on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, vowing to exact "great revenge" after 24 Turkish troops were killed on October 19 in one of the deadliest Kurdish attacks in years.

The PKK is designated a terrorist group by the United States. It is waging a 27-year-old war from bases inside Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. The administration's proposal to transfer the helicopters pre-dates the October 19 attack on Turkish forces near the border with Iraq.

The United States and Turkey have a strong tradition of military cooperation, both bilaterally and inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Turkey agreed last month to host a powerful U.S.-supplied radar system to act as advanced eyes for a layered shield against ballistic missiles coming from outside Europe.

The AN/TPY-2 surveillance radar in Turkey will boost the shield's capability against Iran, which Washington alleges is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/ts_nm/us_turkey_usa_helicopters

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Netflix shares tank amid backlash and defections (AP)

NEW YORK ? Netflix shares plunged 35 percent Tuesday after the one-time Wall Street favorite revealed a massive departure of subscribers angered by price increases and other questionable changes at rental service that was created to make entertainment a snap.

Netflix revealed late Monday that it ended September with 23.8 million U.S. subscribers. That's down about 800,000 from June and worse than what the company had hinted at before. In September, the company predicted it will lose about 600,000 U.S. customers.

And it may get worse. Netflix said it expects more defections in coming months.

The exodus began after the company raised its prices by as much as 60 percent in July and split up its streaming and DVD rental services. Its website was flooded by comments from angry customers. Many people also canceled service, especially on the DVD-by-mail side. The company is betting that its future is in streaming video, and CEO Reed Hastings has said he expects Netflix's DVD subscriptions to steadily decline, much like what has happened to AOL Inc.'s dial-up Internet service.

But Netflix bungled a spin off its DVD-by-mail service, giving it the name Qwikster and creating separate accounts for people who wanted both DVDs and movie streaming. By doing so, the company created what many perceived to be a more complicated rental process at a company that began its meteoric rise with a new, easier way of searching for and finding entertainment effortlessly.

Netflix shares tumbled $41.34 to $77.50 in late morning trading Tuesday. The stock is down from more than $300 just 3 1/2 months ago. The last time the stock was trading so low was in April 2010, but that was during an extraordinarily steep ascent, after the company nearly erased the omnipresent blue and yellow storefronts of Blockbuster.

The revelations from Netflix prompted a downgrade to "Neutral" from "Buy" from Citi Investment Research analyst Mark Mahaney on Tuesday, who also slashed his target price on the stock to $95 from $220. The analyst called the price increase and the abandoned plan to separate Netflix's DVD business two "major execution errors."

Netflix Inc. did report better-than-expected financial results for the third quarter, but that was drowned out by the din of subscriber cancellations, expense controls and a one-time tax benefit, said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.

Pachter cut his target price to $82.50 from $110 on Netflix's stock and kept his rating at "Neutral."

Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix said it does not comment on stock movement or analyst reports.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_hi_te/us_netflix_stock

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Netflix plummets on weak outlook, downgrades (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Netflix Inc's shares plunged almost 40 percent on Tuesday and were set to open at their lowest level since March last year, a day after the movie rental company warned of higher subscriber attrition and mounting costs.

On Monday, the company said it would see more cancellations as it grapples with the fallout from a price increase and other unpopular moves, including a failed attempt to split its online and DVD services into two separate companies.

"We believe the NFLX model is unsustainable, as the company faces rising costs that it hoped it could pass onto its (subscribers), who appear unwilling to do so," Janney Capital Markets said in a note to clients. The brokerage cut its rating on the stock to "sell."

The company that shook up Hollywood with its DVD-by-mail service has seen its shares plummet since July, when it announced a price rise for subscribers who wanted both DVDs and streaming. Since then, its market value has shrunk by about $9.76 billion.

Netflix -- which is trying to recover from the roughest patch in its nearly 15-year history as it moves to emphasize online streaming of television and movies at a time when its traditional domestic business hits a wall -- forecast a loss for the first quarter of 2012 as it spends more to expand into Europe.

"Expansion into the U.K. and Ireland - a positive longer-term - comes at the same time domestic growth is slowing and content costs are building," said J.P. Morgan Securities, which expects a combination of these factors to significantly pressure 2012 profitability.

JP Morgan downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "overweight," and slashed its price target to $67 from $205.

On Monday, the company said DVD subscriptions will "decline sharply this quarter" but total U.S. subscribers, which includes customers who pay for its online streaming service, will be "slightly up."

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said in the company's cost of subscription expense -- the amount Netflix pays for its content partnerships -- outpaced its revenue growth in the third quarter and is expected to continue to be grow at a higher pace "for the foreseeable future."

Separately, Citigroup, which also downgraded the stock to "neutral," said the 60 percent price increase in July and the aborted effort to split its business were "two major execution errors."

Netflix has long enjoyed a near-monopoly in the online streaming space but the recent entry of new players Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc's Youtube could potentially lead to subscribers switching to alternative services.

Shares of the company, which touched a high of $304.79 in July before falling to their current levels, closed at $118.84 on Monday on Nasdaq. They were trading at $73.70 before the bell.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma and Arpita Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/bs_nm/us_netflix

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