Watch out, Meryl Streep! The indomitable Kim Kardashian is sharpening her thespian skills. The 31-year-old reality star has landed a multi-episode arc on Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva (Sundays at 9 p.m. ET). She’ll play a woman named Nikki, who’s a love interest for Fred (Ben Feldman), debuting in this summer’s season 4 premiere.
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LONDON (AP) ? British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers Saturday after arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.
The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing ? which has already caused the closure of one tabloid, the News of the World ? to a second Murdoch newspaper.
London’s Metropolitan Police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.
Murdoch’s News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees.
A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.
The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.
Officers were searching the men’s homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul’s British newspapers for evidence.
Police said Saturday’s arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch’s News Corp.
News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.
“News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated,” it said in a statement.
A dozen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged.
They include former Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch’s News International, ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson ? who is also Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communications chief ? and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.
Two of the London police force’s top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.
An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, but News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.
Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.
___
Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless
Associated Press
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FILE – In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, actress Demi Moore attends the premiere of “Margin Call” in New York. A spokeswoman for Moore on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 said the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
FILE – In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, actress Demi Moore attends the premiere of “Margin Call” in New York. A spokeswoman for Moore on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 said the actress is seeking professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was “semi-conscious, barely,” according to a caller on a 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
The woman tells emergency operators that Moore had been “having issues lately.”
“Is she breathing normal?” the operator asked.
“No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up,” the friend said.
When the emergency operator asked what Moore ingested or smoked, the caller replied, but the answer was redacted.
“Some form of … and then she smoked something. I didn’t really see. She’s been having some issues lately with some other stuff. So I don’t know what she’s been taking or not.”
When the operator asked the friend if this has happened before, she said, “I don’t know. There’s been some stuff recently that we’re all just finding out.”
By the end of the call, Moore seemed to have improved.
“She seems to have calmed down now. She’s speaking,” a male caller told the operator.
Moore announced in November she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher following news of alleged infidelity.
Moore, 49, and Kutcher, 33, were wed in September 2005.
Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore’s three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly. Moore and Kutcher were photographed socializing with Willis, and the couple attended Willis’ wedding to model-actress Emma Heming in 2009.
Moore and Kutcher created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations’ efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.
Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films “Margin Call” and “Another Happy Day.” Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV’s “Two and a Half Men” and is part of the ensemble film “New Year’s Eve.”
Associated Press
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In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, traders Thomas Kay, left, Marshall Ryan, center, and Robert McQuade work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets rose on Thursday, Jan. 26, after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low until late 2014 to nurture the country’s stubbornly slow economic recovery. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, traders Thomas Kay, left, Marshall Ryan, center, and Robert McQuade work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets rose on Thursday, Jan. 26, after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low until late 2014 to nurture the country’s stubbornly slow economic recovery. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A brief morning rally Thursday pushed the Dow Jones industrial average above its highest close since the financial crisis of 2008, but stocks finished lower for the day after mixed economic data tempered traders’ optimism.
Solid news on factory orders and strong earnings from U.S. manufacturers, highlighting one of the economy’s bright spots, helped the market open higher. The Dow rose 85 points.
But the Dow and broader indexes turned negative after weaker reports on home sales and future economic growth were released in the late morning. The Dow closed down 22.33 points, or 0.2 percent, at 12,734.63.
The Dow and other indexes are still up sharply for the year, and for about 45 minutes Thursday morning, the Dow traded above 12,810.54, its peak from last year and the highest close since the spring before the 2008 financial crisis.
Traders appear less afraid of spillover damage from the European debt crisis, and data on jobs and manufacturing have been consistently strong. The Dow is up more than 4 percent for the year.
“With global risk off center stage and attention going back to the fundamentals, this market was ready to explode, which is exactly what it is doing,” said Doug Cote, chief market strategist with ING Investment Management.
The government reported early Thursday orders to factories for long-lasting manufactured goods increased in December for the second straight month, and a key measure of business investment rose solidly.
That strong demand was apparent in quarterly earnings reports from U.S. manufacturers. 3M stock closed 1.3 percent higher after its fourth-quarter profit beat Wall Street’s estimates.
Caterpillar, the world’s biggest heavy equipment maker, rose 2.1 percent, the most of the 30 companies in the Dow, after beating analysts’ estimates last quarter. The company expects to do the same this year as global demand remains high.
Later in the day, the government reported an unexpected drop in new home sales in December, capping the worst year for home sales since record-keeping began in 1963. A private gauge of future economic activity also grew more slowly than expected.
3M and Caterpillar led the gains for the Dow. AT&T dragged the average lower, falling 2.5 percent after its earnings missed Wall Street’s forecasts. AT&T depends heavily on the Apple iPhone but recently lost its exclusive rights to sell it in the U.S.
The Dow’s post-crisis high during the trading day was 12,928.45, reached May 2, 2011. It traded as high as 12,841.95 on Thursday. The average would need to rise about 11 percent to get to its record high close of 14,164.53, reached on Oct. 9, 2007.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed down 7.63 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,318.43. It was dragged lower by volatile financial companies and telecommunications firms including AT&T. Its post-crisis peak was 1,370.58, also set May 2, 2011.
The Nasdaq shed 13.03 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 2,805.28.
Stocks had their highest close in eight months Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it plans to keep interest rates extremely low until late 2014 to encourage lending and investment and support the economic recovery.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.93 percent late Thursday from 1.99 percent late Wednesday. The prospect of more bond-buying by the Fed helped make Treasurys more attractive. A bond’s yield falls as demand for it increases.
Among the other U.S. companies making big moves after reporting quarterly earnings:
? Time Warner Cable Inc. rose 7.8 percent after the company reported earnings far above analysts’ estimates. It also raised its dividend 17 percent to 56 cents per share and announced plans to buy back more of its own stock.
? United Continental Holdings, parent of United and Continental airlines, surged 6.3 percent. Its fourth-quarter loss narrowed, its adjusted earnings were more than double what analysts had expected, and the cost of integrating the two companies fell.
? Netflix soared 22.1 percent, the most of any stock in the S&P 500, after the video streaming and DVD-by-mail company reported a huge gain in customers and a bigger fourth-quarter profit than analysts had expected.
? Colgate-Palmolive rose 1.9 percent after saying it will raise prices in the U.S. for the first time in years to cover higher costs for materials. The company’s profit declined last quarter, but core sales in emerging markets were much stronger.
___
Follow Daniel Wagner at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.
Associated Press
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MUMBAI, India ? India’s central bank urged the government to rein in spending in advance of important state elections, as it seeks more help from New Delhi in the fight to beat down inflation and boost a flagging economy.
“The fiscal deficit has to come down,” Reserve Bank governor D. Subbarao said Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of India predicted India’s economy will expand 7 percent this fiscal year ? sharply lower than its October forecast of 7.6 percent_ but said it would keep interest rates unchanged until it sees a sustained drop in inflation.
Inflation has been above 9 percent for most of the last two years despite 13 interest rate hikes.
“One reason policy rate raising has not been completely effective is there was demand generated on the fiscal side,” Subbarao said. “We thought monetary-fiscal coordination should be brought out into the public.”
He declined to specify a deficit target, but urged New Delhi to present a credible plan for cutting costs and increasing revenue when it presents the budget in March.
“Beyond the number, there has to be some strategy backing up that number, not just for convincing the Reserve Bank of India but convincing everyone around that fiscal consolidation is credible,” he said.
The bank has been under immense pressure to give a quick kick to India’s economic growth ? which has dropped below 7 percent for the first time in two years ? by cutting interest rates.
While Subbarao said Tuesday that the bank would not hike rates further, he warned that the timing of rate cuts would hinge on policy measures to cut the fiscal deficit and encourage investment. The bank would also like New Delhi to take steps to shift spending away from government consumption to investment and accelerate policy reforms that would improve the investment climate.
In addition to stoking inflation, government borrowing is crowding out private companies from credit markets, businesses complain.
Borrowings by the central government alone have swelled to 5.1 trillion rupees ($102 billion) from the budgeted 4.2 trillion rupees ($83.4 billion) for the fiscal year, and Treasury Bill issuance, at 1.0 trillion rupees ($20 billion) is about ten times higher than budgeted, according to Reserve Bank data.
The Reserve Bank on Tuesday cut the cash reserve ratio ? the percentage of cash commercial banks must keep on hand ? by half a percentage point, to 5.5 percent. That should add 320 billion rupees ($6.4 billion) to India’s cash-strapped banking system.
Subbarao joins a chorus of economists calling for prudence as the ruling Congress Party continues to hand out lavish subsidies for food, fuel, coal and fertilizer and expands entitlement spending. The government is preparing to unfurl a pricey food security program on the heels of its massive right to work program.
“What seems to be worrying them is lack of effort by the government to bring down the fiscal deficit,” said Nomura India economist Sonal Varma. “It’s countering the tightening impact monetary policy is trying to achieve. There is no complementarity between monetary and fiscal policy.”
She said the central government’s fiscal deficit is likely to be 5.7 percent of GDP this fiscal year, far higher than its 4.6 percent target.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Press Trust of India that the government is working to bring down inflation.
“We want to reduce it by adjusting the fiscal policy, which I am doing,” he said. “I shall (disclose) the essential features in the budget.”
Balancing India’s budget is no easy task. Subsidies and entitlement programs are politically expedient in a nation where some 800 million people live on less than $2 a day, and, as Subbarao acknowledged, most spending is on nondiscretionary items like pensions, salaries and interest payments.
On the revenue side, raising taxes is controversial, given already high inflation and slow growth, and faced with poor market conditions, New Delhi’s plans to sell big stakes in state-run companies have not been realized.
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CLAREMORE, Okla. ? Jurors are deciding whether to force an Oklahoma hospital to return a $500,000 donation to Garth Brooks because it didn’t build a woman’s center to honor the country singer’s late mother.
Brooks sued the Integris (in-TEHG-rihs) Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in his hometown of Yukon, saying it reneged on a promise to build the center and name it after his mother, who died of cancer in 1999.
The hospital says Brooks gave it unrestricted access to the money.
Before jurors were given the case Tuesday afternoon, Brooks’ lawyer told said during closing arguments that the hospital schemed to take the money by using the singer’s mother as “bait.”
The hospital’s attorney told jurors Brooks never had a done deal, noting that Brooks couldn’t remember key discussions with hospital executives.
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ZAPOPAN, Mexico?? Life seemed to give Karla Zepeda a break when a woman came to her dusty neighborhood of cinderblock homes and dirt roads looking for babies to photograph in an anti-abortion ad campaign.
The woman allegedly asked to use the 15-year-old’s baby girl in a two-week photo shoot for $755 (10,000 pesos), a small fortune for a teen mother who earns $180 a month at a sandwich stand and shares a cramped, one-story house with her disabled mother, stepfather, and three brothers.
But 9-month-old Camila wasn’t just posing for photographs when she was taken away.
Jalisco state investigators say the child was left for weeks at a time in the care of an Irish couple who had come to Ajijic, a town of cobblestone streets and gated communities 37 miles away, thinking they were adopting her.
Prosecutors say the baby was apparently part of an illegal adoption ring that ensnared destitute young Mexican women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents.
Camila and nine other children have been turned over to state officials who suspect they were being groomed for illegal adoptions.
And authorities hint that far more children could be involved: Lead investigator Blanca Barron told reporters the ring may have been operating for 20 years, though she gave no details. Prosecutors also say four of the children show signs of sexual abuse, though they gave no details on how or by whom.
Nine people have been detained, including two suspected leaders of the ring, but no one has yet been charged.
At least 15 Irish citizens have been questioned, the Jalisco state attorney general’s office said, but officials have not released their names.
Neighbors say most or all have returned to Ireland after spending weeks or months in Ajijic trying to meet requirements for adopting a child. None was detained.
Mom: It ‘seemed very normal’
For Karla Zepeda, the story began in August, when she was approached by Guadalupe Bosquez and agreed to lend her daughter for an anti-abortion advertising campaign, she told The Associated Press.
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Bosquez later returned with another woman, Silvia Soto, and gave her half the money as they picked the child up. She got the rest two weeks later when they brought Camila home.
“They showed me a poster that showed my girl with other babies and said ‘No To Abortion, Yes To Life,’” said Karla, a petite girl cleaning her house to loud norteno music. “I thought it was legal because everything seemed very normal.”
Before long, the message spread to her neighbors. Seven other women, most between the ages of 15 and 22, agreed to let their babies be part of the ad campaign.
Some already had several children. Some are single mothers. One of them doesn’t know how to read or write. Five of them told the AP that they did not even have birth certificates for their babies when they came across Bosquez and Soto.
Story: Women held in Mexico-to-Ireland adoption racket
One said she needed money to pay for her child’s medical care, another to finish building an extra room on her house.
All deny agreeing to give their children up for adoption.
“We’re going through a nightmare,” said Fernanda Montes, an 18-year-old housewife who said she took part to pay a $670 hospital bill from the birth of her 3-month-old. “How could we have trusted someone so evil?”
Babies given new clothes
The women say that Bosquez and Soto persuaded three of them to register their children as single mothers so they could participate in the anti-abortion campaign, even though they live with the children’s fathers.
Children’s rights activists say that also could have made it easier to release the child for adoption: Only the mother’s signature would be needed.
The mothers were assured that the babies were being taken care of by several nannies and checked by doctors. The babies often returned home wearing new clothes.
Video: Mexican drug cartels target children (on this page)
Some of the mothers said they began having second thoughts. But when they declined to send their children back, they say, Bosquez and Soto insisted they would have to pay for the strollers, car seats, diaper bags and everything else they had bought for the babies.
Investigators say that Bosquez and Soto were taking the children to a hotel in Guadalajara, where they met with Irish couples who believed they were going to adopt them.
The plan began to unravel on Jan. 9, when local police detained 21-year-old Laura Carranza and accused her of trying to sell her 2-year-old daughter.
Slideshow: Narco culture permeates Mexico, leaks across border (on this page)
Investigators said Carranza denied that allegation, but acknowledged she was “renting” her 8-month-old son. She then led authorities to Bosquez and Soto.
Both are now being held on suspicion they ran the alleged anti-abortion ad campaign as a front for an illegal adoption ring. It was not clear if they have attorneys and they have not yet been brought before a judge to say if they accept or reject the allegations.
Carranza is also being held, as is Karla’s mother, Cecilia Velazquez, who hasn’t worked since she lost both legs in a traffic accident in 2010. Karla says her mother’s only fault was agreeing to the ad campaign.
‘Problems’
Seven of the mothers interviewed told the AP that the children had most recently been picked up by Bosquez and Soto between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30 for an alleged photo shoot. They returned the babies on Jan. 9 and 10, saying “there had been problems.” The mothers said they didn’t notice anything wrong with the babies or any signs of abuse.
Then state police investigators showed up at their homes and drove them and their children to the police department for questioning. The babies were taken from them and put into state protective custody. The women complained that only four of them have been allowed to see their babies since, and only once.
A statement from Jalisco state prosecutors’ said authorities seized Carranza’s two children from her and the other seven while they were with Irish couples. Prosecutors didn’t respond to requests by the AP to clarify the discrepancy.
Residents of Ajijic, a town on the shore of Lake Chapala favored by American and Canadian retirees, say Irish citizens looking to adopt Mexican children began appearing there at least four years ago.
Jalisco state prosecutors’ spokesman Lino Gonzalez wouldn’t confirm the Irish had left, but said none had been charged with a crime.
Even if they had adopted the children, Ireland might not have accepted them because the adoptions were handled privately, Frances FitzGerald, Ireland’s minister for children, said.
“Obviously, for any couple caught up in this, it’s a nightmare scenario,” she said.
“What you can’t have in Mexico is people going to local agencies or individuals doing private adoptions because when they come back, there is going to be a difficulty,” she added.
Prosecutors say they have been trying without success to reach the attorneys who were handling the adoption paperwork in the neighboring state of Colima.
Custody release statements signed by all of the mothers carry the logo of Lopez y Lopez Asociados, a firm owned by Carlos Lopez Valenzuela and his son, Carlos Lopez Castellanos. Authorities raided their home last week.
The release statements were shown to the AP by a local advocate for missing and stolen children, Juan Manuel Estrada of Fundacion FIND, who said they had been leaked to him by a state official. He said Lopez Valenzuela had separately sent him a lengthy statement by email declaring that he too may have been duped in the case and denying wrongdoing.
Prosecutors wouldn’t confirm the authenticity of that statement, but it mirrors the stories of seven mothers who were interviewed by the AP.
Cheating ‘very easy’
According to the statement, Lopez said he had handled adoptions in Colima state for 63 Irish couples since 2004. He said he first met Bosquez when she approached him in 2009 about giving her own unborn child up for adoption to an Irish couple, a process, he wrote, that was completed legally.
The statement said that Bosquez also introduced Lopez to a social worker and together they brought him the current case involving Zepeda and the other women from Zapopan, apparently hoping he could match the children to adopting couples.
It says Lopez was told the mothers wanted only to deal with the two women, and he agreed. The young mothers confirmed they never met Lopez.
Lopez didn’t respond to emailed interview requests from the AP.
According to the statement, Lopez said he follows the stringent adoption laws set by the Hague Adoption Convention, which Mexico has signed.
Unlike Guatemala or China, Mexico has not been a popular destination for foreigners looking to adopt, perhaps because the process, done by law, is complicated.
“The legal adoption process in Mexico is difficult, but cheating in Mexico is very easy,” Estrada said.
Associated Press writer Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46101549/ns/world_news-europe/
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Unleash Dante’s raging inferno next year when the Devil May Cry HD Collection arrives April 3, 2012. Capcom confirmed the date today for the bundle, featuring the first three games in the series (including the “special edition” version of DMC 3), and reiterated the game will be available on Xbox 360 and PS3 for $39.99.
The package will (naturally) support both Trophies and Achievements, and will include unspecified “bonus content”… like, black hair dye?Gallery: Devil May Cry HD Collection (Comparison)Devil May Cry HD Collection confirmed for April 2012 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Thanks to video games
By Nicole Sperling
Nicole Sperling: Even after screening for would-be buyers, viewers wonder whether it’s real or hoax
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