Instagram tests new limits in user privacy

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Instagram, which spurred suspicions this week that it would sell user photos after revising its terms of service, has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.

In forcefully establishing a new set of usage terms, Instagram, the massively popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, has claimed some rights that have been practically unheard of among its prominent social media peers, legal experts and consumer advocates say.

Users who decline to accept Instagram’s new privacy policy have one month to delete their accounts, or they will be bound by the new terms. Another clause appears to waive the rights of minors on the service. And in the wake of a class-action settlement involving Facebook and privacy issues, Instagram has added terms to shield itself from similar litigation.

All told, the revised terms reflect a new, draconian grip over user rights, experts say.

“This is all uncharted territory,” said Jay Edelson, a partner at the Chicago law firm Edelson McGuire. “If Instagram is to encourage as many lawsuits as possible and as much backlash as possible then they succeeded.”

Instagram’s new policies, which go into effect January 16, lay the groundwork for the company to begin generating advertising revenue by giving marketers the right to display profile pictures and other personal information such as who users follow in advertisements.

The new terms, which allow an advertiser to pay Instagram “to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata)” without compensation, triggered an outburst of complaints on the Web on Tuesday from users upset that Instagram would make money from their uploaded content.

The uproar prompted a lengthy blog post from the company to “clarify” the changes, with CEO Kevin Systrom saying the company had no current plans to incorporate photos taken by users into ads.

Instagram declined comment beyond its blog post, which failed to appease critics including National Geographic, which suspended new posts to Instagram. “We are very concerned with the direction of the proposed new terms of service and if they remain as presented we may close our account,” said National Geographic, an early Instagram adopter.

PUSHING BOUNDARIES

Consumer advocates said Facebook was using Instagram’s aggressive new terms to push the boundaries of how social media sites can make money while its own hands were tied by recent agreements with regulators and class action plaintiffs.

Under the terms of a 2011 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook is required to get user consent before personal information is shared beyond their privacy settings. A preliminary class action lawsuit settlement with Facebook allows users to opt-out of being included in the “sponsored stories” ads that use their personal information.

Under Instagram’s new terms, users who want to opt-out must simply quit using the service.

“Instagram has given people a pretty stark choice: Take it or leave, and if you leave it you’ve got to leave the service,” said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Internet user right’s group.

What’s more, he said, if a user initially agrees to the new terms but then has a change of mind, their information could still be used for commercial purposes.

In a post on its official blog on Tuesday, Instagram did not address another controversial provision that states that if a child under the age of 18 uses the service, then it is implied that his or her parent has tacitly agreed to Instagram’s terms.

“The notion is that minors can’t be bound to a contract. And that also means they can’t be bound to a provision that says they agree to waive the rights,” said the EFF’s Opsahl.

BLOCKING CLASS ACTION SUITS

While Facebook continues to be bogged in its own class action suit, Instagram took preventive steps to avoid a similar legal morass.

Its new terms of service require users with a legal complaint to enter arbitration, rather than take the company to court. It prohibits users from joining a class action lawsuit unless they mail a written “opt-out” statement to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park within 30 days of joining Instagram.

That provision is not included in terms of service for other leading social media companies like Twitter, Google, YouTube or even Facebook itself, and it immunizes Instagram from many forms of legal liability, said Michael Rustad, a professor at Suffolk University Law School.

Rustad, who has studied the terms of services for 157 social media services, said just 10 contained provisions prohibiting class action lawsuits.

The clause effectively cripples users who want to legally challenge the company because lawyers will not likely represent an individual plaintiff, Rustad argued.

“No lawyers will take these cases,” Rustad said. “In consumer arbitration cases, everything is stacked against the consumer. It’s a pretense, it’s a legal fiction, that there are remedies.”

Instagram, which has 100 million users, allows consumers to tweak the photos they take on their smartphones and share the images with friends. Facebook acquired Instagram in September for $ 715 million.

Instagram’s take-it-or-leave-it policy pushes the envelope for how social networking companies treat user privacy issues, said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

“I think Facebook is probably using Instagram to see how far it can press this advertising model,” said Rotenberg. “If they can keep a lot of users, then all those users have agreed to have their images as part of advertising.”

(Additional reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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NY appeals court takes up Cameron Douglas case

NEW YORK (AP) — The Douglas name — first with patriarch Kirk and later with son Michael — has always meant gold for Hollywood. But drama for the third generation of the Douglas family has occurred mostly off-screen, where Cameron Douglas has battled drug addiction and legal troubles.

In papers submitted for appeals court arguments Wednesday, prosecutors and a lawyer for Cameron Douglas have retold in greater detail than before how a man who seemed to have so many advantages in life could land in prison for a decade on a drug conviction.

The dispute is over Manhattan Judge Richard M. Berman‘s decision to double Douglas’ five-year prison term after he committed several new drug infractions, including convincing a lawyer-turned-love interest to sneak drugs into prison for him in her bra on three or four occasions.

Berman said he had not “ever encountered a defendant who has so recklessly and wantonly and flagrantly and criminally acted in as destructive and (as) manipulative a fashion as Cameron Douglas has.”

In his brief, Douglas’ lawyer Paul Shechtman called the additional sentence “shockingly long,” saying it “may be the harshest sentence ever imposed on a federal prisoner for a drug possession offense.”

Douglas, 34, was originally accused of distributing and conspiring to distribute more than 4.5 kilograms of methamphetamine and 20 kilograms of cocaine from August 2006 until his July 28, 2009, arrest at a Manhattan hotel. At the time, he was so visibly high on heroin that he was taken first to a hospital before he was brought to court, and it was later learned he had been shooting heroin five to six times a day for five years, Shechtman noted.

He was released from custody on the condition that he remain under “house arrest” with a private security guard at his mother’s apartment, Shechtman said. Within days, he persuaded his girlfriend, Kelly Sott, to smuggle heroin to him, hidden in an electric toothbrush. Once discovered, his bail was revoked and he was incarcerated. Sott pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in a plea deal and was sentenced to the seven months she had already served.

Still, Douglas gained leniency from what otherwise could have been a mandatory 10-year prison sentence by cooperating with the government, contacting his suppliers by telephone and text messages as law enforcement agents watched. As a result, two drug suppliers were arrested and convicted. Douglas testified at the trial of one supplier.

Douglas was sentenced to five years in prison for a Jan. 27, 2010, guilty plea to narcotics distribution charges even before his cooperation was completed.

At sentencing, Berman noted that the Douglas family had staged interventions for Douglas that he had refused and that two decades of drug addiction treatment had been unsuccessful. He said it appeared incarceration had produced the longest period of sobriety for Douglas since he was 13.

However, it was learned afterward that even prior to the April 20, 2010, sentencing, Douglas had persuaded one of his attorneys — a 33-year-old associate at a law firm with whom lawyers said he also had a romantic relationship — to smuggle Xanax pills to him in prison. Shechtman said she “apparently became enamored of Cameron during frequent visits.”

He admitted that he had shared the 30 Xanax pills with other inmates and that he had also smoked cigarettes, gambled, snorted substances and committed other infractions while in prison.

Shortly after testifying at the Oct. 3, 2011, trial of a drug supplier, prison staff caught Douglas with the opioid dependence medication Suboxone and a white powdery substance believed to be heroin. The prison punished him with disciplinary segregation for 11 months and canceled nearly three months of his good conduct time.

On Oct. 20, 2011, Douglas again pleaded guilty to drug possession, agreeing in a plea deal that the sentencing range should be an additional 12 to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors say that within a week of the plea, the government learned from a cooperating defendant in another case that Douglas had misled the government about how he obtained heroin while in prison.

Douglas had claimed he got it in a television room or at a church service or that he obtained the heroin by chance, picking it up off the floor after another inmate dropped it, the government said. But prosecutors say the cooperator revealed he had brought Douglas the drugs directly to his cell.

In court papers, Shechtman blamed Cameron Douglas’ long history of substance abuse and growing up with little parental support.

“While still a young teenager, he drank heavily and began selling drugs after his father sharply limited snorting cocaine,” he said. “He used illegal drugs to self-medicate — to ward off depression and panic attacks.”

He began using intravenous cocaine at age 20 and then started using heroin so that by age 25, “his life revolved around heroin,” Shechtman said.

His friends were fellow users, who gravitated to him because of his access to family money, which supported their habits, the lawyer said. His drug habit led him to be fired from a movie in which he had a minor role in 2006.

“Exasperated, his father gave him an ultimatum: enter a drug rehabilitation program or have his access to family money sharply limited. Cameron declined to enter treatment; his father carried out his threat; and Cameron turned to drug dealing to support his habit,” Shechtman wrote.

Shechtman argued that the judge had gone too far with Cameron Douglas, punishing an addict for something beyond his control.

“While we recognize that many of the words that the district court used to describe Cameron’s conduct — ‘reckless,’ ‘manipulative,’ ‘destructive,’ — were apt, the simple truth is that Cameron Douglas is a heroin addict who has yet to shake his habit,” he said.

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Los suplementos de soja no mejoran la calidad de vida en la menopausia

NUEVA YORK, 18 dic (Reuters) – En un estudio de Estados

Unidos, las mujeres menopáusicas que tomaron suplementos de soja

durante dos años no detectaron diferencias en su calidad de

vida.

Es posible que la soja pueda aportar algún beneficio en la

menopausia, según opinó la autora principal, doctora Paula

Amato, de Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, “pero

las mujeres con características similares a las participantes no

mejorarían su calidad de vida si usan los suplementos”.

En el estudio publicado en Menopause, el equipo de Amato no

se concentró en síntomas específicos, sino en la calidad de vida

de un grupo de mujeres saludables, de entre 50 y 60 años, y con

seis o más años desde la menopáusica.

Los autores les pidieron a varios cientos de mujeres que

tomaran suplementos de soja en píldoras tres veces por día

durante dos años; 126 de ellas recibieron una versión placebo

(sin extracto de soja), 135 tomaron píldoras con 80 mg/día de

proteína de soja y 123 ingirieron 120 mg/día.

Al inicio del estudio, al año y a los dos años, las

participantes respondieron un cuestionario sobre calidad de

vida, que incluía preguntas sobre la salud mental, física y

sexual, y los sofocos. En cada relevamiento, los tres grupos

obtuvieron resultados similares.

“A partir del estudio y la literatura médica disponible,

surge que el uso de suplementos de soja después de la menopausia

no mejora la calidad de vida”, dijo Amato. “Realmente, no

podemos recomendárselos a nuestras pacientes”, agregó.

Mark Messina, presidente de Nutrition Matters y profesor

adjunto de Loma Linda University, California, aconsejó no

interpretar que los ingredientes claves de los suplementos de

soja, las isoflavonas, carecen de efecto alguno en los sofocos.

Explicó que, por un lado, los niveles de un tipo de

isoflavona, la genisteína, utilizados en el estudio fueron más

bajos que en otros estudios que le habían atribuido beneficios a

los extractos de soja. Además, señaló que el objetivo original

del estudio era conocer los efectos de los extractos en la salud

ósea, por lo que el equipo no convocó mujeres con sofocos o con

alteraciones de la calidad de vida.

“De modo que, en mi opinión, el estudio no aporta

información útil sobre las isoflavonas y los sofocos”, dijo

Messina, que habitualmente asesora a las empresas que producen o

venden productos de soja.

Esas empresas comercializan los suplementos, que cuestan

unos 17 dólares por cada 90 píldoras de 50 mg, como productos

que “potencialmente” alivian los cambios asociados con la

menopausia.

Amato coincidió en que el estudio tiene algunas limitaciones

y dijo que los resultados no pueden generalizarse a todas las

formas de soja en todo tipo de mujeres.

FUENTE: Menopause, online 3 de diciembre del 2012.

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A Banner Year for Sex Toys

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Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on Monday after fighting raged for days in the district on the southern edge of President Bashar al-Assad‘s Damascus powerbase, rebel and Palestinian sources said.

The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Many PFLP-GC fighters defected to the rebel side and their leader Ahmed Jibril left the camp two days ago, rebel sources said.

“All of the camp is under the control of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army,” said a Palestinian activist in Yarmouk. He said clashes had stopped and the remaining PFLP fighters retreated to join Assad‘s forces massed on the northern edge of the camp.

The battle in Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of Assad’s capital, as rebels try to choke the power of the 47-year-old leader after a 21-month-old uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Government forces have used jets and artillery to try to dislodge the fighters but the violence has crept into the heart of the city and activists say rebels overran three army stations in a new offensive in the central province of Hama on Monday.

On the border with Lebanon, hundreds of Palestinian families fled across the frontier following the weekend violence in Yarmouk, a Reuters witness said.

Syria hosts half a million Palestinian refugees, most living in Yarmouk, descendants of those admitted after the creation of Israel in 1948, and has always cast itself as a champion of the Palestinian struggle, sponsoring several guerrilla factions.

Both Assad’s government and the mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels have enlisted and armed divided Palestinian factions as the uprising has developed into a civil war.

“NEITHER SIDE CAN WIN”

Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that neither Assad’s forces nor rebels seeking to overthrow him can win the war.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad’s Alawite minority, has rarely been seen since the revolt erupted in March 2011 and is not part of the president’s inner circle directing the fight against Sunni rebels. But he is the most prominent figure to say in public that Assad will not win.

Sharaa said the situation in Syria was deteriorating and a “historic settlement” was needed to end the conflict, involving regional powers and the U.N. Security Council and the formation of a national unity government “with broad powers”.

“With every passing day the political and military solutions are becoming more distant. We should be in a position defending the existence of Syria. We are not in a battle for an individual or a regime,” Sharaa was quoted as telling Al-Akhbar newspaper.

“The opposition cannot decisively settle the battle and what the security forces and army units are doing will not achieve a decisive settlement,” he said, adding that insurgents fighting to topple Syria’s leadership could plunge it into “anarchy and an unending spiral of violence”.

Sources close to the Syrian government say Sharaa had pushed for dialogue with the opposition and objected to the military response to an uprising that began peacefully.

In a veiled criticism of the crackdown, he said there was a difference between the state’s duty to provide security to its citizens, and “pursuing a security solution to the crisis”.

He said even Assad could not be certain where events in Syria were leading, but that anyone who met him would hear that “this is a long struggle…and he does not hide his desire to settle matters militarily to reach a final solution.”

In Hama province, rebels and the army clashed in a new campaign launched on Sunday by rebels to block off the country’s north, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked violence monitor, said fighting raged through the provincial towns of Karnaz, Kafar Weeta, Halfayeh and Mahardeh.

It said there were no clashes reported in Hama city, which lies on the main north-south highway connecting the capital with Aleppo, Syria’s second city.

Qassem Saadeddine, a member of the newly established rebel military command, said on Sunday fighters had been ordered to surround and attack army positions across the province. He said Assad’s forces were given 48 hours to surrender or be killed.

In 1982 Hafez al-Assad, father of the current ruler, crushed an uprising in Hama city, killing up to 30,000 civilians.

Qatiba al-Naasan, a rebel from Hama, said the offensive would bring retaliatory air strikes from the government but that the situation is “already getting miserable”.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Afif Diab at Masnaa, Lebanon; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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“Silver Linings Playbook” sweeps Satellite Awards

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Silver Linings Playbook” was the big winner at Sunday night’s Satellite Awards, a show produced by and voted on by the International Press Academy and held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The David O. Russell comedy, which has been overshadowed in the awards picture by more recent films like “Les Miserables” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” won five awards, including Best Motion Picture. Rusell won the award for directing, while stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were named best actor and actress. The film also won for editing.

Supporting actor and actress awards went to Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables” and Javier Bardem for “Skyfall.”

Mark Boal won the original-screenplay award for “Zero Dark Thirty,” while David Magee won the adapted-screenplay honor for “Life of Pi.”

Other winners: “Rise of the Guardians,” best animated film; “Chasing Ice,” best documentary; and a tie between “The Intouchables” and “Pieta” for best foreign film.

Proving that the IPA is a body of voters inclined toward sweeps, the television series “Homeland” and “The Big Bang Theory” each won three awards in the TV categories, picking up honors as best drama and comedy series, respectively, and also winning the actor and actress awards.

The awards:

FILM AWARDS

Motion picture: “Silver Linings Playbook”

Director: David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Actor: Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Supporting actor: Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”

Supporting actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”

Original screenplay: Mark Boal, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Adapted screenplay: David Magee, “Life of Pi”

Motion picture, animated or mixed media: “Rise of the Guardians”

Motion picture, documentary: “Chasing Ice”

Motion picture, international: (tie) “The Intouchables,” “Pieta”

Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, “Life of Pi”

Editing: Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, “Silver Linings Playbook”

Score: Alexandre Desplat, “Argo”

Song: “Suddenly” from “Les Miserables”

Sound (editing and mixing): Andy Nelson, John Warhurst, Lee Walpole, Simon Hayes, “Les Miserables”

Visual effects: Michael Lantieri, Kevin Baillie, Ryan Tudhope, Jim Gibbs, “Flight”

Art direction & production design: Rick Carter, Curt Beech, David Crank, Leslie McDonald, “Lincoln”

Costume design: Manon Rasmussen, “A Royal Affair”

TELEVISION AWARDS

Miniseries or movie made for television: “Hatfields & McCoys”

Actor in a miniseries/movie made for television: Benedict Cumberbatch, “Sherlock

Actress in a miniseries/movie made for television: Julianne Moore, “Game Change”

Supporting actor in a miniseries/TV movie: Neal McDonough, “Justified”

Supporting actress in a miniseries/TV movie: Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”

Drama series: “Homeland”

Genre series: “Walking Dead”

Actor in a drama: Damian Lewis, “Homeland”

Actress in a drama: Claire Danes, “Homeland”

Comedy or musical series: “The Big Bang Theory”

Actor in a comedy: Johnny Galecki, “The Big Bang Theory”

Actress in a comedy: Kaley Cuoco, “The Big Bang Theory”

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry: Terence Stamp

Nikola Tesla Award: Walter Murch

Auteur Award: Paul Williams

Honorary Satellite Award: Bruce Davison

Newcomer Award: Quvenzhane Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Humanitarian Award: Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Motion picture ensemble: “Les Miserables”

Television ensemble: “Walking Dead”

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Hairstyles may keep some black women from exercise

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A number of obstacles may stand between a person and exercise, and hairstyles may be one of them for African-American women, according to a new study.

Researchers found about two of every five African-American women said they avoid exercise because of concerns about their hair, and researchers say that is concerning given the United States’ obesity epidemic.

“As an African-American woman, I have that problem, and my friends have that problem. So I wondered if my patients had that problem,” said Dr. Amy McMichael, the study’s senior researcher and a dermatologist at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

McMichael and her colleagues, who published their findings in the Archives of Dermatology on Monday, said hair care can be tedious and costly for African-American women.

Rochelle Mosley, who owns Salon 804 in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, told Reuters Health some of her African-American clients come in once per week to get their hair straightened at a cost of about $ 40.

They may not want to wash their hair more than once a week to keep their hairstyle, and may avoid sweating because of that.

To find out if women were putting hair above their health, the researchers surveyed 103 African-American women who came to the dermatology clinic at Wake Forest University in October 2007.

They found that more than half of the women were exercising for less than 75 minutes per week, which is less than the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services‘ recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise.

That’s also less than U.S. women on average, according to a 2007 study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found about half of all U.S. women were exercising close to 150 minutes per week.

More than a quarter of the women in the new study said they didn’t exercise at all.

About a third of the women said they exercise less than they’d like because of their hair, and half said they have considered changing their hair for exercise.

McMichael and her colleagues found that women who avoided exercise because of their hair were almost three times less likely to meet the recommended physical activity guidelines. That finding, however, could have been due to chance.

Also, scalp issues, such as itching and dandruff, played a role in the women’s decision-making process.

SALON OWNER NOT SURPRISED

McMichael also admits that they only surveyed African-American women, and they can’t say whether this is a problem shared by other ethnicities.

“It is a really important conversation that African-American women want to have, and they’re looking for solutions,” said McMichael.

Salon 804′s Mosley told Reuters Health that she’s not surprised by the findings based on her 22 years in business.

Previously, studies have connected people who get their hair done and their overall health. Some barbershops and salons even act as health clinics (see Reuters article of June 29, 2011 here: http://reut.rs/WjFXgB).

Mosley added that some women schedule their visits around their exercise schedule, but she also tries to find a hairstyle that will work with physical activity.

“If you don’t have a healthy body then you aren’t going to have any hair to fix,” she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/WjBo5P Archives of Dermatology, online December 17, 2012.

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“Fiscal cliff” hopes lift Asian shares, other risk assets

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares and other risk assets rose on Tuesday as signs of compromise sparked new optimism that the U.S. “fiscal cliff” budget tussle could be settled before tax hikes and spending cuts begin to bite early next year.

Differences over how to resolve the fiscal cliff narrowed significantly Monday night as President Barack Obama made a counter-offer to Republicans that included a major change in position on tax hikes for the wealthy, according to a source familiar with the talks.

The move, which the source stressed was not Obama’s final offer, was welcomed by a spokesman for Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, potentially advancing negotiations towards a deal by the end-year deadline.

Oil, copper and gold also firmed on the prospect of progress in the U.S. budget talks, which reduced worries about economic damage, but expectations of more monetary easing in Japan kept the yen soft.

“The market will view any advance in talks as positive for confidence, which has been battered by the daily flow of political fighting,” Ben Taylor, sales trader at CMC Markets said in a report.

“Regardless of what is decided, the market is looking for a decision and any compromise will help provide a clearer picture for the future.”

European shares were expected to keep up the positive momentum, with financial spreadbetters predicting London’s FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris’s CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt’s DAX <.gdaxi> will open as much as 0.5 percent higher. A 0.3 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a higher Wall Street opening. <.l><.eu><.n></.n></.eu></.l></.gdaxi></.fchi></.ftse>

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was up 0.2 percent, following a rise in global shares on Monday. The index snapped an eight-day winning streak on Monday as investors took profits from last week’s rally.</.miapj0000pus>

Regional equities also took direction from local factors.

Australian shares <.axjo> gained 0.5 percent to a 17-month high, with resource stocks elevated by a rise in iron ore prices <.io62-cni> to a five-month high.</.io62-cni></.axjo>

“Iron ore is a very key commodity in the Chinese industrial machine, steel usage will bounce back and that is good news for our exporters,” said Baillieu Holst director Richard Morrow.

Seoul shares <.ks11> rose marginally but underperformed some others in Asia, as investors were reluctant to build positions ahead of South Korea’s presidential vote on Wednesday.</.ks11>

London copper was up 0.3 percent to $ 8,085 a metric ton (1.1023 tons).

“Before the end of the year, I don’t really see huge selling pressure, with improving data from China and expectations for a resolution to the fiscal cliff,” said analyst Bonnie Liu of Macquarie.

U.S. crude surged 0.8 percent to $ 87.85 a barrel and Brent rose 0.7 percent to $ 108.41.

Spot gold added 0.3 percent to $ 1,702.01 an ounce.

Solid performance in stocks boosted Asian credit markets, narrowing the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by two basis points.

JAPAN POLITICS MATTER

In Japan, the Nikkei average <.n225> closed up 1.0 percent at an 8-1/2-month high and edged closer to the key 10,000-mark, with sentiment bolstered by a landslide election win for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday. <.t></.t></.n225>

LDP leader Shinzo Abe, due to be confirmed as Japan’s premier on December 26, is calling for far more aggressive monetary stimulus and huge public works spending to rescue Japan from decades-long deflation. His pledges are seen as pressuring the yen and supporting Japanese stocks by improving earnings for the country’s exporters.

“The Nikkei is up today primarily due to the rise in U.S. stocks overnight, but the ‘Abe-effect’ is surprisingly longer-lasting as investors seem to be postponing the timing of unwinding their positions until they see the details and specifics in policies,” said Ayako Sera, market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 83.96 yen, off a 20-month high of 84.48 yen hit on Monday but well above its late New York levels on Friday.

Abe applied fresh pressure on the Bank of Japan on Monday, saying that the election result reflected strong public support for his views, which he hoped the BOJ would take into account at its two-day policy meeting starting on Wednesday.

“The dollar has more upside against the yen ahead of the BOJ’s meeting, with expectations for some additional easing steps being strengthened after Abe’s comments yesterday,” said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.

“The corrective fall in the dollar/yen after the election was small and it’s crawling up because the yen weakening trend is still intact. But after the BOJ meeting, there will likely be pre-holiday profit-taking, pushing the dollar/yen down by 1 to 2 yen,” Saito said, adding that the dollar could temporarily touch 85 yen before profit-taking sets in by year-end.

Concerns that big-scale fiscal stimulus could seriously increase the country’s debt burden pushed the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield to a one-month high of 0.750 percent.

U.S. Treasury yields also inched up in Asia, with the 10-year yields briefly reaching 1.796 percent, its highest level since October 26, on hopes for a deal on the U.S. fiscal cliff. [US/T

(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger in Melbourne and Manash Goswami and Melanie Burton in Singapore; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Iran media: Son of ex-president released on bail

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian media say the son of influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been released on bail.

Several papers, including the pro-reform Etemad daily, say Mahdi Hashemi was released late Sunday and immediately went to his father’s home.

Authorities arrested the younger Hashemi in late September, a day after he returned to Iran from Britain.

He is held on charges of fomenting unrest in the aftermath of Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election that brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office. Hashemi also faced corruption charges.

His arrest came days after his sister, Faezeh, was taken into custody to serve a six-month sentence on charges of making propaganda against Iran’s ruling system.

Since Rafsanjani backed Ahmadinejad’s reformist challenger in 2009, his family has come under pressure from hardliners.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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iPad shipments could reach 100 million in 2013

Apple (AAPL) sold 42.8 million iPad tablets into channels through the first three quarters of 2012 and the most recent estimates suggest the company could ship 26 million more iPads during the holiday quarter. If Apple does manage to hit that record, total iPad shipments on the year would reach 68.8 million units. As impressive as that would be, however, DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh thinks 2013 iPad sales could climb as high as 100 million units as iPad mini demand explodes.

[More from BGR: Has the iPhone peaked? Apple’s iPhone 4S seen outselling iPhone 5]

In 2012, Hsieh estimates that 9.7-inch iPad panel shipments — that is, shipments of iPad displays from suppliers to Apple’s manufacturing partners —  will have totaled 70 million units, including 23 million iPad 2 displays and 47 million third- and fourth-generation iPad panels. He also believes Apple’s suppliers will ship 13.6 million iPad mini displays by the end of the year.

[More from BGR: Sony’s PlayStation 4 could lose to the next Xbox before it’s even released]

Next year, however, the analyst sees Apple hitting a major milestone.

“In 2013, it is likely that Apple will adjust its product portfolio to meet the strong demand for the iPad mini,” Hsieh wrote in a post on DisplaySearch’s blog. ”We believe that Apple is targeting total iPad shipments of 100 million in 2013, half accounted for by the iPad mini, and 40 million new iPad and 10 million iPad 2, as production continues at least until the middle of 2013.”

DisplaySearch estimates that more than 170 million tablets will ship in 2013 and Apple’s iPad will account for 60% of the market.

This article was originally published by BGR

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