Dog days in Cuba: from shih tzus to schnauzers












HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban capital has played host to political summits and art festivals, ballet tributes and international baseball competitions. Now dog lovers are getting their chance to take center stage.


Hundreds of people from all over Cuba and several other countries came to a scruffy field near Revolution Plaza this past week to preen and fuss over the shih tzus, beagles, schnauzers and cocker spaniels that are the annual Fall Canine Expo’s star attractions. There were even about a dozen bichon habaneros, a mid-sized dog bred on the island since the 17th century.












As dog lovers talked shop, the merely curious strolled the field, checking out the more than 50 breeds on display while carefully dodging the prodigious output of so many dogs.


The four-day competition, which ended Sunday, included competitions in several breeding categories, and judges were flown in from Nicaragua, Colombia and Mexico.


“This is a small, poor country, but Cubans love dogs,” said Miguel Calvo, the president of Cuba’s dog federation, which organized the show. “We make a great effort to breed purebred animals of quality.”


Winners don’t receive any trophy or prize money, but that doesn’t mean the competition is any less fierce.


Anabel Perez, owner of a cocker spaniel named Lisamineli after the U.S. actress, spent more than half an hour coifing the dog’s hair in preparation for the competition, while the owner of a shih tzu named Tiguer meticulously brushed his coat nearby.


“I’m a hairdresser for humans,” explained Tiguer’s owner, Miguel Lopez. “So it’s easy for me. I like shih tzus because they are a lot of work to keep well groomed.”


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Actor: CBS comedy ‘Two and a Half Men’ is ‘filth’












NEW YORK (AP) — The teenage actor who plays the half in the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” says it’s “filth” and through a video posted by a Christian church has urged viewers not to watch it.


Nineteen-year-old Angus T. Jones has been on the show since he was 10 but says he doesn’t want to be on it. He says, “Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.”












The video was posted by the Forerunner Christian Church in California, where Jones says he went to meet his spiritual needs.


Show producer Warner Bros. Television has no comment. CBS hasn’t responded to a request for comment left Monday.


The show stars Jon Cryer as Jones’ uptight dad and originally featured Charlie Sheen as his hedonistic philandering uncle, but Sheen was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.


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Euro zone, IMF reach deal on long-term Greek debt












BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund clinched agreement on a new debt target for Greece on Monday in a breakthrough towards releasing an urgently needed tranche of loans to the near-bankrupt economy, officials said.


After nearly 10 hours of talks at their third meeting on the issue in as many weeks, Greece’s international lenders agreed to reduce Greek debt by 40 billion euros, cutting it to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, via a package of steps.












The deal should open the way for a major aid installment needed to recapitalize Greece’s teetering banks and enable the government to pay wages, pensions and suppliers in December.


However, discussions were continuing on the methods to be used to lower Athens‘ debt burden, including a possible debt buyback and a lowering of interest rates on loans to Greece.


The euro strengthened against the dollar after news of a deal was reported by Reuters.


“It’s going very slow, but we have financing and a Debt Sustainability Analysis. We’ve filled the financing gap until the end of program in 2014,” one official engaged with the talks said. A second official confirmed the figures.


Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said earlier that Athens had fulfilled its part of the deal by enacting tough austerity measures and economic reforms, and it was now up to the lenders to do their part.


“I’m certain we will find a mutually beneficial solution today,” he said on arrival for the marathon talks.


Greece, where the euro zone’s debt crisis erupted in late 2009, is the currency area’s most heavily indebted country, despite a big “haircut” this year on privately-held bonds. Its economy has shrunk by nearly 25 percent in five years.


Negotiations had been stalled over how Greece’s debt, forecast to peak at 190-200 percent of GDP in the coming two years, could be cut to a more sustainable 120 percent by 2020.


The agreed figure fell slightly short of that goal, and the IMF was still insisting that euro zone ministers should make a firm commitment to further steps to reduce the debt stock if Athens implements its adjustment program faithfully.


The key question remained whether Greek debt can become sustainable without euro zone governments having to write off some of the loans they have made to Athens.


A source familiar with IMF thinking said the global lender was demanding immediate measures to cut Greece’s debt by 20 percentage points of GDP, with a commitment to do more to reduce the debt stock in a few years if Greece fulfills its program.


To reduce the debt to 124 percent by 2020, the ministers were putting together a package of steps including a debt buyback funded by a euro zone rescue fund, reducing the interest rate on loans and returning euro zone central bank ‘profits’ to Greece.


Germany and its northern European allies have so far rejected any idea of forgiving official loans to Athens.


DEBT RELIEF “NOT ON TABLE”


German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters that a debt cut was legally impossible, not just for Germany but for other euro zone countries, if it was linked to a new guarantee of loans.


“You cannot guarantee something if you’re cutting debt at the same time,” he said. That did not preclude possible debt relief at a later stage if Greece completed its adjustment program and no longer needs new loans.


The source familiar with IMF thinking said a loan write-off once Greece has established a track record of compliance would be the simplest way to make its debt viable, but other methods such as foregoing interest payments, or lending at below market rates and extending maturities could all help.


The German banking association (BDB) said a fresh “haircut” or forced reduction in the value of Greek sovereign debt, must only happen as a last resort.


Two European Central Bank policymakers, vice-president Vitor Constancio and executive board member Joerg Asmussen, said debt forgiveness was not on the agenda for now.


The options under consideration included reducing interest on already extended bilateral loans to Greece from the current 150 basis points above financing costs.


How much lower was still being debated — France and Italy wanted to reduce the rate to 30 basis points (bps), while Germany and some other countries sought a 90 bps margin.


Another option, which could cut Greek debt by almost 17 percent of GDP, was to defer interest payments on loans to Greece from the EFSF, a temporary bailout fund, by 10 years.


The European Central Bank could forego profits on its Greek bond portfolio, bought at a deep discount, cutting the debt pile by a further 4.6 percent by 2020, a document prepared for the ministers’ talks last week showed.


Not all euro zone central banks are willing to forego their profits, however, the German Bundesbank among them.


Greece could also buy back its privately-held bonds on the market at a deep discount, with gains from the operation depending on the scope and price. Officials have spoken of a 10 billion euro buy-back at around 30 cents on the euro, that would retire around 30 billion euros of debt, although since the idea was raised the potential gain has fallen as prices have risen.


FORGIVING OFFICIAL LOANS?


German central bank governor Jens Weidmann has suggested that Greece could “earn” a reduction in debt it owes to euro zone governments in a few years if it diligently implements all the agreed reforms. The European Commission backs that view.


An opinion poll published on Monday showed Greece’s anti-bailout SYRIZA party with a four-percent lead over the Conservatives who won election in June, adding to uncertainty over the future of reforms.


German paper Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday that euro zone ministers were considering a write-down of official loans for Greece from 2015, but gave no sources, and a euro zone official said such an option was never seriously discussed.


(Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, Ethan Bilby, Luke Baker in Brussels, Reinhardt Becker in Berlin,; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Luke Baker)


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Israel successfully tests missile defense system












JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel successfully tested its newest missile defense system Sunday, the military said, a step toward making the third leg of what Israel calls its “multilayer missile defense” operational.


The “David’s Sling” system is designed to stop mid-range missiles. It successfully passed its test, shooting down its first missile in a drill Sunday in southern Israel, the military said.












The system is designed to intercept projectiles with ranges of up to 300 kilometers (180 miles).


Israel has also deployed Arrow systems for longer-range threats from Iran. The Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Iron Dome shot down hundreds of rockets from Gaza in this month’s round of fighting.


Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the success of Iron Dome highlighted the “immense importance” of such systems.


“David’s Sling,” also known “Magic Wand,” is developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and U.S.-based Raytheon Co. and is primarily designed to counter the large arsenal of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon.


The military said the program, which is on schedule for deployment in 2014, would “provide an additional layer of defense against ballistic missiles.”


The next generation of the Arrow, now in the development stage, is set to be deployed in 2016. Called the Arrow 3, it is designed to strike its target outside the atmosphere, intercepting missiles closer to their launch sites. Together, the two Arrow systems would provide two chances to strike down incoming missiles.


Israel also uses U.S.-made Patriot missile defense batteries against mid-range missiles, though these failed to hit any of the 39 Scud missiles fired at Israel from Iraq In the first Gulf War 20 years ago. Manufacturers say the Patriot system has been improved since then.


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Nokia imaging chief to quit












HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia‘s long-time imaging chief Damian Dinning has decided to leave the loss-making cellphone maker at the end of this month, the company said in a statement.


The strong imaging capabilities of the new Lumia smartphone models are a key sales argument for the former market leader, which has been burning through cash while losing share in both high-end smartphones and cheaper handsets.












Nokia’s Chief Executive Stephen Elop has replaced most of the top management since he joined in late 2010 and Dinnig is the latest of several executives to leave.


Dinning did not want to move to Finland as part of the phonemakers’ effort to concentrate operations and will join Jaguar Land Rover to head innovations in the field of connected cars, he said on Nokia’s imaging fan site PureViewclub.com.


(Reporting By Tarmo Virki, editing by William Hardy)


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Singer Bjork’s vocal cord surgery successful












LONDON (AP) — Icelandic singer Bjork says she has had successful surgery to remove a vocal cord polyp.


The eccentric 47-year-old singer says on her official website that she had been trying to tackle the problem with exercises and diets since doctors first discovered the polyp, a benign growth on either one or both of the vocal cords, several years ago.












Bjork said that she decided to undergo laser surgery and it has worked, though she had to stay quiet for three weeks.


She wrote: “Surgery rocks! … It’s been very satisfying to sing all them clear notes again.”


The singer apologized for cancelling various shows earlier this year, and that she looked forward to singing for her fans next year.


Last year Adele had minor surgery to remove a benign polyp.


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Detecting Cancer…With a Cellphone?












Smartphone technology is often seen as much of nuisance as it is a convenience, but having that kind of communicative power at our fingertips has a surprising advantage; it’s serving as a bridge, bringing  healthcare to third world countries that had previously been too remote and too costly to reach.


The Kilimanjaro Cervical Screening Project is spearheading one use of smartphone technology in a way that’s surprisingly simple, but could end up saving thousands of women’s lives.












Armed with screening kits, treatment tools and cellphones, teams of non-physician medical workers will visit remote locations in rural Tanzania to screen women for cervical cancer. Instead of the swab method used in the typical Pap smear, workers will use their cellphones to photograph a patient’s cervix, text the image to a physician and then receive back a diagnosis and treatment recommendation.


But can it really be that simple? Dr. Karen Yeates of Queen’s University, who is the lead investigator of the project, told CNN, “That’s the beauty of it — for early grade cancers, those will be able to be treated right in the field, right in the rural area.”


According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rates of cervical cancer in Africa are up to ten times those in developed countries, and among those diagnosed, about 50,000 women die from it annually.


Though cervical cancer has very low mortality rates in developed countries like the U.S., that’s generally due to regular screenings which catch the disease in its earliest and most treatable incarnations. However, in countries like Tanzania, women in remote villages obviously don’t have access to those types of preventative measures. Subsequently, the WHO estimates that by the time most African women are diagnosed with the disease, they’ve already advanced into its latest fatal stages. But regular screenings could put a stop to that. 


In addition to addressing reproductive healthcare, cellphones are as of late becoming facilitators of cardiac care in developing countries as well. Earlier this year, high school student Catherine Wong discovered how to turn her cellphone into a portable ECG machine, bringing heart monitoring capabilities to the most remote locations with results that could be beamed to doctors no matter how far away.


The Kilimanjaro Cervical Screening Project is gaining some notoriety because it’s recently become one of the 68 finalists in Canada’s Grand Challenges, a fund awarded to medical innovators who’ve invented new systems or products to bring healthcare to the poorest parts of the world. As a finalist, the Kilimanjaro Project has been granted $ 100,000, allowing it to begin its initial trials.


So much of good healthcare rests on the early detection of illness and now that geography and cost aren’t the impediments they once were, patients in developing countries have real opportunities to survive illnesses once believed to be fatal. 


Do you expect that “mobile healthcare” may eventually become the standard method of care in countries like the U.S. as well? Let us know what you think about it in the Comments.


Related Stories on TakePart:


• Student Athletes Shouldn’t Be Dying


• That Figures: Life-Saving CPR                   


• Cardiac Arrest? An iPhone App Might Save Your Life



A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.  In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a web editor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com


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Aston Martin firm denies bid talk













The owner of Aston Martin, Kuwait’s Investment Dar, has denied reports it has received competing bids for a 50% stake in the luxury British car brand.












Italian private equity fund Investindustrial is widely reported to have made an offer of nearly £250m ($ 400m) for Aston Martin.


India’s Mahindra and Mahindra is understood to have made a higher offer.


But in an interview with Kuwait’s Al Watan newspaper Investment Dar chairman Adnan Al Musallam denied the story.


Continue reading the main story

Aston Martin is a world famous brand, largely due to its long association with James Bond, as well as its exploits in motor racing. Yet it remains a relatively small company operating in a niche market, selling just a few thousand cars every year.


When the current owners bought the business from Ford five years ago, they promised to take Aston Martin to “even greater heights”, and outlined ambitious plans to build up sales in Asia, especially in China. To a certain extent they have succeeded. China is now the company’s fifth largest market. But sales in the UK and North America have been badly affected by the after-effects of the financial crisis, and are yet to recover.


The biggest challenge for the company remains its ability to develop new products which are capable of competing with the likes of Ferrari and Porsche, both of which have the financial and engineering muscle of major companies behind them. Its new Vanquish, for example, is largely based on an engine and chassis which have been around for the best part of a decade.



Earlier this month, Investment Dar dismissed a Bloomberg story which said it was looking to sell its stake in the British car maker as having “no truth to it”.


At the time, the investment house said it had “a long-term plan and commitment with Aston Martin and has no plans to sell its stake in Aston Martin in the short term”.


Despite that statement on 12 November though, reports of a bidding war between Investindustrial and Mahindra and Mahindra have become more widespread.


Mahindra and Mahindra declined to comment, while Investindustrial could not be reached.


Aston Martin, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.


Its cars have been immortalised in James Bond films over the last few decades.


The company was sold in 2007 by Ford for £479m to a consortium of Investment Dar and another Kuwaiti investment fund, Adeem Investment.


The consortium was fronted by Dave Richards, former Formula One Benetton and BAR boss, who remains as chairman of Aston Martin.


The new owners targeted higher sales in China, but sales in the UK and North America have been hit in the financial crisis.


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Egypt reformist warns of turmoil from Morsi decree












CAIRO (AP) — Prominent Egyptian democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei warned Saturday of increasing turmoil that could potentially lead to the military stepping in unless the Islamist president rescinds his new, near absolute powers, as the country’s long fragmented opposition sought to unite and rally new protests.


Egypt‘s liberal and secular forces — long divided, weakened and uncertain amid the rise of Islamist parties to power — are seeking to rally themselves in response to the decrees issued this week by President Mohammed Morsi. The president granted himself sweeping powers to “protect the revolution” and made himself immune to judicial oversight.












The judiciary, which was the main target of Morsi’s edicts, pushed back Saturday. The country’s highest body of judges, the Supreme Judical Council, called his decrees an “unprecedented assault.” Courts in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria announced a work suspension until the decrees are lifted.


Outside the high court building in Cairo, several hundred demonstrators rallied against Morsi, chanting, “Leave! Leave!” echoing the slogan used against former leader Hosni Mubarak in last year’s uprising that ousted him. Police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of young men who were shooting flares outside the court.


The edicts issued Wednesday have galvanized anger brewing against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, ever since he took office in June as Egypt’s first freely elected president. Critics accuse the Brotherhood — which has dominated elections the past year — and other Islamists of monopolizing power and doing little to bring real reform or address Egypt’s mounting economic and security woes.


Oppositon groups have called for new nationwide rallies Tuesday — and the Muslim Brotherhood has called for rallies supporting Morsi the same day, setting the stage for new violence.


Morsi supporters counter that the edicts were necessary to prevent the courts, which already dissolved the elected lower house of parliament, from further holding up moves to stability by disbanding the assembly writing the new constitution, as judges were considering doing. Like parliament was, the assembly is dominated by Islamists. Morsi accuses Mubarak loyalists in the judiciary of seeking to thwart the revolution’s goals and barred the judiciary from disbanding the constitutional assembly or parliament’s upper house.


In an interview with a handful of journalists, including The Associated Press, Nobel Peace laureate ElBaradei raised alarm over the impact of Morsi’s rulings, saying he had become “a new pharaoh.”


“There is a good deal of anger, chaos, confusion. Violence is spreading to many places and state authority is starting to erode slowly,” he said. “We hope that we can manage to do a smooth transition without plunging the country into a cycle of violence. But I don’t see this happening without Mr. Morsi rescinding all of this.”


Speaking of Egypt’s powerful military, ElBaradei said, “I am sure they are as worried as everyone else. You cannot exclude that the army will intervene to restore law and order” if the situation gets out of hand.


But anti-Morsi factions are chronically divided, with revolutionary youth activists, new liberal political parties that have struggled to build a public base and figures from the Mubarak era, all of whom distrust each other. The judiciary is also an uncomfortable cause for some to back, since it includes many Mubarak appointees who even Morsi opponents criticize as too tied to the old regime.


Opponents say the edicts gave Morsi near dictatorial powers, neutering the judiciary when he already holds both executive and legislative powers. One of his most controversial edicts gave him the right to take any steps to stop “threats to the revolution,” vague wording that activists say harkens back to Mubarak-era emergency laws.


Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in nationwide protests on Friday, sparking clashes between anti-and pro-Morsi crowds in several cities that left more than 200 people wounded.


On Saturday, new clashed broke out in the southern city of Assiut. Morsi opponents and members of the Muslim Brotherhood swung sticks and threw stones at each other outside the offices of the Brotherhood‘s political party, leaving at least seven injured.


ElBaradei and a six other prominent liberal leaders have announced the formation of a National Salvation Front aimed at rallying all non-Islamist groups together to force Morsi to rescind his edicts.


The National Salvation Front leadership includes several who ran against Morsi in this year’s presidential race — Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished a close third, former foreign minister Amr Moussa and moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Fotouh. ElBaradei says the group is also pushing for the creation of a new constitutional assembly and a unity government.


ElBaradei said it would be a long process to persuade Morsi that he “cannot get away with murder.”


“There is no middle ground, no dialogue before he rescinds this declaration. There is no room for dialogue until then.”


The grouping seems to represent a newly assertive political foray by ElBaradei, the former chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. ElBaradei returned to Egypt in the year before Mubarak’s fall, speaking out against his rule, and was influential with many of the youth groups that launched the anti-Mubarak revolution.


But since Mubarak’s fall, he has been criticized by some as too Westernized, elite and Hamlet-ish, reluctant to fully assert himself as an opposition leader.


The Brotherhood‘s Freedom and Justice political party, once headed by Morsi, said Saturday in a statement that the president’s decision protects the revolution against former regime figures who have tried to erode elected institutions and were threatening to dissolve the constitutional assembly.


The Brotherhood warned in another statement that there were forces trying to overthrow the elected president in order to return to power. It said Morsi has a mandate to lead, having defeated one of Mubarak’s former prime ministers this summer in a closely contested election.


Morsi’s edicts also removed Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the prosecutor general first appointed by Mubarak, who many Egyptians accused of not prosecuting former regime figures strongly enough.


Speaking to a gathering of judges cheering support for him at the high court building in Cairo, Mahmoud warned of a “vicious campaign” against state institutions. He also said judicial authorities are looking into the legality of the decision to remove him — setting up a Catch-22 of legitimacy, since under Morsi’s decree, the courts cannot overturn any of his decisions.


“I thank you for your support of judicial independence,” he told the judges.


“Morsi will have to reverse his decision to avoid the anger of the people,” said Ahmed Badrawy, a labor ministry employee protesting at the courthouse. “We do not want to have an Iranian system here,” he added, referring to fears that hardcore Islamists may try to turn Egypt into a theocracy.


Several hundred protesters remained in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday, where a number of tents have been erected in a sit-in following nearly a week of clashes with riot police.


____


Brian Rohan contributed to this report from Cairo.


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Police mull action over false Twitter abuse claims












LONDON (Reuters) – Britons who posted remarks on Twitter and in blogs wrongly identifying a senior Conservative politician as a child sex abuser might face prosecution after police said on Wednesday they were looking to see if any crimes had been committed.


Lord Alistair McAlpine, an ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was widely named on social media sites as being the unidentified politician accused in a report by the BBC’s Newsnight program of abusing boys in social care.












McAlpine, who is 70 and in poor health, vigorously denied the claims and the abuse victim central to the BBC story later confirmed that the peer was not one of his attackers.


London’s Metropolitan Police said no criminal allegations had yet been made but that detectives would be meeting with McAlpine to begin assessing whether action should be taken.


Under the Malicious Communications Act, people can be prosecuted for sending any electronic communication or article which conveys a grossly offensive message or information which is false and believed to be false by the sender.


“It is far too early to say whether any criminal investigation will follow,” the police said in a statement.


The intervention comes as lawyers for McAlpine continued legal action against those who “sullied” his reputation.


The BBC has already agreed to pay 185,000 pounds ($ 294,400)over the Newsnight report, and his lawyers have also contacted ITV after a presenter on a chat show brandished a list of alleged abusers during an interview with Prime Minister David Cameron.


McAlpine has also threatened to go after Twitter users, and media reports said his legal team had identified up to 10,000 defamatory tweets.


Sally Bercow, flamboyant wife of Britain’s parliamentary speaker, the man who keeps lawmakers in order during debates, is one of those who could face legal action.


Other Twitter users have been asked to come forward, apologize and make a “sensible and modest” donation to charity as compensation, at a level yet to be decided.


“Given the large amount of information that continues to be disseminated, the band for which the charity payment will be settled shall be when Lord McAlpine has a full understanding of this material,” his lawyers said in a statement.


“The donation is intended for tweeters with fewer than 500 followers, but those with larger numbers of followers are still encouraged to identify themselves and offer their formal apologies at this stage.”


(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Steve Addison)


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