An international trade dispute over bananas between Europe and Latin America, dating back two decades, has finally been settled.
The European Union and 10 Latin American countries signed an agreement to formally end eight separate World Trade Organization (WTO) cases.
The head of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, called it a truly historic moment.
The formal agreement followed the EU agreeing in December 2009 to gradually reduce the tariffs on Latin American bananas.
Latin American banana exporters had long protested against EU tariffs designed to protect small growers in former European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.
“After so many twists and turns, these complicated and politically contentious disputes can finally be put to bed,” Pascal Lamy said.
“It has taken so long that quite a few people who worked on the cases, both in the secretariat and in member governments have retired long ago.”
The December 2009 agreement involved the EU reducing its tariffs on imported bananas from 176 euros ($224) per ton to 114 euros per ton within eight years.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered number plate-based petrol rationing, 10 days after Hurricane Sandy battered the city.
Fuel shortages since the superstorm hit have led to hours-long waiting times at pumps, and traffic chaos for commuters struggling to get to work.
Similar measures were introduced in New Jersey on Saturday and will also be enforced in New York’s Long Island.
Only 25% of New York’s petrol stations are operating, Michael Bloomberg said.
Under the rationing system, cars with licence plates ending in odd numbers will be allowed to buy fuel only on odd-numbered days of the month; cars with even numbers at the end of their licence plates will be allowed to buy petrol on even-numbered days.
“We have to do something, and this is something that is practical and enforceable and understandable, and doing something is a lot better than doing nothing,” Michael Bloomberg said.
But the owner of one petrol station was more cautious.
“It’s more pressure on us,” Ash Gaied said.
“They yell. They curse. You wouldn’t believe it.”
The rule will come into effect at 06:00 EDT on Friday, the mayor announced.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered number plate-based petrol rationing, 10 days after Hurricane Sandy battered the city
New York City’s yellow taxis and emergency vehicles are exempt from the rationing rules.
Sandy – which started as a hurricane but was dubbed “Superstorm Sandy” as it moved inland – struck the US East Coast on Monday last week.
It devastated parts of New Jersey and New York, causing record flooding and widespread power cuts.
More than 100 people were killed as the storm barreled inland across Pennsylvania, and estimates suggest Sandy may have caused between $30 billion and $50 billion in property damage and lost business.
A unseasonably early snowstorm that hit New York on Wednesday has compounded the misery for some residents in the area, who have yet to regain electricity since being were cut off last week.
Parts of neighboring Connecticut saw more than 1ft (30cm) of snow on Wednesday, and wind speeds of as much as 50 mph (80 km/h) – and resulted in power cuts for about 300,000 customers.
David Graham, a Canadian multi-millionaire, plans to triple the size of his London mansion by digging down 50 ft to create a four-storey basement complete with swimming pool, spa, ballroom and no fewer than 20 toilets.
Unluckily for David Graham – a former cable TV mogul – building under your home is no less controversial than extending it on the surface. His plans have caused fury among the well-heeled residents of Knightsbridge, including a novelist and a duchess.
Architects’ drawings show how the vast house, originally built as a school in the 19th century, will be created by excavating deeper than the height of neighboring homes.
As well as the spa area, it will have servants’ quarters consisting of five staff bedrooms. There will also be wine cellars, an art storage room, parking for three vehicles and a car lift.
In total the house will have 15 bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 20 toilets. Rooms upstairs will include a library, bar, and laundry.
Estate agents estimate the property could be worth up to £90 million ($138 million) with the work completed.
Neighbors say the massive excavation, which will involve 1,375 skipfuls of earth being removed, will bring years of “utter misery”. But David Graham says the extension is necessary to provide his “family’s needs as required by today’s contemporary living”.
Millionaire David Graham plans to triple the size of his mansion by digging down 50 ft to create a 4-storey basement
The 75-year-old, who was once married to Barbara Amiel, wife of disgraced media mogul Conrad Black, bought the property in 2000 and converted it into a house.
He was granted permission to build a pool and one basement level, but now wants to add three additional storeys extending under the house and garden.
According to the application submitted to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, David Graham “has been looking for a larger house in the locality which has proved unsuccessful”.
He therefore wishes to extend his home to provide further accommodation for his family and servants’.
The firm that filed the application on his behalf said the conversion would take up to four years.
Neighbors who have objected to the plans include novelist Edna O’Brien and the Duchess of St Albans Gillian Beauclerk.
The duchess said: “These plans are absolutely monstrous and unnecessary. It’s just absolute greed.
“No one needs that much space.”
A spokesman for the nearby Milner Street Area Residents Association said: “Why should we all suffer just so one man can indulge his fantasy?”
Kirstie Alley admits she developed strong feelings Woody Harrelson while filming sitcom Cheers.
The actress, now 61, had to remind herself she was married to stop the temptation to embark on a passionate affair with Woody Harrelson.
Writing in her memoir, The Art of Men, Kirstie Alley revealed: “He would incessantly insist we sleep together, half joking and half serious.
“We’re not sleeping together, I would say, half wishing I wasn’t married so we could.”
When Kirstie Alley played bar manager Rebecca Howe in Cheers she was married to her second husband, actor Parker Stevenson.
The couple – who have two adopted children together, William True and Lillie Price – eventually divorced in 1997.
Woody Harrelson was not married when he portrayed naive barman Woody Boyd in the bar based comedy series from 1985 to 1993.
Last week, Kirstie Alley admitted John Travolta had been the love of her life.
The actress fell for the actor on the set of their film Look Who’s Talking, which was shot almost 25 years ago, but she couldn’t act on her feelings because she was married to Parker Stevenson at the time.
Kirstie Alley admits she developed strong feelings Woody Harrelson while filming sitcom Cheers
Kirstie Alley said: “Believe me, it took everything that I had, inside, outside, whatever, to not run off and marry John. And be with John for the rest of my life. [He was the] greatest love of my life.”
This week Kirstie Alley has also claimed she and the late Patrick Swayze, her North and South co-star, were once “in love”.
She told Entertainment Tonight on Monday: “Both of us were married. We did not have an affair. But again, I think what I did was worse. Because I think when you fall in love with someone when you’re married you jeopardize your own marriage and their marriage. It’s doubly bad.”
Kristie Alley insisted she is good friends with Patrick Swayze’s wife of 34 years Lisa Niemi Swayze and was even asked to speak at his funeral after he died of pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Kirstie Alley’s book The Art of Men lifts the lid on the behavior of all the guys she has dated and the famous men she has worked with.
Kim and Kourtney Kardashian have landed in London in their typical glamorous style as they launch their own clothing collection with high street retailer Dorothy Perkins.
Celebrating their English fashion partnership, the two famous brunettes took over Aqua club in Soho for a lavish star studded bash.
The two sisters both looked the part in their matching little black dresses from their new collection as they entered the party, which was also attended by X Factor’s Ella Henderson, Rylan Clarke and James Arthur.
Kim Kardashian decided to show off her legs in a sequin little number, leaving her long brown locks down and sporting a surprisingly more natural make-up look.
Meanwhile Kourtney Kardashian followed the British ladies’ love for tights as she covered up her legs in a pair with black dots, which matched her high-neck chiffon dress.
The oldest Kardashian sister kept her look stylish as she teamed up the dress with a fashionable high bun hairstyle.
Kim and Kourtney Kardashian have landed in London to launch their own clothing collection Kardashian Kollection with Dorothy Perkins
Of course, the whole event was intended to showcase their new fashion venture, called the Kardashian Kollection, which features over a hundred pieces of clothing and accessories.
Therefore, a range of models sporting the traditional Kardashian look of long brown locks and fierce smoky eye-make-up paraded around in the clothes designed by the reality stars.
And the two sisters made sure to spend some time with their devoted fans, with both of them defying the British cold to hang out outside the venue, signing autographs and taking pictures.
Noticeably missing at the party was third sister Khloe, who also lend a hand with designing the range.
Khloe Kardashian is set to join her sisters in London tomorrow, after first completing a hosting gig on the US version of X Factor.
A strong winter storm last night dumped heavy snow on New York and New Jersey, also pummeled by Hurricane Sandy last week – even forcing FEMA to shut its doors to families in need.
FEMA shuttered its recovery centers, which were set up to offer assistance to those most affected by the monster storm, and the Staten Island office closed “due to bad weather”.
The Nor’easter rattled the East Coast with high winds and piles of wet, slushy snow on Wednesday – leaving thousands of Sandy victims without power just after it had been restored.
Adding to the mess, the three major airports in the tri-state area closed, commuter trains slowed service, and mass transit lurched to a halt, inflicting another round of misery on the city’s residents.
The storm dropped nearly four inches of snow in Central Park, which areas of southern New Jersey suffered more than 9 inches, the National Weather Service said.
Residents from Connecticut to Rhode Island were also slammed with up to six inches of snow, while areas of Massachusetts had a whopping eight inches.
Carrying gusts of 60 mph, the storm brought down tree limbs and electrical wires damaged by Sandy. Utilities across the two states in New York and New Jersey reported that nearly 60,000 customers who lost power in the superstorm lost it again.
“It’s Mother Nature’s one-two punch,” Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey, told CNN.
“It’s testing the resolve and the grit of my state and my city and, obviously, this region.”
Airlines cancelled at least 1,300 U.S. flights in and out of the New York metropolitan area on Wednesday, causing a new round of disruptions that rippled across the country. And on the roads, icy conditions brought traffic to a crawl.
Despite this newly-inflicted chaos and slushy sidewalks across the tri-state area, schools across New York City opened on Thursday, including 43 schools still without power or damaged by Sandy.
Transit systems have also spluttered back to a start, with the Long Island Rail Road running all lines by 5:00 a.m. except for the Long Beach line.
The Nor’easter rattled the East Coast with high winds and piles of wet, slushy snow on Wednesday leaving thousands of Sandy victims without power just after it had been restored
Commuter traffic also reopened in the Holland Tunnel, where around 90,000 vehicles pass under the Hudson River between Manhattan and Jersey City, New Jersey.
Airlines at the city’s airports were also scheduled to resume flights on Thursday, but officials warned travelers to check with their carriers ahead of the storm.
The states’ utilities reported scattered outages on Thursday, with some customers complaining that they had just gotten their electricity back in the past two day or two, only to lose it again.
The Long Island Power Authority said 200,000 customers were without power, with around 50,000 losing it in the new storm.
Con Edison reported the storm knocked out electricity to about 60,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County. On Thursday, these customers included 21,000 in Queens, 7,000 in Brooklyn, 4,000 in the Bronx, 3,900 in Staten Island and 140 in Manhattan.
Public Service Electric & Gas reported 160,000 outages, including 40,000 caused by the new storm.
Jersey Central Power & Light has about 238,000 customers without power, while Atlantic City Electric reported more than 5,000 customers without power.
The Nor’easter also cut a feed to a substation briefly on Wednesday night, knocking out power to 8,000 customers around East Brunswick, New Jersey.
Ahead of the storm, authorities had warned communities they could be pummeled by this latest bout of bad weather and in New York, police went to low-lying areas with loudspeakers, urging residents to leave.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg didn’t issue mandatory evacuations, and many people stayed behind, some because they feared looting, others because they figured whatever happens couldn’t be any worse than what they have gone through already.
The city manager in Long Beach, New York, urged the roughly 21,000 people who ignored previous mandatory evacuation orders in the badly damaged barrier-island city to get out.
More than 600 residents were moved from three nursing homes and an adult care facility in the Rockaway area in Queens amid fears that the weather would knock out electricity.
Public works crews in New Jersey built up dunes to protect the stripped and battered coast.
All construction in New York City was halted – a precaution that needed no explanation after a crane collapsed last week in Sandy’s high winds and dangled menacingly over the streets of Manhattan.
Parks were closed because of the danger of falling trees. Drivers were advised to stay off the road after 5:00 p.m.
Forecasters had said the nor’easter would bring moderate coastal flooding, with storm surges of about three feet possible Wednesday into Thursday – far less than the 8 to 14 feet Sandy hurled at the region.
“I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had said.
“We may take a setback in the next 24 hours.”
Hurricane Sandy killed more than 100 people in 10 states, with most of the victims in New York and New Jersey.
On Tuesday, the death toll inched higher when a 78-year-old man died of a head injury, suffered when he fell down a wet, sandy stairwell in the dark, authorities said.
Long lines persisted at gas stations but were shorter than they were days ago.
At the peak of the outages from Sandy, more than 8.5 million customers lost power. Before the nor’easter hit, that number was down to 675,000, nearly all of them in New Jersey and New York.
Gabrielle Giffords has attended court to see Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman who shot her in Arizona last year, sentenced to life in prison.
Jared Lee Loughner shot congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head and killed six others.
Gabrielle Giffords attended the hearing with her husband, Mark Kelly, who spoke to Jared Lee Loughner directly and told him that the shooting had changed his wife’s life but had not dented her spirit.
Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 counts in a deal to spare him the death penalty.
He is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
It was the first time Jared Lee Loughner, who did not speak at Thursday’s hearing, had faced his victims in court.
Mark Kelly said: “You may have put a bullet through her head, but you haven’t put a dent in her spirit and commitment to make the world a better place.
“Although you were mentally ill, you were responsible. You have decades upon decades to contemplate what you did, but from this moment, Gabby and I are done thinking about you.”
In addition to the six fatalities, a total of 13 people were wounded in the January 2011 shooting at an outdoor political meeting in Tucson.
Earlier, court-appointed experts said Jared Lee Loughner suffered from schizophrenia and delusions.
Gabrielle Giffords has attended court to see Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman who shot her in Arizona last year, sentenced to life in prison
In May 2011, his case was put on hold as he was deemed unfit to stand trial.
But that ruling was reversed after Jared Lee Loughner went through more than a year of treatment in prison.
Among those due to address the Tucson hearing are Suzi Hileman, who was shot three times while trying to save her nine-year-old neighbor.
“He has to pay the consequences for what he did, and justice will be served,” Suzi Hileman told the Associated Press news agency.
Mavy Stoddard, whose husband died shielding her from bullets, was also scheduled to speak.
Gabrielle Giffords resigned from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery.
Her former aide, Ron Barber, also wounded in the attack, served out the rest of her term after winning a special election. He is also due to address Thursday’s hearing.
On Tuesday, Ron Barber ran in the election for a newly-created congressional district in Arizona.
Thousands of Twitter users around the world have received emails warning their account has been compromised by a third party.
Some accounts had been compromised, but other users had received the emails after Twitter had unintentionally reset unaffected passwords, the company said.
The mass email coincided with incidents involving several high-profile accounts.
Other media organizations, such as the TechCrunch blog, reported being warned.
Twitter gave no indication of the cause or source of the compromise, and would not share details of the size of the issue.
Thousands of Twitter users around the world have received emails warning their account has been compromised by a third party
In a statement, Twitter said: “When we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.
“In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised.
“We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.”
Some users who received the email noticed that some of their tweets had been deleted, while others said spam links had been posted without their knowledge – a typical characteristic of a compromised account.
British comedian David Mitchell tweeted that he had received the email, and that a tweet he had written publicizing his column in the Observer newspaper had been removed.
Some users criticized Twitter’s email, suggesting it looked like a “phishing scam” – a message that impersonates an official email in an attempt to trick users into giving up personal details.
The Hobbit movies producers are suing low-budget company The Asylum for trademark infringement, over its new film Age of the Hobbits.
Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, MGM and The Hobbit producer Saul Zaentz want to stop them using the word Hobbit in the title of the “knockoff film”.
They claim The Asylum is “free-riding” on the worldwide promotional campaign for Peter Jackson’s forthcoming films.
The company is behind a string of “mockbusters” inspired by hit movies.
Producers of The Hobbit called it an “intentional and willful attempt to trade on the popularity and goodwill” of both The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, and the JRR Tolkien novels they are based on.
Court papers obtained by The Hollywood Reporter have called Age of the Hobbits a “confusingly similar and misleading title”.
Producers want all infringing ad materials and packaging for The Asylum’s film to be destroyed, adding that it could “divert customers and potential customers away from the Hobbit films”.
The Asylum had already been threatened with legal action by the Hobbit studios and The Zaentz Co which controls trademark rights to the Tolkien book.
The protected phrase has been associated with Bilbo Baggins and his fellow Middle Earth creatures since the book was first published in 1937.
The Hobbit movies producers are suing low-budget company The Asylum for trademark infringement, over its new film Age of the Hobbits
Age of the Hobbits is due for DVD and online release on 11 December, three days before the US opening of the official Hobbit film.
The Asylum claims its movie is legally sound because its hobbits are not based on the Tolkien creations.
Before legal papers were officially filed the company said in a statement: “Age of the Hobbits is about the real-life human subspecies, Homo Floresiensis, discovered in 2003 in Indonesia, which have been uniformly referred to as <<Hobbits>> in the scientific community.”
It added that the term is therefore “protected under the legal doctrines of nominal and traditional fair use”.
The Asylum also suggests that a Google search of hobbits and archaeology would return dozens of articles containing the term.
Some of their previous “mockbusters” include Transmorphers, based on Michael Bay’s big budget movie Transformers, and The Da Vinci Treasure, which took its name from The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks.
Based on the story of a big blockbuster they are made at a fraction of the cost and are usually released straight-to-DVD.
President Barack Obama won re-election with a similar coalition that carried him to the presidency in 2008: women, young voters, African Americans and Latinos.
But the popular vote was not as strongly in Barack Obama’s favor this time, owing to declines in some key but shrinking parts of the electorate.
1. The female vote
Men and women split between the candidates: overall, 55% of women voted for Barack Obama, 44% for Mitt Romney. For men, 52% voted for Mitt Romney and 45% for Barack Obama.
In 2008, Barack Obama gained a higher percentage of the male vote (49%) and a similar percentage of the female vote (56%).
However, there was a division between married and unmarried women: 53% of married women voted for the Republican candidate, while Barack Obama won unmarried women two-to-one: 67% to 31%.
Overall, women make up more of the electorate – 53% – slightly more than their share of the US population.
2. The ethnic vote
Barack Obama overwhelmingly won the black vote with 93%, a sliver lower than four years ago. Latinos also voted strongly for the Democrat – 71% in total and probably made electoral differences in Colorado and Nevada. Latinos or Hispanics made up 10% of total voters in the US, up one percentage point from 2008.
President Obama lost some of the white voters that propelled him to a strong win in 2008, with 39% voting for a second Barack Obama term in comparison to 43% in 2008. The white electorate, while still a majority, dropped to 72% of the country as a whole, down from 74% four years ago, and 77% eight years ago.
3. The youth vote
Young voters were a key part of Barack Obama’s victory for a second time.
Sixty per cent of voters aged 18 to 29 years voted for Barack Obama, slightly down from his percentage four years ago of 66%.
But the percentage of voters in this age range increased slightly, to 19% of the electorate.
Voters aged 30 to 44 were fairly split, with a slight inclination to Barack Obama, 52% to 45%.
The largest percentage of the electorate in terms of age, 45 to 64, went to Mitt Romney with 51%.
President Barack Obama won re-election with a similar coalition that carried him to the presidency in 2008: women, young voters, African Americans and Latinos
4. Lower-income Americans
Lower-income voters went decisively for Barack Obama.
Of those making under $50,000, 60% voted for Barack Obama.
The president did not do badly with middle-income and richer voters either, gaining 46% and 44%, respectively in each category.
The three income categories are fairly split among the electorate, with the lower-income group representing 41% of the total vote.
5. The religious vote
Mitt Romney gained 62% of the Protestant vote.
Catholics and other Christians were split among the two major candidates.
Those of no religion as well as Jewish voters gave Barack Obama a vote of confidence at 70%.
Mitt Romney, who would have become the first Mormon president if he had won, also gained the large majority of Mormon voters: 78%.
Those who went to religious services at least once a week were more likely to vote for Mitt Romney (59%).
However, 55% of those who said they attended such services “a few times a month” voted for Barack Obama.
6. The economy
Throughout the campaign, both candidates said it was all about the economy, and voters’ decisions largely came down to who they thought was best on the issue.
Fifty-nine per cent of those polled said the economy was their foremost concern. Among those, a slight majority (51%) went for Mitt Romney. So how does this match with an Obama win? Fifty-four per cent of voters who named unemployment as their top economic concern voted for Barack Obama.
The president also received many more votes from those concerned about healthcare and foreign policy, while deficit-minded voters strongly chose Mitt Romney.
7. Mitt Romney’s empathy gap
What matters most in Americans’ minds when they vote? About three in 10 wanted a “vision for the future” and another three in 10 wanted a president who shared their values.
Those who wanted a vision for the future voted more for Mitt Romney (54% to 45% for Barack Obama).
However, another two in 10 voters wanted a president who “cares about people like me”.
They overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama – 81% in total – a sign that Mitt Romney suffered an empathy gap among some voters.
All numbers based on exit polling conducted by Edison Research across the United States on 6 November.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, there isn’t sufficient evidence to show any of creams and lotions that promise to banish wrinkles or slow down the aging process actually work.
However, there are in fact four commonly listed active ingredients to look out for in their role in decreasing signs of aging – including peptides, alpha-hydroxy acids, retinol, and some antioxidants.
Dr. Elizabeth Hale, a dermatologist at New York University Medical Center, told ABC News: “It can be overwhelming for patients and doctors – it’s hard to know which works, and which doesn’t. There’s definitely an overabundance of products and ingredients that promise to deliver.”
As we age, our skin produces less collagen and elastin, becoming thinner; causing it to sag and develop fine lines.
Peptides are a protein that can stimulate new cells to grow and help skin cells to heal, and are found in dozens of products currently on the market.
Dr. Ivona Percec, a plastic surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “The jury is still out on how beneficial they are.
“If they work, they do so by stimulating the replacement of collagen, elastin, and other components that suffer during aging.
“The concern is that peptides are large molecules, and depending on their formulation and the skin surface, they may not be able to penetrate deeply enough to achieve their effect.”
There are four commonly listed active ingredients to look out for in their role in decreasing signs of aging, including peptides, alpha-hydroxy acids, retinol, and some antioxidants
Instead, Dr. Elizabeth Hale likes to think of peptides as good hydrating skin when they are found in moisturizers, which, in turn, “can make lines less noticeable”.
Alpha-hydroxy acids, on the other hand, are natural ingredients that come from fruits and milk sugars commonly used as exfoliants.
Dr. Elizabeth Hale said: “They are commonly used [for] getting rid of dead skin cells, allowing new cells to grow.
“It allows the deeper layer of the skin to come to surface faster — which speeds up the cycle of skin turnover.”
There are three acids – lactic acids, glycolic acids and citric acids – with each having different effects on the skin.
Lactic acid, which comes from sour milk, helps remove dead skin cells, subsequently adding a certain brightness to the skin.
Glycolic acid, from sugar cane, can slightly help to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, which ultimately makes the skin appear smoother and tighter.
Meanwhile retinol, a natural form of vitamin A found in a number of over-the-counter skin creams, boosts the thickness and elasticity of the skin and is seen as reliable method for decreasing signs of aging.
Dr. Elizabeth Hale said: “There is ample evidence that shows retinol improves the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.”
However, pregnant women should avoid using retinol, or any form of vitamin A, because it may increase the risk of birth defects.
Antioxidants, widely known to fight internal cell damage from free radicals that can injure cells, increase inflammation, and the risk of cancer, have been found to have anti-aging benefits – but only in the right formulation.
Substances with antioxidant properties include beta-carotene, lycopene, selenium, and vitamins A, C and E, according to the National Institutes of Health.
These and other antioxidants are found in many foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and some meats, with many supplements also available.
Dr. Ivona Percec said: “There are antioxidants that are effective, however, it’s the formulation of the antioxidants that is critical. But Vitamins C and E are the most commonly used, and the most time-tested.”
Although some vitamin skin care formulations may claim to be “natural” anti-aging products, Dr. Ivona Percec said that they may not be effective.
One of Claude Monet’s famous water lilies paintings has sold for $43.7 million at a New York auction.
A painting by Wassily Kandinsky also sold for $23 million at the Christie’s auction of impressionist and modern art, setting a record for the artist.
Works by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro also went under the hammer in the first of two weeks of major auctions in New York.
However, about 30% of the 69 paintings up for auction failed to find buyers, Reuters reported.
Claude Monet’s oil-on-canvas Nympheas – painting in 1905 during the artist’s years at Giverny – reached the high end of its $30 million-$50 million pre-sale estimate.
Claude Monet’s water lilies painting Nympheas fetches $43.7 million at New York auction
Wassily Kandinsky’s vibrant work Studie fur Improvisation 8 had been estimated to fetch between $20 million -$30 million and was sold by Switzerland’s Volkart Foundation.
The price broke the Russian artist’s previous record of $20.9 million for Fugue set in 1990.
The bronze La Jambe by Alberto Giacometti sold for $11.3 million and the painting Peinture (Femme, journal, chien) by Spanish artist Joan Miro, sold for $13.7 million.
Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme fetched $13 million.
Among the works that failed to sell were the Picasso sculpture, Coq, estimated at $10 million -$15 million, and works by Chagall and Degas.
Some experts have warned the disparity between art values and the broader economy cannot continue and that while the most coveted works are rising in value, other sectors of the art market are less buoyant.
Nevertheless, Brooke Lampley, head of Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s, said it was a “very, very strong sale, with great results”.
Later on Thursday Sotheby’s will belatedly stage its own Impressionist auction. The sale has been delayed for three days because of Hurricane Sandy.
Among the 68 lots there is much interest in Pablo Picasso’s Still Life with Tulips, painted in 1932 in under three hours.
Next week the two auction houses stage their contemporary sales, where works include Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled 1981. Its sale could set a new record for the painter.
Michel Basquiat rose from being an obscure graffiti artist in New York to become one of the city’s most lionized artists before his death of a heroin overdose in 1988.
Tens of thousands of residents in New York and New Jersey have again lost power as a winter storm hit areas still recovering from Hurricane Sandy’s devastating impact.
Some people were again forced to leave their homes and public transport was affected.
Winds gusted at up to 60 mph (100 km/h) bringing down trees and power lines.
New Jersey state governor Chris Christie said: “I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next.”
Power companies in the two states report more than 100,000 customers suffered power outages. Some 650,000 buildings were already without power one week after storm Sandy struck, killing more than 100 people.
But the damage from the latest storm, a northeaster, was less than had been feared.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said low-lying areas had not been flooded at high tide on Wednesday afternoon.
But Michael Bloomberg said he was still concerned about the security of those areas where flood defences had not yet been repaired.
Tens of thousands of residents in New York and New Jersey have again lost power as a winter storm hit areas still recovering from Hurricane Sandy’s devastating impact
He had closed parks and beaches and temporarily halted outdoor construction.
But he said there was no need for mandatory evacuations because the storm was not expected to be as strong as hurricane Sandy.
Long Island resident Rudi Schlachter, who was forced to move her family to the upper floors of their home due to severe flooding last week, said she was evacuating the area altogether now.
“All you need is a gale of wind driving a piece of wood into somebody’s window,” she said.
“We’re leaving; I don’t want my kids to see the water again.”
President Barack Obama spoke to the governor of New York and New Jersey on Wednesday, with the discussions focused on the continuing fuel shortages in the region.
Major airlines cancelled flights in and out of New York and New Jersey ahead of the storm.
So far 95,000 people have registered for emergency housing assistance in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, according to the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It added that it was ready to deploy additional resources if needed.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the US man behind anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims that led to mass protests in the Middle East has been sentenced to a year in jail for probation violations.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was sentenced by a judge in California after admitting four violations which stem from a 2010 conviction for fraud.
None of the charges was connected with the content of the controversial film, Innocence of Muslims.
Dozens of people died in the Middle East in protests over the film.
US District Judge Christina Snyder said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, must spend 12 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release.
Prosecutors had been seeking a two-year sentence.
After the 2010 conviction, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula had served most of a 21-month jail sentence for using more than a dozen aliases and opening about 60 bank accounts to conduct a cheque fraud scheme, prosecutors said.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Innocence of Muslims filmmaker, in jail for probation violations
The Los Angeles Times said that it was while he was in prison that he read the Koran, looking for ways to criticize Islam.
On his release he was barred from using computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who was arrested in September, also goes by the name of Sam Bacile, Nicola Bacily and Mark Basseley Yousseff and is believed to be an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian.
US authorities have said they believe Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was the person behind the controversial film, but have not said whether he was the person who posted it on the internet.
Muslims around the world took to the streets in protest, outraged by the film’s portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
China’s President Hu Jintao has opened a Communist Party congress that begins a once-in-a-decade power transfer with a stark warning on corruption.
Addressing more than 2,000 delegates, Hu Jintao said that a failure to tackle the issue “could prove fatal to the party”.
China faced unprecedented opportunities and challenges, he said, and the nation should “aim higher and work harder”.
His speech kicks off a week-long meeting that will see a new set of leaders unveiled.
Security is very tight across Beijing, with many dissidents detained or under house arrest, rights groups say.
Hu Jintao told delegates at the Great Hall of the People that China had to adapt to a changing domestic and global environment.
“We must aim higher and work harder and continue to pursue development in a scientific way, promote social harmony and improve the people’s lives,” he said.
China’s development should be made more balanced and sustainable, he said, and the “serious challenge” of corruption should be addressed.
“If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state,” he said.
Anyone who broke the law would be brought to justice, “whoever they are and whatever power or official positions they have”, he said.
The months leading up to the congress have seen China’s political leadership rocked by a scandal involving Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing party leader once seen as a candidate for top office.
His wife, Gu Kailai, has been jailed for murdering a British businessman and he is expected to face trial on corruption-related charges.
Across China, meanwhile, recent cases of official corruption have stoked public anger and there have been a series of high-profile mass protests focusing on land grabs and environmental issues.
On the internet, thousands of people have left comments appealing for better measures to fight corruption on official websites launched for the congress by the three major party mouthpieces – Xinhua news agency, People’s Daily and China Central Television (CCTV).
Economic growth has also slowed in recent months and the wealth gap is an issue of great concern, as is China’s ageing population.
Hu HJintao said a new model for economic growth was needed to respond to domestic and global changes.
“On the basis of making China’s development much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, we should double its 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents [by 2020],” he said.
China’s President Hu Jintao has opened a Communist Party congress that begins a once-in-a-decade power transfer with a stark warning on corruption
Amid rumbling regional tensions over territorial rows in the East China and South China Sea, Hu Jintao said the nation should “resolutely safeguard” maritime rights and become a maritime power.
“Active and prudent efforts” should be made to reform the political structure, he said, without giving details.
The congress – for which no formal schedule has been revealed – will last a week and will be keenly observed for any indications of the leadership’s future plans.
During the congress a new central committee is selected. It then chooses the country’s highest decision-making body, the Standing Committee of the Politburo.
The process takes place behind closed doors, with the make-up of the top bodies in reality decided ahead of time.
The current Standing Committee has nine members, of whom seven including Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are expected to step down.
The other two members, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, are expected to become party leader and deputy respectively. Xi Jinping is also expected to take over from Hu Jintao as China’s president in March 2013.
Ahead of the congress there has been speculation that the number of seats on the committee will be reduced from nine to seven.
Analysts say there has also been division at the very top of the leadership, with two rival factions jostling for position and influence.
Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, propaganda chief Liu Yunshan, party organization chief Li Yuanchao and Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang are thought to be the front-runners.
But the exact composition of the committee will not be clear until it is formally announced next week, likely on 15 November at a plenum expected to follow the congress.
In Beijing, more than 1.4 million volunteers have been brought in to help out with security for the congress.
Transport restrictions are in place, street vendors have been told to close and even the flying of kites has reportedly been banned.
Rights group Amnesty International says more than 130 political dissidents were unlawfully detained or placed under house arrest ahead of the meeting.
Chinese Communist Party in numbers:
• Ruled China since 1949
• 83 million members in 2011
• 77% of members are men
• Farmers make up one third of membership
• 6.8 million members work for the Party and state agencies
• Funded by government grant and membership dues
• Private businessmen allowed to join since 2001
• Seven of country’s richest men attending congress
Barack Obama wasted little time on Wednesday as he headed back to Washington hours after celebrating his election victory in Chicago and securing a second term in the White House.
Fresh challenges lie ahead for the president as the stock market tumbled in response to his triumph at the polls over Mitt Romney and sabre-rattling from Republicans who demanded that he make good on his promise to work with both sides of the political aisle in the next four years.
Barack Obama was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and their children Malia and Sasha as they departed the Windy City on Air Force One. They arrived in Washington at about 6:30 p.m. and returned to White House which has been their home for the last four years – and where they will remain for the next four.
Tuesday night, Barack Obama called for unity and set out an optimistic vision of America’s future this morning in a rousing acceptance speech.
He promised “the best is yet to come” and said the fierce battle with Mitt Romney had made him a better president, vowing: “I will return to the White House more determined and inspired than ever.”
In a speech that saw a return to the soaring rhetoric he has become known for since his election in 2008, Barack Obama said he had “listened and learned’ from the American people during his campaign.
With his voice going hoarse at times, he said that “progress comes in fits and starts” and the road is littered with “difficult compromises”. But he said he enters the next four years with an “economy recovering, a decade of war ending and a long campaign is over”.
Barack Obama wasted little time on Wednesday as he headed back to Washington hours after celebrating his election victory in Chicago and securing a second term in the White House
Barack Obama paid tribute to his opponent and hopes they can “work together in the coming weeks”.
The GOP has indicated that they will hold him to it.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was frosty in his post-election remarks.
“The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term,” Mitch McConnell said.
“Now it’s time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House, and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office.”
Republican House Speaker John Boehner added speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning: “Mr. President, this is your moment. We want you to lead… Let’s find the common ground that has eluded us.”
A package of huge tax hikes and spending cuts – known as the “fiscal cliff” – is scheduled to take effect in the new year if the parties cannot come to a compromise.
So far, Republicans have adamantly refused to raise taxes, even on America’s richest people, as part of a deficit-reduction package. Barack Obama and other Democrats maintain that such tax hikes must be part of the deal.
The president’s administration is optimistic about an agreement.
Vice President Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he and Barack Obama are anxious to move forward on a bipartisan solution to the “fiscal cliff”, but a compromise will hinge on Republicans.
“What is the takeaway going to be on the part of our Republican colleagues? What judgment are they going to make?” Joe Biden told reporters on Air Force Two, as he flew from Chicago, where he watched election returns Tuesday night, to his home in Delaware.
“I know it takes a little time to kind of digest what’s going on. But I think people know we’ve got to get down to work and I think they’re ready to move,” Joe Biden said.
Joe Biden said he believes there are at least six Republican senators who are prepared to compromise on fiscal issues, adding that Democrats “are going to have to compromise too. It’s not like we’re going to go in and say: <<This is our deal. Take it or leave it>>.”
Another challenge for Barack Obama lies in the stock market, as the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 200 points within minutes after the opening bell and it continued falling, down 354 points two hours later.
In late afternoon trading, it was down 323 points, or 2.5%, while index futures also plunged after the European Union slashed its growth forecast for next year.
Wednesday after Election Day, Roll Call’s Political Wire posted screen grabs of some of the pages from the website that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would have released had they won the election.
The homepage of the site has a seal of “The Office of the President Elect” and had a quote on the top signed by President-Elect Mitt Romney.
“I’m excited about our prospects as a nation. My priority is putting people back to work in America,” the large quote says.
It shows links to information about the would-be inauguration (taking place in Washington, DC on January 21, 2013) and his vision of a “smaller, simpler, smarter” America.
Romney victory site has a seal of The Office of the President Elect and had a quote on the top signed by President-Elect Mitt Romney
There are three other pages, titled “Join the Administration”, “The President-Elect” which goes into further detail about the inauguration, and “The Nominees” which briefly describes the process of electing a cabinet.
Unfortunately for political junkies, the nominees page cuts off before any actual nominees are identified, so the page does not give any true insight into the way that the Romney-Ryan team would have proceeded with their transition.
Political Wire does not explain how they found the site or how long it was live, only saying that it was taken down quickly.
Romney victory site has a seal of The Office of the President Elect and had a quote on the top signed by President-Elect Mitt Romney
Greek parliament has narrowly backed a fresh round of austerity measures, despite violent protests across the country.
The austerity package aimed at securing the next round of bailout funds was passed with 153 MPs in favor – a majority of just three.
The 13.5 billion-euro ($17.3 billion) bill includes tax rises and pension cuts.
Earlier, riot police fired tear gas towards protesters when they were attacked with petrol bombs in Athens.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras warned before the vote late on Wednesday that without the bailout Greece would run out of money this month and face “catastrophe”.
The austerity package – Greece’s fourth in three years – is meant to close the nation’s budget deficit, lower its huge debt burden and make its economy more competitive.
MPs must now pass a revised budget on Sunday before eurozone finance ministers meet next week to approve 31.5 billion euros in fresh loans from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Greece needs to avoid imminent bankruptcy.
But the level of resistance on the streets is a reminder that implementing the latest tough measures will be extraordinarily difficult.
The crucial vote was held after a lengthy debate in the 300-strong parliament.
Greek parliament has narrowly backed a fresh round of austerity measures, despite violent protests across the country
Immediately after the bill was adopted, co-governing New Democracy and Pasok parties expelled seven lawmakers from their ranks for failing to back the package.
The adopted plan includes a two-year increase in the retirement age from the current average of 65, as well as salary cuts and labor market reforms, including cuts to holiday benefits, notice periods and severance pay.
Workers fear this will just make it easier and cheaper for them to be fired at a time when unemployment has already soared to 25% and a five-year recession means there are few job prospects.
“Many of these measures are fair and should have been taken years ago, without anyone asking us to,” Antonis Samaras said.
“Others are unfair – cutting wages and salaries – and there is no point in dressing this up as something else,” the prime minister said, adding that Greece was, nevertheless, obliged to take the measures.
Antonis Samaras has said that without this money, which will be used largely to recapitalize the country’s banks, the country will be bankrupt by 15 November.
Earlier on Wednesday, tens of thousands of protesters held a rally in Syntagma Square – outside the parliament building in the heart of the capital.
The protesters chanted: “People – don’t bow your heads!”
Some in the crowd held giant flags of Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain – four of the eurozone’s most heavily-indebted states.
The riot police – who sealed off parliament – later fired tear gas after the demonstrators attacked them with petrol bombs and flares.
Protests also took place in other big cities across Greece.
The Greek unions were staging what they described as the “mother of all strikes” – a 48-hour walkout which culminated on Wednesday.
The third major strike in just two months brought public transport to a halt and shut schools, banks and government buildings.
Measures in austerity package
Retirement age up from 65 to 67
A further round of pension cuts, of 5-15%
Salary cuts, notably for police officers, soldiers, firefighters, professors, judges, justice officials; minimum wage also reduced
Holiday benefits cut
35% cut to severance pay
Redundancy notice reduced from six to four months.
New York stocks on Wednesday night took fright at the outcome of the American presidential election as the world braced itself for prolonged and difficult negotiations over the US budget deficit and debt levels.
Despite all the discussion of a bipartisan approach to tackling the US’s $1trillion a year budget deficit, investors fear that President Barack Obama will face a renewed struggle reaching an agreement with Congress by the deadline for the “fiscal cliff” of January 1st, 2013.
Failure to meet that deadline, enshrined in law, would mean that automatic budget cuts and tax rises would come into effect taking $600 billion out of the economy and sending America and much of the rest of the world back into recession.
In trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged from the opening bell and by mid-afternoon was showing a loss of 300 points or 2.24% the biggest single day fall in 2012 and the largest loss since November 2011. It closed down 312.95 points at 12932.73.
Disquiet about the outcome of the election and its impact on the rest of the world triggered a worldwide reaction with the FTSE 100 index plunging in its wake by 1.58%.
The overall mood on the markets was not assisted by fears of a deep slowdown in Europe and further troubles on the streets of Athens as Greek parliament met to approve a new fiscal package.
Among the biggest fallers on Wall Street were banking shares with JP Morgan, Citibank, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley suffering big setbacks. Although New York state was a solid Democratic win in the election, the banks were big financial backers of Mitt Romney in the hope he might ease some of the onerous regulation imposed since the Great Panic of 2008 if he won.
Matters were not helped by the intervention of Goldman Sachs that has lowered its forecast for American growth next year from 1.9% to 1.5%, barely enough to lower unemployment from its current level of 7.9% of the workforce.
In contrast to share prices, however, the dollar advanced against both the pound and the euro as part of the flight to safety, including American bonds, by international investors.
In times of uncertainty investors traditionally move away from risky assets like shares and opt for hard currencies and bonds. The pound was trading last night at just below the $1.60 level at $1.5986.
Dow Jones plunges 300 points after Barack Obama re-election as Wall Street suffers worst day of the year
A big concern on financial markets is that the credit rating agencies will decide to follow the actions of Standard & Poor’s in August 2011 – when the last budget negotiations were in full flow – and remove the AAA credit rating enjoyed by the US.
In a note Fitch said the President would need to quickly secure a deal with Congress to avoid the fiscal cliff and raise the debt ceiling – the total amount of debt that the US can issue – if a ratings downgrade was to be avoided. America has among the highest debt levels in the Western world at 107% of gross domestic product according to the International Monetary Fund.
The fear is that unless Congress and the White House can deal with the fiscal deadlock before January 1st, 2013, then the automatic cuts would immediately trigger a recession potentially wiping as much as 2.5% of output and leading to a sharp rise in the jobless rate.
There had been hopes the election would cleanse the poison in US politics that has held up budget negotiations. In reality nothing has changed in that a Democratic president still has to deal with a hostile House where the Tea Party extremists still hold some sway.
They believe that the US’s budget problems would be solved by cutting welfare payments and keeping taxes low.
Another credit rating agency, Moody’s, said it would not be changing its assessment of the US economy until after the deadline for the fiscal cliff had passed.
Dozens of people are missing and up to 15 killed in Guatemala after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit off the Pacific coast, President Otto Perez Molina has said.
Otto Perez Molina has declared a national alert and advised people to evacuate tall buildings as a precaution.
Officials said landslides had buried roads and it would take 24 hours to restore links to the quake-hit area.
Frightened people fled from offices and homes around the region, as buildings shook from Mexico City to San Salvador.
Quake officials said the tremor hit at about 10:35 local time about 23 km (15 miles) from the Guatemalan town of Champerico.
Otto Perez Molina said so far three people had been confirmed dead.
“Other preliminary information, which has not been confirmed, says the number of dead could rise to around 15 people,” he said.
He added that another 15 people were believed to be trapped under ground and about 100 people were missing.
Dozens of people are missing and up to 15 killed in Guatemala after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit off the Pacific coast
Other officials gave higher casualty figures.
Aroldo Rivera, governor of San Marcos, the worst-affected region, was quoted as saying 29 people had been confirmed killed and 155 injured.
Firefighters earlier said a school had collapsed in San Pedro Sacatepequez in San Marcos region.
The firefighters later said at least eight people had been killed, though it was not clear if the deaths were related to the school collapse.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement there was no threat of a destructive widespread tsunami.
But it added: “Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre.”
The region is often hit by quakes, which have periodically caused huge damage and many deaths.
Natina Reed’s ten-year-old son, Tren Brown, bravely attended his mother’s funeral while standing wrapped in his father’s arms.
The only child of the R & B star, Tren Brown was joined by friends, family and stars of the music scene as Natina Reed was laid to rest in her hometown.
Tren Brown’s father, the rapper Kurupt, footed the bill for the service and the reception afterwards so that his son could say a proper goodbye to his mother.
The boy has lived with his father since he was six and will continue to do so.
On Saturday, Kurupt, 39, tweeted: “We luv u Natina ….. #MissedButNotForgottin.”
Natina Reed’s funeral took place on Saturday at Abundant Life Church in Lithonia, Georgia with many of her friends and family present.
Natina Reed’s ten-year-old son, Tren Brown, bravely attended his mother’s funeral while standing wrapped in his father’s arms
Members of the late singer’s 1990s all-girl group Blaque were said to be in attendance, as well as Chilli and T-Boz from TLC and rappers Big Boi, Daz and Snoop Dogg.
Natina Reed was killed in Georgia on the night of October 26 after being struck by a car. She was two days shy of her 32nd birthday.
The driver of the vehicle who hit the singer called 911 at 10:30 p.m., according to the Gwinnett Police Department.
Just 29 minutes later Natina Reed was pronounced dead at Gwinnett Medical Center.
A press release said that Natina Reed “was in the roadway on Lawrenceville Highway near Hamilton Road when struck”.
Police said that the driver “was determined to be not at fault and there are no charges pending”.
Natina Reed had been living at an extended stay motel at the time of her death, and had only been 12 miles from the $45 per night StudioPlus Atlanta Peachtree Corners in Norcross, Georgia when the accident happened.
She had been wearing dark clothing in an unlit area when she died, and police were trying to determine whether she was walking in the road or attempting to cross it.
Many of her friends have expressed their grief over Natina Reed’s untimely passing.
“Last night the world was changed forever, life will never be the same… she was my sister,” Brandi Williams, singer and former Blaque bandmember, tweeted.
Brandi, Natina and Shamari Fears-Devoe had several hits throughout the 1990s including their most famous, Bring It All To Me.
Besides a music career, Natina Reed appeared in the hit movie Bring It On in 2000, playing a cheerleader for the Clovers.
More than $1 billion worth of art will come under the hammer in New York’s autumn art auctions, which start later.
Highlights of the four nights of sales include works by Picasso, Monet, Rothko and Andy Warhol.
Officials from the auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s have described the current art market as “exuberant”.
Earlier this year Edvard Munch’s The Scream set a new auction record for art when it sold for $120 million.
Experts have said there is little chance of that record being surpassed but expect Claude Monet’s Nympheas and Mark Rothko’s No1 (Royal Red and Blue) to be sold for about $50 million.
Brooke Lampley, Christie’s head of Impressionist and Modern Art, ascribed the inflationary bubble in the art world to growing demand.
“Participation in our major sales is more global than ever, with buyers from growing markets in South America, Asia and the Middle East,” she said.
The company’s Americas chairman, Marc Porter, said the high quality of lots at Christie’s Post-Impressionist and Contemporary auctions was in part due to what he called “discretionary sellers” – collectors who decide to realize their assets.
More than $1 billion worth of art will come under the hammer in New York’s autumn art auctions
Analysts have said rising prices for the rarest works have encouraged owners to offer prized possessions for sale.
With new buyers from China, Russia and Qatar willing to pay what it takes to secure iconic works, the prices at auction have risen sharply.
But some experts have warned the disparity between art values and the broader economy cannot continue and that while the most coveted works are rising in value, other sectors of the art market are less buoyant.
The four nights of sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s get under way later with Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Sale. Its highlight is expected to be Monet’s Nympheas.
On Thursday Sotheby’s will belatedly stage its own Impressionist auction. The sale has been delayed for three days because of the damage caused to New York and its infrastructure by Hurricane Sandy.
Among the 68 lots there is much interest in Pablo Picasso’s Still Life with Tulips, painted in 1932 in under three hours.
This disguised portrait of his mistress, Marie Therese Walter, fetched $28.6 million when it was last sold in 2000. Its estimate this time round is between $35 million and $50 million.
Next week the two auction houses stage their contemporary sales, where works include Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled 1981. Its sale could set a new record for the painter.
Basquiat rose from being an obscure graffiti artist in New York to become one of the city’s most lionized artists before his death of a heroin overdose in 1988.
Most expensive works sold at auction
• The Scream by Edvard Munch – $120 million , May 2012
• Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso – $106 million, April 2010
• L’Homme qui Marche by Alberto Giacometti – $104 million, January 2010
• Boy with a Pipe by Pablo Picasso – $104 m, May 2004
• Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II by Gustav Klimt – $88 million, November 2006
Mitt Romney thanked family and campaigners for support in his concession speech after admitting defeat in 2012 US election.
Congratulating Barack Obama on his win, Mitt Romney said the Republican Party’s “principles would endure” the defeat and asked his supporters to join him and his wife Ann in praying for Obama and the U.S.
“Thank you.
I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory. His supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters.
This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.
I want to thank Paul Ryan for all that he has done for our campaign and for our country. Besides my wife, Ann, Paul is the best choice I’ve ever made. And I trust that his intellect and his hard work and his commitment to principle will continue to contribute to the good of our nation.
I also want to thank Ann, the love of my life. She would have been a wonderful first lady. She’s – she has been that and more to me and to our family and to the many people that she has touched with her compassion and her care.
I thank my sons for their tireless work on behalf of the campaign, and thank their wives and children for taking up the slack as their husbands and dads have spent so many weeks away from home.
I want to thank Matt Rhoades and the dedicated campaign team he led. They have made an extraordinary effort not just for me, but also for the country that we love.
And to you here tonight, and to the team across the country – the volunteers, the fundraisers, the donors, the surrogates – I don’t believe that there’s ever been an effort in our party that can compare with what you have done over these past years. Thank you so very much.”
Mitt Romney thanked family and campaigners for support in his concession speech after admitting defeat in 2012 US election
“Thanks for all the hours of work, for the calls, for the speeches and appearances, for the resources and for the prayers. You gave deeply from yourselves and performed magnificently. And you inspired us and you humbled us. You’ve been the very best we could have imagined.
The nation, as you know, is at a critical point. At a time like this, we can’t risk partisan bickering and political posturing. Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people’s work. And we citizens also have to rise to the occasion.
We look to our teachers and professors, we count on you not just to teach, but to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery. We look to our pastors and priests and rabbis and counselors of all kinds to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built: honesty, charity, integrity and family. We look to our parents, for in the final analysis everything depends on the success of our homes. We look to job creators of all kinds. We’re counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward. And we look to Democrats and Republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics.
I believe in America. I believe in the people of America. And I ran for office because I’m concerned about America. This election is over, but our principles endure. I believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy and to renewed greatness.
Like so many of you, Paul and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign.
I so wish – I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader. And so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation.
Thank you, and God bless America. You guys are the best. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, guys.”
Barack Obama announced that the “best is yet to come” during a moving acceptance speech as the news came that he had been re-elected as President of the United States.
President Barack Obama vowed to return to the White House “more determined and inspired than ever”, saying he had “listened and learned” during his campaign.
As the re-elected President thanked his family for their support, his Republican rival Mitt Romney did the same in his concession speech.
Congratulating Barack Obama on his win, Mitt Romney said the Republican Party’s “principles would endure” the defeat and asked his supporters to join him and his wife Ann in praying for Obama and the U.S.
Barack Obama announced that the “best is yet to come” during a moving acceptance speech as the news came that he had been re-elected as President of the United States
Barack Obama acceptance speech in full:
“Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward,’ The newly re-elected President said.
It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.
Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.
I want to thank every American who participated in this election, whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time. By the way, we have to fix that.
Whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone, whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference.
I just spoke with Governor Romney and I congratulated him and Paul Ryan on a hard-fought campaign. We may have battled fiercely, but it’s only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future. From George to Lenore to their son Mitt, the Romney family has chosen to give back to America through public service and that is the legacy that we honor and applaud tonight.
In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.
I want to thank my friend and partner of the last four years, America’s happy warrior, the best vice president anybody could ever hope for, Joe Biden.
And I wouldn’t be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago. Let me say this publicly: Michelle, I have never loved you more. I have never been prouder to watch the rest of America fall in love with you, too, as our nation’s first lady.
Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes you’re growing up to become two strong, smart beautiful young women, just like your mom. And I’m so proud of you guys. But I will say that for now one dog’s probably enough.
To the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics – the best. The best ever. Some of you were new this time around, and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning.
But all of you are family. No matter what you do or where you go from here, you will carry the memory of the history we made together and you will have the life-long appreciation of a grateful president. Thank you for believing all the way, through every hill, through every valley.
You lifted me up the whole way and I will always be grateful for everything that you’ve done and all the incredible work that you put in.
I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly. And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics that tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos or the domain of special interests. But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym, or saw folks working late in a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you’ll discover something else.
You’ll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organizer who’s working his way through college and wants to make sure every child has that same opportunity.
You’ll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer who’s going door to door because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift.
You’ll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse whose working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home.
That’s why we do this. That’s what politics can be. That’s why elections matter. It’s not small, it’s big. It’s important. Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy.
That won’t change after tonight, and it shouldn’t. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. We can never forget that as we speak people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.
But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America’s future. We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers. A country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow.
We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet. We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this – this world has ever known.
But also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war, to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being. We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America, open to the dreams of an immigrant’s daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag.
To the young boy on the south side of Chicago who sees a life beyond the nearest street corner. To the furniture worker’s child in North Carolina who wants to become a doctor or a scientist, an engineer or an entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a president – that’s the future we hope for. That’s the vision we share. That’s where we need to go – forward. That’s where we need to go.
Now, we will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how to get there. As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It’s not always a straight line. It’s not always a smooth path.
By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won’t end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. But that common bond is where we must begin. Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending. A long campaign is now over.
And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you, and you’ve made me a better president. And with your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead.
Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We’ve got more work to do.
But that doesn’t mean your work is done. The role of citizens in our Democracy does not end with your vote. America’s never been about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government. That’s the principle we were founded on.
This country has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military in history, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our university, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores. What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth.
The belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations. The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That’s what makes America great.
I am hopeful tonight because I’ve seen the spirit at work in America. I’ve seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors, and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friend lose a job.
I’ve seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb and in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.
I’ve seen it on the shores of New Jersey and New York, where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm.
And I saw just the other day, in Mentor, Ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter, whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care.
I had an opportunity to not just talk to the father, but meet this incredible daughter of his. And when he spoke to the crowd listening to that father’s story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes, because we knew that little girl could be our own.
And I know that every American wants her future to be just as bright. That’s who we are. That’s the country I’m so proud to lead as your president.
And tonight, despite all the hardship we’ve been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I’ve never been more hopeful about our future.
I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I’m not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I’m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight.
I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.
America, I believe we can build on the progress we’ve made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.
I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.
And together with your help and God’s grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.
Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.”
A new study has concluded that women may be able to better gauge their own fertility based on the age their mother went through the menopause.
Women whose mothers had an early menopause had far fewer eggs in their ovaries than those whose mothers had a later menopause, a Danish team found.
Women with fewer viable eggs have fewer chances to conceive.
The study, of 527 women aged between 20 and 40, was reported in the journal Human Reproduction.
Researchers looked at two accepted methods to assess how many eggs the women had – known as their “ovarian reserve” – levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and antral follicle count (AFC).
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. These are released from the ovary cyclically, usually one every month after puberty, until menopause.
The AFC and AMH give readings doctors an idea of how many yet-to-be released eggs remain in the ovary.
Women whose mothers had an early menopause had far fewer eggs in their ovaries than those whose mothers had a later menopause, a Danish team found
In the study of female healthcare workers, the researchers found both AMH and AFC declined faster in women whose mothers had an early menopause (before the age of 45) compared to women whose mothers had a late menopause (after the age of 55).
Average AMH levels declined by 8.6%, 6.8% and 4.2% a year in the groups of women with mothers who had early, normal or late menopauses, respectively.
A similar pattern was seen for AFC, with annual declines of 5.8%, 4.7% and 3.2% in the same groups, respectively.
Past research suggests there is about 20 years between a woman’s fertility starting to decline and the onset of menopause. So a woman who enters the menopause at 45 may have experienced a decline in her fertility at the age of 25.
Lead researcher Dr. Janne Bentzen said: “Our findings support the idea that the ovarian reserve is influenced by hereditary factors. However, long-term follow-up studies are required.”
Also, having fewer eggs does not necessarily mean that the woman will go on to have fewer babies.
Dr. Valentine Akande, a consultant gynaecologist and spokesman for the British Fertility Society, said the findings were helpful, but that women should not be overly concerned if their mother did have an early menopause.
“There is a huge amount of variation among women. Some will have more eggs and some will have less.
“Whilst it is assumed that lower egg number is associated with more challenges at getting pregnant this study did not look at that.
“Currently there is no test that can accurately predict fertility.
“The advice remains the same – the younger you start trying for a baby the more likely you are to be successful.”
He said, in general, women are most fertile between the ages of 18 and 31.
