Police: Kansas City Chiefs player kills girlfriend, takes own life

Chiefs and Panthers will play at regularly scheduled time on Sunday:
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Oliver Stone, Benicio del Toro visit Puerto Rico












SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Benicio Del Toro didn’t wait long to collect on a favor that Oliver Stone owed him for working extra hours on the set of his most recent movie, “Savages”, released this year.


The favor? A trip to Del Toro‘s native Puerto Rico, which Stone hadn’t visited since the early 1960s.












“I told him, you owe me one,” Del Toro said with a smile as he recalled the conversation during a press conference Friday in the U.S. territory, where he and Stone are helping raise money for one of the island’s largest art museums.


Del Toro, wearing jeans, a black jacket and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of local reggaeton singer Tego Calderon, waved to the press as he was introduced.


“Hello, greetings. Is this a press conference?” he quipped as he and Stone awaited questions.


Both men praised each other’s work, saying they would like to work with each other again.


“I deeply admire him as an actor, the way he thinks, the way he expresses himself,” Stone said. “Of all the actors I’ve worked with, he’s the most interesting.”


Stone said Del Toro always delivers surprises while acting, even when it’s as something as subtle as certain gestures between dialogue.


“I think Benicio is the master of keeping you watching,” he said.


Stone said he enjoys meeting up with Del Toro off-set because he’s one of the few actors in Hollywood who can talk about something other than movies.


“He is very interested in the world around him,” Stone said, adding that the conversations sometimes center around politics and other topics.


Del Toro declined to answer when asked what he thought about Puerto Rico’s referendum earlier this month, which aimed to determine the future of the island’s political status. He said the results did not seem to point to a clear-cut outcome.


Del Toro then said he would like the island’s movie business to grow, especially in a way that would encourage learning.


“I’m talking about movies in an educational sense, as a way to discover other parts of the world,” he said. “Create a film class. You’ll see, kids won’t skip it.”


Del Toro also shared his thoughts on being a father after having a daughter with Kimberly Stewart in August 2011.


He said the girl is learning how to swim and is discovering the world around her.


“She has her own personality,” Del Toro said. “She’s not her mother. She’s not me.”


Both Del Toro and Stone are expected to remain in Puerto Rico through the weekend to raise money for the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, which is hosting its annual movie festival and will honor Stone’s movies.


Museum curator Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero said the money raised will be used to enhance the museum’s permanent collection, especially with Puerto Rican paintings from the 19th century and early 20th century.


Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Act of kindness turns New York cop into media darling












NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. national media just got the perfect holiday gift: a feel-good tale about a young police officer who dug into his own pocket to put boots on a barefoot panhandler on a freezing city sidewalk.


Even better was the way the story of New York City Police Officer Larry DePrimo‘s kindness unfolded.












Thanks to a blurry Facebook photo snapped on a cell phone by a tourist who happened the incident in Times Square, DePrimo, 25, went from anonymous Good Samaritan to national media celebrity in less than 72 hours.


The photo of the officer crouching with the new pair of boots next to the bedraggled man was featured on the front pages of New York‘s two popular tabloids, the New York Post and the New York Daily News, on Friday. An article describing the good deed was the most viewed story of The New York Times’s website on Friday morning.


DePrimo told and retold the story of his labor of love in interviews Friday on a half dozen national TV morning shows, including NBC’s “Today” show, ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “Morning Show,” CNN’s “Starting Point” and Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”


“We’ve been speaking a lot the last couple of days about who should be the ‘Time’ person of the year — Time magazine. I’d like to nominate you,” “Fox & Friends” host Gretchen Carlson told DePrimo.


Little was known about the man to whom DePrimo gave the boots. He is said to be a veteran who was at one time homeless and was placed in veterans’ housing sometime in the past year, according to NBC 4 New York.


DePrimo’s story has been particularly appealing because most pictures and video civilians take of police officers expose cruelty, not generosity, said Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.


In contrast, “everything about this feels good and right and worthy,” Clark said, adding that the way the story came to the media’s attention contributed to its poignancy.


Squeezed into the spotlight was Jennifer Foster, the tourist who quietly snapped the photo of DePrimo that was posted to the New York Police Department’s Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon. She was flown to New York from Arizona for a Friday morning appearance on “Today” with DePrimo – meeting him for the first time.


“We decided that we were best friends now,” Foster said on the program.


Back in Times Square, television trucks and their crews swarmed the Skechers store where DePrimo bought the boots with the help of a worker who rang up the purchase with his employee discount. Even the small kindness of the discount triggered a wave of thank you calls and emails to the store, including from a retired detective from Arizona, said assistant manager Holli Barton.


(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Leslie Adler)


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Korean pop rides “Gangnam Style” into U.S. music scene












LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Gangnam Style,” the catchy Korean song by rapper Psy, may have danced its way into the American charts but the Korean pop industry isn’t horsing around when it comes to capitalizing on the singer’s phenomenal U.S. success.


With “Gangnam Style” topping the current Billboard Digital Songs chart and becoming the most-watched video on YouTube ever with more than 800 million views, fellow Korean pop, or K-pop, artists are positioning themselves for similar U.S. breakthroughs.












Korea’s pop music industry is thriving. Over the past two years, a handful of K-pop acts including girl group 2NE1, boy band Super Junior and nine-piece band Girls Generation have embarked on mini-promotional tours around the United States to build their audience.


“Psy has opened doors and is shining a spotlight on K-pop. People are paying attention to what’s being done there,” Alina Moffat, general manager at YG Entertainment group, which manages Psy, told a recent entertainment industry conference in Los Angeles.


Psy’s vibrant music video, featuring his invisible pony-riding dance, also featured K-pop artists Kim Hyun-a of girl band 4Minute, and Deasung and Seungri of boy band Big Bang, all of whom are attempting to crack the U.S. market.


“YouTube has really changed the awareness of K-pop. Both American kids and second-generation Korean American kids are discovering it,” Kye Kyoungbon Koo, director of the Korea Creative Content Agency, told a panel at a Billboard and Hollywood Reporter conference in Los Angeles in October.


MARKETING THE NEXT BIG THING


For U.S. companies looking to invest, K-pop is being marketed as the next big thing, boasting young, stylish and influential artists who command devoted fan followings.


Moffat said car companies and mobile phone brands were among those being courted at KCON, a convention held in October in Irvine in Southern California that showcased K-pop artists.


“Kids are coming, they’re engaged, they want to spend money and sponsors saw that,” Moffat said.


Whether Psy or other K-pop artists can command a global following to rival Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber or Rihanna remains to be seen, but John Shim, senior producer at MTV World, believes it is the right genre to compete with pop music’s biggest names.


“K-pop admittedly is a very niche genre but I also think it’s the best equipped of Asian pop to cater to the U.S. audience,” Shim told Reuters.


Psy has helped to break down language barriers, keeping “Gangnam Style” in its original Korean form instead of adapting it to English when it became an international hit.


The singer told Reuters he was persuaded to keep it that way by his manager Scooter Braun, the talent scout responsible for Justin Bieber’s success, who signed Psy to his record label.


“I thought, ‘Should I translate this or not?’ because (the fans) have got to know what I’m talking about, and lyrics are a huge part,” Psy said.


CHATTING IN ENGLISH


But industry executives say at least one member of each K-Pop group is usually taught to be fluent in conversational English.


“The investment in language is costly, but effective,” said Ted Kim, president of South Korean music television channel Mnet. “It really matters that Psy can go on the Ellen DeGeneres TV show and have a conversation.”


Psy said he was proud his song succeeded in Korean, but he now wants to branch out into English.


“‘Gangnam Style’ is not the sort of thing that’s going to happen twice. I’ve definitely got to make something in English so I can communicate with my fans right now,” the singer said.


In Korea, bands such as SM Entertainment’s Super Junior and Girls Generation have became branding powerhouses, scoring endorsements ranging from cosmetics, fashion, video games, electronics and beverages.


In the United States, companies such as Samsung have already jumped on the K-pop train, sponsoring Korean boy band Big Bang’s U.S. tour.


But while the genre is gaining steam in the charts, it has yet to spill into ticket sales for tours, according to Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief at Pollstar.com, which tracks concert sales.


“Psy may be able to sell out arenas in Asia, but not yet here. For the American audience, he has to prove that he’s more than a novelty act,” Bongiovanni said.


“K-pop has to prove itself before large companies spend money on it,” he added.


(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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New Jersey bridge collapse derails freight train; chemical leaks












PAULSBORO, New Jersey (Reuters) – A railroad bridge collapsed on Friday over a creek in southern New Jersey, causing a Conrail freight train to derail and spill hazardous chemicals into the air and water, authorities said.


Seven of the 82 cars derailed, and a tanker car that fell into Mantua Creek leaked vinyl chloride into the waterway, which feeds into the Delaware River near Philadelphia, said Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.












More than 12,000 gallons (45,425 liters) of the highly toxic and flammable industrial chemical leaked from a gash in the car’s side, local officials said.


Twenty-two people were examined at a nearby hospital as a precaution and were doing fine, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.


Ragonese said the health danger and environmental impact were minimal.


“Initially there was a release of gas into the air that affected some nearby residents and people working right in that area,” he said.


Air quality monitors in the area did not register any problem, said Lawrence Hajna, also with the DEP. “All the levels are coming in within our safety range.”


Exposure to vinyl chloride can cause a burning sensation in the eyes or respiratory discomfort, the DEP said.


The accident took place at about 7 a.m. EST (1200 GMT) in Paulsboro. Area residents initially were told to stay indoors, with windows shut, and local schools were closed.


The leak was contained and no longer posed a threat, and authorities were using booms to trap the chemical in the water, Ragonese said.


At the scene, one of the freight cars was nearly vertical, nose-down and partly submerged in the creek. Other cars lay jumbled on the collapsed bridge and the embankment.


“It’s part of living in Paulsboro, with refineries and trains. We accept it,” said resident John Diamond, 53, who was taking photographs.


The area is thick with chemical plants, and two refineries, PBF Energy’s Paulsboro and NuStar’s Asphalt, are nearby.


TANK “BREACHED”


The head of the Gloucester County, New Jersey, Office of Emergency Management, Tom Butts, said the leaking tanker car in the water had a tear in it, and the tank was “breached.”


About half of its contents leaked out, he said.


The tank was carrying some 25,000 gallons (94,635 liters) of the chemical, said John Burzichelli, a state assemblyman and former mayor of Paulsboro.


“When you live between two oil refineries, you have a sense that these things can happen,” he said.


Locals fish and go crabbing and jet-ski in the creek in the warm months, Diamond said.


Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said improved safety procedures, inspection, enforcement and oversight are needed to help prevent such accidents.


“This time it was … vinyl chloride. What if it was chlorine?” he said, referring to a chemical that is extremely dangerous if inhaled and has the potential to explode.


Also, he said there is no mechanism to alert communities to what kinds of chemicals trains are carrying through the states.


He questioned the integrity of the bridge, which is owned and operated by Conrail, since Superstorm Sandy slammed into New Jersey on October 29, causing surges in area waterways.


The cause of the accident was undetermined. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, and members of the agency arrived at the scene mid-afternoon.


NTSB’s chairwoman said four out of the five train cars that were on the bridge when it collapsed landed in the creek, and two other cars rolled onto the embankment.


“We have requested a great deal of information from the railroad” as part of the investigation, Hersman said.


Conrail said the train consisted of two locomotives, 82 rail cars and one caboose.


“We very much regret the impact on the local community,” said Conrail spokesman John Enright, who was at the scene. “We will be working very closely with federal investigators to determine the cause.”


The bridge underwent extensive repairs after getting damaged in a 2009 derailment of a coal freight train, Burzichelli said.


“That bridge is very old. It’s not a good day for Conrail,” Burzichelli said, adding that the bridge carries three major freight trains daily.


New Jersey State Senate President Steve Sweeney, also on the scene, said a nearby homeowner reported hearing a “loud bang” from the bridge about two days ago. Burzichelli said Conrail had come out to examine it in response.


Conrail is jointly owned by rail operators CSX Corp and Norfolk Southern Corp.


(Additional reporting by Edith Honan and Ellen Wulfhorst; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Vicki Allen and Xavier Briand)


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Pelosi vows to force tax rate vote

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)


WASHINGTON—House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will try to force a vote on the House floor to extend current tax rates for the middle class next week if Republicans do not act, the California Democrat announced on Friday.


During a press conference on Capitol Hill, Pelosi called on House Republicans, who control the chamber, to hold another floor vote on whether to extend current tax rates for individuals who earn $200,000 or less and families making $250,000 or less. If they don't, Pelosi vowed to file a "discharge petition" that would force a vote if 218 House members sign it, which is unlikely.


The bill Pelosi wants to see put to a vote is identical to a measure passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate in July that extends the rates for middle-income earners for one year. House Republicans responded by rejecting the bill and passing their own measure that extends current tax rates for all income brackets.


"We're calling upon the Republican leadership in the House to bring this legislation to the floor next week. We believe that not doing that would be holding middle-income tax cuts hostage to tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich, which do not create jobs, just increase the deficit, keeping mountains of debt for generations," Pelosi said. "To that end ... if it is not scheduled, then on Tuesday we will introduce a discharge petition."


Discharge petitions, which allow individual members of Congress to put a bill to a vote without committee or leadership approval, are rarely successful. In this case, Pelosi would need Republican support. But when asked if any Republicans had signaled that they would sign a discharge petition to force a vote, Pelosi responded, "No."


Pelosi said she wanted the bill passed so Congress will have more time to negotiate broader tax reform in 2013.

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Zynga slides after updated agreement with Facebook












NEW YORK (AP) — Zynga shares tumbled nearly 12 percent in after-hours trading Thursday after the online game company and Facebook disclosed that they changed their relationship status to become less attached to each other.


Zynga Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it will no longer have to display Facebook ads or use Facebook payments on its own properties — such as Zynga.com. In addition Zynga will no longer be required to use Facebook as the exclusive social site for its games, or to grant Facebook exclusive games.












Facebook Inc., which filed a similar disclosure, will also be able to develop its own games after the end of March. Its deal with Zynga previously prohibited that.


The amendments change the companies’ 2010 contract that gave Zynga special status among Facebook game developers. San Francisco-based Zynga relies on Facebook for most of the revenue it generates, but the company has been working to establish its independence — while also maintaining ties with Facebook.


Zynga’s titles range from “FarmVille” to “CityVille” to “Words With Friends,” the Scrabble-like game made popular on mobile devices.


Zynga shares fell 31 cents, or 11.8 percent, to $ 2.31 in after-hours trading. The stock closed up 11 cents, or 4.4 percent, at $ 2.62 in the regular session.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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“Homeland” in, “Boardwalk Empire” out in PGA TV nominations












LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Emmy-winning dramas “Homeland”, “Mad Men” and British period piece “Downton Abbey” will compete for the annual Producers Guild Awards for the top shows on U.S. television, organizers announced on Wednesday.


But last year’s winner – HBO’s lavish Prohibition-era gangster drama “Boardwalk Empire” – failed to make the cut this year with the Producers Guild of America, one of the leading professional guilds in Hollywood.












Instead, the producers of popular fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” and drug underworld show “Breaking Bad” round out the nominees for the top PGA prize in television.


The PGA also nominated the producers of comedies “Modern Family”, “The Big Bang Theory”, “Louie”, “30 Rock” and Larry David’s wry “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as contenders for its 2013 awards on the small screen.


In the reality genre, singing contest “The Voice” will go head to head with fashion show “Project Runway”, “Top Chef”, “Dancing with the Stars” and Emmy darling “The Amazing Race”.


Hollywood‘s guilds represent professionals in their respective industries, and recognition by peers can go a long way toward boosting a producer’s career.


The PGA will announce nominees in its closely watched movie category in early January, and hand out its awards for film and television at a ceremony in Hollywood on January 26.


(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Dale Hudson)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Health officials tell Greece to act fast to control HIV












LONDON (Reuters) – A spiraling outbreak of HIV in debt-stricken Greece could run out of control if urgent action is not taken, European health officials said on Friday.


The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said infections with the AIDS-causing virus among drug users and other high-risk groups were rising fast, and that a failure to act would mean far higher costs in future.












ECDC director Marc Sprenger will meet Greek officials this week to say that free needles, syringes and opioid substitution projects must be stepped up, and testing and treatment for the human immunodeficiency virus made available to all.


“Immediate concerted action is needed in order to curb and eventually stop the current outbreak,” he told Reuters as the ECDC published a report on Greece’s HIV problem.


Since 2009, recession in Greece has reduced economic output by a fifth and sent unemployment to a record high.


The healthcare system is under extreme pressure, making it harder for the poor, unemployed or homeless to get treatment.


While Greece has only 7.4 HIV infections per 100,000 people, compared to 10 per 100,000 in Britain or 27.3 in Estonia, rates have soared since 2011 in high-risk groups such as drug users.


From 2007 to 2010, there were only 10 to 15 cases a year of HIV infection in injecting drug users.


But during 2011, there were 256 such cases – or 27 percent of the total. Another 314 were reported between January and August 2012, most of them in the capital.


Combination drugs can give patients with HIV near-normal life expectancy, but the drugs must be taken for life, and cost 10,000 to 22,000 euros ($ 13,000 to $ 28,500) a year. Sprenger said Greece’s costs were at risk of running out of control.


“If a scale-up (in prevention and testing) is not achieved, it’s likely that HIV transmission among people who inject drugs in Athens will continue and even accelerate – and could eventually spread,” he said.


“The cost of prevention … will be significantly less than the provision of treatment to those who become infected.”


The ECDC said it was unclear how much Greece’s debt crisis has contributed to HIV outbreak.


Rates of other health problems such as depression and suicide have been rising in Greece, which is also battling the re-emergence of mosquito-borne diseases such West Nile Virus and malaria.


(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


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U.N. upgrades Palestine to 'state,' U.S. objects

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize a Palestinian state, a long-sought victory for the Palestinians and an embarrassing diplomatic defeat for the United States.

The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the U.N. was approved by a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions, in the 193-member world body.

A Palestinian flag was quickly unfurled on the floor of the General Assembly, behind the Palestinian delegation. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, hundreds crowded into the main square waved Palestinian flags and chanted "God is great." Others who had watched the vote on outdoor screens and television sets hugged, honked and set off fireworks before dancing in the streets.

Real independence, however, remains an elusive dream until the Palestinians negotiate a peace deal with the Israelis, who warned that the General Assembly action will only delay a lasting solution. Israel still controls the West Bank, east Jerusalem and access to Gaza, and it accused the Palestinians of bypassing negotiations with the campaign to upgrade their U.N. status.

The Palestinians still face enormous limitations. They don't control their borders, airspace or trade, they have separate and competing governments in Gaza and the West Bank and they have no unified army or police.

The United States immediately criticized the historic vote. "Today's unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path peace," U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive."

The United States and Israel voted against recognition, joined by Canada, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Panama.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the General Assembly shortly before the vote "defamatory and venomous," saying it was "full of mendacious propaganda" against Israel. Netanyahu called the vote meaningless.

Abbas had told the General Assembly that it was "being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine." Abbas said the vote is the last chance to save the two-state solution.

After the vote, Netanyahu said the U.N. move violated past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians and that Israel would act accordingly, without elaborating what steps it might take.

Thursday's vote came on the same day, Nov. 29, that the U.N. General Assembly in 1947 voted to recognize a partitioned state in Palestine, with the jubilant revelers then Jews. The Palestinians rejected that partition plan, and decades of tension and violence followed.

Just before Thursday's vote, Israel's U.N. ambassador, Ron Prosor, warned the General Assembly that "the Palestinians are turning their backs on peace" and that the U.N. can't break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.

The vote had been certain to succeed, with most member states sympathetic to the Palestinians. Several key countries, including France, this week announced they would support the move to elevate the Palestinians from the status of U.N. observer to nonmember observer state.

Unlike the more powerful U.N. Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly, and the resolution to raise the Palestinian status only required a majority vote for approval.

The vote grants Abbas an overwhelming international endorsement for his key position: establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. With Netanyahu opposed to a pullback to the 1967 lines, this should strengthen Abbas' hand if peace talks resume.

The overwhelming vote also could help Abbas restore some of his standing, which has been eroded by years of standstill in peace efforts. His rival, Hamas, deeply entrenched in Gaza, has seen its popularity rise after an Israeli offensive on targets linked to the Islamic militant group there earlier this month.

Israel has stepped back from initial threats of harsh retaliation for the Palestinians seeking U.N. recognition, but government officials warned that Israel would respond to any Palestinian attempts to use the upgraded status to confront Israel in international bodies.

The Palestinians now can gain access to U.N. agencies and international bodies, most significantly the International Criminal Court, which could become a springboard for going after Israel for alleged war crimes or its ongoing settlement building on war-won land.

However, in the run-up to the U.N. vote, Abbas signaled that he wants recognition to give him leverage in future talks with Israel, and not as a tool for confronting or delegitimizing Israel, as Israeli leaders have alleged.

___

Associated Press writers Robert Burns and Bradley Klapper in Washington, Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh and Karin Laub in Ramallah contributed.

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