Bieber’s Hamster Giveaway Causes Furry Furor

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067b5  ht pac justin bieber jp 121220 main Biebers Hamster Giveaway Causes Furry Furor

Justin Bieber bonds with his former pet, Pac-the-hamster. Image credit: Twitter @PacBieber.



Here’s a story that will give you paws. Or at least it has paws.






According to TMZ, Justin Bieber gave an unsuspecting fan an early Christmas present by unloading his pet hamster, named PAC, on her during a recent concert.


“That’s all you,” Bieber can be heard shouting to the girl over the screams of the crowd as the incident was captured on grainy video. “You gotta take care of PAC.”


The girl, identified as Victoria Blair, age 18, screamed back, “I will take care of him!”


The California Hamster Association is not amused. They simply cannot belieb the pop star acted so irresponsibly.


First of all, yes. There really is a California Hamster Association (CHA). And second, as David Imber, an adviser and spokesman for the organization pointed out – what Bieber did was not cool.


“No doubt Justin Bieber meant well in delighting his adoring fan with the gift of his hamster, but without realizing it he was practicing a form of animal cruelty,” Imber said.


“We have subsequently read that the recipient is attempting to be responsible about caring for the animal, but absent any other indication, in general it is extremely likely that this hamster would have been harmed,” Imber continued. “No pet, large or small, should ever be ‘gifted’ to an unknowing recipient.”


Beiber could not immediately be reached for comment by ABC News but Blair told ABC News that PAC is doing fine.


If you are considering giving the gift of a hamster this year, the CHA urges using some common sense.


This means never surprising someone with any sort of creature, let alone something as sensitive and fragile as a cute and furry little hamster. Without discussing it with them first, you don’t know if someone has the means or desire to provide proper care for the animal (as with any animal), including suitable housing, plenty of food and water, and one of those squeaky exercise wheels. And definitely, under no circumstances should you hand over a pet to the recipient at a concert.


Imber worried that most people don’t realize hamsters actually don’t make great pets for little kids even though they are inexpensive and reproduce in great numbers.


“They do not typically sit calmly in one’s lap, but roam incessantly — the reason we give them wheels — and they have a very short life span of fewer than 1,000 days,” he said.


If you do decide to go forward with a pet present, remind the new owner that they can leave it in the care of a shelter or animal rescue center should they no longer wish to keep it — again, keeping in mind that any handoff should not occur in the midst of a screaming mob of adolescent girls.


But anyway, three holiday cheers for PAC’s new situation. Our little ham-star doesn’t appear doomed to die a horrible death as the CHA initially feared. In fact, he seems to be thriving like the tiny rodent royalty he is, even tossing out the occasional tweet to his nearly 46,000 followers.


“Yes, it’s true. @victoriablair21 is ‘my’ new owner, she takes care of me so don’t worry,” said one of his tweets that posted a few days after he was handed over to Blair.


It was hashtagged, #happyhamster.


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Final day of funerals for Newtown shooting victims

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The final three victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School will be laid to rest today, ending a somber week of funerals.



A mass will take place today at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church for Josephine Gay, who had celebrated her 7th birthday on Dec. 11.



Friends and family have been asked to wear Josephine's favorite color, purple, in her honor.



PHOTOS: Victims of Sandy Hook Massacre



A homegoing celebration will take place at The First Cathedral in Bloomfield, Conn., for Ana Marquez-Greene. The 6-year-old with a beaming voice sang in a home video with her brother, who was also at Sandy Hook Elementary School during the massacre, and seemed destined to take after her father, a jazz musician.



Emilie Parker, the budding artist who carried her markers and pencils everywhere, will be laid to rest in Ogden, Utah today.



The 6-year-old would have been would one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman's bullets not claimed her life, her father said.



"My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that's the kind of kid she is," her father, Robbie Parker, said last Saturday.



"She always had something kind to say about anybody," Parker said. "We find comfort reflecting on the incredible person Emilie was and how many lives she was able to touch."



WATCH: Emilie's father speaks about his daughter


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Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.


Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent the attacks, said Friday that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community, called Kipao, at dawn in the Tana River Delta.






The latest deaths in a tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year’s general elections, according to the U.N.


At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October.


Animosity between the two communities over land and water resources has existed for decades.


Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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RIM shares dive as fee changes catch market off guard

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(Reuters) – Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd dropped 20 percent on Friday on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.


The shares were still more than 80 percent above the year’s low, which was hit in September. They started to rally in November as investors began to bet that RIM’s long-awaited new BlackBerry 10 phones, to be launched in January, would turn the company around.






The services segment has long been RIM’s most profitable and accounts for about a third of total revenue. Some analysts said there was a risk that the fee changes could endanger its service ecosystem and leave the Canadian company as just another handset maker.


The fee changes, which RIM announced on Thursday after the close, overshadowed stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The company said the new pricing structure would be introduced with the BlackBerry 10 launch, expected on January 30.


RIM said some subscribers would continue to pay for enhanced services such as advanced security. But under the new structure, some other services would account for less revenue, or even none at all.


Chief Executive Thorsten Heins tried to reassure investors in a television interview with CNBC on Friday, saying RIM’s “service revenue isn’t going away”.


He added: “We’re not stopping. We’re not halting. We’re transitioning.”


Since taking over at RIM in January, Heins has focused on shrinking the company and getting it ready to introduce its new BB10 devices, which RIM says will help it claw back ground it has lost to competitors such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.


But the news of the new services pricing strategy came as a shock to markets, and some analysts cut their price targets on RIM stock.


RIM will not be able to sustain profitability by relying on its hardware business alone, said National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson, whom Thomson Reuters StarMine has rated the top RIM analyst based on the accuracy of his estimates of the company’s earnings.


Thompson downgraded RIM’s stock to “underperform” from “sector perform” and cut his price target to $ 10 from $ 15.


Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said the move was likely about stabilizing market share: “At the moment, they need to stem the bleeding.”


He said the tiered pricing might line up better with RIM’s subscriber base as it expands in emerging economies.


RIM’s Nasdaq-listed shares were down 19.8 percent at $ 11.32 on Friday afternoon. The stock was down 19.6 percent to C$ 11.21 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.


COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH


The success of the BB10 will be crucial to the future of RIM, which on Thursday posted its first-ever decline in total subscribers. Heins said on CNBC that the company expected to ship millions of the new devices.


He cautioned that this will require heavy investment, which will reduce RIM’s cash position in its fourth and first quarters from $ 2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter. He said, however, it would not go below $ 2 billion.


Still, doubts remain about whether RIM can pull off the transformation. Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said the BB10 would have to look meaningfully superior to its competitors for RIM to stage a comeback.


Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said it was highly unlikely that the market would support RIM’s new mobile computing ecosystem, and he remained skeptical about the company’s ability to survive on its own.


“We believe RIM will eventually need to sell the company,” said Walkley, who cut his price target on RIM shares to $ 9 from $ 10.


Baird Equity Research analysts said BB10 faced a daunting uphill battle against products from Apple, as well as those using Google Inc’s Android operating system, and, increasingly, phones with Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 operating system.


Baird maintained its “underperform” rating on the stock, while Paradigm Capital downgraded the shares to “hold” from “buy” on uncertainty around the services revenue model.


“RIM has gone from having one major aspect of uncertainty – BlackBerry 10 adoption – to two, given an uncertain floor on services revenue,” William Blair analyst Anil Doradla said.


RIM will have to discount BB10 devices significantly to maintain demand, Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said.


The BlackBerry, however, still offers the security features that helped it build its reputation with big business and government, a selling point with some key customers.


Credit Suisse maintained its “neutral” rating on the stock, but not because it expected BB10 to be a big success.


“Only the potential for an outright sale of the company or a breakup keeps us at a neutral,” Credit Suisse analysts said.


Separately on Friday, ailing Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia said it had settled its patent dispute with RIM in return for payments. Nokia did not disclose detailed terms, but said the deal included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM. [ID:nL5E8NL22K]


($ 1=$ 0.98 Canadian)


(Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore and Allison Martell in Toronto. Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Ted Kerr, Dale Hudson, Janet Guttsman,; Lisa Von Ahn and Peter Galloway)


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Singer Odell first male to win Brit newcomer award

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LONDON (Reuters) – Singer-songwriter Tom Odell was named the Brit Awards’ tip for the top in 2013, the first male artist to receive the honor previously won by chart queens including Adele and Jessie J.


The 22-year-old, whose musical style and voice has drawn comparisons to Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, beat London electronic duo AlunaGeorge and classically trained soul singer Laura Mvula to the Critics’ Choice Award.






Selected by a panel of music industry experts, the annual prize goes to a British artist tipped for mainstream success, and previous winners have gone on to top charts in Britain and beyond.


“Looking at the list of amazing female artists who have won the Award already, I just hope I don’t let the boys down!” Odell said in a statement.


He released his debut E.P. “Songs From Another Love” in late 2012 and followed up with a performance on the popular live music show “Later…with Jools Holland“.


Odell also appears on the BBC’s Sound of 2013 longlist and MTV’s Brand New For 2013 selection of 10 up-and-coming artists, as the music business seeks to identify the chart-toppers of tomorrow.


Many acts, including Odell, already have record deals with major labels.


(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)


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FDA approves Roche’s Tamiflu for infants with new flu symptoms

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(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday expanded the use of Tamiflu, the flu drug from Roche, to children as young as two weeks old who have shown flu symptoms for no more than two days.


The FDA said the drug cannot be used to prevent flu infection in this age group. The drug is currently approved as both a flu treatment and preventative flu drug for children ages 1 and older, and adults. It aims to help lessen the length and severity of the flu.






Tamiflu was approved in 1999 and is distributed in the United States by Genentech, part of Roche. It was co-developed by Gilead Sciences. Its most common side effects include vomiting and diarrhea.


The FDA said its expanded use is based on extrapolating data from previous study results in adults and older children, and supporting studies by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Roche.


Tamiflu, which had peak sales of $ 3 billion in 2009 because of the H1N1 swine flu epidemic, is approved by regulators worldwide but some researchers claim there is little evidence it works and have asked Roche to hand over data so they can study its effectiveness.


(Reporting By Caroline Humer; Editing by Grant McCool)


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NRA calls for armed personnel in schools

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The NRA's Wayne LaPierre speaks at Friday's press conference (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


The National Rifle Association on Friday, a full week after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gave its first response to the massacre that killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, argued at a press conference in Washington, D.C., that gun control legislation would not prevent similar shootings, and offered the organization's own proposal: a nationwide program that would place armed security in every school desiring protection.


"I call on Congress today to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation," LaPierre said. The proposed program, called the National School Shield, would help train and install security at schools nationwide under the leadership of former Arkansas Republican Rep. Asa Hutchinson.


"Innocent lives might have been spared," LaPierre said, if armed security was present at Sandy Hook. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."


LaPierre, Hutchinson and David Keene, president of the NRA, all declined to take questions from the press, and said NRA press officers won't be responding to the media until Monday.


LaPierre in part blamed mass shootings on "vicious, violent video games" such as"Bulletstorm," "Grand Theft Auto," Mortal Kombat" and  "Splatterhouse." He also reached back in time to place blame on movies like "American Psycho" and "Natural Born Killers" for portraying "life as a joke and murder as a way of life."


He added, "In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes—every minute of every day of every month of every year.”


He also criticized the media for vilifying guns and gun owners, and for publicizing inaccuracies about guns.


"Why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect the president of our country or our police, but bad when it’s used to protect children in our schools?" he asked.


"It’s our duty to protect them," LaPierre said of the nation's schoolchildren. "It’s our right to protect them."


Part of the problem in protecting schools, he also noted, is the designation of gun-free school zones. The zones "tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk," he said.


Gun control advocates immediately decried the NRA's views as extreme and dangerous.


"Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, said in a statement. "Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe."


Bloomberg said NRA members support background checks for gun ownership because of gun violence. "As a country, we must rise above special interest politics," he added.


On Capitol Hill, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who conceded that armed security could be "helpful in some instances, noted in a statement that "the NRA’s statement is sadly and shamefully inadequate—calling for more guns and rejecting real action against gun violence. At a defining, historic moment demanding courageous leadership, the NRA has declined to step forward as a credible and constructive partner."


The press conference, despite the tight security at the Willard InterContinental Hotel where it was held, was interrupted twice by gun control protesters later identified as members of anti-war group CodePink. A man rose from the press area in front of LaPierre during his speech and held up a pink cloth displaying the words "NRA Killing Our Kids." Later, a woman identified as Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, unfurled a sign reading "NRA blood on your hands,” and shouted, "Reckless behavior coming from the NRA" and other comments as she was dragged out of the room.


A large security staff dressed in suits and wearing earpieces lined the perimeter of the makeshift stage as well as the room. Security staffers moved to sit directly in front and behind of LaPierre following the CodePink protests as other security members stepped forward into the seating area.


Prior to the conference, gun control protesters as well as PETA protesters and others, lined the street in front of the hotel entrance Friday waving signs and shouting.


Pressure on lawmakers from gun control advocates has increased in the wake of the shooting. President Barack Obama on Friday released a web video in response to an outpouring of White House petitions calling on the president to respond to gun violence.


“We hear you," Obama said in the video. "I will do everything in my power as president to advance these efforts, because if there’s even one thing we can do as a country to protect our children, we have a responsibility to try. But as I said earlier this week, I can’t do it alone. I need your help.”


Obama tasked Vice President Joe Biden to review potential gun legislation and other measures on which to act next session. Biden spoke Thursday to law enforcement leaders about banning assault weapons, though no further details were released on the private discussion.


California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has pledged to introduce a new federal assault weapons ban in January and has received support from several gun rights advocates and from the White House.


Olivier Knox contributed to this report.




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State Department security chief leaves post over Benghazi

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday its security chief had resigned from his post and three other officials had been relieved of their duties following a scathing official inquiry into the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.


Eric Boswell has resigned effective immediately as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a terse statement. A second official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Boswell had not left the department entirely and remained a career official.






Nuland said that Boswell, and the three other officials, had all been put on administrative leave “pending further action.”


An official panel that investigated the incident concluded that the Benghazi mission was completely unprepared to deal with the attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.


The unclassified version of the report, which was released on Tuesday, cited “leadership and management” deficiencies, poor coordination among officials and “real confusion” in Washington and in the field over who had the authority to make decisions on policy and security concerns.


“The ARB identified the performance of four officials, three in the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of (Near Eastern) Affairs,” Nuland said in her statement, referring to the panel known as an Accountability Review Board.


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted Boswell’s decision to resign effective immediately, the spokeswoman said.


Earlier, a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Boswell, one of his deputies, Charlene Lamb, and a third unnamed official has been asked to resign. The Associated Press first reported that three officials had resigned.


PANEL STOPS SHORT OF BLAMING CLINTON


The Benghazi incident appeared likely to tarnish Clinton’s four-year tenure as secretary of state but the report did not fault her specifically and the officials who led the review stopped short of blaming her.


“We did conclude that certain State Department bureau-level senior officials in critical positions of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of leadership and management ability appropriate for senior ranks,” retired Admiral Michael Mullen, one of the leaders of the inquiry, told reporters on Wednesday.


The panel’s chair, retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering, said it had determined that responsibility for security shortcomings in Benghazi belonged at levels lower than Clinton’s office.


“We fixed (responsibility) at the assistant secretary level, which is, in our view, the appropriate place to look for where the decision-making in fact takes place, where – if you like – the rubber hits the road,” Pickering said after closed-door meetings with congressional committees.


The panel’s report and the comments by its two lead authors suggested that Clinton, who accepted responsibility for the incident in a television interview about a month after the Benghazi attack, would not be held personally culpable.


Pickering and Mullen spoke to the media after briefing members of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee behind closed doors on classified elements of their report.


Clinton had been expected to appear at an open hearing on Benghazi on Thursday, but is recuperating after suffering a concussion, dehydration and a stomach bug last week. She will instead be represented by her two top deputies.


Clinton, who intends to step down in January, said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations, which include stepping up security staffing and requesting more money to fortify U.S. facilities.


The National Defense Authorization Act for 2013, which is expected to go to Congress for final approval this week, includes a measure directing the Pentagon to increase the Marine Corps presence at diplomatic facilities by up to 1,000 Marines.


Some Capitol Hill Republicans who had criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attacks said they were impressed by the report.


“It was very thorough,” said Senator Johnny Isakson. Senator John Barrasso said: “It was very, very critical of major failures at the State Department at very high levels.” Both spoke after the closed-door briefing.


Others, however, took a harsher line and called for Clinton to testify as soon as she is able.


“The report makes clear the massive failure of the State Department at all levels, including senior leadership, to take action to protect our government employees abroad,” Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.


Senator Bob Corker, who will be the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the new Congress is seated early next year, said Clinton should testify about Benghazi before her replacement is confirmed by the Senate.


Republicans have focused much of their firepower on U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who appeared on TV talk shows after the attack and suggested it was the result of a spontaneous protest rather than a premeditated attack.


The report concluded that there was no such protest.


Rice, widely seen as President Barack Obama’s top pick to succeed Clinton, withdrew her name from consideration last week.


(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Christopher Wilson)


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Acer will beat Google to market with its own $99 tablet

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Title Post: Acer will beat Google to market with its own $99 tablet
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Taylor Swift keeps Bruno Mars out of Billboard 200 top spot

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country pop star Taylor Swift held her reign at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, keeping retro-inspired R&B singer Bruno Mars‘ new album at bay.


Swift’s latest album, “Red,” released in October, held the No. 1 slot for a fifth non-consecutive week with sales of 208,000, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.






Mars’ second album, “Unorthodox Jukebox,” sold 192,000 copies in its opening week to take the No. 2 slot.


The album’s lead single, “Locked Out of Heaven,” stayed at the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a second week, and is the singer’s fourth chart-topping single. It also tops the Digital Songs chart this week.


Hip hop artist The Game entered the chart at No. 6 with his fifth studio album, “Jesus Piece,” selling 86,000 copies.


Four festive albums sat in the top ten this week, with Michael Buble‘s “Christmas” at No. 3, Rod Stewart‘s “Merry Christmas Baby” at No. 5, Blake Shelton‘s “Cheers, It’s Christmas” at No. 8, and Lady Antebellum‘s “On This Winter’s Night” at No. 10.


(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy Editing by Jill Serjeant, Gary Hill)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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