‘Hobbit’ holds on at $36.9M, ‘Reacher’ does $15.6M

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” easily defended its box-office title, remaining the No. 1 film for a second weekend with $ 36.9 million.

A rush of newcomers mostly had modest openings, led by Tom Cruise‘s action tale “Jack Reacher” at No. 2 with $ 15.6 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Warner Bros., $ 36,940,000, 4,100 locations, $ 9,010 average, $ 150,093,000, two weeks.

2. “Jack Reacher,” Paramount, $ 15,600,000, 3,352 locations, $ 4,654 average, $ 15,600,000, one week.

3. “This Is 40,” Universal, $ 12,030,690, 2,913 locations, $ 4,130 average, $ 12,030,690, one week.

4. “Rise of the Guardians,” Paramount, $ 5,900,000, 3,031 locations, $ 1,947 average, $ 79,694,000, five weeks.

5. “Lincoln,” Disney, $ 5,525,774, 2,293 locations, $ 2,410 average, $ 116,673,598, seven weeks.

6. “The Guilt Trip,” Paramount, $ 5,390,000, 2,431 locations, $ 2,217 average, $ 7,421,000, one week.

7. “Monsters, Inc.” in 3-D, Disney, $ 4,774,686, 2,618 locations, $ 1,824 average, $ 6,259,667, one week.

8. “Skyfall,” Sony, $ 4,700,000, 2,365 locations, $ 1,987 average, $ 279,972,000, seven weeks.

9. “Life of Pi,” Fox, $ 4,017,237, 1,750 locations, $ 2,296 average, $ 76,373,481, five weeks.

10. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” Summit, $ 2,626,955, 2,000 locations, $ 1,313 average, $ 281,632,689, six weeks.

11. “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away,” Paramount, $ 2,135,000, 840 locations, $ 2,542 average, $ 2,254,000, one week.

12. “Wreck-It Ralph,” Disney, $ 1,819,036, 1,444 locations, $ 1,260 average, $ 171,741,561, eight weeks.

13. “Silver Linings Playbook,” Weinstein Co., $ 1,781,196, 371 locations, $ 4,801 average, $ 19,861,238, six weeks.

14. “Dabangg 2,” Eros International, $ 1,019,213, 166 locations, $ 6,140 average, $ 1,019,213, one week.

15. “Argo,” Warner Bros., $ 903,000, 450 locations, $ 2,007 average, $ 106,439,000, 11 weeks.

16. “Red Dawn,” Film District, $ 794,880, 1,011 locations, $ 786 average, $ 42,626,783, five weeks.

17. “Flight,” Paramount, $ 709,000, 742 locations, $ 956 average, $ 90,989,000, eight weeks.

18. “Anna Karenina,” Focus, $ 667,669, 331 locations, $ 2,017 average, $ 9,645,583, six weeks.

19. “Hitchcock,” Fox Searchlight, $ 579,676, 535 locations, $ 1,084 average, $ 4,194,968, five weeks.

20. “Playing for Keeps,” Film District, $ 424,105, 851 locations, $ 498 average, $ 12,410,463, three weeks.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Venezuela’s Chavez improving after surgery: officials

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is improving after a cancer operation in Cuba and has started exercising, officials said on Monday, amid doubts over whether the former soldier is in good enough health to continue governing.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said he had spoken by phone with Chavez, who was walking and doing exercises as part of his treatment.

“We’ve gotten the best present we could get this Christmas: a phone call from our commander president,” Maduro said on state television.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said earlier in the day that Chavez had “shown a slight improvement in his condition,” without providing details.

Chavez has not been heard from in two weeks following a fourth operation for an unspecified type of cancer in the pelvic region. The government has said he suffered post-operatory complications including unexpected bleeding and a lung infection, but offered few details about his actual condition.

His death, or even his resignation for health reasons, would upend the politics of the South American OPEC nation where his personalized brand of oil-financed socialism has made him a hero to the poor but a pariah to critics who call him a dictator.

His allies are now openly discussing the possibility that he may not be back in time to be sworn in for his third six-year term on the constitutionally mandated date of January 10.

Opposition leaders say a delay to his taking power would be another signal that Chavez is not in condition to govern and that fresh elections should be called to choose his replacement.

They believe they have a better shot against Maduro, Chavez’s anointed successor, than against the charismatic president who for 14 years has been nearly invincible at the ballot box.

But a constitutional dispute over succession could lead to a messy transition toward a post-Chavez era.

Maduro has become the government’s main figurehead in the president’s absence. His speeches have mimicked Chavez’s bombastic style that mixes historical references with acid insults of adversaries.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October presidential vote, slammed Maduro in an interview published on Sunday for failing to seek dialogue with the opposition at a time of political uncertainty.

“Maduro is not the one that won the elections, nor is he the leader,” Capriles told the local El Universal newspaper. “Because Chavez is absent, this is precisely the time that (Maduro) needs help from people (in the opposition camp).”

Chavez has vastly expanded presidential powers and built a near-cult following among millions of poor Venezuelans, who love his feisty language and social welfare projects.

The opposition is smarting from this month’s governors elections in which Chavez allies won 20 of 23 states. They are trying to keep attention focused on day-to-day problems from rampant crime to power outages.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Japan’s policy veteran Motegi likely to serve as trade minister: media

TOKYO (Reuters) – Incoming Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to pick policy veteran Toshimitsu Motegi as trade minister, who will also take charge of energy and other key economic policies, media reported on Tuesday.

Motegi, 57, a former policy affairs chief for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will tackle energy problems after last year’s Fukushima nuclear crisis, as well as issues such as the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact, public broadcaster NHK said.

Motegi was a leading member of the LDP’s panel tasked with drafting an economic revival plan aimed at tackling the strong yen, deflation and preventing Japanese firms from shifting overseas.

The LDP returned to power in the December 16 election for the lower house, calling for radical monetary easing and big spending on public works.

First elected to parliament in 1993 as a member of a small opposition party, Motegi joined the LDP shortly thereafter and has served posts including parliamentary vice-minister for the trade ministry and senior vice-minister for foreign affairs.

Motegi’s formal appointment is likely to be made on December 26, when Abe is expected to be elected as prime minister in parliament and form a new cabinet.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto)

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Taliban not demanding Afghan power monopoly

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban representatives at a conference did not insist on total power in Afghanistan and pledged to grant rights to women that the militant Islamist group itself brutally suppressed in the past, according to a Taliban statement received Sunday.

The pledges emerged from a rare meeting last week involving Taliban and Kabul government representatives.

The less strident substance and tone came in a speech delivered at a conference in France. The French hosts described it as a discussion among Afghans rather than peace negotiations.

It was hard to determine whether the softer line taken by the Taliban representatives reflected a real shift in policy or a salvo in the propaganda war for the hearts and minds of Afghans.

The speech said that a new constitution would protect civil and political rights of all citizens. It promised that women would be allowed to choose husbands, own property, attend school and seek work, rights denied them during Taliban rule, which ended with the 2001 U.S. invasion. The speech was emailed from Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

“We are not looking to monopolize power. We want an all-Afghan inclusive government,” the speech said. It was delivered by two Taliban officials, Mawlawi Shahbuddin Dilawar and Muhammad Naeem during the conference on Thursday and Friday.

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government welcomed such talks but did not expect them to bridge the gap between the warring sides.

The United States started to embrace the idea of peace talks after President Barack Obama took office, but discussions stalled in recent years, despite the formation of an Afghan government council tasked with reaching out to the Taliban and the establishment of a Taliban political office in Qatar.

“The peace initiative is a process, and one or two or three meetings are not going to solve the problems. But we are hopeful for the future,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said. He said the government’s preconditions for the talks with the Taliban have not changed: a cease-fire, recognition of the Afghan constitution, cutting ties with international terrorists and agreeing to respect the rights of Afghan citizens including women and children.

The Taliban speech reiterated the group’s own longtime policies, declaring that the current constitution was “illegitimate because it is written under the shadow of (U.S.) B-52 aircraft” and that the Taliban remained the legitimate government of the country, a reference to the U.S.-led campaign that drove the Taliban from power.

It also called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces and said a 2014 national election was “not beneficial for solving the Afghan quandary” because it would take place while the country was still under foreign occupation.

Most NATO forces are scheduled to be withdrawn by 2014. The Kabul government and its international backers hope that a peace deal can be brokered with the Taliban and other militant groups before the pullout. NATO still has more than 100,000 troops, including 66,000 U.S. soldiers, on the ground. Washington is now determining the size of a scaled down force the United States will keep in Afghanistan after 2014.

“The occupation must be ended as a first step, which is the desire of the entire nation, because this is the mother of all these tragedies,” the speech said.

The conference was also attended by the Hezb-e-Islami group, which is allied with the Taliban, and political opponents of President Hamid Karzai, whom the Taliban regard as a puppet of Washington.

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RIM shares fall at the open after earnings

TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd fell in early trading on Friday following the BlackBerry maker’s Thursday earnings announcement, when the company outlined plans to change the way it charges for services.

RIM, pushing to revive its fortunes with the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 devices next month, surprised investors when it said it plans to alter its service revenue model, a move that could put the high-margin business under pressure.

Shares fell 16.0 percent to $ 11.86 in early trading on the Nasdaq. Toronto-listed shares fell 15.8 percent to C$ 11.74.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Bethenny Frankel and husband of 2 years separating

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bethenny Frankel and husband Jason Hoppy are separating.

The 42-year-old TV personality, chef, author and entrepreneur told The Associated Press Sunday that the split brings her “great sadness.”

“This was an extremely difficult decision that as a woman and a mother, I have to accept as the best choice for our family,” Frankel said. “We have love and respect for one another and will continue to amicably co-parent our daughter who is and will always remain our first priority. This is an immensely painful and heartbreaking time for us.”

Frankel and Hoppy were married in 2010 and have a daughter, Bryn, who was born that same year. The couple’s courtship and marriage were documented in two reality series, “Bethenny Getting Married?” and “Bethenny Ever After…” Frankel gained fame as a star of “The Real Housewives of New York City.” Since her stint on the Bravo show, she has written four books, released a fitness video and founded her Skinnygirl line of cocktails, shapewear and nutritional supplements.

She launched a talk show, “Bethenny,” over the summer that is set to air nationally on Fox stations in 2013.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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For a Great Stocking Stuffer, Give a Kid a Vaccine

If you are looking for the perfect present to give kids this holiday season, what about immunity from a range of deadly communicable diseases? It is cheap and widely available at any good pediatricians’ office or vaccination clinic. Even so, this wonderful present is spurned by a growing number of parents in America and Europe.

A big reason that more children than ever will be around to enjoy the holiday season worldwide this year is because vaccination rates for a range of diseases have shot up over the last few decades. In the case of measles, the World Health Organization suggests 16 percent of infants were vaccinated against the disease in 1980 compared with 85 percent in 2010. The results speak for themselves: In 1980, measles killed 2.6 million people a year; that number was down to 139,000 in 2010. And that’s thanks not least to the efforts of the Global Alliance for Vaccines & Immunizations, which buys vaccines at bulk and sells them on to developing countries using a sliding price scale that depends on the country’s income. GAVI has helped improve vaccination rates significantly even in some of the world’s most challenging countries. Yemen, for example, started a rotavarius vaccination campaign with GAVI support in 2012.

But for all that Western aid has helped in increasing global coverage, vaccination rates are going the opposite direction in the West itself. Amanda Glassman and colleagues at the Center for Global Development developed a measure of global performance looking at the sustained level of vaccination against diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus (the DPT shot) over the 1980-2010 period. On that ranking, the U.S. came in No. 24 behind countries that include Slovakia, Hungary, and Albania. France ranked No. 31, and the U.K. No. 91—behind Gambia and Eritrea.

Unvaccinated kids are concentrated within those countries, which considerably increases the risk of outbreaks. A lot of rich Californians with kids in private schools have managed to clump together with enough like-minded fellow thinkers to create large reservoirs of unvaccinated kids. The opt-out rate in private schools in the state doubled from 2004 to 2011. There are now 110 private schools across California where more than half of the kids skipped some or all vaccinations, and 247 private schools saw vaccination rates below 90 percent, the threshold critical to minimizing the potential for disease outbreak.

Declining vaccination rates have had the inevitable result. In 2011, according to health economist Victoria Fan, France had more than 14,000 cases of measles—the highest since 2000 and considerably more than the total number of cases in all of the Americas that year. Latin America eliminated measles in 2002, but because of dropping vaccination coverage in the North, the U.S. is importing measles cases from Europe and threatens to reexport them to South America. The U.S. has also seen outbreaks of meningitis despite the availability of an infant vaccine since 1987. And in the first nine months of 2012, the U.S. suffered more cases of whooping cough than it had in decades, with 25,000 cases and 13 deaths.

Parents who don’t vaccinate risk their own children’s lives—but also those of newborns too young for vaccination, kids of other vaccine-deniers, and older people for whom vaccines have proven ineffective. And they slow efforts to wipe out diseases completely, so that no one has to go to the bother and expense of getting the vaccines that these selfish, misguided, or ignorant parents are already leaving on the shelf. Think smallpox—it killed 300 million-plus people last century, but no one is vaccinated against it today because a global campaign succeeded in wiping it out.

Insanely, in a country that mandates car seats for all kids, parents in 20 states, including California, are allowed to opt out of vaccination programs for “philosophical reasons.” And the situation is the same across much of Europe.  Whereas a child out of a car seat who gets involved in a crash is only a danger to herself, an unvaccinated kid is a danger to others. The public policy case for mandating vaccination is far stronger than that for car seats.

Meanwhile, no child whose parents have shown the practical love of turning up at the clinic and no vaccine worker who has braved the struggle to set up that clinic should be thwarted for lack of a few dollars to finance the vaccines. (For an example of that bravery, look no further than the eight polio vaccination workers murdered last week in Pakistan, where the Taliban has opposed the campaign.)

So if you’ve already got your kids vaccinated, why not help a kid in another country get his or her full set? Donate to child vaccination efforts through Unicef or such groups as the Lions and Rotary clubs that have been longtime supporters of global vaccination efforts. Meanwhile, if you haven’t got your own kids vaccinated, here’s hoping an elf repeatedly whacks you with the lump of coal in your stocking until you repent.

Kenny is a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New America Foundation.

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Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) – Canada‘s holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.

Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company’s research and consulting division, found that in recent years, holiday shopping peaks from December 20 to December 22.

“Many Canadians may have gotten an early start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, but it’s still a very young phenomenon in Canada,” Senior Vice-President Richard McLaughlin, said in a release.

The Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season south of the border, and in recent years retailers have imported Black Friday sales to Canada.

Some also promote online sales the following Monday.

Canada’s online retail sales continued to grow in November, increasing 26.4 percent.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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Pope visits jailed butler to grant pre-Christmas pardon

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict made a surprise pre-Christmas visit to the jail holding his former butler on Saturday and pardoned him for stealing and leaking documents that alleged corruption in the Vatican.

The pope and Paolo Gabriele spent about 15 minutes together before Gabriele was freed and allowed to return to his wife and children in their Vatican apartment, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

“What they said to each other will remain a secret between them … he knows he made a mistake,” Gabriele’s lawyer Cristiana Arru, who was in the apartment when he returned home, told Reuters.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft on October 6 in a case that shone unwelcome publicity on the Vatican. He had been serving an 18-month sentence in a jail cell in the city state’s police headquarters.

Lombardi called the pope’s action “a paternal gesture towards a person with whom the pope shared his daily life for several years … this is a happy ending in this Christmas season to this sad and painful episode.”

Both Lombardi and Arru described the encounter as “intense” because it was the first time the two had seen each other since last May, when Gabriele was arrested after Vatican police found many documents in his possession that had been stolen from the pope’s office.

The pope also pardoned a Vatican computer expert who had received a suspended sentence in a separate trial.

VATILEAKS SAGA

In a saga that became known as “Vatileaks”, Gabriele leaked documents showing what appeared to be a power struggle at the highest ranks of the Church, and internal conflict about how transparent the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bank should be with outside financial authorities.

He told investigators he had acted because he saw “evil and corruption everywhere in the Church” and that information was being hidden from the pope.

The Vatican said Gabriele would no longer be able to work there but would be helped to find a job and start a new life outside its walls together with his family.

“When he came home, the kids jumped up and hung from his neck. It was a very tough time for them. I don’t think the whole episode has sunk in for them yet,” lawyer Arru said.

Gabriele, 46, said at his trial – one of the most sensational in the recent history of the Holy See – that he did not consider himself a thief and that he was motivated by “visceral” love for the Church.

The butler, who served the pope his meals and helped him dress, photocopied sensitive documents under the nose of his immediate superiors in a small office adjacent to the papal living quarters in the Apostolic Palace.

He then hid more than 1,000 copies and original documents, including some the pope had marked “to be destroyed”, among many thousands of other papers and old newspaper clippings in a huge armoire in the family apartment inside the Vatican walls.

A former member of the small, select group known as “the papal family”, Gabriele was one of fewer than 10 people who had a key to an elevator leading directly to the pope’s apartments.

He said at the trial that from his perch as papal butler he was able to see how easily a powerful man could be manipulated by aides and kept in the dark about things he should have known.

The leaked papers revealed inner workings of an institution long renowned for its secrecy, and triggered one of the biggest crises of Pope Benedict’s papacy when they emerged in a muckraking expose by an Italian journalist earlier this year.

The case was all the more embarrassing at a time when the Church was trying to limit the fallout from a series of scandals involving sexual abuse of minors by clerics around the world, as well as from mismanagement at its bank.

However, many people believe the butler could not have acted alone and was a fall-guy for others in the Vatican. Gabriele said during the trial that while he may have been influenced by others, he had no direct accomplices.

The Vatican said the pope had also decided to pardon a second Vatican employee and friend of Gabriele’s, Claudio Sciarpelletti, who was convicted separately of giving police conflicting testimony and given a two-month suspended sentence.

Sciarpelletti, a computer expert, will be able to keep his job in the Vatican.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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‘Smart-Tattoos’: How They Could End Up Saving Your Life

So they’re not exactly cute, but if you came of age during the 90s, chances are you have at least regrettable tattoo anyway. (Raise your hand if that same tattoo is in the shape of a butterfly!)   But the latest temporary tattoos do much more than serve as a symbol of misspent youth; they can read a body’s internal processes and alert the user of potential dangers like a dip in blood sugar or a drop in kidney function− all without having to draw any blood.

A recent collaboration between researchers at the University of California San Diego and the University of Toronto created a lightweight and stick-on “smart tattoo.” Embedded in its fibers are a set of “ion-selective electrodes” which is a cooler way of saying “sensors that detect the pH or salt levels of the skin, as well minerals like potassium, and even blood oxidation.”

In other words, it can monitor athletic performance at a granular level, but without any of the bulk or wiring of older sensors. It also means that for the first time, detailed athletic response testing would no longer be limited to the walls of a sports clinic, but could be done daily by the athlete herself. And because the stick-ons are both quick and cheap to produce, it seems a natural fit with a mass market roll-out. Researchers are hoping they’ve designed the next big thing in sports training and expect it to hit shelves within the next twelve months.

MORE: One in Ten Adults Will Be Diabetic in 20 Years

But this athletic testing sensor is only the latest iteration of a variety of body-reading tattoos set to hit the market in the coming year.

Sano Intelligence is in the testing phase of a smart tattoo that reads a wearer’s blood markers. The application would be particularly useful for diabetics, who need to keep strict control over their blood sugar levels and often have to resort to finger-prick tests to determine if those levels are within normal range. The Sano patch would not only allow them to forgo the pain of finger-pricks, but the constant hassle of dragging around testing devices and interrupting daily activities to draw their own blood.

And Boston-based MC10 announced earlier this year that it would soon release its own “stretchable electronics” patch, that can be applied internally to human organs, or externally to human skin, or clothing, depending on what needed to be monitored.  The stick-on’s ability to remain flexible while reading vital signs means that it could effectively gauge the function of specific organs, track brain processes, and monitor more mainstream functions like heart rate, blood oxidation and body hydration. 

What’s going to make the biggest difference in our daily lives as a result of this technology isn’t even the technology itself- it’s that for the first time, we as patients will be able to maintain our mobility and independence as we’re being monitored. This presumably could mean it would be easier to catch oncoming deficiencies before they manifest any symptoms, and the distance between the patient and her specialist would no longer be a hinderance to treatment.

Do you think this kind of technology would be useful in your own life, or do you think that a sensor monitoring your vital signs is just too “sci-fi” for your taste?

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Five Years Out of Juvenile Detention, Depression, Addiction Linger

• Researchers Are Closing In On Method to Predict Flu Outbreaks

• The Most Vulnerable Pay a High Price for Flu Infection

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

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