Tech wizards honored by Oscars organizers

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) – Some of the most ingenious behind-the-scenes innovators, whose breakthroughs in computer technology and other fields were key to the making of movies such as “Shrek” and “Avatar,” were awarded at an early Oscar organizers’ ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

From the team who developed a system to bring to life computerized digital stunt doubles for fantastic creatures in movies such as “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” to the man who simply developed one of the most versatile lighting delivery systems in film production, the Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards showcased emotional speeches and lifetimes of work for those whose lives are spent behind the camera.

The Beverly Hills ceremony honored 25 individuals with nine awards. Unlike the main Oscars ceremony, which will be held on Sunday, February 24 and will only recognize movie achievements from 2012, the Scientific and Technical Awards honored those with a proven record of achievement in the process of making feature films.

The ceremony was hosted by actors Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana, who respectively played Captain James T. Kirk and Uhura in “Star Trek” in 2009 and who will reprise those roles in this May’s sequel. Saldana payed tribute to the night’s honorees, saying they made it possible for life in front of the camera.

Richard Mall received perhaps the greatest applause of the night, for his invention of the Matthews Max Menace Arm, a portable device which allows studio lights to be moved and positioned all over a set, often where normal lighting cannot be used because of on-site restrictions of other difficult conditions.

“I am a little humbled to be up here with all this technology, because basically I built something in my garage,” Mall said to applause and cheers. He thanked his wife for all the strange noises that had come out of that garage. His invention has been sold to over 40 countries and used in more than 300 films.

The evening was also devoted to people who had invented systems such as “Tissue: A Physically-Based Character Simulation Framework,” which has made huge advances in bringing to life computer-generated characters such as Gollum in “The Hobbit“. An Academy Plaque for Scientific and Engineering went to Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Dr. Richard Dorling for this technique.

The team of Daniel Wexler, Lawrence Kesteloot and Drew Olbrich that created the Light system for computer graphics at PDI/DreamWorks was awarded for technical achievement. Their work, which combines light, color and rendering in one, was used in “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and other animated DreamWorks pictures.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Go Inside the Grammy Pre-Parties - and See How the Stars Celebrated

By Alison Schwartz

02/10/2013 at 02:30 PM EST

While the northeast braved a midwinter blizzard, the West Coast was feeling the heat – and we're not just talking about the comparatively warmer weather.

With the Grammy Awards on the horizon, the most famous faces of the industry were in their finest form Saturday to celebrate music's biggest night.

John Mayer and Katy Perry took their date night up a notch at Clive Davis and The Recording Academy's Annual Pre-Grammy Gala at the Beverly Hilton hotel, where they were spotted holding hands while Patti Smith performed. The couple was color-coordinated: he was in a white dinner jacket and black bow tie, and she wore a white designer dress.

While they were happy to take in the performances, Davis, at one point, called out Mayer, telling the crowd, "I read the papers and I see who you've been spending time with," before acknowledging Perry beside him in the audience.

Meanwhile, the party – which honored Epic Records's chairman and CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid, who received the 2013 Grammy Salute To Industry Icons Award – was a photo shoot for Miley Cyrus and Tyra Banks, who were spotted smizing for their own personal cameras. (Even Jennifer Hudson couldn't resist going for her close-up with the supermodel!)

But those weren't the only stars at the soiree.

PEOPLE was there, and documented the whole evening on Instagram and Twitter. Plus, take a peek inside PEOPLE's own party (which coincided with Davis's bash) and featured Grammy nominee Carly Rae Jepsen.

For more behind-the-scenes photos of your favorite stars, follow @peoplemag on Instagram or on Twitter.

• Reporting by MARISA LAUDADIO, JESSICA HERNDON, PATRICK GOMEZ and REAGAN ALEXANDER

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.

The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.

The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.

Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.

AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.

Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.

"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.

The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.

"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.

For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.

Shares of Dell closed at $13.63, up 0.7 percent, after briefly trading above a buyout offering price of $13.65 during the session.

Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.

Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.

Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.

Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.

Molina Healthcare Inc surged 10.4 percent to $31.88 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.

The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.

"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."

Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.

Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)

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Russia Detains 271 in St. Petersburg Security Raid

MOSCOW — Russian police and security officials in St. Petersburg detained 271 people, mostly migrants from Central Asia and the North Caucasus region, during a raid on Friday on Muslim prayer rooms at a central market. They said the raid was carried out to check residency permits and to eliminate networks of religious extremists planning terrorist attacks.

A statement published Friday night by the regional investigative committee said the authorities were verifying the documents of the detainees, who include citizens of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as an Egyptian and an Afghan.

The federal migration service began deportation procedures on Saturday for 10 of the detainees, and about 30 were found to be in violation of Russian migration laws, an official told the news agency RIA Novosti.

The police said one man from southern Russia, Murat Sarbashev, was suspected of distributing extremist literature and video clips showing terrorist acts in 2010 and 2011.

Video broadcast on Russian television showed heavily armed riot police officers pulling men out of the market and pushing them into waiting buses.

Security officials in St. Petersburg say an extremist group is operating in the city and has been planning terrorist attacks. The raid was intended to uncover “extremist literature, weapons, objects and documents relevant to criminal cases, and people who have carried out such crimes,” the statement said. The authorities have opened a case and are searching for evidence pointing to the incitement of terrorism and hatred; a conviction on that charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

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Video game composer taking ‘Journey’ to Grammys

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Austin Wintory still can’t wrap his head around the fact that he’s up against “Star Wars” composer John Williams for a Grammy Award.

“Thank God I’ve been so busy in the last few weeks since the nominations came out because I don’t think my brain could ever possibly comprehend that,” said the 28-year-old composer. “He’s a lifelong idol of mine. I don’t think it’s something I could have ever even dreamed.”

Wintory is facing 80-year-old Williams and his score for “The Adventures Of Tintin” at the Feb. 10 ceremony, as well as the scores to “The Artist” by Ludovic Bource, “Hugo” by Howard Shore, “The Dark Knight Rises” by Hans Zimmer and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

The biggest difference between Wintory and his competitors? His score is from a video game.

Wintory’s nomination for the artsy PlayStation 3 game “Journey” marks the first time a game score has been nominated for a Grammy. Music from games have been eligible since 2000 when “other visual media” were added to Grammy categories previously reserved for music from film and TV. When the Grammys were overhauled in 2011, the category was renamed to “best score soundtrack album for visual media” to fairly encompass all mediums.

Wintory, a first-time nominee who also creates film scores, sees his nod as an opportunity to showcase the creativity of games.

“I don’t have any interest in being that one game soundtrack for someone who doesn’t own any game soundtracks,” said Wintory. “I can think of no higher purpose than if ‘Journey’ were to be someone’s gateway drug, so to speak, to discovering much more when it comes to interactivity.”

The score for “Journey,” which casts players as a mysterious scarf-draped figure who wanders a desert landscape, is an exotic mix of mystical and introspective ditties led by powerful cello solos. Wintory said he tweaked and re-tweaked the score for three years with the “Journey” developers from thatgamecompany.

If Wintory wins at the Grammys, he wouldn’t be the first game composer to take home a gramophone.

Christopher Tin won the trophy for best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalists in 2011 for “Baba Yetu,” the Swahili-language song originally featured in the 2005 strategy game “Civilization IV.” That tune served as the opening track on Tin’s debut album, “Calling All Dawns,” which was also honored that year as best classical crossover album.

Unlike other awards that honor music from games, the Grammys solely judge game scores on their soundtracks, just like they do for scores from film and TV. Bill Freimuth, the recording academy’s vice president of awards, said entries of game scores doubled since the category was renamed to encompass all visual media.

“For some reason, that worked some magic with the video game community,” said Freimuth. “They didn’t feel like they were outsiders. They were part of the main batch.”

Tommy Tallarico, a video game composer and organizer of the “Video Games Live” concert series, was among the artists who originally petitioned the recording academy to add game scores to awards consideration. He believes Wintory’s nomination is a landmark — not only for composers who craft music for games but also the gaming industry as a whole.

“It really shows that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is starting to consider our work art now,” said Tallarico. “It’s on the same level as film and TV in their eyes, and that’s an important first step because a lot of people, when they think of music from video games, they still think of beeps and bloops. That’s not the reality anymore.”

Freimuth of the recording academy said that while video game composers have lobbied for their own category in the past, it’s an unlikely proposition given the current amount of submissions the academy receives from game composers. Besides, this year’s awards have proven that a score from a game has no problem earning a nomination alongside a score from a film.

___

Online:

http://www.grammy.com

http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Do No Harm's Alana de la Garza Expecting Second Child

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

02/09/2013 at 02:30 PM ET

Imeh Akpanudosen/WireImage

There’s another baby on the way for Alana De La Garza!

The Do No Harm star, 36, and her husband Michael Roberts are expecting their second child — a daughter — in July, De La Garza confirms via Twitter.

Before welcoming the couple’s first child — son Kieran Thomas, now 2 — the former Law & Order actress admitted pregnancy was a privilege she was excited to experience.

“I feel honored to grow this little person inside of me,” De La Garza told Pregnancy. “It sounds cheesy and hormonal, but it’s really a miracle.”

– Anya Leon with reporting by Charlotte Triggs

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Health officials: Worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread flu dropped again last week, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, spiking first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths have been dropping for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email.

It's been nine years since a conventional flu season started like this one. That was the winter of 2003-04 — one of the deadliest in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. Like this year, that season had the same dominant flu strain, one that tends to make people sicker.

But back then, the flu vaccine didn't protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated each year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed this year's version is about 60 percent effective.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 such deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week.

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm

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Wall Street extends gains, Nasdaq near 12-year high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks extended gains on Friday, with the Nasdaq rising 1 percent, putting it within close reach of a 12-year high.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 47.66 points, or 0.34 percent, to 13,991.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 7.47 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,516.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 30.23 points, or 0.96 percent, at 3,195.37.

If the Nasdaq rises above 3,196.93, it would be the highest level since November 2000.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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U.N. Calls on Papua New Guinea to Curb Violence After Burning Death of Woman

GENEVA — Spurred by the killing this week of a young woman accused of witchcraft in Papua New Guinea, the United Nations on Friday called on the country to address increasing vigilante violence against people accused of sorcery and to revoke a controversial sorcery law.

The United Nations human rights office in Geneva said it was deeply disturbed by the killing of the woman, Kepari Leniata, 20, who was stripped, tortured, doused in gasoline and set on fire on Wednesday as hundreds of spectators watched.

The killing in Mount Hagen, the Western Highlands provincial capital, reportedly was carried out by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who, they claimed, had been killed by her sorcery. The crowd blocked police officers and firefighters who tried to intervene.

“This case adds to the growing pattern of vigilante attacks and killings of persons accused of sorcery in Papua New Guinea,” Cecile Pouilly, a spokeswoman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

Ms. Pouilly said that police were continuing their investigation of a case in Jiwaka Province in November, when people held three women and two men for 20 days for allegedly using sorcery to kill another person, torturing them with iron rods and knives heated over fires before killing them.

According to Amnesty International, violence against those accused of sorcery is endemic in Papua New Guinea. In a statement on Friday, the human rights organization cited reports that in July, the police arrested 29 members of a witch-hunting gang who were murdering and cannibalizing people they suspected of sorcery.

A United Nations investigator who visited Papua New Guinea in March also found that women, particularly widows and those with no other family members to protect them, were disproportionately affected by the violence against suspected sorcerers, which included torture, rape, mutilations and murder.

“I was shocked to witness the brutality of the assaults perpetrated against suspected sorcerers,” the investigator, Rashida Manjoo, said in a statement after her visit, reporting that many of the people she interviewed said sorcery accusations were commonly used to deprive women of their land and property.

“Any misfortune or death within the community can be used as an excuse to accuse such a person of being a sorcerer,” Ms. Manjoo said.

Attacks often were carried out by young men and boys acting on the instruction of their community and under the influence of alcohol and drugs given to them, Ms. Manjoo said she was told. They also often acted with impunity, she said, because witnesses feared talking to the police and followed a social tradition of “wantok” or solidarity.

Responding to Wednesday’s attack in Mount Hagen, the United Nations human rights office and Amnesty International urged Papua New Guinea’s government to implement the recommendations of a constitutional commission that called in November for the repeal of the country’s sorcery law.

Human rights groups say the 1971 law, which criminalizes sorcery and recognizes the accusation of sorcery as a defense in murder cases, contributes to the violence. The commission’s report and recommendations, however, have not yet been presented to the country’s Parliament, Ms. Pouilly said. “We don’t know why nothing has been done since November,” she said.

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