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President-elect Barack Obama will confirm weeks of speculation by formally nominating former rival Hillary Clinton to serve as his secretary of state. The announcement is expected at a joint news conference in Chicago scheduled for 10:40 a.m. Monday. Obama will also reveal his national security team, including retired Marine Gen. James Jones as national security advisor; Defense Secretary Robert Gates will remain at the Pentagon.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seeking to form a new anti-terror governmental agency and push anti-terror legislation in the wake of the devastating three-day attacks in Mumbai that killed 195. Though India's home minister resigned citing a “moral responsibility,” questions are being raised about intelligence failures leading up to the siege and the authorities’ slow response. As protests against the governments response started in Mumbai, Singh held a cross-party meeting in Delhi about ways to increase security in the country.
The only terrorist to be captured, baby faced terrorist Azam Amir Kasab, 21, a Pakistani, has been telling Indian interrogators preparations the Mumbai terrorist attacks began a year ago in a remote mountain camp in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan- administered Kashmir. Then all ten terrorists met at Rawalpindi and they traveled by ship, hijacked trawler, killing all five Indian seamen on board, then by dinghy to Mumbai. The original plan was to slaughter 5,000. The mastermind behind the attacks told them, “Target whites, preferably Americans and British.” “I have no regrets,” Kasab told investigators. One of India's National Security Guard, who led an assault group against at the Taj hotel, described the killers as the "best fighters" he had ever encountered. “They were obviously trained by professionals in urban guerrilla fighting,” he said.
After all the gloomy talk, on Black Friday, the biggest day in the year for the retail industry, we shopped even more than last year. Sales rose 3 percent to $10.6 billion, up from last year’s $10.3 billion, according to preliminary figures released by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets “It's truly amazing when you think about all the news that led into the holiday season," said ShopperTrak’s Bill Martin. “It certainly appears that consumers are willing to spend more than most expected.” The trend was nationwide. Sales in the South were up 3.4 percent from last year, up 2.6 percent in the Northeast, up 3 percent in the Midwest and up 2.7 percent in the West. J.C. Penney, however, were keeping quiet about their Black Friday figures. “In light of the challenging and volatile economic climate, and shifts in this year's retail calendar, we don't believe that reporting sales data for any one day (or weekend), including Black Friday, would provide a meaningful barometer of our business," the store declared.
Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn’s holiday comedy Four Christmases ranked first at the box office this extended weekend, raking in $46.7 million since Wednesday, including $31.7 over the weekend. The earnings helped the weekend become the second-biggest Thanksgiving for movies ever. Teen sensation Twilight dropped to a very close third behind Disney feature Bolt; earning $26.4 and $26.6 million respectively. Bond’s Quantum of Solace and Australia rounded out the top 5 films. Milk came in at No. 10 with $1.4 million in receipts.
Security at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai was temporarily stepped-up after terror threats were received, but even if they remained in place, “it could not have stopped” the three-day attack, the chairman of the hotel’s parent company conceded to CNN on Saturday. “It's ironic that we did have such a warning, and we did have some measures,” Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said. The terrorists—who killed 195 people across nine sites in India’s financial capital—entered the hotel through a back entrance. "They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our arrangements are in the front," Tata said. “They planned everything—I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen."
President-elect Barack Obama has a lot on his plate: a struggling economy, two wars, international terrorist threats… and pressure from UFO enthusiasts to release government files about alien sightings. In a letter, the Extraterrestrial Phenomenon Political Action Committee, which has gathered 40,000 signatures, asked Obama to “end the six-decade truth embargo regarding an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.” Obama may also be hearing about the cause from John Podesta and Bill Richardson, who have expressed support in the past for transparency concerning the mysterious 800 million pages.
Enough with Bronx Mowgli, why not name your baby Benito—after Mussolini? The MSI-Fiamma Tricolore, the offshoot of Italy's Fascist Party, is hoping to spark a trend by offering nearly $2,000 to any EU parents-to-be willing to name their baby Benito, the Guardian reports. Columnist Ariane Sherine offers tips on how to “convince your reluctant partner that naming your unborn child after a murderous wartime villain is a great idea,” including: “It might help to yelp ‘What?!’ in an outraged way, as though she or he is being completely unreasonable.”
Mega-star Amitabh Bachnan wrote on his blog Friday: "I am ashamed to say this and not afraid to share this now with the rest of the cyber world, that last night... I did something for the first time and one that I had hoped never ever to be in a situation to do... I pulled out my licensed .32 revolver, loaded it and put it under my pillow. For a very disturbed sleep." This morning he lashed out at media outlets for "sensationalizing or giving the matter a color not complimentary to my demeanor... It is a pity that the ‘intellectual media’ portrays the incident of the gun under my pillow as one of ridicule and mirth... that the mettle of my comment was not put across in the context of its entirety... The act of pulling out my revolver is a symbolic metaphor, a figure of speech, to demonstrate my complete loss in faith in the system and in the governance, in providing me, a citizen of India, with my rightful sense of security." Elsewhere, Bollywood star Aamir Kahn expressed shock and anger over the Mumbai siege, blogging: "I dread to think of how various political parties are now going to try and use this tragedy to further their political careers... An incident such as this really exposes how ill-equipped we are as a society as far as proper leaders go. We desperately need young, dynamic, honest, intelligent and upright leaders, who actually care for the country."
Fewer people may have jobs, but those who seem to have a wandering eye. “Fully one quarter of employees who use the Internet visit porn sites during the workday”—up 23% from a year ago—and “hits are highest during office hours than at any other time of day,” according to Newsweek. “People are looking for an escape,” explains Steve Hirsch, CEO of porn distributor Vivid Entertainment Group. And attitudes are changing with shifting demographics. “You're looking at a younger consumer who has grown up with pornography being out there in the pop culture,” says M.J. McMahon of AVN Online magazine, which tracks the porn industry.
Barack Obama told ABC News he spent no time worrying about being assassinated. “'Part of it because I've got this pretty terrific crew of Secret Service guys that follow me everywhere I go. But also because I have a deep religious faith and faith in people that carries me through the day,” he said. “And my job is just to make sure I'm doing my job, and if I do, I can't worry about that kind of stuff.” In other revelations, Sasha and Malia, who will be attending the tony Sidwell Friends School, are expected to help around the White House, including making their own beds. Malia expects to do her homework at the bureau in the Lincoln bedroom. Obama will make the White House as energy efficient as possible, which may include him turning lights out. “I do that in my current house and there's no reason why I wouldn't do it in my next one,” he said. As for smoking, he confessed he had taken a few sly puffs on the campaign trail. But he demurred on whether has he now given up for good.
After months of attempting to buy Yahoo outright, Microsoft has trimmed its ambitions and is in secret talks to acquire Yahoo’s online search business for $20 billion, according to the London Times. Microsoft would impose new management on Yahoo. Jerry Yang, the group’s co-founder, is about to step down as chief executive as soon as the board finds a successor. He opposed the Microsoft takeover and his proposed advertising alliance with Google foundered on competition fears. The Times reports that Jonathan Miller, ex-chairman and chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, have already agreed to lead the new management. But there is no intention of Microsoft reviving its $47.5 billion takeover bid of Yahoo which failed last summer. Levinsohn derided the Times report as "total fiction."
President-elect Barack Obama’s “win-at-any-cost approach” to the economic crisis does indeed have a hefty price tag: the government’s rescue package is now estimated at $8.5 trillion, which the Los Angeles Times points out is “half of the entire economic output of the U.S. this year.” Also worrisome: the deficit during Obama’s first year in office is set to “easily bust” $1 trillion (and the national debt has surpassed $10 trillion). “I didn't think we'd see that for a long time,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “There's a huge risk of another economic crisis, a debt crisis, once we get on the other side of this one.” Plus, the spending will make it more difficult for Obama to move forward with new initiatives and campaign promises. “In 1993, a deficit only a third the size of next year's projected $1 trillion prompted President Clinton to abandoned his campaign pledges of tax cuts,” the Times explains.
"There seems to be this moving train that simply insists that Mrs. Obama is the new Mrs. Kennedy," says Carl Anthony, historian for the National First Ladies' Library. Like many fellow fashionistas, reports Newsweek, Wendy Donahue in her style column for the Chicago Tribune is rushing to cram Michelle Obama's 5-foot-11-inch frame into the mold left by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The trouble, historians say, is that it's a lousy fit. “Kennedy was the epitome of 1960s haute couture. Her style was aspirational, unattainable. Obama is more of a fashion populist. It's hard to imagine Kennedy, in her pillbox hat and leopard-skin coat, dishing about shopping at J.Crew,” writes Katie Connolly.
The Dalai Lama has been talking, in Nigeria, about his life of celibacy. "Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually, I think is short-period satisfaction and, often, that leads to more complication," he said. Not that he hasn’t thought about it. "Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those relationships are always full of trouble." And if over Thanksgiving you wondered whether family life was worth it, the Tibetan sage has advice for you, too. "Too much attachment towards your children, towards your partner," was "one of the obstacles or hindrances of peace of mind," he said.
Look for Hollywood to go silent again this winter: The Screen Actors Guild will send out a strike authorization vote to its members next month, paving the way for a strike as early as January. Voting will take at least three weeks and a strike will require 75 percent of the votes, plus approval by the SAG board. The move comes on the heels of the failure of federally-mediated talks between the SAG and the studios. The economic crisis is a fresh stone on which both parties can grind their accusations: The studios called SAG's leaders "tone deaf" for threatening at this difficult economic time, while SAG's president wrote in a letter, "It's also curious that these global corporations are preaching to us about the bad economy," he added. "Like it's our fault. As middle-income actors we are the victims of corporate greed. We didn't cause this turmoil."
So which country should American tourists hoping to get a little on the side visit? Britain, according to a new survey. Britain's people are the most promiscuous of any western industrial nation. The study is based on number of one-night stands, total numbers of partners and attitudes to casual sex. The United States came in sixth, behind Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Austria. Tourists willing to travel a bit more off the beaten path to non-industrialized nation may find even more, er, pregnant opportunities. Finland and the Baltic states outscored Britain.
Italian architect Francesco Stella has won a competition to rebuild Berlin’s baroque palace, once home to Prussia’s rulers and the Kaiser, 60 years after it was destroyed on the orders of the East German communist regime. Stella plans to restore three of the four original baroque facades, with a glass-covered courtyard behind the main entrance. To make space for the reconstructed palace, which was inhabited by the Prussian rulers and by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany until his abdication in 1918, the Communist-era bronze-glass, steel and concrete Palast der Republik, once home to East Germany’s show parliament, is being dismantled.
So what exactly has Bill Clinton been up to all these years? The former president has agreed to make public the names of 200,000 donors to his foundation and presidential library as part of the vetting process to allow Hillary to become secretary of state. Clinton had long resisted calls to do so, and is also going to allow the State Department, and possibly the White House, to review his personal business interests and speeches to check for conflicts of interest. Hillary's appointment is expected to be announced Monday.
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