Morsi Urged to Retract Edict to Bypass Judges in Egypt

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York TimesA demonstrator takes a breather during protests in downtown Cairo on Saturday. CAIRO — Egyptian judges and prosecutors struck back on Saturday against an attempt by President Mohamed Morsi to place his decrees above judicial review, vowing to challenge his edict in court and reportedly going on strike in Alexandria. Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, a prosecutor...

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Sony at greater risk than Panasonic in electronics downturn: Fitch

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp has a better chance than rival Sony Corp of surviving Japan's consumer electronics slump because of its unglamorous but stable appliance business of washing machines and fridges, credit rating agency Fitch said Friday. Fitch cut Panasonic's rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major...

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'Dallas' star Larry Hagman dies in Texas

J.R. Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly loathsome oil baron — and coaxed forth a Texas-size gusher of ratings — on television's long-running and hugely successful nighttime soap, "Dallas."Although he first gained fame as nice guy Major Tony Nelson on the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy...

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Indian Prostitutes’ New Autonomy Imperils AIDS Fight

MUMBAI, India — Millions once bought sex in the narrow alleys of Kamathipura, a vast red-light district here. But prostitutes with inexpensive mobile phones are luring customers elsewhere, and that is endangering the astonishing progress India has made against AIDS. Indeed, the recent closings of hundreds of ancient brothels, while something of an economic victory for prostitutes, may one...

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Pigeon Code Baffles British Cryptographers

They have eavesdropped on the enemy for decades, tracking messages from Hitler’s high command and the Soviet K.G.B. and on to the murky, modern world of satellites and cyberspace. But a lowly and yet mysterious carrier pigeon may have them baffled. Britain’s code-breakers acknowledged on Friday that an encrypted handwritten message from World War II, found on the leg of a long-dead carrier...

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Sony at greater risk than Panasonic in electronics downturn: Fitch

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp has a better chance than rival Sony Corp of surviving Japan's consumer electronics slump because of its unglamorous but stable appliance business of washing machines and fridges, credit rating agency Fitch said Friday. Fitch cut Panasonic's rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major...

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Halle Berry's ex arrested after fight at her house

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery Thursday after he and the Oscar-winning actress's current boyfriend got into a fight at her Hollywood Hills home, police said.Aubry, 37, was booked for investigation of a battery, a misdemeanor, and released on $20,000 bail, according to online jail records. He's scheduled to appear in court Dec....

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Documents Show F.D.A.’s Failures in Meningitis Outbreak

Newly released documents add vivid detail to the emerging portrait of the Food and Drug Administration’s ineffective and halting efforts to regulate a Massachusetts company implicated in a national meningitis outbreak that has sickened nearly 500 people and killed 34. In the documents, released on Tuesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the agency would threaten to bring...

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Israel and Hamas Maintain Cease-Fire, After Push by the U.S. and Egypt

CAIRO — A cease-fire agreed to under intense Egyptian and American pressure between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to halt eight days of bloody conflict seemed to be holding on Thursday, averting a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip without resolving the underlying disputes. With Israeli forces still massed on the Gaza border, a tentative calm in the fighting...

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RIM shares rally as optimism around new devices grows

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of Research In Motion Ltd surged more than 11 percent in Toronto on Thursday, after an analyst raised his price target on the stock, citing "positive sentiment building in the industry" ahead of the launch of BlackBerry 10. National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson boosted his price target on shares of the embattled BlackBerry maker to $15 from $12. Thompson...

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Lawsuit against Madonna dismissed in Russia

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A Russian court has dismissed a lawsuit that sought millions of dollars in damages from Madonna for allegedly traumatizing minors by speaking up for gay rights during a concert in St. Petersburg.In February, the city made it illegal to promote homosexuality to minors. Six months later, the singer criticized the law on Facebook, then stood up for gay rights at a concert...

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Recipes for Health: Apple Pear Strudel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesThis strudel is made with phyllo dough. When I tested it the first time, I found that I had enough filling for two strudels. Rather than cut the amount of filling, I increased the number of strudels to 2, as this is a dessert you can assemble and keep, unbaked, in the freezer. Filling for 2 strudels: 1/2 pound mixed dried fruit, like raisins, currants,...

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The Shrewd Shopper Carries a Smartphone on Black Friday

Tim Gruber for The New York TimesFrom left, Tara Niebeling, Sarah Schmidt, Bridget Jewell and Erin Vande Steeg are members of the social media team at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. Retailers are trying to lure shoppers away from the Internet, where they have increasingly been shopping to avoid Black Friday madness, and back to the stores. The bait is technological tools that will make...

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Israel and Hamas Reach Cease-Fire

CAIRO — Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire on Wednesday after eight days of lethal fighting over the Gaza Strip, the United States and Egypt said after intensive negotiations in Cairo. The cease-fire, which is to take effect at 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. E.S.T.), was formally announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr of Egypt at a news conference...

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In HP-Autonomy debacle, many advisers but little good advice

(Reuters) - When Hewlett Packard acquired Autonomy last year for $11.1 billion, some 15 different financial, legal and accounting firms were involved in the transaction -- and none raised a flag about what HP said Tuesday was a major accounting fraud. HP stunned Wall Street with the allegations about its British software unit and took an $8.8 billion writedown, the latest in a string...

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Justin Bieber won't face charge for May scuffle

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors say they won't file any charges against Justin Bieber over a May confrontation with a photographer because of a lack of corroborating evidence.A document obtained Wednesday states that three Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators found no visible injuries, video or photographs to confirm the photographer's story that Bieber kicked and punched him.Prosecutors had...

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Ask an Expert: Ask and Expert About Alzheimer’s, Part 3

(Some questions published here have been edited, and not all questions can be answered.) The doctor’s answers are meant for educational purposes and are not meant to be a substitute for advice from your own doctor. Readers should contact their physician before making health care decisions. Q. What practical steps can a baby boomer take to stave off dementia of any type? — Canoe9, Hawaii...

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Blue Laws Curb Consumerism Where Pilgrims Gave Thanks

Charlie Mahoney for The New York TimesThe annual Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth, Mass., is held the weekend before the holiday, so as not to interfere. PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Here in the birthplace of Thanksgiving, where the Pilgrims first gave thanks in 1621 for their harvest and their survival, some residents are giving thanks this year for something else: the Colonial-era blue laws that prevent...

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Clinton Visits in Effort to Defuse Gaza Conflict; Egypt Hints at Truce

JERUSALEM — Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Tuesday to end the deadly confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the United States sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East and Egypt’s president and his senior aides expressed confidence that a cease-fire was close. The diplomatic moves to end the nearly week-old crisis came on a day of some...

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