Wall Street clocks third straight week of gains

Better earnings from General Electric and Morgan Stanley helped the stock market inch higher Friday, as major indexes closed out their third straight week of gains.

GE led the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average after the conglomerate reported stronger quarterly earnings, thanks to orders from Brazil, Angola and other developing countries. Profits increased at all seven of its industrial segments, including oil and gas, energy management, aviation and transportation. GE climbed 74 cents to $22.04.

The Dow gained 53.68 points to end at 13,649.70.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.04 points to 1,485.98, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.30 points to 3,134.70.

Even though investors had plenty of news to digest, trading was largely quiet. “Earnings always matter,” said Rex Macey, the chief investment officer of Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors in Atlanta. “But just because we're in the middle of earnings season doesn't mean we're going to get huge market moves.”

This earnings season is off to a good start so far. Of the 67 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported, 43 have trumped analysts' estimates.

Solid results this week from JPMorgan Chase and others, along with encouraging news on housing and employment, pushed the S&P 500 index to its latest five-year high.

Morgan Stanley's earnings surged across its many business lines, as more companies hired the investment bank to help it raise money and line up mergers. Morgan Stanley gained 8 percent, rising $1.63 to $22.38.

Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, said late Thursday that fourth-quarter net income fell 27 percent. A growing preference for smartphones and tablets, instead of personal computers and laptops powered by Intel chips, have made investors wary of the company's stock. It lost $1.43 to $21.25.

Norwegian Cruise Line soared 30 percent in its first day of trading, the top performance of the three companies making their public debut on Friday. Five companies raised a total of $1.8 billion through initial public offerings this week, making it the best week for IPOs since early October, according to the data provider Ipreo.

American Express fell 96 cents to $59.78. Hefty charges tied to the credit card issuer's plan to cut jobs and reorganize some business lines hurt results, and revenue fell short of estimates.

Analysts forecast that companies in the S&P 500 will report a 4 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings over the same period the year before, according to a report out Friday from S&P Capital IQ. They say banks and other financial firms should have the strongest profit growth of any industry. Technology companies like Intel are expected to struggle.

Among other companies in the news:

— Capital One lost 7 percent after reporting revenue and earnings that fell short of analysts' estimates. The bank and credit-card company also lowered its forecast for revenue in the months to come, and many brokerages quickly responded by cutting their outlook for the company's stock. Capital One sank $4.60 to $56.99.

— Life Technologies, a maker of genetic testing equipment, soared 11 percent following reports that it's considering putting itself up for sale. The company's board said it has hired Deutsche Bank Securities and the investment bank Moelis & Co. Life Technologies' stock jumped $5.82 to $60.79.

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Mali moves to keep militants out of another town; EU mission OKd

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Malian government forces Thursday reportedly pressed to keep Al Qaeda-linked militants out of the village of Banamba as rebels struck fear into nearby Diabaly.

The European Union, meanwhile, authorized sending a noncombat training mission to the West African nation.

Malian officials sent about 100 soldiers to Banamba, 90 miles north of the capital, Bamako, after sightings of suspected Islamist militants in the area, according to news reports.

Al Qaeda militias have already infiltrated Diabaly, in effect using the population as a human shield, moving around in small groups to avoid being targeted in airstrikes by France, taking over homes and preventing residents from leaving, the reports said.

"They stationed themselves outside my house with a heavy weapon. I don't know what sort it was," resident Thiemogo Coulibaly told the Associated Press. "After that came the bombing, which went on from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and after that, one of them [militants] jumped over my garden wall to grab the keys to my car."

African forces from outside Mali are expected to arrive within days. Assistance from Western powers other than France, the former colonial power in Mali and other parts of West Africa, has been limited to logistical and intelligence support.

The EU said its mission would provide instruction to the Malian army on matters of command and control, logistics, civilian protection and humanitarian law.

EU foreign ministers said they hoped to launch the training mission to Mali by mid-February. They condemned the "acts being carried out by terrorist groups against the Malian armed forces," but also warned both sides of the conflict to respect civilian safety and human rights. "All the parties and individuals involved in Mali will be held responsible for their actions," the ministers said.

Although dispatching the training team will require another decision by European leaders, the move Thursday was aimed at bolstering support for the Malian government and came days after major EU power France launched its own military operation.

"The threat of jihadi terrorists is something that should be a matter of great concern to all of us," Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said outside a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels. "And there is not one European country that can hide if this threat would present itself to the European continent."

Malian forces are trying to turn back militants who have established control over much of northern Mali and who have tried pushing south toward Bamako. French airstrikes and troops have backed up the Malian military, which has appealed for outside help.

The EU training mission would last 15 months, cost about $16 million and be based in Bamako. Officials named a French general to head the team, which would comprise about 450 people.

The main weakness in France's bid to oust what it sees as a terrorist threat on its backdoor step, analysts say, is the lack of a large combat and capable ground force strong enough to drive out the well-armed, battle-hardened militias.

Militant forces gained control of Diabaly on Monday, several days after French airstrikes began. The insurgents took Malian forces by surprise, exposing the weakness of the local army.

About 1,400 French forces are in Mali, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, with an additional 1,100 due to arrive as the battle unfolds.

About 200 Nigerian troops are also expected in Mali within days, the first of 3,300 African forces promised by neighboring countries, many of whom have little experience in the harsh desert terrain they will face in Mali.

France has outlined an ambitious operation to oust Ansar Dine and other Al Qaeda-linked groups and to restore territorial integrity and political stability.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

henry.chu@latimes.com

Dixon reported from Johannesburg and Chu from London.

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The aggressively priced Lumia 620 is Nokia’s make or break model

Nokia (NOK) has started pricing the Lumia 620 in Asia nearly 20% below the rival Windows mid-market model, the HTC (2498) 8S. This is remarkably aggressive considering the 620 has a higher pixel density and twice as much internal memory. The 620 is the keystone phone for Nokia. It is launching before RIM (RIMM) gets its new budget BlackBerry phones out and before Samsung (005930) or LG (066570) enter the mid-priced Windows phone market. This is the phone that will make or break Nokia’s summer.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]

Nokia has started rolling out the Lumia 620 in several key Asian markets by the third week of January. It now looks like its European debut could happen a few weeks earlier than expected, perhaps by the end of January. In one of the earliest launch markets, Thailand, the launch price of the Lumia 620 is set at 8,250 baht, or $ 275. The only direct Windows mid-range model, HTC’s 8S, is priced at 9,990 baht. The Lumia 620 is priced at 800 RM ($ 266) in Malaysia, one of Asia’s key mobile markets. HTC’s 8S launched in Malaysia at 999 RM.

[More from BGR: Clash of the bantams: The bloody smartphone battle that will take shape in 2013]

Nokia is the stronger brand in South-East Asia and HTC’s budget Windows model was expected to be at rough price parity during the 620 launch, not 20% above. Nokia’s Lumia 620 features display pixel density of 246 pixels per inch, a touch above the 233 pixels per inch that HTC’s 8S offers. The 620 also packs 8 GB of internal memory, twice as much as the 8S. Camera and video quality are roughly similar.

This is the golden opportunity for Nokia. It will probably take at least until June before RIM rolls out new BlackBerries priced under $ 300 in Asia; possibly late summer or autumn. Samsung and LG are a step behind Nokia in rolling out their Windows Phone 8 ranges. HTC’s first mid-range model doesn’t quite measure up to the 620 in value for money comparison. Apple’s (AAPL) rumored cheap iPhone is unlikely to arrive before September.

Nokia now has a shot at recapturing some of the power it used to have in the mid-range smartphone market. Back in 2006 through 2008 Nokia dominated the smartphone markets of Asia and Europe with absolute sovereignty, capturing market shares as high as 70% from India to Germany. Those days won’t return, but if the 620 clicks, Nokia just might have a shot at pumping the Lumia volume to 10 million units per quarter by autumn.

The relative market softness in the sub-$ 300 category due to the current weakness of RIM, LG, Sony (SNE) and HTC has opened the door. This February is going to be an absolutely crucial month for Nokia as it ramps up its most important Lumia phone during the traditionally dead period in Asia and Europe. If consumers don’t connect with this model at this price, the entire Windows Phone camp will face some very tough decisions.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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John Mayer organizes, sings at benefit concert

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — John Mayer performed at his first concert in nearly two years, a fundraiser he helped organize to benefit firefighters that helped save his home and others from a Montana wildfire.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/SajIra ) that Mayer started with his first live performance of "If I Ever Get Around to Living," at a concert in Bozeman on Wednesday that included Zac Brown and raised more than $100,000.

The 8,500-acre fire raged in late August near Livingston, while Mayer was in Los Angeles receiving treatment for a growth near his vocal cords.

In May, a second granuloma was removed. The singer-songwriter says Botox injections used to keep his vocal cords from pressing together while they heal have limited his ability to hit high notes.

___

Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com

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Life, Interrupted: Brotherly Love

Life, Interrupted

Suleika Jaouad writes about her experiences as a young adult with cancer.

There are a lot of things about having cancer in your 20s that feel absurd. One of those instances was when I found myself calling my brother Adam on Skype while he was studying abroad in Argentina to tell him that I had just been diagnosed with leukemia and that — no pressure — he was my only hope for a cure.

Today, my brother and I share almost identical DNA, the result of a successful bone marrow transplant I had last April using his healthy stem cells. But Adam and I couldn’t be more different. Like a lot of siblings, we got along swimmingly at one moment and were in each other’s hair the next. My younger brother by two years, he said I was a bossy older sister. I, of course, thought I knew best for my little brother and wanted him to see the world how I did. My brother is quieter, more reflective. I’m a chronic social butterfly who is probably a bit too impulsive and self-serious. I dreamed of dancing in the New York City Ballet, and he imagined himself playing in the N.B.A. While the sounds of the rapper Mos Def blared from Adam’s room growing up, I practiced for concerto competitions. Friends joked that one of us had to be adopted. We even look different, some people say. But really, we’re just siblings like any others.

When I was diagnosed with cancer at age 22, I learned just how much cancer affects families when it affects individuals. My doctors informed me that I had a high-risk form of leukemia and that a bone marrow transplant was my only shot at a cure. ‘Did I have any siblings?’ the doctors asked immediately. That would be my best chance to find a bone marrow match. Suddenly, everyone in our family was leaning on the little brother. He was in his last semester of college, and while his friends were applying to jobs and partying the final weeks of the school year away, he was soon shuttling from upstate New York to New York City for appointments with the transplant doctors.

I’d heard of organ transplants before, but what was a bone marrow transplant? The extent of my knowledge about bone marrow came from French cuisine: the fancy dish occasionally served with a side of toasted baguette.

Jokes aside, I learned that cancer patients become quick studies in the human body and how cancer treatment works. The thought of going through a bone marrow transplant, which in my case called for a life-threatening dose of chemotherapy followed by a total replacement of my body’s bone marrow, was scary enough. But then I learned that finding a donor can be the scariest part of all.

It turns out that not all transplants are created equal. Without a match, the path to a cure becomes much less certain, in many cases even impossible. This is particularly true for minorities and people from mixed ethnic backgrounds, groups that are severely underrepresented in bone marrow registries. As a first generation American, the child of a Swiss mother and Tunisian father, I suddenly found myself in a scary place. My doctors worried that a global, harried search for a bone marrow match would delay critical treatment for my fast-moving leukemia.

That meant that my younger brother was my best hope — but my doctors were careful to measure hope with reality. Siblings are the best chance for a match, but a match only happens about 25 percent of the time.

To our relief, results showed that my brother was a perfect match: a 10-out-of-10 on the donor scale. It was only then that it struck me how lucky I had been. Doctors never said it this way, but without a match, my chances of living through the next year were low. I have met many people since who, after dozens of efforts to encourage potential bone marrow donors to sign up, still have not found a match. Adding your name to the bone marrow registry is quick, easy and painless — you can sign up at marrow.org — and it just takes a swab of a Q-tip to get your DNA. For cancer patients around the world, it could mean a cure.

The bone marrow transplant procedure itself can be dangerous, but it is swift, which makes it feel strangely anti-climactic. On “Day Zero,” my brother’s stem cells dripped into my veins from a hanging I.V. bag, and it was all over in minutes. Doctors tell me that the hardest part of the transplant is recovering from it. I’ve found that to be true, and I’ve also recognized that the same is true for Adam. As I slowly grow stronger, my little brother has assumed a caretaker role in my life. I carry his blood cells — the ones keeping me alive — and he is carrying the responsibility, and often fear and anxiety, of the loving onlooker. He tells me I’m still a bossy older sister. But our relationship is now changed forever. I have to look to him for support and guidance more than I ever have. He’ll always be my little brother, but he’s growing up fast.

---

Suleika Jaouad (pronounced su-LAKE-uh ja-WAD) is a 24-year-old writer who lives in New York City. Her column, “Life, Interrupted,” chronicling her experiences as a young adult with cancer, appears regularly on Well. Follow @suleikajaouad on Twitter.

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Van Nuys debt collectors pay $1.1 million to settle federal case

WASHINGTON — A Van Nuys debt collection operation and the people who ran it agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle federal allegations that they improperly bullied consumers to get them to pay overdue bills and deceived clients about fees.

The settlement ends a case in which a federal judge in Los Angeles found the defendants liable for $33.8 million in fines and penalties. The defendants, however, had no more money to pay the judgment, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday.

The deal, stemming from a 2011 case against Forensic Case Management Services Inc., owner David M. Hynes II and other officers, permanently bars the operators from the debt collection business.

The case was part of an FTC crackdown on abusive debt-collection practices, especially as the sluggish recovery from the Great Recession pushed more consumers into debt.

Employees of the company, which did business as Rumson, Bolling & Associates, among other names, violated federal law by berating and threatening people in pursuit of old debts and improperly disclosing information about those debts to employers, co-workers and others, the FTC said.

"Several consumers reported that defendants even threatened to dig up the bodies of consumers' deceased relatives for alleged nonpayment of funeral bills," the agency said.

The company also allegedly deceived its clients, reneging on a "no recovery, no fee" pledge in its collection of old debts. In many cases, the company kept more of the money it collected than it was entitled to, and in some instances added fees, the FTC said.

In 2011, a federal judge halted the company's operations.

Under the settlement, Forensic Case Management, Specialized Recovery Inc. and Commercial Receivables Acquisition Inc., along with Hynes and former executive Lorena Quiroz-Hynes, will be required to pay $700,000 because they cannot afford to pay the rest, the FTC said.

Two others connected to the companies, James S. Hynes and Heather True, agreed to smaller judgments that were suspended because of their inability to pay.

None of them admitted any wrongdoing, said their attorney, Christopher L. Pitet of Newport Beach.

"From Day One, we have denied doing anything wrong," Pitet said. "We had extensive training and policies in place to prevent abusive debt-collection practices, and to the extent any employees engaged in those practices … it was against company policy."

In a separate settlement, three companies controlled by David Hynes — Vesper Collins, Ramillies, both of Sherman Oaks, and Innsbruck — agreed to pay $403,487. The companies weren't involved in the alleged debt-collection violations, but profited from them, the FTC said.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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Kaspersky Lab reports major malware discovery

MOSCOW — In what is being called a new hunt for Red October, a Russian cyber-security company says it has discovered a major international malware system that has attacked and compromised the computers of government agencies, diplomatic consulates, research centers and defense installations, among other sensitive institutions.

The malware has siphoned off terabytes' worth of information, much of it classified, researchers with Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab said in a report this week. The origin of the program and the motives of the attackers remain elusive, but there are hints that the programmers are Russian, the report says.

"Last October we first received from our clients samples of something we soon gathered was not just a malware program but a multi-component attack platform, initially targeting embassies around the world," Vitaly Kamlyuk, a senior anti-virus expert at Kaspersky, said in an interview Wednesday. "We called the virus 'Red October' because we detected it in October and because it required a level of red-alert attention to tackle."

Similar to the Flame virus, a now-defunct spyware program Kaspersky thwarted last year, the new virus usually infiltrates computers through an email attachment camouflaged to mimic ordinary business correspondence, the expert said.

"One embassy was looking to buy a car and received the virus in a car sale proposal they soon found in their inbox," Kamlyuk said.

Kaspersky, a leading developer of commercial anti-virus software, said it found victims of the malware with IP addresses in 39 countries, led by Switzerland, Kazakhstan and Greece. The most common targets included embassies, government agencies and research institutes, as well as aerospace and energy companies.

Kaspersky said the malware was probably being operated by a government or criminal organization large enough to employ at least two dozen highly trained programmers.

Independent experts in the United States offered differing views on who might be responsible.

"The two primary suspects for this operation would have been either Russia or China, just based on some of the data," said John Bumgarner, research director for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a nongovernmental think tank.

But researcher Jeffrey Carr, author of "Inside Cyber Warfare," theorized that the malware was the work of the foreign intelligence service of a NATO or European Union country, and that the intent was to spy on Russian embassies.

"It's a pretty good guess" that Russia's spy service, the FSB, approached Kaspersky and asked the firm to investigate, Carr said. "One of the indications was that they were specifically looking for Russian documents."

Kaspersky researchers said the spyware, when first installed, might be only several hundred kilobytes in size, minuscule by modern computer standards. But as it gets established and communicates with its controllers, it may grow to several megabytes.

The virus records the names of the users, their IP addresses, information stored on their processors and local disks, the history of browsers, logins and passwords, and the records of devices plugged into USB ports, including smartphones, according to the report.

Like the Flame program, the new virus can record screen shots, as well as keystrokes.

Evidence of the Red October virus dates to May 2007, Kamlyuk said. The program was embedded in Microsoft Excel and Word documents that had been used by Chinese hackers against Asian companies and Tibetan political activists, Kamlyuk said.

"But soon enough," he said, "we realized that, despite its obvious Chinese roots and the fact that no agencies in China were in fact targets of the new malicious program, the Chinese hackers had nothing to do with Red October."

The language used in the malware was primarily English, but not that of a native English speaker. It included Cyrillic symbols and transliterations of terms from Russian computer jargon, the researchers said.

For instance, Kamlyuk said, the malware sometimes uses the Russian word "zakladka" for "bookmark" or "marker" and "proga" for "programs."

"Many domain names of the malware were registered under fake Russian names and addresses too," he said.

"Now we have come to the realization that we are dealing with something programmed by Russian-speaking experts, based on Chinese hackers' exploit documents and mostly aimed at embassies of and other targets in Russia and its former Soviet satellites," Kamlyuk said.

Sergei Karaganov, honorary chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a Moscow-based think tank, said in an interview that such cyber-espionage is increasingly common and that Russia and other countries have attempted to create international protocols to combat it.

"But every time, their attempts have been thwarted by the stiff resistance on the part of the United States, which probably counts too much on its supremacy in this sphere," he said. "On the other hand, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of this being an ingenious trick on the part of Kaspersky Lab to boost their trade."

sergei.loiko@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ken Dilanian in Washington contributed to this report.

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NVIDIA’s ‘Project SHIELD’ Console Faces Three Challenges

Despite being announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD isn’t the first game-console-in-a-controller to be announced this year. That honor goes to the GameStick, an indie project being funded on Kickstarter. As relative newcomers to the gaming scene, GameStick‘s creators face an uphill battle for acceptance, from both potential buyers and game developers.

But despite NVIDIA‘s established position as a gaming hardware company, it may have a struggle ahead of it, too. Here are three problems which may hinder Project SHIELD‘s adoption.

The size

Unlike GameStick, which is sort of like a classic NES gamepad with a detachable memory stick that plugs into the TV, Project SHIELD is a completely self-contained console. It’s thick and bulky, enormous compared to any of today’s controllers, or even Nintendo’s 3DS XL game console. The closest thing it compares to is an original Xbox controller, before the redesign, but with a flip-up multitouch screen that’s five inches across and has 720p resolution.

You’re not going to be able to just toss Project SHIELD in your pocket, like a smartphone or iPod or very small tablet. It’ll be portable in roughly the same sense that an iPad or netbook is portable, in that you’ll need a handbag or carrying case to put it in. This puts it in a separate size category from most of its competitors, and makes it less convenient to carry around.

The cost

Project SHIELD’s Tegra 4 processor will let it play Tegra-enhanced HD Android games straight from the Google Play store, as well as stream PC games from gaming PCs running Steam and equipped with certain types of NVIDIA graphics cards. Besides that, it’s a full-fledged Android device running Jelly Bean.

But at what cost? Google’s $ 199 Nexus 7 tablet lacks a built-in game controller, doesn’t have a much bigger screen, and uses a less powerful Tegra 3 processor. Dedicated game consoles like the 3DS XL and PlayStation Vita are priced in the same ballpark as the Nexus 7. NVIDIA has yet to announce how much Project SHIELD will cost, or even when it will be on store shelves.

The Tegra-enhanced HD graphics

For many, this will be a plus. There are a lot of Tegra HD (or “THD”) games on the Google Play store right now which boast improved graphics over the versions that run on other graphics processors.

It complicates things for game developers, though, who have to write a separate version just for Tegra processors. Unlike normal ARM processors and Android itself, Tegra is owned solely by NVIDIA, which means there are a lot of tablets and smartphones out there which can’t run those versions of these games. It also means gamers may have to repurchase certain games for Project SHIELD, in order to get the enhanced versions.

Looking towards the future

Things aren’t all gloomy. So far, NVIDIA’s managed to keep developer interest in the Tegra platform, and has gotten a lot of people excited about Project SHIELD. Its partnership with Valve also puts it in position to take advantage of the excitement surrounding Big Picture mode, and the upcoming gaming PCs (like Piston) designed to work with it and connect to a television.

Finally, a wireless game controller can cost upward of $ 50 by itself, so seen in that light Project SHIELD may not turn out to be so expensive — assuming gamers buy Tegra HD titles and NVIDIA graphics cards to use it with.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Obama calls for research on media in gun violence

NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood and the video game industry received scant attention Wednesday when President Barack Obama unveiled sweeping proposals for curbing gun violence in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

The White House pressed most forcefully for a reluctant Congress to pass universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.

No connection was suggested between bloody entertainment fictions and real-life violence. Instead, the White House is calling on research on the effect of media and video games on gun violence.

Among the 23 executive measures signed Wednesday by Obama is a directive to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and scientific agencies to conduct research into the causes and prevention of gun violence. The order specifically cited "investigating the relationship between video games, media images and violence."

The measure meant that media would not be exempt from conversations about violence, but it also suggested the White House would not make Hollywood, television networks and video game makers a central part of the discussion. It's a relative footnote in the White House's broad, multi-point plan, and Obama did not mention violence in entertainment in his remarks Wednesday.

The White House plan did mention media, but suggested that any effort would be related to ratings systems or technology: "The entertainment and video game industries have a responsibility to give parents tools and choices about the movies and programs their children watch and the games their children play."

The administration is calling on Congress to provide $10 million for the CDC research.

The CDC has been barred by Congress to use funds to "advocate or promote gun control," but the White House order claims that "research on gun violence is not advocacy" and that providing information to Americans on the issue is "critical public health research."

Since 26 were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook in December, some have called for changes in the entertainment industry, which regularly churns out first-person shooter video games, grisly primetime dramas and casually violent blockbusters.

The Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Broadcasters, National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Independent Film & Television Alliance responded to Wednesday's proposal in a joint statement:

"We support the president's goal of reducing gun violence in this country. It is a complex problem, and as we have said, we stand ready to be a part of the conversation and welcome further academic examination and consideration on these issues as the president has proposed."

After the Newtown massacre, Wayne Pierre, vice-president of the National Rifle Association, attacked the entertainment industry, calling it "a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people." He cited a number of video games and films, most of them many years old, like the movies "American Psycho" and "Natural Born Killers," and the video games "Mortal Kombat" and "Grand Theft Auto."

President Obama's adviser, David Axelrod, had tweeted that he's in favor of gun control, "but shouldn't we also question marketing murder as a game?"

Others have countered that the same video games and movies are played and watched around the world, but that the tragedies of gun violence are for other reasons endemic to the U.S.

The Entertainment Software Association, which represents video game publishers, referenced that argument Wednesday in a statement that embraced Obama's proposal.

"The same entertainment is enjoyed across all cultures and nations, but tragic levels of gun violence remain unique to our country," said the ESA. "Scientific research an international and domestic crime data point toward the same conclusion: Entertainment does not cause violent behavior in the real world."

Several R-rated films released after Newton have been swept into the debate. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former California governor and action film star, recently told USA Today in discussing his new shoot-em-up film "The Last Stand": "It's entertainment. People know the difference."

Quentin Tarantino, whose new film "Django Unchained" is a cartoonish, bloody spaghetti western set in the slavery-era South, has often grown testy when questioned about movie violence and real-life violence. Speaking to NPR, Tarantino said it was disrespectful to the memory of the victims to talk about movies: "I don't think one has to do with the other."

In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children. The decision claimed that video games, like other media, are protected by the First Amendment. In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer claimed previous studies showed the link between violence and video games, concluding "the video games in question are particularly likely to harm children."

In the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the government can't regulate depictions of violence, which he said were age-old, anyway: "Grimm's Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang contributed to this report from Los Angeles

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Study Confirms Benefits of Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Women

While everyone is being urged to get the flu vaccine as soon as possible, some pregnant women avoid it in the belief that it may harm their babies. A large new study confirms that they should be much more afraid of the flu than the vaccine.

Norwegian researchers studied fetal death among 113,331 women pregnant during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009-2010. Some 54,065 women were unvaccinated, 31,912 were vaccinated during pregnancy, and 27,354 were vaccinated after delivery. The scientists then reviewed hospitalizations and doctor visits for the flu among the women.

The results were published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The flu vaccine was not associated with an increased risk for fetal death, the researchers found, and getting the shot during pregnancy reduced the risk of the mother getting the flu by about 70 percent. That was important, because fetuses whose mothers got the flu were much more likely to die.

Unvaccinated women had a 25 percent higher risk of fetal death during the pandemic than those who had had the shot. Among pregnant women with a clinical diagnosis of influenza, the risk of fetal death was nearly doubled. In all, there were 16 fetal deaths among the 2,278 women who were diagnosed with influenza during pregnancy.

Dr. Marian Knight, a professor at the perinatal epidemiology unit of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the research, called it “a high-quality national study” that shows “there is no evidence of an increased risk of fetal death in women who have been immunized. Clinicians and women can be reassured about the safety of the vaccine in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.”

The Norwegian health system records vaccinations of individuals and maintains linked registries to track effects and side effects. The lead author, Dr. Camilla Stoltenberg, director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said that there are few countries with such complete records.

“This is a great study,” said Dr. Denise J. Jamieson, an obstetrician and a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was not involved in the work. “It’s nicely done, with good data, and it’s additional information about the importance of the flu vaccine for pregnant women. It shows that it’s effective and might reduce the risk for fetal death.”

In Norway, the vaccine is recommended only in the second and third trimesters, so the study includes little data on vaccination in the first trimester. The C.D.C. recommends the vaccine for all pregnant women, regardless of trimester.

“We knew from other studies that the vaccine protects the woman and the newborn,” Dr. Stoltenberg said. “This study clearly indicates that it protects fetuses as well. I seriously suggest that pregnant women get vaccinated during every flu season.”

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