Wall Street flat ahead of Obama speech

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Tuesday, hovering near multi-year highs as traders awaited President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

The economy will be one of the main topics of Obama's speech at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday). Investors will listen for any clues on a deal with Republicans in Congress to avert automatic spending cuts due to take effect March 1.

The S&P 500 has risen in the past six weeks and is up more than 6 percent so far this year. Despite a dip in volume Monday and the sideways move this week the market is showing technical strength as it digests the recent gains.

"It's positive we haven't seen an urge to take profits after the run-up we had recently," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois.

He said it was natural for the market to be pausing amid a lack of major economic data points and with earnings season winding down, and markets will be attentively watching Obama's speech in Washington.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 7.6 points or 0.05 percent, to 13,978.84, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 0.27 points or 0.02 percent, to 1,516.74 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 1.41 points or 0.04 percent, to 3,190.59.

Coca-Cola Co shares fell 1.5 percent to $38.04 after the world's largest soft drink maker reported quarterly earnings that were slightly better than expected as strength in emerging markets offset a decline in European business.

Avon Products shares jumped 13.4 percent to $19.59 after the beauty products company reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber shares fell 4.6 percent to $13.27 after it posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit but cut its 2013 forecast due to weakness in the European automotive market.

Michael Kors Holdings shares soared 12 percent to $63.82 after the fashion company handily beat Wall Street's estimates and raised its full-year outlook.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

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IHT Rendezvous: To Build Lasting Peace in Mali

LONDON — Clashes between Islamic fighters and French troops in the Malian city of Gao may suggest that, after a swift campaign to liberate the north, France could be in Mali for the long haul.

“From the moment France committed itself, it became responsible for what happens in that country,” Vincent Desportes, a retired French general and military theorist told the magazine L’Express. “If France leaves too soon and the situation deteriorates, Paris will get the blame.”

Confronted with the specter of “ mission creep,” François Hollande, the French president, said on Monday that French forces were moving from a phase of liberating Mali to one of securing it, to ensure that “no corner of Malian territory remains under the control of the terrorists.”

In the best-case scenario, the Islamist militants would be ousted from Mali, a trained African force would move in to support the Malian army, and France would withdraw to celebrate a job well done.

There are concerns, however, that without political change in the fragile Saharan state, the military option might not be enough to prevent a resurgence of the Islamist threat.

According to Helen Clark, head of the United Nations Development Program, which has been operating in Mali for more than three decades, the country needs a very clear time table for national dialogue, constitutional reform and improved governance.

“You have to do this first, otherwise Mali will fall over again,” Ms. Clark told Rendezvous in an interview.

The former New Zealand prime minister was in Britain to give a lecture to conflict experts at Oxford University, where she warned that Mali’s road back from a combination of violent conflict and constitutional crisis was not an easy one.

“It will require international support for some time, including for resuming development progress,” she said. “Long-term stability for Mali requires dedication to inclusive governance and to inclusive and equitable development across the country.”

The U.N. agency would support the election process and prepare a development program for the north of the country.

“In the North, state authority and services must be re-established, infrastructure rehabilitated, and livelihoods restored,” she told the Oxford audience. “Reestablishment of the rule of law will also be vital to putting the country back on track.”

Ms. Clark said two decades spent building democracy and pursuing development in Mali had been derailed by a combination of factors that included an existing conflict in the north of the country, a military coup, and the spillover of the upheaval in neighboring Libya.

The situation was compounded by a severe drought that threatened 3.5 million Malians with food shortages in 2012.

Mali was the regional country most vulnerable to the Islamist incursion because of continuing north-south tensions that were being resolved elsewhere in the Sahel, she told Rendezvous.

The U.N. development chief is not alone in believing that the outside world should look for more than a military solution in Mali.

As my colleagueEric Schmitt writes from the neighboring state of Niger, the Pentagon’s Africa Command is in the region to play a “soft power” role in strengthening social, political and economic programs as well as training regional armed forces.

At an international conference on assisting Mali in Brussels last week, Joe Costello, the Irish trade minister, said good progress had been made in stabilizing the security situation, “but now it is vitally important that the provision of humanitarian aid and the political process keep pace.”

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Next-gen Xbox may feature advanced multitasking and require Kinect to function

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Record $1 Million Bounty Offered for Fugitive Cop

By Andrea Billups

02/11/2013 at 09:15 AM EST

Undated photo of Christopher Dorner

LAPD/AP

Authorities in Los Angeles upped the ante Sunday on a bounty for Christopher Dorner, the fugitive former Los Angeles police officer who remains at large after killing another officer and targeting police and their families over his 2008 firing from the force.

Police announced a record $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Dorner, 33, who has eluded capture for five days and whose angry 15,000-word "manifesto" threatened the lives of at least 50 former colleagues and their relatives.

The record bounty, described by police as the largest for a criminal investigation in Southern California, was posted Sunday and comes from donations from police unions, businesses and private investors who want Dorner captured and off the streets.

Security was tightened at the Staples Center in downtown for Sunday's 55th annual Grammy Awards, as police continued the largest manhunt ever for the Los Angeles area. The search focused on the San Bernandino mountains where Dorner's burned out truck was found abandoned near Big Bear Lake, as police offered security to lawe enforcement families mentioned in Dorner's rambling writings.

Dorner, a former U.S. Navy reservist, engaged in a shooting with two officers on Thursday, grazing one, before ambushing two other police while they were sitting in their patrol car at a stoplight. One was killed and the other was seriously wounded. The revenge killings came after Dorner had posted rants on his Facebook page last week over what he claimed was his wrongful firing from the LAPD.

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What heals traumatized kids? Answers are lacking

CHICAGO (AP) — Shootings and other traumatic events involving children are not rare events, but there's a startling lack of scientific evidence on the best ways to help young survivors and witnesses heal, a government-funded analysis found.

School-based counseling treatments showed the most promise, but there's no hard proof that anxiety drugs or other medication work and far more research is needed to provide solid answers, say the authors who reviewed 25 studies. Their report was sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

According to research cited in the report, about two-thirds of U.S. children and teens younger than 18 will experience at least one traumatic event, including shootings and other violence, car crashes and weather disasters. That includes survivors and witnesses of trauma. Most will not suffer any long-term psychological problems, but about 13 percent will develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, including anxiety, behavior difficulties and other problems related to the event.

The report's conclusions don't mean that no treatment works. It's just that no one knows which treatments are best, or if certain ones work better for some children but not others.

"Our findings serve as a call to action," the researchers wrote in their analysis, published online Monday by the journal Pediatrics.

"This is a very important topic, just in light of recent events," said lead author Valerie Forman-Hoffman, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

She has two young children and said the results suggest that it's likely one of them will experience some kind of trauma before reaching adulthood. "As a parent I want to know what works best," the researcher said.

Besides the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, other recent tragedies involving young survivors or witnesses include the fatal shooting last month of a 15-year-old Chicago girl gunned down in front of a group of friends; Superstorm Sandy in October; and the 2011 Joplin, Mo., tornado, whose survivors include students whose high school was destroyed.

Some may do fine with no treatment; others will need some sort of counseling to help them cope.

Studying which treatments are most effective is difficult because so many things affect how a child or teen will fare emotionally after a traumatic event, said Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency physician and research director at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., who wrote a Pediatrics editorial.

One of the most important factors is how the child's parents handle the aftermath, Dowd said.

"If the parent is freaking out" and has difficulty controlling emotions, kids will have a tougher time dealing with trauma. Traumatized kids need to feel like they're in a safe and stable environment, and if their parents have trouble coping, "it's going to be very difficult for the kid," she said.

The researchers analyzed 25 studies of treatments that included anti-anxiety and depression drugs, school-based counseling, and various types of psychotherapy. The strongest evidence favored school-based treatments involving cognitive behavior therapy, which helps patients find ways to cope with disturbing thoughts and emotions, sometimes including talking repeatedly about their trauma.

This treatment worked better than nothing, but more research is needed comparing it with alternatives, the report says.

"We really don't have a gold standard treatment right now," said William Copeland, a psychologist and researcher at Duke University Medical Center who was not involved in the report. A lot of doctors and therapists may be "patching together a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that might not add up to the most effective treatment for any given child," he said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

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Wall Street opens lower as market takes a breather

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened slightly lower as the market took a breather with the S&P 500 index near a record high, while low volume could make trading volatile and exaggerate moves.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 23.46 points, or 0.17 percent, at 13,969.51. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 1.99 points, or 0.13 percent, at 1,515.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 1.86 points, or 0.06 percent, at 3,192.01.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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The Lede: Latest Updates on Pope’s Resignation

The Lede is providing updates on Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement on Monday that he intends to resign on Feb. 28, less than eight years after he took office, the first pope to do so in six centuries.

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How Grammy Nominees Stack Up on Social Media

What if Grammys were given out based on popularity on social media? This infographic examines which nominees are dominating Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Going into Sunday’s 55th Grammy Awards, for example, Carly Rae Jepsen‘s viral hit “Call Me Maybe” has the most YouTube views out of fellow Song of the Year contenders: Fun’s “We Are Young,” Ed Sheeran‘s “The A Team,” Kelly Clarkson‘s “Stronger” and Miguel’s “Adorn.” The Grammy Awards will air Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

[More from Mashable: Grammy GIFs Rock, Roll and Repeat]

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift has the most subscribers, beating out every nominee in the Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year categories, according to the data from creative marketing agency Activ8Social. Swift also has the largest Facebook fanbase, by a long shot, versus her competition for Record of the Year.

[More from Mashable: Kelly Clarkson Photobomb Wins the Grammys]

Click here to view the gallery: Behind The Scenes 55th Grammy Awards

Inforgraphic courtesy of Activ8Social

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Kelly Clarkson: Grammy Nominated and Honored with 'Stronger' Cocktail

By Dahvi Shira

02/10/2013 at 10:00 AM EST

Stronger Old Fashioned and Kelly Clarkson (inset)

Anjali Pinto. Inset: Kevin Winter/Getty

The Grammy Awards are just one more reason to celebrate current PEOPLE cover star Kelly Clarkson.

PEOPLE's current cover girl, 30, topped off her recent engagement announcement with a handful of nominations leading up to the biggest night in music on Sunday.

Mixologist Paul McGee of Chicago's country-themed Bub City bar and eatery prepared a specialty robust beverage called "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" Old Fashioned for Clarkson fans to serve at their Grammy viewing parties.

"It was kind of tongue in cheek, but the Old Fashioned is usually a nice introduction to drinking boozy cocktails or drinking bourbon straight," McGee tells PEOPLE.

"It is definitely a 'strong' drink with a subtle sweetness and lingering finish and usually wins over people who would never drink such a bold drink. It most likely won't kill you, but might also make you appreciate something new. Also, I can totally see Kelly Clarkson drinking one of these!"

Read on to create one heck of a strong drink to help honor the superstar:

"What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" Old Fashioned

Ingredients
2.5 oz Any 100 proof bourbon or rye will do
.25 oz Demerara syrup (2 parts unrefined cane sugar to 1 part water until granules dissolve)
4 Dashes angostura bitters
1 Orange peel and cherry

Procedure
• Stir ingredients together with ice for 20 seconds
• Strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a large cube of ice
• Garnish with an orange peel and cherry
• Add 4 drops of the bitters on top of the big cube

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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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