New Zealand level series thanks to Guptill century

A brilliant, unbeaten century from opener Martin Guptill led New Zealand to an eight-wicket victory off the final ball against South Africa in the second T20 international on Sunday.
Chasing 169 for victory in 19 overs at Buffalo Park, Guptill helped erase the memory of Friday's embarrassing capitulation to 86 all out in Durban with a stunning batting display as the tourists reached their target for the loss of just two wickets to level the series 1-1.
Requiring 39 from the final four overs and 11 off the last, Guptill was on 97 and needing four for victory when Rory Kleinveldt bowled the final delivery - a low full toss which was eased away through extra cover.
Guptill's unbeaten 101 was just the third T20 international century by a New Zealander, the first two belonging to captain Brendon McCullum who was almost anonymous with 17 from 15 balls during a second-wicket partnership of 73 with Guptill.
The right-handed opener was similarly dominant during an opening stand of 76 with Rob Nicol (25) as he drove the Proteas attack impeccably straight and displayed the skills - and patience - so obviously missing from the New Zealand batsman in Durban.
Captain Faf du Plessis led from the front once again as South Africa posted a competitive 165-5 in 19 overs after losing the toss and being asked to bat first.
Du Plessis paced his innings to perfection on a tricky pitch to reach 63 from 43 balls with eight fours and a six in a match reduced to 19 overs per side following a 52-minute floodlight failure.
The deciding match takes place in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Read More..

Could the US learn from Australia's gun-control laws?

Almost two weeks after a shooting spree stunned Australia in 1996, leaving 35 people dead at the Port Arthur tourist spot in Tasmania, the government issued sweeping reforms of the country’s gun laws. There hasn’t been a mass shooting since. Now, after the recent shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, Australia’s National Firearm Agreement (NFA), which saw hundreds of thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons bought back then destroyed, is being examined as a possible example for the US, to mixed reaction in Australia.
Recommended: Think you know Asia? Take our geography quiz.
Australians have been following the Connecticut tragedy closely, and many say the US solution lies in following Australia’s path, or at least reforming current laws. But a small but vocal number of Australia’s gun supporters are urging caution.
Get our FREE 2013 Global Security Forecast now
Just 12 days after the 1996 shooting in Port Arthur, then-Prime Minister John Howard – a conservative who had just been elected with the help of gun owners – pushed through not only new gun control laws, but also the most ambitious gun buyback program Australia had ever seen. Some 650,000 automatic and semi-automatic rifles were handed in and destroyed under the program. Though gun-related deaths did not suddenly end in Australia, gun-related homicides dropped 59 percent between 1995 and 2006, with no corresponding increase in non-firearm-related homicides. Suicides by gun plummeted by 65 percent, and robberies at gunpoint also dropped significantly. Many said there was a close correlation between the sharp declines and the buyback program.
A paper for the American Law and Economics Review by Andrew Leigh of the Australian National University and Christine Neill of the Wilfrid Laurier University reports that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80 percent, "with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates. The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise.”
Perhaps the most convincing statistic for many, though, is that in the decade before the Port Arthur massacre, there were 11 mass shootings in the country. Since the new law, there hasn’t been one shooting spree. In the wake of the shooting, polls indicated that up to 85 percent of Australians supported the measures taken by the government.
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, several Australian politicians are now suggesting that the US adopt Australia’s gun laws. “I implore you to look at our experience,” Labor Member of Parliament Kelvin Thomson wrote in an open letter to US Congress that he also posted on his official website. “As the number of guns in Australia reduced, so too did gun violence. It is simply not true that owning a gun makes you safer.”
MIXED VIEWS
But the nation still has some steps to take before becoming the perfect example, cautions Queensland Member of Parliament Bob Katter.
“I think we are absolutely reprehensible, we have done nothing, not one single overt act, to separate the guns from the people who are mentally unhinged," he told reporters recently. Although the laws imposed strict licensing rules, critics here point out that Australia has yet to actually ban semi-automatic handguns completely – they are still available for police and hunters – and that there are other loopholes. They also note that most of the guns used in violent crimes, both before and after the 1996 law, were unregistered.
“There weren’t that many deaths in the first place,” says President of the Sport Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) Bob Green, cautioning against taking the causal link many draw between the NFA and a steep drop in gun deaths at face value. “Gun deaths were declining for the past 30 years before they brought the laws in.”
Though many point to declining gun violence statistics as further evidence of the effectiveness of Australia's 1996 law, gun supporters also use it to support their case: In 1979, there were 689 gun related deaths in Australia, or about 4.71 per 100,000 Australians. That rate began to decline in the 1980s and reached 2.82 per 100,000 Australians in 1996, with 516 killed that year. The number of deaths by firearms and the rate per people continued to drop until 2010, when 231 died and the rate was 1.04 per 100,000 people, according to the University of Sydney’s GunPolicy.org.
Still, says Mr. Thomson who was “horrified and disgusted” by the killing of so many small children, an Australian-inspired solution might be workable.
“There have been always been great differences between the number of weapons that Australians and Americans own – that is precisely why there are so many more deaths, on a per capita basis, in the United States. It is also true that there are differences in the way Americans and Australians view weapons – nevertheless … our experience is relevant and potentially informative – we had massacres, we acted, we no longer have massacres.

Read More..

Cricket-Australia skipper Clarke facing Boxing day fitness test

Dec 25 (Reuters) - Australia will wait until the very last minute to decide if Michael Clarke has recovered sufficiently from a hamstring injury to lead the side out for the second test against Sri Lanka at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day.
Clarke was forced to retire hurt while batting on the fourth day of the opening match of the series in Hobart and while Australia are reluctant to risk aggravating the injury further, the 31-year-old has shown improvement over the last few days.
The leading test run scorer this year put himself through batting and fielding practice on Tuesday and sounded confident he would be fit to start the match.
"I'm still pretty positive I'll be right for tomorrow," he told a media conference. "I haven't run at 100 percent but I've certainly built up over the last three days."
Clarke said he was "improving every day" but would have to wait until the morning of the match to see if there was any reaction to Tuesday's practice.
"I did a fair bit of running today in the indoor nets. A decision can't be made today," he added. "I really need to wait and see how I pull up tomorrow morning."
Waiting in the wings should Clarke not make the test is top-order batsman Usman Khawaja, though coach Mickey Arthur was leaning towards the skipper taking the field in front of a huge crowd at the MCG.
"If I was a betting man I'd bet on Michael Clarke leading the team out on Boxing Day," he said.
"We've got to be mindful as well, much like the Mitchell Starc decision, as to the amount of important cricket we've got coming up."
Australia have opted to rest 22-year-old paceman Starc as part of a controversial rotation policy after a swathe of injuries decimated their pace bowling stocks.
Front-line seamer Ben Hilfenhaus has been ruled out with a side strain, joining James Pattinson and Pat Cummins on the sidelines.
Mitchell Johnson, who was dropped following the third test against South Africa, has been recalled to the side while Jackson Bird, the leading wicket-taker in the domestic Sheffield Shield, has been called up for his first test.
Only Peter Siddle, who took nine wickets in a man-of-the-match performance at Hobart, has been retained in the pace attack while off-spinner Nathan Lyon has also kept his place.
Australia lead the three-match series 1-0, with the third test scheduled to begin in Sydney on Jan. 3.

Read More..

"X Factor" judge L.A. Reid quitting TV talent show

L.A. Reid, "The X Factor" judge, says he is leaving the TV talent show next season after two years on the panel.
Reid, 56, chairman and chief executive of Epic Records, told "Access Hollywood," the television program and website, he has decided to leave the Fox reality singing show to return to the record label full time.
"I have decided that I will not return to 'The X Factor' next year," Reid told "Access Hollywood" late Thursday. "I have to go back and I have a company to run that I've kind of neglected, and it saddens me a little bit, but only a little bit."
He added that the show was "a nice break, it was a nice departure from what I've done for the past 20 years, but now I gotta go back to work."
Fox declined to comment on Reid's departure on Friday.
Reid joined "The X Factor" when Cowell introduced the show in the United States in September 2011. Reid sat alongside Paula Abdul, former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger and Cowell.
Cowell fired Abdul and Scherzinger after a disappointing first season and brought in pop stars Britney Spears and Demi Lovato.
But "The X Factor" audiences have dropped this year to an average 9.7 million from about 12.5 million an episode in 2011.
The show broadcasts a two-part finale next week with the winner earning a $5 million prize and record contract.
Epic Records, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment, which commands a roster of artists including Avril Lavigne, will sign the winners of "The X Factor."

Read More..

White House TV comedy aims for laughs, not politics

There is a crazy family living at the White House, but it's not the Obamas. It's the Gilchrists, whose never-ending follies pulse and push upcoming TV comedy romp "1600 Penn."
Starring Bill Pullman as U.S. President Dale Gilchrist and Jenna Elfman as his first lady, the show's co-creator Josh Gad said on Friday that there is plenty of precedent for family madness at the Oval Office.
"You can look as far back as Mary Todd Lincoln ... and you can see dysfunction in the halls of the White House," Gad told reporters on a conference call, referring to the wife of Civil War President Abraham Lincoln.
Gad, who shot to prominence in the Tony-winning musical "The Book of Mormon," also plays the error-prone, good-intentioned son Skip, who with his three younger siblings backstop the earnestness of his father and step-mother.
"We really wanted to dissect what it meant to be a family in the most extraordinary of circumstances - and what's more extraordinary than being the first family?" Gad said.
The show, which takes its title from the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue street address of the White House, debuts on January 10 on NBC.
It sees Skip crashing a Latin American trade meeting at the White House and helping convince the region's leaders to abandon the arm-twisting Brazilian president and cut a deal instead with his father - summoning their courage with booze.
It is all part of Skip's plan to redeem himself after causing a public relations embarrassment by burning down a fraternity house at his college.
"It's like a drop of a political thing that will spark a family problem," Elfman said, whose character struggles to win the trust of her step-children and fights the media's trophy-wife label.
"1600 Penn," is co-created by Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama.
The White House has been successful grounds for TV in the past, inspiring shows like Aaron Sorkin's drama series "The West Wing" from 1999-2006, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Emmy-winning turn as a frustrated vice president in the satirical "Veep."
But Gad said "1600 Penn" has no interest in party politics and that President Gilchrist's party affiliation is deliberately vague.
"I can't emphasize that enough," Gad said. "We never set out to make a political show."
Nevertheless, Pullman, who played the president in the 1996 blockbuster film "Independence Day," said the 2012 U.S. presidential race gave him plenty of fodder to study.
"It was a surreal time to be making this because of the campaign going on," Pullman said. "Every day that we were shooting (the race) was in the news.

Read More..

Participant Media starts cable network for millenials

 Participant Media, the company behind films including "Lincoln" and "The Help," is starting a new cable network targeting millenial viewers, with content from Davis Guggenheim and The Jim Henson Company, among others.
It will be led by Evan Shapiro, who joined Participant in May after serving as President of IFC and Sundance Channel.
Participant has bought The Documentary Channel and entered into an agreement to acquire the distribution assets of Halogen TV from The Inspiration Networks. No terms were disclosed.
The combined and rebranded properties are expected to reach more than 40 million subscribers once the yet-to-be-named network launches in the summer.
"The goal of Participant is to tell stories that serve as catalysts for social change. With our television channel, we can bring those stories into the homes of our viewers every day," said Participant chairman and founder Jeff Skoll.
Those producing content for the new network also include producer Brian Graden, The Jim Henson Company's Brian Henson, columnist and blogger Meghan McCain, Morgan Spurlock, Gotham Chopra, filmmaker Mary Harron, writer/director Timothy Scott Bogart, and Cineflix Media, a TV producer and distributor in which Participant Media controls an equity interest.
Guggenheim directed the Oscar winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" for Participant.
"Our content will be specifically designed for the viewers that the pay TV eco-system is most at risk of losing," said Shapiro. "We all know that Millennials are changing how media is consumed. However, they also have the strong desire and inimitable capacity to help change the world. Our research shows that there is a whitespace in the television landscape and we believe that a destination for ‘the next greatest generation' will be a win for our affiliate partners, advertisers and the creative community.

Read More..

Hulu Plus doubles subscribers to 3 million

 Hulu Plus more than doubled the number of subscribers who pay for access to its premium content in 2012. The streaming service now numbers 3 million paid subscribers, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced in a blog post Monday.
That's a far cry from the nearly 30 million subscribers the company's main rival Netflix attracts, but it is a sign that Hulu is moving in the right direction. Because the company had not released its numbers publicly for months, some analysts had privately speculated that its growth had stalled. Hulu's paid-subscription service launched in 2010.
In addition, revenue at Hulu grew over 65 percent in 2012 to close the year at $695 million.
"When it comes to building things that matter, most entrepreneurs hope to have the good timing and the good fortune to find and ride (and ideally shape) one massive wave," Kilar wrote. "At Hulu, we are doubly fortunate in that we are at the crest of two massive waves that we believe will persist for the long term: the rise of online video advertising and the rise of online video subscription services."
Like Netflix, Hulu has also gotten into the original content game - launching documentary shows with the likes of "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock and the campaign dramedy "Battleground." In 2012, the company said it invested $500 million in content.
Kilar wrote that Hulu now has 430 content partners, producing 50,000 hours of video on Hulu and Hulu Plus.
However, advertising, not subscriber numbers remains the major driver behind Hulu's revenue, and here too the company said it is expanding. In 2012, Kilar wrote the company attracted some 1,000 advertisers, a 28 percent uptick from last year.

Read More..

HBO making "Game of Thrones"-themed beer

Winter is coming - and so is a new line of beers based on HBO's fantasy drama "Game of Thrones." Presumably, all will boast a full, robust head, perhaps resting on top of a spike.
HBO is teaming with Cooperstown, N.Y. brewery Ommegang for a line of brews centered around the series, the New York Times reports. The first beer, Iron Throne Blonde Ale, is slated to go on sale in March, in time for the March 31 premiere of the show's third season.
It sounds like the perfect libation for watching the premiere from the comfort of your $30,000 Iron Throne replica.
A second "GoT"-themed beer will go on sale in fall 2013, with two more varieties expected to go on sale in conjunction with new seasons of the series.

Read More..

Toll Brothers 4Q net income soars on tax benefit

NEW YORK (AP) — Toll Brothers says its fiscal fourth-quarter net income soared, helped by a large income tax benefit and a 48 percent rise in revenue. The luxury homebuilder delivered more homes and its order backlog increased.
CEO Douglas C. Yearley Jr. said in a statement on Tuesday that higher home prices, low interest rates, pent-up demand and improving consumer confidence prompted buyers to return to the housing market this year.
Last week a batch of government reports showed that rising home values, more hiring and lower gas prices pushed consumer confidence in November to the highest level in nearly five years. On Tuesday, Core Logic reported that a measure of U.S. home prices rose 6.3 percent in October compared with a year ago, the largest yearly gain since July 2006.
For the three months ended Oct. 31, Toll Brothers Inc. earned $411.4 million, or $2.35 per share. That's up sharply from $15 million, or 9 cents per share, a year ago.
The latest quarter included an income tax benefit of $350.7 million.
Excluding the tax benefit and other items, earnings were 35 cents per share.
Analysts expected earnings of 25 cents per share for the quarter, which typically exclude one-time items, according to a FactSet poll.
Revenue increased to $632.8 million from $427.8 million, topping Wall Street's forecast of $565.1 million.
Homebuilding deliveries climbed 44 percent to 1,088 units, while net signed contracts jumped 70 percent to 1,098 units. The average price of homes delivered increased to $582,000 from $565,000 a year earlier.
Toll Brothers, based in Horsham, Pa., may benefit by catering to the luxury sector. Its target market includes households that typically make more than $100,000 a year, can afford to make a down payment of as much as 30 percent, have great credit record and an unemployment rate about half that of the general population.
Backlog, a measure of potential future revenue, rose 54 percent to 2,569 units. The cancellation rate declined to 4.6 percent from 7.9 percent.
The company's full-year net income jumped to $487.1 million, or $2.86 per share, from $39.8 million, or 24 cents per share, a year earlier. Annual revenue climbed 27 percent to $1.88 billion from $1.48 billion.
Toll Brothers anticipates delivering between 3,600 and 4,400 homes in 2013 at an average price of $595,000 to $630,000 per home.
Its shares fell 57 cents, or 1.8 percent, to close at $31.86 Tuesday. Its shares peaked for the past year at $37.08 in mid-September.

Read More..

IRS finalizes new tax for medical devices in healthcare law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday released final rules for a new tax on medical devices, products ranging from surgical sutures to knee replacement implants, that starts next year as part of President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law.
The 2.3-percent tax must be paid, effective after December 31, by device-makers on their gross sales. The tax is expected to raise $29 billion in government revenues through 2022.
Companies including Boston Scientific Corp, 3M Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp have been lobbying the U.S. Congress for a repeal of the tax.
A repeal bill passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in June, but it has not been voted on by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
"The excise tax is on the medical device manufacturers and importers (who) will now have access to 30 million new customers due to the health care law," Treasury Department spokeswoman Sabrina Siddiqui said in a statement.
Many medical devices that are sold over-the-counter - such eyeglasses, contact lenses and hearing aids - are exempt from the tax, as are prosthetics, the IRS said.
The tax applies mostly to devices used and implanted by medical professionals, including items as complex as pacemakers or as simple as tongue depressors.
Products sold for humanitarian reasons, such as experimental cancer treatment devices, are not exempt from the tax.
Some medical device companies are hoping to delay the tax's start date as part of a resolution of the "fiscal cliff" deadline at the end of the year involving many tax and spending measures, said Steve Ferguson, chairman of Cook Group Inc.
"We would like to be part of the punt," Ferguson said, referring to an extension of current tax policy into 2013.
In one potentially problematic aspect of the tax, companies selling dual-use products to medical and non-medical customers must pay the tax on those products, potentially putting them at a competitive disadvantage, said Lew Fernandez, a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and a former IRS official.
For example, it remains "an open question" when latex gloves come under the tax, he said.

Read More..