Teen Arrested in Bank Robbery Had Bragged of Heist on YouTube















12/05/2012 at 03:35 PM EST



There are criminal masterminds, and then there's Hannah Sabata.

The 19-year-old high school dropout allegedly knocked off a bank in Nebraska, then posted a YouTube video bragging about it.

"Kind of a strange deal isn't it?" York County Sherriff Dale Radcliff tells PEOPLE.

In her eight-minute video, Sabata doesn't utter a word. Instead, she scribbles handwritten signs detailing her alleged armed robbery of the Cornerstone Bank in Waco, Neb., on Nov. 28, using "a gun, a pillow case, and a note."

During the course of her video, she also describes how she stole a "shiny new" Pontiac Grand Am, which she used as a getaway car after making off with $6,256 in cash.

"I told my mom today was the best day of my life," she writes in the video, while waving hundred-dollar bills in front of the camera. "She just thinks I met a new boy . . . I'm going for a shopping spree. Bite me."

According to police, Sabata is wearing the same clothes she wore when she allegedly handed bank tellers a slip of paper that read: "You are being robbed! NO ALARMS OR LOCKS OR PHONES or INK BAGS! I have a loaded gun. You have 2 minutes."

Sherriff Radcliff notes that law enforcement officials didn't even know about Sabata's video until after her arrest on Nov. 29.

Photographs of the robber, captured by the bank's security cameras, were quickly distributed throughout the community.

"We had lots of leads, but when her ex-husband notified us and said 'That's my ex-wife,' we got an arrest warrant for her," he said.

Sabata is currently being held in a York County jail on $300,000 bond. According to Radcliff, she faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted of armed robbery and auto theft.

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths


Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.


The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer than five years didn't help and might even be harmful.


In the new study, researchers found that women who took tamoxifen for 10 years lowered their risk of a recurrence by 25 percent and of dying of breast cancer by 29 percent compared to those who took the pills for just five years.


In absolute terms, continuing on tamoxifen kept three additional women out of every 100 from dying of breast cancer within five to 14 years from when their disease was diagnosed. When added to the benefit from the first five years of use, a decade of tamoxifen can cut breast cancer mortality in half during the second decade after diagnosis, researchers estimate.


Some women balk at taking a preventive drug for so long, but for those at high risk of a recurrence, "this will be a convincer that they should continue," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, director of the breast cancer program at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.


He reviewed results of the study, which was being presented Wednesday at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio and published by the British medical journal Lancet.


"The result of this trial will have a major, immediate impact on premenopausal women," Ravdin said.


About 50,000 of the roughly 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States each year occur in women before menopause. Most breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, and hormone blockers are known to cut the risk of recurrence in such cases.


Tamoxifen long was the top choice, but newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors — sold as Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin and in generic form — do the job with less risk of causing uterine cancer and other problems.


But the newer drugs don't work well before menopause. Even some women past menopause choose tamoxifen over the newer drugs, which cost more and have different side effects such as joint pain, bone loss and sexual problems.


The new study aimed to see whether over a very long time, longer treatment with tamoxifen could help.


Dr. Christina Davies of the University of Oxford in England and other researchers assigned 6,846 women who already had taken tamoxifen for five years to either stay on it or take dummy pills for another five years.


Researchers saw little difference in the groups five to nine years after diagnosis. But beyond that time, 15 percent of women who had stopped taking tamoxifen after five years had died of breast cancer versus 12 percent of those who took it for 10 years. Cancer had returned in 25 percent of women on the shorter treatment versus 21 percent of those treated longer.


Tamoxifen had some troubling side effects: Longer use nearly doubled the risk of endometrial cancer. But it rarely proved fatal, and there was no increased risk among premenopausal women in the study — the very group tamoxifen helps most.


"Overall the benefits of extended tamoxifen seemed to outweigh the risks substantially," Dr. Trevor Powles of the Cancer Centre London wrote in an editorial published with the study.


The study was sponsored by cancer research organizations in Britain and Europe, the United States Army, and AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nolvadex, a brand of tamoxifen, which also is sold as a generic for 10 to 50 cents a day. Brand-name versions of the newer hormone blockers, aromatase inhibitors, are $300 or more per month, but generics are available for much less.


The results pose a quandary for breast cancer patients past menopause and those who become menopausal because of their treatment — the vast majority of cases. Previous studies found that starting on one of the newer hormone blockers led to fewer relapses than initial treatment with tamoxifen did.


Another study found that switching to one of the new drugs after five years of tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence nearly in half — more than what was seen in the new study of 10 years of tamoxifen.


"For postmenopausal women, the data still remain much stronger at this point for a switch to an aromatase inhibitor," said that study's leader, Dr. Paul Goss of Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a paid speaker for a company that makes one of those drugs.


Women in his study have not been followed long enough to see whether switching cuts deaths from breast cancer, as 10 years of tamoxifen did. Results are expected in about a year.


The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center.


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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Serbian Ambassador to NATO Is Said to Commit Suicide





PARIS — The Serbian ambassador to NATO, Branislav Milinkovic, jumped to his death from a multistory parking garage on Tuesday afternoon at the Brussels airport, diplomats said Wednesday.







Reuters

Branislav Milinkovic, Serbia's ambassador to NATO, sits at the alliance headquarters in Brussels Dec. 14, 2006.







Mr. Milinkovic, 52, a respected diplomat, lawyer and intellectual appointed to the ambassadorship in 2009, was at the airport to meet a visiting Serbian delegation, officials said. B92, an independent broadcaster in Belgrade, Serbia, reported that the country’s assistant foreign minister, Zoran Vujic, was with Mr. Milinkovic at the time and witnessed his death.


Serbian officials said that the motive was not known, and that Mr. Milinkovic gave no sign of what he intended in the moments before he leapt to his death.


Diplomats attending a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels said they were shocked by the news. Serbia is not a member of the military alliance, but it belongs to a group of countries that cooperates with NATO on military and security issues.


Oana Lungescu, a spokeswoman for the alliance, said by telephone from Brussels that Mr. Milinkovic was a jovial and engaging man known for his gentle manner, and that he was widely liked and admired at NATO headquarters, where he had been recently seen playing tennis. He had a wife, who was in Dublin at the time of his death, and a son, B92 said.


When Serbia, the largest state to emerge from the disintegration of Yugoslavia, was ruled by the strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s, NATO conducted a bombing campaign to force Mr. Milosevic to withdraw Serbian forces from the breakaway region of Kosovo. Mr. Milinkovic was an opposition activist during Mr. Milosevic’s rule, and he became a diplomat after his overthrow in 2000, helping to rebuild friendly ties with Western Europe.


“Everyone is totally shocked to hear what happened,” Ms. Lungescu said. “He was a totally open and lovely man and made an important contribution toward rapprochement between Serbia and NATO, making great efforts to bridge over a difficult history and to move forward rather than backward.”


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China goes crazy for iPhone 5: Preorders hit 100,000 units in under 24 hours












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Frankie Muniz Recovering from a 'Mini-Stroke'















12/04/2012 at 03:50 PM EST



Malcolm's in the middle of a health scare.

Former child star Frankie Muniz is recovering from "mini-stroke" that sent him to the hospital last Friday.

Muniz, who turns 27 on Wednesday, tells his Twitter followers that the experience was "not fun at all."

"Have to start taking care of my body!" he writes. "Getting old!"

Muniz provided no more details. But a "mini-stroke" is commonly used to describe a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, when blood temporarily stops reaching the brain, causing stroke-like symptoms for one to 24 hours.

Doctors believe a TIA can be a warning sign for a possible full stroke in the future without preventative measures.

Muniz grew up in front of TV audiences on Malcolm in the Middle from 2000 to 2006. He's moved on to racecar driving and music – he drums for the band Kingsfoil – though recently made a cameo on Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.

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Wall Street flat on lack of "fiscal cliff" progress

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fluctuated between small gains and losses on Tuesday after remarks by President Barack Obama on budget talks dented optimism a solution could be found to prevent the economy from falling into recession.


Obama rejected a Republican proposal to resolve a looming fiscal crisis as "still out of balance" and said any deal must include a rise in income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.


Obama spoke in an interview with Bloomberg Television.


Republicans in Congress proposed steep spending cuts to bring down the budget deficit on Monday but gave no ground on Obama's call to raise tax rates on the rich. The proposal was quickly dismissed by the White House.


"We have more of the same and what that really means is that you see very public negotiations that seem to be going nowhere," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.


"If there was any conviction that this was going to be a done deal, that we are going to see some really positive resolution on this fiscal cliff, you would see some real activity in the market."


The market has been sensitive to rhetoric from Washington, and many investors still expect the two sides eventually will reach a deal before the year's end, which could trigger a rally in equities.


Obama meets with U.S. governors at the White House on Tuesday to talk about the fiscal cliff, a $600 billion package of tax hikes and federal spending cuts that would begin January 1.


Volume was light, with about 3.34 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE MKT and Nasdaq.


Differences within the Republican Party over how to engage with the Democrats came to the fore on Tuesday as one senator opposed to raising taxes lashed out at House Speaker and fellow Republican John Boehner for proposing to increase revenue by closing some tax loopholes.


Despite the sudden moves in the market, a measure of investor anxiety has held surprisingly flat.


The CBOE volatility index <.vix>, a gauge of market anxiety, was at 17.36 but has not traded above 20 since July following its 2012 high near 28 hit in June. The VIX's 10-day Average True Range, an internal volatility measure, is at its lowest since early 2007.


Coach became the latest company to advance the date of its next dividend payment. Expectations of higher taxes on dividends kicking in in 2013 have pushed many companies to pay special dividends this year or advance their next pay-back to investors. Shares of the upscale leather-goods maker declined 2 percent to $57.06.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> added 16.60 points, or 0.13 percent, to 12,982.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dropped 0.27 point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,409.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dipped 3.81 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,998.39.


Darden Restaurants Inc plunged 10.3 percent to $47.04 as the worst performer on the S&P 500 after warning its latest quarter would miss expectations after unsuccessful promotions led to a decline in sales at its Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse chains.


In contrast, Big Lots Inc surged 13.8 percent to $31.95 after the close-out retailer posted a smaller-than-expected loss and boosted its full-year adjusted earnings forecast.


Toll Brothers shares gained 1.1 percent to $32.80 after the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder reported a higher quarterly profit and said new orders rose sharply.


MetroPCS Communications shares tumbled 7.2 percent to $10.00 after Sprint Nextel appeared unlikely to make a counter-offer for the wireless service provider.


Shares of Pep Boys-Manny Moe and Jack slid 13.5 percent at $9.24 a day after the release of the auto parts retailer's results.


(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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Mortar Attack Kills at Least 9 People at Syrian School


Narciso Contreras/Associated Press


People walked past damaged homes during heavy fighting between rebel fighters and government forces on Tuesday in Aleppo, Syria.







BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian forces continued to press an intense counteroffensive against rebels in the Damascus suburbs on Tuesday, as the government blamed rebels for a mortar attack that hit a school, and the United Nations warned that the increasingly dangerous situation in the country was making it hard to provide enough food to displaced Syrians.




SANA, the state news agency, reported that 29 people at the school, including one teacher and numerous children, were killed by a mortar shell fired by “terrorists,” its term for its opponents, in Bteeha, a small town north of Damascus on the road to the central city of Homs. Antigovernment activist groups confirmed the attack but said only nine people were killed at the school, at the Wafideen refugee camp. The road to Homs and on to the commercial hub of Aleppo has been strongly contested in recent fighting.


The Local Coordinating Committees, a network of rebel groups, reported the mortar attack without comment, implying that it was carried out by the government. But an activist reached in Damascus said it was unclear who had fired the shell.


Recent bombs and mortar attacks by rebels that have killed civilians have angered both supporters and opponents of the government in recent weeks, as even some who support the rebels express concern that the violence has spiraled out of control.


An activist in the Damascus suburbs who gave only her first name, Leena, said activists were surprised that there was an attack in Bteeha, which is usually very calm, and that information had been hard to come by because there were very few activist reporters in Bteeha. She said residents were refugees who fled the Golan Heights in 1967 when Israel occupied the territory. Displaced people, mostly from the Sunni Muslim sect that makes up the bulk of the Syrian uprising, have recently moved there, she said.


“Many Golani people are actually with the revolution, and they even have their own brigades in the Free Syrian Army,” she added, referring to the loose-knit rebel umbrella group.


On Tuesday, there were more signs of concern on the diplomatic front as well.


At a meeting in Brussels, NATO ministers expressed “grave concern” about reports that the Syrian government might be getting ready to use its chemical weapons. The remarks followed a warning by President Obama telling Syria not to use chemical weapons against its own people and vowing to hold accountable anyone who did, even as American intelligence officials picked up signs that such arms might be deployed in the fighting there.


“Any such action would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law,” the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said at a news conference.


In another reflection of how the conflict in Syria is spilling over its borders, NATO agreed to deploy Patriot surface-to-air missiles in Turkey, which had requested the installations as a defense against cross-border violence.


More evidence emerged on Tuesday that the situation in the country was deteriorating, a day after the United Nations and the European Union announced they were curtailing activities and pulling staff members out of Damascus, the capital. Fighting raged in an arc around Damascus on Monday, from the southwest to the northeast, and most commercial flights continued to stay away from the Damascus Airport.


The United Nations’ World Food Program, which is feeding 1.5 million people in Syria, 85 percent of them displaced by the fighting, issued a report warning that food shortages were intensifying because of rising bread prices and indiscriminate attacks on United Nations vehicles that made food distribution difficult.


The roads are so dangerous, the agency said, that it is trying to obtain more armored vehicles to allow its provincial offices to continue to monitor food distribution.


The agency, along with other United Nations organizations, has suspended its operations outside Damascus and sent home nonessential foreign staff members, further hampering its work, it said. Most food distribution is done by local partners, mainly the Syrian Arab Red Cross. Still, the World Food Program maintains 20 foreign and 100 local employees in Syria.


“I can absolutely confirm to you that we will continue our work,” Muhannad Hadi, the country director, said in an interview from Jordan, where he traveled on business with plans to return to Syria.


Food shortages are increasing, especially in Aleppo, where bread prices are 50 percent higher than in the rest of the country, the agency statement said, adding, “Food consumption is particularly low among displaced families taking refuge in schools and public buildings, due to the lack of access to cooking facilities.”


Rebels and government forces continued to clash around a strategic air base at Wadi al-Deif, near Maarat al-Noaman, a crossroads town on the road between Damascus and Aleppo, as government airstrikes around Damascus continued for a fourth day with no sign of abating and neither side apparently able to win.


Even as the government was bringing overwhelming force to bear, it was still unable to quell the rebels, who have managed to disrupt the airport and force a counteroffensive to seal off the city center from the restive suburbs. Yet although rebels have managed to put pressure on the government around Damascus in recent weeks, several fighters interviewed said the fighting had become exhausting and there was no coordinated strategy.


Hania Mourtada contributed reporting from Beirut, and Christine Hauser from New York.



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Obama Is Taking Himself and #My2K to Twitter This Afternoon












What a day for Twitter! First the Pope, then the Royal Baby, and now President Obama will come online to answer questions about the fiscal cliff. A @WhiteHouse tweet with the distincitive “-bo” signature, announced not long ago that the big guy himself will be taking questions online, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET.



Good to see lots of folks on twitter speaking out on extending middle class tax cuts. I’ll answer some Qs on that at 2ET. Ask w/ #My2k –bo












The White House (@whitehouse) December 3, 2012


Unfortunately, he’s sticking with the troublesome #My2K hashtag that conservatives have already seized upon in a back-and-forth battle for messaging. Trying to mobilize your supporters through social media is all well and good, but the problem with any genuinely open town hall, is that anyone can invite themselves—even those who disagree with you and might be louder than your friends. (Plus, any reasonably popular hashtag moves much to fast for anyone to follow it or have an actual conversation on Twitter anyway.)


RELATED: Don’t Expect Too Much From Social Media Town Halls


But ask away! Maybe you’ll get luck and get RT’d by the President himself. And then find yourself becoming the next conservative meme as soon as the hashtag-averse pundits start making fun of your question. Should be a fun afternoon.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Lindsay Lohan Is 'Out of Control,' Says a Source















12/03/2012 at 03:00 PM EST



Things are not looking good for Liz and Dick star Lindsay Lohan.

Less than 24 hours before the well-documented punching incident at an N.Y.C. nightclub that got her arrested, Lohan was "dancing like crazy" past 2 a.m. at The Darby, at one point "causing a scene" when she thought she lost her phone, says an onlooker. "She even demanded that a girl at a nearby table empty her pockets."

The following night, Lohan appeared drunk, according to reports, before she allegedly punched Tiffany Mitchell at a Manhattan nightclub. She is due in court for the altercation on Jan. 7.

Simply put, Lohan, 26, continues to struggle with alcohol, says a friend. "She will fool people into thinking she's changed, but at some point in the night, she always snaps and it's always the same story," says the pal.

After the nightclub incident, Lohan's assistant Gavin Doyle Tweeted to the actress: "@lindsaylohan after bailing you out last night I HOPE and PRAY you get the help you so desperately need. We are ALL rooting for you. xxx."

Lohan is "out of control," adds a second source. "Her friends don't know what to do. She won't ever change."

Meanwhile, another source close to the actress denies that she has a problem and says that it's the "near constant criticism" that's taking a toll on her. "If everything you did was criticized, you'd lash out too," says the pal. "But she'll be fine, she's tough. She'll probably outlive everyone."

For now, Lohan is due in a Los Angeles courtroom on Dec. 12 for a hearing relating to a June 8 car accident that resulted in three misdemeanor charges, including lying to a police officer. Those charges normally wouldn't threaten jail time for a first time offender, but because Lohan is still on informal probation, those charges, combined with a possible assault, could land her in jail.

The last time the starlet appeared before L.A. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner, the judge warned Lohan that she could face 245 days in jail if she slipped up again.

Reporting by KEN LEE, HOWARD BREUER and EMILY STROHM

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Fossil fuel subsidies in focus at climate talks

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump.

"Thank God that our country is an oil producer and the price of gasoline is one of the lowest," al-Kubaisi said, filling up his Toyota Land Cruiser at a gas station in Doha. "God has given us a blessing."

To those looking for a global response to climate change, it's more like a curse.

Qatar — the host of U.N. climate talks that entered their final week Monday — is among dozens of countries that keep gas prices artificially low through subsidies that exceeded $500 billion globally last year. Renewable energy worldwide received six times less support — an imbalance that is just starting to earn attention in the divisive negotiations on curbing the carbon emissions blamed for heating the planet.

"We need to stop funding the problem, and start funding the solution," said Steve Kretzmann, of Oil Change International, an advocacy group for clean energy.

His group presented research Monday showing that in addition to the fuel subsidies in developing countries, rich nations in 2011 gave more than $58 billion in tax breaks and other production subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. figure was $13 billion.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has calculated that removing fossil fuel subsidies could reduce carbon emissions by more than 10 percent by 2050.

Yet the argument is just recently gaining traction in climate negotiations, which in two decades have failed to halt the rising temperatures that are melting Arctic ice, raising sea levels and shifting weather patterns with impacts on droughts and floods.

In Doha, the talks have been slowed by wrangling over financial aid to help poor countries cope with global warming and how to divide carbon emissions rights until 2020 when a new planned climate treaty is supposed to enter force. Calls are now intensifying to include fossil fuel subsidies as a key part of the discussion.

"I think it is manifestly clear ... that this is a massive missing piece of the climate change jigsaw puzzle," said Tim Groser, New Zealand's minister for climate change.

He is spearheading an initiative backed by Scandinavian countries and some developing countries to put fuel subsidies on the agenda in various forums, citing the U.N. talks as a "natural home" for the debate.

The G-20 called for their elimination in 2009, and the issue also came up at the U.N. earth summit in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. Frustrated that not much has happened since, European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Monday she planned to raise the issue with environment ministers on the sidelines of the talks in Doha.

Many developing countries are positive toward phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, not just to protect the climate but to balance budgets. Subsidies introduced as a form of welfare benefit decades ago have become an increasing burden to many countries as oil prices soar.

"We are reviewing the subsidy periodically in the context of the total economy for Qatar," the tiny Persian gulf country's energy minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, told reporters Monday.

Qatar's National Development Strategy 2011-2016 states it more bluntly, saying fuel subsides are "at odds with the aspirations" and sustainability objectives of the wealthy emirate.

The problem is that getting rid of them comes with a heavy political price.

When Jordan raised fuel prices last month, angry crowds poured into the streets, torching police cars, government offices and private banks in the most sustained protests to hit the country since the start of the Arab unrest. One person was killed and 75 others were injured in the violence.

Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Sudan have also seen violent protests this year as governments tried to bring fuel prices closer to market rates.

Iran has used a phased approach to lift fuel subsidies over the past several years, but its pump prices remain among the cheapest in the world.

"People perceive it as something that the government is taking away from them," said Kretzmann. "The trick is we need to do it in a way that doesn't harm the poor."

The International Energy Agency found in 2010 that fuel subsidies are not an effective measure against poverty because only 8 percent of such subsidies reached the bottom 20 percent of income earners.

The IEA, which only looked at consumption subsidies, this year said they "remain most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, where momentum toward their reform appears to have been lost."

In the U.S., environmental groups say fossil fuel subsidies include tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels.

Industry groups, like the Independent Petroleum Association of America, are against removing such support, saying that would harm smaller companies, rather than the big oil giants.

In Doha, Mohammed Adow, a climate activist with Christian Aid, called all fuel subsidies "reckless and dangerous," but described removing subsidies on the production side as "low-hanging fruit" for governments if they are serious about dealing with climate change.

"It's going to oil and coal companies that don't need it in the first place," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report

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Karl Ritter can be reached at www.twitter.com/karl_ritter

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