Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.

Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents — eight grandfathers among them — saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of one another.

Saturday is World AIDS Day, but the executive director of the aid group Nyumbani, which oversees the village of the same name, hates the name which is given to the day because for her the word AIDS is so freighted with doom and death. These days, it doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence. Millions live with the virus with the help of anti-retroviral drugs, or ARVs. And the village she runs is an example of that.

"AIDS is not a word that we should be using. At the beginning when we came up against HIV, it was a terminal disease and people were presenting at the last phase, which we call AIDS," said Sister Mary Owens. "There is no known limit to the lifespan now so that word AIDS should not be used. So I hate World AIDS Day, follow? Because we have moved beyond talking about AIDS, the terminal stage. None of our children are in the terminal stage."

In the village, each grandparent is charged with caring for about a dozen "grandchildren," one or two of whom will be biological family. That responsibility has been a life-changer for Janet Kitheka, who lost one daughter to AIDS in 2003. Another daughter died from cancer in 2004. A son died in a tree-cutting accident in 2006 and the 63-year-old lost two grandchildren in 2007, including one from AIDS.

"When I came here I was released from the grief because I am always busy instead of thinking about the dead," said Kitheka. "Now I am thinking about building a new house with 12 children. They are orphans. I said to myself, 'Think about the living ones now.' I'm very happy because of the children."

As she walks around Nyumbani, which is three hours' drive east of Nairobi, 73-year-old Sister Mary is greeted like a rock star by little girls in matching colorful school uniforms. Children run and play, and sleep in bunk beds inside mud-brick homes. High schoolers study carpentry or tailoring. But before 2006, this village did not exist, not until a Catholic charity petitioned the Kenyan government for land on which to house orphans.

Everyone here has been touched by HIV or AIDS. But only 80 children have HIV and thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, none of them has AIDS.

"They can dream their dreams and live a long life," Owens said.

Nyumbani relies heavily on U.S. funds but it is aiming to be self-sustaining.

The kids' bunk beds are made in the technical school's shop. A small aquaponics project is trying to grow edible fish. The mud bricks are made on site. Each grandparent has a plot of land for farming.

The biggest chunk of aid comes from the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has given the village $2.5 million since 2006. A British couple gives $50,000 a year. A tree-growing project in the village begun by an American, John Noel, now stands six years from its first harvest. Some 120,000 trees have already been planted and thousands more were being planted last week.

"My wife and I got married as teenagers and started out being very poor. Lived in a trailer. And we found out what it was like to be in a situation where you can't support yourself," he said. "As an entrepreneur I looked to my enterprise skills to see what we could do to sustain the village forever, because we are in our 60s and we wanted to make sure that the thousand babies and children, all the little ones, were taken care of."

He hopes that after a decade the timber profits from the trees will make the village totally self-sustaining.

But while the future is looking brighter, the losses the orphans' suffered can resurface, particularly when class lessons are about family or medicine, said Winnie Joseph, the deputy headmaster at the village's elementary school. Kitheka says she tries to teach the kids how to love one another and how to cook and clean. But older kids sometimes will threaten to hit her after accusing her of favoring her biological grandchildren, she said.

For the most part, though, the children in Nyumbani appear to know how lucky they are, having landed in a village where they are cared for. An estimated 23.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV as of 2011, representing 69 percent of the global HIV population, according to UNAIDS. Eastern and southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions. Millions of people — many of them parents — have died.

Kitheka noted that children just outside the village frequently go to bed hungry. And ARVs are harder to come by outside the village. The World Health Organization says about 61 percent of Kenyans with HIV are covered by ARVs across the country.

Paul Lgina, 14, contrasted the difference between life in Nyumbani, which in Swahili means simply "home," and his earlier life.

"In the village I get support. At my mother's home I did not have enough food, and I had to go to the river to fetch water," said Lina, who, like all the children in the village, has neither a mother or a father.

When Sister Mary first began caring for AIDS orphans in the early 1990s, she said her group was often told not to bother.

"At the beginning nobody knew what to do with them. In 1992 we were told these children are going to die anyway," she said. "But that wasn't our spirit. Today, kids we were told would die have graduated from high school."

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On the Internet:

http://www.trees4children.org/

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Boehner: ‘At a stalemate’ on debt talks

Republican House Speaker John Boehner (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner on Friday said that despite receiving a counterproposal from the White House as part of a deal to avoid a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, no progress had been made between Republicans and Democrats.

"There's a stalemate, let's not kid ourselves," Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, told reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill. "It's not a serious proposal. Right now we're almost nowhere."

The White House on Thursday sent Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to deliver a proposal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff by increasing taxes by $1.6 trillion over the next decade, including $50 billion in stimulus spending for mostly infrastructure and $400 billion in savings in popular entitlement programs such as Medicare.

Republicans rejected it right away. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly laughed in Geithner's face.

"Our original framework still stands," Boehner said the next day, reiterating his opposition to raising tax rates on any income bracket. He added that he remains open to "closing loopholes [and] getting rid of special interest deductions" within the tax code to raise the same amount of revenue.

"I'm not trying to make this more difficult," he said. "You've watched me over the last three weeks; I've been very guarded in what I have to say. Because I don't want to make it harder for me or the president, or members of both parties to be able to find common ground."

While negotiators continue talks behind closed doors, both parties continue to engage in their own public relations tour to promote their own plans. President Barack Obama on Friday traveled to Pennsylvania, and Republican lawmakers plan to meet with small-business owners over the next few weeks.

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Myanmar cracks down on mine protest; dozens hurt

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs Thursday to clear protesters from a copper mine in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks in the biggest use of force against demonstrators since the reformist government of President Thein Sein took office last year.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who arrived in the area hours later on a previously scheduled visit, said she would try to negotiate a solution.

In a statement broadcast on state television, the government initially acknowledged using the riot-control measures but denied using excessive force. In an unusual move, it later retracted the statement without explanation.

Monks and other protesters had serious burns after the crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa. Protesters who oppose the mine's impact on villagers and the environment had occupied the area for 11 days.

"I didn't expect to be treated like this, as we were peacefully protesting," said Aung Myint Htway, a peanut farmer whose face and body were covered with black patches of burned skin.

The police action risks becoming a public relations and political fiasco for Thein Sein's government, which has been touting its transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

"This is unacceptable," said Ottama Thara, a 25-year-old monk who was at the protest. "This kind of violence should not happen under a government that says it is committed to democratic reforms."

Police moved early Thursday to disperse protesters after some heeded earlier warnings to leave.

"Around 2:30 a.m. police announced they would give us five minutes to leave," Aung Myint Htway said. He said police fired water cannons first and then shot what he and others called flare guns.

"They fired black balls that exploded into fire sparks. They shot about six times. People ran away and they followed us," he said, still writhing hours later from pain. "It's very hot."

Photos of the wounded monks showed they had sustained serious burns on parts of their bodies. It was unclear what sort of weapon caused them, or whether the burns were caused by their shelters catching fire from whatever devices police used.

The government had defended its actions in a statement issued by the government's official information office Thursday afternoon. It denied using excessive force and said it used fire hoses, tear gas and smoke bombs according to international standards for riot control. The statement declared that the authorities took action for the sake of rule of law and in the interests of the country and its people, and said the project operated in accordance with international environmental standards.

Later, however, the president's office issued a one-sentence statement recalling the information office's statement without explanation. The move may reflect sensitivities over the injuries monks suffered, or second thoughts over admitting that authorities used force.

Suu Kyi's visit to nearby Kan-Kone village had been scheduled before the crackdown. The Nobel Peace laureate, elected to parliament after spending most of the last two decades under house arrest, unexpectedly went to the mine to meet with its operators before making her speech.

"I already met one side. I met with mine operators. I want to meet with villagers and protesters," she said. "I want to negotiate hearing from both sides."

She asked the crowd to be patient. "I haven't made any decision yet. I want to meet with both sides and negotiate," she said in a speech that lasted less than 15 minutes. "Will you agree with my negotiating?" The crowd shouted its assent.

Some of Suu Kyi's comments suggested that she may not fully embrace the tactics of the protesters. "When dealing with people, I don't always follow what people like. I only tell the truth," she said. "I will work for the long-term benefit of the country."

After her speech she went to the hospital where many of the injured were being treated, and met with protest leaders at the hotel in Monywa where she is staying. Thwe Thwe Win, a female protest leader, said afterward: "We will wait for Aung San Suu Kyi to negotiate with the companies. But we will not stop the protest until we achieve our demands, though I cannot tell you how we will proceed at this point."

Ohn Kyaing, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said she told the mine's executives that force should not have been used. He said the executives said they did not direct the action, and that it had been the work of the state security forces. Ohn Kyaing said Suu Kyi on Friday would meet with officials in charge of the crackdown, as well as local villagers and their representatives.

Villagers affected by the mine claim they did not receive satisfactory compensation and demand a more comprehensive environmental impact assessment.

The mine, which is being expanded, is a joint venture between a Chinese company and a holding company controlled by Myanmar's military.

Most people remain suspicious of the military, while China is widely seen as having propped up army rule for years, in addition to being an aggressive investor exploiting the country's many natural resources.

Government officials had publicly stated that the protest risked scaring off foreign investment that is key to rebuilding the economy after decades of neglect.

State television had broadcast an announcement Tuesday night that ordered protesters to cease their occupation of the mine by midnight or face legal action. It said the protesters began occupying the mine area Nov. 18, and operations had been halted since then.

Some villagers among a claimed 1,000 protesters left the mine after the order was issued. But others stayed through Wednesday, including about 100 monks.

The protesters' concerns about the mine do not yet appear to be widely shared by the broader public. But hurting monks — as admired for their social activism as they are revered for their spiritual beliefs — is sure to antagonize many.

Aung Myint Htway said he didn't care that police treated him badly but added, "I won't forgive them for what they did to our monks."

According to a nurse at a Monywa hospital, 27 monks and one other person were admitted with burns caused by some sort of projectile that released sparks or embers. Two monks with serious injuries were sent for treatment in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, a 2½ hour drive away.

Other evicted protesters gathered at a Buddhist temple about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the mine's gates.

The protest is the latest major example of increased activism by citizens since the elected government took over last year. Street demonstrations have been legalized, and are generally tolerated, though detentions have occurred in some cases involving sensitive issues.

Political and economic liberalization under Thein Sein has won praise from Western governments, which have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military government because of its poor record on human and civil rights.

However, the military still retains major influence over the government, and some critics fear that democratic gains could be rolled back.

The government's surprise suspension last year of a Chinese-backed hydroelectric project, in response to similar concerns about social and economic consequences, was seen as a significant indicator of its commitment to democratic reform. But China was unhappy about the decision, and Thein Sein's ministers have warned about offending Myanmar's big neighbor to the north and scaring off other foreign investors.

China's foreign ministry defended the mining venture Thursday as mutually beneficial and said that environmental remediation and compensation to relocate affected residents all conformed to Myanmar law.

Like many throughout the country, villagers near the project are keen to have Suu Kyi involved.

"We feel really encouraged when we heard Mother Suu is coming," said Sartone village resident Thein Thein, using a popular familiar term for Suu Kyi. "She's our only hope."

Suu Kyi, however, recently told Myanmar reporters that not everything should be resolved through demonstrations, and sometimes it is better to use negotiations.

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Lohan charged with NYC assault and Calif. crash

NEW YORK (AP) — Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested Thursday in New York City after police said she hit a woman during an argument, then hours later was charged in California with lying to police and reckless driving for a June crash in which her Porsche slammed into a dump truck.

The "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday" star was arrested at 4 a.m. and charged with third-degree assault.

She left a police precinct nearly four hours later with a black jacket pulled over her head. Lohan was wearing leggings, a green mini dress and high-heels. She drove off in a black SUV with a driver, a woman and another man who was seen going in and out of the precinct.

Lohan, 26, allegedly got into the spat with another woman at Club Avenue, in Manhattan's Chelsea section. She struck the woman in the face with her hand, police said. The woman did not require medical attention.

Lohan's attorney, Shawn Holley, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The charges come just after Lohan's portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor in the Lifetime movie "Liz & Dick" premiered to harsh reviews from critics and the public.

After the June crash, the actress told police her assistant was driving, but detectives determined Lohan was behind the wheel, police said. Prosecutors charged her with three misdemeanors: providing false information to police, reckless driving and willfully obstructing a police officer from their duties. No date for Lohan's arraignment was announced, but the charges are likely to trigger a probation violation for a 2011 necklace theft case.

Lohan's newest arrest is her latest brush with law enforcement in New York City.

She was involved in a New York Police Department investigation in September after alleging a man had assaulted her in a New York hotel, but charges against the man were later dropped.

Also in September, the actress was accused of clipping a man with her car outside another Manhattan nightclub, but prosecutors chose not to move ahead with charges.

In October, police were called to her childhood home on Long Island after a report of a fight between her and her mother. An investigation revealed "no criminality."

The Los Angeles case comes nearly six months after the actress crashed while on her way to a movie set. She was taken to the hospital but returned to the set of the film "Liz and Dick" hours later.

Lohan has become more of a tabloid and courthouse mainstay in recent years than an actress, and her crash while on the way to the set of "Liz and Dick" demonstrated the risk of casting her in films. A week after the accident, paramedics were summoned to Lohan's hotel room in an episode her publicist attributed to exhaustion and dehydration, and shooting on the film was again briefly delayed.

In May, she was cleared of allegations that she struck a Hollywood nightclub manager with her car.

She recently filmed "The Canyons," an indie film written by "Less Than Zero" and "American Psycho" author Bret Easton Ellis.

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Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

"Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

"We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they'll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men's risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $5.6 billion.

Thursday's report from PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn't just disappointing, it's deadly."

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

"The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up" to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday's report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

"We have to go where the virus is," Clinton said.

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Ice on Mercury, despite nearby Sun

New evidence suggests Mercury's north polar region contains large deposits of ice. (NASA/Johns Hopkins Univers …NASA's Messenger spacecraft has discovered evidence that the planet Mercury has enough ice on its surface to encase Washington, D.C., in a block two and a half miles deep.

"For more than 20 years the jury has been deliberating on whether the planet closest to the Sun hosts abundant water ice in its permanently shadowed polar regions," writes Sean Solomon of the Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the principal investigator of the Messenger mission. The spacecraft "has now supplied a unanimous affirmative verdict."

"These reflectance anomalies are concentrated on poleward-facing slopes and are spatially collocated with areas of high radar backscatter postulated to be the result of near-surface water ice," Gregory Neumann of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center writes in the paper. "Correlation of observed reflectance with modeled temperatures indicates that the optically bright regions are consistent with surface water ice."

The study results were published on Wednesday in Science magazine, which explains in its summary, "The buried layer must be nearly pure water ice. The upper layer contains less than 25 wt.% water-equivalent hydrogen. The total mass of water at Mercury's poles is inferred to be 2 × 10¹⁶ to 10¹⁸ g and is consistent with delivery by comets or volatile-rich asteroids."

Radar imaging of Mercury has long suggested that there could be large deposits on the planet's surface, with reports dating to 1991. But today's report presents harder evidence supporting that theory.

Messenger has fired more than 10 million laser imaging pulses at Mercury's surface since arriving in its orbit in 2011. Feedback from those pulses have helped NASA in its quest to verify whether ice is present in Mercury's poles, which are largely shielded from exposure to the sun's rays.

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Rapper PSY wants Tom Cruise to go 'Gangnam Style'

BANGKOK (AP) — The South Korean rapper behind YouTube's most-viewed video ever has set what might be a "Mission: Impossible" for himself.

Asked which celebrity he would like to see go "Gangnam Style," the singer PSY told The Associated Press: "Tom Cruise!"

Surrounded by screaming fans, he then chuckled at the idea of the American movie star doing his now famous horse-riding dance.

PSY's comments Wednesday in Bangkok were his first public remarks since his viral smash video — with 838 million views — surpassed Justin Bieber's "Baby," which until Saturday held the record with 803 million views.

"It's amazing," PSY told a news conference, saying he never set out to become an international star. "I made this video just for Korea, actually. And when I released this song — wow."

The video has spawned hundreds of parodies and tribute videos and earned him a spotlight alongside a variety of superstars.

Earlier this month, Madonna invited PSY onstage and they danced to his song at one of her New York City concerts. MC Hammer introduced the Korean star at the American Music Awards as, "My Homeboy PSY!"

Even President Barack Obama is talking about him. Asked on Election Day if he could do the dance, Obama replied: "I think I can do that move," but then concluded he might "do it privately for Michelle," the first lady.

PSY was in Thailand to give a free concert Wednesday night organized as a tribute to the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turns 85 next month. He paid respects to the king at a Bangkok shopping mall, signing his name in an autograph book placed beside a giant poster of the king. He then gave an outdoor press conference, as screaming fans nearby performed the pop star's dance.

Determined not to be a one-hit wonder, PSY said he plans to release a worldwide album in March with dance moves that he thinks his international fans will like.

"I think I have plenty of dance moves left," he said, in his trademark sunglasses and dark suit. "But I'm really concerned about the (next) music video."

"How can I beat 'Gangnam Style'?" he asked, smiling. "How can I beat 850 million views?"

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Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.

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Egypt court sentences 8 to death over prophet film

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court convicted in absentia Wednesday seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor, sentencing them to death on charges linked to an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.

The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt.

The low-budget "Innocence of Muslims," parts of which were made available online, portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, womanizer and buffoon.

Egypt's official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information — charges that carry the death sentence.

Maximum sentences are common in cases tried in absentia in Egypt. Capital punishment decisions are reviewed by the country's chief religious authority, who must approve or reject the sentence. A final verdict is scheduled on Jan. 29.

The man behind the film, Mark Basseley Youssef, was among those convicted. He was sentenced in a California court earlier this month to one year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter. Youssef, 55, admitted that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver's license under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case.

Multiple calls to Youssef's attorney in Southern California, Steve Seiden, were not returned Wednesday.

Florida-based Terry Jones, another of those sentenced, is the pastor of Dove World Outreach, a church of less than 50 members in Gainesville, Fla., not far from the University of Florida. He has said he was contacted by the filmmaker to promote the film, as well as Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who posted the video clips on his website.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Jones said the ruling "shows the true face of Islam" — one that he views as intolerant of dissent and opposed to basic freedoms of speech and religion.

"We can speak out here in America," Jones said. "That freedom means that we criticize government leadership, religion even at times. Islam is not a religion that tolerates any type of criticism."

In a statement sent to The Associated Press Wednesday, Sadek, who fled Egypt 10 years ago and is now a Coptic activist living in Chantilly, Virginia., denied any role in the creation, production or financing of the film.

He said the verdict "shows the world that the Muslim Brotherhood regime wants to shut up all the Coptic activists, so no one can demand Copts' rights in Egypt."

Coptic Christians make up most of Egypt's Christian minority, around 10 percent of the country's 83 million. They complain of state discrimination. Violent clashes break out occasionally over land disputes, worshipping rights and love affairs between Muslims and Christians.

The connection to the film of the other five sentenced by the court was not immediately clear. They include two who work with Sadek at a radical Coptic group in the U.S. that has called for an independent Coptic state, a priest who hosts TV programs from the U.S. and a lawyer living in Canada who has previously sued the Egyptian state over riots in 2000 that left 21 Christians dead.

The other person is a woman who converted to Christianity and is a staunch critic of Islam.

The official news agency report said that during the trial, the court reviewed a video of some defendants calling for an independent Coptic state in Egypt, and another of Jones burning the Quran, Islam's holy book. The prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence, accusing those charged of seeking to divide Egypt and incite sedition. All the defendants, except Jones, hold Egyptian nationality, the agency added.

Some Christians and human rights groups worry that prosecutions for insulting religion, which existed to a degree under the secular-leaning regime of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, will increase with the ascent of Islamists to power in Egypt.

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Curt Anderson contributed reporting from Miami, Florida; Matthew Barakat from McLean, Virginia, and Gillian Flaccus in Orange County, California.

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a nine-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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#My2K: Obama uses Twitter to prod Congress on fiscal cliff

President Barack Obama sits in front of a screen displaying a question he tweeted during a "Twitter Town Hall" …

President Barack Obama urged Americans on Wednesday to help him pressure Congress to prevent a Jan. 1 tax hike on the middle class, saying it was up to the public to make sure Washington doesn't "screw this up."

"When the American people speak loudly enough, lo and behold Congress listens," Obama said, flanked by Americans who answered the White House's call to detail what that tax increase would cost them personally.

"We really need to get this right. I can only do it with the help of the American people," the president said. "It's too important for Washington to screw this up."

Obama's remarks were part of a ramped-up public campaign to pressure Republicans in Congress, who have resisted his calls for letting Bush-era tax cuts that chiefly benefit the wealthiest Americans expire. The president wants to extend reductions on income up to $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families. But he wants taxes above that level to rise in order to spare popular government programs from the budget-cutter's ax.

Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for higher earners, insisting that a tax hike on that group will reduce investments that generate jobs at a time when the economy is still sputtering and unemployment remains high. The GOP has signaled it would be willing to consider boosting tax revenue as long as Democrats agree to overhaul popular entitlement programs like Medicare or Medicaid. But key Democrats have refused to include those programs in talks on avoiding the "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect Jan. 1.

"Let's keep middle-class tax low. That's what our economy needs, that's what the American people deserve," Obama said. "And if we get this part of it right, then a lot of the other issues surrounding deficit reduction in a fair and balanced and responsible way are going to be a whole lot easier.

"If we get this wrong the economy's going to go south," the president warned. "It's going to be much more difficult for us to balance our budgets and deal with our deficits because, if the economy's not strong, that means more money's going out in things like unemployment insurance and less money's coming in in terms of tax receipts and it just actually makes our deficit worse."

Obama urged Americans who agree with him to call, write and tweet lawmakers (using the hashtag #My2K), or post messages on their Facebook pages. "Do what it takes to communicate a sense of urgency. We don't have a lot of time. We've got a few weeks to get this thing done."

Still, he said, "I am confident that we will get it done."

The White House says that "a typical middle-class family of four" would pay Uncle Sam an additional $2,200 unless tax cuts are extended for them.

That $2,200 figure is the inspiration for #My2K, part of what the White House describes as an "online push" behind the president's approach. Obama has highlighted Twitter hashtags in past disputes with Republicans: #40dollars in the fight over the payroll tax holiday and #dontdoublemyrate in a feud over student loans.

The president, who spoke to top Republican and Democratic leaders over the weekend, was to make brief public remarks at the top of a meeting with his Cabinet at 3 p.m. before huddling with senior executives from major American corporations.

Here is the list of attendees, as provided by the White House:

• Frank Blake, Chairman and CEO, the Home Depot
• Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs Group
• Joe Echeverria, CEO, Deloitte LLP
• Ken Frazier, President and CEO, Merck and Co.
• Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, Coca Cola
• Terry Lundgren, Chairman, President and CEO, Macy's Inc.
• Marissa Mayer, CEO and President, Yahoo!
• Douglas Oberhelman, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar
• Ian Read, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer
• Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast
• Ed Rust, Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Co.
• Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott
• Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO, AT&T
• Patricia Woertz, President and CEO, Archer Daniels Midland

The fiscal cliff refers to an economically painful set of tax hikes and deep spending cuts that come into effect Jan. 1 unless Congress and the president reach a deal.

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