Clinton in Prague to lobby for Westinghouse nuclear bid

PRAGUE (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will seek to convince Czech leaders of the advantages of picking U.S. firm Westinghouse over a Russian rival as the contractor for a $ 10 billion nuclear reactor project in meetings in Prague on Monday.

U.S. officials traveling with Clinton to Prague said the Temelin nuclear power project could bring as many as 9,000 jobs to the United States and would help diversify the Czech Republic‘s energy supply away from Russia.

Majority state-owned Czech firm CEZ applied on Friday to build two new blocks at its 2,000 megawatt Temelin nuclear power plant, in what would be the European country’s biggest energy deal.

Westinghouse, a unit of Japanese firm Toshiba Corp, is competing with Russia’s Atomstroyexport, which is bidding in a consortium with a Russian-owned Czech group.

U.S. officials said formal negotiations between the two bidders and the Czech government are expected to start in December, with a decision on the contractor expected in the spring.

Clinton is due to meet Prime Minister Petr Necas and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg on Monday morning.

“There will be the opportunity for the Secretary to support … Westinghouse,” a senior State Department official told reporters.

“It could be great in lots of ways – for American jobs, American companies, for energy security and diversity in the Czech Republic, for jobs in the Czech Republic and for a scientific and innovation partnership with the United States.”

Clinton would stress Westinghouse’s safety record given concerns about nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster in Japan last year, he said.

The U.S. side will also stress the advantage of reducing the Czech Republic’s reliance on Russia for energy. According to U.S. officials, the country currently gets 60 percent of its oil, 70 percent of its gas, and 100 percent of its nuclear reactor fuel from Russia.

“We think there’s an awful lot to be said for this (choosing Westinghouse) in terms of energy security and diversifying sources.”

Clinton will also discuss energy security with EU officials in Brussels on Wednesday.

CEZ, central Europe’s biggest energy group, with a market capitalization of $ 18.2 billion, threw out a bid from French firm Areva in October, because it failed to meet “crucial requirements.”

Clinton’s visit to Prague follows one by U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Nicole Lamb-Hale last week. Lamb-Hale said the U.S. Export-Import Bank was interested in financing the deal if Westinghouse were picked.

The Czech Republic’s bid to expand its nuclear capacity has run into opposition from neighbors Austria and Germany. Clinton will share a conference table with the foreign ministers of these countries, as well as with Russia, when she attends a meeting of the NATO military alliance in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Many Czech officials fear an over reliance on Russian energy will put their country under too much influence from its former communist master. After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Prague became a close ally of the United States.

The Russian bidders have sought to allay Czech fears about Moscow and stressed that there would be a high participation rate by domestic firms if they won the tender.

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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UN net regulation talks kick off

2 December 2012 Last updated at 20:43 ET

By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

A UN agency is trying to calm fears that the internet could be damaged by a conference it is hosting.

Government regulators from 193 countries are in Dubai to revise a wide-ranging communications treaty.

Google has warned the event threatened the “open internet”, while the EU said the current system worked, adding: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

But the agency said action was needed to ensure investment in infrastructure to help more people access the net.

“The brutal truth is that the internet remains largely [the] rich world’s privilege, ” said Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, ahead of the meeting.

“ITU wants to change that.”

Internet governance

The ITU traces its roots back to 1865, pre-dating the United Nations. Back then the focus was on telegrams, but over ensuing decades governments have extended its remit to other communications technologies.

It helped develop the standards that made sure different countries’ telephone networks could talk to each other, and continues to allocate global radio spectrum and communication satellite orbits.

The current event – the World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit) – marks the first time it has overseen a major overhaul of telecommunication regulations since 1988.

Continue reading the main story

Wcit key facts

Regulators and other delegates have until 14 December to agree which proposals to adopt.

More than 900 changes to the International Telecommunication Regulations have been put forward.

The ITU highlights proposals to block spam messages, cut mobile roaming fees and prioritise emergency calls as some of the event’s key topics.

There have been accusations of “secrecy” because the ITU had left it to individual countries to publish proposals rather than release them itself.

Two sites – Wcitleaks and .nxt – have gathered together related documents from a variety of sources but many are still unpublished.

The resulting treaty will become part of international law, however the ITU itself recognises that there is no legal mechanism to force countries to comply.

The ITU says there is a need to reflect the “dramatically different” technologies that have become commonplace over the past 24 years.

But the US has said some of the proposals being put forward by other countries are “alarming”.

“There have been proposals that have suggested that the ITU should enter the internet governance business,” said Terry Kramer, the US’s ambassador to Wcit, last week.

“There have been active recommendations that there be an invasive approach of governments in managing the internet, in managing the content that goes via the internet, what people are looking at, what they’re saying.

“These fundamentally violate everything that we believe in in terms of democracy and opportunities for individuals, and we’re going to vigorously oppose any proposals of that nature.”

He added that he was specifically concerned by a proposal by Russia which said member states should have “equal rights to manage the internet” – a move he suggested would open the door to more censorship.

However – as a recent editorial in the Moscow Times pointed out – Russia has already been able to introduce a “black list” of banned sites without needing an international treaty.

The ITU’s leader is also playing down suggestions that Russian demands will see him gain powers currently wielded by US-based bodies such as the internet name regulator Icann.

“There is no need for the ITU to take over the internet governance,” said Dr Toure following Mr Kramer’s comments.

Pay to stream

One of the other concerns raised is that the conference could result in popular websites having to pay a fee to send data along telecom operators’ networks.

The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (Etno) – which represents companies such as Orange, Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom – has been lobbying governments to introduce what it calls a “quality based” model.

This would see firms face charges if they wanted to ensure streamed video and other quality-critical content download without the risk of problems such as jerky images.

Continue reading the main story

Overseeing the internet

No one organisation is “in charge” of the internet, but the following groups help ensure it continues to function:

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Charged with producing technical documents to influence the way people design, use and manage the net.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann)

Defines policies for how the domain name and IP (internet protocol) address number systems should run to ensure the net’s system of unique identifiers remains stable and secure.

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (Iana)

Assigns net address endings (generic top-level domain names), and coordinates the allocation of IP numbers. It currently functions as a department of Icann.

Internet Society (Isoc)

Lobbies governments to ensure the internet’s technical standards are open and non-proprietary, so that anyone who uses an application on it in a certain way has the same experience. It also promotes freedom of expression.

Internet Architecture Board (IAB)

Oversees the process used to create internet standards and considers complaints about the way they are executed.

Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

An UN-created forum in which governments, businesses, universities and other organisations with a stake in the internet can share dialogue.

Etno says a new business model is needed to provide service providers with the “incentive to invest in network infrastructure”.

A leaked proposal by Cameroon which talks of network operators deserving “full payment” has been interpreted by some as evidence that it is sympathetic to the idea.

Mr Kramer has suggested that “a variety of nations in the Arab states” also supported the idea.

However, the US and EU are against it which should theoretically stop the proposal in its tracks.

The ITU has repeatedly said that there must be common ground, rather than just a majority view, before changes are introduced to the treaty.

“Voting in our jargon means winners and losers, and we cannot afford that,” Dr Toure told the BBC.

Rejecting regulation

Such assurances have failed to satisfy everyone.

The EU’s digital agenda commissioner, Neelie Kroes, has called into question why the treaty needs to refer to the net.

“The internet works, it doesn’t need to be regulated by ITR treaty,” she tweeted.

Vint Cerf – the computer scientist who co-designed some of the internet’s core underlying protocols and who now acts as Google’s chief internet evangelist – has been even more vocal, penning a series of op-ed columns.

“A state-controlled system of regulation is not only unnecessary, it would almost invariably raise costs and prices and interfere with the rapid and organic growth of the internet we have seen since its commercial emergence in the 1990s,” he wrote for CNN.

Google itself has also run an “open internet” petition alongside the claim: “Only governments have a voice at the ITU… engineers, companies, and people that build and use the web have no vote.”

However, the ITU has pointed out that Google has a chance to put its views forward as part of the US’s delegation to the conference.

“They are here, and they’re telling everyone that it’s a closed society,” said Dr Toure when asked about the firm’s campaign.

“We will challenge them here again to bring their points on the table. The point that they are bringing – which is internet governance – it’s not really a place for discussion [of that] here.

“Therefore we believe they will find themselves in an environment completely different from what they were expecting.”

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Egypt’s Mursi calls referendum as Islamists march

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt‘s President Mohamed Mursi called a December 15 referendum on a draft constitution on Saturday as at least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo to back him after opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.

Speaking after receiving the final draft of the constitution from the Islamist-dominated assembly, Mursi urged a national dialogue as the country nears the end of the transition from Hosni Mubarak‘s rule.

“I renew my call for opening a serious national dialogue over the concerns of the nation, with all honesty and impartiality, to end the transitional period as soon as possible, in a way that guarantees the newly-born democracy,” Mursi said.

Mursi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he gave himself extensive powers and put his decisions beyond judicial challenge, saying this was a temporary measure to speed Egypt’s democratic transition until the new constitution is in place.

His assertion of authority in a decree issued on November 22, a day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, dismayed his opponents and widened divisions among Egypt’s 83 million people.

Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests by disparate opposition forces drawn together and re-energized by a decree they see as a dictatorial power grab.

A demonstration in Cairo to back the president swelled through the afternoon, peaking in the early evening at least 200,000, said Reuters witnesses, basing their estimates on previous rallies in the capital. The authorities declined to give an estimate for the crowd size.

“The people want the implementation of God’s law,” chanted flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bussed in from the countryside, who choked streets leading to Cairo University, where Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had called the protest.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians had protested against Mursi on Friday. “The people want to bring down the regime,” they chanted in Cairo‘s Tahrir Square, echoing the trademark slogan of the revolts against Hosni Mubarak and Arab leaders elsewhere.

Rival demonstrators threw stones after dark in the northern city of Alexandria and a town in the Nile Delta. Similar clashes erupted again briefly in Alexandria on Saturday, state TV said.

“COMPLETE DEFEAT”

Mohamed Noshi, 23, a pharmacist from Mansoura, north of Cairo, said he had joined the rally in Cairo to support Mursi and his decree. “Those in Tahrir don’t represent everyone. Most people support Mursi and aren’t against the decree,” he said.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a hardline Salafi Islamist scholar and a member of the constituent assembly, said secular-minded Egyptians had been in a losing battle from the start.

“They will be sure of complete popular defeat today in a mass Egyptian protest that says ‘no to the conspiratorial minority, no to destructive directions and yes for stability and sharia (Islamic law)’,” he told Reuters.

Mursi has alienated many of the judges who must supervise the referendum. His decree nullified the ability of the courts, many of them staffed by Mubarak-era appointees, to strike down his measures, although says he respects judicial independence.

A source at the presidency said Mursi might rely on the minority of judges who support him to supervise the vote.

“Oh Mursi, go ahead and cleanse the judiciary, we are behind you,” shouted Islamist demonstrators in Cairo.

Mursi, once a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, has put his liberal, leftist, Christian and other opponents in a bind. If they boycott the referendum, the constitution would pass anyway.

If they secured a “no” vote to defeat the draft, the president could retain the powers he has unilaterally assumed.

And Egypt’s quest to replace the basic law that underpinned Mubarak’s 30 years of army-backed one-man rule would also return to square one, creating more uncertainty in a nation in dire economic straits and seeking a $ 4.8 billion loan from the IMF.

“NO PLACE FOR DICTATORSHIP”

Mursi’s well-organized Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi allies, however, are convinced they can win the referendum by mobilizing their own supporters and the millions of Egyptians weary of political turmoil and disruption.

“There is no place for dictatorship,” the president said on Thursday while the constituent assembly was still voting on a draft constitution which Islamists say enshrines Egypt’s new freedoms.

Human rights groups have voiced misgivings, especially about articles related to women’s rights and freedom of speech.

The text limits the president to two four-year terms, requires him to secure parliamentary approval for his choice of prime minister, and introduces a degree of civilian oversight over the military – though not enough for critics.

The draft constitution also contains vague, Islamist-flavored language that its opponents say could be used to whittle away human rights and stifle criticism.

For example, it forbids blasphemy and “insults to any person”, does not explicitly uphold women’s rights and demands respect for “religion, traditions and family values”.

The draft injects new Islamic references into Egypt’s system of government but retains the previous constitution’s reference to “the principles of sharia” as the main source of legislation.

“We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society,” said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester in Tahrir and member of a party set up by opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.

Several independent newspapers said they would not publish on Tuesday in protest. One of the papers also said three private satellite channels would halt broadcasts on Wednesday.

Egypt cannot hold a new parliamentary election until a new constitution is passed. The country has been without an elected legislature since the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated lower house in June.

The court is due to meet on Sunday to discuss the legality of parliament’s upper house.

“We want stability. Every time, the constitutional court tears down institutions we elect,” said Yasser Taha, a 30-year-old demonstrator at the Islamist rally in Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Jason Webb)

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Katzenberg, Spielberg attend Governors Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stars such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are arriving at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles to pay homage to four industry heavyweights.

The film academy’s fourth annual Governors Awards are being presented Saturday to honorary Oscar winners Jeffrey Katzenberg, stuntman Hal Needham, documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and American Film Institute founding director George Stevens Jr.

The four men will accept their Oscar statuettes during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ private dinner program in the Ray Dolby Ballroom. Portions of the untelevised event may be included in the Feb. 24 Academy Awards telecast.

Other guests expected at Saturday’s ceremony include Quentin Tarantino, Bradley Cooper, Kristen Stewart, Bryan Cranston and Oscar host Seth MacFarlane.

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Asperger’s dropped from revised diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — The now familiar term “Asperger‘s disorder” is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But “dyslexia” and other learning disorders remain.

The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation’s psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.

Full details of all the revisions will come next May when the American Psychiatric Association‘s new diagnostic manual is published, but the impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

This diagnostic guide “defines what constellations of symptoms” doctors recognize as mental disorders, said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor. More important, he said, it “shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care.”

Olfson was not involved in the revision process. The changes were approved Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., by the psychiatric association’s board of trustees.

The aim is not to expand the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, but to ensure that affected children and adults are more accurately diagnosed so they can get the most appropriate treatment, said Dr. David Kupfer. He chaired the task force in charge of revising the manual and is a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

One of the most hotly argued changes was how to define the various ranges of autism. Some advocates opposed the idea of dropping the specific diagnosis for Asperger’s disorder. People with that disorder often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on narrow subjects but lack social skills. Some who have the condition embrace their quirkiness and vow to continue to use the label.

And some Asperger’s families opposed any change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services.

But the revision will not affect their education services, experts say.

The new manual adds the term “autism spectrum disorder,” which already is used by many experts in the field. Asperger’s disorder will be dropped and incorporated under that umbrella diagnosis. The new category will include kids with severe autism, who often don’t talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms.

Kelli Gibson of Battle Creek, Mich., who has four sons with various forms of autism, said Saturday she welcomes the change. Her boys all had different labels in the old diagnostic manual, including a 14-year-old with Asperger’s.

“To give it separate names never made sense to me,” Gibson said. “To me, my children all had autism.”

Three of her boys receive special education services in public school; the fourth is enrolled in a school for disabled children. The new autism diagnosis won’t affect those services, Gibson said. She also has a 3-year-old daughter without autism.

People with dyslexia also were closely watching for the new updated doctors’ guide. Many with the reading disorder did not want their diagnosis to be dropped. And it won’t be. Instead, the new manual will have a broader learning disorder category to cover several conditions including dyslexia, which causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words.

The trustees on Saturday made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several work groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

The revised guidebook “represents a significant step forward for the field. It will improve our ability to accurately diagnose psychiatric disorders,” Dr. David Fassler, the group’s treasurer and a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said after the vote.

The shorthand name for the new edition, the organization’s fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, is DSM-5. Group leaders said specifics won’t be disclosed until the manual is published but they confirmed some changes. A 2000 edition of the manual made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

Olfson said the manual “seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 … there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders.”

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who was on the psychiatric group’s autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger’s in the old manual would be included in the new diagnosis.

One reason for the change is that some states and school systems don’t provide services for children and adults with Asperger’s, or provide fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Autism researcher Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said small studies have suggested the new criteria will be effective. But she said it will be crucial to monitor so that children don’t lose services.

Other changes include:

—A new diagnosis for severe recurrent temper tantrums — disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Critics say it will medicalize kids’ who have normal tantrums. Supporters say it will address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings and affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums.

—Eliminating the term “gender identity disorder.” It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender. But many activists believe the condition isn’t a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with “gender dysphoria,” which means emotional distress over one’s gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

___

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

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Yahoo ‘ordered to pay $2.7bn’

30 November 2012 Last updated at 17:36 ET

Internet group Yahoo says it has been ordered to pay $ 2.7bn (£1.68bn) by a Mexican court.

The reported ruling follows a lawsuit stemming from allegations of breach of contract and lost profits related to a yellow pages listing service.

Yahoo said it “believes the plaintiffs’ claims are without merit and will vigorously pursue all appeals”.

The lawsuit had been brought by Worldwide Directories SA de CV and Ideas Interactivas SA de CV.

In a statement on its website Yahoo said the 49th Civil Court of the Federal District of Mexico City had “entered a non-final judgment of US $ 2.7 billion against Yahoo! Inc. and Yahoo de Mexico” in the case.

Shares in Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, California, fell by 1.4% in after-the-bell trading following the news.

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Oliver Stone, Benicio del Toro visit Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Benicio Del Toro didn’t wait long to collect on a favor that Oliver Stone owed him for working extra hours on the set of his most recent movie, “Savages”, released this year.

The favor? A trip to Del Toro‘s native Puerto Rico, which Stone hadn’t visited since the early 1960s.

“I told him, you owe me one,” Del Toro said with a smile as he recalled the conversation during a press conference Friday in the U.S. territory, where he and Stone are helping raise money for one of the island’s largest art museums.

Del Toro, wearing jeans, a black jacket and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of local reggaeton singer Tego Calderon, waved to the press as he was introduced.

“Hello, greetings. Is this a press conference?” he quipped as he and Stone awaited questions.

Both men praised each other’s work, saying they would like to work with each other again.

“I deeply admire him as an actor, the way he thinks, the way he expresses himself,” Stone said. “Of all the actors I’ve worked with, he’s the most interesting.”

Stone said Del Toro always delivers surprises while acting, even when it’s as something as subtle as certain gestures between dialogue.

“I think Benicio is the master of keeping you watching,” he said.

Stone said he enjoys meeting up with Del Toro off-set because he’s one of the few actors in Hollywood who can talk about something other than movies.

“He is very interested in the world around him,” Stone said, adding that the conversations sometimes center around politics and other topics.

Del Toro declined to answer when asked what he thought about Puerto Rico’s referendum earlier this month, which aimed to determine the future of the island’s political status. He said the results did not seem to point to a clear-cut outcome.

Del Toro then said he would like the island’s movie business to grow, especially in a way that would encourage learning.

“I’m talking about movies in an educational sense, as a way to discover other parts of the world,” he said. “Create a film class. You’ll see, kids won’t skip it.”

Del Toro also shared his thoughts on being a father after having a daughter with Kimberly Stewart in August 2011.

He said the girl is learning how to swim and is discovering the world around her.

“She has her own personality,” Del Toro said. “She’s not her mother. She’s not me.”

Both Del Toro and Stone are expected to remain in Puerto Rico through the weekend to raise money for the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, which is hosting its annual movie festival and will honor Stone’s movies.

Museum curator Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero said the money raised will be used to enhance the museum’s permanent collection, especially with Puerto Rican paintings from the 19th century and early 20th century.

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Dr. Dre ranks as Forbes’ highest-paid musician, at $100 million

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – You may be singing “Call Me Maybe” or dancing “Gangnam Style” to this year’s music, but it was veteran hip-hop artist Dr. Dre who topped Forbes‘ list of the 25 highest-paid musicians in 2012, released on Thursday.

California native Dre, 47, became one of the leading names in hip-hop and rap in the early 1990s and has worked with artists including Eminem and Snoop Dogg.

Along with his extensive back catalog, Dre‘s lucrative headphones business, Beats by Dre, helped him gross $ 100 million in pre-tax earnings according to Forbes.

The list’s top 10 was dominated by veteran musicians, with Pink Floyd‘s bassist and singer Roger Waters coming in at No. 2 with earnings of $ 88 million from his lucrative The Wall Live tour, and British singer Elton John at No. 3 with $ 80 million.

Last year’s highest-paid musicians U2 landed at No. 4 this year with combined earnings of $ 78 million from their three-year 360 tour. 1990s British boy band Take That, who reformed in 2005, rounded out the top five with $ 69 million, earned from an eight-date tour at London’s Wembley Stadium, which became the highest-grossing single stadium tour to date.

Forbes compiles its annual highest-paid musicians list by estimating artists’ earnings from music sales, live shows, endorsements and merchandising. Earlier this year, Dutch DJ Tiesto was named the highest-paid DJ in the fast-growing electronic dance music industry.

The only two artists under 30 to break the top 10 were country-pop darling Taylor Swift, 22, who tied with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney at No. 8 with earnings of $ 57 million, and Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, 18, who tied with country star Toby Keith at No. 10 with earnings of $ 55 million.

Pop star and “X Factor” judge Britney Spears entered the list at No. 7 with earnings of $ 58 million, cementing her comeback after a turbulent few years. Her earnings encompass her multi-million dollar “X Factor” deal, music sales and endorsements.

Spears led eight female artists in the top 25 list, including R&B star Rihanna at No. 12 with $ 53 million, coming ahead of Lady Gaga at No. 13 with $ 52 million. Grammy-winning British singer Adele notched No. 22 on the list, tied with Kanye West, with earnings of $ 35 million following a record year for her album “21.”

Music’s power couple, singer Beyonce and rapper Jay-Z, came in at No. 18 and No. 20, respectively, with earnings of $ 40 million and $ 38 million.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Jill Serjeant and Leslie Adler)

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Obama aides seek to counter Republican charges on ‘fiscal cliff’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration sought to counter Republican charges on Friday that President Barack Obama‘s plan to avoid a year-end “fiscal cliff” is light on spending cuts and too reliant on tax increases.

Administration officials said the overall plan, offered to Republicans on Thursday and quickly rejected by them, would achieve $ 4.5 trillion in savings to the government. This includes around $ 1 trillion in cuts already enacted into law and would set up an “expedited process” to spirit through Congress some of the most comprehensive legislation in decades.

The plan, which Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined to Republican congressional leaders, is aimed at taking a big step toward comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code and overhauling federal programs like Medicare by next August 1, according to a summary provided by administration officials.

The fate of the administration proposals is uncertain, as they are now part of a mix of offerings to be hashed out over the next few weeks and beyond, aimed at heading off a package of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that would tip the U.S. economy over the fiscal cliff and back into recession.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell outlined his ideas for cutting entitlement programs in a Wall Street Journal interview Friday, while House Republicans said talks had basically arrived at a stalemate at this juncture.

The administration’s proposals for next year, when combined with some immediate savings such as taxing the rich at a higher rate, would raise approximately $ 1.5 trillion in new revenues. Those would be coupled with about $ 2.4 trillion in spending cuts, according to the officials who asked not to be identified.

Some of those proposed spending cuts are controversial. For example, they count $ 800 billion in savings from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are winding down. Many Republicans in Congress argue that sound budgeting should not allow for counting savings on money that was not going to be spent.

The war savings were part of previous deficit-reduction negotiations that failed in 2011.

TWO-STEP APPROACH

Administration officials disclosed details of the White House proposal in an effort to push back against Republicans’ characterization of it as not serious.

Without a deal, around $ 600 billion in steep tax increases and spending cuts would begin in January, forcing the economy into a recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

As expected, the White House proposal called for a two-step approach to deficit reduction.

The first step would mainly consist of letting income tax rates rise on families with net incomes above $ 250,000. The revenues generated would help replace the steep, automatic spending cuts to domestic programs due to kick in on January 2 if Congress and the president cannot reach a compromise.

Also included are the extension of expiring major tax breaks, such as the research and development credit.

A second deficit-reduction step, which both Republicans and Democrats have talked about at length, would give Congress time to revamp the complicated U.S. tax code and figure out how to slow the rapid growth of federal healthcare programs for the elderly and poor.

Under the scenario laid out by Geithner, the new tax provisions would become effective on January 1, 2014, according to administration officials, and are anticipated to bring in an additional $ 600 billion in revenues over 10 years, beyond the $ 950 billion from raising taxes on the rich.

Meanwhile, federal spending would be cut by $ 350 billion over 10 years by reforming Medicare and other unspecified health programs, the officials said. Savings of another $ 250 billion would be achieved by cutting subsidies to farmers and other actions.

Also tucked into the proposal, the officials said, were $ 200 billion in “economic growth initiatives” designed to help stimulate the sluggish economy.

This would include $ 50 billion in infrastructure spending, an extension of payroll tax cuts, extending unemployment benefits and funding for a mortgage refinancing program.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Fred Barbash and Todd Eastham)

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Boeing, engineers tentatively agree to resume talks

(Reuters) – Boeing Co and the union that represents its 23,000 engineers tentatively agreed to resume labor talks on Tuesday, after their negotiations on a new contract ended abruptly on Thursday.

But tension rose as the two sides sparred over efforts to engage a federal mediator to help them reach a new labor contract.

Boeing said late on Friday that the union had declined its offer to attend meetings with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) said it had contacted the mediator before Boeing did, and was waiting for Boeing to confirm dates for meetings next week that it had arranged.

“We told SPEEA we’d like to start meeting with a federal mediator Tuesday in Seattle,” Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. “We are still working out the details with SPEEA and the mediator.”

SPEEA’s chief said the union was willing to meet, too, and with a different mediator if necessary.

“I’ve responded that we have a mediator assigned to us … but if Boeing is dissatisfied with that mediator, they need to take that up with FMCS not us,” Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director, said.

“We also don’t see the need to meet in a hotel. I offered to meet on Boeing property if that would make them comfortable.”

The two sides have been negotiating since April to replace a labor contract that expired November 25.

The union has balked at a Boeing contract that it says would cut the growth rate of compensation of professional and technical employees. Boeing says its latest offer is much improved over its initial proposal and reflects a tough competitive environment.

Talks broke down Thursday after Boeing said it wanted a mediator.

The dispute comes as Boeing looks to speed up jet production from 52 a month to about 60 a month by the end of next year. A walkout by the union could stop production.

Peter Arment, an analyst with Sterne, Agee & Leach, expressed hope that the dispute would be resolved with mediation. He noted strikes by SPEEA were rare, with the last one occurring in 2000.

“There’s still time for this to be resolved long before it would affect Boeing’s commercial aircraft production,” Arment said.

Shares of Boeing edged down 3 cents to $ 74.09 in Friday trading.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York and Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Eric Walsh)

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