Card firms’ block on WikiLeaks did not break rules: EU

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A block on processing donations for WikiLeaks by Visa Europe and other credit card companies is unlikely to have violated EU anti-trust rules, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

DataCell, a company that collected donations for WikiLeaks, complained to the Commission about Visa Europe, MasterCard Europe and American Express Co after they stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks in December 2010. Their decisions followed criticism by the United States of WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables.

“On the basis of the information available, the Commission considers that the complaint does not merit further investigation because it is unlikely that any infringement of EU competition rules could be established,” said a spokesman for the Commission, the EU executive.

He added, however, that the Commission would look at new information from DataCell before taking a final decision.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been staying in Ecuador’s embassy in central London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations.

Assange said there were no lawful grounds for the card companies’ actions, which he said had cost Wikileaks 95 percent of its revenue and threatened his organization’s existence.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Adrian Croft; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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Audra McDonald new 'Live From Lincoln Center' host

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Broadway superstar Audra McDonald is adding a new chapter to her long history with Lincoln Center.

The singer-actress is the new host of "Live From Lincoln Center," PBS said Tuesday.

McDonald will emcee seven broadcasts from December through spring 2013, starting Dec. 13 with "The Richard Tucker Opera Gala" and Dec. 31 with the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve gala.

"It's a great honor. I'm thrilled that they came to me and trusted me to do it," said McDonald, 42, whose five Tony Awards include a trophy this year for "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess."

Her memories of the Lincoln Center performing arts complex in Manhattan run deep.

"I remember watching Beverly Sills broadcasting from the Met (the center's Metropolitan Opera House) on my PBS channel at my home in Fresno," McDonald said, adding that she was amazed at the venue's size and "inspired by the music."

As a high school student, she had the chance to visit the center and recalled thinking, "This is where I want to be some day."

That wish was fulfilled when she moved to New York to attend The Juilliard School, which has its campus there.

Stepping in as host of the PBS series "feels like it's my way of thanking Lincoln Center," she said.

"We can't imagine a more perfect match," said Elizabeth Scott, the center's executive in charge of the TV series. McDonald's passion for the performing arts is "infectious," Scott added.

McDonald, who starred in "Private Practice" as Dr. Naomi Bennett, has performed on the long-running PBS showcase several times, including programs with Elvis Costello, Patti Lupone and the New York Philharmonic.

She will be working especially hard New Year's Eve when she hosts and performs in the holiday program, "One Singular Sensation: Celebrating Marvin Hamlisch" (check local listings for time).

"We'll see if I fall down by the end of the evening, or by the middle," she said, lightly. What she'll sing is a secret for now, but McDonald said it's among Hamlisch's most famous pieces.

The composer, who died in August at age 68, created more than 40 film scores and won a Tony and the Pulitzer for Broadway's "A Chorus Line."

"Live From Lincoln Center" is in its 37th broadcast season. In recent years, artists and actors including Yo-Yo Ma and Alec Baldwin have filled the host's job that previously saw long tenures by famed opera singer Sills and TV personality Hugh Downs.

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Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

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

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Obama to appeal to public on 'fiscal cliff'

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to make a public case this week for his strategy for dealing with the looming fiscal cliff, traveling to the Philadelphia suburbs Friday as he pressures Republicans to allow tax increases on the wealthy while extending tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less.

The White House said Tuesday that the president intends to hold a series of events to build support for his approach to avoid across-the-board tax increases and steep spending cuts in defense and domestic programs. Obama will meet with small business owners at the White House on Tuesday and with middle-class families on Wednesday.

The president's visit to a small business in Hatfield, Pa., that makes parts for a construction toy company will cap a week of public outreach as the White House and congressional leaders negotiate a way to avoid the tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The trip will mark Obama's first public event outside the nation's capital since winning re-election.

Both sides warn the so-called "fiscal cliff" could harm the nation's economic recovery, but an agreement still appears far from assured. The White House and congressional Republicans have differed on whether to raise revenue through higher tax rates or by closing tax loopholes and deductions.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has pushed for raising additional revenue through the reducing of tax loopholes instead of raising tax rates on wealthy Americans. The White House has countered that the president will not sign legislation that extends current tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners, or those households with incomes over $250,000.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a conservative Republican who opposes Obama's plan to increase taxes on the wealthy, said that while a presidential visit to his state "is always welcome," he remains staunchly against Obama's strategy for avoiding the fiscal cliff crunch.

"The president seems absolutely determined to inflict a tax increase on the American people," Toomey told CNN on Tuesday. He said Obama and congressional Democrats must come up with cuts in entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Obama, only weeks after winning re-election, has signaled his intention to rally the public to pressure Congress to support his agenda, an approach that helped him win passage of a payroll tax cut extension and prevented interest rates on millions of federal student loans from doubling last summer.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in an email to supporters after the election that the president's volunteer base was crucial to his re-election but said it was not aimed "just to win a campaign. We have more progress to make, and there's only one way to do it: together."

Following the election, Obama aides asked supporters to record YouTube videos discussing the need to have the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes. Some of the people who shared their stories on YouTube planned to join Obama at the White House on Wednesday.

On Friday, Obama will tour and deliver remarks at The Rodon Group manufacturing facility in Hatfield, Pa., offering the company up as an example of a business that depends on middle-class consumers during the holiday season. The company manufactures parts for K'NEX Brands, a construction toy company whose products include Tinkertoy, K'NEX Building Sets and Angry Birds Building Sets.

Congressional Republicans, led by Boehner, have expressed openness to discussing additional revenue but oppose any plan that raises tax rates on the wealthy. They argue that the higher rates would also hurt some small businesses and hinder economic growth.

Republicans have called for changes to the tax code to eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy. Several key Republican lawmakers have also said they would not be bound by a no-tax-increase pledge that they have adhered to in the past.

Boehner and GOP leaders planned to meet Wednesday with members of a bipartisan coalition of former members of Congress and business leaders that has advocated cuts in spending in major health care programs as well as changes in the tax code to raise more money but also to lower rates.

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Afghan students denounce Israel over Gaza fighting

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Several thousand university students demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan on Monday to denounce Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, burning Israeli and U.S. flags as well as a Christian cross.

The students — some shouting "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" — marched outside their university in Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan, and blocked a highway leading into the city center.

A truce was struck last week between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, bringing an end to an eight-day Israeli offensive against militants who had fired rockets into Israel from the Palestinian territory. The agreement is fragile, but so far the truce has stopped fighting in the Gaza Strip.

At the demonstration, which was peaceful, Nangarhar University student Abdul Gayr said participants also denounced Pakistan for its recent artillery shelling into Afghanistan. They also opposed a death sentence given to an Afghan National Army solider who was convicted earlier this year of killing five French soldiers.

The protesters, Gayr said, think capital punishment is unfair in the case so long as international forces are not punished when their military operations result in the death of Afghan civilians.

Separately, a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded Monday, wounding 26 civilians in Khost, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.

Provincial spokesman Baryalai Wakman said the morning blast occurred in a marketplace full of shoppers. Five people were seriously injured, according to hospital officials.

In southern Afghanistan, NATO said a service member with the international military coalition was killed in a roadside bombing on Monday. No other details were released.

So far this year, 381 U.S. and other international troops have died in Afghanistan.

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Facebook not so fun with a click from boss or mum

LONDON (Reuters) – Posting pictures of yourself plastered at a party and talking trash online with your Facebook friends may be more stress than it’s worth now that your boss and mum want to see it all.

A survey from Edinburgh Business School released on Monday showed Facebook users are anxious that all those self-published sins may be coming home to roost with more than half of employers claiming to have used Facebook to weed out job candidates.

“Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt,” said Ben Marder, author of the report and fellow in marketing at the Business School.

“But now with your Mum, Dad and boss there, the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines.”

On average, people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles, the report found, with real friends known to the user offline the most common.

More than four-fifths of users add extended family on Facebook, a similar number add siblings. Less than 70 percent are connected to friends of friends while more than 60 percent added their colleagues online, despite the anxiety this may cause.

Facebook has settings to control the information seen by different types of friends, but only one third use them, the report said.

“I’m not worried at all because all the really messy pics – me, drunken or worse – I detag straight away,” said Chris from London, aged 30.

People were more commonly friends with former boyfriends or girlfriends than with current ones, the report also found.

(Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Bieber booed in native Canada by football fans

TORONTO (AP) — Justin Bieber faced a hostile homecoming during his halftime performance at Canada's football Grey Cup, facing boos and jeers.

The Toronto crowd booed Sunday when the 18-year-old pop star's face popped up on the JumboTron screen. They booed when a host spoke his name. And they booed as he took the stage and throughout his medley of the chart-topper "Boyfriend" and the disco-inflected "Beauty and a Beat."

If Bieber was bothered, it didn't show.

"Thank you so much Canada," Bieber said. "I love you."

Earlier in the week, Bieber was presented with a Diamond Jubilee Medal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and caused a scene by wearing overalls, unbuttoned on one shoulder, over a white T-shirt, with a backwards baseball cap.

There was sufficient uproar that Harper even weighed in on Twitter.

"In fairness to (Bieber)," Harper tweeted Sunday, "I told him I would be wearing my overalls too."

The Canadian Football League may have been hoping to court Bieber's army of tween followers on Sunday. But recent Grey Cup halftime performers have skewed toward the comparatively heavy likes of Nickelback and Lenny Kravitz.

"J-Biebs doesn't scream football, you know? Neither does Carly Rae Jepsen," said Calgary's Ryan Prisque, 22.

The 27-year-old Jepsen also received a mixed reaction at first Sunday but won the crowd over during an enthusiastic medley of her latest single, "This Kiss," and her infectious hit "Call Me Maybe."

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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Cyber Monday sales poised to hit $1.5B

Americans are returning to work today after the extended Thanksgiving weekend just in time for Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year. 

Shoppers are expected to spend more than $1.5 billion today, up 20 percent from last year, according to research firm comScore. 

It has already been a big holiday weekend with a record $59.1 billion spent at U.S. stores and websites, according to the National Retail Federation.

Online sales on Thanksgiving Day, traditionally not a popular day for online shopping, rose 32 percent from last year to $633 million, according to comScore. And online sales on Black Friday were up 26 percent from the same day last year, to $1.042 billion. It was the first time online sales on Black Friday surpassed $1 billion.

The National Retail Federation says 247 million shoppers hit stores and websites to cash in on savings during the holiday weekend, up 9 percent from last year. Nearly two-thirds of those shoppers went to stores or hit the web on Black Friday.

Black Friday is now history along with Small Business Saturday. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn.

At midnight, Amazon.com was offering as much as 60 percent off a Panasonic VIERA 55-inch TV that's usually priced higher than $1,000. Sears is offering $430 off a Maytag washer and dryer, each on sale for $399. And Kmart is offering 75 percent off diamond earrings.

"Cyber Monday is really all about doing your homework, and it really means looking for the really good deals" retail analyst Marshal Cohen said. "If it's a really good deal, grab it."

But Cyber Monday might be losing its luster. The busiest day for Internet shopping has been overshadowed this year by online sales that started as early as Thanksgiving Day.

"Look for Cyber Monday to be important, but not necessarily getting that same growth rate that they've had in years past," Cohen said.

The rise in smartphones and tablets has changed consumers' shopping habits since Cyber Monday's inception seven years ago. Cyber Monday was first widely publicized by Shop.org in 2005 to persuade shoppers to buy online, as people were still warming to e-commerce.

"There were so many deals being offered online, starting from Wednesday and all the way through the weekend and now some of the money has already been spent," Cohen said.

Cyber Monday is also an easier alternative for people who don't like long lines and chaos that comes with the Black Friday weekend. This season proved to be no different from past Black Friday horror stories.

A man suspected of shoplifting two DVD players from a Lithonia, Ga., Walmart Sunday died after an altercation with two store employees and a contract security guard.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found the employees on top of the middle-aged man, according to a police report obtained by ABC News affiliate WSB-TV. When an officer bent down to handcuff the suspect, he noticed there was no resistance.

At that point, the officer noticed the suspect was bleeding from the nose and mouth, according to the report. He was transported to DeKalb Medical-Hillandale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"This is truly a sad situation," Dianna Gee, a Walmart spokeswoman, said in a statement issued to ABC News. "We don't know all of the facts right now. We're in the process of working with law enforcement to determine all of the facts and cooperating and providing any information we have to assist in the investigation."

Gee said the contract security guard will no longer be providing services to the retailer. The two store employees have been suspended with pay while Walmart assists police in the investigation.

ABC News' Alyssa Newcomb, Susana Kim, ABC News Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Pakistani Shiite procession hit by bombing, 6 dead

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — A bombing claimed by the Taliban killed at least six people and wounded some 90 others at a Shiite religious procession in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, police said, as the minority Muslim sect observes the annual Ashoura holiday.

Since Wednesday, at least 31 have been killed in bombings aimed at Pakistani Shiites and claimed by the Taliban, who espouse an extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam. Over 100 were wounded in the attacks during the run-up to the holiday, which commemorates the 7th century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson. The schism between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to that time.

Sunday's explosion went off as hundreds of Shiites were passing through the main intersection of the city of Dera Ismail Khan, police said, where food and water stalls were set up to serve the crowd. An initial investigation suggested a bomb was planted near a shop along the procession route.

"The bomb contained about eight kilograms of explosives and steel balls, and was detonated with a remote control device," city police chief Sohail Khalid said.

Several of injured are in serious condition, said Dr. Faridullah Mahsud, an official at the city's hospital, who added that three members of a paramilitary unit providing security for the procession were among the injured. Dr. Khalid Aziz, the top official at the hospital, put the death toll at six.

The Pakistani Taliban frequently attack Shiites, who they consider heretics. Ashoura ceremonies are a prime targets, since they draw large crowds that march in processions to mourn the martyred Imam Hussein. Early in the day, participants beat their chests in grief over Hussein's killing, while later some cut themselves to express their sorrow in blood.

Qais Abbas, a Shiite survivor, said that one of his relatives was in critical condition, but that he and others were moving the wounded to other hospitals that were better equipped.

"Here we are not getting proper care for them, there are not enough doctors or medicines," he said.

After the blast, thousands of Shiite mourners staged a sit-in at a nearby intersection, refusing to move unless assured quick and stern action against the perpetrators. The procession has now been attacked for a second consecutive day.

A similar bombing killed seven and injured 30 from the group a day earlier, and last week attacks on Ashoura observers took place elsewhere in the country. On Wednesday night, a Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite procession in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital, Islamabad, killing 17. Earlier that same day, the Taliban set off two bombs outside a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing one person and wounding 15 others. Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for all the attacks, with spokesman Ehasanullah Ehsan saying by telephone on Sunday that the group will not relent and "looks forward to more ahead."

Authorities have deployed thousands of additional police across the country to beef up security for the holy day. Mobile phone service has been shut down in all the major cities to prevent such bombings, which officials say often use cellular phones as remote detonators.

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