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LONDON — The speculation began virtually the moment Kate Middleton said “I will” to Prince William in April 2011, saddling an industry full of tabloid newspapers and gossip magazines with a big black hole where the wedding coverage used to be.
Why, they asked, was the former Ms. Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, drinking water instead of wine at an official dinner, in what appeared to be a deliberate manner? And those photographs in which her stomach seemed microscopically less flat than normal, what was that all about?
On Monday, everyone who had incorrectly guessed what was going on before could now finally claim to be right. Yes, St. James’s Palace announced, the duchess had become pregnant.
The royal family is not known for its effusions of public emotion, but in statements posted on the royal Web site, the duke and duchess of Cambridge said they were “very pleased,” while the queen and other family members went with “delighted.”
On Twitter, Prime Minister David Cameron declared that he, too, was delighted.
The pregnancy is in its very early stages and has not yet reached the three-month threshold that would normally have prompted the announcement. But the duchess is in the hospital suffering from “acute morning sickness,” the palace said, and hospitalizations are hard to keep secret.
“Her royal highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter,” the palace said.
There are many interesting things about this possible future royal baby. First, it will be third in line to the throne, even if it is a girl; the laws of succession were recently changed for this very reason. Second, its presence would make the chances of the current No. 3, Prince Harry, becoming king ever more remote, barring some bizarre development in which four generations of his family — his grandmother, his father, his brother and his future niece or nephew — all stepped aside.
Also, it gives Britain something to be excited about at a time when life here has not been so exciting, what with austerity and widespread flooding across huge parts of England after a period of nearly biblical rainfall.
“A royal baby is something the whole nation will celebrate,” the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, observed on Twitter. “Fantastic news for Kate, William and the country.”
In addition to being delighted, the prime minister revealed that in his opinion, the duke and duchess of Cambridge would be “wonderful parents.”
But few people could be more excited than the editors of the newspapers and magazines that cover the royal family, who with any luck will have months of things to write about: What will it be, boy or girl? How fat will the duchess look in her pregnancy clothes? What is happening behind closed doors?
Already, The Daily Mail has revealed a gaggle of purportedly insider-ish details about what is really going on, including the news that the duchess began feeling sick over the weekend and was “unable to keep any food or water down.”
It continued, “Sources suggested that the duchess was hooked up to an intravenous drip to increase her fluid and nutrient levels.”
The papers have also made much of a retrospectively significant incident from last Wednesday, when a member of the public handed Prince William a baby outfit decorated with a helicopter and the words “Daddy’s little co-pilot” — and William smiled as he accepted it.
What a day for Twitter! First the Pope, then the Royal Baby, and now President Obama will come online to answer questions about the fiscal cliff. A @WhiteHouse tweet with the distincitive “-bo” signature, announced not long ago that the big guy himself will be taking questions online, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Good to see lots of folks on twitter speaking out on extending middle class tax cuts. I’ll answer some Qs on that at 2ET. Ask w/ #My2k –bo
— The White House (@whitehouse) December 3, 2012
Unfortunately, he’s sticking with the troublesome #My2K hashtag that conservatives have already seized upon in a back-and-forth battle for messaging. Trying to mobilize your supporters through social media is all well and good, but the problem with any genuinely open town hall, is that anyone can invite themselves—even those who disagree with you and might be louder than your friends. (Plus, any reasonably popular hashtag moves much to fast for anyone to follow it or have an actual conversation on Twitter anyway.)
RELATED: Don’t Expect Too Much From Social Media Town Halls
But ask away! Maybe you’ll get luck and get RT’d by the President himself. And then find yourself becoming the next conservative meme as soon as the hashtag-averse pundits start making fun of your question. Should be a fun afternoon.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Joseph Kennedy III and Lauren Anne Birchfield
Victor Sizemore Photography
The newly-elected politician wed fiancée Lauren Birchfield on Saturday at the Community Church in Corona del Mar, Calif., his office tells NBC News. The ceremony was officiated by her father, the Rev. Jim Birchfield.
Kennedy, 32, and Birchfield, 28, met at Harvard Law School, and they were married in front of family and friends.
"The bride and groom are extremely grateful for all the well wishes and for the outpouring of support and friendship they have received this year," the newlyweds say in a statement to NBC News.
Kennedy III, the son of former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, and Robert F. Kennedy's grandson, represents Massachusetts's 4th Congressional District.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump.
"Thank God that our country is an oil producer and the price of gasoline is one of the lowest," al-Kubaisi said, filling up his Toyota Land Cruiser at a gas station in Doha. "God has given us a blessing."
To those looking for a global response to climate change, it's more like a curse.
Qatar — the host of U.N. climate talks that entered their final week Monday — is among dozens of countries that keep gas prices artificially low through subsidies that exceeded $500 billion globally last year. Renewable energy worldwide received six times less support — an imbalance that is just starting to earn attention in the divisive negotiations on curbing the carbon emissions blamed for heating the planet.
"We need to stop funding the problem, and start funding the solution," said Steve Kretzmann, of Oil Change International, an advocacy group for clean energy.
His group presented research Monday showing that in addition to the fuel subsidies in developing countries, rich nations in 2011 gave more than $58 billion in tax breaks and other production subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. figure was $13 billion.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has calculated that removing fossil fuel subsidies could reduce carbon emissions by more than 10 percent by 2050.
Yet the argument is just recently gaining traction in climate negotiations, which in two decades have failed to halt the rising temperatures that are melting Arctic ice, raising sea levels and shifting weather patterns with impacts on droughts and floods.
In Doha, the talks have been slowed by wrangling over financial aid to help poor countries cope with global warming and how to divide carbon emissions rights until 2020 when a new planned climate treaty is supposed to enter force. Calls are now intensifying to include fossil fuel subsidies as a key part of the discussion.
"I think it is manifestly clear ... that this is a massive missing piece of the climate change jigsaw puzzle," said Tim Groser, New Zealand's minister for climate change.
He is spearheading an initiative backed by Scandinavian countries and some developing countries to put fuel subsidies on the agenda in various forums, citing the U.N. talks as a "natural home" for the debate.
The G-20 called for their elimination in 2009, and the issue also came up at the U.N. earth summit in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. Frustrated that not much has happened since, European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Monday she planned to raise the issue with environment ministers on the sidelines of the talks in Doha.
Many developing countries are positive toward phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, not just to protect the climate but to balance budgets. Subsidies introduced as a form of welfare benefit decades ago have become an increasing burden to many countries as oil prices soar.
"We are reviewing the subsidy periodically in the context of the total economy for Qatar," the tiny Persian gulf country's energy minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, told reporters Monday.
Qatar's National Development Strategy 2011-2016 states it more bluntly, saying fuel subsides are "at odds with the aspirations" and sustainability objectives of the wealthy emirate.
The problem is that getting rid of them comes with a heavy political price.
When Jordan raised fuel prices last month, angry crowds poured into the streets, torching police cars, government offices and private banks in the most sustained protests to hit the country since the start of the Arab unrest. One person was killed and 75 others were injured in the violence.
Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Sudan have also seen violent protests this year as governments tried to bring fuel prices closer to market rates.
Iran has used a phased approach to lift fuel subsidies over the past several years, but its pump prices remain among the cheapest in the world.
"People perceive it as something that the government is taking away from them," said Kretzmann. "The trick is we need to do it in a way that doesn't harm the poor."
The International Energy Agency found in 2010 that fuel subsidies are not an effective measure against poverty because only 8 percent of such subsidies reached the bottom 20 percent of income earners.
The IEA, which only looked at consumption subsidies, this year said they "remain most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, where momentum toward their reform appears to have been lost."
In the U.S., environmental groups say fossil fuel subsidies include tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels.
Industry groups, like the Independent Petroleum Association of America, are against removing such support, saying that would harm smaller companies, rather than the big oil giants.
In Doha, Mohammed Adow, a climate activist with Christian Aid, called all fuel subsidies "reckless and dangerous," but described removing subsidies on the production side as "low-hanging fruit" for governments if they are serious about dealing with climate change.
"It's going to oil and coal companies that don't need it in the first place," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report
____
Karl Ritter can be reached at www.twitter.com/karl_ritter
An Oceanside couple are scheduled to be in court Monday to face accusations that they kept an underage
Mexican immigrant as a sex slave, forcing her into prostitution and
beating her severely.
The girl had been smuggled into the U.S. at age 12, and the abuse by
Hernandez and Garcia occurred over a 21-month period, the Sheriff's
Department said.
Hernandez and Garcia forced the girl to care for their three children
and cook and clean for the family, as well as have sex with Hernandez,
according to Deputy G. Crysler, an investigator with the North County
Human Trafficking Task Force.
"When the girl victim refused to participate in the sex acts or did
not complete her tasks in a timely or correct manner, she was beaten,"
Crysler said.
The couple forced the victim into lying about her age so she could
work at a local restaurant, with Garcia and Hernandez keeping the money
she earned, according to the arrest documents. She was also forced into
having sex with older men, with Garcia and Hernandez keeping the money
paid by "johns," the documents said.
Authorities were called after the victim was allegedly beaten by
Garcia. Reunited with her family, she returned to Mexico. Recently,
she returned to the U.S. and is assisting in the criminal investigation,
according to the Sheriff's Department.
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-- Tony Perry in San Diego
Kyodo News, via Associated Press
A surveillance camera within the Sasago tunnel showed rescue workers at the scene of a collapse on Sunday.
TOKYO — At least seven people were feared dead after a highway tunnel collapsed on Sunday in eastern Japan, trapping them in their vehicles and starting a fire that filled the passage with thick, black smoke.
Fire fighters and rescue personnel gathered at the entrance to the Sasago tunnel, west of Tokyo.
Three vehicles appeared to have been crushed under concrete that fell from the ceiling of the three-mile Sasago Tunnel near the city of Otsuki in Yamanashi Prefecture, about 50 miles west of Tokyo, the national disaster management agency said. Officials from the agency and the police said it remained unclear why a section of the tunnel — 150 to 200 feet of eight-inch-thick concrete that weighed about 180 tons — suddenly fell.
A vehicle carrying six people caught fire, whose heavy smoke initially prevented firefighters from entering the tunnel. But even after putting out the blaze, rescuers had to temporarily suspend efforts to reach the vehicles inside because of the danger of a further collapse, officials said.
Rescue efforts resumed later in the day, though progress was slow.
A 28-year-old woman managed to escape from the vehicle that caught fire, officials said. She told firefighters that five other people remained inside. It was unclear how many people were in the other trapped vehicles besides the drivers.
One of the other vehicles appeared to be a truck belonging to a food wholesaler, officials said. The truck’s driver called his company right after the accident to ask for help, they said, but officials were later unable to reach him on his cellphone.
The operator of the highway, the Central Nippon Expressway, held a news conference to apologize for the accident. The police said they had opened an investigation into the cause of the collapse and about whether professional negligence by the operator was a factor.
The accident closed a section of the Chuo Expressway, which connects Tokyo to western Japan. Such long tunnels — usually lined with smooth, white concrete — are common on highways in the mountainous island nation.
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple Inc. on Friday said its latest iPad models will go on sale in China on Dec. 7, followed by the iPhone 5 a week later.
China is one of Apple‘s largest and fastest-growing markets. Analyst Brian White at Topeka Capital Markets said iPhone 5 is launching roughly when he expected it, but he hadn’t expected the iPad mini and the fourth-generation, full-size iPad to go on sale in China this year.
“Our conversations during our meetings and casual consumer interactions during our China trips tell us that the iPad Mini will take off like wildfire in China,” White wrote in a research report Friday morning. “The smaller form factor and lower price point, we believe Apple will be able to sell the iPad mini in meaningful volumes.”
White said uptake of the iPhone 4S was relatively slow in China, because the signature new feature, voice-recognition-powered virtual assistant Siri, did not understand Mandarin Chinese. With this year’s software update, Siri now does understand the language, which should encourage upgrades, he said.
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Shania Twain in Las Vegas Dec. 1
Jeff Bottari/Getty
The Canadian singer kicked off her two-year residency Saturday at Vegas's Caesars Palace with a 90-minute show that features many of her hits and takes the crowd on what she calls a "personal journey."
"The show is very fun for me," Twain, 47, told reporters Saturday. "I was a bit worried that we were staying in the same place. Was I going to lose that edge? But I've never had a show this exciting before."
In fact, her commitment to the show is so intense that she's gone an entire week without seeing the sun (in a town that is famously showered in sunshine) in preparation for her opening night.
It paid off.
Taking the stage for the first time in eight years, Twain appeared giddy and her voice sounded as strong as it did when she was pumping out Grammy-winning songs like "You're Still The One" in the late 90s.
Asked how nervous she was about taking the stage again, Twain said, "I'm actually pretty good."
Her comfort, she said, comes from surrounding herself with things she loves on stage and her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, who may be her biggest supporter.
"I cannot live without him," she said. "I need that support. I just need what we have. It grounds me every day and reminds me that there are a lot of important things going on in the world."
Added Twain: "He keeps it all in perspective."
Newport Beach police arrested a Costa Mesa man Saturday suspected of
having inappropriate sexual relationships that spanned years with at
least two boys.
Christopher Bryan McKenzie, 48, allegedly sexually abused at least
two victims between the ages of 8 and 16. Newport Beach police said both
victims, now adults, contacted police separately early last week.
One victim was abused from the late 1990s to 2005, and the second
victim was abused from 2005 to 2007, Newport Beach Police Department
spokeswoman Kathy Lowe said.
"Basically, this relationship was an ongoing inappropriate sexual relationship over a period of many years," she said.
McKenzie, a pool cleaner who works throughout Orange County, was a
volunteer Sunday school teacher at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, but
it is not suspected he had any victims from the congregation, police
said.
After an investigation, police obtained a no-bail warrant for
McKenzie, who was arrested at 11 a.m. Saturday and booked at the Newport
Beach Police Department Jail and transported to Orange County Jail
without incident, a news release stated.
He is scheduled for arraignment at the Harbor Justice Center early next week.
Police said the crimes took place in a residence in Newport Beach but
did not elaborate on the exact nature, saying only that McKenzie is
suspected of lewd and lascivious acts with a child.
Lowe said police hope releasing the information will help identify victims of any similar, unreported crimes.
However: "I don't have any information at this time to indicate there are more victims," Lowe said.
After Newport Beach police announced the arrest Saturday, Rock Harbor
leaders released a statement saying they informed parents and invited
them to a 7 p.m. Monday meeting to discuss the situation at its Costa
Mesa campus, 345 Fischer Ave.
"We sent an email to our entire congregation this afternoon before
the police department's press release came out," said Jeff Gideon, the
church's communications director.
— Jeremiah Dobruck, Times Community News
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