Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers’ password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.

In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Some of the statutes, which deal with everything from consumer protection to gun control and healthcare, take effect at the stroke of midnight. Others will not kick in until later in the year.

The raft of measures includes a new abortion restriction in New Hampshire, public-employee pension reform in California and Alabama, same-sex marriage in Maryland, and a requirement that private insurers in Alaska cover autism in kids and young adults, NCSL said.

In New Hampshire, a rarely used form of late-term abortion will become illegal except to save the life of the mother – and even then only if two doctors from separate hospitals certify the procedure is medically necessary.

John Lynch, the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, had vetoed the measure, saying it would threaten the lives of women in rural areas. But the state’s Republican-controlled legislature later overrode him.

In California and Illinois, laws that take effect at 12:01 a.m. local time will make it illegal for bosses to request social networking passwords or non-public online account information from their employees or job applicants.

Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a similar measure into law earlier this month that took effect immediately. The Michigan law also penalizes educational institutions for dismissing or failing to admit a student who does not provide passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

But workers and job seekers in all three states will still need to be careful what they post online: Employers may continue to use publicly available social networking information. So inappropriate pictures, tweets and other social media indiscretions can still come back to haunt them.

Gun violence – in places where it’s all too common, such as Chicago, and in places where it’s unexpected, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut – was big news in 2012. But only a handful of new state firearms laws are set to take effect in 2013.

In Michigan, the definition of a “pistol” under the law will now include any firearm less than 26 inches in length. The new definition encompasses some rifles with folding stocks and will make the weapons subject to the same restrictions as pistols.

In Illinois, certain guns currently regulated by state law, including paintball guns, will be excluded from the definition of a firearm and participants in military re-enactments will be exempt from some weapons laws.

Another big story in 2012 was the effort by lawmakers in a number of cash-strapped states to put their public employee pension funds on a sounder financial footing.

In California and Alabama, reforms designed to begin to address the unfunded liabilities of those retirement systems will take effect in 2013.

Among the other new laws on the books in 2013:

* In California, prison workers and peace officers will now be prohibited from having sex with inmates and prisoners in transport.

* In Illinois, sex offenders will be prohibited from distributing candy on Halloween, or playing Santa or the Easter Bunny.

* In Oregon, employers won’t be allowed to advertise a job vacancy if they won’t consider applicants who are currently out of work.

* In Kentucky, residents will be prohibited from releasing feral or wild hogs back into the wild and Illinois will ban the possession and sale of shark fins.

* And in Florida, the term “motor vehicle” will no longer apply to the specialized all-terrain vehicles with over-sized tires known as “swamp buggies” that are popular in some parts of the state.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune and Nick Zieminski)

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“The Hobbit” keeps box office crown for third week

(Reuters) – The dwarfs and elves of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” prevailed at the North American box office again over the weekend, as its $ 32.9 million in ticket sales topped both the star-packed musical “Les Miserables” and the western “Django Unchained.”

Despite surging past “The Hobbit” on Christmas day with an $ 18.1 million opening, “Les Miz” managed only third place in U.S. and Canadian sales with $ 28 million as Christmas shoppers returned from the malls to boost Hollywood‘s box office, according to studio estimates.

“The Hobbit,” in its third week of release, has now grossed $ 222.7 million domestically, Warner Bros said.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” a western starring Jamie Fox as a slave turned bounty hunter, took second with an impressive $ 30.7 million.

Tom Cruise’s crime drama “Jack Reacher,” which features author Lee Child’s former military investigator solving a fatal sniper attack, landed in fifth with $ 14 million, outpaced by “Parental Guidance,” the Billy Crystal-Bette Midler as grandparents comedy which took in $ 14.8 million to nab fourth.

Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for Fox, said the “Parental Guidance” performance was “just a tremendous result for our little engine that could.”

Backed by a musical score that made it a Broadway icon, “Les Miz” surged past “The Hobbit” on Christmas day, collecting $ 18.1 million to pass “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” with the biggest midweek opening day by a musical.

But it was not enough to conquer the “Hobbit” juggernaut, which scored its third straight box office weekend win.

Universal’s president for domestic distribution Nikki Rocco called the “Les Miz” $ 28 million take “phenomenal, especially considering we went into the weekend with $ 40 million,” an unexpectedly strong figure for its first few days in release.

“People really love this movie, which is even more rewarding and gratifying,” Rocco said.

“Les Miserables,” which stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, benefited from Oscar buzz and its star power, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box office division, who said he wouldn’t be surprised to see the musical pass $ 200 million before it’s done.

That would put it among the Hollywood‘s Top 20 best-selling musicals. It would pass the 1972 film “Cabaret,” which grossed $ 191 million in box office sales adjusted for higher ticket prices, and put it close to “Camelot,” which sold $ 204.5 million in 1967, according to the web site the-numbers.com.

The most successful musical is “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which grossed more than $ 6.3 billion but has been re-released by Walt Disney nine times since its 1937 premiere, according to the site.

A rush of high-profile films in December is expected to push 2012 to a domestic box office record. The current record is $ 10.6 billion, set in 2009.

“Jack Reacher” debuted just days after the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting sparked new debate about the impact of movie violence. “Reacher” begins with a sniper killing a handful of seemingly random victims. A red-carpet premiere and a screening to promote the $ 60-million production were postponed after the December 14 Newtown tragedy.

Adult comedy “This is 40″ starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann as a middle-aged couple was sixth with $ 13.2 million. The Judd Apatow $ 35 million film totaled $ 37 million after two weeks. The seventh spot went to Steven Spielberg’s historical film “Lincoln,” with $ 7.5 million for a $ 132 million domestic total.

Comedy “The Guilt Trip,” starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen as a mother and son on a cross-country drive, pulled in $ 6.7 million for eighth.

Also this week the latest James Bond hit “Skyfall” topped $ 1 billion in worldwide sales, despite falling out of the week’s top 10 films at the box office.

“The Hobbit” was distributed by Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros studio. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc released, “Jack Reacher” and “The Guilt Trip.” Comcast Corp’s Universal Studios released “Les Miserables” and “This is 40.” “Django Unchained” was released in the United States by the Weinstein Company.

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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New Year’s Resolutions For Better Health

New Year’s resolutions are typically so singular, self-focused and private. How about making a resolution or two this year that has benefits beyond yourself? Here are some suggestions with lots of links to get you started.

You can help stop the spread of disease. Resolve to get up-to-date on your vaccines. While children have a full slate of vaccines, many adults don’t realize they have regular immunization obligations, too. Getting flu, pertussis, human papillomavirus and other vaccines can protect you and help stop the spread of diseases that harm others. Here’s a great guide to adult immunizations from the federal government. If the cost of vaccines is an issue, check into free or low-cost immunizations through your county’s public health department. Here’s a guide to finding your local office. Volunteer with an organization that needs your help. A group called Catchafire matches professionals who wish to volunteer their skills to organizations that need the help — including many important health organizations. The idea is to give great organizations access to top talent while respecting the professionals’ schedules and making their volunteer work meaningful. Here’s the link. Influence a healthier food climate. Americans spend about half of their food budgets eating out. So we had better demand thorough nutritional information about what we’re getting. Under healthcare reform, many restaurant chains will soon carry nutritional information. But the law has loopholes. If you don’t see the information you’re looking for on salt, fat, calories or other nutrients, ask the restaurant’s manager where you can find it. Nutritional information should be easy to access. Until it is, speak up and ask for it. Do your part to keep down healthcare costs. The Affordable Care Act will bring many consumers into the insurance healthcare system for the first time. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the cost of care. Rising healthcare costs remain a huge issue that could drag down the economy and bedevil some reform efforts. You can help by being a wise healthcare consumer. Read your insurance policy and know what it does and doesn’t cover. Take advantage of free preventive care services and screening tests under the ACA. Shop around for prescriptions to find the cheapest prices. Ask your doctor for generic equivalents. Finally, use your health savings account if your employer offers one. These accounts provide incentives for using your money wisely, shopping around to find the best healthcare prices and weighing the costs and benefits of certain drugs, tests or procedures.  Here’s a guide to understanding how HSAs work. Be responsible about the prescription drugs you store at home. You can reduce your own risk of addiction and lower the risk for others, too, if you are careful about medications kept in your home. This year marked a turning point in the nation’s epidemic of prescription-drug abuse and addiction.  Admissions to addiction treatment centers for use of narcotic painkillers rose 569 percent in the past decade, according to the federal government. More people now die from drug overdoses than from traffic accidents. More than six million Americans abuse prescription drugs, and more than 70 percent of addicts get their drugs through family or friends or by raiding a home medicine cabinet. Dispose of unused medications. The Drug Enforcement Agency operates a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day a few times a year (the next one is in April), that makes it easy to dispose of dangerous substance.  Go through your home today and collect unused medications. You can take them to a pharmacy for disposal or even flush them down the toilet. Some drugs carry disposal instructions on the label. Here’s information on how to dispose of prescription medications. Be a safe driver. One of the biggest safety issues on the nation’s roads these days is driver distraction. A large share of the distractions come from talking on a hand-held cell phone or text messaging while driving. You’re 23 times more likely to crash if you text while driving. Most states now prohibit texting while driving, but there are still many people who do it while knowing it’s unsafe. Break yourself of this terrible habit. The federal government has a website that provides people with information and tools to discourage distracted driving. Included in this package is a simple pledge sheet you can print out, sign and post on your refrigerator door or bathroom to help you make the commitment. There are a couple of other things you can do, too. Speak out if the driver you’re riding with is distracted. Encourage family and friends to drive phone-free. Run a race for the greater good. Who doesn’t love a good 5K walk or run? You benefit from the exercise and, if you choose a charity race, others reap rewards, too. There are thousands of charity races each year. Pick one and invite your friends to participate with you. Here’s a website to help you find a race.  Apply for a grant. There’s money out there for doing good. Saucony’s Run for Good Foundation aims at preventing child obesity by promoting running as part of a healthy lifestyle for kids. The foundation issues grant money to organizations that want to organize a kids’ running group. You can find information on how to apply at the foundation website. Sign a petition. Concerned about flame retardants in consumer products? Gun safety? Funding for research to fight a particular disease? There’s probably a petition for that. It’s an easy way to make your voice heard. Both change.org and thepetitionsite.com are good places to look to find a petition close to your heart.

Question: What resolutions can you make to help others? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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Shari Roan is an award-winning health writer based in Southern California. She is the author of three books on health and science subjects.

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A Famous Short Seller Turns His Gaze Toward Singapore

The short-seller who made his reputation by savaging Chinese companies is turning his attention elsewhere. Carson Block, 36, whose research helped erase almost $ 7 billion of market value in China since 2010, says Olam International (OLAM), the Singapore-backed commodity merchant responsible for 90 percent of the world’s peanut trade, is a sham doomed to fail. “Comparisons to Enron are overused, but in the case of Olam, the similarities really are uncanny,” Block wrote in a Nov. 26 report to clients of his Los Angeles-based firm, Muddy Waters Research, which is shorting the peanut company. “We believe that the single biggest factor in Enron’s collapse was its use of accounting techniques similar to Olam’s value gains.” Olam’s U.S.-traded shares began a 20 percent plunge minutes after Block trashed the company at a Nov. 19 cancer benefit in London. According to Block, Olam uses noncash accounting gains to boost earnings, has been “burning cash,” and will need to raise or refinance as much as S$ 4.6 billion ($ 3.78 billion) of debt in the next year to stay solvent. Two days later, Olam, which has a market valuation of S$ 3.49 billion, sued Block and his firm for defamation in the Singapore High Court.

When he called out Olam, Block wasn’t just challenging the world’s dominant peanut company. He was also taking on Temasek Holdings, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund run by Ho Ching, the wife of the city-state’s prime minister. Temasek, which has S$ 198 billion in assets, is Olam’s second-largest shareholder, with a 16 percent stake. That stake has lost more than $ 100 million in value since Muddy Waters first questioned Olam’s finances.

Olam Chief Executive Officer Sunny Verghese dismisses Block’s claims as a means to “create panic,” citing more than S$ 10 billion of balance-sheet liquidity. On Dec. 3, Temasek said it would buy any unpurchased Olam bonds in its recent $ 1.25 billion offering. In a statement, Temasek’s senior managing director of investments, David Heng, said the fund’s executives are “comfortable with Olam’s credit position and longer-term prospects, and are pleased to have another opportunity to invest in the company, alongside other shareholders.” Temasek declined to comment further for this story.

Block shorts companies he claims are guilty of inconsistencies in their financial reporting or of outright fraud. “The Carson Block model of very detailed reports has set a new standard,” says Sahm Adrangi, who manages $ 125 million at New York-based hedge fund Kerrisdale Capital Management. Muddy Waters reports critical of Chinese firms listed on U.S. exchanges helped drive down the shares of eight companies, some with ties to the Chinese government, by an average of 60 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of Sino-Forest, which had a market value of about $ 6.1 billion, slumped 74 percent before the company filed for bankruptcy in March. (Temasek was a major investor.) Muddy Waters’ most recent shorts in China failed to pay off, though: Despite Block’s allegations of fraud, Beijing-based wiremaker Fushi Copperweld (FSIN) gained 25 percent on the Nasdaq this year after the China Development Bank loaned it money to buy back shares.

This year, Block says, he stopped betting against Chinese companies because government agencies, including the Ministry of State Security and the Public Security Bureau, are harassing his analysts and limiting their research. The Ministry of Public Security didn’t respond to requests for comment. A person who answered the Ministry of State Security’s listed number said the ministry does not handle media inquiries via phone or fax.

Block isn’t expecting such problems in Singapore. The Olam work should go more smoothly, he says. “We do not believe that Singapore is a thugocracy,” he said in an e-mail. The stakes are high, though, says Low Chee Keong, a professor of corporate law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Carson Block is putting his whole reputation on this one,” Low says. “He’s taking on the Singapore government, Singapore Inc. here.”

The bottom line: Peanut giant Olam is challenging Muddy Waters’ allegations of fraud and taking its founder to court.

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Pakistan militants kill 41 in mass execution, attack on Shi’ites

PESHWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani militants, who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, killed at least 41 people in two separate incidents, officials said on Sunday, challenging assertions that military offensives have broken the back of hardline Islamist groups.

The United States has long pressured nuclear-armed ally Pakistan to crack down harder on both homegrown militants groups such as the Taliban and others which are based on its soil and attack Western forces in Afghanistan.

In the north, 21 men working for a government-backed paramilitary force were executed overnight after they were kidnapped last week, a provincial official said.

Twenty Shi’ite pilgrims died and 24 were wounded, meanwhile, when a car bomb targeted their bus convoy as it headed toward the Iranian border in the southwest, a doctor said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has noted more than 320 Shias killed this year in Pakistan and said attacks were on the rise. It said the government’s failure to catch or prosecute attackers suggested it was “indifferent” to the killings.

Pakistan, seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize the region before NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, denies allegations that it supports militant groups like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.

Afghan officials say Pakistan seems more genuine than ever about promoting peace in Afghanistan.

At home, it faces a variety of highly lethal militant groups that carry out suicide bombings, attack police and military facilities and launch sectarian attacks like the one on the bus in the southwest.

Witnesses said a blast targeted their three buses as they were overtaking a car about 60 km (35 miles) west of Quetta, capital of sparsely populated Baluchistan province.

“The bus next to us caught on fire immediately,” said pilgrim Hussein Ali, 60. “We tried to save our companions, but were driven back by the intensity of the heat.”

Twenty people had been killed and 24 wounded, said an official at Mastung district hospital.

CONCERN OVER EXTREMIST SUNNI GROUPS

International attention has focused on al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.

But Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist Sunni groups, lead by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are emerging as a major destabilizing force in a campaign designed to topple the government.

Their strategy now, the officials say, is to carry out attacks on Shi’ites to create the kind of sectarian tensions that pushed countries like Iraq to the brink of civil war.

As elections scheduled for next year approach, Pakistanis will be asking what sort of progress their leaders have made in the fight against militancy and a host of other issues, such as poverty, official corruption and chronic power cuts.

Pakistan’s Taliban have carried out a series of recent bold attacks, as military officials point to what they say is a power struggle in the group’s leadership revolving around whether it should ease attacks on the Pakistani state and join groups fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denies a rift exists among its leaders.

In the attack in the northwest, officials said they had found the bodies of 21 men kidnapped from their checkpoints outside the provincial capital of Peshawar on Thursday. The men were executed one by one.

“They were tied up and blindfolded,” Naveed Anwar, a senior administration official, said by telephone.

“They were lined up and shot in the head,” said Habibullah Arif, another local official, also by telephone.

One man was shot and seriously wounded but survived, the officials said. He was in critical condition and being treated at a local hospital. Another had escaped before the shootings.

Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attacks.

“We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn’t make any demand for their release because we don’t spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting,” he said.

The powerful military has clawed back territory from the Taliban, but the kidnap and executions underline the insurgents’ ability to mount high-profile, deadly attacks in major cities.

This month, suicide bombers attacked Peshawar’s airport on December 15 and a bomb killed a senior Pashtun nationalist politician and eight other people at a rally on December 22.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in DERA ISMAIL KHAN and Gul Yousufzai in QUETTA; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Michael Georgy and Ron Popeski)

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Purported photo of new BlackBerry phone with QWERTY keyboard leaks

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Actress Katie Holmes’ Broadway show to close

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actress Katie Holmes‘ return to Broadway has been cut short, with producers announcing that the play “Dead Accounts” in which she co-stars will close on January 6, nearly two months early.

Holmes, the ex-wife of actor Tom Cruise, played Lorna, a wan, beaten-down woman living with her parents in the five-character play by Theresa Rebeck which opened on November 29 to mostly negative reviews.

No reason was given for the play’s early closing, but media reports said it was earning only a fraction of its box office potential.

Many reviewers said Holmes acquitted herself alongside a roster of Broadway veterans, who included Tony-winning actor Norbert Leo Butz as the brother who returns to his Midwestern family and unleashes havoc in the comedy.

The New York Daily News said “she throws herself gamely into her second Broadway show … (but) Holmes’ efforts add up to zilch.”

Most critics laid blame on an undeveloped, sketchy play by the author of last season’s better-received “Seminar.”

Holmes, 34, reached a high-profile divorce settlement with Cruise last summer. She lives in New York with her young daughter, Suri. Holmes will co-star in an upcoming film which will be a modernization of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” along with Allison Janney and William Hurt.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Vicki Allen)

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Tumor boards may add little to VA cancer care

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Getting doctors together to discuss the best treatments for cancer patients in U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals was only linked to a minor improvement in care in a large new study.

Analyzing the records of 138 VA medical centers, researchers found that the presence of a so-called tumor board – a group of cancer treatment experts – only affected seven out of 27 measures of quality and processes in patient care, and not always for the better.

“This does not support the hypothesis that tumor boards are doing a lot to improve care,” said Dr. Nancy Keating from Boston’s Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the study’s senior author.

Tumor boards are a standard part of medical care in the U.S. and are generally made up of several different types of doctors, including surgeons and radiation oncologists, who review patients’ cases and make recommendations for their treatment.

The study’s authors write in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that previous research found hospitals dedicate about 50 hours per month of their doctors’ time to participation in tumor boards.

“It is interesting that despite the fact that tumor boards seem like a good thing and they are so well established, there is so little literature on them,” said Keating.

She and her colleagues wanted to know whether tumor boards actually made a difference.

To do that, they linked together information and records from the VA’s 138 medical centers on cancer patients treated between 2001 and 2004.

The team found that 75 percent of the medical centers had at least one tumor board that discussed most of the conditions the researchers were interested in: colorectal, lung, prostate, breast and blood cancers.

Then, using established national guidelines, the researchers developed a list of 27 markers for the quality and type of care patients received.

For example, the researchers checked whether patients with stage II or III rectal cancer got the recommended dose of chemotherapy and radiation before surgery to remove the cancer.

Overall, the researchers found the presence of a tumor board was only linked with differences in seven of the 27 markers.

“And some of those seven were actually a situation where the tumor board was associated with worse care,” Keating said.

In addition, recommended care for specific types of malignancies, such as blood cell cancers, was more often seen in centers with no tumor board (56 percent) or only a general tumor board (61 percent) than in centers with tumor boards specializing in blood cancers (39 percent).

“This is a little bit off-putting because it challenges the conventional wisdom that tumor boards are a good thing,” said Dr. Douglas Blayney, a professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine in California.

“I think the main issue that remains to be answered: Did the recommendations of the tumor boards actually get carried out?” added Blayney, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

“We think patients benefit from having their cases reviewed at the outset, but we leave it to the medical system to get acted upon,” he said.

Keating said researchers need to do a “deep dive” into tumor boards to find out more. She said they still need to know how the tumor boards are structured, and what types of cases are discussed.

Until then, “I do think that people and centers who are investing time and energy in their tumor boards should really think about how they are structured, and if they’re set up in a way to improve patient care,” she said.

Blayney told Reuters Health that he doesn’t think hospitals should scrap their tumor boards based on these findings, because there are new possibilities with new technology.

“The promise of telemedicine technology makes extra use of academic centers available to patients who may live in rural locations and doctors who are remote from the academic centers,” he said.

For example, the rural doctors of a woman with breast cancer can conference with a tumor board that specializes in breast cancer at a large, urban academic center.

“Again it’s tapping into the knowledge and experience of a broad range of physicians,” Blayney said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/UckC33 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, online December 28, 2012.

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Employed ‘to reach 30 million’

28 December 2012 Last updated at 04:07 ET

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says employment should grow to a record high by 2015.

Its study says the number of people employed should grow throughout 2013 to reach 30 million two years later.

The CIPD says that the reasons for jobs growth throughout a period of flat economic growth remain obscure.

It says underemployment – people taking part-time jobs who would like full-time work – has not grown significantly and does not explain this jobs growth.

A report earlier this month from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that the number of people in work would be unchanged between the last quarter of this year and that of next year.

Insecurity

A separate report out on Friday, compiled by the CIPD’s former chief economist, John Philpott, predicted a year of “slog” for those in work.

Dr Philpott, who heads the Jobs Economist consultancy, said workers could expect longer hours, static pay and limited jobs creation next year.

He says job insecurity will remain high and unemployment will rise to 2.63 million, because the size of the workforce will outstrip the number of jobs being created.

However, he expects the number of young people unemployed will fall below 900,000, moving away from the one million level it threatened to breach through 2012.

Continue reading the main story

The jobs enigma, of strong growth in private sector employment in the absence of sustained economic growth, has been one of the most mystifying economic features of 2012”

End Quote Mark Beatson CIPD

Dr Philpott said: “Our jobs outlook for 2013 is relatively optimistic in that we expect only a modest rise in unemployment. However, the fact that this can be considered good news merely underlines the harsh reality of current economic austerity.

“GDP may grow somewhat faster but 2013 will be another year of hard slog, with longer hours for those lucky enough to have jobs and a further squeeze on living standards for workers and the jobless alike.”

‘Mystifying’

Mark Beatson, chief economist at the CIPD, said the labour market was currently difficult to understand: “The jobs enigma, of strong growth in private sector employment in the absence of sustained economic growth, has been one of the most mystifying economic features of 2012, and if 2012 proved an enigma, the labour market appears equally difficult to pin down for 2013.”

He added that the underemployment explanation was not adequate: “While there are undoubtedly significant numbers of people working fewer hours than they would like… the numbers have not increased significantly this year, making it a poor explanation on its own for the 2012 jobs enigma.”

The most recent official employment figures showed the number of people out of work fell by 82,000 between August and October, to 2.51 million.

They also recorded a 40,000 rise in employment to 29.6 million, which was the highest figure since records began in 1971.

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2 arrested after Guinea treasury chief killed

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Officials in the West African nation of Guinea say they’ve arrested two suspects in the case of the killing of the country’s treasury chief, who was shot to death nearly two months ago.

Authorities paraded the pair in front of journalists Friday. Aissatou Boiro was killed as she was driving home. She had launched an investigation into the loss of 13 million francs ($ 1.8 million) which went missing from the state coffers.

The government says the suspects were found with Boiro‘s computer memory stick and mobile telephone.

The men denied any involvement in her slaying and said a friend had given them the items.

Boiro’s colleagues say she had zero tolerance for corruption and was intent on putting an end to the mismanagement of state funds.

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