LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Spike Video Game Awards are assembling past hosts.
The cable network announced Thursday that the gaming extravaganza’s previous emcees would join “The Avengers” star and four-time VGAs host Samuel L. Jackson at next week’s show.
Previous hosts Zachary Levi, Snoop Lion, Jack Black and Neil Patrick Harris are set to appear at the 10th annual ceremony.
The show will also feature debut footage from upcoming games “BioShock Infinite,” ”Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2″ and “Tomb Raider,” and from downloadable content “Spartan Ops” for “Halo 4″ and “The Tyranny of King Washington” for “Assassin’s Creed III.”
“Assassin’s Creed III,” ”Dishonored,” ”Journey,” ”Mass Effect 3″ and “The Walking Dead: The Game” are vying for the best game trophy.
The VGAs will air live on Spike on Dec. 7 from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, Calif.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Robert Zemeckis has been named Director of the Year by the Palm Springs International Film Festival, making the “Flight” director the latest awards hopeful to be honored by one of the two big January film festivals that double as campaign stops on the awards circuit.
The announcement by Palm Springs organizers came one day after the Santa Barbara Film Festival declared “Silver Linings Playbook” star Jennifer Lawrence the Outstanding Performer of the Year.
Palm Springs holds its awards gala on the first Saturday of the new year, which this year falls on January 5, two days after Oscar polls close. Santa Barbara spreads out its awards over a two-week period in late January, after Oscar nominations are announced but before final voting begins.
Both festivals jockey to assemble lineups of probable Oscar nominees, and both are lobbied by Oscar campaigners as they make their selections. The two festivals try to stagger their announcements so as not to compete with each other.
Besides Zemeckis’ award, Palm Springs has announced that it will honor Naomi Watts with the Desert Palm Achievement Award for Acting and Helen Hunt with the Spotlight Award.
In addition to Lawrence, Santa Barbara will give its Modern Master Award to Ben Affleck. Robert De Niro will receive the festival’s Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, an honor that is presented at a separate black-tie event in December rather than during the festival.
Despite these misgivings, it’s hard not to cheer for a doll company that goes out of its way to represent girls from all walks of life and every circumstance. The new Special Sparkle section in its holiday catalog includes a miniature service dog in harness, a hearing aid and an allergy-free lunch kit.
“We have a long history of speaking to diversity and making girls feel good about themselves, and this is just another way we are expanding on the idea,” said American Girl Doll spokeswoman Julie Parks.
Whereas many dolls from high-end companies resemble a stereotypical beauty unattainable for most little girls, American Girl has always seemed to strive for all-inclusiveness. The dolls come in a vast selection of skin tones, hair color and eye color, which can be mixed and matched so the doll resembles its owner. Now they can also be fitted with glasses, braces for the teeth, crutches or a wheel chair, and the company recently began to offer dolls without hair to represent those who have lost hair to cancer.
American Girl books and movies also do a good job of highlighting problems girls are likely to encounter in life. This year’s “Doll of the Year” McKenna is a talented gymnast who struggles with injuries and a learning disability. In the book and movie about her experiences, Jesse, her brainy friend and tutor, is confined to a wheel chair.
Dr. Ari Brown, a developmental pediatrician in Austin, Texas, applauds American Girl’s mission of highlighting differences and a message of acceptance.
”I think it’s great American Girl tries to have dolls that have the same hodgepodge of traits and features you actually see in kids,” Brown said.
Brown said she also believes playing with a doll that uses a hearing aid, requires a special diet or depends on a service dog can be an enriching experience for all girls, even if they themselves don’t have special needs.
“It can help kids learn to be more accepting of others who are different from them,” she said.
Perhaps because acceptance for all is part of American Girl’s mission, it has been more successful than other toy makers that have attempted to make dolls with disabilities. Barbie’s wheelchair-bound friend, Share a Smile Becky, is a notable example. Even consumers who overlooked the condescending name couldn’t forgive the fact that Becky’s chair didn’t fit into the Barbie Dream House elevator.
Girl Power aside, all this diversity might have a limited reach. The price tag for a doll is $ 105, and from there the cash register never seems to stop ringing. The wheel chair costs $ 38, the hearing aid $ 9 and the allergy-free lunch bag $ 28. Let’s not even mention the hair styling, ear piercing and tea parties.
Yet in spite of the steep cost of ownership, Parks said feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for the dolls in general and the new disability accessories in particular.
“Parents realize they are investing in something that builds strong character and helps every girl reach their full potential, no matter who they are or what they look like,” she said. “It’s all about engaging them in positive experiences and helping them fit in.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock futures rose on Thursday, building on the previous session’s steep gains, on expectations of progress toward a fiscal agreement in Washington that would avert an economic meltdown.
Market participants will continue to focus on discussions in Congress to avoid big spending cuts and tax hikes – dubbed the “fiscal cliff” – and equities may retreat, as they did Tuesday, if the upbeat negotiation environment in Washington shifts.
“There will be a deal before December 31 to avert the economy facing disaster,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
“We’re back on track for a year-end rally to continue,” he said, highlighting the continued support the Federal Reserve has given to equity markets.
Investors await data, including the second estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 2.8 percent annualized pace of growth, compared with a 2.0 percent rate in the first estimate.
The Commerce Department will issue preliminary corporate profits for the third quarter at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT). At the same time, the Labor Department will release first-time claims for jobless benefits; 390,000 new filings are forecast, compared with 410,000 in the prior week.
The yield on Italy’s 10-year bonds fell to the lowest in two years at an auction, amid relief that immediate risks over Greece had diminished.
“The fact that the bond sales in Europe went well suggest confidence is beginning to reenter some of the peripheral nations and that is a good sign,” Cardillo said.
The euro flirted with the $ 1.30 level and boosted commodity prices, which could lift the basic materials and energy stock sectors.
S&P 500 futures rose 9 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 78 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 17.5 points.
Also due for release Thursday are pending home sales for October at 10:00 a.m. (1500 GMT) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City November manufacturing survey at 11:00 a.m.
Tiffany shares fell 9 percent to $ 58.02 in premarket trading after the upscale jeweler reported quarterly results and lowered its full-year sales and profit forecasts.
U.S.-listed shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion soared 11.7 percent to $ 12.40 in premarket trading after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral.”
Kroger , the biggest U.S. supermarket operator, is due to report third-quarter earnings.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 106.98 points, or 0.83 percent, to 12,985.11. The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 10.99 points, or 0.79 percent, to 1,409.93. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 23.99 points, or 0.81 percent, to close at 2,991.78.
HAVANA (AP) — A prominent New York rabbi and physician visited an American subcontractor serving a long jail term in Cuba and said the man is in good health, despite his family’s concerns about a growth on his right shoulder.
Rabbi Elie Abadie, who is also a gastroenterologist, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview following Tuesday’s 2 1/2-hour visit at a military hospital in Havana that he personally examined Alan Gross and received a lengthy briefing from a team of Cuban physicians who have attended him.
He said the 1 1/2-inch growth on Gross’s shoulder appeared to be a non-cancerous hematoma that should clear up by itself.
“Alan Gross does not have any cancerous growth at this time, at least based on the studies I was shown and based on the examination, and I think he understands that also,” Abadie said.
Abadie said the hematoma, basically internal bleeding linked to the rupture of muscle fiber, was likely caused by exercise Gross does in jail. He said the growth ought to eventually disappear on its own.
Gross’s plight has put already chilly relations between Cuba and the United States in a deep freeze. The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID-funded democracy building program and later sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against the state.
He claims he was only trying to help the island’s small Jewish community gain Internet access.
Gross’s health has been an ongoing issue during his incarceration. The 63-year-old, who was obese when arrested, has lost more than 100 pounds while in jail.
Abadie, a rabbi at New York’s Edmund J. Safra Synagogue, said Gross’s weight is appropriate for a man his age and height.
Photos that Abadie and a colleague provided to AP of Tuesday’s meeting with Gross showed him looking thin, but generally appearing to be in good spirits.
In one photo, Gross holds up a handwritten note that says “Hi Mom.”
“He definitely feels strong. He is in good spirits. He feels fit, to quote him, physically. But of course, like any other person who is incarcerated or in prison, he wants to be free. He wants to be able to go back home,” Abadie said.
Gross’s family has repeatedly appealed for his release on humanitarian grounds, noting his health problems and the fact that his adult daughter and elderly mother have both been battling cancer.
Jared Genser, counsel to Alan Gross, said late Tuesday that Rabbi Abadie is not Gross’s physician and he would like an oncologist of his choosing to evaluate him.
“While we are grateful Rabbi Abadie was able to see Alan, we have asked an oncologist to review the test results to determine if they are sufficient to rule out cancer. More importantly, if Alan is so healthy, we cannot understand why the Cuban government has repeatedly denied him an independent medical examination by a doctor of his choosing as is required by international law,” said Genser.
Gross and his wife recently filed a $ 60 million lawsuit against his former Maryland employer and the U.S. government, saying they didn’t adequately train him or disclose risks he was undertaking by doing development work on the Communist-run island.
They filed another lawsuit against an insurance company they say has reneged on commitments to pay compensation in case of his wrongful detention.
Separately, a lawyer for Gross has written the United Nations’ anti-torture expert, saying Cuban officials’ treatment of his client “will surely amount to torture” if he continues to be denied medical care.
Rumors have been swirling in U.S. media that Cuba might soon release Gross as a gesture of good will or in the hopes of winning concessions from the administration of President Barack Obama, but Abadie said that those reports appeared to be false.
“As far as I know there is no truth to it,” he said.
Abadie said he met with senior Cuban officials who expressed their desire to resolve the case “as quickly as possible,” but would not say specifically who he spoke with or what they offered.
“They claim that they are more than willing to sit at the table,” he said.
Cuban officials have strongly implied they hope to trade Gross for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States, one of whom is already free on bail.
Abadie said Gross made clear that he does not want his case linked to that of the agents, known in Cuba as “The Five Heroes,” because he does not believe he is guilty of espionage.
But Abadie said Gross is hoping for a “constructive and productive” dialogue between U.S. and Cuban officials to resolve his case.
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Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven.
(Reuters) – Google‘s biggest advertiser is neither a bank nor a retailer.
It’s the for-profit University of Phoenix, which has recently been spending nearly $ 400,000 a day on ads, more than any financial firm or retailer, the traditional big spenders on online advertising, according to search analytics firm SpyFu.
That kind of spending may seem surprising coming from a college, but marketing has become vital for the university and its for-profit rivals as enrollments plummet and they fight back against a host of criticisms, including low job-placement rates.
Colleges such as University of Phoenix, the industry leader owned by Apollo Group Inc, will not only have to boost enrollments to reverse their fortunes, analysts say. They will also need to consider cutting tuition fees as well as continue to slash costs and take market share from rivals.
“I have witnessed several versions of this cycle but none as extreme as this,” said Trace Urdan, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, who has been covering the U.S. for-profit education industry for about 15 years.
“We are going to see more pointed efforts at marketing and more price competition in an effort to try to capture more market share both from each other as well as from traditional schools,” Urdan said.
Operators of other for-profit colleges, whose ranks include the Washington Post Co’s Kaplan business, DeVry Inc and ITT Educational Services Inc, are also boosting their spending on marketing and are among the 25 biggest advertisers on Google.
But no one is spending like the University of Phoenix, which doubled its spending on Google ads to about $ 380,000 per day on average between October 12 and November 12, compared with $ 170,000 a day in the previous month, according to SpyFu.
Increased marketing alone will not be enough to fatten fast-shrinking profit margins and increase enrollments, however. Lower tuition fees and increased specialization of the type of programs offered, along with further streamlining of operations, will also be necessary, analysts say.
Industry bellwether University of Phoenix, which offers courses at about 230 campuses as well as online, announced plans last month to shut about half its locations and cut 800 jobs in order to save about $ 300 million a year by 2014.
New enrollments in the Apollo system are down nearly 50 percent in the past two years. As of August 31, enrollment totaled about 328,000.
Career Education Corp, which owns American InterContinental University and the Le Cordon Bleu colleges, and Lincoln Educational Services Corp have also announced closures.
LOW-COST MODEL
The $ 25 billion industry, which typically serves adults looking for a career change or a program to enhance job skills, is reeling after government investigations revealed fraud related to financial aid, worryingly high student debt loads and low rates of graduation and job placement.
“Many for-profit colleges make decisions that prioritize their bottom line, even when those decisions limit their students’ opportunities for academic success,” a U.S. Senate report said earlier this year.
Tuition fees, and therefore profits, is one area under pressure as potential students need to be convinced to take out loans in an uncertain job market.
Apollo, whose stock has lost about 65 percent of its value this year, implemented a tuition freeze earlier this year and promised students it will not increase prices through the course of their programs.
Apollo is also looking at different cost models, with a view to serving segments of the population that it cannot serve with current University of Phoenix tuition prices.
“We have certainly seen a lot more competition at the lower end of the price scale, and that’s something we are focusing on,” Apollo spokesman Mark Brennar said, while declining to offer specifics.
Wells Fargo’s Urdan said it is likely that Apollo wants to compete in the low-cost end of the market by building a second brand, which it would likely do by acquiring another college rather than starting from scratch.
As colleges lower their revenue base by cutting tuition fees even as they spend more on marketing, lower margins could become the norm, analysts say. That has spooked investors already worried about sliding enrollments.
The S&P 1500 Education Services index has lost three-quarters of its value since April 2010, including a 50 percent decline in 2012.
Some for-profit colleges already differentiate themselves in the crowded higher-education market by offering programs in a particular field or by targeting students of a particular background, and that trend could accelerate.
American Public Education, for example, is known for enrolling those who work in the military and public services, while Universal Technical Institute offers programs related to the automotive industry.
For-profit colleges play up their links to employers to attract students who may otherwise opt for traditional or community colleges, said Rob Lytle, head of the education practice at advisory firm Parthenon Group.
“They are about getting people workforce employability skills, and I think they are going to be focusing tighter on that,” said Lytle.
(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Ted Kerr)
NEW YORK (AP) — An upcoming auction of over 300 historical documents includes rare letters written by Vincent van Gogh, George Washington, John Lennon and other iconic figures.
The property of an anonymous American collector is being offered by Profiles in History in an online and phone auction on Dec. 18.
Among the highlights is a two-page letter from Washington to an Anglican clergyman.
Another top item is a signed van Gogh letter, written in 1890, to Joseph and Marie Ginoux, who were proprietors of the Cafe de la Gare in Arles, France, where the Dutch post-impressionist artist lived for a time.
Each of those letters is estimated to bring $ 200,000 to $ 300,000.
A handwritten letter from John Lennon to Eric Clapton has a pre-sale estimate of $ 20,000 to $ 30,000.
The collection will be exhibited Dec. 3-9 at Douglas Elliman’s Madison Avenue art gallery.
Washington‘s letter was written on Aug. 15, 1798, to the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, amid an undeclared naval war with France. Washington thanks Boucher for sending him his “View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution,” a book of 13 discourses Boucher preached.
“Peace, with all the world is my sincere wish, I am sure it is our true policy — and am persuaded it is the ardent desire of the Government,” the former president and Founding Father wrote.
In a Jan. 20, 1890, four-page letter, handwritten in French to his friends Monsieur and Madame Ginoux, van Gogh wishes the ailing proprietress a speedy recovery.
“Illnesses are there to make us remember again that we are not made of wood,” the artist wrote. “That’s what seems the good side of all this to me. Then afterwards one goes back to one’s everyday work less fearful of the annoyances, with a new store of serenity.” Van Gogh died less than seven months later.
He suffered from acute anxiety and bouts of depression throughout his life. Madame Ginoux and the cafe were frequent subjects of his work.
The eight-page letter from Lennon is a draft he wrote to Clapton on Sept. 29, 1971, and signed “John and Yoko.” The whereabouts of the final version is unknown.
Lennon writes candidly about his admiration for the great British guitarist and suggests forming a “‘nucleus’ group (Plastic Ono Band) . — and of course had YOU!!! In mind as soon as we decided.” He writes that drummer Jim Kelnter, artist Klaus Voormann, pianist Nicky Hopkins and producer Phil Spector “all agreed so far” to join.
“Anyway, the point is, after missing the Bangla-Desh concert, we began to feel more and more like going on the road, but not the way I used with the Beatles — night after night of torture. We mean to enjoy ourselves, take it easy, and maybe even see some of the places we go to! We have many ‘revolutionary’ ideas for presenting shows that completely involve the audience .”
Other luminaries whose papers will be sold include Lou Gehrig, Louis Pasteur, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Giuseppe Verdi, Peter Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, King Henry II and Napoleon I.
The December auction is the first of several sales that will be held over two years. The entire collection contains 3,000 items.
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Online:
Information on how to bid is available on www.profilesinhistory.com.
Penny Cook has asked her part-time employer for more hours but has been refused
One in 10 of all workers in the UK is now officially underemployed, according to a study from the Office For National Statistics (ONS).
It says 3.05 million workers want to work more hours each week, out of a total workforce of 29.41 million.
The number of workers in this position has shot up by 980,000 in the four years since the start of the economic recession in 2008.
Most of the underemployment is concentrated among part-time workers.
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This problem of underemployment seems to particularly affect the poorer parts of society”
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The main reason for the growth of underemployment has been the economic downturn of the past few years.
“During this period many workers moved from full-time to part-time roles and many of those returning to work after a period of unemployment could only find part-time jobs,” the statistical office said.
“Of the extra one million underemployed workers in 2012 compared with 2008, three-quarters were in part-time posts.”
The ONS said 1.9 million of the underemployed were in part-time jobs and this meant, in turn, that 24% of all part-timers wanted more work.
By contrast, only 5.5% of full-time staff said they wanted to work more hours.
Each quarter, as part of its Labour Force Survey (LFS), the ONS asks respondents a series of questions about their willingness and ability to work more hours.
Someone is counted as underemployed if they are working fewer hours than they would like.
Continue reading the main story
The growth of underemployment has gone alongside a big fall in the real value of earnings, the ONS said, which have been outstripped by inflation in recent years.
Jane Tomlinson, a part-time worker from Oxford, told the BBC what it had been like to be underemployed for the past year.
“I work only 15 hours a week paid work for a charity as communications manager,” she said.
“I don’t actually want a full-time job, but I need more than 15 hours a week, so I pick up a bit of copywriting work here and there as I can find it.
“But month to month it’s really tough as I make only just enough to pay the bills. Thank goodness my husband has a job,” she added.
‘Half-time salaries’
Caroline Parre, an academic from Birmingham, said for the past three years the recession had prevented her hours being extended.
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“Start Quote
With part-timers we can contract and expand our workforce relative to increases and decreases in orders received,”
End QuoteColin JohnsonAn employer from Lincoln
“Recruited to set up a research centre, the expectation had always been the part-time job would convert into full-time employment. The recession has changed that hope,” she said.
“There is danger in the situation: to enable the success of the venture I have, voluntarily, worked full-time hours on a part-time salary, in the hope and belief that efforts would be rewarded.
“Efforts, of course, are not rewarded, and employers find themselves in the happy position of paying full time workers half-time salaries,” she pointed out.
But a spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the figures showed that three quarters of all part-time staff appeared to be content.
“Part-time working suits millions of people and gives others the skills and experience to find a different job or take advantage of longer hours when they are available,” she said.
“For many people it is an important step to full-time work and coming off benefits.”
This was backed up by Colin Johnson, who runs a mail order company in Lincoln and who told the BBC his staff were happy to work part-time.
“All of my employees are technically part-time. Some are working mums who work around schooling,” he said.
“With part-timers we can contract and expand our workforce relative to increases and decreases in orders received, and we can dovetail staff to deal with peaks on the phone.
“Prior to this way of working we would have out-sourced, so these are new jobs,” he added.
Self-employed
The ONS explained that most of the rise in underemployment took place between 2008 and 2009, when the recession first gripped the UK economy.
ONS statistician Jamie Jenkins: “Underemployment has gone up by one million people since the economic crisis”
Since then it has still been rising, though more slowly then before.
According to the ONS analysis, the problem is worst among the lowest paid, young workers and those in low-skilled jobs, such as labourers, cleaners and catering staff.
The shortage of work has also led to a big rise in the level of underemployment reported by the self-employed.
They are now even more likely to report being underemployed than those who work for others.
However the precise reasons for individuals being underemployed can vary.
The ONS said these reasons could include:
employers only being able to offer a few hours of work each week
workers, such as bar staff, being in jobs where they are only required for a few hours a day
personal circumstances changing so that someone now wants to work more hours then before
people settling for a part-time job as second-best when they would much rather have a full-time one
Labour market economist John Philpott said: “Approaching one in five economically active people are struggling in today’s ‘no or not enough work’ economy.
“Add in the effect of falling real take-home pay for the vast majority of people in work and it becomes clear how much distress is being suffered.”
The TUC’s general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “Being underemployed carries a huge pay penalty that puts a real strain on people’s finances.
“Long periods of underemployment can cause longer term career damage, which is particularly worrying for the one in five young people currently trapped in it.”
CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — A 20-year-old state beauty queen died in a gun battle between soldiers and the alleged gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with in a scene befitting the hit movie “Miss Bala,” or “Miss Bullet,” about Mexico’s not uncommon ties between narcos and beautiful pageant contestants.
The body of Maria Susana Flores Gamez was found Saturday lying near an assault rifle on a rural road in a mountainous area of the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, the chief state prosecutor said Monday. It was unclear if she had used the weapon.
“She was with the gang of criminals, but we cannot say whether she participated in the shootout,” state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera said. “That’s what we’re going to have to investigate.”
The slender, 5-foot-7-inch brunette was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February. In June, the model competed with other seven contestants for the more prestigious state beauty contest, Our Beauty Sinaloa, but didn’t win. The Our Beauty state winners compete for the Miss Mexico title, whose holder represents the country in the international Miss Universe.
Higuera said Flores Gamez was traveling in one of the vehicles that engaged soldiers in an hours-long chase and running gun battle on Saturday near her native city of Guamuchil in the state of Sinaloa, home to Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel. Higuera said two other members of the drug gang were killed and four were detained.
The shootout began when the gunmen opened fire on a Mexican army patrol. Soldiers gave chase and cornered the gang at a safe house in the town of Mocorito. The other men escaped, and the gunbattle continued along a nearby roadway, where the gang’s vehicles were eventually stopped. Six vehicles, drugs and weapons were seized following the confrontation.
It was at least the third instance in which a beauty queen or pageant contestants have been linked to Mexico’s violent drug gangs, a theme so common it was the subject of a critically acclaimed 2011 movie.
In “Miss Bala,” Mexico’s official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of this year’s Academy Awards, a young woman competing for Miss Baja California becomes an unwilling participant in a drug-running ring, finally getting arrested for deeds she was forced into performing.
In real life, former Miss Sinaloa Laura Zuniga was stripped of her 2008 crown in the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant after she was detained on suspicion of drug and weapons violations. She was later released without charges.
Zuniga was detained in western Mexico in late 2010 along with seven men, some of them suspected drug traffickers. Authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and $ 53,300 with them inside a vehicle.
In 2011, a Colombian former model and pageant contestant was detained along with Jose Jorge Balderas, an accused drug trafficker and suspect in the 2010 bar shooting of Salvador Cabanas, a former star for Paraguay‘s national football team and Mexico’s Club America. She was also later released.
Higuera said Flores Gamez’s body has been turned over to relatives for burial.
“This is a sad situation,” Higuera told a local radio station. She had been enrolled in media courses at a local university, and had been modeling and in pageants since at least 2009.
Javier Valdez, the author of a 2009 book about narco ties to beauty pageants entitled “Miss Narco,” said “this is a recurrent story.”
“There is a relationship, sometimes pleasant and sometimes tragic, between organized crime and the beauty queens, the pageants, the beauty industry itself,” Valdez said.
“It is a question of privilege, power, money, but also a question of need,” said Valdez. “For a lot of these young women, it is easy to get involved with organized crime, in a country that doesn’t offer many opportunities for young people.”
Sometimes drug traffickers seek out beauty queens, but sometimes the models themselves look for narco boyfriends, Valdez said.
“I once wrote about a girl I knew of who was desperate to get a narco boyfriend,” he said. “She practically took out a classified ad saying ‘Looking for a Narco’.”
The stories seldom end well. In the best of cases, a beautiful woman with a tear-stained face is marched before the press in handcuffs. In the worst of cases, they simply disappear.
“They are disposable objects, the lowest link in the chain of criminal organizations, the young men recruited as gunmen and the pretty young women who are tossed away in two or three years, or are turned into police or killed,” Valdez said.
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Associated Press Writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report
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)
