Katherine McPhee Kisses Michael Morris, Smash Director Kicked Out by Wife Mary McCormack: Report

Mary McCormack apparently didn't appreciate what she saw "in plain sight." Married to Smash director Michael Morris for ten years, the actress, 45, allegedly threw Morris out of their Los Angeles home late Sunday -- shortly before photos emerged of Morris making out with his former series star Katharine McPhee in a parking lot, Page Six reports.

PHOTOS: Remember these cheating scandals?

The In Plain Sight star shares three young kids with Morris, and reportedly ejected him from their house after Morris informed her that the incriminating photos were set to go online. Page Six also claims that Morris attempted to buy the makeout snapshots himself to avoid the scandal.

PHOTOS: Couples who hooked up on set

McPhee herself is also taken: The 29-year-old American Idol runner-up wed producer Nick Cokas, 47, back in 2008.  The paper claims that she and Cokas have been amicably separated.

PHOTOS: Coupels with huge age differences

Reps for all parties involved did not return requests for comment. NBC's Smash was canceled last spring after two lowly rated seasons. McCormack's latest series, NBC's Welcome to the Family, was canceled earlier this month after just three weeks on the air.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/katherine-mcphee-kisses-michael-morris-smash-director-kicked-out-by-wife-mary-mccormack-report-20132410
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Cambodian opposition rally's last day draws 20,000

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — About 20,000 Cambodian opposition supporters on Friday wrapped up a three-day demonstration to petition foreign embassies and the U.N. for intervention in what they claim was a rigged election.

While the international community is very unlikely to intervene in Cambodia's domestic affairs, the rallies served to highlight the opposition's demand for an independent probe into the July 28 poll, which it says returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power illegitimately.

Throngs of cheering demonstrators marched through the capital this week as they delivered petitions to the French, British, U.S., Australian, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese embassies and to the U.N. human rights office. The rallies ended peacefully.

Official election results extended Hun Sen's 28-year rule and gave his party 68 seats in parliament, compared to 55 for the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party. The party says it was cheated out of a victory and that it will boycott parliament until the government has met its demands.

According to the petition — which the opposition says was thumb printed by 2 million people — the Cambodian government's failure to investigate election irregularities and its inauguration of the National Assembly without the opposition "take Cambodia back to a one-party system of governance."

The three-day demonstration coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia, which laid the groundwork for U.N.-sponsored elections after the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war that followed. The countries that received opposition petitions were all signatories to the 1991 Accords.

The government denies election fraud, and has rejected opposition demands for an independent investigation. It maintains that its inauguration of a new parliament in September was legitimate and has filled parliamentary commissions with ruling party members.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that intervention from abroad was "not going to happen." Moreover, he said, seeking outside help was counterproductive to building democracy from within Cambodia.

"By going abroad, you're actually re-confirming this attitude of we need to depend on the U.N. jumping out of the sky, out of a plane or whatever, to rescue us," he said.

The Australian embassy said in a statement Friday that it had received the petition and that its ambassador, Alison Burrows, "urged both parties to continue their dialogue including on electoral reform."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cambodian-opposition-rallys-last-day-draws-20-000-060931777.html
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More Than a Woman

Juliette Kayyem (above) is still running for Massachusetts governor, even though Martha Coakley has entered the race. That's a good thing.

Courtesy U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill

When Juliette Kayyem made it clear she was running for Massachusetts governor this summer, local and national women’s groups raced to support her. Kayyem had never run for any office before, but she was an expert in national security and terrorism who had worked in the Obama administration. Her inexperience could be an asset, her supporters figured, as she could appeal to a younger generation of voters. All was going well until mid-September when Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general who’d lost to Scott Brown in the 2010 Senate race, announced that she would also be entering the race for governor. 

“I just don't think there's room for another smart female in this race," Shannon O'Brien, a former state treasurer who lost the governor’s race to Mitt Romney in 2002, said on Boston Public Radio about Kayyem. Local political blogs also assumed that Kayyem would “defer” to Coakley. And Emily’s List, a fundraising group that supports pro-choice women candidates, shifted its support to Coakley within a few days of her entering the race, then gently encouraged Kayyem to get out of the running and lend her support to Coakley as well. (Kayyem would not confirm any communication. But a source from Emily’s List confirmed that there had been a call and described it as a “suggestion, not anything like a demand.”)

Often in politics there is an automatic, unspoken, assumption that only one woman can run at a time.  For example, stories about Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren that speculate about whether she will or won’t run for president, generally take it as a given that Warren can’t possibly enter the Democratic primary if Hillary Clinton decides to run. But why is this the automatic assumption? Warren is an utterly different kind of politician with a distinct biography and a passionate following. She and Clinton have even had substantive disagreements in the past about bank regulation, one of Warren’s central issues. Nobody ever told Howard Dean to get out of the race because John Kerry was running. What law dictates that there can be only one woman per major race at a time?

Hanna Rosin is the founder of DoubleX and a writer for the Atlantic. She is also the author of The End of Men. Follow her on Twitter.

This one-woman only instinct is left over from an age of tokenism, when the political imagination could only accommodate a single red suit in a sea of gray. But as more women get into politics, a lot of local primaries include more than one woman. The one woman strategy also assumes that all women candidates are fighting for the votes of women, so the prospect of having two of them adds up to a zero sum game for both. But as Christine Quinn’s failed run for New York mayor showed, this assumption is outdated. Women don’t necessarily vote for other women, especially not in heavily Democratic regions. They spread their votes fairly evenly among the candidates they like.

“I think the advocates for more gender balance are succeeding faster than they recognize, as there are just so many talented women now in the pipeline,” says John Walsh, who is leading Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s political operation. “I think it’s just time to adjust and say—while it’s not mission accomplished yet, not at all—the dynamic is such that gender competition should not be such a problem, and should be allowed to run it course.”

A recent study empirically disproves the idea that a political culture can only tolerate one woman candidate at a time. The study looks at the effects of one woman’s election on the elections of subsequent women (not women running against each other but women in different races). What it found was a “multiplier effect”—more women winning in state legislative offices, for example, breeds more women everywhere else, particularly in larger and more heavily Democratic states. While the study doesn’t specifically address two women running in the same race, it confirms something that should be obvious: Having more women visibly involved in politics gets us used to having more women in politics. (The second generation of the New Hampshire matriarchy is a perfect example of the multiplier effect in action).

In one important way Emily’s List decision to support one woman over another in certain races has had a beneficial effect. Sometimes the women they don’t support stay in the races anyway, and go on to distinguish themselves as something other than a typical “woman’s” candidate. Emily’s List tends to run fairly traditional but unthreatening feminist campaigns. Their campaign ads like this one, for Alison Grimes, who is running against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, tend to feature kids or grandmothers, domestic scenes and nods to feminist accomplishments. Even Wendy Davis, their star candidate at the moment, seems to have undergone a makeover, her hair blown out, and her smiling self surrounded by kids.

But not having the support of Emily’s List frees up a woman to run her own way. Kayyem, for instance, chose to disregard the suggestion that she “defer” to Coakley, and stay in the race. As a result she’s running a much less typically Emily’s List campaign. On her campaign page, for instance, she features almost no pictures with her family, although she is a married mother of three school age children. She doesn’t talk all that much about feminist issues such as abortion, figuring that in that state, most candidates who win are pro choice. She talks a lot about keeping the state safe from terrorist attacks and about the need for a generational shift in politics, all with a decidedly post-feminist attitude. “I am not running because I’m a woman,” she told me, “and I will surely lose if I think that’s why people should support me.” 

Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for Emily’s List, said the group in no way follows a one woman strategy but instead makes strategic decision in every race. In the Massachusetts governor’s race, for example, Coakley is well known and the obvious front-runner (although Kayyem raised more money in September, the last month for which figures were reported.) In a special election in Illinois involving three women, the group watched the race to make sure no serious male contender would emerge but otherwise stayed out of it. And in Hawaii, the group has alternately supported Colleen Hanabusa or Mazie Hirono over the years, depending on each woman’s prospects in that particular race. “It depends on each race,” says McIntosh. “Our goal is to get more women in office, so we support the woman who is the strongest and we get involved where our help can make a difference.” In future races, for example, the group might support Kayyem, she says.

Maybe the disconnect between what Emily’s List says they are doing and what they seem to be doing comes from outdated expectations. In the early days Emily’s List operated like a political sisterhood. A strong woman candidate was a rare breed, and the group might have been able to support most of them. But now, universal admission to the sisterhood is no longer possible. In another Massachusetts House race to fill Ed Markey’s old seat, for example, the group chose Katherine Clark over Karen Spilka, who was polling second in the primaries, leaving many in the Spilka camp annoyed that the group was effectively spending its money to keep one pro-choice woman out of the race at the expense of another. But like all interest groups, Emily’s List had to make a choice, right? So let them make their pragmatic decisions but leave the other female candidates alone. Let the candidate who isn’t chosen think of this as business as usual, and not be wounded or disappointed. Let the expectation of a political sisterhood die. And may the best woman win.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/10/why_do_we_insist_that_only_one_woman_can_run_for_office_at_any_given_time.html
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Best iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps to help you celebrate Halloween!

The best apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that are sure to get you and your family in the Halloween spirit

Halloween is right around the corner and that means candy, trick or treat, scary movies, and lots of other traditions. There are lots of apps available for both iPhone and iPad that focus on the Halloween season as well. From games to recipe apps to books you can share with your children, there's something for everyone. Here are our current favorite App Store apps to celebrate the Halloween season!

Plants vs Zombies

Every year around Halloween I always feel the urge to play through Plants vs Zombies on my iPad. Nothing says Halloween like zombies roaming around your front yard. This year you can play not only the original Plants vs Zombies, but Plants vs Zombies 2! I personally prefer the original game but for those that don't mind freemium models, both are awesome games and something the whole family is sure to enjoy.

• Plants vs Zombies, iPhone, $0.99 - Download Now
• Plants vs Zombies HD, iPad, $0.99 - Download Now
• Plants vs Zombies 2, Free - Download Now

LIMBO

LIMBO is not only a spooky game that's perfect for Halloween time, it's an amazing game with gorgeous graphics. If you like puzzle games, you'll love LIMBO since it's pretty much a series of physics based games bundled into one. What will really grab your attention more than anything is the amazing interface and how well LIMBO is designed. It may not be appropriate for young children but if you're looking for a spooky game for yourself, LIMBO is an excellent choice. LIMBO is a universal purchase for both iPhone and iPad.

• iOS, $4.99 - Download Now
• Mac, $9.99 - Download Now

Angry Birds Seasons

Angry Birds Seasons isn't just fun for Halloween, it's fun for every season. With specific level packs for pretty much any season you can imagine, Angry Birds Seasons is one that's sure to keep adults and kids alike entertained. New updates to seasons bring power packs and other interactive items too so if you haven't picked up an Angry Birds game in a while, now is a great time to check one out!

• iPhone, $0.99 - Download Now
• iPad, $2.99 - Download Now
• Mac, $4.99 - Download Now

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown is a fan favorite around lots of different holiday seasons and Halloween is no exception. It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a great story that many of us were read as children. Now you can get it directly on your iPhone and iPad. The best part is it's interactive. It's great for young children to read along with and explore on their own, or together with you.

• $2.99 - Download Now

Foodie Recipes

Part of the fun of Halloween is the candy and treats that come with it. The Foodie app updates regularly to feature recipes that are fun for every season and Halloween is no exception. Whether you're looking for fun recipes to do with the kids or drink recipes for an adult party, Foodie's got them all. Along with detailed instructions, each recipe is accompanied by beautiful images too. I've found Foodie to be a great resource for every season so it may just be something you want to keep on standby for the upcoming holiday season as well.

• Free - Download Now

Your favorite Halloween apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac?

These are our favorite apps and games to celebrate the Halloween season with our friends and family but we know you guys are just as good at digging up apps as we are. If you've found any extra spooky or fun apps that really show off the Halloween season, let us know what they are in the comments!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LwQOGzeGGIg/story01.htm
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The Arcade Fire Album Is Here To Hear

Arcade Fire just released its entire album Reflecktor on YouTube. And it's basically one, big 85-minute lyric video. The album is officially out October 29.

NPR Music will broadcast a special live performance by the band the night before the album release date, from Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, beginning at 10 p.m. ET.

Courtesy of the artist/YouTube

The Entire Arcade Fire album 'Reflektor' is here

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2013/10/24/240603837/the-arcade-fire-album-is-here-to-hear?ft=1&f=10001
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Jumia tries to vault Africa from street market to e-market

By Emma Thomasson

BERLIN (Reuters) - The online retailer Jumia, a would-be African Amazon, is betting that it can propel the continent's rising middle class consumers out of the street markets and straight onto its websites, missing out the department stores and shopping malls in between.

The key, it says, is the smartphone, already helping much of Africa's economy brush aside the continent's lack of reliable transport or fixed phone and Internet connections.

Take Lagos, Nigeria's teeming commercial hub.

"Most of the people have phones, but there are only three malls for 20 million inhabitants," Jumia's French co-founder, Jeremy Hodara, told Reuters from in a telephone interview from the city.

"It is a unique time. People are hungry for consumption. It is the right time to leapfrog over 'offline'."

For now, e-commerce is still in its infancy in most of Africa.

Even in South Africa, the continent's most technologically advanced country, the research firm World Wide Worx estimates e-commerce sales were just 4 billion rand ($409 million) last year, or about $80 per internet user.

Even Spain, which has a similar population size but is an e-commerce laggard by European standards, had online sales of 6.7 billion euros ($9.25 billion) last year - albeit with a per capita GDP almost four times that of South Africa.

Amazon, the world's biggest Internet retailer, has no local operations in Africa and only ships to South Africa, although delivery charges make it a pricey option.

But the phenomenon seems set to take off. One market research firm suggests that Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, will have almost tripled its online purchases in just three years to more than $1 billion by 2014.

LOOKING FOR A HEAD-START

Jumia is one of the firms trying to get a head-start in that market, not yet profitable but spending heavily, following Amazon's model, to grab market share and establish its brand.

The web information company Alexa, which is owned by Amazon, says Jumia is the 22nd most visited site in Nigeria, slightly behind its local e-commerce rival Konga at rank 20.

Launched only 16 months ago by Rocket Internet, the German venture capital group behind the booming European online fashion retailer Zalando and South African e-seller Zando, it now claims more than 150,000 page visits per day.

It operates in Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Kenya, offering up to 100,000 different items from sale from its local warehouses, and plans to expand to other African countries before the year is out, although it is not yet saying where.

Hodara, a 31-year-old French business graduate who cut his teeth at consultants McKinsey, said the fact that the World Retail Congress picked Jumia as "Best new retail launch" this month, rather than best in e-commerce, showed its potential.

"We are in a game to become the biggest retailer of Africa, not the biggest e-commerce player," he said. "If you look at the U.S., e-commerce is 15 percent of retail. We think that in Africa ... e-commerce is going to be 40, 50, 60 percent."

Developers are rushing to build more malls to serve Africa's rapidly expanding middle class, but are struggling to keep pace with the demand for more consumption. Often, they are hampered by hefty costs and the difficulty of securing land titles, not to mention the kind of security issues highlighted by the deadly attack on a high-end Nairobi mall last month.

AFRICANS NO LESS DEMANDING

Jumia, whose main investors are emerging markets telecoms group Millicom and Sweden's Kinnevik, promises to deliver products ranging from fashion to consumer electronics in one to five days, even to remote villages.

That pledge has proven a big draw, particularly in gridlocked megacities such as Lagos, where Jumia has recruited its own fleet of scooter drivers to beat the traffic. It now employs some 1,000 staff, 95 percent of them Africans.

"People are as demanding as in London or the U.S. If you say you will deliver tomorrow at 5, and it's 5.15, they call you like crazy. You cannot do less because it's Africa. It has to be as good as in New York," Hodara said.

"If doesn't work perfectly, they are afraid it is a scam."

Most customers pay cash on delivery at first, using credit cards only once they trust Jumia.

Kinnevik Chief Executive Mia Brunell said she was impressed with how the company was dealing with challenges such as the fact that some customers might not even have a formal address.

"When you find solutions to logistics and payment problems, you really create loyal and satisfied customers," she said.

Hodara predicted that Jumia would be profitable within 12-18 months.

But he said it was too early to say if the firm would then consider a stock market listing, saying it could also end up as a division of Millicom.

"It is hard to predict. Things are going so fast. At the moment, 200 percent of our brain is on building the business," he said.

(Additional reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jumia-tries-vault-africa-street-market-e-market-164110896--finance.html
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Poll: Youth online abuse falling but prevalent

Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, sits for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, sits for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Sarah Ball, a victim of cyber bullying during her high school years, sits for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Spring Hill, Fla. Ball, now a student at a nearby community college, maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable", an anti-bullying page and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Grapic shows opinion poll on online bullying; 2c x 5 inches; 96.3 mm x 127 mm;

WASHINGTON (AP) — More young people are reaching out to family members after being harassed or taunted online, and it's helping. At least a little.

A poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV found incidents of "digital abuse" are still prevalent but declining somewhat. It found a growing awareness among teenagers and young adults about harm from online meanness and cyberbullying, as well as a slight increase among those willing to tell a parent or sibling.

The findings come a week after two Florida girls, ages 12 and 14, were arrested on felony charges for allegedly bullying online a 12-year-old girl who later killed herself by jumping off a tower at an abandoned concrete plant.

"I feel like we're making progress. People should be encouraged," said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and professor at Florida Atlantic University.

The AP-NORC/MTV poll found that some 49 percent of all teenagers and young adults in the United States say they have had at least one brush with some kind of electronic harassment, down from about 56 percent in 2011. Of those who have encountered an incident, 34 percent went to a parent — compared to 27 percent just two years ago. And some 18 percent — up from 12 percent in 2011 — asked a brother or sister for help.

When asked what helped, 72 percent of those encountering digital abuse said changing their email, screen name or cell number, while 66 percent said talking to a parent. Less than a third of respondents found retaliation helpful, while just as many said it had no effect and 20 percent said getting revenge actually made the problem worse.

Girls were more likely than boys to be the targets of online meanness — but they also are more likely to reach out for help.

Sarah Ball was a 15-year-old high school sophomore at Hernando High School in Brooksville, Fla., when a friend posted on Facebook: "I hate Sarah Ball, and I don't care who knows."

Then there was the Facebook site dubbed "Hernando Haters" asking to rate her attractiveness, the anonymous email calling her a "waste of space" and this text that arrived on her 16th birthday: "Wow, you're still alive? Impressive. Well happy birthday anyway."

It wasn't until Ball's mom, who had access to her daughter's online passwords, saw the messages that Ball told her everything.

"It was actually quite embarrassing to be honest," remembers Ball, now an 18-year-old college freshman. But "really, truly, if it wasn't for my parents, I don't think I'd be where I'm at today. That's for sure."

The poll also indicated that young people are becoming more aware of the impact of cyberbullying. Some 72 percent, up from 65 percent in 2011, said online abuse was a problem that society should address. Those who think it should be accepted as a part of life declined from 33 percent to 24 percent.

Hinduja credits school programs that are making it "cool to care" about others, and increased awareness among adults who can help teens talk through their options, such as deactivating an account or going to school administrators for help in removing hurtful postings.

That was the case for Ball, whose parents encouraged her to fight back by speaking up. "They said this is my ticket to helping other people," Ball said.

With their help, Ball sent copies of the abusive emails, texts and Facebook pages to school authorities, news outlets and politicians and organized a local anti-bullying rally. She still maintains a Facebook site called "Hernando Unbreakable," and mentors local kids identified by the schools as victims of cyberbullying.

Ball said she thinks if other teens are reaching out more for help, it's as a last resort because so many kids fear making the situation worse. That was one reason Jennifer Tinsley, 20, said she didn't tell her parents in the eighth grade when another student used Facebook to threaten to stab and beat her.

"I didn't want them to worry about me," Tinsley, now a college student in Fort Wayne, Ind., said of her family. "There was a lot of stress at that time. ... And, I just didn't want the extra attention."

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, every state but Montana has enacted anti-bullying laws, many of which address cyberbullying specifically. Most state laws are focused on allowing school districts to punish offenders. In Florida, for example, the state legislature this year passed a provision allowing schools to discipline students harassing others off campus.

In Florida's recent cyberbullying case, the police took the unusual step of charging the two teen girls with third-degree felony aggravated stalking. Even if convicted, however, the girls were not expected to spend time in juvenile detention because they didn't have criminal histories.

The AP-NORC Center/MTV poll was conducted online Sept. 27 through Oct. 7 among a random national sample of 1,297 people between the ages of 14 and 24. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. Funding for the study was provided by MTV as part of its campaign to stop digital abuse, "A Thin Line."

The survey was conducted by the GfK Group using KnowledgePanel, a probability-based online panel. Respondents are recruited randomly using traditional telephone and mail sampling methods. People selected who had no Internet access were given it for free.

___

Associated Press Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneKFlaherty

___

Online:

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: http://www.apnorc.org

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-24-Poll-Online%20Bullying/id-a75e102adbaa4f828aceb8f9a364cf03
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