The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Sharon Osbourne has double mastectomy, says magazine Posted: 05 Nov 2012 08:57 AM PST LONDON, Nov 5 — British celebrity Sharon Osbourne has had a double mastectomy after discovering she was carrying a gene that increased the risk of her developing breast cancer, she told Hello! magazine in an interview published today.  Sharon Osbourne: "No-brainer" of a decision as soon as she found out she had the breast cancer gene. — Reuters file pic "As soon as I found out I had the breast cancer gene, I thought: 'The odds are not in my favour'," she said in remarks that also ran in the Daily Mirror tabloid. "I've had cancer before and I didn't want to live under that cloud: I decided to just take everything off, and had a double mastectomy." Osbourne, who put the eccentric life of her family on view in the reality TV series "The Osbournes", said she did not want to spend the rest of her life with "that shadow hanging over me". "I want to be around for a long time and be a grandmother to Pearl," she added, referring to her son Jack's first child. "I didn't even think of my breasts in a nostalgic way, I just wanted to be able to live my life without that fear all the time. It's not 'pity me', it's a decision I made that's got rid of this weight that I was carrying around." Osbourne raised her profile by appearing as a judge on successful talent shows "The X Factor" and "America's Got Talent". She is married to heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. Her London publicist referred Reuters to the interview that ran in Hello! and the Daily Mirror when asked to confirm the news. — Reuters |
| Sandy’s winds of uncertainty blow through US presidential race Posted: 05 Nov 2012 08:06 AM PST  Election volunteer Bill Partlow and chief judge for precinct 140 pushes a voting machine into place as he sets up the voting area in Pineville, North Carolina, November 5, 2012. Partlow, a retired athletics director, has served as a chief judge for 10 years. — Reuters pic Though superstorm Sandy is unlikely to determine whether President Barack Obama or Republican Mitt Romney wins the White House, experts said it could expose flaws in how the United States conducted elections, leading to protracted legal wrangling and lingering bitterness in a country already fractured along partisan lines. In a worst-case scenario, the storm disruption could cause Obama to lose the popular vote and still win re-election, stirring up vitriolic memories of the contested 2000 battle that allowed Republican George W. Bush to triumph over Democrat Al Gore.  Election volunteer Dennis Slade loads voting supplies into his personal vehicle to deliver to precincts in Charlotte, North Carolina, November 5, 2012. Slade has worked as an election volunteer for 16 years. — Reuters pic At minimum, low turnout would add another wild card to an election projected to be among the closest in US history. Voting could be an afterthought for hundreds of thousands of people still struggling with power outages, fuel shortages and plummeting temperatures. "It's a possibility that we'll see significant drops in turnout in some of these densely populated areas," said George Mason University professor Michael MacDonald, a voter turnout expert. "The effects could be quite dramatic in terms of the popular vote," he said. One more headache Tomorrow's election presents yet another headache for local officials in New York and New Jersey, which were hardest hit by the storm. Rescue workers are still recovering bodies, 1.9 million homes and businesses have no power, and tens of thousands of people are without heat as temperatures dip near freezing. Sandy, one of the most damaging storms to hit the United States, hammered the region with 130-km/h winds, while walls of water overran seaside communities. At least 113 people in the United States and Canada died. Election authorities now face unprecedented challenges. In New York City, 143,000 voters have been assigned new polling stations. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday called the city's elections board "dysfunctional" and warned that it needed to clearly communicate changes to poll workers. In New Jersey, where 25 per cent of homes and businesses have no power, officials are allowing displaced voters to cast their ballots by email. In battered Monmouth County, officials are spreading the word about new polling locations in at least 29 towns and setting aside paper ballots to use if electronic voting machines fail. "Whatever it takes, Asbury Park is voting," City Manager Terence Reidy said. Legal experts said the late changes, however well-intentioned, might give the losing candidate a basis to challenge results. "The devil is in the details and no doubt these new rules will be fertile ground for those who choose to challenge the results in the election." said Angelo Genova, a New Jersey election law expert who represents Democratic candidates in this election.  Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally at the airport in Sanford, Florida, November 5, 2012. — Reuters pic Candidates are not required to win the popular vote nationwide, but they must amass a majority of the 538 "electoral votes" that are awarded to each state based on population. The system was set up when the United States was founded, as a compromise between slave states and free states. Usually the electoral college winner also wins the popular vote. But in two elections — 1876 and 2000 — the results diverged, creating historic controversies. This year, Obama is expected to handily win New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the states most affected by the storm. But his popular vote total could fall by hundreds of thousands if large numbers of storm-hit voters in Democratic areas are unable to participate. Conceivably, Obama could win the White House while losing the popular vote. Several experts said they considered that outcome unlikely. "You'll see lower turnout, yes, but it's not going to change the outcome of the election," said Hunter College political science professor Jamie Chandler, who predicts Obama will win by at least one million votes. If Obama carries the popular vote by a narrow margin, it could have implications on his ability to govern effectively, according to Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the liberal Centre for American Progress. "The more Obama has a solid popular margin the better his victory," he said. Yesterday, several Republicans said the storm gave Obama an advantage in the campaign's final week by shifting public attention away from the sluggish economy and other topics they hoped to emphasise. "The hurricane is what broke Romney's momentum," former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said on CNN. Obama campaign officials said that they were confident the storm would not interfere with the voting process. But they intend to have legal experts on standby just in case. "We're going to have lawyers who are ready to make sure people can exercise their right to vote. We're going to protect that as fiercely as we can," Obama senior adviser David Plouffe said on Friday. — Reuters  Paul Opiyo Ojwang, 43, repairs a bicycle at his open-air garage in Kogelo village, the ancestral home of President Obama (pictured in poster), at Nyangoma Kogelo shopping centre, 430 km west of Kenya's capital Nairobi, November 5, 2012. Four years ago, Kogelo, and Africa in general, celebrated with noisy gusto when Obama, whose father came from the scattered hamlet of tin-roofed homes, became the first African-American to be elected president of the United States. Looking across the Atlantic to the November 6 presidential election, the continent is cooler now towards the "son of Africa" who is seeking a second term. There are questions too whether his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, will have more to offer to sub-Saharan Africa if he wins the White House. — Reuters pic |
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