UBS fined £29.7m for Adoboli case

26 November 2012 Last updated at 06:09 ET

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined UBS £29.7m ($ 47.6m) for failings that led to trader Kweku Adoboli losing £1.4bn.

The fine, the third largest imposed by the FSA, was for “system and control failings” that allowed him to trade in London well beyond authorised limits.

The trader was last week convicted of two counts of fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison.

UBS said it was “pleased that the chapter has been concluded”.

The FSA, which conducted the investigation into failings at the bank with its Swiss counterpart, Finma, said there were serious weaknesses at the Swiss bank.

It said in a statement: “UBS failed to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems, and failed to conduct its business from the London Branch with due skill, care and diligence.”

The FSA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, Tracey McDermott, said faulty controls had allowed the losses to mount to what was the largest trading loss in the country.

“UBS’s systems and controls were seriously defective,” she said.

“As a result, Adoboli, a relatively junior trader, was allowed to take vast and risky market positions, and UBS failed to manage the risks around that properly.”

‘Gambler’

Adoboli, the 32-year-old Ghana-born son of a diplomat, joined UBS in 2003, becoming a trader in 2006.

He worked in UBS’s global synthetic equities division (GSE), buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETFs), which track stocks, bonds and commodities.

He was arrested in September last year.

Southwark Crown Court was told that he was “a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland’s largest bank”.

The judge said there was “a strong streak of the gambler” in him.

But, during evidence, Adoboli said everything he had done was aimed at benefiting the bank, where he viewed his colleagues as “family”.

He said he had “lost control in the maelstrom of the financial crisis”, but had been doing well until he changed from a conservative “bearish” position to an aggressive “bullish” stance under pressure from senior managers.

He told the jury that staff were encouraged to take risks until they got “a slap on the back of the wrist”.

The fine was set at 15% of the revenue of the division where Adoboli worked and takes account of the revenue generated by the business area where the weak controls occurred.

‘Serious deficiencies’

UBS said it had made a number of substantial changes since discovering the losses, including fixing the weakness in its financial reporting.

The bank added it was retraining staff on the importance of risk management and had changed the way it evaluated and compensated employees.

UBS is changing its own structure to make itself a simpler organisation.

The bank’s chief executive, Oswald Gruebel, left the company in the aftermath of the scandal.

His successor, Sergio Ermotti, announced a major restructuring last month to run down the large, risky parts of the investment banking division.

UBS said it had fully co-operated with the regulators’ investigations and that it accepted their findings and the penalties incurred.

UBS’s fine was discounted from the original level of £42.4m for early settlement.

Switzerland’s financial regulator Finma said in a statement that it would also check whether UBS had adequate capital backing for its operational risks.

Finma said it had identified “serious deficiencies in risk management controls” and that it would appoint a third party to make sure proper measures were introduced.

UBS has been banned by regulators from making new acquisitions and it also needs to get prior approval from Finma for any new business initiatives.

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Egypt’s Mursi faces judicial revolt over decree

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered violence in the street and exposed the country’s deep divisions.

The Judges’ Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the “downfall of the regime” – the rallying cry in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.

Mursi’s political opponents and supporters, representing the divide between newly empowered Islamists and their critics, called for rival demonstrations on Tuesday over a decree that has triggered concern in the West.

Issued late on Thursday, it marks an effort by Mursi to consolidate his influence after he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August. The decree defends from judicial review decisions taken by Mursi until a new parliament is elected in a vote expected early next year.

It also shields the Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt’s new constitution from a raft of legal challenges that have threatened the body with dissolution, and offers the same protection to the Islamist-controlled upper house of parliament.

Egypt’s highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, said the decree was an “unprecedented attack” on the independence of the judiciary. The Judges’ Club, meeting in Cairo, called on Mursi to rescind it.

That demand was echoed by prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei. “There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says ‘let us split the difference’,” he said.

“I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity,” he said in an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.

More than 300 people were injured on Friday as protests against the decree turned violent. There were attacks on at least three offices belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that propelled Mursi to power.

POLARISATION

Liberal, leftist and socialist parties called a big protest for Tuesday to force Mursi to row back on a move they say has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.

In a sign of the polarization in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood called its own protests that day to support the president’s decree.

Mursi also assigned himself new authority to sack the prosecutor general, who was appointed during the Mubarak era, and appoint a new one. The dismissed prosecutor general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, was given a hero’s welcome at the Judges’ Club.

In open defiance of Mursi, Ahmed al-Zind, head of the club, introduced Mahmoud by his old title.

The Mursi administration has defended the decree on the grounds that it aims to speed up a protracted transition from Mubarak’s rule to a new system of democratic government.

Analysts say it reflects the Brotherhood’s suspicion towards sections of a judiciary unreformed from Mubarak’s days.

“It aims to sideline Mursi’s enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution,” said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.

“We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down.”

ADVISOR TO MURSI QUITS

Following a day of violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, the smell of tear gas hung over the capital’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011 and the stage for more protests on Friday.

Youths clashed sporadically with police near the square, where activists camped out for a second day on Saturday, setting up makeshift barricades to keep out traffic.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt’s most widely read dailies, hailed Friday’s protest as “The November 23 Intifada”, invoking the Arabic word for uprising.

But the ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind Mursi’s decree.

The Nour Party, one such group, stated its support for the Mursi decree. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the Mubarak regime.

Samir Morkos, a Christian assistant to Mursi, had told the president he wanted to resign, said Yasser Ali, Mursi’s spokesman. Speaking to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Morkos said: “I refuse to continue in the shadow of republican decisions that obstruct the democratic transition”.

Mursi’s decree has been criticized by Western states that earlier this week were full of praise for his role in mediating an end to the eight-day war between Israel and Palestinians.

“The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, Marwa Awad, Edmund Blair and Shaimaa Fayed and Reuters TV; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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‘Gangnam Style’ most watched YouTube video ever

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean rapper PSY‘s “Gangnam Style” has become YouTube’s most viewed video of all time.

YouTube says in a posting on its Trends blog that “Gangnam Style” had been viewed 805 million times as of Saturday afternoon, surpassing Justin Bieber‘s “Baby,” which has had 803 million views.

The blog says the “velocity of popularity for PSY’s outlandish video is unprecedented.”

PSY’s video featuring his horse-riding dance was posted on YouTube in July, while “Baby” was uploaded in February 2010.

PSY’s video has become a global sensation, with many people around the world mimicking his “Gangnam Style” dance. In their October meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, joked that he had to relinquish his title as “the most famous Korean,” and tried a few of PSY’s dance moves.

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Europe mulls banning ‘boxes’ for abandoned babies

BERLIN (AP) — German pastor Gabriele Stangl says she will never forget the harrowing confession she heard in 1999. A woman said she had been brutally raped, got pregnant and had a baby. Then she killed it and buried it in the woods near Berlin.

Stangl wanted to do something to help women in such desperate situations. So the following year, she convinced Berlin’s Waldfriede Hospital to create the city’s first so-called “baby box.” The box is actually a warm incubator that can be opened from an outside wall of a hospital where a desperate parent can anonymously leave an unwanted infant.

A small flap opens into the box, equipped with a motion detector. An alarm goes off in the hospital to alert staff two minutes after a baby is left.

“The mother has enough time to leave without anyone seeing her,” Stangl said. “The important thing is that her baby is now in a safe place.”

Baby boxes are a revival of the medieval “foundling wheels,” where unwanted infants were left in revolving church doors. In recent years, there has been an increase in these contraptions — also called hatches, windows or slots in some countries — and at least 11 European nations now have them, according to United Nations figures. They are technically illegal, but mostly operate in a gray zone as authorities turn a blind eye.

But they have drawn the attention of human rights advocates who think they are bad for the children and merely avoid dealing with the problems that lead to child abandonment. At a meeting last month, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child said baby boxes should be banned and is pushing that agenda to the European Parliament.

There are nearly 100 baby boxes in Germany. Poland and the Czech Republic each have more than 40 while Italy, Lithuania, Russia and Slovakia have about 10 each. There are two in Switzerland, one in Belgium and one being planned in the Netherlands.

In the last decade, hundreds of babies have been abandoned this way; it’s estimated one or two infants are typically left at each location every year, though exact figures aren’t available.

“They are a bad message for society,” said Maria Herczog, a Hungarian child psychologist on the U.N. committee. “These boxes violate children’s rights and also the rights of parents to get help from the state to raise their families,” she said.

“Instead of providing help and addressing some of the social problems and poverty behind these situations, we’re telling people they can just leave their baby and run away.”

She said the practice encourages women to have children without getting medical care. “It’s paradoxical that it’s OK for women to give up their babies by putting them in a box, but if they were to have them in a hospital and walk away, that’s a crime,” Herczog said. She said the committee is now discussing the issue with the European Parliament and is also asking countries which allow the practice to shut them down.

Herczog also said it’s wrong to assume only mothers are abandoning these children and that sometimes they may be forced into giving up children they might otherwise have kept. “We have data to show that in some cases it’s pimps, a male relative or someone who’s exploiting the woman,” she said.

In some countries — Australia, Canada and Britain — it is illegal to abandon an infant anywhere. Yet, in the U.S. there are “safe haven” laws that allow parents to anonymously give up an infant in a secure place like a hospital or police department. A handful of other countries including Japan and Slovakia have similar provisions.

Countries that support this anonymous abandonment method contend they save lives. In a letter responding to U.N. concerns, more than two dozen Czech politicians said they “strongly disagreed” with the proposed ban. “The primary aim of baby hatches, which (have) already saved hundreds of newborns, is to protect their right to life and protect their human rights,” the letter said.

However, limited academic surveys suggest this hasn’t reduced the murder of infants. There are about 30 to 60 infanticides in Germany every year, a number that has been relatively unchanged for years, even after the arrival of baby boxes. That’s similar to the per capita rate in Britain where there is no such option.

Across Germany, there is considerable public support for the boxes, particularly after several high-profile cases of infanticide, including the grisly discovery several years ago of the decomposed remains of nine infants stuffed into flower pots in Brandenburg.

Officials at several facilities with baby boxes say biological parents sometimes name the infant being abandoned. “The girl is called Sarah,” read one note left with a baby in Lubeck, Germany in 2003. “I have many problems and a life with Sarah is just not possible,” the letter said.

The secretive nature also means few restrictions on who gets dropped off, even though the boxes are intended for newborns. Friederike Garbe, who oversees a baby box in Lubeck, found two young boys crying there last November. “One was about four months old and his brother was already sitting up,” she said. The older boy was about 15 months old and could say “Mama.”

Still, Germany’s health ministry is considering other options. “We want to replace the necessity for the baby boxes by implementing a rule to allow women to give birth anonymously that will allow them to give up the child for adoption,” said Christopher Steegmans, a ministry spokesman.

Austria, France, and Italy allow women to give birth anonymously and leave the baby in the hospital to be adopted. Germany and Britain sometimes allow this under certain circumstances even though it is technically illegal. Eleven other nations grant women a “concealed delivery” that hides their identities when they give birth to their babies, who are then given up for adoption. But the women are supposed to leave their name and contact information for official records that may be given one day to the children if they request it after age 18.

For German couple Andy and Astrid, an abandoned infant in a baby box near the city of Fulda ended their two-year wait to adopt a child nearly a decade ago.

“We were told about him on a Sunday and then visited him the next day in the hospital,” said Astrid, a 37-year-old teacher, who along with her husband, agreed to talk with The Associated Press if their last names were not used to protect the identity of their child. The couple quietly snapped a few photos of the baby boy they later named Jan. He weighed just over 7 pounds when he was placed in the baby box, wrapped in two small towels.

When Jan started asking questions about where he came from around age 2, his parents explained another woman had given birth to him. They showed him the photos taken at the hospital, introduced him to the nurses there and showed him the baby box where he had been left.

Earlier this year, the couple began the procedure to adopt a second child, a boy whose mother gave birth anonymously so she could give him up for adoption.

Astrid said Jan, now 8, loves football, tractors and anything to do with the farming that he sees daily in their rural community. She said it’s not so important for her and her husband to know who his biological parents are.

But for Jan, “it would be nice to know that he could meet them if he wanted to,” she said. “I want that for him, but there is no possibility to find out who they were.”

____

Medical writer Maria Cheng reported from London.

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Greece Waits for the Next Check From Europe

Given the way the euro crisis has played out during the past three years, it was no great surprise that euro-zone finance ministers were not able to agree in the early hours of Wednesday morning on a formula to reduce Greece’s unwieldy public debt. That is of little comfort, though, for an increasingly anxious Greek government that faces further financial and political pressure as a result of the latest delay.

Despite about 11 hours of talks, starting on Tuesday and ending at around dawn on Wednesday, the 17 ministers and International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde were not able to bridge differences on how to bring Greece’s debt down from a projected 189 percent of gross domestic product next year to 120 percent by 2020. In fact, there was no indication that the two sides had even agreed on the deadline, as the euro zone had been pushing for 2022 to be used as the watershed.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who has invested in efforts to rebuild trust with Greece’s lenders by adopting the austerity measures and structural reforms they have demanded, could hardly hide his frustration at the fact that the euro group had failed for a second time in eight days to reach a conclusion and would be meeting again on Monday.

“Greece did what it had to and what it had committed to,” said Samaras in an unusually terse statement. “Our partners, along with the IMF, have a duty to carry out their commitments.”

The new delay means Greece has yet to receive approval for the disbursement of as much as €44 billion ($ 56 million) from its bailout package, which it is expecting to receive by next month. The largest chunk of this, €31.5 billion, was due to be released in the summer, but lenders held off as Greece went through two tumultuous national elections. The bulk of that tranche, about €25 billion, is needed to complete the recapitalization of the country’s faltering banks. Some of the remaining money is intended to go toward paying €8 billion in arrears that the cash-strapped government owes to suppliers, social security funds, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and other organizations.

The longer Greece goes without this money, the more liquidity dries up and the more difficult it becomes for the state to carry out its basic functions. Earlier this month, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras warned politicians in the European Parliament that there was a growing chance of a Greek default if Athens did not get the funding promptly. “The risk of an accident is very high,” he said.

The vicious circle in which the Greek government finds itself financially is underlined by the fact that it had to raise €5 billion through the sale of Treasury bills last week, at a yield of 3.9 percent to 4.2 percent, in a rollover of T-bills issued in August to pay a maturing bond that the European Central Bank had bought via the Securities Markets Program (SMP). The ECB had to first give permission to Athens to go beyond its T-bill limit. The paper was mostly bought by Greek banks, which are short of cash themselves.

The delay in finding a solution to Greece’s immediate liquidity problem and its longer-term debt concerns, however, are also ratcheting up the political pressure on the ruling coalition. The three-party coalition’s representation in the 300-seat Parliament fell from 177 MPs to 167 after a stormy vote this month on the latest austerity package demanded by the EU and IMF. In an effort to convince doubting lawmakers, and voters, to support the measures, Samaras had argued that approval of the package would pave the way for the release of new bailout installments and a solution regarding Greece’s debt sustainability. As long as this fails to materialize, the prime minister’s opponents will have a growing arsenal of ammunition to fire at Samaras.

“The prime minister stubbornly refuses to use the negotiating power he is being granted by the disagreement between our partners,” said Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the main, anti-austerity, opposition Syriza. “Clearly not up to the job, he is blaming the holdup on technical difficulties.”

Another Syriza MP, Dimitris Papadimoulis, claimed the coalition had been humiliated by the failure of the euro group to arrive at a decision.

Samaras and his government will now hope for an agreement between the euro zone and the IMF on Monday to avoid further political damage at home. The Greek prime minister was due in Brussels on Wednesday before an EU leaders’ summit the next day, when he will have the chance to discuss his concerns with his counterparts.

“It is not just the future of our country that depends on the successful outcome of the effort over the next few days but the stability of the whole euro zone,” Samaras warned in his statement.

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Cricket-Australia v South Africa – second test scoreboard

ADELAIDE, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Scoreboard at the close of the

third day of the second test between Australia and South Africa

at Adelaide Oval on Saturday:

Australia won the toss and chose to bat

Australia first innings 550

South Africa first innings

G. Smith c Wade b Siddle 122

A. Petersen run out 54

H. Amla st Wade b Warner 11

J. Rudolph c Quiney b Lyon 29

AB de Villiers lbw b Siddle 1

F. du Plessis c Clarke b Hilfenhaus 78

D. Steyn c Ponting b Hilfenhaus 1

R. Kleinveldt b Hilfenhaus 0

J. Kallis c Wade b Clarke 58

M. Morkel b Lyon 6

I. Tahir not out 10

Extras (b-7, lb-2, w-3, nb-6) 18

Total: (all out, 124.3 overs) 388

Fall of wickets: 1-138 2-169 3-233 4-233 5-240 6-246 7-250

8-343 9-352 10-388

Bowling: B. Hilfenhaus 19.3-6-49-3, J. Pattinson 9.1-0-41-0

(nb-4, w-1) N. Lyon 44-7-91-2, P. Siddle 30.5-6-130-2 (nb-2), M.

Clarke 7-1-22-1, M. Hussey 1-0-7-0 (w-2), D. Warner 5-0-27-1, R.

Quiney 8-3-12-0

Australia second innings

D. Warner c Du Plessis b Kleinveldt 41

E. Cowan b Kleinveldt 29

R. Quiney c De Villiers b Kleinveldt 0

R. Ponting b Steyn 16

M. Clarke not out 9

P. Siddle c De Villiers b Morkel 1

M. Hussey 5

Extras (lb-7, nb-3) 10

Total (for five wickets, 32 overs) 111

Fall of wickets: 1-77 2-77 3-91 4-98 5-103

Still to bat: M. Wade, B. Hilfenhaus, J. Pattinson, N. Lyon.

Bowling: Steyn 10-4-28-1, Morkel 9-2-24-1, Kleinveldt

6-1-14-3 (nb-2), Tahir 7-1-38-0 (nb-1)

- -

Third test: WACA, Perth Nov. 30-Dec. 4

(Compiled by Ian Ransom; Editing by Alastair Himmer)

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Facebook and volatile market still chill IPOs

Making a killing on initial public offerings used to be easy.

At the peak of the technology boom, little more than a decade ago, a plentiful supply of companies vied to sell stock on the exchanges, and investors were assured mouthwatering returns.

These days, the deals are fewer and the returns more modest.

Companies are set to raise more than $ 45 billion through IPOs this year — the most since 2007, according to data provider Dealogic. But if you scratch the surface, there are signs that the market is less healthy than it appears.

Almost a third of the money raised in IPOs this year came from one deal, Facebook‘s $ 16 billion offering in May, and the number of companies taking themselves public may end at a three-year low.

The pipeline, or backlog, of companies planning to sell stock is also thinning.

“It’s a reflection of the psychology of the market today. It’s not strong. It’s moderate to weak,” says Rob Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass.

While 437 companies have filed for an IPO this year, 178 have withdrawn or postponed their planned listings, Dealogic data show.

The state of the IPO market matters beyond Wall Street. Besides giving investors the chance to buy into fast-growing parts of the market, offerings give companies the money to expand and hire workers.

Scott Cutler, head of global listings at NYSE Euronext, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, estimates that more than 90 percent of a public company’s employee growth comes after it has listed on an exchange.

IPO activity is dictated largely by the health of the overall stock market. Falling markets discouraging companies from going public.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 is up 11 percent this year, but the advance has been punctuated by sharp declines when investors fretted about European debt, the election and, now, a looming “cliff” of tax increases and government spending cuts.

“The general market has been real choppy this year. It really has,” says Sal Morreale, an institutional salesman at Cantor Fitzgerald in Los Angeles who tracks offerings.

Facebook’s calamitous market debut also put the brakes on IPOs.

The social networking site’s offering was the most keenly anticipated market debut at least since Google’s in 2004. But concerns about revenue from smartphone users spooked investors, and the offering was plagued by technical glitches.

The stock was priced at $ 38 and fell almost immediately, dropping as low as $ 17.55 on Sept. 4. The negative publicity helped shutter the IPO market for more than a month until EQT Midstream Partners, an energy company, sold stock June 16. Companies including American Tire Distributors and Crosair, a computer memory company, were among those withdrawing their IPOs.

“That deal has become a textbook case of how not to do a deal,” says Quincy Krosby, a market strategist with Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Financial. “That IPO really chastened investors.”

The backlog of companies planning IPOs fell to 39 in November, according to data from Ipreo, a market analysis company firm. That is the fewest since August 2009, just after the recession. The tally has been declining steadily since September 2011.

NYSE’s Cutler says that much of the decline is because of a law passed in April designed to make it easier for companies to attract funding. They can confidentially notify regulators of their intention to seek a listing.

Cutler says that if the business environment remains stable, the pace of IPO filling will be “slightly up” next year as companies become more familiar with the law.

The law allows companies to avoid disclosing competitively sensitive information and come to the market at much shorter notice. Ultimately, it will encourage more companies to seek listings, Cutler says.

Despite Facebook‘s high-profile slump, most companies have left something on the table for investors.

The average return for IPOs this year has been 11 percent, according to Dealogic data. That’s less than the average 88 percent one-year return that investors garnered in 1999 but roughly in line with the broader market.

Among the best debuts: Guidewire Software, a provider of software for the insurance industry, and Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, a Texas mortgage provider and servicer, according to data from IPO investment advisory firm Renaissance Capital.

Investors that bought Guidewire’s stock at $ 13 at its market debut in January have seen it rise to almost $ 30, while Nationstar’s stock has almost doubled from $ 14 to $ 27.35.

There are some advantages to a slow IPO market, says Lutts of Cabot Money Management. When demand is low, only the best companies are able to attract enough demand to list on the exchanges, raising the quality of companies coming to the market. And it can be an indicator that the broader market is oversold and thus offers some bargains.

“When we’re frothy, everything is coming at a premium,” Lutts says. “I’m interested in equities today because of a weak IPO market.”

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‘Dallas’ star Larry Hagman dies in Texas

J.R. Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly loathsome oil baron — and coaxed forth a Texas-size gusher of ratings — on television’s long-running and hugely successful nighttime soap, “Dallas.”

Although he first gained fame as nice guy Capt. Tony Nelson on the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy “I Dream of Jeannie,” Hagman earned his greatest stardom with J.R. The CBS serial drama about the Ewing family and those in their orbit aired from April 1978 to May 1991, and broke viewing records with its “Who shot J.R.?” 1980 cliffhanger that left unclear if Hagman’s character was dead.

The actor, who returned as J.R. in a new edition of “Dallas” this year, had a long history of health problems and died Friday due to complications from his battle with cancer, his family said.

“Larry was back in his beloved hometown of Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved the most. Larry’s family and closest friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday,” the family said in a statement that was provided to The Associated Press by Warner Bros., producer of the show.

The 81-year-old actor was surrounded by friends and family before he passed peacefully, “just as he’d wished for,” the statement said.

Linda Gray, his on-screen wife and later ex-wife in the original series and the sequel, was among those with Hagman in his final moments in a Dallas hospital, said her publicist, Jeffrey Lane.

“He brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented, and I will miss him enormously. He was an original and lived life to the fullest,” the actress said.

Years before “Dallas,” Hagman had gained TV fame on “I Dream of Jeannie,” in which he played an astronaut whose life is disrupted when he finds a comely genie, portrayed by Barbara Eden, and takes her home to live with him.

Eden recalled late Friday shooting the series’ pilot “in the frigid cold” on a Malibu beach.

“From that day, for five more years, Larry was the center of so many fun, wild and sometimes crazy times. And in retrospect, memorable moments that will remain in my heart forever,” Eden said.

Hagman also starred in two short-lived sitcoms, “The Good Life” (NBC, 1971-72) and “Here We Go Again” (ABC, 1973). His film work included well-regarded performances in “The Group,” ”Harry and Tonto” and “Primary Colors.”

But it was Hagman’s masterful portrayal of J.R. that brought him the most fame. And the “Who shot J.R.?” story twist fueled international speculation and millions of dollars in betting-parlor wagers. It also helped give the series a place in ratings history.

When the answer was revealed in a November 1980 episode, an average 41 million U.S. viewers tuned in to make “Dallas” one of the most-watched entertainment shows of all time, trailing only the “MASH” finale in 1983 with 50 million viewers.

It was J.R.’s sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby) who plugged him — he had made her pregnant, then threatened to frame her as a prostitute unless she left town — but others had equal motivation.

Hagman played Ewing as a bottomless well of corruption with a charming grin: a business cheat and a faithless husband who tried to get his alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Gray), institutionalized.

“I know what I want on J.R.’s tombstone,” Hagman said in 1988. “It should say: ‘Here lies upright citizen J.R. Ewing. This is the only deal he ever lost.’”

On Friday night, Victoria Principal, who co-starred in the original series, recalled Hagman as “bigger than life, on-screen and off. He is unforgettable, and irreplaceable, to millions of fans around the world, and in the hearts of each of us, who was lucky enough to know and love him.”

Ten episodes of the new edition of “Dallas” aired this past summer and proved a hit for TNT. Filming was in progress on the sixth episode of season two, which is set to begin airing Jan. 28, the network said.

There was no immediate comment from Warner or TNT on how the series would deal with Hagman’s loss.

In 2006, he did a guest shot on FX’s drama series “Nip/Tuck,” playing a macho business mogul. He also got new exposure in recent years with the DVD releases of “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Dallas.”

The Fort Worth, Texas, native was the son of singer-actress Mary Martin, who starred in such classics as “South Pacific” and “Peter Pan.” Martin was still in her teens when he was born in 1931 during her marriage to attorney Ben Hagman.

As a youngster, Hagman gained a reputation for mischief-making as he was bumped from one private school to another. He made a stab at New York theater in the early 1950s, then served in the Air Force from 1952-56 in England.

While there, he met and married young Swedish designer Maj Axelsson. The couple had two children, Preston and Heidi, and were longtime residents of the Malibu beach colony that is home to many celebrities.

Hagman returned to acting and found work in the theater and in such TV series as “The U.S. Steel Hour,” ”The Defenders” and “Sea Hunt.” His first continuing role was as lawyer Ed Gibson on the daytime serial “The Edge of Night” (1961-63).

He called his 2001 memoir “Hello Darlin’: Tall (and Absolutely True) Tales about My Life.”

“I didn’t put anything in that I thought was going to hurt someone or compromise them in any way,” he told The Associated Press at the time.

Hagman was diagnosed in 1992 with cirrhosis of the liver and acknowledged that he had drank heavily for years. In 1995, a malignant tumor was discovered on his liver and he underwent a transplant.

After his transplant, he became an advocate for organ donation and volunteered at a hospital to help frightened patients.

“I counsel, encourage, meet them when they come in for their operations, and after,” he said in 1996. “I try to offer some solace, like ‘Don’t be afraid, it will be a little uncomfortable for a brief time, but you’ll be OK.’ “

He also was an anti-smoking activist who took part in “Great American Smoke-Out” campaigns.

Funeral plans were not immediately announced.

“I can honestly say that we’ve lost not just a great actor, not just a television icon, but an element of pure Americana,” Eden said in her statement Friday night. “Goodbye, Larry. There was no one like you before and there will never be anyone like you again.”

___

Associated Press writers Erin Gartner in Chicago and Shaya Mohajer in Los Angeles, and AP Television Writer Frazier Moore in New York contributed to this report.

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Four new cases of SARS-like virus found in Saudi, Qatar

LONDON (Reuters) – A new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September has now killed two people in Saudi Arabia, and total cases there and in Qatar have reached six, the World Health Organisation said.

The U.N. health agency issued an international alert in late September saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.

On Friday it said in an outbreak update that it had registered four more cases and one of the new patients had died.

“The additional cases have been identified as part of the enhanced surveillance in Saudi Arabia (3 cases, including 1 death) and Qatar (1 case),” the WHO said.

The new virus is known as a coronavirus and shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a 10th of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Among the symptoms in the confirmed cases are fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

Of the six laboratory-confirmed cases reported to WHO, four cases, including the two deaths, are from Saudi Arabia and two cases are from Qatar.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency, which helped to identify the new virus in September, said the newly reported case from Qatar was initially treated in October in Qatar but then transferred to Germany, and has now been discharged.

Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections, such as flu, travelling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The WHO said investigations were being conducted into the likely source of the infection, the method of exposure, and the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

“Close contacts of the recently confirmed cases are being identified and followed-up,” it said.

It added that so far, only the two most recently confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia were epidemiologically linked – they were from the same family, living in the same household.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that these two cases presented with similar symptoms of illness. One died and the other recovered,” the WHO’s statement said.

Two other members of the same family also suffered similar symptoms of illness, and one died and the other is recovering. But the WHO said laboratory test results on the fatality were still pending, and the person who is recovering had tested negative for the new coronavirus.

The virus has no formal name, but scientists at the British and Dutch laboratories where it was identified refer to it as “London1_novel CoV 2012″.

The WHO urged all its member states to continue surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections.

“Until more information is available, it is prudent to consider that the virus is likely more widely distributed than just the two countries which have identified cases,” it said.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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Nine arrests in Walmart protest, business still brisk

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Nine people were arrested near a Walmart store in California on Friday as part of national protests for the rights of hourly workers, even as the world’s largest retailer enjoyed what it said was its best ever start to the holiday shopping rush.

Hundreds of protesters, including some Walmart workers who skipped their shifts on the retail industry’s busiest day, spoke, chanted and sang outside of Walmart stores around the United States, making pleas for higher wages and better healthcare for Walmart hourly workers.

OUR Walmart, an organization backed by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, said it counted 1,000 protests in 46 U.S. states, including strikes in 100 cities – figures that Walmart said were “grossly exaggerated.”

There was no evidence that such activity disrupted what appeared to be a strong start for Wal-Mart Stores Inc to the crucial holiday shopping season.

The arrest of nine people in Paramount, California, who told law enforcement they intended to be arrested, occurred at around 12 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET), well after the rush of specials that kicked off at 8 p.m. the night before and culminated with a 5 a.m. round of deals on “Black Friday,” the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season.

Nine people, who refused to leave the street, were peacefully arrested for refusal to disperse, said Captain Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Three of those arrested were striking Walmart workers, OUR Walmart said.

Other demonstrations were smaller and less disruptive. At a Walmart on Chicago‘s South side, just one employee from the store’s nearly 500 staff took part in the demonstration, according to Walmart. There, four busloads of protesters marched outside and were not stopped by police or security guards.

Many of the demonstrators were not Walmart workers, but were supporters such as Candice Justice, a retired teacher who stood with dozens of others in Chicago on Friday morning.

Walmart said it was aware of a few dozen protests on Friday, and said the number of workers that missed scheduled shifts was “more than 60 percent less than Black Friday last year.”

The team organizing the protests disagreed.

“Right now there are hundreds and hundreds currently on strike,” Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, a campaign anchored by the UFCW, said on Friday afternoon. He said he could not provide a specific number of striking workers.

‘SAM WALTON WAS A GOOD MAN’

Walmart said five workers of the 250 scheduled to work at the Paramount, California store skipped shifts on Friday, while OUR Walmart said 18 did so.

One shopper leaving the store with his girlfriend said that the protest might deter him from shopping at Walmart again.

“We need to put ourselves in their shoes. I probably won’t shop here; I don’t think they should take advantage of workers,” said Joe Tegue, a 30-year-old contractor.

For its part, Walmart said it recorded its best Black Friday events ever, with more shoppers than last year and nearly 10 million register transactions between 8 p.m. Thursday and 12 a.m. Friday. It said it sold more than 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million TVs and some 250,000 bicycles.

Shares of Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart rose 1.9 percent to $ 70.20 on Friday, outpacing the gains in the broader stock market during a shortened trading session.

Rosetta Brown, who has been with the company for 15 years and works at the Sam’s Club in Cicero, Illinois, joined the protest and lamented how employees are treated now compared with the era of company founder Sam Walton.

“Sam Walton was a good man … Walmart passed away with him,” she said. Walton opened the first Walmart store in 1962 and died in 1992.

The Chicago worker who protested, Tyrone Robinson, said he earns $ 8.95 an hour working in the produce department, and that his shifts have been cut back to less than 40 hours per week.

Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the UFCW with the National Labor Relations Board last week in a bid to thwart the protests. Days later, OUR Walmart filed its own charge with the NLRB, saying the retailer was illegally attempting to deter workers from participating in strikes.

More allegations of violations are expected to be filed with the NLRB in the coming days, Schlademan said.

The NLRB regional office completed its investigation on Wednesday and submitted a report for further legal analysis, NLRB Director of Public Affairs Nancy Cleeland said on Friday.

“We don’t expect to have any announcements or decision today or during the weekend,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Dana Feldman in Paramount, Calif., David Morgan in Washington and Jon Nielsen in Dallas,; writing by Ben Berkowitz; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Matthew Lewis and Bob Burgdorfer)

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