Koop, who transformed surgeon general post, dies

With his striking beard and starched uniform, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era — and one of the most unexpectedly enduring.

His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia, only because of his conservative views, especially his staunch opposition to abortion.

Soon, though, he was a hero to AIDS activists, who chanted "Koop, Koop" at his appearances but booed other officials. And when he left his post in 1989, he left behind a landscape where AIDS was a top research and educational priority, smoking was considered a public health hazard, and access to abortion remained largely intact.

Koop, who turned his once-obscure post into a bully pulpit for seven years during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and who surprised both ends of the political spectrum by setting aside his conservative personal views on issues such as homosexuality and abortion to keep his focus sharply medical, died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 96.

An assistant at Koop's Dartmouth College institute, Susan Wills, confirmed his death but didn't disclose its cause.

Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general a decade ago under President George W. Bush, said Koop was a mentor to him and preached the importance of staying true to the science even if it made politicians uncomfortable.

"He set the bar high for all who followed in his footsteps," Carmona said.

Although the surgeon general has no real authority to set government policy, Koop described himself as "the health conscience of the country" and said modestly just before leaving his post that "my only influence was through moral suasion."

A former pipe smoker, Koop carried out a crusade to end smoking in the United States; his goal had been to do so by 2000. He said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine. And he shocked his conservative supporters when he endorsed condoms and sex education to stop the spread of AIDS.

Chris Collins, a vice president of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, said many people don't realize what an important role Koop played in the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

"At the time, he really changed the national conversation, and he showed real courage in pursuing the duties of his job," Collins said.

Even after leaving office, Koop continued to promote public health causes, from preventing childhood accidents to better training for doctors.

"I will use the written word, the spoken word and whatever I can in the electronic media to deliver health messages to this country as long as people will listen," he promised.

In 1996, he rapped Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole for suggesting that tobacco was not invariably addictive, saying Dole's comments "either exposed his abysmal lack of knowledge of nicotine addiction or his blind support of the tobacco industry."

Although Koop eventually won wide respect with his blend of old-fashioned values, pragmatism and empathy, his nomination met staunch opposition.

Foes noted that Koop traveled the country in 1979 and 1980 giving speeches that predicted a progression "from liberalized abortion to infanticide to passive euthanasia to active euthanasia, indeed to the very beginnings of the political climate that led to Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen."

But Koop, a devout Presbyterian, was confirmed after he told a Senate panel he would not use the surgeon general's post to promote his religious ideology. He kept his word.

In 1986, he issued a frank report on AIDS, urging the use of condoms for "safe sex" and advocating sex education as early as third grade.

He also maneuvered around uncooperative Reagan administration officials in 1988 to send an educational AIDS pamphlet to more than 100 million U.S. households, the largest public health mailing ever.

Koop personally opposed homosexuality and believed sex should be saved for marriage. But he insisted that Americans, especially young people, must not die because they were deprived of explicit information about how HIV was transmitted.

Koop further angered conservatives by refusing to issue a report requested by the Reagan White House, saying he could not find enough scientific evidence to determine whether abortion has harmful psychological effects on women.

Koop maintained his personal opposition to abortion, however. After he left office, he told medical students it violated their Hippocratic oath. In 2009, he wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging that health care legislation include a provision to ensure doctors and medical students would not be forced to perform abortions. The letter briefly set off a security scare because it was hand delivered.

Koop served as chairman of the National Safe Kids Campaign and as an adviser to President Bill Clinton's health care reform plan.

At a congressional hearing in 2007, Koop spoke about political pressure on the surgeon general post. He said Reagan was pressed to fire him every day, but Reagan would not interfere.

Koop, worried that medicine had lost old-fashioned caring and personal relationships between doctors and patients, opened his institute at Dartmouth to teach medical students basic values and ethics. He also was a part-owner of a short-lived venture, drkoop.com, to provide consumer health care information via the Internet.

Koop was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the only son of a Manhattan banker and the nephew of a doctor. He said by age 5 he knew he wanted to be a surgeon and at age 13 he practiced his skills on neighborhood cats.

He attended Dartmouth, where he received the nickname Chick, short for "chicken Koop." It stuck for life.

Koop received his medical degree at Cornell Medical College, choosing pediatric surgery because so few surgeons practiced it.

In 1938, he married Elizabeth Flanagan, the daughter of a Connecticut doctor. They had four children, one of whom died in a mountain climbing accident when he was 20.

Koop was appointed surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and served as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

He pioneered surgery on newborns and successfully separated three sets of conjoined twins. He won national acclaim by reconstructing the chest of a baby born with the heart outside the body.

Although raised as a Baptist, he was drawn to a Presbyterian church near the hospital, where he developed an abiding faith. He began praying at the bedside of his young patients — ignoring the snickers of some of his colleagues.

Koop's wife died in 2007, and he married Cora Hogue in 2010.

He was by far the best-known surgeon general and for decades afterward was still a recognized personality.

"I was walking down the street with him one time" about five years ago, recalled Dr. George Wohlreich, director of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a medical society with which Koop had longstanding ties. "People were yelling out, 'There goes Dr. Koop!' You'd have thought he was a rock star."

___

Ring reported from Montpelier, Vt. Cass reported from Washington. AP Medical Writers Lauran Neergaard in Washington and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.

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Americans Targeted for Allegedly Running Underage Prostitution in Philippines

Arthur Benjamin is sitting at the edge of a small stage, wearing a lavender Hawaiian shirt and nursing a bottle of San Miguel Light beer. The 6-foot-6 mustachioed Texan lazily watches the half dozen or so girls dancing rather unenergetically around the stage's pole.

"I forgot your gift again, it's in the car," Benjamin says to one of the girls on stage, shouting above the pop music blaring from the speaker system.

The small, dingy bar, which Benjamin says he owns, is called Crow Bar. It's in a rundown part of the picturesque Subic Bay in the western Philippines, about a three hour drive from the capital, Manila. Home for 50 years to a United States naval base, Subic Bay has become synonymous with foreigners looking for sex in the long string of bars that line the main road along the coast.

Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET

The bars in this area are often packed with older foreign men ogling the young Filipina women available for the night for a "bar fine" of around 1,500 Filipino pesos, or just over $35. Many of the bars are owned and operated by Americans, often former military servicemen who either served on the base or whose ships docked here until the base was shuttered under political pressure in 1992.

Most of the prostitutes working in the bars are indeed 18 or older. But in the Philippines, just a small scratch to the surface can reveal a layer of young, underage girls who have mostly come from impoverished rural provinces to sell their bodies to help support their families.

Benjamin, 49, is, according to his own statements, one of the countless foreigners who has moved beyond just having sex with underage girls to owning and operating a bar where girls in scantily-clad outfits flaunt their bodies for patrons.

"My wife recently found out that I have this place," he tells an ABC News "Nightline" team, unaware they are journalists and recording the conversation on tiny hidden cameras disguised as shirt buttons.

Benjamin said that a "disgruntled waitress" had written his wife on Facebook, detailing his activities in Subic Bay.

"She sent her this thing saying that I have underage girls who stayed with me, that I [have anal sex with them], I own a bar, I've got other girls that I'm putting through high school, all this other crap," he said.

"All of which is true," he laughed. "However, I have to deny."

He sends a text message summoning his current girlfriend, a petite dark-skinned girl called Jade, who he said is just 16 years old. Benjamin says he bought the bar for her about a year ago and while most still call it Crow Bar, he officially re-named it with her last name.

"She needed a place to stay, I needed a place to do her. I bought a bar for her," he says, explaining that she lives in a house out back by the beach.

"You're not going to find anything like this in the States, not as a guy my age," he said as he looked down at Jade. "Ain't going to happen."

Benjamin is the latest target of Father Shay Cullen, a Catholic priest with a thick Irish brogue and fluency in the local language, Tagalog. Through his non-profit center called Preda, he's been crusading against underage sex trafficking in the Philippines for 40 years.

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Castro picks 'young' new heir to take regime into future

HAVANA: Cuban President Raul Castro on Sunday won re-election to what he pledged will be his last term, and finally unveiled a 52-year-old political heir he wants to bring the regime into the future.

"This will be my last term," Castro, 81, told lawmakers after the National Assembly reelected him and named a new regime number two -- Council of State Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, 52.

Choosing the former military man and professor from Villa Clara, who has represented the president on foreign trips in recent months, "marks a final step in configuring the country's future leadership, through the slow and orderly transfer of the main leadership positions to new generations," Castro said.

This is not the transition Cuba's nemesis, the United States, has fruitlessly spent decades and millions of dollars seeking.

Washington has long prodded neighbor Cuba to open up to a multiparty system and market economics, much of the time during the more than 40-year rule of revolution icon Fidel Castro.

Through the Cold War and now for over two decades after it, the United States has kept trying to isolate Cuba to press for democratic change.

It has had a full trade embargo on Havana, the only one-party Communist regime in the Americas, since 1962 to pressure the communist island to open up democratically and economically.

Cuba finally appears poised to have new leadership lined up -- if only it can continue to prop up its dysfunctional economy while keeping the regime afloat.

In addition to depending on Venezuelan aid, Cuba has so far failed to discover oil in its waters that experts say lies beneath the seabed off its Gulf of Mexico coast.

The fate and future of the Cuban regime also depends on the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Cuba's main economic supporter and political ally, who is recovering from cancer surgery.

There is no guarantee a successor would feed Cuba's economy as much as Chavez.

Diaz-Canel, who turns 53 in April, is an electrical engineer by training, a former education minister and the president's de facto political heir seeking to project the Americas' only one-party Communist regime into the future.

Since March, Diaz-Canel has been one of the eight vice presidents on the Council of Ministers.

He took the number two spot from Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, 82, who relinquished the post but remains among Cuba's vice presidents.

Diaz-Canel, as political heir, cuts a starkly different profile from the revolutionary leadership, whose members are mostly in their 80s.

If he comes to lead Cuba, he would be the first leader of the regime whose entire life has been under the Castro regime that started in January 1959.

Barring any changes, Diaz-Canel would succeed Raul Castro, who will be 82 in June, if the president serves out his term through 2018.

A careful speaker, the lanky Diaz-Canel also has been a leader of the Communist Youth Union, and went on an international "mission" to Nicaragua during the first leftist Sandinista government.

He rose up the ranks, leading the party in Villa Clara in central Cuba, before being chosen to lead it in Holguin province in the east.

Diaz-Canel was then bumped up to the Politburo in 2003.

There was more new blood among the five vice presidents on the Council of State, in the person of Mercedes Lopez Acea, 48, the former leader of the Communist Party's Havana provincial assembly.

Raul Castro became Cuba's interim president when Fidel took ill in 2006. He formally became president in 2008.

The National Assembly, whose members ran for office in October unopposed, also chose Esteban Lazo, 68, as their new speaker.

Seen as an ideological hardliner, he is also the regime's most prominent Afro-Cuban leader.

"The choice of Lazo to lead the National Assembly confirms that the approach to any ideological change is a really cautious one.

Lazo has been all about ideological orthodoxy," said professor Arturo Lopez-Levy, at the University of Denver in the US state of Colorado.

On Friday, Raul Castro surprised some by joking publicly about resigning.

"I am going to resign. I am about to turn 82. I have the right to retire. Don't you believe me?" Castro said.

-AFP/sb

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Copter deal fixer specializes in India

NEW DELHI: Security services in Algeria, commercial promotions in India, supply of specialized personnel in the Middle East and more.

Guido Haschke, the Swiss resident who was allegedly one of the key middlemen in the VVIP helicopter deal with India, almost sounds like a global consortium with several specializations across the globe in the internal documents of Finmeccanica group. Or was he a key conduit for funneling out money from the Italian group`s various companies?

According to internal documents of Finmeccanica group reviewed by TOI, Haschke and his companies were paid at least 2.65 million euros (approx Rs 18.55 crore) between 2005 and 2011 for several activities across several countries. These are besides the payments that were made to companies such as IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, and other front companies.

The documents point towards an extremely cozy relationship between the Italian-US citizen and the consortium. It also shows the blessings enjoyed by Haschke from the Finmeccanica top brass, especially former chairman Giuseppe Orsi, which emerges in the several taped conversations between Hashcke and other suspects during the ongoing Italian probe.

Without such a considerate approach from Finmeccanica, he couldn`t have won so many diverse contracts. There is no clear indication yet that Haschke and his companies had all these capabilities shown in the contracts.

India definitely was his main playground. Haschke had several contracts with Finmeccanica group companies in India at least until March 2012 when details of the scandal began to emerge in Italian media. Investigations show that Haschke and his companies handled kickbacks of 21 million euros in the Rs 3,546 crore deal for buying 12 VVIP helicopters for the IAF in 2010. Christian Michel, a UK citizen based in Dubai, handled another 30 million euros in kickbacks, according to Italian investigators.

AgustaWestland entered into three consultancy agreements between December 2005 and September 2007 with Haschke in India. According to a report submitted to the Finmeccanica board after the scandal broke, these were "concerning scouting for the sale of civilian helicopters in India, for which fees totalling 400,000 euros were paid". The report told the board, "Those agreements have no connection with the subsequent supply of the 12 helicopters discussed" in the controversy.

Alenia Aermacchi, the aerospace arm of Finmeccanica, paid Haschke 300,000 euros in financial year 2011-12 under what is called a "service agreement". It is not clear what specific services Haschke provided to the company, which is pitching its C-27J transport aircraft to the Indian military.

Another Finmeccanica company OtoMelara, which is looking to supply its land and naval systems to Indian forces, had a "service agreement" with Haschke in the 2011-12 financial year for 58,000 euros. Ansaldo Energia, the power engineering company of Finmeccanica group, entered into two commercial support contracts and one contract for the supply of specialized personnel with Haschke in India. Under a contract signed on June 15, 2006, he was paid 202,000 euros for "acquisition of an order from a private Indian party". A second contract dated January 15, 2011 was for supply of spare parts for a plant in India, with a fee of 249,000 euros.

Ansaldo Breda, which is into road and rail systems, entered into a commercial promotion contract in India from November 1, 2008 to October 31, 2009, and paid Haschke 120,000 euros. Haschke`s contracts with Finmeccanica group companies were not just limited to India.

Ansaldo Energia, through its Abu Dhabi branch, had a contract for "specialized personnel" for assembly and work site activities in the Middle East and North Africa with Haschke. The agreement started from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006 at an annual cost of 600,000 euros. Ansaldo Energia also had a contract with Haschke for security services for a work site in Algeria during 2007-2010, and he was paid a total fee of 1.14 million euros.

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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Oscars 2013: Live Blog of the Academy Awards

Feb 24, 2013 1:13pm

10: 57 p.m. ET: George Clooney gets the honor of presenting the In Memoriam package. “We thank you for the memories,” the star says.

MORE: Clooney and Stars Sport Stubble on the Red Carpet

10: 49 p.m.: “Lincoln” wins Best Production Design.

READ MORE: Full Wrap of the Oscars

10: 47 p.m.: Dubbed “boy wizard” and “girl vampire” by MacFarlane, Daniel Radcliffe and Kirsten Stewart present the award for Achievement in Production Design. Stewart is sans the crutches she was sporting on the red carpet earlier. Here’s the picture in case you missed it.

Watch Live Oscars Coverage Here

10: 44 p.m. ET: Nicole Kidman introduces the third batch of Best Picture nominees — “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Django Unchained” and ”Amour.”

10:35 p.m. ET: The unstoppable Adele performs her hit “Skyfall.” Our eyes are glued to the TV as our everyone’s backstage, including winner Anne Hathaway, Entertainment Weekly’s Jess Cagle tweeted.

Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

10: 33 p.m. ET: “Argo” wins Film Editing.

10: 32 p.m. ET: “Editors make so many of us look way better than we ever had a right to,” Sandra Bullock says before presenting the award for Best Film Editing.

10:23 p.m. ET: No surprise! Anne Hathaway takes home Best Supporting Actress. “It came true,” she says, clutching the statue.

Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

10:20 p.m. ET: Best Supporting Actress time … finally!It’s between Amy Adams, “The Master”; Sally Field, “Lincoln”; Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”; Jacki Weaver, “Silver Linings Playbook”; Helen Hunt, “The Sessions.”

10:15 p.m. ET: “We have a tie,” Mark Wahlberg said before announcing the award for Best Sound Editing. The first one goes to “Zero Dark Thirty.” The second one goes to “Skyfall.” Is a tie allowed, you ask? It’s not the first in Oscars history. The most famous was in 1986 when Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn tied for Best Actress, but there were five in total: Best Actor category in 1949, Best Documentary Short Subject in 1968, Best Actress in 1986, Documentary Feature in 1994, and Live Action Short Film, ABC News’ Alexis Shaw reports.

10:13 p.m. ET: Ted wouldn’t be Ted without a Jewish joke. The bear asks Mark Wahlberg if he’s Jewish because he has “a berg” at the end of his name.  ” Wrong answer. Try again. If you want to work in this town… ” he says. “I was born Theodore Shapiro…”

10:11 p.m. ET: Ted is in the house. The stars of MacFarlane’s box office hit, “Ted,” Mark Wahlberg and Ted, presented the award for Sound Mixing to “Les Miserables.”

Image credit: Getty Images

10:01 p.m. ET: The cast of “Les Miserables” is singing “One Day More.” Anne Hathaway stole the show, as expected.

9:59 p.m. ET: No words. Jennifer Hudson is breaking it down with “Dreamgirls’” “And I’m Telling You.”

Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

9:53 p.m. ET: The movie musical tribute is off to a killer start with Catherine Zeta-Jones’ performance of “All That Jazz” from “Chicago.”

9:50 p.m. ET: Best Foreign Language Film is “Amour.”

9:44 p.m. ET: “Searching for Sugar Man” takes home Best Documentary Feature. Jaws music creeps in again … (An aside: there’s an official Twitter handle for Jaws music already with one tweet: “GET OFF THE STAGE!!!!!!!!”)

Full List of Winners

9:42 p.m. ET: MarFarlane gets some laughs at the expense of Ben Affleck and Jessica Chastain. On Affleck’s facial hair: “The first time I saw him with all that facial hair I thought finally the Kardashians have made the jump to film.” On Jessica Chastain’s character in “Zero Dark Thirty” — a movie about a “woman’s innate ability to never let anything go,” he jokes.

9:40 p.m. ET: Second batch of Best Picture nominees — “Argo,” “Lincoln,” “Zero Dark Thirty” – get their moment in the spotlight.

9: 36 p.m. ET: Best Documentary Short Subject goes to “Inocente.”

9: 33 p.m. ET: Shawn Christensen of “Curfew” wins for Live Action Short Film. Stars of “Django Unchained” Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx present.

9:27 p.m. ET: Standing ovation for Shirley Bassey singing “Goldfinger.” Thoughts on her performance?

9: 22 p.m. ET: Bond… James Bond! A ravishing Halle Berry takes to the stage in Marchesa for the Academy’s tribute to 50 years of James Bond films.

9:20 p.m. ET: “Les Miserables” picks up Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

9:18 p.m. ET: Jennifer Aniston and Channing Tatum Best Costume Designgoes to Jacqueline Durran for “Anna Karenina.” Click here to see her Oscar-winning costumes.

9:11 p.m. ET: And they’re playing people off with Jaws music. Hilarious and brilliant. Nicole Kidman mouths from her seat: “Poor thing.”

9:10 p.m. ET: That’s two for “Life of Pi.” The film picks up another win for Visual Effects.

9:07 p.m. ET:The Best Oscar for Cinematography goes to… Claudio Miranda for “Life of Pi.” The cast of “The Avengers” hands out the award.

Full List of Winners

9:05 p.m. ET: MacFarlane jokes about nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis’ age. “It’ll be 16 years till she’s too old for George Clooney.”

9:03 p.m. ET: Reese Witherspoon just gave us a briefing on the three of the Best Picture nominees: “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” That song from “Les Mis” — “Do You Hear the People Sing?” — is now in my head.

9:00 p.m. ET: Best Animated Feature Oscar goes to….”Brave.”

8: 58 p.m. ET: “Paperman” wins Best Animated Short.

8: 58 p.m. ET: Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy lost us in their intro to animated short film.

8: 51 pm. ET: And the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor goes to Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained.”

Credit: Chris Pizzello/AP

8:49 p.m. ET: Every nominee for Best Supporting Actor already has an Oscar under his belt.

8: 42 p.m. ET: Another musical number with Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph-Gordon Levitt. And then we got a little Disney music too with “Be Our Guest,” which finally scored MacFarlane the “Best Oscars host ever” headline.

Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

8: 39 p.m. ET: Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron are dancing to MacFarlane singing “The Way You Look Tonight.” A shame not to see the “Magic Mike” star shirtless though.

Credit: Mark Davis/Getty Images

Image credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

8:38 p.m. ET: Captain Kirk from “Star Trek” has descended on the stage to warn MacFarlane that he’s about to ruin the Oscars and be branded the worst Oscar host ever. “The show is a disaster. I’ve come back in time … to stop you from ruining the Academy Awards,” William Shatner says. “You sing an incredibly offensive song that upsets a lot of women in the audience.” Cut to MacFarlane singing “We Saw Your Boobs,” a hilarious number referencing when we’ve seen actresses nude in movies.

Image credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

8:35 p.m. ET: MacFarlane pokes fun at Daniel Day Lewis’ method. “Your process fascinates me. You were totally 100% in character in Lincoln… So if you saw a cell phone, would you have to be like, ‘Oh god, what’s that?’ If you bumped into Don Cheadle on the studio lot, you’d try and free him on the studio lot.”

8: 32 p.m. ET:  Too much? MacFarlane compared “Django Unchained” to Rihanna and Chris Brown’s relationship.

8:30 p.m. ET: Seth MacFarlane is on stage and quips: “The quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now.”

8:27 p.m. ET: The stars are seated and the show is about to start. A lot of anticipation about Seth MacFarlane’s opening monologue. Channing Tatum is tweeting that he’s getting ready to take to the stage: “Hope you like what we’ve been working on. Getting ready to hit the #Oscars stage! Wish me luck!” Will there be a musical number right off the bat?

8:20 p.m. ET: Strapless is definitely a trend of the night. We’ve also seen a lot of beauties in blue.

Image credit: Getty Images

8: 15 p.m. ET: We’ve confirmed that Best Supporting Actress nominee Helen Hunt is rocking … H&M! “The Session” actress is in a  custom made midnight-blue full length gown is silk satin gown (also strapless). 

8:14 p.m. ET: Anne Hathaway is talking about her dress. “My mom says it’s business in the front, party in the back.”

8:08 p.m. ET: Do Jacki Weaver and Olivia Munn share a stylist? ABC News’ Alexis Shaw spotted the Best Supporting Actress nominee and Munn in eerily similar crimson gowns with matching gold embellishment on the top. Click here for more.

Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

8:05 p.m. ET: Kristen Stewart is sporting crutches on the red carpet. Might be because she took home the Worst Actress Razzie award last night for “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2.”

Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

8:00 p.m. ET: The show is now officially a half hour away. In honor of Oscar night, the President tweeted this picture from a White House movie night.

Image credit: Twitter/BarackObama

7: 52 p.m. ET: “Les Mis” star and Best Actor nominee Hugh Jackman just picked up pre-show host Kristin Chenoweth on the red carpet and said she weighs less than an Oscar. Not really though…Each nearly 14-inch-high statue weighs 8.5 pounds and costs $500 to make. Get more Oscar trivia here.

7:40 p.m. ET: If there’s one star you can count on to look fabulous, it’s Jennifer Aniston.  She’s in a Valentino red strapless gown and has fiance Justin Theroux at her side. They’re in the running for Hollywood’s hottest couple on the red carpet.

7:38 p.m. ET: Bradley Cooper brought his mom as his date. She’s rocking a shrug with serious feathers and what look like sneakers with her gown. Cooper is up for Best Actor in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

7:34 p.m. ET: Reese Witherspoon is in head to toe Louis Vuitton. The presenter’s black and royal blue gown with side-swept hairdo scream old Hollywood glamor. Click here.

Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images

7: 28 p.m. ET: Fashion miss: Jane Fonda is slightly blinding in bright yellow.

7: 24 p.m. ET: Best actress nominee Naomi Watts is in a gunmetal Giorgio Armani gown in grey sequins. Does she make your best dressed list? See more arrivals here.

7:20 p.m. ET: Anne Hathaway’s dress may raise eyebrows tonight. The “Les Miserables” star is in a backless, halter dress that appears slightly sheer on the red carpet.

Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

7:18 p.m. ET: We can’t get enough of Quvenzhane Wallis. The “Beasts of the Southern Wild” star has her mom’s permission to stay out a little bit later tonight, she told Lara Spencer on the red carpet.

Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

7:15 p.m. ET: “I feel super tucked in,” Amanda Seyfried said of the corset in her Alexander McQueen gown. “I can’t sit down.” The “Les Miserables” star is performing tonight. Hope she can breathe on stage.

7:07 p.m. ET: Another star goes strapless. Jennifer Lawrence, who’s up for Best Actress in “Silver Linings Playbook,” is in a blush Dior Haute Couture gown with a full skirt.

Credit: Steve Granitz/Getty Images

7:01 p.m. ET: ABC’s pre-show is kicking off! “Red carpet is 500 feet long. That’s about 2,000 of me,” Chenoweth joked. Tune into ABC now and get a behind-the-scenes look via Backstage Pass on the Oscar App.

6:56 p.m. ET: The red carpet is packed, but not everyone is making it through the notorious L.A. traffic. Mark Ruffalo is running late. The actor, who’s presenting tonight, tweeted to the Academy: “Dear @TheAcademy. We are running a good deal behind would you mind starting a little later this year? Mark and Sunrise Ruffalo.”

Credit: ABC News

6:49 p.m. ET: Presenter Kerry Washington is in Miu Miu. The “Django Unchained” and star “Scandal” star always keeps us guessing and never fails to impress.

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6:44 p.m. ET: Who are you most excited to see on the red carpet? What will be the meme of the night? Angelia Jolie’s right leg stole the show last year and Twitter is reminding us. “1 year ago today you met the glorious thing that is ME #neverforget,” @Angelina Jolie’sLeg posted.  

6:35 p.m. ET: The reigning “Sexiest Man Alive” Channing Tatum and a pregnant Jenna Dewan are both glowing on the red carpet. See them canoodling here.

6:25 p.m. ET: Amy Adams looks ethereal in a seafoam green Oscar de la Renta strapless dress. She’s up for Best Supporting Actress for “The Master.”

Credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

PHOTOS: Oscar Red Carpet Arrivals

6:22 p.m. ET: Cutest moment of the red carpet so far, as captured by the Academy. Nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, nominated for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” shows off her puppy-shaped purse to fellow Best Actress nominee Jessica Chastain. It’s reportedly named Sammy after her dog at home.

Credit: @TheAcademy/Twitter

6:10 p.m. ET: The winners have arrived, WABC’s Sandy Kenyon reports! In these briefcases are the top secret ballots from the Academy. Read more here.

Credit: Twitter/SandyKenyon7

5:56 p.m. ET: “GMA” anchors Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer smile backstage before the red carpet heats up.

Credit: ABC

5:42 p.m. ET: ABC pre-show hosts Kristin Chenoweth and Kelly Rowland have arrived on the red carpet and are looking fabulous in black and white.

Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

5:30 p.m. ET: See what the stars see as they walk down the grand staircase to the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre. This cool 360 view is courtesy of the Academy.

5:15 p.m. ET: Get your Oscar party on. Impress your friends with these movie-themed recipes and cocktails. We could go for some Spinach “Argo-choke Dip” right about now…

Oscar 2013: Movie-Themed Recipes
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5:00 p.m. ET: “GMA” anchor Robin Roberts is back and looking better than ever! Roberts, who returned to the morning show Wednesday after undergoing a bone marrow transplant to treat MDS, will be on the red carpet tonight. “To my wonderful, beloved #TeamRobin … This one’s for you. XO,” she tweeted. She’s in a cobalt blue velvet halter gown from designer Marc Bouwer.

Credit: Twitter/RobinRoberts

4:44 p.m. ET: We’re less than an hour away from red carpet arrivals. “Good Morning America” anchor Lara Spencer is getting red-carpet ready to host the Oscar pre-show.  “Hair + Make-up = Butterflies!” @LaraSpencer tweeted. Spencer, actress Kristin Chenoweth, Entertainment Weekly’s Jess Cagle and singer Kelly Rowland will have interviews with all of the stars, starting at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC.

Credit: Twitter/LaraSpencer

1:15 p.m. ET: Hollywood’s biggest night of the year is officially here: the Oscars. Funnyman Seth MacFarlane is hosting the 85^th Annual Academy Awards and we’ll be covering all of the big winners, best moments, surprises, and all-important red carpet arrivals. Refresh for the latest updates all night long.

We are just hours away from seeing the gorgeous gowns and finding out who’s going home with those coveted statuettes. It’s not too late to make your picks and predictions on our interactive Oscar ballot. To get up to speed before the festivities begin, check out our complete Oscars coverage.

Credit: Bob D'Amico/ABC

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PHOTOS: The Best Oscar Dresses of All Time

TRIVIA: 15 Things You Don’t Know About the Oscars

PHOTOS: Top 30 Worst Oscar Looks Ever

Backstage Pass: Download the Oscars App for insider views from the red carpet and behind the scenes. Click here to learn how!

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Italians head to polls in crucial vote for euro zone

ROME (Reuters) - Italians vote on Sunday in one of the most closely watched elections in years with markets nervous about whether it will produce a strong government to pull Italy out of recession and help resolve the euro zone debt crisis.

A huge final rally by anti-establishment-comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo on Friday before a campaigning ban kicked in has highlighted public anger at traditional parties and added to uncertainty about the election outcome.

Polling booths will open between 02:00 am-04:00 pm EST on Sunday and 01:00 am-09:00 am EST on Monday. Exit polls will come out soon after voting ends and official results are expected by early Tuesday.

The election will be followed closely by financial markets with memories still fresh of the potentially catastrophic debt crisis that brought technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti to power more than a year ago.

Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, is stuck in deep recession, struggling under a public debt burden second only to Greece's in the 17-member currency bloc and with a public weary of more than a year of harsh austerity policies.

Italy's Interior Ministry has urged some 47 million eligible voters to not let bad weather forecasts put them off, and said it was prepared to handle even snowy conditions in some northern regions to ensure everyone had a chance to vote.

Final polls published two weeks ago showed center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani with a five-point lead, but analysts disagree about whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can push though the economic reforms Italy needs.

Bersani is now thought to be just a few points ahead of center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi, the four-times prime minister who has promised tax refunds and staged a media blitz in an attempt to win back voters in recent weeks.

While the center left is still expected to gain control of the lower house thanks to rules that guarantee a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally, a much closer battle will be fought in the Senate, which any government also needs to control in order to be able to pass laws.

Seats in the upper house are awarded on a region-by-region basis, meaning that support in key regions can decisively influence the overall result.

Pollsters still believe the most likely outcome is a center-left government headed by Bersani and possibly backed by Monti, who is leading a centrist coalition.

But strong campaigning by Berlusconi and the fiery Grillo, who has drawn tens of thousands to his election rallies, have thrown the election wide open, causing concern that there may be no clear winner.

Whatever government emerges from the vote will have the task of pulling Italy out of its longest recession for 20 years and reviving an economy largely stagnant for two decades.

The main danger for Italy and the euro zone is a weak government incapable of taking firm action, which would rattle investors and could ignite a new debt crisis.

Monti replaced Berlusconi in November 2011 after the euro zone's third-largest economy came close to Greek-style financial meltdown while the center-right government was embroiled in scandals.

The former European Commissioner launched a tough program of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reforms which won widespread international backing and helped restore Italy's credibility abroad after the scandals of the Berlusconi era.

Italy's borrowing costs have since fallen sharply after the European Central Bank pledged it was prepared to support countries undertaking reforms by buying unlimited quantities of their bonds on the markets.

But economic austerity has fuelled anger among Italians grappling with rising unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, encouraging many to turn to Grillo, who has tapped into a national mood of disenchantment.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Jason Webb)

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Michelle Obama's dance moves go viral on YouTube

WASHINGTON - A video clip of First Lady Michelle Obama grooving with a dressed-in-drag Jimmy Fallon on his late-night comedy talk show on Saturday has gone viral on YouTube.

In the video, the pair, each clad in conservative slacks and cardigans, and Fallon with a long brown-haired wig, perform a routine dubbed "Evolution of Mom Dancing," to promote Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" youth fitness and nutrition campaign.

The dance moves -- with names like "The 'Go Shopping, Get Groceries,'" and "The 'Out of Sync Electric Slide'" according to titles splashed on the bottom of the screen -- progress from a simple side-to-side step and ends with Fallon stalking off set as Michelle Obama rocks a smooth "Dougie."

The clip, which has already been viewed nearly a half million times since being posted Saturday and "liked" more than 10,000 times, has prompted effusive comments about the first lady and her first family.

"For the first time... we have a first lady with soul," wrote zestydude87.

And Rina Lubit wrote, "it may be just me but i really love the presidential family. they just really seem like sincerely good and chill people."

In an interview later on the show, Michelle Obama rates her husband's dance skills a "B," saying "he's got, like, three good moves."

Michelle Obama also touts her "Let's Move!" campaign, saying it has seen progress since she launched it three years ago, but there is still work to do.

"Over the past three years, we've seen a culture shift. Now people understand that this is an issue," she said.

"We've got better lunches in the schools, we've got companies putting grocery stores in under-served communities. We've got our athletes, our Olympians, working to get our kids more active. It's really heartening to see."

Obesity is a major health problem in the United States, where one in three adults and almost one in five children is overweight.

Among other initiatives for "Let's Move," the first lady, an attorney by training, has planted the White House's first garden since World War II and written a book with healthy recipes.

- AFP/ir

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Ramdev trust, govt keep options open over Feb 27 function

SHIMLA: Having taken possession of 28 acres land leased out to Patanjali Yogapeeth at Sadhupul area of Solan district, the Himachal Pradesh government does not want yoga guru Swami Ramdev to hold his function there on February 27. Fearing stiff resistance from supporters of Swami Ramdev, government had planned to impose section 144 in Sadhupul and surrounding areas and had made heavy deployment of police in the area.

Resultantly, Patanjali Yogapeeth officials are now looking for another venue either at Solan or Kandaghat to hold the function. Sources said that people in Sadhupul area were adamant about holding the function there itself, but Patanjali Yogapeeth officials, after getting inputs about imposition of section 144, decided to change the venue to avoid any confrontation with government.

On Saturday, Yogapeeth officials submitted an application to Solan Municipal Council for holding the function at Thodo ground on February 27, but the civic body has not given any assurance to them about granting them permission. As confusion about the venue continues, Yogapeeth officials have kept the option of holding the function at Kandaghat also open, sources said.

State incharge of Patanjali Yogapeeth and Bharat Swabhiman Trust, Lakshmi Dutt Sharma, said that they will finalise the venue by Sunday evening. "We decided not to hold the function at Sadhupul as officials informed us about government decision to impose section 144 in the area. We are now looking for some other venue as we do not want any law and order problem, but we have not got any assurance from the authorities concerned," he said.

Sources said that to stop Patanjali Yogapeeth from obtaining stay from court, the state government planned to file a caveat in the court, while the Yogapeeth is reportedly planning to approach the court on the issue.

The opposition BJP, on its part, has decided to support Swami Ramdev if he launched an agitation on the issue. State BJP president Satpal Singh Satti has said that his party would extend full support if Ramdev starts an agitation to oppose the government move. He said the previous BJP government had allotted the land to Ramdev as setting up a Patanjali Yogapeeth facility in the area would have benefitted residents of surrounding villages immensely. "We condemn the act of Congress government," he said.

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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