Bin Laden movie “Zero Dark Thirty” based on first-hand accounts

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The makers of a Hollywood movie about the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden denied asking for classified material for their film, but say they did conduct interviews with a CIA officer and others at the heart of the decade-long hunt for the al Qaeda leader.“It was all based on first-hand accounts so it really felt very vivid and very vital and very, very immediate and...

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Nobel winner and organ transplant pioneer Joseph Murray dies at 93

(Reuters) – Dr. Joseph Murray, the surgeon who carried out the first successful kidney transplant and later won a Nobel Prize for his work in medicine and physiology, died on Monday in Boston at the age of 93.Murray died after suffering a stroke last Thursday, Brigham and Women’s Hospital spokesman Tom Langford said.Murray and his team completed the first human organ transplant in 1954, taking a kidney...

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ResCap creditors target cash from Ally asset sales: WSJ

(Reuters) – A group of creditors of Ally Financial Inc‘s mortgage subsidiary is laying claim to cash from Ally asset sales that was intended to help repay the U.S. government, which funded a $ 17.2 billion bailout of the financing firm, the Wall Street Journal reported.The creditors of mortgage firm Residential Capital LLC (ResCap) are eyeing more than $ 9 billion that Ally plans to collect from sales...

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Israel successfully tests missile defense system

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel successfully tested its newest missile defense system Sunday, the military said, a step toward making the third leg of what Israel calls its “multilayer missile defense” operational.The “David’s Sling” system is designed to stop mid-range missiles. It successfully passed its test, shooting down its first missile in a drill Sunday in southern Israel, the military said.The system...

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Tourists visit Southfork to remember Larry Hagman

PARKER, Texas (AP) — Tourists and locals flocked to Southfork Ranch on Saturday, bringing flowers in memory of Larry Hagman, who played the infamous J.R. Ewing on the TV show “Dallas.”Hagman died in Dallas on Friday at age 81 due to complications from his battle with cancer.Southfork, a ranch north of Dallas, was known to millions of viewers as the Ewing family home. Exterior shots of the house and...

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Donald preparing for surgery on sinuses

DUBAI (Reuters) – World number two Luke Donald is planning to have an operation in the off-season in an attempt to cure a lingering problem with his sinuses.“My sinuses are all completely clogged up and every time I get a little bit run down they turn into infections,” the 34-year-old Briton told reporters after finishing in a tie for third place at the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday.“Hopefully...

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The Man With a China Growth Plan

China’s premier-elect, Li Keqiang, ran a province of 93 million people that endured three deadly fire disasters and an HIV blood scandal on his watch. His run of bad luck as Governor of Henan from 1998 to 2004 earned him the nickname Three-Fires Li in the foreign press. Beijing’s Communist officialdom, however, has high hopes for Li, an award-winning economist for his work on urbanization, in his...

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Egypt reformist warns of turmoil from Morsi decree

CAIRO (AP) — Prominent Egyptian democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei warned Saturday of increasing turmoil that could potentially lead to the military stepping in unless the Islamist president rescinds his new, near absolute powers, as the country’s long fragmented opposition sought to unite and rally new protests.Egypt‘s liberal and secular forces — long divided, weakened and uncertain amid the...

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Hobbits, superheroes put magic in NZ film industry

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A crate full of sushi arrives. Workers wearing wetsuit shirts or in bare feet bustle past with slim laptops. With days to go, a buzzing intensity fills the once-dilapidated warehouses where Peter Jackson‘s visual-effects studio is rushing to finish the opening film in “The Hobbit” trilogy.The fevered pace at the Weta Digital studio near Wellington will last nearly until...

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First Person: Unemployed, Disabled and Hungry for Work

Five million Americans are among the long-term unemployed–those without a job for 27 weeks or longer–according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 7.3 million are looking for work, while the unemployment rate sits at 7.9 percent. Numbers aside, individual stories illustrate how America is affected. To see how joblessness hits home, Yahoo News asked unemployed workers to share their job-hunting...

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