The Creator of American’s Old Design Really Dislikes New One

This week, American Airlines (AAMRQ) revealed a bold new look for its fleet, retiring a design that hadn’t changed since 1967. (Among others, Twitter didn’t like it.) We caught up with designer Massimo Vignelli, the creator of the airline’s outgoing logo, to ask his opinion.

What do you think of the redesign?

It has no sense of permanence. The American flag is great. I’m designing a logo now for a German company, and I’m using black, red, gold, and yellow. Why? Because national colors have a tremendous equity. They’re much more memorable. It rings the bell of identification. But the American flag has 13 stripes, right? Not 11. Did American add only 11 stripes [to the flag on the tail] because they are in Chapter 11? I don’t think two more stripes would have been a disaster. And there are only two colors shown instead of all three. So is it a different flag?

What about the new logo?

Now they have something other than Helvetica that’s not as good or as powerful. Then they did a funny thing: Some may see an eagle [next to it], some may see something else. And they don’t even say it’s the eagle—they say it could be the eagle.

When we originally designed the logo, I designed without the eagle. They wanted an eagle. I said, “If you want an eagle, it has to have every feather.” You don’t stylize and make a cartoon out of an eagle. Somebody else did the eagle, by the way.

You didn’t design American’s original eagle between the “AA”?

I refused to do it. We started without it, and the pilots threatened to go on strike because they wanted the eagle on American Airlines. There’s always been the eagle. But I wanted the eagle to be real. As a matter of fact, the post office eagle, I think, is terrific. If you do an eagle, do an eagle with the dignity of an eagle. Don’t make Mickey Mouse out of an eagle. That was my theory at the time. The office of Henry Dreyfuss did the eagle. They were hired to do the interior of the planes. They were the office that originally gave us the assignment of the corporate identity. Dreyfuss was the consultant to American Airlines. The eagle was OK. It wasn’t great. I’m not sorry to see the eagle go.

What were you trying to achieve with the original design?

Legibility, which is a very important element of an airplane. So we used Helvetica, which was brand new at the time. And we wanted to make one word of American Airlines, half red and half blue. What could be more American than that? And there were no other logos then that were two colors of the same word. We took the space away, made one word, and split it again by color. It looked great. The typeface was great. We proceeded by logic, not emotion. Not trends and fashions.

What was your reaction when you heard that American was getting a new design?

There was no need to change. It’s been around for 45 years. Every other airline has changed its logo many times, and every time was worse than the previous one. Fifty years ago there were very few logos in general. Somebody started to do logos and people started thinking that logos were important, and now there is a plethora and so many don’t make sense. You see the pages of the sponsors of a concert or an exhibition, and at the bottom there are 50 different logos. It’s ridiculous. A word is so much better.

American Airlines filed for bankruptcy and it’s undergoing a larger rebranding. Couldn’t you make the argument that it’s right to want a new image and identity? That the old look may be somewhat damaged?

This is the typical mistake that company presidents make: “I’ll change the logo, and the company will look new.” What you have to have is a president who knows how to run the company, and in that process knows how to evaluate the brand identity. Otherwise it becomes a wolf camouflaged by sheep. It’s still the same company that’s not going to be successful. They’re not going to solve their problems, they’re just going to increase their costs. As you know, one of the great things about American Airlines was that the planes were unpainted. The paint adds so much weight that that brings an incredible amount of fuel consumption. For some reason they decided to paint the plane. The fact is, weight is weight.

Design is much more profound. Styling is very much emotional. Good design isn’t—it’s good forever. It’s part of our environment and culture. There’s no need to change it. The logo doesn’t need change. The whole world knows it, and there’s a tremendous equity. It’s incredibly important on brand recognition. I will not be here to make a bet, but this [new logo] won’t last another 25 years.

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Judge slams banks defrauded by fake tycoon

LONDON (Reuters) – A British judge sentenced a fake property tycoon to seven years in jail on Thursday for defrauding two banks out of over 700 million pounds ($ 1.1 billion), but said the banks deserved some blame for poor risk controls.

“The two banks, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Scotland, have undoubtedly acted carelessly and imprudently by failing to make full enquiries before advancing the money,” said judge Andrew Goymer as he sentenced Achilleas Kallakis, 44.

Kallakis was convicted by a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday of two counts of conspiracy to defraud, in one of Britain‘s biggest-ever property scams.

Co-defendant Alexander Williams, 44, was convicted of the same counts for his role in producing forged documents to back up Kallakis’s applications for loans. Judge Goymer sentenced him to five years in jail.

“Both defendants took full advantage of the prevailing banking culture in which corners were cut and checks on applications were superficial and cursory,” the judge said.

The case stems from a series of loans worth a total of 740 million pounds secured by the fraudsters from Allied Irish Banks Plc between 2003 and 2008.

Lax paperwork and weak background checks were hallmarks of Irish banking before the country’s property bubble burst in 2008. Banks competed with each other to attract real-estate developers and often relied on personal guarantees to lend them individual loans running to hundreds of millions of euros.

The property binge precipitated Ireland’s financial crisis and eventual EU-IMF bailout.

The conviction of Kallakis and Williams is a success for Britain’s cash-strapped Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which was widely criticised last year for a botched investigation into the dealings of property barons Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz.

In another SFO victory on Thursday that had echoes of the Kallakis case, the director of a sub-prime loan company was sentenced in his absence to 7-1/2 years in jail for defrauding creditors including Barclays Plc to the tune of 100 million pounds.

The SFO said in a statement that Waheed Luqman, who fled Britain in 2011 after he was charged and is believed to be in Pakistan, was a director of Lexi Holdings, a property finance company that went into administration in 2006 with debts of over 100 million pounds.

He conspired with other members of his family to defraud creditors of the company, including Barclays which was its main lender, between 2000 and 2006, the SFO said.

“The Lexi accounts were doctored to create a false picture of the company’s profitability and creditworthiness. Money was drained out of the company to family members in Pakistan,” the SFO said.

“DEAL AT ALL COSTS”

A spokesman for Bank of Scotland, now part of Lloyds Banking Group Plc described the crime as “a sophisticated fraud committed by determined individuals” and said the bank had uncovered the fraud itself and had assisted the SFO.

At Allied Irish, a spokeswoman declined to comment on the judge’s remarks.

During a four-month trial, the jury heard that Kallakis had used the funds he obtained to build up a portfolio of 16 properties and to pay for his fleet of chauffeur-driven Bentleys, a private plane and helicopter and luxury yacht moored in Monaco.

The second count was related to a separate loan worth 29 million euros obtained between 2007 and 2008 from Bank of Scotland to convert a ferry into a super-yacht.

The loan was approved but only 5.7 million euros had been paid out when suspicions were raised.

The judge said the defendants had gambled and lost on the London property market, hoping that the fake guarantees they offered the banks would never be called in because the market “would go on expanding towards infinity”.

“While I do not equate the position of the banks with that of a householder or car owner who forgets to secure his house or car and becomes the victim of burglary or theft, they do bear some responsibility for what happened,” said Goymer.

The judge noted that Bank of Scotland had been warned by its lawyers about the risks of accepting a particular letter of assurance from a Swiss lawyer backing up Kallakis’s application for a loan.

“It almost beggars belief that senior management chose to disregard that warning in its rush to complete the deal at all costs,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Carmel Crimmins and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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Video game puts players in shoes of Syrian rebels

BEIRUT (AP) — A new video game based on Syria‘s civil war challenges players to make the hard choices facing the country’s rebels. Is it better to negotiate peace with the regime of President Bashar Assad, for example, or dispatch jihadist fighters to kill pro-government thugs?

The British designer of “Endgame: Syria” says he hopes the game will inform people who might otherwise remain ignorant about the conflict.

Views differ, however, on the appropriateness of using a video game to discuss a complex crisis that has killed more than 60,000 people since March 2011. Computer giant Apple has refused to distribute the game and some consider the mere idea insulting. Others love it, and one fan from inside Syria has suggested changes to make the game better mirror the actual war.

The dispute comes amid wider arguments about violent video games since last month’s shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead. This week, the National Rifle Association revised the recommended age for a new shooting game after criticisms by liberal groups.

Tomas Rawlings, who designed the Syria game, said he got the idea while watching TV pundits debate the possible consequences of directly arming Syria’s rebels, which Western nations have declined to do. He said he thought a game could explore such questions by allowing players to make choices and see their consequences.

“For those who don’t want to read a newspaper but still care about the world, this is a way for them to find out about things,” said Rawlings, the design and production director of U.K.-based Auroch Digital.

In the simple game, which took about two weeks to build, the player assumes the role of the rebels seeking to topple Assad’s regime. The play alternates between political and military stages. In each stage, the player sees cards representing regime actions and must choose the rebel response.

The choices seek to mirror the real conflict. The regime may get declarations of support from Russia, China or Iran to boost its popularity while the rebels receive support from the United States, Turkey or Saudi Arabia – reflecting the foreign powers backing the two sides.

In battle, the regime may deploy conventional military forces like infantry, tanks and artillery as well as pro-government thugs known as shabiha. The rebels’ choices include sympathetic Palestinian or Kurdish militias, assassins or jihadist fighters known as muhajideen.

Some of the rebels’ strongest attacks also kill civilians, reducing rebel popularity and seeking to reflect the war’s complexity.

All along, the player is given basic information about the conflict, learning that Islamists once persecuted by the regime now consider the fight a holy war and that the shabiha are accused of massacring civilians.

The game ends when one side loses its support or the sides agree to a peace deal. The player is then told what follows. The longer the fighting lasts, the worse the aftermath, as chaos, sectarian conflict and Islamic militancy spread.

The lasting impression is that no matter which side wins, Syria loses.

Rawlings said that’s the game’s point.

“You can win the battle militarily but still lose the peace because the cost of winning militarily has fractured the country so much that the war keeps going,” he said. “You can also end the war so that there is less of that.”

The game was released on the company’s website and as a free download from Google for Android devices on December 12. Rawlings submitted the game to Apple to distribute via its App Store but the company rejected it.

Apple declined to comment, but Rawlings’s rejection referred to a company guideline for mobile apps: ” ‘Enemies’ within the context of a game cannot solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity.”

Rawlings is modifying the game, though he worries it will weaken it.

“It will still be the same overall experience, but it will reduce the value of the game to inform people,” he said.

News of the game was greeted with a mix of interest and outrage online. Some complained that players can’t take the regime side, while others found it wrong to make a game about a brutal war.

“Rawlings has mistakenly understood the Syrian war as a nonchalant ‘experience’ that people can play while waiting for the train to work,” said Samar Aburahma, a university student of Palestinian descent in San Francisco who refused to try the game. “It is beyond insulting to Syrians, especially given the fact that war is ongoing.”

Others find it a valuable, if limited, approach to the conflict.

Andrea Stanton, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver who studies Syria, said she responded emotionally to the game.

“It isn’t really a fun game to play,” she said, noting that she was angry when she lost and felt dread when the frequency of deadly regime airstrikes went up as the game progressed – as it has in the real conflict.

“This a very sobering game in that you sense how quickly the military stakes escalate and how little the political phase has to do with actual Syrians,” she said.

She is organizing a campus activity for students to play and discuss the game.

“I think it is very valuable for teaching and getting people to experience a sense of the limited options the rebels face,” she said.

It is unclear how many people have played the game. Google says it has been downloaded as many as 5,000 times from its site, and Rawlings says more have played online. He guesses more than 10,000 people have tried it.

Few in Syria are likely to have played it, since fighting has made the Internet and even electricity rare in some parts of the country.

One 18-year-old Syrian gamer liked the game so much, however, that he sent Rawlings a list of suggestions for improvement.

Reached via Skype, he said the jihadist fighters should be called Jabhat al-Nusra, after an extremist rebel group that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.

He also pointed out that few rebel groups have tanks, as they do in the game, and suggested new rebel tactics.

“Car bombs are used lots in Syria, so that would make the game more realistic,” he said.

He said he hoped the game would help people understand the situation.

“I wish there were a 3D strategy game about Syria so you could feel the destruction on the ground,” he said.

The player, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said his feelings playing the game often mirror his feelings about the war. He wants peace but can’t imagine the rebels accepting a negotiated solution given how many people have died.

“Right this second, I want the war in Syria to stop, but when you see what is happening on the ground there is no way to make peace,” he said. “When I play the game like a rebel, I have to reject the peace.”

___

Associated Press writer Michael Liedtke contributed reporting.

Online: http://gamethenews.net/index.php/endgame-syria/

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Minaj, Carey fail to boost “American Idol” audience

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The audience for “American Idol” slumped 19 percent to 17.9 million viewers, its lowest season opener, despite the debut of judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban, according to early ratings data released on Thursday.

The two-hour premiere of the show’s 12th season on Fox television also lost 19 percent of the 18-49 age group most coveted by advertisers, Nielsen figures showed. Total viewers dropped to 17.9 million from 21.9 million in 2012.

Despite the drop, “American Idol” was still the most watched show by a huge margin on U.S. television Wednesday night, beating all shows combined in the 18-49 demographic on the three other biggest TV networks.

Fox executives also noted that “Idol” beat the 2012 September premiere of NBC singing show rival “The Voice” by some 46 percent in total viewers.

“American Idol,” long a ratings juggernaut for Fox, lost its eight-year crown as the most watched show on U.S. television last year to “Sunday Night Football.”

Singers Carey, Minaj and country artist Keith Urban joined the show as judges after Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler left last year.

Fox is a unit of News Corp

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant, editing by Stacey Joyce)

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U.S. faces drug shortages in treating multidrug-resistant TB

ATLANTA (Reuters) – More than 80 percent of health departments in the United States that treat tuberculosis resistant to standard treatment have trouble obtaining the drugs they need to cure the disease, according to a national survey released on Thursday.

Difficulties obtaining the drugs could be attributed to nationwide shortages, shipping delays and a complicated process for procuring new drugs that are still being tested, according to a National Tuberculosis Controllers Association survey of health departments.

The final results of the 2010 survey were released on Thursday and cited by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which said possible solutions could include obtaining drugs from foreign manufacturers, stockpiling them, and creating an expedited approval process for new drugs.

“These shortages interfere with our ability to successfully treat TB,” Kenneth Castro, director of the CDC’s division of Tuberculosis Elimination, said in an interview on Thursday.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis accounts for about 1.5 percent of all cases in the United States, Castro said.

The survey found that the shortages and other problems that hindered access to the second-line drugs could promote development of drug resistance, the CDC said.

In the survey of 26 health departments that treated tuberculosis patients who were resistant to conventional drugs, 81 percent reported having trouble during the previous five years finding or paying for medicine that would be effective.

Tuberculosis is caused by airborne bacteria. Most cases can be cured with a six-month combination of four drugs, but patients resistant to the standard drugs face up to 24 months of taking five to six drugs that are “less effective, more toxic, and more costly than first-line drugs,” the CDC said.

The United States had about 10,528 cases of tuberculosis in 2011 and there were 529 deaths from tuberculosis in 2009, according to the latest full year CDC statistics available.

More than half of the health departments surveyed said difficulty finding adequate drugs for the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, delayed treatment of their patients, the CDC said.

However, the CDC cautioned that because only 54 percent of the 61 health jurisdictions asked responded to the survey, the results might not accurately represent the national tuberculosis drug-shortage problem in general.

Of the 33 health departments that responded, 26 had multidrug-resistant cases of tuberculosis in the five years covered and 21 of those had difficulty obtaining the second-line drugs needed to treat the cases.

(Reporting by David Beasley; Editing by David Bailey)

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Citigroup profit hit by more than $2 billion in charges

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc posted $ 2.32 billion of charges for layoffs and lawsuits in its first financial report under new Chief Executive Michael Corbat, who said the bank needs to do better for shareholders.

Earnings rose from a year earlier as trading revenue rebounded, but the result was well below Wall Street expectations and Citi shares were down 3.6 percent in Thursday afternoon trade.

“We are not satisfied with these bottom-line earnings,” Corbat told a conference call with analysts, the first time he has addressed them publicly since becoming CEO.

Asked what he would consider a mark of success for Citigroup‘s turnaround, he said, “We’ve got to get to a point where we stop destroying our shareholders’ capital.”

Corbat’s remarks left some disappointed.

“It was a stay-tuned type of message,” said Tom Lewandowski, an analyst at brokerage Edward Jones who recommends Citi stock. “I expected to hear more than we got,” particularly in the way of goals for company performance.

Corbat, who took the reins in mid-October after predecessor Vikram Pandit was ousted, said in an earlier statement that Citi’s various businesses were combating competitive and regulatory problems, as well as issues dating to the financial crisis that continue to plague the bank and its peers.

Citi shares rose in Corbat’s first three months as CEO, outpacing peers, as some investors welcomed Pandit’s departure and anticipated changes in the bank’s structure. But analysts said estimates of future earnings are likely to be revised based on what the bank reported on Thursday.

The quarter “falls way short of expectations” on two issues – higher-than-expected legal costs and no significant release of reserves for bad loans, Nomura analyst Glenn Schorr said in a note to clients.

Gary Townsend, president of hedge fund Hill-Townsend Capital LLC, said Citi may have used some discretion in the accounting judgments behind the results.

“It may be that the new CEO is holding back,” he said. “There’s no reason that the quarter when Pandit left and (Corbat) came in should be great. The board obviously felt in firing Pandit and hiring Corbat that changes needed to be taken, and the fourth-quarter earnings report reflects a great deal of that.”

PROFIT MISSES

There was relatively little in the way of 2013 outlook from the bank, though Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach did tell analysts that Citi expects interest margins to be steady in 2013 relative to 2012. Bank investors have had a close eye on margins lately due to fears that falling interest rates could crimp the profitability of lending.

Fourth-quarter net income was $ 1.2 billion, or 38 cents a share, compared with $ 956 million, or 31 cents a share, in the same quarter of 2011.

Revenue from fixed income markets increased 58 percent, driving Citi’s Securities and Banking segment back to profitability. Company-wide revenue, adjusted for certain items, increased 8 percent, while operating expenses were unchanged.

Results were reduced by new legal costs of $ 1.29 billion, or 27 cents a share, and a previously announced corporate restructuring charge of $ 1.03 billion, or 21 cents a share.

Gerspach said $ 500 million of the new legal costs came from what he called a variety of issues in the ongoing U.S. consumer banking business. He later said he expects legal costs to remain “somewhat elevated.”

Expenses recorded for changes in the value of some of the bank’s debt and obligations of derivatives counterparties were 10 cents a share, compared with 1 cent a year earlier.

Excluding the many one-time items, Citi said it earned 69 cents per share. On that basis, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S on average expected 96 cents per share.

The operating earnings were 15 cents below the lowest of the 22 estimates that comprised the consensus forecast. It is the third year in a row that the bank’s fourth-quarter results have missed Wall Street forecasts by at least 20 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Citi shares were down $ 1.53 to $ 40.95 in Thursday afternoon trading following the results. Through Wednesday’s close, the shares had risen 16 percent in the three months since Corbat became CEO, against a 6 percent rise for the KBW banks index.

(Reporting by David Henry and Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by John Wallace and Tim Dobbyn)

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Canadian natives slow trade traffic in day of protest

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian natives slowed traffic on a bridge crucial to U.S.-Canadian trade on Wednesday as aboriginals across the country staged a “National Day of Action” to protest their living conditions.

Hundreds of natives, some wearing colorful dress and banging drums, blocked an access road leading to the Ambassador Bridge, according to the Globe and Mail, slowing traffic on a major trade artery that connects Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, Michigan.

Thousands of commercial trucks cross the bridge daily, carrying approximately 25 percent of the goods traded between the two countries, which form the world’s largest trading partnership.

Under the banner of “Idle No More,” native groups promised to hold a series of protests to draw Ottawa‘s attention to poor living conditions and high jobless rates facing many of Canada’s 1.2 million natives.

A native protest shut down a rail line that carries passenger and freight traffic west of Winnipeg in the western province of Manitoba, according to a spokesman for Canadian National Railway Co.

Native groups complain that Canada has ignored treaties signed with British settlers and explorers that they say granted native peoples significant rights over their territory.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to pay more attention to the demands of First Nations groups in a meeting last week with aboriginal groups.

Ottawa spends about C$ 11 billion ($ 11.1 billion) a year on its aboriginal population, but living conditions for many are poor and some reserves have high rates of poverty, addiction, joblessness and suicide.

Native leaders also want Ottawa to rescind parts of recent budget legislation that they say reduces environmental protection for lakes and rivers.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday it would not be “desirable” if the protest damaged the economy.

“This is not a time to have even more challenges to the Canadian economy,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

(Reporting By Russ Blinch, editing by Stacey Joyce)

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BlackBerry maker plans local skate, publicity in Waterloo to celebrate new phone

WATERLOO, Ont. – Call it BlackBerry Town, even if the name isn’t official.

In the lead up to the BlackBerry smartphone unveiling later this month, creator Research In Motion is turning its Waterloo, Ont., home base into a celebration of the device.

The company plans to decorate light poles in areas of Waterloo and neighbouring Kitchener with banners that promote its latest smartphone and thank the community for its support.

City councillors in Kitchener voted earlier this week to make an exception to rules that prevent corporations from using public property to advertise.

RIM says it is making plans for other events as well.

The company will hold skating rink parties at Kitchener City Hall and in Waterloo Town Square on Jan. 30 to coincide with the unveiling of its new BlackBerry devices.

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“American Idol” returns with feuds, fame, fortune

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “American Idol” returns on Wednesday with the tantalizing promise of fame, fortune and feuds – and that’s just among the celebrity panel hired to find the next pop music sensation.

Singer Mariah Carey, rapper Nicki Minaj and country artist Keith Urban make their debut as judges when the TV talent contest begins its 12th season on Fox.

“All three judges are eminently qualified. It’s a good spectrum in terms of embracing hip-hop, country and pop,” HitFix.com music blogger Melinda Newman said.

“What everyone is going to be looking at, sadly, is how Mariah and Nicki Minaj get along, instead of focusing on the contestants,” she said.

Carey, with more than 200 million album sales, the outspoken Minaj, one of the most exciting voices in rap, and Urban are expected to revive interest in the contest. Last year average audiences dipped below 20 million, and “Idol” lost its eight-year crown as the most watched show on U.S. television to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”

The three newcomers replace departing judges Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler who quit last year after two seasons.

The new panel, rounded out by old hand record producer Randy Jackson, didn’t come cheap. Carey is reported to be earning approximately $ 18 million for the season, Minaj about $ 12 million and Urban $ 8 million.

But industry watchers say “Idol” needs more than big names to bring in audiences at a time of cutthroat competition from talent contests like “The Voice,” “The X Factor,” and “America’s Got Talent.”

“While shaking up the show can initially provide curiosity tune in, at the end of the day, the panel needs to click with each other and with fans,” Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd said.

“‘Idol’ used to have the playground all to itself. After four months of ‘The Voice’ and ‘ X Factor’ last fall, are audiences still going to be excited by ‘Idol’?” Hibberd asked.

The new season of “Idol” was making headlines in September, when video of Carey and Minaj arguing during early auditions was leaked online.

Minaj also was reported to have threatened to shoot Carey, who said in a TV interview last week that she had hired extra security while filming the show.

FOCUS ON CONTESTANTS

In a tense media appearance last week, the two divas claimed they had put their feud behind them, attributing the fight to passionate differences of opinion about the contestants auditioning for a chance to make it through to later rounds.

Newman said it would be a shame if the fight overshadows the show’s original mission of finding new talent, an achievement that could prove the biggest boost to “Idol” ratings.

“All these shows have become more about the contestants than the judges. It would be nice if ‘American Idol,’ as the one that started it all, got the focus back on the contestants.

“Ten years ago, people were really excited when they were voting for (‘Idol’ winners) Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood. There needs to be a powerhouse group of contestants who really capture people’s interest, and who you want to root for,” Newman said.

The new judges say that’s what they want too.

“When I watch these shows and someone says yes to a person who clearly doesn’t deserve it, it bothers me,” Minaj told TV reporters last week. “And I want to jump through the TV because I feel like, for the people who are talented, it kind of minimizes how talented they really are. So when I came on, I didn’t really have a problem with saying no, because I kind of felt like we’re looking for the best of the best.”

Aspiring rappers – never a group that has been embraced by “Idol” producers or fans – will get short shrift.

“I definitely don’t think a rapper should be in this competition … When I got involved in the competition, I specifically said, I hope they didn’t try to do that because I was on the show, because I think America loves that it’s an honest singing competition,” Minaj said.

“American Idol” kicks off on Wednesday on Fox with a two-hour premiere, followed by a one-hour show on Thursday. Fox is a unit of News Corp.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Large study confirms flu vaccine safe in pregnancy

NEW YORK (AP) — A large study offers reassuring news for pregnant women: It’s safe to get a flu shot.

The research found no evidence that the vaccine increases the risk of losing a fetus, and may prevent some deaths. Getting the flu while pregnant makes fetal death more likely, the Norwegian research showed.

The flu vaccine has long been considered safe for pregnant women and their fetus. U.S. health officials began recommending flu shots for them more than five decades ago, following a higher death rate in pregnant women during a flu pandemic in the late 1950s.

But the study is perhaps the largest look at the safety and value of flu vaccination during pregnancy, experts say.

“This is the kind of information we need to provide our patients when discussing that flu vaccine is important for everyone, particularly for pregnant women,” said Dr. Geeta Swamy, a researcher who studies vaccines and pregnant women at Duke University Medical Center.

The study was released by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday as the United States and Europe suffer through an early and intense flu season. A U.S. obstetricians group this week reminded members that it’s not too late for their pregnant patients to get vaccinated.

The new study was led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It tracked pregnancies in Norway in 2009 and 2010 during an international epidemic of a new swine flu strain.

Before 2009, pregnant women in Norway were not routinely advised to get flu shots. But during the pandemic, vaccinations against the new strain were recommended for those in their second or third trimester.

The study focused on more than 113,000 pregnancies. Of those, 492 ended in the death of the fetus. The researchers calculated that the risk of fetal death was nearly twice as high for women who weren’t vaccinated as it was in vaccinated mothers.

U.S. flu vaccination rates for pregnant women grew in the wake of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, from less than 15 percent to about 50 percent. But health officials say those rates need to be higher to protect newborns as well. Infants can’t be vaccinated until 6 months, but studies have shown they pick up some protection if their mothers got the annual shot, experts say.

Because some drugs and vaccines can be harmful to a fetus, there is a long-standing concern about giving any medicine to a pregnant woman, experts acknowledged. But this study should ease any worries about the flu shot, said Dr. Denise Jamieson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The vaccine is safe,” she said.

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Online:

Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org

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