Turkish PM fumes over steamy Ottoman soap opera

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A hit TV show about the Ottoman Empire‘s longest-reigning Sultan has raised a political storm in Turkey, with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urging legal action over historical inaccuracies and the opposition accusing him of artistic tyranny.

Erdogan tore into the weekly soap opera “Magnificent Century”, which attracts an audience of up to 150 million people in Turkey as well as parts of the Balkans and Middle East, in response to criticism of his government’s foreign policy.

The lavish television production, which grips audiences with tales of power struggles and palace intrigue, is set during the 16th century reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, when Ottoman rulers held sway over an empire straddling three continents.

Bristling at suggestions that Turkey was meddling too much in its neighbors’ affairs, Erdogan recalled Turkey’s heritage, and said Suleiman had been a proud conqueror rather than the indulgent harem-lover portrayed in the show.

“(Critics) ask why are we dealing with the affairs of Iraq, Syria and Gaza,” Erdogan said at the opening of an airport in western Turkey on Sunday.

“They know our fathers and ancestors through ‘Magnificent Century’, but we don’t know such a Suleiman. He spent 30 years on horseback, not in the palace, not what you see in that series.”

Scenes that showed Suleiman with women in the harem have prompted calls from viewers in the mostly Muslim and largely conservative country for the broadcasting regulator (RTUK) to ban the series. But it tops the viewing charts each week.

Erdogan said the director of the series, which has been on air since January 2011, and the owner of the channel that broadcasts it had been warned, but also said he expected the judiciary to act, without elaborating.

Erdogan’s opponents accused him of authoritarianism.

“The prime minister must be jealous of the series’ popularity. He thinks there’s no need for another sultan when he’s in power,” said Muharrem Ince, the deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

“Erdogan wants to be the only sultan.”

Elected a decade ago with the strongest majority seen in years, Erdogan has overseen a period of unprecedented prosperity in Turkey. But concerns are growing about his increasingly authoritarian rule.

Hundreds of politicians, academics and journalists are in jail on charges of plotting against the government, while more than 300 army officers were given prison terms in September for conspiring to topple him not long after he swept to power.

Turkey has been increasingly assertive in regional politics, most notably over the crisis in neighboring Syria, where it has led calls for international action and scrambled war planes in a warning to Damascus not to violate its territory.

“I think the prime minister’s aim here is to change the agenda. I can’t think of any other reason to discuss an imaginary television series when there are so many problems in a country,” Nebahat Cehre, who played Suleiman’s mother during the first two seasons, told Turkey’s Birgun newspaper.

(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Jon Hemming)

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Global Update: Investing in Eyeglasses for Poor Would Boost International Economy

BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images

Eliminating the worldwide shortage of eyeglasses could cost up to $28 billion, but would add more than $200 billion to the global economy, according to a study published last month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

The $28 billion would cover the cost of training 65,000 optometrists and equipping clinics where they could prescribe eyeglasses, which can now be mass-produced for as little as $2 a pair. The study was done by scientists from Australia and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The authors assumed that 703 million people worldwide have uncorrected nearsightedness or farsightedness severe enough to impair their work, and that 80 percent of them could be helped with off-the-rack glasses, which would need to be replaced every five years.

The biggest productivity savings from better vision would not be in very poor regions like Africa but in moderately poor countries where more people have factory jobs or trades like driving or running a sewing machine.

Without the equivalent of reading glasses, “lots of skilled crafts become very difficult after age 40 or 45,” said Kevin Frick, a Johns Hopkins health policy economist and study co-author. “You don’t want to be swinging a hammer if you can’t see the nail.”

If millions of schoolchildren who need glasses got them, the return on investment could be even greater, he said, but that would be in the future and was not calculated in this study.

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Chicago housing recovery lags other cities

A sale is pending on this home in San Francisco. The National Association of Realtors reported a decline in sales in September. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / October 19, 2012)

By Mary Ellen Podmolik




Tribune staff reporter

8:25 a.m. CST, November 27, 2012

The Chicago area's housing recovery continues to lag behind other metropolitan areas, according to a widely watched monthly index of home prices released Tuesday.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index found that area home prices in September fell 0.6 percent from August and were down 1.5 percent on an annualized basis. Chicago and New York City were the cities among the 20 studied where pricing was worse than their year-ago comparisons.

September's reading was the first monthly decrease for the Chicago area's home price index after five months of gains. Despite the slip in the overall market, area condo prices continued to recover, rising .9 percent in September from August, marking the six consecutive month of improvement.

Historically, condo prices remain at their spring 2001 level while the overall market's pricing is similar to its fall 2001 levels.

All combined, the 20 cities included in the home price index in September recorded a monthly gain of 0.3 percent in September. Year-over-year, prices rose 3 percent. On a quarterly basis, the national composite rose 3.6 percent in the third quarter compared with 2011's third quarter.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Cops: Gang member killed, another wounded at funeral

Rev. Corey Brooks talks about shooting after a funeral in Chicago on Monday, November 26, 2012. (Scott Strazzante, Chicago Tribune)

A reputed gang member was killed, and another seriously wounded, at a funeral for a man who was gunned down last week on the South Side, with a minister at the services tweeting afterward, "This is Crazy."

The two men were shot outside St. Columbanus Church in the 300 block of East 71st Street, across the street from the A.A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home, shortly before 12:30 p.m., police said.

They were taken to Stroger Hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead. The other victim was in critical condition, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Will Knight. Both victims are convicted felons and known gang members, police said. Two guns were recovered at the scene.

The shooting occurred after the funeral for James Holman, 32, who was slain last week at an apartment building in the Washington Park neighborhood, according to police and the minister who was presiding, the Rev. Corey Brooks.

"I just preached a funeral and gunfire has broke out," Brooks tweeted. "Chaos about 500 people here. This is Crazy!!

"Please pray for Chicago," he added in a later tweet. "This is horrible."

Brooks had finished the eulogy and the man's family and close friends had gone out the front door of the church when shots rang out.

"That's when all the gunfire broke out and it was just crazy," said Brooks. "People were hollering and screaming and kids running everywhere. By the time we got back around to the front, you got these guys who have been shot."

Brooks said he usually accompanies families out of the church after funerals, but had left by a side door for a radio interview.

"I do know that the shooters were at that funeral," he said. "From what everyone is saying, those guys came out of the funeral and waited."

He said a witness told him one of the men raised his hand as he was shot.  "One of the guy's whole hand got shot off because he raised his hand to stop the shot and it shot his hand off," Brooks said.

Brooks believes the men who were shot were targeted. "It's not a random [shooting], you can mark that one off. If someone shoots at a funeral and somebody gets hit, more than one, it's direct, it's specific. . .This is more a hit: These are guys that I want and I want to get them. So it was a target."

Police said Holman was a gang member, but Brooks said he wasn't sure.

"I don't think that he was but I don't know for sure," he said. "No one told me that he was, and normally when I get ready to do funerals [for gang members], I've got guys around me who will say, 'Pastor, we need to take a couple of guys with us,' or 'You need to call the police to be at that funeral.' Everything that I heard was that he was a guy who liked to party and have fun."

Brooks is the pastor who spent weeks on the rooftop of an abandoned motel last winter in an effort to get it torn down to make way for a community center in the Woodlawn neighborhood. He is also considering a run for the congressional seat left vacant when Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. recently resigned.

"It says that things are definitely out of control," Brooks said. "There was a time with a lot of gangbangers, older guys, where things were off limits, weddings, funerals. Church was off limits. Now we are living at a day and time where these younger criminals have no regard for life or for street rules. That means things have gotten to a level where someone has to step in and do some drastic things to change it."

One witness said she saw someone firing at two people outside the church.

Deborah Echols-Moore said there were several hundred mourners in the sanctuary of the church when she heard gunshots. “We thought it was someone banging on the seats,” but soon realized it was gunshots, Echols-Moore said.

People panicked and made a rush to get out of the church. "A lady fell on me.”

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Actor: CBS comedy ‘Two and a Half Men’ is ‘filth’

NEW YORK (AP) — The teenage actor who plays the half in the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” says it’s “filth” and through a video posted by a Christian church has urged viewers not to watch it.

Nineteen-year-old Angus T. Jones has been on the show since he was 10 but says he doesn’t want to be on it. He says, “Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.”

The video was posted by the Forerunner Christian Church in California, where Jones says he went to meet his spiritual needs.

Show producer Warner Bros. Television has no comment. CBS hasn’t responded to a request for comment left Monday.

The show stars Jon Cryer as Jones’ uptight dad and originally featured Charlie Sheen as his hedonistic philandering uncle, but Sheen was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

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Amid Hurricane Sandy, a Race to Get a Liver Transplant

It was the best possible news, at the worst possible time.

The phone call from the hospital brought the message that Dolores and Vin Dreeland had long hoped for, ever since their daughter Natalia, 4, had been put on the waiting list for a liver transplant. The time had come.

They bundled her into the car for the 50-mile trip from their home in Long Valley, N.J., to NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan. But it soon seemed that this chance to save Natalia’s life might be just out of reach.

The date was Sunday, Oct. 28, and Hurricane Sandy, the worst storm to hit the East Coast in decades, was bearing down on New York. Airports and bridges would soon close, but the donated organ was in Nevada, five hours away. The time window in which a plane carrying the liver would be able to land in the region was rapidly closing.

In a hospital room, Natalia watched cartoons. Her parents watched the clock, and the weather. “Our anxiety was through the roof,” Mrs. Dreeland said. “It just made your stomach into knots.”

The Dreelands, who are in their 60s, became Natalia’s foster parents in 2008 when she was 7 months old, and adopted her just before she turned 2. They have another adopted daughter, Dorothy Jane, who is 17.

Natalia is a “smart little cookie” who loves school and dressing up Alice, her favorite doll, her mother said. At age 3, Natalia used the word “discombobulated” correctly, Mr. Dreeland said.

Natalia’s health problems date back several years. Her gallbladder was taken out in 2010, and about half her liver was removed in 2011. The underlying problem was a rare disease, Langerhans cell histiocytosis. It causes a tremendous overgrowth of a type of cell in the immune system and can damage organs. Drugs can sometimes keep it in check, but they did not work for Natalia.

In her case, the disease struck the bile ducts, which led to progressive liver damage. “She would have eventually gone into liver failure,” said Dr. Nadia Ovchinsky, a pediatric liver transplant specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian. “And she demonstrated some signs of early liver failure.”

The only hope was a transplant.

Dr. Tomoaki Kato, Natalia’s surgeon, knew that the liver in Nevada was a perfect match for Natalia in the two criteria that matter most: blood type and size. The deceased donor was 2 years old, and though Natalia is nearly 5, she is small for her age. Scar tissue from her previous operations would have made it very difficult to fit a larger organ into her abdomen.

Though Dr. Kato had considered transplanting part of an adult liver into Natalia, a complete organ from a child would be far better for her. But healthy organs from small children do not often become available, Dr. Kato said. This was a rare opportunity, and he was determined to seize it.

But as the day wore on, the odds for Natalia grew slimmer. The operation in Nevada to remove the liver was delayed several times.

At many hospitals, surgery to remove donor organs is done at the end of the day, after all regularly scheduled operations. The Nevada hospital had a busy surgical schedule that day, made worse by a trauma case that took priority.

At the hospital in New York, Tod Brown, an organ procurement coordinator, had alerted a charter air carrier that a flight from Nevada might be needed. That company in turn contacted West Coast carriers to pick up the donated liver and fly it to New York.

Initially, two carriers agreed, but then backed out. Several other charter companies also declined.

Mr. Brown told Dr. Kato that they might have to decline the organ. Dr. Kato, soft-spoken but relentless, said, “Find somebody who can fly.”

Dr. Kato used to work in Miami, where pilots found ways to bypass hurricanes to deliver organs. Even during Hurricane Katrina, his hospital performed transplants.

“I asked the transplant coordinators to just keep pushing,” he said.

Mr. Brown said, “Dr. Kato knew he was going to get that organ, one way or another.”

As the trajectory of the storm became clearer, one of the West Coast charter companies agreed to attempt the flight. The plan was to land at the airport in Teterboro, N.J. The backup was Newark airport, and the second backup was Albany, from where an ambulance would finish the trip.

The timing was critical: organs deteriorate outside the body, and ideally a liver should be transplanted within 12 hours of being removed.

Early Monday, as the storm whirled offshore, the plane landed at Teterboro. Soon a nurse rushed to tell the Dreelands that she had just seen an ambulance with lights and sirens screech up to the hospital. Someone had jumped out carrying a container.

At about 5 a.m., the couple kissed Natalia and saw her wheeled off to the operating room.

Three weeks later, she is back home, on the mend. The complicated regimen of drugs that transplant patients need is tough on a child, but she is getting through it, her father said.

Recently, Mr. Dreeland said, he found himself weeping uncontrollably during a church service for the family of the child who had died. “Their child gave my child life,” he said.

Though only time will tell, because the histiocytosis appeared limited to Natalia’s bile ducts and had not affected other organs, her doctors say there is a good chance that the transplant has cured her.

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Obama taps Walter as new SEC chief

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Monday designated Elisse Walter as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it's unclear if the Democratic commissioner will be the permanent replacement for outgoing Mary Schapiro.

Walter, who has served on the SEC since July 2008, will take over the reins of the agency after Schapiro steps down on Dec. 14. Schapiro announced her resignation Monday.

Obama thanked Schapiro for her "steadfast leadership." 

"When Mary agreed to serve nearly four years ago, she was fully aware of the difficulties facing the SEC and our economy as a whole," Obama said in a written statement.

"But she accepted the challenge, and today, the SEC is stronger and our financial system is safer and better able to serve the American people – thanks in large part to Mary's hard work," he said.

Obama can designate a current commissioner as chairman. But he must nominate a permanent replacement, who then has to be confirmed by the Senate.

After Schapiro departs next month, the SEC will have two Democrats and two Republicans, making it difficult to pass any controversial measures.

The White House did not indicate if Walter was among those being considered for the nomination.

Walter served as chairwoman for a short period in January 2009 after the departure of former Chairman Christopher Cox, before Schapiro was sworn in.

Walter, a former executive at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, has been mentioned as a permanent replacement for Schapiro.

Obama said he was "confident that Elisse's years of experience will serve her well in her new position."

ALSO:

SEC chief Mary Schapiro to step down

Warren Buffett says tax hikes won't stop wealthy from investing

New faces likely for key U.S. economic posts, starting at Treasury

Follow Jim Puzzanghera on Twitter and Google+.

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Bears get back on track by beating Vikings

After the season, the Bears plan to begin expansion at Halas Hall, but they might need to build out the training room now.

In what resembled a last-man-standing battle, they beat the rival Vikings 28-10 on Sunday at Soldier Field, but the badly needed victory came at a steep price. The Bears, who improved to 8-3 by snapping a two-game losing streak, lost five starters and are dangerously thin on their offensive line, depending on the status of guards Lance Louis and Chris Spencer, who both went out with knee injuries.

Running back Matt Forte left with an ankle injury, wide receiver Devin Hester suffered a concussion and cornerback Charles Tillman left with an ankle injury. Linebacker Lance Briggs had his right ankle retaped during the second half and was hobbled afterward. They were not the only ones banged up as the Vikings lost tight end Kyle Rudolph and free safety Harrison Smith to suspected concussions.

The Bears have been in good health for most of the season and the only injured player to miss the game was wide receiver Alshon Jeffery following arthroscopic knee surgery.

Quarterback Jay Cutler returned after missing one game with a concussion and locked onto Brandon Marshall, who caught 12 passes for 92 yards to go over 1,000 for the season, the first Bears receiver to do so since Marty Booker in 2002.

Cutler showed no ill effects from his head injury, keeping plays alive with his legs and absorbing a big hit from defensive end Jared Allen on his 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end Matt Spaeth. Cutler finished 23 of 31 for 188 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The only sack came when he was tripped up backpedaling on his first dropback.

"Jay was fired," Marshall said. "Sense of urgency. The most I've seen all year. He was ready to go."

Forte carried 14 times for 42 yards before leaving in the third quarter after he was caught in a tangled mess of defenders. He fumbled on the Bears' first offensive play, and the Vikings capitalized with a 40-yard field goal by Blair Walsh.

But after the Bears got a takeaway when Nick Roach stripped Adrian Peterson (18 carries, 108 yards), Michael Bush scored on his first of two 1-yard touchdown runs. Robbie Gould added a field goal and Chris Conte's interception of Christian Ponder set up Spaeth's score. The Bears ran a fake extra point with holder Adam Podlesh running in and they were running away with the game 25-3 at halftime.

The second half turned into a battle of attrition and the Bears weathered the storm on the line by moving benched right tackle Gabe Carimi to right guard, a desperation move needed as Edwin Williams already had spelled Spencer at left guard. Teams typically dress only seven linemen, as the Bears did, and now they are without Chilo Rachal, who walked out on the team Wednesday and was placed on the reserve/non-football injury list.

But the game plan was smart six days after the Bears surrendered six sacks in San Francisco. Offensive coordinator Mike Tice committed to the run throughout and the Bears used short drops, chip help and a variety of techniques to keep the Vikings at bay. Cutler said new right tackle Jonathan Scott "added a little extra edge" to the mix.

"When you have a line of new guys in there, I want to get rid of the ball fast," Cutler said. "Find my first read and take it. The more I can do to get rid of the ball quickly and run the ball. If we have to design routes to shorten things up, so be it."

While Peterson topped 100 yards, 23 came on a run midway through the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. He never buoyed their offense, and Ponder missed his top target Percy Harvin, who was out with an ankle injury. Ponder completed only 22 of 43 passes for 159 yards.

The Bears and Vikings will meet again in two weeks at the Metrodome. Maybe both sides will be healed by then, but the key for the Bears, 2-6 in the last three seasons without Cutler, is the quarterback.

"Not every team has a guy like we have at our quarterback position," coach Lovie Smith said. "Just the confidence that comes with having your guy, your quarterback. No matter how it's looking, the guys have confidence that with Jay leading us, we can come back."

bmbiggs@tribune.com

Twitter @BradBiggs

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Nokia imaging chief to quit

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia‘s long-time imaging chief Damian Dinning has decided to leave the loss-making cellphone maker at the end of this month, the company said in a statement.

The strong imaging capabilities of the new Lumia smartphone models are a key sales argument for the former market leader, which has been burning through cash while losing share in both high-end smartphones and cheaper handsets.

Nokia’s Chief Executive Stephen Elop has replaced most of the top management since he joined in late 2010 and Dinnig is the latest of several executives to leave.

Dinning did not want to move to Finland as part of the phonemakers’ effort to concentrate operations and will join Jaguar Land Rover to head innovations in the field of connected cars, he said on Nokia’s imaging fan site PureViewclub.com.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki, editing by William Hardy)

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Singer Bjork’s vocal cord surgery successful

LONDON (AP) — Icelandic singer Bjork says she has had successful surgery to remove a vocal cord polyp.

The eccentric 47-year-old singer says on her official website that she had been trying to tackle the problem with exercises and diets since doctors first discovered the polyp, a benign growth on either one or both of the vocal cords, several years ago.

Bjork said that she decided to undergo laser surgery and it has worked, though she had to stay quiet for three weeks.

She wrote: “Surgery rocks! … It’s been very satisfying to sing all them clear notes again.”

The singer apologized for cancelling various shows earlier this year, and that she looked forward to singing for her fans next year.

Last year Adele had minor surgery to remove a benign polyp.

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