Canon earnings outlook falters, president steps down (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Canon Inc's 76-year-old chairman and CEO will take on the additional role of president after the $60 billion Japanese camera and printer maker forecast weak earnings growth and said its current president was stepping down.

Like other export-focused Japanese manufacturers, Canon, which makes 80 percent of its revenue overseas, has been hit by a strong yen and a weak economy, on top of last year's floods in Thailand that closed a printer plant and ruptured supply lines.

Canon said Tuneji Uchida, 70, will resign as of March 29, and be replaced by Fujio Mitarai, who served as president from 1995-2006 and has since held the post of chairman.

"Mitarai was at the centre of management, so I don't think there will be any sudden changes," said Naoki Fujiwara, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management, which manages about 500 billion yen ($6.5 billion) in assets.

"They do need to hand over to the next generation at some stage, so we're interested to see when that will happen."

Canon forecast 2012 operating profit of 390 billion yen ($5.1 billion), up from last year's 378.1 billion yen, but some way below the average forecast of 470 billion yen from 20 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Profit in 2010 was 387.5 billion yen.

Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka told reporters on Monday the company would work towards handing over to the next generation over the next three years. For now, given the uncertain economy, choosing a company veteran to replace Uchida, who had asked to step down, was the best option, he said.

Mitarai stepped down as president when he was appointed head of Japan's biggest business lobby, Nippon Keidanren, but he continued to play an active role and was named among the world's 30 best CEOs by Barron's magazine every year between 2008 and 2011.

A nephew of Takeshi Mitarai, among the first executives to head the company, Mitarai joined in 1961 after graduating from law school.

CAUTIOUS OUTLOOK

Canon posted a 14 percent increase in fourth-quarter operating profit, to 94.6 billion yen, in line with consensus estimates, after a fresh round of cost-cutting.

"They're forecasting a rise in 2012 earnings, but given the impact of exchange rates, they're taking a harsh outlook on profits," said Mizuho Research Institute senior economist Koji Takeuchi. "It's not negative overall, but Canon's indication of a cautious view will not be lost on the market."

Canon, which made its first camera in 1933 and now has its IXUS and PowerShot cameras competing against Nikon and Sony Corp, aims to sell 22 million compact cameras and 9.2 million interchangeable lens cameras this year, up from 18.7 million and 7.2 million, respectively, last year.

Nikon said in November it expected to sell 16 million compact cameras in the year to end-March, and 4.7 million digital SLR cameras.

Canon also competes with Xerox in printers.

Xerox lowered its 2012 outlook this month, predicting its business would feel the impact from the European debt crisis.

Canon shares have fallen about 18 percent since the start of last year, slightly underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average's 14 percent decline. The stock closed down 1 percent at 3,435 yen on Monday ahead of the earnings.

($1 = 76.67 yen)

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and Takeshi Yoshiike; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Edwina Gibbs and Ian Geoghegan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_canon_results

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Fla. highway open after chain crashes kill 10 (AP)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? Fog and brushfire smoke cleared enough Monday to reopen all lanes of a Florida interstate where 10 people died in a mass pileup that tossed wreckage across the asphalt and left rescuers to search for survivors in the dark by listening for their screams.

Another 18 people were hospitalized after a long line of cars and trucks collided early Sunday on a stretch of Interstate 75 south of Gainesville.

Steven R. Camps and some friends were driving home hours before dawn Sunday when they were drawn into the massive wreck.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," the Gainesville man said hours later. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."

The interstate had been closed for a time before the accidents because of a mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. The decision to reopen it early Sunday will certainly be a focus of investigators, as will the question of how the fire may have started.

The National Transportation Safety Board is among the agencies that have sent investigators to the scene. The NTSB said it is assessing whether it wants to formally join the probe, which is being led by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The pileups happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75. When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile.

At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.

Hours later, twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage. Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and urged Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area, just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to him when another vehicle hit that man's car.

The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities. A "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup, police said.

All six lanes of the interstate were closed most of Sunday as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames. Some traffic was being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, said Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. The northbound lanes were reopened at about 5:30 p.m.

At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved, police said. Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

On Monday, FHP released an accident report showing there was three-way crash at 11:55 p.m. Saturday, involving a tractor-trailer and two SUVs. One person was seriously injured in the crash. Trooper M.J. Todd noted in his report that "there was heavy smoke in the area, causing low visibility." The highway was closed to traffic a short time later.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

___

Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_us/us_deadly_interstate_crash

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Jordan's king receives Hamas leader (AP)

AMMAN, Jordan ? A senior Jordanian official says the country's king has received Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who is on his first official visit to the kingdom since his expulsion 13 years ago.

The official says talks with King Abdullah II opened in the presence of Qatar's crown prince, who mediated Mashaal's visit. He says the visit is meant to "break the ice" with the militant group banned in Jordan, Israel's closest Arab peace partner.

The official ? who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the visit's sensitivity ? said Sunday that Jordan will not allow Hamas to reopen offices in the kingdom.

Jordan is trying to engage with previously shunned Islamists, who have been gaining ground across the region amid the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled pro-Western dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_jordan_hamas

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Video: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Little green footballs)

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At least 9 killed, 18 hurt?in Fla. highway pile-ups

GAINESVILLE, Fla.?? At least nine people died in crashes overnight apparently caused by fog and smoke from a wildfire along Interstate 75 in north Florida, authorities said Sunday.

A local hospital was treating 18 people for injuries. Their conditions were unclear.

At least four to five large commercial vehicles and 10 passenger vehicles were involved. Many were badly mangled.

"That's a very scary thing when you can't see anything and hear the squealing of tires and don't know if 2,000 pounds of metal is coming at you," The Gainesville Sun quoted Alachua County Sheriff's Sgt. Todd Kelly as saying.

"We just hit it, and you couldn't see anything," added Donna Henry, who was driving with friends when her car hit a guardrail and ended up sideways.

From the side of the road she heard more crashes. "Like 15 times somebody hit, from this side and that, north and south. It was bad."

In one crash, a pickup truck was left sitting atop a passenger car and both were up against the rear end of a FedEx tractor-trailer. All vehicles were burned out.

The pile-ups, on both north- and southbound lanes, happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75 south of Gainesville.

All lanes of the interstate remained closed as investigators began their work examining the vehicles, many of them just burned shells.

The Florida Highway Patrol had closed the highway briefly earlier overnight because of a mixture of fog and smoke from a marsh fire in the Paynes Prairie area south of Gainesville.

The agency had several troopers driving along the stretch of I-75 to access the situation early Sunday.

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"When the visibility cleared, we reopened the road," said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan.

He said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

Riordan said this is the worst accident he's seen in his 27-year career with FHP.

Heavy fog and smoke were blamed for a deadly string of accidents four years ago. In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes caused by fog and smoke, including one pile-up that involved 40 vehicles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46181122/ns/us_news-life/

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Heidi Klum's Marriage to Seal a "Private Hell"?

Hell is a strong word, but that's what Us chooses to describe Heidi Klum's marriage to Seal, which is coming to an end after nearly seven years of bliss together.

While reconciliation is still on the table, and the couple is still wearing their wedding rings, the tabloid tells a dramatically different story regarding the duo.

One focused on Seal's temper, apparently.

While jealousy over Heidi's career was reportedly a source of friction between the two, as well as the time they spent apart, "vicious fights" may be a stretch.

Clearly, things weren't perfect, otherwise they'd still be together, but that doesn't mean their split has to be this shocking, violent, combative affair, does it?

The couple says: "While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate."

"This is an amicable process and while we have had the deepest respect for one another and continue to love each other very much, we have grown apart."

Could it be that's actually true? And that while it was certainly the most shocking celebrity divorce of the year, it isn't a contentious or scandalous battle?

Sure, but that doesn't sell magazines, right Us?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/heidi-klums-marriage-to-seal-a-private-hell/

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