" Rigg said.

Health care stocks reacts to 'fiscal cliff' deal

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of companies that provide medical services rose Wednesday as Wall Street looked for winners and losers in the "fiscal cliff" compromise.

Congress on Tuesday passed a bill that prevents an increase in income taxes for the middle class and the poor, and delays decisions on more than $100 billion in defense and domestic spending cuts. The compromise measure blocks a sharp cut in Medicare payments to doctors, but Medicare payments of all types will remain a major issue in the months to come as the government tries to tackle other spending issues.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Brian Tanquilut said the bill replaces the big physician reimbursement cut with smaller cuts to payments for dialysis providers and diagnostic imaging providers. He said payments to hospitals may be reduced later.

— Shares of Mednax Inc., which specializes in neonatal, pediatric cardiology and anesthesiology services, added $3.61, or 4.5 percent, to $83.13. Shares of medical service provider IPC The Hospitalist Co. rose $1.26, or 3.2 percent, to $40.97.

— Shares of physician staffing services company U.S. Physical Therapy Inc. gained 36 cents to $27.90, and rival Team Health Holdings Inc.'s stock advanced $1.59, or 5.5 percent, to $30.36.

— Shares of the largest publicly traded dialysis companies were mixed, as DaVita Inc. shares fell $2.17, or 2 percent, to $108.36, while Fresenius Medical Care AG shares rose 7 cents to $34.37.

— Shares of diagnostic imaging company Radnet Inc. gave up a penny to $2.52.

— Shares of acute care facilities company Kindred Healthcare Inc. rose 14 cents to $10.96, while nursing home owner Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. picked up 11 cents to $6.48.

SFG Research analyst Chris Rigg said the Medicare changes in the bill are "generally manageable," but healthcare stocks will trade around their current prices for another two to four months while the bigger issues are worked on.

"We view the bill passed as a down payment on a much larger bill later this year," Rigg said.

000 pound

Hilary Mantel wins best-novel Costa Book Award

LONDON (AP) — British writer and two-time Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel has been named novelist of the year at Britain's Costa Book Awards for "Bring Up the Bodies."

Mantel's achievement Wednesday for her blood-soaked Tudor saga makes her the first author to win both the Costa novel award and Booker Prize in the same year.

The Costa Book Awards carry a 5,000 pound ($8,125) prize and are given in five categories: novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book.

Other winners included Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie for "The Overhaul," and Francesca Segal for her first-novel "The Innocents," which is set in a tightly-knit Jewish community in northwest London and modeled on Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence."

"Dotter of Her Father's Eyes," written by Mary Talbot and drawn by her husband, Bryan, won the biography category, marking the first time a graphic work has won a Costa award. Severely dyslexic writer and illustrator Sally Gardner won the children's book prize for her fifth novel, "Maggot Moon."

The five winners are now shortlisted for the 25,000 pound grand prize of 2012 Costa Book of the Year which will be announced Jan. 29 in London.

The awards, known until 2006 as the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 and recognize "outstanding and enjoyable books" by writers based in the U.K. and Ireland.

"So many strange names have been allowed

Icelandic girl fights for right to her own name
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REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Call her the girl with no name.

A 15-year-old is suing the Icelandic state for the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother. The problem? Blaer, which means "light breeze" in Icelandic, is not on a list approved by the government.

Like a handful of other countries, including Germany and Denmark, Iceland has official rules about what a baby can be named. In a country comfortable with a firm state role, most people don't question the Personal Names Register, a list of 1,712 male names and 1,853 female names that fit Icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules and that officials maintain will protect children from embarrassment. Parents can take from the list or apply to a special committee that has the power to say yea or nay.

In Blaer's case, her mother said she learned the name wasn't on the register only after the priest who baptized the child later informed her he had mistakenly allowed it.

"I had no idea that the name wasn't on the list, the famous list of names that you can choose from," said Bjork Eidsdottir, adding she knew a Blaer whose name was accepted in 1973. This time, the panel turned it down on the grounds that the word Blaer takes a masculine article, despite the fact that it was used for a female character in a novel by Iceland's revered Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness.

Given names are even more significant in tiny Iceland that in many other countries: Everyone is listed in the phone book by their first names. Surnames are based on a parent's given name. Even the president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, is addressed simply as Olafur.

Blaer is identified as "Stulka" — or "girl" — on all her official documents, which has led to years of frustration as she has had to explain the whole story at the bank, renewing her passport and dealing with the country's bureaucracy.

Her mother is hoping that will change with her suit, the first time someone has challenged a names committee decision in court.

Though the law has become more relaxed in recent years — with the name Elvis permitted, inspired by the charismatic rock and roll icon whose name fits Icelandic guidelines — choices like Cara, Carolina, Cesil, and Christa have been rejected outright because the letter "c'' is not part of Iceland's 32-letter alphabet.

"The law is pretty straightforward so in many cases it's clearly going to be a yes or a no," said Agusta Thorbergsdottir, the head of the committee, a panel of three people appointed by the government to a four-year term.

Other cases are more subjective.

"What one person finds beautiful, another person may find ugly," she acknowledged. She pointed to "Satania" as one unacceptable case because it was deemed too close to "Satan."

The board also has veto power over people who want to change their names later in life, rejecting, for instance, middle names like Zeppelin and X.

When the artist Birgir Orn Thoroddsen applied to have his name legally changed to Curver, which he had used in one form or another since age 15, he said he knew full well the committee would reject his application.

"I was inspired by Prince who changed his name to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince and Puff Daddy who changed his to P. Diddy and then Diddy with seemingly little thought or criticism," he said. "I applied to the committee, but of course I got the 'No' that I expected."

On his thirtieth birthday, he bought a full-page advertisement that read, "From February 1, 2006, I hereby change my name to Curver Thoroddsen. I ask the nation, my friends and colleagues to respect my decision."

"I can understand a clause to protect children from being named something like 'Dog poo,' but it is strange that an adult cannot change his name to what he truly wants," he said.

Thoroddsen is keeping his protest to the media. But Eidsdottir says she is prepared to take her case all the way to the country's Supreme Court if a court doesn't overturn the commission decision on Jan. 25.

"So many strange names have been allowed, which makes this even more frustrating because Blaer is a perfectly Icelandic name," Eidsdottir said. "It seems like a basic human right to be able to name your child what you want, especially if it doesn't harm your child in any way."

"And my daughter loves her name," she added.

Rhode Island

Boehner agrees to Sandy aid vote on Friday
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Under intense pressure from angry Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner agreed Wednesday to a vote this week on aid for Superstorm Sandy recovery.

The speaker will schedule a vote Friday for $9 billion for the national flood insurance program and another on Jan. 15 for a remaining $51 billion in the package, Republican Rep. Peter King of New York said after emerging from a meeting with Boehner and GOP lawmakers from New York and New Jersey. The votes will be taken by the new Congress that will be sworn in Thursday.

King left the session with Boehner without the anger that led him to rip into the speaker Tuesday night.

"It was a very positive meeting," King said, adding that Boehner, R-Ohio, assured the lawmakers present that the money from the two House votes would roughly equal the $60 billion package of aid that passed the Senate.

Since the votes will be taken in the new Congress, the Senate also will have to approve the legislation. If the House, as expected, approves the $9 billion flood insurance proposal, the Senate plans to move quickly in hopes of approving the aid on a voice vote Friday. The flood insurance money will help pay for claims by home and business owners with coverage.

Sandy was the most costly natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and one of the worst storms ever in the Northeast.

"Getting critical aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy should be the first priority in the new Congress, and that was reaffirmed today with members of the New York and New Jersey delegations," Boehner said in a joint statement with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

Boehner's decision Tuesday night to cancel an expected vote on Sandy aid before Congress ends its current session provoked a firestorm of criticism from New York, New Jersey and adjacent states where the money will go, including many lawmakers in his own party.

According to King, Boehner explained that after the contentious vote to avoid major tax increases and spending cuts called the "fiscal cliff," Boehner didn't think it was the right time to schedule the vote before the current Congress went out of business.

"What's done is done. The end result will be New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will receive the funding they deserve. We made our position clear last night. That's in the past," King said.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., added, "We do believe we have an iron clad commitment."

The Senate approved a $60.4 billion measure Friday to help with recovery from the October storm that devastated parts of New York, New Jersey and nearby states. The House Appropriations Committee has drafted a smaller, $27 billion measure for immediate recovery needs and a second amendment for $33 billion to meet longer-term needs.

The $9 billion in flood insurance money to be voted on Friday was originally in the $27 billion measure. The votes on Jan. 15 will be for $18 billion in immediate assistance and $33 billion for longer-term projects, including projects to protect against future storms, King said.

Much of the money in the proposals is for immediate help for victims and other recovery and rebuilding efforts. The aid is intended to help states rebuild public infrastructure such as roads and tunnels and help thousands of people displaced from their homes.

Some $5.4 billion is for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund, $5.4 billion is to help transit agencies in New York and New Jersey rebuild and another $3.9 billion is for the Housing and Urban Development Department's development fund to repair hospitals, utilities and small businesses.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, was among those sharply criticizing Boehner before the speaker changed course.

Christie said he was frustrated after Boehner withdrew the bill Tuesday night and tried to call him four times that night, but none of the calls were returned. Christie complained about the "toxic internal politics" of the House majority. Christie said he had worked hard to persuade House members to support Sandy aid, and was given assurances by GOP leaders that the bill would be voted on before Thursday.

"There is no reason for me at the moment to believe anything they tell me," Christie said before Boehner announced there would be votes this month.

King had branded Boehner's initial decision to pull the bill a "cruel knife in the back" to New York and New Jersey.

King was among an angry chorus of New York and New Jersey lawmakers from both parties who blasted Boehner, with some saying his move was a "betrayal."

In considering the Sandy aid package, the speaker was caught between conservative lawmakers who want to offset any increase in spending and Northeast and mid-Atlantic lawmakers determined to help their states recover more than two months after the storm hit.

The criticism of Boehner on the House floor was personal at times, and reflected in part the frustration among the rank-and-file over the decision to press ahead with a vote on the fiscal cliff deal engineered by the White House and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Boehner had been struggling with conservatives who complained that the economic package didn't include enough spending cuts.

Reps. Michael Grimm, a Republican, and Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, said in angry House floor remarks that while they did not agree on much, Boehner's decision amounted to a "betrayal" and a crushing blow to states battered by the storm.

President Barack Obama also called for an immediate House vote. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., raised the political temperature even more. She said Boehner should come to Staten Island and the Rockaways to explain his decision to families whose homes and businesses were destroyed. "But I doubt he has the dignity nor the guts to do it," Gillibrand said.

Obama, meanwhile, called for House Republicans to vote on the Sandy aid "without delay for our fellow Americans." The president said in a written statement that many people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are trying to recover from the storm and need "immediate support with the bulk of winter still in front of us."

The White House said Obama spoke Wednesday with Christie about the importance of the disaster aid bill, and that the president's staff was in touch with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's team too as Obama lobbied for House action.

Christie and Cuomo, a Democrat, issued a joint statement, saying, "The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty."

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., blamed tea party lawmakers and conservatives who were reluctant to approve new spending soon after the debate over the "fiscal cliff" budget issues for the sudden move by GOP leaders. He said the move was "deplorable."

More than $2 billion in federal funds has been spent so far on relief efforts for 11 states and the District of Columbia struck by the storm, one of the worst ever to hit the Northeast. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund still has about $4.3 billion, enough to pay for recovery efforts into early spring, according to officials. The unspent FEMA money can only be used for emergency services, said Pallone.

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are receiving federal FEMA aid.

Sandy was blamed for at least 120 deaths and battered coastline areas from North Carolina to Maine. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were the hardest hit states and suffered high winds, flooding and storm surges. The storm damaged or destroyed more than 72,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey. In New York, 305,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed and more than 265,000 businesses were affected.

___

Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

their school colors

Sandy Hook children head to school for first time since attack
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NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Hundreds of children who had escaped a harrowing attack on their elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, last month, headed back to classes Thursday for the first time since a gunman had barged into their school and killed 20 of their schoolmates and six staff members.

Across Newtown's sprawling Sandy Hook neighborhood, home to the elementary school where the December 14 attack took place, children bundled in heavy winter coats boarded buses decked in green and white ribbons, their school colors, for the seven-mile journey to their new school building.

Chalk Hill Middle School, a disused school in the neighboring town of Monroe, was refurbished specifically for the students from Newtown, and now bears a new but familiar name - Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Anca Roberto, 35, put her five-year-old daughter, a kindergartner, on the bus not far from the old Sandy Hook school, which remains a bullet-riddled crime scene closed to anyone but police.

Roberto said she'd been nervous about the return to school until Wednesday, when she and her daughter attended an open house at the new location. Her daughter was thrilled to find her cubby intact, moved from the old school, and she "screeched" when she saw her friends.

The students "hugged, and they played and they were just children," Roberto said. "The teachers were just amazing."

With safety foremost on parents' and officials' minds in the wake of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, the school has been outfitted with a new security system. Monroe Police Department officers were patrolling the grounds, and all outside doorways and sidewalks are under surveillance.

"I think right now, we have to make this the safest school in America," Monroe Police Lieutenant Keith White said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Asked if she was nervous about her daughter's safety, Roberto said: "I was until yesterday. There's just so much supervision. They're in the safest place."

Parents wishing to remain with their children, age five to 10, from kindergarten through fourth grade, would be allowed to accompany them to their classrooms, and could wait in the school's "lecture room" for as long as they wished, according to a memo to parents on the school's website. Counseling would be available for students and parents at the new premises.

Erin Milgram, parent of a first-grader and a fourth-grader, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she planned to drive behind the school bus and stay with her seven-year-old daughter Lauren, whose teacher Kaitlin Roig had hidden her first-grade class in a closet during the attack.

"I haven't gotten to that part yet about not being with them; I just need to stay with them for a while," Milgram said, fighting back tears.

As the students return Thursday, they will find all of their familiar belongings from their school in Sandy Hook, including desks that were left behind nearly three weeks ago, when Adam Lanza burst through the school doors and opened fire.

Their new school building has been decked out as a "Winter Wonderland," with the help of thousands of children from around the world.

"This does not look like the other elementary school," Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson said emphatically.

In the meantime, no new details have emerged to explain why the 20-year-old Lanza, armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle, two other firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, targeted the school. State police investigators have said it could be months before they complete their report.

Described by family friends as having Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home about five miles from the school, before driving to Sandy Hook and embarking on the massacre, police said. He then took his own life as police arrived at the school, which had an enrollment of 456.

The massacre in Newtown, a rural New England town of 27,000 residents about 70 miles northeast of New York City, which President Barack Obama described as the worst day of his presidency, stunned the nation and reignited a highly charged debate over gun control. Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with assembling a package of gun-control proposals to submit to Congress over the next several weeks.

The National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun-rights lobby in the United States, has rebuffed calls for more stringent firearm restrictions and, instead, called for armed guards to patrol every public school in the country.

(Writing by Dan Burns; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Shannon Stapleton in Monroe, Connecticut; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bernadette Baum)

Widow of Chile folk singer Victor Jara asks US to extradite a suspect in his 1973 killing

Widow of Chile folk singer Victor Jara asks US to extradite a suspect in his 1973 killing

SANTIAGO, Chile - The widow of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara is calling on the United States to extradite a retired military official charged with his murder during Chile's 1973 coup.

Pedro Barrientos Nunez now lives in Florida and has denied any role in the death of Jara, which is remembered as one of the Chilean dictatorship's most brutal crimes.

Joan Jara held a news conference Wednesday in the stadium where Jara and thousands of other leftists were detained during the coup. She said the charges against Barrientos and seven other former officers is a sign of hope that justice is possible for all the deaths and disappearances. More than 3,000 people were killed by state authorities during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

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American journalist missing in Syria
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BEIRUT (AP) — An American journalist has been missing in Syria since he was kidnapped more than one month ago, his family said Wednesday, less than two years after he was held by government forces in Libya while covering that country's civil war.

The family of James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., said he was kidnapped in northwest Syria by unknown gunmen on Thanksgiving day.

Foley, 39, has worked in a number of conflict zones around the Middle East, including Syria, Libya and Iraq. He was contributing videos to Agence France-Press while in Syria.

Foley's disappearance highlights the risks to reporters seeking to cover the civil war from inside Syria.

The Syrian government rarely gives visas to journalists and often limits the movements of those it allows in. This has prompted a number of reporters to sneak into the country with the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. Some have been killed or wounded while others have disappeared.

Foley and another journalist were working in the northern province of Idlib when they were kidnapped near the village of Taftanaz on November 22. He had entered Syria a short time earlier.

Media outlets refrained from reporting on Foley's kidnapping until his family released its statement. The other reporter's family has requested that that reporter's name not be made public.

Foley's family said they have not heard from him since.

"We want Jim to come safely home, or at least we need to speak with him to know he's OK," said his father, John Foley, in the online statement. "Jim is an objective journalist and we appeal for the release of Jim unharmed. To the people who have Jim, please contact us so we can work together toward his release."

The Chairman of Agence France-Press, Emmanuel Hoog, said in a statement that the news agency was doing all it could to get Foley released.

"James is a professional journalist who has remained totally neutral in this conflict," Hoog said. "His captors, whoever they may be, must release him immediately."

In April 2011, Foley and two other reporters were detained by government forces in Libya while covering that country's civil war. They were released six weeks later. South African photographer Anton Hammerl was shot during their capture and left to die in the desert.

"I'll regret that day for the rest of my life. I'll regret what happened to Anton," Foley told The Associated Press at the time. "I will constantly analyze that."

The U.N. said Wednesday that more than 60,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria's conflict in March 2011. This number represents a large jump from death tolls previously given by anti-regime activists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Syria was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2012, when 28 reporters were killed.

Those who lost their lives include award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain's Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin. Also, Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The New York Times, died after an apparent asthma attack while on assignment in Syria.

Last month, NBC correspondent Richard Engel and his crew were detained by pro-regime gunmen near where Foley was kidnapped. After his release, Engels said they escaped unharmed during a firefight between their captors and anti-regime rebels.

___

Associated Press writer Elaine Ganley contributed reporting from Paris.