Asia shares set for best week in 2 months as outlook improves

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares ambled higher on Friday and were on course for a weekly gain of more than 2 percent, their best in two months, after manufacturing surveys from China and the United States raised hopes that the global growth outlook is improving at last.

The euro was also enjoying a positive week, despite data on Thursday pointing to the euro zone sliding into its deepest recession since 2009, with the currency standing up more than 1 percent on last Friday's close on optimism that a funding deal for debt-choked Greece will ultimately be agreed.

Activity was subdued across financial markets on Friday, with a public holiday in Japan and U.S. trading curtailed by the long Thanksgiving weekend.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> rose 0.4 percent, with shares in South Korea <.ks11> and Hong Kong <.hsi> both posting modest gains while Australian stocks <.axjo> slipped 0.1 percent. <.ks><.ax><.hk/>

"I suspect profit-taking will probably be a dominant factor at play in the market today," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.

The MSCI index was up around 2.3 percent on the week, its best weekly performance since mid-September.

Confidence in the global economic outlook got its biggest boost from Thursday's HSBC flash manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for China, which showed expansion in the factory sector accelerating for the first time in 13 months, broadly lifting riskier assets such as stocks and commodities.

The Chinese data followed a report on Wednesday showing U.S. manufacturing grew in November at its quickest pace in five months, indicating strong economic growth in the fourth quarter.

PMI data on the manufacturing and services sectors in Europe's two biggest economies, Germany and France, added to the better tone, revealing that conditions had not worsened in November, though both economies were still contracting.

However, the PMI numbers for the wider euro zone remained extremely weak, pointing to its recession-hit economy shrinking by about 0.5 percent in the current quarter - its sharpest contraction since the first quarter of 2009.

GREEK RISKS

The euro was steady against the dollar around $1.2884, within sight of Thursday's three-week high of $1.2899.

The single currency was boosted by expectations that international lenders will soon reach a deal to release the next tranche of aid for Greece, although some market players remained cautious about the risks still posed by Europe's debt crisis.

"Greek exit (from the euro zone) is very unlikely this weekend, but I don't want to go into this weekend holding any risky positions," said RBS strategist Greg Gibbs in a note.

"In fact, while much ink has been spilled on the U.S. fiscal cliff, the bigger risk is still cracks appearing again in Europe."

The euro dipped 0.1 percent versus the yen to 106.11 yen, backing away from a six-and-a-half-month high of 106.585 yen set on Thursday.

The dollar eased 0.1 percent versus the yen to 82.39 yen, pulling away from Thursday's high of 82.84 yen, the dollar's strongest level since early April.

The dollar has climbed roughly 3.6 percent against the yen in the last two weeks, with the yen weakened by market expectations that the likely next Japanese government would push the Bank of Japan to implement more drastic monetary stimulus.

Commodity markets were quiet, with oil and copper easing a little but staying on course to end the week higher than they started.

Gold was flat around $1,730 an ounce.

(Editing by Eric Meijer)

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IHT Rendezvous: Remake of 'Red Dawn' Changes Its Political Hue

HONG KONG — There are essentially two versions of North Korea available to cartoonists, filmmakers, political analysts and Jon Stewart. The first is the Acme-rocket, Wile E. Coyote kind of place where the leisure-suited, bouffant-haired dictator receives daily injections of the blood of young virgins and makes a dozen holes-in-one during his first-ever round of golf.

The second version of North Korea is a baleful gulag of a country that’s perpetually railing against the running-dog American imperialists and threatening to turn Seoul into a sea of fire. A million goose-stepping troops in the North can’t wait to get it on with the traitors in the South, and the Kim family’s nuclear missiles are always kept on hair-trigger alert.

A new film, “Red Dawn,” a remake of the 1984 cult classic, in opting for the latter caricature mixes “bargain-bin special effects, bad acting and politics,” as Manohla Darghis says in her review this week in The Times.

The original film in ’84 had Soviet shock troops invading the United States — the bipolar Cold War was still in geopolitical play, of course — and they are eventually defeated by a flannel-shirted and letter-jacketed posse of patriotic and exceedingly attractive Michigan farm kids. Among these children of the corn are Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, pre-“Dirty Dancing.”

“Back in a simpler time, the enemy was simpler,” Dan Bigman writes in Forbes. “They didn’t own all of our debt or build our iPads or have way better airports than we do. They were the vaunted Soviets, their cars sucked, they didn’t have cable and sometime around 1984, they invaded the United States in a desperate attack aimed at messing up Patrick Swayze’s hair.”

Hairstyles and history change, of course, so the script for the remake replaced the Soviet marauders with heathen hordes from China. The film was shot in 2009, but when MGM suddenly found itself facing a fiscal cliff, the movie was shelved.

By the time new financing was secured, China had become the fastest-growing market for Hollywood films — and the second-largest market in the world after North America.

Mainland moviegoers were not likely to pay their hard-earned yuan for a film featuring Chinese villains. (More likely, they’d wait for pirated copies on DVD.)

The censors in Beijing also were not likely to be happy. Nobody puts Beijing in a corner.

So the “Red Dawn” producers did some fast nipping and tucking, digitally morphing the invaders into North Koreans.

The film historian Peter X. Feng said on a Yahoo blog that this sort of political switcheroo dates to World War I, when Cecil B. DeMille had a Japanese villain in his 1915 film “The Cheat.” By the time the film was reissued in 1923, Japan had become an American ally, so the bad guy was turned into a Burmese.

“Without a single word from Chinese authorities, the U.S. studio spent another $1 million to re-edit its film,” said a story in Global Times, a mainland newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.

“But no matter what villains the U.S. film producers choose, ‘Red Dawn’ and many more films involving conflicts with foreign countries often reflect Americans’ stubborn Cold War mindset.

“In their imagination, there is always an aggressive and ideologically different state that is trying to spy on or wage war with the U.S. The heroic American people always fight back and wipe out the villains.”

As Rendezvous reported in July, a number of changes have been made to major Hollywood films to appease the Communist censors. Laundry hanging outside in Shanghai was cut from “Mission: Impossible III.” Scenes from a shootout in Chinatown were whacked from “Men in Black 3.” And highly skilled Chinese engineers were written into “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” even though no such characters were in the original book.

Such artistic “compromises” carry a financial logic. The Chinese movie market, worth more than $2 billion last year, is seen as increasingly vital for Hollywood filmmakers: One film-industry expert said Chinese moviegoers can bump a film’s box-office receipts by as much as $50 million.

“We were initially very reluctant to make any changes,” Tripp Vinson, one of the movie’s producers, told The Los Angeles Times. “But after careful consideration we constructed a way to make a scarier, smarter and more dangerous ‘Red Dawn’ that we believe improves the movie.”

But the director of the original “Red Dawn,” John Milius, told The Los Angeles Times that a remake was “a stupid thing to do.”

“The movie is not very old,” said Mr. Milius, who saw the first script of the new film. “It was terrible. There was a strange feeling to the whole thing.” He said the remake was “all about neat action scenes and has nothing to do with story.”

And Manohla says in her review that “thinking adults will find a North Korean invasion the stuff of wing-nut fantasies.”

David Axe, writing on the Danger Room blog of Wired magazine, calls the new remake “the dumbest movie ever.”

“If you want to watch good-looking young men gun down hapless North Korean soldiers against the backdrop of your local schools, churches and shopping malls, the Milius-free ‘Red Dawn’ could be just the thing,” says Mr. Axe. “But act fast. This is one cinematic invasion almost certain to collapse quickly.”

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Mayim Bialik and Michael Stone Divorcing

By Mike Fleeman

11/21/2012 at 05:00 PM EST

After "much consideration and soul-searching," Mayim Bialik announced Wednesday that she and husband Michael Stone are divorcing after nine years of marriage.

The Big Bang Theory star, who has sons Miles, 7, and Fred, 4, with Stone, cites "irreconcilable differences" for the split, which she revealed in a statement on her Kveller.com parenting blog.

"Divorce is terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible for children. It is not something we have decided lightly," she writes.

The former star of TV's Blossom, 36, also says that the split is not due to the attachment parenting she discusses in her book Beyond the Sling. "Relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose," she says.

"The main priority for us now is to make the transition to two loving homes as smooth and painless as possible," Bialik, 36, continues. "Our sons deserve parents committed to their growth and health and that’s what we are focusing on. Our privacy has always been important and is even more so now, and we thank you in advance for respecting it as we negotiate this new terrain."

She concludes by saying, "We will be ok."

The couple were married in August 2003 in Pasadena, Calif.

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Study finds mammograms lead to unneeded treatment

Mammograms have done surprisingly little to catch deadly breast cancers before they spread, a big U.S. study finds. At the same time, more than a million women have been treated for cancers that never would have threatened their lives, researchers estimate.

Up to one-third of breast cancers, or 50,000 to 70,000 cases a year, don't need treatment, the study suggests.

It's the most detailed look yet at overtreatment of breast cancer, and it adds fresh evidence that screening is not as helpful as many women believe. Mammograms are still worthwhile, because they do catch some deadly cancers and save lives, doctors stress. And some of them disagree with conclusions the new study reached.

But it spotlights a reality that is tough for many Americans to accept: Some abnormalities that doctors call "cancer" are not a health threat or truly malignant. There is no good way to tell which ones are, so many women wind up getting treatments like surgery and chemotherapy that they don't really need.

Men have heard a similar message about PSA tests to screen for slow-growing prostate cancer, but it's relatively new to the debate over breast cancer screening.

"We're coming to learn that some cancers — many cancers, depending on the organ — weren't destined to cause death," said Dr. Barnett Kramer, a National Cancer Institute screening expert. However, "once a woman is diagnosed, it's hard to say treatment is not necessary."

He had no role in the study, which was led by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth Medical School and Dr. Archie Bleyer of St. Charles Health System and Oregon Health & Science University. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer and cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. Nearly 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Other countries screen less aggressively than the U.S. does. In Britain, for example, mammograms are usually offered only every three years and a recent review there found similar signs of overtreatment.

The dogma has been that screening finds cancer early, when it's most curable. But screening is only worthwhile if it finds cancers destined to cause death, and if treating them early improves survival versus treating when or if they cause symptoms.

Mammograms also are an imperfect screening tool — they often give false alarms, spurring biopsies and other tests that ultimately show no cancer was present. The new study looks at a different risk: Overdiagnosis, or finding cancer that is present but does not need treatment.

Researchers used federal surveys on mammography and cancer registry statistics from 1976 through 2008 to track how many cancers were found early, while still confined to the breast, versus later, when they had spread to lymph nodes or more widely.

The scientists assumed that the actual amount of disease — how many true cases exist — did not change or grew only a little during those three decades. Yet they found a big difference in the number and stage of cases discovered over time, as mammograms came into wide use.

Mammograms more than doubled the number of early-stage cancers detected — from 112 to 234 cases per 100,000 women. But late-stage cancers dropped just 8 percent, from 102 to 94 cases per 100,000 women.

The imbalance suggests a lot of overdiagnosis from mammograms, which now account for 60 percent of cases that are found, Bleyer said. If screening were working, there should be one less patient diagnosed with late-stage cancer for every additional patient whose cancer was found at an earlier stage, he explained.

"Instead, we're diagnosing a lot of something else — not cancer" in that early stage, Bleyer said. "And the worst cancer is still going on, just like it always was."

Researchers also looked at death rates for breast cancer, which declined 28 percent during that time in women 40 and older — the group targeted for screening. Mortality dropped even more — 41 percent — in women under 40, who presumably were not getting mammograms.

"We are left to conclude, as others have, that the good news in breast cancer — decreasing mortality — must largely be the result of improved treatment, not screening," the authors write.

The study was paid for by the study authors' universities.

"This study is important because what it really highlights is that the biology of the cancer is what we need to understand" in order to know which ones to treat and how, said Dr. Julia A. Smith, director of breast cancer screening at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Doctors already are debating whether DCIS, a type of early tumor confined to a milk duct, should even be called cancer, she said.

Another expert, Dr. Linda Vahdat, director of the breast cancer research program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the study's leaders made many assumptions to reach a conclusion about overdiagnosis that "may or may not be correct."

"I don't think it will change how we view screening mammography," she said.

A government-appointed task force that gives screening advice calls for mammograms every other year starting at age 50 and stopping at 75. The American Cancer Society recommends them every year starting at age 40.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the cancer society's deputy chief medical officer, said the study should not be taken as "a referendum on mammography," and noted that other high-quality studies have affirmed its value. Still, he said overdiagnosis is a problem, and it's not possible to tell an individual woman whether her cancer needs treated.

"Our technology has brought us to the place where we can find a lot of cancer. Our science has to bring us to the point where we can define what treatment people really need," he said.

___

Online:

Study: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1206809

Screening advice: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Asian shares rise on firm China, U.S. factory data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Thursday as a survey showed China's manufacturing sector expanded for the first time in 13 months in November, adding to optimism after firm U.S. factory data that the global growth slowdown may have turned a corner.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> extended early gains to rise 0.8 percent to a one-week high.

Regional equities markets had already been buoyed by recovering risk appetite on easing tension in the Middle East and hopes that a Greece bailout will be agreed next week.

Resources-sensitive Australian shares <.axjo> surged 1.3 percent to a one-week high as miners climbed. London copper rose 0.5 percent to $7,732.75 a tonne while spot gold inched up 0.2 percent to $1,731.34 an ounce.

The China HSBC Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose to a 13-month high of 50.4 in November, indicating factory activity was picking up and pointing to a reviving economic growth after seven consecutive quarters of slowing. A sub-index measuring output rose to 51.3, also the highest since October 2011.

"The data suggests the China's growth had hit a bottom in the third quarter and prospects are brightening for small and medium-sized firms in China," said Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory.

While the report is positive, the rise in prices of base metals, for which China is the world's top consumer, will be contained given the high level of Chinese inventories, he said.

"But shares get a boost because they are driven by sentiment and because contained base metal prices under an improving economy will help companies boost their earnings," Niimura said.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> jumped 1.2 percent to a 6-1/2-month high as exporters were lifted by hopes the weakening yen would boost their earnings. <.t/>

The yen has come under pressure since the Japanese government announced a December 16 election last week.

The opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which is tipped to win, on Wednesday promised a big extra budget and a policy accord with the central bank on aggressive monetary stimulus to prevent the economy from sliding into recession.

The yen fell to a 7-1/2-month low versus the dollar of 82.59 on Thursday, while the yen also hit a 6-1/2-month low of 106.26 yen against the euro.

"Yen, I think, is being driven by anticipation of LDP led government forcing aggressive monetary easing," said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

Traders said the markets may be capped as activity slows ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Niimura said as hedge funds close their books this month and next, any swing in prices should be seen as more related to their position adjustments than a change in real risk appetite.

GREECE DEAL AWAITED

European shares <.fteu3> rose for a third straight session on Wednesday as investors bet on a positive outcome to negotiations over aid to Greece after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a deal to release emergency aid to Greece was still possible next Monday when euro ministers meet.

The expectations of a Greek deal helped the euro rebound to a two-week high against the dollar of $1.28685, after being initially sold off after international lenders to Greece failed to reach a deal to release the aid on Wednesday.

"Efforts to avert a Greek default may provide short-term relief for the euro, but the measures will only help to buy more time as Greece persistently seeks further external assistance," said David Song, currency analyst at DailyFX, who is maintaining a bearish view on the single currency.

Overnight, U.S. stocks ended modestly higher but volume was one of the year's lowest on the day ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

U.S. manufacturing grew in November at its quickest pace in five months, with a rise in domestic demand hinting that factories could provide a boost to economic growth in the fourth quarter, while those from Europe are due out later on Thursday.

A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, easing concerns about supply from oil-producing Middle East.

U.S. crude rose 0.3 percent to $87.66 a barrel while Brent inched up 0.2 percent to $111.06.

A rallying stock market boosted sentiment in Asian credit markets, tightening the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index by 3 basis points.

(Additional reporting by Ian Chua in Sydney and Dominic Lau and Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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Toll Rises as U.S. Pushes for Israel-Hamas Truce

JERUSALEM — Efforts to agree on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas intensified Tuesday, but the struggle to achieve even a brief pause in the fighting emphasized the obstacles to finding any lasting solution.

On the deadliest day of fighting in the week-old conflict, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived hurriedly in Jerusalem and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to push for a truce. She was due in Cairo on Wednesday to consult with Egyptian officials in contact with Hamas, placing her and the Obama administration at the center of a fraught process with multiple parties, interests and demands.

Officials on all sides had raised expectations that a cease-fire would begin around midnight, followed by negotiations for a longer-term agreement. But by the end of Tuesday, officials with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs Gaza, said any announcement would not come at least until Wednesday.

The Israelis, who have amassed tens of thousands of troops on the Gaza border and have threatened to invade for a second time in four years to end the rocket fire from Gaza, never publicly backed the idea of a short break in fighting. They said they were open to a diplomatic accord but were looking for something more enduring.

“If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem through diplomatic means, we prefer that,” Mr. Netanyahu said before meeting with Mrs. Clinton at his office. “But if not, I’m sure you understand that Israel will have to take whatever actions necessary to defend its people.”

Mrs. Clinton spoke of the need for “a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike.” It was unclear whether she was starting a complex task of shuttle diplomacy or whether she expected to achieve a pause in the hostilities and then head home.

The diplomatic moves came as the antagonists on both sides stepped up their attacks. Israeli aerial and naval forces assaulted several Gaza targets in multiple strikes, including a suspected rocket-launching site near Al Shifa Hospital. That attack killed more than a dozen people, bringing the total number of fatalities in Gaza to more than 130 — roughly half of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

A delegation visiting from the Arab League canceled a news conference at the hospital because of the Israeli aerial assaults as wailing ambulances brought victims in, some of them decapitated.

The Israeli assaults carried into early Wednesday, with multiple blasts punctuating the otherwise darkened Gaza skies.

Militants in Gaza fired a barrage of at least 200 rockets into Israel, killing an Israeli soldier — the first military casualty on the Israeli side since the hostilities broke out. The Israeli military said the soldier, identified as Yosef Fartuk, 18, had died from a rocket strike that hit an area near Gaza. Israeli officials said a civilian military contractor working near the Gaza border had also been killed, bringing the number of fatalities in Israel from the week of rocket mayhem to five.

Other Palestinian rockets hit the southern Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashdod, and longer-range rockets were fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Neither main city was struck, and no casualties were reported. One Gaza rocket hit a building in Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv, wounding one person and wrecking the top three floors.

Senior Egyptian officials in Cairo said Israel and Hamas were “very close” to a cease-fire agreement. “We have not received final approval, but I hope to receive it any moment,” said Essam el-Haddad, President Mohamed Morsi’s top foreign affairs adviser.

Foreign diplomats who were briefed on the outlines of a tentative agreement said it had been structured in stages — first, an announcement of a cease-fire, followed by its implementation for 48 hours. That would allow time for Mrs. Clinton to involve herself in the process here and create a window for negotiators to agree on conditions for a longer-term cessation of hostilities.

But it seemed that each side had steep demands of a longer-term deal that the other side would reject.

Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader, said in Cairo that Israel needed to end its blockade of Gaza. Israel says the blockade keeps arms from entering the coastal strip.

Ethan Bronner reported from Jerusalem, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo. Reporting was contributed by Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram from Gaza; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; Peter Baker from Phnom Penh, Cambodia; David E. Sanger and Mark Landler from Washington; and Rick Gladstone from New York.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 20, 2012

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misspelled the family name of the Israeli soldier who was killed in a Palestinian rocket attack on Tuesday. He is Yosef Fartuk, not Yosef Faruk. 

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Eric Stonestreet Wasn’t Drunk, He Swears

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

RELATED: What Happens When You Sing ‘All Night Long’ All Night Long

So if you were one of the few people watching the American Music Awards, (which no one watched) you may have seen Eric Stonestreet be a little tipsy. But that isn’t half as enjoyable as watching Eric Stonestreet watching himself be a little tipsy that night. (Also, wow, he’s sort of a bro.)

RELATED: Modern Family Is Scary

RELATED: ‘Seven Psychocats’ and the 50 Best Bond Moments in 007 Minutes

A few days ago we found out that Paul Rudd was in play called Grace on Broadway because … (wait for it) someone in the balcony puked on the audience members during the play. Four days late we can laugh at the whole thing. Mostly because we weren’t barfed on: 

RELATED: A ‘Mad Men’ Rickroll and the Man That Destroys Carnival Games

RELATED: A Video to Restore Our Faith in Humanity and a Glacier Tsunami

Here’s how to make some magic. What you’ll need: 

(1) Canadian newscaster with chubby fingers

(1) Technology

(1) Drunk piece of technology

Voila: 

And finally. Thanksgiving is upon us!  Today we’re thankful for squirrels who like to eat plastic: 

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Voice: Top Eight Contestants Revealed

TV Watch

By Julia Haskins

11/20/2012 at 10:05 PM EST

From left: Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and host Carson Daly

Mark Seliger/NBC

Following what Blake Shelton called the "best episode of The Voice we've ever had", spirited group performances on Tuesday night's show kept the energy up and distracted viewers just long enough from the business at hand – impending eliminations.

Christina Aguilera brought the heat with her song "Let There Be Love." Rascal Flatts shared their hit "Changed." Later, Adam Levine performed a rendition of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," followed by the contestants taking on Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot."

But once again, the decisions about who would stay and who would go were completely up to the viewers. No input from the coaches could save contestants this time. Keep reading to find out which contestants will sing again next week ...

The first round of results turned out to be good news for Nicholas David and Cassadee, later joined by Dez Duron and Cody Belew in the top eight.

America also gave Terry McDermott, Melanie Martinez, Trevin Hunte and Amanda Brown another shot at superstardom.

That means Bryan Keith and Sylvia Yacoub won't be singing again on Monday night's episode.

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OB/GYNs back over-the-counter birth control pills

WASHINGTON (AP) — No prescription or doctor's exam needed: The nation's largest group of obstetricians and gynecologists says birth control pills should be sold over the counter, like condoms.

Tuesday's surprise opinion from these gatekeepers of contraception could boost longtime efforts by women's advocates to make the pill more accessible.

But no one expects the pill to be sold without a prescription any time soon: A company would have to seek government permission first, and it's not clear if any are considering it. Plus there are big questions about what such a move would mean for many women's wallets if it were no longer covered by insurance.

Still, momentum may be building.

Already, anyone 17 or older doesn't need to see a doctor before buying the morning-after pill — a higher-dose version of regular birth control that can prevent pregnancy if taken shortly after unprotected sex. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration held a meeting to gather ideas about how to sell regular oral contraceptives without a prescription, too.

Now the influential American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is declaring it's safe to sell the pill that way.

Wait, why would doctors who make money from women's yearly visits for a birth-control prescription advocate giving that up?

Half of the nation's pregnancies every year are unintended, a rate that hasn't changed in 20 years — and easier access to birth control pills could help, said Dr. Kavita Nanda, an OB/GYN who co-authored the opinion for the doctors group.

"It's unfortunate that in this country where we have all these contraceptive methods available, unintended pregnancy is still a major public health problem," said Nanda, a scientist with the North Carolina nonprofit FHI 360, formerly known as Family Health International.

Many women have trouble affording a doctor's visit, or getting an appointment in time when their pills are running low — which can lead to skipped doses, Nanda added.

If the pill didn't require a prescription, women could "pick it up in the middle of the night if they run out," she said. "It removes those types of barriers."

Tuesday, the FDA said it was willing to meet with any company interested in making the pill nonprescription, to discuss what if any studies would be needed.

Then there's the price question. The Obama administration's new health care law requires FDA-approved contraceptives to be available without copays for women enrolled in most workplace health plans.

If the pill were sold without a prescription, it wouldn't be covered under that provision, just as condoms aren't, said Health and Human Services spokesman Tait Sye.

ACOG's opinion, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, says any move toward making the pill nonprescription should address that cost issue. Not all women are eligible for the free birth control provision, it noted, citing a recent survey that found young women and the uninsured pay an average of $16 per month's supply.

The doctors group made clear that:

—Birth control pills are very safe. Blood clots, the main serious side effect, happen very rarely, and are a bigger threat during pregnancy and right after giving birth.

—Women can easily tell if they have risk factors, such as smoking or having a previous clot, and should avoid the pill.

—Other over-the-counter drugs are sold despite rare but serious side effects, such as stomach bleeding from aspirin and liver damage from acetaminophen.

—And there's no need for a Pap smear or pelvic exam before using birth control pills. But women should be told to continue getting check-ups as needed, or if they'd like to discuss other forms of birth control such as implantable contraceptives that do require a physician's involvement.

The group didn't address teen use of contraception. Despite protests from reproductive health specialists, current U.S. policy requires girls younger than 17 to produce a prescription for the morning-after pill, meaning pharmacists must check customers' ages. Presumably regular birth control pills would be treated the same way.

Prescription-only oral contraceptives have long been the rule in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Australia and a few other places, but many countries don't require a prescription.

Switching isn't a new idea. In Washington state a few years ago, a pilot project concluded that pharmacists successfully supplied women with a variety of hormonal contraceptives, including birth control pills, without a doctor's involvement. The question was how to pay for it.

Some pharmacies in parts of London have a similar project under way, and a recent report from that country's health officials concluded the program is working well enough that it should be expanded.

And in El Paso, Texas, researchers studied 500 women who regularly crossed the border into Mexico to buy birth control pills, where some U.S. brands sell over the counter for a few dollars a pack. Over nine months, the women who bought in Mexico stuck with their contraception better than another 500 women who received the pill from public clinics in El Paso, possibly because the clinic users had to wait for appointments, said Dr. Dan Grossman of the University of California, San Francisco, and the nonprofit research group Ibis Reproductive Health.

"Being able to easily get the pill when you need it makes a difference," he said.

___

Online:

OB/GYN group: http://www.acog.org

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Asian shares ease on uncertainty over Greek bailout, U.S. fiscal cliff

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares eased on Wednesday as investors refocused on the euro zone debt crisis after European officials failed to reach a deal on a bailout for Greece, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted the dangers of a U.S. fiscal crisis.

The euro fell 0.4 percent to $1.2759, extending losses and retreating further from Tuesday's two-week high of $1.28295.

Euro zone finance ministers will meet again on Monday, after their meeting in Brussels ended on Wednesday without an agreement on the next tranche of loans to Greece.

"The euro is being sold because markets had believed the ministers would agree on aid for Greece at today's meeting," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo. "Instead, a settlement is postponed, highlighting the difficulty of getting consensus on the debt crisis. But I feel this is a typical European political show and an agreement will be reached."

The bearish news from Europe dragged down Asian shares, whose two-day rise had already been stalled by Bernanke on Tuesday repeating a warning that failure to avoid the $600 billion "fiscal cliff" in expiring tax cuts and government spending reductions could lead to recession in the United States.

The Fed chief said worries over how budget negotiations will be resolved were already damaging growth.

He also reiterated the Fed's guidance for keeping interest rates near zero until at least mid-2015, but offered few clues as to how the central bank might tweak its bond-purchase program at the start of next year.

Worries about the United States failing to raise its debt ceiling rattled financial markets in August 2011 and prompted Standard & Poor's to cut the top-notch U.S. government bond rating for the first time ever.

But Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities, said that for all the concerns over the fiscal cliff, most of the market expected the U.S. Congress to reach a compromise to avert the crisis.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> slipped 0.3 percent, after holding nearly flat earlier. Hong Kong <.hsi> shares bucked the falling trend but pared earlier gains to rise 0.2 percent.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> was up 0.4 percent, after rising to a two-month high as exporters were buoyed by a weaker yen. The yen has come under pressure on expectations that a general election on December 16 will result in victory for an opposition leader who wants the Bank of Japan to aggressively ease monetary policy. <.t/>

Daiwa's Yuihama said concerns over third-quarter earnings have subsided as most Asian companies had already reported results.

"This has prompted investors to turn to economic fundamentals. Signs of recovery in the U.S. and China are offering some assurances that the global economic slump may not be as severe as previously feared, even if growth remains fragile," Yuihama said.

YEN WEAKNESS PERSISTS

Trading activity was slowing ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving long weekend.

Going into the holiday, the dollar has been underpinned broadly by data indicating a moderate U.S. recovery taking root, while the yen remained under pressure, with more data showing Japan's economy struggling.

Japan's exports fell 6.5 percent in October from a year ago, dropping for a fifth consecutive month, weighed down by weakening global demand and a territorial row with China, its main customer.

In the U.S. on Tuesday, a report showed U.S. housing starts rose to the highest rate in more than four years in October.

The dollar rose to a seven-month high against the yen of 81.955 yen while the euro briefly touched a peak of 105.05 yen, its highest point since May 4.

A retreat in shares dragged oil lower. U.S. crude futures pared earlier gains to be up 0.1 percent to $86.80 a barrel and Brent crude also trimmed earlier rises to be up 0.13 percent at $109.90.

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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