Complaints claim Egypt satirist defamed military

CAIRO — Egypt's top prosecutor received complaints Saturday against a popular television satirist less than 24 hours after he returned to the air, as the private TV station that airs his program sought to distance itself from its contents.

The legal complaints and the reaction of the private station CBC highlight the low tolerance this deeply divided country has for criticism of the military and its leaders.

Bassem Youssef, often compared to U.S. comedian Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's satirical "The Daily Show, mocked the new pro-military fervor gripping Egypt in his program that aired Friday night.

Youssef also took jabs at the country's powerful military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, lionized in the Egyptian media as a hero after leading a July 3 coup that ousted the country's elected Islamist president following massive protests.

By Saturday, at least four complaints had been filed with the country's top prosecutor, accusing Youssef of defaming the military in his show, a judicial official said. One of the complaints accused Youssef of using phrases that "undermine the honor and dignity of Egypt and its people" in a manner sowing sedition and spreading lies.

The official said no investigation into the complaints had started yet. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists. Such complaints, common under Egyptian law, are often shelved until prosecutors decide to start an investigation.

In a statement read during prime time Saturday night, a broadcaster read a statement issued by CBC's board of directors in which the station sought to distance itself from the views expressed by Youssef on his show called "El-Bernameg," or "The Program." The statement appeared to be a reaction to negative feedback from viewers and possibly officials.

The statement noted that the public's reaction to Youssef's Friday night show was "largely disapproving."

"CBC will continue to be supportive of the basics of national sentiment and popular will, and is keen on not using phrases and innuendos that may lead to mocking national sentiment or symbols of the Egyptian state," the station said.

The station added that it is also committed to freedom of the media.

During Friday's show, Youssef imitated el-Sissi's soft-spoken, affectionate way of addressing the public, turning it into a lover's romantic groove. In one skit, a woman named "the Public" calls into a love advice show raving about the love of her life who saved her from an abusive husband.

"He's an officer as big as the world," she coos adoringly, making a pun on a slogan el-Sissi uses in nearly every speech: "Egypt will be big enough to face down the world." Then she adds, "He does have a sovereign streak."

One complainant, well-known politician Ahmed el-Fadaly, referred to the skit of the adoring woman, accusing Youssef of portraying Egypt as a "dallying woman who betrays her husband with military men."

El-Fadaly, who heads an association of young Muslims, also accused the satirist of belittling the armed forces' efforts to deal with terrorism, and of misrepresenting the popular protests against President Mohammed Morsi as a coup, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Associated Press.

Another complainant, a group called The Campaign for el-Sissi for President, alleged that Youssef had defamed the military and its leadership through sexual innuendos, according to the Youm7 news website.

Youssef used satire to criticize Morsi during his one year in office. Morsi supporters also sued Youssef for insulting the presidency and Islam, leading to his brief detention.

Before returning to the air after four months of absence, Youssef predicted in an article he wrote that he will continue to be pursued legally by his new critics "who allegedly love freedom dearly — when it works in their favor."

His late-night Friday show caused a stir in a sharply divided country. Since Morsi's ouster, hundreds have been killed in crackdowns on protesters demanding Morsi's reinstatement. Attacks by Islamic extremists against security forces and Christians have increased. A nationalist fervor gripping the country has elevated the military to an untouchable status, leaving little tolerance among the public or officials for criticism.

For now, Youssef appears undeterred. After Friday's show aired, Youssef took to Twitter to remind the public that the show just began: "It is only an episode in a program, people."

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Facebook off limits for Macedonian clergy

SKOPJE, Macedonia — The Macedonian Orthodox Church has banned it clergy from using Facebook to protect against abuse and "new phenomena of confessions and intimate conversations with young people," local media report.

Reports on Saturday said the Holy Synod, the executive body of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, took the decision after one bishop's complaint.

Local media say the decision has already created tensions between older church dignitaries who do not use the Internet and are hostile to it, and younger clergy and even bishops who make use of social media.

Nearly two-thirds of Macedonia's two million people are Orthodox Christians.

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9 Ohio, W.Va. residents sue DuPont Co. over cancer

CINCINNATI — Nine Ohio and West Virginia residents who have cancer and other diseases have filed federal lawsuits this month against chemical giant DuPont, alleging the company knowingly contaminated drinking-water supplies with a chemical used by one of its plants.

The lawsuits, filed Oct. 8 and this week, are among about 50 such cases — including one alleging wrongful death — filed against DuPont since April, when a court-appointed science panel found probable links between exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8, and kidney cancer, testicular cancer and thyroid disease, among others.

DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., uses C8 at its plant near Parkersburg, W.Va., on the Ohio line but plans to stop making and using the chemical by 2015. C8 is a key ingredient in Teflon, the coating used on cookware, clothing and other products.

The recent litigation is the latest in a yearslong battle between DuPont and residents of the Mid-Ohio Valley, in the heart of Appalachia along the Ohio River.

About 80,000 area residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the company in 2001. It resulted in a settlement in which DuPont agreed to pay as much as $343 million for residents' medical tests, the removal of as much C8 from the area's water supply as possible and a science panel's yearslong study into whether C8 causes disease in humans.

"These are folks who've been waiting many, many years to be able to pursue these claims," said Rob Bilott, a Cincinnati attorney who has been working on the case for more than 15 years and represents the Mid-Ohio Valley residents. "Our goal is to be able to get these resolved for them and move forward as quickly as we can."

In a written statement, DuPont spokesman Dan Turner pointed out the company's efforts to pay for the medical study of C8 and fund a medical monitoring program for residents exposed to the chemical.

"Lawsuits such as these ignore family history, lifestyle choices and other causes of health issues and disease in specific individuals," Turner said. "DuPont will vigorously defend against any and all such lawsuits not based upon valid science."

The roughly 50 recent lawsuits in Ohio and West Virginia, which seek unspecified damages, have been consolidated into one case being presided over by a federal judge in Columbus. The first trial in the matter is set for September 2015.

Many of the lawsuits are more than 50 pages long and accuse the company of negligence, concealment, fraud, deception, battery and the "negligent, intentional and reckless infliction of emotional distress and outrage."

The lawsuits allege that DuPont's own research had concluded by at least 1961 that C8 was toxic and it conducted studies in the 1980s showing higher-than-normal birth defects among babies born to its female employees.

DuPont is accused of recklessly, maliciously and knowingly ignoring the risks and releasing C8 into the air and groundwater through its production practices, all while telling members of the public and news media that C8 was safe.

"No reasonable person could be expected to endure the knowledge that an entity has knowingly and intentionally exposed them to years of harmful contact with a dangerous chemical, and has furthermore actively misrepresented and/or concealed such danger from them, while reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in profits as a direct and proximate result," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuits quote internal notes written by DuPont's attorneys, obtained during previous litigation, that show their apparent frustration.

"Too bad the business wants to hunker down as though everything will not come out in the litigation," wrote one attorney who was not named in 2001, according to the lawsuit. "God knows how they could be so clueless. Don't they read the paper or go to the movies?"

Among the lawsuits is one filed by Virginia Morrison of Parkersburg, W.Va., accusing DuPont of causing the death of her husband in 2008 from injuries related to kidney cancer.

DuPont denies all the allegations in court filings, saying that plaintiffs' damages, if any, were caused by acts of God or actions of others, "over which DuPont had no control," and were not reasonably foreseeable by the company.

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Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP

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A year after Sandy, a slow recovery for thousands

NEW YORK — A year after Superstorm Sandy, thousands of people are still trying to fix their wrecked homes.

The violent storm that struck the northeast U.S. on Oct. 29, 2012, has given way to an uneven recovery, stymied by bureaucracy, insurance disputes and uncertainty over whether hard-hit homeowners can afford to rebuild.

Billions of dollars in federal aid appropriated months ago by Congress have yet to reach homeowners who desperately need that money to move on.

Many residents along the coasts of New York and New Jersey say they still haven't figured out how to pay to reconstruct their houses to new flood standards.

The storm killed at least 181 people in the U.S. and did an estimated $65 billion in damage.

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Wis. company again expands chicken, ham recall

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee-based Garden-Fresh Foods Inc. is recalling 50 more tons of chicken and ham products over concerns of possible listeria contamination, its third recall in two months.

The latest recall was announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Officials were concerned the food was possibly contaminated with listeria, which can lead to miscarriages in pregnant women and serious illness for those with weakened immune systems.

There have been no reports of illnesses.

The products include several varieties of ham and chicken salads, among other things, sold under the Garden-Fresh, Grandpa's, Archer Farms and D'Amico & Sons brand names.

A message left Saturday with the company wasn't immediately returned. Garden-Fresh first recalled more than 9 tons of food on Sept. 25, and recalled an additional 6,700 pounds this month.

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Online:

Full list of products: http://1.usa.gov/1ikcXLo

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Jay-Z defends deal with store accused of profiling

NEW YORK — Jay-Z — under increasing pressure to back out of a collaboration with the luxury store Barneys New York after it was accused of racially profiling two black customers — said Saturday he's being unfairly "demonized" for just waiting to hear all of the facts.

The rap mogul made his first statement about the controversy in a posting on his website. He has come under fire for remaining silent as news surfaced this week that two young black people said they were profiled by Barneys after they purchased expensive items from their Manhattan store.

An online petition and Twitter messages from fans have been circulating this week, calling on the star to bow out of his upcoming partnership with Barneys for the holiday season, which will have the store selling items by top designers, inspired by Jay-Z, with some of the proceeds going to his charity. He is also working with the store to create its artistic holiday window display.

But Jay-Z — whose real name is Shawn Carter — defended himself, saying that he hasn't spoken about it because he's still trying to figure out exactly what happened.

"I move and speak based on facts and not emotion," the statement said. "I haven't made any comments because I am waiting on facts and the outcome of a meeting between community leaders and Barneys. Why am I being demonized, denounced and thrown on the cover of a newspaper for not speaking immediately?" he said, referring to local newspaper headlines.

The two Barneys customers, Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips, said this week they were detained by police after making expensive purchases.

Christian sued Barneys, saying he was accused of fraud after using his debit card to buy a $349 Ferragamo belt in April. Philips filed a notice of claim saying she would sue after she was stopped by detectives outside the store when she bought a $2,500 Celine handbag in February.

As the criticism grew, Barneys said Thursday it had retained a civil rights expert to help review its procedures. The CEO of Barneys, Mark Lee, offered his "sincere regret and deepest apologies."

Kirsten John Foy, an official with the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, said he would meet with Barneys officials on Tuesday to discuss the racial profiling allegations.

Jay-Z — who rose from a life of crime in Brooklyn to become one of the most heralded rappers and one of entertainment's biggest superstars — has in the past called for a boycott of labels perceived to be racist, and has become more political in recent years, from speaking out about the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin to campaigning for President Barack Obama.

Jay-Z said in this case, he's still trying to find out what happened —which is why he was silent.

"The negligent, erroneous reports and attacks on my character, intentions and the spirit of this collaboration have forced me into a statement I didn't want to make without the full facts," he added.

He also dismissed reports that he would profit from the collaboration. He said he's "not making a dime" from working with Barneys. Instead, his Shawn Carter Foundation, which provides college scholarships to economically challenged students, will get 25 percent of all sales from the collaboration.

"This money is going to help individuals facing socio-economic hardships to help further their education at institutions of higher learning," he said. "My idea was born out of creativity and charity... not profit."

He also said that "making a decision prematurely to pull out of this project wouldn't hurt Barneys or Shawn Carter but all the people that stand a chance at higher education," he said. "I have been working with my team ever since the situation was brought to my attention to get to the bottom of these incidents and at the same time find a solution that doesn't harm all those that stand to benefit from this collaboration."

Jay-Z said he understood what it felt like to be racially profiled — but also didn't want to jump to unfair conclusions.

"I am against discrimination of any kind but if I make snap judgments, no matter who it's towards, aren't I committing the same sin as someone who profiles?" he asked. "I am no stranger to being profiled and I truly empathize with anyone that has been put in that position. Hopefully this brings forth a dialogue to effect real change."

Earlier Saturday, Sharpton held a rally at his National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, saying black New Yorkers should put shopping at Barneys "on hold" if the retailer's response is inadequate.

But it is not the only retailer accused of racially profiling its customers.

Some Sharpton supporters who attended Saturday's rally said they had been profiled in other stores, too. Shane Lee, 51, said he went to the high-end store Bergdorf Goodman to buy shirts last year and the sales staff would not assist him.

"Instead of helping me, they were staring at me," said Lee, who is black. "I felt so uncomfortable that I just left."

A Bergdorf Goodman official did not return a call seeking comment Saturday.

On Friday, Rob Brown, a black actor on the HBO series "Treme" said he was stop because of his race while shopping at Macy's flagship Manhattan store. Brown said in his lawsuit that he was detained nearly an hour by police June 8 after employees contacted authorities about possible credit card fraud.

Macy's didn't comment on the litigation but said in a statement it was investigating.

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Aereo’s CEO signals more hiring in Hub

Internet TV company Aereo continues to expand and is looking to Boston to beef up its engineering staff even as it faces lawsuits across the country from broadcast industry giants.

"Our expectation was there would be a lot of controversy around this, but there was some hope that people would recognize it's a good idea," said Chet Kanojia, Aereo's founder and CEO. "We think we're on to something very big."

Aereo uses over-the-air antennas to capture TV broadcasts and relay the signals over the Internet, letting users watch and record local live programming. Aereo launched its Android app last week and will debut in Detroit tomorrow — the eighth market in its 22-city expansion plan.

"They clearly are getting enough traction that the investors are saying let's expand this nationwide," said Brett Sappington, a media analyst and director of research at Parks Associates in Dallas.

Kanojia said the company plans to add 30 to 40 employees, mostly at its Hub offices on Summer Street. Aereo is headquartered in New York City, but the engineering and software come out of Boston.

"When you're building machines, you kind of have to go where the people that know how to build machines are," Kanojia said.

But as Aereo is expanding, the legal fight over its service is climbing the appellate ladder. A group of broadcasters, including Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox Inc., NBC Universal and CBS Corp., have petitioned the Supreme Court to rule on Aereo's legality. Earlier this month, a federal judge refused to shut down Aereo over a copyright claim filed by Hearst-owned WCVB. A trial is scheduled next year.

"When you have these upstart companies that refuse the existing business models, they also ruffle the feathers of the established copyright holders," said Rutgers University law professor Michael Carrier.

At stake is $3 billion in fees that broadcast station owners will receive this year from pay-TV systems to provide signals to subscribers, according to Bloomberg Industries.

"Aereo's business model is based on taking content they don't own and reselling it without compensating the copyright holder," said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters. "We're cautiously optimistic that ultimately the courts will rule in our favor."

Kanojia said he fundamentally disagrees that Aereo is in the business of selling content.

"I think there's a lot of concern or misconception about this company that we are somehow a content company," he said. "It's a pure technology company."

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Accelerating growth

MassChallenge, the Bay State's groundbreaking global startup accelerator and competition, is planning an extensive expansion that will include manufacturing facilities and outposts in Israel as well as potentially Europe, Asia and South America, according to its executives.

"We might launch a new office in London or Bogota toward the end of next year," said John Harthorne, MassChallenge's founder and CEO, "and it would launch its first competition in 2015."

The 4-year-old organization offers free incubator space, mentors and grants to innovative startups.

When it moves to the Innovation District's Boston Design Center next summer, its new digs will include for the first time space for manufacturing materials that its startups will be able to use to build prototypes, said Harthorne.

"One of our goals will be to add lots of equipment and tools," he said.

Lightspeed MFG President Richard Breault, who already has helped several startups build prototypes for free, will be donating the materials and expertise, Harthorne said.

MassChallenge, which saw more than 1,200 applicants this year, also will continue its international expansion by hiring a full-time executive director to head up the program it launched in Israel this year with the support of The Kraft Group and EMC Corp., he said.

It also will look to identify locations for new offices internationally and possibly in the U.S., Harthorne said.

Some options abroad include the United Kingdom, Colombia, Taiwan, Korea and Germany.

The organization, which will give its 2013 awards on Wednesday, is building on a startlingly successful track record.

The 361 finalists who completed its annual, four-month accelerator program from 2010 to 2012 raised a total of $362.5 million in funding, created 2,912 jobs and generated $96.1 million in revenue. Of those 361 finalists, 88 percent are still active, 3 percent were acquired, and 265 are based in Massachusetts.

The 78 winners raised a total of about $157 million, created 850 jobs and generated $35 million in revenue. Ninety-four percent of them are still active, 5 percent were acquired, and 59 are headquartered in Massachusetts.

Harthorne attributes these results partly to the expertise of MassChallenge's army of more than 300 mentors and judges, who include entrepreneurs, lawyers, investors, marketers, finance professionals and other executives.

"What we look for is how big is the idea and its impact on humanity, and how likely are you to achieve that," Harthorne said.

Jordan Fliegel won $50,000 in last year's competition for CoachUp, an online marketplace connecting young athletes with private coaches.

Today, the Boston company has nearly 20 employees, recently launched native IOS and Android apps, and has registered more than 12,000 coaches and 40,000 athletes.

"MassChallenge was super helpful for us," Fliegel said. "It really helped us raise money, develop our connections in Boston and in the great local startup ecosystem, and get us to where we are today."

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GOP hopes 'Obamacare' woes have staying power

WASHINGTON — For nearly five years, Republicans have struggled to make a scandal stick to President Barack Obama's White House. One by one, the controversies — with shorthand names such as Solyndra, Benghazi, and Fast and Furious — hit a fever pitch, then faded away.

But some Republicans see the disastrous rollout of Obama's health law as a problem with the kind of staying power they have sought.

The health care failures are tangible for millions of Americans and can be experienced by anyone with Internet access. The law itself is more closely associated with Obama personally and long has been unpopular with the majority of the American people.

The longer the technical problems persist, the more likely they are to affect the delicate balance of enrollees needed in the insurance marketplace in order to keep costs down.

"There's no question the issue has legs, in part because it affects so many Americans very directly and in part because the glitches with the website are simply one of many fundamental problems with this law," GOP pollster Whit Ayres said.

The cascade of computer problems began Oct. 1, when sign-ups opened for the marketplaces at the center of the law. Administration officials blamed the problems on high volume, but have since acknowledged more systemic issues with HealthCare.gov.

White House officials contend the website is just one piece of the broader law offering an array of benefits. They say that when the online issues are fixed — the latest estimate is the site will be working normally for most users by the end of November — few people will remember the problems that have marred the opening weeks of the six-month enrollment window.

"It says a lot about Republicans that their focus here is not on helping Americans get insured, but on making political hay of this mess," said Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's senior adviser.

There's another mess the White House is dealing with that could have long-lasting implications, too: U.S. government spying on foreign leaders. The scope of the surveillance programs was first made public in June and the revelations keep coming. The latest concern the alleged monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone communications.

But unlike with the health law, many Republicans support the government surveillance policies, making it more difficult for the party to create a political furor over the revelations.

For GOP lawmakers, the White House's stumbles on the Affordable Care Act have come at an optimal time, just one week after their strategy to shut down the government in exchange for concessions on health care imploded.

The health care debacle has overshadowed some of the Republican missteps and the GOP appears more than happy to keep the spotlight where it is.

Republicans have scheduled a series of congressional hearings on the program's shortcomings, and have called for officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, to be fired. She is set to testify this coming week before a House committee.

Kevin Madden, a GOP strategist, said Republicans should be wary of overreach, and he urged the party to "focus on the basics" in the hearings. If they do, he said, "they can really align themselves with a lot of public anxiety about what's wrong with Washington."

Anxiety about the website's problems also appears to be on the rise among members of the president's own party, a worrisome sign for the White House.

Ten Democratic senators urged Sebelius in a letter to extend the insurance enrollment window beyond the March 31 deadline; White House officials say they don't believe that will be necessary. Also, Democratic leaders have been critical about the seeming lack of preparedness for the sign-up rollout.

"As far as I'm concerned there is no excuse for that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Las Vegas radio station KNPR. "I think the administration should have known how difficult it was going to be to have 35 million or 40 million people to suddenly hook up to a place to go on the Internet."

The health care law has been unpopular with large swaths of the American public ever since Obama signed it into law in 2010. A CBS News survey taken last week found that 43 percent of Americans approve of the law, compared with 35 percent in May.

Crisis management expert Eric Dezenhall said that if the White House wants to prevent the current troubles from being a long-term problem, it will have to do some basic damage control.

"There has to be a component of hand-holding, clarity and bedside manner with the early stages of Obamacare," he said.

The White House appeared to start taking a page from that playbook this past week.

On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began holding daily briefings to address technical problems with the website, though the many of the issues still remain shrouded from the public.

Republicans are turning to a familiar tactic, congressional hearings. It's the same tactic they took as they looked to connect Obama to wrongdoing in the deaths of Americans in Benghazi, Libya, the bankruptcy of the solar energy company Solyndra, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' failed gun-smuggling sting operation known as "Fast and Furious," and a number of other problems that have arisen since the president took office.

"This is more than a website problem. We are also concerned about what happens next," GOP Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, chairman of the House committee that will hear from Sebelius on Wednesday, said in the Republicans' weekly radio and Internet address.

Dezenhall said that while investigations may help Republicans do some damage to the health care law, "there's a difference between roughing up your enemy and defeating them."

"They can certainly put some points on the board but I don't see a great Republican coup anytime soon," he said.

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AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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Online:

Health care site: https://www.healthcare.gov

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Nancy Benac at http://twitter.com/nbenac

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Sebelius to face tough questioning on health law

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's health secretary is in the hot seat this week as House Republicans get a chance to question her about the troubled rollout of the health care law they long have tried to repeal.

The GOP-run House Energy and Commerce Committee hears from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (seh-BEEL'-yuhs) on Wednesday about the troubled launch of healthcare.gov, the online portal access insurance exchanges.

The committee's second-ranking Republican, Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, wants to know how much has been spent on the website, how much more it will cost to fix the problems, when everything will be ready and what people should expect to see on the site.

She tells "Fox News Sunday" she's concerned about protecting the privacy of information that people submit.

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