McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala

Computer software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, arrived in Miami on Wednesday evening after he was deported by Guatemala, according to fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight. After landing, McAfee, 67, was escorted from the plane by airport security officers, passengers said. Shortly afterward, he tweeted, "I am in South Beach," referring to the popular tourist area on Miami Beach. "Some people felt uncomfortable that he was on our flight. ... We all knew the story," said Maria Claridge, 36, a South Florida photographer who was on the Silicon Valley entrepreneur's flight to Miami. McAfee, who was seated in the coach section and had a whole row to himself, was wearing a suit and was "very calm" during the flight, she added. "He looked very tired, he looked like a man who hadn't slept in days. I'd say he even looked depressed," said another passenger, Roberto Gilbert, a Guatemalan who lives in Miami. McAfee had been held for a week in Guatemala, where he surfaced after evading police in Belize for nearly a month following the killing of American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye. Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as a "person of interest" in Faull's death, although the technology guru's lawyers blocked an attempt by Guatemala to send him back there. Authorities in Belize say he is not a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee has denied any role in Faull's killing. The goateed McAfee has led the world's media on a game of online hide-and-seek in Belize and Guatemala since he fled after Faull's death, peppering the Internet with pithy quotes and colorful revelations about his unpredictable life. "I'm happy to be going home," McAfee, dressed in a black suit, told reporters shortly before his departure from Guatemala City airport on Wednesday afternoon. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days." Guatemala's immigration authorities had been holding McAfee since he was arrested last Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend. The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com. He said he had no immediate plans after reaching Florida. "I'm just going to hang in Miami for a while. I like Miami," he told Reuters by telephone just before his plane left. "There is a great sushi place there and I really like sushi." BELIZE STILL WAITING Residents of the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, said McAfee and Faull, 52, had quarreled at times, including over McAfee's unruly dogs. McAfee says Belize authorities will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. He has said he was being persecuted by Belize's ruling party for refusing to pay some $2 million in bribes. Belize's prime minister has rejected the allegations, calling McAfee paranoid and "bonkers. Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said the country still wanted to question McAfee about the Faull case. "He will be just under the goodwill of the United States of America. He is still a person of interest, but a U.S. national has been killed and he has been somewhat implicated in that murder. People want him to answer some questions," he said. Martinez noted that Belize's extradition treaty with the United States extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to McAfee. "Right now, we don't have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect," he said. Residents and neighbors on Ambergris Caye said McAfee was unusual and at times unstable. He was seen to travel with armed bodyguards, sporting a pistol tucked into his belt. The predicament of McAfee, a former Lockheed systems consultant, is a far cry from his heyday in the late 1980s, when he started McAfee Associates. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp. McAfee was previously charged in Belize with possession of illegal firearms, and police had raided his property on suspicions that he was running a lab to produce illegal synthetic narcotics. He said he had not taken drugs since 1983. "I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day. I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," he told Reuters before his arrest in Guatemala. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

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Mick Jagger love letters fetch $300,000 at auction

A collection of love letters written by Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to American singer Marsha Hunt, believed to be the inspiration for the band's hit single "Brown Sugar", sold at Sotheby's on Wednesday for 187,250 pounds ($301,000). The 10 letters, dating from the summer of 1969, had been expected to fetch 70-100,000 pounds, according to the auctioneer. "The passage of time has given these letters a place in our cultural history," Hunt said after the London sale. "1969 saw the ebbing of a crucial, revolutionary era, highly influenced by such artists as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown and Bob Dylan. "Their inner thoughts should not be the property of only their families, but the public at large, to reveal who these influential artists were - not as commercial images, but their private selves." Hunt, with whom Jagger had his first child, Karis, told Britain's Guardian newspaper last month that she was selling the letters, written in July and August 1969, because she had been unable to pay her bills. "I'm broke," Hunt, who lives in France, told the newspaper. Jagger wrote them to Hunt while filming the Tony Richardson movie "Ned Kelly" in Australia. They showed a sensitive side of the then-young singer, who wrote about the poetry of Emily Dickinson, meeting author Christopher Isherwood and an unrealized multimedia project. Jagger's relationship with Hunt, who is African-American, was kept under wraps until 1972. Hunt has said she was the inspiration for Brown Sugar, which Jagger wrote while in Australia. The rock star also cites in the letters the disintegration of his relationship with singer Marianne Faithfull, whom he was also dating at the time, and the death of Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones. There has been a surge in interest in the rock band this year, as Jagger and his three surviving bandmates celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stones with a series of concerts, a photo book and a greatest hits album.

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Singer-songwriter Carole King to receive U.S. Gershwin prize

American singer-songwriter Carole King will be awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the U.S. national library said on Thursday. The multiple Grammy Award winner co-wrote her first No. 1 hit at age 17 with then-husband Gerry Goffin and was the first female solo artist to sell more than 10 million copies of a single album, with her 1971 release "Tapestry." The prize honors individuals for lifetime achievement in popular music, the library said. It is named after songwriting brothers George and Ira Gershwin. King, now 70, topped the charts with the song "It's Too Late" in 1971, but is best known for her work performed by others, including "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin. "I was so pleased when the venerable Library of Congress began honoring writers of popular songs with the Gershwin Prize," King said in a statement. "I'm proud to be the fifth such honoree and the first woman among such distinguished company." King and Goffin wrote some the biggest hits of the 1960s before their nine-year marriage ended in 1968. They rose to prominence in 1960 writing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for the Shirelles. The duo also scored hits with "Take Good Care of My Baby," performed by Bobby Vee in 1961, "The Loco-Motion," performed by Little Eva in 1962 and "Pleasant Valley Sunday," performed by The Monkees in 1967, among others. New York-born King did not hit it big as a singer until 1971, when "Tapestry" topped the U.S. album charts for 15 weeks, then a record for a female solo artist. Past recipients of the award include Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and songwriting tandem Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

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Hurting Spaniards pin hopes on Christmas lottery

MADRID (AP) — After another brutal year of economic hardship, Spaniards across the country are hoping for relief when the country's famed Christmas lottery — the world's richest — pays out €2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in tax-free awards on Saturday. Almost everyone in the country of 46 million people will be glued to live TV to watch school children sing out the winning numbers for the lottery that pays out maximum prizes of €400,000 ($529,840) and many more for smaller amounts. The top prize is dubbed "El Gordo" ("The Fat One") and is likely to be won by hundreds if not thousands of players. Unlike other big lotteries that generate just a few big winners, Spain's lottery — now in its 200th year — has always aimed for a share-the-wealth-system rather than a single jackpot, and thousands of numbers yield at least some kind of return. The Christmas lottery is so popular that there are frequently three €20 ($26) tickets sold for every Spaniard, and the lottery itself is the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season. "A lot of people win," said Pablo Foncillas, a marketing professor at the IESE Business School in Madrid. "It's really common even if you don't win to get a free ticket. So many people win that people just keep on playing. Everyone knows someone who's won, even if it's only a little bit." Hundreds of players lined up daily to buy tickets this week outside the Dona Manuelita lottery store in Madrid, which has often sold winning tickets. Before Spain's property-led economic boom collapsed in 2008, they had hoped to win so they could buy a small apartment or a car. Now people said they need the money just to hang on to what they have and avoid being evicted or having cars repossessed. Betting that tickets from Dona Manuelita stood a better chance of winning, unemployed construction company office manager Miguel Angel Ruiz drove 165 kilometers (102 miles) to buy for a pool of players including his wife and relatives. "We're buying more hoping we'll hit it so we can emerge from poverty," said Ruiz, 39. "Before the crisis, lottery winnings were to buy an apartment or a car, and now it's to pay debts." Diego Sanbrano, let go from his waiter's job two months ago, said the Spanish lottery isn't about getting rich and never working again. "It's to pay off debts and straighten out your life," he said. "You pay the mortgage and make the car payment, and then maybe you have a little left over to go somewhere on vacation." Since so many people chip in to buy tickets in groups, the top prizes frequently end up being handed out in the same small town or in one city neighborhood. Last year's top winning number hit for 1,800 tickets in the northern town of Granen, population 2,000. Townspeople shared about €700 million ($925 million), and the rest of the €1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) was doled out in smaller prizes around Spain. The Dec. 22 lottery began in 1812 and last year sold an estimated €2.7 billion ($3.6 billion) in tickets with per-capita spending of about €70 ($92) just for the Christmas lottery. Spain holds another big lottery Jan. 6 to mark the Feast of the Epiphany. It is known as "El Nino" (The Child), in reference to the baby Jesus. But the crisis will hit El Nino and all lotteries going forward. Until now, lottery winnings have been free from taxation. Waves of austerity measures imposed by the government this year to prevent Spain from asking for public finances bailout like those for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have translated into higher taxes. Lottery winnings above €2,000 ($2,640) will face a 20 percent tax in 2013.

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Hurting Spaniards celebrate Christmas lottery wins

MADRID (AP) — Winners of Spain's cherished Christmas lottery — the world's richest — celebrated Saturday in more than a dozen locations where the top lucky tickets were sold, a moment of uplift for a country enduring another brutal year of economic hardship. The lottery sprinkled a treasure chest of €2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in prize money around the country. Champagne corks popped and festive cheer broke out in 15 towns or cities where tickets yielding the maximum prize of €400,000 ($530,000), known as "El Gordo" ("The Fat One,)" had been bought. A total of €520 million ($687 million) was won in the eastern Madrid suburb of Alcala de Henares alone. Among the top-prize winners were 50 former workers at metal parts factory Cametal who had formed a pool to buy tickets. Their company had filed for bankruptcy and ceased paying wages five months ago. "I'm bursting with joy, I haven't fully taken it in yet," said local resident Josefina Ortega. "When others win you think to yourself it'll never happen to you, but it has." Unlike lotteries that generate a few big winners, Spain's version — now celebrating its 200th anniversary — has always shared the wealth more evenly instead of concentrating on vast jackpots, so thousands of tickets yield some kind of return. Almost all of Spain's 46 million inhabitants traditionally watch at least some part of the live TV coverage showing school children singing out winning numbers for the lottery It is so popular that frequently three €20 ($26) tickets are sold for every Spaniard and many consider lottery day as the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season. Before Spain's property-led economic boom collapsed in 2008 ticket buyers often yearned to win so they could buy a small apartment by the beach or a new car. Now people said they needed money just to get by, or to avoid being evicted from their homes. Though ticket sales were down 8.3 percent on last year, according to the National Lottery, in the days preceding the draw hundreds of people lined up to buy tickets outside outlets that have sold winning tickets before. Dolores Perez and Teresa Palacio, two lottery outlet workers in north Madrid who sold a top-prize ticket celebrated with sparkling wine as curious neighbors gathered. The fortunate winner had yet to make an appearance. "I had never sold a Christmas 'Gordo' before; I almost thought it didn't exist," said Perez, smiling broadly. "I'm so happy, I've worked here for 30 years and never before sold a 'Gordo,' until now." Since so many people chip in to buy tickets in groups, top prizes frequently end up being handed out in the same small town or in one city neighborhood. Last year's top winning number hit for 1,800 tickets in the northern town of Granen, population 2,000. Townspeople shared about €700 million ($925 million), and the rest of the €1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) was doled out in smaller prizes around Spain. Spain holds another big lottery Jan. 6 to mark the Feast of the Epiphany. It is known as "El Nino" (The Child), in reference to the baby Jesus. But the crisis will hit El Nino and all lotteries going forward. Until now, lottery winnings have been free from taxation, but now prizes above €2,000 ($2,640) will be liable to a 20 percent tax in 2013. The government has imposed stinging austerity measures this year in a bid to prevent Spain from asking for a full-blown bailout like those granted to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus. Spain's unemployment stands at 25 percent and its economy is sinking into a double-dip recession.

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Working-class neighborhood in Madrid wins "El Gordo" lottery

MADRID (Reuters) - Unemployed Spaniards in a highly indebted commuter town in the outskirts of Madrid celebrated with joy after sharing the top prize in "El Gordo", the world's biggest lottery. The 200-year-old Christmas draw doled out more than 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in prizes, with a top individual prize of 4 million euros. The smallest ticket, known as a "decimo" wins a tenth of the prize and costs 20 euros. Millions of Spaniards living through tough economic times had hoped to pocket part of "The Fat One" although spending in the Christmas lottery dipped heavily this year. Winning in 2012 was particularly sweet, not just because Spain is suffering its second recession in three years and one in four of the workforce is jobless, but also because 2012 is the last year winners will pay no tax on their takings. Spain's centre-right government, which has introduced austerity measures this year to shrink its public deficit, ruled that from next year those who win over 2,500 euros will pay 20 percent to the state. Javier Hernando, a middle-aged owner of a bar in Alcala de Henares, 35 km (20 miles) northeast of Madrid, said the prize would allow him to look at life differently, as European authorities press countries on the periphery of the euro zone to raise the age of retirement. Luis, a 28-year-old unemployed electrician, said he would spend the money on buying a flat. The lottery tickets are sold in thousands of official kiosks across Spain and local bars and shops often sell decimos. This year over 27 million individual prizes will be awarded. The lottery, which dates back to 1812, is an important Christmas tradition in Spain, with many families, offices and bar regulars clubbing together to buy a full ticket for 200 euros. Sales dipped 8 percent this year to 2.47 billion euros compared to a 0.5 percent drop in 2011. "It is no wonder that sales have gone down taking into account the economic situation we are going through. We are in crisis, people are out of work and have no income," said a spokeswoman for the National Lottery.

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Florida governor asks Obama to block possible ports strike

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's Republican governor wants President Barack Obama to invoke federal law and order a cooling-off period if nearly 15,000 longshoremen walk off the job in a looming strike that would be a big blow to the state's economy, according to a letter he sent the president this week. The International Longshoremen's Association union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance grouping of shippers and ports have been bargaining since March but reportedly remain far from a deal covering cargo handling at 15 ports on the U.S. Gulf and eastern coasts. In October, when a previous contract expired, the sides agreed to a 90-day extension of terms that runs out on December 29. Florida ports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale would be directly hit by a strike or lockout but a stoppage would also rattle overall transport and trade, which accounts for 550,000 jobs in the state and $66 billion in economic activity, Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a letter dated Thursday. "The threat to national safety and security that would result from mass closure of ports cannot be overstated," Scott told Obama. Scott said Obama had the power under 1947's Taft-Hartley Act to prevent or interrupt a work stoppage at the ports. Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush both used Taft-Hartley, which calls for 80-day cooling-off periods and mediation, Scott said. "The Taft-Hartley Act provides your administration with tools that can help avoid this threat," Scott said. "On behalf of the State of Florida, I respectfully request that you invoke the act when the contract ... expires at the end of the month."

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