Ruble Drops 5 Percent As Russian Economy Shrinks

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian currency extended its losses on Monday after a report showed the economy has started shrinking in annual terms for the first time since 2009 as the country is buffeted by falling oil prices and Western sanctions.

Meanwhile, the government, which has been scrambling to support the ruble and the economy, announced fresh steps to keep the banks afloat.

The ruble has been one of the world's worst performing currencies this year and was down another 5 percent on Monday, trading at 56 rubles per dollar in early afternoon in Moscow, wiping off some of the gains it made last week.

The fall came as the Economic Development Ministry issued a report showing the economy shrank by 0.5 percent in November compared with a year earlier. The ministry attributed the year-on-year decline in the economy, Russia's first in five years, to a sharp drop in manufacturing and investment.

The economy has been buffeted by a combination of lower prices for the country's crucial oil exports and the impact of Western sanctions.

Stabilizing the ruble is a priority for the country's monetary authorities. The Central Bank in past weeks raised its key interest rate to 17 percent and said it will offer dollar and euro loans to banks so they can help major exporters that need foreign currencies to finance operations.

The bank's foreign currency reserve has now dropped below $400 billion for the first time since August 2009, as the government has been selling the currency on the market to support the ruble.

Many Russian companies and banks have been locked out of Western capital markets following the sanctions imposed on the country for its involvement in Ukraine.

The government on Monday announced new steps to prop up the banking sector. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a government session that he has just signed a decree to provide a total of 1 trillion rubles ($19.6 billion) to Russian banks. The list of the banks and the amount that each of them will receive is expected drawn up by mid-January, according to Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

Shuvalov said the measures should help "the banking sector be more stable in the new circumstances and safeguard it from new shocks if they do occur," he was quoted by Tass.

'The Interview' Gets VOD Release Via YouTube, Google Play

A day after Sony authorized screenings of "The Interview" in a limited number of theaters, the studio announced that the film will also be available via on-demand services.

As first reported by CNN's Brian Stelter and later confirmed by Sony, viewers are able to rent or buy the film from YouTube Movies, Google Play, Microsoft's Xbox Video and via SeeTheInterview.com. (The cost is $5.99 to rent, and $14.99 to purchase).

"Last Wednesday, Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we'd be able to make their movie, 'The Interview,' available online," David Drummond, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer at Google, wrote in a statement. "We'd had a similar thought and were eager to help -- though given everything that’s happened, the security implications were very much at the front of our minds.

"Of course it was tempting to hope that something else would happen to ensure this movie saw the light of day," he continued. "But after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be)."

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton also released a statement about the streaming debut:

We never stopped pursuing as wide a release as possible for 'The Interview.' It was essential for our studio to release this movie, especially given the assault upon our business and our employees by those who wanted to stop free speech. We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release.

I want to thank Google and Microsoft for helping make this a reality. This release represents our commitment to our filmmakers and free speech. While we couldn't have predicted the road this movie traveled to get to this moment, I'm proud our fight was not for nothing and that cyber criminals were not able to silence us. No doubt the issues we have confronted these last few weeks will not end with this release, but we are gratified to have stood together and confident in our future. I want to thank everyone at Sony Pictures for their dedication and perseverance through what has been an extraordinary and difficult time.

Sony's decision to stream the film was also praised by President Barack Obama.

"The president welcomes the news that people will be able to decide for themselves whether or not to see this film, and appreciates Sony's work on this effort over the past few weeks," White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said in a statement. "As the president made clear on Friday, we do not live in a country where a foreign dictator can start imposing censorship here in the United States. With today's announcements, people can now make their own choices about the film, and that's how it should be."

In addition to the on-demand release, Sony will debut "The Interview" in select theaters on Christmas Day. (Here's a list of all the theaters showing "The Interview.") According to Variety, Sony is also in discussions with Netflix about possibly streaming "The Interview" to subscribers within the next few days.

As noted by SeeTheInterview.com, watching the film online is currently limited to only viewers in the United States.

Last week, it was unclear if people would ever see "The Interview." Following terror threats made by hackers against theaters that planned to show the film, major chains like AMC Entertainment, Regal Entertainment, Cinemark, Cineplex Entertainment and Carmike Cinemas pulled "The Interview" from schedules. Sony then dropped the film from its release schedule.

Soon after, Sony was criticized by members of the Hollywood community and President Obama, who called the cancellation "a mistake." On Tuesday, Sony flipped its decision and announced that the film would make it to select theaters on Christmas Day, its previously scheduled release date. Independent movie theaters around the country amended their schedules to add showtimes.

Before the Wednesday VOD announcement, there were other rumors about an online release. On Sunday, it was reported that Sony would release "The Interview" via Crackle, the streaming video service the company owns, but that speculation proved untrue. BitTorrent also said it would allow Sony to release the film via its platform.

Co-directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, "The Interview" focuses on what happens when the C.I.A. enlists an entertainment journalist (James Franco) and his producer (Rogen) to assassinate Kim Jong Un (Randall Park). You will now be able to watch the comedy as Rogen and Franco probably always intended: at home with a joint. Just don't do it alone.

I need to say that a comedy is best viewed in a theater full of people, so if you can, I'd watch it like that. Or call some friends over.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 24, 2014

Hellmann's Mayo Drops Lawsuit Against Eggless 'Just Mayo'

The mayo war is over.

The maker of Hellman's mayonnaise, Unilever, on Thursday dropped its controversial suit against Hampton Creek, which makes Just Mayo, an eggless version of the sandwich spread.

Hellman's filed suit a month ago, accusing Hampton Creek of false advertising, leading consumers to believe they were buying traditional mayonnaise, which should contain eggs. The company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration defines mayo as containing “one or more egg yolks.”

Hampton Creek's CEO Josh Tetrick told The Huffington Post he always expected to emerge victorious in the case.

“We were on the right side of the law,” he said in a Friday morning phone interview. “We have 'egg-free' on the front of the jar, it’s right there for people to see.”

The three-year-old San Francisco based company uses plant-derived proteins in place of eggs.

Hampton Creek has attracted attention and funding from billioniare Bill Gates, Paypal cofounder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing, the wealthiest man in Asia. On Thursday, the firm secured a $90 million round of funding, including investments from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook.

The startup’s elevated profile helped rally supporters against Unilever's lawsuit: A Change.org petition started by celebrity chef and Travel Channel star Andrew Zimmern amassed more than 112,000 signatures.

Unilever on Thursday put out a statement urging Hampton Creek to consult industry groups and labeling regulators to ensure the legality of its advertising, now that the lawsuit is over.

“We share a vision with Hampton Creek of a more sustainable world,” Mike Faherty, Unilever’s vice president of foods in North America, said in a statement. “It is for these reasons that we believe Hampton Creek will take the appropriate steps in labeling its products going forward.”

Hampton Creek told HuffPost it has no plans to investigate its labeling any further.

Detroit To Officially Exit Historic Bankruptcy

By Serena Maria Daniels

DETROIT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Detroit will officially exit the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy later on Wednesday, officials said, allowing Michigan's largest city to start a new chapter with a lighter debt load.

The city, which filed for bankruptcy in July 2013, will shed about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations.

"We're going to start fresh tomorrow and do the best we can to deliver the kind of services people deserve," said Mayor Mike Duggan.

Once a symbol of U.S. industrial might, Detroit fell on hard times after decades of population loss, rampant debt and financial mismanagement left it struggling to provide basic services to residents.

Later on Wednesday, payments to city creditors will be triggered under a debt adjustment plan confirmed by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge last month.

Most of the settlements with major creditors, including Detroit's pension funds and bondholders, will be paid with a distribution of about $720 million of bonds. The city will also reissue $287 million of existing bonds and borrow about $275 million from Barclays Capital to finance its exit from bankruptcy.

Along with the debt, the exit plan relies heavily on the "Grand Bargain," where foundations, the state and the Detroit Institute of Art will contribute $816 million over time to ease pension cuts and protect city-owned art work from sale. The plan also aims to provide Detroit with $1.7 billion through June 30, 2023, to improve city services and infrastructure.

Wednesday also marks the end of Kevyn Orr's 21-month term as Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager. He told reporters that the city was wrapping up wire transfers, disbursements and other matters to end the historic bankruptcy.

"There may be some other administrative things the court may have to handle but the city will have emerged from bankruptcy," Orr said. "12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning the city will be out of bankruptcy. I will no longer be the emergency manager. I will be unemployed."

Orr's departure returns complete control of Detroit to Duggan and the nine-member city council. However, the city will have a nine-member, state-created oversight board in place to approve financial matters.

In confirming the bankruptcy plan, Judge Steven Rhodes raised questions about possible conflicts of interest from having Duggan and a city council member sit on the board.

"The city is running the city, with some financial oversight on budgetary matters," said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder about the financial review commission. "My goal is probably to have (the commission) be as least active as possible."

The Republican governor told Reuters in an interview that the commission will help ensure Detroit does not slip back into bankruptcy. He also ruled out direct financial aid to the city in the future.

"We're not really aiming to be there as a backup to the city in terms of financial resources," Snyder said. "We're there to be a supportive partner."

He added that many of the other 16 local governments and school districts under state oversight in Michigan are "transitioning out of their problems" without the aid of bankruptcy.

"People should not be aspiring to go into bankruptcy to solve your problems. It's tough process and it's a last resort."

Orr said court-ordered mediation on fees paid to consultants during the bankruptcy process was continuing on Wednesday. Outside lawyers and consultants charged the city more than $140 million, sparking protests from Duggan. Orr said some of the issues were "resolved last week."

With the exit, "all of the consultants are being phased out pretty quickly," Duggan said. (Writing and additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago and Lisa Lambert in Washington; editing by Matthew Lewis)

24 Ways Working From Home Will Destroy Your Soul

Working from home may seem like a dream come true. But do it for too long and you run the risk of becoming something you're not. Namely, a soulless work zombie fearful of light and all forms of social interaction.

Home workers heed our warning. We've seen it happen ourselves:

It starts with the lack of free office food at home.

So you get stuck eating week-old ramen from your fridge.

Or you just end up eating stuff like this.

Worse, you blow all your money on delivery.

You also miss the office inside jokes.

Trying to actually figure out what's going on in conference calls is exhausting.

And somehow the most embarrassing thing in your life ends up in your video conference screen.

You’ll also soon realize that you absolutely hate your roommate.

And everyone that you actually like starts questioning whether you have a real job.

Your boss never believes you when you say you’re feeling under the weather, even though you really are.

Really, no matter what you do, your boss doesn't really believe anything you say.

Happy hour turns into “drinking at home alone” hour.

If we’re being honest, a lot of hours turn into “drinking at home alone” hour.

Then your co-workers will begin to think of you as something less than human.

The thought “do I have to take a shower to get dressed today?” actually crosses your mind.

Then you question even getting out of bed while you work.

Even if you get out of bed, your “sitting” positions become increasingly odd.

You lose all self-respect.

Then there’s the isolation.

Facebook becomes your only means to communicate with the outside world.

There’s no way it can be healthy to not leave the house until 6 p.m. every day.

Speaking with other humans begins to get less fun and more scary.

Then there’s the day you realize no one can hear you scream.

That’s when you know it’s time to go back to the office. Or at least leave the apartment.

Only Amazon Prime Babies Can Wear These New Diapers

Are you willing to wrap an Amazon-branded diaper around your baby’s bottom?

Amazon thinks so.

The world's largest online retailer announced Wednesday that it’s started selling its own line of diapers and baby wipes. They're the first products in a new line called Amazon Elements, which the company promises will give consumers an “unprecedented level of information” about their products. Although they’re not the cheapest diapers available, they are pretty inexpensive relative to others sold on Amazon.

But here’s the catch: You have to be a member of Amazon Prime to buy them.

That’s because Amazon really, really wants you to join Amazon Prime, the company’s $99-per-year loyalty program. Prime members shop more frequently on Amazon -- and spend significantly more money there -- than non-members.

Prime started out as a free shipping program in 2005, but it’s morphed into much more than that, especially in the past year. Apart from the free shipping, Prime members in the U.S. now get discounts on some Amazon products, free unlimited photo storage, a subscription to a streaming music library and access to an improving catalog of streaming movies and TV shows, including original programming like “Transparent."

In March, citing higher fuel and shipping costs, Amazon raised the price of Prime membership by 25 percent, from $79 to $99.

The diapers and wipes appear to be Amazon's way of catering to the growing transparency trend in consumer products. Amazon says that it will give consumers information like where and when its Elements products were made, as well as “why each ingredient was included, where the ingredients were sourced and much more,” according to the company's Wednesday press release. Each Elements package will come with a unique code that a customer can scan with their Amazon smartphone app to find this information.

The materials for Amazon’s diapers, according to the product page, come from Israel, Germany, North Carolina, Alabama and Wisconsin, among other places. In an email, Pia Arthur, an Amazon spokeswoman, said Amazon’s diapers are made by Irving Personal Care, a Canadian company, and the wipes are made in Indiana by Nice-Pak Products, Inc.

Transparency in household products seems to be a good business strategy right now. The Honest Company, which sells natural, eco-friendly baby products including diapers, raised $70 million earlier this year, giving the privately held company, co-founded by the actress Jessica Alba, a value of nearly $1 billion.

Parents of young kids need a lot of diapers and wipes and need them regularly, which means those products lend themselves well to recurring orders. If you sign up for recurring orders and order in bulk, Amazon's diapers range in price from 18 to 32 cents each, depending on size, and that includes shipping.

According to the market research firm IBISWorld, about $14.6 billion worth of diapers are sold in the U.S. every year, a figure that's expected to grow at 2.1 percent annually through 2019.

Amazon already sells a boatload of diapers, and not only through its main website. The retailer also owns Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com.

Warren Buffett Bets Big On Hillary Clinton

The world's third richest man makes his first-ever donation to an independent political group aligned with a candidate.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg Politics

Walmart Denies Stalling In Tracy Morgan Lawsuit

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Wal-Mart on Tuesday denied claims by lawyers for actor-comedian Tracy Morgan that the giant retailer is stalling a federal lawsuit over a fatal highway crash in New Jersey last summer.

In a court filing Monday, attorneys for Morgan opposed a motion by Wal-Mart driver Kevin Roper to intervene in the case. Roper isn't named as a defendant but is facing criminal charges in New Jersey. He is seeking to have the lawsuit delayed pending the resolution of his criminal case.

Morgan's attorneys accused Wal-Mart of stalling to avoid the disclosure of its safety practices.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart filed a letter with the court Tuesday that denied the accusation and said the company has taken no position on Roper's motion.

"Plaintiffs' accusation that Wal-Mart is somehow behind Mr. Roper's motion in an attempt to delay discovery is simply false," the company's attorneys wrote.

Last month, the federal judge overseeing the case set the next in-person settlement conference for early March and scheduled deadlines extending to November of 2015 for both sides to file motions.

Morgan, a former "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" star, was returning from a performance in Delaware in June when the Wal-Mart truck driven by Roper slammed into the back of his limo van. Fellow comedian James McNair was killed, and Morgan and two others were seriously injured.

After a status conference with attorneys for both sides last month, Morgan's attorney, Benedict Morelli, said Morgan is fighting to recover from a traumatic brain injury suffered in the crash and is uncertain if he will be "the Tracy Morgan he once was."

A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board said Roper was driving 65 mph in the 60 seconds before he slammed into the van. The speed limit on that stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike is 55 mph and was lowered to 45 mph that night because of construction.

Black Friday Was The Second-Biggest Day Ever For Background Checks: Report

The FBI dealt with more background checks this Black Friday than ever before on the annual shopping day, according to a CNN report on Saturday.

Only once in its history has the agency had to handle a larger number of background checks in a single day: Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, exactly one week after the Sandy Hook school shooting.

All told, the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) ran more than 175,000 background checks on Friday. The agency typically handles about one-third of that on a more normal day, according to CNN.

The record number of requests for background checks isn't surprising. In fact, it's perfectly in line with recent trends. As HuffPost reporter Kim Bhasin wrote last year:

Gun-buying after Thanksgiving is becoming something of a holiday tradition. In each of the past two years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported a record number of calls for background checks for gun purchases on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A flood of 154,873 calls on Black Friday in 2012, nearly three times the daily average that year, caused outages at some of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System's call centers.

But the growing number of Black Friday requests does present a challenge for the agency. By law, NICS has only three business days to complete a background check. After that, the decision to sell a firearm rests with the dealer.

As a result of that small window, the agency had roughly 600 of its employees logging long hours to make sure it completed as many background checks as possible on Friday. "No one is allowed to take leave today," Kimberly Del Greco, an FBI manager with NICS, told NPR on Friday. The FBI even asked some former employees to help with the workload, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer told CNN.

As Philip Bump at The Washington Post notes, background checks are "an imperfect metric for approximating total gun sales." That's primarily because of two reasons: One background check can lead to the purchase of multiple firearms by a single individual, and certain individuals are able to purchase guns without a background check ever being completed because of the aforementioned three-days rule.

Nevertheless, the number of background checks being requested can be a useful indicator of general gun ownership trends. And according to the FBI website, all 10 of the top 10 highest weeks for background checks since 1998 have occurred in the past couple of years.

More than 12,000 people in the U.S. died as a result of gun violence in 2013. The FBI was not immediately available for comment.

Black Friday Brawls Captured On Camera As Shoppers Tussle Over Barbies, TVs, Bargains Galore

All's fair in love and ... shopping?

As Black Friday bargain hunters continue to swarm stores across the country in their attempt to snag the best deals, reports have started emerging of shoppers growing violent in the frenzy for discounted wares.

At a Houston-area Walmart on Thursday night, police reportedly intervened after a fight broke out following a scramble for discounted Samsung flatscreen TVs. A video, said to have been taken at the Texas store, shows shoppers lying on top of the TVs on the ground, apparently in an attempt to prevent other people from buying them.

Also on Thursday, sheriff's deputies were called to a Walmart store in Norwalk, California, after two women started fighting over a Barbie doll, according to CBS Los Angeles. At least one of the women is reported to have thrown a punch.

"The whole thing was pretty stupid," a shopper told the news outlet. "That was very dumb."

At a Walmart in Michigan City, Indiana, another video on YouTube allegedly shows people tussling over $88 subwoofers. "Oh my God, that is crazy," one woman can be heard saying in the video as customers scrambled for the electronics.

KTLA reported that three shoppers at a Kohl's store in Tustin, California, were arrested early Friday following a shopping-related altercation. The shoppers included two women and one juvenile, said KABC-TV.

Two shoppers -- a man and his girlfriend -- were also arrested at an Indianapolis mall early Friday after they allegedly attacked an off-duty police officer. WXIN reports that the man had started a fight with another man in the parking lot after being ejected from the mall for being "too rowdy." An off-duty officer then tried to break up the fight, but the man and his girlfriend allegedly attacked him. The two individuals were subsequently arrested.

Elsewhere in the country, bargain hunters lined up for hours to get into their favorite stores. Plenty of "shoving" and general frenzy has been reported.

Shoppers head into Target just after their doors opened at midnight on Black Friday in South Portland, Maine.

Macy's opens its doors at 6 p.m. for Black Friday in New York City.

People enter a J.C. Penney store at the Newport Mall on Thursday in Jersey City, New Jersey.

This year, Black Friday brawls have also been reported across the pond in the U.K.

"Keep calm, people!"

Black Friday shopping chaos hits Britain: http://t.co/aQdwndulRO pic.twitter.com/0JNbGWCCM5

-- CBS News (@CBSNews) November 28, 2014

Fights breaking out #BlackFriday https://t.co/r5jT1spiKj

-- kadhim (@kadhimshubber) November 28, 2014

Lady down #BlackFriday https://t.co/ruJ5XnXasM

-- kadhim (@kadhimshubber) November 28, 2014

Black Friday sales to top £150m on Oxford Street alone - as fights and scuffles break out http://t.co/of3ogGjJg5 pic.twitter.com/A6KGCO1lq0

-- The Independent (@Independent) November 28, 2014

According to the BBC, several people were arrested and some were injured following shopping-related clashes in cities across the U.K. Police had to intervene in stores in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and elsewhere, as customers quarreled over discounted goodies.

On Friday, Manchester police urged shoppers to "keep calm."