Lawmakers approved it 75-59, a critical step for the measure that would allow same-sex weddings beginning this summer. It's a startling shift in the state, where just six months earlier voters turned back an effort to ban gay marriage in the Minnesota Constitution.

The state Senate plans to consider the bill Monday and leaders expect it to pass there, too. Gov. Mark Dayton has pledged to sign it into law.

"It's not time to uncork the champagne yet. But it's chilling," Rep. Steve Simon, a suburban Democrat who backed the bill, said at a raucous rally in the state Capitol rotunda minutes after the vote.

Rep. Karen Clark, the bill's sponsor, said her only goal was equal treatment under state law for same-sex couples. In a deeply personal speech, the Minneapolis Democrat talked of the support she got from her own family after coming out as gay decades ago.

"My family knew firsthand that same sex couples pay our taxes, we vote, we serve in the military, we take care of our kids and our elders and we run businesses in Minnesota," she said.

Hundreds of supporters and opponents gathered outside the House chamber up to and during the debate, chanting and waving signs. They sang "We Shall Overcome" and the John Lennon song "Give Peace a Chance" substituting the word "love" for "peace."

Four of the House's 61 Republicans voted for the bill, while two of its 73 Democrats voted no. None of the four Republicans committed support beforehand; one, Rep. Jenifer Loon, said she made up her mind during the three-hour House debate, in which lawmakers listened with rapt attention while their colleagues spoke.

"There comes a time when you just have to set politics aside and decide in your gut what is the right thing to do," said Loon, whose suburban district southwest of Minneapolis voted strongly against last fall's gay marriage ban. The other Republicans to vote for gay marriage also hail from suburban or exurban districts: Pat Garofalo of Farmington, David FitzSimmons of Albertville and Andrea Kieffer of Woodbury.

The two Democrats who voted no, Patti Fritz of Faribault and Mary Sawatzky of Willmar, represent largely rural districts where the gay marriage ban was backed by a majority of voters. But most of the Democrats from rural, more socially conservative areas ended up voting for the bill.

Opponents argued it would alter a centuries-old conception of marriage, and leave those people opposed for religious reasons tarred as bigots.

"We're not. We're not," said Rep. Kelby Woodard, a Republican from Belle Plaine. "These are people with deeply held beliefs, including myself."

House Republican Leader Kurt Daudt acknowledged that views on gay marriage are changing, but said the bill's sponsors stood to alienate thousands of Minnesotans who still believe in the male-female definition of marriage.

"Hearts and minds are changing on this," Daudt said. "But Minnesotans are still divided."

That could be seen outside the House chamber, where supporters and opponents of the bill stood shoulder to shoulder and chanted with equal vigor. Gay marriage backers dressed in orange T-Shirts and held signs that read, "I Support The Freedom to Marry." Behind them, opponents held up bright pink signs that simply read, "Vote No."

Among the demonstrators was Grace McBride, 27, a nurse from St. Paul. She said she and her partner felt compelled to be there to watch history unfold. She said she hopes to get married "as soon as I can" if the bill becomes law. The legislation would allow her to do so starting Aug. 1.

"I have thought about my wedding since I was a little girl," she said.

On the other side of the divide, Galina Komar, a recent Ukrainian immigrant who lives in Bloomington, brought her four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son to the Capitol to express her religious concerns.

"I do believe in God, and I believe God already created the perfect way to have a family," Komar said.

Eleven other states allow gay marriages including Rhode Island and Delaware, which approved laws in the past week.

Iowa allows gay marriages because of a 2009 court ruling. Leaders in Illinois the only Midwestern state other than Minnesota with a Democratic-led statehouse say that state is close to having the votes to approve a law too.

But most other states surrounding Minnesota have constitutional bans against same-sex weddings, so the change might not spread to the nation's heartland nearly as quickly as it has on the coasts and in New England.

The Minnesota push for gay marriage grew from last fall's successful campaign to defeat the constitutional amendment that would have banned it. Minnesota was the first state to turn back such an amendment, after more than two dozen states passed one over more than a decade.

The same election put Democrats in full control of state government for the first time in more than two decades, a perfect scenario for gay marriage supporters to swiftly pursue legalization. The bill cleared committees in both chambers in March, at the same time a succession of national polls showed opposition to gay marriage falling away nationally.

"There are kids being raised by grandparents, single parents, two moms or two dads," said Rep. Laurie Halverson, a Democrat from a suburb south of St. Paul. "Some of those folks are my friends. And we talk about the same things as parents. We talk about large piles of laundry, and how much it hurts to step on a Lego. That's what we do, because we're all families."

(Reuters) - Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron Corp chief executive, could be freed from prison nearly a decade sooner than originally expected, under an agreement with federal prosecutors to end the last major legal battle over one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.

The agreement calls for Skilling to see his federal prison sentence reduced to as little as 14 years, down from the 24 years imposed in 2006. It could result in Skilling's freedom in late 2018, with good behavior.

In exchange, Skilling, 59, who has long maintained his innocence, agreed to stop appealing his conviction. The agreement would also allow more than $40 million seized from him to be freed up for distribution to Enron fraud victims.

A resentencing became necessary after a federal appeals court upheld Skilling's conviction but found the original sentence too harsh.

Once ranked seventh on the Fortune 500 list of large U.S. companies, Enron went bankrupt on December 2, 2001 in an accounting scandal that remains one of the largest and most infamous U.S. corporate meltdowns.

Thousands of workers lost their jobs and retirement savings, and images were beamed around the globe of staff carrying possessions out of Enron's downtown Houston office tower, past the company's "crooked E" logo.

Wednesday's agreement, which is subject to court approval, recommends that Skilling be resentenced to between 14 and 17-1/2 years in prison, including time already spent there. Skilling has been in prison since December 2006.

"The proposed agreement brings certainty and finality to a long painful process," Skilling's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said in a statement. "Although the recommended sentence for Jeff would still be more than double any other Enron defendant, all of whom have long been out of prison, Jeff will at least have the chance to get back a meaningful part of his life."

"NOTORIOUS" FRAUD

Skilling had worked for Enron for two decades and was chief executive for six months, leaving the company fewer than four months before its bankruptcy.

A Houston federal jury in May 2006 convicted him on 19 counts of securities fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors.

In imposing the 24-year sentence, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake in Houston said Skilling had through his crimes "imposed on hundreds, if not thousands of people a lifetime of poverty."

Skilling's sentence is the longest imposed over Enron's collapse, which also led to the demise of the company's accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a resentencing in 2009, but this was delayed as Skilling tried unsuccessfully to persuade appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, to overturn his conviction.

Lake is now scheduled to resentence Skilling on June 21.

U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Peter Carr said the sentencing agreement "ensures that Mr. Skilling will be appropriately punished for his crimes and that victims will finally receive the restitution they deserve. Mr. Skilling will no longer be permitted to challenge his conviction for one of the most notorious frauds in American history."

ACCOUNTING SCANDAL

Along with WorldCom Inc and Adelphia Communications Corp, Enron was at the center of a series of corporate accounting scandals that led to reforms including the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

At the 2006 trial, the Houston jury also found Kenneth Lay, who preceded and followed Skilling as Enron's chief executive, guilty of fraud and conspiracy. Lay died in July 2006, and his death led to his conviction being thrown out.

Former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, considered the mastermind of Enron's fraud, testified against Skilling and Lay and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Fastow was released in December 2011. He declined to comment on Wednesday.

Another former top Enron executive and Skilling confidant, Cliff Baxter, committed suicide less than two months after the company's bankruptcy.

Skilling is being held at a low-security prison for men in Littleton, Colorado, and according to federal prison records could be freed in February 2028.

Federal prisoners like Skilling are expected to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

In 2010, the Supreme Court did not overturn Skilling's conviction, but called it into question in concluding that the government relied on an overbroad interpretation of a law making it illegal for someone to deprive others of "honest services."

The next year, however, the 5th Circuit reaffirmed the conviction.

At his October 2006 sentencing, Skilling blamed Enron's demise on a credit and liquidity crunch. "The company did not have enough dry powder to deal with it," he said.

The case is U.S. v. Skilling, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No. 04-cr-00025.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Dena Aubin in New York, and David Ingram and Aruna Viswanatha in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Chris Reese and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) - Intel Corp on Monday unveiled the most extensive overhaul of its Atom mobile processors, with improved performance that the PC chipmaker expects will help it challenge Qualcomm in smartphones and tablets.

The new microarchitecture, code-named Silvermont, will be a key building block in upcoming Intel chips for mobile gadgets, microservers and car entertainment systems, Chief Product Officer Dadi Perlmutter told reporters at an event on Monday.

"We have not only reduced the power in a significant manner but it comes with significant performance," Perlmutter said.

Intel's chips dominate the PC industry but the company has struggled to adapt its processors for smartphones and tablets, a market dominated by Qualcomm.

The Silvermont microarchitecture is analogous to redesigning an automobile engine that will be used a range of car models with different features, Perlmutter said.

He said it offers up to three times more computing performance than current chips and as much as five times lower power consumption.

Qualcomm and other mobile chipmakers design their processors using power-efficient technology licensed from Intel-rival ARM Holdings.

Intel introduced its Atom mobile processors for netbooks in 2008 and they have so far failed to be widely adopted in smartphones and tablets despite improvements made to them.

Silvermont will be the basis for Intel's 22-nanometer Bay Trail tablet chips due out later this year and Intel says it will more than double the performance of its current tablet chips.

It will also be used in Intel's upcoming Merrifield smartphone chips and Avoton chips for microservers.

While Silvermont improves the performance of Intel's processors, the Santa Clara, California company faces other major challenges in mobile.

It has fallen behind in launching chips with Long Term Evolution, or LTE, a high-speed wireless technology already offered by Qualcomm and increasingly found in smartphones launched in the United States, including Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy line.

(Reporting By Noel Randewich; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

(Reuters) - Audio systems maker Harman International Industries Inc, whose brands include JBL and Harman Kardon, raised its earnings forecast for the year ending June, and said it will shift more jobs to lower-cost countries in the next five years.

Shares of the company jumped 14 percent to a year-high of $50.52 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. They were later trading at $47.49, up 7.4 percent.

The company is looking to have about 70 to 75 percent of its employees in "best cost" countries such as China, India, Brazil, Hungary and Mexico in the next five years, up from 50 percent at present, Chief Executive Dinesh Paliwal told Reuters.

"Most of the growth in next five years for our jobs would be in best-cost countries," he said.

The company said three months ago it would cut 500 jobs in high-cost countries in Europe and America as part of a restructuring program.

"We are on track and we'll have these 500 full-time jobs out before June 30... starting July 1, on an annual basis, we'll be booking $30 million to $35 million profitability improvement just because of that," he said.

In addition, Paliwal said it is transferring most of the production from its recently closed facility in Germany to Hungary. In January, it had said it would sell or close a manufacturing site in Europe, affecting another 500 jobs.

The company said it now expects fiscal 2013 earnings of $3 per share, up from its previous forecast of $2.70 to $2.90 per share.

Harman had slashed its full-year earnings estimate from $3.67-$3.92 per share in January due to lower sales to European carmakers.

The company also said on Thursday revenue for the full year would be in the upper half of its forecast range of $4.18 to $4.25 billion.

The audio systems maker also expects a more favorable product mix to boost profitability next fiscal year.

"In 2014, almost 50 percent of our automotive business would come from our high-margin backlog. This year only 25 percent of the revenue is coming from high-margin backlog," Paliwal said.

Baird Equity Research analyst David Leiker said the results and higher forecast affirmed the second-quarter miss was a one-off due to extreme production cuts at Audi.

Third-quarter revenue fell 3 percent to $1.06 billion, in line with analysts' expectations, due to lower automotive production in Western Europe.

Harman's biggest business - infotainment - which provides integrated navigation, entertainment and communication systems for luxury carmakers such as Daimler AG, Fiat SpA's Ferrari and Volkswagen's Audi, reported a 6.7 percent drop in revenue.

Sales to German carmakers accounted for 43 percent of Harman's revenue for the year ended June 2012, with the rest of Europe bringing in another 20 percent.

Carmakers are bracing for a tough 2013. Volkswagen and Daimler reported lower first-quarter earnings last week.

While Daimler scrapped a profit target for the second time in six months, Europe's No. 1 automaker Volkswagen said last week all regions except North America and China were marked "by often significant uncertainty."

Paliwal expects the European market to pick up in the December quarter of 2013. "My expectation is second and third calendar-year quarters would be challenging."

Harman's net income fell to $35 million, or 50 cents per share, in the third quarter from $173 million, or $2.38 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Harman earned 79 cents per share.

Analysts on average expected earnings of 61 cents per share on revenue of $1.06 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das, Sreejiraj Eluvangal)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With their black leather, studded jackets, ripped jeans, bondage trousers and messages of rebellion and anarchy, punks from the 1970s probably never envisioned that a major museum would be celebrating their influence on fashion 40 years later.

But the Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is doing just that with a new exhibition, "Punk: Chaos to Couture," that opens on May 9 and runs through August 14.

It includes 100 punk styles and ranges from the mid-70s at Vivienne Westwood's and Malcolm McLaren's London boutique and images of The Sex Pistols to examples of punk's impact on haute couture and designers such as Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang, Miuccia Prada and John Galliano.

Films and music from the era and a re-creation of the graffiti-covered toilet at New York's CBGB punk rock club, where Blondie, the Ramones and Talking Heads played, add to the gritty authenticity of the exhibit.

"Punk was all about celebrating the individual, celebrating creativity and not being afraid - to be brave in your self-presentation and to be brave in your fashion statement," Andrew Bolton, the curator of the exhibit, said in an interview.

"Punk was all about challenging the status quo," he added. "I think all those elements very much impacted fashion."

ORIGINALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY

Thomas P. Campbell, the director and chief executive of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, described punk as "a tale of two cities, New York and London."

The exhibit, arranged over seven themed galleries, focuses on punk's concept of do-it-yourself and its impact on high fashion and ready-to-wear.

No other cultural movement has had a similar impact on fashion, according to Bolton, who added that designers engage with punk on different level.

Shirts emblazoned with "God Save the Queen," "Anarchy in the UK" and "Anarchist Punk Gang - The 1% ers" from Westwood's 1970s Seditionaries boutique are testament to punk's political message and desire to shock and provoke.

Torn clothing and garments incorporating chicken bones, tin studs, metal chains, bottle tops, horsehair, safety pins and other types of hardware show punk's do-it-yourself ethos and its themes of deconstruction and destruction.

"I think it is rather stunning. There are a lot of collector's items," British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, who was nicknamed the "princess of punk," said about the show.

"The most amazing thing that you spot from this exhibition is, in fact, that you have the street-edge stuff. You have it edited into couture ... But then you have the amazing Japanese seeing it with another eye ... turning it into a totally new art form," she added.

Punk's influence on Italian designer Gianni Versace is shown in his gowns with silver and gold safety pins and a black knit and leather dress embroidered with gold metal studs.

Other examples include Alexander McQueen's coatdress made of black synthetic material, imitating trash bags, and a coat of bubble wrap, Helmut Lang's jacket of silver and blue patent leather with aluminum foil and metal bottle caps and Rei Kawakubo's blouse and skirt of black polyester and silk satin and taffeta.

"Although punk's democracy stands in opposition to fashion's autocracy, designers continue to appropriate punk's aesthetic vocabulary to capture its youthful rebelliousness and aggressive forcefulness," Bolton said.

(Editing by Jim Loney)

The "Sound of Change Live" concert on June 1 in London's Twickenham sports stadium could fund at least 120 projects supporting girls and women in more than 70 nations, if all the tickets are sold, organizers said on Wednesday.

Organized by the Chime for Change campaign, founded by Italy fashion house Gucci, every ticket buyer will be able to choose which project their ticket will fund in what organizers said was a world first for such a venture.

Beyonce, currently on a European tour, will play a 45-minute set. She will be joined in the venture by singer and dancer Lopez, R&B artist John Legend, British indie sensation Ellie Goulding and rapper Timbaland, with more performers still to be announced.

U.S. actors James Franco, Blake Lively and Jada Pinkett Smith will be among the presenters.

"Our goal is to have a great time together while we unite and strengthen the voices of girls and women around the world," Beyonce said in a statement.

Rock promoter Harvey Goldsmith, who helped put on the Live Aid and Live Earth charity concerts, will produce the concert which will also be broadcast internationally.

Ticket prices range from 55-95 British pounds each ($85-$150) and 52,000 tickets are on sale.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

The event comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from smartphones and tablet computers. More Android integration could help Facebook Inc. attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

Facebook's event was being held at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Here's a running account of Facebook's event, presented in reverse chronological order. All times are PDT. Presenters include CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Adam Mosseri, director of products; Joey Flynn, product designer. Also appearing were HTC's CEO and AT&T's head of wireless. A question-and-answer session followed the main presentation, which lasted about 45 minutes.

___

11:30 a.m.

Here's a list of phones that will be able to run Home at first: HTC's One X and One X Plus and Samsung's Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. The upcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S IV will also be able to run Home. HTC's First will have it already installed.

Facebook says it hopes to extend that to other phones later.

Gartner analyst Brian Blau says he's impressed with Facebook's commitment to update Home once a month with additional features. He says Home "could be a game changer if you are a heavy Facebook user."

___

11:15 a.m.

More details are emerging on the new HTC phone. Called First, it will run on Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. It will come with the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram already installed. Cost is $100 with a two-year service agreement. The new device will have a screen that measures 4.3 inches diagonally.

The April 12 sale date happens to be when the iPhone 5 becomes available through T-Mobile.

___

11:05 a.m.

Home will be limited to phones running the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean versions of Android. That's version 4.0 and later. That covers phones made or updated over the past year or so.

Initially, the app will be limited to specific Android models about a half-dozen of them, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will also work on the upcoming Galaxy S IV. In addition, HTC Corp.'s upcoming First phone will come with Home.

It's not immediately clear what happens if you have Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean but not one of the models listed.

___

11 a.m.

Mosseri says ads will eventually come to this new service. It will be interspersed among the items displayed on the home screen, the way Facebook now injects ads into the main news feed showing friends' photos, links and other posts. But in this case, the ads will take up the entire display.

___

10:55 a.m.

The new Home service won't be available on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Apple's iOS and Mac operating systems include features that integrate Facebook's services, but Zuckerberg says doing something like Home would require a closer partnership.

By contrast, Google makes its Android operating system available on an open-source basis, free for anyone to modify, so it's easier to make changes. That said, Facebook makes it clear it's not making a new version of Android, a practice known as forking. Home is being built on top of Android.

___

10:50 a.m.

Minutes after the event ends, Facebook's stock is up 74 cents, or 2.8 percent, at $26.99.

___

10:45 a.m.

Zuckerberg closes the event by expressing his vision of the future, one where people have smartphones and tablet computers rather than desktops and laptops. He says there will be people who have never seen what we call computers these days.

He says Home feeds into that vision.

___

10:40 a.m.

While people will be able to install Home themselves, some phone makers will build Home into the phones. HTC Corp. is releasing a phone called First. It will come in four colors red, light blue, white and black. It will run on AT&T Inc.'s 4G LTE cellular network and go on sale April 12 for $100, with advance orders to begin Thursday. A two-year service agreement is required.

___

10:35 a.m.

To get Home, simply go to Google's online Play store when it's available. Those with Facebook apps on the phone already will get a prompt to download it. The software will be updated with new features monthly.

It will be available April 12 on certain phones initially.

Facebook isn't making Home for tablet devices for several months, though.

Zuckerberg tells the audience, "We are really proud of Home and we are excited to get (it) into your hands. We think this is the best version of Facebook there is."

___

10:30 a.m.

Flynn unveils a feature called chat heads. The idea is to let you communicate with your friends from that home screen, without needing to open an app. You can chat with multiple people at once that way.

___

10:25 a.m.

Mosseri describes one of the main features of the new service. It's called cover feed.

He notes that when people look at their phones now, they typically see a clock and perhaps the snippet of an email. That will change if you have the Home service activated. As soon as you turn on your phone, you'll see photos. You can swipe from one to the next from the home screen.

___

10:20 a.m.

The new service is called Home. Pictures from your Facebook news feed would take up the entire display screen. Zuckerberg says you'll be seeing the world through people rather than apps.

He gives an example of standing in line at a store and looking down at the phone to see photos of friends and family. It'll be possible to flip through the items. If there's something you like, just double tap on it to "like" it. You can also add comments from the home screen.

With this, Facebook doesn't believe you'll need to go to the Facebook app any more.

___

10:15 a.m.

Zuckerberg says Facebook isn't building a Facebook phone, saying a Facebook-centered device might sell 10 million to 20 million units at best. Rather, it's building on the existing Android system to bring this experience to a wider group of Android users.

___

10:10 a.m.

Zuckerberg talks about a new way to approach Facebook on phones.

He asks, "Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?" Better, he says, is to have that experience come right to the home screen, so you're always knowing what is going on around you.

He makes a comparison to the company's news feed feature, which brought friends' posts to a centralized place and reduced the need for people to check their friends' profile pages one by one.

___

10:05 a.m.

Zuckerberg walks on stage and addresses the rumors head on: "Today, we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone."

He then adds that more specifically, Facebook will talk about turning the Android phone into a simple, social device.

Interestingly, though, . Obviously, turning the page towards a New Year inspires a fresh start and thats completely understandable, too. If youre headed in that direction, it makes sense to spend a little time this month planning ahead. You can do so discreetly, and then know that youll truly be ready to start the New Year on the right foot.

To help get you begin, here are a few things you can do now to help make the divorce process smoother in 2012:

1. Start collecting financial documents.Watch the mail for year-end statements from banks, credit card companies, etc. As we outline in our , preparing for divorce requires gathering all the relevant documents related to your bank and brokerage accounts, credit cards, mortgages, etc. Once you have collected them, make copies, and take them to a trusted friend/family member, or use a safe deposit box that your husband cant access.

2. Check your credit report. While youre gathering your financial records, keep a careful eye on your credit card statements, and if you havent already done so, request a copy of your credit report. Once you have the report, monitor your score carefully so youll be the first to know if any unusual activity occurs. (For example, is your husband using your joint credit cards to buy his girlfriend gifts this holiday season?) See my post, , for more tips

3. Research divorce professionals in your area. If you want to ensure the best possible outcome for your divorce, take the time to build a . I recommend you start with these three players: a matrimonial/family law attorney, aand a therapist/counselor. Spend some time this month researching divorce professionals and create a short list of candidates for each position. Schedule interviews with each top contender in January, and rest easy knowing that by February 2012, youll be benefiting from the expert guidance of a top-notch divorce team.

4. Open new accounts in your name. Moving forward as a single woman in 2012 will require that you have a bank account and credit cards in your name. Lay the groundwork now. Dont use the bank where you currently have your joint accounts. Go to a different bank and open both a savings and a checking account in your name. Youll need your own credit card, too, so you should start that process now, as well.are making it harder than ever for women with little or no income to establish credit on their own. You can do it. But, plan accordingly and know that securing credit is going to be more complicated than just filling out an application or making a single phone call.

5. Remain vigilant. Is your husband using the good cheer of the holidays as cover while he dissipates family assets? Be attentive, and if you are concerned at all about financial shenanigans by your husband, you may want to .

Some women who are considering divorce let the holidays get them down. Dont be one of them. Use this opportunity to start planning ahead, and youll be able to start the New Year confident that you are on the way to a more stable and secure financial future.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey A. Landers, CDFA is a Divorce Financial Strategist and the founder of Bedrock Divorce Advisors, LLC (), a divorce financial strategy firm that exclusively works with women, who are going through, or might be going through, a financially complicated divorce. He also advises women business owners on what steps they can take now to divorce-proof their business in the event of a future divorce. He can be reached at .

All articles/blog posts are for informational purposes only, and do not constitute legal advice. If you require legal advice, retain a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author, who is not an attorney.

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The British paper reported on its website that several of its feeds on the social media site were broken into over the weekend. It said that it has since discovered that the attack apparently originated from Internet protocol addresses within Syria.

"We are aware that a number of Guardian Twitter accounts have been compromised and we are working actively to resolve this," said a statement from Guardian News and Media, the company that publishes the paper.

The Syrian Electronic Army is a shadowy group that supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which is battling an armed uprising.

The group has claimed responsibility for a string of Web attacks on other media targets, including The Associated Press. The Guardian said the group accused it of spreading "lies and slander about Syria."

Hackers attacked the AP's Twitter accounts last week, sending out a false tweet about an attack on the White House and triggering a brief plunge on the U.S. stock market.

The Guardian said it first recognized it was being targeted when suspect emails were sent to staff members to trick them into giving away security details. Some of the paper's Twitter accounts, including those focusing on books and film, were suspended Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Doctors spend about 40 minutes getting approvals from insurance companies to get a psychiatric patient from the emergency room to a hospital bed, according to a new study.

In some cases, the researchers found the approval process took more than an hour, which the study's senior author said results in patients being kept in ERs longer and doctors taken away from other duties.

"For anyone who works in mental health, this is nothing new," said Dr. J. Wesley Boyd, from the Cambridge Health Alliance and Boston's Harvard Medical School.

Some insurance companies - except for Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for the elderly and disabled - insist on approving hospital admissions, and without that prior approval may refuse to pay for the hospital stay.

Boyd and his colleagues, who published their findings in a letter to the Annals of Emergency Medicine on Tuesday, tracked 53 psychiatric patients who came to their ER during three months of 2012.

Doctors in the study who felt their patients should be admitted to the hospital marked how long they were on the phone with the insurance company and how long the patients were in the ER.

The median time patients spent in the ER was 8.5 hours, but individual waits ranged from three to 20 hours.

And doctors spent an average of 38 minutes on the phone getting approval from the patients' insurance companies. Half the time, it took less than 20 minutes to get insurance approval, but 10 percent of the time it took more than one hour.

Ultimately, all but one of the patients received insurance approval to be admitted.

"The process is time consuming, but it doesn't really change the fact that someone is going into the hospital," said Boyd.

He acknowledges that the phone calls to insurance companies didn't substantially increase the amount of time patients were kept in the ER, but said it's still added time and keeps doctors from other sick patients.

"You're talking about seriously-ill people being held in emergency settings longer than they should be," Boyd told Reuters Health.

Dr. Steven Daviss, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Maryland, said patients aren't typically kept waiting because of insurance approval. Rather, they're usually kept in the ER because of a lack of psychiatric hospital beds available.

"In Maryland they're not waiting over the weekend because of insurance issues, they're waiting because all of the beds in all the hospitals are filled," said Daviss, who was not involved in the new research.

Also, Daviss told Reuters Health that requiring prior approval for psychiatric patients does not mean people are being denied care. Federal law prohibits ERs from turning away patients because of their inability to pay, he said.

In 1986, the U.S. enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act that says hospitals must stabilize and treat people who come to emergency rooms. The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act also prohibits insurers from making admission procedures for mental health treatment any more burdensome than for other kinds of conditions.

As a result, Daviss said, fewer insurers are requiring preapproval for hospital admissions of psychiatric patients, at least in Maryland.

"I'm surprised to see that it's still an issue. In Maryland we sort of solved that problem," he added.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/3J8DYg Annals of Emergency Medicine, online April 23, 2013.