6 actually useful smartphone apps to get you through Black Friday

Gracefully navigate the shopping madness by doing a little prep work on your iPhone or Android before you leave the house

Ah, the holidays! Big-box stores compete with online behemoths for customers, while customers compete with each other to get the best Black Friday savings. And, in a new digital twist, Black-Friday-focused apps are competing with one another for downloads. Developers are creating all sorts of helpful ways for customers to sniff out bargains, track spending, and manage their nephew’s wish list. Now that The Week has advised you on Black Friday “deals” to avoid, here’s a rundown of some of the more helpful apps out there: 

Black Friday by BradsDeals
The folks behind BradsDeals.com, a site known for tracking down coupons and discounts, put together this helpful Black Friday app that shows you all the leaked ads and discounted items from 100 major retailers like Sears, Kohls, and Macy’s. Who needs a newspaper? (iPhone-only)

Black Friday Deal Finder by Fat Wallet
Search for deals using variables like free shipping, doorbusters, online availability, rebates, and more. Useful for planning but also recommended for any quick-witted shopper who wants to do in-store product comparisons. (iPhone-only)

Black Friday app from DealNews
Both PC World and PC Magazine voted DealNews tops in its category thanks to its exhaustive, well-organized catalog. Like the other apps, this one lets you browse “leaked” and “confirmed” ads from major retailers so you can plot out your plan of attack beforehand. (iPhone, Android)

ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner
Use your phone’s camera to scan products for instant price comparisons — no need to painstakingly input your search queries while angry shoppers slam you with their carts. If there’s a better deal around you or online, this app will let you know. (iPhone, Android)

Wunderlist
Was it your nephew Charlie who wanted the new Call of Duty game? Or was that your boss’ son Jimmy? Instead of checking your list twice, try WunderList, a super-simple task management tool that syncs lists on your desktop, iPhone, and more. (iPhone, Android) 

Mint.com Personal Finance
The whirlwind holiday shopping season can make it difficult to keep your finances in check. One solution: Mint, a virtual-money manager that automatically keeps tabs on your bank and credit card accounts to help you master your budget with a friendly, easy-to-use interface. Best of all, it’s useful well after January rolls around; no wonder TIME Magazine named it one of the 50 best iPhone apps out there. (iPhone, Android)

SEE ALSO: Get rich quick: 6 people who accidentally found a fortune

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Ex-'Price is Right' model gets $7.7M in damages

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury has awarded a former model on "The Price is Right" more than $7.7 million in punitive damages after determining the show discriminated against her because of her pregnancy.

The decision Wednesday came one day after the panel determined producers discriminated against Brandi Cochran. They awarded her nearly $777,000 in actual damages.

The show's producers, FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions, vow to appeal the verdict and say they expect to be vindicated.

Cochran said she was rejected by the game show's producers when she tried to return from maternity leave in 2010.

Producers said they were satisfied with the five models they had when the 41-year-old sought to return.

Cochran says she is humbled by the award and hopes it raises issues of pregnancy discrimination in all workplaces.

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Well: Officials Warn Against Baby Sleep Positioners

Health officials are warning parents not to use a special device designed to help keep babies in certain positions as they sleep. The device, called a sleep positioner, has been linked to at least 13 deaths in the last 15 years, officials with two federal agencies said on Wednesday.

“We urge parents and caregivers to take our warning seriously and stop using these sleep positioners,” Inez Tenenbaum, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement.

The sleep positioner devices come primarily in two forms. One is a flat mat with soft bolsters on each side. The other, known as a wedge-style positioner, looks very similar but has an incline, keeping a child in a very slight upright position.

Makers of the devices claim that by keeping infants in a specific position as they sleep, they can prevent several conditions, including acid reflux and flat head syndrome, a deformation caused by pressure on one part of the skull. Many are also marketed to parents as a way to help reduce a child’s risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, which kills thousands of babies every year, most between the ages of 2 months and 4 months.

But the devices have never been shown in studies to prevent SIDS, and they may actually raise the likelihood of sudden infant death, officials say. One of the leading risk factors for sudden infant death is placing a baby on his or her stomach at bedtime, and health officials have routinely warned parents to lay babies on their backs. They even initiated a “Back to Sleep” campaign in the 1990s, which led to a sharp reduction in sudden infant deaths.

With the positioner devices, if an infant rolls onto the stomach, the child’s mouth and nose can press up against a bolster or some other part of the device, leading to suffocation. Even if placed on the back, a child can move up or down in the positioner, “entrapping its face against a bolster or becoming trapped between the positioner and the crib side,” Gail Gantt, a nurse consultant with the Food and Drug Administration, said in an e-mail. Or the child might scoot down the wedge in a way that causes the child’s mouth and nose to press into the device.

“The baby’s movement may also cause the positioner to flip on top of the baby, trapping the baby underneath the positioner or between the positioner and the side of the crib,” she said.

Of the 13 babies known to have suffocated in a sleep positioner since 1997, most died after they rolled from their sides onto their stomachs. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has also received dozens of reports of babies who were placed on their sides or backs, “only to be found later in hazardous positions within or next to the product,” the F.D.A. said in a statement.

Many baby books for new parents specifically urge against using sleep positioners, and the American Academy of Pediatrics does not support their use for SIDS prevention. Though the F.D.A. has never approved the positioners for the prevention of SIDS, it has in the past approved a number of the devices for the prevention of gastroesophageal reflux disease and flat head syndrome. But the agency said that in light of the new safety data, it believed any benefits from using the devices were outweighed by the risk of suffocation.

As of Wednesday, the agency is explicitly advising parents to stop using sleep positioners, and it has asked manufacturers of the devices to submit clinical data showing that the benefits of their products outweigh the risk of serious harm. In addition to avoiding the devices, experts say, parents should keep things like pillows, comforters, quilts and bumpers away from their infants and their cribs. Soft bedding can increase the likelihood of a baby suffocating.

“The safest crib is a bare crib,” Dr. Susan Cummins, a pediatric expect with the F.D.A., said in a statement. “Always put your baby on his or her back to sleep. An easy way to remember this is to follow the ABC’s of safe sleep – Alone on the Back in a bare Crib.”

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DealBook: Judge Approves Hostess Brands' Plan to Close Down

A federal bankruptcy judge approved Hostess Brands’ plans to wind itself down, officially putting the Twinkies brand on the auction block.

In granting Hostess’s motion, Judge Robert D. Drain of the Federal Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York cited the need for a quick and orderly shuttering of the company to avoid letting its assets molder. The alternative, a less-structured Chapter 7 liquidation would be far worse.

“This estate will suffer substantial diminution if this wind-down plan is not quickly implemented,” he said. “It appears to me that the debtors have taken the right course.”

Judge Drain’s motion spells the almost certain end of Hostess, an 82-year-old bakery that survived the Great Depression, numerous wars and countless low-carb diets. But the company, whose stable of sugary confections also include Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, struggled for more than a decade with the public’s increasing fondness for lower-calorie, less-processed snacks.

During a hearing that stretched for more than four hours, company executives and advisers espoused a simple message: expedited sales of the company’s brands will raise the maximum amount of money possible. And letting Hostess begin shutting its doors for good sooner would be kinder to employees.

Advisers sounded confident that the liquidation process, which is expected to take about a year, could yield big recoveries for creditors.

“Since we filed motion, we have received a flood of inquiries and think there can be a healthy competition,” Heather Lennox, a lawyer for the company, said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Hostess’ chief executive, Gregory Rayburn, testified in court on Wednesday that he needed to lay off 15,000 of the company’s 18,500 employees that afternoon, so that they could begin applying for unemployment benefits. Such speed, he said, was necessary for maximizing the value of what remained of the 82-year-old company.

“From this point forward, I need two things to happen,” he said. “I need to maximize the value of the estate, and I need to do the best thing for the employees.”

He also asked the court to quickly approve Hostess’s plans to liquidate, given that the value of its brands and assets had begun deteriorating since factory production lines shut down on Friday.

“The longer you’re off the shelf, the less value you’re going to get,” Mr. Rayburn said.

An investment banker for Hostess contended that, at this point, the company could fetch significant sums for its host of sugary treats. Joshua Scherer of Perella Weinberg Partners testified that over the course of the 10-month-old Chapter 11 case, he had received six takeover bids — though none were acceptable.

Since Hostess announced its intentions to liquidate, it has received expressions of interest from a wide range of potential buyers. Without naming names, Mr. Scherer said that they included regional bakeries. national competitors and retail customers along the lines of Wal-Mart Stores and Kroger.

The banker added that his firm plans to reach out to approximately 145 financial firms, including private equity shops and liquidators, to gauge their interest. Investment concerns like Sun Capital Partners and C. Dean Metropoulos & Company, the owner of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, have already said that they were interested in buying some or all of Hostess’s remains.

(Sun Capital has said that it would like to buy all of Hostess, not only preserving the company but also improving its toxic relationship with employee unions.)

Mr. Scherer said that he expected asset sales to reap “significant values,” perhaps more than $1 billion.

The hearing followed a last-minute mediation session between Hostess and its bakery employees union on Tuesday. That gathering, convened at the behest of Judge Drain, was meant to resolve a nearly two-week-old strike that company executive said fatally crippled its operations.

But after several hours of negotiations, the mediation talks collapsed.

“I wanted to acknowledge the tragedy that’s taking place here,” Richard Seltzer, a lawyer for the Teamsters, one of the company’s major unions, said in court.

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Clinton Arrives in Middle East as Egypt Says Truce in Gaza Is Close

JERUSALEM — Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Tuesday to end the lethal confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza on one of the most violent days yet in the conflict, as the United States sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East and Egypt’s president and his senior aides expressed confidence that a cease-fire was close.

But by late evening there was no announcement, and Mrs. Clinton said she would be working in coming days to complete an agreement. Appearing beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to speak briefly to the press, Mrs. Clinton said she hoped to achieve an end to the hostilities with a deal that moves “toward a comprehensive peace for all people in the region.” Mr. Netanyahu told Mrs. Clinton that if the rocket fire from Gaza stopped he was prepared to agree on a “long-term solution.”

The diplomatic moves to end the nearly week-old crisis came as the antagonists on both sides intensified their attacks before any cease-fire takes effect.

Israeli aerial and naval forces assaulted several Gaza targets in multiple strikes, including a suspected rocket-launching site near Al Shifa hospital, which killed more than a dozen people. Those deaths brought the total number of fatalities in Gaza so far to more than 130 — roughly half of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said. A delegation visiting from the Arab League canceled a news conference at the hospital because of the Israeli aerial assaults as wailing ambulances brought victims in, some of them decapitated.

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

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

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

Senior Egyptian officials in Cairo said Israel and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs Gaza, were “very close” to a cease-fire agreement that could be announced within hours. “We have not received final approval but I hope to receive it any moment,” said Essam el-Haddad, President Mohamed Morsi’s top foreign affairs adviser.

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

By late evening, however, there was no word on an announcement, and Israeli television was saying the talks needed more time. In Cairo, Egyptian news reports quoted Hamas officials as blaming Israel for delaying a deal and an announcement was unlikely before Wednesday.

The announcement of Mrs. Clinton’s active role in efforts to defuse the crisis added a strong new dimension to the multinational push to avert a new Middle East war. Israel has amassed thousands of soldiers on the border with Gaza and has threatened to invade the crowded Palestinian enclave for the second time in four years to stop the persistent rockets that have been lobbed at Israel.

Mrs. Clinton, who accompanied President Obama on his three-country Asia trip, left Cambodia on her own plane immediately for the Israel, and upon arrival in the late evening went into immediate talks with Israeli leaders.

She was scheduled to visit the West Bank later to meet with Palestinian leaders and then go to Cairo to consult with Egyptian officials.

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

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 20, 2012

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

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Ex-'Price is Right' model wins suit against show

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors awarded nearly $777,000 Tuesday to a former "The Price is Right" model who claimed she was discriminated against by producers because of her pregnancy.

Brandi Cochran, 41, said she was rejected by the game show's producers when she tried to return to work in early 2010 after taking maternity leave.

The Superior Court jury determined her pregnancy was the reason she wasn't rehired and awarded Cochran $776,944 in the suit against producers FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions.

In their defense, producers said they were satisfied with the five models working on the show at the time Cochran sought to return.

A second phase of the trial will determine whether Cochran should be awarded punitive damages. Cochran's attorneys had asked for more than $8 million, City News Service reported.

Jurors began deliberations Thursday, telling Judge Kevin Brazile several times that they were deadlocked before reaching the verdict.

In a statement, FremantleMedia said it expects to be "fully vindicated" after an appeal, adding that it stands behind executive producer Mike Richards and the show's staff.

"We believe the verdict in this case was the result of a flawed process in which the court, among other things, refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40 percent of our models have been pregnant," and further "important" evidence, FremantleMedia said.

A call seeking comment from Cochran's attorney wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.

The verdict is a rare one for a program that has seen other lawsuits. Longtime host Bob Barker, who retired in 2007, was sued by some of the show's hostesses for sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Most of the cases involving "Barker's Beauties" — the nickname given the gown-wearing women who presented prizes to contestants — ended with out-of-court settlements.

Comedian-actor Drew Carey followed Barker as the show's host.

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Global Update: Meningitis Vaccine Gets Longer Window Without Refrigeration

In what may prove to be a major advance for Africa’s “meningitis belt,” regulatory authorities have decided that a new meningitis vaccine could be stored without refrigeration for up to four days.

The announcement was made last week at a conference in Atlanta of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. While a few days may seem trivial, the hardest part of protecting poor countries is often keeping a vaccine cold while moving it from electrified cities to villages with no power. In antipolio drives, for example, the freezers, generators and fuel needed to make ice for the shoulder bags of vaccinators can cost more than the vaccine.

The new vaccine, MenAfriVac, made in India for 50 cents a dose, was introduced in 2010. In bad years, epidemics during the hot harmattan winds have killed as many as 25,000 Africans and disabled 50,000 more. In Chad this year, vaccination drove down cases to near zero in districts where it was used, while others nearby had serious outbreaks.

Experts decided that the vaccine is safe for four days as long as it stays below 104 degrees.

While temperatures get higher than that in Africa, said Dr. Godwin Enwere, medical director for the Meningitis Vaccine Project, teams normally get the vaccine out of coolers at dawn, drive to villages and finish before the day heats up. Other experts said it should be kept in the shade and monitored with colored paper “dots” that darken after hours in the heat.

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DealBook: Ex-Trader Charged in $276 Million Insider Scheme

Federal prosecutors brought what they called “the most lucrative insider trading scheme ever charged,” filing a criminal case on Tuesday against a former trader at a unit of the hedge fund SAC Capital.

Mathew Martoma, a former trader at CR Intrinsic, a division of SAC Capital, was charged with making about $276 million in combined profits and avoided losses by obtaining confidential information about a drug trial for an Alzheimer’s drug developed by the pharmaceutical companies Elan and Wyeth.

The case is the latest to put the billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen and his hedge fund, SAC Capital, in the spotlight over insider trading crimes committed by former employees.

Mr. Martoma received the information from Sidney Gilman, a neurology professor at the University of Michigan, a leading expert in Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Gilman is cooperating with the government and has entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Mr. Gilman connected with Mr. Martoma through an expert network firm based in New York. Expert networks became popular on Wall Street in the last decade, linking Wall Street money managers to specialists in various industries to help give them an edge on their investments. Expert networks have been a focus of the government’s widespread crackdown on insider trading at hedge funds.

His consulting work at the expert network firm earned Mr. Gilman more than $100,000, according to a parallel civil complaint against Mr. Martoma and Mr. Gilman filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

According to the complaint, between 2006 and 2008, Mr. Martoma consulted with Mr. Gilman on dozens of occasions about the preliminary results of the drug trial and accumulated a roughly $700 million position in the stocks of Wyeth and Elan. Mr. Gilman was chairman of the safety committee overseeing the drug trial.

In June 2008, the complaint says, Mr. Martoma received secret information about negative data relating to the drug trials. After receiving that information, Mr. Martoma caused SAC Capital to sell its entire inventory of roughly 10.5 million shares in Elan and about 7 million shares of Wyeth before the public release of the data.

The day after the study was announced, Elan stock lost about 42 percent of its value and Wyeth dropped about 12 percent. The inside information allowed SAC Capital to make about $276 million in illegal gains.

Mr. Martoma left SAC Capital in 2010, according to a spokesman at the hedge fund. A lawyer for Mr. Martoma could not be reached immediately for comment.

In a statement, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney, said: “The charges unsealed today describe cheating coming and going – specifically, insider trading first on the long side, and then on the short side, on a scale that has no historical precedent. As alleged, by cultivating and corrupting a doctor with access to secret drug data, Mathew Martoma and his hedge fund benefited from what might be the most lucrative inside tip of all time.”

Mr. Martoma is the latest person to have worked at SAC to be ensnared in an insider trading investigation. Jon Horvath, a former technology industry analyst at SAC, pleaded guilty in September to participating in a conspiracy that illegally traded in the shares of Dell computer. His boss, the former portfolio manager Michael Steinberg, has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator but has not been charged in the case. Mr. Steinberg’s lawyer, Barry Berke, declined to comment.

Last year, two former SAC portfolio managers – Donald Longueuil and Noah Freeman – admitted to trading on illegal tips about publicly traded technology companies. Mr. Longueuil is serving a two-and-a-half-year term at a federal prison in Otisville, N.Y.; Mr. Freeman, who is cooperating with prosecutors, has yet to be sentenced.

SAC CAPITAL UNDER A MICROSCOPE The firm has been under a cloud since a former employee, Richard Choo-Beng Lee, pleaded guilty in 2009 to insider trading and began helping the government in its investigation. The crimes he confessed to were committed after he left SAC, but he agreed to provide information about his five years at the firm, which ended in 2004.

NAMES	THE CASES
Jonathan Hollander	The former analyst paid more than $220,000 to settle civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him of trading in his personal account on confidential information about the 2006 takeover of the Albertsons grocery store chain.
Jon Horvath and Michael Steinberg	Mr. Horvath, right, a former technology industry analyst, pleaded guilty in September to participating in a conspiracy that illegally traded in the shares of Dell computer. His boss, the former portfolio manager Mr. Steinberg, has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator but has not been charged in the case. Federal prosecutors contend they were part of a seven-person conspiracy — a “circle of friends” — that earned about $62 million in illegal gains trading on secret tips from executives at publicly traded technology companies.
Donald Longueuil and Noah Freeman	The two former portfolio managers admitted in 2011 to trading on illegal tips about publicly traded technology companies. Mr. Longueuil, right, was swept up in a crackdown on so-called expert networks. He is one of roughly a dozen implicated in the case. Mr. Longueuil is serving a two-and-a-half-year jail term at a federal prison in Otisville, N.Y.; Mr. Freeman, who is cooperating with prosecutors, has yet to be sentenced.
Mathew Martoma	The former trader at CR Intrinsic, a unit of the hedge fund, was charged with making about $276 million in combined profits and avoided losses by obtaining confidential information about a drug trial for an Alzheimer’s drug developed by the pharmaceutical companies Elan and Wyeth.

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Hamas Strengthens as Palestinian Authority Weakens

RAMALLAH, West Bank — In the daily demonstrations here of solidarity with Gaza, a mix of sympathy and anguish, there is something else: growing identification with the Islamist fighters of Hamas and derision for the Palestinian Authority, which Washington considers the only partner for peace with Israel.

“Strike a blow on Tel Aviv!” proclaim the lyrics of a new hit song blasting from shops and speakers at Monday’s demonstration, in a reference to Hamas rockets that made it nearly to Israel’s economic and cultural capital. “Don’t let the Zionists sleep! We don’t want a truce or a solution! Oh Palestinians, you can be proud!”

Pop songs everywhere are filled with bravado and aggression. But this one reflects a widespread sentiment that does not augur well for President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, which is rapidly losing credibility, even relevance. The Gaza truce talks in Cairo, involving Egypt, Turkey and Qatar, offer a telling tableau. The Palestinian leader seen there is not Mr. Abbas, but Khaled Meshal, the leader of the militant group Hamas, who seeks to speak for all Palestinians as his ideological brothers in the Muslim Brotherhood rise to power around the region.

Israel is also threatening Mr. Abbas, even hinting that it may give up on him, as he prepares to go to the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 29 to try to upgrade the Palestinian status to that of a nonmember state. The Israelis consider this step an act of aggression, and even some Palestinians say it is somewhat beside the point at this stage.

“His people are being killed in Gaza, and he is sitting on his comfortable chair in Ramallah,” lamented Firas Katash, 20, a student who took part in the Ramallah demonstration.

For the United States, as for other countries hoping to promote a two-state solution to this century-old conflict, a more radicalized West Bank with a discredited Palestinian Authority would mean greater insecurity for Israel and increased opportunity for anti-Western forces to take root in a region where Islamism is on the rise.

Since Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006, threw the Fatah-controlled authority out of Gaza a year later, Mr. Abbas has not set foot there. Yet he will be asking the world to recognize the two increasingly distinct entities as a unified state.

Manar Wadi, who works in an office in Ramallah, put the issue this way: “What is happening in Gaza makes the Palestinian Authority left behind and isolated. Now we see the other face of Hamas, and its popularity is rising. It makes us feel that the Palestinian Authority doesn’t offer a path to the future.”

In Cairo on Monday, Mr. Meshal seemed defiant and confident in his new role, daring the Israelis to invade Gaza as a sixth day of Israeli aerial assaults brought the death toll there to more than 100 people, many of them militants of Hamas and its affiliates. Rockets launched from Gaza hit southern Israel, causing some damage and panic, but no casualties, leaving the death toll there at three.

“Whoever started the war must end it,” he said at a news conference. “If Israel wants a cease-fire brokered through Egypt, then that is possible. Escalation is also possible.”

Officials in the authority have been holding leadership meetings, staying in close touch with the talks in Cairo and issuing statements of solidarity. They have also sent a small medical delegation to Gaza and argue that there is a new opportunity to forge unity between the two feuding movements. But they are acutely aware of their problem.

“The most dangerous thing is the fact that what we could not do in negotiations, Hamas did with one rocket,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The people had such excitement seeing the occupiers run in panic. It’s a very dangerous message.”

Mr. Abbas, whose popularity has been on the decline as the Palestinian Authority faces economic difficulty and growing Israeli settlements, also ran into trouble not long before the Gaza fighting began when he seemed to give up on the Palestinian demand of a right of return to what is now Israel.

Many Palestinians believe that Israel launched its latest operation in Gaza to block the Palestinian Authority’s United Nations plans by embarrassing it. Israeli officials say that is ridiculous: the operation’s purpose is to stop the growing number of rockets being fired at their communities, and Israelis interrupted their deliberations over the United Nations bid to wage the military campaign.

But Israel says anything that does not involve direct negotiations is a waste of time. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to take severe retaliatory steps against the Palestinian Authority, including cutting off badly needed tax receipts to Palestinian coffers, should Mr. Abbas go ahead at the United Nations.

In a speech here on Sunday night at a Palestinian leadership meeting, Mr. Abbas repeated his determination to go to New York and ask for a change in status to that of nonmember state. He has chosen the symbolically significant date of Nov. 29, when the General Assembly voted in 1947 to divide this land into two states, one Jewish and the other Palestinian Arab.

The United States has asked Mr. Abbas not to do so but instead to resume direct negotiations with Israel, which have essentially been frozen since 2008.

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Wranglers say 'Hobbit' animals died on unsafe farm

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Animal wranglers involved in the making of "The Hobbit" movie trilogy say the production company is responsible for the deaths of up to 27 animals, largely because they were kept at a farm filled with bluffs, sinkholes and other "death traps."

The American Humane Association, which is overseeing animal welfare on the films, says no animals were harmed during the actual filming. But it also says the wranglers' complaints highlight shortcomings in its oversight system, which monitors film sets but not the facilities where the animals are housed and trained.

A spokesman for trilogy director Peter Jackson on Monday acknowledged that horses, goats, chickens and one sheep died at the farm near Wellington where about 150 animals were housed for the movies, but he said some of the deaths were from natural causes.

The spokesman, Matt Dravitzki, agreed that the deaths of two horses were avoidable, and said the production company moved quickly to improve conditions after they died.

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first movie in the planned $500 million trilogy, is scheduled to launch with a red-carpet premiere Nov. 28 in Wellington and will open at theaters in the U.S. and around the world in December.

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says it's planning protests at the premieres in New Zealand, the U.S. and the U.K.

Kathy Guillermo, a senior vice president at PETA, said whistleblowers on The Hobbit contacted the organization after it had taken an active role in exposing problems on other movie sets. The organization sent a letter to Jackson last week outlining its concerns.

"We want to send a clear message to Hollywood that they need to be very careful when using animals and take all the precautions that need to be taken," Guillermo said.

The Associated Press spoke to four wranglers who said the farm near Wellington was unsuitable for horses because it was peppered with bluffs, sinkholes and broken-down fencing. They said they repeatedly raised concerns about the farm with their superiors and the production company, owned by Warner Bros., but it continued to be used. They say they want their story aired publicly now to prevent similar deaths in the future.

One wrangler said that over time he buried three horses, as well as about six goats, six sheep and a dozen chickens. The wranglers say two more horses suffered severe injuries but survived.

Wrangler Chris Langridge said he was hired as a horse trainer in November 2010, overseeing 50 or so horses, but immediately became concerned that the farm was full of "death traps." He said he tried to fill in some of the sinkholes, made by underground streams, and even brought in his own fences to keep the horses away from the most dangerous areas. Ultimately, he said, it was an impossible task.

He said horses run at speeds of up to 30 mph and need to be housed on flat land: "It's just a no-brainer."

The first horse to die, he said, was a miniature named Rainbow.

"When I arrived at work in the morning, the pony was still alive but his back was broken. He'd come off a bank at speed and crash-landed," Langridge said. "He was in a bad state."

Rainbow, who had been slated for use as a hobbit horse, was euthanized. A week later, a horse named Doofus got caught in some fencing and sliced open its leg. That horse survived, but Langridge said he'd had enough.

He and his wife, Lynn, who was also working as a wrangler, said they quit in February 2011. The following month, they wrote an email to Brigitte Yorke, the Hobbit trilogy's unit production manager, outlining their concerns.

Chris Langridge said he responded to Yorke's request for more information but never received a reply after that.

Wrangler Johnny Smythe said that soon after Langridge left, a horse named Claire was found dead, its head submerged in a stream after it fell over a bluff. After that, he said, the horses were put in stables, where a third horse died.

Smythe said no autopsy was performed on the horse, which was named Zeppelin. Veterinary records say the horse died of natural causes, from a burst blood vessel, but Smythe said the horse was bloated and its intestines were full of a yellow liquid; he believes it died of digestive problems caused by new feed.

Smythe said the six goats and six sheep he buried died after falling into sinkholes, contracting worms or getting new feed after the grass was eaten. He said the chickens were often left out of their enclosure and that a dozen were mauled to death by dogs on two separate occasions.

Smythe said he was fired in October 2011 after arguing with his boss about the treatment of the animals.

A fourth wrangler, who didn't want to be named because she feared it could jeopardize her future employment in the industry, said another horse, Molly, got caught in a fence and ripped her leg open, suffering permanent injuries.

Dravitzki, the spokesman for Peter Jackson, said the production company reacted swiftly after the first two horses died, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading housing and stable facilities in early 2011.

"We do know those deaths were avoidable and we took steps to make sure it didn't happen again," he said.

Dravitzki said Zeppelin died of a burst blood vessel and that he knew only of three goats, one sheep and about eight chickens that had died aside from that. He said two of the goats died in a cold snap but the third, like the sheep, was old and had likely died of natural causes. He said the chicken maulings were the result of careless staff oversight.

The American Humane Association said in its report on "An Unexpected Journey" that it investigated the farm at the production company's request. Dravitzki said the company contacted the AHA after Smythe alleged mistreatment of animals.

Mark Stubis, an association spokesman, said it investigated the farm in August 2011, months after the first deaths.

"We made safety recommendations to the animals' living areas. The production company followed our recommendations and upgraded fence and farm housing, among other things," the group said.

Dravitzki said the company had already made many of the recommended changes by the time the AHA made them.

Stubis said the association acknowledges that what happens off-set remains a blind spot in its oversight.

"We would love to be able to monitor the training of animals and the housing of animals," Stubis said. "It's something we are looking into. We want to make sure the animals are treated well all the time."

Dravitzki questioned the timing of the allegations with the premiere so close but said the producers are investigating all the claims "and are attempting to speak with all parties involved to establish the truth."

He said the company no longer leases the farm and has no animals left on the property. He said he didn't know if animals will be needed for future filming in the trilogy, but added that Jackson himself adopted three of the pigs used.

Hollywood has made animal welfare a stated priority for years.

In March, HBO canceled the horse racing series "Luck" after three thoroughbred horses died during production. The network said it canceled the show because it could not guarantee against future accidents.

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