Berry's ex says he was threatened before fight

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend claims the actress's fiance threatened to kill him during a Thanksgiving confrontation that left him with a broken rib, bruised face and under arrest.

Gabriel Aubry's claims are included in court filings that led a judge Monday to grant a restraining order against actor Olivier Martinez, who is engaged to the Oscar-winning actress.

Aubry, 37, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery after his confrontation with Martinez on Thursday, but he states in the civil court filings that he was not the aggressor and that he was threatened and attacked without provocation. Martinez told police that Aubry had attacked first, the filings state.

A representative for Martinez could not be immediately reached for comment.

Aubry's filing claims Martinez threatened him the day before the fight at an event at his daughter's school that he and the actors attended. Aubry, a model, has a 4-year-old daughter with Berry and the former couple have been engaged in a lengthy custody battle.

The proceedings have been confidential, but Aubry states a major aspect of the case was Berry's wish to move to Paris and take her daughter with her. The request was denied Nov. 9, Berry's court filings state, and Aubry shares joint custody of the young girl.

Aubry claims Martinez told him, "You cost us $3 million," while he was punched and kicked him in the driveway of Berry's home. Aubry had gone to the home to allow his daughter to spend Thanksgiving with her mother, the filings state. Aubry claims Martinez threatened to kill him if Aubry didn't move to Paris.

Berry was not in the driveway during the confrontation and neither was their daughter, the documents state.

Photos of Aubry's face with cuts and a black eye were included in his court filing.

A judge set a hearing for Dec. 17 to consider whether a three-year restraining order should be granted. Aubry has a Dec. 13 court date for the possible battery case, which has not yet been filed by prosecutors.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

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Panel Lukewarm on Hepatitis C Screening for Baby Boomers

An influential advisory committee has given only lukewarm support to a government recommendation that all baby boomers be tested for hepatitis C.

In a draft opinion Monday, the United States Preventive Services Task Force said that clinicians may “consider offering” hepatitis C screening to adults born between 1945 and 1965.

That falls short of the recommendation made in August by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all adults in that age group should get a one-time test to see if they are infected.

The task force is made up of outside experts appointed by the government, and its recommendations can in some cases carry more weight than those of the C.D.C. Had hepatitis C screening for baby boomers received a stronger recommendation from the task force, health plans would have been required to pay for it under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, with no charge to the patient.

Some advocates of wider screening said they feared the new opinion would be used by insurers to deny reimbursement for testing and would slow efforts to ferret out hidden cases of hepatitis C at a time when more effective and tolerable treatments are being developed.

The recommendation “could derail the hard work that the C.D.C. has put in in proving the case that it’s smart for baby boomers to get a one-time hepatitis C test,” said Martha B. Saly, director of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, a coalition of more than 200 groups dedicated to eradicating hepatitis. Some drug companies, which would benefit from wider screening, are associate members of the round table.

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, of the University of California, San Francisco, and a member of the task force, said differences in the recommendations were merely a matter of degree. “I would say our findings are compatible,” she said.

The C.D.C. declined to comment, saying the opinion was still a draft.

About 3 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, but 45 percent to 85 percent of them do not know it, according to the C.D.C. The virus can cause scarring of the liver and liver cancer, though typically not until decades after the initial infection, and not in everyone. About 15,000 people a year die from hepatitis C.

The C.D.C. used to recommend screening only for people most likely to be infected: intravenous drug users or people who got blood transfusions before 1992 when testing of donated blood for the virus began.

But a lot of cases were missed because people did not remember risky behaviors from decades ago or did not tell their doctors.

So in August the C.D.C. recommended that all baby boomers be tested. Although only about 3 percent of this age group is infected, they account for about three quarters of all cases. Screening them would detect more than 800,000 infections, which could then potentially be treated, averting many cases of liver disease and about 120,000 deaths.

But the task force said there were no clinical trials or studies directly proving that screening asymptomatic adults would reduce liver disease or deaths.

It noted that the C.D.C. recommendation was based partly on computer models that might have overestimated how many people with hepatitis C would develop liver cirrhosis or die, and therefore overstated the number of cases or deaths that could be prevented.

The task force concluded that there would be at least a small benefit from screening baby boomers and gave the recommendation a grade of C, meaning “for most individuals without signs or symptoms there is likely to be only a small benefit from this service.”

The task force provoked controversy in the past with recommendations against screening for prostate cancer and against routine mammograms for women under 50.

In 2004, the task force recommended against hepatitis C screening of adults not considered at high risk.

The draft, posted on the task force Web site, will be open for comment until Dec. 24. The evidence behind the recommendation is being published in The Annals of Internal Medicine.

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State Department warns U.S. travelers about violence in Mexico

By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times

November 27, 2012

Although the number of U.S. citizens killed in Mexico so far this year is down, the U.S. State Department has again issued a detailed travel warning for visitors to the country.

The state-by-state assessment urges travelers to "defer nonessential travel" to four of Mexico's 31 states — Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango and Tamaulipas. The department also warns tourists to avoid unnecessary travel to remote towns and border areas in 11 other states, mostly in the northern section of Mexico.

In the state of Coahuila, for example, the travel warning noted that more than 100 prisoners escaped from a prison near the Texas border in September and that they have been involved in "a series of violent incidents since the escape."

The latest travel warning noted that 32 U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico in the first six months of 2012, compared with 113 in all of 2011.

In a statement, Mexican tourism officials said that so far drug violence is limited to a small percentage of the country's 2,500 municipalities. In addition, protection of tourists "is at the pinnacle of importance to the Mexican government," said Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete, chief operating officer for the Mexico Tourism Board.

Criminal violence has been on the rise over the last six years because of a drug war between the Mexican government and various drug cartels.

The U.S. began issuing state-by-state assessments this year in response to criticism from Mexican tourism officials who said the warnings were too generalized.

For years, Mexico has been the top international destination for U.S. travelers. But the number of U.S. visitors to Mexico was flat in 2011 and has declined slightly in the first eight months of 2012, according to federal statistics.

The latest travel warning urged U.S. travelers to be cautious even in popular tourist destinations, including the beach town of Mazatlan in the state of Sinaloa. The State Department said travelers to Mazatlan "should exercise extreme caution particularly late at night and in the early morning."

hugo.martin@latimes.com

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For two L.A. schools, sharing a campus is starting to chafe

Three years ago, Logan Street Elementary looked like the perfect spot for high-performing, growing Gabriella Charter School. Logan, a low-performing neighborhood school with declining enrollment, had room to spare.

But Logan has begun to rebound, opening up a language program with teaching in both Spanish and English and adding middle-school grades. And its test scores have risen.

Now the Echo Park campus is becoming too small for two burgeoning operations: an improving traditional school and an exemplary charter. Neither intends to surrender its hold on the campus.

The situation exemplifies issues that arise when schools must share campuses. Across the Los Angeles Unified School District, 58 charters operate alongside neighborhood schools. Charters have fit in comfortably on new campuses, such as Synergy Kinetic Academy at the Nava Learning Center in South Los Angeles. There are more logistical hurdles and resistance at older schools.

The California Charter Schools Assn. is battling L.A. Unified in court over access to campuses. For many charters, which are publicly funded and independently operated, locating and paying for real estate is a persistent challenge. Charters argue that the district should provide more classrooms, given that L.A. Unified has declining enrollment and about 1 in 8 of its students attend charters.

Under state law, charters have a right to district facilities that are "reasonably equivalent" to regular district schools'. But these arrangements cover only one year at a time; charters risk having to change locations frequently.

The Gabriella deal was an attempt to prevent such a disruption. L.A. Unified agreed to let Gabriella, which operated about two miles away near MacArthur Park, move to Logan starting in the 2009-10 school year. The district this month renewed Gabriella's charter for five years, which, under the deal, automatically included letting it stay at Logan. The renewal never was in doubt — Gabriella has some of the highest test scores in the state, with an enrollment that is 90% low-income, minority students.

L.A. Unified also spent $2 million in voter-approved construction bonds to convert a portion of a Logan classroom building into two fully outfitted dance studios that opened in 2010. The charter's most distinctive feature is a comprehensive, daily dance program for all students. After school, the studios are used by a community dance program, run by Gabriella's founders, that is offered for $7 a month.

The studios are emblematic of the uneasy coexistence. They are the major recent upgrade to the well-worn campus and off limits to Logan students during the school day. A handful take dance after school, but the program serves a broad area, and vacancies are filled by lottery.

Only Logan uses the cafeteria for meals. Gabriella students eat outside at tables — or in classrooms when it rains.

The asphalt playground is split by orange cones, which are shifted to allow each school rotating access to different play areas.

Logan's expansion through eighth grade has added complications. Given the smaller, divided playground, Logan doesn't let its middle-schoolers use the playground during their morning break and lunch. And one day a week, eighth-graders remain in classrooms for physical education because Gabriella has the entire playground at that time.

Gabriella forbids its students from using the playground before school, dissatisfied with the level of supervision.

The charter school, which also runs through eighth grade, has stretched beyond its original bungalows into two other buildings.

When needed classroom space wasn't forthcoming last year, Gabriella converted its office into a classroom and occupied the auditorium as an ad hoc office and storage space. L.A. Unified officials ordered them out — but quickly provided the needed classroom.

Logan's low point in enrollment was two years ago, when it had 475 students. It's now up to 550. Gabriella has 436. The campus is now as packed as it was in 2000, when Logan was considered overcrowded.

Logan supporters insist it's unfair for Gabriella students to crowd their campus when about two-thirds live outside the attendance area; Gabriella insists that about two-thirds come from "greater Echo Park." Anyone can apply; admission is by lottery when oversubscribed.

Some of the resistance to Gabriella is born of the area's traditionally liberal, pro-union roots; activists have opposed all charter schools in the neighborhood, at least partly because most are non-union.

There's also resentment over Gabriella providing smaller classes and more frequent maintenance.

The campus lacks science labs for the middle school students, not to mention a gym, a functioning library and a playground with green space.

"I think all the students at both schools are getting hurt," said Tad Yenawine, a parent on Logan's leadership council. "It's pretty clear a solution needs to be found. The only way this really works is that Gabriella moves."

Gabriella administrators said they intend to make do as things are.

"Being charter people, we're used to being creative with space," Principal Lisa Rooney said. "We can make it work with what we have."

Mollie Jones, a Gabriella parent, agreed.

"We have different buildings and entrances," she said. "The layout is a little random, but the focus here is on learning. The fact that we share the campus with another school is probably the least interesting thing about the school."

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Rolling Stones mark 50th year with London show

LONDON (AP) — The Rolling Stones made a triumphant return to the London stage on Sunday night in the first of five concerts to mark the 50th anniversary of their debut as an American-oriented blues band.

They showed no signs of wear and tear — except on their aging, heavily lined faces — as frontman Mick Jagger swaggered and strutted through a stellar two-and-a-half hour show. He looked remarkably trim and fit and was in top vocal form.

The Stones passed the half-century mark in style at the sometimes emotional gig that saw former bassist Bill Wyman and guitar master Mick Taylor join their old mates in front of a packed crowd at London's 02 Arena.

It was the first of five mega-shows to mark the passage of 50 years since the band first appeared in a small London pub determined to pay homage to the masters of American blues.

Jagger, in skin-tight black pants, a black shirt and a sparkly tie, took time out from singing to thank the crowd for its loyalty.

"It's amazing that we're still doing this, and it's amazing that you're still buying our records and coming to our shows," he said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Lead guitarist Keith Richards, whose survival has surprised many who thought he would succumb to drugs and drink, was blunter: "We made it," he said. "I'm happy to see you. I'm happy to see anybody."

But the band's fiery music was no joke, fuelled by an incandescent guest appearance by Taylor, who played lead guitar on a stunning extended version of the ominous "Midnight Rambler," and Mary J. Blige, who shook the house in a duet with Jagger on "Gimme Shelter."

The 50th anniversary show, which will be followed by one more in London, then three in the greater New York area, lacked some of the band's customary bravado — the "world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" intro was shelved — and there were some rare nostalgic touches.

Even the famously taciturn Wyman briefly cracked a smile when trading quips with Richards and Ronnie Wood.

The concert started with a brief video tribute from luminaries like Elton John, Iggy Pop and Johnny Depp, who praised the Stones for their audacity and staying power. The Stones' show contained an extended video homage to the American trailblazers who shaped their music: Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and others. The montage included rare footage of the young Elvis Presley.

The Stones began their professional career imitating the Americans whose music they cherished, but they quickly developed their own style, spawning hundreds — make that thousands — of imitators who have tried in vain to match their swagger and style.

The concert began with some early Stones' numbers that are rarely heard in concert, including the band's cover of the Lennon-McCartney rocker "I Wanna Be Your Man" and the Stones original "It's All Over Now."

They didn't shy away from their darker numbers, including "Paint It Black" and "Sympathy for the Devil" — Jagger started that one wearing a black, purple-lined faux fur cape that conjured up his late '60s satanic image.

He even cracked a joke about one of the band's low points, telling the audience it was in for a treat: "We're going to play the entire "Satanic Majesty's Request" album now," he said, referring to one of the band's least-loved efforts, a psychedelic travesty that has been largely, mercifully, forgotten.

He didn't make good on his threat.

He also made fun of the sky-high ticket prices, which had exposed the band to some criticism in the London press.

"How are you doing up in the cheap seats," he said, motioning to fans in the upper rows of the cavernous 02 Arena. "Except they're not cheap seats, that's the problem."

But Jagger seemed more mellow than usual, chatting a bit about the good old days and asking if there was anyone in the crowd who had seen them in 1962, when they first took to the stage.

He said 2012 had been a terrific year for Britain and that the Stones nearly missed the boat, playing no role in the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics, or the new James Bond film.

"We just got in under the wire," he said. "We feel pretty good."

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M.I.T. Lab Hatches Ideas, and Companies, by the Dozens

HOW do you take particles in a test tube, or components in a tiny chip, and turn them into a $100 million company?

Dr. Robert Langer, 64, knows how. Since the 1980s, his Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has spun out companies whose products treat cancer, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia, among other diseases, and even thicken hair.

The Langer Lab is on the front lines of turning discoveries made in the lab into a range of drugs and drug delivery systems. Without this kind of technology transfer, the thinking goes, scientific discoveries might well sit on the shelf, stifling innovation.

A chemical engineer by training, Dr. Langer has helped start 25 companies and has 811 patents, issued or pending, to his name. That’s not too far behind Thomas Edison, who had 1,093. More than 250 companies have licensed or sublicensed Langer Lab patents.

Polaris Venture Partners, a Boston venture capital firm, has invested $220 million in 18 Langer Lab-inspired businesses. Combined, these businesses have improved the health of many millions of people, says Terry McGuire, co-founder of Polaris.

Along the way, Dr. Langer and his lab, including about 60 postdoctoral and graduate students at a time, have found a way to navigate some slippery territory: the intersection of academic research and the commercial market.

Over the last 30 years, many universities — including M.I.T. — have set up licensing offices that oversee the transfer of scientific discoveries to companies. These offices have become a major pathway for universities seeking to put their research to practical use, not to mention add to their revenue streams.

In the sciences in particular, technology transfer has become a key way to bring drugs and other treatments to market. “The model of biomedical innovation relies on research coming out of universities, often funded by public money,” says Josephine Johnston, director of research at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research organization based in Garrison, N.Y.

Just a few of the products that have emerged from the Langer Lab are a small wafer that delivers a dose of chemotherapy used to treat brain cancer; sugar-sequencing tools that can be used to create new drugs like safer and more effective blood thinners; and a miniaturized chip (a form of nanotechnology) that can test for diseases.

The chemotherapy wafer, called the Gliadel, is licensed by Eisai Inc. The company behind the sugar-sequencing tools, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, raised $28.4 million in an initial public offering in 2004. The miniaturized chip is made by T2Biosystems,  which completed a $23 million round of financing in the summer of 2011.

“It’s inconvenient to have to send things to a lab,” so the company is trying to develop more sophisticated methods, says Dr. Ralph Weissleder, a co-founder, with Dr. Langer and others, of T2Biosystems and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

FOR Dr. Langer, starting a company is not the same as it was, say, for Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook. “Bob is not consumed with any one company,” says H. Kent Bowen, an emeritus professor of business administration at Harvard Business School who wrote a case study on the Langer Lab. “His mission is to create the idea.”

Dr. Bowen observes that there are many other academic laboratories, including highly productive ones, but that the Langer Lab’s combination of people, spun-out companies and publications sets it apart. He says Dr. Langer “walks into the great unknown and then makes these discoveries.”

Dr. Langer is well known for his mentoring abilities. He is “notorious for replying to e-mail in two minutes, whether it’s a lowly graduate school student or the president of the United States,” says Paulina Hill, who worked in his lab from 2009 to 2011 and is now a senior associate at Polaris Venture Partners. (According to Dr. Langer, he has corresponded directly with President Obama about stem cell research and federal funds for the sciences.)

Dr. Langer says he looks at his students “as an extended family,” adding that “I really want them to do well.”

And they have, whether in business or in academia, or a combination of the two. One former student, Ram Sasisekharan, helped found Momenta and now runs his own lab at M.I.T. Ganesh Venkataraman Kaundinya is Momenta’s chief scientific officer and senior vice president for research.

Hongming Chen is vice president of research at Kala Pharmaceuticals. Howard Bernstein is chief scientific officer at Seventh Sense Biosystems, a blood-testing company. Still others have taken jobs in the law or in government.

Dr. Langer says he spends about eight hours a week working on companies that come out of his lab. Of the 25 that he helped start, he serves on the boards of 12 and is an informal adviser to 4. All of his entrepreneurial activity, which includes some equity stakes, has made him a millionaire. But he says he is mainly motivated by a desire to improve people’s health.

Operating from the sixth floor of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research on the M.I.T. campus in Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Langer’s lab has a research budget of more than $10 million for 2012, coming mostly from federal sources.

The research in labs like Dr. Langer’s is eyed closely by pharmaceutical companies. While drug companies employ huge research and development teams, they may not be as freewheeling and nimble, Dr. Langer says. The basis for many long-range discoveries has “come out of academia, including gene therapy, gene sequencing and tissue engineering,” he says.

He has served as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies. Their large size, he says, can end up being an impediment.

“Very often when you are going for real innovation,” he says, “you have to go against prevailing wisdom, and it’s hard to go against prevailing wisdom when there are people who have been there for a long time and you have some vice president who says, ‘No, that doesn’t make sense.’ ”

Pharmaceutical companies are eager to tap into the talent at leading research universities. In 2008, for example, Washington University in St. Louis announced a $25 million pact with Pfizer to collaborate more closely on biomedical research.

But in some situations, the close — critics might say cozy — ties between business and academia have the potential to create conflicts of interest.

There was a controversy earlier this year when it was revealed that the president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center owned stock in Aveo Oncology, which had announced earlier that the university would be leading clinical trials of one of its cancer drugs.  Last month, the University of Texas announced that he would be allowed to keep his ties with three pharmaceutical companies, including Aveo Oncology; his holdings will be placed in a blind trust.

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Black Friday weekend sales hit record

Drawn by aggressive discounts and earlier-than-ever opening hours, shoppers opened their wallets on Black Friday weekend in record numbers and handed retailers a promising start to the holiday season.

Merchants raked in an estimated $59.1 billion in sales from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, up from $52.4 billion a year earlier, as millions flocked to stores and browsed online, according to the National Retail Federation. Spending per shopper jumped 6% to $423.

The spending mania is expected to continue into so-called Cyber Monday, which is the first workday after the holiday weekend, when many indulge in online shopping in their cubicles or offices.

"Everyone is feeling very bullish," said Matthew Shay, chief executive of the National Retail Federation. "We are really seeing a five-day weekend that started on Thursday and ends on Monday. The entire week is really getting extended with special promotions that roll out in waves."

Huge retailers and small boutiques alike tried to get a jump on the competition by opening as early as 8 p.m. Thanksgiving. That appears to have paid off, attracting first-time Black Friday bargain hunters with extended hours.

Nearly 30% of consumers who went out shopping over the long weekend were in stores by midnight Thanksgiving, according to the industry trade group. More young shoppers — about 40% of those ages 18 and 34 — indulged in late-night shopping compared with 25% of people ages 35 to 54 who did the same.

The earlier door-buster deals pulled sales into Thanksgiving Day that would typically have occurred the next morning, said Bill Martin of research firm ShopperTrak. He said sales Friday dropped 1.8% to $11.2 billion as Thanksgiving purchases probably rose.

Analysts said the results bolster previous forecasts of a good-but-not-great holiday season.

"There was definitely more hype this year for Black Friday, and the shoppers came out in droves," said James Rushing, a partner in the retail practice at consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

One positive sign: Merchants over the weekend were cutting back on the number of deep discounts — such as 75% to 80% off — that dotted the malls so thickly in the last few years, Rushing said.

"Retailers are feeling more confident about consumer sentiment," he said. "They were more focused on making a profit" rather than just making the sale, which "has potential to lead to a stronger fourth quarter."

But industry watchers warn that Black Friday isn't always a good predictor of how the entire holiday season will shake out. There is still concern about a looming "fiscal cliff," when tax hikes and spending cuts go into effect at the first of the year, which could cause shoppers to shut their wallets.

"The economic concern is still out there as are the political concerns," Shay said. "For that reason people are more prepared this holiday season to spend what they got and look for value, because of what might happen next year."

Vivian Nguyen, 26, of Echo Park said she's planning to drop about $300 on gifts for family members and friends for the holidays. The online marketer said she's still watching her spending carefully, treating herself to only a pair of socks at a neighborhood boutique while shopping this weekend.

"I'm looking entirely for sales," Nguyen said. "I really expect them at this point during the year."

For now, many shoppers appeared to take a more relaxed approach to holiday spending, analysts said.

"It was quite apparent this year the self-gifting process during Black Friday was on the rise," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group. He estimates at least a quarter of shoppers treated themselves to a present over the weekend.

Retailers are set to launch fresh discounts on their websites Monday, when an estimated 129.2 million people will go shopping online. Hundreds of retailers are expected to offer one-day-only bargains and free shipping to lure people back after days stuffing themselves with turkey and pie.

shan.li@latimes.com

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Yasser Arafat's body to be exhumed as cause of death is sought

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority announced Saturday that it would exhume the body of Yasser Arafat within days in a bid to determine the cause of his death eight years ago. Many Palestinians believe he was poisoned by Israel.

Arafat, 75, died in a French military hospital near Paris on Nov. 11, 2004, after his health deteriorated suddenly during an Israeli military siege of his Ramallah headquarters.

French hospital reports attributed his death to a massive brain hemorrhage, but gave no details on what caused a related blood condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation, fueling Palestinian suspicion of an Israeli role.

The body will be exhumed Tuesday in Ramallah, Palestinian officials told reporters. Swiss, French and Russian forensic experts will analyze tissue samples to see whether they match July tests by the Swiss Institute for Radiation Physics. Those tests found traces of radioactive polonium on Arafat's toothbrush, fur hat and other belongings he used in his final days.

Journalists will be kept away from the concrete-encased grave in Arafat's former Ramallah compound, which has been obscured by blue industrial sheeting since digging started in mid-November. The body will be immediately reburied at a depth of 12 feet.

Testing will be done in Switzerland, France and Russia, officials said, with the results expected in a few months.

No autopsy was done at the time of Arafat's death, at the request of his wife, Suha. But she later filed a lawsuit, spurring a French investigation. French medical teams ruled out poisoning, and an eight-year Palestinian investigation found no conclusive evidence of foul play.

Many here have already made up their minds.

"Regardless of the results of the tests, whether they will be positive or negative, we are convinced and have all the evidence to prove that Israel has assassinated him," Tawfik Tirawi, head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, said at the news conference Saturday in the Ramallah offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

But Mahdi Abdul Hadi, an analyst with the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, said Palestinians were more concerned about the possibility that collaborators helped Israel kill Arafat.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Palestinians were free to take all the samples they wanted.

"We have nothing to fear," he said. "All the accusations against Israel are completely ridiculous and not based on the slightest bit of evidence."

Amir Rapaport, publisher and editor of Israel Defense magazine, said it was possible but unlikely that Israel had a role. Although Israel's prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, expressed "satisfaction" on learning of Arafat's death, Rapaport said he had been privy to the debate among top Israeli government and military leaders, and this idea wasn't part of the discussion.

Furthermore, he said, the way Arafat died — an initial deterioration, temporary improvement, then a final collapse — bears none of the hallmarks of Israeli assassinations, which tend to be quick and decisive. "It's too complicated," he said.

Conspiracy theories are rife in countries around Israel's periphery, said Boaz Ganor, executive director of Israel's International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

"The fact that most Palestinians believe Israel was responsible, I'm not surprised," Ganor said. "They probably believe Israel is responsible for global warming as well."

The French team recently has sought to question Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Palestinian officials, who requested anonymity, but they were rejected.

"We will not allow any action that would infringe on our sovereignty," Tirawi said, an apparent reference to the French request. Tirawi said reports that Arafat's corpse had been damaged by tons of concrete poured over the grave site at the 2004 burial were false.

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Times staff writer Magnier reported from Jerusalem and special correspondent Abukhater from Ramallah.

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'Dallas' star Larry Hagman dies in Texas

J.R. Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly loathsome oil baron — and coaxed forth a Texas-size gusher of ratings — on television's long-running and hugely successful nighttime soap, "Dallas."

Although he first gained fame as nice guy Major Tony Nelson on the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy "I Dream of Jeannie," Hagman earned his greatest stardom with J.R. The CBS serial drama about the Ewing family and those in their orbit aired from April 1978 to May 1991, and broke viewing records with its "Who shot J.R.?" 1980 cliffhanger that left unclear if Hagman's character was dead.

The actor, who returned as J.R. in a new edition of "Dallas" this year, had a long history of health problems and died Friday due to complications from his battle with cancer, his family said.

"Larry was back in his beloved hometown of Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved the most. Larry's family and closest friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday," the family said in a statement that was provided to The Associated Press by Warner Bros., producer of the show.

The 81-year-old actor was surrounded by friends and family before he passed peacefully, "just as he'd wished for," the statement said.

Linda Gray, his on-screen wife and later ex-wife in the original series and the sequel, was among those with Hagman in his final moments in a Dallas hospital, said her publicist, Jeffrey Lane.

"He brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented, and I will miss him enormously. He was an original and lived life to the fullest," the actress said.

Years before "Dallas," Hagman had gained TV fame on "I Dream of Jeannie," in which he played an astronaut whose life is disrupted when he finds a comely genie, portrayed by Barbara Eden, and takes her home to live with him.

Eden recalled late Friday shooting the series' pilot "in the frigid cold" on a Malibu beach.

"From that day, for five more years, Larry was the center of so many fun, wild and sometimes crazy times. And in retrospect, memorable moments that will remain in my heart forever," Eden said.

Hagman also starred in two short-lived sitcoms, "The Good Life" (NBC, 1971-72) and "Here We Go Again" (ABC, 1973). His film work included well-regarded performances in "The Group," ''Harry and Tonto" and "Primary Colors."

But it was Hagman's masterful portrayal of J.R. that brought him the most fame. And the "Who shot J.R.?" story twist fueled international speculation and millions of dollars in betting-parlor wagers. It also helped give the series a place in ratings history.

When the answer was revealed in a November 1980 episode, an average 41 million U.S. viewers tuned in to make "Dallas" one of the most-watched entertainment shows of all time, trailing only the "MASH" finale in 1983 with 50 million viewers.

It was J.R.'s sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby) who plugged him — he had made her pregnant, then threatened to frame her as a prostitute unless she left town — but others had equal motivation.

Hagman played Ewing as a bottomless well of corruption with a charming grin: a business cheat and a faithless husband who tried to get his alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Gray), institutionalized.

"I know what I want on J.R.'s tombstone," Hagman said in 1988. "It should say: 'Here lies upright citizen J.R. Ewing. This is the only deal he ever lost.'"

On Friday night, Victoria Principal, who co-starred in the original series, recalled Hagman as "bigger than life, on-screen and off. He is unforgettable, and irreplaceable, to millions of fans around the world, and in the hearts of each of us, who was lucky enough to know and love him."

Ten episodes of the new edition of "Dallas" aired this past summer and proved a hit for TNT. Filming was in progress on the sixth episode of season two, which is set to begin airing Jan. 28, the network said.

There was no immediate comment from Warner or TNT on how the series would deal with Hagman's loss.

In 2006, he did a guest shot on FX's drama series "Nip/Tuck," playing a macho business mogul. He also got new exposure in recent years with the DVD releases of "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Dallas."

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Saturday morning in a statement that Hagman's role as J.R. helped the city gain "worldwide recognition."

"Larry is a North Texas jewel that was larger than life and he will be missed by many in Dallas and around the world," Rawlings said.

The Fort Worth, Texas, native was the son of singer-actress Mary Martin, who starred in such classics as "South Pacific" and "Peter Pan." Martin was still in her teens when he was born in 1931 during her marriage to attorney Ben Hagman.

As a youngster, Hagman gained a reputation for mischief-making as he was bumped from one private school to another. He made a stab at New York theater in the early 1950s, then served in the Air Force from 1952-56 in England.

While there, he met and married young Swedish designer Maj Axelsson. The couple had two children, Preston and Heidi, and were longtime residents of the Malibu beach colony that is home to many celebrities.

Hagman returned to acting and found work in the theater and in such TV series as "The U.S. Steel Hour," ''The Defenders" and "Sea Hunt." His first continuing role was as lawyer Ed Gibson on the daytime serial "The Edge of Night" (1961-63).

He called his 2001 memoir "Hello Darlin': Tall (and Absolutely True) Tales about My Life."

"I didn't put anything in that I thought was going to hurt someone or compromise them in any way," he told The Associated Press at the time.

Hagman was diagnosed in 1992 with cirrhosis of the liver and acknowledged that he had drank heavily for years. In 1995, a malignant tumor was discovered on his liver and he underwent a transplant.

After his transplant, he became an advocate for organ donation and volunteered at a hospital to help frightened patients.

"I counsel, encourage, meet them when they come in for their operations, and after," he said in 1996. "I try to offer some solace, like 'Don't be afraid, it will be a little uncomfortable for a brief time, but you'll be OK.' "

He also was an anti-smoking activist who took part in "Great American Smoke-Out" campaigns.

Funeral plans had not been announced as of Saturday morning.

"I can honestly say that we've lost not just a great actor, not just a television icon, but an element of pure Americana," Eden said in her statement Friday night. "Goodbye, Larry. There was no one like you before and there will never be anyone like you again."

___

Associated Press writers Erin Gartner in Chicago and Shaya Mohajer in Los Angeles, and AP Television Writer Frazier Moore in New York contributed to this report.

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Psychotherapy’s Image Problem Pushes Some Therapists to Become ‘Brands’

Illustration by Matt Dorfman. Photograph by Jens Mortensen for The New York Times.

In the summer of 2011, after I completed six years of graduate school and internship training and was about to start my psychotherapy practice, I sat down with my clinical supervisor in the Los Angeles office we’d be sharing. It had been a rigorous six years, transitioning from my role as a full-time journalist always on tight deadlines to that of a therapist whose world was broken into slow, thoughtful hours listening and trying to help people come to a deeper understanding of their lives. My supervisor went over the filing systems, billing procedures and ethical quandaries like whether to take referrals from current clients, but we never discussed how I would get these clients. I fully assumed, in what now seems like an astounding fit of naïveté, that I’d send out an e-mail announcement and network with doctors, and to paraphrase “Field of Dreams,” if I built it, they would come.

Except that they didn’t. What nobody taught me in grad school was that psychotherapy, a practice that had sustained itself for more than a century, is losing its customers. If this came as a shock to me, the American Psychological Association tried to send out warnings in a 2010 paper titled, “Where Has all the Psychotherapy Gone?” According to the author, 30 percent fewer patients received psychological interventions in 2008 than they did 11 years earlier; since the 1990s, managed care has increasingly limited visits and reimbursements for talk therapy but not for drug treatment; and in 2005 alone, pharmaceutical companies spent $4.2 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising and $7.2 billion on promotion to physicians, nearly twice what they spent on research and development.

According to the A.P.A., therapists had to start paying attention to what the marketplace demanded or we risked our livelihoods. It wasn’t long before I learned that an entirely new specialized industry had cropped up: branding consultants for therapists.

I couldn’t imagine hiring a branding consultant to lure people to the couch. Psychotherapy is perhaps one of the few commercial businesses that doesn’t see itself as one, that views financial gain as unseemly when connected to the delicate work of emotional insight. Moreover, the field is predicated on strict concepts of authenticity, privacy and therapist-patient boundaries. Branding was the antithesis of what we did.

But a couple of months after setting up my office and waiting for people to call, I found myself wondering — first idly, then deliberately, and always guiltily — about those branding consultants and how exactly they helped therapists like me. Sitting at my desk one morning when my appointment book looked particularly dismal, a combination of curiosity and desperation got the best of me. On Google, I came across a branding consultant named Casey Truffo. Her Web site’s home page spoke directly to my situation: “You are called to be a therapist. Are you also called to poverty?” I immediately dialed her number.

The first thing Truffo told me when I reached her in her Orange County office was that I shouldn’t feel bad about my empty hours; nowadays, she said, even established veterans were struggling. Yes, the economy was bad, but the real issue was that psychotherapy had an image problem.

She told me about a therapist named Sandra Bryson. In 2009, Bryson called for help after her successful Oakland-based practice of 25 years lost patients when she stopped taking insurance. According to Truffo, Bryson shared a problem common to therapists: “a blah-sounding message and no angle.” Bryson had always done well as a generalist — treating anything from depression to grief to marital issues — but Truffo urged her to find a specialty, one that “captured the zeitgeist but didn’t feel played out.” Bryson mentioned that she liked helping parents and had an affinity for technology, and voilà — suddenly she had a brand. Not as a clinician addressing typical parenting issues like boundary-setting, which Truffo called “generic and old-school,” but as an expert who helps modern families navigate digital media. She also became a sought-after speaker on so-called hot issues like screen time, cyberbullying and sexting, and Bryson told me her practice, which is based on “mostly deep work,” had become “more advice-driven.” Now her schedule is full, and her income has increased about 15 percent a year.

“Nobody wants to buy therapy anymore,” Truffo told me. “They want to buy a solution to a problem.” This is something Truffo discovered in her own former private practice of 18 years, during which she saw a shift from people who were unhappy and wanted to understand themselves better to people who would come in “because they wanted someone else or something else to change,” she said. “I’d see fewer and fewer people coming in and saying, ‘I want to change.’ ”

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