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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Marcus Paige scored 20 points in his season debut following a hand injury to help No. 9 North Carolina beat No. 2 Maryland 89-81 on Tuesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Brice Johnson added 16 points for the Tar Heels (6-1), who shot 53 percent and repeatedly capitalized on Terrapins miscues to hang on in a tough matchup.

Trimble finished with 23 points and 12 assists to lead Maryland (6-1), which shot 51 percent but committed 22 turnovers that UNC converted into 21 points.

This was the headlining matchup for the interconference series, pitting two Atlantic Coast Conference charter members with Final Four aspirations. Paige and Trimble basically took this one over for much of the second half, putting on a show of high-level guard play to make this matchup worthy of the rankings.

Eventually, Paige and the Tar Heels — the preseason No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 before sliding with a loss at Northern Iowa — put together enough stops and key baskets to slowly stretch out the lead and wrestle away control in the final 7½ minutes.

Maryland missed eight of its last 10 shots as North Carolina slowly pushed a 74-72 lead back to double figures after blowing a 13-point first-half lead.

Paige finished with a 7-for-12 shooting performance and made 4 of 5 3-point tries to go with five assists and one turnover in 34 minutes, showing no ill effects from the broken bone in his right hand — an injury sustained in practice Nov. 3 — nor rust from missing the first six games.

He also came up with a big defensive play, drawing a charge on Trimble in transition after a turnover with 3:03 left and UNC protecting an 85-76 lead.

___

TIP-INS

Maryland: Duke transfer Rasheed Sulaimon, booed every time he touched the ball, scored 18 points with five 3-pointers. … Longtime former coach and Hall of Famer Gary Williams was in the stands and was introduced at halftime over the public-address system.

UNC: Joel Berry II finished with 14 points and five assists, making three 3s. … The Tar Heels made 9 of 13 3-pointers. … Rapper J.Cole, an instate native of Fayetteville, sat courtside.

UP NEXT

Maryland hosts St. Francis (Pennsylvania) on Friday.

UNC hosts Davidson on Sunday.

___

Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap and the AP’s college basketball site at http://ift.tt/1MRZWaP

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London (AFP) – Britain’s parliament looks set to vote in favour of joining the bombing campaign against Islamic State (IS) in Syria on Wednesday, paving the way for sorties by its planes to start within days.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who stepped up pressure for air strikes after last month’s Paris attacks, will lead the House of Commons into more than 10 hours of debate on joining the US-led international military action.

Ministers are confident that lawmakers will then vote “Yes”, meaning the first Royal Air Force (RAF) planes could be bombing targets in Syria by the end of the week.

Cameron insists military action is needed to prevent attacks like the ones that killed 130 people in Paris last month, while insisting it will be accompanied by a diplomatic push to resolve the crisis in Syria.

“I will be making the arguments and I hope as many members of parliament across all parties will support me as possible,” he said on the eve of the vote.

But many experts, lawmakers and members of the public remain sceptical, and several thousand anti-war protesters marched in central London on Saturday and Tuesday.

Military experts question how much difference Britain will make to the coalition against IS jihadists in Syria, adding the move may be more about Britain wanting to be seen to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with allies like France and the United States.

“It will not make a big operational difference,” Professor Malcolm Chalmers of military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told AFP. 

“It is important symbolically, useful operationally, but not transformative.”

Cameron “emotionally feels very strongly that he should support France in its time of need,” added Ben Barry of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank.

Britain already has eight Tornado fighter jets plus an unknown number of drones involved in strikes on IS targets in Iraq, an operation it joined last year.

However, it currently only conducts surveillance and intelligence missions over Syria.

In a rare move, weekly Prime Minister’s Questions have been cancelled and the parliamentary diary cleared for an all-day debate on the Syria strikes, with a vote expected around 2200 GMT or even later.

The motion up for debate stresses that Britain will not deploy ground combat troops while noting that allies including France and the United States had requested British assistance.

– Clear majority? –

Cameron announced the vote on Monday after the main opposition Labour party let its MPs have a free vote rather than trying to force them to oppose air strikes in line with the views of its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour’s decision means dozens of its MPs who want military action will now likely vote with Cameron and the government, meaning he should get the “clear majority” he said was essential for action.

However Labour remains deeply divided, prompting Corbyn to take to the airwaves Tuesday in a last-ditch appeal to his own MPs to vote against air strikes.

“We are going to kill people in their homes by our bombs,” he told BBC radio.

“Think of the complications and the implications of what we are doing and please cast your vote against supporting this government’s military endeavours in Syria.”

In a blow to Cameron on the eve of the vote, parliament’s foreign affairs committee said he had “not adequately addressed” its concerns on Syria air strikes.

The committee has cast doubt on the legality of the move, its effectiveness in the absence of reliable allies on the ground and its usefulness in the context of finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

While Cameron is expected to win, he will likely face fresh questions from MPs about his claim that there are 70,000 moderate opposition fighters in Syria ready to help secure territory following air strikes.

Scarred by the memory of unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, London has played a smaller role in recent foreign military actions, leading to concerns that Britain’s clout is diminishing on the world stage.

Parliament rejected Cameron’s plan for action against the Assad regime in Syria in 2013.

“A willingness to deploy will allay the concern the UK is not a reliable partner,” RUSI’s Chalmers said.

A YouGov opinion poll last week found that 59 percent approved of Britain joining air strikes in Syria, compared to 20 percent who disapproved, but a survey published on Wednesday showed only 48 percent approved with 31 percent against.

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Harrison Ford has officially seen “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and he gives it a thumbs up.

“It’s a wonderful movie, it’s got great production values,” Ford revealed on “Good Morning America” without giving much away. “It’s a real big movie, and I was delighted to see it.”

The 73-year-old actor said it was great to see the film back up on the big screen, and that “a really great script” helped convince him to reprise his iconic role of Han Solo.

Ford is among a handful of people who have reportedly seen the movie so far.

Director J.J. Abrams previously showed a first cut of the film awhile back to Disney CEO Bob Iger and executives including Alan Horn and Alan Bergman, an experience Abrams called “horrifying.”

Actress Daisy Ridley claims that Steven Spielberg has seen the movie three times.

One person who has yet to see it is creator George Lucas. 

He’s okay with that at the moment.

While Lucas has said he’ll look forward to finally being a spectator to a new “Star Wars” film, he told the Washington Post any viewing with Disney, to whom he sold his company Lucasfilm in 2012, would feel like attending an “awkward” wedding.

We only have to wait a few more weeks to know just how great and wonderful “The Force Awakens” is, too.

The film will be released December 18.

Watch the clip of Harrison Ford on “GMA” below:

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Asian stock markets were uneven Wednesday ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting and a monthly U.S. job report later in the week that could cement a Fed interest rate hike this month.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.1 percent to 20,002.12 and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 2,020.97. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged down less than 0.1 percent to 5,265.60. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1 percent to 3,458.95 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2 percent to 22,416.61.

EUROPE STIMULUS: Investors expect the European Central Bank will expand its stimulus program when policymakers meet on Thursday, either by extending its bond-buying program beyond the current end date of September 2016 or by increasing the purchase amount. Investors are also expecting an interest rate cut. ECB head Mario Draghi signaled that action is coming this week as the bank seeks to support growth and push inflation higher.

US RATES: The Federal Reserve is expected by markets to raise its policy interest rate when it meets this month even though U.S. factory activity fell to the lowest in more than six years in November. Investors are keyed into Fed chief Janet Yellen’s speech set for Wednesday, as well as the November jobs report, scheduled to be released on Friday, which comes shortly before the Fed’s two-day policy meeting. Unless the November employment figures are extraordinarily weak, investors believe the Fed will raise interest rates from a record low this month for the first time since the financial crisis.

WALL STREET: U.S. stocks closed higher on the first day of December, helped by financial stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 168.43 points, or 1 percent, to 17,888.35. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 22.22 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,102.63 and the Nasdaq composite rose 47.64 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,156.31.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down 22 cents to $41.63 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract closed up 20 cents at $41.85 a barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, which is used to price oil internationally, lost 14 cents to $44.30 a barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The U.S. dollar strengthened to 123.04 yen from its previous close of 122.90 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0619 from $1.0629.

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TOKYO (AP) — In a last act precisely in keeping with her zeal for privacy, actress Setsuko Hara, star of director Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” and many other Japanese classics, died Sept. 5 but kept the news quiet until recently. She was 95.

Japanese fans laid flowers and other memorials outside Hara’s former studio after relatives disclosed news of her death last week, prompting an outpouring of affection for the reclusive actress dubbed the “eternal virgin.”

Hara’s poise and beauty endeared her to fans who viewed her as a role model for modern Japanese women in the years after the country’s defeat in World War II.

She stared many other Ozu films, such as “Early Summer,” and “Late Spring.” She withdrew from public life after she retired at age 42, spending the next 53 years in the quiet seaside city of Kamakura, near her birthplace, Yokohama.

Shunning public appearances and interviews, she chose to regain her private life after her last film, in the early 1960s. Her early retirement meant her public image remained forever youthful.

Though she made dozens of films before beginning to work with Ozu, one of Japan’s most revered directors, Hara is best remembered for his films, such as “Late Spring,” ”Early Summer.” She also appeared in Akira Kurosawa’s interpretation of Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” and in his “No Regrets for Our Youth.”

Hara was born Masae Aida on June 17, 1920.

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Sprout CEO Cindy Whitehead knew her ‘little pink pill’ was going to be controversial. 

After all, it’s “women and sex,” a topic controversial in itself, she said on-stage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen conference. But the reaction to the pill still confounded her.

“Enough already with the Viagra references,” Whitehead said. “The barometer of success should never be measured against an on-demand drug for men. Women are not on-demand creatures when it comes to sex.”

Her company, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, made headlines in August when a drug it created became the first FDA approved drug to boost a woman’s sex drive. However, most of those headlines wrongly referred to it as ‘female viagra’. 

The drug, flibanserin or “Addyi”, treats a condition called hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), which can cause chronic low desires to have sex in women. Addyi is a non-hormonal treatment that sends chemicals to the brain in the hopes of increasing sexual desire for women.

The drug is nothing like Viagra. 

“Addyi is an every day drug that works on chemical issue,” Whitehead said. “That’s very different than a drug that works for blood flow.”

However, Whitehead might have bigger issues than the public’s wrong nickname for the drug. According to a report from Bloomberg, only 227 prescriptions for the drug had been written by November, three months after it had been on the market. 

Onstage at Fortune, Whitehead said she’s happy with the progress because doctors and pharmacies both have to go through additional certification to be able to prescribe the drug. According to her numbers, around 10,000 doctors and 30,000 pharmacies had completed the certification. Plus, the diagnosis relies on having a medical condition — not just an ebb and flow in desire (or excuses) to not have sex. 

“Our goal out of the gate is education,” Whitehead said. 

SEE ALSO: We spoke with the CEO behind the first FDA approved drug to boost women’s sex drive

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NOW WATCH: Female voices can be annoying, and the reason why is totally unfair

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NEW YORK (AP) — Kind words are in short supply for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the premiere of Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” in New York.

Emmanuel fired his city’s police chief after tensions flared over the release of a graphic video that showed a black teenager being shot by a white police officer.

Lee predicts at the premiere Tuesday that “some more heads are gonna roll.”

Chicago actor John Cusack, who appears in the film, says the shootings and killings each year are “unacceptable.” He says the officer wasn’t charged or the chief fired until the election cycle had passed.

Emanuel won a second term earlier this year. The shooting took place more than a year ago.

Lee’s satire is based on the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Following protests online, CNN removed a description of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray as “the son of an illiterate heroin addict” in a story posted about the first police officer about to go on trial for Gray’s death last spring while in police custody.

Several tweets suggested that the reference amounted to victim blaming. Gray, who is black, died after being driven around in a police van in a case that drew wide attention to the issue of police treatment of minorities.

The print story, originally posted Monday, was changed that evening to remove the description of Gray’s mother. In an editor’s note, CNN said the reference was deleted “because it appeared out of context.”

CNN had no comment on Tuesday about the change. Gray is described in both versions of the story as a symbol of the black community’s distrust of police.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kobe Bryant won over the fans — he just couldn’t beat the previously winless Philadelphia 76ers.

With the spotlight on Bryant during the final game of his career in his hometown, the Sixers stole the show and defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 103-91 on Tuesday night for their first victory of the season.

The Sixers had lost their first 18 games, and 28 overall dating to last season — the longest losing streak in the history of major professional sports in the United States. But they remained tied for the worst start in NBA history with the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets, who also opened 0-18.

It was the first win for the Sixers since March 25 at Denver.

Hours earlier, Bryant felt the love in Philadelphia as soon as he entered the arena.

He took selfies with fans who might never see him play again, and his presence injected a playoff atmosphere into a city that has lost much of its interest in NBA basketball.

With a packed crowd standing and roaring in appreciation, Bryant was introduced to an ovation worthy of a hometown hero, not the “Hometown Zero” he was once labeled in Philadelphia’s tabloids.

Bryant, who will end his 20-year career this season, opened the first leg of his farewell tour in his hometown and was feted with the kind of reverence and gratitude normally reserved for a Sixers great.

He buried a step-back 3-pointer off the opening tip.

He hit another 3 on the next possession.

Bryant made it 3 for 3 and had the Philly crowd chanting “M-V-P!” as he turned back the clock to his championship form. He scored 20 points on 7-of-26 shooting and made four 3s.

By the fourth quarter, the Philly fans had turned their attention toward the home team, chanting “Beat LA!” when beleaguered rookie Jahlil Okafor made a layup for a 94-80 lead.

Okafor, the No. 3 overall pick out of Duke, has been attached to a string of off-court incidents that included reckless driving and a fight in Boston. He has apologized for his recent decisions. Sixers coach Brett Brown said Okafor will likely soon be accompanied by team security on public outings.

Bryant said he would simply tell the 19-year-old rookie to stay focused on basketball.

The Sixers stayed focused and finally finished the job after taking an 80-75 lead into the fourth.

The 76ers had led after three quarters three other times this season: Nov. 21 at Miami (led 74-67, lost 96-91), Nov. 25 at Boston (led 62-57, lost 84-80) and Nov. 29 at Memphis (led 67-64, lost 92-84), according to STATS.

Robert Covington scored 23 points and Jerami Grant had 14 for the Sixers.

The win belonged to Philadelphia. The night belonged to Bryant.

His homecoming game came with a rare emotional tug for the player fans loved to boo through the years. He waved to the crowd and bowed his head in appreciation as a “Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!’ chant filled Wells Fargo Center during pregame introductions.

He was greeted at midcourt by his Lower Merion high school coach Gregg Downer and 76ers great Julius Erving. Bryant hugged both in front of a crowd filled with purple-and-gold No. 24 jerseys.

He smiled after every shot and bantered with fans, some who made “Thank you, Kobe” signs.

In a reference to the sorry state of the entire Philly sports scene, one fan held a sign that read, “Why Can’t Chip Kelly Retire Instead.”

Bryant even smirked in the third when a brief scuffle broke out among Lakers center Roy Hibbert, who appeared to push a referee, and Philadelphia’s Isaiah Canaan and JaKarr Sampson. All three were hit with technical fouls.

Bryant thumped his chest, waved to the fans, blew a kiss and was serenaded with “Kobe!” chants as he walked off Philadelphia’s court for the final time.

TIP-INS

Lakers: Los Angeles is 2-15 and has the worst record in the Western Conference. … The Lakers opened an eight-game road trip.

Sixers: Moses Malone, the late 76ers star selected one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players, was honored at halftime. Malone, who died in September at 60, was the NBA Finals MVP in 1983 when he led the Sixers to the title. His No. 2 was on the back of Philadelphia’s warmup jerseys with “Chairman of the Boards” on the front. The Sixers will retire his number next season. … F Nerlens Noel returned to the lineup after a two-game absence with sore knees. He scored 14 points.

UP NEXT

Lakers: At the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

Sixers: At the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.

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Yahoo’s board is reportedly weighing whether to sell its core internet business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. 

Yahoo’s business is currently valued at less than zero by Wall Street, which assigns all of the company’s value to Yahoo’s Asian investments, including its 15% stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

But Yahoo has $5.9 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet, as well as $1.6 billion in property and equipment (although it’s also carrying $1.2 billion in debt from convertible notes). So the business is not really worthless. 

Beyond the cash, a company that acquired core Yahoo would get a variety of online businesses, including:

• Yahoo’s search business: Yahoo handed off much of its search technology to Microsoft when the two struck a partnership in 2010. But the search business generates about $2 billion a year in revenue, accounting for roughly 40% of Yahoo’s total business. Under CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has revised its deal with Microsoft, added a search ads deal with Google, and begun re-investing resources into developing new mobile search products, such as the Index project. Yahoo’s search revenue topped $509 million in the third quarter, up 13% from a year ago.
• Yahoo websites including the homepage, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo fantasy sports. Yahoo’s online properties draw more than a billion users every month including more than 600 million mobile users, Yahoo says. This is the online real estate that Yahoo’s display advertising business is built on. That display business has been under pressure, as ad networks have battered the price for display ads. Display revenue topped $500 million in the third quarter, up about 14% from the previous year. Most of that growth, though, came from ads on affiliate sites — Yahoo’s own display ad revenue dropped 21%.
• A fairly large and strong sales force to sell those ads.
• Tumblr,  a social blogging company Yahoo bought in 2013 for $1.1 billion. Tumblr now has more than 200 blogs.
• Flurry, a mobile analytics company that Yahoo bought in 2014 for $270 million. Flurry helps mobile app makers and advertisers reach audiences more effectively.
• A bunch of people and intellectual property it gained through a series of small acquisitions over the last few years — mostly small mobile app makers and ad tech companies.

Activist shareholder Starboard wrote a letter to Yahoo last month urging it to halt its plan to spin off its 15% stake in Alibaba through a complex tax-free spinoff that Yahoo hopes to complete by January. Starboard said the risk of incurring taxes on the deal was too great. Instead, Starboard said Yahoo should sell its core internet search and ad business.

Starboard’s thinking was that Yahoo would then retain its stake in Alibaba, which is more valuable than this core business. A number of hedge funds are reportedly thinking of buying the core Yahoo business.

Pressure is mounting on Mayer, a former Google executive, more than three years into a turnaround effort that has so far shown little progress. Yahoo’s revenue remains stagnant and the company has failed to create any new mobile apps or services that have been big consumer hits. A string of Yahoo executives have recently jumped ship, and Yahoo has reportedly hired consulting firm McKinsey and Co. to help craft a companywide reorganization.  

SEE ALSO: Yahoo’s board will consider selling its core internet business

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NOW WATCH: The 3 people Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer leans on for advice

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