Land Rover made to go off-road

The Land Rover LR4 HSE is the luxury SUV for those who actually go off-road.

More than just a boxier, gussied-up Jeep, the LR4 is equally at home on any surface. This upscale vehicle does it in style, with a straight-grained walnut-trimmed dashboard surrounded by leather. Leather seats and a leather-wrapped steering wheel work in harmony to polish this off-road beast.

The solidly built LR4 has an integrated body frame made with a boxed steel-ladder foundation and sports permanent four-wheel-drive. Everything about this midsized SUV suggests it is a machine that is well-made.

The flip of a paddle switch causes the electronic air suspension to lift and lower the vehicle. The same system also automatically adjusts to speed and terrain. This is all complimented by the torsion-differential terrain system, independent front and rear suspension, and dynamic stability control which all work in conjunction to keep the LR4 in control and its 19-inch alloy wheels in contact with the road or wherever you're driving.

A tight turning radius allows the LR4 to navigate anywhere, so it is nimble in the densely populated city as well as the country.

An eight-speed electronically controlled transmission uses a single-speed transfer gearbox to accelerate very smoothly, but put the pedal to the medal and you'll pay for it! The LR4 does have an ECO mode that stops and starts the engine at stoplights. While annoying, the ECO mode tries to save you some money on gas. But ultimately, the LR4 averages just 16 mpg.

Another gas saving measure is the speed alarm that alerts you when you exceed a predetermined speed. This feature limits gas consumption — as well as costly speeding tickets.

For comfort and entertainment, the 825-watt Meridian 17-speaker sound system sounds great, but the 7-inch touchscreen display is smallish and the Bluetooth audio streaming is hard to configure. The LR4 is also hampered by a cryptic control layout in an oversized center console that has undersized and needlessly compact buttons.

The console also takes up a lot of space, creating a narrow footwell only compounded by its bulky doors. The dash and console would have more room if it weren't for the ashtray (yes, ashtray) and the somewhat useful powered cooler box. But the cramped feeling is washed away a bit with plenty of headroom and three sunroofs. Two of the "alpine" roofs are fixed, but they let in lots of light.

The LR4 seats five comfortably and there's plenty of storage in the rear. An asymmetrical split tailgate allows great access to the cargo area.

The bottom line is that the LR4 is worth looking into if you are interested in a tony but tough all-terrain SUV.

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East Providence company recalls crab meat

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A company that sold crab meat in several states has recalled it after finding it was contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.

The Rhode Island Department of Health says on Friday that Rome Packing Co., Inc., of East Providence, issued the voluntary recall of several kinds of fresh and frozen crab meat sold under the Ocean's Catch brand.

The meat was distributed in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois and California to retail stores including but not limited to: Shaw's Supermarkets, Legal Sea Foods, and Harbor Fish Market.

The company discovered the problem during routine sampling, and no one has reported becoming ill.

Health officials say Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious or fatal illness in young children, the elderly or people who have weakened immune systems.

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Voters weigh expansion of bottle deposit law

BOSTON — Both sides in the debate over Question 2 on the Nov. 4 ballot say much has changed in the more than three decades since Massachusetts first passed a bottled deposit law.

Proponents of the measure that would expand the scope of the law say a variety of beverages that were largely unheard-of on store shelves at the time have become consumer staples — all the while adding to the state's litter woes.

"There was virtually no such thing, when you walked into a supermarket, as bottled water, sports drinks, vitamin water or Diet Snapple peach-flavored teas," said Janet Domenitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group. "There is this entire market of containers that have become litter or trash because they were not defined in the current law."

But what has also changed, opponents of the ballot question argue, is the way Americans handle the trash they produce. Slow but steady gains in recycling, including municipal programs that pick up recyclable materials in front of people's homes, are making returnable containers unnecessary, they say.

"It's really undermining a system that has evolved and works better than loading up your containers and driving them back to the grocery store," said Nicole Giambusso, spokeswoman for No on Question 2: Stop Forced Deposits. "We should be looking at modern technology and not at something that was created for 1982."

The ballot measure, if approved, would add 5-cent deposits to most non-alcoholic and non-carbonated beverage containers.

It would also allow the nickel deposit — unchanged since the original law was approved — to increase with inflation in future years and require that unclaimed deposits be earmarked for a special state environmental fund.

After trying without success to convince the Massachusetts Legislature to make the changes, activists opted to take their case directly to voters. But the ballot campaign has met with stiff opposition from industry groups that through Oct. 20 had spent more than $8.2 million, much of it on an advertising blitz, according to state campaign finance records.

By contrast, a coalition of environmental groups supporting Question 2 had collectively spent about $900,000.

The opposition has been largely funded by supermarket chains, which would have to deal with the added volume of extra containers being returned, and the Washington-based American Beverage Association, which lobbies for soft drink companies.

A TV ad run by opponents that claimed 90 percent of Massachusetts residents have access to curbside recycling was fiercely challenged by backers of the ballot question, who cite state figures showing that only 47.5 percent of cities and towns, covering about 63 percent of the state's population, offer curbside recycling.

"They went on the air and lied," said Domenitz.

Opponents denied misleading voters, though later ads against Question 2 used revised language, saying 90 percent of residents had access to curbside or other "community recycling."

Expanding the bottle deposit law would hike prices for beverages and add millions in handling costs for bottle returns, in part because of the need to purchase new equipment to handle different-sized containers, Giambusso said.

Environmental groups embrace curbside recycling but also point to its limitations. It doesn't account for beverages consumed in parks, on beaches or any number of other places outside the home, Domenitz said.

Citing estimates from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Coalition for an Updated Bottle Bill says 80 percent of carbonated beverage containers have been either redeemed or recycled over the past five years, while the recycling rate for containers not subject to the current deposit law is only 23 percent.

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WHO: Number of Ebola-linked cases passes 10,000

DAKAR, Senegal — More than 10,000 people have been infected with Ebola and nearly half of them have died, according to figures released Saturday by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is the largest ever outbreak of the disease with a rapidly rising death toll in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There have also been cases in three other West African countries, Spain and the United States.

The U.N. health agency said Saturday that the number of confirmed, probable and suspected cases has risen to 10,141. Of those cases, 4,922 people have died. Its figures show about 200 new cases since the last report, four days ago.

Even those grisly tolls are likely an underestimate, WHO has warned, as many people in the hardest hit countries have been unable or too frightened to seek medical care. A shortage of labs capable of handling potentially infected blood samples has also made it difficult to track the outbreak. For example, the latest numbers show no change in Liberia's case toll, suggesting the numbers may be lagging behind reality.

On Thursday, authorities confirmed that the disease had spread to Mali, the sixth West African country affected, and on the same day a new case was confirmed in New York, in a doctor recently returned from Guinea.

Mali had long been considered highly vulnerable to the disease, since it shares a border with Guinea. The disease arrived there in a 2-year-old, who traveled from Guinea with her grandmother by bus and died Friday.

The toddler, who was bleeding from her nose during the journey, may have had high-risk contact with many people, the World Health Organization warned. So far, 43 people are being monitored in isolation for signs of the disease, and WHO said Saturday that authorities are continuing to look for more people at risk.

To help fight Ebola, the U.N. humanitarian flight service airlifted about 1 ton of medical supplies to Mali late Friday. The seats of the plane were removed to make room for the cargo, which included hazard suits for health workers, surgical gloves, face shields and buckets, according to the World Food Program, which runs the flights.

In Liberia, the country hardest hit by the epidemic, U.S. forces have been building desperately needed treatment centers and helping to bring in aid. On Saturday, Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, who was in charge of the troops assigned to the Ebola response, handed power to Maj. Gen. Gary J. Volesky, the 101st Airborne commander.

"I've been told that by a number of people that the task we face is extremely hard. Well, a fairly famous person once said hard is not impossible," Volesky said. "Together, we're going to beat it."

Meanwhile, some in Ghana were worried that a strike by health care workers that began Friday could leave the country vulnerable to Ebola. Ghana does not border any country with reported cases, but it is serving as the headquarters for the U.N. mission on Ebola.

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Associated Press writers Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia, Liberia, and Francis Kokutse in Accra, Ghana, contributed to this report.

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SpaceX founder envisions building city on Mars

The serial entrepreneur behind Tesla Motors and the California-based SpaceX believes there are "plenty" of people who would consider a one-way trip to Mars.

Sounding like a cross between Captain Kirk and L. Ron Hubbard, Elon Musk said SpaceX's long-term goal is to establish a "self-sustaining city" on the red planet as a kind a backup for earth.

"The future of humanity will fundamentally bifurcate along the lines of a single-planet species or a multi-planet species," Musk, 43, said at the AeroAstro 100th Anniversary Symposium at MIT. "A multi-planet version of humanity's future is going to last a lot longer ... than if we were a single-planet species."

NASA chose SpaceX as part of the first program to allow private companies to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, but it has yet to send a manned spacecraft to Mars.

"There are some risks ... which we will not be able to mitigate," Musk said. "I think we should do it now because ... the window of technology for this is open. For 1 percent of our resources, we could buy life insurance for us collectively."

Musk acknowledged that space flight today is "ridiculously expensive," and even the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett couldn't afford the estimated $200 billion cost of a Mars spacecraft.

That's why the first Mars explorers would likely send robots. But calling to mind the movie "The Terminator" he warned of the perils of artificial intelligence, calling it "probably our biggest existential threat."

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North End condo is bright, beautiful

This top-floor duplex in the North End has lots of Old World charm with a sophisticated, updated interior.

The two-bedroom condo at 22 Cooper St., unit 5, on the market for $585,000, is in a typical turn-of-the-century North End brick rowhouse and was converted to condos in 1987.

In 2007, unit 5 underwent a major renovation with a new kitchen and bathroom as well as a new central heating and air conditioning system with a heat pump put on top of a redone rubber roof.

It's a three-flight walk up to the unit, and the carpeted stairs with beadboard paneling could use some freshening up.

Unit 5 opens into a living room with 12-foot ceilings with a designer wrought-iron chandelier and refinished hardwood floors. There are two windows and against the back wall is a tall custom-built bookcase.

Adjacent is the kitchen, which has 18-foot ceilings and a spiral staircase up to the second floor. There's a built-in kitchen table between two windows that gets light from an interior well and a wrought-iron chandelier.

The kitchen was redone in 2007 with ceramic tile floors and white Thomasville cabinets. There's ivory beauty granite counters with bullnose edges and a tumbled marble back-splash. Stainless-steel appliances include a Maytag refrigerator and GE electric stove with a matching microwave above.

There's a closet opposite the working kitchen that holds a stacked Kenmore washer and dryer.

Off the kitchen is the unit's full bathroom with beige marble floors and marble tile surround for a tub and shower. There's a cultured-marble-topped antique vanity. And just outside the bathroom sits a linen closet.

The second bedroom is at the rear of the floor and it has hardwood floors and a good-sized closet.

The steel spiral staircase in the kitchen leads up to a loft master bedroom, with transom windows near the top of the ceiling. The master bedroom has a window overlooking an interior well, oak floors and a good-sized walk-in closet.

The unit's $205 monthly condo fee includes professional management. The unit does not come with a parking space, and a residential permit is required for street parking.

Home Showcase

• Address: 22 Cooper St., unit 5, North End
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: One full
• List price: $585,000
• Square feet: 787
• Price per square foot: $743
• Annual taxes: $5,829
• Monthly condo fee: $205
• Location: A block from Salem Street shops and restaurants and two blocks from Hanover Street, the North End's main retail district
• Built in: 1900; converted to condo 1987; major renovation in 2007
• Broker: Antonia Monarski of 
Gibson Sotheby's at 617-905-4588

Pros:

• Kitchen has 18-foot 
ceilings, built-in table, ivory granite counters and 
Thomasville cabinets
• Steel spiral staircase up to second-floor bedroom
• Living room has 12-foot ceilings, chandelier, bookcase built-in
• New central air and heat system pump added in 2007
• Cons:
• Three flights of stairs up to unit
• Unit does not come with a parking space

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Gardner Museum to get gold chain

Hip-hop stars may envy the giant gold chain with a psychedelic spiral-patterned pendant that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum wants to hang from its faux Venetian front facade.

But museum officials say the enormous "Fenway Deity" inflatable art installation created by New York landscape architect Ken Smith will protect the Fens from bad spirits.

Smith's "garden diety" — promoting "environmental renewal, health and happiness" — would face the Fens as a temporary art installation from May through September under a proposal that requires city approval.

"Spiritually speaking, the Fenway Deity will redress the museum's turning of its back to the Boston Fens with its recent addition by Renzo Piano," the museum said in its application to the Landmarks Commission. The addition included a new museum entrance facing Evans Way Park.

Museum officials couldn't be reached for comment.

Smith has had past installations at New York's Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Museum of Modern Art.

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Colleagues: US doctor with Ebola was very careful

CONAKRY, Guinea — An American doctor who caught Ebola while treating patients in Guinea was a hard worker who conscientiously followed safety procedures, two colleagues said Saturday.

Craig Spencer is being treated for Ebola in New York City after coming down with a fever on Thursday, about a week after he returned from Guinea. The 33-year-old was working at a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Gueckedou, in southeastern Guinea, according to two members of the clinic's staff.

The staffers — a hygienist and a social worker — spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. Doctors Without Borders has confirmed an American doctor is ill, but it has refused to release details about Spencer or his work, citing concerns for his privacy.

Gueckedou is the epicenter of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The first cases were reported in that region in March, and the epidemic has since grown into the largest ever outbreak of Ebola, with more than 10,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths, according to figures released by the World Health Organization Saturday.

"We are demoralized and saddened by what's happened to Craig," said the social worker, who supports patients during what is typically a grueling and frightening illness. "He did excellent work."

Spencer's work included direct contact with sick people: taking their temperature, following the evolution of their cases, taking their vital signs and ensuring the clinic was properly maintained, he said.

"I'm asking myself how he got the virus because he was a rigorous man," added the hygienist, whose job is to clean patients, who often have severe diarrhea and are vomiting and bleeding profusely. "Since we learned that he was infected, we've had low morale. And we understand that we are also at risk despite the measures."

Doctors Without Borders has been a major provider of care during the current Ebola outbreak and in all recent ones. Its procedures for everything from how clinics should be set up to how doctors and nurses should take off protective equipment are considered the gold standard when dealing with highly infectious diseases, like Ebola.

At Ebola clinics, there are elaborate procedures for how health workers undress and disinfect their equipment and the site, and the hygienist said the disinfection teams at Gueckedou make sure those procedures are followed to the letter.

But Doctors Without Borders has warned that no matter how careful health workers are, the risk can never be zero. It said Friday that it did not yet know how Spencer became infected but that it is investigating.

Staff at the Gueckedou clinic are also redoubling their efforts to stay safe, the hygienist said.

"Since his sickness was announced, I've seen the bosses here looking to reinforce our protections and to see where there are weaknesses," he said.

Both workers said they thought the Gueckedou clinic is well maintained, with nothing taken for granted.

The hygienist said: "We are praying for Craig and for ourselves because we rub shoulders with death every day."

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'Ouija' scares up box office win ahead of Keanu Reeves' 'John Wick'

The supernatural thriller "Ouija" has summoned a box office win, ahead of Keanu actioner "John Wick."

Universal's séance pic scared up $8.3 million in the U.S. on Friday and has a weekend win its future as it heads toward a $20 million opening. "John Wick" isn't too far behind with $15 million, while Bill Murray's comedy "St. Vincent" climbed into the top five as it expands nationwide

Directed by Stiles White and starring a group of newcomers, including Daren Kagasoff and Olivia Cooke, the film centers on a group of teens who awaken dark powers when attempting to summon a deceased friend with an Ouija board.

It's no surprise that the "Ouija" topped the box office considering that Halloween is only a week away and that the film carries a PG-13 rating that broaden its appeal to its core audience of teenagers

"Oujia" was produced for less than $5 million by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes and micro-budget king Jason Blum for Universal in tandem with Hasbro.

Film District's "Insidious," another PG-13 horror title, generated $145,000 on its Thursday night launch in 2011 at the start of a $13.3 million weekend. And Lionsgate's "Sinister," which had an R rating, scared up $930,000 on the night at the start of an $18 million weekend in 2012.

Lionsgate's "John Wick" was runner-up on Friday with $5.5 million on its way toward an $14 million debut weekend.

Reeves' plays an ex-hitman, drawn out of retirement when his dog, a final gift from his dying wife, is murdered during a break-in.

The film has received strong critical support, earning it 87 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite rave reviews, the R-rated action film has to fight harder for an audience, especially considering the adult-oriented fare

"John Wick" marks Chad Stahelski's directorial debut and also stars Willem Dafoe, Bridget Moynahan and Adrianne Palicki.

Holdovers round out the rest of the chart.

Brad Pitt's WWII tank drama "Fury" came in third on Friday in its second weekend with $4.1 million. The Sony pic will likely finish with $13.5 million and stands to raise its domestic cume to $46.6 million by weekend's end.

"Gone Girl" is showing no signs of losing steam in its fourth weekend, reeling in an estimated $3.5 million on Friday and eyeing $11 million for the weekend. Fox's marital thriller will have grossed an impressive $124 million by Sunday, putting it on track to pass 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" as director David Fincher's highest-grossing film domestically. It hauled $127.5 million in the States and carried a $150 million budget.

Meanwhile, the Weinstein Co.'s "St. Vincent" brought in $2.6 million on Friday as it expanded nationwide in its third week. The film, starring Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts alongside Murray, could earn almost $8 million this weekend.

The comedy rounded out the top five on Friday, but will fall to sixth place behind "The Book of Life" come weekend's end. "Book of Life" made an estimated $2.4 million on Friday and is en route for north of $9 million this weekend.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Rome protesters target plans to make firing easier

ROME — Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Rome Saturday to protest against Premier Matteo Renzi's drive to make it easier to fire workers.

Two noisy marches crisscrossed the heart of the Italian capital, snarling traffic for hours. Demonstrators cheered as CGIL labor confederation head Susanna Camusso promised more protests and strikes unless Renzi abandons efforts to give employers considerably more leeway to fire workers.

The center-left premier contends businesses fear hiring workers they cannot dismiss in case business sours, because current legislation makes it very hard to lay off employees. Renzi is confident the measure would help heal Italy's recession-mired economy.

Union leaders and workers scoffed at the easier-to-fire makes it easier-to-hire rationale.

"We must have our rights protected 100 percent," said Katia Cugliato, a 33-year-old marcher.

An official of the FIOM metalworkers union, Federico Bellono, contended the government was deceiving people by saying "taking away some rights ... would automatically make it easier to hire people."

Nationwide, unemployment tops more than 12 percent. Nearly one of every two youths is unemployed, with many going abroad to find work.

Renzi's proposed legislation, which he dubs the "Jobs Act," also calls for reduced payroll taxes for employers hiring young workers on full-time contracts. For years now, the job market trend in Italy is to hire workers just starting out on contracts lasting only about a year, leaving young people to string together a succession of temporary gigs with no job security.

Italy's industrialists' lobby Confindustria is pushing for even more generous tax breaks for businesses.

"Frankly, I don't think that in this moment of grave crisis, demonstrations or strikes are the best solution," Confindustria president Giorgio Squinzi told a Naples gathering of young business owners.

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Follow Frances D'Emilio on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio

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