Rare, deadly October storm hangs on in Northeast (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? One of the darkest Halloweens ever loomed for about 3 million households left without power on Sunday by a rare October snowstorm in the Northeast that bedeviled transportation and killed at least eight people.

Jack-o'-lanterns peeked through record-breaking snow, the heaviest of which was 31.4 inches measured in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, according to the National Weather Service.

Just 45 minutes northwest of New York City, in West Milford, New Jersey, 19 inches of snow fell.

"It's too scary -- the windows are rattling too loud," a terrified Sophia Band, 6, said, her father recalled, as she jumped into her parents' bed in Conway, Massachusetts overnight during the crushing storm.

The snowy, windy weather that began on Saturday was expected to exit Maine later on Sunday, but not before dumping up to a foot of snow on northern New England, particularly southern Vermont, the National Weather Service said.

Howling winds and heavy, wet snow snapped enormous trees like twigs, downing power lines from West Virginia to Maine.

By Sunday evening, there were about 3 million households without electricity across the Mid-Atlantic and New England.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said the state experienced the largest number of power outages in its history. Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey all said they did not expect service to return to normal for several days, while in Connecticut and New Hampshire it could be more than a week.

In Hartford, Mayor Pedro Segarra said almost 70 percent of the city was in the dark. Most Connecticut cities opened warming centers late Sunday for chilled residents.

Throughout Connecticut and New Jersey, scores of public schools closings were announced for Monday.

Despite the darkness and cold, trick or treaters stuck with plans to make their annual candy rounds, with last-minute adjustments like tucking thermal underwear beneath a bridal gown or donning a turtleneck under a galactic warrior tunic.

STRANDED FOR 13 HOURS ON TRAIN

Transit nightmares were reported on planes and trains throughout the storm-struck region.

Some 48 passengers on an Amtrak train bound for Boston were stranded for 13 hours overnight when a rockslide blocked the tracks near central Massachusetts, company spokeswoman Vernae Graham said. They were bussed to their final destinations before noon on Sunday.

Other Amtrak service was suspended between Providence and Boston; New Haven, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts; and Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

New Jersey Transit and Metro-North Railroad suspended service on several lines into New York City on Sunday.

Airports slowly returned to normal service on Sunday, although there were some residual delays due to wind at Newark International Airport.

JetBlue Airways was investigating reports 126 passengers were stuck for more than seven hours Saturday on the tarmac at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, without food, water or working lavatories, said spokeswoman Victoria Lucia. They were aboard Flight 504 from Florida, diverted to Bradley from Newark due to the storm.

The company apologized directly to the customers and offered a refund and vouchers for a round trip flight, Lucia said.

AT LEAST EIGHT STORM-RELATED DEATHS

Icy roads throughout the Northeast proved deadly. Early Sunday, Oscar Ramos, 40, was killed in Wayne, New Jersey, when his car smashed into a utility truck parked along Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne Police said.

In White Plains, New York, a 65-year-old driver and two passengers, a 70-year-old woman and a 51-year-old man, were killed when the driver tried to go around a snow barricade erected by police and slammed head-on into another vehicle.

Slippery conditions caused the crash and death of a man driving in Colchester, Connecticut on Saturday, and in Stroud Township, Pennsylvania, a 57-year-old female passenger was killed when her husband lost control of their car on icy Route 611.

In Temple, Pennsylvania, an 84-year-old man was killed as he napped in his recliner when a snow-laden tree fell through his home, and in Springfield, Massachusetts, a 20-year-old man was electrocuted when he stepped out of his vehicle and touched an electrified guard rail.

Weather emergencies because of the storm were declared in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

A breakdown of power outages Sunday evening showed more than 800,000 households out in Connecticut; over 640,000 in Massachusetts; more than 600,000 in New Jersey; more than 400,000 in Pennsylvania; over 240,000 in New Hampshire; about 75,000 in Maine; around 160,000 in New York; and some 9,500 in Rhode Island.

(Additional reporting by Lauren Keiper in Boston; Tim Sohn in eastern Pennsylvania, Zach Howard in Western Massachusetts; Mary Ellen Godin in Connecticut; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/us_nm/us_weather_northeast

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Israel and Gaza militants exchange fire, 10 killed

Palestinians carry one of five dead bodies of Islamic Jihad militants into the morgue of Al Najar hospital following an Israeli air strike on an Islamic Jihad training base in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Israeli aircraft killed 5 Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group whom it says were responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel, the military said Saturday. The military said it targeted the same group of militants that fired rockets that exploded near the Israeli city of Ashdod Wednesday night. No Israelis were injured in that attack. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

Palestinians carry one of five dead bodies of Islamic Jihad militants into the morgue of Al Najar hospital following an Israeli air strike on an Islamic Jihad training base in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Israeli aircraft killed 5 Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group whom it says were responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel, the military said Saturday. The military said it targeted the same group of militants that fired rockets that exploded near the Israeli city of Ashdod Wednesday night. No Israelis were injured in that attack. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

Palestinians carry the body of Islamic Jihad militant Basel Abu Alata, at the morgue of Al Najar hospital following an Israeli air strike on an Islamic Jihad training base in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Israeli aircraft killed 5 Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group whom it says were responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel, the military said Saturday. The military said it targeted the same group of militants that fired rockets that exploded near the Israeli city of Ashdod Wednesday night. No Israelis were injured in that attack. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

An Israeli inspects damage to a school caused by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashdod, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov)

An Israeli woman is evacuated after she was injured in rocket attack in Ashdod, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov)

A woman uses her phone to take a photograph at a site where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit Ashdod, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Palestinian sources said that seven militants were killed while the Israelis reported several civilians injured. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israeli aircraft struck at Palestinian militants in Gaza on Saturday who responded with a volley of rockets which rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Palestinian officials said nine militants were killed, while on the Israeli side one civilian was killed and four others were wounded.

Exchanges of fire are common between southern Israel and the Gaza strip controlled by the militant Hamas group, but this is the worst in months.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said nine people were killed and 15 wounded in separate attacks on militant targets.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one Israeli civilian was killed and four others wounded when Palestinian rockets exploded in residential areas in southern Israel.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed a total of four strikes in Gaza, saying the military hit Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad, one of several groups in Gaza which fires rockets into southern Israel. The spokesman said that the first attack specifically targeted a cell responsible for a Wednesday rocket attack that exploded deep inside Israel. That attack had caused no casualties.

The military "will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians," the spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocols.

The Israeli military released video footage taken from a military drone Saturday afternoon that shows Palestinians unloading rockets from a truck and preparing them for firing at Israel. The strike took place shortly afterward.

Abu Salmia, the Gaza health official, said five people had been killed and 11 wounded in the first attack. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed confirmed that one of its local field commanders, Ahmed Sheikh Khalil, was among the dead. He said Khalil was one of the group's chief bomb makers. "Today it was a great loss for us in the Islamic Jihad," he said. "The size of our retaliation will equal our loss," it said in a text message sent to reporters.

"Our response shall be in the depths of the Zionist entity," it said in reference to the Israeli heartland.

After the first airstrike, militants in Gaza fired over 20 rockets at southern Israel, Rosenfeld said.

Islamic Jihad took responsibility for firing the rockets in a text message to reporters, and released photos of the rockets being launched from the backs of pickup trucks. The group said this is the first time they are using this system as opposed to firing them from launchers on the ground.

One rocket hit an apartment building in the southern city of Ashkelon and injured a 50 year-old Israeli who later died of his wounds, Rosenfeld said. Another exploded outside an apartment building in nearby Ashdod, injuring one person. Israeli television showed about a dozen cars in flames outside the building.

Another Israeli sustained shrapnel wounds in the nearby town of Gan Yavneh and others in the Ashdod region were treated for shock, the Israeli military spokesman said.

Israel's Channel 2 television reported that one rocket hid a school, causing massive damage. No one was hurt because the school was closed for the Jewish Sabbath, Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasri said.

Late Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned the mayors of cities hit by Palestinian rockets. Netanyahu said the military had hit rocket launcher squads responsible for the attacks and said "the military's response will be tougher if needed."

After the rocket barrage, Abu Salmia said that a second Israeli attack killed two people. Islamic Jihad confirmed that they were militants. Israel's military spokesman said that the second air strike had hit "terrorists that fired rockets on Israel in the evening,"

Abu Salmia said another Israeli strike late Saturday killed two more militants bringing the total to nine.

The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad took responsibility for multiple suicide bombings and shooting attacks against civilians in Israel during the second Palestinian intifadah, or uprising, in the first half of the last decade.

Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, blamed each other for the flare up in violence Saturday.

"The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip," the Israeli military said.

Israel as a matter of policy holds Hamas liable for violence perpetrated by any of the different armed groups in the coastal territory.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum meanwhile said Israel is "fully responsible for all the results of this dangerous escalation."

In the winter of 2008, Israel launched a broad military offensive inside Gaza aimed at stopping almost daily Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities.

Since then, violence has continued sporadically along the border and Palestinians continue to launch mortars and rockets at Israel, but to a much lesser degree.

On Wednesday, militants fired a long-range Katyusha rocket that exploded near Ashdod in the south of Israel. Sirens also went off in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, which unlike many southern Israeli cities is not accustomed to rocket fire, causing panic. The Israeli military said the alarm went off because the rocket exploded in an area between the two cities.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that Israeli diplomats "will protest against the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians to the U.N. Secretary General." He said a similar letter sent after Wednesday's attack has yet to be answered.

___

Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-29-ML-Israel-Palestinians/id-c8eb715bd9494a4296ef326c9a2caff0

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Insurer Humana's 3Q profit climbs 13 percent

This Aug. 8, 2011 photo, shows the entrance to the Humana building, in Louisville, Ky. Humana Inc.'s third-quarter net income jumped 13 percent on Medicare Advantage enrollment growth, and the health insurer also raised its 2011 earnings forecast Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

This Aug. 8, 2011 photo, shows the entrance to the Humana building, in Louisville, Ky. Humana Inc.'s third-quarter net income jumped 13 percent on Medicare Advantage enrollment growth, and the health insurer also raised its 2011 earnings forecast Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Humana Inc.'s third-quarter net income jumped 13 percent after another strong quarter of Medicare Advantage enrollment growth, and the health insurer also raised its 2011 earnings forecast, following a lead set the past couple weeks by other big insurers.

The Louisville, Ky., company said individual Medicare Advantage membership climbed 10 percent to 1.6 million people compared with last year's quarter, mainly because of a successful enrollment season last fall. The insurer's Medicare prescription drug coverage enrollment also jumped 47 percent to 2.5 million people, helped by a low-cost drug plan it offers with retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Humana is the second-largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the government's Medicare program. Subsidized by the government, the plans offer basic Medicare coverage topped with extras like vision or dental coverage or premiums lower than standard Medicare rates. Medicare accounts for 64 percent of Humana's revenue.

Individual Medicare Advantage membership, which excludes group plans offered through employers, also climbed 10 percent in the second quarter, helping the insurer post a 35 percent jump in profit for that quarter.

Humana earned $444.7 million, or $2.67 per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That compares with earnings of $393.2 million, or $2.32 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Revenue climbed 11 percent to $9.3 billion.

Adjusted income was $2.54 per share, which easily beat Wall Street expectations. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected, on average, earnings of $2.03 per share on $9.26 billion in revenue.

Revenue from the company's health and well-being services segment climbed 29 percent to $2.83 billion, helped by Humana's acquisition of health care company Concentra Inc., which provides occupational medicine, urgent care, physical therapy and wellness services.

Balancing gains like that was an 11 percent increase in total operating expenses. Benefits, the insurer's largest expense, climbed 7.6 percent to $7.15 billion, but care use continued to rise at lower-than-expected rates, which has helped Humana and other insurers in recent quarters.

While Medicare Advantage enrollment grew, the company's commercial membership tumbled 9 percent to about 2.5 million people. Humana attributed that mainly to disciplined pricing, which means the insurer aimed to avoid dropping prices too low to boost enrollment.

Humana became the latest big health insurer to raise its 2011 forecast this month, following UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Humana Inc. and Cigna Corp. It now expects 2011 earnings of $8.35 to $8.40 per share. That's up from previous guidance of $7.50 to $7.60 per share. Analysts expect $7.69 per share.

The insurer's third-quarter performance and new 2011 forecast confirm "what was pretty much already known: 2011 has been an extremely strong year," Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch said in a research note. Goldman Sachs has done investment and noninvestment banking services for Humana.

The company also said it expects 2012 earnings of between $7.40 and $7.60 per share, which would represent a drop compared to this year. Humana's initial guidance last year for 2011 also represented an earnings decline because the insurer sets Medicare Advantage projections conservatively.

Leerink Swann analyst Jason Gurda said in another note the insurer's guidance has been well-below what it actually reports in recent years, "so we wouldn't read very much into the below consensus guidance range."

Analysts expect earnings of $7.79 per share for 2012.

Company shares climbed $1.29 to $81.64 in pre-market trading.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-31-Earns-Humana/id-d0f09bac44264c1c8c8d9892e56aabbc

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Prosecutions going up for war zone crime

WASHINGTON?? A Marine in Iraq sent home $43,000 in stolen cash by hiding it in a footlocker among American flags. A soldier shipped thousands more concealed in a toy stuffed animal. An embassy employee tricked the State Department into wiring $240,000 into his foreign bank account.

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As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, the number of people indicted and convicted by the U.S. for bribery, theft and other reconstruction-related crimes in both countries is rapidly rising, according to two government reports released Sunday.

"This is a boom industry for us," Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in an interview.

"Investigators and auditors had a productive quarter," said a report on the theft of Afghanistan aid by Steven Trent, who holds the same job for Afghanistan. His report covered August through October.

In the past 13 months U.S. investigators in Iraq secured the indictments of 22 people for alleged aid-related offenses, bringing to 69 the total since the SIGIR office was created in 2004. Convictions stand at 57. Several hundred more suspects are under scrutiny in 102 open investigations and those numbers are expected to climb.

Story: Convoy bomb adds urgency to protecting Kabul

The rise in caseloads derives partly from spinoff investigations, where suspects facing prosecution lead investigators to other suspects, said Jon Novak, SIGIR's assistant inspector general for investigations.

"More and more people are ratting out their associates," he said, turning in conspirators who helped launder money after it was stolen, others who were aware of it and others implicated in the crimes.

As investigators gain experience, they're received better information from a growing network of sources in Iraq, said Dan Willkens, Novak's deputy. Development of an automated data-mining system for investigations has helped, he said, as did a decision two years ago to speed prosecutions by hiring three former assistant U.S. attorneys and detailing them to the Department of Justice.

At the inspector general's office for Afghan reconstruction, created in 2008, officials report only nine indictments and seven convictions so far. They say they're trying to ramp up after years of upheaval and charges the office was mismanaged. Trent was named acting inspector general after his predecessor left in August and is the third person to hold the job.

Still, Trent reported that during the last quarter, an investigation initiated by his office netted the largest bribery case in Afghanistan's 10-year war. A former Army Reserve captain, Sidharth "Tony" Handa of Charlotte, N.C., was convicted, sentenced to prison and fined for soliciting $1.3 million in bribes from contractors working on reconstruction projects.

Most crimes uncovered by U.S. investigators in the two war zones include bribery, kickbacks and theft, inspired in part by the deep and pervasive cultures of corruption indigenous to the countries themselves.

Story: US is planning buildup in Gulf after Iraq exit

Among some of the cases listed in the reports were those of:

Gunnery Sgt. Eric Hamilton, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in what prosecutors say was a scheme to help Iraqi contractors steal 70 generators that were meant to supply electricity for fellow Marines. He sent some of their payments home in a footlocker and had other money wired, the report said.

Several U.S. government employees, who received kickbacks for steering contracts to local conspirators and providing inside information to people competing for contracts. A former army sergeant, who was not identified, is charged with pocketing more than $12,000 in cash that a contractor never picked up after the money was allegedly stolen by another army sergeant and mailed to California inside a stuffed animal.

Jordanian national and U.S. Embassy employee Osama Esam Saleem Ayesh, who was convicted in April for stealing nearly $240,000 intended to cover shipping and customs charges the State Department incurs when it moves household goods of its employees. The money wound up in Ayesh's bank in Jordan.

Money stolen from reconstruction projects also has been shipped off of U.S. battlefields tucked into letters home and stuffed in a military vest. Tens of thousands of dollars were once sewn into a Santa Claus suit.

Prosecutors have retrieved some of the money. More than $83 million will be returned to the U.S. from Iraq cases completed in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, bringing the total recovered over the last seven years to nearly $155 million, Bowen's office said.

As well as stolen cash, the total includes court-ordered restitution, fines and proceeds from the sale of merchandise seized from those convicted, including Rolex watches, luxury cars, plasma TVs and houses.

Prosecutions by Trent's office recovered $51 million over the past year, his report said.

But the amount recovered is believed to be a tiny fraction of what's been stolen in the two war zones, a figure that will probably never be known for certain. Far more money is believed to have been lost through waste and abuse that resulted from poor management and the often-questioned U.S. strategy of trying to rebuild nations that are still at war.

The U.S. has committed $62 billion to rebuilding Iraq and $72 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The independent Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated in August that at least $31 billion has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that the total could be as high as $60 billion. It studied not just reconstruction spending, but $206 billion for the logistical support of coalition forces and the performance of security functions.

The commission found that from 10 to 20 percent of the $206 billion in spending was wasted, while fraud accounted for the loss of another 5 to 9 percent.

Bowen called the cost of fraud "egregious."

"This is open crime occurring in a war zone," he said. "And the purpose of a lot of these expenditures is to win hearts and minds. Obviously we lose hearts and minds" when local populations see foreigners steal money meant to help rebuild their country.

The inspectors general are only two of the U.S. government offices looking into fraud, waste and abuse. Others include State Department inspectors and Army criminal investigators.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45094167/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Automotive Rental Guide | usdems.org

28 Oct

Article posted by KarineOrdas746 as Credit

Nearly all of individuals are excited about automotive rentals once they?re on vacation. But what many travels could not know is that car rental within the United States, or North America generally, is completely different than automobile leases in other international locations like Europe.

Automotive rental within the United States is usually quite simple to do. The higher recognized, and perhaps most secure, car rental businesses can simply be found in a cellphone guide like your native White or Yellow Pages. It?s even doable to search out automotive rental companies on the Internet. If you happen to?re in search of an automobile rental in the United States, all you must do is take the phone numbers you learn within the cellphone e-book or online, and call every automotive rental agency. Question for the agency?s location, automotive availability and partnerships with any airways or hotels. Don?t forget to question about any particular deals or rates, like group rates.

Most American automobile rental agencies offer pick-up at no extra price, even when only some advertise this feature. If an automobile rental company would not offer pick-up, then question if the company will reimburse the cost of cab fare.

And do not feel like you must buy further automobile insurance from an American automobile rental agency. Most reps gives you a hard sell on this, but most times it is not necessary. Your automotive rental will usually be coated underneath your own automobile insurance. But if you do not have automobile insurance below your name, it is a excellent thought to accept the provide of car rental insurance coverage from the agency.

In the United States, you will must be not less than 25-years-ancient to have the ability to get an automotive from an automotive rental agency. Some will give you an automobile rental in the event you?re youthful, but you will have to pay an a lot larger cost.

The procedure for automotive rentals in other nations like Europe is normally a small bit different than within the United States. Naturally, for European automobile leases you won?t be capable of look in your local Yellow Pages phone book. But you should be capable to collect all the information you need for arranging an overseas car rental on the Internet.

European or other overseas automotive rentals are often a lot smaller than American automobile rentals. So reduce the quantity of bags you?re taking along. Plus most international automotive leases are stick-shift. The minimum age for automobile rentals in European nations is also 25, but this age varies between car rental companies and countries.

All the time you?ll want to buy further automobile insurance on an overseas automotive rental. Additionally bear in mind that foreign car leases will be very expensive. So can the gas.

Wherever you choose to get an automotive rental, make sure that the vehicle is in excellent shape. Earlier than leaving the automotive rental agency?s lot, look at the automotive for dents, scratches, tears in the upholstery or balding tires. Should you find any, immediately report them to the automobile rental representative. When you don?t, you may be answerable for the costs of those repairs.

Automobile rental is usually a straightforward and handy course of, regardless of what space you are in. Just be sensible, and above all, drive your automobile rental as safely (or more safely) than you?d drive a vehicle you owned.

If you would like additional information with reference to cheap car rentals stop by Nikki Luiryg?s web site in a jiffy.

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Source: http://www.usdems.org/automotive-rental-guide/

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New suspect questioned over Hungary match-fixing

Associated Press Sports

updated 12:44 p.m. ET Oct. 27, 2011

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -Hungarian prosecutors said they questioned a new suspect in an international match-fixing investigation on Wednesday.

A former second-division player identified as Gyorgy Sz. is believed to have given three players from Diosgyor FC ?3,000 ($4,250) each to influence the outcome of a May 2010 match against Nyiregyhaza in Hungary's top league, the Chief Investigative Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

The suspect was said to be following the orders of, among others, former player Zoltan Kenesei, the alleged leader of the Hungarian branch of a global match-fixing "syndicate."

The players allegedly returned the bribes because the betting ring never placed bets on the match.

In June, three former players and four referees were detained as a result of the investigation launched by prosecutors and the National Investigation Office. Five suspects remain under preliminary arrest.

Authorities so far have identified seven matches, including two from the top Finnish league, which may have been fixed.

The syndicate is suspected of paying referees and players between ?40,000 ($56,800) and ?85,000 ($120,800) per match to influence results and is believed to have collected up to ?600,000 ($852,700) a game in successful bets.

Spokesman Geza Fazekas said the probe is continuing "full speed ahead."

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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NYPD officers charged in ticket corruption probe

NEW YORK (AP) ? What began nearly three years ago as a low-profile wiretap investigation of a police officer has resulted in criminal charges against 16 officers accused of abusing their authority by helping relatives and friends avoid paying traffic tickets.

The Bronx district attorney's office said in a statement Thursday that an indictment against the officers and five other people will be unsealed Friday following "allegations of police corruption covering a broad spectrum of crimes." No specifics were given, but two people familiar with the case said the charges are related to fixing tickets. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the allegations hadn't been made public.

The New York Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul Browne, and union officials declined to comment Thursday.

The case doesn't appear to rise to the level of more notorious corruption scandals in the nation's largest police department. But in terms of the number of officers facing criminal or internal administrative charges, the probe represents the largest crackdown on police accused of misconduct in recent memory.

The charges against 13 police officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant ? including delegates with the department's largest and most powerful union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association ? are the latest in a spate of corruption allegations against NYPD officers.

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought conspiracy and other charges against five current and three former officers alleging they were part of a gun-running ring. In two other recent federal cases, one officer was charged with arresting a black man without cause and using a racial slur to describe him and another was charged with using a law enforcement database to try to trump up charges against an innocent man.

As the ticket-fixing investigation unfolded, union officials complained that it unfairly singled out officers for an unofficial practice ? undoing paperwork on traffic citations before they reach court ? that has been tolerated for years.

"This issue could have and should have been addressed differently," PBA President Patrick Lynch has said.

The case evolved from a 2009 internal affairs probe of a Bronx officer suspected of associating with a drug dealer, officials said. While listening to the officer's phone, investigators heard calls from people seeing if he could fix tickets for them, they said.

That led to more wiretaps that produced evidence of additional officers having similar conversations.

An unrelated drunken-driving case provided a window into the secret probe when prosecutors were forced to disclose to the defense that the arresting officer was among those recorded talking about ticket fixing.

According to a transcript of the tape, a union delegate tells an officer, "I'll get this taken care of" by having a ticket issued to a girlfriend of the officer's cousin pulled the next day.

Aside from those officers charged criminally, dozens more could face internal charges. In one disciplinary case already decided earlier this year, a former PBA financial secretary admitted administrative misconduct charges and was docked 40 days of vacation and suspended for five days.

Last fall, the NYPD, which has about 35,000 officers, installed new computer system that tracks tickets and makes it much more difficult to tamper with the paper trail.

Commissioner Raymond Kelly recently formed a new unit within internal affairs to look into ticket fixing. Its officers sit in on traffic court testimony and comb through paperwork to ensure none of the methods is being wrongly employed.

The last serious corruption scandal for the NYPD was the so-called Dirty 30 case from the early 1990s. More than 33 officers from Harlem's 30th Precinct were implicated in the probe, with most pleading guilty to charges including stealing cash from drug dealers, taking bribes, beating suspects and lying under oath to cover their tracks.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-27-NYPD--Ticket%20Fixing/id-6854758940fe437fb475e7882e8f146a

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U.N. council plans swift end to Libya mandate (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) ? The Security Council plans to end U.N. authorization for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention in Libya this week despite calls from Libya's government for it to wait, council envoys said on Wednesday.

Libyan Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-nation council that Libya's people were "looking forward to terminating the no-fly zone over Libya as well as terminating the mandate accorded by Security Council resolution 1973 to protect civilians as soon as possible."

"In accordance with the initial assessments, the date of October 31 is a logical date to terminate this mandate," he said.

But he added that Libya's National Transitional Council, or NTC, had not yet made an official decision on whether to request termination of the U.N. mandate under resolution 1973, which authorized members of NATO and other U.N. member states to take "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.

That was why the Libyan government wanted the council to hold off on ending NATO's U.N. mandate, Dabbashi said.

"We request the council to give a chance to the NTC to take a resolution on this," he said. "This requires some days. Perhaps this will take place before the 31st of this month."

Dabbashi said the government needed more time to assess the security situation in its country and its ability to monitor its borders.

Western diplomats on the Security Council told reporters after closed-door discussions on Libya that council members planned to go ahead and terminate the U.N. mandate, thereby withdrawing NATO's authorization in Libya.

They said issues the NTC had suggested it would like NATO to help with, including border security, fell outside the U.N. mandate to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone.

"The job was to protect civilians and from NATO's point of view, that mission has been accomplished," a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "There's no point in delaying termination of the mandate."

DABBASHI: GADDAFI WASN'T EXECUTED

France's U.N. ambassador, Gerard Araud, said an arms embargo and other sanctions on Libya still in place would not be affected by the council's move to end the no-fly zone and terminate the U.N. mandate for outside military intervention.

He added that all council members believed there would be no need for the U.N. mandate for military operations in Libya beyond Monday and planned to adopt a resolution that would formally cancel that mandate on Thursday or Friday.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who has repeatedly accused NATO of exceeding its U.N. mandate in Libya, said extending the U.N. authorization beyond Monday would be "unrealistic."

The Security Council in March authorized a no-fly zone and foreign military intervention to protect Libyans from security forces that then-leader Muammar Gaddafi had deployed to suppress pro-democracy uprisings across the country.

The council is also expected in the coming days to approve a Russian-drafted resolution voicing concern about the proliferation of shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles across Libya and beyond its borders, diplomats said.

Apparently responding to calls from various senior U.N. officials for an investigation into the circumstances of the death of Gaddafi after his capture last Thursday, Dabbashi denied NTC soldiers had summarily executed him.

Gaddafi died of wounds he sustained prior to his capture, he said.

"Gaddafi was injured in the course of the clashes between his loyalists and the revolutionaries," Dabbashi said. "When he was arrested, he was bleeding from his abdomen and head and he passed away (on) his arrival to the hospital in Misrata."

"According to initial reports, none of the revolutionaries fired at him after arresting him," he said.

He added the Libyans were conducting an investigation.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/wl_nm/us_libya_un

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Apple investigation iPhone 4S battery life complaints

Apple is reportedly looking into complains about iPhone 4S battery life. Apple has done this before, typically after the release of new versions of the operating system, like 3.0, and asked users to install diagnostic utilities to help them track down the problem. Previously on TiPb we’ve run...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/2KlgSDt2AiY/

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The Universe's Dark Ages: How Our Cosmos Survived (SPACE.com)

The dark ages of the universe ? an era of darkness that existed before the first stars and galaxies ? mostly remain a mystery because there is so little of it to see, but scientists intensely desire to shed light on them in order to learn secrets about how the universe came into being.

"The dark ages represent our origins ? when the very first stars formed and created the heavy elements we are made of today," said theoretical astrophysicist Abraham Loeb, chairman of the astronomy department at Harvard University.

Now researchers are developing tools for gazing back into this hitherto enigmatic time. To put things in perspective, astronomers estimate that the universe is 13.7 billion years old.

"Our existence is a result of these first generation of stars, so when we investigate the dark ages, we're exploring our origins," Loeb, who is also the author of "How Did The First Stars and Galaxies Form?" (Princeton University Press, 2010), told SPACE.com.

First light, then darkness, then light again

Before the dark ages of the universe, the cosmos was so hot that all the atoms that existed were split into positively charged nuclei and negatively charged electrons. These electrically charged ions blocked all light from traveling freely.

Approximately 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled down enough for these ions to recombine into atoms, enabling the first light in the cosmos, that from the Big Bang, to finally shine. However, what came next were the dark ages of the universe ? there was no other light, as the stars were not born yet.[Infographic Tour: History & Structure of the Universe]

Current models of the universe suggest the first galaxies began forming about 100 million years after the Big Bang, marking the beginning of the end of the dark ages. This process of star and galaxy formation gradually continued until virtually all the hydrogen and helium that make up most of the universe was once again ionized, this time by starlight, about 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Mysteries waiting to be solved

There are many questions that learning more about the dark ages could help answer. For instance, where did the monstrously large black holes seen at the hearts of virtually all large galaxies come from?

"The Milky Way has a black hole about 4 million times the mass of the sun, and some galaxies have black holes a billion solar masses large," Loeb said. This apparently holds true even for ancient galaxies such as ULAS J1120+0641, which apparently had a central black hole 2 billion times the mass of the sun only 770 million years after the Big Bang.

"That's not a lot of time to build such black holes," Loeb said. "How did these form? What are the seeds of these black holes?"

In addition, a major enigma of the dark ages is how dark matter ? the as-yet unidentified materialmaking up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe ? might have influenced the formation of the first galaxies. This question is compounded by the fact "that we don't know what the nature of dark matter is," Loeb said.

Currently, the leading candidates for dark matter are particles that interact only weakly with regular matter and with each other. However, Loeb wonders if dark matter particles actually might interact with each other more than researchers generally suspect, given the behavior of nearby small galaxies.

"If we assume dark matter is non-interacting, when people do simulations of the evolution of galaxies such as the Milky Way, there should be many satellite galaxies around it," Loeb said. "However, when people look at the satellite galaxy population of the Milky Way, they find much fewer than the predicted number, and the inferred distribution of dark matter inside these dwarf galaxies is very different than what is predicted for them as well. Perhaps dark matter behaves differently than expected."

Another puzzle is what the first stars were like. In the incredible heat and pressure found in the cores of these stars, relatively simple elements such as hydrogen and helium were forged into heavier elements such as the carbon that life as we know it is based on and the oxygen we breathe.

"Currently, we think the very first stars were more massive than the sun ? 10 times, maybe even 100 times more massive ? and very short-lived, maybe living only a few million years," Loeb said.

However, there are calculations that suggest that under some circumstances, smaller stars could have formed back then. "These would be very poor in heavy elements, and we might be able to see them today if they exist, lurking in the halo of the Milky Way," Loeb said. "Were the first stars different from present-day stars? If we can, we'd like to see them to find out." [The Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps]

Secrets of the dark ages

To investigate the dark ages, one avenue scientists are pursuing involves hunting for the earliest stars and galaxies. Since it takes light time to travel, light that came from far away also must have come from long ago. As such, astronomers look deep in space to peer back in time.

"It's similar to archaeology ? the deeper you dig, the more ancient layers you uncover," Loeb said. "Here, we're essentially digging in space."

One key tool for looking at the ancient past has recently drawn a great deal of controversy for its delays and cost ? the James Webb Space Telescope. Still, if this space observatory ever flies, it could help reveal much about the early universe by catching the extremely faint light from the first galaxies.

"This telescope is the best hope we have to actually image the first generation of galaxies," Loeb said.

Another strategy for learning more about the dark ages would be looking at the scars that early stars and galaxies would have inflicted on the hydrogen surrounding them. Even cold hydrogen gives off light in the form of radio waves with a specific wavelength of 21 centimeters. By tuning in on that wavelength, scientists could thus see how this hydrogen changed over time in response to stellar radiation.

A number of radio telescope arrays under development will detect these 21-centimeter radio waves, Loeb said. These include the Murchison Widefield Array in western Australia, the Low-Frequency Array (spread across Europe, the Primeval Structure Telescope inChina, the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization in South Africa, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India, and the Square Kilometer Array, to be constructed in either Australia or South Africa.

Scientists can also peer at early galaxies by looking for X-rays from their central black holes using telescopes such as NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Future research could also detect the ripples in space-time known as gravity waves, released when black holes from early galaxies merged with each other.

A project called Advanced LIGOwill have sufficient sensitivity to see gravity waves from mergers of stellar-mass black holes in nearby galaxies within a few years from now, Loeb said. An even more ambitious project known as LISA that could detect mergers of supermassive black holes in distant galaxies was once on the books, but budgetary woes have officially scrapped itfor now.

"It will always pay to look at as much of the sky as we can," Loeb said. "You never know what you might find."

It took quite a bit more than seven days to create the universe as we know it today. SPACE.com looks at the mysteries of the heavens in our eight-part series: The History & Future of the Cosmos. This is Part 6 in that series.?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111026/sc_space/theuniversesdarkageshowourcosmossurvived

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Investors brace for euro zone debt decision (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Investors stayed cautious ahead of a summit expected to deliver pledges to tackle the euro zone's debt crisis rather than firm commitments, keeping the euro above $1.39 as stocks markets traded little changed.

Core euro zone government bond prices were also flat.

Market expectations that EU leaders will come up with a comprehensive solution to the debt problem have dipped as political wrangling ahead of Wednesday's meeting has continued.

Investment bank Citi said it was a "numbers game, without the numbers."

While there appears to be broad consensus on the need for around 110 billion euros ($150 billion) to be injected into the European banking system to help it withstand a potential Greek debt default and wider financial contagion, there is little clarity on two other critical parts of the package.

Those are how to scale up the region's rescue fund and how much of a loss private bondholders will take on Greek debt.

"They can't quite pull the rabbit out of the hat yet, though they will probably get something better over time," said Lothar Mentel, chief investment officer at Octopus Investments.

He suggest that markets would react badly to any failure to come up with a plan, but there was no early sign of that.

World stocks as measured by MSCI were flat while the pan-European FTSEurofirst (.FTEU3) struggled to gain 0.1 percent.

The latter was buoyed somewhat by corporate earnings. Sweden's Handelsbanken (SHBa.ST) reported a better-than-expected rise in operating profit in the third quarter.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said there was scope for a tactical stock rally even if the EU summit disappoints because investors are holding a lot of cash and are bearishly positioned.

EURO STEADY

The euro inched higher versus the dollar, with analysts saying that the fact it remained within sight of a six-week high of $1.3959 hit the previous session showed many investors were still hoping for a positive summit outcome.

The dollar was generally weaker on expectations that the Federal Reserve may opt for more monetary easing following weak economic data.

It has lost nearly 5 percent against a basket of major currencies since a high at the beginning of October.

Core German debt was flat pending news from the EU summit.

"What Europe needs is a clear, quick-to-implement and easy-to-fund solution ... (T)here is a clear risk that we get a vague plan with no specific timetable and specific numbers," Lloyds TSB said in a note.

(Additional reporting by Brian Gorman, Dominic Lau and Kirsten Donovan; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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Drinking More Fluids Could Lower Men's Bladder Cancer Risk (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Men who drink plenty of low-sugar fluids may reduce their risk for bladder cancer, new research suggests.

Although the reason for the association between fluid intake and protection against cancer remains unknown, researchers theorize the fluids may flush out potential cancer-causing agents before they have a chance to cause any damage.

In conducting the study, Jiachen Zhou, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at Brown University, and colleagues evaluated the fluid intake of nearly 48,000 men who were part of a long-term study. The men, who were aged 40 to 75 when they enrolled in the study in 1986, answered a questionnaire about their fluid intake every four years for more than two decades.

The investigators found that the men with a high daily fluid intake, or those who drank more than 10 cups (2,531 milliliters) per day, had a 24 percent reduced risk for bladder cancer. The study authors concluded that doctors should tell their patients to drink plenty of low-sugar fluids.

Although this link between fluid intake and bladder cancer risk was discovered 10 years ago, the association, the study found, was stronger among younger men. This could be due to the fact that the men drank less as they aged, particularly water, the researchers pointed out in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.

The study findings -- which revealed an association between fluid consumption and reduced cancer risk, but not a cause-and-effect -- were slated for presentation Oct. 24 at the AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, in Boston. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about bladder cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111025/hl_hsn/drinkingmorefluidscouldlowermensbladdercancerrisk

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Nation of Islam leader slams Gadhafi's death (AP)

CHICAGO ? Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Tuesday said the killing of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was "an assassination" and predicted the U.S. was unprepared for the looming backlash from his overthrow.

During an interview with a Chicago radio station, Farrakhan laid Gadhafi's death at the feet of the U.S., Great Britain and France. Gadhafi was killed last week, two months after being ousted following a 42-year reign that turned his oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom.

Farrakhan, who considered Gadhafi a friend, said those nations' establishment of a no-fly zone to stop Gadhafi's planes and offers of humanitarian relief to the Libyan people were intended to help oust Gadhafi from power and gain access to Libya's oil wealth.

"They succeeded in being the authors of the successful assassination of a sitting president," Farrakhan told WVON-AM in Chicago, adding that it placed America's interests in danger. "No one can trust the United Nations because it is a pawn of the Western world. No nation will give up their weapons of mass destruction like Gadhafi did, because it is the only protection they have against the wicked witches of the West."

Farrakhan also noted that the people now claiming leadership of Libya are advocating Islamic Sharia law, something that he contends the U.S. has opposed.

Farrakhan earlier this year portrayed Gadhafi as a fellow revolutionary who has lent millions of dollars to the Nation of Islam over the years. The group used $3 million it borrowed from Libya in the 1970s to acquire its opulent headquarters on Chicago's South Side. A $5 million loan was used years later to pay back taxes and costs for the home of the movement's former leader Elijah Muhammad.

"It wasn't the money, but the principles that made me his brother," Farrakhan said Tuesday.

Farrakhan, who became acquainted with Gadhafi in the 1970s and 1980s, also said Libyan oil revenue was used to build schools and universities that increased literacy, and he credited Gadhafi with establishing a health care system that he said was the best in the Third World.

Gadhafi, 69, was buried Tuesday along with his son, Muatassim, and former Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis after the military council in the city of Misrata ordered a reluctant Muslim cleric to say the required prayers. The National Transitional Council is under international pressure to investigate the circumstances of Gadhafi's death.

Farrakhan said America "doesn't know what it's gotten itself" into with the Gadhafi overthrow. He said he didn't believe Gadhafi when he said al-Qaida was involved in efforts to oust him, but now Farrakhan believes that was true.

The Chicago-based Nation of Islam has espoused black nationalism and self-reliance since it was founded in the 1930s, though in recent years has made efforts to recruit other ethnic groups.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_re_us/us_libya_farrakhan

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Analysis: Dragon tail risk: The cost of a China crash (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The China hard-landing debate is a classic tail risk story -- an unlikely scenario, but if it materializes the consequences could be catastrophic.

Because of their close trade links, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong would be among the first to feel the pain should China's growth weaken dramatically.

However, it would probably take a shock even bigger than what followed the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy to spread significant damage beyond Asia.

Judging from the latest HSBC survey of China's manufacturing sector, released on Monday, there is no evidence that growth is collapsing in the world's second biggest economy.

Indeed, not one of the 30 economists polled by Reuters last week predicted China's 2012 growth rate would dip below 8 percent.

But that has not silenced speculation that China is heading for an economic disaster. Some economists have tried to calculate the potential fallout just in case their forecasts prove to be overly optimistic.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch economists estimated that if China's real per capita gross domestic product fell by 2 percentage points, the pain would remain contained within Asia.

"It would take a severe shock to China for the negative spillovers to be transmitted beyond Asia," they wrote in a note last week to clients.

A 4 percentage point drop would be enough to spread to parts of Europe and the Middle East, with growth suffering in countries including Russia, Kuwait and Finland. Annual global growth would probably drop by 0.5 percentage points.

The last time China's economy recorded a decline anywhere close to that magnitude was after the Lehman bankruptcy. Year-over-year growth dropped to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from 9.0 percent in the prior three-month period.

A full-blown crash, which BofA-Merrill described as a 6 percentage point drop in China's real per capita GDP, would harm Europe's biggest economies -- Germany, France and Britain -- and even nick U.S. growth. It would probably shave 0.8 percentage points off global growth.

That would be a significant hit considering the International Monetary Fund thinks world output will be up a relatively modest 4 percent in 2012.

DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

BofA-Merrill considers the risk of a China crash negligible -- a 0.13 percent probability event.

But the China bears are growing louder in their warnings of an impending doom. China simply cannot rely on fixed-asset investment to drive 8-percent-plus growth forever, they argue.

Heavily indebted local governments could default. A property market crash may drive hundreds or even thousands of developers out of business. Bad loans may pile up on banks' books, and China could face an all-out credit crisis.

"China is undoubtedly a severely imbalanced economy, suffering from credit-fueled investment and housing excesses that could easily spin out of control and crash, just like all the other 'highly regarded' economic bubbles before it," Societe Generale strategist and well-known bear Albert Edwards wrote in an October 20 research note.

Jim Walker, founder of Hong Kong-based consultancy Asianomics, said it would be a "miracle" if China's 2012 GDP slows to just 7 percent.

"We're really looking for something much, much worse than that," he said. "China will be lucky to get away with 5 percent."

That would be a drop of more than 4 percentage points from 2011's expected growth. Not only would China's regional trade partners take a hit, but so would commodity exporters such as Australia and Indonesia. China accounted for 65 percent of the world's iron ore imports in 2009, and 15 percent of coal imports, according to IMF data.

LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

A China slowdown would bring some benefits for Asia, albeit small ones. Lower prices would bring welcome inflation relief for Asia's commodity importers, said Johanna Chua, chief Asia-Pacific economist for Citi in Hong Kong.

It might also swing a little bit more foreign investment toward other Southeast Asian economies that have struggled to compete with China for overseas funds.

China itself invested only about $2.4 billion last year into the 10 countries that make up the Association of South East Asian Nations, according to Bofa-Merrill economist Chua Hak Bin in Singapore, too little to pose a systemic threat on its own.

There is considerably more money flowing the other way. Since 1995, ASEAN has invested about $75 billion in China, with Singapore far and away the most exposed, accounting for $62 billion of that. A China hard landing could cause "significant" portfolio losses, BofA-Merrill's Chua said.

But it also looks clear that Beijing will act if growth looks likely to weaken dramatically. It has room to ramp up government spending, ease credit conditions, and slow the appreciation of the yuan currency to give exports a boost.

"If China is hard landing, I agree with the bulls on one thing: expect the authorities to become aggressively stimulative," SocGen's Edwards said.

(Reporting by Emily Kaiser in Singapore; Editing by Mathew Veedon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/bs_nm/us_economy_china

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?Who is the worst science writer?? ?Gregg Easterbrook? ?Who is second?? ?Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second.?* (Balloon Juice)

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Shuttlesworth's widow falls at panel discussion (Providence Journal)

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Major Earthquake In Turkey (talking-points-memo)

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Merkel rebuffs Sarkozy on euro zone solution (Reuters)

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) ? France's push to use more European Central Bank money to fight the euro zone debt crisis ran into strong resistance from Germany and other EU partners on Friday, leaving Paris looking increasingly isolated before a crucial summit.

The rift between Europe's two biggest powers has already forced leaders to tack on an extra summit in the coming week and is causing consternation in global financial markets.

Leaders will now meet twice -- on Sunday and Wednesday -- to try to adopt a comprehensive strategy to fight the crisis that began in Greece, spread to Ireland and Portugal and is now threatening to engulf bigger economies in the 17-nation currency area.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Europe's top two officials, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, will also meet late on Saturday to try to break the deadlock before the Sunday summit.

Senior European sources said Berlin and Paris were at loggerheads on two core elements of a plan to build a firewall around Greece and stabilize bond markets -- how to scale up the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), and how to reduce Greek debt.

Sarkozy appeared isolated after an acrimonious meeting in Frankfurt on Wednesday in seeking to turn the 440-billion-euro ($600 billion) EFSF rescue fund into a bank able to access ECB liquidity to fight contagion. The senior European sources said it appeared the French leader would have to back down.

Germany, the ECB and the European Commission all argued that the move would violate an EU treaty prohibition on monetary financing of governments.

"The path is closed for using the ECB to ease liquidity problems," Merkel told conservative lawmakers in Berlin, according to participants at the private meeting.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hammered home Berlin's message at a preparatory meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels, telling reporters: "We will stick to the situation as it is in the treaty, that the central bank is not available for state financing."

A German government spokesman said major decisions at the two-part meeting would only come on Wednesday. Merkel needed time to secure parliamentary support under new rules that stipulate that the Bundestag's budget committee must approve all key EFSF decisions.

The timetable forced the EU to postpone a summit with China set for Tuesday, highlighting how the debt crisis is impinging on Europe's place in the world.

Striking a new note of exasperation, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Van Rompuy in a phone call that European leaders should take concrete actions to contain the crisis and stabilize the euro and financial markets.

The summits' outcome will determine whether investor confidence in the euro area can be restored. It will also influence whether an expected Greek debt write-down triggers a chain reaction of financial turmoil across Europe.

As a first step, leaders of the 27-nation European Union are set to endorse a plan on Sunday to strengthen banks' capital base and may also launch a procedure for longer-term reform of the euro area's economic governance, EU sources said.

European banks will be required to increase their core tier one capital ratio to 9 percent by July 2012 to help them withstand losses on sovereign debt, banking sources said.

EU officials said the total amount required was just short of 100 billion euros. Those banks that cannot raise money on the markets will have to turn to national governments.

FRENCH RATING IN SPOTLIGHT

An EU source said France, which has presidential and parliamentary elections from April to June and is desperate to keep its top-notch AAA credit rating, was pressing for banks to be given at least nine months to meet the target.

France fears its credit rating could come under threat if the wrong method is chosen to scale up the bailout fund to prevent contagion spreading to Italy and Spain, the euro zone's third and fourth largest economies.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Friday it was likely to downgrade France and four other states if Europe slips into recession. It was the second agency this week to cast doubt on France's rating after Moody's on Tuesday.

There are also differences between Germany and France and between the EU and the International Monetary Fund over how deep a write-down banks and insurers will have to take on Greek bond holdings to make that country's debt sustainable.

Paris and Berlin called on Thursday for negotiations to start immediately with the private sector over its contribution to a sustainable plan for Greece's mountainous debt.

Underlining the threat the euro zone crisis poses to the global economy, U.S. President Barack Obama held a video conference with Merkel and Sarkozy on Thursday, reiterating that he hopes a solution will be in place in time for a summit of G20 leaders in Cannes, France on November 3-4.

The IMF is more pessimistic than the EU about the sustainability of Greek debts and believes that a deeper debt reduction is needed, EU sources told Reuters.

Despite the differences, EU and IMF inspectors are expected to go ahead and approve an 8 billion euro aid payment to Greece next month, the sixth tranche from a 110 billion euro package of EU/IMF loans agreed last May.

Without that payment Greece faces default, possibly dragging the larger economies of Spain and Italy into the mire and sending shockwaves through the European banking system.

HOW TO SCALE UP

The biggest challenge is agreeing on the method of scaling up the EFSF.

The most likely approach is to use the EFSF to guarantee a portion of potential losses on new euro zone bonds, a way of trying to restore market confidence. But ministers stressed other options were still on the table, possibly 7 of them.

A group of 10 major financial companies, including banks, insurers and global bond fund giant PIMCO, wrote to EFSF chief Klaus Regling on Friday, saying partial insurance of sovereign bonds could be a viable means to secure private funding for euro zone states "if implemented in size."

"The ability of the EFSF to potentially write significant amounts of such 'insurance' without any further increase to the existing commitments should be an important element in any comprehensive plan by the European government to address the crisis," the letter, seen by Reuters, said.

By guaranteeing only a portion, perhaps a third or a fifth, of each debt issue, the available EFSF funds could stretch 3-5 times further, increasing it to around 1 trillion euros.

However, analysts are concerned that such a plan could create a two-tier bond market, with bonds that have guarantees trading at a premium to the secondary market -- an outcome that could exacerbate market turmoil.

Greece remains mired in recession and its overall debt is forecast to climb to 357 billion euros this year, or 162 percent of annual economic output. German government sources said Greek debt should be reduced to about 120 percent of GDP.

($1 = 0.730 Euros)

(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Madeline Chambers in Berlin, John O'Donnell, Julien Toyer, Jan Strupczewski, Robin Emmott and Luke Baker in Brussels; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Janet McBride, Mike Peacock and Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111021/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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