jeremypinc.com

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s scandal-hit Olympus Corp on Wednesday unveiled three new medical products it hopes will help it out of the crisis left by a huge accounting fraud which erupted last year, threatening to destroy the 92-year-old firm.

Better known for its cameras, the company is pinning its future on medical equipment and in particular diagnostic endoscopes in which it already controls about 70 percent of the global market.

“Without growth in our medical business, I do not think there will be a revival for Olympus,” Hiroyuki Sasa, the firm’s president-nominee and head of Olympus’s medical equipment marketing business, said at an event for the product launch.

It has survived has the $1.7 billion fraud case that surfaced last October in one of Japan‘s worst corporate scandals, partly because its profitable medical business, which accounts for about 40 percent of total sales.

But the company has been unable to shake off criticism of its management, with foreign shareholders pressing their demands for an independent board.

Sasa, also an executive officer, was nominated by Olympus in February to become president and take over from Shuichi Takayama who has been sued by the firm for mismanagement.

Olympus also nominated a new board, including a former banker from its main lender Sumitomo Mitsui Banking as chairman.

But a group of foreign shareholders, who want a board free from the influence of the company’s creditors, demanded a more independent chairman.

“The proposed Chairman’s and certain other proposed board members’ close connection with Olympus’ main banks gives rise to a potential conflict of interest,” the shareholders, including Southeastern Asset Management and Indus Capital, said in an emailed statement.

“To accept a bank-led rehabilitation would be a setback, in our view, to the interests of shareholders, as well as to the earnest efforts of the Japanese Financial Services Agency and the Tokyo Stock Exchange to improve corporate governance standards in Japan.”

A regulatory filing showed last week that Southeastern had cut its stake in Olympus to 3.95 percent from 5.09 percent.

Foreign shareholders are worried that creditors could push Olympus into a big, dilutive sale of new equity, possibly to another Japanese company eager to gain some exposure to its profitable endoscope business.

Among firms rumored to be interested in making a strategic investment in Olympus are electronics firms Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp and rival endoscope maker Fujifilm Holdings Corp.

The nominees for Olympus’s new management team are subject to approval at the firm’s April 20 shareholders’ meeting.

REBUILDING WITH MEDICAL DEVICES

Olympus launched three new products – a gastrointestinal video endoscopy system, a low-cost endoscopic videoscope system and a blood vessel sealing and tissue cutting device, all aimed at overseas markets.

The release of EVIS EXERA III, the gastrointestinal video endoscopy system for overseas including United States, Europe and Asia but excluding Japan and Britain, came seven years after the previous generation product was launched.

For Britain and Japan, Olympus in 2006 released a similar but separate platform called EVIS LUCERA SPECTRUM and plans to launch a new generation product in the next fiscal year ending March 2013.

Olympus also released a low-cost endoscopic videoscope system, named Axeon, for emerging markets including China and India, as well as an energy-based surgical device, called Thunderbeat, the first product in the world that seals vessels and cuts tissues using both bipolar high frequency and ultrasonic energy.

The firm said aims to sell 5,000 to 7,000 EVIS EXERA III systems, which costs about 10 million yen ($119,600), a year, and 3,000 to 3,500 Axeon systems, which will be under 2.5 million yen.

It declined to reveal its sales target for Thunderbeat, whose system costs about $35,000 and handheld device around $850.

Olympus controls about 13 percent of the global energy-based surgical device market, lagging behind Covidien and Ethicon, a unit of Johnson & Johnson.

Olympus shares, which have lost nearly half their value since the scandal erupted, closed down 2.1 percent at 1,307 yen on Wednesday, against a 0.6 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average. ($1 = 83.6250 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Chris Lewis and Jonathan Thatcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/olympus-says-core-medical-business-key-rebuilding-080701562.html

oscar red carpet ryan zimmerman oscars red carpet jennifer lopez wardrobe malfunction emma stone hugo hugo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) ? American attempts to get major Asian importers of Iranian oil to rein in their purchases are faltering as allies South Korea and Japan give U.S. officials a polite brushoff. Emerging giants India and China may even increase their purchases, further complicating Washington’s efforts to force Iran to curtail its nuclear program.

In 2011, Japan, South Korea, India and China accounted for 60 percent of Iran’s oil sales, and the U.S. initiative ? backed up by financial sanctions ? is meant to dig away at the $100 billion in oil revenues Tehran earned last year.

Iran will likely suffer some losses when a planned European Union oil embargo kicks in July, and those could be deepened by the discounted prices it may have to offer to Asian buyers in the face of the sanctions. That adds to the pressure on Iran’s budget but seems set to fall short of the bruising blow that Washington hoped to land.

Neither South Korea nor Japan appear willing to cut back their Iranian purchases by very much, and both China and India might actually step up their imports as Iran’s increased isolation as a supplier forces it to lower prices.

“These consumers depend on Iran for a good portion of their oil, particularly India and China,” said Singapore-based oil analyst Victor Shum of consultants Purvin & Gertz. “It’s very difficult for them to switch.”

That’s a concern for Washington, which hopes that its initiative ? combined with the EU embargo ? will be enough to force Iran into serious negotiations on the nuclear program the West believes is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Iran says it is for peaceful purposes only.

Complicating matters are persistent Israeli threats to attack Iranian nuclear installations if sanctions efforts fail. While sympathizing with Israeli concerns over the specter of a nuclear-armed enemy, many western leaders fear an Israeli attack would wreak havoc throughout the Middle East and jeopardize the still fragile international economic recovery, as oil prices spike.

Longtime American ally South Korea, which in 2011 bought about 250,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil ? 10 percent of its total oil imports ? has been a big target for the American effort, recently hosting two visits by senior U.S. officials who came to try to persuade it to cut back or Iranian oil purchases.

So far at least, the results have not been not encouraging.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul says that no decision has yet been made on the U.S. request, apparently out of fear that the country would be hard pressed to find alternative suppliers to fill in the gap left by Iranian crude.

The picture in Japan is similar. On Friday, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said “the trend is we’ll cut oil imports from Iran” amid continuing efforts to secure alternative supplies from other Middle Eastern countries.

However, Japanese authorities also pressed the U.S. to permit them exemptions from President Barack Obama’s Feb. 6 executive order, which imposes sanctions on foreign institutions involved in helping finance Iranian oil sales. That suggests a determination to continue buying Iranian oil to a significant degree.

Japan, which in 2011 sourced 10 percent of its 3.4 million barrels per day of oil imports from Iran, has been gradually cutting back on Iranian oil, paring imports by about 40 percent over the past five years.

As a close Iranian ally, China has also dug its heels in ? in fact, far deeper than either South Korea or Japan. Beijing turned a blind eye to efforts by American Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to get it to cut back on Iranian imports during a January visit and earlier this month the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily described Western efforts to pressure Iran with an oil embargo as “casting a shadow over the global economy.”

China is a massive purchaser of Iranian oil, averaging about 550,000 barrels per day in 2011, about 10 percent of its total imports. While purchases have declined over the past several weeks, oil analyst Mark Pervan of ANZ Bank in Melbourne attributes that to Chinese efforts to pressure Tehran to reduce prices in the face of the U.S. pressure.

Shum said that Chinese purchases of Iranian oil could increase substantially in coming months, particularly if Iran offers Beijing a discount on its oil sales.

“China wants to build its strategic reserve of crude and the Chinese are now in a good negotiating position as far as securing supplies,” he said.

The reserve, which presently stands at 102 million barrels ? 21 days of imports ? is scheduled to add another 168 million barrels of storage facilities by early 2013. In a report earlier this month, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said that new Chinese storage centers “could materially affect Chinese crude oil demand in 2012,” suggesting that if they were filled at a steady pace China would need to secure an additional 220,000 barrels per day. That does not take into account any additional accretion for economic growth or from falling domestic production.

Shum said it was still unclear how much of the increment China might try to source from Iran, particularly in light of the strong U.S. objections.

“There will be a bit of a political element to any decision,” he said.

India, China’s competitor in the Asian high growth sweepstakes, ramped up its purchases of Iranian crude to 550,000 barrels per day in January, largely on the back of additional supply availability stemming from the cutback in Chinese acquisitions. In 2011 it averaged around 340,000 barrels per day in Iranian oil purchases, accounting for some 12 per cent of its imports.

While it is uncertain whether the country can sustain the January level over the long term, a booming economy will keep overall oil imports high. And with many Indian refineries designed specifically to process Iranian crude, it seems likely that it will continue to source a major portion of its oil from Iran, notwithstanding objections from the United States.

Still, the impact of the American sanctions ? and parallel pressure from the European Union ? is now being felt. Indian oil payments to Iran, initially channeled through German-based Europaisch-Iranische Handelsbank, were moved to Turkey’s Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS after EU intervention, though that channel may prove short lived in the face of the increasing heat from U.S. authorities.

To cope with the new sanctions, the Iranian ambassador to India announced last week that India and Iran have reached a deal allowing Indian oil companies to pay for 45 percent of their imports in Indian rupees, reducing the need for dollar-handling foreign banks as facilitators.

Some reports ? unconfirmed by Indian authorities ? have also suggested that India may consider a barter arrangement in lieu of oil payments, including exports of wheat and other grain as shortages of food commodities begin to bite in Tehran.

In contrast to the generally ineffective American efforts in Asia, the pending EU embargo of Iranian imports ? about 450,000 barrels per day in 2011 ? could have an impact when it goes into effect in July. According to Shum, this reflects a combination of slower European growth prospects and the ability of recently reinstated Libyan oil production to make up for large parts of any Iranian shortfall.

But with China and India undeterred by the American stance on Iranian oil, part of the European offtake might simply be transferred eastward.

__

Associated Press writers Nirmala George in New Delhi, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Foster Klug in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-02-15-AS-Asia-Iran-Oil/id-9118971b5b7b49fb883d104c08d9f422

att new york yankees pittsburgh penguins westboro baptist church st. croix st. croix threadworm

From: Natural News

by David Gutierrez

2-9-2012

Black raspberries contain natural compounds that may significantly reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers from Ohio State University and published in the journal?Cancer Prevention.

Researchers genetically engineered mice to develop either intestinal tumors or a type of colon inflammation, colitis, known to increase the risk of colorectal cancer. They then fed all the mice a high-risk diet low in calcium and vitamin D and high in saturated fat for 12 weeks. Some of the mice were fed 10 percent of their daily calories from freeze-dried black raspberry powder.

Among the mice engineered to get colitis, black raspberry powder significantly reduced inflammation and cut both the number of new and total tumors by 50 percent. Among mice engineered to get intestinal tumors, black raspberry powder reduced the number of new tumors by 45 percent and the number of total tumors by 60 percent. The effect appeared to be produced, in part, by the suppression of a protein that binds to the artificially modified gene.

The researchers noted that because the black raspberries were found to reduce inflammation, they might also reduce the risk of other chronic inflammation-linked diseases such as heart disease.

Black raspberries are less widely eaten than their red relatives or the similar-looking blackberry. Due to their darker skin, they contain significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting anthocyanins than red raspberries, and are also packed with other phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals.

“In appearance, the black raspberry bears resemblance to the red, yet its color is darker and its shape tends more toward that of a ‘skull cap’ than the ‘ball shape’ of the red raspberry. The black species is a very seedy berry, whereas its red counterpart is less seedy and more juicy,” writes John Heinerman in the book?Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Healing Juices.

To learn more about how to fight disease with a healthy diet, read the free NaturalNews.com reportNutrition Can Save America!at
http://www.naturalnews.com/report_Nutrition_Health_America_0.html.

Sources for this story include:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39971798/ns/health-cancer/.

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/034920_black_raspberries_colorectal_cancer_risk.html#ixzz1lw6KgLbG?

Source: http://mrscottyl.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-raspberries-prevent-colorectal.html

dancing with the stars 2011 dts mirrors the shining missouri state natasha bedingfield aa

NEW YORK ? U.S. stocks are edging lower in late morning trading with bank stocks leading the way down.

Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are down nearly 6 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lost more than 4 percent, the biggest drop among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial average.

Stocks opened higher Monday but quickly turned after an hour of trading. Cautious comments from the head of the European Central bank soured any hopes the ECB would find a resolution to Europe’s debt crisis anytime soon.

The Dow fell 64, or 0.5 percent to 11,802 as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 index fell 9 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,220. The Nasdaq composite index fell 16, or 0.6 percent, to 2,538.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111219/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street

nancy grace sharks anna kournikova versace boys wicked glee finale

LONDON (Reuters) ? Mobile phone applications that allow online shopping on the move could give battered British retailers something to cheer about in what is otherwise set to be one of the toughest Christmas trading periods for years.

As the festive shopping season gets into full swing, demand for these mobile apps is growing fast, even though overall consumer purchasing is under severe pressure from high inflation, muted wage growth, fears over job security and government austerity measures.

“Mobile technology is changing the game this Christmas. The power is now well and truly in the hands of the consumer who will be dictating when, where and how they want to shop,” said Natalie Berg of research group Planet Retail.

As the British sector becomes increasingly “multichannel,” retailers such as Argos, Debenhams and ASOS are tapping into the growing popularity of mobile shopping in general and, in particular, mobile phone apps.

Research by IMRG, the British trade body for online retailers, found 24 percent of consumers have used their smartphone to access websites while out shopping.

It reckons Christmas 2011 will be the year when mobile shopping goes mainstream.

Its research found sales through mobile phones leapt from 0.4 percent of total sales at the beginning of 2010 to 3.3 percent in the second quarter of 2011, not least because retailers are increasingly embracing apps.

Apps offer convenience, allowing shoppers to shop virtually anywhere, and at anytime, from the palm of their hands.

“Within an app, consumers have greater control over setting their own preferences, so more personalization,” said IMRG’s Andy Mulcahy.

“Apps can be used offline and can utilize multiple mobile device capabilities, such as GPS, voice, camera, calendar and address book.”

RAPID GROWTH

High street catalogue retailer Argos, owned by Home Retail, had a torrid first half to end-August with total sales slumping nearly 8 percent.

But the launch of a web platform for mobile devices and an app for Android phones, along with its existing Apple iPhone app, led to rapid growth of mobile shopping and at the end of the period the proportion of Argos’ total sales from mobile shopping was about 4 percent, up from 1 percent a year ago.

“As we go into this Christmas I think that’s going to continue to grow,” said Home Retail Chief Executive Terry Duddy.

“I think it’s potentially quite exciting. It suits our model (and) it clearly suits our customers who are shopping on the move. With the penetration of smartphones I think we’re going to head towards a sort of double digit number some time or other.”

ASOS, the fast-growing youth fashion Internet retailer, first launched ASOS mobile a year ago and in the summer added a range of apps for Apple mobile devices.

Currently some 10 percent of its traffic is through mobiles.

“I would be amazed if it (mobile shopping) wasn’t between 20 and 30 percent of our sales within the next three to five years,” said Chief Executive Nick Robertson, who plans to develop local language versions of ASOS’s mobile sites and apps in the future to complement its local language websites.

Debenhams, Britain’s second-largest department store group, sells its products through iPhone, iPad, Android and Nokia apps.

“It’s very early days but we’re evidently embracing new technology and new ways for people to shop because we see that as one of the growth strands going forward,” said Chief Executive Michael Sharp.

(Reporting by James Davey, editing by Mark Potter)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/wr_nm/us_retail_britain

abu musab al zarqawi teacher appreciation day the wire capitals j cole navy seals training james brown

NEW YORK ? The way Americans are chomping Big Macs, lacing up pricey sneakers and gulping peppermint mochas in this economy, you’d think they’re taking advantage of big holiday discounts.

The truth is they’re paying more.

McDonald’s, Nike, Starbucks and other companies initially worried that customers would run the other way when they started raising prices to offset their higher costs for ingredients, fuel and packaging. But so far, cash-strapped Americans largely have swallowed the price spikes. And they’re continuing to do so during this holiday shopping season.

On a recent weekday, five full floors of shoppers in a Nike store in New York didn’t seem to mind paying more for their favorite kicks, including the almost $200 sneakers named for NBA star LeBron James. At a McDonald’s across town, people munched on Big Macs and fries that cost a dime or two more than last year. Customers also piled into a Starbucks down the street, where cappuccinos and many other specialty drinks now top $5.

Timothy and Katrin Sullivan, a San Diego couple, estimate that together they spend about $100 a month on skinny caramel macchiatos and pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, where prices on some drinks have risen in some regions this year. As parents of five children, they worry about the economy and have cut back on travel and ball games, but so far their morning cup of joe has survived the chopping block despite the rising price.

“It’s cheaper than therapy,” says Katrin Sullivan, 39.

The prices Americans pay for food, travel and other things have steadily risen this year, according to government data. Prices went up 3.5 percent in October compared with the same month a year ago. At the same time, every month for the past year except one, spending grew 2 percent or more compared with the same month a year ago. That’s given retailers some cautious optimism as they try to gauge just how much more consumers are willing to pay.

Pete Bensen, McDonald’s chief financial officer told analysts during the company’s earnings call that the question boils down to this: “Is the consumer in a place that we’re comfortable we can continue to add price increases?”

Companies of all stripes have been asking that question a lot. In the past year, they’ve been paying more for materials like beef, corn and fuel that they use to make, package and transport their goods. A combination of poor crop yields in some parts of the world, unrest in the Middle East and greater demand from countries like Brazil and China have sent those costs up.

Many costs have come down after spiking in the spring. A pound of coffee, for example, is trading at about $2.30, down from $3 in the spring. But that’s up from $2 a year ago.

As a result, Starbucks Corp. this year raised the price of the packaged coffee in its stores by 17 percent. The company declines to say whether prices on brewed drinks have risen or fallen overall in the past year, since those price decisions vary by region. But generally, the Seattle chain says the prices of specialty drinks like lattes and macchiatos are more likely to have risen this year than simpler drinks.

The price of a 16-ounce grande cappuccino at Starbucks costs about $4.25, up about 23 percent from $3.45 a year ago, research firm Technomic estimates. Meanwhile, a bagel went up from $1 a year ago to $1.25.

That hasn’t stopped Starbucks customers from getting their coffee fix, though. Store traffic rose 6 percent in the most recent fiscal year, which ended in October. Revenue at stores open at least a year ? an indicator of a retailer’s health ? rose 8 percent.

“We think we are in a very good spot right now,” Jeff Hansberry, who runs Starbucks’ consumer products division, said in a call with analysts this month.

At Nike Inc., sales rose almost 18 percent in the three-month period through August, even though it raised prices on certain styles this year. Nike hasn’t detailed the price increases, but according to research firm SportsOneSource Group, the suggested price of a pair of this year’s version of LeBron James’ sneakers is about $170, up from about $160 last year. Nike said it expects to raise prices more broadly in the spring.

“We have not seen any big price resistance at all,” Charles Denson, president of the Nike Brand, said in a call with analysts.

Likewise, traffic and sales grew after McDonald’s raised prices an average of 1 percent in March and another 1.4 percent in May. In the third quarter, guest count increased 2.6 percent. Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 5 percent. (The revenue figure is a snapshot of money spent on food at both company-owned and franchised restaurants. It does not reflect corporate revenue.)

McDonald’s won’t give details on which items it raised prices on, but Technomic estimates that a Big Mac costs an average of $3.39, up from $3.19 a year ago. A large order of fries is about $1.89, up from $1.79.

And the company signaled that there may be more increases to come. “We will continue to evaluate additional price increases,” said Bensen, McDonald’s CFO, during a call last month. “As we look into 2012, we expect commodity cost increases in the U.S. to be similar to this year’s.”

Even if the costs for some raw materials decline, companies are still expected to continue to raise prices during this holiday shopping season. That’s because costs for materials are uncertain, so companies will try to raise prices whenever they think customers will tolerate them. Still, they have to tread lightly or risk losing customers.

To be sure, families have trimmed their budgets as the economy plummets. But Americans continue to spend for myriad reasons, even though prices have risen on everything from Coca-Cola soda to Huggies diapers to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Some are stomaching the higher prices only on products they need. Others who’ve cut back on bigger frills are willing to splurge on brands they trust or things they see as small indulgences. Still others are apathetic to the increases because “everybody’s doing it.”

The weak economy has forced Kenya Leach, a New York actress, to cut back on eating out and trips to the movies and to reconsider her plans to return to school for an anthropology degree. Still, she keeps buying beauty products from Origins, which sells $35 moisturizer and $25 face wash, even though she’s noticed those prices edge up by about a dollar per product, by her calculations.

Estee Lauder, the high-end cosmetics company that owns Origins, did not detail its price increases. But CEO Fabrizio Freda said recently during an analyst call that customers have been “resilient” as the company has raised prices and rolled out more expensive products.

Leach, for one, figures it’s OK to spend a little more on Origins products because she is cutting out so many other things. “Treating yourself sends off those happy pheromones,” says Leach, 25. “When I get really crabby and upset, I’ll buy a new lipstick and I’ll feel 10 times better.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_willing_to_splurge

smallville finale angelman syndrome successful metra mitch daniels charlie sheen twitter mississippi

NEW YORK ? Stock futures are edging lower to start the week.

The retailer Lowe’s posted earnings that were below Wall Street’s estimates on Monday.

Less than two hours before the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 47 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,065. S&P 500 index futures are down 8, or 0.6 percent, to 1,253. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 11, or 0.5 percent, to 2,339.

Major indexes closed the week higher last Friday, as it appeared Greece and Italy were making steps toward getting their debt troubles under control. The Dow and the S&P 500 are now positive for the month. The Nasdaq is slightly lower.

No major economic reports are coming out Monday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

azalea triple crown secretariat yahoo sports gma news cabelas kentucky derby 2011

(Reuters) ? Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 flat, Dow Jones futures up 0.2 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.2 percent at 0945 GMT.

Tokyo’s Nikkei (.N225) gained 1.1 percent, while European stocks turned negative before an auction of up to 3 billion euros of five-year Italian bonds that will test investors’ appetite for the country’s debt and could set the equity market’s near-term direction.

Investor sentiment was helped by data showing Japan’s economy expanded 1.5 percent in the third quarter — the fastest growth among major industrial nations — as the country bounced back from an earthquake-triggered recession.

Following Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation, the country’s president Giorgio Napolitano asked former European Commissioner Mario Monti on Sunday to form a government to restore market confidence, and Monday’s bond auction will be seen as an initial judgment on his leadership.

In Greece, the new Prime Minister Lucas Papademos — a former central banker who oversaw his country’s entry to the euro zone in 2002 — will have to win Wednesday’s confidence vote in his cabinet before meeting euro zone finance ministers in Brussels on Thursday, state television reported.

President Barack Obama served notice on Sunday that the United States was fed up with China’s trade and currency practices as he turned up the heat on America’s biggest economic rival.

Morgan Stanley’s (MS.N) Asia private equity arm is in talks to buy a majority stake in Chinese packaging firm HCP Holdings Inc, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, a deal that could value the company at about $500 million.

U.S. stocks jumped on Friday, ending higher for the week after the Italian Senate’s approval of economic reforms gave investors some relief from worries about the euro zone’s debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 259.89 points, or 2.2 percent, to end at 12,153.68. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) was up 24.16 points, or 1.95 percent, to finish at 1,263.85. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 53.60 points, or 2.0 percent, to close at 2,678.75.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111114/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

tumblebooks bed bugs national university google chrome os the beatles madeleine mccann principal

BERLIN ? Nearly four in five Germans believe the euro will survive and more than half think Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing a good job of handling Europe’s debt crisis, according to a poll released Friday.

The ZDF television poll said 78 percent of respondents believe the euro ? used by 17 nations ? will survive and 18 percent say it won’t. That was much the same as a year ago ? despite a worsening of the financial crisis that has now sucked in Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy.

Europe has already bailed out Greece, Portugal and Ireland but the Italian economy is considered for the continent to bail out.

The poll of 1,278 people, conducted by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen institute Tuesday through Thursday, showed 56 percent think Merkel is doing a good job of crisis management and 33 percent say she isn’t. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 points.

That is a significant shift from a similar poll in October, which found Germans equally divided over Merkel, with 45 percent approving of her management and 46 percent disapproving.

Since then, European leaders have agreed on a second bailout package for Greece and measures to increase the firepower of the bloc’s rescue fund, the euro440 billion ($600 billion) European Financial Stability Facility.

And, at the height of tensions over a later-abandoned Greek plan for a referendum on the new bailout, Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy raised the prospect of Greece leaving the eurozone in the case of a “no” vote ? a possibility they hadn’t raised before.

Merkel has taken a hard-nosed approach, insisting on tough austerity measures in exchange for aid. She is somewhat constrained at home by the need, stipulated by Germany’s highest court in September, to clear every measure taken by the European stability fund with parliament.

German lawmakers set up a special nine-member parliamentary committee to expedite decision-making in particularly urgent cases. But the Federal Constitutional Court ruled last month that it can’t start work pending a ruling on a complaint by two lawmakers, who argued that delegating decisions to the panel violates their rights.

Some, however, fear that having to consult the 41-member budget committee, or even the full 620-member lower house, every time could slow down decision-making in a fast-moving financial crisis.

The court scheduled a hearing on the case Nov. 29.

With the crisis deepening despite politicians’ efforts to staunch it, there has been increasing talk of the European Central Bank stepping in far more aggressively to buy bonds and push down Italy’s borrowing rates.

But that is deeply unpalatable to Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy, where politicians argue that the ECB must stick to its mandated task of fighting inflation.

“Nothing has changed in the government’s fundamental convictions and its expectations of the ECB,” Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Friday. “(It) has the role of ensuring the stability of our common currency and keeping inflationary tendenices in check.”

Germany’s own finances are in solid shape, with tax income swelled recently by strong economic growth.

On Friday, parliament’s budget committee trimmed net new borrowing in the country’s 2012 budget to euro26.1 billion ($35.5 billion) from the government’s planned euro27.2 billion ($37 billion). The projected figure for this year was euro48.4 billion ($65.9 billion.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111111/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_germany_financial_crisis

kingston bbc radio 1 annette funicello family bipolar disorder smallville season 10 kotaku

NEW YORK ? Trouble on two fronts in the European debt crisis sent American stocks tumbling Wednesday to their biggest loss since the rocky trading of last summer. The Dow Jones industrial average fell almost 400 points.

Stocks were down from the opening bell after borrowing costs in Italy spiked to dangerous levels, a sign that investors are losing faith in Italy’s ability to repay its national debt.

“Italy is potentially too big to bail out, but that’s the problem,” said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “It’s spiraling out, and the question is now, how do you fix it?”

In Greece, meanwhile, power-sharing talks aimed at avoiding a default broke down in chaos.

The Italian economy is more than six times larger than that of Greece, which so far has been the center of the continent’s debt problem. American investors are worried that the consequences from Europe could include a freeze in lending, the disintegration of the euro currency or a bruising recession that would hurt the U.S.

They sold stocks as a result. The Dow finished down 389.24 points, at 11,780.94.

“The market loves a quick solution, and we’re obviously not getting one,” said Mark Lehmann, director of equities of JMP Securities.

The slide in stocks was broad: Only a single stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500, Best Buy, finished higher for the day. Financial companies were among the hardest hit because they would suffer first if Europe’s debt problem spins out of control.

Morgan Stanley stock plunged 8 percent and Goldman Sachs 7 percent. In regulatory filings last week, Morgan Stanley reported it had $1.8 billion in liabilities related to Italy, and Goldman said it had $28 billion related to all of Europe.

Markets fear that a chaotic default by Greece would lead to huge losses for European banks. That could cause a global lending freeze similar to what happened after the investment house Lehman Brothers fell in 2008.

In Italy, where the crisis is only beginning, the country’s borrowing rate has skyrocketed to a level that is widely considered to be unsustainable. The higher rates will make it far more difficult and expensive for Italy to roll over its debts. It has over $400 billion to raise in 2012 alone. Italy’s total economy is about $2 trillion.

The 389-point decline for the Dow was the worst since Sept. 22. The S&P 500 closed down 46.82 points at 1,229.10. The S&P, the broadest major stock index, declined 3.7 percent, its worst day since Aug. 18.

Over the summer, swings of 3 or 4 percent a day for the stock market were common. Investors were focused on a debt showdown in Washington and fear of a second recession.

Lately, Europe has pushed everything else to the back burner, and the volatility has continued. Last week, the Dow fell 276 points Monday and 297 points Tuesday, both because of instability in Europe. It rose 100 or more three of the next five days.

The Nasdaq composite index finished Wednesday down 105.84, or 3.9 percent, at 2,621.65.

European stock markets fell sharply, too. The main stock index in Italy finished the day down 3.8 percent. The DAX index in Germany and the CAC-40 in France each declined 2.2 percent.

In the United States, prices rose for assets seen by investors as reasonably safe. The dollar rose 1.6 percent against the euro, a reflection of the instability in the 17 nations that use the euro.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.96 percent from 2.08 percent Tuesday, a steep drop. Falling Treasury yields are a sign of rising bond prices, both indications that investors feel safe buying American debt.

In Italy, the yield on the benchmark government bond blew past 7 percent. That was considered an important level because Greece, Portugal and Ireland required bailouts from other nations when their bond yields hit 7 percent.

Italy is of more concern because it has the third-largest economy in Europe ? more than twice as big as Greece, Portugal and Ireland combined. And its debt, $2.6 trillion, is too large for other European countries to erase.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised late Tuesday to step aside after a new budget is passed, but there are concerns that the transition will be difficult. Markets see Berlusconi as an impediment to far-reaching economic reforms.

The benchmark Italian bond rate spiked to 7.4 percent, a startling increase of 0.82 percent point from the day before. It settled down later in the day, to 7.26 percent.

In Greece, Prime Minister George Papandreou told the nation that the political parties were joining together to save it from going broke. Then power-sharing talks broke down, and political leaders failed to name a new prime minister.

Papandreou threw world markets into turmoil last week when he stunned European leaders by announcing he would put a hard-fought bailout deal for Greece up for a popular vote. He later backed off that plan and announced he would step aside.

When an interim government takes over for him, its main job will be to secure the next $11 billion or so of the $150 billion bailout package set up for Greece last year.

___

AP Business Writer Francesca Levy in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

super bass nicki minaj julia roberts draw my thing phoebe prince harrahs celsius taj mahal