Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287678299?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Ultrasound reveals autism risk at birth
Monday, February 25, 2013
Low-birth-weight babies with a particular brain abnormality are at greater risk for autism, according to a new study that could provide doctors a signpost for early detection of the still poorly understood disorder.
Led by Michigan State University, the study found that low-birth-weight newborns were seven times more likely to be diagnosed with autism later in life if an ultrasound taken just after birth showed they had enlarged ventricles, cavities in the brain that store spinal fluid. The results appear in the Journal of Pediatrics.
"For many years there's been a lot of controversy about whether vaccinations or environmental factors influence the development of autism, and there's always the question of at what age a child begins to develop the disorder," said lead author Tammy Movsas, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at MSU and medical director of the Midland County Department of Public Health.
"What this study shows us is that an ultrasound scan within the first few days of life may already be able to detect brain abnormalities that indicate a higher risk of developing autism."
Movsas and colleagues reached that conclusion by analyzing data from a cohort of 1,105 low-birth-weight infants born in the mid-1980s. The babies had cranial ultrasounds just after birth so the researchers could look for relationships between brain abnormalities in infancy and health disorders that showed up later. Participants also were screened for autism when they were 16 years old, and a subset of them had a more rigorous test at 21, which turned up 14 positive diagnoses.
Ventricular enlargement is found more often in premature babies and may indicate loss of a type of brain tissue called white matter.
"This study suggests further research is needed to better understand what it is about loss of white matter that interferes with the neurological processes that determine autism," said co-author Nigel Paneth, an MSU epidemiologist who helped organize the cohort. "This is an important clue to the underlying brain issues in autism."
Prior studies have shown an increased rate of autism in low-birth-weight and premature babies, and earlier research by Movsas and Paneth found a modest increase in symptoms among autistic children born early or late.
###
Michigan State University: http://www.newsroom.msu.edu
Thanks to Michigan State University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127003/Ultrasound_reveals_autism_risk_at_birth
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Tips For Choosing Your Next Holiday Destination
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Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Tips-For-Choosing-Your-Next-Holiday-Destination/4456918
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Bork: Nixon offered next high court vacancy in '73
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Robert Bork says President Richard Nixon promised him the next Supreme Court vacancy after Bork complied with Nixon's order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973.
Bork's recollection of his role in the Saturday Night Massacre that culminated in Cox's firing is at the center of his slim memoir, "Saving Justice," that is being published posthumously by Encounter Books. Bork died in December at age 85.
Bork writes that he didn't know if Nixon actually, though mistakenly, believed he still had the political clout to get someone confirmed to the Supreme Court or was just trying to secure Bork's continued loyalty as his administration crumbled in the Watergate scandal.
President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to the high court in 1987. The nomination failed in the Senate.
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Horse meat found in Ikea's Swedish meatballs
STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Swedish furniture giant Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal Monday as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries across the continent.
The Czech State Veterinary Administration said that horse meat was found in one-kilogram (2.2 pound) packs of frozen meatballs made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there. A total of 760 kilograms (1,675 pounds) of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.
Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said meatballs from the same batch had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said meatballs from that batch were taken off the shelves in Ikea stores in all those countries. Other shipments of meatballs were not affected, including to the U.S., even though they all come from the same Swedish supplier, Magnusson said.
"Our global recommendation is to not recall or stop selling meatballs," she said.
However, the company's Swedish branch announced on its Facebook page that it won't sell or serve any meatballs at its stores in Sweden out of concern for "potential worries among our customers."
Magnusson said Ikea saw no reason to extend that guidance globally. She said Ikea was conducting its own tests of the affected batch "to validate" the Czech results. She also said that two weeks ago Ikea tested a range of frozen food products, including meatballs, and found no traces of horse meat.
"But, of course, we take the tests that Czech authorities have done very seriously," Magnusson said. "We don't tolerate any other ingredients than those on the label."
European authorities have said the horse meat found in lasagna and other prepared dishes is a case of fraudulent labeling but does not pose a health risk.
Ikea's trademark blue-and-yellow stores typically feature a restaurant that serves traditional Swedish food, including meatballs served with boiled or mashed potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam. Meatballs ? "Kottbullar" in Swedish ? are also available in the frozen foods section.
Magnusson said all of the meatballs are supplied by Gunnar Dafgard AB, a family-owned frozen foods company in southwestern Sweden. Calls to the company were not immediately returned, but it posted a brief statement on its website saying "the batch in question has been blocked and we are investigating the situation."
Sweden's food safety authority said it wasn't taking any action but was waiting for Czech authorities to specify the quantity of horsemeat detected.
"If it's less than 1 percent it could mean that they handled horsemeat at the same facility. If it's more, we assess that it's been mixed into the product," said Karin Cerenius of Sweden's National Food Agency.
European Union officials were meeting Monday to discuss tougher food labeling rules after the discovery of horse meat in a range of frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna that were supposed to contain beef or pork.
The Czech authority also announced Monday that it found horse meat in beef burgers imported from Poland during random tests of food products.
Spanish authorities, meanwhile, announced that traces of horse meat were found in a beef cannelloni product by one of the brands of Nestle, a Switzerland-based food giant.
In a statement on its website, Nestle Spain said that after carrying out tests on meat supplied to its factories in Spain it was withdrawing six "La Cocinera" products and one "Buitoni" product from store shelves.
It said it was taking the action after the traces of horse meat were found in beef bought from a supplier in central Spain. Nestle said it was taking legal action against the company, adding that the products would be replaced by ones with 100 percent beef.
Some EU member states are pressing for tougher labeling rules to regain consumer confidence.
The 27-nation bloc must agree on binding origin disclosures for food product ingredients, starting with a better labeling of meat products, German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said.
"Consumers have every right to the greatest-possible transparency," she insisted.
Austria backs the German initiative; but others like Ireland say existing rules are sufficient although Europe-wide controls must be strengthened to address the problem of fraudulent labeling.
The scandal has created a split between nations like Britain which see further rules as a protectionist hindrance of free trade under the bloc's single market, and those calling for tougher regulation.
Processed food products ? a business segment with traditionally low margins that often leads producers to hunt for the cheapest suppliers ? often contain ingredients from multiple suppliers in different countries, who themselves at times subcontract production to others, making it hard to monitor every link in the production chain.
Standardized DNA checks with meat suppliers and more stringent labeling rules will add costs that producers will most likely hand down to consumers, making food more expensive.
The scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.
Such discoveries have spread like wildfire across Europe as governments, supermarkets, meat traders and processors began their own DNA testing of products labeled beef and have been forced to withdraw tens of millions of products from store shelves.
More than a dozen nations have detected horse flesh in processed products such as factory-made burger patties, lasagnas, meat pies and meat-filled pastas. The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.
___
Associated Press writers Juergen Baetz in Brussels, Karel Janicek in Prague and Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/horse-meat-found-ikeas-swedish-meatballs-112154426--finance.html
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Miami NCAA Allegations: Hurricanes Accused Of 'Lack Of Institutional Control'
CORAL GABLES, Fla. ? Miami has finally received its notice of allegations from the NCAA, a long-awaited document accuses the Hurricanes of a "lack of institutional control" within its athletic department.
The allegations arrived on Tuesday. The institutional-control charge is typically one of the most severe the NCAA can bring after an investigation of rules violations. The governing body for college athletics declined comment Tuesday, one day after revealing that it was erasing some elements of its case against Miami because the information was obtained in impermissible ways.
"We deeply regret any violations, but we have suffered enough," Miami President Donna Shalala said in a statement Tuesday night.
A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that several former members of Miami coaching staffs are named in the notice of allegations, including Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith, who was with the Hurricanes from 2004-11.
Next up: The sanctions phase, where Miami's penalties will be decided. The Hurricanes have already self-imposed several sanctions, including sitting out two bowl games and a conference football championship game. Shalala said Monday she believes those punishments should be enough.
This saga started in September 2010, when the university told the NCAA that convicted Ponzi scheme architect and former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro made allegations to the school against former players. Shapiro said he interacted mostly with football players and recruits, as well as a significantly smaller number of men's basketball players.
Shapiro is serving a 20-year prison term for masterminding a $930 million fraud scheme.
"Many of the charges brought forth are based on the word of a man who made a fortune by lying," Shalala wrote. "The NCAA enforcement staff acknowledged to the University that if Nevin Shapiro, a convicted con man, said something more than once, it considered the allegation `corroborated' ? an argument which is both ludicrous and counter to legal practice"
Miami wants to get through the sanctions portion of the process as quickly as possible. But typically, it takes about three months for a hearing, and then can take several weeks ? if not months ? more for the penalties to be handed down. The sides coming to a settlement beforehand is another possibility.
Shalala said Miami will work diligently to prepare a response to the allegations within 90 days.
"We trust that the Committee on Infractions will provide the fairness and integrity missing during the investigative process," Shalala wrote.
Miami and the NCAA have gone back and forth on the wording of the notice of allegations for several weeks, and the long-awaited letter was nearly delivered last month. That's when the NCAA acknowledged that some mistakes were made by its own enforcement department. And that resulted in some allegations coming out of the letter.
It also led to yet another delay in the process, which many at Miami believe has dragged on for way too long.
"This cannot end quickly enough," Miami coach football Al Golden said earlier this month.
Within about six months of Miami originally bringing the information it had on Shapiro forward, an NCAA investigation was quietly underway, and the story became widely known in August 2011 after Shapiro provided Yahoo Sports with details of what he claimed to have given dozens of athletes, recruits and coaches over an eight-year period.
Among the gifts Shapiro alleged to provide: Memorabilia, cash amounts both large and small, dinners, strip-club trips, prostitutes, and even an abortion.
Shalala, however, labeled most of those alleged benefits as "sensationalized media accounts."
"Despite their efforts over two and a half years, the NCAA enforcement staff could not find evidence of prostitution, expensive cars for players, expensive dinners paid for by boosters, player bounty payments, rampant alcohol and drug use, or the alleged hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts given to student-athletes, as reported in the media," Shalala wrote. "The fabricated story played well ? the facts did not."
Several Miami football and men's basketball players have either served suspensions, paid restitution or both in the past two years after their involvement with Shapiro was discovered. Apparently upset with how people he thought were friends turned their back on him following his conviction for the Ponzi operation, Shapiro vowed that he would take down the program, and his attorney ? a Miami alum ? was willing to help the NCAA's cause.
Documents released Monday by the NCAA showed that Shapiro's attorney, Maria Elena Perez, offered to assist investigators working the Miami case by using subpoena power to depose witnesses under the guise of a bankruptcy case. NCAA enforcement officials accepted her offer, even feeding her questions to ask for at least one of the depositions, and records show they paid at least $19,000 for her work ? though she billed them for three times that much.
Perez did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. Shawn Eichorst, the Nebraska athletic director who held the same role at Miami for some of the NCAA probe, also declined comment. Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, who was the AD at Miami for some of the time when Shapiro was a booster, did not respond to a request for comment.
Shalala also said former Miami athletic director Paul Dee, who held the job before Hocutt, also was not interviewed by the NCAA before his death in May 2012. Dee also was a member of the NCAA's committee on infractions, most notably when sanctions ? including a two-year bowl ban, scholarship reductions and vacating victories ? came down against Southern California in 2010, stemming from improper benefits given to then-Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush by sports marketers. Dee chaired the committee at the time, then saying "higher-profile players require higher-profile monitoring."
"The NCAA enforcement staff failed, even after repeated requests, to interview many essential witnesses of great integrity who could have provided first-hand testimony, including, unbelievably, Paul Dee, who has since passed away, but who served as Miami Athletic Director during many of the years that violations were alleged to have occurred," Shalala wrote. "How could a supposedly thorough and fair investigation not even include the Director of Athletics?"
Any allegations that came from the answers given in those depositions were taken out of the Miami case, the NCAA said on Monday when it unveiled the scope of its alliance with Perez and acknowledged that missteps were made. The NCAA's vice president of enforcement, who oversaw the Miami probe, has been ousted, and some investigators who worked the case are also no longer with the association.
That prompted Miami to lash out strongly at the NCAA on Monday, with Shalala saying "the lengthy and already flawed investigation has demonstrated a disappointing pattern of unprofessional and unethical behavior."
The NCAA declined comment Tuesday about Shalala's remarks, which included a demand that Miami not face any additional sanctions.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/miami-ncaa-allegations-lack-control_n_2721485.html
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Cox's Corner: It's Tournament Time For Winter Sports Teams
BRIDGEWATER, Va. - It?s championship week!
One of the busiest weeks of the season is well underway as the start of spring sports action overlaps with winter sports? championship week.
The quest for an ODAC title actually began Monday evening with the first round of the women?s conference tournament. Lynchburg, Shenandoah, Randolph-Macon and Washington and Lee picked up wins and advance to Thursday?s quarterfinal round at the Salem Civic Center.
Coach Jean Willi?s team will swing into action Thursday afternoon when the Eagles meet Lynchburg College at 3:00 p.m.
Bridgewater will be looking to snap its tournament losing streak as the team has lost in the quarterfinals three consecutive seasons.
The road to the men?s basketball title begins tonight with four first-round games at on-campus sites. The Eagles will host Roanoke and a win would send them to the quarterfinals where No. 2 seed Hampden-Sydney awaits.
The Eagles haven?t played at the Civic Center since the 2010 quarterfinals where they were eliminated by Eastern Mennonite, 87-67.
You have to go back to 2009 to find the Eagles? last victory in conference tournament play. Bridgewater defeated EMU in the quarterfinals, but was ousted in the semis, 77-67, by W&L.
?We?ve been going to Salem the last couple of years, but we?ve just been there for the banquet,? Eagles? head coach Don Burgess said. ?This year we want to be playing in Salem.?
The men?s and women?s indoor track champions will also be determined when the teams congregate Friday at Liberty University?s Tolsma Indoor Track Center. Action in the field events begins at noon while the track events are slated for a 3:00 p.m. start.
The Lynchburg men and Roanoke women appear to be heavy favorites to win the team trophies, but several Bridgewater athletes should be in the hunt for individual titles.
The Bridgewater women could excel in the jumps. Kristen Trice ranks first in the ODAC in the high jump. In the triple jump, Trice is again ranked No. 1 just ahead of teammate Melanie Waters. In the long jump, less than four inches separates the top four jumpers with Green Brown ranked third and Waters fourth.
For the men, Luke Sohl enters the meet with the top times in both the mile and 5000 meters. The men?s distance medley relay also ranks No. 1 in the conference after setting a new ODAC record in the event earlier this season. Freshman jumper Pete Monteleone should be a factor in the long jump where his best effort of 21 feet, 11 ? inches ranks second, just one-half inch behind Virginia Wesleyan?s Ethan Fowlkes.
The Bridgewater riders won?t be competing for ODAC hardware this weekend, but they will be vying for the program?s third consecutive IHSA regional title.
The Eagles are currently third in the standings, but the top four teams enter the final weekend with a legitimate shot of the winning the region.
Randolph College leads the points race with 210 points, just three ahead of Sweet Briar. The Eagles are two more back at 208 while the University of Virginia is fourth with 205.
The riders will head to Roanoke on Saturday for the Hollins IHSA Show and will wrap the season up on Sunday morning at the U.Va. IHSA Show.
Bridgewater junior rider Taylor Rose is also in the mix for the top individual honor ? the Cacchione Cup. The Cacchione Cup goes to the top open division rider in each region and each regional champion advances to complete for the national Cacchione Cup.
Entering the final weekend of competition, Rose is in third place with 57 points and trails the leader by just three points. Hollins? Emma Lane Poole tops the standings with 60 points and Sweet Briar?s Olivia Smith is second with 58.
While the winter season is wrapping up, the spring sports teams are chomping at the bit, hoping for some warm weather this weekend.
Saturday will be a historic day on campus as Bridgewater sends a men?s lacrosse team into action for the first time. The Eagles will play the first game in program history when they entertain Transylvania at 1:00 p.m. Transylvania, like the Eagles, is fielding a team for the first time.
The Bridgewater baseball team will also open its home season this weekend with a doubleheader Saturday against Messiah and a twinbill Sunday with Juniata. Weather has played havoc with the Eagles schedule, twice wiping out a road trip to Apprentice School. Bridgewater has not played since its season-opening loss at Ferrum on Feb. 12.
The Eagles softball team also swings into action this weekend and Coach Donnie Fulk?s team will be tested right away at the 3N2 Invitational in Atlanta.
The Eagles will plays two games against host Emory and Mississippi College during the weekend event. Emory was ranked No. 23 in the 2013 NFCA Division III Preseason Top 25 and is off to an 8-0 start. The Mississippi College Choctaws, like the Eagles, will be opening their season in Atlanta.
Lastly, the men?s and women?s tennis teams open conference play Saturday when they travel to Lynchburg to play Randolph College?
Visit http://bridgewatereagles.com/landing/index for the all the latest scores, stats and game recaps.
?
Source: http://bridgewatereagles.com/coxcorner/CoxCorner_219
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'American Idol': Why A Woman Will (Finally) Win
It's been nearly six years since 'Idol' had a female champ, but all signs point towards that changing this season.
By James Montgomery
Zoanette Johnson
Photo: FOX
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702264/american-idol-season-12-women.jhtml
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
FIFA confirms goal-line tech will be used at the 2014 World Cup
FIFA's frosty relationship with the future might just be thawing, after Soccer's governing body announced that it will use goal-line technology. After a successful trial at last year's Club World Cup, the organization will use electronic refereeing at the 2013 Confederations Cup and 2014 World Cup. That said, the body is still insisting that human officials will have the final say -- despite evidence to suggest that's not a very good idea.
Via: BBC Sport (Twitter)
Source: FIFA
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/fifa-goal-line-tech-at-world-cup/
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Dineout six months on - rapid growth and YourStory.in's first WebSpark
Dineout is one of those stories where a startup, after funding, has hunkered down and got the work done. In a short span of six months, this web based restaurant table reservation and deals service ?clocks 8,000 ? 10,000 table reservations a month in Delhi alone. They have begun to pop up on the radar of many in the restaurant business as a friend, because of the business that they generate for restaurant owners and as a fierce competitor to other players in the segment.
Dineout was recently adjudged the WebSpark for January 2013, through a campaign done by YourStory.in for consumer internet companies, in association with Qualcomm Ventures. Having ousted 40 other companies in contention for the coveted prize, we caught up with co-founders Vivek Kapoor and Sahil Jain on a celebratory note, on their journey so far and where they?re headed from here.
Building reputation and growth
Since raising a seed amount of about $100,000 in October 2012, Vivek says Dineout has seen considerable growth in the last few months. He said, ?Restaurants that work with us in Delhi consider us an important partner as we bring them a sizable business. Now restaurants show interest in getting listed on our site.?
He credits the restaurant and deals market and his team to this recent growth. He says, ?The numbers are on our side. The population of Indians with disposable income is large and today eating out is commonplace. The ability to help interested people discover new 
Challenges so far
As with any other startup, Dineout?s major challenge comes on the hiring front. They have been very picky to bring the right people on board. ?We are very sacrosanct about the kind of people required to make our startup work and have taken care to ensure we get the right kind of people who can fit into the startup culture. That?s also one of the reasons why we four founders are so operations centric. We do most of our work?
The other challenge that Dineout faces today is the unstructured nature of the restaurant business. ?Integrating a system like ours with the current restaurant industry is difficult and we continue to have problems. It requires a lot of customer education to overcome this challenge,? says Vivek.
Future plans
Sahil Jain, one of the four co-founders of Dineout shared that the initial funding they received was utilised for expansion on the business and the technology front. On the business front, he said, ?We spent about 20% of our seed money on marketing and are working towards setting up shop in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. We?re launching in Mumbai in March and want to be done with Bangalore by June, with Pune in between the two.? On the technology front 30 ? 40% of the seed money was invested in acquiring technology and design talent, to build more digital properties for them. Dineout already has an Android app, a complete makeover of our website and their mobile site is also in the offing.
Sahil says the company is looking to raise VC money in middle 2013. ?We want to raise about 3 million dollars, that would predominantly be used for marketing and hiring more people,? said Sahil.
On winning WebSparks
Vivek is very happy about winning WebSparks and says, ?The name itself is such a confidence booster. To be adjudged as the best 
Join us in congratulating the Dineout team once again. If you think your startup has got what it takes to be a WebSpark, register today!
Source: http://yourstory.in/2013/02/dineout-6-months-on-rapid-growth-and-yourstory-ins-first-webspark/
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Monday, February 18, 2013
It's Gut Check Time For Gold And Silver - Seeking Alpha
Gold and silver took a beating on Friday. After gapping lower at the open, the precious metals ended the day down -1.43% and -1.97%, respectively. These declines are just the latest in a series of setbacks that have struck the metals over the last few weeks, as both gold and silver are now respectively -5% and -8% below their year-to-date highs reached in mid January. This recently poor performance has been gut wrenching for those that are long the metals, particularly in an environment where the stock market seemingly cannot trade lower for 30 minutes in any given trading day without being prodded back higher. So following this latest setback on Friday, it is reasonable to raise a critical question about gold and silver. Is it time to relent on these positions, or should conviction be maintained?
Time horizon is the first important point that must be examined when answering this question. Put simply, precious metals are not well suited for those investors with a short-term time horizon. This is due to the fact that gold and silver prices are highly volatile and can experience wide swings over short-term periods of time. And Friday was no exception in this regard. Other than those market participants that are experts in trading the metals, investors that own gold and silver are better served to view these allocations with a long-term time horizon in mind.
Those owning gold and silver as a long-term investment typically have a fundamental thesis for owning these metals. Such views may include but are not limited to the following: hard asset protection against competitive currency devaluations and inflation, a safe haven in a possible crisis scenario, an alternative reserve currency that is protected from being debased by policy actions and potential industrial demand in the case of silver.
This, of course, leads to the next logical question. If you own gold and silver as an investment, did anything specifically happen on Friday that fundamentally changed any of the underlying reasons for owning both gold and silver? The answer here is plainly no. While some cited rhetoric leading up to the G20 meeting against central banks that are aggressively debasing their currencies as a reason for the decline, this is a most obtuse reason if it is indeed the cause. After all, does anyone really think that the extraordinarily aggressive monetary policy actions by central banks from around the world will be curbed in any way by some passing comments at the G20 meeting? Sure, we'll get the customary statements about monetary responsibility and the desire for sound currencies, and then everyone will go back home to kick the printing presses back on at full power. If anything, the magnitude of the decline on Friday was far more likely due to a recent void in demand from China due to their New Year holiday coupled with thin trading volume in the U.S. ahead of the holiday weekend.
One important and simple fact continues to robustly support the investment thesis for continuing to own both gold and silver as an investment despite the recent volatility. As long as global central banks are rampantly printing money, the longer-term influences on gold and silver will remain meaningfully to the upside. Here's why.
Money derives its value in part through its scarcity. In other words, if a currency such as the U.S. dollar is demanded but is in limited supply, the more it will be coveted once it is obtained and the greater its purchasing power will be as a result. Conversely, if the supply of U.S. dollars becomes increasingly plentiful, the currency will become less desirable and its purchasing power will be diminished. The U.S. Federal Reserve is responsible for managing this supply of U.S. dollars, and their actions in this regard has been unprecedented in recent years. The Fed has already quadrupled the supply of dollars in the financial system to $3 trillion over the last four years alone. And they are set to print another $1 trillion U.S. dollars over the coming year. The Fed is certainly not alone in this regard, as major central banks from around the world have been printing money with wild abandon in recent years. And their ability to print ever more fiat currencies going forward is effectively boundless.
Gold and silver have distinctly different characteristics versus fiat currencies. While the supply of U.S. dollars available in the global financial system is determined by the whims of the U.S. Federal Reserve, such is not the case for the precious metals. The supply of both gold and silver is finite. Only so much of each metal exists on the planet and they certainly cannot be printed out of thin air the way that fiat currencies can. In short, we have fiat currencies that are potentially in infinite supply that are exchanged for precious metals that effectively serve as alternative currencies that are in finite supply.
These characteristics lead to the following. The scarcity of global fiat currencies is increasingly diminished as each new paper note is printed, which results in an erosion in the purchasing power of the currencies in acquiring goods and services. And since the supply of gold and silver is not only finite but relatively fixed, the cost in fiat currencies to acquire these metals is likely to increasingly rise over the long-term with global central banks remaining intent on printing ever more quantities of money. This includes the Fed and the $1 trillion plus of additional U.S. currency supply that is set to flow into the financial system in the coming months. Thus the store of value appeal for both gold and silver and the long-term upward pressure on the prices for these metals as a result.
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Awaiting the Real Great Rotation
So why then have we seen such lackluster results from gold and silver thus far under the Fed's latest QE3 stimulus program? This is due to the fact that gold and silver typically have not led when a new QE stimulus plan is launched. Instead, stocks have been the first to move higher. But after a couple of months, the capital that was initially flowing into stocks has rotated into the precious metals. This is a key potential development to watch for in the days and weeks ahead.
Before going any further, it is important to note that the key for any sustained asset price inflation under QE has been Treasury purchases. So while the current QE3 program was initially launched in September 2012, the melt up in asset prices did not commence until Treasury purchases began with the New Year in January 2013.
When reflecting on past QE programs once Treasury purchases were initiated, a similar outcome was seen. When Treasury purchases were added to QE1 in mid March 2009, the stock market immediately pushed to the upside. But gold and silver were lower more than a month later. It was only after stocks reached their first peak and corrected in June 2009 that gold and silver finally exploded to the upside.
This phenomenon was even more pronounced during QE2. Stocks moved to the upside first when QE2 took hold at the end of November 2010. But it wasn't until stocks peaked just over two months later in February 2011 that gold and silver moved off the sidelines and erupted higher. And these precious metals outperformed dramatically while stocks languished for the remainder of the program.
(click to enlarge)
If and when we see this rotation from stocks to precious metals under QE3 remains to be seen. One disadvantage that stocks have in the current episode is the fact that key fundamentals including global economic growth and corporate earnings are increasingly deteriorating in an environment where the outlook remains far too optimistic. Another is that the magnitude of Treasury purchases at $45 billion per month is roughly half of what it was under QE2. Also, fiscal stimulus that provided an added lift to stock prices during past QE programs are all but finished today with the drags of higher taxes and the likelihood of reduced government spending in its place. Thus, it is possible that we may see stocks peak sooner under QE3 than witnessed in the past, as stocks will be increasingly hard pressed to continue pushing higher following their already strong year-to-date advance. However, with new money flowing freely from the Fed, another 50-70 points if not more to the upside on the S&P 500 over the next month if not longer is certainly possible before stocks finally top out. But once this rotation begins, the potential upside for gold and silver remains meaningful, particularly given how much both metals already lagged stocks leading into the current QE program.
So while it has been a tough road for both gold and silver thus far under QE3 including Friday's abysmal performance, the core basic fundamentals continue to support a long-term move higher in both precious metals in the coming months. And if we see another rotation in QE derived capital flows from stocks into gold and silver, the final rewards could prove substantial. The key remains surviving the gut check along the way in getting there. In terms of establishing portfolio allocations, the Central GoldTrust (GTU), the Central Fund of Canada (CEF) and the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV) are all ideal selections.
This post is for information purposes only. There are risks involved with investing including loss of principal. Gerring Wealth Management (GWM) makes no explicit or implicit guarantee with respect to performance or the outcome of any investment or projections made by GWM. There is no guarantee that the goals of the strategies discussed by GWM will be met.
Disclosure: I am long CEF, GTU, PSLV. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Additional disclosure: I am long the U.S. stock market via the MDY and SPLV as well as selected individual stock positions.
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1199661-it-s-gut-check-time-for-gold-and-silver
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Bridgewater business owner has big plans, including roadside stand and eventually mini golf
Steven Prisco has big plans for this small town. He has ever since 2006, when he and his wife Nancy bought land off Route 18 where Prisco?s Market & Deli now stands.
Last week, those plans edged forward as Prisco began to build out the next stage of his mom-and-pop market.
Construction has started, he said, on a roadside stand set to open in April, which the business?s Facebook fans have already christened as Prisco?s Country Creamery.
?I think we?re really going to hit a home run with this,? Prisco said Friday.
The town?s building inspector signed off on the 1,200-square-foot project last month.
Prisco describes the idea as a ?game-changer? for his business and a win-win for Bridgewater, expected to create 15 to 20 more jobs in the community.
The stand will set closer to the roadway and act as a mini Prisco?s Market & Deli, serving people in need of a quick lunch ? everything from hot dogs to meatballs and fried clams. And of course, ice cream, bought wholesale from Puritan of Roslindale. Customers will be asked to pick the flavors.
?I?m shooting to have one of the best roadside stands in New England,? he said.
Around the small snack shack will sit eight picnic tables, and plenty of room for parking, said Prisco, who hopes the stand will also draw customers to the market set back further down Romney Road.
He plans to run a 10-person golf cart as a shuttle service between the two.
Nick Palmeiri, president of the Bridgewater business association, said the addition could be a boon for Bridgewater, bringing people in who might also shop at other stores in town.
?We, as a community, for years talked about the fact that we need to build our business base,? Palmeiri said Friday. ?Any business that you can bring into town, any quality business, is an asset to us, plain and simple.?
Next up on Prisco?s agenda? A mini golf course, but that could be a few years down the road.
The big plan, is to become a family-friendly destination and a mainstay in the community.
?We want a place where people from the local area, and 25 miles around, they have a place to come that?s clean fun and affordable,? he said. ?That?s my goal.?
Amy Carboneau may be reached at acarboneau@enterprisenews.com, or follow her on Twitter @amycarboneau.
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L.A. All-Stars make this a West side story in NBA All-Star Game
West Team's Blake Griffin of theClippers dunks as East Team's Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks falls away during the first half of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, in Houston. ( (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan))
HOUSTON - Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Kobe Bryant turned this NBA All-Star Game into L.A. story.
Paul had 20 points, 15 assists and won MVP honors, Bryant blocked LeBron James' comeback attempt, and the Western Conference beat the East 143-138 on Sunday night.
Kevin Durant scored 30 points and Griffin finished with 19, joining his Clippers teammate, Paul, in creating Lob City deep in the heart of Texas.
"You just want to play fast. I like to throw the lob. I like to see guys hit 3 s," Paul said. "When we're out on the court with all that firepower, why wouldn't you want to make passes? You've got KD filling one of the lanes, you've got Blake, Kobe on the wing. There's nothing like it."
James scored 19 points but shot only 7 of 18, Bryant blocking two of his shots late, after having no shooting troubles during the latter part of the season's first half. Carmelo Anthony led the East with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
"I think we played really good defense at the end of the game as a team," Durant said. "Kobe was really going with the ball. It's tough to stop LeBron, but he did his best. He was able to block a few of his shots. But CP did a really good job of keeping us in the game."
On Michael Jordan's 50 th birthday, the All-Stars threw down plenty of jams reminiscent of MJ's glory days.
The first dunk of the game came 16 seconds in, Paul throwing a pass to Griffin as part of the West's 7-0 start. The West led after each of the
first three quarters, though was never ahead by more than eight points through three periods.They finally pushed it into double figures early in the fourth fueled by former Oklahoma City teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden, but couldn't put it away until a late run behind the guys from the city of Los Angeles - who along with Lakers center Dwight Howard gave Los Angeles all but one of the West's starting spots.
Paul hit two 3-pointers, Bryant made a layup, and his block of James led to Durant's dunk that made it 136-126. Griffin had one last forceful dunk to help close it out, throwing a pass to himself off the backboard and climbing high in his neon green sneakers to slam it home and make it 142-134.
Harden had 15 points in his home arena, where the sights of the game were on the floor and the sounds were at the rim - which shook repeatedly after thunderous dunks for most of the game before, as usual, players tried to make some stops down the stretch.
Players' sneakers were a variety of pastels and fluorescent colors that looked like they came right from Easter Sunday church, many clashing so badly with their multi-colored socks that they may as well have been created by spilling out random
East Team's LeBron James of the Miami Heat is defended by West Team's Kobe Bryant of the Lakers during the first half of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, in Houston. ( (AP Photo/Eric Gay))
paint buckets.James and Dwyane Wade wore purple, and Griffin's neon look was also sported by the usually not-so-loud Tim Duncan and Brook Lopez.
But the NBA's high-flyers sure could leap in them.
Durant slammed one down so hard at one point that he stumbled backward after landing, appearing woozy. He came in as the career leader in points per game with 28.3 and may have won a second straight MVP award if not for Paul's big finish.
The Bryant-James duel down the stretch was a good one between the two players who are most often compared to Jordan.
"It was all in good spirit, man. It was just two guys that love to compete, love to go at it. So I had a lot of fun," James said.
Bryant finished with only nine points but had eight assists. Griffin shot 9 of 11 from the field and didn't miss until trying to violently throw one down from a few feet away from the basket.
Indiana's Paul George scored 17 and Kyrie Irving had 15 for the East.
Not everybody had it so easy. Chris Bosh shot two airballs in the first quarter and was booed, tossed up another in the second, and had Tony Parker dribble the ball through his legs on defense. He was even pulled down the stretch by his own coach, Erik Spoelstra, right after Bryant blew right by him for a layup.
Bosh finished 3 of 9. Wade had 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting, the best performance of the three Heat players in the starting lineup.
There were plenty of laughs, players performing comedic skits and poking fun at each other on the Toyota Center's massive overhead scoreboard. Even the celebrities that surrounded the court - Westbrook almost crashed into Beyonce and Jay-Z while trying for a first-half steal - seemed entertained.
Two of Houston's biggest basketball stars, Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming, who was honored after the first quarter, and Olympic gold medalists Usain Bolt and Gabby Douglas were among the athletes who weren't in the game.
Players wore warmup jackets with patches commemorating their individual and team career accolades during a lengthy pregame that included a performance by Ne-Yo.
They actually warmed up twice, needing to get loose again after watching and being introduced during the elaborate show.
The game capped a weekend of change in Texas, where David Stern presided over his final All-Star game as commissioner and players' association executive director Billy Hunter was voted out of office - a result he seems likely to contest.
Boston's Kevin Garnett said before coming to Houston he thought his 15 th All-Star selection would be his last, and turned it over to the young guys early. He played only 6 minutes of the first half before calling it a night.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/ci_22611880/l-all-stars-make-this-west-side-story?source=rss_viewed
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
Apple becomes top-selling phone manufacturer in Japan
According to recent market surveys, Apple has become the top-selling phone manufacturer in Japan. The iPhone was the best-selling phone in Japan in 2012, allowing Apple to capture 15% market share. This puts them just ahead of Sharp and Fujitsu, both Japanese firms and both holding 14% of the market. Counterpoint Technology Market Research believes that the increase in iPhone sales was due to heavier marketing by KDDI and Softbank, Japan?s second- and third-largest carriers, respectively:
In 2012 both Softbank and KDDI heavily promoted the new iPhone 5 to challenge Docomo. This move sparked a battle of smartphones in which Docomo fought back with various new smartphone models, the majority of which were also foreign branded. So yet again it?s operator competition that has catalyzed the iPhone?s success ? but in Japan at the expense of home grown players.
Overall, foreign-made handsets controlled 50% of the Japanese phone market in 2012 as consumers began to shift away from feature phones to smartphones. Japanese-made phones have declined heavily against the iPhone. Apple doesn?t enjoy the same market share that it does in America, certainly, and overall, Android makes up a larger total percentage of phones. But Apple?s ability to hold the single largest portion of the Japanese market for itself is impressive, and shows the global appeal of the iPhone.
Smartphone use is steadily increasing in Japan, and as it does, you can bet that the iPhone will continue to gain traction as the smartphone of choice for many customers.
If you're in Japan let me know what phones you're seeing on the streets and in transit, and whether more and more of them are indeed iPhones?
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/ICWY7y_f7K0/story01.htm
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Skype rolls out eGifting to its Windows and Mac apps, while PC-users also get a new toolbar
Skype has released a new version of its Mac and Windows desktop applications today, adding the ability to send Skype gift cards in addition to a re-designed toolbar for PC users.
Whenever someone receives a birthday notification in Skype, they can now choose to send the relevant person some call credit. As with existing Skype Credit gift cards, it?s possible to choose the design of the card ? most of them use Skype?s almost synonymous sky blue coloring ? as well as a personal message, the amount and the card it will be debited from.
The new feature is a timely one given the recent?launch of Facebook?s gift cards ? Microsoft?s instant messenger and Voice over IP (VoIP) service has been integrated with the social network for some time now. It also shows that both companies are still thinking about possible monetization options, with Skype leaning towards premium features such as calls to a landline or mobile phone.
The Windows version of Skype has also been tweaked today to include a new toolbar just above the contacts pane. It?s seperated into four buttons which represent common tasks in the application such as returning to the home screen, calling a landline or mobile phone, creating groups and adding contacts. It?s not the most revolutionary design overhaul, but it does help to keep most of the core controls visible in the compact version of the app.
Skype?s Mac version has also had an incremental feature update in the form of SMS messaging. Users can now send a one-way text message without adding and verifying their own mobile phone number ? particularly handy if you?re on a pay as you go scheme and have just happened to run out of credit.
Both the Mac and Windows versions are available to download now, and also fix a number of small technical issues in the process.
? Skype | Mac | Windows
Image Credit:?Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/lra8Prypojc/
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'Don't Write Off the Congo' - Chief U.S. Africa Policymaker
Despite headlines regularly highlighting conflict and crushing poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, says there is reason to believe conditions in that strategic country can improve.
"In the past five decades, DRC has been a poster child for all that afflicts Africa - military coups, rampant corruption, runaway inflation, health pandemics, conflict minerals and poor governance," Carson said during a speech at the Brookings Institution.
"The international community has a moral imperative to act more effectively in the DRC, to break this cycle of death and suffering and to address the other consequences of this violence: the unmitigated rape and sexual violence against women and children, the nearly two million internally displaced people, the approximately 450,000 Congolese refugees who have been forced to flee to neighboring countries," he said. More than five million people have died as a result of continuing violence over the past 15 years.
Carson delivered prepared remarks and answered questions from the moderator, Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon and from the audience of several hundred. He said DRC has a strong constituency among Americans, Africans and the broader international community that want the DRC to reach its true potential and surmount the plague of unrealized economic potential.
"After a string of recurring crises, many write off DRC as hopeless, but that is a serious mistake for Congo, its neighbors in the region and the global community," he said.
"This administration has support in Congress to elevate the issues in DRC to a new level of importance", Caron said. The country should be a political and economic powerhouse, given its precious materials, fertile soil and unparalleled hydroelectric potential, he said. As home to the world's second largest rainforest, the country has special importance in the efforts to combat climate change, he added.
"If DRC is stable and has an economy that benefits its people, DRC could become a leading exporter of natural resources, agriculture and science products that would attract foreign investment," Carson said.
Noluthando Crockett-Ntonga, reporting as Phyllis Crockett, covered the White House for National Public Radio and was based in sub-Saharan Africa for more than 10 years working on development issues. She was part of an AllAfrica team in Liberia to report on agricultural development and poverty reduction and currently is a development consultant.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201302121303.html
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Newly identified natural protein blocks HIV, other deadly viruses
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
A team of UCLA-led researchers has identified a protein with broad virus-fighting properties that potentially could be used as a weapon against deadly human pathogenic viruses such as HIV, Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah and others designated "priority pathogens" for national biosecurity purposes by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
In a study published in the January issue of the journal Immunity, the researchers describe the novel antiviral property of the protein, cholesterol-25-hydroxylase (CH25H), an enzyme that converts cholesterol to an oxysterol called 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC), which can permeate a cell's wall and block a virus from getting in.
Interestingly, the CH25H enzyme is activated by interferon, an essential antiviral cell-signaling protein produced in the body, said lead author Su-Yang Liu, a student in the department of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Antiviral genes have been hard to apply for therapeutic purposes because it is difficult to express genes in cells," said Liu, who performed the study with principal investigator Genhong Cheng, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics. "CH25H, however, produces a natural, soluble oxysterol that can be synthesized and administered.
"Also, our initial studies showing that 25HC can inhibit HIV growth in vivo should prompt further study into membrane-modifying cholesterols that inhibit viruses," he added.
The discovery is particularly relevant to efforts to develop broad-spectrum antivirals against an increasing number of merging viral pathogens, Liu said.
Working with Jerome Zack, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and an associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute, the researchers initially found that 25HC dramatically inhibited HIV in cell cultures. Next, they administered 25HC in mice implanted with human tissues and found that it significantly reduced their HIV load within seven days. The 25HC also reversed the T-cell depletion caused by HIV.
By contrast, mice that had the CH25H gene knocked out were more susceptible to a mouse gammaherpes virus, the researchers found.
In collaboration with Dr. Benhur Lee, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute, they discovered that 25HC inhibited HIV entry into the cell. Furthermore, in cell cultures, it was found to inhibit the growth of other deadly viruses, such as Ebola, Nipah and the Rift Valley Fever virus.
Intriguingly, CH25H expression in cells requires interferon. While interferon has been known for more than 60 years to be a critical part of the body's natural defense mechanism against viruses, the protein itself does not have any antiviral properties. Rather, it triggers the expression of many antiviral genes. While other studies have identified some antiviral genes that are activated by interferon, this research gives the first description of an interferon-induced antiviral oxysterol through the activation of the enzyme CH25H. It provides a link to how interferon can cause inhibition of viral membrane fusion, Liu said.
He noted some weaknesses in the research. For instance, 25HC is difficult to deliver in large doses, and its antiviral effect against Ebola, Nipah and other highly pathogenic viruses have yet to be tested in vivo. Also, the researchers still need to compare 25HC's antiviral effect against other HIV antivirals.
###
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences: http://www.uclahealth.org/
Thanks to University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126740/Newly_identified_natural_protein_blocks_HIV__other_deadly_viruses
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Director: Backstreet Boys doc not a 'puff piece'
Kevork Djansezian/ama2012 / Getty Images Contributor
A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, and Kevin Richardson of Backstreet Boys.
By Stuart Kemp, The Hollywood Reporter
Director Stephen Kijak?is prepping a movie-length documentary for theatrical release on arguably one of the biggest boy bands of all time, the?Backstreet Boys, for U.K. and US production banner Pulse Films.
Kijak, whose resume boasts the docs "Stones In Exile" and "Scott Walker -- 30th Century Man," is to detail the tumultuous journey from child stars to fully-grown boy band.
PHOTOS:?The Beatles to The Wanted: The evolution of boy bands
Produced by Mia Bays?and Thomas Benski?and exec produced by Lucas Ochoa, the music documentary is billed as a tell-all project about all five original members of the band and aims to be finished by the fall of 2013.
Backstreet Boys sold in excess of 130 million albums, making them one of the top 30 best-selling global artists of all time.
Kijak said: "What drew me to this project is their (Backstreet Boys) openness and willingness to push themselves into uncomfortable places, to be vulnerable and honest and to be really trusting of?the filmmaking team to steer them in the right direction."
He promised the film wouldn't just be some "3-D Boy Band puff piece," adding that "BSB is getting real and it has been exciting to work with them as they explore their past and start to look towards their futures."
VIDEO:?Reunited Backstreet Boys announce show in NYC, new album
Kijak described himself as a fan of them "as people first and foremost" noting that his way into the subject matter was the human story behind the music and success.
"We always wanted to make a film and now is the ideal time. With Kevin back, the fact that we are masters of our own destiny, a new album in the works and our 20th anniversary -- it all adds up to being the right time to share our story," a statement from the Backstreet Boys said.
The band continue to have a huge following in territories worldwide including Japan, Latin America, Germany, U.K., the U.S, Canada, China, India, Spain and Mexico. The group's recent concert shows still deliver big audience numbers all over the world. An album and world tour are also in the works.
Director Kijak brought his Scott Walker?picture to Berlin in 2007 and his Stones documentary unspooled at Cannes in 2010.
In 2012, Pulse produced and released Sundance hit "Shut Up And Play The Hits" charting the final days of cult US band LCD Soundsystem.
The banner also co-produced the Katy Perry/Paramount film "Part Of Me 3D" and previous credits include "No Distance Left To Run," the Grammy nominated film about seminal U.K. band Blur by director duo thirtytwo.
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Iran denies officials to be quizzed over Argentina bomb
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Tuesday it had agreed to allow international investigators to question Tehran officials over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires as part of a plan to form a truth commission.
Israel and world Jewish groups have denounced the pact which is seen as running counter to U.S.-led efforts to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
Argentinian authorities secured Interpol arrest warrants in 2007 for five Iranians and a Lebanese for the killing of 85 people in the Argentinian Jewish centre (AMIA).
Iran denies any link to the attack.
Argentina said last month it had agreed with Iran to establish a "truth commission" made up of five foreign legal experts to review all the relevant documentations of the attack, which Argentine courts accuse Tehran of sponsoring.
Iran's foreign minister said on Tuesday his country was committed to the accord.
"We have signed a memorandum of understanding with Argentina to resolve the AMIA case and both sides are committed to its contents," the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a visit in Moscow. "This MOU sets the base for our handling of the AMIA file," he said.
Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez, who has close ties with other Latin American leaders who are on good terms with Tehran, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has hailed the agreement as historic.
According to a document posted on Fernandez's Facebook page, the agreement plans for Argentine legal officials to meet in Tehran to question "those people for whom Interpol has issued a red notice".
Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi is among the Iranian officials sought by Argentina, which is home to Latin America's largest Jewish community.
But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast denied Iranian officials would be questioned over the bombing.
"This report is a lie," Mehmanparast told a news conference in Tehran reported by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).
Julian Dominguez, the head of the lower house of Congress and a government ally, said senators would start analyzing the bill containing details of the accord on Wednesday.
Julio Schlosser, president of Argentina's DAIA Jewish community group, said Iran's refusal to allow its officials to be questioned was predictable.
"This is what we expected from the start. We said that Iran was not a reliable negotiator," Schlosser told local radio. "This is the cherry on a cake that we refused to eat. The outcome was already clear," he said.
Argentinian officials were not immediately available to comment on the statement by Mehmanparast.
(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian and Helen Popper; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-denies-officials-quizzed-over-argentina-bomb-174307304.html
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Comcast to buy GE's stake in NBCUniversal early
FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, file photo, the NBC logo glows in neon lights among other iconic signs at its headquarters in New York. Comcast said Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, that it's buying General Electric's 49 percent stake in the NBCUniversal joint venture for $16.7 billion several years early, as the company takes advantage of low borrowing costs and what CEO Brian Roberts called a "very attractive price." (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, file photo, the NBC logo glows in neon lights among other iconic signs at its headquarters in New York. Comcast said Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, that it's buying General Electric's 49 percent stake in the NBCUniversal joint venture for $16.7 billion several years early, as the company takes advantage of low borrowing costs and what CEO Brian Roberts called a "very attractive price." (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - In this file photo made July 15, 2009, General Electric and NBC logos adorn the GE Building in New York's Rockefeller Center. Comcast said Tuesday that it?s buying General Electric?s 49 percent stake in the NBCUniversal joint venture for $16.7 billion several years early, as the company takes advantage of low borrowing costs and what CEO Brian Roberts called a ?very attractive price.? (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - This combination of Associated Press file photos shows, left, a sign outside the Comcast Center in Philadelphia in July 2010 and right, the entrance to the Universal Studios theme park in Los Angeles, on Dec. 3, 2009. Comcast said on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, that it's buying General Electric's 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal joint venture for $16.7 billion. Comcast Corp. had bought a majority stake in the television and movie company in 2011. It had planned to take a larger stake in it over time. (AP Photo)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Comcast is buying the rest of NBCUniversal from General Electric several years ahead of schedule to take advantage of low interest rates and what its CEO calls a "very attractive price" of $16.7 billion.
The nation's leading cable TV company also agreed to pay GE another $1.4 billion for other assets that include one of New York's best-known landmarks, NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The building also was the setting for the NBC comedy series "30 Rock," a fictional version of the broadcast network that skewered the management of both GE and Comcast before airing its final episode two weeks ago.
Investors thought the move was good for both companies ? GE because it got cash for its stake earlier than expected and Comcast because it will benefit more from the rising price of sports rights and other TV programs. With the NBCUniversal businesses, Comcast avoids solely being in the uncomfortable position of passing those costs onto consumers. That was one reason Comcast bought a majority stake in NBCUniversal two years ago.
Comcast Corp. also raised its annual dividend 20 percent to 78 cents per share and vowed to buy back another $2 billion in shares this year. Following Tuesday's announcement, Comcast's stock jumped 7 percent in after-hours trading. GE's stock rose almost 4 percent.
Comcast's business as a cable TV, Internet and phone provider generates nearly two-thirds of the company's revenue. The NBCUniversal business makes up the rest and includes the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, pay TV channels such as USA, CNBC, Bravo and SyFy, the Universal Pictures movie studio and theme parks in Florida and California.
Comcast has owned 51 percent of NBCUniversal since January 2011, and GE the rest. Comcast had planned to take a larger stake in NBCUniversal over seven years, paying for it from operating cash, starting in July 2014.
But CEO Brian Roberts told The Associated Press that the sale of Comcast's stake in pay TV network A&E and some wireless spectrum gave it plenty of cash on hand. He also said Comcast got a good deal given that the market value of media conglomerates has been rising.
"We thought that we would have to pay more later," he said. "We really have known we wanted to buy 100 percent from the beginning of the transaction. We wanted to learn the business. ... We feel that now is an opportune time."
GE's history with NBC goes back to 1919, when it co-founded the Radio Corporation of America. RCA created NBC as a radio network, figuring that people would buy its radios if they had interesting things to listen to. RCA took full ownership of NBC in 1932, but GE bought it back in 1986 to get a reliable source of cash while overseas manufacturing competition loomed.
In selling the remaining stake to Comcast, GE would free up cash to accelerate its share repurchase program to approximately $10 billion in 2013. It's another step in the Fairfield, Conn., company's efforts to focus on less glamorous ? but theoretically more profitable ? ventures such as manufacturing medical imaging equipment, airplane engines and electrical generators.
"This transaction allows us to significantly increase the cash we plan to return to shareholders in 2013, to approximately $18 billion, and to continue to invest in our industrial business," GE CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement.
The deal, expected to close by the end of March, values NBCUniversal at around $34 billion. It has about $5 billion in debt. When Comcast bought the 51 percent stake in the company in January 2011, it was valued at around $30 billion.
Jonathan Atkin, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said the transaction will make Comcast less vulnerable to rising TV programming costs. He compared it to Time Warner Cable Inc., whose shares have plunged 13 percent since it reported in late January that profit margins were being squeezed by higher programming costs.
"Look at what happened to Time Warner Cable," Atkin said. "Comcast, as a slightly more diversified conglomerate, is less exposed to that."
Comcast, which is based in Philadelphia, said it would finance the deal with $11.4 billion of cash on hand, $4 billion in debt owed to GE, $2 billion from its own credit lines and $725 million in preferred stock issued to GE. In issuing new debt notes to GE, Comcast is able to lock in today's historically low interest rates.
Comcast also reported its earnings results a day early, saying earnings rose 18 percent to $1.52 billion, or 56 cents per share, in the quarter through December. Excluding a favorable income tax adjustment, adjusted earnings came to 52 cents per share, falling short of the 54 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue rose 6 percent to $15.94 billion, also slightly below the $16.01 billion analysts were expecting.
Comcast lost just 7,000 video subscribers in the quarter, the best result in at least five years, ending the year with 22 million.
Roberts called the earnings results "great," saying that if it weren't for Superstorm Sandy, it would have added video subscribers for the first time in many years.
Comcast had bought the stake in NBCUniversal from General Electric Co. for $6.2 billion in cash and contributed its pay TV networks such as E! and The Golf Channel worth $7.25 billion. The deal closed after a year of regulatory scrutiny. The government imposed conditions intended to prevent Comcast from keeping NBC programming to itself at the detriment of other cable operators and video websites. One condition was that it would no longer have a say in the video website Hulu, which it jointly owns with the parent companies of ABC and Fox.
Regulators knew of Comcast's intentions to buy full ownership when they approved that deal. As a result of it, GE's stake in NBC Universal fell to 49 percent from 80 percent, but GE had planned to trim that to zero by being paid out from the venture. Before the Comcast deal closed, GE bought out the 20 percent stake held by France's Vivendi SA for $5.8 billion in order to complete the deal.
As part of Comcast's takeover, NBC Universal changed its corporate logo to NBCUniversal ? without the space, the peacock or the globe silhouette. Officially, the company's name is still NBC Universal, but the space-less design was meant to represent the unity of its two main divisions. In December, Comcast appended NBC's peacock logo on top of its corporate name in a new logo of its own.
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