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If you're a New York Times subscriber -- or even if you're not -- you may have received that following email this morning, implying that you have cancelled your subscription. Many many people did, it's all over the tweets.? Even though the email was sent from an address that had sent out legitimate emails in the past, "email.newyorktimes.com," it wasn't actually from the New York Times, as some of their more tech hipster reporters and their official Twitter account confirmed, "If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It's not from us.?Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vfOCgeNWV9Q/
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ROME ? Strong demand for short-term Italian government debt on Wednesday pushed the country's borrowing costs lower and suggested investors have become less jittery about an imminent default by the eurozone's third-largest economy.
Italy raised euro10.7 billion ($14 billion) in a pair of auctions at sharply lower rates than those it was forced to pay just a month ago when investor concerns over the ability of the country to service its massive debts became particularly acute and effectively prompted a change in government.
The sharp decline in Italy's borrowing costs could be a signal that commercial banks from the 17 countries that use the euro diverted some of the money they tapped from emergency loans from the European Central Bank last week to buy the bonds of heavily indebted governments. It may also suggest rising investor confidence in Italy's recent efforts to reduce its long-term debt through a variety of austerity measures.
The Bank of Italy said the average yield on its euro9 billion ($11.8 billion) six-month bill offering was 3.251 percent, half the 6.504 percent rate it had to pay at the equivalent auction last month. And an auction of two-year bonds, which raised euro1.7 billion ($2.2 billion), also saw the yield fall to 4.853 percent from 7.814 percent last month.
"This is an encouraging development, suggesting that the Italian sovereign debt market has pulled back from the dangerous situation in late November," said Raj Badiani, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight.
"The calmer environment reflects the passing of additional austerity measures and some welcome progress on the structural reform agenda, coupled with the ECB's decision to provide additional cheap financing to Italian banks," Badiani added.
After initially cheering the auction results, sentiment in markets deteriorated sharply in risk-averse trading following a weaker than anticipated performance on Wall Street.
While Italy's FTSE MIB fell in line with other stock markets, the euro slid to $1.2938, its lowest level since Jan. 11 and the yield on Italy's benchmark ten-year bonds pushed back towards the 7 percent mark that is widely considered to be unsustainable in the long-run. Further insights into the level of demand for Italy's ten-year bonds will emerge in an auction Thursday.
Italy is the eurozone's third-largest economy and is considered too big to save under the eurozone's current bailout funds. Markets have grown fearful over the past few months that Italy will find it difficult to pay off its massive debts, which stand at around euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion). Next year alone, Italy has some euro330 billion ($431 billion) of debt to refinance.
Mario Monti, the country's new premier, got parliamentary approval last week for more spending cuts and tax increases intended to save the country from financial disaster. One of the most controversial aspects of the austerity package is reform of Italy's bloated pension system.
As well as possibly indicating increased confidence that Monti's efforts will keep the country's finances on a sustainable path, Wednesday's auctions could also have been supported as well by a large infusion of credit to eurozone banks last week from the European Central Bank. A week ago, 523 banks took the opportunity to swell their coffers by euro489 billion ($639 billion), the largest ECB loan operation in the 13-year history of the euro.
There has been speculation that the stronger banks might use the cheap, long-term loans ? on which the current interest rate is 1 percent ? to purchase government bonds that carry higher interest rates and profit from the difference.
That could support both government and bank finances. But it would run contrary to efforts by many banks to lower their exposure to bonds issued by heavily indebted governments.
While some banks may be using the money they got from the ECB to buy up government debt, many others appear to have opted for a much safer option ? depositing their new cash back with the central bank. Figures Wednesday showed eurozone banks parked a record euro452 billon ($591 billion) overnight at the bank Tuesday, surpassing the previous record of euro411.80 billion set only Monday.
___
AP Business Writer David McHugh contributed from Frankfurt, Germany.
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Posted Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Mexico says it has arrested a suspected drug trafficking kingpin who also is wanted in the United States.
Mexican federal police Wednesday said they detained Luis Rodriguez Olivera, known as ?El Guero,? at Mexico City's international airport the day before. The U.S. had offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to his capture.
Rodriguez Olivera is accused of trafficking massive quantities of cocaine into the U.S. between 1996 and 2008. He also has been charged with money laundering.
The arrest is Mexico's second major blow against drug trafficking cartels in two weeks.
Last week, Mexican authorities captured a suspected lieutenant to the elusive leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
Felipe Cabrera, also known as ?The Engineer,? was said to be a top aide to the head of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin ?El Chapo? Guzman. Officials said Cabrera rose through the ranks by using violence against his rivals.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of troops across Mexico to fight the country's drug cartels. The spiraling violence has left at least 50,000 people dead.
Source: http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/12/28/mexico-arrests-cocaine-smuggler-wanted-by-us/
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BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday as traders shied away from riskier assets as the year drew to a close, but hopes for a successful bond issue in Italy boosted shares in Europe.
Benchmark oil lingered above $99 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro but fell against the yen.
European shares edged up in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 was marginally higher at 5,511.32. Germany's DAX rose 0.3 percent to 5,788.06. France's CAC-40 was 0.3 percent higher at 5,788.01. Wall Street was headed for a higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures gaining 0.2 percent at 12,099. Broader S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent at 1,245.80.
Earlier in Asia, however, investors booked losses amid light trading. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to close at 8,398.89. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 0.7 percent lower at 18,397.92. Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 0.4 percent to end 4,071.10. Benchmarks in India and Singapore were also lower.
Other Asian markets eked out small gains. South Korea's Kospi reversed earlier losses and closed marginally higher at 1,825.74. On mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2 percent to end at 2,173.56, while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.1 percent to finish at 850.94.
Investor sentiment waned in Asia hours after the European Central Bank said banks had parked $590.72 billion with it overnight Wednesday. That surpassed the record set only Monday and showed that European banks were using money lent by the ECB bank to park money there instead, rather than make loans to each other.
Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong, said the action on the part of the banks "defeated the purpose" of the ECB lending operation, which was to spur business activity.
"Investors are disappointed at the development," Lun said. "Europe still has not found an answer on how to solve its sovereign debt crisis. There's no solution, and they are trying cosmetic measures, which really do not address the problem."
The development also shook confidence in the euro, which on Wednesday dropped to $1.2910 ? its lowest level against the dollar in nearly a year ? before recovering slightly.
Traders were closely watching for the results of an auction of longer-dated bonds by Italy later Thursday. The country held what was deemed a surprisingly successful auction of short-term bonds Wednesday, with sharply lower interest rates than at a similar auction a month before.
Meanwhile, the yen's rise to a 10-year high against the euro put stress on Japan's exporters. Kyodo News agency said the euro briefly fell to 100.35 yen in Tokyo, its lowest level against the Japanese currency since June 2001. Honda Motor Corp. fell 0.8 percent. Sharp Corp. shed 3.2 percent.
Commodity shares in Australia came under pressure amid worries about the state of the global economy. Gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd. lost 3 percent. Mining giant Rio Tinto fell 0.4 percent. OZ Minerals fell 2.9 percent after the company said copper concentrate may have spilled from a derailed train.
In currency trading Thursday, the euro fell to $1.2920 from $1.2941 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.70 yen from 77.91 yen.
Benchmark crude for February delivery rose 28 cents to $99.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.98 to settle at $99.36 in New York on Wednesday.
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Even these modest results energized patient advocates, who point to the lack of new treatments for ovarian cancer, which causes some 15,000 annual deaths in the United States as the eighth most common cancer among women.
?While we are looking for that silver bullet, this is a gift that shouldn?t be overlooked,? said Karen Orloff Kaplan, chief executive of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
Data on survival are still being collected, but the results are probably too disappointing for the drug?s maker, Genentech, to seek Food and Drug Administration approval of Avastin for ovarian cancer, said company spokeswoman Charlotte Arnold. The company, however, did receive approval this month from European drug authorities to market Avastin for ovarian cancer treatment.
Both of the studies hinted that patients with advanced ovarian cancer may benefit more than patients with earlier stages.
?There are likely to be subsets of patients with very advanced ovarian cancer who will experience a survival benefit as long as they?re being treated with Avastin,? said Robert A. Burger, an oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia who helped lead the second study published Thursday.
But sorting out patients who might benefit from those who won?t is impossible at present. ?We desperately need to figure out a way to predict the folks who are going to respond to the drug versus the folks who will only get side effects of the drug,? said Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. Studies searching for such a test are ongoing.
Some hail small benefits
In a disease in which fewer than half of patients survive their diagnosis for five years, even the small benefit seen in the studies pushed researchers to herald the results as significant. ?We have to consider it as a potential new treatment,? Oza said.
Other experts immediately pushed back on that assertion, saying the absence of a survival benefit disqualifies Avastin as a treatment except in very advanced cases.
?Our practice does not use Avastin in newly diagnosed [ovarian cancer] patients,? said Ursula A. Matulonis, director of gynecologic oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. ?My opinion is not changing.?
The smaller of the two studies published Thursday, dubbed ICON7, followed 1,500 women in 11 countries. All received standard chemotherapy, and half received Avastin for up to 10 months after chemotherapy. In the Avastin patients, the drug halted the growth of their tumors for an extra month and a half.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=2a8f5f43266c47b235ad5804d1a43d84
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KABUL (Reuters) ? Afghanistan's cabinet cleared the way for the war-torn state to sign a deal with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) for the development of oil blocks in the Amu Darya basin, the Afghan president's office said on Monday.
The deal covering drilling and a refinery in the northern provinces of Sar-e Pul and Faryab will be the first international oil production agreement entered into by the Afghan government for several decades.
It marks the second major deal for China in Afghanistan after Metallurgical Corp of China signed a contract in 2008 to develop the huge Aynak copper mine south of Kabul, which is due to start producing by the end of 2014.
"The Afghan cabinet has ordered Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation," the statement said.
Jawad Omar, a spokesman for the mines ministry, said the contract would be signed on Wednesday.
State-owned CNPC and joint venture partner Watan Group -- a diversified Afghan company -- will explore for oil in three fields in the basin - Kashkari, Bazarkhami and Zamarudsay, which are estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil.
Under the contract, CNPC will agree to pay a 15 percent royalty on oil, a 20 percent corporate tax and give up to 70 percent of its profit from the project to the Afghan government.
The mines ministry said in October that the deal was likely to result in government revenues of $5 billion over the next 10 years.
Indian and Chinese bidders have been front-runners for deals to develop Afghanistan's vast mineral deposits, which are valued at $3 trillion, worrying Western firms that have hesitated to invest in the country due to security concerns.
Experts have warned that mining projects in Afghanistan are likely targets for insurgents, that production and transport costs will be high and that sovereign risk is a serious concern.
But China and India, where demand for energy and industrial inputs is booming, are willing to take risks to secure supplies.
(Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Jane Baird)
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I can never forget that day.
It was the fall of my freshman year at Princeton. I was seated in the first row of chairs in the Nassau Inn Ballroom - a room overflowing with students dressed in impeccable suits, all indistinguishable from each other. The occasion? We were all gathered to hear Lloyd Blankfein -- the CEO of Goldman Sachs -- speak.
I couldn't believe it. At that time, as a starry-eyed freshman, net worth was a primary metric by which I evaluated successful public figures. I couldn't believe that the CEO of Goldman Sachs, the Lloyd Blankfein, "that guy" who made $70 mn in the last year alone was coming to speak to me - a freshman at a liberal arts school who had never taken an economics course and had no idea what working in finance meant! Yet, this guy, whose every minute was worth literally several thousand dollars, was coming all the way from New York City to grace me with his presence, for a barely hour-long event. In fact, I still find it hard to believe.
When he walked into the room, my mouth fell open; the babble died immediately. As he started speaking, my mouth was still hanging open.
"Why are CEOs of a certain industry sought-after by companies belonging to other clearly un-related industries? It's because they have developed a certain set of life skills they can use to manage whichever company they lead, regardless of industry."
Articulating life lesson after life lesson, anecdote after anecdote, Blankfein was eloquent, engaging, smart; with his bald pate shining under the fancy yellow lighting and with that trademark smile across his face, he had the entire room hooked. For the ~30 minutes he spoke, you could have heard a pin drop.
I remember feeling humbled, extremely humbled, as I left the hotel that night. I was inspired. What an amazing guy. So...sophisticated. I wish I could be like him. Most importantly, I remember thinking, "He really cares for us."
Fast-forward ~2 years. Fall break, junior year.
I am sitting in a conference room in the new office of Square in downtown San Francisco. We are a group of 22 students from Princeton visiting the Valley, and we are waiting for Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and co-founder and CEO of Square.
"I suspect he'll be here only for 5-10 minutes. He is involved with two companies, what do you expect?" one of the student organizers tells us.
Jack Dorsey walks in. My mouth drops open - so wide I am afraid it's noticeable. For the next five minutes, I don't hear anything that's going on around me. I am just staring at Jack, as if in a trance, afraid to believe this is actually happening.
I regain my composure eventually, and I listen as Jack has the entire room spellbound. He talks about his two babies, Twitter and Square. He talks about how, as a teenager, he was fascinated with how the emergency services organized transport within cities -- and how that kind of broadcasting system was his inspiration for Twitter. He talks about how the Golden Gate Bridge has been a big inspiration in design for him (if you see Square, you will realize how amazing his sense of product design actually is).
10 minutes. 20 minutes. 30 minutes. 40 minutes.
We are asking him questions now. And he's still there. With his hands resting on the table and forming a firm steeple, and with his Zen-like calm. I almost feel like shouting out at him -- "We ordinary minions don't deserve your time. Don't you have two companies to run?"
He is so awesome. What wouldn't I give to work here just so I can get a glimpse of this guy every day. Heck, I would work for free if it meant I get to interact with him every other day.
We file out of the room for the customary picture. We head to lunch, still dazed and in disbelief.
Fast-forward ~5 days.
I meet Mark Zuckerberg, serendipitously, at a dinner in New York. In him I observe the same passion for technology, and the same desire to change the world as I saw in Jack. Visionaries.
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Post these amazing experiences, I have been thinking a lot about career choices and life in general. Many of my friends have been going through the same phase. I list some of my observations below, in the hope that they will provide some perspective.
Don't do anything just for the money.
Whether you are going into finance, consulting, technology or any other sector, don't take up a job just for the money. Remember the time when you were a kid, and your parents dangled candy in front of you so you would work your way through your tedious, mind-numbingly boring homework? If you are considering doing something just for the money, you are doing it just for the candy -- and it's time to grow up.
Net worth matters, sure, but it's far from being the only thing that matters.
Explore non-finance tracks -- and remember, 21 doesn't come again.
I am not anti-finance or anti-consulting -- some of my best friends are taking up jobs in these fields. However, I am anti-jobs-that-don't-take-full-advantage-of-one's-capabilities.
You need to ask yourself if, after receiving a broad-based, $200,000 liberal arts education, punching numbers into spreadsheets is the best use of your time. It isn't rocket science to figure that out. Someone I know who left the Boston Consulting Group -- one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world -- barely six months into her job said, "I felt like I could be doing so much more than just sitting around making Powerpoint presentations."
In your early 20?s, your five years right out of college, you are going to be the most productive, intellectually creative, youthful, energetic, motivated and capable of working hard than you will ever be in the rest of your life. Your early 20?s are also the time when your parents aren't dependent on you financially, you don't have a wife or kids, you don't have a mortgage, and you can, if it came to it, survive the worst-case scenario (which, realistically, is never bad enough). You need to ask yourself if figuring out whether Dell should outsource it's call centers to India, whether Starbucks should enter the Kenyan market, or if NJTransit should raise $100 mn in equity vs $200 mn in bonds is what you really want to be doing during the prime of your working life.
Take a minute and do this exercise -- for one moment, think that all your resume states is your undergrad education. And that nothing, nothing you will professionally do will ever figure on that resume. In such a situation, what would you do? What would you do if you weren't afraid of or obsessed with how good or bad it looked on your resume? Where would you work? Who would you want to work with? In hyper-competitive environments like Princeton where a lot of people are obsessed with resume-padding, such an exercise can help.
Consider Teaching For America. Consider joining your dad's business and, using your skills and networks, overhauling it into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Consider working in the government and trying to change the ailing system that's in place today. Consider helping underprivileged kids in your home neighborhood. Consider starting your own company in something you love.
From my perspective, consider high-tech -- consider working for technology companies that are literally changing the world and shaping our lives every day.
Consider working for Facebook, which, whether you like it or not, is defining and constantly evolving how 800 million people -- including you and I -- interact with their circles of friends.
Consider working for Twitter, which is revolutionizing how people communicate with each other -- across social strata, and across national and international boundaries.
Consider working for Square, that is enabling millions of small merchants to significantly expand their business and increase revenue, at the same time challenging established payment service monopolies.
Consider working for SpaceX, which has had the audacity to take on a challenge as daunting as space travel.
Consider working for Dropbox, which enabled my Dad to seamlessly share ~ 1 Gigabyte of videos with me that were life-critical for a class project of mine. If Dropbox didn't exist, I would have had to spend hours trying to explain some seedy, complicated file-uploading system to him.
Consider playing on the court instead of watching from the sidelines. Consider making a dent in the universe.
A version of this post originally appeared on my blog.
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Follow Akarshan Kumar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/akarshan_
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The yuan is expected to remain stable or rise slightly in the last week of the year to close 2011 near 6.30 versus the dollar, in line with market expectations.
The currency is likely to continue to appreciate next year as China continues to post big trade surpluses despite a slowdown in exports and amid pressure from the United States to let the yuan rise to balance bilateral trade, traders said.But the yuan's appreciation is likely to slow to around 3 percent in 2012, with much of the rise seen in the second half of next year as China may keep the yuan relatively stable in the first half to assess the impact of the euro zone crisis, they said.
"The PBOC has recently set a slew of strong mid-points and pumped dollars into the market via state banks, giving the market a clear signal that the government won't let the yuan depreciate," said a trader at a major Chinese bank in Shanghai.
"But the central bank appears not in a hurry to let the yuan appreciate amid global economic uncertainties resulting from the euro zone debt crisis. So the yuan is likely to move largely sideways in coming months."
Spot yuan closed at 6.3198 against the dollar, up from Friday's close of 6.3364, after hitting an all-time high of 6.3160. Its previous peak was 6.3294 hit on December 16.
The PBOC set the dollar/yuan mid-point at 6.3167 on Monday, stronger than Friday's 6.3209 and near the record-high fixing of 6.3165 on November 4.
FIGHTING SPECULATORS
The yuan has appreciated 4.27 percent so far this year, with most of the gain being recorded in the first 10 months of the year as China tries to rebalance trade and use the currency to help fight high inflation.
While the government has recently halted yuan appreciation amid slowing exports, it also seems to be wary of a weaker yuan that may lead to capital outflows.
Some overseas investors appear to have been shorting the yuan in recent months amid signs that China's growth is slowing under the double weight of a global slowdown and the country's monetary tightening policy in place since October last year.
The PBOC, in addition to using strong mid-points to signal government intentions to keep the yuan stable, has also acted to inject dollars into the market via state-owned banks whenever there are signs that the yuan is set to weaken sharply.
The yuan has thus been effectively kept in a range of 6.3 to 6.4 against the dollar since early November -- a trend traders say they believe to continue well into 2012.
In contrast, offshore benchmark one-year non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) have largely been forecasting a yuan depreciation in a year's time since late September, reversing a general trend of predicting an appreciation since the yuan's revaluation in July 2005.
One-year NDFs fell slightly to 6.3790 on Monday against 6.3810 at the close on Friday, implying that the yuan will depreciate 0.97 percent in 12 months from Modnay's PBOC mid-point, compared with a 1.01 percent fall implied on Friday.
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SEOUL, South Korea?? The widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, the author of a now-jettisoned engagement policy with North Korea, crossed the fortified land border between the two sides on Monday to pay her respects to deceased dictator Kim Jong Il.
The former first lady was among a 13-member delegation of senior figures who went to Pyongyang to express condolences to Kim Jong Il's son and apparent successor, Kim Jong Un. But the trip was considered unofficial, carrying no government message from the South, Seoul insisted.
Ties between the North and South have been frozen since the election of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in 2008, who cut aid in a bid to force the North to abandon a nuclear program and bring it to the negotiating table.
The delegation, led by the former first lady, Lee Hee-ho, crossed the border by car. The South Koreans went to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace where Kim Jong Il's body is lying in state and met with Kim Jong Un there, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement.
"I hope my visit to North Korea will help improve South-North Korea relations," Yoon Chul-koo, an aide to Lee, quoted her as saying at an immigration office at the southern border of the De-Militarized Zone.
Lee, who met Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang in 2000 in the first inter-Korean summit since the end of the Korean War in 1953, will stay for two days and will not attend the Dec. 28 funeral.
Her husband, former president Kim Dae-jung, engineered a "sunshine" engagement policy with the North and held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000.
Also included in the delegation was Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, whose late husband had ties to the North.
Footage from AP Television News in North Korea showed the group being greeted by North Korean officials during a stop at a factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. North Korea sent delegations to Seoul when the women's husbands died.
'Pure condolence' visit
Lee spent met with Kim Jong Un for just ten minutes on Monday, the South's Unification Ministry said, the BBC reported.
Most South Koreans are banned from going to the North under the current government's policy and South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North, is not sending an official delegation to mourn Kim, who died earlier this month.
The death of Kim Jong Il
Asked by reporters at the crossing point whether the delegation plans to meet North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong-un, Yoon said the visit was for "pure condolence."
Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s, is the third of his line to rule the impoverished North, although he is likely to share power with a coterie.
Kim Jong Un has made several high-profile appearances on state TV since his father's death was announced a week ago.
His surprise meeting with the South Koreans could be intended to push South Korea to pursue cooperative projects that would give North Korea much-needed aid, analysts said.
North Korea also identified Kim Jong Il's son as head of a top ruling party body Monday, a post that gives him authority over political matters in addition to the military control attributed to him in recent days.
Kim Jong Un has rapidly gained prominence since the death of his father on Dec. 17, with the state media showering new titles on him almost daily.
A second group of mourners from South Korea led by the widow of one of South Korea's biggest conglomerates that has investments in the North was also headed to Pyongyang.
Hyun Jeong-eun, the wife of the Hyundai business group's late former chairman Chung Mong-hun, led a delegation of five people.
Hyun's father-in-law was Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, who established Hyundai Asan Corp in 1999 as a major investor in North Korea's Mt. Kumgang tourist resort business.
The business has been suspended since the fatal shooting in 2008 of a South Korean tourist at the resort.
Hyundai Asan is also involved in the Kaesong Industrial Park project in the North, one of the impoverished North's few sources of foreign currency.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45790295/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
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This design is much larger and thicker than other styles of its form as a result of the easy Port mount integrated but is worth the cash somebody will conserve. The world wide web page is constantly updating the software program, permitting you to remain up to date with all road issues.
The most impressive Magellan is a RoadMate 1470, which has a 4.seven inch contact screen and enables for the an individual contact menu that gives the person a chance to search throughout by far the most latest and popular addresses or destinations. The spot display screen enables you to determine ways to get into the place presenting fastest time, shortest length and many others. The much larger display screen gives the person additional home to see maps and menus than earlier styles, however the cradle could cause the ability cable concerns when mounted on a dash or windshield. In all other procedures, the cost is ideally suited for your display screen measurement, and is also properly worth the cash for rookies.
Lastly, the Garmin Nuvi 205W is among the oldest but greatest entry stage GPS units that could be nonetheless utilised at present for opportunities and pricing. A contact screen display screen with rookie interface opportunities, the programming is easy to grasp and use for everyone. Most of the opportunities on the market are trip timing and routes, the Where by Am I? preference and entry of destinations. The very quickly programming free of extra components and functions that a lot of is not going to ever use, this model has all the things for the beginning person at a greatly discounted selling price.
Source: http://acih.org/uncategorized/automotive-gps-programs/
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Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images
By Suzanne Choney
For the third straight year, "Facebook" was the top searched term in the U.S., followed by "youtube" and "Facebook login." Why, do you ask, would those be searched for, rather than websites visited?
Well, we're lazy, for one thing. "Navigational searches dominated the top search results as users typed in terms versus typing in the URL in the browser bar," said Simon Bradstock, general manager of Experian Hitwise, in a press release about the firm's findings.
"When combined, common search terms for Facebook ? e.g., facebook and facebook.com ? accounted for 3.48 percent of all searches in the United States among the top 50 terms, which represents a 33 percent increase compared with 2010," Experian Hitwise said. "YouTube terms accounted for 1.36 percent, representing a 21 percent increase compared with 2010. Google terms (including YouTube) accounted for 1.59 percent ? an increase of 27 percent compared with 2010. Yahoo terms accounted for 0.59 percent? an increase of 15 percent compared with 2010."
Among the new terms that entered the "top? 50" search terms for the year: addicting games, amazon.com, chase online, cnn, face, facebook sign-up, pandora and twitter.
Here are some of Experian Hitwise's other lists for 2011:
Top-visited websites: Dingdingding: Yes, Facebook again, and for the second year, with 10.29 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November. That's a 15 percent increase over 2010. Google.com was second, with 7.70 percent of visits, then YouTube (3.17 percent), Yahoo! Mail (2.95 percent) and Yahoo! (2.47 percent).
Top public figure searches: Oooh 'Baby': Justin Bieber was No. 1, followed by Casey Anthony, Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, Selena Gomez and Charlie Sheen.
Top personalities searches (from sites focused on celebrities and stars): "Wedding bell blues" for Kim?"follow your heart" Kardashian, then Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Robert Pattinson.
Top searched for music artists/bands: We were "gaga" for Lady Gaga, then Justin Beiber, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Chris Brown.
Top TV show searches: We worshipped "American Idol, followed by "The Young and the Restless," "Dora the Explorer, "Dancing with the Stars" and "Days of Our Lives."
Yes, those were the days of our lives, via search, in 2011.
Related stories:
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/22/9638065-facebook-top-search-term-again-for-2011
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When House Republicans left town for the holidays Wednesday, they didn?t even leave behind?a piece of coal in the stockings of some 2.8 million jobless workers whose unemployment benefits are about to expire over the course of the next two months. At least a piece of coal can be burned for heat.
An analysis by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) finds that come January, some 1.8 million will lose their unemployment insurance (UI), with another 1.1 million meeting the same fate in February.
NELP Executive Director Christine Owens explained in a statement:
Winter is upon us, a time when shelter, heat, and adequate nutrition are expensive and deeply important, and the most vulnerable among us are at even greater risk.
Further, Owens explained, the?House failure to extend UI?will be felt well beyond the ranks of the unemployed themselves:
The impact of a lapse of federal unemployment insurance will be devastating for the unemployed, their families, the communities in which they live and the local economies the benefits support.
As we reported, House GOP leaders scuttled a vote on a bill already passed by the Senate that would have extended federal unemployment benefits by an additional two months, and extended the payroll tax holiday for the same amount of time.
Owens concludes:
To rob the unemployed and their families of their essential lifeline just as the New Year begins, especially when a clear alternate path is available, is more than callous?it is unconscionable.
Download the full report, in a PFF file, here.
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In Tahrir Square, democracy supporters protested against Egypt?s military rulers, while across town, thousands turned out to support those leaders. NBC?s Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ? Argentina approved a tough package of new laws against terrorism and financial crimes Thursday, dismissing concerns that the government could use them to attack political opponents.
After three hours of post-midnight debate, the Senate agreed to double penalties for any crime committed with the goal of terrorizing the people or pressuring authorities to take some action. Human rights groups are concerned that the vaguely worded law will give future governments broad powers to crack down on social protests.
"Any crime under Argentine law committed with the goal of terrorism as described by international rules approved by our country will be punishable by twice the minimum and maximum sentence," the law says.
The laws also toughen penalties for tax evasion, money laundering, and acts that disrupt the country's economic order, for example by provoking a run on the banks. It also criminalizes insider trading and provides sentences of up to six years for passively benefiting from bribery.
The laws does apply some restraints to Argentina's money-laundering watchdog, saying the government's Financial Information Unit cannot freeze assets "that aren't related to acts of terrorism as defined by international conventions."
And after pressure from human rights activists, legislators adjusted the laws so that stiffer penalties cannot be applied to crimes that may occur in the context of "the exercise of human or social rights, or any other constitutional right."
Aides to President Cristina Fernandez sought to assure lawmakers that this government would never invoke the law to restrict the legitimate rights of Argentines.
But many Argentines remain worried that this or future governments will do exactly that.
Opposition Sen. Ernesto Sanz said it won't help solve financial crimes, and "opens the door to criminalizing social protest."
"Being ambiguous and using generalities starts us down the dangerous road of arbitrary use of authority," Sanz said.
Argentina is still grappling with the legacy of "state terror," when the 1976-1983 dictatorship sent out squads of undercover agents to kidnap, torture and summarily execute 13,000 political opponents, according to the official tally. But these laws don't address such crimes against humanity.
The country also experienced the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed 85 people, two years after another bomb flattened the Israeli Embassy, killing 29. But terror laws have not been applied to either case. Prosecutors have invoked the existing criminal code instead.
Sen. Miguel Angel Pichetto, who leads the ruling party's bloc, acknowledged that the crackdown is being done under pressure from the United States, describing it as price of entry for Argentina to continue having a voice at international economic summits.
The laws are meant to conform with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, which was established by the G-7 countries to combat terror financing and money laundering worldwide.
But according to an investigation by The Associated Press for this year's 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, similar laws have been widely used around the globe to curb political dissent. The AP gathered government records worldwide and found that 120,000 people were arrested and 35,000 convicted as terrorists in the past decade.
Many were put behind bars simply for waving a political sign or publishing anti-government commentary.
The AP found that there is no agreed-upon international standard for what makes a terrorist, giving each country's leadership wide leeway to decide when to invoke these draconian laws. Even within the U.S. government, law enforcement agencies don't agree on what terrorism is.
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Follow Michael Warren on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mwarrenap
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Actor Christian Bale, in China to promote 'The Flowers of War,' tussled with thugs as he tried to visit Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. Was the encounter a bit self-promotional or helpful?
Far be it from me to suggest that Christian Bale, the Oscar winning Hollywood star who made his name as Batman, is anything but a noble warrior for international human rights.
Skip to next paragraphBut it is hard not to detect a smidgeon of self-promotion in his latest stunt ? getting himself filmed by CNN being roughed up by Chinese thugs during a vain attempt to visit Chen Guangcheng, a famous human rights activist who has been under house arrest for the past 15 months.
Mr. Bale is in China to promote his latest movie ?The Flowers of War,? about the brutal Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1937, which some critics have panned as Chinese propaganda. His successful televised bid to draw world attention to the illegal detention of one of the sharpest thorns in the Chinese government?s side has certainly undercut such criticism.
CNN said Bale contacted the network?s Beijing office asking for help in visiting Mr. Chen, whose village in eastern China has been locked down by plainclothes security men for more than a year. Diplomats, journalists, and ordinary Chinese citizens have been violently turned away whenever they have sought to visit the blind lawyer who helped alleged victims of forced abortions.
In CNN?s report on the visit, Bale says he could not ?look the other way? knowing that Chen was being kept incommunicado, and that he just wanted to shake the activist?s hand.
Bale has also rejected accusations that by starring in ?The Flowers of War,? the most expensive film ever made in China and directed by Zhang Yimou who choreographed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, he had contributed to a nationalist Chinese demonization of the Japanese.
?That would be a bit of a kneejerk reaction,? he told reporters at the premiere in Beijing earlier this week.
I found the film, which opened here on Friday and which is expected to be a smash hit, to be melodramatic, sentimental, and implausible. But the two dimensional depiction of Japanese soldiers as heartless and cunning beasts is not very different from the way US and British films used to portray World War II Germans.
US and British film makers have gotten over that, in a way that Chinese film makers have still not. That?s because the Chinese government still finds it politically useful to focus popular nationalist resentment on the Japanese. Perhaps Christian Bale?s publicity coup, by drawing more attention to Chen Guangcheng?s fate, will nudge the Chinese government toward getting over its habit of locking up uncomfortable critics.
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Windows' own security tools are among the best available, but they usually require pre-installation and regular updates. If you've got to save a Windows system that's already infected?like, say, your relatives' desktop over the holidays?you can boot Windows Defender from a USB stick while you're offline.
You'll need a working copy of Windows to create the bootable USB stick, so if your primary system is in need of saving, you'll have to find a friend, or spare computer. But the process for creating an official offline Defender system is just a few clicks, and it's probably your best shot at recovering a Windows system that's fallen victim to viruses. The How-To Geek site has the full step-by-step skinny on dedicating a USB stick to Windows Defender's offline version, and that offline Defender is a free download.
How to Create a Bootable Offline Version of Windows Defender | How-To Geek
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Samsung's in a gifting mood, is giving away up to 16 free games for select Galaxy devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We've got some good news for gamers that were willing to plunge into the PlayStation-certified world of Sony's tablets. The latest update to the company's divisive Tablet S will let you connect your PS3 controllers with those 32-bit games of yesteryear. The update is available now in Sony's homeland of Japan and the company is also rewarding its tablet faithful with a free download; an Ape Escape-themed mini-game collection. It's not all good news, however. The clamshelled Tablet P doesn't get the controller hook-up and you'll need to buy an additional USB adapter cable to connect a controller to the monoscreened Tablet S. A briefly worded, vaguely translated release awaits after the break.
Continue reading Sony Tablet S update lets you play with PS3 controllers, cable adapter required
Sony Tablet S update lets you play with PS3 controllers, cable adapter required originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In this photo taken Sept. 9, 2008, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari pauses during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's president, recovering from a likely "mini stroke" in his Dubai home with no word on his return, is locked in a gathering struggle with the powerful army and political opponents over a secret memo sent to Washington seeking its help in averting a supposed military coup earlier this year.
In this photo taken Sept. 9, 2008, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari pauses during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's president, recovering from a likely "mini stroke" in his Dubai home with no word on his return, is locked in a gathering struggle with the powerful army and political opponents over a secret memo sent to Washington seeking its help in averting a supposed military coup earlier this year.
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Pakistan's prime minister dismissed speculation of a rift between the government and the military over a secret memo sent to Washington seeking its help in averting a supposed military coup, saying the country was committed to democracy.
Political tensions have soared ahead of a hearing by Pakistan's Supreme Court into the circumstances surrounding the memo. The absence of President Asif Ali Zardari, recovering from a likely "mini stroke" in his Dubai home with no word on his return, has only added to rumors that the current civilian administration is in possible fatal trouble.
Zardari's critics are hoping the scandal will lead to his ouster, and delighted in portraying his trip to Dubai on Dec. 6 as a flight from the fallout from the memo. The president's aides have denied that, and most independent analysts believe the veteran politician, who has outlasted numerous predictions of his demise since taking office in 2008, will ride it out.
Tensions between the army and the government could complicate American attempts to rebuild ties with Pakistan, a country that many U.S. officials see as key to shepherding peace in Afghanistan. Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan in late November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the border, hammering relations already strained by American suspicions that Islamabad is playing both sides in the Afghan war and virulent anti-U.S. sentiments inside Pakistan.
Late Friday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to discuss the memo.
Gilani said in a statement afterward that he rejected the notion of a "standoff" between the army and the civilian leadership.
"The government of Pakistan and its institutions remain committed to their constitutional roles and obligations to a democratic and prosperous future for Pakistan," he said.
Pakistan has a long history of army coups or behind the scenes meddling by the generals to engineer pliant regimes, often with the support of the judiciary. That has left the country's 180 million people especially receptive to the idea that the collapse of the government is just around the corner.
Pakistan's envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, resigned last month amid allegations that he masterminded what has been dubbed a "treasonous" memo. Then U.S. military chief Adm. Mike Mullen has said he received the note, but ignored it.
With questions swirling over whether the president himself was aware of the letter, Zardari's main political rival petitioned the Supreme Court to hold an inquiry into the affair. Moving with rare speed, the court swiftly asked for statements from 10 people, including Haqqani, Gen. Kayani, Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha and American-Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who allegedly arrange for the memo to be delivered and then went on to reveal its existence via the media.
On Wednesday, the deadline for submissions, the Supreme Court ? widely considered to be hostile to the Zardari government ? said it had received statements from everyone except the president. The government said a parliamentary probe into the affair is enough, and it is unclear whether Zardari will cooperate.
In a new twist to the scandal, former U.S. national security adviser Gen. James Jones, who acted as an intermediary between Ijaz and Mullen, said in a sworn affidavit delivered to the court that he had no reason to believe that Haqqani had anything to do with the memo. He also said that he didn't find the memo "credible" and questioned why Ijaz, a businessmen and part-time journalist, would deliver it. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the affidavit Saturday.
Officials have not revealed what is wrong with Zardari, though this week did release a statement by his doctor saying he had lost consciousness for several minutes and was suffering from pain in his arm. It didn't give a diagnosis, however. One associate has privately said Zardari suffered a "mini-stroke" that had left no lasting damage.
The 56-year-old, with a history of heart troubles, left hospital on Wednesday. But aides have not said when he will travel to Pakistan. So long as he remains abroad, rumors will continue.
"Mr. Zardari needs to return to Pakistan to try and calm nerves and quell speculation that refuses to die down," Pakistan's daily Dawn newspaper said in an editorial. "Like it or not, the reality of Pakistan is that threats to the democratic process do lurk in the shadows."
Zardari, who was thrust to the presidency after his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated by militants in 2007, has never been particularly popular. His party has a majority in parliament, and his lawmakers are expected to give it a majority in the Senate in elections in March.
That prospect has allegedly prompted hardline lawmakers to seek his ouster immediately.
"They are creating a lot of fuss, they want something to happen, either through the Supreme Court or the army or through street agitation," said political analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi. "Still, I think he can manage it, and linger on for a while."
Many are questioning why the president doesn't announce when he will return.
One possible reason is the general incompetence of those close to him. Another is that he is too ill to communicate his wishes to those around him, and with the boss incapacitated, his aides aren't brave enough to say anything.
While Zardari is a skilled operator in the frequently below-the-belt world of Pakistani politics, he has been known to ignore, or be unaware, of how his actions are playing in the street. When the world was rushing to help Pakistan recover from devastating floods in 2010, he flew to his family chateaux in France, triggering disbelief and outrage.
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