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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/K9twJZ4m8os/
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LONDON ? Church and local government authorities are going to court to evict anti-capitalist protesters camped outside St. Paul's Cathedral ? though officials acknowledged Friday it could take weeks or months to get an order to remove the tent city.
As the iconic church reopened after a weeklong closure triggered by the protest, the City of London Corporation said it was launching legal action on the grounds that the protest is an "unreasonable user of the highway." Scores of tents are pitched on the pedestrianized square in front of the cathedral and near a footpath alongside the building.
"Protest is an essential right in a democracy ? but camping on the highway is not and we believe we will have a strong highways case because an encampment on a busy thoroughfare clearly impacts the rights of others," said Michael Welbank, a member of the corporation's planning and transportation committee.
St. Paul's Cathedral said it agreed that "legal action has regrettably become necessary."
The cathedral's governing body said in a statement that it "takes this step with the greatest reluctance and remains committed to a peaceful solution."
Several hundred protesters against economic inequality and corporate greed have been camped outside the building since Oct. 15, inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement. On Oct. 21 cathedral officials shut the building, saying the campsite represented a health and safety hazard.
It was the first time the 300-year-old church, one of London's best-known buildings, had closed since German planes bombed the city during World War II.
After the campers agreed to rearrange their tents the cathedral reopened Friday with a special Eucharist service attended by hundreds of people, including some of the protesters.
"Today we rejoice that we are once again able to worship in an open cathedral," Dean of St. Paul's Graeme Knowles told worshippers.
The protest has divided managers of the cathedral. Some have called for the protesters to leave, but senior clergyman Giles Fraser resigned Thursday, saying he feared moves to evict the camp could end in violence.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey on Friday criticized the cathedral's handling of the protest, saying the situation had become a "debacle" that could hurt Christianity's image.
"My paramount concern throughout has been that the reputation of Christianity is being damaged by the episode, and, more widely, that the possibility of fruitful and peaceful protest has been brought into disrepute," Carey wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Prime Minister David Cameron Friday called for the stalemate to be resolved. He said he supported the right to protest, but this did not include "the freedom to pitch a tent almost anywhere you want to in London."
"I have a feeling that if you or I decided to pitch a tent in the middle of Oxford Street we'd be moved on very quickly," Cameron told reporters at a Commonwealth summit in Perth, Australia. "It's vitally important places like St. Paul's Cathedral are open to the public."
Getting a court order to evict the protesters could be a lengthy process, complicated by the tangled ownership of this medieval patch of London, which has been the site of a cathedral dedicated to St. Paul for 1,400 years. Christopher Wren's domed landmark was built to replace an earlier building destroyed in the Great Fire of London and became a symbol of the city's endurance after it survived the World War II Blitz.
Conservative legislator Mark Field, who represents the district in Parliament, welcomed the legal action, saying the area in front of the world-famous building had become "like a Third World shantytown."
"I think they are doing the right thing to try and get these people removed, but it's going to be a long process," he told the BBC.
____
Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? The scandal-plagued NCAA is moving swiftly to clean up its image.
On Thursday, the Division I Board of Directors approved a package of sweeping reforms that gives conferences the option of adding more money to scholarship offers, schools the opportunity to award scholarships for multiple years, imposes tougher academic standards on recruits and changes the summer basketball recruiting model.
"It was one of the most aggressive and fullest agendas the board has ever faced," NCAA President Mark Emmert said. "They moved with dispatch on it, and I think they're taking positive steps for schools and student-athletes."
For decades, outsiders have debated whether college scholarships should include more than just the cost of tuition, room and board, books and fees. Now they can.
The board approved a measure allowing conferences to vote on providing up to $2,000 in spending money, or what the NCAA calls the full cost-of-attendance. Emmert insists it is not pay-for-play, merely the reintroduction of a stipend that existed for college athletes until 1972. He also compared it to the stipends received by other students who receive non-athletic scholarships.
Some thought the total amount should have been higher. At the Big Ten's basketball media day in Chicago, commissioner Jim Delany said studies have shown the average athlete pays roughly $3,000 to $4,000 out of his or her own pocket in college costs.
But many believe the measure is long overdue.
"I think it needs to happen or else I think what's left of the system itself is going to implode," said Ohio University professor David Ridpath, past president of The Drake Group, an NCAA watchdog. "We've always lost the moral high ground by saying the educational model is what makes this thing go. I think we're delivering a model that can exploit kids while they're here."
Extra money won't solve all of the NCAA's problems.
Schools must infer the cost of additional funding and it will have to be doled out equally to men's and women's athletes because of Title IX rules. While BCS schools have the money and are expected to swiftly approve additional funding, it may prove too costly for non-BCS schools.
There are fears it will increase the disparity between the haves and the have-nots and could prompt another round of conference realignment.
The board also approved a measure that will give individual schools the authority to award scholarships on a multiple-year basis.
Under the current model, those scholarships are renewed annually and can be revoked for any reason. If adopted, schools could guarantee scholarships for the player's entire career and would be unable to revoke it based solely on athletic performance. Scholarships could still be pulled for reasons such as poor grades, academic misconduct or other forms of improper behavior.
Ridpath said he's personally been involved with 50 or 60 appeals cases after a coach pulled a player's scholarship.
"The reason usually is they find a prettier girl to bring to the dance," he said. "If you're Frank Beamer or Nick Saban, they make a lot of money, and they should be able to coach that kid up."
University presidents are moving quickly to repair the damage caused by a year full of scandals.
Schools from Miami to Boise State, including the reigning the champions in football (Auburn) and men's basketball (Connecticut), have all come under NCAA scrutiny. The U.S. Department of Justice started asking questions about scholarships, Congress has held hearings about a variety of NCAA-related issues and conference realignment has continued to spin wildly.
So, the NCAA's board went back to basics and placed a renewed emphasis on academics.
In August, the board approved raising the four-year Academic Progress Rate cutline from 900 to 930 and linking that cutline to eligibility for postseason play. On Thursday, it passed a four-year plan to phase in the new requirements.
During the first two years, 2012-13 and 2013-14, teams scoring below 900 on the four-year average would be ineligible for postseason play unless the averaged 930 on the two most recent years of data. In 2014-15, teams that do not hit the 930 mark would be ineligible unless they averaged 940 in the two most recent years. After that, everyone must hit 930, no exceptions.
Schools that do not make the grade could also face additional penalties such as reductions in practice time and game limits, coaches suspensions, scholarship reductions and restricted NCAA membership.
The board also approved a measure to include the provision in its bowl licensing agreements, which means it will apply to football teams, too.
UConn's men's basketball team could be the first team to feel the impact.
After posting an 826 last year, a UConn official has said this year's mark will be approximately 975. It would give Connecticut a two-year score of 900.5 and a four-year average of 888.5 -- both too low to make the basketball tourney.
"That's unfortunate," Knight Commission member Len Elmore said. "It's a cautionary tale, but the need for, again, focusing on the true mission of the university is to graduate players and you can't fail at the most important task whether you're national champions or not."
Emmert said if the new rule had been used last year, seven men's basketball teams and eight football teams would have been ineligible for the postseason. And there's almost no way out for teams who don't make the grade.
"You can appeal, but we are going to be very, very strict about appeals," said Walt Harrison, chairman of the committee on academic performance. "So we really don't expect waivers to be a major factor."
As part of the plan, the board agreed to raise eligibility standards for incoming freshmen and junior college transfers. Previously, high school seniors needed a 2.0 GPA in 16 core courses. Now they'll need a 2.3 and will have to complete 10 of those classes before their senior year.
Junior college transfers will need a 2.5 GPA and can only count two physical education credits toward their eligibility.
The other big issue was summer basketball recruiting.
The board has agreed to drop the text messaging ban and allow unlimited contacts to prep players after June 15 of their sophomore year. But coaches. But instead of having 20 evaluation days in July, coaches will have four in April, previous a dead period, and 12 in July. And they'll have more on-campus contact with recruits and current players during the summer. Some of those details will be worked out in January.
Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said the changes could help limit the influence of agents or unscrupulous coaches, which has become yet another problem for the NCAA.
"In the summer, there are third-parties looking to access our student-athletes as well, work them out," Haney said. "So by allowing access in the summer, we allow coaches to empower our players to become better players."
The NCAA still has plenty of issues to tackle.
In January, the board is expected to get recommendations on how to shrink the massive rulebook. On Thursday, it backed a plan to focus on integrity issues rather than specifics, and it could include a new definition of who qualifies as an agent. A vote isn't expected until April.
The NCAA did not talk about its long-discussed agent registry or forming panel to help college players make decisions about turning pro.
And it still plans to scrap the current two-tiered penalty structure in favor of four categories with specific penalty guidelines. A vote on that will not likely come until next October.
"I think there's a recognition that the (old) process invited people to step over the line because it was very convoluted," Elmore said. "Now we're getting swift, severe sanctions, and that's what we need."
___
Associated Press writer Pat Eaton-Robb in Hartford, Conn., also contributed to this report.
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ROME (Reuters) ? Italy's biggest trade union pledged on Thursday to fight economic reforms that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi presented to euro zone leaders to ease a debt crisis, deepening doubts over whether the ambitious plan can be implemented.
Susanna Camusso, secretary of the powerful CGIL union, called on other worker federations to close ranks against the plan, which includes a commitment to raise the retirement age and steps to make it easier for firms to lay off staff.
"We're ready to propose unified action," Camusso said in an interview with the left-leaning La Repubblica daily, describing the reforms as a combination of "targeted attacks" on Italian workers.
Berlusconi submitted a hastily constructed package of reforms to a summit of European leaders on Wednesday in response to an ultimatum demanding action to boost growth and cut Italy's huge public debt.
After the summit, Berlusconi appealed to opposition leaders to support the plan, saying it was in Italian interests.
"We hope the opposition wants to get out of this situation of always saying no and always being against things, and that it will back approval of these measures requested by Europe," Berlusconi told reporters.
But several commentators raised doubts about the viability of the plan on Thursday, pointing to tensions within the ruling coalition and a poisonous political climate in Rome.
"It's difficult to believe that yesterday's intentions can really be transformed into the biggest plan of market reforms Italy has ever put on paper," Antonio Polito wrote in the Corriere della Sera daily.
In an editorial in La Repubblica, Massimo Giannini described the plan as a "book of dreams" which would not solve Italy's economic problems.
Berlusconi carried a "letter of intent" to the EU summit, promising a much delayed economic development plan by November 15 and a series of other measures to increase growth and ensure the budget is balanced by 2013.
They formed part of a euro zone deal with private banks and insurers aimed at drawing a line under spiraling debt problems that have threatened to unravel the European single currency project.
After dodging the worst of the financial crisis in recent years, Italy has moved to the center of the euro zone debt crunch this year as its bond yields soared to near unsustainable levels. Only intervention from the European Central Bank has prevented them from sliding out of control.
(Reporting By Catherine Hornby)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/wl_nm/us_italy
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LOS ANGELES ? British band Coldplay is withholding its latest album, "Mylo Xyloto," from all-you-can-listen streaming services such as Spotify and Rhapsody ? making it the biggest band yet to express reservations about a system that pays artists a fraction of a penny every time someone listens to a song.
The decision for the hot-selling album, released Tuesday, is a blow to such services, which have millions of tracks available but rely on new tunes to keep listeners interested.
Consumers typically pay $10 a month for the right to pick any track or album from a library of millions and listen on demand via online streaming. Users can also download songs to mobile devices. Some services offer lengthy trials or free options with ads.
Usually, new tracks are available on the services on Tuesday, the same day they are released for sale.
The lack of availability of Coldplay's fifth album on subscription plans could push consumers to buy the album outright.
Coldplay's recording company, EMI, said in a statement "We always work with our artists and their management on a case by case basis to deliver the best outcome for each release."
Rhapsody president Jon Irwin said he respects the band's decision and needs to do a better job explaining the benefits of the subscription system to artists.
In an editorial he wrote for Billboard magazine on Monday, Irwin said he agreed that some reported royalties paid to artists ? as low as 0.015 cents per play on Spotify and 0.91 cents on Rhapsody ? "seem awfully small."
By comparison, recording labels and artists share about 70 percent of the $1.29 per track or $9.99 per album when music is bought on Apple Inc.'s iTunes.
Irwin argued that royalties from subscription music plans are recurring, not one-time as is the case with iTunes sales. Thus, he said, revenue will build over time.
And in any case, he said it is better than what artists get paid for pirated songs ? zero.
"Those plays for that artist, they're going to get compensated by it," he said in an interview Thursday. "That goes on forever, and it doesn't end with the sale of an MP3" song file.
Spotify said in a statement that it also respects the decision of any artist regarding where their songs are made available.
But the company pointed out that its service has "convinced millions of consumers to pay for music again." Spotify said it has paid $150 million to recording companies, artists and publishers since its launch three years ago.
Spotify has said it has more than 2 million paying customers globally, while Rhapsody is the leading service in the U.S. with more than 800,000 subscribers. Other popular subscription services include MOG and Rdio.
Early indications are that "Mylo Xyloto" will be one of the top-selling albums of the year. Its debut single "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" has racked up sales of 763,000 so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and Billboard estimates between 440,000 and 450,000 copies of the album will be sold through Sunday.
Coldplay's managers did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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Contact: Julie Murphy
julie@immunize.org
651-647-9009
Immunization Action Coalition
St. Paul, Minnesota, -- The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), one of the nation's premier sources of immunization information, and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are entering into a cooperative agreement that will distribute IAC's highly regarded publications to pediatricians, family physicians, and other healthcare professionals involved in providing immunization services. The award is for $1.4 million over five years.
This cooperative agreement will support three key current IAC functions: (1) creation and distribution of weekly editions of IAC Express to IAC's email subscribers; (2) publication of the feature "Ask the Experts," in which CDC and IAC immunization experts answer questions from vaccine providers; and (3) creation of new immunization education materials designed to respond to the needs of immunization providers, parents, and patients. Importantly, the new agreement also makes IAC the nation's central clearinghouse for Vaccine Information Statements (VISs) in languages other than English.
VISs are the foundation of patient/parent-centered vaccination delivery. Mandated by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, these information sheets help ensure that families receive essential information about each vaccine including, for example, the vaccine's benefits and potential side effects. Proper distribution of the VISs will inform vaccine recipients, or their parents or legal representatives, about the vaccine prior to receiving a dose. Providing this important information in a wide array of languages upholds IAC's and CDC/NCIRD's shared dedication to giving all Americans access to the vaccination information they need.
"This partnership between CDC and IAC will significantly improve the immunization information available to those patients and parents who are best communicated with in languages other than English," said IAC's Executive Director, Deborah Wexler, MD.
###
About the Immunization Action Coalition
IAC's immunization educational tools have a strong impact on the education, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals throughout the nation, making IAC one of the most respected and relied-upon immunization organizations in the United States. IAC is also a direct source of immunization information for the public. IAC's two major websites receive more than 20,000 visits per day, and its email news service broadcasts weekly immunization updates to more than 45,000 opt-in subscribers. The new cooperative agreement sustains this keystone of U.S. immunization information.
Dr. Wexler is available for interviews about the impact of this grant.
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Julie Murphy
julie@immunize.org
651-647-9009
Immunization Action Coalition
St. Paul, Minnesota, -- The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), one of the nation's premier sources of immunization information, and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are entering into a cooperative agreement that will distribute IAC's highly regarded publications to pediatricians, family physicians, and other healthcare professionals involved in providing immunization services. The award is for $1.4 million over five years.
This cooperative agreement will support three key current IAC functions: (1) creation and distribution of weekly editions of IAC Express to IAC's email subscribers; (2) publication of the feature "Ask the Experts," in which CDC and IAC immunization experts answer questions from vaccine providers; and (3) creation of new immunization education materials designed to respond to the needs of immunization providers, parents, and patients. Importantly, the new agreement also makes IAC the nation's central clearinghouse for Vaccine Information Statements (VISs) in languages other than English.
VISs are the foundation of patient/parent-centered vaccination delivery. Mandated by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, these information sheets help ensure that families receive essential information about each vaccine including, for example, the vaccine's benefits and potential side effects. Proper distribution of the VISs will inform vaccine recipients, or their parents or legal representatives, about the vaccine prior to receiving a dose. Providing this important information in a wide array of languages upholds IAC's and CDC/NCIRD's shared dedication to giving all Americans access to the vaccination information they need.
"This partnership between CDC and IAC will significantly improve the immunization information available to those patients and parents who are best communicated with in languages other than English," said IAC's Executive Director, Deborah Wexler, MD.
###
About the Immunization Action Coalition
IAC's immunization educational tools have a strong impact on the education, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals throughout the nation, making IAC one of the most respected and relied-upon immunization organizations in the United States. IAC is also a direct source of immunization information for the public. IAC's two major websites receive more than 20,000 visits per day, and its email news service broadcasts weekly immunization updates to more than 45,000 opt-in subscribers. The new cooperative agreement sustains this keystone of U.S. immunization information.
Dr. Wexler is available for interviews about the impact of this grant.
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/iac-iac102511.php
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CONCORD, N.H. ? Mitt Romney became a candidate Monday for the New Hampshire Republican primary.
The former Massachusetts governor's formal filing with New Hampshire's top election official was little more than a photo opportunity for a man who has been running for president ? formally and informally ? for the better part of the last five years. But his visit to the state capital offered a reminder of the huge stakes at play for Romney in New Hampshire, which is expected to host the nation's first Republican presidential primary in less than 80 days.
Friends and foes alike agree that his political future depends upon a win here. It won't guarantee the Republican nomination, but a loss in a state where he enjoys strong natural advantages may very well lead to defeat.
Romney's recent dominance in local polls only adds to lofty expectations here.
The former Massachusetts governor has led the crowded Republican field by no fewer than 18 points ? and as many as 32 points ? this month among New Hampshire voters.
"As long as he wins, I think he'll be fine," said Alan S. Glassman, chairman of the Belknap County Republican Committee.
A second-place finish four years ago helped sink Romney's first White House bid. But a simple win in 2012 may not be enough ? according to his rivals, anyway. They're pushing the notion that a victory by anything less than double digits amounts to a symbolic loss in New Hampshire, where Romney enjoys a summer home, near-universal name recognition and a ballooning network of prominent supporters, some of whom have been working on his behalf for years.
New Hampshire is also the only early voting state to allow independents to participate in the Republican primary. That's good news for Romney's chances here, as he has struggled to win over some conservative activists who are more prominent in places like Iowa and South Carolina.
"Governor Romney has been campaigning in New Hampshire for over half a decade. He is literally a resident of the state," said Tim Miller, a spokesman for former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and a Romney rival for the nomination. "It's impossible to overstate his expectations."
Welcome to the ever-spinning world of presidential politics, where a win is sometimes a loss and second place can represent both victory and failure. Romney's top advisers addressed the New Hampshire expectations challenge on Monday, largely downplaying the relevance of early polling in a state known for voters that break late.
"We have to win this state, and we intend to win this state," said Tom Rath, a Romney adviser during the first and second campaigns. "We never stopped working, some of us, after we lost the last one. We stayed at it and now it's bearing fruit."
A veteran Republican operative, Rath described expectations associated with strong poll numbers as "a good problem to have," noting that momentum is generally paramount in presidential politics.
"What you can't do anymore is deny the existence of public polls. They're out there. Those of us that are close to it don't ignore them, but also realize they're ephemeral and they can change very quickly," he said. "You know there's an inevitable closing of the numbers that will occur. It happens in every election and it will happen in this one."
Romney got a big boost this weekend after announcing the endorsement of former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, who was at Romney's side when Romney filed the paperwork to get his name on the ballot at the State House Monday.
"I hope it takes this time," Romney said of his second run at the presidency.
Sununu, a former chief of staff in the first Bush White House, laughed off talk of high expectations tied to big leads in the polls.
"Look, would you rather be behind? Whenever you're in a campaign that's behind you try and set your opponent's expectations high," he said. "Primaries are cycles ? they go up and they go down ? as long as we're up on primary day, that's all that counts."
The New Hampshire presidential primary will likely be scheduled for Jan. 10 ? just 11 weeks away.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Prospects for corporate earnings are dimmer in the coming quarters, even though reports so far this quarter have been relatively bright.
Third-quarter reports among the big names have been reasonably solid, with Google (GOOG.O), McDonald's (MCD.N) and others reporting strong results.
But, unless there's a turnaround in the outlook for the U.S. economy, the next few quarters may be less rosy.
The next few days may be tricky for stock investors, too, as the market waits to see whether European leaders can find a way to solve the growing euro zone debt crisis.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index (.SPX) rose 1.1 percent last week on hopes leaders were nearing a comprehensive plan that would stop the crisis from worsening. But progress at a summit on Sunday was slight after France bowed to German opposition and abandoned a proposal to use unlimited European Central Bank capital to boost a euro zone rescue fund.
Leaders will hold another summit on Wednesday.
"We just don't know yet what form the solution is going to take and what it's going to cost," said Michael Woolfolk, a senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York.
With so much focus on Europe, earnings -- even with most companies beating expectations -- have been given less of the spotlight.
At the same time, S&P 500 earnings forecasts for the fourth and first quarters have come down since the start of October, especially in the materials, energy and financial sectors, according to Thomson Reuters data.
"That's part of this fear factor that has gripped not only the marketplace but corporate America as well," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
Much of what's driving worries about earnings is related to expectations for less demand from Europe and other parts of the world, including China, where indicators show growth is slowing.
The sovereign debt crisis in Europe has plagued markets for months, and the U.S. economy has been a worry, too, with the nation's high unemployment rate among the chief problems.
Much of the third-quarter profit strength stems from still-strong international revenue growth, according to a report from Thomson Reuters earnings analyst Jharonne Martis.
"There is still a dichotomy between robust earnings growth and global economic uncertainty," the report said.
Foreign sales total 30 percent on average for S&P 500 companies.
Of the 133 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings to date, 68 percent have come in above expectations, above the long-term average, the Thomson Reuters data showed.
On next week's earnings agenda are results from more top S&P 500 names: Caterpillar (CAT.N), Coach (COH.N), Boeing (BA.N) and Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) among others.
The data shows S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen 14.7 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, compared with an October 3 estimate for 13.1 percent growth.
Projections for the fourth quarter are for growth of 12.5 percent -- down from an October 3 estimate of 15 percent -- and forecasts for the first quarter of 2012 are for growth of 7.6 percent -- down from an October 3 estimate of 10.2 percent.
WORRIES PRICED IN
Some analysts said the changes in earnings estimates may just be catching up to sentiment already priced into stocks.
If so, an improvement in the outlook would make the forecasts too low.
"If Europe does satisfy the markets (with a solution to the debt crisis), then I think these estimates will be proven wrong," Cardillo said.
As long as the U.S. economy doesn't fall back into recession, corporations can deliver profit growth, strategists argued.
Among next week's data is a report on U.S. economic growth on Thursday. U.S. gross domestic product likely grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, according to a Reuters survey, a improvement from 1.3 percent in the second quarter.
"The general macroeconomic data in the U.S. continues to confirm a protracted, slow painful recovery but not a recession at this stage. And if it continues to maintain that however slow pace, on the upside the earnings should be supported by economic activity," said Natalie Trunow, chief investment officer of equities at Calvert Investment Management in Bethesda, Maryland, which manages about $14.8 billion.
(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Steven C. Johnson; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Diane Craft)
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PYONGYANG, North Korea ? Wealthier countries need to put aside politics to help millions of North Koreans going hungry from food shortages, the U.N.' top relief official said Friday, renewing an appeal for assistance that has largely gone unmet.
Speaking at the end of a five-day visit to North Korea, Valerie Amos, a U.N. undersecretary-general, said millions of North Koreans, particularly children, mothers and pregnant women, need help. The millions of hungry, she said, is borne out by UN data and by what she learned from visits to farms, hospitals and orphanages, as well as from officials.
People's diets, she said, consist of rice, maize, cabbage, little else and no protein or nutrient rich foods.
While she acknowledged concerns about whether the authoritarian government diverts food aid or underfunds agriculture, Amos urged donor countries to put the needs of North Koreans ahead of other considerations.
"This is about helping the people who are most in need. It's not about saying that this country has made a choice about spending its resources in one way rather than another. We don't make those judgments in other countries, on humanitarian grounds. There's no reason to begin to do it in" North Korea, Amos told The Associated Press before leaving Pyongyang.
Hers is the latest appeal to meet a U.N. request in April for $218 million in emergency aid. Only a third has been met as key donors like the United States largely shun giving over North Korea's provocative behavior and persisting questions about whether North Korea is withholding food from its public.
Washington approved $900,000 in emergency flood aid in August but has held back on approving food aid in part because Pyongyang is funding a nuclear program, reneging on nuclear disarmament pledges. Key U.S. ally South Korea, which earlier in the decade provided large amounts of food aid, stopped giving after its conservative president, Lee Myung-back, took office in 2008.
U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups continue to have trouble monitoring how their aid is distributed ? issues Amos said she raised with North Korean officials. She said she also discussed the "chronic poverty and underdevelopment" she saw.
Still, she said, donors should not doubt the evident need for food aid. "Donors need to trust the information that they're being given. They need to trust what they're being told about the situation here," Amos said.
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HONG KONG (Reuters) ? When Google Inc unveiled its latest version of Android, the operating platform powering 50 percent of the global smartphone market, it picked Hong Kong as the destination to show off the new software on Wednesday.
The event in Hong Kong, where a population of 7 million has a mobile penetration of 200 percent, highlights Asia's importance as a market Google is keen to win in its high stakes war with Apple Inc.
In the process, the search giant is deepening ties with Asian electronics powerhouse Samsung Electronics, the largest Android seller, which is also set to overtake Apple as the world's biggest smartphone vendor in the third quarter.
"The Asian market is very important. Especially some of the countries are really emerging with smartphones and we are very excited about the opportunity," Won-pyo Hong, executive vice president for Samsung's global product strategy, said on the sidelines at the All Things D technology conference in Hong Kong.
The three-day event hosts senior executives from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Alibaba Group, Sony Corp, Twitter and other companies.
South Korea's Samsung, cross-town rival LG Electronics Inc and Taiwan's HTC Corp are already leading the Android charge, with some of these vendors also supporting Microsoft's software.
Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, which sports both the Samsung and Google logos, will be the first device running the new Android system named 'Ice Cream Sandwich', aimed to unify the software used in tablets and smartphones.
The release comes after Apple began sales of the iPhone 4S, which boasts a voice-recognition technology dubbed 'Siri'.
"This will be our strategic product for the year-end holiday season, as (Apple's) iPhone 4S just came into the market," said JK Shin, president and head of Samsung's mobile communications business. The product will be launched in November.
Asia-Pacific, already bustling with smartphone users, will drive further growth in feature phones and smartphones over the next few years, while European and U.S. markets stagnate, analysts say.
Microsoft said on Thursday it will launch Mango-powered handsets from mobile makers including Nokia Oyj, Samsung and HTC over the next few weeks.
"As the price comes down, emerging markets do become a huge opportunity, but also the existing markets in western Europe and the U.S., because as the price point comes down, more people will get into the smartphone market," Andrew Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows phone division, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Android software, which Google licenses free to manufacturers, is the most popular smartphone software globally, ranking ahead of Apple's iOS as well as software by Microsoft and Research in Motion Ltd.
Android runs on 190 million devices, up from 135 million in mid-July. As of the second quarter of this year, shipments of iPhones totaled around 129 million units, while that of iPads totaled 29 million, IDC figures show.
Smartphones now create 25 percent of all phone market volumes, and the majority of the profits.
Jerry Yang, Yahoo's co-founder highlighted Asia as a "very important and growing" consumption market for Yahoo.
"Southeast Asia and India, in the next three years, there will be 100 million users coming online," Yang said, pointing to the proliferation of $50 feature phones.
APPLE BETS ON CHINA
This week, Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook highlighted Greater China as its next big growth opportunity, saying "the sky's the limit there," even as the company missed street estimates for profit for the first time in 10 years.
Cook told analysts that Greater China -- mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan -- was becoming an all-important region for Apple as it has "become No. 2 on our list of top revenue countries very, very quickly." Revenue from the region increased four-fold to $4.5 billion during the quarter.
China and India, the largest and fastest growing mobile markets, with about 1.8 billion mobile phone subscribers, still have a smartphone penetration rate of less than 5 percent and this is where the top players are likely to boost investments and jostle to stitch deals with telco operators.
"For 2011 and 2012 we expect Apple to build a viable mid-range smartphone business and to pressure Android vendors with a reliance on the mid-range, while heavily pressurizing others such as RIM," analysts at Nomura said last week in a report on the global mobile phone industry.
Apple lags rivals in smartphone markets, such as India and China, where buyers mostly choose handsets based on prices unlike the trend in matured markets.
Huawei Technologies and smaller rival ZTE Corp Ltd, are also aggressively muscling in on mobile devices.
This month, Apple launched its first store in Hong Kong, which joined its five other China stores as those with the highest traffic and among its highest revenue stores in the world.
(Additional reporting by Huang Yuntao; Writing by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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Status: Long Term Freelance/Potential Full Time
Estimated Duration: Long Term Freelance/Potential Full Time
Starts: ASAP- Next Week
Rate: $50/per hour
Job Description: Boutique ad agency in Orange County with a major automotive client is seeking a Sr. Digital Art Director with automotive experience.
Working directly with the SVP, Creative Director of Digital, you will be working on all things interactive, including:
- Re-Skinning web and microsites
- iPhone App designs
- Online advertising/banners
- Incorporating new design elements into main B2C client website
Opportunity to work on other mediums as well, with digital being the primary focus.
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Source: http://creativejob.net/jobs/sr-interactive-art-director-automotive/
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MANILA?? Pole dancing to the music of a 20-piece live orchestra, including violins? Yes, says one Philippine pole dance troupe that seeks respect for its art and athleticism.
Only on msnbc.com
Against the background of women around the world turning to pole dancing as a form of exercise, the Manila-based group Polecats proved at a recent weekend show that performances are no longer only for strip clubs and sleazy bars ? or just for women, either.
As the orchestra played classical-style arrangements of modern songs, dancers of both genders swung and climbed gracefully up 12-foot poles, combining flexibility, strength, and moves bordering on acrobatics, with sensuality.
"You don't go to Cirque du Soleil to get turned on, although maybe you will, but I just want people to see that we're really good at what we do, and not just hot," said Christina Dy, the Polecats director.
Routines involving swings and twirls require balance, concentration and a high level of technical skills, and that is what audiences should appreciate, she added.
"I just want people to see that this is very hard ... if you just want the hair flipping, the grinding and all that, the boob popping, you can get that anywhere," she said.
'Might be sexy'
The group has gathered male performers, as well as male viewers, by focusing on the athletic aspects of performing, said Job Bautista, the first man to become a regular Polecats members.
"Now here in the Philippines we're trying to promote the more acrobatic type of pole dancing, which we Polecats think is more suited to men," he said.
The group employed the help of fast-strutting practitioners of Parkour ? a movement method of French origin involving running, jumping, vaulting, and rolling around obstacles ? to introduce new routines that would appeal to men.
The group expects more male recruits as soon as lessons for men start in full this month.
"There are a lot of big movements like balancing and pulling yourself up on the pole. It might be sexy in a way, but not only for girls," said Parkour practitioner Flynn Siy.
Organizations such as the International Pole Dance Fitness Association have been advocating professional pole dancing for fitness and sport. Ultimately, the goal is to include it in the Olympics.
In a reflection of this growing respectability, the audience included many professionals and dance lovers, along with foreign residents of Manila.
"Every kid has dreamed of climbing a pole, and this takes it to a completely different level," said Sally Clark, an environmentalist from the United States and long-term Philippines resident.
"I think it's much harder than it looks, so yeah, I might try it sometime if I have the chance."
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44955755/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
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Qualifying pet owners are invited to sign up Saturday to have their dogs and cats spayed or neutered for $10.
Pet owners must be Sedgwick County residents and have a total household income not exceeding $40,000 per year.
Participants must attend an informational session on responsible pet ownership at 11 a.m., noon or 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 925 N. Waco. Bring proof of income or a current Vision card and photo ID, but do not bring your pet.
Qualifying pet owners will receive approval that day and schedule their pet's spay or neuter surgery.
The event is sponsored by Spay-Neuter Kansas, Safe Streets ? Uniting Neighbors Against Crime and the city of Wichita.
For more information, call 316-263-4200 or 316-303-8028.
Source: http://www.kansas.com/2011/10/17/2066339/sign-up-to-get-pets-spayed-or.html
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HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) ? The chairman of the world's most valuable bank was once a good communist, learning from the peasants in a collectivist commune in Jiangxi province and working to raise coal production as a teenage miner in Henan during the tumult of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
Today, Jiang Jianqing has a somewhat bigger job: running the world's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
But he does the work for an annual salary that might make a hardened socialist nod with approval. He earned $150,000 in 2010, a mere 1.5 percent of Bank of America Corp CEO Brian Moynihan's estimated $10 million pay last year, and half again smaller than the $20 million Jamie Dimon was paid for running JP Morgan.
Like those of his peers at other Chinese banks, Jiang's salary has consistently fallen in the past four years, from about $240,000 in 2008, and he himself said in Hong Kong last year that he hoped his paycheck would stop shrinking.
"We can't be paid more than the regulators who oversee us," Jiang explained last year when asked about the matter. "If the regulators have to take a pay cut, we will take a pay cut as well."
China's "Big Four" lenders are back in the spotlight as China's economy starts to absorb the impact of a global slowdown.
Last week Central Huijin, a unit of the $400 billion sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, began buying shares in the banks -- ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China -- to prop up their share prices and reassure domestic investors.
PARTY JOBS
As Jiang's example shows, China's top bank bosses are a different breed to their Western counterparts. Beneath their coiffured hair and tailored suits, the likes of CCB Chairman Guo Shuqing and ICBC's Jiang are first and foremost Communist Party members appointed to their jobs by the government.
China's biggest financial institutions fall under the supervision of the Communist Party, so the bank heads also sit on the party's Central Committee that is ultimately headed by the country's President Hu Jintao.
As China prepares for a 2012 leadership transition that will see the retirement of Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao from their party posts, many of the bankers will also see themselves rotated into new jobs.
The Party connections of the Big Four executives raise questions about who, exactly, they work for.
"Who are you trying to impress? You're not trying to impress your shareholders, you're trying to impress party seniors," says Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing.
"After you complete your tour at a bank, you will be assigned to a new tour of duty, usually in a government posting."
That bureaucratic outlook has been fully apparent in the banks' actions over the years. Directed by the state to funnel money into government-linked companies, banks were saddled with non-performing loan ratios exceeding 20 percent by the early 2000s.
Beijing bought out most of those bad loans as the banks prepared for their public listings. They have kept a fairly clean record since, but many, including Credit Suisse and Fitch Ratings, warn that bad loans may soon start creeping up again.
LENDING SPREE
Credit Suisse analyst Sanjay Jain said in a report on Wednesday he now thinks that up to 12 percent of all of China's outstanding loans may go bad and non-performing loans may likely account for all of the banks' equity. Current NPL ratios hover at around 1 percent for the top Chinese banks.
This comes after banks went on a lending spree during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, spurred on by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($627 billion) call to boost the economy.
Much of that money went to the railway ministry, local governments that set up financing vehicles to fund their pet projects and real estate developers.
All three are in potential trouble now, with the China's railway ministry under public pressure after a high profile train crash, local governments largely barred from borrowing from banks and property prices in danger of collapsing.
Despite all that, banks have reported strong earnings in the past year that often beat expectations. This may be a result of them putting less cash into the kitty to prepare for loans that may go sour.
"This is unlike the late 1990s when the government forced the banks to admit to a huge amount of non-performing loans. This time round, the strategy is just to not admit to NPLs," said Victor Shih, a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago who has written a book on China's financial system.
RED BUSINESSMEN
Many of the executives running China's banks may have accepted salaries their Western counterparts would disdain in return for the future political appointments that may further their influence, said Northwestern's Shih.
For example, the current governor of the Chinese central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan were both previously head of CCB, the country's No.2 lender.
ICBC's Jiang is rumored to be in the running to head China's bank regulatory commission, while CCB's Guo is tipped as possibly the next head of the central bank, of which he was previously a vice governor.
"Many of them are aspiring politicians, and being a bank CEO is merely a stepping stone in their careers," Shih said. "Thus, they are willing to accept lower pay."
Guo Shuqing, chairman of the world's No.2 lender China Construction Bank, is a philosophy graduate who completed his Master's degree in the 1980s in one of the more fashionable areas of study at that time: Marxist and Leninist theory.
His career path typifies the circuitous route of the senior Chinese bureaucrat/businessman -- he was previously vice-governor of Guizhou province, head of Central Huijin, director of the State Administration on Foreign Exchange and a deputy governor of the central bank before being named head of CCB.
Many of these executives were given their jobs after political appointments -- Guo in Guizhou and Bank of China Vice Chairman Li Lihui who was vice-governor of the southern island province of Hainan.
Others also had regulatory roles, with AgBank's low-profile Chairman Xiang Junbo having once worked at the National Audit Office and Bank of China's Li at a local branch of the country's central bank.
The irony is not lost on China-watchers, some of whom say that for all of China's claims of being a market-oriented economy, many of its biggest companies retain strong relationships with the government.
"It's all decided by the personnel department of the Communist Party," said Tsinghua's Chovanec.
"These postings should be seen as precisely that, they are postings to give them experience and put them in management roles," he said. "These are not traditional banking paths."
And unlike most other executives where job-hopping between companies is common, few top Chinese executives have ever made the jump from the world of state-backed lending to foreign-run banks or financial services companies, despite the promise of higher salaries.
"It could make a lot of sense if knows the American system," said a former senior Chinese banker who knows CCB's Guo personally.
"But I think when you're that high in the system and then have to work for a foreigner -- I don't think China's ready for that kind of switch yet."
(Editing by Don Durfee and Alex Richardson)
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ST. LOUIS ? Long-time California newspaper publisher and Associated Press board member Howard H "Tim" Hays has died in St. Louis.
Hays' stewardship of The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., for a half-century included a First Amendment fight resulting in two landmark Supreme Court rulings ensuring open courtrooms throughout the country.
Hays died Friday after a period in declining health due to Alzheimer's. He was 94.
The Harvard University-trained lawyer was editor of The Press-Enterprise for nearly all his 51 years there. He grew daily circulation from 18,000 in 1946 to 167,000 in 1997, when the newspaper was sold.
Along the way, the newspaper collected a Pulitzer Prize for community service for a series of more than 100 stories exposing corruption in the courts by judges and lawyers who were conservators for the estates of local Indian tribe members.
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