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SINGAPORE ? Oil prices hovered below $100 a barrel Friday in Asia amid encouraging signs the U.S. economy is slowly improving.
Benchmark crude for February delivery rose 12 cents to $99.77 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 29 cents to settle at $99.65 in New York on Thursday.
In London, Brent crude was down 6 cents at $107.95 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Crude has traded near $100 since mid-November after jumping from $75 in October as investors eye growing evidence the U.S. economy could avoid a recession next year. The government reported Thursday that claims for jobless benefits fell to a four-week average of 375,000, the lowest level in three and a half years.
The National Association of Realtors also reported that contracts to buy U.S. homes rose last month to the highest level in a year and a half.
Some analysts worry Europe's debt crisis will drag the continent into recession next year and undermine global crude demand.
"From a longer term perspective, we continue to zero in on the euro zone as the primary driver of oil pricing during the first quarter of 2012," energy consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. "We still view the euro zone debt issues as intractable."
Traders are also closely watching tensions between Iran and Western powers over Tehran's nuclear power program. Iran threatened this week to close the key oil export passage of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf if the U.S. and other nations tighten sanctions. The U.S. Navy said it would not tolerate any move to limit the strait's traffic.
Energy trader Blue Ocean Brokerage said oil prices would likely eventually jump by about $50 if Iran, OPEC's second-biggest crude exporter, tried to close the strait.
"Let's start with an easy $20 spike, then add in a risk premium for insurance costs, delays, costs to push oil through alternative routes and the obvious loss of 3.5 million barrels a day from Iran," energy trader Blue Ocean Brokerage said in a report.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 0.7 cent to $2.93 per gallon and gasoline futures slid 0.3 cent at $2.67 per gallon. Natural gas futures were down 2.3 cents to $3.00 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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All Critics (54) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (1)
'Tis the season, so the saying goes. And when it comes to Aki Kaurism?ki, it holds true. The Finnish writer-director arrives bearing a gift wrapped in a contemporary immigration fable.
If the bummers and ambiguity of some of this season's movies are getting you down - or, hey, just the bummers and ambiguities of life - make your way to Le Havre. You won't be sorry.
The Finnish director's sense of humor is dry and dark as pitch, as he consistently finds moments of absurdity in the midst of strife and tragedy.
Kaurism?ki wrote the script, I think, with secret credit from Mother Goose and some fabric softener.
"Le Havre" is a small bit of movie magic, a story that plays more as a fable even as it deals with something as topical as immigration.
The film is especially comforting if you love old movies, as Kaurismaki does.
While the film never reaches any hugely profound revelations with its parable-styled stories of compassion and community, and occasionally feels a little slight, it's also enormously enjoyable and gorgeous to watch.
It's a puzzle, and an intriguing one.
In two stories of evolving trust and secrets, Le Havre reflects the essential simplicity of the moral choices made in its simple-seeming camera set-ups.
Kaurismaki's movie about a shoeshine man and an illegal immigrant is nothing less than a joy
A wonderfully concise, unfussy movie; it is "easy" by the director's standards, which is to say that it doesn't leave any significant ellipses in the narrative up until the aggressively darling ending.
...an upbeat little tome that leaves a good feeling to the spirit.
Kaurism?ki can almost restore your hope in humanity.
Kaurismaki dives into French film culture in 'Le Havre'
You almost become a citizen of Le Havre, watching this film and rejoicing at the end as two newfound, unexpected friends share a drink.
It's a straightforward yet completely artificial scenario, with welcome overtones of Italian Neo-Realism.
Unlike the director's typical hero, Wilms's spare performance conveys confidence rather than defeat. He and the kid warm the heart, thawing Kaurism?ki's usual icy aplomb.
Heart-wrenching but ultimately inspirational.
Le Havre is not the filmmaker's best work (see La Vie de Boh?me for that), but no matter the storm, we should be grateful to dock in this port.
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SALT LAKE CITY?? A Utah woman used Facebook to seek help after she and her 17-month-old son were held hostage at a residence for nearly five days, police said.
Only on msnbc.com
Police Sgt. Jon Arnold said the woman hid in a closet with a laptop to post her plea for help on the social networking website, saying she and her son would be "dead by morning" if they were not rescued.
The post prompted someone to call police, who went to the home to check on the woman's welfare.
"Facebook was her only outlet that she had at the home," Arnold said. "It just happened that she was able to use it."
Police arrested Troy Reed Critchfield, 33, and booked him into jail Saturday for investigation of aggravated kidnapping, forcible sodomy, aggravated assault, domestic violence, child abuse, animal cruelty and other charges.
Salt Lake County Jail records show Critchfield initially refused to let police in the house.
The papers say the woman shook her head to indicate "No," when officers asked if she was OK.
After police separated the couple, the woman told officers she and her child had not been allowed to leave the home and that she repeatedly had been hit, choked and sexually abused over a period of nearly five days. Jail records show the woman also claimed Critchfield had taken her cell phone and the phone of a disabled child also in the home.
"She claims that any time she went to go to a door, he physically assaulted her," Arnold told The Associated Press on Monday.
Story: Man jailed after Facebooking a store burglaryThe woman had bruises and other physical injuries consistent with allegations, but refused to go to a hospital for treatment, he said.
She also told officers that Critchfield grabbed the boy's arms and treated him roughly, while also refusing to let her feed the family dog, jail papers state.
Critchfield remained in jail on Monday. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
Utah State Court records show that in December 2010 Critchfield pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault and obstruction of justice charges in connection with a domestic violence incident.
A judge sentenced Critchfield to a prison term of five years, but suspended the punishment for a 120-day jail term and three years of probation.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45792838/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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CAMP ZAMA, Japan ? Martial arts such as judo, jujitsu, kendo and karate are modern vestiges of Japan?s centuries-old warrior tradition.
Now soldiers stationed in Japan who master U.S. Army Combatives ? a hand-to-hand combat system that borrows many of its techniques from Japanese martial arts ? will have the chance to study at the Japan Self-Defense Force Physical Training School as part a new initiative between the JSDF and U.S. Army.
The opportunity came about when Maj. Gen. Makato Hatanaka, commandant of the Japanese school, observed a U.S. Army Combatives class in October and liked what he saw, according to Camp Zama-based instructor Leonardo Munoz.
Hatanaka and U.S. Army Japan commander Maj. Gen. Michael Harrison later agreed that senior U.S. Combatives instructors will train at the Japanese school, while Japanese troops will learn Combatives at Camp Zama, Munoz said. The first exchange is slated for February, he said.
?When I think of Japanese culture, I think of martial arts,? said Capt. Joseph Proctor, 33, a Level IV Army Combatives instructor at Camp Zama. ?Any opportunity to train with a Japanese master would be something to take back and really be proud of. It?s something you?d tell your grandkids about.?
Martial arts such as judo and jujitsu had their origin in the Samurai?s Bushido code ? the way of the warrior, Proctor said.
U.S. personnel don?t know much about the Japanese military?s hand-to-hand combat techniques but they are keen to learn, Proctor said.
?We work closely together here in Japan,? he said. ?In a combat situation where there is close-quarters fighting, it would be good to have an understanding of their capabilities and vice versa.?
Proctor said he?s interested to learn about Japanese rules of engagement, which would dictate situations in which they could escalate force and use lethal or nonlethal techniques.
?If (we are working together and) they expect us to immediately escalate to a technique and we are not familiar with it, we might be letting them down, he said.
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The quality of the emotional relationship between a mother and her young child could affect the potential for that child to be obese during adolescence, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed national data detailing relationship characteristics between mothers and their children during their toddler years. The lower the quality of the relationship in terms of the child's emotional security and the mother's sensitivity, the higher the risk that a child would be obese at age 15 years, according to the analysis.
Among those toddlers who had the lowest-quality emotional relationships with their mothers, more than a quarter were obese as teens, compared to 13 percent of adolescents who had closer bonds with their mothers in their younger years.
The findings mirror previous research by these scientists that showed toddlers who did not have a secure emotional relationship with their parents were at increased risk for obesity by age 4 ?. This body of work suggests the areas of the brain that control emotions and stress responses, as well as appetite and energy balance, could be working together to influence the likelihood that a child will be obese.
Rather than blaming parents for childhood obesity, the researchers say these findings suggest that obesity prevention efforts should consider strategies to improve the mother-child bond and not focus exclusively on eating and exercise.
"It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children's food intake and activity," said Sarah Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.
"The sensitivity a mother displays in interacting with her child may be influenced by factors she can't necessarily control. Societally, we need to think about how we can support better-quality maternal-child relationships because that could have an impact on child health," she said.
The study appears online and is scheduled for publication in the January 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The researchers analyzed data from 977 participants in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a project of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The sample in this national study included diverse families living in nine U.S. states whose children were born in 1991.
As part of that national study, trained observers assessed child attachment security and maternal sensitivity by documenting interactions between mothers and their children at three time points: when the children were 15, 24 and 36 months old.
In the maternal sensitivity assessment, mothers were instructed to play with their child while investigators rated several aspects of each mother's behavior, including supportiveness and respect for autonomy as well as signs of intrusiveness or hostility. Investigators rated attachment security of the children at age 15 and 36 months by monitoring a child's separation from and reunion with the mother. At 24 months, researchers assessed children's attachment security by observing mothers and children in their home.
Maternal sensitivity refers to a mother's ability to recognize her child's emotional state and respond with comfort, consistency and warmth. Psychologists describe securely attached children as those who rely on their parents as a "safe haven," which allows them to explore their environments freely, adapt easily to new people and be comforted in stressful situations. Toddlers who are insecurely attached tend to have experienced negative or unpredictable parenting, and may respond to stress with extreme anger, fear or anxiety, or avoid or refuse interactions with others.
Using these assessments of maternal sensitivity and child attachment security, Anderson and colleagues developed a maternal-child relationship quality score for their own statistical analysis. With a range of zero to six, the score served as an aggregate measure of a child's early relationship experience: Each point reflected a child's display of insecure attachment or a mother's ranking in the lowest quartile of sensitivity at one of the three assessment time points. The researchers designated a score equal to or greater than three as indicating a poor-quality emotional relationship.
The researchers calculated the body mass index (BMI) of the children using their heights and weights measured at or near age 15 years. BMIs were converted into percentiles for age and sex based on growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In accordance with current guidelines, children were considered obese if their BMI scores were at or above the 95th percentile on those charts.
A total of 241 children, or 24.7 percent, were classified as having a poor quality maternal-child relationship during early childhood based on a score of three or higher. The prevalence of obesity in adolescence was 26.1 percent among these children with the poorest early maternal-child relationships. The teen obesity prevalence was lower for children with better maternal relationships: 15.5 percent, 12.1 percent and 13 percent among those who had scores of two, one and zero, respectively.
Accounting for children's gender and birth weight ? two of several sociodemographic factors that also can influence the quality of the maternal-child relationship and risk for obesity ? children with the poorest quality early maternal-child relationship were almost 2 ? times as likely to be obese as adolescents than were children who had the best relationships with their mothers.
Anderson and colleagues suggest that this association between early childhood experiences and teen obesity has origins in the brain. The limbic system in the brain controls responses to stress as well as the sleep/wake cycle, hunger and thirst, and a variety of metabolic processes, mostly through the regulation of hormones.
"Sensitive parenting increases the likelihood that a child will have a secure pattern of attachment and develop a healthy response to stress," Anderson said. "A well-regulated stress response could in turn influence how well children sleep and whether they eat in response to emotional distress ? just two factors that affect the likelihood for obesity."
Obesity may be one manifestation of dysregulation in the functioning of the stress response system. Parents help children develop a healthy response to stress by protecting children from extreme levels of stress, responding supportively and consistently to normal levels of stress, and modeling behavioral responses to stress.
"The evidence here is supportive of the association between a poor-quality maternal-child relationship and an increased chance for adolescent obesity," Anderson said. "Interventions are effective in increasing maternal sensitivity and enhancing young children's ability to regulate their emotions, but the effect of these interventions on children's obesity risk is not known, and we think it would be worth investigating."
###
Ohio State University: http://researchnews.osu.edu
Thanks to Ohio State University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116322/Study_links_quality_of_mother_toddler_relationship_to_teen_obesity
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FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2010 file photo, volunteers take phone calls and answer emails at the Santa Tracking Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colo. Santa is already piling up monster numbers on social networking sites this season, so the volunteer Santa-trackers at NORAD are bracing for tens of thousands of calls and emails when their operations center goes live on Christmas Eve. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2010 file photo, volunteers take phone calls and answer emails at the Santa Tracking Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colo. Santa is already piling up monster numbers on social networking sites this season, so the volunteer Santa-trackers at NORAD are bracing for tens of thousands of calls and emails when their operations center goes live on Christmas Eve. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2010 file photo, Air Force Lt. Col. David Hanson, of Chicago, takes a phone call from a child in Florida at the Santa Tracking Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colo. Santa is already piling up monster numbers on social networking sites this season, so the volunteer Santa-trackers at NORAD are bracing for tens of thousands of calls and emails when their operations center goes live on Christmas Eve. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
DENVER (AP) ? Santa Claus set records Christmas Eve as he raced across the globe on his traditional holiday mission.
Santa tracking volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado said they fielded about 102,000 telephone queries beginning early Saturday on his progress, breaking the previous mark of 80,000.
And his NORAD Facebook page recorded about 999,000 "likes," compared with 716,000 a year ago. Twitter followers increased from about 53,000 last year to more than 89,000.
Officials said records set this year were likely generated by people passing the word as well as social media interest.
"I think what happens is that every year the ones that participated" tell others, Canadian Navy Lt. Al Blondin. "There's word of mouth."
Volunteers at NORAD Tracks Santa said kids started calling at 4 a.m. Saturday to find out where Santa was.
"The phones are ringing like crazy," Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis said Saturday.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been telling anxious children about Santa's whereabouts every year since 1955. That was the year a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hotline, but the number had a typo, and dozens of kids wound up talking to the Continental Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.
The officers on duty played along and began sharing reports on Santa's progress. It's now a tradition at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command that monitors the North American skies and seas from a control center at Peterson.
First lady Michelle Obama was among the volunteers for a second year in a row. She took about 10 calls from her family's holiday vacation in Hawaii. Lewis said Obama's voice didn't throw any of the phoning children.
"They all just asked run-of-the-mill stuff. They wanted to know about Santa," Lewis said.
After visiting many nations, Santa's first stop in the U.S. came at 9:02 p.m. MST in Atlanta, Blondin said.
The NORAD website said Santa then set a generally westward course, making numerous stops including Cleveland, Denver and San Francisco. He later passed through Hawaii and Alaska before setting his home course for the North Pole.
In addition to NORAD's Santa website and Facebook and Twitter pages, Santa this year has a new tracking app for smart phones. The app includes the Elf Toss, a game similar to Angry Birds. Blondin said there had been more than 700,000 downloads.
___
Online:
http://www.noradsanta.org
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CONCORD, N.H. ? Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren. Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans. Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.
Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination is quickly becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.
Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for the husbands they've loyally campaigned for. Romney extols her husband's character and says "to me that makes a huge difference" in a candidate. Perry tells the "old-fashioned American story" of how she and her husband were high school sweethearts who had to wait until he was done flying airplanes around the world for the Air Force before they could marry. Callista Gingrich wishes the nation a Merry Christmas "from our family to yours" in husband Newt Gingrich's new holiday-themed TV ad.
Candidate kids, including those born to Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, are helping, too, acting as surrogates, strategists and, in some cases, sounding boards for parents competing for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
"There are times when I wonder why I'm not sitting in the coffee shop on campus with my friends, lightheartedly discussing ('Saturday Night Live') videos, how bad the cafeteria is, what our plans are for Friday night or how absolutely swamped we are with school work," Santorum's daughter Elizabeth lamented in a recent blog post. "But this is where God wanted me."
She has taken time off from her junior year at the University of Dallas to serve as a self-described "field staffer/phone banker/chauffeur/surrogate speaker," for her father, primarily in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.
Her father, who hopes Iowa's socially conservative voters turn out for him on caucus night Jan. 3, rolled out an ad late last week featuring the entire Santorum clan, including the family German shepherd, Schotzy. The spot highlights his 21-year marriage to his wife, Karen, notes that he has coached Little League and introduces viewers to the youngest of the couple's seven children, Isabella, born in 2008 with a genetic disorder.
Sometimes the family members campaign with the candidates and other times they go it alone.
Such family involvement carries risks and benefits. The stories they tell often humanize the candidates and help voters relate to them. But the things they say, and do, can sometimes cause headaches for the campaign advisers who are left to try to figure out a way out.
While Rick Perry spent several days campaigning in Iowa recently, his wife was hundreds of miles away in New Hampshire emphasizing his small-town upbringing and conservative values at a retirement community chapel. Audience members then peppered her with detailed questions about such subjects as taxes, immigration and the death penalty.
"She handled them quite well," said Sid Schoeffler, an independent voter from Concord. "When she knew the answer or knew the campaign's story line, she recited it. And when she didn't know, she said so. I thought that was refreshing."
"Compared to what I expected, she made a favorable impression," he said. "But whether it's enough to swing my vote, I don't know yet."
Earlier in the year, as Bachmann rose in public opinion, her husband, Marcus, was forced to defend his Christian counseling business from claims that its therapies included "curing" people of being gay. With Bachmann now near the back of the GOP pack in polls, Marcus Bachmann joined her at the start of her bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties but was quickly replaced by four of their five children.
"My husband had to go home. We're small-business owners and someone had to go home and mind the store," Bachmann told one crowd. And at one point, Bachmann, who began losing her voice in the middle of the jam-packed tour, turned over the microphone to son Harrison, a teacher who talks up his family's ties to the state, and teased: "Harrison, say some nice things about me and you'll get extra cookies."
In Paul's case, he's probably hoping validation from his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party, will give him a boost with that pivotal constituency in Iowa. Rand Paul is also appearing in a television ad for his father.
Romney's five-son family and wife of more than four decades have long been a part of his presidential campaigns. But the spotlight has been shining more brightly on his wife and their brood in recent weeks as the campaign seeks to cast the former Massachusetts governor as a person of "steadiness and constancy" while drawing a contrast with the thrice-married Gingrich.
Ann Romney also has spoken openly about how her husband supported her through her struggle with multiple sclerosis.
Huntsman's wife and the couple's three oldest daughters are near-constant companions in New Hampshire, the only state where the former Utah governor is earnestly campaigning. His daughters recently generated a huge amount of buzz with a video spoof of an ad by former rival Herman Cain. They donned oversized glasses and fake mustaches to look like Cain's campaign manager.
"We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate's family has," one daughter said in the ad. "But then again, no one's ever seen a trio like the Jon2012 girls."
___
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks rose on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 on the cusp of finishing out the year higher as another decline in jobless claims pointed to further improvement in the labor market.
The S&P rose for a third day in seasonally light volume that has contributed to sharp swings recently. With the benchmark index near break-even year-to-date and the Dow already higher for 2011, U.S. stocks appeared on track to outperform such major overseas markets as China, Brazil and Europe, all of which are down more than 10 percent year-to-date.
The latest bit of optimism on Wall Street came from a drop in weekly claims for jobless benefits to a 3-1/2-year low. Also helping equities, U.S. consumer sentiment improved in December, hitting its highest level in six months as Americans felt better about the economy's prospects.
"This is supportive of the fact that the economy is gaining momentum and that the fourth quarter will be much better than people were expecting even just a month ago," said Jim McDonald, chief investment strategist at Chicago-based Northern Trust Global Investments.
Cyclicals, which have come under pressure recent from uncertainties over global growth, were the day's top gainers, with financials (.GSPF) gaining 2.1 percent, followed by energy (.GSPE) up 1.1 percent and materials (.GSPM), up 0.9 percent.
Consumer staples (.GSPS), considered a defensive play, was the weakest sector, falling 0.2 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 61.84 points, or 0.51 percent, at 12,169.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 10.29 points, or 0.83 percent, at 1,254.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 21.48 points, or 0.83 percent, at 2,599.45.
The CBOE Volatility index (.VIX), a gauge of investor fear, fell 1.4 percent and is down about 13 percent so far this week, putting it on track for four weeks of declines.
Recent gains have lifted the S&P 500 above its 50-day moving average, though the index has run into trouble when it sought to move above its 200-day moving average, currently around 1,260. The levels have been key for the market this year.
Lower volume ahead of the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays has left the market susceptible to the heightened volatility this week.
Investors warned that a year-end rally would not necessarily translate into elevated expectations for 2012 because many of the issues that hit the market this year, such as slow growth and Europe's debt crisis, remained unresolved.
"Next year will be a tug of war between better economic data here and the prospects for emerging market growth to pick up on one hand, with the European debt crisis on the other side of the rope," said McDonald, who helps oversee about $650 billion in assets.
A downward revision of the U.S. Commerce Department's figures on third-quarter economic growth had little impact on stocks, with investors focused on the economy's performance in the fourth quarter.
The Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter, down from its prior estimate of 2 percent.
Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) jumped 15.7 percent to $6.41 as investors looked past limp quarterly results announced late Wednesday and focused on a potential 2012 rebound in long-stagnant memory chip demand and prices.
Tibco Software Inc (TIBX.O) climbed 8 percent to $23.76 after the business software maker forecast first-quarter revenue above estimates and said fourth-quarter profit and revenues soared.
American Greetings Corp (AM.N) slumped 21.1 percent to $13.39 after third-quarter profit dropped nearly 40 percent and warned 2012 cash flow would be hurt by higher expenses.
Almost three-fourths of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher while 63 percent of Nasdaq-listed shares ended in positive territory.
Volume was light, with about 5.88 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's daily average of 8.47 billion.
(Reporting By Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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LONDON (Reuters) ? European stocks rallied and the euro was well bid Wednesday as investors priced in an improvement in the economic outlook and looked forward to a big take up by banks of the European Central Bank's first-ever offer of three-year loans.
Stocks and commodities began an end of year rally Tuesday when German data encouraged hopes Europe's largest economy would avoid a recession. This was followed by better-than-expected U.S. housing data and new Federal Reserve capital proposals for banks, which turned out to be less onerous than some had feared.
The ECB will offer banks unlimited amounts of low-cost, three-year funds against collateral now more broadly defined, which many analysts hope will encourage buying of high-yielding Spanish and Italian bonds, helping ease the crisis in the euro bloc.
"A significant uptake is all but guaranteed and that's something that could continue this 'risk-on' (mood)," said Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney.
The FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of leading shares rose 0.7 percent in early trading, but is still down some 13 percent in 2011, as the euro zone debt crisis and worries about a recession have taken their toll.
The euro stood at $1.312, up 0.3 percent after rising to an Asian session high of $1.31278 on heavy short-covering. The single currency gained 0.6 percent Tuesday and rose as high as $1.3132, well off an 11-month low seen last week of $1.2945.
German government bonds are edging lower ahead of the ECB operation but in very low volumes as the holiday season approaches.
Italian and Spanish government 10-year bond yields have fallen to around 6.62 percent and 5.14 percent respectively, moving further away from the levels above 7 percent that were widely seen as unsustainable.
Sources in Milan have told Reuters more than 10 Italian banks, including major lenders, were looking to apply for the ECB loans by using state-guaranteed bonds as collateral.
But it was also likely that some banks would use the funds to repay their own debts as they strive to get rid of bad assets and improve their balance sheets amid strong regulatory pressures to beef up their core capital.
Analysts say the long-term ECB loans will lower the cost for euro zone banks to borrow euros in the open market, but won't reduce their dollar funding costs.
U.S. stocks rallied nearly 3 percent Tuesday as investors bought surging banks, homebuilders and networking companies, though low volume was seen as amplifying the market's move.
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi)
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FRIDAY, Dec. 16 (HealthDay News) -- The number of women with breast cancer who receive targeted radiation to the breast after a lumpectomy has jumped dramatically over the last decade.
However, only about a third of these women were considered "suitable" for the treatment, according to criteria used in a new study published in the Dec. 16 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
But guidelines on which women should or should not receive this type of radiation treatment, known as brachytherapy, are only newly published and it's unclear what the findings might mean to current breast cancer patients.
Use of "accelerated partial breast irradiation using brachytherapy" has risen steadily since about 2002, said study author Dr. Jona Hattangadi, a radiation oncologist with Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program in Boston.
Although brachytherapy is vastly more convenient (taking place over the course of a week rather than six weeks), the worry is that directed radiation isn't comprehensive enough to find and kill all cancer cells lingering in the breast as compared with the current standard, whole breast radiation (WBI).
So, in 2009, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued the first guidelines for the use of brachytherapy, which identified patients as either "suitable," "cautionary" (suitability unclear) or "unsuitable" for the treatment, depending on a number of factors including age as well as various tumor characteristics.
These authors rounded up data on 138,815 U.S. women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer from 2000 to 2007 and who had either undergone brachytherapy or whole breast irradiation after a lumpectomy.
Some 2.6 percent of women underwent brachytherapy, two thirds of whom were either deemed "cautionary" (29.6 percent) or "unsuitable" (36.2 percent) according to ASTRO criteria.
Only about a third (32 percent) of patients would have been considered suitable under ASTRO's recommendations, the study authors said.
Use of brachytherapy rose from less than 1 percent in 2000 to almost 7 percent in 2007, but this varied greatly between geographical regions, the researchers noted.
For instance, women in urban areas were more likely to get brachytherapy than women in rural areas, which is surprising given that rural women would have the most to benefit from the convenience.
And white women were more likely to get brachytherapy than black women if they were considered "cautionary" or "unsuitable."
It's unclear what accounts for the variation or for the rise in numbers, although the authors did postulate that reimbursement patterns may play a role. Medicare started reimbursing for brachytherapy in 2004.
The main drawback of this study, the authors acknowledged, is that the data was gathered before the ASTRO guidelines were published.
Dr. Eric Horwitz, M.D., chair of radiation oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, agreed that brachytherapy is "not for everybody" but that "it's an excellent technique if used on the right patients."
But who is the right patient? Generally people with smaller, localized tumors, he said.
Still, in the absence of long-term data, Hattangadi recommends that women getting treatment for early-stage breast cancer have a "thorough discussion with their physicians on the pros and cons of the approach."
The findings come just a week after presenters at a national conference found that women who had brachytherapy had double the rate of mastectomy later on compared with women who got whole breast irradiation. That study was led by Dr. Benjamin Smith of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on radiation therapy for cancer.
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The Kody Brown Bunch is hoping to rewrite the rule books in Utah.
The polygamous clan made famous on the TLC hit reality series "Sister Wives" has asked a federal judge in Utah to continue to let them challenge the state's bigamy laws.
Here's what went down today.
MORE: Sister Wives' Polygamy Clan: We Live in Fear Because of Utah's Bigamy Law
Lawyers for Brown and his four wives ? Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn ? offered oral arguments this morning for an hour-and-a-half before U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups, who, according to his clerk, took the case "under advisement" and plans to rule on the matter at an unspecified future date.
"The court gave us a fair hearing and we will await his decision," Brown's attorney and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley tells E! News. "We are committed to pursuing these claims on behalf of the Brown family wherever they take us in the legal system."
The family filed a lawsuit in Salt Lake City District Court back in July claiming Utah's bigamy law is unconstitutional because it criminalizes their private sexual relationships and prohibits them from living together. They've told the court they fear being punished by the statute, which they say has caused them irreprable harm and forced them to temporarily move to Nevada.
"The Brown's remain subject to potential persecution due to their status as a plural family," reads the complaint. "The family used their savings and moved their 17 children to Nevada in January after the state of Utah opened up a bigamy investigation on them."
(Kody is legally married only to Meri and the other three "sister wives" are so-called "commitments.")
The ever-expanding family belongs to the Apostolic United Brethren Church, which is centered in Salt Lake City, but per court docs, "due to the low of AUB members in Nevada, the Brown's cannot fully perform their religious practices outside of Utah and must return to Utah to engage in certain religious practices."
MORE: Sister Wives Take Their Big Love to the Silver State
Shows from "Dexter" to "The Walking Dead" have made kids in danger the dramatic thrust of their finale storylines. "The Wa...
Part of the suit's aim is to make it safe for the Brown's and their 21-strong brood to move back to Utah.
"This family is asking no more than any family deserves: to be heard in the courts," says Turley. "This challenge was brought to benefit not just polygamists but all citizens who wish to live their lives according to their own values ? even if those values run counter to those of the majority in the state."
The Utah Attorney General's Office has asked Waddoups to toss the suit on the grounds that because it's unlikely prosecutors will go after the clan and the family failed to show how they've been injured by the state.
AG Mark Shurtleff has previously said his staff does not have the resources to prosecute polygamists unless they discovered more serious offenses, such as incest , statutory rape or abuse.
None of the Browns attended today's proceeding, prefering to let their attorneys do the talking on behalf of their privacy rights.
"While the state has asked for the courthouse doors to be shut to this family," says Turley, "we believe they have a right to be heard on the unconstitutionality of this law."
PICS: Check out some slightly less complicated famous families
? 2011 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45703754/ns/today-entertainment/
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Job applicants register at an employment fair in Denver, Colo.
By Reuters
The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a 3-1/2-year low last week, suggesting a weak U.S. economy is gradually improving even though factory data proved more mixed.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 366,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the lowest level since May 2008, and confounded economist' expectations for a rise to 390,000.
In separate reports, two regional Fed business surveys showed stronger than expected growth in December.
The New York Federal Reserve Bank said its "Empire State" general business conditions index rose to 9.53 - the highest since May - from 0.61 in December. The index was boosted by a strong rebound in new orders and an improvement in hiring.
The Philadelphia Fed said its index of business conditions rose to 10.3 in December from 3.6 the previous month on a surge in new orders.
However, a report from the Federal Reserve on U.S. industrial production offered some reason for pause. Output dropped 0.2 percent in November, the first drop since April and much weaker than forecasts for a 0.2 percent gain.
"The data is in line with a modestly improving overall economy here in the United Sates," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Economists cautioned that troubles in Europe remain a major risk to U.S. growth, with fresh signs emerging on Thursday that the crisis in dampening production in Asia.
Some domestic risks are also lurking as lawmakers continue to haggle over extending a payroll tax cut and emergency jobless claims for U.S. workers. Failure to reach a compromise could dent the expansion early next year.
The unexpected drop in claims last week pushed them closer to the 350,000 mark that analysts say would signal a more sustained improvement in the job market.
It offered further proof of increased momentum in the pace of economic activity, even though retail sales rose modestly in November. This is in sharp contrast to Europe, where the festering debt crisis has already pushed some economies into recession.
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday acknowledged the improvement in the jobs market, but said unemployment remained high. The jobless rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6 percent in November.
The U.S. central bank said the debt crisis gripping Europe was a big risk to the U.S. economy, which it described as "expanding moderately."
A second report from the Labor Department showed producer prices rose slightly more than expected in November, while the year-on-year rate for prices excluding food and energy increased by the most in nearly 2-1/2 years.
The Labor Department said its seasonally adjusted index for prices received by farms, factories and refineries increased 0.3 percent, unwinding October's 0.3 percent fall.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected wholesale prices to increase 0.2 percent.
Excluding volatile food and energy, producer prices edged up 0.1 percent last month after being flat in October. That was below economists' expectations for a 0.3 percent gain.
But in the 12 months to November, core producer prices rose 2.9 percent, the largest increase since June 2009, after increasing 2.8 percent the prior month.
The report showed broad gains in producer prices but labor market slack could make it difficult for companies to pass on the increased costs to consumers.
The improving labor market tone was also highlighted by a drop in the four-week moving average of claims to the lowest since mid-July 2008.
The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid edged up 4,000 to 3.6 million in the week ended December 3.
Economists had forecast so-called continuing claims rising to 3.63 million from a previously reported 3.58 million.
In a further hint of economic strength, the U.S. current account deficit narrowed to $110.3 billion during the third quarter, its lowest level in nearly two years, as exports hit another record high, a government report showed on Thursday.
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The three Samwer brothers (Oliver, Marc and Alexander) founders of the Rocket Internet incubator in Berlin, are the most successful Internet entrepreneurs in Germany and possibly Europe. After launching and exiting multiple businesses, many of them clones/copycats of US startups, they are multi-millionaires. Indeed, their Groupon clone CityDeal sold to to Groupon for an estimated ?750m in cash and shares. But much of that success looks threatened by the departure of at least 20 of its key staff in the last two weeks - including CTO- level people - and possibly as much as 40, according to multiple sources spoken to by TechCrunch Europe. While Rocket Internet has around 200 people on staff, losing key heads could be a severe blow to the renowned incubator. The timing could not be worse for the Samwers, who are understood to be in the middle of raising at least a billion dollar financing round designed to clone every successful US startup, to launch them outside the US much faster and become a larger global player than many of the Silicon Valley businesses they plan to copy.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Fa0YERar6yQ/
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Lawmakers, urged on by President Barack Obama, raced against the clock on Thursday to keep the government funded beyond Friday and extend a worker tax cut and jobless benefits.
Republicans and Democrats appeared to be backing away from a high-stakes game of "chicken" that has brought the U.S. government to the brink of a shutdown for the third time in a year and threatened an effective tax hike on 160 million people in 2012.
Party leaders likely fear a backlash from angry voters who already have lost confidence in Congress's ability to pass even the most basic legislation and will get a chance to render their verdict in the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.-
Negotiators were trying to reach a final deal on a spending bill to fund many government agencies, including the Defense Department, through the fiscal year that ends September 30.
Meanwhile, aides to congressional leaders were trying to craft a compromise bill that would extend a payroll tax cut for another year and long-term unemployment benefits.
Aides to Democrats and Republicans were trying to resolve remaining differences over individual spending items in the funding bill. In separate negotiations they were trying to find agreement on how to cover the $120 billion cost of the payroll tax cut extension and whether some long-term jobless benefits should be scaled back.
A flurry of meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon suggested that the brinkmanship had given way to negotiations that could, barring a last-minute breakdown, produce deals to fund the government through September 2012 and extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.
"Congress should not and cannot go on vacation before they have made sure that working families aren't seeing their taxes go up by $1,000 and those who are out there looking for work don't see their unemployment insurance expire," Obama said.
Shortly after he spoke, top lawmakers from both parties began renegotiating a $915 billion spending bill.
Unless legislation is passed by midnight Friday, many key federal agencies, including the Defense Department, Homeland Security and Environmental Protection Agency, will run out of money.
There were some major differences between Democrats and Republicans over policy initiatives backed by federal funds, such as whether to place new restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba.
There also was division within Republicans ranks over the spending bill and a push to extend the payroll tax cut.
House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said he expects the spending bill to win passage. But some veteran Republicans, like Representative Steve King, said they were not so sure, especially with a pricetag that troubles conservatives.
"I think they are short of votes right now," King said. But he predicted leadership would ultimately round them up.
Lawmakers were also negotiating on how to extend the payroll tax cut for workers that is set to expire on December 31.
"By the end of the day we should have a good sense of whether we're on the compromise track or the train wreck track," said a senior Senate Democratic aide of the spending and tax bills.
Democrats want to attach to the payroll tax cut extension a continuation of long-term unemployment benefits that will start phasing out early next year. Republicans want to scale back those benefits.
The payroll tax cut would give 160 million Americans about $1,000 a year in additional spending power. The White House and a number of economists say it would boost the country's fragile economic recovery, although many Republicans question that.
The heightened activity on Capitol Hill on Thursday raised hopes that Congress would avoid the first government shutdown since late 1995 and early 1996.
Earlier in the day, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he was "confident and optimistic we'll be able to resolve both (bills) on a bipartisan basis."
But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, at a separate press conference, raised the possibility of Congress having to pass a seventh stop-gap spending bill to give more time for negotiators to work out a deal on funding through September 30.
After meeting with Obama on Wednesday, Senate Democrats backed down on their demand for a surtax on income over $1 million to pay for the payroll tax cut. But they will still be able to campaign for re-election telling their core supporters that they fought for months for a tax hike on the wealthy.
On Thursday Senate leaders were negotiating over alternative ways to cover the $120 billion cost of the payroll tax cut extension.
(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Kim Dixon, Thomas Ferraro, Donna Smith and Caren Bohan; Editing by Ross Colvin and Bill Trott)
(Reporting by Richard Cowan)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111215/ts_nm/us_usa_taxes
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