Onion's last stand secures England draw

CENTURION, South Africa (AFP) –
Last man Graham Onions played out a tense final over from Makhaya Ntini as England escaped with a draw on the fifth and final day of the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park on Sunday.

The match seemed to be heading for a routine draw when Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen batted together for more than three hours but South African new cap Friedel de Wet produced an inspired spell with the second new ball to leave England hanging on.

"The emotion in our dressing room is excitement about getting so close and bowling so well," said South African captain Graeme Smith.

"We finished the match on top and played the better cricket throughout the Test match. We will go into (the second Test in) Durban with a lot of confidence."

De Wet dismissed Trott in the second over with the new ball and had a spell of three for three in five overs. Five wickets fell in the final 15 overs but Paul Collingwood and Onions survived the last 20 balls .

It was a tense finish reminiscent of the first Ashes Test against Australia in Cardiff earlier this year when England were also nine down at the end.

But England captain Andrew Strauss said the circumstances were different.

"In Cardiff, for the majority of the day, we were behind the eight ball. For the majority of today we were heading for a draw. It would have been very disappointing if we had lost."

England, set 364 to win, finished on 228 for nine.

Trott, who came to the wicket after the dismissal of nightwatchman James Anderson in the third over of the day, defied the South African bowlers for 317 minutes and faced 212 balls in making 69.

Pietersen was more aggressive in making 81 off 143 deliveries as the pair put on 145 for the fourth wicket.

The partnership was only broken two overs after tea when Pietersen pushed the ball into the covers and set off for a suicidal run. Trott did not respond and bowler De Wet had plenty of time to pick up the ball and trot to the batsman's end to break the wicket.

Trott batted through until the second new ball, taken when just over an hour's play remained.

Until then, remarkably few deliveries had behaved unusually off the pitch, in contrast to the previous two days.

But De Wet made the hard new ball fly off a length and it ripped into Trott's right glove and deflected to third slip where AB de Villiers made a diving catch.

De Wet had Ian Bell caught behind four overs later and England were six down with a maximum of 10.4 overs remaining.

Matt Prior also fell to a catch behind off De Wet before Stuart Broad was caught behind off left-arm spinner Paul Harris and Graeme Swann was leg before to Morne Morkel.

South African hopes were raised early in the day when Anderson gloved De Wet down the legside to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher.

Alastair Cook defended resolutely for 79 minutes and 56 balls, scoring 12 runs, before he too was caught off a glove, when a ball from left-arm spinner Paul Harris went to Graeme Smith at leg gully off his glove and pad.

But Trott and Pietersen dug in on a pitch which did not provide as much unpredictable bounce as it had on the previous two days.

Only one delivery truly misbehaved before the dramatic closing stages, a ball from De Wet which shot through low and trapped Pietersen, on 39, plumb in front of his stumps.

But umpire Steve Davis no-balled De Wet for overstepping.

EU opens borders to Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia

BELGRADE, Serbia – The European Union on Saturday opened its borders unrestricted to more than ten million Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians after nearly 20 years, a major boost for the troubled region's hopes for closer ties with the 27-nation bloc.
The three western Balkan nations celebrated the lifting of visas with fireworks, concerts and all-night festivities, marking a significant milestone for citizens who have long felt shunned by the rest of Europe.
"We should all remember this day," said Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. "Finally, the same rules that apply for others apply for us as well."
In the Macedonian capital of Skopje, a huge countdown clock was posted at a central square where thousands attended a concert with DJs and pop singers. At midnight, champagne corks popped in a toast to the end of what many in the region thought was a humiliation.
"This is a great day, a very important day for Macedonia," said Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
Champagne toasts was also organized during a midnight flight to the EU seat in Brussels. Serbia's deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic accompanied some 50 Serbs to their first trip ever to an EU country.
"I am not sure if I am dreaming or not, they gave us such a nice welcome," said an unidentified passenger interviewed by the Serbian state television upon arrival in the Belgian capital.
At the border with Hungary, several hundred Serbs braved freezing weather to be the first to cross the border just minutes after midnight Friday.
"We are finally free," said a smiling student from Subotica identified only as Zarko.
The citizens of the former Yugoslavia had enjoyed free travel in the past, but visa requirements were introduced as the federation was breaking up in 1991 in a series of conflicts that lasted until 1999.
The visa policy forced residents to wait in long lines at EU nations' embassies.
Travel agents in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro all have reported a surge in bookings for New Year's holidays after EU ministers announced the change earlier this month.
Illustrating the triumphant mood, one blogger told Belgrade's B92 television: "The last one leaving the country, please switch off the lights."

Penn St. wins record 3rd straight volleyball title

TAMPA, Fla. – Penn State became the first team to win three straight volleyball titles Saturday night, overcoming a two-set deficit to beat Texas in five and extend its record winning streak to 102 straight games.
Megan Hodge led the Nittany Lions (38-0) with 21 kills, including the final one that touched off a wild celebration at midcourt.
"They just won three national championships in a row," Penn State coach Russ Rose said. "Not a lot of people have done stuff like that. Our seniors just willed us to the win."
Penn State's 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-13 win helped it stake a claim as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, volleyball team in NCAA history. And maybe one of the best college teams ever.
The winning streak is second in Division I team sports behind the Miami men's tennis program's 137 straight victories from 1957-64.
The Nittany Lions led 22-19 in the first set and were on the brink of going ahead early. Then Texas called timeout, regrouped and rallied for six straight points to put Penn State behind, an unfamiliar position during most of its incredible run.
The Nittany Lions had only lost six sets this season entering the final match, although one of those came in the semifinals against Hawaii, before dropping the first two to Texas.
But Penn State regained its serving prowess and cruised through the next two sets and had only a few miscues in the final set before closing out the Longhorns.
Destinee Hooker had a game-high 34 kills for Texas, which was trying to claim its first volleyball title since 1988.
But the Nittany Lions were just too much.
Penn State hasn't lost since falling to Stanford in September 2007.

White House confident Senate, House can compromise

WASHINGTON – A top presidential adviser says the White House is confident Congress will pass a health care overhaul despite big differences in the House and Senate versions.
Democrats in the Senate have now lined up 60 votes, the minimum needed to overcome Republican opposition and move toward passing a bill on Christmas Eve. Even then, tough compromise talks will be needed with the House, which passed its own bill in November.
Some lawmakers in both chambers say they won't vote for final health care legislation if their version is changed too much.
White House official David Axelrod said Sunday: "This whole process has been like that." But he said Congress has the will to get a health care deal done.
Axelrod spoke on ABC's "This Week."

Report: Kevin Jonas, ex-hairdresser marry in NY

NEW YORK – A report says the oldest sibling of pop group the Jonas Brothers and a former hairdresser have married at a French-style chateau in suburban New York.
People magazine reported a heavy snowstorm bore down on Saturday's wedding between 22-year-old Kevin Jonas and 23-year-old Danielle Delesea at Oheka Castle, a 109,000-square-foot estate in Cold Spring Harbor.
The couple told People that the wedding went on as planned. About 400 relatives and friends attended.
Celebrity event planner Michael Russo created a fairy-tale forest theme that included heated white tents with 14-foot trees and crystals made to look like icicles.
Jonas' brothers Joe and Nick served as his best men.
A message left Saturday night for a representative of Jonas was not immediately returned.

U.S. Companies Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields (Time.com)

Those who claim that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 to get control of the country's giant oil reserves will be left scratching their heads by the results of last weekend's auction of Iraqi oil contracts: Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to two countries which bitterly opposed the U.S. invasion - Russia and China - while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the U.N. Security Council in 2003, won a bigger stake than the Americans in the most recent auction. "[The distribution of oil contracts] certainly answers the theory that the war was for the benefit of big U.S. oil interests," says Alex Munton, Middle East oil analyst for the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, whose clients include major U.S. companies. "That has not been demonstrated by what has happened this week." (Read "The Reasons Behind Big Oil Declining Iraq's Riches")
In one of the biggest auctions held anywhere in the 150-year history of the oil industry, executives from across the world flew into Baghdad on Dec. 11 for a two-day, red-carpet ceremony at the Oil Ministry, broadcast live in Iraq. With U.S. military helicopters hovering overhead to help ward off a possible insurgent attack, Oil Minister Hussein Al-Shahrastani unsealed envelopes from each company, stating how much oil it would produce, and what it was willing to accept in payment from Iraq's government. Rather than giving foreign oil companies control over Iraqi reserves, as the U.S. had hoped to do with the Oil Law it failed to get the Iraqi parliament to pass, the oil companies were awarded service contracts lasting 20 years for seven of the 10 oil fields on offer - the oil will remain the property of the Iraqi state, and the foreign companies will pump it for a fixed price per barrel.
Far from behaving like the war-ravaged, bankrupt country that it is, Iraq heavily weighted the contracts in its own favor, demanding a low per-barrel price and signing bonuses of up to $150 million. Only one U.S. company, Occidental Petroleum Corp., joined the bidding last weekend, and lost. (ExxonMobil had hoped to land the lucrative Rumaila field, but lost out to an alliance between the Chinese National Petroleum Company and BP because it declined the Iraqi government's $2-a-barrel fee.)
Russia's Lukoil, CNPC, and RoyalDutchShell accepted fees of between $1.15 and $1.40 for every barrel they produce - that's about 2% of Friday's oil futures price of $73 a barrel. "No one thinks it will be easy to make money on these contracts," says Samuel Ciszuk, Middle East energy analyst at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting company in London. "Companies have been willing to come in very, very low just to get their foot in the door in Iraq."
The lure is obvious: Iraq's 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves are outmatched only by Saudi Arabia, Canada and Iran, and geologists believe vast amounts more lie unexplored in the Western Desert. With 2.4 million barrels a day in production, the country was until this week up for grabs for foreign oil companies, in contrast to other big oil nations, where Big Oil is shut out: Iran is off limits because of sanctions, and Saudi Arabia's government controls its oil fields, as does Kuwait. (Watch a video about the gas shortage in Iraq.)
Still, there are daunting challenges: Iraq's lethal risks will require companies to spend millions on security. Political uncertainty continues, with the oil law governing the sharing of revenues remaining stalled and disputes over oil contracts raising the tension between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish enclave in the north. An election scheduled for next March could see a change of government in Iraq, and on Friday Iranian troops reportedly seized control of an oil field along a disputed section of border. Some analysts believe that Iran is deliberately attempting to shake the oil industry's confidence in Iraq, by reminding investors that several oil fields traverse disputed border areas with Iran. Iran - like other big oil producers - might also fear that a dramatic increase in Iraqi output could send world oil prices plummeting.
Clearly, there's no shortage of uncertainties facing investors in Iraqi oil. And then there are the problems of decrepit wells, aging pipelines, storage facilities, and export ports incapable of handling large volumes. Still, says Ciszuk: "Most oil people think it is better to be part of those challenges than not being part of it."
The auction represents an astonishing transformation for Iraq. In just a few months, it has become a major oil power with the potential to overtake the world's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia. In a previous bid round last June, Iraq handed control to the giant Rumaila field near Basra to Britain's BP, while ExxonMobil later took an 80% stake in another huge field, West Qurna Phase 1, and plan to eventually pump 2.5 million barrels a day. Now, Baghdad officials say they aim to harness the know-how and technology of their foreign partners to pump about 12 million barrels a day by 2017. "It is difficult for any major oil company not to be in Iraq," Total's global exploration and production chief Yves-Louis DarricarrÉre told TIME last month. Despite intense negotiations, the French company was outbid by an alliance of Shell and Malaysia's Petronas for Iraq's giant Majnoon field. Total CEO Christophe de Margerie told TIME last Sunday that he had put in a "fair bid," and that he doubted his competitors would make solid profits in Iraq, given the stiff terms.
That might have been the thinking of U.S. oil giants, which largely stayed away from last week's bidding, and which have failed to negotiate oil deals with Iraq's government outside of the public auction process. Iraqi officials say they are not awarding contracts based on political considerations, but simply a straight comparison of prices and production targets. "The bidding was extremely tough," said one official in Baghdad, in an email. "My guess is that [the U.S. companies] could not match the offers from others." In Iraq, at least, the victor has no special claim on the spoils of war.
Read "Pump It Up: The Development of Iraq's Oil Reserves"
See pictures of the Exxon Valdez disaster.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:Why Big Oil Declined Iraq's Riches What Oil Companies Will Get in Iraq Why Iraq's Oil Law Remains Deadlocked Three Years On A Chinese Lesson in Iraqi Oil Exploration Playing the Iraq Oil Card

Shoppers to flock to big box stores: reports

TORONTO (Reuters) –
Canadian consumers are expected to head to big box stores with cash in hand, studies showed on Wednesday, as they scramble to put the finishing touches on their Christmas purchases.

But these same shoppers are also expected to continue their frugal ways and spend between C$570 and C$586 ($538 to $553) on gifts, about the same level as last year when the economic downturn sapped consumer confidence.

"The Canadian consumer has been impressively resilient in the last 12 months, but retailers will need to continue to offer solid value at competitive prices through the next several weeks in order to be successful during the 2009 holiday shopping season," said Pam Wood, a senior manager at The NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company.

NPD found people were being careful with their money and were still cautious about the economy, despite a modest improvement in the last two quarters, with 55 percent of those surveyed indicating they would pay for their purchases with cash instead of credit cards.

The majority are also expected to seek out bargains at big box stores, with more than 60 percent planning to head to names such as Wal-Mart Stores, while about 43 percent plan to hit the department stores such as Sears Canada and Zellers. Another 31 percent intend to shop at electronics retailers and about 30 percent at toy stores.

And they plan to head to the stores where they can count on competitive prices and good customer service, another retail survey found.

"Customers aren't letting retailers off the hook just because it's the busy holiday season," said Rob Daniel, managing director, Maritz Research Canada.

"They have the same high expectations for customer service that they have throughout the rest of the year. Price is still king, but our research tells us that customer experience plays a crucial role, and will be remembered long after a customer has forgotten what they paid."

Clothing, toys and books appear to be the top items on Christmas shopping lists, while gift certificates, electronics and clothing are on most people's wish lists.

With a little over two weeks to go before the big day, the malls and stores are also expected to see increased volume as about half of those responding to the Maritz survey said they still had shopping left to do.

($1=$1.06 Canadian)

(Reporting by Scott Anderson; editing by Rob Wilson)

Gervais says stars in for teasing at Golden Globes

LOS ANGELES – Ricky Gervais said he plans to play it loose and off-the-cuff as host of next month's Golden Globes, with Frank Sinatra and his pals as role models.
"I want to host it a little bit more like someone from the Rat Pack would host," Gervais said.
There won't be any prepared schticks, such as a prerecorded comedy bit or a dance number, but the star of the British version of "The Office" said he will script his remarks, to a point.
"If you're not prepared at all, it can be very flimsy and a bit self-indulgent," he said, adding he'll keep his material short and sharp because "I'm best in small doses."
Gervais told a teleconference Tuesday that he'll avoid anything cruel or distasteful but the stars on hand can expect "gentle ribbing."
"All of them, anyone younger and thinner and richer and more attractive than me. That's the ones I'm going for," said Gervais, who scored laughs as an Emmy Awards presenter by tweaking the looks of TV stars including Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson of the U.S. version of "The Office."
George Clooney likely is safe at the Globes.
Gervais, noting that Clooney is handsome, a fine actor and considered kind to everyone, said poking fun at him would be like "having a go at Mother Teresa."
The Golden Globes air Sunday, Jan. 17, on NBC. Gervais will be the ceremony's first host since 1995.
"This is the only one I could ever have said yes to. Nobody wants to see me mucking around at the Oscars" as host, said Gervais.
Golden Globe organizers said "I could turn up, say what I wanted and get drunk," Gervais said, joking that it was his kind of gig.
Gervais, who produced, directed and co-wrote the original "The Office" and recently made and starred in "The Invention of Lying," is working on a 2010 animated show for HBO based on his audio books.
___
On the Net:
Golden Globes, http://www.goldenglobes.org
NBC, http://www.nbc.com

SEC sues head of defunct Brookstreet Securities

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have sued a defunct California investment brokerage and its former CEO, accusing them of fraud in selling more than $300 million worth of risky mortgage-backed securities to unsophisticated investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in the lawsuit filed Tuesday that Brookstreet Securities Corp. and ex-CEO Stanley C. Brooks cost many investors their homes or retirement savings.
The SEC said Brookstreet and Brooks deliberately sold risky mortgage obligations to retirees and others with conservative investment goals and continued to promote them even after learning they could quickly become worthless. In an effort to save the company, the SEC charged, Brooks directed the unauthorized sale of obligations from customers' cash-only accounts, leading to large losses.
Irvine, Calif.-based Brookstreet closed in 2007. The SEC earlier sued 10 Brookstreet representatives and accused them of misrepresenting the mortgage obligations to investors.
"These were complex mortgage derivative securities with Byzantine pricing, valuation and trading characteristics," said Robert Khuzami of the SEC's enforcement division. "Selling them to retirees and conservative investors was profoundly and egregiously wrong."
Brooks' lawyer, H. Thomas Fehn, said Tuesday the SEC "identified the wrong villain" in suing the firm and Brooks, whom he said is "involuntarily retired" and no longer selling securities.
Fehn blamed Brookstreet's clearing firm, National Financial Services, which he said extended loans to Brookstreet customers to buy securities, then "got nervous" and called in the loans when credit markets tightened.
National Financial, an arm of Fidelity Investments, denied wrongdoing.
"The SEC filed charges of fraud against Brookstreet and its former CEO. The complaint speaks for itself," said the National Financial spokesman, Vincent Loporchio. In the past, Loporchio has said that the decision to take margin loans is made by investors and their brokers, not clearing firms, which handle settlement of transactions.
The SEC lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Santa Ana, Calif.

Atlanta Georgia Construction Law

Notably, England, the mother of the common law jurisdictions, emerged from the Dark Ages with similar complexity in its legal professions, but then evolved by the 19th century to a single dichotomy between barristers and solicitors. An equivalent dichotomy developed between advocates and procurators in some civil law countries, though these two types did not always monopolize the practice of law as much as barristers and solicitors, in that they always coexisted with civil law notaries.

Lawyers in some civil law countries traditionally deprecated "transactional law" or "business law" as beneath them. French law firms developed transactional departments only in the 1990s when they started to lose business to international firms based in the United States and the United Kingdom (where solicitors have always done transactional work).

Atlanta Georgia Construction Law

Health-Insurance Costs Won’t Rise for Most in U.S., Study Finds

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama Administration hailed a
congressional report that predicted most Americans will pay no
more for insurance coverage under health-care legislation being
debated in the U.S. Senate.

On average, 134 million Americans insured through large
employers will see no rise in premiums and may pay 3 percent
less than they would if Congress failed to pass a health-care
overhaul plan, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said
yesterday. Subsidies also will lower costs as much as 59 percent
for 18 million people buying their own insurance.

The agency released its analysis as the Senate began
debating the biggest revamp of U.S. health care in four decades.
Senator Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat who requested the study,
said it proves coverage can be expanded without boosting
expenses for those already insured. Republican leaders said
premiums will still rise for millions of Americans.

The numbers “came out better” for the Democratic
leadership “than I would have expected them to,” said Robert
L. Laszewski, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consultant to the
insurance industry. Still, there’s a difference between lowering
individuals’ insurance expenses and curbing the growth in
health-care spending, he said.

The legislation will provide “welcome relief on costs,”
said Dan Pfeiffer, a spokesman for President Barack Obama, on
the White House blog. The proposal calls for spending $848
billion over 10 years to add more than 30 million people to
insurance rolls.

Without Subsidies

The legislation would raise premiums by 10 to 13 percent
for 14 million people who buy their own coverage and make too
much for subsidies, the budget office found. The subsidies are
limited to people making as much as four times the federal
poverty guidelines, or $88,000 a year for a family of four.

This group would pay more because the legislation
establishes minimum coverage requirements, the budget office
said. Under the overhaul, insurers led by UnitedHealth Group
Inc. of Minnetonka, Minnesota, and WellPoint Inc., of
Indianapolis, would be mandated to cover items such as maternity
care and are banned from limiting lifetime or annual benefits.

The budget office found most who end up paying more will do
so voluntarily, said Pfeiffer, the White House spokesman.

“Where the CBO does see premiums rising, it’s not because
Americans are paying more for the same coverage,” he said.
“It’s that they’re making a choice to purchase better plans
that weren’t previously available.”

72 Percent of Services

People will buy policies paying 72 percent of covered
services, instead of a minimum 60 percent under the legislation
and typical now, the study found. Subsidies are tied to the 70
percent coverage.

The legislation, like a House-passed measure, would require
that Americans get health insurance or pay a penalty and set up
online exchanges for comparison shopping. The bills require
insurers to accept new customers, regardless of preexisting
conditions.

“What was the whole idea here?” said the No. 2 Republican
leader in the Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a speech on the
chamber’s floor. “The whole idea of health-care reform was to
reduce the cost of health care.”

Senator Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, the top Republican in
the Senate, said a “bill that is being sold as a way to reduce
costs actually drives them up.â€

Laszewski, the consultant, said the study is only a partial
victory for Democrats because the issue of runaway health-care
costs is unresolved.

“If we don’t get costs down, those subsidies are going to
be meaningless before too long,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Nussbaum in New York
anussbaum1@bloomberg.net .

Emotions high, Senate opens partisan health debate

WASHINGTON – Riven by partisanship, the Senate plunged into a widely anticipated debate Monday over sweeping health care legislation that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to approve and Republicans have sworn to block.
Debate is expected to last for weeks over the legislation, which includes a first-time requirement for most Americans to carry insurance and a mandate for insurers to cover any paying customer regardless of medical history or condition.
"We must avoid the temptation to drown in distractions and distortions," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in the first moments of the first speech, a jab at Republicans that was reciprocated minutes later.
"Well, I don't know what's more preposterous: saying that this plan 'saves Medicare' or thinking that people will actually believe you," Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said of Reid's oft-made statement.
At a cost of nearly $1 trillion, the legislation is designed to extend health care to millions of American who lack it, abolish insurance industry practices such as denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and cut back on the rise of health care spending overall.
Despite its huge price tag, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2,074-page bill would reduce federal deficits by $130 billion over the next decade. In all, CBO said 31 million uninsured individuals would receive insurance if the bill were enacted, many of them assisted by federal subsidies. As much as 94 percent of the eligible population would wind up covered. The legislation would be paid for through a combination of cuts in projected Medicare payments to hospitals and other providers, a payroll tax on the wealthy and taxes on drug makers, medical device manufacturers, owners of high-cost insurance and others.
It has taken months to advance the legislation to the floor, Democrats struggling with their own internal divisions as well as Republican opposition.
Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate, precisely the number needed to trump a promised Republican filibuster. While Reid spent most of the day jousting with Republicans, his ability to steer the bill to passage will depend on finding ways to finesse controversial provisions within the measure. None is more important than calls for the government to sell insurance in competition with private firms. Liberals favor the plan; moderate and conservative Democrats oppose it. As drafted the bill establishes a so-called government option, although each state can block it.
Even before Reid rose to speak, the two parties were squabbling over a new Congressional Budget Office study assessing the legislation's impact on the cost of insurance.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said it showed that "whether you work for a small business, a large company or you work for yourself, the vast majority of Americans will see lower premiums than they would if we don't pass health reform."
Not so, said a statement from McConnell's office: "Most people will end up paying more or seeing no significant savings."
The 28-page report was less clear-cut than either side said.
It said that by 2016, premium prices for Americans working at large companies, about 134 million people, would be between zero and 3 percent lower on average than would otherwise be the case.
At small companies, estimated to provide coverage for 25 million by 2016, the average premium would be between 1 percent higher to 2 percent lower on average. That did not factor in the federal subsidies that would be available to the firms to spur them to provide coverage. Those receiving the assistance would have premiums as much as 11 percent lower on average.
CBO said for non-group coverage, premiums would rise by between 10 percent and 13 percent on average. But more than half that group is expected to receive federal subsidies that would result in premiums as much as 59 percent less costly on average. Individuals purchasing coverage without any federal assistance would presumably face higher costs, although CBO's letter did not indicate how much more.
The debate over premiums was only one of many expected as the Senate dug into a complicated bill that seemingly delved into every corner of the health care system.
But both parties seemed to have political considerations in mind as the day wore on.
The first proposed change to the legislation, offered by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would increase insurance benefits for women, mandating that policies include an annual health screening.

As the health care debate has unfolded in Congress, both parties have spent months vying for the support of women.

Not to be outdone, Republicans issued a statement saying that as written, an advisory committee that recently drew criticism for proposing a delay in routine mammogram screening would have even greater authority.

The two sides also sparred over issues important to seniors, whom polls show are particularly concerned about the impact of health care.

Reid sought Republicans' agreement that Social Security would be protected as debate moved ahead.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., objected, saying Reid had refused to extend the same protection to Medicare.

Not long afterward, Sen. John McCain proposed stripping out a total of $440 billion in Medicare cuts to home health providers, hospitals, hospices and other organizations, saying those reductions could not be sustained politically.

In a slashing attack on the White House and Democrats, the Arizona Republican accused the bill's supporters of resorting to "Bernie Madoff accounting, Enron accounting" to mask the true impact on the deficit.

The House approved its version of the health care bill last month. It would have to be reconciled with any Senate-passed measure before legislation could go to the White House for Obama's signature.

____

Associated Press reporters Donna Cassata, Laurie Kellman and Erica Werner contributed to this story.

Emotions high, Senate opens partisan health debate

WASHINGTON – Riven by partisanship, the Senate plunged into a widely anticipated debate Monday over sweeping health care legislation that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to approve and Republicans have sworn to block.
Debate is expected to last for weeks over the legislation, which includes a first-time requirement for most Americans to carry insurance and a mandate for insurers to cover any paying customer regardless of medical history or condition.
"We must avoid the temptation to drown in distractions and distortions," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in the first moments of the first speech, a jab at Republicans that was reciprocated minutes later.
"Well, I don't know what's more preposterous: saying that this plan 'saves Medicare' or thinking that people will actually believe you," Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said of Reid's oft-made statement.
At a cost of nearly $1 trillion, the legislation is designed to extend health care to millions of American who lack it, abolish insurance industry practices such as denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and cut back on the rise of health care spending overall.
Despite its huge price tag, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2,074-page bill would reduce federal deficits by $130 billion over the next decade. In all, CBO said 31 million uninsured individuals would receive insurance if the bill were enacted, many of them assisted by federal subsidies. As much as 94 percent of the eligible population would wind up covered. The legislation would be paid for through a combination of cuts in projected Medicare payments to hospitals and other providers, a payroll tax on the wealthy and taxes on drug makers, medical device manufacturers, owners of high-cost insurance and others.
It has taken months to advance the legislation to the floor, Democrats struggling with their own internal divisions as well as Republican opposition.
Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate, precisely the number needed to trump a promised Republican filibuster. While Reid spent most of the day jousting with Republicans, his ability to steer the bill to passage will depend on finding ways to finesse controversial provisions within the measure. None is more important than calls for the government to sell insurance in competition with private firms. Liberals favor the plan; moderate and conservative Democrats oppose it. As drafted the bill establishes a so-called government option, although each state can block it.
Even before Reid rose to speak, the two parties were squabbling over a new Congressional Budget Office study assessing the legislation's impact on the cost of insurance.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said it showed that "whether you work for a small business, a large company or you work for yourself, the vast majority of Americans will see lower premiums than they would if we don't pass health reform."
Not so, said a statement from McConnell's office: "Most people will end up paying more or seeing no significant savings."
The 28-page report was less clear-cut than either side said.
It said that by 2016, premium prices for Americans working at large companies, about 134 million people, would be between zero and 3 percent lower on average than would otherwise be the case.
At small companies, estimated to provide coverage for 25 million by 2016, the average premium would be between 1 percent higher to 2 percent lower on average. That did not factor in the federal subsidies that would be available to the firms to spur them to provide coverage. Those receiving the assistance would have premiums as much as 11 percent lower on average.
CBO said for non-group coverage, premiums would rise by between 10 percent and 13 percent on average. But more than half that group is expected to receive federal subsidies that would result in premiums as much as 59 percent less costly on average. Individuals purchasing coverage without any federal assistance would presumably face higher costs, although CBO's letter did not indicate how much more.
The debate over premiums was only one of many expected as the Senate dug into a complicated bill that seemingly delved into every corner of the health care system.
But both parties seemed to have political considerations in mind as the day wore on.
The first proposed change to the legislation, offered by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., would increase insurance benefits for women, mandating that policies include an annual health screening.

As the health care debate has unfolded in Congress, both parties have spent months vying for the support of women.

Not to be outdone, Republicans issued a statement saying that as written, an advisory committee that recently drew criticism for proposing a delay in routine mammogram screening would have even greater authority.

The two sides also sparred over issues important to seniors, whom polls show are particularly concerned about the impact of health care.

Reid sought Republicans' agreement that Social Security would be protected as debate moved ahead.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., objected, saying Reid had refused to extend the same protection to Medicare.

Not long afterward, Sen. John McCain proposed stripping out a total of $440 billion in Medicare cuts to home health providers, hospitals, hospices and other organizations, saying those reductions could not be sustained politically.

In a slashing attack on the White House and Democrats, the Arizona Republican accused the bill's supporters of resorting to "Bernie Madoff accounting, Enron accounting" to mask the true impact on the deficit.

The House approved its version of the health care bill last month. It would have to be reconciled with any Senate-passed measure before legislation could go to the White House for Obama's signature.

____

Associated Press reporters Donna Cassata, Laurie Kellman and Erica Werner contributed to this story.

Hutu extremist group leaders arrested in Germany

BERLIN – Two top leaders of a mostly ethnic Hutu militia were arrested in Germany Tuesday on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity in Congo.
Experts in the region called the arrests a major blow to one of the most brutal rebel groups in Africa.
German federal police arrested Ignace Murwanashyaka, the 46-year-old chairman of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia, and his 48-year-old deputy, Straton Musoni, in Karlsruhe, prosecutors said in a statement.
The pair are "suspected of carrying out crimes against humanity and war crimes" as members of the group, which is known by its French acronym FDLR.
Founded in the Congolese town of Lumumbashi in 2000, the FDLR is a Hutu extremist group made up of Hutu refugees from Rwanda who took cover across the border in Congo after the 1994 genocide of half a million Tutsis in Rwanda.
The United Nations has been putting pressure on Germany for years to arrest Murwanashyaka as well as Musoni, one of two vice presidents of the group. Murwanashyaka has served as the leader of the FDLR since 2001, prosecutors said.
"As part of this armed conflict, the FDLR militias are believed to have killed several hundred civilians, raped numerous women, plundered and burned countless villages, forcing villagers from their homes and recruiting numerous children as soldiers," the statement said.
The arrest is important because Murwanashyaka is the highest-ranking leader of FDLR, said Gregory Alex, a veteran U.N. official who now heads a United Nations unit in eastern Congo dedicated to demobilizing FDLR and other combatant.
"And this is a sign that the activities of the FDLR are being paid attention to by the international community. That they are seen as crimes against humanity," Alex said.
Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu province in eastern Congo, hailed Murwanashyaka's arrest.
"I think the arrest of Mr. Murwanashyaka will have a psychological impact on the morale of FDLR's militiamen who could be discouraged by this arrest," Paluku said. "Other leaders who will try to be speaking publicly for FDLR will fear that they too can be arrested like Mr. Murwanashyaka."
The FDLR is believed to number less than 5,000 men but they have become the excuse for numerous other equally brutal militias, which have cropped up in Congo over the years under the guise of protecting Congolese civilians. Experts say that dismantling the FDLR is key to solving the unending spiral of violence in Congo, a country the size of Western Europe that has suffered back-to-back wars since the end of the Rwandan genocide.
Gen. Paul Rwarwakabije, the former military chief of the FDLR who deserted several years ago and now works for the Rwandan government, said Murwanashyaka's arrest would significantly weaken the group.
"He was the head of the movement. This is an organization that has had its head cut off. Its brain has been taken away," said Rwarwakabije in a telephone interview from Rwanda.
The pair are to be brought before a judge later Tuesday.
___
Callimachi reported from Dakar, Senegal; Patrice Chitera contributed reporting from Kinshasa, Congo.

Feds: Kuwaiti company conspired to defraud US

ATLANTA – The chief food supplier for the U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq inflated prices and defrauded the U.S. government for multibillion-dollar contracts to feed American troops, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Kuwaiti logistics firm Public Warehousing Co. — which the Defense Logistics Agency says is the military's prime food supplier in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan — has been charged with making false statements, submitting false claims and committing wire fraud, said acting U.S. Attorney Gentry Shelnutt.
The company, also known as Agility, has received more than $8.5 billion in food supply contracts. Federal prosecutors say its contract with the government is still in effect and scheduled to expire in December 2010.
Agility said in a statement it is "surprised and disappointed" by the federal charges and that it has long cooperated with federal reviews and audits designed to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately.
It said the government has consistently found the company's prices to be "fair and reasonable" and that supply records show it was more successful in delivering food to the military in a war zone than some contractors working within the U.S.
The government's six-count federal indictment claimed the company manipulated a complex funding formula to defraud the U.S. government of at least $68 million while supplying soldiers in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Nelan.
She added, however, that the total could grow far beyond that sum because the investigation is ongoing.
The indictment said the company provided false invoices and statements to a logistics center, bought high-priced food items and then knowingly inflated prices. And it said the company received rebates and discounts from vendors that it did not pass to the government as required by the contract.
The company also inflated fees by asking vendors to manipulate the way the products were packed, enabling it to bill the government twice as much as it should have, prosecutors said. And they said the firm encouraged a vendor in Conyers, Ga., to conceal fees that should have been paid to the company, leading to inflated prices.
"The defendants, tempted by monetary gain, betrayed the trust invested in them by the U.S. Army," said Brig. Gen. Rodney Johnson, the commander of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division. "And now they must face the consequences."
The alleged scheme was first outlined in a civil whistleblower complaint filed by Kamal Mustafa Al-Sultan, the general manager of a contracting firm that partnered with Public Warehousing Co. in 2002 to submit a bid on a contract.
The lawsuit, filed in 2005 and unsealed this week, said that Agility, chief executive Tarek Abbul Aziz Sultan Al-Essa and supplier Sultan Center Food Products Co. have knowingly overcharged the government for fresh fruits and vegetables since 2003.
Agility, which is scheduled to make a first court appearance Friday, could face probation and a fine of up to twice the company's illegal gains or twice the loss to the U.S. Prosecutors also stressed that more charges could be filed as investigators dig deeper.
"Others who have engaged in similar conduct should beware," Shelnutt said. "This indictment is only the first step."

Musical Greeting Cards

Musical Greeting Cards

Early computer sound chips had only simple tone and noise generators with few channels, imposing limitations on both the complexity of the sounds they could produce and the number of notes that could be played at once. In their desire to create a more complex arrangement than what the medium apparently allowed, composers developed creative approaches when developing their own electronic sounds and scores, employing a diversity of both methods of sound synthesis, such as pulse width modulation and wavetable synthesis, and compositional techniques, such as a liberal use of arpeggiation. The resultant chiptunes sometimes seem harsh or squeaky to the unaccustomed listener.

The program played a major role in the Game Boy chip music trend that came to attract a lot of attention in media. The now non-existent Swedish duo Puss is one of the better-known chip music projects, and was nominated 2003 for a Grammis prize in "Årets klubb/dans". The same year, Goto80 probably played as the first chip musician live at Hultsfredsfestivalen. In 2005, Paza produced an Atari song for Beck. The Stockholm club Microdisko has since 2004 arranged gigs with the biggest chip music artists worldwide.

E! to launch Asian version of flagship news show

HONG KONG – One of America's best-known entertainment news shows is launching an Asian edition.
Los Angeles-based E! Entertainment Television will launch a weekly half-hour edition in Asia that combines both Hollywood and regional entertainment news in the second quarter of 2010, the international media arm of U.S. Internet and cable TV operator Comcast Corp., said in a statement sent Tuesday.
"E! News Asia" is part of a new push for localized content in Asia, Hong Kong-based Comcast International Media Group said.
E! Entertainment Television has already launched local editions of "E! News" in Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Latin America. The company will also add subtitles to more of its shows that air in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, the statement said.
"The Asia-Pacific region is one of the global media industry's most exciting areas of growth ... The expansion of our activities to include local production is the next stage of our business' evolution as viewership reaches critical mass," Christine Fellowes, the Asia-Pacific managing director for Comcast International, was quoted as saying in the statement.
E! programming is seen in more than 120 countries, reaching 600 million homes, according to Comcast.

Obama's Democrats face first big election test

NEW YORK (AFP) –
Democrats and Republicans lock horns Tuesday in three off-year elections seen as a referendum on President Barack Obama's first 12 months in the White House.

The hottest race is for governor in New Jersey, with Democrat Jon Corzine -- the incumbent governor in a heavily Democratic state -- fighting desperately to avoid defeat by former Republican prosecutor Chris Christie.

Latest polls showed them in a statistical dead heat, with some analysts saying Christie was best positioned to poach votes from supporters of an independent third candidate.

Obama spent political capital to save Corzine's flagging campaign, including when he made a trip to New Jersey on Sunday.

Republicans, in fierce opposition to Obama's handling of the recession and reform of health care, smelled blood.

"A victory for Republicans in deep blue New Jersey would send shock waves through the country that would be felt right up to the doors of the White House," Republican blog redstate.com said.

Republicans seem likely to score a big success in another gubernatorial race in Virginia.

The swing state was captured by Obama in his election last year, the first time a Democratic presidential contender had managed to do so since 1964.

But Democratic dreams of making the southern state theirs seemed fanciful for now, with polls forecasting a heavy victory for Republican Bob McDonnell against Democrat Creigh Deeds.

Perhaps the most intriguing race is a smaller contest in New York state's 23rd congressional district, where Vice President Joseph Biden stumped on behalf of the Democratic candidate Monday.

The official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, withdrew over the weekend after being overwhelmed by a rival bid from Doug Hoffman of the tiny Conservative Party.

Hoffman ran to the right of the more moderate Scozzafava, winning crucial if controversial backing from senior Republicans such as Sarah Palin, a possible presidential candidate in 2012.

As a result, Hoffman has become a standard bearer for the conservative wing of the Republicans, the same group behind nationwide protests against Obama's health care and economic recovery plans.

But Hoffman's success also exposed high-level splits in the Republican Party between those urging a move to the right and those seeking a centrist approach that could lure independent voters in nationwide elections for congress and governors next year.

Underlining the bitterness of the feud, Scozzafava followed her withdrawal from the race by calling on her supporters to switch allegiance to the Democrat Bill Owens rather than Hoffman.

The latest Siena Research Institute poll showed Hoffman taking a 41-36 lead against Owens after Scozzafava's departure, but with 18 percent still undecided.

In New Jersey, two polls showed the race too close to call accurately.

In Virginia, a Richmond Times-Dispatch poll showed McDonnell leading Deeds by 53-41 percent.

Also on the ballot Tuesday are mayoral posts in major cities, including New York City and Atlanta, as well as a referendum in northeastern Maine on whether or not to permit same-sex marriage.

New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican media tycoon, looks likely to win a third term after getting City Council to scrap a mayoral two-term limit and spending a record amount of his own money on the campaign.

Supreme Court declines to hear civil-rights era KKK case (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington –
The US Supreme Court has declined to decide whether the federal statute of limitations bars the prosecution of a former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member accused of kidnapping and murdering two black teens in 1964.
James Ford Seale was tried, convicted, and sentenced to three life prison terms in 2007. His lawyers challenged the prosecution on grounds that a five-year statute of limitations for kidnapping had long since passed.
By declining to take up the case, the high court's action leaves in place a decision by Mr. Seale's trial judge allowing his prosecution to go forward and upholding his conviction and life sentences. But the issue remains unresolved in future cases.
The statute of limitations issue is significant because it could undermine efforts by the Justice Department to prosecute suspects in as many as 22 other alleged racially-motivated killings and civil rights crimes dating to the 1950s and 1960s.
Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia issued a statement saying the high court should have agreed to resolve the issue now. "The question is narrow, debatable, and important," Justice Stevens wrote. "I see no benefit and significant cost to postponing the question's resolution. A prompt answer from this court will expedite the termination of this litigation and determine whether other similar cases may be prosecuted," he wrote.
A 40-year-old case
The statute of limitations issue arose during the federal prosecution of Seale, a former Klan member from Mississippi suspected of kidnap and murder.
Seale was identified by federal agents forty-five years ago as the primary suspect in the teens' deaths. The agents turned their findings over to local law enforcement officials in Mississippi, but no state charges were ever filed.
In 2007, federal prosecutors resurrected the cold case, indicting Seale on federal kidnapping charges.
The two victims, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, were abducted by members of the KKK on May 2, 1964 while hitchhiking near Meadville, Miss. They were taken to a remote location and beaten.
Then Seale and others allegedly taped their mouths and hands, and tied their bodies to a steel engine block before dumping both teens, still alive, into the Mississippi River.
They were reportedly first targeted for abduction because the KKK suspected Mr. Dees of engaging in civil rights work.
The issue of limitations
Lawyers for Seale challenged his indictment, arguing that a five-year federal statute of limitations on kidnapping had long since run out.
Prosecutors countered that there was no statute of limitation for a kidnapping that resulted in a death.
The trial judge agreed with that view, but a three-judge appeals court panel in New Orleans reversed the conviction. The full Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals then took up the case and split 9-9 on the question.
That action reinstated Seale's conviction and life sentences. But the appeals court took the somewhat unusual step of asking the US Supreme Court to resolve the underlying question of whether the five-year statute of limitations applied in the Seale case.
The central question in the case was whether a 1972 amendment by Congress designating kidnapping a non-capital offense retroactively reduced the statute of limitations to five years for a crime committed in 1964.

Seale's lawyers acknowledge that kidnapping was a capital offense in 1964 and thus had no statute of limitations under federal law. But they argue that the law changed in 1968 and 1972 with action by the Supreme Court and Congress.

In a dissent to the decision of the full Fifth Circuit to take up the Seale case, Judge Jerry Smith blamed the Justice Department for delaying more than 40 years in prosecuting Seale for this "despicable crime."

"The government now asks this court to bail it out by declaring a result that cannot be reached except by a strained explication of the applicable statutes and caselaw," he wrote. "The result of the government's inaction under myriad attorneys general is, to say the least, unfortunate. Because, as the [appeals court] panel held, Seale's conviction is barred by the statute of limitations, Seale must be set free and cannot be successfully prosecuted for this unspeakable crime."

Judge Smith said: "It is a necessary consequence of having a government of laws that wrongdoers at times must be released without further punishment."

----

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Adult Halloween Costumes

The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, vampires, bats, owls, crows, vultures, pumpkin-men, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and demons.

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dunking or bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Adult Halloween Costumes

New jobless claims rise more than expected to 531K

NEW YORK – A private forecast of economic activity rose for the sixth straight month in September, a sign the economy may keep growing early next year despite rising unemployment.
The number of new claims for jobless benefits jumped more than expected last week. Claims had fallen in five out of the previous six weeks, and most economists expect that trend to continue but at a slow pace, with employers still reluctant to hire.
The Conference Board said Thursday that its index of leading economic indicators rose 1 percent last month after a 0.4 percent gain in August, beating economists' expectations.
The group said the indicators' 5.7 percent growth rate in the six months through September was the strongest since 1983, but joblessness is weighing on the rebound. Dips in manufacturing hours worked and building permits, a gauge of future construction, were the only two measures out of 10 that weighed down the index. It is meant to project economic activity in the next three to six months.
The six-month rate is consistent with annual economic growth of about 8 percent, said Paul Dales, U.S. economist at Capital Economics. It's unlikely the rebound will be that strong, however, as the index may be "distorted" by the Federal Reserve's rock-bottom interest rates and market liquidity measures, he said.
The government will report on third-quarter economic growth next week. Many economists think gross domestic product — the value of all goods and services produced in the United States_ grew about 3 percent after falling for a record four straight quarters. But many wonder if that pace can continue in the current quarter and next year as unemployment rises and consumers remain hesitant to spend.
Lack of job growth is a major problem. The Labor Department said the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 531,000 last week, from an upwardly revised 520,000 the previous week. Wall Street economists had expected only a slight increase, according to Thomson Reuters.
Economists consider jobless claims a gauge of layoffs and a sign of companies' willingness to hire.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, fell to its lowest level since mid-January. But claims remain well above the 325,000 that economists say is consistent with a healthy economy.
The report is "slightly disappointing," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients. "But it does not change the core story, which is that ... a clear downward trend in claims has emerged" over the past two months.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Ethan Harris expects the economy to grow at a 3.3 percent pace in 2010, even though the Federal Reserve forecasts the unemployment rate will stay above 9 percent.
There's a "shift away from being so reliant on U.S. consumer demand," he said. Spending on homes and apartments, along with businesses restocking their inventories could propel the economy even as shoppers stay home, he added.
On Wall Street, stocks moved higher in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones industrial average added about 97 points, and broader indices also rose.
A rebound in the housing sector and manufacturing is helping drive economic activity higher, aided by government stimulus programs and demand from overseas.
Caterpillar was among companies signaling that emerging markets like China and India would be leading the global recovery. The heavy equipment maker said Asia is its best-performing region. Drugmaker Pfizer and handbag maker Coach also said sales are picking up in Asia, and they're rushing to add salespeople and open new stores.
Still, manufacturing won't add jobs in the U.S. Hiring by the nation's restaurants, shops, banks and other service providers is needed for that to happen. Consumer spending powers those businesses, and as long as unemployment is rising and credit tight, shoppers likely will remain wary of big spending.
Profits and sales were down for another quarter at UPS. The world's largest package delivery company said this week that customers are shipping fewer and lighter packages. In some cases, they're choosing slower and cheaper shipping options.
The government also said Thursday that people continuing to claim unemployment benefits dropped to 5.9 million for the week ended Oct. 10, the fifth straight weekly drop.

Recipients filing for aid for the government's extended benefit programs dropped about 50,000, to 8.8 million in the week ended Oct. 3. The federal government is funding up to 53 extra weeks of benefits on top of the 26 weeks states usually provide. But economists say that decline is likely due to jobless benefits running out, rather than people finding jobs.

____

AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report from Washington.

Too small for insurance (The Yahoo! Newsroom)

Embattled health insurance companies are taking a page from Goldlilocks. Last week, a 4-month-old child was denied insurance for being too heavy (the company has since changed its mind). Now the Web is buzzing about a toddler who was denied coverage for being too small.

On Wednesday morning, "The Today Show" covered the story of 2-year-old Aislin Bates. Though she weighs just 22 pounds (in the third percentile range for kids her age), her doctor has described her as being perfectly healthy, never having been sick with anything more than a cold. Still, United HealthCare didn't buy it, saying that the child didn't meet height and weight standards. So, no insurance for Aislin.

The story has inspired a slew of searches. After the segment aired on NBC, queries on young Aislin surged from zilch into triple digits. United HealthCare is wisely responding to what could be a PR crisis. In an article from Denver's ABC affiliate, a company spokesperson for United HealthCare said the company's height and weight requirements "are based on several medical sources, including the Centers for Disease Control, and are well within industry standards."

Still, Aislin's case, as well as the previous incident of the obese 4-month-old, have highlighted the difficulties some parents face when trying to get coverage for their children. Aislin's father Rob was quoted as saying that even though he doesn't support universal health care, this battle over insuring his daughter has made him want insurance companies to have more "legitimate reasons for denying coverage."  

NBC medical expert Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who appeared with the Bates family, was more pointed in her criticism: “This is just so bogus. A pre-existing condition for a child this age is birth, let’s be real..... This is why things have to change."

Below, you can watch Aislin and her family on "The Today Show"(after a 15-second ad)...

Update: The Aislins' proposed insurer reversed its coverage denial after the "Today Show" segment aired.

Follow Buzz Log on Twitter.

 

-- Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo! Buzz Log

Dog Supplements

The dog (Canis lupus familiaris, pronounced /ˈkeɪ.nis ˈluːpəs fʌˈmɪliɛəris/) is a domesticated subspecies of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history. The domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. The dog quickly became ubiquitous across culture in all parts of the world, and was extremely valuable to early human settlements. For instance, it is believed that the successful emigration across the Bering Strait might not have been possible without sled dogs. As a result of the domestication process, the dog developed a sophisticated intelligence that includes unparalleled social cognition and a simple theory of mind[citation needed] that is important to their interaction with humans. These social skills have helped the dog to perform in myriad roles, such as hunting, herding, protection, and, more recently, assisting handicapped individuals. Currently, there are estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world.

Over the 15,000 year span that the dog had been domesticated, it diverged into only a handful of landraces, groups of similar animals whose morphology and behavior have been shaped by environmental factors and functional roles. As the modern understanding of genetics developed, humans began to intentionally breed dogs for a wide range of specific traits. Through this process, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal. For example, height measured to the withers ranges from a few inches in the Chihuahua to a few feet in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue'") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth. It is common for most breeds to shed this coat, but non-shedding breeds are also popular.

Dog Supplements

Wal-Mart and Amazon.com trade price cuts on books

CHICAGO – Taking a page from its original playbook, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched a full-fledged price war with Amazon.com Inc. and a nation of book retailers, lowering prices on certain highly anticipated hardback titles to $9.
The volley of discounts, which began Thursday when the retailer listed prices for some upcoming hardcover releases such as Dean Koontz' "Breathless" and Stephen King's "Under the Dome" at $10, was answered with a similar price cut by Amazon, the largest online bookseller. Then the two competitors lowered the prices even further to $9.
Observers say the book discounts, the latest in a series of aggressive online maneuvers by the world's largest retailer, could position the company to do to the online marketplace what Walmart stores did to local merchants decades ago.
"While it's the largest retailer in the United States, it's not the dominant online retailer in the United States," said Albert Greco, professor of marketing at New York City's Fordham University. "And this appears to be an attempt to increase its position in the online space."
In the past seven weeks, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart has racheted up the competition in several retail arenas, beginning with an Amazon.com-like announcement in late August that it would allow outside retailers to sell nearly 1 million items — from baby products to sports memorabilia — through its Walmart.com site.
Next came news that the low-price specialist would fill 90-day supplies of some 300 generic prescriptions by mail for as little as $10 and was launching its own cell phone plan.
And just this week, the company said it would begin selling health and beauty products online.
But it was the announcement about books — the base from which Seattle-based Amazon.com built itself into a powerhouse — that created the biggest stir.
The discounts, which also include Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" and John Grisham's "Ford County," are a cut of 60 percent or more from cover prices, which means the two competitors are likely selling the titles at a loss.
Hardcover releases, which typically have a suggested retail price of at least $25, are generally sold to merchants with a wholesale price that's a 47 percent discount.
That means Grisham's book, priced at $24, costs most retailers about $12.72. It's not clear whether Wal-Mart might have negotiated a better price than that.
It also wasn't immediately clear if the company would offer similar discounts in stores, which experts say already stock as many as 1,400 titles. Wal-Mart representatives didn't return messages seeking comment.
Wal-Mart has built its strategy on using its size and massive buying power to undercut competitors. But it sells enough products in enough categories to make up any losses on individual items it uses to bring people into its stores.
Wal-Mart is also cutting prices in half for 200 current best-sellers, including Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" and Kathryn Stockett's "The Help" in the new program called "America's Reading List."
Experts said selling certain books for such a low price could entice customers to browse other more profitable titles, or even other merchandise, from the company's Web site.
"Let's say you lose money on one item, you're making money on other items," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Wayne Hood.
There's no telling how long this week's price cuts will last, but experts said the two — which are increasingly competitors with each other in selling everything from batteries and books to dog food and diapers — could continue to duel.
The price cuts come at a time when Amazon.com and other sellers have been charging just $9.99 for e-books, a price that publishers worry is unrealistically low. The reductions also make it increasingly hard for independent sellers, which can't afford such large discounts, to compete for the most popular books.

The price war also is foreboding news to the large chain bookstores Borders Group Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc., which have been squeezed by Amazon.com's discounting and a decline in their music business.

Both Borders and Barnes & Noble saw their stock prices drop Friday, down as much as 4.7 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively, before recovering somewhat.

"They can't bring (prices) that low," said Michael Norris, a senior analyst with Simba Information. "As a whole, it's very hard for traditional bookstores, large or small, to compete with this kind of nonsense."

Amazon shares dipped 76 cents to $95.25 in afternoon trading Friday, while Wal-Mart shares rose 38 cents to $51.33.

UN: Most Iraqi refugees being resettled go to US

GENEVA – More than 30,000 Iraqis have moved to the United States under a resettlement program that began in 2007 while much smaller numbers have gone to other countries, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has recommended to the participating countries the names of 82,500 Iraqis who should be moved, but so far only 33,000 have been able go to their new homelands, said spokesman Andrej Mahecic.
"Everyone is urgent," said Mahecic, but he stressed that priority should be given to medical emergencies and to women and children at particular risk.
He said the refugees have been determined to be in need of international protection and that no other solution is possible.
The program started slowly in 2007 after the United States in particular came under criticism for accepting few refugees but "things are picking up," said Mahecic.
The administration of former President George W. Bush, which was criticized for failing to move faster in helping Iraqi refugees, blamed its slow pace on enhanced security checks.
UNHCR says more than a half million Iraqi refugees are in need of resettlement, but that the agency hasn't been able to examine each case yet. Most of the 2 million Iraqi refugees overall are living without permanent homes in neighboring Syria and Jordan.
The agency said a total of 33,117 Iraqi refugees have been resettled since the program began in 2007, with 3,752 the first year, 17,770 last year and 11,595 in the first six months of this year.
Canada was in second place, accepting 1,890 total Iraqi refugees, followed by Australia with 1,757 and Sweden with 1,180.
Other countries that have received Iraqi refugees under the program included Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, France, Finland, Denmark, Britain and Brazil.

Judge to rule on Jayson Williams manslaughter case

SOMERVILLE, N.J. – Former NBA star Jayson Williams will soon learn whether his convictions for covering up the shooting of a hired driver will be thrown out.
A New Jersey judge is to rule Friday after the former NBA star's lawyers argued the Hunterdon County prosecutor's office engaged in racial bias and misconduct.
Current and former employees testified last week in a special hearing prompted by the disclosure two years ago that a county investigator used a racial slur to describe Williams, who is black.
Williams was convicted in 2004 of covering up the shooting of Costas "Gus" Christofi, but the jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter count. Williams faces a retrial on that charge.

Social Security freeze means seniors must scrimp

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – If her check were bigger, 76-year-old Agnes Conti might be able to spring for a better cut of meat for her pot roast. She could afford to send her nine grandchildren more than $20 for their birthdays and Christmas. She'd be able to spring for some nice new clothes, like she sees on QVC, not what she settles for at Walmart.
If only. The government has said the Social Security checks Conti and tens of millions of other seniors rely on as their primary source of income will not increase next year as consumer prices have fallen overall. And while the retired hospital clerk will get by, she'll be watching her spending even closer, knowing she can't expect the annual raise she's been accustomed to.
"We were good citizens all our lives. We went to work, we lived by the book, we weren't on welfare, we didn't ask the city for anything," Conti said while taking a break from crafts at a senior center here. "And what do we get?"
At the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center in this Fort Lauderdale suburb, seniors lamented the cost-of-living freeze, praised a White House plan for $250 checks to soften the blow, but took all of the news in stride, saying they've had a lifetime of experience living on a fixed income and would manage with the money they currently receive.
Frank Ferreira sits in the center's lobby, near a decorative fireplace and an autumn centerpiece. The 90-year-old retired truck driver loves to sing, even practicing on a karaoke machine at home, and loves to dance even more. He gets about $890 a month from Social Security, most of which he hands over to his daughter to help pay his share of the bills.
The money isn't the biggest issue, Ferreira said. It's the message the government is sending about caring for seniors.
"I could use a little more, but that's all right, I get along," he said. "But I think that we deserve it, the elderly. You can't just discard them. You've got to help them."
Nearby, 89-year-old Miriam Danzinger is shuffling along with a walker. She gets about $1,300 monthly in Social Security, and after rent and other expenses, including a MediGap plan, she has little to spare. Her daughter helps pay her bills.
When her Chevrolet Cavalier broke down a few months back, Danzinger was forced to give it up. When she goes to the store, she's thrifty, having learned how to cut grocery costs when she ran a coffee shop. She lives as simply as possible.
"Listen, there's no money. People are going hungry," she said. "But what can I say? I'm only a little ant."
The freeze in next year's checks is the first since automatic Social Security cost-of-living increases were adopted in 1975, and follows a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982. By law, the adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year because of lower energy costs.
The Obama administration plan to send $250 stimulus payments to about 57 million seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities, would amount to a roughly 2 percent raise for the average Social Security recipient. If approved, the checks would cost about $13 billion, though there is no plan yet how to finance them.
While seniors here have grown used to the annual raises, many of them said they're willing to cut the government some slack given the recession and the federal deficit.
"When they have the money, they give us the raise. If they don't have it, they don't have it," said Lucy Polieto, a retired waitress who lives in Southwest Ranches. She wears a glittery gold sweater and chains around her neck, and walks with a spry bounce that belies her 94 years. "Sometimes, I'm so surprised when I look at the check and I get a raise."
The news this week that checks would be stagnant is buffered by some positives: Seniors won't be getting any less than they already do, most recipients' Medicare part B premiums will freeze as well, and the president's plan could soften the blow. But because the stimulus payments would be a one-time check, not a raise that would continue over their lifetime, for many seniors it means thousands of dollars, compounded, that they'll never see.
For those in poverty, the raise could have made a huge difference. But for the average senior simply living on a fixed income, it is seen less in dollars and cents, and more in the tangible costs they might be more careful with.
Polieto cooks eggplant, chicken cacciatori and pasta fazool. A raise could have given her more leeway with her grocery bill.
"Then I could buy some steaks, maybe," she said. "But I'd rather have a pork chop."

Figure in Abramoff scandal to be sentenced

WASHINGTON – Stung by a jury that deadlocked on charges against a former lobbyist, federal prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal are returning to court in an attempt to make sure one of their biggest catches is sent to prison.
David Safavian, the former top procurement official in the George W. Bush administration, says his life is in ruins because of his convictions for lying to investigators about his relationship with Abramoff. Now Safavian wants to be spared a prison term. He was scheduled to appear Friday before U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman for sentencing.
Federal prosecutors are seeking 15 months to 21 months behind bars for Safavian.
On Thursday at the same federal courthouse, prosecutors were dealt a setback in another Abramoff-related trial, that of ex-lobbyist Kevin Ring, which ended in a mistrial.
Ring was accused of lavishing tickets and meals on employees of then-Republican Reps. John Doolittle of California and Ernest Istook of Oklahoma and on Justice Department officials in return for congressional appropriations and other assistance for Abramoff's clients.
The prosecution said the government intended to seek a date for a retrial. A status conference with the judge was set for Monday.
Ring is only the second person implicated in the Abramoff scandal to fight the criminal charges at trial rather than pleading guilty and cutting a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence. The other was Safavian, whose convictions were overturned following a trial in 2006. Safavian was convicted again in a retrial.
As chief of staff at the General Services Administration, Safavian supplied Abramoff information about two pieces of GSA-controlled property the now-imprisoned lobbyist wanted. Questioned later by investigators, Safavian said Abramoff had no business before GSA.
Around the time he was giving information to Abramoff, Safavian paid Abramoff $3,100 for a weeklong golfing junket to Scotland in August 2002. Prosecutors said the amount was far short of the cost of a chartered jet, $400- and $500-a-night hotel rooms, $400 rounds of golf at the famed St. Andrews golf course and $100 rounds of drinks.
Abramoff wanted Safavian's help with property in the Maryland suburbs of Washington for a Jewish school Abramoff established and wanted to give an Indian tribe client a leg up on obtaining a contract to redevelop the historic Old Post Office in downtown Washington as a luxury hotel. Safavian subsequently moved from GSA to the Bush White House, where he became the top procurement official in the government.
In court papers this week, prosecutors said Safavian has failed to show any remorse.
Safavian committed the crimes he was convicted of "simply because he thought he could get away with it," prosecutors declared in court papers filed this week. "The defendant's abuse of his position of trust counsels against awarding him the breathtakingly lenient sentence of probation or home detention that he requests."
In pleading for leniency, Safavian's lawyers said sending him to prison would punish his pregnant wife and their 6-year-old daughter. He said he has lost his job, lost his law license and cannot perform government contracting work.
Safavian was convicted of obstructing an investigation by the inspector general at the GSA and of lying to the FBI and a GSA ethics officer and of making a false statement on his financial disclosure form.

Bangladesh on right track: US ambassador

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
Bangladesh, with its growing economy and success in integrating Islamic schools, can serve as a "tremendous advertisement" for democracy worldwide, the US envoy there said Thursday.

Ambassador James Moriarty, on a visit to Washington, renewed US assessments that December's elections that brought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back to power were the freest in the South Asian country's history.

Speaking at the Asia Society, Moriarty said the nation long identified with dire poverty will easily maintain more than five percent annual growth thanks largely to the growing competitiveness of its textile industry.

"In terms of the US interest, if you see a Muslim-majority democracy of 160 million people climbing out of the abyss of poverty and becoming a reasonably prosperous middle-class country, it's a tremendous advertisement for what the combination of democracy and free markets can do in the world," he said.

Moriarty said Bangladesh may be able to offer lessons on how to integrate madrasas -- the Islamic schools that face criticism in parts of the world for graduating extremists.

He pointed to Sheikh Hasina's offer to support so-called kawmi madrasas -- those independent of the government -- if they agree to adopt a national curriculum.

"They've taken a fairly sophisticated view of, 'We're going to go after the guys who know are bad guys and we're going to work with the guys who are still in the system,'" Moriarty said.

The government hopes "instead of turning out kids who can only recite the Koran in Arabic and were only fit to teach other kids to recite the Koran in Arabic, we're going to have the madrasas adding to the national pool of talent," he said.

But Moriarty acknowledged Bangladesh still had major problems including poverty, bitter partisanship and corruption.

Moriarty said Bangladesh was making progress against corruption but that the scourge still "stymies democratic development."

"It discourages domestic and foreign investment and, frankly, could potentially derail the government of Bangladesh's ambitious agenda for the next four years and beyond," he said.

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Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, software consists of a machine language specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. Software is an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer hardware in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1958. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer programs. The theory that is the basis for most modern software was first proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.

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