Japan intervenes to tame soaring yen ahead of G20 (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan intervened to weaken the yen after the currency hit a record high against the dollar on Monday, saying it acted to counter speculative moves that did not reflect the health of the Japanese economy.

The dollar spiked after the intervention as much as 4 percent past 79 yen from around 75.65 yen. The dollar touched a record low of 75.31 yen earlier on Monday.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Tokyo stepped into the market for the second time in less than three months on its own at 10:25 a.m. local time (0125 GMT) and would continue to intervene until it was satisfied with the results.

"I have repeatedly said that we would take decisive steps against speculative moves in the market," Azumi told an ad-hoc news conference.

Azumi would not comment on the size of the intervention, but one trader said the authorities were intervening "quite persistently."

"My sense is that they might not quit very easily," a trader said. The trader added, however, that dollar/yen may start to become heavy at levels above 79 yen.

Tokyo's second foray into currency markets since its record 4.5 trillion yen selling intervention on August 4, follows weeks of warnings by government and central bank officials that their patience with the currency's strength was wearing thin.

Even though the yen's exchange rate when measured against a trade-weighted basket of currencies and adjusted for inflation is not far from its 30-year average, it has been trading at much stronger levels against the dollar than one assumed by Japanese exporters in their earnings projections.

Last Thursday, acting in part out of concern that the yen's impact on corporate profits could derail Japan's recovery from the March earthquake and tsunami, the Bank of Japan eased its monetary policy by boosting government bond purchases.

But the easing failed to take the pressure off the yen, which continued to climb against the U.S. dollar -- underpinned by investors seeking relative safety in the currency from the European debt crisis.

Yunosuke Ikeda, senior FX strategist at Nomura Securities, said last week's central bank easing and Monday's intervention could be an effective combination.

"It was very good timing. The BOJ has prepared the ground by easing last week. Speculators' yen-buying position has piled up, and intervention is most effective in such cases," Ikeda said.

"This will likely be one-off intervention, but I think the government wants to stop the yen's strength, which is out of sync with gradually improving global economic fundamentals.

"The dollar/yen will unlikely fall back to the record low hit earlier today for some time."

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Azumi will head to the Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France later this week and Tokyo has been keen to win its international partners' understanding for its problems with the yen.

Azumi said that while Monday's intervention was a solo act he was in a continuous contact with his international partners.

"I have been frequently in contact (with other countries) ... I have always conveyed Japan's stance and interests at senior official levels," he said.

Since September 2010, Japan has now intervened three times on its own and once jointly with other G7 rich nations to weaken the yen. But the effects of past intervention have proved fleeting in the face of steady demand from nervous investors seeking highly liquid and relatively safe assets such as Japanese government bonds.

This has been a source of deepening frustration for Japanese officials, who argue that a yen rally is one problem too many for a nation grappling with a nuclear crisis, a $250 billion post-quake rebuilding effort and ballooning debt.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Hideyuki Sano; Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Neil Fullick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/bs_nm/us_japan_economy_yen

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Iowa up for grabs 2 months before GOP caucuses (tbo)

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Rescue efforts suspended at Kansas grain elevator

A Kansas State Trooper walks from his vehicle at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The explosion injured at least two people. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

A Kansas State Trooper walks from his vehicle at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The explosion injured at least two people. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

A Kansas State Trooper stands his post near the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. An explosion at the grain elevator injured at least two people. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Atchison city manager Trey Cocking talks with reporters near the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. An explosion at the grain elevator injured at least two people. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Officials meet near the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. An explosion at the grain elevator injured at least two people. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Smoke leaks from the top of the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. An explosion at the grain elevator injured at least two people. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) ? Crews temporarily suspended their search Sunday for three people missing since an explosion at a Kansas grain elevator that killed three workers and left two critically injured with severe burns.

Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking said officials with Bartlett Grain Co. decided it was unsafe for anyone to be inside the facility until later Sunday, when some heavy equipment was expected to arrive to assist them.

The explosion blew off a chunk of a grain distribution building that sits directly above the elevator, and Cocking said officials were fearful the building could fall on top of rescue crews amid the search. The efforts were already called off overnight because of darkness.

"It's a fairly dangerous situation. We don't feel comfortable putting fire crews in," Cocking said.

Although crews were considering the effort a recovery mission, Cocking said they hadn't given up hope that the one elevator company worker and two state grain inspectors might be found alive.

Family members of one of the missing, Travis Keil, 34, of Topeka, headed Sunday to Atchison to await news about his whereabouts. Gary and Ramona Keil, who made the drive from Salina with Travis Keil's three children, ages 8, 12 and 15, said their son was a war veteran who had been working as a site inspector for 16 years.

"We have all our prayers working for him," Gary Keil said.

Two other victims who were admitted to the burn unit of University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., were listed in critical condition there Sunday morning, hospital spokesman Dennis McCulloch said.

Cocking said four other people associated with the explosion escaped without injuries. No names were being released pending notification of families.

With smoke still billowing from the facility Sunday, train traffic past the elevator was being rerouted. A few emergency crews, including Union Pacific Railroad, drove to the scene as daylight broke.

The explosion could be seen and felt across Atchison, shaking homes and businesses up to four miles away. The cause was not immediately known, though grain elevator accidents can occur after grain dust becomes suspended in the air and turns explosive in the right conditions.

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday. The company planned to issue an updated statement Sunday.

Explosions are a leading hazard at grain elevators. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, there have been more than 600 explosions over the last four decades, killing more than 250 and injuring more than 1,000. Grain dust is the main source of elevator blasts, as the dust can become airborne and explosive ? needing only a slight ignition source, such as electrical sparks, to cause a blast.

OSHA says suffocations are the leading killer at grain bins when workers become trapped in cascading grain. A study by Purdue University and cited by OSHA found 26 suffocation deaths at grain bins in 2010, the highest number on record at the time.

An explosion at a grain elevator in Bartley, Neb., in April 2010, caused no injuries but sent workers scrambling out of the way, while another in Gothenburg, Neb., in December 2010, scattered debris over nearby railroad tracks and a highway, also without injuries, authorities reported at the time.

Elsewhere, explosions or fires were reported at two grain elevators in Illinois in 2010 while a fire burning at a grain elevator in the Toledo, Ohio, area in September 2010 forced people to evacuate from a nearby mobile home park and businesses as a precaution. There also have been explosions or fires at elevators in South Dakota and Louisiana that year, none of them fatal.

Authorities said two workers were killed in June 2010 when they were buried under a load of wheat at an elevator in the central Kansas town of Russell though no explosion occurred there.

Paul Moccia, 57, lives in Atchison about a half mile from the grain elevator. He said the explosion shook his house and that lights flickered across his neighborhood for about 30 seconds.

"It was extremely loud. It was kind of like to me a double whomp, ? a bomp bomp. It reverberated, and kind of echoed down through the valley. ... kind of like a shock wave," he said. "Everybody came outside. Neighbors were trying to figure out what was going on. It was quite a thump."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-30-Grain%20Elevator%20Explosion/id-e16372f56db24acf9ccf57742101dc83

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Apple abandonar? Google Maps por soluci?n de mapas 3D a golpe de talonario

Apple acaba de adquirir la compa??a de mapas 3D C3 Technologies y es, sin duda, el primer paso hacia una soluci?n nativa de mapas, dejando de utilizar el popular servicio de Google -competidor directo- Google Maps.

Que Apple utilice la soluci?n de Google actualmente implica que no tiene ni control ni acceso ninguno a la informaci?n de Google Maps, es decir, s?lo pueden ofrecer a los usuarios lo que Google vaya implementando. Android es competidor directo de iOS y los de Cupertino van a ofrecer una soluci?n de mapas propia gracias a la adquisici?n de C3 Technologies.

El producto que ofrece dicha compa??a es impresionante y las posibilidades son pr?cticamente ilimitadas. Los mapas 3D que crean tienen un gran nivel de detalle y no hablamos de simples mapas planos o bien una interacci?n pseudo3D como Street View de Google, sino una interacci?n real 3D en un entorno tridimensional creado mediante el uso de cartograf?a, mediciones de altura y texturas reales que prometen una precisi?n final de 10 cent?metros.

Este servicio ser? revolucionario y para que comprob?is de qu? estamos hablando os animamos a ver los v?deos integrados en esta noticia siendo este ?ltimo el m?s interesante ya que explica el proceso de creaci?n de los mapas.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/muycomputer/~3/vzQRKNVD-Fc/story01.htm

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Is this the era of leaderlessness?

Their politics may be diametrically opposed, but the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the tea party activists have one thing in common: a deep distrust of leaders. Are they onto something?

The tea party and the ?Occupy Wall Street? movements evolved on different planets, even if members of both groups sport red-white-and-blue face paint, funny hats, and placards proclaiming their anger. Tea partyers tend to be older, antitax, and more Midwestern or Southern in origin. Occupiers are younger, in favor of higher taxes on the wealthy, and more urban and coastal.

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But in that way that left and right can sometimes intersect, the tea party and OWS are in the same place in at least one important sense. Both have lost faith in established institutions. TPs are more down on Washington, D.C., than Wall Street. OWSers are more irked at big money than big government. But both are deeply skeptical of the stentorian voice that says ?trust us, we know best.?

The spirit of the times, whether in town-hall shoutfests or on the streets of Europe and North America, is infused with anarchy ? and I mean nothing pejorative by that. ?Anarchy? is now a synonym for chaos and wild-in-the-streets mayhem, but in the original Greek it simply means ?without a leader.?

Anarchism is not just the absence of government. It has a large body of theory behind it that emphasizes enlightened individualism, charity, voluntarism, and community. It envisions individuals being purely self-governed. That?s the theory, at least. Anarchism doesn?t have such a great history. Attempts to create leaderless societies in 19th-century Europe and early-20th-century Russia ended with the guillotine and gulag. But every political system ? democracy, monarchy, oligarchy ? has been hijacked by bad guys at times.

Are we perhaps living in a time when leaderless groups can flourish thanks to the open-source, peer-to-peer sharing, social networking wonders we enjoy? With cheap, instant communication and vast amounts of information at our fingertips, could we run a society without a ruling hierarchy? One of the more popular management books in recent years (read everywhere from business schools to the Pentagon to tea party book clubs) has been ?The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations,? by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. It sings the praises of decentralized organizations (Craigslist, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Apaches of the 19th century) as resilient and superior to hierarchies where everything rests on the leader. Think of the starfish, with its regenerating legs, versus the spider, which is kaput when decapitated.

Starfish groups must have strong values, motivated members, and transparent information structures. The good news is that starfish are multiplying. (The bad news is that Al Qaeda may be one.) The question is whether an entire society can be built without central command, including everything from national defense to food and drug standards. That isn?t implausible. Wikis, tweeting, and friending may be taking us in that direction. The recently formed Americans Elect group is trying to choose a presidential candidate outside the two-party system and via the Internet.

You can get a sense for which institutions we still see as necessary by looking at public opinion. The latest Gallup poll on confidence in institutions has the military and small business at the top, Congress and big business at the bottom. Career politicians, nest-feathering bosses, and entrenched bureaucrats, in other words, may be heading for the dustbin of history. For now, however, we are in a hybrid era. We still need leaders. But we won?t let them lead without constant questioning. We?ll want competence, honesty, transparency, and humility.

The message from tea partyers, Wall Street occupiers, and lots of nonactivists who have lived through the epic economic and political mismanagement of recent years is the same: Dear leaders, don?t unpack your boxes.

John Yemma is the editor of The Christian Science Monitor

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UFH5oJbFcDs/Is-this-the-era-of-leaderlessness

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NY judge challenges $285M Citigroup settlement (AP)

NEW YORK ? A federal judge cast doubt Thursday on the fairness of a $285 million settlement that Citigroup reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying lawyers need to explain how the deal is sufficient to make such serious securities fraud allegations go away.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan scheduled a Nov. 9 hearing on the deal announced earlier this month, questioning why he should approve the deal when Citigroup Inc. neither admits nor denies wrongdoing.

"Given the SEC's statutory mandate to ensure transparency in the financial market place, is there an overriding public interest in determining whether the SEC's charges are true?" the judge asked lawyers in a written order. "Is the interest even stronger when there is no parallel criminal case?"

Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos declined to comment Thursday.

The SEC brought civil fraud charges against Citigroup earlier this month, saying that it misled buyers of a complex mortgage investment just as the housing market was starting to collapse. The SEC said the Wall Street bank bet against the investment in 2007 and made $160 million in fees and profits while investors lost millions.

The $285 million settlement was to include the fees and profit Citigroup earned, plus $30 million in interest and a $95 million penalty. The SEC said the money would be returned to investors.

Rakoff asked why the penalty would be paid in large part by Citigroup and its shareholders rather than culpable individual offenders.

"How can a securities fraud of this nature and magnitude be the result simply of negligence?" he asked.

The judge also questioned how the $95 million penalty was determined and why it was less than one-fifth the amount imposed last year in a case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

"What reason is there to believe this proposed penalty will have a meaningful deterrent effect?" he asked.

Citigroup received $45 billion as part of the $700 billion government bailout at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. Regulators at the time worried that Citigroup was on the brink of failure.

The judge also questioned how the SEC would ensure compliance with the terms of the deal. He asked lawyers to describe how many contempt proceedings against large financial entities the SEC has brought in the last decade related to prior consent judgments.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_us/us_sec_citigroup

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Report fingers China for satellite hack

At least two US environment--monitoring satellites were interfered with four or more times in 2007 and 2008 through a ground station in Norway, and China?s military is the prime suspect, a draft report to the US Congress said.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reported the interference, said the events had not actually been traced to China. It said it was citing them ?because the techniques appear consistent with authoritative Chinese military writings? that have advocated disabling satellite control facilities in any conflict.

Pinpointing responsibility for a cyberattack can be extremely difficult. Hackers typically mask their tracks by routing intrusions through computers on multiple continents and can make an attack appear to come from a third country.

The commission said its account was based largely on a May 12 US Air Force briefing for the 12--member commission, which was set up by Congress in 2000 to report on the national security implications of US-China trade. Its final report is scheduled to be sent to lawmakers on Nov. 16.

The satellites cited in the report are used for climate and terrain monitoring by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the US Geological Survey (USGS). A Landsat-7 Earth observation satellite, built by NASA for the USGS, experienced 12 or more minutes of interference in October 2007 and July 2008, the report said.

A NASA-managed Terra AM-1 Earth observation satellite was similarly interfered with for two minutes or more on June 20, 2008, and at least nine minutes on Oct. 22, 2008, it said.

NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto confirmed that NASA had spotted two ?suspicious events? with its Terra spacecraft in the summer and fall of 2008, but said no commands were successfully sent to the satellite and no data was captured.

NASA notified the US Department of Defense, which is responsible for investigating any attempted interference with satellite operations, Perrotto added.

The defense department would not comment on the alleged hacking, but said it was monitoring China?s development of ?counter-space? capabilities.

The department is increasing the resilience of US assets in space and improving ?the ability to operate in a degraded environment,? among other precautions, Pentagon spokesman Army Lieutenant Colonel James Gregory said.

Hackers appear to have worked through Svalbard Satellite Station, or SvalSat, in Spitsbergen, Norway, which routinely connects to the Internet to transfer data, the commission?s draft added.

Located about 1,200km from the North Pole, SvalSat is well-placed to communicate with satellites in polar orbit, the report said.

However, the company that owns the ground station said it saw no sign of the penetration reported by the commission.

?Our systems indicated nothing,? Kongsberg Satellite Services president Rolf Skatteboe said in Oslo. ?We do not understand where this is coming from.?

Commissioner Larry Wortzel, who is a retired US Army colonel and former military attache to China, said Beijing conducted numerous tests on space warfare systems in 2007 and 2008.

?I don?t think it is a wild analytical leap to suggest that these hacks could have been part of that matrix of testing,? he said in an e-mail.

The report did not spell out the nature of the interference, but said hackers ?achieved all steps required to command? the Terra AM-1 satellite without ever actually exercising that control.

Source: http://libertytimes.feedsportal.com/c/33098/f/535600/s/19a9a47b/l/0L0Staipeitimes0N0CNews0Cworld0Carchives0C20A110C10A0C30A0C20A0A35170A65/story01.htm

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Maid's attorneys: Strauss-Kahn stalling in NY case (AP)

NEW YORK ? Lawyers for a New York City hotel maid whose civil lawsuit accuses former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault say he's purposefully stalling.

Attorneys for Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo (na-fee-SAH'-too dee-AH'-loh) filed a court document Monday. They want permission to investigate while a Bronx judge decides whether to dismiss the case. Under law, all investigation must stop until a ruling is made on whether the case goes forward.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers say Diallo's request is unlawful.

Her attorneys say Strauss-Kahn wrongly subpoenaed records from Manhattan's Sofitel hotel, where she claims he attacked her in May. They say the subpoenas happened during a legal gray area before his dismissal request was technically filed.

The married Strauss-Kahn admits an inappropriate sexual encounter with the maid but insists there was no violence. A criminal case against him was dropped.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_us/us_strauss_kahn_lawsuit

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Anonymous

From its opening frames Anonymous feels portentous and didactic. In a questionably necessary scaffolding story, the Shakespearean stage actor Derek Jacobi appears on a modern-day stage for some scene-setting defamation of the Bard?s name: ?What would you think if I told you that Shakespeare never wrote a single word?? Flashback to a heavily CGI-augmented version of sixteenth-century London, where all manner of aristocratic trickery is afoot.
?
The hunchbacked high courtier Robert Cecil (Edward Hogg) has arrested the playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) for sedition. Cecil suspects that Jonson has a secret he?s not telling, and he?s right?Jonson knows that the Earl of Oxford, Edward De Vere (Rhys Ifans), is secretly the author of the popular plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Because his works critique those in high places?and because, apparently, of the shame conferred by inky fingers?De Vere has chosen to hide behind a pseudonym. He tries to convince Jonson to be his beard, but in a moment of spontaneous opportunism, Shakespeare (Rafe Spall), a barely literate dolt in the company that performs the plays attributed to ?Anonymous,? seizes a copy of a play after a performance and passes it off as his own.
?
In a dreary subplot?really more of a co-plot, since it takes up almost half the movie?two young noblemen, the Earl of Southampton (Xavier Samuel) and the Earl of Essex (Sam Reid), lead an attempted rebellion against Queen Elizabeth (Joely Richardson as a young woman, her mother Vanessa Redgrave as an older one). There are reasons for this rebellion that involve succession disputes and the Stuart dynasty in Scotland, but honestly, life?s too short to get into them here. All you need to know is that Elizabeth?s reputation as the Virgin Queen is, shall we say, unearned?for years, the court has been shipping off the bastard children born of her affairs to be raised by families unaware of their royal provenance.
?
The movie?s middle section is a blur of doublets and double-crosses, so overstuffed with character and incident that it soon becomes impossible to keep up with the multiple time frames (we see De Vere played at three separate ages by different actors). The playwright Christopher Marlowe is mysteriously murdered. The queen takes a lover. Traitors are beheaded, legacies questioned, and scandalous truths revealed. Once in a while we get to see a fragment of a Shakespeare play?Bottom?s song from A Midsummer Night?s Dream, the St. Crispin?s Day speech from Henry V?that reminds us why we cared about this story in the first place. (Royal Shakespeare Company veteran Mark Rylance, an authorship skeptic in real life, plays the actor Richard Burbage, and, in the brief glimpses we get of him on stage, he?s sensational.) Vanessa Redgrave, working with way sub-Shakespearean material, does invent some brilliant bits of business for Queen Bess?in one scene, alone with her closest adviser, she plonks herself unceremoniously down on the base of the throne, reminding us that even sixteenth-century monarchs must have had their moments of unfiltered intimacy.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=a979c13916afa980838a896013106f3e

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US doubts diplomacy will sway North Korea on nukes (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed doubt Thursday that diplomacy will persuade North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons and he raised the prospect of stalemate leading to "escalation and confrontation."

After daylong meetings with South Korea's government leaders, Panetta told reporters he was concerned by North Korea's pattern of deliberately shifting from periods of modest accommodation with the West to episodes of violent aggression, perhaps with no real intention of giving up its nuclear ambitions.

Asked whether he thinks a renewed effort by the Obama administration to explore a possible new round of international negotiations with North Korea will work, Panetta was blunt.

"We're not sure where those talks are headed at this point," he said, referring to discussions held this week in Geneva by American and North Korean diplomats. The talks yielded suggestions of progress but no apparent breakthrough.

"For that reason, I guess the word `skepticism' would be in order," he said.

The Pentagon chief said he believes, nonetheless, that efforts at a diplomatic solution must go on.

"On the one hand, we have to engage," he said. "We have to try to seek the hope that ultimately they'll do the right thing and join the international family of nations. ... But I think we always have to be cautious that at the same time, they're going to continue to develop their nuclear capability."

In the same session with reporters, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Army Gen. J.D. Thurman, indicated that he suspects the North Koreans are determined to keep up the expansion of their nuclear capabilities.

"Based on what I have observed, they show a willingness to continue to develop and test capabilities that can be associated with their nuclear program," Thurman said. "This is something we've got to remain vigilant on."

Separately, the State Department's top Asia policy official, Kurt Campbell, was in the South Korean capital on Thursday to brief officials on the Geneva talks.

North Korea's foreign ministry issued a statement saying the talks "helped deepen each other's understanding." The statement said both sides agreed to further talks on whether to resume the international discussions involving North and South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.

Panetta said China, a longtime North Korean ally, "can do more" to push North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

"There are moments when we think that they are urging North Korea to engage, but frankly I think China can do more to try to get North Korea to do the right thing," he added.

"I know that sometimes they make that effort and sometimes North Korea doesn't pay attention."

Panetta's first visit to South Korea as defense secretary is part of a broader U.S. effort to shore up South Korea's confidence in a military alliance that has endured for six decades.

Panetta met with the South Korean defense and foreign affairs chiefs and paid a courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak.

In parallel talks, the new chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and top officers from the U.S. Pacific Command met with top South Korean military officers for an annual review of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.

Panetta planned to attend a second round of alliance talks Friday before flying home.

Panetta has called the North "reckless" and a "serious threat" to peace on the Korean peninsula, which exploded in war in 1950 and drew the U.S. and other nations into a three-year conflict against the North and China.

Panetta was asked by reporters what he thinks can be done to break a cycle of North Korean behavior in which it alternately makes gestures of accommodation to the West, followed by provocations.

"The cycle ultimately has to be broken," he said. "There is either going to be an accommodation where they decide to make the right decisions with regards to their future and join the international family of nations ... or, if they continue these provocations, then obviously that's going to lead to the possibility of escalation and confrontation."

Among the maneuverings that influence U.S. thinking about the security threat posed by North Korea is the process now under way in which the supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, is expected to turn over the reins of power to his son, Kim Jong Un, a newly minted four-star general believed in his late 20s. He would be the third generation leader in a family dynasty that has ruled since Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948.

U.S. officials are unsure what timeline has been set for the leadership succession. But two senior American military officers in Seoul said it appears the process has slowed, possibly because Kim Jong Il's health problems seem to have eased. The officials spoke to a group of reporters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

U.S. and South Korean officials believe Kim Jong Il had a stroke in August 2008 that kept him out of the public eye for months.

The officials, who are privy to the latest intelligence assessments, said North Korea's recently more accommodating approach to the U.S. is judged to be only a tactical maneuver likely to be followed next year by demands for concessions. That would follow a decades-long pattern in which unmet concessions lead to a period of provocations from North Korea, such as the 2006 nuclear test that came just months after the North cut off nuclear disarmament talks.

The U.S. officials declined to say whether they believe the North can be persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons, but their analysis of the North's basic approach to the West strongly suggested that they do not expect it to change course.

___

Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_as/as_panetta_asia

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IBM names its first female CEO (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? IBM Corp. ushered in the first female CEO in the company's 100-year history on Tuesday.

Virginia "Ginni" Rometty, a veteran at the technology giant famous for its conservative corporate culture, will take over as CEO from Sam Palmisano, IBM announced.

Palmisano has been CEO for nearly a decade and turned 60 this year. He will stay on as chairman.

Rometty, 54, takes over on Jan. 1. She is currently in charge of sales and marketing at the company based in Armonk, N.Y.

After she takes over the helm at IBM, women will be in charge of two of the world's largest technology companies. Last month, Meg Whitman was named CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. Whitman had previously joined eBay Inc. when it was a fledgling startup during the dot-com boom and guided it to become an Internet auction powerhouse. She also ran unsuccessfully for California governor last year.

While Whitman's HP is a sprawling company in disarray, Rometty will inherit a finely tuned IBM whose focus on the high-margin businesses of technology services and software has helped it thrive.

Their appointments are "setting a fabulous example" in the promotion of female executives, said Jean Bozman, an analyst with IDC who has followed both companies closely for years.

"It is a good sign," Bozman said. "It does create an environment in which more of these high-ranking women executives can see that's within reach. The more that happens, the more normal that will be. I think this might be a great sign that we've turned a corner. Certainly the Baby Boomers have wanted this for a long time."

HP, of course, had another female CEO, Carly Fiorina, but her tenure ended in acrimony when she was forced out in 2005 over disappointing financials and the fallout from her hard-fought battle to buy Compaq Computer.

IBM's move was unexpected. Palmisano had tamped down earlier talk of his retirement, insisting that he wanted to stay on as chief. In rare public comments, he said last year that he was "not going anywhere" and that there's no formal policy at IBM dictating when a CEO should retire.

Palmisano in a statement said that Rometty has led some of IBM's most important businesses, and was instrumental in the formation of IBM's business services division. She oversaw IBM's $3.5 billion purchase of PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting business in 2002, which is a key element of a strategy that has made IBM a widely copied company. She is "more than a superb operational executive," Palmisano said.

"She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the company's future," Palmisano said. "I know the board agrees with me that Ginni is the ideal CEO to lead IBM into its second century."

Bobby Cameron, an analyst with Forrester Research who has worked with IBM in various roles over the years, said that in meetings with Rometty is "engaging" and inquisitive. Her interest in emerging technologies, not just the established sales leaders, is an important characteristic. Cameron thinks she's an ideal choice to continue Palmisano's work.

"I think she's smart. She asks questions; she doesn't just come in with an agenda, and she's interested in the leading edge, not just what's driving volume ? all those things are important for a CEO to have," Cameron said.

Palmisano has the same characteristics, Cameron said.

"I think it will be more of the same, and I think that's a good thing," he said.

IBM shares fell $1.16, or 0.6 percent, to $179.20 in extended trading, after the change was announced.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_hi_te/us_ibm_ceo

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Zynga's IPO due week before Thanksgiving

By Reuters

Zynga Inc. is currently planning to price its initial public offering and have its shares begin trading the week before the Thanksgiving holiday on November 24, two sources briefed on the offering said.

The sources cautioned that the social gaming company's plan has not been finalized and could change. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not public.

Zynga's debut is among a clutch of highly anticipated dotcom IPOs. Groupon launched its own roadshow this week and hopes to price its shares in early November.

If it goes ahead, Groupon will become the first major IPO since the market slump that began in the summer, serving as a litmus test for future offerings.

Roadshows typically take two weeks. That means Zynga is looking to start its IPO marketing effort close on the heels of Groupon's market debut.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/25/8478902-zyngas-ipo-due-week-before-thanksgiving

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Epstein promising a better Cubs team, in time

/

By RICK GANO

updated 1:55 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2011

CHICAGO - Theo Epstein is promising a better Cubs team. It will just take time.

Epstein was introduced Tuesday as the new president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, who hope he can work the same magic for the championship-starved team as he did for the Boston Red Sox.

"To me, baseball is better with tradition, baseball is better with history, baseball is better with fans who care, baseball is better in ballparks like this, baseball is better during the day. And baseball is, best of all, when you win," Epstein said during a packed Wrigley Field news conference.

"I firmly believe that we can preserve the things that make the Cubs so special and over time build a consistent winner, a team that will be playing baseball in October consistently and a team that will ultimately win the World Series."

The 37-year-old Epstein left the Red Sox with a year left on his contract as general manager. The Cubs finally made the announcement Friday night, but held off on the news conference until Tuesday, a travel day for the World Series.

Still to be determined is compensation from the Cubs to the Red Sox for plucking Epstein away. With that still pending, the focus was squarely on Epstein, with nearly 100 media members attending his inaugural news conference and "Cubs Welcome Theo Epstein" splashed across the famous Wrigley Field marquee at the corner of Clark and Addison on Tuesday morning.

The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908 and one of Epstein's first decisions will be deciding the future of manager Mike Quade, who has a year left on his two-year deal.

"We have plans to meet in person sometime over the next week," Epstein said. "I'd like to hear his vision for the organization. ... We'll get together as a group and decide where to go from there."

Various reports say the Cubs aren't through bringing in front office staff from other teams and San Diego's GM Jed Hoyer and Padres assistant Jason McLeod could be reunited with Epstein in Chicago. The three worked together in Boston and Hoyer could be the Cubs' new GM.

Epstein said the Cubs must build a foundation and a solid minor league system.

"We won't rest until there is a steady stream of talent" coming to Wrigley Field from the minors," he said. "We're going to have to grind our way to the top."

The Cubs haven't been in the World Series since 1945 and haven't won it all in 103 years. With Epstein at the helm, the Red Sox ended an 86-year drought by winning the Series in 2004 and followed that up with another title three years later.

Epstein fits the description owner Tom Ricketts put forth after he fired Jim Hendry this summer ? he uses math and formulas as one way to determine the value of players while also combining those evaluations with scouting.

"We began that search in August and I said I was looking for someone with a background in player development, someone who has a proven track record of success, someone who has a strong analytical background and someone who has experience in creating a culture of winning," Ricketts said. "It was also important to me that that person who would not be content with past successes but would build on those success to improve themselves and improve the organization.

"I simply cannot imagine a better person for this job that Theo Epstein."

Under Epstein's guidance, Boston went 839-619 (.575) in the regular season and a 34-23 in the playoffs, winning more than 90 games in all but two seasons. He acquired such stars as David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Jason Bay and Adrian Gonzalez, though he will be remembered for bringing in highly-priced players who fell short, including Edgar Renteria, Daisuke Matsuzaka, John Lackey. This season it was Carl Crawford who didn't meet expectations after signing a big contract.

Epstein has a history of smart draft moves (Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Clay Buchholz) and he has spent freely. His tenure in Boston ended poorly when the Red Sox collapsed in September and missed the playoffs for the second straight season.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45033199/ns/sports-baseball/

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Judge: Lawsuit over 'corn sugar' can go forward (Providence Journal)

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1B umpire Kulpa misses call, starting Cards' rally

/

By JAIME ARON

updated 1:38 a.m. ET Oct. 23, 2011

ARLINGTON, Texas - All these years later, a blown call by a first base umpire actually helped the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

While it remains to be seen whether Ron Kulpa will be as vilified by Texas Rangers fans as Don Denkinger is by Cardinals fans, there's no doubt this mistake was as bad or worse ? perhaps enough to revive talk of expanding video replay in baseball.

In the top of the fourth inning Saturday night, St. Louis was leading only 1-0 when Matt Holliday hit a grounder to shortstop Elvis Andrus that normally would start a double play. Andrus got the force out at second base with a throw to Ian Kinsler, but Kinsler's throw pulled first baseman Mike Napoli off the bag and into Holliday's path. Napoli caught the ball and slapped a tag across Holliday's left shoulder a step before he reached first base.

Kulpa was in decent position to make the correct call ? but didn't. The Cardinals took advantage, scoring four runs that inning on their way to a 16-7 victory and a 2-1 lead in the series.

Kulpa acknowledged he blew it. He told a pool reporter the same thing he told Napoli at the time: he thought Holliday already had stepped on the bag when the tag was made.

"I saw a replay when I walked off the field and the tag was applied before his foot hit the bag," Kulpa said. "I called what I saw."

Crew chief Jerry Layne defended Kulpa, noting that the wide throw made it "a very tough call." He also cut off questions to Kulpa before he could be asked about the Denkinger comparison, a subject he certainly knows well.

Kulpa is a St. Louis native and lifelong Cardinals fan who was 17 when Denkinger made the mistake that triggered a collapse by the Cardinals that cost them the 1985 World Series to the neighboring Kansas City Royals. Asked about his St. Louis ties, Kulpa said, "It has nothing to do with it."

Kulpa is in his 13th year in the majors and this is his first World Series. He was picked before it was known the team he grew up dreaming of playing for would be involved.

While conspiracy theories are sure to abound, it's important to note that Kulpa made the correct call on perhaps the most difficult play yet of the World Series, a steal of second base by Kinsler in the ninth inning of Game 2, with St. Louis trying to protect a 1-0 lead. Kulpa called him safe and Kinsler went on to score the tying run and Texas went on to win 2-1.

If there's any backlash against Kulpa, it probably won't be traced to the Texas clubhouse ? certainly not Napoli, Kinsler or Rangers manager Ron Washington, who briefly argued the play at the time.

"I knew he missed the play when I went out there," Washington said. "We still had an opportunity to get off that field with maybe them just pushing one run across the plate. We just didn't make the plays. I mean, I don't think you can just start all of a sudden making excuses about things. We had a chance to get off the field with them scoring one run in that inning right there, and we just threw the ball around."

Napoli repeatedly emphasized that the Rangers "had a chance to minimize that inning and we didn't really do that." He said he didn't know the Denkinger story and, when told about it, dismissed any similarity with Kulpa's gaffe.

"He's human," Napoli said. "People make mistakes. He's trying his best out there and we're trying our best. You've got to just move on from things like that."

Kinsler wondered why he was even being asked about that play, noting that Texas lost by nine runs. Reminded that it was 1-0 at the time, he still said, "That's not the turning point."

"You can go through a lot of things in this game, a lot of ups and downs and different things that happened," Kinsler said.

While absolving Kulpa, Kinsler also said, "The game's not played in slow motion, so it's pretty difficult to make that call." That brings up the seemingly annual question about why officials can't use replay to make certain calls in games as important as this are always correct. It's already been added to determine whether balls clear the fence for a home run.

This wasn't the first missed call this series, either. In the ninth inning of the opener, which Texas lost 3-2, Adrian Beltre fouled a ball off his foot but umpires called it a fair ball, keeping him from getting at least one more swing.

Also in the opener, Kulpa missed a call at third base, ruling a ball was caught in the air when it actually bounced. That mistake did not lead to any runs.

Kulpa's every move the rest of this series is certain to be scrutinized ? especially Sunday, when he's scheduled to be behind the plate.

Denkinger was behind the plate, too, the night after his crucial mistake in the '85 World Series.

The play that made Denkinger infamous came in the ninth inning of Game 6, with the Cardinals up 1-0 and leading the series 3-2. Leadoff hitter Jorge Orta hit a grounder to first baseman Jack Clark, and he tossed it to pitcher Todd Worrell covering first base. Replays show that Worrell beat Orta to the bag, but Denkinger insisted he was safe.

The Royals went on to win that game 2-1, then won the decisive seventh game 11-0, with St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog and pitcher Joaquin Andujar getting ejected by Denkinger in the fifth inning.

Until this series, Kulpa ? who happens to have a Herzog-esque brush cut ? was probably best known for being head-butted by Carl Everett in 2000. He's worked an All-Star game and was behind the plate for Justin Verlander's first career no-hitter, in 2007.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45003672/ns/sports-baseball/

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Obama announces total Iraq troop withdrawal (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history, announcing that all American troops would be withdrawn from the country by year's end.

Obama's statement put an end to months of wrangling over whether the U.S. would maintain a force in Iraq beyond 2011. He never mentioned the tense and ultimately fruitless negotiations with Iraq over whether to keep several thousand U.S. forces there as a training force and a hedge against meddling from Iran or other outside forces.

Instead, Obama spoke of a promise kept, a new day for a self-reliant Iraq and a focus on building up the economy at home.

"I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year," Obama said. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."

Obama spoke after a private video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and he offered assurances that the two leaders agreed on the decision.

The U.S. military presence in Iraq stands at just under 40,000. All U.S. troops are to exit the country in accordance with a deal struck between the countries in 2008 when George W. Bush was president.

Obama, an opponent of the war from the start, took office and accelerated the end of the conflict. In August 2010, he declared the U.S. combat mission over.

"Over the next two months our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home," Obama said. "The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops."

More than 4,400 American military members have been killed since the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq in March 2003.

The Associated Press first reported last week that the United States would not keep troops in Iraq past the year-end withdrawal deadline, except for some soldiers attached to the U.S. Embassy.

Denis McDonough, the White House's deputy national security adviser, said that in addition to the standard Marine security detail, the U.S. will also have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors to provide security for U.S. diplomats, including at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and U.S. consulates in Basra and Erbil.

In recent months, Washington had been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces.

Throughout the discussions, Iraqi leaders refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans refused to stay without that guarantee.

Moreover, Iraq's leadership has been split on whether it wanted American forces to stay.

When the 2008 agreement requiring all U.S. forces to leave Iraq was passed, many U.S. officials assumed it would inevitably be renegotiated so that Americans could stay longer.

The U.S. said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind, and the Iraqis said they would like American military help. But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a U.S. troop presence was not a sure thing.

The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.

But administration officials said they feel confident that the Iraqi security forces are well prepared to take the lead in their country. McDonough said assessment after assessment of the preparedness of Iraqi forces concluded that "these guys are ready; these guys are capable; these guys are proven; importantly, they're proven because they've been tested in a lot of the kinds of threats that they're going to see going forward.

"So we feel very good about that."

Pulling troops out by the end of this year allows both al-Maliki and Obama to claim victory.

Obama kept a campaign promise to end the war, and al-Maliki will have ended the American presence and restored Iraqi sovereignty.

The president used the war statement to once again turn attention back to the economy, the domestic concern that is expected to determine whether he wins re-election next year.

"After a decade of war the nation that we need to build and the nation that we will build is our own, an America that sees its economic strength restored just as we've restored our leadership around the globe."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_iraq

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Ed Zwick's 'Uncharted' Short Film Explores Heroism

Ed Zwick is best known for his directorial work on "Glory," "The Last Samurai," and "Defiance." If there's a consistent theme running through the films, it's the concept of heroics, people placed into situations where they are forced to muster up their will in the face of adversity. So, who better to produce a short [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/10/21/uncharted-movie-ed-zwick/

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So Gadhafi is dead ? what does Libya do now?

The council that has ruled Libya since the ouster of Col. Moammar Gadhafi is deeply fractured and faces a difficult task reuniting and rebuilding the country now that it is in complete control following Gadhafi's death, Libyan officials and international affairs experts said Thursday.

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The U.S. and other Western powers recognized the National Transitional Council as Libya's official government earlier this year as it became increasingly clear that anti-Gadhafi rebels were likely to succeed in driving the eccentric colonel from power after 42 years of dictatorial rule.

Video: Libyan ambassador welcomes news (on this page)

The head of the council, Mahmoud Jibril ? in effect, Libya's prime minister ? has said free elections would be held eight months after the last vestiges of Gadhafi's regime had been defeated. That clock started ticking Thursday when Gadhafi was killed in his hometown, Sirte, the last major city to fall to the rebels.

Elections on a rushed timetable
The timeline would put the elections in April ? a potentially oppressive deadline in a country that "starts really from zero," said Richard Haass, director of policy planning for the State Department during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Story: Who killed Gadhafi? Conflicting stories emerge

"There are no international institutions," said Haass, now the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the nonpartisan policy institute in New York that publishes the influential journal Foreign Affairs. "There's not really a functioning political system or an economy."

When the elections are held, they will bring in an entirely new slate of leaders, because Jibril and the rest of the NTC are barred from serving in the next government under its interim constitution. Jibril ? a U.S.-trained economist and former professor at the University of Pittsburgh ? reinforced that message Tuesday during a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when he said, "I will not be part of the upcoming government."

That lack of continuity will further hamper efforts to "transform this anti-Gadhafi movement into pro-Libya progress," said Marc Ginsberg, a senior foreign policy adviser during the Carter and Clinton administrations.

Video: Clinton says 'wow' as Gadhafi news comes in (on this page)

"There are 41 tribal leaders, all of whom probably want to get their hands" on the country's wealth ? billions of dollars in overseas bank accounts and untold riches in oil still in the ground ? Ginsberg said.

Kamran Bokhari, director of Middle East analysis for? Strategic Forecasting, a widely followed international affairs and intelligence company in Austin, Texas, identified the factions as coalescing around two primary forces: the NTC and the Tripoli Military Council, a coalition of rebel forces led by Abdelhakim Belhadj.

Belhadj is the former head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was listed as a terrorist organization after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was detained at a secret prison by the CIA in 2004 before he was returned to Libya.

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"We have a very complex landscape that will somehow need to come together," Bokhari said in an analysis issued by Stratfor.

Haass said that until now, the factions had been held together by just one thread: their opposition to Gadhafi.

"Can they agree on what kind of Libya they want to bring about?" he asked. "That will be a real test."

Libyan ambassador asks for U.S. help
Ali Aujuli, the Libyan ambassador to the U.S., acknowledged the difficulties ahead, saying, "We need to work hard for reconcilation."

That will require continued assistance from the U.S. and other foreign governments, Aujuli said, because "we still need help (to) establish our democratic institutions; we need help (for) our injuries to be treated. We need them to help us to help the Libyans to be trained to take care of their country."

Vali Nasr, who until earlier this year was the Obama administration's senior adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan, strongly agreed, saying he feared that "the killing of Gadhafi could be some form of closure for the NATO countries, and they could wash their hands of Libya very quickly."

"The NTC that overthrew Gadhafi is highly fractured," said Nasr, who now teaches international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. "It doesn't have very strong central leadership.

"This is a country that literally has to build its political and economic systems from scratch, and that requires a lot of outside support and ongoing support," he said.

In fact, Nasr said, the death of Gadhafi could be irrelevant in the long run, saying, "It remains to be seen whether Libya will actually disintegrate into the same kind of chaos we saw in Iraq or if it is able to claw its way back to stability."

Haass concurred, saying it was far too early to project whether Libya would be able to make the transition to democracy.

Gadhafi's death will be seen as a victory only "if, several years from now, Libya is a viable state in which people enjoy freedom and economic opportunity," he said.

Video: Leiter: Libya faces many challenges ahead (on this page)

But Michael Leiter, former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, told NBC News' Brian Williams that while the death of Gadhafi wasn't the expressed goal of U.S. policy, it was still a welcome development.

"Without Gadhafi gone, there really wasn't going to be progress in Libya, and this was a critical step in that regard," Leiter said.

It's still "going to be hard for Libya," he cautioned, saying that in addition to political and economic challenges, "they've got potentially, still, problems with terrorist organizations in the south of their country."

Aujuli, the NTC's ambassador in Washington, said skepticism greeted the rebels when they started the civil war in February, and "I am very happy to tell the world that Libya did not disappoint you."

"We've been waiting for this moment a very long time, more than 40 years," he said. "We are proud of ourselves. We are proud of our people.

"They open a new chapter with greater dreams for a democratic country, a democratic regime, and (will) enjoy for the first time in 42 years to elect their own leader."

By Alex Johnson of msnbc.com with Andrea Mitchell of NBC News and Martin Bashir and Tamron Hall of MSNBC-TV.

? 2011 msnbc.com? Reprints

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44980950/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Senate rejects slimmed-down Obama jobs bill (San Jose Mercury News)

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