Pakistan retaliation leaves NATO drivers in limbo

Trucks are parked at a road as authorities closed the Torkham border for NATO supply trucks at Pakistani border town of Torkham on Saturday, Nov 26, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

Trucks are parked at a road as authorities closed the Torkham border for NATO supply trucks at Pakistani border town of Torkham on Saturday, Nov 26, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

Soldiers of the Pakistani militia force stand guard at the Pakistani border post of Torkham as it is closed for NATO trucks carrying supplies to neighboring Afghanistan, on Saturday, Nov 26, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

Pakistani security personnel stop trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan at Takhtabeg check post in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, Pakistan, on their way to Torkham border post on Saturday, Nov 26, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Pakistani security personnel stop trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan at Takhtabeg check post in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, Pakistan, on their way to Torkham border post on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. Pakistan, on Saturday, accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Trucks carry supplies for NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan are halt at Takhtabeg check post in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, Pakistan, on their way to Torkham border post on Saturday, Nov 26, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani truck drivers carrying supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan say they are worried about militant attacks after their country closed its border crossings in retaliation for coalition airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.

Nearly 300 trucks were stranded at Pakistan's two Afghan border crossings Sunday, a day after the alleged NATO attack and Islamabad's quick decision to block the coalition's supplies.

Saeed Khan, a driver stuck at the Torkham border crossing, said he and hundreds of his colleagues barely slept because they were worried about attacks.

Suspected militants destroyed about 150 trucks a year ago after Pakistan closed Torkham for about 10 days following a similar incident.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Pakistan's foreign minister has told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that an alleged NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers has negated progress in improving the tattered alliance between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Clinton Sunday that the attack was unacceptable, showed complete disregard for human life and sparked rage within Pakistan. The prime minister's office issued a press release describing the conversation.

The U.S. says Clinton expressed sympathy over the incident and promised the U.S. would work with Pakistan as NATO conducts an investigation.

Pakistan has retaliated by closing its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies and giving the U.S. 15 days to vacate an air base used by American drones.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-27-AS-Pakistan/id-37d65e85a2d441c7ac5ff9a87ba39f24

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Update: Rep Defends Miley Cyrus' 'Stoner' Comments As 'Sarcastic' (omg!)

Kelly Osbourne has leapt to the defense of friend Miley Cyrus after a video emerged on Sunday showing the teen actress/singer joking about marijuana at her 19th birthday party last week.

In the video (obtained by The Daily), Miley can be seen laughing with friends before thanking revelers for a cake featuring the face of reggae icon Bob Marley, saying, "You know you're a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake -- you know you smoke way too much f***in' weed."

PLAY IT NOW: Access Hollywood Live: Kelly Osbourne On Her Brother Jack?s Engagement - ?He?s All Grown Up?

However, Kelly, who threw the birthday bash for the former "Hannah Montana" star, says the cake and subsequent comments were simply making light of Miley's highly-publicized salvia incident in 2010.

"Let me make something very clear after Miley Cyrus' salvia incident we started calling her bob miley as a JOKE!" Kelly Tweeted on Sunday. "The cake was also A JOKE! It makes me sick that Miley Cyrus' so called 'friends' would sell her out and lead people 2 believe she is someone that she is not!

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood?s Famous Friends

"U guys if Miley Cyrus is not recording/filming/touring she is works everyday how could she possible do all that if she was a stoner! #think," she added.

A rep for Miley was not immediately available for comment on the video when contacted by Access Hollywood on Sunday.

Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: The ?Fierce? Miss Kelly Osbourne

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Leading Uruk-Hai Publication Endorses Newt (Balloon Juice)

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NASA rover launched to see if Mars can sustain life (Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) ? An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Saturday, launching a $2.5 billion nuclear-powered NASA rover toward Mars to look for life habitats there.

The 20-story-tall booster built by United Launch Alliance lifted off from its seaside launch pad at 10:02 a.m. EST (1502 GMT), soaring through partly cloudy skies as it headed into space to send NASA's Mars Science Laboratory on a 354-million mile (556 million km), nearly nine-month journey to the 'Red Planet'.

"Mars Science Lab is on its way to Mars," NASA launch commentator George Diller said as the spacecraft separated from the rocket.

The car-sized rover is expected to touch down on Aug. 6, 2012, to begin two years of detailed analysis of a 96-mile (154-km) wide impact basin near the Martian equator called Gale Crater.

The mission's goal is to determine if Mars has or ever had environments to support life. It is the first astrobiology mission to Mars since the 1970s-era Viking probes.

Scientists chose the landing area because it has a three-mile (4.8-km) high mountain of what appears from orbital imagery and mineral analysis to be layers of rock piled up like the Grand Canyon, each layer testifying to a different period in Mars' history.

The rover, nicknamed Curiosity, has 17 cameras and 10 science instruments, including chemistry labs, to identify elements in soil and rock samples to be dug up by the probe's drill-tipped robotic arm.

The base of the crater's mountain has clays, evidence of a prolonged wet environment, said planetary scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology and the mission's lead scientist.

Water is considered to be a key element for life, but not the only one. Previous Mars probes, including the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, searched for signs of past surface water.

With Curiosity, which is twice as long and three times heavier than its predecessors, NASA shifts its focus to look for other ingredients for life, including possibly organic carbon, the building block for life on Earth.

"It's a long shot, but we're going to try," Grotzinger told reporters before launch.

Curiosity is powered by heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium. It is designed to last one Martian year, or 687 Earth days.

United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/india_nm/india607439

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That was fast: Apple pulls first subscription-based iPad game (Digital Trends)

Seattle?s Big Fish Games scored a bit of a coup this week by being the first app developer to get a subscription-based game app into the iTunes App Store. But, the bubble has burst, at least for now: Apple has removed Play Instantly from the iTunes App Store.

Play Instantly was the first iPad app to offer subscription access to games: for $4.99 a month, subscribers could play any available titlle as much as they liked, without having to purchase a separate copy of the game app. Play Instantly?s operation is similar to the OnLive PC gaming service: instead of downloading versions of the app, users connect to gamed via the cloud (which means Play Instantly only worked via a solid Wi-Fi connection: 3G doesn?t cut it).

Big Fish has expressed surprise over the removal, telling Bloomberg the company was trying to contact Apple to find out why the app had been pulled. Big Fish Games was very public about the release of the Play Instantly app and its revenue model: the $4.99/month subscription price included access to ?dozens? of Big Fish premium casual games, and the company anticipated that Play Instantly would expand to ?several hundred? titles for iOS, Android, and PCs in 2012?that would also come with a higher subscription price of $6.99/month.

Play Instantly may be the first game service to use Apple?s subscription model, but numerous publishers have been using it since the launch of the original iPad. Like app sales and in-app purchasing, Apple takes a 30 percent cut of subscription fees, leaving 70 percent for developers. Apple?s high share of subscription fees has led some publishers (like the Financial Times) to eschew Apple?s subscription technology in favor of iPad/iOS-optimized Web services.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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NASA launches super-size rover to Mars: 'Go, Go!'

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket will deliver a science laboratory to Mars to study potential habitable environments on the planet. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket will deliver a science laboratory to Mars to study potential habitable environments on the planet. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket will deliver a science laboratory to Mars to study potential habitable environments on the planet. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Backdropped by the Atlantic Ocean, the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket rolls toward the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Friday Nov. 25, 2011. Atop the rocket is NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover nicknamed Curiosity enclosed in its payload fairing. Liftoff is planned during a launch window which extends from 10:02 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EST on Saturday Nov. 26. Curiosity, has 10 science instruments designed to search for signs of life, including methane, and will help determine if the gas is from a biological or geological source. (AP Photo/NASA

In this 2011 artist's rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of its arm, which extends about 2 meters (7 feet). The mobile robot is designed to investigate Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, NASA's Curiosity rover, rocketed toward Mars on Saturday on a search for evidence that the red planet might once have been home to itsy-bitsy life.

It will take 8? months for Curiosity to reach Mars following a journey of 354 million miles.

An unmanned Atlas V rocket hoisted the rover, officially known as Mars Science Laboratory, into a cloudy late morning sky. A Mars frenzy gripped the launch site, with more than 13,000 guests jamming the space center for NASA's first launch to Earth's next-door neighbor in four years, and the first send-off of a Martian rover in eight years.

NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, had a shirt custom made for the occasion. Her bright blue, short-sleeve blouse was emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, "Next stop Mars!"

Conrad jumped, cheered and snapped pictures as the rocket blasted off a few miles away. So did Los Alamos National Laboratory's Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist in charge of Curiosity's rock-zapping laser machine, called ChemCam.

Wiens shouted "Go, Go, Go!" as the rocket soared. "It was beautiful," he later observed, just as NASA declared the launch a full success.

The 1-ton Curiosity ? as large as a car ? is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and analyze them right on the spot. There's a drill as well as the laser-zapping device.

It's "really a rover on steroids," said NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science. "It's an order of magnitude more capable than anything we have ever launched to any planet in the solar system."

The primary goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time ? or might even still be conducive to life now. No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.

Curiosity's 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras. No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated or capable.

With Mars the ultimate goal for astronauts, NASA also will use Curiosity to measure radiation at the red planet. The rover also has a weather station on board that will provide temperature, wind and humidity readings; a computer software app with daily weather updates is planned.

The world has launched more than three dozen missions to the ever-alluring Mars, which is more like Earth than the other solar-system planets. Yet fewer than half those quests have succeeded.

Just two weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft ended up stuck in orbit around Earth, rather than en route to the Martian moon Phobos.

"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," Hartman said. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again."

Curiosity's arrival next August will be particularly hair-raising.

In a spacecraft first, the rover will be lowered onto the Martian surface via a jet pack and tether system similar to the sky cranes used to lower heavy equipment into remote areas on Earth.

Curiosity is too heavy to use air bags like its much smaller predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, did in 2004. Besides, this new way should provide for a more accurate landing.

Astronauts will need to make similarly precise landings on Mars one day.

Curiosity will spend a minimum of two years roaming around Gale Crater, chosen as the landing site because it's rich in minerals. Scientists said if there is any place on Mars that might have been ripe for life, it would be there.

"I like to say it's extraterrestrial real estate appraisal," Conrad said with a chuckle earlier in the week.

The rover ? 10 feet long and 9 feet wide ? should be able to go farther and work harder than any previous Mars explorer because of its power source: 10.6 pounds of radioactive plutonium. The nuclear generator was encased in several protective layers in case of a launch accident.

NASA expects to put at least 12 miles on the odometer, once the rover sets down on the Martian surface.

This is the third astronomical mission to be launched from Cape Canaveral by NASA since the retirement of the venerable space shuttle fleet this summer. The Juno probe is en route to Jupiter, and twin spacecraft named Grail will arrive at Earth's moon on New Year's Eve and Day.

NASA hails this as the year of the solar system.

___

Online:

NASA: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-26-US-SCI-Mars-Rover/id-1f06d3e7fed54e5599ac08bb00968a74

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Earlier deals, longer hours woo US shoppers

Black?Friday shoppers rush into Best Buy in North Dartmouth, Mass., early Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of shoppers lined up at Macy's, Best Buy and other stores nationwide to buy everything from toys to tablets on Black Friday despite the economic downturn and some planned protests of the shopping holiday. (AP Photo/The Standard-Times, Peter Pereira)

Black?Friday shoppers rush into Best Buy in North Dartmouth, Mass., early Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of shoppers lined up at Macy's, Best Buy and other stores nationwide to buy everything from toys to tablets on Black Friday despite the economic downturn and some planned protests of the shopping holiday. (AP Photo/The Standard-Times, Peter Pereira)

The line stretched throughout the shopping center as people lined up at Toys R Us in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, for the 9 p.m. opening of the store. Black Friday sales began in earnest as stores opened their doors at midnight. (AP Photo/Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Rachel Denny Clow)

Shelby Buquet and Phi Nguyen, friends from Houma, push their items towards the cash register at the Best Buy electronics store during Holiday Black Friday shopping on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011 at midnight in Houma, La. Black Friday sales began in earnest as stores opened their doors at midnight. (AP Photo, Michael Conti/The Houma Courier) NO SALES MAGS OUT

Crowds of Black Friday shoppers attempt to push their way through security staff moments after the doors opened outside of Best Buy at the Mall of Americain Bloomingtyon, Minn., Friday Nov. 25, 2011. Several retailers at the Mall, including Best Buy, opened their doors to bargain hunters at midnight Friday. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

Balloons at an Oakland, Calif., Walmart advertise sale prices to shoppers on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. Walmart opened their doors before midnight to encourage early shopping.(AP Photo/Noah Berger)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The American holiday shopping season began in earnest Friday as stores opened at midnight ? a few hours earlier than they normally do on the most anticipated shopping day of the year. A few retailers even had lines of waiting shoppers when they opened on the Thanksgiving harvest holiday on Thursday.

The openings were mostly peaceful, but Los Angeles authorities say 20 people at a Walmart store suffered minor injuries when a woman used pepper spray to gain a "competitive" shopping advantage shortly after the store opened on Thursday evening. In North Carolina police were looking for two suspects after gunfire erupted early Friday at a mall. And police said two women were injured and a man was charged after a fight broke out at a Walmart in New York state.

Protests were planned Friday in places like Chicago and Washington, D.C. to get people to reconsider shopping at national chains on what is known as Black Friday. Such protests haven't stopped the crowds ? more than 9,000 people were outside the flagship Macy's store in New York City at its midnight opening.

Retailers hope the earlier openings will make Black Friday shopping more convenient for Americans who are more likely to be worried about high unemployment and other challenges they face in the weak economy. Black Friday is important to merchants because it kicks off the holiday shopping season, a time when they can make 25 to 40 percent of their annual revenue. It's expected that shoppers will spend nearly $500 billion during the holiday shopping season, or about 3 percent more than they did last year.

"It's a good move to try to get shoppers to spend sooner, before they run out of money," says Burt Flickinger, III, president of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.

About 34 percent of consumers plan to shop on Black Friday, up from 31 percent last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, and 16 percent had planned to shop on Thanksgiving Day itself. For the weekend, 152 million people are expected to shop, up from 138 million last year.

To get people to shop, merchants pulled out of their bag of tricks. Only a few opened last year at midnight, but several more stores followed this year. Some are offering to match the prices of competitors. Others are offering layaway plans that allow shoppers to pay as they go.

But the deals are what's driving many early shoppers into stores.

The Gap is offering discounts of 60 percent, 40 percent and 20 percent discounts off many items. Old Navy has pea coats for $29 and jeans for $15. Toys R Us is selling a Transformers Ultimate Optimus Prime action figure for $30 off at $47.99 and a Power Wheels Barbie vehicle for $120 off for $199.99. And Best Buy has a $499 42-inch LCD HDTV for $199.

Millie Ayala, 28-year-old receptionist, began standing in line at a Toys R Us in New York at 5:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, armed with the retailer's circular and a plan for how she and her sister would scour the store for deals. On her list? An interactive dog named Cookie and some baby dolls for her two young daughters.

"Finances have been tough," she says. "Things are a lot more expensive, but with Black Friday deals things are more affordable."

After showing up at Best Buy in New York on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m., Emmanuel Merced, 27, and his brother were the first in line before it opened. On their list was a Sharp 42-inch TV for $199, a PlayStation 3 console with games for $199.99 and wireless headphones for $30. Merced said he likes camping out for Black Friday and he figures he saved 50 percent.

"I like the experience of it," said Merced, who plans to spend $3,000 to $4,000 on gifts this season.

It remains to be seen whether that enthusiasm will linger throughout the holiday shopping season. But analysts seem to agree that if retailers want shoppers to keep coming back, they'll have to keep discounting.

"The consumer is continuing to spend and shop and look for the bargains," says said John D. Morris, BMO Capital Markets analyst. "If it's the right product at the right price, she's shopping and buying."

_____

Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-25-Black%20Friday/id-505beac9dcf04057a494fb1f6c170987

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Does Coffee Protect You From Cancer? | Care2 Causes

If so, I am SO SAFE.

New research suggests that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day can cut a woman?s risk of endometrial cancer by up to 25%. Endometrial cancer is a malignancy that forms in the lining of the uterus. More than 46,000 women in the U.S. will contract endometrial cancer this year, and more than 8,000 will die from it.

A study released today in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention journal reviewed the data from over 67,000 women who participated in the Nurses? Study beginning in 1980. In reviewing the data, researchers determined that women who consumed four or more cups of coffee a day had a 25% lower incidence of endometrial cancer than women who consumed one or less cups of coffee a day. The trend was only associated with regular coffee, however; decaffeinated coffee was not associated as strongly with decreased cancer risk.

However, this doesn?t make coffee a panacea. While this isn?t the first good news about coffee ? research has previously shown it to have positive effects on type 2 diabetes, gallstones, colon cancer and more ? other research has shown that coffee drinkers may be at higher risk for urinary tract cancer and lung cancer, not to mention the jitters, coffee breath and a tendency to fire that snippy email off to your boss without reading it over first.

The authors of the study also warn that the benefits may not outweigh the risks of caffeine consumption ? particularly if you drink those four cups of coffee with two sugars and two creams, as the additional calories and fat will effectively neutralize any possible benefit the coffee itself may have. Still, if you?re already a heavy coffee drinker, take heart ? it?s not as bad for you as you think.

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Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/does-coffee-protect-you-from-cancer.html

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Suh's stomp won't be reviewed before next week (AP)

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. ? For the first season-and-a-half of his young career, Ndamukong Suh could almost brush off talk about his penalties and fines, saying he would keep doing what was needed to help his Detroit Lions.

On Thursday, Suh was publicly apologizing to his teammates after he was ejected from a loss to Green Bay.

It could be several days before Suh finds out the true cost of his third-quarter stomp in Detroit's 27-15 loss to the Packers on Thanksgiving. An NFL spokesman said Friday that plays from Week 12 looked at for potential discipline won't be reviewed until all games are completed.

Detroit coach Jim Schwartz was curt after Thursday's defeat when asked if he was worried about a possible suspension.

"I'm worried about losing this game," Schwartz said.

Suh was dismissed after tangling with Packers offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith. After being pushed off Dietrich-Smith, Suh stepped down hard with his right foot, appearing to make contact with Dietrich-Smith's right arm.

Suh said he was trying to keep his balance while freeing himself from the brief scuffle. He apologized to teammates, coaches and fans for "allowing the refs to have an opportunity to take me out of this game," but he insisted he didn't intentionally step on anyone.

"People are going to have their own opinions ? that's fine," he said. "The only (people) that I really care about are my teammates, my true fans and my coaches and their opinions, and that's where it lies. And honestly, the most important person in this whole thing that I have to deal with is the man upstairs."

In less than two seasons as a pro, Suh has established himself as one of the game's strongest and most athletic defensive linemen, but he's also received his share of fines.

Suh requested and received a meeting earlier this month with Commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss his play. He said that dialogue was helpful, but now the league will have to decide whether more discipline is merited after he was ejected on national television.

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan came up with one tongue-in-cheek solution Friday.

"I'll be honest with you, I think the young man, he should be released ... and come to the Jets," Ryan joked. "I'm just throwing that out there. I don't think he's that good of a player. I don't know about the incident and all that jazz, but we'll take him. We'll sacrifice that way."

Ryan then turned a little more serious.

"I don't even know what to say on it," Ryan said. "You've seen things like that happen on the field before. It's an emotional game."

Jets offensive lineman Matt Slauson, who played with Suh at Nebraska, sounded off on the topic Friday.

"Somebody needs to get him under control, because he's trying to hurt people," Slauson told the New York Post. "It's one thing to be an incredibly physical player and a tenacious player, but it's another thing to set out to end that guy's career."

Slauson said last year that he and Suh used to mix it up in practice while in college.

"There were times we got into fights, during spring ball, during camp, but I kind of fought everyone," Slauson said then.

In 2006, Albert Haynesworth, then with the Tennessee Titans, was suspended five games after swiping his cleats across the head of helmetless Dallas center Andre Gurode. Suh's stomp wasn't toward Dietrich-Smith's head, and the Green Bay player didn't seem too much worse for wear.

When asked afterward where Suh stepped on him, Dietrich-Smith sounded like he didn't want to stir the pot.

"I have no idea," he said. "I have to watch the tape."

If Suh is suspended early next week, he would have a chance to keep playing pending any appeal ? but that appeals process can be expedited. Detroit plays at New Orleans on Dec. 4.

The NFL moved that game to prime time, a reflection of the buzz surrounding the improved Lions this season. Led by young stars Suh, Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson, Detroit won its first five games, but the Lions have since lost four of six.

Defensive backs Louis Delmas, Chris Houston and Brandon McDonald went down with injuries against the Packers, and so did running back Kevin Smith. If the Lions are without Suh for an extended period, it could hurt them in the playoff race.

"He plays aggressive. All of us, sometimes, might overreact in certain situations," Detroit defensive lineman Cliff Avril said. "We've got to play real smart."

___

AP Sports Writer Dennis Waszak Jr., in Florham Park, N.J., contributed to this story.

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'Tis the season for the Distro Gift Guide -- 125 geeky giving ideas

We've been doling out or holiday gift giving advice in installments, but instead of making you wait, we're speeding things up a bit, and offering the full 14 categories just in time for Black Friday. Before you go into a turkey-induced coma, download our very latest special edition, the Distro 2011 Gift Guide, to find out what we've got on our wish list, and what you should have under your tree. From TVS to tablets, from smartphones to Lego sets, we've compiled a list of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear for every price range. Consider this your manual for fighting turkey-induced giving indecision. Now, go forth and spend! (Just don't go crazy.)

Continue reading 'Tis the season for the Distro Gift Guide -- 125 geeky giving ideas

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Football open thread (Balloon Juice)

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Global stocks, euro near 7-week lows (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? German government bond yields hit their highest in nearly a month on Thursday and world stocks held near 7-week lows as a weak debt sale the previous day fanned fears the euro zone debt crisis may finally begin to threaten its biggest economy.

The euro was also near 7-week lows as markets eyed a meeting of leaders from France, Germany and Italy for any signs of cracks in Berlin's resistance to stronger action to end the two-year old crisis.

Repercussions from the auction -- where bids fell well short of the 6 billion euros on offer -- extended into a second day, with Bund futures falling 115 ticks on the day to 134.66, the lowest since October 31.

Ten-year German government bond yields rose as high as 2.12 percent in early trade.

Investors were reluctant to buy riskier assets even after eight consecutive sessions of losses for world stocks which should make prices attractive.

"A lot of people are still cautious with regards to the uptick and it could prove rather temporary as the backdrop is still difficult," Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.

"Events in Europe are still dominating and the German bond auction yesterday just added another level of caution."

MSCI world equity index was steady on the day. The index has fallen 15 percent since January.

European stocks were also broadly unchanged on the day while emerging stocks rose 0.1 percent.

U.S. crude oil rose half a percent to $96.60 a barrel.

The euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.3363, having fallen as low as $1.3318 on Wednesday.

"If Germany has to pay higher costs for its borrowing, it's obvious it cannot help the entire euro zone. If German bond yields keep rising, that could even be a trigger for break-up of the euro," said Makoto Noji, senior strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities.

The dollar fell a quarter percent against a basket of major currencies.

(Editing by Patrick Graham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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Romney going up on air with first campaign television ad, hits Obama on the economy in NH spot (Star Tribune)

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Space Station Crew May Take Shelter From Space Junk (SPACE.com)

The three spaceflyers onboard the International Space Station may have to take shelter inside Russian space capsules tomorrow (Nov. 23), to protect themselves from a possible collision with a piece of Chinese space junk.

At 2:06 p.m. EST this afternoon (1906 GMT), Mission Control, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, informed the station crew ?commander Dan Burbank of NASA and Russian flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin ? that a piece of shrapnel from a Chinese weather satellite that was destroyed in 2007 looked to be on a course near the orbiting laboratory that comes a little too close for comfort.

The object, which is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter, may come within 2,800 feet (850 meters) of the station early tomorrow morning, according to the latest predictions. The agency refers to these close shaves as "conjunctions."

"The tracking at that time was showing it as going to be in the danger area," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told SPACE.com. "Since then tracking looks like it's trending to the better."

Chaotic start

Mission Control won't decide whether the crewmembers actually need to board their space capsules until about half an hour before the potential conjunction time, which would be 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT) tomorrow morning, at which point better tracking data should be available.

"We are going to wait until a little bit closer and see how the tracking continues to trend," Humphries said.

The potential conjunction makes for a chaotic start for the three space station crewmembers, who only arrived at the lab Nov. 16 to begin their months-long mission.

Three other spacecflyers ? NASA's Mike Fossum, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov ? recently completed their turns on the station and landed in Kazakhstan last night (Nov. 21).

Space junk risk

If space junk is on track to fly within a predetermined pizza box-shaped zone around the space station, NASA and its partners will direct the crew to seek shelter aboard their Soyuz spacecraft, which are continually docked at the outpost, in case they need to make a speedy escape. [Worst Space Debris Events of All Time] ?

The last time spaceflyers had to make such a maneuver was on June 28, 2011, when a piece of unknown space debris came within 850 feet (260 meters) of the space station. That was only the second time in history that the station crew has had to take shelter from space debris.

But space junk is a growing problem. Spent rocket stages, lost spacewalking tools, broken satellites and pieces of destroyed satellites are all clogging the orbital corridors of space. There is so much trash up there, in fact, that even if no more were added, it will collide with itself to continually produce more and more, scientists say.

Certain events, such as the 2007 event when China intentionally destroyed a defunct weather spacecraft in an anti-satellite test, have contributed greatly to the total amount of space debris.

Even though most pieces of space junk are much smaller than the football field-size space station, if an object traveling at 17,000 miles per hour (28,000 km per hour) collided with the outpost, it could do devastating damage.

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111122/sc_space/spacestationcrewmaytakeshelterfromspacejunk

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MLB player stabbed to death; brother arrested

ROTTERDAM ?? Seattle Mariners outfielder Greg Halman was stabbed to death in Rotterdam on Monday and his brother has been arrested in connection with the incident, police said.

Halman, 24, was signed as a free agent by Seattle in 2004 and made his major league debut in 2010.

Police were called to a home in the Dutch port city early Monday and found Halman bleeding from a stab wound. The officers were unable to resuscitate the outfielder.

"A 24-year-old died this morning in a stabbing and we have arrested the 22-year-old brother of the victim," a Rotterdam police spokesman told Reuters. Officials declined to give the suspect's name, in line with Dutch privacy rules.

However, Halman's 22-year-old brother Jason reportedly played at the 2004 World Baseball Championship in Taiwan. According to baseball-reference.com, their father Eddy played professionally in Holland.

NOS-TV said Halman's family had confirmed his death.

Greg Halman helped the Netherlands win the 2007 European Baseball Championship.

He hit .230 with two home runs and six RBIs in 35 games with the Mariners last season. He batted .299 during a 40-game stint with Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League.

Greg Halman is a .207 career hitter in the big leagues, according to baseball-reference.com.

When not playing for the Mariners, he helped boost baseball in Europe by holding coaching clinics with youngsters.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Reuters, The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45383682/ns/world_news-europe/

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ECB funding demand surges as bank strains build (Reuters)

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) ? Euro zone banks' demand for central funding surged to a two-year high on Tuesday, and U.S. funds cut their lending to the bloc's banks, tightening a squeeze that looks unlikely to ease this year.

Fast-spreading sovereign debt worries have left lending markets virtually frozen and the European Central Bank as the only available funding option for many banks.

The ECB's weekly, limit-free handout of funding underscored the widespread problems, with 178 banks requesting 247 billion euros, the highest amount since mid-2009.

Just as fears about the financial health of Italy and Spain have stopped banks lending to some their peers, U.S. funds have also continued to retreat from the region, and Italian and Spanish banks have seen corporate deposits flow out to safer havens.

U.S. money market funds, which are key providers of liquidity to banks and have been pulling back from the euro zone since May, cut their exposure to European banks by a further 9 percent in October, according to ratings agency Fitch.

Bankers said there appeared little chance of wholesale funding markets reopening for euro zone banks this year, and the best that can be hoped is for a return to more normal conditions early in 2012.

"The reality is it's hard to see investors get any confidence (before the end of the year), as the sovereign crisis is out of control. Confidence has disappeared from the banks as they are a conduit for the sovereigns," a senior debt market banker said.

There are several warning signs flashing for euro zone banks' liquidity, limiting options and raising borrowing costs, leaving the European Central Bank as the only option for many of them.

"There won't be a crisis of liquidity because the ECB floodgates are open. But that's not long-term funding that banks need for sustainable planning," the banker said.

Financial markets have grown increasingly worried about banks' liquidity as the failure to get to grips with Greece's debt crisis has seen worries spread to Italy, Spain and France, raising their borrowing costs and threatening to saddle banks with losses on their sovereign debt.

"It all comes down to whether the politicians can find a fix for the euro zone. I don't think markets are going to unfreeze until we see some movement on that," said Simon Adamson, analyst at CreditSights in London, adding he doubted markets would reopen this year.

The ECB has reinstated some of its most potent crisis-fighting tools in a bid to try and calm tensions, but the moves have done little to revive wholesale funding.

European leaders will meet next week to discuss how to unblock funding, including potentially restarting state guarantee schemes to allow banks to access longer-term funding.

Key euro-priced bank-to-bank lending rates were steady on Tuesday, but the increase in Italian borrowing costs has lifted funding costs for banks there near to "junk" bond levels.

U.S. money market funds have cut their European exposure to the lowest in percentage terms since Fitch started compiling its data in 2006, the ratings firm said.

"Recent trends indicate that money funds are pursuing a range of strategies to mitigate euro zone risks, including reducing exposure levels, shortening maturities, and increasing the share of collateralized transactions in the form of repos," said Robert Grossman, managing director of Fitch Ratings.

Fitch said its sample of the top 10 U.S. money market funds had a $224 billion exposure to Europe's banks at the end of October, down 42 percent from the end of May.

Funds cut their exposure to French banks by 19 percent in October and by 69 percent since May. They have also shortened maturities, and more than half the exposure to them was for seven days or less at the end of October, Fitch estimated.

The funds also cut their exposure to German banks by 16 percent and to Nordic banks by 14 percent during October.

And reduced wholesale bank funding "could be now morphing into corporate deposit outflows in certain markets," according to Kinner Lakhani, analyst at Citi.

"We are starting to witness signs that corporates are withdrawing deposits from the banks in Spain, Italy, France and Belgium. This is a worrying development and potentially signifies another leg-up in banks' dependence on the ECB," he said.

Citi estimated that non-retail deposit outflows were seen in the third quarter at Italy's Intesa (ISP.MI) and UniCredit (CRDI.MI), Spain's BBVA (BBVA.MC) and Santander (SAN.MC) and France's Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA).

The money headed to banks in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, Lakhani said.

(Additional reporting by Sonya Dowsett in Madrid, Gianluca Semeraro in Milan and Lionel Laurent in Paris)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111122/bs_nm/us_banks_funding

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Penn State trustees panel sets news conference Monday (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? A special committee formed by Penn State trustees to investigate the university's actions after reports of child sex abuse by a former football coach said it will hold a news conference Monday in connection with its investigation.

The special committee was announced days after the November 5 announcement that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused by a grand jury of sexually abusing eight young boys over 15 years. Sandusky faces 40 charges.

The trustees fired legendary football coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier within days of announcing the special committee. The school's athletic director and another official, both charged with perjury by the grand jury, have also stepped down over the scandal.

Sandusky, 67, retired as a Penn State football coach in 1999 but continued to have access to the university's facilities as recently as a few weeks ago.

Investigations of the allegations which have shaken the college football world and state of Pennsylvania are continuing by prosecutors, the university, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Sandusky is alleged to have met many of the boys through The Second Mile, a charity he started in 1977, which is also carrying out an investigation of the charges.

Trustees named Ken Frazier, president and CEO of Merck, to chair the special committee that was appointed to investigate "the circumstances that gave rise to the grand jury report."

The special committee is expected to be made up of a majority of university trustees, plus faculty, students and alumni.

(Reporting by David Bailey. Editing by Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111121/us_nm/us_crime_coach_trustees

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Jeremy London Accused of Assault on Girlfriend

Actor Jeremy London is wanted by police, following the accusation of domestic assault by his girlfriend.

London's girlfriend, whose name is being kept anonymous by authorities, phoned the Palm Springs Police department at 10:30 am to report assault, according to People.com. She claims the couple were arguing over custody of their child and the fight escalated to violence from London. The girlfriend says London, 39, assaulted her outside of their home.

The "Party of Five" actor's camp released a statement regarding the matter, "This is a false allegation and we understand that the police have to follow protocol in issuing and arrest warrant - standard when any woman files a complaint of domestic abuse. London's rep, Dominic Friesen, continued, "However, no such abuse occurred and these allegations will soon be proven false."

Catherine Lombardo, London's lawyer, also stated the allegations were untrue, Associated Press reports.

London, whose has ongoing addiction struggles was chronicled on VH1's Celebrity Rehab. In 2010,he was kidnapped at gun point and forced to use drugs (one of his kidnappers admitted he was guilty in March).

Friesen assures that London is cooperating with officials in the investigation."We anticipate Jeremy to be cleared of any wrongdoing as he continues to enjoy fatherhood and embrace sobriety."

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Italy's new govt passes 1st confidence vote (AP)

ROME ? Against the backdrop of anti-austerity protesters clashing with riot police, Italy's new premier appealed to Italians to accept sacrifices to save their country from bankruptcy, but pledged economic growth and greater social cohesion in return.

Mario Monti is under enormous pressure to boost growth and bring down Italy's high debt, not only to save Italy from succumbing to the debt crisis but to prevent a catastrophic disintegration of the common euro currency.

"Europe is experiencing the most difficult days since the end of the Second World War," Monti told parliament in his debut address Thursday. "Let's not fool ourselves, honored senators, that the European project can survive if the monetary union fails."

Monti pledged to reform the pension system, re-impose a tax on first homes annulled by Silvio Berlusconi's government, fight tax evasion, streamline civil court proceedings, get more women and youth into the work force, and ? in a move aimed at setting an example for ordinary Italians ? cutting political costs.

The government will decide "in the coming weeks" what new austerity measures are needed, Monti said.

The 68-year-old economist and university president described three pillars of his strategy: Budgetary rigor, economic growth and social fairness.

"This government recognizes that it was born to confront a serious emergency in a constructive and united spirit," Monti said, calling it "a government of national commitment."

He was interrupted 17 times by applause. But outside, Rome's historic center was paralyzed by student protests and in the financial capital of Milan, riot police struggled to stop protesters trying to reach the Bocconi University over which he presides, signaling the depth of the resistance the new leader will have to confront.

Monti's one-day-old government won a vote of confidence 281-25 in the Senate later Thursday, ahead of a vote in the lower house Friday, on his government of experts, including fellow professors, bankers and business executives. He was chosen to lead after Italy's spiraling financial crisis brought down media mogul Berlusconi's 3 1/2 year-old government.

Europe has already bailed out three small countries ? Greece, Ireland and Portugal ? but the Italian economy, the third-largest in the 17-nation eurozone, is too big for Europe to rescue. Borrowing costs on 10-year Italian bonds spiked briefly over 7 percent Thursday ? a level that forced those other countries into bailouts ? before closing at 6.81 percent.

In a conference call Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Monti agreed that their countries have a special responsibility to the eurozone as its three largest economies and founding members of the European Union.

Still, it's not clear how many sacrifices already-stressed Italians are willing or able to make.

Students demonstrated across Italy under the banner: "Save the schools, not the banks."

In Milan, a large protest was broken up before it could reach Bocconi, which has educated generations of elite business leaders. Protesters also tried to enter the Italian banker's association office. "The government of the banks," read one placard held by a youth.

Demonstrators in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, hurled eggs and smoke bombs at a bank, and protesters threw rocks at police, who battled back with pepper spray, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. One protester was injured in Palermo, where police charged demonstrators who were trying to occupy another bank.

And riot police in Turin reported several police injuries as they held back protesters trying to break through barriers.

In Rome, hundreds of students gathered outside Sapienza University, while others marched from the train station toward the Senate.

Protester Titti Mazzacane was skeptical about the new government.

Monti chose "decent and competent people," said the 53-year-old elementary school teacher. "(But his government) is a little bit too free-market liberal. I am a bit scared."

Monti's ambitious plans overhaul just about every aspect of the Italian economy ? from the organization of local administrations to the selection process for teachers. Monti indicated that he would seek to lower taxes on labor, while raising those on consumption. And he pledged measures ? such as setting a limit on cash transactions ? to tackle tax evasion, which he estimated is worth 20 percent of GDP.

As for cutting political costs, Monti said he would start with an analysis of spending by the premier's office.

Monti said even passing financial reforms with long-term impact could lead to "an immediate reduction" in borrowing costs by giving important signals to investors. About half of Italy's euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) debt is held abroad.

Raj Badani, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, said markets will want to see that Monti is able to get consensus for tricky issues like pension and labor market reforms, including making it easier to fire unproductive workers and reforming the collective bargaining system.

"If there is a lot of opposition from trade unions and Parliament, then there is worry that some of these more important reform measures could be watered down or abandoned," Badani said.

Already, Berlusconi, now a lawmaker, voiced opposition to any taxes on wealth or property, saying they would have a "negative psychological" impact on development. The abolition of a tax on a primary residence ? which Monti called an anomaly in Europe ? was a campaign promise made by Berlusconi before his last election.

Fitch, one of the ratings agencies whose downgrade of Italian debt this summer exacerbated the political crisis, expressed confidence that the Monti government "will prove itself credible in pursuing fiscal and structural economic reform."

But it also warned that Italy is probably already in recession, which will make the task harder.

Elsewhere, transport and teacher strikes scheduled while the old government held tightly to power created delays in parts of Italy on Thursday.

Despite the protests, Bocconi economist Tito Boeri said he believes that Italians are beginning to understand the seriousness of their country's economic woes.

"Certainly this government won't have an easy life," Boeri said. "It needs to make unpopular choices ... however, I think there is a growing awareness of the gravity of the problems. Italians have demonstrated that they can give the best of themselves in difficult moments."

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_financial_crisis

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Merkel and Cameron discuss clashing views on euro (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? Angela Merkel and David Cameron will try to resolve clashing views on the euro zone crisis Friday, after Berlin accused London of being selfish about Europe in comments that touched off British sensitivities about German bossiness.

The British government wanted a low profile for the eurosceptic Cameron's visit - but such hopes were dashed by two lawmakers high up in Merkel's ruling party blasting euro zone-outsider Britain's stance in the days before the visit.

Merkel told her Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) annual congress in Leipzig this week that Europe faced its "toughest hour since World War II."

She prescribes altering the European Union treaty to impose German-style budget discipline, preferably on all 27 members of the EU rather than just the 17 countries in the euro zone.

"Plans for a possible treaty change are now at a very interesting point and we expect to exchange views with our British partners," Peter Altmaier, chief whip of Merkel's conservatives in the Bundestag, told Reuters.

But treaty change talk seems to irritate Cameron's conservative-led coalition for two reasons: it falls far short of the "big bazooka" response he urges; and it touches a raw nerve about ceding more sovereignty to the European Commission in Brussels.

Britain is already that worried Germany's proposals for a tax on financial transactions - which it still wants introduced in Europe despite rejection by the Group of 20 leading economies - would hurt London's competitiveness as a financial hub.

This prompted Merkel's parliamentary leader Volker Kauder to tell the CDU in Leipzig, to rapturous applause, that Germany would not accept Britain "only defending its own interests" and especially those of the City of London's financiers.

His metaphorical comment that the German approach to the crisis was so widely accepted that "German is being spoken in Europe" prompted jingoistic British headlines such as the Daily Mail's: "We no longer need to fear the jackboot but we have a great deal to fear from German bossy boots."

TAX "UNJUSTIFIED"

"Germany is making the running ... in a way she has not presumed to do since World War II," said the conservative Mail.

The British government's response was more muted.

Business Secretary Vincent Cable, from Cameron's more pro-Europe Liberal Democrat coalition partners, said Germany's stance on the transaction tax was "completely unjustified."

Cameron said in a speech this week, in an apparent response to Merkel's calls for greater political and fiscal convergence, that Europe needed "the flexibility of a network, not the rigidity of a bloc."

Britain's conservative leader is in a quandary on the euro, realizing his country's exports could be harmed by a collapse most likely to be avoided by more unity among euro zone leaders - however much that goes against the grain in London.

Crucially, London fears being left out of crucial decisions regarding the European single market, which it greatly values.

With the Bank of England warning that Britain's economy will struggle to grow until mid-2012 - in contrast to Germany's - it is tempting for London to deflect blame onto the euro zone.

Cameron's "big bazooka" response would involve the European Central Bank becoming the lender of last resort to prop up debt-ridden countries such as Greece and Italy - much in line with U.S. President Barack Obama's call for drastic action.

Such an infringement of the ECB's independence and its focus on price stability is completely taboo for Merkel. But she replies more calmly than Sarkozy, who told Cameron in October: "We are sick of you criticizing us."

German officials say Merkel is disappointed with her fellow conservative leader for not using his influence to aid the euro, and for threatening to use any EU treaty change to claw back powers from Europe rather than cede more.

"Achieving treaty change is visibly not too easy for this British government," said Altmaier.

Berlin recognizes Cameron's troubles with backbenchers who voted in large numbers last month in favor of a referendum on EU membership, and the Germans recall his campaign vow that any transfer of sovereignty would be put to a referendum.

"Nobody believes such a referendum in the UK would get a majority," said the German chief whip.

(Additional reporting by Matt Falloon in London)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/bs_nm/us_eurozone_germany_britain

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Ex-Myspace CEO resigns as Zynga executive

NEW YORK (AP) ? Owen Van Natta, the former CEO of Myspace, is stepping down from an executive role at Zynga but will stay on its board of directors.

Van Natta, 41, was chief revenue officer at Facebook before he joined Myspace in 2009. He was hired at Zynga as executive vice president of business operations in August 2010.

Zynga Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that he will no longer have a role with the company's day-to-day operations.

Of the 6.8 million shares that Van Natta was granted as part of his employment at Zynga, only 2.1 million had vested as of his resignation. This means he forfeits 4.6 million shares before Zynga's initial public offering of stock.

Zynga is expected to go public by the end of the year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-11-17-Zynga-Personnel/id-eb6b65de5eb84a169c9c59f54ae7b858

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