AmerisourceBergen profit up on generics, specialty (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) reported higher-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, driven by strong sales in its generic and specialty drug businesses.

Net earnings rose 4.3 percent to $147.3 million, or 54 cents a share, compared with the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 3.5 percent to $20.4 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 61 cents a share. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 56 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"Adjusting for a more normalized tax rate, AmerisourceBergen's adjusted EPS came in at 59 cents, still ahead of our and consensus estimates by 3 cents," said A.J. Rice, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, in a research note.

AmerisourceBergen said it expects earnings per share for fiscal 2012 to be in the range of $2.74 to $2.84 a share.

"Previously, AmerisourceBergen had suggested a $2.70 to $2.82 range," said Tom Gallucci, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets. "The increase is due primarily to buyback activity in recent months."

Analysts expect full-year earnings of $2.81 a share.

The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based company said it anticipates flat to modest revenue growth in fiscal 2012.

"Outstanding performance in the two key growth drivers for our business - generic pharmaceuticals and specialty distribution and services, continues to drive gross margin expansion," said Steven Collis, the company's chief executive officer, in a statement.

In September, the company agreed to buy TheraCom LLC, a unit of CVS Caremark Corp (CVS.N) for $250 million to expand its consulting services.

(Reporting by Toni Clarke in Boston; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Dave Zimmerman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/bs_nm/us_amerisourcebergen

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Latest developments in the global Occupy protests (AP)

Some of the latest developments in the Occupy protests taking place in cities across the world:

UNITED STATES

CALIFORNIA

The roommate of an Iraq War veteran seriously injured in a clash with police during an anti-Wall Street protest says Scott Olsen is doing well and doctors say he'll make a full recovery. Keith Shannon served with the 24-year-old former Marine in Iraq.

Shannon tells The Associated Press that he visited Olsen at a medical facility Sunday and he "seems to be doing well." Shannon says Olsen still can't talk but doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Olsen suffered a fractured skull and other head injuries during the clash last week. Police are investigating how Olsen was struck by a projectile.

NEW YORK

In New York City, an Occupy Wall Street demonstrator videotaped in a police altercation met with prosecutors Monday to discuss the incident. Felix Rivera-Pitre wants prosecutors to bring assault charges against Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona.

Attorney Ronald Kuby said prosecutors didn't say whether they planned to do so after the meeting. He said they indicated the investigation would continue for a few weeks.

Demonstrators are trying to trademark the phrase "Occupy Wall Street." Leaders of the protesters in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park filed an application Oct. 24 to trademark the name of their movement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, one of their attorneys said Monday. The filing was a defensive move to make sure other people not affiliated with Occupy Wall Street don't try to use the name, he said. An Arizona-based company and a couple from West Islip, N.Y., also have filed Occupy Wall Street trademark applications.

Upstate, two Occupy Rochester protesters were ticketed Monday for violating city ordinances at a park where 32 demonstrators were rounded up on trespassing charges three nights earlier.

Those are the first arrests in upstate New York's major cities among supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Some protesters said they believed officials issued the arrests with the intention of trying to break apart the city's demonstration. But Mayor Thomas Richards said the arrests weren't a punitive response. Rather, he said, the arrests were designed to prevent confrontations over health and safety concerns that have cropped up in other cities around the country.

OREGON

Occupy Portland protesters expanded their encampment Monday into a third park ? this one on federal property ? as activist filmmaker Michael Moore dropped by to praise the demonstrators' efforts. The Oregonian reported that the protesters' spillover from two city park squares into Terry Schrunk Plaza grew from four tents early Monday to about 15 tents by late Monday night.

Federal officials indicated earlier in the day they wouldn't allow an encampment similar to the one Occupy Portland has set up in two neighboring city parks.

PENNSYLVANIA

A $50 million makeover of Dilworth Plaza, headquarters of Occupy Philly, is to begin this month, but it is unclear whether the protesters will relocate. Plans call for an ice-skating rink and a cafe at the site near city hall. Mayor Michael Nutter and several city officials met with Occupy Philly representatives Sunday to discuss health issues, public safety and the group's possible relocation.

RHODE ISLAND

Providence officials said they would not immediately begin legal proceedings against protesters who defied a weekend deadline to dismantle their tents and leave a public park where they have been camping. Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Pare said city lawyers are drawing up a complaint and consulting with a local attorney who has come forward on behalf of the protesters.

But Providence won't follow the actions of other cities, including Atlanta and Oakland, Calif., where there have been widespread arrests and even some violent clashes with police seeking to clear encampments, Mayor Angel Taveras said.

TENNESSEE

Tennessee officials agreed Monday to stop enforcing a new curfew used to dislodge Occupy Nashville protesters from the grounds around the Capitol.

The protesters went to federal court seeking a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bill Haslam, arguing the curfew and arrests of dozens of supporters violated their rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

State Attorney General's Office Senior Counsel Bill Marett announced at the beginning of a hearing before Judge Aleta Trauger that the state would not fight efforts to halt the policy.

The judge said she had already decided to grant the restraining order because the curfew was a "clear prior restraint on free speech rights."

EUROPE

ENGLAND

The City of London Corporation on Tuesday is expected to hand a letter to Occupy protesters outside St. Paul's Cathedral giving them 48 hours to clear their camp or face eviction.

Both church and city authorities are taking action to remove the tent camp, which forced the closure of the cathedral for a week on health and safety grounds.

On Monday, the cathedral's dean quit, saying that he felt his position had become untenable as criticism of the cathedral mounted in the media and in public opinion. Graeme Knowles had urged protesters to leave the cathedral area to allow it to reopen its doors.

He was the third church official to resign over the issue in the past two weeks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111101/ap_on_re_us/occupy_glance

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Obama, House Democrats meet Tuesday on jobs, economy (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama will meet top Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday to plot strategy on how to advance his jobs proposals that are stalled in Congress amid Republican resistance.

The White House talks follow a series of unilateral steps by Obama over the past week aimed at seizing the initiative from his Republican foes and showing voters he is serious about tackling high unemployment and a sluggish economy, efforts considered crucial to his 2012 re-election hopes.

But Obama's aides acknowledge that any steps he can take on his own still fall far short of his $447 billion jobs package that Republicans have blocked as a whole in Congress and which he now hopes to push through piece by piece.

Senior Democrats from the Republican-controlled House, a delegation expected to be headed by Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is due to meet Obama at 3:15 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Topping the agenda will be how to boost the economy and reduce a 9.1 unemployment rate, a senior Obama administration official said.

Obama Wednesday plans to deliver remarks at the Key Bridge in Washington as part of his effort to get Congress to pass billions of dollars in infrastructure spending to put thousands of construction workers back to work nationwide.

Though polls show strong public support for much of Obama's jobs plan, Republicans argue that financing the new spending by raising taxes on the wealthy, as the president and his Democrats have proposed, would actually kill jobs.

With his approval ratings languishing in the 40-percent range due mostly to public discontent with his economic stewardship, Obama is trying to paint Republicans as obstructing his efforts to spur economic recovery.

Obama's meeting with House Democrats also comes at a time when members of a U.S. congressional debt reduction "super committee" are trying to come up with a plan to slash America's huge deficits before a November 23 deadline.

It was not immediately clear whether deliberations by the panel, which remains deeply divided, would figure into Obama's meeting with the Democratic leadership.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/pl_nm/us_usa_jobs_obama

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Bigger birds in central California, courtesy of global climate change

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Elaine Bible
ebible@sfsu.edu
415-405-3606
San Francisco State University

SAN FRANCISCO -- Birds are getting bigger in central California, and that was a big surprise for Rae Goodman and her colleagues.

Goodman uncovered the trend while working as a graduate student for San Francisco State University biologist Gretchen LeBuhn, analyzing data from thousands of birds caught and released each year at two sites near San Francisco Bay and the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The SF State scientists, working with researchers from PRBO Conservation Science and the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory who collected the data, found that birds' wings have grown longer and birds are increasing in mass over the last 27 to 40 years.

What's making the birds bigger? The researchers think that the trend is due to climate change, but their findings put a twist in the usual thinking about climate change and body size. A well-known ecological rule, called Bergmann's Rule, states that animals tend to be larger at higher latitudes. One reason for this rule might be that larger animals conserve body heat better, allowing them to thrive in the generally colder climate of higher latitudes.

Under this reasoning, some scientists have predicted that animals would get smaller as the Earth has warmed up over the past 100 years. But the study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, suggests that the connection may not be so simple.

Climate change may affect body size in a variety of ways, they note in their paper. For instance, birds might get bigger as they store more fat to ride out severe weather events, which are expected to be more common under global climate change. Climate change could also alter a region's plant growth, which may eventually lead to changes in a bird's diet that affect its size.

LeBuhn, an assistant professor of biology, said she was "completely surprised" to find that the central California birds were growing larger over time. "It's one of those moments where you ask, 'what's happening here?'" The results were so unexpected, she said, that the findings made them take a step back and look more closely at how climate change could influence body size.

The bird data come from two long-term "banding stations" in central California, where a wide variety of birds are captured, banded about the leg with an identification tag, and weighed and measured before being released. Many of the same birds were captured each year, allowing the researchers at the sites to build up a unique database that could be used to track changes among the birds over several decades.

The researchers used data from 14,735 individual birds collected from 1971 to 2010 at the Palomarin Field Station, near the southern end of the Point Reyes National Seashore, by researchers from PRBO Conservation Science. Their study also included data on 18,052 birds collected between 1983 and 2009, from the Coyote Creek Field Station at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay by the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory.

"At the time I started my research, a few studies had looked at body size changes in a few species in Europe and the Middle East, but no one had examined bird body size changes in North America," said Goodman, who now teaches Biology and Environmental Science at San Francisco's Jewish Community High School of the Bay.

"We had the good fortune to find an unexpected result -- a gem in research science," she added. "But we were then left with the puzzle of figuring out what was going on."

After testing and discarding a number of other explanations, Goodman and her colleagues were confident that climate change was behind the longer wings and bigger bodies in most of the birds. The birds may be responding to climate-related changes in plant growth or increased climate variability in central California, the researchers suggest in the paper.

"The fingerprint of climate change is showing up in many of our ecosystems," explains Nat Seavy, research director for the Central Coast at PRBO Conservation Science. "The challenge is to use the long-term data we've been collecting to understand how, where and why these changes are occurring."

The findings offer a glimpse at the potent effects of climate change across a wide range of species, LeBuhn said. "Even over a pretty short period of time, we've documented changes in important traits like body size, where we don't expect to see much flexibility."

"But in some ways," she added, "it gave me a little more hope that these birds are able to respond -- hopefully in time -- to changes in climate."

"Although it is encouraging that species are changing in response to climate change," said Seavy, "it is also troubling that environmental stressors are pushing and pulling on species in diverse ways...What will happen to our ecosystems as some species get larger and others get smaller? We need long-term monitoring to help us understand the impact of these changes."

###

"Avian body size changes and climate change: warming or increasing variability?" appeared online Oct. 12, 2011, published by Global Change Biology. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02538.x/full

About San Francisco State University:

SF State is the only master's-level public university serving the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. The University enrolls nearly 30,000 students each year and graduates about 8,000 annually. With nationally acclaimed programs in a range of fields -- from creative writing, cinema and biology to history, broadcast and electronic communication arts, theatre arts and ethnic studies -- the University's more than 205,000 graduates have contributed to the economic, cultural and civic fabric of San Francisco and beyond.

About PRBO Conservation Science:

PRBO Conservation Science, founded as Point Reyes Bird Observatory in 1965, works to conserve birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through innovative scientific research and outreach. We partner with hundreds of governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as private interests to ensure that every dollar invested in conservation yields the most for biodiversity -- benefiting our environment, our economy and our communities. Visit PRBO on the web at http://www.prbo.org.

About SFBBO

The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) is dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach. Since its beginning in 1981, SFBBO has been an authority on the birds that rely on the San Francisco Bay and its surrounding environments. SFBBO biologists collect crucial data that shape our understanding of the population ecology and conservation of Bay Area birds and guide management and restoration of Bay Area habitats. Learn more about SFBBO at http://www.sfbbo.org.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Elaine Bible
ebible@sfsu.edu
415-405-3606
San Francisco State University

SAN FRANCISCO -- Birds are getting bigger in central California, and that was a big surprise for Rae Goodman and her colleagues.

Goodman uncovered the trend while working as a graduate student for San Francisco State University biologist Gretchen LeBuhn, analyzing data from thousands of birds caught and released each year at two sites near San Francisco Bay and the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The SF State scientists, working with researchers from PRBO Conservation Science and the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory who collected the data, found that birds' wings have grown longer and birds are increasing in mass over the last 27 to 40 years.

What's making the birds bigger? The researchers think that the trend is due to climate change, but their findings put a twist in the usual thinking about climate change and body size. A well-known ecological rule, called Bergmann's Rule, states that animals tend to be larger at higher latitudes. One reason for this rule might be that larger animals conserve body heat better, allowing them to thrive in the generally colder climate of higher latitudes.

Under this reasoning, some scientists have predicted that animals would get smaller as the Earth has warmed up over the past 100 years. But the study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, suggests that the connection may not be so simple.

Climate change may affect body size in a variety of ways, they note in their paper. For instance, birds might get bigger as they store more fat to ride out severe weather events, which are expected to be more common under global climate change. Climate change could also alter a region's plant growth, which may eventually lead to changes in a bird's diet that affect its size.

LeBuhn, an assistant professor of biology, said she was "completely surprised" to find that the central California birds were growing larger over time. "It's one of those moments where you ask, 'what's happening here?'" The results were so unexpected, she said, that the findings made them take a step back and look more closely at how climate change could influence body size.

The bird data come from two long-term "banding stations" in central California, where a wide variety of birds are captured, banded about the leg with an identification tag, and weighed and measured before being released. Many of the same birds were captured each year, allowing the researchers at the sites to build up a unique database that could be used to track changes among the birds over several decades.

The researchers used data from 14,735 individual birds collected from 1971 to 2010 at the Palomarin Field Station, near the southern end of the Point Reyes National Seashore, by researchers from PRBO Conservation Science. Their study also included data on 18,052 birds collected between 1983 and 2009, from the Coyote Creek Field Station at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay by the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory.

"At the time I started my research, a few studies had looked at body size changes in a few species in Europe and the Middle East, but no one had examined bird body size changes in North America," said Goodman, who now teaches Biology and Environmental Science at San Francisco's Jewish Community High School of the Bay.

"We had the good fortune to find an unexpected result -- a gem in research science," she added. "But we were then left with the puzzle of figuring out what was going on."

After testing and discarding a number of other explanations, Goodman and her colleagues were confident that climate change was behind the longer wings and bigger bodies in most of the birds. The birds may be responding to climate-related changes in plant growth or increased climate variability in central California, the researchers suggest in the paper.

"The fingerprint of climate change is showing up in many of our ecosystems," explains Nat Seavy, research director for the Central Coast at PRBO Conservation Science. "The challenge is to use the long-term data we've been collecting to understand how, where and why these changes are occurring."

The findings offer a glimpse at the potent effects of climate change across a wide range of species, LeBuhn said. "Even over a pretty short period of time, we've documented changes in important traits like body size, where we don't expect to see much flexibility."

"But in some ways," she added, "it gave me a little more hope that these birds are able to respond -- hopefully in time -- to changes in climate."

"Although it is encouraging that species are changing in response to climate change," said Seavy, "it is also troubling that environmental stressors are pushing and pulling on species in diverse ways...What will happen to our ecosystems as some species get larger and others get smaller? We need long-term monitoring to help us understand the impact of these changes."

###

"Avian body size changes and climate change: warming or increasing variability?" appeared online Oct. 12, 2011, published by Global Change Biology. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02538.x/full

About San Francisco State University:

SF State is the only master's-level public university serving the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. The University enrolls nearly 30,000 students each year and graduates about 8,000 annually. With nationally acclaimed programs in a range of fields -- from creative writing, cinema and biology to history, broadcast and electronic communication arts, theatre arts and ethnic studies -- the University's more than 205,000 graduates have contributed to the economic, cultural and civic fabric of San Francisco and beyond.

About PRBO Conservation Science:

PRBO Conservation Science, founded as Point Reyes Bird Observatory in 1965, works to conserve birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through innovative scientific research and outreach. We partner with hundreds of governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as private interests to ensure that every dollar invested in conservation yields the most for biodiversity -- benefiting our environment, our economy and our communities. Visit PRBO on the web at http://www.prbo.org.

About SFBBO

The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) is dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach. Since its beginning in 1981, SFBBO has been an authority on the birds that rely on the San Francisco Bay and its surrounding environments. SFBBO biologists collect crucial data that shape our understanding of the population ecology and conservation of Bay Area birds and guide management and restoration of Bay Area habitats. Learn more about SFBBO at http://www.sfbbo.org.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/sfsu-bbi103111.php

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Mahmoud Jibril, Libya Prime Minister, Confirms Presence Of Chemical Weapons

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libya's interim prime minister on Sunday confirmed the presence of chemical weapons in Libya and said foreign inspectors would arrive later this week to deal with the issue.

Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Libya has no interest in keeping such weapons.

"We would like to assure you that the new Libya will be a peaceful Libya and that it is in our interest to have no weapons in Libya," he told reporters.

Last week, Ian Martin, the top U.N. envoy to Libya, told the U.N. Security Council that undeclared chemical weapons sites have been located in Libya.

At the time, he also expressed concern over command and control of chemical and nuclear material sites.

Jibril, who has announced his resignation ahead of the formation of a new interim government, did not provide any details about the chemical weapons.

"There are international organizations taking care of this issue," he said, adding that representatives of those organizations are due to arrive in Libya later in the week.

A Russian-drafted U.N. resolution, to be voted on this week, calls on Libyan authorities to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons in coordination with international authorities.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/30/mahmoud-jibril-libya-chemical-weapons_n_1066414.html

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Air pollution tied to lung cancer in non-smokers (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air, researchers conclude in a new study.

"It's another argument for why the regulatory levels (for air pollutants) be as low as possible," said Francine Laden, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the research.

Though smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer, about one in 10 people who develop lung cancer have never smoked.

"Lung cancer in 'never smokers' is an important cancer. It's the sixth leading cause of cancer in United States," said Michelle Turner, the lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of Ottawa.

Previous estimates of how many non-smokers get lung cancer range from 14 to 21 out of every 100,000 women and five to 14 out of every 100,000 men.

The fine particles in air pollution, which can irritate the lungs and cause inflammation, are thought to be a risk factor for lung cancer, but researchers had not clearly teased apart their impact from that of smoking.

In this study, Turner and her colleagues followed more than 180,000 non-smokers for 26 years. Throughout the study period, 1,100 people died from lung cancer.

The participants lived in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico, and based on their zip codes, the researchers estimated how much air pollution they were exposed to -- measured in units of micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air.

Pollution levels in different locations ranged from a low of about six units to a high of 38. The levels dropped over time, however, from an average of 21 units in 1979 - 1983, to 14 units in 1999 - 2000, producing an overall average pollution level of 17 units across the study period.

After the team took into account other cancer risk factors, such as second-hand smoke and radon exposure, they found that for every 10 extra units of air pollution exposure, a person's risk of lung cancer rose by 15 to 27 percent.

The increased risk for lung cancer associated with pollution is small in comparison to the 20-fold increased risk from smoking.

And the study team didn't prove that the pollution caused the cancer cases, but "there's lots of evidence that exposure to fine particles increases cardiopulmonary mortality," Turner told Reuters Health.

Fine particles in air pollution can injure the lungs through inflammation and damage to DNA, Turner's team writes in its report, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Previous research has suggested similar conclusions. A study of people in China, for example, found an increased risk of lung cancer attributed to indoor air pollution from burning coal and wood to heat homes (see Reuters story of December 7, 2009). And several European studies have linked levels of soot and vehicle exhaust to lung cancer in non-smokers.

Laden noted that the pollution levels associated with the increased risk of cancer in the current study are not uncommon in the U.S.

"These levels are within the (regulatory) standards," Laden told Reuters Health. "We're not talking about people who live in a really polluted place with no pollution control."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/rMyNsA American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, online October 6, 2011.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/hl_nm/us_pollution_cancer

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Moroccan court finds chief suspect guilty in cafe bombing trial, sentences him to death

Moroccan court finds chief suspect guilty in cafe bombing trial, sentences him to death.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45078771/ns/world_news-africa/

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Euro zone strikes deal on second Greek package (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Euro zone leaders struck a deal with private banks and insurers on Thursday for them to accept a 50 percent loss on their Greek government bonds under a plan to lower Greece's debt burden and try to contain the two-year-old euro zone crisis.

The agreement was reached after more than eight hours of hard-nosed negotiations involving bankers, heads of state, central bankers and the International Monetary Fund. It aims to draw a line under spiraling debt problems that have threatened to unravel the European single currency project.

Under the deal, the private sector agreed to voluntarily accept a nominal 50 percent cut in its bond investments to reduce Greece's debt burden by 100 billion euros, cutting its debts to 120 percent of GDP by 2020, from 160 percent now.

At the same time, the euro zone will offer "credit enhancements" or sweeteners to the private sector totaling 30 billion euros. The aim is to complete negotiations on the package by the end of the year, so Greece has a full, second financial aid program in place before 2012.

The value of that package, EU sources said, would be 130 billion euros -- up from 109 billion euros when a deal was last struck in July, an agreement that subsequently unraveled.

"The summit allowed us to adopt the components of a global response, of an ambitious response, of a credible response to the crisis that is sweeping across the euro zone," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters afterwards.

As well as the deal on deeper private sector participation in Greece -- which emerged after Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel engaged in the negotiations with bankers -- euro zone leaders also agreed to scale up the European Financial Stability Facility, their 440 billion euro ($600 billion) bailout fund set up last year.

The fund has already been used to provide help to Ireland, Portugal and Greece, leaving around 290 billion euros available. Around 250 billion of that will be leveraged 4-5 times, producing a headline figure of around 1.0 trillion euros, which will be deployed in a variety of ways.

Leaders hope that will be enough to stave off any worsening of the debt problems in Italy and Spain, the region's third and fourth largest economies respectively.

Riskier assets across the board rallied in Asia, with stocks outside Japan up nearly three percent at 0600 GMT (2 a.m. EDT) in response to the agreement. The euro hit a seven-week high.

Earlier, U.S. stocks rallied after news emerged of the intention to boost the power of the EFSF fund.

The EFSF will be leveraged in two ways, either by offering insurance, or first-loss guarantees, to purchasers of euro zone debt in the primary market, or via a special purpose investment vehicle that will be set up in the coming weeks and which is aimed at attracting investment from China and Brazil.

The methods could be combined, giving the EFSF greater flexibility, the euro zone leaders said.

"The leverage could be up to one trillion (euros) under certain assumptions about market conditions and investors' responsiveness in view of economic policies," said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council.

"There is nothing secret in all this, it is not easy to explain but we are going to more with our available money, it is not that spectacular. Banks have been doing this for centuries, it has been their core business, with certain limits."

PROOF OF THE PUDDING WITH MARKETS

Japan and Canada welcomed the euro zone agreement. China's official Xinhua news agency said the outcome was "positive but filled with difficulties."

As with the July 21 agreement, which quickly broke down when it became difficult to secure sufficient private sector involvement and market conditions rapidly worsened, the concern is that Thursday's deal will only work if the fine print can be promptly agreed with the private sector, represented by the Institute of International Finance.

Charles Dallara, the managing director of the IIF, said those he represented were committed to making the deal work.

"On behalf of the private investor community, the IIF agrees to work with Greece, euro area authorities and the IMF to develop a concrete voluntary agreement on the firm basis of a nominal discount of 50 percent on notional Greek debt held by private investors with the support of a 30 billion euro official ... package," he said in a statement.

"The specific terms and conditions of the voluntary PSI (private sector involvement) will be agreed by all relevant parties in the coming period and implemented with immediacy and force. The structure of the new Greek claims will need to be based on terms and conditions that ensure (net present value)loss for investors fully consistent with a voluntary agreement."

Euro zone leaders will be hoping the agreement, which will also be accompanied by a recapitalization of the European banking sector by around 106 billion euros, will finally draw a line under a crisis that has roiled financial markets and threatened to tear apart the euro single currency project.

"While the headlines look good, the devil is in the details," said Damien Boey, equity strategist at Credit Suisse in Sydney.

"It's great news that they've managed to increase the bail-out fund to 1 trillion euros plus agree on some sort of haircut arrangement for the private investors in Greek debt.

"The problem is, we don't actually know how they are planning to increase the bail-out fund size from 440 billion euros to a trillion. On top of that, there are some questions as to whether one trillion euros in itself is enough."

Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said the final details on the Greek package, which follows a program of 110 billion euros of loans granted to the country last year, would only be worked out by year-end.

And EU finance ministers are not expected to agree on the nitty-gritty elements of how the scaled up EFSF will work until some time in November, with the exact date not fixed.

As part of efforts to attract investors into the special purpose vehicle attached to the EFSF, Sarkozy said he would talk to Chinese President Hu Jintao in the coming days. Beijing has so far been a big buyer of bonds issued by the EFSF, which is triple-A rated by credit agencies.

ITALIAN INTENT

As well as the three-way package to strengthen their crisis fighting powers and try to resolve the situation in Greece, euro zone leaders called on Italy to take more rapid action on pension reforms and other structural measures to try to avoid the economy heading the same way as Greece.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has promised to raise the retirement age to 67 by 2026, and pursue other adjustments to the country's economic model, steps the EU praised but said would only be positive if they were implemented.

"The key is implementation. This is the key. It is not enough to make commitments, it is necessary now to check if they are really implementing," said Barroso.

(Additional reporting by Julien Toyer, Jan Strupczewski, Yann Le Guernigou, David Brunnstrom, Robin Emmott, Harry Papachristou and John O'Donnell in Brussels, Annika Breidthardt and Sarah Marsh in Berlin, Daniel Flynn in Athens, Barry Moody in Rome; Writing by Luke Baker and Mike Peacock; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Ubergizmo's Gaming Digest #2: Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, Modern ...

The gaming news world moves fast. Every day, thousands of nuggets of new gaming info drips out like a leaky faucet. We understand that most people don?t have the time to keep up with every single gaming blog, but what the to stay on top of the most important news. In addition to the gaming coverage that we bring to you daily, we?re dishing out a weekly feature that?ll keep you informed of the latest and greatest happening, so you can go into the weekend after a hard worked week and just game.

With the launch of Battlefield 3, it?s been a fantastic week to be a hardcore game on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. But if you don?t care for first-person shooters, fret not, because there?s plenty of Nintendo Wii and PS Vita news that broke out this week. Join us inside for this week?s best gaming news.

Game of the Week: Battlefield 3

It?s without competition that this week?s must-have/must-buy game is the one and only Battlefield 3 developed by DICE and published by EA. It goes up against Activision?s Call of Duty franchise and so far, things are looking pretty good. The FPS managed to get a respectable 90/100 on Metacritic?for PC, 84 on Xbox 360 and 85 on PS3. However you wish to perceive the game, the writing is clear on the wall: the singleplayer mode leaves much to be desired but the multiplayer is where the action is at. I?m giving it an initial run on Xbox 360, so we?ll see how it goes. Definitely download the texture pack if you haven?t. It?s a must for the 360.

PlayStation 3

We?re only days away from Nathan Drake?s latest installment of Uncharted 3: Drake?s Deception ? it launches on Monday, November 1. Things are already looking pretty swell for Naughty Dog?s action adventure game. Early reviews have totaled its Metacritic score?to a 94/100, making it one of the PS3?s best games yet. It supports stereoscopic 3D. Naughty Dog originally experimented with implementing PlayStation Move support into the game, but ultimately decided against it, saying that tacked on motion controls just didn?t feel right for Uncharted. While we agree that motion control doesn?t always fit, it did work quite well for Socom 4 and Resistance 3 ? perhaps they?ll have a change of heart for an update that patches support in.

If you?re interesting in the technology, here?s a great look at the motion capture techniques behind Uncharted 3. It?s quite fascinating stuff.

Xbox 360

Fighting fans are in for a treat with Namco Bandai?s Soul Calibur IV coming out next January. Hardcore fighting games require arcade sticks, not game pads. That?s where MadCatz steps in to fill the gap. Coinciding with Soul Calibur IV?s release, MadCatz is releasing the FightStick Tournament Edition. It?s ideal for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and if it?s anywhere as well built as the fighting stick that came with Tekken 6 Limited Edition (I picked one up for $35 on Amazon during the summer), it should provide should be able to withstand a good amount of button mashing.

Nintendo Wii / Wii U

Aside from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Wii is looking a little dry. That?s okay because the console is already on its way out. Next year, we get the Wii U and Iwata promised in a recent investors meeting that Nintendo has learned from its mistakes in executing the 3DS?s launch. The Wii U?s final form factor will be shown off at next year?s E3 expo in June, which pegs a release for what?s almost assuredly going to be the holiday shopping season.

Nintendo says it?s not going to repeat the same mistake it did with the 3DS?s lack of games at launch. Here?s to hoping the Wii U delivers with games people will actually care about, like Mario, Zelda and Pokemon.

PC Gaming

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Those itching to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will have to wait for when the game officially launches on November 8, but a few thieves managed to get their hands on Disc 2 of the PC version of Activision?s latest in the franchise. But, they won?t be playing it.

Activision isn?t taking the theft lightly. In fact, they?ve sent police investigators to hunt down those with the pirated copies and slap them with a $5,000 fine as well as repossess the stolen property. As they say, crime doesn?t pay.

Last week?s major release was of course Batman Arkham City and what better way to cross-promote the game than with Samsung?s new 830 SSD drives. There?s no magic trick here. Just buy Samsung 830 SSD in sizes ranging from 64-512GB and you?ll get a free download code for the PC version of Batman: Arkham City. Why should you go SSD? Way faster loading times.

Mobile / Portable

Nintendo 3DS eShop

After reporting nearly $1 billion in annual losses for the first time in 30 year, Nintendo is getting eve more serious about its 3DS. In a surprising move, Nintendo is opening up its eShop digital wares storefront and expanding it to allow users to access it from a PC and a smartphone. You won?t get to buy directly from those channels, but you?ll get to browse, which should at least expand the visibility of Nintendo?s digital downloads.

Sony PlayStation Vita Early First Edition Bundle

Last week, Sony blew the lid off the official release date for the PS Vita in the U.S. ? February 22 ? and now it?s trying to bait in PlayStation fans with a ?First Edition Bundle? that?ll give you the next-gen handheld a whole week early on February 15. For $350, you?ll get a 3G model of the PS Vita, a 4GB proprietary PS Vita memory card, a limited edition case and a copy of Little Deviants. Is getting it early worth the extra cash? We?ll let you decide how big of Sony fan you are.

Adobe Flash logo

Also in Vita news, Japanese magazine Famitsu broke news that the handheld?s browser will not support Adobe Flash at launch, but will run Javascript 1.7 and HTML5. Considering the Vita has a quad-core processor and 512MB of RAM, we?re not sure what?s going on. As an owner of a PSP, I can attest that the inadequate amount of RAM on the original handheld greatly hampered Flash performance. What?s Sony?s excuse now?

It?s arguable what is the best looking game on a tablet and most will say it?s Epic?s Infinity Blade, but there?s a new contender in town and it?s Shadowgun. It?s kind of like a Gears of War rip off and in my opinion (played iPad version) gameplay is pretty barebones, stale and repetitive with the onscreen analogs feeling like a huge miss rather than a hit and its cover-system completely ripped from Gears, but boy is the game a looker. It?s available now on the Android Market, so if you?re looking to test a new game, make it this one.

Source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/10/ubergizmos-gaming-digest-2-battlefield-3-uncharted-3-modern-warfare-3-wii-u-ps-vita-and-more/

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