Asia stocks gain on hopes Fed stimulus to stay

A man checks his mobile phone in front of the electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Global stock markets staged a modest recovery Wednesday, boosted by strong data releases that portray a U.S. economy on the upswing. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1 percent to close at 12,834.01. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

A man checks his mobile phone in front of the electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Global stock markets staged a modest recovery Wednesday, boosted by strong data releases that portray a U.S. economy on the upswing. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1 percent to close at 12,834.01. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

A man stands in front of the electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Global stock markets staged a modest recovery Wednesday, boosted by strong data releases that portray a U.S. economy on the upswing. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1 percent to close at 12,834.01. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

HONG KONG (AP) ? Stock markets from Sydney to Shanghai extended gains for a second day Thursday after the U.S. said quarterly growth may be weaker than expected, raising investors' hopes that the Federal Reserve would delay plans to wind down its stimulus program.

Further signs of easing in China's money markets also helped lift stocks.

Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4 percent to 13,142.50 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.3 percent to 20,607.27. South Korea's Kospi surged 3 percent to 1,837.45.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.8 percent to 4,818.80. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan also rose.

The U.S. government cut its estimate for second-quarter economic growth to 1.8 percent, down sharply from 2.4 percent because of lower than predicted consumer spending.

While news of the weakness in the world's biggest economy was disappointing, it was also positive for investors, who were rattled last week after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank would slow its bond-buying program if the U.S. economy continues to strengthen. That program has kept interest rates low and made stocks more attractive.

"This doesn't put a new spin on the outlook but it certainly makes one wonder all the more about the Fed's 'new and improved' outlook for 2014," economists at DBS Bank wrote in a commentary.

Mainland Chinese benchmarks opened sharply higher after a report that Chinese industrial profits grew strongly in May, though they pared their gains by midday. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to 1,959.25 and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.3 percent to 913.87.

Markets were also buoyed as interbank lending rates in China continue to ease after a pledge earlier in the week by authorities to shore up banks facing cash shortfalls.

"We expect the interbank rates will come down further in the coming weeks," J.P. Morgan analysts Haibin Zhu, Grace Ng and Lu Jiang said in a research report. But they said that they didn't expect the rates to fall to the level they were at previously.

The central bank had allowed rates that banks pay to borrow from each other to soar last week, part of an attempt by Beijing to clamp down on massive credit in the informal lending industry.

Fears of a credit crisis in the world's second-biggest economy had contributed to a rout in global markets that ended when policymakers in China softened their stance with the promise to provide "liquidity support" if needed.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was up 39 cents to $95.89 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 18 cents to end at $95.50 a barrel on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3031 from $1.3012 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 97.76 yen from 97.74 yen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-27-World%20Markets/id-bddb5007a55946d697b19d466d59e92b

Apple Pie Recipe black friday How long to cook a turkey

Car bomb kills army intelligence officer in Libya's Benghazi

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A Libyan military intelligence officer was killed when a bomb exploded in his car on Wednesday in the latest attack on security forces in the eastern city of Benghazi, officials said.

The blast hit Lieutenant Colonel Giuma Misrati just after he left his home and was standing next to the vehicle, the authorities added.

Libya remains anarchic and awash with weapons nearly two years after a Western-backed uprising toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Government forces are still struggling to assert their authority on the major oil producer, but have been regularly challenged by regional militias who want to keep hold of the influence they gained during the revolution.

Benghazi, the cradle of the 2011 revolt, has became a particular focus of violence, mainly against security forces. Residents say some of the assaults may be revenge attacks by former prisoners.

Islamists, largely suppressed under Gaddafi, have also come to the fore.

"There are some people who are trying to use this city as an arena for settling scores," said the deputy head of Benghazi's local council, Saad al-Saity.

"This is impeding our plans for reconstruction and getting foreign companies to return," he added.

On Tuesday six soldiers were killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen on an army checkpoint south of the coastal city of Sirte.

Last week, bombs flattened a police station in Benghazi but there were no casualties as the building had been emptied for repairs following previous attacks.

The city remains a no-go area for foreigners, after a series of attacks on Western diplomats including last September's assault on the U.S. mission which killed the ambassador and three other Americans.

(Reporting by Feras Bosalum; Writing by Ghaith Shennib and Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bomb-kills-army-intelligence-officer-libyas-benghazi-160114413.html

linkedin linkedin Frank Lautenberg Pia Zadora chicago blackhawks Alexandra Lenas Jim Kelly

Cambridge Audio's Minx Air 200 Earns The Crown For Best Home ...

If you?re a high-end audio fan, you?ve probably heard of Cambridge Audio, the London-based firm that makes some of the best equipment in the business. The brand is currently undergoing some changes that involve targeting the growing number of users who are looking for wireless in-home and portable speaker solutions. Hence the new Minx line of devices, which borrows its name from Cambridge?s affordable home-theater speaker range, but adds goodies like AirPlay and Bluetooth.

The Minx Air 200 is part of this new effort. It?s a large home speaker that packs in AirPlay, Bluetooth, two 2.25-inch drivers and one 6.5-inch subwoofer, as well as direct access to up to five preset Internet radio stations without requiring a connection to an iPhone, smartphone or computer. The Minx Air 200 is a beast of a networked speaker system, and at $599 it compares price-wise to other higher-end options like the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air or the Libratone Live Speaker.

• AirPlay
• Bluetooth
• 3.5mm and RCA wired input
• 802.11 b/g
• Ethernet
• 200W amplifier output
• MSRP: $599
• Product info page

The Minx Air 200 is somewhat sober in its design choices if I had to pick one word to describe it. It?s white plastic, with a light gray front grill and metallic rim bordering the front grill. Unlike some of the competition like the Zeppelin, the Minx isn?t trying to draw too much attention to itself. The arc of it adds a little bit of design flare, but mostly this is a speaker that strikes you as subdued, and that?s just fine. The Air 200 isn?t bad looking, it just is. Which sets the stage for it to live or die based on its performance.

You?ll be able to connect to the Minx Air no matter what type of device you?re trying to use as your music source, and the AirPlay connectivity is solid (the protocol seems to have come a long way in terms of stability, which is a bonus for Cambridge, who are relative latecomers to the market). And Ethernet support is a hugely welcome addition if you?re the type that can?t even fathom the idea of an occasional drop-out. It?s probably not going to be much use to most looking for a wireless speaker, but the fact that it?s there at all is excellent.

Preset Internet radio stations is another huge advantage for the Minx Air 200. With the Minx Air app, you can change settings on your device and cycle through 10 preset stations. Minx sets these up automatically, but you can change them within the app. Best of all, you can switch between five presets on the Air 200 itself with hardware buttons, giving you access to Internet radio without any kind of connected device required. That?s a huge advantage versus the competition when it comes to features.

True to its audiophile roots, Cambridge has also included advanced audio signal-boosting technologies, including built-in digital to analog converters (DACs) and AAC decoding, as well as tech designed to maximize the quality of Bluetooth stereo streaming to CD-quality standards.

All those claims of better sound bring us to the money question: Is the?sound?actually better? Yes, yes it is. Put simply, this is the best-sounding AirPlay speaker I?ve reviewed, and the best-sounding Bluetooth one, too. AT $599, it isn?t cheap, but in this case you definitely get what you pay for. Bass performance is impressive, as is max volume, though even Cambridge admits this won?t go as loud as some of the competitors in the interest of preventing any kind of distortion even at the top end, something competitors aren?t necessarily as concerned about.

Cambridge may be trying to move into more mass-market products, but the Minx Air 200 still demonstrates the company?s audiophile roots. Audio clarity is great, even from streamed online sources like Rdio being streamed once again over the local network. The connection doesn?t seem to suffer from excess network traffic, either, and Bluetooth connections are likewise solid (with the usual limits on proximity), and sound quality also shines there. If you?ve been making do with even something as good as an Audyssey Audio Dock Air, you?ve been missing out. And that?s what Cambridge wants to do with the Minx line: Show a generation that hasn?t been particularly focused on audio quality what a difference it can make when someone pays attention to that above all. Mission accomplished.

This is an excellent choice for an AirPlay/wireless home speaker. A battery would be nice, as there?s a handle for easy enough portability, but in its category, it?s still by far the best choice at the current price, and probably a better option than some of the more expensive ones out there. Cambridge Audio may have waited and let its competitors get a head start in this category, but the wait paid off: The Minx Air 200 is a polished, well-designed piece of audio hardware that confidently tops the?competition.

Cambridge Audio designs products to make music sound amazing.

? Learn more

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/26/cambridge-audios-minx-air-200-earns-the-crown-for-best-home-airplay-speaker/

adam shulman peanut butter recall jason aldean Brigitte Nielsen Geno Smith ny giants brandon marshall

Obama takes on power plants, Keystone as part of climate plan

By Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a new plan to tackle climate change on Tuesday with a call to limit carbon pollution from all U.S. power plants and a signal that he would block a proposed pipeline from Canada if it boosted greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama's long-awaited plan, detailed in a speech at Georgetown University, drew sharp criticism from the coal industry, which would be hit hard by carbon limits, and Republicans, who accused the Democratic president of advancing policies that harm the economy.

Obama's first-term attempt to reduce climate-warming carbon emissions in a "cap and trade" system was thwarted by Congress, and his administration's long process of studying whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline has raised hackles from business groups and Republican opponents.

His comments on the TransCanada Corp pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas, were his strongest signal yet that its environmental costs could outweigh the project's economic benefits. The administration will decide whether to approve the pipeline later this year or in early 2014.

"Our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution," Obama said.

"The net effects of the pipeline's impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward," he said.

Using his executive powers, Obama said he was directing the Environmental Protection Agency to craft new emissions rules for thousands of power plants, the bulk of which burn coal and which account for roughly one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

"We don't have time for a meeting of the flat earth society," Obama said, referencing critics who do not believe climate change is happening.

Share prices for major U.S. coal mining companies slipped again on Tuesday after falling sharply on Monday in anticipation of the Obama plan.

The EPA is routinely challenged in court, both by industry groups seeking to quash rules, and by green groups trying to push the agency to set tougher standards.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Republican-leaning states have petitioned the Supreme Court to review rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The details of the new regulations will be drafted over the next year, and their costs are still to be determined. Obama wants them to be finalized by June 2015.

"Laying out a specific schedule makes it a lot more difficult for the president to turn back," said Michael Levi, head of the Council on Foreign Relations' energy and climate program.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Valerie Volcovici, Steve Holland, and Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Ros Krasny and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-takes-power-plant-emissions-part-climate-plan-114147504.html

taylor allderdice mixtape andrew bogut monta ellis wiz khalifa taylor allderdice mixtape reggie wayne taylor allderdice vincent jackson

10 Things to Know for Today

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. U.S. AWAITS LANDMARK VOTE ON GAY MARRIAGE

The Supreme Court is expected to issue decisions today on two laws that could give gay Americans marriage rights and the same benefits as married heterosexual couples.

2. ARCHBISHOP WISHES PEACEFUL 'END' FOR MANDELA

Lucas Aedwaba offered a prayer after visiting the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader in a hospital, where he's critically ill with a lung infection.

3. CHAOS WITH ABORTION VOTE AFTER FILIBUSTER

Screaming protesters prevented Texas Republicans from passing a restrictive abortion ban before a midnight deadline.

4. WHAT SOUTHERN STATES PLAN AFTER VOTING RIGHTS DECISION

Some pledged to pass laws requiring voters to show photo IDs and others want to set earlier hours after the Supreme Court freed states from federal oversight.

5. 'NYET' ON TURNING OVER SNOWDEN

Putin acknowledges the NSA leaker is at a Moscow airport, and rejected U.S. pleas to extradite him.

6. DEMOCRATS HANG ON TO KERRY SEAT

Rep. Ed Markey defeated Republican Gabriel Gomez, and the state's Democrats didn't repeat the upset of three years ago when Republican Scott Brown succeeded Sen. Edward Kennedy.

7. AUSTRALIA PRIME MINISTER OUSTED

Predecessor Kevin Rudd defeated Julia Gillard in a party leadership ballot she called for after her authority was challenged

8. 'KING OF COMMODITIES' DIES

Marc Rich, a trader indicted on fraud and tax evasion charges, was pardoned by Bill Clinton at the end of his presidency. He died in Switzerland at 78.

9. TEXAS TO MAKE HISTORY

The nation's busiest death penalty state plans to execute its 500th inmate tonight ? a woman convicted of killing her neighbor with a candelabra in the 1990s.

10. IS PAULA DEEN TOAST?

The food diva is expected to speak on the "Today" show today, but experts say she has already damaged her reputation in the fallout from her admission of using racial slurs.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-things-know-today-101340019.html

Nastia Liukin Gabby Douglas hair Kayla Harrison Mars landing Gabby Douglas John Orozco Garrett Reid

A reporter's eyewitness account of Taliban attack

Afghan national security arrive near the entrance gate of the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Suicide attackers blew up a car bomb and battled security forces outside the presidential palace Tuesday after infiltrating one of the most secure areas of the capital. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as reporters were gathering for a news event on Afghan youth at which President Hamid Karzai was expected to talk about ongoing efforts to open peace talks with the militant group. (AP photo/Rahmat Gul)

Afghan national security arrive near the entrance gate of the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Suicide attackers blew up a car bomb and battled security forces outside the presidential palace Tuesday after infiltrating one of the most secure areas of the capital. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as reporters were gathering for a news event on Afghan youth at which President Hamid Karzai was expected to talk about ongoing efforts to open peace talks with the militant group. (AP photo/Rahmat Gul)

Smoke rises from the eastern gate of the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday June 25, 2013. The Taliban said they have hit one of the most secure areas of the Afghan capital with a suicide attack, as a series of explosions rocked the gate leading into the presidential palace. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? One moment I was standing in a quiet, secure and heavily guarded area and the next it had turned into a battlefield.

It was 6:30 a.m., and I waiting with about 20 other journalists for an escort into the palace for a speech by President Hamid Karzai. It was a routine assignment for Kabul journalists, and the presidential compound is a scenic and peaceful oasis lined with pine trees in my chaotic hometown.

Suddenly I saw the four armed men jump out of their vehicle. They kneeled down and started shooting. Two of them fired at presidential palace security guards stationed at a checkpoint. The two others aimed their weapons at the Ariana Hotel, where the CIA is known to have an office.

I didn't know what to do. Bullets were flying all over. Gunfire was coming from different directions. No one really knew who were the attackers and who were the security forces because both sides were wearing similar uniforms.

I thought at first that this must be an insider attack or an argument between security guards. I just couldn't believe that Taliban fighters could have made it this far into the presidential compound, through two checkpoints. After about a minute, I realized the attackers must be Taliban because they were firing in so many different directions.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Rahim Faiez, a correspondent with The Associated Press in Afghanistan since January 2002, was waiting in a security area outside the heavily fortified Afghan presidential compound in Kabul for an escort to the palace to cover a speech by President Hamid Karzai when he got caught up Tuesday in a brazen Taliban attack. This is his account.

___

I hit the ground and kept my head down, asking myself, what I should do? I looked around to try to find a place to use as a shelter and call my office ? report the news as fast as possible.

Mostly, though, my thoughts focused on my small children ? my nearly 6-year-old son, Mohammad Akmal, and my two daughters, Hadia, who is 4, and Muqadasa, just 15 months.

Some other reporters took shelter behind an armored SUV used by an American television network. A few others lay in a ditch.

I saw a white, small, religious shrine nearby, and crawled about 10 to 15 meters (yards), then ran as fast as I could toward the wall of the shrine. I saw blood on my clothes but was sure I had not been hit. Later I noticed scratches on my arms and knees from pulling my body across the ground.

I finally reached the wall and thought it was safe enough to take my mobile phone and call the office.

Breathless and scared, I shouted over the phone to a colleague, "David, attackers are inside and a shooting is going on." He was shocked.

Grenades and rockets were exploding in the background and automatic weapons were firing. My colleague asked, "Are you safe, Rahim? Are you OK? I replied I was fine, even if I wasn't entirely.

Then I managed to take a deep breath and started reporting, the battle still going on in the background.

Most of the reporters moved with me behind the shrine.

Looking out, we saw a small boy, around 6 years old, wearing a school uniform and running close to us. He was so brave, not crying, but of course very worried.

We grabbed him and pulled him behind the wall. He didn't know how to call his parents but one of the reporters had a number for the director of his nearby school. He called and told the director that one of his students was with us and safe.

I wanted to move out from behind the wall and take some photos with my cell phone. But bullets kept coming and never gave me the chance. We all wanted to leave from our precarious position, but security guards from the other gate, about 50 meters (yards) away from us, kept shouting that we must stay there. Otherwise we could be shot from the CIA building because guards there wouldn't know who we were.

We sheltered behind that wall for about an hour until the shooting finally eased. During that time, my father called me twice. I lied to him, telling him I was farther from the battle than I really was.

More guards moved into the area, first securing it and finally motioning to us one by one to leave. By then, we later learned, eight attackers and three guards lay dead.

But at the moment I wasn't sure whether other attackers were hiding nearby. I felt safe only when I finally got away from the area. I called my father and told him I was on my way back to the office and not to worry.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-25-Afghan-Witnessing%20an%20Attack/id-ea7964801a974ffc8ccf918a3c225526

biggest loser TJ Lane lindsey vonn lindsey vonn nit first day of spring Club Penguin

'Singing' rats show hope for older humans with age-related voice problems

June 24, 2013 ? A new study shows that the vocal training of older rats reduces some of the voice problems related to their aging, such as the loss of vocal intensity that accompanies changes in the muscles of the larynx. This is an animal model of a vocal pathology that many humans face as they age. The researchers hope that in the future, voice therapy in aging humans will help improve their quality of life.

The research appears in The Journals of Gerontology.

University of Illinois speech and hearing science professor Aaron Johnson, who led the new study along with his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, said that aging can cause the muscles of the larynx, the organ that contains the vocal folds, to atrophy. This condition, called presbyphonia, may be treatable with vocal training, he said.

Johnson said in a healthy, young larynx the vocal folds completely close and open during vibration. This creates little puffs of air we hear as sound. In people with presbyphonia, however, the atrophied vocal folds do not close properly, resulting in a gap during vocal fold vibration.

Degradation of the neuromuscular junction, or the interface between the nerve that signals the vocal muscle to work and the muscle itself, also contributes to the symptoms of presbyphonia, Johnson said. In a healthy human, when the signal reaches the neuromuscular junction, it triggers a release of chemicals that signal the muscle to contract. But an age-related decline in the neuromuscular junction can cause weakness and fatigue in the muscle, and may result in a person having a breathy or weak voice and to become fatigued as a result of the extra effort needed to communicate.

Surgery and injections may help correct the gap between the vocal folds seen in presbyphonia, but these invasive procedures are often not viable in the elderly population, Johnson said.

His previous experience working with the elderly as a former classical singer and voice teacher propelled Johnson to "become interested in what we can do as we get older to keep our voices healthy and strong."

"We know exercise strengthens the limb musculature, but we wanted to know if vocal exercise can strengthen the muscles of the voice," Johnson said.

To find out if vocal training could have an effect on the strength and physiology of the vocal muscles in humans, Johnson turned to a rat model. Rats make ultrasonic vocalizations that are above the range of human hearing, but special recording equipment and a computer that lowers the frequency of the rat calls allows humans to perceive them. (They sound a bit like bird calls).

Because rats and humans utilize similar neuromuscular mechanisms to vocalize, the rats make ideal subjects for the study of human vocal characteristics, Johnson said.

Both the treatment and control groups contained old and young male rats. In the treatment group, a female rat was placed into a cage with a male rat. When the male expressed interest in her, the female was removed from the cage, causing the male rat to vocalize. The male was rewarded with food for these vocalizations, and after eight weeks of this operant conditioning in which rewards were only given for certain responses, all of the rats in the treatment group had been trained to increase their number of vocalizations during a training session.

At the end of the eight-week period, the researchers measured the intensity of the rats' vocalizations and analyzed the animals' larynges to see whether the training had any effect on the condition of their neuromuscular junctions.

The researchers found the trained old and young rats had similar average vocal intensities, but the untrained older rats had lower average intensities than both the trained rats and the young rats that had not been trained. They also found several age-related differences within the groups' neuromuscular mechanisms.

"Other research has found that in the elderly, there is a dispersion, or breaking apart, of the neuromuscular junction at the side that is on the muscle itself," Johnson said. "We found that in the older rats that received training, it wasn't as dispersed."

These "singing rats" are the "first evidence that vocal use and vocal training can change the neuromuscular system of the larynx," Johnson said.

"While this isn't a human study, I think this tells us that we can train ourselves to use our voices and not only reduce the effects of age on the muscles of our voices, but actually improve voices that have degraded," Johnson said.

Johnson is also affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois.

Audio file: Rats like those used in University of Illinois speech and hearing sciences professor Aaron Johnson's study make ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that are above the range of human hearing, but special recording equipment and a computer that lowers the frequency of the rat calls allows humans to perceive them. As the recording shows, the USVs sound a bit like bird calls. : http://news.illinois.edu/WebsandThumbs/johnson,aaron/rat_vocalizations.mp3

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/rWhIRV-PWjQ/130624141418.htm

san francisco earthquake san francisco earthquake terminator salvation terminator salvation jarhead montrose marshawn lynch