Stocks lower after German finance minister's comment (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Wall Street stocks fell on Monday after the market's best two-week run since 2009 as Germany's finance minister said a forthcoming summit would not yield a definitive solution to Europe's debt crisis.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's statement that European governments will not resolve the crisis at a European Union meeting scheduled for October 23 poured cold water on stocks that had run up partly in anticipation of an end-game to the crisis.

Schaeuble's comments weighed on the euro currency and pressured the S&P's financial index (.GSPF). The financial sector was one of the biggest drags on the market, falling more than 1 percent.

An earnings miss from Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), down nearly 6 percent, also hit the sector.

"All eyes are on Europe," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "We are, no doubt, one-for-one trading with the euro."

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 70.16 points, or 0.60 percent, at 11,574.33. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) lost 8.38 points, or 0.68 percent, at 1,216.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) dropped 15.74 points, or 0.59 percent, at 2,652.11.

The S&P 500 had risen more than 8 percent in the first back-to-back winning weeks since July. The index approached the top of a two-month trading range on hopes the global economy can dodge a new recession and the euro zone will resolve its sovereign debt crisis and recapitalize its banks.

Events in Europe overshadowed a $21 billion deal by Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI.N) to buy rival El Paso Corp (EP.N), combining the two largest natural gas pipeline operators in North America in a huge bet on the fast-growing market for that fuel.

El Paso's shares rose more than 23 percent to $24.11. Kinder Morgan shares rose 5.5 percent to $28.38.

Corporate results moved into high gear. Wells Fargo missed Wall Street earnings estimates by 1 cent a share, though third-quarter profit rose on lower costs for bad loans. The shares fell 5.3 percent to $25.26.

Citigroup Inc (C.N) reported higher third-quarter earnings as the bank set aside less money to cover bad loans and recorded an accounting gain banks can take in turbulent markets. The shares rose 0.5 percent to $28.51.

(Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111017/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

free agents free agents americas got talent winner americas got talent winner guinness book of world records gears of war 3 release date up all night

Investors unexcited by BlackBerry's free apps offer (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? An offer of free games, translation software or other apps to compensate BlackBerry users for last week's prolonged outage left Research In Motion investors cool on Monday, and the shares fell 6 percent.

RIM declined to say if it would need to amend its earnings forecasts to account for the cost of its promise to give $100 of free apps to every BlackBerry smartphone user.

RIM is also offering a period of free technical support to businesses that use the gadget, which has steadily lost market share to Apple's sleeker, sexier iPhone. RIM's stock has dropped 60 percent over the past year.

"RIM has responded swiftly but this won't undo the damage done to its reputation," analyst Geoff Blaber at CCS Insight told Reuters earlier on Monday. "This may go some way to appeasing customers but what's critical is that the problem does not repeat itself."

Highlighting the challenges, Apple said it sold 4 million of its new iPhone 4S in the three days after its launch last week.

Tens of millions of BlackBerry users were left without mobile email and other messaging for up to four days last week after a failure at a RIM data center in England triggered a service disruption across five continents.

DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

RIM may reveal more about its strategy for countering the competitive challenge at a conference for application developers in San Francisco that begins Tuesday.

RIM executives there are expected to unveil a major software upgrade for the PlayBook tablet computer. RIM may also provide a glimpse at next-generation smartphones using its QNX software, which already powers the PlayBook.

Long before last week's disruption, investor dissatisfaction with the management of co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie had led a wave of speculation about the future of the company.

Activist investor Carl Icahn squelched one of those rumors on Monday when he told broadcaster CNBC that RIM is not on his radar screen. Last month RIM's shares rose on speculation Icahn would buy into RIM and agitate for change.

Even so, a smaller activist firm, Jaguar Financial Corp, has said it is gathering the support of large RIM shareholders to push the board to look at strategic options, including a sale or split-up of RIM.

"DEEPLY GRATEFUL"

Last week's outage intensified criticism of the chief executives, who were accused of responding slowly to the crisis and communicating poorly.

On Monday Balsillie told Reuters the company wanted to make amends with customers.

"This is our way of expressing appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions and a tangible way of telling them how deeply grateful we are for their continued business," he said in a phone interview.

Balsillie declined to estimate how much the offer would cost RIM and said he was unable to say whether RIM might have to revise its earnings forecast for the current quarter, which ends in late November.

The financial impact could prove sizable if a sizable number of RIM's more than 70 million subscribers take up the offers.

Analysts have said compensation costs could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. If RIM were to pay back all carriers and customers for lost service it could knock between 3 and 5 cents off earnings per share in the quarter, according to BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long. That would reduce profit by $15 million to $26 million.

"CLEVER MOVE"

Even so, Richard Levick, who runs a U.S. consultancy that specializes in crisis management, praised the free-app offer but said RIM should have made the announcement last week.

"I think it's a good start, but they are always late," he said. "They are always behind the curve."

Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst at IDC, said the offer was a clever move by RIM because it would help customers to discover the app service. He said the company was likely to have struck a deal with app developers to keep the cost down.

"For RIM, this is an interesting way to attract users to the App World and incentivize them to search and download apps," he said.

The free apps on offer include games such as Bejeweled, and premium versions of a translation service and the music discovery tool Shazam. Users can download them from BlackBerry App World beginning Wednesday, with more to be added in the next four weeks. The offer runs until the end of the year.

"More important than the offer itself, is that RIM is showing goodwill and being humble," Jeronimo said. "They recognized the problem, apologized and now they are compensating their users."

By early afternoon the stock dropped about 6 percent at $22.54 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp, Pav Jordan, Kate Holton and Tarmo Virki; Editing by Frank McGurty)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111017/bs_nm/us_researchinmotion

the lion king 3d missoni maker faire the hub the hub penn state pat robertson

Life Behind China's Great Firewall (Time.com)

The e-mail appeared to come from me. It began with something I'd previously written. Then the font changed and the English degenerated. "Attched [sic] is I want to know and discuss the issues," said the note to the new leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. Lobsang Sangay was savvy enough to figure out that neither the message nor an attachment in Chinese were really from me. The Tibetan PM wanted to let me know that someone had hacked my work e-mail account and pressed "reply." But before he began composing a warning, he saw that the reply was not being automatically routed to me. Instead, the "to" field bore the e-mail address of the private secretary of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. It looked as though my e-mail was designed to spread virally to other users and cause maximum confusion.

We are all alert to the perils of online communication, of suspicious financial requests from supposed Nigerian bankers or friends who have apparently lost their wallets in remote capitals. But people in China have an especially fraught relationship with the Internet. It's not just that the Great Firewall of China limits access to sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Blogspot. More disquieting is the realization that every word typed may be under surveillance and every e-mail or post prone to infiltration. Yes, snooping happens in Western countries too. But China has tens of thousands of trained monitors. The nation's tech companies employ huge teams to comb their servers and delete any material the government deems unfit for public eyes. (See pictures of China stamping out democracy protests.)

Then there's the overt meddling. I'm one of many foreign journalists in China who have had their e-mail accounts hacked. Some have found that all their messages were being auto-forwarded to mysterious e-mail addresses. Who is doing this? I can't say for sure. But Google has accused hackers in China of breaking into Gmail. In August, the world's biggest security-technology company, McAfee, released details of Operation Shady RAT, a five-year infiltration of around 70 large computer networks, including those belonging to the U.S. and Taiwan governments, the International Olympic Committee and the Associated Press. Cybersecurity experts speculated that no power but China would be interested in those targets. Beijing dismissed the allegation.

Perhaps the worst part of going online in China is the uncertainty. One day, jasmine is a flower. The next day it's a revolution, and a banned search word. Even with a laptop that connects to a VPN ? a virtual private network, which for a fee is supposed to enable users to circumvent the Great Firewall ? I can't access Facebook or other banned sites in my Beijing apartment. (The laptop works O.K. in the office, unless it's the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre or another sensitive date, in which case certain sites are still blocked.) The net effect of this interference is a blunting of curiosity. I really don't need to Google that term, right? A dangerous lassitude takes over.

Visiting foreign businessmen are often shocked when they experience virtual China firsthand: something as simple as updating a Facebook status ? "Just arrived in Shanghai!" ? is forbidden. China is the world's second largest economy. Can it really get away with online restrictions more suited to Cuba or North Korea? It seems so. This summer, Beijing began requiring public wi-fi in coffee shops and other locations to be routed through monitoring software that public-security officials can access. The world shrugged. (Read "State Stamps Out Small 'Jasmine' Protests in China.")

Most of the 500 million Chinese online aren't using the Internet to foment political upheaval. They do what many people anywhere else in the world do: access dating sites, play games, look at porn. Nevertheless, in a society where traditional media is restricted by even more onerous directives, the Internet is the freest space. Twitter may be blocked, but domestic look-alike Sina Weibo hosts some 200 million microbloggers. In the hours (or seconds) before the censors kick in, microblogs serve as crucial clearinghouses of free information, like in July when a high-speed train crashed and an official cover-up ensued.

But now Sina Weibo and Chinese social-media sites are the target of a new government crackdown. In recent weeks, officials have dropped by Sina Weibo's offices to remind employees of their patriotic duties. The State Internet Information Office, a body set up this year, warned citizens last month not to spread "malignant tumors" online. The Politburo is also mulling over "cultural reforms" that would restrict the Internet further ? and presumably lead to a growth in the number of online snoops. Just be careful if you get an e-mail from me.

This article originally appeared in the Oct. 24, 2011 issue of TIME Asia.

Read more about China and the Internet.

See top 10 technology bans.

View this article on Time.com

Most Popular on Time.com:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111016/wl_time/09171209681800

oman oman unforgettable metta world peace fullerton police beating fullerton police beating ron artest name change

IMF official ducks eggs during protest in Turkey (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey ? The IMF's senior representative to Turkey has quick reflexes ? successfully ducking eggs thrown at him during a student protest.

Mark Lewis was speaking before economics students at Uludag University in Turkey's northwestern city of Bursa on Thursday when the eggs came flying. As he ducked behind a lectern, a protester shouted "IMF get out!" ? a slogan often used by leftists.

Video of his reaction ? the second such attack directed at an International Monetary Fund official in Turkey ? spread Friday to websites around the world.

In 2009, a student journalist threw a shoe at then-IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn at a university in Istanbul. The shoe missed him. Turkey was engaged in talks over new loan deal to boost investor confidence at the time.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_imf_protest

abacus abacus spongebob bot northern lights foot locker cats

Nicole Scherzinger Solo Album Delayed Again

Killer Love now reportedly slated for December 6 release.
By Gil Kaufman


Nicole Scherzinger
Photo: Steve Granitz/ WireImage

After waiting more than five years for the domestic release of former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger's debut solo effort, surely her fans can hold on for a few more weeks?

The long-delayed Killer Love, which dropped in an alternate version in England in March, was slated to finally wash up on American shores on November 15. But according to the Hollywood Reporter, the disc has once again been delayed, pushed back a few weeks until December 6. No reason was given for the latest delay and the singer's label, Interscope Records, would only say that the new release date would be "early December."

The U.S. version of the Scherzinger disc is slated to feature production by a slew of heavy hitters, including Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne, Jim Jonsin, The-Dream, Harvey Mason Jr. and Tricky Stewart. Sting ("Power's Out") and Snoop Dogg ("Peep Show") are among the reported guests. 50 Cent lends some verses to the first single, "Right There."

A spokesperson for Interscope could not be reached for comment at press time about the release-date change. Scherzinger began work on her solo debut in 2005, only to shelve that album and start over again on the new effort several years later.

In the meantime, Scherzinger is busy with her other full-time gig as a judge on Simon Cowell's "X Factor." On Thursday night's baseball-delayed mentors' home-visit episode, Scherzinger hooked up with Enrique Iglesias to judge the talents of her assigned group of mentees: the over 30s. So far, Scherzinger, who was tapped as the fourth judge after original fourth judge Cheryl Cole was let go early in production, has served as a type of younger doppelgänger for Paula Abdul.

Veteran choreographer Abdul, who has locked down the role of the often weepy, sensitive mentor with the heart of glass, now appears to have an emotional friend in Scherzinger, who has frequently been moved to tears by some of the auditioners.

While Scherzinger has also shown some tough tendencies when facing off against Cowell, during Thursday night's first mentor episode she mostly chilled on the couch with guest helper Iglesias and awkwardly bobbed her head while making intense faces as he watched singers Elaine Gibbs and Stacy Francis do their thing. She had a hard time, though, keeping a poker face while formerly homeless James Brown wannabe Dexter Haygood did his Mick Jagger-meets-David-Lee-Roth version of Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love."

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672514/nicole-scherzinger-x-factor-album.jhtml

stevie nicks sarah michelle gellar living social nelson mandela champions online champions online mezzanine

Bad start by Gallardo dooms Brewers

By JIM SALTER

updated 12:48 a.m. ET Oct. 13, 2011

ST. LOUIS - The Milwaukee Brewers hoped Yovani Gallardo would settle down and stop the St. Louis Cardinals.

Instead, he went wild.

Albert Pujols hit an RBI double during a four-run first inning against Gallardo and the Brewers never quite recovered, dropping to the Cardinals 4-3 Wednesday night and falling into a 2-1 deficit in the NL championship series.

"When you make mistakes like we did the first inning, they're going to get their hits, they're going to score some runs," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

Gallardo, who's 1-7 with a career 5.66 ERA against the Cardinals, trailed 2-0 after his first 12 pitches and barely made it out of the opening inning.

The 17-game winner walked three, one of them intentional, and the Brewers had Chris Narveson up in the bullpen before Yadier Molina grounded into a run-scoring double play for Gallardo's first outs.

Gallardo trudged to the dugout after his 33-pitch ordeal that included RBI doubles by Jon Jay and David Freese.

"I think I made a good pitch to Jay," Gallardo said. "I tried to go up and in with a fastball and I was able to do that and he just hit it out to the outfield. And to Pujols, it might have been a little bit up and over the plate but I thought it was a good pitch."

In all, Gallardo lasted five innings and gave up eight hits, walked five (two intentional) and tied an NLCS record with three wild pitches. He struck out two.

The Cardinals' 4-0 lead seemed as if it would be plenty with ace Chris Carpenter pitching. It was, barely, thanks in large part to a 12-up-and-12-down performance by the St. Louis bullpen.

Four relievers ? Fernando Salas, Lance Lynn, Marc Rzepczynski and Jason Motte ? were perfect over the final four innings.

Milwaukee chipped away at Carpenter with two runs in the second on singles by Rickie Weeks, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Yuniesky Betancourt, and a sacrifice fly by Gallardo. Mark Kotsay's homer leading off the third made it a one-run game.

Carpenter, coming off a shutout against Philadelphia in the deciding game of the divisional series, wasn't nearly as sharp this time.

"We got to 4-3 and I felt good," Roenicke said. "I felt we were going to score some more runs."

Carpenter labored through five innings, giving up six hits and walking three (one intentional) and striking out three.

"It was a battle all night long," Carpenter said. "My stuff was OK, but these guys worked me hard."

The Brewers had runners on base in every inning against him. Weeks struck out with two on to end the fifth. But Milwaukee couldn't touch the St. Louis bullpen.

"It's not going to work very often that you can put four zeros against their offense," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Jason Motte, who had two saves lasting more than inning in September, and another in Game 2 of the division series at Philadelphia, got four outs for this save. He fanned pinch-hitter Casey McGehee to end it.

Carpenter won his seventh postseason game to tie Bob Gibson's franchise record, but with none of the brilliance of his three-hit win over Roy Halladay and the favored Phillies in Game 5 of the first round. Nearly half of his 89 pitches were balls.

The starters' ineffectiveness was surprising considering their track records.

Carpenter has been clutch throughout his career in the postseason, going 7-2 with a 3.14 ERA in 12 games. Gallardo allowed only two runs in 21 innings, a minuscule 0.86 ERA, before Game 3.

Kyle Lohse, pitching on 12 days' rest, starts Game 4 Thursday for the wild-card Cardinals against Randy Wolf.

The Cardinals batted around against Gallardo in the first. Pujols delivered an RBI double after starring in a Game 2 win with a home run and three doubles.

St. Louis had its chances to break away later, but hit into three double plays and stranded nine runners.

Luckily for the Brewers, Carpenter didn't have his "A" game, either. He walked none in that gem against the Phillies, but already had a walk and a hit batsman in the Brewers' first three plate appearances.

Carpenter escaped with help from Kotsay, who strayed too far off second on Prince Fielder's lineout to center and was doubled off the bag by Jay's strong throw to end the inning.

Kotsay got a spot start in place of Nyjer Morgan, partly because he's 4 for 11 against Carpenter. Morgan flied out to start the seventh as a pinch hitter and was roundly booed throughout the at-bat.

Ryan Braun and Fielder each entered the game hitting .500 in the NLCS with a combined seven RBIs. They were a combined 1 for 6 with no runs or RBIs Wednesday.

"We competed," Braun said. "We had plenty of chances. It's a tough game and just get ready for tomorrow."

NOTES: The Brewers have lost eight straight postseason road games since beating St. Louis 10-1 in Game 1 of the 1982 World Series. ... Hall of Famer Stan Musial made a pregame appearance at home plate via golf cart, and was flanked by fellow Cardinals Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Red Schoendienst. ... Pujols has 16 postseason walks, moving past Jim Edmonds for the franchise record. ... Betancourt singled his first two trips and had been on a 10-for-18 run before a flyout in the sixth.

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


advertisement

More news
No answer for Nellie

HBT: The Tigers went to the well one?too many times with closer Jose Valverde, and Nelson Cruz made them pay with a home run in a 7-3 Game 4 victory.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44885112/ns/sports-baseball/

ghost whisperer ghost whisperer wozniacki wozniacki niger chf temperature

Obama raises more than $70 million

President Barack Obama greets audience members after speaking at the White House Forum on American Latino Heritage, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011, at the Interior Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama greets audience members after speaking at the White House Forum on American Latino Heritage, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011, at the Interior Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - Then Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina listens as President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters after meeting with his staff and Cabinet members in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, in this Nov. 4, 2010 file photo. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said Thursday that more than 600,000 people donated to the campaign in the most recent quarter, more than the previous three months. President Barack Obama's campaign says he raised more than $70 million combined for his re-election and the Democratic party during the summer. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama's campaign raised more than $70 million combined for his re-election and the Democratic Party during the summer, an amount that gives him a clear financial advantage over his Republican rivals even as faces economic and political headwinds.

The fundraising total announced Thursday exceeds a goal set by the campaign of $55 million combined for the July-September fundraising period but is about $16 million less than Obama raised during the April-June quarter.

Obama has dealt with declining poll numbers and a weakened economy during the summer, prompting the president to recently call himself the "underdog" in the presidential race. Campaign officials had said they would raise less because of canceled fundraisers during the summer's debt ceiling negotiations and a typical summertime lull in raising cash.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in an e-mail to supporters that more than 600,000 people donated to the campaign in the most recent quarter, more than the previous three months. He said more than 980,000 people have given money to the campaign, and in the most recent quarter, 98 percent of the donors gave $250 or less, with an average donation of $56.

"Getting to a million grassroots donors isn't just a huge accomplishment this early in the campaign. It's our answer to our opponents, the press, and anyone who wants to know whether the president's supporters have his back," Messina said.

The numbers include $42.8 million for Obama's campaign and $27.3 million for the Democratic National Committee, which will help Obama's re-election effort next year. Obama raised $86 million combined during the April-June quarter.

Obama still leads his Republican rivals in fundraising by tens of millions and can save most of it for next year because he does not face a primary opponent.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the Republican field in fundraising, pulling in more than $18 million in his first three months of campaigning. He is not expected to surpass that mark for the past three months but should lead the pack in cash on hand.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised $17 million in his first seven weeks of campaigning and had $15 million in the bank. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a favorite of libertarians, collected $8 million during the summer after raising $4.5 million in his first three months.

The fundraising by the presidential field doesn't include money being raised by independent organizations trying to get their preferred nominee elected by raising and spending unlimited amounts of money to run ads supporting their candidate or attacking a rival. Perry and Romney have at least one super PAC working to enhance their candidacies while another super PAC is backing Obama's re-election bid.

Obama advisers have told donors privately they hope to match or exceed the $750 million they raised in 2008, a staggering amount that would help the president pay for expensive TV ads and a massive get-out-the-vote operation. But to match the amount they raised the last time, Obama would need to bring in nearly $120 million combined for each of the next five quarters to keep pace.

Messina said the campaign was using the money to build its operation. He said the campaign has opened up three new field offices every week during the past three months, and volunteers and organizers have made 3 million phone calls and in-person visits to voters.

"We're up against a Republican Party and special interest-funded groups that will spend hundreds of millions of dollars spreading any message that they believe will defeat the president and roll back our efforts to build a fairer economy that rewards hard work and responsibility, not large corporations," Messina said.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said Obama would "need every penny he can raise because voters don't believe he has the ability to turn the economy around or create much-needed jobs."

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-13-Obama-Fundraising/id-f55c0cee5f20412e9a50ab75ca37b1b2

dressage byu football byu football demi moore and ashton kutcher demi moore and ashton kutcher credit unions delonte west

Violent games emotionally desensitizing, research suggests

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2011) ? After excessively violent events, shoot 'em up games regularly come under scrutiny. In Norway, several first-person shooter games disappeared from the market for a while after the killings. Does intense fighting on a flat screen display also result in aggressive behavior in real life? Researchers from the University of Bonn found brain activity patterns in heavy gamers that differed from those of non-gamers.

The study's results have just been published in the scientific journal Biological Psychology.

"First-person shooter" games have been discussed in connection with violence over and over. Participants take on the role of a shooter fighting opponents in a war-like situation using different weapons. The Norwegian killer is said to have participated in such worlds intensely before he killed dozens of people in Oslo's government district and on the vacation island of Utoya. And after the shooting sprees in Erfurt, Emsdetten and Winnenden, the debate whether violent games lower the inhibition threshold and result in violent behavior was revived again. Psychologists, epileptologists and neurologists from the University of Bonn studied the effect of shoot 'em up game images and other emotionally charged photos on the brain activity of heavy gamers. "Compared to people who abstain from first-person shooters, they show clear differences in how emotions are controlled," reported lead author Dr. Christian Montag from the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bonn.

Excessive first-person shooting of about 15 hours a week

The 21 subjects ranging in age from 20 to 30 years played first-person shooters for about 15 hours per week on average. During this study, they were shown a standardized catalog of photos that reliably trigger emotions in human brains, using video glasses. At the same time, the researchers recorded the responses in their brains using one of the brain scanners at the Life & Brain Center of the University of Bonn. The images included photos as they are used in the violent games, but also shots of accident and disaster victims. "This mix of images allowed us to transport the subjects both to the fictitious first-person shooter world they are familiar with and to also trigger emotions via real images," explained Dr. Montag. This catalog of photos was also shown to a control group of 19 persons who had no experience with violent video games.

When the subjects regarded the real, negative pictures, there was greatly increased activity in their amygdalas. This region of the brain is strongly involved in processing negative emotions. "Surprisingly, the amygdalas in the subjects as well as in the control group were similarly stimulated," reported Montag. "This shows that both groups responded to the photos with similarly strong emotions." But the left medial frontal lobes were clearly less activated in the users of violent games than in the control subjects. This is the brain structure humans use to control their fear or aggression. "First-person shooters do not respond as strongly to the real, negative image material because they are used to it from their daily computer activities," Montag concluded. "One might also say that they are more desensitized than the control group." On the other hand, while processing the computer game images, the first-person shooters showed higher activity in brain regions associated with memory recall and working memory than the control group members. "This indicates that the gamers put themselves into the video game due to the computer game images and were looking for a potential strategy to find a solution for the game status shown," said Dr. Montag.

Violent games as a cause for changes in brain activity?

One question raised while interpreting the results is whether the users showed altered brain activity due to the games, or whether they were more tolerant of violence from the start and as a consequence, preferred first-person shooter games. The researchers from the University of Bonn were able to suggest an answer to this question based on the fact that they took into account various personality traits such as fearfulness, aggressiveness, callousness or emotional stability. "There were no differences between the subjects and the control group in this area," reported Dr. Montag. "This is an indication that the violent games are the cause of the difference in information processing in the brain."

From the results, Dr. Montag has concluded that emotional desensitization does not only occur while playing computer games. "We were ultimately able to find the decreased control of emotions in first-person shooters for the real images, too," he said. That is why he thinks these responses are not just limited to these virtual worlds. While there are many studies on video games and aggressive behavior, surprisingly few exist that look at their effect on the brain. "Our results provide indications that the extensive use of first-person shooters is not without its problems," said Dr. Montag. "But we will need additional studies to shed some more light on the connections between violent games, brain activity, and actual behavior."

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Universit?t Bonn, via AlphaGalileo.

Journal Reference:

  1. Christian Montag, Bernd Weber, Peter Trautner, Beate Newport, Sebastian Markett, Nora T. Walter, Andrea Felten, Martin Reuter. Does excessive play of violent first-person-shooter-video-games dampen brain activity in response to emotional stimuli? Biological Psychology, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.014

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111012124019.htm

definition definition chichen itza dts madden 12 andrea bocelli fidel castro

Friend: Suspect in ambassador plot 'no mastermind'

This undated image provided by the Nueces County Sheriff's Office shows Manssor Arbabsiar. The Obama administration on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 accused agents of the Iranian government of being involved in a plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the thwarted plot would further isolate Tehran. (AP Photo/Nueces County Sheriff's Office)

This undated image provided by the Nueces County Sheriff's Office shows Manssor Arbabsiar. The Obama administration on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 accused agents of the Iranian government of being involved in a plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the thwarted plot would further isolate Tehran. (AP Photo/Nueces County Sheriff's Office)

Neighbor Chris Elquist, 33, poses for a photograph near the house of Manssor Arbabsiar in Round Rock, Texas, Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011. Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged in NewYork federal court with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)

(AP) ? A friend of a former Texas used car dealer accused of plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador in the United States says he never thought of his one-time business partner as politically motivated, much less a key player in a potential terrorist act.

Manssor Arbabsiar was known as "Jack" to his friends because his name was too hard to pronounce, said David Tomscha, who briefly owned a used car lot with him in the Texas Gulf Coast city of Corpus Christi. Tomscha said his friend was likable, albeit a bit lazy.

"He's no mastermind," Tomscha told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I can't imagine him thinking up a plan like that. I mean, he didn't seem all that political. He was more of a businessman."

Arbabsiar, 56, was being held without bail in New York for his role in the alleged plot to kill Saudi diplomat Adel Al-Jubeir in the United States. The Justice Department contends that Arbabsiar and another man working for the Iranian government tried to hire a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the attack with a bomb while Al-Jubeir was at a restaurant.

According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York, the plot was revealed by an informant inside the world of the Mexican drug trade, a man paid by U.S. drug agents to rat out traffickers.

Tomscha, 60, said their partnership in the 1990s ended after about six months when Arbabsiar stopped making his share of the payments for their lot, but they remained friends. Arbabsiar never talked about traveling to Mexico, Tomscha said.

Arbabsiar came to the U.S. to attend what was then known as Texas A & I University in Kingsville, Tomscha said. Then Arbabsiar opened a used car lot with a couple of college friends and eventually owned several in the Corpus Christi area, and he seemed to get first choice on the repossessed cars at the auto auction in town, Tomscha said.

"He was sort of a hustler," Tomscha said. "I think he made some money."

Tomscha said he last saw Arbabsiar last fall, and in early 2011 heard that his friend had moved back to Iran. Tomscha was shocked to hear Tuesday about the arrest.

After living for years in Corpus Christi, Arbabsiar followed his wife to the Austin area, Tomscha said.

Nobody answered the door Tuesday at the two-story stucco and brick home in a well-manicured neighborhood in Round Rock, the Austin suburb that federal officials list as Arbabsiar's residence. One man was seen going inside in the afternoon, and later there was a delivery from Pizza Hut.

A neighbor said he frequently saw Arbabsiar walking in the neighborhood after dark, while smoking cigarettes and talking on a cellphone in a foreign language.

"My wife and I always thought there was something weird about the guy," said Eric Cano, a 38-year-old buyer for a grocery company who lives next door. "But you don't think it will get to this level."

Halloween decorations hung from a tree in Arbabsiar's front yard. Within hours of Arbabsiar's arrest, the neighborhood was flooded with trucks from local television stations.

Records show Arbabsiar also has lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Corpus Christi, and been married at least twice. He was arrested and released in 2001 for theft by check, charges that were eventually dismissed, said Cynthia Martinez of the Nueces County Sheriff's Office, which includes Corpus Christi. She said Arbabsiar was also arrested in 1993, 1996 and 1997 on traffic violations.

Cano said Arbabsiar moved in with a woman who had lived at the house previously and was raising three boys, all who have graduated from high school. Records indicate the home is owned by a woman to whom Arbabsiar was married.

Cano said although he would see Arbabsiar with some frequency, they'd never speak.

"He wasn't friendly at all," Cano said. "He'd never even acknowledge you. He'd just walk and talk in this language I'd never heard of."

__

Sherman reported from McAllen. Associated Press writer Danny Robbins in Dallas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-12-Ambassador%20Plot-Texas/id-de3dcd2161ac4fe2bc811cc43ccb257c

malta lulu mash dolly parton tanzania setup dart

Palestinians near UNESCO membership (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? Palestinians moved a step closer to full membership of the U.N. cultural agency on Wednesday when its board decided to let 193 member countries vote on admission this month.

The latest move in a Palestinian quest for statehood recognition drew a swift rebuke from the United States and Israel, which both argue that the way to create Palestine is through negotiations, and a cool response from France.

In September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas applied to the Security Council for full membership of the United Nations, ignoring a U.S. warning that it would veto the move, as well as threats from members of the U.S. Congress to restrict American aid to the Palestinians.

At UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 40 representatives of the 58-member board voted in favor of putting the matter to a vote, with four -- the United States, Germany, Romania and Latvia -- voting against and 14 abstaining, a source at the agency told Reuters.

That set the scene for a membership vote at UNESCO's General Conference, a meeting that runs from October 25 to November 10 and involves all 193 members of the agency, based in Paris.

It also raised questions about whether Washington might be required by U.S. law to cut off funding for the agency if it were to accept the Palestinians as a member. The United States pays 22 percent of UNESCO's dues, the State Department said.

EXACERBATING ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN TENSIONS?

U.S. ambassador to UNESCO David Killion urged in a statement all delegations to join the United States in voting "no." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she found it "inexplicable" that UNESCO would consider moving ahead on a Palestinian vote while the issue was still before the United Nations Security Council.

"I ... would urge the governing body of UNESCO to think again before proceeding with that vote because the decision about status must be made in the United nations and not in auxiliary groups that are subsidiary to the United Nations," Clinton told reporters in the Dominican Republic where she was on an official visit.

Nimrod Barkan, Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, said the move would harm the agency and would not advance Palestinian aspirations.

"The problem is that the politicisation of UNESCO is detrimental to the ability of the organization to carry out its mandate," he told Reuters. "It is not too late to wake up and save this organization from politicisation."

The Palestinians have had observer status at UNESCO since 1974. In order to gain full membership, so-called "states" that are not members of the United Nations may be admitted to UNESCO with a two-thirds majority of the General Conference.

It was not clear whether Palestine would need to be a recognized state for its UNESCO bid to succeed.

Barkan said he hoped there would be time between now and the General Conference to "undo" the decision, arguing that there was no such entity as Palestine.

To keep pressure on the United Nations, Abbas's Palestinian Authority has been looking at institutions that may recognize their sought-after statehood status -- a campaign triggered by a breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks a year ago.

On Tuesday, it won partnership status from the Council of Europe, the European Union's main human rights body.

Top Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdaineh said the UNESCO vote showed there was international support for Palestinian statehood.

"The recommendation has been put forward for us to have full membership of UNESCO and it is another political battle in the right direction to reinforce the status Palestinian people," Abu Rdaineh told Reuters.

U.S. CONCERNS

The maneuvering at UNESCO also angered U.S. lawmakers.

Kay Granger, chairwoman of the House subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, said U.S. funding for UNESCO could be cut if full membership was granted.

"Since April, I have made it clear to the Palestinian leadership that I would not support sending U.S. taxpayer money to the Palestinians if they sought statehood at the United Nations," Granger said in a statement.

"Making a move in another U.N. agency will not only jeopardize our relationship with the Palestinians, it will jeopardize our contributions to the United Nations," said Granger, who recently held up some $200 million of aid for Palestinians.

The U.S. government has said the Palestinians can gain an independent state on land occupied by Israel in a 1967 war only via negotiations with the Jewish state, Washington's main ally in the Middle East.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement said the actions by the Palestinians at UNESCO were "a negative response ... to efforts to promote the peace process ... (and) negate both the bilateral negotiations route and the Quartet's proposal for continuing the diplomatic process.

Envoys from the Middle East "Quartet" -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- will meet in Brussels on Sunday to try to revive peace efforts.

France, which has advocated observer status of the United Nations, said that UNESCO was not the place to further the Palestinian case for recognition.

"The priority is to revive negotiations," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "We consider that UNESCO is not the appropriate place and the General Conference is not the right moment."

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Louise Ireland, Brian Love and Anthony Boadle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111006/wl_nm/us_palestinians_unesco

backlink morehead city nc morehead city nc virginia beach little caesars