Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Fitch warns it may cut U.S. credit rating from AAA


By Daniel Bases


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday it could cut the sovereign credit rating of the United States from AAA, citing the political brinkmanship over raising the federal debt ceiling.


"Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default," the firm said in a statement.


The firm put its opinion about the creditworthiness of U.S. government debt on what its calls Ratings Watch Negative, a reflection of the increasing risk of a near-term default if the debt limit is not raised in time. It gave itself until the end of the first quarter of 2014 to decide whether it will actually cut the rating.


Still, Fitch reaffirmed its belief that an agreement to raise the debt ceiling will be reached, allowing the U.S. government to pay its bills by borrowing beyond the $16.7 trillion limit currently in place.


Fitch is the only one of the three major credit rating agencies to have a negative outlook on the U.S. sovereign credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded the rating to AA-plus with a stable outlook during the last debt ceiling impasse, in August 2011.


"It seems like what we saw from S&P just before the downgrade, they were essentially warning us that the debt ceiling standoff will not be tolerated and this is not in line with a country that maintains an AAA credit rating. It's citing these artificial default risks as the main reason ... They are essentially saying get this done now," said Gennadiy Goldberg, interest rate strategist at TD Securities in New York


Fitch reiterated that the delay in increasing the borrowing capacity of the United States raises questions about the ability of the United States to honor its obligations.


Moody's Investors Service rates U.S. government debt at Aaa with a stable outlook.


The U.S. Treasury has said that on or about October 17 the government will reach its borrowing limit, thereby putting at risk its ability to pay its bills.


Fitch is operating under the assumption that even if the debt limit is not raised before or shortly after Oct 17, there will be sufficient political will and capacity to ensure the United States will honor its debts.


A Treasury spokesman said Fitch's decision is a reminder for U.S. lawmakers that the United States is dangerously close to defaulting on its obligations.


Negotiations between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders cycled through a stop-start process again on Tuesday, but no agreement was reached to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.


Last week Fitch said that it would only consider the United States in default if it failed to make payments due on interest or principal of U.S. Treasuries.


"It lets investors know that this kind of risk is on the horizon. We'll see what happens. I was hopeful earlier today that sides were moving to an agreement, but now, I don't know," said John Carey, portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston.


The warning came after the U.S. stock market closed for the day, after a volatile trading session in which benchmark U.S. equity indexes fell amid the political uncertainty.


In late New York trade, the U.S. dollar dropped to session lows against the yen and trimmed earlier gains against the euro.


"This is not the way the dollar behaved during the Lehman crisis or during the debt downgrade by the S&P in August 2011. So we think yes, the more the U.S. credit rating is called into question, the worse it will be for the U.S. dollar," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York.


U.S. Treasury prices, already weak ahead of Fitch's announcement, held their losses on the day.


"The United States has the absolute capacity to pay its debt. This action is not about ability to pay. It is about governance and willingness to pay. In that category the United States has reached the brink of political failure," said David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors in Sarasota, Florida.


(Additional reporting by Caryn Trokie, Karen Brettel, Ryan Vlastelica, Luciana Lopez, and Wanfeng Zhou in New York; Jason Lange in Washington)



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fitch-warns-may-cut-u-credit-rating-aaa-210121106--finance.html
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Estimate doubled for vCJD carriers















Twice as many Britons as previously thought could be carrying the human form of "mad cow" disease, variant CJD.


Researchers believe one in 2,000 people in the UK is a carrier of the disease linked to eating contaminated beef.


Their estimate in the BMJ comes from studying more than 32,000 samples of human tissue removed during appendix operations carried out between 2000 and 2012 at 41 hospitals.


It remains unclear if any of these carriers will ever develop symptoms.


Early predictions of a vCJD epidemic didn't come to fruition.


To date, here have been 177 UK deaths from vCJD. Most of these occurred in the late 90s and early 2000s. There has been only one death in the last two years.


The rare, fatal disease progressively attacks the brain.



Continue reading the main story

Start Quote


Will these people develop disease and can they transmit it? There are many questions we still do not know the answers to”


End Quote
Lead researcher Prof Sebastian Brandner


But it appears that relatively few who catch the infectious agent that causes the disease develop symptoms. People can be "silent" carriers for decades and not even know it.


The BMJ research identified 16 such carriers out of the thousands of appendix tissue samples studied.


Experts say many vital questions remain unanswered.


Since the link between vCJD and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, was discovered in 1996, there have been strict controls to prevent meat from infected cattle from entering the food chain.


However, the average time it takes for the symptoms of vCJD to occur after initial infection is still unclear.


Preventing spread


This means people exposed to infected meat before the food controls were introduced continue to develop variant CJD, and may spread it to others.


Experience tells us that the disease could be transmitted from human to human via blood - in the UK, there have been three reported cases of vCJD associated with a blood transfusion.


Blood donor services take measures to ensure blood is not infected but there is no test to screen for vCJD, although scientists are working on this.


And there is currently no cure for the disease.


Prof Sebastian Brandner of University College London, who led the BMJ research, said: "We do not know what will happen.


"Will these people develop disease and can they transmit it? There are many questions we still do not know the answers to."


Prof Richard Knight, director of the National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, said the answers might not be known for decades.


In the meantime, surveillance was key, he said.


"You can see from the data available that its likely that we will get a secondary or tertiary wave of disease but its likely that these further waves will be small.


"Future clinical cases will be pretty small in number," he added.


Dr Graham Jackson, of the MRC Prion Unit at UCL Institute of Neurology, said: "Given the high levels of infection indicated by this research, it is now crucial we establish how many people in the UK harbour that infection in their bloodstream in order to adequately assess the risks of transmission through contaminated blood donations.


"Studies to develop new blood tests for CJD must remain a priority to assist with screening and protecting the UK blood supply."




Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24525584#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Fla. police make 2 arrests in bullying case

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — Two girls were arrested in a Florida bullying case after one of them admitted online over the weekend that she harassed a 12-year-old girl killed herself last month, a sheriff said Tuesday.


Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said they arrested a 14-year-old girl because they were worried she would continue cyberbullying other girls. The girl is accused of bullying 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who climbed at tower at an abandoned concrete plant Sept. 9 and hurled herself to her death.


Judd said arrested the 14-year-old girl after she posted online Saturday that she bullied Rebecca and she didn't care.


"We decided that we can't leave her out there. Who else is she going to torment, who else is she going to harass?" Judd said.


Police also arrested a 12-year-old girl who is accused of bullying Rebecca. Both have been charged with felony aggravated stalking.


The sheriff's office identified the two girls, but The Associated Press generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.


Judd said the bullying began after the 14-year-old girl started dating a boy that Rebecca had been seeing.


She "didn't like that and began to harass and ultimately torment Rebecca," Judd said.


The 12-year-old girl was Rebecca's former best friend, but Judd said the 14-year-old girl turned her against Rebecca. Other girls also stopped being friends with her in fear of being bullied, the sheriff said.


Authorities have said Rebecca was "terrorized" by as many as 15 girls who ganged up on her and picked on her for months through online message boards and texts.


Witnesses told investigators the 14-year-old girl told Rebecca "to drink bleach and die" and said she should kill herself.


Judd said neither girl's parents wanted to bring their daughters to the sheriff's office, so detectives went to their homes and arrested them.


Judd said the 14-year-old was "very cold, had no emotion at all upon her arrest."


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fla-police-2-arrests-bullying-case-154050601.html
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Weekly Roundup: Apple iMac review, BlackBerry Z30 review, Samsung's Galaxy Round and more!


The Weekly Roundup for 12032012



You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.





Weekly Roundup Apple iMac review, BlackBerry Z30 review, Samsung's Galaxy Round and more!



BlackBerry Z30 review



BlackBerry has been headed in the wrong direction for a while now, and the Z30 is the company's latest attempt at turning itself around. With a 5-inch Super AMOLED display this is BlackBerry's biggest BB10 device to date. The phone has a 2,880mAh battery which we found to be perfectly adequate, plus a 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 processor alongside 2GB of RAM. The Z30 is comfortable to hold, and its large screen suits BB10, but buggy software, an expensive price tag and poor call quality add up to a frustrating experience. Read on for more.





Weekly Roundup Apple iMac review, BlackBerry Z30 review, Samsung's Galaxy Round and more!



Apple iMac review (2013)



There wasn't much that we didn't like about last year's iMac desktop computer, and the 2013 version only improves on its predecessor. The latest iMac features updated Haswell processors, more powerful GPUs, faster 802.11ac WiFi and speedier PCIe SSDs. Pricing starts at $1,299 for the 21.5-inch model moving up to $1,799 for the 27-inch one. This has been an incremental year for Apple across the board -- but despite minor changes the iMac still remains our favorite all-in-one desktop. Click the link above for more details and our full review of the computer.





Weekly Roundup Apple iMac review, BlackBerry Z30 review, Samsung's Galaxy Round and more!



HP Chromebook 11 review



Sure Chromebooks are getting cheaper and cheaper, but the most commonly asked question remains the same: will the laptops cut it in the real world? Google's latest addition to the Chrome OS line -- the Chromebook 11 -- is an 11.6-inch notebook that costs $279. The price may sound cheap, but the laptop's impressive design certainly doesn't feel that way. At 2.3 pounds, or 1.04kg, the Chromebook was light and insubstantial in our hands, but its magnesium frame went a long way in helping the machine's sturdiness. HP's latest offering is one of the best Chromebooks we've yet to see, but Chrome OS itself is still limiting in what you can do. Head up for more.





Weekly Roundup Apple iMac review, BlackBerry Z30 review, Samsung's Galaxy Round and more!



Samsung announces its curved smartphone: the Galaxy Round



Samsung unveiled its first concave smartphone this week, which launched in Korea just a few days ago. The appropriately named Galaxy Round will come with a gently curved 1080p 5.7-inch OLED screen, a 2,800mAh battery and the necessary LTE radios. Curiously, the device looks pretty different to the curved prototypes we saw back at CES earlier this year. Interested parties can purchase the Round for just over 1 million won, or about $1,000, through the Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom. Click up for more details and pictures.










Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/13/weekly-roundup-apple-imac-review-blackberry-z30-review-samsun?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000589
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Genome Hazard: Busan Review



The Bottom Line


A polished and professional entertainment.




Venue


Busan International Film Festival


Director


Kim Sung-su


Cast


Nishijima Hidetoshi, Kim Hyo-jin, Hamada Manabu, Maki Yoko, Nakamura Yuri, Ibu Masatoh, Lee Kyeong-young




When the word “genome” is in a film title expectations for challenging and somehow terrifying science fiction romp are high. Images of evil corporate entities meddling in the very essence of our collective selves or the twisted mutations that will be our future spring to mind. Genome Hazard, based on Tsukasaki Shiro’s award-winning novel, is neither of those. One part science fiction adventure, one part conspiracy thriller and one part, bafflingly, romance, Genome Hazard can’t settle on what it wants to be and so is none of those completely successfully. The Korea/Japan co-production should find moderate success in its home territories where the cast of familiar, if not superstar, faces will attract attention, as will the book’s built-in audience, and the curiosity factor will carry it a reasonably long way. This kind of sci-fi isn’t that common in the region, where traditional monsters, ghosts and robots still carry the day. Any success on the festival circuit will be centered on genre events.


Writer-director Kim Sung-su, for whom Genome Hazard is the second medical science thriller this year after The Flu, is a workmanlike filmmaker that rarely gets fancy and lets his conventional pictures tell the story. That works here, where the height of stylistic innovation is the washed out color of a dying man’s last hours—both physically and mentally — contrasted with the saturated brightness of the so-called present. Genome Hazard starts strong: Ishigami Taketo (Nishijima Hidetoshi, Kitano Takeshi’s Dolls, Cut) is an average salaryman, toiling away as an illustrator at a design firm and freshly married to Miyuki (Maki Yoko) — or so he thinks. He gets home one night to find his wife dead but receives a phone call from her while he stares at her corpse. So far so good for classic mess-with-your-head sci-fi. Next thing he knows a gang of thugs claiming to be cops bust in to take him away and the chase to unravel the mystery is on. This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.


Ishigami’s confusion at the circumstances he finds himself in forms the basis of a great thriller, where the hero is the victim of some kind of technological nefariousness he or she can’t prove. It’s not Philip Dick level paranoid, but it’s close. The little details compound each other and create a compelling enough mystery with steady forward momentum, aided by a hoary but effective countdown clock. The wheels start to wobble a bit when Ishigami, with the help of Seoul reporter Kang Ji-won (Kim Hyo-jin), discovers he’s actually a genius Korean biochemist called Oh Jin-woo who’s researching Alzheimer’s for Japanese biotech giant Sugusawa Research.


To this point Genome Hazard has been shaping up as a pharmacological conspiracy thriller pivoting on an examination of the nature of memory, identity, the connection between the two and the question of what would happen could any be manipulated genetically (answer: bad things). And not even some of the most ridiculous science to grace screens in years can really kill the story. That’s down to a misplaced romance that brings the sci-fi to a screeching halt, and, sadly, Nishijima’s histrionics. Kim spend half her screen time looking stunned, but it’s hard to determine if it’s because of Ishigami’s wild tale or Nishijima’s OTT performance. Genome Hazard looks great and frequently visually trumps the characters’ stupid behavior, but it would be a leaner, more focused film at 90 minutes — and without the extra wives.


Production company: Apollon Cinema


Sales: Lotte Entertainment


Producers: Yang Kwang-duk, Lee Geun-wook, Satani Hidemi


Director: Kim Sung-su


Cast: Nishijima Hidetoshi, Kim Hyo-jin, Hamada Manabu, Maki Yoko, Nakamura Yuri, Ibu Masatoh, Lee Kyeong-young


Screenwriter: Kim Sung-su, from the novel by Tsukasaki Shiro


Executive producer: Cha Won-chun


Director of photography: Choi Sang-mul


Production Designer: Lee Zinho, Lee Ji-yeon


Music: Kawai Kenji


Editor: Park Kyoung-sook


No rating, 120 minutes  


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/7050_t6lj_A/genome-hazard-busan-review-647164
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Obama presenting Medal of Honor to Afghan war vet

(AP) — A former Army captain hailed for bravery during combat in Afghanistan in 2009 is adding the Medal of Honor to his list of military decorations.

President Barack Obama will bestow the nation's highest military honor on William D. Swenson on Tuesday. Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama will also attend the ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

The White House says Swenson is being recognized for courageous actions while he was an embedded trainer and mentor with the Afghan National Security Forces in Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan on Sept. 8, 2009.

Swenson retired from the military in February 2011. He has a Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal and lives in Seattle.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-15-US-Obama-Medal-of-Honor/id-d653b0116b62418ea7f99f42a3cfa1ad
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