Facebook roundup: homepage ads, Android update, measurement challenge, malware checkpoints and more

Facebook makes homepage ads available through API ? Facebook today officially opened its homepage ad units to Ads API partners and users of the Power Editor tool. This will allow other companies to buy and sell premium ad placement, freeing up some of Facebook?s own staff. Premium inventory will continue to be priced at a fixed CPM, unlike the marketplace ads appearing on the rest of the site.?Although the news was announced at the end of May, this finally went live today.

Facebook for Android gets an update ? Facebook?s mobile app for Android got an update this week, which includes support for the front-facing camera, new messaging features, faster login, a security improvement and a number of bug fixes.

Study shows Facebook?s integration with rest of web ? More than one-fifth of the web links to Facebook in some way, and almost eight percent use Facebook?s Open Graph tags, according to a study by?Zyxt Labs. The group?found that more than 242 million websites, or about 21.7 percent of the total studied, referenced at least one Facebook URL ? most often the Like and Share buttons, but also traditional links to Facebook profiles or pages. Image from Marketing Land

Facebook issues call for marketing measurement ideas ? Facebook and the Advertising Research Foundation have issued a challenge to the measurement community to come up with innovative ideas to tie social marketing back to business metrics in ways that allow for cross-platform comparability around the world. Facebook and ARF will review the ideas and contact those with the highest potential. Facebook will consider providing funding, access to data assets and collaboration on pilot studies.

New malware checkpoints will help users avoid viruses ? Facebook announced a?new self-enrollment malware checkpoint program so that users can proactively obtain a free anti-virus scan and clean their system. This builds upon the social networks previous efforts to offer free anti-virus software to its users and prevent further spread of malicious software.

Glimpse app creates ?Universal Price Alerts? for products users Like ? Glimpse, a new web app from social commerce site The Find,?sends automatic price alert emails to users when any product, on any site, that has a??Like??button goes on sale.?Universal Price Alerts are not limited to just the fashion and design items that can be found in?Glimpse. They apply to products on any retail site.

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    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InsideFacebook/~3/gdyXDbVEcvM/

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    UN Chief Includes Kosovo on Balkan Tour :: Balkan Insight

    This will be the first visit to the region by a UN Secretary General since the dissolution of Yugoslavia. ?

    According to Vecernje Novosti, he will meet the recently elected Serbian President, Tomislav Nikolic, on July 23. ?

    Ki-moon is also expected to meet Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, recently elected as President of the UN General Assembly. ?

    Nikolic expressed regret that the Secretary General plans to visit Kosovo during his trip, saying it ?is not a member of the UN.?

    ?Serbia is still considering how to respond to the challenge of the visit to Kosovo,? he said.

    ?He must declare whether he is going there to visit UN representatives, or visiting Kosovo as an independent state,? Nikolic told journalists on Tuesday.

    Media reports say Ki-moon will begin his Kosovo visit on July 24 after morning meetings in Belgrade.? He is expected to visit one country per day.

    Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has said it will never recognize the statehood of its former province, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians.

    The International Civilian Office, which has overseen Kosovo since the end of NATO intervention in June 1999, announced last month that Kosovo would become fully independent in September. ?

    Ki-moon is expected to visit, among other organizations, the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, which has over 400 personnel and a mandate to assist institution building.

    Ki-moon plans to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 25 and 26, a senior diplomat in Sarajevo told Balkan Insight.

    UN Officials are staying quiet about their chief?s agenda, but told Balkan Insight that more information about the Western Balkans tour would be made public at a Friday afternoon press conference in New York City.

    Source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/un-chief-includes-kosovo-on-balkan-tour

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    User:AllissFriskin2370 - LibraryCloud Wiki

    From LibraryCloud Wiki

    Ayurvedic therapeutic massage is 1 of the most successful approaches to cut down anxiety, slow down the skin's ageing system, boost blood circulation and get rid of harmful toxins from the cells. Making use of historical Ayurvedic herbs combined with oils, it operates to purify, nourish and tone the skin on a deep mobile stage. It promotes lymphatic drainage, minimizes no cost-radical activity and detoxifies. The herbs used have all-natural anti-oxidants and have anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

    Therapeutic massage is recommended in Ayurveda as it is 1 of the keys to longevity. It aids to pacify the Vata dosha and it is this dosha that dries us out as we age, producing almost everything from wrinkled pores and skin to constipation. Bob Hope credited his very long existence to a are living in masseuse and every day massages. Dr. Andrew Weil, director of the Plan in Integrative Medication at the University of Arizona in Tucson and pioneer of substitute health and fitness says that he is a agency believer that therapeutic massage stimulates the body's own therapeutic response, and he often recommends therapeutic massage therapy. "A growing body of investigation exhibits that massage provides health rewards all the way through the daily life cycle: It promotes pounds achieve and motor growth in babies, boosts respiratory function in children with asthma. It also boosts blood circulation, lowers tension hormones, improves range of motion, cuts down despair, and improves immune purpose."

    Massage at panchkarma massage institute relaxes and tones the muscular tissues, stimulates glands under the pores and skin to generate hormones, including serotonin that calms the mind and feelings and promotes drainage of the lymphatic method. Lymphatic fluid delivers vitamins and minerals to the cells and then carries away cellular debris and harmful particles. As the fluid passes via the lymph nodes, the waste products are flushed out. Unfortunately, in contrast to the blood procedure, the lymph procedure does not have a pump, but is dependent on muscular contractions to move about the bodies' community of lymph vessels. When muscle groups are inactive, the unfiltered fluid stagnates and gets 'ama' which can precipitate genetic breakdown and disease. Massage stimulates the nodes and drains the harmful fluids, which is essential to excellent health.

    The Ayurvedic oils made use of boost this purification course of action, by penetrating the skin and balancing the doshas, they have anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory homes. Developed by ayurveda to penetrate the skin, their nutrients do instantly into the blood capillaries, loosens affixed toxic compounds and carries them to the digestive tract for elimination. The natural oils increase blood circulation, digestive program, feeds the pores and skin and performs to balance the emotions and loosen up the brain.

    Ayurvedic therapeutic massage is one of a kind in that in incorporates a healing technique called "marma" treatment. Ayurveda describes these marma points as junctions of make any difference and consciousness, the physique is crisscrossed like irrigation channels with meridians or nadis, a shut interconnecting program by which prana flows in the overall body. There are 107 big marma factors in the overall body, 7 of which are also identified with the 7 chakras of the overall body. The navel, which is the seat of the second chakra, is especially loaded in nadis, seventy two,000 in all, stated to be the everyday living-offering channel from mom to unborn youngster. The marma are found over the lymph nodes, at joints exactly where five anatomical structures intersect: blood vessels, ligaments, muscle tissue, nerves and bone. They http://www.tourismuscamp.de/index.php?title=User:MernaRander1166 participate in a vital function in balancing the endocrine system, the about three circulatory programs of lymph, blood and nerves, as well as the 3 doshas or delicate constitutions of the overall body and thoughts. Marma points enhance the prana each and every time it flows by means of, resulting in a much better life force electricity. Like acupressure factors, care really should be used when massaging, as certain points when struck, can bring about a detrimental result, somewhat than a optimistic just one.

    In accordance to Ayurveda, full-physique heat oil self-therapeutic massage, done every single early morning (or as often as you can), is enjoyable and revitalizing for mind and overall body. Commonly before early morning Yoga and bathing so that the oil can be absorbed as a result of the skin by the warmth generated by the Yoga. Using oils exact to doshas can deliver each individual of the doshas into alignment. It is nourishing, pacifies Vata and Kapha, relieves exhaustion, provides stamina, satisfaction and excellent snooze, boosts the complexion and the luster of the pores and skin, promotes longevity and nourishes all areas of the system. For extremely oily skin use chickpea flour or a entire body brush.

    Source: http://librarylab.law.harvard.edu/librarycloud_wiki/index.php/User%3AAllissFriskin2370

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    Debt crisis: live

    ...

    For a week that has felt like a continual uphill battle we are least ending on a higher note which gives an indication that there is risk appetite out there. But with volumes remaining low the conviction of today?s rally is questionable.

    Italy's 10-year bond yields have crept above 6pc again, rising 14.7 basis points to 6.031pc while Spain's are up 2.1 basis points to 6.574pc.

    17.42 Sony Kapoor of the Re-Define thinktank has published his thoughts on Italy's turn in the eurocrisis spotlight. He writes:

    QuoteThe single biggest factor weighing on the Italian economy at present is the uncertainty about whether or not the Eurocrisis will be resolved. And it is this, rather than Italy?s own domestic situation (which is also complicated), that is the most serious problem.

    While the Spanish economy is already caught in a vicious downward spiral, the Italian economy is not, at least yet. However, unless the Eurozone acts quickly to stem the uncertainties surrounding the Eurocrisis, what has essentially been a liquidity problem for Italy thus far (having to rollover debt at gradually rising interest rates) may well turn into a self-fulfilling solvency problem leading inevitably to a need to restructure its debt. This may not happen through the first order impact of rising interest costs, but through the suffocating impact on the private sector, through rising capital flight and through falling GDP.

    17.15 There's been unrest in Spain today, with civil servants protesting against austerity measures, and there could be more to come. Spain's main unions have apparently called on public workers to strike in September.

    17.00 Deputy prime minister, Saenz de Santamaria, has also been speaking out about Spain's predicament. Speaking after the cabinet meeting, where sales tax increases and spending cuts were approved, she said:

    QuoteSpain is going through one of its most dramatic moments.

    Adding that the austerity measures were "neither simple, nor easy, nor popular," she said the government would try to enact the measures "with the maximum justice and equity."

    16.34 King Juan Carlos of Spain has made a rare political comment, reports AFP, calling on the government not to forget Spain's unemployed as it decides on austerity measures to battle debt. He told a cabinet meeting:

    QuoteNo one should be excluded from the outcome of the economic recovery that we all want and hope for. I'm referring particularly to the young and those who suffer a lack of employment and prospects for the future.

    16.05 Spain's government has been rubber-stamping other austerity measures at its cabinet meeting today. They include the VAT increase to 21pc from 18pc, which will take effect on September 1.

    15.30 Spain's economy minister, Luis de Guindos, has approved a new fund of up to ?18bn to ease the regions' difficult funding situations:

    QuoteThe fund will finance the autonomous communities on the basis of the funding costs of the Treasury plus a small spread. There is a guarantee that the regions will receive the funds (they need) but they keep the responsibility of paying them back.

    The mechanism will be funded through a ?6bn loan from the state lottery and the rest will come from the Treasury.

    14.58 Spain's government has met for its weekly cabinet meeting this afternoon. At a news conference following that meeting, deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz said the government will soon open a discussion with other political parties to review the country's pension system:

    QuoteWe will send [to other parties] a law to guarantee the sustainability of the pension system.

    She also said the government had approved a program of structural reforms for the second half of the year, including a reform of local administration and governments, a reform of the energy sector as well as laws to liberalise the rail, road and air transport sectors.

    These measures are part of a new ?65bn austerity package announced on Wednesday.

    14.34 On the markets, the FTSE 100 is still ahead, putting on 0.43pc to 5632. But Spain's IBEX is down 0.64pc to 6588 and Italy's MIB is off 0.53 pc to 13512.

    Italy's 10-year bond yields continue to hover dangerously close to the 6pc mark, rising 9.6 basis points to 5.979pc while Spain's are up 2.4 basis points to 6.578pc.

    The euro is at $1.2205.

    14.12 Reuters has this snap of civil service workers protesting today against austerity measures in Madrid's landmark Puerta del Sol in front of city hall in Madrid:

    14.00 AP has a bit more colour from those protests by Spanis civil servants that we mentioned at 13.10. They are protesting against a second wave of wage cuts and AP writes:

    QuoteIn the Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, about 500 civil servants gathered, about half of them dressed in black. Some women wore veils, as if they were at funerals. Protesters blew whistles and horns.

    ...

    Isabel Perez, a 40-year-old librarian, said "our wages have already been cut and now they take away the Christmas payment. I don't make it to the end of the month as it is. The extra payment gave some relief. We're not exactly millionaires."

    13.42 After all the excitement of the Italian debt auction this morning, Spain says it is going to issue 2014, 2017 and 2019 bonds on Thursday. It has cancelled a bond auction due on August 16.

    13.10 After Spanish miners headed to Madrid this week to protest over cuts to industry subsidies, today it's the turn of the civil servants. They are taking to the streets to protest their second wave of wage cuts in as many years as the government prepares ?65bn of austerity measures.

    AP reports that several hundred workers left the complex of government ministries in Madrid and blocked traffic briefly. In the eastern city of Valencia, several hundred Justice Ministry workers shouted "hands up, this is a stick-up" at a protest rally.

    12.33 At 11.57, we mentioned the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch research that used game theory to conclude that Italy and Ireland have more incentive to quit the euro than Greece, while Germany has limited room to prevent departures from the currency union.

    SImon Nixon of the Wall Street Journal has also written about this Merrill research, which suggests that the risk of a eurozone break-up might be rising:

    QuoteIn game theory, the most likely outcome isn't always what economists call "Pareto optimal," one that will bring maximum benefit to all players. Instead, the "Nash equilibrium" for the eurozone?the situation in which no player has an incentive to change strategy because to do so unilaterally would leave them worse off?is that Italy refuses to undertake the overhauls needed to enable its economy to grow and Germany refuses to provide the bailouts to persuade it to stay.

    12.24 The European Commission has expressed some doubts regarding the wisdom of Moody's downgrading of Italy, bearing in mind it came just before a bond auction. SImon O'Connor, a Commission spokesman, said:

    QuoteI do think one can legitimately and seriously question the timing of it, whether the timing was appropriate. We consider that Italy's policy actions to ensure sound public finances address long-standing structural weaknesses and have been both determined and wide ranging.

    12.01 But economist, Megan Greene, has this to say on Twitter about the Bloomberg research:

    11.57 Bank of Amerca-Merrill Lynch has published some thoughts on the eurozone's predicament. Its strategists reckon that Italy and Ireland have more incentive to quit the euro than Greece, while Germany has limited room to prevent departures from the currency union.

    In a report dated July 10, which Bloomberg has seen, the bank uses cost-benefit analysis and game theory to conclude that investors ?may be underpricing the voluntary exit of one or more countries? from the bloc.

    Italy, the euro area?s third-largest economy, would enjoy a higher chance of achieving an orderly exit than others and would stand to benefit from improvements in competitiveness, economic growth and balance sheets, they said.

    While Germany is the nation deemed able to leave the eurozone most easily, it has the least incentive of any country to quit because it would face weaker growth, possibly higher borrowing costs and a negative hit to its balance sheets, Bloomberg cites the strategists as saying. Austria, Finland and Belgium also have little reason to quit, they said, while Spain has the weakest case for leaving among economies most directly affected by the crisis.

    11.36 At 09.09, we mentioned that according to ECB data, Spanish banks borrowed ?365bn in June versus ?325bn in May - a new record. Analysts suggested that the data provides more evidence that Spanish lenders remain largely shut out of the interbank market. Juan Pablo Lopez, banking analyst at Espirito Santo, said:

    QuoteIt was widely expected that the data would reflect the growing loss of confidence towards Spain's banking sector. Local banks are shut out of the wholesale markets, small investors and savers are losing confidence in their banks and the high yields offered on bonds means the Treasury has become a direct competitor for funds.

    11.29 According to the details of the new Funding for Lending scheme, banks will be able to borrow treasury bills from the Bank of England to use as collateral to fund lending. Banks will have 18 months to use the facility and up to four years to repay.

    A bank can borrow an initial 5pc of its existing stock of loans to the non-financial sector. Banks will pay a minimum fee of 0.25pc of the amount borrowed provided they maintain current lending rates or increase it. For each 1pc fall in lending, the fee will increase by 0.25pc, rising to a maximum of 1.5pc if banks' lending contracts by 5pc or more.

    11.15 Details of the Bank of England's new Funding for Lending Scheme are out. The scheme aims to make around ?80bn of loans more accessible and cheaper for households and businesses.

    Chancellor George Osborne said:

    QuoteToday?s announcements aim to make mortgages and loans cheaper and more easily available, providing welcome support to businesses that want to expand and families aspiring to own their own home. The Treasury and the Bank of England are taking coordinated action to inject new confidence into our financial system and support the flow of credit to where it is needed in the real economy ? showing that we are not powerless to act in the face of the eurozone debt storm.

    11.03 Italy's treasury undersecretary has also taken umbrage at Moody's downgrade. He has told Reuters that it was an "incomprehensible" decision and that Rome would respect its commitment to achieving a structural budget surplus even if the economic cycle worsens. Gianfranco Polillo said:

    QuoteI am very perplexed by the Moody's decision because of the weakness of the reasoning and above all by the size of cut. They are very weak reasons. On the one hand, they're talking about political reasons, which is quite arbitrary. I don't think anyone is able to explain how the Italian political situation will evolve.

    10.44 Further to the auction of three-year bonds, Italy also sold three bonds due in 2019, 2022 and 2023 for a total of ?1.75bn.

    The March 2022 bond fetched a 5.82pc yield and the August 2023 was sold at an average 5.89pc rate.

    10.35 Initial reaction to the Italian three-year bond auction is fairly positive. Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy writes:

    QuoteThis was a challenging enough auction without the downgrade which makes the result look all the more impressive. The cut to Italy's credit rating had been more or less priced in. Once again, the Treasury was able to get its debt out the door which, right now, is the overriding priority. Domestic banks continue to hold the fort at Italian actions. The concession, however, is still hefty and reflects the increasing risks in Italy.

    But he adds:

    Italian government debt remains under considerable pressure. Practically nothing was done at the last EU summit to help shore up the Italian sovereign. The current firepower of the eurozone's rescue funds is woefully inadequate to shield Spain and Italy. There needs to be a much more credible ECB-backed backstop in place to help restore confidence in Italian sovereign debt.

    Nick Stamenkovic, bond strategist at RIA Capital Markets, says:

    QuoteThe new three-year BTP auction achieved maximum target ... demand was decent with the average yield falling modestly compared to previously. The concession following Moody's double notch downgrade of Italy helped auction to be absorbed comfortably. With overseas investors shifting out of sovereign paper domestic investors were probably the main buyers particularly Italian banks. All in all, a bit of relief for Italian bonds but this is likely to prove short-lived given the poor fiscal outlook.

    10.26 Results from Italy's debt auction are coming through. It has sold ?3.5bn of three-year bonds at an average yield of 4.65pc. That's much lower than the 5.3pc it had to pay in June.

    The yields on Italy's 10-year bonds have managed to ease back below 6pc. Just. They're now at 5.95pc.

    10.17 Yesterday, the IMF said it had found policy implementation delays in a "number of areas" in Greece's international bailout during recent talks. Today, German daily Rheinische Post cites unnamed government sources suggesting that the preliminary report from the 'troika' has turned up some serious shortcomings in Greece's efforts to implement reforms.

    The troika - comprising the European Central Bank, the European Union Commission and the International Monetary Fund - apparently found that the Greek government has failed to fulfill 210 of the 300 budget savings requirements.

    10.06 The head of Italy's business association, Confindustria, has hit back at Moody's downgrade. Giorgio Squinzi said:

    QuoteThis is just Moody's opinion. I think our country, and our manufacturing system, is much stronger than the Moody's evaluation suggests. As president of Confindustria, as an employer and as a private citizen, I think our country is stronger than that.

    10.02 In the UK, data this morning shows that construction output dropped 6.3pc in May despite an extra working day, as the public holiday held at the end of the month was postponed until June for the Jubilee weekend.

    09.47 Some reaction is starting to trickle through to Moody's decision to cut Italy's credit rating to just above junk. Investec say:

    QuoteIn Europe, Moody?s cut Italy?s rating by two notches to Baa2, citing an increased risk that funding costs could rise further possibly leading to a ?sudden stop in market funding?. The Euro remains under pressure although its reaction to this news was subdued suggesting it wasn?t a great surprise as the cut leaves Italy?s rating two above junk and one above Spain?s rating. Italy is on track to bring its budget deficit within the European Union limit this year but its 10-year bond yields have risen above 6 per cent in recent weeks after Spain sought a bailout fuelling concerns that Italy is next.

    The euro slipped towards two-year lows on Friday, dipping to $1.2190 at one point. It is now trading around $1.2200.

    Beat Siegenthaler, currency strategist at UBS, said:

    QuoteThe Italian downgrade means demand from international investors for the bonds on auction today will suffer. While there is a risk of a short squeeze that could push the euro higher, we expect more selling into a bounce. We also expect the ECB to lower rates and launch unconventional measures in coming months, all of which will keep the euro under pressure

    09.39 Still on those China figures, Simon Denham, head of Capital Spreads was sceptical:

    QuoteManufacturing in China is suffering and the official numbers always seem to be at odds with other independent readings and there is no doubt that sectors are contracting speedier than the data will tell you. China?s economy is slowing because its biggest customers are not buying its goods and whilst they are trying to replace the lost demand from the West with their own domestic demand, it isn?t taking up the slack yet. We?ve seen indications of this earlier this week when imports took a dive.

    So why aren?t the markets taking this data badly? Most likely because of the grey areas surrounding the figures and that whilst GDP may be slowing more than expected in the world?s second largest economy, it is not as bad as it could have been and China is still growing at a fair lick.

    09.35 At 08.38, we mentioned that China?s economy grew at 7.6pc in the second quarter, its slowest expansion since the aftermath of the financial crisis. But Ilya Spivak, currency strategist at DailyFX, reckons this was broadly in line with exepctations:

    QuoteOn balance, the outcome appeared to have a net neutral impact on sentiment, offering no additional fodder to drive risk aversion. This opened the door for growth-geared assets to stage a corrective recovery following yesterday's blood-letting. S&P 500 stock index futures are pointing higher in late Asian trade, arguing for more of the same into the week-end.

    09.26 There have been murmurings in recent days that Silvio Berlusconi could be poised to return to power. Italian news agencies are this morning quoting a senior official in Berlusconi's PDL party, who says that the former prime minister will return to frontline politics as the centre-right candidate in next year's general election.

    Fabrizio Cicchito, PDL parliamentary leader told Italian news agencies after a meeting of the party leadership at Berlusconi's Rome residence:

    QuoteYes, Berlusconi is the candidate for premier

    Berlusconi has given several hints of late that he was planning a return to politics, complaining about his successor Mario Monti's austerity policies and musing openly about the possibility of Italy exiting the euro.

    09.09 According to ECB data, Spanish banks borrowed ?365bn in June versus ?325bn in May - a new record.

    09.07 Damian Reece, Telegraph head of business, has focused on the UK's "funding for lending" scheme. Details of the Bank of England's plan are due to be unveiled today.

    The Bank of England will this morning unveil details of its funding for lending scheme which it hopes will make ?80bn of cheap, four year, money available to lenders to pass on to companies seeking debt finance.

    Banks can access the scheme on condition they use the funds to make loans, rather than refinance their own balance sheets. A seperate ?5bn a month facility, available for 12 months, has been set up for that purpose.

    Previous schemes to boost lending have failed, reflecting the fact that demand for credit is falling as companies suffer a lack of confidence caused by the eurozone crisis which is holding back investing and spending - a point Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank, himself made in a BBC radio interview on Tuesday.

    Lenders will not extend loans to any but the most credit worthy of borrowers as they avoid the previous mistakes of loose credit conditions which caused the credit crisis in the first place. Sir Mervyn will announce the scheme at 10am this morning so come back to telegraph.co.uk for all the details.

    09.02 German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler feels the Troika is "at the end of its patience" with Greece.

    08.51 European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has said he?s investigating alleged rigging of Libor rates.

    QuoteThe story is quite shocking. We are focusing our investigations on suspected cartel arrangements involving financial derivatives related to these benchmark rates, including possible collusion over the setting of the rates.

    08.49 We are hearing that Italian final inflation figures for June have been delayed for an hour due to strike action by statistics agency staff. They will now be released at 10am.

    08.48 Italy faces a key bond auction of ?5.25bn today, just hours after it was downgraded by Moody's.

    Ten-year Italian government bond yields rose 13 basis points to 6.04pc, a level widely seen as unsustainable in the long term.

    08.45 In the markets:

    FTSE 100 +0.4pc

    CAC +0.3pc

    DAX +0.4pc

    IBEX -0.6pc

    MIB -0.3pc

    08.42 Spain's inflation rate has risen to 3.6pc in June from 3.4pc the month before.

    08.38 China?s economy grew at 7.6pc in the second quarter, its slowest expansion since the aftermath of the financial crisis.

    The Telegraph's Malcolm Moore writes that the National Bureau of Statistics said growth had slowed from 8.1pc in the first quarter of the year. In 2011, China?s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 9.2pc.

    The Chinese government has been determined to cool growth, after the exuberance of 2009 when it pumped nearly 14 trillion yuan (?1.4 trillion) of stimulus money and new bank loans into the economy to safeguard China from the financial crisis.

    In the wake of that acceleration, inflation rose from less than 3pc in July 2010 to a high of 6.5pc last July. It has since fallen back to 2.2pc last month. The property market, meanwhile, gave every impression of being a bubble ready to burst.

    China?s leaders have now promised to stop focusing on the speed of economic expansion and instead on the ?quality? of growth, in a bid to rebalance the economy away from low-end manufacturing and heavy investment and towards consumption and services.

    08.31 US ratings agency Moody's downgraded Italy's government bond rating by two notches, citing the knock-on effects of a possible Greek exit from the eurozone and Spain's banking woes.

    US ratings agency Moody's downgraded Italy's government bond rating by two notches, citing the knock-on effects of a possible Greek exit from the eurozone and Spain's banking woes.

    08.24 The Government launched its funding-for-lending scheme earlier this summer, designed to reduce the cost of borrowing for banks so they pass on cheap cash to businesses, which expand and inflate the sagging economy.

    Late last night Sky News reported that there would be a league table to "name and shame" those banks that aren't participating. It's reported that the Bank of England will announce the plan later today. We'll bring you more on that as we have it.

    08.20 Michel Barnier, the EU commissioner responsible for the single market and regulation, said yesterday that Europe needs a central finance minister answerable to national parliaments and EU politicians to pave the way for closer integration:

    QuoteMy conviction is that we should have an EU finance minister, subject to strong democratic control from the European Parliament and national parliaments.

    At some point in the future, I also believe that we should combine the role of the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council

    08.00 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the European debt crisis.

    Debt crisis live: archive

    Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568796/s/21504faa/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cfinance0Cdebt0Ecrisis0Elive0C93961850CDebt0Ecrisis0Elive0Bhtml/story01.htm

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    Paisley Caves, Oregon, yield 13,000-year old Western Stemmed points, more human DNA

    ScienceDaily (July 12, 2012) ? Archaeological work in Oregon's Paisley Caves has found evidence that Western Stemmed projectile points -- darts or thrusting spearheads -- were present at least 13,200 calendar years ago during or before the Clovis culture in western North America.

    In a paper in the July 13 issue of Science, researchers from 13 institutions lay out their findings, which also include substantial new documentation, including "blind-test analysis" by independent labs, that confirms the human DNA pulled earlier from human coprolites (dried feces) and reported in Science (May 9, 2008) dates to the same time period.

    The new conclusions are based on 190 radiocarbon dates of artifacts, coprolites, bones and sagebrush twigs meticulously removed from well-stratified layers of silt in the ancient caves. Absent from the Paisley Caves, said the project's lead researcher Dennis L. Jenkins of the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is diagnostic evidence of the Clovis culture such as the broad, concave-based, fluted Clovis projectile points.

    The radiocarbon dating of the Western Stemmed projectiles to potentially pre-Clovis times, Jenkins said, provides new information in the decades-old debate that the two point-production technologies overlapped in time and may have developed separately. It suggests that Clovis may have arisen in the Southeastern United States and moved west, while the Western Stemmed tradition began, perhaps earlier, in the West and moved east.

    One example, he said, is the discovery of Clovis points below Western Stemmed points at Hell Gap, Wyo. While this example suggests that Clovis was older in that location than Western Stemmed, the new Paisley Caves evidence indicates that Western Stemmed are at least the same age as Clovis (about 12,800-13,000 years old) in the northern Great Basin of Oregon -- about 1,000 miles west of Hell Gap.

    At least three other Western sites -- Cooper's Ferry in Idaho and Nevada's Smith Creek Cave and Bonneville Estates Rockshelter -- also contain only Western Stemmed points in deposits of this age.

    "From our dating, it appears to be impossible to derive Western Stemmed points from a proto- Clovis tradition," Jenkins said. "It suggests that we may have here in the Western United States a tradition that is at least as old as Clovis, and quite possibly older. We seem to have two different traditions co-existing in the United States that did not blend for a period of hundreds of years."

    The origin of humans in the Americas has long suggested early migration out of Siberia and eastern Asia, very possibly across a temporary land bridge between Russia and Alaska. In more recent years, Jenkins' UO colleague Jon Erlandson has been building evidence -- a lot of it emerging from the Channel Islands off California -- of a Late Pleistocene sea-going people following a "kelp highway" from Japan to Kamchatka, along the south coast of Beringia and Alaska, then southward down the Northwest Coast to California. Kelp forests are rich in seals, sea otters, fish, seabirds, and shellfish such as abalones and sea urchins.

    The new paper doesn't address the routes early migrants may have taken, but the additional evidence found in the DNA of the coprolites continues to point to Siberia-east Asian origins. Again, as in 2008, the human mitochondrial DNA -- passed on maternally -- was from haplogroup A, which is common to Siberia and found, along with haplogroup B, in Native Americans today.

    DNA cannot be directly dated with radiocarbon technology. Instead, researchers extracted components of the diet eaten by the early inhabitants and washed potentially contaminating carbon out of the coprolites with distilled water. The digested fibers and carbon fraction were then radiocarbon-dated separately and the results compared.

    "Through replicating data we were able to confirm the authenticity of what is the oldest direct evidence for humans in the Americas," said co-author Michael "Michi" Hofreiter, a biologist in DNA laboratory of the University of York in the United Kingdom. "The results of this study are exciting, because they show that the hypothesis that the Clovis people were the first Native Americans, which has been the prevailing idea for the last decades, is wrong. Now researchers need to come up with a new model for the settling of the Americas."

    The only significant aging difference in 12 such tests involved a camelid coprolite (ice-age llama) that was dated through its contents to about 14,150 years ago, while its water-soluble extract was dated to 13,200 years ago. This sample was found below a mud lens that contained one of the Western Stemmed points and human coprolites dated to between 13,000 and 13,200 years ago.

    The meticulous methodology used, Jenkins said, was done to address criticism that the 2008 findings may have been compromised by contamination, such as the leaching of later DNA from humans by water and rodent urine downward through the caves' many layers. The new evidence indicates this form of contamination is not a good explanation for the pre-Clovis human DNA.

    "We continued to excavate Paisley Caves from 2009 through 2011," the authors wrote in Science. "To resolve the question of stratigraphic integrity, we acquired 121 new AMS [accelerator mass spectrometry] radiocarbon dates on samples of terrestrial plants, macrofossils from coprolites, bone collagen and water soluble extracts recovered from each of these categories. To date, a total of 190 radiocarbon dates have been produced from the Paisley Caves."

    The UO's archaeological field school, operated by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, returned to the Paisley Caves, under Jenkins' direction, in 2002 to test conclusions made by UO anthropologist Luther Cressman. Based on discoveries of artifacts he found in the caves in 1938-1940, Cressman claimed he'd found evidence of Pleistocene occupation by humans. That claim, based on technologies at the time, was not readily accepted. He died in April 1994, still claiming that he had proven his case.

    The Paisley Caves are in the Summer Lake basin near Paisley, about 220 miles southeast of Eugene on the east side of the Cascade Range. The complex includes eight westward-facing caves, all wave-cut shelters, on the highest shoreline of pluvial Lake Chewaucan, which rose and fell in periods of greater precipitation during the Pleistocene, or last glacial period.

    "Following the recession of lake waters, the caves began to accumulate different kinds of terrestrial sediments," said co-author Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis. "The caves contain a series of deposits that were created by the combination of wind, gravity, water-borne and biological processes. Archaeological evidence suggests that humans visited the cave many times, leaving behind material traces in the form of stone tools, lithic chipping debris, organic craft items, food wastes and even coprolites. These cultural materials were entombed largely as they were left behind as sediments continued to accumulate."

    The archaeological field school is a program of the UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, which was established in 1936 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly as the official repository for state-held anthropological collections.

    "Oregon is a unique place, with a special geomorphology and rich cultural history," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation at the UO. "The research conducted by professor Jenkins and his team helps to tell the story of early human migrations into North America and demonstrates how the UO's long-running summer archaeological field school continues to provide research and training opportunities for students and yield important scientific results 76 years after its founding."

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oregon.

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Journal Reference:

    1. Dennis L. Jenkins, Loren G. Davis, Thomas W. Stafford Jr., Paula F. Campos, Bryan Hockett, George T. Jones, Linda Scott Cummings, Chad Yost, Thomas J. Connolly, Robert M. Yohe II, Summer C. Gibbons, Maanasa Raghavan, Morten Rasmussen, Johanna L. A. Paijmans, Michael Hofreiter, Brian M. Kemp, Jodi Lynn Barta, Cara Monroe, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, and Eske Willerslev. Clovis Age Western Stemmed Projectile Points and Human Coprolites at the Paisley Caves. Science, 13 July 2012: 223-228 DOI: 10.1126/science.1218443

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

    Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/4xmu_Apwl2U/120712141916.htm

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    Win over $100 in photo gear and apps in the great iMore avatar race!

    Photo Contest: The great iMore avatar race!

    It's time to announce this week's photo contest -- and the winner of last week's car photography contest. Before I do, I want to congratulate everyone on their awesome entries. We've got some talented iPhoneographer readers here at iMore and it wasn't an easy decision!

    And the winning entry is...

    ...this awesome photo of hitzatak's Mitsubishi! What I love about this photo is that hitzatak got down to an interesting level and also has his car parked at a beautiful location. The fact that the wheels are turned also adds interest to the photo. hitzatak also did a fantastic editing job with an HDR app to not only make the car look good, but the environment as well. Great work hitzatak!

    hitzatak edited this photo with HDR Fusion.

    This week's contest: The great iMore avatar race!

    With the end of one photo contest, comes the beginning of new one, and this week is going to be a little different because we're asking you to take a killer photo for your avatar here on iMore! Although self-portraits are extremely popular for people to use as their avatar, this is not a requirement. Pick a subject that reflects you, get creative, and capture that killer image that translates into the perfect avatar for you.

    The prize: Olloclip Lens System, Glif tripod mount, and $50 iTunes gift card

    We're going all out this week and not only offering the winner one prize, but THREE! The winner will receive an Olloclip Lens System, a Glif tripod mount and stand, and a $50 iTunes gift card to spend on all those photography apps you've been wanting to buy! That's $140 worth of prizes!

    The rules

    The rules of entry are very simple. The photo must have been taken with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (we'll check the EXIF data of the original file to verify) and any edits must have been done with an iPhone or iPad app. No Photoshop CS6! If you have external lens accessories you are more than welcome to use them.

    Additional Rule: In addition to the normal set of rules, this contest also requires that you set the photo as your iMore avatar and share it in the contest thread.

    Resources

    Now, before you run off to take your photo, remember that it's not technical skill alone that will claim this prize. Even if you're not the best photographer (yet!), a great eye and a great subject can still get you the win. However, a little help can never hurt, so make sure you check out these articles from our iPhone photography series for some tips.

    How to submit

    Submitting your photo is easy. First, you must set your photo as your iMore avatar, then head over to the iMore Photography Forum and post your photo to the official contest thread. Don't forget to state which apps, if any, you used to edit your photo!

    That's it! Now go out and shoot!

    ENTER NOW

    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Pg8_HXDeshk/story01.htm

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    How Does A Foreclosure Or Short Sale Affect Your Chances Of ...

    Just about everybody by this time? has been impacted by the mortgage collapse and it would be challenging? to find anybody that did not have knowledge of somebody which had to go through a foreclosure or a short sale on their home. Most of the Santa Maria homes for sale in the Santa Maria real estate market were nothing but foreclosures.? Let alone that at one time Santa Maria, Ca. was one of the top 3 places in the state of California for foreclosures sales per capita.? Now I know there are many agents out there reminding many of the homeowners that its best for them to do a short sale vs a foreclosure .
    If your bank can let you do a short sale without making you miss any mortgage payments you can possibly get another home loan the next day.?? The hard part will be getting your lender to allow you to do the short sale, a lender can refuse to allow you to do a short sale, as stated before this is the tricky part getting the approval when you have not missed a payment and a short sale transaction typically takes months to close.

    You will only have to wait 3 years after doing a short sale if you had to miss payments on your mortgage loan.It may not make a difference how you lose your home either in a foreclosure or a short sale.? The 3 year waiting period for either a short sale or a foreclosure starts from the date of the closing of the transacion. So after those 3 years expire you can put down payment on a place using an FHA loan with only 3.5% along with everyone else buying a home.
    You will see differences in other loan programs that are not FHA loans. loan, and also applying to do a conventional loan.Currently the two most influential investors in the mortgage market are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.? These two big govt. sponsored corporations are currently the main investors of the mortgage market for the loans that the banks are doing at this time.To get another home loan you will only have to wait 2 years from the date of closing out on your short sale.? But please keep in mind if you are on another loan whether it is investment property or you co-signed on it, there can be no mortgage lates within the 12 months of application.?? If you foreclose then the waiting period is 5years from the date of your foreclosure date, for a loan that is not a FHA loan.When you become a home owenr again that is a huge difference.? It is going to depend on credit what you have showing???

    There are millons of homeowners that have lost and are losing thier homes and some have even started the process of starting again and becoming a home owner with half of what they owed with the same comparable home they had lost.Homes are seriously cheaper now than they have been and more than likely will not be moving up in value too much in the next 2-3 years.?? In closing if you find yourself in a position of possibly having to do a short sale it can actually be a blessing in disguise.

    ?Mail this post

    Posted under Resources

    Source: http://southjerseyrealestateagent.com/?p=10133

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    Is Your Cellphone Under Surveillance?

    [ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

    [ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cellphone-under-surveillance-213827019.html

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    Vast wealth didn't shield the Rausings from drugs

    LONDON (AP) ? When Eva Rausing approached the heavily-guarded U.S. Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square four years ago to deal with a routine passport matter, she had to pass through British security, then face an airport-style metal detector so she and her handbag could be scanned for weapons and contraband.

    The wealthy American didn't leave her stash at home. She tried to pass the security scan with small amounts of crack cocaine, heroin and a banned stimulant in her purse.

    The subsequent arrest led police to search the multimillion-dollar property she shared with her husband, Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing. Police found still more drugs, including a sizeable amount of cocaine.

    Charges were quietly dropped in exchange for a formal police warning, but the arrest made public what close family and friends already knew: The golden couple, with untold riches, were deeply mired in drug addiction even as they gave millions to numerous anti-addiction charities.

    Their sad tale reached its climax this week when the 48-year-old Eva Rausing was found dead in their home and her husband arrested for questioning about drug use and placed in hospital care. The cause of Eva Rausing's death has not yet been established.

    Drugs. A scourge for the poor, for the middle class and even for the super-rich, those who, like the Rausings, measure their net worth in the billions.

    "Addiction doesn't know any class boundaries," said Amanda Thomson, spokeswoman for Action on Addiction, one of many charities the Rausings supported even as they swooned toward drugged-out oblivion.

    Eva Rausing was born into a wealthy American family, and her husband was heir to the formidable Tetra Pak fortune, earning them a spot on Britain's "Rich List" with a net worth estimated at 4.3 billion pounds ($6.7 billion).

    Before the embassy arrest, Eva Rausing's good looks and beautiful clothes ? along with her billionaire husband and his friendly, bear-like countenance ? had made the Rausings welcome participants on the London philanthropic scene. She was on several charity boards, focusing on those that helped fight drug addiction, but also serving on Prince Charles' Foundation for the Built Environment.

    Charles, no stranger to second chances, stood behind her after the embassy scandal, backing a decision to keep her on board as a trustee. A spokeswoman, who declined to be identified because of palace policy, said Charles believes people can recover from serious missteps.

    But evidence suggests that Eva Rausing's drug use only intensified in the years since the embassy arrest was quietly papered over. Recent photographs showed that Eva Rausing had become quite gaunt, and her once stocky husband also recently appeared thin and furtive, bearing only a slight resemblance to his former self, when he would attend galas looking like an elegant, bearded, tuxedoed European swain from an earlier era.

    Liz Brewer, a friend of Eva Rausing, told Sky News that Rausing's problem had been "pushed under the carpet" for too long.

    "She was totally addicted, obviously, and was trying to get off it," she said.

    It has become common for celebrities like Elton John and Eric Clapton to use their fundraising power to help anti-addiction charities after they get off drugs, but experts say it is not unusual for people like the Rausings to work hard to help anti-addiction groups even as they struggle, sometimes unsuccessfully, to get clean.

    In Eva Rausing's case, she served as a trustee of the anti-addiction charities Chemical Dependency Center and Clouds beginning in the late 1990s, long before her embassy arrest. Those organizations merged with Action on Addiction, a charity supported by Eva Rausing until her death that also has a strong link to the royal family: the former Kate Middleton is a patron.

    CEO Neil Barton said that over the years, the Rausings contributed tens of millions of pounds to the anti-addiction crusade, remaining committed even after Eva Rausing stepped down as a trustee. He said he never discussed Rausing's addiction with her.

    "I didn't want to go there unless she wanted to talk about it," he said, describing Rausing as a charming woman with an easy smile. "I don't remember ever having that sort of conversation with her, but it was understood that that was partly why she was interested."

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vast-wealth-didnt-shield-rausings-drugs-154319278--finance.html

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