RIM says BBM Music available (AP)

TORONTO ? BlackBerry maker Research in Motion says its music-sharing application for its popular messaging service will be available for downloading in the U.S., Canada and Australia within a day.

BBM Music allows BlackBerry users to select 50 songs from a catalog of millions of tracks for their personal playlists. BBM users can share songs from that list with friends who use the instant messaging service.

Research in Motion Ltd. said on its blog Wednesday morning that BBM Music is a social music service that will be available for downloading within 24 hours. More regions will be launched shortly.

RIM unveiled the service in August and has been testing it since.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_hi_te/cn_tec_canada_blackberry_music

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APNewsbreak: Panel says wild weather worsens

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2011 file photo, Thai residents carry their belongings along floods as they move to higher ground at Bangkok's Don Muang district, Thailand. Freakish weather, from this weekends October snowstorm to the long-lasting drought in the US Southwest, is striking more often. And global warming should make future weather even weirder, a special international report says. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2011 file photo, Thai residents carry their belongings along floods as they move to higher ground at Bangkok's Don Muang district, Thailand. Freakish weather, from this weekends October snowstorm to the long-lasting drought in the US Southwest, is striking more often. And global warming should make future weather even weirder, a special international report says. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2011 file photo, a buoy sits high and dry at Benbrook Lake in Benbrook, Texas. Freakish weather, from this weekends October snowstorm to the long-lasting drought in the US Southwest, is striking more often. And global warming should make future weather even weirder, a special international report says. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

FILE - In this July 29, 2010 file photo, Moscow's St. Bazil's cathedral , background, is slightly seen through a smog covering Moscow. Freakish weather, from this weekends October snowstorm to the long-lasting drought in the US Southwest, is striking more often. And global warming should make future weather even weirder, a special international report says. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2005, file photo, The Louisiana Superdome is shown in this aerial view, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, surrounded by floodwaters, in New Orleans. Freakish weather, from this weekends October snowstorm to the long-lasting drought in the US Southwest, is striking more often. And global warming should make future weather even weirder, a special international report says. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

(AP) ? Freakish weather disasters ? from the sudden October snowstorm in the Northeast U.S. to the record floods in Thailand ? are striking more often. And global warming is likely to spawn more similar weather extremes at a huge cost, says a draft summary of an international climate report obtained by The Associated Press.

The final draft of the report from a panel of the world's top climate scientists paints a wild future for a world already weary of weather catastrophes costing billions of dollars. The report says costs will rise and perhaps some locations will become "increasingly marginal as places to live."

The report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be issued in a few weeks, after a meeting in Uganda. It says there is at least a 2-in-3 probability that climate extremes have already worsened because of man-made greenhouse gases.

This marks a change in climate science from focusing on subtle changes in daily average temperatures to concentrating on the harder-to-analyze freak events that grab headlines, cause economic damage and kill people. The most recent bizarre weather extreme, the pre-Halloween snowstorm, is typical of the damage climate scientists warn will occur ? but it's not typical of the events they tie to global warming.

"The extremes are a really noticeable aspect of climate change," said Jerry Meehl, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "I think people realize that the extremes are where we are going to see a lot of the impacts of climate change."

The snow-bearing Nor'easter cannot be blamed on climate change and probably isn't the type of storm that will increase with global warming, four meteorologists and climate scientists said. They agree more study is needed. But experts on extreme storms have focused more closely on the increasing numbers of super-heavy rainstorms, not snow, NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt said.

The opposite kind of disaster ? the drought in Texas and the Southwest U.S. ? is also the type of event scientists are saying will happen more often as the world warms, said Schmidt and Meehl, who reviewed part of the climate panel report. No studies have specifically tied global warming to the drought, but it is consistent with computer models that indicate current climate trends will worsen existing droughts, Meehl said.

Studies also have predicted more intense monsoons with climate change. Warmer air can hold more water and puts more energy into weather systems, changing the dynamics of storms and where and how they hit.

Thailand is now coping with massive flooding from monsoonal rains that illustrate how climate is also interconnected with other manmade issues such as population and urban development, river management and sinking lands, Schmidt said. In fact, the report says that "for some climate extremes in many regions, the main driver for future increases in losses will be socioeconomic in nature" rather than greenhouse gases.

There's an 80 percent chance that the killer Russian heat wave of 2010 wouldn't have happened without the added push of global warming, according to a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

So while in the past the climate change panel, formed by the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization, has discussed extreme events in snippets in its report, this time the scientists are putting them all together. The report, which needs approval by diplomats at the mid-November meeting, tries to measure the confidence scientists have in their assessment of climate extremes both future and past.

Chris Field, one of the leaders of the climate change panel, said he and other authors won't comment because the report still is subject to change. The summary chapter of the report didn't detail which regions of the world might suffer extremes so severe as to leave them marginally habitable.

The report does say scientists are "virtually certain" ? 99 percent ? that the world will have more extreme spells of heat and fewer of cold. Heat waves could peak as much as 5 degrees hotter by mid-century and even 9 degrees hotter by the end of the century.

Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters, who wasn't involved in the study, said in the United States from June to August this year, blistering heat set 2,703 daily high temperature records, compared with only 300 cold records during that period, making it the hottest summer in the U.S. since the Dust Bowl of 1936.

By the end of the century, the intense, single-day, heavy rainstorms that now typically happen only once every 20 years are likely to happen about twice a decade, the report says.

The report said hurricanes and other tropical cyclones ? like 2005's Katrina ? are likely to get stronger in wind speed, but won't increase in number and may actually decrease. Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel, who studies climate's effects on hurricanes, disagrees and believes more of these intense storms will occur.

And global warming isn't the sole villain in future climate disasters, the climate report says. An even bigger problem will be the number of people ? especially the poor ? who live in harm's way.

University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, who wasn't among the authors, said the report was written to be "so bland" that it may not matter to world leaders.

But Masters said the basics of the report seem to be proven true by what's happening every day. "In the U.S., this has been the weirdest weather year we've had for my 30 years, hands down. Certainly this October snowstorm fits in with it."

___

Online:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on weather extremes: http://1.usa.gov/sYQQRv

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-01-Climate%20Extremes/id-085a770e5d1940dd9f5d5ba2286c11fe

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Spray Your Cheese Grater with Non-Stick Cooking Spray for Easier Grating and Quick Clean-Up [Cleaning]

Spray Your Cheese Grater with Non-Stick Cooking Spray for Easier Grating and Quick Clean-Up If you've ever had to grate a semi-soft cheese, you know it can be difficult to clean the grater afterward, and you know you lose a lot of cheese because it breaks up when you're trying to press it through the grater. Spray your cheese grater down with a little non-stick cooking spray before you get started to make both the grating and the cleanup easier.

Old kitchen pros may know this trick already as a way to make cleaning the grater easier when you're finished grating, but the non-stick spray also makes grating the cheese a little less of a pain in the elbow. You'll wind up with more cheese through the grater and less crumbled up on the outside, and when you're all finished, most of the residue will come right off with warm tap water and a little soap. If you still have cheese stuck to the grater, soak it in warm water before cleaning or dishwashing. Do you have any other cheese-grating tips? Share them in the comments below. Photo by dvortygirl.

Cheese Grater Cleaning Tips | TipNut


You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/H2oMbmex5tc/spray-your-cheese-grater-with-non+stick-cooking-spray-for-easier-grating-and-quick-clean+up

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Suit by slain Detroit stripper's family dismissed (AP)

DETROIT ? A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit Tuesday that claimed the city of Detroit and ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a convicted felon, impeded a police investigation into the shooting death of a stripper.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen said in his opinion that the attorney representing Tamara Greene's three children failed to prove the city or Kilpatrick interfered with the probe into her 2003 shooting death.

Greene, who performed under the name Strawberry, was rumored to have danced in 2002 at a never-proven party at the mayor's official Manoogian Mansion residence.

Rosen agreed with lawyers for the city and Kilpatrick that there was "no evidentiary basis" for a legal finding that Kilpatrick obstructed or interfered with the investigation into the murder.

Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in 2008 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in state court. He served time in a county jail but later spent 14 months in state prison for violating his probation in the earlier case. He was paroled Aug. 2, but faces a federal corruption trial in 2012 on fraud, tax and racketeering conspiracy charges.

Rosen said lawyers for Greene's family seem to believe that Kilpatrick must have interfered with the murder investigation because he regularly meddled with top police brass when he was mayor. But the judge said past wrongs don't necessarily fit new cases.

Rosen said there is a "dearth of evidence" connecting Kilpatrick or any of his allies to any interference with the homicide investigation.

Current Mayor Dave Bing's office declined to comment Tuesday on the ruling. Greene family attorney Norman Yatooma didn't immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

Kilpatrick attorney James Thomas said the process was lengthy and involved "tens of thousands of pages of material."

"I am extremely gratified the judge has made the decision," Thomas said. "Mr. Yatooma had his chance."

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

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Dominican first lady accepts vice presidential bid (AP)

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic ? First lady Margarita Cedeno of the Dominican Republic has been picked as the vice presidential candidate for the governing party ahead of 2012 elections.

The Dominican Liberation Party says the wife of President Leonel Fernandez will run with presidential candidate Danilo Medina. Medina is a 59-year-old economist who unsuccessfully sought to be the party's presidential candidate in 2000.

The 46-year-old Cedeno received a standing ovation from party officials at a Wednesday conference.

Earlier this year, the first lady declined calls by supporters to run for the presidency just weeks after the party cleared the way for her candidacy. Her husband is not running for a third term.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111103/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_dominican_election

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Justin Bieber, David Guetta To Perform At MTV EMA

Selena Gomez will host the 2011 MTV EMA, set for November 6 in Belfast, Ireland.
By Jocelyn Vena


Justin Bieber
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Justin Bieber and David Guetta have been announced as the latest performers to take the stage at the MTV EMA, joining previously announced performances by Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, LMFAO and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"It's really exciting to be a part of the MTV EMA this year. Can't wait to get to Belfast!!" Bieber said in a statement, according to Pressparty. The singer, who just released his first-ever holiday album, Under the Mistletoe, this week, is up for three awards at the show.

It seems that world-renowned DJ and producer Guetta is equally amped up about the gig, saying, "Performing at the 2011 MTV EMA is a big deal for any artist, but for a DJ, it's a first. I'll be joined by some of my special guest collaborators. I'm excited and honored — it's going to be a crazy show!"

The show will be hosted by Bieber's girlfriend, Selena Gomez, who recently displayed her gangsta side in a promo for the big show. Former host Katy Perry, Evanescence's lead singer Amy Lee, "Jersey Shore" stars JWoww and Snooki, actress Hayden Panettiere, and supermodel Bar Refaeli have all been tapped to appear at the show.

Lady Gaga tops the nominee list with six EMA nods. Katy Perry and Bruno Mars are just behind with four noms each; Adele and Thirty Seconds to Mars join Bieber with three nominations each. The show will premiere on Tr3s: MTV, Musica y Mas, at 6 p.m. ET on November 6 and 12 p.m. ET on mtvU on November 7 from Belfast, Ireland. For a complete list of nominees and to vote for your favorite artists, check out the MTV EMA website. Stick with MTV News as we roll out more information on performers and presenters.

Related Videos Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673552/mtv-emas-justin-bieber-david-guetta.jhtml

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Kuwait: Prince Charles on 2-day state visit (AP)

KUWAIT CITY ? Kuwait's official news agency says Great Britain's Prince Charles is in the oil rich Gulf country for a two-day state visit, just days after the British Embassy suspended services there because of threatened terror attack.

The state-run KUNA news agency says Prince Charles arrived to Kuwait on Monday with a delegation that includes his private secretary for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, Clive Alderton.

Prince Charles was met at the Kuwait International Airport by the Crown Prince Sheik Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Earlier this month, the British Foreign Office said it could not rule out threats against British interests in Kuwait and urged British organizations to review their security procedures.

The British Embassy suspended services Oct. 20 as a precautionary measure after receiving a threat of an attack.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_kuwait_prince_charles

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Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral stepping down (AP)

LONDON ? The Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral has become the second high-profile clergy member to step down over anti-capitalist protests that have spilled across the historic church's grounds.

The resignation Monday of Graeme Knowles leaves the cathedral without a leader and will delay a planned legal action to evict the protest camp.

Knowles said his position had become "untenable" as criticism of the cathedral mounted in the press and in public opinion. Knowles had urged protesters to leave the cathedral area to allow it to reopen its doors.

Officials shut the church to the public on Oct. 21, saying demonstrators' tents were a health and safety hazard. It was the first time the 300-year-old London church had closed since German planes bombed the city during World War II. It reopened Friday.

Knowles' resignation follows that last week of Giles Fraser, a senior St. Paul's Cathedral priest who had welcomed the anti-capitalist demonstrators to set up camp outside the landmark, inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement. He said he resigned because he feared moves to evict the protesters could end in violence.

A part-time chaplain, Fraser Dyer, also resigned last week, saying he was "embarrassed" by the decision to take legal action to try to evict the protesters.

Senior clergy have been divided over how to handle the scores of tents set up outside the iconic cathedral near the River Thames in central London. Demonstrators erected the tents Oct. 15, during a thwarted attempt to stage a protest outside the nearby London Stock Exchange.

The protesters said Knowles' resignation showed that the management of St. Paul's is "obviously deeply divided" over the protests. But in a statement on the Occupy London website, the movement said it had never called for any "scalps" from the clergy.

"Our cause has never been directed at the staff of the cathedral," the group said. It called for an "open and transparent dialogue" between demonstrators and those urging campers to move.

Knowles, 60, called the past two weeks a "testing time" and said his decision to step down did not come easily.

"Since the arrival of the protesters' camp outside the cathedral, we have all been put under a great deal of strain and have faced what would appear to be some insurmountable issues," he said in a statement. "I hope and pray that under new leadership these issues might continue to be addressed and that there might be a swift and peaceful resolution."

St. Paul's officials said Knowles made his decision known on Sunday night and has already removed himself from operations.

On Sunday, clergymen and demonstrators held talks aimed at avoiding a violent confrontation over the camp.

Both the church and the local authority, the City of London Corporation, announced last week they were going to court to clear scores of tents from a pedestrianized square and footpath outside the cathedral.

But cathedral spokesman Rob Marshall said legal proceedings had not yet started, and the governing chapter "is now discussing a range of options in the wake of the resignation of the dean."

Knowles' resignation does not affect the separate legal action by the City of London Corporation, which is seeking eviction on the grounds that the protest is an "unreasonable user of the highway."

Britain's High Court will decide whether to allow authorities to forcibly clear the protest camp. Many expect the legal process to be lengthy and complex.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, leader of the Anglican church, called Knowles' decision to step down "very sad news."

"The events of the last couple of weeks have shown very clearly how decisions made in good faith by good people under unusual pressure can have utterly unforeseen and unwelcome consequences, and the clergy of St. Paul's deserve our understanding in these circumstances," he said in a statement.

"The urgent larger issues raised by the protesters at St. Paul's remain very much on the table and we need ? as a church and as society as a whole ? to work to make sure that they are properly addressed."

____________

Associated Press writers Robert Barr and Jill Lawless contributed to this report. Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_eu/eu_occupy_london

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Coloradans face nation's only statewide tax vote (AP)

DENVER ? The nation's only statewide tax vote on the November ballot asks Colorado voters whether they want to temporarily raise taxes to generate $3 billion for classrooms and colleges ? a proposal that has stirred fierce opposition because of the stagnant economy.

The vote could serve as a test of voters' mood on tax increases and their frustration after endless rounds of education cuts in Colorado.

"If it should pass, it think it will get a fair amount of attention because no one is expecting anything with the words `tax increase' to pass," said Norman Provizer, a political science professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Opponents, including the entire Republican delegation in Colorado's Legislature, insist tax hikes will cost jobs and won't by themselves help schools. Some Democratic leaders, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, have declined to publicly endorse the proposal, saying they see little appetite for a tax hike.

Even some supporters are skeptical.

"I doubt it will pass," Valerie Walker said after dropping off her ballot in downtown Denver. While she voted for the initiative, she said, "I just think people can't afford having additional money coming out of their pockets right now."

The money raised by Proposition 103 would help fill the void from education cuts that were induced by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a voter-approved initiative that strictly limits taxes and spending.

The measure would raise individual and corporate tax rates from 4.63 percent to 5 percent and Colorado's sales and use tax rate from 2.9 percent to 3 percent. The rates would be in effect from 2012 through 2016, with an estimated $2.9 billion in new revenue during that time going to K-12 schools and public colleges.

A married couple with a combined household income of $125,000 would pay about $315 more annually in income taxes, nonpartisan legislative economists estimate. Sales taxes on a $5,000 purchase would increase from $145 to $150.

While nearly 619,000 of Colorado's 3.2 million registered voters have cast ballots in the mostly mail-in election, Provizer cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from what has been a relatively low-profile campaign.

Proposition 103's supporters have raised $420,000, its opponents roughly $22,000 ? figures that pale in comparison to the millions generated by past attempts to generate or keep more state revenue under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, often referred to as TABOR.

Funding for K-12 education in Colorado totals $2.8 billion, or nearly 40 percent of the budget. As in other states, though, Colorado schools have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts. This year, lawmakers slashed more than $200 million from K-12 funding. More cuts are expected in 2012. The higher education budget was reduced this year by $125 million and stands at about $624 million.

Denver parent Phillip Garcia says Proposition 103 is worth it.

The 29-year-old nightclub promoter says his fourth-grade daughter's school has overcrowded classrooms, its teachers frazzled by the increased workload.

"I know the economy's bad, but if there's one thing worth spending money on, it's education," Garcia said.

The state Democratic Party's lukewarm support for the tax hike ? petitioned onto the ballot by a Democratic lawmaker ? has exasperated supporters. Hickenlooper, who took office in January, said he promised voters he would not back any initiative to raise taxes during his first year.

"It does frustrate me that people in leadership positions are sitting silent," said John Creighton, father of three public school students and president of the St. Vrain Valley School Board in Longmont.

He said his district already asks parents to help pay for advanced classes and extracurricular activities and that further cuts would harm basic classroom teaching.

"Everyone's looking for that perfect moment to do things, and the truth is there is no perfect moment," Creighton said.

Still other supporters argue the bad economy is a reason to vote for the tax hike.

"Who knows, this (economy) can be going on for five, 10, 15 years," said Don Schumacher, a physical therapist in Denver who voted for Proposition 103. "I think we owe it to the citizens to provide what we can as taxpayers."

Tony Gagliardi, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small business owners, said a tax increase now will force employers to hire fewer people at a time when state unemployment is 8.3 percent.

"When the costs go up, the way (businesses) control those costs is they either don't hire or they reduce their workforce," he said.

One of them is Roger Newell, general manager and operator of A Roadrunner Appliance Service in the Denver suburb of Castle Rock.

"I have a problem with government saying we need more money and we'll raise taxes, but everyone in the private sector is having to cut back to survive," Newell said.

Other states that have recently asked voters for tax raises for education have had mixed results.

Last year, Oregon passed two measures ? one that raised certain income taxes and another that raised corporate and business taxes ? to funnel money to education, health and public safety. In Washington, voters rejected a new income tax on high-wage earners for health and education funding.

___

Ivan Moreno can be reached on Twitter: http://twitter.com/IvanJournalist

Kristen Wyatt can be reached on Twitter: http://twiter.com/APkristenwyatt

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_go_ot/us_colorado_school_tax

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Honda to cut US, Canada production by half

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2011 file photo, Handa auto factory is submerged in floodwaters at the Rojana industrial district in Ayutthaya, central Thailand. Honda's quarterly profit tumbled 56 percent, battered by the strong yen and production disruptions from the March tsunami disaster that are likely to be compounded by flooding in Thailand, the Japanese automaker said Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2011 file photo, Handa auto factory is submerged in floodwaters at the Rojana industrial district in Ayutthaya, central Thailand. Honda's quarterly profit tumbled 56 percent, battered by the strong yen and production disruptions from the March tsunami disaster that are likely to be compounded by flooding in Thailand, the Japanese automaker said Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

(AP) ? Parts shortages from three months of catastrophic flooding in Thailand have forced Honda to cut U.S. and Canadian factory production by 50 percent for the second time this year, the automaker said Monday.

The cuts, which come just as Honda was recovering from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, will run from Wednesday at least through Nov. 10 as Honda tries to find alternate sources for microprocessors that are made in Thailand.

The flooding, which began in July and has forced many auto parts plants to close, also affected Toyota Motor Co., which cut overtime for production in North America through the end of this week.

Honda Motor Co.'s announcement comes the same day the Japanese automaker announced that its quarterly profit tumbled 56 percent, battered by the strong yen and production disruptions from the March tsunami disaster.

The automaker, which makes the Accord and Civic sedans, said Monday that net profit for the July-September fiscal second quarter fell to 60.4 billion yen ($788 million).

Quarterly sales sank 16.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.885 trillion yen ($24.6 billion), with sales in North America falling the most ? 22.3 percent.

Flooding in Thailand, where Honda has parts suppliers and assembly lines, made it too difficult to forecast earnings for the full fiscal year through March 2012. A projection will be announced when it becomes available, the company said.

Honda also said it will stop all production in the U.S. and Canada on Nov. 11, and all Saturday overtime work will be canceled through November. Spokesman Ed Miller said it's too early to tell if there will be a repeat of model shortages that occurred during the summer and early fall due to parts shortages from the earthquake and tsunami.

The company also said in a statement that the December sale date for the 2012 version of the popular CR-V crossover vehicle could be delayed by several weeks. Honda says it will announce the sale date in the near future.

Last year, 87 percent of the Honda and Acura luxury vehicles sold in the U.S. were made in North America, the company said. Most of the parts are produced here, but a few critical electronic parts such as engine control modules come from Thailand and other countries, Honda said.

Miller said the company is trying to find other sources for the parts made in Thailand, but production of newer models such as the Civic compact and CR-V will be most affected by the parts shortages.

Honda said it will not lay off any workers at its U.S. and Canadian auto plants. The company has 21,000 U.S. factory workers and 10 U.S. and Canadian auto factories in Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Alliston, Ontario.

The Thailand floods began in late July and were fed by unusually heavy monsoon rains and a string of tropical storms. They have killed 381 people and affected more than a third of the country's provinces. The water has destroyed millions of acres (hectares) of crops and forced thousands of factories to close.

Officials said Monday they hoped seven submerged industrial estates would be running again in about three months. The parks house the factories of global companies including Honda, Toshiba and Western Digital.

___

Foster reported from Tokyo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-31-Honda-Production%20Cut/id-aca440dcc4614080ae2c026b3fd8589c

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