HP Omni 120-1024

Browsing through the all-in-one desktops at any computer retailer, it's easy to be wowed by entertainment options and touch-friendly features, but forget about finding a fully decked-out system for less than $800. The HP Omni 120-1024 ($529.99 list) may not have all the bells and whistles of more expensive systems, but if you want a compact and attractive all-in-one for browsing the Web or light office work, it's a decent system at a price that's hard to beat.

Design and Features
Instead of the pedestal design used on previous iterations, the HP Omni utilizes an easel-back design. The screen and chassis are supported by a single bar and a hinged leg in the back, resulting in both sturdiness and some tilt adjustability. The screen bezel and chassis are covered in burnished black plastic, but the supporting bar below is a stately silvery color. The speakers along the bottom edge of the screen provided good stereo output when I played the new Avengers and Mission: Impossible trailers, though I found the sound a little thin when I listened to some Jimi Hendrix songs with the volume turned all the way up. There's also little to no bass to speak of.

The 20-inch widescreen display has a resolution of 1,600 by 900, fine for 720p playback but short of the 1080p HD picture found on the Dell Inspiron One 2305 (IO2305-4400ELS) ($799.95 list, 3 stars). The display is clear enough for any sort of document or spreadsheet work, and large enough for working on documents side by side or enjoying a full-screen movie from four or five feet away. And though it may sit on the shelf next to several touchscreen-equipped all-in-one systems, the Omni 120-1024 has no touch capability itself. The included wired keyboard and mouse are nothing fancy, but they get the job done.

On the right and left edges of the chassis you'll find a tray-loading DVD?RW optical drive, a media card reader (SD/HC, MMC, MS/Pro, xD), two USB 2.0 ports, and headphone and microphone jacks. On the rear are four more USB 2.0 ports, though you'll need two for the keyboard and mouse. There's also an audio output and an Ethernet port. What you won't find on the Omni are faster USB 3.0 ports, like the ones found on the MSI Wind Top AE2050-008US ($679.99 list, 3 stars) or an HDMI video port.

Internally, the Omni 120-1024 is equipped with 802.11n Wi-Fi and a 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive. On the hard drive there are several programs preinstalled, from a dedicated eBay website link on the desktop to ereaders (Blio and Kobo) and a handful of game samples from WildTangent. There's also a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security 2012, Microsoft Office Starter 2010 (the full suite is preloaded, but requires a product key to activate). You'll also get HP LinkUp software, which lets this computer easily share files with any other on your home network.

Performance
The HP Omni 120-1024 is equipped with 4GB of RAM and AMD's latest Fusion Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), a single chip die shared by a dual-core E-450 (1.65GHz) processor and Radeon HD 6320 graphics processor. This approach allows for better graphics than might be offered with traditional integrated solutions, while conserving space and energy. In CineBench R11.5 the Omni 120-1024 scored 0.64, outpacing the 0.62 of the MSI Wind Top AE2050-008US and the 0.50 of the Intel Atom-equipped Acer Veriton Z290G-UD525W ($599 list, 3 stars), but falling far behind every competitor equipped with an Intel Core CPU.

The weak processor also led to slow performance in Handbrake and Photoshop CS5 multimedia tests. The Omni 120-1024 completed Handbrake in 6 minutes 30 seconds, and Photoshop in 14:24. To provide some context, the Sony VAIO VPC-L231FX/W ($999.99 list, 4.5 stars) completed those same tests in about one-third the time (Handbrake 2:22, Photoshop 5:34)?and it's far from the fastest system we've reviewed.

The AMD Radeon HD 6320 didn't help out much in the graphics department. The HP completed 3DMark 11 with a score of 548 at Entry settings, and was unable to run any of our graphics or gaming tests. Don't plan on playing much more than casual or Web-based Flash titles on this all-in-one.

The HP Omni 120-1024 offers buyers a compact and stylish all-in-one at a budget-friendly price. It's a no-muss, no fuss way to browse the Web and edit documents, but not ideal for much beyond day-to-day applications. For a more capable all-in-one, the Editors' Choice HP TouchSmart 320-1030 ($699 street, 4 stars) comes equipped with a more powerful AMD A4 desktop APU, and costs only $130 more.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the HP Omni 120-1024 with several other desktops side by side.

More desktop reviews:
??? HP Omni 120-1024
??? Lenovo H330-77801HU
??? HP Omni 220-1080qd
??? HP TouchSmart 520-1070
??? Samsung Series 7 (DP700A3B-A01US)
?? more

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Americans frustrated by congressional stalemates (AP)

CHICAGO ? As Americans watch yet another political drama play out on Capitol Hill ? this time over whether to extend the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits ? they have a question for Congress: Can't you all just get along? For once?

"It's like, `Kids, kids, kids,'" said Brenda Bissett, a lawyer from Santa Clarita, Calif., as she waited for coffee Wednesday at a Starbuck's in downtown Los Angeles. "It's just frustrating that there's no compromise ... I do it all the time."

Around the country, people of different backgrounds, incomes and political leanings say they're angry and downright disgusted by the posturing in Washington after the House rejected a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut passed by the Senate, then both chambers adjourned for the holidays.

If lawmakers don't act by Jan. 1, payroll taxes will jump almost $20 a week, or $1,000 a year, for a worker earning $50,000, and as much as $82 a week, or $4,272 a year, for a household with two high-paid workers. What's more, about 6 million people could lose unemployment benefits, and Medicare payments to doctors would be slashed.

"It's just another smack in our face for the working public. We just can't get ahead," said Mike Pryor, a construction worker from Aurora, Ill. "It seems like everything that Congress is doing is always against us ... I mean, I'm at a loss for words, and I just can't understand it, why they have to keep arguing."

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama urged congressional leaders to return to Washington to pass a short-term payroll tax cut extension before New Year's Day, then work later on a full-year measure.

Leaders from both chambers say they want the other side to return, too, though they still disagree on whether it should be to negotiate a two-month extension or a one-year deal favored by House Republicans.

Meanwhile, the public can only wait and wonder ? and stew.

At Augie & Ray's, a popular eatery in East Hartford, Conn., the consensus among several diners Wednesday was that the partisan bickering was eroding their already shaky faith in Congress. To some, that was just as frustrating as the idea that their paychecks could shrink.

"It's us, the average Joe, that's getting caught in the middle," said Ray Ramsey, a retired utility meter technician who works part-time for a medical-supply company.

Fellow diner Richard Longo, who owns a building-maintenance business, said he worries about the effect of the taxes on himself and his 30-plus employees. But he thinks there's a lot of blame to go around.

"I truly believe that if the sides were reversed, if we had a Republican president and a Democratic Congress, we'd still be going through the same thing," he said.

A payroll tax increase would come at a vulnerable time for some people who already have been affected by falling property values and, in some cases, state tax increases.

Some expected to spend less on non-essential things, like dining out. And others said they were willing to pay more if it means reducing the deficit. But almost all agreed that the partisan acrimony and 11th-hour crises in Washington are getting old.

"It seems they want to bring down everything to the last minute and then figure it out," said David Kaiser, an institutional researcher at Miami Dade College in Florida, who said a tax increase wouldn't affect him significantly.

Kaiser wanted "some way to send that message to them: That's not what they're hired for."

Mike Raney, a maintenance and repair worker from Chicago, said he blames the stalemate on "misguided ideals" among politicians of both parties.

"I'd like to say they mean well, but we're talking about politicians," Raney said as he ate a hamburger at a McDonald's in Chicago's Loop. "It's very frustrating, especially for people who are just getting by. I mean, it's not like I'm making millions of dollars, but it's affecting other people a lot harder than it's affecting me."

The tax cut lowered the Social Security tax on incomes of up to $106,800 from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. It's meant a maximum savings of $2,136 for an individual.

Without a deal, Americans would begin 2012 facing a tax increase just as an election year begins. And many say the bickering has more to do with elections than economic ideals.

"The way I see it is that the Republicans want Obama to be a one-term president," said James Edwards, an Amtrak conductor from Hamden, Conn., who was in Boston on Wednesday. "They are taking their patriotism and throwing it away, and they are hurting the middle class. They want to make sure that America is hurting while this president is sitting so they won't vote for him in 2012."

Anaiah Spencer, a property manager from Los Angeles, said the deadlock is damaging people's faith in lawmakers.

"I have never seen a government this divisive," Spencer said. "In the end, we both end up broke, and we wind up with an entire country of angry citizens who don't know who to turn to."

Greg Kirksey, a pastor in Little Rock, Ark., said a payroll tax increase would be little more than an inconvenience for him, but others are "talking about whether to buy dried beans or ground beef to get their protein."

"But I'm afraid because it's a political year ... I'm not thinking anybody's really got the guts to make the hard decisions," he said. "They just keep putting a Band-Aid on, putting a Band-Aid on, kicking the can down the road a little farther."

___

Associated Press writers Christine Armario in Miami, Shannon Dininny in Yakima, Wash., Robert Jablon in Los Angeles, Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Ben Neary in Cheyenne, Wyo., Jeannie Nuss in Little Rock, Ark., Stephanie Reitz in East Hartford, Conn., and Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky.; and AP videographer Robert Ray in Aurora, Ill., contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_re_us/us_payroll_tax_cut_frustration

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Moody's cuts Slovenia's credit rating one notch to A1 (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Moody's Investors Service on Thursday cut the sovereign foreign currency credit rating for Slovenia one notch to A1 from Aa3, citing increasing pressure on the government's balance sheet that could arise from a potential need to further support the nation's banking system.

The outlook for the credit rating is negative, Moody's said in a statement. Slovenia is rated one notch higher, at AA-minus, by both Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

Moody's also said the downward pressure on the rating stems from a deterioration in government funding conditions due to the ongoing euro zone credit crisis.

Fitch Ratings last week said it had put Slovenia on watch for a possible downgrade, and expects to complete that review by the end of January.

Slovenia was the fastest growing euro zone member in 2007 but was badly hit by the 2008-2009 global crisis due to its dependency on exports. The economy shrank by 8 percent in 2009.

After a year of recovery, Slovenia's economy contracted by 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011 signaling another recession might be coming.

(Reporting By Daniel Bases and Caryn Trokie; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/bs_nm/us_slovenia_moodys_downgrade

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The Guppy Project is not wasteful, Sen. Coburn.

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has a degree in medicine, so I would expect that he?s had some rudimentary biology education at some point in his life. However, you wouldn?t know it just from glancing through the entries in his ?Wastebook?, a list of projects funded by the government that he considers wasteful. A good handful of the projects on his list are STEM projects, and in one such entry, he takes to task a project funded by the National Science Foundation:

Researchers at the University of California-Riverside have pushed the mission of the National Science Foundation to new limits. In 2011, they received an NSF grant of almost $150,000 to create a video game called ?RapidGuppy? for cell phones and other mobile devices. In the game, targeted for students 12-21 years old, users control the growth and evolution of a guppy. Students can gain insight into the environmental factors that cause the fish to adapt. To reach the public, the researchers will use ?[a]n extensive social media campaign,? which they see as increasing the public level of interest in evolution, genetic change, and science careers. Using taxpayer dollars, ?RapidGuppy? might soon be on Facebook, right alongside ?FarmVille? and ?Scrabble.?

The first thing I noticed upon reading this is that Senator Coburn understands neither the scope of the project nor the science behind it. He says that users will ?control the ? evolution of a guppy?, but anyone who has taken an introductory biology class knows that evolution is something that happens over generations and is not something any one guppy can do. You may say that this could be an honest mistake or just being ?lazy? in communicating the gist of the project, but in my opinion it shows that either he doesn?t understand the science that he is bashing or he doesn?t mind spreading misinformation to his constituents. I have to wonder whether or not there?s more than a little bit of anti-evolution sentiment behind the reasons why this particular project made his list.

He also fails to mention that the educational game will be linked to a website that shows videos, photos, and descriptions of actual evolution and ecology research being conducted by the scientists involved in The Guppy Project. He misleads you into thinking that the sole purpose is to make a video game, but in actuality the video game will serve to generate interest in evolution and ecology and funnel those interested parties into the actual research. Given the age group being targeted, this is an excellent strategy to slowly acclimate young science students from the abstract ideas of ?adaptation? and ?evolution? to what those terms mean in application, and then to what that sort of research really looks like.

?Video games? in the classroom are nothing new. I grew up with Math Blaster, Mario Teaches Typing, and other video games (including one awe-inspiring oceanography game whose name eludes me at the moment) being used more and more as computers began to infiltrate the classroom in the mid-1990s. Now students can use mobile apps and online games to dissect frogs, explore their anatomy, learn the life cycle of a star, and explore other topics that would otherwise be too difficult (due to rarity, location, or ethical reasons) or too abstract to touch with their bare hands. This may just be my own opinion, but I do not believe that it is wasteful to invest in the STEM education of our middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college students. Apparently Senator Coburn disagrees.

Image: Male and female guppies, Poecilia reticulata. Image credit: Marrabbio2, Wikimedia Commons.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1a0b132e666172d637d7f576a44e64d2

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In bold move, Delta aims to be king in New York

By Jane Levere, msnbc.com contributor

In an aggressive expansion, Delta Air Lines announced plans to create a new domestic hub at New York?s LaGuardia Airport, and by next summer plans to offer 264 daily flights between the airport and over 60 cities.

Delta claims the move at LaGuardia will result in service that exceeds any other airline and will make it the top domestic carrier at the three New York area airports ?? the other two are John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International ?? with over 400 daily domestic departures to destinations nationwide.?

According to data supplied by the U.S. Department of Transportation, in the first six months of this year, JFK ranked twelfth among all U.S. airports in the number of domestic and international departures. Newark was No. 13 and LaGuardia No. 15.

Delta?s expansion is the result of an agreement, which closed on December 13, between it and US Airways to exchange take-off and landing rights at LaGuardia and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.?

With travel beginning either in March or July of 2012, Delta?s new markets from LaGuardia will include top business destinations Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Charlotte, Denver, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Cleveland.? In addition, it will offer new, all-jet service to Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y., destinations previously served with turboprop aircraft by US Airways; new flights to Wilmington, N.C., Roanoke, Va., and Burlington, Vt.; and increased frequencies to Chicago, Nashville, Raleigh/Durham and Portland, Me., business destinations Delta already serves.

The airline is also investing $100 million to create an expanded main terminal in Terminals C and D at LaGuardia, building a 600-foot connector bridge to link the two. The carrier will continue to operate its hourly shuttle flights to Boston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago from LaGuardia?s Marine Air Terminal.

The move will put Delta "in nearly all of the top 50 domestic markets at LaGuardia, and that means it's more convenient because it is the businessman's airport of choice," said Delta's Gail Grimmett, senior vice president, New York, speaking at a press conference on Friday.

Henry Harteveldt, co-founder of the Atmosphere Research Group, said Delta?s expansion is designed to make the carrier ?the preferred airline for New York business travelers. If you want to get someone?s travel to Dubai, you also need to be able to take them to Dallas and Detroit.?

He said the strategy presents a challenge to American, now operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which already had scaled back its presence at LaGuardia, as well as to JetBlue, which has a large operation at JFK. ?Many cities Delta will serve from LaGuardia are served by JetBlue out of JFK,? Harteveldt said.

?The convenience of LaGuardia really gives Delta a big, big advantage,? Harteveldt added. ?It?s now going to be a dogfight between Delta at LaGuardia? and United at Newark, which has taken over Continental?s hub there, ?for ownership of New York.?

Also on the plus side for travelers, according to Harteveldt, are the Wi-Fi service Delta offers on much of its fleet, and regional jet aircraft that offer both Wi-Fi and first-class services.

Michael Derchin, airline analyst for CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Conn., said travelers could expect improved schedules, but he predicted fares would not decline and could even go higher, ?since it?s easier to raise fares if there?s less competition.?

More stories you might like:

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/20/9565517-in-bold-move-delta-aims-to-be-king-in-new-york

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Assange to fight extradition in top UK court (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition to Sweden, won the right on Monday to ask Britain's Supreme Court to hear his case, prolonging his stay in Britain.

Swedish authorities want to question the 40-year-old Australian over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former WikiLeaks volunteers in August 2010.

Assange, who has been living in Britain since his arrest here in December last year, denies wrongdoing.

Monday, two High Court judges ruled that he could ask the Supreme Court to look at his case. However, the ruling does not guarantee him a hearing. The Supreme Court, Britain's highest, can decide to hear his case, or reject his petition.

Assange now has 14 days in which to formally lodge an appeal, meaning his stay in Britain is certain to stretch into 2012.

Asked by Reuters as he left the court if he thought the ruling was a victory, the silver-haired Assange said "Yes" before he was whisked away through a crowd of reporters and supporters.

Dressed in a dark grey suit, Assange embraced his lawyer Gareth Peirce after the hearing in London.

The two judges ruled that Assange's case raised a question "of general public importance" that should be decided by the Supreme Court "as quickly as possible."

Assange argues that the European arrest warrant on which he is being held is invalid because it was issued by a prosecutor in Sweden rather than by a court or a judge.

"I am a bit surprised," said Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander, reacting to the ruling. She maintained the prosecution authority has the right to issue an arrest warrant.

Assange spent nine days in London's Wandsworth prison after his arrest last year. He was freed a week before Christmas on bail and has since been living at the country house of a wealthy supporter in eastern England.

His arrest came shortly after WikiLeaks published thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that included unflattering views of world leaders and candid assessments of security threats.

Assange says the allegations against him are politically motivated and has fought a complex and expensive legal battle to avoid being sent back to Sweden.

In 2010, WikiLeaks posted 391,832 secret papers on the Iraq war and 77,000 classified Pentagon documents on the Afghan conflict. It has also made available about 250,000 individual cables, daily traffic between the State Department and more than 270 American diplomatic outposts around the world.

(Additional reporting by Keith Weir in London and Patrick Lannin in Stockholm; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/wl_nm/us_britain_assange

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Afghanistan allies pledge to stay for long haul

Martin Meissner / AP

German chancellor Angela Merkel and Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai, center, with the foreign ministers and delegation members at the international Afghanistan conference in Bonn on Monday.

By Reuters

BONN, Germany -- Foreign governments pledged on Monday to support Afghanistan long after allied troops go home, with or without a political settlement with insurgents once seen as the best way to prevent a new civil war.

At a conference of more than 80 countries but boycotted by Pakistan, they said even after most foreign combat troops leave in 2014, the Afghan government will not be allowed to meet the fate of its Soviet-era predecessor, which collapsed in 1992.

"The United States intends to stay the course with our friends in Afghanistan," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "We will be there with you as you make the hard decisions that are necessary for your future."

Hosts Germany sought to signal Western staying power in the country, where al-Qaida sheltered under Taliban protection before the Sept. 11 attacks, at the gathering in Bonn.

"We send a clear message to the people of Afghanistan: We will not leave you on your own. We will not leave you in the lurch," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

Ten years after a similar conference held to rebuild Afghanistan, the Afghan war is becoming increasingly unpopular in Western public opinion -- especially since U.S. forces found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2 in a raid that removed a central pretext of the 2001 invasion.

Western countries are under pressure to spend money reviving flagging economies at home rather than propping up a government in Kabul widely criticized for being corrupt and ineffective.

And as expected, delegates at the Bonn conference steered clear of making specific pledges to make up a shortfall in funding for Afghanistan estimated by the World Bank at some $7 billion a year from the end of 2014.

U.S.-Pakistan relations, a new 'all-time low'?

For now, nobody wants to show their hand too clearly in the hope that someone else -- from the United States to Europe, the Gulf to Asia -- will come forward to foot a share of the bill.

Brewing confrontations pitting Washington against Pakistan and Iran, two of Afghanistan's most influential neighbors, have also added to despondency over the outlook for the war.

Pakistan boycotted the meeting after NATO aircraft killed 24 of its soldiers on the border with Afghanistan in a Nov. 26 attack the alliance called a "tragic" accident.

But delegates from Russia to Iran to China, all uneasy about the U.S. military presence in their neighborhood, were nonetheless able to agree with Western powers "the main threat to Afghanistan's security and stability is terrorism."

"In this regard, we recognize the regional dimensions of terrorism and extremism, including terrorist safe havens, and emphasize the need for sincere and result-oriented regional cooperation..." a conference statement.

Pakistan is accused by Washington and Kabul of providing "safe havens" to insurgents to use to counter the influence of rival India. Pakistan says it being used as a scapegoat for the U.S. failure to bring stability to Afghanistan.

Scaling back objectives
The mood at the Bonn conference was a far cry from the early days of the Afghan war when, fresh from toppling the Taliban, Western powers hoped to bring permanent peace to a country which has now been at war for more than three decades.

But with problems of insecurity, governance, corruption and narcotics inside Afghanistan, compounded by insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan, objectives have been scaled back.

By the time of a conference in London on Afghanistan in January 2010, Western governments had agreed insurgents could be brought into peace talks if they were willing to cut ties with al Qaeda, give up violence and respect the Afghan constitution.

But even that goal has proved elusive. Embroynic contacts with the Taliban have yielded little, and foreign governments have been preparing increasingly for a scenario in which there is no peace settlement with the Taliban even before the before most foreign combat troops leave in 2014.

The aim now is to leave behind a government which is just about good enough to survive, even if fighting persists in parts of the country and the Taliban insurgency remains active.

Some are still hoping Pakistan will use its influence to deliver the Afghan Taliban into a political settlement.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters Pakistan had missed a good opportunity to discuss its own issues and the future of Afghanistan by not attending the Bonn conference. "But it will not stop us from cooperating together," he said.

Asked what he wanted Pakistan to do to help bring peace in Afghanistan, he said: "Close the sanctuaries, arrange a purposeful dialogue with those Taliban who are in Pakistan."

Clinton said she expected Pakistan to play a constructive role in Afghanistan, even as she voiced disappointment that Islamabad chose not to attend the conference.

But British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Afghanistan could still have a bright future even if the Taliban were not brought into a political settlement.

"It may take a longer time to bring about our objectives but we should not be deterred at all by Taliban reluctance to come to the table..." he told the BBC.

Foreign governments were also determined to try to dispel at least some of the pessimism seeping into the Afghan project.

Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, whose country became the first to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan -- much to the irritation of Pakistan -- pledged India would keep up its heavy investment in a country whose mineral wealth and trade routes made it "a land of opportunity."

In a rare positive development, Clinton said the United States would resume paying into a World Bank-administered Reconstruction Trust Fund for Afghanistan, a decision that U.S. officials said would allow for the disbursement of roughly $650 million to $700 million in suspended U.S. aid.

The United States and other big donors stopped paying into the fund in June, when the International Monetary Fund suspended its program with Afghanistan because of concerns about Afghanistan's troubled Kabul Bank.?

More news and features from msnbc.com:

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Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/05/9228602-afghanistan-allies-pledge-to-stay-for-long-haul

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Has Iran Killed This Advanced US Stealth Plane? (Updated) [Airplanes]

The Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel is one of the most advanced stealth airplanes in the United States Air Force. It was secret drone until the end of 2009. The iranians just claimed today they have killed one. But have they? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4aIhrdTL1Bw/has-iran-killed-this-advanced-us-stealth-plane

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Police: 6 die when town attacked in north Nigeria (AP)

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ? Gunmen from a radical Muslim sect raided a town in northern Nigeria early Sunday morning, bombing police stations and robbing banks in an attack that killed at least six people, authorities said.

The attack in Azare in Bauchi state mirrored other recent attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram, showing their ability to strike at will in Nigeria's Muslim north. The attack also shows the group remains focused on raising cash for future attacks in the oil-rich nation.

Sect members bombed two police stations in the city and robbed local branches for bank chains Guaranty Trust Bank PLC and Intercontinental Bank PLC, Bauchi police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba said. One police officer, one soldier and four civilians were killed during the five-hour attack, he said.

"We did not make any arrest, as investigations are still being carried out," Aduba said.

Aduba blamed Boko Haram for the attack, saying the assault Sunday mirrored attacks its members have carried out in recent weeks. The group has launched a series of bombings against Nigeria's weak central government over the last year in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across the nation of more than 160 million people home to both Christians and Muslims.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.

Little is known about the sources of Boko Haram's support, though its members recently began carrying out a wave of bank robberies in the north. Police stations have also been bombed and officers killed.

Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say.

The sect is responsible for at least 387 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.

___

Associated Press writers Shehu Saulawa in Bauchi, Nigeria and Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects name of Guaranty Trust Bank.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111204/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_violence

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Pneumonia-stricken Billy Graham improving, hospital says (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Evangelist Billy Graham, who is battling pneumonia for the second time this year, was showing improvement at a North Carolina hospital on Sunday but no date has been set for his discharge, the hospital said.

The 93-year-old Graham, who entered the hospital on Wednesday, is undergoing physical therapy and walking in a private corridor outside his room, Mission Hospital of Asheville, North Carolina, said in a statement.

"Doctors are encouraged by Mr. Graham's significant clinical progress but have not yet set a date for discharge," the statement said.

He was visited over the weekend by his son, Franklin Graham, his daughters Gigi Graham and Anne Graham Lotz and other family members, the hospital said.

Graham, a preacher of Christian gospel to millions of followers worldwide and a spiritual advisor to several U.S. presidents, was treated in May for a previous bout of pneumonia.

His wife, Ruth, died in June 2007.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; editing by David Bailey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111204/people_nm/us_billygraham

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Entire SEC West Now Runs UAB Football

You already knew the Tide-tinged Alabama Board of Trustees has UAB Blazers football under its thumb. But now the Arkansas Razorbacks are in charge of the Dragons' coaching moves? We'll assume Ole Miss runs UAB's roster management.

To recap: Arkansas announced UAB had hired Hogs OC Garrick McGee as the new Blazers coach. But ...

@bjmillican?#Arkansas?didn't even let?#UAB?know it was releasing the McGee information. It was news to Blazers SIDs & officials. ? ?

@bjmillican?To summarize, despite Arkansas & Petrino's statements,?#UAB?has NOT offered the job to Garrick McGee. ? ?

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2011/12/3/2608457/entire-sec-west-now-runs-uab-football

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DigiTimes: Acer eyes ultrabook price drop for next year, bigger cuts coming in 2013

Having recently affirmed its commitment to the netbook, Acer is now reportedly looking to boost its ultrabook sales, with the help of a handsome price cut. Citing company president Jim Wong, DigiTimes reports that Acer will slash the price of its ultrabook offerings by as much as 20 percent next year, dropping them from around $1,000 to between $800 and $900. The cut, expected to go into effect during Q2 2012, will be followed by a subsequent reduction to $500 in 2013, when Acer expects more vendors to enter the market. The hope is that the manufacturer will be able to reclaim some of the ground it's lost to competitors in recent months, though it remains to be seen whether or not the strategy pays dividends.

DigiTimes: Acer eyes ultrabook price drop for next year, bigger cuts coming in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/siVv4AZVemA/

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Rebecca Juro: Thank You, Barney Frank

For those who've read my work and listened to my radio shows over the years, the title of this post will probably come as a surprise, but there's good reason for trans people and allies to be grateful to Barney Frank for his work in Congress in advancing the cause of LGBT rights. As for why, let me tell you a little story.

I came out as trans woman in 1997, and it wasn't long afterward that I began following LGBT community media and the politics surrounding the community. At the time, there really wasn't much, and what was available focused almost exclusively on non-trans gay men and lesbians. Two notable exceptions to this rule were a Boston-based radio show called "Gendertalk" and an online LGBT radio station called GAYBC.

Barney Frank did interviews with both of these media in the late '90s, and whenever the subject of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and transgender inclusion in the bill came up, his answer was always the same: "There are no votes for that." We didn't want to hear that, of course. We enthusiastically criticized Frank and his fellow Democrats for it, but he was right. At the time, there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of transgender protections being added to the bill.

There was plenty of blame to go around, not only for a Congress that didn't understand or care about trans people or the issues affecting us, but also for an activist community that centered almost exclusively on the interests and issues of non-trans gays and lesbians, often even displaying overt animosity and disdain for transgender people and our inclusion in the overall movement for American civil rights, most famously evidenced by the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) then-president, Elizabeth Birch, who was quoted in the media as saying that transgender inclusion in ENDA would happen over her dead body.

With the creation of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) still years away, the only national organizations focusing directly on the issues of importance to transgender people were the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC), a grassroots transgender advocacy group, and GenderPAC (GPAC), an organization led by transgender author and activist Riki Wilchins, which started out advocating exclusively on behalf of trans people but later expanded its focus to a broader agenda of gender rights.

Both organizations hosted annual events in Washington, D.C. to lobby members of Congress on transgender-inclusive legislation, though GPAC was criticized for what many trans people believed was a much too cozy affiliation with the Human Rights Campaign. GPAC was accused of pre-lobbying against transgender interests at the behest of HRC and the Democratic Party leadership, going to Congressional offices in advance of Lobby Days events and telling legislators and staffers that while they could expect visits from trans people advocating for an inclusive ENDA, in reality activist leaders were fine with an ENDA that didn't include protections for trans people. While there was certainly plenty of circumstantial evidence to back up these claims, they were never conclusively proven.

The fight for ENDA and the federal hate crimes bill remained pretty much in a political holding pattern until April 2004, when several transgender and allied organizations were all in Washington at the same time for various reasons. NTAC and GPAC were holding Lobby Days events, the Transgender Veterans Association (TAVA) was holding an event at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to honor transgender veterans, and a team from an organization I co-chaired, OutForDemocracy-Transgender, a group of politically active, transgender Democrats, met with the LGBT Outreach leaders of the Democratic National Committee and John Kerry's presidential campaign, a first-ever meeting between transgender activists and representatives of a major presidential candidate.

Transgender activists were all over D.C. that week, but another event was perhaps really the most significant with regard to the political progress of trans-inclusive civil rights. A couple dozen activists drawn from the various groups in town that week came together one afternoon to protest HRC in front of its headquarters. I was there, along with community columnist Gwen Smith and Internet radio host Ethan St Pierre, with a collection of trans folks holding protest signs and chanting slogans.

During that same week, trans lobbyists on the Hill learned that HRC was still actively undercutting our lobbying efforts to promote transgender inclusion in ENDA and the hate crimes bill with members of Congress, both of which at the time were still highly questionable.

Upon returning home, I felt that I had to go public with what we'd learned, so I wrote and published online an expos?/call to action, which I titled "In Through the Out Door". I was barely known as a community commentator at the time, but the impact this article had in the LGBT activist community was unquestionable, with reprint requests appearing in my email almost daily for weeks. The piece even showed up in an informational packet given to HRC Executive Board members who were taking a vote on HRC's policy of transgender inclusion in federal legislation later that year.

At this point, Barney Frank and the Democratic Party leadership were still doing their level best to pretend we didn't exist, but by now the reality in the LGBT activist community was very different. Barney Frank and HRC soon became full-fledged villains within trans and allied activist circles, even more so than they'd already been in the past. We now had clear evidence that what we'd been saying all along about their lack of support for truly equal rights wasn't merely the ravings of fringe, radical leftists, as had been popularly believed in the past. Over time, more and more progressives began to line up alongside us and demand that the Democrats change their tune and support trans inclusion in ENDA. Then came the events of 2007, our watershed moment, when everything changed forever.

I won't go into detail here about the Congressional political maneuverings of 2007 around ENDA, as that story has been told and retold to death. Suffice it to say that when Barney Frank and the Democrats introduced and successfully passed a non-inclusive ENDA in the House with the support and endorsement of HRC shortly after HRC president Joe Solmonese had promised a room full of transgender activists that the organization would only support an inclusive version of ENDA, transgender people began to come out from behind their computers and get into the streets in a way that we've never seen before or since.

All that following year, whenever HRC would hold one of their fundraising galas in a major city, transgender and allied activists would be there with protest signs, chanting slogans, and creating a phalanx of angry progressives that any politician who wanted to attend one of these events would have to pass through. Many chose not to attend, and indeed some did so quite publicly, declaring their support for transgender inclusion in ENDA and their disdain for HRC's support of the non-inclusive version of the bill. A protest event held in San Francisco down the street from an HRC gala that year actually drew significantly more attendees than the event it was protesting. Keynote speakers canceled appearances, and local politicians who normally attended one of these events every year suddenly found themselves with scheduling conflicts on those nights.

The American LGBT civil rights movement and the politics surrounding it had been changed forever, and Barney Frank was not only in many ways the catalyst for that change, but also among the first to see the writing on the wall. With Frank leading the way, Congressional Democrats quietly dropped their support of a non-inclusive ENDA and instead focused on the passage of a transgender-inclusive federal hate crimes bill, which finally became law in 2009.

And that, boys, girls, and everyone else, is why the first federal law that named LGBT Americans as a protected class, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed into law fully trans-inclusive, why there's no longer any such thing as a non-inclusive version of ENDA being promoted in Congress, and why we have Barney Frank to thank for it. For all of the problems we've had with Barney Frank and his advocacy of LGBT rights in Congress over the years, it's doubtful we ever could have come as far as we already have without him.

?

Follow Rebecca Juro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/beckyjuro

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-juro/thank-you-barney-frank_b_1122240.html

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Serendipitous news reading online is gaining prominence

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Traditional media, such as newspapers and television news, require readers and viewers to intentionally seek out news by picking up a newspaper or turning on the television. The Internet and new technologies now are changing the way readers consume online news. New research from the University of Missouri shows that Internet users often do not make the conscious decision to read news online, but they come across news when they are searching for other information or doing non-news related activities online, such as shopping or visiting social networking sites.

Borchuluun Yadamsuren, a post-doctoral fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found a shift in the way people have begun to perceive online news. She says that while some people still have the perception of news as tied to traditional media, others now hold a much broader perception of news that goes beyond what is reported by professional journalists. Yadamsuren attributes this to the wide array of information available online.

"Incidental exposure to online news is becoming a major way for many people to receive information about news events," Yadamsuren said. "However, many people don't realize how their news reading behavior is shifting to more serendipitous discovery."

Using mixed method approach, Yadamsuren surveyed nearly 150 respondents with further interviews of 20 of those respondents to understand their incidental exposure to online news. She found that respondents experience incidental exposure to online news in three different contexts. The first group of respondents reported that they come across interesting news stories while they visit online news sites. Others report incidental exposure to online news in the context of non-news related activities such as checking email and visiting Facebook and other social networking sites. The third group of respondents reported that they stumble upon "unusual," "weird," "interesting," "bizarre," unexpected," "outrageous," or "off the wall" news stories while they are conducting their normal Internet searches.

Currently, Yadamsuren is studying the relationship between incidental exposure to online news and different demographic and technology-access related factors. Yadamsuren believes it is important for media organizations to place links to their news stories on different sites throughout the Internet to take advantage of serendipitious news consuming behavior to expand their readership.

Yadamsuren's study was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) 2011 and American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 2011 Annual Meetings. Her research was also published in Information Research. Her current research at RJI involves developing strategies for news organizations to engage younger generations with online news based on incidental exposure.

###

University of Missouri-Columbia: http://www.missouri.edu

Thanks to University of Missouri-Columbia for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115649/Serendipitous_news_reading_online_is_gaining_prominence

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RIM to offer security features for iPhone, Android (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? Research In Motion is introducing a software tool that gives corporate customers the option of linking employees' personal iPhones to the BlackBerry network without compromising security.

The move, announced on Tuesday, is RIM's first tangible acknowledgment that it has lost its iron grip on the corporate smartphone market and must accommodate the growing preference of workers for Apple and Google's Android devices. Its battered shares jumped on the announcement.

"It's not an admission of guilt - it's a necessary evil," Suquehanna analyst Jeff Fidacaro said.

RIM's Mobile Fusion service is designed to give the Canadian company the leading role in managing corporate communications, whether over the BlackBerry or a rival device.

"What our enterprise customers are looking for, and the opportunity for us, is to become the de facto platform," Alan Panezic, RIM's vice-president for enterprise product management, said in an interview ahead of the announcement.

Taking a first, tentative step to offer its network services independently of its own devices, the company could develop a fresh source of revenue to offset a shrinking market share in handsets.

Indeed, success with the strategy could encourage RIM to focus more and more on services rather than devices.

RIM's often-volatile stock closed 5.4 percent higher at $17.37 on Nasdaq and up 5.5 percent at C$17.95 in Toronto. It still down more than 70 percent this year following a string of delayed or botched product launches, and disappointing quarterly results.

RIM's BlackBerry was for years the preferred device for businesses and government agencies, who treasured its encrypted data and distributed the device to millions of workers needing secure, round-the-clock email access.

But many workers now prefer using their own Apple and Android-powered devices to access corporate emails, raising security questions for corporations, which RIM hopes to address with the new software.

"While a positive step, the larger challenges remain RIM's need to narrow competitive gaps in its handsets," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky wrote in a note to clients. He pointed to RIM's software deficiencies and limited content and applications available on its devices.

RIM's slice of the lucrative U.S. smartphone market fell to 9 percent in the third quarter, down from 24 percent a year earlier, according to research firm Canalys. Globally, the report placed RIM in fifth place, with 10 percent market share, compared with 15 percent a year earlier.

DUE BY LATE MARCH

Mobile Fusion, due in late March, will allow corporate information technology staff to set and monitor rules for passwords, apps and software on a range of devices, including Apple's iPad and iPhone, and smartphones using the Android operating system.

A company can remotely lock or wipe a lost or stolen device, a key selling point for security-conscious corporations that may have been wary of shifting away from the BlackBerry.

"We will take full advantage of whatever security capabilities are provided by the core operating system. We're not going to hold that back in any way, shape or form," Panezic said.

Mobile Fusion will include and extend existing BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, or BES, behind corporate firewalls.

Panezic said the software will manage RIM's PlayBook independently from a BlackBerry after the tablet - which has yet to gain traction with either businesses or consumers - receives a long-awaited software upgrade, due in February.

He declined to give any pricing details for the Fusion service, but said it would be competitive with rivals.

"It will help stem the tide of those companies that may have considered eliminating their BES but it won't help sell more phones," said Gartner analyst Phillip Redman. "That's what they really need to do."

"RATTLE SOME CAGES"

RIM has recently launched touchscreen devices using its legacy BlackBerry operating system as it works to put the QNX software powering the PlayBook on to a new generation of phones from early next year.

The new software follows on from the acquisition of device management company Ubitexx, which RIM announced in May.

Smaller companies such as Good Technology, MobileIron and BoxTone already offer device management as companies fret about leakage of sensitive commercial information via their workers' personal, non-BlackBerry devices.

"This will definitely rattle some cages" among firms that filled a niche by securing and managing iPhones and other non-BlackBerry devices for corporations, Forrester analyst Christian Kane said.

Panezic said customers had requested a solution to handle Apple and Android devices, but RIM would consider adding support for other systems, such as Microsoft's Windows Phone, if it saw enough demand.

($1=$1.03 Canadian)

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Frank McGurty)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111129/tc_nm/us_rim

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Rethinking Ink: An Audio Piece on Scientists and their Tattoos

When my 18-year old self walked into a tattoo parlor on South Street in Philadelphia, I had no idea I was joining a movement of tattooed scientists, embellishing their bodies with symbols of their passions. My little chickadee, a bird that continues to fascinate me despite its commonness, now inspires jabs of ?put a bird on it? thanks to Portlandia, but it is more than that: it?s a stand-in for my love of birding, my appreciation of ornithological beauty, and constant wonder at even more mundane life.

A group of college students studying at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts caught ahold of the trend, and have put together an audio piece featuring scientists, the tattoos hiding under their lab coats, and the underlying scientific passion that inspires them. They got the idea because one of the group members, my sister Emily Waters, had recently joined the ranks of tattooed scientists.

?I just got my first tattoo: a big plant stem cross section above my knee,? she says. ?I was on the lookout for a cool topic for the radio piece, and it was then that I stumbled across Carl Zimmer?s blog and got the idea for the radio project.?

Science writer Carl Zimmer has been collecting science tattoos for years at his Science Tattoo Emporium on his blog, and last month published a book,?Science Ink, featuring the extensive collection. The radio piece, embedded below, includes an interview with Zimmer who espouses his thoughts on why scientists get tattoos about their science.

Also featured are testimonies from four tattooed scientists: SciCurious, a biomedical postdoc and fellow Scientific American blogger;?Josh Drew, a marine biology postdoc; Amanda Gallinat, a full-time bird bander and researcher (and my college roommate); and Nathaniel Comfort, a science historian at John Hopkins School of Medicine.

Listen to their fabulous radio piece below.

The video features a song from the fabulous Philadelphia band The Tough Shits, which you can hear in-full on muxtape.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=5e4da7e66945d911da992ee13ab901d8

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Eurozone ministers meet to build euro rescue plan

A man checks stock indexes on a screen of a bank in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. For the second time in as many market days, Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction Monday, as investors continued to pressure the eurozone's third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A man checks stock indexes on a screen of a bank in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. For the second time in as many market days, Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction Monday, as investors continued to pressure the eurozone's third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A man checks stock indexes on a screen of a bank in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. For the second time in as many market days, Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction Monday, as investors continued to pressure the eurozone's third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? The 17 finance ministers of the countries that use the euro converged on EU headquarters Tuesday in a desperate bid to save their currency ? and to protect Europe, the United States, Asia and the rest of the global economy from a debt-induced financial tsunami.

The ministers were discussing ideas that would have been taboo only recently, before things got as bad as they are: countries ceding fiscal sovereignty to a central authority; some kind of elite group of euro nations that would guarantee one another's loans ? but require strong fiscal discipline from anyone wanting membership.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her support for changes to Europe's current treaties in order to create a fiscal union, that will include binding and enforceable commitments by all euro countries.

"Our priority is to have the whole of the eurozone to be placed on a stronger treaty basis," Merkel said Tuesday in Berlin. "This is what we have devoted all of our efforts to; this is what I'm concentrating on in all of the talks with my counterparts."

Merkel acknowledged that changing the treaties ? usually a lengthy procedure ? won't be easy because not all of the European Unions 27 member states "are enthusiastic about it." But she dismissed reports that the eurozone, or some nations within the bloc, might go ahead with a swifter treaty between governments.

Changes to existing eurozone rules are being touted as one way the eurozone can get out of its debt crisis, which has already forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and is threatening to engulf bigger economies such as Italy, the eurozone's third-largest. If Italy were to default on its debts of around euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion), the fallout could spell ruin for the euro project itself and send shock waves throughout the global economy.

Even countries outside the eurozone were ratcheting up pressure on the ministers to find a solution. President Barack Obama, meeting with top EU officials on Monday, said a European failure to resolve its debt crisis would complicate his own efforts to create jobs in the U.S. And even Poland, historically wary of German dominance beyond its borders, appealed for help.

"I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is," Radek Sikorski said in Berlin. "I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity. You have become Europe's indispensable nation."

Illustrating the urgency is the fact that eurozone governments have euro638 billion ($852 billion) in past debts coming due in 2012, of which 40 percent needs to be refinanced in the first four months of the year, according to a Barclays Capital estimate last week.

In a reminder of the urgency, Italy's borrowing rates shot up Tuesday to rates above 7 percent, an unsustainable level on a par with rates that forced the others to seek bailouts. Markets rose generally for the second day on the expectation that the enormous pressures on European ministers would produce results.

At the top of Tuesday's agenda is finding a means to more fully integrate the eurozone's disparate nations ? ranging from powerful Germany to tiny Malta ? both politically and financially. And the ministers must do it fast, without the delays caused by democratic niceties like referendums that have led many EU reforms to take years to implement.

France's finance minister, Francois Baroin, said Tuesday on France-Info radio that countries should integrate their budgets more closely and monitor one another's spending.

"We have to modify eurozone governance," Baroin said. "We definitely have to move toward more integrated budgetary consolidation, fiscal convergence with our neighbors."

He said France and Germany ? which have largely been calling the shots on efforts to overcome the crisis ? will make proposals on how eurozone countries can monitor one another under such a new system.

The 17 ministers are expected to discuss jointly issuing so-called eurobonds ? an all-for-one, one-for-all way of having the different countries guarantee one another's debts. Right now each nation issues its own bonds, meaning that while Italy pays above 7 percent, Germany pays about 2 percent.

Having stronger countries like Germany stand behind the general European debt would lower Italy's borrowing rates ? and perhaps avoid a debt spiral that leads to a national bankruptcy. At the same time, it would raise Germany's cost of borrowing, and that's why Germany has been fiercely opposed to the eurobond proposal.

A French official said Tuesday that France may propose joint bonds among a subset of eurozone countries although Germany has said it opposes the idea. The French official said discussions about such bonds, with the participating countries not yet specified, is under discussion ahead of a summit of European Union heads of government in Brussels next week.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitive, closed-door talks are still under way.

Proponents of elite bonds say the proceeds could be used to help the eurozone's weaker countries deal with their debts, in return for strict conditions being imposed on their budgets. Critics argue that further fragmenting the eurozone into strong countries and weak countries would benefit no one.

On Monday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissed reports that such bonds were under serious consideration.

The head of Germany's powerful exporters association backed an even more radical solution ? Greece and Portugal should leave the eurozone.

BGA association president Anton Boerner told The Associated Press that the radical move would be the only way for Greece, and to a lesser extent for Portugal, to spur the growth needed to overcome their crippling debts.

Boerner says the devaluation of a new Greek currency would bring the country's prices and wages roughly in line with Turkey's and greatly boost its competitiveness.

The whole world is watching the developments. It's not just a currency used by 332 million people that is at stake. As Merkel and others have said, if the euro fails, so too does the 27-nation European Union, a rousing diplomatic success that united a continent ripped apart by two world wars.

"The biggest threat to the security and prosperity of Poland would be the collapse of the eurozone," Poland's Sikorski said Monday. "And I demand of Germany that, for your own sake and for ours, you help it survive and prosper. You know full well that nobody else can do it."

If the euro fails, bank lending would freeze, stock markets would likely crash, and Europe's economies would crater. Nations in the eurozone could see their economic output fall temporarily by as much as 50 percent, according to UBS forecasters. The financial and economic pain would spread west and east as the U.S. and Asia get ensnared in the credit freeze and their exports to Europe collapse.

_____

Angela Charlton in Paris, Melissa Eddy and Juergen Baetz in Berlin, and Greg Keller in Brussels contributed to this report. Don Melvin can be reached at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-29-EU-Europe-Financial-Crisis/id-10593e162a804a008feac93a8be26d33

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