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XE.com - TEXT-Fitch on European automotive suppliers

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Dec 16 - Fitch Ratings says in a new report that top tier European automotive suppliers are well funded going into 2012 and intend to focus a considerable amount of their liquidity on expanding production facilities in the emerging markets (EM)during 2012-2013. A sharp and sustained cooling of demand for new cars in EMs would consequently have a material negative impact on automotive suppliers. However, a potential recession in Europe should be more manageable for large and diversified suppliers, unlike lower tier, niche players.

Fitch has a stable outlook for European automotive supply sector.

The full report gives special attention to growth drivers and stabilising factors in the automotive supply industry. In particular, it focuses on capex plans in EMs and the importance of diversification into the aftermarket business.

Issuers reviewed in this report include Robert Bosch GmbH , Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin S.A., Continental AG , GKN Holdings Plc.

Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: 2012 Outlook: European Automotive Suppliers

http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=660849

(Bangalore Ratings Team, Hotline: +91 80 4135 5898 swati.ray@thomsonreuters.com,Group id:BangaloreRatings@thomsonreuters.com,Reuters Messaging: swati.ray.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.xe.com/news/2011/12/16/2352781.htm?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=TL&utm_content=NOGEO&utm_campaign=News_RSS_Art4

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Flash floods kill more than 400 in Philippines

Police approach a distraught resident following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river.. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Police approach a distraught resident following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river.. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Residents are rescued by volunteers following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Erwin Mascarinas)

A resident rummages through debris following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Police rescue trapped residents following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

Police carry the body of a victim by a flash flood that hit Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. A tropical storm triggered flash floods in the southern Philippines, killing scores of people and missing more. Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off his coastal city for survivors or bodies that may have been swept to the sea by a swollen river. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

(AP) ? Flash floods devastated a southern Philippines region unaccustomed to serious storms, killing more than 400 people while they slept, rousting hundreds of others to their rooftops and turning two coastal cities into muddy, debris-filled waterways that were strewn Saturday with overturned vehicles and toppled trees.

Most of the victims were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters cascaded from the mountains after 12 hours of rain from a late-season tropical storm in the southern Mindanao region. The region is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the nation of islands.

Ayi Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their home in Cagayan de Oro late Friday when they heard a loud "swooshing sound" and water quickly rose ankle-deep inside. He decided to evacuate to a neighbor's two-story house.

"It was a good thing, because in less than an hour the water rose to about 11 feet (3.3 meters)," filling his home up to the ceiling, he said.

At least 436 were dead, based on a body count in funeral parlors, Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang told The Associated Press. She said that 215 died in Cagayan de Oro ? a city of more than 500,000 ? and 144 in nearby Iligan, with more than 300,000 residents. The rest died in several other southern and central provinces, she said.

Many of the bodies were unclaimed after nearly 24 hours, suggesting that entire families had died, Pang said.

The number of missing was unclear Saturday night. Before the latest Red Cross figures, military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang said about 250 people were still unaccounted for in Iligan.

The swollen river sent floodwaters gushing through neighborhoods that do not usually experience flooding. A man floated in an inner tube in muddy water littered with plastic buckets, pieces of wood and other debris. Ten people in one home stood on a sloping roof, waiting for rescuers even as water still flooded the lower floors.

Local television footage showed muddy water rushing in the streets, sweeping away all sorts of debris. Thick layers of mud coated streets where the waters had subsided. One car was thrown over a concrete fence and others were crushed and piled in a flooded canal.

Benito Ramos, chief of the government's Civil Defense Office, attributed the high casualties in Mindanao "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite four days of warnings by officials that one was approaching.

Thousands of soldiers backed up by hundreds of local police, reservists, coast guard officers and civilian volunteers were mobilized for rescue efforts, but they were hampered by the flooded-out roads and lack of electricity.

Many roads were cut off and there was no electricity, hampering relief efforts.

The missing included prominent Filipino radio broadcaster Enie Alsonado, who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz said.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro said that about 20,000 residents of the city had been affected and that evacuees were packed in temporary shelters.

Authorities recovered bodies from the mud after the water subsided. Parts of concrete walls and roofs, toppled vehicles and other debris littered the streets.

Rescuers in boats rushed offshore to save people swept out to sea. In Misamis Oriental province, 60 people were plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about six miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Cagayan de Oro, said disaster official Teddy Sabuga-a.

About 120 more were rescued off Opol township, closer to the city, he added.

Cruz said the Philippine coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off Iligan for survivors or bodies that may have been swept away to sea.

Tropical Storm Washi dumped on Mindanao more than a month of average rains in just 12 hours.

It quickly cut across the region overnight and headed for Palawan province southwest of Manila on Saturday night.

Forecaster Leny Ruiz said that the records show that storms that follow Washi's track come only once in about 12 years.

Lucilo Bayron, vice mayor of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, said he already mobilized emergency crews but local officials have not ordered an evacuation yet because the weather was still fine.

___

Associated Press writer Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-17-AS-Philippines-Storm/id-04085c33eba6486bb784d0080f792956

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2 Penn St. officials eager to confront charges

FILE -- In a Nov. 7, 2011 file photo former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, left, and former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, right, enter a district judge's office for an arraignment in Harrisburg, Pa. Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations involving former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the state attorney general?s office. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower/file)

FILE -- In a Nov. 7, 2011 file photo former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, left, and former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, right, enter a district judge's office for an arraignment in Harrisburg, Pa. Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations involving former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the state attorney general?s office. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower/file)

(AP) ? The case against two Penn State officials accused of perjury in a child sex abuse case will come down to what an assistant football coach saw and what he said.

The coach, Mike McQueary, told a grand jury he witnessed former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky raping a boy in a campus locker room shower.

Former Vice President Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley, who face a preliminary hearing Friday in Harrisburg, are charged with lying to the grand jury about whether McQueary told them that. They also are charged with failing to report the 2002 complaint to law enforcement.

Sandusky, 67, waived his preliminary hearing Tuesday on charges that he sexually abused 10 boys, but lawyers for Curley and Schultz vow that there won't be a repeat Friday. They plan to challenge the evidence and try to have the charges dismissed.

Prosecutors must show probable cause the two men lied and that the lies were intentional and material to the case. If a judge deems the prosecution has succeeded, the case would head to trial.

"Even though you've had some fairly celebrated folks convicted of perjury, it's a very tough charge to prove," said Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum. "You have to have a clear question, an unequivocal answer, and (prove) the defendant knew what he was saying was false."

McQueary's testimony is central to the case, and Sandusky's lawyer and others think he will have to testify Friday. His appearance would mark the first time he has testified in public about what he saw and heard inside the Lasch Football Building nearly 10 years ago.

McQueary told the grand jury he saw Sandusky raping the boy one Friday night before spring break. He said he called his father from his Lasch office, then left distraught. He and his father met with coach Joe Paterno the next day.

Paterno, in turn, told his boss, Curley.

Paterno, according to the grand jury report, told Curley that his graduate assistant had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature."

Schultz, who oversaw campus security, and Curley met with McQueary 10 days later. McQueary told them that he thought Sandusky had sodomized a young boy, according to his grand jury testimony, which the panel found "extremely credible."

Curley, though, denied that McQueary reported a rape or anything "of a sexual nature whatsoever," the report said. The athletic director described the conduct as "horsing around," the panel said.

Schultz was unsure of what he had been told, but denied the reported conduct included sodomy. He told the grand jury that he was left with "the impression that Sandusky might have inappropriately grabbed the young boy's genitals while wrestling."

The accounts continued to morph, according to the grand jury's outline, when the two university officials spoke to school President Graham Spanier. Spanier testified that he was told Sandusky and a boy "were horsing around in the shower."

Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, face up to seven years in prison if convicted of perjury. The other charge is a summary offense, less serious than a misdemeanor.

Paterno might normally be expected to testify Friday also, given his place in the chain of information.

But the 84-year-old could be spared a subpoena due to his health. The longtime Penn State coach has begun treatment for lung cancer and re-fractured his pelvis in the six weeks since the scandal broke and he was fired from the job he held for nearly half a century.

It's unclear whether prosecutors could have his grand jury testimony read into the record.

State law on the use of such hearsay testimony at preliminary hearings has recently changed: It can be used to establish the value of a car or that someone lacked permission to drive it. But in Ohlbaum's mind, it's not clear if it can be used to bolster a perjury case.

"If I'm the prosecutor, I'm not going down that road," Ohlbaum said Thursday.

Yet, in Pennsylvania, prosecutors must corroborate a lone witness's testimony with either physical evidence or a second person's testimony to meet the probable cause threshold, he said.

The attorney general's office declined to say who is on the witness list.

No one answered the door at McQueary's home Thursday. His father, John, declined comment to the Associated Press.

Tom Farrell, the attorney representing Schultz, and Caroline Roberto, a lawyer for Curley, declined to comment Thursday. In a statement earlier this week, they wrote: "Mr. Curley and Mr. Schultz look forward to the preliminary hearing to start the process of clearing their good names and demonstrating that they testified truthfully to the grand jury."

McQueary told the grand jury that he happened upon "rhythmic, slapping sounds" in the locker room showers and added that both Sandusky and the boy saw him there, according to a grand jury presentment. Authorities did not know the boy's identity when the report was issued, but may have learned it since then.

McQueary has become a lightning rod in the case, taking heat for not going to the boy's aid or immediately calling police. In a recent email to friends, he went on the defensive, saying he made sure the abuse stopped and went to authorities.

Defense lawyers would no doubt challenge McQueary about his more recent statements. Local and campus police have said they received no such complaint.

Meanwhile, the Patriot-News of Harrisburg has reported that McQueary's story changed when speaking in 2002 to Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a family friend. The newspaper report cited a source said to be familiar with Dranov's testimony.

"If this information is true, and we believe it is, it would be powerful, exculpatory evidence and the charges against our clients should be dismissed," Roberto and Farrell said in their statement.

The Associated Press was unable to reach Dranov this week at his home and office.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-15-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-cf1d430601e349e08c89a6053e87824f

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Grand Theft Auto III for iPhone, iPad hits App Store

Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition has hit the App Store. Aside from the menus and loading screens, that have been updated for the ’10th Anniversary’, the game stays very true to the original. Its a must buy for anyone who wants some good nostalgia.
Visually stunning
...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/HdLqtCIC2Jo/story01.htm

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[OOC] We Walk Together With Dirty Toes

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It does seem interesting.. Hm.

Night guys. When this is bold, I'm probably tired and going to sleep/ have to get off. When it's not, well. Whatever.
Status: Splitting headache and feeling hot. Too lazy to turn on AC; Will make tea.

I have a great respect for real musicians. You guys are wonderful.

Gay or European? It's hard to guar-an-tee.
Is he Gay or European?
Well, hey, don't look at me!

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I'm interested, but not sure. I'll keep tabs on it and see what develops.

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Engineering experts hit safety culture in BP spill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? BP and the oil industry drilling in the Gulf of Mexico lacked the proper safety attitude to handle the large risks of deep-water drilling, leading to the many bad decisions behind the nation's worst offshore spill, a panel of expert engineers said Wednesday.

Despite better safety practices, the experts worried that the improvements could fade without new steps. They pointed to NASA and how lessons the agency learned after the 1986 Challenger disaster eventually dimmed, leading to the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The National Academy of Engineering, which advises the federal government, cited errors that combined to make the well platform explode and oil spill, but noted a problem with the safety culture underlying last year's 172 million gallon spill at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The industrial management involved with drilling the Macondo well had not adequately understood and coped with the system safety challenges presented by offshore drilling operations," the 136-page report said. "This raises questions about the industry's overall safety preparedness, the ability to handle the complexities of the deep-water operations, and industry oversight to approve and monitor well plans and operational practices and personnel competency and training."

That's a problem because the report called drilling in the Gulf's deep waters "some of the most complex and most risky ventures conducted by commercial enterprises."

Experts said a deficient safety culture led BP to rely on blowout preventers ? a 57-foot-tall, 400-ton system of well control devices ? as equipment that just couldn't fail.

The trouble is that even before the April 2010 well blowout, "there were numerous warnings to both industry and regulators about potential failures of existing" blowout preventers, the report said. The report pointed to studies in 2001, 2002, 2004, and a 1999 well blowout and fire off the Louisiana coast.

"One needs to understand that they do not work all the time," said panel chairman Donald Winter, a former Navy secretary and engineering professor at the University of Michigan. BP and all the industry had "a misplaced confidence that the blowout preventer could provide a guarantee if you will, an insurance policy, against a blowout."

Panel member Roger McCarthy, a private engineering consultant who has investigated past oil spills, said blowout preventers are treated like drilling's circuit-breakers, but there's no safety group certifying them in the same that Underwriters Laboratories approves key electrical safety devices in homes.

Winter said the safety culture issue was apparent in the industry's attitude toward risks involved in drilling: Instead of acknowledging that there are risks and that industry officials need to make intelligent decisions comparing risk and business decisions, they had an unrealistic attitude that their actions never added risks.

Like other studies of the BP spill, the report highlighted several technical failures behind the disaster, with no lone cause. But Winter said the bad decision that was uppermost to him was the decision to abandon the well temporarily, which is normal, even though the cement poured in the well failed important pressure tests.

"Once they made the decision to basically disregard the tests," it set the chain-of-events for all that followed, Winter said.

In a statement, BP said it "has acknowledged its role in the accident and has taken concrete steps to further enhance safety and risk management throughout its global operations."

The experts do say drilling safety has improved in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We think it is indeed in fact a reasonable process to continue drilling at this point in time," Winter said at news conference. "But further improvements in safety can in fact be made and should be made."

The independence of the National Academy of Engineering means the report is likely to carry more weight in Congress than some of other investigations. Republican lawmakers have criticized prior reports by a presidential commission saying that the panel was biased.

A joint federal investigation also has inherent conflicts of interest because the committee was comprised of those who regulate the offshore drilling industry.

Since the disaster, the Obama administration has reorganized the offshore drilling agency and boosted safety regulations. But Congress has yet to pass a single piece of legislation to address safety gaps highlighted by the disaster. House Republicans, meanwhile, have passed bills to jump start offshore drilling.

___

Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report.

___

Online:

The National Academy of Engineering report: http://bit.ly/vQK3ai

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_go_ot/us_gulf_oil_spill

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Vitamin D Levels Tied to Diabetes Risk in Obese Kids (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of vitamin D are much more common in obese children than in those who aren't obese and are associated with insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, researchers have found.

The study included 411 obese children and 87 children who weren't overweight. Researchers measured the children's vitamin D levels, blood sugar levels, serum insulin, body mass index and blood pressure.

The children were also asked about their daily consumption of soda, juice, milk, fruits and vegetables, and whether or not they routinely skipped breakfast.

The findings are slated for publication in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"Our study found that obese children with lower vitamin D levels had higher degrees of insulin resistance," lead author Dr. Micah Olson, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society. "Although our study cannot prove causation, it does suggest that low vitamin D levels may play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes."

Obese kids who had poor dietary habits, such as skipping breakfast and drinking lots of soda and juice, also tended to have lower vitamin D levels, the study found.

Future research should look at whether making sure obese kids get adequate vitamin D could also help with insulin resistance, Olson added.

Past studies have linked low vitamin D levels with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. It's not fully known how obesity and associated conditions are related to vitamin D deficiency.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about childhood overweight and obesity.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weightloss/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111206/hl_hsn/vitamindlevelstiedtodiabetesriskinobesekids

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Russian President Medvedev Promises Punishment for Space Mishaps (ContributorNetwork)

According to Space.com, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is threatening to punish officials who are judged to be responsible for a series of space mishaps that have embarrassed that country's space effort.

What are some of the mishaps that have plagued the Russian space program?

The most recent accident concerned Russia's ambitious attempt to send a probe, dubbed Phobos-Grunt, to the Martian moon Phobos to take soil and rock samples and return them to Earth. Phobos-Grunt was stuck in low Earth orbit, having failed to executed a pair of rocket firings that would have sent it on a trajectory toward Mars.

In August, a Russian Progress spacecraft that carrying supplies to the International Space Station suffered a failure of its Soyuz rocket and instead of going to the ISS crashed into Siberia, according to Space.com. The mishap resulted in serious doubts about the ability of the Russians to provide transportation services for both cargo and humans, leading to the possibility that the ISS would have to be abandoned. However the Russians were able to find the cause of the glitch that had destroyed the Progress and have since been able to launch both a Progress cargo mission and a manned Soyuz to the ISS.

Why is Medvedev contemplating punitive action?

Russia clearly sees space travel as an expression of a country that expires to be a super power. It has had this attitude ever since the early space program, when the old Soviet Union was able to accomplish a series of space spectaculars, including Sputnik, the first Earth satellite, and the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in low Earth orbit. More recently, with the end of the space shuttle program, the Russian Space Agency boasted that the world had entered into the "Age of Soyuz" with America being forced to rely on Russia for trips to the ISS. There was even a dig at the fact that the Americans had lost two space shuttles, the Challenger and Columbia, with the boast of how reliable the Soyuz was. This form of chest pounding has come back to haunt the Russians in view of the Progress and Phobos-Grunt failures.

What does Medvedev propose to do to people he finds responsible for Russian space failures?

Reuters reports that the Russian president, perhaps in a fit of whimsy, has promised that they would not be stood up against a wall and shot, as was the practice in Josef Stalin's time. But criminal penalties, including imprisonment and fines, as well as administrative penalties are on the table.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the LA Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111206/sc_ac/10584539_russian_president_medvedev__promises_punishment_for_space_mishaps

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