Idaho man charged with trying to assassinate Obama (AP)

PITTSBURGH ? An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama or his staff, and prosecutors say he called Obama "the devil" and said he needed to be killed.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, of Idaho Falls, made his first court appearance before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh on Thursday, one day after he was arrested at a western Pennsylvania hotel.

According to a court document released after the hearing, authorities recovered nine spent shell casings from Ortega's car, which was abandoned near the White House. A person who knows him subsequently told investigators that he had become increasingly agitated with the federal government and was convinced it was conspiring against him, the document said. Others told investigators that Ortega had said Obama was "the anti-Christ" and the "devil." Ortega also reportedly said he "needed to kill" the president.

If convicted, Ortega faces up to life in prison.

Ortega's public defender, Christopher Brown, declined comment after the hearing.

He will be taken back from a federal court in Pittsburgh to face the charges in Washington, D.C. and will remain in federal custody at least until a magistrate in Washington can determine if he should remain jailed until his trial on the charge.

Ortega sat quietly as the hearing began, his hands free but his feet shackled. The 21-year-old said only, "Yes, ma'am" when he was asked if he understood that he would be going back to Washington to face the charge.

Authorities said a man clad in black who was obsessed with Obama pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the first family's living quarters while the president was away.

Soon after, U.S. Park Police found an abandoned vehicle, with an assault rifle inside it, near a bridge leading out of the nation's capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega.

The FBI took custody of Ortega's car Thursday afternoon to continue the process of reviewing evidence, said Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office.

Ortega was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a hotel near Indiana, Pa., about 55 miles east of Pittsburgh, after a desk clerk recognized his picture. He had been reported missing Oct. 31 by his family.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_go_ot/us_shots_fired_white_house

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World stocks lower on European crisis fears (AP)

PARIS ? Global stocks slid further Thursday, as investors worried that Europe's debt crisis was intensifying and spreading to larger countries in the 17-nation eurozone.

Bond investors pushed up borrowing rates for Spain and also for France, where the spread, or extra yield, demanded compared to safe-haven German bonds widened to a record 2 percentage points.

Meanwhile Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel again brushed aside pressure for a quick-fix solution to the euro crisis despite the mounting market tensions, arguing that spreading debt liability could ruin Europe's competitiveness and a massive European Central Bank bond-buying drive wouldn't resolve its problems.

The German chancellor argued in a speech Thursday to an economic conference that rather than look for quick fixes, Europe needs to consider growth-promoting measures that don't immediately cost money, such as labor-market reforms ? and that such measures will require patience.

The results of a Spanish debt auction soured sentiment. The country paid nearly 7 percent to raise euro3.56 billion ($4.8 billion) in 10-year bonds, the highest rate since 1997 and a level seen as unsustainable over the long term.

Demand was relatively weak. The amount of debt sold came in under the euro4 billion maximum target set by the Treasury and the bid to cover ratio was 1.54, compared to 1.76 last time.

"The results of the Spanish bond auction are revisiting familiar fears for investors," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

After the auction, yields on Spanish 10-year bonds shot up to 6.75 percent on the secondary market. That was 4.88 percentage points above the yield of the equivalent benchmark German bund. However, the yield dropped back to end the day at 6.44 percent on mooted bond-buying from the European Central Bank, which never comments on the speculation.

France too saw its borrowing costs rise, after it raised euro6.98 billion ($9.41 billion) at an auction of mid-term bonds that saw strong demand.

Italian bond yields ended the day a little lower at 6.81 percent after new premier Mario Monti vowed to focus on restoring growth, while warning that the end of the euro "would cause the disintegration of the united market."

"The future of the euro also depends on what Italy will do in the next week,"the economist and former European Union competition commissioner told the Senate ahead of a confidence vote on his one-day-old government.

The spreading economic gloom pushed oil prices lower. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for December delivery was down $2.90 to $99.69 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Traders will later focus on Rome, where new Italian Premier Mario Monti will unveil his government's anti-crisis strategy in Parliament. Across the country, transport unions called for walkouts and strikes to demand better work contracts and protest cuts.

Scuffles among students were reported at the start of the demonstration in Milan, where they hoped to march to Bocconi University, which trains Italy's business elite. Monti, an economist, is Bocconi's president.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.6 percent to 5,423.14 while France's CAC-40 ended 1.8 percent lower at 3,010.29. Germany's DAX was down 1.1 percent to 5,850.17. The euro however held its own after recent losses, trading 0.1 percent higher at $1.3453.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was 1.5 percent down at 11,722 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 1.9 percent to 1,214.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.8 percent to close at 18,817.47 while South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.1 percent to end at 1,876.67. Japan's Nikkei 225 index was up 0.2 percent to finish at 8,479.63.

Mainland China's benchmark Shanghai Composite lost 0.2 percent to close at 2,463.05 while the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.1 percent to close at 1,060.55.

___

Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong and Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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New device uses gold nanoparticles to test for lung cancer

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The metabolism of lung cancer patients is different than the metabolism of healthy people. And so the molecules that make up cancer patients' exhaled breath are different too. A new device pioneered at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and Nobel-Prize-winning Technion University in Haifa, Israel uses gold nanoparticles to trap and define these molecules in exhaled breath. By comparing these molecular signatures to control groups, the device can tell not only if a lung is cancerous, but if the cancer is small-cell or non-small-cell, and adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.

"This could totally revolutionize lung cancer screening and diagnosis," says Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "The perspective here is the development of a non-traumatic, easy, cheap approach to early detection and differentiation of lung cancer."

The proof of concept, recently published in the journal Nanomedicine, showed that in a preliminary study the device clearly distinguished between the volatile organic compounds in cancer patients' exhaled breath compared to the breath of a control group. Subjects simply exhale into a bag, which separates superficial exhaled breath from breath that originated deeper in the lungs. And then this deep breath is analyzed by an array of gold nanoparticle sensors.

"What is unique here is that we take advantage of a nanotechnology development going on at Technion University that allows us to immediately identify very small molecules," Hirsch says, and based on the identity of these small molecules in exhaled breath, Hirsch and colleagues can tell if the breath came from a cancerous lung.

The device's potential uses go beyond diagnosis.

"We can measure the levels of volatile organic compounds against population scores to diagnose cancer and types of cancer, or can measure the change in patients' levels of VOCs across time with the intent of, for example, monitoring how well a patient responds to specific treatments," Hirsch says. A breath now and a breath after treatment could define whether a patient should stay with a drug regimen or explores other options.

Personalized medicine has come to lung cancer ? just as in years past it has come to breast and some other cancers. The sooner and more accurately you can define the cancer subtype, the more precisely you can target the disease. This new device could eventually help doctors quickly, simply, and inexpensively define patients' lung cancer subtypes, allowing them to pair therapies with subtypes early in the treatment process.

In fact, Hirsch and his colleagues will soon publish very encouraging preclinical data showing that the device's gold nanoparticle sensors can distinguish between different types of lung cancer cells.

The device may also help doctors smooth the wrinkles in existing methods of cancer screening. For example, the National Lung Screening Trial recently reported that one of the major challenges in its more than 53,000-person study of low-dose chest CT scans to detect lung cancer was the trial's nearly 95 percent rate of false positives ? CT scans found nodules that turned out not to be cancerous.

"That calls for better measures to distinguish what's a benign nodule and a malignant nodule," Hirsch says. "That's what we in the lung cancer group here at the University of Colorado Cancer Center want to study with this technology, and we have very encouraging preliminary data. We could potentially use the exhaled breath to determine who among the individuals with a CT-detected nodule should go for further work up and/or eventually treatment."

Where an $1,800 chest CT struggles, simply exhaling may succeed.

"If it works, you can imagine standing in the grocery store and having high risk people blow into a bag," Hirsch says.

###

University of Colorado Denver: http://www.ucdenver.edu

Thanks to University of Colorado Denver for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115295/New_device_uses_gold_nanoparticles_to_test_for_lung_cancer

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Heavy D 'Brought So Much Light,' Mary J. Blige Says

'Every song Heavy D ever put out was something to uplift us,' former labelmate tells MTV News about her fallen friend.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Vanessa White Wolf


Mary J. Blige
Photo: MTV News

Mary J. Bilge famously sang "Not Gon' Cry" on her 1996 single, but when the topic of her fallen friend and former Uptown Records labelmate Heavy D came up, the emotion was just too much to hold back.

"Heavy D was so beloved because the impact he made on music was that we could have fun: We can do hip-hop without murdering and killing everybody," a tearful MJB told MTV News on Tuesday in Beverly Hills. "And he just brought so much light." Mary, like Heavy, hailed from the outskirts of New York City — him from Mount Vernon, her from Yonkers. It was 1987 when Heavy D & the Boyz released their first album, Living Large, on Uptown Records. Mary was signed years later, and in 1992, dropped her debut album, What's the 411? — but her earliest memories of Heavy pre-date her days in the music industry.

"I just remember being a child and him coming to King school, where they used to have all the performers come, and they came and did 'The Overweight Lover,' " Mary recalled with tears in her eyes. "We always needed something to uplift us, and he brought us so much joy because we were always in a place where we didn't have enough, we couldn't get enough money, but the King school show was free, and every song Heavy D ever put out was something to uplift us."

The exact cause of Heavy D's death November 8 is still unclear, as initial autopsy results came up inconclusive. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills after a 911 call was placed from his home. Heavy had difficulty breathing and was pronounced dead after he reached the hospital.

There will be a public viewing for the fallen rapper Thursday (November 17) at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, New York, and a private funeral service for family and close friends Friday. BET is planning a special tribute to Heavy D during the Soul Train Awards on November 27. Rappers Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, Kurtis Blow, Naughty by Nature, Whodini and Stetsasonic's Daddy-O are all expected to take part.

Share your fondest memory of Heavy D in the comments.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674554/heavy-d-death-mary-j-blige.jhtml

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Obama tells Asia U.S. "here to stay" as Pacific power (Reuters)

CANBERRA (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the U.S. military would expand its role in the Asia-Pacific, despite budget cuts, declaring America was "here to stay" as a Pacific power which would help shape the region's future.

The U.S. military, turning its focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan, would be more broadly distributed in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, more flexible and help build regional capacity, Obama told the Australian parliament.

"As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia Pacific a top priority," Obama said in a major speech on Washington's vision for the Asia-Pacific.

"As a result, reductions in U.S. defense spending will not -I repeat, will not - come at the expense of the Asia Pacific."

Acknowledging China's concerns at the U.S. moves, which Beijing sees as attempts by Washington to encircle it, Obama said he would seek greater cooperation with China.

"We'll seek more opportunities for cooperation with Beijing, including greater communication between our militaries to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation," he said.

Nervous about China's growing clout, U.S. allies such as Japan and South Korea have sought assurances from the United States that it would be a strong counterweight in the region.

"We will preserve our unique ability to project power and deter threats to peace," said Obama.

"With most of the world's nuclear powers and some half of humanity, Asia will largely define whether the century ahead will be marked by conflict or cooperation," he said.

"As a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future..."

DARWIN POSTING

The winding down of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has opened the door to greater U.S. attention to simmering tension over the South China Sea, a shipping lane for more than $5 trillion in annual trade that the United States wants to keep open.

A first step in extending the U.S. military reach into Southeast Asia will see U.S. marines, naval ships and aircraft deployed to northern Australia.

Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday announced plans to have 2,500 U.S. Marines operate out of a de facto base in the northern port of Darwin by 2016.

Obama was to discuss those plans later Thursday in a visit to Darwin, only 820 kms (500 miles) from Indonesia. He and Gillard will salute the 60-year U.S.-Australian alliance by laying a wreath at a memorial for the USS Peary, a U.S. destroyer that was sunk by the Japanese during World Ward Two.

China has questioned the U.S. deployment to Australia, raising doubts whether strengthening such alliances helped the region pull together at a time of economic gloom.

"As for using the form of a military alliance, China has its own concepts of friendly cooperation with all countries," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin.

"China never engages in military alliances."

White House aide Ben Rhodes said the United States was sending a signal "that we're going to continue to play the role of underpinning security in this part of the region."

"Part of that context is a rising China," he said.

But Obama and his aides have stressed the United States was not seeking to isolate China or ratchet up tensions.

Obama's Australia visit falls midway through Obama's nine-day Asia-Pacific tour that takes him next to Bali, where he will seek to underscore a focus on Asia by becoming the first U.S. president to participate in the security East Asia Summit.

He flew to Australia from Hawaii, where he hosted an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that focused on bolstering trade and economic ties within the region.

(Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111117/ts_nm/us_obama_asia

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Army tests hypersonic weapon over the Pacific

(AP) ? The Army on Thursday conducted its first flight test of a new weapon capable of traveling five times the speed of sound.

The Army launched the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon from the military's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai at about 1:30 a.m.

The weapon's "glide vehicle" reached Kwajalein Atoll ? some 2,300 miles away ? in less than half an hour, said Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Earlier this year, the Congressional Research Service said in a report the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is part of the military's program to develop "prompt global strike" weapons that would allow the U.S. to strike targets anywhere in the world with conventional weapons in as little as an hour.

The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, are developing a similar vehicle.

The Pentagon said the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, or AHW, vehicle is designed to fly long ranges within the earth's atmosphere at speeds that are at least five times the speed of sound.

The objective of Thursday's test was to collect data on technologies that boost the hypersonic vehicle and allow it to glide. The Army was also testing how the vehicle performed in long-range flight.

The Congressional Research Service report said the AHW would be able to maneuver to avoid flying over third party nations as it approached its target. The weapon would use a precision guidance system to home in on the target, it said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-17-Weapons%20Test/id-2930025077ab44af828b683b2bde9419

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Google off-handedly mentions there are 200 million Android devices worldwide (Appolicious)

During its Google Music announcement yesterday, the search giant and creator of the Android mobile operating system dropped something of a bombshell while talking about the new service: There have been 200 million Android devices activated worldwide.

That number is significant because back in May, Google mentioned a different figure: 100 million activated devices. In a period of roughly five months, Google has doubled that number, demonstrating just how big a share of the market Android currently holds in the realm of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

A recent analysis from market research firm Gartner found that Android devices made up 52.5 percent of all the smartphones sold in the third quarter of 2011, more than twice the market share the operating system enjoyed during the same period in 2010. That?s a pretty significant jump, and given that Google has doubled the number of devices in the hands of customers since May, it?s not surprising.

Google also mentioned a daily activation rate of 550,000 devices. The 550,000-per-day mark is also higher than the 400,000 daily activations Android was notching in May, as Pocket Gamer reports, but it?s about the same as the rate Google announced when it mentioned the 100 million activations six months ago.

Pocket Gamer speculates that this could mean that Android?s rate of growth might be leveling off or hitting a peak, but that seems like too simple a way to interpret the data, especially given other information we?re seeing. Like Apple?s iPhone 4, Gartner believes that Android suffered from a dip in activations during the last quarter as users were waiting to see what new devices would be hitting shelves for the holidays. They were rewarded with the announcement of the Google-branded Galaxy Nexus from Samsung ? just as Apple fans got the iPhone 4S. The speculation that newer, better devices were on their way seems to have caused potential customers to hold back their purchases.

Gartner shows that smartphone volume is continuing to increase in markets such as China and Russia, but the wait for devices like the Galaxy Nexus helped temper that growth. In the fourth quarter, things might be a bit different, though, as Google rolls out the next iteration of Android, dubbed ?Ice Cream Sandwich.? The Galaxy Nexus is the first device to have the latest version of Android, but Samsung confirmed that its Galaxy S II would be getting the update as well (at least in the UK), according to Mashable.

Ice Cream Sandwich and services like the newly announced Google Music are going to be big boons to the Android ecosystem and should help convince more customers to take the plunge with Google, rather than rival Apple. The fact that the daily activation rate of Android devices didn?t rise during the last six months shouldn?t be seen as a slowing of the operating system?s successes, especially with so many reasons to consider Android coming in the future.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10239_google_off_handedly_mentions_there_are_200_million_android_devices_worldwide/43635825/SIG=13t4pbmh2/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10239-google-off-handedly-mentions-there-are-200-million-android-devices-worldwide

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Cain's trouble with women voters threatens GOP bid (AP)

WASHINGTON ? In a matter of a week, Herman Cain referred to the House Democratic leader as "Princess Nancy" Pelosi, said presidential rival Michele Bachmann would be "tutti-frutti" ice cream and shrugged off a joke about Anita Hill.

The Republican presidential candidate also has denied allegations that he sexually harassed several women and, through his lawyer, threatened to investigate anyone else who makes such a claim.

Now, as Cain struggles to stabilize his campaign, the Republican presidential candidate is rolling out his wife to defend him ? and help shore up female support for his bid for the GOP nomination.

"I know that's not the person he is," Gloria Cain said on Fox News Channel's "On The Record." "He totally respects women."

Her public foray into the presidential campaign after months of staying behind the scenes comes as polls show Herman Cain's support among women dropping, further threatening a campaign rocked by accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Cain's overall standing has slipped in surveys just weeks before the Iowa presidential caucuses that kick off the state-by-state voting for the Republican Party's nomination; state and national polls show former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading the pack, with Cain no longer challenging him for the top spot.

Polls released in recent days show unmistakably that female voters have turned away from Cain since the sexual harassment allegations surfaced at the end of October.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday shows nearly three-fourths of Republican women ? 74 percent ? now call the harassment charges against Cain serious, up from 39 percent earlier this month.

A CBS News poll conducted Nov. 6-10 shows his support among Republican women had dropped since late October, from 28 percent to 15 percent.

Credibility is a problem for Cain among women. A CNN/ORC International poll conducted Nov. 11-13 showed that majorities of all women said they tend to believe his accusers and would like to see him end the campaign. Majorities of men take the opposite position.

The polls are national in scope, meaning they're hardly predictive of how Cain is faring in Iowa ? the first state to weigh in on the GOP nomination fight on Jan. 3.

Even so, the findings of the national surveys raise questions about whether Cain, should he manage to win the nomination, would be able to compete for women's votes against President Barack Obama in next year's general election.

Women have made up a majority of voters in every presidential year since 1980, and while Democrats tend to win the group, successful Republicans have had to win or come close to splitting the vote among women in order to prevail.

In the 2008 presidential election, female eligible voters participated at a higher rate than males ? 66 percent to 62 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Nearly 10 million more women cast ballots than men. And Obama won 56 percent of the female vote, the biggest margin among women a Democratic presidential candidate has had since exit polling began in 1972.

Cain has repeatedly denied the allegations of sexual harassment, though they aren't going away.

On Monday, the former boyfriend of Sharon Bialek ? one of Cain's accusers ? said the then-couple spent an evening with Cain in the 1990s. That countered the GOP presidential candidate's earlier statements that he never met the woman.

"Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain," said Victor Jay Zuckerman, a Louisiana pediatrician.

In turn, Cain's attorney, Lin Wood, insisted that his client "doesn't recall Ms. Bialek."

Cain, in earlier statements, said he had seen Bialek "for the very first time" last week when she publicly accused him of groping her in 1997.

"As I sat in my hotel room with a couple of my staff members, as they got to the microphone, my first response in my mind and reaction was, I don't even know who this woman is. Secondly, I didn't recognize the name at all," Cain said.

Later, Cain added: "I don't even know who this woman is. I tried to remember if I recognized her and I didn't."

It wasn't just the allegations of sexual harassment Cain had had to explain.

He's also been forced to answer for his colorful statements about women.

During a debate last week, Cain likened Pelosi to royalty for blocking efforts to repeal Democrats' health care overhaul as House speaker. After the debate, Cain said he "probably should not have made" that comment.

Not long after that, Cain found himself defending a joke he made about Hill, who famously accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.

Cain said he was approached at a recent event by a supporter who said Hill was trying to contact him.

"And my response was `Is she going to endorse me?'" Cain said Friday on WGDJ-AM Albany, N.Y. "He said it in a humorous way. I gave back a humorous response. It was in no way intended to be an insult toward Anita Hill or anybody else."

In a lighthearted interview with GQ magazine, Cain couldn't resist when asked what ice cream flavor would best describe Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman running against him.

"Tutti-frutti," he said, adding, "I know I'm going to get in trouble!"

With voting near, Cain has little choice but to try to fix the problem with female voters.

Enter Gloria Cain.

"To hear such graphic allegations and know that that would have been something that was totally disrespectful of her as a woman and I know that's not the person he is," Gloria Cain told host Greta Van Susteren. "I'm thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said."

Her response was expected.

"Every woman who finds out her husband is a harasser has a hard time believing it," said Karen O'Connor, founder of the nonpartisan Women & Politics Institute at American University. "This is another `stand by your man.'"

Now other Republican women will have to decide whether to stand by him, too.

_______

Associated Press writer Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain_women

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Honda resuming some production after Thai flooding (AP)

TOKYO ? Honda Motor Corp. says it is beginning to restore some production of cars and motorcycles that took a hit from the recent flooding in Thailand.

The Japanese company has restarted output of some motorcycle and power products at its subsidiary in Thailand. It had suspended motorcycle output at the plant since Oct. 11 due to supply problems.

Honda's auto factory in Thailand remains closed because of the floodwaters.

Honda will continue to limit production at six auto plants in the U.S. and Canada. But it says some factories will produce at rates exceeding the 50 percent the company announced previously. It expects to return to normal levels on Dec. 1 and 2.

Honda says it plans no layoffs at its North American plants.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_honda

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Exclusive: Olympus says readying legal steps vs execs (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp is preparing to take legal action, including possible criminal complaints, against any executives found responsible for the accounting scandal engulfing the firm, according to an internal staff email.

The memo, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, was sent to Olympus employees the previous day by the firm's new president, Shuichi Takayama, who also vowed in the message to restore public trust in the once-proud maker of cameras and endoscopes.

Japan's securities watchdog, police and prosecutors are probing the 92-year-old company after Olympus admitted last week that it had hid investment losses for decades using funds from M&A deals. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.K. Serious Fraud Office are also looking into the case.

A third-party panel appointed by Olympus to investigate the scandal is expected to report its findings in early December.

"We will wait for the third party panel to report, and we are preparing to take firm legal action, including criminal complaints, against any manager it finds responsible," Olympus President Takayama told its employees on November 15 in an internal e-mail, which was obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

The email did not name specific executives.

Investors are speculating that several Olympus officials will bear the brunt of any punishment for the scandal, hoping that the company itself will avoid the ultimate market sanction, a delisting from the Tokyo stock exchange.

"As long as market participants think that Olympus will not be delisted, the stock will continue to rise. The market is buying back what they sold last week," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

Olympus' share price, which had lost as much as 80 percent of its value after the scandal broke last month, closed up more than 15 percent on Wednesday at 740 yen in heavy turnover. It was untraded with a glut of buy orders on Tuesday after rising its daily limit the day before.

In a sign regulators are getting serious after a slow start, Japan's Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission (SESC) is considering recommending criminal charges against those involved in wrongdoing at Olympus, a source familiar with the matter has told Reuters.

The source said the SESC might also urge that Olympus be fined for false financial reports, a move that could allow the company to stay listed although that outcome is not assured.

The Bank of Japan also is trying to gather information from related financial firms about Olympus' past transactions, the central bank Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said.

"It is regrettable that doubts have arisen about the transparency and fairness of corporate management. It is vital that accurate information be disclosed promptly," Shirakawa said.

TRIO AT THE HEART OF SCANDAL

Olympus executives are likely to face questioning on a voluntary basis by Tokyo prosecutors as early as this week, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.

Olympus President Takayama has blamed his predecessor, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who quit on October 26, along with former vice-president Hisashi Mori and internal auditor Hideo Yamada for the cover-up, and has said he would consider criminal complaints against them. Mori had been fired and Yamada has offered to resign.

The Nikkei said Kikukawa, Mori and Yamada had chosen the financial advisory firm for its controversial 2008 acquisition of U.K. medical devices maker Gyrus, a decision normally taken by the entire board of directors.

The trio also made the decision to increase payments to the advisory firm -- payments that were used to conceal huge losses on securities investments by Olympus, the daily said, citing persons familiar with the company.

Takayama, who took over last month, called on employees in the internal email to unite to overcome the corporate crisis and not be "deluded" by an online petition led by an ex-Olympus director to reinstate ousted CEO Michael Woodford.

The Briton was fired on October 14 and then publicly pressed the firm to come clean on mysterious M&A deals which include record acquisition advisory fees in history.

"I am confident that the actions of all of you, who are working for the sake of Olympus with a sense of mission, will revive trust in Olympus so that the brand will shine," the email said. "Now is not the time to be wracked with fear and doubt."

After weeks of denial, Olympus admitted last week it had found that funds related to its $2.2 billion purchase of Gyrus, which involved a huge advisory fee of $687 million, as well as payments totaling $773 million for three tiny domestic firms, were used to hide losses on securities investments stretching back to 1990.

Analysts say the future of Olympus' big and profitable medical equipment business may rest in an eventual buyout by a rival or a private equity fund and Fujifilm and Hoya, the second- and third-largest players in the endoscope business, are obvious potential bidders.

But Fujifilm President Shigetaka Komori told a news conference on Wednesday it was premature to comment given that there were so many uncertainties surrounding the affair.

Olympus' lenders met company executives on Wednesday but were not likely to demand changes in loan terms or take any abrupt steps that could hurt their own interests, banking sources told Reuters before the closed-door meeting at a Tokyo hotel.

(Additional reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore, Taiga Uranaka, Edmund Klamann, Ritsuko Shimizu and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Miyoung Kim)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111116/bs_nm/us_olympus

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