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Poland's jobless rate down to 11 percent in April

2012-03-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

Poland's jobless rate dropped to 11 percent in April from 11.2 percent the month before, according to government statistics released Friday.

Labor Minister Jolanta Fedak said some 1.72 million people in the country of 38 million were without a job at the end of …

Pleuritis can be part of arthritis

2012-03-15T03:29:00.000-07:00

Q. My daughter, 24, who has rheumatoid arthritis, is now told byher doctor that she has it in the wall lining of her chest. This wasconfirmed by another doctor. I have never heard of it before, andwould like to have any information you can give me.

A. Rheumatoid arthritis is not an illness of joints alone. Itis a systemic disease, meaning that many body tissues and organs maybe affected by the basic inflammation process.

The lining tissue to which you refer is the pleura. Itcomprises delicate covering tissue that protects the lung surface,also allowing for the expansion and contraction with each breath.Some people with rheumatoid arthritis do develop this …

Top European Central Bank official Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi to resign

2012-03-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Top European Central …

UK, Irish premiers offer path to new Belfast deal

2012-03-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

Northern Ireland's politicians must keep negotiating instead of breaking up their Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government, the British and Irish prime ministers declared Wednesday as they presented a compromise plan to the feuding sides.

Yet Gordon Brown of Britain and Brian Cowen of Ireland ended their three-day diplomatic mission without persuading local parties to accept the plan. The prime ministers said they would not publish details of the compromise in hopes that lower-level officials could seal a deal by the weekend.

"We believe that we have produced a pathway to an agreement," Brown said with Cowen at his side.

Power …

pounds30m deal over shiprow scheme

2012-03-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

A New retail and entertainment complex being built in Aberdeen isto be bought for pounds30 million by a property investment company.

WG Mitchell has finalised the deal with Kenmore Property Group totake over the City Wharf development near Union Street once it iscompleted.

A casino, office accommodation, eight leisure units, a 107-bedhotel and a public car park are all to be included in the project.

Work on the development began earlier this month.

Kenmore director Martyn Roe said: "We are delighted to seeconstruction under way on this development.

"Strong tenants …

Top Fifty Fastest Growing Companies: Eichelberger Construction Inc

2012-03-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

With a desire to run an honest and professional business with integrity, William Eichelberger started his construction firm - Eichelberger Construction Inc. - in January 1993. He backed up his desire with 18 years of experience in the industry.

"I had been in the construction business working for another company and I enjoyed the industry," he recalls. "I wanted to see if honesty, professionalism and integrity would make a successful business. Knock on wood, it has worked to date," he says proudly.

Eichelberger began doing business at 124 W. Church St., Dillsburg, with no resources and no job prospects on the horizon - a fact he considers his biggest challenge during his …

Applications for jobless benefits jump to 457,000; second rise in four weeks

2012-03-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Applications for jobless …

FOUNDER

2012-03-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

DAILY MAIL

Barbara Smith is a founding …

Internationalizing Career Counseling: Emptying Our Cups and Learning From Each Other

2012-03-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

The symposium International Perspectives on Career Development included a plenary session that addressed career counseling in a world of limited resources. Panelists representing diverse areas of the world shared their perspectives on career counseling in their countries and the specific problems they faced. They identified common concerns and prospects for the future of cross-national career counseling in 3 domains: (a) counselor training and human resources, (b) career service delivery practices, and (c) resources and sources of support. Harnessing the energy and capital of the global career counseling community will better equip career development professionals to deal with existing …

UK Sport cuts funding in 8 British sports for 2012

2012-03-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Eight British sports had their funding cut by between a third and a half for the 2012 London Olympics on Thursday.

Those hit by UK Sport's cuts were fencing, handball, shooting, table tennis, volleyball/beach volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling. Paralympic sports fencing, goalball, volleyball and women's wheelchair basketball also had their funding reduced.

The global financial meltdown and a shortfall in private-sector spending have forced the cuts from last year's Beijing Games, and UK Sport said the reductions are in areas where …

Page resigns as publisher of Sun-Times

2012-03-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

Robert E. Page resigned Thursday as president and publisher ofthe Chicago Sun-Times.

"I leave the Sun-Times with regret," said Page, "but with astrong management team and staff and the knowledge that thisnewspaper is positioned to continue its vital role as a unique andimportant Chicago institution."

"Bob Page has contributed much to the Sun-Times," said LeonardP. Shaykin, chairman of the Sun-Times. "He has now decided to pursueother interests. All of us at the Sun-Times wish him well."

Shaykin, a managing partner of Adler & Shaykin, the investmentfirm that spearheaded the 1986 acquisition of the Sun-Times fromRupert Murdoch, announced that Chicago …

Israel to clear thousands of mines in desert

2012-03-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense ministry says it will soon begin clearing thousands of mines in southern Israel.

In a statement Sunday, defense official Ervin Lavi says the ministry will clear 60 acres of land near the Dead Sea in March.

Lavi says the ministry eventually intends to clear some 32,500 acres of land in areas where mines have shifted over time and …

Borrowing to finance premiums can make sense

2012-03-14T01:08:00.000-07:00

With interest rates rising, insurance buyers can save money byfinancing their premiums through the specialized premium financecompanies used by insurance carriers and agents.

Consumers do not always realize that borrowing to financepremiums is least costly when done through companies and agentsbecause the insurance policy is used as collateral. Here's how:

The customer pays about 25 percent down at the time coverage isbound, and has nine monthly installments thereafter. Depending onthe finance arrangements, effective annual interest costs can be aslow as 6 percent, a real bargain today.

The cheapest place to finance premiums usually is directlythrough the insurance carrier. Many of the largest carriers havespecial automatic billing plans that charge about 6 percent interest.

For insurance placed with companies that do not have their ownpayment plans, your agent can provide financing through variousprivate companies such as AFCO. The rates charged by these firmsusually are somewhat higher than the insurance companies.' However,there are ways to reduce the interest charges. First, ask your agentto delay the "check release" date as long as possible. The longer hecan wait to get the finance company's check, the lower interest rateyou will pay. Secondly, the larger your down payment, the lower youreffective interest cost will be.

How can these companies charge so little compared to banks, andwhy are they willing to pay your premiums without any credit check?The answer is that your insurance policy is a unique form ofcollateral. The finance agreement you are required to sign grantsthe finance company the irrevocable right to cancel your coverage ifyou do not make your payments on time.

Since the finance companies require a 25 percent down paymentand monthly installments thereafter, there is never any economic lossto the finance company as long as they cancel coverage promptlywhenever an installment payment is not made. Because there is littlerisk of loss, there is little reason for credit checks or highinterest rates to offset loan losses.

For businesses especially, insurance premium financing can be alow-cost source of borrowing that frees other assets to be used forbusiness promotion.

INSURANCE STOCKS?

"Are insurance stocks a good investment?" a reader asks.Although insurance stocks have rebounded from their October, 1987,lows, many are still selling below their best levels in the pastyear. In fact, the prices of some of the major insurers, such asAetna and CIGNA, are low enough to generate dividend yields of around6 percent.

Insurance stocks historically have not been among the stockmarket's strongest performers. Now, there are more reasons forcaution than for a buying spree.

In the property and casualty insurance business, for example, thecompetitive market has returned, bringing with it fears of erosion ininsurer profitability and even economic stability. For stockcompanies, this has meant selling more shares, which tends to diluteshareholder value. Low confidence also tends to lower share prices.

The life and health insurance marketplaces, by contrast, are inan upward pricing spiral that is equally worrisome. Fears about theultimate cost of AIDS claims for life and health insurers is causinga great deal of market gyrating.

At the same time, health insurance prices, driven by increasedcosts and utilization, are rising so sharply that no one is sure whatwill happen to the market. The uncertainty over national healthinsurance policy further complicates the picture.

LENDING YOUR CAR

"Am I covered if I lend my car to a friend?" This is one of themost frequently asked questions I receive.

The answer is yes. Any licensed driver who operates your carwith your permission is covered by your policy. In fact, this meansthat in the event of an accident, your insurer will pay to repair thecar and will pay any negligence claims against you as a result of theaccident.

S.African finance, other ministers resign

2012-03-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

South Africa's finance minister resigned along with most leading Cabinet members Tuesday in a move likely to upset the business community and stock market following the ouster of President Thabo Mbeki.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's departure was a potentially devastating blow for the economic stability of Africa's most powerful nation, and for the new administration expected to take over on Thursday.

Manuel, his deputy Jabulani Moleketi, eight other Cabinet ministers and three deputies quit along with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, a presidential spokesman said.

Nine of the 10 ministers who resigned belonged to the ANC _ a measure of the backlash caused by Mbeki's surprise firing. They include the ministers of defense, intelligence, public enterprises and public services as well as local government and housing minister Sydney Mufamadi, who was the key mediator in Zimbabwe's political crisis. Moleketi, the deputy finance minister, is in charge of the finances for the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa.

The news came after South Africa's ruling party _ which ousted Mbeki over the weekend _ said Tuesday its moderate and conciliatory deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe would to take over as interim head of state.

Manuel, along with Mbeki, won the confidence of local and foreign investors by promoting pro-market policies that have seen the country enjoy an unprecedented growth averaging 5 percent over nearly a decade.

Zuma on Monday sought to allay fears in the business community, saying there would be no changes in economic policy.

Zuma also said no ministers had informed the party that they were resigning and appealed to "all ANC ministers and deputy ministers to continue their work and to serve the people of our country."

Israeli novel recalls idealistic pioneers

2012-03-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

JERUSALEM Israel's best-selling novel, a nostalgic voyage into thegood old days when idealistic pioneers settled the Jewish homeland,has won success here because it offers welcome relief from Mideasttensions.

Meir Shalev's A Russian Romance celebrates the socialist valuesof Russian emigrants who settled pre-state Israel in the early 1900sand followed a simple set of rules: Work was divided equally, thecity was bad and there was no fooling around.

More books on similar topics have surfaced as Israel reachesmiddle age. Historians and writers are re-examining the country'searly roots, said Moshe Lissak, a sociologist at Hebrew University inJerusalem.

Another best seller, Amos Keinan's Waheb in Suphah, describes aman who goes home one day in 1982 and finds himself transported backto the early days of the state. It is 1954, he has a code name andbelongs to an underground political group whose violent activitiesare carried over into the future. The title is derived from anobscure biblical phrase.

"Many of these writers believe the course of Israel's historyhas gone wayward, deviating from the idealistic route mapped out inthe 1920s and 1930s," Lissak said. "Some of these artists are, in away, settling accounts with that earlier period."

In A Russian Romance, the Arab-Israeli conflict is noticeablyabsent and the line between good guys and bad guys is clearly drawn.All the protagonists are idealists - to an extreme degree.

Even the village mule, Zitzer, reads the socialist newspaper ashe drinks an occasional beer. A central committee sets down all therules for the community, even deciding who should marry whom.

Most critics agree, however, that the novel has stayed at thetop of Israel's best-seller list because it is a beautifully written,compelling book.

It tells the story of Tzirkin, Mirkin and Liberson, members ofthe "Work Committee Named After Feiga," a virtuous pioneer woman theyall love - platonically, of course.

The committee decrees that Tzirkin must marry Feiga, and hecomplies, although he secretly longs for a beautiful Ukrainian tarthe left behind in the old country.

Feiga dutifully produces three children, then dies of a brokenheart.

Woven throughout the saga are zany tales that breathe life intohistory while also poking fun at the pioneers.

"The pioneers are more revered in Israel than the AmericanMayflower in the United States. They have been transformed intoalmost demigods," said the 40-year-old Shalev. "On the other hand,people are sick and tired of hearing about all the swamps they driedto reclaim the land.

Even though today's generation resents the pioneers who "didit all," the author said, they long for a simpler time when people"predicted the direction of the wind by the color of the moon anddetermined the amount of nitrogen in the soil just by tasting anonion."

Shalev, a newspaper columnist, drew much of the material for ARussian Romance from his childhood on Nahalal, the first collectivefarm in Israel's Jezreel Valley.

His grandfather believed in few luxuries, hitched his trousersup with rope like one of the characters in the book and never let hisgrandmother buy a couch, Shalev said.

At the end of the novel, Tzirkin's grandson makes a fortune bycharging elderly Jews in Florida who have never set foot in Israel$10,000 to be buried in the pioneers' cemetery.

"The pioneers had the quality of character to sacrifice theirlives for an ideal, something few of us are willing to do today,"Shalev said.

Berlusconi allies work to patch up church ties

2012-03-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

Allies of the Italian government have pledged to patch up ties with the Catholic church, after a newspaper in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's media family attacked a Catholic editor who had demanded he answer allegations in a sex scandal over young women.

Lawmaker Fabrizio Cicchitto, a leader in Berlusconi's Freedom People party, told Sky TG24 TV Sunday it would be the conservative coalition's "aim and task to work hard so that there are no lacerations or fractures in relations between the government and the Catholic church."

Support from Catholic voters is considered crucial for any Italian government to come to power, and good ties with the Vatican are courted by many politicians.

Umberto Bossi, whose Northern League party is the lynchpin of the 15-month-old government, told reporters on Saturday he would go to the Vatican to personally try to shore up ties.

The apparent fraying in relations centers on the scandal that has swirled around Berlusconi since his wife announced this year she was divorcing him for what she said was his "infatuation" with young women. Allegations have included that women were paid to attend parties at his Sardinian villa, while a high-class prostitute said she spent a night with him at his Rome residence.

Berlusconi has denied paying women for sex, and dismisses the scandal as a plot by left-leaning media.

But many, including the daily newspaper Avvenire of Italy's Catholic Bishops Conference, have demanded more answers from the 72-year-old conservative billionaire media mogul.

On Friday, Milan daily Il Giornale, which is owned by Berlusconi's family, alleged the Catholic paper's chief editor had a homosexual scandal in his past. The paper alleged that Dino Boffo had been fined several years ago for harassing the wife of a man in whom he was purportedly interested.

Later that day, the premier scrapped his planned participation in a centuries-old Catholic pardon-seeking ceremony in the earthquake-struck town of L'Aquila, after the Vatican called off his dinner there with Pope Benedict XVI's top aide, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Berlusconi's cancellation was widely seen as done out of embarrassment for the Milan paper's report. Many had viewed his planned participation in the ceremony for pardoning sins as a public relations stroke to boost his popularity with Catholics and his standing with the Vatican.

Boffo denied the allegations against him in an editorial on Sunday.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the bishops conference, called Il Giornale's allegations "disgusting," and expressed "esteem" for Boffo.

The Vatican has not commented directly about Il Giornale's report, but its newspaper L'Osservatore Romano carried the bishops conference's statement professing "full trust" in Boffo.

Berlusconi on Sunday sought to distance himself from the flap, insisting he had had no contact with Il Giornale's editor over the anti-Boffo article, Italian media reported.

The center-left opposition was left in tatters after Berlusconi swept to his third term as premier in spring 2008 elections, and it is unclear how much political capital it can make of the scandal involving the premier. Italians tend to view politicians' private lives as none of their business.

Judge Won't Dismiss Charges Against Karr

2012-03-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - A judge on Friday refused to dismiss child pornography charges against John Mark Karr, the former suspect in the killing of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, after prosecutors admitted losing key evidence.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Cerena Wong criticized prosecutors and sheriff's deputies for "mistakes and missteps," such as losing the computer on which police said the five suspected images were stored and failing to tell her about the loss immediately.

Karr faces five misdemeanor charges. Defense lawyers asked for them to be dismissed, arguing that prosecutors were not acting in good faith. They also said they could not adequately defend their client without hard evidence.

Karr, 41, who was not required to be in court, was absent from the hearing.

The former teacher had fled before his trial could be held. He was arrested in Thailand last month after suggesting that he killed JonBenet in her family's Boulder, Colo., home in 1996. He was returned to the U.S., but the Ramsey case quickly collapsed after DNA failed to connect him to the crime.

Three hard drives, a laptop computer, diskettes and a disk drive were seized from Karr's home when he was arrested in 2001. Karr rejected a plea deal in the child porn case and remains jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Investigators said they had lost computer data containing child porn evidence against Karr and testified Friday that they notified prosecutor Joan Risse on Aug. 30 that it was missing. Risse had told the judge Aug. 29 that deputies were still analyzing the hard drive, prompting the judge to seal search and arrest warrants from 2001.

Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Robert Giordano testified Friday that a copy of data on Karr's missing hard drive was found Thursday in the sheriff's computer forensic lab.

Wong said Friday after Risse testified about the missing evidence that the prosecutor had not misled her.

The problems for which Wong criticized prosecutors and investigators should be resolved by a jury, Wong said. The errors were not enough to merit dismissal of the charges, she said.

"There may have been some serious mistakes and missteps, but I don't believe when you add it all up, it amounts to bad faith," Wong said.

Risse said she was turning over information to defense attorney Robert Amparan as she received it and never intentionally withheld evidence.

The copy of the missing information was never booked as evidence but was used as an "investigative tool" in at least two other cases, Giordano said Friday.

Amparan asked Giordano and another investigator about where the drive was stored, what it was used for and how many times it had been copied. Neither Giordano nor Detective John Eubanks could answer.

"We don't have any record of where that drive went," Giordano testified.

Giordano said he learned the hard drive was missing Aug. 18 but didn't tell Risse until Aug. 30 because he was confident it would be found.

Amparan called the late discovery a "last-minute rush to come in with bad, corrupted evidence."

"The evidence we need to establish the defense in this case is gone," he said. "The lack of evidence renders us useless and meaningless."

Nursery kids grow own veg

2012-03-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

AMMANFORD Nursery School has enhanced its green credentials bygrowing a range of vegetables at different times of the year.

The process is designed to make children think about the climate,soil types and issues such as how different countries growvegetables.

"Everyone at Ammanford Nursery School is very enthusiastic andlooking forward to learning and working with colleagues from thedifferent European schools," said a school spokeswoman The programmeforms part of the Comenuis Project, and the nursery will exchangetasks and findings with schools in Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey,Greece, Romania, Poland and Sweden.

Teens hear own song for project

2012-03-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Talented teens had a taste of what it's like to be a recordingstar when they heard their own song played back to them.

The youngsters celebrated the end of a nine-month music projecthosted by Music 4 U.

The event gave youngsters who took part in the project the chanceto meet up with old pals.

They also got to hear their song, which they wrote and recordedonto CD, Through Our Eyes, for the first time.

All kids who took part were presented with certificates inrecognition of their individual contribution to the project.

Music 4 U's Debbie Kirkness, who led the project, said: "It waslovely to catch up with the young people involved in the project."

Plea deal reached for "Jena 6" school racial fight teen

2012-03-13T03:27:00.000-07:00

A black teenager may get out of a juvenile facility in about eight months after a deal was struck Monday with prosecutors in the beating of a white classmate that sparked a major civil rights demonstration amid cries that his treatment was unduly harsh.

Mychal Bell, now 17, originally was charged as an adult with attempted murder in the beating of Justin Barker in December 2006. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September, that verdict was thrown out by an appeals court that said Bell should be tried as a juvenile.

Under the deal, Bell pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery in return for an 18-month sentence with credit for the 10 months he already has served. Without a deal, Bell faced being placed in a juvenile facility until his 21st birthday.

Bell also must pay court costs plus $935 (euro638) to the Barker family and he must testify truthfully in court if any other of his co-defendants in the Barker beating go to trial.

"This was a way to put a close to an event at a time when everyone had reasons to want it settled," said Louis Scott, one of Bell's lawyers.

Bell is one of a group of teens who came to be known as the "Jena Six" as word spread of their arrests on attempted second-degree murder charges, which could have landed them in prison for decades.

"We were prepared to go forward with the trial, but you have to do what's best for the client," said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys. A juvenile court trial was to begin later this week.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters was expected to comment on the deal Monday afternoon.

Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack but was discharged and attended a school event the night after the attack, which occurred about a year ago.

Critics said prosecutors have treated blacks more harshly than whites in LaSalle Parish, pointing to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged.

Walters has said there was no state crime to charge them with.

Brazilian Football Results

2012-03-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

Results from the Sao Paulo state and Rio de Janeiro state first-division football championships (home teams listed first):

Sao Paulo Championship

Friday's Game

Sao Caetano 3, Ituano 1

Saturday's Games

Guarani 2, Noroeste 2

Oeste 1, Santos 2

Mirassol 2, Botafogo 3

Paulista 0, Santo Andre 3

Sunday's Games

Palmeiras 1, Corinthians 1

Portuguesa vs. Ponte Preta

Bragantino vs. Marilia

Mogi Mirim vs. Sao Paulo

Guaratingueta vs. Barueri

Tuesday, March 10

Oeste vs. Botafogo

Wednesday, March 11

Barueri vs. Bragantino

Portuguesa vs. Guaratingueta

Noroeste vs. Ponte Preta

Marilia vs. Guarani

Santo Andre vs. Mogi Mirim

Corinthians vs. Sao Caetano

Ituano vs. Palmeiras

Thursday, March 12

Santos vs. Paulista

Sao Paulo vs. Mirassol

___

Rio de Janeiro championship

Rio Cup

Saturday's Games

Boavista 3, Duque de Caxias 0

Madureira 1, Bangu 2

Flamengo 3, Cabofriense 1

Sunday's Games

Vasco 3, Friburguense 0

Resende 0, Macae 2

Volta Redonda 3, Americano 0

Mesquita vs. Fluminense

Tigres vs. Botafogo

Wednesday, March 11

Macae vs. Madureira

Fluminense vs. Volta Redonda

Friburguense vs. Tigres

Duque de Caxias vs. Flamengo

Thursday, March 12

Bangu vs. Resende

Botafogo vs. Vasco

Americano vs. Mesquita

Cabofriense vs. Boavista

Pentagon denies US test-fired Trident missile

2012-03-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

The Defense Department denied Wednesday that the United States test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads during a joint military exercise with Saudi Arabia.

A Western military official in Saudi Arabia, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said a Trident missile was launched Wednesday out in the kingdom. But Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Defense Department spokesman, said there was no launch of Trident or any other missile during the exercise, which began last week.

The U.S. has been strengthening missile defenses in allied Arab nations in the Gulf to help counter any potential missile strike from Iran. Like its nuclear work, Iran's missile program is of top concern to Washington and Arab nations wary of Tehran's growing influence in the region.

The Western military official in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, said U.S. Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, attended the test launch, but a second defense official in the United States said that while O'Reilly was in the region last week, he did not attend a missile launch.

___

Associated Press Writers Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Abdullah al-Shihri in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

Dollar mixed, gold down in European trading

2012-03-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

The U.S. dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading Monday morning. Gold prices fell.

The euro was quoted at US$1.4812, up from US$1.4803 late Friday in New York.

Other dollar rates compared with late Friday:

_106.87 Japanese yen, up from 106.47

_1.0905 Swiss francs, up from 1.0888

_0.9972 Canadian dollars, up from 0.9938

The British pound was quoted at US$1.9759, up from US$1.9677.

Gold traded in London at US$899.50 per troy ounce at midmorning, down from US$911.45 on Friday.

In Zurich, the bid price was US$898.00, down from US$903.40.

Silver opened in London at US$16.79, down from US$16.84.

Texas man sentenced to 60 years in prison for his 10th DWI conviction since 1979

2012-03-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

A Texas man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for his 10th conviction of driving while intoxicated since 1979.

Prosecutors say 53-year-old Anthony Lynn Falco waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded not guilty to the felony charge over the June 22 traffic stop.

A statement Tuesday from the Williamson County prosecutor says tests showed Falco's blood alcohol content was 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Texas.

Prosecutor John Bradley says Falco had nine prior convictions and served prison terms from five to 10 years. He also had convictions for theft, family violence assault and forgery.

Stocks fall 72

2012-03-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK Stocks were mixed today after bouncing around again,with the Dow Jones industrial average erasing an early 87-point slideonly to turn lower again in the afternoon.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 72.01 points to close at7,622.42.

The Nasdaq composite index posted modest gains thanks to somestrength among big-name technology shares.Stocks dropped this morning in tandem with the bond market,where interest rates rose after the Commerce Department reported thatconsumer spending shot up 0.8 percent in July.Separately, the Commerce Department said new home sales rose 0.9percent in July, the third straight monthly advance.Bonds fell for the first time in four days after the reports."This economy is growing faster than people want to think itis," said William Dawson, who oversees $50 billion in fixed-income atFederated Investors in Pittsburgh. "It increases the likelihood theFed will move again this year."The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell $4.69 per $1,000 inface value, pushing its yield up to 6.61 percent from 6.57 percent.Although the Federal Reserve decided earlier this month not toprotect against inflation by slowing the economy, investors havegrown fearful the central bank will take action by the end of theyear.Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the New York StockExchange, with 1,472 down, 1,314 up and 550 unchanged, on volume of408.3 million shares.The dollar rose against major currencies in late Europeantrading.The dollar was quoted at 1.8125 German marks, up from 1.8026late Thursday, and 120.90 yen, up from 118.65.The British pound was quoted at $1.6175, up from $1.6118 lateThursday.Gold in London closed at $324.50 per ounce, down from $326.10Thursday.Silver traded in London at $4.69 a troy ounce, down from $4.81Thursday.