Nokia cuts 10,000 jobs, streamlines to save costs

Union steward Jarmo Talvitie talks to media as Nokia employees leave a personnel briefing in Tampere, Finland, Thursday June 14, 2012. Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday June 14, 2012, in a further drive to save costs. The cuts mean that it will close some research and development projects, including in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada. (AP Photo/Lehtikuva, Jukka Toyli) FINLAND OUT

Union steward Jarmo Talvitie talks to media as Nokia employees leave a personnel briefing in Tampere, Finland, Thursday June 14, 2012. Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday June 14, 2012, in a further drive to save costs. The cuts mean that it will close some research and development projects, including in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada. (AP Photo/Lehtikuva, Jukka Toyli) FINLAND OUT

FILE - This Feb. 8, 2012 file photo shows the Nokia offices in Salo, Finland. Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday June 14, 2012, in a further drive to save costs. The cuts mean that it will close some research and development projects, including in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada. (AP Photo/Lehtikuva, Jussi Nukari, File) FINLAND OUT

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop speaks during the company's press conference in Espoo, Finland, Thursday June 14, 2012. Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday June 14, 2012, in a further drive to save costs. The cuts mean that it will close some research and development projects, including in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada. (AP Photo/Lehtikuva, Kimmo Mantyla) FINLAND OUT

HELSINKI (AP) ? Nokia says it will slash 10,000 jobs and close plants as the ailing company fights fierce competition, and gave a grim outlook for most of the year, causing its shares to plummet 18 percent to close at ?1.83 ($2.30).

The Finnish cellphone maker also on Thursday announced personnel changes and said it has agreed to sell its luxury phone brand, Vertu.

The measures, aimed at additional cost savings of ?1.6 billion ($2 billion) by the end of next year, will shut down research and development facilities in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, British Columbia. Nokia said it will also close its main Finnish manufacturing plant in Salo, with 850 layoffs, but will keep its research and development center there.

Nokia Corp. updated its outlook, saying that heavy competition would continue to hit its smartphone sector in the second quarter, but to a "somewhat greater extent than previously expected" and that the downturn would continue in the third quarter.

Markets were disappointed, plunging Nokia shares to below ?2.00 for the first time ever on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Nordea analyst in Helsinki, Sami Sarkamies, said Nokia's scale of the cost cutting took many by surprise and might not help to strengthen the company.

"When you make such drastic cuts you have to abandon a lot of things," Sarkamies said. "It may be that they just can't anymore afford to come up with innovative, new things."

CEO Stephen Elop said the planned cuts were "a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength."

"We are increasing our focus on the products and services that our consumers value most while continuing to invest in the innovation that has always defined Nokia," he added.

The loss-making company has been struggling against fierce competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other makers using Google Inc.'s popular Android software, including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC of Taiwan. It is also being squeezed in the low-end by Asian manufacturers making cheaper phones, such as China's ZTE.

Markets had been expecting Nokia to signal some improvement in its earnings expectations for this year after it joined forces with Microsoft Corp. in 2011, launching several Windows Phone 7 models, including its sleek Lumia range.

But the new handsets have received mixed reviews and the company and made no mention of the much-anticipated Windows 8 version. Its revised outlook bodes ill for the former bellwether of the wireless industry that held the No. 1 cellphone maker spot for 14 years.

Elop said that more than a third of the global job cuts ? 3,700 ? will be in Finland, sending shivers through the small Nordic nation that has been intensely proud of Nokia's past success.

But he pledged to keep the company's corporate headquarters in Espoo, near the capital, Helsinki, and said much of the R &D will continue here.

"Nokia's core is in Finland. We firmly believe that at the heart of any company, the soul of a company, is something that includes its national identity," Elop said. "We continue to have significant operations in Finland. In fact, two-thirds of our Lumia team is in Finland."

The Espoo-based company said that although it plans "significant" cuts in operating expenses, it will continue to focus on smartphones as well as cheaper feature phones and intends to expand location-based services.

Nokia announced that private equity group EQT VI had agreed to acquire Vertu, its global luxury phone brand, but that the Finnish company would keep a 10 percent minority shareholding. No financial terms were announced.

The company said it would also overhaul its management team, with two long-time members of its top leadership - Mary McDowell, the head of the struggling mobile phones unit and Niklas Savander, head of the markets sector ? leaving the company at the end of June. Chief marketing officer and brand manager Jerri DeWard, who joined Nokia in January 2011 will also step down.

Chris Weber, the current head of Nokia's U.S. operations, will take over sales and marketing on July 1.

In April, Nokia announced one of its worst quarterly results ever, blaming tough competition for a ?929 million net loss in the first quarter as sales plunged, especially in the smartphone market. Last year, it was still the world's top cellphone maker with annual unit sales of some 419 million devices, but in the last quarter of the year it posted a net loss of ?1.07 billion, a marked reverse from the 745 million profit a year earlier.

Boston-based Strategy Analytics said Nokia had significantly lost market share in the first quarter to Samsung, which pushed it out as the world's largest seller of cellphones by volume, grabbing a 25 percent global market share against Nokia's 22 percent.

It has fared even worse in the smartphone sector against Samsung and Apple by falling to third place in the first quarter of the year with sales of 12 million units against Samsung's 44.5 million and Apple's 35 million.

"Nokia is significantly increasing its cost reduction target for devices and services in support of the streamlined strategy announced today," said CFO Timo Ihamuotila. "With these planned actions, we believe our devices (and) services business has a clear path to profitability. Nokia intends to maintain its strong financial position while proceeding aggressively with actions aimed at creating shareholder value."

Last year, Nokia announced more than 10,000 layoffs, aimed at cutting operating expenses by ?1 billion ($1.31 billion) by 2013. Thursday's savings aims come on top of those.

__

Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Zinnia Jones: How a New Study Misrepresents Same-Sex Parents ...

A recently published study by sociology professor Mark Regnerus purports to show that children of same-sex parents experience a significant degree of negative outcomes, contrary to numerous earlier studies on LGBT parenting. Most notably, the new study alleges that the children of lesbian mothers are more likely to be on public assistance, more likely to be unemployed, less likely to be employed full-time, more likely to be cohabitating, less likely to be married, more likely to have had an affair, more likely to have had an STI, more likely to have been in therapy recently, more likely to have recently thought about suicide, more likely to have been raped, and more likely to have been molested by an adult.

These findings would certainly be surprising ? if they were supported by the evidence. While these results have been widely reported as representative of the parenting skills of same-sex parents, the study itself can tell us almost nothing about this. The shortcomings of its design make this impossible.

The study was conducted by surveying a representative sample of nearly 3,000 young adults aged 18 to 39, who were sorted into eight categories of family structures: an intact biological family of a married mother and father, lesbian mothers, gay fathers, adoptive families, biological parents who divorced after their children were grown, stepfamilies, single parents, and all other kinds of families.

However, the groups designated as ?lesbian mothers? and ?gay fathers? are actually defined by whether one of the respondent?s biological parents ever had a same-sex relationship during the respondent?s childhood. Little information is given about the nature and duration of these relationships, and the set of people whose parents once had any kind of same-sex relationship is not identical to the set of people who were raised in a household with same-sex parents. Same-sex relationships aren?t limited to committed same-sex couples raising children. This definition could also encompass a same-sex affair outside of an opposite-sex marriage, a parent who services clients of the same sex in the course of sex work, or same-sex activity within the context of an open relationship. For the purposes of this study, these situations are all lumped in with committed same-sex partners raising children.

The labels of ?lesbian mothers? or ?gay fathers? also ignore the fact that having had at least one same-sex relationship does not necessarily make someone gay, any more than one opposite-sex relationship makes someone straight. In an article in Slate Magazine, Regnerus says, ?our research team was less concerned with the complicated politics of sexual identity than with same-sex behavior.? But the study says nothing about the nature or extent of that behavior aside from whether it was ever present to the slightest degree, or completely absent as far as the respondents were aware.

What little data the study does provide in this area mostly pertains to the length of time the respondents spent in a household with same-sex partners, which turns out to be? not much. Of the respondents in the so-called ?lesbian mothers? group, who numbered 163, only 57% reported living with their biological mother and her same-sex partner for at least 4 months, and 23% lived with them for at least 3 years. In the ?gay fathers? group, numbering 73 people, 42% said they lived with their biological father and his same-sex partner for at least 4 months, and less than 2% lived with them for at least 3 years.

There are two flaws in comparing these respondents to those in the ?intact biological families? group as a measure of the effects of same-sex parenting. First, this suggests that while the 18 years spent with one?s married heterosexual parents are responsible for these positive outcomes, the mere months that many respondents spent in a household with same-sex parents must be responsible for their negative outcomes. This completely ignores the effects of whatever other family structures they were a part of during the many years that they did not spend with their same-sex parents. And in the case of those who spent no time living with a parent?s same-sex partner, how could any of their outcomes possibly be attributed to same-sex parenting?

Second, Regnerus? eight categories of family structures are not mutually exclusive. A respondent with a parent who had at least one same-sex relationship could also have lived with their married biological parents for their entire childhood, or had a stepfamily, an adoptive family, a single parent, or some other kind of family. Regnerus acknowledges this, and states that he ?forced their mutual exclusivity? for the sake of ?maximizing the sample size? of the ?lesbian mothers? and ?gay fathers? groups. Unfortunately, this makes any comparison between the ?intact biological families? group and either of the ?gay? parent groups practically useless.

Regnerus has filtered the other six groups ? biological parents, adoptive families, later divorced parents, stepfamilies, single parents, and all others ? so that they consist only of parents who are believed to be exclusively heterosexual. But he?s constructed the two ?gay? parent groups so that they consist of a hodgepodge of these family structures. Every other group contains only one type of family. The ?gay? parent groups contain potentially all of them.

Regnerus? treatment of these groups thus fails to separate the possible effects of having a stepfamily, a single parent, divorced parents, married biological parents, or being adopted, from the effects of a parent having at least one same-sex relationship. As a result, the outcomes that he attributes to same-sex parenting could just as well be due to family instability. He isn?t comparing married heterosexual parents whose children lived with them for 18 years to committed same-sex couples whose children lived with them for 18 years. He?s packed the ?gay? groups with divorces, remarriages, adoptions and single parenthood, and then compared them to intact heterosexual families. Of course the results would reflect unfavorably on the groups he?s designated as gay. But they don?t tell us anything about the outcomes for children who were raised by committed same-sex parents for a substantial portion of their childhood.

Regnerus himself has admitted to these shortcomings, but claims that there was no way to overcome these limitations. On his blog, he wrote:

One of the key methodological criticisms circulating is that ? basically ? in a population-based sample, I haven?t really evaluated how the adult children of stably-intact coupled self-identified lesbians have fared. [...] And I?m telling you that it cannot be feasibly accomplished. It is a methodological (practical) impossibility at present, for reasons I describe: they really didn?t exist in numbers that could be amply obtained *randomly*. It may well be a flaw ? a limitation, I think ? but it is unavoidable. We maxxed Knowledge Networks? ability, and no firm is positioned to do better. It would have cost untold millions of dollars, and still may not generate the number of cases needed for statistical analyses.

Considering how many inaccurate stories about same-sex parents have been published because of what his study falsely claims to show, this is an especially weak excuse. If the data aren?t there, then the data just aren?t there. This doesn?t mean you can misrepresent committed same-sex parents by grouping them with all kinds of disrupted families and different living situations. It means your study simply isn?t capable of examining the competence of same-sex parents. And Regnerus should have admitted that in the first place.

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Urgent MLM Home Based Business News! | Seo Blog

Every week, over 100,000 folks start out in their own mlm home based business. It is a low cost, low risk, high reward model that is proven to work.

First hand, if somebody tells you it?s easy, they have obviously forgotten about the tedious hours they put in at the start. Perhaps it?s easier now, but there are a number of vital factors you must take into consideration before you write a membership check or sign on the dotted line.

Be aware that there are less than 30 mlm companies that have been operating for over 10 years. There?s little wrong with the business model, just that all those companies that failed simply didn?t set things up right.

There are two major reasons why these corporations folded. First, their products weren?t as fascinating as they thought they might be or not moneymaking enough, or second, their compensation plan failed.

When you?re looking to join an mlm home based business, the compensatory schedule is the 1st and most crucial thing you should look at. Ask questions to see what system they use. There are lots of complicated systems out there, so make sure you understand what you are getting into.

Then glance at the product, is it well promoted? Is it something nearly everybody would desire, that they can not simply get in a store, is it good quality and is it enduring? Will people want this in five years time? If they do not, then where will you be?

If you have a company to consider, get on forums and find folks to chat with who work for that company. You?ll have to watch out for distributors who have failed though, the attrition rate is exceedingly high in any mlm business. Typically because the masses think they?re going to earn income from the first day, or they do not put in any effort.

Building a rewarding home based mlm business requires time, talent and a major commitment. So doing your required groundwork before you invest your precious cash is a good step in the right direction.

You should also outline a sales and selling plan to promote both the product and the venture, before you enroll, seriously. Because the only real way you may ever make any money is via selling the company products, services and recruiting others to do the same.

Do you have any idea what you need to do to create a steady stream of highly interested prospects who will have a look at your wares? Will you build a website and market online? How can you drive traffic? Do you plan to run advertisements or participate in a company or team backed advertising co-op? What type of budget have you set aside to invest into your business? What kind of training, tools and information will you make available to your new team members?

Hard questions that all demand a well thought out answer. As the difference that makes the most significant difference between people who make cash with their mlm home based business and those who don?t, all reduces down to sales and promoting.

Not into home network marketing yet? Visit Steven Suchar?s site where you can find out about mlm home based business and how you can benefit.

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Why Zimbabwe's President Mugabe was named UN 'tourism envoy'

Zimbabwe's President Mugabe, who signed an agreement to co-host a UN tourism conference, now has an honorary position as envoy, despite a long record of human rights abuses.

By Scott Baldauf,?Staff writer / May 30, 2012

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe follows proceedings at celebrations to mark 32 years of independence of Zimbabwe, in Harare, in this April 18 file photo. Mugabe has just been named the UN?s international envoy for tourism, despite a long record of human rights abuses.

AP/File

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Zimbabwe?s President Robert Mugabe has just been named the UN?s international envoy for tourism. It?s a special recognition for Mr. Mugabe?s agreement to co-host, with Zambia, a United Nations World Tourism Organization general assembly next August.

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At a ceremony in Victoria Falls, Mugabe said the agreement between Zimbabwe, Zambia, and the United Nations is of ?historical importance.?
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??For our people, the signing of the agreement attests to our commitment, our readiness to welcome the entire tourism fraternity to our countries,? Mugabe was quoted by the independent Zimbabwe newspaper NewsDay as saying. ?For the UN World Tourism Organisation, on the other hand, the signatures testify to the confidence and trust that was bestowed upon us.?

That Mugabe, a man who faces a European Union travel ban and economic sanctions because of his repression and torture of opposition activists, would be named a UN envoy for tourism has drawn a certain amount of criticism.

Mr. Mugabe?s ruling party is accused of arresting, detaining, and in some cases killing members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change during the 2008 national elections. He later formed a coalition government with the MDC, after an 11-month stalemate in which the national currency became worthless and inflation soared to more than 1 million percent.

Mugabe is also blamed for a violent land-reclamation campaign, in which armed thugs stormed and took over the property of white commercial farmers, as well as the?Gukurahundi counterinsurgency campaign in the early 1980s against the rival ZAPO militant group in the Matabeleland region, which killed as many as 20,000 people.

So Mugabe?s selection as UN tourism envoy is not an obvious choice.

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Man accused of driving off with woman stuck to car

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) ? A man was accused of fleeing a hit-and-run accident with the victim still attached to his fender and fighting to get free.

A van driven by Frank Rega struck a 23-year-old woman who was standing in front of a disabled car in Bridgeport on March 15, police said. The woman became stuck on the driver's side fender, but Rega drove off, even as she was yelling at him and hitting him in the face in an attempt to get him to stop, police said.

She eventually fell off the van, struck the roadway and suffered a head injury, police said. She was treated and released from St. Vincent's Medical Center.

Rega, 56, of Monroe, faces numerous charges including reckless endangerment, reckless driving, evading responsibility and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the Connecticut Post reported (http://bit.ly/Lmjt67). He was released after posting a $500 bond.

Monroe police arrested Rega at his home. As they were handcuffing him, he told officers he had acted in self-defense, police said.

A message seeking comment was left for Rega at his home Thursday. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.

___

Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

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Retail sales dropped 0.2 percent in May | Business | Eugene News ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans barely increased their spending at retail businesses in April and May, constrained by weak job creation and paltry wage increases.

A sharp drop in gas prices pulled down overall sales in both months by 0.2 percent, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

But excluding volatile gas station sales, retail sales grew only modestly in May and dipped in April. The report could lead economists to lower their outlooks for April-June economic growth.

"Soft U.S. economic growth may get a little softer in (the April-June quarter) as it is not receiving much support from the all-important consumer," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Cheaper gas also lowered a measure of wholesale prices by the most in nearly three years.

The producer price index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, dropped 1 percent in May, the Labor Department said in a separate report. That reflected a 9 percent fall in wholesale gas prices.

The decline at the pump could bode well for consumers in the coming months, too. The average national price for a gallon of gas was $3.54 Wednesday - 40 cents cheaper than the year's peak price in early April.

And while overall retail sales barely budged in May, Americans did spend more on big purchases.

Auto sales rose sharply, and sales of furniture and appliances also increased. That suggests consumers may already be seeing some benefit from lower gas prices.

"The continued fall in gasoline prices should support consumption by freeing up cash to be spent on other items," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "So although real consumption growth looks set to slow in (the second quarter), we doubt it will grind to a complete halt."

The retail sales report is the government's first look at consumer spending, which drives 70 percent of economic activity.

Total retail sales fell in May to $404.6 billion. That's slightly below March's record level of $406.2 billion and 21.6 percent higher than the recession low hit in March 2009.

Gas station sales fell 2.2 percent in May, accounting for most of the decline in retail sales. Excluding gas station sales, retail spending rose just 0.1 percent in May.

Sales at building supply stores, which include Home Depot, fell 1.7 percent in May. And general merchandise stores, a category that includes Wal-Mart and Target, fell for the second straight month.

Part of the decline in those categories may be payback for stronger spending at the start of the year. A mild winter encouraged some homeowners to get a head start on remodeling and landscaping projects, which normally take place in spring.

Still, economists worry that consumer spending may further weaken if hiring and pay doesn't pick up.

Workers' average hourly earnings have risen just 1.7 percent in the 12 months ended in May. That's well below the pace of inflation during this period.

And job growth has slowed since the start of the year. Employers added 226,000 jobs on average during the first three months of the year; they have added an average of 73,000 jobs a month since April.

In the January-March quarter, overall economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 1.9 percent, down from a 3 percent rate of increase in the October-December period.

The strength in the first three months of this year was led by the fastest growth in consumer spending in more than a year.

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Sad News: Jennifer Love Hewitt's Mom Lost Her Battle With Cancer

Updated on June 14, 2012, 9:50 am ET

Sad news today, Bettys: Jennifer Lover Hewitt?s mother, Patricia, passed away on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. She was 67 years old.

According to People, Jennifer?s rep released a statement confirming Patricia?s passing. ?Her family mourns her loss,? the rep said. ?She was an angel to all who knew her and they are grateful she is now in a better place. They ask for privacy at this difficult time. No further details are being provided.? Our condolences to Jennifer and her family.

I?ll admit that I?m not the biggest Jennifer Love Hewitt fan in the world. I appreciate her healthy attitude towards body image, but I?m by no means an avid follower of her work. But I still find this sad, mostly because Jennifer and her mom seemed really close?a goodness knows having strong family relationships when you?re in such a tough business as show business is important.

Read Why Have Jennifer Love Hewitt's Breasts Been Digitally Shrunk?

For instance, Jennifer commented two years ago that when she was first cast as a prostitute in The Client List, her mom thought it was ?hilarious.? Said Jennifer, ?She was like, ?So let?s review? For 15 years people have been talking about your boobs. Earlier this year, you wrote about your hoo haw in a book. Now you?re playing a crack ho on TV.? She was like, ?Do you think maybe you could do an animated movie next??? That sense of humor has undoubtedly been one of the things that has helped Jennifer stay grounded throughout her tumultuous career. Losing that sort of emotional rock is never easy, and I?m sure Jennifer will miss her greatly.

Once again, our condolences to Jennifer and her family. Be well, Bettys.

Lucia Peters is BettyConfidential?s associate editor.

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India: Militant still wages hate from Pakistan (Providence Journal)

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91% Polisse

"Polisse" synopsis is so dull and poor that I am glad I had not read it before watching the movie. The "journalist covering police assigned to a juvenile division that enters an affair with one of her subjects" is only part of a wider and more complex quilt of characters and interesting stories.Ma?wenn brings up the dirty and dark side of Paris with the help of an excellent team of child actors - Malonn L?vana, the lovely little girl of "Tomboy" (where she plays the sister of the leading character) is someone to keep an eye on - and the best known actors of the French cinema of today: Marina Fo?s, Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Fr?d?ric Pierrot, Karin Viard, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Alice de Lencquesaing (L'heure d'?t?, Le p?re de mes enfants), J?r?mie Elka?m (La guerre est d?clar?e), Karole Rocher, and others.This team of stars, however, can be a double-edged sword: at the same time it calls the attention and arouses curiosity, it can also hinder the identification with the characters and/or concentration. It was just me, perhaps, but every time a known face appeared on the screen, my mind would unplug and try to remember in which movie I had seen that actor. Despite the great cast and some memorable moments, "Polisse" is average. It looks like a police tv drama show, both in format and melodrama, but a very good one it?s true. If made for tv, all the crucial subjects raised by Ma?wenn - such as pedophilia, social welfare, immigration, violence - could be better placed and developed, taking in mind the way she chose to portray them. Choices, by the way, seem to be carefully taken. Melissa ?s "ugly panties" being childlike and having the saying "spank me" that she didn?t know what means may work as an alert on how we collaborate with these sexual "fair tale" fantasies. The saying in English (spank me) may also be a criticism on our contemporary times where we usually follow global and standardized models/ideas, sometimes without really knowing or thinking about what they mean, what can be also seen, let?s say, in the episode of the "telephone teenager girl". "But it was a smartphone". Although I don't think "Polisse" is that good, Ma?wenn definitely got my attention. I liked a lot her character Melissa and how it develops and grow as the story unfolds; I was delighted with the funny discussion over the changes in the French language (on how we are killing our language); and the final scene really impressed me - the ending can be melodramatic as said Peter Bradshaw, but definitely not unconvincing. That said, I will sure check Ma?wenn's previous movies and will be waiting for more.

April 18, 2012

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Syria in civil war, U.N. official says

UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's 15-month uprising has grown into a full-scale civil war where President Bashar al-Assad's forces are trying to recapture swathes of urban territory lost to rebels, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday.

"Yes, I think we can say that," U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous said when asked if the Syrian crisis could now be characterized as a civil war.

"Clearly what is happening is that the government of Syria lost some large chunks of territory in several cities to the opposition and wants to retake control of these areas," he said.

His remarks, the first time a senior U.N. official has declared Syria's conflict is a civil war, came as the International Red Cross said the situation was deteriorating in several parts of Syria simultaneously as fighting intensifies.

Many hundreds of people, including civilians, rebels and members of Assad's army and security forces, have been killed since a ceasefire deal brokered by international mediator Kofi Annan two months ago was supposed to halt the bloodshed.

"Now we have confirmed reports of not only of the use of tanks and artillery but also attack helicopters," Ladsous said in an interview with Reuters and one other reporter. "This is really becoming large scale."

United Nations observers overseeing Annan's ceasefire deal were turned back from the town of Haffeh on Tuesday by angry crowds throwing stones and metal rods. As they left, three of their vehicles were fired on, although the monitors were unhurt.

The monitors have been trying since Thursday to visit Haffeh where activists say the army had been battling rebels and the United States has warned of another potential massacre.

The rebel Syrian Free Army said it withdrew from the Sunni Muslim town later on Tuesday under pressure from bombardment by Assad's forces, leaving thousands of civilians without protection.

MASS KILLINGS

Activists say Syria's army and pro-Assad militias have committed two mass killings in the last three weeks, in the Houla region and the farming hamlet of Mazraat al-Qubeir. Syrian authorities blamed the killings on "terrorists".

The killings have hardened sectarian divisions between the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and supporters of Assad - from the country's Alawite minority - in a conflict whose dynamics are also shifting as rebels become increasingly well-armed.

At least 51 civilians were killed across Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, including 13 who were killed by mortar bombs fired by security forces on a protest in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. Twelve soldiers also died in clashes with rebels, the Observatory said.

On Tuesday, state television channel Syria TV reported that "terrorist groups" had seized two buses in Homs province and kidnapped all the passengers. It gave no other details.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the only international agency to deploy aid workers in Syria, said on Tuesday the situation is worsening in several parts of the country simultaneously.

"Our priority is to be able to reach as many people in as many fighting-stricken areas in the shortest delay possible. However, due to the increasingly deteriorating situation, we are unable to answer all the needs at the same time," spokesman Hicham Hassan said.

He said hundreds of people had fled this week from parts of the city of Homs, which activists say has come under the heaviest bombardment since Annan's tattered ceasefire was supposed to come into force on April 12.

Annan's spokesman said on Tuesday he hoped to convene a meeting of an international contact group on Syria soon, saying he was encouraged by broad support for the idea.

But he gave no date for the meeting and said no venue or list of participants has yet been set. The United States and some Western allies have resisted proposals for Iran to take part, accusing Tehran of "stage-managing" Assad's crackdown on the uprising.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was worried Russia may be sending Syria attack helicopters and views Moscow's argument that its arms transfers to Syria are unrelated to the conflict there as "patently untrue".

HAFFEH FIGHTING

The fighting in Haffeh started last Tuesday when rebels clashed with security forces setting up checkpoints to tighten their grip on the town, which lies close to the Mediterranean port city of Latakia as well as the Turkish border.

Twenty-nine civilians, 23 rebels and 68 soldiers have been killed since then and state forces appear intent on seizing control of the rebel-held town. "The question is, at what price?", the Observatory's director, Rami Abdulrahman, said.

Rebels said they were trying to smuggle trapped civilians out of Haffeh, a Sunni Muslim town in the foothills of the coastal mountains which form the heartland of the ruling minority Alawite sect.

They said hundreds of their fighters were facing a tank and helicopter-backed assault by forces loyal to Assad.

"Every few days we manage to open a route to get the wounded out, so some families were able to escape yesterday," said one rebel in Haffeh, who called himself Abdulwudud.

"The situation is dire. Forget the weapons, people need medicine and food. As you know, we're in a state of war in Syria. The army could enter Haffeh in minutes if it wanted but it is trying to crush it instead," said rebel commander Abdulaziz Kanaan, speaking from Turkey.

State television said security forces were continuing "their pursuit of remnants of the terrorists who attacked residents".

A Foreign Ministry statement also reiterated that Syria was committed to Annan's peace plan, but said the agreement gave Damascus the right to prevent attacks on the army and on state institutions.

A United Nations report into children in armed conflict said on Tuesday that children as young as nine had been victims of killing, maiming, arbitrary arrest, torture, sexual violence and use as human shields.

"In almost all recorded cases, children were among the victims of military operations by government forces, including the Syrian Armed Forces, the intelligence forces and the Shabbiha militia," it said.

There were also credible reports of children being recruited by the rebel Free Syrian Army, it said, and in one incident in March the army and Shabbiha placed children aged 8 to 13 in front of the windows of buses carrying military personnel raiding a village.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles in Geneva, Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Giles Elgood and Andrew Heavens)

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Hitchhiker writing 'Kindness' book shot in Montana

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) ? A man hitchhiking across the country and writing a memoir called "The Kindness of America" was injured in a random drive-by shooting along a rural highway near northeastern Montana's booming Bakken oil patch, authorities said Monday.

Ray Dolin, 39, of West Virginia, was shot in the arm as he approached a pickup Saturday evening thinking the driver was offering him a ride, said Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier.

The shooting took place just west of the town of Glasgow along U.S. Highway 2.

A 52-year-old Washington man, Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, was arrested about four hours later near Culbertson. Authorities say he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol and apparently headed to Williston, N.D., for work tied to the oil boom.

The shooting follows another random attack earlier this year in which a 43-year-old teacher from nearby Sidney, Mont., was allegedly kidnapped and killed by two Colorado men on their way to the Bakken.

As the men await trial on charges stemming from Sherry Arnold's death, the case has stoked fears that a once-quiet corner of Montana has been irreversibly altered by the oil boom.

But Meier said Danielson's quick arrest by deputies in Roosevelt County 100 miles away from the shooting shows law enforcement is keeping up with any changes.

"We're still the wonderful people in Montana we've always been, and we'll get through this," Meier said. "Things are going to happen whether there's the Bakken or not."

Dolin was expected to recover and was being treated at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow. A nurse said Monday he was not taking calls or accepting messages.

Danielson was jailed in Roosevelt County on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence. He was due to make an initial court appearance Monday.

It was unclear if he had an attorney representing him prior to his appearance.

Meier did not know if any words were exchanged between the alleged shooter and victim before Dolin was shot. He said they did not know one another.

"He was sitting down to have a little lunch and this guy drives up. He thought he was going to give him a ride and as he approached the vehicle, the guy pulls out his weapon and shoots him. It's as simple as that," Meier said.

Danielson's criminal history in Washington state includes intimidation and assault, Meier said. Details were not immediately available.

Associated Press

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Kill the germs, spare the ears: How to create antibiotics that don't hurt hearing

Kill the germs, spare the ears: How to create antibiotics that don't hurt hearing

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The world needs new antibiotics to overcome the ever increasing resistance of disease-causing bacteria ? but it doesn't need the side effect that comes with some of the most powerful ones now available: hearing loss. Today, researchers report they have developed a new approach to designing antibiotics that kill even "superbugs" but spare the delicate sensory cells of the inner ear.

Surprisingly, they have found that apramycin, an antibiotic already used in veterinary medicine, fits this bill -- setting the stage for testing in humans.

In a paper published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team from Switzerland, England and the University of Michigan show apramycin's high efficacy against bacteria, and low potential for causing hearing loss, through a broad range of tests in animals. That testing platform is now being used to evaluate other potential antibiotics that could tackle infections such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

The research aims to overcome a serious limitation of aminoglycoside antibiotics, a class of drugs which includes the widely used kanamycin, gentamicin and amikacin.

While great at stopping bacterial infections, these drugs also cause permanent partial hearing loss in 20 percent of people who take them for a short course, and up to 100 percent of people who take them over months or years, for example to treat tuberculosis or lung infections in cystic fibrosis.

U-M researcher Jochen Schacht, Ph.D., a professor of biological chemistry and otolaryngology and director of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the U-M Medical School, has spent decades studying why these drugs cause this "ototoxicity" ? a side effect that makes doctors hesitant to prescribe them. Hearing damage has also caused patients to discontinue treatment before their antibiotic prescription is over, potentially allowing drug-resistant strains of bacteria to flourish.

Schacht has found that the drugs produce damaging free radicals inside the hair cells of the inner ear. Hair cells, named for the tiny sound-sensing hairs on their surface, are the linchpin of hearing ? and once destroyed, cannot be regrown.

In the new paper, Schacht and his research group joined teams led by University of Zurich microbiologist Erik B?ttger, and structural biologist and Nobel Prize winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of England's Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, as well as scientists from ETH Zurich. Each team brought its particular expertise to the issue, and after four years of work they developed and tested this new approach to designing antibiotics.

"Aminoglycosides are some of the most valuable broad-spectrum antibiotics and indispensable drugs today, but we need new options to combat drug-resistant bacteria. Importantly, we must find ways to overcome their ototoxicity," Schacht says. "Instead of the trial-and-error approach of the past, this new hypothesis-driven tactic allows us to design drugs with simultaneous attention toward both antibacterial action and impact on hair cells."

According to the World Health Organization, about 440,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis emerge annually, causing at least 150,000 deaths worldwide. Aminoglycoside antibiotics, while carefully controlled in the U.S., Europe, and other developed countries are available over the counter in many developing nations, leading to overuse that makes it even easier for drug-resistant strains of many kinds of bacteria to emerge and spread.

The new paper outlines a rational approach to designing drugs to combat this threat without ototoxicity, based on a theoretical framework that emerged from the work of the three laboratories and centers around the role of ribosomes, the structures inside the cell that ?read? DNA and translate the genetic message into proteins. B?ttger?s lab, at the Institut f?r Medizinische Mikrobiologie which he directs, studies aminoglycoside effects on mitochondrial ribosomes and antibacterial activity with an eye toward designing new ones. Ramakrishnan?s lab studies ribosomes, and partners from ETH Zurich also collaborated.

Aminoglycosides bind to the ribosomes inside bacterial cells, preventing the ability to produce proteins. But while the drugs spare most human ribosomes, they can attach to ribosomes in the mitochondria of cells, which are similar to bacterial ribosomes.

Consistent with U-M-generated theories about ototoxicity, the drugs then cause the production of free radicals in such quantities that they overwhelm the hair cells' defense mechanisms ? destroying the cells and causing hearing loss.

The team's approach is to design drugs that more specifically target bacterial ribosomes over mitochondrial ribosomes, simultaneously testing the impact on hair cells as well as the ability to kill bacteria. In this way, the researchers try to avoid creating antibiotics that harm hearing.

They are already using the platform employed for this study ? which involves cells from mouse ears, and tests of hearing and hair cell damage in guinea pigs ? to test other promising novel drugs synthesized based on the theoretical framework that was driving the current research.

Meanwhile, the team hopes to launch a clinical trial of apramycin, an antibiotic that could prove immediately useful because multidrug-resistant TB and lung-infecting bacteria have not shown resistance to the drug yet.

The research also lends more evidence to support the use of antioxidants to protect the hearing of patients taking current aminoglycoside antibiotics. Schacht has already led a clinical trial in China that showed a major reduction in hearing loss if aspirin was given at the same time as aminoglycoside antibiotics. "This kind of protection is important, while we search for the long-term answer to drug resistance without ototoxicity," he says.

###

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

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Steve Ironside, CEO, Jobpac Australia | Rust Report

Please provide a brief overview of the company?

Jobpac International Systems is Australia?s leading construction software solution provider. Over the last 25 years our software, Jobpac, has grown to become the solution of choice for hundreds of Australian and New Zealand construction and civil engineering companies. In any year, Jobpac is used to control projects across our customer base that adds up to many billions of dollars.

With fully integrated accounting, project management and payroll to world?s best practice forecasting, risk and opportunity management, contract valuation and business intelligence, Jobpac helps companies mitigate risk, optimise project profitability and manage cash flow.

What sets the company apart from your competitors?

We?re literally the foundation of construction software projects. We?re very niche in who we target and we?re ANZ-specific. Over the past 25 years we have developed very deep construction industry experience and a very strong understanding of our customers and their challenges, and I don?t think there?s a scenario we haven?t been able to proactively resolve for our customers.

Who are typical prospects/customers?

Our customers range from small to medium to the very large commercial and civil engineering organisations managing works ranging from high rise to hospitals, bridges, tunnels and roads, interior fit outs, subcontracting, maintenance and professional services to infrastructure works. Typical projects our customers run include ?Lump Sum? to ?Schedule of Rates?, ?Cost Plus? and ?Small Order projects?. Jobpac scales from project size of $10 million to +$2 billion.

When talking to customers/prospects what things are top of their agendas today?

The construction industry, particularly the commercial sector, is currently facing a tough time and uses our software to help with cash flow management, visibility and control of project costs and forecasts and risk and opportunity management. Any construction company whether it?s a family-owned subcontracting business or a billion dollar multinational needs to be able to effectively and accurately assess project performance. This is vital to ensure that everything is on track to achieve the forecasted operational results and maintain profitability for the business. If an organisation cannot answer a number of questions around value, budget, spend, forecast and completion schedule at any given point, then the likelihood is that it could be at risk of cost overruns, poor profitability and even insolvency.

What are the Company?s greatest challenges right now?

Fortunately, it?s actually one that builds on our greatest strength! With our heritage in the construction industry we?ve built up an immense amount of product depth and industry knowledge.

It sounds obvious but we believe that the more you know, the more you grow. Our challenge is to get customers to invest in ongoing training and consultancy services to ensure that they are maximising their investment in their systems and processes.

However, the construction industry is transient and so competitive at the moment, getting companies to see investment in ongoing training and business process improvement that could save costs and generate revenue, instead of discretionary expenditure, is tough.

What are the Company?s greatest challenges right now?

Businesses are looking to streamline IT delivery costs, improve efficiency and work smarter ? and that will never change, so it?s really about helping businesses unravel the many ways in which technology can be fully leveraged. The challenge behind the consumerisation of technology is ongoing, and we?re working to guide clients through the Bring Your Own Device trend now that a more informed, opinionated and assertive user-base is setting the agenda and practice for technology adoption in the workplace. This has forced IT departments to revaluate data security, application delivery and content access strategies and policies or risk complete marginalisation. I firmly believe that Logicalis has the premier solution set to help IT negotiate this challenge.

Other opportunities include video communication & collaboration, workplace flexibility and remote working and the buzzword, securing and accessing ?big data?.

And opportunities?

Our greatest opportunities lie in helping customers with continuous process improvement to achieve greater profitability, mitigate risk and manage cash flow management. This is Return on Investment in any industry, and no less construction. Where once technology was the enabler and almost a secondary conversation, it is now becoming a major part of the discussion. Firstly, we are delivering and developing cloud-based project solutions to give greater flexibility and instant visibility. Secondly, we?ve developed mobility solutions for smart devices, such as iPpads and iPhones to help keep the project rolling smoothly on the site.

What are the core messages you want the marketplace to know about your company?

Jobpac?s heritage makes us synonymous with the ANZ construction industry, and we?re niche with very deep functionality. We know both the construction and civil engineering industry, and from our technology and our people, our knowledge and experience is unrivalled. During 2012, we?re investing considerably to create a product roadmap that takes advantage of cloud, mobility and reporting technology to help clients operate efficiently and compete.

If you?re looking to embrace the Bring You Own Device trend or provide a flexible working environment for your staff, you should be having a conversation with Logicalis!

This entry was posted on June 12, 2012 at 12:04 am and is filed under Issues, June 12, 2012, Latest Issue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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SWAT team sent in home to hunt for Auburn suspect

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Violent crime in the United States fell for a fifth straight year in 2011 and the number of murders dropped to the lowest in more than four decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday. U.S. violent crime rates, which include murder, rape, robbery and assault, dropped 4 percent in 2011??

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Airline industry profits to plummet in 2012: IATA

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John Bryson, U.S. Commerce Secretary, Implicated in Back-to-Back Hit-and-Run Crashes

U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson was implicated in two hit-and-run crashes Saturday, which an agency spokesman says were due to a seizure.

"Secretary Bryson was involved in a traffic accident in Los Angeles over the weekend. He suffered a seizure," Jennifer Friedman said in a statement.

"He was taken to the hospital for examination and remained overnight for observation. He was released and has returned to Washington. The investigation is ongoing."

"Secretary Bryson has no public events scheduled for today."

Bryson had no security detail with him during the crashes because he was driving his own vehicle on personal time in California, sources said.

He 68-year-old was cited for felony hit-and-run following the Saturday incidents but was not booked in jail because he was taken to a hospital.

Authorities said that Bryson was cooperative with detectives, and that drugs or alcohol do not appear to have been a factor in the crashes.

"The investigation is still in its preliminary stages," officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and San Gabriel Police Department said.

Bryson was driving a Lexus in the 400 block of South San Gabriel Boulevard shortly after 5:00 p.m. Saturday when he allegedly rear-ended a Buick as it was waiting for a train to pass, according to the statement.

After briefly stopping to talk to the three men inside the Buick, Bryson left in the Lexus and then struck the Buick a second time, authorities said.

The men followed Bryson's car and called 911 to ask for police assistance.

Bryson continued to drive his Lexus into Rosemead, which is patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said.

There, he allegedly crashed into a second vehicle near the intersection of San Gabriel Boulevard and Hellman Avenue, according to reports.

Officers found him alone and unconscious behind the wheel of his car.

Bryson was chairman of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, for 18 years until 2008. He was sworn in by President Obama as the head of the Commerce Department in October.

He reportedly gave the commencement address Thursday at Pasadena Polytechnic School, which several of his daughters attended.

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Michigan Real Estate Investors Broker Host "What is Transitional ...

??

Michigan Real Estate Investors Roundtable to Discuss ? Housing

Mark K. Davis, founder of Davis House has over 20 years experience owning and operating several profitable locations

?

Detroit, MI ? Deola Alofoje, Real Estate Broker with Metro Plus Realty, host "The Michigan Real Estate Investors Roundtable" meets the 3rd Thursday of each month to discuss real estate investing strategies that work in today's market. Many members of the group say this is Michigan's best REIA, most informative and most economical!

This real estate club is free to join with no pre-registration requirements or lengthy forms to fill out. Meetings are free to attend and open to the general public (no real estate license or experience required). This is a great networking opportunity for everyone, from newbies to seasoned real estate developers.

This month's meeting is a double-header, with two keynote speakers. Mark Davis, founder of Davis House, will speak about owning and operating ? houses. With over 20 years experience, he is well-qualified to teach participants how to run a successful ? house. Visit http://www.megaeveningevent.com/real-estate-event-details.php?id=467 for more information on this event.

Topics he will cover include:

? Steps to open a ? house
? Choosing an investment property to maximize your income
? House Rules you need to establish
? Where to buy the furniture and accessories for the house
? Where to find clients

The second speaker, Aaron Scheinfield, will present his Distressed Real Estate and Bankruptcy Lecture and cover the following topics:

? Foreclosures, Sheriff Sales and Redemption Periods
? Short Sales
? Loan Modifications
? Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
? Income from Forgiveness of Indebtedness
? Why are so many people filing for bankruptcy?
? Qualifications for Mortgage Loan after Bankruptcy
? Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
? Federal Bankruptcy Exemptions
? State Bankruptcy Exemptions
? Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
? Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Members of the Michigan real estate investment club are looking forward to an information-packed evening with two main speakers. Attending this meeting couldn't be easier. No need to call ahead; just show up at the welcome table and you're in!

The Michigan Real Estate Investors will meet at the Wayne County Community College Eastern Campus located at 5901 Conner St; Detroit, from 6 ? 9pm on Thursday evening, June 21. Visit http://www.megaeveningevent.com for details on all upcoming events.

About the Michigan Real Estate Investors Roundtable:
The Michigan Real Estate Investors Roundtable meets the 3rd Thursday of each month to give property investors, realtors and companies who provide real estate services the opportunity to network and learn from each other. The club is free to join, open to the public, and there are no pre-registration requirements. Simply show up at a meeting and enjoy the latest information from successful real estate entrepreneurs who are happy to share all their secrets to success.

Contact:
Deola Alofoje
Real Estate Associate Broker
Short Sale Expert
313 598-6368

Mark Maupin
17177 Laurel Park Drive, N. Ste 142
Livonia, MI 48152
248-939-6232
Maupin.mark@gmail.com

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Spain relieved, angry over humiliating bank rescue

MADRID (AP) -- Spain's grinding economic misery will get worse this year despite the country's request for a European financial lifeline of up to ?100 billion ($125 billion) to save its banks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Sunday.

A day after the country conceded it needed outside help following months of denying it would seek assistance, Rajoy said more Spaniards will lose their jobs in a country where one out of every four are already unemployed.

"This year is going to be a bad one," Rajoy said Sunday in his first comments about the rescue since it was announced the previous evening by his economy minister.

The conservative Prime Minister added that the economy, stuck in its second recession in three years, will still contract the previously predicted 1.7 percent even with the help. Small businesses and families starving for credit will eventually get relief as the funding props up banks and they increase lending, but Rajoy didn't offer guidance on when.

Spain on Saturday became the fourth ? and largest ? of the 17 countries that use Europe's common currency to request a bailout ? a big blow to a nation that a few years ago took pride as the continent's economic superstar only to see it become the hot spot in the eurozone debt crisis. Its economy is the eurozone's fourth largest after Germany, France and Italy.

Although Spain has not yet said how much money it would seek, the eurogroup ? finance ministers of the 17-country eurozone, of which Spain is a member ? said in a statement Saturday that it was prepared to lend up to ?100 billion. The funds will be sent to the Spanish government's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB), which would then use the money to strengthen the country's teetering banks.

Across the country, Spaniards reacted with a mixture of anger and relief to the news. The full amount of the eurogroup's lifeline amounts to ?21,000 of new debt for each person ? almost equal to the average salary in a country of 47 million where the unemployment rate for those under age 25 is 52 percent.

The country is already reeling from deep austerity cuts Rajoy has imposed over the last six months that have raised taxes, made it easier to hire and fire workers, and cut deep into cherished government programs including education and national health care.

"It's obviously a shame," said civil servant Luisa Saraguren, 44, as she strolled on a sunny Sunday morning with her young daughter. "But this bailout was fully predictable, and the consequences of this help are going to be a lot bigger compared to the cuts we've been living with already."

Rajoy took pains to avoid the word bailout Sunday, saying Spain's rescue package is a line of credit that its most troubled banks will be able to tap. The assistance will not come with the outside control over government macroeconomic policy like that imposed Greece, Ireland and Portugal when their public finances were bailed out.

He said interest rates on the loans will be considerably lower than the rate near 7 percent that Spain has been forced to pay recently on the international debt markets, a level that forced the other countries to seek bailouts.

Spain will regain the economic credibility it has lost by shoring up its banks, which will result in credit being restored so businesses and individuals shut off from loans can start borrowing and the economy will grow again, Rajoy insisted, again without saying when.

Europe's widening recession and financial crisis has hurt companies and investors around the world. Providing a financial lifeline to Spanish banks is likely to relieve anxiety on the Spanish economy ? which is five times larger than Greece's ? and on markets concerned about the country's ability to pay its way.

Spain's government will make a formal approach for aid once independent audits of the country's banking industry have been carried out.

It is not yet clear whether the money will come from Europe's current ?440 billion rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, or the new ?500 billion European Stability Mechanism.

The deal is to be underwritten by the Spanish state, which will use the FROB as its mechanism to funnel the loan to banks in need. Opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said he had discussed the loan with Rajoy and added that for it not to increase the national deficit the entire amount borrowed will have to be paid back to the treasury by the banks "including the corresponding interests."

Economy minister Luis de Guindos said 30 percent of the banking system needed recapitalization. The IMF in its financial stability assessment report said, without listing names, that Spain's two large internationally active banks "are well diversified." It is understood that these are Banco Santander and BBVA.

It said seven former savings banks that have received state support "rely significantly on FROB for capital and liquidity support" and that other medium and small private sector banks which account for approximately 11 percent of domestic banking were also exposed to the real estate and construction sector.

Spain's financial problems are not due to Greek-style government over-spending. The country's banks, particularly its savings banks or "cajas," got caught up in the collapse of a real estate bubble in 2008 that got worse over the past four years. However, as Spain's leaders have struggled for a solution to their banking crisis, the country's borrowing costs have soared close to the level that forced the governments of Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek rescues.

Some of Spain's banks are struggling with toxic real estate loans and assets amid fears the problem will get worse as more jobless people can't pay their mortgages. The Bank of Spain says the toxic loans and assets total around ?180 billion. Nationalized lender Bankia SA, which has requested ?19 billion in aid, has ?32 billion in toxic assets. Around four other banks serving the domestic market were assessed by the IMF report to have large exposure to corporate and retail real estate lending.

"I could never get my mind round the scale of consumption in Spain over the past 20 years, having known it in the 1960s when it was still extremely poor," said Paul Preston, a history professor and expert on Spain with the London School of Economics. "Lots of people enjoyed the consumer boom, but not everybody. Now everybody's having to pay for it."

Rajoy blamed Spain's woes on the previous Socialist administration of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero without mentioning him or his government by name. Zapatero was ousted by Rajoy in a landslide last November by voters outraged over the Socialist handling of the economy.

"Last year Spain's public administration spent ?90 billion more than it took in, this can't be maintained, we can't live like that," Rajoy said.

But Socialist Party leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Rajoy should acknowledge that Spain is now in bailout territory.

"The government is trying to make us believe that we've won the lottery, that the Three Kings of Orient have arrived, and that isn't so," Rubalcaba said.

After his press conference, Rajoy defended his decision to jet off an hour later to Poland to see Spain's famed national football team take on Italy in the Euro 2012 competition. He said he would be on the ground in Gdansk only for the game before flying back to Madrid Sunday night.

"I'll be there two and a half hours and then I'll leave," Rajoy said. "I think the national team deserves it."

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Associated Press writers Harold Heckle and Jorge Sainz contributed from Madrid.

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