NEW YORK ? A rare disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan Chase battered bank stocks on Friday and helped push the rest of the market lower. Rumors of imminent downgrades for the credit ratings of European governments drove the euro down and sent investors streaming into U.S. debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.96 points to close at 12,422.06, a drop of 0.4 percent. Markets were little changed late in the day after France's finance minister confirmed that Standard & Poor's had stripped the country of its AAA credit rating.

Before the market opened, JPMorgan said quarterly profit declined 23 percent from a year earlier, slightly worse than what analysts expected. The bank's stock lost 2 percent, and other large banks followed. Morgan Stanley fell 3 percent and Goldman Sachs 2 percent.

It was the first time JPMorgan missed Wall Street expectations since the final quarter of 2007, a period that includes the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. JPMorgan is widely considered one of the best-managed big banks. Traders figured that if JPMorgan had trouble as 2011 came to a close, the rest of the industry probably did, too.

"JPMorgan is the gold standard," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors. "So what happens to the banks that aren't quite as strong and aren't quite as well-managed?"

On trading desks, it's called the "cockroach theory," Orlando said. "You never see just one cockroach. If you see one, you know there's bound to be a lot more."

The euro slipped to its lowest level in 17 months after reports surfaced that S&P would downgrade European governments. After the markets closed in New York, S&P announced cuts for France, Austria, Italy and Spain.

The euro dropped 1.1 percent against the dollar to $1.27. Borrowing costs jumped for France, Italy and Spain, countries at the center of the region's debt crisis.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors moved money into lower-risk assets. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.86 percent from 1.93 percent late Thursday.

S&P warned Dec. 5 that 15 countries that use the euro were at risk of downgrades, citing higher borrowing costs for top-rated governments and disagreements among European leaders.

A cut to France's credit rating may fail to push rates up for France because bond traders were prepared for it, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

The danger is to the European rescue fund. France is the second-largest contributor to the fund behind Germany. Bond traders could respond to the French downgrade by raising borrowing costs for the rescue fund, in the expectation that its rating will be cut next.

"The knock-on effects are far more significant than the impact on France itself," LeBas said.

JPMorgan's results opened the earnings season for banks on a sour note. Though an increasing pace of earnings reports may help steer the markets over the coming days, Europe's debt crisis is likely to remain the focus.

In other trading, the S&P 500 index fell 6.41, or 0.5 percent to 1,289.09. The Nasdaq composite index fell 14.03, or 0.5 percent, to 2,710.67. Even with Friday's fall, all three indexes posted gains for the second straight week. The S&P 500 index is up 2.5 percent to start the year.

Among stocks making larger moves than the overall market Friday:

? Diamond Foods Inc., which makes Emerald Nuts, plunged 10 percent after The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors had opened a criminal inquiry into its financial practices. The Journal also reported that two large shareholders had dumped most of their stakes in the company.

? Safeway Inc., the grocery store chain, rose 1.8 percent. An analyst at Jefferies placed a "buy" rating on the stock on the expectation that the company will benefit from an improving job market, especially in California.

? Alpha Natural Resources fell 10 percent, the largest loss in the S&P 500. The coal company bought Massey Energy last year, and the Justice Department is considering whether to prosecute the people who ran Massey when its Big Branch mine exploded in 2010.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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COMMENTARY | Newt Gingrich is attacking Mitt Romney for speaking French in a new ad. However the Daily Caller is suggesting that this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, claiming that Gingrich is fluent in French as well.

The accusation comes at the end of the ad, in which Romney is compared to two other Massachusetts pols, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, who tried to run for president and failed. It has Kerry publically speaking French and then Romney doing the same thing. Hence Romney equals Kerry in foreign language fluency.

The suggestion is made that Gingrich must be a French-speaker as well, due to the fact that his doctorial dissertation on education in the Belgium Congo cites numerous French language documents. Gingrich also interviewed a number of people in Belgium. French is one of the major languages in that country.

One supposes that Gingrich could have employed a translator, thus escaping the taint of being fluent in the French language. One wonders what the fuss is about, however.

To be sure Kerry seemed to speak French as a means to buttress his haughty, aristocratic mien, setting himself up as someone who suffered from Paris envy and not someone in touch with ordinary Americans. That included Cajun people from Louisiana who speak a kind of French. There is no evidence, however, that Romney has tried to put on airs just because he can parlez vous.

It is not a necessary requirement that a president of the United States be multi lingual; he would have plenty of people who can make him understood to President Sarkozy, for example. However it would be intriguing to have a president, like Jon Huntsman, who can speak Mandarin, the main language of China. Farsi and Arabic might also be useful.

Indeed, there has been more than one multi-lingual president of the United States. According to the Monticello website, President Jefferson could speak Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish and, of course, English. His acumen in foreign languages seems not to have hurt his ability to be president.

Gingrich is -- once again -- over reaching in his zeal to cut up Romney.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120113/pl_ac/10830927_gingrich_romney_speaks_french_just_like_john_kerry

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Deputy mayor to seek NJ House seat

A deputy mayor has decided to seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Rep. Scott Garrett in November. Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen says in a statement that Garrett

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Source: http://www.app.com/article/20120109/NJNEWS10/301090030/1001/NEWS&source=rss

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Nicotine replacement therapies may not be effective in helping people quit smoking

Monday, January 9, 2012

Nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) designed to help people stop smoking, specifically nicotine patches and nicotine gum, do not appear to be effective in helping smokers quit long-term, even when combined with smoking cessation counseling, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The study appears January 9, 2012 in an advance online edition of Tobacco Control and will appear in a later print issue.

"What this study shows is the need for the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees regulation of both medications to help smokers quit and tobacco products, to approve only medications that have been proven to be effective in helping smokers quit in the long-term and to lower nicotine in order to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes," said co-author Gregory Connolly, director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at HSPH.

In the prospective cohort study the researchers, including lead author Hillel Alpert, research scientist at HSPH, and co-author Lois Biener of the University of Massachusetts Boston's Center for Survey Research, followed 787 adult smokers in Massachusetts who had recently quit smoking. The participants were surveyed over three time periods: 2001-2002, 2003-2004, and 2005-2006. Participants were asked whether they had used a nicotine replacement therapy in the form of the nicotine patch (placed on the skin), nicotine gum, nicotine inhaler, or nasal spray to help them quit, and if so, what was the longest period of time they had used the product continuously. They also were asked if they had joined a quit-smoking program or received help from a doctor, counselor, or other professional.

The results showed that, for each time period, almost one-third of recent quitters reported to have relapsed. The researchers found no difference in relapse rate among those who used NRT for more than six weeks, with or without professional counseling. No difference in quitting success with use of NRT was found for either heavy or light smokers.

"This study shows that using NRT is no more effective in helping people stop smoking cigarettes in the long-term than trying to quit on one's own," Alpert said. He added that even though clinical trials (studies) have found NRT to be effective, the new findings demonstrate the importance of empirical studies regarding effectiveness when used in the general population.

Biener said that using public funds to provide NRT to the population at large is of questionable value, particularly when it reduces the amount of money available for smoking interventions shown in previous studies to be effective, such as media campaigns, promotion of no smoking policies, and tobacco price increases.

Smoking cessation medications have been available over the counter since 1996, yet U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics show that the previous adult smoking rate decline and quitting rates have stalled in the past five years.

###

Harvard School of Public Health: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu

Thanks to Harvard School of Public Health for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116563/Nicotine_replacement_therapies_may_not_be_effective_in_helping_people_quit_smoking

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Maritime New Zealand via Getty Images

MV Rena is seen in two pieces after overnight bad weather pounded the vessel, on Jan. 9, 2012 in Tauranga, New Zealand. The ship, which struck Astrolabe Reef off the coast of Mt Maunganui on Oct. 5, 2011, split in two over the weekend.

Marty Melville / AFP - Getty Images

A team of oil-spill and wildlife specialists has been mobilised as oil again began flowing from the Rena, after it broke in two in a storm over the weekend.

Marty Melville / AFP - Getty Images

Marty Melville / AFP - Getty Images

A security guard walks on a beach where shipping containers and bags of milk powder, seen here, were washed ashore on Jan. 9, 2012.

The Associated Press reports from?WELLINGTON, New Zealand:?

A light sheen of oil extended about two miles from a wrecked cargo ship that split in two over the weekend, but so far the damage appears small compared to the environmental disaster created when the vessel ran aground in October, New Zealand authorities said Monday.

Waihi Police Sgt. Dave Litton said police closed public access to popular Waihi Beach on Monday morning after four cargo containers and other debris from the vessel washed ashore. He said police received calls about people driving off with some of the bags of milk powder that are strewn along the beach.

Authorities say the milk and other items washed ashore could be health hazards. Read the full story.

See earlier coverage of the Rena disaster on PhotoBlog.

Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/09/10067918-stricken-ship-splits-in-two-off-new-zealand-coast

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Adding a long tails to a robot to stabilize its body could lead to far more agile search-and-rescue machines, a new study reveals. ? ?

Meat-eating dinosaurs like?Velociraptor?may have been quite the acrobats, using their tails to land aerial maneuvers safely, say scientists studying today's leaping lizards.

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Long-tailed robots built as part of this work could help inspire a new generation of maneuverable search-and-rescue droids, the researchers add.

More than 40 years ago, scientists proposed that?Velociraptor?and other?predatory dinosaurs?used their tails to stabilize their bodies during jumps or similar rapid or irregular movements, helping make them active, agile hunters. The idea is that the raptors used their tails much as tightrope walkers use balancing poles ? tightrope walkers tilt the poles to make their bodies lean in the opposite direction of the tilt, and the thought was that the extinct reptiles bent their tails to control the orientation of their bodies as they leapt.

Researchers have since found that swinging appendages can help lemurs, cats, kangaroo rats and even humans with their walking and acrobatics. However, while some studies suggested the same apparently?holds true for geckos?during climbing and gliding, others hinted that lizards that had lost their tails might not only experience no change in performance, but actual improvements, calling into question the idea that tails are useful for balancing.

To address this controversy, scientists analyzed red-headed Agama lizards (Agama agama), which are very good jumpers and are notably capable of landing safely. The scientists shot video of the reptiles making running leaps toward a vertical wall. The horizontal platforms they jumped from had varying surfaces, from slippery to sandpaper-like.

The investigators found the lizards swung their tails to correct for errors made at launch. For instance, slippery surfaces made their feet skid, but the reptiles corrected for such anomalies with appropriate tail movements in mid-air.

To help confirm their findings, the scientists produced a lizard-size wheeled robot named "Tailbot" that had an aluminum tail and could leap like a ski jumper from a ramp. During each jump, the robot's front wheels, which left the ramp first, started falling while the rear ones were still on the ramp, causing the machine to tilt downward. To avoid a nosedive into the landing pad, Tailbot corrected the angle of its body before landing by using tail movements controlled by feedback from an onboard gyroscope. [See?photos of leaping lizards & robots]

The researchers developed mathematical models allowing them to predict the effectiveness of different tails at balancing bodies. Their work suggested that?Velociraptor mongoliensis, a 5-foot (1.5-meter) tall, 45-lb. (20-kilogram) predator, might have been capable of aerial acrobatics beyond those of even the most agile modern lizards.

"Animals show us that by moving appendages effectively, the control of the body can be simplified," researcher Robert Full, an integrative biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, told LiveScience.

When it comes to?potential robotic applications?for this work, "inspiration from lizard tails will likely lead to far more agile?search-and-rescue robots?that can deal with the rubble often found resulting from a disaster," Full said. "Legged robots will also have a greater capability to more rapidly detect chemical, biological or nuclear hazards that might occur in a subway or populated area."

As to why past studies found that tailless lizards might not suffer any changes in performance, "they may not have problems running on level, smooth ground with no perturbations, but that is not the case on rough terrain or during a perturbation," Full noted.

The scientists detailed their findings online Jan. 4 in the journal Nature.

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter?@livescience?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/ECaGQbCOvqc/Should-we-design-robots-to-be-more-like-velociraptors

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Security experts predict 2012 will be a breakthrough year for cyber-attacks on smartphones. There are now enough of these mobile computers in use to make them an inviting target.?

?Shopping and mobile banking are things that are going to leave a trail and contain lots of goodies that criminals can go after,? says Rachel Ratcliff Womack with the digital security firm Stroz Friedberg.

In addition to all of your personal information, you probably have business email and contacts on your phone.

?It brings those two worlds together in a very convenient package for criminals to target,? Womack says.?

Not only are they loaded with all sorts of personal information a crook would like to steal, most smartphones are also completely unprotected.?

The subject of malicious cell phone attacks has been greatly hyped the last few years. But during 2011 it became clear that this is a real threat that must be taken seriously.?

?We are only at the beginning of the wave,? says James Lyne, director of technology strategies at Sophos, an international firm that specializes in online security for businesses. ?We?ve definitely got to start worrying about security on mobile devices.??

But people don?t seem to have the same security concerns with their smartphones that they do with their PCs.?

?The problem is that users may view these devices as eminently secure, when in reality they are just waiting to receive more attention from cyber-criminals,? Lyne says.?

All smartphones can have security vulnerabilities, but right now most mobile malware is aimed at Android devices. That?s because Android powers more devices and it?s an open platform, which makes it?s easier for the bad guys to distribute their malicious software.?

In a new report, Lookout Mobile Security estimates that Android users lost more than a million dollars to cyber-thieves last year. The company says the annual risk of encountering malware on an Android device is now 4 percent, up from 1 percent at the beginning of 2011.?

?In 2012, we expect to see the mobile malware business turn profitable,? says Kevin Mahaffey, Lookout?s chief technology officer. ?What took 15 years on the PC platform has only taken the mobile ecosystem two years.??

What are the threats?
Mobile malware can do all sorts of things. It can spy on you, run up your wireless bill or steal your personal information.?

?The things they are doing on PCs, they?re also doing on smartphones ? and even more,? says Gary Davis with McAfee Labs.?

• There are banking Trojans that will intercept financial transactions with your bank and then use that information to drain your bank account.
• Other malware can send text messages to premium SMS services without your knowledge. You wind up with a huge bill at the end of the month for text messages your phone sent.
• Spyware can harvest information about the places you go and when. It can also record phone conversations and forward them to the attacker.?
• Quick Response codes (those black-and-white squares starting to show up in all sorts of ads) can also pose a security risk. Internet security company Kaspersky Lab recently reported that it found QR codes can link to malicious text messages or websites.?
• And of course, you can always click on a malicious link yourself or be tricked into giving out your personal information via a phishing scam directed to your cell phone.

What can you do to protect yourself?
The first security software for smartphones is now available and more will soon hit the market.??

McAfee is working on a product that analyzes the ?permissions? an app wants from your device and warns of possible threats. For example, a flashlight app doesn?t need to look at your location or your phone book. If the security software found a flashlight app asking for access to that information, it would flag it.?

But do you really need security software for your mobile devices??

?We don?t think that people have to install yet another program for security on their phones, at least not now,? says Paul Reynolds, electronics editor at Consumer Reports. ?Probably the biggest security threat is losing your phone.??

Security expert Lyne agrees. He says mobile security today is about the basics: have a decent password, use encryption and make sure your device is patched ? running the latest versions of both apps and the phone operating system.?

But he says in the next year to 18 months, you probably will need to seriously consider security software, especially if you use your smartphone for shopping or banking.?

You also need to be careful about the apps you install. Think before you download. Check reviews. Be skeptical.?

?Stick with the major apps and the major app stores,? advises Rachel Ratcliff Womack.?

If you go to Amazon or the iTunes store, your chances of getting malware are relatively low, but still possible. You run a greater risk at the Android Market.

More information:

McAfee: Top Five Tips to Avoid Bad Apps?

Sophos: Mobile Security Toolkit?

Sophos: 7 Tips for Securing Mobile Workers

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Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/04/9955595-smartphone-hacking-will-rise-in-2012-experts-warn

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BERLIN ? German prosecutors say police have arrested a man on charges he supported a neo-Nazi terror group that is believed to have killed 10 people and carried out several attacks over more than a decade.

The Federal Prosecutors' Office said in a statement Thursday that a police special operations team arrested the 32-year-old German citizen near Berlin in a morning raid.

They say police are also searching four apartments in different cities.

The man, identified only as Andre E., is suspected of being an accessory to crimes, inciting racial hatred, and supporting the far-right terrorist group.

Police arrested one other alleged supporter earlier this month. One of the group's suspected founders is also in custody while two others died in an apparent murder-suicide earlier this month.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_far_right

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Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates leaves the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Gates testified in a $1 billion anti-trust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)

Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates leaves the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Gates testified in a $1 billion anti-trust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)

Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrives at the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Gates was scheduled to testify in a one billion dollar antitrust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that's been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.(AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)

John Pinette, left, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates arrives at the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Microsoft's Windows 95 rollout presented the most challenges in the company's history, leading to several last-minute changes to technical features that would no longer support a rival software maker's word processor, Bill Gates testified Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of WordPerfect. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ? Microsoft's Bill Gates returns to the witness stand Tuesday to defend his company against a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit that claims the software giant tricked a competitor into huge losses and soared onto the market with Windows 95.

Utah-based Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004. The company says Gates duped them into thinking he would include its WordPerfect writing program in the new Windows system, then backed out because he feared it was too good.

Novell said it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.

Gates testified Monday that Microsoft was racing to put out Windows 95 when he dropped technical features that would no longer support the rival's word processor because engineers warned it would crash the system.

Windows 95 was a major innovation, and Gates said he had his mind on larger issues.

"We worked super hard. It was the most challenging, trying project we had ever done," the Microsoft co-founder said. "It was a ground-breaking piece of work, and it was very well received when we got it done."

Gates said Novell just couldn't deliver a Windows 95 compatible WordPerfect program in time for rollout, and its own Word program was actually better. He said that by 1994, Microsoft Word was rated No. 1 in the market above WordPerfect.

WordPerfect once had nearly 50 percent of the market for computer writing programs, but its share quickly plummeted to less than 10 percent as Microsoft's own office programs took hold.

Microsoft lawyers say Novell's loss of market share was its own doing because the company didn't develop a Windows compatible WordPerfect program until months after the operating system's rollout.

Gates called it an "important win" in an email to executives.

Attorneys for Novell, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group as a result of a merger earlier this year, concede that Microsoft was under no legal obligation to provide advance access to Windows 95 so Novell could prepare a compatible version. The Redmond, Wash.-based company, however, enticed Novell to work on a version, only to withdraw support months before Windows 95 hit the market, Novell attorney Jeff Johnson said.

Microsoft lawyer David Tulchin argued that Novell's missed opportunity was its own fault, and that Microsoft had no obligation to give a competitor a leg up.

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz late Monday denied Microsoft's request to dismiss the case. He said Novell's claims appeared thin but that he would let the case continue another month and allow a jury to decide.

Gates was the first witness to testify Monday in his company's defense after a month-long case by Novell. Cross-examination begins Tuesday.

Gates, a billionaire, began by testifying about Microsoft's history. He was just 19 when he helped found the company. Today, Microsoft is one of the world's largest software makers, with a market value of more than $210 billion.

"We thought everybody would have a personal computer on every desk and in every home," Gates said. "We wanted to be there and be the first."

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Dobner contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-22-Antitrust%20Lawsuit-Microsoft/id-8c992c46c3d140b5a93f335d7ed3be2d

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