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Monthly Archives: November 2012

BlackBerry Maker $RIMM Loses Patent Dispute with $NOK

“HELSINKI (Reuters) – Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM) has lost a contract dispute over the use ofNokia patents in a case which could halt sales of its BlackBerry phones if it does not reach a deal to pay royalties to the Finnish company.

Nokia said on Wednesday a Swedish arbitrator had ruled that “RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia.”

Wireless local access network (WLAN) technologies, usually marketed under the WiFi brand, are used across BlackBerry devices and by most other smartphones.

Nokia, which is trying to boost its royalty income as its phone business slides, said it had filed cases in the United States, Britain and Canada to enforce the arbitrator’s ruling.

“This could have a significant financial impact to RIM, as all BlackBerry devices support WLAN,” IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said.”

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Black Gold Continues Downtrend on Supply Glut

“Oil traded near the lowest price in a week in New York amid signs of rising supplies in the U.S. and concern that lawmakers are struggling to reach agreement on how to address the nation’s deficit.

West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed after sliding 0.6 percent yesterday. An Energy Department report today may show crude supplies rose by 350,000 barrels to 374.8 million, according to a Bloomberg News survey. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday he was disappointed with progress made during congressional budget talks over $607 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to begin in January.

“The market has been kept well-supplied,” said Guy Wolf, a strategist at London-based commodities broker Marex Spectron Group Ltd. who predicts Brent crude will recover to $125 a barrel early next year. “Funds are not engaged with the market right now, partly due to potential events such as the U.S. fiscal cliff. Even though everyone assumes it will resolve itself, the question is how close to the edge do we go first?”

Crude for January delivery was at $86.90 a barrel, down 28 cents, in electronic trading on theNew York Mercantile Exchange at 10:19 a.m. London time. The contract decreased 56 cents yesterday to $87.18, the lowest since Nov. 20. Prices are down 12 percent this year.

Brent for January settlement slid 26 cents to $109.59 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $22.69 to WTI, compared with $22.69 yesterday.”

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Cyber War Files: How Hacking Has Brought a Family Company to the Brink of Bankruptcy

“During his civil lawsuit against the People’s Republic of China, Brian Milburn says he never once saw one of the country’s lawyers. He read no court documents from China’s attorneys because they filed none. The voluminous case record at the U.S. District courthouse in Santa Ana contains a single communication from China: a curt letter to the U.S. State Department, urging that the suit be dismissed.

That doesn’t mean Milburn’s adversary had no contact with him.

For three years, a group of hackers from China waged a relentless campaign of cyber harassment against Solid Oak Software Inc., Milburn’s family-owned, eight-person firm in Santa Barbara, California. The attack began less than two weeks after Milburn publicly accused China of appropriating his company’s parental filtering software, CYBERsitter, for a national Internet censoring project. And it ended shortly after he settled a $2.2 billion lawsuit against the Chinese government and a string of computer companies last April.”

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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble Slams Recent Greek Debt Deal, Believes Greece Will Need More Aid

“German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble signaled that Greece may need additional help as the country’s most-read newspaper slammed a rescue accord as a “never-ending story” financed by German taxpayers.

Euro-area governments may provide additional funding through the European Union structural fund and further interest- payment reduction as long as Greece meets all its obligations under the agreement, Schaeuble wrote in a letter to German lawmakers obtained by Bloomberg News. Legislators in the lower house, or Bundestag, will vote on the measure as soon as tomorrow.”

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$UBS Puts a But on Asian Growth Equities

“Strategists at three of the world’s biggest banks are advising investors to buy Asian equitiesmost tied to economic growth after valuations fell and the global economy showed signs of recovery.

Technology, industrial and materials stocks will climb next year as China’s expansion accelerates and concern about the U.S. fiscal cliff fades, Niall MacLeod, a strategist at UBS AG, wrote in a report today. Valuations for cyclical shares are about 40 percent lower than defensive equities, including household- products makers, according to a Nov. 26 note by Morgan Stanley’s Jonathan Garner. An improving earnings outlook will help lure investors, Citigroup Inc.’s Markus Rosgen wrote on Nov. 26.”

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Austerity Causes Drugmakers to Hold Back on Drug Treatments

“The European financial crisis is creating a tug-of-war between the pharmaceutical industry and governments as austerity measures from the U.K. to Germany clamp down on reimbursements, especially for new drugs.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH are among drugmakers delaying introductions or partially withdrawing their products in some European markets as governments raise the bar on what they’re willing to cover.”

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European Broker Commissions Tank 29%

“The value of commissions paid to European brokers fell 29 percent in 2012 as equity volumes declined amid the European debt crisis, according to a study by Tabb Group LLC.

Payments dropped to 865 million euros ($1.1 billion) this year from 1.2 billion euros in 2011, according to a survey of money managers, who together oversee 13.6 trillion euros. About 45 percent of respondents said they have cut the percentage of orders they route to traditional sales-trading desks, with 66 percent switching into computer algorithms, the study found.”

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$BP Sells $1.1 Billion of U.K. Oil Assets to Abu Dhabi’s Taqa

BP Plc (BP/), the energy producer that’s disposing of assets in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, sold stakes in North Sea fields to Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) for $1.1 billion.

Taqa, as the state-controlled power and oil company is known, will acquire interests in BP’s Harding, Maclure and Devenick fields, BP said in a statement today. The deal also includes non-operated interests in the Brae and Braemar fields. The price doesn’t include future payments dependent on oil prices and production that BP expects to reach $250 million.”

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Muddy Waters Reduces Short Selling on Chinese Companies

Carson Block says it’s become too difficult to short Chinese equities in the U.S. as bets on stock declines drop by 50 percent from a year ago.

Block, known for his allegations that Chinese companies traded in North America engaged in accounting fraud, said in an interview yesterday that he’s lost interest in betting against the stocks because the government helps protect them. Short interest in the 83 biggest Chinese firms listed in New York has dropped to an average 2.61 percent of the total outstanding, from 5.22 percent a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg and the U.K. researcher Markit show.”

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The Aussie Dollar Takes Another Risk Day Off

“The Australian dollar remained lower following a decline yesterday amid speculation a report tomorrow will show a slowdown in capital expenditure growth, damping the outlook for the economy and the currency.

The so-called Aussie dropped for a third day versus the yen as investors boosted bets theReserve Bank of Australia will cut rates at its next meeting on Dec. 4. Demand for New Zealand’s dollar was tempered after the country’s central bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said the local currency’s gains have hurt manufacturing and as Asian stocks retreated. The South Pacific currencies were supported after China’s commerce minister said he sees his nation’s trade improving in the second half of 2013.

“If non-mining capital investment doesn’t show signs of picking up in 2013, that suggests that policy needs to be easier and that would be consistent with a rate cut next month” from the RBA, said Andrew Salter, a currency strategist in Sydney at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) “It might weigh on the currency in the very short-term.” ”

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The Central Bank of Thailand Keep Rates on Hold, Recovery on the Horizon

Thailand kept its policy interest rate unchanged today after an unexpected cut last month, and signaled it may be done with easing as data show the economy is improving after last year’s floods.

The Bank of Thailand held its one-day bond repurchase rate at 2.75 percent, it said in Bangkok today. The outcome was predicted by 16 of 19 economists in a Bloomberg survey, while the rest called for a quarter-point reduction. The monetary policy committee’s decision was unanimous, the central bank said.

Thai manufacturing and exports increased in October, adding to signs from the U.S. and China of a recovery in the global economy. While the central bank last month lowered its growth forecast for 2013, it said today risks to expansion have subsided, and that it doesn’t see much need for more rate cuts.

“Although the recovery seems to be slowing, the economy continued to expand,” said Frances Cheung, a Hong Kong-based strategist at Credit Agricole CIB. “There’s no pressing reason for them to cut, especially when the economy has started to expand again. I think they are probably already done with the easing cycle.” ”

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Senator Harry Reid’s Comments Spook Global Markets

Global markets are watching the fiscal cliff talks in America closely. Yesterday, senator Reid had some comments that crushed expectations that politicians could create a bipartisan compromise. Yesterday’s U.S. equity selloff after Reid’s comments seem to have transferred over to global equity trading.

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Bigfoot AKA Yeti AKA Sasquatch AKA Abominable Snowman Lives….Request for Classification as….Wait for it

Requested to be classified as indigenous people….

“Five-Year Genome Study At DNA Diagnostics Yields Evidence of Homo sapiens/Unknown Hominin Hybrid Species in North America

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) November 24, 2012

A team of scientists can verify that their 5-year long DNA study, currently under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” living in North America. Researchers’ extensive DNA sequencing suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species.

 

The study was conducted by a team of experts in genetics, forensics, imaging and pathology, led by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum of Nacogdoches, TX. In response to recent interest in the study, Dr. Ketchum can confirm that her team has sequenced 3 complete Sasquatch nuclear genomes and determined the species is a human hybrid:

“Our study has sequenced 20 whole mitochondrial genomes and utilized next generation sequencing to obtain 3 whole nuclear genomes from purported Sasquatch samples. The genome sequencing shows that Sasquatch mtDNA is identical to modern Homo sapiens, but Sasquatch nuDNA is a novel, unknown hominin related to Homo sapiens and other primate species. Our data indicate that the North American Sasquatch is a hybrid species, the result of males of an unknown hominin species crossing with female Homo sapiens….”

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$YHOO Email Users Exposed to a Flaw, Malware Nightmares (video)

“A hacker is capitalizing on a Yahoo! flaw that could allow email accounts to become compromised and could trick users into clicking on malicious websites. But criminal hackers will have to pay to obtain details about how to conduct this hack. The cost: $700.

Brian Krebs on his blog Krebs on Security reported last week that an Egyptian hacker was offering this deal on an “exclusive cybercrime forum” called Darkode. The hack itself steals cookies, which Krebs explains leads hackers into their target’s account where they can send or read emails.  Here’s how the hacker going by “The Hell” advertised his exploit, according to Krebs:”

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Dems Say Fiscal Cliff Deal Must Address The Debt Ceiling

“Two of the top Congressional Democrats today emphasized that any deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” must also address the debt ceiling, which will need to be raised by February.

The top two Democratic Sens. leading the cliff negotiations — Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin — both said that the ceiling is an issue that needs to be tackled in any upcoming deal.”

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