Networked Politics ? Blog Archive ? Cheap Texas Car Insurance

In today?s advanced world of technology, the Internet has made it possible for us to shop for almost everything online. Car insurance is no exception, and drivers in California are able to purchase car insurance from the same auto insurance company used by drivers in West Virginia thanks to the Internet and the broad scope of advertising it provides.

However, when you are looking for cheap Texas car insurance, you should not overlook the option of purchasing the insurance from a Texas car insurance company. Purchasing cheap Texas car insurance from a Texas car insurance company does not mean purchasing the insurance from a company that is merely licensed to do insurance business in Texas. A Texas car insurance company is one that specializes in selling car insurance to Texas drivers and car owners.

Texas-based car insurance companies are able to sell cheap Texas car insurance because they are aware of any special factors that should go into car insurance in Texas. Rather than simply having policyholders in Texas, they have owners and agents in the area.

A Texas car insurance company will ask Texas drivers and car owners the same kinds of questions asked by any other car insurance company. The insurance company will want to know contact information about you, such as your name, your address, your telephone number, and your email address, as well as more personal information such as your marital status, gender, age, employment, and credit rating. The insurance company will also want to know information about your current Texas car insurance, information about your vehicle such as make, model, year, and vehicle identification number (VIN), and information about the people who also drive your car.

To begin your search for cheap Texas car insurance, start at home. Look at your newspapers, local television commercials, and telephone listings, and talk with your family members, friends, and co-workers about the Texas car insurance companies they use.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Principles and challenges. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.networked-politics.info/?p=8406

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Kourtney Kardashian: Pregnant Again!

Kim Kardashian may be destined to never procreate, but she's about to become an aunt for the second time.

Kourtney Kardashian announced today - via a statement to E! News and an Us Weekly cover story, of course: cha-ching! - that she and Scott Disick will soon be parents again.

"Scott and I are so excited to announce that we are expecting our second child and are thrilled to be expanding the love in our family," she said, adding that she's nine weeks along and, yes, one is supposed to wait until one is 12 weeks along to tell the public, but: "I'm confident."

And here's an incredible coincidence: the pregnancy takes place just as the oldest Kardashian sibling is kicking off an E! Online-sponsored Web series titled Kourtney's Mommy Blog. Look for her to share stories on there about Mason, while offering parenting and fashion advice to other mothers, who apparently have absolutely nowhere else to go.

Welcome to the Kardashian world, unborn baby. Your mom is already making money off of you.

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/kourtney-kardashian-pregnant-again/

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Dutch killer whale Morgan finds new home in Spain (AP)

MADRID ? A young killer whale at the center of a legal battle waged by Dutch conservationists has arrived at its new home on the Canary Islands, a spokeswoman for a Spanish zoo said Wednesday.

The 1,400-kilogram (3,085-pound) female orca named Morgan arrived at Loro Parque on the island of Tenerife late Tuesday after being flown from the Netherlands, Patricia del Ponte said.

Photographs issued showed the whale being lowered by crane in a cloth hammock into a pool tank at the park.

The estimated 3-year-old whale was rescued in shallow waters off the Netherlands in 2010.

The Dutch government permit that originally approved her capture said a Dutch dolphinarium could hold her and restore her health so she could be released.

But after the dolphinarium assembled a team of experts for advice, it was found she had little chance of survival in the wild unless her natal pod, or family, could be identified. Authorities then decided it should be transferred to Loro Parque, which already has several orcas.

Opposing experts for the "Free Morgan" group said the dolphinarium was guided by financial interests, rather than concern for the animal's well-being, and proposed a plan for reintroducing her to the wild.

International treaties prohibit the trade of killer whales ? which are actually classified as oceangoing dolphins ? without special permits. Fewer than 50 orcas are held in captivity worldwide and the bulk of them are owned by SeaWorld, a subsidiary of U.S. private equity giant the Blackstone Group L.P.

A female capable of breeding and introducing new genes into the pool of captive orcas is worth millions of euros (dollars).

Loro Parque said it would provide a home for the orca along with the five others it has.

____

Toby Sterling contributed from Amsterdam

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_netherlands_orca

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Hackers post UN staffer user names, passwords (AP)

UNITED NATIONS ? A hackers group calling itself "Team Poison" has posted what it says are the user names and passwords of more than 100 United Nations staffers' email accounts it pulled from a U.N. computer server.

Many of the accounts posted on pastebin.com website appear to belong to U.N. Development Program staffers.

A telephone call seeking comment from a UNDP spokeswoman in New York was not immediately returned Wednesday evening.

Team Poison is among several politically motivated cyber activists or activist groups whose stunts are prompting increased police attention.

Generally known as "hacktivists," they've targeted a series of government, military and intelligence-related websites across the globe.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_us/un_un_hackers

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Iranian protesters storm UK diplomatic compounds (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, smashing windows, torching a car and burning the British flag in protest against new sanctions imposed by London.

Britain said it was outraged and warned of "serious consequences." The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks "in the strongest terms." President Barack Obama said he was disturbed by the incident and called on Iran to hold those responsible to task.

The attacks come at a time of rising diplomatic tension between Iran and Western nations who last week imposed fresh sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program, which they believe is aimed at achieving the capability of making an atomic bomb.

Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, says it only wants nuclear plants to generate electricity.

The embassy storming is also a sign of deepening political infighting within Iran's ruling hardline elites, with the conservative-led parliament attempting to force the hand of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and expel the British ambassador.

"Radicals in Iran and in the West are always in favor of crisis ... Such radical hardliners in Iran will use the crisis to unite people and also to blame the crisis for the fading economy," said political analyst Hasan Sedghi.

Several dozen protesters broke away from a crowd of a few hundred outside the main British embassy compound in downtown Tehran, scaled the gates, broke the locks and went inside.

Protesters pulled down the British flag, burned it, and put up the Iranian flag, Iranian news agencies and news pictures showed. Inside, the demonstrators smashed windows of office and residential quarters and set a car ablaze, news pictures showed.

One took a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth, state TV showed. Others carried the royal crest out through the embassy gate as police stood by, pictures carried by the semi-official Fars news agency showed.

Demonstrators waved flags symbolizing martyrdom and held aloft portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on matters of state in Iran.

Another group of protesters broke into a second British compound at Qolhak in north Tehran, the IRNA state news agency said. Once the embassy's summer quarters, the sprawling, tree-lined compound is now used to house diplomatic staff.

An Iranian report said six British embassy staff had been briefly held by the protesters. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the situation had been "confusing" and that he would not have called them "hostages."

"Police freed the six people working for the British embassy in Qolhak garden," Iran's Fars news agency said.

A German school next to the Qolhak compound was also damaged, the German government said.

BRITAIN OUTRAGED

Police appeared to have cleared the demonstrators in front of the main downtown embassy compound, but later clashed with protesters and fired tear gas to attempt to disperse them, Fars said. Protesters nevertheless entered the compound a second time, before once again leaving, it said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron chaired a meeting of the government crisis committee to discuss the attacks which he said were "outrageous and indefensible."

"The failure of the Iranian government to defend British staff and property was a disgrace," Cameron said in a statement.

"The Iranian government must recognize that there will be serious consequences for failing to protect our staff. We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days."

The United States, alongside the European Union and many of its member states also strongly condemned the attacks.

There have been regular protests outside the British embassy over the years since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, but never have any been so violent.

The attacks and hostage-taking were a reminder of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran carried out by radical students who held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The United States and Iran have cut diplomatic ties ever since.

INFIGHTING

The demonstrations appeared to be a bid by conservatives who control parliament to press home their demand, passed in parliament last week and quickly endorsed by the Guardian Council on Tuesday, for the government to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for the sanctions.

A lawmaker had warned on Sunday that angry Iranians could storm the British embassy.

"Parliament officially notified the president over a bill regarding degrading the ties with Britain, obliging the government to implement it within five days," Fars news agency quoted speaker Ali Larijani as saying.

Ahmadinejad's government has shown no willingness to compromise on its refusal to halt its nuclear work, but has sought to keep channels of negotiation open in an effort to limit the worst effects of sanctions.

An Iranian official told Reuters the storming of the British compounds was not planned by the government.

"It was not an organized measure. The establishment had no role in it. It was not planned," said the official, who declined to be identified. Iran's Foreign Ministry said it regretted the attacks and was committed to ensuring the safety of diplomats.

Police arrested 12 people who had entered the north Tehran compound, Fars said, quoting a police chief as saying they would be handed over to the judiciary.

Protesters said they planned to stage a sit-in at the gates of the north Tehran compound and would not move until they were told to do so by Iran's religious leaders.

Britain, along with the United States and Canada, imposed new unilateral sanctions on Iran last week, while the EU, France and Italy have all said financial measures against Tehran should be strengthened.

(Additional reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Hashem Kalantari in Tehran, Parisa Hafezi in Istanbul, and William Maclean and Adrian Croft in London; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111129/wl_nm/us_iran_britain_embassy

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Rumor mill: next gen Xboxes + Kinect 2 to read lips, track fingers, make unicorns real

Pinches of salt at the ready, folks. According to the latest speculation, Microsoft's sequel to the Xbox 360 will actually be two models, a pared down set-top box for casual gamers and a heftier model for the hardcore. Either way, Xbox 720 / Xbox Loop's getting paired up with a revised version of the magnificent Kinect hardware. The digital grapevine's saying that Kinect 2 will be able to read your lips, track your fingers and sense the tone of your voice to determine if you've come over all angry. It can't do that currently thanks to its USB cable, which can only transmit 16MB/s of data -- limiting the camera's resolution to 320 x 240 at 30fps. We don't know what protocol the new sensor bar will use, but we do know that either USB 3.0 (which can transmit 400 MB/s) or Intel's Thunderbolt (700MB/s) would remove such limitations. In related news, 2012's Kinect for Windows is getting a shorter USB cable for better data integrity and a refocused image sensor that will switch to "near mode" to see objects 50cm away -- which means a whole bunch of classic Kinects and Nyko Zooms are gonna wind up as a filling for a New Mexico landfill.

Rumor mill: next gen Xboxes + Kinect 2 to read lips, track fingers, make unicorns real originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/28/rumor-mill-next-gen-xboxes-kinect-2-to-read-lips-track-finge/

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Crash experts find car seats protect overweight kids, too

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) ? Researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Center for Injury Research and Prevention studied nearly 1,000 1- to 8-year-old children involved in crashes and found no evidence of increased injury risk for children across a broad weight range. All of the children included in the study were properly restrained in the correct child safety seat or booster seat for their height and weight. The research also suggests that the current range of child safety seats and booster seats available today sufficiently accommodates a broad spectrum of children's body sizes, including children with higher weights.

The results are published online in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

"Given that nearly 32 percent of children in the United States are categorized as overweight or obese, and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for all children, we wanted to better understand how these two threats to children's health interact," explained lead author Mark Zonfrillo, MD, MSCE, an attending emergency physician at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This research should reassure parents that their only concern when it comes to car seat safety should be to follow the most recent guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics."

Current American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines, revised earlier this year, say that children should remain rear-facing until at least age 2 or until they reach the rear-facing height and weight limit for the car seat. Once forward-facing, children should stay in a five-point harness until they reach the manufacturer's height and weight limit for that seat. They should then move to a belt-positioning booster seat, where they should remain until they are 4'9" tall, usually between ages 8 and 12.

"A good time to re-evaluate child safety seat needs is during your child's routine medical visits. Compare your child's weight and height measurements to the manufacturer's acceptable ranges on the seat's labels or instructions," says Zonfrillo, who is the father of a toddler. "There's no 'one-size-fits-all.' If your older child moved to a booster seat at age 5, don't necessarily assume it will be the same for his or her younger siblings."

The authors also note the important role pediatricians and family physicians play in making sure their patients are well-protected in the car. During each visit where height and weight are evaluated, they should counsel parents to check their child's measurements against their child's safety seat. "Physicians should feel comfortable referring patient families with more complex questions to their local child passenger safety technicians, who are trained and certified experts," says Zonfrillo.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111129162900.htm

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Anime: Interest: Universal Studios Japan Hosts K-ON Cast, Life-Size Statues ? 5,000+ come for 1/2-hour event on Yui's.. http://t.co/KN1UipKN #anime

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Video: Lipitor Goes Generic

The generic version of Lipitor will begin shipping today. Insight with Paul Bisaro, Watson Pharmaceuticals president/CEO.

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Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

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RIM to offer security features for iPhone, Androids (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? Research In Motion is introducing a software tool giving corporate customers the option of linking employees' personal iPhones to the BlackBerry network without compromising security.

The move, announced on Tuesday, acknowledges the deep inroads made by Apple and Google's Android devices in the global smartphone market, especially among younger users.

It is also a first, tentative step by RIM to offer its network services independently of BlackBerry devices, which have been losing ground to sleeker rivals.

Success with the strategy would likely help RIM defend its turf as the primary handler of mobile devices in the workplace.

"It's not an admission of guilt - it's a necessary evil," Suquehanna analyst Jeff Fidacaro said.

RIM's often-volatile stock jumped more than 8 percent to $17.82 in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

Even so, the shares are still down more than 70 percent this year following a string of delayed or botched product launches and disappointing quarterly results.

RIM's BlackBerry was for years the preferred device for businesses and government agencies, who treasured its encrypted data and distributed the device to millions of workers needing secure, round-the-clock email access.

But many workers now prefer using their own Apple and Android-powered devices to access corporate emails, raising security questions for corporations that RIM hopes to address with the new software.

"While a positive step, the larger challenges remain RIM's need to narrow competitive gaps in its handsets," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky wrote in a note to clients, pointing out RIM's software deficiencies and limited content and applications available on its devices.

RIM's slice of the lucrative U.S. smartphone market fell to 9 percent in the third quarter, down from 24 percent a year earlier, according to research firm Canalys. Globally, the report placed RIM in fifth place, with 10 percent market share, compared with 15 percent a year earlier.

DUE BY LATE MARCH

In Tuesday's announcement, the Canadian company said it would launch its new Mobile Fusion device management software by late March. It will allow corporate information technology staff to set and monitor rules for passwords, apps and software on a range of devices, including Apple's iPad and iPhone, and smartphones using Google's Android operating system.

A company can remotely lock or wipe a lost or stolen device, a key selling point for security-conscious corporations that may have been wary of shifting away from the BlackBerry.

"What our enterprise customers are looking for, and the opportunity for us, is to become the de facto platform," Alan Panezic, RIM's vice-president for enterprise product management, said in an interview ahead of the announcement.

"We will take full advantage of whatever security capabilities are provided by the core operating system. We're not going to hold that back in any way, shape or form."

Mobile Fusion will sit next to existing BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, or BES, behind corporate firewalls.

Panezic said the software will manage RIM's PlayBook independently from a BlackBerry after the tablet - which has yet to gain traction with either businesses or consumers - receives a long-awaited software upgrade, due in February.

He declined to give any pricing details for the Fusion service, but said it would be competitive with rivals.

"It will help stem the tide of those companies that may have considered eliminating their BES but it won't help sell more phones," said Gartner analyst Phillip Redman. "That's what they really need to do."

"RATTLE SOME CAGES"

RIM has recently launched touchscreen devices using its legacy BlackBerry operating system as it works to put the QNX software powering the PlayBook on to a new generation of phones from early next year.

The new software follows on from RIM's acquisition of device management company Ubitexx, which RIM announced in May.

Smaller companies such as Good Technology, MobileIron and BoxTone already offer device management as companies fret about leakage of sensitive commercial information via their workers' personal, non-BlackBerry devices.

"This will definitely rattle some cages" among smaller companies that filled a niche by securing and managing iPhones and other non-BlackBerry devices for corporations, Forrester analyst Christian Kane said.

Panezic said customers had requested a solution to handle Apple and Android devices, but RIM would consider adding support for other systems, such as Microsoft's Windows Phone, if there was enough demand.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Frank McGurty)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111129/tc_nm/us_rim

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Euro in danger, Europe races for debt solution

A man checks stock indexes on a screen of a bank in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. For the second time in as many market days, Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction Monday, as investors continued to pressure the eurozone's third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A man checks stock indexes on a screen of a bank in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. For the second time in as many market days, Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction Monday, as investors continued to pressure the eurozone's third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A man checks stock indexes on a screen of a bank in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. For the second time in as many market days, Italy paid sharply higher borrowing rates in an auction Monday, as investors continued to pressure the eurozone's third largest economy to come up with reforms urgently. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

PARIS (AP) ? European leaders rushed Monday to stop a rampaging debt crisis that threatened to shatter their 12-year-old experiment in a common currency and devastate the world economy as a result.

One proposal gaining prominence would have countries cede some control over their budgets to a central European authority. In a measure of how rapidly the peril has grown, that idea would have been unthinkable even three months ago.

World stock markets, glimpsing hope that Europe might finally be shocked into stronger action, staged a big rally. The Dow Jones industrial average in New York rose almost 300 points. In France, stocks rose 5 percent, the most in a month.

More relevant to the crisis, borrowing costs for European nations stabilized. They had risen alarmingly in recent weeks ? in Greece, then in Italy and Spain, then across the continent, including in Germany, the strongest economy in Europe.

The yields on benchmark bonds issued by Italy and Germany rose, but only by hundredths of a percentage point. The yield fell 0.1 percentage point on bonds of France, 0.14 points for those of Spain and 0.22 points for Belgium.

Allowing a central European authority to have some control over the budgets of sovereign nations would create a fiscal union in Europe in addition to the monetary union of the 17 countries that share the euro currency.

Some analysts have said that would be a leap toward creating a United States of Europe. More delicately, it would force the nations of Europe to swallow their national pride, cede some sovereignty and agree to strengthen ties with their neighbors rather than fleeing the euro union during the crisis.

"The common currency has the problem that the monetary policy is joint, but the fiscal policy is not," Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said in a meeting with foreign reporters in Berlin.

The monetary union has existed since the euro was created in 1999, but the European Union, which includes the 17 euro nations and 10 others that use their own currencies, has no central authority over taxing and spending.

Countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy overspent wildly for years and racked up annual budget deficits that have left them with monstrous debt. Italy holds euro1.9 trillion in debt, or 120 percent of the size of its economy.

A fiscal union could prevent excessive spending in the future. More important, it would be a step toward addressing today's debt crisis: It could provide cover for the European Central Bank to stage a massive intervention in the European bond market to drive down borrowing costs and keep the debt crisis under control.

So far, the ECB has resisted, in part because of concerns that bailing out free-spending countries would only encourage them to do it again, a concept known as moral hazard. Enforced budget discipline would ease those concerns.

A fiscal union would also pose a practical problem ? how to make such a body democratically accountable.

Another option is for the 17 nations in the euro group to sell bonds together, known as eurobonds, to help the countries in the deepest trouble because of debt. Germany has resisted such a plan, because it would raise borrowing costs for it and other nations that have good credit ratings.

While Europe buzzed over the possible solutions, finance ministers of the euro nations prepared for a summit beginning Tuesday evening in Brussels, to be joined the following day by ministers from the rest of the European Union.

Italy readied an auction of bonds designed to raise euro8 billion, or about $10.6 billion, and steeled itself for the high interest rates it will have to pay.

In Washington, President Barack Obama huddled with European Union officials, but the White House insisted Europe alone was responsible for fixing its debt problems.

Obama said failing to resolve the debt crisis could damage the U.S. economy, which has grown slowly since the end of the recession in June 2009 and still has 9 percent unemployment.

"If Europe is contracting, or if Europe is having difficulties, then it's much more difficult for us to create good here jobs at home," Obama said at an annual meeting between U.S. and EU officials.

Despite signs of possible progress on the debt crisis Monday, the euro has appeared to be in increasing danger the past few weeks. Experts said the currency could fall apart within days without drastic action, with consequences rivaling those of the 2008 financial crisis.

"Everyone knows that if the eurozone crashes the consequences would be very dramatic and in the race after that there would no winners, just losers," said Finland's finance minister, Jutta Urpilainen.

For countries that decided to leave the euro group and return to their own sovereign currency, the conversion would be wrenching.

If Germany broke away, for example, its national currency could rise in value quickly because the German economy is stronger than the European economy as a whole. But a stronger German mark would damage the German economy because Germany depends heavily on exports, and it would cost more for everyone else to buy German goods.

As for weaker countries that decided to leave, depositors would probably yank money out of their banks, fearing a plummeting currency. Savers in Greece would not want their euros replaced with, say, feeble drachmas.

If countries tried to repay their old euro debts with their own currencies, they'd be considered in default and would struggle to sell bonds in global financial markets. Corporations would face the same squeeze.

Overall, economists at UBS estimate, a weak country that left the eurozone would see its economy shrink by 50 percent.

Currency chaos and defaults by governments and companies would weaken European banks and also cause them to stop lending to each other. Because banks are connected globally, a credit freeze in Europe would spread. As it did in 2008, a credit freeze would cause stock markets to sell off worldwide, and another deep recession would probably follow.

Wolfgang Munchau, a columnist for the influential Financial Times newspaper, wrote Monday that the common currency "has 10 days at most" to avoid collapse. He called for decisions on a fiscal union and the creation of a powerful common treasury.

Unlike the United States, which has centralized institutions in Washington for raising taxes and spending money, the euro nations have 17 independent treasuries with little oversight from Brussels, the headquarters of the EU.

That would change under the fiscal union proposal being aired ahead of another summit of EU leaders that begins Dec. 9. Ten nations in the EU do not use the euro currency, most notably Britain.

While not explicitly backing a fiscal union, Germany and France have promised to propose measures that will make the 17 euro countries operate under strict and enforceable rules, so that no single country can wreak continent-wide damage.

Already, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group devoted to economic progress, warned that the global economy would be rocky in coming months.

In its six-month report Monday, it said the continued failure by EU leaders to stem the debt crisis "could massively escalate economic disruption" and end in "highly devastating outcomes."

The latest turmoil came last week, after Germany tried to auction $8 billion worth of its national bonds and could persuade investors to buy only $5.2 billion. It was a sign that even mighty Germany was not immune from the debt crisis.

Investors around the world will watch the Italian bond auction Tuesday. If it receives a similarly poor reception, more European countries will be in danger of being locked out of the international bond market.

Exactly how a fiscal union would take shape in Europe is an open question.

Schaeuble, the German financial minister, said the proposal would require passage only by the 17 countries that use the euro currency. The other 10 countries in the EU, such as Britain, Poland and Sweden, could adopt it if they wanted to.

But analysts said such a move would take a long time to come to fruition.

"We do seem to be moving slowly towards more of a fiscal union but at a pace that may result in all the components being put in place after a complete meltdown of the financial system," said Gary Jenkins, an economist with Evolution Securities.

Many think the ECB is the only institution capable of calming frayed market nerves. But Merkel, the German chancellor, has continually dismissed the prospect of a bigger role for the ECB.

____

Pylas reported from London and Wiseman from Washington. Melissa Eddy, Juergen Baetz, Kirsten Grieshaber and David Rising in Berlin, and Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-28-EU-Europe-Financial-Crisis/id-402ec40052f24778a91bae5ab51830a7

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'Breaking Dawn' rules again with $41.7M weekend (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" took the biggest bite of the box office again over Thanksgiving weekend, remaining the No. 1 movie with $41.7 million.

"The Muppets" debuted in second place with $29.2 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1," Summit, $41,683,574, 4,066 locations, $10,252 average, $221,303,162, two weeks.

2. "The Muppets," Disney, $29,239,026, 3,440 locations, $8,500 average, $41,516,691, one week.

3. "Happy Feet Two," Warner Bros., $13,397,346, 3,611 locations, $3,710 average, $43,755,357, two weeks.

4. "Arthur Christmas," Sony, $12,068,931, 3,376 locations, $3,575 average, $16,301,131, one week.

5. "Hugo," Paramount, $11,364,505, 1,277 locations, $8,899 average, $15,402,042, one week.

6. "Jack and Jill," Sony, $10,000,142, 3,029 locations, $3,301 average, $57,120,112, three weeks.

7. "Immortals," Relativity Media, $8,875,905, 2,677 locations, $3,316 average, $68,706,981, three weeks.

8. "Puss in Boots," Paramount, $7,511,036, 3,005 locations, $2,500 average, $135,430,092, five weeks.

9. "The Descendants," Fox Searchlight, $7,345,720, 390 locations, $18,835 average, $10,886,952, two weeks.

10. "Tower Heist," Universal, $7,174,615, 2,474 locations, $2,900 average, $65,198,780, four weeks.

11. "J. Edgar," Warner Bros., $4,975,172, 1,910 locations, $2,605 average, $28,837,843, three weeks.

12. "My Week With Marilyn," Weinstein Co., $1,750,507, 244 locations, $7,174 average, $2,062,150, one week.

13. "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas," Warner Bros., $1,594,054, 875 locations, $1,822 average, $31,559,389, four weeks.

14. "In Time," Fox, $775,107, 470 locations, $1,649 average, $35,050,934, five weeks.

15. "Desi Boyz," Eros International, $702,325, 103 locations, $6,819 average, $702,325, one week.

16. "Like Crazy," Paramount Vantage, $425,116, 150 locations, $2,834 average, $2,478,434, five weeks.

17. "Real Steel," Disney, $330,377, 262 locations, $1,261 average, $83,181,049, eight weeks.

18. "Melancholia," Magnolia, $329,622, 95 locations, $3,470 average, $1,200,599, three weeks.

19. "The Help," Disney, $311,076, 283 locations, $1,099 average, $168,753,480, 16 weeks.

20. "Footloose," Paramount, $288,787, 384 locations, $752 average, $50,833,867, seven weeks.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_en_ot/us_box_office

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Siri Dictation comes to iPhone 4, jailbreak required

November 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm

The Siri Dictation feature that is currently?exclusive?to the iPhone 4S ? along with Siri ? can now be used on the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4G, and iPhone 3GS.?Developer Eric Day has released a new jailbreak package called Siri0us, that is available via a Cydia repository,?and will allow you to easily get Siri Dictation working. As you can see in the video above, Siri0us works just like Siri Dictation would on the iPhone 4S, but sadly it does have ads. This tweak uses Nuance?s technology, but it?s cool?nonetheless.

Meanwhile, developers are still working to bring a Siri port to the iPhone 4, and have already come up with some pretty cool custom use cases. If you already have your iPhone 4 jailbroken this wouldn?t be a bad thing to check out.?(Video courtesy of iDownloadBlog)

Thanks, kkaino!

Related articles

Source: http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/27/siri-dictation-comes-to-iphone-4-jailbreak-required/

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Bay Area tries to pull together to help seniors in need at upcoming health summit (San Jose Mercury News)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/167055665?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Google Catalogs available for download now, just in time for Christmas

The latest addition to the Google Android application circle has been launched today, as the Google Catalogs app becomes available for download for tablets.

Put simply, the app pulls together 400 digital catalog issues from such brands as Nike, Sephora and Nordstrom for you to browse at your leisure. Interactivity is the name of the game with images and videos sewn throughout the pages and pages of shopping treats. Another neat time saving touch is the unified search box, which allows you to search across all the catalogs for a specific item. Purchasing is as easy as one tap to find the product nearby or at a retailers website, kind of similar to the Google Shopper app. 

This is sadly for those of us in the rest of the world, another U.S.-only application for the time being. But if you're Stateside and fancy a helping hand with your Christmas shopping, check out the promo video after the break, and hit up the download link below. 

Source: Google

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/8px5saA99Q0/story01.htm

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In unprecedented step, Arab League sanctions Syria

A protester walks under a revolutionary Syrian flag during a rally against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. More than 3,500 people have died in months of anti-government protests in Syria, according to the UN. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A protester walks under a revolutionary Syrian flag during a rally against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. More than 3,500 people have died in months of anti-government protests in Syria, according to the UN. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A Syrian immigrant shows a V-sign decorated as the revolutionary Syrian flag during a rally against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in front of the Syrian embassy in Sofia, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. More than 3,500 people have died in months of anti-government protests in Syria, according to the UN. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour for the media, Syrian army officers carry the coffin of one of the 17 army members, including six elite pilots and four technical officers who the military said were killed in an ambush on Thursday during their funeral procession, in Homs province, Syria, on Saturday Nov. 26, 2011. The military blamed terrorists for the ambush and has vowed to "cut every evil hand" that targets the country's security. Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end a bloody crackdown on an uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad that the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people. The Arab League was meeting Saturday to consider the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

BEIRUT (AP) ? In an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League on Sunday approved economic sanctions on Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.

But even as world leaders abandon Assad, the regime has refused to ease a military assault on dissent that already has killed more than 3,500 people. On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but assuring more bloodshed will follow.

The sanctions are among the clearest signs yet of the isolation Syria is suffering because of the crackdown. Damascus has long boasted of being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism, but Assad has been abandoned by some of his closest allies and now his Arab neighbors. The growing movement against his regime could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.

At a news conference in Cairo, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 19 of the League's 22 member nations approved a series of tough punishments that include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank, halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria and freezing government assets. Those sanctions are to take effect immediately.

Other steps, including halting flights and imposing travel bans on some, as-yet unnamed Syrian officials, will come later after a committee reviews them.

"The Syrian people are being killed but we don't want this. Every Syrian official should not accept killing even one person," bin Jassim said. "Power is worth nothing while you stand as an enemy to your people."

He added that the League aims to "to avoid any suffering for the Syrian people."

Iraq and Lebanon ? important trading partners for Syria ? abstained from the vote, which came after Damascus missed an Arab League deadline to agree to allow hundreds of observers into the country as part of a peace deal Syria agreed to early this month to end the crisis.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said the bloc will reconsider the sanctions if Syria carries out the Arab-brokered plan, which includes pulling tanks from the streets and ending violence against civilians.

The regime, however, has shown no signs of easing its crackdown, and activist groups said more than 30 people were killed Sunday. The death toll was impossible to confirm. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting inside the country.

The Local Coordinating Committees, a coalition of Syrian activist groups, praised the sanctions but called for a mechanism to ensure compliance.

"The sanctions leave open the opportunity for the regime to commit fraud and strip the sanctions of any substance, thereby prolonging the suffering of the Syrian people at the hands of an oppressive and brutal regime," the group said.

The Arab League move is the latest in a growing wave of international pressure pushing Damascus to end its crackdown. The European Union and the United States already have imposed sanctions, the League has suspended Syria's membership and world leaders increasingly are calling on Assad to go. But as the crisis drags on, the violence appears to be spiraling out of control as attacks by army defectors increase and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves.

Syria has seen the bloodiest crackdown against the Arab Spring's eruption of protests, and has descended into a deadly grind. Though internationally isolated, Assad appears to have a firm grip on power with the loyalty of most of the armed forces, which in the past months have moved from city to city to put down uprisings. In each place, however, protests have resumed.

The escalating bloodshed has raised fears of civil war ? a worst-case scenario in a country that is a geographical and political keystone in the heart of the Middle East.

Syria borders five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel's case, a fragile truce. Its web of allegiances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran's Shiite theocracy. Chaos in Syria could send unsettling ripples across the region.

For now, Assad still has a strong bulwark to prevent his meeting the same fate as the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia or Libya anytime soon. His key advantages are the support of Russia and China, fear among many Syrians about a future without Assad, and the near-certainty that foreign militaries will stay away.

But the unrest is eviscerating the economy, threatening the business community and prosperous merchant classes that are key to propping up the regime. An influential bloc, the business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges.

The opposition has tried to rally these largely silent, but hugely important, sectors of society. But Assad's opponents have failed so far to galvanize support in Damascus and Aleppo ? the two economic centers in Syria.

Sunday's sanctions, however, could chip away at their resolve.

Since the revolt began, the regime has blamed the bloodshed on terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to divide and undermine Syria. The bloodshed has laid bare Syria's long-simmering sectarian tensions, with disturbing reports of Iraq-style sectarian killings.

Syria is an overwhelmingly Sunni country of 22 million, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect. Assad, and his father before him, stacked key military posts with Alawites to meld the fates of the army and the regime ? a tactic aimed at compelling the army to fight to the death to protect the Assad family dynasty.

Until recently, most of the bloodshed was caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protests. Lately, there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad's forces ? a development that some say plays into the regime's hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force.

___

Youssef reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Adam Schreck contributed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-27-ML-Syria/id-d99cb5a6ccce498bb93a4def493739fa

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For NASA's rover Curiosity, it's 'Mars or Bust!'

NASA's rover Curiosity lifted off Saturday for its?354-million-mile cruise to Mars. After its nearly nine-month trip, the six-wheeled robot will descend to begin studying the environment for a better understanding of the red planet's history.

For NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, it's "Mars or Bust!"

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An Atlas V rocket carrying the one-ton rover to the red planet lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 10:02 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Saturday morning in a flawless launch.

Some 45 minutes later, a video camera aboard the rocket's upper stage captured farewell footage of the lander and its cruise stage as the package separated and headed for Mars.

A short time later, the payload phoned home to report that all its systems are functioning well.

IN PICTURES:?Exploring Mars

"Ecstatic is the word," said Doug McCuistion, who heads NASA's Mars exploration program, when asked for his reaction during a post-launch press briefing. "We have started a new era of exploration of Mars with this mission."

Up to now, NASA's program has focused on "following the water" with missions designed to reconstruct from the planet's minerals the history of a liquid essential to life as researchers currently understand it.

But water alone isn't enough, researchers say. Other environmental conditions come into play, conditions that govern the ability of organic building blocks for life to remain stable on the surface or underground, for instance.

The record of environmental conditions early in the planet's history, when it was thought to have been at its wettest, is believed to be written in the layers of rock the Mars Science Laboratory's team has identified in Gale Crater, a 100-mile-wide impact feature with a mountain that soars three miles high from the center of the crater's floor.

After an eight-and-a-half-month cruise, a nail-biting final descent aims to place the six-wheeled robotic chemist squarely in the crater.

If all goes well, Curiosity will initially spend 98 weeks traversing some 12 miles or more ? driving, drilling, then analyzing the drill tailings to help build a picture of the environments that existed at the location as the planet made the transition from a wet planet, to a periodically wet planet, to the desiccated orb humans are visiting today.

"This mission is an important next step in addressing the issue of life in the universe," says John Grotzinger, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/reW1BLEpRRI/For-NASA-s-rover-Curiosity-it-s-Mars-or-Bust!

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Video: Johnson says he cost Bills a victory

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/45455474#45455474

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The Daily life Insurance plan Quote Business is Booming, but is ...

The everyday life insurance quotation small business on the web is booming. Not just are everyday living insurance coverage agents quoting a more various portfolio of organizations, but individuals can also be now ready to quote existence insurance policies on the web for their selves. With this write-up, I?ll evaluate the impact of the lifestyle insurance policy on line quote on the insurance coverage sector, the insurance policy broker, and the consumer in search of insurance.

Within the not so distant previous, lifestyle insurance plan was sold, not bought. The standard agent would travel door to door, network regionally, and maybe meet with probable policyholders for dinner at their property. The ?debit? agent was also a typical job. These agents would actually go to their shoppers and gather the top quality on the weekly basis. The everyday life insurance plan quote arrived from the individual back then, not a pc.

These days, buyers can log on for a lifestyle insurance policy quote. The ability to readily examine the expense of lifestyle insurance plan among 100s of lifestyle insurance plan organizations has dramatically altered the setting.

The largest effect into the insurance business may be the indisputable fact that the expense of protection has reduced substantially. This is great for your customer, but is in result shutting smaller companies down as the claims to revenue ratio is converging.

A further impression is the indisputable fact that when people get an internet based lifestyle insurance quote, they are really seldom coached concerning what exactly is the higher deal for them. Normally instances, term everyday life insurance coverage may be the only product that they are featured. The client just isn?t staying instructed concerning the benefits of entire everyday living insurance or the flexibility of universal life insurance plan?they?re frequently just granted a phrase existence insurance policies quotation as asked for. The lifestyle insurance coverage agent of previous would?ve talked into the consumer and executed some truth acquiring just before marketing them something which may not in shape their certain circumstance.

The web Daily life Insurance policy Quote industry has also affected the impartial insurance coverage broker. Normally occasions, the neighborhood broker just isn?t reliable along with the quote as the buyer has gone on the web and gotten a cheaper quotation from a web-based quote support. Misquotes tend to be the result of the lack of reality choosing within the half of the on the internet insurance quote companies. Clients could well be significantly far better off coping with a certified existence insurance agent (who can broker any enterprise out there; whichever suits the customer finest) for his or her everyday life insurance estimates.

So the upcoming time you go online trying to find the ideal term life insurance plan fee, look at that you just may well be doing an error by coping with a ?call center?. Contemplate that the lifestyle insurance coverage quotation that you just are obtaining is simply from the organizations that they carry. Take into consideration calling on an impartial existence insurance plan broker on your expression, full life, and universal existence insurance policies demands and info.

To find out more on Life Insurance Quote please check out Quotes for Life Insurance

Source: http://fatbikezreview.com/the-daily-life-insurance-plan-quote-business-is-booming-but-is-definitely-the-insurance-policy-quotation-precise/

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Perry Making Houston Stop For New Cancer Center ? CBS Houston

Gov. Rick Perry (credit: Rob Kim/Getty Images)

HOUSTON ? Gov. Rick Perry is diverting from the GOP presidential trail for a home state appearance as the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announces a new facility in Houston. Perry on Monday was joining officials from the medical school, which is part of Houston?s famed Texas Medical Center, to unveil the new Institute for Applied Cancer Science.

It?s to be directed by Dr. Giulio Draetta, who?s been chief research business development officer and deputy director at the Harvard University-based Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science. The Belfer Institute?s director, Dr. Ronald DePinho, in September took over as president at MD Anderson.

DePinho?s wife, Dr. Linda Chin, who was scientific director at Belfer before joining the MD Anderson faculty, will assume a similar post at the new Houston center.

(? Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2011/11/28/perry-making-houston-stop-for-new-cancer-center/

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PhotoBlog: Occupy LA protesters build themselves a 'stronghold'

The Associated Press reports from LOS ANGELES:

Occupy Wall Street protesters who defied a deadline to remove their weeks-old encampment on the Los Angeles City Hall lawn stood their ground Tuesday as they faced uncertainty over when or if police would push them out of the park ? and if an eviction could happen without the kind of violence that has engulfed the removal of protest sites in other cities.

Protesters in the nation's second largest city have turned to the federal courts to keep officers away after disobeying a city-imposed 12:01 a.m. deadline Monday to take down their camp. They argue that the City Council passed a resolution in support of the movement and that the city's mayor and police did not have the authority to evict them. Continue reading.

See more pictures of the Occupy movement on PhotoBlog.

Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9088216-defying-calls-to-leave-occupy-la-protesters-build-themselves-a-stronghold

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Sony Earbud Style Headphones ? Black (MDREX85LP/BLK-REF)

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Source: http://www.smartdealnews.com/2011/11/27/sony-earbud-style-headphones-black-mdrex85lpblk-ref/

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Man sentenced to time served in LA stowaway case

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A man convicted of getting a free ride from New York to Los Angeles using an expired boarding pass with someone else's name on it will be freed from federal prison having already spent five months behind bars.

Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, 24, was sentenced Monday in a Los Angeles federal courtroom to time served after he pleaded guilty in August to a stowaway charge that carried a maximum five-year prison term. U.S. District Judge Manuel Real ordered Noibi, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Nigeria, to serve one year of supervised release and pay more than $950 in restitution to Virgin America.

"I am not just sorry for putting other flights in U.S. airspace on the 24th of June at risk but I'm deeply sorry for any heartache I might have caused," Noibi wrote in a letter for the sentencing. Noibi, dressed in a white prison jumpsuit with his head hanging and his eyes closed, did not speak at the sentencing. In the letter, he called his actions "reprehensible, disgraceful and downright absurd."

Authorities said Noibi's actions had nothing to do with terrorism ? he just wanted a free flight. But the incident raised questions about the effectiveness of airport security procedures.

Noibi wanted to travel to Atlanta, where he has relatives, and found a boarding pass for a Los Angeles-bound flight on the ground at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He told FBI agents he hoped to find a Delta flight headed for Atlanta if he got past security, according to court documents.

Noibi said he showed the boarding pass to an airport hostess who didn't stop him before he got to the security checkpoint. There, he told a female screener he lost his identification and showed her his student identification card and a police report that said his U.S. passport had been stolen. She called over a supervisor and he eventually was allowed to go to his gate, according to an FBI affidavit.

He made it on the plane, and the flight crew didn't realize until midflight that an extra passenger was onboard in a premium seat that was supposed to be empty.

FBI agents interviewed Noibi when he got off the plane, but he wasn't arrested.

After spending several days in Los Angeles, Noibi tried to get on a Delta flight back to New York, again using an expired boarding pass bearing someone else's name.

He was arrested June 29 at Los Angeles International Airport.

Noibi told federal investigators he was able to go through security screening in Los Angeles by presenting the same documents. It wasn't until he got to the gate for a Delta flight bound for Atlanta that an agent who scanned the expired boarding pass refused his entry on the plane.

Deputy federal public defender Carl Gunn said Noibi acted foolishly and his decision to get on a plane was a "spontaneous act." Gunn said his client had been drifting after leaving the University of Michigan and was at times homeless.

"Frustration and depression over this status is part of what led him to commit the offense in this case," Gunn wrote in court documents.

Noibi has since met with federal authorities and discussed how he was able to get through airport security screening.

"The silver lining to the cloud of Mr. Noibi's offense is that it will hopefully help the government tighten security procedures by revealing potential weaknesses in its present procedures," Gunn wrote in court documents.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-28-Airport%20Security-Stowaway/id-0374d6091a7349cdb23a84be102e4128

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