Pictures: November 2011

Monday, 7 November 2011

Gang sets fire to newspaper office in Mexico (AP)

VERACRUZ, Mexico ? More than a dozen people barged into the offices of a newspaper in central Mexico on Sunday, dousing it with gasoline and setting it aflame.

Veracruz state Deputy Attorney General Enoch Maldonado said no injuries have been reported following the attack on the newspaper El Buen Tono in Cordoba, about 125 miles (210 kilometers) east of Mexico City. About 20 employees were inside the building at the time.

The newspaper, which began publishing a month ago, has sharply criticized some local authorities, but the motive for the attack is unclear and the state Attorney General's Office announced it was investigating the incident.

Veracruz state has seen an upsurge in violence recently as gangs battle over smuggling routes and extortion revenues.

The newspaper's telephone numbers rang busy Sunday and its website made no mention of the attack.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111106/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_newspaper_attacked

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Sunday, 6 November 2011

Penn St ex-coach, others charged in child sex case

In this photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, is placed in a police car in Boalsburg, Pa., to be taken to the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General via Commonwealth Media Services)

This Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General)

A sign for The Second Mile charity is seen outside the organization's headquarters in State College, Pa., on Saturday Nov. 2, 2011. The charity's founder, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, was charged Saturday with 40 criminal counts for allegedly molesting eight boys. (AP Photo/Genaro C. Armas)

In this photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, walks to the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot while being escorted by Pennsylvania State Police and Attorney General's Office officials on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in State College, Pa. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General via Commonwealth Media Services)

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, right, walks with his attorney Joseph L. Amendola as they leave the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in State College, Pa. Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Teresa Bonner) MAGS OUT

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? An explosive sex abuse scandal and possible cover-up rocked "Happy Valley" on Saturday when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, once considered Joe Paterno's heir apparent, was charged with sexual assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period. Among the allegations was a 2002 incident in which a graduate assistant for the team said he saw Sandusky assault a boy in the shower at the Nittany Lions' practice center.

Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school's facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids. The state grand jury investigation also resulted in perjury charges against Tim Curley, Penn State's athletic director, and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business. The two administrators were accused of failing to alert police ? as required by state law ? of their investigation of the allegations.

Paterno, who last week became the winningest coach in Division I football, was not charged, and the grand jury report did not appear to implicate him in wrongdoing.

"This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys," Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement.

Under Paterno's four-decades-and-counting stewardship, the Nittany Lions became a bedrock in the college game and fans packed the stadium in State College, a campus town routinely ranked among America's best places to live and nicknamed "Happy Valley." Paterno's teams were revered both for winning games ? including two national championships ? and largely steering clear of trouble. Sandusky, whose defenses were usually anchored by tough-guy linebackers ? hence the moniker, "Linebacker U" ? spent three decades at the school. The charges against him cover the period between 1994 and 2009.

Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts. Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, were expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg.

The allegations against Sandusky, who started The Second Mile in 1977, range from sexual touching to oral and anal sex. The young men testified before a state grand jury that they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred; there is evidence even younger children may have been victimized. Defense attorney Joe Amendola said Sandusky has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.

"He's shaky, as you can expect," Amendola told WJAC-TV after Sandusky was arraigned. "Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life, and having the distinguished career that he's had, these are very serious allegations."

A preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday would likely be delayed, Amendola said. Sandusky is charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.

No one answered a knock at the door Saturday at Sandusky's modest, two-story brick home at the end of a dead-end road in State College. A man who answered the door at The Second Mile office in State College declined to give his name and said the organization had no comment.

The grand jury said eight boys were targets of sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky. None was named, and in at least one case, the jury said the child's identity remains unknown to authorities.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, the grand jury report said.

He said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky, even being listed as a member of the Sandusky family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl. But when the boy resisted his advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the Alamo Bowl, the report said.

Sandusky also gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys, and even guaranteed that he could walk on to the football team, the grand jury said, and the boy also appeared with Sandusky in a photo in Sports Illustrated. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug.

The first case to come to light was a boy who met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12, the grand jury said. The boy received expensive gifts and trips to sports events from Sandusky, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky's home, jurors said. Eventually, the boy's mother reported the allegations of sexual assault to his high school, and Sandusky was banned from the child's school district in Clinton County in 2009. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.

But the report also alleges much earlier instances of abuse, and details failed efforts to stop it by some who became aware of what was happening.

Another child, known only as a boy about 11 to 13, was seen by a janitor pinned against a wall while Sandusky performed oral sex on him in fall 2000, the grand jury said.

And in 2002, Kelly said, a graduate assistant saw Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in a team locker room shower. The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Paterno, who immediately told Curley, prosecutors said.

Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half later, Kelly said.

"Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law," Kelly said.

There's no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy, or follow up with the witness, she said.

Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it "merely 'horsing around,'" the 23-page grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Penn State president Graham Spanier of the matter.

The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz's testimony not to be credible.

Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.

But despite his job overseeing campus police, he never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, "never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002," the jurors wrote. "No one from the university did so."

Lawyers for both Curley and Schultz issued statements saying they are innocent of all charges.

In response to a request for comment from Paterno, a spokesman for the athletic department said all such questions would be referred to university representatives, who released a statement from Spanier calling the allegations against Sandusky "troubling" and adding Curley and Schultz had his unconditional support.

He predicted they will be exonerated.

"I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years," Spanier said. "I have complete confidence in how they handled the allegations about a former university employee."

Sandusky, once considered a potential successor to Paterno, drew up the defenses for the Nittany Lions' national-title teams in 1982 and 1986. The team is enjoying another successful run this season; at 8-1, Penn State is ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 and is the last undefeated squad in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions were off Saturday.

As the head football coach, Paterno has spent years cultivating a reputation for putting integrity ahead of modern college-sports economics. It's a notion that has benefited Penn State's marketing and recruiting efforts over the decades and one that the Big Ten school's alumni proudly tout years after they leave.

"We're supposed to be one of the universities to follow after, someone to look up to," said sophomore Brian Prewitt of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "Now that people on the top are involved, it's going to be bad."

___

Scolforo reported from Harrisburg.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-05-Penn%20State%20Ex-Coach-Allegations/id-7c09dab8ad7d41b5af1ece1055a39f5a

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Herman Cain's accusers: Should they be allowed to tell their side? (The Week)

New York ? Confidentiality agreements bar the women who say the GOP frontrunner harassed them in the '90s from going public. Time to wave the gag order?

The list of sexual harassment allegations leveled at Republican presidential frontrunner Herman Cain has grown, with new accusations from a third unidentified women who worked at the National Restaurant Association during his tenure. Right-wing radio host Steve Deace and GOP pollster Chris Wilson have supplied fresh details about other alleged harrassment incidents. Meanwhile, Joel Bennet, the lawyer for one of the two original NRA accusers ? who'd lamented for days that a?confidentiality clause in his client's severance deal has prevented her from going public with her side of the story ? publicly pointed out that Cain breached the agreement first by saying disparaging things about the women. Nevertheless, Bennet announced Wednesday night that his client probably wouldn't talk to the press, after all. But if she changes her mind, should she be allowed to talk?

Yes. Let these women tell their side: Gag orders generally shouldn't be broken "without careful deliberation and without the consent of both sides," says The Washington Post in an editorial. But in this case, now that the basic shape of the accusations and payouts have surfaced, "voters are entitled to know the facts.... And they can learn them only if both sides are allowed their say." Cain may not like this airing of dirty laundry, but it's part of playing in the big leagues.
"Let Herman Cain and his accusers talk"

To be fair to Cain, these women must come forward: "If you believe Herman Cain's denial of these accusations," as I do, says Robert Stacy McCain at?The Other McCain, then you should demand that we "hear the whole story ? the sooner, the better ? directly from the accusers." It's "grossly unfair" that Cain has to defend himself against vague, second-hand accusations from anonymous women. We can't judge the credibility of the charges until we can judge the credibility of these women.
"Let her speak: Cain accuser seeks release from confidentiality agreement"

But these women can already talk if they really want to: If Cain's accusers want to tell their side of the story, they can go right ahead, says Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post. Sure, it would mean breaking the agreements, but "there is no confidentiality jail," and these women could easily argue that Cain violated the deal first. The worst that could happen is that they'd be sued by the NRA. But the NRA may very well elect not to sue ? and even if it does, the case hardly looks airtight.
"Who can say what about Cain's sexual harassment cases"

View this article on TheWeek.com
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Saturday, 5 November 2011

HTC Rezound for Verizon unveiled: Beats Audio, Ice Cream Sandwich-ready, 4.3-inch 720p display available November 14th for $299

HTC's Rezound first leaked its way into our gadget-lusting hearts in late summer. Then bearing the virile Vigor codename, we suspected a heartily specced, Beats Audio-branded destiny for the device. And today's official unveiling doesn't disappoint, setting this 4.3-inch handset on a 4G course for Verizon's LTE airwaves.

Thanks to the company's financial handshake with Dr. Dre, the Rezound's inbuilt Beats Audio integration gets its first stateside debut. Of course, that's not all that lies beneath the red and black tinged surface. Living up to the machissimo of its in-development moniker, the Rezound boasts a 4.3-inch 720p display and packs a dual-core 1.5GHz processor underneath, with 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage / 16GB on microSD card, WiFi and Bluetooth in tow. And for you Android fanatics, HTC's shipping the handset Ice Cream Sandwich-ready, but it comes out of the box with Sense 3.5 skinned atop Gingerbread 2.3.4. As for the phone's front-facing / 8 megapixel camera with f/2.2 sensor (capable of 1080p video capture), the suite of scene modes we've seen ship on the Amaze 4G is making an appearance here with panorama, action burst and instant capture. Those familiar custom-made Beats headphones will also come bundled with the device.

The Rezound's Verizon-bound on November 14th and if this audio-enhanced affair is your bag, expect to snag it for $299 on contract. Until then, enjoy the official PR after the break.

Continue reading HTC Rezound for Verizon unveiled: Beats Audio, Ice Cream Sandwich-ready, 4.3-inch 720p display available November 14th for $299

HTC Rezound for Verizon unveiled: Beats Audio, Ice Cream Sandwich-ready, 4.3-inch 720p display available November 14th for $299 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/03/htc-rezound-unveiled/

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Friday, 4 November 2011

Birds Show Price Humans Pay For Good Clotting

60-Second Science | More Science

Birds have different clotting proteins than humans, which explains our better clotting in trauma, but their avoidance of certain cardiovascular problems. Karen Hopkin reports.

November 3, 2011

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They say what doesn?t kill you makes you stronger. But sometimes what makes you stronger can kill you, at least when it comes to blood-clotting. Because the stickiness that allow platelets to heal your wounds also raises your risk of heart attack.

All mammals use platelets to help prevent blood loss after traumatic injury. But birds don?t have ?em, nor do reptiles or fish. Instead, these critters have blood cells called thrombocytes, which are about twice the size of platelets. But is bigger necessarily better when it comes to clotting? Scientists took thrombocytes from parakeets and put them to the test. The work appears in the journal Blood. [Alec A. Schmaier et al, Occlusive thrombi arise in mammals but not birds in response to arterial injury: evolutionary insight into human cardiovascular disease]

They focused their attention on birds because our feathered friends have a cardiovascular system much like our own, in that blood exerts pressure on walls of blood vessels.

The results: parakeet thrombocytes don?t stick together like platelets do. They also don?t block blood flow in the birds? arteries the same way that platelets do when they form clots in mice.

Which means that mice may be more likely to survive a bloodletting-pecking. But birds are far less likely to suffer from the clot formation called economy class syndrome?despite being frequent fliers.

?Karen Hopkin

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=3c6975171342adf5715218b70fc81035

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Thursday, 3 November 2011

Brit accused of faking death arrested in Australia (AP)

SYDNEY ? A British man accused of faking his own death as part of a life insurance scam was arrested in Australia after a six-year hunt by authorities, police said Thursday.

Hugo Sanchez, who also went by the first name Alfredo, was arrested in Sydney on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police said. She had no further details.

Sanchez and his wife, Sophie, had been living in Surrey when they found themselves in deep debt, according to a statement on Britain's Crown Prosecution Service website. Sanchez is accused of convincing Sophie to tell authorities and his employer that he died while overseas, so that she could collect his life insurance.

Sophie began claiming on the life insurance policies ? but suspicions arose when Sanchez's own fingerprints were found on his death certificate, the prosecution service said.

Sophie, 43, was arrested and admitted her husband was still alive, the prosecution service said. She pleaded guilty to six fraud offenses and was sentenced to two years in jail in December.

Sanchez appeared briefly in a Sydney court on Thursday. His lawyer, Jim Nicopoulos, told the court Sanchez would not contest extradition to the UK, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111103/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_fake_death_arrest

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Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Tritton AX Pro

The surround sound experience typically requires five speakers and one subwoofer to produce a field of sound that completely surrounds you. This is a very difficult thing to get just right, because it requires optimal speaker placement and acoustics to make the sound reflect correctly. It's also nearly impossible with headphones, but Tritton is trying hard with the AX Pro ($169.99 list), a gaming headset with multiple drivers in each ear to replicate the surround sound experience. While the headset technically handles 5.1 channels, it simply doesn't produce the imaging expected of a surround sound installation. Overall, audio quality is very good, but between underwhelming surround sound and the mind-boggling number of cords and connectors you need to get it to work, this headset is too expensive and complicated.

Design
Calling the AX Pro complicated is actually an understatement. To get the headset running with any device, you need to assemble at least three parts. There are the headphones, the microphone, the headphone cable, the Dolby digital box, the power cable, and the audio cable. What pushes the AX Pro into ridiculous territory is that the power cable has two plugs: one for the Dolby box and one for the headset itself; that's too much.

The Dolby box is a 0.8-by-2.5-by-5.7-inch (HWD) device that processes all incoming audio and optionally employs Dolby Digital Pro Logic to turn 2.1-channel audio into simulated 5.1-channel.?The box has optical and 3.5mm inputs for front, surround, and center/subwoofer channels, a USB input for a microphone when using a PlayStation 3, a power plug, and two 9-pin headphone outputs, if you want to use a second headset. There are also Volume, Pro Logic, and Power buttons, and switches for surround/center channel time delay and volume control in different modes. The headphone cable has its own separate set of switches located on an attached remote, and includes controls for volume, microphone volume, microphone muting, and individual channel (front, rear, center, and subwoofer) selection buttons, switches, and wheels. It also has a 3.5mm jack for a microphone connection with the Xbox 360.

The headset itself consists of a large, silver pair of headphones and a detachable mic that plugs under the left ear cup. The headphones have large, comfortable over-the-ear cups, and are highlighted by a glowing orange double-T logo on either side. A thin black band runs the length of the headphones, with a molded Tritton logo on the top. The headset feels comfortable, and the orange logo makes it easy to find in a dark room.

If you want to use this headset on your PC, you're going to need a 5.1-channel sound card and an open USB port, or you'll need to make some compromises. While you can use it for a PC headset with an optical audio connection for the sound and a USB cable for the microphone, the AX Pro is designed for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. That said, if you have a 5.1-channel sound card, the headset works just as well on a PC. It can even work with a stereo sound card or your computer's built-in headphone output if you have a 3.5mm audio cable, but that approach only supports stereo audio, converted to processed 5.1-channel with Dolby Digital Pro Logic (which isn't as good as dedicated 5.1-channel and doesn't offer nearly as accurate imaging, which can be useful in action games). If you have 5.1-channel analog outputs, you can use the headset without the Dolby box, through the included audio connections that can plug directly into the headset cable.

Performance
General audio quality is very good, with lots of bass force and excellent stereo imaging. Unfortunately, the headset's main appeal of 5.1-surround sound is less than satisfying. While it does have multiple drivers in each ear to reproduce the experience of a 5.1-surround system, it simply doesn't offer the same level of spacial awareness that a speaker system does. I watched The Mechanic on Blu-ray, and while the thumping, tense soundtrack and acts of ballistic violence carried a lot of weight, the 5.1 mix didn't carry a lot of depth. Even discrete drivers can't offer a great 5.1-channel experience when they're so close to each other; any surround sound imaging sounds like an only slight enhancement to the standard stereo imaging of most headphones. Don't expect the AX Pro to give you an edge against sneak attacks in video games or a tense, someone's-creeping-up-behind-you sense of fear in horror movies more than the average stereo speaker setup or other quality stereo headphones.

The Tritton AX Pro is a solid pair of headphones with great sound for gaming, but it's complicated to set up and it lacks the 5.1 surround imaging that would justify its steep price tag. Our Editors' Choice headset, the Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930 ($159.99, 4 stars) cuts the cords and costs less. If you're ok with a wired headset, but want to save considerable coin, check out the Tt eSports Shock ($59.99, 3.5 stars), or even the?Tritton AX 180 ($69.99, 3 stars). Both provide decent gaming audio with much easier setup.

More Headphone reviews:

??? Tritton AX 180
??? Tritton AX Pro
??? Bose OE2i
??? Grado GR8
??? SOL Republic Tracks
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/p_BbZTyps1M/0,2817,2394864,00.asp

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The Detonator brings electric biking to bots, looks pretty bomb

Parker Brothers Choppers, responsible for one of several Tron Light Cycle replicas seen recently, is continuing to prove that electric bikes aren't all weedy-looking augmented pedal-powered affairs. This time, it tackled the Detonator concept created by Daniel Simon, a former VW designer who was also in charge of vehicle design for the Tron remake. Wired reports that the $100,000 bike charges in an hour and has an estimated range of around 80-100 miles on a full battery. According to the operations manager at Parker Brothers Choppers, it's "not the easiest bike to ride," though that could have something to do with Simon's original design, geared for non-human droids able to rotate their legs all the way around. Human riders, on the other hand, would likely face some chafing issues.

The Detonator brings electric biking to bots, looks pretty bomb originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Italy under pressure as bond yields climb (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Italian bond yields rose on Monday nearly to levels seen in August when the ECB intervened to shore up debt markets, indicating new concerns that problems in the euro zone's third largest economy could threaten the entire bloc.

With Italy now firmly at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis, yields on its 10 year, fixed-rate bonds known as BTPs jumped to 6.1 percent from 5.9 last week, piling pressure on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government as it faces fresh criticism over its handling of the economy.

The new bond yield was just shy of the level reached in August when the European Central Bank stepped in to cap Rome's borrowing costs by buying its bonds.

As the premium investors demand to hold Italian bonds rather than benchmark German Bunds climbed to 410 basis points, Italian bank leaders said that tensions on sovereign bond markets risked hitting the wider economy.

Giovanni Bazoli, chairman of Italy's biggest retail bank Intesa San Paolo, told a conference in Rome that risk of a credit crunch was "inevitable" if tensions on the sovereign debt market continued.

Berlusconi, mired in scandal and struggling to contain tensions in his divided center-right coalition, faced a fresh call to resign, when Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, one of Italy's most prominent businessmen, urged him to make way for a government of national unity.

In a letter to the daily La Repubblica, Montezemolo, chairman of sports car maker Ferrari, said that Italy had reached "the point of no return."

"There is not a minute to lose. The savings of Italian people, social cohesion and Italy's membership of the euro are all at risk," he said.

"We do not have time to wait for the natural evolution of the political situation," he said. "The prime minister has to realize that the only way to save the country is through a government of public safety."

Italy's sluggish economy, weighed down by a public debt equivalent to 120 percent of gross domestic product faces a growing risk of recession next year, which could derail the government's target of a balanced budget by 2013.

Data on Monday showed unemployment in September climbing to 8.3 percent, its highest in almost a year, while the main domestic inflation indicator hit its highest level in three years.

Last week, Italy paid a yield of 6.06 percent at an auction of 10 year bonds, the highest since the introduction of the euro more than a decade ago.

SPRING ELECTIONS

Berlusconi, facing four separate trials over prostitution and tax fraud charges, has rejected calls to step down, repeating on Friday that he would serve out his term until 2013.

However there is growing speculation that the government will fall early in 2012, taking the country to the polls in the spring, the period when Italian elections are traditionally held.

Berlusconi has survived numerous confidence votes in parliament this year, but his coalition partners in the Northern League have expressed increasingly open doubts about whether the government can continue.

They have insisted that the only option would be new elections, rejecting the idea of an interim "technical government" led by an independent outsider which would be charged with passing reforms.

If the government did fall after losing a confidence vote in parliament, it would be up to President Giorgio Napolitano to decide whether to call new elections or appoint another prime minister to try to form a new majority.

Senior political figures on both the government and opposition sides say Berlusconi appears to want to keep going until at least the end of the year.

The letter from Montezemolo adds to a growing chorus of criticism of the Berlusconi government from sections of the Italian establishment, ranging from the main employers federation Confindustria to leading daily newspapers and the Catholic church.

Montezemolo, who has no formal party allegiance, said a package of reforms promised to the EU last week, including rules to make it easier for employers to lay off staff and make civil servants redundant, were "manifestly insufficient given the gravity of the situation."

He proposed a five-point reform program to cut the cost of politics, reform labor laws, shift the tax burden from labor costs to assets, overhaul the pension system and open up protected sectors to competition.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby, writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Roger Atwood)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/ts_nm/us_italy_berlusconi

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Girl Scouts of Colorado Flip-Flops on Allowing Boy to Join (Time.com)

Seven-year-old Bobby Montoya likes to play with dolls and wear girls' clothes. But it's his "boy parts" that led a Colorado Girl Scouts leader to deny him entry to the group, despite the fact that he identifies as a girl.

Three weeks ago, Bobby's mother Felisha Archuleta took her son to a Girl Scout troop meeting and asked a leader if he could join. While she expected the leader to be understanding, Archuleta told ABC News that the woman instead "humiliated" Bobby, driving him to tears.

"I said, 'Well, what's the big deal?' She said 'It doesn't matter how he looks, he has boy parts, he can't be in Girl Scouts,'" Archuleta told Denver's 9NEWS, which originally reported the story.

According to Archuleta, Bobby has been identifying as a girl since he was about 2 years old. He likes to dress and behave as a girl, even though it's caused him to be bullied at school. And here's the tearjerker quote of the day: "It's hurting my heart. It hurts me and my mom both," Bobby told 9NEWS of the bullying. (Watch the full story above.)

(SPECIAL: What You Need to Know About Bullying)

Archuleta has supported Bobby in letting him dress and behave as he likes, telling ABC News, "I believe he was born in the wrong body." She even threw him a Rapunzel-themed party for his seventh birthday.

But what Bobby really wanted was to join the Girl Scouts, just like his older sister. Since the incident with the troop leader, the Girl Scouts of Colorado released the following statement saying that they welcome Bobby and other children who may be transgendered:

"Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization and we accept all girls in Kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout. Our requests for support of transgender kids have grown, and Girl Scouts of Colorado is working to best support these children, their families and the volunteers who serve them. In this case, an associate delivering our program was not aware of our approach. She contacted her supervisor, who immediately began working with the family to get the child involved and supported in Girl Scouts."

But after the family's initial experience, Archuleta isn't rushing to sign Bobby up just yet.

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"They haven't called me directly," Archuleta told ABC News on Thursday. "When I talked to the top [person], I said Bobby wants to be in the Girl Scouts, but have a different leader. She never called me back and only said they would give [the local leader who rejected him] sensitivity classes."

While there are no exact statistics on how many children experience gender-identity issues, according to the nonprofit Gender Spectrum, individuals become conscious of their sex between the ages of 18 months and 3 years, which is why many children who experience gender confusion say they've felt that way for as long as they can remember. And despite differing opinions on the subject, Gender Spectrum notes that gender confusion is not caused by anything and is not curable. Research has shown that gender is to an extent "hardwired" in the brain from birth.

Whatever way the Girl Scout cookie crumbles, it's refreshing to see a parent who supports her child, no matter what.

Erin Skarda is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @ErinLeighSkarda. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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