HBT: Expect pitchers' duel in Game 6 of WS tonight

Last night?s rainout in St. Louis could dramatically change the pitching plans for Game 7, but the Cardinals will have to get there first by winning tonight?s Colby Lewis-Jaime Garcia matchup.

They faced off in Game 2, combining for 13.1 innings of one-run ball. Garcia exited after seven shutout innings with a 1-0 lead, but the Rangers scored two runs in the ninth inning off Jason Motte to grab the victory.

Lewis has been excellent for the Rangers nearly every time out in the playoffs, both this season and last season, combining to make seven postseason starts with a 2.22 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 45 innings. Texas is 5-2 in those seven games and Lewis allowed more than two runs just once, coughing up four runs to the Tigers in Game 3 of the ALCS.

Garcia?s postseason track record is limited to four starts this year and his performance has been a mixed bag. He turned in a stinker against the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS and was yanked early in Game 5 of that series, but also tossed a Quality Start versus the Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS and shut out the Rangers for seven frames in his last appearance.

On paper at least it looks like a pitchers? duel and a very close matchup, with the gamblings odds pegging the Cardinals as slight favorites at home. Clear skies are expected for tonight (and tomorrow night) and like four of the first five games in the series Lewis vs. Garcia looks likely to be another tight, low-scoring game that may come down to the fully rested relievers. Hopefully the Cardinals? bullpen phone is working.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/27/after-the-rain-lewis-and-garcia-set-for-game-6-pitchers-duel/related/

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Sprint eyes new financing as iPhone swells costs (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Sprint Nextel said it would need $7 billion in new financing agreements over the next few years to cover a cash shortfall created by Apple Inc's iPhone and a network upgrade.

"If we want to maintain a cash balance as high as $2 billion minimum at any point in time, we would want to extend the maturities of $4 billion that come due in 2012 and 2013 and raise between $1 billion to $3 billion, primarily from vendor financing," Chief Executive Dan Hesse told Reuters on Wednesday.

The company, whose shares were down 10 percent in Wednesday's trading, also said it is negotiating a new commercial contract with Clearwire Corp. Sprint is Clearwire's majority owner and its biggest customer.

Sprint said that while the iPhone would cost the company $15 billion in the next four years, it would generate $7 billion to $8 billion in projected future value for Sprint over that period.

Sprint said it will pay Apple an iPhone subsidy that is 40 percent higher, or $200 more per device, than the subsidies it pays for other phones.

But the company's executives said it should be worth the extra cost as the device is bringing in new customers.

"IPhone has an expensive contract but is worth every penny," Hesse said.

The No. 3 U.S. mobile operator forecast 2011 free cash flow in a range of a loss of $200 million to a gain of $100 million. It had previously promised positive 2011 free cash flow. Free cash flow generally refers to earnings including capital spending but excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Sprint said it still expects to report net subscriber growth for 2011 but it did not give specific numbers because it was too early to say how many iPhone customers it would add after just two weeks of sales.

The phone company, which has been struggling for years to stem subscriber defections, lost 44,000 customers in the quarter compared with the average expectation for a loss of about 11,000 from nine analysts contacted by Reuters.

Sprint's quarterly loss decreased to $301 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with Wall Street expectations for a loss of 22 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

A year earlier, it posted a loss of $911 million, or 30 cents per share.

Net operating revenue rose to $8.33 billion from $8.15 billion in the year ago quarter but was slightly below Wall Street expectations for $8.379 billion.

Sprint shares were down 24 cents at $2.46.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew and Yinka Adegoke; editing by Derek Caney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/tc_nm/us_sprint

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U.N. council plans swift end to Libya mandate (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) ? The Security Council plans to end U.N. authorization for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention in Libya this week despite calls from Libya's government for it to wait, council envoys said on Wednesday.

Libyan Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-nation council that Libya's people were "looking forward to terminating the no-fly zone over Libya as well as terminating the mandate accorded by Security Council resolution 1973 to protect civilians as soon as possible."

"In accordance with the initial assessments, the date of October 31 is a logical date to terminate this mandate," he said.

But he added that Libya's National Transitional Council, or NTC, had not yet made an official decision on whether to request termination of the U.N. mandate under resolution 1973, which authorized members of NATO and other U.N. member states to take "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.

That was why the Libyan government wanted the council to hold off on ending NATO's U.N. mandate, Dabbashi said.

"We request the council to give a chance to the NTC to take a resolution on this," he said. "This requires some days. Perhaps this will take place before the 31st of this month."

Dabbashi said the government needed more time to assess the security situation in its country and its ability to monitor its borders.

Western diplomats on the Security Council told reporters after closed-door discussions on Libya that council members planned to go ahead and terminate the U.N. mandate, thereby withdrawing NATO's authorization in Libya.

They said issues the NTC had suggested it would like NATO to help with, including border security, fell outside the U.N. mandate to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone.

"The job was to protect civilians and from NATO's point of view, that mission has been accomplished," a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "There's no point in delaying termination of the mandate."

DABBASHI: GADDAFI WASN'T EXECUTED

France's U.N. ambassador, Gerard Araud, said an arms embargo and other sanctions on Libya still in place would not be affected by the council's move to end the no-fly zone and terminate the U.N. mandate for outside military intervention.

He added that all council members believed there would be no need for the U.N. mandate for military operations in Libya beyond Monday and planned to adopt a resolution that would formally cancel that mandate on Thursday or Friday.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who has repeatedly accused NATO of exceeding its U.N. mandate in Libya, said extending the U.N. authorization beyond Monday would be "unrealistic."

The Security Council in March authorized a no-fly zone and foreign military intervention to protect Libyans from security forces that then-leader Muammar Gaddafi had deployed to suppress pro-democracy uprisings across the country.

The council is also expected in the coming days to approve a Russian-drafted resolution voicing concern about the proliferation of shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles across Libya and beyond its borders, diplomats said.

Apparently responding to calls from various senior U.N. officials for an investigation into the circumstances of the death of Gaddafi after his capture last Thursday, Dabbashi denied NTC soldiers had summarily executed him.

Gaddafi died of wounds he sustained prior to his capture, he said.

"Gaddafi was injured in the course of the clashes between his loyalists and the revolutionaries," Dabbashi said. "When he was arrested, he was bleeding from his abdomen and head and he passed away (on) his arrival to the hospital in Misrata."

"According to initial reports, none of the revolutionaries fired at him after arresting him," he said.

He added the Libyans were conducting an investigation.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/wl_nm/us_libya_un

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Europe aims to boost rescue fund, plots deep Greek writedown (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Europe's leaders intend to multiply their rescue fund fourfold to one trillion euros and press Greece's creditors to accept losses of over 50 percent on their bondholdings, but the details of their plan to end the debt crisis are still not fully formed.

A draft statement from an emergency euro zone summit on Wednesday, obtained by Reuters, outlined two options to leverage the 440 billion euro ($600 billion) fund designed to shore up heavily indebted states and thwart market attacks.

If the draft is adopted with little change, the second summit in four days will have sketched broad intentions but failed to produce a detailed master plan to scale up the fund, recapitalize banks and reduce Greek debt to a sustainable level.

"It's moving in the right direction but it is going to disappoint the market, particularly given the emphasis policy makers put on this meeting," said Jessica Hoversen, foreign exchange analyst at MF Global in New York.

One proposal involves creating a special purpose investment vehicle (SPIV) to tap foreign sovereign and private investors, such as Chinese and Middle Eastern wealth funds, to buy bonds of troubled euro zone countries.

The other method for scaling up the European Financial Stability Facility, which was set up last year, involves using it to offer partial guarantees to purchasers of new euro zone debt. The two options could be used simultaneously and the International Monetary Fund could also help.

Euro zone finance ministers will be asked to finalize the terms and conditions in November, the statement said.

EU sources said the EFSF was expected to be leveraged by something like a factor of four giving it scope of around 1 trillion euros. It has about 250-275 billion euros available given funds set aside for aid to Greece, Ireland and Portugal and for recapitalizing the region's banks.

European leaders' pattern of responding too little, too late to a debt crisis that began in Greece has spawned a wider economic and political crisis that threatens to undermine the euro single currency and the European Union project.

A senior EU source said the euro zone leaders want private sector creditors to accept a writedown of more than 50 percent on their holdings of Greek government debt in order to reduce Greece's total outstanding private sector debt by around 100 billion euros.

While there is consensus on the need for European banks to raise around 110 billion euros ($150 billion) in extra capital to withstand a potential Greek debt default, governments and banks are still haggling over the scale of write-offs.

In an effort to push through the deal, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are prepared to meet with bankers on Wednesday night to negotiate face-to-face, the senior source said.

EU leaders agreed the outlines of a package on bank recapitalization, including raising the core capital ratios of European banks to 9 percent by the end of June 2012, but they did not provide a headline figure, which will depend in part on negotiations over Greece and its second bailout package.

"There will be give and take with the banks until the last minute," a Greek government source involved in the Brussels negotiations said.

Sarkozy is also expected to talk with Chinese President Hu Jintao soon on Chinese participation in the EFSF bailout fund.

ECB LIFELINE

Mario Draghi, the incoming head of the European Central Bank threw the euro zone a lifeline hours before the summit, signaling the ECB would go on buying troubled states' bonds as leaders of the 17-nation single currency area struggled to agree a convincing set of measures.

"The Eurosystem (of central banks) is determined, with its non-conventional measures, to prevent malfunctioning in the money and financial markets creating an obstacle to monetary transmission," he said in typically coded ECB language in a speech text released in Rome.

Draghi, who will succeed Jean-Claude Trichet on November 1, made clear that measures could only be a temporary expedient and said it was up to governments to tackle the roots of the debt crisis that began in Greece two years ago.

However, his statement appeared to rebuff pressure from Germany's powerful Bundesbank for the ECB to end the bond-buying program which prompted the resignation of the two most senior German ECB policymakers this year.

It also appeared to supersede a dispute between Germany and France over how the ECB, the ultimate defender of the euro, should be involved in trying to resolve the crisis.

Merkel won a parliamentary vote of support for strengthening the rescue fund after warning in a dramatic speech that Europe was facing its most difficult situation since the end of World War Two.

"If the euro fails, then Europe fails," she declared, saying there was no certainty that the continent would then enjoy another 60 years of peace.

Merkel told parliament that private bondholders would have to take a substantial write-down so that Greece's debt could be reduced to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 from 160 percent this year.

Experts said that implied a 50 percent "haircut" for private investors.

ITALIAN INTENT

Also weighing on the summit was deep concern about Italy, which is now in the bond market firing line.

Under huge pressure from its euro zone partners, Rome promised a package of reform steps to boost growth and control its public debt, including labor and pensions reforms and additional revenues from property divestments.

In a letter sent to the summit in Brussels, the government said it would produce a plan of action to boost growth by November 15, promising to raise the retirement age to 67, cut red tape and modernize state administration to improve conditions for business and raise 5 billion euros a year from divestments and improved returns from state property.

Rome's inability to deliver a substantive plan for reforming its pensions system has raised doubts about Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's seriousness in tackling a crisis that threatens the euro zone's third largest economy.

Italy has the euro zone's largest sovereign bond market, with a public debt of 1.8 trillion euros, 120 percent of GDP. If it went the same way as Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the rescue fund would not have enough money to bail Rome out.

(Additional reporting by Julien Toyer, Jan Strupczewski and John O'Donnell in Brussels, Annika Breidthardt and Sarah Marsh in Berlin, Daniel Flynn and Harry Papachristou in Athens, Barry Moody in Rome; Writing by Luke Baker and Mike Peacock; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Serif PhotoPlus X5

Serif's PhotoPlus X5 can't decide whether it wants to be your Photoshop or your Photoshop Elements (or Corel PaintShop Pro, for that matter). The product offers some powerful and complex image enhancement tools like the former, but an organizer app and lots of guidance like the former, which it's also closer to in price, at $89.99. The problem is that PhotoPlus can't match the Adobe products in either domain. While this latest version adds some catch-up features like a "vibrance" enhancement and a little more in the way of organizational tools, it still feels dated, and still trails Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 ($99.99, 4 stars, EC) and Corel PaintShop Pro X4 ($79.99, 3.5 stars).

Interface
Like Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, PhotoPlus uses two separate applications to handle the organizing and editing functions?the Organizer and the full PhotoPlus edit. And it takes this segmentation a few steps further, with separate app windows for "PhotoFix" (see below), photo projects, and more. I do like the Organizer's simple left sidebar, which can switch between showing dates, folders, tags, and ratings or the selected photo's metadata. Along the top are buttons that take you to the full editor or to a PhotoFix simple photo improver as well as rotation, sharing, and view options.

As I found with Photoshop Elements 10, PhotoPlus couldn't enlarge an image to larger than the window for a closer look in Organizer. Another quibble is that when you click the button to launch a picture into the full editor, the latter's window doesn't open automatically if you've already opened it, as Photoshop Elements' does. Better still would be an integrated organizer/editor like Corel PaintShop Pro X4's.

The full PhotoPlus editor interface, though slightly improved, is still cluttered, with its three rows of menus and toolbars on top, button bar and panel on the sides, and photo tray on the bottom. Granted, you can turn off the panels, but the interface still looks dated, even down to its light gray background, which modern photo editors have replaced with a nearly black interface to let the photos shine.

PhotoPlus is noticeably slower than Photoshop Elements 10 or Corel PaintShop Pro X4, whether in performing an adjustment or effect or just in displaying a high megapixel image at full resolution.? Some common controls are missing from easily accessible view: There's no zoom slider or revert buttons, though these are available in menus, both are more conveniently handled in competing programs.

Importing and Organizing Photos
The PhotoPlus X5 installation process doesn't add an import option to Windows' AutoPlay dialog that pops up when you plug camera media into a PC as most photo software does, but a highly visible Import button at top left of the app's toolbar makes it clear how to get started. PhotoPlus's Organizer had no trouble importing from a DSLR, but ARW and CR2 raw image previews didn't show up in the importer. They were later visible in the Organizer, however.? And the importer wouldn't find images on an iPhone 4S, though Google Picasa on the same system had no trouble doing so.? PhotoPlus does let you tag on import and choose filename sequences, but so do the others.

The simple Organizer interface let me do the standard star ratings, tagging, rotating, and stacking. The last, which lets you stack similar photos, is new for this version, but it doesn't automatically group images as competitors do, and the resulting stacked images don't look much like an actual stack, as they do in other apps. I could also create smart albums based on date range, size, and tags. In a surprising plus, a Google Maps mashup built into the program let me geo-tag photos and show their location on a map, and even correctly found iPhone photos' location based on GPS data embedded in the image files. But alas, there's no face recognition, the must-have organization tool of state-of-the art consumer photo editing software.

When you import raw camera files, PhotoPlus takes much longer than competitors like Photoshop Elements 10 or Corel PaintShop X4 to resolve the photo on screen to its full resolution--you just see a highly pixelated version for several seconds first. Before you open camera raw images in the PhotoPlus editor, you stop at the Raw Studio window, where you can adjust white balance, exposure and black point, as well as reducing image noise and chromatic aberration. Split views let you see before and after for these operations, which actually exceed what you can do in PhotoShop Elements 10. But on one test in importing Canon CR2 raw files, the result in the editor was poor quality, noisy images?worse than appeared in the organizer?and that was without changing anything in the Raw Studio.

Basic Photo Editing and Corrections
Before you even get to the full editor app, you can get to work on an image in the PhotoFix windows, accessible from a clear button atop the Organizer's window.? But this tool?and PhotoPlus as a whole?lacks the simplest photo corrector of all: Auto fix. I can't remember reviewing a photo app that didn't include this type of best-guess button; perhaps Serif doesn't think these worthwhile, but even pro tools like Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture include Auto-tone, which often gets you a good ways towards optimizing an image.

PhotoFix does offer presets to change lighting and color ("Intense, Warmer), and offers fixes like cropping, red-eye correction, blemish removal. But it also offers advanced stuff like curves, HSL, lens distortion. Though Serif claims that PhotoPlus is a non-destructive editor, meaning your changes don't overwrite the originals, I didn't find this to be the case unless I specifically used layers in the advanced editor interface.? Changes I made were saved to the original file: The competitors create a new file type when you save edits and create a database file of just the changes you make, so that you can always return to the original image data.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/NWNacBsilOg/0,2817,2369997,00.asp

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Northern Lights Go South: Geomagnetic Storm Lights U.S. Skies with Auroral Display

Features | Space

Aurorae were visible Monday across the U.S. Midwest and into the Deep South


Image: ? Kevin Dempsey. Used with permission

A solar outburst over the weekend delivered lovely aurorae Monday, setting the night sky aglow over mid-latitude regions rarely treated to such sights.

Plasma that erupted from the sun Saturday in a burst called a coronal mass ejection reached Earth Monday and delivered charged particles into the upper atmosphere. Those charged particles can excite atoms in the ionosphere, which emit light as they return to their unexcited state. The resulting aurorae (aka the aurora borealis) could be seen in parts of more than half the 50 states, according to Spaceweather.com, where users reported sightings in distinctly non-Arctic locales such as Alabama, Virginia and Kansas.

Thanks to the efforts of amateur skywatchers, those of us who missed these aurorae can still share in their beauty.

Click here for a slide show of Monday's northern lights in a series of photographs taken from sites across North America.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b9dbf74f5cbd69821a484c3fcb8a284f

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Weight Gain Might Raise Endometrial Cancer Risk - Health News ...

SUNDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) ? Gaining a significant amount of weight after menopause may be associated with an increased risk of developing endometrial cancer, a new study suggests.

?Fat tissue is the major source of circulating estrogen in postmenopausal women, and estrogen promotes the development of endometrial cancer,? Victoria L. Stevens, strategic director of laboratory services at the National Home Office of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.

In conducting the study, the researchers analyzed the weight history of more than 38,000 postmenopausal women who completed a survey in 1992. By 2007, 560 of the women had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer. This is a cancer of the uterus, affecting the uterine lining.

After adjusting for body mass index (a measurement that takes into account height and weight), the study revealed the women who gained 61 pounds or more were two times more likely to develop endometrial cancer than women with stable weight.

While the study found an association between weight gain after menopause and endometrial cancer risk, it did not prove a cause-and-effect.

However, Stevens concluded in the news release, ?Weight gain during adulthood should be avoided to minimize risk for endometrial cancer. Women who have gained weight and are overweight or obese should continue to attempt to lose weight even though most weight loss will not be maintained.?

The study authors noted that more research is needed to determine if the timing of weight gain and ?yo-yo? dieting (losing and regaining weight multiple times) during adulthood play a role in women?s risk for endometrial cancer and whether or not weight loss reduces this risk.

The study?s findings were slated for presentation Sunday at the AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in Boston. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about endometrial cancer.

? Mary Elizabeth Dallas

SOURCE: American Association for Cancer Research, news release, Oct. 23, 2011

Last Updated: Oct. 24, 2011

Copyright ? 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.health.com/2011/10/23/weight-gain-might-raise-endometrial-cancer-risk/

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AIG loses bid to move $10 billion fraud case vs BofA (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? A federal judge has rejected American International Group Inc's request to move its $10 billion mortgage fraud lawsuit against Bank of America Corp back to a New York state court, where it was originally filed, from federal court.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones accepted Bank of America's argument that some of the home loans underlying the 349 residential mortgage-backed securities that AIG said it bought entitled a federal court to assert jurisdiction.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111021/bs_nm/us_bankofamerica_aig_lawsuit

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Crime novelist Elmore Leonard, wife divorcing

In this Sept. 28, 2010 photo, author Elmore Leonard is interviewed at his home in Bloomfield Township, Mich. Court records show Leonard is divorcing his wife of 18 years. The Detroit News reports Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011 that he and Christine Leonard split earlier this year and she filed for divorce in May. Oakland County Circuit Court records say Christine cited a breakdown in the marriage for unspecified reasons. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, FILE)

In this Sept. 28, 2010 photo, author Elmore Leonard is interviewed at his home in Bloomfield Township, Mich. Court records show Leonard is divorcing his wife of 18 years. The Detroit News reports Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011 that he and Christine Leonard split earlier this year and she filed for divorce in May. Oakland County Circuit Court records say Christine cited a breakdown in the marriage for unspecified reasons. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, FILE)

(AP) ? Court records show acclaimed crime novelist Elmore Leonard is divorcing his wife of 18 years.

The Detroit News reports (http://j.mp/q3iWLm ) Thursday that he and Christine Leonard split earlier this year and she filed for divorce in May. Oakland County Circuit Court records say Christine Leonard cited a breakdown in the marriage for unspecified reasons.

Elmore Leonard's attorney Gerald Cavellier calls it "pretty standard as divorces go." Christine Leonard's attorney Joseph Aviv says Judge Edward Sosnick disqualified himself from the case because he presided over the couple's wedding.

A trial is set for Dec. 12.

The 86-year-old Leonard, who lives in suburban Detroit, has written more than 40 Westerns, crime novels and mysteries. Many of his books ? notably "Out of Sight," ''Get Shorty" and "Be Cool" ? have become films.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-21-US-People-Elmore-Leonard/id-4848532d7d5c4e618b940d0d4a620339

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