No. 23 Michigan tops Iowa 42-17 with Gardner's TDs

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Denard Robinson made his highly anticipated return to the field and wasn't in a position to call plays for his first snap.

The spectacular quarterback lined up at running back behind Devin Gardner, who accounted for six touchdowns to help the 23rd-ranked Wolverines rout Iowa 42-17 Saturday.

"It was different," Robinson acknowledged.

Michigan coach Brady Hoke said Robinson didn't have a problem changing positions after missing two-plus games with nerve damage in his right elbow.

"I think it tells you about what kind of kid he is, what kind of young man he is, his growth, his character, his integrity," Hoke said. "This kid had some unbelievable moments here and at Michigan Stadium and has had some moments that weren't so good, but he's grown from within.

"Devin said the other day, he has been the face of Michigan football."

Gardner, though, has given the Wolverines (8-3, 6-1 Big Ten) a right arm and nimble feet to count on during a three-game winning streak.

He threw three TDs and ran for three scores, becoming the first Michigan quarterback to account for six TDs in a game since 1983, when Steve Smith had as many passing and rushing scores in a game at Minnesota.

"If Denard hadn't gotten hurt, I would still be playing receiver and we would be winning games in a different fashion," Gardner said. "I'm just thankful I've taken advantage of the opportunity."

Another Wolverine, running back Thomas Rawls, is going to get a chance to play a lot against rival Ohio State next week because of an injury.

Fitzgerald Toussaint took an option pitch early in the game from Robinson and his left leg snapped gruesomely between his ankle and knee as he was tackled by two Hawkeyes. Toussaint was sent to a hospital for surgery.

"It was heartbreaking to see Fitz in so much pain," Gardner said. "Fitz is a really tough guy and I've never seen his face grimacing like that."

The Wolverines didn't need Toussaint to beat Iowa, but it will be more difficult for them beat the Buckeyes for a second straight year without him next week.

The hapless Hawkeyes (4-7, 2-5) allowed Michigan to score on its first six possessions and couldn't stop the Wolverines until Gardner threw an interception early in the fourth quarter.

"Defensively, we didn't have any answers for anything they did," coach Kirk Ferentz said.

Iowa was officially eliminated from postseason contention by losing its fifth straight game for the first time since 2000.

The Hawkeyes will need to upset Nebraska next week to avoid their longest losing skid since dropping the last eight games of the 1999 season, which was Ferentz's first season as head coach.

"We're getting what we deserve," receiver Keenan Davis said. "We're not playing well enough to win games."

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta has publicly supported Ferentz, who under contract through the 2020 season.

Michigan, meanwhile, has a shot to have a second straight double-digit win season in Hoke's second season in charge of college football's winningest program. Hoke is the first coach to avoid losing a home game in his first two years with the Wolverines since Fielding Yost in the early 1900s.

"Seniors got to go in the tunnel and sing 'The Victors' for the last time in this stadium," Hoke said. "We put a lot of emphasis on that because of the struggles and what they go through when you look at a guy who has been here for or five years."

The Wolverines lost five home games when their fifth-year seniors were freshman in 2008 during Rich Rodriguez's debut season and fourth-year players experienced three setbacks in Ann Arbor in their first year.

"Guys stuck it and really became Michigan Men," fifth-year senior receiver Roy Roundtree said. "I feel like coach Hoke really emphasized don't let no one come to your house and take over."

Hoke also has stressed the importance of winning Big Ten titles and says anything short of that goal is failing.

To earn a spot in the Big Ten title game to have a chance to end an eight-year drought without a conference championship, Michigan has to win at Ohio State for the first time since 2000 and has to hope the Hawkeyes can stun the Cornhuskers next week at home

The Wolverines, though, have found a QB to help them close out this season and to generate high hopes for next year.

But right now, Michigan and its fans have only one game in mind.

Early in the fourth quarter, the crowd at the Big House started to chant: "Beat O-HI-O! Beat O-HI-O!"

Like Hoke, maize-and-blue clad fans don't say "State," when referring to the rival Buckeyes.

Hoke didn't like what he heard.

"I said to somebody next to me, 'We need to beat Iowa,'" he recalled.

That didn't prove to be difficult.

The Wolverines did what they wanted through the air and on the ground against the Hawkeyes, who were shut down offensively after kicking a field goal to make it 14-10 early in the second quarter.

Gardner was 18 of 23 for 314 yards with TD passes to Roy Roundtree, Vincent Smith and Devin Funchess. Gardner ran for 37 yards, scoring on three short runs to lead a barrage of points that finally ended late in the third quarter.

Robinson ran 13 times for 98 yards, including a 40-yard sprint that included quite a juke along the sideline in the senior's last home game. He took some snaps, but didn't throw a pass.

"I just wanted to get on the field and do whatever I could to help our team," Robinson said. "That's how I've been my whole career."

___

Follow Larry Lage on Twitter: http://twitter.com/larrylage

Read More..

Well: Meatless Main Dishes for a Holiday Table

Most vegetarian diners are happy to fill their plates with delicious sides and salads, but if you want to make them feel special, consider one of these main course vegetarian dishes from Martha Rose Shulman. All of them are inspired by Greek cooking, which has a rich tradition of vegetarian meals.

I know that Greek food is not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the word “Thanksgiving,” yet why not consider this cuisine if you’re searching for a meatless main dish that will please a crowd? It’s certainly a better idea, in my mind, than Tofurky and all of the other overprocessed attempts at making a vegan turkey. If you want to serve something that will be somewhat reminiscent of a turkey, make the stuffed acorn squashes in this week’s selection, and once they’re out of the oven, stick some feathers in the “rump,” as I did for the first vegetarian Thanksgiving I ever cooked: I stuffed and baked a huge crookneck squash, then decorated it with turkey feathers. The filling wasn’t nearly as good as the one you’ll get this week, but the creation was fun.

Here are five new vegetarian recipes for your Thanksgiving table — or any time.

Giant Beans With Spinach, Tomatoes and Feta: This delicious, dill-infused dish is inspired by a northern Greek recipe from Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new cookbook, “The Country Cooking of Greece.”

---

Northern Greek Mushroom and Onion Pie: Meaty portobello mushrooms make this a very substantial dish.

---

Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas With Cinnamon-Tinged Tomato Sauce and Feta: This fragrant and comforting dish can easily be modified for vegans.

---

Coiled Greek Winter Squash Pie: The extra time this beautiful vegetable pie takes to assemble is worth it for a holiday dinner.

---

Baked Acorn Squash Stuffed With Wild Rice and Kale Risotto: Serve one squash to each person at your Thanksgiving meal: They’ll be like miniature vegetarian (or vegan) turkeys.

---

Read More..

Privatizing Greece, Slowly but Not Surely

Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune

Potential privatization hit a wall at Katakolo, a seaside town where Christos Konstantopoulos paused near abandoned beachfront homes. More Photos »

THE government inspectors set out from Athens for what they thought was a pristine patch of coastline on the Ionian Sea. Their mission was to determine how much money that sun-kissed shore, owned by the Greek government, might sell for under a sweeping privatization program demanded by the nation’s restive creditors.

What the inspectors found was 7,000 homes — none of which were supposed to be there. They had been thrown up without ever having been recorded in a land registry.

“If the government wanted to privatize here, they would have to bulldoze everything,” says Makis Paraskevopoulos, the local mayor. “And that’s never going to happen.”

Athens agreed. It scratched the town, Katakolo, off a list of potential properties to sell. But as Greece redoubles its efforts to raise billions to cut its debt and stoke its economy, the situation in Katakolo illustrates the daunting hurdles ahead.

In the three years since the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission — the so-called troika of lenders — first required Greece to sell state assets, a mere 1.6 billion euros have been raised. Last Tuesday, European leaders said Greece needed an additional 15 billion euros in aid through 2014 to meet debt-reduction targets — partly because Athens has failed to make money on privatization.

Now, the troika may consider cutting an already lowered target for Greece to raise 19 billion euros by 2015 to about 10 billion euros as investors worry that Greece may have to leave the euro. The troika is requiring that Greece must still raise 50 billion through privatizations by 2022.

The I.M.F. estimates that those funds, should they materialize, will trim only up to 1 percent from Greece’s debt, which is expected to rise to a staggering 189 percent of the nation’s economic output in 2013, from 175 percent this year.

But with Greece’s economy headed into its sixth year of recession, and unemployment at 25 percent, the nation’s immediate goal is to lure any investment it can through long-term leases on state properties to create jobs and get money flowing into depleted public coffers.

“This could put the economy back in motion,” says Andreas Taprantzis, the executive director of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, a new agency set up to hasten privatization. If investors develop land, restructure highways or build business parks, the activity would “help employment, which is a major issue for Greece,” he says.

Indeed, privatization is one of the last hopes here for luring foreign cash.

Efforts stumbled anew last summer, when the government fell and two chaotic elections were held, amplifying fears of what is known in financial circles as a “Grexit” — a Greek exit from the euro. Investor confidence fell so low that a recent survey by the BDO consulting firm found that Greece was considered more risky for investment than Syria.

Yet as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took steps last week to secure an additional 31.5 billion euros of bailout money from creditors, the thinking is that if one major asset can be sold now, investors will feel better about spending their money on Greece.

OFFICIALS are trotting out Greece’s most tempting offer: OPAP, the highly profitable gambling company in which the government has a major stake. Its gambling agencies abound around Athens and in Greek villages. Last week, as the government went on a road show to China to drum up investor interest, eight bids landed, including one from a Chinese concern.

Still, Mr. Taprantzis’s agency faces a daunting task. The idea of the country selling off its crown jewels touches a raw nerve here. Many Greeks say the government is buckling to decrees from the troika. Citizen protests have flared over nearly every state asset up for offer, including ones that have long bled cash — even if shedding them would help Greece’s finances.

Others say the government is so desperate that prime assets will be sold too cheaply. In the case of OPAP, Greeks grumble about the government’s logic in selling one of the few things that brings a steady stream of money to the treasury.

Given the culture of clientelism that pervades business dealings in Greece, others are concerned that properties will wind up in the hands of powerful Greek oligarchs who, these critics worry, may be waiting for an opportunity to get them at a cut-rate price.

Dimitris Bounias contributed reporting.

Read More..

Jerusalem Targeted by Rockets for First Time in Gaza Conflict

JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants fired rockets for the first time at Jerusalem on Friday in a daring new escalation of hostilities with Israel on the third day of their latest lethal conflict over Gaza, triggering air raid sirens and panicking residents who had thought themselves secure from such attacks because of the holy city’s multireligious heritage and large Palestinian population.

The Israeli authorities did not immediately confirm the origin of the rocket fire but responsibility was claimed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, which has amassed arsenals of smuggled rockets with increased ranges and more accurate trajectories in recent years. On Thursday, Hamas rocket squads launched at least two at Tel Aviv, Israel’s biggest city, for the first time, and on Friday launched more as part of a response to a large-scale aerial assault by the Israelis on targets in Gaza and indications that Israel was close to launching its first ground invasion there in four years.

“We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist or any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the military of wing of Hamas, in a message quoted by The Associated Press.

Jerusalem, a city holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, had been previously thought off-limits to rocket attacks by militant Palestinians and others who reject Israel’s claim to the city as its capital. Even Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, had avoided targeting the city when he aimed Scud missiles at Israel during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. The city is about 48 miles from the Gaza border.

The police in Jerusalem said no rockets fell within city limits, but one crashed harmlessly near a Jewish West Bank settlement just south of Jerusalem. A police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said other explosions were heard in the same area but security forces had not located the landing sites.

The Jerusalem rocket attack came hours after scores of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, striking major cities of the south, causing widespread panic and damage and shattering plans for a temporary cease-fire during a remarkable visit to Gaza by the Egyptian prime minister that showed the shifting dynamics of Middle East politics since the turmoil of the Arab Spring uprisings.

The rocket fired at Tel Aviv on Friday probably landed in the sea, Mr. Rosenfeld said. Israeli officials say the only rockets in Gaza with a range that can reach Tel Aviv are the Iranian-made Fajr-5 projectiles that Israel has been targeting in its hundreds of airstrikes over the last few days.

That these rockets were still being fired seemed to weigh heavily in Israeli military calculations about a ground invasion. After a meeting with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli Army was “continuing to hit Hamas hard and is ready to expand the operation into Gaza,” according to a statement from his office.

Mr. Netanyahu said the aim was “to take out the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza while doing everything possible not to harm civilians.”

The rapidly escalating confrontation between Hamas and Israel followed an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday that killed the top commander of Hamas, and the tit-for-tat violence is widely seen as a potential catalyst for broader hostilities at a time of spreading turmoil in Syria and elsewhere in the region.

The Israeli military said Col. Amir Baram, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ paratroopers brigade, had addressed his forces during a preparatory briefing in the field, saying: “We are already 48 hours into an operation that we knew would have to happen. We have spoken about it during training, exercises and conferences. There is no doubt that we have to operate. This is why we enlisted, and why we have trained.”

Witnesses on the Gaza-Israel border said Israeli tanks had massed in several places.

Early on Friday, the Israeli military said it had called up 16,000 army reservists to move against what Israel considers an unacceptable security threat from smuggled rockets amassed by Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

It was not initially clear whether the show of Israeli force on the ground was meant as more of an intimidation tactic to further pressure Hamas leaders, who had all been forced into hiding on Wednesday after the group’s military chief, Ahmed al-Jabari, was killed in a pinpoint aerial bombing. But Israel’s preparations seemed to pick up on Friday after the attempts to land rockets in Tel Aviv, while Hamas itself seemed emboldened by Egypt’s support.

“The time in which the Israeli occupation does whatever it wants in Gaza is gone,” said Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister.

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, Jodi Rudoren from Gaza City and Alan Cowell from Paris. Reporting was contributed by Fares Akram from Gaza, Rick Gladstone from New York, Rina Castelnuovo from the Gaza-Israel border, Mayy El Sheikh and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo, and Gabby Sobelman from Jerusalem.

Read More..

AP source: Melky Cabrera, Blue Jays reach deal

NEW YORK (AP) — The busy Toronto Blue Jays struck again Friday with their latest big deal: All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera is set to join them in his return from a drug suspension.

A person familiar with the negotiations said the free agent outfielder and the Blue Jays have reached agreement on a two-year contract worth $16 million. The deal is pending a physical, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because there was no official announcement.

ESPN Deportes first reported the agreement Friday.

Earlier this week, the Blue Jays got All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes and pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle from the Miami Marlins in a blockbuster trade that could involve a dozen players.

Toronto has not reached the playoffs since winning its second straight World Series in 1993, and has often been stuck behind big spenders in the AL East. After going 73-89 this year, the Blue Jays have made quite a splash in the offseason.

The 28-year-old Cabrera was leading the National League in hitting at .346 for the San Francisco Giants when he drew a 50-game suspension Aug. 15 for a positive testosterone test.

Cabrera later asked to be removed from consideration for the NL batting title, feeling it would be a tainted crown — a rule change in the number of required plate appearances for the champion let Giants teammate and eventual NL MVP Buster Posey win at .336.

The Giants didn't put Cabrera on their postseason roster on the way to winning the World Series, even after he became eligible at the start of the NL championship series.

Cabrera hit 11 home runs with 60 RBIs in his lone year with San Francisco. He hit .305 with 18 homers and 87 RBIs the previous season with Kansas City, then was traded to the Giants.

Cabrera made his major league debut in 2005 with the New York Yankees and stayed with them until being traded to Atlanta after the 2009 season.

The Blue Jays had their share of sluggers — Edwin Encarnacion hit 42 homers and two-time home run champ Jose Bautista hit 27 — but didn't score at an exceptional rate.

Toronto averaged 4.42 runs per game last season, slightly below the AL average.

Cabrera is friendly with Encarnacion and Bautista, another reason he felt comfortable joining the Blue Jays.

Read More..

Personal Health: Quitting Smoking for Good

Few smokers would claim that it’s easy to quit. The addiction to nicotine is strong and repeatedly reinforced by circumstances that prompt smokers to light up.

Yet the millions who have successfully quit are proof that a smoke-free life is achievable, even by those who have been regular, even heavy, smokers for decades.

Today, 19 percent of American adults smoke, down from more than 42 percent half a century ago, when Luther Terry, the United States surgeon general, formed a committee to produce the first official report on the health effects of smoking. Ever-increasing restrictions on where people can smoke have helped to swell the ranks of former smokers.

Now, however, as we approach the American Cancer Society’s 37th Great American Smokeout on Thursday, the decline in adult smoking has stalled despite the economic downturn and the soaring price of cigarettes.

Currently, 45 million Americans are regular smokers who, if they remain smokers, can on average expect to live 10 fewer years. Half will die of a tobacco-related disease, and many others will suffer for years with smoking-caused illness. Smoking adds $96 billion to the annual cost of medical care in this country, Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month. Even as some adult smokers quit, their ranks are being swelled by the 800,000 teenagers who become regular smokers each year and by young adults who, through advertising and giveaways, are now the prime targets of the tobacco industry.

People ages 18 to 25 now have the nation’s highest smoking rate: about 34 percent counted in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2010 reported smoking cigarettes in the previous month. I had to hold my breath the other day as dozens of 20-somethings streamed out of art gallery openings and lighted up. Do they not know how easy it is to get hooked on nicotine and how challenging it can be to escape this addiction?

Challenging, yes, but by no means impossible. On the Web you can download a “Guide to Quitting Smoking,” with detailed descriptions of all the tools and tips to help you become an ex-smoker once and for all.

Or consult the new book by Dr. Richard Brunswick, a retired family physician in Northampton, Mass., who says he’s helped hundreds of people escape the clutches of nicotine and smoking. (The printable parts of the book’s provocative title are “Can’t Quit? You Can Stop Smoking.”)

“There is no magic pill or formula for beating back nicotine addiction,” Dr. Brunswick said. “However, with a better understanding of why you smoke and the different tools you can use to control the urge to light up, you can stop being a slave to your cigarettes.”

Addiction and Withdrawal

Nicotine beats a direct path to the brain, where it provides both relaxation and a small energy boost. But few smokers realize that the stress and lethargy they are trying to relieve are a result of nicotine withdrawal, not some underlying distress. Break the addiction, and the ill feelings are likely to dissipate.

Physical withdrawal from nicotine is short-lived. Four days without it and the worst is over, with remaining symptoms gone within a month, Dr. Brunswick said. But emotional and circumstantial tugs to smoke can last much longer.

Depending on when and why you smoke, cues can include needing a break from work, having to focus on a challenging task, drinking coffee or alcohol, being with other people who smoke or in places you associate with smoking, finishing a meal or sexual activity, and feeling depressed or upset.

To break such links, you must first identify them and then replace them with other activities, like taking a walk, chewing sugar-free gum or taking deep breaths. These can help you control cravings until the urge passes.

If you’ve failed at quitting before, try to identify what went wrong and do things differently this time, Dr. Brunswick suggests. Most smokers need several attempts before they can become permanent ex-smokers.

Perhaps most important is to be sure you are serious about quitting; if not, wait until you are. Motivation is half the battle. Also, should you slip and have a cigarette after days or weeks of not smoking, don’t assume you’ve failed and give up. Just go right back to not smoking.

Aids for Quitting

Many if not most smokers need two kinds of assistance to become lasting ex-smokers: psychological support and medicinal aids. Only about 4 percent to 7 percent of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without help, the cancer society says.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have free telephone-based support programs that connect would-be quitters to trained counselors. Together, you can plan a stop-smoking method that suits your smoking pattern and helps you avoid common pitfalls.

Online support groups and Nicotine Anonymous can help as well. To find a group, ask a local hospital or call the cancer society at (800) 227-2345. Consider telling relatives and friends about your intention to quit, and plan to spend time in smoke-free settings.

More than a dozen treatments can help you break the physical addiction to tobacco. Most popular is nicotine replacement therapy, sold both with and without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration has approved five types: nicotine patches of varying strengths, gums, sprays, inhalers and lozenges that can curb withdrawal symptoms and help you gradually reduce your dependence on nicotine.

Two prescription drugs are also effective: an extended-release form of the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban or Wellbutrin), which reduces nicotine cravings, and varenicline (Chantix), which blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, reducing both the pleasurable effects of smoking and the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Combining a nicotine replacement with one of these drugs is often more effective than either approach alone.

Other suggested techniques, like hypnosis and acupuncture, have helped some people quit but lack strong proof of their effectiveness. Tobacco lozenges and pouches and nicotine lollipops and lip balms lack evidence as quitting aids, and no clinical trials have been published showing that electronic cigarettes can help people quit.

The cancer society suggests picking a “quit day”; ridding your home, car and workplace of smoking paraphernalia; choosing a stop-smoking plan, and stocking up on whatever aids you may need.

On the chosen day, keep active; drink lots of water and juices; use a nicotine replacement; change your routine if possible; and avoid alcohol, situations you associate with smoking and people who are smoking.

---

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 16, 2012

An earlier version of this column stated imprecisely the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes in the month before the survey -- not daily. (About 16 percent of them reported smoking daily, according to the survey.)

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An earlier version of this column misstated the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes, not 40 percent. (That is the share of young adults who use tobacco products of any kind, according to the survey.)

Read More..

2 Banks Settle With S.E.C. on Mortgage Securities

JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse have agreed to settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission totaling $417 million over their packaging and sale of troubled mortgage securities to investors, the agency said Friday. The settlements are the latest major penalties extracted by the agency in a broad investigation into the way Wall Street firms bundled mortgages into complex investments before the financial crisis.

The S.E.C. has leveled claims against a handful of major banks, including JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, that they painted a deceptively rosy portrait of the securities while some of the underlying loans were already showing signs of delinquency.

Robert Khuzami, director of the S.E.C.’s Division of Enforcement, called mortgage products like those sold by the banks “ground zero in the financial crisis” in a statement Friday. The S.E.C. cautioned Wall Street to brace itself for more enforcement actions.

While the S.E.C. has brought more than 100 cases related to the financial crisis, the agency has won only piecemeal victories against the banks, and has not yet secured a big victory against any individuals responsible for some of the reckless behavior. In a significant setback for the agency, a federal jury in August acquitted a Citigroup manager whom the S.E.C. had accused of misleading investors in the sale of a complex security made up of residential mortgages.

Mr. Khuzami on a conference call Friday acknowledged the challenge of bringing cases against individuals related to “structured” financial products, but noted that “we are by no means are shying away from charging individuals.”

JPMorgan and Credit Suisse did not admit or deny guilt. JPMorgan agreed to pay $296.9 million to settle the charges and Credit Suisse agreed to pay $120 million.

The S.E.C. brought the cases in conjunction with the federal-state mortgage task force, which President Obama created in January to investigate the subprime mortgage morass. In its first major salvo against banks, the group sued JPMorgan last month. That federal lawsuit is still pending.

Separately, the federal regulator that oversees the housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac filed lawsuits against 17 financial firms last year over nearly $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities that imploded after the loans soured.

Legal wrangling over Wall Street’s behavior during the housing boom has targeted virtually every step in the process, from making loans to borrowers with tarnished credit to the sale of securities engineered with the subprime loans. As a result of the mortgage-litigation storm, banks have had to set aside billions of dollars to deal with claims from investors and regulators.

The S.E.C.’s investigation into JPMorgan included creating troubled securities itself, as well as misleading investors through its Bear Stearns unit, the troubled investment bank it purchased at the urging of the federal government in 2008.

In a December 2006 sale of $1.8 billion of mortgage-backed securities, JPMorgan played down delinquency rates of the mortgages used as collateral in the securities, according to the S.E.C. Despite assurances by JPMorgan that only .04 percent of the loans were more than 30 days delinquent, roughly 7 percent of the loans were troubled, the agency said. While the bank reaped $2.7 million as part of the deal, investors didn’t fare as well, losing at least $37 million, according to the S.E.C.

The S.E.C. also faulted Bear Stearns for pocketing compensation it received from mortgage lenders for shoddy loans that the firm had purchased to package into mortgage securities. Bear Stearns, the agency claimed, never passed that money on to investors in the securities. As a result, Bear Stearns received $137.8 million, the agency said Credit Suisse was also accused of keeping roughly $55.7 million in such payments from investors. The Swiss bank was also faulted by the agency for misstating when it would buy back mortgages if homeowners fell behind on their payments.

In a statement Friday, JPMorgan said that it was pleased to “put these matters” behind it. Credit Suisse also expressed relief, noting that the bank was “committed to the highest standards of integrity and regulatory compliance in all its businesses.”

The S.E.C. said it would distribute the money to investors harmed by banks’ practices.

Despite the settlement, JPMorgan is still dogged by mortgage-related headaches. The mortgage task force case filed last month by the New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, asserted that Bear Stearns sold securities between 2006 and 2007 that caused roughly $22.5 billion in lossesfor investors.

In another mortgage feud, JPMorgan is one of the 17 firms that the Federal Housing Finance Agency claims sold shoddy loans to the government without adequately disclosing the risks. In court filings, JPMorgan has pushed for the lawsuit to be thrown out.

Beyond the government actions, JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks face an onslaught of battles with private investors. Dexia, a Belgian-French bank, for example, sued JPMorgan in federal court in Manhattan over $1.6 billion in troubling mortgage-backed securities bought from Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.

In a statement Friday, Kenneth Lench, who is the head of the S.E.C.’s enforcement division’s structured and new products unit, said “these actions demonstrate that we intend to hold accountable those who misled investors through poor disclosures in the sale of RMBS (residential mortgage backed securities) and other financial products commonly marketed and sold during the financial crisis.” He added: “Our efforts in that regard continue.”

Read More..

Palestinian Rockets Kill Three Israelis and Trigger Air Sirens in Tel Aviv

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel — Israel and Hamas widened their deadly conflict over Gaza on Thursday, as militants fired dozens of rockets — including one that killed three civilians in an apartment block in this small southern Israeli town — and two longer-range rockets aimed at Tel Aviv, causing no harm but triggering the first air raid warning there set off by incoming fire from Gaza. The death toll in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes rose to at least 19, including five children and a pregnant teenager.

There was no sign that either side was prepared to dial back the confrontation that has threatened a new war in the Middle East, despite entreaties for restraint by world leaders including President Obama and Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, who planned a visit there in coming days. If anything, the Israelis intensified their attacks on Gaza after the Tel Aviv scare and made new moves toward a possible ground invasion.

The Israeli deaths were the first since Israel’s military launched ferocious aerial assaults on Wednesday to stop the chronic rocket fire from Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave controlled by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a cryptic statement that one of the two longer-range rockets aimed at Tel Aviv landed but did not hit the ground — meaning that it likely crashed into the Mediterranean Sea — and that the other appeared to have landed far outside the city. Exact locations were not specified.

But the Tel Aviv air raid warnings — which residents of Israel’s largest metropolis had not heard except for drills or malfunctions since Saddam Hussein’s Scuds threatened them in the first Persian Gulf War, more than two decades ago — were a reminder of their vulnerability to an attack from Gaza, less than 40 miles away. They also underscored Israel’s stated reason for seeking to destroy the missile-launching sites in Gaza.

Ehud Barak, the minister of defense, said the targeting of Tel Aviv and the scope of the Palestinian rocket fire “represents an escalation, and there will be a price for that escalation that the other side will have to pay.”

Mr. Barak also dropped a further hint that planning for a ground invasion of Gaza had begun, saying he had instructed the army to broaden its draft of reservists to “be prepared for any kind of development if and when it will be required.” Israeli officials said 30,000 reservists could be called, and heavy machinery and tanks rumbled south along Israeli roads leading to Gaza on Thursday in preparation for a possible invasion.

The Israel Defense Forces said that within hours of the Tel Aviv air raid warning, they had attacked 70 underground rocket-launching sites in Gaza, and “direct hits were confirmed.” There were also unconfirmed reports that Israeli rockets had struck near Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt, forcing the Egyptians to close it.

.

Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said its aerial assaults had hit more than 200 sites in Gaza by late Thursday, and “we’ll continue tonight and tomorrow.” He also said militants in Gaza had fired about 300 rockets into southern Israel and at least 100 more had been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system.

The Israeli aerial assault on Gaza that began on Wednesday was the most intense military operation by Israel in Gaza since an invasion four years ago.

The regional perils of the situation sharpened as President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt warned that his country stood by the Palestinians against what he termed Israeli aggression, echoing similar condemnation on Wednesday.

“The Egyptian people, the Egyptian leadership, the Egyptian government and all of Egypt is standing with all its resources to stop this assault, to prevent the killing and the bloodshed of Palestinians,” Mr. Morsi said in nationally televised remarks before a crisis meeting of senior ministers. He also instructed his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza on Friday and said he had contacted President Obama to discuss strategies to “stop these acts and doings and the bloodshed and aggression.”

Isabel Kershner reported from Kiryat Malachi, Israel, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Fares Akram from Gaza, Rina Castelnuovo from Kiryat Malachi, Mayy El Sheikh and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo, Gabby Sobelman from Jerusalem and Alan Cowell from Paris.

Read More..

Sina’s profit beats on Weibo; co forecasts weak 4th-quarter revenue

(Reuters) – Chinese internet company Sina Corp eked out a profit in the third quarter that beat analysts’ estimates as strong advertising sales on its microblogging platform offset weaker website advertising but it forecast current-quarter revenue below expectations.

Shares of the company fell 6 percent to $ 49.72 in extended trading. They closed at $ 53.10 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Sina expects adjusted net revenue to range between $ 132 million and $ 136 million in the fourth quarter, with advertising revenues forecast to increase between 6 percent and 8 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $ 151.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sina, which makes most of its revenue from online advertising both on its website and through its microblogging platform, Weibo, is facing stiff headwinds this year as firms slash advertising budgets due to a worsening economic outlook.

Analysts said the spat between Japan and China over a few uninhabited islands in the East China Sea may have affected Sina’s website advertising sales as Japanese automakers cut back on advertising in China.

Net profit was $ 9.9 million for the September quarter, compared to a loss of $ 336.3 million a year earlier. The profit beat analysts’ expectations of $ 7.5 million.

Sina’s advertising revenue rose 19 percent to $ 120.6 million in the third quarter, while non-advertising revenue rose 9 percent to $ 31.8 million. Overall net revenue was $ 152.4 million, up from $ 130.3 million, a year earlier.

The company started monetizing Weibo by offering special services to business accounts and selling VIP memberships to regular users earlier this year.

Weibo contributed about 10 percent to total advertising revenue in the second quarter and had 368 million registered accounts.

(Reporting By Melanie Lee in Shanghai & Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Miguel Cabrera, Buster Posey win MVP awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Detroit's Miguel Cabrera won the American League's Most Valuable Player award on Thursday after becoming baseball's first Triple Crown winner in 45 years, and San Francisco's Buster Posey was voted the National League honor.

Cabrera received 22 of 28 first-place votes and 362 points from the AL panel of Baseball Writers' Association of America to easily beat out Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout, who had six firsts and 281 points. Trout was voted AL Rookie of the Year earlier in the week.

Posey recovered from a devastating leg injury that cut short his 2011 season, became the first catcher in 70 years to win the NL batting title and helped San Francisco win its second World Series title in three seasons. He got 27 of 32 firsts and 422 points from the NL panel, outdistancing 2011 winner Ryan Braun of Milwaukee, who was second with 285 points.

Cabrera hit .330 with 44 homers and 139 RBIs to become the first Triple Crown winner since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. The last four Triple Crown winners have been voted MVP, including Mickey Mantle in 1956 and Frank Robinson in 1966.

Cabrera also led the league with a .606 slugging percentage for the AL champion Tigers. He became the second straight Detroit player voted MVP, following Justin Verlander in 2011, and was the first Venezuelan to earn the honor.

Before the season, he switched from first base to third to make way for Prince Fielder, signing as a free agent.

The 2010 NL Rookie of the Year, Posey set career highs with a .336 average, 24 homers and 103 RBIs for the World Series champion Giants. His 2011 season was cut short by a collision with the Marlins' Scott Cousins on May 25 that resulted in a fractured bone in Posey's lower left leg and three torn ankle ligaments.

Posey, the fifth overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, won the NL batting title after teammate Melky Cabrera requested a rules change that disqualified him. Cabrera, who hit .346, missed the final 45 games of the regular-season while serving a suspension for a positive testosterone test and would have won the batting crown if the rule hadn't been changed.

Ernie Lombardi had been the previous catcher to capture the NL batting championship, in 1942.

Catchers have won the NL MVP just eight times, with Posey joining Gabby Hartnett (1935), Lombardi (1938), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953, 1955) and Johnny Bench (1970, 1972). The other winning catchers were Lombardi in 1938 and Gabby Hartnett in 1935.

Posey is the first Giants player to win since Barry Bonds was voted his record seventh MVP award in 2004.

Pittsburgh outfielder Andrew McCutchen (245) was third, followed by St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina (241).

NOTES: In his first season with the Angels, Albert Pujols didn't finish among the top 10 for the first time in his career. While with St. Louis, he won three times, was second four times and also finished third, fourth, fifth and ninth.

Read More..