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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

TSX falls on resources, financials; railways shine

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index ended slightly lower on Wednesday, as strong gains for the country's two main railways failed to overcome sharp declines in heavyweight mining, energy and financial stocks.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> unofficially closed down 4.74 points, or 0.04 percent, at 13,243.32. It had risen in the previous six sessions and is at a two-year peak.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsx-may-open-lower-china-monetary-policy-fears-123656740--sector.html
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Romney's New House In Utah Has Hidden Room

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A new house Mitt Romney is building in Utah is not only spacious and luxurious, but it's also a little mysterious.

The home's study will have a bookcase that swivels open and leads into a hidden room, according to architecture plans obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune (http://bit.ly/1a0wGL9 ). The drawings say the room is for office storage, and show it is 11-feet long with cabinets.

It's not the first time plans for a Romney home include attention-grabbing features. Drawings for renovations on a waterfront house in La Jolla, Calif., include a split-level garage with a car elevator.

The Tribune reports the 5,900-square-foot house in the Salt Lake City suburb of Holladay will be the fifth home for the former Republican presidential candidate. He recently bought an 8,700-square-foot home that has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms in the Utah mountain resort town of Park City. He also has homes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The planning documents for the new Utah house show it listed as a home for Romney's wife, Ann Romney. The home sits on an acre of land next to a home being built by their son, Josh Romney, the Tribune reports.

The home is called a "new farmhouse" in drawings approved by city officials. The house will have vertical wood siding, wood shutters on the windows and large sliding barn doors. The property will have several lawns, a fountain, terraces, a gazebo and a spa.

The Tribune obtained the plans through an open records request.

Romney now will have two homes in Utah, where he has family ties going back several generations and where he came in 1999 to help the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City recover from a bribery scandal.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240304651&ft=1&f=
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SEC Considers Rules For Startups To "Crowdfund"

WASHINGTON (AP) — Startup companies would be able to sell stock over the Internet to small-time investors under rules put forth Wednesday by federal regulators.

So-called "crowdfunding" has been popular for years as a means for financing independent films, art projects and charitable causes. Last year Congress said startups could use crowdfunding for raising capital, once regulations are in place to protect potential investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission took a step toward that by voting 5-0 to send crowdfunding rules out for public comment. Final rules could be approved next year.

Under the proposal, people with annual income and net worth of less than $100,000 could invest a maximum of 5 percent of their yearly income. Those with higher incomes could invest up to 10 percent. Companies could raise a maximum of $1 million a year from individual investors.

Companies also would be required to provide information to prospective investors about their business plan and financial condition, as well as a list of their officers, directors and those who own at least 20 percent of the company.

Crowdfunding is hardly a new concept. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have for years helped fund projects through donations raised online. Through those sites, supporters can pledge $10 — or tens of thousands of dollars — to help start a project, be it a business, a charity or the arts. In return, supports can receive a gift, such as a T-shirt or a song named after them. Or they can simply feel satisfied knowing that they helped a good cause.

But under the law enacted last year, business would be able to offer investors a piece of the company for the first time. Investment crowdfunding could be a pathway to getting in early on the next potential Twitter or Facebook, though experts warn that the reality is nearly 55 percent of startups fail within five years.

Still, the latest iteration of crowdfunding could help those startups that failed to attract attention from venture capitalists. Supporters say this kind of investment crowdfunding could create jobs and boost economic growth in overlooked areas of the country, such as the Midwest.

New businesses there don't have access to pools of capital provided by Wall Street or Silicon Valley, says Robert Hoskins, who does public relations and marketing for crowdfunding ventures.

"It's going to save America's butt," he said.

But investor advocates and other critics express concern that this new arena of investing could be a breeding ground for fraud.

At the same time, investing in startups by its nature can be risky. While many companies are started by entrepreneurs with good intentions, "there could be some sharks out there as well," said William Beatty, the director of securities in Washington state. "I hope a lot of people don't get hurt," he said in a telephone interview.

SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar said unscrupulous operators could use investment crowdfunding to prey on "vulnerable segments of society." The system could enable "affinity fraud," he said, with promoters appealing to members of ethnic or religious groups to which they portray themselves as belonging.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240247116&ft=1&f=
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Gmail and Mavericks Mail: Why they aren't playing nice and what you can do about it

Gmail and Mavericks: Why it's busted and what you need to know

Google has never had anything approximating what you could call a normal IMAP implementation for Gmail. However, under Mail in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and previous versions, many of us learned to work around and otherwise live with it. No longer! OS X 10.9 Mavericks changes the way the Mail app works, and in doing so, is less forgiving of Gmail's idiosyncrasies than ever before. Joe Kissel on TidBITS:

Mail and Gmail were never a fantastic combination out of the box, because Gmail has a wacky, highly nonstandard way of using IMAP, and Mail always wanted to treat Gmail as though it were a conventional IMAP server. But, after much trial and error, I eventually found a combination of Mail settings and Gmail settings that, prior to Mavericks, resulted in a stable — and indeed largely pleasant — experience. As I documented in “Achieving Email Bliss with IMAP, Gmail, and Apple Mail,” 2 May 2009, you just do x, y, and z (well, 21 steps’ worth of x, y, and z), and it’ll all work smoothly.

Well, forget about that under Mavericks. In fact, following those old directions now will lead you far from bliss. And if you followed them before upgrading to Mavericks, you’ll need to take some steps to undo some of the problems.

Gmail in Mail over IMAP has always been a pain for me. I never hid All Mail, so that's not a problem now, but it uses a ton of disk space and up until recently kept generating simultaneous connection and bandwidth usage errors.

I have a paid Google Apps account, so on iOS I simply use Exchange for Gmail via Google Sync, which works much, much better, and faster. Sadly, Google doesn't seem to allow for Exchange connections on OS X.

So, unless and until Apple changes Mail for Gmail's sake, or Google figures out how to better serve IMAP, we'll stay caught, painfully, in the middle.

Check out Joe's article for some small amount of relief, and if you're struggling with Gmail in Mail.app, let me know how it's going for you.

Source: TidBITS

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/N_LnnAVjk2k/story01.htm
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Beijing adopts new smog emergency measures

BEIJING (AP) -- Beijing is seeking to tame the spikes in its infamous smog by preparing emergency measures such as factory shutdowns and traffic limits to kick in when air pollution levels are especially heavy.

The city government said Tuesday the strictest emergency measures will take effect when the pollution index for fine particulate matter, PM2.5, is forecast to exceed 300 micrograms per cubic meter for three days running.

Private vehicles will be allowed to operate only on alternating days, depending on the last number of their license plates. Factory emissions will be cut 30 percent by suspending or limiting production, and construction sites must halt excavation and demolition work. Classes will be suspended, a measure likely to cause inconvenience in a city where most parents both work.

The measures require precise pollution forecasting and timely public notification to be effective, and there was obvious skepticism in the questions asked by Chinese reporters at a briefing announcing the emergency measures.

They apply only to industries and individuals in Beijing, despite the fact that as much as 60 percent of the city's air pollution wafts in from neighboring provinces, such as Hebei to the south.

"We have no control over Hebei, but this is a national priority and we hope we can be a positive role model," Fang Li, vice director of the city's Environmental Protection Bureau, told reporters.

A sprawling city of more than 20 million people, Beijing saw air pollution levels spike this year despite the imposition of more than 100 control measures that are enforced with varying strictness.

Vehicle emissions are blamed for about a quarter of the pollution, with coal-fired plants and factory production blamed for most of the rest.

Odd-even license plate traffic restrictions and limits on industrial activity were first rolled out as temporary measures during the 2008 Summer Olympics, after which the city enjoyed a brief improvement in air quality.

Cleaning up the air is considered a decades-long project and Li said the emergency measures to deal with pollution spikes were just part of a program to reduce the use of coal and rein in other forms of pollution.

"The purpose of these measures announced today is merely to try to arrest the deteriorating trend," Li said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beijing-adopts-smog-emergency-measures-003548901.html
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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Pitch Videos

Take your favorite TV spot, cut out all of the post-production effects, professional actors, props, CGI, production quality, and anything even resembling a budget. What do you have? This collection of unintentionally hilarious clips from director Tony Benna.

China, India sign border cooperation agreement

BEIJING (AP) — China and India sounded a new optimistic tone in their relationship Wednesday as they signed an agreement to boost meetings between their militaries to avoid any repeat of a tense standoff this year along their disputed Himalayan border.

The accord followed a meeting in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also had trade ties on the agenda as India seeks to gain greater access to Chinese markets and readjust a trade balance tilted heavily toward China.

The two sides agreed to boost communication about border maneuvers, hold periodic meetings at designated crossing points, and have patrols refrain from any provocations. They agreed that patrols should not follow or "tail" patrols of the other side in contested areas.

"I am sure it will help to maintain peace, tranquility and stability in our border areas," Li said of the accord.

Li, who said the meeting injected "new vitality" into China-India relations, said the two sides also agreed to hold joint counterterrorism training in southwest China at an early date, strengthen cooperation in international and regional affairs, and work together to tackle terrorism.

Another accord signed by the countries enables a Chinese power equipment service center in India, and Li said China stood ready to help India with railway construction. The two sides also are exploring a trade corridor, said Singh, who expressed concern about the countries' "unsustainable trade balance."

India ran a $39 billion trade deficit with China over the last fiscal year. With growing economies and a combined population of 2.5 billion, the two neighbors have set a target of $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2015, up from $61.5 billion last year.

"The huge gap between us and them in terms of overall material power is massive. It creates a lot of anxieties," said Sreeram Chaulia, an international affairs expert at Jindal School of International Affairs in New Delhi.

"One way to address it would be to increase Chinese investment in India," he said.

But he added, "In India, we are wary of Chinese investment, particularly in sectors like telecommunications or critical infrastructure. There is this fear that one day China is going to rule us."

The two leaders played up positive aspects of their meeting, with Singh saying they had "candid and constructive discussions" on regional and global issues.

"This is one of the promising developments in our relationship," Singh said.

Relations between China and India are overshadowed by a decades-old border dispute over which they fought a brief but bloody war in 1962. More than a dozen rounds of talks have failed to resolve the issue, and the two sides had a three-week standoff at their frontier earlier this year.

India said that Chinese soldiers launched incursions several kilometers (miles) across the Line of Actual Control at the Himalayan frontier between the sides in May, though China denied setting foot anywhere but on Chinese territory.

China claims around 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) of land in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, while India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) of territory on the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas.

They also face other tensions. China is a longtime ally and weapons supplier to Pakistan, India's bitter rival, and has been building strong ties with Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, feeding Indian fears of encirclement. China, meanwhile, is wary of India's growing ties with the United States.

Ashwin Kaja, a lawyer leading an initiative to establish a China-India institute at Beijing's Renmin University and Jindal University in Sonipat, India, said Wednesday's agreements and statements signaled a more positive tone in China-India relations.

"In the last few years the relationship between the two countries has run into some turbulent times," he said, adding that measures to "start rebuilding trust and cooperation are very important."

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Katy Daigle and Chonchui Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-india-sign-border-cooperation-agreement-045953223.html
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