Stock markets to close Monday, possibly Tuesday

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock and options markets will be closed on Monday, and possibly Tuesday, as regulators, exchanges and brokers worry about the integrity of markets and the safety of employees in the face of Hurricane Sandy.

Market participants and regulators decided late on Sunday to shut the market, reversing a plan to keep electronic trading going on Monday. Bond markets will remain open, but will close at noon, a trade group said.

The decision to close stock and options markets came after regulators, exchanges, and dealers discussed the unknowns that would have been tested if the markets opened on Monday, three sources familiar with the situation said.

For example, NYSE Euronext's New York Stock Exchange had initially planned to shut its physical trading floor, which would have meant operating as an all-electronic exchange for the first time.

The decision to shut down the stock markets came after Wall Street had prepared to open for business on Monday with limited staffing after a mass transit shut-down in New York, booking hotel rooms for key employees and leaning on offices in other cities.

Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc, activated their emergency plans, which many firms put in place after the September 11, 2001, attacks. It was not immediately clear if those plans had also changed.

Some bank offices in lower Manhattan's Financial District are in evacuation zones and most non-critical staff and employees who don't rely on high-speed systems, including some investment bankers, were asked to work from home.

"SUPER STORM"

The storm is expected to slam into the U.S. East Coast on Monday night, bringing torrential rain, high wind, severe flooding and power outages. The rare "super storm" - created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm - could be the biggest to hit the U.S. mainland, forecasters said.

The scramble started early as the threat of the storm forced the New York mass transit system to shut down on Sunday evening, leaving tens of thousands of employees stuck at home.

About 8.5 million commuters use the Metropolitan Transit Authority's transit lines daily, meaning most Wall Street employees would be unable to get to work. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also closed public schools and ordered an evacuation of 375,000 people in coastal areas, including downtown offices of banks such as Citigroup.

The major exchanges and most big trading firms have alternate trading facilities if downtown Manhattan is inaccessible, but the storm's wide path may affect a number of sites in the New York metropolitan area. Authorities have warned of possible widespread power outages that could last for days.

Wall Street was spared the worst of Hurricane Irene in August last year. Officials had feared Hurricane Irene would flood lower Manhattan and cripple business in the world's financial capital, but the flooding was minor and there were no major disruptions at the exchanges.

All of the U.S. exchanges, as well as major broker-dealers, and regulators were involved in the decision to close the markets, according to several executives at exchanges and financial firms.

The U.S. markets have seen three high-profile snafus this year, beginning with the failed IPO of BATS Global Markets, the No. 3 U.S. equities exchange, on its own exchange; Facebook Inc's botched markets debut on Nasdaq's exchange; and a software glitch that cost trading firm Knight Capital well over $400 million, nearly forcing it into bankruptcy.

BOND MARKETS

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association said earlier on Sunday it is recommending an early close of noon EDT on Monday for the trading of U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-income securities. It said its member firms should decide for themselves whether their fixed-income departments remain open for trading.

The foreign exchange market's activity generally follows the fixed income markets.

The New York Federal Reserve has calls scheduled for early Monday morning with dealers to see what each dealer is doing to cope with the storm, and will modify its market activities accordingly.

In Washington, the Commerce Department said it would post its report on personal income and spending for September on its website at 8:30 a.m. as scheduled, even though the federal government was closed.

The Federal Reserve said it would postpone its regularly scheduled releases, including its weekly report on selected interest rates and daily commercial paper data. The Fed said it would release the data when federal offices in the Washington area reopened.

CME Group Inc said it will be closing its U.S. equity index futures and equity index options on futures markets on the trading floor and on CME Globex at 8:15 a.m., Central Time, on Monday. All other CME Group futures and options on futures markets will remain open.

IntercontinentalExchange Inc said trading in the ICE Futures Russell equity index futures and options will close early, at 9:15 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday. It said ICE Clear Credit will close at noon Eastern Time on Monday, with the U.S. fixed income markets. It said all other ICE markets and clearing houses will remain open and follow regular market hours.

WORK FROM HOME

Goldman, whose office in lower Manhattan is in one of the areas to be evacuated, told employees earlier on Sunday that it would open for business, with some staff working from offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in Princeton, New Jersey. It also plans to use teams in London and other locations around the world for support.

Citigroup, which has three buildings in the evacuation zone, said "non-critical personnel should invoke their work-from-home strategies."

JPMorgan Chase & Co said its buildings were still open Monday and the bank was planning to be fully operational, using resources in the United States, Europe and Asia.

For many investment bankers and private equity executives, working from home will make the most sense. Blackstone Group planned to close its office on Monday.

Hurricane Sandy also led to some events being canceled or postponed. Citigroup Prime Brokerage postponed a hedge fund event that had been scheduled for Tuesday.

(Reporting by John McCrank, David Gaffen, Caroline Humer, David Henry, Charles Mikolajczak, Richard Leong, Edward Krudy, Lauren LaCapra, Dan Wilchins and Rick Rothacker; Editing by Paritosh Bansal, Jennifer Merritt, Tiffany Wu, Maureen Bavdek, Dale Hudson, Gary Crosse and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-markets-closed-monday-storm-hobbles-york-042724131--sector.html

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Easing high blood pressure without medication?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to serious health issues, including heart disease, kidney disease and stroke. Baylor Health Care System researchers are studying a new approach that could help normalize blood pressure -- without medication.

The Symplicity trial tests a minimally invasive procedure known as renal denervation. The experimental procedure uses heat that is generated by radio frequency to disrupt nerve communication to and from the kidneys. This can reduce overactivity in the sympathetic nervous system, a frequent cause of chronic high blood pressure.

"The sympathetic nervous system controls blood pressure and can cause hypertension initiated by life and stress," says David L. Brown, M.D., principal investigator at THE HEART HOSPITAL Baylor Plano. "This investigational device is being tested to determine if it will disrupt the sympathetic nervous system, which may significantly lower blood pressure, stop multiple antihypertensive medications, and have an effect on other conditions affected by the sympathetic nervous system."

Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg). Less than 120/80 is considered healthy. To enroll in the Symplicity trial, patients must have a blood pressure level in which the top (systolic) number is above 160. They must also be taking the maximum dose of three to five different blood pressure medications simultaneously but not achieving the desired lower blood pressure levels.

"In previous studies of this device in limited numbers of people, this simple procedure reduced patients' blood pressure by an average of about 30 mmHg, a reduction that persisted throughout subsequent assessments," says Sonia Prashar, M.S.,CCRC, research coordinator at THE HEART HOSPITAL Baylor Plano. Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital also is participating in the study.

Two Groups Comprise the Study

Participants will be randomly assigned into two groups: One group will have the renal denervation procedure and the other group will not. (No one but the surgical team will know who is in each group.) Patients will be given home blood pressure monitors and followed up with frequently. After six months, participants who did not have the procedure may be given the option of having it done, if they still qualify.

If the study confirms that renal denervation can result in a large, persistent decrease in blood pressure, it could be excellent news for people who have high blood pressure that isn't being successfully controlled with medication.

"Improving blood pressure has a profound effect on longevity and reducing the risk of stroke," says James W. Choi, M.D., primary investigator for the Symplicity trial at Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital. "Catheterbased renal denervation is an exciting, investigational treatment for patients with resistant hypertension who otherwise might not be able to be helped."

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/1myvdCEjbXA/121029081209.htm

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Whether legal or political, the Holy Land Five struggle will continue

On Thursday, Holy Land Five supporters rallied outside Barack Obama's presidential campaign headquarters in Chicago. (Photo: Roger Beltrami)

"Ultimately the only recourse is likely a political one," attorney Stanley Cohen tweeted about the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) case yesterday. He may be right.

Of course I (and Stanley, I am sure) hope for the best of all possible outcomes today: that the Supreme Court will announce its decision to hear the last remaining legal appeal of Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdulrahman Odeh, immediately recognize the grave injustice that has been done to them, and move quickly to reunite them with their families.

Their imprisonment for more than eight years is an absolute travesty. From secret evidence, to anonymous expert testimony, the prosecution made the Holy Land Five an example of the political climate, rather than trying them for their actions?sending contributions to the same legal zakat committees that also received funds from USAID. Furthermore USAID continued to fund those same zakat charities for an entire year after the U.S. government shut down the HLF. In light this double standard, there is nothing in this case to reassure Americans about the state of our government or our protections under its laws.

"The most important thing we need people to know is that the US government has a certain view of Middle East policy," Ghassan Elashi's brother Bayan told me three months ago, after his own prison sentence and deportation to the Gaza Strip:

If anybody has an opinion opposing this policy, the government will use its legal system against them. The courts will yield to the government?s wishes and overlook, and even violate, all the legal and constitutional rights of the individual. They'll hand him a harsh sentence just to please the government, knowing, without a doubt, that he didn?t violate US law.

Especially if that person is a Muslim or an Arab or a Palestinian or from Gaza.

Recounting current U.S. efforts against Muslims, from the HLF prosecutions to NYPD spying operations to drone killings, civil rights attorney Michael Ratner told the Real News Network Thursday, "What you have is what, I would say, is probably the darkest period in American history in terms of the overt repression of a particular population, through every legal means."

The crusade against the HLF was, in many senses, a harbinger of later efforts. And its targeting of five Palestinian-Americans, with the close collaboration of Israeli intelligence sources and an anonymous witness, may have foreshadowed what Mark Levine would, in 2011, call "New York becom[ing] the Occupied Territories" in more ways than one. George W. Bush?s December 4, 2011 executive order, which closed the HLF and began the prosecution of its leadership, followed, by one day, a Presidential meeting with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

On Thursday, supporters of the Holy Land Five rallied for their freedom in Chicago, New York, Tampa, and other cities across the United States. This offered a momentary glimpse, and perhaps a rudimentary organizational infrastructure, of the kind of campaign that will be needed if the Supreme Court proves Stanley right and dismisses the HLF appeal. The prosecution ? or is that persecution? ? of these five men has always been entirely political, and not at all legal; a successful fight against it may need a similar form.

Jerusalem activist Hala Turjman wrote in August that "discourses surrounding the incarceration of Palestinians should not debate whether the practices of the [Israeli Prison Service] are legal, or whether their practices constitute torture, but rather return to the fundamental principle: that of an anti-colonial struggle."
"Incarceration should not be seen as an isolated 'problem' or as a practice that should be legalized, or 'humanized,'" she continued. "Instead it is a tool used by the colonial power to break the will to resist and is just another form of colonial violence."

The imprisonment of the Holy Land Five is a conscious act of imperial repression against Palestine no less than those of Khader Adnan, Hana Shalabi, Mahmoud Sarsak, or Hassan Safadi, returning today to his family in Nablus. Like their freedom, the HLF prisoners' may boil down to a question not of laws, but of solidarity, mobilization, and power.

And if the court breaks with precedent and acts, for the moment, like the highest judicial body of a nation governed by laws, rather than imperial consideration and the shameful pandering of politicians, the Holy Land Five will still need all our support. A Supreme Court appeal requires significant legal resources; the prisoners, I can attest, are always happy to hear from supporters; and their incarceration, which George Galloway rightly called "one of the most monstrous injustices in modern times in America," cannot be forgotten, by activists or the public, even in the midst of ongoing litigation.

A week ago, one Gaza Strip recipient of an HLF scholarship told me, "We feel sorry for their imprisonment, and we hope the HLF resumes its work very soon." I am confident that it will, one way or another, whatever it takes. Yalla.
?

Joe Catron is a U.S. activist in Gaza, Palestine, where he works with Palestinian groups and international solidarity networks, particularly in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and prisoners? movements. He blogs at joecatron.wordpress.com and tweets at @jncatron .

Source: http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/whether-legal-or-political-the-holy-land-five-struggle-will-continue.html

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Blind tennis players keep their ears on the ball

In this photo taken Oct. 16, 2012, Austin Benavidez, who is blind, returns a volley using an oversized ball filled with ball bearings at the California School for the Blind in Fremont, Calif. Students at the school are learning to play tennis, and expanding the boundaries of what the blind can do while offering new insights into the human mind. They must turn their ears into eyes, listening for the ball's bounce to figure out where to swing their rackets. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

In this photo taken Oct. 16, 2012, Austin Benavidez, who is blind, returns a volley using an oversized ball filled with ball bearings at the California School for the Blind in Fremont, Calif. Students at the school are learning to play tennis, and expanding the boundaries of what the blind can do while offering new insights into the human mind. They must turn their ears into eyes, listening for the ball's bounce to figure out where to swing their rackets. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

In this photo taken Oct. 16, 2012, Austin Benavidez, who is blind, practices his tennis serve using an oversized ball filled with ball bearings at the California School for the Blind in Fremont, Calif. Students at the school are learning to play tennis, and expanding the boundaries of what the blind can do while offering new insights into the human mind. They must turn their ears into eyes, listening for the ball's bounce to figure out where to swing their rackets. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

In this photo taken Oct. 17, 2012, an oversized tennis ball filled with ball bearings is displayed at the California School for the Blind in Fremont, Calif. Students at the school are learning to play tennis, and expanding the boundaries of what the blind can do while offering new insights into the human mind. They must turn their ears into eyes, listening for the ball's bounce to figure out where to swing their rackets. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) ? Learning how to play tennis is hard enough. Now try it when you can't see.

That's what students are doing at the California School for the Blind. They're learning a form of tennis adapted for the visually impaired ? and expanding the boundaries of what the blind can do.

The state-supported campus in Fremont is one of three American schools for the blind that recently began teaching adapted tennis, which was invented in Japan in the 1980s. A nonprofit group called Tennis Serves is working to promote the sport throughout the U.S.

"I didn't know someone with no vision could play tennis until I came to this school," said a 16-year-old student from Modesto named Jonathan. The school declined to provide his last name, citing a state law that protects the privacy of students with disabilities.

Blind tennis features a smaller court, lower net and junior tennis rackets with bigger heads and shorter handles. String is taped to the floor so players can feel the boundaries with their feet.

Players use a foam ball filled with metal beads that rattle on impact, allowing them to locate the ball when it hits the ground or racket. Once served, they have to return the ball before it bounces three times.

"The most difficult thing to teach is timing their stroke," said Sejal Vallabh, the 17-year-old founder of Tennis Serves. "Being able to listen to the ball, locate it using their sense of hearing and swing at the precise moment the ball goes by is really difficult to teach."

While experienced players can keep the ball in bounds and stage extended rallies, just hitting the ball over the net can be a challenge for beginners. During a recent visit to the California School for the Blind, students mostly swatted balls into the ground, the net and toward the ceiling and walls. Few balls were returned, but teachers say some are developing that capability.

Blind tennis was created in 1984 by Miyoshi Takei, a blind Japanese high school student who designed the adapted ball and helped the sport gain popularity in Japan and other Asian countries. He dominated blind tennis competitions until he was killed in a train accident last year at age 42.

Vallahb, an avid tennis player who is now a high school senior in Newton, Mass., first encountered blind tennis two years while doing a summer internship in Japan, where her grandmother lives.

"After I saw it there, I knew that I wanted to recreate the sport that I had seen back in the U.S.," she said, so she started Tennis Serves.

Vallabh first began teaching at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass. with help from her high school tennis teammates. She then helped start similar programs at Lighthouse International in New York City and the California School for the Blind.

Vallabh is working with engineering students at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif. to design a ball that continuously beeps to make it easier for blind players to track it.

At the California School for the Blind, staff members said they were skeptical when Vallabh first approached them about teaching the adapted sport.

"We were thinking, 'How are we going to teach tennis?" said Mary Alice Ross, who teaches adapted physical education. "My colleague said, 'Tennis is like teaching football. It's not something we really do.'"

The California School for the Blind, which has about 90 students ages 5 to 22, offers many adapted sports activities and sports, including bowling, boating, swimming, hiking, ice-skating and goal-ball.

Tennis is one of the most difficult sports for the visually impaired, but it brings unique rewards, teachers say.

"When it comes to being able to play a sport which is commonly only played by people with good vision, it's a big self-esteem boost." said John Healy, a dorm counselor who teaches adapted tennis.

A 12-year-old student named Sebastian said he was surprised when he first heard about the adapted sport.

"Tennis? How could blind people play tennis?" he said. "But then I was like, blind people can do anything they want. If you set your mind to it, then you can do it."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-29-Blind%20Tennis/id-aaf5f40270e348cba2a47ba01b271f00

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Visa hands regional PR brief to BPG : Campaign Middle East

Nick Cooper | Oct 28, 2012 | Comments 0

Global credit card company Visa has handed its regional PR brief to BPG Public Relations.

The Dubai-based agency beat an undisclosed number of agencies to the account following a competitive pitch that had begun in early September. BPG officially takes over the business on 1 November.

Naamat Baradhy, head of corporate relations at Visa Middle East and North Africa, said BPG would manage the company?s corporate communications and public relations activities in the GCC.

?Their strategic thinking, passion, enthusiasm for the Visa business and the quality of their team were important factors in our decision to select BPG Public Relations as our new partner,? said Baradhy. ?We are looking forward to a close and successful partnership that will help Visa to enhance its corporate communications in the GCC and strengthen our leadership position as a innovative payment platform in the region.?

The incumbent on the account was Dubai-based integrated communications company DABO & Co, which had held the business since 2004. It was not known whether the independent agency was invited to re-pitch for the business.

Filed Under: 1.Featured ? 2.News

Tags: BPG ? visa

Source: http://campaignme.com/2012/10/28/14007/visa-hands-regional-pr-brief-to-bpg/

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Windows Phone 8 Device Availability: Phones Hit Europe This Weekend, U.S. In November

Windows Phone 8 is coming to European carriers this weekend, coming to the rest of the world in November, with devices from Lumia, HTC and Samsung including the 920, 8X and Ativ S hitting online stores and retail shelves. The mobile OS has been anticipated for a while now, but this is the first we've heard of a specific street date, so now you know when you can actually get your hands on Windows Phone 8.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/h6YMPPFEUhg/

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Turkish police fire tear gas at banned secularist march

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of secularists protesting at a banned rally in the capital on Monday against what they see as an increasingly authoritarian and Islamist government.

The scenes of chanting men and women draped in Turkish flags and carrying banners portraying the country's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk highlight a longstanding division in Turkish society between staunch secularists on the one hand and more conservative religious Turks on the other.

Although Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan won a third term in power last year with 50 percent of the vote, many secular Turks fear his socially conservative AK Party has Islamist tendencies that threaten the secular republic founded by Ataturk.

"They are trying to turn us into another Iran or some kind of neo-Ottoman Empire. We are against this," said retired 64-year-old Erdem Sevinc.

"We are here today to send a message to those who are trying to destroy the principles of this republic," he said.

The local government in Ankara, also controlled by Erdogan's AK Party, banned the rally citing "intelligence" it would be used for "provocation", a move protesters said was designed to silence government opponents.

"Why have they banned this march? Because they are scared. They are scared of course," said 68-year-old Metin Alkan, sporting a black tie emblazoned with Ataturk's face.

"Look at us, do we look like a danger?" he said, laughing.

Waving Turkish flags several thousand people gathered outside the old parliament building in the city center to try to march to Ataturk's mausoleum to mark the 89th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

"Resign government! Damn you Tayyip!" the crowd chanted, referring to the prime minister.

"The day will come when the AK Party will give account to the people," they shouted.

"We are Mustafa Kemal's soldiers! Turkey is secular and will remain secular!" others shouted.

But the marchers were kept back by a barricade of riot police who began firing tear gas and water cannon into the crowd, which included children and elderly men and women, as some people tried to storm the police blockade.

TEAR GAS, WATER CANNON

Some in the crowd threw projectiles at the line of police, prompting them to fire more tear gas and water cannon. People pushed and shoved to get out of the line of fire while others were doubled up on the ground, coughing from the gas.

Several young girls were carried out of the crowd unconscious, drenched by the water cannon.

"Why are they doing this? This is really bad. We are citizens of this country, we are not enemies," said 21-year-old computer studies student Melisa Cilli.

"They want another kind of system here, a dictatorship, with Erdogan as the dictator," she said.

Several hours later police removed the barricades allowing the crowds to march to the mausoleum some three kilometers away.

Erdogan was first elected a decade ago with an overwhelming majority and has presided over a period of unprecedented prosperity, winning him admirers among Western nations keen to portray Turkey as a democratic example in a troubled region.

But that success story has been undermined by growing criticism of the authoritarian style of his rule.

Hundreds of politicians, academics and journalists are in jail on charges of plotting against the government, while more than 300 army officers were convicted last month of conspiring against Erdogan almost a decade ago, and handed long jail terms.

Media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said this month that Turkey had jailed more reporters than Iran, China or Eritrea.

Secular Turks also point to increasing restrictions on alcohol and changes to the education system introduced by the AK Party as a sign the country is becoming more Islamic.

Erdogan has also forged close ties with Islamist governments in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the Arab world.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) set up by Ataturk in 1924, joined the march and later criticized the police's handling of the event.

"Those people only had Turkish flags in their hands. The state had police, tear gas, water cannon and tanks. Hey, where are you going? Are you going to war? You don't need permission to celebrate the republic," he said.

(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/turkish-police-fire-tear-gas-banned-secularist-march-160618677.html

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