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Friday, February 22, 2013

Kate Middleton: Nervous About Giving Birth!

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Six-year housing hangover tough to shake off

John W. Schoen , NBC News ? ? ? 14 hrs.

If this is a housing recovery, then it?s a ?recovery? in name only. The patient remains pretty ill, and it?s going to be a long road back to health after one of the worst housing busts on record.

Fresh data released this week paint a mixed picture. The government reported Wednesday that housing starts fell 8.5 percent in January, though starts on single family homes edged up higher. Building permits ? a barometer of future construction ? posted solid gains.

But the pace of construction remains less than half what it was during the late-2005 peak of the housing boom. And the recovery has come in fits and starts. On Tuesday, a closely-watched report from the homebuilding industry noted sluggish sales traffic last month after steady gains through 2012.

?The single-family market in the Northeast, hurt by high foreclosure rates and a slowdown in population growth, is struggling,? said Patrick Newport, a housing economist at IHS Global Insight. ?The single-family segments in the other three regions are picking up -- but slowly, and levels remain depressed."

Despite multiple government policies to spur sales, including the Federal Reserve?s ongoing effort to hold mortgage rates near the floor, sales of both new and existing homes still badly lag ?normal? levels.

?The market appears to be recovering, but you can't call this a normal market when you have the lowest interest rates in a hundred years and half of all borrowers are still putting basically zero down," said Ed Pinto, an American Enterprise Institute fellow and former executive of government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae. ?That is not a normal market."

Neither was the 2007 housing bust. After peaking at 7.1 million in 2005, the annual pace of home sales crashed to 4.1 million in 2008. Last year, sales edged back up to about 4.7 million. Though most housing analysts and economists believe sales and princes have bottomed, the recovery pales in comparison to past housing rebounds.

One reason: no matter how low interest rates fall, after playing too loose with credit during boom, banks are now much choosier about who gets a loan.

?The biggest concern on a really robust housing market rebound now is coming from mortgage market constraints," said David Goldberg, an analyst who follows the homebuilding industry at UBS. "It?s tough to get a mortgage if you have marginal credit right now."

In many markets around the country, sales of existing homes also are being held back by tight inventories. Since 2010, the availability of existing homes for sale has fallen by half. In December, for-sale listings amounted to about 4.4 months? worth of sales -- down from 9.4 months in 2010.

Anything less than a six months? supply is considered a ?tight? market. Some of the tightest markets -- including Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland -- are down to less than a months' supply, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

After years on the sidelines, some sellers may be holding out for a better price. But millions more are unable to sell because they owe more than their home is worth.

Some 10 million homeowners -- roughly a fifth of houses with a mortgage -- are still underwater despite the recent uptick in prices, according to Lender Processing Services. Though rising home prices have reduced that number since the depths of the bust, the lingering ?negative equity? of the mortgage metldown is keeping houses off the market. Few of those potential sellers feel like dipping into savings to write the bank a check for the shortfall.

Home builders have fared a bit better, as new home sales rebounded by 20 percent last year compared to a 9 percent bounce for existing homes.

But that bigger new-home bounce comes largely because home builders fell into an even bigger hole. Annual sales fell from a peak of 1.2 million in 2005 to just 306,000 in 2011, according to Census data. So the 20 percent rebound is a lot weaker than it looks.

Many headwinds
The home building industry faces its own set of headwinds. For starters, many of the industry?s smallest builders were wiped out by the housing bust. Those that survived are finding spot shortages of labor and supplies where demand is coming back, according to Lisa Marquis Jackson, a Dallas-based housing analyst at John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Some building material manufacturers and distributors are skittish about adding more capacity until they see convincing evidence that the housing recovery is on firmly on track, she said. In some cases, they?re having trouble getting financing to expand.

?It takes a lot of money to get payroll back up and to get new people on board,? said Jackson. ?The lending environment still isn't completely comfortable coming in to support materials suppliers and distributors.?

Other builders are having a hard time finding enough skilled workers to get the job done. Though housing starts have rebounded strongly -- up 37 percent from a year ago -- construction employment is up by just 1.5 percent in the same period.

Builders may be having a harder assembling skilled work crews because wages were cut sharply following the housing bust. Others are finding that the workers simply aren't there anymore.

?A lot of these workers found other jobs,? said Jackson. ?They still have some scars from what they went through in the downturn. It?s going to take a lot to lure them back.?

It?s also turning out to be harder to lure back first-time home buyers, typically one of the strongest sources of demand in a recovery. After the historic, late-2000s price slide, many younger buyers are skeptical of the longstanding conventional wisdom that housing is a surefire long-term investment.

That?s meant that investors, lured by bargain prices, have become a much larger share of buyers than in past recoveries. But it remains to be seen how durable that ?hot money? demand will be, said Pinto, the former Fannie Mae executive.

?In two or three years, they could all turn on a dime and decide this isn't the asset class they thought it was, and then they sell,? he said. ?If that happens right at the time that interest rates happen to go up, then I think we're into a really tough situation.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/six-year-housing-hangover-tough-shake-1C8434499

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Pistorius detective facing attempted murder charges

Themba Hadebe / AP

Investigating officer Hilton Botha, sits inside the court witness box during the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 20.

By Peroshni Govender and Helen Nyambura-Mwaura, Reuters

PRETORIA - The lead detective in Oscar Pistorius' murder case is facing attempted murder charges for opening fire at a mini bus containing seven people, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

Brigadier Neville Malila said Hilton Botha, who took the stand against Pistorius at a bail hearing on Wednesday, is due to appear in court in May.

Domestic news service SAPA said Botha was accused of shooting at the minibus in 2009 when it failed to heed his orders to stop, although the charges were later provisionally withdrawn.

The charges were reinstated on Wednesday, Malila said, without providing further details.

Related story:?Oscar Pistorius in court: Defense exposes cracks in police evidence

The prosecution is challenging Oscar Pistorius' testimony about what happened on the night his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp was killed. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Under cross-examination at the paralympic star's bail hearing on Wednesday, Botha was accused of contaminating the crime scene in Pistorius' house and had to backtrack on key details such as the distance of witnesses from the home.?

Lead defence counsel Barry Roux accused the police of oversights and slip-ups in their initial investigation.

The bail hearing for Pistorius, who has been charged with shooting dead his girlfriend in the early hours of Valentine's Day, is due to restart at 0900 GMT.

This story was originally published on Thu Feb 21, 2013 1:13 AM EST

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/21/17037928-pistorius-detective-facing-attempted-murder-charges?lite

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New scorpion discovery near metropolitan Tucson, Arizona

Feb. 19, 2013 ? A new species of scorpion, Vaejovis brysoni, was found in the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona. Another scorpion of the same group also inhabits this mountain range, making this the first documented case of two vorhiesi group species distributed on the same mountain. The study was published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal Zookeys.

These mountains overlook the city of Tucson, Arizona. Amazingly, in the 21st century, there are still new species to be discovered right here in the United States. What is even more surprising is that the new species was found within sight of a large metropolitan area.

Recently Dr. Rob Bryson Jr. discovered this new species while looking for a completely different animal. Many important discoveries are made this way by scientists who start out working on something completely different. He sent specimens to the authors, who determined that they were indeed a new scorpion species. At that point, the team was assembled and the rest is history.

For over 50 years only four species of mountain scorpions were known from the state of Arizona. That number has more than doubled over the past six years, with a total of 10 species now known, all belonging to the same group. Arizona is known for isolated mountain habitats in the desert known as Sky Islands. These Sky Islands are where the new species are being discovered. "This latest new scorpion is a prime example of the amazing diversity of life still to be discovered, right here in 21st century America.," adds Richard F. Ayrey, one of the co-author of the original article.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Pensoft Publishers, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Richard Ayrey, Michael Webber. A new Vaejovis C.L. Koch, 1836, the second known vorhiesi group species from the Santa Catalina Mountains of Arizona (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae). ZooKeys, 2013; 270 (0): 21 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.270.4500

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/4PT0DtfWxJ4/130219102318.htm

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Heynckes: Wenger is a great coach

Bayern Munich manager Jupp Henyckes says he cannot understand criticism of Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger. Bayern Munich manager Jupp Henyckes says he cannot understand criticism of Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger. Bayern travel to north London to take on the Gunners in their Champions League last 16 first-leg clash on Tuesday and

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/manmademag_sport/~3/hNS3KTWvy7Q/14zk1l

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Duchess Kate: Duchess Kate Returns to Public Engagements With a ...

The Duchess of Cambridge returned to public engagements this morning with a visit to?Action on Addiction's Hope House.

Kate, who is roughly four and a half months pregnant displayed her blossoming baby bump at the addiction centre looking tanned and healthy following a holiday on the paradise island of Mustique. The Duchess was all smiles upon her arrival and reportedly eager to get back to work following an absence from royal duties. Royal correspondents confirmed the Duchess has now recovered from acute morning sickness and is feeling well again as evidenced by the fact her engagements are being scheduled two weeks in advance.

Hope House is a safe and secure place for women to recover from substance dependence and receive additional support for other compulsive disorders. Many of the clients have a history of difficult relationships and find an all-female environment a supportive place to work through issues and begin to recover. The 23 bed residential centre in Clapham, South-West London offers a number of therapies and activities to aid recovery such as reflexology, gym and art therapy.

A large media contingent waited outside Hope House to photograph the pregnant Duchess.

Kate chose Action on Addiction as one of her first charities and has been patron of the organisation since January 2012. Last Valentine's Day she visited the Brink bar in Liverpool - an alcohol-free bar run by the charity - while William was deployed to the Falklands.

Interestingly, it was announced yesterday Prince William's charity 100 Women in Hedge Funds would be teaming up with Kate's Action on Addiction this year. The philanthropic organisation is planning a series of events to raise money for the addiction charity. The partnership kicks off on March 14 with a launch party at Jimmy Choo in New Bond Street, although it is thought neither William nor Kate will be attendance.

If you wish to donate to Action on Addiction, you can do so by?clicking here.
Kate met with staff and patients and learned about help and treatment offered at the centre including daily workshops and counselling sessions.
More from?The Mirror's story:

'As she was greeted by the charity's chief Nick Barton, she stood with her hands clasped under her bump. "Nice to see you again, nice to be back", she said, looking up at the sky: "It's a lovely day for it". As she chatted to women in an art therapy class, she told one of them: "Well done for getting sober".

Kate looked lovely in a grey wrap dress by?Max Mara Studio. The ?357 jersey print dress has a V-neck and cross-over front with a ruched waist and attached waist tie. We were all looking forward to seeing Kate's maternity choices and for this point in her pregnancy a wrap dress was an excellent choice. The Duchess is very much staying true to her signature style opting for a fitted dress.
The Duchess wore her Episode 'Angel' black pumps and accessorised with her Asprey Button pendent and?Annoushka Pearl Earrings.
Kate also wore a gold ruby ring on her middle finger. Julie kindly confirmed the Duchess has had the piece for several years.

It was wonderful to see Kate out and about looking healthy and happy. I thought her sartorial choices were perfect and her hair and make up looked fabulous.
Kate spent an hour and a half at the treatment centre was presented with flowers as she left.
You can watch videos?at ITV?and?ITN Source.

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Kate is not expected to undertake any further public engagements until March 5 when she will visit Grimsby, one of the largest fish processing centres in the country. Despite this, the town has been in decline for over fifty years. Kate will begin a series of engagements with a visit to the?National Fishing Heritage Centre, where she will be given a tour of the museum.

Kate's next stop will be Humberside Fire and Rescue Service where she will meet firemen and women and talk to young people taking part in personal development courses run by Princes Charles's charity, The Prince's Trust. The visit marks Kate's first engagement on behalf of The Prince's Trust which she is understood to have discussed with her father-in-law at length. Kate and Prince Charles share a passion for the arts and it makes perfect sense for Kate to get to know the trust's charities better.

News Summary: Average credit card debt falls in 4Q

HOLIDAY HANGOVER: Credit reporting agency TransUnion says ramped-up holiday season spending likely kept many Americans from making timely payments on their credit cards in the last three months of 2012.

HIGHER DELINQUENCY RATE: The rate of U.S. credit card payments at least 90 days overdue jumped to 0.85 percent in the fourth quarter from 0.78 percent a year earlier and increased versus the third quarter, when it was 0.75 percent.

SMALLER BALANCES: Average credit card debt per borrower was $5,122. That's down 1.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011, but up 2.5 percent from the July-September quarter.

Source: http://www.theolympian.com/2013/02/19/2429743/news-summary-average-credit-card.html

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