Japan sounds intervention alarm on strong yen (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's finance minister put traders on alert for possible currency intervention on Monday after the yen's rise to a record high against the dollar threatens to further squeeze exporters' profits and hold back economic recovery.

In a sign of resilience, Japan's exports growth slowed down less than expected in September, finance ministry data showed, but economists warn that persistent yen strength and Europe's sovereign debt woes pose increasing risks to external demand.

The Bank of Japan, which meets on Thursday, will probably cut its economic forecasts because of slowing global growth but keep monetary policy unchanged unless disappointment over Europe's plans to solve its crisis roils markets.

Even if the BOJ keeps policy unchanged this week, Japan's government and central bank may not be able to hold off from taking action much longer as safe-haven flows keep the yen stubbornly high against the U.S. currency.

"The dollar/yen rate fell sharply, to between 75 and 76 yen, in a short time. This is an utterly speculative move and not reflecting the economic fundamentals at all. This is regrettable," Finance Minister Jun Azumi told reporters.

"If this move becomes excessive, we have to take decisive action. I already instructed my staff on Saturday to be prepared to take action."

He added that the strong yen would have a major impact on Japan's export sector, especially the auto industry, and could dent the country's economic recovery from a slump triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Azumi spoke after the dollar hit a record low of 75.78 yen on trading platform EBS on Friday. That surpassed its previous record low of 75.94 yen in August, and brought back into focus the possibility of official intervention to weaken the Japanese currency.

The dollar rose slightly after Azumi's remark, but later ceded ground to trade around 76.23 yen.

Analysts do not rule out a currency intervention, most likely unilateral, if yen rises continue.

"Japan may intervene in the currency market if dollar/yen stays below 76 or falls below 75. Unless it intervenes, the yen may continue to rise and verbal warnings alone may not be able to reverse that trend," said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

Traders in Tokyo, however, were skeptical whether latest market action would serve as trigger for intervention, citing a broad sell-off in the dollar as the main driver and data showing margin traders have recently built up their long dollar/yen positions.

Since September last year, the government has intervened twice on its own and once jointly with other Group of Seven rich nations to weaken the yen, but the effects of intervention have proved short-lived.

Japan's exports rose 2.4 percent in September from a year earlier, boosted by shipments of cars and car parts. That compared with a median forecast for a 1.0 percent increase, and followed a 2.8 percent climb in the year to August.

Imports increased 12.1 percent in September, against a forecast of a 12.6 percent rise.

The trade balance turned to a surplus of 300.4 billion yen ($3.95 billion) following the previous month's deficit. That compared with a median forecast of a 198.8 billion yen surplus.

Exports to Asia, which account for more than half of Japan's total exports, edged up 0.2 percent from a year earlier, with China taking in 2.7 percent more Japanese goods than a year ago while exports to the United States were up 0.4 percent.

The Japanese economy probably rebounded in the third quarter from the damage caused by the March 11 disaster but is expected to slow to a crawl in the final quarter due to an intensifying euro-zone debt crisis that threatens to drag down the world economy, a Reuters poll shows.

Euro zone leaders are striving to agree on new steps to reduce Greece's debt, strengthen the capital of banks with exposure to troubled euro zone sovereigns and leverage the euro zone's rescue fund to stem contagion to bigger economies.

(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Neil Fullick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/bs_nm/us_japan_economy

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Mexico says 'Little Rooster' is 15-year-old kingpin

CANCUN, Mexico?? Prosecutors said Saturday that a 15-year-old boy has confessed to running a drug trafficking gang on the Mexican resort island of Isla Mujeres and murdering two women who reportedly worked as drug dealers.

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It was the second time in less than a year that an extremely young male has been detained as a purported drug gang killer in Mexico. Last November, soldiers arrested a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who confessed to killing four people whose beheaded bodies were found hanging from a bridge.

Mexican officials say the involvement of youths in such crimes reflects the difficulty drug cartels are having in recruiting adults, but it also raise fears that Mexico's drug violence may have accustomed young people to extreme levels of violence.

The Isla Mujeres cases involve a youth who prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo identified only by his nickname, "El Gallito" or "The Little Rooster".

Heavily tattooed, El Gallito appears more mature than his age, prosecutors said.

State Attorney General Gaspar Garcia Torres said the boy claimed to have been in charge of the lucrative Isla Mujeres drug market for a local gang known as "Los Pelones," equivalent to the Bald or Shaved Heads. The gang is reputedly fighting the Zetas cartel for control of the area around the coastal resort of Cancun.

A spokesman for the prosecutors office said the boy told investigators that he and two older associates slashed the throats of the two women at a hotel on Isla Mujeres. Their women's bodies were found before dawn Thursday, and El Gallito was detained Friday.

"He confessed to having full participation in carrying out these deeds, and from the start he claimed to have been in charge of drug sales in the area, in this case for the Pelones, and that his duties were to receive the drugs," said the spokesman, who was not allowed to be quoted by name.

The women were purportedly killed after they betrayed the Pelones gang by selling drugs they obtained from other sources.

The boy was turned over to a youthful offender facility to face homicide charges. Because of his age, he cannot be identified or tried as an adult. In most parts of Mexico, youths are tried and sentenced in juvenile courts, but cannot be held after they turn 18.

Last year's case involved a 14-year-old U.S. citizen, who was identified by his family as Edgar Jimenez Lugo, known as "El Ponchis." He was sentenced in July to three years in prison for homicide, kidnapping and drug and weapons possession. It was the maximum sentenced allowed for a minor.

Authorities say the teenager confessed to working for the South Pacific cartel, which is allegedly led by Hector Beltran Leyva.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45000587/ns/world_news-americas/

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BPA in pregnant women might affect kids' behavior

Dr. Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. Dr. Birnbaum says a study on exposure to BPA before birth contributes important new evidence to "a growing database which suggests that BPA exposure can be associated with effects on human health." (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

Dr. Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. Dr. Birnbaum says a study on exposure to BPA before birth contributes important new evidence to "a growing database which suggests that BPA exposure can be associated with effects on human health." (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Exposure to BPA before birth could affect girls' behavior at age 3, according to the latest study on potential health effects of the widespread chemical.

Preschool-aged girls whose mothers had relatively high urine levels of bisphenol-A during pregnancy scored worse but still within a normal range on behavior measures including anxiety and hyperactivity than other young girls.

The results are not conclusive and experts not involved in the study said factors other than BPA might explain the results. The researchers acknowledge that "considerable debate" remains about whether BPA is harmful, but say their findings should prompt additional research.

The researchers measured BPA in 244 Cincinnati-area mothers' urine twice during pregnancy and at childbirth. The women evaluated their children at age 3 using standard behavior questionnaires.

Nearly all women had measurable BPA levels, like most Americans. But increasingly high urine levels during pregnancy were linked with increasingly worse behavior in their daughters. Boys' behavior did not seem to be affected.

The researchers said if BPA can cause behavior changes that could pose academic and social problems for girls already at risk for those difficulties.

"These subtle shifts can actually have very dramatic implications at the population level," said Joe Braun, the lead author and a research fellow at Harvard's School of Public Health.

For every 10-fold increase in mothers' BPA levels, girls scored at least six points worse on the questionnaires.

The study was released online Monday in Pediatrics.

Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, said the study contributes important new evidence to "a growing database which suggests that BPA exposure can be associated with effects on human health."

Grants from that federal agency helped pay for the study.

The Food and Drug Administration has said that low-level BPA exposure appears to be safe. But the agency also says that because of recent scientific evidence, it has some concern about potential effects of BPA on the brain and behavior in fetuses, infants and small children. The FDA is continuing to study BPA exposure and supports efforts to minimize use in food containers.

BPA has many uses, and is found in some plastic bottles and coatings in metal food cans. It was widely used in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups but industry phased out that use.

Braun said it's possible that exposure to BPA during pregnancy interferes with fetal brain development, a theory suggested in other studies, and that could explain the behavior differences in his study. Why boys' behavior wasn't affected isn't clear. But BPA is thought to mimic the effects of estrogen, a female hormone.

The researchers evaluated other possible influences on children's behavior, including family income, education level and whether mothers were married, and still found an apparent link to BPA.

But Dr. Charles McKay, a BPA researcher and toxicologist with the Connecticut Poison Control Center, said the researchers failed to adequately measure factors other than BPA that could explain the results.

For example, there's no information on mothers' eating habits. That matters because mothers' higher BPA levels could have come from eating lots of canned foods instead of healthier less processed foods, which might have affected fetal brain development.

The American Chemistry Council, a trade group whose members include companies that use BPA, said the research "has significant shortcomings ... and the conclusions are of unknown relevance to public health."

___

Online:

FDA: http://tinyurl.com/ya4d4ku

Info for parents: http://www.hhs.gov/safety/bpa/

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-10-24-Bisphenol-Children's%20Behavior/id-b36f6a243b0a421e845f2c06c11615d2

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Ingredient Decoder: Coconut Oil

Photo: Dermstore

I don?t believe every piece of beauty hype I read, but it?s hard not to pay attention when you keep coming across rave reviews of a certain ingredient. Over the past few years, every magazine has been extolling the virtues of coconut oil. Caribbean women coat themselves in it from head to toe, and more and more of us are adopting it as a staple in our beauty routines (not to mention, it?s a model fave). On your face, coconut oil acts as an anti-aging moisturizer. On your body, it smooths dry skin and heals rough patches. In your hair, it acts as a leave-in deep conditioner.?Plus, the oil smells really, really good! Click through?for product picks and tips.

Saudi crown prince dies abroad after illness

File - In this Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 file photo, Saudi Arabia's Crow Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz arrives at the awards ceremony of the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud International Prize at King Fahd Cultural center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi TV said Saturday morning Oct. 22, 2011 the kingdom's heir to the throne has died abroad after an illness. He was 85 years old. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

File - In this Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 file photo, Saudi Arabia's Crow Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz arrives at the awards ceremony of the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud International Prize at King Fahd Cultural center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi TV said Saturday morning Oct. 22, 2011 the kingdom's heir to the throne has died abroad after an illness. He was 85 years old. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

FILE - Saudi Crown prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz attends the signing of the final border demarcation agreement between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the southern Yemeni port city of al-Mukalla, about 560 kilometers (350 miles) southeast of the capital San'a in this June 2, 2006 file photo. Saudi TV said Saturday morning Oct. 22, 2011 the kingdom's heir to the throne died abroad after an illness. He was 85 years old. (AP Photo/Mohammed al-Qadhi, File)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) ? The heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, died abroad Saturday after an illness, state TV said. The death of the 85-year-old prince opens questions about the succession in the critical, oil-rich U.S. ally.

Sultan was the half-brother of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who is two years older than him and has also been ailing and underwent back surgery last week.

The most likely candidate to replace Sultan as Abdullah's successor is Prince Nayef, the powerful interior minister in charge of internal security forces. After Sultan fell ill, the king gave Nayef ? also his half-brother ? an implicit nod in 2009 by naming him second deputy prime minister, traditionally the post of the second in line to the throne.

The announcement did not say where outside the kingdom he died or elaborate on Sultan's illness but Saudi official circles in Riyadh said he passed away at a hospital in New York. Saudi royal family members typically received medical treatment in New York.

Sultan, who was the kingdom's deputy prime minister and the minister of defense and aviation, has had a string of health issues. He underwent surgery in New York in February 2009 for an undisclosed illness and spent nearly a year abroad recuperating in the United States and at a palace in Agadir, Morocco.

"With grief, King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz mourns the death of Sultan bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, crown prince and his brother," the palace said. The statement, which was carried on the official Saudi Press Agency, added that Sultan's funeral will be held on Tuesday afternoon in Riyadh at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque.

For the first time, however, the mechanism of picking the next crown prince is not entirely clear.

It is possible the king will for the first time put the decision of his heir to the Allegiance Council, a body Abdullah created a decade ago as one of his reforms, made up of his brothers and nephews with a mandate to determine the succession.

That would open the choice up to a degree of debate with the top echelons of the royal family. Nayef, however, will still be the front-runner.

Traditionally the king names his successor. But Abdullah formed the council in order to modernize the process and give a wider voice to the choice. When it was created, it was decided that the council would act when Sultan rose to the throne and his crown prince had to be named; however, it was not specified whether it would be used if Sultan died before the king. The choice of whether to evoke the council now will likely be made by Abdullah.

Saudi Arabia has been ruled since 1953 by the sons of its founder, King Abdul-Aziz, who had over 40 sons by multiple wives.

Anyone who rises to the throne is likely to maintain the kingdom's close alliance with the United States. But it would have an internal impact. Abdullah has been seen as a reformer, making cautious changes to improve the position of women ? such as granting them to right to vote in elections scheduled for 2015 ? and seeking modernize the kingdom despite some backlash from the ultraconservative Wahhabi clerics who give the royal family the religious legitimacy needed to rule. Nayef, however, is often seen as closer to the clerics.

Sultan's death comes amid questions about the health of the king. Last week, King Abdullah underwent back surgery in Riyadh. The SPA news agency said the operation was to treat a loose vertebra in his back. Abdullah had two back surgeries late last year, also in New York City.

Sultan was part of the aging second generation of the King Abdul-Aziz's sons.

Sultan was long seen as a powerful aspirant for the throne. When Fahd became king in 1982, Sultan had hoped to be named crown prince. But instead Fahd appointed their half-brother, Abdullah, a decision that Sultan challenged. The sons of Abdul-Aziz closed ranks when the issue was decided, aware that a direct confrontation with Abdullah could tear the family apart. Sultan was named second deputy prime minister, a position that guaranteed him the move to crown prince.

When Fahd died and Abdullah ascended to the throne, Sultan was named crown prince and heir.

Sultan was the kingdom's defense minister in 1990 when U.S. forces deployed in Saudi Arabia to defend it against Iraqi forces that had overrun Kuwait. His son, Prince Khaled, served as the top Arab commander in operation Desert Storm, in which U.S., Saudi and other Arab forces drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait.

In May 2004, the royal court announced that Sultan was discharged from a Jiddah hospital after an operation to remove a cyst from his intestines.

In a rare move, Saudi television showed footage of the prince, dressed in a traditional white robe and sitting in an armchair, receiving greetings from a number of Saudi dignitaries. A few days before that, state-guided media showed photos of the prince in his hospital bed, apparently to counter rumors about his health.

Sultan was born in Riyadh in 1928, according to the defense ministry's web site. In 1947, he was appointed governor of Riyadh. At the same time, he was assisting his father in the setting up of a national administrative system based on the implementation of Islamic Sharia law. In 1953, he became the kingdom's first minister of agriculture.

Two years later, Sultan became minister of transportation, supervising the development of the kingdom's roads and telecommunications network and the construction of the railway system connecting the eastern city of Dammam with Riyadh, the capital.

As defense minister, Sultan closed multibillion deals to establish the modern Saudi armed forces, including land, air, naval and air defense forces.

On more than one occasion, the deals implicated several of his sons in corruption scandals ? charges they have denied.

Sultan is survived by 32 children from multiple wives. They include Bandar, the former ambassador to the United States who now heads the National Security Council, and Khaled, Sultan's assistant in the Defense Ministry.

___

Associated Press Writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-22-ML-Saudi-Obit-Sultan/id-531795c5087f4a59be97e2919d6af809

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Iran intelligence chief rejects US allegations (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran's intelligence chief said Thursday there are holes in the U.S. allegations that Iranian agents plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States, and dismissed the American claims as a "foolish scenario" nobody will believe.

Two men, including an alleged member of Iran's special foreign actions unit known as the Quds Force, have been charged in New York federal court with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir. Tehran has strongly denied any link to the alleged plot, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused Washington using the case to divert attention from economic problems in the U.S.

On Thursday, Iran's intelligence minister, Heidar Moslehi, dismissed the American allegations, saying no professional intelligence agency would issue orders to an agent in a foreign country over the phone or transfer money to drug cartels through a New York bank.

"When you probe the allegations from an intelligence perspective, you find major contradictions and shortcomings and you can't believe a government like the U.S. ... has ended up in a situation where it designs a foolish scenario," he said on state TV.

The Iranian government has denied any connection to Manssor Arbabsiar, the man arrested in the alleged plot, and derided the claims, saying U.S. officials have put forward no proof.

Arbabsiar is a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who also had an Iranian passport. In May 2011, the criminal complaint says, he approached someone he believed to be a member of the vicious Mexican narco-terror group, Los Zetas, for help with an attack on Al-Jubeir. The man he approached turned out to be an informant for U.S. drug agents, it says.

The U.S. government charges that Arbabsiar had been told by his cousin Abdul Reza Shahlai, a high-ranking member of the Quds Force, to recruit a drug trafficker because drug gangs have a reputation for assassinations.

Moslehi said Arbabsiar, based on the U.S. judge's bill, made a telephone call to the alleged Quds force member from an FBI office after his arrest and the Americans' claim they eavesdropped the conversation.

"What intelligence agency or officer will direct an agent stationed in a rival's territory by telephone? Or orders an assassination on the phone? Or assigns the restaurant ? the venue of the planned assassination ? and bargains over the price on the phone?" he asked.

Moslehi said even the weakest intelligence agencies in the world wouldn't hire a man with Arbabsiar background let alone assign him to an operation on U.S. soil.

The intelligence minister alleged instead that Arbabsiar, who acquired U.S. citizenship eight months ago, likely agreed to cooperate with American intelligence agencies in return for his residency permit.

Moslehi said Iran doesn't need to resort to such terror plots and that Tehran would not benefit from killing a Saudi diplomat.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111020/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_us_ambassador_plot

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Yankee PRSA? Jobs ? Dir Marketing and Communications/SNHU

Dir Marketing and Communications/SNHU

Oct 20th, 2011 | By Yankee PRSA | Category: Jobs

Under the direction of the Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications University College, the Director of Marketing and Communications is responsible for all external and internal communications including driving social media, public and media relations strategies for Southern New Hampshire University?s University College Department of Marketing and Communications.

Key responsibilities:

• Implement a communications plan to further key strategic initiatives (research, planning, implementation and evaluation).
• Responsible for local, regional, national and international media relations and press placements to further SNHU?s awareness in critical markets.
• Responsible for leveraging SNHU news in social media space using, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
• Work with Associate VP to ensure University branding plan is reflected throughout all internal and external communications.
• Serve as copywriter for selected web-based and print marketing collateral.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor?s degree required.
• 7-10 years experience a related field.
• Excellent oral and written skills.
• In-depth knowledge of media relations, web-driven marketing and content management.
• Experience working within and leveraging social media tools to drive awareness.
• Strong managerial skills and a team player.
• Success and results driven.

Candidates are requested to apply online at https://www.snhu.edu/jobs. Screening of applicants will begin immediately, and continue until the position is filled. EOE/AA

Application Information

Contact : Office of Human Resources
Southern New Hampshire University
(603) 644-3125/(603) 645-9661(fax)

Click here for ONLINE APPLICATION

Source: http://www.yankeeprsa.org/dir-marketing-and-communicationssnhu

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