Companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, and many other digital platforms and services have created a new, virtual public sphere that is largely shaped, built, owned, and operated by private companies. These companies now mediate human relationships of all kinds, including the relationship between citizens and governments. They exercise a new layer of sovereignty over what we can and cannot do with our digital lives, on top of and across the sovereignty of governments. Sometimes?as with the Arab spring?these corporate-run global platforms can help empower citizens to challenge their governments. But at other times, they can constrain our freedom in insidious ways, sometimes in cooperation with governments and sometimes independently. The result is certainly not as rosy as Apple?s marketing department would have us believe.
When Facebook files for its IPO, the social networking company could be one of the largest companies in the world. What does that mean for other tech giants like Google? Colin Gillis, sr. tecnology analyst at BGC Financial, discusses.
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Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
While the near-Earth asteroid won't hit Earth, it may offer seasoned amateur astronomers a great show ? if they are in the right viewing location and have good equipment. ?
A small asteroid will make an extremely close pass by Earth Friday (Jan. 27), coming much nearer than the moon, but the space rock poses no danger of impacting our planet, NASA scientists say.
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The newfound?asteroid 2012 BX34, which is about the size of a city bus, will pass within 36,750 miles (59,044 kilometers) of Earth at about 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Friday, astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program announced via Twitter.
The space rock is about 36 feet (11 meters) wide, making it much too small to pose a threat to Earth.
"It wouldn't get through our atmosphere intact even if it dared to try," Asteroid Watch scientists tweeted today (Jan. 26). Asteroid Watch is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Asteroid 2012 BX34 will zip by at a distance about 0.17 times that separating Earth and the moon. The moon orbits Earth at an average distance of about 240,000 miles (386,000 km). [Video and image of asteroid 2012 BX34's orbit]
While the?near-Earth asteroid?won't hit Earth, it may offer seasoned amateur astronomers a great show ? if they are in the right viewing location and have good equipment.
"Advanced amateur astronomers might be able to observe the flyby as the asteroid brightens to 14th magnitude just before closest approach on Friday," the website?Spaceweather.com reported?today.
In astronomers' classification system, higher magnitudes correspond to dimmer objects. The full moon, for example, has a magnitude around -12.75. A magnitude of +14 would put 2012 BX34 roughly on par with the maximum brightness of the distant dwarf planet Pluto.
NASA scientists and other astronomer teams regularly monitor the skies in search of asteroids that could pose a danger to Earth. Experts estimate that asteroids measuring about 460 feet (140 m) across can cause widespread destruction near their impact sites, but they'd need to be even larger to cause devastation on a global scale.
Last September, NASA announced that it had catalogued about 90 percent of the largest asteroids whose orbits bring them near Earth ? a major goal set by Congress in 1998. Using NASA's recent WISE asteroid-mapping mission as a guide, scientists estimate that there are about 981 near-Earth asteroids the size of a mountain or larger. About 911 of those space rocks have been spotted, WISE mission scientists said.
Finding and mapping the orbits of such potentially hazardous space rocks is a task crucial to the long-term survival of our species, many scientists say.
Throughout history, asteroids big enough to cause major damage and disruption to the global economy and society (were they to strike a populated area today) have hit Earth, on average, every 200 or 300 years, according to former astronaut Rusty Schweickart.
Schweickart chairs the B612 Foundation, a group dedicated to predicting and preventing cataclysmic asteroid impacts on Earth. The group's chief message is that humanity's survival will someday depend on our ability to?deflect a killer asteroid?away from Earth.
The dinosaurs possessed no such technology, of course, and a catastrophic impact wiped them out ? along with many other plant and animal species ? 65 million years ago.
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter:?@michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.
MIAMI ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney for "carpet-bombing" his record ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary in Florida, trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in the final 48 hours before the vote.
On the defensive after barrage of attacks from Romney and a political committee that supports him, Gingrich said Romney had lied and the GOP establishment had allowed it.
"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."
Despite Romney's effort to turn positive, the Florida contest has become decidedly bitter and personal. Romney and Gingrich have tangled over policy and character since Gingrich's stunning victory over the well-funded Romney in the South Carolina primary Jan. 21.
Showing no signs of letting up, Gingrich objected to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline the then-House speaker for ethics charges.
"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich said.
Gingrich acknowledged the possibility that he could lose in Florida and pledged to compete with Romney all the way to the party's national convention this summer.
An NBC/Marist poll showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters and Gingrich slipping to 27 percent.
While Romney had spent the past several days sharply attacking Gingrich, he pivoted over the weekend to refocus his criticism on President Barack Obama, calling the Democratic incumbent "detached from reality." The former Massachusetts governor criticized Obama's plan to cut the size of the military and said the administration had a weak foreign policy.
Gingrich's South Carolina momentum has largely evaporated amid the pounding he has sustained from Romney's campaign and the pro-Romney group called Restore Our Future. They have spent some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week.
Gingrich planned to campaign Sunday in central Florida, while Romney scheduled rallies in the south. He was also looking ahead to the Nevada caucuses Feb. 4, airing ads in that state and citing the endorsement Sunday of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.
Gingrich collected the weekend endorsement of Herman Cain, a tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful whose White House effort foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, planned to remain in Pennsylvania where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized, and resume campaigning as soon as possible, according to his campaign. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul has invested little in the Florida race and is looking ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.
Gingrich appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week." Paul was on CNN's "State of the Union."
___
Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Tampa contributed to this report.
Economic growth for the past 4 years, at a glance - Yahoo! News Skip to navigation ? Skip to content ? By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Fri?Jan?27, 3:37?pm?ET
The annual performance of the U.S. economy in each of the past four years as measured by the gross domestic product. GDP is the country's total output of goods and services.
2011 1.7 percent
2010 3.0 percent
2009 -3.5 percent
2008 -0.3 percent
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Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
CHICAGO (AP) ? A crew member from the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia has filed a lawsuit in Chicago federal court against Carnival Cruise Lines and its Costa subsidiary.
The lawsuit seeks to represent all 4,200 passengers and crew aboard the vessel when it struck rocks and capsized Jan. 13. It was filed Thursday on behalf of crew member Gary Lobaton, who is from Peru.
The lawsuit accuses Carnival and Costa of negligence because of an unsafe evacuation after the accident occurred. Sixteen people are known dead and 16 more are missing.
Neither company would comment about lawsuits Friday.
Carnival is based in Miami and Costa in Hollywood, Fla. The lawsuit says Chicago is a proper venue because Carnival does substantial business in Illinois.
MOSCOW (AP) ? A former senior Russian archive official says he saw a file that could shed light on Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg's fate ? challenging the insistence of Russia's KGB successor agency that it has no documents regarding the man who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary before disappearing into the hands of Soviet secret police.
Anatoly Prokopenko, 78, told The Associated Press that in 1991 he saw a thick dossier containing numerous references to Wallenberg that suggested he was being spied upon by a Russian aristocrat working for Soviet intelligence. Russian officials later said the file didn't exist, in line with blanket denials of having information on Wallenberg.
"That file is extremely interesting, because it could allow us to determine the reasons behind his arrest," Prokopenko said, while acknowledging he had only a few minutes to flip through hundreds of pages of documents.
As Sweden's envoy to Nazi-occupied Hungary, Wallenberg saved 20,000 Jews by giving them Swedish travel documents or moving them to safe houses, and managed to dissuade Nazi officers from massacring the 70,000 inhabitants of the city's ghetto. The 32-year-old diplomat was arrested by the Soviets in January 1945 when the Red Army stormed Budapest, and imprisoned in Moscow.
The Soviets had stubbornly denied that Wallenberg was in their custody before issuing a 1957 announcement that he had died on July 17, 1947, in his prison cell of a sudden heart attack. They stonewalled international demands for information about his fate, and rejected allegations that Wallenberg could have lived as a prisoner under a different identify as late as the 1980s.
Prokopenko said that in the fall of 1991, on an inspection tour of the main KGB archive in a tightly guarded facility outside Moscow, he came across a hefty dossier on Count Mikhail Tolstoy-Kutuzov, a Russian aristocrat who left Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and worked alongside Wallenberg in Budapest.
Prokopenko said that he only had a few minutes to peek at the dossier, but he saw Wallenberg's name mentioned repeatedly in what appeared to be Tolstoy-Kutuzov's reports to his handlers in Soviet intelligence.
"I realized that he was following every step Wallenberg made," Prokopenko said.
Prokopenko was fired just over a year later and deprived of his access to the archives ? a move Prokopenko attributes to his efforts to reveal secret Soviet archives to the public.
He said he advised Guy von Dardel, Wallenberg's half-brother who spent years searching for clues to his fate, to ask the KGB successor agency for permission to see the files on Tolstoy-Kutuzov. They turned him down, saying that no such files existed.
When von Dardel said that he knew from Prokopenko that this wasn't true, officials asked him to come back in a few days and handed him a dossier that contained only a few pages lacking any reference to Wallenberg.
Prokopenko said that Stalin's secret police possibly suspected Wallenberg of being involved in secret contacts between the Western allies and the Nazis and were eager to learn about his connections.
Wallenberg had been recruited for his rescue mission in Budapest by a U.S. intelligence agent, with Swedish government approval, on behalf of the War Refugee Board created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But he is not known to have been engaged in intelligence-gathering.
Susanne Berger, a German researcher who advised a Swedish-Russian working group that conducted a 10-year investigation that ended in 2001, backs Prokopenko's view that the Soviets likely saw Wallenberg as a valuable source of intelligence.
"The Soviet leadership was particularly paranoid about what it perceived as a possible Anglo-American conspiracy against Soviet interests," she said in e-mailed comments.
Berger added that Stalin might have hoped to use Wallenberg for future bargaining with the West.
"The most likely reason for Stalin to arrest Raoul Wallenberg would have been to use him as some kind of 'asset,' to bargain or negotiate for," Berger said. "Stalin may have felt that with Raoul Wallenberg, scion of a powerful Western business family, he held a rather interesting bargaining chip."
The former archivist said KGB officers privately told him that Wallenberg was killed because his refusal to cooperate made him a liability. "They couldn't have set him free, they would have needed to liquidate him," Prokopenko said.
The chief of the archives of the FSB, the main KGB successor agency, admitted in a rare interview with the AP in September that the Soviet version that Wallenberg died of a heart attack could have been fabricated and that his captors may have "helped him die." Lt. Gen. Vasily Khristoforov said that all documents related to Wallenberg likely had been destroyed back in the 1950s and denied that his agency was withholding any information related to his case.
Prokopenko, who headed the Special Archive containing documents from 20 European countries in the waning years of the Soviet Union, allowed researchers working for an international commission investigating Wallenberg's fate to search for clues to Wallenberg's fate amid Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's openness campaign.
They quickly found a document on Wallenberg's transfer from one Soviet prison to another, but the KGB immediately learned of the effort and ordered them out.
Prokopenko lost his job soon afterward, but continued his work to open the archives under the government of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia until he lost his post of the deputy chief of the Russian state archive agency in early 1993.
Muscling in on MSPublic release date: 26-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Muscle endurance tests can detect abnormalities in the early stages of multiple sclerosis, Tel Aviv University researchers say
Multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurodegenerative disease, causes periodic attacks of neurologic symptoms such as limb weakness and mobility defects. And while MS patients' walking abilities and muscle strength are examined on a regular basis, doctors have yet to determine when the lower limb muscles begin to deteriorate. That's important because with earlier identification of mobility problems, doctors would be able to implement early intervention programs that could make all the difference for those with MS.
Now, Dr. Alon Kalron and his fellow researchers from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Multiple Sclerosis Centre in Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, have discovered that specific laboratory tests for leg muscle endurance and gait the pattern of movement while walking or running are highly effective in identifying mobility deficits at the initial stage of MS. These deficits are difficult to discover during standard neurological testing.
According to Dr. Kalron, who was supervised by Profs. Anat Achiron and Zeevi Dvir, patients in the early stages of MS had 40 percent less muscle endurance compared to their healthy counterparts. Additionally, distinct abnormalities were observed in their walking patterns. The study, which was published in the Journal of Neurologic Physiotherapy, could help researchers understand the mechanisms underlying the evolution of MS, and improve the management of patients afflicted with the disease.
One step at a time
Reduced muscle endurance may be one of the earliest signs of MS and is a common complaint among patients, but it is hard to detect, says Dr. Kalron. In order to quantify muscle fatigue, the researchers conducted a study that included 52 patients in the early stage of MS, and a control group of 28 healthy subjects.
Participants were examined using an isokinetic dynamometer, a special instrument for measuring lower limb muscle strength and endurance. They were asked to attempt to bend or straighten a knee exerting maximum effort, and maintain this position for 30 seconds. Muscle fatigue was calculated by measuring the decline in muscle strength during that period. On average, those in the early stages of MS were not able to maintain their strength they demonstrated 40 percent less endurance compared to the healthy control group.
In addition, patients' gait was observed for factors such as how far a patient spreads his legs while walking, the length of their steps, and symmetry of movement. By examining walking patterns, the researchers discovered specific abnormalities in the MS group. Patients in the early stages of MS "tend to walk with a wider base, because walking with your legs further apart helps to improve stability. It's probably a compensation strategy due to the lower muscle endurance," explains Dr. Kalron. The participants in the MS group also walked more slowly, in an asymmetrical pattern with shorter steps.
Giving physical therapy a head start
Clinicians should be more aware of possible gait and lower limb muscle deficits very early in the disease process, especially because minor impairments are difficult to detect with regular neurological examinations. "The downside of detecting such deficits using advanced instruments is offset by the positive potential of early intervention programs," suggests Dr. Kalron. "If we find the abnormalities earlier, then we can start intervention programs when they have a chance to benefit the most." Programs based around physical therapy and fitness can help MS patients maintain higher levels of muscle endurance and improve balance, holding off the fatigue that typically accompanies the disease.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University (www.aftau.org) supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Muscling in on MSPublic release date: 26-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Muscle endurance tests can detect abnormalities in the early stages of multiple sclerosis, Tel Aviv University researchers say
Multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurodegenerative disease, causes periodic attacks of neurologic symptoms such as limb weakness and mobility defects. And while MS patients' walking abilities and muscle strength are examined on a regular basis, doctors have yet to determine when the lower limb muscles begin to deteriorate. That's important because with earlier identification of mobility problems, doctors would be able to implement early intervention programs that could make all the difference for those with MS.
Now, Dr. Alon Kalron and his fellow researchers from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Multiple Sclerosis Centre in Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, have discovered that specific laboratory tests for leg muscle endurance and gait the pattern of movement while walking or running are highly effective in identifying mobility deficits at the initial stage of MS. These deficits are difficult to discover during standard neurological testing.
According to Dr. Kalron, who was supervised by Profs. Anat Achiron and Zeevi Dvir, patients in the early stages of MS had 40 percent less muscle endurance compared to their healthy counterparts. Additionally, distinct abnormalities were observed in their walking patterns. The study, which was published in the Journal of Neurologic Physiotherapy, could help researchers understand the mechanisms underlying the evolution of MS, and improve the management of patients afflicted with the disease.
One step at a time
Reduced muscle endurance may be one of the earliest signs of MS and is a common complaint among patients, but it is hard to detect, says Dr. Kalron. In order to quantify muscle fatigue, the researchers conducted a study that included 52 patients in the early stage of MS, and a control group of 28 healthy subjects.
Participants were examined using an isokinetic dynamometer, a special instrument for measuring lower limb muscle strength and endurance. They were asked to attempt to bend or straighten a knee exerting maximum effort, and maintain this position for 30 seconds. Muscle fatigue was calculated by measuring the decline in muscle strength during that period. On average, those in the early stages of MS were not able to maintain their strength they demonstrated 40 percent less endurance compared to the healthy control group.
In addition, patients' gait was observed for factors such as how far a patient spreads his legs while walking, the length of their steps, and symmetry of movement. By examining walking patterns, the researchers discovered specific abnormalities in the MS group. Patients in the early stages of MS "tend to walk with a wider base, because walking with your legs further apart helps to improve stability. It's probably a compensation strategy due to the lower muscle endurance," explains Dr. Kalron. The participants in the MS group also walked more slowly, in an asymmetrical pattern with shorter steps.
Giving physical therapy a head start
Clinicians should be more aware of possible gait and lower limb muscle deficits very early in the disease process, especially because minor impairments are difficult to detect with regular neurological examinations. "The downside of detecting such deficits using advanced instruments is offset by the positive potential of early intervention programs," suggests Dr. Kalron. "If we find the abnormalities earlier, then we can start intervention programs when they have a chance to benefit the most." Programs based around physical therapy and fitness can help MS patients maintain higher levels of muscle endurance and improve balance, holding off the fatigue that typically accompanies the disease.
###
American Friends of Tel Aviv University (www.aftau.org) supports Israel's leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of higher learning. Independently ranked 94th among the world's top universities for the impact of its research, TAU's innovations and discoveries are cited more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Small businesses and homeowners in Japan sold an amazing 2,150 gigawatt hours of solar energy back to utilities last year ? a figure that shows a fifty percent increase since 2010. The surge in solar is thanks to a plan by the Japanese government to push the private installation of solar panels to power homes and feed the grid. Japan?s 10 regional power companies spent a whopping $1.2 billion purchasing the clean energy from consumers this year.
After the Fukushima nuclear crisis last year and the ongoing issues that have arisen because of it, Japan has set to work on changing their energy policy to rely less heavily on nuclear power generation. In 2010, power companies bought just 1,400 gigawatt hours of surplus solar energy, so it seems the government?s push is working.
For now power companies pay 61 cents (48 yen) per kilowatt-hour of energy purchased from an owner with fewer than 10 kilowatts and 30 cents (24 cents) for owners of larger arrays. The pricing scheme is set to change in July, but the panel of experts who will rework the system has not yet been assembled. There has been talk of power companies only being required to buy power back from smaller arrays, but for now nothing is set in stone ? and small Japanese solar power plants are sending green energy into the grid and getting a nice paycheck in return.
BRUSSELS ? Europe and private investors were gearing up for tough negotiations on how to cut Greece's massive debt Tuesday, after the finance ministers adopted a tough stance on how much rescue money they would pump into the Greek economy.
On the front line of Europe's sovereign debt crisis, Athens is trying to get its private creditors ? banks and other investment firms ? to swap their Greek government bonds for new ones with half their face value, thereby slicing some euro100 billion ($130 billion) off its debt. The new bonds would also push the repayment deadlines 20 to 30 years into the future.
However, the main stumbling block over the past few weeks to securing this deal has been the interest rate these new bonds would carry. A high interest rate could buffer losses for investors, but would also require the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to put up more than the euro130 billion in rescue loans they promised in late October.
In the early hours of Tuesday, politicians representing the 17 countries that use the euro as their currency drew a firm line on the Greek debt restructuring.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chaired a meeting of finance ministers on efforts to fight the crisis, said the average interest rate over the lifetime of the new Greek bonds must "clearly below 4 percent," with an average rate of less than 3.5 percent for the period until 2020 ? far below the 4 percent demanded by the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading the negotiations for the private bondholders.
The caps on the interest rates underline that the eurozone and the IMF are unwilling to increase new rescue loans above the promised euro130 billion, even though Greece's economic situation has deteriorated. After already granting Greece a euro110 billion bailout in May 2010, the eurozone and the IMF are threatening to withhold further funding for the country, which has repeatedly failed to hit budget and reform targets required in return for the financial aid.
The interest rate caps will also seriously test the willingness of private bondholders to agree to a debt deal voluntarily. IIF head Charles Dallara over the weekend had characterized the bondholders' most recent offer as the best possible, adding that lower interest rates would not be acceptable for private bondholders.
But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissed Dallara's statements as a normal part of difficult negotiations. "We continue the negotiations (with investors) as happily, but also as little susceptible to blackmail as possible," he told reporters. "That exists in every bazaar ? a final offer ? one shouldn't let oneself be overly impressed by that."
The alternative to a voluntary deal would be to force losses on to investors ? a move that the eurozone has so far been unwilling to make. Some officials fear that a forced default could trigger panic on financial markets and hurt bigger countries like Italy, Spain or even France.
But several ministers indicated that they might be willing to accept a forced default if it puts Athens in a position where it can eventually repay its remaining debt ? including the rescue loans from the eurozone and the IMF. The eurozone has said that Greece's debt is sustainable if it falls to some 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020. Without a restructuring it would reach close to 200 percent by the end of the year.
They put the onus to reach that level not only the private creditors but also on Greece's reform and austerity efforts.
"Greece and the banks have to do more in order to reach a sustainable debt level," Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager told reporters as he arrived for a second day of meetings with his European counterparts. "We have to await the discussions about that because a sustainable debt level is absolutely a precondition for the next (rescue) program."
Schaeuble also insisted that firm support for new austerity measures from all major Greek parties ? also after elections expected in April ? was a precondition for a new bailout.
"Whatever needs to happen we can only do if its independent from the elections in Greece," he said.
Greek stocks dropped Tuesday, shedding a collective 3 percent one day after optimism on the debt writedown deal sparked a 5 percent rally.
Meanwhile, updated budget execution figures released by the Greek Finance Ministry showed that despite massive spending cuts, the country's fiscal deficit for 2011 was actually higher than in 2010.
Last year's fiscal deficit hit euro21.72 billion ($28.27 billion) ? euro270 million ($350 million) more than in 2010.
Revenues were euro910 million ($1.18 billion) below target, but the ministry said this was offset by higher-than-anticipated spending cuts of euro896 million ($1.16 billion).
These figures are on a cash basis, and exclude some categories of spending taken into account in calculating the final budget deficit for 2011 ? which Greece has pledged to cut to about euro20 billion ($26 billion).
__
Nicolas Paphitis in Athens, Greece, contributed to this story.
Cytori's APOLLO trial demonstrated safety and feasibility and improvements in cardiac function
San Diego Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CYTX) announced today the publication of previously reported six-month outcomes from APOLLO, the Company's European clinical trial evaluating adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attack or AMI), as Research Correspondence in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The APOLLO trial was a 14-patient, prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, feasibility trial (Phase I/IIA) evaluating autologous ADRCs extracted with the Company's proprietary Celution System for the treatment of patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction.
In the APOLLO trial all patients were treated with standard-of-care and subsequently underwent an abdominal liposuction. Each patient's adipose tissue was processed by the Celution System where ADRCs were extracted, washed and concentrated into a syringe of clinical grade cells. Within 36 hours of the myocardial infarction and no longer than 24 hours after undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, patients received an injection of either 20 million ADRCs (n=10) or a placebo (n=4).
The publication reported:
Safety
The procedure could be safely performed in an acute setting
No side effects from ADRC delivery, processed using Celution
No increase in arrhythmias
Feasibility
Improvement in cardiac function by SPECT
Improvement in blood flow into the heart muscle (perfusion defect)
Reduction in scar formation (infarct size)
"Based on both the six and 18-month outcomes, which showed continued safety and sustained long-term benefits, we initiated ADVANCE, a pivotal, prospective, randomized, double-blind, European heart attack trial in up to 360 patients," said Christopher J. Calhoun, CEO for Cytori. "The goal of our ADRC therapy is to reduce scarring, preserve heart muscle beyond what can be salvaged with current treatments, minimize harmful remodeling, and ultimately protect patients from advancing into heart failure."
The publication, co-authored by trial investigators Drs. Henricus J. Duckers, Patrick W. Serruys, Jaco H. Houtgraaf at Thoraxcenter, Erasmus University Hospital and others, reported the following:
The percentage of left ventricle (LV) infarcted was reduced by 52% (31.6 5.3% to 15.3 2.6% at six-month follow-up, p=0.002) in the ADRC-treated patients, as opposed to no change in the placebo-treated AMI patients (24.7 9.2 % vs. 24.7 4.1%). The difference between the groups was not statistically significant.
There was a significant improvement of the perfusion defect in ADRC-treated patients from 16.9 2.1% to 10.9 2.4% at six-month follow-up (change of 6.0%, p=0.004) as compared to a deterioration in the placebo group by 1.8% (15.0 4.9% to 16.8 4.3%).
Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), measured by SPECT, improved with an absolute difference of +5.7% (p=0.114). In ADRC treated patients, LVEF improved by 4% (52.1% to 56.1%), as compared to a deterioration of 1.7% in the placebo group (52.0% to 50.3%).
"The advantage of adipose tissue as a cell source is that it allows physicians to get a meaningful dose of a patient's own cells at the point-of-care when using the Celution System without cell culture or use of donor cells," said Dr. Duckers, lead author of the paper. "We believe delivering cells within the first 24 to 36 hours takes advantage of the body's signaling and initiates the repair process before irreparable damage occurs."
Cytori is currently preparing the full 18 month data set for publication.
###
About Cytori
Cytori is a leader in providing patients and physicians around the world with medical technologies that harness the potential of adult regenerative cells from adipose tissue. The Celution System family of medical devices and instruments is being sold into the European and Asian cosmetic and reconstructive surgery markets but is not yet available in the United States. Our StemSource product line is sold globally for cell banking and research applications. Our PureGraft products are available in North America and Europe for fat grafting procedures. www.cytori.com
This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding events, trends, business prospects and particularly relating to mechanisms and effectiveness of our ADRC therapy and our APOLLO and ADVANCE clinical trial, which may affect our future operating results and financial position. Such statements, including, but not limited to, those regarding improvements in patient outcomes, the significance of the physiological and functional effects from the pilot APOLLO trial, and the mechanisms and effectiveness of the design of the ADVANCE trial, are all subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the results of the more comprehensive ADVANCE trial to differ materially from those presented above. Some of these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the statistical power of the APOLLO trial, the inherent risk and uncertainty in the costs and potential variability of outcomes of a pivotal heart attack trial, uncertainties regarding the collection and results of clinical data, and dependence on third party performance, as well as other risks and uncertainties described under the "Risk Factors" in Cytori's Securities and Exchange Commission Filings on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. We assume no responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events, trends or circumstances after the date they are made.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Adipose stem cell heart attack trial data published in JACCPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Cytori's APOLLO trial demonstrated safety and feasibility and improvements in cardiac function
San Diego Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CYTX) announced today the publication of previously reported six-month outcomes from APOLLO, the Company's European clinical trial evaluating adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attack or AMI), as Research Correspondence in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The APOLLO trial was a 14-patient, prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, feasibility trial (Phase I/IIA) evaluating autologous ADRCs extracted with the Company's proprietary Celution System for the treatment of patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction.
In the APOLLO trial all patients were treated with standard-of-care and subsequently underwent an abdominal liposuction. Each patient's adipose tissue was processed by the Celution System where ADRCs were extracted, washed and concentrated into a syringe of clinical grade cells. Within 36 hours of the myocardial infarction and no longer than 24 hours after undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, patients received an injection of either 20 million ADRCs (n=10) or a placebo (n=4).
The publication reported:
Safety
The procedure could be safely performed in an acute setting
No side effects from ADRC delivery, processed using Celution
No increase in arrhythmias
Feasibility
Improvement in cardiac function by SPECT
Improvement in blood flow into the heart muscle (perfusion defect)
Reduction in scar formation (infarct size)
"Based on both the six and 18-month outcomes, which showed continued safety and sustained long-term benefits, we initiated ADVANCE, a pivotal, prospective, randomized, double-blind, European heart attack trial in up to 360 patients," said Christopher J. Calhoun, CEO for Cytori. "The goal of our ADRC therapy is to reduce scarring, preserve heart muscle beyond what can be salvaged with current treatments, minimize harmful remodeling, and ultimately protect patients from advancing into heart failure."
The publication, co-authored by trial investigators Drs. Henricus J. Duckers, Patrick W. Serruys, Jaco H. Houtgraaf at Thoraxcenter, Erasmus University Hospital and others, reported the following:
The percentage of left ventricle (LV) infarcted was reduced by 52% (31.6 5.3% to 15.3 2.6% at six-month follow-up, p=0.002) in the ADRC-treated patients, as opposed to no change in the placebo-treated AMI patients (24.7 9.2 % vs. 24.7 4.1%). The difference between the groups was not statistically significant.
There was a significant improvement of the perfusion defect in ADRC-treated patients from 16.9 2.1% to 10.9 2.4% at six-month follow-up (change of 6.0%, p=0.004) as compared to a deterioration in the placebo group by 1.8% (15.0 4.9% to 16.8 4.3%).
Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), measured by SPECT, improved with an absolute difference of +5.7% (p=0.114). In ADRC treated patients, LVEF improved by 4% (52.1% to 56.1%), as compared to a deterioration of 1.7% in the placebo group (52.0% to 50.3%).
"The advantage of adipose tissue as a cell source is that it allows physicians to get a meaningful dose of a patient's own cells at the point-of-care when using the Celution System without cell culture or use of donor cells," said Dr. Duckers, lead author of the paper. "We believe delivering cells within the first 24 to 36 hours takes advantage of the body's signaling and initiates the repair process before irreparable damage occurs."
Cytori is currently preparing the full 18 month data set for publication.
###
About Cytori
Cytori is a leader in providing patients and physicians around the world with medical technologies that harness the potential of adult regenerative cells from adipose tissue. The Celution System family of medical devices and instruments is being sold into the European and Asian cosmetic and reconstructive surgery markets but is not yet available in the United States. Our StemSource product line is sold globally for cell banking and research applications. Our PureGraft products are available in North America and Europe for fat grafting procedures. www.cytori.com
This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding events, trends, business prospects and particularly relating to mechanisms and effectiveness of our ADRC therapy and our APOLLO and ADVANCE clinical trial, which may affect our future operating results and financial position. Such statements, including, but not limited to, those regarding improvements in patient outcomes, the significance of the physiological and functional effects from the pilot APOLLO trial, and the mechanisms and effectiveness of the design of the ADVANCE trial, are all subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the results of the more comprehensive ADVANCE trial to differ materially from those presented above. Some of these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the statistical power of the APOLLO trial, the inherent risk and uncertainty in the costs and potential variability of outcomes of a pivotal heart attack trial, uncertainties regarding the collection and results of clinical data, and dependence on third party performance, as well as other risks and uncertainties described under the "Risk Factors" in Cytori's Securities and Exchange Commission Filings on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. We assume no responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events, trends or circumstances after the date they are made.
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This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)
This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)
This video image provided by the Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, walking. Giffords announced Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)
PHOENIX (AP) ? In part, the short video has the feel of a campaign ad: the strains of soft music, the iconic snapshots of rugged Arizona desert, the candidate earnestly engaged with her constituents.
Interspersed with the slick montage of photos and sound, though, is a video close-up of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gazing directly at the camera, offering not a campaign promise but a goodbye, a thank-you message to her supporters in a voice that is both firm and halting.
"I have more work to do on my recovery," the congresswoman says at the end of the two-minute-long "A Message from Gabby," appearing to strain with all of her will to communicate. "So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."
Arizonans had to know in their hearts that this day was coming.
A bullet to the brain, from point-blank range, is a nearly impossible obstacle to overcome, even for a congresswoman known for pluckiness and fight. Giffords seemed to accept that reality in the video announcing her resignation from Congress, which also included a promise to return one day to her mission to help Arizonans.
The clip, posted to YouTube and on her Facebook page, pastes together 13 sentences into a fluid announcement. Giffords wears a bright red jacket eerily similar to the one she was wearing a year ago when she was nearly assassinated. She looks straight into the camera, almost begging the viewer to listen.
But the video also includes images of the 41-year-old struggling at rehab and walking along a leafy street with husband Mark Kelly with an obvious limp. And Giffords acknowledges that, at least for now, she isn't up to taking on a re-election challenge.
The announcement sets off not one but two election cycles to replace her. The first will be a special primary election that Gov. Jan Brewer must call sometime in April, with a general election in June to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term.
The second cycle will concern the regular full two-year term, with the primary scheduled for August and the general election in November.
In between, the 8th Congressional District that Giffords currently represents will change under redistricting. It will be remapped to cover most of the current district but renumbered as the 2nd Congressional District.
"We've got someone that's going to move in, hold that seat for the remainder of her (term,) and then we'll have people out there ? probably at the same time ? running for that seat ... with different lines," Brewer said. "So it will confuse some people."
Brewer said she spoke with Kelly before the announcement and understood the decision. "...As her husband said, they have sat, and they have discussed this, and that it would be the best thing for her and for her recovery," Brewer said. "And I indicated on the telephone with him that knowing Gabby and what she has accomplished in this last year in her recovery, who knows what's going to happen in the next two years."
The announcement came just over a year after a gunman opened fire at Jan. 8, 2011, meeting with constituents in front of a Tucson grocery store. Six people were killed, and Giffords and 12 others wounded.
Giffords' office said she will return to Tucson Monday to complete the meet-and-greet political event that erupted in the shooting. Among those attending will be some of the wounded, those who helped them and those who subdued the gunman.
At the time of the shooting, the Democrat had just eked out a razor-thin victory against a tea party candidate in her conservative-leaning district. She won a third term with less than 1 percent margin.
Many in Arizona believed she would be handed an easy victory if she chose to seek another term this year. But Giffords elected not to try.
"A lot has happened over the past year. We cannot change that," she said.
For days after the shooting, it was touch and go. A huge memorial grew in front of the Tucson hospital where she was fighting for her life.
Then, almost miraculously, just two weeks after she was shot, she was whisked off in a jet to a rehabilitation hospital in her astronaut husband's hometown of Houston.
Months of rehab began, with Giffords struggling to learn how to walk and talk again. Just over four months after she was shot, she flew to Florida to watch Kelly, an astronaut, pilot the nation's next-to-last space shuttle mission.
But she remained out of view.
Slowly, in carefully choreographed bits, she began to emerge. The first photos in June. Her surprise August appearance in Congress to vote to raise the federal debt limit. The first halting TV shots, just a few words at a time, then a more complex recording released in November.
Sunday's recording was slightly more elaborate, but it was not a campaign Q&A or an appearance before a tough interviewer.
She's clearly not yet ready for another run for Congress. But she said in Sunday's video that she's not done yet, an assessment that she shared with a small group of supporters in Tucson just hours after her announcement Sunday.
Jim Woodbrey, who was part of that group and a state Democratic Party official, called the meeting "very tough."
"It was Gabby's individual decision, and she was not in any condition to make that decision five months ago," said Woodbrey, a senior vice chairman of the state party.
And the congresswoman said in the video that she was getting better.
"Every day my spirit is high. I will return, and we will work together for Arizona and this great country," she said.
Wind, nuclear, and coal all look expensive compared to natural gas generation.
Over at Bloomberg, Julie Johnsson and Mark Chediak document how low natural gas prices are reshaping?electricity markets. Wind, nuclear, and coal all look expensive compared to natural gas generation:
Skip to next paragraph Donald Marron
Donald B. Marron is director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He previously served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.
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With abundant new supplies of gas making it the cheapest option for new power generation, the largest U.S. wind-energy producer, NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE), has shelved plans for new U.S. wind projects next year and Exelon Corp. (EXC) called off plans to expand two nuclear plants. Michigan utility CMS Energy Corp. (CMS) canceled a $2 billion coal plant after deciding it wasn?t financially viable in a time of ?low natural-gas prices linked to expanded shale-gas supplies,? according to a company statement.
Mirroring the gas market, wholesale electricity prices have dropped more than 50 percent on average since 2008, and about 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a Jan. 11 research report by Aneesh Prabhu, a New York-based credit analyst with Standard & Poor?s Financial Services LLC. Prices in the west hub of PJM Interconnection LLC, the largest wholesale market in the U.S., declined to about $39 per megawatt hour by December 2011 from $87 in the first quarter of 2008.
Power producers? profits are deflated by cheap gas because electricity pricing historically has been linked to the gas market. As profit margins shrink from falling prices, more generators are expected to postpone or abandon coal, nuclear and wind projects, decisions that may slow the shift to cleaner forms of energy and shape the industry for decades to come, Mark Pruitt, a Chicago-based independent industry consultant, said in a telephone interview.
The hard question, of course, is whether low natural gas prices will persist, particularly if everyone decides to rush into gas-fired generation:
?The way to make $4 gas $8 gas is for everyone to go out and build combined-cycle natural-gas plants,? Michael Morris, non-executive chairman of American Electric Power (AEP) Inc., said at an industry conference in November. ?We need to be cautious about how we go about this.?
The whole article is worth a read if you follow these issues. (ht: Jack B.)
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on dmarron.com.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) ? A new insight into the impact that warmer temperatures could have across the world has been uncovered by scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.
The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology on January 20, found that the impact of global warming could be similar across ecosystems, regardless of local environmental conditions and species.
The team, based at Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, went to Iceland to study a set of geothermally-heated streams.
The streams provided scientists with a unique environment to conduct their research; they were able to isolate the effects of temperature from other confounding variables found in nature.
Lead author, Queen Mary's Dr Daniel Perkins, explains: "The streams in Iceland are all very similar, in terms of their physical and chemical environment, but maintain very different temperatures to each other all year round.
"This enabled us to explore how temperature, both past and present, affects the rate at which respiration responds to temperature in ecosystems."
Dr Perkins said that when the team exposed the organisms found in streams to a range of temperatures "the rate at which carbon was respired increased with temperature as expected, but surprisingly, rate of increase was consistent across streams which differed in average temperature by as much as 20?C."
Co-author Dr Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, also from Queen Mary, said: "Our findings demonstrate that the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of respiration is the same across a diverse range of organisms, adapted to markedly different temperatures. This result is important because it will help us build more accurate models to predict how rates of carbon dioxide emission from ecosystem will respond to the temperature increases forecast in the coming decades."
Dr Yvon-Durocher concludes: "Our results shed light on the temperature sensitivity of respiration over time scales of days to weeks, real differences between ecosystems may be apparent over longer time scales (e.g. years to decades), and progress in understanding these long-term responses will be key to predicting the future feedbacks between ecosystems and the climate."
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Journal Reference:
Daniel M. Perkins, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Beno?t O.L. Demars, Julia Reiss, Doris E. Pichler, Nikolai Friberg, Mark Trimmer, Guy Woodward. Consistent temperature dependence of respiration across ecosystems contrasting in thermal history. Global Change Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02597.x
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.
Like all of y'all I just read Paul Graham's SOPA-soaked call for a tech startup that would kill Hollywood. ?You would have to be a complete idiot to think Hollywood (or at least some part of Hollywood) isn't ripe for disruption BUT ... "The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise."
GAZA (Reuters) ? The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas urged President Mahmoud Abbas Friday to suspend exploratory peace talks with Israel following Israel's arrest of two Hamas legislators, and to stop his cooperation on West Bank security with the Israelis.
Hamas' Gaza Strip leader Ismail Haniyeh, recently back from a tour of Arab states, praised the rise of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world and predicted "black days" for Israel "because the nations know their path now."
Israeli soldiers Thursday arrested senior Hamas official Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian parliament, on suspicion of involvement with terrorist groups, and detained another lawmaker of the group from Bethlehem, Khaled Tafish.
Hamas said Dweik was taken into custody at a checkpoint near the city of Ramallah. It accused Israel of trying to undermine moves by Abbas and Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal to end four years of bitter rivalry and unite the two main Palestinian factions.
Haniyeh, speaking at a Gaza mosque after Friday prayers, said Abbas should call off meetings with Israeli negotiators in Jordan which are aimed at reviving peace negotiations suspended 15 months ago.
"The pointless and failed meetings should stop. These failed experiences should stop," he said. "A Palestinian should not shake the hand of his enemy, the enemy who arrests the symbols of Palestinian legitimacy."
"We want to see something in the West Bank. We want to see the prisoners freed. We want to see the security coordination with the (Israeli) occupation stopped," Haniyeh said.
"Palestinian reconciliation and security cooperation with the occupation are two parallel lines that cannot meet."
SEND A MESSAGE
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement during a brief civil war in 2007. The Palestinian legislative council has been effectively mothballed ever since.
Hamas and Fatah agreed to bury the hatchet and end their hostility with a reconciliation deal last year, but it has yet to be implemented in deed or in spirit.
Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist group opposed to peace and committed to violence to destroy what it calls the "Zionist entity." Israel has warned that a Palestinian unity government which includes Hamas would end peace hopes.
Hamas deputy speaker Ahmed Bahar said Israel's detention of Dweik was intended to prevent Palestinian unity.
"What happened requires Mr Mahmoud Abbas to declare an immediate stop to the negotiations in Amman in respect of our people and in respect of the parliament and its head," Bahar told reporters in Gaza.
"It should be a firm message to the occupation that their continued crimes will not be give cover by the Palestinian Authority and will not pass without a response," Bahar said.
There was no immediate comment from Abbas's office.
(Reporting by Nidal Almughrabi. Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Tim Pearce)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States deputy Treasury secretary and deputy secretary of State will travel to Israel, the West Bank and Tunisia next week to discuss diplomatic and economic relations, the Treasury Department said on Friday.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin and Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides will meet with senior government officials and members of the business community in Israel and the West Bank on January 23-24.
The two U.S. officials will then travel to Tunisia on January25 to accelerate efforts to strengthen the country's economy and further support its democratic transition.
The Obama administration has promised to help the region since uprisings in Tunisia ended the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali one year ago.
The meeting will focus on Tunisia's new government commitments to advance economic reforms, according to the Treasury.
(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Dan Grebler)
(Reuters) ? Signs of improvement in the economy and gains from asset sales helped Bank of America Corp post a quarterly profit, sending its shares higher on Thursday, but the second-largest U.S. bank still needs more capital and with little left to sell, it is becoming creative.
Bank of America said it was considering issuing $1 billion in common stock to certain employees in lieu of a portion of their year-end cash bonuses next month.
The move, a large stock issue to effectively captive investors -- its employees -- could further pad the bank's capital levels, but at the same time dilute shareholders' interest and may stir discontent among some bankers.
Investors, however, seemed to shrug aside such fears and focus instead on Chief Executive Brian Moynihan's success so far in building up capital levels and fixing the bank's problems.
The fourth-quarter profit after a year-ago loss, improving loan demand and better credit quality, all helped buoy Bank of America's shares, which rose 5.7 percent to $7.19 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
"Bank of America looks like it's making good progress on the capital build-up," said Derek Pilecki of Gator Capital Management in Tampa, Florida. "It's a work in progress with expense cuts continuing. They have to issue stock to make capital targets, but the dilution isn't overwhelming."
Bank of America was still trying to recover fully from the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and a disastrous acquisition of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial that has saddled the company with losses.
Moynihan is working to show Bank of America has enough capital to absorb these mortgage-related losses and to meet new international capital standards. Over the past two years, he has been shedding noncore businesses to boost capital levels and streamline the company.
Last spring, Bank of America launched a wide-ranging efficiency program called Project New BAC, which is expected to eliminate 30,000 jobs in its first phase over the next few years.
On a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Thompson said the bank should start to see the benefits of job cuts in first quarter expenses.
"We enter 2012 stronger and more efficient after two years of simplifying and streamlining our company," Moynihan said in a statement. "We built our capital ratios to record levels during 2011 on the strength of our core businesses and by shedding those that are not core to serving customers and clients."
Bank of America said its Tier 1 common equity ratio, a key measure of capital against risk-weighted assets, reached 9.86 percent at the end of December.
That was up from 8.65 percent at the end of September and higher than the 9.25 percent minimum the bank had projected.
ONE-TIME GAINS
Bank of America said net income applicable to common shareholders was $1.58 billion, or 15 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $1.6 billion, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank benefited from pretax gains of $5.3 billion from the sale of China Construction Bank Corp shares, and gains from the exchange of trust preferred securities and the sale of debt securities.
Various accounting charges and litigation expenses reduced earnings by $3.7 billion.
The bank set aside $2.9 billion in the quarter for loan losses, down from $5.1 billion a year ago. Bank of America, which is working to shed risky assets, also said total loans decreased to $926 billion from $932 billion in the third quarter.
Like rivals Wells Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co and some regional banks, Bank of America reported loan growth in the fourth quarter, potentially boding well for the U.S. economy.
In its corporate bank, average loans and leases increased 29 percent to $107.5 billion, with growth in both U.S. and international commercial loans.
But also like other banks with large investment banking operations, such as Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley, Bank of America was hurt by lackluster trading and investment banking revenue in the fourth quarter as clients roiled by the European debt crisis shunned capital markets and put off deals.
Sales and trading revenue in Bank of America's banking and markets unit increased to $1.9 billion, excluding an accounting charge, from $1.1 billion in the third quarter but was down from $2.4 billion a year ago.
Investment banking fees were flat from the third quarter at $1 billion but down from $1.6 billion a year ago.
Bank of America bulked up its investment banking business with the 2009 purchase of Merrill Lynch.
In December, Moynihan said the bank had seen better results in this business in the fourth quarter after a weak third quarter.
The bank also continued to struggle to show revenue growth at a time of low interest rates and regulatory restrictions on fees earned from debit card transactions.
Total revenue declined to $24.9 billion from $28.5 billion in the third quarter but was up from $22.4 billion a year ago.
The bank said the Durbin amendment, the provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that curbed debit-card swipe fees, decreased card services revenue by $430 million.
"Bank of America had a solid quarter, but not quite enough to make you pop the champagne" said Allerton Smith, senior director at Moody's Analytics.
"Capital ratios are up, liquidity is stronger and there is a noticeable decline in problem loans," Smith said.
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker; Additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Boston and Jed Horowitz in New York; editing by Paritosh Bansal, Maureen Bavdek and John Wallace)
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Public release date: 26-Jan-2012
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Like all of y'all I just read