Monday 31 December 2012

1 seed Falcons lose to Bucs, don't gain momentum

By CHARLES ODUM

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:48 p.m. ET Dec. 30, 2012

ATLANTA (AP) - The Atlanta Falcons are heading to the postseason with some injury concerns.

Josh Freeman threw a touchdown pass to Mike Williams and Doug Martin ran for 142 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown run, in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 22-17 victory over the Falcons, who lost two defensive starters.

The Falcons (13-3) had little to play for as they already have home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs. Coach Mike Smith said he wanted to "finish the regular season the right way," and he stayed with his starters through the game.

But, defensive end John Abraham, Atlanta's best pass rusher, left with an apparent left ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Abraham couldn't put his weight on the ankle as he was helped off the field. Starting cornerback Dunta Robinson suffered a head injury in the first quarter and did not return. His helmet hit Martin on the running back's 3-yard gain. Robinson walked off the field and was escorted to the locker room.

Asked if he considered removing his starters after Abraham's injury, Smith said "absolutely not. We were going to continue to play to win this ballgame."

Smith said he does not believe the injuries to Abraham and Robinson are serious.

The Buccaneers (7-9) snapped a five-game skid for a positive end to a disappointing season. Tampa Bay was 6-4 and in playoff contention before a 24-23 home loss to the Falcons on Nov. 25 started the skid.

Matt Ryan's only touchdown pass was his 7-yard throw to Harry Douglas on a fourth-down play with about 7 minutes remaining to cut Tampa Bay's lead to five points. Atlanta's defense held, and the Falcons took possession at their 19 with 3:44 remaining.

The Falcons gained one first down before Ryan's fourth-down pass for Tony Gonzalez fell incomplete with about 2 minutes remaining.

Ryan completed 28 of 44 passes for 238 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Ryan had difficulty finding open receivers against Tampa Bay's defense, which ranks last in the league against the pass.

Martin capped his strong rookie season with 28 carries for 142 yards. Freeman completed 19 of 35 passes for 222 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Freeman returned to his early season form after throwing four interceptions in each of the last two losses.

The Buccaneers led 16-3 when Asante Samuel intercepted a pass from Freeman late in the third quarter. Samuel's 11-yard return to the Buccaneers 21 set up Michael Turner's 17-yard scoring run for Atlanta's first touchdown.

Tampa Bay answered quickly with an 80-yard touchdown drive capped by Martin's 40-yard run. Martin made a spin move to break a tackle attempt by Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud.

It was difficult for the Falcons to carry through with Smith's stated plan to treat this like any other game. With nothing on the line, there were empty seats in the Georgia Dome and little atmosphere to greet the players out of the tunnel.

The Falcons announced 69,644 tickets were distributed. Many were left unused.

The Falcons' only first-half points came on their second possession. Ryan led the team on a nine-play drive that stalled at the Buccaneers' 10, setting up Matt Bryant's 28-yard field goal.

---

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? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Sunday 16 December 2012

Man fires some 50 shots in California mall parking lot

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? A man was arrested Saturday after firing about 50 shots in the parking lot of a Southern California shopping mall, prompting a lockdown of stores crowded with holiday shoppers.

Marcos Gurrola, 42, of Garden Grove was taken into custody by bicycle police officers patrolling around the open-air Fashion Island mall around 4:30 p.m., police spokeswoman Cathy Lowe said. She said he fired into the air and onto the ground in the parking lot near a Macy's department store.

No one was injured, but the gunfire caused panic, coming a day after a gunman killed 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school, and days after a deadly mall shooting in Oregon.

The mall was crowded with holiday shoppers and the parking lot was full. Witnesses said they ran, screaming and ducking for cover.

"It's a miracle nobody got injured," said Sven Maric, who said he was celebrating his wife's birthday at a restaurant patio about 50 yards away. "The bullets had to land somewhere, and he shot so many."

Lowe says some stores voluntarily closed their doors and kept shoppers inside while police investigated.

Bret McGaughey, 22, of Laguna Beach, said he was with his mom in the Apple store when shoppers ran to the rear of the store as employees locked the front entrance. He estimated that up to 100 people stayed in the back of the store for about 30 minutes until Apple employees announced that police said it was safe to reopen the doors.

Gurrola was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, Lowe said.

There was no telephone listing for Gurrola.

On Tuesday, a gunman at an Oregon shopping mall killed two people and wounded a third amid a holiday crowd estimated at 10,000 people.

Clackamas County authorities are still trying to determine why the gunman opened fire before killing himself.

The suburban Portland mall was closed for two days before reopening on Friday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-fires-50-shots-calif-mall-parking-lot-042034513.html

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Wednesday 28 November 2012

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David Cantone: Emprendedor Online, Internet Marketing & Business ...

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Spending on salaries rises in ailing Swaziland

MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) ? Government officials in Swaziland say salary spending by the government will rise to $528 million, despite the country's weakened economy.

Finance Minister Majozi Sithole said Monday that would be roughly a $23 million increase year-over-year.

The majority of Swaziland's revenues come from customs fees, something economists warn remains an unstable funding source for the tiny nation.

Swaziland, a kingdom enveloped by South Africa, has been struggling with economic problems for more than a year.

Those economic problems have fueled calls for government reform in the southern African country, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy. But the government's brutal response to protests, and reluctance among some tradition-minded Swazis to challenge King Mswati III, have smothered a larger pro-democracy movement

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NewsDaily: Greece, markets satisfied by EU-IMF Greek debt deal

Greece, markets satisfied by EU-IMF Greek debt deal


By Jan Strupczewski
and Luke Baker
Posted 2012/11/27 at 12:18 pm EST

BRUSSELS, Nov. 27, 2012 (Reuters) ? The Greek government and financial markets were cheered on Tuesday by an agreement between euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund to reduce Greece's debt, paving the way for the release of urgently needed aid loans.

A Greek flag flutters in front of the moon in Athens November 26, 2012. REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis


The deal, clinched at the third attempt after weeks of wrangling, removes the biggest risk of a sovereign default in the euro zone for now, ensuring the near-bankrupt country will stay afloat at least until after a 2013 German general election.

"Tomorrow, a new day starts for all Greeks," Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told reporters at 3 a.m. in Athens after staying up to follow the tense Brussels negotiations.

After 12 hours of talks, international lenders agreed on a package of measures to reduce Greek debt by more than 40 billion euros, projected to cut it to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020.

In an additional new promise, ministers committed to taking further steps to lower Greece's debt to "significantly below 110 percent" in 2022.

That was a veiled acknowledgement that some write-off of loans may be necessary in 2016, the point when Greece is forecast to reach a primary budget surplus, although Germany and its northern allies continue to reject such a step publicly.

Analyst Alex White of JP Morgan called it "another moment of ?creative ambiguity' to match the June (EU) Summit deal on legacy bank assets; i.e. a statement from which all sides can take a degree of comfort".

The euro strengthened, European shares climbed to near a three-week high and safe haven German bonds fell on Tuesday, after the agreement to reduce Greek debt and release loans to keep the economy afloat.

"The political will to reward the Greek austerity and reform measures has already been there for a while. Now, this political will has finally been supplemented by financial support," economist Carsten Brzeski of ING said.

PARLIAMENTARY APPROVAL

To reduce the debt pile, ministers agreed to cut the interest rate on official loans, extend the maturity of Greece's loans from the EFSF bailout fund by 15 years to 30 years, and grant a 10-year interest repayment deferral on those loans.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Athens had to come close to achieving a primary surplus, where state income covers its expenditure, excluding the huge debt repayments.

"When Greece has achieved, or is about to achieve, a primary surplus and fulfilled all of its conditions, we will, if need be, consider further measures for the reduction of the total debt," Schaeuble said.

Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said ministers would formally approve the release of a major aid installment needed to recapitalize Greece's teetering banks and enable the government to pay wages, pensions and suppliers on December 13 - after those national parliaments that need to approve the package do so.

The German and Dutch lower houses of parliament and the Grand Committee of the Finnish parliament have to endorse the deal. Losing no time, Schaeuble said he had asked German lawmakers to vote on the package this week.

Greece will receive 43.7 billion euros in four installments once it fulfils all conditions. The 34.4 billion euro December payment will comprise 23.8 billion for banks and 10.6 billion in budget assistance.

The IMF's share, less than a third of the total, will be paid out only once a buy-back of Greek debt has occurred in the coming weeks, but IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the Fund had no intention of pulling out of the program.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann welcomed the deal but said Greece still had a long way to go to get its finances and economy into shape. Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger told reporters the important thing had been keeping the IMF on board.

"It had threatened to go in a direction that the IMF would exit Greek financing. This was averted and this is decisive for us Europeans," he said.

The debt buy-back was the part of the package on which the least detail was disclosed, to try to avoid giving hedge funds an opportunity to push up prices. Officials have previously talked of a 10 billion euro program to buy debt back from private investors at about 35 cents in the euro.

The ministers promised to hand back 11 billion euros in profits accruing to their national central banks from European Central Bank purchases of discounted Greek government bonds in the secondary market.

BETTER FUTURE

The deal substantially reduces the risk of a Greek exit from the single currency area, unless political turmoil were to bring down Samaras's pro-bailout coalition and pass power to radical leftists or rightists.

The biggest opposition party, the hard left SYRIZA, which now leads Samaras's center-right New Democracy in opinion polls, dismissed the deal and said it fell short of what was needed to make Greece's debt affordable.

Greece, where the euro zone's debt crisis erupted in late 2009, is proportionately the currency area's most heavily indebted country, despite a big cut this year in the value of privately-held debt. Its economy has shrunk by nearly 25 percent in five years.

Negotiations had been stalled over how Greece's debt, forecast to peak at 190-200 percent of GDP in the coming two years, could be cut to a more bearable 120 percent by 2020.

The agreed figure fell slightly short of that goal, and the IMF insisted that euro zone ministers should make a firm commitment to further steps to reduce the debt if Athens faithfully implements its budget and reform program.

The main question remains whether Greek debt can become affordable without euro zone governments having to write off some of the loans they have made to Athens.

Germany and its northern European allies have hitherto rejected any idea of forgiving official loans to Athens, but European Union officials believe that line may soften after next September's German general election.

Schaeuble told reporters that it was legally impossible for Germany and other countries to forgive debt while simultaneously giving new loan guarantees. That did not explicitly preclude debt relief at a later stage, once Greece completes its adjustment program and no longer needs new loans.

But senior conservative German lawmaker Gerda Hasselfeldt said there was no legal possibility for a debt "haircut" for Greece in the future either.

At Germany's insistence, earmarked revenue and aid payments will go into a strengthened "segregated account" to ensure that Greece services its debts.

A source familiar with IMF thinking said a loan write-off once Greece has fulfilled its program would be the simplest way to make its debt viable, but other methods such as forgoing interest payments, or lending at below market rates and extending maturities could all help.

German central bank governor Jens Weidmann has suggested that Greece could "earn" a reduction in debt it owes to euro zone governments in a few years if it diligently implements all the agreed reforms. The European Commission backs that view.

The ministers agreed to reduce interest on already extended bilateral loans in stages from the current 150 basis points above financing costs to 50 bps.

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidhardt, Robin Emmott and John O'Donnell in Brussels, Andreas Rinke and Noah Barkin in Berlin, Michael Shields in Vienna; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by David Stamp)

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