Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Leaving Las Vegas: Team Engadget departs CES 2012

CES 2012. It's over, but it'll leave a lasting impression on us all. And by "lasting," we mean "eternal." It'll also go down as the most attended CES ever, with more exhibitors and more product launches than ever before. Engadget as a team hit more news than ever before, covered more hands-ons than ever before and just generally sat in awe at the sheer quantity of news that flowed from the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The trends this year? A fair question, indeed. Truthfully, we didn't spot a single category overshadowing the rest, but it's safe to say that LTE, slimmer-than-slim HDTVs and the promise of Windows 8 tablets kept themselves fresh in our mind. We've assembled an array of wrap-up posts to clue those in who couldn't (or would rather not) keep pace with the absolute torrent of announcements from the event, a boatload of statistics to pore over and a final video from the show.

On a personal note, I had an absolute blast with the team. From our trailer to our stage within the LVCC, from the raucous Unveiled show floor to the background dings and bloops in McCarran International Airport, the past week (and change) has been truly amazing, and getting this many people who are passionate about technology into a single place is a downright magical experience. We're fortunate and humbled to be able to do this, and despite a near-total lack of sleep and some questionable food choices, we're still as jazzed as ever to fight through crowds in order to get the first shots of [insert gizmo here]. From us to you, thanks for sticking through the madness once more, and here's to another amazing year in consumer technology. We couldn't do it without you, and frankly, we wouldn't want to.

So, what's next for us? Well, planning for CES 2013 has already begun, and we'll probably find ourselves at a few Apple events in the near future. Oh, and we'll be bringing you the blow-by-blow from Mobile World Congress in a matter of weeks. We'll sleep, as they say, when we're dead.

Continue reading Leaving Las Vegas: Team Engadget departs CES 2012

Leaving Las Vegas: Team Engadget departs CES 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/16/leaving-las-vegas-team-engadget-departs-ces-2012/

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Nigeria fuel strike ends with soldiers in streets

Protesters run away from tear gas fired by police officers during a demonstration against spiraling fuel prices in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria's two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Protesters run away from tear gas fired by police officers during a demonstration against spiraling fuel prices in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria's two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Protesters run away from tear gas fired by police officers during a demonstration against spiraling fuel prices in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria's two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Angry youths protest and shout slogan in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria's two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

An Army officer stand guard in front of protesters on a major road in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria's two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Angry people protest on a major road in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria's two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

(AP) ? Labor unions ended a crippling nationwide strike Monday in Nigeria after the country's president partially restored subsidies that keep gasoline prices low, though it took soldiers deployed in the streets to stop demonstrations in Africa's most populous nation.

Union leaders claimed a victory for labor, saying this would allow its leaders to guide the country's policy on fuel subsidies in the future. But the newly agreed price of about $2.27 a gallon (60 cents a liter) is still more expensive than the previous price of $1.70 per gallon (45 cents per liter), putting additional economic strain on those living in a nation where most earn less than $2 a day and few see the rewards of being a major oil exporter.

And to force the compromise and stop popular protests, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered soldiers to take over security in the country's major cities, something unseen since the nation abandoned military rule for an uneasy democracy in 1999. The move raises new questions about freedom of speech in a nation where government power still appears absolute.

"This is a clear case of intolerance and shutting of the democratic space against the people of Nigeria which must be condemned by all democracy-loving people around the world," read a statement from the Save Nigeria Group, which has organized massive demonstrations in Lagos.

The six-day strike began after fuel prices more than doubled to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents per liter) following a Jan. 1 decision by Jonathan's administration to end the government-sponsored subsidies. Low gasoline prices, something Nigeria has been accustomed to since 1973, remain one of the only benefits the average Nigerian sees from the nation producing 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. Gasoline also powers the small generators that provide shops and homes electricity in a nation with a failed national power grid.

Many protesters also joined the growing demonstrations to speak out against a culture of government corruption in a nation where lawmakers earn pay packages of $1 million a year and states have budgets larger than neighboring countries. Under the hash-tagged slogan of "Occupy Nigeria," many used social media to criticize the nation's poor roads and failing hospitals amid the excesses of the country's elite.

The government tried to persuade the nation to its side, promising the estimated $8 billion saved a year by ending the subsidies would go toward needed public work projects. That failed to win popular support as tens of thousands joined in protests across the country.

In the last two days, government authorities began warning that provocateurs wanted to exploit the rallies to cause unrest in a nation with a long history of coups.

"It has become clear to government and all well-meaning Nigerians that other interests beyond the implementation of the deregulation policy have hijacked the protest. ... These same interests seek to promote discord, anarchy and insecurity to the detriment of public peace," President Jonathan said in a speech aired Monday morning on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority.

Jonathan gave no further explanation to his remarks. Opposition politicians did sometimes lead demonstrations, but they were not connected to the violence that killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 600 others during strikes.

The Nigeria Labor Congress and the Trade Union Congress told journalists on Monday they chose to abandon the strike "in order to save lives and in the interest of national survival." They previously met with Jonathan late Sunday night, who made the same claims about security concerns.

"We are sure that no government or institution will take Nigerians for granted again," said Abdulwaheed Omar, the president of the Nigeria Labor Congress.

That did not appear the case as soldiers and armored personnel carriers moved in overnight to occupy a park in Lagos where tens of thousands had gathered to protest. Soldiers also took over major highways and road junctions throughout Lagos, home to 15 million people, and in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city.

Labor organizers had urged workers to stay home on Monday after Jonathan's appeal Sunday night. At the Lagos headquarters of the Nigeria Labor Congress, some 50 protesters gathered anyway. Lawyer Bamidele Aturu led the crowd in chants and cheers, comparing the president to military rulers of the past who used soldiers to suppress dissent.

"It's very clear the revolution has begun!" Aturu shouted. However, those gathered looked warily at passing pickup trucks filled with soldiers.

The protesters began to march, passing soldiers who slung their assault rifles over their shoulders, allowing them to walk on. But as they drew closer to the surrounded Lagos park, around 20 soldiers arrived in two pickup trucks to cut them off, with bayonets affixed to their assault rifles. They told the protesters to go back and some of them began to turn around.

Soldiers fired into the air and tear gassed the crowd to disperse it, leaving protesters running through a stinging white cloud as gunshots echoed down the highway.

Meanwhile, authorities also targeted some foreign media outlets in Lagos. Officers of the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police, raided an office compound Monday used by the BBC and CNN, witnesses said. Marilyn Ogar, a secret police spokeswoman, said she had no information about the raid.

Though an oil workers association threatened to cut Nigeria's crude oil production, they held off. Such a shutdown could have shaken oil futures, as Nigeria is the fifth-largest crude supplier to the U.S.

Meanwhile, an offshore rig being run for a Chevron Corp. subsidiary near Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta caught fire and officials tried to account for all the workers there, the oil company said. Chevron spokesman Scott Walker said the fire started early Monday morning. Government officials blamed the fire on an industrial accident.

___

Associated Press writers Bashir Adigun and Lekan Oyekanmi in Abuja, Nigeria; Ibrahim Garba in Kano, Nigeria; and Yinka Ibukun in Lagos contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-16-AF-Nigeria-Fuel-Subsidy/id-200cc23643894757b53560434ae95861

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Majandra Delfino & David Walton Expecting First Child

"We couldn't be more excited - or wildly unprepared," say Walton, 33, and former Roswell star Delfino. "It's going to be fantastic!"

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/In_b4Kz-eaU/

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Huntsman departure a marginal help to Romney in SC

Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, accompanied by his wife Mary Kaye Huntsman, announces he is ending his campaign, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, accompanied by his wife Mary Kaye Huntsman, announces he is ending his campaign, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, accompanied by his family, announces he is ending his campaign, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. From left are, daughters Elizabeth, Mary Anne, Huntsman, his wife Mary Kaye, and daughters, Abby, Gracie. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

GOP Presidential canidate Jon Huntsman waves goodbye to the media after announcing he is withdrawing from the race and backing Mitt Romeny, in a press conference, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/The Sun News, Charles Slate)

Jon Hunstman Sr. watches as his son, Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announces his withdrawal from the race, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

(AP) ? Republican Jon Huntsman's endorsement of Mitt Romney further cements Romney as the favorite in Saturday's pivotal South Carolina primary, adding another name to the list of party figures calling him best able to beat Democratic President Bararck Obama.

However, it leaves Romney's more conservative rivals still fighting with one another to emerge as his strongest challenger. And it prompted at least one backer of Texas Gov. Rick Perry to urge him to quit the race.

Besides offering Romney his support, Huntsman also appealed for civility in a race that has become defined by attack advertisements paid for by anonymous groups.

"At its core, the Republican Party is a party of ideas, but the current toxic form of our political discourse does not help our cause," he said, as televisions and telephones across the state hummed with attack messages.

Huntsman's endorsement offers little in the way of a campaign organization or bankable support to Romney.

But it does add to the sense of inevitability the former Massachusetts governor has worked to portray in a state that has voted for the eventual GOP since 1980 and where he is campaigning with backing from the state's new Gov. Nikki Haley and Arizona Sen. John McCain, winner of the 2008 primary here.

Romney stands a good chance of winning the votes Huntsman would have received. Both tout business backgrounds and are social moderates in a state where social conservatives are an influential bloc. Polls show Romney was most often the second choice of Huntsman backers.

"Certainly, it will help Gov. Romney here, it's just not clear how much," said former state Attorney General Henry McMaster. An early Huntsman supporter, McMaster had not committed to another candidate after Huntsman's announcement.

But Huntsman's leaves unanswered the overriding question of the Republican campaign: whether voters looking for a candidate more conservative than Romney will unite behind Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich or Perry and send a strong challenger to compete against Romney in the Florida primary or beyond.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, dismissed the endorsement during a campaign stop at a Columbia restaurant. "Moderates are backing moderates," he said. "No surprise there."

Gingrich, the former House speaker locked in a bitter battle with Romney, said at an appearance in Myrtle Beach: "Why would you want to nominate the guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama?"

Gingrich also quickly noted late Sunday, as news of Huntsman's decision broke, that a Greenville businesswoman who had supported the former Utah governor was coming over to Gingrich.

Although Huntsman's departure hardly assures Romney of victory in Saturday's primary, it underscored the tension within the party's conservative wing with just five days left for one of them to emerge.

Santorum was the consensus, if not unanimous, choice of a group of national Christian political activists who met over the weekend in a last-ditch effort to rally conservatives.

"I think it's important that we eventually consolidate this race," Santorum said, stopping short of saying pressure was building on Perry to drop out. "That's up to the candidates themselves to decide."

Polls in South Carolina showed Romney in the lead, followed by Gingrich with Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul fighting for third. Perry trailed in single digits.

A few of Perry's backers have begun calling on him to leave the race.

"There are a lot of conservatives who were happy to see him get in and now who would be happy to see him get out," state Rep. Larry Grooms, an early Perry supporter, told The Associated Press. "When conservatives have split in the past, we end up nominating a moderate, and that's not good for our party."

Conservative author Eric Metaxas indirectly suggested Perry should quit the race while speaking at a packed prayer breakfast in Myrtle Beach on Sunday. The night before he had tweeted: "Dear Gov. Perry: Do the right thing for your country; endorse Rick Santorum before the SC Primary next Saturday...you'll wish you had."

Some South Carolina Republicans still rue McCain's narrow 2008 win over the more socially conservative Mike Huckabee, allowed largely by former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson's decision to stay in the race.

Katon Dawson, Perry's South Carolina chairman, resisted the idea that there was a drumbeat for Perry to quit. "I find it sort of offensive that some Republicans would tell us they want to hand pick the candidate before the election," Dawson said.

Ralph Reed, founder of the national Faith and Freedom Coalition, also said he knew of no effort by the conservative leaders who met Saturday in Texas to urge Perry to quit.

"We have never asked any candidate to drop out of the race publicly or privately. And we will not do so," Reed said.

Some evangelical pastors and conservative leaders in Iowa had asked Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann to consider ending her campaign to allow a conservative to emerge. She did not, and Romney edged Santorum in Iowa by a razor-thin eight votes.

With Perry showing no signs of departing, Santorum faces the added burden of a barrage of attack ads by an independent super PAC that supports Romney's campaign.

The group, Restore Our Future, was running almost $900,000 worth of advertising this week, more than any of the candidates' campaigns and all of it against Santorum.

Santorum complained Monday about the ads, which accuse him of having supported earmark spending in Congress and supporting voting rights for felons.

Santorum has defended his support for earmark spending. He said Monday he supports allowing felons who have completed their sentences to apply to have their voting rights restored, a policy that is law in 48 states.

Restore Our Future spent roughly $3 million on similar anti-Gingrich ads in the final month of the Iowa campaign and was seen as contributing to his fourth-place finish in the caucuses.

A similar group that supports Gingrich was running roughly $850,000 in ads against Romney.

___

Hunt reported from Myrtle Beach, S.C. Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Myrtle Beach, S.C., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-16-Romney-Huntsman/id-cb1df2d1f9a743e188521de347acc8c8

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Why Nobel Laureates Are Getting Older

Advances | More Science Cover Image: January 2012 Scientific American MagazineSee Inside

Scientists are making major discoveries at more advanced ages than in the past


Image: Ted Spiegel/Corbis

Albert Einstein once commented that ?a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.? This may have been an accurate reflection of physics in his time, but it is no longer the case?for physics or any other field. Benjamin Jones, an expert in innovation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Bruce Weinberg of Ohio State University analyzed 525 Nobel Prizes awarded in physics, chemistry and medicine between 1900 and 2008. With a few exceptions?notably quantum mechanics discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s?the trend across all fields is toward researchers being older when they produce their greatest work.? ?

To explain the aging effect, Jones and Weinberg suggest a shift from theoretical work, in which youngsters do better, toward experimental work, which requires aggregation of knowledge. They also believe that as fields expand, it may take longer to accumulate the knowledge necessary to make a novel contribution. ?

Those younger than 30 need not despair, though. The anomaly of quantum physics suggests that, in the case of a scientific revolution where established knowledge can be a hindrance rather than a help, the trend might reverse. ?If there are future revolutions out there, it may make people younger yet again,? Jones remarks.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=26a14e65fbed1e0c977a170f11c688a6

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Israel rattled as hackers hit bourse, banks, El Al (Reuters)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) ? Hackers disrupted online access to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Airlines and three banks on Monday in what the government described as a cyber-offensive against Israel.

The attacks came just days after an unidentified hacker, proclaiming Palestinian sympathies, posted the details of thousands of Israeli credit card holders and other personal information on the Internet in a mass theft.

Stock trading and El Al flights operated normally despite the disruption, which occurred as Israeli media reported that pro-Palestinian hackers had threatened at the weekend to shut down the TASE stock exchange and airline Web sites.

While apparently confined to areas causing only limited inconvenience, the attacks have caused particular alarm in a country that depends on high-tech systems for much of its defense against hostile neighbors. Officials insist, however, that they pose no immediate security threat.

"They have demanded an apology for Israel's defensive measures," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on his Facebook page, alluding to the conflict with Palestinians.

"I am using this platform to send a clear message that ... they will not silence us on the Internet, or in any forum."

The First International Bank of Israel (FIBI) and two subsidiary banks, Massad and Otzar Hahayal, said their marketing sites had been hacked but that sites providing online services to clients were unaffected.

Israel's third-largest bank, Discount, said it had been spared attack, but that it was temporarily shutting down foreign access to its website as a precaution.

The Tel Aviv bourse website could only be accessed intermittently, but screen-based trading was not hit.

"There has been an attack by hackers on the access routes to the website," said Orna Goren, deputy manager of the exchange's marketing and communications unit. "The stock exchange's trading activities are operating normally."

El Al said it had taken precautions to protect the company site and warned of possible disruptions to its online activity.

"CYBER WAR"

There was no claim of responsibility for Monday's incidents.

However, the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the small Palestinian territory of Gaza, welcomed the attacks as a blow against the Jewish state, which it refuses to recognize.

"This is a new field of resistance against the Occupation and we urge Arab youth to develop their methods in electronic warfare in the face of (Israel's) crimes," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza.

Israeli Information Minister Yuli Edelstein told a conference in Tel Aviv that the cyber attacks were part of a wider move to smear the country's reputation and "threaten Israel's economic stability and security."

"It's another episode in the war our enemies are conducting as a campaign of delegitimization to hit our pockets and lifestyle," he said, in reported comments confirmed by his spokesman.

"Israel must use all measures at its disposal to prevent these virtual dangers from turning into real threats and to prevent with all its force attacks against it and its institutions. Today it's credit card theft and toppling Web sites, and tomorrow it could be theft of security information and harm to infrastructure."

Israel opened an agency to tackle cyber attacks earlier this month. A founding member of the unit, Isaac Ben-Israel, said the country's most vital systems were already protected, but that incidents like the ones seen recently would only increase.

"As long as the systems are not guarded, any hacker anywhere in the world can break into them and do damage," Ben-Israel said on Israel Radio. "I believe that, done right, in a year or two, we will be able to wipe out all these hackers' threats."

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem, Tova Cohen in Tel Aviv and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/wr_nm/us_israel_hackers

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Stocks slip; JPMorgan disappoints

The Dow fell 48 points to close at 12422 Friday after a rare disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan Chase battered bank stocks

A rare disappointing earnings report from JPMorgan Chase battered bank stocks on Friday and helped push the rest of the market lower. Rumors of imminent downgrades for the credit ratings of European governments drove the euro down and sent investors streaming into U.S. debt.

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The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.96 points to close at 12,422.06, a drop of 0.4 percent. Markets were little changed late in the day after France's finance minister confirmed that Standard & Poor's had stripped the country of its AAA credit rating.

Before the market opened, JPMorgan said quarterly profit declined 23 percent from a year earlier, slightly worse than what analysts expected. The bank's stock lost 2 percent, and other large banks followed. Morgan Stanley fell 3 percent and Goldman Sachs 2 percent.

It was the first time JPMorgan missed Wall Street expectations since the final quarter of 2007, a period that includes the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. JPMorgan is widely considered one of the best-managed big banks. Traders figured that if JPMorgan had trouble as 2011 came to a close, the rest of the industry probably did, too.

"JPMorgan is the gold standard," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors. "So what happens to the banks that aren't quite as strong and aren't quite as well-managed?"

On trading desks, it's called the "cockroach theory," Orlando said. "You never see just one cockroach. If you see one, you know there's bound to be a lot more."

The euro slipped to its lowest level in 17 months after reports surfaced that S&P would downgrade European governments. After the markets closed in New York, S&P announced cuts for France, Austria, Italy and Spain.

The euro dropped 1.1 percent against the dollar to $1.27. Borrowing costs jumped for France, Italy and Spain, countries at the center of the region's debt crisis.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors moved money into lower-risk assets. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.86 percent from 1.93 percent late Thursday.

S&P warned Dec. 5 that 15 countries that use the euro were at risk of downgrades, citing higher borrowing costs for top-rated governments and disagreements among European leaders.

A cut to France's credit rating may fail to push rates up for France because bond traders were prepared for it, said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

The danger is to the European rescue fund. France is the second-largest contributor to the fund behind Germany. Bond traders could respond to the French downgrade by raising borrowing costs for the rescue fund, in the expectation that its rating will be cut next.

"The knock-on effects are far more significant than the impact on France itself," LeBas said.

JPMorgan's results opened the earnings season for banks on a sour note. Though an increasing pace of earnings reports may help steer the markets over the coming days, Europe's debt crisis is likely to remain the focus.

In other trading, the S&P 500 index fell 6.41, or 0.5 percent to 1,289.09. The Nasdaq composite index fell 14.03, or 0.5 percent, to 2,710.67. Even with Friday's fall, all three indexes posted gains for the second straight week. The S&P 500 index is up 2.5 percent to start the year.

Among stocks making larger moves than the overall market Friday:

? Diamond Foods Inc., which makes Emerald Nuts, plunged 10 percent after The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors had opened a criminal inquiry into its financial practices. The Journal also reported that two large shareholders had dumped most of their stakes in the company.

? Safeway Inc., the grocery store chain, rose 1.8 percent. An analyst at Jefferies placed a "buy" rating on the stock on the expectation that the company will benefit from an improving job market, especially in California.

? Alpha Natural Resources fell 10 percent, the largest loss in the S&P 500. The coal company bought Massey Energy last year, and the Justice Department is considering whether to prosecute the people who ran Massey when its Big Branch mine exploded in 2010.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/L_Yp4eA_pgA/Stocks-slip-JPMorgan-disappoints

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