Bogut's NBL deal "off" due to insurance issues - Brew Hoop

UPDATE:?Bogut confirmed his disappointment?over the news via Twitter late Thursday afternoon.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Marc Stein at ESPN is reporting that Andrew Bogut's deal with the NBL's Sydney Kings, which we reported was in the?final stages of completion?as of Monday, has?fallen through due to insurance complications.

Bogut announced yesterday (Thursday in Australia) that he had committed to play for the Kings, but according to his US agent David Bauman, the obstacles around insuring the nearly $40 million remaining on his contract with the Milwaukee Bucks are just too great:

He's very disappointed because he was hoping to help the profile of the NBL and bring in new fans...But the risks for his outstanding money were too great.

Officials in Australia have maintained that a deal is still possible, but Bauman said the possibility is essentially dead.

I don't have to tell you how disappointing this is. The NBL was certain to benefit from Bogut's presence as it worked to build fan interest (even if the television deals failed to seize the opportunity--just ask our Aussie commenters). Bogut would get a great opportunity to work himself into game shape before the start of the NBA season (which, as an added bonus, looks like it will almost certainly be shortened). And Bucks fans would get to follow their team's best player in a competitive league to which we can all appreciate some level of emotional attachment, albeit with the slight risk that he suffer an injury in the process.

In the end, $40 million dollars is a lot of money to risk playing a sport that nearly destroyed Andrew's elbow 18 months ago, even if that was a completely freak accident. I have little doubt that Bogut's agent was reluctant to?jeopardize?that contract so Bogut could play a few months in his home country.

In related news, I'm becoming?very frustrated with agents.

Source: http://www.brewhoop.com/2011/10/6/2473554/boguts-nbl-deal-off-due-to-insurance-issues

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China to keep Pakistan embrace at arm's length (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Pakistan, facing a crisis with the United States, has leaned closely to longtime partner China, offering its "all-weather friendship" with Beijing as an alternative to Washington.

But Pakistan will be disappointed if it hopes to replace American patronage with the same from China.

While China does not welcome the U.S. presence near its border, it wants stability on its western flank and believes an abrupt withdrawal of Washington's support for Pakistan could imperil that. It also does not want to upset warming relations with India by getting mired in subcontinent security tension.

Maintaining that delicate balance, China will continue supporting economic cooperation with Pakistan but go slow on defence cooperation. While outwardly all smiles and warm pledges of friendship, China will quietly keep things at arms length.

"I think they see what's going on in the U.S.-Pakistan front at the moment as reason to tread very carefully," said Andrew Small, a researcher at the German Marshall Fund think-tank in Brussels who studies China-Pakistan ties and often visits both countries.

"They are taking extra care to make sure that what's going on in the relationship is correctly understood, not reflecting any willingness to rush in or fill the gap or exploit differences."

Pakistan's brittle relationship with the United States, its major donor, has turned openly rancorous. Washington accused Pakistan's powerful ISI spy agency of directly backing the Afghan Taliban-allied Haqqani network and of providing support for a Sept. 13 attack on the U.S. mission in Kabul.

Pakistan has angrily rejected the accusation and warned the United States that it risked losing an ally if it kept publicly criticising them over militant groups.

Meanwhile, as it often does in times of crisis, Pakistan has been trumpeting its ties with China.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani declared Beijing and Islamabad were "true friends and we count on each other" after talks with China's visiting public security minister, Meng Jianzhu.

President Asif Ali Zardari stressed the point last week that Pakistan had other options should its deteriorating relationship with Washington prove beyond repair, and pointedly praised China for its assistance in "stabilising the situation".

Publicly at least, China has gone out of its way to reassure Pakistan.

"WARY OF OFFENDING INDIA"

In May, just weeks after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil, Premier Wen Jiabao reassured visiting Gilani of their longstanding friendship and spoke of the "huge sacrifices" Pakistan had made in the global struggle against terrorism.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman echoed that line just last week, saying "Pakistan is on the front lines in the fight against terrorism" and China hoped "the relevant countries respect every country's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

But China's assistance also has limits.

"The 'all-weather friendship' doesn't mean that all of Pakistan's bills should be paid by us," said Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.

"China does not have that ability, nor does the U.S. or any other country. It all depends on Pakistan itself."

China regards Pakistan as an important strategic counterweight against its longstanding rival, India, and a hedge against U.S. influence across the region. It also wants to use Pakistan as a gateway to the Muslim world and needs Islamabad's help to combat Islamic separatists in its far-western Xinjiang region on their common border.

China is a major supplier of military hardware to Pakistan and also a major investor in areas such as telecommunications, ports and infrastructure.

But China's leaders have no desire to turn that limited stake in Pakistan into a heavy security footprint.

"The partnership is as deep as it needs to be for China," Scott Harold, associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation, said. "They've got what they want diplomatically and economically."

During Meng's visit last week, Beijing bolstered its cooperation with Pakistan, with the signing of $250 million in economic and technical agreements, Zardari's office said.

Many of Beijing's deals with Pakistan have had a strategic payoff in helping to balance U.S. influence in the region.

China invested more than $200 million to help build the deep-sea Gwadar port on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, partly with a view to opening an energy and trade corridor from the Gulf, across Pakistan to western China.

China also helped Pakistan build its main nuclear power generation facility at Chashma in Punjab province. Two reactors are in operation and two more are planned. Analysts say China pointedly agreed to expand the Chashma complex to counter a 2008 nuclear energy deal between India and the United States.

But Beijing appears much less interested in a bilateral defence accord, despite a report by Pakistan media that Islamabad had been secretly lobbying for such an agreement.

"I don't think that's the sort of space that the Chinese want to get into," said Small of the German Marshall Fund. "I don't see why they would suddenly want to be stuck with the liability of Pakistan, particularly vis-a-vis India, given the way Pakistan has behaved in a number of crisis situations."

In each of Pakistan's wars with India, China has been fairly restrained, to the point of being almost neutral.

Analysts say China is wary about tilting the relationship too much in favour of Pakistan, to avoid offending India, with which China wants to develop better economic ties.

Annual two-way trade with India was worth $65.2 billion in 2010, compared with bilateral trade with Pakistan of $8.7 billion, according to Chinese statistics.

Ultimately, Beijing has little to gain from a rift between Islamabad and Washington, experts say.

"If U.S.-Pakistan relations deteriorate, and the region falls into instability, China will not be able to shoulder the responsibility by itself and other regional actors will have a difficult time cooperating to restore stability," said Hu Shisheng, an expert on South Asia at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations think-tank.

"The U.S. still has to be responsible for the stability of this region."

(Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Brian Rhoads and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111004/india_nm/india596917

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Rapper J. Cole routs Blink -182's comeback (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Not to be confused with J. Crew, rapper J. Cole has gotten an awfully good start on building a catalog of his own.

The Jay-Z protege's freshman effort, "Cole World: The Sideline Story," sold 218,000 copies and became the first debut album to enter at No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 2011. The last newcomer to so boldly bow on top was Nicki Minaj, last November, so Cole has some colorful chart footsteps in which to follow.

Pop-punk fans didn't blink and miss the return of Blink-182, whose first new album since 2003, "Neighborhoods," bowed at No. 2 on sales of 151,000, according to SoundScan. That's less than half the 313,000 copies their previous studio album debuted with, but a lot can change in eight years of absentia, so the trio may take comfort in knowing they're still at least in the neighborhood of a hit.

Wilco's first self-released album, "The Whole Love," came in at No. 5 with 82,000 sold, not too terrible a comedown from the 99,000 their last effort debuted with two years ago.

Three decidedly less hip rock bands bowed on the bottom three rungs of the top 10. Switchfoot came in at No. 8 with 45,000; Chickenfoot (a supergroup featuring Sammy Hagar and Joe Satriani) entered at No. 9 with 42,000 sold; and Mastodon were close behind at No. 10 with 39,000, despite not having "-foot" anywhere in their name.

Some less impressive bows: Machine Head at No. 22, Gloria Estefan at No. 28, Jason Derulo at No. 29, and LeAnn Rimes -- lately, much more of a tabloid than chart fixture -- at a lean No. 32.

On the holdover front, last week's topper, Tony Bennett's "Duets II," had a very acceptable 49 percent dip, falling to No. 4 with another 91,000 sold. Demi Lovato's "Unbroken" took a more severe tumble, declining 76 percent in its second week and selling 23,000 to land at No. 14.

It's been a good news/bad news week for Adele. She just canceled the remaining dates on her fall tour to recover from a vocal-cord hemorrhage. But her sales aren't about to take a breather. On the album chart, "21" -- the year's bestselling album -- maintained its steady-as-she-goes pace at No. 3 with 118,000.

And over on the digital songs chart, Adele's lovelorn ballad "Someone Like You" enjoyed another sales bump and moved back up to No. 1 with 222,000 downloads for the week.

The top debuting digital single was presidential serenader B.o.B.'s "Strange Clouds," which benefited from a guest rap by Lil Wayne and came in at No. 3 with 197,000 downloads.

Chart watchers are curious to see next week's results and find out if Scotty McCreery, whose first album came out Tuesday, can break the recent curse of underperforming Idols and unseat fellow frosh J. Cole.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111005/music_nm/us_charts

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Senate Democrats rewrite Obama's jobs bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Senate Democrats are rewriting portions of President Barack Obama's jobs bill to include a new 5 percent tax on income above $1 million ? a proposal that is sure to be blocked by Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he is changing the plan in an effort to attract more votes from fellow Democrats. He said he plans to bring the bill to the floor next week. Reid, however, wouldn't predict whether Democratic senators would unite behind the measure, which is unlikely to get any support from Republicans.

The new tax would replace tax increases sought by the president. Obama's plan called for raising taxes by limiting itemized deductions ? including those for charitable donations and mortgage interest ? for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000.

Reid said the millionaire's tax would cover the entire cost of Obama's jobs bill ? about $450 billion over the next decade.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said there was opposition to Obama's plan because people making $250,000 or $300,000 in high cost areas, like New York, don't consider themselves rich.

"Drawing a line at $1 million is the right thing to do," Schumer said.

The top income tax rate is currently 35 percent, on taxable income above $379,150. Under the bill, the new top rate for millionaires would go to 40 percent.

Reid announced plans to move the bill as Obama tried to blame Republicans for Congress' failure to act.

Obama traveled to Texas Tuesday to deliver his most caustic challenge yet to House Republicans who have not allowed a vote on the legislation unveiled nearly a month ago.

"What's the problem? Do they not have the time? They just had a week off. Is it inconvenient?" he said in Mesquite, Texas, singling out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for special criticism.

Cantor has said the White House's "all or nothing approach is unreasonable."

But after three weeks of presidential demands for Congress to pass his jobs bill without delay, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Obama was open to Reid's changes.

"We offered a balanced way to pay for the American Jobs Act, but if Congress has a better idea that ensures that everyone pays their fair share, we're open to it," Pfeiffer said.

The day's events underscored that, as submitted by the White House, Obama's bill would not only fail in the Republican-controlled House, but faced enough opposition from Democrats to endanger its prospects in the Senate, as well.

"There's the good, the bad and the ugly. The ugly was $447 billion," Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said of the bill's price tag.

Democrats said Reid's proposed millionaires' surtax was designed to quell much if not all of the opposition from his own rank and file.

To pay for his package of tax breaks, unemployment benefits and new spending on public works projects, Obama has proposed higher taxes on family incomes over $250,000 and on the oil and gas industry.

The first request troubles Democratic senators from states like New York, New Jersey and California, where large numbers of families could be hit by the increase. The second has drawn opposition most prominently from Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose state is home to numerous oil and gas operations.

The president also proposed higher taxes on hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, but those increases, too, would disappear under the changes Reid outlined Wednesday.

In political terms, Democrats appear to be hoping that Republicans will oppose both the higher taxes on million-dollar earners and the president's call for new spending aimed at reducing joblessness, thus leaving themselves open to a charge of protecting the wealthy at the expense of the unemployed.

While Republican lawmakers appear receptive to tax cuts the president has called for, they have expressed strong opposition to his proposed new spending.

___

Associated Press writers David Espo, Julie Pace, Ben Feller and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111005/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_jobs

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Services data stir euro recession worry (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) ? The euro zone's services sector shrank for the first time in two years last month as new orders dried up, stoking fears that the region's economy could be heading back into recession, surveys showed on Wednesday.

A downturn that began in smaller members of the 17-nation bloc has hit the core, and survey compiler Markit said the latest figures suggest the region's economy will contract in the fourth quarter unless business and consumer confidence rallies.

"We can't rule out the possibility of recession in the coming quarters. Combined with the global slowdown you have the main growth engine of the euro zone economy, Germany, stuttering," said Jeavon Lolay, head of global research at Lloyds Banking Group.

Analysts fear a flailing euro area could drag the weakly expanding U.S. economy down as well. Goldman Sachs economists estimate a euro-area recession would dent U.S. growth by more than a percentage point.

U.S. economic data underscored the tepid pace of recovery.

A report issued Wednesday showed that service sector activity slowed in the United States in September as a contraction in employment outweighed a jump in new orders. The Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index fell to 53.0 for the month from 53.3 in August. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.

"This is more evidence that the soft patch in growth continued into September," said Steven Wood, chief economist for Insight Economics in Danville, California.

U.S. stocks turned positive, long-dated government bond prices slid to session lows, while the dollar rose against the yen.

The U.S. private sector added jobs at a modest pace in September, a separate report said, suggesting an economy continuing to tread water. A more authoritative government report on the employment situation is due Friday.

U.S. private-sector employers added 91,000 jobs in September, above economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 75,000 jobs.

"The ADP profile for the last two months is one of moderate job gains and not something more dire," said Jonathan Basile, an economist for Credit Suisse in New York.

EURO ZONE CONTRACTS

European concerns about flagging activity were mirrored in India's service sector, which also shrank in September as new business tapered off, two days after a global manufacturing survey showed the first drop in output since June 2009, though firms still took on more workers.

Markit's Eurozone Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 48.8 last month from 51.5 in August, its lowest reading since July 2009 and below an earlier flash reading of 49.1.

It is the first month the index has been below the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction since August 2009.

The composite PMI -- combining the services and manufacturing data published earlier this week and a good guide for economic growth -- fell to 49.1 from 50.7 in August, its lowest level since July 2009 and down from a flash estimate of 49.2.

Economists polled by Reuters last month predicted third- and fourth-quarter growth of 0.2 percent, but Markit said the result could be even weaker.

Markit's chief economist Chris Williamson said the data suggest the euro area economy will have stagnated in the third quarter. The steep drop in new business suggests growth will contract in the fourth quarter unless business and consumer confidence rally.

Ailing stock markets bounced Wednesday after Europe's finance ministers agreed to shore up euro zone banks against the spreading debt crisis, though contagion fears kept the euro close to a nine-month low against the dollar.

BRITAIN BITTEN, GERMANY STUTTERS

Britain's service sector unexpectedly picked up pace in September, though firms' expectations for the next 12 months are bleak, and Britain's economic growth in the second quarter of this year was unexpectedly revised down to 0.1 percent, official data showed Wednesday.

"It is pretty anemic growth. What is happening in Europe is not helping the UK at all, but even fundamentally the UK economy is in a pretty weak spot at the moment," said Marchel Alexandrovich at Jefferies International.

Earlier data from Germany, Europe's largest economy and the backbone of the euro zone's now-stalled recovery, showed activity close to stagnation, while in France the rate of growth slowed to a 26-month low.

Italy's service sector contracted for the fourth month and at a faster pace than expected, while Spain's shrank for the third straight month.

But the tough conditions meant companies cut prices charged for the first time in over a year, which may moderate some fears at the European Central Bank about above-target inflation.

The ECB has raised its key lending rate twice since April, taking the refi rate to 1.5 percent, in an effort to control inflation that according to flash data was at 3.0 percent in September -- above the central bank's 2 percent target ceiling.

Mounting evidence of a weakening euro area economy prompted some economists to predict an interest rate cut Thursday from the ECB, although most expect it to wait until the new year before easing policy. (Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Ross Finley, John Stonestreet and Padraic Cassidy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111005/bs_nm/us_global_economy_wrapup

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Stumbling onto remedies

David Cohen, contributor

Great Discoveries in Medicine shows that many of the treatments commonly used today were discovered in surprising ways

WALK into any modern hospital and you would be forgiven for thinking medicine is a precise science that can identify any disease you may be unfortunate enough to have, quantify it with whizz-bang technology based on a sound understanding of human physiology, and then treat it with a tried-and-tested pill or procedure that has run the rigours of a randomised controlled trial.

It can be surprising, then, to reflect on the many treatments and procedures performed by doctors today that have rather accidental and unscientific origins.

Take for example the caesarean section. Today, in some countries as many as 46 per cent of live births are by caesarean. And yet the first successful operation reported was not done by an obstetrician, but by the Swiss pig gelder Jacob Nufer. He performed the procedure on his wife in 1500 - without anaesthetic or antiseptics. Miraculously, the woman not only survived, but some reports suggest she went on to have five more children.

Another peculiar story is that of the compound digitalis, now commonly used to control some heart conditions. Extracted from the leaves of the foxglove plant, the medicinal value of digitalis was originally identified by William Withering in 1775. A botanist and prominent physician, Withering received reports that an old lady in the west of England was having unparalleled success in curing a mysterious condition that lead to swelling in the legs. Then called "dropsy", the ailment now known as oedema is characterised by fluid accumulation in between body tissue, and can be caused by heart failure. Withering determined that the active ingredient in the woman's tincture was digitalis. The compound is now marketed as the drug digoxin and has become the mainstay treatment for certain heart conditions.

These are just two of the entertaining stories among the 70 entries in this glossy compendium of seminal moments in the history of medicine. From the discovery of the origin of disease and advances in our understanding of human physiology, to the development of surgical procedures and other medical triumphs, this tome devotes just a few pages each to what the editors have deemed the key highlights.

It is a book the medical establishment will be proud of, touring through major breakthroughs that advanced the practice of medicine such as the development of X-ray imaging, the use of opium as an anaesthetic, the origin of the stethoscope and the identification of influenza. It also includes more modern discoveries such as HIV, medical robots and beta blockers.

While the book may sometimes err on the side of weightiness and occasionally verge on being dry - you probably wouldn't want to read more than a handful of entries at a time - it is still a potent reminder of just how far we have come in recent years. A wonderful addition to any armchair medical historian's coffee table.

Book Information
Great Discoveries in Medicine
by William and Helen Bynum
Published by: Thames & Hudson
?24.95/$45

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/190fab95/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cculturelab0C20A110C10A0Cstumbling0Eonto0Eremedies0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Source: http://www.uhden.com/2011/10/How-to-Build-a-Residual-Income-with-Your-Own-Network-Marketing-Home-Business-Online/

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