Wall Street ends lower on renewed euro zone fears

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks declined on Thursday, taking a step back from their recent advance, prompted by comments by the ECB president on the euro and Europe's outlook.

The euro currency dropped against the safe-haven dollar and yen, spurring a retreat from risky assets such as stocks, after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the exchange rate was important to growth and price stability. Investors took that as a sign the bank is concerned about the euro's advance and its effect on the region's economy.

Growth sectors were among the weakest performers on the S&P 500: the S&P 500 materials index was down 0.6 percent while the S&P energy index was down 0.5 percent. Housing stocks also declined, with a housing sector index off 1.4 percent.

Despite the day's decline and weakness earlier this week, the stock market has been in an almost uninterrupted up trend for most of the year, with the S&P 500 up 5.8 percent so far for 2013.

Many analysts say some weakness at this point is no surprise.

"Given the amount the market moved in January, having a little bit of a pullback and some consolidation where the market goes sideways for a little while, we think would be a healthy sign," said Eric Marshall, director of research at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.

Top U.S. retailers reported strong January sales after offering compelling merchandise that drew in shoppers facing a hit to their take-home pay from higher payroll taxes. But an index of retailers was down 0.3 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 42.47 points, or 0.30 percent, at 13,944.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2.73 points, or 0.18 percent, at 1,509.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3.34 points, or 0.11 percent, at 3,165.13.

Shares of Apple helped to limit losses on the Nasdaq, the stock ending up 3 percent at $468.22. Fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital said it has sued Apple Inc and said the company needs to do more to unlock value for shareholders.

Though the earnings season is winding down, results continue to boost growth estimates for the fourth quarter. According to Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning, of 317 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 69 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies rose 5 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

Akamai Technologies Inc lost 15.2 percent to $35.26 as the worst percentage performer on the S&P 500 after the Internet content delivery company forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations.

Among retailers, Macy's Inc rose 2 percent to $40.27 after reporting January same store sales rose 11.7 percent.

But Ann Inc dropped 8 percent to $30.20 after forecasting fourth-quarter sales below analysts' expectations.

Economic data was mixed. Initial jobless claims dipped last week, with the four-week moving average falling to its lowest level since March 2008, signaling the economy continues to recover slowly.

A separate report said fourth-quarter productivity registered its biggest drop in nearly two years, while unit labor costs jumped 4.5 percent, more than economists expected.

Roughly 6.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.

Decliners outpaced advancers on the NYSE by nearly 4 to 3 and on the Nasdaq by about 5 to 3.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-falters-euro-zone-jitters-211122186--finance.html

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CDC Report Shows Increase in Breastfeeding, but Room for Improvement

More U.S. women are breastfeeding than a decade ago, but the numbers are still relatively low,according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday. The overall increase in breastfeeding held true across almost all racial and ethnic groups.

The CDC report went on to note that while the increase in mothers who choose to breastfeed their infants is good, many are still not breastfeeding for long enough. The recommendation in most cases is a minimum of 12 months.

Here is some of the key information to have emerged from this new report on breastfeeding prevalence in the U.S.

* The report was compiled between 2000 and 2008. Over that eight-year span, breastfeeding increased by some 4 percent overall.

* The number of mothers who were still breastfeeding at the six-month mark jumped substantially, from 35 percent to 45 percent during the same time frame.

* Overall, as MyHealthNewsDaily noted, by 2008 a full 74.6 percent of all mothers breastfed for various lengths of time.

* The director of the CDC, Tom Frieden, said that the fact that more than half of all mothers have stopped breastfeeding by the six-month mark means that "mothers that want to breastfeed are still not getting the support they need from hospitals, doctors, or employers," as quoted by MyHealthNewsDaily.

* At the 12-month mark, only 23 percent of women report still breastfeeding their infants.

* The CDC report made special note of the fact that African-American women have the lowest breastfeeding rate among U.S. women. While the gap between white women and black women who breastfeed did narrow between the eight years covered by the report, there is still a 16 percent difference in the number of white women who breastfeed versus the number of black women who do so.

* As HealthDay News noted, in 2008 nearly 59 percent of all African-American women breastfed their babies for various lengths of time, versus nearly 75 percent of all white women and nearly 80 percent of all Hispanic women.

* The American Academy of Pediatrics "reaffirmed" its recommendation regarding breastfeeding early last year. AAP guidelines state that a baby should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their life, and then given compatible foods along with the continuation of breastfeeding at least up until the baby has passed their first birthday.

* The AAP also states that given the known health benefits to the infant of breastfeeding, that doing so "should be considered an investment in the short- and long-term health of the infant, and not a lifestyle choice."

Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-report-shows-increase-breastfeeding-room-improvement-231300472.html

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Palestinian officials: Obama must pressure Israel

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? The Palestinians on Thursday responded coolly to a White House announcement that President Barack Obama will not bring any bold new peace initiatives to the region next month, saying there is no hope for reviving serious negotiations unless the U.S. leader is personally involved.

The Palestinians' comments reflected their sense of desperation after four years of deadlocked peace efforts with Israel, and raised the pressure on Obama to extract new concessions from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a setback for Netanyahu, a close political ally criticized Israel's settlement policies, saying continued construction deep inside the West Bank has undermined Israel's credibility and could threaten the country's long-term survival.

"We could pay a great price," Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, warned on Israeli Radio.

The White House said this week that Obama would make his first presidential visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories this spring, setting off speculation that he was coming to restart peace efforts.

On Wednesday, the White House moved quickly to play down expectations, saying the primary goal of the visit was to repair the strained relationship with Netanyahu, not to present a new diplomatic initiative. Both Obama and Netanyahu are just beginning new terms in office.

The Palestinians welcomed news of the visit, but implored Obama to take a more hands-on approach than he did during his first term.

"We believe he has good intentions, but in order for him to succeed, he should realize the reasons for the failure of the previous round of talks and avoid them," said Mohammed Ishtayeh, a senior Palestinian negotiator. "Mainly he needs to get involved personally and put real pressure on Israel."

Peace efforts remained frozen throughout Netanyahu's previous term, in large part because of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for a future state.

The Palestinians have refused to negotiate while Israel continues to build settlements, saying it is a sign of bad faith. With more than 500,000 Israelis living in the settlements, the Palestinians say hopes for partitioning the land into two separate countries are running out.

The Palestinians say the pre-1967 boundaries must be the basis for the border between Israel and a future Palestine, a position that has been endorsed by Obama and most of the international community. While Netanyahu has endorsed Palestinian statehood, he rejects a return to the 1967 lines and says talks should resume without any preconditions.

The Palestinians have blamed Obama in part for the current predicament. When Obama took office in early 2009, he promised to make Mideast peace a top priority and spoke out sharply against settlement construction.

Obama even managed to persuade Israel to impose a temporary slowdown on settlement building. But when the 10-month moratorium expired in late 2010, a new round of peace talks collapsed just weeks after they were launched. Negotiations have remained frozen.

Netanyahu has argued that the Palestinians have negotiated with previous Israeli governments while settlements were being built, and that even when he imposed a slowdown on construction, they waited for months before relaunching the short-lived talks.

But there has been little international sympathy.

In November, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state in the 1967 lines. Netanyahu responded by announcing plans to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, drawing harsh condemnations from his allies in the U.S. and Europe.

The Haaretz daily on Thursday, citing two unidentified officials, quoted Netanyahu's national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, as warning that Israel's settlement policies were hurting its standing with key allies.

"It's impossible to explain the issue of settlement construction anyplace in the world," he was quoted as saying. "Construction in the settlements has become a diplomatic problem and is causing Israel to lose support even among its friends in the West."

Netanyahu's office refused comment. But on the radio, Meridor said the government was sending mixed signals to the world by speaking in favor of Palestinian independence while settling Israelis on lands claimed by the Palestinians.

He said Israel should limit construction to major settlement "blocs" and existing Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem, and halt construction in outlying areas. Israel is expected to keep these settlements under any future peace deal.

"There is a lack of consistency between our claim of wanting two states ... and the fact that we don't limit building to the blocs only," he said. By sending this mixed message, "we cast doubt on our intentions and statements, and this is costing us a very high price."

Meridor stressed that establishment of a Palestinian state is in Israel's interests. Without a partition, most demographers believe that the Arab population under Israeli control could soon outnumber Jews.

The Palestinians have warned this could turn Israel into an "apartheid-style" state with a Jewish minority ruling over a disenfranchised Arab majority. The Arabs would turn their struggle away from independence and instead seek equality in a single mixed state.

A recent report by the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now found that nearly 40 percent of settlement construction under Netanyahu took place deep inside the West Bank.

Netanyahu, who is building a new coalition government following elections last month, has pledged to revive peace efforts in his new term and is courting centrist parties to join him. But he has given no sign that he is planning to soften his key positions on borders and settlement construction.

Ishtayeh said the Palestinians would not budge on their demands for a settlement freeze or their insistence that the 1967 borders remain the baseline for negotiations. He also ruled out an interim agreement while final borders can be worked out.

This could signal tough times ahead for the Obama administration. Newly sworn-in U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to visit Israel, the Palestinian territories and other countries in the region this month ahead of Obama's trip.

In a separate development, a Gaza man who carried out the longest-ever hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner returned home.

Akram Rikhawi ended his 103-day hunger strike last July in exchange for Israel's pledged to release him five months earlier than his scheduled release in June.

Rikhawi, 40, who claimed to be suffering from asthma and diabetes, was taken to a hospital. He served a nine-year sentence for transporting suicide bombers.

"I am happy to be back home after this long suffering. It's a victory for prisoners who are fighting with their empty stomachs," he told reporters.

___

Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-officials-obama-must-pressure-israel-182405729.html

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French flags selling out in Mali's capital

France's military intervention has been widely greeted here. Normally, Malian attitudes towards its former colonial ruler range from resentment to admiration.

By Peter Tinti,?Correspondent / January 18, 2013

Yacouba Konate wears a French flag to show his support for the French military intervention in Mali in the Malian capital of Bamako last Sunday. After France launched a bombing campaign against Islamist rebels in central and northern Mali last week, French flags bloomed around Bamako almost instantaneously.

Joe Penney/Reuters

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War and nationalist sentiment usually go hand in hand. The week-old war in Mali is no exception. As?the war drums beat hotter in this landlocked former French colony in West Africa, nationalism is also on the rise.?

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But in this case, it is French nationalism that is rising.

Normally, Malian attitudes towards France, which once ruled the country as a colony, range from resentment to admiration. But when France launched a bombing campaign against Islamist rebels in central and northern Mali last week, French flags bloomed around the capital Bamako almost instantaneously.?

Flags are waved on the street, show up on cars, motorcycles, appear in windows. Vive la France!

What might be called a panoply of pro-France merchandise is found everywhere, offering insight both into a quick shift in Malian attitudes toward France, and into the workings of Bamako?s street markets. ?

Moreover, the flags, like so much merchandise around the world, do not come from France ? but are made, shipped, stocked and marketed through the larger Chinese vendors in Bamako.

Information about the new commodity of French flags begins downtown at the ?Place d?Ind?pendance.? At this square, teenage boys work in groups to sell the French tricolor in the shadow of a monument to honor Mali?s independence from colonial rule. No one seems to notice the irony.

One young man, Cheickounah Kon?, usually sells toys, battery-powered fly swatters, and odds and ends for about $5 a day, mostly to drivers stuck in traffic.

But two days after French jets began operations, a demand for flags made him change his product. He sells small flags on a staff with a suction cup on the end, that now adorn motor-scooters. Taxi drivers buy full-sized French flags and cover their rear windows with them.

For the last few days Mr. Kone has picked up some $25 a day in patriotic war spoils.

?Vive la France!? says one smiling customer who forks over $2 for the French colors.

Kone?s flag stash comes from a large chaotic market called ?Sugu ba,? an intense zone of capitalism in this capital, where French paraphernalia is discovered finally at ?Chez les Chinois,? on the edge of the market.

Rows of Chinese-owned stores sell an array of goods, ranging from plastics to electronics.

In the first shop the owner says she ran out of flags days ago, that boxes of French flags that sat on the floor for years, were now gone. But more are coming from her homeland, China, she asserts.

Along the row, nearly every shop was sold out of French goods, most in the last few days.

As I field a phone call in the halls of the House of China, my Malian guides discover with some disappointment that I am an American, not a Frenchman.

But they quickly recover: ?No, no, no... it?s ok, it?s ok,? one guide, Moussa says in strained English. ?Obama is?still good, but [French President] Hollande saved us, he saved Mali.??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/PxfzU3sumNE/French-flags-selling-out-in-Mali-s-capital

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Don't Ignore Your Businesses Web Marketing Needs - We Want CSG

Internet promotion can be a very fascinating thing to get into. There are many different ways to customize it for different business types. This can also cause confusion to people that are new to online marketing. This article will help you.

Keep an eye on your competitors, and learn from what they are doing. If you can picture yourself buying from them, they are being successful and you should try to incorporate some of their techniques into your own strategy.

TIP! Present limited time offers. It could be anything from free shipping to a rebate.

Here is a great tip for successful internet promotion. Your landing page should have a very clear objective. The webpage is purely about sales; nothing more, nothing less. The customer should know right away what you?re selling on your landing page. If your customers have to invest time and effort in order to find what they are looking for, you are hurting your potential for success.

Try giving free incentives to get more business. Many times, making sure customers are taken care of is left off the list of strategies in Internet marketing.

Try using words like ?simple? and ?easy? in your Internet campaign. Most people prefer products that are simple, so by using these keywords you can entice visitors to try your product. It is a beneficial way to boost business.

TIP! Use headlines on all of your content. The title should catch the reader?s attention and highlight your offering from your site.

Emphasis tools are an excellent way to help the words on your website stand out. You can emphasize a keyword or phrase by bolding, underlining, or italicizing the text. Doing this clearly expresses a specific point to your customers.

Know about 500 error pages and how to use them. When this page appears, some of the code has stopped working. A generic error page will just say that connection has timed out. There are much better methods to make your customers aware of the fact that you are working on the problem.

By demonstrating a positive outlook, you increase your chance for marketing success. The love you have for your business and the enthusiasm you feel for your product should be boldly on display to your visitors. Your enthusiasm will be contagious if your testimony is genuine and convincing. This effectively creates bigger profits because it increases your sales.

TIP! Add a chat function to your website so your customers can interact to exchange information and ideas. They need to feel like your site is a place to hang and chat with other members of the club rather then just a place to visit when they are ready to buy something.

?Guaranteed? is a very strong positive word to use in internet marketing. Of course, you will have to otherwise establish your credibility in order for customers to take it seriously, but people like knowing that they aren?t risking their money. Consumers often feel safer parting with their hard-earned money when they know there is a guarantee.

Do research to discover which Internet marketing methods have been successful in your industry. Having so many different options makes it very difficult to decide which particular strategies to use. The tips and techniques discussed in this article will help you sort through all the steps associated with Internet marketing.

Source: http://www.wewantcsg.org/dont-ignore-your-businesses-web-marketing-needs

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Clerical Whispers: Catholic bishops in France on gay marriage ...

Are French bishops of the Roman Catholic Church for or against same-sex marriage laws that are being considered in France??

Without answering a definitive 'oui' or 'non,' they recently released a document entitled "Expand Marriage to Persons of the Same Sex? Let's Open the Debate!" which keeps the question open.

Those opposed to such unions expressed disappointment with the document, according to LifeSiteNews.com, which reports:

The Conference of the Bishops of France (CEF) is making a mistake in endorsing an improved "Pact of Civil Solidarity" for homosexuals as an alternative to instituting homosexual 'marriage', in contradiction to Catholic teaching, warns the French pro-family association Avenir de la Future (Future of the Culture).[*]?

The organization of faithful Catholics are reacting to a document published recently by the Bishops' Conference's Family and Society Committee, which implies homosexual relationships could be given a strengthened legal recognition, while not going so far as to equate such unions with marriage.

While the Vatican teaches that "all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions," the French Bishops' document states that "the Catholic Church calls the faithful to live a [homosexual] relationship in chastity, but it recognizes, beyond its sexual aspect, the value of solidarity, of attention and of concern for the other that can arise in a durable affective relationship.?The Church intends to be welcoming regarding homosexual persons and will continue to make its contribution to the struggle against every form of homophobia and discrimination."

Those supportive of equal marriage rights are reading the document closely and finding aspects to like.?

Terrence Weldon writes on the blog Queering the Church:

Based on my reading, these are the features of the document that make it really worth careful attention:?

? the simple fact of a call for constructive dialogue ? together with a genuine attempt to begin it.

? a firm rejection of homophobia in any form, and insistence on respect for all

? a call to listen attentively to the concerns and needs of homosexual people themselves

? thoughtful attention to the findings of science, leading to -

? the recognition of the value of loving and committed same ? sex partnerships.

? an acknowledgement of the value of the symbolism in marriage, and the weaknesses of civil union legislation.

? a proposal to strengthen the existing civil unions legislation, to improve the symbolic value, and repair its weaknesses.

Frank DeBernardo at the Bondings 2.0 blog for New Ways Ministry further notes that American bishops have not released anything like this:

? this document contained several unusually positive reflections about respect for gay and lesbian relationships, and the need to have civil and open discussion on the matter of marriage. No U.S. bishops? document even comes close to the content and tone of this document which was issued by the Family and Society Council of the French bishops? conference.

But as positive as the statement might be, DeBernardo warns, it is not a full endorsement of same-sex unions. He writes:

To make sure that we are not giving the wrong impression, let me be clear that the document does not in any way support the legalization of marriage equality. Still, the strong call for respecting gay and lesbian relationships is a giant step forward in hierarchical discourse, and it should be celebrated.

A full English translation is published by UK-based theologian William D. Lindsey on his blog page, Bilgrimage, which can be accessed here.

The Bondings 2.0 blog has published excerpts translated by one of its readers, which can be accessed here.

The full, official document in French, can be accessed here.?

*Note: the Pact of Civil Solidarity is French law passed in 1999 that is designed to help recognize same-sex unions

Source: http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2013/02/catholic-bishops-in-france-on-gay.html

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Solyndra-iffic: Energy Secretary Steven Chu stepping down (Michellemalkin)

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