Euro adds more gains on dollar

NEW YORK: The euro surged for a second day Friday, adding 0.7 US cents to Thursday's two cent gain, pushed by what one analyst said was short covering and sustained by poor US trade data.

The European currency traded roughly around the break-even line of $1.3261 but then took a leap to the $1.3350 levels the morning opening -- just 15 minutes before US trade data for November showed a wider-than-expected deficit that implied slower growth.

"While a rise in the euro isn't out of the ordinary lately, particularly after yesterday's European Central Bank monetary policy decision and press conference, many euro crosses had settled in to a range in the 18 hours before the spike occurred," said Neal Gilbert of GFT.

He said a Goldman Sachs recommendation with a target for $1.37 could have been the force, but also a squeeze on short sellers.

"Since the market had turned sideways in the Asian and European sessions, many investors were likely assuming a profit taking drop was about to take place."

Now that trade has been flushed out, he added, "the profit taking is more likely to take place."

At 2200 GMT, the euro was at $1.3341, off the day's high of $1.3366.

The yen sagged to its lowest level in more than 30 months, hitting 89.18 yen to the dollar from 88.64 late Thursday.

Against the euro, it hit 119.00 yen, compared to 117.53 Thursday; it was the yens lowest level in 20 months against the euro.

The pound slipped to $1.6129 from $1.6158, and the dollar moved to 0.9135 Swiss francs from 0.9145 francs.

The Chinese currency continued its push higher, to 6.2180 yuan per dollar from 6.2256 a day earlier and 6.2316 a week ago.

-AFP/ac

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John McAfee brings his `Where's Waldo' act to Portland

A photo of software founder of John McAfee on Dec. 12, 2012. McAfee was released from detention in Guatemala and was scheduled to fly to the U.S.

(Credit:
CBS News)

Last time we checked, John McAfee was on the lam from -- well, whoever it was that he said was after him in Belize. But the former software mogul, who was deported to the United States after fleeing to Guatemala, has decided to pitch his tent in Portland for a while. (Assuming, of course, that he's not yanking the media's chain for kicks and giggles.)

Willamette Week snagged an interview with McAfee who said he was "looking for a home here and plans to live Portland for the next year and a half while he collaborates with local artist Chad Essley on a graphic novel about his life."

"I like the weather. I don't like the sun," he told his interviewer. "This is perfect. I've got enough sun for a while. I had five years of everyday sunny..Nothing wrong with rain, rain is good...it cleans the streets. It makes for a new ambiance, a little bit darker. I'm in a darker mood these days.

In November Police in Belize searched for McAfee, one of the pioneers of antivirus software, for questioning about the murder of his neighbor, American expat Gregory Faull. That began a month-long case of hide-and-seek as McAfee went on the lam from the authorities, all the while telling his story to a transfixed media that he was being wrongfully persecuted by officials in Belize and that he feared for his life if was arrested.

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Budget deficit set to hit $1 trillion for fifth straight year

WASHINGTON The U.S. annual budget deficit is on track to reach $1 trillion for a fifth straight year, though government revenue jumped last month as people paid some taxes early to avoid higher rates in 2013.

The Treasury Department said Friday that the federal deficit grew just $260 million in December. But for the first three months of the budget year, the deficit widened to $292 billion.

In December, tax revenue rose 12 percent to $270 billion. Spending fell 17 percent to nearly the same amount.

The budget year begins on Oct. 1. The size of the annual deficit will hinge, in part, on how Congress and the White House resolve a debate over raising the nation's borrowing limit. Republicans are demanding deep spending cuts in return for any increase.

The deficit, in simplest terms, is the amount of money the government has to borrow when revenues fall short of expenses. The monthly figures are volatile and can be affected by calendar quirks that shift payments from one month to another.

Much of the December gain in revenue occurred because some companies accelerated bonuses or other payments into 2012 to avoid the possibility of higher taxes in 2013.

And spending fell last month partly because the government provided $14 billion to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in December 2011, after they had lost hundreds of billions from defaulted mortgages in the housing bust. The government didn't make any such payments last month.

The White House and Congress agreed last week to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans this year as part of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. That deal also allowed a Social Security tax cut to expire. But the groups also postponed for two months the implementation of spending cuts that were included in the cliff.

Those cuts are now scheduled to kick in at around the same time the borrowing limit will be reached. And funding authority for most government programs will expire at the end of March.

The government has run annual deficits for more than a decade, although President Barack Obama's presidency has coincided with four straight $1 trillion-plus deficits.

The deficit reached a record $1.41 trillion in budget year 2009, which began four months before Obama was inaugurated. That deficit was largely because of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Tax revenue plummeted, while the government spent more on stimulus programs.

The budget gaps in 2010 and 2011 were slightly lower than the 2009 deficit as a gradually strengthening economy generated more tax revenue.

President George W. Bush also ran annual deficits through most of his two terms in office after he won approval for broad tax cuts and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The last time the government ran an annual surplus was in 2001.

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James Holmes Told to 'Rot in Hell' By Victim's Dad

The father of a young woman allegedly slain by James Holmes in the Aurora movie theater massacre yelled "Rot in hell, Holmes" during a court hearing today.

The outburst by Steve Hernandez prompted judge William Sylvester to have an off-the-record conference with prosecutors and defense attorneys. Sylvester then reconvened court to address the issue while armed court deputies watched over Hernandez at the front of the gallery.

Hernandez's daughter, Rebecca Wingo, was one of Holmes' 12 murder victims when he opened fire in the crowded movie theater July 20 during the midnight showing of "Dark Knight Rises." Wingo, 32, was the mother of two young girls.

"I am terribly sorry for your loss," Sylvester told Hernandez. "I can only begin to imagine the emotions that this is raising."

He then lectured Hernandez about the decorum order in place to prevent outbursts in the courtroom.

"I meant no disrespect," Hernandez apologized, promising there would be no further trouble and he was let go.

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The judge decided on Thursday night that there is enough evidence against Holmes to proceed to trial and scheduled Holmes' arraignment for March 12. Holmes will enter a plea at the arraignment.

In an order posted late Thursday, the judge wrote that "the People have carried their burden of proof and have established that there is probable cause to believe that Defendant committed the crimes charged."

The ruling came after a three-day preliminary hearing this week that revealed new details about how Holmes allegedly planned and carried out the movie theater shooting, including how investigators say he amassed an arsenal of guns and ammunition, how he booby-trapped his apartment to explode, and his bizarre behavior after his arrest.

Holmes is charged with 166 counts, including murder, attempted murder and other charges. His shooting rampage left 12 people dead and 58 wounded by gunfire. An additional 12 people suffered non-gunshot injuries.

Sylvester also ordered that Holmes be held without bail.

Holmes' attorneys have said in court that the former University of Colorado neuroscience student is mentally ill. The district attorney overseeing the case has not yet announced whether Holmes, now 25, can face the death penalty.

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Obama: U.S. forces to move to Afghan support role in spring

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Tiger Woods may guarantee packed galleries but even the oil-rich Qataris cannot afford the former world number one's appearance fee for the only European Tour event in the Gulf state. The American's involvement at the Jan. 23-26 Qatar Masters would cost a whopping $3 million, said Qatar Golf Association president Hassan al Nuaimi. "Tiger Woods demands $3 million just for an appearance, if he were to compete - which is not worth paying for a tournament of $2.5 million prize money," he told the Doha News. ...

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American Express cuts 5,400 jobs

American Express said Thursday it would lay off 8.5 per cent of its workforce in 2013, in an effort to contain operating expenses and adapt to customers moving to online and mobile platforms.

The bank said it would eliminate 5,400 jobs, though some of those will be offset by new positions, for a net cut of 4-6 per cent of the 63,500-strong workforce.

The layoffs will span different staff groups and businesses, both in the United States and its international operations, the company said.

The largest reductions will be in AmEx's travel businesses "which operate in an industry that is being fundamentally reinvented as a result of the digital revolution."

It said it took a US$400 million restructuring charge in its fourth quarter to December 31 to cover some of the severance costs of the layoffs.

The restructuring is "designed to contain future operating expenses, adapt parts of the business as more customers transact online or through mobile channels, and provide the resources for additional growth initiatives in the US and internationally," AmEx said.

Excluding the restructuring costs and other special items, the bank said its fourth-quarter net earnings came in at US$1.2 billion, the same as the year-earlier figure.

After the extra costs, net income was at US$637 million, or 56 cents a share, compared with US$1.01 a share for the fourth quarter of 2011.

"Maintaining our momentum in this environment will require us to evolve our business, embrace new technologies, become more efficient and generate resources to invest in the many growth opportunities we've identified," said chief executive Kenneth Chenault.

"For the next two years, our aim is to hold annual operating expense increases to less than three per cent.

"The overall restructuring program will put us in a better position as we seek to deliver strong results for shareholders and to maintain marketing and promotion investments at about nine per cent of revenues."

- AFP/jc

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NASA says massive spiral galaxy is 5 times size of Milky Way

Composite image of the giant barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872

(Credit:
NASA)

Most of the big news this week came out of Las Vegas where gadget geeks gathered for the Consumer Electronics Show. But now for some mind-blowing stuff, courtesy of NASA: An international team of astronomers has determined that a stellar system called NGC 6872 is more than five times the size of our Milky Way galaxy and thus holds the title of the biggest known spiral galaxy known to science. How big is big? Think about it this way: the spiral galaxy spans more than 522,000 light-years across.

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Student shot at Calif. high school by classmate

Updated at 4:14 p.m. ET

TAFT, Calif. A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into class in a rural California high school on Thursday and shot one student, fired at another but missed, and then was talked into surrendering by a teacher and another staff member, officials said.

The teen victim was in critical but stable condition, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told a press conference. The sheriff said the teacher suffered a minor pellet wound to the head but declined treatment.

When the shots were fired, the teacher began trying to get the more than two dozen students out a back door and also engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, Youngblood said. A campus supervisor responding to a call of shots fired also began talking to him.

"They talked him into putting the shotgun down," Youngblood said.

The sheriff said that at one point the shooter told the teacher, "I don't want to shoot you" and named the person he wanted to shoot.

The shooter may have had up to 20 shotgun rounds in his pockets, he said.

Officials said there's usually an armed officer on campus but the person wasn't there because he was snowed in. Taft police officers arrived within 60 seconds of first reports.

The shooting occurred about 9 a.m. at Taft Union High School in a community of fewer than 10,000 people amid oil and natural gas production fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The shooting happened on the second floor of the school's science building around 9 a.m., according to CBS affiliate KBAK in Bakersfield.

As word spread, Dayna Hopper rushed to the school to pick up her son Joseph Sorensen, 16, and daughter, Cheryle Pryor, 15, who had called from Cheryle's cellphone.

"I panicked. I wanted to puke and just get here," Dayna Hopper told The Bakersfield Californian.

KERO-TV Bakersfield reported that the station received phone calls from people inside the school who hid in closets.

The bell had just rung at a nearby school when teachers began shouting for students to get inside buildings, and the principal used an intercom to tell students to stay inside, Felicity Reich, 13, a student at Lincoln Junior High School, told the newspaper.

Shaken, she held the hand of her mother, Ellie Reich, as she spoke.

The student who was shot at the high school was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield, said Ray Pruitt, spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff's Department.

About 900 students are enrolled at the high school, which includes 9th through 12th grades.

Masses of parents headed to the school football field to find their children, and officials at other schools took action to protect their students as well, the newspaper said.

The Taft shooting came less than a month after a gunman massacred 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself.

That shooting prompted President Barack Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.

At the state Capitol, Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, said the thoughts and prayers of legislators were with the people at the Taft school.

"It really is just another very sad moment as we deal with the ongoing reality of gun violence that has captured so much of our attention this last year," Perez said.

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Biden Hints at Executive Order on Gun Control

Vice President Biden, meeting today with outside groups on gun safety, told reporters he has already started putting together a list of recommendations that he plans to issue next Tuesday.

He has suggested the administration would be ready to take executive action on the issue, which would not require votes from Congress. That prospect has raised alarm bells for gun rights advocates.

Biden told reporters Thursday, during a meeting a with sportsmen, women and wildlife groups, that he would deliver the list of recommendations to the president on Jan. 15, and that an improved system for background checks has emerged as a a priority for the stakeholders he's met so far. Guns have been at the top of the White House agenda since the December shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"I am putting together a series of recommendations for the president that will, that he will take a look at. There's a real, very tight window to do this," Biden said at the top of his meeting with advocates for sportsmen, sportswomen and wildlife interest groups. "I committed to him I'd have these recommendations to him by Tuesday. And it doesn't mean it's the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act."

Biden said he has not reached any conclusions just yet but recounted the recommendations that have been made to him from the various stakeholders he's met with over the past month. The vice president emphasized the consensus emerging from the meetings on the need to strengthen the background check system.

"So far, a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks, not just close the gun show loophole, but total, universal background checks, even including private sales," Biden said.

Other suggestions offered at the meetings have centered on gun safety and the responsibility that goes along with gun ownership, dealing with high capacity magazines, and the ability of federal agencies to do research on gun violence.

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Biden sat down with representatives of the NRA and other supporters of gun rights on the second day of this week's meetings on gun violence.

He said at one meeting that he has "never quite heard so much talk about high-capacity magazines" as he has since the shootings in Newtown.

Biden met with gun-violence victims' groups and proponents of gun control on Wednesday. Thursday was his opportunity to get a different side of the story. Biden met with the National Rifle Association and Attorney General Eric Holder met with representatives from Wal-Mart, one of the largest sellers of firearms in the country.

"There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members, as well as legislative action, we believe, is required," Biden said.

Spokesmen for the NRA and Wal-Mart confirmed representatives from their organizations would be included in the meetings Thursday. The NRA said it would be represented by James J. Baker, its top lobbyist. Advocates for sportsmen, women's groups, wildlife groups and gun owners were also invited. The vice president is slated to meet with members of the entertainment industry in the evening.

In December, the NRA called for armed officers to be placed in every school after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Wal-Mart initially turned down an invitation to participate in the talks but reversed its decision after it "underestimated the expectation to attend the meeting on Thursday in person," a spokesman said.

"We take this issue very seriously and are committed staying engaged in this discussion as the administration and Congress work toward a consensus on the right path forward," David Tovar, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart, said.

The latest meetings come one day after Biden held a first round of talks this week with gun safety advocacy groups and victims of gun violence. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, the vice president expressed the administration's commitment to develop effective gun policy by considering all ideas.

Colin Goddard, a survivor of the shooting at Virginia Tech University in 2007, participated in the meeting at the White House Wednesday and said the talks gave the groups "encouragement from the highest office in the country."

"I was really encouraged by seeing how focused and determined the administration is in seeing comprehensive changes to the gun violence in America," Goddard, who is now the assistant director for federal legislation at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told ABC News. "It was really great to see even the Vice President of the United States of America supporting us. He wants to see this done to the end and bringing us all to the table to share our personal stories, share our ideas about what our proposals could be."

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Twin explosions kill 56 in Pakistani city of Quetta: police

(Reuters) - Twin explosions killed at least 56 people in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday evening, a police official said, hours after a bombing in Quetta's market killed 11.

The death toll in the latest blasts could rise, according to Deputy Inspector of Police Hamid Shakil.

The first explosion, in a snooker hall, appeared to be a suicide bombing, local residents said. About ten minutes later, a car bomb went off, they said, and five policemen and a cameraman were among the dead from that blast.

(Reporting by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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