Microsoft rolls out Xbox TV platform

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Microsoft Corp. is rolling out a new interface for its Xbox game console users ? one that allows you to navigate through music, movies, TV shows and games with the wave of your hand or the sound of your voice.

The interface, first demonstrated by CEO Steve Ballmer in September, is set up similarly to Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 8 operating system with a series of large panes showing content options.

Xbox owners with the Kinect motion controller can swipe through screens by waving their hand in the air. It also responds to direct voice commands, and incorporates Microsoft's search engine, Bing. Windows phone users can control what to watch or hear by tapping on their portable devices.

The interface will be available to Xbox users connected to the Internet via a download on Tuesday.

In a demonstration for The Associated Press, a Microsoft employee demonstrated how saying, clearly, "Xbox. Bing. 'Iron Man,' " brought up a selection of movies, TV shows, games and soundtracks related to the title. Saying "Xbox. Show. Movies," brought up places to rent or buy the movie, including Microsoft's Zune store, Wal-Mart's Vudu, Netflix or pay TV channel Epix.

Separate subscriptions are required for services like Netflix, and much of the content also requires being a gold member of Xbox Live, a connected Internet service that costs $60 a year.

Microsoft expects to have pay TV channel partners, including those supplied by Verizon FiOS. There will be no broadcast partners, so fans of the ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox networks will continue to rely on standard set-top boxes or digital rabbit ear antennas for that content.

Microsoft says there have been 57 million Xbox units sold around the world and there are more than 35 million users who have logged on to its Xbox Live service at least once in the last three months. It did not divulge how many Xbox Live users are paying gold members.

Ross Honey, general manager of Xbox Live entertainment and advertising, said around 40 content partners were expected for the platform. Available apps from those partners will roll out gradually over time. Other partners include the British Broadcasting Company, Hulu Plus, Disney's online ESPN3 service, Ultimate Fighting Championship, YouTube and cable giant Comcast Corp.'s Xfinity on-demand subscription service.

Many of the offerings require separate pay TV subscriptions or one-time payments. Honey said that many deals with content providers are still in the works.

"As with any new technology that comes with the entertainment industry, it takes time," he said. "What we have here is a start."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-05-Microsoft-Xbox-TV/id-4fd776b2502e43878a7c61df454432f5

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Two U.S. citizens kidnapped in Nigeria released (Reuters)

ABUJA (Reuters) ? Two Americans abducted off the Nigerian coast last month from a vessel contracted to the Chevron oil company have been released, the U.S. embassy in Abuja said on Friday.

A Mexican citizen was also released, Nigerian security sources said. The embassy gave no further details about how they were freed but the sources said ransom demands had been discussed.

Eight pirates boarded the oil supply vessel contracted to the U.S. energy giant on November 17, taking the three hostages.

Recent attacks on ships off the Nigerian coast and other countries in the Gulf of Guinea are threatening the region's position as an emerging trade hub that is an increasingly important source of oil and other commodities for world markets.

(Reporting by Joe Brock)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/wl_nm/us_nigeria_usa

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GOP Senator: End welfare for the wealthy (CNN)

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Report: Diplomat credits Jordan king for Israel tax release

AMMAN (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian ambassador to Jordan lauded the role of King Abdullah in pushing Israel to release frozen tax revenues to the PA, Jordanian media said Saturday.

Ambassador Atallah Khayri told Amman-based daily Al-Arab Al-Youm that the Jordanian king secured international and regional pressure on Israel to unblock the held funds.

Khayri said King Abdullah's efforts -- including contact with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the British Prime Minister David Cameron -- paid off when Israel finally released the payments on Dec. 1.

Israel announced on Nov. 1 it was stopping the transfer of Palestinian taxes collected by Israel, which include customs duties and amount to around $100 million a month.

Palestinian officials called the move Israeli "punishment" for their policies, coming a day after UNESCO voted to admit Palestine as a full member.

The Jordanian leader has stepped up his regional diplomacy in recent weeks.

King Abdullah made a surprise visit to Ramallah where he met with President Mahmoud Abbas in late November, and was visited by Israeli president Shimon Peres on Monday.

Hamas officials say party chief Khalid Mashaal with meet the king in Amman shortly, to restore relations after the country banned the exiled leader over a decade ago.

Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441568

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Police at No Greater PTSD Risk Than General Public: Study (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Police officers who have to draw or fire their gun or use other weapons often report feeling powerless, guilty, angry and fearful afterward, Canadian researchers report.

But despite being at greater risk for experiencing such traumatic events, police officers are no more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the general population, according to a new Canadian study published by the Occupational Health & Safety Research Institute Robert-Sauve.

In the study, researchers evaluated 83 police officers in Montreal and elsewhere who had experienced a traumatic event, such as having to draw or fire their guns or use another type of weapon.

About 80 percent reported feeling powerless, while 59 percent experienced intense fear. More than half were angry, 17 percent were guilty and 2 percent said they felt shame over the event.

The study revealed that police officers have found different ways to cope with work-related traumatic events, such as getting support from their peers and taking part in leisure activities.

"The police offers involved in this study even advise their colleagues who experience this kind of event to consult a psychologist and are themselves open to the idea of receiving psychological support if need be," said the study's co-author, Melissa Martin, a psychologist at the Trauma Study Center at Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, in a news release.

Researchers also said that symptoms of PTSD among police officers, such as depression and dissociative reactions, can be prevented by incorporating coping strategies into officer training programs.

"Providing police officers with interventional support shortly after and in the weeks following a TE [traumatic events] improves the chances of preventing PTSD," said study lead author Andre Marchand, a researcher at the Fernand-Seguin Research Center of Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital and an associate professor at Montreal University, in a university news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health provides more information on post-traumatic stress disorder.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111202/hl_hsn/policeatnogreaterptsdriskthangeneralpublicstudy

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Jobless rate drops to 8.6 percent, hiring picks up (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The unemployment rate fell to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6 percent in November and companies stepped up hiring, further evidence the economic recovery was gaining momentum.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 120,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, in line with economists' expectations for a gain of 122,000.

The relative strength of the report was also bolstered by revisions to the employment counts for September and October to show 72,000 more jobs created than previously reported.

While part of the decline in the unemployment rate from 9.0 percent in October was due to people leaving the labor force, the household survey from which the jobless rate is derived also showed solid gains in employment

The unemployment rate had been expected to hold at 9 percent. It last dropped by 0.4 percentage point in January.

"The really good news is that employment has grown for four months running -- in large steps. There was a solid increase in private employment. Everything there looks steady, but clearly healthy and positive," said Pierre Ellis, a senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

However, retail accounted for more than a third all new private sector jobs in November.

U.S. stock index futures added gains after the report, while Treasury debt prices briefly extended losses and interest rate futures held steady. The dollar extended gains versus the yen.

The report is unlikely to take much pressure off President Barack Obama, whose economic stewardship will face the judgment of voters next November. The outlook for the U.S. economy is also being threatened by Europe's deepening financial crisis.

The report could temper the appetite among some Federal Reserve officials to ease monetary policy further.

In forecasts released earlier this month, the Fed said the jobless rate would likely average 9 percent to 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter. It did not expect it to drop to an 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent range until late next year.

Data ranging from manufacturing to retail sales suggest the growth pace could top 3 percent in the fourth quarter, in contrast to China, where growth is cooling and the euro zone, which many economists believe is already in recession.

While the economy's growth pace appears to have accelerated from the third quarter's 2 percent annual rate, unemployment remains too high.

At the same time, U.S. fiscal policy is set to tighten in the new year, even if lawmakers extend a payroll tax cut.

Taken together, some analysts believe the headwinds facing the U.S. economy will lead the Fed to ease monetary policy further by buying more bonds.

"We still have a very long way to go. I would favor the Fed going for a third round of quantitative easing," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "It's the only powerful tool left, even though it's losing some of its bang."

Analysts say the economy needs to create at least 125,000 jobs every month just to keep the unemployment rate steady.

But there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

While the government's survey of employers has shown a still tepid pace of job growth, its separate poll of households that is used to calculate the unemployment rate has shown robust jobs gains for four straight month.

At the same time, a broad measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but have given up looking for jobs and those working only part time for economic reasons dropped to a 2-1/2 year low of 15.6 percent in November from 16.2 percent in October.

PRIVATE SECTOR SHOULDERS BURDEN

All the increase in nonfarm payrolls in November again came from the private sector, where employment rose 140,000 after increasing 117,000 in October.

Government employment fell by 20,000. Public payrolls have dropped in 10 of the past 11 months as state and local governments have tightened their belts.

Outside of government, job gains were almost across the board, with retail surging 49,800.

Elsewhere, construction payrolls fell 12,000 after losing 15,000 jobs in October. Factory jobs edged up 2,000, with most of the gains coming from automakers.

Health care and social assistance hiring rose 18,700 after adding 30,300 job in October. Temporary hiring -- seen as a harbinger for future hiring - increased 22,300 after adding 15,800 jobs last month.

The average work week was unchanged at 34.3 hours, with hourly earnings falling two cents.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Freilich in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/bs_nm/us_usa_economy

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WADA: NFLPA stance on HGH test 'not about science' (AP)

NEW YORK ? The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency says the NFL Players Association's objections to starting tests for human growth hormone is "not about science" and has "no substance."

Speaking to reporters Thursday at an anti-doping conference hosted at NFL headquarters, WADA director general David Howman adds that the NFLPA's stance could lead one to believe that use of HGH is a problem in pro football.

Howman says: "If you've got nothing to hide, open up."

Told of those comments, NFLPA spokesman George Atallah tells The Associated Press that WADA itself "lacks transparency" and says the union still has legitimate concerns about the tests and appeals process.

Howman is the keynote speaker at "The Doping Decision: Deterring Doping in Sport," a conference organized by the Partnership for Clean Competition.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_nfl_hgh_testing_wada

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