Modern trading killing off "barrow boy" market slang (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? "The Old Lady just bought half a yard of cable and there are plenty of bids for Bill and Ben."

Confused?

To most foreign exchange traders in London's "City" financial district that sentence would make perfect sense: "The Bank of England just bought half a billion U.S. dollars worth of British pounds against the dollar and there's interest to buy the Japanese yen."

A mixture of Cockney rhyming slang, market banter and expressions picked up from horse racing bookmakers makes up the basis for a financial lingua franca that may sound like nonsense to most people, but has dominated the $4 trillion (2.60 trillion pounds) a day foreign exchange (FX) market for decades up until recently.

Most often used for currencies, countries and numbers, this financial market mumbo jumbo is starting to die out on the modern trading floors of international banks.

The growth of electronic dealing over computer screens rather than telephones or in person, a new generation of university-educated traders, and the introduction of the single European currency are all seen as reasons behind slang's demise.

"These terms get batted around a little bit but not as much as they used to," said Graham Davidson, director of FX trading at National Australia Bank in London, who said dealing rooms in general are much quieter than they used to be.

"FX is much more electronic. Lots of the slang came about through banter with the voice brokers, but that doesn't really work with machines. A lot of day-to-day chit chat has faded away, it's quite sad."

Some market players say the shift in the language of the dealing rooms also highlights a wider shift in the demographic of those doing the trading.

Many traders nowadays are recruited as university graduates with top marks from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and M.I.T., whereas 30 years ago aspiring youngsters with few, if any, academic qualifications often started as back office clerks and worked their way up to the trading floor.

Young London lads blessed with quick wits, common sense and ability to juggle numbers were often prized above those with academic laurels and went on to make fortunes as City traders.

"They were the 'barrow boys' coming off the market stalls. It was more working class and with that came the language of the street," said one trader, who used to work alongside some dealers who also owned fruit and vegetable and flower stalls.

"In the early days of dealing rooms it was the City institutions and especially the British banks where you heard it. Now dealing rooms might be a bit more international and slang is dying off a bit."

HALF A YARD OF CABLE

Some expressions have endured despite the changed dealing room environment. "Yard," meaning billion comes from shortening the French word for billion, which is "milliard."

"Cable" - one of the most-used slang terms - means the British pound/U.S. dollar currency pair and refers to the transatlantic telegraph cable that allowed prices to be transmitted between the London and New York Exchanges.

The Bank of England gained its title from its address, making it the "Old Lady" of Threadneedle Street, while the yen is nicknamed the Bill and Ben - after a pair of puppets from a 1950s British children's TV show - simply because it rhymes.

Country nicknames tend to conform to stereotypes, some less politically correct than others, while currencies were given nicknames to help distinguish them easily.

Some traders said if countries did give up the single European currency (euro) as a result of an on-going debt crisis in Europe, some slang might re-emerge.

"We have talked about this a lot recently given the euro zone situation, and thought about what it would be like to go back to mark/Paris (deutschmark/French franc)," a London-based trader said.

"These days there are far fewer names to worry about - the euro is the euro. Whereas in years gone by you would have had to worry about what the Estonian currency was even called."

Short selection of City slang

NUMBERS:

A SPANIARD 1 From the Spanish name Juan

A PRICKLY 2 A prickly pear

A CARPET 3 UK prisoners used to be allowed carpet in their cells after 3 years

LADY GODIVA 5 Rhymes with fiver

AYRTON 10 Tenner rhymes with Ayrton Senna, the late racing car driver

A BULLY 50 From the 50-point bullseye on a dartboard

A MONKEY 500 The 500-Indian rupee note used to have a picture of a monkey on it

CURRENCIES:

THE LOONIE CANADIAN DOLLAR A waterfowl named the loon is depicted on Canada's one-dollar coin

THE KIWI NZ DOLLAR National bird of New Zealand

THE AUSSIE AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR

THE STOKKIE SWEDISH CROWN

THE NOKKIE NORWEGIAN CROWN

(Reporting by Nia Williams, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120113/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_markets_slang_forex

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Myanmar frees many prominent political prisoners

Khin Nyunt, Myanmar's ex-prime minister and former chief of the Myanmar military intelligence, left, talks to journalists as he was released from house arrest in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. Myanmar freed many of its prominent political prisoners Friday in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country. The man at right is unidentified. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

Khin Nyunt, Myanmar's ex-prime minister and former chief of the Myanmar military intelligence, left, talks to journalists as he was released from house arrest in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. Myanmar freed many of its prominent political prisoners Friday in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country. The man at right is unidentified. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

Family members of prisoners wait outside the Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. Myanmar freed many of its prominent political prisoners Friday in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

Family members of prisoners wait outside the Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. Myanmar freed many of its prominent political prisoners Friday in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

A Myanmar political prisoner waves his hand to his colleagues as he comes out of the Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. Myanmar freed many of its prominent political prisoners Friday in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

(AP) ? Myanmar freed some of its most famous political inmates Friday, sparking jubilation outside prison gates while signaling its readiness to comply with demands of the U.S. and its allies for a lifting of economic sanctions.

Among those released were prominent political activists, the leaders of brutally repressed democratic uprisings, a former prime minister, ethnic minority leaders, journalists and relatives of the former dictator Ne Win. The releases were part of a presidential pardon for 651 detainees that state radio and television said would take part in "nation-building."

It was the latest in a flurry of accelerating changes in Myanmar sought by the West, including the recent launching of a dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Thursday's signing of a cease-fire in a long-running campaign against Karen insurgents.

Myanmar likely now feels the ball is the West's court to lift the crippling economic measures.

But the United States and allies may take a wait-and-see approach, to see if government truces with various ethnic rebel groups hold, discussions with Suu Kyi move forward and scheduled April elections appear free and fair.

"I think we are close to the removal of Western sanctions," said Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at the University of Canberra, adding that the U.S. and others might first wait to see Aung San Suu Kyi take a seat in parliament. "There's a sense that there's still more to go before the sanctions will be removed."

Human Rights Watch called Friday's release "a crucial development" in promoting human rights in Myanmar but stressed that an unknown number of political prisoners still remain detained. The group called for their release and urged the government to allow international monitors to enter prisons to verify the numbers and whereabouts of those still jailed.

Until Friday, as many as 1,500 political prisoners were believed to be behind bars, by some counts, and the exact tally of those released Friday will likely take several days. Suu Kyi's party said it was expecting the release of many of the 600 dissidents it tracks.

"The release of such a large number of political prisoners demonstrates the government's will to solve political problems through political means," said Win Tin, a senior member of Suu Kyi's party who previously spent 19 years in prison but was released under a 2008 amnesty.

Among the high-profile inmates released were Min Ko Naing, a nearly legendary student leader from Myanmar's failed 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

Cheers and applause erupted outside the Thayet prison, 545 kilometers (345 miles) north of Yangon, where a huge crowd gathered to see the charismatic activist. Min Ko Naing, leader of the "88 Generation Students Group," was serving a 65-year prison sentence. His most recent arrest came in August 2007 along with 14 other student leaders at a protest against fuel price increases that preceded the monk-led Saffron Revolution, which was violently suppressed.

Activists arrested after the abortive 2007 Saffron Revolution ? named for the color of the robes worn by the country's Buddhist monks ? were also freed Friday. Among them were Shin Gambira, 32, a militant monk who helped lead the anti-government protests. Family members said that he told them he was in good health.

Also freed was ethnic leader Khun Tun Oo, the chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, who was serving a 93-year sentence. He was arrested along with several other Shan leaders in February 2005 and charged with treason.

Traditional Shan music blasted from speakers outside Khun Tun Oo's family home in Yangon, where a crowd danced as they awaited his return from prison.

The government recently signed a preliminary cease-fire agreement with Shan rebels, among several other pacts to end ethnic fighting. The Shan Herald Agency for News, an online news site close to the rebels, said five or six Shan political prisoners were freed Friday.

Jailed former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt also was freed. He was ousted in 2004 after falling out of favor with the junta and convicted a year later of insubordination and corruption and sentenced to 44 years under house arrest.

"The democratic process is on the right track," the 73-year-old Khin Nyunt told reporters in Yangon, saying he did not plan to return to politics.

The United States, members of the European Union and Canada are among nations that have imposed sanctions on Myanmar. The U.S. and Britain have previously said they would remain in place until more political prisoners are released.

"The United States wants to be a partner with Burma," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her recent historic visit to Myanmar. "We want to work with you as you further democratization, as you release all political prisoners, as you begin the difficult but necessary process of ending the ethnic conflicts that have gone on far too long, as you hold elections that are free, fair, and credible."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-13-AS-Myanmar/id-c1d3bde79a99412ba05b8be38ca23c8d

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How Brain Scans Can Help Astronomers Understand Stars

A false color image of Cassiopeia A using observations from both the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, and Chandra X-ray Observatory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

They may come from completely different fields of study, but brain scans and supernovae have more in common than you would think.

In a new TED talk, Michelle Borkin explains how software developed for use in a hospital was able to help astronomers study the structure of supernovae.

An astronomer colleague of Borkin?s at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics had eight years worth of data from the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. She wanted to use the data to understand the remnant?s structure so she could work out how the star exploded. But there was a problem: she had no good way to look at the data. Luckily, Borkin did, and suggested that the astronomer try using 3D slicer software, originally developed in a hospital in Boston for looking at brain scans. It worked beautifully.

It is not just data analysis in these two fields that uses the same tools. The way data is collected from brain scans and radio telescopes is similar too. Even images in the fields of medicine and astronomy are alike: a confocal microscopy image of a human cornea looks much like a radio telescope image of star forming region NGC1333, despite the difference in scale.

This collaboration between astronomy and medicine is not the only example of an interdisciplinary connection in science ? a lot of interesting science is now happening at the interface between two or more fields of study. Scientists working in all areas are looking outside their own lab in search of new ideas and methods, and more could benefit from joining them.

Video credit: TED

More about the Astronomical Medicine Project.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=2cf34155e86038683ebdf14d0c0dfa4a

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Cloud storage sites by Amazon, Google, Apple, Carbonite compared

If you've ever had your laptop stolen, watched your toddler baptize your PC with Pepsi, or had your MacBook come to a cold, dead stop, you know that the digital memories we store on our home computers are anything but indelible.

But now there's a special place coalescing where data never dies: It's called the cloud.

Internet giants Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. have relied for years on cloud computing, where information is split up and stored across large networks of remote servers, rather than all in one place. When storing a holiday dinner photo, for instance, Google slices it into many shreds of data that are then duplicated and sent to dozens of data centers all over the world. That way, if one data center melts down or has a long power outage, your family portrait can be reassembled from the pieces still stored in the center's surviving peers.

The good news is that as the Internet has gotten faster and data centers have multiplied, the price of storing files in the cloud has dropped. For many consumers, storing copies of all of your music, photos and documents in the cloud is now an affordable option ? and one that will protect you from waking up with your memories erased.

Take Carbonite, a cloud backup product that for $59 a year will create a complete online copy of your computer, so that if you lose any file ? or all your files ? you can restore it through a Web browser. Once you install the automatic backup application on your computer, Carbonite will make sure to copy every new file to its servers, so you never have to upload anything manually. If you accidentally delete a file from your computer, you have 30 days to access the backup before Carbonite deletes the file too.

Amazon also has a set of cloud storage services. Its Cloud Player will let you upload your music collection to the Internet so that you can access it from any of your computers or mobile devices. The software automatically searches your computer for music files and uploads them all into nice, organized categories.

Amazon has a more general storage service called Cloud Drive, which allows you to upload and store videos, photos, documents and other files. The service is free for the first 5 gigabytes of storage. That's enough to fit about 1,000 MP3 music files and 1,000 photos ? a good start, but probably not enough to hold your entire collections. For a monthly fee, you can upgrade to larger accounts, from 20 gigabytes ($20 a year) to 1,000 gigabytes ($1,000 a year). For most people, the latter would be enough for complete collections of your photos, music and documents, as well as a few shelves of full-length movies.

The Cloud Drive has a bothersome limitation, though: Instead of an automatic upload feature like the one Carbonite has, you have to manually upload files, which makes loading hundreds or thousands of files extremely time-consuming. At this point, it's best for a limited number of files, perhaps the ones you'd most like to have copies of.

Google offers a similar service through its Google Docs feature. You can upload most kinds of files to your Google Docs list, up to 1 gigabyte for free. Its prices for more space are lower than Amazon's: $5 a year for 20 gigabytes and $100 a year for 400 gigabytes. You can go up to 16 terabytes for $4,100, but that's more than you'll need unless you store a lot of high-quality video.

Apple has a somewhat more limited system called iCloud, which tends to store only documents or music files that you create or purchase through Apple. Unlike with Amazon or Google, you can't upload music files that you didn't purchase in Apple's store, nor can you back up your work documents if they weren't created on Apple's word processing tools. ICloud does have an interesting tool called iTunes Match, however, which will scan your music collection and, if the songs are available on iTunes, it will create a virtual copy of your music collection in the cloud that you can access from any of your Apple devices.

A caveat to prospective cloud users: Although your data will be safer from accidental deletion in the cloud, other concerns about this new technology remain.

Companies like Amazon and Google are sometimes vulnerable to outages, during which large swaths of their cloud servers go off line, sometimes for hours or days, rendering huge amounts of data inaccessible.

Those storing highly sensitive data ? business plans, invention blueprints, compromising photos ? may want to hold off for now: The cloud is secure, but it's no Ft. Knox. Unlike in a locked safety deposit box at a bank, your cloud data will often be accessible to some employees at the company storing your data. Moreover, the cloud can be hacked just like any other computer system, and security researchers believe that cyber criminals are likely to ramp up cloud attacks in the coming year.

But for regular old family snapshots, music files and writing drafts, the cloud is providing an affordable and convenient way to keep your digital stuff safe.

david.sarno@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/business/~3/xaPylWa4ckw/la-fi-tech-savvy-cloud-20111229,0,5265913.story

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bydanielvictor: It's kinda like putting baseball cards in your spokes, except it's this instead. http://t.co/Fax3hhlS

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Fuel pipeline explodes in Colombia, killing 11

Men work in front of a home that was damaged by a pipeline explosion in Dos Quebradas, Colombia, Friday Dec. 23, 2011. The explosion killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and destroyed homes. The pipeline, which carries gasoline and diesel, is operated by national oil company Ecopetrol. (AP Photo/Maria Luisa Garcia)

Men work in front of a home that was damaged by a pipeline explosion in Dos Quebradas, Colombia, Friday Dec. 23, 2011. The explosion killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and destroyed homes. The pipeline, which carries gasoline and diesel, is operated by national oil company Ecopetrol. (AP Photo/Maria Luisa Garcia)

A man stands in his home after it was damaged by a pipeline explosion in Dos Quebradas, Colombia, Friday Dec. 23, 2011. The explosion killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and destroyed homes. The pipeline, which carries gasoline and diesel, is operated by national oil company Ecopetrol. (AP Photo/Maria Luisa Garcia)

An injured man is wheeled into a hospital after a pipeline explosion in Dos Quebradas, Colombia, Friday Dec. 23, 2011. The explosion killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and destroyed homes. The pipeline, which carries gasoline and diesel, is operated by national oil company Ecopetrol. (AP Photo/Mauricio Ortiz, La Tarde)

People and rescue workers gather at the site of a pipeline explosion in Dos Quebradas, Colombia, Friday Dec. 23, 2011. The explosion killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and destroyed homes. The pipeline, which carries gasoline and diesel, is operated by national oil company Ecopetrol. (AP Photo/John Jairo Bonilla)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) ? A fuel pipeline exploded in Colombia on Friday, creating a fireball and blaze that killed 11 people, injured nearly 100 and destroyed more than two dozen homes.

The blast before dawn ripped through the town of Dosquebradas. Authorities said they were investigating what caused the explosion and initially suspected it was set off by thieves who may have tapped the pipeline to steal fuel. The pipeline transported gasoline and diesel.

But national oil company Ecopetrol, which operates the pipeline, later said in a statement the blast was the result of heavy rains that caused movements in the earth, which ruptured the pipeline. Fuel spilled out and was ignited when it came in contact with an unidentified heat source.

Ecopetrol said the explosion and fire killed 11 people and injured another 99.

Town official Oscar Andres Herrera said at least five of the injured were severely burned and the blaze destroyed 25 homes and damaged 47 others.

President Juan Manuel Santos visited the site of the explosion and promised government assistance to the victims and their families.

The explosion occurred in the central province of Risaralda, located about 100 miles (170 kilometers) southwest of the capital of Bogota.

Images on Colombian television showed some of the houses destroyed by the blast and other homes with charred walls. The waters of a nearby stream were flaming with some of the spilled fuel.

Police officer Juan Pablo Munoz, who works elsewhere in the country but was visiting family for Christmas, said he was jolted out of bed by the explosion.

"I smelled a strong odor of gasoline," the 21-year-old said by phone. "I went out into the street. I walked at least 10 steps and I saw that everything around me was destroyed."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-23-LT-Colombia-Pipeline-Explosion/id-0327e0a30bf8408a8cb448f66fa52977

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High surf advisory during Washington clam dig

ABERDEEN ? The National Weather Service has issued a high surf advisory for the Washington coast Friday night at the same time clam diggers will be out on four beaches.

KBKW radio reports Grays Harbor County Emergency Management is urging diggers to watch for large waves and to not turn their backs to the ocean.

The state Fish and Wildlife Department approved the last razor clam dig of the year Friday night at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks beaches.

Last modified: December 23. 2011 12:51PM

Source: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011111229995

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Alabama Tornado Survivors Sought for Interviews

Public health agencies are looking to interview survivors of the killer tornadoes that hit north and central Alabama on April 27.

State Health Officer Don Williamson says the goal is to explore ways to lessen the loss of lives and property in future disasters. The state departments of Public Health and Mental Health are working on the project with the Centers for Disease Control.

They are asking storm survivors to call the state Department of Public Health at 1-855-228-3777 or enter their contact information online at the department?s website. Then they will be called back to schedule a phone interview of 20 to 30 minutes beginning Jan. 9.

Interviewers will be either Alabama college students or staff from the Centers for Disease Control.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/southeast/2011/12/21/197406.htm

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Turkey slams France over genocide debate

The headlines of some Turkish newspapers in Turkish, French and English, all condemning the French National Assembly's Thursday bill, which would see anyone in France who publicly denies the 1915 Armenian genocide face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000) , in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. Turkey is recalling its ambassador to France and halting official contacts in retaliation for French Parliament's vote making it a crime to deny the WWI-era mass killings of Armenians was a genocide. Hesadlines read: " Crazy minority ( of French lawmakers), high price will be paid, doors closed, we have frozen and 38 stupid votes" (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

The headlines of some Turkish newspapers in Turkish, French and English, all condemning the French National Assembly's Thursday bill, which would see anyone in France who publicly denies the 1915 Armenian genocide face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000) , in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. Turkey is recalling its ambassador to France and halting official contacts in retaliation for French Parliament's vote making it a crime to deny the WWI-era mass killings of Armenians was a genocide. Hesadlines read: " Crazy minority ( of French lawmakers), high price will be paid, doors closed, we have frozen and 38 stupid votes" (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

The headlines of some Turkish newspapers in Turkish, French and English, all condemning the French National Assembly's Thursday bill, which would see anyone in France who publicly denies the 1915 Armenian genocide face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000) , in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. Turkey is recalling its ambassador to France and halting official contacts in retaliation for French Parliament's vote making it a crime to deny the WWI-era mass killings of Armenians was a genocide. Hesadlines read: " Crazy minority ( of French lawmakers), high price will be paid, doors closed, we have frozen and 38 stupid votes" (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

(AP) ? Turkey responded to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own Friday, accusing France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria.

French lawmakers passed a bill Thursday making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide.

The deepening acrimony between two strategic allies and trading partners could have repercussions far beyond the settling of accounts over some of the bloodiest episodes of the past century.

Turkey was already frustrated by French opposition to its stalled European Union bid, and hopes for Western-backed rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia seem ever more distant ahead of 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian killings.

The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which maintains there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed the lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan halted bilateral political and economic contacts, suspended military cooperation and ordered his country's ambassador home for consultations.

Turkey and France worked closely together during NATO's operation against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and had been coordinating policy on Syria and Afghanistan.

"What the French did in Algeria was genocide," Erdogan said Friday in a heavily personal speech, laced with criticism of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

He alleged that beginning in 1945, about 15 percent of the population of Algeria was massacred by the French. He also said Algerians were burned in ovens.

"They were mercilessly martyred," he said.

Erdogan appeared to be referring to allegations that the French burned the dead in ovens after a 1945 uprising that began in the Algerian town of Setif. Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. French figures say up to 20,000.

The French bill's passage "is a clear example of how racism, discrimination and anti-Muslim sentiment have reached new heights in France and in Europe," Erdogan said. "French President Sarkozy's ambition is to win an election based on promoting animosity against Turks and Muslims."

France holds presidential elections in April.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the French vote was comparable to attempts by Mideast rulers to stifle free speech.

"Europe has philosophically and ideologically reverted to the Middle Ages," Davutoglu said at a conference of Turkish ambassadors in Ankara, the capital.

The French Foreign Ministry said the statements from Turkey were unhelpful and below the belt.

"We deplore the recourse to excess and to personal attacks which are not at the level of the stakes or the mutual interest of our ties," a ministry statement said.

Paris "assumes with lucidity and transparency its duty of memory in the face of tragedies which marked its history," the statement said, an allusion to France's admission that the state had a role in the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps, and apparently a veiled nod to its past in Algeria, which gained independence in 1962 after a brutal seven-year war.

France formally recognized the Armenian killings as genocide in 2001, but had previously provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of euro45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings, putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

France is committed to human rights and respect for "historical memory," Sarkozy said in Prague, where he was attending the funeral of Vaclav Havel, the dissident who became president of the Czech Republic.

"France doesn't give lessons to anyone, but France also doesn't plan on taking them," Sarkozy said in a clip shown on France's LCI television. "I respect the convictions of our Turkish friends ? it's a grand country, a grand civilization ? and they must respect ours. To cede on one's convictions is always cowardice, and one always ends up by paying for cowardice."

Most historians contend the Ottoman killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians constituted the first genocide of the 20th century. But the issue is dicey for any government that wants a strong alliance with Turkey, a rising power. In Washington, President Barack Obama has stopped short of calling the killings genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of America said the French vote "reinforces the growing international consensus ? and the mounting pressure on Turkey ? for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-23-EU-Turkey-France-Genocide/id-2fe2162d9ba045a98322554d08f2c0e5

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UK rate setters unanimous in maintaining policy (AP)

LONDON ? The Bank of England's rate-setting body unanimously decided to keep policy unchanged at its most recent meeting as it continued to assess the fallout from Europe's raging debt crisis.

Minutes of the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee published Wednesday, showed that all nine members voted to keep the benchmark interest rate at the all-time low of 0.5 percent and to maintain the monetary stimulus at 275 billion pounds ($433 billion).

The rate-setters, who are tasked with keeping inflation around the 2 percent level, said they expected price pressures to ease quite dramatically next year from 5 percent in October, largely because the factors that drove prices higher in 2011, including higher sales taxes and energy prices, drop out of the annual comparison. They also said high unemployment would keep a lid on domestically generated inflation by weighing on wage demands.

The minutes show that rate-setters are continuing to worry about the debt crisis in Europe, and some argued that more asset purchases "may be warranted in due course."

Fears were raised that the worst risks in the eurozone "had not so far crystallized" and that the possibility remained that banks would find it difficult to secure funding alongside volatile financial markets.

Separately, the Office for National Statistics, revealed that the U.K.'s public sector net borrowing excluding financial interventions ? a broad gauge of the state of the country's public finances ? fell to 18.1 billion pounds ($28.5billion) in November, down from 20.4 billion pounds a year earlier.

The fall was largely driven by higher tax receipts from the new levy on banks and an increase in the sales tax to 20 percent.

Analysts said the British government is on track to hit its full year borrowing targets of 127 billion pounds.

But there are fears that the government's deficit reduction plans could yet be derailed amid rising unemployment and predictions that the U.K.'s economy is on the brink of another recession.

While Moody's confirmed the U.K.'s triple A credit rating on Tuesday, it warned that the country is exposed to both domestic weakness and the financial crisis in the eurozone.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_economy

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