EU solutions to Greek debt crisis

The sinking euro and a downgrade of Portugal's debt put renewed pressure on European leaders Wednesday to come up with a bailout plan for Greece and stem the government debt crisis undermining their shared currency.

But agreement remained elusive as a Thursday summit approached. Markets increasingly expect any bailout for Greece to involve the International Monetary Fund -- and EU governments are discussing whether they would permit that and add financial help from eurozone nations.

Germany is holding back a deal, reluctant to put taxpayer money on the line for Greece. But failure to help an indebted eurozone country would be an admission that Europe can't halt the crisis in its currency union.

The latest vote of no confidence in vulnerable eurozone economies came with Fitch Ratings' downgrade Wednesday of Portugal's debt. The credit ratings agency said Portugal's prospects for recovery were weaker than others in the eurozone and it faces problems shrinking its budget deficit.

The euro hit a 10-month low against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday on the Portuguese downgrades and the uncertainty over Europe's dithering over Greece -- which says it will need eurozone or IMF help if markets keep charging it painfully high costs to borrow.

Greece's debt crisis has undermined the euro by showing that the rules supporting it have not prevented governments from overspending, hitting public accounts. Athens' woes are also putting pressure on other eurozone countries with troubled finances, such as Portugal and Spain.

European diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is heading efforts to get the 16 eurozone nations to meet separately Thursday on the crisis surrounding Greece, in addition to the meeting by all 27 EU member governments.

Eurozone leaders have only met once for a summit before at the height of the banking crisis in 2008. "He is pushing hard for this and we think it is going to happen," said the diplomat.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy is also asking for a eurozone summit, said another EU official. He met French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Wednesday, Sarkozy's office said.

However, Germany is not keen, with a senior government official in Berlin saying "for us, there is no decision at this summit on aid to Greece."

He said aid "comes into question only as a last resort" when Greece has exhausted all efforts to raise money from bond markets.

The German government wants the IMF to be "significantly involved" in any bailout because it believes that it could face a legal challenge from the country's powerful constitutional court unless it can prove that that any European or German aid is the last option left to Greece.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said EU leaders were facing a test of their commitment to the currency union and should set up "a safety net to be used only in case all other means to avoid the crisis have been exhausted."

"What is at stake is the essential principle of financial stability that is at the center of the euro, and the euro is the most important creation of the European project," he told the European Parliament.

He hinted that IMF help would be acceptable but said it needs to be with the EU's blessing "embedded into a giant European framework."

Greek government spokesman George Petalotis also said Greece was waiting for a detailed EU plan that would "exert influence in such a way that our country can borrow, when it requires money."

He stressed that Greece was "not seeking financial help from anyone" but needed an option to avoid crippling interest rates that are undermining Greek efforts to shave billions of euros from its budget this year.

The countries that use the euro pledged last month to help Greece if the stability of the currency zone were threatened -- but agreed no details. Germany says it doesn't need to fulfill that promise yet, especially not to save Greece from years of overspending and faking its budget numbers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel saw no reason to move quickly, saying Sunday that EU leaders shouldn't discuss a potential bailout at the two-day summit starting Thursday because Greece is not yet asking for help and is not on the verge of bankruptcy.

Merkel is also pressing for tough new rules to restrain deficit spending by eurozone members to prevent future debt crises.

Germany's economy minister Rainer Bruederle repeated that position Wednesday, telling the daily Passauer Neue Presse that "aid for Greece would be the wrong signal. We must not create a precedent that other eurozone countries can refer to in the future."

"It cannot be possible that German taxpayers have to pick up the bill for mismanagement in Greece and elsewhere," he said.

HOW TO FIGHT STRESS WITH FOOD

We all know that tension can wreak havoc on our eating patterns. But the right (healthy!) foods can often help tame mindless munching and cravings and, better yet, actually lower overall anxiety and its symptoms. Eight of our favorites:

Dark Chocolate

High in flavonoids, which are lauded for their relaxing properties (chamomile tea is another great source), chocolate also contains phenethylamine, a chemical that enhances your mood. The darker the chocolate, the more healthy substances you're getting in your diet, so look for bars that are 70 percent cacao or higher.

Skim Milk

Turns out that a glass of warm milk really is calming. One study found that women who drank four or more servings of lowfat or skim milk every day were about half as likely to experience stress-related PMS symptoms than those who drank less than one serving a week.

Oatmeal

Carbs help you produce serotonin, a calming hormone that helps fight anxiety's negative effects-which is probably why many of us crave them when we're stressed. Go with the craving and choose healthy sources. Oatmeal is high in fiber, which means that your body will absorb it slowly. In one fell swoop, you'll prolong the serotonin boost, keeping yourself feeling full for longer (and on less) and making sure your blood sugar's in check.

Salmon

Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids-abundant in fish like salmon-can help reverse stress symptoms by boosting serotonin levels, and that an omega-3-rich diet can also help suppress the production of the anxiety hormones cortisol and adrenaline.

Walnuts

They've been shown to help lower blood pressure, which is critical for those whose hearts are already working overtime thanks to high adrenaline levels. In fact, research so strongly backs their health benefits that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration goes so far as to recommend 1 1/2 oz per day.

Sunflower Seeds

A good source of folate, which helps your body produce a pleasure-inducing brain chemical called dopamine.

Spinach

Studies show that magnesium, which you'll find in leafy greens like spinach, improves your body's response to stress.

Blueberries

Their antioxidants counteract the effects of stress hormones like cortisol on your body.

Carolyn McCall confirmed as easyJet chief

Low-cost airline easyJet has confirmed that Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of Guardian Media Group, is to be its next chief executive.

A start date for McCall, who has worked at Guardian Media Group for 24 years, has not yet been finalised.

Sir Michael Rake, the chairman of easyJet, said that McCall had been chosen to run the FTSE company following a "thorough process" against a field of "high calibre" candidates.

"Following a thorough process involving a number of high calibre candidates we have unanimously chosen a strong chief executive with the strategic ability, operational capability and passion to drive easyJet through the next stage of its development and we look forward to working with Carolyn," said Rake.

The company said that McCall, who joined GMG as a research planner in 1986 and rose through the ranks to be appointed group chief executive in 2006, had a "proven track record of successful operational delivery in a fast changing online consumer-facing business combined with extensive plc board and government and lobbying experience."

"The Guardian has been my second family for a quarter of a century, and I feel incredibly privileged to be part of such a wonderful and unique organisation," said McCall. "However, the chance to lead a FTSE company of easyJet's calibre is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My priority will be to build on easyJet's strengths – a strong consumer proposition, leadership positions in many of Europe's key airports, and an operating model built around simplicity and low cost."

McCall, 48, has held non-executive roles at New Look, Lloyds TSB and Tesco. During her time at the Guardian she oversaw investment programme in new printing presses which facilitated a move from broadsheet to Berliner format. She was the driving force in the acquisition of a 30% stake in Emap's business-to-business titles in a £1bn deal with equity partner Apax in 2007. The funds for the move were raised from the sale of a stake in Trader Media Group to Apax for £675m. She also oversaw the launch of Guardian Unlimited, parent of MediaGuardian.co.uk, and the establishment of an investment portfolio worth more than £200m.

McCall said that she felt that she was leaving GMG, which has been undergoing a cost-cutting programme to reduce significant losses, "knowing that our journalism has never been more influential or widely read, and with complete confidence that its financial position is secure".

"Carolyn has been an inspired and visionary leader of the Guardian, the Observer and GMG," said Alan Rusbridger, the editor-in-chief of GNM. "She has unwaveringly supported our journalists and, with GMG, worked tirelessly to develop a highly successful media company to protect and nourish our editorial output and aims. She is a digital pioneer, a lovely colleague and a good friend."

Gap in health care protection for children

Hours after President Barack Obama signed historic health care legislation, a potential problem emerged. Administration officials are now scrambling to fix a gap in highly touted benefits for children.

Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

However, if a child is accepted for coverage, or is already covered, the insurer cannot exclude payment for treating a particular illness, as sometimes happens now. For example, if a child has asthma, the insurance company cannot write a policy that excludes that condition from coverage. The new safeguard will be in place later this year.

Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That's the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems.

Obama's public statements have conveyed the impression that the new protections for kids were more sweeping and straightforward.

"This is a patient's bill of rights on steroids," the president said Friday at George Mason University in Virginia. "Starting this year, thousands of uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions will be able to purchase health insurance, some for the very first time. Starting this year, insurance companies will be banned forever from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions."

And Saturday, addressing House Democrats as they approached a make-or-break vote on the bill, Obama said, "This year ... parents who are worried about getting coverage for their children with pre-existing conditions now are assured that insurance companies have to give them coverage — this year."

Late Tuesday, the administration said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would try to resolve the situation by issuing new regulations. The Obama administration interprets the law to mean that kids can't be denied coverage, as the president has said repeatedly.

"To ensure that there is no ambiguity on this point, the secretary of HHS is preparing to issue regulations next month making it clear that the term 'pre-existing exclusion' applies to both a child's access to a plan and his or her benefits once he or she is in the plan for all plans newly sold in this country six months from today," HHS spokesman Nick Papas said.

The coverage problem could mainly affect parents who purchase their own coverage for the family, as many self-employed people have to do. Families covered through employer plans typically do not have to worry about being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Parents whose kids are turned down by an insurer would still have a fallback under the law, even without Sebelius' fix. They could seek coverage through state high-risk insurance pools slated for a major infusion of federal funds.

The high-risk pools are intended to serve as a backstop until 2014, when insurers no longer would be able to deny coverage to those in frail health. That same year, new insurance markets would open for business, and the government would begin to provide tax credits to help millions of Americans pay premiums.

An insurance industry group says the language in the law that pertains to consumer protections for kids is difficult to parse.

"We're taking a closer look at it to see what exactly the requirement will be," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the main industry lobby.

SELF CATERING SICILY - GIANFERRANTE FARMHOUSE WITH TENNIS COURT AND SWIMMING POOL

The most fun to visit the eastern Sicily consists in rent a villa on the spot, then visit every day a new place. The most beautiful place in the area is certainly Gianferrante self-catering, equipped with all amenities, tennis court and swimming pool available to all guests. There you'll be in the center of a radial pattern that includes the most beautiful places of Sicily: Catania's baroque churches, the charm of Taormina, the splendor of the Villa del Casale at Piazza Armerina, the unique city of Noto. Gianferrante Farmhouse Self-catering Sicily has double rooms, apartments and villas. The website also features a convenient service, car rental and plane ticket to the international airport of Catania Fontanarossa. For prices, photos and availability please click here.

HOLIDAY RENTALS DATABASE

The website www.holidayrentalsdatabase.com is a very useful resource for those who want to rent their home, even for short periods. The ads are completely free, just send the photo of your house with a short descriptive text, and the guys will create a link to your site. If you do not have a website they can build one for a modest sum. A few months after starting the site has already been seen by tens of thousands of visitors, providing excellent results. If you want to rent your house or your hotel rooms click here.

Chinese shrug shoulders at possible Google pull-out

With speculation swirling that Google Inc will soon announce the closure of its China-based Internet portal, the reaction from some Chinese has been hurry up and leave, or simply: so what?

On Friday, the China Business News reported Google may make an announcement as early as Monday on whether it will pull out of China.

The Financial Times, citing a person familiar with the situation, said the company could say on Monday that it will close its Chinese search engine.

Google has not formally unveiled any such plans.

Two months since Google said it would no longer agree to abide by Beijing's censorship rules even if that meant shutting down its Google.cn site, some Chinese Internet users and state newspapers are baying for the company to pull out.

The burst of angry Chinese comments suggested that, in spite of the widespread popularity of Google amongst educated Chinese, the government is steering state-run media and websites to lump the company together with other recent disputes with Washington that have stirred nationalist rancour in China.

"Get the hell out," wrote one user on the website of the nationalist tabloid the Global Times (www.huanqiu.com), in remarks echoed by other readers.

"Ha ha, I'm going to buy firecrackers to celebrate!" wrote another, in anticipation of the company confirming its departure from the online search market.

Joseph Cheng, a City University of Hong Kong politics professor, said China's ruling Communist Party was deploying nationalism to stifle debate about censorship.

"The criticism of cultural exports, or cultural imperialism, is a kind of defence to justify the Chinese authorities' censorship controls," said Cheng.

"In dealing with the American government, the Chinese authorities will try to emphasise that this is only a commercial dispute and has nothing to do with Sino-American relations," he added.

GOOD RIDDANCE?

A Global Times editorial cited online surveys as showing 80 percent of respondents said they could not care less if Google withdrew from China, the world's largest Internet market with an estimated 384 million users.

The saga was a reminder of the country's need to develop its own technology and not rely on foreigners, the editorial said.

"This is a high-tech competition, and also a competition to uphold the state's sovereignty," the editorial said.

Some bloggers went a step further and accused Google of being in cahoots with U.S. intelligence.

"It is understood that Google is very tight with the CIA," wrote "Xiaogui" on the popular portal sina.com.cn. "Take this opportunity to leave now, you spies."

Though Google has remained mum on the progress of talks, the firm's chief executive said earlier this month that an outcome is expected "soon".

The Google case has spread beyond censorship and hacking and has become a diplomatic knot in Sino-U.S. relations, already being challenged by spats over Taiwan, Tibet and the value of the Chinese currency.

The United States is studying whether it can legally challenge Chinese Internet restrictions, a top U.S. trade official said recently.

Over the weekend, a commentary by the official Xinhua news agency accused Google of pushing a political agenda by "groundlessly accusing the Chinese government" of supporting hacker attacks and by trying to export its own culture, values and ideas.

BLOW TO INNOVATION?

Analysts said if Google withdrew from China, the biggest losers would be its millions of Internet users.

With two research and development centres in China, hundreds of sales staff and engineers working on the Google Android platform and other initiatives, analysts said all may come to a halt if Google decides on a pull out.

"This is not a good thing for Chinese netizens because Google has been the leader in innovation in the search engine field," said Cao Junbo, chief analyst with iResearch, a Beijing-based research firm specialising in technology matters.

Currently, Google offers Google Maps, Gmail and free music downloads to Chinese users, all of which could be in jeopardy if the company walks.

Even Google's mobile platform Android is not safe, as Google products such as search which are embedded into the platform will stop working if Google withdraws, making the platform less desirable to consumers, analysts said.

Google's withdrawal will open up China's $1 billion search market to more local firms, Cao said.

The biggest beneficiary will be domestic search leader Baidu Inc, which already has a sophisticated search advertising display system and a robust sales and customer support team.

Others such as Tencent Holdings, China's most valuable Internet company, may also benefit as the firm runs the country's largest instant messaging platform that it could tap into to expand its search network.

"The biggest gainers of Google leaving will definitely be the local firms," Cao said.

US business feeling unwelcome in China, says survey

US companies feel increasingly unwelcome in China because of what they see as discrimination and inconsistent legal treatment, according to a survey.

The American Chamber of Commerce in China (ACCC) found 38% of its members felt unwelcome, from 26% last quarter.

Inconsistent regulation and judicial treatment topped the list of concerns for American businesses, ACCC found.

It follows alleged cyber attacks on Google, and Chinese claims that the firm is too close to the US government.

Companies surveyed by the ACCC cited claims that Beijing wanted to squeeze foreign technology companies out of the multi-billion dollar market for selling computers and office equipment to government departments.

New rules stipulate sellers of high-tech goods must contain Chinese intellectual property as part of an "indigenous innovation" campaign, in order for them to be included in a government procurement catalogue.

"The survey shows that US companies believe they face product discrimination in state-owned enterprise purchases, as well as in government procurement," the survey said.

Of the American technology companies surveyed, 57% said they expected the preferential purchasing policy to have a negative impact on their operations in China while 37% said they were already losing sales.

Member-companies believed some policies in China were "increasingly restrictive and protectionist" which could limit foreign participation in the world's third largest economy, the survey said.

The survey was released as the trial opened in Shanghai of four employees of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto on allegations of bribery and espionage.

The defendants were arrested last July during contentious iron ore contract negotiations that later collapsed.

Cancer genes switched off in humans

For the first time, researchers have used short sequences of RNA that can effectively treat skin cancer in people by silencing specific genes behind tumour production.

Mark Davis from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues have used the technique, called RNA interference (RNAi), to deliver particles containing such sequences to patients with the skin cancer melanoma.

When analysing biopsies of the tumours after treatment, they found that the particles had inhibited expression of a key gene, called RRM2, needed for the cancer cells to multiply.

The researchers created the particles from two polymers plus a protein that binds to receptors on the surface of cancer cells and pieces of RNA called small-interfering RNA, or siRNA, designed to stop the RRM2 gene from being translated into protein.

The siRNA works by sticking to the messenger RNA (mRNA) that carries the gene's code to the cell's protein-making machinery and ensuring that enzymes cut the mRNA at a specific spot.

When the components are mixed together in water, they assemble into particles about 70 nanometres in diameter. The researchers can then administer the nanoparticles into the bloodstream of patients, where the particles circulate until they encounter 'leaky' blood vessels that supply the tumours with blood.

The particles then pass through the vessels to the tumour, where they bind to the cell and are then absorbed. Once inside the cell, the nanoparticles fall apart, releasing the siRNA. The other parts of the nanoparticle are so small, they pass out of the body in urine.

"It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out," Nature quoted Davis as saying.

When researchers analysed tumour samples from three of the patients who volunteered samples, they found fragments of the mRNA in exactly the length and sequence they would expect from the design of their siRNA.

And in at least one patient, the levels of the protein were lower than they were in samples of the tumours taken before treatment.

They also found that patients who were given higher doses had higher levels of siRNA in their tumours. "The more we put in, the more ends up where they are supposed to be, in tumour cells," said Davis.

Davis says that by targeting specific genes he hopes these treatments will not have major side effects. "My hope is to make tumours melt away while maintaining a high quality of life for the patients. We're moving another step closer to being able to do that now," he said.

The study has been published in Nature.

Quantum film might replace CMOS

QUANTUM FILM could replace conventional CMOS image sensors in digital cameras.

According to EETimes, the film is made from materials similar to conventional film - a polymer with embedded particles.

Howver instead of silver grains like photographic film, the embedded particles are quantum dots, which we guess are only in the camera if you see them.

Quantum films can image scenes at higher pixel resolutions and are four times more sensitive than the finest grained photographic film.

Developed by the firm Invisage, the technology would be ideal for mobile phones as it creates the next generation image sensor because it gathers more light, so you can either build a higher resolution mobile phone camera or make a smaller image sensor to turn out a less expensive one with the same resolution.

Conventional digital cameras would gain much higher resolution sensors by using quantum film material.

The technology was developed by University of Toronto professor Ted Sargent. It involves suspending lead-sulfide nanoparticles in a polymer matrix to form a new class of semiconducting polymer.

Quantum film is put on a low-cost wafer that has the electrode array for super-dense, high pixel-count images. It is cheaper to produce than CMOS photodetectors that make up the bulk of conventional digital camera sensors.

Tiger Woods reveals how wife reacted over infidelity

Tiger Woods has revealed in a television interview how his wife Elin Nordegren reacted when she discovered he had cheated on her.

"She was hurt, she was hurt, very hurt. Shocked. Angry," the Mirror quoted Woods as saying in an interview with sports station ESPN.

"And you know, she had every right to be and I'm disappointed as everyone else in my own behaviour because I can't believe I did that to the people I loved," he added.

The disgraced golfer also revealed what led him to cheat on the mother of this two children, Sam, two and Charlie, one.

"Well I had gotten away from my core values. I'd gotten away from my Buddhism. And I quit meditating," he said.

"Stripping away denial and rationalism you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering and you start living up to it. The strength that I feel now, I've never felt that type of strength," he added.

Cornell University posts guards at bridge after series of suicides

An Ivy League university has posted guards on a bridge over a deep gorge after several student suicides this year.

Three students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York state, have killed themselves in the last month. As well as posting guards, the university is sending staff members to knock on the door of every student living on campus to check on them, and has extended the hours of its student counselling centres.

"While we know that our gorges are beautiful features of our campus, they can be scary places at times like this," Susan Murphy, vice-president of student services and activities, said in a video message to the campus.

Students have speculated that the long, cold winter and stress from Cornell's rigorous academic programme may have contributed to the suicides. Campus officials maintain that the suicide rate is in line with national statistics and point out that the university had none between 2006 and 2008.

Timothy Marchell, Cornell's director of mental health initiatives, said the area's gorges contributed to unfounded fears of a suicide epidemic. "When a death occurs at Cornell in one of our gorges it's a very public experience," he told the Associated Press.

Founded in 1865 in the aftermath of the US civil war, Cornell is one of America's top universities. It has more than 21,000 students, including its medical and law schools.

Other US universities have grappled with the issue of student suicides, even though a 1997 University of Chicago study found that the suicide rate among higher education students was about half that of non-students.

Obama to Talk Health Care on FOX But Conservatives Won't Be Swayed

Obama will take to FOX News tonight to talk health-care reform. "Many of the falsehoods and myths about health reform gained traction with Glenn Beck and others on FOX, so the president is returning to the scene of the crime to make the final sale," a White House official explained to Politico earlier today.

It sounds like a sensible calculation: dismantle arguments about government takeovers and death panels, up popular support. In fact, NEWSWEEK tested out that idea in our most recent poll. We wanted to know: when Americans learn more about health-care reform, do they support it more? Turns out, while that is indeed the case for liberals, conservatives are not likely to support health-care reform when they know what it actually does.

More from the poll: in late February, we asked Americans if they supported Obama’s health-reform plan and got a pretty predictable response: only 15 percent of self-described conservatives supported the plan versus 72 percent of liberals.

We then dug a little deeper. We explained eight specific proposals to change the health-care system, things like requiring all Americans to have health insurance and barring insurer discrimination against those with preexisting conditions. After getting through the list, we revealed that these eight proposals were the main components of the Democrats' plan. We asked our question again: do you support Obama’s plan to reform health care?

Liberals were a whole lot more likely to favor health-care reform after hearing information: 72 percent support prior to learning about health reform shot up to 83 percent afterward.

Conservatives, however, were a completely different story: they moved from 15 to 18 percent support. This shift, I should point out, was within the poll’s 3.6 percent margin of error, meaning that, statistically speaking, conservatives did not change their opinions at all.

Why don’t conservatives support health-care reform? Perhaps the myths—which are indeed plentiful—have gotten too much traction for the Democrats to dispel at this point. Conservatives may have soured on health-care reform because of the drawn-out political battles and have philosophical objections to Obama’s plan. My bet is it's some combination of these elements. Taken as a whole, they mean Obama is battling a pretty formidable opponent tonight.

'Obama is Responsible for the Crisis in Jerusalem'

Why, then, the outbreak of violence now? Why Hamas's "day of rage" over Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority's call to gather on the Temple Mount to "save" the Dome of the Rock from non-existent plans to build the Third Temple? Why the sudden outrage over rebuilding a synagogue, destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948, in the Old City's Jewish Quarter, when dozens of synagogues and yeshivas have been built in the quarter without incident?

The answer lies not in Jerusalem but in Washington. By placing the issue of building in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem at the center of the peace process, President Obama has inadvertently challenged the Palestinians to do no less.

Astonishingly, Obama is repeating the key tactical mistake of his failed efforts to restart Middle East peace talks over the last year. Though Obama's insistence on a settlement freeze to help restart negotiations was legitimate, he went a step too far by including building in East Jerusalem. Every Israeli government over the last four decades has built in the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem; no government, let alone one headed by the Likud, could possibly agree to a freeze there. Obama made resumption of negotiations hostage to a demand that could not be met. The result was that Palestinian leaders were forced to adjust their demands accordingly.

Obama is directly responsible for one of the most absurd turns in the history of Middle East negotiations. Though Palestinian leaders negotiated with Israeli governments that built extensively in the West Bank, they now refused to sit down with the first Israeli government to actually agree to a suspension of building. Obama's demand for a building freeze in Jerusalem led to a freeze in negotiations.

Internet explorer 9 - Microsoft's answers

“HTML5 will enable a new class of applications,” says Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's Internet Explorer general manager, speaking to the press at the company's Mix10 conference in Las Vegas.

But exactly what parts of HTML5 will the company support? And what will happen when changes are made as the standard evolves? Hachamovitch tends to avoid straight answers, but still gave some insight into the company’s approach.

“When you release a platform you make a promise to developers that the code that they wrote will continue to run,” he says. “The only time you’re allowed to break that promise is a trust issue: privacy, security, safety.”

So how do you change behavior when the specification is amended? “One thing you notice when you run the IE9 platform preview is that there are all these modes listed there. Those modes are there because there are sites built expecting the promise."

Hachamovitch plays a game with the press when he is quizzed about specific HTML5 features that are not in the current IE9 preview. What about the Canvas element? “All the graphics that run in IE9 are GPU-powered, they are hardware accelerated. We said there’ll be updates to the preview and we’ll see what else is coming in the next preview.” So that’s a maybe.

How about SMIL, the animation standard that works in conjunction with SVG (which is supported)? “There’s a lot of overlap and a lot of redundancy with CSS3 animations and transitions,” he says. “There’s a lot of discussion in the SVG working group ... developers want to have one consistent set of patterns that they reuse. The feedback I’ve seen is that CSS3 is a more dominant pattern, and the SMIL stuff less so.” In other words, probably not.

What about video codecs, a contentious issue which has left the Video tag without any officially standardized codec? “For IE9, the demonstration that we gave involved the H.264 codec, which is a great industry standard for video, and we will support the H.264 codec.” says Hachamovitch. Other codecs, like the open source Ogg Theora? He says nothing, but the signs are not good. He even adds, “If I made a list of all the things for the HTML5 spec to do next, it’s not clear that the HTML5 video codec would be near the top.”

The IE9 preview does a better job with the Acid3 standards test than earlier versions, but at 55 per cent, it remains poor, considering that some other browsers pass completely. Is 100 per cent a goal? Hachamovitch is defensive.

“The Acid3 test is something that some folks use as a proxy for standards support. It’s 100 tests. It exercises about a dozen different technologies, some of which are under construction, some of which are less under construction. The most important thing: as IE9 supports more of the markup that developers actually use, the score will continue to go up, as a side effect.”

He positions Microsoft as pragmatic. “The end, that we’re all trying to get to, is that developers can use the same markup everywhere. There are a variety of means of getting there. I talked about using data to find what developers are actually using to make that work.”

One of the puzzles of HTML is the tension between browser makers dreaming up features that later may get standardized, and standards committees pumping out specifications for browser makers to implement. In the worst case you get something like Netscape’s LAYER tag, introduced in 1997 but which never became part of the W3C standard. Has the world changed since then?

“You could say that the world hasn’t changed. There are a variety of browser vendors that have gone ahead and done stuff and said: ‘Well, we’ve done this, here you go.’” says Hachamovitch. “On the other hand I’ll say that the world has changed, because our approach is to work much more closely with these standards guys, in order to minimize surprises and maximize interoperability.”

And no, Windows XP will not be supported by IE9. “Building a modern browser requires a modern operating system,” he says. “There are facilities in Windows Vista and Windows 7 around security, for example the integrity-level work that gave us protected mode. There are performance improvements, there is graphics infrastructure to take advantage of the GPU, that doesn’t exist in previous operating systems.”

What this means is that Internet Explorer will not deliver on the “same markup everywhere” dream - at least until XP is obsolete. Bearing in mind that some new machines still ship with Windows XP today, developers face a long wait.

Another question that Hachamovitch is frequently asked concerns Silverlight. Does the overlap between HTML5 and Silverlight, for features such as video and animation, imply that Microsoft might eventually move away from the plug-in approach?

“Every browser has some moral equivalent to ActiveX, a set of binary APIs that enable other code to run. To me that’s part of building a browser, you accept that there is a need for plug-ins,” he says. “Developers choose what technology to use. Developers who want to use the exact same markup across browsers and devices, choose to use a plug-in today.”

The truth is that even if IE9 proves to be an excellent platform for HTML5 applications, a plug-in like Silverlight will solve deployment problems because it spans multiple browsers and runs on Windows XP. Another factor is that Microsoft’s tooling in Visual Studio is geared towards Silverlight rather than HTML5. If there is a move away from plug-ins for rich internet applications, it will not be a speedy one on Microsoft’s platform.

Health-care bill is not yet a law

Even as House Democrats search for the votes to send the bill to President Obama, dozens of Republican lawmakers and candidates have signed a pledge to back an effort to repeal the bill, should the GOP take control of either house of Congress after this fall's elections.

Started by the conservative activist group Club for Growth, the "Repeal It" movement first won the backing in January of some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, such as "tea party" favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). It has since expanded to include some of the party's Senate candidates in liberal-leaning states such as New Hampshire and Illinois.

Congressional Republicans are currently battling the Democrats over the House procedures they could use to pass the health-care bill. But they are promising this fall to continue the spirited debate over the substance of the bill that has dominated the last year on Capitol Hill. And the repeal will likely be a key issue, even as lawmakers on both sides acknowledge any repeal would be highly unlikely as long as President Obama remains in office, as he could veto any such legislation.

While the GOP still awaits the outcome of competitive primaries in many states to pick its candidates, all of the major Senate hopefuls in Kentucky, Nevada, Kansas and Missouri have pledged "sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care-takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government."

Republican leaders have played down the largely grassroots pledge, saying they want to focus on making sure the health-care reform bill is stopped from passing. But Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a favorite of the tea party movement, said "this would be smart politically and it's the right thing to do."

Some Democrats view this development with glee. They say the health-care bill will become more popular as soon as it's signed, particularly since some of the provisions most favored by the public start this year, such as allowing young adults to stay covered by their parents' health-care plans up to age 26. Like many other parts of the legislation, that provision would become effective six months after the law is signed -- right around election time if the overall bill passes this week.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is already calling on its candidates to demand their GOP opponents take a stand on the pledge. Asked about the GOP idea, David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser, said Sunday, "Let's have that fight." He added of GOP threats to call for the law's repeal: "Make my day."

And other Democrats say it's very difficult to run on a platform of taking away new rights for Americans.

"When it comes to health care and insurance, once reform passes, the tangible benefits Americans will realize will trump the fear-mongering rhetoric opponents are stoking today," Obama pollster Joel Benenson wrote in a recent piece in The Post. "And when that reality kicks in, the political burden will shift... there is every reason to believe that for Republicans, the negative consequences will be their own."

In what has become a intra-party pollster battle, other Democrats dispute the idea that the bill will help the party in the fall. Pollsters Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen have written Democrats "will be punished severely at the polls" unless they turn around the current negative perceptions of the health-care bill.

Republicans say the bill won't be that popular by November, because the public has already soured on the bill and the modest changes it makes by November won't change the overall perception of it.

"Democrats think by passing the bill they'll be able to get it behind them and change the subject to something else, like jobs," said Senator John Cornyn (R-Tex.), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "But this will do the opposite. This will make sure health care is the number one issue that the election is won or lost on in November."

But some analysts say a debate over dumping the health care bill or keeping it may not affect voters who do not already have strong views on the reform effort, if only because its effects may not be felt by November.

"Republicans have been saying this is the end of America as we know it and it will bring socialism," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "If it passes and not much happens, it's not as if there's going to be a huge backfire [on the Republicans], but in the overall argument they have not done themselves much political good."

Schiff Nutrition International announced a special cash dividend.

Investors were swallowing up shares of Schiff Nutrition International Wednesday after the company beat The Street in its third quarter and announced a special cash dividend.

Showing confidence in its ability to generate cash flow, the Salt Lake City-based manufacturer of branded and private-label vitamins said its board of directors approved a 50 cent per share dividend, payable on Apr. 14 to shareholders on record as of Mar. 31. Anxious to take advantage, investors clamored for the stock, sending shares up 14.3%, or $1.30, to $10.40 in Wednesday morning trading. Shares of Schiff Nutrition International have more than doubled in the past year.

According to B. Riley analyst Ian Corydon, Schiff is sitting on roughly $59 million in cash and has been looking to acquire other branded vitamin makers. Corydon tells Forbes that "Schiff is looking for companies with niche products to add into their distribution." But unable to find suitable targets so far, the firm's board decided to share some of the wealth with investors through the special dividend.

Corydon says that MegaRed, Schiff's Omega-3 krill oil intended to support cardiovascular health, has been a big growth driver for the company. After getting sales started in Costco a year ago, Corydon notes the product is now being sold in Walgreens as well and "[Schiff] is gearing up to launch MegaRed in Wal-Mart soon."

For its third quarter Schiff earned $5.7 million, or 20 cents per share, up from $3.6 million, or 13 cents per share in the year-ago period. Sales for the quarter ended Feb. 28 climbed to $53.3 million, up from just under $50 million in the third quarter of 2009. Those figures beat the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who predicted earnings of 14 cents per share on sales of $51.4 million.

World Bank Urges China to Cool Economy

The World Bank on Wednesday urged China's government to take more measures to cool its economy and head off inflation, as the bank expects the country's economic growth to accelerate to 9.5% this year.

In its quarterly report on China's economy, the World Bank raised its forecast for China's growth this year from the 8.7% increase the bank projected in November and suggested Beijing use interest rate rises and a stronger yuan to avoid inflation and the formation of asset bubbles in the domestic property market.

Beijing has been gradually exiting the stimulus measures put in place during the financial.

BLOCKBUSTER BANKRUPCY?

Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) again warned it may have to file for bankruptcy protection as the movie-rental giant continues to lose money.

In its annual report filed Tuesday, Blockbuster said its declining sales and cash flow, coupled with increasingly competitive industry conditions, "raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." Blockbuster provided similar warnings nearly a year ago before it was able to refinance its long-term debt in the fall.

Nonetheless, the latest warning reminds investors of the serious challenges that the company faces.

Blockbuster is scrambling to expand in new distribution channels as rentals and sales at its 6,500 stores worldwide continue to decline amid intense competition from by-mail movie-rental services such as Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and rental kiosks such as those operated by Coinstar Inc.'s (CSTR) Redbox unit.

As of Jan. 3, Blockbuster said its total liabilities were $314.3 million more than its total assets.

Blockbuster shares fell 29% to 28 cents in recent trading. Blockbuster's 9% notes due 2012 are down 2.9 points to 22 cents on the dollar in very active trade Wednesday, according to MarketAxess.

Blockbuster has its own brand of by-mail service and kiosks, owned and operated by NCR Corp. (NCR), and it has worked with TiVo and other electronics makers to boost its digital-download offerings. But those businesses so far haven't taken off quickly enough to offset the declining rentals and sales at its stores.

Indeed, while Blockbuster's filing Tuesday said NCR expected to have 10,000 kiosks under the Blockbuster Express brand name by mid year, NCR has about 4,000, some of which are operating under kiosk brands NCR purchased last year. And an NCR spokesman called "inaccurate" Blockbuster's characterization, reiterating that NCR expects to have as many as 10,000 kiosks by year end, and some will not be under the Blockbuster name.

With its growth efforts constrained by debt and declining cash flow, Blockbuster is closing hundreds of underperforming stores, including 500 to 545 this year, and has outlined $200 million in fresh cost cuts tied to staffing and advertising spending. Since last year, it has pursued options for overseas assets, selling its business in Ireland in August for up to $45 million in cash, but it so far has been unable to close deals on other divestitures.

Blockbuster said Tuesday that it also seeks to boost its balance sheet, including modifying terms of its senior notes and the possible swap of senior subordinated debt with Class A common stock. The exchange could be implemented in late second quarter or early third quarter, but some of potential moves may require the company to file a pre-packaged or other filing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy-protection laws, Blockbuster said.

"It may not be possible to turn Blockbuster's business around," Gimme Credit analyst Kim Noland said. "While its high-yield issuance last fall appeared to buy it some time, its recent negative revision in guidance and the inroads into its business by competitors bode very ill for its long term health."

Noland said Blockbuster isn't yet in a liquidity crunch, but it could be if the poor results of the fourth quarter are repeated.