Real Estate Market Trends: Home Building Slows in April ...

The rate of new home construction fell 16.5 percent in the month of April, following a 7 percent increase in March, while the number of permits issued rose 14.3 percent, after declining by 3.9 percent in March, according to real estate market trends reported by the Commerce Department today.

New home construction took place at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 853,000 in April, down considerably from the annual rate of more than 1.02 million for March, but 13.1 percent higher than the annual rate of 754,000 in April 2012, the Commerce Department reported.

The slump in new construction helped drag down stocks in morning trading, according to Bloomberg News, as the markets reacted to disappointing housing, employment and manufacturing data.

Building permits ? a forward-looking indicator of real estate market trends ? were issued at an annual rate of more than 1.01 million, an increase of 14.3 percent from the annual rate of 890,000 for March and 35.8 percent higher than the annual rate of 374,000 in April 2012.

Confidence among home builders rose in May, reversing months of declining confidence, according to real estate market trends reported yesterday by the National Association of Home Builders, a trade association based in Washington, D.C. The association?s Housing Market Index rose three points to a reading of 44 on improved perceptions of sales conditions, sales expectations and buyer traffic. Despite the increase, the index remains well below 50, a point that signals equal numbers of builders view real estate market trends as positive or negative.

Millionaire investors expect home prices to continue improving over the next one-to-two years. Click here to learn more.

U.S. home prices are forecast to rise by 2.5 percent in 2013, according to the analytics firm CoreLogic, and to keep rising by 3.9 percent a year over the next five years.

In other signs of improving real estate market trends, REITs ? or real estate investment trusts ? outperformed the S&P 500 Index in April. Click?here?to learn more.

Further indications of prevailing real estate market trends are due next week. The National Association of Realtors is scheduled to report existing homes sales data for April on Wednesday, and the Federal Housing Finance Authority will release its House Price Index for March on Thursday.

Source: http://www.millionairecorner.com/article/real-estate-market-trends-home-building-slows-april

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Robson: 'Pedophile' Jackson sexually abused me

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

8 hours ago

In 2005, Wade Robson was the first defense witness at Michael Jackson's trial, where the singer was accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor. At the time, Robson was unequivocal: He was not sexually abused by the man known as the King of Pop. But eight years later, he has changed his tune.

Exclusively on TODAY Thursday, the 30-year-old choreographer told Matt Lauer that Jackson, who died in 2009, was "a pedophile and a child sexual abuser."

Robson said Jackson abused him from ages 7 to 14: Jackson "performed sexual acts on me and forced me to perform sexual acts on him."

Robson is currently asking a probate court to allow him to file a late creditor's claim against the Jackson estate, now that the deadline has passed for creditors to file such claims. His claim comes as a case brought by Jackson's family against AEG Live, promoters of his final concert tour, has begun in civil court.

Born in Australia, Robson was a dancing prodigy whose family relocated to the United States when he was 9; he appeared in three of Michael Jackson's videos: "Black or White," "Jam," and "Heal the World." In later years he went on to direct music videos and choreograph tours for artists including N'Sync and Britney Spears, and hosted and executive produced "The Wade Robson Project" for MTV in 2003. He joined "So You Think You Can Dance" on FOX in 2007 as a judge and choreographer.

So why now? Says Robson, he wasn't ready to face up to the truth until he began to realize how he would feel if a stranger molested his son, born two years ago. "This is not a case of repressed memory," said Robson. "I have never forgotten one moment of what Michael did to me, but I was psychologically and emotionally completely unable and unwilling to understand that it was sexual abuse."

During the first criminal investigation of Jackson in 1993 (when Robson was 11), Jackson would call him "every day" to "role play" and convince him that if anyone knew what they had done together, "both of us would go to jail for the rest of our lives."

He says there was no bribe money offered for him to lie on the stand -- nor, apparently, was it needed. "It was complete manipulation (by Jackson) and brainwashing," said Robson. "He would role play and train me for these (trial) scenarios."

Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for Jackson's estate, said in a statement: ?Mr. Robson has adamantly denied under oath and in numerous interviews over the past 20 years that Michael Jackson ever did anything inappropriate to him. He now wants us to believe that he committed perjury at least twice and has been lying to anyone and everyone about Mr. Jackson since the early ?90s so he can file a claim for money. Mr. Robson?s transparent lawsuit comes nearly 4 years after Michael passed. His claim is outrageous and sad.?

But this is not about landing some big book deal or payoff for silence, said Robson. "I've lived in silence and denial for 22 years and I can't spend another moment in that.... I'm never going to go away with this for the sake of money. I'm never going to be silenced for money. That's not going to happen."

Even today, however, Robson has mixed emotions about Jackson, and told Lauer what he thinks of when he does think of the singer is: "Heartbreak, pain, anger and compassion.... The image that one presents to the world is not the whole explanation of who someone is. Michael Jackson was yes, an incredibly talented artist with an incredible gift. He was many things. And he was also a pedophile and a child sexual abuser."

Later, Robson offered a special statement to TODAY, addressing other sexual abuse victims:

"There are millions of survivors of child sexual abuse out there who are suffering in silence and/or denial, as was I. If my coming forward and speaking my truth can help even one victim gain the courage to speak their truth and begin the healing process, that would be more than I could ever ask.

"I want to say to those victims that under NO circumstances was it or is it EVER your decision or your fault that you were sexually abused. Please find a way to safely speak your truth because the healing process cannot begin until you do. It is not easy in the slightest but it is absolutely possible to heal and get your life back."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/wade-robson-pedophile-michael-jackson-abused-me-7-years-1C9948163

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String of car bombs kill more than 35 across Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb attacks in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad and in northern Iraq killed more than 30 people on Wednesday, following weeks of violence by Sunni Islamist insurgents determined to spark sectarian confrontation.

Tensions between minority Sunni Muslims and the Shi'ites who now lead Iraq are at their highest since U.S. troops pulled out in 2011, with relations coming under more pressure by the day from the largely sectarian conflict in neighboring Syria.

A string of car bombings hit Shi'ite neighborhoods across the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Wednesday evening, including one outside a cafe, killing at least 18 people, police said.

Earlier, 10 people were killed when two car bombs exploded near government buildings in the ethnically mixed oil city of Kirkuk.

"There were two bodies on the ground outside the building, people were shouting and it was a mess everywhere," said Rawaa Rahman, a government employee in Kirkuk who was wounded in the hand.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle also blew himself up near a police patrol in northern Baghdad, killing at least two officers, while a roadside bomb killed a policeman in a town near Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) to the north, police and medical sources said.

Relations between Iraq's Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish communities have come under growing strain since the last American troops left in December 2011.

The coalition government, split among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs, is hobbled by disagreements about how to share power.

But the conflict in neighboring Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, has also put pressure on Iraq's delicate intercommunal balance.

Although violence is well below the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-7, when tens of thousands were killed, Sunni Islamist insurgents now carry out attacks almost daily to try to undermine the Shi'ite-led government.

Al Qaeda's local wing, Islamic State of Iraq, and other Sunni insurgents are trying to use Syria's war to gain legitimacy and tap into frustrations among Iraqi Sunnis, hoping to regain ground they lost during their long battle with American troops.

(Reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and Kareem Raheem in Baghdad; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Patrick Markey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/series-bombs-kills-least-14-people-across-iraq-134640415.html

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The Strange Beauty of the Sea s Microscopic Plants [Slide Show]

See Inside

Some of the most fantastical denizens of the ocean realm are invisible to the naked eye

By Kate Wong

Image: Argonne National Laboratory, via Flickr

In the June issue of Scientific American, Ronald Martin of the University of Delaware and Antonietta Quigg of Texas A&M University at Galveston explain how increases in the quantity and nutrient content of tiny plants called phytoplankton probably helped power the rise of the modern marine mammals. As so-called green phytoplankton gave way to red phytoplankton, so named for the type of chlorophyll they use during photosynthesis, a host of new sea creatures emerged, starting around 250 million years ago. The slide show below showcases some of the myriad intricate forms of red phytoplankton?a group that includes coccolithophores, dinoflagellates and diatoms?that populate the world?s oceans today.

? View the Slide Show

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b25c159a810acfc6ec70fde60b4edeb1

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Ariel Castro to Plead Not Guilty in Cleveland Kidnappings

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/ariel-castro-to-plead-not-guilty-in-cleveland-kidnappings/

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Google does away with individual storage caps for Drive, Gmail

But how does the new Google Drive system compare to the services provided by Dropbox??

By Matthew Shaer / May 13, 2013

Google will now allow users to store 15GB of data across platforms.

Google

Enlarge

In the past, Google offered non-premium users 10 gigabytes of free storage capacity on Gmail, and 5GB of storage capacity on Google Drive and Google+ Photos. Beginning today, Google will allow users to pick-and-choose how they "spend" that 15GB across the platforms. In other words, the overall capacity on Google Drive and Gmail isn't increasing, but your options are.?

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"With this new combined storage space, you won?t have to worry about how much you?re storing and where. For example, maybe you?re a heavy Gmail user but light on photos, or perhaps you were bumping up against your Drive storage limit but were only using 2 GB in Gmail," Google's Clay Bavor wrote on the company blog today. "Now it doesn?t matter, because you can use your storage the way you want."?

So how does the new policy stack up against other, similar services? Well, let's look at Dropbox, perhaps Google's most prominent competitor in the personal cloud storage arena. Dropbox (which, full disclosure, we use and like an awful lot) dishes out only 2GB of storage to users with a Dropbox Free account. Here's the catch: every time you refer a buddy to Dropbox, the company gives you 500MB of additional storage.?

Of course, you can't refer an infinite amount of pals ? the max amount of extra storage Dropbox will give you is 16GB, for a grand total of 18GB. That's bigger than what you'd get with Google, although Dropbox doesn't offer the easy Gmail/Drive synchronization you get with Google. Moreover, with Google, you'll get that free 16GB right off the bat, whereas with Dropbox, you're going to have to work for that storage capacity.?

Looking for other options? As TechSpot notes, Microsoft SkyDrive comes with 7GB of free storage and options from Amazon (Cloud Storage) and Apple (iCloud) both offer 5 free gigabytes.?

For?more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/vCFRrK2Uj-0/Google-does-away-with-individual-storage-caps-for-Drive-Gmail

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CA-BUSINESS Summary

TSX up on energy and industrials; BlackBerry falls

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index rose on Tuesday, as energy and industrial stocks rose in tandem with gains in U.S. stocks, more than offsetting pullbacks in key stocks such as BlackBerry and Bombardier Inc . Energy stocks, which suffered steep losses in April, rose 0.67 percent despite a retreat in the price of oil, helped by the continued momentum in U.S. stock indexes.

Boeing resumes deliveries of 787 Dreamliners

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co resumed deliveries of its high-tech 787 Dreamliner jet on Tuesday, ending a period of nearly four months in which it was unable to provide new planes to customers because of safety concerns about the battery system. The delivery of the first jet with a redesigned battery system marks a turning point in Boeing's 787 crisis, allowing the jet maker to book revenue for completed sales of the jet, which costs $207 million at list prices.

Exclusive: EU to warn China it may levy duties against Huawei - sources

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission plans to send a formal warning to China that it is ready to levy sanctions against telecoms equipment makers Huawei and ZTE Corp over illegal subsidies, people close to the matter said. EU trade chief Karel De Gucht is set to win support from the bloc's executive on Wednesday to send the warning letter and show China's new president, Xi Jinping, that Brussels is serious about countering what it says is state support.

Two unions seek to combine in American, US Air merger

(Reuters) - Two unions that represent ground workers at American Airlines and US Airways Group said on Tuesday they would combine to become the bargaining agent for nearly 30,000 employees after the airlines merge. The move comes as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a third union, seeks to represent mechanics at US Airways.

Canadian house prices edge higher in April

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian home prices rose in April from March as three strong cities in Western Canada more than offset weak showings elsewhere, while the annual gain in prices slowed, the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed on Tuesday. The index, which measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed overall prices rose 0.2 percent in April from a month earlier, but the weakest April gain in 15 years except for the 2009 recession.

Big Sony options action before Loeb stake raises eyebrows

(Reuters) - A surge in option market bets on Sony Corp just before a large hedge fund investor announced a big stake and called for a major restructuring of the company has raised concerns that some traders may have had advance word of the news. U.S.-listed shares of Sony Corp jumped 9.9 percent to close at $20.76 after Daniel Loeb's Third Point hedge fund said on Tuesday it accumulated more than 6 percent of Sony's shares - a stake worth $1.1 billion - making it the largest shareholder in Japan's biggest electronics company.

EU probes oil majors on price manipulation

LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) - European authorities have raided offices of oil majors Shell, BP and Statoil in an investigation of suspected manipulation of oil prices, one of the biggest cross-border actions since the Libor rigging scandal. Authorities have sharpened scrutiny of financial benchmarks around the world since slapping large fines on some of the world's biggest banks for rigging interest rate benchmarks.

Fraud claims versus Goldman over Abacus CDO are dismissed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc won dismissal on Tuesday of fraud claims brought by a bond insurer over a CDO tied to subprime mortgage securities called Abacus. In a 3-2 decision, a New York state appeals court dismissed a complaint by ACA Financial Guaranty Corp accusing Goldman of fraudulently inducing the company to insure the CDO, or collateralized debt obligation.

Analysis: Japan government-bond selloff sparks fears of too much, too fast

TOKYO (Reuters) - A three-day rout in the bond market has raised concerns that the Bank of Japan is getting more than it bargained for, by prodding investors to shift money out of the safety of government bonds faster than the government expected. As prices have slid, the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond has jumped to an eight-month high. While still very low by historical standards, the interest rate is almost triple the record low it briefly plumbed in April after the BOJ unleashed an enormous monetary easing aimed at ending 15 years of deflation and getting the sluggish economy moving.

Lockheed says furloughs could delay F-35 fighter, other programs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's plans to put most of its 800,000 civilian employees on unpaid leave for 11 days could lead to delays on Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and other weapons programs, a top company official said on Tuesday. Lockheed Chief Financial Officer Bruce Tanner said the company had not been officially informed about the impact of the expected furloughs, but said civilian government workers have played a big role in supporting flight testing and other work on the F-35 jet.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-business-summary-141901588.html

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