Fairfax merges Vic community papers arm

Fairfax Media has moved to recapture some recently lost real estate advertising revenue in Victoria through a merger with Metro Media Publishing (MMP).

MMP was founded by Antony Catalano and publishes The Weekly Review, which successfully took large real estate advertising dollars away from Fairfax's Melbourne Weekly when it launched in 2010.

Industry estimates suggest The Weekly Review took about $20 million in advertising revenue away from Fairfax.

Under the deal, which still requires Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approval, Fairfax would pay $35 million and fold its Fairfax Community Newspapers in Victoria into MMP.

Fairfax said it would own 50 per cent voting and economic interest in MMP after the transaction was completed.

Fairfax's statement on Friday said The Weekly Review was delivered to about 220,000 households.

MMP managing director Antony Catalano, a former senior executive at Fairfax's The Age newspaper in Melbourne, would continue in his current role, Fairfax said.

"This merger provides the opportunity to roll out Fairfax Media's Domain brand across the MMP titles, and to build a stronger internet and app presence for the local real estate industry," he said in a statement.

"Both MMP and Fairfax Media see a bright future for high-quality local print publications working closely with real estate agents, and an improved digital presence will only enhance this offering."

At 1214 AEDT Fairfax was up one cent, or 1.41 per cent, at 72 cents.

Keep reading - next article

Source: http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8394298/fairfax-merges-vic-community-papers-arm

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Philippines sends coffins as toll nears 1,000 dead (AP)

ILIGAN, Philippines ? The government shipped more than 400 coffins to two flood-stricken cities in the southern Philippines on Tuesday as the death toll neared 1,000 and President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity.

The latest count listed 957 dead and 49 missing and is expected to climb further as additional bodies are recovered from the sea and mud in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities.

A handful of morgues are overwhelmed and running out of coffins and formaldehyde for embalming. Aid workers appealed for bottled water, blankets, tents and clothes for many of 45,000 in crowded evacuation centers.

Navy sailors in Manila loaded a ship with 437 white wooden coffins to help local authorities handle the staggering number of dead. Also on the way were containers with thousands of water bottles.

Most of the dead were women and children who drowned Friday night when flash floods triggered by a tropical storm gushed into homes while people were asleep.

Dozens of grieving relatives of at least 38 victims wept openly during funeral rites at the Iligan city cemetery. Many wore masks to try to block the stench of decomposing bodies.

"We have to give the dead a decent burial," Mayor Lawrence Cruz said. He said authorities were using part of the cemetery's passageway to build tombs.

A Briton was the first foreigner reported dead in the flooding, according to the British Embassy in Manila. It didn't provide details.

Aquino, on a visit to Cagayan de Oro on Tuesday, said the declaration of a national calamity will help local authorities gain quick access to recovery funds and keep prices of basic goods stable.

"Our national government will do its best to prevent a repeat of this tragedy," Aquino told residents who came to greet him.

He said there would be an assessment of why so many people died, if there was ample warning that a storm would sweep through the area, and why people living along riverbanks and close to the coast had not been moved to safety.

"I do not accept that everything had been done. I know that we can do more. We must determine what really happened," Aquino said. "Must this end in tragedy? We knew that (storm) was coming. There should have been efforts to avoid the destruction."

The U.N. food agency flew in 3 tons of high-protein biscuits together with water tanks, blankets, tarpaulins and tents for some 75,000 people. Shortage of water was still a major problem in the two cities.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

"The United Nations and its partners stand ready to support the government in responding to this disaster," the deputy spokesman added.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_storm

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Sinaloa cartel OK's Mexico's newest drug ballads (AP)

NAUCALPAN, Mexico ? Trumpets and trombones blast across a rodeo ring where women in miniskirts dance with men in cowboy hats and gold chains. Some fans try to climb onto the stage while others whoop to the deafening music and sing along to an outlaw ballad about one of the most-wanted criminal suspects in North America, an alleged drug kingpin.

"We take care of El Mayo

"Here no one betrays him...

"We stay tough with AK-47s and bazookas at the neck

"Chopping heads off as they come

"We're bloody-thirsty crazy men

"Who like to kill."

At the microphone is Alfredo Rios, whose stage name is "The Komander." He's a singer of Movimiento Alterado ? "Altered Movement" in English ? a new commercial brand of "narcocorrido" ballads that bluntly describe drug violence to the oompah beat of Mexico's norteno music.

The songs are filled with unusually explicit lyrics about decapitations and torture, and praise for one drug gang in particular: the Sinaloa cartel and its bosses, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The increasingly popular music is banned on radio stations in parts of Mexico but is heavily promoted over the Internet. It is the brainchild of twin brothers based in Burbank, California, who have long turned to the Sinaloa cartel for artistic inspiration. They won a Grammy award in 2008 for producing an artist who goes by the name of "El Chapo de Sinaloa."

Omar Valenzuela says the music not only tells of the violent world of the Sinaloa cartel, but has received its blessing at least once, when the producers worried about the group's reaction to a song about Manuel Torres, allegedly a top hit man for Zambada.

"We looked for them and asked for permission," Valenzuela said. "We sent them the song and they told us it was OK to release the song. We were afraid. They told us through their people that we were authorized to release any song. Sometimes people can get offended. We didn't want any problems."

The song since then has been downloaded 5 million times from the company website, Valenzuela said, and the accompanying video, which tells of how much gunmen working for Torres enjoy killing, has been watched more than 13 million times on YouTube.

Rios and Valenzuela deny any direct relationship with any cartel, and say they don't receive any money from the gangs. "I wish they were putting in money to promote (the music)," Valenzuela said with a laugh.

For Jose Manuel Valenzuela, an expert on narcocorridos at Mexico's College of the Northern Border, the success of the Movimiento Alterado's music shows that drug traffickers have become more socially acceptable in many circles.

"The social presence of drug trafficking helps this music circulate, and this is also made easier by the easy access to it through the Internet," said Valenzuela, who is not related to the twins.

The new music was born in Culiacan, capital of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa. The fact that the bands Valenzuela promotes sing exclusively about the Sinaloa cartel has mostly to do with geography, he said.

"In Culiacan, you can't sing about anyone else because they are from here," he said referring to the Sinaloa cartel. "Singing about the Zetas it's not even something you think about. Someone could complain. Nobody wants any trouble."

The Zetas gang, which had its beginning in the border state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas, is fighting the Sinaloa cartel for control of drug traffic routes. The battle has caused many of the roughly 40,000 drug war deaths since Mexican President Felipe Calderon ramped up the military offensive on cartels as he took office in 2006.

Some Movimiento Alterado musicians wear camouflage and bulletproof vests on stage and some have names clearly alluding to the Sinaloa cartel, such as Los Mayitos, referring to Zambada's nickname, or The Buchones, as the new rich who made their fortunes in drug trafficking are called in Sinaloa.

That identification can bring dangers.

Gunmen attacked the car of one of the Movimiento's singers, Gerardo Ortiz, in March in the western state of Colima. He survived but his representative and driver were killed.

Valenzuela said the violent lyrics merely describe the times.

The narcos "are cutting heads, and they are more bloodthirsty," he said. "It's in the news every day. If (the ballads) didn't speak about that, they would sound false. If a ballad doesn't express today's language it sounds old."

That's not a new phenomenon: Popular singers from early English troubadours to American gangsta rappers have treated violent outlaws sympathetically.

Movimiento Alterado's boom began in 2009 when the Valenzuela brothers recorded songs by two bands and released them on the Internet because radio stations wouldn't play them. In the states of Sinaloa and Baja California, it's illegal to play songs that advocate drug trafficking on the radio. In May, Sinaloa state Gov. Mario Lopez Valdez went further and banned them at bars and public places. In Chihuahua state, radio stations agreed not to play them.

But on the Internet, the songs are downloaded by the tens of thousands and Movimiento Alterado bands fill dirt-floor rodeo rings and swanky auditoriums across Mexico and the United States.

"The biggest market for this music is in Los Angeles because there we still sell CDs," Valenzuela said.

They also have greater media exposure there. The bilingual Mun2 cable channel of NBCUniversal Inc. ran a reality series, Los Twiins, about the brothers last year. It showed them developing new artists, such as Rios, and featured a guest appearance by Snoop Dogg.

Most of the albums are recorded in Los Angeles at Twiins Enterprises studios, though the Valenzuelas say some are recorded in Culiacan.

Back at the rodeo ring in Naucalpan, on the northwest edge of Mexico City, it was 3 a.m. and the crowd was getting impatient waiting for the star of the night. Finally, the MC announced "the king of the Movimiento Alterado."

Dressed in a black shirt and black pants, Rios looked the part of a pop singer. He invited the audience "to drink solid." The women cheered, and men offered him a drink from their whiskey bottles. The music went on until close to dawn.

Rios doesn't sing about drug traffickers. He sings as if he is one.

"Honestly, I don't like guns, in the first place because I'm not very good at using them," he said. "What I like is playing a role, like in a video game called 'The Executioner.' I play the executioner."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_en_mu/lt_mexico_drug_ballads

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Failed Mars Probe's Fall From Space May Help Re-Entry Predictions (SPACE.com)

Russia?s troubled Phobos-Grunt probe, stuck in the wrong orbit for more than a month, appears to be headed for a fiery and uncontrolled fall back to Earth early next month.

Tracking experts are predicting that Phobos-Grunt will re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 9, 2012, but at present, the forecast includes an uncertainty of plus or minus 5 1/2 days. Some analysts are even suggesting that the spacecraft could see its demise as early as Jan. 1 or 2.

Meanwhile, the uncontrolled tumble of Phobos-Grunt into Earth's atmosphere is being eyed as a possible way to sharpen computer tools to more accurately calculate re-entry predictions.

That option would fall under the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. The IADC is an intergovernmental agency that coordinates research related to orbital debris in space, as well as man-made objects that re-enter the atmosphere.

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, NASA and the German Aerospace Center are among the members of the IADC. [Photos: Russia's Mars Moon Mission]

"IADC is considering to adopt Phobos-Grunt as an IADC re-entry test object," said Heiner Klinkrad, ESA?s senior space debris expert and head of the European Space Operations Center?s Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany. "A final decision, in accordance with IADC?s terms of reference, still needs to be taken," he told SPACE.com.

Since 1998, the IADC has performed re-entry prediction tests. Data-sharing between countries has helped hone skills to more precisely calculate the re-entries of spacecraft, rocket stages and even discarded hardware from the International Space Station.

Over the years, a number of targets have been used for IADC re-entry campaigns.

If Phobos-Grunt is a new target, it will be the third tracking campaign in 12 months ? a record for the IADC. This year the agency monitored the uncontrolled re-entry of NASA?s defunct Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite on Sept. 24, followed by the downfall of Germany?s dead Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) on Oct. 23.

Go-getting mission

The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft tips the scale at nearly 14 tons. The probe is full of several tons of propellant ? a hefty load of toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide fuel. This propellant, which would have sent Phobos-Grunt toward Mars, was left unused after a malfunction with the probe's engines stranded it in Earth orbit instead.

Phobos-Grunt was designed to land on Phobos, one of two moons circling the Red Planet. The ambitious mission was slated to gather rock and soil samples from Phobos and return them to Earth in 2014.

But after being boosted into space on Nov. 8 (Nov. 9 in Moscow), the craft failed to send itself toward Mars. Russian, European and U.S. space network antennas were mobilized in hopes of salvaging the marooned ?probe, but flight controllers have struggled to regain control of Phobos-Grunt.?

These rescue attempts now seem to be solely the responsibility of the Russians as they continue to try to communicate with Phobos-Grunt.

In a Dec. 8 open letter to Phobos-Grunt colleagues, Lev Zelenyi, director of the Space Research Institute in Moscow and chairman of the Russian Academy of Sciences? Solar System Exploration Board, said:

"Lavochkin Association specialists will continue their attempts to establish connection with the spacecraft and send commands until the very end of its existence. We are working nevertheless on the issue of reentry and probability of where and which fragments may hit the ground (if any.)"

Debris analysts in the U.S. point to Russian statements that the propellant tanks onboard Phobos-Grunt are made of aluminum, not heat-resistant titanium. As such, any propellant ? frozen or unfrozen ? should "burn up" or dissipate during the re-entry process.

But according to comments from Viktor Khartov, the head and chief designer of NPO Lavochkin, the Russian aerospace company that designed and manufactured Phobos-Grunt, components of the spacecraft are expected to reach the Earth?s surface ? including the probe?s sample-return capsule.

The nose cone-shaped hardware was designed to transport specimens of Phobos to Earth, and it was built to speed through Earth?s atmosphere and make a crash- landing at a recovery site, without a parachute.

Lessons from ROSAT

Still to be seen is how Russian space officials plan to advise the public regarding the death throes of Phobos-Grunt and what leftovers might reach Earth?s surface.

"After ROSAT came down over the Indian Ocean ? there was widespread relief," said Johann-Dietrich W?rner, chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center, which is headquartered in Bonn.

In a recent blog entry, W?rner noted that ROSAT carried an X-ray telescope with heat-resistant components. This encouraged the view that larger parts could survive re-entry, he said, and might pose a risk to people and objects on the ground.

W?rner added that he personally drew a number of lessons from the conclusion of the ROSAT mission:

• Responsibility for a project must encompass the entire lifespan and take every eventuality into consideration.
• National and international collaboration, regardless of whether personal or institutional, has now achieved a level that is marked by a very engaging, positive attitude and mutual trust, which must be used accordingly.
• Communication concerning projects should be as transparent as possible, but always reliable and correct in every respect. In this regard, successes and potential risks must be communicated equally.

Death watch

"It seems unlikely that Phobos-Grunt will somehow be rescued at this point," said T.S. Kelso, a senior research astrodynamicist for the Colorado Springs-based Center for Space Standards & Innovation, a research arm of Analytical Graphics Inc.

"The last efforts were tied to a period where the orbit [of Phobos-Grunt] would have the spacecraft in sunlight throughout its orbit, raising hopes that it might have the power necessary to establish communications," Kelso told SPACE.com. "But given the large dishes they've used in this effort and the lack of communications, we're left to await yet another re-entry."

"I hate to say it, but we're already working the 'death' watch here," he said. "The bottom line is that there is very little chance of anything reaching the ground and even if it did, it would likely do so over some ocean."

Risk to the public?

So, with the prospect of a third large spacecraft falling to Earth within the span of about four months, should the public be concerned?

"People should not panic. Space debris is re-entering all the time, including fairly large rocket bodies," said Michael Listner, a space law attorney based in New Hampshire. "However, the public should not be completely dismissive of the threat that space debris poses, either."?

Listner observed that ROSAT, for example, fell just short of the Asian continent and landed in the Bay of Bengal. He also recalled the incident in 1978 involving the former Soviet Union's nuclear-energized Cosmos 954 that hurtled into a wilderness area of Canada. [Worst Space Debris Events of All Time]

The clean-up operation from that fall was a coordinated event between the United States and Canada, with an estimated recovery of about 0.1 percent of Cosmos 954's power source.

"If that spacecraft had completed just a couple of more orbits it may have landed in the continental United States," Listner said. "There was also the incident with [NASA?s] Skylab where debris from the falling space station fell onto the Australian town of Esperance."

What we don't know

"One of the uncertainties surrounding Phobos-Grunt is the lack of hard technical information about the spacecraft," Listner said. "If Roscosmos provided hard data about the construction of the spacecraft, including the construction of the propellant tanks, it might allay concerns about the danger the spacecraft poses."

There is some question about the Chinese orbiter Yinghou 1 ? a hitchhiking payload attached to Phobos-Grunt. There is little, if any, technical data about its construction and composition, including any potentially hazardous materials that might survive re-entry, Listner said.?

"There is a lot of talk about international cooperation, and, in fact, the U.S. Strategic Command?s Joint Space Operations Center is providing Roscosmos with orbital information via a transparency and confidence-building measure signed by the United States and the Russian federation specifically for the purpose of providing such information for space situational awareness," Listner said.?

The signed measure was a result of discussions that arose following the collision of a U.S. satellite and Russian satellite in February 2009, Listner said.

"It would stand to reason that a situation such as the Phobos-Grunt re-entry would call for further transparency between the nations involved, including technical data/assurances relating to the spacecraft," Listner concluded.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of this year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111217/sc_space/failedmarsprobesfallfromspacemayhelpreentrypredictions

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'Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows' Cheat Sheet

We have everything you need to know about the Guy Ritchie sequel.
By Kara Warner

Robert Downey Jr. in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"

After the spectacular success of "Sherlock Holmes" — $515 million in worldwide ticket sales, a Best Actor Golden Globe win for Robert Downey Jr., both of which were unpredictable accomplishments given the fact that the film arrived in theaters at the same time as James Cameron's "Avatar" — it was no surprise when Warner Bros. announced plans for a sequel.

To celebrate the arrival of "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," in theaters Friday (December 16), here's our comprehensive cheat sheet of everything you need to know about the action-packed, Guy Ritchie-directed sequel.

A New World of Possibilities
Amazingly enough, talk of a "Sherlock" sequel began three months prior to the original's release, when Brad Pitt was rumored to be joining the cast as Moriarty and there were rumblings that it would be shot in 3-D. Neither of those things panned out, but we did eventually learn that the sequel would be filmed in Paris and London and that instead of "Sherlock Holmes 2," the film's title would be "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."

Fresh Meat
Early on, we learned that Rachel McAdams' return as Irene Adler was trimmed to a "very small part," which made way for the addition of a new female lead, Noomi Rapace, who originated the role of Lisbeth Salander in Sweden's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Ritchie summed up her character thusly: "She's a gypsy princess with balls," he told us when we visited the set. "That's what Noomi brings to the table."

The other new addition was "Mad Men" actor Jared Harris who won the coveted role of the villainous Professor Moriarty. Harris couldn't give us many details about the role when we caught up with him in early '11, but he did gush about the "great fun" he had on set.

Setting the Shadowy Tone
As we started to inch closer to the film's release, we started to see that the sequel was going to be a bit darker via the first official posters, photos and the first full-length trailer. It's not all dark and stormy, of course, since a lot of the fun of the first film was in the whimsical moments between Downey and Law, and Holmes' various disguises, as revealed in this funny clip featuring more of RDG in drag.

When MTV News caught up with the main players recently, Downey assured us the film is a "superior product" and that everyone had gone to great lengths to make it bigger and better. Perhaps Ritchie summed it up best: "All in all, we tried to basically put this film on 'roids."

Check out everything we've got on "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676169/sherlock-holmes-game-of-shadows.jhtml

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Microsoft Is Nuking Internet Explorer 6 With Worldwide Automatic Upgrade [Microsoft]

At last! Microsoft is killing the last vestiges of that dreadful, obsolete program known as Internet Explorer 6. They are going to force the upgrade and that's a good thing—the web needs to get rid of this crap. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5nieRgEKyj8/microsoft-is-nuking-internet-explorer-6-with-worldwide-automatic-upgrade

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Early rally fades; stock market down for the week (AP)

An early rally faded on the stock market Friday, leaving indexes down about 3 percent for the week as worries resurfaced about a breakup of the euro.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion plunged after slashing its forecast for holiday sales. The IPO of online game maker Zynga Inc. didn't live up to its lofty expectations. The stock lost 5 percent on its first day of trading

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 2 points. It was up as many as 99 points in the morning after the Italian government won a confidence vote on austerity measures. That gain evaporated around midday after Fitch warned that it might downgrade the debt of Italy, Spain and four other countries that use the euro. After markets closed, Moody's downgraded Belgium's debt two notches and said more cuts were possible.

Materials and industrial companies rose, signaling that traders expect the U.S. economic recovery to remain on track. Utilities, health care and consumer staples companies lagged the market as traders sold stocks that are considered to be safer when the economy is weak.

The Dow Jones industrial average broke a three-day slump Thursday on news that claims for unemployment benefits plunged last week and measures of manufacturing in the Northeast improved dramatically. The Dow lost 360 points over the first three days of the week as investors questioned whether Europe's agreement to closer coordinate fiscal policy would be enough to save the euro from a catastrophic breakup.

Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, said investors are holding back until they get a "firmer resolution" to Europe's debt morass and more progress in Washington on reforming entitlements, balancing the budget and getting the country growing again. "Right, now we don't have anything to offer them," he said.

Some analysts believe nervousness about Europe this fall and winter pushed stock prices too far. Investment adviser Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners, expects stocks to rise into next year because of the growing likelihood that economic news and European headlines will remain positive.

"The odds are, the news is going to be better than the market is discounting," Landesman said. He said the market is near the low end of its recent trading range, and a dose of positive news could set off a mini-rally. Any market moves next week could be sharp as trading volume thins out before the Christmas holiday, Landesman said.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 2.42 points at 11,866.93.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.91, or 0.3 percent, to 1,219.66. The Nasdaq composite index rose 14.32, or 0.6 percent, to 2,555.33 The Dow is down 2.6 percent for the week; the S&P 2.8 percent. The Nasdaq lost 3.5 percent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note plunged to 1.85 percent from 1.93 percent earlier Friday after the government said consumer prices were unchanged last month, suggesting that inflation remains low. Low inflation makes bonds more attractive because it doesn't diminish the buying power of the fixed return a bond provides over time.

Seven of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index rose, with the only declines showing up in health care, consumer staples, and utilities. The biggest gains were in energy, materials and industrial companies. U.S. factories in some regions have had higher shipments and orders month, according to two surveys released Thursday. Materials companies are benefiting from soaring commodity prices.

Research In Motion Ltd. plummeted 11 percent after the company said late Thursday that new phones seen as critical to its future will be delayed until late next year. RIM also is taking a big loss on unsold tablet computers and predicted that its BlackBerry sales will fall sharply during the holiday sales season.

Zynga, which makes "Farmville" and other popular games, fell 5 percent to $9.50 in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq. The initial public offering was priced late Thursday at $10 per share, raising $1 billion. That means the San Francisco company can boast the biggest Internet IPO since Google Inc. first offered shares in 2004.

Among the other companies making big moves:

? New York-area cable TV provider Cablevision Systems Corp. plunged 9 percent following the sudden departure of its chief operating officer, Tom Rutledge.

? Adobe Systems Inc. jumped 6.6 percent after the software maker reported earnings and revenues that were far better than what analysts had expected. Analyst Walter Pritchard at Citigroup said the quarter was a "blow-out when most expected weakness."

___

AP Business Writer Joshua Freed contributed to this story.

Follow Daniel Wagner at http://www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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