REUTERS - European Stock Market News, Oct 26, 2011

"LONDON, Oct 26 - European shares gave up early gains and turned negative on Wednesday morning, as investors worried that a summit of European Union leaders would not result in a comprehensive set of proposals to tackle the euro zone debt crisis."

REUTERS - Global Markets News, Oct 26, 2011

"TOKYO - European stock index futures fell on Wednesday, after Asian shares traded lower for most part on growing concerns that the outcome from a key meeting of European policymakers to contain the debt crisis may fall short of expectations."

REUTERS - Olympus: Chairman and President Kikukawa resigns, Oct 26, 2011

"TOKYO | Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:41am EDT

(Reuters) - Japan's scandal-hit Olympus Corp said its chairman and president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa has stepped down due to a series of media reports on the company's problems and a plunge in its share price.
Shuichi Takayama, a managing director of the company, was appointed to replace him as president.
Kikukawa had taken over as Olympus's chief executive after the company abruptly fired its British CEO, Michael Woodford, on Oct 14.
Shares of the camera and endoscope maker fell 7.6 percent on Wednesday and have lost more than half their value since Woodford was sacked.
The company is scheduled to hold a news conference at 1730 JST (4:30 a.m. EDT).
(Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Edmund Klamann)"

REUTERS - Consumer confidence tumbles, home prices stagnate, Oct 26, 2011

"By Leah Schnurr

NEW YORK | Tue Oct 25, 2011 5:45pm EDT
(Reuters) - Consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped to its lowest level in two-and-a-half years in October, while house prices were unchanged at low levels in August, suggesting the consumer is still struggling.
Taken along with recent regional manufacturing data that hinted at stabilization in the sector in October, Tuesday's U.S. data underscored the view that the economy should avoid another recession, though growth will be slow."

REUTERS - NATO likely to end Libya mission now Gaddafi dead, Oct 26, 2011

By Barry Malone

TRIPOLI | Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:16pm EDT

(Reuters) - NATO is to formally decide on Wednesday whether to end its mission over Libya now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried and the country's new leaders have declared the nation "liberated".
The likely decision to end the alliance's patrols over the skies of Libya at the end of the month marks another milestone in what the National Transitional Council (NTC) has pledged will be a road toward democracy and free and fair elections in 2013.
But the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mo'tassim after both were captured wounded but alive on Thursday and the grisly public display of their decomposing bodies in a Misrata meat locker have made the NTC's Western backers uneasy about Libya's prospects for stable government and respect for the rule of law.

CNN News - Steve Jobs continues to command spotlight, Oct 25, 2011

 

CNN Producer, Nick Parker
(CNN) – While it lacked the winding queues and applause normally associated with an Apple launch, the release of Steve Jobs' authorized biography still made a splash.
It hit stores earlier than planned, as publishers Simon & Schuster moved to meet the wave of public interest in Jobs following his death. Before it was even unveiled, the book was a blockbuster.
"’Steve Jobs’ is currently our Number One best seller on both the Books and Kindle Best Seller lists," said an Amazon spokesperson. "The way things are trending, it could very likely be our top-selling book of the year."
At a book store in New York, the prospect of learning more about one of most enigmatic figures of recent times was enticing - even if not all is rose-tinted."

CNN News - Madonna's older brother says he's homeless, Oct 25, 2011

Madonna's older brother says he's been on the street since losing a job at his father's vineyard.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• "This could happen to anybody," Madonna's brother says
• "You have no idea how gruesome it is," he says
• "This is a unique system with the churches here," he says

(PEOPLE.com) -- One of Madonna's brothers has been homeless for a year and a half and currently lives under a bridge in Traverse City, Michigan, he says in a new interview.

"My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time," Anthony Ciccone tells the Michigan Messenger, a citizen journalist site. "You think I haven't answered this kind of question a bazillion times -- why my sister is a multibazillionarie, and I'm homeless on the street?"

He adds: "Never say never. This could happen to anybody."

Ciccone, 55, says he's been on the street since losing a job at his father's vineyard and winery in Suttons Bay, Michigan. He also says he got frostbite on his feet last winter while sleeping outside in the bitter Michigan cold.

Madonna's brother: I'm homeless

"You have no idea how gruesome it is," he says. "You get nerve damage. That's the milder stage. In the severe stage you have tissue damage, that is when you lose parts of your body ... A friend of mine lost all ten toes. Several have died of hypothermia."

Most of the story focuses on how Traverse City is better than most at caring for the homeless. "This is a unique system with the churches here," Ciccone says. "You won't find this in too many places."

Madonna, 53, has not commented on the story. In 2008, her younger brother Chris released a tell-all book called Life with My Sister Madonna.

See the full story at PEOPLE.com.

CNN News - Jennifer Lopez Explains Crying At Concert, Oct 25, 2011

CaptionJennifer Lopez performs onstage during at Mohegan Sun’s 15th Anniversary Celebration in Uncasville, Conn. on October 22, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- Jennifer Lopez was swept away with emotion while performing over the weekend, and the superstar told Access Hollywood what brought her to tears.

Access’ guest correspondent Jill Martin caught up with J.Lo following her concert at the Mohegan Sun casino in Montville, Conn., on Saturday, where she dished on her performance of her new song, “One Love.”

“After I sang the song, I’m standing there, and I realized that I did bare a little bit of my thoughts in this song. I also acted it out, kind of, for the audience. The way they received it was very touching,” Jennifer explained.

“I think that they felt what I felt, which is, you know, I’m just a girl, just like everybody else, trying to find my way,” the 42-year-old star, who split with Marc Anthony in July, continued. “I felt like they got that, and they understood it, and we were all like one at that moment.”

Adding, “It was very, very touching. I think they felt that, and I felt it from them. It kind of overwhelmed me.”

CNN News - NTC official: Gadhafi buried along with son, Oct 25, 2011

"Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The body of ousted Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi was buried early Tuesday morning, a National Transitional Council spokesman told CNN.
Gadhafi, his son Mutassim and his defense minister Abu Bakr Younis were taken to an undisclosed location for burial five days after he was killed in Sirte, according to Anees al-Sharif, spokesman for the National Transitional Council's military arm in Tripoli.
Members of the former leader's tribe were allowed to pray over the body, Sharif said.
The three bodies had been available for public viewing from a cold storage unit in recent days, except for being removed temporarily so autopsies could be conducted."

CBS News - Qaddafi son Saif al-Islam said fleeing Libya, Oct 25, 2011

"Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, appears in front of journalists at his father's residential complex in the Libyan capital of Tripoli Aug. 23, 2011. (AFP/Getty Images)
Anger In The Arab World
Former Libya rebels face new future
Libya after Qaddafi
Post-Qaddafi celebrations continue in Libya
Qaddafi's final days: Rage and despair
Qaddafi buried in secret location, officials say
Complete Coverage »
(CBS/AP) DAKAR, Senegal - A high-ranking Tuareg official in Niger told has The Associated Press that Muammar Qaddafi's son is making his way toward the country.
Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, appears to taking the same route his brother al-Saadi Qaddafi used in September to flee Libya."

REUTERS - Gaddafi body handed to NTC loyalists for burial, Oct 25, 2011

"By Barry Malone

TRIPOLI | Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:39am EDT
(Reuters) - Two loyalists of Libya's interim government were handed Muammar Gaddafi's body to bury secretly deep in the Sahara desert on Tuesday after a cleric prayed over his decomposing corpse, a Libyan official said.
With their Western allies uneasy that Gaddafi was roughed up and shot after his capture on Thursday, NTC forces had put his body on show in a cold store while they argued over what to do with it until its decay forced them to shut the doors on Monday.
"The process leading to his burial is taking place now," NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters by telephone. "Only two trusted people were assigned to this secret mission. These are not guards, but very trusted NTC people."
Other NTC officials said Gaddafi had already been buried, but Mlegta said the reports were premature. "Trust me, it takes time, and the burial will take place far from the media.""

LA TIMES - Turkey earthquake death toll could soar, Oct 24, 2011

A survivor is carried to an ambulance in Tabanli village, Turkey, after a 7.2 earthquake killed at least 138 people. (Reuters / October 23, 2011)

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Times staff and wire reports, Los Angeles Times

October 24, 2011, 2:22 a.m.

Reporting from Ankara, Turkey— 

As rescuers in easternTurkey combed through rubble in search of earthquakesurvivors early Monday, officials said the number of deaths from the 7.2 temblor had reached 239 and could go much higher.

Many buildings were destroyed or damaged. Emergency workers and residents pressed to find hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the cities of Van and Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

In Van, some residents using their hands and shovels worked frantically under floodlights or only flashlights after reportedly hearing the voices of people calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and cold.

PHOTOS: Powerful quake strikes Turkey

Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said at least 100 people were killed in Van and 117 others died in Ercis, an eastern city close to the Iranian border.

"The most important problem now is in the villages close to Van city center because the buildings are made of adobe," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who reportedly traveled to the disaster area by helicopter. "They are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."

The quake struck at 1:41 p.m. Sunday and was centered in the village of Tabanli in Van province, said Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.

U.S. scientists recorded more than 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.

The earthquake also shook buildings in neighboring Armenia and Iran, but no injuries were reported.

In Turkey, thousands of people reportedly fled into the streets running, screaming or trying to reach relatives on cellphones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed.

Erdogan urged people to stay away from damaged buildings and promised assistance to all survivors.

"We won't leave anyone to fend for themselves in the cold of winter," he said.

About 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were being sent to the region, officials said. Troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts, they said.

Many buildings also collapsed in the district of Celebibag, near Ercis.

INDIA Today - Muammar Gaddafi was shot in the head: Autopsy, Oct 24, 2011

Former Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi died of a gunshot wound to the head, the chief pathologist said after doctors completed the autopsy on Sunday.

Othman el-Zentani did not disclose additional findings, such as whether Gaddafi suffered the wound in crossfire or at close-range, the CNN reported.

Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, was killed on Thursday by National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters near his hometown of Sirte.

Zentani said the report would now go to the attorney general's office before being released to the public.

He also informed that doctors performed the autopsy at a Misrata hospital in the presence of officials from the prosecutor's office.

But no foreign or independent officials were present, he added.

Autopsies were also conducted on the bodies of Gaddafi's son, Mutassim, and his former defence minister, Abu Baker Yunis.

The three bodies would likely return to a cold storage at a Misrata meat market for public viewing, Zentani stated.
Read more at:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/muammar-gaddafi-shot-dead-autopsy/1/157280.html

INDIA Today - Diwali in jail for Kanimozhi and Yeddyurappa, Amar goes home, Oct 24, 2011

The cases of the high profile personalities arrested in various cases of graft - Amar Singh for the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal in Parliament, Kanimozhi and six others for the 2G spectrum allotment scam and Yeddyurappa for land deals - came up on Monday.

While the Delhi High Court gave an ailing Amar Singh a reprieve, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court took up the case of the seven 2G accused and decided to reserve bail orders till November 3. The Karnataka High Court put off Yeddyurappa's plea till October 28.

Read more at:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/diwali-in-jail-for-kanimozhi-and-yeddyurappa-amar-goes-home/1/157409.html

CHINA News - Death toll rises to 264 in Turkey earthquake: interior minister, Oct 24, 2011

A rescuer searches for survivors on the ruins in Van province of Turkey, on Oct. 24, 2011. (Xinhua/Ma Yan)

ANKARA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the powerful earthquake in southeast Turkey has risen to 264, Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told local media Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay earlier put the death toll at 239 and the number of the injured at some 1,300.

Speaking at a televised news conference, Atalay said rescue teams had managed to reach all areas in Van province that was hit by the quake.

Tents, woollen blankets and food were being distributed in the quake-stricken zone, expected to cover all the quake-hit zone Monday.

Local media reports said earlier that the death toll was expected to rise further as hundreds remain unaccounted for.