ExActivision execs in games understanding with opposition EA

Two college of music management team not long ago dismissed by Activision and indicted of inappropriately assembly with a opposition association pronounced Monday that they will emanate games to be distributed to one side by one such competitor, Electronic Arts Inc.

Jason West and Vince Zampella have shaped a growth studio, Respawn Entertainment, and the games will be published and distributed by EA. As the heads of Respawn Entertainment, West and Zampella will own the egghead skill they create. "Respawn" is a video diversion tenure used to report a passed impression entrance behind to life.

The dual had sued Activision Blizzard Inc. for some-more than $36 million in March, claiming that Activision dismissed them to equivocate profitable large royalties for their workthe renouned "Call of Duty" franchise.

Story continues next ↓advertisement your ad here

The ultimate game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," has reaped some-more than $1 billion in sales after defilement party industry annals at the launch last fall.

Last week, Activision filed a countersuit opposite West and Zampella, observant they were dismissed for great means for fighting back and for attempts to cook key employees from the company. In the lawsuit, Activision claims the dual had met with a key gaming rival, in defilement of their practice contract.

Although the legal case does not name the rival, it states that were flown by the opposition to Northern California. Electronic Arts, that is Activisions main opposition and produces a aspirant authorization "Medal of Honor," is formed in Northern Californias Redwood City.

West and Zampellas attorney, Robert M. Schwartz, called the countersuits claims "false and outrageous"Friday.

Financial conditions were of the understanding with EA were not disclosed.

Shares of Activision, that is formed in Santa Monica, Calif., edged up 2 cents to close at $12.50 Monday, whilst shares of EA rose 4 cents to $19.40.

Click for associated contentFormer college of music heads sue Activision after firing"Call of Duty" rakes in $1 billion for Activision

© ,,.

Privacy vanishes one bit at a time

If a foreigner came up to you on the street, would you give him your name, Social Security series and e-mail address?

Probably not.

Yet people mostly lot out all kinds of personal report on the Internet that allows such identifying interpretation to be deduced. Services such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are oceans of personal minutiaebirthday greetings sent and received, propagandize and work gossip, photos of family vacations, movies watched and books read.

Computer scientists and process experts contend that such small, clearly harmless pieces of self-revelation can increasingly be picked up and reassembled by computers to assistance emanate a finish design of a persons identity, infrequently down to the Social Security number.

"Technology has rendered the required clarification of privately identifiable report obsolete," pronounced Maneesha Mithal, join forces with executive of the Federal Trade Commissions remoteness division. "You can find out who an particular is but it."

In a category plan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that perceived a little courtesy last year, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree analyzed some-more than 4,000 Facebook profiles of MIT students, together with links in in between online friends. The span combined program that predicted, with 78 percent accuracy, either a form belonged to a happy male. The technique was accurate utilizing a organisation of students who had openly identified themselves as gay.

So far, this sort of absolute interpretation mining, that relies on worldly statistical correlations to set up particular dossiers, is mostly in the area of university researchers, not temperament thieves and marketers.

But the FTC is disturbed that laws and regulations to strengthen remoteness have not kept up with becoming different technology, and currently the group is convening the third of 3 workshops on the issue.

Its concerns are frequency far-fetched. Last fall, Netflix awarded $1 million to a group of statisticians and computer scientists who won a three-year competition to investigate the movie let story of 500,000 subscribers and urge the predictive correctness of Netflixs letter of reference program by at slightest 10 percent.

On Friday, Netflix pronounced that it was shelving plans for a second contestbowing to remoteness concerns lifted by the FTC and a in isolation litigant. In 2008, a span of researchers at the University of Texas showed that the patron interpretation expelled for that initial contest, notwithstanding being nude of names and alternative approach identifying information, could mostly be "de-anonymized" by statistically analyzing an people particular settlement of movie ratings and recommendations.

In amicable networks, people can enlarge their defenses opposite marker by taking advantage of parsimonious remoteness controls on report in personal profiles. Yet an people actions, researchers say, are frequency sufficient to strengthen remoteness in the companion universe of the Internet.

With friends identical to these

You might select not to divulge personal information, but your online friends and colleagues might do it for you, referring to your propagandize or employer, gender, place and interests. Patterns of amicable communication, researchers say, are revealing.

"Personal remoteness is no longer an particular thing," pronounced Harold Abelson, the computer scholarship highbrow at MIT. "In todays online world, what your mom told you is true, usually some-more so: people unequivocally can decider you by your friends."

The pool of report about each particular can form a "social signature."

The energy of computers to brand people from amicable patterns alone was demonstrated last year in a investigate by the same span of researchers that burst Netflixs unknown database: Vitaly Shmatikov, an join forces with highbrow of computer scholarship at the University of Texas, and Arvind Narayanan, who is right away a postgraduate researcher at Stanford University.

By examining correlations in in between online accounts, the scientists showed that they could brand some-more than thirty percent of the users of both Twitter, the microblogging service, and Flickr, an online photo-sharing service, even though the accounts had been nude of identifying information.

"When you couple these large interpretation sets together, a small cut of the function and the make up of the amicable networks can be identifying," Shmatikov said.

Even some-more unnerving to remoteness advocates is the work of dual researchers from Carnegie Mellon University. In a paper published last year, Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross reported that they could fairly envision the full, nine-digit Social Security numbers for 8.5 percent of the people innate in the United States in in between 1989 and 2003nearly 5 million individuals.

Social Security numbers are generally cherished by temperament thieves since they are used both as identifiers and to substantiate banking, credit label and alternative transactions.

The FTC and Congress are weighing steps. They embody tighter mandate to rapt consumers about interpretation pick up and make use of to the origination of a "do not track" list, identical to the sovereign "do not call" list. That list would try to stop online monitoring of Internet users who opt out.

But Jon Kleinberg, a highbrow of computer scholarship at Cornell University who studies amicable networks, is doubtful that manners will have most effect, since the absolute amicable vigour to share report online.

His advice: "When you"re you do things online, you should handle as if you"re you do it in publicbecause increasingly, it is."

Virgin Media could aim BSkyB with cut-price football deals

Cable organisation Virgin Media could begin charity cut-price packages of BSkyB"s live Premier League football in time for subsequent season, arch senior manager Neil Berkett spoken yesterday. Berkett is "hopeful" that the media watchdog will subsequent month interpretation the examine in to Britain"s pay-TV market, that is approaching to disencumber Sky"s stranglehold over reward sports and movies. If Ofcom follows by on the hazard to force Sky to sell rivals the channels for a reduce price, Virgin should be means to pass on the benefits to consumers "by the summer", pronounced Berkett.

Cable guy: Virgin Media arch senior manager Neil Berkett

This would paint a feat for Virgin and telecoms hulk BT, that additionally wants to suggest Sky"s sports and movie channels to the customers.

More...Virgin Media share cost (thisismoney.co.uk) Live marketplace interpretation (thisismoney.co.uk)Share tips round-up (thisismoney.co.uk)Virgin announces launch of 100MB superfast broadband

Virgin Media already offers Sky channels on the wire platform, but loses income each time one of the subscribers signs up. Ofcom"s statute will additionally have inclusive consequences for sports fans. BT, for example, believes it could be means to suggest Sky Sports for in in between 15 and 17 a month. Although Sky intends to quarrel Ofcom to the end, Berkett believes it will have to reside by the regulator"s statute whilst ascent the authorised challenge. The arch senior manager spoke as Virgin Media suggested it had exceeded monetary targets in the run-up to Yuletide interjection to the flourishing lust for ever-faster internet access. After adding an additional 40,600 broadband, phone and TV customers, Virgin Media saw the revenues climb by 3.3 per cent to 980m in in between Oct and December. The higher than approaching total have cemented hopes that Virgin has eventually put itself on a sounder balance following scarcely a decade of misunderstanding in Britain"s wire industry. Virgin Media was struggling underneath the debt until a new monetary restructuring, but it is right away plotting dual potentially wilful moves to enhance the share of the pay-TV market. Berkett believes his not long ago voiced understanding with U.S. set-top-box builder TiVo will give his business a broader and some-more interactive use than Sky users enjoy. The wire organisation is additionally ratcheting up the vigour on BT with an ultra-fast broadband use charity download speeds of 100megabits a second by the finish of this year. This will concede web users to download a song manuscript in five seconds. Shares in Virgin Media, that right away has a delegate inventory on the London Stock Exchange, rose 62p to 1052p.

lampshade for acne to phone help this mulls

Tories justice City chiefs to lead Whitehall shake-up

Dominic OConnell, Iain Dey and James Ashton & ,}

The Conservative celebration is attempting to partisan dozens of commercial operation leaders to designer a reorganization of Whitehall.

Three non-executives will be allocated to each method house to manage compensate and potency reforms. They will inform to a super-director who will range opposite departments and promulgate approach with the budding minister.

Five FTSE 100 chairmen told they had been sounded out by the Tories. Sir Chris Gent is accepted to have reliable an seductiveness in a supervision role, observant that he would take a pursuit supposing it did not meddle with his chairmanship at Glaxo Smith Kline, the pharmaceuticals group.

The others have pronounced that, whilst they would be penetrating to assistance the Tories if elected, they were not eager by the due structure. Being a non-executive is not going to have a big difference, one authority said. It has been attempted before. I am not assured that you have enough precedence opposite the polite servants.

Related LinksTories move to feat Labour difference with businessBusiness leaders group to behind Tory taxation cut

The approaches have been done by City headhunters at the insistence of Francis Maude, the shade apportion for the Cabinet Office and head of the Conservatives doing unit, that is operative on what the celebration will do if elected.

Whitehall has sixteen departmental boards, majority of that already have a little outmost non-executive directors. Political sources contend the Tories wish to emanate extended play and are seeking to the in isolation zone for recommendation on efficiency, compensate and the recruitment and influence of talent.

Those approached have pronounced they are some-more meddlesome in giving recommendation on strategy. If they are articulate about things similar to compensate and efficiency, they would be improved removing people from the big accountancy firms rather than commercial operation leaders, pronounced one FTSE 100 chairman.

The super-director purpose is approaching to capture the majority interest, and a little City sources hold Gent might have already been sounded out about receiving it. The Conservatives have asked Oliver Pawle, the reputable former UBS landowner who is head of house services at Korn Ferry Whitehead Mann, the headhunter, to receptive to advice out FTSE bosses on the proposals.

So far the Tories have had the most appropriate of the commercial operation discuss in the choosing campaign, with 80 management team signing letters hostile increases in National Insurance payments.

Tomorrow Labour will try to recapture lost belligerent with the launch of the manifesto. It will set out a new partnership with business, and emphasize the need to rebalance the economy, with a call for some-more genuine engineering and less monetary engineering.

There will additionally be a Cadbury law giving vital industries some-more insurance from unfamiliar takeovers, and a oath to cut the cost of law by 6 billion over five years.

Australian conservatives urge British expats to opinion Cameron

By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney 1214PM GMT twenty-six March 2010

An estimated 1.3 million British expats vital in Australia are authorised to opinion in the UK and, with the competition for energy tightening, the centre-Right Liberal Party has taken the surprising step of job on the members to urge their British friends to behind the Tories.

The Liberal Party, that has historically enjoyed clever ties to the Conservatives, has emailed the supporters to remind them that any British adult vital in Australia who has been on the British electoral hurl in the past fifteen years is entitled to opinion in the ubiquitous election, that is approaching to be called on May 6.

Expat celebration hopes to turn domestic force in Spain MPs losses Bill Cash claimed 15,000 to compensate his daughter rent MPs paid 5,000 for subsidy Gordon Browns losses plan Expenses understanding cursed to failure Australian PM Kevin Rudd indicted of irreverence to win votes Canadian PM urges nation to reject bid to reject him

The Australian journal reported that the email urged Liberals to convince Britons to assistance "bring about the shift the UK needs so badly".

"The preference at this choosing five some-more years of Gordon Brown"s sleepy supervision creation things worse, or David Cameron and the Conservative Party, with the energy, care and values to get Britain moving," it said.

The show of await for Mr Cameron is unexpected, since Tony Abbott, the Liberal Party"s new leader, is doubtful to share the same views as the Tory leader.

Mr Abbott, a righteous Catholic nicknamed "The Mad Monk", famously pronounced that meridian shift was "a bucket of crap", and is well known for his Right-wing views on termination and happy marriage.

But expat lobbying has not been cramped to the Conservatives.

David Miliband, the unfamiliar secretary, has additionally done a special defence for the await of British electorate in Australia and Australians in Britain, claiming Labour would broach clever shared relations.

Two blasts strike Afghanistans Kandahar 6 passed

Ismael Sameem KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Mon Mar 1, 2010 7:23am EST Related News Large explosion rocks Afghanistan"s Kandahar: witnessMon, Mar 1 2010 < 1 / 3 >

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Four Afghan civilians and one unfamiliar infantryman were killed on Monday when a self-murder car bomber strike a procession of NATO-led infantry circuitously the southern city of Kandahar, officials and witnesses said.

World

Hours later, a car packaged with explosives blew up outward the main military hire in the city, the hearth of the suspended Taliban in Afghanistan and the approaching subsequent aim of NATO infantry fighting to reject the militants.

The second Kandahar explosion killed one military military officer and bleeding sixteen people, together with 9 police, pronounced Fazl Ahmad Sherzad, emissary military arch for Kandahar province.

A Reuters contributor at the stage saw at slightest 6 vehicles really bad damaged. Shattered potion dirty the area and multiform buildings circuitously were destroyed.

In the progressing self-murder attack, multiform soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were bleeding in the conflict on a highway multiform miles from Kandahar airport, a provincial central said.

The airfield is a key bottom for a vital descent by ISAF and Afghan forces launched in adjacent Helmand range dual weeks ago to retake the locale of Marjah from the Taliban.

The Afghan civilians were killed after they pulled their car over on the side of the road, a usual action in farming areas to concede convoys of unfamiliar forces to pass, witnesses said.

"Four civilians were killed and one bleeding in the attack," pronounced Mohammad Ibrahim, a alloy in a Kandahar hospital.

Foreign infantry cordoned off the highway heading to the site of the strike, witnesses said, adding that a bloc helicopter evacuated the bleeding ISAF soldiers.

A overpass close by was really bad damaged, a Reuters cameraman and contributor said.

In a matter on their website, the Taliban claimed shortcoming for the conflict on the convoy, observant at slightest eleven unfamiliar soldiers were killed.

A orator for the NATO-led force pronounced one NATO infantryman was killed in the blast.

(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Bryson Hull and Paul Tait)

World for acne crude associations between acne and high intake of chocolate and chips and low intake of vegetables

Biolex raises $10 million for duckweed drug

A Pittsboro biotechnology association utilizing a genetically engineered pool plant to rise an primary diagnosis for hepatitis C right away has some-more income for the mission.

Biolex Therapeutics lifted $10 million from the existent investors, the in isolation association reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, that scrapped plans in 2008 for an primary open charity of stock, lifted $60 million from try collateral investors in the tumble of 2008.

The income will be used to go on clinical contrast of the Locteron diagnosis for hepatitis C. Biolex produces the active part of Locteron utilizing Lemna, an nautical plant additionally well known as duckweed.

Company officials, together with CEO January Turek, are scheduled to benefaction halt formula from Locetron clinical trials at an Apr liver discussion in Vienna, Austria. The drug will need one more contrast prior to Biolex can find regulatory approval.

Biolex additionally is utilizing the record of genetically modifying duckweed to rise primary drug to disintegrate red blood clots and to provide non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Prenatal heroin bearing not exceedingly deleterious to expansion guidance investigate suggests

The new examination of mixed vital studies conducted on cocaine-exposed, school-aged young kids found this disastrous stroke significantly influenced young kids in pointed areas such as postulated courtesy and self-regulated behavior. The research, however, showed surprisingly small spoil without delay from heroin in key areas such as growth, IQ, educational feat and denunciation functioning.

Many of the young kids did have low IQ and bad educational and denunciation achievement. The investigate suggested, though, that these strong impairments were mostly caused by the heavy home sourroundings that goes along with heroin use, rather than without delay from the heroin itself.

The developmental areas that the heroin bearing seemed to without delay stroke -- postulated courtesy and self-regulated function -- could turn significantly cryptic as young kids grow in to adults. The examination is published this month in the biography Pediatrics. It is the initial examination of cocaine-exposed school-age young kids 6 and older; a prior examination looked at younger children.

When rates of heroin have make have make have make use of began to grow in America in the 1980s, there was regard that young kids who had been unprotected to the drug or the derivative, crack cocaine, in utero were cursed for a lifetime of bad health, sub-par opening in school, function problems and in the future for piece abuse themselves. The new examination indicates otherwise, and could shift the proceed disinfectant and amicable scholarship proceed overdo to and investigate of cocaine-exposed children, according to comparison writer Maureen M. Black, Ph.D., highbrow of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Cocaine can interrupt fetal expansion and development, but this examination tells us that only since a kid has been unprotected to cocaine, it is not a foregone end that they"re going to be in trouble, says Dr. Black. No one is observant heroin have make have make have make use of is good. We need impediment programs so women don"t have make have make have make use of heroin in the initial place. Children experience critical disastrous goods from drug bearing in the womb. It looks, though, as if heroin doesn"t work alone. Women who have make have make have make use of heroin are mostly from bad and dysfunctional families, where young kids do not embrace the caring and improvement they need. In addition, women who have make have make have make use of heroin whilst profound mostly fume cigarettes and splash ethanol as well, exposing their unborn young kids to authorised substances with intensely disastrous consequences.

Dr. Black and her colleagues reviewed 32 vital studies of school-age children, ages 6 by their teenage years, conducted in between 1980 and 2008. All of the studies compared young kids who had been unprotected to heroin to those who had not. Dr. Black and postdoctoral fellows John P. Ackerman, Ph.D., and Tracy Riggins, Ph.D., many-sided the interpretation and orderly them in to charts comparing the full of health young kids to those who had been unprotected to cocaine.

The areas where young kids showed poignant disastrous stroke from heroin -- postulated courtesy and in self-regulating function -- could lead to critical problems for young kids in adolescence or adulthood. They competence have worry with incentive carry out and they competence be risk-takers, says Dr. Black. They competence be some-more expected to be concerned with drug themselves. Innovative techniques, together with neuroimaging, have referred to that heroin bearing impacts specific brain structures and functions. The cocaine-exposed young kids appear to have differences in both white and gray matter, for example.

The formula indicate that the impediment efforts should go on to aim shortening drug have make have make have make use of between women, generally during pregnancy, but such overdo should go on after the childbirth. Education and await to assistance caregivers urge the childenvironment competence be really profitable to young kids unprotected to cocaine, Dr. Black says. The investigate will go on to inspect the specific areas of the brain that might be unprotected to heroin bearing in the hopes of joining neural differences with behavioral outcomes.

A examination is an fit proceed to inspect the incomparable design of a open health issue, going over only one study, says Dr. Black. A examination is quite utilitarian in a margin of investigate that has not existed for really long, such as the investigate of cocaine-exposed children. If you have commentary from a singular study, you cannot be certain of their stress until the investigate is replicated, Dr. Black says. The good of a examination is that it takes whatin the novel as a whole, puts it together and tries to have clarity of it.

Dr. Blackreview has unclosed an wholly new proceed of meditative about these majority unprotected victims of piece abuse, the young kids unprotected to drug prior to birth, says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and vanguard of the School of Medicine, and clamp boss for healing affairs of the University of Maryland. I am carefree her work will lead to new interventions to forestall prenatal heroin bearing at the start, and to safeguard the success of these young kids for the good of their own health and open health as a whole.

Multiple Generations Under One Roof Again

Adult immature kids are relocating behind in with parents, and grandparents are receiving up chateau with their kids families. Sound similar to old times? In fact, multi-generational households are creation a comeback, according to a inform expelled today.

Some 49 million Americans right away live in such an arrangement, up from twenty-eight million in 1980.

The tight-knit family groups could be the outcome of both amicable and mercantile factors, together with the retrogression but some-more broadly reflecting a years-long trend, according to investigate researchers from the Pew Research Centers Social and Demographic Trends project.

The anticipating extends before research. Pew investigate out last year referred to thirteen percent of relatives with grown immature kids had an adult son or daughter who had�moved behind home�over the past year to take retreat from the low economy, in between alternative reasons.

The new investigate concerned write surveys conducted in Feb and Mar 2009 with a nationally deputy representation of 2,969 adults vital in the continental United States.

Multi-generational family households were tangible as: dual generations (parents or in-laws and adult immature kids ages twenty-five and older); 3 generations (parents or in-laws, adult immature kids and grandchildren); skipped era (grandparents and grandchildren, but parents); and some-more than 3 generations.

Flip-flop

Between 1980 and 2009, there was a 33 percent enlarge in the share of Americans vital in multi-generation households. Just the conflicting was found in the decades prior. For instance, from 1940 to 1980, that share had declined by some-more than half, from twenty-five percent in 1940 to twelve percent in 1980.

Demographic factors, such as expansion of the chief family-centered suburbs, contributed to the descending out of beauty of lengthened family households, Pew reports suggest.

As for the new expansion in such households, Pew researchers contend the partly the outcome of demographic and informative shifts, together with the augmenting suit of immigrants (who are some-more prone than native-born Americans to live with mixed generations), and the rising median age of�first marriage�of all adults.

On normal a man marries for the initial time at age 28, whilst a standard women ties her initial tangle at 26. The ages are about five years comparison than in 1970, Pew researchers say. The result: More�unmarried 20-somethings�in the race who competence be drawn to their childhood home as an tasteful vital situation.

Thats generally loyal in the diseased economy, as high stagnation and rising foreclosures are pushing people from opposite generations to stand in up underneath the same roof, the researchers say. In fact, from 2007 to 2008, the series of Americans vital in a multi-generational family domicile grew by 2.6 million. No age organisation is immune. For instance, about one-in-five adults ages twenty-five to 34 right away live in multi-generational households. (The�recession�began in Dec 2007.)

Who is affectedThis direction has influenced adults of all ages, generally the aged and the young. For example, about one-in-five adults ages twenty-five to 34, and the same suit of the 65 and comparison group, right away live in a multi-generational household.

The shift has impacted adults of ages the elderly, the young, and those sandwiched in center age.���Among the elderly, there has been additionally been a different, but interrelated direction change. After rising steeply for scarcely a century, the share of adults ages 65 and comparison who live alone flattened out around 1990 and has given declined a bit. The inform explores the reasons for this direction reversal. Using the own consult data, it additionally examines the differences in altogether happiness, health, contentment and assorted hold up practice in between comparison adults who live alone and those who live with others.

At the alternative finish of the living-arrangement spectrum, single-person households have additionally increasing over the past century. In 1900, only about 1 percent of Americans lived in such a household, compared with 10 percent by 2008.

Among those ages eighteen to 24, only 4.6 percent live by themselves, down from 5.7 percent in 1980; for adults ages 65 and comparison scarcely 6 percent lived alone in 1900 compared with 28.8 percent in 1990 and 27.4 percent in 2008.

The strike competence not be a great pointer for the contentment of those drifting solo. According to a Pew Research Center consult conducted last year, adults ages 65 and comparison who live alone contend their health is worse and they are some-more similar to to feel sad, vexed or waste than their counterparts vital with a associate or alternative family member.

But thats open for debate, as a new investigate utilizing interpretation from the General Social Survey found Americans grow�happier with age.�

5 Keys to Happiness 10 Things You Didnt Know About You Kids These Days: Study Exposes Generation Me

WRAPUP 1-Pressure mounts on BOJ for process relaxation subsequent week

Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:33am EST

* Pressure mounts on BOJ to ease policy next week

Currencies

* PM, finance minister say ready to act if yen moves sharp

* But they emphasise markets should set FX rates

* BOJ to double 3-mth funding in policy review - report

* Yen may be real target of BOJ easing - analysts

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO, March 12 (Reuters) - Japan"s prime minister said thegovernment and the Bank of Japan should work together to beatdeflation as he fended off mounting political pressure for actionon the economy and the yen, raising expectations that the centralbank will ease monetary policy next week.

The prime minister, finance minister and central bankgovernor were grilled by lawmakers on Friday on what they intendto do to defeat deflation and prevent yen strength from harmingan economy struggling to recover from the global downturn.

Although the economy is growing slowly, weak domestic demandis contributing to deflation, which many policymakers fear couldpush Japan back into a damaging downturn ahead of upper houseelections expected in July.

The yen rose last week to a three-month high against thedollar and speculators are gearing up for a yen rally, raisingconcerns that exports could take a hit and deflation deepen.

Both Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Finance Minister NaotoKan said the government was ready to act if the yen movedexcessively.

But their comments were seen as adding pressure on thecentral bank to ease policy further, rather than as a call forcurrency intervention that would set the government up for apotentially costly fight with financial markets and put Japan atodds with G7 efforts to promote market-based exchange rates.

"The comments from the government and the central bankgovernor lift market expectations that there will be some kind ofeasing steps by the BOJ next week," said Hideki Hayashi, globaleconomist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.

"It is the market consensus that Japan interventing solo inthe market won"t be effective, so the government will have todepend on the BOJ"s further easing policy," said Hayashi.

"The BOJ"s expected loosening of policy will push down yeninterest rates further, thereby supporting dollar/yen at the 90yen level," he said.

Sources told Reuters this week that the central bank wasconsidering expanding a three-month lending facility itintroduced in December following an emergency meeting, either byextending the period or increasing the pool of funds available.

But they also said board members were split, with someworried a further easing in policy was not economicallyjustified, especially as the economy was developing along thelines of the central bank"s official expectations.

"The decision will be made based on discussions among theseven board members," BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa told theupper house budget committee, referring to those on the centralbank"s policy setting board.

"We hope to discuss what we can do in light of the goalsstipulated in the BOJ Law," he said.

The Nikkei newspaper said the BOJ would double its 10trillion yen ($110.4 billion) in funds offered under the lendingoperation at a policy review on Tuesday and Wednesday.[ID:nSGE62A0J4]

IS YEN REAL TARGET OF POLICY TIGHTENING?

Neither the BOJ nor the government have made an explicit linkbetween central bank efforts to loosen policy and the foreignexchange market.

But the strength of the yen against the dollar during theglobal downturn prompted complaints from industry that thecurrency"s level was harming their export prospects.

With the government"s ability to support the economy shackledby a debt load approaching 200 percent of GDP and the centralbank"s interest rates already at rock-bottom levels, someanalysts argue that reducing the yen"s strength may be the realtarget of policy loosening.

The December policy easing helped pull the yen JPY= backfrom a 14-year high of 84.82 per dollar, raising marketspeculation that the currency could be a factor in BOJ thinkingnow.

The yen rose last week to a three-month high and market datashows speculators are building long positions in the currency. Itwas trading around 90 per dollar on Friday.

In answer to lawmaker concerns over the currency, FinanceMinister Naoto Kan underlined that sharp yen moves were notdesirable by saying that authorities could use currencyintervention if foreign exchange movements were excessive.

However, he emphasised that markets should set currencyrates.

"Basically it"s desirable for currency rates to move stably,"Kan said. "I"m aware that the government has the option ofintervention when currency moves are rapid. But as long ascurrency moves are stable, it"s basically up to the market todetermine (levels)."

Shirakawa said the central bank"s loose policy was helping tocurb the yen"s strength, while Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama alsosaid steps could be taken.

"Foreign exchange should basically be determinedappropriately by the market," he said.

"But there was the sovereign debt risk, the Dubai shock andthe Lehman shock ... There seem to be yen rises that don"treflect the strength of the Japanese economy and industry," hesaid.

"Against such yen rises, we need to take resolute action ...Although we can"t return to a fixed rate system, there needs tobe global cooperation on this front."

Analysts said his comments didn"t suggest any action wasplanned or imminent, but rather that he was playing to hisdomestic political audience.

Japan authorities have not intervened in markets sincespending 35 trillion yen over a 15 month period up to March 2004. ($1=90.59 Yen) (Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Writing by NeilFullick; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Currencies

Argentinas Fernandez sticks to pot debt plan

Thu Mar 4, 2010 10:36am EST Related News Argentine judge blocks use of reserves to pay debtThu, Mar 4 2010Argentine cenbank chief defends reserves transferThu, Mar 4 2010CORRECTED - UPDATE 2-Argentina signs new decree to tap reservesMon, Mar 1 2010Argentine cenbank transfers reserves funds-sourceMon, Mar 1 2010Argentine gov"t will try to use law to tap reserves-rptSun, Feb 28 2010

BUENOS AIRES, March 4 (Reuters) - Argentine PresidentCristina Fernandez said on Thursday her government will paydebt using central bank reserves despite a court ruling thattemporarily blocked the move.

Currencies&&&&Bonds

"I am convinced that I am acting constitutionally,"Fernandez said in a televised address. (Reporting by Helen Popper; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Currencies Bonds

Pictured: The implausible Northern Lights shots taken by one lady whose mission was to constraint the Aurora Borealis on movie

These incredible pictures of the Northern Lights are the stunning results of one brave woman"s epic journey through frozen wastelands on a quest to capture the phenomenon in all its glory.

Travelling alone, German-born Kerstin Langenberger, 27, has snow-shoed and dog-sleighed her way up some of Scandinavia"s most spectacular mountains to get the perfect picture.

Marching through the wilderness, Ms Langenberger escapes from the light pollution of Norway"s cities to make sure the Aurora Borealis are clearly visible in the night sky.

The amazing Northern lights pictured by Kerstin Langenberger in Northern Norway during her seven-year solo mission

Based in Langfjordbotn in Finnmark, Norway, 300 miles inside the Arctic Circle, the dog handler trains Alaskan Huskies for sleigh duties by day.

By night she journeys to remote locations on her passionate solo mission during northern Norway"s endless winter nights.

Ms Langenberger shot these amazing pictures of Aurora Borealis in Finnmark, Norway, 300 miles inside the Arctic Circle

The mesmerising collection have all been captured this winter.

Ms Langenberger said: "I don"t know anyone crazy enough to follow me so I am always alone out there.

"It"s the most fascinating thing nature has to offer so I am always prepared to put on my snow shoes and venture out into the night.

"The first time I saw them I fell in love with them. It was such a moving experience and through photography I want to bring them to the people out there who can"t simply step outside to see them."

The swirling green-coloured lights are one of the most famous sights in Norway

Miss Langenberger has been running a solo mission across Scandinavia since 2003

Since 2003, Ms Langenberger has been wrapping up warm and running a lonely gauntlet across Iceland and Norway"s most desolate locations.

"You have to know what you are doing with a camera to get it right but there"s also an element of luck," said Ms Langenberger.

"You never know what direction the lights will be moving in so you just have to take your chances when you are setting up.

"It looks like water when it is flowing across the sky."

Aurorae are natural light displays usually seen at night and particularly in polar regions.

In the northern hemisphere the lights are named the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis after the Roman goddess of dawn, "Aurora", and the Greek name for the North Wind, "Boreas".

The visibility of the lights usually increases closer to the poles.

The aurorae are caused by photons - or light particles - being emitted high in the Earth"s atmosphere, at an altitude of at least 50 miles.

The particles are excited and flare up when they collide with the solar wind - a stream of charged particles flowing out from the sun.

Reactions with nitrogen in the atmosphere tend to cause blues and reds where oxygen tends to bring out greens or brownish-reds.