MADRID (Reuters) ? Spain's center-right opposition stormed to a crushing election victory on Sunday as voters punished the outgoing Socialist government for the worst economic crisis in generations.
The People's Party, led by former Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy, won an absolute majority in parliament and is expected to push through drastic measures to try to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into a debt storm threatening the whole euro zone.
Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led the country from boom to bust in seven years in charge. With 5 million people out of work, the European Union's highest jobless rate, Spain is heading into its second recession in four years.
Spaniards, who voted in pouring rain on Sunday, were the fifth European nation to throw out their leaders because of the spreading euro zone crisis, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy.
The PP won the biggest majority for any party in three decades, taking 186 seats in the 350-seat lower house, according to official results with 99.95 percent of the vote counted.
The Socialists slumped to 111 seats from 169 in the outgoing parliament, their worst showing in 30 years.
Rajoy's bitter medicine for the economy will probably make things worse before they get better. But he has said Spaniards are prepared for the painful austerity that is needed to reduce a swollen public deficit threatening to push the euro zone's fourth economy toward a perilous bail-out.
"I ask you all to keep helping me. Difficult times are coming," Rajoy, 56, told ecstatic supporters in his victory speech at PP headquarters.
"Spain's voice must be respected again in Brussels and Frankfurt... We will stop being part of the problem and will be part of the solution."
RESIGNATION
Most Spaniards are resigned to deep spending cuts and see Rajoy as a better steward for the economy than the discredited Socialists, who they blame for failing to act swiftly enough to head off the crisis and then belatedly imposing biting austerity measures that slashed wages, benefits and jobs.
"Being a civil servant I'm not optimistic," said Jose Vazquez, 45, after he voted in Madrid.
"We can choose the sauce they will cook us in, but we're still going to be cooked."
Many leftist voters are fearful Rajoy will destroy Spain's treasured public health and education systems, but they were so angry at the Socialists that they fled to smaller parties such as the United Left, which made huge gains .
The PP, formed from other rightist parties in the 1980s after Spain returned to democracy at the end of the Franco dictatorship, won their biggest majority ever.
The Socialists lost badly even in their traditional strongholds such as Andalucia, the olive-growing region in Spain's sunny south. In some parts of rural southern Spain more than four out of 10 workers are jobless.
"Something's got to change here in Spain, with 5 million people on the dole, this can't go on," said Juan Antonio Fernandez, 60, a jobless Madrid construction worker who switched to the PP from the Socialists. "People like us just want to work."
Spain's borrowing costs are at their highest since the euro zone was formed and yields on 10-year bonds soared last week to close to 7 percent, a level that forced other countries such as Portugal and Greece to seek international bail-outs.
Rajoy will not be sworn in until around December 20, which could prove an agonizing transition if volatile markets push Spain's borrowing costs even higher because of uncertainty.
Closing his campaign on Friday Rajoy pleaded with investors to give him time to act, and could try to agree immediate measures with the outgoing government.
ESCALATING DEBT CRISIS
But a resolution may well now be out of the hands of individual governments, whatever action they take, with the escalating euro zone crisis now spreading under its own momentum in the absence of a united European response.
"Mr. Rajoy is coming to power when the euro zone's very existence is in question. Spain is now a test case of the measures needed to restore market confidence and improve creditworthiness," said Nicholas Spiro, head of Spiro Sovereign Strategy.
Socialist candidate Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba conceded defeat after a campaign where he had given up hope of winning but vainly tried to block the PP from taking complete control of parliament.
He failed to persuade voters that he was any different from his long-time boss, deeply unpopular outgoing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
When the Socialists took power in 2004 Spain was riding a construction boom fueled by cheap interest rates, infrastructure projects and foreign demand for vacation homes on the country's warm coastlines.
Droves of young men dropped out of high school to take building jobs and bought flashy BMWs with their inflated wages.
But the government, consumers and companies were engulfed in debt when the building sector collapsed in 2007, leaving the landscape dotted with vacant housing developments, empty airports and underused highways.
In 1.4 million Spanish households no one has a formal job and bank foreclosures are rising. Close to half of young people are without work, and many of the rest are in temporary jobs with low pay and no benefits.
Facing a bleak future, tens of thousands of young Spaniards took to the streets earlier this year in the "Indignados" (or Indignant) movement, calling for complete political change and inspiring the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Like many Spaniards, Pablo Cortes, 27, who can only find occasional restaurant work despite his degree in architecture, saw no reason for optimism from the result.
"Does anyone really believe the PP is going to solve this? How, with more austerity for the have-nots and favors for the rich?" he asked bitterly.
(Additional reporting by Nigel Davies, Sarah Morris, Martin Roberts and Carlos Ruano in Madrid; Editing by Barry Moody and Angus MacSwan)
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The girls have accidentally turned into their true forms out of nowhere (the bodies of which cause the small clothing to tear off), as they try to sneak home to discover what had happened.
At the same time, Their parents from their home planet make themselves known, living in a home down the street, as they send out one of the first Kaijin: A Deadly Cyborg!
The news begins to report on the destruction as the girls, who were hoping their adoptive mother would save them all, decide to don some spare ninja gear which they modify, and go out to fight. They're nearly defeated until they get help from the mysterious Shin Kojin, and the recently arrived Ryuujin Bros who had just completed their Armor, which was inspired by Kojin himself.
And with that, they go their separate ways. Eventually they meet eachother as normal people, and slowly discover their true identities, forming a superhero team?
2) Aku Choujin Arc
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WASHINGTON ? The top aide to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is using his office as "an opposition research arm" of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades leveled the charge Thursday ? the same day The Boston Globe reported that the state has no email records from Romney's tenure as governor because departing aides took their computers and erased email servers.
Rhoades says Patrick's attorneys improperly provided the Globe with records showing that former Romney aides bought their computers from the state when they left his administration.
Rhoades says Patrick is trying to embarrass Romney, who was governor before Patrick.
Rhoades is asking Patrick to make public all communication between his office and Obama's senior advisers.
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Satbir Sharma's wife is dead. His family lives in fear in rural India. His father's left leg is shattered, leaving him on crutches for life.
Sharma's only hope lies in a new law that gives him the right to know what is happening in the investigation of his wife's death. Most of all, he wants to know what will happen to the village mayor, now in jail on murder charges.
He talks quietly, under his breath, because his two young sons still think their mother is sick in the hospital and will come home. He pats a tidy stack of government documents perched on a table, under the gaze of Hindu gods from pictures on the wall.
"At least," he says sadly, "we have the truth."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? More than 100 countries have legislation that ? on paper ? gives citizens the right to know what is happening in their governments. The Associated Press has tested these laws worldwide for the first time. Readers are invited to submit suggestions for future freedom of information requests in any country at http://apne.ws/vgMTQ6.
___
The promise is magnificent: More than 5.3 billion people in more than 100 countries now have the right ? on paper ? to know the truth about what their government is doing behind closed doors. Such laws have spread rapidly over the past decade, and when they work, they present a powerful way to engage citizens and expose corruption.
However, more than half the countries with such laws do not follow them, The Associated Press found in the first worldwide test of this promised freedom of information. And even when some countries do follow the law, the information unearthed can be at best useless and at worst deadly.
Right-to-know laws reflect a basic belief that information is power and belongs to the public. In a single week in January, AP reporters tested this premise by submitting questions about terrorism arrests and convictions, vetted by experts, to the European Union and the 105 countries with right-to-know laws or constitutional provisions.
AP also interviewed more than 100 experts worldwide and reviewed hundreds of studies.
Among its findings:
? Only 14 countries answered in full within their legal deadline. Another 38 countries eventually answered most questions, at least providing data.
? Newer democracies were in general more responsive than some developed ones. Guatemala confirmed the AP request in 72 hours, and sent all documents in 10 days. Turkey sent spreadsheets and data within seven days. Mexico posted responses on the Web. By comparison, Canada asked for a 200-day extension. The FBI in the United States responded six months late with a single sheet with four dates, two words and a large section blanked. Austria never responded at all.
? More than half the countries did not release anything, and three out of 10 did not even acknowledge the request. African governments led the world for ignoring requests, with no response whatsoever from 11 out of 15 countries.
? Dozens of countries adopted their laws at least in part because of financial incentives, and so are more likely to ignore them or limit their impact. China changed its access-to-information rules as a condition to joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, to boost the economy by as much as 10 percent. Beijing has since expanded the rules beyond trade matters. Pakistan adopted its 2002 ordinance in return for $1.4 billion in aid from the International Monetary Fund. Neither country responded to the AP's test.
"Having a law that's not being obeyed is almost worse than not having a law at all," says Daniel Metcalf, the leading U.S. Freedom of Information authority at the Justice Department for the past 25 years, now a law professor at American University. "The entire credibility of a government is at stake."
___
India is the best example in the world of both the promise and the peril of right-to-know laws.
India was one of just 14 countries that replied to the AP's request in full and on time. Authorities responded within their legal deadline of a month, and even gave more than was asked: A state-by-state breakdown.
Indians filed about 24,400 right-to-know requests in 2006, the year after the country's information law passed. Last year, the government fielded more than a million and said it responded to most.
India now boasts of at least a dozen blogs dedicated exclusively to right to information issues. Requests have already revealed scandals such as unethical drug trials, shady business deals and illegal phone taps by government officials.
"Right to Information is a fundamental human right," says Srinivas Madhav at the Centre for Good Governance in Hyderabad. "Right to Information has become a friend in need, making life easier and honorable for common people."
Yet dozens of people in India have been attacked and beaten for using the law, and at least 12 have been killed.
Sharma sits on the bed, quietly sweating in the thick 113-degree heat. His father, Jagdish Chandra Sharma, absentmindedly rubs his aching left leg, which was crushed and now has three rods in it. He wipes a tear away from his eye.
The Sharma family lives in Chandrawal, a quiet farming village of about 2,100 people where the mayor, Dharamvir Malik, is notoriously corrupt, according to villagers.
They say he cut a water pipe flowing across his fields and drained drinking water into his crops. He then sent a water truck to the village and charged residents to fill up from it. And he adulterated fuel at the gas stations he owns with cheap kerosene.
When the Sharmas suspected him of stealing pension money, they filed for documents under India's right-to-know law. They used the information to register a corruption case with the police. The mayor, livid with rage, then filed a case against them, saying they had robbed him of $10,000 at gunpoint.
On the evening of Feb. 10, the mayor and some supporters drove to the family home in a minivan, the family says. They were drunk and began screaming: "Come out. We'll give you your pensions."
Sharma's wife, Sonu, and his father Jagdish came out to ask them to leave, the family says.
The men grabbed Sonu, tried to pull her into the car and hit her on the head with an iron bar, Jagdish recounts. When she collapsed, they ran over her with the minivan, he says. They also ran over his left leg.
Malik is now in jail, and police did not allow an interview.
Over the past eight months, the only information the family has received on the case has come from a flurry of right-to-know requests.
That was how they found out police were pushing for lesser charges, saying Sonu Sharma was killed after Malik tried to drive away from a scuffle between the two families. The court overruled the police and charged Malik with murder.
The documents also showed that Malik had five registered guns. The Sharmas' application for a gun permit of their own was rejected, and they have filed a right-to-know request to find out why.
Now Jagdish lives under 24-hour police guard. But his son is still enthusiastic about India's information law, and says without it the family would have little hope of justice.
"It's good for getting information so we can fight for our rights," says Satbir Sharma. "It has been a curse for us because of what happened to us personally, but it is a good thing for the common man."
___
Right-to-know laws can work particularly well in newer democracies, because their governments can adopt what has worked elsewhere and discard what hasn't. In the AP test, new democracies in general responded faster and better than more established ones.
Mexico, for example, gave the AP all the information requested within two months in response to a query filed through a single website. But in the U.S., the AP had to mail letters to six branches of the Justice and Homeland Security departments, email the FBI and follow up with 18 telephone calls. In return came 40 pieces of mail, with useful information only in two spreadsheets, and even then with names blanked out.
Mexico's freedom of information law is often cited as a model. Requests can be anonymous. All responses are made public. The system acknowledges the request immediately, and full answers typically arrive within a month.
Immediately after the law took effect in 2003, Mexico logged an average of 926 requests and 823 responses a week. Those numbers are now up to a record 3,012 requests and 2,460 responses.
The U.S. passed its freedom of information law in 1966. Each agency in the U.S. has its own in-house freedom of information branch, which creates bureaucracy. Responses rarely meet the 20-day deadline, and can take years.
The AP is still waiting on a 10-year-old request to the U.S. State Department for information about a now-defunct Greek terror organization. At the latest check, a staffer said: "The information was sent to a senior reviewer."
In 2010, U.S. agencies fully released about 55 percent of the information requested, partially released information in another 37 percent and denied 8 percent. In Mexico, agencies fully released information in 85 percent of requests.
The U.S. law is showing its age.
"It was conceived in an era of paper-based records," says the Justice Department's Melanie Ann Pustay, the nation's highest-ranked FOIA official. "Mexico had the advantage of creating their law when we do have the Internet."
She points out that the U.S. gets more requests, with close to 600,000 last year, and has recently reduced backlogs and increased the number of records made public.
In Mexico, the law is giving a voice to ordinary people.
When the tractors first came to La Parota in 2003, the engineers told Marco Antonio Suastegui, a village leader, that they were building a dam. Suastegui did not know what a dam was.
The Mexican government wanted to flood out three dozen villages, including Suastegui's, tucked along lagoons and down winding muddy roads beyond the luxury resorts of Acapulco. The plan was to build a $1 billion dam to generate 1,500 gigawatt hours of electricity a year, enough to power eastern Mexico.
The villagers were furious. "Blood was going to flow," Suastegui says.
But the same year, Mexico's freedom of information law took effect. Along with holding marches and protests, dam opponents gathered evidence from documents obtained under the information law.
Villagers then sued the government for granting water rights without the consent of residents who owned the communal land. In 2007, a judge stopped construction.
About 300 dam opponents gathered in a town square on a recent afternoon to celebrate their success with music, dance, prayers and hot beans and tortillas. Their victory would not have been possible, they say, without the documents.
___
Despite the examples of success, more than half of countries with right-to-know laws ignore them.
Of the 105 countries the AP tested, 54 have yet to provide answers, 35 never acknowledged receiving the request, and six refused to disclose information, citing national security. In Kenya, a government spokesman denied receiving a hand-delivered letter. In Jordan, four requests were rejected outright, and several more are pending.
The law in Uganda, where the government never responded, goes one step further. Critics say it further restricts access to records if they are said to damage state security or infringe on privacy. Ugandans must also pay a fee of about 20,000 shillings, or $8, typically a week's wages, for a request.
About 200 requests have been filed since the law passed in 2005, according to a survey by a Ugandan human rights group. Seven out of 10 petitioners never heard back from the government, and those who did were often denied the records.
Journalist Angelo Izama was the first person to test Uganda's law, paying an attorney $2,500 to file a right-to-know request. He asked for documents showing who is getting multibillion-dollar contracts to explore and exploit the massive oil reserves recently found in his country.
"This oil is a national asset," Izama says. "It belongs to the people of Uganda, most of whom don't have electricity, cook on firewood, live in abject poverty. ... Ugandans have a right, under their freedom of information law, to know what deals are being made with Western and Chinese oil companies."
In response to Izama's push, Parliament demanded and got copies of contracts between oil companies and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, but they were confidential. Adding to the fury, WikiLeaks released cables alleging that Museveni accepted bribes from oil companies.
"Absolute rubbish," Museveni responded at a news conference. "I have never been given any money by anybody."
Since the case started three years ago, Izama has since been arrested three times, on increasingly serious charges.
He went to court after three months to ask a magistrate to order that the documents be turned over to him, but was arrested the next day for defaming an inspector general on the radio.
On the morning he was supposed to be arguing for his request, Izama was in a different courtroom 10 miles away. He had just been charged with sedition and libel for comparing the president to former Filipino strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
"I was going crazy, texting everyone, trying to get out," he says.
Finally, after paying $1,000 bail, he dashed to the other court. But the judge had ruled against him, saying he had failed to show that disclosure of the oil contracts would be "for the benefit of the public interest." The judge cited Iran and Indonesia as oil-rich countries that do not divulge such information.
This month Izama was supposed to have a hearing on his request, but the judge is the same former inspector general who once accused him of defamation, and it's been delayed until March.
Even if he gets his records, it's unclear what condition they will be in. "No temperature, humidity or pest control exist," said a study of government personnel records in Uganda, "so paper is rotting, metal is rusting and there are layers of insects on or in files."
Izama says his phones are tapped, and his email is opened. He constantly looks over his shoulder.
"My aunties and my mother particularly thinks I should let this drop," he says. "It really is dangerous. But I believe freedom of information is the key to unclogging our broken system."
___
Dozens of countries passed their right-to-know laws to meet conditions for agreements or funding from donors. The United States alone spends about $50 million a year in foreign aid to promote freedom of information and government transparency. But in practice, laws adopted for financial gain do not work as well as those adopted in response to public pressure.
China became a full member of the WTO after promising to establish a system where people could make requests for some public records, in an apparent change of course for one of the world's most secretive governments.
In 2008, the Chinese government reported receiving close to 89,000 requests, resulting in the release of more than 10 million documents. There were about 100,000 requests last year, according to Weibing Xiao, who teaches at Shanghai University's School of Economic Law and maintains a blog about freedom of information in China.
"I would say the Chinese government currently, while there are some problems, has become more transparent, more open," Xiao says.
Response rates vary widely by office, from zero to 100 percent disclosure. In a landmark case last year, a Chinese businessman forced the city of Guangzhou to make its budget public. And Chinese authorities responded in August to criticism of secrecy with a pledge to become more open.
However, more than half of China's city and provincial governments fail open-information requirements, one survey found.
China never provided the information requested by the AP. Authorities told the AP to fax a freedom of information request to find out how to use the freedom of information law. The number, dialed dozens of times, was never answered.
Even when information is available in China, it may not change anything, especially if it gets in the way of economic growth and other government priorities.
Professor Zhao Fengping grew up in a warren of warehouses in the rust-belt city of Zhengzhou that had been converted into homes. The houses, while dark, had yards for Zhao, her six brothers and sisters and neighborhood children to play in.
"We had deep feelings about it," says Zhao, who teaches public administration at Zhengzhou University. "Over the long run, my neighbors and I were like partners who had grown up together."
But Zhengzhou, in north central China, has grown at a dizzying pace, throwing up a new district full of empty buildings that the Chinese derisively call the country's biggest "ghost city." Zhengzhou and other local governments are furiously plowing under defunct factories, old neighborhoods and rural fringes to build high-rises, roads and industrial parks.
Zhao's mother, a widow in her 80s, lives in the family home, and sometimes with her children. Only by chance, on a visit back to the home last year, did Zhao and her mother learn that it was slated for demolition, to make way for an apartment complex.
Then began weeks of visits to city offices and phone calls to many more.
In records obtained under China's open-government initiatives, Zhao found lapses and glaring mistakes that should have stopped the project. An office that oversaw the reconstruction of central Zhengzhou was not listed in government directories. The approval for the project was two years old and had effectively expired. And the documents had the wrong address, listing an intersection of two streets that don't meet.
Zhao confronted officials at the Demolition and Relocation Office.
"I brought out the map and said, 'Locate this place for me.' They couldn't. I said, 'What can be done?'" Zhao recounts. "He said it's not their problem."
She hit the same stonewall at other offices. Meanwhile, the government and the company in charge of demolition pressured her family to give up.
The wrecking crews came last November. Zhao's mother lost her home and now lives with each of her children in turn.
The process plunged Zhao into depression for weeks. She says right-to-know laws mean nothing without a more open political system, where people can use the information to change policies and fight for their rights.
"I felt very sad, very hopeless," she says. "I wouldn't do this again, because I now know where it leads. ... I was angry, I was furious, I was exhausted. I ran around in a big circle but didn't accomplish anything."
___
The push toward freedom of information continues. This year, seven countries passed right to information laws, and 18 more have such laws under consideration.
Yet there remains a significant gap between what the laws say and what really happens.
"You pass the law, but you have 150 years of bad government practice to turn around, and you can't expect that to happen in a short period," says David Banisar, senior legal counsel for London-based Article 19, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of information. "It's about moving the ball more than hitting the home run."
___
What government records ? from anywhere in the world ? do you think AP reporters should request? Share your ideas with us on Facebook. We'll see if we can file a FOIA request, and your idea might even point us to a future news story. The same AP Facebook post also offers links to part 1 of AP's Freedom of Information project, exploring the number and nature of terrorism arrests and convictions. You can find it all here: http://apne.ws/vgMTQ6.
___
AP staff writers who contributed to this report include: Ravi Nessman from India, Charles Hutzler from China and Adriana Gomez Licon from Mexico.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A scientist who was the star defense witness in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor was sanctioned Wednesday by the trial judge and fined $250 for violating a court order during his testimony.
Dr. Paul White, a pioneer in the use of the anesthetic propofol, said he didn't think he was doing anything wrong when he told jurors the judge had forbidden him to testify about conversations with Dr. Conrad Murray.
Murray's lawyer J. Michael Flanagan argued at Wednesday's hearing that White was inexperienced as a witness. But prosecutor David Walgreen accused White of purposely trying to sabotage the case.
"I had no idea your honor had told me not to go into this area," White told the judge. "I apologize profusely."
White portrayed himself as a novice at testifying.
"This is not something I do for a living," he said. "I did my best to answer questions as truthfully and honestly as I could."
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said his instructions to White and the lawyers were clear and repeated many times in chambers and in open court. He said White openly disobeyed.
Flanagan replied by criticizing the judge's rulings during the trial and said, "You didn't give me an opportunity to explain to him in more detail how you felt about the situation."
The judge snapped, "It's not about me, Mr. Flanagan."
White drew frequent prosecution objections during his testimony on Oct. 31 when he seemed to be referring to things Murray told him in confidence.
Pastor told White outside the jury's presence to stop trying to sneak in references to private conversations he had with Murray. The witness had suggested his opinions were partially based on what Murray told him, but those talks were not submitted as evidence.
"It's deliberate and I don't like it," Pastor said at the time. "It's not going to happen again."
But it did, when White told jurors: "I'd like to talk to you about this, but the judge told me I couldn't."
At that point, Pastor threatened to find the doctor in contempt of court and fine him $1,000. He changed his mind Wednesday and issued a civil sanction of $250. He gave White until Dec. 16 to pay the fine or appeal.
Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death, is in jail awaiting sentencing on Nov. 29.
Outside court, White told reporters he was disappointed by his experience during the trial.
"I think any fine at all is inappropriate," he said. "I didn't think I did anything wrong."
_______________
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this story.
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BERLIN (Reuters) ? The leaders of Germany and Britain sent out conflicting signals on Friday about how to solve the euro zone's debt crisis and admitted they had failed to narrow differences over the introduction of a financial transaction tax in Europe.
At a news conference in Berlin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to paper over divergent views on European policy that have sparked a war of words between politicians and media in both countries.
But they could not mask differences over how the single currency bloc's debt crisis should be handled, with Cameron calling for "decisive action" to stabilize the euro zone and Merkel making clear she favored a "step-by-step" approach.
"My German isn't that good, I think a bazooka is a superwaffe, am I right?" Cameron said in response to a question about his call for euro zone policymakers to use a "big bazooka" approach to the crisis.
"The chancellor and I would agree that whatever you call this we need to take decisive action to help stabilize the euro zone," he said, citing the need for strong action on Greece, a rescue fund with "power and punch" and a recapitalisation of European banks.
Merkel struck a more cautious note. She has come under pressure to support bolder crisis-fighting steps from the European Central Bank (ECB), such as using it as a lender of last resort for the bloc or backstop for the bloc's bailout fund, the so-called European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).
So far she has resisted, backing the argument of the German Bundesbank that this would violate the ECB's inflation-focused policy mandate. She is focusing on changes to the EU's Lisbon Treaty to force other euro members to adopt German budget discipline.
"The British demand that we use a large amount of firepower to win back credibility for the euro zone is right. But we have to take care that we don't pretend to have powers we don't have. Because the markets will figure out very quickly that this won't work."
SPEAKING GERMAN
Asked about Germany's push for the introduction of a financial transaction tax in Europe, Merkel admitted the two leaders "did not make any progress".
"Naturally there are differences. But Europe can only prevail if all the strong countries of the European continent are represented and if we have a bit of tolerance for the different views," Merkel said.
At a meeting of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) earlier this week, the parliamentary leader from her party accused Britain of "only defending its own interests" and announced triumphantly that "Europe is speaking German all of a sudden", a reference to widespread acceptance of German fiscal rigor across the bloc.
The comments sparked a strong reaction in the British press with the Daily Mail saying: "We no longer need to fear the jackboot but we have a great deal to fear from German bossy boots."
Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper retaliated, asking on the morning of Cameron's visit: "What is England still doing in the EU?"
(Reporting by Stephen Brown and Andreas Rinke; Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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Earlier this year Check Point's ZoneAlarm antivirus and security suite got a total makeover, a completely new look after years of wearing the same face. Now ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 2012 (free, direct) has received the same treatment. Don't worry; only its appearance has changed. Under the hood it's the same powerful free firewall as ever.
As Bari Abdul, vice president of consumer sales at Check Point Software Technologies, observed, "More than 200 million people today use free antivirus software, but they lack a strong two-way firewall, leaving their PCs vulnerable to online attacks." Check Point advises all users of free antivirus products to install the free ZoneAlarm firewall for added security.
New Interface
Like ZoneAlarm Antivirus + Firewall 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars) and ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), the free ZoneAlarm firewall now presents the user with three panel-sized buttons representing protection for identity and data, computer, and Internet. Each button changes color if there's a problem; clicking the button brings up detailed status information and access to configuration.
The free ZoneAlarm visually includes all the features of the more advanced products. They're simply grayed out, with a link that offers an opportunity to upgrade to a paid product.
Zone Defense
ZoneAlarm pioneered the now-common feature of organizing networks into different security zones with different settings. WiFi hotspots and other potentially risky networks go in the public zone, while your own home or business network typically goes in the trusted zone. By default ZoneAlarm automatically puts unsecured wireless networks into the public zone. For other newly discovered networks it asks the user to choose.
Not surprisingly, ZoneAlarm passed all of my port scan tests and other Web-based attacks. With all ports in stealth mode the computer simply isn't visible to outside attackers.
Another now-common feature pioneered by ZoneAlarm is firewall self-defense. As always, I couldn't find any way to disable the firewall using techniques that could be incorporated into malicious code. In particular I couldn't terminate its processes nor could I find any way to stop or disable its essential services.
Some firewalls actively detect and prevent Web-based attacks on system vulnerabilities. The firewall in Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) is especially good at this. In my most recent test it blocked every single exploit that I generated using the Core IMPACT penetration tool, and identified most of them by name.
Active blocking of exploits isn't a feature you'll find in ZoneAlarm. None of the exploits actually managed to penetrate system security, but ZoneAlarm didn't take notice of them.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/nDRaTyXA5R8/0,2817,2396214,00.asp
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