ECB to keep monetary policy loose for as long as needed

By Ingrid Melander

ORLEANS, France (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will keep its loose and growth-supportive monetary policy stance in place for "quite a long time", ECB executive board members said on Friday.

With the euro zone economy stuck in recession, the ECB cut its main refinancing rate to a record low of 0.5 percent and extended its provision of unlimited funds to banks by a year at its May policy meeting,

Inflation fell to a three-year low of 1.2 percent in April, allowing some room for maneuver.

The ECB's Joerg Asmussen told journalists in Berlin the bank's monetary policy would remain expansive for as long as needed.

His colleague Benoit Coeure hit a similar tone when speaking at a conference in Orleans in France, saying the ECB was committed to providing the euro zone with abundant liquidity for as long as necessary.

"We are saying that because we are well aware that rigidities and difficulties of transmission in the euro zone mean that the monetary policy will have to stay accommodative for quite a long time," Coeure said.

The ECB's record low interest rates do not reach euro zone countries evenly because funding costs for banks in the periphery are higher than in the euro zone's core countries. That makes it more expensive for households and companies to borrow.

ECB President Mario Draghi said last week the bank would monitor incoming data closely and would be ready to cut rates again, including the deposit rate currently at zero, which would mean it would charge banks to keep their money overnight.

Market talk that the ECB was checking with banks whether they would be prepared for such a step weighed on the euro against the dollar and German Bund future rose as much as 40 ticks to 145.71.

Tech ECB had not immediate comment.

By charging banks for overnight deposits, the ECB would give banks with excess liquidity - mainly those in core countries - an incentive to start lending again to banks in the periphery, which are for now more reliant on the ECB for funding.

Italy's central bank governor, Ignazio Visco, would be in favor of negative deposit rates. He was quoted earlier this week as saying it would be an effective way to help the euro zone economy.

But the step could also backfire as banks might pass the costs on to their customers.

(Reporting by Ingrid Melander in Orleans, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin, writing by Paul Carrel and Eva Kuehnen Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecb-keep-monetary-policy-loose-long-needed-120632817.html

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Samsung releases TecTiles 2 NFC tags for Galaxy S 4, available for $15 today

Remember Samsung's TecTiles NFC-enabled stickers? Well, much to our dismay, they don't work with the company's flashy new handset, and Galaxy S 4 owners haven't had an alternative to stock up on until today. Samsung's new TecTiles 2, which can perform tasks similar to the smartphone maker's previous-generation product, are now available, priced at $15 for a pack of five. They're compatible with all Samsung NFC-enabled Android smartphones, and offer up a variety of functions, such as muting your device when you tap a tag in the boardroom, or checking you in on Foursquare by touching a TecTile in a restaurant, for example. The small square stickers can now be ordered on Samsung's website -- if you'd prefer to pick them up in store, you'll need to hang tight until June.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Wireless, Samsung

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Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Texas tornadoes leave 6 dead

A man injured in a tornado is carried to an ambulance in Granbury, Texas, May 15, 2013. (Mike Fuentes/AP)

Officials and residents in north Texas had to wait until daybreak to assess the damage caused by a string of tornadoes that touched down Wednesday night, leaving at least six people dead, dozens injured and hundreds homeless.

In Granbury, Texas, about 65 miles southwest of Dallas, about 50 people were injured, Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said. Of those, 14 were admitted to the hospital, and two were transferred to a hospital in nearby Fort Worth. Another 50 gathered at an elementary school in the town of about 8,000 to "have their injured children examined by paramedics," the Associated Press said.

As of midnight, 14 people were still unaccounted for, officials said.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, many homes in the hardest-hit neighborhood in Granbury?Rancho Brazos?were constructed by Habitat for Humanity.

?Most of the neighborhood is heavily damaged to destroyed,? Deeds said. ?Very little is untouched.?

More from the AP:

Behind one house in the storm's path sits a detached garage stripped of much of its aluminum siding, the door caved in and its roof torn off. Siding was scattered up to 50 yards away, and bits of fiberglass insulation draped on a fence. A tree behind the house was stripped of most of its branches, and a vacant doublewide mobile home on an adjoining lot was torn apart.

Videos uploaded to YouTube show the Granbury tornado:

According to the National Weather Service, another tornado about a mile wide tore through Cleburne, Texas, about 25 miles southeast of Granbury. There were no reports of deaths and no immediate reports of injuries, according to Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain.

Yet another tornado touched down in Millsap, west of Fort Worth. There were no injuries there, either, though hail as large as grapefruits was reported.

A Vine video shared by Granbury resident Amy Castaneda showed a large piece of hail from the storm.

At least 10 tornadoes touched down in north Texas Wednesday, weather officials said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-tornadoes-granbury-photos-video-121304415.html

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Which 'American Idol' Finale Song Is Best? Nicki And Keith Disagree!

'I enjoy Candice's song a little bit better,' Minaj admits to MTV News on finale red carpet.
By Katie Atkinson

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707522/american-idol-finale-nicki-minaj-keith-urban.jhtml

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daydaily ? Blog Archive ? Benefits of brick and pavers stone

Written on May 16, 2013 ? 3:21 pm | by guestwriter guestwriter |

If you are looking to replace your dirt place or blacktop driveway or patio paving stones are the best option to make the surrounding wonderfully without any unsuccessful source of the home or any other places. But, most of the people don?t comprehend that the pavers stone as numerous times stronger than the concrete stone. Because of the pavers stone are set into a friction base and mixture, so they don?t move around at all. But, it remains flexible usage during the time of seasonal condition either it may be cold or hot at the time the paving stone has the better option to install it. The various other criteria for placing the paver?s stone such as:

Whether you have the brick or flagstone patio just adding the concrete pavers has good way to enhance the beauty of the brick structure. Because of, the pavers stone have the different number of colors and materials as available as well as it can be installed or either to remover fairly very easy process without any worry about the circumstance.

Besides the pavers stone patio, you can also use the pavers stone as borders along with such as form a beautiful fountains, decks of pools, driveways or patio and sidewalks. Before that, you have to know about the brick pavers and concrete pavers stone. These are very effective usage for making the sidewalks or patio beautiful that shows the neat look of infrastructure.

Already you know about the pavers stones come in the number of different colors and materials are available. The most popular types of pavers stone are made of brick forms that are used to enhance the home environment as well as it shows the high look of sidewalks or patio. The pavers brick stone as also simple to use the cleaning process and it requires only the scrub brush with the support of some soap and water to clean the stone without any worry about the cleaning process that means easy to maintain. You can pick the pavers brick in various variety of design look based on your requirements.

The best choices which are includes in the common shapes such as rectangular, x-shaped, fan-shaped and keyhole like design of the brick structure based on your preference you can place the brick pavers stone at the home or any other place. The most common available paver?s stone is rectangular shape brick and most of the people will prefer this type of design look. If in case, you have the confusion about what to pick the bricks and you don?t go wrong with the design and material. So try to select the bricks from colors such as brown, red and green color.

The pavers stone as go well with the flagstone, brick and concrete sidewalks or patio on the garden or inner decoration of the home improvements. If you live in various climate where the winter season the temperature has dip below zero condition. At the time, the concrete pavers stone has very good choice to place the ground and you are able to hold up all set of extreme temperatures without any worry about the seasonal changes. So you should choose the pavers stone in the shades such as pink, white and sand color as well as it comes in various shapes such as x, y, hexagon and pentagon shapes.

The paver?s stone are made of sand stone, granite and limestone as well. So such the paver?s stones are typically very expensive price rate. These kinds of pavers stone has usually used for the patios or around the pools and fountains. And, you can choose the best type of pavers stone made of these materials in the various design look of the geometric design based on your requirements you can prefer the size. As well as, have the various shapes to pick up the pavers stone and most common shapes are hexagonal, square shape and rectangular style. So these type s of pavers stone are very durable to use and can last well over the several decades.

Sarina Smith is a Home Improvement writer and journalist. She enjoys writing about Home Improvement, Travel and Environment. She will support Pavers copnay in Phoenix.

Source: http://daydaily.com/2013/05/16/benefits-of-brick-and-pavers-stone/

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Alcatel One Touch Idol (Unlocked)

You might have seen the Alcatel One Touch Idol in Iron Man 3. I haven't seen it yet, but with its sleek, thin design, I can see how the Idol looks like a natural pairing for Tony Stark's rich-boy bravado. But I can't imagine that Iron Man himself would ever use a device that's so behind the times. The Idol has no LTE, for instance. There's no HSPA+ either, which means you're stuck in the Internet slow lane. Performance is less than stellar across the board, voice dialing doesn't work, and the camera takes photos that border on impressionistic. The attractive design and $299.99 price tag may make the Idol seem tempting, but you don't need to spend more money to score a much better phone.

Design and Call Quality
Aside from the price, the best thing the Idol has going for it is its design. The phone measures 5.24 by 2.66 by 0.31 inches (HWD), which feels like the perfect size for a big-screen phone you can still comfortably hold in one hand. It is extremely thin, and at just 3.88 ounces, Alcatel claims this is the lightest phone available for its size.

The phone has a unibody construction, made entirely of high-quality plastic designed to look like brushed aluminum, with a buttonless, all-glass front panel. I reviewed the silver model, but the phone comes in a number of much louder colors like green, red, and turquoise. There's a volume rocker and SIM cards slot on the right, a headphone jack and Power button on the top, and a microSD card slot on the left. The back of the phone is completely sealed, so there's no access to the 1,800mAh battery. I prefer a removable back, so you can carry a spare battery if necessary, and the Idol was only good for 6 hours and 31 minutes of talk time on AT&T's network.

The Idol's 4.7-inch IPS LCD is a mixed bag. It gets very bright, but the 960-by-540-pixel resolution makes it considerably less sharp than many of the 720 and 1080p screens we've been seeing lately, on phones like the Oppo Find 5?and Sony Xperia ZL. Alcatel claims there's a special coating on the display that repels fingerprint oil, but it didn't seem to look noticeably different than any number of new phones we've tested.

The Idol is unlocked, so you can use it on either AT&T or T-Mobile's network, or with smaller GSM-based carriers like Simple Mobile (which uses T-Mobile's network). But no matter which carrier you choose, the Idol is running at painfully crippled network speeds. There's no LTE support, or even HSPA+. The phone maxes out at HSPA 7.2, which places you firmly in 3G territory. I tested the phone on AT&T's network and got fine reception, but the phone struggled to reach download speeds of 1Mbps. Uploads were even worse. That means unless you're connected to Wi-Fi (the phone supports 802.11 b/g/n), using the Idol can feel frustratingly slow.

At least call quality is good. Voices sound extremely crisp and clear in the phone's earpiece. Calls made with the phone sound round and full, though aggressive noise cancellation can make voices sound slightly muted. The speakerphone is not loud enough to hear outdoors. I paired the phone with a Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset. Calls sounded fine, but I was unable to use voice dialing. I tried again without the headset, but the voice dialing app doesn't seem to work at all.

Performance, Android, and Apps
We're seeing more and more quad-core phones every day, but so far there's nothing wrong with a phone still powered by a good dual-core processor. Unfortunately, this one isn't. The Idol uses a dual-core 1GHz MediaTek MT6577 chip, which turned in some pretty low benchmark scores. It's fast enough that navigating your way around the phone feels fine, but opening apps can take a while, and 3D gaming performance is poor. You'll still be able to run most of the 800,000+ apps in the Google Play store, but they may not run optimally.

(Next page: Camera, Multimedia, and Conclusions)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/VO9EmywthdI/0,2817,2418898,00.asp

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