Samsung Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of flat screen televisions, memory chips and liquid crystal displays, posted its first ever quarterly loss Friday (Jan 23) as the global economic slump hit prices and demand for mainstay products.

Samsung lost 20 billion won ($14.37 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, the company said in a statement. Samsung posted 2.21 trillion won in net profit a year earlier.

The net loss was Samsung's first since the company began reporting results on a quarterly basis in 2000 and underlines the challenges facing electronics companies worldwide as major economies flounder in recession.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company has struggled with falling prices for chips and flat screens, as well as the waning consumer appetite that has hit other Asian electronics manufacturers including Japanese giant Sony Corp.

On Thursday, Sony projected its first annual loss in 14 years, while South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. reported a record quarterly net loss. Japan's Panasonic Corp. said earlier this month it would slash about $1.5 billion from its planned investment in two new flat-screen TV plants and shut down unprofitable businesses.

The results showed that "our company could not escape the rapid decline in the global economy," Samsung's Robert Yi, vice president for investor relations, told a conference call.

The result wasn't as bad as the net loss of 92.93 billion won forecast by an Associated Press survey of 10 analysts. But on an operating basis, the company racked up red ink to the tune of 940 billion won, much worse than the forecast of a loss of 319 billion won. That loss was also a first.

Operating earnings are seen as a direct indicator of core business performance while net profit or loss also reflects taxes, dividends, asset sales and other items.

"The global economic slowdown had an adverse effect on consumer purchases of electronics goods in the fourth quarter, traditionally a strong period for electronics companies," Samsung said in the release.

Fourth quarter sales rose to 18.45 trillion won from 17.48 trillion won the year before, but less than the 20 trillion won expected by analysts.

Samsung shares fell 3.5 percent to 445,000 won in afternoon trading. The company announced results less than one hour after the stock market opened.

On the bright side, Samsung said mobile phone sales rose to a record during the quarter despite a 5 percent contraction in the global market for handsets. The company is the world's No. 2 mobile phone manufacturer.

Samsung announced a major restructuring last week, consolidating business operations into two divisions. This week the company said it had replaced most of the heads of its overseas regional headquarters.

It also announced the redeployment of more than 80 percent of the almost 1,400 employees at its Seoul headquarters.

For all of 2008, Samsung said that net profit fell 25.6 percent to 5.53 trillion won from the year before, while sales rose 15.5 percent to 72.95 trillion won.

World stocks were mixed Thursday (Jan 22) after worse-than-expected U.S. unemployment and housing data cut off an earlier rebound that saw investors buying up beaten-down bank stocks.

An announcement by Microsoft Corp. that it is cutting 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months -- a sign of how badly even the biggest and richest companies are being stung by the recession -- also sent U.S. stocks down in early trading.

The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 150 points. Other indexes also declined, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite taking the biggest hit due to Microsoft’s news. The software giant also posted an 11 percent drop in profits.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 benchmark index was 0.60 percent higher at 4,084.23 in European mid-afternoon trade. But Germany's DAX was down 0.67 percent at 4,232.52, and France's CAC 40 fell 0.42 percent to 2,893.51. In the morning, all three had risen at least 2.0 percent higher.

European markets had followed Asian stocks higher as bank shares -- battered this week on fears of deep losses and possible collapses -- rebounded with the help of investors looking for bargains.

The earlier rally in Europe and Asia -- where Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.9 percent to 8,051.74 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 0.6 percent at 12,657.99 -- was largely due to a bounce in financial stocks.

But banking shares remained largely volatile throughout the day, with Royal Bank of Scotland -- which lost over a half of its share value in a week after it said it expected the largest loss in British corporate history -- up more than 20 percent at one point. Its shares were up 2.4 percent at 12.80 pence ($0.18) by mid-afternoon in London.

The buying was fueled in part by hopes that President Barack Obama's government will quickly enact a financial rescue plan. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that passing the stimulus plan was essential.

"There's the inevitable chatter that part of the upside could be attributed to the Obama effect as confidence rises that the new administration will have a more effective plan to turn around the economic crisis," said Matt Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets.

He noted, however, that Wall Street has yet to make up for the rout it suffered on Inauguration Day, as sentiment remains fragile.

U.S. data on jobs and housing were worse that expected. The Labor Department said the number of first-time jobless benefit claims jumped to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 in the week ended Jan. 17 from a revised 527,000 the previous week. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, forecast claims would increase to 540,000.

"Unemployment numbers are bad, and might get a little worse," said Roy Williams, chief executive of Prestige Wealth Management Group. "Everyone is in a defensive mode right now."

Data from the Commerce Department showed the housing market continued to weaken in December. Construction of new homes and apartments plunged to an all-time low annual rate of 550,000 units last month. The December number was 15.5 percent below November's figure, which had been the weakest on record.

Such news would echo bleak data from the rest of the world.

Germany on Wednesday said economic growth this year could easily shrink by the most since World War II, and many governments were forced to announce a new round of bank rescue measures.

China's economic slump deepened in the fourth quarter, with growth sliding to a seven-year low of 6.8 percent from 9 percent the previous quarter. For the full year, China's economy expanded by 9 percent -- its slowest yearly growth since 2001.

In Japan, exports plunged at a record pace of 35 percent in December, marking a third straight month of decline, the government reported.

The data, worse than many expectations, together highlighted the damage being inflicted on Asia as demand for cars, electronics, clothes and other goods evaporates in the U.S. and Europe.

"Clearly our region is really plunging into a steep recession," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist for SJS Markets in Hong Kong. "We are going through a big slowdown."

Asian governments have been scrambling to prop up their economies, slashing interest rates and rolling out massive spending plans. Japan's central bank, while Thursday holding its key interest rate at 0.1 percent, said it would "examine" outright purchases of corporate bonds in the future to help capital-starved companies.

Oil prices, which have moved in tandem with equities in recent months, fell in European afternoon trade, with light, sweet crude for March delivery falling 27 cents at $43.28 a barrel. The contract jumped $2.71 overnight to settle at $43.55 a barrel on the New York Stock Exchange.

The dollar weakened to 88.22 yen, down from 89.13 yen, and the euro fell to $1.2983 compared to $1.3009. The British pound remained weak, at $1.3770, just above the 24-year lows reached Wednesday.

Motor sport's world governing body, the FIA, in conjunction with the Formula One teams on Friday announced a raft of proposals in a bid to cut escalating costs.

Following a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Monte Carlo the key components of the changes will see savings on engine costs, a ban on in-season testing outside GP weekends and a reduction in staff numbers.

Engines will be available to the independent teams from 2010 for less than £4.5million per team per season, supplied by an independent supplier or a manufacturer backed by guarantees of continuity.

There will be no in-season testing from next year except during a race weekend and during scheduled practice.

The teams have also agreed manpower will be reduced by means of a number of measures, including sharing information on tyres and fuel to eliminate the need for 'spotters'.

The FIA estimate the list of changes for 2009 will save the manufacturer teams approximately 30% of their budgets compared to 2008, with the savings for independent teams even greater.

Other proposals are as follows: * Engine life to be doubled. Each driver will use a maximum of eight engines for a season, plus four for testing (i.e 20 per team).

* A limit of 18,000 rpm.

* Cost of engines to independent teams will be approximately 50% of 2008 prices.

* No wind tunnel exceeding 60% scale and 50 metres/sec to be used after 1 January 2009.

* Factory closures for six weeks per year, to accord with local laws.

From 2010:

* The engine from 2010 will continue to be used in 2011 and 2012 (thus no new engine for 2011).

* Subject to confirmation of practicability, the same transmission will be used by all teams.

* The FIA are to compose a standard parts list relating to the chassis. Some parts will be allowed development, other will be required to use inexpensive materials.

* For a race weekend there will be standardised radio and telemetry systems, a ban on tyre warmers, mechanical purging of tyres, and most crucially, a ban on refuelling.

* There will also be a possible reduction in race distance or duration (with a proposal to follow from market research).

* With regards to factory activity there will be further restrictions on aerodynamic research, combined with a full analysis of factory facilities with a view to proposing further restrictions on such facilities.

In the longer term, the FIA and FOTA are to study the possibility of an entirely new power train for 2013 based on energy efficiency.

The rules will be framed to ensure that research and development of such a power train would make a real contribution to energy-efficient road transport.

The FIA believe an enhanced Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) system is likely to be a very significant element of an energy-efficient power train in the future.

In the short term, KERS is part of the 2009 regulations, but is not compulsory, however, from 2010 FOTA is considering proposals for a standard KERS system.

With regard to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's medal system, market research will be conducted, also into a possible change to qualifying.

The band formed in 1993 as an outgrowth of the documentary Identical Beat, a film shot at London's Farringdon Community Music House, the site of a series of summer workshops designed to teach Asian children the essentials of music technology. In charge of the workshops were tutor Aniruddha Das and youth worker John Pandit, also a noted DJ; with one of their students, a 14-year-old Bengali rapper named Deeder Zaman, they soon formed a sound system which they called the Asian Dub Foundation.

The Asian Dub Foundation is better described as a group that arose from a community rap organization. The different forms of music include toasting, dub, funky guitars and many other African instrumentals. One of their most influential tracks is named Strong Culture which gives the listener an idea of the Asian culture. "Their distinctive sound is a combination of hard ragga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub basslines, searing sitar- inspired guitars and 'traditional' sounds gleaned from their parents' record collections, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics"

After each adopted an alias — bassist/tabla player Das became Dr. Das, Pandit became Pandit G, and Zaman became Master D — they gradually evolved into a working band with the 1994 addition of former Higher Intelligence Agency and Atom Spies guitarist Steve Chandra Savale, an innovative performer known for tuning his strings to one note (like a sitar) turning up the distortion unit and playing his instrument with a knife, earning him the nickname "Chandrasonic." Emerging in the midst of considerable anti-Asian violence throughout Britain, the Foundation's early demos landed them a contract with Nation Records, and they recorded their debut EP Conscious in 1994. Channeling influences ranging from punk to ambient music to Bengali folk songs, Asian Dub Foundation quickly gained a strong fanbase not only among clubgoers but also among the movement, who applauded the group's vocal stand against racism.

Sanjay Gulabhai Tailor, Aka Sun-J, joined the band as live midi/programmer and DJ soon after. This completed the full live line up of the band. After earning a reputation as formidable live performers, the band — which now included dancer  Bubbe-E — won widespread acclaim for the 1995 single "Rebel Warrior". Their second album “Rafi’s Revenge” was nominated for a Mercury Prize combining a unique combination of punk energy with a jungle/reggae core. The single, 'Naxalite' was an ode to the militant Naxalite movement in India. Tours to the United States with the Beastie Boys and Japan followed to wide acclaim. Their following album, “Community Music”, developed their sound further and received a coveted 10/10 review in NME.

Deeder Zaman left the band after playing his last concert on New Year's Eve 2000, and the band expanded to include Pritphal Rajput (dhol, tabla), Rocky Singh (drums), MC Spex (vocals) and Akhtarvator (vocals), the latter recruited from the band's ongoing education project ADFED. The new line-up played a few one off gigs mostly at festivals over the summer of 2000 with their first full tour taking place in Brazil in 2001 where they visited various music projects especially "Afro-Reggae" in Rio, who are the subject of the recent film "Favela Rising".

In 2002, Pandit G was awarded the MBE for "services to the music industry" in relation to his work with Community Music. He declined the award, however, stating:

In 2003 they released Enemy of the Enemy which became their best selling album and contained the track "Fortress Europe," a stinging attack on European immigration policy along with "1000 Mirrors" a collaboration with Sinead O’Connor about a woman serving life for killing an abusive husband. In 2003 they played their biggest gig in front of 100,000 people at Larzac in France at a celebration of Jose Bove, a radical campaigning farmer. For 2005's Tank they were joined by On-U Sound collaborator Ghetto Priest on vocals.

Bassist Dr. Das announced his intention to retire in May 2006 to resume teaching and produce his own music. He was replaced by Martin Savale, aka Babu Stormz, who also plays bass with highly-acclaimed British-Asian electro/grunge/hip-hop band ‘Swami’.  

In September 2006, the dub/punk opera "Gaddafi: A Living Myth", with music by Asian Dub Foundation, opened at the London Coliseum. In Spring 2007 Asian Dub Foundation announced the release of a best-of compilation Timefreeze 1995-2007 which includes a bonus disc of rare remixes and live tracks, featuring Chuck D, the lead rapper of American hip hop group, Public Enemy. The album also features a new track recorded with former vocalist Deeder Zaman. In May 2007 Asian Dub Foundation performed a radio session and interview on the Bobby and Nihal show on BBC Radio 1 where they performed three new tracks: "Climb On", "Superpower" and "S.O.C.A.". In June 2007 they were the only Western act to perform at the Festival of Gnawa music in Essaouira, Morocco, playing to a crowd of 60,000 people and collaborating with traditional Gnawa musicians.

Between 2004 and 2007 when Aktarv8r was not a member of the group he played live on stage with the London band Oojami who perform Middle Eastern belly dance music. On the album "Boom Shinga Ling" released late in 2006, Aktarv8r plays on a couple of songs and is credited on the album under his own name Aktar Ahmed. In August 2007 Asian Dub Foundation started playing with two new vocalists, Al Rumien (previously with King Prawn) and Aktarv8r returned after MC Spex was asked to leave the band. In November and December 2007 Asian Dub Foundation recorded a new album, “Punkara”, that was released in spring 2008.

The 1995 song, Rebel Warrior, was inspired by the 1920s poem, "Bidrohi" by Bengali poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, an advocate for Indian independence. The song discusses the racial violence and inequality that the group state still plagues their British communities. Asian Dub Foundation have used their music in conjunction with education and social work for youth in the East End of London,  well as other British anti-racism campaigns.

Like other groups in their genre such as Hustlers HC and Fun-Da-Mental, Asian Dub Foundation fuse South Asian instrumentation and lyrics with the dominantly conceived black music genre of rap. Their music is able to signify a disruption in the racial/ethnic boundaries of hip hop. In their song, "Strong Culture", they assert their authenticity as legitimate Asian hip hop artists, contrary to other popular claims. The line from the song, "I'm not a Black man / This time it's an Asian." likens back to when Asians were considered "Black" by some in the United Kingdom (UK) and often were part of that musical scene as Asian music had not fully emerged yet. Their lyrics call for radical political harmony and they use their music as an organizing tool for cultural politics, endorsing righteousness, social change, and an end to what they perceive as oppression in the UK. They also pursue the issue of the politicization of the category "Asian," asserting the legitimacy and authenticity of having an Asian identity in the hip hop world. They redefine the "Asian" category by reconnecting it with an anti-colonial history, as well a current, existing anti-racist struggle.

They challenge the argument that Asians are passive onlookers in popular culture who are hardly involved in the music industry. Their music functions to bridge the black influence with their own Asian style, using such lyrics as "I grab the mic to commence with the mic check. Supply rhymes, man you never heard yet, you've never thought an Asian could do this."Reckoning a traditional hip-hop MC style with their own Asian influence and simultaneously mixing in various other musical styles, thus disbanding the polarization of the racial terms and addressing the "ongoing racialized violence and inequality evident in everyday experience in their neighborhood".

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Lewis Hamilton completed the fastest lap in Friday morning's first free practice session at the Fuji Speedway. He was closely followed by his championship rival Felipe Massa. Their team mates Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen ended third and fourth.

The first 90-minute free practice session at the Fuji Speedway got under way at 10.00 am on Friday morning. Under the sunny Japanese skies the session was completed without any major problems for anyone.

There was just one yellow flag in this session when Nick Heidfeld spun his BMW Sauber F1 at turn 10 half way into the session.

Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa topped the time sheets for most of the session. With just seven points between the two of them in the championship standings it can become an exciting weekend for them.

Force India F1 driver Adrian Sutil scored his first and only F1 championship point here at the Fuji Speedway last year and showed once more he feels at home at the Japanese track as the German ended 11th.

The only Japanese driver, Kazuki Nakajima, was at the bottom of the time sheets for most of the session but in the end finished 10th in front of his home crowd.

A massive sell-off on Wall Street and escalating fears of a global recession sent Asian stocks plunging Friday (Oct 10), with Japan's benchmark index plunging more than 10 percent.

"Selling is unstoppable in New York and Tokyo," said Yutaka Miura, senior strategist at Shinko Securities Co. Ltd. in Tokyo. "Investors were gripped by fear."

Markets in Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines were all down more than 7 percent. Shanghai's index was down 3.8 percent.

Indonesian authorities suspended trading indefinitely on the Jakarta Stock Exchange after they had halted trading Wednesday when the index plunged more than 21 percent over three days earlier this week.

In Tokyo, the gut-wrenching drama left individual investors shellshocked.

Kenji Akasaka, 69, president of a local printing company, said he had never seen it this bad in the 40 years he has traded stocks. He said he invests mainly in blue-chips including Toyota Motor Corp. and Nintendo Co.

"I pray before I go to bed that the Dow will recover," said Akasaka, 69, as he scanned a monitor displaying the latest market levels. "I get sleepless, thinking about losses."

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plummeted 10.3 percent to 8,217.50 in early afternoon trading and appeared headed for its second biggest one-day loss ever. The Tokyo bourse and the Osaka Securities Exchange briefly suspended some futures and options trading during the morning.

The regional sell-off follow a 7.3 percent plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average Thursday to close below the 9,000-line for the first time in five years. Stocks nose-dived after a major credit-rating agency said it might cut its rating on General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., further rattling investors already fretting over the impact of tight credit on the economy.

The Dow's seven-day decline of 20.9 percent is the largest since the seven-day plunge ending Oct. 26, 1987, when the Dow lost 23.8 percent. That sell-off included Black Monday, the Oct. 19, 1987 market crash that saw the Dow fall nearly 23 percent in a single day.

The sluggishness in the credit markets that triggered much of the heavy selling in markets around the world since mid-September appeared little changed even after a string of interest rate cuts by central banks in the U.S., Europe and Asia this week in an attempt to resuscitate lending.

"There's no bottom to the stock markets now," said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. There's no clue when it will stop."

Analysts also said there's pressing need for the U.S. to quickly implement the $700 billion plan to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities from troubled banks and financial institutions that are at the core of problem.

In Japan, insolvencies in the insurance and real estate sectors accelerated the pessimism.

Mid-sized Yamato Life Insurance Co. went bankrupt Friday on losses related to global stock woes, while New City Investment Corp.'s bankruptcy filing made it Japan's first real-estate investment trust to fail.

Japanese Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano sought to reassure the country even as markets tumbled.

"We need to make sure that we don't get pulled too much by global tides," Yosano said. "I hope investors Japan's makes decisions calmly based on Japan's economic fundamentals."

Lucinda Chan, associate director of Macquarie Equities in Sydney, called the market moves "ghastly."

"It is a very different and very unprecedented climate at the moment," she said. "Growth is going to be a major concern in this market and that is why the Australian market is getting a very hard pinch because we are a commodity export nation."

Asia's falls come as finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations prepared to meet later Friday in Washington.

"Investors are not so sure that the G7 will announce effective measures to contain the global financial crisis," Miura in Tokyo said.

In currencies, the dollar fell to 98.69 yen Friday afternoon Asia from 98.82 yen late Thursday. The euro stood at $1.3548 from $1.3560.

I recently watched this cool movie on ‘Celestial Movies’ channel, and I thought it’s just another HongKong drama. Just before I was about to switch the channel, the story just went scarier...and I watched it 'till the end! I’ve never watched the acting of Stephy Tang and Shawn Yue before, but they were very convincing. But it’s PANG BROTHERS, crazy directors who always give shocking elements in their work, and I’m an instant fan!

Overall, what I think is… 

Decent direction, half-baked story. That could be the epitaph of the Danny Pang-Oxide Pang duo, better known to the world as the Pang Brothers, whose work in the Asian horror genre has gone from accomplished to uninspiring to finally repetitive. Thankfully, the brothers are attempting new genres with their stories, dropping the usual "I see ghosts" plotlines for detective films (The Detective), sci-fi mysteries (Forest of Death), and now terminal illness dramas (In Love with the Dead). However, there still has to be a horror element, because if there wasn't, then what excuse would there be for loud shock scares, creepy production design, or pale, long-haired girls who look like they've not eaten in months? In Love with the Dead, directed by Danny Pang and produced by Pang and brother Oxide, changes up the Pang Brothers formula, and does so in a surprisingly involving manner. But in the end, despite any innovations to the usual Pang tropes, it doesn't really go anywhere, resulting in an underwhelming motion picture. You could score some laughs, though.

Box-office princess Stephy Tang stars as Wai, a sweet young thing afflicted with pancreatic cancer. The prognosis is not good, with only a 20% chance of recovery, but at least she has insanely loving boyfriend Ming (Shawn Yue), who lives with Wai and her little sister Ping (Zeng Qi Qi). While Wai stays at home in their poorly lit, borderline creepy flat, he's out there trying to make ends meet, but his insistence on knocking off early to race home to Wai results in his unemployment. His new job promises to be slightly more understanding because he's working for childhood friend Fong Fangting (Yoka Yue), but Fong is pretty damn attractive and apparently not so stable with her fiancé. She also had a thing for Ming back in grade school, and Wai is well aware of it, also having attended school with the two of them. Since she's dying, plus her condition makes intimacy difficult, and Ming may have a chance with a hot ingénue, perhaps Wai should consider some sort of noble sacrifice in order to ease her beloved's heartbreak. That is, before Ming is tempted into two-timing anyway.

 Hold on, there's also a horror element to add to the mix. Little Ping keeps getting busted at school for reading horror comics, and thinks that Wai is starting to resemble the icky drawings in her pulpy reading material. Wai's battle with cancer comes with the appropriate mood swings, but there are odd details arising, including her growing disenchantment with Western medicine (she hates chemotherapy), and a growing belief in Eastern practices, including herbal medicine and practicing qigong, or the coordination of breathing patterns via poses and postures, AKA internal martial arts. No, this doesn't mean Stephy Tang will soon be kicking Shawn Yue's ass as the toughest terminal beauty around, but she may be able to walk via her hands, plus there may be side effects requiring the creepy stylistic touch of the Pang Brothers. The bigger question may be what's happening to Ming, because soon Ping starts to think that Ming looks like the drawings in her comic books, too. Since the title of the film is In Love with the Dead, we can only assume that someone is being kicked off. But is it Wai or Ming who's lacking the pulse?

In Love with the Dead earns points for dabbling in other genres, namely the terminal illness romance, and Danny Pang's effort is surprisingly accomplished. He uses very few characters, few sets, and a maximum of breathing room (the film is glacially paced by Hong Kong standards), but there is something involving in his pacing and how he slowly digs into the characters to reveal their insecurities and fears. The cast turns in decent performances, and the film progresses effectively. The horror elements are introduced quite well, creeping up slowly, and building to a final revelation or discovery that will hopefully make everything that came before worthwhile. These elements do intrigue, adding anticipation to the film, and despite the overuse of certain techniques (shock sounds, montages, fadeouts), In Love with the Dead feels like it's heading somewhere. The film is patient, and forces the audience to be patient too. As the film nears its close, it's obvious that something is definitely up, and Danny Pang does enough to keep us around to find out.

But is the payoff worth it? I say no, and in fact, I also call shenanigans. Thanks to selective disclosure and an abundance of misleading details, In Love with the Dead goes from portentous horror-romance to red herring-filled disappointment. When the big reveal occurs, its handling can cause giggles, if not derisive laughter. Comedy was obviously not the final goal of the Pang Brothers, and indeed there's nothing truly that funny about what In Love with the Dead reveals in its final moments. But the film does not seduce or convince enough such that its climax elicits the desired emotion.

One can only suspect they were looking to disturb or even horrify the audience, but it doesn't work here. For most of the film, Pang seems to know what he's doing, building the situations and the tension, but when the ending rolls around, the whole thing collapses. What's to blame here? A flimsy story? Uninteresting characters? Too many misleading details? Or does Pang Brothers + horror genre = not working anymore? It's probably all of the above, and the quickest fix may be to try something completely, totally different. I still believe that the Pang Brothers have the talent to do a lot more. However, given their recent run of films, that belief has begun to waver.

Highlights : Watch for the crazy flashback inserts at the end of the movie when Ming made love with Fong Fangting, where actually Fong was actually already......errhmm, Naaaah, I won't tell you, haha!! You should watch it...!!

4.5/5 – Recommended!!

The government and the central bank have taken new steps aimed at bolstering market confidence, including allowing banks to set aside smaller reserves, extending a guarantee on deposits and allowing firms greater freedom to buy back shares.

Indonesia's stock market has been hit hard by waves of panic selling amid the global financial turbulence, forcing the suspension of trading since Wednesday, although the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) will resume trading on Friday.

The index lost more than 20 percent of its value between Monday and midday Wednesday, prior to the suspension.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Thursday the new measures were needed to restore confidence and help ease worries that the country's financial sector could falter as it emulates a global trend.

Effective next month, the minimum reserve requirement (GWM) -- funds stored by banks in the central bank -- will be cut from 9.08 percent to 7.5 percent (of total deposits), a move expected to boost liquidity in the banking sector.

Sri Mulyani also said the government might ease the current bank deposit guarantee program, which only covers deposits of up to Rp 100 million. The ceiling could likely be raised, she said, "although we're still discussing the figure."

"It is expected to boost confidence in the banking sector."

On buybacks, the government is providing leeway for publicly listed state-owned companies to buy back their shares, particularly those companies with good fundamentals, as of Friday, said State Minister for State Enterprises Sofjan Djalil.

The companies will be allowed to buy back up to 20 percent of their stock from their paid-up capital, an increase from the 10 percent allowed under the existing regulation.

The companies will also be able to buy all traded shares in one-day trading, while previously they were limited to a maximum of 25 percent of such shares. They will also be allowed to buy back the shares without prior shareholder approval, although they still need to make a public disclosure.

"State-owned companies must use their own money, not loans, if they want to buy their shares," Sofjan said.

The central bank will also let banks use alternatives other than the mark-to-market scheme for debt accounting, said Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor Miranda S. Goeltom.

The scheme refers to a method for calculating a security or portfolio based on the current movement of market value, rather than its book value.

Sri Mulyani said the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) and the IDX would protect Indonesia's stock market from speculators and launch an investigation into this week's free fall.

"Bourse authorities say there are parties attempting to reap profits, seeing rumors over Bakrie Group's default, margin call, short sell. These do not represent the fundamentals of the listed companies," she said.

"The National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will take legal measures if crimes were committed," she said.

As I Lay Dying adalah band metalcore asal San Diego California. Band
yang memiliki gaya bermusik yang cukup unik ini menggabungkan musik
metal yang berbasis pada riff  riff melodius ala Gothenburg Sound,
seperti In Flames dan At The Gates dengan komposisi ringan ala musik
Punk sehingga mudah dicerna dan disimak bahkan oleh para pendengar
musik rock/metal yang terhitung baru mendengar lagu lagu dari mereka.
Nama band ini berasal dari novel William Faulkner yang dicetak sekitar
tahun 1930'an berjudul As I Lay Dying yang menceritakan kehidupan
keluarga petani Amerika yang religius.Band ini kini digawangi oleh Tim
Lambesis,sebagai vokalis,dan leader dari band ini, kemudian drummer
muda enerjik dan sangat berbakat Jordan Mancino. Dual shredder yang
memperkuat dari sisi riff gitar, Nick Hipa dan Phil Sgrosso. Nick
Hipa merupakan gitaris yang cukup menonjol dengan karakter sound yang
berbeda dengan musik metalcore kebanyakan, karena boleh dibilang
'terlalu melodius' dan kurang tebal distorsinya, dan justru hal itu
menambah karakter dari pattern2x lead gitar dari Nick, sementara
karakter sound distorsi yang tebal dilapis oleh Phil yang memang
memiliki background lebih kuat dibandingkan Nick .Sementara Josh
Gilbert membantu Tim Lambesis sebagai clean vocalist dan juga
bertanggung jawab sebagai pencabik bas.

As I Lay Dying merupakan band yang cukup terkenal di scene metal dunia
karena meraih beberapa prestasi . Salah satu yang  cukup fenomenal
adalah dengan dinominasikan-nya lagu Nothing Left dalam ajang Grammy
Awards di tahun 2008. Di tahun ini juga band ini dianugrahi
penghargaan San Diego Music Award. Di tahun sebelumnya band ini
memenangkan penghargaan Ultimate Metal God  dari saluran TV musik
terkenal di dunia MTV2 .

Band ini seringkali dicap sebagai band yang cukup religius, karena
lirik lirik positifnya  yang tergolong berbeda dengan band lain. Bila
band lain banyak mengumbar kekerasan, kegelapan ,realita social, band
ini justru mengangkat tema religius dan unsure spiritual positif dalam
lagu-lagu mereka. Hal ini sempat membuat mereka digelari band metal
spiritual. / white metal ,hal ini tercermin lewat rilisan mereka mulai
dari Beneath The Encoding of Ashes, yang dirilis di tahun 2001 sampai
pada album Shadows are Security yang dirilis tahun 2005.

Tim Lambesis seperti vokalis dan penulis lirik dari band ini mulai
bereksperimen dengan lirik yang bertema sosial di album terakhir
mereka " An ocean between us " yang dirilis tahun 2007 lalu, justru
menambah greget dan karakter dari band ini, lirik yang tidak preachy
tapi mengajak ke sisi positif tergambar disini . Seiring dengan
sambutan positif dari berbagai kritikus musik metal diseluruh dunia,
juga band ini beberapa kali tampil dalam sampler majalah Metal Hammer
sepanjang tahun 2007, tercatat penulis memiliki 2 edisi Metal Hammer
yang memuat mengenai band ini. Bahkan album An Ocean .. ini berhasil
menduduki peringkat Billboard 200 no.8 dan no 1 di bagian rock chart ,
sebuah prestasi yang cukup membanggakan bagi sebuah band yang masih
terhitung masih baru diblantika musik rock/metal dunia. Tak salah bila
Adam Dukiewicz , gitaris dari band KSE (Killswitch Engage) yang bisa
dikatakan pelopor dari genre Metalcore ini memproduseri album An Ocean
… dan tak lupa juga Andy Sneap sang maestro "modern sound of metal  "
bertugas mengemas sound di album ini sehingga tampil lebih baik di
banding album sebelumnya, Shadows are Security.

Biography

Band ini dibentuk tahun 2000 oleh Tim Lambesis ,Noise Ratchet dan Eli
Bowser sebagai trio yang membuat komposisi musik dengan aliran musik
dipengaruhi oleh seperti Papa Roach, Zao, Mower dan band band modern
metal lainnya yang banyak mengambil arah dari musik beraliran punk dan
Nu metal yang berjaya pada masa itu. Band ini hanya berumur beberapa
bulan karena sempat bubar karena Tim Lambesis bergabung dengan band
Texas bernama Society Finest bersama Eli Bowser, sedangkan Jon Jameson
bergabung dengan band Noise Hatchet. Selama 4 bulan hiatus kemudian di
awal tahun 2001 , Tim Lambesis kembali ke San Diego dan menghidupkan
kembali As I Lay Dying dengan merekrut personel baru Evan White dari
Nothing to Lose, Jordan Mancino yang baru saja keluar dari band Edge
of Mortality dan Noah Chase dari Fingerpoint. Tim membuat
konsep dari AILD berbeda dengan musik sebelumnya semasa masih trio,
Quartet AILD ini mencoba membuat musik dengan sound lebih berat, kasar
dan riff gitar lebih ke arah musik Hardcore.seperti Vision of Disorder
dan Hatebreed.

Hasilnya bisa dilihat di album Beneath the Encasing Machine yang
diproduseri oleh Tim Lambesis pribadi dan dirilis oleh label kecil di
San Diego bernama Pluto Records. Album ini berhasil menjadi album
dengan rekor penjualan yang cukup fantastis dari label kecil ini.
Memang kalau disimak album ini secara konsep musikalitas dan kekuatan
dalam menulis lagu tidak sehebat album “An ocean …” namun dari album
inilah kita bisa melihat dan menyimak proses evolusi dari As I Lay
Dying. Data penjualan album yang baik dari label kecil ini akhirnya
mentrigger dirilisnya album split dengan band sekota, American
Tragedy, sebuah band heavy metal.

Karena seringnya bergonta ganti personel di awal kemunculan mereka,
akhirnya Tim dan Jordan merekrut teman dekat mereka. Hal inilah yang
membuat Tim dan Jordan ekstensif melakukan pengganti yang sevisi untuk
mengisi kekosongan posisi di AILD seiring dengan popularitas dan
jadwal tour  yang padat. Tercatat pada awal kemunculan mereka, mereka
telah melakukan tour bersama  Poison the Well, In Flames, Hatebreed,
Shai-Hulud, Zao, American Nightmare, Bane, From Autumn to Ashes, Sick
of it All, Snapcase, Dillinger Escape Plan, Evergreen Terrace,
Hopesfall, Nora, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, Twelve Tribes, Fall Silent, Curl
Up And Die, Stretch Armstrong, Papa Roach, No Innocent Victim, Page
99, Living Sacrifice, The Deadlines, Embodyment, Travail, The Deal,
Figure Four, Officer Negative, Norma Jean, Spitfire, Dogwood, Between
the Buried and Me, 18 Visions, Bleeding Through, Spoken, Soul Embrace,
Point of Recognition, Every Time I Die, Unearth, Andrew W.K.,
Throwdown, Underoath, Boy Sets Fire dan banyak band lagi.

Di awal tahun 2003 kontrak As I Lay Dying dengan Pluto Records
berakhir dan sebenarnya AILD sudah diincar oleh Trustkill Records
sejak album awal.AILD ditawari kontrak yang cukup menggiurkan oleh
label ini. Tapi untuk kepentingan masa depan yang lebih baik, Tim dan
Jordan akhirnya memilih Metal Blade records  dengan konsekuensi album
pertama lewat label ini, AILD masih self producing. Alasan utama AILD
memilih label Metal Blade adalah dukungan dari pemilik label Pluto
Records yang merekomendasikan Metal Blade karena label ini memiliki
perhatian dan konsep marketing lebih baik dibandingkan Trustkill. Tim
Lambesis bahkan menegaskan bahwa pilihan ini lebih dipertimbangkan
bahwa dengan keputusan bergabung dengan Metal Blade ini karena Metal
Blade adalah label yang memilki komitmen pada artis dan juga scene
metal, tidak asal menjual dari band tapi memperhatikan kualitas dari
produk yang mereka jual,sehingga mendorong AILD untuk berkarya lebih
baik dari sebelumnya.

Di bulan Juli 2003, Frail Words Collapse dirilis dengan hasil yang
jauh berbeda di bandingkan dengan album sebelumnya. Album ini
terdengar lebih matang dengan arahan konsep musik yang lebih baik dari
sebelumnya. Lagu single mereka seperti 94 hours dan Forever menjadi
pilihan banyak orang di radio musik di internet dan menjadi top
request selama beberapa minggu di acara MTV2 Headbanger's ball. Bahkan
di minggu awal dirilisnya album ini, menduduki peringkat 30 dari Top
Independent album dan no.41 di Top Heatseekers sehingga kritisi musik
terkenal seperti William York dari Allmusic.com mengomentari band ini
"doesn't really add anything new to the mix from a musical standpoint"
with the release, although praised it for being "solid enough and well
executed, and the production is adequate." Dukungan dari label juga
diterima oleh band ini sehingga mendongkrak popularitas dari AILD
sehinga mereka mengadakan tour kembali bersama Himsa, Shadows Fall,
The Black Dahlia Murder, Killswitch Engage, In Flames, Sworn Enemy
juga salah satu pujaan mereka, Hatebreed.

Namun sayang, setelah dirilis album ini, As I Lay Dying kehilangan dua
gitaris karena padatnya jadwal tur yang sangat melelahkan , sehingga
kadang melakukan seleksi dan audisi untuk mencari personel tetap,
tercatat Bassist Noah Chase meninggalkan band ini di tahun 2001dan
penggantinya Aaron Kennedy keluar di tahun 2003. Gitaris Evan White
keluar di tahun 2003 juga gitaris berbakat Jason Krebs di tahun yang
sama. Mereka menemukan pengganti yang tak kalah hebat nya , amunisi
AILD semakin kuat ketika mereka menemukan Phil Sgrosso dan Nick Hipa.
Duet gitaris inilah yang kemudian mengisi album berikutnya Shadows are
Security yang direkam di  studio Big Fish di musim semi tahun 2005.

Album yang bisa disebut sebagai major breakthrough dari As I Lay Dying
ini terjual sekitar 275.000 CD dan langsung menduduki peringkat 1 dari
Top Independent album pada minggu pertama dirilisnya album ini. Lagu
Through Struggle yang merupakan single terlaris dari album ini bahkan
menjadi top request di berbagai radio metal online dan juga sempat
mengisi kompilasi sampler dari ulang tahun ke 20 dari Label mereka
Metal Blade records. Kontribusi sound engineering dari Andy Sneap
mulai juga terdengar di album ini, yang membuat karakter sound yang
lebih lugas, garang dan kadang bisa terdengar lembut dari lead gitar
Nick Hipa bisa kita smika di album ini. Bahkan Rod Smith dari Decibel
Magazine mengomentari album ini "finely honed roar in bittersweet
instrumental matrices augmented by occasional clean vocals by bassist
Clint Norris. Guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa whip up a melodic
cyclone on 'The Darkest Nights'."

As I Lay Dying mulai melakukan tour untuk mempromosikan album ini
dimulai dari tour di beberapa metalfest tercatat di Hell on Earth,
Winter Headline Tour, Ozzfest dan tour yang sangat padat bersama
Slipknot dan Unearth. Band ini pernah menolak dimainkan di panggung
utama Ozzfest dengan bayaran USD 75.000 karena Tim merasa bahwa band
ini belum pantas untuk tampil sebagai headliner.  Tercatat selama
musim panas 2005 sampai akhir tahun 2006 , band ini malang melintang
melakukan tour bersama Rob Zombie, Killswitch engage, Mastodon, The
Haunted, Deftones, Thrice, Dredg, Funeral for a Friend, Story of the
Year. Dan penampilan mereka ditutup di festival musik Sounds of the
Underground Festival

Di bulan Mei 2006, album Beneath the Encasing of Ashes dan lagu lagu
dari split album dengan band American Tragedy dirilis ulang oleh Metal
Blade Records dengan judul A Long March : The First Recordings, karena
Tim Lambesis geram melihat 2 album awal mereka dijual amat mahal di
situs lelang online Ebay seharga lebih dari USD 90 ..
An Ocean Between Us

Di tahun 2007, As I Lay Dying mulai merekam album baru dengan bantuan
Colin Richardson di sisi mixing album dan Andy Sneap sebagai pemerhati
kualitas sound gitar . Dua nama yang menjadi jaminan kualitas sound
yang ciamik dari sebuah album band metal saat ini. Album ini
dirpduseri oleh gitaris Killswitch Engage Adam Dutkiewicz yang
menjalin pertemanan dengan Tim dkk selama promo tour Shadows of
Security . dan pada minggu pertama album ini dirilis berhasil
menduduki peringkat 8 pada Billboard 200, dan no.1 pada Top Rock chart
. Tercatat penjualan pada minggu pertama album ini menurut Ac Nielsen
Soundscan adalah 39.000

Berbagai review dan kritik positif diluncurkan berbagai situs online
dan majalah metal dunia seiring dengan dirilisnya album ini, tercatat
about.com meberikan 3.5/5 allmusic.com memberikan 4 /5 bintang bahkan
Cross Rhytms memberikan rating sempurna 10/10 untuk album ini.

Kebanyakan review dan kritik tersebut menjurus pada kualitas sound
yang baik dan didukung oleh komposisi lagu yang cukup baik yang
disajikan oleh AILD di  album ini. Dan tentunya anda pasti penasaran
bila lagu lagu seperti Nothing Left, Within Destruction , Forsaken, “An
Ocean between Us” dibawakan langsung di depan mata kita ? Maka nantikan
show mereka nanti di Stadion Tennis Indoor Senayan tanggal 27 November
2008!!

See u There ..!!!

The declines came on the one-year anniversary of the closing highs of the Dow and the S&P. The Dow has lost 5,585 points, or 39.4 percent, since closing at 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007. It's the worst run for the Dow since the nearly two-year bear market that ended in December 1974 when the Dow lost 45 percent. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is off 655 points, or 41.9 percent, since recording its high of 1,565.15.

U.S. stock market paper losses totaled $872 billion Thursday and the value of shares over all has tumbled a stunning $8.33 trillion since last year's high. That's based on figures measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, which tracks 5,000 U.S.-based companies' stocks and represents almost all stocks traded in America.

Thursday's sell-off came as Standard & Poor's Ratings Services put General Motors Corp. and its finance affiliate GMAC LLC under review to see if its rating should be cut. The action means there is a 50 percent chance that S&P will lower GM's and GMAC's ratings in the next three months. GM has been struggling with weak car sales in North America.

S&P also put Ford Motor Co. on credit watch negative. The ratings agency said that GM and Ford have adequate liquidity now, but that could change in 2009.

GM, one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials, fell $2.15, or 31 percent, to $4.76, while Ford fell 58 cents, or 22 percent, to $2.08.

"The story is getting to be like that movie 'Groundhog Day,'" said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. He pointed to the still-frozen credit markets, and Libor, the bank-to-bank lending rate that remains stubbornly high despite interest rate cuts this week by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks.

"Until that starts coming down, you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone getting excited about stocks," Hogan said. "Everything we're seeing is historic. The problem is historic, the solutions are historic, and unfortunately, the sell-off is historic. It's not the kind of history you want to be making."

The Dow ended the day at its lows, finishing down 678.91, or 7.3 percent, at 8,579.19. The blue chips hadn't closed below 9,000 since June 30, 2003, and haven't closed at this level since May 21, 2003.

The Dow's 2,271-point tumble over the last seven sessions is its steepest seven-day point drop ever. Its seven-day percentage decline of 20.9 percent is the largest since the seven-day plunge ending Oct. 26, 1987, when the Dow lost 23.8 percent. That sell-off included Black Monday, the Oct. 19, 1987 market crash that saw the Dow fall nearly 23 percent in a single day.

Broader stock indicators also tumbled Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 75.02, or 7.6 percent, to 909.92, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 95.21, or 5.5 percent, to 1,645.12.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 47.37, or 8.7 percent, to 499.20.

A wave of fear about the economy sent stocks lower in the final two hours of trading after a volatile morning in which major indicators like the Dow and the S&P 500 index bobbed up and down. The Nasdaq, with a bevy of tech stocks, spent much of the session higher but eventually declined as the sell-off intensified. Still, its losses were less severe because of the relatively modest drops in names like Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues came to nearly 3,000, while fewer than 250 advanced.

The sluggishness in the credit markets that triggered much of the heavy selling in markets around the world since mid-September appeared little changed Thursday following days of efforts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to resuscitate lending.

Libor, the bank lending benchmark, for three-month dollar loans rose to 4.75 percent from 4.52 percent on Wednesday. That signals that banks remain hesitant to make loans for fear they won't be paid back.

The Fed and other leading central banks this week lowered key interest rates to help unclog the credit markets and promote lending to help the global economy. While a rate cut can take up to a year to work its way through the economy, the move was aimed as a boost to investor sentiment.

"We're stuck in a morass and I think it's going to take quite some time to come out of it," said Stephen Carl, principal and head of equity trading at The Williams Capital Group.

Demand remained high for short-term Treasurys, a refuge for investors willing to trade modest returns to protect their money. The yield on the three-month Treasury bill, which moves opposite its price, fell to 0.58 percent from 0.63 percent late Wednesday. Longer-term debt prices fell, with the yield on the 10-year note rising to 3.79 percent from 3.65 percent late Wednesday.

Investors across markets were mulling a plan being considered by the Bush administration to invest in hobbled U.S. banks as a way to stabilize the financial sector. The $700 billion rescue package signed into law last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and obtain ownership shares in return.

Britain rolled out a similar plan, though no U.K. bank has received any investments. In Iceland, the government now has control of the country's three major banks as it struggles to contain the troubles there.

Wall Street is also looking for any effects of short selling now that a three-week ban imposed by regulators has expired. Short selling is a technique in which investors borrow shares in a company from a broker and sell them, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price. Essentially, it's a bet that a stock's price will fall. Short sellers can lose money if they have to repurchase the stock after it has risen.

Some analysts believe the unprecedented ban on short selling — an effort to bolster investor confidence — did more harm than good at a time of historic market volatility. They contend that short sellers help the market rally by covering their bets and creating demand for stocks.

"I think the market's way oversold. But I can't stand in the way of this falling knife — I'd get sliced open," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors. "Investors are just saying, get me out at any price."

He also said that with the short-selling rule back in play, hedge funds might be shorting again to make up for their forced liquidations.

Energy names were among the biggest decliners as the price of oil fell and investors worried about a slowing economy. Exxon Mobil Corp. fell $9, or 12 percent, to $68, while Chevron Corp. fell $9.10, or 12 percent, to $64.

Light, sweet crude fell $1.81 to settle at $86.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest closing price since October last year.

Health insurer WellPoint Inc. fell $3.94, or 9.7 percent, to $36.50, while insurer and investment manager Lincoln National Corp. fell $9.66, or 35 percent, to $18.31.

The tech sector saw less selling than other parts of the market after IBM Corp. affirmed its forecast.

IBM fell $1.55, or 1.7 percent, to $89. Meanwhile, Intel fell 65 cents, or 4 percent, to $15.60 and Microsoft fell 71 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $22.30.

Consolidated trading volume on the NYSE came to 8.14 billion consolidated shares compared with 8.54 billion traded Wednesday.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 0.50 percent while the Hang Seng added 3.31 percent. In Europe, Britain's FTSE-100 fell 1.21 percent, Germany's DAX fell 2.53 percent, and France's CAC-40 declined 1.55 percent.

MSCI's main benchmark index of world stocks was at 4-year lows, down more than 2 percent, and its emerging market stock counterpart fell 6.5 percent.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index tumbled 4 percent and Tokyo's Nikkei share average plummeted 9.4 percent, the largest single-day percentage decline since October 1987.

Government debt prices jumped as the equity selloff reached fever pitch and investors snatched anything resembling stability, such as gold which rose as much as 2 percent.

"The deteriorating outlook for the economy and the deepening financial crisis are pushing fears to their limit," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Japan.

The sharp market moves came despite efforts by various authorities to inject calm and money into the battered financial system.

Britain unveiled a multibillion pound rescue package for British banks that included plans to inject up to 50 billion pounds of government money into the country's biggest operators.

It was designed to offer banks short-term liquidity, make new capital available and give the banking system enough funds to maintain lending in the medium-term.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, meanwhile, warned on Tuesday that turmoil in markets could cause U.S. economic activity to be subdued into 2009 and signaled a readiness to cut interest rates.

Bernanke's sobering and candid tone about the likelihood of rate cuts came days after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet suggested last week the euro zone too could cut rates.

The Bank of England delivers its latest rate decision on Thursday and is expected to ease.

However, with the upcoming Group of Seven rich nations meeting on Friday, investors have begun to look for coordinated action to snuff out what has become a severe global threat.

To the east side, the low-yielding yen was viewed by many currency investors as a clear favorite for relative safety.

The dollar dropped at one point below 100 yen to 99.60 yen but was later down 0.5 percent at 100.84 yen. Britain's pound gained around half a percent on the bank plan to $1.7569.

"Investor risk aversion and selling of high-yielding currencies are prominent," said Masafumi Yamanoto, head of foreign exchange strategy for Japan at Royal Bank of Scotland.

In another sign of risk aversion, the Markit iTraxx Crossover index, made up of 50 mostly "junk"-rated European credits, was at 632.5 basis points, according to data from Markit, 16 basis points wider than late on Tuesday.

Investment flowed into government bonds, pushing yields lower.

Interest rate-sensitive two-year Schatz yield was down 13 basis points at 3.040 percent.

The Singapore Grand Prix was a disaster for Ferrari because despite being fast, the red cars could not overtake anyone. Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo blamed Formula 1 for holding races "on tracks where staging a circus or something else would be better" and said that the only spectacle "is supplied by the Safety Car". He went on say that he believes tracks like Valencia and Singapore are bad for the sport. This was a decidedly odd response given that one can say the same thing about Monte Carlo, Hungary and Barcelona (funnily enough, Sir Bernie Ecclestone couldn’t take the harsh complain, and fired back at Montezolo by calling his team as “a group of clowns”…!!).

Overtaking is not just about the tracks. It is also related to the cars. On some circuits overtaking is possible, even with the modern machinery. On others it is not. Changing the circuits may help but a lot of F1 engineers believe that changing the cars will have a much bigger effect on the ability of the drivers to pass one another.

In the old days a cars would arrive behind a rival machine and would be able to tuck into the slipstream and be sucked along by the car ahead. If a driver used this 'tow' he could pull out and employ the extra revs of his engine to get ahead. This created some celebrated 'sliptreamer' races at places like Reims and Monza, and some every close finishes.

In the late 1960s, however, designers began adding wings to use the airflow to create force to push the cars down on to the tarmac. This meant that they would no longer slide in the corners and thus would lap more quickly. And so began the relentless pursuit for downforce in Formula 1. In the late 1970s engineers at Team Lotus took the process a step further and applied a principle established in the Eighteenth Century by Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli to use airflows around the car to create a low pressure area under the car to 'suck' the car to the ground. They used sidepods to achieve this and later added flexible 'skirts' to the bottom edges of the sidepods in order to separate the different airflows more efficiently. The Lotus 79 in 1978 was a hugely important (and very successful) F1 car, but it let the genie out of the bottle. Aerodynamics became the key element of Formula 1 design. The FIA responded by banning skirts and then mandating flat-bottomed cars to stop aerodynamicists creating downforce-generating underbodies. As the designers worked to improve their cars they did not care what happened to the airflow behind the cars they were creating. However the drivers began to find that running in disturbed 'dirty' air meant that theirs cars lost around 40% of the downforce, and that meant that they could catch the car in front but as soon as they arrived in its wake, they were trapped.

Overtaking became more and more difficult and races began to get less spectacular than once they had been.

In the end the FIA began to look for car shapes that might create a wake in which a following car would gain an advantage, as in the old slipstream days.

In 2005 FIA President Max Mosley commissioned his former partner Nick Wirth, a designer who had worked with the Simtek and Renault F1 teams, to come up with an idea of how to lower aerodynamic turbulence behind the cars and by doing so create more overtaking. Wirth worked with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programmes to come up with what he called the Centreline Downwash Generating (CDG) wing. The FIA announced that it would introduce the CDG wing in 2008.

At the time the Technical Working Group, working with the Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association (GPMA) used the Italian Fondtech wind tunnel, run by former Ferrari and Tyrrell aerodynamicist Jean-Claude Migeot, to see if the CDG wing would work. Migeot and his team concluded that the idea was flawed. By the autumn of 2006 no-one had much confidence in the CDG wing and Mosley agreed that its introduction could be delayed and that the Technical Working Group should come up with a better idea for 2009.

The Technical Working Group met to discuss the question that autumn. All the teams sent technical directors, seniors engineer and aerodynamicists. There were thus 25 opinions to be heard (as Prodrive was still planning to enter F1 at that point and Super Aguri was still in business). The meeting was chaired by Charlie Whiting and after hours of different opinions he decided that it was a pointless exercise. He concluded that the only way forward was to create a sub-group and allow only the top three teams to be represented. Ferrari, Renault and McLaren were each invited to nominate a representative. Thus was born the Overtaking Working Group (OWG).

Pat Symonds of Renault, Rory Byrne of Ferrari and Paddy Lowe of McLaren were all well-established engineers of repute and all were keen to get the job done using commonsense and a scientific approach. The OWG met for the first time in January 2007. They cut straight to the chase. They defined the downforce targets they were looking to achieve and the character of the aerodynamics that was required to improve overtaking. Whiting provided data which had been averaged out from information he had been given by all the teams. The aim was make the cars five seconds a lap slower, but they had to factor in other progress and the reintroduction of slick tyres, planned for 2009. This meant that the OWG was looking for very significant changes. The conclusion was that they needed to reduce downforce by 50 per cent while retaining similar drag coefficients to the 2006 car.

The first move was to use McLaren's highly advanced simulator to establish baseline aerodynamic performance parameters. McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa was called in to 'drive' the simulator and after recording a series of different laps with different settings it was determined that in order to overtake going into Turn 1 he would need to have a car that was two seconds a lap quicker than the one in front. The engineers paid great attention to de la Rosa's comments. He would try each configuration and report on whether the resulting set-up would allow him to attempt to pass or not. Halving the downforce meant that the necessary 'overtaking advantage' figure could be reduced to 1.5s a lap and the work then moved on to finding ways to balance the following car to reduce the necessary 'overtaking advantage' to a second. The three engineers all agreed that this was a realistic figure, rather than trying to make it even easier to overtake.

At the same time that this was going on Symonds was sent off to talk money out of Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and the other 11 team bosses. The result was a budget of half a million Euros. The trio had agreed that they should use Fondtech to do windtunnel work for them and that they did not want to place too much faith in CFD. It was an interesting technology but it was not ready for this kind of work as it was not possible to use CFD to study unstable behaviour of the air behind a car. The McLaren simulator, which represented 30man/years of development proved a far more flexible tool than other simulations and used a real driver (Pedro) to get a subjective view.

Once they had established the basic data and the targets required, the OWG asked Fondtech to devise means by which the desired changes might be achieved. Ferrari provided baseline data for the two models that Fondtech ran in tandem in its 25 per cent moving ground wind tunnel. They in turn had drawn on an experiment by Ferrari at Monza in 2004, when it ran two cars in tandem round the autodromo. This full-scale Ferrari data was used to validate the twin model behaviour in the tunnel, in turn to validate the entire experimental technique. This was a very important step, that justified the use of tunnel rather than CFD.

Between March and September 2007 there were several sessions in the wind tunnel, with Byrne doing much of the hands-on work and all sorts of ideas were investigated. The final configuration pretty much hit its targets though baseline drag fell by 10 per cent.

The next step was to feed the actual data back into the McLaren simulator in order to compare it with the baseline model that had been established. De la Rosa confirmed the benefits in terms of improved chances to overtake. The OWG made its presentations to the TWG in October 2007 and the teams agreed to accept them.

What was interesting was that by using a scientific approach to the problem it became clear that previous attempts to solve the problem had in reality made things worse.

"Almost all of the attempts to reduce downforce in the recent past have been retrograde in terms of overtaking possibilities and wake behaviour," one member of the OWG said. "If we had wanted to make overtaking chances worse, that was what we would have come up with."

One of the most significant findings was that the rear wing is a very important device in characterising the wake that a car generates.

"You would think that upwash from the rear wing is bad," Lowe said. "The upwash is strong, but a very strong inwash at ground level is also driven by the rear wing. That inwash brings new high-energy air in at ground level. If you took the rear wing off altogether you would lose that effect and the wake would be a lot worse."

The OWG found that a 75 per cent narrower and 150 mm higher rear wing would optimise the new air.

Nick Wirth's computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-generated rear wing had eliminated the central section altogether, effectively comprising instead two separate rear wings, to eliminate the upwash, but the OWG concluded that this was the very reason that it did not work.

Having determined the best possible rear wing configuration to generate the least damaging wake, the OWG moved on to determine the optimum front wing and floor for the following car. Lots of different floor shapes were tried, including underbody tunnels and other radical ideas, but the OWG found that the best solution was similar to that on the current cars, but with the diffuser section mounted further back to use more of the benefit of the inwash.

The front wing will thus be lowered and, at 1800 mm, will be 400 mm wider than on the 2008 car. The most important point, however, is that the aerodynamic profile of the central section of the front wing will be fixed so that it remains neutral and does not generate downforce. This is because the central section of the wing is the most badly affected by the central upwash of the wake, and is the last part of the wing to receive the fresh high-energy air from the ground level inwash. By disabling this section, this effect is eliminated. Conversely, the wider outboard and lower extremities of the new front wings benefit more from the high-energy inwash air. This all helps to maintain the downforce and thus to manage the following car's balance better while it is running in a wake of the car in front.

Another crucial development of the front wing, however, is to allow the front flap to be adjustable while the car is in motion, although only by plus or minus three degrees. This was deemed necessary because of the problem of oversteer in the wake of another car.

"That would be a complete disaster," Lowe said. "The driver of that car is going to fall off. We were worried that we were not going to be able to control that, so we went for the adjustable front flap. The driver will only be allowed to change the angle twice a lap, if necessary to reduce frontal downforce to prevent oversteer in the wake, or else to trim out any remaining understeer if that is how his car behaves."

That system will all be controlled by the standard FIA electronic control unit (ECU), so nobody will be able to adjust their front wing more than twice each lap. Effectively that will also oblige the driver to chose his overtaking opportunity carefully on any given lap, and is in keeping with the OWG's desire that overtaking should not become too easy.

The new rules will exclude all the barge boards, the radiator air extraction chimneys, flick-ups, nose horns and all the rest of it. The plan is for the cars to be smooth between the axles.

"There is a small overtaking benefit attached to that," Lowe admitted, "but it was mainly done in response to demands from the team principals for cleaner advertising areas."

However, the most significant element of the research is probably not the technology nor the commercial advantages.

"Getting the three top teams to work so closely together was a real first," said Lowe.

Something altogether unexpected...

Maybe even Montezemolo will be impressed.

Traders were spooked by Germany's announcement Sunday of a new bailout package totaling 50 billion euros ($69 billion) for Hypo Real Estate, the country's second-biggest commercial property lender, part of a scramble by European governments to save failing banks.

A dismal report on the U.S. job market released Friday added to the gloom, fanning worries about U.S. consumer demand for Asian exports.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 average sank 4.2 percent to 10,475, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slid 3.4 percent to 17,089. Markets in mainland China, Australia, South Korea, India, Singapore and Thailand also fell sharply. Indonesia's key index plunged more than 5 percent.

"This credit crunch looks like it's not going away any time soon," said Alex Tang, head of research at brokerage Core Pacific-Yamaichi in Hong Kong. "Apart from a credit crunch in Europe, investors are quite concerned about the worsening outlook on the U.S. economy."

"We haven't seen any positive developments in Europe or the U.S., apart from the rescue plan," Tang said. "But even with the rescue plan, investors are focused on the slowing economy."

Investors were processing a series of developments out of Europe over the weekend. Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said Sunday that France's BNP Paribas SA had committed to taking a 75-percent stake in troubled European bank Fortis NV. British treasury chief Alistair Darling also said he was ready to take "pretty big steps that we wouldn't take in ordinary times" to help the country weather the credit crunch.

The outlook for the U.S. economy worsened after figures released Friday showed that 159,000 jobs in the U.S. were lost last month, the fastest pace in more than five years.

Such concerns overshadowed any investor optimism over the U.S. House of Representatives' approval Friday of a massive bailout plan that will allow the U.S. government to buy distressed mortgages and securities backed by mortgages from banks and other financial institutions.

Investors questioned how long it would take for the package to unfreeze credit markets, restore bank lending and generally shore up the U.S. economy.

"The market had already figured in the package's passage," said Yukio Takahashi at Shinko Securities Co. in Tokyo. "There are strong doubts about its implementation."

Japanese financial companies and industries dependent on exports, such as steel, were especially hard hit Monday. Nippon Steel Corp. stock tumbled 9.8 percent, while Mizuho Financial Group was down 8.3 percent in morning trading.

Trading in mainland China resumed after a weeklong holiday break with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index sinking 3.5 percent to 2,213 by midday.

Banks and other financial shares saw heavy declines. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank fell 7 percent and Bank of China slipped 3.6.

Shares of Ping An Insurance Co. rose even after it said Monday it will record a $2.3 billion loss on its stake in European bank Fortis in the biggest blow yet to a Chinese institution from the global credit crisis. Ping An's shares were up 1.6 percent.

U.S. stock index futures were down more than 1 percent, suggesting Wall Street would open lower Monday morning. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 157.47, or 1.5 percent, to 10,325.38 on Friday.

In currencies, the euro slid to $1.3618 from $1.3774 late Friday. But the dollar was weaker against the yen, falling to 103.11 from 105.30 yen late Friday.

Oil prices tumbled on speculation that slower global growth will cut crude demand. Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down $1.85 to $92.03 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

If you’ve ever whipped up a tray of desserts from scratch, the best compliment you could hope for is “You ought to sell those professionally.” But to taste success beyond your sweet-toothed circle of friends requires more than the right recipe—you’ll also need the right branding ingredients.

Starting Small, Planning Big
Even when the entire customer base consisted of attendees at local greenmarkets, the founders had considered the importance of branding. “It wasn’t enough to bake the best-tasting brownie,” says Spitalny. “We wanted to have a strong identity like Nike or Apple, where just our logo would be as associated with your favorite brownie as the golden arches might represent your favorite French fries.”

Two humble brownie bakers in the same sentence as the billions-serving burger behemoth? Spitalny says it’s not a far-off comparison. “Very early on we received some valuable advice from a consultant: Always think of yourself as a big company, and always consider what you can do to add value to your brand.”

So the partners researched major brands in categories including mail-order (Harry & David), chocolate (Godiva), baked goods (Mrs. Fields), and—especially—a brand whose whimsy is as popular as the taste of its products. “We visited Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Vermont to learn about their research and development and their marketing, and to see how they execute fun spirit they covey,” Spitalny says.

My Fair(y) Brownie
Selecting the right name and logo were as important for the brand as choosing the chocolate (Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate, in this case). The first name that was considered, My Mom’s Brownies, was wisely rejected because “there were already too many kinds of ‘My Mom’s’ brands out there,” Spitalny says. She and her partner also avoided names that evoked “home style” or “homemade” and instead went to a direct source for inspiration: the dictionary. Spitalny recalls, “In addition to the definition people already know—small, chewy, cake-like cookie, usually made with chocolate—we spotted another: tiny, fanciful, good-natured elf who secretly helps at night with household chores.”

The partners researched all things faerie/fairy and came across the work of Palmer Cox (1840–1924), who authored and illustrated a series of books about brownie adventures. “His work inspired the creation of our mascot, who wears a chef’s hat and works his magic with a bowl of brownie batter,” Spitalny says. The brownie fairy became the face of the brand, and the company developed a legend related to its first tagline, “The Greatest Brownies in All of Fairyland.”

Online Taste
One of the brand’s more farsighted decisions was to land the brownies.com URL, which has been the online home of Fairytale Brownies since 1995. “We were the first and only people to own the URL,” Spitalny says. Online branding terms like keywords and pay-per-click advertising and search-engine optimization are in common use today, but nothing legitimizes a brand like an obvious, easy-to-remember URL. “People see that we own the brownies.com URL and think, ‘This brand must really know its brownies.’”

For a mail-order business, a properly branded website is vital. “The homepage acts as the front desk of our company,” Spitalny says. “We’re able to demonstrate our commitment to customer service.” The site maintains customer information to more easily repeat orders, and corporate clients are able to customize brownie gifts with their own logos.

This way, Spitalny says, “Not only do you know our brand, but our brand also knows you.”

A Brand Grows Up
After a decade and a half of steady revenue growth and expansion of the company’s customer base and product portfolio, Spitalny and Kravetz were looking to move into a larger facility, which made it an ideal time to update the brand—and Spitalny experienced a bit of serendipity. “Shortly after our graphic designer left the company, I attended a business dinner and by chance sat next to Cindy Gombert,” principal of Scottsdale, AZ-based Lunabrand Design Group. “I loved her business card, and not long after that dinner, we hired Lunabrand for some design work.

“I didn’t expect our relationship to go any further, but from our conversations they could tell we were in need of a thorough assessment of our brand.” Lunabrand suggested launching a full branding initiative. “We always said we wanted to be the number-one brownie brand,” Spitalny says, “but we didn’t know that strong branding meant maintaining a manual that described your brand essence, positioning, and intellectual property…even things like the kinds of props and angles used in the photos of brownies.”

The most noticeable change to the brand was updating the logo and tagline. The original grinning brownie mascot was starting to look “too cute,” Spitalny says, so the branding team designed a subtler, silhouetted version. “The Greatest Brownies in All of Fairyland” became “A Taste of Pure Enchantment” to tap the sensory images and feelings associated with the products.

Throughout the process, Spitalny and Kravetz learned what most brand owners should know: Every brand is a work in progress. “Most of the stuff that’s considered ‘branding,’ I had just kept in my head and took for granted—David and I never realized so much of what delivers value to our business is really part of the brand itself. To us it just seemed like ‘smart business.’”

A Brown(ie)-colored Future
The new tagline has been helpful in charting future directions for the brand, Spitalny says. “In the past, when we considered introducing a new product, we’d ask ourselves: Are we a dessert company? A brownie company? A chocolate company? Now, the entire organization is trained to remember the tagline—A Taste of Pure Enchantment—and the fact that we’re called Fairytale Brownies, not Fairytale Bakery.” So although you can order a brownie combo that includes coffee, cocoa, or cashews, you won’t find a product sku that has no brownies at all.

It might be tempting for Fairytale Brownies to expand into other baked goods like cookies and muffins, but Spitalny feels staying true to the brand is more rewarding. “Our newest treats, Fairytale Truffles, are smaller-sized brownies enrobed in chocolate. They’re a unique dessert—they’re trademarked—but they’re still brownies.”

Remembering Their Roots
The brand currently employs a few dozen people—as many as 130 during peak times—and is a multimillion-dollar company, but Spitalny never forgets that the brand originated as an idea between two grade-school friends.

“David and I feel our story—two kids on the playground with a dream of baking brownies—is such a part of our brand that we even include our kindergarten class photo on our site.”

Although Spitalny no longer has to scrape batter into a pan, brownies still keep her busy. To promote the brand, and because she’s a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier (LDEI), an organization that educates and mentors women in the culinary profession, she occasionally travels to trade shows and conferences.

Day-to-day, however, “my focus is to help our corporate and wholesale teams sell and grow,” she says. “The corporate department is about two years old and we just hired our wholesale team. And, of course, we’re spreading the word about the new Fairytale Truffles!” All this, she notes, while maintaining a personal life: “I drop my daughter off at school every morning, go to ballet once a week, do some yoga, and spend time with my husband—who happens to be Fairytale Brownies’ first baker and employee.”

Even as the brand continues to grow, “we want people to know that we’ve remained down-to-earth and accessible,” Spitalny adds, whether it’s encouraging suggestions about any aspect of the business from employees to establishing generous customer service policies to fielding queries from fledgling entrepreneurs. “I answer questions over the phone, review materials, and even share my experiences with groups, such as when I recently spoke to an ArizonaStateUniversity business class. I like going out into the community.”

And for someone who didn’t start her business as a branding expert, Spitalny knows a few things about running a successful brand. “When people call me for advice about launching the next great cookie brand, I ask: Do you know who your competition is? How they’re priced? How they market themselves? Are you on their mailing lists? The people who can answer the questions about brands in their market will have a better idea about the brand they want to be.

Track List:

Nile's "Ithyphallic" re-cements the band's place at the top of death metal's pantheon of reigning kings. Yet another in a string of fantastic, well-produced metal discs in which they somehow manage to outdo themselves, Ithyphallic is just what you would expect from a new Nile release- dense, gloomy and intelligent progressive death metal with a style all it's own and a level of musicianship that is nearly unparalelled in the genre.

Some changes that fans of Nile will be interested in on this new release since their departure from Relapse records is the new production "sound", which is absolutely crushing and dense, while at the same time clear as a bell. Definately the best production Nile has ever had, in which you can distinguish each instrument with clarity. This is especially noticeable in the guitar solos and vocals...in the past they have been sort of murky in the mix, but on Ithyphallic, they jump right out and grab you.

Some other changes worth mentioning for longtime Nile fans are the inclusion of more Lovecraft-inspired themes ("What Can Be Safely Written" and "As He Creates..."), an even higher level of technical guitar proficiency ("Papyrus....." features a ridiculously convoluted and massive harmony riff reminiscent of Decapitated) and sadly, the lack of any inclusion of Karl Sander's fascinating liner notes and commentary on the source material of the lyrics.

I honestly didn't think Nile could produce another batch of tunes that would surpass the godly, In Their Darkened Shrines, but they did. One of the best Death Metal bands existing today, you knew it would be a killer album, but this was insane. The first thing you notice is the crystal clear sound, loud as hell. Let no person lie out their arse, Death Metal should be heard. You should be able to hear everything going on and the disc should be loud as hell. If you have a decent stereo system, this is the kind of CD that makes you feel like the band is in your living room. The tunes? Also amazing. Nile have come up with songs that will shred your brain to pieces. With soon to be classics like, As He Creates So He Destroys, Eat of The Dead, The Essential Salts, and track 4 that's too long to type in right now, you'll be cranking this one just about every day. I know I have. As always the vocals are pumped full of fury, the guitar riffs are about as sick as you can get, and the drumming is right up there with Flo's from Cryptopsy.

The best death metal album of 2007. Absolutely mandatory.

Thirteen years to the day after being acquitted of killing his wife and her friend in Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.

The 61-year-old former football star was convicted of all 12 counts late Friday after jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours. He released a heavy sigh as the charges were read and was immediately taken into custody.

Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after his murder acquittal, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

His attorney said he would appeal.

Many people considered the four-week trial justice delayed. Simpson was cleared in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century, but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil case.

"I don't like to use the word payback," defense attorney Yale Galanter said. "I can tell you from the beginning my biggest concern ... was whether or not the jury would be able to separate their very strong feelings about Mr. Simpson and judge him fairly and honestly."

The Hall of Fame football star was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering up five men a year ago and storming into a room at a hotel-casino, where the group seized several game balls, plaques and photos. Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one of them said Simpson asked him to bring a gun.

Simpson's co-defendant, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, 54, also was found guilty on all charges and taken into custody.

Simpson showed little emotion as officers handcuffed him and walked him out of the courtroom. His sister, Carmelita Durio, sobbed behind him in the arms of Simpson's friend, Tom Scotto, who said "I love you" as Simpson passed by. As spectators left the courtroom, Durio collapsed.

Jurors made no eye contact with the defendants as they entered the courtroom. They declined to answer questions after the verdict was read.

Galanter said his client had expected the outcome, and in a courthouse conversation with an Associated Press reporter on Thursday, Simpson had implied as much.

Simpson said he was "afraid that I won't get to go to my kids' college graduations after I managed to get them through college."

Galanter said it was not a happy day for anybody. "His only hope is the appellate process," he said.

Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said prosecutors would not comment until the case was "completely resolved."

Judge Jackie Glass made no comment other than to thank the jury for its service and to deny motions for the defendants to be released on bail.

She refused to give the lawyers extended time to file a motion for new trial, which under Nevada law must be filed within seven days. The attorneys said they needed time to submit a voluminous record.

"I've sat through the trial," Glass said. "If you want a motion for new trial, send me something."

Stewart's attorney, Brent Bryson, also promised to appeal.

"If there was ever a case that should have been severed in the history of jurisprudence, it's this case," he said of unsuccessful attempts to separate Stewart's case from Simpson's because of the "spillover" effect.

From the beginning, Simpson and his lawyers argued the incident was not a robbery, but an attempt to reclaim mementos that had been stolen from him. He said he did not ask anyone to bring a weapon and did not see any guns.

The defense portrayed Simpson as a victim of shady characters who wanted to make a buck off his famous name, and police officers who saw his arrest as an opportunity to "get" him and avenge his acquittal.

Prosecutors said Simpson's ownership of the memorabilia was irrelevant; it was still a crime to try to take things by force.

"When they went into that room and forced the victims to the far side of the room, pulling out guns and yelling, `Don't let anybody out of here!' — six very large people detaining these two victims in the room with the intent to take property through force or violence from them — that's kidnapping," prosecutor David Roger said.

Kidnapping is punishable by five years to life in prison. Armed robbery carries a mandatory sentence of at least two years behind bars, and could bring as much as 30. Sentencing was set for Dec. 5.

Simpson, who now lives in Miami, did not testify but was heard on a recording of the confrontation screaming that the dealers had stolen his property. "Don't let nobody out of this room," he declared and told the other men to scoop up his items, which included a photo of Simpson with former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Four other men charged in the case struck plea bargains that saved them from potential prison sentences in return for their testimony. Some of them had criminal records or were otherwise compromised in some way. One, for example, was an alleged pimp who testified he had a revelation from God telling him to take a plea bargain.

Memorabilia dealer Thomas Riccio, who arranged and secretly recorded the hotel-room confrontation, said he netted $210,000 from the media for the tapes.

Similarly, minutes after the Sept. 13, 2007, incident, one of the alleged victims, sports-memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley, was calling news outlets, and the other, Bruce Fromong, spoke of getting "big money" from the case.

Simpson's past haunted the case. Las Vegas police officers were heard in the recordings chuckling over Simpson's misfortune and crowing that if Los Angeles couldn't "get" him, they would.

During jury selection, Simpson's lawyers expressed fears that people who believed he got away with murder might see this case as a chance to right a wrong.

As a result, an usually large pool of 500 potential jurors was called, and they were given a 26-page questionnaire. Half were almost instantly eliminated after expressing strong feelings that Simpson should have been convicted of murder.

The judge instructed the jurors to put aside Simpson's earlier case.

In closing arguments, Galanter acknowledged that what Simpson did to recover his memorabilia was not right. "But being stupid, and being frustrated is not being a criminal," he said.

He added: "This case has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement. You know that. I know that. Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney's office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson."

After two weeks of anguishing debate, Congress has passed and President Bush signed a massive plan to save the financial industry and the economy at large from an unthinkable free fall. Now, the world holds its breath, seeing if it will work.

Passage of the $700 billion financial rescue package came after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at a meeting last month shocked congressional leaders into action by warning of pending economic collapse without immediate congressional intervention.

Paulson said after the climactic House vote Friday that he already had staff working out details and was lining up advisers from outside the government to get the money flowing.

The immediate response to the 263-171 vote was not promising. Wall Street, which plunged a record 778 points after the House initially rejected the bill last Monday, fell 157 points on Friday as more economic bad news, such as a jump in job losses, outweighed news that Congress was finally coming to the rescue.

Still, Bush and Congress made clear that the legislation was urgent and vital. "We have acted boldly to help prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis in communities across our country," Bush said after the House vote. He acknowledged that "our economy continues to face serious challenges."

"We know that if we do nothing this crisis is likely to worsen and put us in a slump the likes of which most of us have never seen," said House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who worked with House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders in a rare bipartisan response to what both parties saw as a dire threat to the nation's economic well-being.

"We are addressing the real pain felt by Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "They are why we must pass this legislation today."

The legislation gives the government broad authority to buy up toxic mortgage-related investments and other distressed assets from shaky financial institutions. The hope is that it will restore confidence in markets and thaw a near-freeze in credit availability that has begun to affect the ability of community banks to loan, businesses to obtain money for payrolls and investments and individuals from getting credit to buy a home or a car.

The measure, in another effort to help smaller banks with serious liquidity problems, also raised the ceiling on federally insured deposits from $100,000 to $250,000. It increases federal oversight over Wall Street transactions and assures that CEOs whose companies benefit from the bailout don't leave with huge golden parachute payoffs.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the Financial Services Committee chairman and a key negotiator over the past weeks, said the measure was just the beginning of a much larger task Congress will tackle next year: overhauling housing policy and financial regulation in a legislative effort comparable to the New Deal.

The political story preceding the House vote Friday was nearly as dramatic as the financial and economic upheavals going on outside Washington.

Last Monday, despite urgent pleas from Bush and his senior financial advisers and the support of congressional leaders, the House voted 228-205 to reject the rescue plan. Stock markets around the world plunged, then recovered to some extent, as economists warned that not since the Great Depression had the United States faced such a crisis.

But the 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans who voted against the bill were responding to a deluge of calls and messages from their constituents demanding that they defeat what many saw as a $700 billion giveaway to Wall Street when average Americans were getting no help.

On Wednesday, the Senate, shortly before it recessed for the election, stepped in, voting 74-25 for a package that linked the rescue bill to a giant bill extending popular tax breaks such as the research-and-development tax credit, providing incentives for renewable energy resources and giving tax relief to disaster victims. That bill, costing an additional $110 billion, included a measure to give benefits parity to people with mental health problems. The Senate also added the boost in the ceiling for bank deposits.

Those additions were enough to sway some House members who voted "no" the first time around. Others were swamped by calls from business and political leaders warning of the possible consequences of inaction.

"I've never talked to as many bank presidents in my life," said Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., who said he had also been lobbied by General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and other auto executives.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent out a letter warning that, absent a clear resolution to the financial crisis, California and other states "may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal Treasury for short-term financing."

The two presidential candidates also weighed in. Democrat Barack Obama spoke to many in the Congressional Black Caucus and helped persuade 13 to switch their votes. Nine freshmen Democrats also switched to "yes" votes after a conference call with Obama in which he promised an economic stimulus bill would be a top priority if he is elected.

Republican John McCain also lobbied for the measure, according to aides who declined to release a list of lawmakers he called.

"It's disgusting that we would ever be brought to this floor to cast this vote," said Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee, a Republican who changed to a "yes" vote. But "Congress has to act. We are out of options. Hold your hand over your heart and vote 'yes.'"

Not all were convinced. "The Treasury plan throws an ungodly amount at Wall Street," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. "This is just an end run around, right before an election. Pray for our republic."

In the end, 33 Democrats and 25 Republicans switched from opposition to support. In all, 91 Republicans joined 172 Democrats to support the measure while 108 Republicans and 63 Democrats voted 'no."