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Forexpros – Crude oil prices continued to come under heavy selling pressure on Friday, settling at their lowest level since the start of the year as growing concerns over a potential Greek exit from the euro zone prompted investors to cut their exposure to growth-linked assets.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in July settled at USD91.80 a barrel by close of trade on Friday. Earlier in the day, prices fell to as low as USD91.25 a barrel, the lowest since November 3, 2011.
On the week, crude futures dropped 3.87%, their third consecutive weekly loss. Oil prices have fallen nearly 13% in the past three weeks, the largest three-week loss since the week to August 14, 2011, when prices dropped 14.5%.
Oil futures have been on a rapid decline since the uncertain outcome of the May 6 elections in Greece, which threw the future of the country’s international bailout deal into doubt and fuelled fears over a possible Greek exit from the euro zone.
The debt-laden country has called for new elections to take place on June 17, with the vote likely to determine whether Greece remains in the euro zone.
Meanwhile, concerns over the health of Spain’s banking system and the prospect of more state bailouts for lenders saw the country’s borrowing costs climb above 6% last week. On Thursday, ratings agency Moody’s cut the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks.
There are worries that the region’s sovereign debt crisis could trigger a broader economic slowdown that would curb demand for oil. The euro zone accounted for nearly 12% of global oil consumption in 2010, according to data from British Petroleum.
The heightened sense of risk aversion prompted investors to shun riskier assets, such as stocks and industrial commodities, and flock to the relative safety of the U.S. dollar.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, ended the week at 81.23, up 0.87%.
Dollar-denominated oil futures contracts tend to fall when the dollar rises, as this makes oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies.
Renewed fears over the health of the U.S. economy further weighed. Data on Thursday showed that manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia-region contracted for the first time in eight months in May.
A separate report showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week held steady at a seasonally adjusted 370,000, confounding expectations for a decline of 5,000 to 365,000.
A larger-than-expected build in U.S. oil supplies last week is forcing traders to refocus on the supply and demand picture.
The U.S. Energy Department said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels last week to a total of 381.6 million barrels, the highest level since August 1990, underscoring fears over a slowdown in oil demand from the U.S.
The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil-consuming country, responsible for almost 22% of global oil demand.
Wednesday’s minutes of the Federal Reserve’s May meeting indicated that several policymakers remained open to further efforts to stimulate the U.S. economy if growth falters or if the risks to the economy became great enough.
Oil traders see further downside to prices, with technical traders expecting the next level of support for oil to be at USD89.93 a barrel.
Money managers in oil futures and options cut their net long positions to the lowest level since September 2010, as traders trimmed more of their bets oil prices will go higher.
Nymex crude prices are off almost 14% in May and have fallen nearly 17.5% since hitting a March 1 intraday peak of USD110.53 a barrel, as concerns lingered over a widening global economic slowdown and as tensions have eased between Iran and Western nations over the country’s nuclear program.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for July delivery settled at USD107.14 a barrel by close of trade on Friday. Prices fell to as low as USD106.41 earlier in the day, the lowest since December 21. The Brent contract lost 3.84% over the week.
The spread between the Brent and the crude contracts stood at USD15.34 a barrel by close of trade Friday.
Earlier it narrowed to USD13.62 a barrel, the lowest in two weeks, after pipeline operators Enbridge and Enterprise Products Partners reversed flows on the Seaway pipeline on Friday, pumping crude south from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast, in what could ease a U.S. supply glut.
Inventories at Cushing, the delivery point for Nymex oil, are at a two-decade high.
French lender Societe Generale said in a report Friday that Brent prices could fall to the USD99- to USD100-lows seen in August and September after breaking through long-term support in the USD108.50-to-USD109.20 area.
Brent crude, the European benchmark, is more than 16% off its intraday high of USD128.38 hit on March 1.
A potential loss of Iranian oil supplies has helped underpin strong gains in oil prices during late last year and the first quarter of this year.
But revived talks between Iran and major powers over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, along with rising Saudi Arabian and Libyan output and signs of slower U.S. economic and employment growth, helped pull oil prices back from first-quarter highs.
In the week ahead, investors will be watching euro zone manufacturing data, amid expectations that activity remains weak, which would increase the chances of more economic stimulus from the ECB.
In addition, the U.S. is to produce government data on durable goods orders, as well as data on exiting and new home sales.
Oil traders will be closely watching U.S. data in the second quarter for clues as to the likelihood of a fresh round of monetary easing by the Fed, which could potentially hurt the dollar and support oil.
Action video game to aid recovery from stroke
A video game which improves and overcomes the physical symptoms of a stroke has been revealed.
Stroke experts at Newcastle University working with new company Limbs Alive Ltd have developed the first in a planned library of action video games where the movements used to control the game are designed to enable the patient to re-learn control of their weak arm and hand after stroke.
The team at Newcastle University has received a £1.5m award from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund, a partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, to allow further development so that the stroke patient playing these games in their own home can be remotely monitored by a therapist.
After a stroke, a patient can recover control of the weak arm or hand even after a long time but this requires many months of expert, daily therapy. Providing the support and motivation to enable people to carry out such a demanding programme is costly and difficult and this often limits recovery. This is where the newly-developed suite of computer games called “Circus Challenge” can make a real difference.
These are the first action video games designed specifically to be played at home and to provide an expert therapy programme, whilst still capturing all the fun and challenge of a game used for entertainment.
Janet Eyre, Professor of Paediatric Neuroscience at Newcastle University, who also works within the Newcastle NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, set up Limbs Alive Ltd to produce the first suite of games in association with a professional game studio.
Professor Eyre said: “The brain can re-learn control of the weak arm but this needs frequent therapy over many months and there are not enough therapists to provide this on a one-to-one basis.
“Eighty per cent of patients do not regain full recovery of arm and hand function and this really limits their independence and ability to return to work. Patients need to be able to use both their arms and hands for most every day activities such as doing up a zip, making a bed, tying shoe laces, unscrewing a jar.
“With our video game, people get engrossed in the competition and action of the circus characters and forget that the purpose of the game is therapy.”
Using wireless controllers, players try their hand at such activities as lion taming, juggling, plate spinning, high diving and flying the trapeze and by working their way through increasingly difficult levels of Circus Challenge the movements required are designed to gradually build up the strength and skills of the patient.
Covering both the gross and the fine motor skills, the games have been carefully designed and finely honed with someone who has had a stroke in mind so that, for example, they can be played by someone in a wheelchair. The games gradually increase in difficulty and complexity to ensure that the stroke patient is always being challenged – but most importantly the games are designed to be fun!
Circus Challenge is at the cutting edge of technology as it employs next-generation motion controllers and has special features within the game that ensure gamers of varying abilities can play together on a level playing field. Patients can therefore play the game with relatives and friends.
The support from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund means that Limbs Alive and Newcastle University will now be able to develop the infrastructure to provide tele-monitoring so that a therapist will be able to analyse a patient’s progress remotely and make recommendations about which games to play and at which level, to continue the improvement. With this funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health the games can now become a tool for use by therapists, ensuring that patients can still get expert supervision and guidance, whilst undertaking therapy at home or at any time and place to suit them.
68-year-old former ship builder, Danny Mann from Dudley in Northumberland (pictured) suffered a stroke in February this year. He has been affected on the right side of his body and he has been trying out the game. He made the following observations:
“This is the first time I’ve ever played a video game – I mean, I don’t even own a computer. It was good fun though it did feel like I was doing exercise and I worked up a sweat!
“The therapy exercises I normally have to do are dull but necessary but this game is something different which encourages me to keep going with my therapy.
“When I got the controllers I tried being a trapeze artist – something I never expected to try at my time of life.
“I would really like to play with my grandchildren – I can’t think of a better motivation than sharing a game with them to help me on my road to recovery.”
The company ultimately plan to apply the same principles to develop games to assist therapy in other conditions such as Cerebral Palsy, Chronic Lung Disease, Type 2 Diabetes and Dementia.
Professor Eyre added: “Patients who have played the games find them easy to use, challenging and fun! They can be easily set up and played at home since they are designed by a professional games studio to be played on a laptop or PC. Patients forget they’re doing therapy and just enjoy the challenge of playing.”
In the UK 150,000 people have a stroke leading to a cost of care and loss of income of £4 billion. Research has already shown that 45 minutes of exercises a day, each day, can lead to such an improvement that people can care for themselves and return to work.
Excited for Nintendo’s new tablet-esque controller? So are the kids in TT Games’ QA department. An over-excited tester tweeted out an image of a slightly different Wii U slab than the one we laid hands on at E3 2011, teasing “look we what we have at work!” Answering the call does indeed reveal something worth looking at — a somewhat wider looking Wii U slate featuring two full-sized analog sticks (as opposed to 3DS-like circle pads), a pair of unmarked button-like squares, and a new starboard home for the controller’s plus and minus buttons.
The tweet was summarily pulled, of course, but not before our friends at Joystiq nabbed a screenshot. Naturally, the rumor mill started right up, churning out speculation of developer specific slabs, early prototypes and late redesigns. The truth? We’ll probably need to wait until E3 to find out, but we reached out to Nintendo for a comment all the same. We’ll let you know if we hear anything more than the usual “Nintendo doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation” line.
Action video game to aid recovery from stroke
A video game which improves and overcomes the physical symptoms of a stroke has been revealed.
Stroke experts at Newcastle University working with new company Limbs Alive Ltd have developed the first in a planned library of action video games where the movements used to control the game are designed to enable the patient to re-learn control of their weak arm and hand after stroke.
The team at Newcastle University has received a £1.5m award from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund, a partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, to allow further development so that the stroke patient playing these games in their own home can be remotely monitored by a therapist.
After a stroke, a patient can recover control of the weak arm or hand even after a long time but this requires many months of expert, daily therapy. Providing the support and motivation to enable people to carry out such a demanding programme is costly and difficult and this often limits recovery. This is where the newly-developed suite of computer games called “Circus Challenge” can make a real difference.
These are the first action video games designed specifically to be played at home and to provide an expert therapy programme, whilst still capturing all the fun and challenge of a game used for entertainment.
Janet Eyre, Professor of Paediatric Neuroscience at Newcastle University, who also works within the Newcastle NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, set up Limbs Alive Ltd to produce the first suite of games in association with a professional game studio.
Professor Eyre said: “The brain can re-learn control of the weak arm but this needs frequent therapy over many months and there are not enough therapists to provide this on a one-to-one basis.
“Eighty per cent of patients do not regain full recovery of arm and hand function and this really limits their independence and ability to return to work. Patients need to be able to use both their arms and hands for most every day activities such as doing up a zip, making a bed, tying shoe laces, unscrewing a jar.
“With our video game, people get engrossed in the competition and action of the circus characters and forget that the purpose of the game is therapy.”
Using wireless controllers, players try their hand at such activities as lion taming, juggling, plate spinning, high diving and flying the trapeze and by working their way through increasingly difficult levels of Circus Challenge the movements required are designed to gradually build up the strength and skills of the patient.
Covering both the gross and the fine motor skills, the games have been carefully designed and finely honed with someone who has had a stroke in mind so that, for example, they can be played by someone in a wheelchair. The games gradually increase in difficulty and complexity to ensure that the stroke patient is always being challenged – but most importantly the games are designed to be fun!
Circus Challenge is at the cutting edge of technology as it employs next-generation motion controllers and has special features within the game that ensure gamers of varying abilities can play together on a level playing field. Patients can therefore play the game with relatives and friends.
The support from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund means that Limbs Alive and Newcastle University will now be able to develop the infrastructure to provide tele-monitoring so that a therapist will be able to analyse a patient’s progress remotely and make recommendations about which games to play and at which level, to continue the improvement. With this funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health the games can now become a tool for use by therapists, ensuring that patients can still get expert supervision and guidance, whilst undertaking therapy at home or at any time and place to suit them.
68-year-old former ship builder, Danny Mann from Dudley in Northumberland (pictured) suffered a stroke in February this year. He has been affected on the right side of his body and he has been trying out the game. He made the following observations:
“This is the first time I’ve ever played a video game – I mean, I don’t even own a computer. It was good fun though it did feel like I was doing exercise and I worked up a sweat!
“The therapy exercises I normally have to do are dull but necessary but this game is something different which encourages me to keep going with my therapy.
“When I got the controllers I tried being a trapeze artist – something I never expected to try at my time of life.
“I would really like to play with my grandchildren – I can’t think of a better motivation than sharing a game with them to help me on my road to recovery.”
The company ultimately plan to apply the same principles to develop games to assist therapy in other conditions such as Cerebral Palsy, Chronic Lung Disease, Type 2 Diabetes and Dementia.
Professor Eyre added: “Patients who have played the games find them easy to use, challenging and fun! They can be easily set up and played at home since they are designed by a professional games studio to be played on a laptop or PC. Patients forget they’re doing therapy and just enjoy the challenge of playing.”
In the UK 150,000 people have a stroke leading to a cost of care and loss of income of £4 billion. Research has already shown that 45 minutes of exercises a day, each day, can lead to such an improvement that people can care for themselves and return to work.
Excited for Nintendo’s new tablet-esque controller? So are the kids in TT Games’ QA department. An over-excited tester tweeted out an image of a slightly different Wii U slab than the one we laid hands on at E3 2011, teasing “look we what we have at work!” Answering the call does indeed reveal something worth looking at — a somewhat wider looking Wii U slate featuring two full-sized analog sticks (as opposed to 3DS-like circle pads), a pair of unmarked button-like squares, and a new starboard home for the controller’s plus and minus buttons.
The tweet was summarily pulled, of course, but not before our friends at Joystiq nabbed a screenshot. Naturally, the rumor mill started right up, churning out speculation of developer specific slabs, early prototypes and late redesigns. The truth? We’ll probably need to wait until E3 to find out, but we reached out to Nintendo for a comment all the same. We’ll let you know if we hear anything more than the usual “Nintendo doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation” line.
Good thing I dont drink! this is the recipe for disaster! Lol | The Official Page of MMA UFC WEC STRIKEFORCE girl Photographer, Tracy Lee
This is trouble! @randy_couture @holtmccallany coming to a theater near you- hijacked out in sept! | The Official Page of MMA UFC WEC STRIKEFORCE girl Photographer, Tracy Lee
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Granit Xhaka has joined Borussia Mönchengladbach.
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May 20, 2012 – Borussia Mönchengladbach have signed FC Basel midfielder Granit Xhaka on a five year contract. The transfer fee was not released, but it is expected to be around “8.5 million.
Xhaka, 19, made his debut for Basel when he was only 17 years old. He’s been in the first team ever since and was a starter this year. His performances this season in Basel’s double winning campaign drew the eyes of several bigger clubs. Xhaka performed very well in the club’s Champions League run this season that saw this dispatch Manchester United from the competition.
When his signing was announced, Xhaka said, “It wasn’t a difficult decision to take. I opted for Borussia from the outset because it’s a fantastic club.”
Gladbach finished in fourth place in the Bundesliga this season, so they will enter the final qualifying stage of next season’s Champions League. Xhaka is the first player confirmed to be joining Gladbach this summer, and we know that they’ll be making several more moves to strengthen the side ahead of next season.
Xhaka becomes the second Basel midfielder to join a Bundesliga Champions League qualifying team for next season. Xherdan Shaqiri has already signed with Bayern Munich.
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Undefeated Juventus look to finish their season with a floroush by claiming a league and cup double. All that stands in their way are Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli.
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May 20, 2012 – Juventus and Napoli square off in the Coppa Italia final on Sunday, with Juve hoping to complete an undefeated double by fending off the only side that’s come particularly close to beating them since the 2010/11 season. Napoli, meanwhile, will be pushing hard for their first trophy since 1990, which would partially make up for a disappointing season in which the Partenopei failed to retain their status as a Champions League club.
It’s been a while since either side has won the competition, which has been dominated by the trio of Roma, Lazio and Inter Milan for the better part of a decade, but Juventus do have nine wins and would love to be the first club ever to ten. You’d have to imagine that they’re also keen on preserving their phenomenal unbeaten run and that Napoli will be just as keen on stopping it. Juve are the favourites, of course – they finished 23 points ahead of their opponents in the league – but when Napoli play a full-strength lineup they’re more than capable of giving anyone problems.
Date/Time: Sunday, May 20th, 9:00 PM CEST (3:00 PM EDT)
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy
TV: GolTV (USA), ESPN (UK)
Watch Online: ESPN3 (USA)
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CONCORD — Jimmie Johnson won the first segment of the Sprint All-Star Race Saturday, which meant he was assured of going into the pits first for the fifth and final segment.
With nothing to gain, Johnson finished the next three segments last. He saved his tires and drove so far behind the pack that it was as if he was running a separate race. At one point I got up to stretch and walked along the track. I passed Johnson.
The All-Star race can neatly be divided into two segments, not five.
The first race was a perpetual fast break, everybody scrambling and gambling. The strategy was easy even for a first-time visitor to Charlotte Motor Speedway to figure out: Go really fast.
Saturday will provide a striking contrast to next Sundays Coca-Cola 600. The 600 is for purists. The race is about strategy and staying power. Nobody wins a 400-lap race by luck. Its about attrition. Its a journey.
The 90-lap All-Star race is a dash.
The first four segments were 20 laps, the last one 10. The winners of the segments after Johnsons Matt Kenseth, then Brad Keselowski and then Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed Johnson into the pits, and presumably would follow him onto the track, for the finale.
Fans were loud and excited all night, during introductions lustily cheering the drivers they consider good and even more lustily booing the drivers they deem bad.
Kyle Busch attracted his customary boos, but older brother Kurt Busch, in the wake of the dust-up he created last weekend at Darlington, attracted even more.
You could see Kurt going to Kyle after the race and saying: Teach me your ways. I want to be popular, too.
The first four segments were a testament to speed and daring. I dont get demonstrative at races; Im working. But there was my right hand, involuntarily clenched tight, as Keselowski held off Kasey Kahne to win segment three.
People who dont watch the NBA contend that the problem with the league is that every game is determined in the last five minutes. This is a problem?
The All-Star race was decided in the last 10 laps by design.
The anticipation was beautiful. This was a fine evening for fans with short-attention spans as we awaited the final 10-lap charge.
The winner collects a million dollars. What would you do for a million dollars?
What wouldnt you do?
And then they were off, and Johnson was first and with all those drivers running their fastest laps of the evening Johnson ran faster than all of them.
With eight laps to go, the result already was apparent. If Johnson didnt make a mistake, and if Johnsons car didnt bust, Johnson was going to win. And Johnson was not going to make a mistake, not him.
Johnsons superiority was evident early. He began the race sixth and moved to the front past Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle and past Kevin Harvick in 20 short laps.
The last segment, the one that was supposed to be crazy, was much too sane. Johnson was almost as far in front of the pack as he had purposely lagged behind it.
He finished the five segments first, last, last, last and first.
The only excitement at the end was team owner Rick Hendrick asking Johnson to pick him up after the burnout celebration, changing his mind, and Johnson dragging him along anyway. Hendrick had one leg in the door of the Chevrolet he owns and one leg dangling near or on the track.
The All-Star race was designed for a spectacular finish. But the finish was spectacularly tame.
Unless you are a huge fan of Johnson, as opposed to a fan of racing, your fist was not clenched.
