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By DANIEL WOOLLS and HAROLD HECKLE Associated Press

MADRID (AP) - Concern grew for the stability of Spain's place in the fragile eurozone economy after reports of a rise in the level of bad loans on the books of its banks and word from the government Friday that it may have to revise its 2011 budget deficit upwards for a second time.

The Bank of Spain reported that lenders' and savings banks' bad loan ratio had risen in March to an 18-year high of 8.36 percent from 8.15 percent the previous month.

The Finance Ministry then said in a statement late Friday the deficit could reach 8.9 percent of GDP after four of its 17 regions overshot their expected budgets. The regions mentioned were Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia and Castilla-Leon.

News of the increase in bad loans followed a downgrading by credit ratings agency Moody's late Thursday of the country's banking industry.

Spain's budget deficit is higher than the 3 percent threshold that was supposedly part of the euro's economic framework. The incoming government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier had to revise the figure upwards to 8.5 percent of GDP from the 6 percent forecast by the previous, Socialist government.

The ministry said it still expected to hit its target of 5.3 percent for this year's budget deficit.

Moody's acted late Thursday, citing Spanish banks' heavy load of non-performing loans amid a recession-plagued economy, their trouble raising financing on capital markets and the government's sovereign debt problems, which might make it hard for the government to come to the aid of banks.

Spain is in the eye of the storm of the eurozone debt crisis amid worries that its banks are overexposed to an imploded real estate bubble and the government, fighting recession and a nearly 25 percent jobless rate, could not afford to bail them out if it needed to.

Nuria Alvarez, a banking analyst with Madrid brokerage Renta4, warned that the rise in the bad loan ratio could mean that Spain's banks will get hit harder as the country's recession bites deep and unemployment worsens.

The rest is here:
Spain may have to revise its 2011 budget deficit

By RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - British officials have given their word: "We won't read your emails."

But experts say that its proposed new surveillance program, unveiled last week as part of the government's annual legislative program, will gather so much data that spooks won't have to read your messages to guess what you're up to.

The U.K. Home Office stresses that it is not seeking to read the content of every Britons' communications, saying the data it was seeking "is NOT the content of any communication." It is, however, seeking information on who's sending the message, whom it's sent to, where it's sent from, and potentially other details including a message's length and its format.

The government's proposal is just a draft bill, so it could be modified or scrapped. But if passed in its current form, it would put a huge amount of personal data at the government's disposal, which it could potentially use to deduce a startling amount about Britons' private life - from sleep patterns to driving habits or even infidelity.

"We're really entering a whole new phase of analysis based on the data that we can collect," said Gerald Kane, an information systems expert at Boston College. "There is quite a lot you can learn."

The ocean of information is hard to fathom. Britons generate 4 billion hours of voice calls and 130 billion text messages annually, according to industry figures. In 2008 the BBC put the annual number of U.K.-linked emails at around 1 trillion. Then there are instant messaging services run by companies such as BlackBerry, Internet telephony services such as Skype, chat rooms, and in-game services liked those used by World of Warcraft.

Communications service providers, who would log the details of all that back-and-forth, believe that the government's program would force them to process petabytes (1 quadrillion bytes) of information every day. It's a mind-bogglingly large amount of data on the scale of every book, every movie, and every piece of music ever released.

So even without opening emails, how much can British spooks learn about who's sending them?

THEY'LL SEE THE RED FLAGS

More:
UK surveillance could yield window into lives

Posted: 12:23 PM ET May 17, 2012

By Brian Stubits | NHL Blogger

John Tortorella has done something rather amazing. He has turned the conversation in the postseason from criticism of his team's shot-blocking to criticism of himself.

Well it hasn't completely stopped the block talk. For example, CBS Sports Network hockey analyst Dave Starman just tackled the issue. But after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals he's about the only one who is still talking about the game and not talking about the talking.

By now you're well aware that Tortorella has made a habit of brief press conferences, particularly after losses. He has gone into a shell and refuses to say anything descriptive whatsoever. He won't talk about individual players. Anything that might resemble something strategic is left unexplained. Give him a yes or no question and he'll take the easy out with a one-word answer.

Put it briefly, he has been uncooperative and it's upsetting a lot of people in the media. Below you'll see the latest example after the Rangers' 3-2 loss to the Devils in Game 2.

It has gotten to the point that it's been suggested the media return the favor to Tortorella and stage a walk-out at Tortorella's next setting. I'm serious, that's a real suggestion.

And it makes me laugh. What is that going to do other than please Tortorella? The guy would probably love nothing more than not to have to talk to the media ever, so walking out isn't going to teach him a lesson. It's going to make a dream come true. The only skin off his back is that he spent the team to walk down the hall to the media room. Poor guy.

I've been one of those media members. I was present for a couple of his pressers in the second-round series with Washington. I admit that I'm on the side that actually finds them funny. I sat in the second row and was doing my best not to crack a smile. I was afraid to find out what would happen if an angry Torts saw me grinning like a teenage boy who snuck into an R-rated movie.

It was one of the many postgame briefings that he has given that was just that, brief. But only in their production. The post-press talk has been anything but brief.

Originally posted here:
A brief word on John Tortorella's brief press conferences in playoffs

By Michele A. Berdy

Published: May 16, 2012 (Issue # 1708)

, , : Words, words, words

Im apretty upbeat person, someone who can usually find thesunny side ofany situation or atleast thefunny side. But I have toadmit that thepast few days have gotten even me down.

Andtheyve gotten me worried about my Russian-language ability. I listen tospeeches andread transcripts, andI seem tounderstand all thewords just fine. But they dont make sense tome.

Take Dmitry Peskov, press secretary forPrime Minister President Vladimir Putin. First he said publicly that 6 (the police should have been tougher onMay 6). I found that odd. What about following thelaw andusing appropriate force?

But then, according toJust Russia Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, Peskov clarified his first statement: . . (That was said too delicately. Thedemonstrators livers ought tobe smeared onthe asphalt forevery wounded OMON riot policeman.)

When did it become OK forpublic figures touse that kind ofviolent language? Was he misquoted? If he was, why hasnt he complained?

Andthen I just dont get this statement fromPutins press service: , , , - (Noting his responsibilities tofinalize Cabinet appointments tothe new Russian government, President Putin expressed regret that he wouldnt be able toattend theGroup ofEight summit atCamp David.)

I get thewords, but I dont get it. If theres one person onthe planet who knows what duties await anew Russian president, its Vladimir Putin. So why did he go along with theoriginal idea ofholding themeeting atCamp David toaccommodate him if he wasnt sure he could attend?

Originally posted here:
the word’s worth: Mixing messages

elexis AG / Key word(s): Enterprise/ elexis AG: Press Release concerning the Annual General Meeting on 16 May 2012 DGAP-Media / 16.05.2012 / 15:41 =-------------------------------------------------------------------- Press Release concerning the Annual General Meeting on 16 May 2012 * Outlook for 2012: Stable performance for sales and earnings * Switch to the General Standard planned * Dividend of 0.27 euros per share approved * New Supervisory Board elected Wenden, 16 May 2012 At today's Annual General Meeting 93,74 percent of the capital of elexis AG was represented. Siegfried Koepp, Chairman of the Management Board, emphasised in his speech the strategic importance of continuing to extend the Group's technology leadership. Despite the subdued economic outlook, elexis AG will continue to invest in new products and groundbreaking innovations. Technological advantage remains the key to success and profitable growth. The Group expects that incoming orders, sales revenue and profits will remain stable compared to the previous year. One result of the innovation initiatives was the new products presented at the 'drupa' trade fair in May 2012 that provided impressive proof of elexis's technology leadership. Numerous new developments are also being pursued in the other product areas. Further technological opportunities are currently being examined with feasibility studies in the 'New Products' profit centre that was established in 2011. The Management Board also referred to the ad-hoc announcement of 16 May 2012 and explained that it intended to apply to switch from the listing on the Prime Standard of the regulated market to the General Standard of the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. This switch will reduce the additional costs involved with the listing on the Prime Standard. The elexis share had already left the SDAX on 19 September 2011 as it no longer met fundamental eligibility criteria. Supervisory Board and Management Board At the Annual General Meeting the acts of the members of the Management Board and the members of the Supervisory Board in office in 2011 were ratified for the past financial year with a clear majority. The shareholders re-elected the current members of the Supervisory Board, Ulrich Harnacke, Dr. Kay Mayland, Dr. Joachim Schnbeck and Eckhard Schulte. As a result of the amendment to the Articles of Association that was made in December 2011, four shareholder representatives were elected to the Supervisory Board. There were also changes among the employee representatives on the Supervisory Board. Klaus Kramer, former Works Council Chairman of BST International GmbH, has retired and left the Supervisory Board. He is succeeded by Horst Backhaus in this role. Georg Keppeler has also left the Supervisory Board due to its reduction in size. We thank the members departing at the end of this Annual General Meeting, Karl Heinz Gorgas, Klaus Kramer, Georg Keppeler and Willi Loose, for their dedication over the past few years. Dividend distribution The shareholders followed the proposal of the Management Board and Supervisory Board and approved the distribution of a dividend of 0.27 euros per share for the past financial year. This equates to a total payment of 2.484 million euros. Auditor BDO AG Wirtschaftsprfungsgesellschaft, Dsseldorf, was elected by the shareholders as the new auditor for the 2012 financial year. Amendments to the Articles of Association The proposed amendments to the Articles of Association concerning the remuneration structure for the members of the Supervisory Board and the other amendments to the Articles of Association were accepted. The speech made by the members of the Management Board at the Annual General Meeting and the voting results can be viewed in German at http://www.elexis.de. Shares of elexis AG are listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN: DE 000 508 500 5). End of Media Release =-------------------------------------------------------------------- 16.05.2012 Dissemination of a Press Release, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. DGAP's Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at http://www.dgap-medientreff.de and http://www.dgap.de =-------------------------------------------------------------------- Language: English Company: elexis AG Industriestrae 1 57482 Wenden Germany Phone: +49 (0)2762 612 - 130 Fax: +49 (0)2762 612 - 135 E-mail: eicke@elexis.de Internet: http://www.elexis.de ISIN: DE0005085005 WKN: 508500 Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin, Dsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart End of News DGAP-Media =-------------------------------------------------------------------- 170377 16.05.2012

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2012 09:41 ET (13:41 GMT)

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elexis AG: Press Release concerning the Annual General Meeting on 16 May 2012