Video Games: Art-Tested, MoMA-Approved

Citing a palpable “aesthetic experience” in classic games while eschewing others, the Museum of Modern Art announced Thursday that it has assembled a new collection of video games. The museum’s initial collection includes 14 classics like Pac-Man and Tetris, but also more recent additions to the canon like Passage and Canabalt. The museum has a “wish list” of about 40 total games, which include Pong, The Legend of Zelda, and Minecraft. The games will be exhibited starting in March 2013, but the selections aren’t necessarily what you’d expect.

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Video games are art. That’s a fact (which has some notable dissenters) that’s even been determined by the Supreme Court in a a case decided in 2011. And games have been embraced by art institutions before. In an exhibition this year, the Smithsonian American Art Museum explored The Art of Video Games. But in a blog post today, Paola Antonelli, senior curator in MoMA‘s department of design, explained that the museum’s intention is not as simple as evaluating the artistic value of certain video games. They want to look at games from a design perspective: “Our criteria, therefore, emphasize not only the visual quality and aesthetic experience of each game, but also the many other aspects—from the elegance of the code to the design of the player’s behavior—that pertain to interaction design.” 

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Because the museum is looking for specific design traits, Antonielli explained that MoMA has not acquired, and is not looking for, some games that might seem like “no-brainers to video game historian.”

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Here are some images of the games MoMA has acquired, via the museum: 

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Tetris

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flOw

Myst

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Russian court bans “extremist” Pussy Riot video

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court ruled on Thursday that video footage of the Pussy Riot punk group protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a church was “extremist” and should be removed from websites.

The demonstration last February offended many Russian Orthodox Christians. But Putin has been criticized by U.S. and European leaders over what they saw as disproportionate jail sentences imposed on three Pussy Riot members. Their trial was also seen by Putin’s critics as part of a clampdown on dissent.

The Moscow court said it had based its ruling on conclusions by a panel of experts who studied the video, showing band members in colorful mini-skirts and ski masks dancing in front of the altar of Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Judge Marina Musimovich said the footage “has elements of extremism; in particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion”. She said it also had calls for mutiny and “mass disorder”.

The verdict said that free distribution of the video could ignite racial and religious hatred.

The court’s ruling applies to other videos released by the band, including a performance in Moscow’s Red Square, where calls for mass disorder could be heard. Such calls were not made inside the church.

The websites are now likely to be included in a state register and could be blocked if the banned content is not removed.

The Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor said that once the court decision takes effect it will monitor how it is implemented.

Three members of Pussy Riot convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their “punk prayer”, which the Russian Orthodox Church has cast as part of a concerted attack on the church and the faithful.

The women said the protest, in which they burst into Christ the Saviour Cathedral and called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin, was not motivated by hatred and was meant to mock the church leadership’s support for the longtime leader.

Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are serving two-year jail sentences over the protest last February. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, walked free last month when her sentence was suspended on appeal.

“To me this is a clear attribute of censorship – censorship of art and censorship of culture, of the protest culture which is very important for any country, let alone for Russia,” Samutsevich told reporters outside court.

“Now of course the fact that they will be blocking all Pussy Riot videos as I understand, all photos – this is horrible. Naturally, I will lodge an appeal and I will try to do it today,” she added.

Putin, a former KGB officer who has cultivated close ties with the Orthodox church over 13 years in power, has rebuffed Western criticism about the prison terms meted out.

(Additional reporting Valery Stepchenkov; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

“An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

“Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be,” she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

“We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end,” Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they’ll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men’s risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $ 16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $ 5.6 billion.

Thursday’s report from PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year’s end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: “In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn’t just disappointing, it’s deadly.”

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

“The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up” to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday’s report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

“We have to go where the virus is,” Clinton said.

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Little Company Makes a Big Play for Net Domains

The Internet seems like an endless expanse, but it actually functions like a very crowded real estate market. Website domain names are like property addresses. Nicer neighborhoods command higher prices. Speculators, sometimes unsavory ones, abound. That’s why the auction of 1,400 new suffixes in mid-2013, beyond ubiquitous designations such as .com, is such a big deal. It’s the first major expansion of domain names since 2004, attracting interest from Google (GOOG) and Amazon.com (AMZN), as well as Donuts, a little-known Bellevue (Wash.) company that wants to grab as many new addresses as possible and license them for a hefty profit.

The domain game can be surprisingly lucrative. Back in 2010 an offshore holding company called Clover Holdings, based on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, paid $ 13 million for the rights to sex.com, according to Kieren McCarthy, author of a book about the sale. The introduction of suffixes such as .app, .law, and .financial likely will also attract all manner of companies. Amazon bid for the suffix .book, while Google applied for .ads, .buy, and .google, among others.

These requests go to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that has coordinated the Internet addressing system since the U.S. government privatized that responsibility more than a decade ago. Icann, which is funded by the registration of domain sites, is preparing to release the 1,400 new suffixes. The group charges $ 185,000 to evaluate each application. (Nice work if you can get it.) After Icann finishes that screening process, spokesman Brad White says, if two or more qualified applicants can’t agree to run .school or .horse jointly, they go to the highest bidder.

Speculators often try to buy the rights to website names valuable to other parties and then extract premiums to license them. The real worry is cybersquatting, the purchase of domains either to block a competitor from using them or to create look-alike websites designed to fool consumers and undercut a rival’s business. While cybersquatting is illegal under U.S. trademark law, courts often defer to Icann-recognized international tribunals because many cases involve foreign parties.

In the latest Internet domain expansion, Donuts has emerged as the most prolific bidder. The company spent more than $ 56 million on applications for 307 new suffixes before the deadline passed in May, compared with 99 for Google and 76 for Amazon. Jonathan Nevett, the company’s executive vice president for corporate affairs and one of its four founders, says it wants to build its own central clearinghouse for new website names that it can license to businesses and other consumers. “This has been the most constrained space you can think of,” says Nevett, a former adviser to Icann, who says he’s been working on the current bid since 2005. More than $ 100 million in venture capital is backing Donuts, whose applications include about 140 unchallenged bids, including for .mortgage and .dentist.

Jeffrey Stoler, a licensing lawyer with McCarter & English, has warned Icann that some of Donuts’ customers may wind up cybersquatting because of its links to Santa Monica (Calif.)-based Demand Media (DMD), whose clients have included squatters in the past. Stoler writes that Donuts Chief Executive Officer Paul Stahura was once president and chief strategy officer of Demand Media, which, including subsidiaries, has received more than two dozen negative rulings from arbitrators, in cases often involving cybersquatting or “bad-faith” actions. Icann spokesman White says that kind of censure can lead Icann to bar a company from operating domains.

Donuts has an arrangement to sell Demand 107 of its top domain names, according to a June press release from Demand. “Donuts and its key executives are, by Icann’s established eligibility guidelines, unsuited and ineligible to participate” in the bidding process, Stoler wrote in a July letter to Icann. Stoler declined to comment on whether he represents any competing domain bidders. “We have no concerns about Donuts’ eligibility as an applicant,” Stahura wrote in e-mailed comments. “The letter is trying somehow to make a link that doesn’t exist.”

Demand Executive Vice President Dave Panos disputed Stoler’s complaint in a September letter to Icann, calling it “rife with false statements and misinformation.” Panos’s company is distinct from Donuts, and the two companies have no equity relationship, says Brian Jacobs, founder of Donuts investor Emergence Capital Partners. In addition to the 107 domains it hopes to purchase from Donuts, Demand is applying for dozens of Icann’s names on its own behalf.

White declined to comment on the Donuts case because Icann does not comment on individual applicants, but says the group will rigorously screen each of the 1,930 bidders.

The bottom line: Internet registry Donuts’ attempt to buy 307 forthcoming domains is fueling concerns that it will license websites to cybersquatters.

Businessweek.com — Top News

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US rabbi says jailed American in good health

HAVANA (AP) — A prominent New York rabbi and physician visited an American subcontractor serving a long jail term in Cuba and said the man is in good health, despite his family’s concerns about a growth on his right shoulder.

Rabbi Elie Abadie, who is also a gastroenterologist, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview following Tuesday’s 2 1/2-hour visit at a military hospital in Havana that he personally examined Alan Gross and received a lengthy briefing from a team of Cuban physicians who have attended him.

He said the 1 1/2-inch growth on Gross’s shoulder appeared to be a non-cancerous hematoma that should clear up by itself.

“Alan Gross does not have any cancerous growth at this time, at least based on the studies I was shown and based on the examination, and I think he understands that also,” Abadie said.

Abadie said the hematoma, basically internal bleeding linked to the rupture of muscle fiber, was likely caused by exercise Gross does in jail. He said the growth ought to eventually disappear on its own.

Gross’s plight has put already chilly relations between Cuba and the United States in a deep freeze. The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID-funded democracy building program and later sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against the state.

He claims he was only trying to help the island’s small Jewish community gain Internet access.

Gross’s health has been an ongoing issue during his incarceration. The 63-year-old, who was obese when arrested, has lost more than 100 pounds while in jail.

Abadie, a rabbi at New York’s Edmund J. Safra Synagogue, said Gross’s weight is appropriate for a man his age and height.

Photos that Abadie and a colleague provided to AP of Tuesday’s meeting with Gross showed him looking thin, but generally appearing to be in good spirits.

In one photo, Gross holds up a handwritten note that says “Hi Mom.”

“He definitely feels strong. He is in good spirits. He feels fit, to quote him, physically. But of course, like any other person who is incarcerated or in prison, he wants to be free. He wants to be able to go back home,” Abadie said.

Gross’s family has repeatedly appealed for his release on humanitarian grounds, noting his health problems and the fact that his adult daughter and elderly mother have both been battling cancer.

Jared Genser, counsel to Alan Gross, said late Tuesday that Rabbi Abadie is not Gross’s physician and he would like an oncologist of his choosing to evaluate him.

“While we are grateful Rabbi Abadie was able to see Alan, we have asked an oncologist to review the test results to determine if they are sufficient to rule out cancer. More importantly, if Alan is so healthy, we cannot understand why the Cuban government has repeatedly denied him an independent medical examination by a doctor of his choosing as is required by international law,” said Genser.

Gross and his wife recently filed a $ 60 million lawsuit against his former Maryland employer and the U.S. government, saying they didn’t adequately train him or disclose risks he was undertaking by doing development work on the Communist-run island.

They filed another lawsuit against an insurance company they say has reneged on commitments to pay compensation in case of his wrongful detention.

Separately, a lawyer for Gross has written the United Nations’ anti-torture expert, saying Cuban officials’ treatment of his client “will surely amount to torture” if he continues to be denied medical care.

Rumors have been swirling in U.S. media that Cuba might soon release Gross as a gesture of good will or in the hopes of winning concessions from the administration of President Barack Obama, but Abadie said that those reports appeared to be false.

“As far as I know there is no truth to it,” he said.

Abadie said he met with senior Cuban officials who expressed their desire to resolve the case “as quickly as possible,” but would not say specifically who he spoke with or what they offered.

“They claim that they are more than willing to sit at the table,” he said.

Cuban officials have strongly implied they hope to trade Gross for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States, one of whom is already free on bail.

Abadie said Gross made clear that he does not want his case linked to that of the agents, known in Cuba as “The Five Heroes,” because he does not believe he is guilty of espionage.

But Abadie said Gross is hoping for a “constructive and productive” dialogue between U.S. and Cuban officials to resolve his case.

___

Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven.

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German lawmakers condemn Google campaign against copyright law

BERLIN (Reuters) – Senior German politicians have denounced as propaganda a campaign by Google to mobilize public opinion against proposed legislation to let publishers charge search engines for displaying newspaper articles.

Internet lobbyists say they are worried the German law will set a precedent for other countries such as France and Italy that have shown an interest in having Google pay publishers for the right to show their news snippets in its search results.

Lawmakers in Berlin will debate the bill in the Bundestag (lower house) on Thursday. Google says the law would make it harder for users to retrieve information via the Internet.

Google launched its campaign against the bill on Tuesday with advertisements in German newspapers and a web information site called “Defend your web”.

“Such a law would hit every Internet user in Germany,” Stefan Tweraser, country manager for Google Germany, said in a statement. “An ancillary copyright means less information for consumers and higher costs for companies.”

The campaign has caused outrage among some members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition.

“The campaign initiated by Google is cheap propaganda,” said conservative lawmakers Guenter Krings and Ansgar Heveling.

“Under the guise of a supposed project for the freedom of the Internet, an attempt is being made to coopt its users for its own lobbying,” the two said in a statement.

Supporters of the law argue that newspaper publishers should be able to benefit from advertising revenues earned by search engines using their content.

Under the plans, publishers would get a bigger say over how their articles are used on the Internet and could charge search engines for showing articles or extracts.

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member of the Free Democrats (FDP) who share power in Merkel’s government, said she was astonished that Google was trying to monopolize opinion-making. She is responsible for the law.

“PANIC MONGERING”

Germany’s newspaper industry, suffering from economic slowdown and keen to get its hands on any revenues it can, backs the plans and railed against Google’s campaign.

“The panic mongering from Google has no justification,” Germany’s BDZV newspaper association said in a statement.

“The argument from search engine companies that Internet searching and retrieval will be made more difficult is not serious. Private use, reading, following links and quoting will be possible, just as before.”

Internet lobbyists in Brussels fear the European Commission is sympathetic to publisher demands for a piece of Google’s profits online. Recent statements, they say, are proof.

“Consumers are not the only ones facing difficulties,” Michel Barnier, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said in a speech on November 7. “Think of newspaper publishers who see the content they produce being used by others to attract consumers on the net and generate advertising revenues.”

French newspapers and magazines want Google to pay them for linking to their articles on Google. The French government has named a mediator to negotiate with the press and Google to try to get a deal by the end of the year.

If no deal emerges, President Francois Hollande’s government will ask parliament to draft a law modifying copyright laws to protect the press from appropriation of its content online, according to a letter signed by two ministers on November 28.

(Additional reporting by Harro ten Wolde in Frankfurt, Claire Davenbport in Brussels and Leila Abboud in Paris; Writing by Madeline Chambers, Editing by Gareth Jones and)

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Thousands celebrate Hobbit premiere in New Zealand

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people packed New Zealand’s capital city, clambering on roofs and hanging onto lamp posts on Wednesday to get a glimpse of the stars at the red carpet world premiere of the film “The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey”.

Wellington, where director Peter Jackson and much of the post production is based, renamed itself “the Middle of Middle Earth“, and fans with prominent Hobbit ears, medieval style costumes, and wizard hats had camped out the night before to claim prized spaces along the 500 meter (550 yards) red carpet.

Jackson, a one time newspaper printer and the maker of the Oscar winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy more than a decade ago, was cheered along the walk, stopping to talk to fans, sign autographs and pose for photos.

The Hobbit trilogy is set 60 years before the Rings movies, but Jackson said it has benefited from being made after the conclusion of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy saga.

“I’m glad that we established the style and the look of Middle Earth by adapting Lord of the Rings before we did the Hobbit,” Jackson told Reuters from the red carpet.

Jackson, a hometown hero in Wellington, said the production had been on a “difficult journey”, alluding to Warner Brothers’ financial problems, and a later labor dispute with unions.

“Fate meant for us to be here,” he told an ecstatic crowd, which hailed him as a film genius, but also a down to earth local boy.

“I came here to see the stars but also Peter (Jackson)…I loved the Lord of the Rings and that made me want to be here, without him none of it would be here,” said teenage student Samantha Cooper.

OLD FRIENDS

The cast was no less enthusiastic about the Hobbit, especially those who had starred in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

British actor Andy Serkis, who plays the creature Gollum with a distinctive throaty whisper, said picking up the character after a near-ten year break was like putting on a familiar skin.

“I was reminded on a daily basis with Gollum (that) he’s truly never left me,” he said.

Most of the film’s stars attended the premiere, including British actor Martin Freeman, who plays the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Elijah Wood. Ian McKellen, who plays the wizard Gandalf, was absent.

Freeman, known for his roles in the comedy The Office and Sherlock Holmes, said he looked for a different, lighter, slightly pompous Baggins from the older, wiser character played by Ian Holm in the Rings movies.

“Between us – Peter (Jackson) and me — we hashed out another version of Bilbo. There’ll be others, but our version is this one and I hope people like it,” he said.

The production was at the center of several controversies, including a dispute with unions in 2010 over labor contracts that nearly sent the filming overseas and resulted in the government stepping in to change employment laws.

The only sour note at the premiere came when animal rights activists held up posters saying “Middle Earth unexpected cruelty” and “3 horses died for this film”, after claims last week that more than 20 animals died during the making of the film.

Event organizers tried to block out the protesters’ posters with large Hobbit film billboards. Jackson has said some animals died on a farm where they were housed, but none had been hurt during filming.

The movies have been filmed in 3D and at 48 frames per second (fps), compared with the standard 24 fps, which Jackson has likened to the quality leap to compact discs from vinyl records.

The second film “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” will be released in December next year, with the third “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” due in mid-July 2014.

(Editing by Elaine Lies)

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Estudio desmiente que la soja alivie los sofocos de la menopausia

NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – Un nuevo estudio desmiente que

las mujeres que consumen gran cantidad de productos de soja o

fibra padezcan menos síntomas durante la menopausia.

Esto se suma a los resultados de investigaciones previas que

no habían hallado beneficios en el consumo extra de soja, un

alimento con altos niveles de estrógeno vegetal.

“Estaríamos en una calle sin salida”, dijo William Wong,

profesor del Baylor College of Medicine y especialista en los

efectos de la proteína de soja en los síntomas menopáusicos.

Los estrógenos de origen vegetal, o fitoestrógenos, se

encuentran en alimentos como las semillas, los frutos secos y

los porotos de soja. Su estructura química es similar a la del

estrógeno humano.

La terapia de reemplazo hormonal, que aporta estrógeno y

otras hormonas, reduce los sofocos y otros síntomas de la

menopausia, pero una investigación importante difundida hace una

década habían demostrado que puede causar enfermedad cardíaca y

cáncer.

“Muchas mujeres no pueden o no quieren tomar hormonas”, lo

que hace del estrógeno de origen alimentario una alternativa

atractiva, opinó Ellen Gold, autora principal de un nuevo

estudio y profesora de la Facultad de Medicina de la University

of California, en Davis.

Pero los resultados sobre los estrógenos vegetales son

contradictorios. Una revisión de 17 estudios sobre los

suplementos de soja había revelado que las píldoras reducen la

frecuencia y la gravedad de los sofocos, mientras que algunos

ensayos clínicos con proteína de soja no habían identificado

efectos beneficiosos.

El equipo de Gold monitoreó a 1.651 mujeres durante 10 años.

Al inicio del estudio, ninguna había entrado en la menopausia.

Cada año, los autores controlaban si las participantes

habían tenido sofocos o sudoración nocturna. Durante el estudio,

las mujeres respondieron un cuestionario sobre la alimentación.

Al final del estudio, el equipo no pudo detectar un patrón

sólido entre la cantidad de fitoestrógenos consumidos y la

frecuencia o la gravedad de los sofocos y la sudoración

nocturna. Lo mismo ocurrió con la cantidad de fibra que las

mujeres consumían.

FUENTE: Menopause, 29 de octubre del 2012

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Global recovery ‘under threat’

27 November 2012 Last updated at 07:41 ET

Decisive policy action is needed to ensure the world is not “plunged back into recession”, according to the OECD.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents the world’s richest nations, also lowered its growth forecasts.

The group’s economies will grow by 1.4% next year, rather than the 2.2% forecast in May, it said.

The eurozone recession will also be deeper and more prolonged than previously thought, it added.

The group highlighted the so-called US fiscal cliff and the eurozone debt crisis as the biggest risks to the global economy.

The fiscal cliff refers to spending cuts and tax rises, designed to reduce the US government’s debt levels, that are due to kick in in the new year.

Downgrades

“The world economy is far from being out of the woods,” said the OECD’s secretary general Angel Gurria.

“The US fiscal cliff, if it materialises, could tip an already weak economy into recession, while failure to solve the euro area debt crisis could lead to a major financial shock and global downturn.”

The OECD cut its growth forecast across its 34 members for this year and next. It also revised down sharply its estimate for the eurozone economy, which it now believes will contract by 0.1% in 2013, rather than grow by 0.9% as forecast in May.

The forecast for growth in the UK next year was cut to 0.9%, down from 1.9% previously.

The revised forecasts were published just hours after eurozone finance ministers finally agreed to help debt-ridden Greece.

After hours of late-night negotiations, they agreed to cut the country’s debts by 40bn euros ($ 51bn; £32bn) and have paved the way for releasing the next tranche of much-needed bailout loans.

BBC News – Business

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Nintendo says more than 400,000 Wii Us sold in US

NEW YORK (AP) — Nintendo has sold more than 400,000 of its new video game console, the Wii U, in its first week on sale in the U.S., the company said Monday.

The Wii U launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. at a starting price of $ 300. Nintendo said the sales figure, based on internal estimates, is through Saturday, or seven days later.

The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. It comes with a new touch-screen controller that promises to change how people play games by offering different people in the same room a different experience, depending on the controller used.

Six years ago, Nintendo Co. sold 475,000 of the original Wii in that console’s first seven days in stores, according to data from the NPD Group. The original Wii remains available, and Nintendo said it sold more than 300,000 of them last week, along with roughly 250,000 handheld Nintendo 3DS units and about 275,000 of the Nintendo DS.

At this early stage, demand isn’t the only factor dictating how many consoles are sold. Supply is, too. This means it’s likely that more people wanted to buy the Wii U in the first week than those who were able to. The original Wii was in short supply more than a year after it went on sale.

As of Monday afternoon, the website of Best Buy Co. was sold out of the Wii U. Video game retailer GameStop Corp. said there was at least a three day wait for a deluxe Wii U, which costs $ 350, has more memory and comes with a game called “Nintendo Land.” GameStop still had the basic, $ 300 version available.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Nintendo will ship 1 million to 1.5 million Wii Us in the U.S. through the end of January.

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