GM assures owners Volt is safe, offers loaners for good measure

Reports of the NHTSA's Volt catching fire post crash-tests still got you down? Well, unless you're the type who lingers for several weeks in the vicinity of your wrecked auto, there probably isn't much to worry about. GM apparently feels the same way, as it's began contacting all 5,329 owners to "reassure them" their gasoline-electric whips are safe to drive. Those who remain unconvinced can bug the General for a presumably non-electric loaner while the whole investigation sorts itself. Or if your name is Jay Leno, you could just choose one of the other hundred in your garage.

GM assures owners Volt is safe, offers loaners for good measure originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/29/gm-assures-owners-volt-is-safe-offers-loaners-for-good-measure/

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Doris Day sings out for first time in 17 years (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Doris Day, America's pert, honey-voiced sweetheart of the 1950s and 1960s, beguiled audiences with her on-screen romances opposite top Hollywood leading men Cary Grant, Rock Hudson and Jack Lemmon.

She adored and misses them all, says the 88-year-old Day. But her deepest yearning is reserved for her late son Terry Melcher, a record producer whose touch and voice are part of Day's first album in nearly two decades.

"Oh, I wish he could be here and be a part of it. I would just love that. But it didn't work out that way," Day said, her voice subdued. It's a voice rarely heard since she withdrew from Hollywood in the early 1980s to the haven she made for herself in the Northern California town of Carmel, where Clint Eastwood was once mayor.

"My Heart," set for a Dec. 2 U.S. release, has induced Day to edge back to public attention. The CD includes 13 previously unreleased tracks recorded over a 40-year span, including covers of Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful," the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream" and a handful of standards. All proceeds go to Day's longtime cause, animal welfare.

A condensed version of the album was released in Britain earlier this fall and landed on the top 10 chart.

Melcher, who worked with bands including the Byrds and the Beach Boys, produced most of the songs and sang on two. He died of melanoma in 2004 at age 62, leaving a void that draws tears from Day when she speaks of him.

"I loved doing it and having Terry with me. That was important, just for me," she said in an interview from Carmel. "I wouldn't think it would be what it is. ... I just love that he is on it. And I miss him terribly, but I have that."

The album's release coincides with new recognition for the actress and singer.

It was announced this week that her recording of "Que Sera, Sera" ("Whatever Will Be, Will Be"), featured in Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller "The Man Who Knew Too Much" starring Day and Jimmy Stewart, will be included in the Grammy Hall of Fame. In January, Day is to be honored with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's career achievement award.

And that career was storied. She once ruled the box office in a string of fluffy comedies including "Pillow Talk" with Hudson (which earned her a best actress nomination) and "That Touch of Mink" opposite Grant, movies that showcased her verve and fresh-faced sexiness. Her sweet vocals helped make hits of pop tunes including "Sentimental Journey" and Oscar-winners "Que Sera, Sera" and "Secret Love."

On screen, Day often played the determined single career girl who could be swept off her feet (but never into premarital sex) by such irresistible suitors as Grant or three-time co-star Hudson. She was also the loving wife and mother in such movies as "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (1960), with David Niven.

Day came off as a straight-shooter who didn't let her beauty go to her head; she was no "Mad Men" toy. Granted, she was too ladylike to fit the definition of a dame, in the parlance of her early career. But she could hold her ground without fraying the hem of her tone-perfect cinematic femininity, or her co-star's masculinity.

She ventured into exceptions to her signature romantic-comedies, most notably the Hitchcock thriller and "Love Me or Leave Me" from 1955, in which Day played jazz singer Ruth Etting in the story of Etting's career and tempestuous marriage.

Day said she had no quarrel with the studio system under which she worked, one in which her films were largely dictated. She had stumbled into the craft, after all, pushed from band and club singer to actress by her agent. Day got the first role she tested for, in 1948's "Romance on the High Seas," and sailed on from there.

"I was just put there, put there, put there. And I've never gotten over that. How could life be so good for me and I was never looking? I was never looking for it," she said.

As for her personal life, she said, "There are always things that you go through that aren't perfect." For Day, that included three divorces and widowhood. When her third husband died, she learned that he and a business partner had lost her multimillion-dollar fortune. (She righted herself to some extent with the 1968-73 sitcom "The Doris Day Show," and a lawsuit.)

Her decision to leave Los Angeles and the industry behind was an impromptu one, Day said. She had regularly visited Carmel-By-The-Sea, decided it suited her and made the move up the California coast and away.

"I just loved what I was doing. But then, when I came up here, I thought well, I had my turn, and that's just fine. And the other people are coming up and starring and it was their turn. I didn't think a thing about not working," she said.

Instead, she devoted herself to promoting the well-being of animals with the Doris Day Animal Foundation, which she created in 1978 and which is the new album's beneficiary. Her own pets, including some half-dozen cats, have it good: She built a glass-ceiling extension off her house so the felines can enjoy the view without the risks of going outside.

Why the attention to animals? "They're the most perfect things on Earth," Day replied. "They're loyal. They love you. And they'll never forget you. ... I think they're put here for us to learn what love is all about."

They're also steadfast companions as her circle of family and friends has been narrowed by death. She's still in regular touch with two-time co-star James Garner ? who shares anecdotes about their working relationship in his newly published autobiography, "The Garner Files" ? but she notes sadly how many other colleagues have passed away.

Although dampened by loss, the buoyancy that infused her work in movies and music remains part of Day. In her ninth decade of life, however, the pace has changed.

"Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" ("Life is just a bowl of cherries. So live and laugh at it all"), a snappy tune and a favorite since she danced to it as a 5-year-old in Cincinnati, is on her new album. But the arrangement has turned it into "beautiful ballad," Day said

"When I sang it slowly, it became a super song," she said.

The same can be said of Day, in any tempo.

___

Online:

http://www.dorisday.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_en_ot/us_people_doris_day

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Witness says Mass. men discussed mall shooting (AP)

BOSTON ? A former friend of a Massachusetts man accused of conspiring to help al-Qaida has testified that they traveled overseas with a third friend in 2004 to try to get into a terrorist training camp.

Kareem Abu-zahra, testifying Monday in the trial of Tarek Mehanna (TEH'-rek meh-HAH'-nah), said the men also discussed shooting people at a shopping mall, attacking an Air Force base and shooting prominent U.S. officials.

Prosecutors allege that Mehanna tried unsuccessfully to get terrorist training in Yemen.

Abu-zahra, testifying under a grant of immunity, said the men had several discussions about domestic terrorism in 2003. He said Mehanna was present for a conversation about shooting former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Abu-zahra said he and the third man had a brief conversation about shooting former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but Mehanna was not present for that.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_on_re_us/us_massachusetts_terror_charge

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NBA announces tentative deal to start season December 25 (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? The NBA and its players union announced a tentative agreement over the weekend to end their five-month lockout and start the season on Christmas Day.

A majority of the 29 owners and 450 players still need to vote for the agreement for it to take effect. At a news conference announcing the potential pact early on Saturday, NBA commissioner David Stern said the agreement was "subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we are optimistic that will all come to pass."

Stern, National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter and president Derek Fisher said they would leave it to their lawyers to work out the terms of the deal.

Stern said he expected the season to begin with a Christmas Day triple-header and for the abbreviated season to be 66 games long.

The announcement is good news for TV networks that have plans in place to make it through fall without a basketball season, but which would have been in a tighter situation from Christmas on. ABC usually begins airing games on Christmas Day. And while ESPN planned to air college football and basketball in place of the NBA games, that will work only until football ends in January, and when March Madness begins in basketball.

Losing an entire season could have been expensive for the networks: Turner and ESPN/ABC are together paying $930 million per season through the end of their contracts in 2016, and several projections have found that the networks could collectively lose out on about $1.25 billion in advertising revenue.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/tv_nm/us_nba

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HBT: Yankees probably won't go after Wilson

There has been less-than-tepid interest from the Yankees in C.J. Wilson. Like, almost zero. That doesn?t necessarily mean everything, of course, as the Yankees have been known to lay kinda low until they just come in and sign someone, but today ESPN New York?s Andrew Marchand says that?there is ?almost no way? the Yankees sign C.J. Wilson this offseason.

And why should they? C.J. Wilson wants $100 million. Even if it?s affordable for the Yankees, how advisable is it? He?s good, no doubt. But the Yankees had a lot of success last year filling three rotation spots with cheap guys, so why should they throw nine figures at someone?

Wilson is going to meet with the Marlins today, so they can have yet another guy who they are going to pretend to sign. ?But whatever happens there, his future doesn?t look to be in New York.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/28/there-is-almost-no-way-the-yankees-sign-c-j-wilson/related/

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Italy's borrowing rates skyrocket for 2nd day (AP)

MILAN ? Italy's borrowing rates skyrocketed at a bond auction Monday for the second straight business day, as pressure mounted on the eurozone's third-largest economy to come up with quick reforms to keep the euro from breaking up.

The interest rate Italy had to pay to get investors to part with their cash for 12 years soared to 7.20 percent, a full 2.7 percentage points higher than the last similar auction.

In the auction, Italy raised euro567 million ($750 million). While there were enough bids to cover the maximum sought of euro750 million ($1 billion), the high borrowing rates persuaded the Italian Treasury to stick closer to the lower end of its planned issuance range.

Premier Mario Monti is under enormous pressure to convince markets that his new technocratic government has a strategy to get a grip on its debts and balance the budget by 2013. He is expected to announce additional austerity measures later this week.

A bigger test will come Tuesday, when Italy plans to auction up to euro8 billion ($10.6 billion) in debt of three varying maturities, including the benchmark 10-year issues. Last Friday, Italy had to pay sharply higher rates in a pair of auctions, stoking renewed fears that the country is heading toward a potentially devastating debt spiral that could bankrupt the country and potentially bring down the euro.

Driving market fears is the knowledge that Italy is too big for Europe to bail out, and must refinanceeuro200 billion ($267 billion) by the end of April alone.

The bond yields also reflect grim economic data that suggest Italy will be in a recession no later than the first quarter of 2012. The OECD on Monday forecast Italian growth a 0.7 percent of GDP in 2011, followed by a contraction of 0.5 percent next year. That's a sharp cut in previous forecasts of 1.1 percent growth in 2011 and 1.6 percent growth in 2012.

Italian business confidence improved somewhat in November, to 94.4, after hitting a 21-month low of 94.2 last month.

Despite the increase, "it remains very low and alongside other industry-related indicators signal that the economy is facing serious headwinds," said Raj Badiani, an economic analyst at IHS Global Insight.

Earlier Monday, the International Monetary Fund denied reports that it's readying a rescue fund for Italy.

The Italian daily La Stampa reported that the IMF was preparing a euro600 billion ($794 billion) bailout fund for Italy, which is struggling to manage its enormous public debt of euro1.9 trillion, or nearly 120 percent of GDP.

But an IMF spokesman said there are "no discussions with Italian authorities on a program for IMF financing." And EU spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio also said there have been no such discussion with the European Union.

Italy's banking association, ABI, on Monday inaugurated its first sovereign debt day, during which customers could buy Italian bonds on the secondary market without paying commission. The goal is to create trust in Italian debt ? about half of which is in Italian hands ? rather than directly influencing borrowing costs.

ABI said it was too early to gauge a response to the promotion announced just Friday, but one bank in Rome said it had three or four takers. Customers can save euro2 to euro4 euros on every euro1,000 invested. Another is planned for the Dec. 12 auction.

"This initiative seems to be positive, but it probably is just a drop in the ocean, because people are very cautious and are waiting to see what will happen," said Giuseppe di Bartolomeo, outside a bank in central Rome.

Monti was appointed earlier this month to replace Silvio Berlusconi, whose fractious conservative coalition squabbled for months over measures to inject growth into the flagging Italian economy.

Monti has pledged a two-track strategy: urgent austerity measures followed by deeper reforms that will be painful for voters to accept. They include revamps of the pension system, doing away with a class of privileged closed professions that discourage competition, cutting political costs, simplifying bureaucracy and selling off state assets.

Monti must obtain approval for the measures from the same Parliament that hamstrung Berlusconi. To make the new austerity more palatable, Monti intends to balance sacrifices from the various political camps ? and has promised a spending review of political costs starting with the premier's office.

_____

Don Melvin contributed from Brussels.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111128/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_financial_crisis

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Can't reserve new iPhone 4S via UK website!!

this is really dodgy...

It is pretty obvious that the best deal for Apple now is to sell 8GB memory for 100GBP but please...

?

My wife went today exactly 9PM to book an iPhone 4S 16GB and once she managed to choose one and sign in... then this message appeared:

"We're sorry, but there are no pickup dates available at this store. Please check later, try another Apple Retail Store Location, or shop the Apple Online Store"

?

So my question is - what does this message means... are you trying convince us that there is NO time left on Regent Street in London at all (whatever it means), please confirm.

?

From my side it looks like that:

exactly 9PM you give the option to reserve an iPhone (for approx 5 minutes)

exactly 9PM you can't reserve time to collect it so all procedure is a vicious circle

?

I took screenshot as a proof - really poor idea to sell great product in that way.

?

regards,

Michal Hanczar

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3528239

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