SuperValu returns to profit in its 2nd quarter

FILE - In this April 12, 2011 file photo, grocery carts are stacked outside the Save-a-Lot grocery store in Northfield, Ohio. The supermarket operator also cut the high end of its fiscal 2012 earnings outlook on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

FILE - In this April 12, 2011 file photo, grocery carts are stacked outside the Save-a-Lot grocery store in Northfield, Ohio. The supermarket operator also cut the high end of its fiscal 2012 earnings outlook on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? SuperValu Inc. returned to a profit in its fiscal second quarter, absent hefty goodwill and impairment charges incurred a year earlier.

The supermarket operator's results beat Wall Street estimates but it cut the high end of its fiscal 2012 earnings outlook on Wednesday.

SuperValu, which runs SuperValu, Jewel-Osco, Albertsons and other supermarket chains, reported net income of $60 million, or 28 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 10. That compares with a loss of $1.47 billion, or $6.94 per share, a year ago.

The performance topped the 20 cents per share analysts expected.

Revenue dropped 3 percent to $8.43 billion from $8.66 billion, but still beat Wall Street's estimate of $8.36 billion.

Its stock rose 27 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $8.44 in premarket trading.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-19-US-Earns-SuperValu/id-d70703b5b7e040928f528fbf2ff44aff

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iPhone turned into spiPhone: Smartphone senses nearby keyboard vibrations and deciphers sentences

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2011) ? It's a pattern that no doubt repeats itself daily in hundreds of millions of offices around the world: People sit down, turn on their computers, set their mobile phones on their desks and begin to work. What if a hacker could use that phone to track what the person was typing on the keyboard just inches away?

A research team at Georgia Tech has discovered how to do exactly that, using a smartphone accelerometer -- the internal device that detects when and how the phone is tilted -- to sense keyboard vibrations and decipher complete sentences with up to 80 percent accuracy. The procedure is not easy, they say, but is definitely possible with the latest generations of smartphones.

"We first tried our experiments with an iPhone 3GS, and the results were difficult to read," said Patrick Traynor, assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Computer Science. "But then we tried an iPhone 4, which has an added gyroscope to clean up the accelerometer noise, and the results were much better. We believe that most smartphones made in the past two years are sophisticated enough to launch this attack."

Previously, Traynor said, researchers have accomplished similar results using microphones, but a microphone is a much more sensitive instrument than an accelerometer. A typical smartphone's microphone samples vibration roughly 44,000 times per second, while even newer phones' accelerometers sample just 100 times per second -- two full orders of magnitude less often. Plus, manufacturers have installed security around a phone's microphone; the phone's operating system is programmed to ask users whether to give new applications access to most built-in sensors, including the microphone. Accelerometers typically are not protected in this way.

The technique works through probability and by detecting pairs of keystrokes, rather than individual keys (which still is too difficult to accomplish reliably, Traynor said). It models "keyboard events" in pairs, then determines whether the pair of keys pressed is on the left versus right side of the keyboard, and whether they are close together or far apart. After the system has determined these characteristics for each pair of keys depressed, it compares the results against a preloaded dictionary, each word of which has been broken down along similar measurements (i.e., are the letters left/right, near/far on a standard QWERTY keyboard). Finally, the technique only works reliably on words of three or more letters.

For example, take the word "canoe," which when typed breaks down into four keystroke pairs: "C-A, A-N, N-O and O-E." Those pairs then translate into the detection system's code as follows: Left-Left-Near, Left-Right-Far, Right-Right-Far and Right-Left-Far, or LLN-LRF-RRF-RLF. This code is then compared to the preloaded dictionary and yields "canoe" as the statistically probable typed word. Working with dictionaries comprising about 58,000 words, the system reached word-recovery rates as high as 80 percent.

"The way we see this attack working is that you, the phone's owner, would request or be asked to download an innocuous-looking application, which doesn't ask you for the use of any suspicious phone sensors," said Henry Carter, a PhD student in computer science and one of the study's co-authors. "Then the keyboard-detection malware is turned on, and the next time you place your phone next to the keyboard and start typing, it starts listening."

Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability are pretty simple and straightforward, Traynor said. First, since the study found an effective range of just three inches from a keyboard, phone users can simply leave their phones in their purses or pockets, or just move them further away from the keyboard. But a fix that puts less onus on users is to add a layer of security for phone accelerometers.

"The sampling rate for accelerometers is already pretty low, and if you cut it in half, you start to approach theoretical limitations that prevent eavesdropping. The malware simply does not have the data to work with," Traynor said. "But most phone applications can still function even with that lower accelerometer rate. So manufacturers could set that as the default rate, and if someone downloads an application like a game that needs the higher sampling rate, that would prompt a permission question to the user to reset the accelerometer."

In the meantime, Traynor said, users shouldn't be paranoid that hackers are tracking their keystrokes through their iPhones.

"The likelihood of someone falling victim to an attack like this right now is pretty low," he said. "This was really hard to do. But could people do it if they really wanted to? We think yes."

The finding is reported in the paper, "(sp)iPhone: Decoding Vibrations From Nearby Keyboards Using Mobile Phone Accelerometers," and will be presented on Oct. 20, at the 18th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Chicago. In addition to Carter, Traynor's coauthors include Georgia Tech graduate student Arunabh Verman and Philip Marquardt of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/wQI1ozMmbAA/111018131345.htm

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Kosovo Serbs refuse to lift roadblocks (AP)

ZUBIN POTOK, Kosovo ? Defying a NATO warning, Kosovo Serb leaders refused on Wednesday to unconditionally lift their roadblocks in the north of the country.

For nearly three months, Serbs have been blocking main roads in northern Kosovo to stop the country's ethnic Albanian leadership from extending its control over the part of Kosovo populated mostly by ethnic Serbs.

Serbs reject Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.

The 5,500-strong NATO-led force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, said Tuesday it will take unspecified "resolute" action if the Serbs fail to lift the blockade. The peacekeepers say they want to establish freedom of movement in the region and reopen supply routes for their troops.

At their meeting Wednesday, Kosovo Serb leaders remained defiant, saying they will not allow free travel in the region. They said they could only offer "controlled" lifting of the blockade for peacekeepers' "humanitarian" supplies.

"The barricades will not be removed because that is our legitimate means of reaching our legitimate goals," said Stevan Bozovic, a Kosovo Serb official.

In July, ethnic Albanian authorities deployed their security forces to two border checkpoints in northern Kosovo to enforce a trade ban with Serbia. Serbs reacted by blocking roads and triggering clashes with Kosovo police that left one police officer dead.

The Serbs said after the meeting they would lift the blockade only if the ethnic Albanian customs officers are removed from the two border posts with Serbia and KFOR guarantees they would not be transported to the checkpoints in its convoys.

___

Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111019/ap_on_re_eu/eu_kosovo_tense_north

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For a jobs bill in pieces, Obama hits road in NC (AP)

FLETCHER, N.C. ? Rolling through small Southern towns in a campaign-style bus, President Barack Obama on Monday pressed lawmakers back in Washington to start taking up pieces of his rejected jobs bill and mocked the Republicans who had shot it down in total. The Senate moved to vote soon on one part, a plan to help states hire teachers, but the proposal seemed doomed.

Deep in the mountains of politically important North Carolina, Obama soaked up the region's autumn beauty at the same time he assailed foes of his jobs legislation, accusing them of failing to listen to the public.

Back at the Capitol, Senate Democrats announced they would act first on a single part of Obama's plan, a longshot bid to help states hire teachers and police. A Senate vote could come as soon as the end of the week. If not, it would probably fall into November because the Senate plans to take a break next week, even as Obama urges quick action.

In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on his full $447 billion proposal combining tax cuts and new spending.

"Essentially they said no to you," Obama told a supportive crowd outside Asheville. Noting that Republicans will now get a chance to vote on elements of his jobs agenda one by one, he said: "Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces."

Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip through two must-win states to try to bolster Obama's standing for the 2012 election.

As he traveled along on his imposing black bus, there was little denying the presidential politics at play at each stop. Over three days, Obama is covering the countryside of both North Carolina and Virginia, two traditionally GOP-leaning states that he won in 2008 on his campaign's ability to boost turnout among young people and black voters.

Senate Democrats unveiled the first individual bill, which would spend $30 billion to create or save education jobs and $5 billion to do the same for police and firefighters.

The money would come from a new half-percent tax on income over $1 million, a proposal vigorously opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised a vote "as soon as possible."

The outcome seemed clear: The plan is unlikely to gain the 60 votes it would need to proceed in the Senate. And it's a non-starter in the Republican House.

More broadly, some aspects of Obama's jobs agenda are expected to become law this fall.

The most likely include extending tax breaks for businesses that buy new equipment, and offering a $4,800 tax credit to companies that hire veterans. There's also bipartisan support for repealing a law that requires the withholding of 3 percent of payments to government contractors.

Democrats and the White House, meanwhile, are confident that Obama's call to extend cuts in Social Security payroll taxes will pass. A two percentage point payroll tax cut enacted last year expires at the end of the year; Obama has proposed cutting it by an additional percentage point and extending the cut to the first $5 million of a company's payroll.

That proposal is hugely expensive ? almost $250 billion by administration estimates ? and it is not clear how and whether the parties would agree on how to pay for it.

Happy to be back on the road, Obama found a friendly audience that broke into a chant of "four more years." Said the president in response: "I appreciate the four more years, but right now I'm thinking about the next thirteen months."

Still, his travel essentially doubles as his bid for another term. His jobs bill serves as a platform to contrast himself with Republicans on both the legislation and his vision for the nation.

Obama's poll numbers are down in both Virginia and North Carolina, languishing in the mid- to low-forties in recent polls. The numbers mirror his approval ratings nationally. Obama's campaign is pressing to hold both Southern states, even choosing to hold next year's Democratic convention in Charlotte.

The president's bus tour fit into that effort, giving Obama a chance to engage in some of the retail politics that is a staple of presidential campaigns.

Obama's sleek, $1.1 million bus rolled through North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains for more than four hours, an unusually long stretch that included unannounced stops.

At Countryside Barbeque in Marion, he shook hands and took photos, and he also had a chance of to talk to potential voters about his jobs bill. The tour took him through a blaze of bright red and orange fall colors. He later stopped at the Mast General Store in Boone, near the campus of Appalachian State University, for some Halloween candy.

Capping his public comments at a high school in Millers Creek, N.C., Obama chided Republicans again, this time in an apparent reference to the influence of the tea party. "It's way overdue for us to stop trying to satisfy some branch of the party and take some common-sense steps to help America," Obama said.

House Republicans were quick to point out that they originally proposed breaking Obama's jobs plan into pieces. House Speaker John Boehner's office said Monday that the Ohio Republican has offered to work the president on aspects of the bill Republicans agree with but the president opted for a bus trip instead.

However, Obama and his opponents on Capitol Hill don't agree on how much they have tried to agree. Obama insisted he would work with the GOP "in any way possible." Noting the angst within some in his own party about his willingness to compromise, Obama said: "I tried so hard to cooperate with Republicans, Democrats have been getting mad at me."

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Ken Thomas and Ben Feller in Washington, Bob Lewis in Richmond, Va., and Tom Breen in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111018/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Schwab 3Q net income up 77 percent (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Discount broker Charles Schwab Corp. said Monday its third-quarter net income rose 77 percent as more investors turned to the company's advisory services amid increased market volatility and stock trading increased.

The San Francisco-based company posted net income of $220 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with $124 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago. The year-ago profit was $218 million excluding certain charges.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $1.18 billion from $1.06 billion a year earlier.

The results missed the estimates expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet. They expected earnings per share of 19 cents and revenue of $1.19 billion.

Shares of Charles Schwab fell 81 cents, or 6.4 percent, to close at $11.94 Monday. They've traded between $10.56 and $19.69 in the past 52 weeks.

Client assets grew 7 percent to $1.58 trillion, which includes $655.4 billion in the investor services segment of the business, which was up 2 percent from a year ago, and $640.1 billion in adviser services, up 5 percent. Other institutional services assets grew 30 percent to $280.9 billion.

Clients opened 191,000 new brokerage accounts during the period, up 14 percent. The company ended the quarter with 8.5 million active brokerage accounts, 769,000 banking accounts and 1.46 million retirement plan participants.

CEO Walt Bettinger said the business environment weakened further in the third quarter, but clients stayed with their long-term investing plans.

"Their cash holdings at Schwab remained close to pre-crisis levels, and they were consistently net purchasers of securities," he said. "Our full-service capabilities were in demand during the recent quarter as enrollments in our advisory solutions continued at a strong pace."

Net interest revenue jumped nearly 14 percent to $443 million from $387 million. That gain was largely the result of growth in interest-earnings assets. The average rate earned on those assets was 1.82 percent in the latest quarter, slightly below the 1.89 average in the year-ago quarter.

Net trading revenue grew to $248 million from $182 million.

Expenses fell to $821 million from $864 million.

Bettinger said effective expense discipline will be key to the company's near-term profitability as economic conditions remain challenging.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111017/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_schwab

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China sets in motion plan for 2012 succession meeting (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's leaders ended their latest closed-door conclave on Tuesday with a decision to hold a Communist Party congress in the second half of 2012 to install successors to President Hu Jintao's generation.

That decision will put onto a formal footing preparations for the handover of power in the world's second biggest economy, with a preparatory group for the congress probably headed by Vice President Xi Jinping, the man virtually assured of succeeding Hu as party and state leader.

The five-day meeting of the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee also passed a decision on "cultural reform" -- the government's push to invigorate state-run publishers, broadcasters and performers -- Chinese television reported.

But news reports shed little light on what else was discussed at the meeting, including possibly preparations for the long-expected succession and prospects for economic growth, which slowed a little in the third quarter, according to statistics released on Tuesday.

The 2012 party congress will take place in a "crucial period" of China's efforts at "deepening of reform and opening up, and the transformation of the pattern of economic development," said the Xinhua news agency, summarizing the outcome of the Central Committee meeting.

Central committee plenums are annual gatherings of some 370 senior officials -- about 200 full committee members, the rest are auxiliary members -- who approve broad decisions on the direction of government policy.

In China, power resides in the party elite and meetings of the Central Committee offer chances for provincial chieftains to make known their policies and promotion hopes.

The 18th central committee will be chosen at the party congress due to convene in late 2012, succeeding the current, 17th central committee.

Potential contenders for top positions who gathered in Beijing included: Bo Xilai, the charismatic boss of Chongqing municipality in the southwest, who has promoted an ambitious program to narrow economic inequalities; Wang Yang, the boss of export-driven Guangdong province in the south, who has cast himself as a more liberal leader; and Yu Zhengsheng, the boss of Shanghai, the country's coastal business center.

"COMPREHENSIVE COMPETITIVENESS"

In economic policy, the Central Committee members may have discussed, but probably did not decide on, any big changes to a fast-growing economy that has suffered from nagging inflation and worries about a global economic downturn, analysts said earlier.

But the official public focus was on the cultural reforms, which the meeting said were needed to project Chinese influence and values to a wider world.

"Culture is emerging as an important part of the country's comprehensive competitiveness in today's world," said the official communique of the meeting, according to Xinhua.

"China's cultural industry will play a more critical part in the country's economic and social development."

Beijing has spent heavily on television, newspaper and Internet projects to promote its views. But those initiatives come encumbered with censorship and controls that the latest promised reforms are unlikely to dilute.

President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao step down from their Communist Party posts at the congress in late 2012, but hang on to their state and government jobs until early 2013, when the national parliament will vote in their successors.

Wen is likely to be succeeded by Vice Premier Li Kiqiang, a former law student who rose through the Communist Party Youth League, marking him as a protege of President Hu.

Hu could also emulate his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, who stayed on as chairman of China's Central Military Commission for more than a year after giving up the presidency, using his status as military chief as a platform to influence policy.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111018/wl_nm/us_china_politics_party

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Wall St. lower on euro zone concerns; VIX surges (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks suffered their worst loss in two weeks on Monday after comments from Germany's finance minister showed Europe's progress in solving its debt crisis may not come fast enough.

Basd on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 246.58 points, or 2.12 percent, at 11,397.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was down 23.66 points, or 1.93 percent, at 1,200.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 52.93 points, or 1.98 percent, at 2,614.92.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111017/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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