US home prices rise in October from previous year

WASHINGTON (AP) ? US home prices rose in most major cities in October compared with a year ago, pushed up by rising sales and a decline in the supply of available homes. Higher prices show the housing market is improving even as it moves into the more dormant fall and winter sales period.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index released Wednesday increased 4.3 percent in October compared with a year ago. That's the largest year-over-year increase in two and a half years, when a homebuyer tax credit temporarily boosted sales.

Prices rose in October from a year ago in 18 of 20 cities. Phoenix led all cities with a 21.7 percent gain, followed Detroit, where prices increased 10 percent. Prices declined in Chicago and New York.

Home prices fell in 12 of 20 cities in October compared with September. Monthly prices are not seasonally adjusted, so the decreases reflect the end of the peak buying season.

Still, the broader trend is encouraging. October marked the fifth straight month of year-over-year gains, after nearly two years of declines. Prices rose in mid-2010 in the final months before the tax credit expired. They had fallen sharply in 2008 and 2009.

"It is clear that the housing recovery is gaining strength," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indexes.

The improvement in housing is adding to economic growth and most analysts expect that to continue in 2013.

But automatic tax increases and spending cuts that are set to take effect next week could drag down growth. The White House and Congress have so far failed to reach agreement on a way to avoid the "fiscal cliff." President Barack Obama and congressional lawmakers will return to Washington on Thursday to resume talks.

"We expect home price appreciation to continue for the foreseeable future, because inventories are lean amid rising sales," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. "This assumes that a resolution to the 'fiscal cliff' is found ... otherwise, the recent positive trend in housing would most certainly be in jeopardy along with the rest of the current economic expansion."

Prices nationwide have recovered to about the same level as in the fall of 2003, according to the Case-Shiller index. They remain about 30 percent below the peak reached in the summer of 2006.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The October figures are the latest available.

Solid gains in home prices have helped drive a modest recovery in the housing market. Rising prices encourage more potential buyers to come off the sidelines and purchase homes. And more people may put their homes on the market as they gain confidence that they can sell at a good price.

Higher home prices can also make homeowners feel wealthier and more likely to spend more. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

Steady job gains and record-low mortgage rates have also helped propel the housing recovery. And the low supply of houses for sale is encouraging builders to start work on more homes. That should lead to more construction jobs.

The pace of home construction slipped in November but was still nearly 22 percent higher than a year earlier. Builders are on track this year to start work on the most homes in four years.

Builder confidence rose in December for a seventh straight month to the highest level in more than 6? years, according to a survey released last week by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-26-US-Home%20Prices/id-f4e675074d174a288eec614984415146

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Should You Invest in Apple Stock?

Apple, the maker of all the fun gadgets we enjoy so much (such as iPads, iPhones, and MacBooks), has done a phenomenal job in the past ten years with over a 14,000% return on investment ? that?s crazy amazing people! Should you invest in Apple stock? Some people point to this fact and say, ?You bet you should!? But is that really the right answer?

I?m convinced, actually, that you should not bet on single stocks (even Apple). Why? Here are some of my reasons:

1. Betting on single stocks with large amounts of cash is not diversifying well.

I?m sorry, but even if you have only 25% of your portfolio in single stocks such as Apple, that?s not diversifying to the extent you should be. You?d be much better off investing in mutual funds or ETFs (like through Betterment). That way, you?re diversifying down to a fraction of a percentage and are invested in a wide variety of stocks ? that?s proper diversification.

2. Historical returns don?t guarantee future returns.

We all love to look at historical returns to try and predict the future. Just because Apple had a 14,000% return on investment, doesn?t mean it can continue that growth in the future ? it probably won?t!

Companies go through cycles and although many feel Apple is going to do well way into the future, eventually the shine will fade. I?m not saying it won?t continue to be an excellent company, but if you?re investing for the long term, you need to understand that many companies don?t last over a lifetime.

3. There is uncertainty with new leadership.

Tim Cook has replaced Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple, and there are questions left unanswered when it comes to Tim?s ability to keep Apple on the course Steve charted.

There have also been a number of other leadership changes at Apple, and with the recent Maps application goof, can you say for sure that the company is on the right track?

Final Thoughts

Don?t get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy Apple products. But when it comes to investing, it is safer to stick to diversifying your portfolio and not betting a large portion of your investment money into any one company.

Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight;?you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. ? Ecclesiastes 11:2 NIV

Do you agree or disagree? Do you think Apple will continue to churn out amazing products? Leave a comment and let us know!

John officially launched TheChristianDollar.com on January 1st, 2010 with the intention to provide an excellent financial resource for biblically-minded individuals and families. Influenced heavily by Dave Ramsey, John started researching how he might better handle his money and help others in the process. John enjoys reading, writing, playing with gadgets, and spending time with his wife Courtney.

Source: http://www.thechristiandollar.com/should-you-invest-in-apple-stock/

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Fantastic Four #45, December 1965: "Among Us Hide ... the Inhumans!" (Little green footballs)

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Afghan policewoman kills US adviser, police say

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul on Monday, a senior Afghan official said. The circumstances of the killing were not immediately clear but the shooting could be another insider attack by Afghans against their foreign allies.

A NATO command spokesman, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Lester T. Carroll, said the shooter was taken into Afghan custody shortly after the incident. The slain adviser was a contractor but the name and nationality of the deceased were being withheld, Carroll said.

Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Daoud Amin said it has not been determined whether the American adviser's death was intentional or accidental. He said an investigation was under way and declined to give more details of the incident, which occurred in central Kabul on the compound housing the governor of the city and near a number of key ministries.

"We can confirm that a civilian police adviser was shot and killed this morning by a suspected member of the Afghan uniform. The suspected shooter is in Afghan custody," Carroll said. He said Afghan and NATO officials were still trying to confirm initial reports that the shooter was a policewoman.

The killing came just hours after an Afghan policeman shot five of his colleagues at a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan late Monday. The attacker then stole his colleague's weapons and fled to join the Taliban, said deputy provincial governor in Jawzjan province, Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani.

More than 60 international allies, including troops and civilian advisers, have been killed by Afghan soldiers or police this year, and a number of other insider attacks as they are known are still under investigations. NATO forces, due to mostly withdraw from the country by 2014, have speeded up efforts to train and advise Afghan military and police units before the pullout.

The surge in insider attacks is throwing doubt on the capability of the Afghan security forces to take over from international troops and has further undermined public support for the 11-year war in NATO countries.

In February, two U.S. soldiers -- Lt. Col. John D. Loftis and Maj. Robert J. Marchanti, died from wounds received during an attack by an Afghan policeman at the Interior Ministry in Kabul. The incident forced NATO to temporarily pull out their advisers from a number of ministries and police units and revise procedures in dealing with Afghan counterparts.

More than 50 Afghan members of the government's security forces also have died this year in attacks by their own colleagues. Taliban militants claim such attacks reflect a growing popular opposition to both foreign military presence and the Kabul government.

In Sunday's attack, Jawzjani, the provincial official, said the attacker was an Afghan policeman manning a checkpoint in Dirzab District who turned his weapon on five colleagues before fleeing to the militant Islamist group.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-policewoman-kills-us-adviser-police-084513356.html

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Video: No talks on "fiscal cliff" 'till after Christmas (cbsnews)

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Iraqi telecom Asiacell hopes to raise $1.3 billion

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Asiacell, one of Iraq's three mobile service providers, said Tuesday it is looking to raise $1.3 billion through what would be the country's biggest stock offering yet.

A successful floatation on Baghdad's low-volume stock exchange could reassure international investors, many of whom remain wary of the risky Iraqi market nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The company plans to offer 67.5 billion shares for at least 22 Iraqi dinars, or just under 2 cents, apiece when it launches the initial public offering on Jan. 3. Investors will have until Feb. 2 to submit orders for the shares.

"We're delighted to be able to provide the chance for all Iraqis to participate in our future by taking a stake in Asiacell," Managing Director Faruk Rasool said in a statement. "We're confident in our future as Iraq's mobile industry continues to grow."

The shares being offered represent a quarter of Asiacell's total share capital. The Gulf state of Qatar's government-backed Qatar Telecom owns 53.9 percent of Asiacell, which is based in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

A number of the company's founding shareholders will be cashing out at least part of their investment with the floatation.

Asiacell competes against Zain Iraq, part of Kuwait's Zain, and Korek, an affiliate of France Telecom.

The three companies are required to list shares on the stock exchange as a condition of their 15-year operating licenses, which cost $1.25 billion when they were acquired in 2007. All three missed a deadline in August 2011 to offer shares to the public.

Asiacell began offering cell phone service in Iraq's highly autonomous northern Kurdish region in 1999. Mobile phone services did not exist in the rest of Iraq until after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

The company now boasts nearly 10 million subscribers and says its network covers 97 percent of Iraq's population.

___

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-12-25-ML-Iraq-Telecom/id-c59c90b9b14a402c87d75385448ec5c3

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Syria government says its forces still strong

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's information minister on Sunday distanced the government from comments by the country's vice president that neither the rebels nor the forces of President Bashar al-Assad could win the civil war.

Last week Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said in a newspaper interview that the country needed a government of national unity since neither side could win militarily.

"There are 23 million people in Syria with their own personal opinions, this was one of those 23 million," the information minister, Umran Ahid al-Za'bi, told a news conference in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad's Alawite minority, has rarely been seen since the revolt began in March 2011 and is not part of the president's inner circle.

Za'bi told journalists that the Syrian army was still strong, despite a string of rebel advances and seizures of military sites across the country. He said that many reports of rebel gains were "fantasy, media victories".

"I have general advice to those political powers that reject dialogue: Time is getting short. Hurry and move on to working on a political solution," he said.

"These military efforts to try to topple the government, of getting rid of the president, of occupying the capital ... forget about this. That is my advice."

The minister also said Syria would never use chemical weapons, if it had them, anywhere inside or outside the country. It was the first time a government minister clearly stated that there were no intentions of using chemical arms in any capacity.

The United States and other Western countries cited intelligence reports earlier this month suggesting that chemical weapons were being prepared or moved, and warned Assad their use was a "red line" that would have international repercussions.

More recently, Washington and NATO have begun to report the use of Scud-type, long-range missiles in Syria. Za'bi did not directly deny the use of such weapons, but said that reports of scuds and chemical weapons were a propaganda campaign against Assad's government.

When asked about rebel advances in the north, where the opposition holds large swathes of territory, Za'bi mocked the idea of rebel control there.

"They are incapable of staying there and they cannot control the ground," he said. "All this talk is untrue.. If they attack a checkpoint they cannot stay longer than 15 minutes."

While rebels have seized many residential areas and military sites, they have little defense against Assad's air power and long-range missiles. Air strikes regularly hit neighborhoods and military sites seized by the rebels.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-government-says-forces-still-strong-151236361.html

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