Depressed astronauts might get computerized solace

Your work is dangerous and your co-workers rely on you to stay alive. But you can never get far from those colleagues. You can’t see your family for months, even years. The food isn’t great. And forget stepping out for some fresh air.

Traders relieved despite Dow ending down 3.6 pct.

If ever a 300-point loss on Wall Street could be a good thing, it was Friday. Wall Street started the day with a nervous eye on how far stocks would have to fall before triggering emergency trading halts. They ended the session relieved, even though the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 312, or 3.6 percent, its lowest finish since the financial crisis began six weeks ago.

Stock markets in Europe and Asia had plummeted, and oil prices plunged past their lows for the last year on growing fears of a global recession. Major indexes declined more than 14 percent in Russia, and were ordered closed until Tuesday.

Dow futures — a bet, before trading opens, on where stocks would go — had plunged 550 points Friday morning, triggering a temporary trading halt.

“This is beyond volatile. It is chaotic,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics wrote in a morning note to clients. “This is the kind of day when the central banks step into the market with an ‘unexpected’ interest rate move to calm things down.”

Instead, it was just another day’s loss, one in a series since mid-September that have erased nearly $7 trillion in value from stocks.

Before U.S. markets opened, CNBC flashed a rundown on the level of losses that would trigger trading circuit-breakers, which close the market after steep losses. The first circuit-breaker, a 90-minute halt, would kick in if the Dow lost 1,100 points before 2 p.m.

The Dow fell more than 500 points in the morning, but steadied itself, even though the only good news was the 5.5 percent increase in September existing home sales. That was tempered by median home prices, which dropped to $191,600, down 9 percent from a year ago.

The Dow closed at 8,378, its lowest finish since 8,306 on April 25, 2003. In the last six weeks, the Dow has experienced triple-digit moves in 27 of 30 trading sessions.

Broader indexes also fell more than 3 percent.

The paper loss for the week on the broadest stock index, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5,000, was $800 billion. A sell-off Wednesday, coupled with the losses Tuesday and Friday, gave the index its eighth-worst week since 1979. The index closed at its lowest level since May 2003.

Total losses in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5,000 since the market’s Oct. 9, 2007, high are $8.8 trillion, or 44 percent.

Stock investors avoided panic even as oil fell sharply, closing near $64 a barrel, despite a decision by the OPEC cartel to cut production quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day. OPEC officials, meeting in Vienna, left no doubt that they were ready to slice production again quickly if Friday’s decision does not end the price freefall.

“Oil prices have witnessed a dramatic collapse — unprecedented in speed and magnitude,” the 13-nation cartel said in a statement.

The dollar plunged below 93 yen, a 13-year low. The British pound fell 8 cents against the dollar, its largest intraday drop since 1971.

Stocks shuddered around the world. Japan’s Nikkei stock average dropped 9.6 percent. Hong Kong’s benchmark index fell 8.3 percent. As the U.S. market prepared to open, both Germany and France’s key indexes were down 10 percent — although both narrowed their losses, with Germany’s benchmark DAX index closing 5 percent lower, while France’s CAC40 dropped 3.5 percent.

Markets in India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines also fell as investors pulled money out of developing countries on fears they would not only be hit hard by the financial crisis but may also default on debt.

Selling had spread on sobering economic data and weak earnings.

The U.K.’s third quarter gross domestic product fell 0.5 percent, the first decline in 16 years, putting the country on the brink of recession. Shares of Japan’s Sony sank more than 14 percent when it slashed its earnings forecast for the fiscal year.

In Germany, Daimler stock dropped 11.4 percent in morning trading; it reported lower third-quarter earnings and abandoned its 2008 profit and revenue guidance.

“Periods of panic punctuated by occasional calm appears to be the manner of things for now,” said Daragh Maher, a strategist at Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank in London.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, which sets the Fed’s target short-term interest rates, meets Tuesday and Wednesday. Most investors are expecting further rate cuts beyond the current 1.5 percent, which is already near historic lows.

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Associated Press writers Stevenson Jacobs and Tim Paradis in New York; George Jahn in Vienna; Louis Watt and Carlo Piovano in London; and Martin Crutsinger, Christopher S. Rugaber and Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.

Court upholds Bianca Jagger’s Manhattan eviction

New York’s top court upheld Bianca Jagger’s eviction from a rent-stabilized Manhattan apartment, concluding Thursday that foreigners on tourist visas generally can’t claim New York digs as a “primary residence.”

The British human rights activist and ex-wife of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger was evicted in December from the Upper East Side apartment she rented for 20 years. She hasn’t lived in the apartment for the past few years because of a dispute over asbestos and fungus contamination that led to a lawsuit against landlord Katz Park Avenue Corp.

“There are still claims for legal fees and unpaid rent and use and occupancy,” said attorney Magda Cruz, the landlord’s lawyer. She said there’s no way of knowing how many New York tenants on tourist visas might be affected by the ruling, since tenants generally don’t disclose their visa status when they rent.

Jagger’s lawyer, Dan Bryson, said they were disappointed, but that the case against the landlord over water and mold damage should reach trial court next spring.

“It took her filing suit to get them to come in and fix the apartment,” Bryson said.

Jagger was renting the 18th-floor Park Avenue space for $4,614 a month when a judge imposed a fine in 2006 and ordered her to pay months of back rent, though she said the apartment was uninhabitable because of the contamination. The apartment has since been leased to another tenant.

As that dispute wore on, the landlord evicted Jagger, saying she wasn’t entitled to rent control protections.

Court of Appeals Judge Robert Smith wrote that Jagger failed to explain how she could have a valid tourist visa and a primary residence in New York City.

“Perhaps there are cases in which a tenant could show that her principal dwelling place for immigration purposes is in one place, and her primary residence for rent regulation purposes in another, but defendant has not even tried to make such a showing,” he wrote.

New York’s Rent Stabilization Code allows landlords to reclaim an apartment after the lease expires if it isn’t occupied as a primary residence, which has been defined in case law as “an ongoing, substantial, physical nexus with the … premises for actual living purposes,” Smith wrote.

Because she holds a B2 visa, Jagger is required to have a “principal, actual dwelling place” outside the United States. A native of Nicaragua and now a British citizen, she keeps an apartment in London.

Cruz said she didn’t know how much the New York apartment is now going for.

McCain’s brother apologizes for calling 911

The brother of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Friday he’ll withdraw from campaign activities after calling 911 to complain about traffic. He also apologized for making the call.

Joe McCain, who lives in Alexandria, Va., told Washington radio station WTOP he was returning from a campaign event in Philadelphia around 2 a.m. on Oct. 18 when he got stuck in traffic on Interstate 495 at the Wilson Bridge. His account of the timing differed from the police, who said the call was made at 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 21.

Frustrated because of the traffic, he called 911 to find out what was going on. The operator asked him to “state your emergency.”

“Well, it’s not an emergency, but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic’s coming the other way?” Joe McCain said.

The operator asked him if he was calling 911 to complain about traffic. McCain then uttered an expletive and hung up the phone.

McCain told WTOP that he thought his cell phone was on mute.

“I did not mean to swear at the officers themselves,” McCain said. If he were in their situation, “it would have really frosted me, too, and I absolutely understand their reaction.”

After hanging up with 911, McCain said he called Alexandria police to ask them about the traffic on the bridge and got a similar reaction.

“I feel terrible about having hurt the campaign over this incident,” he said. “I won’t be doing any more campaigning because of that.”

McCain said he’s going to write a note of apology to the 911 operator and to the Alexandria police.

Joe McCain said he hasn’t spoken to his brother about the incident.

“He’s not going to be happy about it, I’m sure,” he said.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “Joe McCain recognizes his mistake and has apologized. We are moving on.”

McCain’s brother has been in the news on other occasions recently. Speaking at an event in early October in support of his brother, he called two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia “communist country.”

“I’ve lived here for at least 10 years and before that about every third duty I was in either Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country,” Joe McCain, a Navy veteran, said at an event in Loudoun County, Va. Joe McCain then apologized, but the remark reportedly drew laughter at the event.

About a week later, the candidate’s brother sent an e-mail blasting the campaign’s “counter-productive” strategy.

“Let John McCain be John McCain,” Joe McCain wrote in the e-mail. “Make ads that show John not as crank and curmudgeon but as a great leader for his time.”

McCain’s brother was sharply critical of unidentified top campaign officials who “so tightly ‘control the message’” that they are preventing reporters from speaking with those, like himself, who know the candidate best.

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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Baltimore and Mike Glover in Alburquerque contributed to this report.

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby

TOKYO – A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband’s digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game “Maple Story” to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in “Maple Story” raise and manipulate digital images called “avatars” that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

The woman was arrested Wednesday and was taken across the country, traveling 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sappporo, where the man lives, the official said.

The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.

In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world. In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through “Second Life,” another virtual interactive world.

In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in an interactive role playing game by manipulating another player’s portfolio using a stolen ID and password.

Virtual games are popular in Japan, and “Second Life” has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians.

Palin testifies to investigator in ethics dispute

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin testified for two hours Friday in an abuse-of-power investigation that has been a distraction to her Republican vice presidential campaign. Palin’s leadership was questioned this month in a stinging but largely toothless legislative report that found she violated state ethics laws by letting a family dispute influence her decision-making.

Palin is hoping the Alaska Personnel Board, which is running a parallel investigation, will clear her of wrongdoing. It’s unclear, however, whether any conclusion will be reached before Election Day.

“I am so pleased to finally have gotten the chance to tell what really happened and get the truth out,” Palin said in a statement released by her attorney. “It was the right thing to do to bring this before the Personnel Board and have a true arms length unbiased and apolitical investigator look into this.”

The board is investigating the firing of her public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan. Monegan claims he was dismissed because he refused to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a messy divorce from Palin’s sister. The controversy, known as “Troopergate,” took on national significance after John McCain selected Palin as his running mate.

The legislative inquiry found that Monegan’s firing was proper but the pressure to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten, was not. Griffin says Palin stands by her decision to fire Monegan and her concerns about Wooten.

Palin and her husband, Todd, say Wooten was unstable and had made threats against their family. Wooten had also used an electric stun gun on his stepson.

“I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family and wanting to publicize the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge,” Todd Palin said in an affidavit submitted to legislative investigators.

Sarah Palin was not subpoenaed in that investigation. Friday’s testimony before independent investigator Timothy Petumenos was the first time she spoke at length or under oath about the controversy. Palin began testifying around 4 p.m., McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said. Palin’s husband, Todd, was scheduled to testify before she did.

Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, characterized Palin’s testimony as “thorough, candid and detailed.” Van Flein said Petumenos assured him he was working quickly but made no promise the case would be closed before Election Day.

“I just hope the truth comes out,” Van Flein said. “If it’s after the election, it’s after the election.”

Although the legislative report issued a stinging rebuke of Palin’s conduct, it carried no penalty. It’s up to the personnel board to decide whether Palin violated the law. She filed a complaint against herself to launch the investigation after accusing the legislative inquiry of becoming partisan. Unlike the Legislature, the personnel board is run by officials that Palin can fire but only for cause.

“She felt this was an opportunity to get an unbiased, independent review of the facts,” McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said.

Whether Palin’s testimony becomes public remains uncertain. Personnel investigations are normally secret and, though Palin has waived her privacy rights, others in her administration have not and Petumenos has sought to keep the matter from playing out in the media.

Van Flein said Palin would like to release a transcript of her deposition. But producing one typically takes days and it’s unknown whether Petumenos will allow it.

Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother slain in Chicago

The mother and brother of Jennifer Hudson were found shot dead Friday at a South Side home, and police were looking for a missing child who is the nephew of the singer and Oscar-winning actress.

A man suspected in the deaths was in custody Friday night, but the 7-year-old boy had not been located, according to published reports.

William Balfour was being questioned, but Julian King’s whereabouts were not known, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Balfour has not been charged.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said investigators were talking to “a number of people in custody” but she declined to elaborate.

An Amber Alert issued Friday said Balfour was a suspect in the double homicide of Darnell Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, whose bodies were found Friday afternoon in a South Side home.

Jennifer Hudson’s personal publicist, Lisa Kasteler, confirmed the deaths.

“We can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the deaths of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson,” Kasteler said in a statement. “No further comment will be made and the family has asked that their privacy be respected at this difficult time.”

The deaths appeared to be the result of domestic abuse, Bond said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said autopsies for Donerson and Jason Hudson were pending.

Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson said a family member entered the home around 3 p.m. Friday, found a woman shot on the living room floor and left to notify authorities. Responding officers found a man shot in the bedroom, Patterson said. There was no sign of forced entry.

Police tape blocked access to the large, white house, where a crowd gathered outside. Investigators with dogs and flashlights searched foliage surrounding a church that faces the home.

Authorities issued the Amber Alert for King and sought a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban. The child was the grandson of the female victim, officials said.

The alert said the child was possibly abducted and could be accompanied by Balfour, who was considered armed and dangerous and called a suspect in the double homicide investigation.

Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle. Public records show one of Balfour’s addresses as the home where Donerson and Jason Hudson were shot.

The alert said the boy could also be in a teal or green Chrysler Concorde with a temporary license plate, a left front headlight hanging out and scratches on the left side of the vehicle.

The tragedy comes as Hudson, who grew up in Chicago, continues to reach new heights in her career. Her song “Spotlight” is No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts and her recently released, self-tiled debut album has been a top seller. She was featured in this year’s blockbuster “Sex and the City” movie and is also starring in the hit film “The Secret Life of Bees.”

She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her role in “Dreamgirls.” In an interview last year with Vogue, Hudson credited her mother with encouraging her to audition for “American Idol,” which launched her career.

The singer, whose father died when she was a teenager, described herself as very close to her family. In a recent AP interview she said her family, which includes older siblings Julia and Jason, helped keep her grounded.

“My faith in God and my family, they’re very realistic and very normal, they’re not into the whole limelight kind of thing, so when I go home to Chicago that’s just another place that’s home,” she said. “I stand in line with everybody else, or, when I go home to my mom I’m just Jennifer, (so she says), ‘You get up and you take care of your own stuff.’ And I love that; I don’t like when people tell you everything you want to hear, I want to hear the truth, you know what I mean.”

Hudson recently announced her engagement to David Otunga, best known for his stint on VH1’s reality show “I Love New York.”

Hudson’s representatives would not disclose her whereabouts Friday. She had been scheduled to appear Monday in Los Angeles to collect an ensemble cast honor at the Hollywood Awards for “The Secret Life of Bees” with co-stars including Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning.

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AP Music Writer Nekesa Moody in New York and AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Police: McCain volunteer made up robbery story

A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter “B” scratched on her face in what she had said was a politically inspired attack, police said Friday.

Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from College Station, Texas, admitted Friday that the story was false, said Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department’s investigations division. Todd was charged with making a false report to police, and Bryant said police doubted her story from the start.

Dressed in an orange hooded sweat shirt, Todd left police headquarters in handcuffs late Friday and did not respond to questions from reporters. The mark on her face was faded and her left eye was slightly blackened when she arrived in district court.

Todd was awaiting arraignment Friday on the misdemeanor false-report charge, which is punishable by up to two years in prison. She will be housed in a mental health unit at the county jail for her safety and because of “her not insignificant mental health issues,” prosecutor Mark Tranquilli said.

Todd initially told investigators she was attempting to use a bank branch ATM on Wednesday night when a 6-foot-4 black man approached her from behind, put a knife blade to her throat and demanded money. She told police she handed the assailant $60 and walked away.

Todd, who is white, told investigators she suspected the man then noticed a John McCain sticker on her car. She said the man punched her in the back of the head, knocked her to the ground and scratched a backward letter “B” into her face with a dull knife.

Police said Todd claimed the man told her that he was going to “teach her a lesson” for supporting the Republican presidential candidate, and that she was going to become a supporter of Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Todd told police she didn’t seek medical attention, but instead went to a friend’s apartment nearby and called police about 45 minutes later.

Todd could provide no explanation for why she invented the story, police said. The woman told investigators she believes she cut the “B” onto her own cheek, but did not provide an explanation of how or why and said she doesn’t remember doing so, police said.

Police said the woman reported suffering from “mental problems” in the past, and that they do not believe anyone put her up to the act.

Tranquilli said Todd will remain jailed over the weekend pending a psychiatric evaluation, which won’t happen until Monday at the earliest.

The Associated Press could not immediately locate Todd’s family.

Bryant said somebody charged with making a false report would typically be cited and sent a summons. But because police have concerns about Todd’s mental health, they are consulting with the Allegheny County District Attorney.

Todd worked in New York for the College Republican National Committee before moving two weeks ago to Pennsylvania, where her duties included recruiting college students, the committee’s executive director, Ethan Eilon, has said.

“We are as upset as anyone to learn of her deceit, Ashley must take full responsibility for her actions,” College Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ashley Barbera said in a statement.

Police reported Todd’s claims Thursday, as a photo of her injuries made it onto numerous blogs and news sites. By Friday, police said they had found inconsistencies in Todd’s story. They gave her a lie-detector test, but wouldn’t release the polygraph results.

Police interviewed Todd after she contacted police Wednesday night and again on Thursday, Bryant said. They asked her to come back Friday, ostensibly to help police put together a sketch of the man. Instead, detectives began interviewing her.

“They just started talking to her and she just opened up and said she wanted to tell the truth,” Bryant said.

Police suspected all along that Todd might not be telling the truth, starting with the fact that the “B” was backward, Bryant said.

“We have robbers here in Pittsburgh, but they don’t generally mutilate someone’s face like that,” Bryant said. “They just take the money and run.”

Apple TV not ready for Prime Time?

Apple TV “is a flat-out iFlop “The ballyhooed box has sold perhaps 250,000 units–far behind the 1 million sold for the iPhone, which was priced twice as high and has been on the market less than half as long. Apple, which declined to let Forbes interview Jobs and other execs for this story, provides detailed sales data for the iPod and other digital wonders but won’t reveal any numbers for Apple TV; apparently the truth is too humiliating. A company spokesman declined to respond to written questions.”

“Jobs’ own ambivalence about the iFlop, however, is evident. At a tech conference in May Jobs took the stage and casually dismissed Apple TV as merely ‘a hobby.’ In briefing Wall Street on quarterly earnings on July 25, Apple execs ignored the video product”.

“How did the storied Steve Jobs and Apple botch it so badly?”

As “Apple TV headed to stores on Mar. 21, Jobs faced an ugly reality: The new box would debut with content from only two of the Big Six”. “Many newcomers, far less threatening than Apple, have had better luck luring the studios online. A startup named Vudu in Santa Clara, Calif. has deals with all six Hollywood heavyweights and a score of international distributors, in part because it doesn’t try to dictate wholesale prices. (A download of Syriana from Warner Bros. goes for $20.) The studios also let Vudu users rent movies for 24 hours, not an option on Apple TV.”

“Apple struggled over the design of the box itself. Revered for sleek and snazzy products, the company and its man-in-black patriarch made a string of dubious choices about what features to include. And what to leave out. Apple TV comes with a hard drive and a link to the TV set, same as TiVo (now in 4.3 million homes). Yet Jobs decided against offering the ability to record shows”.

The 8 reasons why Apple is the No. 1 consumer electronics company

“Apple isn’t the biggest consumer electronics company, nor the most profitable,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld. “So what do I mean when I say it’s the No. 1 consumer electronics company?”

“Basically, you can divide consumer electronics companies into two groups: Apple, and everyone else. Apple really is that different. Its influence on global design is many orders of magnitude higher than its nearest competitors. It engenders customer loyalty significantly greater than that earned by any other company in the consumer electronics space,” Elgan writes.

“It’s no accident, and it’s not a passing phenomenon,” Elgan writes. “Apple knows something that other companies don’t. Here are the eight secrets that make Apple the best company in the industry.”

1: Engineering supports design — no exceptions
2: Fewer is better
3: The experience is the product
4: The product is the product
5: You can’t please everyone, so please people with good taste
6: Leave the past behind
7: Product names are important. Really important
8: Group affiliation is the driver

Elgan writes, “Most surviving consumer electronics companies know and use at least one of these secrets. But Apple is the only major company I can think of that employs all of them. And that’s why Apple is No. 1.