US pleased with Russian shift on Syria (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration and at least one of its allies say they are pleased that Russia has decided to support U.N. Security Council action aimed at halting violence in Syria but won't support Russia's proposed resolution unless changes are made.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday that Russia's surprise introduction of a Security Council resolution on Syria was an "important step" and a sign of growing unity on the importance of opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime's brutal crackdown on reformers.

"It's clear from the steps that Russia took that more and more of the international community is coming together as one to say to Syria and to the Assad regime that we can no longer tolerate the kind of killings that are going on, the kind of abuse of human rights that have gone on in Syria and that Assad needs to step down," Panetta told a news conference in Ankara, Turkey.

In Washington, the State Department called the Russian move "good news" but said the U.S. wouldn't vote for the resolution unless it distinguishes the actions of peaceful protesters from those of the government. In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry echoed that stance.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that "the Russians have recognized that the U.N. Security Council can't be silent any longer and that we've got to use that organization to make clear that the violence needs to end."

But she stressed the administration has concerns about the draft. "We wouldn't be prepared to accept it as written, particularly because it appears to create a sense of parity between these peaceful protesters and the action of the regime, which has been extremely brutal and violent," she said.

The French Foreign Ministry said France was "ready to work with all its partners" on Syria "but underlines that the Russian text as it now stands has parts that are not acceptable."

"In particular, it's unacceptable to put on a par the repression of the Syrian regime and the resistance of the Syrian people. Every day thousands of people demonstrate peacefully and are victims of a bloody repression," it said.

The United Nations estimates that 5,000 people have been killed in violence since protests against the Assad regime started nine months ago.

Despite the severity of the situation, Russia, along with China, had opposed U.N. Security Council action on Syria.

But on Thursday, Russia surprised council members by introducing a draft resolution that "demands that all parties in Syria immediately stop any violence irrespective of where it comes from." The draft, however, does not mention sanctions, something that Western nations have been pushing.

Nuland said the U.S. wants to work with Russia, as well as with the Arab League, which has condemned the violence, to ensure that all concerns are addressed.

Despite the reservations, Nuland said the Russian move "begins a new process in New York that we very much welcome."

___

Baldor reported from Ankara. Jamey Keaten contributed to this report from Paris.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_russia_syria

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Europe debt woes prompt year-end flight from risk (Reuters)

SINGAPORE (Reuters) ? Asian shares fell into bear market territory for the year and commodities and the euro nursed stinging losses on Thursday, after fears that Europe's debt crisis is still worsening prompted investors to dump riskier assets and huddle in the safety of the dollar and Treasuries.

The gloomy mood was not improved by a private sector survey indicating China's factory output shrinking again in December, adding to the headwinds facing a global economy struggling with sluggish U.S. growth and the euro zone sliding back into recession.

"We're quite bearish about the world at the moment," said Damien Boey, equity strategist at Credit Suisse in Sydney. "You're looking at basically the three major economies in the world causing problems."

The market view that a European Union summit last week had failed to produce a solution to the crisis was reinforced when Italy was forced to pay an eye-watering 6.47 percent on 5-year bonds on Wednesday, a record borrowing cost for the euro era.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.3 percent and MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 1.8 percent, following losses of around 1 percent on Wall Street and a steeper sell-off in Europe. (.T) (.N) (.EU) (.L)

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HSBC China flash PMI: http://link.reuters.com/hyd55s

Japan BOJ Tankan: http://link.reuters.com/pez55s

Euro zone crisis in graphics: http://r.reuters.com/hyb65p

Interactive timeline: http://link.reuters.com/rev89r

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The MSCI Asia ex-Japan is down 20 percent for 2011 -- the rule-of-thumb definition of a bear market -- while the Nikkei has lost about 17.5 percent. Both have underperformed global equities (.MIWD00000PUS), which have lost around 12.5 percent, and U.S. stocks (.SPX), which are only down around 3.5 percent.

Europe remains investors' biggest worry, with markets still braced for ratings agency downgrades of euro zone sovereigns.

"Markets are frustrated and disappointed, waiting for a road map on the resolution of the two-year-old debt crisis," said Ong Yi Ling, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore. "Risk assets are all down. The debt crisis will be with us at least through the first half of 2012."

Equity losses in Hong Kong (.HSI) and Shanghai (.SSEC) deepened after the release of HSBC's China flash PMI, the latest piece of data to show the world's second largest economy losing steam, but reaction in broader markets was muted.

COMMODITY SLIDE

Wednesday's stock market declines were dwarfed by carnage in commodity markets, where oil, gold and copper shed 4-5 percent.

Gold has been hammered in recent days as fund managers liquidate their holdings, either to cover losses elsewhere or to lock in profits on an asset that is still up more than 10 percent for the year.

"Some macro hedge funds are liquidating gold holdings and taking profits in a difficult year," said James Steel, chief technical analyst at HSBC.

The precious metal edged down a little further on Thursday to around $1,572 an ounce, while U.S. crude oil inched up to $95.20 a barrel and Brent crude bounced more than 50 cents to around $105.60.

The euro fell as low as $1.2944, its weakest level since January 11, and was later steady around $1.2990.

A downgrade by ratings agency Fitch of five major European financial groups, including France's Credit Agricole to A-plus from AA-negative, added to the already euro-negative sentiment.

This comes on top of the prospect of further cuts by rival Standard & Poor's, which warned earlier this month it could downgrade the ratings of 15 of the 17 euro zone members.

"I can see the U.S. dollar keep trending higher while the euro flounders," said Joseph Capurso, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

(Additional reporting by Miranda Maxwell in Melbourne, Jane Lee in Kuala Lumpur and Frank Tang in New York; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111215/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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2 Penn St. officials eager to confront charges

FILE -- In a Nov. 7, 2011 file photo former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, left, and former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, right, enter a district judge's office for an arraignment in Harrisburg, Pa. Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations involving former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the state attorney general?s office. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower/file)

FILE -- In a Nov. 7, 2011 file photo former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, left, and former Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, right, enter a district judge's office for an arraignment in Harrisburg, Pa. Curley and Schultz have been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations involving former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the state attorney general?s office. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower/file)

(AP) ? The case against two Penn State officials accused of perjury in a child sex abuse case will come down to what an assistant football coach saw and what he said.

The coach, Mike McQueary, told a grand jury he witnessed former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky raping a boy in a campus locker room shower.

Former Vice President Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley, who face a preliminary hearing Friday in Harrisburg, are charged with lying to the grand jury about whether McQueary told them that. They also are charged with failing to report the 2002 complaint to law enforcement.

Sandusky, 67, waived his preliminary hearing Tuesday on charges that he sexually abused 10 boys, but lawyers for Curley and Schultz vow that there won't be a repeat Friday. They plan to challenge the evidence and try to have the charges dismissed.

Prosecutors must show probable cause the two men lied and that the lies were intentional and material to the case. If a judge deems the prosecution has succeeded, the case would head to trial.

"Even though you've had some fairly celebrated folks convicted of perjury, it's a very tough charge to prove," said Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum. "You have to have a clear question, an unequivocal answer, and (prove) the defendant knew what he was saying was false."

McQueary's testimony is central to the case, and Sandusky's lawyer and others think he will have to testify Friday. His appearance would mark the first time he has testified in public about what he saw and heard inside the Lasch Football Building nearly 10 years ago.

McQueary told the grand jury he saw Sandusky raping the boy one Friday night before spring break. He said he called his father from his Lasch office, then left distraught. He and his father met with coach Joe Paterno the next day.

Paterno, in turn, told his boss, Curley.

Paterno, according to the grand jury report, told Curley that his graduate assistant had seen Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature."

Schultz, who oversaw campus security, and Curley met with McQueary 10 days later. McQueary told them that he thought Sandusky had sodomized a young boy, according to his grand jury testimony, which the panel found "extremely credible."

Curley, though, denied that McQueary reported a rape or anything "of a sexual nature whatsoever," the report said. The athletic director described the conduct as "horsing around," the panel said.

Schultz was unsure of what he had been told, but denied the reported conduct included sodomy. He told the grand jury that he was left with "the impression that Sandusky might have inappropriately grabbed the young boy's genitals while wrestling."

The accounts continued to morph, according to the grand jury's outline, when the two university officials spoke to school President Graham Spanier. Spanier testified that he was told Sandusky and a boy "were horsing around in the shower."

Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, face up to seven years in prison if convicted of perjury. The other charge is a summary offense, less serious than a misdemeanor.

Paterno might normally be expected to testify Friday also, given his place in the chain of information.

But the 84-year-old could be spared a subpoena due to his health. The longtime Penn State coach has begun treatment for lung cancer and re-fractured his pelvis in the six weeks since the scandal broke and he was fired from the job he held for nearly half a century.

It's unclear whether prosecutors could have his grand jury testimony read into the record.

State law on the use of such hearsay testimony at preliminary hearings has recently changed: It can be used to establish the value of a car or that someone lacked permission to drive it. But in Ohlbaum's mind, it's not clear if it can be used to bolster a perjury case.

"If I'm the prosecutor, I'm not going down that road," Ohlbaum said Thursday.

Yet, in Pennsylvania, prosecutors must corroborate a lone witness's testimony with either physical evidence or a second person's testimony to meet the probable cause threshold, he said.

The attorney general's office declined to say who is on the witness list.

No one answered the door at McQueary's home Thursday. His father, John, declined comment to the Associated Press.

Tom Farrell, the attorney representing Schultz, and Caroline Roberto, a lawyer for Curley, declined to comment Thursday. In a statement earlier this week, they wrote: "Mr. Curley and Mr. Schultz look forward to the preliminary hearing to start the process of clearing their good names and demonstrating that they testified truthfully to the grand jury."

McQueary told the grand jury that he happened upon "rhythmic, slapping sounds" in the locker room showers and added that both Sandusky and the boy saw him there, according to a grand jury presentment. Authorities did not know the boy's identity when the report was issued, but may have learned it since then.

McQueary has become a lightning rod in the case, taking heat for not going to the boy's aid or immediately calling police. In a recent email to friends, he went on the defensive, saying he made sure the abuse stopped and went to authorities.

Defense lawyers would no doubt challenge McQueary about his more recent statements. Local and campus police have said they received no such complaint.

Meanwhile, the Patriot-News of Harrisburg has reported that McQueary's story changed when speaking in 2002 to Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a family friend. The newspaper report cited a source said to be familiar with Dranov's testimony.

"If this information is true, and we believe it is, it would be powerful, exculpatory evidence and the charges against our clients should be dismissed," Roberto and Farrell said in their statement.

The Associated Press was unable to reach Dranov this week at his home and office.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-15-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-cf1d430601e349e08c89a6053e87824f

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Paterno: I didn't press for details on Sandusky

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno told a grand jury earlier this year that he was told his ex-assistant Jerry Sandusky had done something of "a sexual nature'' with a boy in 2002.

McQueary: I told Paterno I saw Sandusky with boy

??A Penn State assistant football coach testified Friday that he believes he saw former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky molesting a boy and that he that he fully conveyed what he had seen to two Penn State administrators.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45690407/ns/sports-nfl/

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Analysis: Best Buy previews other retailers' margin hits (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) is the first of many retailers that will report falling margins as merchants reluctantly cling to steep discounts to draw consumers in this holiday season.

On Tuesday, electronics retailer Best Buy saw its shares fall more than 15 percent when third-quarter earnings missed analyst expectations because of discounting.

Best Buy is the first major retailer to report earnings for a period that includes "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving that marks the start of the brisk U.S. holiday shopping season. As more retailers report, more disappointing margins are expected.

"I think Best Buy is the canary in the coal mine. I think we're going to hear retailers across all categories, with the exception of luxury, reporting depressed margin for the holiday time period," said Joel Bines, managing director of consulting firm AlixPartners.

Over the past several days other retailers, including industry giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), have said that they will see margins hit by discounting as consumers faced with high unemployment and economic uncertainty have been conditioned to search for deals.

"We are investing in price," Walmart U.S. Chief Merchandising Officer Duncan Mac Naughton said last week at a Credit Suisse conference. "You've seen that in our Q3 margin; we had a 22 basis-point compression in margin. You're going to see it again in Q4, because we continue to invest in price to drive our price separation and our price leadership."

Wal-Mart's gross margin is expected to fall to 24.5 percent this quarter from 25.1 percent a year earlier, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Other retailers where analysts expect to see declines are: Gap Inc (GPS.N), to 32.7 percent from 38.2 percent; J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N), to 36.7 percent from 37.6 percent; Macy's Inc (M.N), to 41 percent from 41.3 percent; and Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF.N), to 60.1 percent from 63.6 percent.

"FREE" COSTS RETAILERS

Retailers were expected to have to discount heavily to snatch customers from competitors this season, as total sales were not expected to grow that much, despite the flurry of crowds that came out on Black Friday.

With higher cotton prices from the first half of the year still filtering through the supply chain, the question is which retailers will be hit worse than expected.

On Monday, clothing retailer Urban Outfitters Inc (URBN.O) said that same-store sales were up mid-single-digits so far in the fourth quarter and its shares jumped.

But Barclays analyst Stacy Pak said the cost of promotions was likely greater than expected and lowered the fourth-quarter earnings estimate for the retailer to 36 cents a share from 38 cents a share.

After a meeting with management, J.P. Morgan analyst Matthew Boss said he expected gross margins for department store chain Dillards Inc (DDS.N) to be worse than expected, citing a more promotional competitive environment, especially in goods where the same product is also sold at rivals like Macy's and J.C. Penney.

Offers like free shipping for online sales raise costs for retailers, who hope to make it up by selling more stuff.

Target Corp (TGT.N) and Walmart are among the other chains that started to offer free shipping on their sites this season, with certain conditions.

"Almost everybody is on the free shipping kick," Trutina Financial Chief Investment Officer Patty Edwards said.

Labor costs are also likely to hit margins, as retailers extend hours to try to get shoppers in, Edwards said.

Macy's will be open for 83 straight hours beginning December 21 and Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O) said its Sears stores will stay open until midnight from December 14 to December 23.

The National Retail Federation forecast a 2.8 percent increase in sales for November and December, compared with a 5.2 percent rise in the 2010 holiday season. However, the trade association said on Tuesday that it would re-evaluate that forecast based on the strength it has seen so far.

As Christmas draws closer, more deep discounts are in the offing.

"Consumers are really waiting for another spate of deals as strong as Black Friday and Cyber Monday to really get them off their couches," said John Long, retail strategist for Kurt Salmon. "As we get further and further into the holiday season, that's what consumers are still responding best to."

(Reporting by Brad Dorfman and Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/bs_nm/us_usa_retail_margins

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Chained children in Pakistan: Not an uncommon treatment for addicts

Police rescued dozens of students at an Islamic seminary in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Chaining is not unheard of for drug or mental health treatment in the region.

Police rescued dozens of students at an Islamic seminary Monday in the Pakistani city of Karachi, saying that some of them were drug addicts kept in chains. While the case has gained global notoriety, this form of ?rehabilitation? is not unheard of in the region.

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The Associated Press reported that parents of some 60 youths paid the seminary to ?treat their children through a regime of Islamic instruction and worship, or simply to take them off their hands.?

Chaining as a form of rehabilitation goes on in other religious institutions in the region, most notably Sufi shrines. I reported for the Monitor in 2009 on a shrine outside Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where families would leave relatives who were mentally ill or addicted to drugs.

A standard treatment at the shrine was to chain a patient for 40 days, either in a small cell or to a tree in the courtyard, and administer a strict diet of bread and black pepper:

"Mia Sahib, one of the shrine-keepers, explains that his patients are possessed by demons known as?djinns. For some, he offers a?taweez?- a Koranic verse written on a slip of paper. Others require 40 days of confinement.

"A mental patient doesn't know himself," explains Mia Sahib. "In 40 days, he is going to know himself fast. He will know he has some?djinn?inside. Once he knows he has a?djinn?inside, he will clean himself. And once he cleans himself, he will know Allah."

Mia Sahib claimed to have some success with this method, but he admitted he could do little for patients addicted to opium. Yet, during my visit, he was still confining in chains a drug addict named Waseem from Pakistan. Waseem explained that a relative had tricked him into making the journey that resulted in his imprisonment.

Reports out of Karachi talk of grubby conditions in the basement of the seminary where the students were chained.

The men were not allowed to use the bathrooms at night either. ?It?s embarrassing to tell but we were given a water bottle to pee in. If we urinated in bed, we were lashed,? said Babar, a teenager.?

I observed similar conditions at the shrine. Each of the patients lived alone in a tiny cell with no door. Each had only a couple feet at most of slack in the chain that linked his ankle to the nearby wall. Some would use uncollected trash in their sell to fling their own waste out the doorway.

Afghanistan has made some strides in modernizing its mental health system, including upgrades to psychiatric wards and the replacement of chains with medication. But mental health doctors still expressed frustration that people sometimes still preferred to send their relatives to shrines like the one outside Jalalabad.

The mental health community in Afghanistan is hoping education campaigns will eventually put the shrines out of work. Meanwhile, the Karachi case is focusing renewed attention on madrassah reform,?with critics arguing the seminaries need more oversight to prevent cases of physical and sexual abuse. One of the most gripping pleas for reform came days before the Karachi raid, when a former madrassah student penned a first-person essay about the abuse he experienced.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/BLrLfP9qOa4/Chained-children-in-Pakistan-Not-an-uncommon-treatment-for-addicts

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Firms press EU over carbon price

Some of Europe's biggest energy and manufacturing firms say the EU must act to raise the price of carbon and ensure that CO2 emissions targets are met.

A letter to the European Commission from the industry group warns that the future of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is at stake.

The EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (EUCLG) includes Royal Dutch Shell, Enel, Alstom and Acciona.

EU carbon permits have dropped 55% in price this year, to 6.45 euros (?5.40).

ETS permits, each representing a tonne of carbon emissions, are traded to give industry a financial incentive to cut CO2 emissions and invest instead in green energy.

The EUCLG's patron is Britain's Prince Charles. The group's letter called for permits to be withheld in Phase Three of the ETS, which begins in 2013.

Reducing the supply of carbon permits would push up the price, they argue, saying "it is critical that the European institutions take decisive action now".

Too many permits?

The letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged a "recalibration of Phase Three of the ETS by withholding allowances and designing a robust Phase Four that will send the right long-term price and investment signal and will immediately strengthen the carbon price".

The EUCLG Director, Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, told BBC News that "the ETS is no longer functioning as it should be functioning".

"We're in a financial crisis, and as we're trying to look at the eurozone we need to look at the existing [carbon] market and make sure it's functioning, so recalibrating the market to take into consideration the situation we're in."

She said the financial crisis had helped to reduce Europe's CO2 emissions, because of the slump in industrial output. That makes it more likely that the EU will meet its target of a 20% emissions cut by 2020.

"So the question is whether we need to tighten that target," she said, adding that some companies in the EUCLG were calling for a cut of 25% or even 30%.

Currently the ETS, launched in 2005, sets pollution limits for more than 11,000 energy firms and carbon-intensive manufacturers.

If an installation's CO2 emissions are higher than the number of permits it has, it must buy extra allowances from other installations which are lower CO2 emitters.

The EUCLG wants the EU's Energy Efficiency Directive to be aligned with the ETS, because it expects a 13.9% reduction in carbon prices if firms in the ETS increase their energy efficiency.

The letter says the EU must take account of the potential impact of the directive and other green energy policies on the carbon price, to ensure that the ETS remains viable.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-16193954

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London Stock Exchange to buy 50% stake in FTSE for GBP450m

BBR Staff Writer Published 13 December 2011

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has agreed to acquire the 50% stake in index provider FTSE International it does not already own from Pearson for total cash consideration of GBP450m.

FTSE International, established in 1995 as a joint venture between LSEG and Financial Times Group, offers a broad and international suite of products and services.

FTSE has reported a revenue of GBP98.5m, EBITDA of GBP40m and a net income of GBP9.4m in 2010 and currently calculates and manages more than 200,000 indices worldwide which are linked to over $3 trillion in global assets under management.

The deal will help diversify LSEG's business into indices, data and analytics and creates new opportunities for LSEG's listed derivatives trading business.

LSEG CEO Xavier Rolet said that this is a business they know well, and they expect that going forward their customers will benefit from greater choice, opportunity and innovation. They expect this transaction to create long-term value and growth for their customers and shareholders.

The acquisition is expected to close by the first quarter of 2012.

Morgan Stanley & Co. is acting as financial adviser to LSE Group in relation to the FTSE transaction.

Source: http://ecnandexchanges.banking-business-review.com/news/london-stock-exchange-to-buy-50-stake-in-ftse-for-gbp450m-131211

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Barbara Walters Talks to 'Fascinating' People of 2011

Barbara Walters' ABC television special The Most Fascinating People of 2011 included some predictable newsworthy profiles -- the Kardashians, Simon Cowell, Katy Perry, Derek Jeter -- but the most surprising entry was the most fascinating person of 2011 was not on the show, because he's not alive.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/barbara-walters-talks-kardashians-other-fascinating-people-2011/1-a-411174?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Abarbara-walters-talks-kardashians-other-fascinating-people-2011-411174

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