DROP THE BASS

For the first two minutes of Skrillex?s recent sold-out show at the cavernous Roseland Theater in Portland, Ore., I could almost believe, if I squinted hard enough, that I had time-warped back to a particularly boisterous mid-?90s rave. Swarms of glow sticks traced woozy neon loops on the main floor as Skrillex, perched before a Windows 95-screensaver-quality graphics projection, sent a swelling wave of warm synths through the crowd. Pacifiers abounded. To my left, a young woman wearing lime-green fishnets, a silver bikini bottom, and two strategically placed stickers did ... well, I?m not sure what, as my fianc?e was standing beside me, thus requiring a heroic display of ocular control from this correspondent. To my right, a bullet-headed man passed tabs of something to a willowy blonde and two tight-shirted men, who placed them under their tongues. New raves, the casual concertgoer might have thought, same as the old raves.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=e235e57c5099f463632a1fb446abf6db

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Penn St officials head to court on perjury charges

Penn State President Graham Spanier and Chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees Steve A. Garban exit Old Main just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, following an executive session. The board accepted the request of Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Penn State's Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz's request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

Penn State President Graham Spanier and Chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees Steve A. Garban exit Old Main just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, following an executive session. The board accepted the request of Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Penn State's Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz's request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

Penn State President Graham Spanier leaves in his car just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, following an executive session held at Old Main in University Park, Pa. The board accepted the request of Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Gary Schultz's request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

Penn State Vice President of Student Affairs Damon Sims exits Old Main late on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, following an executive session. The board accepted the request of Tim Curley to take an administrative leave and Gary Schultz's request to step down and return to retirement. (AP Photo/Chloe Elmer/Daily Collegian)

This undated photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows Gary Schultz. Schultz, Penn State vice president for finance and business, is expected to turn himself in on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, as he has been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young men, the state attorney general?s office said Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General)

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2002 file photo, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley answers questions about a letter he wrote to the Big Ten calling for a review of football officiating practices in State College, Pa. Curley is expected to turn himself in on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in Harrisburg, Pa., as he has been charged with perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into allegations former football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young men, the state attorney general?s office said Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Pat Little, File)

(AP) ? Just hours after stepping down, two high-ranking Penn State administrators face arraignment Monday on charges they lied to a grand jury investigating former defense coordinator Jerry Sandusky and failed to properly report suspected child abuse, a case that has left fans reeling.

Late Sunday, after an emergency meeting of the Board of Trustees, university President Graham Spanier announced that Athletic Director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, the school's senior vice president for business and finance, would be leaving their posts.

Curley requested to be placed on administrative leave so he could devote time to his defense, and Schultz will be going back into retirement, Spanier said. Both men have maintained they are innocent of any wrongdoing in connection with the probe into whether Sandusky sexually abused eight boys over a 15-year period.

State Attorney General Linda Kelly and state police Commissioner Frank Noonan are expected to hold a 1 p.m. news conference about the case Monday a few miles from the Harrisburg district court. The arraignment is scheduled for immediately after that.

Sandusky was arrested Saturday on charges that he preyed on boys he met through The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youths. The charity said in a statement Sunday that Sandusky had had no involvement with The Second Mile programs involving children since 2008, when Sandusky told the foundation that he was being investigation on child-sex allegations.

The case has rocked State College, a campus town routinely ranked among America's best places to live and nicknamed Happy Valley. Under head football coach Joe Paterno ? who testified before the grand jury and isn't considered a suspect ? the teams were revered both for winning games, including two national championships, and largely steering clear of trouble.

In a statement issued Sunday, Paterno said the charges were "shocking."

"The fact that someone we thought we knew might have harmed young people to this extent is deeply troubling," he said. "If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families. They are in our prayers."

Sandusky, whose defenses were usually anchored by tough-guy linebackers, spent three decades at the school. The charges against him cover the period from 1994 to 2009.

Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school's facilities, but university officials said Sunday they were moving to ban him from campus in the wake of the charges.

Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, told The Associated Press on Sunday that whether Paterno might testify was premature and nothing more than rampant speculation.

"That's putting the cart way ahead of the horse," he said. "We're certainly not going to be discussing the lineup of potential witnesses."

The allegations against Sandusky, who started The Second Mile in 1977, range from sexual advances to touching to oral and anal sex. The young men testified before a state grand jury that they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred; there is evidence even younger children may have been victimized.

Sandusky's attorney Joe Amendola said his client has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.

"He's shaky, as you can expect," Amendola told WJAC-TV. "Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life and having the distinguished career that he's had, these are very serious allegations."

Sandusky is charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, the grand jury report said.

He said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky. But when the boy resisted his advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the 1999 Alamo Bowl, the report said.

Sandusky also gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys, and even guaranteed that he could walk on to the football team, the grand jury said. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug.

The first case to come to light was a boy who met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky's house, the grand jury said. Eventually, the boy's mother reported the sexual assault allegations to his high school, and Sandusky was banned from the child's school district in Clinton County in 2009. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.

But the report also alleges much earlier instances of abuse and details failed efforts to stop it by some who became aware of what was happening.

Another child, known only as a boy about 11 to 13, was seen by a janitor pinned against a wall while Sandusky performed oral sex on him in fall 2000, the grand jury said.

And in 2002, Kelly said, a graduate assistant saw Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in a team locker room shower. The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Paterno, who immediately told Curley, prosecutors said.

The two school administrators fielded the complaint from an unnamed graduate assistant and from Paterno. Two people familiar with the investigation confirmed the identity of the graduate assistant as Mike McQueary, now the team's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. The two spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the names in the grand jury report haven't been publicly released.

McQueary's father, John, said his son was out of town on a recruiting trip Sunday, and he declined to comment about the case or say whether they were the two named in the grand jury report.

"I know it's online, and I know it's available," John McQueary told the AP. "I have gone out of my way not to read it for a number of reasons."

Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half after the attack was reported, Kelly said.

"Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law," Kelly said.

There's no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.

Schultz's lawyer, Thomas J. Farrell, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the mandated reporting rules only apply to people who come into direct contact with children. He also said the statute of limitations for the summary offense with which Schultz is charged is two years, so it expired in 2004.

The grand jury report that lays out the accusations against the men cites the state's Child Protective Services Law, which requires immediate reporting by doctors, nurses, school administrators, teachers, day care workers, police and others.

Neither Schultz nor Curley appear to have had direct contact with the boys Sandusky is accused of abusing, including the one involved in the eyewitness account prosecutors say they were given.

The law "applies only to children under the care and supervision of the organization for which he works, and that's Penn State, it's not The Second Mile," Farrell said of his client. "This child, from what we know, was a Second Mile child."

Messages left later Sunday seeking comment from Frederiksen with the attorney general's office, and from Curley's lawyer, Caroline Roberto, weren't immediately returned. Farrell said it was accurate to say the allegations against Curley are legally flawed in the same manner.

Farrell said he plans to seek dismissal at the earliest opportunity. "Now, tomorrow is probably not the appropriate time," Farrell said. "We'll bring every legal challenge that is appropriate, and I think quite a few are appropriate."

As a summary offense, failure to report suspected child abuse carries up to three months in jail and a $200 fine.

"As far as my research shows, there has never been a reported criminal decision under this statute, and the civil decisions go our way," he said.

Curley and Schultz also are accused of perjury for their testimony to the grand jury that issued a 23-page report on the matter Friday, the day before state prosecutors charged them. Sandusky was arrested Saturday and charged with 40 criminal counts.

Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it "merely 'horsing around,'" the grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Spanier of the matter.

The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz's testimony not to be credible.

Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.

But despite his job overseeing campus police, he never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, "never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002," the jurors wrote. "No one from the university did so."

Farrell said Schultz "should have been required only to report it to his supervisor, which he did."

Schultz reports to Spanier, who testified before the grand jury that Schultz and Curley came to him with a report that a staff member was uncomfortable because he'd seen Sandusky "horsing around" with a boy. Spanier wasn't charged.

About the perjury charge, Farrell said: "We're going to have a lot of issues with that, both factual and legal. I think there's a very strong defense here."

The university is paying legal costs for Curley and Schultz because the allegations against them concern how they fulfilled their responsibilities as employees, spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.

___

Genaro C. Armas in State College, Pa., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-07-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-8b149268fb654c448017976cbcdc4044

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Video: Ohio governor fumbles

No. 1 LSU gets its kicks out of OT win over No. 2 'Bama

No. 1 LSU gained the inside track to the BCS title game, beating No. 2 Alabama 9-6 on Drew Alleman's 25-yard field goal in overtime after a fierce defensive struggle in which neither team reached the end zone Saturday night.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45169851#45169851

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Dow jumps 208 after Greek referendum is scrapped (AP)

NEW YORK ? The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 208 points Thursday after Greece scrapped a referendum on unpopular budget cuts and the European Central Bank unexpectedly cut interest rates. It was the second straight day of big gains in the stock market.

The European Central Bank surprised markets by cutting its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point, to 1.25 percent. The bank had increased its key rate twice this year, but that was before Mario Draghi took over as head of the bank this week. The announcement sent stocks higher as investors hoped that lowering borrowing costs would help prevent a recession in Europe.

Buying intensified in the early afternoon after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou abandoned his effort to put package of austerity measures to a public vote. A "no" vote could have caused chaos in the European financial system by leading to a messy default on Greece's debt.

Investors and other European nations were shocked by Papandreou's announcement Monday that he would call a referendum on a financial rescue package worked out just last week after months of negotiations between Greece and its international lenders.

The Dow lost 573 points the first two days of this week as investors feared that Europe's plan to preserve its currency union was in jeopardy. Markets in the U.S. and Europe have been highly sensitive to headlines out of Europe as leaders there try to avoid a financial calamity. Investors have become fatigued as various efforts to resolve the situation seem to continually run into trouble.

"Today it looks like a deal in Europe is more likely and that's making the market positive, but who knows what people will think tomorrow," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 208.43 points, or 1.8 percent, to 12,044.47. The average closed above 12,000 for only the third time since the start of August. The Dow last closed above that level on Friday. Even with the gain of 386 points over the last two days, the Dow is still 1.5 percent below where it closed on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 23.25, or 1.9 percent, to 1,261.15. The Nasdaq composite added 57.99, or 2.2 percent, to 2,697.97.

Reports on the U.S. economy also lifted stocks. The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week dipped to the lowest level in five weeks. The number of applications fell below 400,000 for only the third time since April. That's a sign layoffs are easing. Companies also made more orders to U.S. factories in September.

"All of the economic data is pointing to a slow-growing economy, and putting the recession fears to rest," said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management Group.

Companies reporting quarterly earnings were among those making the biggest gains.

Estee Lauder Cos. jumped 18 percent, the top stock in the S&P 500. The company's quarterly earnings soared 46 percent on strong global sales, which beat analysts' expectations. The company also raised its annual earnings outlook.

Alpha Natural Resources rose 13.3 percent. The coal producer's profit more than doubled, helped by its acquisition of rival Massey Energy Co. and higher prices for coal used to make steel. The results topped estimates.

Qualcomm Inc. gained 7.5 percent, after the chip-maker for mobile phones said rising smartphone demand helped it post results that were stronger than analysts were expecting.

Kraft Foods Inc. rose 3.3 percent. The food company, whose brands include Nabisco and Maxwell House, reported a 22 percent jump in income thanks to higher prices on some of its products. Kraft also raised its full-year profit forecast.

Kellogg Co. dropped 7.6 percent after its quarterly earnings fell even further than analysts had expected. The cereal and snack maker was hit by higher costs for ingredients.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111103/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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The Smallest "Astronauts" Set for Launch Nov. 8 (preview)

Tardigrade is the cutest of the creatures being sent to Mars. (Magnification: 500) Image: Photo Researchers, Inc.

Could life on Earth have originated on Mars? over the past two decades that question has left the pages of science fiction and entered the mainstream of empirical science. Planetary scientists have found that rocks from Mars do make their way to Earth; in fact, we estimate that a ton of Martian material strikes our planet every year. Microorganisms might have come along for the ride. The impacts that launched these rocks into Earth-bound trajectories were violent, high-pressure events, but experiments show that certain species would survive. On passing through Earth?s atmosphere, Martian meteoroids are heated only a few millimeters in from their surfaces, so any microbes deeper inside would not burn up [see ?Did Life Come from Another World?? by David Warmflash and Benjamin Weiss; Scientific American, November 2005].

In between takeoff and landing, organisms would need to survive the coast through interplanetary space inside their rocky vessels. Orbital analyses indicate that most Mars meteoroids take thousands or millions of years to get here, but a few (about one in 10 million) arrive within a year or so. Could a bug cling to life for that length of time? The quest for an answer is about to begin.


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1bbba3e185e70d0e9b337a1aee767ede

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Video: Matthews: Obama must learn from his mistakes

Expect fewer fliers, packed planes for Thanksgiving

Fewer travelers will take to the skies this Thanksgiving but planes will be no less crowded, according to a forecast released Thursday by the Air Transport Association of America ?(ATA), the trade group for the U.S. airline industry.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45140704#45140704

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Kids still lie to get on Facebook

Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age

msnbc.com

By Helen A.S. Popkin

"Perverts."

That's the (incorrect) reason why Facebook has a minimum age requirement, according to parents in a peer-reviewed study, "Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the 'Children's Online Privacy Protection Act' (available from FirstMonday.org).

Other wrong responses included "because it?s more for adults," "children don?t need to have a social media presence"? and "due to adult content and language." Still,?"I don't know" was the most common response from parents who were even aware Facebook has an age restriction.

Of the 1,007 parents polled (all with kids aged 10-13), only two referenced?the correct answer: "Privacy." More specifically, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Live Poll

Should Facebook have an age restriction?

  • 165693

    No, it doesn't work!

    23%

  • 165694

    Yes, it needs enforcement!

    50%

  • 165695

    Nobody should be on Facebook!

    15%

  • 165696

    Other (explain in comments)

    1%

  • 165697

    How is this news?

    11%

VoteTotal Votes: 911

Enacted?by U.S.?Congress in 1998 (practically the Paleozoic era of the Internet), COPPA?requires commercial websites to obtain parental permission before collecting the personal info of any user under the age of 13. Facebook and other popular social networks avoid COPPA's costly,?cumbersome restrictions by simply restricting user age.

Thirteen years later, parents know little about the government restrictions meant to protect their kids' privacy, and many allow their children to lie about their ages to?join Facebook, while losing the intended protections of the government.

That's not how it's supposed to work, according to?the study which published these findings:

  • Half of parents in the study reported that their child is on Facebook, even in cases where children do not meet the legal age requirement for use of the site.
  • Among parents of children who are old enough to be on Facebook ? the parents of 13? and 14?year?olds ? almost three quarters (72 percent) report that their child uses the site.
  • Almost a fifth (19 percent) of respondents who were reporting on their 10?year?old child?s online experiences also noted that the child has a Facebook account. This number increases to nearly a third (32 percent) for children age 11 and over half (55 percent) for 12?year?olds.
  • While only 53 percent of parents believe that there is a minimum age, most (89 percent) parents stated that they believe that there "should" be a minimum age for Facebook use.
  • Of the 89 percent who believe that there should be a minimum age, the average age that they suggest is 14.9, which is considerably higher than the current minimum age (13). Interestingly, this age is also higher than what these same parents suggest is an appropriate age for a child to join Facebook: 14.

Why parents help their children lie to Facebook

But it's not Facebook and other such sites that need to change, or even parents, the study concludes. It's COPPA.

For the most part, Facebook and other social networks respect COPPA by promptly dumping any account tied to an underage user.

"Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage," Facebook privacy czar?Mozelle Thompson asserted in March, following a?study?by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that found nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the U.S. are using social network sites.

"If you are reporting a child?s account registered under a false date of birth, and the child?s age is reasonably verifiable as under 13, we will promptly delete the account. If the reported child?s age is not reasonably verifiable as under 13, then we may not be able to take action on the account," Thompson said.

In May, Consumer Reports said that 7.5 million Facebook users are under age 13, and?"a majority of parents of kids 10 and under seemed largely unconcerned by their children?s use of the site.? Further, the magazine's survey found "found that their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents, exposing them to malware or serious threats such as predators or bullies."

These findings don't differ much from the new study:

Although many sites restrict access to children, our data show that many parents knowingly allow their children to lie about their age ? in fact, often help them to do so ? in order to gain access to age?restricted sites in violation of those sites? Terms of Service (TOS). This is especially true for general?audience social media sites and communication services such as Facebook, Gmail, and Skype, which allow children to connect with peers, classmates, and family members for educational, social, or familial reasons.

Parents equate age restrictions with maturity, and many considered that the litmus test as to whether they allowed their kids to violate Facebook's Terms of Service by lying about their age to join, according to the study. It also found that parents are indeed concerned about privacy and online safety issues, but they also may?not understand the risks that children face or how their data or how their data are used."

Perhaps parental unawareness of privacy issues speaks well of COPPA's initial effectiveness. "COPPA has succeeded both in stopping some egregious predatory data practices and in raising some level of awareness of the issue of collecting data about children," the study points out. "The FTC has actively enforced COPPA, leveraging civil penalties against those who fail to obtain parental consent or ineffectively implement its provisions."

Of course, when kids lie about their age to get on Facebook, their personal data is collected, no parental consent needed. Indeed, a lot has changed since COPPA launched in 1998. "Social network sites, mobile communication technology, geo?locative data (i.e., a child?s physical location as known to a Web service or mobile device), and interactive media," are the examples cited?in 2010 by the FTC calling for public comments revisiting COPPA.

"Perverts" will always be an Internet danger parents need to be concerned about. "Adult content and language" is now unavoidable in any media form, and arguably "a social media presence" is now a fact of life. Laws can't replace parents when it comes to safely shepherding children through the unavoidable Internet, but there online privacy has its place for both children and adults.

As the government continues to wrestle with Internet regulation and online privacy, the study points out that age restriction ? given both the difficulty in online age verification and parental willingness to allow kids to lie?? is not a realistic solution. Instead, the study proposes that "policy?makers shift away from privacy regulation models that are based on age or other demographic categories and, instead, develop universal privacy protections for online users."?

Note:"Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the 'Children's Online Privacy Protection Act' (available from FirstMonday.org) is authored by Berkman Center for Internet & Society members danah boyd,?Eszter Hargittai, Jason Schultz, and John Palfrey.

More on the annoying way we live now:

Helen A.S. Popkin?goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook.?Also, Google+.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/01/8581244-kids-still-lie-to-get-on-facebook-parents-still-ok-with-that

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Sarkozy and Merkel to speak Tuesday on Greece (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? French President Nicolas Sarkozy will discuss Greece's decision to hold a referendum on its bailout deal with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday afternoon and then hold an urgent ministerial meeting, Sarkozy's office said.

Markets tumbled across Europe in response to the announcement of a referendum, which is expected to take place in a few weeks.

Last week's 130 billion-euro ($180 billion) bailout package had raised hopes a line could be drawn under banks' Greek losses and euro zone bonds could be sold to China and other investors.

Sarkozy's office said he would meet his top ministers, including the prime minister, finance minister and foreign minister as well as the central bank governor, at 1700 local time (1600 GMT) to discuss Greece's decision.

"No statement is due after the ministerial meeting," a presidential source said.

Share prices of French banks and other lenders exposed to Greece and other weak euro zone countries slumped on Tuesday.

Societe Generale tumbled 13 percent and BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole fell more than 10 percent. They are among the most exposed to Greece through sovereign debt holdings and loans.

"We have just added fuel to the fire and we don't understand at all the decision of the Greek PM," said Marc Touati, chief economist at Assya Compagnie Financiere in Paris.

"If there is a referendum the 'no' will win. Greece is playing a suicidal game that could lead to its exit of the euro zone so there is fear on French banks, but also on (euro zone) states."

REBUKE

The Greek government's decision brought a sharp rebuke from a former industry minister and close ally of Sarkozy within his UMP ruling party, Christian Estrosi, who called the move "totally irresponsible."

"When we are in a crisis situation and others want to help you it is insulting to try to save one's skin rather than to face one's responsibilities," said Estrosi.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is seen winning 10 percent of the vote in next year's presidential elections with calls for more protectionism and for France to leave the euro, said it was time for European leaders to come up with a "plan B" to prepare an exit from the euro before "catastrophe and panic" strikes.

"We tried to gain time at an exorbitant cost for the people knowing that the end was inevitable," Le Pen told i-Tele television.

"We now need to get round the table and prepare a concerted, intelligent plan to leave the euro with our European partners. This mad dash must end otherwise there will be revolt among European people."

(Writing by John Irish; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/bs_nm/us_france_germany_greece

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