Senin, 23 Maret 2009

Cheap prices 'lift US home sales'


Sign advertising homes that have been repossessed
Buyers have been snapping up bargains

US home sales rose last month, as buyers took advance of bargain priced houses that had previously been repossessed, industry data has shown.

Sales of existing homes grew 5.1% in February to an annual rate of 4.72 million, up from January's 4.49 million, the largest jump since 2003.

The average price fell 16% from a year earlier to $165,000 (£114,000), added the National Association of Realtors.

This was the second largest fall on record, said the estate agent body.

'Distressed homes'

Lawrence Yun, the organisation's chief executive said first-time buyers made up half of all existing home sales last month.

"Because entry-level buyers are shopping for bargains, distressed sales accounted for 40 to 45% of transactions in February," he said.

"Our analysis shows that distressed homes typically are selling for 20% less than the normal market price, and this naturally is drawing down the overall median price."

Last week the Commerce Department said US home construction soared 22% in February, from a year earlier, to a seasonally adjusted 583,000.

This was the first rise in seven months.

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'Scareware' scams trick searchers


Buy now button, SPL
Peddlers of bogus anti-virus try to scare people into buying

Using popular and mis-spelled search terms, the criminals divert people to sites that are seeded with fake warnings about virus infections.

The pop-up warnings claim that a visitor's PC is riddled with malicious programmes and spyware.

Research suggests some criminals are making as much as $10,000 a day from fake security software.

Cashing in

Computer security firm Finjan carried out the research into the techniques sellers of 'scareware' use to get their fake software in front of web users.

"They are misleading people with evidence that their machine is infected with viruses and they are encouraging them to download and buy software that basically does nothing," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at Finjan.

Studies suggest that 'scareware' is catching on among some hi-tech criminals.

A report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, released in March 2009, found 9,287 bogus anti-malware programmes in circulation in December 2008 - a rise of 225% since January 2008.

Natasha Richardson, PA
Scareware peddlers exploited the death of actress Natasha Richardson.

"The reason they are making so much money is the new techniques they are using, namely search engine optimisation," he said.

Mr Ben-Itzhak said a campaign to push scareware typically involves two groups of hi-tech criminals. One group compromises webpages and injects them with popular search terms, the other sells the fake security software.

Some seed pages with popular keywords such as "Obama" but others use terms associated with recent events. Some tried to cash in on the death of Natasha Richardson by using words taken from news stories about the actress's death.

Using these popular terms mean the pages appear high up in results when people carry out a keyword search.

Anyone clicking on a booby-trapped page is then instantly re-directed to the site hosting the links to the fake security software.

Once they arrive, visitors are bombarded with pop-ups warning that their PC is infected. To clear up the infection, users are told, they must download and pay for anti-virus software which typically costs about $50 (£34).

Mouse and mousemat, AP
The scareware sellers are exploiting top search terms

Through its research, Finjan got access to the web-based systems that one group of 'scareware' peddlers used to manage their search engine campaigns.

It found that, over a 16-day period, more than 1.8m people were re-directed to the sites pushing the 'scareware'. Of those visiting the sites 7-12% installed the fake software and 1.79% paid $50 for it.

Some of the proceeds from this is handed back to those who inject the search terms into webpages, netting them about $10,800 (£7,467) a day for their work.

Mr Ben-Itzhak said people should be very wary of any pop-up window claiming to find evidence of an infection.

"It's impossible to scan your local disk without installing software," he said.

A spokesman for Google said it tried to combat efforts to trick its indexing system into crediting a page with more popularity than it deserved.

"In cases in which we feel that sites are attempting to manipulate rankings, we make adjustments to counterbalance and also discourage those efforts," said the spokesman in a statement.

"Certain actions such as cloaking - writing text in such a way that it can be seen by search engines but not by users - or setting up pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling search engines may result in removal from our index," he added.

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Synthetic blood from embryos bid


Blood
Blood supplies are stretched

UK scientists plan a major research project to see if synthetic human blood can be made from embryonic stem cells.

Led by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, the three year trial could provide an unlimited supply of blood for emergency transfusions.

The blood should be free of infections like the human form of mad cow disease.

Teams will test human embryos left over from IVF treatment to find those destined to develop into the universal "O-negative" blood donor group.

O-negative blood can be transfused into anyone without fear of tissue rejection and is the only safe option when a patient's blood group is unknown or not immediately available.

This precious blood is in limited supply because only 7% of the population belongs to this blood group.

The Wellcome Trust is understood to have promised £3 million towards the cost of the multimillion-pound project, with further funding coming from the blood transfusion services of Scotland, and England and Wales.

The Irish government is also believed to be involved.

The project will be led by Professor Marc Turner of Edinburgh University who is the director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.

He said the work would begin in the next few weeks after final approval had been gained from the relevant research bodies.

Making fake blood from embryos
Stem cell manipulation graphic
1. Embryo created from IVF is tested for O-negative blood group, then allowed to develop for several days until stem cells can be extracted
2. Stem cells are cultured in laboratory with nutrients to stimulate red blood cell creation
3. Nuclei are removed in final stage to produce oxygen-carrying mature blood cells. Trillions of these will be needed to build up a blood bank

Stem cells are the body's master cells, with the ability to transform into any type of tissue.

Scientists have already shown it is possible to take a single stem cell from an early human embryo and encourage it to develop into mature blood cells in the laboratory.

And a US firm called Advanced Cell Technology has managed to produce billions of red blood cells from embryonic blood cells in this way.

The challenge now is to scale up the production and move the science from the lab to the bedside, which will take years.

Professor Turner said: "We should have proof of principle in the next few years, but a realistic treatment is probably five to 10 years away.

"In principle, we could provide an unlimited supply of blood in this way."

However, many groups object to the use of embryonic stem cells on the grounds that it is unethical to destroy embryos in the name of science.

Josephine Quintavalle of the public interest group Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: "Like so many of the claims associated with embryonic stem cells, this is first steps research rather than a cure around the corner, and just as hypothetical as the rest of the claims which try to justify destroying the human embryo for the benefit of mankind.

"Associating this controversial research with a National Blood Transfusion service may even end up contaminating the feel-good image of blood banks.

"Those who donate blood but who defend the right to life of the human embryo may be reluctant to continue giving their blood."



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