NEW YORK, May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Spain declined 0.9 percent in March to 104.3 (2004 = 100), following no change in February, and a 0.5 percent increase in January.

At the same time, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) for Spain, a measure of current economic activity, declined 0.2 percent in March to 98.1 (2004 = 100), following a 0.2 percent decline in both February and January.

In March, The Conference Board LEI for Spain started to decline again after briefly rising in December and January, and its six-month growth rate fell deeper into negative territory. At the same time, The Conference Board CEI for Spain has been declining for almost a year. Taken together, the recent behavior of the composite indexes suggests that the current contraction in Spain is unlikely to end in the near term.

About The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Spain The composite economic indexes are the key elements in an analytic system designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle. The leading and coincident economic indexes are essentially composite averages of several individual leading or coincident indicators. They are constructed to summarize and reveal common turning point patterns in economic data in a clearer and more convincing manner than any individual component – primarily because they smooth out some of the volatility of individual components.

The six components of The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® for Spain include:

Capital Equipment Component of Industrial Production Contribution to Euro M2 Stock Price Index Long term Government Bond Yield Order Books Survey Job Placings For more information including full press release and technical notes:

http://www.conference-board.org/data/bcicountry.cfm?cid=9

For more information about The Conference Board global business cycle indicators:

http://www.conference-board.org/data/bci.cfm

About The Conference Board The Conference Board is an independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world’s leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States.
www.conference-board.org .

Summary Table of Composite Indexes
2012 6-month
Jan Feb Mar Sep to Mar
Leading Economic Index (LEI) 105.3 r 105.3 r 104.3
Percent Change 0.5 0.0 r -0.9 -1.5
Diffusion 66.7 50.0 .0 25.0
Coincident Economic Index (CEI) 98.5 p 98.3 p 98.1 p
Percent Change -0.2 p -0.2 p -0.2 p -1.8 p
Diffusion 20.0 40.0 40.0 20.0
n.a. Not available p Preliminary r Revised
Indexes equal 100 in 2004
Source: The Conference Board All Rights Reserved

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Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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A source close to the matter says Landis received a letter earlier this month notifying him of a probe being overseen by the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of California in San Diego. The existence of the letter was first reported by the newspaper U-T San Diego on Thursday.

Jason Dufner

Dufner has 18 Top Ten finishes in 163 prior PGA Tour events. He nearly won twice in 2011, finishing second in playoffs at both the Waste Management Phoenix Open and PGA Championship. In two rounds this week he has averaged 25 putts per round, the best in the field. He has played bogey-free for the last 20 holes, including an eagle at the par-5 18th hole in Friday#39;s second round. Jason Dufner will begin Saturday#39;s third round at 12-under par for the tournament.

Russell Knox

Playing on the Nationwide Tour in 2011, Russell Knox won the Chiquita Classic and finished #12 on the money list to earn a PGA Tour card for 2012. With less than $50,000 in earnings, missing the cut in six out of eight events entered, he has literally struggled to make ends meet in his rookie PGA Tour season. With seven birdies on Friday, plus an eagle at the 18th hole, Knox shot an 8-under par 64 in the second round to tie the TPC Louisiana course record. He is 11-under par for the tournament and will be paired with Jason Dufner and Ken Duke in the final group in Saturday#39;s third round.

Ken Duke

Ken Duke has nearly $6 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour, with 14 Top Ten finishes in 149 events entered, but (like Dufner and Knox) is still chasing his first victory. In his two rounds this week he has suffered only one bogey, at the 16th hole on Friday, posting scores of 65 and 68. Five years ago, he finished second at the 2007 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Ken Duke is playing very well in New Orleans once again, hoping to improve one position this time and claim his first PGA Tour win.

The headliners at the 2012 Zurich Classic of New Orleans include Bubba Watson (2012 Masters Champion and 2011 winner at New Orleans) and Luke Donald (currently ranked #2 in the world). The leaders after 36 holes, however, are three professionals still looking to win for the first time in their PGA Tour careers.

Harold Andrews has played golf (competitively and recreationally) for nearly 50 years. He considers Jack Nicklaus the greatest golfer of all time.

source:

pgatour.com

A barred owl, perched on a nearby tree limb, made eerie-sounding love calls to its companion, adding to the excitement. A dark woods can be full of noises.

The trio was after big turkey gobblers on a Kansas farm filled with row crops and wood strips. Scott paused to listen and was rewarded by a booming GOBBLE and then another to acknowledge the gobbler was roosting where he had hoped.

The veteran hunter felt a flush of excitement while knowing his companions eyes must have widened at the sound of that big bird gobbling from his roost, a magnificent sound for hunters or non-hunters.

The trio stopped and listened to that most incredible time when sounds of birds and various creatures announce dawns arrival. They took a few more steps and suddenly the night exploded with sounds of heavy wings flapping as turkey flew off into the night.

Scott knew they had walked through the gobblers lair and pushed the turkeys off their roost, always a possibility every hunter dreads when moving into a darkened turkey hunting woods.

A big gobbler flew down from the left side of a nearby path and three hens from the right side, Macie said. Dad quickly set up our hunting tent and a Pretty Boy gobbler decoy. The turkeys seemed to stay in the field, so we settled in and waited.

Dawn broke and Macie saw the gobbler coming back from about 250 yards away. Then three more turkeys appeared.

We thought that two of the new birds were jakes and one was a hen, Logan said. Another hen moved in and they all started moving towards the blind. We felt kind of nervous.

Scott started a series of yelps and clucks on his slate call and soon heard heavy wing beats behind the tent. Everyone slowly turned to look out the back slit in the blind to see a big gobbler had moved in behind their position.

The gobbler started putting on a show of fanning, strutting and dragging his wings tips to show dominance to other toms in the area. Scott could clearly hear him drumming, a sound gobblers make during the breeding season.

I was really excited because all of the turkeys were coming towards us and that big gobbler was showing off, Macie said. There were four or five turkeys in front of us. My heart started beating fast.

Its nearly time for us to pay — or be paid by — Uncle Sam, and that means its also high season for tax-related phishing scams, when rogue websites masquerade as legitimate tax prep providers, banks or even the IRS to con us out of our user names, passwords and credit card information.

But phishing isnt limited to tax season. Web hucksters work year-round, and they wear many disguises. These fraudsters impersonate everything from legitimate airlines and mail carrier companies to financial institutions.

Online scamming can also take a more innocuous form — but one thats worthy of forewarning all the same: phony product and service reviews. While fake reviews on sites like Amazon are nothing new, companies are now offering consumers cash to rave about their goods.

Here are some tips on how to avoid being duped.

Identifying the Fake Tax Man

bull; Keep your eyes peeled for emails that seem to come from known tax-prep software companies such as TurboTax and TaxACT. Scammers, who hijack logos from these companies to make their emails appear authentic, will often include generic salutations like dear sir/madam, or dear customer rather than your name, which is a scam tip off, Christine Frietchen, editor in chief of ConsumerSearch.com, a review aggregator that compares product ratings from experts and user reviews, tells DailyFinance.

bull; Tax-season scammers will also assume the identity of a trusted financial institution, be it a retail bank like Chase or an investment bank such as Vanguard, Frietchen says.

bull; Beware of links and attachments in emails: Theyre a giveaway for fraudsters. Financial institutions wont send you attachments unless they reflect documents you specifically requested, Frietchen says.

Phishing emails will often urge recipients to click on a link or open an attachment with messages like, Heres your important tax document … we need you to confirm your data or otherwise we cant issue your refund, or, we urgently need more information or your tax return will be late, Frietchen says. Because theres a timely relevance to the message, they can sound more legitimate. Dont take the bait.

bull; The IRS itself is alerting filers to be on the lookout for a new, bogus email alerting recipients that theyll be penalized up to $10,000 for failing to file their tax return on time, with a false Jan. 31 deadline. It might include the subject line: Penalty for not filing tax return on time.

The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or any social media tool to request personal information, says IRS.gov.

For a comprehensive list of common tax scams, check here. You can also forward suspect emails to phishing@irs.gov.

Sniffing Out Common Phishing Tactics

Most scam emails, whether they pretend to come from a reputable shipping company like FedEx, a bank or airline, share some common themes.

bull; If you receive an email from a company youve never done business with, be wary.

bull; Scam emails are designed to elicit a knee-jerk reaction in recipients — to make you think theres trouble with your account, an order or your personal finances, Frietchen says.

bull; Poor grammar is another tip-off. Because many scammers are based in foreign countries, the writing style they use in their bogus emails is often stilted or just wrong. They wont phrase things the way a native English speaker would, Frietchen says.

bull; If you see others CCed in a email, be suspicious. A legitimate email from an institution will not copy others in an email intended for you.

Sussing Out Suspect Reviews

Businesses have long been guilty of trying to tout their products with glowing reviews posted by their own employees impersonating thrilled shoppers. But as The New York Times reported last month, the practice has taken on a new dimension. In December, merchant VIP Deals was exposed for offering a full refund for its Kindle Fire case in exchange for a favorable review of the product on Amazon.com

The content and language of five-star fakes tend to follow a pattern, Frietchen says.

bull; Over-the-top accolades about a product or a place, such as a hotel, should be considered suspect, especially when they include superlatives such as great or wonderful, she says.

bull; Another tip off is the use of an entire product name and model number in the description, such as the Cuisinart 57321 coffeemaker instead of simply, the Cuisinart coffeemaker.

LONDON, Apr 27, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Hunting PLC

/quotes/zigman/154392 UK:HTG
+0.58%

, the international energy services group today
announces completion of the sale of Hunting Canadian Airport Holdings
Ltd., and its subsidiaries including Field Aviation Company Inc.
(together referred to as “Field Aviation”) for a consideration of GBP 7.5
million (C$12.0 million), to Amavco Inc., through its subsidiary 1650614
Alberta Ltd., a group of companies owned by a consortium of North
American investors assembled by the current management team. The
consideration is payable in cash, subject to the adjustments noted below.

Under the terms of the sale agreement, Hunting has agreed to defer GBP 1.9
million (C$3.0 million) of the consideration. The deferred consideration
is receivable no later than 31 December 2018, earns interest at a rate
of 8% per annum, is unsecured and is subordinate to bank debt put in
place by the purchaser.

In addition, Hunting and the purchaser have agreed to establish an
environmental escrow account to pay for any potential environmental
matters which may arise relating to Field Aviation’s hangar facilities
in Calgary. The escrow account will remain in place until the property
lease expires in 2027 or to a time when such environmental matters have
been satisfactorily resolved. On completion of the sale, Hunting will
deposit GBP 2.5 million (C$4.0 million) into this environmental escrow
account.

As disclosed within the 2011 Hunting PLC Annual Report and Accounts, the
net assets of Field Aviation excluding intercompany balances were GBP 5.1
million as at 31 December 2011.

For further information please visit
www.huntingplc.com

Notes to Editors:

About Hunting PLC

Hunting PLC is an international energy services provider to the world’s
leading upstream oil and gas companies. Established in 1874, it is a
fully listed public company traded on the London Stock Exchange. The
Company maintains a corporate office in Houston and is headquartered
in London. As well as the United Kingdom, the Company has principal
operations in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Netherlands,
Singapore, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

SOURCE: Hunting PLC

Hunting PLC
Dennis Proctor, Chief Executive
Tel: +1 713 595 2950
or
Peter Rose, Finance Director
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7321 0123
or
Buchanan
Richard Darby
Jeremy Garcia
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000
or
DC Advisory Partners
Andrew Cunningham
Michelle Le Merre
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7856 0999

Copyright Business Wire 2012

/quotes/zigman/154392

Add to portfolio

UK:HTG

Hunting PLC

UK

: U.K.: London

782.50
p

+4.50
+0.58%

Volume: 317,243
May 15, 2012 4:35p

P/E RatioN/A
Dividend YieldN/A

Market Cap£1.14 billion
Rev. per Employee£166,521

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Geary County Sheriff’s officials say the friends traveled to Kansas from Minnesota and were hunting on public hunting grounds two miles northeast of the intersection of US-77 and Dundon Road off of Range Road, south of Milford.

“This morning shortly after 7 AM, we received word from Geary Community Hospital that a gunshot wound victim had come into the emergency room. Deputies responded up there and found that this was the result of a bad hunting accident. The two gentlemen came in from Minnesota to go hunting. They found an area of public hunting grounds out by Milford Lake. They went out together before light this morning and decided to split up and then when it got light out, one of them decided to get up and start moving around and he walked across the field of view of his buddy. Being dressed in all camouflage, he blended in with the background and the gentleman thought he saw a turkey in the area and he shot and ended up shooting his friend,” explained Geary County Undersheriff Tony Wolf.

Deputies say that the victim, 53-year-old Brian Hansen, from Maple Grove, Minnesota, was about 45 yards out in front of his friend, 67-year-old Terrance Spaeth, when he was shot with #4 Turkey Load. Spaeth told authorities that he saw movement in the woods and thought he saw a blue turkey head walking along the wood line of the ravine so he fired immediately. Since they had split up, Spaeth did not know where Hansen was at the time.

“After the initial shot, he saw what he thought was a turkey laying on the ground flailing around so he decided to shoot it again in an attempt to put it out of its misery. That’s when he realized that it was his friend because of the moaning,” Undersheriff Wolf explained.

Spaeth dragged Hansen out of the woods and drove him to Geary Community Hospital. He was later transferred by ambulance to Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka for further treatment.

Responding Geary County Sheriff’s deputies say Hansen received multiple pellet wounds from the shotgun to the entire right side of his body- his head, the side of his face, shoulder area, hand, lower buttocks, groin and leg. A representative for Stormont-Vail Hospital says they do have him listed as a patient, however, the family has requested no further information on his condition be released.

The Geary County Sheriff’s Office is assisting the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks in the investigation. Terrance Spaeth is not facing any criminal charges in the incident because Wolf says it “appears to be a bad accident.” Spaeth told deputies that he has been hunting turkeys for 30 years and has been coming to Geary County for turkey hunting over the past four years.

MADRID — In the latest twist in a drama now gripping Spain, King Juan Carlos underwent surgery for the second time on Thursday since fracturing his hip while elephant hunting in Botswana earlier this month.

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King Juan Carlos, left, and family members attending Easter Mass in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The royal family is under scrutiny for recent missteps.

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King Juan Carlos leaving his hospital room in Madrid after being discharged April 18.

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Iñaki Urdangarin, the son-in-law of King Juan Carlos, has been accused of embezzlement.

Reuters

Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y Borbón, a grandson of the king, illegally used a shotgun.

In a statement released Friday, the royal household said that the king had been operated on for injuries to his right hip and released at 11 a.m. after spending the night in a Madrid hospital. It added that his recovery was “satisfactory,” that he was able to walk and that he would continue intensive physical therapy.

The second operation — prompted after the 74-year-old monarch twisted his hip while receiving the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates here on Thursday — is the latest development in what has fast become a national debate about the king’s behavior and the role of the royal family in Spanish public life. It has also raised questions about whether the king has the strength — or tact — to perform his role, and of what should happen if he does not.

Coming just weeks after the king told the nation he was losing sleep worrying about jobless Spaniards, news of the expensive hunting trip set off intense outrage here, where figures released Friday showed unemployment at nearly 25 percent and where the country’s banks, saddled with bad debt from a housing boom, may need a bailout. On Thursday, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s debt.

Long known for being alert to the national mood, Juan Carlos took an unprecedented step on April 18 and became the first monarch to apologize in public. “I am sorry, I made a mistake and it won’t happen again,” he said, standing with the aid of crutches and speaking on television from the hospital.

The ill-fated hunting excursion is the latest misstep in a bad year for the royal family. The king’s son-in-law was accused of embezzling public funds and in February became the first Spanish royal in modern history to be questioned in court. This month, a 13-year-old grandson of the king, Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y Borbón, shot himself in the foot with a shotgun he was too young to use legally.

Beyond the tabloid fodder, the scandals have prompted a soul-searching about the role of the monarchy in Spanish democracy nearly 40 years after Franco’s death.

“This is a crucial moment for Spain,” said Santos Juliá, a historian of Spain’s transition to democracy. “The distance between the crown and the people has never manifested itself so acutely before.”

He added: “This isn’t something that can be ignored, or the stuff of gossip magazines. It has profound causes and requires profound remedies.”

Brought back from exile by Franco, King Juan Carlos is credited with shepherding Spain’s transition to democracy in the late 1970s after the dictator’s death, and the monarchy had grown to command more respect, and more deference from the press, than any other institution in Spain.

Today, all that has changed. Spaniards are questioning whether the monarchy is a necessary guarantor of Spanish democracy, or if the king is essentially an exceptionally well-bred lobbyist whose private agenda should be made public like that of any politician.

Indeed, the king raised eyebrows when it emerged that the weeklong safari, which the Spanish news media have estimated to cost $50,000, had been paid for by a Syrian businessman who helped Juan Carlos open doors in Saudi Arabia, where in January a Spanish consortium won a $8.9 billion contract to build a high-speed train to Mecca.

The king has close ties with rulers in the Persian Gulf, Spanish analysts say, and days before traveling to Botswana the king also traveled to Kuwait to meet the emir, although on what kind of business it is not known.

Under Spanish custom, but not law, the king alerts the Spanish prime minister of his whereabouts. But the office of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has not said whether he knew the details of the king’s trip to Botswana, which the royal household has called a private trip.

As head of state, the king has played a crucial, often behind-the-scenes, role in Spanish politics, where both the Socialists and right-wing Popular Party have appealed to him for support. But questions about his business activities have grown since the investigation into the king’s son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball champion who prosecutors say embezzled as much as $7.7 million in public money earmarked for sports and tourism events. Mr. Urdangarin denies any wrongdoing.

The news media scrutiny — and questions about whether the family would receive special treatment in court — have prompted a royal public relations offensive. In December, the family posted part of its budget online for the first time; it showed that the royals cost the state around $11 million in 2011, down 25 percent from 2010. Javier Ayuso, the spokesman for the royal household, said that the crisis had prompted the household to speed up a transparency offensive. “The new Web site is going to be a real landmark; we are going to reveal a lot of information,” Mr. Ayuso said.

For years, there was “a kind of nonwritten pact in which nobody will talk about the private life of the royal family,” said Mr. Ayuso, a former editor at the left-wing newspaper El País. “But some months ago this has changed, so we have to cope with that.”

The Spanish press has generally treated the royal family with kid gloves — especially the left-wing press, which saw Juan Carlos as playing a crucial role in preserving Spanish democracy during a military coup attempt in 1981. Not so today.

“Since this latest news, there’s been a kind of tsunami in public opinion: ‘We don’t want this king,’ ” said Carmen Enriquez, a journalist who has covered the royal family for Spanish national television for nearly 20 years. Now, “the republicans who always thought the monarchy was useless finally have arguments, and people who respect the king and think the monarchy has been a useful institution now are indignant for what happened and have no more arguments.”

By republicans, she was referring to Spanish leftists nostalgic for the Spanish republic that was defeated by Franco in 1939.

As Natalia Ocaña, 30, stood in a square in Madrid where some windows hung flags to the Spanish Republic, she said that her mother remembered the king’s role in blocking the 1981 coup d’état. “She has gratitude for him. She forgives him,” Ms. Ocaña said, adding: “I don’t. My generation doesn’t owe him anything.”

Lucia Magi contributed reporting.