Analysis: Is student loan, education bubble next?

First the dot.coms popped, then mortgages. Are student loans and higher education the next bubble, the latest investment craze inflating on borrowed money and misplaced faith it can never go bad?

Some experts have raised the possibility. Last summer, Moody's Analytics pronounced fears of an education spending bubble "not without merit." Last spring, investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel called attention to his claims of an education bubble by awarding two dozen young entrepreneurs $100,000 each NOT to attend college.

Recent weeks have seen another spate of "bubble" headlines — student loan defaults up, tuition rising another 8.3 percent this year and finally, out Thursday, a new report estimating that average student debt for borrowers from the college class of 2010 has passed $25,000. And all that on top of a multi-year slump in the job-market for new college graduates.

So do those who warn of a bubble have a case?

The hard part, of course, is that a bubble is never apparent until it bursts. But the short answer is this: There are worrisome trends. A degree is an asset whose value can change over time. Borrowing to pay for it is risky, and borrowing is way up. The stakes are high. You can usually walk away from a house. Not so a student loan, which can't even be discharged in bankruptcy.

But there are also important differences between a potential "student loan bubble" and an "education bubble." Furthermore, many economists think the whole concept of a bubble is a misleading way to think about what's happening, and may actually distract from the real problems. College affordability is a serious issue, but it's a different one. Borrowing for college and borrowing for, say, a house, are fundamentally different in important ways.
To be sure, there are some classic bubble warning signs:
—Everybody wants in. The idea that higher education is the only way to get ahead has become widely held. College enrollment has surged one-third in a decade. With rising demand, college tuition and fees have more than doubled over that time, outstripping inflation in every other major sector of the economy — energy, health care and housing, even when housing was bubbling itself.
—Those bills are paid with borrowed money. The volume of outstanding student loans is rising rapidly and now exceeds credit card debt, though recent reports of it crossing $1 trillion may be premature. Moody's Analytics puts the number at around $750 billion. But while credit card debt is declining, student loan debt keeps going up.
—Just like housing, many student loans were made with little or no research into whether borrowers were fit. Federal Stafford loans are basically automatic for college students, and government backing for other types of loans gave other student lenders little reason to be picky.
—Defaults on federal student loans jumped from 7 percent to 8.8 percent in the most recent fiscal year. That measures just recent borrowers who were already behind within two years of their first payments coming due.
Those numbers are all alarming. But putting them in context requires thinking separately about the ideas of a "student loan bubble" and an "education bubble."
First, one thing that's important about the possible student loan bubble is that it poses much less of a threat than housing debt did to drag down the entire economy. Yes, many individual borrowers may find themselves in trouble. But total student loans probably amount to less than 10 percent of outstanding mortgages. Every single student loan could default and it still probably wouldn't match total mortgage defaults during the recent downturn. More importantly, unlike mortgages, Wall Street isn't knee-deep in securities comprised of bundled student loans, as it was with mortgages. (It also helps that it's also harder to speculate in student loans; an investor can flip a house, but not a brain.)
The other big difference with student loans is the dominant role the federal government has assumed in the market in the last few years: it accounts for roughly 85 percent of student debt.
That matters for several reasons.
First, the government is answerable to voters and not shareholders, so it's more likely than private investors to take steps such as those announced by President Barack Obama to try to relieve student debt burdens.
Second, notes Mark Kantrowitz of the website Finaid.org, it's important to remember what actually causes a bubble to burst. It's not simply a run-up in prices. What bursts the bubble is a liquidity crisis, when borrowers suddenly can't get the money they need. Even during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, when private student loans dried up, the government's dominant role kept student loans flowing.
That doesn't guarantee the bubble won't slowly and painfully deflate over time. But it insures against the chaos of a "crash" where suddenly students can't get loans at all — a scenario that could shut down untold numbers of colleges whose students rely on financial aid.
None of that, however, changes the fundamental risk for individual student borrowers: they could borrow heavily to pay for a college education and find the return much less than expected.
It's here, looking at the debate from an individual borrower's point of view as opposed to the entire economy, that the debate over the term "bubble" gets tricky. Can an education lose value?

Certainly a college degree can.

A key measure is the wage premium for bachelor's degree recipients over those with just high school diploma, and there are various ways to measure it. All show the wage premium is substantial, though after rising steadily for years it appears to have slipped some lately. Wages for the median bachelor's degree recipient are roughly $55,292, compared to $34,813 for those with only high school, according to the latest data from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce.
That reflects a premium that has fallen from roughly 67 percent a few years ago to 59 percent (the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data put the 2010 premium at 65 percent for weekly wages). Still, all told, estimates for the lifetime earnings advantage of a college degree range from a conservative $500,000 to more than $1 million, according to the Census Bureau. Even with recent price increases, for the average student loan borrower that remains a very high return on investment.
It's true the unemployment rate for new college graduates is more than 10 percent. But unemployment for college graduates overall is 4.2 percent, compared to 9.7 percent for those with a high school degree.
Could college prices rise so much, and the premium fall so far, that a degree is no longer worth it? Of course, for some degrees. But in a modern economy, it's difficult to imagine that happening across the board. Here's where a degree is truly unlike other assets — most should correlate at least somewhat with skills that are useful in the world. Particular degrees may prove bad bets, but to imagine the premium on education itself dropping off a cliff is to imagine a world where things have gone so wrong that job skills no longer matter.
Or, as Kent Smetters, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, puts it: "In that case, nobody's worried about paying back their loans. Everyone's heading for bunkers in Idaho and canned goods and that kind of stuff."
Here's the rub: Nobody earns a generic "college degree." Degrees are earned from different schools, with different reputations, and in different majors with much different payoffs. What counts most, says Georgetown's Anthony Carnevale, are the courses you take and your major. Roughly 30 percent of associate's degree recipients earn more than people with bachelor's degrees. A graduate with a mere certificate in engineering will earn roughly 20 percent more than the average bachelor's recipient.
That suggests there isn't one big bubble, but many smaller but significant ones stretching across different sectors — certain liberal arts grads, artists, lawyers who borrow six figures for law school and can't find a job, and students at for-profit colleges. The signs of a bubble at for-profits are unmistakable: Enrollment has tripled in a decade, roughly 96 percent of graduates have loans and borrowing is substantially higher than at other types of institutions. Default rates recently jumped to 15 percent.

But what's most important is the huge numbers who never earn a degree at all. At community colleges and for-profit schools, roughly one in five aiming for a bachelor's degree fail to secure it. Even at four-year public universities, the failure rate within six years is almost half. Anyone who borrows a large amount of money and then fails to complete a degree is in a world of hurt — quite possibly worse off than if they'd never even tried to go to college in the first place.

Retired general sweeps to power in Guatemala election

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A retired right-wing general promising a crackdown on violent crime won Guatemala's presidential election on Sunday and will be the first military man to take power since democracy was restored in 1986.

Otto Perez had 54.5 percent support with results in from 96 percent of polling stations while his rival, wealthy businessman Manuel Baldizon, trailed with 45.5 percent.

Guatemala's electoral tribunal declared Perez the winner late on Sunday, and his supporters began celebrating.

It was a clear move to the right for Central America's largest economy and came after leftist President Alvaro Colom failed to contain violent crime or protect the country from Mexican drug cartels using it as a key smuggling route.

Perez, 60, won the run-off election after promising that he would apply a "firm hand" by deploying troops on the streets and increasing the size of the police force.
Guatemala's murder rate is about eight times that of the United States and many of the country's 14.7 million people want a tougher stance on crime.
"There's even extortion in the schools," said housewife Elsa Guzman, 59. "I trust the army more. The army is not afraid to go out at night, but the police don't even go out at night ... that's why we want a military man."

Human rights groups fear Perez's crime-fighting message may have a dark side in a country with a history of military dictatorships and extra-judicial killings by security forces.

The army murdered suspected leftists and committed many massacres of peasants during the 1960-1996 civil war, in which about a quarter million people were killed or disappeared.
Perez was a commander in some of the most violent areas and there have been allegations that troops under his command committed abuses. He also headed the military intelligence unit accused of engineering assassinations of political rivals.
But he was also seen as a progressive officer inside the army and had a key role in supporting the 1996 peace accords which ended the war.
Perez has never been charged with human rights crimes and brushes off the accusations against him. "I can tell you, it's totally false," he told Reuters on Saturday.
The election campaign focused mainly on Guatemala's battle against street gangs and Mexican drug traffickers moving South American cocaine up through the country to the United States. Military experts say cartels and gangs control around 40 percent of Guatemala, a huge challenge for the next president.
Perez wants to hire 10,000 new police and 2,500 more soldiers to tackle crime, a model similar to that used in Mexico to combat the cartels.
But the policy has different implications in Guatemala, where a United Nations-backed "Truth Commission" found that 93 percent of civil war atrocities were committed by the state.
Even since the war ended, police have been suspected of executing young street gang members.
HUMAN RIGHTS TRIALS
Guatemala has begun to prosecute military officers implicated in the worse civil war abuses although Perez's victory will fan fears that they may escape justice.
Analysts say a key test will be whether Perez retains crusading Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz, who has pushed ahead with human rights trials.
"That's the big question. If she's able to keep her job, will they allow her to do her job?" said Adriana Beltran at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank in Washington.
Perez has said that if Paz y Paz is doing her work well, there is no reason to end her four-year term prematurely.
The new president, who takes office in January, must also address severe poverty affecting more than half the population of the coffee- and sugar-exporting nation, which has one of the world's highest rates of chronic child malnutrition.
However, it is unclear where funds for extra spending on social assistance of security would come from.
Guatemala has one of the lowest tax takes in Latin America, at around 11 percent of gross domestic product, and a fiscal deficit above 3 percent of GDP.

Perez says he will boost tax collection to 14 percent of GDP in the next four years by targeting tax evasion. He has ruled out creating new taxes.

Markets give up hopes for lasting euro zone solution

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After another week of confusion and turmoil in Europe, investors are ditching whatever hopes they once had for a conclusive solution to the debt crisis.

That may foreshadow a gloomy holiday season in markets, especially if wary investors opt to reduce risk in their portfolios and take refuge in U.S. Treasuries and the dollar.

Just weeks after it seemed leaders had drafted a master plan to solve the crisis, doubts rose about whether Greece would back a 130 billion-euro bailout.

Disaster may have been averted when Greece, under fierce EU pressure, agreed over the weekend to form a new government that would approve the deal and stave off bankruptcy.

But that did little to calm investors, who were already looking ahead to the next problem: Italy. Italian bond yields hit a euro-era high of 6.4 percent Friday, raising fears the country may soon need a Greece-style emergency bailout.

The Greek agreement "may spark a brief relief rally," said Alan Ruskin, head of global G10 currency strategy at Deutsche Bank. "But it won't last and we will soon go back to focusing on Italy."

"At the end of the day, it does seem like a grand plan is elusive at best," said David Ader, head of government bond strategy at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.

"We've seen one European bank and one U.S. brokerage fail. We know there are strains for French banks. We're wondering how long it will be before Greek default worries spread to Italy and Spain," he said. "In a situation like that, money managers are going to decide to simply take their risk down."
FLIGHT TO SAFETY
Investors are betting the market will see evidence of that as soon as this week, as flight-to-safety flows help boost U.S. Treasury debt, lift the dollar against the euro and weigh on stock markets around the world.
The biggest fear is that a disorderly default in Greece or elsewhere would ripple across the global financial market the same way the Lehman Brothers collapse did in 2008. That, investors fear, would probably be enough to plunge the global economy into recession.
"This is going to be pretty negative news for risk markets," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "We are going to see a continued flight-to-quality tomorrow."
Benchmark U.S. 10-year note yields dropped more than 29 basis points in the past week and a half as worries about Europe overshadowed signs of economic improvement in America.
Ashraf Laidi, CEO of Intermarket Strategy in London, said he expected the euro to struggle again this week after losing nearly 3 percent against the dollar last week. By year end, he said it could fall below $1.30. It was around $1.38 Friday.
"This past week really raised some tricky questions," he said. "For the first time I can remember, the possibility that Greece really could leave the euro zone was being talked about in cafes and bars as well as on trading desks."
The weekend deal in Greece may stabilize things a bit in that it suggests Greece will keep the emergency funds flowing while making the tough spending cuts needed to get its fiscal house in order.
"What we had been afraid of was a stalemate. Now it seems the hard cuts will be made. I think equity markets will cheer this," said Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment officer at YCMNET Advisors in Walnut Creek, California.
The cheering may not last long, though.
"These 24-hour risk-on rallies, I don't know how much longer people are going to be willing to do that," said Ader. "Sell-offs are getting deeper because the rallies are only short-covering moves. People are not getting long and putting on bets that everything is suddenly OK."
FROM GREECE TO ITALY
Deutsche Bank's Ruskin said the focus is likely to shift quickly from Greece to Italy in the weeks ahead, and that should mean more volatility and unwillingness to take on risk.
Italy's debt-to-output ratio stands at 120 percent, second only to Greece in the 17-country euro zone, and its borrowing costs are rising.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently refused a loan offer by the International Monetary Fund and his government may be on the verge of collapse.
"Berlusconi says Italians are not feeling the crisis but that's because the European Central Bank has been providing high levels of liquidity at low interest rates and buying Italian bonds," Ruskin said. "That begs the question, should the ECB stop that to show them this is really a crisis?"

"I have to believe a lot of investors like me are thinking this could be the start of Italy week," said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. "Italy is going to rapidly rise on investor radar screens and may be the bigger story."

Greece seals sketchy coalition deal

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sealed a deal with the opposition on a crisis coalition to approve an international bailout, but details remain thin despite an EU ultimatum for Athens to get serious about tackling its huge problems.

With Greece due to run out of money in a few weeks, the European Union told its bickering parties to explain by Monday evening how they would form a unity government to enact the 130 billion euro (£111.7 billion) emergency funding package.

Papandreou, who sealed his fate last week with a disastrous attempt to call a referendum on the bailout, will stand down when the new government takes over, the office of the Greek president said.

But otherwise he and conservative leader Antonis Samaras came up with the bare minimum to satisfy Brussels, and they must still agree on Monday who becomes the next prime minister to lead a nation which is destabilising the entire euro zone.

Papandreou's side trumpeted the agreement, reached late on Sunday at talks led by President Karolos Papoulias. "Today was a historic day for Greece," government spokesman Ilias Mossialos said, adding that the new coalition would be sworn in and hold a confidence vote within a week, if all went to plan.

Others were less charitable. "I'm afraid the new government will very soon turn out to be problematic," said Stefanos Manos, a former conservative finance minister.

A SUITABLE DATE
The new coalition has to win parliamentary approval for the bailout before calling early elections.
Papandreou's socialist PASOK party and the New Democracy party of Samaras agreed early on Monday that the most suitable date for the elections would be February 19 next year.
Brussels has piled pressure on Athens to approve the bailout, a last financial lifeline for Greece, fearing that its crisis will spill into much bigger euro zone economies such as Italy and Spain -- which would be far harder to rescue.

Papandreou and Samaras had been scrambling to reach a deal before finance ministers of euro countries meet in Brussels on Monday evening, to show that Greece is serious about taking steps needed to stave off bankruptcy.

Earlier, European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters that finance ministers from countries that use the single currency would insist on hearing a plan for a unity government from their Greek colleague Evangelos Venizelos at Monday's Eurogroup meeting.
"We have called for a national unity government and remain persuaded that it is the convincing way of restoring confidence and meeting the commitments," he told Reuters. "We need a convincing report on this by Finance Minister Venizelos tomorrow in the Eurogroup."
Papandreou had sought the referendum to show that harsh cuts demanded in the bailout had public support, but the risk that a "no" vote could bring about a sudden bankruptcy caused mayhem in markets and unrest in the ruling party.
He soon ditched the idea and won a confidence vote in parliament, but only after promising to make way for the national unity coalition.
BACK SEAT DRIVING
The coalition deal is unlikely to calm Greek politics.
Whoever becomes prime minister will struggle to exert their authority as the party leaders run things behind the scenes, Manos told Reuters. "The civil service won't implement any decision and everyone will be waiting for the election."
Papandreou and Samaras -- who were once U.S. college room mates -- had to bury their deep differences and personal animosity, as Greece is deep in economic, political and social crisis, its future in the euro zone is in question, and their reputations among ordinary Greeks are at rock bottom.
"The two leaders had no other choice. If elections were held now, nobody would turn out to vote for them," said Elias Nikolakopoulos, political science professor at Athens University.
Many Greeks, who have suffered pay and pension cuts and massive job losses in the past two years, remained distrustful about politicians of all colours.
"Elections won't solve any of our problems now. These parties don't represent us anymore," said Michalis Skevofylakas, 47, a teacher.
Papandreou and Samaras are due to discuss on Monday morning who will be the new prime minister. Greek media tipped Lucas Papademos, a former deputy president of the European Central Bank, as a possible candidate.
President Papoulias, who led the talks that produced Sunday's deal, will summon the head of all leading parties for more negotiations at 1800 GMT on Monday.

Occupy protests inspires T-shirts, trademark bids

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The revolution will be trademarked and put on T-shirts if an increasing number of entrepreneurs succeed in their attempts to profit from the Occupy demonstrations.

A few T-shirts began to appear several days after the first protest began on Sept. 17 with a march through the streets of lower Manhattan.

Now, T-shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise emblazoned with Occupy locations and slogans are being offered online and amid the camp sites that have sprung up in cities across the country. A number of merchandise vendors, clothing designers and others are making plans to market a wide-variety of goods for a wide-variety of reasons even as some protesters decry the business plans as directly counter to the demonstrations' goals.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has received a spate of applications from enterprising merchandisers, lawyer and others seeking to win exclusive commercial rights to such phrases as "We are the 99 percent," ''Occupy" and "Occupy DC 2012."

Organizers of the protest centered in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park went so far as to file for a trademark of "Occupy Wall Street" after several other applications connected to the demonstrations were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Wylie Stecklow, a lawyer representing the protesters, said the Oct. 24 filing was done to prevent profiteering from a movement many say is a protest of corporate greed.
"I would like to ensure that this isn't coopted for commercial purposes," Stecklow said. "The trademark can be used for noncommercial purposes."
Stecklow's application was one of three filed with the U.S. PTO seeking to trademark either "Occupy Wall Street" or "Occupy Wall St."
Vince Ferraro, a small businessman based in Arizona, applied to trademark "Occupy Wall Street" a few hours after Stecklow. Ferraro declined to discuss his plans if he wins the trademark.
"If I prevail," he said, "I believe there are opportunities in commerce not directly related to the movement."

Both Stecklow and Ferraro were beat to the trademark office by a Long Island couple who filed for "Occupy Wall St." on Oct. 16. Robert and Diane Maresca paid $975 for the application, which said they intended to put the phrase on a wide-variety of products.

They couldn't be reached for comment. But on Thursday, the couple withdrew their application, leaving Stecklow's clients and Ferraro as the only two competing to own "Occupy Wall Street."
USPTO lawyer Cynthia Lynch said that when the trademark office is confronted with similar applications, it gives priority to the first application received. However, she said the trademark office also takes into consideration whether the phrase was in wide use before the first application was filed.
Stecklow, the attorney for the protesters, says he believed his clients will prevail because they've been using the phrase "Occupy Wall Street" for months before the first application was filed.
The USPTO's Lynch declined to discuss specific applications and said it takes about three months for the office to make an initial determination.
"This rush to trademark was entirely expected and predictable because this is what everybody does," said Ron Coleman, a trademark attorney and author of a popular trademark blog. "The irony is too rich."
Coleman predicted the New York protesters would prevail because they've been using the phrase the longest. Nonetheless, he questioned how the trademark could be managed by a group claiming to be leaderless.
"Who has authority to speak on behalf of the trademark," Coleman asked.
In the meantime, several businesses and merchandise vendors aren't waiting for the trademark office.
Ray Agrinzone, a clothing designer, launched theoccupystore.com earlier this month. The site offers t-shirts, hoodies and even gift certificates.

Agrinzone said he intends to donate 10 percent of profits to the Occupy Wall Street organizers. He said he has lost money so far, but still plans donate about $100 over the weekend. He said he will propose to organizers that a section of Zuccotti Park be turned into a merchandise zone for the benefit of the movement.

He said he has received hateful tweets and email from people opposed to his store and plans to profit from the Occupy demonstrations.

"There's nothing wrong with turning a profit," Agrinzone said. "I don't think that's what this is all about."
Further, he said that fashion can help with the movement's goals.

"There is no better way to spread the message of revolution than through clothes," Agrinzone said.

Big quake follows increase in Oklahoma rumblings

SPARKS, Okla. (AP) — Clouds of dust belched from the corners of almost every room in Joe Reneau's house as the biggest earthquake in Oklahoma history rocked the two-story building.

A roar that sounded like a jumbo jet filled the air, and Reneau's red-brick chimney collapsed and fell into the roof above the living room. By the time the shaking stopped, a pantry worth of food had been strewn across the kitchen and shards of glass and pottery covered the floor.

"It was like WHAM!" said Reneau, 75, gesturing with swipes of his arms. "I thought in my mind the house would stand, but then again, maybe not."

The magnitude 5.6 earthquake and its aftershocks still had residents rattled Sunday.

Two minor injuries were reported from Saturday's quakes by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, which said neither person was hospitalized. And, aside from a buckled highway and the collapse of a tower on the St. Gregory's University administration building in Shawnee, no major damage was reported.

But the weekend earthquakes were among the strongest yet in a state that has seen a dramatic, unexplained increase in seismic activity.

Oklahoma typically had about 50 earthquakes a year until 2009. Then the number spiked, and 1,047 quakes shook the state last year, prompting researchers to install seismographs in the area. Still, most of the earthquakes have been small.
Saturday night's big one jolted Oklahoma State University's stadium shortly after the No. 3 Cowboys defeated No. 17 Kansas State. Fans were still leaving the game.
"That shook up the place, had a lot of people nervous," Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon said.
The temblor sent Jesse Richards' wife running outside because she thought their home was going to collapse. The earthquake centered near their home in Sparks, 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, could be felt throughout the state and in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, northern Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Richards estimated it lasted for as much as a minute. One of his wife's cookie jars fell on the floor and shattered, and pictures hanging in their living room were knocked askew.
"We've been here 18 years, and it's getting to be a regular occurrence," said Richards, 50. But, he added, "I hope I never get used to them."
Geologists now believe a magnitude 4.7 earthquake Saturday morning was a foreshock to the bigger one that followed that night. They recorded at least 10 aftershocks by midmorning Sunday and expected more. Two of the aftershocks, at 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., were big, magnitude 4.0.
"We will definitely continue to see aftershocks, as we've already seen aftershocks from this one," said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. "We will see aftershocks in the days and weeks to come, possibly even months."
Brad Collins, the spokesman for St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, said one of the four towers on its "castle-looking" administration building collapsed in the big earthquake and the other three towers were damaged. He estimated the towers were about 25 feet tall.
"We definitely felt it," Collins said. "I was at home, getting ready for bed and it felt like the house was going to collapse. I tried to get back to my kids' room and it was tough to keep my balance, I could hardly walk."
Scientists are puzzled by the recent seismic activity. It appeared the latest quake occurred on the Wilzetta fault, but researchers may never know for sure. Earthquakes that hit east of the Rocky Mountains are harder to pinpoint because the fault systems are not as well studied as major faults like the San Andreas in California.

Arkansas also has seen a big increase in earthquake activity, which residents have blamed on injection wells. Natural gas companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, use fluid to break apart shale and rock to release natural gas. Injection wells then dispose of the fluid by injecting it back into the ground.

There are 181 injection wells in the Oklahoma county where most of the weekend earthquakes happened, said Matt Skinner, spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees oil and gas production in the state and intrastate transportation pipelines.
But natural gas companies claim there is no proof of a connection between injection wells and earthquakes, and a study released earlier this year by an Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist seems to back that up. It found most of the state's seismic activity didn't appear to be tied to the wells, although more investigation was needed.
"It's a real mystery," seismologist Austin Holland of the Oklahoma Geological Survey said of the recent shaking.
"At this point, there's no reason to think that the earthquakes would be caused by anything other than natural" shifts in the Earth's crust, Holland said.
Earle said he couldn't comment on the relationship between fracking, injection wells and earthquakes.
Most Oklahoma residents still see earthquakes as anomalies in a state more often damaged by tornadoes. Roger Baker, 52, laughed at the idea of buying earthquake insurance, although the weekend quakes left a 6-foot-long crack several inches deep his yard in Sparks.
"It's just a part of life," he said.

Prague resident Mark Treat, 52, was at the Dollar General store Sunday, buying paper towels in bulk, garbage bins and a broom and mop to begin cleaning up his home. He said the quake hit hard enough to knock dishes, lamps and a TV to the ground and overturn a chest of drawers.

"It busted up a lot of stuff," Treat said. "I can't believe is only was a 5.6."

Former boxing champ Frazier fighting liver cancer

Former world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, who battled Muhammad Ali in a famed 1970s boxing trilogy, is fighting for his life with advanced liver cancer.

Frazier, 67, was the first man to defeat the legendary Ali, taking the undisputed heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Ali in 1971 at Madison Square Garden in what was dubbed the "Fight of the Century".

Ali won a unanimous 12-round decision in a 1974 rematch and famously completed the trilogy with a victory in 1975 at the "Thrilla in Manila" by stopping Frazier after 14 rounds in their epic slugfest in the Philippines.

A year later "Smokin' Joe" lost for the fourth and final time in his career when George Foreman knocked him down twice before the fight was stopped in fifth round.

Frazier's illness was first reported by the New York Post, citing an unidentified source.
Frazier won the heavyweight title in 1970 by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their fight at Madison Square Garden. He defended the title four times before running into the bigger and stronger Foreman in their first fight in 1973.
Frazier began his career with 29 consecutive wins before suffering that first loss and his heavyweight title when he was knocked down six times in two rounds by Foreman in 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica.
He retired following the second Foreman fight in 1976 but returned for one more bout in 1981 at age 37.

In recent years, Frazier turned to singing forming a back-up group called the Knockouts.

American Catholics prep for new Mass translation

RIVER EDGE, N.J. (AP) — Each Sunday for decades, Roman Catholic priests have offered the blessing — "Lord be with you." And each Sunday, parishioners would respond, "And also with you."

Until this month.

Come Nov. 27, the response will be, "And with your spirit." And so will begin a small revolution in a tradition-rich faith.

At the end of the month, parishes in English-speaking countries will begin to use a new translation of the Roman Missal, the ritual text of prayers and instructions for celebrating Mass. International committees of specialists worked under a Vatican directive to hew close to the Latin, sparking often bitter protests by English speakers over phrasing and readability. After years of revisions negotiated by bishops' conferences and the Holy See, dioceses are preparing anxious clergy and parishioners for the rollout, one of the biggest changes in Catholic worship in generations.

"We're tinkering with a very intimate and personal moment," said the Rev. Richard Hilgartner, executive director of the worship office for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "It's public worship, it's the church's official public prayer, but for the individual faithful, it's one of the primary means of their encounter with the Lord."

The biggest challenge will be for priests, who must learn intricate new speaking parts — often late in their years of service to the church. At an Archdiocese of Newark training at St. Peter the Apostle Church in River Edge, many clergy had just received a final published copy of the Missal, a thick hardcover bound in red, accompanied by an equally dense study guide. Earlier drafts had been available for orientation sessions that have been ongoing for months nationwide.
Many clergy are upset by the new language, calling it awkward and hard to understand. The Rev. Tom Iwanowski, pastor of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell and New Milford, N.J., turned to the section of the new missal that calls funeral rites, "the fraternal offices of burial."
"How can I say those words? It doesn't make sense," said Iwanowski, who has been a priest for 36 years. "It separates religion from real life."
In the new translation, in the Nicene Creed, the phrase "one in Being with the Father," will change to "consubstantial with the Father." When a priest prays over the Holy Communion bread and wine, he will ask God for blessings "by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall."
The new missal grew out of changes in liturgy that started with the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings on modernizing the church that permitted Mass in local languages instead of Latin. Bishops in English-speaking countries created the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to undertake the translation. The panel produced a missal by 1973, but that version was considered temporary until better texts could be completed. As the commission worked to make the Mass more familiar in idiomatic English, some of the language strayed from the Latin. Also in some cases, the commission sought to use language that would be gender neutral.
The work took a new direction in 2001, when the Vatican office in charge of worship issued the directive Liturgiam Authenticam, or Authentic Liturgy, which required translations closer to the Latin. The Vatican also appointed another committee, Vox Clara, or Clear Voice, to oversee the English translation, drawing complaints from some clergy and liturgists that the Vatican was controlling what should be a more consultative process. (Cardinal George Pell, the Sydney, Australia, archbishop and chairman of Vox Clara, has called the complaints baseless and ideologically driven.)
The Rev. Anthony Ruff, a Benedictine monk and theology professor at St. John's University in Minnesota, said he was removed last year as head of the music panel of the international translating commission because of criticisms he posted on his blog. In an open letter to U.S. bishops published in the Jesuit magazine America, Ruff cancelled his plans to speak on the text to diocesan priests because, "I cannot promote the new missal translation with integrity."
In South Africa, church officials accidentally introduced much of the new text in parishes ahead of schedule in late 2008, generating similar complaints about ponderous language, although church officials now say most parishioners have adapted.
Jeffrey Tucker, a lay musician at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Auburn, Ala., said he also had concerns about how the translation was handled. Still, he said he found the new missal "extraordinary." The text and music are truly integrated for the first time since the changes from the Second Vatican Council, Tucker said. He has been introducing the new text to lay people and church leaders in recent months, and has found the reaction to mostly be, "Oh, wow.'"
"The language is more accurate, but that is the most boring thing you can say about it. The more important thing about the language is that it's beautiful," said Tucker who is managing editor of Sacred Music, the journal of the Church Music Association of America. "Hardly anything ever good comes out of a committee. This time it did."
Parishes around the United States have spent the summer trying to prepare church members for what's ahead. Priests have been discussing the changes in homilies, in notices in parish bulletins, and in workshops and webinars. Many clergy plan to use poster-sized laminated cue cards for parishioners as the new text is introduced. The introduction of the new text comes on the first Sunday of Advent, just ahead of the Christmas season — a time when infrequent churchgoers attend services.
The Catholic Community at Pleasanton, Calif., which serves 5,000 families in the Diocese of Oakland, has been organizing ministry training sessions and town hall meetings for parishioners to ask questions and express concerns. Mark J. Sullivan, the church music director, said he has seen reactions range from people fully embracing the change to others asking, "Why now?"
"They say, 'I've got everything memorized. Why are you messing with it?'" Sullivan said. "If people do get a little nervous, it because things are in a different place, and it is more content, but it's more for great reasons. We've got more to work with."
The Rev. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral in Seattle, started an online petition called, "What If We Just Said Wait," that drew more than 22,000 signatures from clergy, lay people, liturgists and others around the world, who urged a limited, one-year introduction of the new translation followed by an evaluation before the text was adopted across the country.
Despite the protest, Ryan said he has been preparing parishioners for the change and he will be ready to recite the new text on Nov. 27.

"I'm not going to stand apart from the church," Ryan said.

Andy Rooney, wry '60 Minutes' commentator, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature "60 Minutes" commentaries about life's large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old.

Even then, he said he wasn't retiring. Writers never retire. But his life after the end of "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" was short: He died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary.

Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered.

"Andy always said he wanted to work until the day he died, and he managed to do it, save the last few weeks in the hospital," said his "60 Minutes" colleague, correspondent Steve Kroft.

Rooney talked on "60 Minutes" about what was in the news, and his opinions occasionally got him in trouble. But he was just as likely to discuss the old clothes in his closet, why air travel had become unpleasant and why banks needed to have important-sounding names.
Rooney won one of his four Emmy Awards for a piece on whether there was a real Mrs. Smith who made Mrs. Smith's Pies. As it turned out, there was no Mrs. Smith.
"I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn't realize they thought," Rooney once said. "And they say, 'Hey, yeah!' And they like that."
Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, "60 Minutes" aired its first Rooney commentary on July 2, 1978. He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is "one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace."
More than three decades later, he was railing about how unpleasant air travel had become. "Let's make a statement to the airlines just to get their attention," he said. "We'll pick a week next year and we'll all agree not to go anywhere for seven days."
In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge's 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, "That may have been the most interesting thing Coolidge ever did."
"Words cannot adequately express Andy's contribution to the world of journalism and the impact he made — as a colleague and a friend — upon everybody at CBS," said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. president and CEO.
Jeff Fager, CBS News chairman and "60 Minutes" executive producer, said "it's hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much."

"60 Minutes" will end its broadcast Sunday with a tribute to Rooney by veteran correspondent Morley Safer.

For his final essay, Rooney said that he'd live a life luckier than most.

"I wish I could do this forever. I can't, though," he said.

He said he probably hadn't said anything on "60 Minutes" that most of his viewers didn't already know or hadn't thought. "That's what a writer does," he said. "A writer's job is to tell the truth."

True to his occasional crotchety nature, though, he complained about being famous or bothered by fans. His last wish from fans: If you see him in a restaurant, just let him eat his dinner.

Rooney was a freelance writer in 1949 when he encountered CBS radio star Arthur Godfrey in an elevator and — with the bluntness millions of people learned about later — told him his show could use better writing. Godfrey hired him and by 1953, when he moved to TV, Rooney was his only writer.
He wrote for CBS' Garry Moore during the early 1960s before settling into a partnership with Harry Reasoner at CBS News. Given a challenge to write on any topic, he wrote "An Essay on Doors" in 1964, and continued with contemplations on bridges, chairs and women.
"The best work I ever did," Rooney said. "But nobody knows I can do it or ever did it. Nobody knows that I'm a writer and producer. They think I'm this guy on television."

He became such a part of the culture that comic Joe Piscopo satirized Rooney's squeaky voice with the refrain, "Did you ever ..." Rooney never started any of his essays that way. For many years, "60 Minutes" improbably was the most popular program on television and a dose of Rooney was what people came to expect for a knowing smile on the night before they had to go back to work.

Rooney left CBS in 1970 when it refused to air his angry essay about the Vietnam War. He went on TV for the first time, reading the essay on PBS and winning a Writers Guild of America award for it.
He returned to CBS three years later as a writer and producer of specials. Notable among them was the 1975 "Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington," whose lighthearted but serious look at government won him a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
His words sometimes landed Rooney in hot water. CBS suspended him for three months in 1990 for making racist remarks in an interview, which he denied. Rooney, who was arrested in Florida while in the Army in the 1940s for refusing to leave a seat among blacks on a bus, was hurt deeply by the charge of racism.
Gay rights groups were mad, during the AIDS epidemic, when Rooney mentioned homosexual unions in saying "many of the ills which kill us are self-induced." Indians protested when Rooney suggested Native Americans who made money from casinos weren't doing enough to help their own people.
The Associated Press learned the danger of getting on Rooney's cranky side. In 1996, AP Television Writer Frazier Moore wrote a column suggesting it was time for Rooney to leave the broadcast. On Rooney's next "60 Minutes" appearance, he invited those who disagreed to make their opinions known. The AP switchboard was flooded by some 7,000 phone calls and countless postcards were sent to the AP mail room.
"Your piece made me mad," Rooney told Moore two years later. "One of my major shortcomings — I'm vindictive. I don't know why that is. Even in petty things in my life I tend to strike back. It's a lot more pleasurable a sensation than feeling threatened.
"He was one of television's few voices to strongly oppose the war in Iraq after the George W. Bush administration launched it in 2002. After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, he said he was chastened by its quick fall but didn't regret his "60 Minutes" commentaries.
"I'm in a position of feeling secure enough so that I can say what I think is right and if so many people think it's wrong that I get fired, well, I've got enough to eat," Rooney said at the time.
Andrew Aitken Rooney was born on Jan. 14, 1919, in Albany, N.Y., and worked as a copy boy on the Albany Knickerbocker News while in high school. College at Colgate University was cut short by World War II, when Rooney worked for Stars and Stripes.
With another former Stars and Stripes staffer, Oram C. Hutton, Rooney wrote four books about the war. They included the 1947 book, "Their Conqueror's Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders," documenting offenses against the Germans by occupying forces.

Rooney and his wife, Marguerite, were married for 62 years before she died of heart failure in 2004. They had four children and lived in New York, with homes in Norwalk, Conn., and upstate New York. Daughter Emily Rooney is a former executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight." Brian was a longtime ABC News correspondent, Ellen a photographer and Martha Fishel is chief of the public service division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Services will be private, and it's anticipated CBS News will hold a public memorial later, Brian Rooney said Saturday.

USGS: 5.2 magnitude quake rattles Okla

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Authorities say a 5.2 magnitude earthquake has hit central Oklahoma, but they had no immediate reports of any injuries or major damages.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported from Golden, Colo., on its web site that it monitored a 5.2 magnitude quake at 10:53 p.m. local time Saturday, centered about 44 miles east-northeast of Oklahoma City.

Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, also told The Associated Press a 5.2 magnitude quake was recorded.

Authorities have reported a series of quakes on Saturday, including a 4.7 magnitude quake earlier in the day.

Ooten said no injuries were reported to emergency management officials and she had no reports of major damage.

Plastic bottles solve Nigeria's housing problem

The idea undoubtedly seemed strange at first: take the plastic water bottles that litter Nigeria's roads, canals and gutters and allow people to live inside them.

Not literally, but almost.

What a group of activists did was come up with a plan to build a house using those bottles, providing what they say is an environmentally smart strategy of chipping away at a housing shortage in Africa's most populous nation.

With the prototype near the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna now well underway, the group wants to extend its efforts and build more, aiming to unleash what they say is some long bottled-up potential.

Unconvinced? Supporters say those yet to see the structure on the outskirts of the village of Sabon Yelwa can throw stones if they want to. This house is being built to last.
"This is the first house in Africa built from bottles, which could go a long way in solving Nigeria's huge housing need and cleaning the badly polluted environment," project initiator Christopher Vassiliu said during a tour of the building.

It is in many ways a marvel to look at. The project was initiated by the Kaduna-based NGO Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE), with help from foreign experts from Africa Community Trust, a London-based NGO.

Sitting on 58-square metres (624-square feet), the two-bedroom bungalow looks like an ordinary home, but it differs in many ways. When completed, the house whose construction started in June will be used to train masons in building such structures.
It is made from capped, sand-filled plastic bottles, each weighing three kilogrammes, or nearly two pounds.
The bottles are stacked into layers and bonded together by mud and cement, with an intricate network of strings holding each bottle by its neck, providing extra support to the structure.
Bottle caps of various colours protrude from the cement-plastered walls, giving them a unique look. Those behind the project claim the sand-filled bottles are stronger than ordinary cinder blocks.
"The structure has the added advantage of being fire proof, bullet proof and earthquake resistant, with the interior maintaining a constant temperature of 18 degrees C (64 degrees F) which is good for tropical climate," Yahaya Ahmad, the project coordinator said.
With the right adjustments to the supporting pillars the building can be as high as three stories, but can go no higher due to the weight of the sand-filled bottles, Ahmad said.
Situated amidst an expansive irrigation farm, the building consists of a rotunda-shaped living room which connects to the interior via a short corridor.
Two rooms stand opposite with a bathroom and a toilet between them. A side door leads to an open courtyard and the kitchen.
The house is also designed to produce zero carbon emissions as it will be wholly powered by solar panels and methane gas from recycled human and animal waste.
"Nigeria has a serious waste and energy problem, and this project is one small step towards making positive changes," said Katrin Macmillan, a British environmental activist involved in the project.
"Plastic bottles take hundreds of years to bio-degrade in landfills."
Construction, which has reached 70 percent completion, is estimated to require 14,000 bottles. Huge piles of empty plastic bottles litter the site from donations from embassies, hotels and restaurants.

Environmental experts say Nigeria, a country of some 160 million, throws out about three million plastic bottles daily.

The country is also grappling with a deficit of 16 million housing units that requires a staggering 45 trillion naira ($300 billion) to meet, according to Nigeria's Federal Mortgage Bank.
Plastic houses are cheap to construct as it costs a quarter of the money required to build a conventional house, said Vassiliu, a Greek national who has been working in Nigeria as a water drilling engineer for 30 years.
The project is to cost two million naira ($12,700), Vassiliu said.
A second plastic bottle project is due to commence in January at a primary school in need of more classrooms in the town of Suleja near Nigeria's capital Abuja.

"The project would take 200,000 bottles out of landfills into education", said Macmillan.

LSU beats Bama in battle of field goals, 9-6 in OT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — 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.

The Crimson Tide missed four field goals, including Cade Foster's 52-yard attempt after Alabama got the ball first in the extra period. LSU appeared to win the game on Michael Ford's run around left end after taking a pitch, but he stepped out of bounds at the 7.

After two plays gained nothing, LSU (9-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) sent on Alleman to attempt his third field goal of the game on third down. Alabama (8-1, 5-1) tried to freeze him by calling timeout, but he calmly knocked it through to set off a wild celebration by the visiting team.

The crowd of more than 100,000 at Bryant-Denny Stadium — most of them dressed in crimson — sat in stunned silence as LSU celebrated its victory in only the 23rd regular-season matchup between the top two teams in The Associated Press rankings.

LSU still must win its last three regular-season games — No. 8 Arkansas is the toughest test — and then would have to get through the SEC championship game. But the Tigers are the clear favorite after winning another huge game away from home, emerging with the victory in a matchup between the two teams generally considered the best in the land.

And what if the BCS formula pits LSU against Alabama again in the national championship game?
"I'd be honored to face that team again," Tigers coach Les Miles said.

Alabama will long be moaning about how this one got away. Foster missed two first-quarter field goals, and Jeremy Shelley had one blocked before Shelley finally made one from 34 yards. Alleman kicked a 19-yarder on the final play of the first half, leaving the teams tied at 3 even though the Crimson Tide clearly had the upper hand.

Interceptions set up both field goals in the second half. Foster made one from 46 yards after Jarrett Lee threw his second pick of the game, then Alleman connected from 30 yards after Alabama's AJ McCarron made an ill-timed throw.

Outside of the kicking woes, Marquis Maze was at the center of two decisive plays in the fourth quarter that helped finish off the Crimson Tide. First, with Alabama threatening at the LSU 28, he took a snap in the wildcat formation and tried to surprise LSU with a pass. Tight end Michael Williams broke into the clear near the goal line, but Eric Reid hustled back to snatch it away as both players tumbled to the ground at the 1.

Reid wound up with the ball, the officials ruled it an interception and a replay upheld the call.

LSU failed to pick up a first down, and it looked as though Alabama would get it back in good field position to take another crack at the LSU end zone. But a hobbling Maze, favoring a leg injury, couldn't catch the long line-drive punt. He turned away from it around his own 40 and the ball rolled all the way to the Alabama 19.

The Tiger got it out to around midfield on their final possession of regulation, then had to punt it away. Alabama took over with only 52 seconds left and settled for overtime.

"Our season was at stake," LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne said. "We knew where we want to be at the end of the season."
Unlike Notre Dame's infamous 10-10 tie with Michigan State in another 1-2 matchup in 1966, when the Irish ran out the clock at the end of the fourth quarter, this one could not end that way.
"When you get blown out, you've got lots of issues and problems," Saban said. "I don't think anybody could watch that game and say Alabama doesn't have a really good team and didn't play a really good game. We just didn't win."
Though even with extra time it will go down as the second-lowest scoring No. 1 vs. No. 2 game in the 75-year history of the AP poll. The fewest points in a 1-2 game is zero, the famous Army-Notre Dame scoreless tie in 1946.
The buildup to the game resembled a Super Bowl, especially with both teams getting a couple of weeks to prepare. More than 100,000 fans squeezed into Bryant-Denny Stadium. Tens of thousands more converged on Tuscaloosa without tickets, content to just tailgate, soak up the atmosphere and watch the game on televisions outside the stadium.
Two ferocious defenses lived up to their billing. Alabama came in allowing just 6.9 points and 44.9 yards rushing per game, leading the nation in both categories, and the second-fewest passing yards. LSU wasn't far behind in any of those categories.
The Crimson Tide finished with 295 yards, while the Tigers won with just 239.
"Defense wins ball games," said Claiborne, who had LSU's other interception, the one that set up a field goal. "That's all I've got to say about that. You come out and you prepare hard and play like we did tonight, and you come out on top."
The Game of the Century it wasn't, at least in the first half. Alabama missed three field goals. LSU was called for a pair of facemask penalties and Lee threw the first of his two interceptions. Both teams were flagged for silly penalties, such as substitution infractions and an offsides on Alabama that extended LSU's only decent drive of the first two quarters.
With the defenses dominating, it became clear the game would come down to which team could take advantage of its rare opportunities.
Advantage, LSU.
For all of Alabama's heralded recruiting classes under Nick Saban, it was clear the Crimson Tide didn't devote a lot of time to finding a kicker. Foster was wide right from 44 and 50 yards before Saban switched up. The coach sent in Shelley, his short kicking specialist, for a 49-yard try, but that didn't work out so well, either. He drove it low — right into the outstretched hands of the LSU defender Bennie Logan.
Finally, the Tide drove it close enough to actually make one.
Trent Richardson slipped out of the background to haul in his second long pass completion of the first half, a 39-yarder down to the LSU 19. The next three plays produced only 2 yards, so Shelley trotted out again to a few nervous groans from the crowd. Those turned to cheers of relief when he knocked it through, giving Alabama the lead with just under 4 minutes left in the half.
It didn't hold up.
Jordan Jefferson, who wound up taking most of the snap instead of Lee, guided the Tigers down the field, most notably on a 34-yard completion to Russell Shepard when Alabama botched its deep coverage and left only one guy to cover two receivers.
That gave LSU first-and-goal at the Alabama 8, its first serious scoring chance of the game. The Tide's defense stiffened, even after being called for holding, and LSU came uncomfortably close to running off too much time.
With 8 seconds left and one timeout remaining, the Tigers handed off to Spencer Ware from the 2. He powered into the middle of the line, tried to keep his legs going but was eventually whistled down while LSU frantically signaled for a timeout. The clock stopped with 1 second left, though the officials put an extra tick back on.
Alleman knocked through the chip shot to send the teams to the locker room tied at 3.
Richardson, a Heisman Trophy candidate, had a solid game with 23 carries for 89 yards and five catches for 80 yards. It wasn't enough. Jefferson did just enough, completing 6 of 10 passes for 67 yards and running 11 times for 43 yards.
Alabama no longer controls its own fate in the race to get to the title game.
LSU took care of that.

"Whoever the folks are who make those decisions will make those decisions based on the full body of work of every team in the country and choose which teams are the best," Saban said. "I really can't speculate on a hypothetical situation and it's really not our focus right now, anyway."

China says Europe will overcome debt crisis

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is confident that Europe will be able to overcome its debt crisis, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, adding stability in the eurozone was crucial for the global economic recovery.

Yang, however, made no mention about increasing investment in Europe in his statement late on Saturday on President Hu Jintao's trip to the G20 leaders' meeting in southern France.

"We believe that Europe has the complete wisdom and ability to solve the debt problem," Yang said in remarks published on the Foreign Ministry's website.

"China has always supported Europe's response to the international financial crisis and its economic recovery efforts," he said.

The euro zone has been looking to China play a role in supporting its rescue fund by investing some of its $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves -- the world's largest.

But there are limits to what Beijing can actually deliver, Cheng Siwei, a former top Chinese lawmaker, said on Saturday, even though China is willing to help Europe, its largest export market, to deal with the debt crisis.

Leaders of the world's major economies, meeting on the French Riviera, told Europe to sort out its own problems and deferred until next year any move to provide more crisis-fighting resources to the International Monetary Fund,

Yang said that Hu emphasized during his trip "the development and the recovery of the European economy to achieve recovery" of the global economy.

Four killed after bombs target Iraq Sunni militia

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four bombs exploded near the home of a local leader of a government-supported Sunni militia north of Iraq's capital on Saturday, killing four people and wounding eight others, police and health sources said.

The attack follows a major assault on Thursday on the Sahwa militia, which helped turn the tide of the war by taking up arms against al Qaeda. Six people were killed and dozens wounded when bombs exploded near a group of fighters as they lined up to receive their pay in the city of Baquba.

Iraqi security forces and Sahwa members have been frequent targets in recent weeks as militants try to destabilize Iraq's fragile, cross-sectarian government while the United States withdraw its remaining 33,000 troops,

The four bombs exploded near a house in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, a mixed area of Shi'ites and Sunnis that was once a battlefield for al Qaeda and the Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia.

"Two bombs went off near the house of Isa Kadhim, a Sahwa leader in Taji town, killing his brother, his wife and two of his children," a police source said.

"A few minutes later, another two bombs went off close to the first explosions, wounding eight people in the area."

A source at Kadhimiya Hospital in northwestern Baghdad confirmed the death toll.

The sectarian slaughter of 2006-07 has ebbed but al Qaeda-linked Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias still carry out scores of bombings and other attacks each month, more than eight years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw completely by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Kareem Raheem; Writing by Waleed Ibrahim; Editing by Jim Loney and Sophie Hares)

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