First of 3 arrested US students leaves Egypt (AP)

CAIRO ? The first of three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo has left Egypt, an airport official and an attorney for one of the trio confirmed on Friday.

The three Americans were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square last Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Luke Gates, 21, left Cairo early Saturday morning on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany.

An Egyptian court ordered the release of Gates, along with Derrik Sweeney and Gregory Porter, both 19, on Thursday. All were studying at the American University in Cairo.

The other two are expected to leave on separate flights later Saturday morning, the airport official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Attorney Theodore Simon, who represents Porter, a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said police escorted the students to the Cairo airport Friday.

"I am pleased and thankful to report that Gregory Porter is in the air. He has departed Egyptian airspace and is on his way home," Simon said later Friday.

Simon did not give an estimate of when Porter would be arriving in the U.S.

Simon said he and Porter's mother both spoke by phone with the student, who is from the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside.

"He clearly conveyed to me ... that he was OK," Simon told the AP.

Joy Sweeney told the AP her son, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Missouri, would fly from Frankfurt to Washington, then on to St. Louis. She said family will meet him when he arrives late Saturday.

"I am ecstatic," Sweeney said Friday. "I can't wait for him to get home tomorrow night. I can't believe he's actually going to get on a plane. It is so wonderful."

The 21-year-old Gates is a student at Indiana University.

Sweeney said she had talked with her son Friday afternoon and "he seemed jubilant."

"He thought he was going to be able to go back to his dorm room and get his stuff," she said. "We said, `No, no, don't get your stuff, we just want you here.'"

She said American University will ship his belongings home.

Sweeney had earlier said she did not prepare a Thanksgiving celebration this week because the idea seemed "absolutely irrelevant" while her son still was being held.

"I'm getting ready to head out and buy turkey and stuffing and all the good fixings so that we can make a good Thanksgiving dinner," she said Friday.

___

Kozel reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_re_us/us_egypt_american_students

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Universal Studios Japan Hosts K-ON Cast, Life-Size Statues

5,000+ come for 1/2-hour event on Yui's birthday before month-long campaign

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The amusement park Universal Studios Japan hosted a live performance by the K-ON anime's main voice cast and unveiled the life-size figures of the anime's five main characters on Sunday. Over 5,000 showed up for the live performance by Aki Toyosaki (Yui Hirasawa), Y?ko Hikasa (Mio Akiyama), Satomi Satou (Ritsu Tainaka), Minako Kotobuki (Tsumugi Kotobuki), and Ayana Taketatsu (Azusa Nakano), even though it only lasted about half an hour.

The life-size statues recreate a live performance by the anime's Ho-kago Tea time band, complete with all of their musical instruments.

Sunday is also the birthday of the main lead Yui, so like many fans of K-ON did, Universal Studios Japan celebrated with cake. The park decorated a giant cake with Yui's "Gui-ta" guitar made of the strawberries, and the park's Beverly Hills Boulangerie bakery served birthday cake. For Sunday only, the park's Studio Stars Restaurant and Parkside Grill offered a Ho-kago Tea Time set with a five-chestnut Mont Blanc dessert, "Jun-chan's half-eaten donut," and a soft drink.

The Sunday festivities were actually a preview for the month-long "K-ON! in Universal Studios Japan" campaign. The campaign will run from November 28 through December 3, and people who purchase a special pass to the park will receive an original K-ON! six-sided puzzle.

During the campaign, the Studio Stars Restaurant will serve a Ho-kago Tea Time set with just a Mont Blanc and a soft drink. On weekend and holidays next month, there will be carts with strawberry-flavored popcorn in front of the outdoors Gramercy Park Stage for special events, as well as in front of Stage 18 with the life-size figures. The nearest LAWSON store turned itself into a K-ON! movie goods store. Finally, the roller coaster "Hollywood Dream: The Ride" will play the movie's ending theme "Singing!"

The K-ON! anime film will open in Japan on December 3.

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Source: Cinema Today (link 2) via 0takomu (link 2)

Images also from Eiga.com

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Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-11-27/universal-studios-japan-hosts-k-on-cast-life-size-statues

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Think-tank proposes short-term euro zone bond fix (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Euro zone states should pool their short-term borrowing via a joint fund to enable countries pursuing EU-approved policies, but unable to borrow at normal rates, to access affordable funding, a European think-tank panel proposed on Monday.

A group of bankers, economists and market experts from the European League for Economic Cooperation suggested an EMU Bond Fund as a bridging solution to the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis, aimed at restoring market confidence.

"Our modest proposal is designed to provide a limited degree of mutual support that will be sufficient to allow adequate time to states that are themselves trying to restore their competitiveness," the authors wrote.

"If the euro zone demonstrates that it is on track to meet these initial economic (and political) goals of renewed competitiveness and sound public finance, then its individual members will have a compelling story to tell the investors of the world."

The fund, which would last only four years, would complement moves to instill stricter fiscal discipline and economic reform in the European Union. It would be open to all euro area states whose policies had been approved by the European authorities.

EU paymaster Germany has so far rejected all proposals for joint bond issuance, arguing that it would remove the market incentive on governments to implement painful austerity measures and economic reforms.

Berlin, backed by the Dutch, Finns and Austrians, is also concerned that common euro zone bonds would increase its own cost of borrowing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said common bonds could only come at the end of a process of fiscal integration, but the proposal suggests an immediate solution to get over the crisis threatening the survival of the euro zone in its current form.

The proposed fund would borrow in the markets for at most a two-year term to match the borrowing profile of client states.

Its capacity would be large enough to finance for the next two years all the maturing bonds of euro area states that were unable to access capital markets on normal terms.

Italy, whose short-term borrowing rate hit 8 percent on Friday, a cost widely regarded as unsustainable, needs to refinance more than 300 billion euros in maturing debt next year alone.

The panel said borrowings would enjoy a guarantee involving all participating euro area states. The exact nature of the guarantee remains to be determined, subject to a market survey.

Countries that breached the EU's budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of gross domestic product would have to pay an interest rate surcharge. States subject to sustained sanctions under the EU's Stability Pact rules would cease to be eligible to borrow from the fund.

"This scheme guarantees access to finance at 'reasonable' cost for all member states, stabilizes the monetary union, shelters countries from strong swings in market sentiment and improves fiscal discipline in the eurozone," the authors said.

"The announcement would be a huge political statement about commitment to resolve the problems of some euro area member states and deepen economic union substantially. It would be the 'big bazooka' that an outsider has called for," they said.

The authors included economists Graham Bishop of Britain and Rene Smits of the Netherlands, Austrian central bank official Franz Nauschnigg, the head of the European Capital Markets Association, Rene Karsenti of France, and bankers Wim Boomstra and Shahin Kamalodin of Rabobank, Niels Gilbert of DNB and Nicol?s Trillo Ezquerra of Spanish bank BBVA.

All participated in a private capacity.

(Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by David Holmes)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/bs_nm/us_eurozone_fund

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