Brother and sister reunite in Iowa after 65 years with help of Facebook, 7-year-old boy

DAVENPORT, Iowa - An man has been reunited with his sister 65 years after the siblings were separated in foster care thanks to a 7-year-old friend who searched Facebook.
Clifford Boyson, of Davenport, Iowa, met his sister, Betty Billadeau, in person on Saturday. Billadeau drove up from her home in Florissant, Missouri, with her daughter and granddaughter for the reunion at a hotel in Davenport.
Boyson, 66, and Billadeau, 70, both tried to find each other for years without success. They were placed in different foster homes in Chicago when they were children.
Then 7-year-old Eddie Hanzelin, who is the son of Boyson's landlord, got involved.
Eddie managed to find Billadeau by searching his mom's Facebook account with Billadeau's maiden name. He recognized the family resemblance when he saw her picture.
"Oh, my God," Boyson said when he saw and hugged Billadeau.
"You do have a sister," Billadeau said.
"You're about the same height Mom was," Boyson said.
Billadeau's daughter, Sarah Billadeau, 42, and granddaughter, Megan Billadeau, 27, both wiped away tears and smiled during the reunion.
"He didn't have any women in his life," Sarah said. "We're going to get that straightened out real fast."
Boyson said he's looking forward to visiting Billadeau near St. Louis and meeting more family.
"I'm hoping I can go and spend a week or two," he said. "I want to meet the whole congregation. I never knew I had a big family."
Eddie, who enjoys messing around with his family's iPad, said he's glad he was able to assist in making the reunion happen and that he learned about helping others at school.
"Clifford did not have any family, and family's important," the boy said.
Near the end of their tearful reunion Boyson and Billadeau presented Eddie with a $125 check in appreciation of his detective work.

Transocean says Icahn acquired 1.56 percent stake, seeks more

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Transocean Ltd has disclosed that billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has acquired a 1.56 percent stake in the offshore rig contractor and is looking to increase that holding.
Icahn is seeking regulatory approval to acquire shares worth more than $682.1 million, according to a statement on Transocean's Web site.
If he gets approval, Icahn would become one of Transocean's largest shareholders with just over 5 percent of the company, based on its closing stock price of $54.09 on January 11.
Transocean's biggest shareholder is Capital World Investors, a division The Capital Group Companies Inc, which owned 5.12 percent as of October 15, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Icahn's move comes less than two weeks after Transocean agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle U.S. government charges over BP Plc's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2012 . Transocean employed nine of the 11 workers killed in the accident.

More kids taking alternative therapies, but doctors rarely told: study

TORONTO - A growing number of Canadian children with chronic illnesses are being treated with complementary medicine, researchers say, but parents don't always tell doctors they are using the alternative therapies.
Yet informing health-care providers about vitamins, herbal and homeopathic remedies is important because in some cases they can adversely interact with traditional medications, the researchers say.
In a survey of parents having their children treated at two Canadian pediatric hospitals, researchers found that alternative medicines and such therapies as massage and chiropractic were commonly used.
At Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, 71 per cent of parents surveyed said they treated their kids with complementary medicine, while 42 per cent of parents attending the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa reported their use.
"Our study found that many, many children use complementary therapies, and unfortunately oftentimes parents do not necessarily disclose this use when they're talking to their child's health-care team," said pediatrician Dr. Sunita Vohra, co-principal author of the study.
The research, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, found almost 20 per cent of families surveyed said they had not told their physician or pharmacist about using both prescription and alternative medicines together.
"The reasons for this are probably many and varied," Vohra said from Edmonton. "Sometimes, parents don't feel comfortable bringing it up. Sometimes, they're not sure how that information is going to be received by the health-care team."
And in other cases, parents may not think the information is relevant because they may not consider a herbal remedy, for instance, as being a medicine, she said.
The study involved a total of 926 families at 10 different clinics in Edmonton and Ottawa, with parents asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire in the waiting room prior to their child's appointment.
The young patients were being seen at clinics in the two hospitals that deal with pediatric cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, oncology and respiratory health conditions.
The most common complementary medicines used were multivitamins or minerals, herbal products and homeopathic remedies, while the most often-used alternative therapies were massage, chiropractic, relaxation and aromatherapy.
Almost half reported using forms of complementary remedies at the same time as being treated by conventional medicine, while about five per cent said they used such alternative therapies instead of standard medicine.
Parents were two to three times more likely to use complementary medicine if their child's health was fair or poor and if the parent used that form of treatment themselves.
The study also found that about 56 per cent of respondents were treating their youngsters with alternative forms of medication at the same time as they were taking prescription drugs.
But such concurrent treatment can be risky: the study found 80 cases of interactions between complementary remedies and traditional drugs, including 19 considered moderately adverse and six that were deemed severe.
Fish oil, for instance, can cause the blood to thin. Combining it with a pharmaceutical blood thinner can result in bleeding, Vohra said.
Echinacea, a herb taken by many people to boost the immune system, can counter the effectiveness of chemotherapy used to treat cancer, she said.
"There's all kinds of medications that can interact and you have to (assess) it on a case-by-case basis," noted CHEO pediatrician Dr. James King, who led the study with Vohra.
"The big thing is if you don't ask about it, you don't know to check, right?" King said from Ottawa.
"And if it's possible that 20 per cent of your patients are coming in and they are on medications and they're not disclosing this (alternative) treatment ... on our side as a profession we need to make sure that we're asking."
Vohra also cautioned that "more is not necessarily better."
"We have seen patients that have gotten into trouble if they expose themselves ... to polypharmacy —the idea of taking many things at the same time," she said. "Even though the things they're taking are natural health products, if you're on a long list of them, I would be careful.
"People make an assumption that natural means safe."
The study also found that more than 60 per cent of parents reported getting information about complementary medicine from "family." Others cited the Internet, health food stores, pharmacies, and books and magazines.
"They get their information from a variety of sources, and when you have a commercial interest, when someone is trying to sell you something, you may not actually be getting an unbiased source of advice," Vohra said.
"So we think it's useful to try to create an opportunity for dialogue where there isn't a sales pitch attached to it," she said, encouraging parents to raise the issue of complementary medicine use with their child's care providers.
King said the study suggests that families want doctors and other health providers to ask about the use of complementary medicine, and they want a reliable source of information about their potential benefits and harms.
"A lot of people are using it," he said. "I think we need to recognize that and we just need to build it into our care plan.

Suspects to appear at Indian gang rape hearing to shift to 'fast track' court

NEW DELHI - Defence lawyers say the cases of five men charged in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus are expected to be shifted to a fast track court.
A hearing on whether to move the cases was to be held Monday. It had been set for last week but was rescheduled when it turned out that the official list of charges was not completely legible.
Five men have been charged with the Dec. 16 attack on the young woman, who died later in a Singapore hospital. They could face the death penalty if convicted. A sixth suspect, who says he is 17 years old, is likely to be tried in a juvenile court if medical tests confirm he is a minor.

Millions of devout Hindus plunge into Ganges River in festival ritual to wash away their sins

ALLAHABAD, India - Millions of devout Hindus have plunged into the holy Ganges River in India in a ritual they believe can wash away their sins.
Monday is considered the most auspicious day of the Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival, that lasts 55 days and is one of the world's largest religious gatherings. The day's significance is based on astrological signs.
Top festival official Mani Prasad Mishra says nearly 3 million people bathed by late morning and 11 million were expected to enter the frigid water by day's end.
Devout Hindus believe bathing in the Ganges during the festival can cleanse their sins and free them from the cycle of death and rebirth.

Baseball-MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.
The testing will start this season.
MLB has been conducting random blood testing for the detection of HGH among minor league players since July 2010.
Starting this season, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited Montreal laboratory will establish a program in which a player's baseline testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio and other data will be maintained in order to enhance its ability to detect use of testosterone and other prohibited substances.

RPT-Baseball-MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

(Repeats to widen distribution)
Jan 10 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.
The testing will start this season.
MLB has been conducting random blood testing for the detection of HGH among minor league players since July 2010.
Starting this season, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited Montreal laboratory will establish a program in which a player's baseline testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio and other data will be maintained in order to enhance its ability to detect use of testosterone and other prohibited substances.

UPDATE 1-Baseball-MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

* HGH and testosterone testing to be used this season
* WADA-accredited lab hails toughness of new MLB testing (Adds details, quotes)
Jan 10 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.
The advanced testing will start this season, in what will be the sternest doping program in major North American professional sports.
"This agreement addresses critical drug issues and symbolizes Major League Baseball's continued vigilance against synthetic human growth hormone, testosterone and other performance-enhancing substances," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.
The new steps moved baseball well ahead of the National Football League, which does not test for HGH or testosterone.
"Players want a program that is tough, scientifically accurate, backed by the latest proven scientific methods, and fair," said Michael Weiner, MLB Players' Association executive director in a statement.
"I believe these changes firmly support the players' desires while protecting their legal rights."
The announcement came one day after the players' union criticized results of the balloting for the Baseball Hall of Fame, in which no one received enough votes for enshrinement in what appeared to be a referendum on widespread doping during what has become known as the game's 'Steroids Era'.
All-time home run king Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young winning pitcher Roger Clemens, have resumes that would have ordinarily made them certain Hall of Famers.
But both players have been linked to performance enhancing drugs and punished by voters, receiving about half the ballots votes required for election.
Major League Baseball, striving to remove the taint of doping, was the first major sport in the United States to test for HGH in an agreement with the union in November 2011.
MLB has been conducting random blood testing for the detection of HGH among minor league players since July 2010 and had previously been testing major leaguers during spring training and off-season.
To detect testosterone use, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited Montreal laboratory will establish a program in which a player's baseline testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio and other data will be maintained in order to enhance its ability to detect use of the drug and other banned substances.
Christiane Ayotte, the Director of the Montreal Laboratory, praised the steps baseball has taken.
"The addition of random blood testing and a longitudinal profiling program makes baseball's program second to none in detecting and deterring the use of synthetic HGH and testosterone," she said in a statement.
Doping in baseball has not disappeared.
In the last year, Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants, who was leading the league in batting average, and Oakland A's pitcher Bartolo Colon tested positive for testosterone and were suspended.
"I am proud that our system allows us to adapt to the many evolving issues associated with the science and technology of drug testing," Selig said. "We will continue to do everything we can to maintain a leadership stature in anti-doping efforts in the years ahead." (Reporting by Larry Fine, Editing by Gene Cherry and Steve Keating)

Shell may have moved rig to avoid taxes: U.S. lawmaker

ANCHORAGE, Alaska/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shell may have moved an oil rig that ran aground off Alaska last week partly to avoid millions of dollars in taxes, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey said, raising even more questions about the oil company's decision on the timing of the move.
The letter from the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee adds to the already-intense political scrutiny of Royal Dutch Shell's ambitious and troubled Arctic drilling foray last year.
Shell's 30-year-old Kulluk drillship ran aground on New Year's Eve in what were described as "near hurricane" conditions while it was being towed south for the winter.
In a letter to Shell's top U.S. executive, Marvin Odum, Markey said the decision to move the rig "may have been driven, in part, by a desire to avoid...tax liability on the rig."
In late December, a Shell spokesman told a local newspaper, the Dutch Harbor Fisherman, that it was "fair to say the current tax structure related to vessels of this type influenced the timing of our departure." But Shell said in response to Markey on Thursday that its decision was guided by safety, not taxes.
Markey, an outspoken critic of the oil and gas industry, said his office received information about Shell and taxes from Alaska's revenue department.
Shell could have been exposed to a state tax if the rig had remained in the state until January 1, as Alaska law says an annual tax of 2 percent can be assessed on drilling equipment on that date, Markey said in the letter sent on Wednesday.
The company spent $292 million on upgrades on the rig since purchasing it in 2005, so the liability could have been about $6 million, he wrote. In total, Shell has spent $4.5 billion since 2005 to develop the Arctic's vast oil reserves.
Jim Greeley, Anchorage-based petroleum property assessor for the Alaska Department of Revenue, explained that the tax applies to property used for exploration, production or transportation of oil or natural gas. He could not say whether the Kulluk would have been taxed or whether Shell's actions avoided a tax.
The issue was complicated by the fact that Shell's drilling was in federal waters.
"There's no tax precedent for that," at least in recent times, Greeley said, adding that department officials were researching the tax practices from two decades ago when there was a flurry of drilling offshore Alaska.
The decision would have to be made by the time the state publishes its tax rolls on March 1.
CONOCO LOOKS ON
Shell's Arctic work has been closely watched by many in the industry and especially by ConocoPhillips ahead of its planned Alaska offshore drilling program slated for 2014.
According to the U.S. government, the Beaufort and Chukchi seas hold an estimated 23 billion barrels of recoverable oil - equivalent to a tenth of Saudi Arabia's reserves.
A Shell spokeswoman said the plan for the Kulluk this winter was always to move it in December.
"While we are aware of the tax environment wherever we operate, the driver for operational decisions is governed by safety." She said an approved tow plan for the rig included weather considerations.
Winter transit in northern waters is not unusual for rigs. Just this month, a rig owned by contractor Seadrill was due to arrive in Norway to start work for Statoil, while another was headed to Canada for Exxon Mobil Corp.
The Kulluk accident is only Shell's latest problem in Alaska. Its 2012 Arctic drilling season was plagued by delays due to lingering ice and problems getting a mandatory oil spill containment vessel certified by the Coast Guard.
Also, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said late on Thursday it issued notices of violation for air pollution in 2012 for the Noble Corp-owned Discoverer, Shell's other Arctic rig, and for the Kulluk.
The EPA also terminated a temporary, more lenient permit granted to Shell in September for the Discoverer and said Shell's application for a less strict air permit was still under review.
The U.S. Department of the Interior said this week it would review Shell's Arctic oil drilling program to assess the challenges it faced and to guide future Arctic permitting.
Markey's committee does not have the power to stop drilling. His investigation would focus on why the rig was being towed along the coast down to Washington state in such severe weather and on Shell's safety policies, an aide to Markey said.
Any permitting changes or delays resulting from the Interior Department review could threaten Shell's 2013 drilling plans, as the company has a limited drilling window during the summer.
The Kulluk, before heading south, had previously been at a private facility in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor operated by Kirkland, Washington-based Offshore Systems Inc, which serves fishing and other vessels in Alaska. Harbormaster Jim Days said it was there for at least a month after completing its Beaufort Sea drilling.
The environmental impact of the Kulluk accident is so far limited. The incident response team has located all four survival ships and one rescue ship that were dislodged from the drillship when it ran aground. The survival ships all had 68-gallon-capacity fuel tanks and two had been breached.
None of the 155,000 gallons of fuel and other oil products aboard the Kulluk itself had leaked.

Mom convicted of exploitation in graphic NH trial

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The allegations were almost too heinous and far-fetched to be believed. A New Hampshire lawyer who graduated at the top of her class and credited her success to Christianity was accused of using her 14-year-old daughter as a sexual pawn, at one point even engaging in a sexual act with the girl on camera.
But believe them a jury did, convicting the woman Thursday of eight counts of exploiting the teenager, who is now in foster care. Her attorney called no witnesses during barely a day of testimony, only imploring jurors in his closing arguments to put aside their emotions as they deliberated.
In a recorded phone conversation with her daughter from jail in December, the woman told her, "I should have been the mom, not the friend."
She was neither, according to a U.S. attorney and testimony at the brief trial in U.S. District Court in Concord, which included two men recounting sexual encounters with the mother and daughter.
A Canadian named Kevin Watson testified that he met the girl online in 2012, that they had sexually explicit Skype sessions, and that he spent Memorial Day weekend last year with mother and daughter in a motel room in Niagara Falls, Ontario, about three weeks after the girl's 14th birthday.
The woman told him it was her daughter's first time having intercourse, and she videotaped that and other sexual encounters during the weekend, Watson said. It isn't clear whether Watson knew the girl's age at the time.
Brandon Ore, of Lebanon, N.H., testified he met the two after responding to a personals ad placed by "two girls, 18 and 33, looking to party." He moved in with them in July 2012 and said it was weeks later that he learned they were mother and daughter, and that the girl was 14.
He moved out two months later and turned himself in to police, triggering the lawyer's arrest.
"The partying was out of control, the sex was out of control and she was charging high rent," Ore said.
The men testified they often had sex with the mother with her daughter present.
The Associated Press generally doesn't identify victims of sexual assault without their consent; it is not naming the mother to avoid identifying the girl.
A friend testified Wednesday for the prosecution that the lawyer is a devout Christian, someone she befriended a dozen years ago when the two met regularly in a home Bible studies group.
The defendant put herself through college after nearly a decade of convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol and driving while her license was suspended, according to records published in the New Hampshire Union Leader in the 1990s and early 2000s.
She was valedictorian of her college's graduate and professional studies program in 2005. In her address, she credited Christianity with saving her from a life of drugs, alcohol and abusive marriages, the Union Leader reported then.
"When I became pregnant with my daughter, I now had the responsibility for a second life," she said in her speech.
The lawyer was a member of, and had advocated for, a Christian legal group that fights against same-sex marriage and for other conservative causes.
Testimony at the trial was graphic and wrenching.
As jurors watched recordings of various sexual encounters, the defendant averted her eyes from the laptop screen in front of her and dropped her head into one hand.
The final video, prosecutors said, depicted the woman having oral sex with her daughter.
Before introducing it into evidence, prosecutors had the girl's father — the defendant's ex-husband — identify the voices captured on tape. He wept uncontrollably after identifying the voices as his daughter's and his ex-wife's, and he left the courtroom before the tape was played for the jury.
As the tape played, its audio track filling the courtroom, the defendant clapped her hands over her ears and wept. The judge ordered the video stopped partway through.
"This goes on for quite a while," the judge said. He had prosecutors skip to the end.
In other recorded, expletive-laden phone calls to her parents in December, the defendant called her daughter a liar and blamed her for her predicament.
"This is not her daughter's fault. Tell her by your verdicts she should have been a mother," U.S. Attorney John Kacavas said in closing.
"The defendant was her pot pusher, her pornography producer and her predator," he said.
Defense Attorney James Moir had an uphill battle defending his client against the layers of graphic videos the defendant was alleged to have planned and produced. He said she didn't force or prompt her daughter to engage in the sex acts but called no witnesses.
"You can hate her. You can be morally outraged by what she did," Moir told jurors in his closing argument. "You can have these emotions, but you have to put them aside when you deliberate."
The jury signaled in less than an hour that it had reached a decision.
The daughter sat in the courtroom, apparently unnoticed by her mother, as the verdicts were read Thursday. Neither mother nor daughter showed a visible reaction.
"The evidence was pretty overwhelming," said juror Peter Evans, of Manchester. "She's going to deserve whatever she gets."
The mother has been behind bars since her arrest in November and faces at least 25 years in prison when sentenced in April.

Apple CEO: China will be biggest market

BEIJING (AP) — Apple expects China to overtake the United States as its biggest market, CEO Tim Cook told a Chinese government news agency.
"China is currently our second largest market. I believe it will become our first. I believe strongly that it will," the Xinhua News Agency quoted Cook as saying in an interview.
The report gave no details of when Cook thought China might pass the United States. Apple Inc. spokespeople in China did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple has said sales in China more than doubled in 2010 and 2011 though growth has slowed in the past year.
Apple's iPhones, iPads and other gadgets are popular with China's highest-earning consumers but the country's fast-growing smartphone market is dominated by handsets that run on rival Google Inc.'s Android system.
Cook was in Beijing to meet with Chinese regulators and managers of state-owned China Unicom Ltd., the first Chinese carrier to support Apple's iPhone.
Xinhua said Cook did not respond to rumors Apple might be developing a lower-cost iPhone for developing markets such as China.
China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone carrier by subscribers, did not immediately respond to a request for information on whether it was discussing with Apple possible arrangements to support the iPhone.
China Mobile has no formal agreement with Apple but says its network is used by several million Chinese customers who brought in unlocked iPhones from abroad. China Mobile has more than 700 million subscribers and support from its network could help to promote iPhone use in China.
Apple opened a multistory flagship store on a prominent corner in Beijing's busy Wangfujing shopping district in October, raising its number of mainland retail outlets to 11. Independent stores also resell Apple products.
According to Xinhua, Cook responded to complaints about wages and other work issues at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles Apple's products in vast factories in China, by saying his company enforces strict codes of conduct for its suppliers.
"We care very deeply about every worker that touches an Apple product, whether they are making it, selling it, serving it or marketing it. We hold ourselves to a very high standard there," he was quoted as saying.

Analysis: Mortgage demand too much for U.S. banks, who respond slowly

(Reuters) - Big U.S. banks are hiring mortgage bankers to meet a surge in demand for home loans and refinancings, but they are still struggling to process applications, which could undermine the Federal Reserve's attempts to stimulate the economy.
Since the Fed announced its plan in September to buy up to $40 billion of mortgages a month, consumer mortgage rates have fallen more slowly and by less than they would have done in more normal times.
On average, 30-year home loan rates are down just 0.18 of a percentage point this week from September 13, when the Fed announced its latest stimulus program. Some analysts estimate that in more normal markets, rates would have fallen by roughly 0.31 of a percentage point or more. That could save a home buyer thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a mortgage.
The dysfunction in the mortgage market, which has yet to fully recover after its battering in the U.S. housing bust and subsequent financial crisis, means most benefits from the Fed's new stimulus plan may be accruing to banks instead of consumers.
Banks still committed to the home loan business are hiring to meet increased demand, but fewer banks are committed to the business after the 2007-2009 mortgage crisis pulverized some of the biggest lenders in the United States and wounded many others.
Capacity constraints work in the banks' favor. Profit margins for home lending are more than double their usual level, JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon told investors last Friday. The major U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc, all said mortgage operations boosted third-quarter profits.
Lenders making mortgages say they do not want to hire too many staffers only to lay them off when volume declines. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that banks will make $1.47 trillion of home loans this year for home purchases and refinancings, but then just $1.04 trillion in 2013, a decline of nearly a third.
"We are trying to ... not over hire," Andy Cecere, chief financial officer at U.S. Bancorp, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Top U.S. mortgage lender Wells Fargo added about 2,000 people in the third quarter as volume surged. Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan said in an interview the bank is responding to the impact of the Fed's plan. Chase has increased its number of loan officers by 23 percent over the last year, and expects to keep hiring aggressively, said Kevin Watters, head of mortgage originations at JP Morgan Chase.
But mortgage applications are also jumping, rising nearly 17 percent in the week ended September 28. With demand that strong and no staffers to handle extra business, banks have little reason to cut rates much. In a speech on Monday, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley acknowledged that difficulty, noting the Fed's efforts to stimulate the economy in recent years would have had a bigger economic impact if consumer mortgage rates were falling more.
Bank staffing issues are a headache for mortgage applicants already struggling with tough appraisals and wary lenders. Many borrowers tell Kafka-esque stories of bureaucracy, where what used to be a 30- to 60-day process has stretched to 90 days or more.
PROFIT BONANZA
The mortgage business has grown much more concentrated. The top two mortgage lenders made 14 percent of mortgage loans in 2000, 29 percent of mortgages in 2006, and 44 percent in the first half of 2012, according to Inside Mortgage Finance data.
Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are the top two lenders now, and their predecessor companies were the top in 2000.
In 2006, Countrywide Financial Corp - now owned by Bank of America Corp - and Wells were the top. Bank of America last year stopped buying loans from other banks after suffering billions of dollars of losses from its exposure to home loans, which has cut its volume in half and limited smaller banks' capacity to lend.
Bankers are unsure how long the refinancing bonanza will last.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon told investors the mortgage boom will continue "next quarter, maybe for a couple of quarters after that but it won't last for that much longer."
Citigroup Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach told investors on Monday that figuring out how long the refinancing boom will last is "one of the big questions facing a lot of institutions at this point in time."
Smaller banks are struggling with the same questions.
Matt Williams, president of Gothenburg State Bank in Gothenburg, Nebraska, and incoming chairman of the American Bankers Association, said his bank was not adding staff even though its 28 employees were "stressed to the max right now."
Williams said his bank, with $125 million in assets, expects rates eventually will go up, cutting demand for refinancing.
Mortgage demand was rising even before the Fed announced its latest plan to buy home loans, but that announcement immediately lowered bank funding costs. The effect on bank revenues will take longer to show up, because it takes months to process and close mortgage applications.
For consumers, capacity constraints among mortgage lenders mean rates are not falling as much as they theoretically could.
The average 30-year consumer mortgage rate was 3.37 percent, Freddie Mac said on Thursday - about 1.13 percentage points higher than rates investors in mortgage bonds would accept, as measured by the "secondary rate" for mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae.
In the second half of 2011, the gap between consumer mortgage rates and the secondary rate averaged closer to about 0.9 percentage point, suggesting lenders could cut rates another 0.23 point. However, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae boosted fees for guarantees by 0.1 of a percentage point in August, meaning the difference may be only about 0.13 of a percentage point.

US rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.41 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. mortgage rates rose only slightly this week and continued to hover near record lows, a trend that has helped boost home sales and refinancing.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage edged up to 3.41 percent, from 3.37 last week. Three weeks ago, the rate touched 3.36 percent. That's the lowest level on records dating to 1971.
The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, often used for refinancing, rose to 2.72 percent. That's up from last week's record low of 2.66 percent.
The rate on the 30-year loan has remained below 4 percent all year, helping drive a modest housing recovery. And rates have fallen even further since the Federal Reserve started buying mortgage bonds in September to try to encourage more borrowing and spending.
Home sales have increased from last year, and prices are rising more consistently in most areas. Builders are more confident and starting more homes. Lower rates have also persuaded more people to refinance. That typically leads to lower monthly mortgage payments and more spending.
This week brought more positive news on the housing front. U.S. sales of new homes jumped last month to the highest level in more than two years, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. And slightly more Americans signed contracts last month to buy homes, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.
Still, the housing market has a long way to a full recovery. And many people are unable to take advantage of the low rates, either because they can't qualify for stricter lending rules or they lack the money to meet larger down payment requirements.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also held steady, at 0.6 point.
The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage slipped to 2.59 percent from 2.60 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans remained at 0.4 point.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage was unchanged at 2.75 percent. The fee also was unchanged, at 0.6 point.

US home sales rise 2.1 percent in October

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of previously occupied homes rose solidly in October, helped by improvement in the job market and record-low mortgage rates.
The increase along with a jump in homebuilder confidence this month suggests the housing market continues to recover.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales rose 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million. That's up from 4.69 million in September, which was revised lower.
The sales pace is roughly 11 percent higher than a year ago. But it remains below the more than 5.5 million that economists consider consistent with a healthy market.
As the economy slowly recovers, more people have started looking to buy homes or rent apartments. Prices are steadily climbing, while mortgage rates have been low all year. At the same time, rents are rising, making the purchase of a single-family home or condominium more attractive.
"Altogether, the report is encouraging," said Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital. "Our view is that housing is in a recovery phase," he added, though it will be restrained by limited credit and modest job gains.
A separate report Monday showed confidence among homebuilders rose this month to its highest level in six and a half years. The increase was driven by strong demand for newly built homes and growing optimism about conditions next year.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index increased to 46, up from 41 in October. Readings below 50 suggest negative sentiment about the housing market. The index last reached that level in April 2006. Still, the index has been trending higher since October 2011, when it stood at 17.
The Realtors' group said Superstorm Sandy delayed some sales of previously occupied homes in the Northeast. Sales fell 1.7 percent there, the only region to show a decline. Those sales will likely be completed in future months, the group said.
The median price for previously occupied homes increased 11.1 percent from a year ago to $178,600, the Realtors' said.
A decline in the number of homes available for sale is helping push prices higher. There were only 2.14 million homes available for sale at the end of the month, the lowest supply in 10 years. It would take only 5.4 months to exhaust that supply at the current sales pace. That's the lowest sales-to-inventory ratio since February 2006.
Prices are also benefiting from the mix of homes being sold. Sales of homes priced at $500,000 and above have jumped more than 40 percent in the past year. Sales of homes and condominiums that cost less than $100,000 fell 0.6 percent.
There have been other positive signals from the housing market. Applications for mortgage loans to buy homes jumped 11 percent in the week ended Nov. 9, compared with a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers' Association said last week. Purchase applications are up 22 percent in the past year.
Foreclosures are slowing. The number of properties that began the foreclosure process in the first 10 months of the year fell 8 percent compared with the same period last year, RealtyTrac said last week.
And builders broke ground on new homes and apartments at the fastest pace in more than four years in September. The jump could help boost the economy and hiring.
Still, the market has a long way back to full health. Many potential home buyers cannot meet stricter lending standards or produce larger down payments required by banks.
That can be a particular problem for first-time homebuyers. They accounted for 31 percent of sales in October, down slightly from September and below the 40 percent that is common in a healthy market.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that banks' overly tight lending standards may be preventing sales and holding back the U.S. economy.

Further gloom for Lakers with Howard and Gasol sidelined

(Reuters) - A surprisingly below-par season for the Los Angeles Lakers plunged further depths on Monday with the news that All-Stars Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol are out indefinitely with injuries.
Howard, a three-time defensive player of the year, re-aggravated a right shoulder injury against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday and an MRI the following day revealed a torn labrum.
The center will continue to receive treatment from Lakers staff and will be re-examined in a week, the 16-time NBA champions said in a statement.
Spanish forward Gasol, who suffered a blow to the face during the fourth quarter of Sunday's 112-105 home loss to the Nuggets, has been diagnosed with concussion and is also out indefinitely.
The duo's absence comes as the Lakers desperately try to climb out of a 15-18 hole, having started their campaign with heightened NBA Championship hopes after acquiring All-Stars Howard and Steve Nash during the off-season.
"Obviously it will be more difficult but no one is feeling sorry for us," Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Other guys have to step up."
While the return of veteran point guard Nash from a leg fracture for the last seven games certainly gave the team a much needed lift, the Lakers' ageing line-up has not been helped by a spate of injuries and three different head coaches.
Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant has been their only consistent player this season and the Los Angeles have gone 10-13 since D'Antoni took over from interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff.
"It's screaming at us, isn't it," D'Antoni told reporters after his team fell to 10-8 at home following Sunday's defeat by the Nuggets.
"We're not in a good place right now. We're losing right now because we don't have a consistent 48 minutes of basketball."
The Lakers are next in action when they visit the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

NBA-Celtics guard Rondo suspended game for bumping referee

Jan 7 (Reuters) - Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo has been suspended one game without pay for making contact with a referee and failing to cooperate with a league investigation, the National Basketball Association (NBA) said on Monday.
The incident occurred with 3:19 left in the third quarter of Boston's 89-81 win against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday after Rondo was called for an offensive foul on a drive to the basket.
Immediately following the call, the Celtic guard bumped into referee Rodney Mott as the pair walked back up the court.
Rondo will serve his suspension later on Monday when the Celtics visit the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
The NBA on Monday also fined Hawks general manager Danny Ferry $15,000 for inappropriate interaction with the game officials after his team's loss to Boston on Sunday.

Celtics guard Rondo suspended game for bumping referee

(Reuters) - Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo has been suspended one game without pay for making contact with a referee and failing to cooperate with a league investigation, the National Basketball Association (NBA) said on Monday.
The incident occurred with 3:19 left in the third quarter of Boston's 89-81 win against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday after Rondo was called for an offensive foul on a drive to the basket.
Immediately following the call, the Celtic guard bumped into referee Rodney Mott as the pair walked back up the court.
Rondo will serve his suspension later on Monday when the Celtics visit the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
The NBA on Monday also fined Hawks general manager Danny Ferry $15,000 for inappropriate interaction with the game officials after his team's loss to Boston on Sunday.

US home sales jump to highest level in 3 years

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of previously occupied homes jumped to their highest level in three years last month, bolstered by steady job gains and record-low mortgage rates.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales rose 5.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in November. That's up from 4.76 million in October.
Previously occupied home sales are on track for their best year in five years. November's sales were the highest since November 2009, when a federal tax credit that was soon to expire spurred sales. Excluding that month, last month's sales were the highest since July 2007.
Sales are up 14.5 percent from a year ago, though they remain below the roughly 5.5 million that are consistent with a healthy market.
Job growth and low home-loan rates have helped drive purchases. Prices are also rising, which encourages more potential buyers to come off the sidelines and purchase homes. And more people may put their homes on the market if they feel confident they can sell at a good price.
In addition, the excess supply of homes that built up during the housing bubble has finally thinned out. The number of previously occupied homes available for sale fell to a 10-year low in October. The supply of new homes is also near its lowest level since 1963.
At the same time, more people are looking to buy or rent a home after living with relatives or friends during and immediately after the Great Recession.
These trends have supported a steady recovery in housing. Builder confidence rose in December for a seventh straight month to the highest level in more than 6½ years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.
The pace of home construction slipped in November, but it was still nearly 22 percent higher than a year earlier. Builders are on track this year to start work on the most homes in four years.
Economists note that the increase in building should lead to more construction jobs, though it hasn't yet done so. That could mean more construction hiring is coming.

US home sales surge to highest level in 3 years

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of previously occupied homes jumped to their highest level in three years last month, bolstered by steady job gains and record-low mortgage rates. The report was the latest sign of a sustained recovery in the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales rose 5.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in November. That's up from 4.76 million in October.
Previously occupied home sales are on track for their best year in five years. November's sales were the highest since November 2009, when a federal tax credit that was soon to expire spurred sales. Excluding that month, last month's sales were the highest since July 2007.
Sales are up 14.5 percent from a year ago, though they remain below the roughly 5.5 million that are consistent with a healthy market.
"The report is encouraging, and the positive momentum established in the housing market during 2012 appears likely to continue into 2013," Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital, said in an email.
Superstorm Sandy delayed some sales in the Northeast, the Realtors' group said. Those delayed purchases will likely close in the coming months, though the increase will be modest, the group said.
Even so, sales rose 6.9 percent in the Northeast last month compared with October. Sales increased 7.2 percent in the Midwest, 7.9 percent in the South and 0.8 percent in the West.
Job growth and low home-loan rates have helped drive purchases. Prices are also rising, which encourages more potential buyers to come off the sidelines and purchase homes. And more people may put their homes on the market if they feel confident they can sell at a good price.
In addition, the excess supply of homes that built up during the housing bubble has finally thinned out. The number of previously occupied homes available for sale fell to nearly an 11-year low in November. The supply of new homes is also near its lowest level since 1963.
At the current sales pace, it would take 4.8 months to exhaust the supply of homes for sale. That's the shortest such span since September 2005.
At the same time, more people are looking to buy or rent a home after living with relatives or friends during and immediately after the Great Recession.
As low supply and rising demand push up prices, builders will likely be encouraged to start work on more homes in coming months, economists said.
"That's a good reason to feel optimistic about housing next year," said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight. "We just don't have enough homes right now, and we need to start building."
Builder confidence rose in December for a seventh straight month to the highest level in more than 6½ years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.
The pace of home construction slipped in November, but it was still nearly 22 percent higher than a year earlier. Builders are on track this year to start work on the most homes in four years.
Economists note that the increase in building should lead to more construction jobs, though it hasn't yet done so. That could mean more construction hiring is coming.

BofA CEO: Fed wants bank to show consistent earnings

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp needs to show the U.S. Federal Reserve it can produce consistent earnings as part of the annual process to gain permission to return more capital to shareholders, CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview.
The second-largest U.S. bank is turning a profit in most of its main businesses, but it inherited costly legal problems when it acquired companies during the financial crisis, including subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.
In the third quarter, Bank of America reported only a nominal profit after reaching a $2.4 billion settlement with investors to resolve claims it hid crucial information from shareholders when it bought investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co.
Moynihan declined to comment on whether the bank's capital plan, which is due to the Fed by January 7, will include any proposed share buybacks or increases in dividends. Moynihan suffered a major embarrassment in 2011 when the Fed rejected the bank's request to increase its quarterly dividend, which has been stuck at just one penny per share since the financial crisis.
The Fed has been evaluating capital plans as part of its supervision of bank holding companies and under provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It is unclear whether the Fed would approve any request for an increased dividend or share buybacks next year. A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.
"The element that is sort of unique to us is the predictability of the earnings stream," Moynihan said in an interview in his Charlotte, North Carolina, office. "We are working to get through that."
Other banks have demonstrated their ability to earn money more consistently. JPMorgan Chase & Co's quarterly profit, for example, hasn't fallen below $3.7 billion in the past year, even as it has taken losses on disastrous credit derivative trades.
Investors and analysts are hopeful that Bank of America's legal problems will die down soon. Its stock price has more than doubled this year, partly on expectations that the bank will increase its dividend and buy back more stock after the Federal Reserve reviews its capital plans this spring.
Analysts at Atlantic Equities on Tuesday said they expect Bank of America to buy back $4 billion of its own shares in 2013 and $10 billion in 2014, which would be its first buybacks since 2007.
The bank has "made a lot of progress" on legal issues, Moynihan said, but he acknowledged that the company is still working through lawsuits and investor demands to buy back soured mortgages the bank sold off during the housing boom.
In recent weeks, the bank's dispute with insurer MBIA Inc over mortgage-related claims has heated up, with Bank of America filing a new lawsuit last week against the insurer. The legal tussle with MBIA has dragged on, even as Bank of America has worked out settlements with other insurers of mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide.
Moynihan said the bank will settle the MBIA dispute if it can reach an agreement that is reasonable for shareholders but otherwise it is ready to litigate the matter.
The bank's shares closed Tuesday at $11.35, up 3.2 percent for the day. The shares are the best performer in the Dow Jones industrial average this year, after falling the most in 2011.
HEALING
In an effort to improve earnings, Moynihan is aiming to cut costs by $8 billion annually by mid-2015 through a program called Project New BAC, including 30,000 layoffs that have been under way since September 2011. Bank of America had noninterest expenses of $76.5 billion in 2011.
In addition, Bank of America expects to eventually reduce costs in its unit that serves delinquent mortgage customers to about $500 million per quarter from about $3.4 billion in the third quarter. If delinquent mortgages continue to fall, that saving should be achieved in 2015, if not sooner, Moynihan said.