Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.89 percent. That's below the previous record of 3.91 percent reached three weeks ago.

Records for mortgage rates date back to the 1950s.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage ticked down to 3.16 percent. That's down from a record 3.21 percent three weeks ago.

Mortgage rates are lower because they track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which fell below 2 percent. They could fall even lower this year if the Fed launches another round of bond purchases, as some economists expect.

Average fixed mortgage rates hovered around 4 percent at the end of 2011. Yet many Americans either can't take advantage of the rates or have already done so.

High unemployment and scant wage gains have made it harder for many people to qualify for loans. Many don't want to sink money into a home that they fear could lose value over the next few years.

Mortgage applications have fallen slightly on a seasonally adjusted basis over the past four weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said that until hiring picks up and unemployment drops significantly, the impact of lower mortgage rates will remain muted.

Previously occupied homes are selling just slightly ahead of 2010's dismal pace. New-home sales in 2011 will likely be the worst year on records going back half a century.

Builders hope that the low rates could boost sales next year. Low mortgage rates were cited as a key reason the National Association of Home Builders survey of builder sentiment rose in December to its highest level in more than a year.

But so far, they have had little impact on the depressed housing market.

To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average rates don'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 the 30-year loan fell to 0.7 from 0.8; the average on the 15-year fixed mortgage was unchanged at 0.8.

For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate declined to 2.82 percent from 2.86 percent. The average on the one-year adjustable loan fell to 2.76 percent from 2.80 percent.

The average fee on the five-year adjustable loan rose was unchanged at 0.7; the average on the one-year adjustable-rate loan was unchanged at 0.6.

The hotline will help fight corruption and promote accountability in aid programs in Haiti and is widely advertised on radio, television, and vehicles used by USAID's implementing partners.The 24-hour hotline accepts allegations in English, French, and Creole and has been receiving complaints since it launched in December 2012.

Developed as part of USAID OIG's ongoing partnership with LFHH, the hotline models the approach of the Pakistan Anti-Fraud Hotline run by Transparency International-Pakistan and the OIG. Both hotlines cover not only USAID projects and implementers, but also receive complaints across the spectrum of international and local assistance programs in their respective countries.

USAID Deputy Inspector General, Michael G. Carroll, said, "This new hotline gives the Haitian people a way to help fight corruption in the programs and services meant to benefit them. OIG remains firmly committed to rooting out fraud and corruption in assistance programs across the country, and to help improve donor assistance in Haiti."

The anti-corruption hotline in Haiti is funded by USAID in coordination with USAID OIG through a three-year, $168,000 cooperative agreement with LFHH.

Complaints can be made to the hotline by:

La Fondation Heritage pour HaitiSection Haitienne de Transparency International (TI)Boite postale 16136Bureau Postal de Petion-VillePetion-Ville, Haiti NT 6140

SOURCE USAID OIG

Barty and Dellacqua broke the Italian pair in the eighth game of the second set, then held serve in the next game to force a deciding third set. The Australian pair broke Errani and Vinci to start the deciding set, but the Italians recovered quickly and dominated for the match.

The 16-year-old Barty was attempting to become the youngest Grand Slam champion since Martina Hingis won the Australian Open singles title in 1997.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google's fourth-quarter earnings rose 7 percent as online advertisers spent more money in pursuit of holiday shoppers.

The financial results announced Tuesday were a mixed bag. While the company's earnings topped analyst estimates, an accounting quirk caused net revenue to fall below the projections that guide investor expectations.

Wall Street still liked what it saw. Google's stock climbed $30.78, or 4.4 percent, to $733.65 in extended trading.

The most recent quarter didn't provide an apples-to-apples comparison to the previous year because the latest results included Motorola Mobility. Google didn't own Motorola Mobility in 2011, having completed its $12.4 billion acquisition of the handset maker eight months ago.

Things were further complicated by Google's recent agreement to sell a part of the Motorola Mobility division that makes cable TV boxes. That division is now accounted for as a discontinued operation.

Google earned nearly $2.9 billion, or $8.62 cents per share during the final three months of last year. That compared to net income of $2.7 billion, or $8.22 per share, at the same time last year.

If not for the costs of employee stock compensation and certain other accounting items, Google said it would have earned. $10.65 per share. On that basis, Google exceeded the average earnings estimate of $10.54 among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue surged 36 percent from the previous year to $14.4 billion.

After subtracting advertising expenses, Google's revenue totaled $11.3 billion. That figure was well below the average analyst estimate of $12.1 billion, according to FactSet.

But many of the analyst forecasts included revenue from Motorola Mobility's set-top division, which Google didn't include in its fourth quarter revenue. Had the set-top division been included, Google's net revenue would have matched analyst estimates.

The country's gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday, sharper than a 0.1 percent decline forecast by analysts.

The news is a blow for Britain's Conservative-led government, which a day earlier defended its austerity programme against criticism from the International Monetary Fund. It needs solid growth to meet its budget targets, keep a triple-A debt rating and bolster its chances of winning a 2015 election.

Sterling fell to its lowest in 13-1/2 months against the euro and hit a five-month low against the dollar in response to the data. The euro was also buoyed by a stronger-than-expected German Ifo sentiment survey.

"There are no positive takeaways from today's first (GDP)estimate," said Lee Hopley, chief economist for the EEF manufacturers' association. "Even assuming some unwinding of activity from the Olympics boost in the previous quarter, this still leaves no real signs of underlying growth in the economy."

Britain's economy is now 3.3 percent smaller than its peak in Q1 2008, having recovered only about half the output lost during the financial crisis - a worse performance than most other major economies.

The country slipped back into recession in the last three months of 2011, and only emerged from it in the third quarter of 2012, after a boost from the London Olympics.

After a bout of snowy weather in January - which is likely to have hit spending and output - the risk is that the economy will continue to shrink in the first three months of this year, technically pushing it into a rare "triple dip" recession.

Britain's biggest department store group, John Lewis, said earlier on Friday that snow was responsible for its sales growth stalling in the latest week.

POLITICALLY INCENDIARY

In economic terms, the picture remains one of stagnation over the past year. But politically, the latest dip in national output is more incendiary.

"Stagnation is going to be the theme for the next couple of quarters or so. This obviously brings Osborne's strategy into sharp relief and also the (Bank of England) strategy of maintaining or not sanctioning further monetary policy action," said Rob Wood at Berenberg Bank. "The Bank of England were forecasting a return to some growth in Q1 and that is likely to be disappointed."

Chancellor George Osborne stuck fast to his austerity plan on Thursday, rejecting suggestions from the International Monetary Fund's chief economist that he should consider slowing his deficit reduction plan.

Prime Minister David Cameron this week staked his political future on offering a referendum on Britain's place in the European Union. But it is Osborne's gamble that austerity will deliver strong growth before a 2015 election that will be crucial for his Conservative party's chance of winning.

After the figures were released, the Osborne conceded that Britain was still in a "very difficult economic situation".

"We face problems at home with the debts built up over many years and problems abroad, with the euro zone - where we export many of our products - deep in recession," he added.

Osborne's coalition partner, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, has said the government of which he is part had cut investment spending too rapidly.

Opposition Labour Party' finance spokesman Ed Balls responded to the data by saying the government was complacent.

"David Cameron and George Osborne have been asleep at the wheel. They've spent the last six months obsessing about a referendum in five years time, not focusing on the problems in our economy today," Balls said.

Britain's chief central banker Mervyn King expects no more than a "gentle recovery" this year, while this week the IMF cut its 2013 forecast for British economic growth to 1.0 percent from 1.1 percent predicted in October.

However, economists and business groups warn that even such lacklustre growth could be derailed by a hit to firms' and consumers' confidence from talk of a triple-dip recession.

The biggest driver for the fourth-quarter fall in GDP was a 10.2 percent drop in mining and quarrying output, the biggest since records began in 1997, driven by disruption from extended maintenance affecting North Sea oil and gas fields.

This knocked 0.18 percent off GDP, while slightly smaller amounts of damage were done by falls in factory output and in the 'government and other services' category, where the Olympics had boosted sports and recreation services in the third quarter.

Friday's figures showed output in the service sector -- which makes up more than three quarters of GDP -- was flat in the fourth quarter. Industrial output was 1.8 percent lower.

(Reporting by David Milliken and Olesya Dmitracova, writing by Mike Peacock. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

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Maduro submitted a report in writing from the government of ailing President Hugo Chavez, who is receiving treatment in Cuba after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery. Opposition politicians argued that the annual speech should have been postponed because Chavez was supposed to deliver it, and some walked out in protest.

Maduro announced during the speech, a day after visiting with Chavez in Cuba, that the president had designated former vice president Elias Jaua as the new foreign minister. Maduro had kept the foreign minister's post after his appointment as vice president in October.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said the naming of Jaua as foreign minister should be reviewed because it was unclear under what authority the vice president was acting when such powers belong to the president alone.

Only a portion of the opposition lawmakers walked out of the session. "We have an illegitimate government," said lawmaker Maria Corina Machado, one of about a dozen who left.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez rejected the opposition's allegations that the government was acting illegally by going ahead with the special legislative session.

"There's no constitutional controversy," Ramirez told reporters, calling the politicians who walked out "the most extremist sector of the far right."

Re-elected in October, Chavez has not made any public comments since his latest cancer surgery Dec. 11.

He has been fighting an unspecified type of pelvic cancer, and his long silence has fed speculation about why he hasn't addressed the country by phone on television, as he did during past treatments in Cuba. Government officials have said Chavez is being treated for "respiratory deficiency."

Officials have indefinitely postponed Chavez's inauguration despite complaints by the opposition that the move was unconstitutional.

Venezuelan constitutional expert Geraldo Blyde, an opposition politician and lawyer, said lawmakers should have postponed Tuesday's event. He cited sections of the nation's constitution stating that "only an acting president can personally present the report."

Last January, Chavez spoke for nine hours before lawmakers even as he was undergoing cancer treatments.

This year, the president's supporters in a courtyard outside the session chanted: "With Chavez and Maduro, the nation is secure."

Earlier Tuesday, Maduro said Chavez has been making progress in his treatment for a severe respiratory infection and asked questions of his aides during a visit Monday.

Maduro said he and other officials provided Chavez with an update on "the government in a new stage" and other matters.

"He asked our friend Rafael Ramirez about (certain) aspects" of the government, Maduro said in a televised meeting with state governors.

"Our commander is climbing the hill, he's advancing, and that fills us with great happiness," he said.

Maduro expressed gratitude to Chavez's medical team but didn't give details, saying only that Chavez "is in battle."

Before the legislative session, a crowd of government supporters gathered outside the legislative palace in Caracas, wearing the Chavista movement's signature red.

Francisca Harvey, 46, a member of the pro-government group Frente Francisco de Miranda, eagerly awaited Maduro's speech as loudspeakers blared the song "Chavez, heart of the people."

"He's a strong man," Harvey said. "It's important that we have him healthy."

Another woman outside the palace gates, Emiliana Quintero, a 54-year-old beautician, said she was loyal to the new government, even without Chavez present.

"We are going to support Nicolas while the president recovers," Quintero said, referring to the vice president.

Dozens of Chavez supporters were allowed through the gates into the courtyard of the National Assembly. As the opposition lawmaker Machado entered, the crowd began chanting: "They will not return!"

Opposition lawmaker Carlos Berrizbeitia insisted that Maduro should not have been acting in Chavez's stead.

"Today another move was made against the country's constitution," Berrizbeitia said, adding that Maduro should not "continue acting as president of the republic."

Maduro made his comments about Chavez's health Tuesday at a gathering of state governors in Caracas after returning from Cuba along with Ramirez, Attorney General Cilia Flores and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello. Three opposition governors attended, including Capriles, who was defeated by Chavez in the last presidential vote in October.

To be fair, the Canada-based phone-maker hasn't exactly made it easy for you, the consumer, to cheer the company onward,especiallywith the smothering shadows cast by Google and Apple.In fact, RIM's downward spiral presents a compelling case study for boneheaded decision-making and public relations thoughtlessness.There were the endless delays (BlackBerry 10 was first teased in ); the embarrassing incident in whichgot too drunk and had to be restrained on a plane bound for China; the recent layoffs that some insiders called "." Depressing after depressing only seemed to crescendo the BlackBerry's death knell, replete with graphs and lifeless arrows all pointing the same direction. Down.

This week, RIM announced that after more than a year of product delays egregious, considering new Android phones are released days apart a line of new budget-friendly BlackBerrys sporting a new operating system,BB10, are ready to be formally unveiled (not shipped) at the (Note: Like many users, I made the switch from a BlackBerry Curve to an iPhone two years ago. It is one of the best decisions I've ever made. And no, I couldn't care less about the physical keyboard.)

That's something to be excited about.Over at Gizmodo, there's aof some of the new features BB10 will use. At first glance it looks like the baffling stepchild bred from a weird love triangle between Android, iOS, and a grizzled old Windows XP.

Yet the redesigned OS has some good features and flourishes worth noting: The ability to minimize apps that run simultaneously. The ability to keep your finger pressed down to slide panes side-to-side (handy for peeking around). A well-spaced, digital keyboard thatdraws inspiration from BlackBerry's celebrated keypads. The easy-to-set alarm clock is unlike anything we've seen yet. The phone's camera looks intuitive and snappy with some smart editing features. Cosmetically speaking it's not the prettiest UI in the world, but it's not supposed to be. As a business device, BB10-equippedphones will be all about cold, mechanical efficiency. And you can bet Android and Apple are taking notes.

No, BlackBerry 10 won't change the world like the iPhone did in 2007. But it doesn't have to. The reason we should be rooting for RIM is because, quite honestly, it's beginning to look more and more like the current duopoloy of iOS and Android isn't going anywhere, not even with Microsoft's tile-based Windows Phones . According to ComScore, the two operating systems have a stranglehold on the smartphone market, accounting for .

The sad truth about all the legal mudslinging betweenis that patents matter right now, whether the system is broken or not. "We think that these patent wars are not helpful to consumers," , lamenting the litigiousness that's plaguing the world of mobile technology. "They're not helpful to the marketplace. They're not helpful to innovation," he added.

But competition is.

We need RIM and Windows to keep the current leaders on their toes, to push innovation forward, albeit from behind. Whether it's a just a new way to swipe or organize an application is inconsequential. Variety breeds stronger victors.

I'm not saying we shouldn't criticize RIM. We should. It's our duty to keep the companies making our gadgets honest. But BlackBerry, like Microsoft and the Windows Phone, is in the unique but difficult position of providing phone-buyers with something fresh but familiar. New, but not quite groundbreaking.

We had our fun, but it's time to start rooting for companies like RIM, Windows, and others experimenting with new ideas instead of kicking them when they fail. This would give consumers a voice in the one forum that matters the marketplace. That's why, against the odds, I'm pulling for the new batch of BlackBerrys to succeed. I hope I'm not alone.

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If both sides approve the tentative deal reached over the weekend as expected training camps will be open by Sunday.

The league's board of governors will meet on Wednesday in New York, and the 30 club owners will vote on the agreement that was reached in the early morning hours of Sunday after a 16-hour negotiating session.

If a majority approves, the NHL will move one step closer toward the official end of the lockout that began Sept. 16.

The league and the players' association were still working on one more key piece of business on Tuesday night that must be settled before hockey is truly back.

"We are trying to finalize a summary document, and we are very close on that," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email. "That will be turned into a (memorandum of understanding) with more detailed language that won't be signed until this coming weekend."

The union was waiting for that initial document before it scheduled a vote for its more than 700 members. A majority of players also must approve the deal before the lockout can end.

If there are no snags, ratification could be finished by Saturday and training camps could open Sunday. A 48-game regular season would then be expected to begin on Jan. 19.

"(We) don't need a signed document to complete ratification process," Daly wrote, "but we do need a signed agreement to open camps. The goal is to get that done by Saturday so that we can open camps on Sunday."

The NHL has yet to release a new schedule. The regular season was supposed to begin on Oct. 11.

The deal was reached Sunday, the 113th day of the lockout, and seemingly saved a season that was delayed for three months and cut nearly in half. It took a marathon final bargaining session in a New York hotel for the agreement to finally be completed at about 5 a.m.

The lockout led to the cancellation of at least 480 games, depending on the length of the upcoming season. That brings the total of lost regular-season games to a minimum of 2,178 during three lockouts under Commissioner Gary Bettman.

The damage is significant. Perhaps $1 billion in revenue could be lost this season, given about 40 percent of the regular-season schedule won't be played. Players also will lose a large part of their salaries, not to mention time from their careers.

Hockey's first labor dispute was an 11-day strike in 1992 that led to the postponement of 30 games. Bettman became the commissioner in February 1993. He presided over a 103-day lockout in 1994-95 that ended with a deal on Jan. 11, then a 301-day lockout in 2004-05 that made the NHL the only major North American professional sports league to lose an entire season. The NHL obtained a salary cap in the agreement that followed that dispute and now wanted more gains.

The NHL's revenue of $3.3 billion last season lagged well behind the NFL ($9 billion), Major League Baseball ($7.5 billion) and the NBA ($5 billion), and the deal will lower the hockey players' percentage from 57 to 50 owners originally had proposed 46 percent.

This was the third lockout among the major U.S. sports in a period of just more than a year. A four-month NFL lockout ended in July 2011 with the loss of only one exhibition game, and an NBA lockout caused each team's schedule to be cut from 82 games to 66 last season.

COLDS: Usual symptoms include stuffy or runny nose, sore throat and sneezing. Coughs are hacking and productive. It's unusual to have fever, chills, headaches and body aches, and if they do occur, they are mild.

FLU: Fever is usually present, along with chills, headache and moderate-to-severe body aches and tiredness. Symptoms can come on rapidly, within three to six hours. Coughs are dry and unproductive, and sore throats are less common.

PREVENTION: To avoid colds and flu, wash your hands with warm water and soap after you've been out in public or around sick people. Don't share cups or utensils. And get a flu vaccination officials say it's not too late, even in places where flu is raging.

TREATMENT: People with colds or mild cases of the flu should get plenty of rest and fluids. Those with severe symptoms, such as a high fever or difficulty breathing, should see a doctor and may be prescribed antiviral drugs or other medications. Children should not be given aspirin without a doctor's approval.

___

Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Roche, maker of Tamiflu.