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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Markets were closed in the U.S. Monday as the nation celebrated Labor Day. But trading in European markets and gold were not on holiday, one falling and one rising on debt concerns and global demand.

Gold pricing exceeded $1,900 an ounce Monday in London as concerns persisted about slowing economic growth worldwide. Europe’s debt worries also spurred renewed demand for the yellow metal.

Foreign markets and overseas gold reacted to the weak U.S. jobs report on Friday that showed that no jobs were added in August. Already jittery markets looked anywhere for any sign of improvement, which have been and continue to be hard to find.

Gold is enjoying an 11-year bull run. It is the precious metal’s longest running streak since the 1920′s. For the year, the yellow metal is up 33 percent, outshining global equities, commodities and U.S. Treasuries.

U.S. stock markets will open for trading as usual on Tuesday and markets anxiously await President Obama’s address on Thursday night about jobs.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s announced on Monday that its president, Deven Sharma, will leave the company. He will be replaced beginning Sept. 12 by Douglas Petersen, chief operating officer of Citibank.

Sharma will leave the company amid the furor caused by S&P’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating two weeks ago to AA+ from triple A because of the prolonged political debate over how to raise the country’s debt limit.

The downgrade caused investors to be jittery and led to declines in the global stock market. U.S. authorities criticized S&P for the credit downgrade and are investigating the rating agency.

Sharma, 55, will stay with S&P until the end of the year. He explained his decision to step down to pursue other opportunities, according to S&P’s parent company, McGraw-Hill. When Peterson takes over in mid September, Sharma will work on McGraw-Hill’s strategic review.

Sharma joined McGraw-Hill in 2002 and served as president of S&P since 2007. Last year, McGraw-Hill split the company into S&P and McGraw-Hill Financial.

S&P said despite the controversy created by Washington’s downgrade, the agency will continue to rate sovereign debts and companies. The ratings will be comparable, forward looking and transparent.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither criticized S&P for poor judgment. He pointed out that S&P made a $2-trillion error in its initial debt forecast computations, which was partly the basis for the downgrade. S&P had admitted to the error.

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Fort Calhoun, NE, United States (AHN) – The rising Missouri River flood water continues to threaten the two power plants in Nebraska. To assess the situation, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko visited the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday morning.

The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, located 20 miles north of Omaha, is one of the two nuclear plants in the state being monitored by the NRC because of the threats of inundation from the Missouri River.

The Fort Calhoun plant has been closed since April for refueling. Its parking lot is flooded, plant employees need to walk on a catwalk to reach the facility. An inflatable water-filled barrier that surrounds the plant was punctured by machinery on Sunday, but the plant operators assured residents that key areas of the facility are not in danger of submersion.

However, plant employees briefly switched to diesel backup generators to keep the nuclear fuel at the site cool because the flood water got too close to electrical transformers.

The other plant, Cooper Nuclear Station, is on higher ground and continues to operate. However, reports said the station is close to shutting down because flood water had reached critical levels.

Because of residents’ worry of a nuclear disaster, rumors about the true conditions of the two plants circulate in the state.

The rumors include an alleged two-mile radius no-fly zone declared by the Federal Aviation Administration on the air space around Fort Calhoun because of a radiation leak and the declaration of a Level 4 emergency at the facility.

The plant operators denied the reports.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – It is not just gays who are cheering New York’s law legalizing gay marriages that passed over the weekend. The state’s tourism industry is also applauding the move, with many advertising gay marriage specials.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is set to launch “NYC I Do,” a campaign selling the city as a premier gay wedding destination. Specials are already spreading across the state. The Le Parker Meridian has a “Love has No Boundaries/Born This Way” wedding package.

A report in May from the New York’s Senate Independent Democratic Conference estimated that 21,309 resident gay and lesbian couples would get married over the next three years, and the state would earn nearly $400 million during that time from gay and lesbian couples getting married in the state. That total included tourism, wedding bookings and state licensing fees.

The law goes into effect on July 24.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (Celebrity News Service) – Legendary rocker Peter Frampton has filed for divorce from Christina Elfers, his wife of 15 years.

According to TMZ, Frampton filed in an L.A. County Superior Court citing irreconcilable differences.

Frampton wants joint legal custody with primary physical custody going to Elfers. They have one minor daughter together named Mia who is an actress.

Elfers also has an adult daughter named Tiffany from a previous relationship.

Frampton rose to fame with the 1975 hit “Baby I Love You Way,” a song which has been featured in a number of feature films over the years.

The couple has been married since 1996.

This will be Frampton’s third divorce.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The United States economy grew at a slow 1.9 percent pace during the first quarter of the year a slowdown in growth that Federal Reserve policy makers hope will only be a temporary.

In contrast, the economy grew at a more robust 3.1 percent rate in the previous quarter. Still the 1.9 percent figure was better than the 1.8 percent rise in gross domestic product predicted for the first quarter by government officials last month.

Real gross domestic product is the total output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S.

“The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), private inventory investment, exports, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased,” the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis said in a statement.

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Athens, Greece (AHN) – A day after winning a confidence vote in the Greek Parliament, the country’s cabinet approved austerity measures for the 2012 to 2015 budgets and laws for the measures’ application.

The measures include $40 billion (EUR 28 billion) of spending cuts, tax increases, fiscal reforms and sale of government assets.

The next step for the financially challenged government is to secure the approval of the parliament where the ruling party of Prime Minister George Papandreou has enough numbers to pass the measures. However, unlike the confidence vote in which all members of the Socialist Party rallied behind the government, some MPs from the party also oppose the austerity measures.

Papandreou will have to convince the public, who have held several protests the past weeks over the belt-tightening measures. Ahead of the Parliament’s approval of the measures, protesters warned Athens of a major day of action when legislature votes on the issue next week.

Parliamentary approval is required by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for the two bodies to release the second tranche of Greece’s bailout.

Despite Papandreou’s government winning a vote of confidence, Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, opined that Greece would still likely default on its debts. Pimco Chief Executive Mohamed El-Erian said in a video conference in Taipei that Greece’s way to solve its financial problem is through a default.

The Pimco executive based his bleak outlook on the Greek government failing to enact measures that would enhance the country’s growth and the fact that no single economic indicator has shown strength due to fears that a restructuring would hurt European banks.

El-Erian said the EU and IMF are risking wasting their funds on the ailing Greek economy. But he said a Greek default alone would not trigger another round of global financial crisis because Greece is too small to create an economic impact on the international community.

He said other eurozone members, particularly Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain, must also default on their loans to negatively impact the global financial community.

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Auburn Hills, MI, United States (AHN) – The 2012 Fiat 500 has hit the roads in the United States and has just as quickly garnered the titled Coolest New Car Under $18,000.

This year, Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com editors decided to rank their Top 10 choices from 10 to 1, and they rated the 2012 Fiat 500 as the No. 1 pick on their “Cool Cars” list. The fun ride can be customized in more than a half-million ways to stylize and personalize.

Kbb.com said of the Fiat 500, “Regardless of what the Hello Kitty mafia would like to believe, cute isn’t cool. Not usually, anyway. But that’s because cute is rarely backed up by substance, as it is in the 2012 Fiat 500.”

The car is Fiat’s first U.S. offering in 28 years.

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United States (AHN) – Your closet is probably full of myriad sizes and it is not due to fluctuations in your weight. More and more designers are turning to vanity labeling, using smaller sizes and adding inches to traditional sizes, experts say.

Vanity sizing is defined as “when the price increases and the dimensions decrease.” It is especially common among the more expensive and higher-end brands. A once typical size 8 may now be a standard size 4. The trend is to portray a positive attitude for shoppers when perusing, trying on, and eventually purchasing clothes.

“A woman who actually needs a size 12, but fits into a size 8, gets an immediate self-esteem boost,” says Joan Chrisler, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College. Wearing larger sizes can have a direct effect on a woman’s self-esteem and behavior, as can wearing smaller sizes, psychologists say.

Clothes may make the man, but sizing just may make the woman.

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