Mubarak Goes on Trial in Egypt

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, bedridden and looking sickly, was wheeled into the cage of a Cairo courtroom Wednesday morning to be put on trial for allegedly ordering the killing of protesters earlier this year.

The former autocrat's courtroom appearance gripped millions of Egyptians awestruck by the reversal of fortune of a man who ruled the Arab world's most populous nation for three decades with an iron fist.

The first Arab leader overthrown by his own people to face justice, Mr. Mubarak, 83 years old, was ferried by military aircraft from his hospital bed in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheikh. A white ambulance helicopter Wednesday morning deposited the former president at the trial's venue, the Police Academy in Cairo's outskirts. There, he was wheeled on a stretcher into a specially constructed metal cage for defendants.

Standing in the cage alongside were his two sons Alaa and Gamal—as well as the former minister of interior and several former law-enforcement officials. Egyptian television is broadcasting the proceedings live. If convicted, Mr. Mubarak could be sentenced to death, judicial officials said.

Egypt's military rulers, who seized power from Mr. Mubarak amid massive pro-democracy protests on Feb. 11, were initially reluctant to prosecute a fellow general officer who is seen by many as a war hero because of his role as air-force commander during Egypt's 1973 conflict with Israel. It was only in May that Egypt's prosecutors announced they would try the former president, yielding to mounting pressure from the country's liberals, leftists and Islamists alike.

Many Egyptians doubted that the country's interim military rulers would put their former boss, a former air force chief, on trial. But after months of intensifying protests, Egypt's military council made good on its promise to put the country's longtime leader on trial.

Mubarak had not been seen in public since he delivered a defiant speech on Feb. 10, vowing he would not resign. A day later, he hastily traveled to the resort town of Sharm el Sheikh after the country's military chiefs forced him to step down.

The former leader has been hospitalized in in Sharm el-Sheikh for months. Mubarak's lawyer has said the 83-year-old is too ill to be put on trial, but Egypt's health minister certified in recent days that Mubarak is fit enough for the proceedings.

Earlier the judge heard from several lawyers representing relatives of slain demonstrators. The attorneys complained that many relatives of killed protesters had not been allowed inside the courtroom.

As the hearing proceeded, clashed broke out outside the courtroom as groups that appeared to be Mubarak supporters clashed with riot police officers. The dueling sides threw rocks for a few minutes, until security forces intervened to stop the fight.

"We are here because we love our father," the pro-Mubarak crowd chanted before the melee broke out. "No matter what you do we're his children and we'll protect him.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio,,born November 11, 1974 is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator (2004). In addition, he has won a Silver Bear, a Chlotrudis Award and a Satellite Award among others, and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, DiCaprio started his career by appearing in television commercials prior to landing recurring roles in TV series such as the soap opera Santa Barbara and the sitcom Growing Pains in the early 1990s. He made his film debut in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3 (1991) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in This Boy's Life (1993). DiCaprio obtained recognition for his subsequent work in supporting roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and Marvin's Room (1996), as well as leading roles in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), before achieving international fame in James Cameron's Titanic (1997).

Since the 2000s, DiCaprio has been nominated for awards for his work in such films as Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), Blood Diamond (2006), The Departed (2006), and Revolutionary Road (2008). His latest films Shutter Island (2010) and Inception (2010) rank among the biggest commercial successes of his career. DiCaprio owns a production company named Appian Way Productions, whose productions include the films Gardener of Eden (2007) and Orphan (2009).

A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. His romantic relationships have been widely covered in the media. Following a high-profile relationship with Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, he was in a relationship with Israeli model Bar Refaeli.

Early life and family

DiCaprio, an only child, was born in Los Angeles, California. His German-born mother, Irmelin (née Indenbirken), is a former legal secretary, and his father, George DiCaprio, is an underground comic artist and producer/distributor of comic books. DiCaprio's mother moved from Oer-Erkenschwick at the Ruhr, Germany, to the U.S. during the 1950s, while DiCaprio's father is a fourth-generation American of half south-Italian (from the Naples region) and half German descent (from Bavaria in southern Germany). DiCaprio's maternal grandmother, Helene Indenbirken (1915–2008), who was born Yelena Smirnova, was a Russian immigrant to Germany. In a 2010 conversation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, DiCaprio stated that his grandfather was also Russian, and added: "So I am really half-Russian".

DiCaprio's parents met while attending college and subsequently moved to Los Angeles. He was named Leonardo because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum in Italy when DiCaprio first kicked.DiCaprio was raised Catholic. His parents divorced when he was a year old and he lived mostly with his mother.

DiCaprio and his mother lived in several Los Angeles neighborhoods, such as Echo Park, and at 1874 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Feliz district (which was later converted into a local public library), while his mother worked several jobs to support them. He attended Seeds Elementary School and graduated from John Marshall High School a few blocks away, after attending the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years.

Career,Early career

DiCaprio's career began with his appearance in several commercials and educational films. After being booted off the set of children's television series Romper Room for being disruptive at the age of five, DiCaprio followed his older stepbrother Adam Farrar into television commercials, landing an ad for Matchbox cars at 14. In 1990, he got his break on television when he was cast in the short-lived series based on the movie Parenthood. After Parenthood, DiCaprio had bit parts on several shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne, as well as a brief stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara, playing the young Mason Capwell. His involvement in Parenthood and the daily soap earned him a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor each.

Personal life

DiCaprio is a close friend of Tobey Maguire, whom he met while auditioning for the Parenthood series in 1990 and is a longtime friend of both fellow actors Kevin Connolly and Lukas Haas, and Titanic and Revolutionary Road co-star Kate Winslet. He was a childhood friend of the late Christopher Pettiet.

His romantic relationships have been widely covered in the media. DiCaprio has dated women including model Kristen Zang on-and-off for several years, and British model and socialite Emma Miller. In 2001, he met Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen with whom he had an on-and-off relationship until their separation in 2005. DiCaprio began a relationship with model Bar Refaeli in November 2005 after meeting her at a Las Vegas party thrown for members of U2. In the course of their trip to Israel in March 2007, the couple met with Israeli president Shimon Peres and visited Refaeli's hometown of Hod HaSharon. The relationship was on hold for a period of six months starting in June 2009; in early 2010, the romance was rekindled. In May 2011, it was reported that the couple had ended their romantic relationship, although still remaining friends.

DiCaprio owns a home in Los Angeles and an apartment in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. In 2009, he bought an island in Belize on which he is planning to create an eco-friendly resort. He also owns an apartment in Riverhouse, an eco-friendly building overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan.

DiCaprio's first film of 2002 was the crime-comedy Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, used his charm, confidence, and several different personas, to make millions in the 1960s writing bad checks. Directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken, the film was shot in 147 different locations in only 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. Catch Me If You Can received favourable reviews and proved to be an international success, becoming Dicaprio's highest-grossing film since Titanic with a total of US$351.1 million worldwide. Roger Ebert praised his performance, and noted that while "DiCaprio, who in recent films  has played dark and troubled characters, is breezy and charming here, playing a boy who discovers what he is good at, and does it. The following year, DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his work on the film.

Also in 2002, DiCaprio appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Director Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in playing protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, a young leader of the Irish faction, and thus, Miramax Films got involved with financing the project.Nonetheless production on the film was plagued by blown-out budgets and producer-director squabbles, resulting in a marathon eight-month shoot and, at US$103 million, the most expensive film Scorsese had ever made. Upon its release, Gangs of New York became a financial and critical success however. DiCaprio's acting was well-received but remained overshadowed by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance among most critics.

Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of the eccentric and obsessive American film director and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004). Centering on Hughes' life from the late 1920s to 1947, DiCaprio initially developed the project with Michael Mann, who decided against directing it after back-to-back film biographies in Ali and The Insider. The actor eventually pitched John Logan's script to Scorsese, who quickly signed on to direct.Altogether, DiCaprio reportedly spent more than a year and a half in preparation for the film which was not necessarily shot in continuity because of actors and locations schedules.

2008–present

In 2008, DiCaprio starred in Body of Lies, a spy film based on the novel of the same name by David Ignatius, set in context of the Middle East and the War on Terror, unfolding the story of three men battling a terrorist organization, and each other. Directed by Ridley Scott and co-starring Russell Crowe and Vince Colosimo, DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role, which he chose to pursue because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975). The film received mixed reviews from critics, and at a budget of US$67.5 million, became a moderate box office success, grossing US$115 million worldwide.

The same year, DiCaprio reunited with Kate Winslet to film the drama Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Winslet's then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that both should work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates after reading the script by Justin Haythe, knowing that plot had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Once DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production. He noted that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment. Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for Revolutionary Road, which earned them favorable reviews. For his portrayal DiCaprio garnered his seventh nomination from the Golden Globes.

DiCaprio continued his run with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island (2010), based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Co-starring Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams in supporting roles, the actor played U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island and comes to question his own sanity. With US$41 million, the film opened at number-one at the box office, giving both DiCaprio and Scorsese their best box office opening yet.

Also in 2010, DiCaprio starred in director Christopher Nolan's science-fiction film Inception. Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation, DiCaprio portrays the character of Dom Cobb, an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind.DiCaprio, the first actor to be cast in the film, was "intrigued by this concept — this dream-heist notion and how this character's gonna unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life.Released to critical acclaim, the film grossed over US$21 million on its opening day, with an opening weekend gross of US$62.7 million.

Environmental activism and philanthropy

A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. In the past, he has opted to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets, and it was reported that he drives a hybrid car and has solar panels installed on his house. In an interview with Ukula about his 2007 film 11th Hour, DiCaprio cited global warming as "the number-one environmental challenge.

At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. In 2010, his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award. The awards show, produced by VH1, is dedicated to honoring people who do good and is powered by Do Something, an organization that aims to empower and inspire young people.

In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children. In 2010, he donated $1,000,000 to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.

During the 2004 Presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. FEC showed DiCaprio gave $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the maximum contribution an individual can give in an election cycle.

In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's tiger summit. DiCaprio arrived late after two near-miss flights, causing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man".

In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to free Tony, a tiger who has spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana.

Filmography

Acting

Film

Year Title Role Notes

1991 Critters 3 Josh

1992 Poison Ivy Guy

1993 This Boy's Life Tobias "Toby" Wolff Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor

1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape Arnie Grape Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor

National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

1994 The Foot Shooting Party Bud

1995 The Quick and the Dead Fee Herod, "The Kid"

1995 The Basketball Diaries Jim Carroll

1995 Total Eclipse Arthur Rimbaud

1996 Romeo + Juliet Romeo Montague Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Romance

Silver Bear for Best Actor

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Claire Danes)

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Claire Danes)

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance

1996 Marvin's Room Hank Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

1997 Titanic Jack Dawson Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Drama

MTV Movie Award for Best Performance

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Kate Winslet)

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Kate Winslet)

Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

1998 The Man in the Iron Mask King Louis XIV/Philippe

1998 Celebrity Brandon Darrow Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Hissy Fit

2000 The Beach Richard Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama

Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry (Shared with Virginie Ledoyen)

2001 Don's Plum Derek Filmed in 1995

2002 Catch Me If You Can Frank William Abagnale Jr. Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liar

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Italian Online Movie Award for Best Actor

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance

2002 Gangs of New York Amsterdam Vallon Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Cameron Diaz)

Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock (Shared with Cameron Diaz)

2004 The Aviator Howard Hughes Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

MTV Movie Award for Best Performance

Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor

Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role

Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Italian Online Movie Award for Best Actor

Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama

Nominated—Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor or Actress in a Visual Effects Film

2006 The Departed William "Billy" Costigan Jr. Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble

Irish Film and Television Award for Best International Actor

Gransito Movie Award Best Actor

Italian Online Movie Award for Best Actor

National Board of Review Award for Best Cast

Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture

Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role

Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year (Also for Blood Diamond)

Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor

Nominated—People's Choice Award for Best On-Screen Match-Up (Shared with Matt Damon & Jack Nicholson)

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama

Nominated—Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor

2006 Blood Diamond Danny Archer Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year (Also for The Departed)

Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Nominated—St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association for Best Actor

Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama

2007 The 11th Hour Narrator/Producer Documentary

2008 Body of Lies Roger Ferris

2008 Revolutionary Road Frank Wheeler Palm Springs International Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Performance

Nominated—Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast

Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association for Best Actor

2010 Shutter Island Teddy Daniels Italian Online Movie Award for Best Actor

Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Horror/Thriller

Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year (Also for Inception)

Nominated—National Movie Award for Performance of the Year

Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Inception)

Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Scream Awards for Best Horror Actor

2010 Hubble 3D Narrator Documentary

2010 Inception Dom Cobb Scream Award for Best Science Fiction Actor

Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year (Also for Shutter Island)

Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble

Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Irish Film and Television Award for Best International Actor

Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Shutter Island)

Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Team

Nominated—Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast

Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor

Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

Nominated—Scream Award for Best Ensemble

Nominated—Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble

Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best WTF Moment (Shared with Ellen Page)

2011 J. Edgar J. Edgar Hoover Post-production

Moody's

Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) is the holding company for Moody's Analytics and Moody's Investors Service, a credit rating agency which performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities. The company also ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers using a standardized ratings scale. It is one of the Big Three credit rating agencies and has a 40% share of the world market, as does its main rival, Standard & Poor's; Fitch Ratings has a smaller share.

Moody's was founded in 1909 by John Moody. Top institutional owners of Moody's include Berkshire Hathaway and Davis Selected Advisers.

History

Moody's was founded in 1909 by John Moody, beginning with Analyses of Railroad Investments, "a book about railroad securities, using letter grades to assess their risk. Moody's Investors Service was incorporated on July 1, 1914, and soon extended coverage to US municipal bonds. By 1924, Moody's ratings covered nearly 100 percent of the US bond market.

In the 1970s, Moody's expanded into commercial debt, and also began the practice, along with other ratings agencies, of charging bond issuers for ratings as well as charging investors.

The number of countries covered by Moody's has risen from 3 in 1975, to 33 in 1990, to over 100 by 2000. Announcements by Moody's of possible or actual downgrades of a country's bond rating can have a major political and economic impact, as for example in Canada in 1995.

Criticism

Credit rating agencies such as Moody's have been subject to criticism in the wake of large losses in the asset-backed security collateralized debt obligation (ABS CDO) market that occurred despite being assigned top ratings by the credit rating agencies. For instance, losses on $340.7 million worth of ABS collateralized debt obligations (CDO) issued by Credit Suisse Group added up to about $125 million, despite being rated AAA by Moody's.

Similarly, large companies such as AIG, Lehman Brothers had AAA and AA rating until they went bankrupt in 2009.

Power and influence

Moody's has been accused of "blackmail". In one example the German insurer Hannover Re was offered a "free rating" by Moody's. The insurer refused. Moody's continued with the "free ratings", but over time lowered its rating of the company. Still refusing Moody's services, Moody's lowered Hannover's debt to junk, and the company in a few hours lost $175 million in market value.

"As the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody's Investors Service, whose investment ratings were widely trusted, responded by purging analysts and executives who warned of trouble and promoting those who helped Wall Street plunge the country into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. A McClatchy investigation has found that Moody's punished executives who questioned why the company was risking its reputation by putting its profits ahead of providing trustworthy ratings for investment offerings.

Portugal controversy

Portugal's foreign debt downgrade to the category Ba2 "junk" has infuriated the European Union and Portugal alike. Moody's has been accused of fuelling speculation and bias towards European assets. Furthermore the legitimacy of US based rating agencies has also been put in question. State owned utility and infrastructure companies like ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, Energias de Portugal, Redes Energéticas Nacionais, and Brisa – Auto-estradas de Portugal were also dowgraded despite having solid financial profiles and significant foreign revenue.

Portuguese citizens promptly classified Moody's actions as economic terrorism and spawn several initiatives on social sites, namely Facebook, to express their outrage. Mainly the initiatives were aimed at disrupting Moody's website. On the 11th of July, the website was temporarily unavailable in Portugal and a few other countries, due to a coordinated DDoS attack. Portuguese IP's were temporarily blocked from the web server in order to minimize the disturbance.

Moody's ratings

Includes the differences with Standard and Poor's ratings.

Long-term obligation ratings

Investment grade

Aaa: Moody judges obligations rated Aaa to be the highest quality, with the "smallest degree of risk".

Aa (Aa1, Aa2, Aa3): Moody judges obligations rated Aa to be high quality, with "very low credit risk", but "their susceptibility to long-term risks appears somewhat greater". (AA+, AA and AA- in S&P)

A (A1, A2, A3): Moody judges obligations rated A as "upper-medium grade", subject to "low credit risk", but that have elements "present that suggest a susceptibility to impairment over the long term". (A+, A and A- in S&P)

Baa1, Baa2, Baa3: Moody judges obligations rated Baa to be "moderate credit risk". They are considered medium-grade and as such "protective elements may be lacking or may be characteristically unreliable".

Speculative grade (also known as "High Yield" or "Junk")

Ba1, Ba2, Ba3: Moody judges obligations rated Ba to have "questionable credit quality.

B1, B2, B3: Moody judges obligations rated B as speculative and "subject to high credit risk", and have "generally poor credit quality.

Caa1, Caa2, Caa3: Moody judges obligations rated Caa as of "poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk", and have "extremely poor credit quality. Such banks may be in default.

Ca: Moody judges obligations rated Ca as "highly speculative and are "usually in default on their deposit obligations".

C: Moody judges obligations rated C as "the lowest rated class of bonds and are typically in default, and "potential recovery values are low".

Special

WR: Withdrawn Rating

NR: Not Rated

P: Provisional

Short-term taxable ratings

P-1 Moody judges Prime-1 rated issuers as having "a superior ability to repay short-term debt obligations".

P-2: Moody judges Prime-2 issuers as having "a strong ability to repay short-term debt obligations".

P-3: Moody judges Prime-3 rated issuers as having "an acceptable ability to repay short-term obligations".

NP: Moody considers "Not Prime" rated issuers as not falling "within any of the Prime rating categories".

Moody notes that "Canadian issuers rated P-1 or P-2 have their short-term ratings enhanced by the senior-most long-term rating of the issuer, its guarantor or support-provider.

Short-term tax-exempt ratings

Unlike S&P, Moody's has separate categories for short term municipal bonds. The ratings categories largely overlap, though, and have the same implications for the ability to repay short-term obligations.

Individual bank ratings

Moody's also rates each bank's financial strength. These ratings differ from deposit ratings in that they measure how likely the bank is to need assistance from third parties.

A: "superior intrinsic financial strength

B: "strong intrinsic financial strength

C: "adequate intrinsic financial strength

D: :"modest intrinsic financial strength, potentially requiring some outside support at times"

E: "very modest intrinsic financial strength, with a higher likelihood of periodic outside support"

Executive officers

Raymond W. McDaniel Jr. - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Linda S. Huber - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer