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Nov 23, 2012 (Menafn - UPI via COMTEX) --SEATTLE, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Many U.S. retailers' Black Friday deals were available at lower prices earlier in the year, an analysis for The Wall Street Journal indicates.
Seattle price-data firm Decide Inc. examined more than 500 "doorbuster" deals advertised in Black Friday circulars by large retailers including Sears, Target and Best Buy and found nearly a third of the discounted products were sold at lower prices earlier in the year, the Journal said.
For instance, a KitchenAid Artisan Series Stand Mixer is to be sold at Sears Friday for 319.99. But the retailer offered the same mixer for 296 in March, Decide told the Journal.
A Sears spokesman told the newspaper in an email: "We believe our advertised prices are competitive and we are well positioned to give our customers great value. Like any retailer, our pricing varies throughout the year."
Sears sometimes changes its appliance prices several times a week.
Home Depot touted a General Electric Adora dishwasher for 598 Black Friday but sold it for 538 over the Columbus Day weekend, Decide found. A Home Depot spokeswoman said most Black Friday deals are its best of the year.
Retailers don't generally promise Black Friday prices are the lowest ever.
Decide found many bargains were genuine, with most doorbuster deals it checked the lowest prices of the year, the Journal said.
GAZA, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Israeli forces shot at a group along a Gaza border fence Friday, killing one man and injuring at least 10 others, Palestinian officials said.
Israeli military forces said riots had been taking place near the border fence in Khan Younis, and they fired warning shots into a crowd they believed to be staging a protest, the BBC reported.
Witness said the group of men were farmers.
The BBC reported 10 people were injured in the incident, though Ynetnews.com put the number at 19.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of violating the Egyptian-brokered truce, which took hold Wednesday after eight days of cross-border fighting resulted in the deaths of 158 Palestinians, four Israeli citizens and two Israeli soldiers. The death tolls are based on provisional U.N. figures.
"We will contact the Egyptian mediator to discuss the incident," Zuhri said.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The Pakistani Taliban will attack Indian targets in retaliation for the hanging of a Pakistani national in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, a spokesman said.
Ihsanullah Ihsan said Thursday his group would seek to avenge Wednesday's hanging in India of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, but gave no details, CNN reported.
The Times of India quoted the Taliban spokesman as saying his group would strike Indian targets anywhere.
The Pakistani Taliban is known locally as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. While different from the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Pakistani group has connections with the former as well al-Qaida.
Kasab, 24, the lone survivor of the Pakistani group that staged the deadly attacks in India's financial capital, was executed in India's western Pune city, the Indian Home Ministry said. In its announcement, the ministry said the execution took place after Kasab's clemency petition to the Indian president has been turned down.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber in Afghanistan killed two people and injured dozens more Friday near a military base in east-central Maidan Wardak Province, authorities said.
Khaama Press said the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for this week's execution of Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government.
The report, quoting local officials, said up to 90 people, including women and children, were injured in the attack.
Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the governor of the province, said the target of the attack were the Afghan and coalition security forces, who jointly use the military base near where the explosion occurred.
Referring to the executions, officials told the BBC most of the 14 prisoners executed so far were criminals, while others were insurgents responsible for deadly suicide attacks in Kabul.
CAIRO, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Protesters gathered in Tahrir Square Friday, calling Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi the "new pharaoh" to denounce his decree granting himself new powers.
At least 30 opposition groups gathered in what they are calling "Eyes of Freedom" rallies, a demonstration that had already been planned for Friday, but took on new meaning after Morsi issued a decree Thursday stating that all decisions he has made since taking office are not subject to review or appeal.
Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel Peace Prize laureate who heads the lawyers syndicate and is a key opposition figure, sent out the call for Egyptians to protest Friday, BBC reported.
The president "appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh. A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences," ElBaradei wrote on Twitter.
Protesters have picked up on the moniker and are referring to Morsi as the "new pharaoh," Ahram Online reported.
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