TOKYO —Air guitars just got real. Japanese toy makers unveiled “air guitar” gadgets at the annual Tokyo International Toy Show that, thanks to heat and motion sensors, actually make music.

“This is a toy that allows anybody to sound and feel like a rock star,” said Keishi Abe, who was demonstrating Takara Tomy Corp’s “.”

The gadget has 10 songs, including Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” programmed to play automatically and is set to hit the market next month.

It can also be connected to an MP3 music player or a speaker system, the manufacturer says.

Manufacturers also showcased air guitars that could be attached to your wrist and which blasted music as you moved.

“You just put it on your wrist and shake your arm once so it will play one phrase. In order to play an entire song, you just keep moving your arm so even children can easily play music,” said Nana Kaneko, who was playing “Air Musician” by Tokyo-based toy maker Mega House.

The air guitar, an imaginary instrument used when pretending to play the guitar, has become popular in Japan in recent years.

Ochi “Dainoji” Yosuke of Japan won the 2006 held in Finland.

Even robots toys seemed eager to join the craze: At the show were three small humanoid robots who were playing air guitars.

(12-31) 09:38 PST NEW YORK, (AP) —

Treasury prices rose in the final session of 2007, as investors once more hedged against a variety of risks by buying government-backed bonds.

Treasurys staged an unusually impressive rally in the past year. Weakness in the housing sector and overall economy, as well as concerns that beleaguered banks could face a year-end liquidity squeeze, provided fuel for the government bond rally.

Treasury price gains were most vigorous in August when investors grew nervous about the crisis in subprime mortgages and began shunning all forms of investment with exposure to these problems.

These themes were back in focus on Monday as the year moved to its conclusion. “Lingering demand for year-end funding should keep a lid on yields as liquidity dries up before kicking off 2008 trading on Wednesday,” said Action Economics.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 5/32 to 101 19/32 with a yield of 4.05 percent, down from 4.12 percent late Friday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year long bond gained 3/32 to 108 17/32 with a yield of 4.48 percent, down from 4.50 percent late Friday.

The 2-year note was unchanged at 100 10/32 with a yield of 3.08 percent, down from 3.11 percent the previous session.

The yield on the 10-year note began the year at 4.7 percent and lost 13.8 percent of its strength as the year progressed. The yields on other Treasury maturities also lost strength in 2007.

The market was closing an hour early, at 2 p.m. EST.

Weaker Treasury yields were in line with investors’ conviction that the Federal Reserve would have to cut the Fed funds rate that it uses to make overnight loans to banks. The central bank cut rates by a full point in the latter part of the year, and continuing declines in Treasury yields indicate that more rate cuts are expected by bond market investors in 2008.

The sole data report of the day, existing home sales for this month, was slightly better than expected. But the data had little impact on trade, partly because volume is light and investors are eager to close out their books for the year.

Sales of existing homes in November rose 0.4 percent to 5 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. A poll of economists by Thomson/IFR had projected 4.97 million sales, so the result was a bit better than expected.

The African Union handed over its peacekeeping mission in Darfur today to a United Nations force that the international community hopes will stem the violence in Sudan’s war-torn western region.

But the new mission is staffed far below its originally intended level - at only 9,000 of a planned 26,000 peacekeepers - prompting fears it will be as incapable of protecting civilians as the AU force it replaces.

The transfer ceremony held at the new mission’s headquarters outside the North Darfur capital of El Fasher comes months of international pressure on the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, to accept the force.

During the ceremony, the AU force’s commander, General Martin Agwai, took off his green African Union beret and donned one with the blue UN colours - becoming the commander of the new force, known as Unamid. The troops on hand for the ceremony did the same.

The new force has little additional strengthy - it is mostly made up of the 7,000 former AU troops, with the addition of 800 UN-affiliated personnel and 1,200 police.

Bashir has been criticised for using bureaucracy to stop the deployment of more international troops.

More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the four and a half year civil war between ethnic African rebels and the Arab-dominated Khartoum government’s janjaweed militia.

Bashir had once said he would wage a “jihad” against any UN peacekeeper who set foot in Darfur, but in June he accepted the compromise of a “hybrid mission” using mainly African troops.

The AU force was attacked by janjaweed in September and most peacekeepers have since kept to their bases.

UN officials have said the force at full strength with 20,000 troops and 6,000 policemen - backed, it was hoped, by attack helicopters - would be robust and fast enough to stop attacks on refugees, civilians and aid workers.

It is thought it will take months to get the force up to its full size, which would make it the largest peacekeeping mission in the world. African Union nations have promised to increase the total force to 26,000, but UN officials say many of the personnel are not equipped for peacekeeping. There has been no clear timetable for their deployment and no country has offered the 24 helicopters required.

The Sudanese government has refused to allow night flights or large UN cargo planes. It has also barred fully operational battalions of peacekeepers from Thailand or Scandinavia from deploying in January as planned.