Chilling 911 call records 1st clue of problem in SC home where 6 found shot to death

GREENWOOD, S.C. –  A chilling 911 call was the first clue that something was terribly wrong inside a one-story rural home in South Carolina where six people, including the gunman, were later found shot to death.
Facing problems with the law and in his personal life, 27-year-old Bryan Sweatt told a police dispatcher he was about to kill himself.
With a woman's voice crying in the background, the dispatcher asked if he had a gun. His reply: "a 44." The phone line went dead.
Sometime after, police say Sweatt killed his girlfriend, her parents, two children living in the Greenwood home and himself.
Police don't have a definite motive, but Sweatt was in a custody battle with the girlfriend and was facing a burglary charge that could have landed him behind bars.

Read More: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/31/chilling-11-call-records-1st-clue-problem-in-sc-home-where-6-found-shot-to/

Matthew McConaughey: A midcareer makeover like no other

BEVERLY HILLS – Matthew McConaughey is riding on the best reviews of his life, but that Texas charm is still steering.
"Matthew has an idea for your interview," says a studio publicist, calling the morning of a scheduled breakfast. Wouldn't it be great, the voice on the line posited, if the interview were to take place in a quieter area, with the University of Texas football game on in the background?
The actor grins widely a few minutes later as he greets an amused entertainment reporter in a hotel room. The UT-Oklahoma game "happens once a year!" the UT alum says, turning the television's sound way down. "There it is. In the background. It kicks off so early on the West Coast."
To his credit, the actor stays fully focused as he dives into the making of Dallas Buyers Club (opening in New York and L.A. on Friday), the true story of Ron Woodroof, a brash, homophobic Texas cowboy who contracted HIV in 1985 and was told he had 30 days to live.
"You made a mistake," McConaughey (as Woodroof) tells his doctor (Jennifer Garner) in disgust. "That ain't me."
Repelled by the inaccessibility of a local clinical trial administering HIV antiviral drug AZT, Woodroof crosses into Mexico to buy drugs unapproved by the FDA. His health stabilizes, a light bulb goes off at the black-market potential, and he begrudgingly cuts in a transsexual he met at the hospital, Rayon (Jared Leto), who can drum up business in the gay community.

Read more : http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/10/29/mcconaughey-inside-dallas-buyers-club/3289473/

Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell had 'world's worst wedding'

Star weddings are usually glamorous and beautiful.
But Dax Shepard told Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night that his nuptials with Kristen Bell were nothing to brag about.
The actor/comic, 38, tied the knot with Bell, 33, on Oct. 17, but it wasn't a typically lavish Hollywood ceremony. It took place at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's office and cost just under $150 from start to finish.
"So we went to the Beverly Hills courthouse and, all in, with fuel to get there, $142 out the door," he said.
And then Kimmel showed a photo of their wedding cake. "Friends of ours came to the courthouse, and it was just Kristen and I at this lonely courthouse, so they brought us this cake afterwards. World's Worst Wedding!" he said, laughing. "How many people can say they threw 'The World's Worst Wedding'?"

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/10/29/dax-shepard-kristen-bell-had-worlds-worst-wedding/3296009/

Google looks to triple Glass testers

Computerworld - Google is looking to triple the number of people testing Glass before the official rollout of the wearable computers next year.

The company announced in a post on Google+ Tuesday that over the next few weeks all of its Glass Explorers, or prototype testers, will be able to invite three people to join the program. They'll have to pay the $1,500 price tag for the computerized eyeglasses, but they'll be able to join the original 8,000 Glass testers.
The new testers also won't have to travel to a Google base, like San Francisco or New York, to pick up their prototypes as others had to. Glass will be shipped directly to them.
"They'll be able to buy Glass online and can have it shipped to their home, office, treehouse or igloo," Google wrote in the post. "We're counting on you to get Glass to the people you think will make great Explorers. More Explorers means more feedback, and more feedback means better Glass."

Google also announced that all of its Explorers won't have to buy new models of Glass when they begin to ship. They can exchange their prototypes for the new versions.
"We want to say 'thank you' for all the amazing feedback we've been getting, so later this year, all Explorers will have a one-time option to swap out their existing Glass for a new one," wrote Google. "This hardware update will allow your Glass to work with future lines of shades and prescription frames, and we'll also include a mono earbud."
That deal, however, won't apply to the latest Glass Explorers.
Google explained that only Explorers who purchased Glass before Oct. 28 are eligible. And once the program is open, they'll have 60 days to register for the exchange. After that, the offer expires.
The company said it will notify testers in November about the Exchange option.
Earlier this year, Google sources had been saying that Glass officially would be released late this year. However, that date has been pushed back to 2014.
The confusion began at the company's popular Google I/O conference in May. During the conference, several Googlers said Glass would ship in 2013, despite the fact that Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO and current executive chairman, had said earlier that Glass wouldn't be released formally until 2014.
Analysts at Google I/O said Schmidt was likely playing it safe in case the ship date did extend beyond 2013. That seemingly is what happened; all Googlers now say Glass will ship next year.

SOURCE : http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243606/Google_looks_to_triple_Glass_testers

Apple Forecasting Slower Holiday Sales Amid Samsung Gains

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s forecast for the slowest holiday sales growth in a half decade reflects how iPhones and iPads aren’t providing the growth surges they once did as competition accelerates in the saturated mobile market.
The trend was outlined yesterday when Cupertino, California-based Apple said revenue for the current quarter would be $55 billion to $58 billion, up 0.9 percent to 6.4 percent, from $54.5 billion a year earlier. That would be the slowest holiday-sales rise since 2008, when revenue jumped 6 percent. Profit will be about the same as last year, based on Apple’s predictions for gross margins.

The forecast is a turnaround from previous years such as 2011 and 2012 when Apple saw holiday sales swell by more than 70 percent. While Apple’s devices have upended the technology industry, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has overseen a stock fall of 25 percent in the past year as profit declined for the first time in a decade. The world’s most-valuable company is grappling with competitors led by Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) that are exerting pricing pressure through lower-priced smartphones and tablets.
“The question is, can they return to growth?” said Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG in New York. “You had a company that was growing, and then it went negative.”
There are signs Apple will regain its footing in 2014, with profit margins stabilizing and sales in countries like China expanding, said Piecyk. The company generated $5.73 billion in China last quarter, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier, while sales in Japan rose 41 percent to $3.34 billion after it forged a deal with the country’s largest carrier, NTT Docomo Inc. (9437), to sell the iPhone.

Bright Spots

“The product line is seeing strong demand,” said Laurence Balter, an analyst at Oracle Investment Research. “They need to get back on a positive climb.”
Apple is rolling out new iPhones and iPads for the end-of-year shopping season, which is the company’s most important quarter. Cook, speaking on a conference call yesterday, said the new iPhone 5s is backlogged and that he expects new iPads to be similarly popular.
Apple will begin selling a new iPad Air Nov. 1, followed later in the month by an updated iPad mini with a high-definition screen.
“It’s going to be an iPad Christmas,” Cook said on the call. He also hinted that products are in development for release next year, including new categories where the company doesn’t currently do business.

Battling Competitors

New products would help expand Apple’s sales as the smartphone and tablet markets have become more crowded. Apple had about 13.4 percent of the global smartphone market last quarter, down from 15.6 percent last year, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Samsung’s share rose to 35.2 percent from 32.9 percent. Apple’s share of the tablet market has also declined, as rivals introduce new products and lure customers with lower-cost alternatives.
The competition has hit Apple’s gross margins, as the company faced higher costs to introduce its new iPhones and iPads ahead of the holidays. The company forecast margins of 36.5 percent to 37.5 percent for the current quarter, compared with analysts’ projection for 38 percent on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Gross margins are closely watched by investors because it indicates how well the company is managing costs.
Apple fell as much as 5.1 percent in extended trading after it released quarterly results, then recovered to almost its closing level of $529.88 after Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said margins would have been better, if not for a new accounting method Apple is using for software.

IPhone, IPad

Apple said sales for its fiscal fourth quarter ended in September rose 4.2 percent to $37.5 billion. IPhone sales, including about a week of the new 5s and 5c models on store shelves, were 33.8 million, more than the 32.8 million predicted by analysts on average in a Bloomberg survey. The company also sold 14.1 million iPads, compared with an estimated 14.3 million. Apple sold 4.6 million Mac computers.
Profit for the quarter fell 8.6 percent to $7.51 billion, or $8.26 a share, above the $7.92 projected by analysts on average and the third-consecutive period of declines.
“This is a company that has routinely blown the doors off their estimates, so meeting or just exceeding is probably a disappointment,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, which has $66 billion under management.
Margins Bottoming?
CFO Oppenheimer said gross margins are being weighed down by higher costs for new products, currency pressure from conversions in Japan and Australia, and an accounting change related to revenue adjustments for software that the company is now giving away for free with new iPhone, iPads and Macs.
Without the deferred revenue, Apple’s gross margin outlook would have been about 38 percent, Oppenheimer said.
“We’re going to work hard to work down the cost curve,” he said.
If Apple hits the high-end of its forecast for gross margins in the current quarter, it would the first time in five quarters they haven’t declined. Margins hit a record 47 percent in 2012.
“Apple is laying down some markers that it’s not a broken growth company,” said David Rolfe, chief investment officer at Wedgewood Partners Inc.

Read More : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/apple-forecasting-slower-holiday-sales-amid-samsung-gains.html

China probes terror links in Tiananmen crash

BEIJING — Chinese authorities named a pair of suspects from a heavily Muslim western region of the country as suspicions grew that a deadly car crash and fire near Tiananmen Square was a terror attack.
Five people were dead after the vehicle plowed through dozens of pedestrians and police at the center of the capital city at lunchtime Monday.
Strengthening suspicions it was an act of terror by Muslims from China's northwest, the Beijing police issued a notice late Monday to hotels in the Chinese capital that named two suspects from the Xinjiang region, according to the text of the notice posted online by some Chinese Internet users, and reported Tuesday by the Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper.
Xinjiang, a huge area of desert and mountain in Chinese Central Asia, has witnessed regular unrest in recent years involving the Muslim Uighur ethnic group, now only a slim majority of Xinjiang's population after decades of immigration by China's majority Han people.
The Uighur have long complained about repressive rule by Beijing. The Chinese government argues it has brought badly-needed development, and says violent incidents there are fomented by 'hostile foreign forces'.
The two named suspects are both male, with Uighur-sounding names. One is aged 25 from Pishan county, and the other is 43 from Shanshan county, where Chinese authorities said rioters killed 22 civilians and 2 policemen in June. The notice told hotel management to watch out for "suspicious" people and vehicles dating back to October 1, and gave four license number plates from Xinjiang, perhaps suggesting further incidents are feared.
The Beijing police confirmed to the Global Times that they had issued the notice to hotels, but did comment on the "major case" itself.
Killed were the driver, two passengers, a female tourist from the Philippines and a male tourist from South China's Guangdong province, and 38 people were injured, reported Qianlong.com, a Beijing government news website. Authorities cleared Tiananmen Square, home to Mao's tomb, after the crash.
An official investigation is underway, reported Xinhua, the state news agency. The unusual nature of the incident, and the way the vehicle had been driven some distance along the sidewalk, injuring and scattering pedestrians, quickly led to speculation online that the vehicle was used in a deliberate attack.
Photos posted online showed the vehicle ablaze beside the historic bridges that lead visitors under the famous portrait of Chairman Mao and into the Forbidden City, the former residence of China's emperors.
Tiananmen Square is not only a big tourist draw but also the political heart of China, and therefore one of the most sensitive areas in the country. Leaders of the ruling Communist Party live and work nearby. Major party and government events take place at the adjacent Great Hall of the People, where a national women's congress was underway Monday.
Most famous abroad for the 1989 democracy protests, put down by force, the square still draws occasional and isolated protests that are quickly snuffed out by uniformed and plainclothes security officers who patrol the square and its environs.
Fire extinguishers are positioned in several areas to stop attempts at self-immolation.
Just as the square itself is often closed before and during sensitive political anniversaries or events, even the Chinese characters for Tiananmen Square sometimes trigger China's wide array of Internet censorship tools. Although some Internet comments were deleted Monday, many posts and pictures remained available.
From 1999 to 2001, followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned in China, staged protests at the square, including some self-immolations. More common in recent years are occasional petitioners, sometimes distributing leaflets describing their grievances at the hands of local authorities. But the apparent use of a car as a battering ram, followed by a possibly self-started fire, would represent a deadly, new tactic.
"I was shocked when I heard the news from colleagues," said a traffic warden surnamed Chen, who works close to Tiananmen Gate, where all traces of the incident were swiftly removed Monday afternoon. "I thought this must be the safest place in China."

Read More : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/29/tiananmen-square-crash-suspects/3293397/

3 brothers under age 5 die in Bronx fire

(CNN) -- A blaze in a New York apartment killed three brothers under age 5 late Friday, police said.

The brothers were ages 5, 2 and 4 months, CNN affiliate WABC reported. Their mother and sisters ages 4 and 4 months escaped the flames and smoke in the Bronx apartment.

They received treatment for smoke inhalation at a hospital, the affiliate said.

At least three more people suffered injuries and were taken to hospital, the fire department said. Firefighters had the blaze under control late Friday.

SOURCE : http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/26/us/bronx-deadly-fire/

Nigeria says killed 95 Boko Haram fighters

MAIDUGURI: Nigeria's army said on Friday it had killed 95 suspected Boko Haram fighters in raids in the country's northeast, as gunmen from the Islamist group battled security forces in a neighbouring area.
The army, which is battling to crush a four-year Islamist uprising in Nigeria, said it deployed bombs and ground troops to destroy insurgent camps in Borno on Thursday.
Army spokesman Mohammed Dole said that "74 suspected militants" were killed in the assault outside the Borno capital Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.
The operation followed an assault Monday on Boko Haram camps in another part of Borno, which the military said left 37 Islamists dead.
In a separate outbreak of violence, suspected Islamist fighters stormed the city of Damaturu in coordinated raids on Thursday, burning at least four police buildings, said a senior police officer who requested anonymity.
Army spokesman General Ibrahim Attahiru said in a statement published late Friday that 70 suspected Islamists were killed in Borno state and others fled towards Damaturu where 25 of them were killed by the army.
"The insurgents fleeing from the earlier clashes .. regrouped to carry out attacks on Damaturu," said the statement. "Our command post ... and other sites around Damaturu were attacked and ... 25 insurgents were killed."
The army did not mention any possible civilian casualties.
The officer said there were casualties from the attack, which will be seen as a setback in the campaign to end the insurgency.
The military had claimed an offensive launched more than four months ago had put Boko Haram on the defensive and left it incapable of attacking major urban centres like Damaturu.
Figures released earlier this year said the conflict had cost more than 3,600 lives, including killings by the security forces. The current toll is certainly much higher.
Damaturu is the capital of Yobe state, another area repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram in an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.
"They invaded the city in large numbers in vehicles and on foot from different directions," the officer said.
They then opened fire "on police facilities with guns and explosives and engaged soldiers and policemen in a fierce gunfire exchange that continued deep into the night," he added.
The officer said the insurgents torched the area police command and at least three other police facilities.
"There are indeed casualties, including a number of the insurgents, but it is difficult to say how many they are", he said.
A resident, Haruna Sadi, said the attacks started around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) and continued late into the night, forcing residents to stay indoors.
"We didn't sleep last night due to fright and the deafening gun sounds and explosions coming from all over the city," Sadi said.
"Everybody is still indoors because of a radio announcement of a 24-hour curfew by the military," he added.
Boko Haram, thought to be a fragmented group, with a murky leadership structure, has attacked churches, mosques, the security forces and schools across northern and central Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and top oil producer.
The Islamists have killed hundreds of people across the northeast since late June, including scores of students.
Last month, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the country's top military leaders to redouble their efforts following a spate of brutal attacks on civilians.
Jonathan imposed a state of emergency across the northeast in mid-May when the offensive was launched.
The phone network was switched off in the region when the emergency measures were declared. Mobile service remains down in Borno, making the military's accounts of fighting difficult to check with local leaders and residents.

Read More : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Nigeria-says-killed-95-Boko-Haram-fighters/articleshow/24727012.cms

Kurdish fighters seize Syrian border post from Islamists

(Reuters) - Kurdish militants seized a Syrian border post on the frontier with Iraq early on Saturday, a monitoring group said, after three days of clashes with an al Qaeda-linked group which had held the crossing for more than a year.
The Yarubiya post and surrounding areas in the northeast were taken from the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant rebel group, who had seized it from the army, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Ethnic Kurds in Syria have a complex role in nearly three years of conflict that started when President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on a pro-democracy uprising.
The ensuing war has pitted Sunni Muslims against Assad's Alawite minority and different Kurdish militia have fought for both sides, normally over territory or power disputes.
World powers have failed to halt the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Forty people died when a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Wadi Barada, in Damascus province, on Friday, the Observatory said.
State news agency SANA said many "terrorists" - a term it uses for those fighting Assad - where also killed in the explosion and quoted a witness who said the mosque's two entrances collapsed when the bomber struck before the end of Friday prayers.
State TV said on Friday that the leader of the Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra, a rebel group that has claimed responsibility for several suicide bombings, had been killed.
Rebels denied that Abu Mohammad al-Golani had been killed and the Observatory quoted two "senior Nusra leaders" as saying the reports were not true.

SOURCE : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/26/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE99P01V20131026

Healthcare.gov Problems Are Target at Hill Hearing

The principal contractors responsible for the federal government's trouble-plagued health insurance website say the Obama administration shares responsibility for the snags that have crippled the system.

Executives of CGI Federal, which built the federal HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states, and QSSI, which designed the part that verifies applicants' income and other personal details, are testifying Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The hearing comes as President Barack Obama's allies are starting to fret about the political fallout. Democrats had hoped to run for re-election next year on the benefits of the health care law for millions of uninsured Americans. Instead, computer problems are keeping many consumers from signing up through new online markets.

One House Democrat says the president needs to "man up" and fire somebody, while others are calling for signup deadlines to be extended and a reconsideration of the penalties individuals will face next year if they remain uninsured.

On that point, a change in the timeline for signing up for coverage is underway, the White House said. Consumers have until Dec. 15 to apply for coverage that's effective Jan. 1. Even though open enrollment lasts until March 31, people would face a penalty if they postpone buying coverage beyond mid-February. Calling that a "disconnect," the White House said officials will soon issue policy guidance allowing consumers to sign up by the end of March without penalty.

The focus on the contractors is a first step for GOP investigators. After the failure of their drive to defund "Obamacare" by shutting down the government, they've been suddenly handed a new line of attack by the administration itself. Administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, are to testify next week.

Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI, suggested in prepared testimony that Congress should look beyond the contractors. HHS "serves the important role of systems integrator or 'quarterback' on this project and is the ultimate responsible party for the end-to-end performance," she said.

Overwhelming interest from consumers triggered the website problems, she said. "No amount of testing within reasonable time limits can adequately replicate a live environment of this nature," she said.

Andy Slavitt, representing QSSI's parent company, said the operation's virtual back room, known as the federal data hub, is working well despite some bugs. But his company was also involved with another part of the system, a component for registering individual consumer accounts that became an online bottleneck.

Slavitt blamed the administration, saying that a late decision to require consumers to create accounts before they could browse health plans contributed to the overload. "This may have driven higher simultaneous usage of the registration system that wouldn't have occurred if consumers could window-shop anonymously," he said.

Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., chairman of the panel's health subcommittee, said he wants to focus on the administration's decision not to allow browsing, or window-shopping. That's a standard feature of e-commerce sites, including Medicare.gov for seniors. Lack of a browsing capability forced all users to first go through the laborious process of creating accounts, overloading that part of the site.

"Who made that decision? When was it made? Why was it made?" Pitts asked.

Read more : www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8269145576622153863#editor/target=post;postID=5739178556708322881

Wolverton: Pricing of Apple's new iPads is out of whack

(AAPL) still knows how to create compelling products. But it seems to have forgotten nearly everything it ever learned about pricing such products for mainstream consumers.

The company's new iPads, unveiled Tuesday, look great and include some exciting new features. But the pricing of the company's iPad line as a whole is absurdly high, with Apple's models often costing at least $100 more than their closest rivals.
You know things are out of whack when the best-priced iPad still costs $500 and Apple is offering a 2-1/2 year old model at a price that

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) ( Marcio Jose Sanchez )

is $40 more expensive than a comparably sized -- but brand new -- Samsung tablet. Apple, of course, has a reputation for offering expensive products, and company executives have repeatedly tried to position its brand as a premium one. Apple's Mac computers remain pricey compared with their PC rivals, and its iPhone isn't cheap, particularly not without a hefty carrier discount.
However, the company's history tells a more complicated story than its reputation would suggest.
Apple's iPod line was consistently priced aggressively compared with its rivals and Apple developed lower-cost models to compete in the lower-priced segments of the market, rather than conceding them to the competition.
When Apple introduced the original iPad with a starting price of $500, many observers were blown away that it would charge that little, as some had speculated that the device would cost as much as $1,000.
Even with the iPhone, which initially carried a hefty $500 price, Apple found a way to reach mainstream consumers, persuading AT&T to subsidize it so consumers paid a much more palatable $200 upfront.
But lately the company seems to be going back to its pricey ways.
Before Apple introduced its new iPhones last month, it was rumored to have a low-cost model in the works, one that could be broadly affordable even without a carrier discount. Instead, the company unveiled the iPhone 5C, a repackaged version of last-year's iPhone 5, that carries a $550 unsubsidized price. You may not be surprised to hear that according to numerous reports, the 5C is selling poorly and several retailers have already offered discounts on it.
Yet, Tuesday's event offered more of the same. Apple introduced a pair of laptops that, yes, are each $200 less expensive than last year's models. But with starting prices of $1,300 and $2,000, they are well beyond the typical price of a PC.


It also put a price tag on the Mac Pro, a new computer targeted at creative professionals that it previewed in June. That computer's base price is an absurd $3,000, which looks even more ridiculous when you consider that the entry model has so little storage that buyers will almost certainly have to get a pricier model with more storage or immediately buy an external hard drive.
But you could dismiss those announcements as being in line with Apple's longtime pricing strategy for the Mac. What was more shocking was the prices it announced on the iPads.
Apple kept the $500 base price on its flagship model, now dubbed the iPad Air. While that price used to be a bargain, it's increasingly looking expensive, especially when you can get Google's (GOOG) Nexus 10 for $400 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab3 10.1 for $360. But it's at least defensible; the big iPad is still the best full-size tablet out there and the changes Apple made to it -- adding a 64-bit chip and giving it a much thinner and lighter case -- appear to have made it even better than before.
But the prices on the other iPad models are simply baffling. Instead of marking down last year's fourth-generation iPad as a lower-priced full-size model, Apple decided to drop that model and continue producing the iPad2. And it will continue to sell the iPad2 for $400.
That's a crazy price, considering the cost of the Nexus 10 and the Galaxy Tab 3 -- brand-new Android models with better specifications. And it also seems obscene when you consider that the iPad2 debuted in February 2011 and could be ineligible for updates to its operating system as early as next year.
The prices Apple slapped on its iPad Mini models are just as bewildering.
When Apple introduced the Mini last year, the device had three obvious drawbacks: It had a relatively low-resolution screen and an older processor and, at $330, it cost more than $100 more than its competitors.
This year, Apple fixed the screen and processor shortcomings. The new Mini has one of Apple's high-resolution Retina displays, and the company included with the Mini an A7 chip, which is its latest and greatest processor.
If Apple had kept the Mini's price at $330, those upgrades might have justified its price. But instead, Apple raised the price on the Mini to $400.
Mind you, you can get Google's Nexus7, which has a similarly high-resolution, if smaller, screen and a similarly fast processor for just $230. And Amazon charges the same price for its brand new 8-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HDX.
Apple did cut the price of last year's Mini, which it decided to keep in its lineup, but only by $30, which means that it still costs significantly more than brand-new models from its rivals.
Apple's prices would make sense if the company were still dominating the tablet market. But its market share has plunged and its tablet sales actually fell last quarter from the same period a year earlier.
So while Apple may know a lot still about how to make cool devices, it seems to have lost its way on pricing. Here's hoping it relearns its lesson.

SOURCE : http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton/ci_24364798/wolverton-pricing-apple-new-ipad-out-whack

Mayors officiate as New Jersey legalizes gay marriage

(Reuters) - Wedding bells rang for the first time for same-sex couples in New Jersey just after midnight on Monday when the state became the 14th in the nation to legalize gay marriage.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat due to leave office this month after his election to the U.S. Senate last week, opened City Hall at midnight to perform some of the first ceremonies. Mayors in Lambertville, Red Bank and Jersey City did likewise.
The marriages took place after New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled on Friday against a request by Republican Governor Chris Christie to freeze a lower court ruling in favor of gay marriage until the top court could hear the state's appeal in January and issue a final decision.
Moments after the state's highest court denied Christie's request, New Jersey municipalities began accepting applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples.
In Newark, nine couples, both gay and straight, took their vows in the City Hall rotunda in a ceremony officiated by Booker, who said his tenure was ending on a high note.
"Tonight we have crossed a barrier," Booker told the newly-weds and their families and friends. "While you all have fallen into love, the truth is the state of New Jersey has risen to love."
Jenelle Torres, 42, and her long-time partner, Lydia Torres, 44, were among the first to marry. They had previously obtained a license in New York but were eager to wed in their home state.
"It's monumental. I'm so thankful and humbled," said Torres. "I'm just so proud to be a part of this. A part of history," she said.
The ceremonies in Newark went off mostly without a hitch, though one man was ejected after yelling out that gay marriages were "unlawful in the sight of God."
For other same sex couples planning to marry this week, the new marriage law fulfilled both personal and political aspirations.
"This has been a long time coming," said Hoboken resident Allen Kratz, who plans to marry his partner of 28 years, Paul Somerville, at a private ceremony on Thursday.
The couple was legally wed in Oregon in 2004, but the Oregon Supreme Court nullified gay marriage a year later.
"We are very excited that now, finally, we get to marry," Kratz said. "I know some political leaders think it's too soon. But civil rights always come too soon for those in a position of power and never soon enough for those who have been denied life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Under state law, those seeking to marry in New Jersey must apply for a marriage license and then wait at least 72 hours.
The waiting period does not apply to couples who have been legally wed in the 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, that already recognize same-sex marriage.

SOURCE : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/21/us-usa-gaymarriage-newjersey-idUSBRE99J0BA20131021

Greece girl Maria: Roma couple in court over 'abduction'

A Roma couple is due to appear in court in Greece, on charges of abducting a four-year-old blonde girl named Maria.

The child was found during a raid on a Roma camp in central Greece last week.
DNA tests showed that the girl is not related to the couple, who insist they were given her legitimately.
Maria is being cared for in Athens by a charity, called The Smile of the Child, which has received more than 8,000 calls after an appeal for information about the girl's identity.
The Roma couple - a woman aged 40 and a 39-year-old man - are due to appear before judges later on Monday to answer charges of abducting a minor and holding false papers.
The Roma community where the girl was found has rallied around the couple, saying they looked after her well.
The head of the Roma association in Farsala in central Greece says the pair treated her better than their biological children and that she loved them.
The brother of the man claiming to be Maria's father repeated the defence that she had been given to them lawfully after her birth, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens.
A lawyer representing the Roma couple, Kostas Katsavos, said they were carrying out a search for the girl's mother.
He said the couple claim the woman had given Maria to them because she could not look after her own biological daughter.
"Our clients' claim is that 'we never abducted this child we just adopted her' in a way that was not legal, that we can confess," said Mr Katsavos.

Read More : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24605954

Malala inspires school curriculum

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 16-year-old Pakistani teen targeted for a Taliban assassination because she championed education for girls has inspired the development of a school curriculum encouraging advocacy.
George Washington University announced Monday that faculty members are creating multimedia curriculum tools to accompany a book recently released by the teen, Malala Yousafzai. Several faculty members will pilot the curriculum early next year for both college and high school instruction. Free of charge, it will focus on themes such as the importance of a woman's voice and political extremism, the university said.
The tools won't just look at the teen's story, but also how the same issues get reflected elsewhere, such as when girls face child marriage and pressures to leave school, said Mary Ellsberg, the director of the university's Global Women's Institute.
"It's going to be really interactive and really encourage students to do ... activities outside of school, it will encourage them to get engaged in the communities and as well to help the Malala Fund directly," Ellsberg said.
The university's Global Women's Institute is partnered with the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that seeks to ensure girls around the world have access to education.
In 2012 when a Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking Malala and other children home from school in Pakistan's volatile northern Swat Valley and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded. Malala now resides in Britain, where she was flown for medical care. Her memoir is "I am Malala."

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/20/malala-inspires-school-curriculum/3101797/

Apple reaffirmed to launch Retina iPad mini, slimmed down iPad on Tuesday

Citing sources from Apple's supply chain, the WSJ reports that a new Retina display-toting iPad mini will debut at Tuesday's media event, siding with a number of industry watchers who believe Apple can overcome apparent supply chain constraints with the high-resolution panel.

While analysts and mainstream media alike agree that Apple will likely unveil a redesigned fifth-generation 9.7-inch iPad next week, the second-generation mini has been the source of much debate. The main concern is whether Apple's supply chain can manufacture a sufficient number of 7.9-inch Retina-quality panels.

Earlier in October, Reuters suggested that Apple may face severe supply constraints of its next-gen iPad mini if the company chose to launch the device this year. The report cited sources as saying low yields from Apple's display suppliers, LG Display, Samsung and Sharp, were holding up production of the tablet. This aligns with a prediction from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's prediction, who said low display yield rates would delay mass production of the next-gen iPad mini until October.

If Apple is able to meet anticipated demand for the unannounced mini, however, the tablet is forecast to outsell its larger brother nearly two to one over the lucrative holiday season.

Interestingly, a look Apple's indirect channel inventory showed high levels for the current non-Retina iPad mini, suggesting the model may be carried over after Tuesday's announcement. Alternatively, the company could have simply dumped remaining direct channel inventory to reseller channels ahead of the new models' anticipated debut.

As for the full-size iPad, the WSJ reiterated claims from an August report that said the fifth-gen tablet will employ GF2 thin-film screen technology to make the device slimmer and lighter than its predecessors. The larger iPad is also said to feature a redesign with thinner bezels and rounded corners, bringing it more in line with the current iPad mini.

All speculation should be laid to rest on Tuesday, when Apple is widely expected to announce the new iPad and iPad mini, possibly alongside OS X 10.9 Mavericks and new Mac products. AppleInsider will be at the event providing live coverage from 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.

Read More : http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/21/apple-reaffirmed-to-launch-retina-ipad-mini-slimmed-down-ipad-on-tuesday 

Saudi Arabia rejects Security Council seat

Saudi Arabia has rejected Friday a seat on the U.N. Security Council just hours after it was elected as one of the Council's 10 nonpermanent members.
In a statement issued through the state Saudi Press Agency, the Middle Eastern nation thanked those countries "that have given (it) their confidence" but said the 15-member body is incapable of resolving the world's conflicts.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry noted, in particular, that the Council had failed in its duties toward Syria.
It said this alleged failure enabled Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to perpetrate the killings of its people, including with chemical weapons, without facing any deterrents or punishment.
The Ministry also said the Council has not been able to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the past decades and has failed to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/18/saudi-arabia-un-security-council/3007069/

Red Sox One Win Away After Beating Sanchez

DETROIT — It was a best-of-three now, the American League Championship Series, and it was supposed to only get tougher for the Boston Red Sox. The Detroit Tigers could send out Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. Against them, the Red Sox had seemed helpless while their own rotation had been hit or miss.

The Red Sox had little choice but to grind and muscle their way past the Tigers, which is what they did Thursday. They knocked around Sanchez, the first of the three starters; knocked the Tigers’ catcher, Alex Avila, out of the game; hindered Prince Fielder and a hurt Miguel Cabrera; and hung on against the Tigers, 4-3, to take a three-games-to-two series lead.

“But no excuses,” said Jim Leyland, the Tigers’ manager. “Been good games, and so far they got the best of it.”

The Red Sox can close out the series Saturday in Boston, but they will have to do so against Scherzer. Of course, they fared just fine in their second game against Sanchez.

On Wednesday, Leyland dropped his leadoff hitter, Austin Jackson, to eighth in the order. The Tigers’ offense came alive, so he kept the lineup almost the same Thursday, only flipping Avila and Omar Infante.

It appeared the Tigers would again strike first. In the bottom of the first, after Torii Hunter flied out, Cabrera drew a walk, and Fielder singled up the middle to bring up Jhonny Peralta.

Peralta singled to left field, and Cabrera took off from second base. Tom Brookens, the third-base coach, began waving him home, even though he has been hobbled by injuries.

As Jonny Gomes fielded the ball and Cabrera rounded third, however, Brookens held his hands high, telling Cabrera to stop, having apparently changed his mind. It was too late. Cabrera chugged home, where Gomes’s throw beat him by several steps.

“It was my fault,” Cabrera said later. Leyland, though, blamed Brookens for the first of several missed opportunities for the Tigers.

It seemed too early in the game for so much action.

Sanchez and Jon Lester had battled in Game 1 of this series. Sanchez held the Red Sox hitless for six innings, and Lester left in the seventh, having allowed one run. That lone run would be enough as the Tigers’ bullpen carried the no-hitter into the ninth.

Sanchez struck out 12 batters in that game, but he walked six, too. Of his 116 pitches, only 66 were for strikes. Leyland was hoping Sanchez would manage his pitch count Thursday. Perhaps then Leyland would not have to use his problematic bullpen. In four games, the Red Sox had scored all of three runs against Detroit’s starters.

“We’ve got to get a hit,” Boston’s Mike Napoli said before the game. “We’re not going to get out of our game plan.

“He pitched well,” Napoli continued, referring to Sanchez’s start in Game 1, “but we got him out after six innings.”

In the top of the second Thursday, Napoli smashed a Sanchez fastball into the ivy beyond the center-field wall. Gomes reached base on an error by Cabrera, and Xander Bogaerts doubled two batters later.

David Ross also doubled, scoring Gomes, and Jacoby Ellsbury hit a comebacker at Sanchez, who knocked the ball down but could not stop it from trickling away. Ellsbury made it to first safely as Bogaerts scored, and the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead.

The next inning, Napoli hit a Sanchez changeup for a ground-rule double. He went to third on a groundout by Gomes and then scored as Sanchez bounced a wild pitch a few feet in front of home plate.

The Tigers had another chance in the fourth inning. Avila was scheduled to bat, but his backup, Brayan Pena, entered as a pinch-hitter.

Avila had had a rough night. As he blocked home plate in the second inning, Ross, the Red Sox’ catcher, lowered his shoulder and bowled Avila over. Avila held on to record the out, and Ross smacked his backside as a sign of respect. But Avila, who missed time in August with a concussion, appeared shaken up.

Two innings later, Ross fouled a pitch off Avila’s mask. After that half-inning, Avila left with a patellar tendon strain in his left knee and was labeled day to day. Later, Leyland said Avila’s knee was “pretty bad.”

So Pena came to bat in the fourth inning with two on and one out, got into a 3-0 count and gave the crowd hope. But Lester got him to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Tigers finally got to Lester in the fifth. Jackson led off with a single, Jose Iglesias sacrificed him to second, and Cabrera singled him home.

Detroit chased Lester in the sixth, and Junichi Tazawa came on to face Pena in same situation Pena had faced in the fourth: two on, one out. This time, Pena hit Tazawa’s first pitch for a run-scoring single. Jackson, though, grounded into a double play.

Sanchez’s night was over, too. He had thrown 108 pitches over six innings and struck out five batters, and the Red Sox had battered him for four runs. Lester had outpitched him this time.

After all that, Cabrera had a chance to make up for Sanchez’s mistakes. He came to bat in the seventh representing the go-ahead run, with runners on first and third and no outs, and if he failed, Fielder would be up next.

But they had hardly been themselves. Cabrera was not 100 percent, and Fielder had tallied one extra base hit and zero runs batted in this postseason.

The crowd chanted for Cabrera, but he grounded into a double play. A run scored, but Boston still led, 4-3. Fielder grounded out to a chorus of boos, and another chance slipped away for the Tigers. 

 SOURCE : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/sports/baseball/red-sox-one-win-away-after-beating-sanchez.html

France to Send Investigators After Lao Airlines Crash Kills 49

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- France will send investigators to Laos to aid the probe of a plane crash yesterday that killed all 49 people on board, the most fatal air accident this year.

A turboprop plane operated by Lao Airlines, the Southeast Asian country’s national carrier, crashed after experiencing bad weather conditions while preparing to land at Pakse Airport in the south of the country, the airline said in a statement. There was “no news of survivors” after a aircraft packed with mostly foreign tourists plunged at the end of a domestic flight.

France is dispatching investigators because the ATR 72-600 turboprop plane is made by Avions de Transport Regional, a venture owned by Airbus SAS parent European Aeronautic, Space and Defense Co. and Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA. Lao Airlines was sending emergency crews to the site of the accident and expects to release its initial findings today, it said in the statement.

The plane, on a domestic flight from the capital Vientiane, crashed into the Mekong River while attempting to land at about 4 p.m. local time, the carrier said in the statement. The aircraft was delivered from the production line in March, the planemaker said separately.

The carrier flies to six international and six domestic destinations. Thailand’s Channel 3 television network broadcast footage of people pulling wreckage of the aircraft from the Mekong River.

Mostly Foreigners

French air safety investigators will send a team of four officials to Laos to participate in the probe. ATR technical experts are on their way to Pakse, the airline said separately.

A list provided by Thailand’s foreign ministry showed seven passengers from France, five Australians, five Thais, three Koreans, two Vietnamese, one American, one Chinese, one Taiwanese, one Canadian, and one Myanmar citizen were on board the flight, in addition to 17 Lao citizens.

The aircraft was carrying 44 passengers and five crew. Flight QV301 left the capital at 2:45 p.m. local time yesterday and was scheduled to arrive in Pakse at 3:55 p.m. The ATR turboprop can typically seat between 68 to 74 people.

It was the first crash for an ATR -600 model, the planemaker said. Deliveries of the upgraded type began in 2011.

The accident is the world’s worst this year in terms of fatalities, according to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives website.

At least four bodies were found, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing a press conference by the airline.

Lao Airlines, established in 1976, operates Airbus SAS A320-214, Xi’an Aircraft Industry MA-6 and ATR-72-500 aircraft. The airline flies an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop plane on the 467-kilometer (290-mile) route, according to the company’s website.

The crash prompted South Korea’s government to say it will inspect aircraft, cabin crew as well as the airline’s procedures on handling passengers and cargo, according to a statement from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Lao Airlines flies between Incheon airport, which serves Seoul, and Vientiane thrice weekly.

SOURCE : http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/France-to-Send-Investigators-After-Lao-Airlines-4903215.php

Facebook Is Trying to Buy Its Way Into the Developing World

Facebook just plunked down a reported $100 million to $200 million to buy a company that trims smartphone bills. And there’s a good reason for that: The social network needs new users, and those users are increasingly cash strapped.
At a time when new U.S. users are drying up and saturation in other developed markets is on the horizon, Facebook is increasingly prioritizing emerging markets to fuel growth. It’s a tricky gambit, given the paucity of online and commercial infrastructure in such markets, and one that could take years to pay off. But Facebook could reap the spoils of being a pioneer, among the first to tackle a challenge that other large internet companies, Twitter foremost among them, will soon be grappling with themselves.
Israel-based Onavo said it is being acquired by Facebook, giving Facebook a suite of apps for reducing mobile data usage via compression (not to mention its first Israeli satellite office, in Tel Aviv). Trimming smartphone bills is particularly important for users in developing countries, and Onavo is Facebook’s second big play for such users in as many months, the other being its Internet.org initiative to wire the developing world.
“We … hope to play a critical role in reaching one of Internet.org’s most significant goals — using data more efficiently so that more people around the world can connect and share,” Onavo CEO Guy Rosen says in a blog post.
Such a goal may sound generous, but Facebook’s motives are hardly altruistic: The company needs the developing world in order to grow.
Revenue grew 88 percent in emerging markets versus just 43 percent in the U.S. Monthly users in the second quarter grew 32 percent in Asia and 29 percent in Africa, South America, and other emerging markets — compared to just 6 percent in the U.S.
A user in the developing world still generates roughly one-seventh the revenue of a user in the U.S. But that leaves lots of headroom for growth — the kind of potential Facebook needs to placate skeptical shareholders who worry the number of Facebook users is reaching a saturation point.
“While these ad markets are not especially large today, they will become increasingly important in the years to come,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said of emerging markets in an analyst call this past July.
That’s why Facebook developed a text-messaging interface as well as a popular feature-phone version. In April, the company even began allowing advertisers to target feature-phone users.
Facebook sometimes downplays the monetary potential of developing markets. “It may not actually be profitable for us to serve the next few billion people for a very long time, if ever,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote recently. But Facebook didn’t acquire Onavo out of the goodness of its heart. The company clearly believes the developing world business opportunity is very real. Now it’s putting tens of millions more dollars to back that belief up.

SOURCE : http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/facebook-third-world/

Major Earthquake Strikes Central Philippines

MANILA — A powerful earthquake violently shook the central Philippines Tuesday morning, killing at least 32 people, injuring hundreds and smashing one of the country’s oldest churches, officials said.

The earthquake was centered about 32 miles underground near the small town of Carmen, on the island of Bohol, and struck at 8:12 a.m., said Renato Solidum, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

“A magnitude seven earthquake has an energy equivalent to around 32 Hiroshima atomic bombs,” Mr. Solidum said. “This one had a magnitude of 7.2.”

The tremors reverberated across the adjacent islands of the central Philippines, toppling structures and sending panicked people into the streets.

“I was asleep and my bed started shaking very hard,” said Jessa Ariola, a 23-year-old resident of Tagbilaran, a city near the earthquake’s center. She said that after the tremors stopped she went to the restaurant where she works as a cashier and found it in ruins — with broken glass, toppled appliances and raw meat scattered on the floor.

Local television showed obliterated buildings, cracked roads, downed bridges and chaotic evacuations on Bohol. The quake also damaged major buildings in Cebu City, a heavily populated commercial center on a nearby island. Among those hit were a sprawling shopping mall, a prominent hospital and a busy public market.

The main airport on Bohol was temporarily closed as were several ports in the central Philippines, while officials inspected them for safety.

The damaged structures in Cebu included the Santo Niño de Cebu Basilica, which was founded in 1565. On Bohol, the roof of the Church of San Pedro in Loboc, which dates to 1602, collapsed. Officials said as many as 10 other historic churches appeared to have been damaged.

The earthquake killed at least 32 people, with 16 having died on the island of Bohol, 15 in nearby Cebu and one on the neighboring island of Siquijor, according to a statement from the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council. The island of Cebu, which is adjacent to Bohol, where the earthquake was centered, experienced extensive damage and injuries because it is more heavily populated, officials said.

Those killed included a 4-year-old girl who was trampled in the town of Toledo, on Cebu island, when the earthquake shook a building where people were receiving cash grants from a government program designed to help the poor. In addition to the child who died, 19 people were injured there during a stampede out of the wobbling structure.

Officials on Tuesday afternoon were warning local residents to keep out of major buildings until their structural integrity could be verified. They also warned of landslides amid reports of aftershocks on the two most affected islands.

Electric power was disrupted in many of the affected areas. No tsunami warning was issued because the earthquake was land-based, an official of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said during a morning press briefing.

President Benigno S. Aquino III will visit the affected areas on Wednesday, a spokesman said. The islands of Cebu and Bohol have been declared in a state of calamity by the government, which authorizes additional national government assistance to the areas.

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the same island on Feb. 8, 1990, and damaged more than 3,000 houses. Last year, a 6.9-magnitude quake hit near the island of Negros, also in the central Philippines, and killed nearly 100 people. 

SOURCE : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/world/asia/major-earthquake-strikes-central-philippines.html

Protests follow Google 'endorsed advert' change

Google is facing a backlash over plans to put people's faces and comments about products and places into adverts.

The "shared endorsements" policy change starts on 11 November and covers the comments, "follows" and other actions people do on Google+.
One protest involves people swapping their profile pictures for that of Google boss Eric Schmidt so his image rather than their own appears on ads.
Google said it had made it easy for people to opt out of the system.
The search giant started alerting people about the upcoming policy change via banners on its main webpage and in a page explaining the change to its "policies and principles".
Google also gave examples of how the "shared endorsement" system might work. This showed people's faces and comments appearing below Street View images of a bagel shop and search results for products and places.
Many people protested about the change to Google, and some altered their image profiles on the Google+ social network in response.
So far, Google has not issued an official comment about the protests over "shared endorsements". However, in its explanatory pages it said it was easy to opt out of the system by clicking a box on the Google+ account settings page.
It warned that if people did not want to be part of the programme some of their comments and follows may no longer be visible to others they know on Google+.
Social network Facebook faced strong criticism over a similar system called "sponsored stories" it rolled out in 2011.
Legal action following the criticism eventually led to Facebook paying out $20m to compensate people whose images it used without permission.

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24519300

Tech stocks: Facebook down following Onavo deal

Shares of Facebook have dipped 1.5% in pre-market trading after the social network acquired the Israeli mobile data analytics firm Onavo.
The company confirmed the deal through a statement on their website from co-founders Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger. Onavo says its selection of mobile apps such as Onavo Count and Onavo Extend will continue to operate as standalone services.
"We've built world-class products and a remarkably talented team which has pioneered important breakthroughs in data compression technology and mobile analytics," reads Onavo's statement. "Today, we're eager to take the next step and make an even bigger impact by supporting Facebook's mission to connect the world."
Facebook has yet to independently confirm details of the deal.
Meanwhile, Groupon shares are down 1.5%, the potential beginning of a significant slide for the daily deals site.
As Marketwatch reports, investors have slashed profit estimates, fearful the company can't consistently sustain profits. Shares of Groupon have surged since last November, when it sunk to a 52-week low of $2.63. Since then, the company ousted founder Andrew Mason and shares have surged past $12.

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/10/14/tech-stocks-facebook/2978803/

International Bangladesh Garment Factory Fire Kills 10 People

A fire killed 10 people at a garment factory in Bangladesh about six months after a factory building collapse that killed 1,100 people exposed the harsh and often unsafe conditions in an industry that is the world's third-largest.

Authorities and global clothing companies have pledged to improve safety standards in Bangladesh's garment industry after the Rana Plaza collapse and numerous other fatal accidents.

The cause of the fire at the Aswad garment factory in Gazipur outside Dhaka was not immediately known, but the government was investigating.

The fatalities included the general manager, Rashiduzzaman Mandal, said fire official Zafar Ahmed. He said the fire was doused early Wednesday after firefighters labored 10 hours to bring it under control.

Factory director Emdad Hossain said 170 workers were inside the factory when the fire started and most were able to escape. Hossain said he suffered slight injuries himself.

Farhaduzzaman, another fire official, said the fire spread to two buildings that housed garment factories belonging to the Palmal Group of Industries.

Another garment factory fire last November killed 112 workers in a building authorities said did not have enough exits.

Bangladesh earns $20 billion a year from garment exports, mainly to the United States and Europe. The sector employs about 4 million workers, mostly women.

An engineering survey shown to The Associated Press after the Rana Plaza collapse showed many Bangladesh garment factories added floors that the building foundations couldn't support and were located in converted residential buildings not designed to withstand use of heavy equipment.

SOURCE : http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bangladesh-garment-factory-fire-kills-20506935

Treasury Five-Year Notes Rise as Yellen to Be Named Fed Chairman

Treasury five-year notes advanced, erasing a loss from yesterday, after a White House official said Janet Yellen will be nominated to head the Federal Reserve, fueling bets the central bank will keep borrowing costs low.

One-month bill rates fell after climbing to the highest level for a benchmark security since 2008 yesterday as the U.S. government approaches the Oct. 17 deadline to raise its debt ceiling. The difference between what banks and the Treasury pay to borrow money for one month, known as the TED spread, fell to minus 16 basis points yesterday, the first time it has inverted since Bloomberg started collecting the data in 2001. The U.S. will auction $21 billion of 10-year notes today.
“Yellen’s nomination has helped Treasuries so far today,” said Orlando Green, a fixed-income strategist at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in London. “The five-years are rallying the most. The belly of the curve -- the five-to-seven years -- tend to perform well in a rally.”

VIDEO: Flight to Quality Reversed by U.S. Shutdown

The U.S. five-year yield fell two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.40 percent at 6:21 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 1.375 percent note due in September 2018 rose 1/8, or $1.25 per $1,000 face amount, to 99 3/4. The benchmark 10-year yield dropped one basis point to 2.62 percent.
Rates on Treasury bills due on Oct. 24 dropped three basis points to 0.29 percent after climbing to 0.32 percent yesterday. They were negative as recently as Sept. 27.

Annual Loss

Fed Vice Chairman Yellen would succeed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, whose term ends Jan. 31, after he cut interest rates to a record of almost zero in 2008 and began a bond-buying program to put downward pressure on borrowing costs. Obama will announce the nomination at 3 p.m. in Washington, a White House official said in an e-mailed statement.
“She could keep quantitative easing and keep rates low for an extended period,” which helps short-term debt, said Hideo Shimomura, who helps oversee about $60.3 billion as chief fund investor at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “She will take over Bernanke’s style. The initial reaction is that inflation may rise,” which hurts long bonds, he said.
Treasuries (BUSY110) due in one to 10 years have fallen 1.2 percent in 2013, while those maturing in a decade or longer tumbled 9.2 percent, based on Bloomberg World Bond Indexes.
Shorter-maturity U.S. notes tend to follow what the Fed does with its target for overnight lending between banks, while longer-dated bonds are more influenced by the inflation outlook.

Inflation Outlook

The difference between yields on 10-year notes and similar-maturity Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, a gauge of expectations for consumer prices over the life of the debt, was little changed at 2.18 percentage points. Annual consumer-price inflation was 1.5 percent in August.
In addition to today’s 10-year auction, the U.S. plans to sell $13 billion of 30-year bonds tomorrow. It auctioned $30 billion of three-year securities yesterday.
At the previous 10-year sale on Sept. 11, investors bid for 2.86 times the amount offered, the most since March at the monthly auctions. Yesterday’s three-year note drew bids for 3.05 times the amount available, the smallest amount since June.

Bill Sale

The U.S. sold $30 billion of four-week bills yesterday at a rate of 0.35 percent, versus zero percent as recently as last month. Three-month bill rates climbed as high as 0.1318 percent today after dropping to negative 0.0101 percent on Sept. 27.
The extra yield investors get for buying one-month securities instead of 91-day securities reached 28.9 basis points yesterday, the biggest difference since March 2008, according to closing-market data. It’s usually the other way around. In 2013, investors have been able to earn an extra basis point on average by buying the longer-dated security.
Two years ago, one-month bill rates climbed to 0.17 percent in the days before the Aug. 2, 2011, deadline set by the Treasury to avoid a default approached. They traded at 0.015 percent in December 2012 before a year-end trigger would force automatic spending cuts and tax increases.
The three-month rate climbed to 0.09 percent before the August 2011 deadline, and it rose as high as 0.081 percent in the week before Dec. 31, 2012.

SOURCE : http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-08/treasury-five-year-notes-gain-as-yellen-to-win-fed-nomination

3 Researchers Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three researchers for computer simulations that enable the closer study of complex reactions like photosynthesis and combustion, and the design of new drugs.

Martin Karplus of the University of Strasbourg in France and Harvard University, Michael Levitt of Stanford University, and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California share the honor and the approximately $1.2 million that accompanies it. The computer simulations combine classical physics, which is able to track a multitude of atoms, and quantum mechanics, which is needed to capture the breaking and forming of chemical bonds.

Last year, two Americans, Robert J. Lefkowitz of Duke University and Brian K. Kobilka of Stanford, shared the chemistry Nobel for deciphering the communication system that the human body uses to sense the outside world and send messages to the interior of cells. 

SOURCE : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/science/three-researchers-win-nobel-prize-in-chemistry.html

Many in G.O.P. Offer Theory: Default Wouldn’t Be That Bad

WASHINGTON — Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, a reliable friend of business on Capitol Hill and no one’s idea of a bomb thrower, isn’t buying the apocalyptic warnings that a default on United States government debt would lead to a global economic cataclysm.

“We always have enough money to pay our debt service,” said Mr. Burr, who pointed to a stream of tax revenue flowing into the Treasury as he shrugged off fears of a cascading financial crisis. “You’ve had the federal government out of work for close to two weeks; that’s about $24 billion a month. Every month, you have enough saved in salaries alone that you’re covering three-fifths, four-fifths of the total debt service, about $35 billion a month. That’s manageable for some time.”

As President Obama steps up his declarations about the dire consequences of not raising the debt limit, increasing numbers of Congressional Republicans are disputing that forecast, as well as the timing of when the Treasury might run out of money and the implications of a default, further complicating the negotiating situation for both Mr. Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner, who must find a way out of the impasse.

Both men were counting on the prospect of a global economic meltdown to help pull restive Republicans into line. On Wall Street, among business leaders and in a vast majority of university economics departments, the threat of significant instability resulting from a debt default is not in question. But a lot of Republicans simply do not believe it.

A surprisingly broad section of the Republican Party is convinced that a threat once taken as economic fact may not exist — or at least may not be so serious. Some question the Treasury’s drop-dead deadline of Oct. 17. Some government services might have to be curtailed, they concede. “But I think the real date, candidly, the date that’s highly problematic for our nation, is Nov. 1,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee.

Others say there is no deadline at all — that daily tax receipts would be more than enough to pay off Treasury bonds as they come due.

“It really is irresponsible of the president to try to scare the markets,” said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. “If you don’t raise your debt ceiling, all you’re saying is, ‘We’re going to be balancing our budget.’ So if you put it in those terms, all these scary terms of, ‘Oh my goodness, the world’s going to end’ — if we balance the budget, the world’s going to end? Why don’t we spend what comes in?”

“If you propose it that way,” he said of not raising the debt limit, “the American public will say that sounds like a pretty reasonable idea.”

In a news conference, Mr. Obama said repeatedly that those who doubted the repercussions of a default were making a huge mistake.

“When I hear people trying to downplay the consequences of that, I think that’s really irresponsible, and I’m happy to talk to any of them individually and walk them through exactly why it’s irresponsible,” he said. “And it’s particularly funny coming from Republicans who claim to be champions of business. There’s no business person out here who thinks this wouldn’t be a big deal, not one. You go to anywhere from Wall Street to Main Street, and you ask a C.E.O. of a company or ask a small-business person whether it’d be a big deal if the United States government isn’t paying its bills on time. They’ll tell you it’s a big deal. It would hurt.”

The turmoil created by the partial shutdown of the federal government has already sent investors fleeing from stocks to the safe harbor of Treasury bonds, long considered the safest investment on earth because the full faith and credit of the United States government has never been questioned. If that safe harbor is undermined, most economists have said loudly and repeatedly, the impact could be catastrophic.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, both bastions of Republican support, sent letters to Congress on Tuesday urging action on the debt ceiling.

“Our nation has never defaulted in the past, and failing to raise the debt limit in a timely fashion will seriously disrupt our fragile economy and have a ripple effect throughout the world,” wrote Jay Timmons, the president of the manufacturers’ group.

Some Republicans trust such warnings.

“Unlike some of my colleagues, I’ve been told by too many people in the financial business that there will be reactions in the market,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. “Of course I’m worried.”

But the voices of denial are loud and persistent, with some Republicans saying that the fallout from the continuing shutdown and the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration has been less severe than predicted.

Mr. Paul acknowledged that some economists disagreed with him, but said others agreed. Peter Morici, a conservative economist and a frequent guest on Fox Business, dashed off a column on Tuesday in which he argued that “House Republicans, by refusing to raise the debt ceiling until they obtain budget reforms, may be the country’s last hope to avoid a financial ruin.”

Congressional Republicans have varied arguments. To Representative Paul Broun, Republican of Georgia and a candidate for the Senate, it is a question of ranking the evils.

“There are a lot of things that are going to affect our economy,” he said. “The greatest threat right now is Obamacare. It’s already destroyed jobs, it’s already destroyed our economy, and if it stays in place as it is now, it’s going to destroy America.”

Representative Ted Yoho, a freshman Florida Republican who had no experience in elective office before this year, said the largest economy on earth should learn from his large-animal veterinary practice.

“Everybody talks about how destabilizing doing this will be on the markets,” he said. “And you’ll see that initially, but heck, I’ve seen that in my business. When you go through that, and you address the problem and you address your creditors and say, ‘Listen, we’re going to pay you. We’re just not going to pay you today, but we’re going to pay you with interest, and we will pay everybody that’s due money’ — if you did that, the world would say America is finally addressing their problem.”

Representative Justin Amash, Republican of Michigan and a leader of the House’s libertarian wing, said: “There’s no way to default on Oct. 17. We will have enough money to make interest payments. The issue is, how do we restructure our government so we don’t have to keep hitting the debt ceiling?”

And while Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona, conceded that a government that could no longer borrow money would have to curtail some of its contracting, he said Democrats should not get carried away.

“It’s like everything else here,” he said. “People on both sides of every argument seem to employ hyperbole when they could just state the truth and it would still be of significant consequence.” 

SOURCE : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/us/politics/many-in-gop-offer-theory-default-wouldnt-be-that-bad.html

Jennifer Ehle to play mum in Fifty Shades

Zero Dark Thirty star Jennifer Ehle has joined the cast of the Fifty Shades Of Grey movie adaptation - as Anastasia Steele's mother. The British actress will play mum to Dakota Johnson's literary character. Johnson has already been cast alongside Charlie Hunnam, who will portray Christian Grey in the adaption of E.L. James' erotic novel. Sam Taylor-Johnson will direct the project.

SOURCE : http://www.hollywood.com/news/brief/55036521/jennifer-ehle-to-play-mum-in-fifty-shades

Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez's baby name is revealed

Actress Halle Berry and hubby Olivier Martinez have decided on a name for their newborn baby son and as far as celebrity baby names go, it's not completely weird.
According to TMZ the couple, who married in France in July, have named him Maceo Robert Martinez, giving a nod to Olivier's Spanish roots.
If you want some background on the choice (yeah, we were pretty good at history at school) Maceo is a popular medieval Spanish name which means Gift of God.
When Berry's first child, Nahla, was born back in 2008, the 47-year-old mum said: "For us it was hard to name the most important person in our life until we met her," so we wonder how long it took the couple to name Maceo?
The oscar-winning actress and husband welcomed their son into the world on Saturday.
Berry delivered the baby at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, according to reports.
It's their first child together while Berry has five-year-old daughter Nahla with former boyfriend Gabriel Aubry.
Her marriage to Martinez is third time lucky after being wed twice before to baseball player David Justice and R&B singer-songwriter Eric Benet.
They tied the knot at a chateau in Burgundy, France, in July.
Better start painting the nursery blue then, Halle...
If their choice of baby name wasn't weird enough for you, check out our gallery below of some seriously bizarre ones.

Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/halle-berry-olivier-martinez-reveal-2349918#ixzz2h8TSYE78

Fourth biker busted in vicious upper Manhattan attack on SUV driver

A biker believed to have delivered one of the first punches in the brutal beating of a father by a motorcycle mob in upper Manhattan was arrested Monday.
As Craig Wright of Brooklyn was charged with gang assault in the frenzied Sept. 29 attack on Alexian Lien, the Daily News learned from police sources that investigators believe that NYPD Detective Samir Gonsalves, 34, took part in the rogue ride, but not the beatdown, while off-duty.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/biker-sparked-suv-attack-doesn-feel-responsible-article-1.1478475#ixzz2h8SnekQH

How FBI caught Ross Ulbricht, alleged creator of criminal marketplace Silk Road

(CNN) -- The FBI caught the man accused of creating Silk Road -- the shadowy e-commerce site it describes as "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today" -- after he allegedly posted his Gmail address online, according to court documents.

Federal agents swooped on Ross William Ulbricht in a San Francisco public library Tuesday afternoon, charging the 29-year-old American with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering. They allege he is "the Dread Pirate Roberts," the Silk Road's mysterious founder, who drew his pseudonym from the feared, fictitious character in the film The Princess Bride.

The FBI claims the former physics and engineering student even publicly alluded to his alleged criminal enterprise on his LinkedIn profile, with a statement describing how his goals had "shifted" in accordance with his libertarian economic views since leaving grad school at Pennsylvania State University.

Ulbricht's LinkedIn profile states that, since completing his studies in 2010, he has focused on "creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force" of the kind imposed by "institutions and governments."

"I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion and agression (sic) amongst mankind," he wrote.

In the indictment against Ulbricht, filed in a New York court, the FBI cyber-crime specialist who led the investigation, Christopher Tarbell, stated that he believed "that this 'economic simulation' referred to by Ulbricht is Silk Road."

The FBI swiftly shuttered the site, an underground digital marketplace that, since its inception in 2011, has allowed users to anonymously trade illegal goods and services in near total secrecy, using the digital currency bitcoin, and an encryption network called Tor that routes traffic through a "hidden" area of the Internet known as "the dark web."

Tarbell said the site "sought to make conducting illegal transactions on the Internet as easy and frictionless as shopping online at mainstream e-commerce websites," and carried listings for hard drugs, hackers, counterfeit cash, forged ID documents, firearms, ammunition, even hitmen -- one of whom Ulbricht is alleged to have enlisted to kill a blackmailer.

According to the indictment, Silk Road had acquired nearly a million registered users worldwide -- about 30% of whom were based in the U.S. -- in its two and a half years of operation, providing them guidance on how to encrypt their communications and vacuum-pack their wares before shipping through the postal service to avoid detection by law enforcement. Last year, it said, the site added a "stealth mode" for users who considered themselves "at risk of becoming a target for law enforcement."

The indictment said the site had generated over 9.5 million bitcoins in sales revenue and over 600,000 bitcoins in commissions for its owner, allowing the site to employ a team of administrators. The value of bitcoins has fluctuated dramatically since the digital currency was created -- it plummeted after Ulbricht's arrest -- but Tarbell estimated Silk Road's turnover to be worth about $1.2 billion in sales, and $80 million in commissions.

In February, an Australian drug dealer became the first person to be convicted in connection to Silk Road after using the site to import cocaine and MDMA from Europe.

Catching the Dread Pirate Roberts

In the section of the indictment outlining how the link between Ulbricht and Dread Pirate Roberts was established, Tarbell detailed how an FBI expert codenamed Agent-1 had located an early online mention of Silk Road dating to January 27, 2011, when a user under the handle "Altoid" made a post on a forum for users of magic mushrooms.

"I came across this website called Silk Road," wrote Altoid, in a post which linked to the site. "I'm thinking of buying off it... Let me know what you think."

Two days later, someone using the handle "Altoid" made a similar post on a forum called Bitcoin Talk, recommending Silk Road and providing a link. "Has anyone seen Silk Road yet? It's kind of like an anonymous Amazon.com. I don't think they have heroin on there, but they are selling other stuff," it read.

The posts, said Tarbell, were an attempt to drum up interest in Silk Road, employing the online marketing tactic of "astroturfing."

Investigators were given a major break when, eight months later, "Altoid" made another posting on Bitcoin Talk, stating he was looking for "an IT pro in the Bitcoin community" to hire in connection with "a venture backed Bitcoin startup company." The posting asked interested parties to contact rossulbricht@gmail.com.

The indictment also noted that Ulbricht and Dread Pirate Roberts were both vocal adherents of the libertarian theories of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises, with Ulbricht's public Google+ account linking to YouTube videos posted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and Dread Pirate Roberts repeatedly crediting von Mises with "providing the philosophical underpinnings for Silk Road."

From a San Francisco Internet cafe

Tarbell said that while Dread Pirate Roberts used a "virtual private network," or VPN, to create a "false" IP address, the VPN server's records indicated a user had accessed it from a San Francisco Internet café near the home of a friend Ulbricht had gone to live with around September last year.

Records obtained from Google showed Ulbricht had regularly logged into his Gmail account from the Internet café, he said -- including on the same day in June that the VPN was accessed.

In July, Ulbricht was visited in San Francisco by Homeland Security agents who had intercepted a package from Canada containing fake ID documents in nine different names, each bearing a photograph of Ulbricht.

According to the indictment, Ulbricht -- whose roommates knew him as "Josh," and said he was always at home on his computer -- refused to answer questions about the IDs, but told the agents that "hypothetically" anyone could go on the Silk Road and purchase them.

In the weeks prior to the encounter, said Tarbell, Dread Pirate Roberts had been inquiring with Silk Road users about buying fake IDs, saying he needed them in order to rent extra servers for the site.

A killing for hire?

It was not the only time Ulbricht is alleged to have used the site to procure illegal services. Tarbell claimed that in March, Dread Pirate Roberts solicited the killing of a Silk Road user who was attempting to blackmail him by threatening to release the identities of thousands of users of the site.

The FBI alleges that the Canada-based extortionist, known as FriendlyChemist, demanded $500,000 to prevent the release of the information, prompting Dread Pirate Roberts to contact another user and order a hit on FriendlyChemist.

"In my eyes, FriendlyChemist is a liability and I wouldn't mind if he was executed," he is alleged to have written, before attempting to haggle down the price. "Don't want to be a pain here, but the price seems high. Not long ago, I had a clean hit done for $80k."

The FBI claims the hitman later sent a picture of the victim after the job was done -- for approximately $150,000 in bitcoins -- although Tarbell said Canadian authorities had no record of a Canadian resident with the name passed to the alleged hitman, nor any record of a homicide around that location and time.

Ulbricht's lawyer, Brandon Leblanc, declined to comment on the case.

Silk Road's closure is unlikely to bring an end to the trade of illegal goods on the "dark web," as similar sites operate on the Tor network.

SOURCE : http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/04/world/americas/silk-road-ross-ulbricht/