A recent batch of domain names purchased by Amazon hints to a possible Silk release on the PC, Android and Mac.
Wednesday Amazon said that its just-announced web browser, Silk, would be an exclusive to the Kindle Fire Android tablet. The company described the "split browser" as cloud-based, as it will reside on both the end-user's device and Amazon's massive Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) server fleet, the latter of which will pre-cache user web browsing. With each page request, Silk will dynamically determine a division of labor between the mobile hardware and Amazon EC2, ultimately providing a faster web browsing experience (we give a thorough explanation on how Silk works here).
But now there's indication that the web browser may find its way onto other devices. According to reports, Amazon has scooped up over 500 new domain names including amazonsilkforandroid.com, amazonsilkformac.com and amazonsilkforpc.com. Naturally the company may simply be shelling out money to keep its Silk brand out of the hands of cybersquatters and the like. The domain purchases were even reportedly made through MarkMonitor, a brand protection agency.
So then case closed? Maybe not. Possible cloud browser rival OnLive was supposedly releasing a cloud-based web browser over the summer, but so far it hasn't appeared. The company is currently working to push the OnLive Player app out the door for tablets, and that's not expected to arrive for another month at the least (soon). That said, the OnLive browser will likely launch sometime after that.
According to the company, the browser will allow Flash, Quicktime, Silverlight and other software to be rendered on the server just like the company's PC game offering. The pre-rendered data will then be streamed directly to users from the company's 10 GB/s servers. Ultimately this means that web content and streaming multimedia, no matter the definition, can be viewed across multiple devices universally including a tablet, smartphone, and even an old AGP-based PC.
"On any device that you’re going to be using the OnLive system, there is a browser," OnLive CEO Steve Perlman stated in an interview. "Whether it’s a tablet, or whether it’s a PC or Mac, you do have a browser. We don’t feel the need to completely replace the browser you have. What we would rather do is give you a browser that accelerates things that are tough to do with a local browser."
Of course, there will have to be some balancing in regards to the cloud-based browser and the actual gaming service.
"The current plan is just to let it out there, to have it one of the features of the (free) service," Perlman said. "It’s complicated because we have to go and be reasonable about usage. If people go nuts on this thing, and for example, it provides flash capabilities to iPad, you can easily see how people can go and just use it; forget the game service and just use it for that. What we’re going to do is kind of monitor it, and see what kind of (demo)graphic and usage we have. If people are being reasonable, that’s fantastic. We’ll let them go wild on it."
It would be interesting to see how Amazon's Silk performs up against OnLive's own browser, but for the moment, neither are available. Then again, Silk may never come to the PC despite Amazon's newly-acquired domain name hinting otherwise.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Amazon's Silky Web Browser May Go PC, Android
Nokia to slash 3,500 jobs by 2012 - BusinessWeek
Nokia Corp. on Thursday announced a further 3,500 job cuts by 2012 as it strives to save costs and restructure while its global market share falls due to stiff competition in the smartphone sector.
The Finnish cellphone maker said it will close a manufacturing plant in Cluj, Romania, by the end of 2011 which will mean 2,200 job cuts, mostly at the plant, but will include personnel in supply chain operations throughout Europe.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Chris Christie seriously considering run for president in 2012 | NJ.com
BATON ROUGE — Gov. Chris Christie is seriously rethinking his months of denials and may launch a campaign for the White House after all, a source close to the governor said tonight.
In the last week, Christie has been swayed away from his earlier refusals to run by an aggressive draft effort from a cadre of Republicans and donors unhappy with the GOP field, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
AFP: Nokia to cut 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany, US
Nokia to cut 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany, USBy Aira-Katariina Vehaskari (AFP) – 5 hours ago
HELSINKI — Mobile phone giant Nokia said on Thursday it was slashing 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany and the United States, just months after announcing 4,000 job cuts it said would be the last for the foreseeable future.
"Nokia plans to close its manufacturing facilities in Cluj, Romania, by the end of 2011 ... and plans to close its (locations and commerce development) operations in Bonn, Germany and Malvern, US," by the end of next year, the Finnish company said in a statement.
These cuts are in addition to the 4,000 job cuts and 3,000 outsourced jobs the company announced in April as part of a massive restructuring effort.
The company also hinted at more job cuts next year, saying that it would review the long-term role of certain factories in Salo, Finland as well as plants in Hungary and Mexico.
The company said it expected to have more details "into the possible headcount impacts" at these sites in 2012.
Thursday's announcement could indicate Nokia was thinking about shifting manufacturing to Asia, Pohjola Bank analyst Hannu Rauhala told AFP.
"If you think about where the markets are, the growth markets are in Asia, and it makes sense to manufacture a product close to the customer," he said.
Chief executive Stephen Elop said in Thursday's announcement the company was taking "painful yet necessary steps" to revamp the company in line with a radical restructuring plan.
The plan, announced in February, included abandoning the company's Symbian smartphone platform, closing a number of sites globally, re-organising business and development units, and streamlining management.
When Elop revealed in April that these changes would result in 4,000 job cuts, he said the company had no plans to cut more jobs further down the line, adding this was the "full plan for as far as we can see into the future."
That Nokia now, just five months later, is announcing another massive round of job cuts shows just how quickly the market is changing, Rauhala said.
"A lot of these factors have been a reality for some time, but it takes a while for the situation to heat up," he said, pointing out that even if you put a pot of water on a hot flame, it "takes a while for the water to boil."
Rauhala said Nokia, which is still the world's largest mobile phone maker, is operating in a rapidly changing landscape, marked by Motorola's leap into the Google camp by agreeing to make only Android phones and the rise of small local manufacturers aggressively claiming market share.
In addition to the job cuts, Nokia will next month transfer around 3,000 of its Symbian developers to US-based global firm Accenture, where they will continue to develop Symbian software for Nokia through 2016.
At the end of December 2010, before Elop's restructuring announcement, Nokia employed around 60,000 people not including employees for Nokia Siemens Networks or NAVTEQ.
Nokia's new strategy marks a radical effort to stop the haemmorrhaging of its market share to RIM's Blackberry, Apple's iPhone and handsets running Google's Android platform.
The former undisputed world leader saw its market share fall to around 23 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to analysts, compared with a peak of 40 percent in the first half of 2008.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Robert Scoble - Google+ - Apple isn't the most hurt today by Amazon's one-two punch …
Cantaloupe outbreak could be deadliest in a decade - BusinessWeek
As many as 14 people have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to Colorado cantaloupes -- a death toll that would make the outbreak the deadliest in more than a decade.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Technolog - Amazon's tablet called 'Kindle Fire,' says TechCrunch
On Wednesday, Sept. 28, we're headed to an Amazon press conference in New York where we anticipate the company will launch a tablet. Three weeks ago, TechCrunch's MG Siegler purported to have a hands-on with the mystery device, a 7-inch Android tab. Now he's reporting its name, "Kindle Fire," and Amazon's rollout plan.
Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions in extra funding - Telegraph
The plan, which would aim to build a "firebreak" around the indebted eurozone countries, emerged at the IMF annual meeting in Washington where global leaders united to demand urgent action from European politicians.
Despite the developments, traders warned that the failure of politicians to agree a solid rescue plan would result in more turbulence on global stock markets.
One trader said: "The expansion to the EFSF would be good, although it's still not the eurobonds that the market has really been wanting to see. And, most significantly, it's still only an idea, not a deal."
In a G20 communique issued on Friday, leaders set a six-week deadline to resolve the crisis – to unveil a solution by the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4.
However, already the plans to recapitalise European banks have been criticised in France – which has the biggest exposure to Greek debt.
The governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer, told reporters yesterday he didn't "see any sign" that French banks were in trouble and that he believed there was "no need" for a recapitalisation.
But international pressure on European politicians has intensified.
Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary who proposed an increase to the EFSF at the Ecofin meeting on September 16, said that the sovereign debt pressures and banking strains in Europe were "the most serious risk now confronting the world economy". Larry Summers, Barack Obama's former chief economic adviser who was attending his 20th IMF meeting, said: "I have not been at a prior meeting at which matters have had more gravity."
Demands for action were also made by emerging market leaders. Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, said European policymakers had a responsibility "to ensure that their actions stop contagion beyond the euro periphery".
The governor of the Chinese central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said that "the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area needs to be resolved promptly to stabilise market confidence".
With Greece facing a debt deadline at the beginning of October, the first priority is to release an €8bn tranche of bail-out money. Ms Lagarde said that the priority of international authorities this week must be "implementation, implementation, implementation" of the bail-out agreement of July 21.
Apple Seeks Samsung Tablet Ban in Australia
By ROSS KELLY
SYDNEY—A legal dispute between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in Australia intensified Monday with an attorney representing the maker of the iPad alleging its South Korean rival's product infringes on patents relating to touch-screen technology.
The case is part of a global battle between the two companies that began in April, when Apple sued Samsung in California, saying its smartphones and tablets had "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad. The companies have since filed suits against one another in Germany, Japan, France and South Korea.
Apple is seeking a court injunction to prevent Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia starting Friday. Apple has sold about 500,000 iPads in Australia, equal to about 2% of the total population, Credit Suisse said in June.
The company has filed at least a dozen patent infringement claims but only three, all related to touch-screen technology, are being considered in a hearing before Justice Annabelle Bennett in the Federal Court this week.
"It must have been as plain as the Opera House to Samsung that the Apple patents were right in front of its eyes and they were wide open," an attorney for Apple, Steven Burley, told the Federal Court. "They ought to clear the way in advance rather than try to crash through."
Mr. Burley said that Samsung's product is similar in "form, factor and shape" to Apple's iPad 2 and that even the cardboard boxes they are sold in look alike. Still, he confirmed that the current part of the hearing relates only to the touch-screen patents. One of these is for a "selective rejection" function on the iPad, where the tablet doesn't respond to accidental touches. The other patents relate to the design of the touch screens and their ability to enable vertical scrolling even when the person touching the screen doesn't move their finger in a precise vertical pattern.
An attorney for Samsung, David Catterns, said the case currently has nothing to do with the form, function or shape of the product and is instead based on specific patents that would have a "negligible" impact if the product's sale goes ahead. Mr. Catterns also said some existing Samsung products have the same features but Apple hasn't made any patent infringement claims.
Samsung on Sept. 18 said it had filed a countersuit alleging Apple's iPhone and iPad 2 tablet violate many wireless-technology patents held by Samsung.
The hearing continues Thursday morning.
Write to Ross Kelly at ross.kelly@dowjones.com
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Facebook facelift faces tough fight
Facebook facelift faces tough fight Priyanka Joshi / Mumbai Sep 26, 2011, 00:24
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Users irked with new features, design updates every week.
Last week, 29-year-old K Dasaratha Rao, a website developer and software consultant from Bangalore, saw several new features being added to the social networking site Facebook (FB).
“Honestly, I didn’t take to the changes immediately. But as I spent time on the site and saw what Facebook had done, I realised that it had actually simplified the number of clicks I would make on the home page.”
Related Stories Facebook facelift faces tough fight Twins lose bid to reopen FB case Military blogging goes mainstream Facebook to put off IPO until 2012
What made sense for Rao is that the new FB interface automatically grouped his over 450 friends in convenient lists, made it easier for him to see the popular FB updates by close friends as top stories and even added a button that allowed him to subscribe to international web developers, who do not know him but can share insights on technology.
But Rao’s enthusiasm seems to be an exception when you hear avid Facebook users like New Delhi-based beauty and wellness consultant Ritika Sharma, 27. “What was wrong with the old Facebook that it is now being constantly redesigned. The new features make my FB page too complicated,” she says.
Her colleague, Bhawna Misao, a receptionist, too had similar views. “Since online Facebook has changed so much, I have started using the Facebook app on my BlackBerry, which is still a reflection of the old interface.”
New features on FB have also failed to impress 20-year-old Miranda House student, Rachna Punjabi who sys: “Recent features like Facebook’s real-time “ticker” stream that alerts me about what my friends read, watch and listen to or tag, is dizzying real time and way too much social sharing.” This also prompted Punjabi to tweak her FB settings that allowed limited sharing of what she does on the social networking portal.
With nearly 36 million users from India (according to September statistics from Socialbakers), Facebook was accessed by more than 45 per cent of India’s internet users. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, should be closely listening to Indian users because the site witnessed a heady growth of about 27 per cent in the last three months, adding over seven milion users.
And FB is not done with the changes yet. At last week’s f8, Facebook’s annual developers conference in San Francisco, Zuckerberg announced the company’s intent to overhaul the profile page on FB for a new feature called Timeline and revealed plans to encourage people to use Facebook as a media-consumption platform.
Sam Lessin, a product manager at Facebook wrote in an official blog: “The way your profile works today, 99 per cent of the stories you share vanish. The only way to find the posts that matter is to click ‘Older Posts’ at the bottom of the page. Again. And again.” With Timeline, FB will curate a home for all stories users share, will be wider than the existing profile, and a lot more visual.
Part of FB’s hurry to evolve as the social network for the masses across the globe is partly due to the heat it is facing from the three-month-old social network site, Google Plus. The new kid on the block from Google’s stable aims to take some of Facebook’s shine off with its own set of social features and forthcoming integration with the search giant’s various online products expected to be launched.
For now, however, it looks like Facebook still enjoys the users’ confidence. According to Informate Mobile Intelligence, Facebook has outpaced Google Plus in terms of share of page views. While share of page views for Google.com declined by 36 per cent over the last six months, the share of Facebook.com saw an increase of 68 per cent.
Users, like Vinit Udeshi, a music jockey in Kolkata, hailed Facebook for launching a standalone messaging and chat app for iPhone and Android devices. “This app allows you to send text messages to anyone in your phone’s contact list as well as your Facebook friends. You can see the messages from the Messenger app as well as your web-based version of Facebook.” The site has also introduced a free 90-day access on mobile devices as part of its tie-ups with telecom operators, including Reliance, Aircel and Airtel in India.
Today, Facebook India is hoarded with over 17 million users in the age group of 18-24 years, followed by the users in the age of 25-34, reveals Socialbakers’ data. Now, Google Plus too is targeting the same user group.
Social media experts like Hareesh Tibrewala, joint CEO, Social Wavelength, says: “Google Plus is still too much in the nascent stage but Google has the power of its search and email. It should be able to grow about 50 per cent or so in the next 12 months.” Google Plus already has over three million users from India although it’s not exactly a happy user base.
Saurabh Rathore, partner at Moe’s Art, says: “Google Plus interface is boring and Facebook is trying to get more and more complicated. Twitter seems to be the best bet for me. It’s a place where I can control whom I want to follow.”
However, he quickly adds that Facebook still gets a higher rating than Google Plus “because it’s an older platform hence more friends and more conversations. Plus has graveyard-at-midnight kind of silence. When I am happy, I’m on Facebook, when I have to rant, I go to Twitter. Google Plus is my fifth option, after Linkedin and Foursquare.”
Google is listening. Its social search is now integrating Google Plus posts into its search engine results pages for those who log in to their Google account for a personalised search experience. “That means content that your Google Plus contacts have shared will enhance your search experience,” says Adhvith Dhuddu of Alive Now, a social media management firm.
The biggest improvement to Google Plus is via Hangouts - the popular group web conferencing application that lets up to 10 users share a browser-based video chat session. Hangouts On Air is a hangout that lets users broadcast and record their session. When a user is “on air”, up to nine other people can join the Hangout, though anyone can tune in to the live broadcast.
The move may pique interest among Android device users, estimated to be 10 per cent of India’s mobile handset base. Vic Gunhotra, senior vice president of engineering, Google wrote in his blog: “Hangouts currently supports Android 2.3+ devices with front-facing cameras (and iOS support is coming soon). The new mobile app is rolling out to Android Market today [20 September], so you can start hanging out at any time, from just about anywhere.”
Social media expert Rajiv Dingra, founder and CEO of social media agency WatBlog, says: “I don’t believe Google Plus was meant to be a Facebook challenger as much as it was meant to be a more controlled forum for highly-focused content. The design of Plus favours interaction within groups and is not about posting trivial comments.”
His sentiments are echoed by 32-year-old Jayaraman, a chemical engineer based in UAE. “I think Google Plus made itself better after the latest improvements. Facebook has nearly ruined its news feed. I now spend a few minutes every day unmarking updates as “top stories”. I do not want to see “top stories” when I go to my Facebook news feed, especially when Facebook has no idea what I think is important or interesting.”
It is perhaps worth pointing out that Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page himself hasn’t made any public postings on his Google Plus page in more than a month.
Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars: Here's How | PCWorld
Amazon’s unveiling of a Kindle tablet would shake up the industry and pose one of the biggest threats to the Apple iPad -- which is why the technology world has its eyes on the online retailer as it prepares for a media gathering in New York this week ahead of the holiday season.
The iPad is still expected to maintain its dominance, as it will account for nearly 75 percent of the tablets sold this year. But the Kindle tablet could start a new era that beckons a major slugfest between not just Amazon and Apple, but also with other big players like Samsung and Motorola.
Amazon has brand recognition, a bevy of existing loyal Kindle e-reader owners, and a Web-based e-commerce platform that includes one-click access to buying e-books, movies, digital music downloads, its own Android app store, and streaming media catalog. That adds up to Amazon being uniquely suited to go head-to-head with Apple in the tablet market and become a formidable competitor across the industry.
Wednesday could be the day, as Amazon has scheduled a news conference. Forrester estimates that an Amazon tablet could sell between 3 million and 5 million units by the end of the year.
While it borrows the name of the Amazon e-reader, the Kindle tablet is believed to be much more than just color upgrade to Amazon’s popular e-book reader, the Kindle. It’s expected to be a customized version of an Android-based tablet, more recognizable to an iPad or Motorola Xoom than a limited function e-book reader.
Here’s a primer on what the Amazon Kindle tablet will look like and the competition it will spark.
Tracking Down the Amazon Kindle Tablet
Rumors have circulated for months that Amazon is developing a tablet, and recently one reporter confirmed its existence and wrote of his hands-on experience working with a preproduction test unit.
TechCrunch's MG Siegler says he has seen and touched a prototype of the Amazon Kindle tablet. He says the tablet is Android at heart, but distinctively Amazon in its implementation. Amazon has taken the open source Android OS and developed its own custom skin for the OS -- creating a user interface that mimics the ubiquitous Kindle motif with its dark blue, black, and orange color scheme.
Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars, And Here's HowSiegler claims the Kindle tablet unit he worked with has a 7-inch display. Multiple sources -- including Siegler -- report that Amazon will also offer a 10-inch model of the Kindle tablet, but not until after the 2011 holiday season. Siegler also confirms that Amazon will offer the Kindle tablet for $250 -- half of the entry level cost for an iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Motorola Xoom. Even among its 7-inch cousins, the Kindle tablet will be competitively priced at $250.
If the $250 price tag includes membership in Amazon Prime, as rumored, that price becomes a bargain. Membership in the service is a $79 value -- effectively bringing the cost of the tablet itself to only $171, and providing additional value unique to the Kindle tablet. Amazon Prime provides free two-day shipping on eligible Amazon purchases, and has its own Netflix-like movie streaming service. For example, there are also rumors that Amazon is preparing a subscription model for e-books, similar to what Netflix offers for movies; the book subscription would also be included as part of Amazon Prime.
Amazon has already launched its own Android app store. The Amazon app store for Android integrates Android into the Amazon ecosystem, and the Kindle tablet will integrate Amazon into the Android ecosystem. The combination of the capabilities of Android and the brand recognition and respect of Amazon will make the Kindle tablet a formidable competitor.
The Competition
The Amazon Kindle tablet is entering an overwhelming sea of tablet rivals.
The 7-inch form factor is closer to the size of the Kindle e-reader, and for many it hits a sweet spot between being large enough to be useful as a tablet, yet small enough to be more portable and well-suited for one-handed use. While the Kindle tablet will be measured against the iPad 2 like every other tablet, its real competition comes from other 7-inch tablets like the Acer Iconia A100, the Lenovo A1, and the upcoming successor to the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, now bumped slightly larger to the 7.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.
Amazon's E-book Reader, KindleComparisons to the Barnes & Noble Nook Color are also inevitable. The $249 Nook Color is an e-reader, but it is built on its own custom version of Android, and Barnes & Noble eventually embraced those Android roots to make the Nook Color a low-cost Android tablet with its own app store.
Barnes & Noble is also rumored to be launching a 10-inch version of the Nook Color before the end of 2011. It is expected to sell for $349, and will give Barnes & Noble a head start against a larger Kindle tablet for users who prefer the 10-inch tablet form factor.
Amazon's Weak Spot
For all of its potential advantages, the Amazon Kindle tablet also faces challenges.
First, just as there are those who prefer the 7-inch form factor, there are those who do not. At 7 inches, the display has significantly less real estate than a 9- or 10-inch tablet, yet it is still too big to fit comfortably in a pocket. It is possible that Amazon chose 7 inches to intentionally avoid direct iPad comparisons, or to make the device more appealing to the Kindle e-reader fan base.
Customizing Android could be brilliant, or it could end up being Amazon's Achilles heel. Customizing Android enables Amazon to create a tablet experience that is unique to Amazon -- setting it apart from the array of rival Android tablets and putting Amazon in control of updates rather than waiting around for Google. But, the burden will be on Amazon to continue to develop and maintain its custom OS, and splitting off from the Android pack could lead to app compatibility issues -- especially as Android moves to its next-generation operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, later this year.
The other pitfall is the same one that plagues every tablet on the market: it's not an iPad. Apple dominates the tablet market with the iPad, and it is a dominant player in the smartphone area with the iPhone. The popularity of iOS is a self-perpetuating cycle. Millions of users are already invested in the Apple iOS ecosystem, and convincing them to break ranks and start over on a new platform is a daunting challenge.
That said, the future seems bright for the Amazon Kindle tablet. Amazon is a respected brand name, and it has established the Kindle as the de facto e-reader. Merging the Amazon brand, the popularity of the Kindle, the functionality of Android, and the vast media and retail distribution ecosystem of Amazon into a single device at a reasonable price point seems like a perfect storm capable of actually putting a dent in Apple's dominance of the tablet market.
We’ll have to wait and see. Follow PCWorld updates on the New York event.
Gadhafi gunmen cross border from Algeria to Libya - Yahoo! News
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Gunmen loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have crossed the Libyan border from Algeria and attacked revolutionary forces in a town near the frontier, killing six people, officials said Sunday.
The cross-border attack on Saturday shows loyalist forces have managed to escape Libya and regroup and collect arms, bolstering fears the North African nation could face a protracted insurgency.
Col. Ahmed Bani, a military spokesman for the transitional government, said the attack on Ghadamis occurred Saturday but revolutionary forces had intelligence that cars filled with weapons had crossed the border a few days earlier. Ghadamis is about 280 miles (450 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli.
He said the loyalist forces were believed to belong to a unit that had been under the command of Gadhafi's son Khamis, who was reportedly killed in fighting before the revolutionary forces seized Tripoli.
Bani said revolutionary forces had repelled the attack but the assailants escaped back across the border.
An official from Ghadamis, Ali al-Mana, however, said fighting was ongoing. He told The Associated Press that six people had been killed and 63 wounded.
"We are sending a plane from Tripoli to evacuate the wounded," said al-Mana, who is the Ghadamis representative on the National Transitional Council, which is acting as the country's government. Al-Mana said Ghadamis has a small runway for the plane to land.
Gadhafi's wife and three of his children, including his daughter Aisha, fled to Algeria through Ghadamis after Tripoli's fall late last month. The whereabouts of the fugitive leader remain unknown and he continues to try to rally supporters. That has raised concern that he could stoke violence as fighting continues between revolutionary forces in his hometown of Sirte and two other strongholds.
Aisha Gadhafi, who played a key role in her father's inner circle, said in an audio recording broadcast Friday that her father is in high spirits and fighting alongside his supporters. She called the country's new leaders traitors, noting that some of them were members of Gadhafi's regime before defecting in the civil war.
"I assure you, he is fine, a believer in God, in good spirits, is carrying his gun and is fighting side by side with the warriors," she said in the recording broadcast on the Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, which has become the mouthpiece of Gadhafi's resistance.
In other developments on Sunday, revolutionary fighters stepped up a siege of Sirte, hoping to wear down loyalist forces a day after an offensive failed to dislodge die-hard loyalists of the fugitive leader.
Anti-Gadhafi fighters set up new checkpoints and posted snipers in strategic areas on the outskirts of Sirte. But they said they were not planning another assault immediately after facing fierce resistance on Saturday that left seven of their comrades dead and more than 150 wounded.
"It's unlikely we'll attack today unless we are attacked," said Aiman Majub, who helps coordinate revolutionary forces. "The idea is to catch our breath and regroup so we can be more strategic instead of blasting our way in."
Saturday's battle for downtown Sirte was the first significant push in a week and included close-range gunfights with loyalists hiding in apartment buildings and throwing hand grenades from windows. The fighters pushed east along the city's main thoroughfare into its urban center, overrunning a TV station as NATO warplanes supporting anti-Gadhafi forces roared overhead.
Osama Nuttawa al-Swehli, a revolutionary logistics officer, said the goal on Sunday was to squeeze the city and prevent any former regime figures believed to be holed up inside from escaping. Al-Swehli said he has heard Gadhafi's son Muatassim communicating by radio with loyalist forces inside Sirte.
"We have to make sure that no supplies get in and that none of their assets escape," he said.
"The priority today is to hold our positions while pounding their targets," he said, adding that they needed to take out loyalist rocket launchers before making another push to take the city.
He said that seven men were killed and 152 wounded, 17 seriously, in Saturday's fighting. Four of those injured lost limbs and four others had serious head wounds, he said.
Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast, is the Libyan city most associated with Gadhafi.
Revolutionary forces have been working to help civilians trying to flee the city amid rapidly deteriorating living conditions. More than a dozen families drove out toward the west Sunday morning, riding in battered cars with mattresses and suitcases strapped to their roofs.
Al-Swehli said he thinks most of the families who intend to flee have already left the city. It remains unclear how many civilians remain inside the city and if they are helping loyalist forces.
___
Hubbard reported from Sirte. Associated Press writer Rami al-Shaheibi contributed to this report from Benghazi.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Federal AT&T-T-Mobile Suit Joined by New York, Six Other States - Businessweek
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lawsuit seeking to block AT&T Inc.’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc. was joined by seven states as their attorneys general said the proposed $39 billion deal would hurt competition and raise wireless telephone prices.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Eleanor Mondale, Daughter of Former Vice President, Dies at 51
A Mondale family spokeswoman, Lynda Pedersen, said she died Saturday. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer several years ago.
Ms. Mondale had been off the air at WCCO-AM in Minneapolis since March 19, 2009, when she announced that her brain cancer had returned a second time. She had surgery to remove the tumor on Aug. 12, 2009, at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a posting on her CaringBridge Web site called the surgery a success.
Ms. Mondale, the middle of three children born to Walter and Joan Mondale, campaigned for her father in his failed race to unseat President Ronald Reagan in 1984. She also made calls in 2002 in her father’s last campaign, when Mr. Mondale took the ballot slot of Senator Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who died in a plane crash just days before the election.
A striking blonde known on the party circuit when she was younger, Eleanor Mondale also attracted gossip. Her dalliance with the late rock musician Warren Zevon was detailed in “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon,” a posthumous biography published by Mr. Zevon’s ex-wife in 2007.
In 1998, CBS News reported that Ms. Mondale was one of four women Monica Lewinsky expressed resentment toward in taped conversations because of attention President Bill Clinton paid to them. (Ms. Mondale issued a statement saying her relationship with the president and his wife, Hillary, was “purely a friendship.”)
Ms. Mondale started as an aspiring actress, with bit parts in “Three’s Company” and “Dynasty.” She got her start in broadcasting as an entertainment reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis in 1989, but left after only eight months when a Twin Cities magazine was about to publish an article called “Walter and Joan’s Wild Child.” The Star Tribune reported that Ms. Mondale denied she was forced out.
In the article, Ms. Mondale was quoted as saying, “I like to get wild. But it’s not murder, and I don’t do drugs.”
After stints at Minneapolis radio station WLOL-FM, on cable television at E! Entertainment and ESPN, and network TV on “This Morning” on CBS, she returned to Minnesota in 2006 to co-host a weekday morning show on WCCO-AM with Susie Jones.
In 2005, Ms. Mondale was diagnosed with brain cancer after she suffered two seizures during a camping trip. The tumor nearly disappeared after Ms. Mondale had chemotherapy and radiation, but her cancer returned in 2008. She underwent surgery that time and was able to return to WCCO but eventually had to take disability leave to treat the recurrence.
Ms. Mondale was married three times: to Chicago Bears offensive lineman Keith Van Horne, to disc jockey Greg Thunder and to Twin Cities rock musician Chan Poling of The Suburbs. Ms. Mondale and Mr. Poling married in 2005, shortly after her cancer was diagnosed, and lived on a farm near Prior Lake in the southern Twin Cities.
Kara Kennedy Allen, Daughter of Edward M. Kennedy, Dies
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Kara Kennedy Allen receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 from President Barack Obama, on her father's behalf.
15 killed in Ivory Coast villages near Liberia – USATODAY.com
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) – Armed men from Liberia have killed at least 15 people in attacks on villages along the border over the last two days, Ivory Coast's defense minister said Saturday.
Friday, September 16, 2011
AP: 75 Injured, 25 Critically in Crash at Stead Airport - KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video -
Kellene StockwellChannel 2 NewsWitnesses say the plane was about 400-500 feet in the air when it nosedived and crashed near a spectator stand at the Air Races at the Reno-Stead Airport.
The accident happened just before 4:30pm during the National Championship Air Races.
Our reporter Chris Ciarlo says the P51 WWII Mustang was third in contention during the gold heat when the crash happened.
The plane DID NOT hit the stands, it hit nearby tables instead.
We just received confirmation that the pilot in the crash was Jimmy Leeward and he flew the Galloping Ghost. There's no word on his condition.
A second reporter on scene, Paul Nelson says it appears the Mustang hit halfway down the stands. Crime tape now covers the area.
Airport personnel and military evacuated thousands of spectators.
There's no official word yet on any injuries.
Just yesterday, a pilot had to make a hard landing after his plane had engine problems and declared an emergency.
The air races are canceled for the rest of today.
‘Mass Casualty Situation’ in Plane Crash at Air Show - ABC News
A small plane crashed in or near spectators at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev., creating a “mass casualty situation,” a race spokesman told The Associated Press.
There was an unconfirmed count of 12 people dead and 30 injured, ABC News affiliate KOLO in Reno reported.
Pilot Jimmy Leeword crashed into a box seat area as he flew a P-51 Mustang called the Galloping Ghost at 4:30 p.m. local time, the AP reported.
Video of the crash showed the plane suddenly lurching vertically into the air and then coming down in an area containing spectators.
The AP cited video that showed bodies and wreckage at the front of the stands.
A local hospital was in “code triage” and told to expect 80 to 1oo people, KOLO reported.
Oil Ticks Higher On Renewed Optimism
By SELINA WILLIAMS
LONDON—Brent crude futures edged higher as optimism mounted ahead of a two-day meeting in Poland of euro-zone finance ministers regarding potential coordinated action to stem the region's debt crisis.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will also attend the meeting, which follows news Thursday that global central banks will pump more dollars into the European banking system to reduce pressure on banks, some of which have had trouble borrowing dollars.
The move to make dollars more easily available lifted Brent prices as it helped to calm investors' fear of another recession in the euro zone. A recession would weaken oil demand.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude prices drifted in a narrow range as market participants awaited the opening of markets there and the University of Michigan consumer confidence data later in the day.
Mid morning, the front-month October contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading up 32 cents, or 0.4%, at $89.08 per barrel. The front-month November Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up 30 cents at $112.60 a barrel.
With no major macroeconomic data due out Friday, headlines out of the Poland meeting are likely to dominate markets, analysts said.
But in the meantime, market participants are unlikely to place bets that prices will fall in Friday's session in case the Poland meeting yields a positive result over the weekend, when markets are closed.
"The sense of dread that was gripping the markets for much of last week and earlier this week seems to be fading somewhat, and this should allow a measure of strengthening to set in, at least during Friday's session," MF Global said.
Additional delays to cargoes of Forties crude, the main grade feeding into benchmark Brent blend, have tightened the supply-demand balance in the key North Sea physical market, limiting any downside on Brent futures prices, said Andrey Kryuchenkov's , VTB Capital vice president of commodities research.
Mid morning, the ICE's gasoil contract for October delivery was down $1.75 at $950.50 per metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for October delivery was up 58 points at $2.7886 per gallon.
Write to Selina Williams at selina.williams@dowjones.com
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Mortgage default warnings surged in August - Yahoo! Finance
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Banks have stepped up their actions against homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, setting the stage for a fresh wave of foreclosures.
The number of U.S. homes that received an initial default notice -- the first step in the foreclosure process -- jumped 33 percent in August from July, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
The increase represents a nine-month high and the biggest monthly gain in four years. The spike signals banks are starting to take swifter action against homeowners, nearly a year after processing issues led to a sharp slowdown in foreclosures.
"This is really the first time we've seen a significant increase in the number of new foreclosure actions," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac. "It's still possible this is a blip, but I think it's much more likely we're seeing the beginning of a trend here.
UPDATE 4-Oil up over $114, equity rally supports | Reuters
LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Oil traded at over $114 on Thursday, up over $2, buoyed by a rally in European equities, a weaker dollar, and an improvement in risk appetite after euro zone leaders reiterated their commitment to keeping Greece afloat.
Brent crude LCOc1 for October, which expires today, was up $2.12 cents at $114.52 by 1012 GMT. The November contract LCOc2 was up $2.15 cents at $111.80. U.S. crude CLc1 was up 30 cents to $89.21 a barrel.
Volatility in Brent has been accentuated by the imminent expiry of the October contract, with the liquidity all in the November contract, but analysts and traders have expressed surprise that oil has rallied so strongly given recent bearish newsflow.
"With the euro debt crisis back on centre stage, one thing is sure to follow: volatility," said Thorbjorn Bak Jensen, oil analyst at Global Risk Management.
Top 10 College Towns for Buying Foreclosures - DailyFinance
For real estate buyers who have the cash and credit to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates, there is one market type that tends to be more resilient than others: the college town.Established, big-name universities, with their steady and ever-replenishing supplies of new students, faculty and administrators, virtually guarantee tenants and future buyers. Additionally, more retirees are choosing to move to college towns for the cultural amenities.
UBS Has $2 Billion Trading Loss; Man Arrested in London - Businessweek
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, said it may be unprofitable in the third quarter after a $2 billion loss from unauthorized trading at its investment bank.
London police arrested Kweku Adoboli, a UBS employee, in connection with the loss, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified. City of London police and UBS declined to identify the man.
UBS management aims to “get to the bottom of the matter as quickly as possible, and will spare no effort to establish exactly what has happened,” the bank’s group executive board, led by Chief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel, said in a memo to employees today. “While the news is distressing, it will not change the fundamental strength of our firm.”
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
If Obama Is a One-Term President
“I’D rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” President Obama confessed to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer last year. Other than the “really good” part, Republicans would be happy to see this wish fulfilled.
With waning approval ratings and a stagnant economy, the possibility that Mr. Obama will not be re-elected has entered the political bloodstream. Suddenly, the opposition party envisions a scenario in which its presidential candidate could defeat Mr. Obama in a referendum on his job performance. Mr. Obama needs to think hard about his own statement and consider what it takes to be a successful one-term president, in the light of history.
One-term presidents usually leave office with their parties divided, the economy in crisis, wars unresolved, approval ratings in the tank and a sullen public rejecting them. Becoming a one-term president means joining a gallery of dashed hopes and crushed ambitions. Among those who were elected for just one term were men who, like Mr. Obama, came to the White House with enormous promise.
Nevertheless, accomplishments with lasting significance have resulted from some one-term presidencies. We live in a competitive culture that is so obsessed with measuring presidential leadership solely based on re-election that we often miss the ability of the losers, so to speak, to shape the direction of American politics.
Some one-term presidents pushed huge legislative agendas through Congress that remade public policy and survived for decades after their presidencies. They burned all of their political capital to produce changes that were not easily undone, because they created strong constituencies.
James K. Polk, who said at the outset that he wanted only one term, pledged to promote free trade and to re-establish an independent Treasury. Most important, Polk wanted to significantly expand the territorial scope of the United States. When he left office, he could rightly claim to have succeeded in accomplishing almost everything he set out to do; the size of the nation almost doubled on his watch.
Lyndon B. Johnson served slightly more than one term; he stepped up from the vice presidency on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who had a little over a year left in his term. Although Johnson never got the nomination for a second term, he achieved enormous legislative and social change. Determined to outshine his model, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected an unprecedented four times, Johnson pushed through a domestic policy agenda of civil and voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid, federal education assistance, anti-poverty legislation and more.
Johnson, a vastly experienced and canny politician, always knew the political costs that might come from his policy successes. He understood that his civil rights advocacy divided the traditional Democratic coalition and offered fodder to a Republican Party eager to regain control of the White House by rejecting its Lincoln legacy and absorbing the followers of the segregationist demagogue George C. Wallace of Alabama.
On the night L.B.J. signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, his speechwriter and adviser Bill Moyers walked into his bedroom, unexpectedly finding him looking forlorn. “I think,” Johnson explained, “we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.”
In March 1968, faced with the turmoil over the Vietnam War and challenges for the nomination from Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, who had stung him in the New Hampshire primary, Johnson announced that he was withdrawing from the race. His justification was that he had higher goals, like trying to negotiate peace in Vietnam and obtaining a tax surcharge from Congress, that would require his complete attention. For years afterward, Johnson was a tainted figure in American politics, condemned by the left and the right. Yet the groundbreaking programs he put on the books remain.
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Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton, and the author of “Jimmy Carter” and the coming book “Governing America.”
EU warned of credit crunch threat, French banks hit - Yahoo! News
WROCLAW,Poland/PARIS (Reuters) - European finance ministers have been warned confidentially of the danger of a renewed credit crunch as a "systemic" crisis in euro zone sovereign debt spills over to banks, according to documents obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
In a report prepared for ministers meeting in Poland on Friday and Saturday, senior EU officials said the 17-nation currency area faces a "risk of a vicious circle between sovereign debt, bank funding and negative growth."
"While tensions in sovereign debt markets have intensified and bank funding risks have increased over the summer, contagion has spread across markets and countries and the crisis has become systemic," the influential Economic and Financial Committee said.
"A further reinforcement of bank resources is advisable," ministers were told in language that echoed an International Monetary Fund call for urgent action to recapitalize European banks.
The report highlighted European policymakers' challenge to restore confidence as the leaders of Germany, France and Greece held a crucial conference call on efforts to avert a Greek default that could cause a global financial shock.
Moody's Investors Service downgraded two of France's top banks, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, saying its concerns about their funding and liquidity profiles had increased in the light of worsening refinancing conditions.
The ratings agency left France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, on review, saying its profitability and capital base gave it an adequate cushion to support its Greek, Portuguese and Irish exposure.
The euro and European stocks were earlier boosted by an announcement by the head of the European Commission that the EU executive would soon present options for issuing a common euro zone bond, despite fierce resistance in Germany.
Many investors see joint debt issuance as the best way out since it would reassure markets that Europe's strongest economies were taking responsibility for weaker states.
But there is strong political opposition in northern Europe to underwriting the debts of what are seen as profligate southern states, making euro bonds a distant prospect.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament that closer union, particularly in the euro area, was the only way to reverse the negative cycle in financial markets.
"Today I want to confirm that the Commission will soon present options for the introduction of eurobonds. Some of these could be implemented within the terms of the current treaty, and others would require treaty change," he said.
But he warned that such bonds were no silver bullet to end the crisis, and could only be part of a comprehensive plan.
China added its voice to U.S. concerns over Europe's apparent inability to stop debt contagion spreading, while Indian and Brazilian officials said major emerging economies were discussing increasing their euro sovereign holdings.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urged European leaders to act more forcefully to solve the escalating crisis, saying they have the economic and financial capacity to do so.
With senior EU and IMF inspectors due in Athens on Monday to check Greece's faltering compliance with its bailout plan, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Prime Minister George Papandreou to implement austerity measures to meet fiscal targets, a French statement said.
"Despite recent rumors, all parties stressed Greece will remain in the euro zone," Greek government spokesman Ilias Mossialos said after the 25-minute telephone call.
A Greek official said after the call that Athens now expected the EU/IMF "troika" to report that Greece was on track to meet its 2011-12 targets after the latest additional austerity measures announced last weekend.
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said issuing common euro zone bonds would require much more intrusive surveillance of member states' fiscal and economic policies, which would have to be fully debated in each country.
A German Finance Ministry spokesman reaffirmed Berlin's opposition to the idea but said it awaited the proposals.
STOP CRISIS SPREADING
China and the United States both voiced concern that euro zone governments may be losing control of the debt crisis.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing was willing to help its biggest trading partner, but added that Europe must stop the crisis -- which now threatens Italy -- from growing.
"What we have to take note of now is to prevent the sovereign debt crises from spreading and expanding further," Wen said on Wednesday in an apparent response to pleas to buy more euro zone government bonds.
Chinese state media said the EU should recognize Beijing's help with the debt crisis by giving China market economy status, which would give better protection against European anti-dumping penalties -- a major irritant.
A senior Indian official said finance ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa would discuss a Brazilian proposal to increase their holdings of euro zone bonds when they meet in Washington on September 22.
But Greece's deputy finance minister injected a note of skepticism, saying those countries had shown little or no interest in buying short-term Greek debt despite invitations to do so.
Credit markets are factoring in a 90 percent chance Greece will default on its debts and they demanded the highest risk premium on Italian five-year bonds at auction on Tuesday since the country joined the euro.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government won a parliamentary confidence vote on a 54-billion-euro austerity package, which lawmakers were to finalize later in the day. The moves have done little so far to stem doubts about whether the euro area's third-biggest economy can manage its debts.
Greece, Ireland and Portugal have all received EU/IMF rescue packages, but many see Italy as too big to bail out.
RATINGS CUT
BNP Paribas announced a plan to sell 70 billion euros in assets to help ease investor fears about leverage and funding that hit its two main rivals.
Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said the Moody's action on French banks was relatively good news, noting it put them on a par with other major European lenders regarded as healthy such as HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank.
"It's a very small downgrade and Moody's had a higher rating than the other agencies so it's just put them on the same level or slightly better than the others," Noyer said.
Some analysts and industrialists say a combination of a Greek default and a financial meltdown in Italy could engender a banking crisis akin to the 2007-8 global credit crunch and risk tearing the euro zone apart.
Greece has said it will run out of cash within weeks unless it gets the next 8 billion euro aid tranche in October to pay wages and pensions.
In a measure of Washington's concern, Geithner will attend the meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland on Friday -- his second trip to Europe in a week.
Geithner tried to shore up confidence in Europe's ability to solve the crisis, telling CNBC television the strongest euro zone states have the financial capacity to hold the currency area together.
"There is no chance that the major countries of Europe will let their institutions be at risk in the eyes of the market," he said, adding the United States had an interest in seeing the crisis resolved because it was causing economic uncertainty.
Two unidentified banks tapped the European Central Bank for dollar funding on Wednesday in the latest sign of stress as U.S. money market funds and other traditional dollar providers cut back on lending to Europe.
(Additional reporting by Gilbert Reilhac in Strasbourg, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, Anirban Nag in London, Harry Papachristou in Athens, Yann Le Guernigou and Daniel Flynn in Paris; Writing by Paul Taylor, Editing by Janet McBride/Mike Peacock)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Nikkei falls 2% to 6 month low on European woes - The Economic Times
Oil Prices Slide
By JENNY GROSS
LONDON—Crude-oil futures were down around 1.5% as investors abandoned the euro, sending it to a seven-month low against the dollar on heightened concerns of a Greek default.
Ahead of the New York day, the October Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was down $1.89, or 1.7% at $110.97 a barrel. The October contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down $1.22, or 1.4%, at $86.02 per barrel.
Brent crude prices plunged as European stocks slumped and bearish sentiment prevailed after the Greek government's announcement Sunday of a new tax to cover a budget shortfall did little to reassure markets of the country's financial stability.
Analysts said these factors were likely to weigh on oil prices for the rest of the day.
"Europe is the fourth-largest oil consumer in the world and it's not doing well at the moment, so that's most important," said Thina Saltvedt, a senior oil market analyst at Nordea Bank Norge.
Speculation that Moody's may cut credit ratings of French banks was also weighing on the market, she added.
Market participants will also be looking to monthly reports on the oil market from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency for an outlook on fundamentals. The closely watched IEA report is due Tuesday.
Expectations of increased supply and weak demand were weighing on prices, analysts said.
Chinese crude oil imports in August were unchanged from a year ago, something that's "not hugely positive," said Olivier Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix.
"On the fundamental side, we're starting to count the days before we start to see Libyan crude oil back on the market, although on small volume," he added.