NAIROBI, Kenya ? Sudan's embassy in Kenya says it is dismayed over a ruling from Kenya's high court that authorities must arrest Sudan President Omar al-Bashir if he visits Kenya again.
The embassy said Tuesday that the ruling seriously damaged relations between the two countries. Sudan said Kenya should abide by a ruling by African Union member countries not to cooperate with the International Criminal Court and arrest al-Bashir if he visits other African countries.
Al-Bashir visited Kenya last year but was not arrested. He is wanted by the ICC for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed Darfur.
Sudan said it recalled its ambassador in Nairobi for consultations and ordered Kenya's ambassador in Khartoum to leave Sudan within three days.
I've spent what seems like months obsessing over every little bit of Galaxy Nexus minutiae that's crossed the wire, and what better to celebrate its (hopefully) impending launch than to watch one get torn apart? That's right folks -- iFixit is at it yet again, and this time it's the GSM Galaxy Nexus that's going under the knife.
Energy Secretary Chu announces 2011 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award winnersPublic release date: 28-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeff Sherwood jeff.sherwood@doe.gov 202-586-4940 DOE/US Department of Energy
Washington, DC - US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today the winners of the 2011 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for their outstanding contributions in research and development supporting the Department of Energy and its missions. Nine winners were named today in eight categories. Winners in each category will receive a gold medal, a citation and $20,000. In the case of co-nomination, the honorarium is shared. Winners will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC, early next year.
"These researchers have made significant contributions to the national, economic, and energy security of the United States," Secretary Chu said. "I congratulate the winners and thank them for their work on behalf of the Department and the Nation."
The Lawrence Award was established in 1959 to honor the memory of Dr. Ernest Orlando Lawrence who invented the cyclotron (a particle accelerator), and after whom two major Energy Department laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore, California are named.
The 2011 E.O. Lawrence Award winners are:
David E. Chavez (Los Alamos National Laboratory) - Atomic, Molecular, and Chemical Sciences David E. Chavez will be honored for discovery of new chemical synthetic schemes used to advance development of fundamentally novel, highly energetic, environmentally friendly (high-nitrogen) molecular materials important to national security missions.
Thomas P. Guilderson (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) - Biological and Environmental Sciences Thomas P. Guilderson will be honored for ground-breaking radiocarbon measurements of corals, advancements in understanding the paleo-history of ocean currents and ocean processes revealing past climate variability, and the elucidation of how physical and biogeochemical oceanic processes affect the global carbon cycle.
Lois Curfman McInnes and Barry F. Smith (co-nominees, Argonne National Laboratory) -Computer, Information, and Knowledge Sciences Lois Curfman McInnes and Barry F. Smith will be honored for scientific leadership in advancing the innovative and transformative numerical software package PETSc, which provides robust, efficient, scalable, and extensible tools that are the backbone of numerous high-performance DOE simulation computer codes.
Paul C. Canfield (Ames Laboratory) - Condensed Matter and Materials Sciences Paul C. Canfield will be honored for innovative syntheses and high-quality single crystal solution growth of novel new materials and the collaborative consummate elucidation of their fundamental properties using a range of techniques.
Amit Goyal (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) - Energy Science and Innovation Amit Goyal will be honored for pioneering research and transformative contributions to the field of applied high temperature superconductivity, including fundamental materials science advances and technical innovations enabling large-scale applications of these novel materials.
Riccardo Betti (University of Rochester) - Fusion and Plasma Sciences Riccardo Betti will be honored for a series of impactful theoretical discoveries in the physics of inertial confinement fusion including seminal transformative work on thermonuclear ignition, hydrodynamic instabilities and implosion dynamics, and the development of innovative approaches to ignition and high energy gains.
Bernard Matthew Poelker (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility) - High Energy and Nuclear Physics Bernard Matthew Poelker will be honored for leading a transformative effort to achieve production of electron beams possessing remarkable properties advancing parity-violation and polarization-transfer experiments now yielding key information on nucleon quark-gluon structure.
Mark B. Chadwick (Los Alamos National Laboratory) - National Security and Nonproliferation Mark B. Chadwick will be honored for innovative scientific contributions to advance understanding of fission product yields and other key nuclear reactions resulting in the resolution of a long-standing problem in national security.
###
For more information about the Ernest O. Lawrence award, visit http://science.energy.gov/lawrence/.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Energy Secretary Chu announces 2011 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award winnersPublic release date: 28-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeff Sherwood jeff.sherwood@doe.gov 202-586-4940 DOE/US Department of Energy
Washington, DC - US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today the winners of the 2011 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for their outstanding contributions in research and development supporting the Department of Energy and its missions. Nine winners were named today in eight categories. Winners in each category will receive a gold medal, a citation and $20,000. In the case of co-nomination, the honorarium is shared. Winners will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, DC, early next year.
"These researchers have made significant contributions to the national, economic, and energy security of the United States," Secretary Chu said. "I congratulate the winners and thank them for their work on behalf of the Department and the Nation."
The Lawrence Award was established in 1959 to honor the memory of Dr. Ernest Orlando Lawrence who invented the cyclotron (a particle accelerator), and after whom two major Energy Department laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore, California are named.
The 2011 E.O. Lawrence Award winners are:
David E. Chavez (Los Alamos National Laboratory) - Atomic, Molecular, and Chemical Sciences David E. Chavez will be honored for discovery of new chemical synthetic schemes used to advance development of fundamentally novel, highly energetic, environmentally friendly (high-nitrogen) molecular materials important to national security missions.
Thomas P. Guilderson (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) - Biological and Environmental Sciences Thomas P. Guilderson will be honored for ground-breaking radiocarbon measurements of corals, advancements in understanding the paleo-history of ocean currents and ocean processes revealing past climate variability, and the elucidation of how physical and biogeochemical oceanic processes affect the global carbon cycle.
Lois Curfman McInnes and Barry F. Smith (co-nominees, Argonne National Laboratory) -Computer, Information, and Knowledge Sciences Lois Curfman McInnes and Barry F. Smith will be honored for scientific leadership in advancing the innovative and transformative numerical software package PETSc, which provides robust, efficient, scalable, and extensible tools that are the backbone of numerous high-performance DOE simulation computer codes.
Paul C. Canfield (Ames Laboratory) - Condensed Matter and Materials Sciences Paul C. Canfield will be honored for innovative syntheses and high-quality single crystal solution growth of novel new materials and the collaborative consummate elucidation of their fundamental properties using a range of techniques.
Amit Goyal (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) - Energy Science and Innovation Amit Goyal will be honored for pioneering research and transformative contributions to the field of applied high temperature superconductivity, including fundamental materials science advances and technical innovations enabling large-scale applications of these novel materials.
Riccardo Betti (University of Rochester) - Fusion and Plasma Sciences Riccardo Betti will be honored for a series of impactful theoretical discoveries in the physics of inertial confinement fusion including seminal transformative work on thermonuclear ignition, hydrodynamic instabilities and implosion dynamics, and the development of innovative approaches to ignition and high energy gains.
Bernard Matthew Poelker (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility) - High Energy and Nuclear Physics Bernard Matthew Poelker will be honored for leading a transformative effort to achieve production of electron beams possessing remarkable properties advancing parity-violation and polarization-transfer experiments now yielding key information on nucleon quark-gluon structure.
Mark B. Chadwick (Los Alamos National Laboratory) - National Security and Nonproliferation Mark B. Chadwick will be honored for innovative scientific contributions to advance understanding of fission product yields and other key nuclear reactions resulting in the resolution of a long-standing problem in national security.
###
For more information about the Ernest O. Lawrence award, visit http://science.energy.gov/lawrence/.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LORAIN, Ohio -- A man broke into the Animal House Adoption Center on North Ridge Road and took the cash register.
The nonprofit Ohio Pet Placement Foundation runs Animal House.
The burglary occurred at 2:40 a.m. Saturday, director Crystal Luli said.
The man shattered the window in a rear door, triggering an audible alarm, walked straight to the cash register and ripped it off the counter, she said.
He was wearing gloves, but left a hammer and screwdriver behind, she said.
He was in and out in about 30 seconds and ran into woods behind the shelter, Luli said.
The group posted video of the damage on youtube.com. Repairs will cost about $1,500, Luli said, but she hasn't been able to determine yet how much money was in the register.
The group and the owner of the building have insurance.
Anyone with information on the burglary is asked to call Lorain police, 440-204-2100.
The group fundraises with its first Painted Paws Art Show from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at Animal House, 2555 North Ridge Road East.
Dogs, cats, a rabbit and a turtle, assisted by Lorain High School students, created artworks by walking through paint globs on paper.
See some of the paintings at ohiopetplacement.org/gallery.html. Tickets are $15 each or $25 for a couple and include hors d'oeuvres, beer and wine; call 440-277-7400.
Although most storekeepers managed shoppers with few problems, several cases of retail-related violence cropped up. How can Black Friday be made safer for all who participate?
Incidents of retail-store violence on Black Friday served as a reminder to shoppers and storekeepers alike: With bigger crowds comes the need for more precautions.
Skip to next paragraph
In Los Angeles, a woman used pepper spray to gain a "competitive shopping" advantage at a Walmart, inflicting minor injuries on 20 people soon after the store opened on Thanksgiving night. No one was able to catch her before she apparently made her purchases and left the store. Police are reviewing video surveillance to help in trying to identify her, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In San Leandro, Calif., a Walmart shopper was shot and wounded in a suspected robbery early Friday, while walking to his car.
Although most retailers managed the Black Friday bargain hunters with few problems, similar cases of retail-related violence cropped up in other states as well.
Early Friday in Fayetteville, N.C., gunfire erupted at Cross Creek Mall, and police say they're looking for two suspects. At an upstate New York Walmart, two women were injured and a man charged after a fight broke out, police say. A central Florida man is behind bars after a fight broke out at a jewelry counter in a Walmart in Kissimmee, Fla.
All that occurred while millions of other Americans had yet to eat their morning bagel or bowl of cereal on the day after Thanksgiving.
Is this any way to run a holiday shopping season?
The violence is grist for those who argue that Black Friday has become too big a commercial ritual for America's good. As shoppers elbow for cut-rate goods and retailers vie for their business, the holiday season certainly seems to have lost some of its peace.
But with Black Friday now entrenched as an annual tradition, the violent incidents may serve mainly to amplify a longstanding practical question: How can this day of shopping frenzy be made safer for all who participate?
In recent years, retailers have adopted new crowd-management techniques (to avoid injuries or deaths from trampling). They've also heightened security on? the big shopping day.
It's part of a broader safety and security challenge for retailers. Overall rates of shoplifting, theft by employees, and other crime or fraud at stores cost retailers $37.1 billion in 2010, up from $33.5 billion the year before, the National Retail Federation reported earlier this year.
The incidents of Black Friday violence might prompt some pragmatic thoughts for ordinary shoppers as well as for retailers.
First, remember that the reports of pepper spray and shootings are the retail-store exception, not the rule.
But second, some consumer advisers say, the threats to safety might be one of many reasons to be cautious about shopping on Black Friday.
A blog post on the website Fashionista recently warned, "Black Friday is ... a bad time for people to keep their tempers in check," and it may not offer such great bargains, anyway. The blog allows that some people do well at finding deals (and even enjoy the competitive crush), but many other shoppers buy more than they need, buy the wrong things, or are too late to get the bargains they hope for.
Lots of Americans might do as well shopping by computer, going to the mall some other day in the next couple of weeks, or working harder at finding bargains throughout the year.
? Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
RABAT, Morocco?? Moroccans voted for a new parliament Friday in Arab Spring-inspired elections that are facing a boycott by democracy campaigners who say the ruling monarchy isn't committed to real change.
A moderate Islamist party and a pro-palace coalition led by the finance minister are competing for the top spot, but a key test for the authorities' legitimacy will be how many voters cast ballots.
The king amended the constitution over the summer giving the prime minister new powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament and make certain appointments, in response to pro-democracy protests. But the ultimate authority remains with the king.
The election result will be closely watched by Morocco's U.S. and other Western allies, as well as European tourists who cherish its beaches and resorts, to see how this North African kingdom navigates its own Arab Spring.
In the affluent Agdal neighborhood of Rabat, a steady stream of professionals lined up early in the morning at a polling station to vote before work.
"I've always voted, but this time it is more important," said Dr. Mohammed Ennabli. "Before it was the king who chose, now it is the people who choose."
Many people, however, scorned a process they say has been going on for decades without any tangible effect on their lives.
"I won't vote, the promises are never kept ? with or without the new constitution, it is the same," said Abdallah Cherachaoui, an unemployed 45 year old in the lower income district of Akkari. "They are laughing at us."
In the working class city of Sale, across the river from the capital Rabat, there was a steady trickle of voters to the school acting as a polling station, but some stayed outside.
"I voted in 2007 because the candidate was a member of my family, but he also disappointed me and as soon as the elections were over, I never saw him again, so I'm not making that mistake again," said Brahim Errami, 25, from his seat in a nearby cafe. "I pity the people going in and out of that school."
Morocco's reputation as a stable kingdom in North Africa has taken a hit with this year's protests over government corruption and heavy handed security forces. And its once-steady economy is creaking from the amount of money the government has pumped into raising salaries and subsidies to keep people calm amid the Arab world turmoil.
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The election campaign has been strangely subdued, unlike the lively politicking in nearby Tunisia when it held the first elections prompted by the Arab uprisings last month.
Morocco with its many political parties and regular elections under the tight control of an all-powerful monarch was once the bright star in a region of dictatorships.
But all that has changed with the Arab uprisings that toppled dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Now a political system that holds elections but leaves all powers in the hands of a hereditary king does not look so liberal.
Some 31 political parties are fielding 5,392 candidates to compete for 395 seats in parliament, including 60 set aside for women and 30 for "youth," under 40.
A complex proportional system of representation means no party is likely to take more than 20 percent of the seats.
Under the new constitution, the king asks the party with the most seats to form the government, which could well be the Islamist Justice and Development party, known by its French initials PJD. But there's uncertainty over whether it can truly change anything in the face of the palace's power.
The Islamists' biggest rival for the top spot is Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar's Rally of Independents, which leads an alliance of seven other pro-palace parties.
"This is a very important election for the Moroccan people and it confirms the choice made for an open process of democratization that is being consolidated by this election," he told The Associated Press after voting. "This is really a moment of great emotion."
Like elsewhere in the Arab world, Moroccans hit the streets in the first half of 2011 calling for more democracy, and King Mohammed VI responded by amending the constitution and bringing forward elections.
But since then the sense of change has dissipated, and while the king remains a respected figure, few have much confidence in parliament or the politicians in it.
"I voted because we need to elect a new parliament, but I voted blank for the simple reason that there is no one I can trust from the people that are being elected," said Chamseddin Baba, the manager of an IT company who voted in the wealthy suburb of Souissi. "I would like to vote for the best, but the best are not there."
The 2007 elections, the first with widespread international observation, had just 37 percent turnout, and some fear it could be even lower this time around.
Now, however, the number of registered voters has dropped from 15 million to 13.5 million, despite population increases, so turnout will almost certainly be higher.
There will be 3,200 election observers, though they will likely only cover a fraction of the 40,000 polling stations scattered across the country.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BEIRUT ? Syria missed an Arab League deadline Friday to allow hundreds of observers into the country, prompting the bloc to consider economic sanctions against Damascus for its eight-month crackdown on dissent, a senior diplomat said.
The Arab League had given Syria 24 hours to agree to the observer mission, a humiliating blow to a nation that was a founding member of the Arab coalition.
But the Friday afternoon deadline passed with no word from Damascus, said Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Heli. Now, the bloc will meet Saturday to decide on sanctions that could include a freeze on financial dealings and assets.
Syria is the scene of the deadliest crackdown against the Arab Spring's eruption of protests, with the U.N. reporting more than 3,500 people killed in eight months. International pressure has been mounting on President Bashar Assad to stop the bloodshed.
Also Friday, a U.N. human rights panel expressed alarm at reports it received of security forces in Syria torturing children. The Geneva-based Committee against Torture says it has received "numerous, consistent and substantiated reports" of widespread abuse in the country.
Former ally Turkey ? now a leading critic of Assad's regime ? said allowing the observers would be a "test of goodwill" for Syria.
"Today is a historic decision day for Syria," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a joint news conference with Italy's new Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi Friday in Istanbul. "It must open its doors to observers."
Syria's state-run SANA news agency, however, dismissed the ultimatum, declaring Friday that the Arab League had become a "tool for foreign interference" and that it was serving a Western agenda to stir up trouble in the region.
Violence continued Friday, as activists urged protesters to flood the streets to support army defectors who have sided with the opposition.
Syrian security forces fired outside mosques in Daraa province ? apparently to prevent demonstrations by people leaving mosques after Friday afternoon prayers, activists said. Demonstrations were reported in Idlib province, which borders Turkey.
Some countries are exploring the possibility of stronger steps to force Assad's hand, with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe calling for EU-backed humanitarian corridors to allow aid groups a way in.
Juppe called the situation in Syria "no longer tenable" and accused Assad's regime of "repression of a savagery we have not seen in a long time."
He told France-Inter radio he was in contact with partners in the United Nations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Arab League about the possibility of setting up the humanitarian corridors.
Juppe suggested that aid groups like the Red Cross could use the corridors to bring medical supplies to cities like Homs.
France, Syria's one-time colonial ruler, was the first country to formally recognize Libya's opposition in an early stage of Moammar Gadhafi's crackdown on protests. France played a prominent role in the NATO-led campaign of airstrikes against Gadhafi's forces.
But while the European Union said protecting civilians caught up in Syria's crackdown on anti-government protests "is an increasingly urgent and important aspect" of responding to the bloodshed there, it fell short of endorsing Julle's corridor.
Other countries have taken an unambiguous stance against intervention.
Last month, Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the bloodshed in Syria. They have argued that NATO misused a previous U.N. measure authorizing the use of force to protect civilians in Libya to justify months of air strikes and to promote regime change.
They expressed fears that any new resolution against Syria might be used as a pretext for a similar armed intervention.
___
Associated Press writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
BAGHDAD, (AP) ? Iraqi officials say seven people have been killed in two blasts in central Iraq.
Police officials said two bombs were planted early Saturday in a spot where day laborers gather in the mostly Sunni village of al-Zaidan, near the town of Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad.
The officials say the bombs, which exploded minutes apart, wounded 11 other laborers.
A health official at Abu Ghraib general hospital confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release the information.
Violence has ebbed across Iraq, but deadly bombings and shootings still occur almost daily as U.S. troops prepare to leave by the end of the year.
BERLIN (Reuters) ? France and Germany are planning a quick new pact on budget discipline that might persuade the European Central Bank to ramp up its government bond purchases, Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday.
Echoing a Reuters report on Friday from Brussels, the Sunday newspaper said the French and German leaders were prepared to back a deal with other euro countries that might induce the ECB to intervene more forcefully to calm the euro debt crisis.
The newspaper report quoted German government sources as saying that the crisis fighting plan could possibly be announced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the coming week.
In an advance release before publication, Welt am Sonntag said that because it would take too long to change existing European Union treaties, euro zone countries should just agree among themselves on a new Stability Pact to enforce budget discipline - possibly implemented at the start of 2012.
It could be similar to the Schengen Agreement which applies to EU countries that choose to take part and enables their citizens to enjoy uninhibited cross border travel. Among the countries in the Stability Pact, there would be a treaty spelling out strict deficit rules and control rights for national budgets.
The European Central Bank should also emerge more as a crisis fighter in the euro zone, Welt am Sonntag wrote, saying that while governments cannot tell the independent ECB what to do, the expectations are clear.
"Based upon these measures, there should be a majority within the ECB for a stronger intervention in capital markets," Welt am Sonntag said. It quotes a central banker as saying: "If the politicians can agree to a comprehensive step, the ECB will jump in and help."
The ECB, which cannot directly finance governments, has been buying Italian and Spanish bonds on the open market since August to try to keep down borrowing costs for the euro zone's third and fourth largest economies.
Yields on Italian and Spanish debt have nonetheless climbed in recent weeks, despite the ECB intervention and the appointment of a new technocrat government in Rome and the election of the conservative Popular Party in Madrid.
In Brussels on Friday, euro zone officials said a push by euro zone countries toward very close fiscal integration could give the ECB the necessary room for maneuver to scale up euro zone bond purchases and stabilize markets.
France's Journal du Dimanche newspaper said reforms to Europe's economic governance would be the focus of a speech which Sarkozy will deliver in the Mediterranean port of Toulon on Thursday.
"The European Commission could take on supra-national powers," said one French presidency source, according to the newspaper, saying that Brussels would supervise the decisions of countries at risk of default, provided they request this.
"National parliaments will retain the initiative over the (policy) efforts to be made," one French negotiator told the paper.
The European Commission, the EU executive arm, put forward proposals on Wednesday to grant it intrusive powers of approval of euro zone budgets before they are submitted to national parliaments, which, if approved, would effectively mean ceding some national sovereignty over budgets.
Berlin, meanwhile, is pushing to change the European Union treaty so that a country could be sued for breach of EU budget rules in the European Court of Justice.
Le Figaro said there was resistance within Sarkozy's government to allowing France's budgets to be submitted for scrutiny by an "intergovernmental conference" in Brussels, but the president would seek to rally support for this.
A closer fiscal union could eventually pave the way for joint debt issuance for the euro zone, where countries would be liable for each others' debts.
Germany strongly opposes the joint issuance idea fearing spendthrift countries would piggyback on its low borrowing costs - meaning no gain for the virtuous and no pain for the sinners.
(Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Daniel Flynn in Paris; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Elizabeth Piper/Ruth Pitchford)
This article is written by James Jung , founder of Korea-based technology blog Onsuccess.me, where you can find?insights into Korean startup ecosystem and tech space.
Apple, on November 2, opened a game category window on its Korean App-store, thanks to which Korean users no longer need foreign account access to download games using Apple?s App-store. With this step, Apple has opened up the previously inaccessible world of some 60,000 mobile gaming apps for its Korean users to enjoy.
The release of a game-category has long been a wish for Apple users in Korea, ever since the iPhone?s release some 2 years ago. During that period, global companies such as Google and Apple have refrained from opening a gaming category on their Korean services in accordance with the so-called system of advanced caution regarding gaming regulations.
In the future, businesses which provide gaming services on the App-store will need to match the standard criteria for games in order to have their creations approved for use. After businesses which provide gaming services actually bring out a game, they have one month within which to register it with the Game Rating Board. It seems as if the advanced caution regarding gaming regulations, according to which system the companies operated before, has been changed to a system of expost facto consideration.
In its direct provision of games to domestic users, the new gaming category is set to really put the cat among the pigeons in the Korean mobile gaming market.
No sooner had the domestic App-store game category been released than Gamevil came out with mobile versions of a total of 30 games including ?Pro Baseball Series,? ?Zenonia Series,? ?Super Soccer Series,? all registered in Apple?s App-store game-category under the Gamevil tab.
The opening of the gaming category ushers in a new era of cutthroat competition. While it does the lower the barriers for domestic market entry of foreign-made games, it only highlights the lowering of domestic gaming standards. However, the predominant view is that for those domestic gaming businesses which have already made some preparations through, for example, rolling out online versions and services, and so shown a mindset appropriate for the global market, there should be little likelihood of yielding in any way, shape or form their competitive market domination.
One business expert was reported as saying that ?this opens one more arena in which gamers can compete around the world, and is a big change for the domestic Korean gaming businesses in their securing of a new distribution channel for the highly loyal Korean domestic market. The increased competition will more than anything sort out which games offer high quality content, and rather than being something which should be feared, in fact is a highly significant development.?
President Barack Obama visits Kramerbooks for shopping with his daughters Sasha, and Malia, right, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama visits Kramerbooks for shopping with his daughters Sasha, and Malia, right, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
LAGOS, Nigeria ? The lawyer of a popular Nigerian comedian who was held as a drug suspect for weeks says a court has ordered the drug agency to pay him $165,000.
Bamidele Aturu said Thursday that a Lagos court has ordered Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to pay the comedian known as Baba Suwe damages for "violating (his) personal liberty."
He said the court also told the agency to publish a public apology in two national newspapers.
Investigators held the actor, whose real name is Babatunde Omidina, for more than three weeks after his Oct. 12 arrest at Nigeria's busiest airport. They accused him of swallowing narcotics before boarding a flight to Paris, but found no drugs.
The popular 53-year-old comedian often plays a befuddled butler or security guard for comic relief in Nigeria's Nollywood movies.
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp is set for a tense boardroom showdown on Friday when its former chief executive confronts the men who sacked him a month ago with his own call for their resignations over a huge accounting scandal.
Michael Woodford, still an Olympus director despite being fired as CEO and blowing the whistle over the scandal, plans to attend the firm's scheduled board meeting in Tokyo, his first return to the boardroom since it unanimously dumped him on October 14.
Backed by some big shareholders, he says he is willing to reclaim the top job and clean up the once-proud maker of cameras and endoscopes.
"I want to take the opportunity to look the directors in the eye and tell them what I think is best for the company," Woodford told reporters on the eve of the meeting, having flown back to Japan from a month of self-exile in his native Britain.
Woodford, who says he was sacked for questioning a string of unusual payments to obscure firms, had fled Japan immediately after his dismissal, citing fears for his safety amid speculation the scandal could somehow involve organized crime.
But this week he returned to the eye of the storm, flying back to meet police, prosecutors and regulators investigating the scandal, which has wiped out more than half of Olympus's market value and raised the prospect that it could be delisted from the Tokyo stock market and forced to sell core businesses.
Olympus initially denied any wrongdoing after sacking Woodford, a rare foreign CEO in Japan, but later admitted it had hidden investment losses from investors for two decades and used some of $1.3 billion in M&A payments to aid the cover-up.
Late on Thursday, three directors blamed for the concealment quit their directorships, including former President and Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, which promised to ease at least some of the worst boardroom tension Woodford could face on Friday.
But the CEO-turned-whistleblower still wants the rest of the board to go, including the new president, Shuichi Takayama, who has said that the current management team is ready to quit only once "the path to Olympus's revival became clear."
Some major foreign shareholders have called for Woodford to be immediately reinstated as CEO, but the 51-year-old himself says he does not believe that will happen at Friday's meeting.
"I just hope they understand the game is up and do the decent thing, stop damaging the company. Don't look for self-interest, look for the 45,000 people (who work for Olympus)," Woodford told reporters on Thursday.
"Have some shame, have some dignity, that's what I want to tell them."
Olympus has until December 14 to straighten out its accounts and report its half-year results to the stock market. If it misses that deadline, it will be automatically delisted.
(Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
Very few shoppers set a strict holiday budget, according to a new survey.
By Allison Linn
Given the state of the economy, it comes as no surprise that many Americans are worried about how they?ll be able to pay for all their holiday expenses.
The trouble is, most of us don?t seem to be doing much to plan for it.
A new survey from the National Endowment for Financial Education finds that just 31 percent of consumers plan to set a budget this holiday season. That?s only slightly more than last year, when 27 percent said they were making a budget.
The vast majority said they weren?t going to set a holiday spending budget. Still, only 10 percent said they often spend more than they want to. That?s about the same as last year.
The wealthier the household, the less likely they were to set a budget.
Half of the people NEFE surveyed said they were more worried about being able to afford holiday expenses than they were five years ago. Nearly 4 in 10 are just as concerned about holiday spending as they were five years ago.
Harris Interactive conducted the survey of about 2,800 adults earlier this month on NEFE?s behalf.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? India could decide this week to throw open its supermarket sector to foreign firms such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, clearing one of the most hotly anticipated economic reforms of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure.
Policymakers have for years talked about opening multi-brand retail sector to foreign direct investors, a policy aimed at attracting foreign capital, unclogging supply bottlenecks and helping tackle stubbornly high inflation.
But the move has snagged on protests by opposition parties and many domestic retailers, who say an influx of foreign players will drive down prices and cause huge job losses. Some voices within the ruling Congress party have opposed the reform.
India, with its growing $1.6 trillion economy, is seen as one of the last frontiers for a massive and modern supermarket sector aimed at hundreds of millions of middle class consumers who still shop in neighbourhood mom-and-pop stores.
The cabinet will discuss opening the sector to a foreign investment cap of 51 percent on Thursday, although it may not take a final decision.
"The policy on FDI in retail is on the cabinet agenda," Neelam Kapur, spokeswoman for the government, told Reuters on Wednesday.
India currently allows 51 percent foreign investment in single-brand retailers and 100 percent for wholesale operations,
a policy that the world's top retailer Wal-Mart and Carrefour among others have lobbied to free up further.
A group of senior civil servants approved the proposal to open the multi-brand sector to foreign players in July, although it recommended strict local sourcing requirements and minimum investment levels.
Singh's government, already reeling from corruption scandals and anger over high prices, could face huge resistance if the policy is implemented, possibly denting its prospects in major state elections next year.
HUGE PROTESTS
Even India's own biggest listed company, Reliance Industries, was forced to backtrack on plans in 2007 to open Western-style supermarkets in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, after huge protests from small traders and political parties.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has vowed to oppose opening the sector, and domestic traders have taken to the streets this week amid talk the reform could be imminent. Small shop owners account for more than 90 percent of India's $450 billion retail sector.
Even some lawmakers within the ruling Congress party, which won back-to-back elections touting its pro-poor, centre-left credentials, have resisted the change.
Sonia Gandhi, Congress party head and India's most powerful politician who has run the government from behind the scenes since her 2004 election victory, has publicly voiced concerns about the impact on small traders.
"The Congress party will officially support the government decision on multi-brand retail," a senior Congress leader, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "Though there are some apprehensions on its impact on the traders," the source added.
One big concern would be on the state election next year in Uttar Pradesh being fought by family scion Rahul Gandhi and seen as a key test for Congress where a good performance would provide a platform for the 2014 general election.
Some analysts were sceptical that the government - which has a track record of backtracking on reforms - would make such a bold reform so close to these elections.
"It will be an act of great courage by Manmohan Singh to push it through," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli. "I don't think Congress has the guts to go through with it."
Wholesale inflation in India has remained stubbornly high for more than a year and is now close to 10 percent despite 13 interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since March last year.
As much as 40 percent of India's fruit and vegetable production is wasted because of poor networks and a lack of cold storage facilities, with much product still sold on flat-bottomed carts by smallholders even in the centre of cities.
(Additional reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and David Cowell)
Recyclebank founder Ron Gonen. Photo via Businessweek.
Recyclebank enables users to earn points for everyday, pro-green actions, redeem their points for environmentally savvy awards, and learn about ways to save money and live green.
In addition to common-sense strategies like home recycling, pledges to turn off the tap, and initiatives to switch from bottled waters to at-home filters, Recyclebank brings brands and consumers together to take on green-living. Take, for instance, Kashi?s goal to get consumers to recycle used cereal boxes. Purchase a box of cereal with ?Recycle for Rewards? listed on the side panel, and when it?s time to get rid of the box, enter the Recyclebank code (printed on the inside of the box) online and then recycle. The page for the challenges keeps users up to date on progress ? so far, 50,326 boxes have been recycled, resulting in 7,550 fewer pounds of waste in landfills.
Other participating brands include Aveeno, Ziploc, the Gconomy Visa Card, Kids Konserve, QTips, Suave, G&E, Barnes and Noble nook, and many more. Each brand or organization, has a creative way to promote environmental responsibility.
Recyclebank provides ample incentives ? coupons for Earth friendly products, discounts at grocery stores and stores like KMart, Dick?s, Sears, Macy?s, and even gift cards to places like Best Buy, iTunes, Panera, and The Home Depot.
Recyclebank also provides a list of top points earners, articles about green living, and practical advice and services such as home recycling and suggestions for Thanksgiving cooking. There?s even a Green Schools Program, which helps schools raise money for green educational programs in exchange for points. With 3 million users worldwide and growing, Recyclebank offers a socially responsible opportunity for brands to connect with consumers and work together for a cause.
Spin, spin, spin, little silkworm. These chubby grubs take in thousands of times their weight in plants - mulberry leaves are a favourite meal - and churn out strands of fine silk that feed a billion-dollar industry.
They are only a few centimetres long, but silkworms can produce a thread of silk up to 900 metres long for their cocoons. In this picture, the silk worm is lit from below with blue and red lights to show off the thread of silk it is spinning.
"Silk produced by spiders and silk moths demonstrates combinations of strength and toughness that still outperform their synthetic counterparts," says Chris Holland of the University of Oxford.
Not only do silkworms produce stronger fibres than synthetic methods, they do it more efficiently. The Bombyx mori is a Chinese silkworm that produces its fine strands at room temperature with only water as a by-product. In contrast, human production of oil-based fibres requires high-temperature manufacturing and creates harmful waste.
(Image: 2011 OSG)
Silk experts at the University of Oxford worked with researchers at the University of Sheffield to compare the energy used in the formation of natural versus synthetic fibres, which they hope will allow them to find short cuts to smoother silk production.
"This is about being inspired by nature," says Oleksandr Mykhaylyk of the University of Oxford. The researchers say that spinning fibres the way silkworms do could reduce the costs of fibre manufacturing by 90 per cent.
It's too bad that Jennifer and Marc, Ashton and Demi or Kim and Kris couldn't follow the example of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy!
Hotter than ever, Kermit and Piggy (whose exact ages have never been disclosed) have stayed together longer than most Hollywood couples by far.
PHOTOS: Couples who couldn't make it work
In honor of the brand-new Muppets film, in theaters Wednesday and costarring Jason Segal and Amy Adams, the beloved duo sat down with Us Weekly for a chat about maintaining a high-profile romance -- and reality TV, too!
Us Weekly: What's the secret to a long term Hollywood relationship?
KERMIT: A Hollywood relationship is like any other relationship: You have to trust each other. MISS PIGGY: True, except in Hollywood, your publicists, managers, agents and hangers-on also have to trust each other.
PHOTOS: Biggest movies of the season -- which have you seen?
KERMIT: I don't have publicists, managers, agents and hangers-on. MISS PIGGY: Which is why it's so easy for us to get along. KERMIT: It also helps that we're different species.
MISS PIGGY: Woman and man? KERMIT: Pig and frog.
MISS PIGGY: Same thing.
PHOTOS: Biggest reality star ever?
Us: If you both had a reality show, what would it be called?
KERMIT: For me, The Real Houseflies of Hollywood.
MISS PIGGY: I haven't really thought of a name.
KERMIT: How about Extreme Makeover: Ham Edition?
MISS PIGGY: You're cancelled, frog!
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According to a new market research report ?Global Sensor Market for Automotive Applications (2011 ? 2016)? published by MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com), the total automotive sensor market is expected to reach $20.7 billion by 2016 at a CAGR of 7.4% and the volume of e-waste generated is expected to reach 4513 million units in 2016 from 2667 million units in 2011 at a CAGR of 11.1%.
Browse 84 tables and in-depth TOC on Global Sensor Market for Automotive Applications (2011 ? 2016). http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automotive-sensors-market-426.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports.
In modern automobiles, numerous types of sensors fulfill many important tasks ranging from engine performance and passenger safety to comfort and vehicle dynamic behavior. The need for sensors is continuously growing. Earlier, sensors were analog devices that had very few applications in automobiles; but today?s sensors mainly utilize digital technology; which means better in efficiency and sensing performance. For example, on an average, in engine control applications, the number of sensors used has increased from approximately ten in 1995 to more than thirty in 2010. Future of automotive sensor is highly dependent on sensor technologies such as MEMS sensor, wireless sensor, radar, and many more; out of which MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems sensors) is the most promising sensor technology. It is about to rule the automotive sensor world.
The revenue for the automotive sensor market is expected to grow from $14.5 billion in 2011 to $20.70 billion by 2016 at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2011 to 2016. The volume of sensors used for automotive applications is currently estimated to be 2667 million and is expected to rise up to 4513 million units at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2011 to 2016.
The automotive sensor market is triggered due to a lot of factors. For automotive sensor market, worldwide vehicle production, technology developments, customer taste and government mandates are acting as a driver; whereas pricing issues, high expectations from automotive OEMs, and no availability of aftermarket are acting as restraints. The increasing demand of Advance driver assistance systems (ADAS) and hybrid and electric vehicle are the future opportunities for automotive sensors.
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ALMATY (Reuters) ? Three astronauts inside a Russian Soyuz capsule parachuted safely back to Earth Tuesday after nearly six months on the International Space Station (ISS), the first landing since NASA retired its space shuttles this summer.
U.S. astronaut Mike Fossum, Japan's Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov landed at 0226 GMT, shortly before sunrise on the snowbound steppe of central Kazakhstan, NASA TV showed.
"The landing was great. Everything's good," said Volkov, flashing a thumbs-up signal after he was extracted from a Soyuz TMA-02 capsule blackened by the extreme temperatures on re-entry to the atmosphere.
The closure of NASA's shuttle program means Russian spaceships are the only way to ferry goods and crews to and from the $100-billion ISS, which is shared by 16 nations, until commercial firms develop the ability to transport crews.
Russia hopes the textbook landing will help to restore confidence in its space program after the August crash of an unmanned Russian cargo flight suspended manned space missions.
The returning crew have been replaced in orbit by NASA's Daniel Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, whose successful launch last week allayed fears that the station would be left empty for the first time in a decade.
But the troubles have left the space station with half the usual handover time. The new crew had only six days with the outgoing astronauts to get up to speed on the quirks of life in space and the station's operations.
NASA said the Soyuz capsule had landed on its side, not unusual in windy conditions, about 90 km (55 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk. Temperatures at the landing site were 15 degrees Celsius below zero.
The three-man crew had spent 167 days in space and their return to Earth took about three-and-a-half hours.
Volkov, huddled in a thermal blanket, is a second-generation cosmonaut and was following in the footsteps of his father, NASA said. It called him: "a rising star in the cosmonaut corps."
Fossum, second to emerge from the capsule, called his loved ones by satellite phone from the landing site. Furukawa, a 47-year-old professional surgeon, was last to emerge. An assistant mopped sweat from his brow.
After initial medical checks in an inflatable tent on site, the returning crew will be taken be helicopter to the city of Kostanai in northern Kazakhstan.
The ISS will regain full, six-person occupancy with the late December launch of U.S. astronauts Don Pettit, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency.
(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
I've spent what seems like months obsessing over every little bit of Galaxy Nexus minutiae that's crossed the wire, and what better to celebrate its (hopefully) impending launch than to watch one get torn apart? That's right folks -- iFixit is at it yet again, and this time it's the ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uU7h4mFxsV2CjsCjb1WlT_1kUqkLA3gNN_yy-AqL-sewbNn0VJz2uO8rGp3dDguAG7hI8l3JrUloIZO7t2NQzLUsDeJDjPJuZJDRvAAlo=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Nov-2011
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The opening of the gaming category ushers in a new era of cutthroat competition. While it does the lower the barriers for domestic market entry of foreign-made games, it only highlights the lowering of domestic gaming standards. However, the predominant view is that for those domestic gaming businesses which have already made some preparations through, for example, rolling out online versions and services, and so shown a mindset appropriate for the global market, there should be little likelihood of yielding in any way, shape or form their competitive market domination.
(Image: 2011 OSG)
(Image: 2011 OSG)
