Twitter users fearful of threats over social media

Twitter recently announced changes in its safety policies in the United Kingdom following a multitude of violent tweets aimed at a member of the British Parliament. Twitter users in the United States are also not immune to threatening tweets. MSNBC contributor Goldie Taylor described her experience with Twitter after she received death threats over the social media site.

First amendment rights, Taylor explains, ?don?t protect violent threats; they don?t give you safe harbor for threatening to kill someone, threatening to rape someone?certainly not on a private company?s platform.?

?Twitter is not a bullhorn on the sidewalk.?

The threats were not from a typical troll that could simply be blocked. In fact, they were particularly ominous. As Taylor explained on Weekends with Alex Witt, one Twitter user posted ?what he believed was my office address. He then posted later that he would send two after me. Two were on the way, which is a double-tap to the forehead.?

As a result of the series of tweets which were ?clearly a violation of their terms of service,? Taylor decided to take a proactive approach and alert Twitter. ?Over the course of the next four to five days absolutely nothing happened.?

The threats did not stop. Taylor said, ?He continued to make threats over the next several days until a critical mass of us began tweeting Twitter directly and tweeting to their head of security. Within the next 24 hours after that the account was suspended.?

One of Taylor?s followers was able to identify the individual who sent the threatening tweets. Immediately after the revelation, Taylor said the Twitter user attempted to wipe out and modify his online identity. Taylor highlights, however, that ?one, digital footprints are forever, and two, we?ve turned this over to the Dallas field office of the FBI because clearly these are very violent threats that we have to take seriously.?

Source: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/10/twitter-users-fearful-of-threats-over-social-media/

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Ackman pushes for new chairman at J.C. Penney

By Martinne Geller

(Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc's largest shareholder, Bill Ackman, on Friday urged the company's board to replace its chairman, Thomas Engibous, sharpening a public dispute with fellow directors and drawing a sharp rebuke from the company.

The news came a day after Ackman pushed to more quickly replace Chief Executive Myron Ullman, who was brought back in April to stem sales declines blamed on Ron Johnson, Ackman's pick to turn around the struggling century-old department store chain.

"I have lost confidence in our chairman's ability to oversee this board," Ackman said in an open three-page letter.

Penney shares fell 5 percent to $12.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The pressure comes at a bad time for Penney, which is preparing for the year-end holidays, the biggest selling season of the year.

In an earlier letter, made public on Thursday, the billionaire hedge fund manager behind Pershing Square Capital Management expressed frustration at the slow pace of the CEO search and pushed the company to name one in 30 to 45 days.

He also said that Allen Questrom, a former Penney CEO, would return as chairman if a CEO he liked was chosen. In an interview on Thursday on CNBC, Questrom said there were only a few people he thinks would be qualified for the CEO job.

In Friday's letter, Ackman said the board "has ceased to function effectively." It is not getting material information and does not have access to independent advice, he added.

He also said the board was not being consulted on material personnel decisions, noting that he had learned of the hiring of Debra Berman as senior vice president of marketing from a press release.

J.C. Penney fired back, calling Ackman's statements "misleading, inaccurate and counterproductive."

"The board ... is following proper governance procedures, and members of the board have been fully informed and are making decisions as a group. This includes the CEO search process, which is being conducted at an appropriate pace," said Engibous, the current chairman, in a statement.

"The board also continues to actively oversee management as it conducts the important work underway to rebuild the company," he added.

Engibous became chairman in January 2012. He was named to the board in 1999. He is the retired chairman of Texas Instruments and served as its CEO from 1996 through 2004.

Ackman also raised concerns about Penney's marketing, budgeting and disclosure of directors' activities outside the board, which he said might color their thinking.

Later on Friday, Perry Corp, which owns about 7.3 percent of Penney shares, expressed support for Ackman's strategy and urged the company to immediately seek to name Questrom as chairman and Ken Hicks as chief executive.

Hicks has been the chief executive at Foot Locker since 2009. He has served as the president and chief merchandising officer of Penney in the past.

Pershing Square owned nearly 18 percent of J.C. Penney as of March 31.

"The board shouldn't feel that they've got to act with a gun to their head in picking the CEO of a big business in a time of crisis. They've got to be able to take the time to make an informed decision," said Michael Peregrine, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery who focuses on corporate governance issues.

Penney's credit default swaps also widened on Friday, in a sign that the market believes the chance of a default has increased.

(Additional reporting by Dhanya Skariachan and Madeline Will in New York and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Chris Reese)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ackman-pushes-chairman-j-c-penney-145630054.html

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Back to Bedlam: Crossrail digging unearths ancient London burial ground

An archaeologist unearths a human skull at the Crossrail building site at London's Liverpool Street station. Photograph: Martin Godwin

Every day hordes of London commuters have passed unknowingly over the bodies of thousands of their predecessors, buried a few metres under the roaring traffic and rumbling trains at Liverpool Street, and which are now being exposed for the first time by the huge Crossrail construction project.

The bodies include those of mentally ill patients from Bethlem, the ancient and notorious asylum from which the word Bedlam entered the English language. Bodies that were never claimed by their families ? often those of beaten, starved and exploited inmates ? would have ended up in the burial ground alongside rich and poor, old and young, victims of plague and war, from across London.

Jay Carver, lead archaeologist on the Crossrail sites ? the largest archaeology project in the UK on the largest infrastructure project in Europe ? described the site as exceptionally interesting. "Because of its history, we know that this is one of the most diverse burial grounds in London, a real cross section of its people across two centuries. Bone preservation is excellent in the finds we have already made, and we are expecting many important discoveries when we get into the main phase of the excavation."

The trial trenches have already yielded the first treasure from the 40 archaeology sites along the route of Crossrail's tunnelling: a thumbnail-sized golden coin from Venice, pierced so it could be stitched on as expensive decoration on some costly garment ? and likely a bad loss when the thread broke and it fell into the gutter some 400 years ago.

The archaeologists have also found a stretch of a superbly engineered Roman road that probably led to a bridge across the river Walbrook. Builders laid logs and brushwood on the boggy ground before building it up in layers, finishing with gravel and rammed clay still so solid and sound it looks modern. Embedded in the road surface was a human bone, possibly washed out of earlier burials nearby, and another loss that must have caused some cursing: a horse shoe. More Roman finds are confidently expected.

The walled, two-acre burial ground was opened in the mid-17th century by order of the mayor of London. It was the first built away from the city's parish churches and their bursting, grossly overfilled graveyards and was usually known as Bedlam because it was on land formerly occupied by the mental hospital, which had recently moved to Moorfields. It would move again to the present site of the Imperial War Museum, and finally to Bromley in Kent, where it survives today as the Bethlem Royal hospital.

From the start, because it had a preaching pulpit but no church, it was associated with dissenters ? as Bunhill Fields later became. Carver hopes to find evidence of two particularly interesting characters known to have been buried there: 'Freeborn John' ? John Lilburne ? a radical campaigner and pamphleteer for the rights of the common man who greatly influenced the Levellers, was imprisoned in the Tower of London, exiled twice and eventually died while on parole from his final jail term.

John Lockyer, a soldier in Cromwell's New Model Army who was executed for his involvement in the Bishopsgate Mutiny ? when the army defied orders to leave London ? was also buried there after a funeral that terrified the authorities, attended by thousands of mourners wearing the Levellers' green ribbons.

The victims of several outbreaks of plague were also buried there; as it filled, there were appeals for more top soil to keep the bodies decently covered, and by the time it closed in 1714 it held a 2m layer solid with corpses. Because the bodies came from all over London, those buried there are unusually diverse socially. This poses a problem for Carver; there are no surviving burial records for the cemetery, and instead names are scattered through thousands of records in the parishes where they lived or died. He hopes to ask the public for help in tracking them down.

Part of the cemetery was excavated in the 1980s by the Museum of London, when the Broadgate Centre was built But while towering office blocks gradually replaced the Victorian townhouses, factories and warehouses ? which in turn displaced the warren of poor Georgian buildings ? an extensive stretch of the burial ground survived under Liverpool Street itself. The busy road, following the route taken by the Romans almost 2,000 years earlier, kept the site as open ground and preserved the remains from being destroyed by pile driving and foundations.

The remains of several hundred individuals have already been found in the trial pits and the trenches dug to relocate utilities. Carver believes he will find up to 4,000 more when the main excavation starts next year.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/08/crossrail-tunnelling-unearths-burial-ground-bedlam

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House Panel Tours Texas-Mexico Border

dfw.cbslocal.com
August 7, 2013

The chairman of the House Homeland Security committee said Tuesday in South Texas that the U.S. Border Patrol?s resources in the area are ?woefully inadequate.?

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, made the comments after cruising the Rio Grande with Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety officials in Mission.

McCaul?s House bill calling for a plan to secure the border is expected to be the first of several immigration-related bills taken up after the chamber?s August recess. McCaul is also leading a group of congressman along the border, stopping this weekend in California and Arizona. Accompanying McCaul on Tuesday were U.S. Reps. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, and Leonard Lance, R-New Jersey.

Read more

This article was posted: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 at 4:42 pm

Tags: domestic news

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Source: http://www.infowars.com/house-panel-tours-texas-mexico-border/

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Most useful Effect For Pay Per Click Marketing Search ... - Fibonacci

Because it is also called you?ll find articles and a few ideas on pay per click search engine advertising or pay per click internet advertising. Cybertegic, a PPC internet search-engine advertising company, concentrate on building pay per click advertising campaign for ebusiness. Our pay-per-click web marketing follows particular techniques to ultimately achieve the most readily useful effect for PPC se web marketing campaign. So have a look at Mamma?s Online marketing alternatives, including pay-per-click advertising, visual ad community, xml search feeds and the printed search field. If you have an opinion about irony, you will probably require to check up about here?s the site. Cybertegic, a PPC internet search-engine marketing company, concentrate on building pay per click advertising for ebusiness. Our pay-per-click web marketing uses special procedures to attain the best result for PPC se web strategy. Our staff could setup your pay-per-click Internet advertising. Because it is also called you?ll find some ideas and articles o-n pay per click search motor advertising or pay per click web advertising. Learn additional resources on this related link by clicking get website. On this site, I?ll explain to you how to make money on the web using affiliate programs and ppc advertising. I tried nearly every internet profitable possibilities that you can get and my greatest find was ppc advertising. This is actually the reason why pay per click advertising earnings are greater than banner advertising ? the internet user is searching for you! Internet advertisers may choose from many different performance-based advertising options, including e-mail, banner, pay-per-click, and pop-up plans. With Pay-Per-Click Advertising an advertiser only pays when an Internet user clicks on their keyword-targeted offer and gets utilized in their internet site. This allows the Internet Marketing business of improving somewhat the number of target keywords and the opportunity of reducing pay-per-click marketing spend. Continue report Advertisement Click fraud is a problem very nearly so long as pay-per-click advertising emerged as a preferred model for Internet advertising. If people fancy to identify new info about understandable, there are lots of on-line databases people can pursue. Silicon Valley?s twin leaders of the Internet era get almost all their revenues from pay-per-click advertising. So have a look at Mamma?s Website marketing alternatives, including pay-per-click advertising, visual ad community, xml search feeds and the branded search field. http://www.advertising-internet-online.com/advertising-click-internet-pay-per/.

This entry was posted on Mercoled?, Agosto 7th, 2013 at 16:03 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.fibonacci.it/blog/?p=244372

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Number of state? s coal jobs lowest since 1927

The Middlesboro Daily News

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) ? The state says Kentucky?s coal jobs have dropped to the lowest level in the more than 85 years that the state has kept records of the number.

The Energy and Environment Cabinet says eastern Kentucky mines cut 916 jobs from April through June, while western Kentucky mines added 65 jobs, an increase of 1.5 percent. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the jobs lost in eastern Kentucky followed steep declines in 2012.

The cabinet said the number of people working at coal mines and facilities statewide dropped to 12,342 as of July, the lowest number since 1927.

The report also said eastern Kentucky coal production has dropped more than 41 percent in two years.

Source: http://middlesborodailynews.com/bookmark/23311234

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New US penalties will greet Iran's new leader

WASHINGTON (AP) ? As Iran's new president takes over, new U.S. penalties against the country appear a done deal.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, 76 senators are demanding tougher punishment on Iran's economy until the Islamic republic scales back its nuclear program. It also urges Obama to consider military options while keeping the door open to diplomacy.

The Senate letter, a copy of which was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, comes just days after the House overwhelmingly passed new restrictions on Iran's oil sector and its mining and construction industries. Senators are expected to take up the same package in September.

"Until we see a significant slowdown of Iran's nuclear activities, we believe our nation must toughen sanctions and reinforce the credibility of our option to use military force at the same time as we fully explore a diplomatic solution to our dispute with Iran," says the letter, which will be delivered Monday.

The Obama administration is concerned Congress' effort could undercut Iran's relatively moderate President-elect Hasan Rouhani, who was formally endorsed by Iran's ayatollah on Saturday and takes the oath of office Sunday. Rouhani has pledged to follow a "path of moderation" and promised greater openness over Iran's nuclear program.

Obama wants to give Rouhani a chance to prove his seriousness.

The U.S. believes Iran has been working for years to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists its program is for peaceful energy and research purposes.

Rouhani's victory signaled Iran's clear dissatisfaction, the senators said. But they noted that all final decisions on nuclear matters rest with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said Iran must not be allowed to use any new nuclear negotiations with world powers to stall for time.

"Iran today continues its large-scale installation of advanced centrifuges," their letter said. "This will soon put it in the position to be able to rapidly produce weapons-grade uranium, bringing Tehran to the brink of a nuclear weapons capability."

"We need to understand quickly whether Tehran is at last ready to negotiate seriously," it added. "Iran needs to understand that the time for diplomacy is nearing its end."

Obama prefers diplomacy. He has given Iran until sometime next spring to prove to the world that its program is peaceful.

If Iran fails to do so, the stage may be set for military intervention from the U.S. or Israel, which sees Iranian nuclear weapons capacity as an existential threat and has warned of taking action according to its own timeline.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-penalties-greet-irans-leader-145539945.html

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Nurses union rejects hospital concessions

DANBURY -- Union members at Danbury Hospital have overwhelming rejected concessions hospital officials say would have saved 25 nurses from joining the unemployment lines.

Mary Consoli, president of the Danbury Nurses Union, said 96 percent of their members in a vote Thursday rejected the concessions that included the elimination of evening and weekend shift differentials and adjusted overtime payments.

Consoli said the layoffs will have a direct impact on patient care, and she accused hospital officials of unfairly blaming the union for the layoffs.

"Any loss of nurses will affect the care our patients receive," Consoli said.

Hospital officials, however, carefully considered actions that would "have the least impact to our patients and the care they need," said spokeswoman Andrea Rynn.

All told, the two hospitals now have about 725 nurses, Consoli said.

The layoffs are part of 116 positions eliminated at the hospitals last month by the Western Connecticut Health Network. Executives said the cuts were required because of a reduction of $30 million in state budget assistance. The job eliminations would leave the network with about 4,280 employees.

"Unfortunately, the state cuts went though and they are today's reality," Rynn said. "We simply have to take steps to reduce our operating expenses. "

"In order to save 25 nursing jobs, we proposed a reasonable alternative to the nurses through pay practice changes that are comparative with other staff (in the network) and other hospitals in the region," she said.

Union officials say the hospital, which they said could have reduced executive salaries or its 3 percent profit margin, is to blame, and not the state or union officials.

"This is a budgetary decision that was totally in their hands," Consoli said. "The hospital, and not the union, controls the purse strings."

While the network reported a total profit in the past two years of $70 million, officials with the nonprofit organization said they use that money to pay down debt and purchase new equipment.

Consoli the union gave "significant" concessions several years ago when the hospital said it was in difficult financial times, including the elimination of a traditional pension for employees in favor of a defined contribution plan.

The differentials that the hospital wanted to eliminate in the current round of concessions, she said, were negotiated over several years because the night and weekends shifts were difficult to fill.

Nonunion workers, she said, will have to begin working under the new terms starting Sept. 1.

"I feel really bad for these people," Consoli said. "If they had to do cuts, why didn't they do an equal percentage from the top down. That would have been much more equitable."

Rynn said the hospital has a responsibility to manage its business to "ensure we will be here in the future for our patients."

"We are resilient and grateful to our employees who find creative ways every day to continue to provide the high quality, safe care we are known for, and that our patients have come to expect," she added.

dperrefort@newstimes.com; 203-731-3358; www.twitter.com/DirkPerrefort

Source: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Nurses-union-rejects-hospital-concessions-4704150.php

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Apple developing iPhones and tablets with bigger screens

Apple could roll out smartphones and tablets with bigger screens in a move analysts say is an attempt to catch up with a trend set by its major rival Samsung.

The Californian tech giant and its Asian suppliers are testing smartphone screens larger than four inches and tablet screens slightly less than 13 inches, the Wall Street Journal reported, without naming the suppliers.

Samsung, which has released a series of handsets and tablets with increasingly larger screens, has seen its global market share rise as consumers flock to their products putting Apple under pressure to follow suit.

The paper said it was not clear if such designs would ever make their way onto the market, but analysts said smartphones with bigger displays are increasingly popular because they meet the needs of users.

"Such designs are understandable as people tend to use their smartphones more for apps than for making calls," Kuo Ming-chi, at the Taipei-based KGI Securities Investment Advisory Co, told AFP.

Currently, the iPhone 5 has a four-inch screen, compared with Samsung's S4, an improved version of the South Korean company's popular predecessor the S3 and which boasts a five-inch screen.

Such handsets are often referred to as "phablets" because their size sits in between a phone and a tablet.

By offering multiple screen size options and handset prices, Samsung has seen its market share rise to 33.1 percent in the three months to March, while Apple was lagging with 17.9 percent, according to research by Strategy Analytics.

During the same three-month period, Samsung also witnessed its global tablet market share rise to 17.9 percent, up from 11.3 percent a year ago, while Apple's market share dived to 39.6 percent, a sharp decline from 58.1 percent the previous year, according to IDC.

While admitting Apple may still defend its argument that smartphones should be designed for one-hand use, Kuo said the continued improvement of battery and processor technologies could lead to re-thinking that policy.

"Bigger displays mean greater consumption of power. But that thinking may change with bigger batteries and improvement of chip manufacturing technologies which have made energy consumption more efficient," he said.

Kuo added Apple might also try bigger screens for its tablet products to meet the demand of users who hope to work on their devices.

"But then again, tablets with bigger screens may be too heavy to carry for some users. That is something Apple may need to find a compromise on," he said.

The current iPad has a 9.7-inch screen while iPad Mini is armed with a 7.9-inch screen.

The Journal cited officials at suppliers as saying that they had started mass producing components for the new iPhone in June, and its assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., to ship the new iPhones in late August.

Hon Hai declined to comment on the report, as did Apple.

But a person familiar with matter told AFP that the shipment of new iPhones may be slightly later than the reported schedule.

Source: http://www.timesofoman.com/News/Article-20288.aspx

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Astronomers discovery a graveyard for comets

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Astronomers have discovered a graveyard of comets. The researchers describe how some of these objects, inactive for millions of years, have returned to life leading them to name the group the ?Lazarus comets?.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/v-eo6TLocvs/130802080248.htm

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D-Link Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router (DIR-868L)

D-Link's newest pre-draft 802.11ac router, the Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router (DIR-868L) does not deliver the powerful performance of some competing 11ac routers I've tested, but the device offers good enough performance and adds some feature improvements over D-Link's lackluster introductory 11ac router?the Amplifi Cloud Router 5700 (DIR-865L).

Specs
One noticeable difference between the DIR-865L and the 868L is the physical shape. The DIR-865L is a traditional square router. The DIR-868L has a cylindrical housing reminiscent of a large coffee grinder. The design is very similar to another D-link networking product I've tested, the D-Link Amplifi DAP-1625 Wi-Fi Booster. This shape is intended to enhance a D-Link feature called AC SmartBeam, D-Link's version of beamforming?a technology that helps wireless performance by guiding a wireless signal to the wireless clients. The height of the DIR-868L also is conducive to housing high-power amplifiers. The router measures 8.5 by 3.5 by 4 inches (HWD). The front panel has two LEDs: One indicates power status and the other, WAN activity.

The 868L is a dual-band router, supporting up to a theoretical 450 Mbps at the 2.4GHz band and up to 1300 Mbps at 5GHz. It has four Gigabit LAN ports, a Gigabit WAN port, one USB 2.0 port for connecting external storage and printers. The device also supports WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup).

Setup
There are two setup options for the AC1750:? You can either use a Web-browser-based setup wizard or you can perform a QRS Mobile setup. The latter uses D-Link's QRS Mobile app for Android or iOS to allow setup of the router from a smartphone or tablet.?

The router ships with a Quick Connect guide that includes a QRS code. You scan the code from a smartphone and your phone's browser is redirected to Google Play or iTunes to download the D-Link QRS mobile app. Unfortunately, no Windows Phone version is yet available. Once the app is installed, you connect to the router with the phone using the preconfigured SSID and passphrase. That information is printed on a small card that slips in and out of a slot at the bottom of the router.

Once I had the app installed on my Android phone, tapping it open displayed a welcome screen that guided me through setting up the router. From this screen, I could set my own wireless network passphrase and change the admin password to the router?as you should always do.

After using the app to configure the router that way you want, the app applies the changes and throws the router a reboot?or at least it's supposed to. Although I saw confirmation of a reboot in the app's interface, as I stared at the router it never rebooted. I confirmed my smart phone and router were connected to the same Wi-Fi. They were, but the app was unable to reboot the router and apply the changes I made.

So, after all that, I had to go through the browser-based setup anyway. The app not only did not work, but it seems like a time-waster since you have to go into an app store, download, install, and then set up the router. I prefer connecting a laptop or tablet and just using the browser to configure it.

Interface and Features
D-Link's interface has not changed since I had the D-Link DIR-655 Gaming Router back in 2007. The interface is adequate but looks dated and cluttered and could use a refresh. It is, however, still feature-packed as I noted in the review of the DIR-865L. D-Link's routers have always been a favorite among gamers and techies because of advanced capabilities such as QoS that, according to my testing, really does improve buffering time and lag. Other advanced features include robust IPv6 support, the ability to enable IPv4 or IPv6 multicast streams, virtual servers and inbound filtering rules.

I was pleased to see that one feature I'd previously found not up-to-par when reviewing the DIR-856L has improved: the mydlink app. This app allows you to remotely manage the router. When I last tested it, I had problems just signing into the D-Link cloud service the app uses. This time I was able to sign in and easily associate the DIR-868L to the remote management cloud service. The mydlink app and service are convenient for managing the router and monitoring connections remotely from a mobile device or PC.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8Su8c-_U7nw/0,2817,2422521,00.asp

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UPDATE: Boston Has Officially Become Communist China

http%3A%2F%2Fboston.barstoolsports.com%2Frandom-thoughts%2Fdr-creepy-is-trying-to-buy-the-globe-by-himself%2F

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(GammonsDaily) ? Sources say the New York Times Corporation has chosen John Henry as the new owner of the Boston Globe.

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?Peter Gammons

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First things first. Anybody who thinks Dr. Creepy is the one who bought Globe is a moron. This has One Eyed Bandit written all over it. Probably convinced Creepy that his trophy wife would leave his ass if he didn?t buy something big soon. But the question is why? Why did the Bandit want the Globe so bad? I mean everybody knows newspapers are a dying industry. So why? Well isn?t it obvious? Lucchino wants to own the entire city of Boston. He?s already bought the baseball team. He already bought NESN. God knows what else Fenway Sports Group owns. Now he?s got his grubby hands on the Globe and has officially turned Boston into Communist China.. He owns 95% of the media so he can spew out his own progoganda without any opposition or opposing view. People who cross him will be terminated or the victim of a ruthless smear campaign. It?s One Eyed Bandit?s 101. Diabolical.

By elpresidente posted August 2nd, 2013 at 5:12 PM

Source: http://boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/dr-creepy-is-trying-to-buy-the-globe-by-himself/

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Study of gene expression has revealed first steps of evolution in gene regulation in mice

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A study of gene expression has revealed the first steps of evolution in gene regulation in mice. The research has implications for the study of differences in gene regulation between people.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/8PFzvJZfH0A/130802080242.htm

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Quintiles profit rises as drug developers outsource research

(Reuters) - Quintiles Transnational Holdings, the world's largest medical contract research provider, forecast a higher full-year profit than analysts had expected as more drugmakers use its services.

Quintiles, reporting as a public company for the first time, said new business rose 13 percent in the second quarter. Margins improved and adjusted net income rose in double-digit percentage terms, Chief Executive Tom Pike said in a statement.

The company, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May, has won business from cost-conscious pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are choosing to outsource clinical development of their drugs.

Its smaller peer, Charles River Laboratories International Inc, cited the same reason for the better-than-expected quarterly profit that it reported on Wednesday.

Durham, North Carolina-based Quintiles raised $947 million in its initial public offering. Its shares closed at $44.85 on Wednesday, worth 6.5 percent more than at the end of their first day of trading on May 9.

The company has a market value of $5.94 billion and says it has helped to develop or commercialize all of the top 50 best-selling drugs on the market.

On Thursday, Quintiles forecast a 2013 adjusted profit in a range of $1.95 to $2.05 per share on service revenues of $3.76 billion to $3.81 billion.

Analysts expected a full-year profit of $1.88 per share on revenue of $3.81 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company reported net income of $38.5 million, or 30 cents per share, for the second quarter. Revenue was $1.29 billion.

Excluding certain items, earnings were 50 cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 46 cents per share on revenue of $942.93 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Pallavi Ail in Bangalore; Editing by Robin Paxton)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/quintiles-profit-rises-drug-developers-outsource-research-113113942.html

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Video: The highlight reel of the best ever Super Rugby Finals will ...

1 hour ago

by @conorheneghan1

Email author

The Brumbies and the Chiefs face off in the final of the Super XV this weekend and if it lives up to what went before then rugby fans are in for a treat.

It might be a Bank Holiday weekend, but it?s well worth setting your alarm for early on Saturday morning (well, 8am isn?t THAT early) to catch the clash between the Brumbies and the Chiefs in the Super XV final in Hamilton.

We?ve waxed lyrical about the lads from Fox Sports Down Under on numerous occasions in the recent past and to set the mood for the big one this weekend, they?ve cobbled together a five-minute highlight reel of the best moments from Super Rugby finals since the inauguration of the competition in 1996.

There are some memorable moments in there, from a George Smith-inspired Brumbies victory in 2004, the incredibly close all-South African encounter in 2007 and of course, Will Genia?s memorable individual try in Queensland Reds? triumph over the Crusaders in 2011.

Can the Chiefs and the Brumbies live up to what?s gone before this weekend? We wouldn?t bet against it.

Hat-tip: Fox Sports

Comments:

Source: http://www.joe.ie/rugby/rugby-news/video-the-highlight-reel-of-the-best-ever-super-rugby-finals-will-whet-your-appetite-for-the-big-one-this-weekend/

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Alex Rodriguez Plays Simulated Game, Headed For Trenton Thunder As Suspension Looms

TAMPA, Fla. -- Alex Rodriguez will start a second minor league injury rehabilitation assignment on Friday at Double-A Trenton, hoping to return to the New York Yankees before any suspension by Major League Baseball.

Rodriguez played a simulated game Thursday at the team's spring training home, and New York said he will play for Trenton against Reading for two games through Saturday.

With the Yankees at San Diego on Sunday, there is little chance the team will tell him fly across the country after a night game for a day game in California.

If he's not suspended by then, the three-time MVP could rejoin New York for its series opener Monday at the Chicago White Sox. However, it appears MLB will suspend Rodriguez by then for ties to Biogenesis of America, a closed Florida anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Four years ago Rodriguez admitted using PEDs while with Texas from 2001-03, but he repeatedly has denied using them since.

Because of wet grounds, the Yankees moved Rodriguez's simulated game from their minor league complex across the Dale Mabry highway to Steinbrenner Field.

The ballpark was closed to media, who watched from a walkway behind the right-field bullpen. Rodriguez saw 31 pitches over six at-bats, played third and ran bases during the simulated game. About two dozen media members and five television trucks were on hand ? but no fans.

Coming back from January hip surgery, Rodriguez was .200 (8 for 40) with two homers and eight RBIs in 13 minor league games from July 2-20 for Class A Tampa and Charleston (S.C.), Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The assignment was cut a day short when he complained of quadriceps tightness, and the Yankees said an MRI in New York on July 21 showed a grade 1 strain.

Rodriguez pushed to be activated later that week, retaining a doctor without giving the Yankees the required notification, and the physician claimed he couldn't detect an injury. During a conference call with Yankees officials on July 25 ? Rodriguez insisted one of his lawyers be on the call ? the sides agreed to a schedule for his return.

He appeared ready to talk as he was leaving the minor league complex, waving a group of writers to his car in the parking lot and rolling down the window. However, when A-Rod saw a second group with TV cameras approaching, he said "I'll talk to you guys, but no cameras."

Rodriguez closed the window and kept the car stationary for a moment, then left without saying another word to reporters.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/alex-rodriguez-simulated-game-trenton-thunder_n_3691596.html

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National Geographic Traveler photo contest winners

First Place: Dig me river? - I was in Manaus/Amazon during the Brazilian Aquathlon (swimming and running) championship in . This river is called Rio Negro (Black River) due to water color. Rio Negro ... more?First Place: Dig me river? - I was in Manaus/Amazon during the Brazilian Aquathlon (swimming and running) championship in . This river is called Rio Negro (Black River) due to water color. Rio Negro is the largest left tributary of the Amazon, the largest blackwater river in the world. While the name Rio Negro means Black River, its waters aren't exactly black; they are similar in color to strong tea. The dark color comes from humic acid from incomplete breakdown of phenol. I photographed it from the water and my lens got completely wet, but there was so energy in this boys that I just didn't worry about that.

Photo and caption by Wagner Araujo/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest

less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/nat-geo-travel-contest-winners-slideshow/

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Jackman tweets amazing weightlifting photo

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

4 hours ago

Considering he's got the No. 1 film in the country with "Wolverine," Hugh Jackman probably doesn't need to convince everyone of his mighty prowess.

But that didn't stop him from tweeting out a seriously, well, jacked photo of himself lifting weights. He's straining with the effort, but he's got it fully in the air. And as he notes in the tweet, "If the bar ain't bendin, then you're just pretendin."

Jackman is a frequent tweeter, but lately he's been on a bit of a binge, showing himself visiting Jackson Pollock's studio ("Will never tell my kids to clean up again," he joked) and at the New York City "Wolverine" fan event preparing to chomp down on a table full of cupcakes.

Well, maybe that explains the extra weightlifting. Go Wolverine!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/hugh-jackman-tweets-amazing-weightlifting-photo-6C10805954

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HCL Tech gains after earnings beat estimates

Reuters Market Eye - Shares in India's HCL Technologies Ltd gain 1.5 percent after India's No. 4 IT services exporter beat expectations with a 41.6 percent rise in April-June earnings.

Consolidated net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30 rose to 12.1 billion rupees from 8.54 billion rupees a year earlier on the back of order wins, HCL Technologies said on Wednesday.

Analysts on average had expected the company to post a net profit of 10.6 billion rupee, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hcl-tech-gains-earnings-beat-estimates-051632079.html

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Sony returns to quarterly profit on cheap yen

People take photos of tropical fish from waters around the southernmost Japanese island of Okinawa on display in a glass tank placed outside Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

People take photos of tropical fish from waters around the southernmost Japanese island of Okinawa on display in a glass tank placed outside Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Children get excited to watch tropical fish from waters around the southernmost Japanese island of Okinawa on display in a glass tank placed outside Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

TOKYO (AP) ? As a slew of big-name Japanese companies report improved quarterly earnings, one theme is taking the sheen off their rosy numbers: mainstay businesses are still struggling despite the perk from a weaker yen.

The latest example came Thursday from Sony Corp. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year.

Sony also saw some improvement in its smartphone and entertainment businesses. But it still had plenty of areas where it was lagging, such as digital cameras, video game machines and flat panel TVs. Its results would have been far different if it weren't for the favorable exchange rate.

A weak yen boosts the earnings of Japanese exporters, although Sony has been trying to reduce its vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations in recent years when the yen was high.

Quarterly sales jumped 13 percent to 1.71 trillion yen ($17 billion). But they would have slipped 3 percent if it weren't for the declining yen, the Tokyo-based company said.

In its electronics unit, Sony gained 19 billion yen ($190 million) in operating profit from a cheap yen.

Other Japanese companies whose earnings fared better largely on a cheap yen included video-game maker Nintendo Co., automaker Honda Motor Co. and Sony's domestic archrival Panasonic Corp.

Their test lies in how they hold up in global competition ? even without the benefits of a cheap yen.

Daniel Loeb, a U.S. hedge fund manager renowned for shaking up Yahoo Inc., sparked a rise in Sony's share price by proposing a spin off up to 20 percent of its movie, TV and music division. He says the money should be used strengthen Sony's ailing device manufacturing unit.

Sony has said it is considering the proposal from Third Point hedge fund, led by activist investor and billionaire Loeb, but it has also asked for more time to look at all sides. Sony shares have risen after the Loeb proposal.

Also helping Sony's bottom line for the latest quarter was its financial business, such as insurance, because of a recent recovery in the Japanese stock market, it said.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation 3 game machine and Walkman portable recorder, has suffered declining fortunes for several years.

It got slammed in portable digital players by the iPod and iPhone from Apple Inc. and intense competition from powerful South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. has also taken its toll.

Sony sank to record losses for the fiscal year ended March 2012 ? the worst result in its more than six decade corporate history.

The company barely dragged itself back into the black for the fiscal year ended March.

An expensive yen had been a key culprit in its woes.

Sony's TV division has lost money for nine straight years. President Kazuo Hirai has repeatedly promised to end the TV losses during this fiscal year through March 2014. Sony achieved profitability in TVs for the latest April-June quarter on the back of its 4K TVs, an extremely high-end product.

Also for the quarter, Sony's movie business did well with the worldwide release of "Men in Black 3." Its music business included the release of popular albums Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" and "The Truth about Love," by P!nk, it said.

Sony is also set to come out with its latest video game machine, the PlayStation 4, for the year-end holidays in the U.S. and Europe.

But how the machine will translate into better profits for Sony remains unclear. Increased research costs sent Sony's game division into an operating loss for the latest quarter.

"It was a so-so quarter," Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said, as the entertainment and financial businesses did well, and the struggling electronics unit was showing signs of improvement. "We think the first quarter is a good indicator that we are going in the right direction."

Sony kept its profit forecast for the full fiscal year unchanged at 50 billion yen ($500 million), but raised its sales forecast slightly to 7.9 trillion yen ($79 billion) from the 7.5 trillion ($75 trillion) it projected in May.

Sharp Corp., a Japanese electronics maker in deeper trouble than even Sony, reported Thursday that April-June quarter losses totaled 18 billion yen ($180 million), better than its 138 billion yen ($1.4 billion) loss for the same period a year earlier.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-08-01-Japan-Earns-Sony/id-90d3f2d4359a4b34b5955c5b40aef415

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Japan ruling party sees no change in sales tax hike plan

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Yuko Yoshikawa

TOKYO | Wed Jul 31, 2013 6:59am BST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will likely proceed with raising the national sales tax as planned, despite calls within his government to delay or water down the increase, a senior official in Abe's ruling party told Reuters on Wednesday.

Abe has shown no signs that he would change the tax hike plans to accommodate advisers who are urging him to go slow, as that could wreck confidence in the country and push up long-term interest rates, Takeshi Noda, head of the Liberal Democratic Party's tax commission, told Reuters.

The planned sales tax hike is Tokyo's most significant fiscal reform in decades, but the recent debate over alternatives has raised the possibility that Abe might postpone the tightening or ease the tempo of the two-stage plan to double the tax to 10 percent in two years.

Concerned that the tax hike could derail Japan's nascent economic recovery, Abe has ordered a study of alternatives for implementing the tax increases, including introducing them more gradually, government sources have told Reuters.

But Noda in an interview dismissed the alternatives - championed by academic advisers to the premier - as "armchair theory". Asked if the sales tax will be raised as planned, he said in an interview: "Of course."

Noda, who recently met with the premier, said Abe gave no impression that he was wavering on the tax plan.

"Confidence in Japan would fall, and government bond yields would be affected" if Tokyo gives the impression that it is faltering on the tax issue, Noda said. "That could be fatal."

"The biggest risk to 'Abenomics' is a spike in interest rates," Noda said.

Abe returned to power in December pledging to revive the world's third-largest economy with his policy mix of aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus and promises of pro-growth reforms.

With Japan's public debt topping 240 percent of its GDP, the worst in the industrial world, the prime minister is struggling to balance reviving economic growth against bringing public finances under control.

Under an agreement last year between the LDP, its coalition partner and the previous ruling party, Japan enacted a law calling for the sales tax to be raised to 8 percent next April and to 10 percent in October 2015.

But the law requires the government to confirm that the economy is strong enough to withstand the tax increase. Government officials say Abe will look at economic data, especially GDP figures due on September 9, and decide on the tax by early October.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Yuko Yoshikawa; Editing by William Mallard and Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/31/uk-japan-economy-tax-idUKBRE96U05620130731?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

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Italy Mourns Victims of Coach Disaster

Mourners pack into a sports hall in the southern Italian town of Pozzuoli, to pay their respects to 38 people who died in one of the worst road accidents in Italian history. The crash happened when a coach plunged 25 metres off a motorway viaduct on Sunday night. Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta was among an estimated 4,000 mourners at the service, which was officially designated a day of national mourning.

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Source: http://www.wokv.com/videos/news/italy-mourns-victims-of-coach-disaster/v7n3S/

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Bridgewater-Raritan School District converts shipping container into medical clinic for Africa's neediest

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Moon Cycles Affect Human Sleep

Participants in a sleep study experienced quantitative decreases in parameters of sound sleep near the full moon, associated with a decrease in sleep quality. Sophie Bushwick reports

More 60-Second Science

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The lunar cycle affects the night sky, the tides and even the fertility of certain marine species. And it turns out, we can add your shuteye to the list. According to a new study, humans sleep poorly on nights near a full moon. The work is published in the journal Current Biology. [Christian Cajochen et al., Evidence that the Lunar Cycle Influences Human Sleep]

To test the moon's effect, 33 adult volunteers of both sexes and various ages spent several nights in a sleep lab. As they dozed, researchers monitored their brain activity, eye movements and hormone levels. On nights closer to a full moon, the subjects took an average of five minutes longer to fall asleep, and slept for 20 minutes less. In addition, brain activity decreased by 30 percent during the sleep stage that the brain normally uses to recover from its daylight work. And levels of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate sleep cycles, dropped.

On these nights, the sleepers complained of poor sleep quality even though they were unaware of the lunar cycle. On the bright side, not a single participant turned into a werewolf. In this cohort.

?Sophie Bushwick

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/biology/~3/S-hZjE2MO2o/episode.cfm

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Obama delicately wades into Mideast talks

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Tuesday delicately waded into the first round of Middle East peace talks in years, meeting privately at the White House with lead negotiators for the Israeli and Palestinian delegations.

Even still, the White House strategy remained for Obama to take a mostly hands-off approach to the actual negotiations.

The strategy is in part a vote of confidence in Secretary of State John Kerry, who has embraced the vexing and emotional issue with gusto since joining the administration earlier this year. It also signals a calculation by the White House that direct presidential intervention is best reserved for the final stages of negotiations ? if the process ever reaches that point ? or moments of tension when Obama might be called upon to keep the talks afloat.

Aaron David Miller, a longtime Middle East peace adviser to Democratic and Republican presidents, backed the White House's approach.

"You don't want to waste presidential capital," said Miller, now vice president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center. "But in the end, Obama is going to have to own this if it's going to succeed."

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators arrived in Washington on Monday to open the talks, the first major effort since negotiations broke down in 2008. An attempt to reopen talks in 2010 collapsed almost immediately. The new round, taking place at the State Department, continued Tuesday, with the goal of working out plans for how the talks should proceed in the coming months.

Officials said the parties have agreed to negotiate for at least nine months.

In a written statement Monday, Obama said the talks marked a "promising step forward," but warned that "hard work and hard choices remain ahead."

Like Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are not directly involved in this first round. But both have been deeply engaged in the process in recent months, meeting frequently with Kerry.

Kerry and other administration officials have repeatedly cast the revived negotiations as a direct result of Obama's trip to Israel and the West Bank earlier this year.

"Without his commitment, without his conversations there and without his engagement in this initiative, we would not be here today," Kerry said Monday before heading to the White House to brief the president on the first round of talks.

Yet Obama, unlike predecessors Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, has waited on the sidelines much of his administration and not made negotiations a top priority. He long has expressed doubts about how much leverage the U.S. has in bringing the parties to the negotiating table and has warned that peace cannot be achieved if American officials want it more than the Israelis and Palestinians.

The president's own troubled attempt to jumpstart peace talks in his first term has also colored his views.

Obama came into office eager to put a new face on the U.S. relationship with the Middle East. But he quickly angered Israeli leaders by calling for an end to settlement building and appearing to misunderstand the Jewish people's historic ties to the region during a 2009 speech in Cairo.

Tensions with Israel also deepened when its government announced a new round of settlements in East Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

Still, in the fall of 2010, Obama was able to cobble together a new round of negotiations between Netanyahu and Abbas. All three leaders gathered at the White House and announced the talks with great fanfare. But the effort fell apart within days.

Dennis Ross, who served as one of Obama's negotiators at the time, said that failed effort was a good lesson for the White House.

"If you raise expectations too soon, you actually make it less likely that you achieve anything," said Ross, who left the administration in 2011.

Following the collapse of the 2010 talks, Obama expended little effort on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. A series of more urgent concerns in the Middle East quickly intervened, including the Arab Spring democracy protests and the Syrian civil war. The president's 2012 re-election campaign also consumed much of his administration's attention, and his relationship with Netanyahu deteriorated further when the Israeli leader all but endorsed Obama's rival, Mitt Romney.

So it came as a surprise to many when Obama announced earlier this year that he planned to make his first visit to Israel and the West Bank as president. His advisers set low expectations for the highly-anticipated trip and made clear even then that Kerry, not Obama, would be the driving force in getting the two sides back to the negotiating table.

___

Follow Julie Pace on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-delicately-wades-mideast-talks-142418963.html

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European Commission proposes framework for unified patent court

Getting a patent in Europe is hard. Making sure it's protected in every European Union member state is even harder. That's why the European Commission announced today that it plans on simplifying this notoriously convoluted process by proposing the legal framework for a unified patent court. Currently, patents must be validated in each member state to gain EU-wide protection, but as you know, patent litigation is everyone's favorite past time. Companies can incur prohibitively high costs simultaneously defending their claims in multiple countries. By cutting the number of patent courts down from 28 to one, a unified system would streamline the process of handling infringement cases, and perhaps even promote growth and innovation. While the measure must be approved by the European Parliament and individual EU states in order to become law, the proposal appears to be a step forward in the right direction.

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Via: EurActiv

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/9Pc5QmzKAYE/

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Israelis oppose EU labeling of settlement products

New labeling rules from the European Union could endanger the latest attempts at Middle East peace. Israel has reacted angrily to an EU instruction not to put "Made in Israel" on things produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank - because the settlements are illegal.

By Geraint Vincent, NBC News

ARIEL, West Bank ? A new labeling policy for products coming from Israeli settlements has some business owners worried about their livelihood.

On the wall of his office, in one corner of his noisy factory floor, Yehuda Cohen looks at photographs from the last staff away day. He took his employees white-water rafting, on the River Jordan. There are smiling faces, eating and drinking, striking poses with life jackets and paddles.

?That?s Yossi,? says Cohen. ?And that?s his good friend Ahmed who works next to him on the line. It?s wonderful here. We work together, and we enjoy ourselves together.?

Yehuda has a workforce of 90 people, which is split down the middle -- half Israeli, half Palestinian. The factory produces plastic bathroom accessories ? everything from toilet seats to laundry baskets. Last year, he exported goods to Europe worth around $4 million. It?s a good business, but one that he now fears is under threat from the European Union and its requirement that he put labels on his exports, so that his customers will know exactly where they are produced.

Yehuda?s factory is part of an industrial area built in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

To address that issue, the European Union - one of Israel's biggest markets - has issued new guidelines on labeling what it calls ?settlement products.?

But many Israeli factory owners, like Cohen, take issue with that designation and say it will essentially kill their business.

?Labeling will send a message: ?Don?t buy this product,?? Yehuda said. ?It will lead to a boycott of my products. That will just do damage. It will destroy my company, destroy jobs and all of the hope that we have created here. The politicians in Europe think they are helping the peace process ? well, they should come to my factory and see the reality. We are building peace from the bottom up.?

The EU announcement came in the same week that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that, after months of painstaking diplomacy, he had finally persuaded the Israelis and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, in search of a political settlement.

The EU move is intended to force the issue that has always confounded peace talks in the past: the issue of land. If the Kerry initiative is going to achieve a genuine breakthrough, then Israel is going to have to agree to give some land up.

Kerry has been careful not to criticize the Europeans? decision and some commentators inside Israel believe Brussels and Washington are in-step. The plan seems to be for the Americans to get the Israelis back to the table, and for the Europeans to make it clear that if they don?t make some concessions, then it?s going to hurt.

Not surprisingly, Israel?s statesmen have reacted angrily to the move, and not just because it might hurt the bottom line for Israeli companies operating inside the West Bank. They say the settlement product guidelines demonstrate the Europeans? shocking double standards.

"This is a mistake, it is counterproductive, it does not serve the cause of peace and it is not fair to single Israel out while the EU does not do this in any other place on the planet," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Ultimately, the issue of settlements will be resolved in peace talks with the Palestinians that we hope will start soon." ?

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian leadership, hailed the guidelines as a ?good and important decision.?

For him, each laundry basket that comes off the end of Cohen?s production line represents a violation of international law.

?At last,? he said. ?European consumers are going to have the chance to choose between legal and illegal goods.?

The international community has been condemning Israel?s occupation of the West Bank for nearly half a century. In Ramallah, labeling settlement products feels like at least some action, after decades of words.

Back at the factory though, Yehuda introduced me to his assembly manager, a Palestinian named Rasheed Morrar.

?If the Europeans end up boycotting settlement products, then it will hurt us, as well as the Israelis,? Morrar said. ?The factories will have less work and so will we.?

Morrar added, "Only the Palestinian workers will get hurt [by product labeling], not the Israeli workers. The Israeli workers will stay at home and the government will pay their salaries ? but we will be out of a job."

Walking out of the factory, through its busy delivery yard and out into the industrial park, it was strange to think that all of the structures were in contravention of international law. It might be an illegal development, but 3,000 Palestinians make their living there. ?

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