Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302403022?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Fatal stabbing of girl, 8, prompts NorCal manhunt
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Residents of a rural Northern California county were being told Sunday to keep their doors locked and report anyone considered suspicious as authorities continued the search for the killer of an 8-year-old girl.
Calaveras County deputies and law enforcement officials from nearby agencies were looking for a suspect after Leila Fowler was found stabbed in her Valley Springs home around noon Saturday.
The girl was found by her brother ? reported by local media to be 12-years-old ? after he encountered a male intruder in the home. When the intruder ran away, the boy found his sister stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.
Initially Leila was reported as being 9-years-old, but Coroner Kevin Raggio said Sunday that she would have turned 9 in June.
Authorities spent Saturday night and into Sunday conducting a door-to-door sweep of homes scattered across hilly terrain, checking storage sheds and horse stables, and even searching attics.
"It is a difficult area to search, it's rural, remote," sheriff's Capt. Jim Macedo said.
Reverse 911 calls and Nixle mass notifications alerted area residents about the incident and the search for the suspect, officials said.
"I was working on my tractor and a CHP copter kept flying over my house," area resident Roger Ballew, 35, told The Associated Press on Sunday, referring to the California Highway Patrol.
A SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night and told him to stay inside, Ballew said.
"It was nerve-wracking, I didn't sleep well," he said.
Investigators on Sunday were interviewing several people, but no suspects have been named.
"It's just terrible," area resident Paul Gschweng told Sacramento television station KCRA. "What can I say about it, it's just a tragedy."
The station reported that a neighbor told police that a man was running from the girl's home after the incident.
The suspect was seen wearing a black shirt and blue pants. Authorities considered him armed and dangerous.
Investigators were asking area residents to call authorities if they had any information, or knew of anyone who may have unexplained injuries, or may have left the area unexpectedly after the girl was killed.
Valley Springs is a community of about 2,500 people in an unincorporated area of Calaveras County, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fatal-stabbing-girl-8-prompts-norcal-manhunt-194628919.html
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T-Mobile's 'No Contract' Ads Under Fire - Business Insider
) U.S. wireless carrier
.
T-Mobile is touting the ?no contract? feature of the new plans, but Ferguson, says that T-Mobile customers who purchase a smartphone under the carrier?s 24-month repayment plan must maintain a service plan with the company for the balance of the period, or pay the outstanding price of the phone if they cancel service before the repayment period expires. He says those terms make the plans little different from early termination fees charged by other carriers, the?Seattle Times?noted.
In fact, Ferguson notes that the bill for the outstanding balance of purchased equipment can be higher than the early termination fees charged by rival carriers. He called T-Mobile?s ?no contract? ads ?quite deceptive? and filed an action in King County Superior Court to force the company to alter its advertising to highlight the charges.
While the charge was detailed in T-Mobile?s terms of service, they were not explained in the company?s advertising. The?plans debuted in March.
T-Mobile released a statement indicating that it would comply with the Ferguson?s order. However it noted that it considered its advertising ?truthful and appropriate? and did not concede any wrongdoing in its settlement with the AG?s office.
Customers who purchased equipment under the plans before April 25 can receive cancel their plans without incurring the charge.
In March, T-Mobile?received clearance for its merger?with?MetroPCS?(NYSE:PCS) from the Federal Communications Commission.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/t-mobiles-no-contract-ads-under-fire-2013-4
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Gary Busey plays blame game on 'Apprentice'
Douglas Gorenstein / NBC
Gary Busey on "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice."
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
On Sunday night, Team Power nabbed another rare victory on "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" when they bested Plan B in a video ad battle. But the real battle of the night was between Plan B's project manager and the rest of the team.
Gary Busey headed the effort for the Bs -- which mainly consisted of an ad featuring Busey transforming into a mechanical dog -- and his teammates knew how it would end from the start.
"I think we're on Team Moby Dick, and Ahab is in charge," Penn Jillette said.
So no matter what Jillette or Lisa Rinna proposed, Busey wasn't going to budge. That is, until he found himself on the wrong side of the boardroom.
Once Busey learned his concepts didn't charm the client du jour, he suggested the real problem was with Jillette and Rinna all along -- they undermined him.
But boardroom boss Donald Trump just wasn't buying what Busey was selling. After much bickering, including Busey's claim that Rinna yelled and screamed at him and Jillette just didn't help, Trump settled it.
"Gary, you're fired!"
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Monday, April 29, 2013
Four arrested as Bangladesh building toll rises to 352
By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) - Two factory bosses and two engineers were detained in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands killed at least 352 people.
More were being pulled alive from the rubble at the building, where police said as many as 900 people were still missing in Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident.
The owner of the eight-storey building that fell like a pack of cards around more than 3,000 mainly young women workers was still on the run.
Police said several of his relatives were detained to compel him to hand himself in, and an alert had gone out to airport and border authorities to prevent him from fleeing the country.
Officials said Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, had been built on spongy ground without the correct permits, and the workers were sent in on Wednesday despite warnings the previous day that it was structurally unsafe.
Anger at the negligence has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police on Saturday using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to quell demonstrators who burned cars.
Two engineers involved in building the complex were picked up at their homes early on Saturday, Dhaka district police chief Habibur Rahman said. He said they were arrested for dismissing a warning not to open the building after a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars the previous day.
The owner and managing director of the largest of the five factories in the complex, New Wave Style, surrendered to the country's garment industry association during the night and they were handed over to police. They will be kept in remand for an initial 12 days.
The factory, which listed many European and North American retailers as its customers, occupied upper floors of the building that officials said had been added illegally.
"PEOPLE ARE ASKING FOR HIS HEAD"
"Everyone involved - including the designer, engineer, and builders - will be arrested for putting up this defective building," said junior internal affairs minister Shamsul Huq.
Anger over the working conditions of Bangladesh's 3.6 million garment workers - most of whom are women earning as little as $38 a month - has grown since the disaster.
Hundreds were on the streets again on Saturday, smashing and burning cars and sparking more battles with police, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon. Eyewitnesses said dozens of people were injured in the clashes.
An alliance of leftist parties which is part of the ruling coalition said it would call a national strike on May 2 if all those responsible for the disaster were not arrested by Sunday.
Rahman identified the owner of the building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front.
"People are asking for his head, which is quite natural," said H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister.
Wednesday's collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory nearby the latest disaster killed 112 people.
Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Saturday asked garment factory owners to produce building designs by July in a bid to improve safety.
Remarkably, rescuers armed with rod cutters and drills were still pulling people alive from the precarious mound of rubble - 29 in all since dawn on Saturday.
Marina Begum, 22, spoke from a hospital bed of her ordeal inside the broken building for three days.
"It felt like I was in hell," she told reporters. "It was so hot, I could hardly breathe, there was no food and water. When I regained my senses I found myself in this hospital bed."
Frantic efforts were under way to save 15 people trapped under the concrete who were being supplied with dried food, bottled water and oxygen.
Heavy machinery will not be used to remove the remaining bodies and debris until all the survivors are rescued, junior minister for local government Jahangir Kabir Nanak said.
About 2,500 people have been rescued from the remains of the building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from Dhaka.
WRONG PERMIT, ILLEGAL FLOORS
Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA), said the owner of the building had not received the proper building consent, obtaining a permit for a five-storey building from the local municipality which did not have the authority to grant it.
"Only CDA can give such approval," he said. "We are trying to get the original design from the municipality, but since the concerned official is in hiding we cannot get it readily."
Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said. "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.
Islam said the building had been erected on the site of a pond filled in with sand and earth, weakening the foundations.
Duty free access offered by Western countries and low wages helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry. Sixty percent of the clothes go to Europe. The United States takes 23 percent and Canada takes 5 percent.
North American and European chains, including British retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw, a unit of George Weston Ltd, said they were supplied by factories in the Rana Plaza building.
Loblaw, which had a small number of "Joe Fresh" apparel items made at one of the factories, said on Saturday that it was working with other retailers to provide aid and support.
It said it was sending representatives to Bangladesh and was also joining what it described as an urgent meeting with other retailers and the Retail Council of Canada.
(Writing by John Chalmers and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Paul Tait and Jeremy Laurence)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-arrested-bangladesh-building-toll-rises-325-043614507.html
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Sunday, April 28, 2013
Jurors set to get roadmap of Jackson civil trial
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The most complete account of Michael Jackson's final months is about to unfold in a cramped Los Angeles courtroom nearly four years after the pop superstar's death.
Lawyers for Jackson's mother will attempt to convince a jury that the company promoting the pop superstar's 2009 comeback concerts is responsible for his untimely death. The attorneys will try to prove that AEG Live hired and controlled the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter over Jackson's demise.
AEG Live denies any wrongdoing and contests that they hired the physician who for months was giving Jackson doses of a powerful anesthetic in the singer's bedroom to help him sleep.
Opening statements on Monday will provide a roadmap for a case that will delve into Jackson's addiction struggles and issues previously unexplored in court. Many of those in the singer's orbit ? family, famous friends, doctors and his teenage children ? may testify during the months-long trial.
Some of the stars listed on the witness list include Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Lou Ferrigno and Spike Lee. Both of Jackson's ex-wives, Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, are also listed as potential witnesses.
Katherine Jackson sued in September 2010, claiming AEG failed to properly investigate her son's doctor, Conrad Murray. All but one of her claims has been dismissed, but millions and possibly billions of dollars are at stake. The trial pits the family of a global superstar against AEG Live, a private company that as part of the Anschutz Entertainment Group has helped spark the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles with its venue, the Staples Center.
Unlike the 2011 trial that ended with Murray's conviction, the civil trial will explore the troubled finances of both men ? a situation that Katherine Jackson's attorneys say created a conflict of interest for Murray that AEG should have been aware of.
The Houston-based cardiologist was deeply in debt when he agreed to serve as Jackson's personal doctor for a series of 50 concerts in London dubbed "This Is It." The doctor had liens and owed back child support when he began working with Jackson, expecting a $150,000 a month salary. Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication before the contract was fully signed.
The trial is expected to include detailed testimony about other doctors' treatment of Jackson, a subject that was largely off-limits in the criminal case. Unlike Murray's trial, which was broadcast live, the civil case will play out without cameras in a courtroom with only 45 public seats.
AEG denies they hired Murray, and have contended he should be considered an independent contractor, a designation many hospitals deem surgeons and other physicians.
Katherine Jackson's attorneys, Brian Panish and Kevin Boyle, have repeatedly cited emails sent by top AEG executives referencing Murray's pay and his obligations to get Jackson to perform.
Marvin S. Putnam, an attorney for AEG who was not available to comment, has said the company could not have foreseen the circumstances that led to Murray's administration of propofol to Jackson as a sleep aide.
AEG has said in court filings that Jackson's family is seeking $40 billion in damages, but Panish denies that's the figure he's seeking.
"We've never asked for $40 billion," he said. "The jury is going to decide what the loss is."
The high figure, Panish said, is the company's attempt to "prejudice everybody against the Jacksons." He says the case isn't about money.
"It's about getting the truth," he said. "We'd like to get out all the evidence. The evidence is going to speak for itself that AEG had a lot of involvement and they completely deny responsibility."
Jackson's three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket are also listed as plaintiffs on the case.
Asked whether he and the Jacksons are concerned about the image of the "Thriller" singer that will emerge in court, Panish said the trial will show a different side of the superstar. "Mrs. Jackson and her grandchildren suffered a tremendous loss and AEG has never recognized that and continues to deny responsibility," he said. "The other side of the story hasn't been told."
A jury of six men and six women has been selected to decide the case.
Monday's remarks by Panish and Putnam will provide the jurors' their first true insight into the evidence they will likely hear, and once again pull back the veil of Michael Jackson's private life.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jurors-set-roadmap-jackson-civil-trial-160010550.html
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Facebook CEO reaped $2.3B gain on stock options
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reaped a gain of nearly $2.3 billion last year when he exercised 60 million stock options just before the online social networking leader's initial public offering.
The windfall detailed in regulatory documents filed Friday saddled Zuckerberg, 28, with a massive tax bill. He raised the money to pay it by selling 30.2 million Facebook Inc. shares for $38 apiece, or $1.1 billion, in the IPO.
Facebook's stock hasn't closed above $38 since the IPO was completed last May. The shares gained 71 cents Friday to close at $26.85.
The 29 percent decline from Facebook's IPO price has cost Zuckerberg nearly $7 billion on paper, based on the 609.5 million shares of company stock that he owned as of March 31, according to the regulatory filing. His current stake is still worth $16.4 billion.
Zuckerberg, who started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004, has indicated he has no immediate plans to sell more stock.
The exercise of Zuckerberg's stock options and his subsequent sale of shares in the IPO had been previously disclosed. The proxy statement filed to announce Facebook's June 11 shareholder meeting is the first time that the magnitude of Zuckerberg's stock option gain had been quantified.
The proxy also revealed that Zuckerberg's pay package last year rose 16 percent because of increased personal usage of jets chartered by the company as part of his security program.
Zuckerberg's compensation last year totaled nearly $2 million, up from $1.7 million last year. Of those amounts, $1.2 million covered the costs of Zuckerberg's personal air travel last year, up from $692,679 in 2011.
If not for the spike in travel costs, Zuckerberg's pay would have declined by 17 percent. His salary and bonus totaled $769,306 last year versus $928,833 in 2011.
Zuckerberg will take a big pay cut this year. His annual salary has been reduced to $1 and he will no longer receive a bonus, according to Facebook's filing. That puts Zuckerberg's current cash compensation on the same level as Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page, whose stake in his company is worth about $20 billion.
The Associated Press formula for determining an executive's total compensation calculates salary, bonuses, perquisites, above-market interest that the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits or stock option gains such as those recognized by Zuckerberg did last year.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-ceo-reaped-2-3b-gain-stock-options-232622585.html
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Physicists, biologists unite to expose how cancer spreads
Apr. 26, 2013 ? Cancer cells that can break out of a tumor and invade other organs are more aggressive and nimble than nonmalignant cells, according to a new multi-institutional nationwide study. These cells exert greater force on their environment and can more easily maneuver small spaces.
The researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports that a systematic comparison of metastatic breast-cancer cells to healthy breast cells revealed dramatic differences between the two cell lines in their mechanics, migration, oxygen response, protein production and ability to stick to surfaces. The researchers discovered new insights into how cells make the transition from nonmalignant to metastatic, a process that is not well understood.
The resulting catalogue of differences could someday help researchers detect cancerous cells earlier and someday prevent or treat metastatic cancer, which is responsible for 90 percent of all cancer deaths, according to the study. It was conducted by a network of 12 federally funded Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers (PS-OC) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. PS-OC is a collaboration of researchers in the physical and biological sciences seeking a better understanding of the physical and chemical forces that shape the emergence and behavior of cancer.
A multi-institutional study including researchers from Princeton University's Physical Sciences-Oncology Center found that metastatic cancer cells are more aggressive and nimble than nonmalignant cells. The Princeton group used silicon-etched microchannels (above) to study the behavior and physical properties of cancer cells. In this device, metastatic cancer cells enter the narrow channels at one end and accelerate as they rapidly move down the channel. Such high motility is a hallmark of metastasis and also indicative of high glucose metabolism, another hallmark of cancer. (Image by Guillaume Lambert)
"By bringing together different types of experimental expertise to systematically compare metastatic and nonmetastatic cells, we have advanced our knowledge of how metastasis occurs," said Robert Austin, professor of physics and leader of the Princeton PS-OC, along with senior co-investigator Thea Tlsty of the University of California-San Francisco.
Researchers with the Princeton PS-OC, for instance, determined that metastatic cells, in spite of moving more slowly than nonmalignant cells, move farther and in a straighter line, Austin said. The investigators studied the cells' behavior in tiny cell-sized chambers and channels etched out of silicon and designed to mimic the natural environment of the body's interior.
"The mobility of these metastatic cells is an essential feature of their ability to break through the tough membrane [the extracellular matrix] that the body uses to wall off the tumor from the rest of the body," Austin said. "These cells are essentially jail-breakers."
The tiny silicon chambers were built using Princeton's expertise in microfabrication technology -- typically used to create small technologies such as integrated circuits and solar cells -- and are an example of the type of expertise that physicists and engineers can bring to cancer research, Austin said. For the current study, the Princeton team included physics graduate students David Liao and Guillaume Lambert, and postdoctoral researchers Liyu Liu and Saurabh Vyawahare. They worked closely with a research group led by James Sturm, Princeton's William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and director of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) where the microfabrication was done.
The Princeton PS-OC also includes collaborators at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California-Santa Cruz.
The nationwide PS-OC program aims to crack the difficulty of understanding and treating cancer by bringing in researchers from physics, engineering, computer science and chemistry, said Nastaran Zahir Kuhn, program manager for the PS-OC at the National Cancer Institute.
Other notable findings from the paper include that metastatic cells recover more rapidly from the stress of a low-oxygen environment than nonmetastatic cells, which is consistent with previous studies. Although the low-oxygen environment did kill many of the metastatic cells, the survivors rebounded vigorously, underscoring the likely role of individual cells in the spread of cancer. The study also looked at total protein production and detected proteins in the metastatic cells that are consistent with the physical properties such as mobility that malignant cells need to invade the extracellular matrix.
"The PS-OC program aims to bring physical sciences tools and perspectives into cancer research," Kuhn said. "The results of this study demonstrate the utility of such an approach, particularly when studies are conducted in a standardized manner from the beginning."
For the nationwide project, nearly 100 investigators from 20 institutions and laboratories conducted their experiments using the same two cell lines, reagents and protocols to assure that results could be compared. The experimental methods ranged from physical measurements of how the cells push on surrounding cells to measurements of gene and protein expression.
"Roughly 20 techniques were used to study the cell lines, enabling identification of a number of unique relationships between observations," Kuhn said.
For example, a technique known as atomic force microscopy indicated that metastatic cells are softer than nonmalignant cells whereas a different technique, traction force microscopy, suggested that metastatic cells exert more force on their surroundings, Kuhn said. Together these two findings may indicate that metastatic cells can exert force to stick to, migrate on and remodel the tough extracellular matrix that surrounds the tumor, while remaining flexible enough to squeeze through small spaces in that membrane.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Princeton University. The original article was written by Catherine Zandonella.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- David B. Agus, Jenolyn F. Alexander, Wadih Arap, Shashanka Ashili, Joseph E. Aslan, Robert H. Austin, Vadim Backman, Kelly J. Bethel, Richard Bonneau, Wei-Chiang Chen, Chira Chen-Tanyolac, Nathan C. Choi, Steven A. Curley, Matthew Dallas, Dhwanil Damania, Paul C. W. Davies, Paolo Decuzzi, Laura Dickinson, Luis Estevez-Salmeron, Veronica Estrella, Mauro Ferrari, Claudia Fischbach, Jasmine Foo, Stephanie I. Fraley, Christian Frantz, Alexander Fuhrmann, Philippe Gascard, Robert A. Gatenby, Yue Geng, Sharon Gerecht, Robert J. Gillies, Biana Godin, William M. Grady, Alex Greenfield, Courtney Hemphill, Barbara L. Hempstead, Abigail Hielscher, W. Daniel Hillis, Eric C. Holland, Arig Ibrahim-Hashim, Tyler Jacks, Roger H. Johnson, Ahyoung Joo, Jonathan E. Katz, Laimonas Kelbauskas, Carl Kesselman, Michael R. King, Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, Casey M. Kraning-Rush, Peter Kuhn, Kevin Kung, Brian Kwee, Johnathon N. Lakins, Guillaume Lambert, David Liao, Jonathan D. Licht, Jan T. Liphardt, Liyu Liu, Mark C. Lloyd, Anna Lyubimova, Parag Mallick, John Marko, Owen J. T. McCarty, Deirdre R. Meldrum, Franziska Michor, Shannon M. Mumenthaler, Vivek Nandakumar, Thomas V. O?Halloran, Steve Oh, Renata Pasqualini, Matthew J. Paszek, Kevin G. Philips, Christopher S. Poultney, Kuldeepsinh Rana, Cynthia A. Reinhart-King, Robert Ros, Gregg L. Semenza, Patti Senechal, Michael L. Shuler, Srimeenakshi Srinivasan, Jack R. Staunton, Yolanda Stypula, Hariharan Subramanian, Thea D. Tlsty, Garth W. Tormoen, Yiider Tseng, Alexander van Oudenaarden, Scott S. Verbridge, Jenny C. Wan, Valerie M. Weaver, Jonathan Widom, Christine Will, Denis Wirtz, Jonathan Wojtkowiak, Pei-Hsun Wu. A physical sciences network characterization of non-tumorigenic and metastatic cells. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01449
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/fvNmb0CGB6A/130426152558.htm
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Saturday, April 27, 2013
Amazon growth slows, while profit margins expand
By Alistair Barr
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's revenue growth slowed in the first quarter as the world's largest Internet retail struggled overseas, but margins jumped on lower shipping expenses and the expansion of more profitable new businesses.
Amazon shares fell 1.9 percent to $269.43 in after-hours trading on Thursday following the results.
"The message there is North America was better than expected but international was softer. The question is ... 'Is this a reflection of macro trends in Europe, or is there something else going on there?'" said Telsey Advisory Group analyst Tom Forte.
Europe's lackluster economies are weighing on corporate sales in the region - even for fast-growing e-commerce businesses. EBay Inc, Amazon's main rival, reported disappointing results last week and noted European weakness.
Amazon's revenue rose 22 percent to $16.07 billion, propelled by growing sales of digital content, cloud-computing services and gains in its main retail business. But it was a decline from 36 percent growth in the first quarter of 2012.
International revenue rose 16 percent in the most-recent quarter, year-over-year, down from a 31 percent growth rate in the same period of 2012.
During a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak was peppered with questions about slowing growth.
"There is some softness from a macro standpoint that others are seeing," the CFO said.
Amazon has also struggled to grow in China and the CFO told analysts the company is still in "investment mode" in that country.
Szkutak reported that total year-over-year unit growth, which measures the number of items Amazon sells, was 30 percent in the first quarter, down from 49 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
"Unit growth is slowing which disappointed some," said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. "The law of large numbers is affecting Amazon too. You can't grow 100 percent forever, otherwise you become the universe."
GROSS MARGINS A BRIGHT SPOT
Amazon forecast second-quarter revenue of $14.5 billion to $16.2 billion and operating results from break-even to $350 million. The latter guidance excludes stock-based compensation expenses and other items such as amortization of intangible assets.
Wall Street was looking for second-quarter revenue of $15.94 billion and operating results of $452 million, according to Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
Despite weaker growth and a cautious forecast, Amazon's results showed that the company is becoming more profitable.
Gross profit margin, a closely watched measure of profitability, came in at a better-than-expected 26.6 percent, compared with 24 percent a year earlier.
The first-quarter gross margin was the highest in at least a decade, according to Scott Tilghman, an analyst at B Riley & Co.
Amazon is building distribution warehouses closer to customers, reducing shipping costs. It has also been charging third-party merchants on its marketplace higher fees for shipping and warehouse storage.
In the first quarter, net shipping costs were 4.7 percent of sales, down from 5.1 percent a year earlier.
Moving into other areas is also boosting margins.
The company mainly operates as a retailer, buying physical products at wholesale prices, storing them and then selling at a slight mark-up to consumers online. But it has expanded into other businesses that are potentially more profitable, including cloud computing, advertising, digital content and acting as an online marketplace for other merchants.
These newer businesses are growing faster than the company's original retail operations, boosting profitability.
Amazon's web services (AWS) and advertising businesses are reported in a segment the company calls "other." Revenue from this area surged 59 percent to $798 million in the quarter.
"At the end of the day, at least on that (profit) basis, they are showing some very good progress," said Evercore analyst Ken Sena. "You are seeing benefit from the higher-margin Amazon Web Services business, and also higher-margin third-party marketplace business."
(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-growth-slows-while-profit-margins-expand-084256870--sector.html
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Details of Boston carjacking victim's ordeal comes out in Globe interview
>> we will revisit this.
>>> chilling details surrounding the tsarnaev brothers alleged plot to attack the heart of new york city after causing so much damage in boston . according to city officials, the two marathon bombing suspects discussed driving to new york to detonate their remaining explosives in a spontaneous assault on times square . at the time, their arsenal included five pipe bombs and one pressure cooker bomb similar to the ones used in last monday's deadly attack. police say the younger brother had visited times square once last year but their plan fell apart after realizing the mercedes-benz car they hijacked did not have enough car to get to new york . a pre- miranda rights interrogation of 19-year-old dzhokhar tsarnaev it appears the younger brother has stopped answering questions about the bombing since he was read his rights on monday night and that has sparked a debate among lawmakers how the government should handle domestic terror cases.
>> we can't have, in a case like than, the judiciary deciding because it's on tv and it might look bad for them to allow the public safety exemption that is deemed legal by the united states supreme court that they would somehow intercede in this, it is confusing and it's horrible god awful policy and danger to the greater community and we have got to get to the bottom of this and we have got to fix it right now.
>> tsarnaev was reportedly questioned by investigators up to 16 hours over the course of two days and answering questions mostly in writing due to the severe injury to his neck.
>> jane harman , there would be some people that would look at the fact that the plot in times square was foiled because they didn't have enough gas in their tank to get down to new york as a sign -- as a good sign that this was half-baked plot. it actually scares me that guys -- this ill-prepared could be running around with bombs. it's the sort of thing you're not going to pick up chatter. you're not going to pick up any clues from overseas. this is a sort of a random violence that we should all really be child by even more so than if they had some contacts overseas.
>> i agree. mike hayden said the other day, the former director of the cia , that this is the new normal. in this case, i think we will learn that some mistakes were made. we should have been on these guys earlier than we were, but this type of thing, self-radicalized people, in this case, maybe this fellow misha had a lot to do with radicalizing these kids. self-radicalized people who go on the internet and you can find the recipe for building pressure cooker bombs or pipe bombs or other kinds of small weapons can maybe sometimes get lucky and pull it off in this country. they have to be right once. we have to be right 100% of the time but on something that mika said just before, joe, she said mike rogers , among other things, perhaps, are complaining that this fellow was mirandaized. a liberal named george will had an op-ed in "the washington post " yesterday talking about incarcerating the japanese during world war ii and made the point if we live by our values and we follow the rule of law, we do better and, in this case, i think when we look back on all of this, the way we handled the investigation and the prosecution of this fellow who for sure, i think based on the evidence we know who likely will be convicted, will be a model for the world and it will show people that we followed the rule of law here and that is what we have to do.
>> as congresswoman harmon is talking we are getting word that dzhokhar tsarnaev has been transported from beth israel hospital to prison. we are talking about his physical condition. apparently it's upgraded to the point they have taken him out of the hospital new and he has been moved to a prison in massachusetts. one of the people we haven't talked about a lot but we have heard about is this guy who was car-jacked a week ago. he is a 26-year-old chinese man in this black mercedes suv and come to boston to go to grad school and now working on a start-up. he lives in boston . he gets car-jacked around 11:00 last thursday night and taken on an interview with "the boston globe " a 90-minute ride. remember it was reported 30 minutes ? he says it's 90-minute ride. you have to talk about this key to these two brothers being caught. he said finally after this 90 minutes they realized they don't have enough gas to get to manhattan and pull up to a gas station and turns out it's cash only. so they have to go inside. one of the brothers has to go inside the gas station to pay. at that point, this guy who calls himself danny, didn't want to give his real name, makes a decision even though the other brother is in the back seat that is going to bolt. this is life and death . he unbuckles the seat belt and he said he ran in an angle that would be hard for the brother to shoot him. he runs across the street to another gas station and tells the attendant to call 911. he left his iphone in the car so it could be tracked and traced. it's a remarkable account if you have a chance to read "the boston globe " about two and a half hour interview where he gives a moment-by-moment recap and he is critical to these two guys being caught.
>> no doubt. that is when everything started unraveling for them and there was even the moment where his friend kept calling him up and he said if you speak in mandarin, i'm going to kill you right here. you get to the part where the brother was doing an english mandarin translation to tell him what to text back to his friend and the guy just kept his head and was responsible for these two terrorists being caught.
>> the reason the i phone was left in the car? the two brothers wanted to listen to music so he plugged in his iphone to the car.
>> oh, my lord!
>> so the phone was not on his body, it was plugged into the car.
>> runs across the street to a mob mobil station and they call 911.
>> it speaks to a new normal which congresswoman harman was touching on. i find your sentiment far more alarming than anything else. deval patrick , the governor, i thought handled it so well. he said the next day the young tsarnaev went to school and went to the gym and paertrtied with friends as if nothing had happen. going forward for law enforcement , how do you track this and what steps to prevent this from going forward? an e in the course challenge for law enforcement and intelligence officials going forward.
>> one of the tragedies, though, is president kennedy saw this. he said if someone wants to trade their life for mine, no way i can be protected. men with guns change history, whether it's sarajevo or memphis in 1968 . the day before, you broke in and you said this guy, these people are going to do than, everybody would go, come on, they could never pull this off, but they did.
>> jane?
>> yeah. the nypd has a lot of tools that other local police departments may have to learn about. of course, new york is a much bigger target and so is washington. perhaps than boston or someplace in the midwest. but they have a thousand intelligence officers . they have a huge police department . 35,000 people compared to 2,000 in boston . i think that's the number. obviously, a bigger population. but they can detect signs early. for example the older brother was thrown out of his mosque and there was behavior there they would pick up because they built trust with the muslim community . let's be clear that all would-be radicalized people are not muslim but nonetheless they can pick up signs and follow these people much more closely and they have thwarted a lot of plots. we have been successful more than we have failed in blocking plots against our country.
>> yes.
>> and these small bore plots, i know a lot of people were hurt but this is nothing like 9/11, are going to be in our future and if we have better intel in our local police departments, we're going to do better getting ahead of the curve, even with people like this who are substantially invisible.
>> jane harman , thank you so much. on monday, we will be marking six months since superstorm sandy devastated the eastern seaboard . we will be live from some of the hardest hit spots and see how they are recovering.
>>> coming up, mike florio will join us to break down the nfl draft .
>> thanks, willie.
>> trickalso chemical war fare in syria. richard haass weighs in on the significant developments in that conflict. chadwick boseman describes his role as the great jackie robinson .
>> great movie.
>> a new article "the atlantic" says changing technology means we may never run out of oil. james bennett is here to explain.
>> there you go!
>> the top stories coming up next and the political playbook.
>>> first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill?
>> good morning. it's a nice happy forecast for so many people in this country as we head to a nice, warm weekend for once. just about everywhere on the map. we are going to have some rain to deal with but first recap yesterday. one of the warmest days we have seen in montana, colorado through the central plains . it was beautiful. the last spot to warm up is minneapolis, north wards and up through the great lakes. that warm air coming your way this weekend. we do have a little bit of rain this morning. kansas city and st. louis that's going to head for louisville, nashville, memphis, little rock and tulsa during the day today so you need your umbrellas. tomorrow a lot of that rain will be in kentucky and tennessee. although it's warm, it will be, unfortunately, a little bit wet. here is your forecast into the weekend. starting with today, another great day from new york to boston to d.c. it is a little chilly in the northeast this morning but this afternoon, perfect. then the weekend forecast look at minneapolis. about time! 72 warm degrees! you're going to be the same temperature as atlanta because the southeast you're going to be dodging the raindrops all weekend long and maybe even a few thunderstorms mixed in too and wrap it up with your sunday forecast and notice kansas city , you deserve that after the spring you had. 74 and sunny beautiful degrees! overall, this is a thumb's up weekend. the only exception being the rain in the southeast. you're watching " morning joe ," brewed by starbucks.
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New source of funding for energy efficiency projects in Kyrgyz ...
OTHER NEWS AFFECTING PROJECTS & PM?
The EU Central Asia Investment Facility (IFCA) to also provide grants as incentives for investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.?
26 April 2013 ? London, UK ? The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced a new US$ 20 million credit line to support energy efficiency improvement projects in the Kyrgyz Republic.? Credits are to be complemented by donor funding provided by the EU Central Asia Investment Facility (IFCA).? The total donor funding made available for technical assistance and grants offered together with the KyrSEFF credit line amounts to ?3.8 million.
Over the next four years, loans under the new Kyrgyz Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (KyrSEFF) will be provided through partner banks. KyrSEFF credits are now available through Demirbank and KICB, with additional partners expected to join in the next few months.? Loans under this credit line may be as little as a few hundred dollars but may reach a maximum of US$ 1 million depending on the borrower and the investment type.
?Working with the Kyrgyz banks on energy efficiency projects is a high priority for the EBRD. We hope that through our partner banks we can reach many Kyrgyz businesses and households that wish to invest in energy efficient equipment or insulation,? said Mike Taylor, EBRD Director for Financial Institutions, Central Asia, Caucasus and Mongolia.
For private households, home improvements financed under the new credit line could include the installation of energy efficient windows, the insulation of walls, roofs and floors, and the introduction of efficient boilers, biomass-fuelled room heaters, solar water systems or heat pumps. Any home owner, resident?s association, energy service company, developer or facility management company will be entitled to receive a grant, donor funded by the EU?s Central Asia Investment Facility (IFCA), of between 20 and 35 per cent of the loan amount, with this sum paid towards the cost of the energy efficient project after completion (subject to KyrSEFF?s terms and conditions).
In the commercial sector, energy efficient investments could cover the purchase of new production machinery, help enhance production processes, or retrofit company buildings and facilities.? To help companies identify the most suitable energy saving projects, the EU?s Central Asia Investment Facility (IFCA) has financed a team of international and local KyrSEFF engineers to provide companies with free advice. Commercial projects that are completed in accordance with the KyrSEFF terms and conditions are also entitled to receive a grant from the EU Central Asia Investment Facility (IFCA) of up to 20 per cent of the loan amount.
According to Chantal Hebberecht, EU Ambassador to Kyrgyz Republic, ?With KyrSEFF we support companies and households in Kyrgyz Republic by sharing European experience in the field of sustainable living and the most efficient use of energy resources. We are glad that the government of Kyrgyz Republic and the EBRD are providing us with this opportunity to support residents to improve their homes and businesses in their efforts in upgrading their quality output whilst saving energy.?
Further information about KyrSEFF can be found at www.kyrseff.kg
For more information about EBRD projects in the Kyrgyz Republic, go to http://www.ebrd.com/pages/country/kyrgyzrepublic.shtml
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), established in 1991 to nurture the private sector in central and eastern Europe and central Asia, uses investment to help build market economies and democracies. The EBRD is the largest single investor in the region and mobilizes significant foreign direct investment beyond its own financing. Owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, the EBRD provides project financing for banks, industries and businesses. ?The EBRD invested ?8.7 billion in 388 individual projects in 2012. ?For more information about the bank, visit http://www.ebrd.com/index.htm
Based on EBRD news story by Svitlana Pyrkalo
Source: EBRD
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Group: Sudan army supporting fugitive warlord Kony
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? The fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony recently found safe haven in territory controlled by Sudan, a watchdog group said Friday, accusing the Sudanese military of offering aid to commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army.
The U.S.-based group Resolve said in a new report that Kony recently directed killings from an enclave protected by the Sudanese military. Until early this year, according to the report, Kony and some of his commanders were operating in Kafia Kingi, a disputed area along the Sudan-South Sudan border where African Union troops tasked with catching Kony don't have access.
"The enclave is currently controlled by Sudan, and numerous eyewitness reports indicate that elements of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Kafia Kingi have actively sheltered senior LRA commanders there and provided them with limited material support," the report said. "According to LRA defectors and other sources, LRA leader Joseph Kony himself first traveled to the Kafia Kingi enclave in 2010. He returned to Kafia Kingi in 2011 and was present there throughout parts of 2012."
In a series of makeshift camps near a Sudanese army barracks, Kony "continued to direct LRA attacks against civilians in neighboring countries and issue new orders for LRA fighters."
The Ugandan military ? with support from U.S. military advisers ? is the driving force behind the hunt for Kony. Ugandan army spokesman Col. Felix Kulayigye said the report vindicates Uganda's contention that the LRA is a beneficiary of Sudanese support. Ugandan army officials said late last year they believed Kony was hiding in Sudan-controlled territory, although now they believe he has moved elsewhere.
"We always knew Kony was hiding in Kafia Kingi," he said. "The way forward is that no country should be hiding a wanted criminal."
Kony watchdog groups are concerned that Kony can retreat to Kafia Kingi whenever his pursuers get close. Resolve said it has satellite imagery of the now-abandoned camp where Kony was reportedly seen in late 2012. The warlord is no longer believed to be hiding there, the report noted, saying he may have crossed to Central African Republic.
Sudan has consistently denied charges it supports Kony, a warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The United States government is evaluating the report that the LRA is operating in the Kafia Kingi region, said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell Friday.
"The U.S. and the international community as a whole would take very seriously any credible evidence of support or safe haven being provided to the LRA," said Ventrell, citing a December statement at the U.N. expressing concern about the LRA's possible presence in Kafia Kingi.
"We continue to discuss our concerns about the whereabouts of Joseph Kony with all governments in the region, including with the government of Sudan, and we have encouraged Sudan to cooperate with regional efforts to counter the LRA," Ventrell added. "We're in a position now where two of the top five commanders are gone, the number of people killed by the LRA has gone down by 66 percent, and defections continue. So our pressure on the LRA continues."
Kony's LRA, which originated in Uganda in the 1980s as a popular tribal uprising against the government, has become notorious for recruiting children as fighters and forcing girls to be sex slaves. Military pressure forced the LRA out of Uganda in 2005, and the rebels scattered across parts of central Africa. LRA fighters are now believed to be operating mainly in the jungles of Congo and Central African Republic.
Ugandan Brig. Dick Olum, the top commander of African forces hunting for Kony, recently said he believed Kony had crossed to Central African Republic, where last month rebels deposed a president and expressed hostility toward foreign troops operating in the country. The lack of cooperation from the new government there forced the African Union to suspend military operations against Kony, who over the years has taken advantage of porous borders and weak governments to regroup.
The LRA is vastly diminished from previous years, and its forces now don't exceed 500, according Brig. Olum. Many of Kony's fighters have defected in the past year, and some of his top lieutenants have been captured or killed in combat. Last year an LRA commander believed to be Kony's military strategist was seized by Ugandan troops.
Sudan's support for Kony threatens progress made against the LRA, said the new report by Resolve.
"Unless addressed, it will also enable LRA leaders to outlast current counter-LRA operations," the report said. "Though international diplomats and military officials working to stop LRA attacks privately acknowledge recent LRA movement in Kafia Kingi, they have not adopted realistic strategies to prevent further support from Sudan to Kony's forces."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/group-sudan-army-supporting-fugitive-warlord-kony-110043174.html
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Friday, April 26, 2013
Our viewpoint: Funding for pre-K programs is a necessary step | Sun ...
A growing number of scientific findings on early brain development and the ability of children to learn more earlier is leading educational and business leaders to push for more state funding to educate three-and four-year-old children, particularly from communities with concentrations of poor families.
Experts say that at the age of five a child?s brain is 90 percent developed enabling them to learn numerical concepts, good behavior and how to get along with other children.
Gov. Mark Dayton and Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius are urging legislators to approve more dollars for pre-kindergarten scholarships and for all-day-every-day kindergarten.
Last month, this newspaper?s editorial board, in keeping with its year-long educational agenda, endorsed full funding for all-day-every-day kindergarten for all students in Minnesota.
We also favor the need for more pre-K funding, because half of Minnesota?s children are not prepared for kindergarten, according to the department of education.
Dayton wants the Minnesota Legislature to fund $44 million to allocate 10,000 pre-K student scholarships intended for children from families in poverty.? These scholarships would be run through the popular Parent Aware program in which parents rate the providers of pre-K programs. Parents would select from a list of providers rated four and above.
We are concerned, however, that scholarships in the governor?s bill are intended mainly for children living in communities where there are concentrations of poverty, possibly excluding poor students living in middle-income communities across the state.? We urge the Office of Early Learning at the Minnesota Department of Education to distribute the scholarships equitably across the state.
Economists Arthur Rolnick and Rob Grunewald have drawn national attention, particularly from the business community, with their claim that for every dollar invested in early-childhood education for low-income children in high-quality early education programs, there is a return on the investment of $16.
Some critics question spending state dollars on programs studies say don?t work.
They also claim that students who do not have early childhood education usually catch up with those that do by third grade.
A highly interesting study by James Heckman, Nobel economist, found that children from higher-income families who were observed and tested from ages three to 18 scored much higher than families than students in lower-income families.
What?s stunning is that children from families living in concentrated poverty areas that miss the pre-K education step never catch up with children from higher income families who have pre-K.
As reported in the New York Times, Heckman and others confirm that investment in early education of disadvantaged children pays extremely high returns down the road.
Education Commissioner Cassellius says there is plenty of research to support investment in young learners as a critical way to close the achievement gap and improve student outcomes. She points to a study in North Carolina where low income students who attended pre-school had higher math and reading scores in third grade than their peers.
A study in Michigan traced two groups of low-income students, those who attended pre-school and those who didn?t.? The study found that at age 40, those who attended pre-school had higher levels of education, earned more money, were more likely to own a home and were less likely to be incarcerated.
Minnesota already has a pre-K program that?s offered through 300 public school districts and is funded by local and state funds.? Early Childhood Family Education works with parents and their children from birth to kindergarten. It is based on the belief that the family provides the child?s first and most significant learning.
This emphasis on pre-K education is in line with what is happening nationally. President Obama proposes to expand early childhood education to provide high quality pre-K for four-year-olds from families whose incomes are at or below 200 percent of the poverty line.
Through a Race-to-the-Top federal grant of $10.7 million, more pre-K scholarships for poor children in Minnesota are being awarded from 2012 to 2015. As part of the grant, a special committee designates the families who should receive the scholarships.
We believe spending money at the state level for 10,000 pre-K scholarships targeting children living in poverty areas is a necessary investment in view of the fact that today half of Minnesota?s children are not ready for kindergarten.
We urge people who agree with this view to let their legislators know that funding for pre-K education is a necessary first step to narrowing the achievement gap between the have and have-not students.
?? An opinion of the ECM Editorial Board.
?
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Learndot Officially Opens To The Public To Let Any Business Build Its Own Corporate University In The Cloud
Matygo emerged out of Vancouver's GrowLab accelerator in late 2011 to take advantage of the growing popularity of the "flipped classroom" philosophy in education, which, as Knewton describes it, seeks to invert traditional methods of teaching by delivering instruction online (through videos, etc.) outside of class, while moving homework into the classroom. Khan Academy is one of many examples of how startups are applying the flipped classroom model to improve the learning process.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/YBFVRA2y2gE/
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CoAction Hero board comes with its own OS, simplifies desktop coding (video)
Although we've seen a deluge of tinker-friendly boards, many of them share a dirty secret: they're borrowing someone else's OS. The creator of the new CoAction Hero board, Tyler Gilbert, doesn't think that's good enough for those who want both control and ease of use. His stackable ARM Cortex-M3 design runs its own real-time platform, CoActionOS, that supports Raspberry Pi-style features like file systems and multitasking while abstracting the hardware enough to remove some of the usual headaches. Coding for the CoAction Hero is much like writing a desktop app, and a Qt-based developer kit helps owners write their own interface without knowing the circuitry inside-out. The board is being crowdfunded and won't ship until July if all goes according to plan, but a relatively low $10,000 target and $29 minimum pledge for a device should get the Hero into the hands of intrepid project builders.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Kickstarter
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Jp99YXuUBo4/
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MLB likely to discuss security after bombings
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stadium operations officials from the 30 big league baseball teams will meet this week and are expected to discuss whether to make any security changes in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Major League Baseball said the session Thursday in New York was planned before the attacks last week.
"This stadium operations meeting scheduled for later this week was not a product of the incidents in Boston," MLB spokesman Michael Teevan said Tuesday. "It is a part of our ongoing efforts to discuss state-of-the-art security measures with the clubs, and it's standard operating procedure."
Among the security topics that could be discussed are backpacks that fans bring into ballparks.
Each team has different policies for fans, although the general major league limitation on bag sizes is 16 inches by 16 inches by 8 inches. Teams might talk about whether they want to cut that down from the size of a standard school backpack to something such as a laptop carrying bag.
At Yankee Stadium, "briefcases, coolers and other hard-sided bags or containers are not permitted." At Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, wrapped presents are banned along with cameras with lenses of 12 or more inches. The Orioles ban bags with wheels at Camden Yards.
David Rose, who works in the New York financial world, noticed increased security at Citi Field for the Mets' game Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He came with a standard-sized backpack and got a thorough examination at the gate.
"I've never had anything like that going to a major league game," he said. "They went through everything, they even looked at my wallet. It was like going through security screening at an airport. But after what happened in Boston and the train threat in Canada, people are jittery."
Rose said he hoped the permissible backpack size at stadiums wouldn't be reduced.
"A lot of people come to the ballpark straight from work," he said. "It would be inconvenience to have to leave it there."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mlb-likely-discuss-security-bombings-002846920--mlb.html
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PSA: Twitter is down for some, as is iCloud and the iTunes Store (update: both are back up!)
Nope, it's not your picture of "the best duck confit I've ever had" that's causing that Twitter post to error out -- the service is down for "some users," according to a Twitter status page update. It's unknown what's causing the issue (again, probably not your photweet), but we're assured "engineers are currently working on this issue." We're experiencing some snags ourselves, usually resulting in tweets timing out before publishing. Hang tight!
But maybe don't try to while away your time on the iTunes Store or by backing up your phone to iCloud, as those services are also experiencing some downtime issues this morning. An Apple support page lists both as seeing "some users affected;" we'll just have to assume engineers are also hard at work on fixing that. As always, we'll let you know when things get better.
Update: Looks like Twitter is all back to normal, and the company says, "this issue has been resolved." Apple, on the other hand, is still having issues with Apple ID and Game Center login.
Update 2: Apple is now all back to normal as well, according to the company's support page. But do let us know if you're experiencing any issues!
Filed under: Apple
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