Prebiotics: Do supplements in baby formula help prevent allergies?

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Prebiotic supplements in infant formula may help to prevent eczema, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. However, the review highlights a lack of high quality evidence for the effects of prebiotics in preventing allergies.

It is thought that bacteria lining the gut may play an important role in a child developing sensitivities to certain foods and allergens, regulating immune responses and determining how they will react to the same substances in later life. Prebiotics are indigestible components of breast milk, fruit and vegetables that stimulate the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in the gut. They are distinct from probiotics, which are cultures of live bacteria such as those added to yoghurts and infant formula. Prebiotics can also be added to infant formula. However, it is unclear exactly what effect these supplements have on the development of allergies.

The researchers drew together data from four studies involving a total of 1,428 children. Children were given formula containing prebiotic supplements or, as a control, standard formula. Studies followed children to between four months and two years of age and reported the number who developed allergies. Eczema was significantly reduced in children who were fed formula containing prebiotics. Only two studies investigated asthma. The number of children who developed asthma was similar whether they were given formula with added prebiotics or without. In one study looking at urticaria (hives), giving children formula containing prebiotics did not prevent any cases of the allergy.

Only one study assessed the effect of giving formula containing prebiotics to high-risk children, who had close family members with allergies. In this study, prebiotics reduced both eczema and asthma, but there were no significant reductions in allergies overall in high-risk children. "Given these findings, it remains unclear whether the use of prebiotics should be restricted to infants at high risk of allergy or may have an effect in low risk populations," said lead researcher, John Sinn of the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia.

"Overall, we found some evidence that infant formula containing prebiotic supplements can help prevent eczema in children up to two years of age," said Sinn. "However, the quality of existing evidence is generally low or very low. More high quality research is needed before we can recommend routine use of prebiotics for prevention of allergy."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wiley.

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Journal Reference:

1. JK Sinn, DA Osborn. Prebiotics in infants for prevention of allergy and food hypersensitivity. The Cochrane Library, 2013 (in press) DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006474

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/living_well/~3/szTO79OWy3I/130328075716.htm

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More trouble for Cohen's SAC Capital as Steinberg indicted in NY

By Nate Raymond and Matthew Goldstein

(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged Michael Steinberg, a veteran portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund, with insider trading in two technology stocks, the most senior SAC Capital Advisors' employee to be indicted in the government's long-running probe.

FBI agents arrested Steinberg at his Park Avenue home in New York City at around 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT). Steinberg, wearing a blue sweater, pleaded "not guilty" to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities when he appeared at a late morning arraignment.

The five-count indictment charges Steinberg, 40, with using inside information to trade shares of computer maker Dell Inc and chipmaker Nvidia Corp in 2008 and 2009 that generated about $1.4 million in illegal profits for Cohen's $15 billion hedge fund.

In a related civil complaint against Steinberg, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the information allowed Steinberg to generate $6.4 million in profits and avoided losses for the hedge fund.

Barry Berke, Steinberg's lawyer, said in a statement that his client had done "absolutely nothing wrong" and his "trading decisions were based on detailed analysis."

The charges come after a tumultuous six months for Cohen, one of the most successful hedge fund traders. It began with last November's arrest of former SAC portfolio manager Mathew Martoma in what prosecutors had described as the largest U.S. insider-trading case.

Martoma pleaded not guilty to charges of insider trading in Elan Corp and Wyeth that allegedly resulted in profits and avoided losses totaling $276 million.

SAC Capital agreed two weeks ago to pay a $616 million penalty to the SEC to settle allegations of improper trading by the firm arising out of the Martoma investigation and alleged improper trading in Dell and Nvidia. SAC neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of that settlement.

But a federal judge on Thursday said he was reserving his decision on approving the deal.

Mounting concern over the insider trading probe prompted outside investors in SAC Capital to submit redemption notices last month to withdraw up to $1.68 billion from Cohen's firm. Several outside investors, including Blackstone Group, declined to comment on Steinberg's arrest.

Cohen, a multi-billionaire, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. A well-known art collector, he recently purchased Pablo Picasso's "Le Reve" from casino owner Stephen Wynn for $155 million and, according to The New York Times, bought a $60 million oceanfront home in East Hampton, N.Y.

$3 MILLION BOND

Steinberg is one of nine current or former employees of SAC Capital who have been charged or implicated with insider trading while working at Cohen's two-decade-old hedge fund.

His arrest had been widely expected after Jon Horvath, a former SAC analyst who reported to Steinberg, pleaded guilty last year to using illegally obtained information to trade in Dell. Horvath has been cooperating with the government and had implicated Steinberg.

Steinberg was suspended last autumn from his post at SAC Capital's Sigma Capital division and remains on paid leave.

SAC Capital spokesman Jonathan Gasthalter said: "Mike has conducted himself professionally and ethically during his long tenure at the firm. We believe him to be a man of integrity."

Prosecutors have introduced emails that they said indicated Steinberg had access to inside information about potential weakness in Dell's earnings, in advance of the personal computer maker's August 2008 results announcement.

Federal authorities contend the improper trading by Steinberg largely involved short positions and derivative trades. The trades involving shares of Dell occurred in August 2008, while the trading in Nvidia took place in May 2009.

The SEC complaint said some of the trading in Dell was done by a SAC portfolio called SAC Select. People familiar with SAC Select said it used computer-driven trading strategies to mimic the trades of some of SAC Capital's top portfolio managers.

The complaint against Steinberg made no reference to Cohen, unlike the criminal and civil cases filed by against Martoma, which was the first time authorities had alluded to him as the "owner" of the hedge fund.

Steinberg had been moving among several hotels in New York City in recent weeks, according to Reuters sources, as he wanted to avoid being arrested at his Upper East Side home where he lives with his wife and two children.

Following the arraignment before U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in lower Manhattan on Friday morning, Steinberg was released after agreeing to post $3 million in bond, which was secured by $1 million in property.

During the proceeding, a federal prosecutor said no search warrant was served on the hedge fund in connection with the charges against Steinberg.

In announcing the $616 million settlement with SAC Capital, lawyers with the SEC made clear the deal did not preclude further charges against individuals or from other trading at SAC Capital that is still be investigated. As part of that settlement, SAC Capital agreed to pay $14 million to settle charges of improper trading in Dell.

On Thursday, a federal district judge reviewing the part of the settlement involving trading in shares of Elan and Wyeth, now a part of Pfizer, said he was reserving decision for now.

The cases in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York are: United States v. Steinberg, No. 12-cr-121, and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Steinberg, No. 13-2082.

(Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Katya Wachtel and Sruthi Ramakrishnan; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-sac-capital-portfolio-manager-steinberg-arrested-fbi-114324817--sector.html

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World Water Crisis Could Lead to Big Investing Opportunity ...

When you turn on the faucet of your kitchen sink or bathroom shower, it's easy to forget that behind the water is a really big business. From finding a clean source, to purifying it, and getting it into your home, there are plenty of ways to profit from good old H2O. And the demand for safe, clean water in every corner of the world has never been higher.

We were reminded of its importance last week with the United Nation's 20th annual World Water Day. Connecticut Water Services (CTWS) marked the occasion by ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq marketsite. Their CEO, Eric Thornburg notes that World Water Day "commemorates the impact that water has on the lives of people all over the world. And of course in the U.S. we?re very proud of that impact, because people can take a drink of water and not have a second thought about its safety or freshness. But in other parts of the world you can?t do that. There are over a billion people around the globe that do not have access to safe drinking water."

But from that global crisis flows opportunity. Investors are catching on to the value of water and many believe it could be the next great commodity to invest in.

The S&P Global Water Index (CGW) outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 index last year rising 21% against the S&P's 16% gain. PowerShares Water Resources fund (PHO), the largest ETF in the sector, saw a 23% jump in 2012 as well, and Thornburg's Connecticut Water Services, despite facing some near-term price pressure, is up 20% in the last five years.

"I think the real investment opportunity is in the infrastructure and the systems that treat and protect this resource," Thornburg says. "Purifying the water and pumping it and storing it and having it available when it's needed, that's really our business."

One of the biggest challenges to the business is that aging water infrastructure. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, our country loses 1.7 trillion gallons of water annually due to leaks and water main breaks. That's enough to supply the ten largest cities in the U.S. for a year.

"Unfortunately there's a lot of backlog to catch up on because for many years people weren't replacing pipe on a systematic basis," Thornburg says."We replace one percent of our underground assets every year and then we apply a surcharge to customers bills to recover that capital."

Once Connecticut Water recovers that capital, shareholders reap the benefits in the form of a dividend yielding 3.3%. But money isn't the only perk of staying on top of repairs. Thornburg points out that his company's pipe replacement plan alone creates 160 high-paying, highly skilled jobs.

Still, new jobs means more spending for Thornburg and he isn't looking to Washington for help.

"We have chosen not to take advantage of federal funding," he says. "We?ve sought access to private capital because it is so much more efficient to attract it and deploy it and it doesn?t have nearly the load of regulatory requirements. I would really like to see our government leaders solve that because capital is really needed by the municipalities and towns who own their own water systems and that would help them to solve their problems."

Another one of those problems is demand. As the world population grows and water sources shrink, Thornburg's industry is increasingly concerned about keeping up. "Customers are going to have to be willing to pay a bit more," he admits, "and we?re going to have to be good stewards of this so that future generations don?t have to invest far more than they should."

Is there a company you would like to see us profile? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/world-water-crisis-could-lead-big-investing-opportunity-183107589.html

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On the second day, Supreme Court considers DOMA (Washington Post)

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Which Actress Said Kissing Brad Pitt Was "Disgusting"?

Who wouldn't want to kiss Brad Pitt? Answer: Kirsten Dunst -- at least, when she was 11 years old. The actress, now 30, shared her first-ever kiss with Pitt in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire. It was "just a peck," she now recalls, but she didn't exactly enjoy it.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/kirsten-dunst-says-first-kiss-brad-pitt-was-disgusting/1-a-530978?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Akirsten-dunst-says-first-kiss-brad-pitt-was-disgusting-530978

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Obama will visit Mexico, Costa Rica in May (The Arizona Republic)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295030835?client_source=feed&format=rss

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DOJ emails show feds kept judges in the dark about cellphone ...

• 

Department of Justice documents obtained by the ACLU reveal that the department has not been ?forthright? with California judges?about its use of a controversial and sophisticated cellphone tracking device, according to the ACLU.

Federal investigators, according to the ACLU?s analysis of Justice Department emails, have ?routinely? used a portable technology called a ?stingray,? which?masquerades as a cellphone tower by emitting a powerful signal. The goal is to trick nearby cellphones into connecting to the stingray, which can then gather data transmitted by the phones.

The device target the cellphones of intended suspects, but it can also?capture?the cellphone data of nearby innocent people for up to?several?kilometers.

The emails ?obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request?filed?by the ACLU of Northern California and?the San Francisco Bay Guardian ? came to light as part of a larger investigation into the methods used by the Justice Department to track down a suspect in an electronic tax fraud scheme.

The Justice Department sought a court order mandating that Verizon hand over location data for the phone of the suspect, Daniel Rigmaiden. While the Justice Department?s request mentioned that it would use a mobile location tracking device, it did not specify that a stingray would be used.

Rigmaiden, who was indicted?in 2008,?has since argued that he should have access to details about the investigative methods used to track him down. A federal magistrate judge has been sympathetic to that position.

The Justice Department has also argued that in-field use of the device was an innocent mistake by agents ?using a relatively new technology,? but the emails obtained by the ACLU demonstrate that the government?s undeclared in-field use of the stingray was not isolated to the Rigmaiden case.

For example, an email chain dated May 2011 showed that federal investigators were still using the technology in the field, although their court applications for surveillance failed to ?make that explicit.?

The federal government has argued, however, that tools like the stingray can be used without a search warrant because they do not capture the content of communications made with cellphones. Instead, they capture only limited data, such as the phone numbers dialed.

Federal officials also contend that they delete the tracking data collected during stingray surveillance?operations.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) also obtained documents from the FBI in February 2013 that revealed the technology not only targeted Rigmaiden, but also innocent cellphones within the vicinity of the signal.

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/28/doj-emails-show-feds-kept-judges-in-the-dark-about-cellphone-tracking-device/

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Reminder: How Mexico Treats ?Undesirable? Foreigners (Michellemalkin)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294939025?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Tax dept to continue sending letters to non-filers of IT returns - Firstpost

New Delhi: Encouraged by the ?results? of earlier notices, Finance Ministry today said it will continue to send letters to assesses who do not file income tax return.

?We have been sending letters. We are getting results. The number of returns filed are showing an increase. We intend to continue with the efforts,? Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose said at an Assocham event here.

The Income Tax Department has already issued letters to over one lakh non-filers for failure to file I-T returns. Moneycontrol.com

The Income Tax Department has already issued letters to over one lakh non-filers for failure to file I-T returns in the past couple of months. The letters contain summary of information about financial transactions along with customised response sheet with a view to know why the person has not filed the income tax return.

As per the department, there are over 12 lakh PAN (Permanent Account Number) holders who had not filed income tax returns. After identifying the defaulters, the department has already sent letters to over one lakh such assessees.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram recently said the steps taken by the tax department to check evasion is reaping results as over 10,000 assessees have disclosed their income and filed taxes on receiving the letter.

Bose further said the Tax department?s effort is to widen the tax base in order to augment revenue. ?As the tax base widens, hopefully in near future, tax rates could fall,? Bose said. Although the Budget 2013-14 has kept the tax rates unchanged, it has proposed a 10 percent surcharge on those whose annual income exceeds Rs one crore.

The measure is likely to impact about 42,800 assesses and contribute about 1 percent additional revenue to the government. The revenue department is tapping all sources of revenue to achieve the Rs 5.65 lakh crore collection target under direct taxes category for this fiscal ending March 31.

The Secretary also admitted that 19 per cent growth in tax collection projected for next fiscal is a ?big challenge?. On concerns related to arrest provision in case of defaults in indirect taxes, Bose assured the industry that the norms would not be used indiscriminately. ?It is not our intention to use any such provisions indiscriminately,? he said adding the measure is aimed at those who get away without paying taxes.

CBEC Chairperson Praveen Mahajan, who was also present at the event, said there ?is no likelihood of unwarranted harassment? due to the arrest provision. As per the Finance Bill 2013 proposals, failure to pay excise duty and service tax over Rs 50 lakh could lead to arrest of defaulters.

PTI

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/tax-dept-to-continue-sending-letters-to-non-filers-of-i-t-returns-674245.html

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Slumbering Sun Should Wake Up This Year

The sun should roar back to life sometime in 2013, producing its second activity peak in the last two years, scientists say.

Our star has been surprisingly quiet since unleashing a flurry of flares and other eruptions toward the end of 2011. But this lull is likely the trough between two peaks that together constitute "solar maximum" for the sun's current 11-year activity cycle, researchers say.

"If you look back in history, many of the previous solar cycles don't have one hump, one maximum, but in fact have two," solar physicist C. Alex Young, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said today (March 22) during a NASA webcast called "Solar MAX Storm Warning: Effects on the Solar System."

"That's what we think is going to happen," Young added. "So we've reached one of those humps, and we think that eventually activity will pick back up and we'll see another hump ? a double-humped solar maximum."

Before the twin peaks scenario began to gain adherents, many researchers had predicted that solar maximum for the current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, would come this May. But given how quiet the sun is at the moment, the second hump will likely occur later than that, and it could last into 2014, scientists have said.

Saying the sun is quiet right now, however, does not mean that it's lifeless. Indeed, our star blasted out a huge cloud of superheated plasma known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) on March 15.

This CME delivered a glancing blow to Earth two days later, sparking a mild geomagnetic storm that had no serious effects. Powerful CMEs that hit Earth squarely can spawn serious such storms, temporarily knocking out power grids, GPS signals and radio communications.

But CME effects aren't all negative. They can also supercharge Earth's auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights, giving skywatchers around the world a treat.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/slumbering-sun-wake-134357020.html

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Moderate face of Syrian uprising quits

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - The head of Syria's main opposition group resigned on Sunday, weakening the moderate wing of the two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule and complicating Western efforts to back the rebels.

The resignation of Moaz Alkhatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus who had offered Assad a negotiated exit, could make the West more cautious in supporting the revolt. Alkhatib was seen as a moderate bulwark against the rising influence of al-Qaeda linked jihadist forces.

Syrian opposition leaders are due to attend an Arab League summit this week, Qatar said earlier on Sunday, looking for more support for their armed uprising.

Michael Stephens, researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in Doha, said Alkhatib's resignation throws a spanner into the summit.

"The premise of the summit is to determine whether the opposition has a legitimate right to sit with Arab states," Stephens said. "While Khatib may have blamed the EU summit, it is well known that the Arab League is meeting today, and his resignation will have a serious effect on the process."

Alkhatib was picked to head the Western and Gulf-backed National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which was formed in Qatar in November.

His resignation is seen as having been to some degree caused by Qatar, the main backer of his political foes in the coalition, and the country spearheading Arab support for the revolt as its geopolitical ramifications deepen.

The conflict pits Syria's Sunni Muslim majority against Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has controlled the country for almost five decades, deepening the Sunni-Shi'ite divide in the Middle East and raising tension between Gulf states and Iran.

Asked to comment on Alkhatib's resignation, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said in Doha: "We are very sorry for this, and I hope he reviews his resignation."

PROMISE TO GOD

Alkhatib quit after the coalition berated him for offering Assad a deal and after the group went ahead, despite his objections, with steps to form a provisional government that would have further diminished his authority.

"I had promised the great Syrian people and promised God that I would resign if matters reached some red lines," Alkhatib said in a statement on his official Facebook page, without explaining exactly what had prompted his resignation.

"Now I am fulfilling my promise and announcing my resignation from the National Coalition in order to be able to work with freedom that cannot be available within the official institutions," he said.

U.S. Secretary John Kerry, on a trip to Baghdad, expressed regret at Alhatib's decision.

"With respect to Moaz Alkhatib, I am personally sorry to see him go because I like him on a personal level and because I have appreciated his leadership but the notion that he might resign has frankly been expressed by him on many different occasions in many different places and it is not a surprise," Kerry said.

He made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and said he told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of his concern about Iranian flights over Iraq carrying arms to Syria.

"Anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry told reporters.

RISE OF ISLAMISTS

Last week, the coalition chose Islamist-leaning technocrat Ghassan Hitto as a provisional prime minister to form a government to fill a power vacuum in Syria arising from the revolt that has killed more than 70,000 people.

Hitto visited the Syrian commercial hub of Aleppo on Sunday to draw up a plan to restore services in parts of the city that have fallen to the opposition, according to a statement issued by his office.

Alkhatib, who had argued insufficient groundwork had been done to start forming a government, was weakened considerably, along with a moderate wing of the revolution as jihadist Salafists play a bigger role on the battlefield.

The rise of Salafists as the most effective fighting force, and their recent gains on the ground, have contributed to the coalition adopting a more hardline stance in recent weeks, rejecting dialogue with Assad except under strict conditions and ignoring promises to include more women and minorities.

Hitto, whose cabinet is supposed to govern rebel-held areas currently ruled by hundreds of brigades and emerging warlords, was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and coalition Secretary General Mustafa Sabbagh, who has strong links with Qatar.

"Basically Qatar and the Brotherhood forced Alkhatib out. In Alkhatib they had a figure who was gaining popularity inside Syria but he acted too independently for their taste," said Fawaz Tello, an independent opposition campaigner.

"They brought in Hitto. The position of Alkhatib as leader became untenable."

The appointment of Hitto prompted nine people to suspend their membership in the 62-member body, saying that promises to reform the coalition and respect consensus have been discarded.

Earlier this year, Alkhatib floated an initiative for the opposition to talk to Assad's administration about a political transition, but said the Damascus government did not respond.

Moaz al-Shami, a leading activist in Damascus, said Alkhatib's resignation deprived the coalition, which consists mostly of exiles, of the figure best-known inside Syria, but that Alkhatib still could still play a major role in the revolt.

Alawite opposition activists called for Assad's overthrow on Sunday and urged their co-religionists in the army to rebel.

In the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt, delegates distanced themselves from Assad.

"We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the delegates said in a statement after two days of meeting in Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy and Tom Perry and Ulf Laessing in Cairo, Arshad Mohammed in Baghdad, Sami Abboudi, Bill Mclean and Regan Doherty in the Gulf; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/moderate-face-syrian-uprising-quits-164203445.html

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Google's working on a smart watch, too ... of course

Rosa Golijan , NBC News ? ? ? 31 min.

Samsung revealed that it's been "preparing the watch product for so long" and rumors about Apple's plans to build a smart watch are a dime a dozen ? so it shouldn't be surprising that Google might be planning to put something on our wrists as well.

The Financial Times' Tim Bradshaw writes that, "according to a person briefed on the project," Google's Android unit is developing a smart watch which will "act as an extension to the smartphones using that operating system."

"The project is separate from Samsung?s efforts," the unnamed source clarified, Bradshaw adds. (According to a report by Reuters, a "source with direct knowledge of the matter" claims that Samsung's smart watch "will perform many of the tasks of a smartphone.")

There aren't exactly many details about the watch Google is purportedly developing, but we do know that the company filed a patent for a wearable device of sorts in 2011. "The filing describes a 'smart watch' with a dual-screened 'lip-up display,' 'tactile user interface' and onboard camera," Bradshaw points out. Additionally, Motorola ? which was acquired by Google ?released a watch-like fitness tracker and music player combo dubbed the MotoACTV in 2011. When asked about any plans revolving around smart watches, a Google spokesperson told NBC News that the search engine giant is "not commenting on this [matter]."

In the meantime, "people familiar with the company's explorations" told the New York Times' Nick Bilton that Apple's working on "wristwatch-like devices made of curved glass." These devices would run on iOS, Apple's mobile operating system.

Unless any of the companies allegedly working on smart watches hurry up and make some official announcements, we're likely in for a lot of rumors and heated debate.

"Android's unannounced smart watch is soooooooooo much better than Apple's unannounced smart watch," Phil Nickinson, editor of Android Central, jokingly tweeted on Friday morning, spurring on the day's fanboy arguments. "Y'all don't even know."

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/29deee11/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Cgoogles0Eworking0Esmart0Ewatch0Etoo0Ecourse0E1C90A22947/story01.htm

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Ban on 'Romeo Killer' reversed, movie will air

Ed Araquel / Lifetime

Eric McCormack and Matt Barr in "Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story.

By Randee Dawn, NBC News contributor

The telefilm "Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story" will air as previously scheduled Saturday night, after Lifetime won a reversal in New York State Appellate Court Thursday, according to the New York Post.

A restraining order had been issued on Tuesday by Judge Robert Muller, which would prevent the airing or promoting of the film, after Christopher Porco claimed the film was riddled with errors and would hurt his reputation. Porco is serving a 46 years-to-life sentence for killing his father Peter and trying to murder his mother Joan.

According to the Post, Porco currently does not have a lawyer, and was present in Albany court via speakerphone from Danemora prison.

The Hollywood Reporter?noted that in their appeal, Lifetime lawyers wrote, "The Supreme Court?s order is unprecedented and would cause grave and irreparable damage not just to Lifetime but to the constitutional protections for speech."

"I'm very pleased the appellate court recognized the fundamental First Amendment implications and that Mr. Porco's claim that his right to privacy would be violated, was unfounded," said Michael Grygiel, the lawyer who represented Lifetime in the case, told WNYT.

Lifetime has wasted no time in jumping on the publicity; a new teaser (above) touts the film as "The Lifetime original movie Chris Porco tried to kill."

"Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story" stars Eric McCormack and Lolita Davidovich, and is now set to air on Saturday at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.

Related content:

Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/22/17414292-ban-on-lifetimes-romeo-killer-movie-lifted-by-new-york-court?lite

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Viewsonic VG2437mc-LED

The Viewsonic VG2437mc-LED ($312.99 list) is a hybrid of sorts; it's positioned as a business monitor with a built-in teleconferencing solution but it would do just fine serving as a home monitor too. For $312 you get lots of bells and whistles with this 24-inch model, including a webcam, an ergonomic stand, USB ports, and a DisplayPort input. It doesn't have an HDMI port, but it does have two digital inputs, and it delivers very good grayscale performance for a TN panel. Color quality is also quite good and the panel doesn't use much power. However, its viewing angle performance holds it back.

Design and Features
The VG2437mc-LED uses a 24-inch TN (twisted nematic) panel with a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. It's housed in a matte-black cabinet with thin (0.4-inch) top and side bezels and a wider (1-inch) bottom bezel. A white Viewsonic logo graces the bottom bezel, and there are five clearly labeled buttons, including the power switch, off to the right. Above the display, embedded in the bezel, are a 2MP webcam and an echo-cancelling microphone. A pair of two-watt speakers rounds out the videoconferencing solution.

The 8.3-pound cabinet is supported by an ergonomic stand that offers every adjustment you'll need for comfortable viewing. A telescopic amounting arm provides 5.3 inches of height adjustability and the hinge assembly lets you tilt the panel forward 5 degrees and backward 20 degrees. There's a Lazy Susan on the base that offers 360 degrees of swivel and you can pivot the panel for portrait mode viewing. However, the picture does not automatically change orientation when you rotate the screen like it does on the NEC MultiSync PA301W.

All of the VG2437's I/O ports are located at the rear of the cabinet. You don't get an HDMI port on this model; instead the folks at Viewsonic decided to go with the more business-centric DisplayPort input. If you must connect the monitor to a device with an HDMI output, a $10 DVI-HDMI adapter will do the trick. You also get DVI and VGA (analog) video inputs, an upstream USB port, and two downstream USB 2.0 ports. Audio ports include a headphone jack, a microphone input, and a microphone output.

Picture settings include contrast, brightness, color temperature, ECO mode, and dynamic contrast. If you're using an analog signal you can adjust horizontal position and size, sharpness, and aspect ratio. There's also an input select hot key and speaker volume controls.

The VG2437mc-LED comes with a three-year warranty covering parts, labor, and backlighting. Included in the box are VGA, DVI, USB, and audio cables as well as a resource CD and a Quick Start Guide.

Performance
The VG2437MC-LED was able to display each shade of gray from the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test. There was only a slight trace of compression at the high end of the scale that made the two lightest shades of gray appear white, but the overall grayscale performance was impressive for a TN panel. Colors appeared vibrant and well saturated, and small text was sharp and easy to read.

Viewing angles were less impressive. Color shifting was significant when viewed from a side angle and the picture darkened when viewed from the top and bottom. This won't be an issue if you're positioned directly in front of the display but if you rotate the panel to portrait mode and move your head to either side the picture deteriorates and is particularly dark when viewed from the left side. This is a common characteristic of TN panel technology, which is one reason why IPS panels like the one used on our current Editors' Choice, the NEC MultiSync EA232WMi, are becoming so popular.

The VG2437mc-LED may be designed for business use but it is well suited for playtime, too. The panel's 5-ms (b-w) pixel response had no trouble handling fast motion while playing a few rounds of Far Cry 2 on the PC, and The BBC's Planet Earth on blu-ray looked superb at 1080p.

The VG2437mc-LED is a power miser; it used just 19-watts of power while running in Standard mode. Switching to the ECO Optimize mode lowered power consumption to 16 watts without becoming too dim, and Conserve mode used 12 watts. Conserve mode is significantly dimmer than Standard mode but the picture is still bright enough for most lighting environments. This kind of energy efficiency rivals that of the Lenovo LS2421P Wide (16 watts) and earns the VG2437mc-LED our Greentech stamp of approval.

Conclusion
For businesses seeking a full featured monitor that is budget-friendly and inexpensive to operate, the Viewsonic VG2437mc-LED is a good bet. It offers good color and grayscale performance and lots of features, including an ergonomic stand and a built-in webcam. Its motion handling prowess makes it ideal for after hours use as well. That said, its subpar viewing angle performance prevents it from displacing the NEC Multisync EA232WMI as our Editors' Choice for mid-sized business monitors.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/4Sddhy5pc70/0,2817,2416885,00.asp

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?The Business Of Literature Is Blowing Shit Up? | TechCrunch

If you love books?heck, if you even like ?em?run, don?t walk, and read this magnificent, magisterial essay by Richard Nash on their past, present and future. It?s long. Don?t be frightened. But even if the Internet has shredded your attention span, at least scroll down to its epic final paragraph. Go on. I?ll wait.

It?s been a rotten decade for book publishers, newspapers, and anyone else clinging to that 15th century technology called the printing press. Marc Andreessen has advised the mighty New York Times to ?burn the boats? and shut down their presses. His partner Ben Horowitz claimed last year that ?babies born today will probably never read anything in print.?

Meanwhile, Borders is dead, the tablet is killing the e-reader, and Barnes & Noble?s Nook has gone from investor darling to dead-weight albatross. The ?Big Six? publishers may seem to be surviving nicely, but check out this graph:

If publishers are at war with Amazon, the undisputed king of e-commerce?and they certainly think they are?then that remarkable trend does not bode well for them.

Authors aren?t doing so well either. ?For large parts of the year it only takes a few hundred copies a day, not a few thousand, to get to the top of Amazon?s daily charts.? ?My novel shot to the top of the site?s bestseller list last summer. You won?t believe how little I got paid.?

Nowadays, when authors dream of financial success, they dream more of Hollywood or TV adaptations than slots on the New York Times bestseller list. Movies and television have held up remarkably well under the onslaught of the Internet, thanks largely to ever-more-lucrative foreign markets, while book publishing has quietly become far more hit-and-miss than Hollywood. Last year each book in E.L. James? Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy sold more than 15 million e-book copies. Only one other book, Gillian Flynn?s Gone Girl, broke a million. Which is more than it sold in print, incidentally.

For the last five years, in the face of this spreading transformation, the publishing industry has been caught in a tawdry and depressing spiral of denial and decay, constantly attempting to reject new media, new technologies, and new business models until they can fight back no more. (Disagree? Name some publisher-driven innovations.) Evan Hughes? recent Wired piece is the latest in a long line of eulogies. If it seems incredibly musty and tired to you, you?re not alone. I?m faintly amazed that it was published in Wired in 2013; my own contribution to the genre dates back to 2007.

That?s why Nash?s essay is such a breath of revolutionary air. The publishing industry will never be the same, but why can?t it be better? Why can?t a whole new model of publishing be created, rather than this false dichotomy between ?published? and ?self-published?? So the king is dying; well, long live the king!

The Internet opens up new ways of connecting with readers that authors have never dreamed of before? and that publishers seem to barely even consider. Take Wattpad. A few months ago they put a couple of my novels up on their site for free. (They did ask permission, even though they didn?t need to; after the rights to the books in question had reverted from their initial publishers, I released them under a Creative Commons license.)

And I?m delighted that they did. A cool million chapter-views of my back-catalog hacker thriller Invisible Armies later, I know far more about how people read the book than I ever did before:

Hughes seems to be arguing that authors will choose to self-publish. Charles Stross disagrees:

Yes, I could do it. But it?d suck up a huge amount of time I would prefer to spend doing what I enjoy (writing) and force me to do stuff I do not enjoy (reading contracts, accounting, managing other people). The only sane way to do it would be to hire someone else to do all the boring crap on my behalf. And do you know what we call people who do that? We call them publishers.

Indeed. But wait: why do all of those people have to work under the same corporate aegis? Why can?t Stross hire a separate editor, copy editor, publisher and marketer? Why must their end-product be viewed as a thing that is complete and engraved in stone, rather than a living beast amenable to A/B testing and weeks-to-months of optimization, like a Broadway play in previews? If a book isn?t a sheaf of papers any more?and given that the bestselling e-books are now outselling the sheaves, it clearly isn?t?then what is it?

I?ll take a swing at that one: a book is a story told in the size and shape that fits most deeply and tightly into the human brain. Everyone keeps waiting for Amazon Singles and short stories to take off, and waiting, and waiting. But I believe novels will remain the dominant form of written storytelling so long as our brains remain substantially unchanged.

Maybe the existing system of publishers and booksellers will collapse. Maybe our collective ability to filter the good from the bad will be challenged. Maybe, as more and more books are written, and more and more made available for free, full-time authors will become an endangered species.

Doesn?t really matter. Books will remain, and because they?re books, because they?re that razor-barbed size and shape, they?ll remain a genuinely powerful and subversive medium. Richard Nash is right: whatever tidal wave of change comes next, whatever economic system or sociopolitical order, you can bet that books, in one form or another, will be at its disruptive heart.

Image credit: Booksplosion, by azrasta, on Flickr.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/23/the-business-of-literature-is-blowing-shit-up/

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Senate's first budget in four years: A chip off partisan gridlock?

Billions in new spending and a $1 trillion tax hike for the wealthy are mainstays of the first Senate budget in four years. It's the polar opposite of the Republican House?budget passed this week.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / March 23, 2013

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. rushes with other lawmakers to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington Friday to vote on amendments to the budget resolution.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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In what Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid called a "Herculean feat," the US Senate passed its first budget in four years (1,448 days) after a 13-hour vote-o-rama early Saturday morning, suggesting a small but significant return to fiscal normalcy for a country struggling to reconcile its debt and spending habits.

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The Senate budget, written by Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington, is more a political document than a fiscal blueprint as it stands in sharp contrast to the House budget passed on Thursday, written by former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin.

Sen. Murray's budget, passed along partisan lines with a few defecting Democrats, ends $1 trillion worth of tax breaks for the wealthy, curbs but does not end deficit spending, and would spend billions on new infrastructure to help the economy. Rep. Ryan's more austere House budget reforms federal entitlement spending, shrinks the size and scope of many federal agencies, and purports to balance the federal books in 10 years without raising taxes.

Reconciling those two competing visions into one workable budget document by April may seem Sisyphean ? and it may yet be, especially given that President Obama, too, is planning to offer his own budget ? but the lengthy up and down voting on over 70 amendments into the wee hours also gave Congress a few glimmers of common ground, including support for the Keystone XL pipeline proposal, the repeal of a medical device tax that's become an unpopular aspect of "Obamacare," and stopping the United Nations from infringing on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Even though most of those amendments are advisory only, they supported a sense of accomplishment that's been rare in Washington.

"If Washington wasn't so dysfunctional, today would just be another day rather than a historic day," quipped conservative talk show host Sean Hannity.

Most importantly, the lack of a federal budget at a time of rising federal debt and rollercoaster spending has played into a greater sense among many Americans of a Washington unmoored from fiscal responsibility at a time when the average American wallet is thinner than it?s been in decades.

"Passage of the competing plans does advance a more orderly process after nearly three years of crises and brinkmanship,? writes the New York Times' Jonathan Weisman.

To be sure, polarized partisanship in Washington over how to set the course of the country has made it difficult, if not impossible, for the Senate in the last few years to reach the 60 votes needed to actually make a budget actionable (as opposed to the simple 51-senator majority needed to pass a budget). Moreover, the lack of a budget doesn?t technically affect the functioning of government, given various stop-gap and patch-up laws, including the Budget Control Act, passed by Congress in the last few years.

Those measures have allowed the federal government to hobble along without a fundamental budget document in place. "Not having a budget resolution in place is a symptom of the inability to reach agreement ? not the cause of Congress not being able to accomplish things," Jim Horney of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities told the Economist last week.

While Republicans and Democrats are still miles apart on how to resolve fundamental debt and spending issues, the depth of the budget debate in the Senate gave some lawmakers hope.

"You may not feel it at the moment, but this is one of the Senate's finest days in recent years," Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, according to Business Insider.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/syp8qvaRbfY/Senate-s-first-budget-in-four-years-A-chip-off-partisan-gridlock

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Cypriot official says EU bailout deal could come in 'next few hours'

Protesters in Cyprus gather outside parliament as government officials try to strike a bailout deal with the European Union. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

By Michele Kambas and Lidia Kelly, Reuters

A solution to Cyprus' bailout crisis within the framework set down by the European Union may be possible within "the next few hours," the deputy leader of the island's ruling Democratic Rally party said on Friday.

"There is cautious optimism that in the next few hours we may be able to reach an agreed platform so parliament can approve these specific measures which will be consistent with the approach, the framework and the targets agreed at the last Eurogroup," Averof Neophytou told reporters.?

The lines at bank cash machines in Cyprus are growing longer and in some cases angrier. The European Central Bank has given the island's government until Monday to find its six billion euro share of the bailout or - it says - it'll pull the plug on the rest of the cash and banks will face collapse. The banks themselves remain closed. Faisal Islam of Channel Four Europe reports.

The news came hours after the Cypriot finance minister left Moscow empty-handed when Russia turned down appeals for aid, leaving the island to strike a bailout deal with the EU before Tuesday or face the collapse of its financial system.

The rebuff left Cyprus looking increasingly isolated, with the deadline looming to find billions of euros demanded by the EU in return for a 10 billion euro ($12.93 billion) bailout.

Without it, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday it would cut off emergency funds to the country's teetering banks, potentially pushing Cyprus out of Europe's single currency.

"The talks have ended as far as the Russian side is concerned," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters after two days of crisis talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Michael Sarris.

Having angrily rejected a proposed levy on tax deposits in exchange for the EU bailout, Nicosia had turned to the Kremlin to renegotiate a loan deal, win more financing and lure Russian investors to cut-price Cypriot banks and gas reserves.

Wealthy Russians have billions of euros at stake in Cyprus's outsized and now crippled banking sector.

Banks are closed on Cyprus but the ATM's are still dispensing cash as the government tries to avert a financial crisis. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

But Siluanov said Russian investors were not interested in Cypriot gas and that the talks had ended without result.

Sarris was due to fly home, where lawmakers were preparing to debate measures proposed by the government to raise at least some of the 5.8 billion euros ($7.48 billion) required to clinch the EU bailout.

They included a "solidarity fund" bundling state assets, including future gas revenues and nationalized pension funds, as the basis for an emergency bond issue and likened by JP Morgan to "a national fire sale".

They were also considering a bank restructuring bill that officials said would see the country's second largest lender, Cyprus Popular Bank, split into good and bad assets, and a government call for the power to impose capital controls to stem a flood of funds leaving the island when banks reopen on Tuesday after a week-long shutdown.

'Playing with fire'
There was no silver bullet, however, and Cyprus's partners in the 17-nation currency bloc were growing increasingly unimpressed.

To help pay for the $13 billion European bailout, the government plans to take up to 10 percent from all savings accounts, angering those who say they aren't responsible for the economic crisis. CNBC's Sue Herera reports.

"I still believe we will get a settlement, but Cyprus is playing with fire," Volker Kauder, a leading conservative ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told public television ARD.

There were long lines at ATMs on Thursday and angry scenes outside parliament, where hundreds of demonstrators gathered after rumors spread that Popular Bank would be closed down and its staff laid off.

"We have children studying abroad, and next month we need to send them money," protester Stalou Christodoulido said through tears. "We'll lose what money we had and saved for so many years if the bank goes down."

Cypriots have been stunned by the pace of the unfolding drama, having elected conservative President Nicos Anastasiades barely a month ago on a mandate to secure a bailout. News that the deal would involve a levy on bank deposits, even for smaller savers, outraged Cypriots, who raided cash machines last weekend.

Related:

EU to Cypriots: Let us raid your savings or no bailout

Cyprus bailout backlash poses little wider risk - for now

Full business coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 22, 2013 6:02 AM EDT

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Boys shoot infant in stroller in botched robbery, police say

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) ? A Georgia mother says a young gunman opened fire on her baby as she pushed him in a stroller, wounding her and killing the 1-year-old boy.

Police gave few details at a Friday news conference about the investigation into Thursday morning's shooting in Brunswick.

The mother, Sherry West, told WAWS-TV that two boys approached her and demanded money Thursday morning. West said she tried shielding the child, Antonio, but the gunman shoved her and shot the baby in the head.

Based on the mother's description, police think the suspects were between 10 to 15 years old. Police were checking school attendance records for leads.

Brunswick police spokesman Todd Rhodes encouraged the public to call in any information that could lead to an arrest. There is a $10,000 reward.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A young boy opened fire on a woman pushing her baby in a stroller in a Georgia neighborhood, killing the 1-year-old boy and wounding the mother, police said.

The woman, Sherry West, told WAWS-TV that two boys approached her and demanded money Thursday morning. Brunswick Police Chief Tobe Green said the boys are thought to be between 10 and 15 years old.

West said she insisted she didn't have any money and tried to protect her son, Antonio, before shots rang out. She had been walking near her home in this coastal city about 80 miles south of Savannah.

"I put my arms over my baby and he shoves me, and then he shot my baby right in the head," West said.

West was shot in the leg.

"This is obviously a terrible day in Brunswick," Brunswick Mayor Bryan Thompson said. "Please call if you know something. You are complicit in this crime."

The boy's father, Louis Santiago, told the TV station he wishes he could have been there to protect his family.

"He was special," Santiago said. "He had the bluest, bluest eyes."

Officers from a SWAT team checked vacant houses as investigators tried to find possible witnesses. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources provided a helicopter to aid the search.

Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

A sketch artist from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was being sent to Brunswick to assist police with the case. Police in Brunswick are leading the investigation, but the GBI provided assistance by helping with the neighborhood search, GBI Special Agent Mike McDaniel said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-ga-infant-killed-while-pushed-stroller-110435853.html

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Cyprus' Plan B: What will happen if Moscow won't foot the bill?

Cypriot officials have now lingered in Moscow for a second day of talks regarding a potential bailout deal. Meanwhile, the government is also looking into internal options to drum up funds.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / March 21, 2013

Cyprus? Central Bank chief Panicos Demetriades leaves after a meeting at the presidential palace in Nicosia Thursday. The European Central Bank says it will keep emergency aid for Cyprus' troubled banks in place at least until Monday, but will have to cut it off after that unless an international rescue program is drawn up.

Petros Karadjias/AP

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The clock in Nicosia is ticking a lot louder: Tiny Cyprus has four days to come up with about 6 billion euros ($7.5 billion) or lose its current lender of last resort, the European Central Bank (ECB).

Skip to next paragraph Robert Marquand

Staff writer

Over the past three decades, Robert Marquand has reported on a wide variety of subjects for?The Christian Science Monitor, including American education reform,?the wars in the Balkans, the Supreme Court, South Asian politics, and the oft-cited "rise of China." In the past 15 years he has served as the Monitor's bureau chief in Paris, Beijing, and New Delhi.?

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Tensions and emotions are high after ECB officials declared on Thursday that Cyprus must guarantee a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout by Monday or forfeit and presumably go into default, with unknown consequences for the eurozone economy and beyond.

Cypriot officials are scrambling to conjure new sources of revenue ? a so-called ?Plan B? ? including a look at pension fund leveraging and sales of offshore gas exploration prospects. The finance minister and energy minister have now lingered in Moscow for a second day of talks regarding a potential bailout deal with Russia.?

Cypriot banks will remain closed this weekend even as bankers there worry about huge outflows of capital next week if some kind of deal, whether with the European Union or Moscow, is not in the offing. (Reportedly Russian officials yesterday told their EU counterparts they would not add to a current 2.5 billion euro ($3 billion) loan to Cyprus.)?

Cypriot lawmakers vowed Thursday that they would not raise again the idea of a levy or tax on private accounts. However, EU and ECB authorities continue to state that available resources are so limited that the Cyprus parliament will need to revisit the issue, perhaps in a smaller percentage.

Meanwhile, Reuters notes, EU officials?continue to up the ante and put pressure on Cyprus. "I cannot rule out a Cyprus insolvency," Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told the newspaper Oesterreich. "A euro exit would not achieve anything. Cyprus must act now."?

The ECB hard deadline comes a day after Cypriot lawmakers rejected the controversial EU terms of the bailout, engineered mysteriously last week, which require a ?tax? allowing Cypriot authorities to reach into the accounts of private bank deposits and withdraw some 10 percent of funds in accounts over 100,000 euros ($130,000) and about 7 percent in those under that figure.

The idea of such a tax brings mingled perplexity and outrage in many parts of the world, but especially in Russia, which uses Cyprus as an offshore tax haven.

The Washington Post calculates?that:

Deposits in Cyprus?s banks were seven times the size of its economy at the end of 2012, an unusual situation fostered by low taxes and reputation for lax regulation. Many European policymakers suspect it is a hub for Russian money laundering. Cypriot banks hold $88 billion in deposits, of which $49 billion is in the form of deposits over $129,000, according to analysts? estimates.?

The Christian Science Monitor reports?that Moscow is playing ?hardball? with the Cypriot finance minister in order to protect its massive stake in Cyprus' banking system.

According to official Russian figures, more than $114 billion has flowed into Russia since 2007 from Cyprus, almost all of it in the form of dividends paid by Cyprus-registered holding companies. Big Russian firms, including most metals giants, the state-owned banks Sberbank and VTB, and the independent gas producer Novatek all have important holdings in Cyprus.

"The price of crisis in Cyprus is very high for Russia," says Igor Nikolayev, director of strategic planning for one of Russia's leading auditing firms.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/yndX9MZ1HYg/Cyprus-Plan-B-What-will-happen-if-Moscow-won-t-foot-the-bill

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Mobile Rewards Startup Kiip Launches Its Second $100K ?Build Fund' With Sponsorship From Pepsi

A year ago, Kiip ran a "Build Fund" contest for independent developers, offering $100,000 in prizes. Founder and CEO Brian Wong told me recently that the fund was supposed to be a one-off promotion, but that enough developers had asked if he was going to do it again that, indeed, he's doing it again. Just like last year, Wong is looking for the best developers of apps that integrate with Kiip's mobile rewards system, where users receive prizes from advertisers when they achieve certain goals in an app. There are, however, a couple of changes this time around. For one thing, there are only going to be 10 winners this year, not 20, which means that there's more prize money for each developer ? $10,000 in cash, plus $5,000 in services from partners like Parse, Urban Airship, Amazon Web Services, Crittercism, and Localytics.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/__su1n5R94Y/

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SummerSlam 2013 travel packages ? Terms & Conditions

TERMS & CONDITIONS ??please read carefully.

SummerSlam Travel Packages are quoted, and payable, in United States Dollars (USD). Orders will be processed immediately upon receipt. Payment in full is due upon receipt. All monies processed are non-refundable once payments have been approved. SummerSlam Travel Package quantities are limited and orders will be processed until sold out. Once SummerSlam Travel Packages are sold out, orders will no longer be accepted. SummerSlam Travel Packages are available for purchase to both domestic and international customers. The per-person prices advertised within the SummerSlam Travel Packages include all taxes plus shipping and handling charges with the exception of any additional shipping fees associated with FedEx; such as customs or duty fees, usually applied to international shipments.

SummerSlam Travel Packages are confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. The assignment of the seat locations will be determined by the date that payment is approved, not based upon the date that order was submitted. The specific location of the seat assignments will not be available prior to the shipment of the SummerSlam Travel Packages.

Orders must contain a main traveler that will be the primary contact for each order. The main traveler must be 18 years of age or older. The SummerSlam Travel Packages will be confirmed in the main traveler?s name. The hotel reservation will be confirmed in the main traveler?s name. All information will be communicated via email directly to the main traveler. Once payment has been approved, the main traveler will receive an email confirmation. It is very important that the main traveler review all the information on the email confirmation and to advise if any information is incorrect; such as package type or shipping address. If the main traveler does not receive any type of email notification, it is recommended that an email is sent to travel.packages@wwe.com to check on the status of such order.

A $150 processing fee will be applied to all change requests received between June 20, 2013, and Aug. 9, 2013.? Change requests include changes to main traveler?s name, shipping address, telephone and email contact; as well as, changes to hotel reservation name. Change requests will not be accepted after Aug. 9, 2013. Main traveler must email all change requests to travel.packages@wwe.com; at such time, main traveler will be provided with a payment link for the processing fee. Once PayPal has confirmed the processing fee payment, the main traveler will be notified that the change request has been approved.

As all SummerSlam Travel Packages are non-refundable, travel insurance is recommended in case of cancellation due to various reasons; such as, employer termination, family emergency, personal illness, etc. Please contact a travel insurance provider for further details and price quotes. The other option in case of cancellation is to transfer the SummerSlam Travel Package to someone who also agrees and understands the same terms and conditions stated herein. A $150 processing fee will apply if transfer is requested between June 20, 2013, and Aug. 9, 2013. The main traveler must submit a written request for the transfer of the Summerslam Travel Package. Request must include the full name, mailing address and email contact of the new main traveler. SummerSlam Travel Packages and WWE will not be involved in any discussions and/or decisions made between the present main traveler and the new main traveler. The previous main traveler will be responsible for providing the new main traveler with all the information received to date pertaining to the SummerSlam Travel Package, including the confirmation letter received by email. Once the new main traveler has been confirmed, the previous main traveler will no longer receive any information pertaining to the SummerSlam Travel Packages. If the SummerSlam Travel Package has already been shipped, it is the responsibility of the previous main traveler to successfully ship the package to the new main traveler; as well as, pay all expenses pertaining to such shipment.

For more information, please visit wwe.com/travelpackages or email travel.packages@wwe.com or call 203-359-5182.

SummerSlam Travel Packages without hotel accommodations are not available. Three night hotel accommodations will be confirmed at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel with check in on Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, and check out on Monday, Aug. 19, 2013. Each SummerSlam Travel Package can accommodate up to four people sharing one standard hotel room with maximum two-beds per room. Single Occupancy rooms will be automatically confirmed with one bed. Triple Occupancy and Quad Occupancy rooms will be automatically confirmed with two beds. Double Occupancy rooms will have a choice of requesting one bed or two beds, keeping in mind that it is a request not a guarantee of bedding. The hotels will only guarantee the bedding upon check in. Reservations for additional nights or additional rooms must be requested separately by the main traveler contacting the hotel directly. The hotel will confirm the separate reservations based on availability and charged at the regular hotel rate. The recommended local airport is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

SummerSlam Travel Package?Platinum Package buyers will be responsible for transporting their collectible SummerSlam chair back to their hometown, including any expenses that may arise from such transport. The SummerSlam chairs are the standard size of a metal folding chair. Unless noted within the Summerslam Travel Package description, the following are not included in the packages: airline tickets, airport transfers, ground transportation, food or drinks. SummerSlam Travel Packages and WWE are not responsible for weather or mechanical delays impacting the weekend events.

SummerSlam Travel Packages, including event tickets, will be shipped via FedEx to the main traveler four weeks (approximate timeframe) prior to the SummerSlam weekend. SummerSlam Travel Packages will NOT be shipped earlier than four weeks. The main traveler will be responsible for providing a current shipping address where FedEx can deliver the SummerSlam Travel Package. Someone must be available at the shipping address provided by the main traveler to accept the FedEx shipment. Person accepting package must be 21 years of age or older. If someone is not available, the FedEx shipment will not be delivered. Upon receipt of package, main traveler takes full responsibility of all contents within package. Contents will not be replaced, duplicated or reissued if lost, forgotten or stolen. Main traveler will be responsible for distributing tickets to each guest within group.

SummerSlam Travel Packages and WWE will not be held accountable if any individual provides false information; such as date of birth. False information will result in denied entrance into all SummerSlam Travel Package events with no compensation; as well as, cancellation of hotel reservations with no compensation. During any SummerSlam Travel Package events, if an individual engages in behavior that is threatening, illegal or intended to harass, abuse or harm any other person, SummerSlam Travel Packages and WWE reserves the right to remove such individual with no compensation.

The seating locations described within the SummerSlam Travel Packages are subject to change without notice.? Partial refunds will be issued if the ticket value decreases. In regards to wheelchair accessible seating, the venue has not yet confirmed these specific locations. If you require seating in such locations, please indicate the request with your order. If such seating is not available within the seating location described in your package, you will be notified by email. An alternative location will be recommended. You will have the opportunity to accept or decline the alternative location. If the alternative location is accepted, a charge or refund will be issued to reflect the difference in ticket value of the alternative location. If the alternative location is declined, a refund will be issued that reflects the total amount of the original ticket value.

SummerSlam Travel Packages and WWE reserve the right to modify or cancel the SummerSlam Travel Packages in any way it deems necessary or appropriate. Main travelers will be notified of such changes. The main traveler will be responsible for providing this information to guests within group. If any portions of the SummerSlam Travel Packages are modified, the modifications will be equal in value and refunds will not be issued. If SummerSlam Travel Packages are canceled, a full refund will be issued.

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/summerslam/2013/travel-packages-terms

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